by A P Gore
“Boss, please throw him back in the prison before this gets out of control. I don’t have any control over him anymore.”
Denis was right. Obtaining classes meant Jon wouldn’t be bound to the restrictions Laxania put on the classless players. Basically, a classless player was a puppet of Laxania, but now everything had changed.
“Boss?” Denis said when Devon didn’t respond. “Can you summon him and throw him back in prison? You did that a couple of times for older players.”
Devon wished he could do that. If only Jon’s body was intact, but the fucking machine had malfunctioned and destroyed his body. But he couldn’t tell Denis that. Denis was just a normal employee.
Devon cleared his throat. “I don’t care how you handle this, but make sure it doesn’t happen with other players. As for Jon, wait for my next order.”
Denis’s face darkened even more, but he held his tongue. Devon cut the transmission. He had meet with Baltazar about this. They had to decide what to do about Jon and his non-existent body.
GRIMISH WAS HARVESTING his crops when the notification popped up.
Global System Alert: Jon has obtained two unique classes from the ancient races, and hence he has been awarded 5000 experience and 10 gold.
It had to be the new player he had killed a couple days back. There wasn’t anyone else named Jon in this area. How the heck had that fella gotten two unique classes? And why did the corporation allow it?
Something was amiss here. Was he a spy sent by the corporation?
Grimish stilled. Anger boiled inside his chest. He hated many things in his life, but he bore the most animosity toward the corporation. They were the evilest people he had met in his whole life. They had ruined his life by putting him in this game, making him farm this weed crop. 335 years. For 335 years, he had rotted in this hell. Even life-threatening mining on planet R34 was better than this boring task. He’d signed away his life because he thought it would be good to live in an immersive game, that he would get six months’ free time for every six months worked, but it was a lie. Without a class, he was worse than the NPCs. Even the NPCs treated him like a convict when he visited the nearest city. From the first day he’d arrived in BlackFlame Online, he’d worked like a dog, earning extra by selling surplus crop to the merchants in the city. But even after earning coppers and silvers—and robbing new farmers for their gold—he couldn’t so much as fuck a prostitute in the city because he was classless. Classless characters had a worse fate than the lower class in the real world.
But now a farmer had received a unique class, and he wouldn’t let that stand.
Wiping his dirty hands on his knee-length trousers, he dashed toward the outpost office. He reached it in less than ten seconds, thanks to high Dexterity—the result of painfully fighting earth elementals and other monsters to level up without a class. Only when he’d reached level 15 and dumped almost all his points in Dexterity was he able to access the nearest city to sell his extra crop and earn some silver to send home to his family. And now that new player got a 10 gold reward, just like that?
Grimish swallowed his outrage and put on a fake smile as he entered the outpost. “Master Denis. How are things?”
Denis didn’t even lift his head from the table. “What do you want?” he replied in a harsh tone.
Grimish wanted to smack Denis’s old face with his shovel, but he restrained himself. “Master Denis. I’m here to talk about that fella, Jon. Is it true he got a class?”
Denis lifted his head, and there was pain in his eyes. “What’s it to you? Scram.”
“So, it is true.” Grimish wanted to smirk, but he hid it. It seemed Denis had received a scolding from the higher-ups for this. Denis was responsible for all the farmers that came to this outpost, but somehow the newbie had chanced upon something interesting. Something that Grimish would like to have a look at.
“That pain in the ass,” Denis muttered under his breath, but thanks to his high Dexterity, Grimish had excellent hearing and heard every word.
“Master Denis, do you want me to get rid of that fella? I can kill him ten times so he’ll spawn in the city and never return. If we keep him away for five weeks, he’ll go back to prison, right?”
An evil light sparked in Denis’s eyes. “Can you do that?”
“Of course, if Master Denis wants that.”
Denis smiled for the first time. “Go, then. Take care of it. If you do, I’ll reduce your quota requirement by 10 percent.”
Grimish nodded. Just as Denis could increase the quota requirement, he could reduce it too. The duration of his contract would remain same, but less quota meant more surplus crop to sell in the market. And once he achieved the thousand gold mark, he could visit his family in real life for one day. For five thousand gold, he could reduce his contract by two years, and for ten thousand gold he could reduce it by ten years. He only had fifty years remaining, and he was planning to reduce ten years of it by killing the noob and getting ten gold from him which will bring him to nine thousand gold in total.
“Leave it to me, then. I’ll achieve it soon enough.” A wicked smile played on Grimish’s lips.
Chapter 21
Moonlight spread across farm #43, forming multiple small light rings around the tips of the golden plants.
Jon smiled. His hard work had finally paid off.
A gentle breeze passed through the farm, and the crop waved with vitality and vigor that all the other farms lacked. Even the smell of the crop filled him with pride. On his way to and from Kron’s farm, Jon had passed by multiple farms, and none of their crops compared to his. The druid class was proving to be a blessing for his crops. Finally, he could continue being a farmer. The way he liked.
His crop had already grown a foot and a few inches tall. A full-grown weed crop reached two feet. By his calculations, tomorrow morning his crop would be ready for harvest. A full day in advance. Actually, after tonight’s Land Heal, the crop might mature in the middle of the night. Tomorrow morning would be a happy time. His first crop.
After spending a couple of hours casting the Land Heal on all two thousand plants, Jon opened his character sheet. He had a skill to choose. Actually, he wanted to read the journal, but the moonlight wasn’t sufficient for reading.
First, he accessed his Formationist class.
Unfortunately, it hadn’t come with a spell like the Arch Druid class. It only came with a couple of passive skills, which didn’t do squat for him. Accessing the notification again, he decided to read all the fine details. Maybe there was something he’d overlooked.
System: Congratulations, you have received the Formationist class. This class allows you to create Offense, Defense, and Utility formations. This unique class comes with two passive skills.
Mark of the Formation Master: Your formations have 10% increased effect. This skill can evolve along with the class.
Formation Painter: You gain the ability to draw formation symbols on blank formation flags. This skill can evolve along with the class.
Now this was interesting. An evolving skill. Unfortunately, he had no information on how that worked, so he would have to wait and see.
Next, he accessed the new spells available for the level 3 Arch Druid class. After going through the long list, he narrowed it down to two spells.
Purify: Purify the impurities of nature and improve its quality. Can work on plants, seeds, food, and water. 1% chance to increase the quality of the yield of the plant or food. Only works on a single item at a time. Cost: 50 Spirit.
Earth Spike: Convert a twenty-square-meter area in front of you into earthen spikes. The land will fill with spikes undetectable by normal vision. The spikes deal piercing damage of 5n per second (where n is the spell level) to the person/animal standing on it for 20 seconds. Cost: 25 Spirit.
The purify spell was interesting, but it had a high cost, so he couldn’t go casting it on everything. Looking at it, he had a hunch the spell might improve his weed seed quality. He was interest
ed in the effect it would have on already-grown crop, but again it was limited to one item. As for Earth Spike, he liked the illusion effect and damage dealing. Though he had Acid Vine, he might not have access to plants all the time, and the vines didn’t attack constantly. There was a delay between the attacks. Earthen Spike might serve him better.
The skills weren’t top notch, but he had to take a chance on them. He had six points to spend, so he assigned one to each. Then he assigned 1 point to Healing Space. It had saved his life multiple times already, and it surely would again.
Looking at his character sheet, he also put 2 points in Strength and 4 points in Wisdom.
Name: Jon (Level 3)
Class: Arch Druid
Second Class: Formationist
Stats:
Strength 20
Dexterity 5
Constitution 9
Intelligence 5
Wisdom 22
Chance 2
Charisma 2
Health 350/350
Stamina 215/215 (5.81/S)
Mana 50/50 (5.25/S)
Spirit 220/220 (9.84/S)
Utility Class: Herbalist
Stat points available: 0
Skill points available: 3
Experience 5100/8000
Skills:
Passives:
The Circle of Land
Mark of the Formation Master
Formation Painter
Mana Manipulation (Level 1)
Land Tasting (Level 1)
Spirit Cycling (Level 4)
Active:
Mold Earth (Level 2)
Healing Space (Level 3)
Acid Vine (Level 1)
Land Heal (Level 2)
Elemental Shield (Level 1)
Purify (Level 1)
Earth Spike (Level 1)
Conjure Light (Level 1)
Utility Skills:
Perception (Level 1)
As he surveyed his character sheet, a wave of joy ran through him. It was so awesome to get to choose where he invested his points. Having a class meant he had access to the finer details, and then he had earned a powerful class, too. With it, his farm would develop so fast and awesome.
It was just amazing.
But there was a slight doubt in his heart. He wasn’t sure about the stats he was investing points in. Druids were spell casters and nature wizards and needed Spirit, but what about Formationists? What did they need?
While pondering it, his gaze fell on the free skill he had received.
Conjure Light: Call upon the light element and form a sphere of light to light the path ahead of you for five minutes. Cost: 20 Spirit.
Wow! Was the game-god listening to him when he’d complained about the lack of light? It must be.
Without a second thought, he cast Conjure Light in front of him. A small bean-sized, dazzling white sphere formed in front of him and rapidly attracted light elements from the air, turning into a fist-sized sphere in less than a second. His golden crop shone brilliantly in the light and enhanced his mood further.
Suddenly, a metal object pierced through his throat.
System: You have died!
Chapter 22
Jon opened his eyes and found himself in his respawn room. It was the same old tasteless room with white walls and a white table in the middle of the room. It was also the same pain, but this time it only lasted for five minutes. Something had changed, and he had a higher pain tolerance. Maybe his increased level or increase in stats affected it.
When the pain subsided and he could think again, he accessed his notifications.
System: Grimish has hit you with a shovel. You received 250 damage.
You have died.
Respawn time 4 hours.
A clock ticked away in the right corner of his vision.
That f-ing bastard again. Why did Grimish kill him this time? Jon’s fingers curled into a fist. This was getting annoying. He had to do something about it.
But if Grimish’s one hit could kill him, how would he avoid dying? Even if he cast four Acid Vines, how would he prevent Grimish from attacking him? And that bastard excelled at speed. Before Jon could cast Acid Vines, Grimish would have already killed him.
Standing against a level 20 player was too much trouble—unless he had something to restrict Grimish’s movements.
With that thought, Jon started going through the spells he had available. Sadly, he had no controlling spell in his arsenal. If only he had a secondary class with a control spell, he would have slowly killed that bastard.
Wait. He had Formationist as his second class.
He quickly opened the journal and turned to the desired page. The diagram of intersecting circles had changed. Earlier, it had looked alive, throbbing with vitality, but now it looked like a dull painting.
He flipped the page.
“Welcome, Formationist. If you can see this page, that means you have stepped onto the path of Glory. Mark these words in your heart: always fight for the glory of Formation Masters, and never waver from the path of glory.”
The author seemed to be proud of his class. Was it that strong?
Only time would tell.
Jon continued reading.
“We, the Formation Masters, have a long-standing tradition of rewarding newbies with the best equipment and items. Unfortunately, I can’t offer any of that to you. Even my own equipment would serve no purpose to you at your level. Once you succeed on the path of Glory and become a Formation Master, open the last page and find my equipment. Only then can they help you.
Now, back to the reward. I can offer you few formations to study and practice. I’m also enclosing four blank Tier 1 flags. They are quite precious, but they will also help you learn Formation Symbol creation.”
This was getting interesting. So, the symbol he saw on Grimish’s formation flags was actually a formation symbol. He continued reading.
“With an ink pen and the blank formation flags, play as much you want. But before that, drop a little of your blood on the flags to bind them to you, so they won’t drop even if you die. You must wonder what use anyone would have for them once you die. But as the last Formation Master, I can’t let them fall into the wrong hands. So, unless you bind them you can’t draw a single thing on them.”
A crazy smile formed on Jon’s face. The journal must have belonged to an NPC, so he thought death was permanent. Of course, having an item bound to his character only helped him. Otherwise he would have to worry about Grimish stealing them again.
No more.
But how could he cut his finger now? He had no equipment in his bag. Grimish had stolen it all. Twice.
“Grimish!” He screamed in agony. Grimish needed to pay for all the pain he had caused him.
Jon was going to have to do this the hard way. Pulling the shovel from his bag, he slashed it across his leg, but as soon as the shovel cut into the flesh, the skin repaired itself before a drop of blood came out. Apparently, he couldn’t hurt himself in the respawn room. The healing speed was so fast it was almost frightening.
If only he had this effect outside the respawn room!
Anyway, he had to find another way to get some blood. He absolutely could not leave without soul binding these, because Grimish might be waiting for him once he respawned. What if he tricks him and steals his new flags?
He tried cutting his tongue with his teeth. Damn, even that didn’t work.
Maybe he could cast a spell.
He tried Elemental Shield. It worked—and gave him an idea. It would mean pain. Lots of pain.
But he wasn’t afraid of pain.
First, he placed the flags on the table in front of him, then placed a weed seed next to them and cast Purify on the seed.
As usual, the Spirit spark emerged in his chest and a thread of Spirit shot to his hand, but before the Spirit slipped out of his hand, he cut it. The spell backfired, tearing the muscles in his hand, but they immediately began healing with frightening speed.
Gritting his teeth, he cast another Purify and cut it in half.
The second backlash started even before first finished, and the veins in his arm literally burst. Blood oozed out of them, but it soon started to vanish. The respawn room was working tirelessly to heal the damage.
One blood drop. That’s all Jon needed, so he quickly dropped it on one of the flags.
A notification popped up.
System: Do you want to soul bind the flag? Yes/No.
Bracing himself against the pain, he shouted but selected “yes.”
Half an hour after, he had repeated the process three times and bound the three remaining flags as well. Only then was his heart at ease.
A notification popped up.
System: Are you stupid? Or just a fool? -1 Intelligence for the next twelve hours, as you keep acting foolish.
Your hard work has paid off. The forceful penetration of your muscles has made you vigorous. +1 to Constitution.
Congratulations. As you have shown an extraordinary pain tolerance, you have learned Pain Attunement.
Pain Attunement (Passive Skill): You feel 2% less pain. You have 1% chance to reduce 1% incoming damage.
Wow! There was a skill for pain attunement. The game developers must have been sadistic bastards. Also, he could increase his Constitution by hurting himself? That would be a totally crazy approach. He shuddered at the thought. Nope.
Jon flipped to the next page of the journal. Three formations were listed on that page, and all were Tier 0 formations suitable for a level 1 Formationist. One of them was “Lock.”
Lock Formation: Locks anything moving in the formation area for thirty seconds. It can lock any monster/player below level 10n. Where n is the skill level. Requires four formation flags with formation symbol. Time: 30 seconds. Cost: 200 Spirit/Mana.
Then there was a weird symbol: three circles intersecting each other, housing a small creature in the common intersection.
Was it a rabbit?
Jon studied it carefully, but it didn’t look like a rabbit. At least the formation accepted Mana and Spirit both. That meant he didn’t have to put points in Intelligence and Wisdom. He bet there would be no character class using two different sources of energy.