3) Classlessness

*At least the game is generous with what it considers a 20% off and rounds upwards.* Satisfied with his stat distribution, Sam went to check on his equipment and see what he could do about the awkward situation,

The beginner clothes don't provide any armor value, as they are purely cosmetic, as most clothes. There are 2 categories of equipment, cosmetic and authentic. Cosmetics are just a facade, while the authentic armor affects your skills and stats. The authentic is always worn over the cosmetics, as there is no default way of hiding your equipment, so cosmetics are purely for wearing in the city.

Cosmetic clothes can be removed up to your bra or underwear, any further isn't allowed, outside of special buildings/locations.

The only other pieces of equipment Sam had were a wooden club in his inventory. Upon every level up, a player gets 2 extra inventory slots for storage, so currently Sam only has 2 slots, one of which is occupied by said wooden club.

What do I need to do first? The most obvious one would be checking into the adventurers association and seeing if they have any quests near here and level up fast. My special class quest might be picked up by another by the time I am level 20, which is unlikely, but still means I need to hurry. Sigh, If only I didn't go the intelligence-perception route last time, I could have gotten such a good class. This time though, I will get it and take back my rightful spot among the rankers!

Players all around the beginner town were socializing and having fun, while Sam walked towards the adventurers association of Copper town and soon arrived near a grand building with a sign indicating its affiliation.

Sam saw the Cloak and shield logo and entered the building. A bunch of noob players stood in a line to get their special identity tokens and to choose a class.

Each stat has a basic class associated with it. Besides that, the player chooses their class freely, even if it doesn't fit their talent. Realms of Conquest is an open-world MMORPG, where content is infinitely and ever-changing, it is random to the extreme, and there is no way to predict what event Gaia will cause next, so anyone can do anything at any point.

The wait took only 10 minutes, and Sam finally reached the reception desk and stood in front of the beautiful receptionist dressed in a very formal and professional-looking dress, as she greeted him with a smile.

"Do I know you?" The female NPC looked at Sam and asked such a question.

In-game avatars can be altered freely, but only up to 5% in body proportions. Sam hadn't altered his body size, as that was proven detrimental, as rankers who did such a thing fell off quickly due to their minds not being able to understand the variation in size between reality and the game. He made his character look the exact same as his last one, which was deleted but not forgotten by the NPCs.

His character looked exactly like his real-life self, except for the dark purple hair, which replaced his normal dark brown hair and red eyes, which replaced his normal dark blue eyes and a couple of wrinkles added to make him look slightly older compared to his real-life counterpart. All of his other aspects, his height of 170cm and lean body stayed the same, so it wasn't surprising that the receptionist recognized him, as he had built quite the rapport with her from before.

"Nope! We have never met in my life, miss Cecile. Call me samshank; I am here for the first time and in need of a bit of guidance on how to get around."

[Cecile's opinion of you has increased to 80/100, friend]

"That's an interesting story you have there, mister samshank. You really remind me of my friend, Francesco. I would like to get to know you later over dinner. Would you be available for today evening, at 2300?"

Sam smiled a bit and said, "I would love to. How could I say no to such a beautiful woman asking me out for dinner? I won't miss it for the world!"

"What is taking this guy so long?" "Ya, why is he just flirting with the receptionist!"

"He dares lust after our dear Cecile! I'll make him pay the iron price!"

With the growing discontent between the other patrons and players, Cecile had to cut the friendly talks and get down to official business. With the proper paperwork filed, Sam was escorted into a room with a special crystal ball.

The slightly short and petite woman with wings for arms escorting Sam said, "This is a special crystal ball made of mana. It allows the user to look deep within themselves and pull out their inner warrior! Just place your hand on it and look within yourself to find your true power!"

*Fanfare is still high here. Doesn't matter anyway; I know what class I am getting.*

With his hand on the crystal ball, a red screen appeared before him, which read.

[Choose your class]

1) Battle mage

2) Shield bearer

3) shield bear

4) elemental mage

5) Berserker Knight

6) ...

"*Wait! I can get a battle mage from this crystal? And here I was about to complete a mad quest to get it at level 20. Well, guess the choice is made for me.* I choose Berserker Knight. *There is no way I am missing out on these crucial skills to just get a class faster! Who gives a flying crap about fast progression, plus, this is just a trap. I need the order to be correct*"

[Skills acquired]

Cleave(0)

Two-handed weapon mastery (0)

Unconventional Swordsmanship(0)

*The standard single stat skillset: a super attack, a mastery for damage and the art of combat, the 3 basics of a class.*

Skill points are abundant, and everyone gets one per level. It is even possible to manually level up skills without adding skill points if you complete specific missions, but the number of skills is quite limited. Skill books are extremely rare and sought after. Getting one is difficult to the point of even common skills being worth hundreds of gold, so taking a tier 2 class like battle mage, which requires 2 main and 1 sub stat over a tier 1 class, especially one with such beneficial skills for a future battle mage build, would mean missing out on really good skills and riding the struggle of having to juggle skills that require 3 different stats.

A couple of people have made such mistakes and regretted it immediately. Unless someone is a perfectionist with a fetish for min-maxing, taking a tier 2 class before you even ditch your tier 0 civilian status is completely idiotic.

*Why is it even an option? Making pitfalls for the noobs isn't very kind game devs, but I ain't one to judge. If you are free to make decisions, the only one to blame for your mistakes is yourself. Which skill should I get first? I'll take Two-handed weapon mastery. It is extremely useful and basically impossible to activate on its own. I know the first and easiest for me to get technique of unconventional Swordsmanship from the tutorial videos and cleave's activation is extremely easy.*

A skill being level 0 means it has no effect and is disabled until a player meets the activation condition or adds a single skill point to it. The system detects all the movements of the players, and a couple of weeks after launch, this trick was figured out and widely used to save on skill points and get an easier start as a beginner.

Most activation conditions are exceptionally easy, but some either don't have one or it just hasn't been discovered yet, such as weapon masteries. The guides online universally agree that the first skill point should go to the mastery, and so does Sam. As one of the first people to figure out this strange effect, he wholeheartedly agrees with the meta of putting your first point into a mastery.

Two-handed weapon mastery (1): Increase the strength of your grip on two-handed weapons by 20% and the damage of a two-handed weapon by 1%

*Well, I'll go check in with Kat downstairs and get a quest or something. I need to activate Cleave and Unconventional Swordsmanship, or my battle mage acquisition plan will fall through.*

With his class now selected, Sam left the Class selection room and went downstairs to meet Kat.

*Kinda wish I got to know more people around here other than Cecile. Well, not my fault they are all just annoying and stuck-up pricks. Like, what kind of adventure guild has stuck-up bureaucrats as its leaders and upper management?*

Just as Sam was thinking about her, he looked towards the bar-like room below the main reception area, where a woman with a stone-cold face and long black hair and flat chest stood. She looked towards Sam, and a small growl could be heard from the twitch her mouth did.

Sam smiled with his nice guy grin and approached Kat. "Good day, miss Kat. I was wondering if you have met a guy I am looking for. He is about my height, has dark purple hair and-"

"What do you want Francesco?" Annoyance could be seen on her face as Sam sat in front of her. Sam faked shock and said to her while whispering, "Don't blow my cover. Also, I am not Francesco; I'm samshank. Say it with me, Sam-Shank! I just registered and was wondering if any groups are looking for a defender."

[Kat's opinion of you has decreased to 40/100, endearing annoyance]

Kat sighed and said, "A level 2 party in room 7 put in a request for a paladin, but I guess they will probably accept you if you change your entire personality and grow a pair."

Sam nodded his head and went towards room number 7. Realms of Conquest can be enjoyed and easily played solo, but since forever MMORPGs are a multiplayer game, and Sam currently needs teammates to safely activate his skills and grind for a bit before his cheating power kicks in and widens the gap between anyone at his level and himself to an insurmountable degree.

Sam entered the room with his temporary teammates and widened his eyes when he saw what was happening inside.