The noise he had longed to hear. The noise that heralded his Awakening, the noise that would allow him access to the Great System, and it sounded no more special than a cheap bell! All the pomp and circumstance everyone had told him about seemed to be missing. There was no flash of understanding, there was no knowledge directly injected into his brain, there was no great or sudden growth in his strength, agility, eyesight or mental faculties. Jarrod was quite frankly very disappointed.

He had heard tales of men able to jump their own height in a single bound, run faster than a horse or see better than an owl, literally the moment of their Awakening. He felt, nothing. Well not nothing, he felt exactly the same as he always had done, just a bit sweatier and actually quite cold now in the nights embrace!

Maybe it was something he had to test he thought, slowly turning in a circle. First off eyesight, well even with the moon way up, he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary at all. There was definitely no night-time hunter vision going on here was the slightly disappointing thought.

Next, he slowly rotated his arms, wondering if they felt like they were moving slightly faster than they had been? No that was crazy talk, he was obviously just spinning his arms fast.

He bent at the knee’s trying to launch himself into the sky straight up and managed to get maybe 8 inches off the ground, so no superhuman ability there.

Maybe it was his mental abilities? He tried to think back to the time his father gave him a well-known brain teaser on how much silver the nearest mine was due to produce and how much it had already produced with various factors at play – there was no flash of inspiration. No moment of sudden clarity and understanding in fact he felt identical to how he felt immediately before that DING.

What a rip-off he thought to himself, all those stories, and not a one of them was true! Or if they were true then he had certainly got the short end of the straw, not even had one of the God’s talks to him or anything yet.

Turning in a circle, arms spread wide the gangly youth tilts his head back and shouts into the sky

“Well come on then! Spending all this time wondering, waiting, dreaming. What have you got for me oh mighty God’s!?”

Nothing answered him, not the wind, not the statues, not even the system itself.

Sighing in exasperation Jarrod slumped back down on the ground and tried to at least access his system to see if that was working, he had heard the ding! after all. Sitting back on his haunches, closing his eyes and thinking hard of “system” was all it took. The moment he started thinking of it he saw a screen in his mind’s eye, float in front the top of his vision with some transparency to see the real world through if he so chose.

Name: Jarrod Shatterstone

Race: Human

Class: [undefined]

Level: 1

Achievement Points: 0

Stat points to allocate 10

STR: 5

REF: 5

CON: 5

INT: 5

CHA: 5

INS: 5

LUCK: 12

As he was looking through his stats trying to puzzle out what each meant, a soft, melodious voice sounded like caramel drizzled in honey rang out behind him.

“Well, it looks like an entirely average human with a quite frankly supernatural level of luck has deigned to grace us. What to do, what to do to you.”

Turning, ever so slowly, terrified of what he would see what he did see he could barely parse into thoughts. A soft purple glow surrounded the status of The Other and stood leaning against it was a voluptuous women squeezed into a tiny green cocktail dress. Blinking to make sure he wasn’t imagining things, the figure was now a strapping man, wearing a finely tailored suit with a cocky half-smile was watching Jarrod intently.

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“Huh, I gotta be honest I was expecting him” Jarrod said jerking his thumb towards the statue of The Father, “or possibly, even her. I gotta say I really wasn’t expecting you or the Scholar.”

“Well, I wasn’t expecting you either. I normally manifest for those who have either got a true superhuman ability, are a prodigy or have no family or home to call their own. You fit none of these criteria. You are by all my divine experience a completely standard human. And I mean luck? Luck isn’t even quantifiable, we have no idea how it works or interacts with the system, people with 100 can still get critical failures and people with 1 can find ancient artifacts worth entire shards. I mean I suppose the system chose me to manifest because you literally fit the criteria for none of the others. So kid, here’s the deal. I’m going to offer you three classes, that’s it you see what you get from now through level 10, but you won’t see the evolutions, the pre-requisites or the upgrades available. You will see how the stat points are allocated and the potential of the class. After that it’s all on you.”

“But wait, aren’t you supposed to be my guide? My Mum & Dad said they got given quests and a in depth tour and everything!”

“Not really my style kid. Tell you what – I’ll give you a quest, and if you succeed you can get some advice as well as the posted reward. For now, pick a class kid so we can all get going.”

“OK, show me what I got to work with”

With a flourish The Other (now in the shape of a centaur apparently) executed an exquisite bow, and with a flourish waved his arm towards Jarrod as text started to scroll in front of his eyes.

Rogue [Uncommon] maximum potential [Rare]

The rogue deals in the shadows, staying out of sight attention on the rogue and their activities usually spells defeat at best, death at worst. The class focuses on speed, small blades, and striking hard before disengaging, not getting drawn into protracted battles. Also, the class chosen by those who prefer to operate outside the traditional legal structures of varies Kingdom’s and Empire’s primarily by those who wish to re-distribute wealth from those significantly more fortunate than themselves.

Lucky Warrior [Uncommon] maximum potential [Unique]

This warrior-based class depends less on constant hits in combat, and more on pulling off the most unexpected manoeuvres and getting lucky with the results. They are generally lucky in all aspects of their life, whether it is bartering for night’s stay at an inn or facing down a dragon (albeit a small one, that doesn’t breathe fire). This class is chosen by those who may not have any real skills but have come to learn to depend on their luck.

Seeker [Rare] maximum potential [Epic]

This class is somewhat of an enigma. It is for those who wish to seek out treasure, long forgotten by most mortals. Whether this is physical treasure, ancient knowledge or even a new shard, is for the seeker and their patron alone. Seekers are exceedingly rare even amongst dynasties who try to rear them, the class being offered less than once per million Awakenings.

Looking over his options again Jarrod managed to discount Rogue immediately. It sounded like it might be vaguely interesting, but only from the rarity angle – a class that was uncommon was astounding at a base level Awakening as far as he knew, and the maximum potential of its evolutions being a rare class well that was unheard of. But he had no true wish to live outside of the law. He didn’t want to steal from others who had fairly earned their gold, prizes and accolades. He would earn his as well, fairly and squarely.

That left the other two, lucky warrior seemed at first glance, odd. It almost felt like he was being mocked by the system – no real skills? Utterly dependent upon luck? How could anyone make a living or explore their shard and beyond living like that?! However, it must be said that the maximum potential of evolutions had him stumped. Unique? He had never heard of a unique class before, or even what one would be. As far as he was aware the rarest would be Legendary, followed by Epic, then Rare, then Uncommon and finally Common, the same ratings as were applied to items by the system.

Which left Seeker – a class that started at Rare. A class that would let him explore, define his own goals, find new shards, new dungeons, ancient treasure. It sounded perfect. As he stood there pondering what would easily be (up to this point) the single most decisive decision of his life the Other took this moment to but in.

“So, kid. What’s it going to be?”

Startled from his reverie Jarrod took a deep, shuddering breath trying to steady himself.

“I would like to pick….”