A beautiful glade.

“Ah he’s here!” Someone yelled.

Rhys groaned as he tried to adjust his vision to the sudden glare of sunlight. After rubbing his eyes and blinking a few times he found himself in a grassy clearing surrounded by hills and forests under a beautiful bright blue sky. Spread out on the field before him were hundreds of other reincarnated people. Rhys could tell they were reincarnated because they all were young and had weird hair colors. It would seem that everybody had been merged with their avatars at this point. Rhys glanced down at his hands and noted that they weren’t at all the wrinkly, veiny hands of an old man. They were a young man’s hands, smooth, tanned and flourishing with health.

“God damn dude, what the hell kept you? Did you go take a dump?” Someone yelled.

Rhys couldn’t tell who said that, but it does appear that everyone had been waiting for him for some time.

“Sorry, I couldn’t quite make up my mind on the classes,” Rhys replied.

A young woman with platinum blonde hair tied back in a neat bun who was wearing a formal dark blue gown, stepped up to Rhys. “Everyone has already formed their respective parties. I suggest you quickly do the same. The introduction session is about to start.”

“Right,” Rhys replied, “Sure thing.”

Rhys walked into the field of gathered people. Sure enough everybody seemed to be clumped together in their respective cliques. Rhys noticed that everyone was dressed in loose knitted turtleneck sweaters of different colors and tight-fitting pants. It wasn’t entirely inappropriate as the climate seems rather cool, despite the bright shining sun overhead.

“Hey, he’s wearing brown. What class is that?” Somebody could be heard asking.

Rhys confirmed that his sweater was indeed of an earthy dark brown color.

“Well,” someone else said, “Red is soldier, Green is hunter, Blue is caster…”

Someone else continued, “Black is thief and White is devout. That leaves…”

“Oh wow, a Crafter? This guy’s got balls.”

“Didn’t they recommend that we pick anything but crafter? There’s supposed to be a fight ahead.”

The isolated whispers quickly built into a tide of murmurings.

“Should we invite him?”

“Are you serious? We have no idea what’s in store ahead. We can’t carry someone who is useless in a fight!”

“Maybe he can be a decoy.”

“Oh shit, good point.”

Rhys chuckled to himself and quickly walked away from those people.

“Pssssst hey you! New guy, over here!”

Rhys glanced up ahead and saw a group of people sitting in a circle. One of them, a guy in a red sweater sporting fair brown hair and blue eyes, was waving at him.

Rhys stepped up to the group. “Hello,” he greeted cautiously.

The guy in red smiled. “We’re one person short of the limit. Would you like to join us?”

A quick count puts the group at nine people. So ten’s the party limit? Rhys thought to himself.

“Sure…” Rhys said, “But fair warning, I’m a Crafter. It’s apparently a bad choice of class.”

“That’s cool,” the red guy replied, “We have absolutely no idea what to expect going forwards, so a party with a varied skillset may in fact be the safest strategy for our survival.”

“You’re not going to just use me as bait are you?” Rhys asked.

“Haha. Never crossed my mind. I know you’re not a combat oriented class. It’s all good bro. We’ll protect you. I’m sure you can find ways to help us out in your own way.”

“Okay, then. Thanks for having me.”

“No probs,” said the guy in red. “My name is Asher Maerlin,” he added as he extended his hand.

They shook hands.

“Is that your new name? Or your old one?” Rhys asked

“It’s my only name now. I can’t even remember my previous name. Can you?”

Rhys tried to recall his earth-name.

“N-no… I can’t…” Rhys said.

“Don’t worry about it bro,” Asher said, “Everyone’s the same. We can’t even remember how we died. Our old memories are fading.”

“Well that’s disconcerting…”

“It just means we’re being given a completely clean slate. Come on, introduce yourself to the party.”

Rhys glanced around the circle of people who were now apparently his comrades. There indeed seemed to be a good balance to the party. Including Asher, there were three red Soldiers, two green Hunters, one black Thief, one white Devout, and two blue Casters. “Rhys Beryl, Crafter,” he said.

Introductions were quickly made all around.

The other two soldiers were Duncan Nallis and Seriana Cotton. The hunters were Grace Mistle and Trevor Kale. The casters were Henry Argon and Russell Kievan. The thief is called Francesca Hyland and the devout is named Justina Oleander.

“Don’t feel too awkward,” Asher said after the preliminary introductions, “Everybody is the same as you. We’ve all only just met a few hours ago.”

“Right,” Rhys replied, “Thanks for having me. I’m in your care.”