The light blinding her started to fade slowly. As rough shapes took form, she could already feel the sensation of the sunlight caressing her skin as well as a gentle breeze blowing her hair. Though both her vision and hearing were still fuzzy, her sense of smell was assaulted by the strong scent of incense, making her breathing a bit stuffy.

An uproar of different voices entered her ears as an inaudible hubbub, before she recovered her sight and could see clearly the scene happening in front of her.

A gathering of poorly dressed people were either standing stunned or bowing reverently with their heads to the floor, looking at her with hope and incredulity in their eyes as prayers kept pouring out of their mouths one after the other.

Stella was used to having unwanted attention directed at her whenever she had to accompany her parents to parties. However, it was the first time so many people truly greeted her this respectfully, their gazes filled with genuine admiration rather than laced with greed or lust.

Lowering her head to look at herself, Stella was relieved to see that she was wearing clothes. Though said clothes were of poor quality and offered little in the way of defense.

Taking a look at her surroundings, Stella once again marveled at how realistic everything looked. From the dilapidated temple she stood in, letting light through its broken roof, to the many people standing in front of her displaying various emotions on their faces, and how all her senses told her that everything she saw, smelled, or touched was real.

Her train of thought was interrupted as her gaze was attracted to the old man wearing religious garments, slowly climbing up the stairs leading to the altar she was standing on. His wrinkled eyes holding a hint of excitement as he kept his fists tightly clenched. Looking at him closely, what caught Stella's attention were the two sharp horns sprouting out of the top of his head, though one of them was snapped in half.

Breaking eye contact with him, her gaze landed on the other people gathered in the temple, all having the same features, and she couldn't help but raise her hand to touch the ones that were undoubtedly on top of her head as it was the trait of the race she chose. The sensation of the horn felt rough to the touch and a shiver ran through her body when she stroked it with her fingers, making it feel like it was truly part of her body.

"We thank the Goddess for her benevolence and choosing our village! Hero, we must thank you as well for coming all the way from your world to our aid. How are you feeling? It is said in the sacred texts that the day heroes from other worlds would come to our aid, they would have a hard time adapting to their new environment."

Listening to the man's words and feeling that all her senses came back to her without any problem nor discomfort, Stella reassured the man that she was fine, before waiting for him to continue his speech in an overly excited tone unfit for his age.

"That is great, truly fantastic! If you're feeling well, may I ask you to follow me? For though I am in charge of the prayers here in this small village, I am sadly unable to help you further. If you don't mind, I was planning on making you meet the people most qualified to do so. If you feel any sort of discomfort while I escort you to meet them, please do tell me."

As the man invited her to follow him with a friendly gesture and a gentle smile, Stella walked behind him and kept the same slow pace he maintained as they made their way to the temple's exit.

Stella thought that this should be the first tutorial created with the purpose to help you adapt to walking. Even more so if you've considerably changed your physique, which would make it hard to control your body's new center of gravity or the length of your strides.

Feeling the sensation under her leather boots change from the hard, stone-paved floor to a muddy ground as she exited through the entrance of the temple, Stella saw the poor state of the village she was summoned in.

To be fair, even calling it a village would be a bit too much of a stretch. No matter if she looked right or left, she was able to see the wooden palisades delimiting the end of the village that could only be described as pastoral. As she estimated roughly the number of the thatched houses in her sight, Stella started to wonder if this village housed more cattle than inhabitants.

Following the old man on the wide dirt road leading towards one of the village gates, Stella noticed that she seems to be the only 'player' in this village right now. All other 'life forms' being either livestock or NPCs busying themselves with their daily chores and jobs as some stared at her while murmuring.

One of the key points the company behind Ezmara used to market their game, was the fact that it had one of the largest maps ever created in any MMORPG. The advantage of this showing itself right now.

Their player-base was already separated into regions such as Asia/Pacific, North America, Europe, South America, and Africa, then again between the four races available. Afterward, with the map being so large, it makes it possible at the start of the game, to allocate players to one of the thousands of different starting villages, spreading their player-base even more. This way they managed to avoid flooding the starting zones with millions of players and breaking the immersion in the process.

But while she probably was the first one to be summoned in this village, surely others would follow her soon enough. So she had to make the best use of this time where she had both the quest-givers and farming zones for herself.

As they approached the village's south gate, the old priest escorting her called out to the bored guard in a loud voice to catch his attention.

"Arnold, go find the two army instructors! Tell them that the Goddess answered our prayers and that I'm escorting the Hero to them!"

As he heard the man's words, the young guard equipped in leather armor and holding a simple spear looked at her incredulously, as if seeing an alien, before the priest started to reprimand him for not moving. Only then did he start to run, though not without turning his head around intermittently to look at her, as if he could still not believe it, or that she would disappear the second he looked away.

Thinking of this made Stella secretly snicker as she wondered how they would react if she were to disconnect right this instant.

Seeing the shameful behavior of the guard, the old priest coughed awkwardly in his fist in an attempt to hide his embarrassment as his cheeks took on a pink hue. After getting back his composure, he resumed leading her at a turtle pace outside the village's gates, following the direction the young guard ran to.

"You might be wondering why would two army instructors be in a tiny village such as ours, and you would be right to do so since it indeed wasn't the case last year. The reason being that there is an old prophecy long foretold in our world. Old enough that no one would have remembered it if it wasn't for the Goddess warning us time and again, generation after generation so it can be passed down."

He started to stroke his beard without realizing so, probably out of habit, a distant look in his eyes as he continued to narrate.

"The prophecy warned us that the forces of evil that have plagued our world since its creation, would one day suddenly swarm out of nowhere like an unstoppable tide, stronger than ever before with the help of powerful entities to lead them. But the prophecy also gave us hope. For it foretold that the moment when the evil forces would start their invasion, heroes from another world, blessed with unimaginable potential by the Goddess, will answer our prayers and come to our aid."

As Stella kept following him while listening, she soon was able to see a little group of people training in a clearing a distance away. Though they were still a bit far, she recognized the guard who went ahead of them talking excitedly with two people whose faces she couldn't see.

But even with their back turned to her, she was certain that those two were the army instructors they were looking for. Because in the midst of the villagers surrounding them, only wearing leather armor if any, their attire made them stand out like sore thumbs. The big one wore full-plate armor and a set of shield and sword hanged on his back and waist respectively. As for the shorter one of the two, probably a woman from how her hair was cascading over her long robe adorned with intricate symbols, reminisced Stella of a mage as she held a staff as tall as she was.

"Our King asked for every priest and inhabitants in the country to pray regularly to the Goddess ever since the first signs of the prophecy appeared. As an added measure, he also took the initiative to send two instructors to each village having a temple, so that we could assist the heroes that would come to our help in any way we can."

Hearing this world's setting, Stella couldn't help but think that thankfully, no matter how realistic they act, the NPCs aren't real people and didn't know the fact that everything that happens to them is because their 'saviors' want to have some fun …

This setting was made in a way to make it normal for NPCs to have their world go from how it was to how it will become. Monsters will start to 'spawn' very fast, 'dungeons' will appear along with powerful 'bosses' leading armies, and 'players' by the millions will thankfully 'log' into the 'game' to help them.

With the end of his story coincidentally ending perfectly at the same time they arrived in the clearing, they went to meet with the instructors looking at them, and more particularly, at Stella. Both of them, a man and a woman with similar features, held a mix of curiosity and doubt in their eyes as they scrutinized her.

"These two are the army instructors sent by the King to our village. The man's name is Sen while his sister's name is Sei, as you might have noticed they are twins. They are the best people around to help you train, no matter if it is in the martial or magical arts. Sadly I won't be staying here to watch for I have other matters to attend to, but if you ever need anything in the future you can always come to find me at the temple."

Ending his speech, the old man bowed respectfully to the three of them before going back towards the village. The young guard he used as a messenger was dragged by him, though said guard seemed reluctant to go back to his post as he kept on rambling and begging to stay.

While the figures of the two departing people got further away, Stella and the twins were still eyeing each other in silence. Though older than her they were still both young-looking, probably in their early to mid-twenties. Being twins their appearance was quite similar, from their purple hair and eyes to their facial features and having the same pair of horns.

But even if they had somewhat the same appearance, at one glance you could tell their personalities were polar opposites. Sei, the female mage instructor, had a gentle smile on her face as she looked at her with curiosity, but her brother, Sen, couldn't hide his disappointment as he watched her.

Clearing his throat, the armor-clad man came closer to her and stood there looking down at her before breaking the silence.

"So you're the Hero huh? I will admit that I thought someone older and more strong-looking would appear, well, I guess they say to not judge a book by its cover. Take my sister for example, even though she looks frail and weak she's actually quite the mons- ugh!"

The man's speech was suddenly interrupted as he let out a grunt. Turning to complain at his sister who punched him in the side, he ended up not letting a single word escape his mouth when he saw the 'gentle' smile she gave him, scaring him.

Having stared down her brother, Sei snorted at him before turning back her line of sight to Stella as her 'gentle' smile became genuine.

"Please excuse my brother for his rudeness and don't listen to his words. I'm sure he just wanted to fight it out with someone all-brawn no-brains like himself and didn't mean any harm. Though as he said, appearance has little to do with strength, and that applies even more so to you Heroes."

As she glanced at her brother, he scratched his head and muttered a quiet apology while staring at the ground, finding a sudden interest in tiny lifeforms as he tried to avoid both of their gazes. With a sigh, Sei turned back towards Stella to continue their conversation.

"This matter aside, I'm guessing the priest already explained to you why we are here. But before we can start your training, I need to ask you some questions. Do you know how to activate the Goddess' gift?"

Seeing Stella shake her head in response, a small smile appeared on her face as she resumed her explanation.

"As I thought. The prophecy said that the Heroes who will come to our world will receive a gift from the Goddess different from the one we are born with. Their gift will give them the ability to control their growth and come back to life every time they fall. But this gift came at the price of their previous strength, making them forget all their previous combat knowledge and need to re-learn everything. That's why the King sent us to every temple in the country so we can help them, help you. Well, let's start. First of all, try saying 'Interface ON'. Though your gift is different from ours, you should be able to activate it the same way."

Nodding to the mage, Stella said the command aloud before faint particles of light surrounded her. As the instructors and villagers took a step back in awe, parts of a familiar-looking user interface appeared in her vision one by one.

If she had to describe this game UI in a single word, it would be 'minimalist'. Its only elements being a mini-map, empty skills bars, her own life and mana indicators and finally, a single 'Menu' button probably used to open up every other tab.

The interface would follow the movements of her head and not her gaze. Whenever she did not look at it, it would fade a little as to not impair her vision, only coming back to the forefront when she did focus on one of its elements.

As her gaze wandered on the people around her their names would appear above them in a white font. Though apart from the two instructors whom she already knew the name of, only question marks would show up above the others.

Seeing that both the light particles and the brief moment of surprise on Stella's face disappeared as she was now looking around, Sei came back in front of her with a bright smile and a bit more reverence in her eyes as she guessed that Stella successfully activated her gift.

"Though I am not sure in what way your gift is different from ours, it seems like it worked. If there is no problem then we can now proceed with your training. First of all, which class do you wish to train in? In our world, arts related to combat are called classes, while arts related to production are called jobs. But for the jobs, you'll have to find someone else to learn from, Sen and I can only teach you one of the six classes."

As she said that, she looked towards her brother who understood her meaning, and ordered some of the villagers around them to bring him his weapons before looking back towards them and explain.

"Out of those six classes, the first one and one of the most important is the Guardian. Guardians usually wear heavy armor and wield a shield. Their main job is to attract the monsters' wrath to themselves so that their weaker team members can be free to move and attack. Their abilities rely mostly on self or group buffs increasing either their defense or constitution, but they can also make use of some holy spells to help their teammates recover from their wounds."

The moment he finished speaking, he received a big shield and a single-handed mace from some of the villagers before they dispersed a few meters away from him, leaving him a lot of space to himself. As a grin appeared on his face, Sen started to proudly demonstrate some flashy spells while yelling their names and making all kinds of poses, only stopping when he saw the 'gentle' smile on his sister's face, making him shiver.

Forgetting about her brother's antics, Sei took over the explanation.

"The second class whose role is as important as the Guardian would be the Cleric. While the Guardian protects his teammates from the front, the Cleric do so from the back. Even if the Guardian protecting his team is the best there is, he himself and the other members are bound to get hurt. That is where the Cleric comes into play. Blessed by the Goddess, they are able to heal their allies' wounds and cure them of ailments, making them a key piece of a good, well-rounded team."

Marking a pause, she called out to a man on the sideline before taking out a dagger from her robe and cut the palm of her hand without any hesitation. Though looking calm, the paleness of her face and her gritted teeth betrayed the fact that she was in pain. The man didn't wait for her order and immediately said the name of a spell and white particles of light fell on Sei, converging towards her palm and closing the wound as she thanked him.

"As for the last four classes, they all have the same purpose: inflicting damage, the only difference being that they are using different means to do so. The Sword Master, the Assassin, and the Ranger are classes making use of physical weapons while the Elementalist uses magical spells. I don't think I need to explain much about them, for they are pretty self-explanatory."

Saying so, Sei put away the handkerchief she used to wipe the blood off her hand, before chanting multiple spells consecutively, making different kinds of elemental spells appear one after the other. The spells turned around her a few times before she made them rush and explode against makeshifts targets some distance away.

"So, I must ask again, which class do you wish to train in?"

Hearing Sei's question woke Stella from her daze of seeing magic for the first time. But even though the flashy spells she saw really made her want to try the Elementalist class, she didn't give in to temptation for she already knew which class she wanted to be even before playing the game.

"I'm sorry, while both of your demonstrations were impressive, I have already decided on becoming a Sword Master."

Hearing her answer, Sei couldn't help but let out a disappointed sigh before making three books appear out of nowhere and made them float towards Stella.

"Is that so … that's too bad, I was looking forward to teaching you magic. Well, we won't be able to personally teach you any fancy skills but we can be your sparring partners, helping you adapt to fighting against both physical and magical opponents. You just need to come and ask us."

As the books fell softly in her hands, Stella's eyes lit up at the sight of the names on the covers. Not waiting for Sei to tell her what to do, she directly opened the books one after the other to read their contents.

Every time she finished reading the description of a skill, the book would fade and disappear into light particles before getting absorbed inside her body, giving her a warm feeling. At the same time, the skills would add themselves into an empty skill slot in the bar at the bottom of her interface, and make a video play in front of her where someone would demonstrate how to use the skill over and over until she closed it.

"Seems like you've already assimilated the skills. I don't know if I should call you amazing or scary. It can take us years to learn some of those you know? Well whatever, I should be happy that you're on our side. Here's the weapon and armor prepared for you. Though it's not the best because the country had to manufacture tons of them in preparation for the moment the Heroes would appear, it should be good enough as a starting gear. Tell me if they don't fit you."

As she said so, Sei handed her a belt holding a longsword in its scabbard as well as an iron chestplate. Though both were made out of poor material and with bad craftsmanship, it was still better than having nothing. Thinking of how to put on the cumbersome plate armor, it instantly disappeared from her hands only to reappear directly on her body, perfectly adjusted to her size.

Surprised but finding it convenient, she switched her gaze to the 'Menu' button in the bottom-right corner of her interface. Hoping it would work the same way as when she activated her UI, Stella muttered a similar command “Open Menu”. As she did, a window with different options appeared in front of her, an arm's distance away from where the rest of her UI was.

Seeing the list of sub-menus, she lifted her hand and pressed her finger on the first option 'Status', making the previous screen disappear to make way for the new one, a single window displaying all her information.

Closing the window, she took out the sword she received from its scabbard as she roughly estimated its length and weight. She has no previous experience using a real sword, but she did some research beforehand, accumulating a lot of knowledge related to swordsmanship for what it is worth. Now she only needs to put it into practice and do her best to learn as fast as she can.

"Well, I should stop being surprised every time I see you doing something impossible, otherwise I'll die of shock after seeing a lot more Heroes do the same. For your first mission to get you used to your new class and gear, I'll have you hunt some monsters in the woods around the village. Lately, they've been appearing at a faster rate and started to become a serious threat to the villagers. Even though we've been training them ever since we came here, they are still far from strong enough. So if you could hunt some that would be a huge help, just come back to me whenever you want with a proof of subjugation and I'll see to it that you're rewarded."

Thanking Sei, Stella bade farewell to the others before heading in the direction of the nearest forest. While she was walking, she began opening and looking through the different sub-menus once again to make sure she didn't miss anything.

Her 'Status' had nothing different from the last time she checked, her 'Inventory' was empty, and her 'Quests Log' only had the one quest she was given a moment ago. Though she noticed that said quest didn't have any indications of how many monsters she was supposed to hunt. Probably one of those quests where the more monsters you kill, the better the reward she thought.

When she finally reached the 'Skills' tab, she was pleasantly surprised to see that, apart from the three active skills she was given by Sei, it seems her choice of class automatically granted her passive skills.

As the sun hitting her was suddenly blocked by the foliage of the trees, Stella realized she had finally reached the forest's edge, and so, closed all the windows blocking her sight.

She stared at the unknown in front of her for a moment. The forest looked like any other out there in the real world, but Stella knew it wasn't. Not only because it was filled with monsters, but also for what it represented to her.

She closed her eyes for a few seconds to calm herself, before letting out a long sigh, but she wasn't afraid, quite the contrary. Opening her eyes, she had a serious expression, her gaze focused and her brows furrowed. She adjusted her grip on the hilt of her sword before finally entering the forest.

"This is the real first step towards our dream."