The one who’d come wasn’t alone — there were a full six of them. And these six were plainly the class-advancement mentors of the six great classes: Warrior, Guardian, Archer, Assassin, Priest, and Summoner. Together with the Mage mentor, all seven mentors — who had been spread evenly across this enormous advancement hall — were now, most uncannily, gathered in a single spot. Faced with their sudden arrival, the Mage mentor was visibly astonished and at a loss.
“Heh!” The Warrior mentor gave an odd laugh. “Something interesting happened, so we had no choice but to come over. Old Fa, your advancement for this kid failed too… and not just yours. All six of us failed when we tried to grant him a class.”
“All of you failed?” The Mage mentor’s face filled with astonishment — but then, all at once, his expression changed sharply and he said in alarm, “You mean… besides me, all of you failed as well?”
“That’s right.” The Guardian mentor nodded gravely, his gaze slanting toward Ye Tianxie. “And what’s more, I somehow failed to notice earlier — he’s wearing a Hero’s Badge!”
Seven gazes converged at once on Ye Tianxie’s chest, where an unadorned, bronze-colored badge hung quietly. The two characters carved upon it — Hero — set all seven mentors’ eyeballs quivering violently for a long while.
“This… could it be…” The Mage mentor’s expression turned grave, and his gaze toward Ye Tianxie shifted markedly. Ye Tianxie’s thoughts raced, but he asked nothing, watching them in silence… It seemed something interesting was about to happen again.
“Young man… ah, so your name is Xietian. Xietian, do you know why you cannot obtain a class from us?” the Warrior mentor said, his face deeply serious.
Ye Tianxie shook his head and waited for his answer.
“People unable to obtain any class have existed before, but they appear exceedingly rarely. There are only two reasons for such a situation. One is that the person’s power is simply too weak — so weak it cannot bear any power at all, unworthy of advancing into any class. And people that weak have always been extremely rare. But you… have obtained the Hero’s Badge, so you clearly can’t belong to that category. Which leaves only the other — a category rarer still than the first. At the very least, in all my years I’ve only heard of it; I have never seen it.”
The seven were now looking at Ye Tianxie with visible fervor. That they’d gathered here for his sake alone made it plain that what they’d discovered must be something enormous.
“Those able to obtain a Hero’s Badge are already far too few. A hundred years ago there was a man named Gu Ping who obtained one, and in the century since, only Wuming. On that basis alone, you have such standing. And the other situation is… that your own power is too strong! So strong that the class we would bestow upon you has no standing to become your power — and is thus instinctively repelled by the power in your body!” the Warrior mentor said solemnly.
Wuming, the Lost Continent’s foremost expert — and now, after him, another man bearing a Hero’s Badge had appeared. What shocked them still more was that he repelled every class conferral. And in all the legends, the only one with the ability and the standing to make that happen was Wuming, and Wuming alone…
Ye Tianxie: “…”
The gloom that had hung on Ye Tianxie’s face vanished without a trace. He lifted his head to meet the seven pairs of eyes, each different, and said with a face full of modesty, “Actually… I’m not as impressive as you all imagine.”
An ordinary player’s class isn’t worthy of being my class… Oh, for crying out loud, what a magnificent distinction that is!
The Warrior mentor shot him a look. “Xietian, you’re a brave one from another world, and your attributes aren’t much different from those of the other otherworldly brave ones who’ve just walked out of a novice village. That you obtained a Hero’s Badge with attributes like these gives me no small interest in what special power you possess. Still, judging from your attributes, your power may well be in a silent, sleeping state, not outwardly manifest… Xietian, having no class must trouble you a great deal. Would you have any interest in coming with us to meet someone? He’d surely be very interested in you.”
“Oh? Meet whom?” Ye Tianxie asked.
One bizarre thing after another kept happening to him. More and more, he was beginning to feel that the World of Fate wasn’t a simple virtual game, but rather — another real space, different from the real world.
“My mentor, the greatest Holy Magus of the City of Heaven’s Stars — Kong Xiu,” the Mage mentor put in. “The Hour of Fate has vanished, the hordes of demons stir, and the winds and clouds churn; the Lost Continent now needs some true powerhouses. Not long ago, my mentor Kong Xiu bade us keep an eye out for otherworldly brave ones whose aptitude far surpasses the ordinary. Bearing a Hero’s Badge, repelling every class conferral… he would surely take great interest in you. He might even guide you into becoming an ultimate powerhouse like Wuming.”
The Holy Magus Kong Xiu… a hidden NPC ordinary players can’t meet?!
“Good. Take me there!” At this point even a fool would know to nod along without a moment’s delay.
An unfair circumstance encountered by chance, and hard on its heels something that looked like a happy surprise — with a thick fog swirling through it all. This was fate. Fate, which can never be seen through.
From these seven mentors’ unusual behavior and their strange looks and expressions, he was filled with keen interest in the person he was about to meet and everything he was about to encounter… and, more than that, with a doubt buried deep in his heart.
And from this moment, all seven of the City of Heaven’s Stars’ class-advancement mentors abandoned their posts and collectively “skipped work.” Countless players who’d just left their novice villages and come eagerly to the advancement hall could only stare blankly at the empty spots where the seven mentors should have been.
The seven mentors would rather defy their own duties and face punishment than miss witnessing with their own eyes everything they wished to know. It shows just how great an interest Ye Tianxie had stirred in them.
The City of Heaven’s Stars’ prosperity far exceeded Ye Tianxie’s expectations. Following the seven mentors at a hurried pace, he took in every sight along the street. To describe this place with words like glazed tiles and resplendent gold wouldn’t be the least exaggeration; it surpassed the flourishing palace cities of period dramas by who knew how much. If a main city’s center was already like this, then what of the Imperial City… what manner of grandeur and opulence must that be?
At the center of the City of Heaven’s Stars, just west of the heavily guarded city lord’s manor.
Here it was uncannily quiet… The streets of the City of Heaven’s Stars flowed with ceaseless traffic, and the massive influx of players had made the clamor swell by geometric multiples. Yet here it was as if something completely severed the sounds of the outside world — the instant he stepped in, the noise at his ears vanished in a single moment, without a trace.
(End of Chapter 58)