Daemon sat in his corner and sorted through all the information until it ended. He was quite sad it ended so early but he still learned some good information.
He was familiar with the basic classes but coming for people who had real stories about awakeners and being interested to shear them was a rare thing outside the Tower.
Daemon had learned more in the last hour than he had from months of mandatory classes.
Classes were divided in three different categories. They're usually ranked between base, intermediate and advanced. Base job classes can be leveled up to 5, intermediate classes can be leveled up to 10, and advanced classes up to 15.
The Hunter class was a base and can only be leveled up to 5 at max.
The Hunter class. He didn't know as much about it as he would have liked. A jack-of-all-trades, as the saying went — master of none. But there was a second half to that saying that people tended to leave off. Still better than a master of one.
He didn't have friends, family, a guild, or a clan. He also had a bad habit of expecting the worst from people and, apparently, an equally bad habit of entering in situations that should have killed him.
So he needed a class that could allow him to be alone. The Hunter class was best bet.
Opening his status he got straight towards the class icon.
And looked for the Hunter class, he saw the requirements.
The class requirements he technically had them, only the last one he kind didn't.
Class: Hunter
Category: Base Class
Max Level: 5
Requirements:
— Level 1+
— Hunt creatures of the same species [20/20] ✓
— Hunt a creature of higher rank than yourself [1/1] ✓
— Consume parts of your hunt [0/1] ✗
He stared at the last requirement for a moment.
Consume parts of your hunt.
Twenty goblins cleared. One creature of higher rank cleared. And then the last condition, sitting there with a zero next to it, entirely his fault. If only he had known, but he hadn't, and there was no point dwelling on it.
After Daemon ate and was happy with the information he got, he left towards his room, as he got a crazy idea. He didn't have anything to consume from the goblins, and to be honest even if he had he wouldn't have consumed it. But he had the core from the corpse golem.
Daemon closed the status window and went back upstairs.
He sat on the edge of the bed and opened his backpack.
The red gem was there, pulsing faintly in the dim light of the room. The crystallized core of the Corpse Golem — the thing he had pulled from its chest with his own hands while it was still deteriorating around him. He had been carrying it this entire time without giving it a second thought.
He looked at it for a long moment.
It was technically a part of a creature he had hunted. That was not a complicated logical leap. Whether the Tower would agree with his interpretation of the requirement was another question, but there was only one way to find out.
"Here goes nothing."
He swallowed it.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then the pain arrived. It didn't have a specific location because it seemed to be originating from everywhere at once. His vision blurred and when he felt like he was actually dying.
He felt it, the mask reacted before he consciously registered what was happening — it spread across his face without being summoned, and something in it seemed to connect with the gem as it went down, like two parts of the same thing recognizing each other across a short distance.
The pain didn't stop, but it changed, becoming more bearable, as though the mask was absorbing some portion of it on his behalf. He sat with it for more than a full hour, breathing steadily, until it finally subsided.
Then the notifications came.
[Congratulations — you have gained +5 END and +5 SPR.]
He stared at that for a moment.
All of that for just ten stat points. That should be considered daylight robbery if I am to be tortured. It should be worth it.
Then:
[Congratulations — you have gained a Title: Fool.]
Daemon went still.
"Oh for god sake, not again. What the fuck did I do again?" He was genuinely apprehensive about opening it. The last two out of three titles had each found a new way to articulate that he lacked basic judgment. He wasn't sure if he could be seamless enough to handle another one.
He opened it anyway.
[Fool]
Rank: Common
"Ignorance is a natural affliction. Yours, however, is a masterpiece."
Description: The Tower rarely concerns itself with the trivial mistakes of mortals. It does not judge; it only records. but your recent choices have bypassed all logic, silenced every basic survival instinct. This title is granted to some that the Tower finds necessary to let them know are idiots.
Title Attributes
The Tower pities your absolute lack of common sense.
Grants +2 to [Luck]
***
Daemon read it twice.
Then he sat back and stared at the wall for a while.
"So what I did was actually that bad, I did feel like I was dying, but it could actually not be just a feeling, but reality. I thick the mask to save my sorry ass."
"You know what, I think I may have actually deserved this one." He genuinely had — who in their right mind swallowed a pulsating magical gem from a monster they had killed hours ago with no information about what it might do? The answer, apparently, was him.
Checking the class requirements again.
Class: Hunter
Requirements:
— Level 1+ ✓
— Hunt creatures of the same species [20/20] ✓
— Hunt a creature of higher rank than yourself [1/1] ✓
— Consume parts of your hunt [1/1] ✓
All conditions met.
Daemon looked at the completed list with an expression that couldn't quite decide between shame and satisfaction. He had done things the wrong way and arrived at the right place regardless. That seemed to become a pattern.
Despite all that a small smile formed on Daemon's face.
He selected the Hunter class and waited to see what the Tower would do next. One level instantly got in it.
The feeling was amazing like the first time he levelled up, only at that time he had been too preoccupied and too exhausted to care, but now he could feel it.
After it ended he heard the familiar voice.
[Congratulations — you have become a Hunter.]
[Congratulations — you have become a level 1 Hunter.]
[You have gained +3 [END], +2 [STR], +2 [DEX], +2 [PER] and +1 Free Point.]
[You have gained the skills: Hunter's Insight, Hunter's Senses and Hunter's Sight.]
"Three skills, not bad. I should put the other level in as well."
[Congratulations — you have become a level 2 Hunter.]
[You have gained +3 [END], +2 [STR], +2 [DEX], +2 [PER] and +1 Free Point.]
[You have gained the skill: Hunter's Adaptation.]
"Only one, I see."
"Staus."
Name: Daemon
True Name: N/A
Traits: N/A
Titles: [The Courageous Fool] | [Doubtless] | [Inconceivable Victory] | [Fool]
Race: [Human]
Level: 2 [EXP: 0/300]
Age: [17]
Classes: [Hunter]
Talent: [Divergent of Error]
Talent Rank: A
Talent Ability: [Eyes of the Epigone]
Attributes: [Light; Darkness]
Stats
INT: 45
END: 66
STR: 50
DEX: 50
PER: 51
SPR: 79
MAG: 41
Free Points: 4
Skills: [Hunter's Insight], [Hunter's Senses], [Hunter's Sight], [Hunter's Adaptation]
Equipment: [Blessing of an Abomination]