With Sally following behind him, Axton entered the building in which he would select his Class. As the Beta did not have that feature and because he had not exactly done a lot of digging into dev diaries and the like, Axton had no idea as to what Classes there were, nor how many there were in total. He assumed that there would be the standard assortment of generic MMORPG classes, but also that they would be reflavored to fit in with the far future aesthetic of the game he was in. Likewise, he assumed that due to the fact that he was overleveled and had experience in certain fields he would have access to rarer and more desirable Classes.

Then again, if Donovan’s grip on the game studio was enough to force Axton to play with his own name and his own body in-game, then there was a high likelihood that he would be outright denied the ability to have a Class to begin with. However, he did have the favor of Admiral DiVeto on his side, so perhaps that would be enough to avoid being Classless for the rest of the game.

With that in mind, Axton waited in line rather patiently and spent a good few minutes mentally rehearsing his potential dialogue options for the possible eventuality that Donovan’s influence reached even to the Class system.

“Mr. Axton Ryker, please come to the service desk.”

A dull, uninterested and rather unmotivated voice announced Axton turn over the intercom, and Axton followed the order given to him. Rising from his seat in a very old and uncomfortable metal folding chair, Axton walked up to the desk. A woman sat just opposite from him and bore a look that was not something you wouldn’t expect to see from an office worker who had realized that they were perpetually stuck in a dead-end job that they hated with every fiber of their being but could not leave.

“Please pick an Infantry Class and a War Suit Class.” Said the unmotivated woman.

“Wait, I can get two Classes?”

Axton’s question must not have been even the hundredth time that it was asked this day alone, as the dreary face of the clerk fell even further. She sighed and began the explanation in a defeated and uninterested tone.

“There are five Classes available for all Players and Natives for both Infantry and War Suit usage each. You may pick only one of the five for each type of activity, but you may also pick the same Class for both if you so desire. Would you like an explanation as to the workings of each of the five Classes?”

Axton nodded, which caused the woman to grumble under her breath for a bit before giving him the rundown.

“The first class is the Duelist. That class specializes in high damage against single targets but lacks much staying power. The second is the Warmonger, which specializes in dealing large amounts of damage to large numbers of lower quality troops. Third is the Tactician, which functions as a supporting force and can deploy traps, impediments and can augment or hinder allies and enemies. The fourth available Class is the Bulwark. The Bulwark has high staying power but lacks much in the way of damage-dealing ability. Lastly, we have the Rounder, which has equal ability in all four other Classes while not being near as good as each individually in its field.”

Axton nodded and summarized the info aloud to help him process it.

“So, a typical Glass Cannon Assassin, a Class straight from a Musou game, a potent Support Class, a typical Tank, and lastly a Generalist. And I can pick any of those for use in a War Suit and any of them for use without one, correct?”

“Yes, now please take this paper and go sit down and read through it. When you are done selecting a Class, please put the paper in the processing bin over there. Also, take this booklet. It will explain everything else. Now please leave; there’s a line behind you and I want to be able to take my break on time.”

Well, it wasn’t what he had expected, but it was better than being denied a Class to begin with. Axton took the paper and the booklet and sat back down in the uncomfortable all-metal folding chair. Rather than filling the document out immediately, Axton decided that he would read through the booklet and see if he could glean any info that others might have missed. Likewise, he decided that he would pull up the forums that people who played this game were using. Perhaps he could find more info about things on there and thus make a more educated choice?

…

“….”

The forums were next to no help at all to anyone trying to decide which Class they should choose. Apparently, there were a few people with a bit of semi-detailed knowledge about how the Classes might work, but the posts with that information looked to have been taken down mere moments after being up. That smelled terribly of information warfare to him and to many others, but there was nothing that could be done about it.

All that was left on the internet right now was a bunch of posturing about how one Class was better than another and how anyone who chose X Class over Y Class was a loser and a n00b. But at the same time, there were also people arguing that Y Class was infinitely better than X Class, so no real info could be gleaned from that either. This left Axton with no choice but to either roll the dice. Wait… he did have an NPC who was of a much higher level than him nearby and said NPC was also a big fan of his. Perhaps he could ask Sally for her input and gain a kind of insider knowledge?

First, however, he needed to read the booklet. If he was to learn anything from Sally or gain any clues as to how he could potentially game the system, he would need at least a somewhat decent understanding of the surface and slightly sub-surface intricacies of each Class. Opening his inventory and withdrawing the booklet, Axton was surprised to find that the ‘booklet’ was about as thick as a Light Novel and had about the same word count. Axton flipped to the last page just to see what he was in for and noticed that the last page that had any information on it was numbered as ‘Page 529’.

Looking around, Axton saw a few other people withdraw the ‘booklet’, only to immediately decide that they were not going to bother even skimming it and proceed to fill out the document that would set their Classes in stone. Looking over to the clock on the wall, Axton did what any hardened gamer with dilated time in a game like this would do when faced with such a massive and potentially game-changing choice.

He opened the book and started to read. It was time to make his parents proud and take full advantage of his knowledge of the arcane and eldritch script known as ‘Legalese’.