Ash opened his eyes to soft cushions and an unfamiliar wooden ceiling.

  Where am I?

  As he sat up and examined the room around him he could immediately tell he wasn't in Morion's slave compound. It looked like the room of an inn, and a quite nice one at that.

  What happened? Did I get the seed and make it out? The seed…

  Suddenly the memories of the previous day came crashing through his mind. Ixhalda. The rift. The sensation of what seemed like an endless eternity feeling as though he was trapped in the space between dimensions as the forces of reality deconstructed his essence.

  Something had latched onto him and pulled him out. That was the last thing he remembered.

  He pulled back the sheets to look at his body. Gone were the burns he'd suffered walking through the ashen hellscape.

  Either I died and this is some kind of afterlife, or this is the place my father told me about all those years ago. But why heal me?

  In the ten years since being orphaned Ash had experienced the phenomenon known as goodwill about as often as he won the lottery. Vorillion IV had just been that kind of place. And he, a dumb kid with a Rare class, had not been ready to experience the brunt of its cruelty.

  There was a small pile of clothes next to the bed that he assumed were for him. His previous clothes were nowhere to be found.

  Oh yeah, they probably got burnt up in my mad dash for the seed. Not like they were anything more than rags anyway.

  He donned the outfit, a simple tunic and shorts, before he tried the door. To his surprise, it was unlocked.

  What's their game?

  Ash wandered down the hallway he found outside his door, passing several identical doors on his way to the end. Past the door at the end of the hall was a spherical room with a pedestal in the center.

  Upon the pedestal was a crystal orb, and Ash's blood ran cold at the sight.

  When he'd finally been released from the orphanage he'd immediately gone to the nearest guild to sign up. He'd been young and stupid, and hadn't been nearly cautious enough.

  The crystal orb was an aptitude sphere, a device used to display a person's displayed name, class, and stats. In his ignorance, he'd thought that since it used his current name and didn't show anything beyond those simple traits he'd be fine.

  On his fifth quest he'd been kidnapped and enslaved. He realized only later that his information had been sold.

  Ash shook himself out of his thoughts. Also in the room was a larger door and a desk with a woman sleeping behind it.

  Moving as quietly as he could, Ash tiptoed over to the door. But when he tried opening it he found it locked.

  The sound of the door rattling woke the woman up, "Huh? Oh, you. Oh! You're awake!"

  Ash desperately looked around the room for a way out, a weapon he could use to defend himself, anything. But the room was plain. He debated running back to his room to look for something, but he knew there was nothing there either. He'd already checked.

  "Please calm down. Nobody is going to harm you."

  His gaze focused on the woman.

  [Alicia Norin - Level 28]

  "How am I supposed to believe that?"

  "You were a slave, right?" Her gaze was soft, but her tone held a certainty that made it clear her statement wasn't really a question, "I saw the marks around your ankle. I don't know what kind of life you've lived, and I know there's likely nothing I can do to make you trust me. However, I hope you at least take some measure of solace in this."

  The woman named Alicia placed her hand against the aptitude sphere, and a status screen appeared in the air. Or rather, only a single line from a status screen appeared.

  Class: Sworn Healer (Uncommon)

  He'd heard of that class. It was a healer who was bound by the system to never engage in violence except self-defense.

  "Whether it's you I need to be wary of or the guards you can call in, it makes no difference."

  "Honestly, if we wanted to hold you against your will couldn't we have just chained you to the bed?"

  That's… actually a fair point.

  "Well while you're over there waiting for an ambush that isn't going to come, let me at least tell you about the place you've found yourself in." She walked back over to the desk and pulled a lever on the wall behind the desk.

  Four cracks appeared in the ceiling that Ash quickly realized was an opening being revealed. And beyond that was a sight Ash would never have been able to imagine in his wildest dreams.

  The night sky of Vorillion IV had been nothing compared to the canopy of stars from his true homeworld, Ascadion. But even his memories of Ascadion utterly failed when compared to the sight above him.

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  Instead of stars, it was as though there were galaxies. At least a dozen of them that he could see through the small porthole in the ceiling. Not as small dots of faraway star systems, but right in front of him. All displayed as though he had the front row seats to a thousand miraculous sights.

  "Welcome to the Fragmented Wilds. This place, this city we're in, lies at its heart. And it will be your new home for quite a while."

  Ash's gaze snapped back to Alicia, "So I am being held here, in this place."

  "Yes, but not by us. Those clusters of light you see are the wilds, the memories of worlds that were one way or another destroyed. To leave would require plotting a path through those dead worlds and finding an exit. There is no other way out."

  "I'm assuming that's easier said than done."

  "I don't believe it's been accomplished by anyone below level 60."

  Level 60? That's crazy!

  Reading his expression, Alicia said, "Yes, so as you can imagine, people don't leave very often and we don't get very many guests. If you have family or loved ones you left behind it is possible to send out a message. It's extraordinarily costly though."

  "So how did I end up here?"

  "The Fragmented Wilds is a unique place, as you can likely tell. It's like a magnet that pulls together all kinds of things from across space and time. We use a highly specialized rift to take advantage of that unique property and pull people out of the space between dimensions."

  "Trapping them here in the process."

  Alicia raised an eyebrow at him, "Would you rather we left them to die?"

  Ash didn't have an answer to that. Despite his hatred of captivity, he couldn't deny being stuck in one place was better than death.

  And yet he still had to voice the thought, "There are some fates worse than death." He could still feel the ring of blisters that never had a chance to heal around his ankle. Despite the healing he'd been given the scars remained.

  "This place is populated by people cast into the nothingness of the rifts. Do you think you're the only slave that's wound up here? We get all kinds. Careless adventurers. Foolish nobles. Slaves that need to be discretely disposed of. Perhaps the most common are criminals who were tossed off the edge as a form of execution. I assume it's so the authorities don't have to deal with the body."

  "You're painting a very concerning picture. I can't imagine anything but a lawless society outside that door."

  "Yes, I can see why you'd think that. And yet when everyone shares something with one another they somehow seem to find a way. At least half of us have been pulled from the rift, given a literal second chance at life. Somehow I get the feeling you can relate."

  Ash felt the weight of those words, and he found himself without a response. So instead he moved to what currently concerned him, "What's with the aptitude sphere?"

  "My job is to take note of people's class and personality to recommend a path to take."

  Ash looked back up at the clusters of stars he could see, "Are all those places filled with life? With danger and beasts?"

  "Indeed."

  "So there's probably also a guild system or something similar in place, right?"

  "If that's the kind of work you desire then you're certainly free to pursue it. There are three major guilds within the Fragmented Wilds. Each of them has a different style and temperament. But before we get that far, may I ask you to put your hand on the sphere?"

  "I refuse."

  "May I ask why?"

  "I don't see the need to when I'm telling you I want to work at a guild."

  "Regardless, I still have a job to do. Even if you've decided on that path I'd still like to present alternatives in case you find yourself unsure in a day or two."

  "...And you won't open that door until I do?"

  "We can do a personal information transfer if you'd prefer."

  A personal information transfer allowed for someone to directly share their status with someone else. Unlike the aptitude sphere, it would let him choose specific pieces of information to obscure or conceal completely. For class, it would obscure the specific class details while displaying what category of class it was.

  I could simply make my class appear as Crafter, but since you can't falsify status information it'll be obvious that I'm hiding something. Then again, it's probably already obvious.

  "How many people hide the specifics of their class?"

  Alicia smiled sadly, "Most of them. Honestly, these days the aptitude sphere is mainly for the ones who are too jumpy to get close enough for a personal transfer."

  Ash nodded. Stepping up to the desk he held his palm out towards Alicia. After a moment she placed her palm against his. As the transfer started Ash chose which information he wanted hidden before passing it over.

  [Status]

  Name: Ash

  Health: 300/300

  Mana: 150/150

  Level: 3

  Class: [Crafter] (Obscured)

  Strength: 8

  Agility: 8

  Vitality: 8

  Endurance: 8

  Arcane: 8

  Burden: 0/40

  (Additional information has been concealed.)

  Alicia's eyes softened again as she saw his class type, "Are you sure you wish to work at a guild, as a hunter? It is possible to buy your way out if you save up enough, so advancing as a crafter is a perfectly valid path to escape. There's a person-"

  "I'm sure. Tell me where the closest guild is. It doesn't matter what kind of place it is, so long as they leave me alone and I'm allowed to fight monsters."

  Alicia regarded the look in his eyes before taking a piece of paper out of a drawer. She spent about a minute scribbling across the page before she handed it to him.

  Looking the paper over he realized it was a map of the city. Alicia had circled and numbered certain locations, with the names of businesses on the side, as well as the guild they were associated with.

  "I'd recommend visiting any of these places first. Since you won't share what kind of craftsman you are I listed a variety of shops that specialize in different professions."

  "I didn't ask for-"

  "And at the bottom is the guild I'd recommend if you truly won't take anything else. Ash… I don't know where you've come from or what you've experienced that has made you so distrustful. But if you believe anything I've said, please believe this. Too many people come to us with the desperate need for strength, and far too often it costs them their lives.

  "I won't say this place is perfect, but it's our home. And we always welcome newcomers. Please don't throw your life away because of something that happened in the past. What happened before we found ourselves lost among the stars no longer has any hold on us."

  Ash felt a pang of guilt as Alicia got up from the desk and moved to the door. She was right, of course. If everything she's said was true then he was basically spitting in the face of her generosity. But even as much as he wanted to believe her words, he alone knew they weren't true.

  I'd thought I was free of the past on Vorillion IV as well. But now I know the truth. No matter where I run or what I do, that thing will follow. It'll hunt me to the ends of the universe, and if I don't get stronger I'll end up just like-

  A spike of pain shot through his head at that thought. He pushed that line of thinking out of his mind and followed Alicia to the door.

  "Be careful out there," She said somberly as the door opened.