Contestants are to be offered their choice of Classes based on the feats they’ve earned. This is to ensure that they closely align with the Truth of the said Class and its PATH.
— Covenant 3, Clause 1.
***
Class choices:
Berserker: Your fist moves before your head. Fighting with your life on the line is just your thing. Sip on the violence, and allow it to take over. It's your fist vs. the world.
Requirements: At least 10 strength. Feat [Bloodthirsty].
Starting skills: Berserker’s rage, Primal fist.
For each level, gain 1 point in strength and 1 free point!
Galewalker: The wind courts you, but your feet shift faster. Heed the calling; let your unmatched speed walk you to the very edges. Your enemies will never see what hit them.
Requirements: At least 10 dexterity. Feat [WindStrider].
Starting skill: Camouflage, Wind Slasher, Ghost step.
For each level, gain 1 point in dexterity and 1 free point!
He scrolled through the first couple of choices and immediately understood why Northwalker had warned him about stats. Without adequate stats, he wouldn’t be able to choose the classes even if they were available.
Those without any idea of such requirements would just allot their points without a care, and end up having to level up or choose another class, ending up with a less than favourable situation.
Berserker came from the Feat [Bloodthirsty], and as a class, it was okay. He had played them many times and certainly didn’t hate their playstyle. Though it was a bit basic.
He glossed over Galewalker, which seemed like a more specialized version of an assassin class. He admitted that there was some fun in sneaking up on people at times. But doing that all the time? Nope. Next.
Magi Knight: Make body the forge, mind the anvil. To cast in hiding is the path of weak mages. Honour flows in your blood, and your heart harbours the magic. Walk the code, spread the code, strip the mana out of those dishonored.
Requirements: At least 10 in both strength and intelligence. Feat [Stoneheaded], [Windstider]
Requirements not met — Intelligence.
Starting skills: Heart of Mana, Air bullet, Construct.
Per each level, gain 2 free points!
Perking his lips, he decided it was a terrible class. Not like he wished to be able to wield magic and have a strong body at the same time. Why would someone want that?
Street Brawler: Even bricks are faster than your brain, but so are your fists. Jump in and smack everything without discrimination. Who needs a brain when fists can do the talking?
Requirements: At least 10 in both dexterity and strength. Feat [Stoneheaded], Feat [WindStrider].
Starting skills: Martial arts, Fists of Iron, The Reckoning.
Per each level, gain 2 free points!
Zayn prickled his nose. This pesky system was making a joke, wasn’t it? He was pretty sure SysAdmin007 was writing these weird descriptions.
Yet, among the choices shown so far, he liked this one the most. Along with two free points, it came with three starting skills—best of both worlds. Though it was anyone’s guess what these skills could do. All he saw were the names.
Martial arts were self-explanatory. But what did fists of iron mean? Turn his fists into literal iron? The Reckoning sounded cool as hell, but told him fuck all about what it could do. He scrolled through for the latter options.
Corpsemancer: The spirits of the underworld are fascinated by your abilities. They wish to become your blade, forging your path in and above the underworld.
Requirement: Feat [Undying cockroach], Feat [Graveborn Vitality]
Skill: Life attunement, Body of the Night, Summon Skeleton.
Per each level, gain 1 point in Fortitude and Vitality each, and 1 free point!
Eldritch Summoner: The winds whisper of your unmatched valor to the beings of the beyond. They await your call. Are you up for the real deal?
Beware, the one who stares into the abyss becomes one with the abyss.
Requirement: Feat [Undying cockroach], Feat [WindStrider].
Starting skill: Summon, Transform, Gate of the Beyond.
Per each level, gain 1 point in Dexterity and Fortitude each, and 1 free point!
Zayn paused, taking a moment to digest both. Eldritch summoner in particular was insane. And three points per level was…broken. Corpsemancer didn’t sound terrible either. Corpses and Horrors beyond his comprehension running back and forth on his call? Metal as hell.
Though he’d never been much into summoner-type classes. Summoners had weaker bodies and focused more on summoning stronger beings to do their bidding. On top of that, he would have to make contracts with suspicious…beings with unclear motivations.
Even if he ignored how dodgy that was, he hated having to rely on others’ power.
Pass.
Red Rager: In the black ocean of stillness, bloodlines are a dime a dozen. Yet, very few have it in them to nurse an unending chaos within their veins. Steal their skills, burn their traits, tear through the heavens—all the races and species shall become the fuel for your madness.
Requirements: At least 10 in Fortitude, Strength, and Vitality. Feat [Undying cockroach], Feat [Bloodthirsty].
Starting skills: I see you now, Reinforced Fist, Scarlet Veins.
Per each level, gain 3 free points!
“Huh.”
As soon as he saw Red Rager, all of his doubts floated towards the back of his mind. Three skills and three free points at each level! Free! Meaning he could allot them as he wished. Anywhere.
Adding to that, could he collect the skills of all the races and species? Having this class would be like having all the above classes, right? The system was not giving him much of an option. If this were a multiple-choice question, the answer would be a bit too obvious.
He raised his hand toward the confirmation button.
Ding! Northwalker sent you a text!
His finger froze mid-air. This guy was unmuted already...
Northwalker: I would suggest you avoid choosing classes with ambiguous moral standings.
Ambiguous moral standings? Was he talking about Red Rager? He could understand Eldritch Summoner or Corpsemancer, at least. Running around and making deals with the ‘cosmic horrors’ was certainly not the popular choice.
“What’s the deal with Red Rager?"
Northwalker: Bloodlines are considered sacred by most factions within the system. Red Rager would make you an enemy of everyone. If you had a Tier A organization like ‘*********’ backing you, you could’ve followed this path. But you don’t, so I suggest you go with [Galewalker] or [Street Brawler], or even [Berserker]. Those are all great classes, and would offer wide paths of expansion.
This made no sense. He didn’t have to specifically go against those with bloodlines. The description mentioned all species, meaning it should apply to monsters just the same. But he was supposed to skip the most obvious choice because people would be angry if he chose it?
“Would I be strong enough to survive hell zone with those classes?”
Northwalker: Eventually, as there are no weak or strong classes. A class is only as weak or strong as its wielder. And you do not know *******************************.
‘Northwalker’ has been muted for an hour for attempting to give out classified information!
That was a tad bit ominous. The system itself, stopping Northwalker from giving information, meant there were some serious drawbacks. And he could see the argument. He really could. But he almost couldn’t stop his finger from hovering towards the confirmation button.
Confirm ‘Red Rager’?
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Warning! This choice is irreversible. Your future classes will be dependent on the base class you choose. Are you absolutely certain?
A tinge of doubt rooted inside him and spread like wild weeds. He stared at the warning screen. Remembering how he got into mechanical engineering because he wanted to make his Ma and others happy. How that had gone for him.
Not like things would have been much different if he had chased his dreams. His life would have still been ruined. Earth would have still revolved around the sun. And the apocalypse would have happened all the same.
But maybe, just maybe, wouldn’t he be a tiny bit happier?
“Very few times does a man get to choose their own path in life.” Raka interrupted all of a sudden, speaking like a philosopher. “Birth, Death, how the world reacts to you and your choices—none of those are within your control. You could spend your entire life trying to do just the right things, make sure everything falls into place; you’d still make mistakes. And the moment you slip, the world will bear its fangs at you anyway.”
Zayn shot the motorcycle a side eye. Any other time, he’d quip that an artefact born just a few hours ago shouldn’t speak like a wise old man who thinks about thoughts, but the words stuck with him.
He turned his gaze to the safer choices again.
Street Brawler: Even bricks are faster than your brain, but so are your fists. Jump in and smack everything without discrimination. Who needs a brain when fists can do the talking?
Starting skills: Martial arts, Fists of Iron, The Reckoning.
Berserker: Your fist moves before your head. Fighting with your life on the line is just your thing. Sip on the violence, and allow it to take over. Its your fist vs. the world.
Starting skills: Berserker’s rage, Primal fist.
Galewalker: The wind courts you, but your feet shift faster. Heed the calling; let your unmatched Dexterity walk you to the very edges. Your enemies will never see what hit them.
Starting skill: Camouflage, Wind Slasher, Ghost step.
They were more standard; maybe they would allow him to blend in. But his heart didn’t stir the same way when he looked at them.
This choice is irreversible.
His whole life, he had let things go. He wanted to make people happy: his mother, his family, his bosses. Now again, he was being told to give up on what he wanted, all because others would not like it. He laughed, “That ain’t happening this time.”
Are you absolutely certain?
Long he lived being mediocre. He’d much rather burn bright for a single moment than flicker for his entire life. He wasn’t about to waste his second chance at life.
Class ‘Red Rager’ obtained!
He couldn’t feel any difference, not until heat suddenly escaped from his body. Or so he thought. The world turned excruciatingly cold. Even the faintest air current pierced his skin like ice shards.
He groaned. His knees buckled. Falling to the ground, he writhed and quivered in pain, like a drug addict on relapse. A hiss rose out of his body, wafting into a swirling mist.
Red streaks covered his body, tracing every single vein and artery, as though molten iron traversed his veins instead of blood. He tried to hold a groan, but what rushed out of his throat was a feral roar of pain that wouldn’t end.
“That’s just a flesh wound, kid. Don’t you dare give up!” Raka's words rang like a bell, reverberating over and over inside his head.
The weight of his blood kept bloating, turning as heavy as blocks of iron inside his veins, threatening to tear him asunder. Gritting his teeth, Zayn barely held onto his hazy consciousness in fear of losing himself.
Just when he thought he was going to break into blood puddles, the pain receded to nothingless; to a sudden standstill. Only then did he allow his fading consciousness to go black.
***
Once Zayn woke up, the world had turned much sterner and calmer. Though, why did he feel like he’d forgotten something really important? His bike…he couldn’t have dreamt it all, right?
He ran around in panic until he spotted a white light going back and forth in the distance. A bunch of small silhouettes ran behind it, at times shooting and whipping at it. It took him less than a second to realize that Raka was playing around with them.
It was weird.
He still couldn’t believe it had gained consciousness. And weirdly enough, it chose the voice of Will Hunter, ‘The Helldiver’ himself! It was something incomprehensible, but it made sense that it would choose his voice.
It was his bike after all.
Though being sentient meant…it could make its own choices. It would have its own preferences. What if…one day it decided not to stay with him anymore? Like the rest of them?
Ignoring that thought, he turned to stare at the new notifications.
Class [Red Rager] obtained!
New skills unlocked!
Scarlet Veins — (Apprentice · Low): Your blood holds the secrets of life itself, storing them as charges inside your heart.
Charge: 10/10. Your body regenerates 1 Charge every 60 minutes. Additionally, you gain 1 Charge for every 10% of health lost and 1 Charge each time a buff activates on you.
Once a day, you can activate the buff ‘Bloodflare’, increasing +10 in all stats. Effect and duration scale with your level, racial blood level, and number of charges left. Effect and duration scale based on the number of days ‘Bloodflare’ remains unused.
Cooldown: 24 hours.
Bloodflare made him grin like an idiot. He had six separate stat types right now, and if all gained ten points each, that was sixty points. That activated, he could definitely punch through trees as though they were mud.
Took him nearly one minute to digest that skill before moving on to the next.
I see you now — (Apprentice · Low): Whenever you are under a bleeding effect, you become capable of analyzing the secrets of your enemy and the world.
Cost: 1 Charge per every 90 seconds of usage.
That…It seemed like he was going to have to bleed quite often. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that. What did it mean by secrets? Skills? Feats? Or something else? Knowing the enemy's skills beforehand would surely come in handy. In fact, it was kind of broken?
Reinforced fist — (Apprentice · Low): By calling upon the primordial energy in your heart, enforce your fist to throw punches capable of shattering stones and bending iron.
Cost: 1 Charge per use.
He couldn’t complain. For this dungeon, this was almost the perfect skill. And he’d come to love the feeling of bashing things in the face. It was exhilarating.
Class feat unlocked!
Boon of ‘The Bloodless One’ (Class): While you’re under a bleeding effect, your vitality increases by 50%. Similarly, the cooldown of charges is decreased by half.
Another thing that encouraged him to bleed. Well, at least it is certainly something he had used for. Vitality-based effect probably meant stat, and he liked that he’d regain charges faster.
Free points: 01
He’d kept that point just in case. Now that he knew how to allot points, it became easier every time. Every time, his body changed minutely. It seemed small, but with every point, it added up.
He’d been more on the slender side before, and sitting around in the office gave him a pudgy belly. But all the stats had changed him, filling it with throbbing, sculpted muscles. He feared he’d soon look like a model.
This felt like doping. Only, it was permanent and had no side effects… or so he hoped.
He closed his eyes, imagining what he had done before. The mana paths as they moved within him. Then he imagined a tumultuous ball of mana in his abdomen—the free point he had yet to put into use.
He pulled on them, despite a dizzying headache assaulting him.
It was like trying to snatch a candy out of a kid’s hand. There was a fierce struggle, sure, but eventually they gave up. Once more than half the energy got pulled out, the rest followed willingly.
They shifted to every corner of his body, vibrating, just waiting to go haywire.
“Strength!”
The energy brushed past his body, filling him with a surging power, turning his muscles thicker. With 17 points in strength, he was at least thrice as strong since the morning. If math is mathing, I will become the strongest being in the universe within a month.
He laughed at his own joke.
Ding! Compensation package (Iron) has arrived. Receive?
Finally. Though the timing was rather suspicious. Did they wait until he chose a class to send the package? Was he worthy of a compensation package only after getting the class? How ruthless.
SysAdmin007: Fancy a gamble?
“What gamble?”
SysAdmin007: Choose a number between 0 and 10. The closer you are to my number, the better your compensation will be. And likewise, if you choose a number too far from mine, your current package...
“0”
Ding! Congratulations! Compensation package (Silver) received.
Sysadmin007: ….No! No no no no! You didn’t just guess that! Ahhhhhh. Everyone chooses 7, or 3. 0 is the least picked option; why would you choose it?? This is a cheat—
The system cut the text out before the message could finish.
Zayn chuckled. He wasn’t like the others. Others would hesitate and choose something in the middle to stay on the safer side. Not Zayn; he always loved a good bet.
A rectangular box fell out of nowhere with a thud. The glowing light of the red moon flashed eerily on its edges. When he saw the size and dimensions of it, his jaw dropped.
“A coffin?”
Did he get sent a corpse as compensation?
“Oi! What the hell is this?!” Zayn shouted at the air, but received no response even after a while. He wasn’t sure what he should have expected from a troll, anyway.
Holding his breath, he crept towards it. The coffin was cold to the touch, as if it had been under a glacial temperature for millennia. From its texture, he couldn’t really tell if it was made of wood or metal. It felt like neither and both—giving him a completely alien feeling.
Intricate runes and sigils spiraled across its entire surface, faintly glinting in the dim light. His eyes were fixed on the circular insignia at its center: a blade and a hammer, crossing over each other. After summoning all of his courage, he tried to open it, determined to see the contents inside.
It opened up by itself—almost giving him a heart attack.
“Screw–” He swore out loud. Under the red moon, he even saw a corpse inside. Only a couple of seconds later did he realize that it was just clothes. A fresh set of clothes. He quickly rummaged through it.
A red long coat, matching red pants, and a white shirt to go along with it. Though it wasn’t some sort of artifact or armour as he hoped, he could use a fresh set of clothes right about now.
He wasn’t sure whether the moon above gave it the eerie red hue it had, or whether the hue came from the suit itself. But he knew wearing this was asking for everything to attack him. The golems and treants would see him coming from a mile away.
“Can I change the colour?”
SysAdmin007: I can take it away if you don’t want it.
“Black or blue?” He asked again, only to receive wind in his face for half a minute. He sighed, taking a look at the other items. Beside the suit, there was a pair of gloves resembling the limbs of a ferocious beast.
Nameless Gauntlets (Iron—growth): An item cursed to be lost and discarded. After being lost and forgotten by all of its previous masters, it forwent its name, too. It randomly stores the skills of the enemies killed. Sometimes, it'll also bite you.
Currently stored skills (0/1)—none.
Looking closer, it was shaped like a pair of dragon claws, pitch black, and any light that neared it was gobbled up by it like a mini black hole. As soon as he touched it, it leapt up and fit snugly around his hand, turning into a pair of handgloves.
It gave a feeling of familiarity, rubbing his hand like a lost child waiting to be praised. It was weird, but he found it rather cute. As soon as he put it on, it became indistinguishable from his skin, becoming a second layer over it.
No wonder everyone forgot it!
“Just stay black.” He pursed his lips as it returned to being a black pair of fingerless gloves. He shook his head, understanding its intent. It was just trying to please him out of fear of abandonment. Neat, another sentient thing on him.
Besides the suit and gloves, there were lots of regular rations, and twenty bottles of water for him to use. Zayn felt himself grinning like a fool. For once, the system admin had been generous to him!
He quickly gorged on some chocolate and energy bars before realizing he needed to save them for later.
“Whatever.” He followed along despite his unwillingness and stored everything inside the storage ring. The coffin, however, didn’t go inside the storage ring like other items, for some reason.
He stared at it for a moment before deciding to leave it right there.
The jeans he wore had been shredded a while ago, filled with grime from all the fighting. And he’d already thrown his jacket. For the last few hours, he was practically a madman running with his junk hanging in the wind half the time.
As he put the new clothes on, comfort spread through his entire body. Although he thought it’d look bad, it didn’t seem like the worst combination ever. Had he damaged his brain?
The battlefield had calmed down by now, with no movement visible in the distance. Except for the motorcycle and the treants. The scales had reversed; now it was Raka doing the chasing.
It was his motorcycle, alright.
Eventually, Raka sped towards him. It tore through the sand, leaving a cloud of swirling dust behind. The coughing noise of its engine closed in sooner than he expected.
Did it get faster than before?
“You are finally awake. Just in time.” Raka shouted, its tone half relief and half blame.
“In time for what?” He asked, puzzled.
“Hop on.” Raka didn’t bother to explain as Zayn climbed on, bolting off towards the distance.
