“Selecting class based on the actions of Austin McKenna.”

This message had been floating in front of Austin’s face for almost five minutes now.

After slaying the wolves, Austin had taken a seat on the ground and was resting while the system sorted itself out.

After advancing past level forty, it seemed that he had accumulated enough combat experience to select a class. Normally, a class was selected way before someone reached this high of a level, but because Austin leveled at such an exponential rate, he had only now reached the point where he could do this.

Nobody really knew what the system was, or how it worked, but every Conduit was able to access their stats screen. The dominant theory was that, due to the mana in their bodies, they were able to manifest the screens in order for information to be able to be processed by their brains. This was why nobody could see another person’s stats screen. Then again, this was only theory.

Another minute passed before a new message popped up in front of Austin’s eyes: “Classes have been selected, please make your choice.”

After this message cleared, a list popped up in front of his face, but Austin was bewildered. “I’ve never heard of getting to choose your class before, everyone says that theirs was chosen for them. But then again, almost everything about my situation is unique…”

The list in front of him gave him four options:

Fighter:

A versatile warrior who relies more on their weapons and tactics than brute strength to win a fight.

Paladin:

A divine spellcaster and warrior, who relies both on brute strength and holy spells to fight against evil with righteous fury.

Berserker:

A warrior who loses it all in a fight. Using rage to fall into trance-like fury, these fighters ignore things like pain and fatigue to become a force of nature on the battlefield.

Hero:

A paragon of justice that fights for those weaker than themselves. Makes use of special abilities in combat to transcend foes.

Austin sat for a moment, thinking.

“Well, that’s all a bit cliche… Anyways, Berserker is definitely a no go.”

As that thought passed through his mind, the Berserker class disappeared from the list in front of him.

“Fighter would be good, but it’s pretty standard. Paladins are quite rare according to the Association, so they’re in high demand. But I’ve never even heard of the hero class…”

As far as Austin knew, even in his days of obsessing over famous Crawlers, he had never heard of the hero class before.

“To save people…” Austin muttered, realizing what he had to do.

“I choose the hero class.” He spoke aloud, vocalizing his resolve.

“Class accepted.”

With that, the screens disappeared, and he checked his stats section. His strength had gone up almost 20 points, and his agility half as much. Alongside his current abilities, he had unlocked a few new ones as well.

Abilities:

Sprint NEW:

(Consumes 15 Stamina per second) Uses more energy than normal to allow the user to run at double their normal speed.

Hero’s Slash NEW:

(Consumes 25 Stamina) A stronger than average slash. Deals an additional 25% damage.

Hero’s Shield NEW:

(Consumes 1 Stamina per second) Crystalizes the hero’s resolve to protect into a barrier. Can block up to 250 HP worth of damage before breaking and can be deployed anywhere.

Austin was ecstatic. Three new skills, all seeming extremely useful, and a totally unique class.

“I wonder if I should keep my class a secret. I could probably get away with telling people I’m a fighter…”

He shook those thoughts off for now. He was still in the middle of a dungeon and he had had his short break.

He stood up and dusted the snow off of his back and began moving once again, keeping his ears out for more wolfpacks.

After wandering for what he guessed to be twenty minutes, Austin heard the sound of something quite large coming through the trees towards him. He put strength into his legs and leapt as high as he could and caught onto the peak of the tallest tree near him.

Bending under his weight, Austin felt the tree sway beneath him, but it held. From his vantage point, Austin surveyed in the direction that he had heard the noise from, and saw a massive white bear lumbering towards him.

He was still in his empowered form, but he didn’t know if he’d be able to take on a bear that easily, so he checked its stats.

Ice Bear: Level 36

“Hmm, I still outlevel it, but I don’t know if that means much when I’m dealing with a bear…”

Austin decided on his plan of attack. Once the bear was below him, he let go of the tree and plummeted towards the ground with his sword outstretched.

When the sword made contact with the bear’s thick hide, however, it was unable to pierce it. Even with Austin’s body weight and the velocity from falling, the hide was just too tough.

The sword rattled with the recoil of not being able to pierce, and Austin was unable to keep his grip on it. The sword flew out of his hands and landed nearby in the snow.

Now Austin was facing off with a pissed off bear unarmed. Not the best situation, but he had been in worse. The only difference was that Daniel wouldn’t be coming to save him this time.

The bear charged at Austin and he once more put strength into his legs and hopped over the bear as it came after him like a game of leapfrog.

The bear missed him entirely, and Austin took this opportunity to aim a few kicks to the bear’s unguarded back.

This didn’t seem to do much other than make the bear even more angry, though, so Austin gave up on plan: “Boxing with Bears.”

He leapfrogged the bear’s charge once again and activated his new skill, Sprint, to dash for his weapon.

He made it in a few seconds and hurriedly deactivated the skill, not wanting to waste stamina.

His weapon firmly in hand, he squared off against the bear, which once again charged at him.

“At least it doesn’t seem to be learning from it’s mistakes…”

Instead of leaping over the bear this time, Austin briefly activated Sprint and dashed to its unguarded flank. Once he was there, he activated Hero’s Shield in front of the bear’s trajectory, causing it to plow face first into the wall of energy that formed, shattering it.

“Glad that worked!” Austin silently celebrated.

He was about to attempt something else. While the bear was dazed from its head on collision, he charged towards it from the side.

While simultaneously activating Hero’s Slash, Austin also muttered the words “I condemn you” towards the bear.

His blade was enveloped by a golden aura, not unlike Champion’s Avatar, and he felt both skills activate, giving him a massive damage boost.

He brought down the sword with all of his strength on the bear’s neck, and cut through it.

Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!

Now headless, the bear fell dead and melted into nothing, leaving behind a rather large mana crystal.

“This dungeon was definitely mis-measured…”

Austin collected the crystal and checked his stamina. Even though he had used a few skills, he still had quite a bit remaining thanks to the boost from both his new class and from his empowered form.

“Dang, I’m kinda broken…” Austin mused, once more thanking Daniel for his power.

After he finished a brief rest, he decided that he wasn’t getting anywhere with his current hunting method. He once more jumped up to the top of the trees and began scanning for a creature that resembled the boss.

He jumped from tree to tree, images of a certain ape man flashing through his mind, passing over multiple packs of wolves that he chose to ignore until he saw a massive bear, easily five times the size of the one he had just killed.

Ice Bear (BOSS): Level 41

“Hmm, I guess Warrior’s Sense also tells me which creature is the boss. How helpful. It’s almost the same level as me, though, good thing I have no intention of a fair fight!”

Staying downwind from the bear so he wouldn’t be detected, Austin made his way around until he found a large tree relatively close to the bear.

He measured the trajectory as best he could, then activated Hero’s Slash and unconsciously saying “Timber!”

The tree fell perfectly towards the bear, landing directly on top of it and hopefully crushing it.

Austin didn’t let his guard down, though, and rushed over to where the bear was blade drawn.

It was still alive, though its hind legs were pinned underneath the massive tree that Austin felled. It took a swipe at him with its front paws when he got close, but Austin stayed out of his range.

“I’m sorry, you poor thing…” He muttered, raising his blade activating both Condemn and Hero’s Slash once more.

He brought the sword down hard, ending the creature’s misery.

Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!

“Whew!” Austin sighed audibly, picking up the massive crystal that the boss had dropped.

His trip back to the Door was uneventful. He encountered two more packs of wolves, but dispatched them without issue, gaining more crystals and levels in the process.

After about an hour hike, Austin was back where he started.

“Release!” He called out, and was immediately assailed by the biting cold. After releasing Avatar, Austin hurriedly jumped through the Door and back to Earth, where he was greeted by an Association Employee guarding the entrance.

The area was bathed in the brightness of the late afternoon sun. Austin turned to the man. “How long was I in there?”

“About 3 Hours, Sir.”

The portal behind him collapsed, leaving no trace that it was there in the first place. The employee looked visibly relieved.

“Where is the nearest crystal exchange place?” He asked

The man gave him directions, and as Austin made to leave, he turned back. “You guys misread that Door, Ice Wolves and Ice Bears, as well as a dangerous ice environment. Any normal team expecting a 1-Star would’ve been wiped. Be more careful next time.”

The employee visibly gulped, but Austin was already walking away towards where he was told the crystal exchange place would be.

“All in all, that can be considered an overwhelming success. Lots of levels, a new class, and quite a bit of profit. I also know I can probably solo around 3-Stars currently, as that dungeon was likely around that level. A risk I never would have taken otherwise has paid dividends.”

Austin walked down the street with a smile on his face and a sword on his back, confident that he could actually begin to live up to the standard Daniel had set before him. Confident that he could become the Savior.