Blessing Ritual (Remake)
For some reason, I have always been extremely smart since I was a child. Everything feels like a 'Déjà vu' situation. It is as though I already know the knowledge for a long time - science, math, economics. The only challenging part is geography and history, as I am somehow unfamiliar with those.
Today, I have reached fifteen years old, and as the son of a baron, I am going to receive the 'Blessing Ritual' since I have reached this age.
The Blessing Ritual basically means that I am going to receive the blessing from the goddess herself. It is power handed by the Goddess to humans to kill the demons and protect themselves. The power comes in one form, and that form is classes.
Humans that receive the blessing will have their physical abilities boosted according to the classes they receive, and they would be granted access to skill trees where they can unlock skills depending on their classes.
All of the classes have roles against the demons, except that some actually don't; as some of the classes are non-combat. Those are the classes that you don't want to get. You want to obtain combatant classes such as Magic Swordsman, Berserker, Magic Bowman, etc., as those are the classes that allow you to fight demons.
My family has invited a priest to our place so we could conduct the Blessing Ritual privately. This is because my father didn't want to create a ruckus and reveal my class to the people.
"Adrian, don't worry, even if you receive a non-combat class, it's fine. As long as it's not a useless class, we'll manage it."
After all, depending on what class I receive, it will affect the influence and authority of the Ashford family among the nobility. That is why it's best to keep it private and not known to people at all.
Especially when my family is already in debt, and we're on the verge of losing our territory.
The future of the family depends on what kind of class I receive, and I pray that I get a good combat class.
Even a normal one like 'Warrior' is fine as long as it's not a non-combat class.
"I will now perform the ritual," the priest said.
The moment the priest said that, I knelt on the floor in front of him. The moment I closed my eyes, the bishop started chanting.
The moment I opened my eyes, an epiphany hit me.
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[Adrian Ashford]
Class: <Camera-Man>
Lvl: 1
HP: 5/5 MP: 5/5
STR: 1
DEF: 1
AGI: 1
INT: 1
[Class Skill]: Summon: Camera
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When I saw my status screen, my memories from my past life slowly crept into my brain. I was shocked, but it felt natural, as though I always knew about it.
I was reborn into a world of swords and magic, and I'm actually delighted that my class is actually Camera-Man.
Wait... shouldn't I be mad that I got a Non-Combat Class? They are disrespected in this world. My father would likely be disappointed in me if I revealed it to him.
The white dragon truly gave me a mind-boggling reward by reincarnating me to the world where she came from, probably.
"What class did you receive?" My father, who has been standing beside me, peeked into my status screen.
"<Camera-Man>? What is that?"
Right... the concept of a camera wasn't known yet in this world. In fact, many simple technologies haven't been discovered in this world yet because they rely on the goddess too much for everything.
They rely on class skills for basic things. For example, fertilizer isn't used anymore simply because the farmer class exists. There's no need to use fertilizer when farmers have skills that increase crop growth rate just by simply touching the crops.
"I think it's a non-combat class."
I was expecting a scolding, but my father reaction was as though he expected this to happen already.
"It's fine. I already know that you're going to be useless but this just confirmed it."
"Huh? Isn't it your fault that I got non-combat class." I argued to my father back knowing that he said it jokingly but it still hurts.
There are rumors that it's not completely random what class you receive during the Blessing Ritual. Though there is no concrete proof, people speculate that the goddess gives classes based on bloodline, fate, and nature.
My father used to be is formerly commoner who managed to climb and become a baron due to his class as a <Merchant>, at least that's what I heard from my other people.
But there are many people that has <Merchant> class as well that stayed as commoner unable to flourish.
Though right now is not the perfect timing to speak of that, as we're incurring debt and our territory is struggling.
Conclusion, while non-combat skills are obviously useless in combat, they're not useless at all in the society.
"Sigh..." My father are having a headache, "If the news of it spread, our territory is doomed."
"Son, you should explore and get to know your class first, I'll talk with the priest regarding this matter. I'll be back, probably for a while."
The priest is sweating profusely as my father guides him somewhere else.
"Please, Baron Ashford, you don't want to do this... You'll be targeted by the church if you do something to me."
"Let's not discuss it while my son is present. We'll talk outside." My father guided the priest outside.
Assuming my father's nature, he's probably going to silence the priest as he heard that I received a non-combat class.
By silence, I don't mean killing him, my father is just going to force him sign a contract to prevent him leaking any information.
While my father will do anything to maintain his title and territory, he still won't kill a priest.
Let's see what skills I actually have as <Camera-Man>.
I would probably be devastated if I hadn't recovered my past memories because all the high-ranking nobility has the strongest combat-type classes. None of them have become high-rank nobility with non-combat.
It also defines a society where weaker classes, especially non-combat classes, couldn't defy them at all. If they did, they would just eliminate their enemies with their strength.
It's a dog-eat-dog world, which is why I didn't think about it too much when my father was about to kill a Priest who just helped me receive the Goddess' Blessing.
Right now, I'm not even mad that I didn't receive a non-combat class even though ever since I was a child I would pray to goddess every year so that I would receive a combat class.
I even learn swordsmanship and do physical training too. That's how much I want to get a combat-class.
I proceed to blurt out the words, "Summon: Camera."
As I did that, a camera materializes in front of me out of thin air. As soon as I do that, two screens pop out. One of them is a status screen for [Camera], and the other is a Skill Screen.
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[Camera] (Class Artifact)
Owner: Adrian Ashford
Level: 1
Durability: 100/100
Artifact Skill: <None>
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Class Artifact is rare and is only available to certain types of classes, but that doesn't mean that Class Artifact is good.
Depending on your classes, some actually prefer to just level up their character while using real weapons instead of relying on their artifact, as the artifact will leech off your experience points by half, making it harder to level up.
But for me, I'm happy that the Camera is an artifact. Otherwise, I would have to invent the camera, which I don't think is possible. While I know most of the components, I don't know how to create them at all in this world.
Plus, being an artifact means I don't have to worry about it getting destroyed or anything. The durability will automatically be restored when I de-summon it.
Plus, I'm also getting free skills at the starting point too. Usually, you won't be able to access the Skill Screen unless you level up, but it seems that it is giving the choice to choose a skill for my Camera from the very beginning.
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[Choose a skill for your Camera]
[Flash Upgrade I (Intensity)] Flash can stun the enemy for three seconds.
[Lens Upgrade I (Wisdom)] Lenses can reveal glimpses of past or future events.
[Memory Upgrade I (Storage)] Memory can now store information about anything that was identified.
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You have the option to freely choose which skills you want to acquire, but you'll only be getting three choices every time. Depending on what you choose here, it will unlock different types of skills in the future, so you have to be careful about what you choose.
The problem here is that all three skills sound extremely useful, and I am shocked to see that <Camera-Man> might not be some random non-combat class.
The ability to stun an enemy for three seconds is huge in a battlefield. The question is, what's the flash cooldown? I should test it right away.
The Camera that I summoned doesn't look like the Camera that I showed to the White Dragon. It seems they have given me a vintage type of Camera, with only basic components attached to it. Perhaps once I upgrade my Camera, the Camera itself will change too.
Before I test that, I use the Camera in my hand first.
The Camera works fine. I tried to capture myself to see the result, and the image that came out wasn't bad. The image that came out wasn't on par with a high-tech Camera, but the resolution of the image is pretty good for an old Camera.
It also doesn't have autofocus systems, which, as a Camera-Man who used to rely on that, I find annoying, as the old Camera needs a lot of adjustment. And it can't do burst mode at all. I can only capture an image every second.
As for the flash, I tried to do multiple flashes without cooldown, and as expected, the flash units heat up. It doesn't allow me to do any flashes at all until the flash units cool down.
Assuming I don't randomly flash, I should be able to do a flash every second just fine. Doesn't that mean I can stun an enemy forever with the flash?
While I'm considering the Flash upgrade, the Lens upgrade is cool too. I get to see glimpses of the future and past. There's not much explanation on how it works, but it sounds like a valuable skill that I can exploit.
As for the memory upgrade, it sounds good too. I can store images, which is a basic requirement for a 'Camera,' and apparently, the vintage Camera that I summoned doesn't have memory built into it.
"I made up my mind. I'm going to go with the memory upgrade," I said it out loud as I move my hand and choose the memory upgrade.
As a <Camera-Man>, if I don't have memory to store images, I'm not actually a <Camera-Man>. I should at least be able to store images that I take.
Plus, I'll get the other skills sooner or later once I level up myself and the camera. I can't wait to find out what type of class skills I could choose from.