Another of the System’s defining features is its use of classes. Although the prerequisites for the classes are unknown to us, especially for the rarer ones, it is accepted in scholarly circles that their function is to not only provide immediate power but also direction.

Giada Marino - Scholar - Intricacies of the System

____

Silas woke up clutching the side of his head - it throbbed as if someone had clobbered him. His memories trickled back as he lay groaning and soon reminded him of what had happened the day before. Oh yeah, someone had clobbered him across the head: no wonder it hurt.

Rising, he saw Mia sleeping nearby, and further on, the freshwater spring glistening under the midday sun. Plodding on towards the crates, he was pleased to see Aengus there, sweat dripping down as he trained, a collection of weapons littered by his feet.

“Do you ever rest?” Silas called out, tongue in cheek.

The man-giant clapped his hands, shouted at the sky, then turned. “Only when I’m dead. Good to see ye on your feet again.”

The smaller man sniffed. “Yeah, about that, thanks. I thought I was going to die.”

Aengus chuckled. “I thought ye were as well, laddie. At one point ye were like a rag doll, not even budging as I poked ye.” He shook his head, his face lined with regret. “I should have fought the boss after all; if only I’d known it could only use telekinesis.”

Silas shrugged. “We all made it out alive.” Internally, he wasn’t as carefree about the near-death encounter but he knew Aengus had done his best at the time and saved both of them. “Were there any rewards like last time?”

“Oh, yeah.” The man-giant searched behind one of the crates and brought out a box along with a thin book. “I went back this morning and found a purple crate where the mother toad had been.” He handed them to Silas.

The box was wooden and comfortably fit in his hands. Sliding it open, he saw eleven glass bottles squeezed together inside. There was space for another by the corner. Picking one up, he peered at the red liquid sloshing inside when the System notified him.

Minor healing potion - boosts regeneration

He wished the System gave more details. Taking the stopper off, he glugged it down, finding it sweet and pleasant. It eased his pain, although he noticed his now faint cuts and bruises didn’t instantly disappear - it seemed the potion had a painkiller element in addition to its primary healing one.

“How long does it take?” Silas asked.

“Well, I drank one maybe four, five hours ago, and I’m pretty happy with its work so far.” Aengus took off his armour and displayed his skin, showing how the worst of his burns and bruises had disappeared. “Feels a lot better as well.”

Nodding, Silas next inspected the book. It had a bright red leather cover with no title or author. Skimming through its crisp paper pages, he worked out the book was an instruction manual on how to improve mana control. Although he didn’t know the language it was written in, his brain somehow understood its contents. As surprising as this was, it was nothing compared to everything else he had gone through the week prior.

The exercises inside were dull in their format, such as lifting a rock or bisecting a leaf midair, although he supposed these would be exponentially harder to do using only magic. Still, he was certain Mia could already do all these up to the hardest exercise, so did that mean the book was strictly intended for beginners or was her control just that advanced?

Placing it down, he found himself in a better mood than before, after all, he was certain his biggest limiter in regards to engraving runes had been his dreadful mana control. He levelled his gaze at Aengus. “So there were no truffles or runic armour?”

The man-giant shook his head, dipping it slightly and avoiding Silas’s eyes. “I think it’s appalling this is all we get for fighting that monster.”

“Well, I find the book immensely useful, and I’m sure we’ll get good use out of the potions so it’s fine,” Silas said. If nothing else, Aengus was a terrible liar, but Silas wasn’t going to call him out on it. God only knew how the man-giant would react to being cornered, besides, he could consider it payment for saving the two of them.

“That’s true. Anyway,” Aengus said, clearly changing the topic, “Did ye know I’ve got a class now.”

The shock came slowly as his brain dissected the word and wondered where he had heard it before. Class… Ah, the System had prompted him to get a class on reaching level 20 because it increased survivability. As the realisation onset, Silas’s mouth gaped, and he blinked rapidly. “You’re already level 20?” Internally, he felt some relief that he hadn’t called Aengus out.

“You know it, laddie,” the man-giant replied with his signature wide grin. “Well, I’m actually 21 now, so I guess I must have been close to level 20 before the fight. Passing 20 didn’t give me any extra stats, but the System did give me three classes to choose from.”

“Go on.”

“Well, since ye insist,” Aengus said, acting bashful. “The first was Pugilist, and let me tell ye, I was tempted. It may surprise ye but I used to do my fair share of bare-knuckle boxing back in the day.” He showed the scars across the back of his fists, and Silas was not at all surprised. “But it was only rated as an uncommon class. Then there was Barbarian and Master of War, both rated rare. Barbarian had some attractive attribute bonuses, but it came at the drawback of acting like a madman during combat. Downright stupid, I say. Imagine attacking yer own mate during a fight.” He was scowling. “So naturally I picked Master of War.”

The man-giant paused as he opened up his status. “It gives me +5 to agility, +10 to constitution, and +15 to strength. Also, it increases my proficiency with all weapons, reduces fatigue during combat, and approximates the danger of any foes in my sight. There are other abilities but they’re locked until I complete class-related quests.”

“Which are?”

“They’re also locked.” Aengus said with a shrug, “Says I need to leave the tutorial first,”

Silas shook his head in disbelief - Aengus had gained 30 attribute points from just picking a class, in addition to valuable perks. He couldn’t wait until he got his class. Wondering how close he was, he checked his status.

Silas Wycliffe

Level 16 - 4 unassigned attribute points

Mana: 98/98 (recovery rate: 0.4 per minute)

Strength: 15

Agility: 20

Constitution: 13

Arcana: 8

Perception: 29

Not too far. He put a point each into arcana, perception, and two into agility. He had enough strength now to wear his armour for a reasonable duration and deal adequate damage with strikes, so that was fine. And although his constitution was still low, he had the feeling he would soon complete the manly chest rune once his mana control improved. Now that he had the book, that only seemed a matter of time, so he spent his points on the other attributes instead.

Silas Wycliffe

Level 16

Mana: 98/105 (recovery rate: 0.45 per minute)

Strength: 15

Agility: 22

Constitution: 13

Arcana: 9

Perception: 30

After this, they chatted for a while longer before getting back to training. They sparred for a bit (with Aengus greatly limiting himself) before Silas got tired and began mana control and engraving practice. It was by mid-afternoon that Mia made her way to the crates.

Groaning from a piercing headache, she was overjoyed by the potions and interested by the book, although as Silas expected, she got bored of it after completing all of its exercises in one sitting. They decided as a group to take the day off to rest before restarting tomorrow.

****

“We’ve got a number of monsters to choose from,” Mia said, examining her map. “There’s the blackstone turtles, giant falcons, shadow apes…”

“We should go after the minks,” Aengus said soberly, his arms crossed. “We’ve got six days before the protection around here drops. When that happens, I reckon the monsters will attack in force. Since it took us three, four days for the boars and toads, it would be a good idea to have extra for the minks.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Mia said, biting her lower lip. She looked over at Silas with a gently furrowed brow and worried eyes.

He understood her concern, after all, both of them had nearly died during the last fight. Going after the strongest monsters in the tutorial without first powering up was a frightening prospect after such a close encounter. Still, he couldn’t refute Aengus’s logic either - if it was the case that the monsters would proactively attack them after the barrier fell, then it made sense to escape the tutorial before then. Noticing the others were waiting for his response, he nodded his head. “Yeah, I think we should.”

With that being said, they replaced their armour and weapons with new ones, took several healing potions for good measure, and set off towards the nimble minks’ territory.