Looking over at the high priest, I saw him waiting for me to say something.

“Uh… right so… you said you’d help me? What’s all this status stuff.” I asked, feeling completely lost staring at the screen in front of me.

“All you need to do to finish this part of the tutorial is focus on each section of the status and will it to show you more information about what’s there. It shouldn’t take you more than a minute.” He had some strange kindly expression on his face.

“Thank you, sir.” I replied.

Staring at my race, I willed it to explain why it said ‘human+’ and not ‘human.’

Due to your bloodline, your race is a hybrid of two races. But, despite that, you lack enough of the blood of the secondary race to be considered a true half-breed. Thus, you’re instead considered a greater version of your primaryrace.

“Oh… I see. Thanks.”

Moving to the next section, I willed an explanation about my bloodline.

This information is currently locked to you. Your skills from this bloodline are visible, but more information is beyond your reach for now.

“Shit. Okay.” Moving to the blessing, I got almost the same message.

“This guide is really into not showing information to me.” I said, causing Timaeus to chuckle.

Focusing on my stats, another window appeared.

CONstitution: An indicator of your body’s tenacity, endurance, and stamina. This helps define how strong your body is and how much it can resist wear and tear from both physical and magical means. The average CON for someone at level 1 is 5 points.

STRength: An indicator of your body’s ability to generate force and the density and growth of your muscles. The average STR for someone at level 1 is 3 points.

AGIlity: An indicator of your body’s ability to maneuver and do complex major movements. This directly affects your speed, balance, and (to a lesser degree) your stamina. The average AGI for someone at level 1 is 4.

DEXterity: An indicator of your body’s ability to do complex minor movements, like moving your hands and fingers. This affects your precision and control of fine movements. The average DEX for someone at level 1 is 3.

INTelligence: An indicator of your minds potential, boosting your processing power and memory. The average for someone at level 1 is 5.

WILLpower: An indicator of how strong your will is. Will you be shattered under the pressure of the world? The average for someone at level is 4.

LUCk: An indicator of how much you’re favored by the world. The lower this number, the more likely you are to run into inconveniences. The higher this number, the more likely you have a blessed life. There is no expected average, but under 5 is considered bad.

Congratulations! The first stage of your tutorial is done. Now, it’s time for you to pick a class, and then move on to get familiar with your new skills and traits. Here are your class options. Feel free to discuss these with a trusted advisor before picking one.

Class list:

* Warrior (Basic)

* Mercenary (Common)

* Priest (Common)

* Merchant (Common)

* Tank (Common)

* Mage (Common)

* Battlemage (Uncommon)

* Berseker (Uncommon)

* Blood Mage (Rare)

* Paladin (Rare)

* Dragonkin (Rare)

* War Fiend (Epic)

* Dungeon Guardian (Epic)

Looking at the options, it was pretty obvious that rarer was better but I figured I should ask Timaeus anyway. “Okay, it’s asking me to choose a class now.”

“Wonderful! Now for my questions: what exactly is your bloodline and how many options do you have?” the man excitedly asked.

“Uh, my bloodline said ‘Hydra (Supreme)’ next to it and I have 13 options ranging from basic to epic.”

There was silence in the room for a moment as the high priest processed what I said. “Did you say Supreme?” he croaked out.

“Yes, it said Supreme. Is there something wrong with that? I assumed that was good.”

“No, yes, I mean… no. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just that a supreme dragon bloodline is... rare. What are your stats?”

I rattled off the numbers as he turned pale. “Aside from your absurdly low Luck stat, that’s… amazing. I assume most of those numbers were raised by your blessing, but your constitution is… insane. That’s higher than most people reach in their entire lifetime.”

“So… good then, that’s good. Should I read off my class options or?”

“Yes, yes, please do. You probably have some wonderful ones given your bloodline and class.”

Warrior (Basic)

The beginning class for everyone born to fight their enemies in physical combat. This class is an all-arounder with a focus on strength and agility. Mercenary (Common)

A common version of the warrior class that empowers defending others and completing oath-based contracts. This class focuses on boosting strength, agility, and offering power through skill-based mission contracts. Priest (Common)

A class for those who serve the gods, getting access to various abilities and blessings of the gods (depending on the god they worship). This class gives boosts to intelligence, curse resistance, and offers a lot of unique future paths for both combatants and non-combatants. Merchant (Common)

A common class for those who excel at trade, diplomacy, and business management. This skill give boosts to intelligence and various professional skills that can be used in multiple lines of work. Tank (Common)

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A more-advanced warrior class focused on protection and frontline fighting. This class focuses on constitution, strength, and offers skills to keep the enemy focuses on you. Mage (Common)

The beginner class for everyone born to fight their enemies with various magical skills and abilities. This class unlocks the ability to learn beginner and intermediate magic spells. This class can also evolve into non-combatant options like enchanter.

Battlemage (Uncommon)

An advanced mage class that offers the power of magic combined with the combat skills of warrior. This class boosts overall stat, with a focus on intelligence and agility while offering skills that make you powerful in both close and ranged combat. This class unlocks the ability to learn beginner through advanced spells. Berseker (Uncommon)

An advanced warrior class that offers great power and boosts to strength and constitution in exchange for a loss of mental resilience to anger and confusion. This class offers some of the most powerful combat skills and many stat-boosting abilities. Blood Mage (Rare)

A highly advanced mage class that specializes in magic of the blood, turning your body and your enemies bodies into weapons. Blood mages control the living and dead to turn them into resources of war. This class gives heavy bonuses to intelligence and constitution. This class unlocks the ability to learn beginner through advanced spells and gives a natural understanding of the body and blood magic, an otherwise-unlearnable magic. Paladin (Rare)

A highly advanced warrior and priest class that specializes in divine combat. As the sword of the gods, you are immune to most external influences and wield the power of the gods in your blade. This offers many advantages, allowing you to channel divinity and magic through your blades, armor, and offering unparalleled holy offensive skills. Dragonkin (Rare)

A rare class for those of dragon descent, offering paths to higher superior advanced classes when one specializes. This class proves you're above most other creatures in the world, you are a dragon. Gives a heavy boost to all stats and a few combat abilities. War Fiend (Epic)

A superior class that is only given to the epitome of warriors. A War Fiend is an unmatched force on the battlefield, having mastery over all weapons and various magic abilities to amplify their power and control the battlefield. As you level, you will develop countless skills that empower you on the battlefield that are suited to your battle style. No two War Fiends are the same. Dungeon Guardian (Epic)

A superior class for those who have something worth protecting, and the strength to do so. This class gives heavy boosts when inside a radius designated as your domain (which can't often be changed) and offers major boosts to all stats. Abilities associated with this class depend on your race and lived experience. Defend your territory well.

After reading them off, he somehow got even more pale. “Anything lower than rare probably won’t be worth choosing for you. While you can upgrade your class every 25 levels, starting with one of those basic classes isn’t worth as much as any of your higher options.”

Scratching his chin for a moment, the man looked at me with an idea. “Given those options and your lack of experience in fighting, I’d pick either Paladin, Dragonkin, or War Fiend. These have more versatility and can likely be upgraded to more specialized classes. You don’t want Dungeon Guardian due to its nature, I’m sure, because of you moving around as war fronts change and while the magic options are good they're limiting considering your lack of education and fundamentals.

“For me, in your position the most tempting would be War Fiend. That’s a class that has only been granted to a select few battle masters in history and grants mastery over all forms of fighting. If you do plan to go to war, that would make you an asset once you’re trained. But… Dragonkin would be tempting too because of its path to unlocking specialized draconic classes nobody else can access but dragonkin. Your future potential might be better with Dragonkin, at the cost of short-term battle ability. The choice is yours.”

Choices, choice. It seems like this would be a big choice that would help decide my future. But anything is better than being a basic warrior, right?

Sitting there, I looked over the list again, and again, and again. Each time, my eyes were drawn to the rare and epic classes. So many potential options for me. Did I want to be a spell slinger? A melee fighter? A divine warrior? Or something unknown with high potential to carve a unique path for me as a human. It's a tough choice, but if I read these descriptions I need to choose something with short-term potential that I won't reget in a few years. What is the best option...

“I think I’ve made my decision.” I attempted to project confidence I didn’t have. Honestly, the decision had left me sitting here for the last 10 minutes wanting to rip my hair out. But, in the end, there was only one choice that had been truly calling my name the entire time.

“If I want to be an asset, like you mentioned, there’s only one clear choice: War Fiend. Losing the draconic class upgrades in the future is a shame, but if I’m going to be a warrior I might as well pick the best possible warrior class.”

Nodding, the high priest seemed to agree with my decision. “A wise choice, indeed. As much as I wish I could’ve recommended Paladin, the holy class path wouldn’t be a smooth one nor would it help on a battlefield as much as the one you’ve chosen. The same goes for the rest, none of them are as versatile or safe. You picked well. Now tell your guide what you’ve chosen and finish your tutorial.”

With that, I tapped the option on the class menu and confirmed I wanted to select that class. A moment later, a blood-red light shone from my body as my body changed slightly once more. This time it didn’t come with a flood of physical power, but mental and… spritual? changes. It felt like I had read a library’s worth of theory books and had new skills installed into my brain.

Flexing the muscles in my arm, I realized I now knew better how to move my arms and use those muscles. Maybe it had installed a library of content into my head, the high priest had mentioned that the class had a mastery of all forms of fighting.

As soon as the light stopped glowing, another screen appeared in front of me.

Congratulations on class selection! Not many can choose an epic class at awakening, celebrate this feat!

This tutorial is now complete, but as the guide I must recommend you study and learn how your skills and traits work next. There won’t be any more tutorial prompts, but there is always more room to grow.

Your new class knowledge is not absolute and until you learn to wield your class naturally, you will never become a true War Fiend.

Nodding at the prompt, it dismissed and the world was clear and normal once again. The last few minutes had been filled with lots of new information, but somehow I had digested it all and had no problems. Maybe this was thanks to my increased intelligence stat? I don’t feel smarter… but maybe?

Opening my status once again, I focused on my skills.

Passive skills Regeneration (Supreme), Night Vision (Ultra Rare), Steady (Rare), All-Weapon Mastery (Ultra Rare), War Instincts (Epic), Opponent Sense (Ultra Rare), Mana Sense (Uncommon) Active Skills Draconic Taunt (Ultra Rare), Flame Slash (Rare), Poison Slash (Rare), Power Slash (Rare), Harden (Rare), War Leap (Uncommon), Magic Analyze (Rare) Traits Soul Echo, High Intensity

Once I read them all, I tried to focus on the skills to reveal more information and nothing happened. Apparently, that only worked for stats and other information on my status? That was annoying.

“Is there a good way to learn about what my skills and traits do? Some of them seem self-explanatory, but others I don’t really get.” I asked Timaeus.

“Ah, yes… skills. You likely have a few from both the bloodline and your class. I can’t explain any of them myself, but some books and instructors might know how some of them work. For now, let’s talk about what comes next: your negotiation with the kingdom. Now that you’re awakened with a superior class, a bloodline, and a blessing… you’ll need to be careful not to let that go to your head. You’re a once-in-a-generation talent, but not a completely irreplaceable asset considering your lack of training or achievements.”

As he looked me in the eye, his tone suddenly changed from friendly to serious. “Do you understand your position? Your leverage is limited.”

Trying not to let a sigh escape, I felt myself deflate a bit. He couldn’t let me ride my high for very long, could he? I got a epic class and, supposedly, a powerful bloodline. This was the best day of my life!

“Yes, sir. I understand completely.”

“Good, good. Now, let’s strategize how to get the most you can from the kingdom. Namely: you need a good mentor, a good battle placement, your choice of future allies, and a worthwhile salary.”

With that, our conversation turned into a strategy war room discussing how I could carve myself a future in this kingdom — assuming I survive the war.