“I would like to pick... Lucky Warrior please”

Wait, I didn’t mean to say that! There was a rare base class available. Why did I say Lucky Warrior?! I could’ve gone off on adventure, searching for ancient knowledge, lost artifacts, buried treasure. Now, what? I get to rely on my luck, which might be a bit higher than average based on my other stats?

All of this he managed to verbalise internally within a split second of the words having come out of his mouth. He was sure he hadn’t intended to pick that class. The class was only uncommon, and he had never even heard of a Unique class!

“Well, well, well. There might be a spark of hope for you yet. As I said – your chosen patron (ignoring the fact that in this case we are literally the only option) is responsible for manifesting before you as required, be your primary system-based quest benefactor and be the font of knowledge.

Well kid, here’s your first real nugget of knowledge. Humans may see me as the Catalyst of Chaos, the Harbinger of Mayhem or the Portent of Peril. All of these are viewpoints through a very narrow prism, your race’s views are so entrenched on all the pantheon that you short-lived apes have forgotten what we really stand for. So here it is – I am representative of change. Ongoing, constant and ever evolving change.

So, my newest Lucky Warrior, here is a quest and a question. Firstly, the quest.

I command you to find, delve and successfully complete all three base tier dungeons required before your next birthday. Success will result in a great boon from either myself or another of the pantheon. Failure will result in a lack of growth beyond base tier for the next ten years.

Secondly, the question; Will you accept a boon from me, simply yes or no.”

Rocking back on his heels and sinking down on his haunches Jarrod looked up at the centaur, wait now it was a purple snail? How did it manage to do that without him even noticing!? They really were just messing with his head now on purpose Jarrod was sure.

Taking a moment to think, he cast his mind about, first off, the quest. He didn’t even know of three base tier (base tier? He assumed The Other meant wood/stone tier) dungeons on this shard. He knew of one deeper into the woods, he had heard of another that existed somewhere near Stonemaul, but beyond that the only other dungeon he knew off was the iron tier dungeon that the capital of this shard had been founded on. Still, how hard could it be to find a third? He should be able to manage that within a twelve-month period.

More importantly however, would he accept The Other’s boon? What would it possibly be? Boon, that must be good, there is no way it could be negative right? Well at least so he thought so – literally it meant godsend.

Looking up at the floating cloud of chaos Jarrod brushed away the lock of dark hair that had fallen across his face, he took a deep shuddering breath of the crisp night air to steady himself. He couldn’t forget that he was actually in the presence of a God, one that he was fairly sure had swatted people from existence simply for, well existing previously. Trying to inject a note of respect, and possibly reverence into his voice he spoke.

“I accept your quest and your boon”

“Excellent. Although one point of clarity – quests given by your system benefactors cannot be accepted. They simply are. We can choose what to reward you with, what the successful completion clauses are and what the drawback’s to no completion would be.”

With a flash of silver, the figure was gone. Gone without so much of a “how-you-do” or a word of parting and once again the clearing was empty. Bathed again in moonlight looking up at the sky, Jarrod would’ve sworn that the entire experience had taken over an hour, but the moon was hanging directly overhead, bang on midnight. Casting around he saw nothing now in the empty glade beyond the four statues, exactly as they were always depicted. Picking himself up and dusting his knee’s off, he straightened his jerkin and started heading towards home again.

Striding with an actual purpose, a goal for what felt like the first time in his life felt great. He felt like he had something tangible as opposed to the worldly advice from his parents of ‘be a good man’, ‘look after your family’ and the like. Having trodden this same path for 18 years now, he knew it intimately and could once again bring up his status screen – albeit with some minor alterations now!

Name: Jarrod Shatterstone

Race: Human

Class: Lucky Warrior [Uncommon] +++

Level: 1

Achievement Points: 0

Stat points to allocate 10

HP: 50/50

MP: 50/50

STR: 5

REF: 5

CON: 5

INT: 5

CHA: 5

INS: 5

LUCK: 12

[Human. Humans are the most populous race across the entirety of known shard-space. They are the most versatile race and can turn their hand to anything. They have access to all non-race specific classes (as long as they meet other pre-requisites). Unfortunately, they are very rarely savant level individuals as they are so generalised. They are good at a little bit of everything, very rarely masters of anything.]

[Lucky Warrior. The lucky warrior relies first and foremost upon luck. To retain this class your luck stat must always be at least double any other stat. If you drop below this for more than 2 level ups, you will lose access to this class forever, as well as all perks gained previously.

The lucky warrior gains 14 points per level. +1 to STR, CON, INT, INS, +2 to REF, CHA, +4 to LUCK

+++ Growth Options; The Lucky Warrior may grow in strength, to become either Auspicious, Blessed or Fortunate. Only time will tell which your path will become.]

Firstly, he saw he now had a displayed HP and MP value, these were simple as everyone knew – 10 times your constitution and 10 times your intelligence respectively. If you ever hit 0 in either stat, you fell unconscious and if you went negative you could die. Monsters and other races shared all the same statistics, and all race’s had different growth rates of different stats. More so than race though, was your class – and how the stats were distributed. He knew that most common classes gave between 4 and 6 points per level, and that the uncommon classes he knew about, primarily magic users gave between 6 and 10 points per level. He started scrolling through the various descriptions in his mind’s eye reading the text with most of his attention with half an eye kept to the path.

Reading through the explanation for his class, he very nearly tripped over himself. 14 points!? 14 points per level!? That was just insane. An uncommon class was actually pretty darn rare as it was, and then gaining as many points per level as it would do, well he could become a powerhouse even with having to keep his luck high! He could put more points into strength than a normal common warrior, have other stats that automatically gained points and still be super lucky. Even if he didn’t intend to pick this class, he couldn’t be too upset at that!

His growth options looked a little short in information though, he had been led to believe he would be able to see all the options, and in his mind, this meant a fully fleshed out path of progression. What milestones he would need to hit and by when, for what pre-requisites would be needed to unlock certain classes, all this did was say he would become lucky in different ways as time went by.

Finally, he saw the dark outline of the sleepy little village come into view, and his step perceptibly increased. He wanted to get home to sleep on all this new information and try to figure out a plan of action. He did still need to decide where to put his 10 free stat points as well. Maybe a talk with some other people in the morning who had lived through using the system for multiple decades (nearly a century in the case of his mom) would help shed some light on various factors. There could be factors he was simply unaware of as well – no one had yet for example talked to him even slightly regarding Achievement Points and what they did?

As he turned the last street corner and found his house, set back a little on its plot, he could see through the shutters a slight flickering of firelight, of course it would make sense that his parents would wait up for him. Even if they struggled to talk to him on any common interests, they did always try to keep his own best interests at the forefront of their minds. It didn’t always work out that way, but that didn’t mean they didn’t try.

Crossing the threshold of the house, the door creaking as it opened and banging softly shut behind him, there sat facing the door, not even facing the fire were both his parents.

“Well?” Asked his father, leaning forwards slightly in his chair, staring deep into Jarrod’s eyes.