Following the soldier, I was led to the west wing of the club.

Stopping in front of a door, I was told to enter as he guarded the entrance. Inside, there was a lone metallic desk with two chairs on opposite sides; one was occupied by a woman.

The woman already seated had long black hair neatly tied up in a ponytail. Looking at her, I assumed her to be in her twenties, having pale white skin and cherry lips as any man would agree she was a knockout, even her uniform was unable to hide her curvaceous figure.

Seeing me enter, she greeted me with a radiant smile "Please take a seat."

Obliging, I thought, 'Did they bring someone attractive in here to make me share more information…. actually I think I've have heard of this before, isn't this a Honeytrap?' Before my thoughts could go further, she spoke again.

"I am Kassie and will be asking you a few questions pertaining to the events that transpired over the last few days. Is that alright with you?"

Not seeing a reason to refuse and already having thought of the story I would share, I decided to play along.

"Sure"

As soon as I said it, her smile grew wider as she turned on the camera facing me.

"Alright then, what is your name?"

"Aeron"

"Last name?"

"Wharton"

The first part of the interview were all questions that had nothing to do with the system or trial, but was about miscellaneous details such as my name, age, and place I resided, which she recorded in a notebook.

Getting past those, the important questions I was preparing for finally appeared.

"Can you go over what happened in the trial?"

"Well, after defeating a goblin, I was transported into a cave where I had to fight slime…"

Recounting what happened, I gave the same adulterated version of the story I told the others yesterday, along with that I had only been in the trial for 10 instead of 15 days.

During the explanation, Kassie would sometimes interrupt me, asking specific details such as why I didn't defeat the boss, or how I didn't die of dehydration, but mixing some truths with lies, it seemed she believed my story.

"So I know this is a bit personal, but do you mind telling me what you received from the trial?"

"It's fine, I got a skill from the trial named lesser fireball, like the name suggests, it lets me shoot fireballs"

Kassie looked a bit bewildered hearing my response, while I just kept a monotone face. I didn't mind sharing the information as I had already divulged it to the other system users yesterday, so there was no point in keeping it a secret.

Taken aback, she quickly regained her wits as she realized she was still conducting the interview, "What Tier and Rank is the skill?"

"It's a Tier 1, E rank skill"

Kassie quickly scribbled down the information, but curious about something, I asked,"Do you guys know what tier stands for?"

She mulled the question over in her mind before responding, "From the limited information we have, we are not sure, but like with Ranks, we expect there to be multiple tiers, with each tier being more powerful, but we don't have enough data yet to prove such a theory."

"Ah, thanks"

A bit let down by the information that anyone could have guessed, I asked about the problem that had been on my mind since arriving at the base.

"Also am I allowed to leave the base?"

Kassie's smile that she had been wearing the entire time faltered a bit as she answered,

"Currently, no civilian is allowed to leave the base for their own safety. At present, Dallas is designated as a war zone, so if civilians just started walking around the place it could… complicate things"

While disappointing, the reasoning did make sense, although it being for my own safety was a bit of a stretch. It made sense if you thought about normal civilians.

Just imagine soldiers having to go out to save people who went too close to the city. Not only would the casualties be higher, but they likely didn't have the manpower for it either. It was also easier to protect people if they were all grouped up.

While I was a bit let down, wanting to test out my new class skill, it wasn't like it was immensely important to me. I was just curious about it.

The thought of doing nothing and just idling my time away in the camp also slightly irked me, as normally I was always doing something.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Sighing, I accepted the outcome, and Kassie, seeing my expression like I had given in, smiled, "It's not that bad staying in the base, especially in your position. The higher-ups also said that we should comply with one request you had as long as it is reasonable, this is as thanks for saving two of our soldiers and the rabbit corpses you gave us. So do you have a request?"

Reminded of the soldiers Mark and Jeff I saved, I pondered whether I had any requests until my eyes slightly widened and I found my answer.

"Can I join the reconnaissance troop?"

This time Kassie was genuinely shocked, not expecting such an answer. At first, it seemed like she wanted to immediately refute the proposition, but before those words came out, something stopped her as she suddenly seemed to be thinking about it and finally said, "I'll propose it to the higher-ups, but no promises"

Relieved that my request hadn't been shut down, Kassie continued speaking, "Now that the interview is nearly over, I would like you to demonstrate your skill for us at the shooting range. Are you alright with that?"

Not minding it, but remembering my promise from yesterday, I answered, "Sure, but can the others join along? I kind of promised it to them yesterday"

"That's fine, the interview is over now, we'll depart after you've had your breakfast"

As Kassie agreed to it, she stood up concluding the interview.

Standing up, we shook hands as I departed the room, Heading towards the cafeteria.

.....

POV Shift

Alone in the room, Kassie's smile slowly lowered, eventually turning into a fatigued expression as she laid her head on the desk.

The soldier guarding the door, seeing Aeron leave, entered. Perceiving the sight of Kassie splayed out on the desk, he smiled wryly as he asked, "Couldn't read him either?"

"Not one bit," she replied tiredly.

"Well, did you at least get a feel whether he was being truthful?"

"Nope, he displayed nothing out of the ordinary or even an ounce of emotion throughout the entire interview. I'll check the tapes again, but either he is autistic or has had an incredibly hard life, but being only 18, I find it hard to believe the latter"

Sighing, the soldier asked, "Should I increase surveillance around him as well?"

"Don't bother. I can't confirm anything right now. Besides, he made a pretty interesting proposal, and if the general agrees, it won't be necessary at all."

.....

POV Shift- Back to Aeron

Having made it to the cafeteria, I was eating scrambled eggs with toast. The other system users were around me chatting with each other, waiting for me to finish, as I had already informed them that I was going to the shooting range to test my skill; they all wanted to come.

Finishing my food, a soldier waiting for us outside the cafeteria led us to the shooting range.

Finding it strange Kassie wasn't accompanying us, I inquired, "Is Kassie going to join us?"

In response, the soldier shook his head, "No, she was only required for the interview, since this is simply a demonstration, I should be enough"

With everyone gathered, we followed the soldier towards the shooting range.

Passing an astronomical amount of tents and crowds of people, the once lush green grass that plastered the golf course was turning muddy from the constant trampling.

After twenty minutes, we arrived at a river. The area had been clear of civilians for a few minutes now, a fence separated the area while also blocking vision of the shooting range to civilians.

Currently, the range was desolate, and walking up towards a white tent, our escort relayed some information to the one overseeing the place.

Walking towards our group, he spoke while gesturing to a dummy target, "Everything should be set up, so please use your skill now, sir"

Walking up to my target, which seemed to be a commercial mannequin they had taken out of some clothing store or maybe the golf shop, I made sure to keep a five meter distance as I stretched out my hand and activated my skill.

Embers began to emerge above my right hand, quickly turning into a ball of flame the size of my fist. Preparing to shoot it, I first glanced around the area, seeing that the soldier had a camera in hand recording everything that was happening while Jeremy, Kurt, and Donna were discussing with each other.

And having superhuman hearing, and them actually talking quite loud, I could pick it up.

"Eh, I thought it would be bigger," Kurt remarked.

Jeremy agreed, "Yeah, it doesn't look like much"

Only Donna didn't immediately come to conclusions, "Guys, it's an E-rank skill, so let's just wait and see"

To be honest, I agreed with Kurt and Jeremy that the skill wasn't actually all that impressive, especially compared to what the goblin mages could do. But wondering about the actual strength of the skill, I released the projectile as it zoomed through the air and made contact with the chest of the mannequin.

BOOOM

As soon as the projectile hit, a small explosion of flames occurred, and the mannequin shattered into pieces, the plastic shards scattering in the river behind as all that remained was its feet and a portion of the legs.

"DAM!"

"Wow!"

Both Donna and Kurt exclaimed out loud. While the soldier recording had his eyes wide and mouth hung open. The only one who didn't have much of a reaction, which was strange given his previous comment.

Returning my attention to the mannequin, I wasn't surprised. While the skill didn't do much damage in the trial, to regular humans it was lethal, although I hoped that it would destroy the entire mannequin, but it seems its power wasn't quite up there.

Looking at the still shocked soldier, I waved at him, "Hey, is this enough?"

Quickly regaining his composure, although looking closely at him, there seemed to be a look of apprehension or….. fear that he couldn't shake off as he responded, "N-No sir, could you please hit the other targets as well from the marked positions?"

There were four other targets, all the common paper ones that people used on shooting ranges. Each target had a mark on the ground showing where I should shoot it from, going from 10, 15, 20, and 30 meters.

Interested in exactly how far my skill could travel, I shot the projectiles, finding out that from ten meters the damage was still the same, at fifteen it had significantly weakened but could still cause quite some damage, but at 20 meters the ball of flames had almost fizzled out before hitting its mark.

Seeing the result from 20 meters, it was no wonder that at 30 meters the ball had disappeared before even hitting the target.

After the demonstration, the soldier quickly left, probably to give the footage to the higher-ups while we were free to just roam the camp.

Walking with the group, Kurt looked at me.

"The skill is pretty strong but I'm sure I can cut it in half if I had a sword!"

"Wouldn't it just explode in your face if you cut it?" Donna inquired.

"Nahhh, have you never seen those anime where warriors do it all the time?"

"EEWW! You watch anime, how old are you?"

Kurt, feeling embarrassed by Donna's insulting response, tried to get back up from Aeron.

"I'm 28… and so what, it just means I'm cultured, back me up, Aeron."

"Umm, I have heard of Anime but have never seen it, I thought it was a cartoon for children?"

Donna giggled at my response while Kurt became quiet, lamenting over having shared his deep dark secret in front of a woman. The only one confused about the entire conversation was Jeremy, thinking, 'What is Anime?'