Sam read the message and then pressed yes. Immediately, he was whisked away into a vision. He wondered why exactly the System was so fond of visions, but he banished the idle thought as he reached his destination.
Three frozen moments floated in space before him, each with a short description. The first one depicted a muscular fighter, glowing with energy as he tore through an entire army with his mace. Underneath it was the class description.
Heavyweight:Rare
You are a pillar of physical strength, a beacon of bulging muscles and below average intelligence. Who needs intelligence when they have brawn? Not you at any rate.
+2 to Strength, + 1 to Constitution, + 1 to Resilience, -1(to a minimum of 5) Intelligence and 2 free stat points per level
Sam immediately ruled that one out. He had no wish to become a dim brute, fit only for smashing his way across the battlefield. He noticed that it was possible to offset the negative points, but that was a waste of a free point that he could use later. The sarcastic description made him chuckle, but he was unsure of why it had such a description. Perhaps to signify its downsides? A moment of mirth was not enough to sway him however. Besides, the next one felt much more promising.
The image of an old man sitting on a mountaintop and breathing in the mountain air was the subject of the next image. Despite his advanced age, he was in fine health, with defined muscles and bronzed skin. His eyes were shut, but behind them a light shone. A faint nimbus of energy surrounded him and swirled to what seemed to be the beat of his breaths. Beneath that was the description.
Dao Visionary:Legendary
The Dao is as much a part of you as your physical body. Rather than sacrifice one for the other, you have embraced both.
+3 Wisdom, +2 Intelligence, +1 Constitution and 3 free stat points per level.
+10% effective Wisdom when pondering the Dao
He instantly saw that this was the one. It was perfect for his needs. He knew that his aptitude for the Dao would eventually draw him away from the path of the pure physical fighter. Before he selected it, he checked the last one. He already knew what it was, but he wanted to see it for himself. A blindingly bright light shone in the center of the image, purposefully, as Sam noticed, concealing the subject of the scene. He blinked violently and was able to make out what was within it. An amorphous blob of suppurating flesh writhed as if in agony, releasing a fine blue mist into the air around it. Sam recoiled and retched from the sight. He forced himself to read the description.
System Battery:???
The greatest class available under the System, this one elevates you to great power, and as a reward for your service, you gain what is essentially unlimited mana.
Infinite Mana,-
DO YOU WISH TO SELECT THIS CLASS? Y/N
Before Sam could read the rest of the class benefits, his vision was filled with a giant System notification. He pushed it away and continued to read.
-All Stats set to 1, All mana processing capability locked to recycling.
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There was the clincher, the thing that Jeffrey had warned him about. He would have been suspicious of the sudden appearance of the selection notification anyway, but he was still glad nonetheless. With a shudder, he closed the screen and walked back over to the Dao Visionary class. Then he selected it. With a flash of light, he was ejected from the vision and back to the clearing where the corpse of the bear lay.
Sam felt a noticeable difference as soon as he returned to his body. It went beyond the mere allocation of stats from his level, and it was like his connection to his Dao had been increased. His new Legendary class was already paying dividends.
The forest clearing teemed with wildlife, all gathered around the corpse of the bear. As he awoke, a few more industrious ones made a move on him, but he stared them down. Then something happened that he had never experienced before. The concentrated energy of his Dao of Anger rushed out of him in a wave, manifesting as a field of reddish force. His pupils dilated and his hair stood on end like he had electricity pulsing through him. He felt his presence expand outwards. Several of the weaker enemies simply died from the shock, his concentrated power too much for them to bear. The stronger ones chittered in alarm and ran into the woods and away from him.
Immediately, a sense of lethargy overtook him and he slumped where he stood. This was the first time that he had used his aura in battle. He had a vague sense of the ability, after all Tantalos had mentioned it briefly, but he had never come across it since then. Now, he had figured out how to use it.
He made his way back to the Dao Tree and found his companions there. Jeffrey jumped up as he approached and greeted him with a smile.
“Did you do it?” He asked. Sam nodded in response. Jeffrey’s face creased in a wry grin.
“Let me guess, you got an Epic class or something crazy like that?” His expression indicated that he was joking, but he couldn’t have prepared for what Sam was about to tell him.
“No, it wasn’t,” Sam said, closely watching Jeffrey’s face, "it’s a Legendary one!”
Jeffrey fought to hide his expression, but it eventually broke through. His jaw dropped and he sat down heavily.
“A Legendary class. A goddamn Legendary class! That’s impossible! How did you manage to get one of those for your first class? It's unbelievable…” Jeffrey started to mutter to himself as he sat there and Sam waited for him to calm down. Eventually, Jeffrey gained control of himself.
“I’ve never heard of anyone getting a Legendary class this early. Even an Epic one is basically unheard of. Not just in the boonies of the Multiverse where we live, but anywhere. The legends speak of how the founder of the Illuvian Confederacy, a B Rank ascendant of unfathomable power, gained all of his power through his possession of an Epic class.”
Sam didn’t see what the big deal was.
“It really isn’t that special. It only gives a few more stat points than the Rare class that I was offered.”
Jeffrey scoffed.
“You really are a rube, aren’t you? It isn’t just the Legendary class alone. The first five rarities are not really that crazy in power. It's the later ones that are. Starting off with a Legendary class means that you have the potential to gain a Mythical one at your next class upgrade. I’ve heard that those give double the stat points as the Legendary classes and it only gets better from there. What exactly is the class for by the way?”
“Why does that matter?”
“Some classes are rarer than others. Here, I’ll try to write them down for you.” Jeffrey squatted down and inscribed four words on the earth.
Martial Classes-Roughly 50%
Magical Classes-Roughly 35%
Hybrid Classes-Roughly 10%
Dao Classes-Roughly 5%
Sam regarded the names, but saw that his current class didn’t really fit any of those.
“So wait, do Dao classes mean one that gives bonuses to all Daos, or one that is focused on a specific one?” Jeffrey answered him after a moment of thought.
“The second one of course, I’ve never heard of any other type of Dao class. One that directly enhanced Daos in general would be ridiculously powerful. One who possessed it could become a god in an unprecedentedly short amount of time. So you have a Dao Class? I mean, compared to your luck so far, I guess 5 percent really isn’t that much of an ask.” When Sam didn’t respond Jeffrey narrowed his eyes.
“What?”
“Uh, I’m reasonably sure that I have the class that you said didn’t exist.”