“Fuck you, system” I said, feeling so defeated “and fuck my life”.

[Action impossible! System lacks the tools necessary to achieve the task or any of its variants!]

Shit, if I were unlucky, then this defective system would’ve done something stupid again.

I tried to think positively, the shop didn’t accept refunds from my experience, and what’s done is already done.

I can’t afford to lose my focus when dealing with the system from now on.

I decided to check the class I gained just in case, although I had a bad feeling about it.

“Show me the details of my class, The Burned Man” I said in a low voice, the others were already getting to know each other and thinking of ways to safely tackle the tutorial.

A notice appeared:

[Class: The Burned Man! (Legendary)

In order to defend his world, Alnarius decided to ignite the mana coursing through his meridians.

The result was a dazzling show of a humanoid torch, he successfully fended off the danger he was facing.

It was decided that this feat was Legendary.

Sadly, he died after expending his mana reserves and the enemies invaded his planet.

This Class is a memorial of that rank A Host, who had incredible control over the element of fire.

This Class was carefully balanced and optimized to assure some satisfaction.

-Each Level gives the host: 4 MAG points; 4 END points: 8 free stat points.

-If the Host desires to use a skill, he must shout its name.

-Host is immune to fire damage.

-Gained Four Class skills.

-Upgradable.

-Host reached Level 1! 4 MAG, 4 END and 8 free stat points acquired.

It was definitely much better than uncommon classes, and infinitely better than common ones like [Dismantler] which gave a total of 4 stat points, distributed automatically to the corresponding physical stats.

I didn’t know how it fared against other legendary classes, but the description was a bit worrisome. On one hand, it seems that it was based off a display of power by a rank A individual, which as far as I knew meant that he held his ground among system powered individuals. On the other hand, he died during that ‘Legendary’ feat.

Shouting the names of skills may end up being rather problematic, I must say.

“Status screen” I said,

I shrugged my shoulders and looked at the screen that came up.

Host: Jason Stubbs

HP 100/100 (1 HP/10 mins)

Class: The Burned Man!

Mana 1/100 (1 mana/280 seconds)

Level 1: 0/1000

Stat Points: 8

STR: 10

VIT: 10

DEX: 10

AGI: 10

MAG: 14

END:14

Class Skills:

General Skills:

[Flame-n-Go]: Level 1

[Zoom]: Level 1

[It’s fine!]: Level 1

[Burn That Invader!]: Level 1

[Kill Them Before They Spread!]: Level 1

What? After seeing the names of the skills, I felt that I must have been swindled. This class looked like something a drunk adventurer made up!

“Show me the details on each of those skills” I said, I didn’t have great expectations but a Legendary class must be at least a bit useful.

[Flame-n-Go]: (Legendary)

Passive

Alnarius had exquisite fire control, he could control their temperature and keep the flames burning for as long as they didn’t consume their target yet.

This allowed him freedom that his peers didn’t enjoy!

-The Flames can ignite any target they touch if the Host desires.

-The Host can keep the flames burning by consuming mana, either his own, or the target’s if it had mana.

(10 Mana per second)

-The Host can control the temperature of any flames by consuming mana, standard temperature is 600° K, any deviation can be achieved by consuming mana, either the host’s, or the target’s if it had mana.

(10 Mana to maintain a 10° K deviation for 1 second)

-The user can freely control all flames that are 20 centimeters away from him at most.

-The host can use ambient mana to sustain the flames if the target is himself.

[It’s Fine!]: (Legendary)

Passive

Alnarius was naturally suited to using his chosen element, he had a Great fire elemental affinity!

He could increase his own physical strength and heal his own injuries by setting himself on fire!

- Fire empowers your physical might, the hotter the fire the greater the buff.

(STR, AGI, DEX each increase temporarily by 1 point per 10°K of the flames)

- Fire heals your flesh, the hotter the fire the quicker the regeneration rate.

Warning: The Host has a Low fire elemental affinity; thus, you would feel 100% of the pain resulting from burning himself.

[Burn That Invader!]: (Legendary)

Active

Alnarius had a heroic spirit, his desire was to protect his planet from all dangers. Many of his attempts were successful, but a lone man could only be present in one place at a time.

-Unleashes a concentrated cylindrical blast of fire, suitable for single target damage.

(1 Kilometer range)

(Mana Usage: 100 times the radius of the blast in millimeters)

(10-minute cooldown)

[Kill Them Before They Spread!]: (Legendary)

Active

Alnarius was alone against armies of powerful fighters, he made up for the lack of competent allies by strong area of effect damage. It still wasn’t enough.

-Unleashes a heat blast in all directions surrounding the Host (Sphere)

(Mana Usage: 10 times the radius of the blast in meters)

(15-minute cooldown)

I read the descriptions of the skills carefully. While the names of the skills seemed comical, the effects were rather strong.

The first skill seemed rather strong, not only could it allow me to fine tune my flames to use them in a wide variety of ways, but it also allowed me to siphon mana off strong enemies and cause them damage at the same time!

The second skill makes this magical class viable as a melee fighter, and allows the user to be a self-sufficient healer. I didn’t know how efficient the healing was but seeing that it scaled with the temperature of the flames, I had high hopes. As long as I could endure the pain. . .

I grimaced as I saw the warning. I realized that I had to go through the pain of burning alive due to my weak affinity with fire. The benefits of this skill were astronomical, as it would allow me to completely focus on MAG and END. However, I still couldn’t imagine what the pain of a thousand degrees Kelvin was like.

I shook off that thought. It’s still viable regardless of the negatives, I just need to be careful.

Looking at the offensive skills, they seemed rather strong but at their current levels and my low mana capacity limited their prospects.

I dismissed the system notices, my class had the potential to make me as strong as a fighter with way higher levels than mine, albeit having severe penalties to achieve that.

A variant of an Archmage would’ve been more balanced, but maybe this class will prove to be powerful enough for my ambitions.

An idea crossed my mind, “Open the shop window” I said.

Shop window:

[Current points: 70215 points]

-What are you looking to buy? [. . .]

“Show me all the skills that could decrease the pain felt by the host” I said “Order them by grade first and then by price within each grade”

Item

Cost

Skillbook for Pain Resistance (Legendary)

250000 points

Skillbook for Heavenly Temperance (Legendary)

220000 points

Skillbook for Stone Mind (Legendary)

130000 points

Skillbook for Perseverance (Legendary)

70000 points

…

…

…

…

…

…

I looked at all of the options and many others, but they all reduced a percentage of the pain felt. The more expensive ones reduced more pain and some of them had great improvement per level in the skill, others were also easier to upgrade like Pain Resistance.

It wasn’t what I looked for; a low percentage of the pain felt from a million Kelvin fire is still going to be too much for my mind.

After scrolling down for a while, something grabbed my attention.

Skillbook for Shut-Down (Legendary)

Cost: 50000 points

Teaches the host the Shut-Down skill (Legendary).

This skill allows the Host to completely nullify any of the pain he feels once a day for 5 seconds.

I bought it without any hesitation and then learned the skill. This is my trump card.

I ended up buying two more skills, one for stealth and the other for mobility. They were some of the cheapest [Epic] skills, but they were good enough.

Skillbook for Shadow Assimilation (Epic)

Cost: 12000 points

Teaches the host the Shadow Assimilation skill (Epic).

This skill allows the Host to completely disappear even when he’s being seen by another person, provided that there is a shadow nearby.

Skillbook for Light Steps (Epic)

Cost: 8000 points

Teaches the host the Light Steps skill (Epic).

This skill allows the Host to navigate through all kinds of terrain with superhuman speeds, without making any noise and gives him a great sense of balance.

The sounds of people conversing with each other grabbed me from my trance.

I looked around the room to check if anything noteworthy was happening. The countdown showed that fifteen minutes had passed already. The only people left inside the room were me, Petra, and those three teenagers.

Everyone else seemed to have gone out to check what was surrounding us. I needed to be quick, the first people from earth to complete each of the dungeons got great rewards later on.

“Alright” I said “Everything is set”.

I walked out of the room without paying the present people any heed.

Just outside the room, the other five people were huddled together in front of a stall. Ah Yes, the good ole’ scamming fox.

Behind the stall was a short humanoid figure, he had orange hair and seemed to have a young face. The peculiar thing about him were his special features.

“Why do you have animal ears and a tail?” said Marla, getting way too close to the other person “Are those whiskers on your face?”

“I am Vulpinus, nice to meet you all” he said softly. “I am an individual belonging to the beast kin, specifically from the fox clan”

The others seemed surprised as they understood what he said.

“Each of you must be hearing me speak in the language you're most familiar with, as this is the effect of a certain skill of mine” he added, “The reason why I was chosen to be the clerk for your tutorial stall is to make you more comfortable with other races”.

He adopted a formal posture and his expression seemed more refined as he started explaining.

“You can buy all kinds of goods from my stall, from weapons to potions and even maps! Everything has a price tag and the only currency I accept is mana stones of all three grades. You can acquire them from me by selling me interesting things you find around the tutorial”.

He then spread his arms around and said “If you need anything, just tell me! Even if you lack the funds!”.

This is the true income source for him, loaning funds.

Many of the others looked to be deep in thought, most of the ones capable of fighting needed weapons. They didn’t have the funds they needed to buy weapons. And the only way to gather mana stones is to sell the monster corpses and other things to the fox guy.

Only one guy seemed to be grinning from one ear to another as he shouted to the others.

“I would’ve wanted some nice gauntlets, but I guess my bare hands are good enough” said Chris “I can help any of you if you stick with me!”.

They all looked towards his direction, they knew that his help would have many strings attached. In fact, he truly had an advantage over us as he didn’t need a weapon and seemed to be an experienced fighter.

He got stronger quicker than them, and ended up debt-free to the Fox. He monopolized most of the good things found in our tutorial area, which led him to prominence out of the tutorial even with his uncommon class.

I personally suffered a lot by him, and he kept harassing me even out of the tutorial. He ended up grabbing a certain divine entity’s attention, which improved his class and gave him a lot of influence.

‘Chris Redwood, Heracles’ Blessed’, that’s what his alias was in my past life.

But not this time.