"Yeeeeeaaaaah. Um, if it's any consolation, I lost all my sword skills when I popped up, so at least we're on an even playing field?" Connie smiles awkwardly. "That probably didn't help. Sorry. Anyways, yeah, from what I can tell, monsters tend to harass travelers the moment they step out of city borders. It's a pretty big problem. But!" Connie raises a finger, "They have these things called 'asterisks,' which, um, apparently make you instantly pretty decent at whatever, uh, 'Job' they're aligned to. Win some, lose some? I guess? I mean, it feels kinda cheap that any old schmuck can skip months of training by going down to the swordmaster guild and grab an asterisk, but I guess it's pretty useful if, uh, you're averse to becoming monster chow."