Paladin
When one eats nothing but cup noodles for a long period of time, the taste of proper food is a feeling of joy akin to finally being able to sip water after being stuck in a desert for days. Having had a taste of the promised fruit, Ryota returned home with a new found determination to get selected for the job.
In order to get selected for the job, he had to either get a lot of views or create unique content. After pulling out the recordings from the Oculus machine, he soon realized that all he had was hours of him sweeping floors and doing other odd jobs. “It’s only the first day”, Ryota reassured himself.
“I’m not famous in the gaming industry at all, so maybe if I became a top player I can secure the job” He thought to himself.
With that settled, Ryota wasted no time to once more reenter the world of Guardian Online.
During the time he went out to eat dinner, 6 hours had already passed in the world of Guardian online.
When he logged back in, he found himself laying cozily against a wall, the warm rays of sunlight gently filtering in from the stained glassed windows. Taking a deep breath, Shame forced himself to stand up and exit the room.
“Shame-san, did you rest well?” Watari asked.
“Yea I did, thanks for asking”
“Shame-san, I spent last night thinking after seeing your willingness to offer help and seeing your interest in hearing more about Allusha-sama”.
“Did I finally hit the jackpot and unlock a series of chain quests” Shame thought to himself while he nodded in acknowledgement to Watari.
“Would you be interested to continue learning about Allusha-sama and become a paladin to serve her?”
“Will you change your character’s job to Paladin?” a small screen popped out in front of him.
The question came unexpectedly to Shame, and all he could do was look blankly at the screen.
Ryota knew from his experience playing games that this was a rare opportunity that presented itself to him, but if he accepted it, he would lose his warrior job. He shuddered at the imagination of himself knocking on doors of random NPCs asking “Can I have a moment of time to tell you more about our goddess Allusha”. But a part of him knew that accepting it could give him the content needed to secure his job position.
And so he reached his hand out towards the small screen, and clicked the accept icon.
A bright light suddenly engulfed him.
And with a ping, a message appeared in front of his eyes
“Congratulations, you have successfully changed your job to Paladin”
Checking his character stats, his strength and intelligence stats has both increased slightly. He also gained two new passive skills in addition to other class specific traits.
Allusha’s Favor
EXP earned is 50% higher
No skill points can be allocated to this skill
Righteous Purity
Resistance to negative conditions is increased by 30%
No skill points can be allocated to this skill
Compared to the skill set he had saw for warriors, the two skills he had received far outclassed any of them, especially Allusha’s Favor, which would allow him to level up at a faster rate than almost anyone.
And for the first time in a while, Ryota found himself beaming with confidence. He knew he had just scored his ticket to actually standing a chance to get the job.
Because of the insane requirements of doing nothing but odd jobs for 8 hours straight, he knew that the probability of someone else discovering this job was low.
So if he was able to monopolize on that fact, he’d be able to become one of the top players and then he would take that opportunity to blog about it and become famous. His game plan was set.
“Excuse me… are you okay, you’ve been staring blankly into space for a while now” Watari asked in a concerned tone.
“Shit” Shame thought to himself as he realized he’s been doing precisely that. He scrambled his brains together, hoping to tap on his past as a child prodigy to come up with an excuse.
“Thanks for your concern Watari-san, after I accepted the job change to Paladin, a bright light engulfed me, and I suddenly felt closer to Allusha sama, my eyes have now been opened to how kind and glorious and she is, and I just couldn’t help but to revel in her glory for a moment. I hope I didn’t affect you much”
Almost instantaneously, Watari’s eyes lit up, and like a proud dad, pat Shame’s back and said “I knew I made the right decision, for you to have your eyes opened by Allusha sama, it’s clearly a sign that she favors you.”
“Still got it”, Shame said as he chuckled to himself.
“Before we begin training, I have a gift for you” Watari said as he gestured Shame to follow him.
Shame followed him into a small room, containing all sorts of weapons ranging from maces to swords.
“Your sword seems dull, pick any weapon and I’ll give it to you, it’s the least I can do to celebrate this glorious occasion”
Shame looked around the dusty room, he remembered from his past game experiences that paladins usually used a large Warhammer or a mace and shield. But then at the corner of the room he spotted a claymore. He lifted it up and dusted away the dirt, it had a good solid feeling. Confident that he made the right choice, he brought the sword out to Watari.
“A claymore eh, personally I prefer using a mace and a shield but the goddess gave you two hands, so might as well use both of them.”
“Received item, Silver Claymore”
Durability 10/10, Damage 18 to 25 damage
Description: A standard issue weapon used by Paladins
“Let’s begin training then, guard up” and with that Watari swung his mace at Shame with a speed and strength that was uncommon for a man of that age. Shame was however no stranger to sparring, and although rusty, some skills never truly vanish. Shame was able to raise his sword in time to defend the blow.
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And over the next few hours, Shame and Watari continued to spar with each other. The training progressed smoothly, Shame was able to regain some of his kendo skills, and he even learnt how to cast a small healing spell, or a prayer according to Watari. And during breaks, Shame would often listen to stories from Watari’s past experience as a Paladin.
A shield and a mace is a weapon combination with great synergy, one could charge forward with the shield making it difficult to land a blow, the shield can then be slammed against someone to throw him off guard, and then a finishing blow could be dealt with the mace. The same combination that caused Shame to lose over and over again.
In kendo, one usually spars with another kendo practitioner, so seldom does one get the experience to practice against a man charging at you with a shield. Shame tried many things, side stepping, parrying, but the experienced old man always seemed to have a counter. But after being knocked down several times, Shame thought of his winning strategy.
Once more, Watari charged forward at Shame, shield facing towards him hoping to shield bash him. This time however Shame was prepared, when Watari raised his shield upwards, Shame skillfully positioned his blade, and with great speed swung it upwards towards Watari’s neck through the gap created by the raised shield. Knowing that he had lost, Watari yielded.
“It seems that you have bested me Shame-san” Watari said panting.
“I’m being taught by the best”
“You give me too much credit, all glory is to Allusha-sama, come I have a parting gift for you”
Panting, Shame unequipped the claymore, and followed Watari.
“Give me a moment” Watari said, as he sat down at a desk and began to scribble away on a piece of paper. A few minutes later, Watari placed the letter into an envelope sealed with a wax bearing the symbol of an insignia of sorts.
“Here this is a letter of recommendation for you to join our order, and I want you to present it to the main church at Whitecrest”. Watari said as he handed the letter to Shame.
“Also here are some supplies for your journey” he said as he passed a small pouch to Shame, “it contains supplies such as potions and food, I’ve also packed holy water which can be used to weaken demons, you’d never know when you might encounter one. There is also a copy of our holy scriptures inside”
“I know you’re not familiar with other towns, so here’s a book to help you out” Watari said as he passed a book titled “A comprehensive guide to exploring the Empire of Corwyn” to Shame.
Tears started to well up in Shame’s eyes, the amount of concern Watari had for him reminded him of how his mother was as concerned for him on his first day of school. He remembered how she wasn’t able to sleep the night before, worrying that he wouldn’t be able to make friends in school. “Shit I didn’t think I’d cry because of a NPC character" he thought to himself.
As tears continued to flow from his eyes, Watari gave a small smile and hugged him. A human warmth that brought back the memory of his mother hugging him when he brought back his first report card containing straight As, the warm hug when his mother tried to comfort him after the fateful kendo competition years ago.
Eventually Shame composed himself, wiping away his tear. "So they even let you cry in this game huh". He mused to himself.
After packing the items into his inventory, he equipped the Silver Claymore again, strapping the sword onto his back. He thanked Watari, and bid him farewell.
Upon exiting the church, a notification popped up in front of him,
Hidden Quest: Watari’s training completed
EXP + 3000
Strength stats increased by 5
Intelligence stats increased by 2
“Today just keeps getting better and better” Shame said to himself as he proceeded move his hand forward to acknowledge the quest rewards.
“Congratulations you have leveled up to level 2, please allocate your skill and stat points”.
Excitedly Shame went to open the skill window and discovered that he was given 3 skill points to allocate, and immediately began scrolling through the list of skills available. After giving it much thought, he decided to invest 2 of his points into a skill called lightbringer which allowed him to deal additional holy element damage with each strike of his claymore. His last point was invested into healing prayer.
He then went to the character stats menu, where he was similarly given 3 points to invest. Taking into consideration his past gaming experiences where strength equates to more damage and intelligence equates into stronger spells. He invested 2 points into strength and 1 point into Intelligence.
Satisfied with his progress, Shame logged out of the game.
And for the first time since his mother’s death, Ryota slept peacefully and dreamt of the wonderful times he spent together with his mother.
Character statistics
Name: Shame
Job: Paladin
Level: 2
HP: 280
MP: 150
Strength: 24
Intelligence: 18
Agility: 12
Luck: 12
Equipment
Silver Claymore 18 to 25 Damage
Skills
Battle recovery Lvl 1
Allusha’s Favor Lvl 1
Righteous Purity Lvl 1
Lightbringer Lvl 2
Healing Prayer Lvl 2
Writer’s notes:
Shame’s stats were adjusted when he accepted the job as a Paladin, which is why there is a significant difference from his original job as a Warrior.
3 skill points and 3 stat points are given whenever a player levels up.
The name of the continent they are playing on is called Kroria
Names of cities and towns were decided thanks to a random town name generator, so any similarities to real life locations are due to pure coincidence.