Chapter XLV - First Hidden Class

Mawu was astonished at the notifications he had received, first he created his first skill and received a hidden quest!

[Stealth]

Active Skill - Level 0 - Rank D

Uses the Mana Circuit to reflect the light off the user causing a distortion of one's surroundings to camouflage the user. Consumes 1 MP per second while active.

Mawu activated [Stealth] and began stealthily sneaking towards his destination.

After walking through the forest for a few moments he had leveled it up to level 2, as he was receiving experience for every MP that was spent. He pushed his way through the underbrush and found a small den in a little hill conspicuously hidden. He had taken out the item he had received from dismantling the leopard, [Scent of the Leopard] and entered the den.

It wasn't very big and there was next to nothing inside it besides a makeshift hodgepodge of random junk and slightly further inside a young leopard kitten was cowering in the corner. Mau smiled and deactivated his Stealth skill and used the [Scent of the Leopard].

The small kitten's stumpy ears perked up and cautiously approached the weird thing that smelled like it's mother. Mawu held his hand as still as he could as the baby leopard slowly approached and began to sniff this weird thing. It smells like mother... but it doesn't look like mother... Mawu could only imagine what was going through the small kitten's mind.

It gained more courage as this foreign creature wasn't being aggressive towards it so it crept closer. Mawu backed out of the den slowly as the kitten continued to follow him. He reached into his inventory as he had gained more room to maneuver and pulled out a flank of raw pork from the boars he butchered.

He tore a small piece off and held it out for the leopard. It began sniffing it and decided to give it a curiosity lick and found the taste to it's liking so it decided to take a small bite. The pork was slightly too big so it shook it's head as it tried to chew.

Mawu smiled and tore off an even smaller piece this time and held it out for the tiny creature. It once again took the pork and found it easier to eat. It began a loud purr from it's throat, not like the house cats he was used to back at home, this was something between a guttural growl and a soft purr. The baby leopard came closer wanting more and as Mawu retreated out of the den he began leaving a trail of tiny pork chunks.

After exiting the den he began crouching and not long after the baby leopard had followed him out. It came up to him and began rubbing against him and making loud mewls wanting more so Mawu conceded and gave it some more. Shortly afterwards a notification chimed in his head.

<Hidden Quest Completed!>

<Player Mawu has successfully bonded with Leopard>

<Would Player like to upgrade basic class Hunter to hidden class Beast Tamer?>

<y/n>

"Y-yes!" Mawu replied, he couldn't believe his luck!

<One moment...>

<...>

<Upgrade Complete!>

A light began to envelop Mawu as his entire being began to glow a brilliant white light and as the time passed, the glow began to fade until Mawu was looking exactly as he was before.

"Huh... Not gonna lie, I was expecting more!" Mawu joked to himself and laughed at his own joke. As if the AI had heard his discontent it chimed once more:

<Reward for Hidden Class Quest>

<Skill Created - Beast Link Lv 0 {0%} unlocked!>

***

Marcus was assisting with the assigning of all the members to their dormitories when he received a message from Mawu:

"Hey! I got a hidden class upgrade, I'm not Hunter anymore, I'm a Beast Tamer!"

Marcus smiled and replied back "That's great! I can't wait to hear more about your new class when you get back, did you unlock alchemy yet?" Marcus never got a reply a sighed...

"I definitely need to find someone who would be better at handling the day-to-day operations of the guild..." Marcus muttered to himself. As things were continuing to grow, his list would become longer and longer.

Everyone had finally made it to Sterling City so Marcus decided it was time to test the recruits who wished to rise up. He already had an idea in who he wanted to lead each team but he didn't want to force anything on anybody, just because they were successful leaders before his regression didn't mean that they were going to now, their experiences made them who they are and they might not have received those experiences yet.

Marcus ordered everyone to gather in the Training Hall so everyone could participate. Out of the 145 players who gathered in the hall, only about a quarter of that decided to tryout for Elder positions. Any who didn't make the slot would be eligible for a team leader position. The tryouts were to be split into multiple categories and at the end, the scores in each category would be combined and those with the highest totals would be allowed to choose which position among the Elders.

Marcus thought this was a rather fair system as those who excelled would become the leaders and those who did not would become the followers. Marcus had also nominated a few of the rankers he knew would be perfect fits for the roles and they had decided to follow along and participate.

The first was a simple single elimination tournament, with 32 participants, there would be 5 rounds with one winner. The two who were eliminated in the semi-finals would compete for third place. First would get 5 points, second would get 3 points, and third would get 1 point.

The following would be a quiz to determine if the qualities of each person and quantify if they were leadership material or not. Quiz would 14 questions and similar to the tournament, first would receive 5 points, second 3 points, and third 1 point.

Next would be a dungeon trial run. Each contestant would be allowed to select their own party members from those who were present. Each party would be scored on completion time. Each run will need a full completion, meaning no monsters left behind. Each party would be scored on their team compositions and the cohesivity of the team as well as potential team work. Lastly they would be scored on how many remaining members are alive at the end of the dungeon. Once again, First place would get 5 points, second 3 points, and third 1 point.

The final test would be a simple popularity test based on who the party members in each group would prefer to be lead by. This is to prevent the leaders from pushing their members into rushing through the dungeons with little care to the members. First would get 5 points, second 3 points, and third 1 point.

Once everyone had gathered together Marcus stood in front of them all. He loudly spoke "Welcome to the best Guild in all of The World, none can even compare..."

After the introduction everyone cheered and was excited and prepared for the action to come. The 32 contestants all gathered together and began to draw for this positions within the bracket...

***

Mawu was dashing through the plains carrying the small leopard in his arms. He was grinning from ear to ear as carefully speeding towards Sterling City. He couldn't wait to show off his cute little pet to his sister! It was truly a time to be alive for the young man!

As he entered the city he quickly gathered a ton of attention as other players couldn't help but notice his pet...

***

Forest Fairy slain!

0+0 EXP

"Alright Koro, get over here, it's dead!" Artox yelled.

The lizardman had finally been given a modicum of respect from the Vice Master by being called by his name and he came over and called out "Dismantle!" and after a few seconds he smiled "Got another!"

Artox grinned "About time, I feel like we've killed thousands of these things..." and Koro corrected him "975 sir!"

Artox groaned "Really? Sheesh, how many do we have?" Koro checked his inventory and counted...

"Um.... We have 5..." Koro sheepishly replied. Artox threw his hands up in defeat and fell to his knees and began fake sobbing "How did he get so many!!!!!"

***

Lisa was inside the tower not knowing the massive commotion that was consuming the entire Royal's District. She had been studying from the Elemental Mage mentor and had finally learned [Earth Strike] it was a draining endeavor as she had next to no affinity with the Holy attribute and did not learn this until she had already promoted into the Priest class and couldn't change back. She had finally completed what she had set out to do and was intent on returning back to the training dummies outside when she came across the massive crowd circling around the sparring grounds...