Strongest Among the Heavens

[ Status: Kazi Hossain

Class: Amateur Swordsman

Level: 4

HP: 30

HP/Minute: 2

MP: 40

MP/Minute: 4.75

Attack: 20

Defence: 7

Attributes

Strength: 9

Resilience: 6

Agility: 9

Deftness: 58

Vitality: 4

Magical Might: 5

Magical Mending: 5

Distributive Points: 9 ]

'Ooh, look at that. Everything went up. Nice, nice!' Giddiness took hold of him. There was an unfamiliar sense of satisfaction from levelling up. He could feel a shift inside himself as well as a mental pat on the back from himself.

His muscles seemed smoother, somehow. Maybe it was because he was levelling up for the first time but he genuinely felt superhuman. It was almost like he was on steroids—not that he'd ever used any. He heard from close friends that the feeling of taking substances was addicting precisely due to its sense of accomplishment and power. It was a physical and mental power-up.

But this wasn't steroids. This was the Game System. This was real power unrestrained by the laws of the universe.

[ You have completed the Main Objective of Gate 1: A Forest in Kishkindha.]

[ Return to the White Abyss? Yes or no? ]

'Maaaaybe later.' Kazi flexed his fist. 'I'll go back at some point so I can prep for the special objective but I think I want to focus on levelling up.'

Back at full health, confidence regained, and his sword still intact, Kazi decided to do some farming. At level 4, he had nothing to fear.

***

Farming for two hours was not as easy as expected. In retrospect, Kazi should have deduced that when he heard it was easy for Noor. She used magic. She didn't have to run, walk, dodge or swing a sword. She stood, took a deep breath, casted a spell on a faraway slime, and voila. Free XP.

Meanwhile, Kazi was forced to roll to the side as the slime tried to swallow him. His sword in his left hand, his right hand on the ground, he loosely slashed the slime in half. Its green matter regenerated quickly, though its HP bar went low and turned red. Springing off his right foot, he charged and muttered, "Spark Strike."

The supercharged blade lit it up. The green slime became a fuming mess. Slash! With one last strike, it was dead. Kazi's shoulders shook and his mouth released ragged breaths. While his strength and speed was close to peak human, his stamina wasn't.

[ Receive:

1x Slime Orb

6 XP ]

[ Level up! ]

His bones were rejuvenated. His health and mana was back to full capacity, as was his drained stamina. His legs went from weak and jello to strong and rooted. There was still sweat dripping from his forehead. He wiped it away with his wrist.

"I should cut my hair," Kazi muttered to himself. His skin was pretty brown and dark, but his hair was a mess. He tussled it before going back to the popped up status screen.

[ Status: Kazi Hossain

Class: Amateur Swordsman

Level: 5

HP: 35

HP/Minute: 2.5

MP: 48

MP/Minute: 5.75

Attack: 11

Defence: 8

Attributes

Strength: 10

Resilience: 7

Agility: 10

Deftness: 59

Vitality: 5

Magical Might: 6

Magical Mending: 6

Distributive Points: 12 ]

'Twelve points…what to do, what to do…?' Kazi thought to himself. He recalled gaining a new class. His finger touched it. Another screen popped up.

[ Available Classes

Amateur Player: Quick Learner

Amateur Swordsman: Amateur Sword Proficiency, Stamina Surge Lv. 1 ]

Skills in general were categorized into three: Passive Skills, Class Skills, and General Skills. Class Skills came from equipping the Class. Passive and General Skills came from the skill tree. His finger hovered over each of the three skills and he read through the accompanying walls of text.

[ Quick Learner

Type: Class

Subtype: Support

Rank: F

Gain a 2% increase in XP collected. ]

[ Amateur Sword Proficiency

Type: Class

Subtype: Offence

Rank: F

Gain a 1% boost in sword attacks. ]

[ Stamina Surge Lv. 1

Type: Class

Subtype: Offence

Rank: E

Experience a temporary boost in stamina during combat at random. ]

'Stamina Surge. Thank god that it activated when I needed it.'

Seriously, if it wasn't for that rush of adrenaline, he would have died.

Death, in the context of the Heavenly Games, meant total annihilation—at least that was what Kazi assumed it was. Azrael wouldn't elaborate on where they would go after dying in the Heavenly Games and merely stated a player would be eliminated.

Kazi thought hard about how he would avoid an unfortunate end. Though Stamina Surge came in handy, it was a skill based on luck, no raw numbers. And right now, more than anything, Kazi needed strength in numbers and consistency. He needed the Class Skill associated with Amateur Player. He needed to gain XP and fast.

[ Status: Kazi Hossain

Class: Amateur Player

Level: 5

HP: 35

HP/Minute: 2.5

MP: 48

MP/Minute: 5.75

Attack: 21

Defence: 8

Attributes

Strength: 10

Resilience: 7

Agility: 10

Deftness: 59

Vitality: 5

Magical Might: 6

Magical Mending: 6

Distributive Points: 12 ]

Kazi chose to go with the Amateur Player Class rather than the Amateur Swordsman. Sure, his offensive capabilities would go down, but that was okay with him as long as he levelled up faster.

"Nice, nice," he said to himself. There was more to be done, however, especially in regards to classes. A class, once unlocked, provided a new skill tree, and regardless of whether it was equipped or not, a player got to use the skills associated with the class.

"Open skill tree."

The basic ten icons appeared in front of him, hexagonal in shape. However, all of them were dimmed and locked, with the exception of one: Amateur Swordsman, which he had just unlocked. A second later, a new icon appeared, blinking. That must have been 'Amateur Player'.

'So it's just like Azrael said, eh?'

Underneath the icons was tiny lettering spelling out the class. Kazi clicked on Amateur Player, which symbolized itself through a game controller.

A tree of skills appeared, starting off with two hexagons that indicated the starter skills: Quick Study and Dungeon Delver. The two bases of the skill tree led up to four additional skills each, for a total of ten skills for the whole class.

He spent all his distributive points on the Quick Study path. The Dungeon Delver half focused on gaining extra on completed objectives, main or special, while the Quick Study path was rounded and rather general about its gains.

[ Quick Study

Type: Passive

Subtype: Support

Rank: F

Gain a 3% increase in XP collected. ]

[ Lucky Find

Type: Passive

Subtype: Support

Rank: F

Gain a 1% increase in better loot. ]

[ Rapid Grasp

Type: Passive

Subtype: Support

Rank: F

Gain a 4% increase in XP collected. ]

[ Adaptive Resilience

Type: Passive

Subtype: Support

Rank: F

Gain a 1% increase in HP/Minute. ]

[ Lucky Break

Type: General

Subtype: Support

Rank: E

Once per day, gain a rare item from a monster. ]

Lucky break. The final skill of the Amateur Player Class. By focusing on a singular path, he could reach the final skill of a starter class like Amateur Player. Kazi had scanned the skills of the Amateur Swordsman and Amateur Player. In the end, once again, he came to the conclusion that Amateur Player was the better pick to advance his overall abilities. The Passive Skills stacked on top of each other, thereby giving Kazi an additional 9% XP from all XP collected, whether it be from a completed objective or a monster.

His distributive points were at a resounding zero. Quick Study, Lucky Find, and Adaptive Resilience costed two points. Lucky Break alone was four. Whether it was worth it, he would find out.

Kazi rolled his shoulders. His comfort with the sword had abruptly dropped, evidence of the switch in class.

He stared at his sword and his hand tightly gripping it, then grinned. "This is so much fun."

With a wide grin on his face, he ran through the forest of Kishkindha.

Less than ten seconds later, his foot hit something hard. Something metal. Something flat and…rectangular shaped.

A chest. An actual fantasy treasure chest.

"In the middle of the forest?" Kazi said to himself. It was half-way hidden in a bush. He poked it. It wasn't particularly large and roughly knee-high. Kazi kneeled down and noticed there was no lock.

He barely touched the key-shaped hole when it suddenly opened and struck him with a golden light.