Item Name: Flame Sword

Item Type: Weapon

Tier: 1

Level: 52

Durability: 356

Grade: Epic

Description: An ordinary sword tempered with fire mana.

Abilities: Damage 107-123, Str +15, Dex +10, Fire Damage +36

Requirements: Level 52

Item Name: Earth shield

Item Type: Weapon

Tier: 1

Level: 52

Durability: 405

Grade: Epic

Description: An ordinary shield imbued with the powers of the earth.

Abilities: Defense 125-135, Str +12, End +23 Skill: Earth shield

Requirements: Level 52

Item Name: Winds Knife

Item Type: Weapon

Tier: 1

Level: 52

Durability: 289

Grade: Epic

Description: An ordinary knife imbued with the powers of the wind.

Abilities: Damage 102-112 Str +10, Dex +22, Skill: Wind slash

Requirements: Level 52

Item Name: Lightning Axe

Item Type: Weapon

Tier: 1

Level: 52

Durability: 326

Grade: Epic

Description: An ordinary axe tempered with lightning mana.

Abilities: Damage 105-126, Str +21, Dex +18, Lightning Damage 29, slight chance to stun enemies

Requirements: Level 52

Zane admired the weapons that he had recently bought from the market. With the discount, each weapon cost approximately two hundred thousand village points. Initially, Zane planned on buying more than four weapons, but he changed his mind after he attempted to relearn his weapon master skills that he lost. Zane was learning the expert version of the weapon mastery skills he previously knew and so far, he had only managed to learn five skills.

Sub skill: Expert Sword Mastery

Level: 8, 89%

Tier: 1

Effect: Increased damage when wielding a sword. Damage 8 + Str/8 + Dex/8

Cost: none

Sub skill: Expert Shield Mastery

Level: 9, 65%

Tier: 1

Effect: Improves defense when wielding a shield. Defense 10 + Str/8 + End/8

Cost: none

Sub skill: Expert Knife Mastery

Level: 9, 12%

Tier: 1

Effect: Increases damage when wielding a knife. Damage 10 + Str/10 + Dex/4

Cost: none

Sub skill: Expert Axe Mastery

Level: 8, 96%

Tier: 1

Effect: Increase damage when wielding an axe. Damage 8 +Str/4 + Dex/10

Cost: none

Sub skill: Expert Unarmed Combat Mastery

Level: 10, 0%

Tier: 1

Effect: Increases damage and defense while unarmed in combat. Damage and Defense +10 + Str/10 + Dex/10 + End/10

Cost: none

Although the skills Zane learned were an advanced version of his previous skills, the system still judged Zane’s actions as an attempt to relearn old skills. Therefore, the system required a price. Without considering his titles, Zane needed to pay two hundred and fifty class points for each skill. It wasn’t a bad deal considering that it usually cost five hundred class points to learn a tier one skill.

Once Zane learnt the five skills, they automatically became subskills underneath his Expert Martial Weapon Mastery skill. This meant Zane was able to benefit from the effects of the Expert Sword Mastery skill and the Expert Martial Weapon Mastery skill at the same time. However, Zane’s subskill would always be at a level lower than or equal to his main skill. Finished looking over everything Zane refocused his mind on the present.

Currently it was dawn and Zane was standing outside of one of the walls protecting an inn. Standing with him was ninety-nine other people. Those ninety-nine people were showing a wide range of emotions. There were people that were nervous, scared, bored and excited. Ultimately, Zane and the forty-nine other people made up the first attacking squad.

When the meeting to discuss the battle strategy began, it was first proposed that everyone would be split according to their initial classes. However, the majority of people were unwilling to agree to this arrangement. The elven preferred to stay together and several humans formed groups or teams that they were comfortable with. Therefore, the first proposed battle strategy was thrown out and another one was brought forward.

During the meeting several battle strategies were brought up and thrown out. Eventually, a battle strategy was formed after a lot of discussion. The first major point that was decided was that the elven and humans would be guarding different inns.

Elves had shown their typical distaste of humans and most humans didn’t like or trust the elves. The elves would be in charge of defending two inns and the humans would be in charge of defending the other four. After deciding where people would be defending, how people would be defending was decided next.

The method that everyone agreed to was that there would be a group of defenders and attacker. There would be two attacking groups made up of approximately one hundred people each. The rest of the people would be assigned to the defending groups. With approximately three thousand people in the starting village, it was assured that every inn would have at least five hundred defenders.

First, Jade and the other members of the council asked for volunteers for the attacking group. Most people were hesitant to volunteer, but Zane and the others were not. They quickly stepped forward and were assigned to the first attacking group.

Before the meeting for the battle strategy took place the group had already discussed how they would like to fight during the Upheaval. Considering they would receive a small amount of experience from fighting tier zero mana creatures it was unanimously decided that they would focus on fighting tier one mana creatures. To do this they would have to find a position during the Upheaval that would provide them with this opportunity.

Most tier one mana creatures attacked after the tier zero mana creatures attacked. The group decided they had two options. Charge toward the tier one mana creatures or find a way to hang back until the tier one mana creatures appeared. Once the battle strategy for the Upheaval was determined, Zane’s group quickly decided that they would be in the attacking group and charge forward to attack the tier one mana creatures.

Zane and the others may have been happy about becoming attacker, but many people were not. There was a lack of volunteers for the attacking groups and the council was forced to randomly select people to join. Of course, many of the people that were randomly selected objected to being voluntold to join the attacking group. However, the people that volunteered ignored them and the people that would automatically become part of the defending group berated them for being cowardly.

Eventually, the objections made by the people who were voluntold died down. After all, none of them were craftsman or laborer’s and they all had skills that would ensure they survived the first attack. Plus, most of the reason for objecting weren’t reasonable. The only reasonable objection was that some people didn’t want to be separated from their group. The answer to this objection was to have the rest of their group volunteer. After the attacking group was formed it was very easy to form the defending group.

The majority of the defending group was made of craftsmen and laborers. Initially, the craftsman had not planned to fight. However, after they realized they would not be able to gain many points and with the helpful suggestions given by people, many changed their mind. It was suggested that some of the craftsmen and laborers use their class points to learn a weapon mastery skill. Preferably, archery that would let them attack from a distance. Another suggestion was that they use some of the weapons that came from Brad’s world. The best suggestion was that they buy a wand or another magical weapon from the market. Most magical weapons had at least one spell built into it that the user could cast simply by channeling their own mana into the magical weapon.

“Life truly is a wonderful and mysterious thing,” Old Saber told Zane. He moved closer while Zane was admiring his weapons. “A few days ago, I was making peace with my own mortality accepting the fact that I would soon die. Now, my old pains are gone, my body is full of energy and I’m about to charge forward into battle.”

Old Saber spoke with Zane about his participation in the Upheaval during their spars. He agreed to fight with Zane and his friends. When Zane and the others volunteered for the attacking group, they made sure to include Old Saber’s name.

Zane didn’t comment on the old man’s speech. As a young man he knew he couldn’t completely understand what Old Saber was feeling. However, Zane was able to understand some of what Old Saber was saying.

“Yes,” Zane said. “The upcoming battle will be a lot of fun.”

“I agree," Diana said. “I’m looking forward to fighting side by side with the weapon fanatic.”

Diana was another new addition to their group. She volunteered for the attacking group after she saw Zane volunteer. Later on, she asked to fight together with Zane and the others.

Diana’s excitement was contagious. Soon the rest of Zane’s group began commenting about their excitement for the upcoming battle. The groups energy and fighting spirit continued to rise. However, suddenly, everyone received multiple system messages.

Attention Adventurers. The Upheaval will begin in the next five minutes. All buildings in the starting village will be closed until the end of the Upheaval.

Time remaining: 4:56

The system will now activate the Upheaval Rankings list. To review the information about the rankings, focus on the ranking list.

Since the Upheaval is occurring earlier than planned the system will grant an adventurer the opportunity to become a commander. At this time, please select a commander from the list of qualified candidates.

Congratulations! Bruce will be the commander for the Upheaval. May he lead you well.

Multiple messages appeared before Zane, but he managed to get through all of them quickly. The first message was simple, but the second one required a little more attention. Zane heard about the Upheaval Ranking list before, but he didn’t have much information.

Before the Upheaval a Messenger gave some information about the Upheaval Ranking list. The Messenger said the Upheaval Ranking list would be similar to champion and challenger ranking, they would receive points for the mana creatures they killed and there would be an opportunity to gain more rewards. After looking at the information the system provided Zane knew that the Upheaval Ranking list gave five points for every tier one mana creature killed and one point for every tier zero mana creature killed. A reward would be given when each person reached a certain number of points, and another reward would be given depending on a person’s placement on the rankings.

The opportunity to select a commander was another thing that Zane expected to happen. It was discussed at battle strategy meeting and the person that was chosen to be a commander was Bruce. Bruce was the tall, muscular man that had questioned Daughter during the impromptu meeting. There were some objections to Bruce being the commander, but none of the other people could prove that they would be a commander as effective or more effective than Bruce. Once the system asked everyone to choose their commander it only took a few seconds before Bruce was officially approved by the system for the position.

“Everyone, listen up!” A man shouted. “I have been given a leadership position by the commander and will be in charge of the attacking group. My orders will be coming directly from the commander, so everyone should listen to me and do exactly what I say to do. If you choose not to, don’t blame me when you have to face the consequences.”