November 2, 2022
Day 13
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The four friends were sitting in a circle on a relatively clean patch of land, as Rahul went through his pending prompts.
You have advanced to level 10.
60/100000 experience to the next level.
You have been awarded 5 free stat points.
Nothing out of the ordinary here. The next prompt was the one they had been waiting for.
You are eligible for class selection. Do you wish to see your choices now?
Please be informed that you won't have to make a selection immediately upon seeing the choices. You can decide at any point, but note that you won't be able to advance to level 11 until you do.
Looking at the class choices seemed harmless, and Martin had told them that all choices are visible to everyone without any minimum requirements.
So, Rahul thought yes and was greeted by the class selection screen.
Available class Choices
Combat Classes Melee Ranged Mage
Non-combat classes Gatherer Crafter Enchanter Trader Scholar Administrator
For some reason, Rahul had been expecting choices like melee-tank and melee-rogue. If these generic classes were all that were available at level 10, it wasn't surprising that there were no stat requirements. Rahul expected they would be there at level 25 for specialization selection.
And now that Rahul actually thought about it, he recalled the first time Martin had spoken on the topic. He had mentioned class selection at level 10 and specialization at level 25. Since Martin had not anticipated coming back till the tutorial was near its end, he must have thought it best to tell them the choices to make at level 10 and level 25. Rahul had somehow misinterpreted that. Well, doesn't really matter.
The non-combat choices seemed to be rather generic too, though they seemed quite useful. No specializations there either, but Rahul would love to have some of those classes in his settlement.
A crafter and an enchanter could probably make them some very neat blades. Would an alchemist fall under crafter category too? It'd be nice to have someone brew potions so they don't have to buy it with SPs. An administrator might have a skill to boost the daily SP gain, so he'll be useful too.
The possibilities with non-combat classes were many, and Rahul was tempted to look into the scholar class. Then, Rahul abruptly remembered his three patiently waiting friends, and spoke.
"Well, unless any of you are looking for non-combat classes, there are only three choices. "
Then he projected the prompt for everyone to see. Daniel had taught him how. In the typical system style, all he had to do was wish for the screen to be visible to everyone around him, and the universe would magically make the rest happen.
Maya, Charlie, and Matt looked at the screen thoughtfully. They clearly wanted to discuss things, but Rahul pre-empted them.
"Look at the sky, we don't have much time before sunset. How much stamina do you guys have? "
Receiving numbers between 20 and 50 in response, Rahul made up his mind.
"If we're to have any chance of finding a place to stay before nightfall, we need to drink up our stamina potions and get moving. Let's take small sips and recover around 80% of our stamina. I'll make my class selection too, then we can get moving. "
Everyone looked at the sun that would set in less than an hour, and nodded. As others drank the stamina potions, Rahul made his choice.
You have chosen the combat class Melee. Would you like to look at the modifiers for the Melee class?
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Yes, Rahul thought excitedly. He hadn't expected any modifiers.
Melee Class Modifiers Stat modifiers
+10% to all stats while in melee combat. -25% to all stats when using ranged weapons. -25% to all stats when using magic. This effect does not apply when using spells of physical enhancement category on self.
XP modifiers
No modifier to XP gained via melee damage. -50% to all XP gained via ranged damage. -50% to all XP gained via magic damage.
Action modifiers Acquiring or upgrading melee skills will now award experience. XP for already acquired skills will be awarded retroactively. Stat allotment One stat point will be automatically allotted to strength at every level. This is in addition to the 5 free points.
Wow, that's a lot, and Martin never mentioned any of this. The +10% stat modifier is great, though the negative ones should have been 10% too! The XP modifiers on the other hand are just bad. No extra XP for melee but a penalty for ranged and damage. That's lopsided.
Free XP for my skills is welcome, but the extra strength point is the best!
Having delivered that verdict, Rahul opened the next stack of notifications, wondering how much XP will he be awarded in total for all the skills he had learned.
You have been awarded 10,000XP for Basic one handed Sword I
You have been awarded 10,000XP for Basic small weapons I
You have been awarded 10,000XP for Stamina Control I
You have been awarded 100,000XP for discovering a hidden specialization (Cold Trance) of Stamina Control I
You have been awarded 10,000XP for unlocking a standard expansion of Stamina Control I
Fuck! 10,000 experience for his basic skills was good, but what's with the stamina control skill. 10,000XP for discovering the skill with reduced stamina, 10,000XP for the enhanced stamina expansion, and a whopping 100,000XP for the Cold Trance.
Just wow.
Next, he opened the level-up notification and froze. It was too good to be true. Was he reading correctly? Could he let himself believe?
You have advanced to level 11.
40060/100000 experience to the next level.
Your strength has increased from 28 to 29. You have been awarded 5 free stat points.
He double and triple-checked to be sure, and then breathed out a huge sigh of relief.
He projected the series of notifications to his friends, watching them grow impatient with questions, until he showed them the notification for level 11. They all stared at it for a few seconds, and then their faces were flooded with the same relief.
Rahul nodded to them. Each of them had been worried about the same thing.
How would they ever even get to level 25?
The experience requirements for every level had been growing exponentially, at least doubling every level. It had gone from 100XP at level 1 to 100,000 XP at level 10. Each new level took more experience than all the levels before it combined.
In contrast, the XP reward at every level had grown linearly. From 10XP for killing a level 1 beast to 100 XP for a level 10.
Advancement from Level 1 to 2 required killing 10 beasts, Level 10 to 11 required a thousand.
If the level requirements had continued to double, it'd have soon gotten out of hand. Rahul had calculated 1 million kills for level 20 to 21, and had started doubting Martin's assertion that they would be level 25 in no time.
Rahul knew that rate of growth was not sustainable, and had been hoping it'll slow down eventually. Reality had gone beyond his expectations, and Level 11 and level 12 had identical XP requirements!
He now greedily wished they would remain the same and only increase every ten levels or so. He knew his friends had arrived at a similar conclusion.
"No time for discussion or celebration.", Rahul said, feeling bad about how often he had interrupted everyone today.
"Pull out your bows. This will be the last opportunity for some of you to get tax-free experience with it. Let's all get to level 10. In the meantime, I'll see if the crocodile scales can handle 43-strength stabs. "
That said, Rahul put all 10 of his free points into strength, taking it to 39. It made for a rather lopsided build, but Rahul was certain this is what the situation called for. He would fix the imbalance with subsequent levels. With the 10 percent boost afforded by his class, the 39 + 3.9 strength stabs should be as strong as the stamina-infused attacks, without the exorbitant costs.
Rahul looked at the half empty stamina potion in his hands. He could replenish his stamina to about 80-90% three more times before the two bottles ran out. Rahul wished they had taken more stamina potions instead of the mana ones, but decided not to lament that decision.
"We'll go anti-clockwise along the island and keep fighting until we run out of crocodiles to kill or all of you reach level 10. Use whatever combination of arrows, swords, and fireballs work best for you. Just remember we have limited time and stamina potion uses. Once we have our classes, we'll decide whether or not to go to other islands. Something tells me that after reaching level 10, the four of us would be more than a match for any threat that sneaks up on us at night. In any case, we can set the entire mangroves on fire and see if that doesn't help with the dark. "
Having so spoken, Rahul dismissed the matter of the setting sun entirely from his mind and ran ahead of the others to test out his newly acquired monstrous strength.