This was an enormous plaza — vast, yet not empty. A good many players already wandered through it, and white light flashed from time to time as new players descended here from the novice villages. To Ye Tianxie’s right was a huge stone stele floating in white light… the city’s revival point.
The City of Heaven’s Stars, one of the Lost Continent’s five main cities. This was the other starting point every novice player necessarily descended to after leaving the novice village, and for all players it was likewise a completely identical and fair starting point, since the City of Heaven’s Stars was their one compulsory option — they could not be teleported to any of the other main cities.
With a stir of his mind, Ye Tianxie called up his attribute panel:
Character: Xietian
Level: 11
Class: None
Renown: 220 Money: 1,013 gold
Hunger: 75/180
Basic Attributes: Strength 80, Constitution 22, Agility 19, Spirit 19
Fixed Attributes: Luck 12, Comprehension 12, Charm 22
HP: 530
MP: 300
Physical Attack: 221
Magic Attack: 38
Physical Defense: 26
Hit: 19
Dodge: 19
Reaction: 72
Perception: 53
Focus: 42
Attack Speed: 100
Movement Speed: 100
Fire Resistance: 3%
Water Resistance: 3%
Wind Resistance: 3%
Lightning Resistance: 8%
Earth Resistance: 3%
Light Resistance: 3%
Dark Resistance: 3%
Class advancement… Looking at that word “None” behind his class, Ye Tianxie settled on his first objective. He walked over to several figures in the plaza who were plainly NPCs and, with his sky-high Charm, easily got clear directions to the place for class advancement, then hurried off toward the Hall of Class Advancement.
Owing to the Huaxia Region’s enormous player base, this sole Hall of Class Advancement had been built astonishingly large — fully the size of two real-world football fields. Since countless players who’d already reached Level 10 were still struggling bitterly at the Hard or Nightmare class-advancement trials for those tempting rewards, the number of players currently here to advance wasn’t all that outrageous. The Hall of Class Advancement was divided evenly into seven sections. Ye Tianxie read the markers one by one and walked straight to the Warrior class-advancement zone, where a single middle-aged man with a face full of beard sat at his leisure in a broad chair.
The World of Fate had a fairly semi-humane setting: whatever novice class a player had chosen, it wouldn’t affect them in any way when advancing to a formal class. For instance, an Apprentice Warrior wasn’t necessarily obliged to advance into the Warrior class; he could choose to become a Mage or an Assassin instead, and the same went for the other classes… Though whether this setting existed or not made little difference, since only someone with something wrong in the head would choose a class different from their apprentice class — because that would render all their original attribute allocation worthless outright.
“Hello. I’d like to become a Warrior.” Ye Tianxie said crisply, walking up before the bearded middle-aged man.
“Ding… Owing to your superhuman Charm, the Warrior class-advancement mentor’s favorability toward you increases by 20.”
Ye Tianxie: “…”
The Warrior class-advancement mentor’s expression softened. He straightened up and said with a smile, “Very good, young man. First let me take a look at your attributes… Not bad; you’re indeed suited to becoming a Warrior. The Warrior is the Lost Continent’s most powerful class. We Warriors have the strongest melee capability; on the battlefield, we are forever the brave ones charging at the very front. The basic Warrior class divides into two types according to the weapon chosen: the Spear Warrior, with powerful attack strength and attack range but relatively weak attack rate and accuracy, and the Sword Warrior, more well-rounded in every respect. So — which kind of Warrior do you wish to become?”
“Sword Warrior.” Ye Tianxie answered. What sort of weapon did the Hour of Fate even count as? It belonged to none of the eighteen weapon categories — indeed, it wasn’t a weapon at all. But its method of attack was exactly the same as a sword’s, and Ye Tianxie would rather believe it was one. What he couldn’t help worrying about, though, was that since the Hour of Fate belonged to no weapon category, none of the Sword Warrior’s skills — which used a sword as their medium of expression — could be performed through it.
“Very good. Then…” The Warrior class-advancement mentor stood, his eyes half-closing, his hand lifting, and murmured, “In the name of the War God, I bestow upon you the power of the Sword-Dancing Warrior!”
A ball of white light descended from above at the mentor’s murmured words, scattering over Ye Tianxie’s body, gently wrapping around him, then slowly seeping into his body.
The Warrior class-advancement mentor lowered his hand — but no chime announcing a successful advancement sounded in Ye Tianxie’s ears. Then, an abrupt change: the white light that had melded into Ye Tianxie’s body suddenly burst out of it, as though violently repelled.
The Warrior class-advancement mentor’s face filled with astonishment. Meeting Ye Tianxie’s questioning gaze, he thought for a moment, then raised his hand and murmured once more: “In the name of the War God, I bestow upon you the power of the Sword-Dancing Warrior!”
The same white light scattered down from above — but this time, before it even touched Ye Tianxie, it was swept away as if by a violent gale, dispersing without a trace.
“What is this?” Ye Tianxie frowned, puzzled.
The Warrior class-advancement mentor wore a deeply thoughtful expression, then looked up and said, “Don’t worry. This sort of situation isn’t unheard of. It means that with your constitution, you aren’t suited to becoming a Warrior… A pity, but go and choose another class. With your current attributes, you could also choose to become a Guardian.” He gestured toward the class-advancement zone adjoining the Warrior’s.
My constitution isn’t suited to becoming a Warrior? Ye Tianxie was startled. In all his virtual gaming career, he’d never once heard of such a thing happening. Faintly, he began to sense a certain strangeness — a strangeness that came, naturally, from all the inconceivable things he’d encountered since entering the World of Fate.
Why had his class conferral failed at the very beginning, leaving him without any apprentice class at all?
And was the failure of the Warrior class conferral mere coincidence — or was it truly, as the Warrior class-advancement mentor said, that “your constitution isn’t suited to becoming a Warrior”?
Ye Tianxie left in silence and walked to the Guardian class-advancement zone. The Guardian class-advancement mentor was a thickset middle-aged man. Ye Tianxie likewise stepped up and said directly, “Hello, esteemed mentor. I’d like to become a Guardian.”
“Ding… Owing to your superhuman Charm, the Guardian class-advancement mentor’s favorability toward you increases by 20.”
To this chime, Ye Tianxie was already growing somewhat numb. He was even beginning to suspect that from now on, every single time he spoke to an NPC for the first time, a chime like this would go off.
(End of Chapter 56)