Damien was starting to get used to the blue screen appearing in front of him by now, the rest were still finding it odd, it was unnatural, but the feeling of oddity was slowly fading with each interaction. Unlike previous prompts, this one did not have a simple dismiss option at the top, it had selections and what looked like a confirmation button.
Please select a starter class (Note that the class selection can be changed with certain special items or progression events)
Warrior: The beginning of any close-quarter fighter, swing your weapon with all your might, for you have been gifted with both strength and endurance (+25% to STR & EDR)
Mage: The beginning of any magic caster, draw from your mana and unleash fury, for you have been gifted with both intelligence and wisdom (+25% to INT & WIS)
Rogue: The beginning of any who fight from the shadows, attack from your opponents blind spot with massive damage, for you have been gifted with strength and agility (+30% to STR & +20% to AGI)
Cleric: The beginning of any believer, draw from both mana and faith to heal others, for you have been gifted with intelligence and faith (+25% to INT & FAI)
Ranger: The beginning of any long-range fighter, aim your shot and strike true, for you have been gifted with perception and dexterity (+25% to PER & DEX)
All these things looked familiar to Damien in some fashion or another, but the more he thought about it, the less he considered it. His memories were inkling away from him at an ever increasing rate, things he thought he knew when he woke up suddenly were forgotten, even his clothes. He thought he had been able to remember what type of pants he was wearing, but the information was now fuzzy and slipped from his grasp.
“Hey isn’t this just like a video game?”, one of the people who had gotten across spoke. The elf girl turned to face this person with confusion on her face.
“Video game? What’s that?”, her voice had an angelic quality to it, most of the men who made it across were suddenly fixated on her, a peculiar phenomenon.
The man who had spoken was now clearly embarrassed to be talking to the girl, “Uhhh, you know… Like a video game!”, but suddenly the shyness disappeared, his face filled with uncertainty, “Wait a minute… What is a video game?”
Damien grew a small comfort in the fact that everyone was suffering from the same memory loss that he was, it was a slightly cynical thought, but he understood that it was simply human nature to feel this way and he shrugged it off his mind.
“I don’t know actually, I felt like I did when you said it, but I think it's just the stress getting to me,” another man added in, the question still remained, however, what class to select, or better yet, what did a class even refer to?
Damien voiced his thoughts, “What class are you guys going to pick, each one sounds like they specialize in different areas,” he wasn’t sure what the 25% boost would actually do, but it was the System had set up for them to do next, he had already seen what happened to those that failed to comply with the System’s demands. There was no need to antagonize it, for now, they had to choose one.
Damien carefully weighed the options before him, he needed to select the best choice for the situation he was in but before he could make a selection the dark-skinned man that had blamed him for the people’s death spoke up, “I think we should assign people their classes, there’s only twelve of us here and judging by the descriptions, I think it will be a bad idea if we all select the same option, having a diversity of classes will help us overcome whatever it beyond this door, what do you guys think?”
Damien wanted everyone to start giving out their names, it was getting pretty tedious for him to have to keep track of everyone with just descriptions alone, but the man had a point. It wasn’t hard to figure out that they would have to be fighting something here, all these classes spoke about fighting and healing, it was the natural conclusion one could come up with, and with the people’s death, it was beyond the realm of a joke. The classes that were options were designed to have limitations and specializations, the Warrior class seemed to be suited for short-range fighting, and therefore would benefit from a ranger who seemed to be able to fight from a distance, the Mage, Cleric, and Rogue, and Ranger did not have the boost to endurance that the Warrior did, so they would benefit from working with a Warrior. It made sense to have everyone choose a different class in order to close off everyone’s weakness, however…
“Alright! I think it will be good if we have four Warriors and two of every other class,” the dark-skinned man, who seemed to be taking the leadership role, It was easy to see the logic behind his suggestion, but Damien saw it differently.
Another one of the survivors voiced his confusion, “Wait why four warriors?”
The would-be leader turned to him, “Warrior seems to have defense, it would be good if we had several of them to protect the weaker classes.”
The man nodded at the response, “I think I get it, but how do we decide who gets what role?”
This was the core of the problem Damien saw in the plan, it was true that having people with different roles would be helpful, but only if they were working together, if you were told by the group to pick Cleric to heal them and then the next test was individually based, you would have a hard time. It was easy to make a plan now, but they didn’t have information on what the next test was, that wasn’t to say it was unlikely to be a group based test, but it wasn’t a guarantee either, and if it was, then there was nothing saying that the number of people in a group wouldn’t be limited by the System.
Due to the fact they that if they followed this man’s suggestion, then there would have to be people that picked the Ranger and Cleric class, which seemed to be the ones that relied most on other classes, if they ended up being the odd people out due to some rule presented, they could even die. Not to mention that the System made it sound like it wasn’t easy to change a class, if all Mage spot was taken, then the group would pressure you to select another class even if you didn’t want to. As far as Damien saw it, there was no reason to listen to the leader and select a class of the overall group’s choosing.
“I’m not sure, but let’s get Warrior out of the way, I’ll take a spot, anyone else?”, the leader started while taking one of the spots for himself, the next action was expected.
“ME!”
“Yeah me too!”
Clamoring calls, each one wanting that Warrior class, several more than the four proposed spots, not to mention one was already claimed.
Due to delay of selection, starter classes are going to be selected at random for you!
“Huh?”
A new blue screen was superimposed on the class selection screen everyone received, it killed the conversation that was taking place as everyone stared at the new prompt, it began to flash through random letters before it finally settled into a single coherent sentence.
Congratulations! You have been awarded the Rogue starter class! Think about your status in order to see what changes have occurred.
Status.
An intuitive mechanic made Damien’s thought into a direction, a window filled with information popped up in front of him.
Class: Starter Rogue Name: Damien Rank: F Species: Human Title: Bold Lvl: 1
Passive Skills:
N/A
Active Skills:
Shadow Strike Lvl 1 (10 SP) I Shadow Step Lvl 1 (5 SP)
Bond:
N/A
HP: 50
MP: 30
SP: 40
Skill Points: 0
STR: 8
EDR: 4
VIT: 4
AGI: 7
PER: 5
DEX: 5
INT: 5
WIS: 4
FAI: 0 Status Effects:
N/A
Blessings:
N/A
EXP: 0% Fighting Style: Quick Strike
Damien and the rest stared at the new information that quantified their whole being with a few lines and numbers, it was slightly degrading but it gave great insight to their overall ability, that was if the numbers could be trusted anyway. Before anyone could begin to question what exactly all this meant, a white light enveloped them completely. It was blinding and sudden, without time to react all they were able to do is attempt to cover their eyes, but it was no use, the light had done its job.
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Damien felt a new weight on his body, it felt like his clothes had gotten heavier, a quick look around his body gave him the answer to his new situation, the clothing he had worn before was now gone, in its place was leather armor that covered the most vulnerable parts of his body.
Brown leather shoulder-guards were on each shoulder, each had a strap that ran through his chest making an "X" formation, the rest of the armor was the legs with were covered with what appeared to be shin-guards and upper-leg leather that protected his thighs. What really caught his eyes however was the short sword that hung from his left leg.
It was really plain, the handle had a white grip and it went straight into the black blade, skipping the guard. He reached out for it and pulled it off the clasp that held it to his side, he had never held a sword before, at least not to his limited knowledge, but he felt the basic technique come to him, how to grip the handle, how to strike and where, all the necessary information on what to do with it rushed into his brain.
Looking around he saw that they were no longer in front of a stone door, instead, they were in a decently sized circular chamber, all the others were now wearing a form of new clothing along with a weapon each.
The people he assumed to be warriors were wearing thin metal armor that like his, covered what he thought to be some of the most vulnerable spots in the human body, they even got a metal helmet, that covered mostly everything except their face. On their side with a proper sheath was a large sword.
The ones that looked like mages were wearing a grey robe with black accents that covered most of their bodies and even came with a hood, it looked to be made of some sort of thick fabric much like the one that made up Damien's white shirt. On their hand was a crude wooden staff, they were thin toward the bottom part and grew bulbous on the top.
There seemed to be no other rogue than him however, that might prove to be detrimental going forward.
There also seemed to be no clerics, or maybe they looked too much like a mage to tell them apart. Lastly was the sole ranger, much like him, it was the elf girl, she wore similar armor to his with the key difference that she, rather than a short sword, had a bow and quiver hanging from her back.
All in all, the distribution of classes seemed to be heavily proportioned with Mages and Warriors with two outliers that were a Rogue and a Ranger.
"What the hell? What happened?"
Please organize into groups with a number of members no greater than four. After groups are confirmed each will be randomly selected to enter the testing ground. Please note that a group may have fewer members than the four member limit.
Realizing that he would need to take a proactive stand in order to build a balanced team, Damien quickly approached the nearest warrior, he would need at least one to properly be prepared for whatever they would face.
"Hey! Want to team up? I'm a rogue, and I'm pretty sure I know how to use this thing," he pointed the sword on his left, "So what do you say?"
The young teen seemed to hesitate with the proposition, Damien didn't blame him, if he accepted without taking the time to think he would be a grand fool. Regardless he needed to get him on his team, he would serve as the crucial foundation he would use to build support in the test.
The teen continued to think about it while looking troubled before a new-comer gave him a life-line, "Hey can I join your team too? I'm a ranger so I'll be able to provide damage from a distance, I also think I can use my bow really well... I think."
The idea of the addition of the beautiful elf girl to the team was attractive enough for the young teen to quickly dissolve his doubt on joining his team, "Oh yeah I'll join too!"
Damien smiled as two pieces of the team fell perfectly on his lap, he had been hoping that after he snagged this Warrior he would be able to take a mage and if he was lucky, the ranger. This was lining up almost perfectly for him, but just when you think things are working out well is when complications rear their face.
"Hey wait a minute! You can't just go about making teams like this! We have to divide our members as a whole group, with votes," again the man who had been trying to take the leadership role took action, Damien felt he should have seen this coming.
Still, he had no reason to back down now, "What are you talking about, why shouldn't we be able to make a team if we want to?"
"We have to make the decision as a group because that way we will be able to make the most balanced teams possible."
Damien looked at him for a moment before he answered, "Is our team more capable or less capable than the remaining possible team make-ups?"
The man was stunned by the question, "What? What are you even talking about?"
Damien began to explain, "I'm talking about our chances of survival with this team compared to other possible team combinations, is this setup unfair to us or to you?"
It was clear by the time the leader took to think that he had not thought this out to this extent, after all, his desire to make up the teams as a group stemmed from his latent want to make a great team and place himself on it, he didn't actually know if the team Damien made was better than other teams or not, all he knew was that by taking the rogue and the ranger out of his possible choices, the best possible team to make was limited to only warriors and mages. Whether a team of warriors and mages would fair better than the one Damien was composing was up for debate, all that mattered to his man was to have all the possible choices available to him before he made his team.
Damien had seen through this man's true selfish character since he had gotten upset with him for crossing ahead of the others, he had claimed to be upset about the other people dying, but in actuality, he had chosen to cross as well instead of staying back and helping those he could.
"I don't know if this team is fair to the others or not, what matters is that we all get equal odds at this thing, doesn't everyone want equal odds?" his argument was based on a sense of equality which was easy to use as a point since many people thought equality was good. But in this particular case, it was a flawed argument.
"No, I don't agree with that actually," Damien's resolute refusal to give in was a solid wall in the face of this man, "If the equal odds were something like 70% across the board then I would have no problem with the suggestion, but this is not that kind of situation. This is a zero-sum game, in order to give equal opportunity to others you actually have to take a percentage from another team and add it to your own, it sounds like a good idea in theory, but the fact of the matter is that we don't know anyone here, not even ourselves. Why should we give up a percentage of our success rate to others, when we don't know them at all, increasing the success rate of other teams can only be achieved by lowering the success rate of our own, essentially making it harder for us to survive whatever is coming next."
The elf girl and the young warrior on Damien's team remained silent during the whole altercation, they had no connection to the other people here, Damien's logic was beginning to internalize slowly.
"I want to join your team too!" a mage suddenly shouted, a grin made its way towards Damien's face, the last thing he needed was secured.
Party One completion is recognized!
It seemed that the System automatically acknowledged them as a team once the limit of members had been reached. This made things much simpler to officialize, it was now unlikely his team members would be able to leave and join another team last minute, the System had assured that.
Seeing as how the System had recognized them as a team, the other people were quick to form teams composing of two warriors and two mages each, they hurried since everyone feared retaliation from the System for taking to long. The other teams were now official as well, it was then that the System once again gave an announcement and a directive.
Party Two head into the testing area!
The circular chamber suddenly had a section of the wall that split up into a set of giant walls that slowly opened for them to enter through, the inside was completely dark and you could feel a chill down your spine as you peered into the darkness.
"What that's us right?" a man asked, it was one of the teams that was composed of two warriors and mages.
The leader walked up to the man who asked and placed his hands on his shoulders, "Don't worry man you will be fine, just walk on through and do what you can."
"Wait are you serious? We have to go in there? It's dark as shit! Hell no!" the man's complains were valid in a regular setting but here the rules were much different and the leader quickly reminded him of that.
"Don't forget that the System is able to kill us without warning, you don't want to disobey now, this could be the final thing between us and freedom."
Team two was sweating from the nerves, they were all fearful of the things that awaited them beyond the door, but they managed to psych themselves up and gathered the courage to take that plunge.
As the last member walked past the door and into the darkness, the heavy stone doors slammed shut, the loud bang startled some of the other teams. It looked like there was no way out of the exam once you started.
The minutes passed as the people in the chamber waited for the return of team two, partly to see them alive, but mostly to get insight into the test they would also have to take. Damien didn't have a way to tell time, but he felt that roughly half an hour passed before the doors slowly began to open again.
Everyone stood up from their sitting positions and rushed to the front of the doors, they stared anxiously at the dark hoping to see the arrival of team two, but as the seconds went by it became all too obvious that the team was not coming.
Party Three head into the testing area!
Team three's leader was shaken by the sudden call, "What? What about the other team? What happened to them? Did they move on to another chamber? Hey! System answer me!"
No matter how loud he shouted at the System, it would not answer his questions, minutes of silence followed as he simply stood there, staring at the void beyond those doors, his own teammates were the ones who reminded him of his own words, "Dude, shouldn't we head on in there? Like you said the System might do something to us if we take too long like with the classes."
"What? Oh yeah, let's... go I guess," his defeated attitude was demoralizing to see for his own teams, even Damien was starting to feel slightly sorry for him, after all, he was simply a man who was in over his head just like everyone else in here.
Team three made their way into the darkness and once again the door slammed behind them, this time the door opened once again after around what Damien guessed was ten minutes. It was a bad sign, the door was not the herald of anyone's return, Damien was hoping that successful runs of this resulting in the team leaving to another place rather than coming back, that way the mortality rate, or rather the failure rate, was not guaranteed zero.
"Let's go."
Team one had enough time to ready themselves unlike the previous two teams, they entered without a fuzz.
Damien walked through the darkness for a few seconds before he saw a light at the end of the tunnel, picking up the pace to reach the safety of light, the team soon arrived at a large arena-like room.
However, the contents of the room revealed the fate of the two other teams, their bodies laid everywhere around the room, some all over the place, they had been bisected and others beheaded, their blood pooled up on the cold stone floor. It was a macabre scene, and the team would have likely thrown up if not for the fact that the perpetrator of these violent acts was still in the room.
The few torches that hanged from the walls gave light to the behemoth of a beast that stood on two hooves, its bulging legs were filled with muscles and its frame was huge, on its strong arms rested a crude large axe that was dripping with blood, it's head was that of a bull with large sharp horns.
As the beast's rage-filled white eyes bore into the new arrivals, Damien's brain was only able to come up with one word: Minotaur.
Its nostrils flared and it began its mad rush towards Damien.