Difficult Choices

"Soul Keeper?" Erik mumbled. "That's an interesting one."

I read the bold text quietly, along with everyone else.

'The Soul Keeper is the guardian of the otherworld. He is a vessel for the fallen, the final resting place for the souls of the dead. The Soul Keeper's power scales with each soul he takes. Souls of exceptionally powerful beings may grant him additional benefits.'

"That is cool!" Vincent shouted. "It suits your look perfectly too!"

I couldn't disagree. Instead I chuckled and nodded.

"I have an idea." Erik declared suddenly. "Originally, I wanted to play a Wizard. But we have an edge with three special classes at our disposal. I suggest we have two front liners, at least one ranged damage dealer, a support and a flanker." His gaze lingered on each person. "I'll pick Paladin." He said as he touched the class name. A notification popped up:

'You have chosen the Class: PALADIN. Please confirm your choice.'

After a moment's hesitation, he clicked on the 'Confirm' button. "I'm a front liner now. Samantha, you should probably pick the Wayfarer."

She nodded and picked her class. Vincent chimed in almost immediately. "I'll be a Fighter." We nodded as he confirmed his choice. Joshua picked the Rogue almost immediately.

"Aw, come on. I have to be the healer now?" She grumbled as she picked Priest. I was the only one who hadn't chosen yet. After a moment's hesitation, I pressed on the 'Soul Keeper'.

"This is going to be fun," Erik said with a grin as I confirmed my choice. As soon as I did, a new interface appeared. This time, the previously unavailable panels had also been unlocked.

"Too much information!" Alina shouted. She was right – there was so much going on!

The first thing I saw was a status panel.

'Kai Friseal – Level 1 Soul Keeper.' Seemed about right. I kept reading. 'Exp: 0/100 - - Souls: 0/100'

I hesitated. I knew experience meant levels and that meant more power but what was this 'souls' thing all about? Oh well, I was going to figure it out eventually. Wondering about it now wasn't going to help with anything.

"Chosen Deity…" Erik mumbled. "I'll go with the God of Vengeance, Rohir."

"What's an elemental spirit?" Samantha asked as the Kestler brothers shrugged.

After glancing at everyone else, I checked the next panel. It was apparently my inventory. I couldn't see a weight limit but there was apparently a volume limit, though I couldn't imagine ever filling it up. I did own a box, but I wasn't sure what was in it. I didn't dare try to take it out here, since there were still some two thousand people with us, and I had no idea what the box might contain.

The next panel was once again, currently unavailable. A small note was written underneath in fine text; 'This panel will become available as more Souls are obtained'

"Alright!" Erik suddenly loudly spoke to pull our attention. "Let's get going to get a head start!"

I grabbed his arm before he could rush away. "Wait, look." I tilted my head towards the podium. We were the closest group to it, so I was the first to notice the person heading up to it. It was a tall man. He had a pair of leathery wings on his back and was taller than anyone else I could see. His skin was a dark blueish colour. As we watched, he started his speech.

"Welcome, Heroes of our Nation. Today, we have summoned you here to ask for your help! The Demons have invaded our lands, destroyed out divine pillars and cut off our ability to use magic outside our great city!" He raised his hands as a map appeared in the air. I felt a tingling sensation in the back of my mind.

"Here, is our city." A point on the map shone brightly. "Our empire spanned the entire continent once," A light originating from the city illuminated most of the map. Several other glowing spots appeared – tens of them. "All these were once ours. Our divine pillars – the source of our power!" The map disappeared. "Your mission is to drive out the demons from our lands, rebuild our divine pillars and eventually defeat the Demon Lord!"

He clapped and a notification appeared in front of me. "A gift from us, to all of you. Now – go forth and reclaim what was once ours!" With those words, he flapped his wings and flew off.

"Cool!" Vincent said. "He gave us some stuff!" He motioned to touch the notification, but Samantha grabbed his wrist to stop him. "We can look at it later. Let's get out of here first."

"Yeah, look." Erik pointed at the ground. Glowing circles had started appearing before each group. I approached the circle, only to see a tooltip pop up. 'Destination: The Torchlight Woods Camp'

"That's a teleportation circle. It'll send us somewhere and we'll begin our journey." Erik explained to me. He then suddenly summoned his interface and did something. A notification popped up before me. 'Party Request Received'. I glanced at Erik, who nodded. I accepted the request and everyone else's names became visible on a new panel.

"Alright, that's out of the way too! Come on, let's not waste any more time!" Erik grabbed Alina and Joshua's hands as he stepped into the teleportation circle. I hurried after him, as did Samantha and Vincent. When all of us stepped in, the circle glowed with a bright yellow light.

"Here we go!" Erik shouted as our surroundings darkened. Only a few seconds later, we found ourselves in a wooden area. The circle faded from beneath our feet. Before we even had a chance to take in our surroundings, a notification appeared.

'Quest: Kill the monsters before they can destroy the camp.'

I glanced around. We were in a small opening in the woods. There were two tents, a burnt-out campfire, a box, and some sort of floating crystal thing.

"What monsters?" Alina asked as she stepped forward. The others shrugged and walked closer to the tents. I looked around for a weapon, but all I could see were thin branches that had fallen from the surrounding trees. Before I could as Erik about how to fight, I heard a howl. It came from the trees behind me.

"Look out!" Samantha shouted as she sprinted towards me. She was looking up – towards the branches of the tree I was standing under. I followed her panicked gaze to see two bright red eyes staring at me. Two claws extended to catch me, but Samantha pulled me away just in time. We fell as the creature landed in front of us.

It had the head of a wolf and the body of a feline. It howled as more such creatures stepped out of the woods. I quickly rose to my feet and helped Samantha up as well. "We need weapons!" I shouted as the first creature leapt towards me. I had nothing I could use to defend myself – my unarmed combat training would be of no use against opponents like this!

"Look out!" Erik shouted as he pulled me away from the creature's attack. How was he moving so fast? "Remember, this is a game!" He said as a large tower shield materialised in hands. He blocked the creature's attack easily with it.

"Get down!" Joshua shouted as a flash of light flew by me. The creature whimpered with pain as I noticed the small dagger sticking out of its shoulder.

"Kai!" Samantha grabbed me and pulled away from the thick of the fight. "Open your inventory and equip the stuff the guy gave you." She pushed me farther away as a longbow materialised in her hands. "Alright, here I come!" She shouted. She hooked an arrow and drew her bow. The arrow flew straight past the wounded monster and killed another one approaching from the woods.

"Nice!" Erik shouted as he blocked yet another attack. He also had a longsword in hand, though he wasn't wielding it in any meaningful way. Vincent on the other hand, was using his shortsword like he had at least a little training. He wasn't a match for any professional, but he was easily wounding these creatures.

I heard another howl come from behind. I quickly turned to look, only to see several glowing red eyes approaching. Erik and the others were busy with the first group of creatures still. I had to do something to buy some time.