Adam didn’t have to wait long for the class list to populate.
Congratulations! The following Tier 1 Classes are available to you based on your Attributes, Abilities, Titles, and Perks.
At Tier 1 only Basic, Scarce, or Rare Classes may be available for you to choose from. While any Tier 1 class can garner access to Tier 2 classes, it becomes easier to meet Tier 2 Prerequisites if you have either a Scarce or Rare Class. If you qualify for a Tier 2 Class you may be given the choices of Advanced and Master Classes. Those with a Tier 2 Master Class will have a better chance of qualifying for a Tier 3 Epic Class. Tier 4 and 5 Classes, if qualified for, only consist of Mythic, and Legendary Classes in that order.
Note: Class level progression is slower with each Rarity Rank. Level progression for Scarce classes requires twice as much XP. Rare Classes require triple the amount of XP to increase one level. Tier 2 Advance Classes require 10 times as much XP as a Basic Class per level. Tier 2 Master Classes require twice as much XP as a Tier 2 Advanced Class. Tier 3 Classes require 10 times as much XP as an Advanced Class. Tier 4 requires 10 times as much XP as a Tier 3 Class. Finally, Tier 5 requires 10 times as much XP as Tier 4 Classes.
Please review each class and then choose one.
A list of classes started scrolling through Adam’s vision. As far as he could tell it was just a list of class titles and didn’t contain any additional information. Adam issued a command for the scrolling to stop and then alphabetized the selection. He allowed the information to flow into his mind and began sorting it there. He noted that each class came with a limited description. Adam pulled up the Class “Fighter” to see what advantages and disadvantages the class gave.
Class: Fighter
The Fighter is a master of weapons. This class focuses on doing damage and being able to take a hit.
Rarity: Basic
Attributes Per Level: 4
Bonus Attributes every 5 levels including level 1: +1 to Strength.
Bonus Attribute every 10 levels including level 1: +1 to Constitution.
Hit Points per Level: 10
Starting Skill
Melee Focused Attack: Cost 25 Stamina: On next Attack: +5% to hit and +1 to damage per skill level
Skills Points per level 1:
Advantages:
Weapon skills, including unarmed combat, cost ½ Skill points, a minimum of 1 skill point to attain and level.
Disadvantages:
None
The Fighter class seemed pretty self-explanatory. If he had taken that class by the time he reached level 100 his Strength would have increased by 20 points and his Constitution by 10 points. Not to mention that his Hit Points would increase by 1,000. In the Previous system hit points only increased by increasing base attributes or weight. The new SYSTEM increased Hit Points independently which meant there were probably classes out there that increased Stamina, Mana, and that new attribute Psychic Energy as well. It seemed like this SYSTEM was giving those within it a better chance at survival, at least against mundane threats. Monsters could probably still take down an unaware fighter under the right circumstances.
That brought Adam's mind back to the red dragon. It had only been level 10, but its rarity had been Legendary. When Adam found the SYSTEM Store in Vancouver he was going to have to figure out what the differences between basic Legendary Monsters and Legendary Classes were because the bonuses he’d seen for a basic class didn’t match up with what the Red Dragon had. Maybe if he looked at a Scarce Class? Adam looked through the list until he found a Mage Class called Firewalker.
Class: Firewalker (Focused Mage)
The Firewalker is a focused Mage class. A Firewalker's magical fire is feared throughout the SYSTEM. At higher levels, a Firewalker can take on armies by themselves
Rarity: Scarce
Attributes Per Level: 8
Bonus Attributes every 5 levels including level 1: +1 to Intelligence, +1 to Willpower
Hit Points per Level: 5
Mana per level: 10
Starting Skills
Flame Bolt: Cost to Cast: 10 mana / Range: 10 + Intelligence in feet / Damage: 8 / Special: Ignite – Combustible materials ignite on contact.
Flame Shield: Cost to Cast: 10 mana +5 mana per turn maintained. / Range: 5 feet / Effect: Creates a shield of fire in front of the caster that causes 10 points of damage to anything that touches it. The shield has a force component and gives the caster 5 points of Physical Damage Resistance.
Skills Points per level 2:
Spell Points per level 2:
Advantages:
Spells of the Fire Sphere cost ½ Spell Slots, minimum 1 spell slot
Fire-based spells do double damage and increase by an additional 5% per class level.
Disadvantages:
Spells from the Magical Sphere of Water cost x2 Spell Slots to learn or memorize, have an automatic 50% chance of failure, and are 50% less effective.
Water-based magical attacks inflict double damage to a Firewalker.
Adam reviewed Firewalker, as well as a few other basic and scarce classes, and noted that every scarce class seemed to have double the bonuses but also came along with very specific adverse traits to the class to balance it out. There were a couple of gems but for the most part, it looked like as the class became more focused the negative traits built up to counter their focus. If the class was fire-based, water hurt more. If the class was light-based, dark hurt more.
Adam considered the pros and cons and then pulled up the rare classes. Immediately his mind was drawn to the class Chaos Bringer as well as a few others. Each class that grabbed his attention took advantage of his Chaos Attribute, but Adam ignored them. No, he’d been informed that he had the means to find Adaline and Pandora based on something he’d done with his Animae which Adam was interpreting as the ability to do something with his soul. The only thing that made sense to him was if he’d somehow created a link between their souls which would indicate that there was probably a class that focused on abilities involving the soul.
He also had a new attribute in this SYSTEM. Psychic Energy was in the mix and Adam had a feeling that the class that would help him the most would be a rare class that improved Psychic Energy. Adam sorted the Rare Classes and pulled up those classes that improved Psychic Energy in some way or dealt with Souls. It only took a moment and a list of 5 Rare Classes appeared in his vision. Adam quickly read over the titles and descriptions.
Mentalist – A master of the mind and mental magic that utilizes both to subdue foes and help allies. While not focused on one or the other type of power you may use both with few drawbacks.
Psionicist – You are a master of Psychic Energy and receive bonuses with any Psychic ability and an extremely high mental defense.
Soulcrafter – There is life after death. Knowing this you have unlocked a path of abilities that will allow you to capture souls and utilize them for other purposes as the name of this class implies.
Soulhealer – Souls can be fractured and traumatized. This class focuses on the healing of the body and the soul. As this class progresses it focuses more on the repair and healing of the soul.
Soulreaver – Souls can be fractured and traumatized. Soulreavers know this because they are the ones fracturing and traumatizing souls. Warning! Choosing this class comes with some serious social and political drawbacks.
Adam read over the five classes and then broadened his search parameters. There were a few other classes that spoke to him; “Agent of Chaos” and a class named “Adamantium Dragon” oddly enough but neither hinted at an ability that would get him back to his family. Soulcrafter seemed to be the obvious choice, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen something like that before. No, if he was going to unlock that part of his mind that may have been blocked off and be able to explore some sort of soul crafting or healing, he was going to have to choose a class that improved both his mental and psychic abilities. In that case, Mentalist seemed to be his best choice.
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Trusting his instincts, Adam chose the Class Mentalist.
Congratulations! You have chosen the Rare Class Mentalist
Class: Mentalist
A master of the mind and mental magic that utilizes both to subdue foes and help allies. While not focused on one or the other type of power you may use both with few drawbacks.
Rarity: Rare
Attributes Per Level: 12
Bonus Attributes every 5 levels including level 1: +1 to Intelligence, +1 to Perception, +1 to Willpower
Hit Points per Level: 4
Mana per level: 5
Psychic Energy per level: 10
Starting Skills
Mind Bolt: Cost to Cast: 10 Psychic Energy / Range: 10 + Intelligence in feet / Damage: 8 / Special: (10% - Target Willpower Bonus) Chance per level of Mentalist to Stun Target
Mental Shield: Passive: 10 Psychic Energy unavailable while Mental Shield is active. +25% +1% per Willpower bonus + 1% Mental Defense per class level against any mind-altering magics including illusions
Heal Wounds – Mana Cost: 10 / Range: Touch / Heal 4 + Wisdom Bonus.
Skills Points per level: 3
Spell Points per level: 1
Psionic Slots per Level: 2
Advantages
Spells from the Mental, Soul, and Spirit Spheres of Magic cost ½ Spell Slots, minimum 1 slot.
Disadvantages
Spells from the Putrescent, Null, Proper, Absolute, Order, and Chaos Spheres of Magic cost twice as many spell slots.
NOTE: Ability “Chaotic Incarnate” nullifies this disadvantage. Chaos Sphere Spells may be learned normally.
Adam noted that the class he’d chosen granted three times as many attributes plus a couple of bonus attributes. 15 points per level was nothing to scoff at. As he was reviewing the rest of his class information new messages populated his vision.
Congratulations, you have defeated a Basic Legendary Red Dragon. As you did not have a class or level at the time Level Disparity based on Rarity, 8 Levels. Base experience award 1,000 XP (Level 10 Creature x 100 XP) x8 for level disparity equals an XP award of 8,000 XP.
Congratulations you have been awarded 20 Platinum Pieces for defeating a level 10 Basic Legendary Red Dragon. Would you like to receive 20 Platinum Pieces or convert the award into SYSTEM Credits?
Adam didn’t have any place he could stick 20 platinum pieces so he chose to convert the award to SYSTEM Credits.
Normally there is a 5% Tax on any conversion to or from SYSTEM Credits when looting monsters. The 5% Tax is waived for your very first Monster Kill. 20 Platinum converted to 200,000 Credits. SYSTEM Credits are tracked by the SYSTEM
Total XP: 8,000
Level 1 XP Cost: 3,000 XP
Congratulations! You have reached Level 1.
Level 2 XP Cost: 6,000 XP
5,000 of 6,000 XP Earned
Level 1 Changes:
Hit Points +4
Stamina +1
Mana +5
Psychic Energy +10
Spell Slots +1
Psionic Ability Slots +1
Perception, Intelligence, and Willpower +1
12 Free Attributes have been gained; would you like to assign them now?
Adam thought Yes and allocated 2 points to Endurance and Constitution, 4 points to Wisdom, and 4 points to Luck. Some would call him crazy, but he remembered how having high luck had worked for him in the past and decided that some points would be allocated to his luck attribute at every level. If this SYSTEM was intrinsically connected to all aspects of reality then Luck probably had some effect on the outcome of actions.
Next level His bonus attributes would bring Perception and Willpower up to 20, but he’d still need to put 2 points into Agility and Dexterity as well as another 3 points into his Wisdom attribute to get all of them to 20 or higher. Adam double-checked the messages concerning level experience. 3,000 XP for level 1. 6,000 for level 2? If he took into account what the other messages had said about Level progression and how much XP it would cost that meant that Level progression would look something like this:
Basic Level, 1,000 XP x New Level
Scarce Level: 2,000 XP x New Level
Rare Level: 3,00 XP x New Level
Advanced Level: 10,000 XP x New Level
Master Level: 20,000 XP x New Level
Epic Level: 100,000 XP x New Level
Mythic Level: 1,000,000 XP x New Level
Legendary Level: 10,000,000 XP x New Level
It looked like there was a bonus for defeating monsters of a higher rarity which meant that there was probably a penalty for defeating lower rarity monsters so that 10,000,000 XP to reach level 1 could be a whole bunch more if all he could find to kill was basic or scarce monsters. He really needed to visit that SYSTEM Shop to zero in on how people leveled within The SYSTEM and how much XP it would take at each Tier.
From where he was sitting, next to a volcano in the middle of nowhere, it looked like having a rare class tripled the XP cost per level. So, he would get more benefits per level, but he would have to earn the same amount of XP to get an equivalent amount of attributes. Adam thought about the ramifications of that. At the lower levels of Tier 1, he’d start to have a strong advantage against others in the same Class Tier after only a few levels.
However, that wasn’t the real bonus for taking a higher rarity class right off the bat. If he could qualify for Tier 2,3,4 and 5 classes he’d have at least three times the attributes as someone with a basic class in their Tier 1 class slot. If he was able to get a Master Class in the Tier 2 class slot his advantage would become that much greater.
Adam looked over his Status Screen but nothing else was forthcoming. He had 3 free skill slots, 14 spell slots, and 22 Psionic Slots but he had no idea how to fill those slots. Also, he was getting the feeling that the designation Ability, Spell, and Skill all pretty much meant the same thing, sort of. Adam focused on his Skill Slots and a new message popped up.
Would you like to allocate your free skill points toward your existing class skills, or would you like to purchase a new skill?
Error! You are not in a SYSTEM Shop, at a Merchant Shop, or being taught by a skill trainer. Please visit a SYSTEM Shop, Merchant Shop, or Skill Trainer to use skill points to acquire new non-class skills OR spend your skill points on your current Class Skills.
Would you like to spend two of your skill points to increase one of your class skills to level 2?
Adam thought No and then focused on his Spell Slots
You do not have any spells to add to your spell list. Please visit a SYSTEM Shop or Merchant to purchase new spells or find them in spell books or on scrolls.
Well, that sucked. Just to make sure Adam focused on focused on his Psionic Slots.
You do not have any Psionic abilities ready to be slotted at this time. Please visit a SYSTEM Shop, Merchant. or find a class trainer to learn new Psionic Abilities.
So, it looked like skill slots were used to augment skills he already had or to acquire skills he did not have. Adam was betting that most people would find trainers, spell books, or scrolls to learn spells. Skills he might be able to learn from others, but it looked like skills in this SYSTEM were more of a bonus of some kind that could be augmented instead of a quantification of knowledge. It would seem that just knowing something gave him the ability to attempt it and the bonus of the attribute assigned to that skill was the only modifier he would get unless he had the skill to augment it.
As for Skills. It looked like each level cost that number of skill points. So level 2 would cost 2, level 3 would cost three, and so on. That made 3 skill points per level insanely good. As a comparison, Fighters only received 1 skill point per level so at most they’d earn 100 points. If skill level cost was cumulative it would cost 55 skill points to reach level 10, or 54 skill points If the fighter chooses one of his class skills that he received for free. The Fighter could only ever have one level 10 skill, whereas Adam could have 5 for 275 skill points and still have 25 skill points to pick up other skills or save to put into his next Tier skills at level 100. Or in quick progression logic, it would take the Fighter 54 levels to have one skill at level 10 while Adam could have one level 10 skill by level 18. Put that way, his rare class gave him a serious advantage.
The big question was, how high could a skill be increased to or could a skill be increased through use? If skill points were being awarded for each class level it was very unlikely skills could be increased through use. It looked like the first thing he’d purchase from the shop, so long as the information was for sale, was a comprehensive list of skills, spells, psionic abilities, and also a primer on how to level skills, utilize spells, and slot psionic abilities and level them if they were like skills in that way.
Adam checked his surroundings and noted that the red dragon's body was still lying beside him and scavengers had started to take notice. He hadn’t moved in a while and a seagull had taken advantage and was picking at the dragon's corpse while others flew nearby as they waited to see what Adam would do. Adam smiled to himself, Nature never let anything go to waste.
Adam’s mind was jarred out of his contemplations when a series of new messages appeared.
Congratulations! You are the first being in this world, in this galaxy, and in this Universe to defeat a Basic Legendary creature and activate a Rare Class within 1 day of System Initialization. You have earned the Title: The Bigger They Are – So long as you have fewer hit points than your target all damage inflicted is increased by 10% for each difference in rarity between you and the creature that garnered this Title, Bonus: +80% damage. This Title only activates so long as your current Hit Points are less than your targets. Once the target's hit points drop below your current hit points, the damage returns to normal.
SYSTEM Users also enjoy additional perks.
First, All SYSTEM Users may pull up a simplified terrain map that will display everything that they have noticed within 100 feet. What is displayed is determined by the SYSTEM user's perception. Skills and Class Abilities can modify and improve this perk.
Second, All System Users receive Personal Storage. Personal Storage is an extra-dimensional storage area that can hold up to 10 lbs. worth of materials. Attaining Teir 2,3,4, and 5 Classes as well as some Skills can modify the total storage area. Please note that some perks and abilities allow others to search through and take from your Personal Storage. Some skills work to prevent others from searching another's Personal Storage
As part of your Personal Storage Wardrobe Sets can be assigned and changed into. One set may be assigned per Class Tier. Perks and Skills can modify this number. Additionally, all looted Treasure can be deposited in your Personal Storage.
Adam smiled, he had Personal Storage again. An interesting adaption in this SYSTEM was the ability to steal from and possibly plant stuff in someone else’s Personal Storage, the possibilities were…Another thing he’d need to look into at the SYSTEM Shop. With only a 10-pound weight limit he couldn’t take the head of the Red Dragon unless he was going to carry it. Adam moved, which caused all the seagulls to flee in panic. While he was much more adapted to moving while in his human body, he needed to learn how to control his dragon form with a little finesse. Adam moved over to the Red Dragon and flipped it onto its back and brought both the front and aft claws together. The Dragon weighed about as much as he did which made him strain a bit but he could handle it. Once he had the limbs lined up he summoned his Chaos Blade to his clawed hand and sliced all four of the red dragon’s claws off in such a way that they all landed on its belly.
Because of the Chaos Blade’s cost in Chaos Points, which were also his Chaos Attribute, he could only keep the blade going for a total of 10 seconds. Which meant that he needed to be precise when using it. Being precise with his timing in his human body wouldn’t be a problem. Being precise in dragon form, not so much. When he finished the swing and severed the four claws at the wrist on each leg 5 seconds had passed which used up 50 points of his Chaos. He reached down, touched the claws, and willed them into his inventory which took no effort and cost him nothing in mana or stamina
His regeneration rate for Chaos was 1 point per second so it would be 50 seconds before he was back to 100 points. Instead of waiting, Adam grabbed the head of the dragon and removed both canines and the two huge horns on the red dragon's head. This took another 5 seconds which left him with 10 points of Chaos. Adam also placed both horns and both canines in his Personal Storage.
As he was about to get up and leave he took his claws and opened the red dragon from neck to groin with a quick swipe. His claws were easily sharp enough to accomplish the task with little effort as the red dragon’s underbelly was soft and split like a knife sliding through butter.
Adam looked at his kill, launched himself into the air, and swooped down to the water where he washed his claw off before he rose back into the air and continued on his way south. With the slight increase in his attributes, he’d be able to make better time if he wanted to but he decided to keep the pace he’d started at. If the maps were still accurate, Adam should reach the outskirts of Vancouver after 13 more stops sometime around 10 p.m. local tomorrow. Now that he’d chosen a class it was so nice that he could call up his Status Screen to get the local time. If the SYSTEM wasn’t unlocked people had almost no functionality. Adam thought that was stupid, but hey, it wasn’t a SYSTEM he’d created.
Adam brought his thoughts back to the flight he was making. Right now it was almost 9 a.m. and it was a beautiful morning along the west coast of North America. If not for the time-lapse plant and animal growth below him and the fact that he was a dragon, it could almost be a normal day.
.