Class

[Universe #2339 has been selected as the next participant in the War of The Worlds Game!]

[Select your class, because in one minute the world will be merged with another. If you fail to select a class, one will be given to you randomly.]

[The first game will be a survival game! Yay!]

I didn't know what was going on, but to be honest I didn't really care. I had played a lot of video games, read a lot of novels, and even had a vivid imagination myself so I adapted fairly quickly. 

I was stressing over what I was going to go to college for, but now that wasn't important. I used the screen before me to start going through the list of classes, and began to note some that seemed interesting.

A lot of classes existed, but their descriptions were very basic. From the description the system gave of classes, there would be class evolutions at certain levels. Level 1 was the basic class, Level 15 would be the first evolution, then another at 30, 45, 60, 75, 100, then the only way to evolve your class after that was by meeting special conditions. 

The typical fantasy classes were here, with some that were super niche. For example there was a witch class. A mage class only available for women, and they also included curse spells. Then there were things like warlocks, who were only male and had demonic pacts that would determine what kind of spells they had.

Faced with this giant list, I actually felt slightly overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite options, but I decided on one that I thought would be interesting.

[Blood Mage class has been selected.]

[Blood Bullet skill has been learned.]

[Blood Slash skill has been learned.]

[Drain skill has been learned.]

[Life Stealer skill has been learned.]

[Basic Sword (Common) has been gained.]

[Cloth Robe (Common) has been gained.]

I opened my inventory, equipping my robe which had the option to hide outside of combat, along with taking my sword out of my inventory. It was a basic metal sword, heavier than what I imagined, but it didn't feel too heavy that I couldn't swing it.

Not that I knew what proper form would be like, but perhaps I could get a skill later? My Blood Slash skill would empower my next attack, causing it to deal more damage than normal.

"Status."

[Name: Alexander Valentino]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 1 (0%)]

[HP: 200/200]

[MP: 100/100]

[Stats]

Strength: 10

Constitution: 10

Agility: 10

Dexterity: 10

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Charm: 10

Luck: 1

[Titles:]

None

[Equipment:]

Head: None

Neck: None

Top: Cloth Robe +1 Defense

Bottom: None

Feet: None

Hands: None

Arms: None

Rings: None

Back: None

Main Hand: Basic Sword (1-5 Damage)

Off Hand: None

"Skills."

[Active:]

Blood Bullet - Level 1

[-10 HP to fire a projectile that deals 15 Magic-Damage.]

Blood Slash - Level 1

[-10 HP to empower your next attack to deal an additional +10 M-DMG.]

Drain - Level 1

[Causes a target to take 1 M-DMG per second for 30s. Healing you for 100% of the damage dealt.]

[Passive:]

Life Stealer - Level 1

[Killing an enemy grants 10 Temporary HP, up to a maximum of 300 HP, that lasts for 5 minutes.]

"Hm. The starting skills aren't bad, the only thing that worries me is that my health is a resource, and I don't have enough healing. It's not easy to sustain. Well, let's see how it goes after I get some more skills."

I checked the timer left before the merging of worlds.

[30 seconds left.]

I left my room, making my way to the living room. My parents still weren't home, but I knew that even if they were to try they wouldn't make it in time for us to meet up. Instead I made my way to my younger sister's room.

*Knock knock*

No response.

"I'm letting myself in."

I then opened the door, and saw my younger sister was taking a mid day nap.

"I knew she would be sleeping. Hey, idiot wake up."

I shook her as hard as I could, and in just a moment she woke up angrily.

"What do you want?! Stop shaking me!"

"Hailey, hurry up and choose your class. The world is ending. You should choose an archer class."

Perhaps because she was just waking up, she was much more obedient than usual.

"Gosh... Okay. There are a lot of classes with archer attached to it, which one should I choose?"

"Anyone that you like. It doesn't really matter."

"Mm... I choose this Elven Archer class. Elves are cute."

"Should have chosen an orc archer then."

I received a swift punch, however it was incredibly fast, faster than I knew my sister was capable of.

I ended up not being able to dodge it, like I normally could, and got punched square in the face. My sister looked down at her fist in amazement, and that was when she started to wake up fully.

"What's going on, I thought this was a dream but the blue screen is telling the truth?"

Rubbing my jaw, I nodded.

"Yeah, it seems pretty real, and if that's the case a lot of people are going to die today. If we don't want to die, we should do our best to kill whatever tries to kill us, okay?"

My sister showed a look of reservation, which was natural for any normal person. The idea of killing something was not a pleasant one.

"Equip your items through your inventory, and read your skills. We're going to go outside and see if we can meet up with others. We are weak alone. I'm a mage and you're an archer, we have no frontline to defend us."

My sister nodded, and equipped her items. A brown coarse cloak draped over her head, before disappearing, and a bow appeared in her hands. There was a small quiver with roughly 20 arrows, which I knew wasn't going to be enough forever, so that was something I needed to keep into account.

She grabbed some other clothes, athletic wear that she could move in easily, and while she was getting ready the timer hit 0.

[Stage 1: Survive for 24 hours!]

[Reward: 1 Piece of Class Specific Gear.]

[Bonus: The top 1000 players in the world that kill the most enemies get additional rewards, depending on their ranking.]

There was an ear piercing screech that came from outside, and when we put on our shoes, stepping outside we were greeted with the sight of a giant dragon flying across the sky.

"Is that a dragon?"

I silently nodded at my sister's words. I didn't know how strong a dragon was, but I was sure we wouldn't be able to defeat it even if the entire human population attacked it at the same time.

However my attention was drawn to a sound I heard to my left.

People were coming out of their houses, probably realizing that staying inside wasn't a safe option, or perhaps they were simply drawn by the noise like us.

Either way, my neighbors had all come outside, when we all heard a snarl from the end of the street.

Everyone turned. Standing there, at the end of the street, was a snarling black wolf. It was larger than a normal wolf, being almost the same height as an adult male standing up. Immediately I casted Blood Bullet.

[-10 HP]

[HP: 200/200--->190/200]

[15 M-DMG dealt.]

Then a health bar finally appeared.

[Black Wolf][Level 1]

[HP: 185/200]

There was only a slight grunt from the wolf, when it then turned it's attention to me.

I immediately shouted to gather everyone's attention.

"This isn't a game! This monster is here to kill us. Hit it with your abilities, and if you can't fight, then I suggest you hide somewhere."

People didn't move immediately, however my sister fired three arrows in quick succession. Something I knew she couldn't do, even though she had been doing archery since she was 8, it was too fast.

I saw the wolf's health drop incredibly quickly.

[HP: 125/200]

'Her arrows deal 20 damage each? Ridiculous... My spells cost health to use, and deal less than hers that have no resource cost.'

The wolf was then bombarded with attacks, from neighbors who had gained some courage after seeing our attacks, and before it could even move it fell.

[Black Wolf defeated.]

[Life Stealer activated.]

[+10 HP]

[HP: 190/200--->200/200]

I checked my status, and saw that I only gained 2% EXP to the next level. I then realized it was most likely because the EXP was shared between everyone who attacked the creature, so it was a lot less than what it was actually worth.

I turned to Hailey.

"How much mana did that skill use?"

"How did you know it costs mana... I didn't even tell you..."

"Skills cost resources. That's the basics."

She pouted a little, but didn't argue.

"It used 25 MP. It's a pretty good skill though."

"I agree. It's a lot better than mine, dealing almost 4x the damage of my one attack. Anyways, go get your arrows."

Hailey, seeming to have realized that her arrows were a precious resource, hurried to the wolf and pulled her arrows out. A few other archers saw this, and did the same. During this time, the neighborhood had naturally began to group around me.

"Alexander, what do you think our next move should be? You seem to be pretty calm and know a little more about these games than us adults."

"Mr. Riddle, thank you for the praise but I am just as clueless as you. No games could have prepared me for this, however I think our best move is to stick together. We will have to continue to fight, but we can't defend this neighborhood. There are too many alleys and different ways we could be attacked, it's better to get to a big secure building. I was thinking of making our way to city hall. It's a big building with an open perimeter. Easier to defend in my opinion."

Everyone around seemed to nod their heads in agreement, when one particular guy voiced his opinion.

"Why are we following some kid around? I think the leader should be an adult, someone who can keep a level head in case of emergency."

It was none other than Bill Curdley, who no one liked in the neighborhood. He was a known alcoholic who could be heard screaming at his wife at least once a week. Everyone suspected he probably did worse, but no one said anything.

This was because Bill was a big man, and who wants to get beat up over someone they didn't have close connections with.

Now that he seemed to have felt powerful with his new skills, he wanted to become our leader.

However I wasn't going to let him.

"No. You were hiding while us teenagers were fighting the wolf just now. I saw you watching from inside your house. You don't have the qualities of a leader. If someone else wants to take the position, I am glad to talk about it, but not you."

At this, Bill walked up to me and grabbed my shirt collar.

"You better watch what you say boy, I'm warrior, and I'm sure my strength is higher than yours. So how about you shu-"

[-10 HP]

[HP: 200/200--->190/200]

I swung my sword at his side.

[12 M-DMG dealt.]

[Bill Curdley]

[HP: 188/200]

[Target afflicted with drain. Dealing 1 M-DMG for 30s.]

[1 M-DMG dealt.]

"Ahhh! HE FUCKING ATTACKED ME!"

[1 M-DMG dealth.]

"Get out of here, before I make you bleed to death, Bill."

I spoke in an incredibly cold voice, but inside I was incredibly nervous. If he was a warrior, he probably had attack skills that would easily overwhelm me, but he was too flustered to think clearly.

Although I had left a cut on him, it was not deep, and his life wasn't in danger.

However the fear of the sudden attack, and the threat of actual combat scared him. He wasn't thinking rationally.

He quickly clambered to his feet, but he didn't try to fight anymore. He instead turned around and hurried to his house. Slamming the door shut hard, and closing the blinds.

'Looks like he is going to try holing up. Whatever. Not my fault if he dies.'

I then turned back to the group, and saw that a few looked at me with a hint of fear, while some looked at me with newfound respect.

"We should go while the day is bright. I want everyone to TRY to fight along the way. I wish it was a situation where you could afford to not fight, but if you don't learn now you might not get a chance to ever truly grow."

With that, I did a quick headcount and then started to head out.

My group consisted of 28 people, everyone was someone, and we were all familiar with each other.

As we walked, I explained the basics to older people and people who just didn't play games often, which allowed a lot of people to better understand the system they now needed to use to survive.

Along the way, we indeed ran into a lot of monsters. Thankfully they were all by themselves, so my group simply rained down attacks to kill them quickly. 

There were some people who still had fear of fighting, but even they eventually participated. The big thing was getting our tanks, and melee fighters over their fear, otherwise they would never be of use.

Everything was going relatively well, when the problems began to arise. I liked games because I didn't have to manage relationships, but this was real life.

"My feet hurt, can we take a short break?"

With a quick glance, I saw that the older people in my group were indeed looking tired, but I felt like they didn't understand the severity of the situation.

"That's fine. Anyone who has energy and wants to gain some EXP, follow me. We will look for some monsters to kill."

A measly four people followed Hailey and me. Which annoyed me, because I didn't understand why these people didn't want to get stronger.

We quickly walked around, before we found a group of four goblins. I signaled for everyone to stop, before I turned around and explained the game plan.

We had one person who was a tank, a Paladin class, who was our valuable frontline. He was also someone who was okay with being on the frontline, and wasn't afraid to receive attacks from the monsters.

He was equipped with a basic wooden shield and a mace. He had a healing skill, which was incredibly valuable, and two bash skills. One was Shield Bash, that could concuss the enemy. The other was Smash, which was a weapon skill that could stun if the enemy was concussed. 

The gameplay loop was incredibly simple. He used Shield Bash, then Smash, which would stun the enemy. 

Concuss simply confused the enemy, making their attacks have a high chance to miss.

Also, the Paladin had a taunt skill.

It was a simple single target taunt, and made the enemy attack him. It was on a short 10 second cooldown, but that also meant he couldn't pull a lot of enemies at once.

Two swordsmen, and another mage.

The swordsmen were actually just basic swordsmen, but the mage was an interesting Nature Mage. They had a crowd control ability called Entangling Roots, which created roots that would prevent an enemy from moving for 5 seconds. 

Other than that, she had the ability to shoot out some large thorns, but it was slow since it required a whole plant to grow. The process took five seconds, but that was the same as a five second cast time. Incredibly slow, and not worth the damage.

"The plan is simple, Adriana please root one of the goblins, while Andy and Ryan fight another goblin. Michael, you'll attack one goblin, and taunt the last one. You'll have to fight two at once, but Hailey and I will help you. We will attack the one you taunted, so you focus your attacks on the other one. The goal is not to kill the other goblins, instead we are just buying time to finish the ones Michael is dealing with. This way he can then taunt the others one by one, and we will finish them off like that. Does everyone understand their role?"

They all nodded, but I reminded them once more.

"If your life is in danger, please fall back, and we will help. Your lives are more important than trying to hone your fighting skills."

Once again they nodded, and we began our attack.

The fight started exactly as I said, with Ryan and Andy rushing forward behind Michael, grabbing the attention of one goblin. The two of them had decent synergy, as they continued to attack the goblin whenever it tried to attack the other person.

Once the fight started, Adriana used her entangling roots on the last goblin, before turning her attention to the goblins fighting Michael.

To this point everything was going fine, but Adriana made the mistake of attacking the wrong goblin. She attacked the one he hadn't taunted, which meant it's attention was not fixed on Michael, and since she dealt more damage than Michael it quickly turned and sprinted at her.

Scared, she fell backwards in fear.

Before the goblin could even reach Adriana, three arrows bore into the Goblin's chest, and a Blood Bullet slammed into it's head.

[-10 HP.]

[HP: 200/200--->190/200]

[Weak point hit.]

[22 M-DMG dealt.]

I ran forward to intercept the goblin. I took the time while it was off guard to slash a simple slash.

[3 DMG dealt.]

It wasn't much, but that was because I wasn't a warrior, so I wasn't worried. Also, an arrow came zipping from the side, landing on the creature's head.

Another weak point hit, which deals 1.5x damage. Hailey was making this goblin a pin cushion.

[Weak Goblin][Level 1]

[HP: 30/200]

It was only a few more hits, so I didn't bother using my health for my spells. I let Hailey finish it off with another well placed headshot.

After the goblin fell, I ran over to Michael to help with the goblin he was fighting. His taunt came off cooldown, and he used it on the goblin who had just broken out of Entangling Roots. The fight wasn't going perfectly to plan, but I was glad to see that they at least tried to stick to it.

Adriana got up, and with our combined attacks, we quickly dealt with the goblins. Ryan and Andy had managed to avoid most of the attacks from the goblin, so they had only minor wounds. With their natural health regeneration, they would be fine in an hour.

Michael had to heal himself, which was a shame because he only took excessive damage because of a mistake. Now he had to waste mana, which had a much longer regen rate. It would take at least an hour to regenerate the amount of mana he spent, but that wasn't ideal as he was our main tank. Deciding it wasn't worth it to use the mana for another fight, I called it quits there. We headed back to the group, but at least we all leveled up.

Having something to show for it was a good thing.

Upon reaching level two, I gained 5 free stat points to use how I wanted, and my skills all leveled up as well. This made me think that perhaps it was best to get strong skills early, that way they would level up sooner, and become more powerful quicker.

[Name: Alexander Valentino]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 2 (0%)]

[HP: 210/210]

[MP: 100/100]

[Stats]

Strength: 10

Constitution: 10

Agility: 10

Dexterity: 10

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 10

Charm: 10

Luck: 1

[Titles:]

None

[Equipment:]

Head: None

Neck: None

Top: Cloth Robe +1 Defense

Bottom: None

Feet: None

Hands: None

Arms: None

Rings: None

Back: None

Main Hand: Basic Sword (1-5 Damage)

Off Hand: None

"Skills."

[Active:]

Blood Bullet - Level 2

[-15 HP to fire a projectile that deals 35 Magic-Damage.]

Blood Slash - Level 2

[-15 HP to empower your next attack to deal an additional +20 M-DMG.]

Drain - Level 2

[Causes a target to take 2 M-DMG per second for 30s. Healing you for 100% of the damage dealt.]

[Passive:]

Life Stealer - Level 2

[Killing an enemy grants 15 Temporary HP, up to a maximum of 300 HP, that lasts for 5 minutes.]

After I finished looking over everything, I felt I had become much more powerful than I was at level 1. I still had the problem of not being able to free spam my skills, but I no longer felt that I had to be as reserved.

Drain now healed me for 60 HP over 30s, which meant I could cast it on an enemy, leave them to take 60 damage, while I could use four attack spells during that time on another target.

Against bosses, it almost meant I could spam spells.

With just one level I was able to increase my usefulness by more than double.

Hailey had increased her dexterity, improving her reaction time and accuracy greatly. She also finally shared with me her skills.

She had four, just like me, which seemed to be the minimum you would receive.

Triple Shot, Elven Dexterity, Whisper of The Trees, and Sharpshooter.

Elven Dexterity was a passive skill that granted 1.5x multiplier on her bonus dexterity. Whisper of The Trees was a passive skill that allowed her to listen to the trees nearby, which could let her know if any monsters had went by recently.

Finally there was Sharpshooter, a passive that helped her hit moving targets. It was an odd skill, but she just got a sense of where to shoot to hit her shots. 

Three passives were actually very good in my opinion, as they were always active, and didn't cost mana to gain the benefits.

After we regrouped, we immediately headed out, continuing on our way to the city hall.