The first thing he noticed was that classes did not seem equal. All five choices did have the same grade, F-grade, so it seemed everyone started at the same grade. They did, however, have different rarities, ranging from Common to Rare in his case.
He did not know how large a difference there was between the rarities, but he could only assume that a higher rarity class would be stronger than a low rarity one.
The second thing he noticed was that all the classes were upgradeable. That likely meant that he could get stronger classes in the future, but they would be based on the class he chose now. It might be secondary classes or it might be possible to change classes, but he had no information about this. He therefore had to make the choice under the assumption that his choice would influence his future trajectory to a large degree.
The third was that the available choices seemed to be at least partly based on his accomplishments.
The Marine class was likely available because he was situated near an ocean. The Demon Hunter class came from killing demonic creatures nonstop since the System arrived.
He was not sure about the Hatchetman class, but he had used a lumberjack’s hatchet for almost all his kills, so he assumed it might be based on that. But it was a combat class, going by the description, rather than a woodworking class.
The last choice was a gamble. Even an Epic class was available, albeit only at a 0.1% chance. His Luck stat might influence those odds, but it was unclear how. If each Luck point increased his chance to get the Epic class by one point, he wouldn’t hesitate. He would roll the dice in a heartbeat. But he doubted it would be that easy, so he felt no need to use this option.
He already had a Rare and two Uncommon classes to choose from, so he had no reason to gamble. Besides, there might be classes that didn’t help him in combat. What if he got a Rare painter class from gambling? While it might be nice learning a new skill, it would not help him on the island.
He would therefore definitely choose one of the available classes.
First, he eliminated Warrior. It seemed quite basic, and it felt like most other choices were better. Next, he eliminated both Marine and Demon Hunter. He didn’t like the prospect of limited boosts. He had no aspirations to live out the rest of his life on the high seas, so a water-centric class did not make sense to him.
He also didn’t want to spend his life hunting demons. The Demon Hunter class might very well be the strongest class for him right now, as there still were demons infesting the whole island. However, either he or the demons would be gone in two months, so it didn’t make sense to pick this class either.
Abby had told him that the Multiverse consisted of myriad races. This meant that it wasn’t like Hell’s gates had opened and the universe was being invaded by demons. They were just one of many potential enemies in the vast Multiverse. So even if he survived, he did not know if there were any other demons on Earth apart from in this particular incursion. Wouldn’t that mean he essentially crippled himself by choosing a class that could only help him for the first few months?
Finally, it was an Uncommon class. While it was better compared to the Warrior and Acolyte classes, it was worse than the Rare class.
That left Acolyte and Hatchetman. Truth be told, he felt that Acolyte was the most intriguing. He did like the prospect of mastering the elements and firing fireballs and lightning bolts at his surroundings.
However, he felt there were drawbacks as well. For one, he had no idea if he actually was able to learn spells just from getting the class. What if the basic spells normally were something you got in the Tutorial? Also, he had invested most of his stats so far into physical attributes, which might be wasted on this class.
The only reason he could imagine he got this kind of class to choose was that he had gotten quite a bit of Intelligence and Wisdom from his titles. But he almost drooled at the aspect of upgrading the class until he became a Grand Magus, who could burn the sky with a sweep of his hand.
But most importantly it was only a Common class. It felt like it was something that almost anyone could get in the future. Getting a Common class when he had Rare classes to choose from felt like wasting the advantage that the past month had provided him.
The System rewarded the brave and intrepid. The Rare class seemed to be the reward for risking his life every day against the demons.
Of course, Hatchetman sounded a bit stupid, to be honest. The connotation of the word from his professional career was anything but positive, but he felt that it had a somewhat different meaning here.
It seemed that it somehow referred to being a warrior lumberjack from the description. While not exciting, it did, however, check a few of his boxes. The class probably would be very beneficial if he used his newly acquired axe in battle.
Out of all the choices, it also seemed to be the most tailored for his battle style. It also was the only Rare choice. He did not know how much better each rarity was compared to the one before, but perhaps the difference would be even greater compared to the conditional boost the Demon Hunter class would give against his current enemies.
The drawback was that he couldn’t quite imagine what the upgrade path would be. Next upgrade was a… stronger lumberjack? A walking sawmill? A corporate shark doing hostile takeovers and selling companies for scraps?
So one of the choices seemed to be able to help him less now. But it might end up with him becoming a great Wizard. He had always played mage classes when playing games, so this was quite enticing. It was, however, only a Common class.
The other choice seemed to be more suited to his stats and direct power, but led into an unknown future.
After a long hesitation, he finally said goodbye to the dream of arcane dominance and chose the box marked [Hatchetman].
25
Stronger
A strong surge of Cosmic Energy inundated Zac’s whole body. It felt like his whole being was purified and reshaped. Instinctively, he felt an enormous fractal imprinting itself and covering his whole being. However, most parts of the fractal were indistinct and blurred.
He also felt the powerful rush into his cells, which indicated the improvement of his stats. Zac was completely oblivious of his surroundings as he was drowning in the sensations. Unfortunately, the feeling didn’t last long, and he soon came down from his rush.
From a first look, he didn’t feel that different, apart from his condition had improved significantly. It felt like his wounds had largely healed, even his broken arm.
But when he opened his status page, he was shocked. His stats had made a great leap.
Name: Zachary Atwood
Level: 25
Class: [F-Rare] Hatchetman
Race: [F] Human
Alignment: [Earth] Human
Titles: Born for Carnage, Ultimate Reaper, Luck of the Draw, Giantsbane, Disciple of David, Overpowered, Slayer of Leviathans, Adventurer, Demon Slayer, Full of Class, Rarified Being, Trailblazer
Strength: 92
Dexterity: 48
Endurance: 51
Vitality: 57
Intelligence: 38
Wisdom: 38
Luck: 54
Free Points: 0
Nexus Coins: 14,690
All his stats had gained a jump of nine points, except Strength, which had increased a whopping twenty-eight. As he had noticed that every stat point gave a larger increase in improvement compared to the one before, he knew he likely had doubled his actual physical power from the increase in Strength.
He noticed that his class was added in a row, with F denoting the grade of the class. He was surprised to notice that his Race had also gotten graded, as it had been blank before. He was excited at the prospect that he could actually evolve his Race somehow.
Hopefully it meant that his power would rise, rather than growing a tail or a third eye.
He had gained three new titles from getting a class as well. Zac focused on them to get a description
[Full of Class: Reach level 25 and attain
a Class. All stats +1]
[Rarified Being: Attain a Class graded as Rare. All stats +1]
[Trailblazer: First to gain a Class in world. All stats +5]
That explained where the all-around improvements to his stats came from. The first two titles were things that anyone could attain. However the Trailblazer title was another title that only he would get on Earth.
Zac felt comforted by what that title represented. He still managed to keep his lead, even over the “chosen” cultivators who got help in the beginner villages. Even if he was deemed trash by the System and left to rot on this island, he had defied fate so far and was still on top.
He had to admit that the feeling of power was somewhat addicting. Finding his family was still his priority, but he also craved the feeling of becoming stronger and stronger. He lived for the moment after every battle when he absorbed the Cosmic Energy and had the pure unadulterated force of life course through his veins.
He had started to think more and more about where the limits of strength lay. By now, he could punch a large rock and it would shatter, and only one month had passed. How powerful would he be in a year? A decade? Just thinking about it made him excited. Of course, he would never let himself forget that to get there in one piece he would have to walk through an ocean of blood.
He didn’t linger on the subject, as he was anxious to look through his other changes. He thought, “Class,” and a new window appeared.
[Class: Hatchetman, Grade-F, Rare]
Strength +10, +10%.
Level: +3 Strength, +1 Endurance, +1 free point per level.
Skills:
Axe Mastery (LOCKED)
Chop (LOCKED)
Forester’s Constitution (LOCKED)
Following that were rows of blocked-out information. At least that showed where the large Strength boost came from. The +3 Strength per level didn’t seem to be retroactive; otherwise, he’d have almost twice the Strength by now. But it showed that every level from now would give a much larger boost compared to before.
Zac was annoyed to see that he actually didn’t get any skills for free as he had hoped. There were three skills listed that seemed somewhat intuitive. Axe Mastery and Chop seemed offensive, and Forester’s Constitution was defensive. At least he hoped Chop was an offensive skill, and not a woodworking skill.
He didn’t quite understand how “Chop” would be better than what he had been doing before, but he guessed he would find out. It seemed that he couldn’t get any information about the skills until he unlocked them.
The next problem was how to unlock the skills. Soon he found the method in the quest tab. It showed a new category, which was class quests. Each skill needed a quest to be completed.
Axe Mastery (Class): Mastery is born through battle. Fell 1,000 enemies. (0/1,000)
Chop (Class): First chop wood. Then their bodies. (0/10,000)
Forester’s Constitution (Class): Fight in the forests, be one with nature. (0/30)
None of the quests seemed very hard to accomplish. The Axe Mastery made no distinction of the strength of the enemies, and with his improved physique, he could grind it out in a week or two if he just focused on slaying barghest.
The Chop quest seemed to take time rather than being hard, but if he changed his daily workout routine to chop wood, it would be done sooner or later. Chopping wood was a great workout anyway.
The last quest seemed either extremely easy or rather hard. Just 30 fights and it would be done. The whole island was a large forest, so finishing it seemed to be the easiest of the three. It depended on what be one with nature meant. If it was just some random words, great.
If he actually had to somehow merge with nature or become a tree-hugger, it felt far more annoying.
Finally, it seemed that he’d found out everything that he could for now. He had entered the outpost shop as well, but it seemed nothing new was added from gaining a class.
There were a few new skills added at the Node, but they were prohibitively expensive, with the cheapest being five hundred thousand Nexus Coins.
All in all, it had been a fruitful day. He was disappointed that the demon had self-destructed rather than answering questions. There were so many things he needed to know. To be fair, Zac would likely have killed him after questioning the demon in any case. That the demon chose making a last-ditch effort to bring Zac with him to hell was a logical choice.
Luckily, the gear he gained and the strengthening made the sting less severe. He still looked positively insane from the blood and broken gear and didn’t want to put on the gear while looking like this. He left the camp to patrol the vicinity for a while and then went back.
This would likely be a new addition to the daily routine. The humanoid demons seemed far more organized compared to the dumb beasts that had come through the incursion first.
Satisfied that there were no enemies nearby, he moved water from the water array into the tanker’s reservoir. Finally, he ripped the patchwork armor off and took his first good shower in over a week. It was a risky move, but the grime and blood was making even him crazy, and he needed to get it off. He brought his new axe with him into the bathroom in case he was ambushed while in there.
It took half an hour to scrub the layers of dirt and blood off himself before stepping out of the shower.
Even cleaned up, he could barely recognize himself in the mirror. His whole body had undergone a metamorphosis during the last month. Almost all of the fat was gone, leaving only a thin layer covering his muscular frame.
His physique looked hard. His muscles were compact and wiry rather than big and swollen like a bodybuilder’s. He thought he actually might be smaller now compared to when he worked out at the gym.
Of course, he knew that explosive power was contained in these muscles, and that they were so dense that maybe not even a bullet would penetrate them by now. All over his body were scars of varying size and severity. His tactic of boosting his Vitality and taking blows for landing killing strikes had been effective, but it had left an undeniable mark.
He looked down on his rough and calloused hands. It was hard to believe what these hands had done in the last weeks. Once he had actually ripped the jaws of a gwyllgi straight apart when he had dropped his hatchet.
Zac sighed and put on one of his last whole T-shirts and undergarments. He didn’t want to use his rags together with his new gear.
Unfortunately, the chest pieces of both the males’ leather armors had been blasted to shreds, so he could only put on the female’s armor. He didn’t worry about it too much, though, as he had a strong suspicion that there would be many more demons in the woods that could supply new gear.
To get adjusted to his new weapon, he dragged over a thick log. He reactivated his gravity array and started cutting the log into firewood, working out and working on his quest simultaneously. It was already late, and he would not go out hunting anymore today. As he was methodically swinging his axe, a trace of anticipation could be seen on his face.
For the first time since the world changed, he looked forward to going out and testing his might.
26
Demons
Zac woke up early the next day. He had slept outside with axe in hand and geared up, just in case of a nightly raid. He once again set out to scout the vicinity, but nothing seemed to have moved through there during the night.
Zac wasted no time and set out towards the direction of his fight against the herald. He wanted to scout out the situation before proceeding toward the next herald.
He still wanted to complete the quests as quickly as possible, but the new enemies had proved that something had changed on the island. Zac wanted to scout the situation out until he knew what that change meant, and decided to start from where he had fought Vul.
After walking for a while, he ran into a barghest. A creepy smile appeared on Zac’s face, and he brandished the axe.
The beast was as aggressive as ever at least, and it mindlessly charged at him. Z
ac sidestepped to let it run into a tree behind him just to gauge its power.
He was surprised to see that it didn’t actually just charge in to the tree as before; instead, it bit into it and ripped a good chunk out of the wood almost impossibly fast. Of course, it still couldn’t stop its momentum and hit the tree square with its now closed maw.
Zac wasted no time and, with a swing, completely decapitated the demon. He felt almost no resistance when cutting through the spine of the demonling, and the axe continued down with such ease that he almost cut into his own leg before he could stop the descent. He knew the axe was extraordinarily sharp since yesterday, but he was still shocked how easily it went through.
As he continued, he wouldn’t avoid any beasts anymore; rather, he’d go out of his way to kill them if he found them. He looked forward to getting the Axe Mastery skill, and wouldn’t miss an opportunity to work on his thousand-kill goal.
He had been annoyed when he had noticed that only the Axe Mastery quest progressed from kills, not the Forester’s Constitution quest. He would have to figure out what was missing later. He also confirmed that the Chop quest did not progress from battling, even though it mentioned chopping bodies.
As he was advancing, he noticed that the beasts had indeed improved. They were stronger, faster, and more impressively, they seemed smarter. It was as if a limiter had reduced all stats, including Intelligence. Then it had been lifting gradually during the last week of the month, and as the last day passed, the limit had been ripped off completely.
Overall, he gauged that the beasts’ stats had improved by roughly 50% since four days ago. The danger increased more than that, though, as they had started doing feints and use tactics while attacking compared to before. The barghest were, of course, still dumb-dumbs, but not to the point that they’d mindlessly charge into a wall anymore.
Defiance of the Fall: A LitRPG Adventure Page 13