5 What to Choose...

As I read through the character page in front of me, the first thing that gave me pause was when I saw what my race was listed as, " Human... Greater?" My attention lingering on the words caused a tooltip to open, explaining the term in further depth. It is kind of like hovering your mouse over something in an RPG on your computer.

"Human (Greater): A member of the human race who has the potential to exceed the limitations of a standard human body."

Hmm, I wonder how that translates to my character sheet. I suppose I will have to find more people to compare myself against. What else do we have here? Class is Adventurer, which sounds pretty generic... Oh, but down below in skills, it says I am Classless. Let's see if it has some more info for Adventurer.

"Adventurer: While you have experienced work in many different fields, you have yet to commit to a dedicated role. Find a Class trainer or class manual to specialize."

I guess that is what the Classless skill is talking about. Yet, it makes it sound like I just get to choose what class I am, not that I have to be trained. I wonder how I access that. Maybe it is on the main menu. What else do we have here before I back out: Lead Belly, dang that sounds powerful, eat whatever I want with no worries. I bet that would be the most desired skill for some rulers who worry about getting poisoned. Though I am unlikely to ever be in such a scenario, it is still pretty handy if I get to go dungeoneering, or for now until I find a town or something.

Thank goodness I have this presence skill to boost my Charisma level. Actually, I wonder how these Stat numbers stack up to an average person. It doesn't seem that I can get a tooltip that explains anything other than what each attribute means. And I have played enough games to recognize all the Stat names. Glad it wasn't silly names like Virility and Eloquence. When I examine the +5 to Wisdom, it shows it is from having the Primer equipped.

And finally, we have this Eye ability, and it seems to be like an Analyze type ability. But having indestructible eyes is something I have not seen before in a game. I will have to find something to try it on. But for now, let's discover how to choose a class. Looking towards the open window's top-right in the AR display in front of me, I spotted a familiar-looking X button. Concentrating on it in my mind gave me a short click noise in my head as feedback. The window closed itself, landing me back on the main menu. As if responding to me wonders, I notice that the word 'Tutorial' is at the bottom of the menu, slowly pulsing from the plain black colour to gold.

Clicking on the menu item with my mind, a welcome message appears before me. It outlines that I will be able to select my first class from a comprehensive list. I will be allotted points due for someone of my level to invest as I want into my chosen class's skills. And finally, I have been given a tutorial task and a beginner quest for my class based on my region.

After hitting next, an extensive list of classes appears before me. I scroll through the list, occasionally pausing to bring up more info via the tooltip system. I see many interesting looking classes: Drake-Rider, Cannoneer, Blood Mage, Knife-Juggler, Cook, Subjugator, and a bunch more. However, none of these entirely spoke out to me until my eyes landed on Magebreaker. Just the name sounded kind of neat. As I opened the tooltip, I read the description of the class.

"Magebreaker: Trained by the Paladin order hall, this advanced class specializes in the hunting of magic users who have gone on a rampage. Utilizing a variety of Anti-Magic techniques and close-range focused offensive and defensive spells, this hunter of mages empowers the imbued melee weapons with devastating abilities to smash through magical shields dissipate incoming magical attacks. This class is well known for using either Enchanted Gauntlets or Enchanted Hammers to effectively take advantage of their abilities. Important stats for this class are primarily Strength (for Physical Damage), Intelligence (for Spell Strength) and Agility (for Attack Speed and Acrobatic Movement to close on enemy mages)."

Taking in the breakdown of the class, I felt myself being drawn to choose the class. Deciding to follow my gut, I quickly smashed the accept button.

"Congrats. You have joined the elite ranks of the Magebreakers. You have been given 5 AP (Ability Points) for choosing your class, plus 3 AP for each level you have earned beyond the starting level of 1.

You receive 32 AP.

You receive 20 AP for participating in the Closed Beta Test. Don't forget to submit Bug Reports for any issues you may experience."

"Wait, what was that last part?" I exclaimed as the last line of text quickly faded to be replaced by a new menu of dozens of skills. After reading through the explanation at the top of the page, I learned that Skills acquired for classes through spending AP have five levels. The initial skill costs only 1 AP, with each subsequent level costing twice as much. So: Level 1 for 1AP, Level 2 for 2AP, Level 3 for 4AP, Level 4 for 8AP, Level 5 for 16AP. I looked at the skills list, finding them divided into several categories: Anti-Magic, Offensive, Defensive, Weapon Skills, and New Game Plus.

I guess I should figure out what weapon I am going to be using. Opening the Weapon Skills heading, I was surprised to see a dialogue box open telling me to choose which weapon I was trained in during my Magebreaker training. My choices had little illustrations next to them equipped on a diminutive chibi cartoon version of myself. I could choose either the Twin Hammers or the Brawler Gauntlets. I had often romanticized the idea of wielding a pair of hammers into battle. I felt that it would have only been my choice had I been reincarnated as a dwarf. The Gauntlets also seemed made for me as I had spent quite a bit of my youth studying and working as a janitor at a local dojo that taught several martial arts.

While I was by no means a master martial artist, I definitely had a decent foundation in several forms of brawling. Clicking on the Gauntlets, I felt a wealth of information poor in my head. As I was enlightened, the knowledge I already had around how to fight with my fists had new connections drawn between all the bits and pieces, and I felt a new combined method to put all my knowledge to work together form in my mind.

I... I know Kung Fu.

Or at least how to punch real good.

"New items added to your storage." A message popped up in the corner of my vision, notifying me.

I quickly rescaled the window's size in front of me and opened my skill list next to see that I had spent no AP, yet I now possessed Level 3 in Gauntleted Martial Form. Dang, free always works for me. I quickly debated if I should immediately max out the skill for 24AP. Giving my head a shake, I decided to investigate what other skills are available to me.

Once I had Looked through the three combat skill groups, I got four Skills at Level 3. They were as follows:

From Anti-Magic:

Magic Vision (Level 3): The skill holder can see mana in the air, helping detect incoming attacks, hidden traps and wards, illusions, the presence of mana wielders nearby, etc. Cost: 10MP/min.

Dispell (Level 3): The skill holder injects raw mana from their body into an item in contact range, disrupting up to 1 ward, or spell that is being channelled or cast. Cost: 30MP.

From Offense:

Ground Smash (Level 3): The skill holder slams their weapon(s) into the ground, causing a wave of arcane magical damage, followed by the earth displaced by the Smash to hit into those in a 3M radius around the point of impact. Can cause targets to be launched upwards if the force is greater than their weight combined with their resistances. Cost 20MP.

From Defensive:

Hardened Skin (Aura) (Level 3): The skill holder has skin that can withstand glancing blows and weaker magical strikes. The skin also allows impact forces to be dispersed across the total surface area instead of just the point of impact. While active, the skill holder's skin has the consistency and texture of stone while still being flexible. Cost: 100MP Sustained.

As I tried to open the New Game Plus heading, I was shown a small dialogue box instructing me that I did not meet the minimum requirement of having at least one party member, so I decided to give up for now. I closed the current windows to gaze back at the main menu. The only remaining option currently there other than a few lines that had greyed out question marks was Storage.

Opening Storage, it provided me with an itemized list of what was in my void storage.

1 Map

1 Rucksack

1 Waterskin of Endless Depth

99 Provisions

1 Tent

1 Bedroll

1 Hatchet

1 Silk Rope

1 Flint and Tinder

1 Generic Starter Equipment Set

New!

1 Magebreaker Starter Equipment Set

After finishing reading through, a tutorial message flashed up detailing that I could open my Storage after closing the menu system by thinking about what item I wanted to withdraw from my Storage. And that my first task was to open my new item.

Closing out of the menus, I summon forth the Magebreaker Starter Equipment Set. Defying my expectations, a wardrobe with a mirror on the front plopped out in front of me from the ether. Upon reaching out to touch the cabinet, the mirror part flashed brightly and ran a light down my body as if scanning me. Steam the ejected from unseen ports around the wardrobe, and the door creaked open to reveal the equipment inside. Inspecting the equipment, it was evident that included was a set of leather armour, leather footwear with rubber-looking soles, a body glove made of some unknown form-fitting material and most excitingly, a pair of large gauntlets.

Stripping out of my current ensemble, I placed my old clothes in Storage via a small wormhole that opened when I wondered how to deposit items. I slipped on the perfectly fitting body glove that acted as a second skin. The leather armour was a few pieces of hardened leather pads that were joined by softer parts. As I fastened the leather armour together, it eventually entirely obscured the body glove from sight. Finally, I placed my feet on the leather pieces with rubber soles attached to the bottom. As my feet made contact, the leather enclosed my calf and formed into a perfect fitting footwrap.

The moment I had been waiting for, I reached into the wardrobe and slid my hands into the gauntlets. I felt the soft leather insides welcome my palms. Once my hands were completely inside, I felt the Gauntlets slightly tighten to grip my hands correctly. Withdrawing my now encased hands from the wardrobe, I barely noticed the wardrobe turn to dust and blow away on the breeze as the new gear completely enraptured me. I examined the Gauntlets' every detail. They were made of a blackened metallic substance, and had heft to them, yet to me; they felt as natural as my own hands. Each one had gorgeous runic carvings across its surface and a large gem embedded in the back; the gem was currently white on each.

Striking a pose, I threw a quick jab in front of me. Not letting me down in the slightest, I felt my punch follow through as I watched the air itself compress as a small shockwave launched forward from the blow I threw.

"Damn, this is pretty cool."