(A/N: I noticed that there was now a funtion for author note while posting chapter, but heh, I'm an old school type of guy, so you get the annoyign author note directly into your chapter! Anyway, just a small note to explain that text in italic jsut so happen to be Asmund's thought. Later on in the story, as more character get involved, I will precise who is either talkign or thinking to make thing easier to understand. Anyway, with that said, enjoy your damn chapter! Oh! One last thing, UltraBenoSaurus is the one who came up with most of the titles for the chapters, and since I don't really want to think too much about them, either I let them as is, or actually come up with some retarded title myself. So kept in mind that sometiem the actual title have nothing to do with the chapter...)

Chapter 02 - Tutorials Are for Noobs.

Alright then, first of all, what the hell is happening?

Holding his head in his hands, Asmund made his brain work at full speed as he tried to recall everything that happened since the first message appeared in order to make sense of all this.

Though he failed at it, as it didn’t really make sense.

Let’s forgot about finding a ‘reason’ for all this. Even if I were to think for days I’d probably never figure it out with how few clues I have at the moment. All I need to know is…

1- That an RPG-like system appeared out of nowhere and probably involves not only me but everyone in the world, or at the very least this island.

2- That some god or administrator or something is observing me, and saved my life once. Apparently won't help me again though.

3- That monsters appeared out of nowhere and are currently massacring absolutely everyone.

And most important point of all! I can grow stronger! Although I was skeptical when I first saw the character sheet screen and didn’t really had any hopes for it, after gaining a level, distributing my free points and obtaining a class, the effects are quite obvious and impressive!

If I were to keep raising my stats then I could become a super-being far above others! Forget about being looked down upon! I could become the one looking down on everyone!

Ahahahah! Awesome!

Thinking about the prospect of doing whatever he wants and obtaining the power to hold his destiny in his hands, Asmund's mood brightened to a sickening point, almost bursting out in maddening laughter.

Wow there, calm down for a second… I’m far from being safe at the moment, so let’s first survive and escape from this damn place before thinking about fun things.

So, I ‘kinda’ got a grasp of the current situation. Now I need to better understand that RPGish system.

After calming down, Asmund instinctively opened his character sheet.

#

[ Name: Asmund Dreyri | Race: Human | Level: 2 ]

[ Class: Blood Overlord ]

[ Power: 5 ]

[ Agility: 3 ]

[ Constitution: 5 ]

[ Mind: 11 ]

[ Spirit: 7 ]

#

[ Skills ]

[ Heart Of Magic Blood ][ Level 1 ][ Passive ]

[ Blood Manipulation ][ Level 1 ][ Active ]

[ Blood Siphon ][ Level 1 ][ Active ]

#

[ Credits: 4 ]

[ System’s Shop -> ]

#

Hmmm, now that I take a better look at it, some of my stats did grow without me putting any free points in them… 1 Point in ‘Power’, 1 point in ‘Constitution’ and 2 point in ‘Spirit’... That seems to be exactly what was written in the class description as ‘Growth Bonus’. It was something like ‘Growth Bonus: Pow/Con/Spi+’...

So it wouldn’t be weird to think that it was the effect of said ‘Growth Bonus’, but then… Why did it affect me even though I only gained this class after leveling? Do you gain a ‘Growth Bonus’ proportional to your level after gaining a class? From the sound of it I thought it would be more like you gain additional stat points ‘after’ gaining a level.

Oh well, I can’t exactly complain about that now, can I?

Now, about those skills… Can I get some description of them by staring at the name or something?

*Starrrrre*’

…

After staring at one of the skills' names for a full minute, he came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t work…

Damn… I guess I’ll try to think of another way later on… Now, I should focus on the ‘Credits’ and ‘System’s Shop’ parts!

From the sound of it, ‘Credits’ are like points or a monetary system of some kind that you can gain from killing monsters. And from that conclusion, it would be logical that its use can be found in the ‘System’s Shop’, so let’s focus immediately on that.

Thinking that, he stared at the ‘System Shop’s’ small rectangular panel, and was immediately brought to another screen, completely different from the previous one.

It was a simple square separated into 7 different icons.

The 7 icons were: a human silhouette, a book, a book with a ‘+’ sign next to it, a sword, an armor, a lab flask and finally a loaf of bread.

Hmmm… Each of those icons must probably be some kind of tab… Let’s try the human silhouette first.

Focusing his sight on the icon, yet another screen appeared in his mind.

It was a list of class names, all categorized into ‘ranks’.

Ohhh! Looks like it’s the ‘Class’ shop! As expected, you normally don’t receive a class in the same weird way I did.

The different classes were categorized under 6 different ranks.

The rank at the top of the list was: ‘Lower Citizen Rank’. The cost displayed next to it was 0, as those classes were apparently free.

Among the classes in there, there weren’t any RPGish sounding ones. On the contrary, they were all simple-sounding jobs such as: ‘Cook’, ‘Merchant’, ‘Farmer’, etc…

That said, there were also weird ones, such as ‘Prostitute - Gigolo’ or even ‘Maid - Butler’... Those classes don’t have any ‘Growth Bonus’, but all have a simple passive skill. For example, the merchant class has the [Barter] skill, which makes it simpler to buy and sell merchandise at a better price.

The rank above the Lower Citizen one was the ‘High Citizen’ rank.

All the classes of this rank were mostly crafting ones, which also didn’t have any growth bonus but had a single passive skill useful for their trade. For example, the blacksmith class has the [Swordsmith Mastery] skill, which improves the quality of the ‘sword type’ weapons the blacksmith crafts.

Gaining such a class had a cost of 1000 Credits unlike the Lower Citizen, though.

The next rank, was the ‘Fighter’ one, which costs 3000 Credits.

All the classes in this categories started to sound really RPGish, such as ‘Warrior’, ‘Mage’, ‘Rogue’ and the like. Each of these classes all had a single ‘Growth Bonus’ unlike the previous classes, and also had a single active skill.

Looking at the stats affected by the ‘Growth Bonus’ of those classes, I’m kind of able to understand the effect that each stat has on the body, at least in simple ‘game-ish’ terms.

The close 'fighter'-type classes all obviously have the ‘Pow’ stat growth bonus. So as expected, ‘Power’ likely relates to the raw strength of the body.

The ‘speed’-type classes have the ‘Agi’ stat growth bonus. And here I can’t say that there’s any surprise, as ‘Agility’ is pretty self-explanatory…

‘Con’ or ‘Constitution’ is the growth bonus of ‘tank’ classes, such as Knight, so it must involve things such as toughness, health, resistance to abnormal conditions and the speed your wounds heal.

What was surprising was the ‘Mnd’ or ‘Mind’ stat, which is the growth bonus of physical ranged classes, such as ‘Marksman’. From it one could guess that the ‘Mind’ stat involves things such as eyesight, calculation speed, dexterity and reflexes.

Lastly, the ‘Spi’ or ‘Spirit’ stat, is obviously the growth bonus of 'magical'-type classes, and probably involves everything related to mana and its use.

Satisfied with his conclusion, Asmund nodded to himself and took a look at the following rank.

Noble Rank, the classes under it were much more numerous than in the ‘Fighter Rank’ category. But looking at the list, the reason was quite obvious, because the Noble Rank classes are something like a more specialized Fighter Rank class. For example there is a Mage class for each element, that’s to say: Pyromancer, Aquamancer, Terramancer and Aeromancer.

The other difference is that the growth bonus is basically the same as their ‘base’ classes, but with the addition of a ‘+’ sign, meaning that the growth bonus is worth 2 points. Each class also has the addition of a passive skill to their active one. As for the cost to acquire a class of this rank, it’s no less than 20 000 Credits. And although it’s quite pricey, it’s not really comparable to the next one… The ‘King Rank’ classes, which have a price of 200 000 Credits.

The King Rank classes are mostly ‘hybrid’ classes. Such as ‘Magic Swordsman’, which has ‘Spi, Pow+’ for its growth bonus. Like this, each have a single ‘+’ stat bonus in addition to a 1 point one. As for skills, they all have either 2 active ones or 1 active and 1 passive like the nobles.

Lastly came the ‘Emperor Rank’, for which the impressive price was…

Holy shit! 1 000 000 Credits?! For real?!

In awe, Asmund almost carelessly shouted that out loud, but luckily he kept those words inside his head.

And after taking some time to calm himself, he inspected the classes in the list.

All of them had pretty impressive names such as ‘Death’s Apostle’, ‘Bearer Of Light’ or ‘Incarnation Of Chaos’. As for their growth bonus and skills, it was just like Asmund’s Blood Overlord class. They had 3 different stats and one of them had the ‘+’ sign, 2 active skills and a passive one.

His inspection of the different classes finished, Asmund noticed something worth mentioning at the bottom of the screen. It was a rectangular panel in which was written a line giving an obvious explanation of its purpose: ‘Class Reset: 50 000 Credits’.

Quite expensive… Luckily my class is already ridiculously powerful, so I won’t have to use that option.

Leaving this screen by focusing on a red arrow which pointing left at the bottom of said screen, the previous one with the different icons reappeared in Asmund’s mind.

I guess that I will try out the book icon next.

Focussing on that new icon, yet another screen with a list appeared, and grabbed his attention immediately as he understood that it was none other than a list of skills to buy!

That said, he was soon disappointed… For the skills were separated in two categories. The first one was the ‘Common’ category, which grouped a list of useful yet non-combat skills, and the second one was the ‘Blood Overlord’ one, where the skills' prices were ridiculously high.

As expected… Obtaining such a crazy class while being only level 2 has a lot of disadvantages... That said, some of those skills are seriously crazy good! One especially grabbed my attention!

[ Blood Contract ][ Blood Overlord Skill ]

[ After creating a simple written contract, obtaining the agreement and a drop of blood of both parties, using this skill will register the contract as approved by the world’s laws, making it absolute. If one of the parties involved were to breach the contract, they would be punished by either seizures of pain if the offence is light or by death if it’s heavy. ]

[ This skill can’t be upgraded ]

Just how crazy is that?! Turning people into loyal subjects or even slaves would be really simple with this skill! It cost 40 000 Credits to buy it though…

It really depressed him to look at the awesome skills which were out of reach for him, so he stopped inspecting the skills of his class and looked through the ‘Common’ list.

Most of them were cheap and really useful, like ‘Light Sphere’, which creates a small sphere of light that automatically follows you for an hour, or ‘Spark’ which can create sparks to help you light a fire. But among those the most useful was clearly this one.

[ Water Channeling ][Common Skill ][ Level 1 ]

[ Gives you the ability to gather clean water from the atmosphere. ]

[ This skill can’t be upgraded ]

Clean water was something easy to get in society, and it’s probably still the case for now, but before long clean water will become a luxury that one can’t utilise at will or simply get by turning the handle of a faucet. Yet, thanks to this skill, anyone is able to have water at will and the cost is even quite cheap as the skill only costs 100 Credits to buy.

Having seen enough of the ‘Skill’ tab, Asmund then tried the book+ icon, which led to a small list of the 3 skills he currently has.

Oh? Looks like this is the ‘Skill Upgrade’ tab! And I finally get a description of my current skills at that!

[ Heart Of Magic Blood ][ Blood Overlord Skill ][ Level 1 ]

[ Your heart has the capacity to replace any loss of blood with the use of mana. Be warned that this skill is automatic and will use your mana, regardless of your will, upon any loss of blood to replace it. ]

[ This skill can’t be upgraded ]

[ Blood Manipulation ][ Blood Overlord Skill ][ Level 1 ]

[ You can control blood at will, change its shape and properties. ]

[ Level 1: Liquid and Solid property / Can control only your own blood. ]

[ Level 2: Flexible property / Can control human corpses' blood in your surroundings. ]

[ Level 3: Elastic property / Can control monster corpses' blood in your surroundings. ]

[ Upgrade: 25 000 Credits (Level 10+ req.) ]

[ Blood Siphon ][ Blood Overlord Skill ][ Level 1 ]

[ Gives you the ability to siphon the blood from corpses, accelerating your natural regeneration and letting you absorb a fraction of the corpse's blood essence (stats). The amount of stats you gain from the corpse highly depends on said corpse’s level prior to death, freshness, and how many times you have absorbed the blood essence from the same species. ]

[ This skill can’t be upgraded ]

… Utterly shocked by the description of his ‘Blood Siphon’ skill, Asmund’s jaw hung open in astonishment.

WHAT THE FUCK?! This is a complete cheat isn’t it?! Wait wait wait… Let’s calm down for a second… First of all, it’s probably not as almighty as it sounds, like you need a lot of low level blood to even obtain a single point or something. That's what seems the most logical to me. It would be too damn broken otherwise, even if it’s already one hell of a skill either way. Also, although the third one was the most shocking, the first two are already quite crazy. I mean, with the combination of those two I’m nearly immortal aren’t I? Well, while I have enough mana to use them that is. Not to mention that I will need a lot of practice to be able to heal wounded organs with the use of my blood.

Not being able to do anything more, Asmund was getting ready to go back to the ‘main menu’ when he noticed another small panel at the bottom of the screen, the contents of which immediately brought a smile to his face.

[ Free Upgrades left: 0 ]

Although it didn’t have any direct use right now, it at least means that there existed another way besides paying a fee to upgrade your skills.

After discovering this, he moved next to the sword icon, which obviously happened to be a list of weapons, just like the armor icon is a list of… ‘Armor’...

But among both lists there was only a small amount of items, which were cheap and of low quality. Obtaining powerful items is probably not something done through the ‘System’s Shop’. The next tab with the lab flask icon was the best proof of this… As it contained a list of consumables like potions, antidotes or anti-curse paper charms. But all of them are really low quality, with prefixes such as ‘weak’, ‘lesser’, etc…

At last, the loaf of bread icon led to an interesting list, put simply… ‘Food’.

So you can even buy food through the System’s Shop huh? That said, it's hella’ expensive. Probably life saving depending on the situation, but who in his right mind would pay 70 Credits for a cup of instant noodles or 100 for a loaf of bread? The 50 Kg bag of rice for 1000 Credits may have some worth, that said.

Alright, it looks like I pretty much saw everything the System’s Shop has to offer… What now?

Thinking about what to do next, Asmund suddenly remembered about the grey gacha ball in his pocket. Taking it out of his pocket he tried to inspect it with eyes, and soon saw yet another panel appear.

[ Rank.1 (Grey) Treasure Capsule ]

Nice! Let’s open this bad boy and see what’s inside!

Getting slightly excited like a kid, Asmund twisted the top and bottom part of the gacha ball to unscrew it, resulting in the capsule disappearing with a small ‘pop’ sound and soon being replaced by a miniature pair of boots, which fell on the floor.

…

The hell…? Don’t tell me I got this hyped for just some toy?!

Annoyed, he grabbed the miniature boots…

“Wha?!”

As soon as his hand came in contact with them, he was quite startled to see that they grew to be a human sized pair of boots. Dropping them again due to his surprise, the boots turned back into miniature sized ones… Picking them up yet again, sure enough they grew back to a size that he could wear.

[ Rank.1 - Leather Boots ]

[ Effect: Agi+2, Def+1 ]

[ Durability: 100% ]

Def? So items can give stats you can’t grow through leveling. Interesting…

Seeing the item effects, Asmund quickly replaced his plastic hospital shoes with the leather boots, which fitted him perfectly.

“Alright… What next?”