Having spent the whole day yesterday asking questions to Climbers who were on the Guild and even some that he saw walking around outside, Damien had headed back to the temporary lodging that the Guild was affording him for the two weeks of training they would receive before they would have their first attempt to take the Level 1 test.

He had to share a room with other men, he didn’t remember anything about his past life, but judging by his body’s revulsion to the thought he was sure that this was something he rarely did before, he wouldn’t complain though, it beat sleeping outside. As he laid on his cheap bedding, he couldn’t help but wonder where his life was going, one moment he wakes up and is forced to fight for his life, and when he is given a chance to leave the danger behind and live a normal life in this world, he rejects the idea and chooses to put himself into more dangerous situations.

He understood why the others did it, they wanted fame, money, women, power, or something else along those lines, but when he thought about the reason he wanted to keep moving forward, his mind would draw a blank. Back when he fought the Minotaur, he remembered feeling a thrill as his life was pushed to the limit and death loomed over him, the challenge that had been placed on him was the thing that made him smile in the face of death.

Which reminds me, I need to check that Title.

Bold: you acted in a situation with little information and a lot of danger, yet somehow you still came out on top. +25% to EXP from monsters that are higher level than you, temporary +20% to stats during combat with enemy of higher level.

An EXP bonus? I remember that old man said that these were active even if you didn’t have them equipped it at all times. I’m sure that the extra EXP will come in handy later.

Giving up thinking about things he could not figure out by himself, he headed to sleep, he needed the rest for tomorrow.

“Is this all of you?”

Admittedly there weren’t too many rogues in the group that had gathered in the morning. Each class had been told to meet up in a certain part of the forest that surrounded the town, since there were no monsters in the Level there was no reason to worry about danger. Damien had counted about 50 warriors and around the same amount of mages, regarding the rangers, there were around 20 or so, but it was the clerics and rogues who were scarce.

The instructor that had been called to teach the rogues rubbed her temples as she looked at the group in front of her, for the most part they did not fit the type, “Alright, well to be honest I am not surprised. For the most part not a lot of people pick rogue as their starter class, even in the Frontier the dominating classes are warrior-types with clerics and mages as support. When I get to the Frontier, I’ll show those stuck up royals what’s what, you’ll see!”

As the instructor rambled on about the superiority of the rogue class, Damien took the opportunity to analyze her as much as possible. If her ears didn’t give her away as an elf, her lithe and tall stature did. The next thing that stood out to him was her white skin, it was almost identical to snow, and her long flowing platinum hair aided in that color scheme. The only color on her face was her slightly pink lips and her red eyes that had darkness slowly inked out from around her eye lids giving it the look of moving eyeshadow. And although the other rogues were already caught up in her woman charm, there was only one thing he could focus on; her armor.

The chest-plate she had was silver and engraved with multitude of lines that ran all around its surface, and a small rainbow hue ran through it seemingly at random. Her shoulders were covered with a dark leather that seemed to absord all light, it ran all the way from her shoulder to both her wrists, acting almost like a shirt. The dark leather also ran up to her jawline, likely to ensure her neck would not be slashed easily. Chainmail armor ran from underneath the chest-plate, while it ended on her waist, on the back it ran all the way down to her thighs, the material was a duller color than the silver of her chest-plate. Her legs were covered with black pants that ended with boots that had the same material from the chainmail covering her shin and the toes of her feet. The thing that tied it all together was the inky black cloak with the velvet red inside, even though it was just cloth it seemed to be special.

What kind of armor is that? Some parts even look alive…

He must have been staring for too long because soon a voice interrupted his thoughts, “You checking me out or looking at my gear? Either way you have good taste.” The instructor was now staring directly at him, he didn’t recall if he was good with people or not so he opted out of answering and instead chose to smile at her question. Seeing the instructor smirk at his response made him feel at ease, at the very least his face must not be that bad, though he hadn’t seen it himself.

“Alright smartass, let’s see you smiling like that when I am through with you, for now huddle up. I want to explain how a rogue fights in theory, and listen good, this is important. Let’s get this straight, you are not the star of the show, okay? You aren’t the one that will be in the spotlight, we work much like a cleric or a mage, in the sense that we provide support. This support comes in hiding in the shadows with our skills and speed, when the time is right we strike at the enemy’s weak point and deliver a crippling blow that will then be used by the warriors and mages to finish off the monster. Got it? Second of all, you are not suited to fight multiple enemies at once, you are suited for dealing massive damage to a single enemy.” The information she gave out was what Damien had been able to gather from talking to the people in the Guild hall, nothing new.

“With that out of the way, lets talk skills and stats. As you level up, you will receive skill points and depending on your class, they will be distributed accordingly, you want to make sure these stats are the highest in this order: STR, AGI, PER, DEX, INT, and the rest you can do as you please. As a rogue, your weighted stats work in this favor, our STR stat is worth even more than that of a warrior, so is our AGI. These are our bread and butter; can anyone tell me how you would go about fighting with these stats? How about you smartass?”

Being put on the spot as all five rogues and the instructor stared at him wasn’t a big deal, he had actually been thinking about this quite often, “Since we lack defense we mitigate damage by using our speed to avoid all attacks, so we fight by dodging all attacks as we deal damage where we can.”

The instructor looked pleased with that explanation, “A bit of an oversimplification, but essentially right on the money. As a rogue, being hit by a boss-type monster is your worst nightmare, you are a glass cannon, you can deal damage, but you cannot take it. Alright let’s get started, pull out your weapons.” The instructor stood and waited as the other rogues did the same and pulled out their swords from their sides.

The group watched as the rogue instructor reached her hand into the air and saw it go into nothing, her hand disappeared from view as it entered somewhere, ripples in space slowly formed around her wrist. A second later her hand retreated and with it, a long rapier followed. The thin blade was black, it looked more like the absence of space rather than darkness, red lighting cracked and arched from the edge of the blade and went into the silver guard. The weapon brought a deadly chill to the back of everyone’s spine, the space around the weapon seem to distort and disappear when the blade moved.

The elf looked at her weapon in her hands, “Sorry but this is the only weapon that I can carry with me, rogues rely on speed so heavy armor and multiple weapons is not a good idea, my Invisible Sheath can only carry a single weapon. Don’t worry though, I’ll go easy on you.”

Seeing the rogues gulp in fear brought a wicked smile to her delicate face, “Relax, I’ll just use my fighting class and restrain my stats to be more in tune with yours. It’s hard to level up on this Level because there is no monsters, and quests aren’t so easy to acquire here either, so the only way to get stronger is to spar with someone stronger than you, so line up.”

Damien looked at the woman’s formidable stance and guard, he quickly decided to allocate the points he had acquired from fighting the Minotaur, with those he should be able to Rank up. It should help a little bit against this person, maybe learn more too. Deciding to follow her advice he allocated most on his points on STR and AGI, suddenly a white light shone from within him which turned to motes.

Note: You have Ranked up! Congratulations! Enjoy higher weighted stats and a special skill!

Class: Starter Rogue

Name: Damien

Rank: F+

Species: Human

Title: Bold

Lvl: 4

Passive Skills:

N/A

Active Skills:

Shadow Strike Lvl 2 (10 MP) Shadow Step Lvl 2 (5 MP)

Assassinate Lvl 1 (15 SP & MP)

Bond:

N/A

HP: 70

MP: 42

SP: 60

Skill Points: 0

STR: 24

EDR: 8

VIT: 8

AGI: 22

PER: 9

DEX: 10

INT: 13

WIS: 8

FAI: 0

Status Effects:

N/A

Blessings:

N/A

EXP: 54%

Fighting Style: Quick Strike

Assassinate Lvl 1: You have taken the first step into perfecting your strike, no armor will stand against you. +500% damage on strike (+50% True Damage).

The light which Damien assumed was caused by his rank up was seen by everyone, “Oh, you were holding out on me? Alright, you can go first then.”

Damien did not back down from the challenge, he knew he was out of his league here, but he had to start somewhere, “Alright,” he readied his short sword.

“Just attack however you wish, I won’t attack back, just defend. I win if I disarm you, and you win if you can make move from this spot, just start when you want,” her rapier was on guard in a slanted position across her chest.

It was an ideal position for her a general defense, it was centered in all directions so that the distance between any point of attack would be the same, this threw away any strong points of defense she might have, but at the same time it discarded any weak points. Damien still had to strike however, and there was no point in holding back at all either, he had to go all out from the get-go. His feet leaped off the ground.

Activating Shadow Step mid-air gave him the perception needed to see how she would begin her motions for a parry, his hand fired out with a thrust, his hand moved so quick it was still hard to believe. But she was quicker, her thin blade slowly moved slightly to the side and was able to intercept his attack with ease, with a flick of her wrist his blade was redirected to the side.

As he had placed his all into that attack, he was completely thrown the way his attack was redirected, he flew to the side of the instructor and attempted to pivot his body mid-air and unleash his next attack, Assassinate!

The feeling of his blade was completely different from mere moments ago, it felt heavy… but not slow. It almost felt like a burn was running through his arm as the blade arched back from the thrust and speed towards the instructor’s face.

Judging by the position of her rapier she should have no way to dodge this except by moving, I’ve won.

The instructor looked at Damien right in the eye as his blade inched to her face, the smile she flashed towards him sent a dread down his body, she was not worried at all. The hand that was not holding her rapier was already in position to block the attack, Damien saw a thin metal bracelet that fit snug on her wrist. As his blade struck it, a million sparks flew off and his blade was completely rebounded, and he was sent flying backwards.

He had only moved for a little bit, but he could already feel sweat dripping down his back, “Shit.”

“Shit indeed, that was a good move… for a rookie, we aren’t done though, or are you giving up so easily?”

Damien’s answer was a renewed sprint towards her, his blade reflected the light of the sun as he prepared to jump back in there.