Lucas did what the old man told him and tried to direct his anger towards his mana. That part was easy, because he had a lot of fuel in him at the moment. After a few seconds, he noticed that it seemed to be working. Had the old man annoyed him on purpose? He had no time to think about this because he was on a clock, so he started the next phase: condensing into the shape of a ball. This time, again, he was lost. That was almost the same as asking him to condense his blood in the shape of a ball.
He opened his eyes, fearing the worst, and saw the exact moment the fireball left the old man’s hand. Immediately, Lucas dodged to the side.
“Wait! I managed to agitate the mana, but I can’t condense…” He was interrupted by another fireball.
“How’s that my problem?” the old man grinned.
Lucas fury ignited hearing that, and without thinking, he darted towards him. But just as he was about to land a blow with his staff, the old man disappeared.
“Ahh,” a voice behind him said. Lucas turned and saw the old man standing there with the same annoying smile, like nothing had happened. “Now I understand why you can’t do it, you’re simply too stupid.” He nodded after saying that, like he had reached a grand conclusion.
Dammit. What kind of teacher is this?
Trying to calm himself down again. Lucas tried a different approach. “Look, I just need you to show me how…” Just after he said it, he realized he had messed up. But it was too late; the smile on the old man’s face widened, and Lucas knew he was screwed.
“No problem. I’ll show you!” he said, excitedly, wickedness clear in his eyes.
Lucas dodged before the spell was even cast, but they were too close this time around, and his arm was still burned, almost making him scream from the pain.
“It looks like your reflexes and instincts aren’t so bad. Maybe you should leave the Mage class for people with a not-so-lacking brain. What do you think?”
Lucas knew he was saying those things on purpose to annoy him, but this time he didn’t get it. Would being angry help him condense a ball? If he didn’t think so, then why…? Oh, does he want me to control my anger? Why didn’t he just say so?
“Stop!” Lucas yelled again, and the old man stopped. “I’ll do it!”
He didn’t wait for the reply as he imagined the old man wouldn’t be so low as to attack him with his eyes closed. He agitated the mana inside of him like he had done before, and after he began trying to control that anger/agitation, after a few seconds he saw some improvement; but soon after, the mana stopped moving. This is hard, Lucas thought, but didn’t dare open his eyes.
He kept trying to control the mana for so long that he lost track of time, but he finally pulled it off. The next part was relatively easy, as he had done something similar with his aura before to move that force to the outside, and he used the staff as a channel. Soon after, a small fireball flew toward the old man, who dispelled it with a wave of his hand.
New skill acquired!
Skill: Fireball (Inferior)
The first spell many mages learn, and it's popular for a reason. Use the fireball to burn down your opposition.
Warning: The quality and speed of the fireball will depend on the proficiency of the user.
Lucas was exultant with his new skill, but his instructor seemed unimpressed.
“That’s got to be the weakest fireball I’ve ever seen, but I guess you’ve grasped the concept.” Lucas didn’t mind the insult, he was too happy with himself to care about such things. “Anyway, mana can be used for many things, and mages aren’t the only ones that use it. But if you want to become a mage, that will be your primary source of power, and you’ll need to do way more than what you just did.”
Lucas nodded. Despite his first attempt at throwing a fireball being weak, for a person who didn’t know that magic existed a month ago, it was awesome.
“Can I train a little more?” Lucas asked, excited to improve this new move, but he was shot down by his teacher.
“This isn’t a training room, so no. If you want to continue training, there are specific spaces for that in the city. Moving along, the Light Warrior class focuses mainly on combat using light weapons, such as daggers, light swords, fists, etc. Therefore, the skills you’ll be offered with this class are related to this style of fighting, agility-based,” he said in a monotonous tone. “Pick one or two weapons from that left section,” he pointed out.
Lucas went to the wall again and placed the staff where he found it before. After some hesitation, he picked up two daggers from the left section of the wall and came back.
“I take it you are not used to fighting with daggers?” the old man inquired, seeing the weapons he had chosen.
“Yes, how did you know?”
“Because you’re holding them like a two-year-old, but I guess it doesn’t matter,” he said, looking towards his back. When his eyes came to Lucas again, they had a mischievousness that Lucas didn’t like. “Now you’ll be fighting these wooden dolls, which shouldn’t be so hard since you are used to fighting using agility.”
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Before Lucas could protest or ask what the wooden doll was, multiple humanoid figures made of wood rolled towards him, because, despite having arms, they had no legs. In a matter of seconds, he was surrounded.
And in the next moment, one of the figures approached him and spun with its arms spread wide. Lucas was barely able to dodge when another came and did the same thing. One of the doll’s arms struck his ribs and nearly broke them. If it weren’t for his recent upgrade in Toughness, he would’ve been down and out for the count. However, the increased Toughness didn’t stop him from feeling the terrible pain, and he flinched involuntarily, barely having time to defend himself against another doll’s attack.
He knew he was in a tough spot, but he didn’t want to give the old man the satisfaction of seeing him getting beat up. So he jumped towards one of the dolls right after it spun and stabbed it with his dagger. It didn’t take long for Lucas to see the issue of stabbing a wooden doll; his multiple attempts failed to do anything meaningful.
The dagger would either be stuck in the wood or just pierce the surface without causing any substantial damage; he was terribly mismatched with his two daggers.
The wooden dolls weren’t alive, so they didn’t seem to mind at all if he stabbed them or not; they just kept doing the same movements. But there were about seven of them, and they were fast and worked perfectly together. There was simply no room for Lucas to gain the advantage; the old man had set him up. Before he gave up, however, he had one last thing he wanted to try.
Pretending he was going to attack, he did a faint and evaded them. After gaining some distance, he focused. He didn’t have much time, but just as the dolls were about to reach him, the mana channeled through his arm and fire emerged from his hand. It was faint, but enough to ignite one of the wooden dolls that came to catch him.
Lucas was exultant for half a second before a pretty hard arm struck him again on the ribs, and he heard a cracking sound this time. He tried to get away again, but he was surrounded. What followed next was a pretty brutal beating, until they finally left, leaving him crumpled on the ground.
“That was a pretty good show,” the old man said, walking up towards him. Lucas wanted to curse but couldn’t speak. “Your fighting style with the daggers is clearly lacking, but I imagine you know that already.”
Lucas wanted to say that if he had known he would be fighting against wooden immortals, he would’ve picked a better weapon, but the words refused to leave his mouth.
“I know what you are thinking, but you were dealt a weak hand when you were born, weren’t you?”
Is he…?
“And that didn’t stop you from reaching this point,” he continued. “Don’t let that be an excuse. I’ll admit, you can think quickly on your feet with that pathetic fireball. But just this isn’t enough,” he said, his tone somehow different from the mocking one from before. “Well, I guess you understood the gist of the Light Warrior class, so my job here is done.”
Before he left, however, Lucas heard a whisper in his ear: “We shall meet again… if you survive that is.”
In the next second, the old man was gone, disappearing into thin air.
What did he mean by if I survive? Lucas thought, his puzzlement taking the place of his anger. He knew he could have meant that since this was a dangerous world with beasts all around, he could die before they met again, but there was something about the way he said it…
Deciding to think about that later, Lucas reassessed his body and confirmed what he already knew: he was a goner. But the good thing was, this place wasn’t real; all he needed to do was…
“I want to leave!” he managed to say with a raspy voice, and in the next second, he was back in his real body, as good as ever.
It was pretty weird, the feeling of being close to death one moment and back to top shape the next, but he didn’t have time to dwell on that because the notifications came as soon as he took the helmet off.
*Congratulations! You have passed the tutorial. Now it is time to pick your class:
Light Warrior — A class focused on great Agility and Perception to overcome your foes with fast attacks and quick evasion. Mainly uses light weapons like daggers, small swords, etc. Stat bonuses: +3 Agi, +2 Per, +1 Vit, +2 Distributable Points
That was a very good class for him, with a good distribution of points all around and even 2 extra distributable points per level; nothing to complain there. The only problem was that it didn’t focus on mana, and Lucas had started to like using mana.
Heavy Warrior — A class focused on Strength and Toughness, using great power to suppress your enemies. Mainly uses heavy weapons like long swords, axes, and even shields for solid defense. Stat bonuses per level: +3 Str, +2 Tough, +1 Vit, +2 Distributable Points
The two points in Toughness at every level would be useful to help mitigate his disability. That, he realized, despite his constant improvements, would continue to hinder him in the long run as people become stronger. For instance, when he had zero in Toughness, normal people had six or seven in Strength, and now that he had five in Toughness, people that had leveled up as much as he did probably had around 15 in Strength. That meant that a few attacks from them could prove fatal to him.
So instead of taking the cautious approach and ending up failing all the same, he preferred to take the bold route. And instead of mitigating his disability, he increased his advantage over others in such a manner that he never got hit in the first place.
Archer — A class focused on high Perception and Agility, using great sensory capabilities to track down your prey and suppress them from a distance. Mainly uses the bow, but often combines it with light weapons for melee. Stat bonuses per level: +3 Per, +2 Agi, +1 Str, +2 Distributable Points
Yeah… that’s a no for him.
Mage — A class focused on Magic, using spells and enchantments to fight your enemies and render them useless. Mainly uses the staff, or other mana channelers. Stat bonuses per level: +3 Mag, +2 Per, +1 Vit, +2 Distributable Points
That was a class that interested him greatly, but he couldn’t even think when he saw what was up next.
Necromancer (Variant) — A class heavily focused on dark mana manipulation. Uses mana to bend the world rules at your will and rise to power. Mainly uses the staff, or other mana channelers. Stat bonuses per level: +6 Mag, +4 Per, +2 Vit, +4 Distributable Points
A variant class?! The old man had mentioned something like this, but didn’t go into any details, so he had close to no idea what this meant. But he could see the huge advantages only by looking at the stat points it gave. It gave double the stats the others offered.
Lucas felt conflicted seeing this. He wasn’t sure he wanted to follow the necromancer’s path, and he knew that class had only been offered to him because of his death aura. But it was hard to turn down something so good. That’s when he noticed this wasn’t the last class he was offered; there was another one, and this one was even weirder.
Glass Warrior (Unique) — A class heavily focused on bone manipulation. Use your glass-like bones to cut down your foes, and rise above, creating a unique path to power. Mainly uses bone as a weapon, but can also use other means of combat. Stat bonuses per level: +4 Agi, +3 Str, +2 Vit, +3 Distributable Points
What the hell is that?!