The end of the world began with a voice in my head. A cold, monotone voice of a woman that I would be hearing for the rest of my life. It began by introducing itself.
[ I am Gaia, the ground you walk upon given incarnation. In the short thousand years that I was Asleep, my brother Tartaros has had many children. Children that have invaded my domain.]
At the time, I was living in an alley. Some people who were passing by stopped in their tracks, listening to the words unheard by those without potential, those without talent.
[ These children come from the North, emerging from a chasm surrounded by uninhabitable deserts. Among them are 8 demons, Tartaros conceived these demons with only one goal: to do evil. If you are to protect my domain you will need power. Granting Adrian a class. Processing...]
There was a moment of silence, filled by the chatter of the ignorant people unaware of words filling the heads of the worthy. Soon the chatter would turn to chaos.
[Conditions met. Theif class granted.]
[Conditions exceeded. Theif class evolving.]
[Conditions met. Master Theif class granted.]
[Conditions exceeded. Master theif class evolving]
[Conditions met. Novice assassin class granted.]
[Benefits of novice assassin lv.1 class]
[Short sword proficiency lv.1]
[Dagger proficiency lv.1]
[Adrian is proficient with daggers]
[Dagger proficiency lv.1->lv.4]
[Short sword proficiency lv.1->lv.2]
[Steal lv.1]
[Adrian is proficient at thievery]
[Steal lv.1->lv.10]
[Conditions exceeded. Steal is evolving]
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[Loot lv.1]
[Loot lv.1 details. As long as the target is unaware of the user's possession of loot lv.1, all valuables (or items of choice) on their person will be transferred to the user with undetectable mana]
[Hide presence lv.1]
[Hide presence lv.1 details. Undetectable mana surrounds the user, canceling out the skill detect presence lv.2 or lower]
[Fatal eyes lv.1]
[Fatal eyes lv.1 details. Detects weak points and openings from the target]
[Proficiencies will increase in level as familiarity is gained]
[At lv.10 Proficiencies will become masteries which have no max lv.]
[Skills will increase in level as experience is gained.]
[At lv.10 skills will evolve if possible.]
[Use this strength to protect my domain]
I would like to say that I had some sort of enlightenment after the voice in my head finally shut up. I would like to say that I immediately jumped into action, leveling up my proficiency with the dagger on my belt. In reality, Gaia's words didn't really change much for a stray 16 year old who lived in an alley.
Monsters and demons in the desert way up north? How would that change the fact that I had to eat?
The only thing that I cared about were these "skills" that were mentioned. I could steal without using my hands? I could hide my presence from the guards? For a street rat like me, it was too good to be true.
I stood up and walked out of the alley. Those who heard the words were stunned and congregating off to the side of the foot path. Everyone else was walking around them. I walked over and started asking if everyone heard the same thing. From what I gathered (12 silver and 5 copper coins) everyone heard the same up to the class selection. Some people, like me, had class evolutions, but most only had one evolution. Most of the people without evolutions were of the warrior class. Those with evolutions were first selected as mages, then assigned attributes such as flame mage.
As I was gathering information (and money) I quickly realized that most of the people's classes were either warrior or mage. I only met 2 other thieves but only one of them evolved into a master theif. I also met an archer, an evolved spear warrior who used to be a soldier, and a priest of Apollo who was a healer mage. I claimed to be a warrior whenever someone asked me about my class. Somehow, telling everyone that I was an assassin seemed like the wrong call, even if I was only a novice.
During the information gathering, I tried different methods of activating the looting skill. All I had to do was think about what I wanted from the target and it would appear in my hand. It wouldn't work if I was more than ten paces from them but compared to pickpocketing the old fashioned way, it was a godsend.
[Loot lv.1->lv.2]
[Loot lv.2 details. Effective range increased by 50%. Pilfery protection lv.3 ignored]
Over the next few days, as people began to test their abilities, very few doubted the voices in their heads. The warriors met at the city forum to gather and level up their proficiency. I joined in on a few bouts but I couldn't get over the length difference between a dagger and sword. I only succeeded in leveling up fatal eyes to lv.3 which made it so that it would work if the target's weapon proficiency was lower than lv.4.
The early days were just the calm before the storm however. Soon, I would discover how a novice assassin lv.1 becomes a novice assassin lv.2.