The guide's expression remained unchanged. "Next, we will begin your orientation. You will learn about the system, your role within it, and the new abilities you may acquire. Are you ready to begin?"

Despite the whirlwind of emotions, Jose nodded. "I guess I don't have much of a choice, do I? Let's do this."

The guide nodded, " As I've said before, this is very much an experiment to see how your people will fair in the system. As such, the amount of information you can receive will be limited.".

"So it's a fuck it we ball type of situation, understood", Jose said with a shrug.

"It can be taken that way if you'd like, yes.", the guide nodded along. "My instruction will focus on getting you ready for your new life, any wider information on the multiverse and system itself will be up to you to uncover for yourself".

Seemed pretty straightforward to Jose, it made sense that most of the real work would need to be done by him. He was still glad to have the bit of help he would get. Who knows what he would be facing.

The guide resumed with his speech, "Am I correct in assuming there were no classes or mana manipulation of any kind on your planet?".

An image of a wizard standing tall with a staff held high popped into Jose's mind as he listened on. Stifling a chuckle at the ridiculousness of it all, Jose replied, "you would be correct yes, most of that kind of stuff was reserved for movies and video games. Nothing real, at least not that I know of anyways.". The slew of magicians and escape artists on earth made it hard for him to refuse completely. What boy didn't grow up secretly hoping they'd be a wizard. God, I'm gonna miss Harry Potter, Jose thought miserably.

"I thought so, then we will begin there", the guide continued, "Most initiates are given the option of choosing a starter class available to all enlightened races, however seeing as this is a special circumstance, the system has deemed it fit to offer higher tiered classes for you to choose from".

"When you say classes, are you referring to mage, warrior, archer, and rogue type of archetypes? Like DnD?", Jose asked. His excitement rising with every sentence. He knew this stuff, he'd been a mmorpg geek since he could hold a controller. Jose could work with this.

"Precisely, there are many classes available to choose from, with those being the most basic", the guide nodded along before continuing, "more powerful classes tend to be specialized, or often times variations of the starting 4 classes.".

This gave Jose a lot to think about, his choice of class would drastically change the direction of his new life. He would have to think it through and choose carefully. Usually, he would start a playthrough in any rpg as a warrior archetype of some form, from there he would pick up magics complimentary to his build. However, he usually researched the different builds possible along with the types of magic available as well. Here he was moving blind, and he wasn't the type to wing it if he could help it. The weapons available should be pretty straightforward, bladed, blunt and long range weaponry were the usual suspects. Magic however, that could be a bit more tricky. Would it work like DnD with limited spell slots and cantrips? Or would it be more souls like where your stats determined what spells you could use. Hell it could even be skill tree based like skyrim who fucking knows. Deciding it might be best to just ask, he turned to address the guide. " Before we begin with class selections, would you be able to tell me a bit about the magic available through the system?".

The guide took another long pause, before he addressed his question. Seriously who was he talking to? Were there people looking in on this meeting or something?

"Of course", the guide finally answered, "Mana manipulation, or magic, can be categorized a few different ways. It is mainly categorized by school of study, and then further broken down into affinities. The most common of which being elemental affinities, with conceptual affinities being rarer and often more powerful".

The mention of affinities brought a new thought to Jose's mind, affinity makes it sound like you have to be compatible with a type of magic to utilize it. That could cause complications later on if his class and affinities clashed. Not wanting to risk such a catastrophic turn of events, he asked the guide to further clarify on this point, "Are affinities able to be learned by anyone or are they unlocked through compatibility or some other form of trial?". This answer could drastically alter the type of class he would choose. He wanted as much power and synergy as he could get, especially if he was meant to operate on his own, not in a party.

"Yes and no, all enlightened beings of the multiverse resonate with an affinity more than any other. It is the affinity most compatible with an individuals truesoul. This is called an attunement, one's attunement will always be more potent than any other affinity they may wield. However, this does not stop one from learning others. It would be best to think of affinities as tools, different tools are better at and used for different things. While one may be best suited to swing a hammer, they can also use a wrench or a chisel if the situation calls for it. However an attunement is a part of the weave of your very being. Using the same analogy, if affinities are tools, attunements are one's very hands. Any affinity used will have traces of your attunement, slightly altering the affects of your magics. That is why no two mages wield the same magics". The guide explained in detail. Thank god for helpful robots, Jose thought to himself.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"So if I understand you correctly then that means I must have an attunement of some kind correct? Or is it something that one comes to grasp overtime?", he prodded further.

"Atunements are determined by a litany of different variables, life experience, personality, but most importantly the shape and content of one's truesoul. Usually an attunement is a great way to determine the type of person one could be. They also tend to follow trends in different races, fire tends to be a very common attunement in dwarves and a myriad of draconic races for example.", the guide further explained.

Wait dwarves? And dragons?!?!? Yeah this whole thing is starting to feel like a lord of the rings wet dream. I wonder if dwarf girls are hot? Jose quickly shook those thoughts from his mind. Although he promised himself he'd keep it in mind for later. Priorities and such.

"Do humans have any attunements that are common? Wait, are there even any other humans in the multiverse?", Jose asked. If not, that could prove another issue he'd have to overcome. He didn't know how the rest of the multiverse did it, but humans had a bit of a thing when it came to people who looked different on Jose's world. I'd hate to have to deal with cosmic racism, that would suck, he thought to himself.

The guide interrupted his thoughts with an answer, "Yes, humans are one of the more common races in the multiverse. They are most usually attuned with water or earth affinities or any variation of the two. Fitting, as they are seen as builders, nurturers, and creators by most in the system. Not the most powerful of races individually, but you'd be hard pressed to find a more powerful race when viewing them as a collective. Some of the most powerful empires and factions in the multiverse are controlled and populated by humans."

Well that's good at least, this whole situation is hard enough as it is. I would hate to have to be one of the first humans to appear in the multiverse. Sounds like a lot of hassle.

"So that would mean I'm likely attuned with the water or earth affinity then.", Jose reasoned. That made things easier for him, he could narrow down an optimal class and possible builds using that information.

"Not necessarily", the guide said shaking his head, "while they are the most common, that does not mean it is yours. While it may be the rule, exceptions are not unlikely. Especially among humans who tend to be more varied and independent than other races.".

So Jose needed more, maybe a way to learn his attunement or selecting a class that would allow him to utilize his attument no matter what it was. Honestly this was becoming tedious in Jose's eyes. It really shouldn't be this hard.

"I don't suppose you could just tell me what my attunement is?" He asked, not expecting the response he got in return.

The guide looked at him oddly before answering, "I suppose I could tell you, but is it not easier to check your status menu?". The guides answer confused him, had he been given a status sheet at some point without realizing it?

"I just woke up here man, no one gave me anything like that." Jose answered a little defensively.

"The system provides this to you, all you are required to do is think about what you'd like to see and the system will accommodate." The guide added a little late for Jose's liking.

"I.....see.", without missing a beat Jose mentally called out, Stat sheet.

As promised, the system obliged.

STAT SHEET

Name: Jose Moreno

Race: Human

Class: NA

Profession: NA

ATTRIBUTES

Strength:5

Agility:6

Dexterity:5

Endurance:6

Vitality:5

Intelligence:7

Willpower:5

Perception:5

Charisma:4

RACIAL ABILITIES: Tongues of The Traveller, Ingenuity of Man, Strength of The Collective

ATTUNEMENTS: Death

AFFINITIES: NA

WEAPON SKILLS: NA

MAGIC SKILLS: NA

EQUIPMENT: NA

There was a lot to go through, Jose didn't even realize he could access this page. Not that it showed him much. Most of his slots were empty, all but a few. Other than his name and race, he realized he had actual attributes. Like you have skill points to spend type of attributes. This really is like a video game, hell even this Stat screen is familiar through the eyes of a gamer. Quickly glancing over his attributes it seemed 5 points in each skill was the norm starting out with only 3 of his attributes being higher than the other. Looks like Agility and endurance are both at 6, which made sense if they went off his previous life. I've been running away from bullies my whole life, of course those two would be higher than the others. Then there was intelligence which he had at 7, this made a lot of sense too considering he did well in school and was just generally a pretty intelligent guy. And of course charisma is at 4, that sadly made the most sense out of the whole bunch. Even starting below what he believed was the average start for everyone who was integrated. Welp, best not to dwell too much on that.

Moving on, Jose looked towards his racial skills which he seemed to have a few of already. Tongues of The Traveler, Ingenuity of Man, and Strength of The Collective. Cool now if only I knew what the hell they did. Almost as if waiting for his command, he got an expanded list of his racial skills with a description under each.

RACIAL ABILITIES:

Tongues of The Traveler

The multiverse is expansive, the difference in cultures even larger. As an integrated human, grants the ability to speak and understand any language in the multiverse. Let your journeys be frequent and your interactions fruitful

Ingenuity of Man

As a member of the human race, your mind is your greatest asset. Your hands your greatest tools. Grants access to a wider range of Proffessions and a buff to experience earned through crafting. +10 percent experience earned when plying your chosen trade.

Strength of The Collective

There is strength in numbers, safety in brotherhood. No one exemplifies that more than the human race. Grants a small bonus to health regeneration and damage dealt when in a party of 5. Bonus increases the larger the party. +5 percent to health regeneration, + 5 percent to damage dealt.

Now we're talking, it seems the system really leans into the whole societal aspect of humanity. It made sense, humans did better as a group than on their own. At least that was his experience on Earth. The skills were pretty straightforward so there wasn't much for Jose to sparse through. Moving on he finally reached the end of his Stat sheet where the affinities and attunent were. This was where Jose met his biggest surprise.

His attunement, it was that of death.