“Hey, Tyr?” I say.

“Yeah?” He looks at me, and I realize that he’s hanging from a pullup bar by his legs.

“Why are you upside-down?”

“To see the world with a different perspective,” he answers. “Whatcha want to know?”

“I just got Swords Mastery,” I slice the sword through the air. The moment I did, I gained a small flood of knowledge about how to use a sword, and know that when I use it, I’ll use it with an improved skill, one I didn’t have before gaining the Skill. “And I gained Martial Arts Mastery yesterday and Knife Mastery the other day, but I didn’t gain the Squire Class. I didn’t even get Warrior, which I should’ve gotten, with Swords Mastery, according to you.”

“Hm?” He frowns for a moment. “Oh, right. You have to actually go into the Class Menu. Just think ‘classes’ to yourself.”

Classes.

Class Slots Available: 1

Next Class Slot: Level 10

Current

Melee

Ranged

Magic

Melee.

Available

In-Progress

Unavailable

Available.

None

“It says I have none available.”

“They’re still in progress.”

In-Progress.

Squire

Warrior

Ruffian

Martial Artist

Thief

Squire.

Squire:

+2 STR, +1 END

Requirements:

Swords Mastery 1, Knife Mastery 1, Martial Arts Mastery 1

Kill 10 of either Horned Rabbits, Giant Rats, or Slimes

“Oh,” I say. “So I need to kill ten of those?”

“Ten of one of them,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if you do ten across – it has to be ten of one.”

“Do you think I can?”

“Yeah,” he answers. “There are horned rabbits outside of town, most of them are Level 1 or Level 2. They give a point of Experience and two points, respectively. You will not gain Experience from monsters more than five Levels beneath yours, though there are Exceptions to that, but we can get into that when it comes up. It has to do with relative Level.

“If you’re going to fight the Horned Rabbits,” he drops off the bar, landing on both feet, then standing and turning to face me, a sword appearing in his hands. “Then you’ll need a good weapon.”

A sword and a knife appear in his hands – metal ones, instead of the wooden ones I’ve been using to train.

“Here,” he holds them out, and I accept them. “Kill with whichever you prefer, though personally, I’d recommend the sword. If you want to get bloody, I’ll clean you off later.”

“Bloody?” I ask.

“Drops,” he responds. “Don’t occur on their own, at first. It’s a Skill you’ll have to acquire. There are three things you can get from a Horned Rabbit: Horned Rabbit Meat, Horned Rabbit Horn, and Horned Rabbit Fur. If you do a good job separating it, it’ll change a little bit into the respective loot, and you can put it into your inventory. If you don’t, it won’t, and you can’t stick it in your inventory. You can still use it, but it won’t be as usable as if you’d turned it into loot.”

The moment he says that, I hesitate, staring at the sword in my hands. Will I be able to kill? Probably. I definitely have the skill for it, after these last two weeks, and my body’s filled out a bit.

But will I be able to handle the blood? Especially from skinning one of them?

Could I actually kill in the first place? I definitely have the skill for it, but… I’ve never done it before.

“I don’t think I can kill,” I decide, looking back at Tyr. “Not right now.”

“That’s fine,” he smiles at me. “I didn’t think you could, either. When you reach Level 10, we can talk about it again, since you’ll be able to unlock another Class then.”

“Wait until Level 10?” I ask.

“Yeah,” he says. “Unless you want to hold off on taking another Class.”

“Warrior, Ruffian, and Martial Artist all require the kills, too.”

“You have progress on Thief, don’t you?” He asks, and I nod. “Look at it.”

Thief:

+1 AGI

+1 INT

+1 PER

Requirements:

Knife Mastery 1, either Pilfer 1 or Lockpick 1

“To be honest, though,” Tyr says. “If you want to go the route of Thief, it’s better to take on Ruffian as well, and not Knight.”

“How come?”

“Your stats heavily affect how effective you are at things,” he explains. “Classes also provide small bonuses to certain things. Warrior-type Classes generally provide bonuses to melee combat Skills involving swords or certain other weapons. The rogue-like Classes provide bonuses to stealth Skills and other related Skills, such as poison resistances and different types of thieving and disarming and such.”

“Ah,” I say.

“Also,” he says. “You can’t wield a magical weapon without having a Class that can use it. Also know that just because a Class requires its Mastery Skill, doesn’t mean it’s a Class that can wield the magical weapon. Squires can only wield magical swords, not magical knives or knuckles.”

Oh. So if I go for Thief, it’s better to stick to the rogue-like Classes, because of the Skill bonuses and such. And I guess the stat bonuses from the Classes would help, too.

“So what do you recommend?” I ask, and he stares at me. “Should I go for Thief now, then try for Ruffian at Level 10, then Squire the next time I unlock a Class Slot? How often do you unlock those?”

“Every tenth Level,” he answers. “It’s your choice. If you think you’ll be able to handle killing at Level 10 or so, feel free to plan on that. If not, there are Classes that aren’t for combat, and won’t require killing, sort of like Thief. Just know that it takes longer to hit every Level, as you’ve noticed, so it’ll take longer to unlock the next Class Slot.”

Yeah, I noticed that. It takes me ten more Experience to gain a Level than it did to gain the last Level.

“Also,” he adds. “After you reach 100 Experience needed to reach the next Level, it starts going up by 25 per Level. After 500 Experience, it goes up by 50 per Level. After 1,000, it goes up by 100 per Level. You’ll gain bonus Experience from monsters more than five Levels above your own, relatively, and reduced from monsters less than five Levels below your own, relatively. After ten below, you’ll gain none.”

Do I think I’ll be able to kill monsters in eight Levels? Or should I stick to non-combat Classes, and give up on being a knight? Thinking about it, I decide that I probably will be able to, once I get used to the idea of needing to so that I can become a knight.

But right now, I’ll go with Thief, because that doesn’t require any killing.

“How do I gain Pilfer or Lockpick?” I ask, and a rather large chest appears in front of me, along with a couple of wires.

“Pilfer,” Tyr responds. “Is for when you steal off of people. Can’t learn that here, because it’s simply impossible to steal off of a god without Pilfer Level 10 and a certain something else. Lockpick, on the other hand, is just picking locks. These are some basic lockpick wires. Try to pick the lock. I won’t give you any help or advice on this one.”

I nod, then pick up the wires and stick them into the hole, wiggling them like I see people do in movies and stuff. I can feel something in there. Something to do with pins, right? That they have to be in the right place?

It takes me a long time to figure out how to manipulate the lock with the two wires, and once I hear the click and it pops open, I look over at Tyr, who’s lying on his stomach, putting together a puzzle.

“I got it,” I say.

“Cool,” he says, his voice filled with boredom. “Now try the next one.”

“The next one?” I ask, then a sense of dread fills me.

“Don’t look so horrified,” he says. “You won’t be able to gain the Skill until you’ve gotten good enough to be able to actually pick the locks.”

“You’re as bad as the people who wrap presents in several layers and boxes.”

“Says the kid who wants to learn how to pick locks.”

“Is that a crime in this world?”

“Depends on how you’re using it,” he answers. “It can be useful in some Dungeons. There are Dungeons you can’t progress in without someone to pick locks. Most people don’t really understand the usefulness of having a thief in their party until after they come across certain Dungeons. Thieves are good because they can pick locks, disarm traps, and so much more. They’re faster and have better perception than other Classes, and even Rogues aren’t as good as them. However, Thieves are also lacking in the physical department, which is why they have to rely on their stealth and speed to win.

“As a result,” he continues. “Most Thieves end up dead before they hit Level 50. The most powerful anyone with a Rogue Class itself has ever reached was Level 87. The highest Level ever reached was Level 114, and those 27 Levels make a huge difference. In addition to three more Classes, that’s an additional 81 Stat Points to allocate.

“However,” he looks up from his puzzle. “You can Rebirth at Level 100, so that person technically hit Level 100 twice.”

“Rebirth?” I ask.

“Yup,” he says. “Your Levels and stats are returned to base, and your Classes are stripped away. You retain all Skills you gained, though, and their Levels. In addition, you have access to additional Skills, equipment, and special Dungeons. You also start off with Stat Points you can allocate. Five for every time you Rebirth – which takes an additional 50 Levels each time – plus one for every Title you have. This doesn’t seem like a whole lot, since most people only earn between one and four Titles per Rebirth, but those extra five to nine Stat Points actually make a fair difference in Leveling speed.”

“So if I reached Level 100,” I say. “And Rebirthed, I’d be back down to five strength?”

“Nope,” he answers. “Because your base would be different. Having actually trained your body for stats, you’d have actually increased your body’s base. The average adult has nine or ten strength, with people who work hard for building up strength having eleven or twelve. Doesn’t seem like a big difference, but in reality, it’s a huge one.”

“Oh,” I say. “So because I actually trained my body, I’ll actually have whatever those extra stats are, such as having eleven strength?”

“Most of it, yes,” he nods. “You’d probably have closer to eight, though, if you were to Rebirth right now.”

He returns to doing his puzzle as I think about what we just discussed. Rebirth does sound like a nerf, but the extra Skills and Dungeons are probably a huge boost, as well as bonus stat points. That would mean being able to gain Levels just that much faster.

“How do non-combat Classes gain Levels?” I ask.

“That’s one of the problems,” Tyr answers without looking up from his puzzle, and I realize that he’s doing it upside – he can’t see the image at all. “With non-combat Classes. They’re weaker in combat, so they’re more susceptible to injury. Unless their party has Shared Experience on, they’ll gain far less. It’s part of why so many die without getting to a high Level. So either they do as many Quests as possible to gain Experience, or they risk their lives fighting to gain Levels.

“However,” he looks at me, smiling. “Any rogue-based person who reaches Level 100 or higher will be far more powerful than anyone of another Class, because of sheer agility alone. Able to strike faster, strike more, jump higher, dodge faster, parry quicker – they are the absolute of the OP Classes.

“Combine that,” he says. “With adding on the line for Knights later on, and you’d actually be a very, very dangerous foe to anyone. Unfortunately, most people don’t see the use of rogues beyond Dungeons, so they don’t take it on, and typically only force people to do it for them, knowing that they’ll die first. It’s sad, and not very fun.”

He sighs when he says that.

“If they’d take on rogue-based Classes later on, they’d begin to see the benefit of this,” Tyr adds. “But they don’t, so they don’t.”

“Alright,” I look back at the box.

Quest: Kill Horned Rabbits I

Kill some Horned Rabbits

Requirement: Kill 10 Horned Rabbits

Reward: 1 EXP, 5 copper

Accept: Y/N?

“Um… Tyr?” I say. “I wasn’t going to-”

“I know,” he says. “This is so you have a reminder. It’s a standard Quest. I simply gave it to you to remind you of what you’ll need to do, in order to become a Squire.”

“Oh,” I say, then accept the Quest.

I return to picking the locks. There are five total chests, and after I pick the final lock, I gain Lockpick 1.

“It didn’t pop up anything for the Class,” I tell Tyr as I pull out the leaf stuck inside the first box. “A leaf?”

“Yup!” He grins at me. “Just a regular leaf! Sometimes, you do a lot of work for no reward! That’s why games are fun!”

“How come I didn’t get the Class?”

“You have to go into the Class interface to accept it,” he says. “That way, you don’t automatically gain a Class you don’t want, and don’t have a message popping up when you’re in the middle of something. Well, an extra message.”

“Oh,” I say. “Okay.

Class.

Class Slots Available: 1

Next Class Slot: Level 10

Current

Melee

Ranged

Magic

Melee.

Available

In-Progress

Unavailable

Available.

Thief

Thief.

Thief:

+1 AGI

+1 INT

+1 PER

Requirements:

Knife Mastery 1, either Pilfer 1 or Lockpick 1

Accept: Y/N?

Yes.

Thief Class obtained!

+1 AGI!

+1 INT, +1 PER!

“I’m a Thief!”

I check my In-Progress Melee Classes.

Squire

Warrior

Ruffian

Martial Artist

Thief II

Thief II?

“How come Thief’s next Class is just Thief II?” I ask Tyr.

“You try coming up with variations on thieves that are still just thieves, not combat-based.”

He sounds annoyed that I’d asked that.

“Sorry, Tyr,” I say. “Didn’t mean to offend you.”

“It’s fine,” he sighs, and I realize he’s done three puzzles while I was working on gaining Thief. “People complain about it all the freaking time when they go to the temples. Thieves, I mean. There isn’t much past that. Martial Artist just becomes Martial Artist II, and they complain about that, too.”

“I can see how that would be annoying,” I say. “I’m sorry, Tyr. Want to play cards in a bit?”

“Sure!” His face lights up. “We can bet acorns!”

Why are we betting acorns?

What game does he think we’re playing?