Forshadowing

Jason closed the notifications and continued walking. He already started to plan his next moves. He needed to get the items and skill books to Perseus quickly, but he was currently working on his rose knight job and couldn't get out of the training center anytime soon.

Well, he could probably sneak out since he was easily able to get lost. But that was something he would only do when he was really desperate.

Jason asked Boops quickly

"wait, NPC's can learn skills from skill books right?"

'yup if they fulfill all of the requirements, which for the skill books that you have, are the classes.'

"and those kids classes are?"

'uhh they just stopped being bandits, so they are currently classless.'

Jason thought about what Boops was talking about, but another question jumped into his head

"How do you even change classes?"

Boops was silent for a moment, but then answered in a confused tone

'uhhh, I'm not completely sure, ill check the beginners manual for WOW'

Jason laughed a bit and reassured Boops, who was a bit embarrassed about not knowing the answer to such an important question.

"Take your time dude, I'm in no hurry"

Boops didn't answer but Jason could hear in his head, some faint noises of pages being flipped at a rapid-fire pace.

It took a while but Boops came back and answered Jason with a bit of a victorious and proud tone in his voice

'heh, basically a class change has multiple ways to be activated, some include quests like yours. Others include certain items, like a book that's the inheritance of a skilled blacksmith or something. Or an NPC can teach you the class, the final one is when you make or create your own by the accomplishments you have. The manual says there are other ways but that they should be discovered by the player.'

Jason contemplated all of the ways, but one of them confused him.

"wait, for the last one, how will the game know what accomplishments I make?"

Boops answered like it was obvious

'what? you didn't know? the entire game is governed by a giant A.I, its called Gaia and its basically an almighty moderator, admin, and developer rolled into one. And in case you were wondering, no there aren't any admins or anything here, the MH company stated that most of the game world was built by the A.I themselves and that they are taking a hands-off approach to the game'

Jason tried his best to digest the information dump he just got. He said to Boops in an annoyed voice

"it would have been great if you told me key stuff about this world when I just started you know"

Boops laughed nervously and replied

"haha.... well, I kinda forgot to tell you... my bad"

Jason really wanted to get mad a Boops, but he knew that he probably should get on bad terms with him, instead he gave Boops a hard lecture and left it at that.

Jason countied walking down the trail. If was a bit awkward for some reason. Even though Jason was walking by himself, it felt like Boops was just walking with him in awkward silence. Jason knew Boops wasn't doing anything productive at that moment.

He could even hear Boops humming and just jumping around his brain space. Obviously he was fine with Boops resting and doing virtually nothing. He was a big advocate on play over rest even though he had the determined innate talent.

It was still fricking awkward though. The glee from getting all of the loot had died down and Jason started to jog up the hill because nothing else was happening. Jason noticed how much his body had changed as he ran up the hill that the trail climbed up to.

Jason didn't even feel tired as he pushed himself off a medium-sized rock and catapulted himself 6 yards in the air. It was like he still was resting on his bed because he barely used any effort to climb up the hill. It was probably the effect of his high stamina and agility stats.

Which reminded him of his many free stat points. He started to think about it a bit. Boops didn't interrupt Jason's train of thought and just lazed around.

So far Jason was thinking about the stats that were important to him. He pulled up his stats.

[Jason Archer]

[Age: 15]

[male]

[level: 46]

[Stats]

[strength 23]

[stamina 20]

[agility 24]

[intelligence 19]

[wisdom 14]

[charm 26]

[status: healthy]

[free stat points: 30]

Jason's stats currently were a bit crazy, but that was because of how much training he was getting in the center. Boops had commented once that his stats were almost as high as a level 70 players if his math was right.

But Jason started to think even more deeply about how he was going to allocate his stats. It seems that he could train all of his stats except for one. Which was his charm skill, or as Boops had put it. The leader stat, after seeing how Jason was able to convince Jack to join the Silver wings guild with just a word Boops started to reevaluate the stat's worth.

So what was he thinking currently? well, it was something really stupid, but in Jason's mind, it was really smart, after all, he would never be able to raise his charm stat without stat points while the others could be raised via other means.

Boops jumped in quickly and asked Jason a question in a suspicious voice

'Jason, what are you thinking?'

Jason shouted to Boops

"Too late I already convinced myself"

Jason could hear Boops jump up and try to stop him.

'WAIT WAIT WAIT JASON DIDN'T YOU WANT THE STAT BENEFIT WHEN IT HITS 25?'

Jason could hear the panic in Boops' voice and shouted back.

"I CAN GET IT IF I TRAIN HARD ENOUGH, IT'S TOO LATE I MADE UP MY MIND"

'NOOOO THINK ABOUT YOU WELLBEING, THINK ABOUT YOUR FAMILY, YOUR TWINS, DON'T DO IT JASON, RETURN TO USSSSSSS'

Jason entered his brain space briefly and looked at Boops' orb that was glowing in a distressed grey mixed with dark blue. He stared at it, and Boops seemed to feel the stare and look back at Jason. Boops didn't really have eyes, but Jason could feel everything. Boops looked at Jason with eyes filled with horror,

'no.... you wouldn't..... not again....'

Jason grinned and shouted in his mind

"invest"

'WAIT'

"all"

'WE CAN TALK THIS OUT'

"stat points"

'NOOO DON'T DO IT!!!!!'

"into charm"

[investing all stat points into charm]

'AHHHHHHHH HE DID IT, YOU @$%#&*%^&%$#%^&^ WHY DID YOU @#^$%&^% AHHHHHHH YOU LITTLE $%^&*%$##%^&%^*%$#$^%&^*^'

Jason quickly exited his brain space, laughing like a kid that mischievously played a prank on his parent.

[you charm stat is now at 56]

[congratulations your charm stat has passed 50]

[you have gained a new title]

[(the most charming person): all neutral NPCs will view you with good favor. All friendly NPCs will treat you even friendlier. Hostile NPCs will have a small chance of forgiving you.]

[description: your charm has exceeded most of the people in the world. You are a very charming person with charm rivaling great leaders. Many people in the world will treat you favorably.]

Jason nodded happily at the titles that he got while he ignored the dying noises Boops was making in the background.

Jason looked up and saw the large towering cafeteria/gym building in front of him. It seems that during all of the chaos in his head. He had started to run a bit faster and reached the cafeteria just in time. Jason hurried in as he could hear the barrack members already walking to line up for food.

Jason quickly entered and jumped into line with his team, who waved him over the moment they saw him enter. Well actually everyone in the cafeteria looked at him when he walked in. He had the so-called "magnetic presence" and everyone instantly looked at him as he entered the room.

Jason walked to the group and greeted them all. But before he could say anything else. Lyle stood in front of Jason and peered at his face. He said in an annoyed tone

"why the heck do you become even more good looking every time you come back from a trip?"

Jason's head started to quickly churn for answers. Sadly he didn't invest in the intelligence or wisdom stat so nothing came out. He only gave out a small stutter but before Jason said anything stupid, Charlie came to the rescue by chopping Lyle on the head. Well, it was more like a slam then a chop. Lyle was slammed straight to the ground in an instant even though he was supposed to be the strong one of the group.

Charlie smiled at Jason, with a sincere smile and said in his elegant voice

"We all have our secrets it's not right to pry, and Lyle I still haven't punished you for not telling Arch about the final trial"

Jason laughed as he watched Lyle suddenly get up from the cracked floor and run away like a startled rabbit. Still, it felt a bit weird being called Arch even though it was his in-game name. He hoped that one day, the entire team that had taken good care of him would be able to call him by his real name. But that's a story that will be told in a much later time.