Katherine felt nothing, but peace. The weight of her grief finally let her. The long sleep known as death finally held her in its sweet embrace. That is until Katherine felt something like a pulling sensation, then it was a jerking felling. It wasn’t anything painful. Then, it happened:

  Soul Integration recognized

  Adapting soul for Integration

  Skill Tree Assignment Initiated

  Skill Tree: Combat [Accepted]

  Skill Tree: Profession [Accepted]

  Skill Tree: Magic [Accepted]

  Starting Level Established: Level 1

  “What?” Katherine thought. Katherine’s next thought was how could she think? The dead couldn’t do that as far as she knew or believed. Then again, she was feeling just a moment ago.

  Katherine felt something coarse. The feeling of burlap or a feed bag covering her. How? Katherine wondered how she could feel anything physical.

  The starting deep breath and the motion of sitting up. A pair of hands rested on Katherine’s shoulders.

  “Easy there,” said a woman, her tone calm but firm. “You’ve been through a lot. Let’s not rush things.”

  Katherine’s speech apparently wasn’t working yet. “Heh, that’s what she said.”

  Through the hands that gently held Katherine down told her that the owner of the hands was probably trying to suppress a chuckle.

  It wasn’t until then Katherine felt the cold stone on bare skin that shouldn’t have been bare skin.

  Like an engine waking up from a shot of aether. Katherine’s muscles expanded and contracted forcing her upwards pushing away the person holding her down.

  She scanned the room for possible items she could use as weapons. Even improvised weapons would work.

  The bodies around her, however, were probably not going to be as forgiving as Katherine might be.

  “Where am I? Why am I naked? And—how am I alive?” The questions tumbled out, her tone defensive, as if bracing for a fight.

  Lira raised both hands in a gesture of peace. “Hang on. You’re safe. You’re in the woods north of Wynford Duchy. We… found you during a ritual. Well, ‘found’ might not cover it—you were, sort of, brought here.”

  “Are we in a crypt?”

  “Um...technically... yes. Yes, we are in a crypt.”

  “Is she an abomination, Lira?” asked a big bulky man in loose leather pants and roughly bare chest.

  Katherine could only guess that the woman—perhaps her name was Lira, judging the others glancing at her—shot the man a sharp glare, exasperation flickering across her face. "Seriously? You can't just assume we should kill someone just because they appeared in a ritual circle," she snapped, her tone laced with a practiced authority. "Ever heard of teleportation magic? It's not exactly unheard of." Still, her gaze drifted uneasily to the ominous markings on the floor, and Katherine noted the subtle shift in her demeanor as if, despite her words, she understood why suspicion lingered, given the reputation of the coven behind the ritual. Yet Lira straightened her shoulders, facing the group with unwavering resolve. "I'm not about to harm someone who shows up unarmed and obviously terrified," she declared firmly, her voice carrying through the chamber. "We have enough to answer for without adding that to the list."

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  The man who asked the question didn’t ease his stance. Lira on the other hand turns to Katherine

  “Sorry about him,” she said, trying to be comforting, and holding out her hand in greeting “My name, if you haven’t guessed, is Lira. How about we get you some clothes and get you out of here. May I have yours?”

  “Katherine,” replied suspiciously. “Some clothes would be good.”

  ...

  After Katherine had been given clothes—that could basically be counted as painted on by how tight they were— and left the creepy and unsettling crypt. Lira had explained that it was being used for dubious purposes.

  “What is with the ‘Skill Trees’?” Katherine asked, more of to fill the silence, and double as getting her bearings.

  “What do you mean?” Lira asked, slightly confused, but also intrigued with Katherine’s way of thinking. “Did you never have one?”

  “Not that I’m aware of.” Katherine admitted. “If I did magic most likely wouldn’t be one of them.”

  Lira gave a shrug. “I admit it is not one used a lot unless it intertwines with the profession skill tree. If someone has a lot of skills or spells on that tree it is because they are a devout magic user and rarely do anything else.”

  “How many skill trees do people usually have?” now Katherine asks kind of interested.

  “Generally, three, but that can vary from person to person,” Lira explains. “I assume you have the starting trees: combat, profession, and magic”

  Katherine nods and warns Lira of a root that could trip her.

  “Everyone starts out with those three,” Lira continues. “However, that number can go up or down as some gets older for a multitude of reasons. Like not practicing enough in certain skills may cause some to lose that skill. Take your combat tree for example. Some people don’t see the need for violence and eventually that tree goes away. On the other hand. Say your profession is blacksmith, for example, but you also craft leather goods on the side as a hobby, nothing fancy but to keep your mind sharp. Your profession tree will duplicate creating one for your smithing and the other for your leatherworking.

  “What about two trees blending?”

  “Ah, that’s a simple one,” said a shorter person only up to Katherine’s waist in height. She didn’t want to assume that the person was a dwarf but given the Braveheart-like accent she would probably ask later. “Usually, it is when you pick up a skill that is used in one tree but unlocks skills in another. Like smiths’ swingin’ their hammers. Sometimes they’ll pick up a warhammer skill of some such. Or they know a bit of magic then the system will generally mingle profession and magic trees if the person doesn’t want to be an artificer.”

  “Okay,” Katherine said, digesting the information. Katherine’s gaze unfocused for a moment to look at her magic skill tree. “Why does it seem that I must choose a path for the magic skill tree?”

  “It’s because you do,” Lira says, the tone sounding a bit regretful. “Anyone can learn magic if they want to it is a matter of how they learn magic is what the tree is asking for.”

  “Meaning?”

  A mage-looking individual pulls back to join the conversation. “Magic is split into two separate categories: Magecraft and Witchcraft. Magecraft is generally safe studied in academies. Whole occupations use at least a little bit of it for assorted reasons. Occupations like plumbers, smiths, and artificers. Gods even tailors and attendants use it in some way sometimes.”

  “Witchcraft on the other hand,” Lira says picking up the explanation. “Someone needs a patron. That path is either restricted or very wide by the patron.”

  “Like in the crypt?” Katherine asks sensing the tension in Lira’s tone.

  “Like in the crypt,” Lira echoed, her words much, much colder the regretful tone from before.

  Katherine decided to keep the question she was going to ask next in the very back of her mind.

  In the dense foliage of the forest, where the crypt had been blocking the sunlight and the group decided to stop for the day.

  “Can I ask you something?” Lira asked.

  “Sure?” Katherine responded pulling apart the piece of bread she had been given.

  The bread was basically stale and was like sawdust in Katherine’s mouth.

  “That mark on your arm? What is it?” Lira asked, pointing to Katherine's tattoo

  “A tattoo?”

  Lira rolled her eyes feeling that Katherine may have been answering as a joke. “I know what a tattoo is,” she commented with a slight smile. “I mean what does it mean. Does it have any effect that helps you.”

  “No, it’s just decorative.”

  “Why?” the mage from earlier asked. “You mean to have a tattoo that does nothing. Why would anyone want that?”

  “Wait, you mean tattoos have some kind of ability to them?” Katherine asked looking at Lira and the mage.

  “Well, yeah why wouldn’t they?” asked the mage.

  Katherine’s cackle startles the others for a moment until she starts using actual words. “Oh, I am so glad that my world doesn’t have magic. Tattoo artists would make a fortune.”