“So you’re saying that you’re the demon kin you asked me about?

The moment Michael heard what his newfound companion said he flinched backwards, an expression of fear plastering itself on his face. His eyes glowed ever so brighter even as he squinted his eyes and lowered his head.

“So that would be a yes… Don’t worry, I’m cool with you being a Demon Kin or whatever. Just, explain to me why it is that they’re chasing you?”

Exhaling loudly Michael slumped his shoulders, it was unclear whether this was due to exhaustion, resignation, grief, relaxation because he was not being antagonized? All the above perhaps. Something told Shepherd that it was all of the above indeed, yet there was a sense of uneasiness that went through Shepherd’s body right from the moment he’d mentioned the matter of demon kin to Michael.

“A few hours after err… Benevolent, I was with a group of my friends figuring out what’d happened. All the electronics in our part of town got destroyed and I’m pretty sure the whole city is in such a state. One of my friends, a girl, talked about it being a solar flare of some kind maybe, but solar flares don’t give you stat distribution panels from what I hear. Then suddenly…”

Michael now spoke in a slower rhythm with a hint of solemnity Michael became as though a professional narrator for Halloween stories, with every word his voice grew in depth and as time passed his eyes grew to glow brighter.

“After the monster… killed my friend it… came to stand above me with those cursed bloody fangs, I fainted… Only to find thaack--”

At a certain point Michael had begun approaching Shepherd, his steps unnoticed as Shepherd stood in a strange daze. Just as Michael was about to finish his words he’d come but half a meter to the grey haired youth, he rejoiced in his heart for he knew he’d won, then instantaneous movement flashed in front of his eyes and Michaels world went black.

“This fucker…”

Staring at the knocked out body below Shepherd pondered, he didn’t have anything to be able to tie Michael up and even though a hunch told him that the guy in front of him was very weak and under most circumstances couldn’t hurt him, having a crazy manipulative demon dude around who hadn’t killed any monsters and yet was level three, evident why, didn’t sound like a fun idea.

‘A player hunter’

Feeling relieved that he’s still alive after the encounter Shepherd became vigilant, he looked around to sense if anyone else was around and grabbed onto Michaels body, climbing up while holding onto it. Although 18 points of Str were clearly within the natural range of what a human could achieve physically it was still quite shocking to feel the man’s body which was around 160 pounds feel mildly easy to carry around.

It was a good thing that there were plenty of surfaces to anchor onto while Shepherd climbed, having to use the hand he was holding Michael with just as often as the other one, otherwise he’d have a lot less balance. The mechanics behind the strength stat, and all the rest really, would have to be looked at closely and experimented with sooner than later.

He placed the unconscious body at the end of the cave and sat down on his trusty cloth with his back turned to the cave wall. Glancing at Michael for assurance he called his status window out.

“Status”

Hit points: 270/270

Mana: 100/100

Free stat points: 10

Name

Shepherd Highlander

Strength

Str

23

(+5)

Level

3

Constitution

Con

17

(+5)

Class

/

Dexterity

Dex

22

(+5)

Race

Human

Agility

Agi

19

(+5)

Titles

King

Energy Flow

EnF

15

(+5)

Status

/

Energy Capacity

EnC

15

(+5)

“………”

“WHAT?!”

Seeing how over exaggerated his stats had suddenly become Shepherd could only scream internally for this sweet surprise. Putting his attention on the plus fives in his status window he saw that indeed, this wasn’t something everyone got upon reaching level three as he'd expected, it was his title! Discovering this he was oh so benevolently rewarded with a new information window.

Title

Description

Stat bonuses

Perks

King

One with blood deemed royal, this is an educated and powerful man. A ruler, a fighter, a general, a priest, a mage and much more. All is of the king yet many are the paths he may take

/

(+5) all stats

Unlockable skills upon class acquirement

Baron

(+10) all stats

City Lord (+15) all stats

???

(+20) all stats

Prince

A fledgling of royal inheritance, one with a strong bloodline fit to one day rule over many

/

(+3) all stats

Unlockable skills upon class acquirement

???

(+5) all stats

‘This explains it’

“Benevolent, open class selection”

Classes

Requirements

Perks

-Melee classes(heavy)-

18 Str/Con + combat skills

-Skills-

-Core Stat enhancement- (+3)

-Weapon- + -proficiency-

-Body enhancement(special)-

-Melee classes(light)-

16 Str/Dex/Agi + combat skills

-Ranged classes(heavy)-

16 Dex/Str/Con + ranged combat skills

-Ranged classes(light)-

18 Dex/Agi + ranged combat skills

-Magic classes-

16 EnF/EnC + magic race/title

-Ruler classes(special)-

-Ruler title/s-

Seeing the wide selection Shepherd chose not to be rash and began reviewing each category of classes starting from the heavy melee classes then the light varieties and so on. Upon opening the selection he found a number of classes which fit his current capacity and wishes, namely the monk and assassin class from light melee category, the barbarian and fighter from the heavy melee category and the skirmisher from the heavy ranged category.

The skirmisher class which was something of a mixed class which relied on the bow and arrow as the primary weapon and short swords and the like as a secondary weapon.

As for the magic classes, he had a title and although this because of this he had a far smaller selection of classes they were all quite intriguing.

Available magic classes (due to title)

Description

Perks

Arcane General

Your aura is one of a ruler, and your words carry a indomitable presence

-Skill- -Arcane General’s aura-

Gain -charisma- stat(+5)

Summoner

The Creator has made the beasts and beings of the world, but you are a Summoner, with the power of your intention and skill you may conquer their souls and lead them for yourself!

Summon creatures and troops of your chosen

-faction- plus the ability to tame and bind other being of lesser rank

Holy/Unholy Paladin

Either through the light of grace or the darkness of the world under you are now a Paladin

2xdmg undead as a holy paladin

1.5xdmg to living beings as a unholy paladin

‘What does this aura do..?’

-title- bonus (+5) plus core stat bonus ((str-10)/2 = +6.5) (+11.5), this is initially limited to 3 people but increases by 1 with every two levels gained above level three>

Arcane general seemed to have the greatest perks as well as the highest synergy with the King title, Shepherd could envision just how powerful the class would be in a party versus party/monster situation, much less a war at the higher levels. Unfortunately he’d only seen through all these classes just to know what kind of people he’d be dealing with in the future, after all, the situation in the world had always been unstable in a way.

The world may have been more or less democratic, but this was due to the settled nature of power in the world, after decades and even centuries after the existence of all sorts of kingdoms states and now countries the world and its people had settled their respective places and resources for the most part. In a sense, war is only possible when there’s space to compete or take and plunder. Before Benevolent appeared everyone knew what they wanted, countries wanted resources like black gold and military might, the people wanted money for a comfortable living and so on. But now…

If the Orb of Creation was any hint, new resources have arisen, resources that could likely bring a single human to the point of godhood… Absolute chaos, wars on scales where even nuclear weapons would be seen as but farts. One could potentially lead a peaceful life but only with power to back them up, being on the whims of others wasn’t something that Shepherd wanted, he’d have to carve his own way to survival and freedom…

With such weighty thoughts and ponderings, inklings of what was to come Shepherd found himself in heavy mood. Finally shifting his eyes from his trance he looked at the unconscious Michael to his side laying motionlessly.

‘This feels like a shit show... But I think I have a head start with this dungeon, in about ten hours I’ll continue with the second round of this boss tournament thing, now for the class.’

Immediately after thinking this Shepherd drew out the ruler classes tab and began inspecting it, his eyes changing from bright to dim and to bright again as he judged.

The most eye catching of the classes were three all of them located at around mid-selection, their names were -Beast Lord of the Depths- which was similar to the Summoner class except it relied exclusively on beast like creatures, -Mighty Warlord of the Over World- which was like a ruler class for the barbarian and the third one was called -Boss- and was sandwiched between the two other titles.

The only reason he’d noticed these three in particular was… The aforementioned first two were by far the longest titled classes that he saw in the list and it just so happened that the shortest name for a class was in between both, it was as if his attention been directed to it.

Tired of all the information yet filled with a silent excitement Shepherd decided to take a break and let all the information he’d gained fall to its place, when all of a sudden

Sure enough…

---

A gentle cyan flame burned atop the frozen corpse, its smoke falling to the ground like mist being too cold and heavy to rise as it would’ve if it were a normal fire.

Two of the party members left in chase of Martha while a single man stood above the corpse, motionless his arms limp and his eyes empty. In what was just a few seconds a life had been lost forever, even if he hadn’t known him for long, the corpse in front of him had been a living breathing being just a few moments ago his murderer rushing away without him moving a muscle. His friends’ yells unable to wake him from his trance. And yet this wasn’t the only cause of the darkness that had hit his heart.

He’d shot her… A person, a sentient being, she had dodged it yes but, if it hit her she would’ve died his hands stained by her blood. Tim being religious with deep moral values had finally been struck at his core, the collapse of his identity had begun. His eyes bulged in disbelief.

---

Plains laid with brown and ice, trees evergreen rising to meet the falling sun and an orange lustre calming ones soul. Only, no calm soul was to be seen...

In a clearing before the Wildfire Mountain stood a man with a wretched expression, what were once heaving breaths of exhaustion had turned into gasps and panting from a straight hour of running, her mana was thoroughly exhausted and even overreached upon. Knees and palms on the ground she was panting, a fresh burning corpse laying just a few feet from her. Only one person stood behind her unhurriedly, he frowned unsheathing his blade.

“If I’d known you’d become this dangerous I would’ve killed you from the start… Martha”

“Jacob…”

She finally recognized the man who had assured his teammates to chase her, he was one of the people that were responsible for her race change. They had claimed that they would help her survive if she helped them near the beginning of the change to the world only to leave her behind when a difficult situation arose.

“That sweet voice of yours made me hold back though, but now hehehe. I won’t just kill you”

He approached her heaving body and placed his fingers on her cheeks squeezing them.

“What little cheek for a face like yours, I’ll help them plump up then.”

Just as he was to proceed a scent of blood filled his surroundings, two deep red eyes stared onto the two. Jacob squealed pushing Martha onto the ground, the girl now at the mercy of the unknown beast he scrammed hoping it would target her.

After he’d left the sight of the beast it approached the laying Martha, a dark silhouette forming an evening shadow above her drooping barely conscious eyes.

“What is this thing…? Are you the boogieman?”