Maxi stood in an empty conference room with at least a hundred other yellow shirts. Most of them had her same loadout – yellow shirt, khakis, longsword, and utility belt. There were a few people with leather and a letter opener or dagger, a couple with chainmail, and other less costly upgrades. However, they all seemed within her level. According to Farhad, most people picked a class by level fifteen at the latest. People who reached level 20 without picking were assigned the Worker class.
The Worker class had by far the worst description. “A worker for the company.” There were also no minimum stats. Its class trait was a 1% pay bonus per ten levels on menial labor, and the skills were all useless, such as discounts on office supplies or the cafeteria, a free sub sandwich for every ten purchases at the cafeteria, and all the benefits one would expect from a schlocky call center attempting to convince an employee that their substandard wages didn’t matter so long as they were at “a great place to work”.
She now realized that most of the classes required trials in order to join their ranks. From the experience she was gaining with her quests, the daily raids, and other considerations, she maybe would have only two or three trial opportunities before reaching level 20. She realized that in order not to be stuck in the Worker class, and thus always in the bottom tiers, she would need to pass a trial, as all the desirable classes had them.
Generalist was one of the few she could choose without a trial that wasn’t Worker. However, since most of her coworkers were convinced that learning other class skills was next to impossible without the support of a Branch, Generalist was her backup plan.
She had a few levels to go before she was forced into anything. Judging from the looks of the recruits around her, she only really had a few serious competitors for the job, and even those may have been people who had failed other trials and found themselves here. Still, she had learned never to underestimate anyone.
She had entered her first video game competition when she was sixteen and fought her way to the final match. It was her and some eight-year-old kid. She thought she had it in the bag, but that kid not only owned her, but humiliated her. While her mom had been excited that she got second place, she’d seen Karate Kid and Cobra Kai, so she knew what happened to those who finished second.
There was a Misfits of Carnt competition coming up in the summer, so part of climbing through the Guilds was in preparation for the event. She had already paid her registration fee, part of the reason she couldn’t afford her portion of the power bill. However, summer seemed like an endless time away.
“Please gather around,” a man said from the front of the room. He was wearing a gray fedora and a trenchcoat. He had a name tag that identified him as Trevor, Lead Associate - Paranormal Investigator Branch. He was flanked by two men and two women in the same getup. The recruits wandered close to the guy and created a half circle around the group.
Once the crowd gathered and quieted down, he spoke. “As you know, your class is more than just a job. It’s your career. Your professionalism, grit, and problem-solving ability will all be tested today. Only five of you will make the cut.”
The crowd murmured and began to glance around at the competition, sizing each other up. Maxi noticed a lot of people skipping over her. Being underestimated gave her an advantage for the time being. The players who came with chainmail had just put a target on their back. She’d be able to blend in for the first rounds of culling.
Trevor continued, “As trainee mentors, we get final say in who gets to train with us, but rest assured, you will be evaluated in several important features of our class. Combat, mental fortitude, and investigation ability. Those who make it will start training one-on-one with a mentor next month, and after you complete your introductory course, you’ll have access to class quests, special items, and all the privileges of a Paranormal Investigator. Those who don’t will be sent back to their Office Pool. Any questions?”
One of the recruits, a thin man with blond hair and glasses, asked, “What do Paranormal Investigators do? Do you fight ghosts?”
The other investigators laughed, and Trevor cut them off with a flick of his wrist. “What each class does for the Company is only known to the members of that class but trust me when I say that you will be one of the most important employees of the Company. Three of the Power Twelve are Paranormal Investigators, the highest of any Branch. Now, if there are no further questions...let the combat trial begin.”
Maxi almost expected a Battle Royale to erupt, but instead, the four others began passing out twelve-sided dies to the recruits waiting in the room. They were instructed to roll the die and were assigned a number with the results. When it was Maxi’s turn, she rolled a one. She supposed that she couldn’t be lucky all the time. However, she still didn’t know what one meant. Perhaps her streak was continuing.
After being sorted by 1-6 on the right and 7-12 on the left, her half was led to a hall of elevator doors that were labeled 1-6. If this was anything like the tier system, she either had rolled the best or the worst. While, statistically, one shouldn’t appear any more or less than any other number on a single die roll, her other “ones” consisted of a guy in chainmail who looked familiar but Maxi couldn’t place him, and two yellow shirts. By comparison, the six and five groups had at least ten people.
The PI mentors who escorted them said that when the doors open, they would proceed into the correspondingly numbered elevator, and it would take them to a place where anyone who was alive at the end of the encounter would proceed to the next test. When the players asked about death penalties and if they’d get any wounds the chair couldn’t heal, the mentor answering the questions simply shrugged and said, “Quests don’t give you a break, so why should we?”
A couple of the yellow shirts cut from the pack and proceeded to the exit, but no one from her group left, though a round man with unkempt brown hair and a goatee said more to himself, “They probably just say that to scare people off. How bad could it be?”
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As if to answer his question, the door opened, and they were ushered into an elevator. Once they were inside, the doors shut, and the thing lurched, then opened to a dark room. The voice of the mentor instructed them to leave. They walked forward onto what felt like a sandy surface and the elevator closed, cutting off the last of the light.
All their phones buzzed at the same time, displaying NEW QUEST: Paranormal Investigator Trial 1/3: Survive for 5 minutes. Reward: Paranormal Investigator Trial 2/3 Quest. Failure: Standard Death Penalty, Inability to select Paranormal Investigator Class without Dual Class Permissions.
There wasn’t enough time for her to select the “more information” button about the dual class permissions button as the lights came on, and a giant red clock began ticking down from five minutes.
They were in a pit with a dirt floor and rocky sides. The elevator that had brought them here was no doubt locked, and without some serious rock-climbing ability, she doubted she could get to the sunlight at least a hundred feet above their heads. There was a large metal door on the opposite wall that kinda reminded her of the Rancor pit in Star Wars. When it slowly started rising, she realized what was going on and darted off to the side.
The man in chainmail and the other yellow shirt saw her move and did the same thing. The only one left in the middle was the pep talk guy, and he was incinerated by a jet of flame that burst from the opening after the door got a few feet from the ground. His charred corpse fell to the floor.
When the door had opened to its full extent, out stepped a dragon. The beast had red scales, and its snout billowed smoke. The creature was less the wise ancient being and more primal killer.
It charged into the room and roared. It attempted to flap its wings and Maxi noticed a series of chains that prevented it from spreading them out. The chains all seemed to converge on a lock that was stuck to the small of its back. But the lack of wings didn’t seem to slow it any. It stomped toward the other yellow shirt and mauled the guy. Meanwhile, the guy in chainmail began circling behind the creature.
Maxi did the same, and they met while the thing dismantled the other guy. She glanced at his longsword and said, “I don’t suppose our swords will even affect that thing.”
“My implant says that its level is unknown, which makes it at least 120, so I doubt we would even see a change in its health bar.” The man said.
She realized that the guy must have gotten HR Terry’s upgrade.
Maxi said but realized that the guy must have gotten HR Terry’s upgrade. While brain surgery didn’t seem like a way she’d ever spend her credits, she had to admit that knowing when something could off her in one hit might be worth the price.
The creature roared and dropped the mangled body of the yellow shirt to the ground. From the damage done to the guy, she felt like the first one got off easy with the fire-breath weapon. It craned its neck to see them standing behind it and spluttered out more fire, but it wasn’t as powerful as the first and barely went a few feet from its mouth.
The fire needed to recharge. That was a small blessing, though only about thirty seconds had elapsed on the clock since it all began, and from the way the thing was turning around for another attack, they wouldn’t last a minute, much less five. The only saving grace was that it was slow to turn in the tight space and they bought a few extra seconds by going behind the thing.
The guy took off his hood to wipe his brow and she realized it was her friend from the tutorial. The guy who left her for dead with the zombie. She didn’t remember his name and wasn’t the type to hold grudges. But the guy had left her dead before she knew there was coming back from death. He’d be fine. Perhaps?
“Distract it,” Maxi said. “I’ve got a plan.”
“What?” the guy said, but it was too late. The thing turned around and charged. Maxi ran to the side and leapt over the tail as the man in chainmail booked it towards the door where it had emerged, no doubt planning some sort of Luke Skywalker trick where the controls for the door were inexplicably inside the monster cage. Maxi doubted it would be that easy, and to confirm her suspicion, she heard a crunch and saw the head of the dragon pulling out a chainmail morsel from its lair.
Maxi would only get one chance at this. She ran to the back of the creature and pulled out her Stapler of Binding. She flipped the bottom part down and leapt onto the back of the thing. When she landed, she used one hand for a tenuous grasp on one of the creature's scales, and with the other, she stapled her shirt to the thing’s back with the Stapler of Binding.
By the time it started thrashing hard enough to shake her off, she had successfully stapled herself to the creature. She lost her grip on the scale, but it didn’t matter because no matter what direction it shook, the shirt was not coming loose. The thing spat out the corpse of the man in chainmail and roared.
Even though she was knocked around like she was in a county fair ride from a hell dimension, she was stuck on the back. She had planned to ride out the five minutes, except the creature lined her up to the rock wall and backed up into it. Before she could be crushed, she pulled out a staple remover from her utility belt. As the owner of the Stapler of Binding, she could remove them at any time with a normal staple remover.
She quickly undid her handiwork and climbed farther up the dragon’s back as it smashed into the rock wall, almost taking her out in the process. She glanced at the time, and still had three and a half minutes left. Every second felt like an eternity to her. She made it up just enough to avoid getting crushed, then had to staple herself again as another bout of thrashing threatened to fling her from the creature.
Realizing that she was still vulnerable to being squished against the rock wall, she waited until an opportune moment, then climbed her way up towards the wings, using the stapler on her sleeve and the staple remover with her teeth as she ascended the dragon. She nearly choked on the remover and spit it out a couple times as the dragon thrashed, but eventually, she was able to make it up to the locking mechanism for its wings.
She was safe from being crushed at the base of its wings because they prevented it from smashing her into the rock wall. However, it turned its head and spewed flames. They stopped just short of her face, and she could feel the heat dry her throat and singe her hair. There was too much time on the clock to think she could wait the thing out. Its fire-breath weapon would return.
Being this close to the locking mechanism for the beast’s wings, she realized that it wasn’t so much a lock with a keyhole, but a simple knob keeping the whole thing in place. It would be silly to have an actual lock and key on the back of a dragon, she thought to herself. Who in their right mind would climb up the creature to set it free? And if they were powerful enough to waltz up to a dragon, would a key really deter them if they wanted to undo the mechanism binding its wings?
It had probably taken an army to subdue the thing long enough to harness it, and all Maxi had to do was turn a knob to undo the thing preventing it from flying away. With minutes left on the clock, nothing to lose, and the dragon sucking in for another fire-breath, she turned the knob.
The chains binding the creature slid off. It spread its wings and bellowed with a deafening roar. She undid the staple keeping her on the dragon’s back as it took flight to the sky above. She dropped to the ground and saw the thing disappear beyond the shaft.
There were still two minutes on the clock.