Classes are a fundamental facet of the system, they gift their holders with a boost to their talent in the related skills, by way of a skill levelling speed boost. Alongside this they provide additional stat points as they are levelled, although the quantity varies by tier and rarity.

The primary reason for such a focus on classes is that they are far easier to level and provide more immediate benefits than levelling ones race. This is because related actions can allow a class holder to gain class xp, whether crafting plate armour for a blacksmith or killing monsters for a ranger.

Race xp on the other hand is given for achieving feats recognised by your race to represent growth and success within your race. It is therefore relatively easy to gain race xp initially whether it is cooking your first meal, killing your first monster or learning your first skill. As these low hanging fruits are taken race xp becomes harder and harder to obtain.

Classes offered on reaching the requisite race lvl are offered on the basis of your skills, as skills are the crystallisation of your actions. They are what you have worked towards in your life and therefore taken into account of by the system before it offers you classes to pick from. Contrastingly traits do not appear to affect the classes one is offered the reasoning for this has perplexed many scholars over the years.

Perhaps the most accepted answer is that traits are obtained not through ones own actions and are instead gained at birth or bestowed upon yourself through luck. They do however impact your ability to learn specific skills thus it is your use of said traits which determines your skills and therefore your class. This ensures that a powerful trait does not immediately lead to an equally powerful class, instead no matter your traits one must work towards their classes.

A Beginners Guide to the System, Germain Fitzgerald.

Excited by this sudden development Jacob quickly brought up his status checking it over:

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Titles: Otherworlder

Name: Jacob Lockerby

Race: Human lvl 5 (0/1600)

Class (lvl): unlocked

Second Class* (lvl): n/a/ (unlocked at race lvl 10)

Health: 100% Health Regen: 2.3% per day

Mana Points: 180 Mana Regen: 12% per hr

Stats: unallocated - 3

Strength: 13 Dexterity: 14 Perception: 11 Constitution: 13 Agility: 13 Endurance: 14 Intelligence: 18 Control: 8 Magic Power: 21

Skills: Forestry Novice (3/10), Trapmaking (3/10), Fighting Proficiency, Climbing Novice (5/10), Free Running Novice (1/10), Dagger Mastery Novice (2/10), Dual Wield Mastery Novice (1/10), Sword Mastery (4/10), Meditation Apprentice (1/10), Stealth Novice (1/10), Mana Sense (1/10)

Traits: High Grade Mana Affinity, Enhanced Health Regen Weak (2/10), Enhanced Mana Regen Weak (1/10), Tough Body Weak (2/10)

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Jacob pleased with his recent growth, decided to check out the classes he has available to him before deciding his future path.

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Available Classes:

Ranger Novice (Tier 0) – a ranger specialises in travelling long distance on their own, across all different types of terrain. They make use of many survival skills, enabling them to remain in the wilderness for months on end without returning to civilisation. In combat the specialise with the use of bows and daggers. This class provides a 10% levelling bonus to the relevant skills. +1 stat point to either dexterity, endurance, control or perception every 4 levels.

Woodsman Novice (Tier 0) – a woodsman is specialised to thrive in the wood, whether stalking prey or harvesting plants. This class provides a 10% levelling bonus to the relevant skills. +1 stat point to either dexterity, endurance, control or perception every 5 levels.

Swordsman Novice (Tier 0) – one who specialises in the use of the sword, they have just begun on the long road of mastering the sword. This class provides a 15% levelling bonus to the relevant skills (must be to do with usage of the sword but includes relevant footwork techniques for example). +1 stat point to either dexterity, endurance, control or strength every 4 levels.

Scout Novice (Tier 0) – an individual who specialises in sneaking around to gather information and inform their or their party’s decisions. This class provides a 10% levelling bonus to the relevant skills.

Mana Initiate (Tier 0) – an individual who has just learnt to sense mana and is yet to truly begin on the path of mages. They do not qualify for any other mage class. This class provides a 5% levelling bonus to mana-based skills. +1 stat point to Intelligence or Magic Power every 10 levels.

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A quick scan through these classes caused Jacob’s sense of elation to quickly deflate, these would not provide the extreme and quick power boost he was hoping for. Instead they provided him with paths to power, extremely long paths. Sighing over this disappointment Jacob forced himself to discard these negative thoughts, stopping what had the potential to become a negative thinking loop and instead focussed on the available classes.

The first class he discarded was that of mana initiate, which although to do with magic, provided such a pitiful bonus that it was illogical to take. Especially in the context of the learning boost from his title, he realised it clearly reflected his low number of mana-based skills given the only one he has is mana sense is at a low level.

The next class he discarded was Woodsman, which appeared too specific for his needs providing boosts in only the forest. In fact, it seemed like a more specialised but weaker version of the Ranger class, which would offer a skill levelling bonus on what appeared to be a wider set of skills alongside providing more stat points.

Moving onto scout, the title and description seemed to mainly suit sneaking around and had less of a combat focus. While this would be a very helpful class to have in a party; Jacob as a lone individual required more in the way of defensive and offensive skills.

This really left a choice between Swordsman and Ranger. Swordsman provided the highest skill levelling speed, probably due to the narrower nature of its focus. While the idea of being a superb Swordsman able to deal large amounts of damage to his enemies appealed to Jacob, the downside of picking this class is the lack of survivability it offers outside of a fight.

By contrast the Ranger class seemed most well suited to his current predicament, lost in a foreign land he needed all the bonuses to survival skills he could get. The ranger class seemed perfectly suited to a situation such as his, as it provided a benefit to combat as well as more general use skills.

Jacob also had the option of not picking a class, in the hopes that raising his skill levels would cause the system to offer new and improved classes for him to pick. However there was no guarantee that this would be the case, nor was waiting for a class a particularly tempting idea. His own mortality having been roughly placed in front of him since arriving on this world meant Jacob was loath to lose out on anymore class xp if he fought and killed anything.

While he needed any boost he could get to his survivability, choosing a class now would help hm level his skills more quickly and correspondingly improve his survival chances. Going through his decision process Jacob decided that his mind was set and so he made his choice.

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Congratulations for picking the class Ranger (Tier 0). You have been granted 150 race xp for this achievement.

A hidden function of your title Otherworlder is revealed. For making it to race lvl 5 and filling your first-class slot you may choose one of the following skills:

Pathfinder Apprentice – you have an improved sense of direction, once a destination has been decided on you rarely lose your way, provided a minimal level of knowledge.

Monster Knowledge Apprentice– you will require knowledge of the many dangerous monsters you will come across on your travels. This skill will provide a basic level of knowledge on low level monster’s strengths, weakness and the uses of their body parts.

Heightened Senses Apprentice– a skill reserved for only those Rangers with access to mana, normally this must be learnt in conjunction with mana manipulation skills. Your title however provides another way of learning this, you will be able to so inherently although the mana cost will be doubled. Costs 10mp every 5 minutes when active.

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These three practical skills provided Jacob with a conundrum, Pathfinder would help him find the river and hopefully civilisation from there since the chances of losing his way now that he had spent a day avoiding goblins was particularly high. Basic monster knowledge would help with any monsters, goblins included, that he came across and would help him when fighting them as well as enabling him to make the most out of their bodies. Finally, Heightened Senses would help him avoid predators in the grasslands.

None of these skills came with guarantees that they would accomplish what he hoped they would however, with the little information he had Jacob felt that Pathfinder would be the most useful. This is because the river was key to his plan to find civilisation, as he knew that many towns on Earth were built near rivers because of the easy means of transport they provided as well as a reliable water source.

Steeling his mind to the consequences Jacob picked Pathfinder and was pleasantly surprised by the new feelings that came with it. He could now locate where the forest and river where in relation to his current position and he knew that no matter how many turns he took to avoid goblins this knowledge would remain with him.

Happy with his choices Jacob had managed to push off the despondent mood which creeped up on him when he realised classes did not offer an immediate boost to path. Instead he now felt filled with a desire to grow stronger and looked forward to travelling the path to strength that would enable him to feel at ease in this world that had so far endeavoured to kill him.

Turning to his unallocated stat points Jacob decided to leave them unallocated as he was unsure where to spend them. Instead he opted to go to sleep with a plan to look over his options tomorrow as well as to hopefully reach the river by the evening.

Authors Note:

Titles: Otherworlder

Name: Jacob Lockerby

Race: Human lvl 5 (150/1600)

Class (lvl): Ranger (Tier 0)

Second Class* (lvl): n/a/ (unlocked at race lvl 10)

Health: 100% Health Regen: 2.3% per day

Mana Points: 180 Mana Regen: 12% per hr

Stats: unallocated - 3

Strength: 13 Dexterity: 14 Perception: 11 Constitution: 13 Agility: 13 Endurance: 14 Intelligence: 18 Control: 8 Magic Power: 21

Skills: Forestry Novice (3/10), Trapmaking (3/10), Fighting Proficiency, Climbing Novice (5/10), Free Running Novice (1/10), Dagger Mastery Novice (2/10), Dual Wield Mastery Novice (1/10), Sword Mastery (4/10), Meditation Apprentice (4/10), Stealth Novice (1/10), Mana Sense (1/10), Pathfinder Apprentice (1/10)

Traits: High Grade Mana Affinity, Enhanced Health Regen Weak (2/10), Enhanced Mana Regen Weak (1/10), Tough Body Weak (2/10)