Al trod further into the plains accompanied by the burning torch in his hand. For a while he had been glancing between the front and the floating text that described his unique ability. Isn’t this enough? He asked. Waiting for the ‘off’ to switch to 'on'. Looking back at the mouth of the cave, he assumed the distance was well beyond the hundred meters mark. Unless, there was someone else within his range apart from those hiding in the cave.

Left, and right. The only thing he saw was just a vast plain with tall grasses swaying by the night breeze. He couldn’t be sure where those people were, and his only chance of unlocking the curse’s effect was just to go forward.

Evident by the swaying grasses, the wind was cold brushing against Al’s skin. He wasn’t equipped for autumn, much less winter. Al was just in his jeans, and a simple tee. It was late spring before he got here, and he kinda regretted changing his fashion this early. Hugging his elbow, Al made his way to the supposed castle on the cliff.

Despite his bravado parting ways, deep down Al was anxious to the core. He didn’t know it, but his whole body was shaking. Fearing what might lurked within the tall grasses or whatever that flew above his head. You would never know what might hide in those clouds above him as he saw firsthand the might of the killer bird. So his action of looking up at times was well within reasons.

The sound of the wind played through the swaying grasses.

To some it might be music to their ears, but right now for Al, it only heightened his alertness. His heart beating quicker by the second as his wide open eyes never stopped scanning his dimly lit surroundings.

Seconds felt like minutes. Minutes felt like hours. The growing nervousness in him was showing no sigh of stopping. He stopped for a while, crouching close to the ground. Hiding within the tall grasses. The torch had long faded into just smokes trailing in the air as now he only had the moon to rely to.

Relax, Al, there’s nothing out there. It’s just you and the plains. You alone, Al thought. He attempted self-hypnosis, but judging by the erratic eyes that kept glancing around, it didn’t seem to work.

“Fuh,” he exhaled. Slowly tuning down his breathing to a steady rate. Let’s not think what might be out there and think about something else at the moment, Al opened up his unique ability description and by luck, the thing he wanted was granted.

“It says its on,” Al said. Staring at the little cursive that was so hard to read even after squinting his eyes. But now he saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Al didn’t wait, and hurriedly tried his luck in opening the class selection list. More words appeared in his sight as unlike before, he had no way of opening this class selection list like the others back in the cave. From this single act alone, he now had concrete proof that the curse also barred him from using anything else besides his skills during ‘off’ mode.

Reading through the list, the names he read was more or less the common things he could find in a normal RPG game.

Combat Class

Warrior

Brawler

Guardsman

Cleric

Shaman

Monk

Mage

Witch

Summoner

Archer

Rogue

Tamer

Production Class

Smith

Chemist

Cook

Tailor

Craftsman

Builder

Florist

Miner

Fisherman

Farmer

Forager

I see. So there’s two categories between combat and production, Al thought. Weighing his options over the vast choices he could choose. And true to what Raj said, there’s no Adventurer class to be chosen.

I wonder whether there’s any constellations out there that are kind enough to give me a special one. He looked up in the sky. Hoping something that was obviously zero in chance. But that hope he grasped was thrown a second afterwards. He remembered who was the one that put him in this sort of situation right now. Even if the effects were amazingly good, being this restricted was more of a penalty than a gift. He clicked his tongue and focused back on the list.

For obvious reasons, production class is a no. My best bet of survival is picking the front liner in combat. The warrior-type of class that can meet the opponents head on. But for some reason I’m not feeling it for the class. Can I really solo this whole new life of mine with just a greatsword in my hand. In the mangas, and in the animes might be possible, but can I?

He questioned the feasibility of soloing with the warrior class. In a game, it might possible if he had the right skills, and the right equipment. But now he was talking real life here. Experimenting things with chances of being struck dead wasn’t Al’s idea of living his life.

A mage class then? Using magic sounds cool, but is it suitable for the likes of me? Al turned his thought to the bread and butter of an RPG game, the mage class. Wielding the elements sounded tempting, but there was too much unknown variable that he didn’t know about the class. Especially in regards to casting time of spells. This one is a bit iffy. I can imagine that these mage-classes have their own strength and weakness, but what about their cast times? If one spell takes more than ten seconds, I don’t think I can live my life through any one of them. But I’m kinda leaning towards it, considering I’m hoping to get some sort of detection spells. Having one makes it more easier to avoid people out of my range. But I don't know which one of the three have that type of spells, and choosing one right now is too much of a gamble even for me.

Al wasn’t liking it as his class selection was getting narrower with each conjecture he made. He could have just picked one, but his life was at stake here, and making reckless decision wouldn’t benefit him now or in the future.

Now comes the utility type of class. The archer, the rogue, and the tamer. Al skipped the healing type of classes and went straight for the last three. I don’t know why these three are bunch together, but I guess it does make sense though. All three are quite nimble on their feet, but I do question about the tamer though. From what I know aren’t they basically pet owners? I’ve never read or heard about them being agile like these other two.

Al put aside the tamer class, and took his attention to the rogue class. I can’t find the assassin class, but my hunch is telling me that the rogue class might be able to progress to an assassin class. Al favored the assassin as the class was known to has a high offensive burst power and skills that could hide from other prying eyes. Being invisible was quite attractive for a soloer like him as not being able to be seen pretty much guaranteed his survival from both monsters and humans. The question right now was whether he was guaranteed to get that class or get that skill.

Shit, my head hurts. Al shook his head. Choosing had never been this difficult. The last time he took the time of making a decision was when choosing a name for his character in the new Pokemon Arceus. And not going to lie, it took him well over an hour to do so, draining his Switch almost half of the battery.

Should I pick my class later? He thought. It wouldn’t hurt to choose after I earn a few levels. Levels that I would consider safe of course as I’m assuming that the monsters level range wouldn’t be that wide in one particular area. Al thought of putting on hold of choosing his class as he might be able to gather information from those in the cave about class specifics. Choosing blindly in his situation would be too much of a gamble for him. And he wasn’t the type to gamble.

“Hmm?” Al glanced to his side. His peripheral vision noticed something. The grasses were rustling and Al faced towards them with bated breath, gripping tight over the extinguished torch that was now nothing more than just a stick.

Then it appeared.

“Is that what I think it is?” he gazed at the thing that just slid from in between the grasses. A blob of encased fluid, synonym with the name Slime. It wasn’t what Al expected, but at least his nervousness abated a bit. As he was somewhat relief a bit. To him, the slime was at the bottom of the barrel for made up creatures in literatures. A perfect target for his first step in gaining a level.

Identify.

[Green Slime. Level 1. The weakest of the slime family. Not many know whether this creature is consider alive or not, but most know it’s harmless unless provoke. Usually it would eat through assimilating the food into their inside fluids, further broken down by the acidic nature of the fluid inside of it.]

The word harmless made Al smile. An opportunity came and he wasn’t going to waste it. Al crouched closer to the oblivious slime, readied to give a decisive blow.

He stood before it and raised the stick up high. In a single sweep he slammed it down at the slime. But the outcome was not what he expected. The exterior mucus lining didn’t burst as he imagined The end of the torch slipped right into the slime as it was stuck inside of it.

Al tried to pull back, but everything happened too quickly.

His skin felt the burn, and Al screamed in pain.