Jared could swear that he moved to another world again from a river in a forest to a sprawling metropolis.
After the gate came a small plaza with three streets coming off it, two of them followed the inside of the wall, the Houses lined the Third street almost wall to wall, each a minimum of 3 stories high.
The street itself paved with stones that looked like someone cut them with a laser. People walking to and fro, there even was a paperboy selling a two-page paper at the entrance of the main street. And wasn't that a relief for Jared?
The small herds of animals he had seen before the bridge moved south next to the wall, some of the fancier dark wood carriages moved north. but most people either went to the warehouses lining the plaza or straight for the main street, like Jared, Chiran, and Clara.
As their wagon was trotting down the main street Jared asked grinning," What's a Shanti and how much is it worth?" Clara looked confused, but Chiran just slumped his shoulders and sighed," 12 Sitches is 1 Shanti and 20 shanties are 1 Royal."Clara looked at Jared and said," You don't know how much money is worth?"
But before he could say something Chiran interrupted him. "Yes he didn't know, the kid doesn't know anything should have seen him, Clara, running around like a headless chicken" He bellowed out a laugh. " Ah yes Chiran the great Philantrope" she snickered. And that was all it took to get them bickering again.
After a while of following the main street, they came to the center of town and the plaza was bustling with people. To the southeast were stalls arranged into a small market, in the middle was a beautiful fountain with benches surrounding it and to the north was a magnificent Temple with color stained windows.
But what Jared fascinated the most, how clean everything was not just here but the whole way. The streets weren't riddled with trash or horseshit and it didn't smell. Well, it smelled some but it was better than the cities in his time. He just wanted to ask why, when he saw it, a horse just shat in the middle of the street as one of the raised curbstones started glowing and dandelion puff made out of light came out of it.
The dandelion puff made its way across the street and every bit of dirt it touched disappeared in an instant. The puff was intangible as someone walked right through it, not noticing and leaving behind the puff and a clean pant leg. Afterward, the little puff just disappeared into the curb again.
They drove further north closer to the Temple until they came to the entrance of a street and stopped." This is where we have to leave you it's best if u go to the Temple and then to Jaques, do you still remember where it was?" Chiran asked."
" Just south of here the first crossroad avoid the alley," Jared said and after waiting for a nod from Chiran he continued," and I just wanted to say, thanks, you helped me a lot and if I ever have the chance to pay you back I will."
Seeing Jared's heartfelt thanks he scratched the back of his neck with his paw and said." Ah get of it, I did nothing much, but if you want to visit or ever need an alchemist do come over, our store is third left down this street, one crossroad over doesn't include the alleys."
"Yeah come whenever you want." Clara chimed in.
Jared got off the wagon and waved them away." Meeting Chiran was really the luckiest thing that could have happened to him," he thought.
He turned towards the Tempel and thought about what class he would be able to choose. The best-case scenario would be something to make money with and that works well with my high regeneration.
As he neared the Temple he couldn't help but be in awe. It truly was a beautiful building, pure white with accents of dark brown wood like the doors or the window frames bespeckled with colorful stained glass.
The door to Temple was open so he went in. Inside he could see the light streaming in from the windows and hitting the pews set up all way from the entrance to the podium further at the front. The podium was level with pews and behind it was a step to a platform.
On that Platform, Jared saw 4 Statues as he got closer. He first thought they were depictions of the gods but they were tablets craved with symbols. A Flame, a drop of water, a swirl pattern, and a perfect Sphere and below them read.
Ruella, Goddess of Fire and Justice
Ygsyn, God of Water and Luck
Omros, God of Wind and Freedom
Dyana, Goddess of Earth and Law
Deeper into the Temple he saw two more steps. The first only held two statues. One depicting a sun the other a moon.
Nimmis, Goddess of Life
Ados , God of Death
The last step only had one statue depicting what looks almost identical to a Yin-Yang sign.
Mezaris, Goddess of Order and Chaos
Just as he was done taking everything he heard a voice behind him.
" Magnificent aren't they." Startled he jump a foot into the air and turned around.
What greeted him was a priest or at least looked like one, he was in his mid-Sixties with fully gray hair, he wore pure white robes with the fire symbol stitched to the front. "Eh yeah umm they are" Jared replied haltingly.
Markus Phellum Lvl 41
Fire Priest
"Ohohoh I apologized to have startled you, my son, can I help u with something," he said looking amused. " Ah yes I need to choose my first class but don't know how," Jared said pretending to be sheepish.
The priest's face lit up in surprise and said;" Oh really I thought you were older, my son, but no matter of course I can help you. Getting your first class is both the easiest and hardest thing to do."
"What do you mean, sir?" Jared asked perplexed.
"Ohoho no need to call me sir, Farther Phellum or just Phell will do. And to your question, getting your first class is the easiest, just put your hand on the symbol of Mezaris, but the decision of your first class will be your hardest ohohoh. Go ahead if you are ready."
Jared nodded and turned towards the Tablet depicting the symbol of Mezaris. He was getting nervous and his palms were wet so before he could chicken out he took one last step forward and touched the Tablet.
Everything turned Dark in an instant he could still feel his body but he couldn't move around him in the darkness two lights appeared fluttering around him.
He focused on the First one.
Athlete Class
Granted for pushing one's body to the limit for hours.
"Ok I'm not really impressed with this but it's not a complete failure, I could maybe work as a Courier with this class but that's all I can come up with at the moment."Jason thought and focused on the second light.
Smuggler Class
Granted for smuggling great Wealth across a Border.
"... WHAT THE HECK when did ever Smuggle something of great wealth or anything for that matter!" Jared thought furiously but then it hit him.
His Inventory, the things in there might not count as great wealth at home but here. About 80 almost new books were probably worth something, not to mention some of them were non-fiction, if even one of them contains relevant knowledge it would be priceless, that together with all the knowledge researching the phone could bring, Great wealth indeed.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Jared sighed inwardly, he understood why he could only choose 2 Classes. He was in this world for about 2 days, not much time to qualify for anything. Hell, he should be grateful he got to choose a class at all.
But still 2 Classes and both probably great for Courier work, it seems rigged somehow. But at least he knew which of the two he would choose, the Smuggler, he didn't think he would get into that kind of work at least not in the beginning but smuggling small stuff should be easy with his Inventory and so he focused on accepting the Smuggler class.
When he did so, he was assaulted with a cacophony of pings and windows.
Congratulation you became a Smuggler
Level Up!
+1 Strength
+1 Endurance
+2 Dexterity
+1 Intelligence
Congratulation the Smuggler Class granted you the
"Distract (Lvl 1.)"; "Unnoticed (Lvl 1.)"; "Sprint (Lvl 1.)" Skills.
Distract (Lvl 1.)
Create a minor sensory illusion within a 20 meter radius
Cost 30 Mana (1/s Mana)
Unnoticed (Lvl 1.)
Become less likely to be noticed and more likely to lose the attention of others.
Cost 3/s Mana
Sprint (Lvl 1.)
Increase your Running/Sprinting speed and your Running/Sprinting stamina cost by 100%.
Duration 10 sec
Cost 48 Stamina
Name: Jared Jotter
Race Human
Titles: Otherworldler; The Strongest of them All; Bibliophile; Two-Faced
Age: 0
Class: Smuggler
Level: 1
Mana: 220/220 M.Regeneration: 6/s
Stamina: 110/110 S.Regeneration: 7/s
Strength: 10
Endurance: 11
Dexterity: 8
Intelligence: 22
Wisdom: 8
Willpower: 15
General Skills: Language Translation; Inventory; Appraisal; Everlasting Life (Lv. 1); Script Sniffer; Sure Lie
Class Skill: Distract (Lvl 1.); Unnoticed (Lvl 1.); Sprint (Lvl 1.)
"Holy shit that was a lot, "Jared thought mentally shaking his head." Ok, I just need to go over it from top to bottom, 5 Stat points focused more on the physical especially Dexterity. That's pretty good I was annoyed at my low dex and now with that Sprint skill I need it more than ever."
"But the skills are the real gift, I need to test them as soon as I can." Jared felt that he could leave this suspended state he was in, anytime that he wanted after he picked a clas so he did.
He blinked and found himself in the Temple again and as he turned he heard the voice of Farther Phellum." How are doing, my child."
" Good thanks but you didn't have to wait for me Father Phell." answered with a slight smile. " Ohohoh I didn't, for me just a second past but it was a lot more for you wasn't it"
" Wait, time stopped?"Jared asked wide-eyed, are the gods stopping time for everybody just to get a class.
" Ohohoho no, the time hasn't really stopped, you just thought faster for while, with the help of the gods." The Father answered amused. A little bit disappointed Jared laid it on thick and ask,
" Father, there is a lot I don't know about, do you mind if I can ask you a couple of questions?"
" Of course, of course, son ask away that's why I'm here for, "Phellum answered good-naturedly.
" The colors of the skills what is their meaning and how do you Level Up the Athlete class for example, how would I level that one up?" Jared asked.
" Ah yes important questions indeed," Farther Phellum said as he led him to one of the pews to sit down," the color of a skill denotes its rarity, but never mistake rarity for power or usefulness, from bottom to the top that would be,
Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mythical."
"No Common Skills?" He inquired.
"No, at least not written down," noticing the confusion of Jared, he pulled a small silver coin, a Shanti, out of his pocket and flicked it into the air before catching it again," common skills are the ones you can't see, for example, I have the ability to flip a coin, but I don't have a skill in my status that tells me so." Seeing his understanding he continued with the next question.
"And now to Leveling up, a far lengthier topic but I shall endeavor to not bore you," the father said with amusement," to efficiently Level one needs to understand the essence of a class.
Taking Athlete for example you can Level the class up by simply training yourself or even just running around, but if you really want to achieve something with that class you need to compete in athletic challenges, the bigger the challenge the better."
"But how would I find these challenges, can I just challenge a friend to 50 meter sprint over and over again," he asked, happy he didn't choose the Athlete class but also worried that he would need to start to smuggle things.
Barking a short laugh the priest answered,“ You could, but then you would never reach lvl 25 in your lifetime, what you could do is join the kingdoms annual Sports Festival.“
" The kingdom has a Sports Festival, but why?" the more he learned about this world the more confusing it got with its differences in technological advancement and cultures compared to his old world.
"Well, I'm guessing it earns them some good money by how popular it is hohoho, but that wasn't the reason for the start of the Sports Festival, no the reason was to help people with classes like Athlete to level up."Father Pellum explained.
"But for that, we need to go back a bit more. At one point the people of the Temple were the highest leveled people in the world, with some exceptions." He continued.
"They had, and still have, the perfect environment to level up priest like classes. And the world took notice of that. So instead of being lone wolfs, they banded together to form guilds." Farther Phellum waved one of the younger people in priest robes and asked him for a glass of water after Jared declined his he want on.
"One of the first and biggest guilds to form at that time was the Craftsman Guild. They already formed smaller local clubs for classes like blacksmiths.
"After the establishment of the guild, the alchemist had easy access to glassware, blacksmiths could get chemicals to treat their weapons, and so on. And now with contacts to almost every crafting class, all over the world, they became one of the most powerful groups in the world, and some whisper if they were a combat class guild they would have already taken it over hahaha."Phellum laughed and took the glass of water from the small priest.
"This is really fascinating Farther but what has that to do with the Sports Festival," Jared said.
" Hohoho Everything my son, but yes I may went a bit off-topic there now let's continue." the father said unperturbed," Seeing the success of both the Temple and the Craftsman Guild, more and more groups gathered to create guilds, from the Thiefs Guild to the Entertainment Guild and of course including the committee of the Sports Festival." Farther Phellum finished seemingly full of pride, for his over the top speech.
While longwinded, the explanation gave Jared a lot of useful pieces of information also the more he learned about this world the more real it became for him but he didn't know if that was a good thing or not.
"And class ranks, I heard about them and wondered what they are," Jared asked.
"Ah yes, class ranks an equally important if not longer decision to make. Every class gets their first rank up at level 25 and then at 50, 75, and so on. On rank up, you will get 10 attribute points for every stat and your class will evolve. This evolution can change, not only the quality but also the essence of your class and how you will level up in the future." The father explained and continued.
"How your class will evolve depends on the skills you level up and the ones you choose at level 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25."
"Thank you, Farther Phellum for your answers and your time you helped me a lot, and now before I leave one last question what about skill level?"He asked crossing his finger for a short answer.
"Oh, skills just level up with use." Father Phellum said, with what, Jared was pretty sure, was a shit-eating grin."And you don't have to worry. Helping someone in need is only just."
Jared shook his head with a smile and stood up," Again thank you but it's time for me to leave."
"Of course you are always welcome to return, should you have more questions, "Farther said and after a last goodbye, Jared turned around and left the Temple.