2 Blessing or Curse?

Markus stood in a daze, unsure of what he just read. The company claimed that the talents would match the person, and seeing the talent made him want to vomit. This was exactly how he behaved for two years! 'Could it be that they had access to my personal information?' he wondered. He was about to open his chat menu and report to his team when he saw several unread messages in the regional channel.

Cassie: "Wow, I got a Hero rank talent! Any solo gamers out there want to team up?"

Kev001: "Hehe, you sound cute, I got a Deified Hero rank talent, come join me!"

Cassie: "Uh… anyone else?"

BoringSloth: "You guys are too lucky, all I got was a Mortal rank talent…"

Kev001: "Well, not everyone can be as great as me. What kind of talent is Mortal ranked?"

BoringSloth: "It is called 'Good Looking' and it only has the ability to be very attractive…"

Cassie: "Ah, Mr. Sloth, are you looking for team members?"

Seeing the chat, Markus decided to open the forums and check what other people were saying about the talents. It had only been several minutes since the server started and there was already a user-posted guide to talents and their ranks. The moderators even pinned it to the top of the page. After opening it, Markus was shocked to realize how lucky he was.

'The ranks for talents seem to be Mortal, Hero, Deified Hero, Demigod, Minor God, Major God, and Titan. The original poster only knows of a few that have claimed to have Demigod rank talents, and the later three are only inferences based on the naming convention. It seems that Hero rank is the most common talent based on the user poll.' Markus finished reading and realized how unfathomable a Minor God ranked talent was currently.

He opened his group chat and saw several missed messages. He was supposed to report in immediately, but the strange talent had distracted him. Just as he was typing up the description of his talent, he saw some nasty comments from one of the teammates that had a big grudge against him.

ColdMentos: "Heh, it looks like the 'gaming genius' Markus got a crappy talent and doesn't want to share it. Hey team leader, it's already been so long, I want to report someone for not being a team player."

Leona: "Carlos, stop messing around. Markus don't worry about having a bad talent, the system wouldn't create such a huge imbalance this early. Talents are only minor things to determine the direction of your growth."

ShanaWild: "I agree with Carlos! You shouldn't give him preferential treatment Leona! Everyone else has already posted."

LennYing: "Same."

Squid: "I'm with Carlos."

Seeing the distrust from his team, Markus's chest tightened up. It wasn't that he couldn't find another gaming team, but he practically built Fenix himself. This was a matter of pride. Suddenly, he wanted to prove everyone wrong in a single sweep of the hand and overturn their opinions of him. However, reading the description of his talent made him nervous.

He didn't think that such a talent would be a good enough excuse to slack off. Markus didn't want to slack off either. Thinking about what Leona said, he had to agree. The difference that the talents made would probably not be that huge. The description seemed domineering at first glance, but it was probably very limited.

Therefore, he decided to lie a bit about his talent. There was an understanding in the gaming community that you shouldn't completely reveal your abilities. Although casual players didn't really care about this, it was very important in competitive play. It was like telling your opponent which moves you were going to do three turns ahead in chess. Although the team wanted to know the players talents, they didn't request screenshots, which implied they only wanted a general description.

Markus: "My talent is growth based, it lets me learn skills and abilities quickly."

Leona: "Okay good. That's everyone. Remember to complete the beginning quest as soon as possible. I will discuss with the vice-captain about groupings after we leave the tutorial area."

Markus closed the chat and focused on the environment around him. He was wearing Greek style clothing, a simple leather pauldron, and leather boots. He was equipped with a double-edged short sword and a simple buckler. Upon inspection, he was able to bring up their details.

[Iron Sword

Rank: Mortal

Effect: 2-3 damage

Message: A wonderful weapon for close quarters combat modeled after the Xiphos!]

[Basic Buckler

Rank: Mortal

Effect: blocks 1-2 damage

Message: Made of wood and leather. Can't be used to parry.]

[Leather Pauldron (left)

Rank: Mortal

Effect: blocks 0-1 damage

Message: Stand sideways!]

After determining his potential in combat, Markus moved forward from his spawn area. He had looked around while falling from the sky and noted a ruined building not to far from him. Therefore, he decided to move directly toward it. Not long after moving away from the starting area, a boar crossed his path. It was snuffling letting out a familiar pig sound.

'It hasn't noticed me yet.' Markus crept forward and got into position. Slightly above the boar's body on a fallen tree. He aimed at the boar's neck and landed a clean hit. The boar began to freak out and swing its tusks wildly. Meanwhile, Markus hid behind the fallen tree right after making the attack. Since the game bragged about realism, he assumed bleeding out would be a mechanic.

As he sat behind the log listening to the boar slowly dying in a rage looking for who attacked it, Markus received a series of messages.

[New skill Stealth learned.]

[New skill One-handed Weapons learned.]

[New ability Vital Strike learned.]

[Stealth has increased to level 2.]

Markus was shocked. He quickly opened the forums and checked to see if there was any information about this. The only thing he could find were a few people describing the actions you can take to learn some simple skills. Based on how they described it, you had to repeat an action a hundred times to learn the skill. Markus only attacked once and then hid to learn three skills and even level in one go.

[Stealth Level 2

Rank: Mortal

Effect: Hiding is 12% more effective.

Message: You can't see me.]

[One-handed Weapons Level 1

Rank: Mortal

Effect: Using weapons in one hand is 20% more effective

Message: En garde!]

[Vital Strike Level 1

Rank: Mortal

Effect: Activate to deal 120% damage to an enemy's vitals on your next attack. 35 second cooldown.

Message: Not to be confused for Vital Protest.]

After reading his new skills and ability, another message popped up in his game feed. The boar had finally died. After climbing over the fallen log, he discovered the ground and tree were covered in deep tusk marks. He shuddered at the thought that the boar could have probably one-shot him. Fortunately, he learned the stealth skill immediately and the boar couldn't climb the slippery log.

[Level 1 Boar (mortal). /Loot]

Markus noticed the prompt while rummaging around the boar's body. It seemed that he could either process the body on his own or let the game prompt do it for him. He had some rudimentary knowledge about skinning and butchering, so he decided to try and go for a skill. He looked around for a sharp rock since the sword was too long to use skillfully.

After finding a decently shaped rock, he used another rock to sharpen it a little until he was satisfied. Then, he crouched down and began cutting the boar open. After five minutes, he still hadn't heard any system notification and he was far from finishing the process. Realizing the waste of time, he decided to just let the system loot.

[Looting…

Damage Hide x1

Boar Meat x2

Damage tusks x2]

The body turned into a mote of light and disappeared into his body. What remained were a few pieces of loot. Markus frowned and realized that system looting was a scam. Only a single piece of hide and two pieces of meat were nowhere near the size of the boar. However, when he saw the two new prompts, his mood soared to the clouds.

[Level 1 Boar looted… 2 exp gained.]

[New skill Looting learned.]

[Looting Level 1

Rank: Hero

Effect: When Looting, get 100% better rewards.

Message: Actaeon's ability to process game impressed even the Goddess of the Hunt.]

Seeing the blue text in his new skill, Markus was ecstatic. This was a Hero ranked skill at the beginning of the game! Reading the description, he was slightly conflicted. Theoretically, learning how to process animals would probably net him more resources at this stage. Even a two-times increase in rewards is still less than half the total loot from animals. However, there was no specific limitation to animals. This could be used on stronger enemies in the future to get better items!

His mind immediately went to one word: Grind!

He must level this skill up before leaving the tutorial area! He looked at his character menu and saw the experience he gained. From his research beforehand, it was revealed that leveling in OLYMPUS was a bit different than conventional games. Any gained experience would be stored to be distributed manually. Players could either put experience into their class to unlock class advancements or put it in their skills.

For now, Markus decided to save the experience. He began to move slowly through the forest, taking advantage of his stealth skill. After a while, he came upon a badger resting in the underbrush. Seeing that it wasn't startled from Markus's approach, he immediately activated [Vital Strike] and stabbed at its body.

[Level 1 Badger (mortal) /Loot]

The badger had a lot less health than the boar and died right away from the attack. Markus was satisfied with his sudden increase in strength. He could feel the difference his skills and abilities made already. Just as he was about to loot the Badger, a game message appeared. He assumed it would be his skills leveling up, but instead…

[Abnormal Condition: Overworked]

[Overworked

Rank: Minor God

Effect: You will receive half the experience and items from slain enemies. You cannot level skills or abilities.

Message: A hard day's work deserves a good rest!]

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