David woke with the helmet still on his head, with no idea of the time. His neck felt cramped, probably due to sleeping in such an odd position. As he moved to get up, an excruciating pain started in his head, winding its way to his eyes, making him squint and tear up.

Taking off the helmet with a groan, he went to the kitchen, pouring himself a glass of water into an old " Immerse " cup. This wasn't the only memorabelia he had of the game. Trophies and t shirts filled his room- a reminder of a past thats long gone. Looking at it, he took on a half vacant expression, thinking back on the people he met while playing the game, each of them forming a bond of friendship that he hoped would last a lifetime.

As he drank the water, he felt his mouth hydrating, getting rid of the dryness that had appeared while he was asleep. Smacking his lips, he looked through the cupboards for some food. After being in the capsule for so long, his stomach was grumbling with displeasure. Finding nothing, he grabbed a bowl of cereal and poured a generous amount of milk on it. Within minutes, the bowl was gone, and he had gone back for a refill.

Seeing a note on the counter, David picked it up, marvelling at the horrific handwriting and torn edges.

"hey dumbass, ive left for the weekend to go to Lucas's house. dont break everything. "

From his sister, then. And that would explain why the house was so empty. His dad would still be at work, probably fixing the next thing that went wrong in the program. Walking towards the gym, Dorian started wondering if his friends from Carpe Diem were playing Nebua, and how they were doing. That would be his next task then. Either setting up, or finding Carpe Diem in Nebula.

Starting on squats, David racked the weights and lifted, muscles straining against gravity as he lowered himself down with the barbell on his shoulders. He was well ahead his class in terms of fitness, and although he didn't need to be exersising so often, he enjoyed it. Usually. Today, he was uncharacteristically preoccupied, lifting less than he could and finishing earlier than he should. Partially, because of the pounding headache that wouldn't go away. Walking to the shower, he cleaned off, getting rid of all the sweat that he had gathered while in the capsule, and in the gym.

Feeling the lack of motivation, he grabbed a menu for takeout, and ordered in. At least today, it was just buying food for himself and not his sister, so that cut the price in half, taking it to 12 dollars. Honestly, that was 12 dollars he didn't have, but the shops were too far to walk, and he needed to eat. When his dad came back, he could buy food then. Usually, the delivery arrived in half an hour, which meant he now had half an hour to kill.

Sitting down at his computer, David opened up the official webpage for Nebula. Going to the forums, he searched through them to try find what sort of class he could get from the random rare class book, and what sort of classes other people seemed to have. So far, almost everyone seemed to have a common class, while a few of the rankers had recently upgraded theirs to uncommon.

The rarity of classes seemed to follow the same system as the monster and item rarity- common, uncommon, rare, sub elite and elite. There were more above those, but realistically during this point in time, nobody would have a sub-elite class, while David seemed to be the only person with access to a rare class at the moment, through the [ random rare class book ].

After a while of browsing the forums and finding nothing, David heard the delivery driver knocking on the door. Grabbing his food, he sat down, trying not to mess the curry as he tipped it over the rice. While one hand was forking the food into his mouth, the other was turning the pages of a study book as he tried to prepare for his upcoming physics test. It would probably go well, and he had studied a lot already, but it didn't hurt to go over it again.

After finishing his food, he spent another hour purely studying, before returning to the headset, where he logged into the game again, shifting nervously when he thought about his new item.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ connecting to Nebula ]

[ 0%.....55%.....92%....100% ]

[ welcome Dorian ]

[ you have spawned in Karsis smithy ]

Looking around, Dorian saw that all was pretty much as he left it. The smithy was still open for buisnes, with people coming and going, and he had a shiny new sword in his inventory. And, by looking at it, all that time spent on it seemed to have paid off.

[ Steel Sword of the Fiery Sunrise ]

Durability: 100/100 Attack Power: 120

> +10% to all fire attack damage.

> Firebreather- This weapon can absorb fire attacks and unleash a counter. When the charge is full, the next attack blocked will automatically spend the entire charge on a fireball. Optionally, the charge can be spent early to cast a weakened form of the fireball.

> During the day, each attack deals 20 additional fire damage.

> During the night, the weapon will slowly release the charge to glow. It will stay illuminated for 1 hour on a full charge.

- A sword made from scratch by a dedicated beginner and hidden master. Countless hours have gone into perfecting it.-

Dorian looked at the sword, his eyes wide and unblinking. Forgetting about his jaw that had hit the floor, he compared it to the steel longsword that he had found in the market.

[ Steel Longsword ]

Durability: 110/110 Attack Power: 140

> If equipped in one hand, -12% attack speed.

- A longsword crafted by a competent smith-

' The difference is so big? '

At this moment, Karsi came over, with a grin on his face. "So boy, you like your sword? Took you a long time to finish her up, after all. "

" It's....overpowered. " Dorian grinned, taking the sword out of his inventory to show Karsi, who hadn't seen it yet.

"....Take good care of her, boy. She's a damn good weapon. " Karsi nodded, glad to see that their efforts had paid off. Although, he would never tell Dorian that he had helped. Better let him stay motivated to make something like that again.

Although his sword technially did less damage than the longsword, this was for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the longsword was made to be used with two hands, hence the penalty if someone tries to equip it in just one slot. Second, his sword did an insane amount of extra damage during the day. The elemental damage was incredibly useful against almost everyone, since at such an early point in the game, nobody would really have any counters to it so far. Third, he could still use a shield, spell or something else in his other hand, with no penalty, unlike the longsword.

Putting the sword in his inventory, he decided to ask around and look for other quests. Considering now he had a good sword, it was probably time to put it to good use. Before that though, he still had to change his class. Opening his inventory and taking out the class book, he opened the page, unable to stop his hands from shaking.

[ are you sure you want to change your class from " N/A " to a random rare class? This change cannot be undone. ]

[ you will lose all current class bonuses ]

[ Yes / No ]

Dorian didn't even have to think about the answer. Currently, he was level 9, and classless. The only classless level 9 in the whole game. He had lost out on 9 levels of honing his class oriented skills, and he wasn't about to miss another. Choosing yes, he waited to see which class he would get, praying it would be something useful. Or at least something that could use a sword...

[ you have chosen to renew your class. ]

[ analysing your gameplay ]

[ production oriented gameplay detected ]

[ secondary fighter orientation detected ]

[ analysing your skills and stats ]

[ blacksmithing has been found to be the highest level skill ]

[ Lochlands mana shield has been found to be the highest grade skill ]

[ strength has been determined to be the highest level stat ]

[ balanced classes have been prioritised due to your gamestyle ]

[ production classes have been prioritised due to your gameplay ]

[ your class has been found ]

[ your class has been changed from " N/A" to " Apprentice engraver" ]

[ you have lost all class benefits of " N/A " ]

[ you have gained class benefits of " Apprentice engraver " ]

[ apprentice blacksmithing lvl 1 has become apprentice blacksmithing lvl 2 ]

[ you have gained the skill engraving lvl 1 ]

[ you have gained the skill rune crafting lvl 1]

[ you have gained the skill mana circulation lvl 1]

[ you have gained the skill appraisal lvl 1]

[ you have gained the skill refinement lvl 1]

[ you have gained the skill inner flame lvl 1 ]

[ you have gained 5% fire resistance ]

[ you have gained 5% magic resistance ]

[ you have gained a Rune tree (0/3) ]

[ Rune tree (0/3) ]

> once every 10 levels, the system automatically adds a rune slot to your rune tree

>for each rune slot, you can design a rune.

> runes cannot be removed from the rune tree.

> once the rune is learned, it grows on the rune tree, where it can be crafted an indefinite amount of times. Each rune is defined by the materials used to make it, the effects of the rune, and the skill requirements needed to craft it. At least one of these will be set by the system.

> the runes can be inscribed into weapons/ armours to give them extra effects, however they cannot be removed once inscribed.

After managing to read the entire list of system notifications, which was a chore that Dorian hoped he would never have to repeat, he summarised it in his head. A blacksmith who could engrave runes onto their weapons, and had a mild immunity to magic.

' Did I just hit jackpot....? '

Dorian, for the second time that day, had to pick his jaw up from the floor. A class like this seemed likely to give high versatility, if played right. He started thinking about adding some extra touches to his sword.

' Although, I don't know what the other rare classes will be like when they appear...maybe mine sucks. I'll have to wait and see. '

Thinking about it logically, his class would be good for now, but as soon as other people started getting their own rare classes with combat oriented skills, he would fall behind pretty fast. It might have better stats, but without any offensive skills to back those stats up, he would be pretty much useless in a fight. Basic attacks only got so far, after all.

' I wonder what I could do with my sword....'

Although, he was starting to get restless just staying in the one place. It's time to move on to greener pastures...