"Sure, I'll explain the [System] to you. To bring up your status panel, all you've got to do is think of the word [Status]. You can also say it out loud, it works either way."

Emm looked around. Some were nodding their heads as if they'd already figured it out for themselves earlier on. The others just did it now, and he could hear the word "system" being muttered several times.

Status, he thought.

Nothing.

Status. Status.

Still nothing. Emm felt his stomach drop.

"Status," he tried out loud.

"Status!"

"...Status?"

Nothing was happening; he couldn't see anything. Emm looked again, but no one else was having any trouble. They were all staring blankly in front of them, some even poking the air with their fingers. It looked like they were scrolling invisible touchscreens.

What was going on?

The Guide started to speak once more, and Emm listened.

"The details of the [System] aren't important right now. You'll get to understand it better when you start to gain experience and level up. Basically, you've got your name, your current level, and then your experience. Hit 100%, and your level goes up. Then there's the race, which is human, and your classes. This field should be empty. You can choose as many classes as you want when the [System] offers you, but it's best to focus on just one first. Later on, you can choose a second class to pivot your build.

Then you've got your health, if you let it drop to hit 0% you'll die. If your mana drops to 0%, you'll lose consciousness, which is exactly the same as dying when you're in the middle of combat. If either of those numbers ever gets anywhere near zero, you should just turn tail and run. The risk isn't worth the experience."

Shouldn't there be potions to quickly regenerate, though?

"As for the stats, they're mostly self-explanatory," she continued. "At the very top, you can see your free points. You don't have any yet, but you can use them to increase any stat by one point. You get some of them after every level up. [Strength] makes you swing a sword harder, [Agility] helps you control your body and react faster, [Intelligence] makes you sharper and your spells hit harder, [Charisma] helps with your social skills and attacks, [Toughness] give you health and makes your body sturdier, [Endurance] increases your stamina, [Will] gives you mana and lets you resist magic more easily, and finally, [Poise] is used to deflect social or emotional attacks. Essentially, the upper four [Stats] improve your damage, whereas the bottom four strengthen your defenses."

Social attacks? What's that even supposed to mean?

Emm was struggling to hold all the information in his head since he couldn't see the screen himself, but he was starting to get a decent picture of it.

Miss Simmons wasn't done yet. She was giving them quite a detailed answer. They should have asked more questions about the [System] earlier. She must've enjoyed talking about it.

"Next up, we have your skills, albeit empty. Every level, one new skill point. You get to pick from three random options provided by your [Classes], either learning a new [Skills] or upgrading ones you previously acquired, or sometimes merging together two existing ones. It's incredibly important to aspire for synergy, which is why choosing too many [Classes] is a horrible idea in general. And finally, at the bottom are your [Perks]. There are good and bad ones, I hope you've chosen well, there's no way to change them any longer."

"By far the most important one here is one all of you have innately. [Hero], (Legendary) rarity. It increases the experience you earn from combat. By. Five. Times," she finished, pausing after each word at the end.

Emm's eyes widened. [Hero] sounded incredibly powerful. A full 5x multiplier. Did that mean it would take ten or twenty years to reach [Level] 100 without it?

He wanted to see it with his own eyes.

"Status," he said.

Again he was met with silence.

Instead, he did the next best thing and tried to imagine what the status screen would look like if he could see it.

Status
Name: Place Holder
Level: 1
Exp: 0%
Race: Human
Classes: None
Health: 100%
Mana: 100%
Stats: (Free Points: 0)
Strength: ?
Agility: ?
Intelligence: ?
Charisma: ?
Toughness: ?
Endurance: ?
Will: ?
Poise: ?
Skills: (Skill Points: 0)
?
Perks:
[Hero]

This was just his mental idea, but the others were likely seeing the same blue windows he had back on Earth, right before the crash. He didn't know if the numbers were all set to a default value, something like 0 or 10, or if they were personalized for each of them. He'd have to ask around later.

"That was a lengthy one, so I'll count it as two," the Guide said. Another two of her fingers fell. "Only two more to go."

Emm made sure to stretch his arm up as high as he could, which was pretty high. He was over six feet, which made him peek above most of the group, and his arms were long. He made sure to look their Guide straight in the eye.

Their gazes met.

Come on, come on!

She pointed to someone else, a small, quiet woman with short brown hair. "How do I learn magic?" she asked weakly.

Another finger went down, leaving just one. Miss Simmons sighed with her whole body. She looked exasperated. "For that, you need to get a magic [Skill], meaning you need a magic-focused [Class]. I can show you how to try and get one. But not all of you are suitable for using magic."

"Let me repeat that," she said, taking a deep breath before shouting, "Not all of you can use magic!"

She continued. "It all depends on your [Stats] as well as the [Perks] you've chosen before coming here. I'm a trained [Guide], which means my job is to help you make informed decisions. Or better yet, make no decisions whatsoever, and pick exactly those options that I tell you to take. It's a proven method that works the best."

"Ignore my advice, and I'll stop giving it," she finished.

Would they die if they made poor choices for their 'builds'? Emm felt goosebumps. He also felt his arm start to hurt; he'd been holding it up the whole time.

With her last extended finger, she pointed at him, "Final question."

He cleared his throat. All eyes were on him. He had way more than just one question he wanted to ask her. Why couldn't he see the [System] like everyone else? And was she even from Earth herself? What were they going to eat out here, if she expected them to stay for a month, and where were they going to sleep? But there was something else that bothered him much more than all these questions.

There was one thing she wasn't telling them.

"How many of us will die before we reach [Level] 100?" asked Emm.

"Oh. That. Probably most of you," she smiled and hopped off the platform. "Now everyone, follow me. We're losing valuable daylight. Let's find some monsters for you to kill."