I moved in and activated dimension ripper, burning into his left arm. The armorer’s health was at 5%. Meat Shield clawed and bit deeply into his shoulder, showing quite an amount of ferocity for a small fluff ball. Eventually, with burn marks scarring his entire body, the level 5 armorer sank to the ground.

You have killed the Armorer.

You have killed a shopkeeper of this town. The town guards will now attack you on sight.

Your notoriety in the surrounding area has risen.

You are more likely to drop gold upon death.

You have leveled up.

The armorer has dropped 10 gold.

The armorer has dropped [Fine Iron Sword]

You have obtained [Armorer’s Key]

[Armorer’s Key]

A key to the armorer’s stash. He likes to keep it in his back pocket at all times, only parting with it during baths.

“Jesus… ten gold. The bastard must’ve made a lot because of all the new adventurers in town recently.”

The Merchant of Avarice’s eyes lit up at the sight of so much gold. 10 gold was the equivalent of 10,000 silver. It was a huge payday.

Normally, this amount of gold was impossible to possess right now, unless you were Steel Slice and could afford to throw around large sums of real world money.

The disaster level event being triggered introduced so much chaos into the system, that balance was bound to be thrown out the window in some situations.

Even so, finding instances of wonky balance was not easy. This particular exploit required equal parts wits and luck to figure out.

Seriously. Who in their right mind would think to backstab the village vendors for profit in the middle of a goblin invasion? You'd have to be a huge asshole.

...

Am I a huge asshole?

...

“You take the sword, since I can’t wield it, and we’ll split the gold fifty-fifty.”

Books' voice broke me out of my self-reflective inner monologue.

"Sure."

There was no need to try to haggle the loot distribution with Books. 10 gold was a massive sum at this point in time, but you couldn't put a price on having a trustworthy ally.

“Nya, I leveled up~”

Meat Shield was level 5 now. It made me sick knowing that my pet was catching up to me in levels. I checked my status and put a point in physical defense.

Name [Spoon] Class Dimension Thief Race Human Level 7 Titles None Unique Skill [email protected]#$%^& HP 143/143 Strength 1 Physical Defense 7 Magic Resistance 63 Vitality 1 Intelligence 65 Dexterity 80 Mana 266/266 Unallocated stat points 0

Now it was time to collect my hard earned loot! A wicked smile appeared on my face as I approached the locked armory door.

I took the key and unlocked the door. The room gave off a musty smell. I stepped into the small armory.

“Eh, it’s still a small town huh. Not that great of a selection.”

Beginner staves, swords, and bows lined the walls.

“Ah, it’s a shame we can’t carry all this beginner equipment with us. They’re cheap individually but would add up to a tidy sum together. But my inventory has a kg limitation…”

Books sounded like a real merchant.

“Kg limit? Actually… I can help with that.”

I opened a portal to the dimension room and began throwing all the beginner stuff in.

“Wow, your class gives you limitless storage space?”

“Yeah, more or less.”

Books looked at me with a pouty, envious look in his eyes.

“I want that ability. Hoarding should be a merchant's specialty.”

“Don't be greedy. You already have your potions.”

…

There were a few exceptional items in the armory.

[Basic Amulet of Magic]

Basic mass produced amulet of magic. Made with ruby, so pricier than most amulets.

Common

Item rank: E

+5 intelligence

+5 mana regen

Level requirement: 2

[Helmet of the Warlord]

A helmet with the twisted depiction of an orc warlord. Instills fear in the opponents of its wearer.

Rare

Item rank: C

+10 intimidation

+25 strength

Level requirement: 5

[Thief’s Hood]

A gray hood that conceals the wearer’s face. This is a popular piece of apparel among thieves.

Common

Item rank: E

+10 dexterity

+5 vitality

Level requirement: 1

I took the Basic Amulet of Magic and Thief’s hood, while Books took the Helmet of the Warlord. Since it was a rank C item, The Helmet of the Warlord was worth more than the two of my items combined.

Books offered to cover the difference with gold, but I declined. We were set to share a lot more loot in the future, so it would be troublesome to be tied back counting small differences.

Books appreciated the gesture.

The items were really suited for us. I got a mana regen bonus and some much needed vitality, and Books got a flat strength boost. With the strength bonus, Books had a strength stat that equaled a rare melee combat class at his level. It was time to fight our way out of town.

=====

“Interesting.”

The developers at Eclipse company were captivated by a certain duo holding their own during a goblin invasion in town. They were alerted to the duo by the system, because they were the first to kill an NPC shopkeeper in the game. It was an impossible task to pull off at their level, or at least it was supposed to be if the game world was in a normal state.

The goblin king’s invasion threw many of their calculations off, and feats that were deemed impossible under normal circumstances were now possible.

Eclipse company's developers had access to unrestricted live game footage that the general public did not have access to. This kind of footage could make millions of dollars if broadcasted, but would destroy the integrity of the game by offering perfect information.

The live footage showed a hooded user named [Spoon] using a strange black colored magic on his left hand to tear into the goblin’s flesh. His companion, a user called [Books], cut down goblins with his Fine Sword, chugging potions whenever he dropped before 40% health.

“What are their classes?”

“I predict [Spoon] to have a black magic class, and [Books] to be a mercenary type class.”

“Hang on, I’m pulling up their data.”

“[Spoon] is a [Dimension Thief] and [Books] is a [Merchant of Avarice].”

“…”

A merchant and thief class, holding their own in a fight where even the [Barbarian King] and [Berserker] had trouble?

“I really like the Merchant of Avarice class.”

“Thanks, my team designed it.”

“If your team designed it, why didn’t you recognize it from the footage?”

“I never thought the merchant class could hold its own in combat…”

“What is this Dimension Thief class? Did we add that in the game?”

“I don’t remember seeing that.”

“Check the logs.”

…

“There’s nothing coming up for [Dimension Thief], sir.”

“That means it’s a unique class designed by the Eclipse AI itself.”

“Wow.”

======

Pant, pant.

Twelve goblins down.

You have leveled up.

Books, Meat Shield, and I made a formidable fighting force. I severely underestimated Meat Shield’s fighting power as an inter-dimensional cat. She could jump in and out of the dimension room with ease during combat, making her incredibly hard to kill. The only problem was motivating the moody cat to help me.

Meanwhile, Books now had the power of a rare C rank helmet that boosted his strength to the level of an advanced combat class.

We needed to retreat though. Books ran out of potions, and my mana regen was at its limit with how often I was using dimension ripper. At this rate, we were all dead.

The thought of the 24 hour penalty in addition to my PK and shopkeeper killing penalties made my hair rise.

On the side of the street were the bodies of two warriors and a mage from Steel Guild. I ran to the bodies and checked for any loot I could use.

[Rusty sword]

A rusty sword.

Common

Rank: F

[Small Mana Potion]

Restores 100 mana

Common

Rank: F

[Small Mana Potion]

Restores 100 mana

Common

Rank: F

[Small Health Potion]

Restores 100 health

Common

Rank: F

[Thunderbolt skillbook]

Skillbook containing Thunderbolt. A popular spell among intermediate mages.

Skillbook

Rare

Cooldown: 4 seconds

Rank: D

Restriction: Mage only

Restriction: 50 intelligence

Jackpot! The mage dropped some mana potions I could use, and a skillbook. Unfortunately, I couldn’t use the skillbook due to the class restriction.

Wait… maybe Dimension Thief is considered a mage?

Probably not, but it was worth a shot. I opened the skillbook and tried to activate it.

Notification You do not meet the class requirements to learn this skill effectively. You may still use the spell at a penalty. Tooltip: Welcome to Eclipse Online’s cutting edge skill system. Unlike other VRMMO’s, you may learn spells or abilities outside of your class’ restrictions. However, this comes at a severe penalty. Type of penalty depends on many variables. Generally, this penalty renders the skill unusable, but we encourage our players to be creative. You are welcome to experiment to your heart’s content. Thank you for playing Eclipse Online.

I learned something new about Eclipse today. A new skill appeared under my status.

[Thunderbolt]

Projectile based lightning property magic.

Rank 1

Mana cost: 80

Intelligence scaling: B

Due to class incompatibility, negative effects may occur. Use at your own risk.

“Spoon! Help!”

Books was overwhelmed by three goblins. A spear was impaled in his side, and his health was under 20%. Meat Shield was doing her best to keep the goblins distracted enough so that they didn’t finish off Books.

I downed a mana potion, then pointed my right hand at the goblins surrounding Books.

“Thunderbolt.”

My right hand cackled with electricity, and a bolt of wild electricity shot out from my palm towards the goblins.

Something went wrong.

BOOM.

[-25 health]

The palm of my hand sparked and exploded violently upon casting. It was a more serious version of when you unplug an electric socket forcefully, and sparks fly out of the socket.

The wild bolt of lightning struck the goblin in front, instantly frying it. Dimensional thief was a class with exceptional intelligence growth, which magnified the raw power of the mage thunderbolt skill.

You have gained experience.

You have earned 6 silver.

Due to the space distorting power of your class, Thunderbolt has gained a harmful explosive characteristic upon casting.

[Thunderbolt]

Projectile based lightning property magic.

Rank 1

Mana cost: 40

Intelligence scaling: B

Penalty effect: Harmful explosive characteristic upon casting

Penalty intelligence scaling: S

The explosion damage was proportional to my intelligence with an S rating, but I only received 25 damage, when a normal mage or thief would have been instantly killed by the recoil.

The low recoil damage was because my magic resistance growth on this class was astronomically high. If I was any other class, this penalty would make thunderbolt a suicidal option.