Chapter 4. Second class

Now there were only the Ranger and the Magician to choose from. One was a speed-based class, the other was an intelligence-based class. He had played these classes before, but was not as familiar with them as with the strength-based Fighter class.

After thinking for a bit, his hand moved toward the short staff and cloth. The Fighter was a close combat melee class, so the Ranger's speed would give him some more options, but they were both still physical classes. 

Also, he had read in his Second World introduction that Fighter could later be upgraded into a ranged combat class. This limited the usefulness of Ranger as a second class. By choosing the Magician class, he would gain magical abilities to compliment his physical abilities. That should give him lots more versatility.

"You have chosen the magician class. You have a total of 2 free attribute points and 2 free skill points. You can open your status window to allocate these points at any time."

'Oh, right, I still had those free points and now there are more.' He had been so busy trying to stay alive and make sense of what was happening that he hadn't had time to check his status window.

He noticed that he now felt more relaxed, his body felt lighter. Could the choosing of a second class have caused this?

'Well, time to see what that was all about.'

"Status," he said while mentally summoning the status window.

The blue hologram appeared again, displaying his stats.

*

Storm Wind

Class: Fighter / magician

Level 1 / Level 1

Attributes:

-        HP = 185/230

-        Stamina = 110/110

-        MP = 110/110

-        Strength = 23

-        Dexterity = 21

-        Intelligence = 23

-        Endurance = 23

-        Reflex = 22

-        Wisdom = 23

-        Luck = 2

-        Free attribute point = 2

-        Free skill point = 1/1

Experience = 4/100 (fighter), 0/100 (magician). Setting 50:50

*

"Holy s—t!" He was dazed by the numbers. They had practically doubled! He understood from the Beta Test introductory guide that all basic classes carried the same 10 starting attribute points, with small point increases for each level-up, depending on the class.

For example, when he was just a Fighter, his starting strength was 10 which would go up by 2 for each level of Fighter class. Magician class only adds 1 strength point per level, but it seemed like he was not only getting this 1 point of strength, but also the 10 points for starting a new class. So adding this second class gave him a whopping 23 strength in total.

If he leveled up normally as a Fighter, it would take him 6 or 7 levels before seeing this amount of strength. No wonder he was feeling lighter, he was much stronger and faster than before!

He also got MP stats, something that was not there before. He must have gotten it due to his new Magician class.  MP, or Mana Points, is the energy required for Magician's spells. Physical skills used stamina as energy, while magical spells used MP.

'What's this setting besides the experience bars? It seems like I can choose how the experience points I earn will be allocated between my two classes. But if the experience is split, doesn't that mean my leveling speed will be twice as slow as normal?'

After giving the matter some thought, Jack didn't think it was such a big issue. It might be slower for him to level up, but the stats he had already received would more than make up for it. He set the experience setting to 75:25. Fighter was his main class and the one that he was more comfortable with, so he needed to prioritize strengthening it.

He then allocated his free attribute points: one to strength and one to dexterity. He has tries to add the points to Luck, since it was so low, but the system wouldn't allow it. He thought he remembered the Beta Test guide saying that Luck was a stat outside the leveling process that could only be improved through better equipment, items, or quests. In other words, Luck could only be obtained under fortunate encounters. It was funny: you needed luck in order to get Luck.

He turned to the next status page, which displayed his equipment status.

*

Right-hand weapon = Bronze short sword

Left-hand weapon = Apprentice staff

Head = none

Chest = Leather armor

Shoulder = none

Arms = none

Belt = none

Pants = none

Boots = none

Cloak = none

Necklace = none

Ring 1 = none

Ring 2 = none

Special equipment = Administrator God-Eye

Bag:

-        Large Bag

-        Administrator key-card

-        Handphone

-        Cloth Tunic

Money: 0 copper, 0 silver, 0 gold

*

A lot of empty equipment… Well, made sense, he had just started after all. There was an additional item in his bag, Cloth Tunic. That was the other item from the starting Magician class set. Since he was already wearing a Fighter's Leather Armor, the tunic had been sent directly into his storage bag.

He then turned to the Battle Skills page. The page was divided into two sections: one was a Fighter page, while the other was for Magician. Each page currently only held one skill. Power Strike for Fighter and Mana Bullet for Magician, both were currently at level 1, and there was 1 free skill point on each section.

"Looks like I can only add the free skill point on their respective classes," he mumbled to himself.

He then inspected the description of the skills.

*

Power Strike, level 1/20 (Active skill, melee, require melee weapon)

Deal 150% physical damage, causes pushing force proportional to Strength stat.

Stamina consumed: 10

Cooldown: 3 seconds

*

Mana bullet, level 1/20 (Active skill, range, require magic weapon)

Deal 200% magic damage

Range: 10 meters

Mana consumed: 10

Cooldown: 5 seconds

*

Next to the level indication, there was a number 20. He figured that would be the maximum level that the skill could be increased to. There were also ten blank stars beside each of the skill descriptions. He thought back again to the Beta guide. He remembered reading that there were two ways to upgrade skills. One was by spending skill points to upgrade the skill levels. The other was by repeatedly using the skills. Each use will add proficiency to the skill.  Get enough proficiency and the stars will fill up. Each star will increase the skill's effectiveness.

'Eh? What's this at the bottom of the page?'

*

Inherent Skill: Immortal soul (Passive skill)

Resurrect user at the nearest safe area when killed, keep all inventories, reduce collected experience to the next level by 50%

Cooldown: 24 hours

*

'A live-saving skill? Great!' He celebrated for a moment but then turned gloomy.

'If you need a skill to resurrect, didn't that mean players who did not have this kind of skill will face real death when they died in this game?' This was different from the game systems he was used to where it was standard for players to resurrect when they died. So this made the whole thing a real deal. It might follow rules typical in RPG games, but he still needed to treat all dangers as if in real life. The 24 hour cooldown meant he was only allowed a free death once a day. Well, not like he intended to use this skill anyway: he would treat it as insurance.

Now that he had reviewed all there was in his status windows, he felt it was time to put these skills to the test. He would need to get used to how to use them.  But first he needed to find a target for his tests. He looked at his radar, and realized there was a red dot at the edge of the radar. A monster had wandered into vicinity.

'All right, let's use you as target practice then.' He unsheathed his short sword with his right hand, and held the short staff with his left. He looked at the short staff.

*

Apprentice staff, level 1 (common magic weapon)

Magical damage: 10

Range: 10 meters

Attack speed: 1

Energy: 50

*

He understood from the Beta guide that this energy was like the staff's ammo. Without relying on spells, a Magician could make standard range attacks with his staff, but only while the staff had energy.