Classes were important. I didn’t have the strongest grasp on many things in this world, but classes were something that Minamoto made sure I knew of.

For one, nearly everyone had one. It seemed a bit excessive to think about when I considered people on Minamoto and Nishimuro’s levels. However, not everyone grew to their strength. Hell, I doubted that everyone grew to the level of a normal Samurai soldier. With how many normal people were in the village, I doubted all of them were some secret masters or something.

There were many factors to this, but the main one was the conditions associated with classes. Those conditions are tied to the person’s current class, or in the case of me, were just specific actions that defined you. Whatever that meant anyways. Minamoto explained it by saying that a farmer taking the action to farm would be sufficient to fulfill a class condition for that specific class.

Whereas I fought for my life against vastly stronger creatures just to fulfill the conditions? Shit difficulty, I tell you. I could’ve just farmed some crops for the two weeks I lived in that village and gotten an easy class, damnit…

In any case, these conditions changed when you got your first class, and the further you evolved the current class, the more difficult the conditions. It meant that if you picked a strong class, you needed to fulfill the conditions to evolve that class, but that didn’t mean that you needed to pick the evolution of that class. I could be a warrior one moment, then switch to a farmer. However, I would be able to keep all the bonuses that being a warrior had and then add those to the farmer class.

Essentially, the harder the conditions, the more likely the next class would be something special. Something I was looking forward to the most when I thought about what I went through for this chance. Of course, fulfilling a bunch of conditions, even if you can go through with class advancement, will allow someone to pick from a bunch of different classes. It was one reason why some people would spend so long on their current class without advancing.

Sadly, like everything in the world, there was a limit. A limit to the amount of skills you could have, a limit to your stats, a limit to your techniques according to Minamoto, and most importantly, a limit to how many class advancements you can go through. It seemed like a shitty and sloppy way to balance a game, but who was I to judge? I still didn’t really have an idea on how strong a person could actually become, but with Minamoto and Nishimuro as a reference, there really wasn’t anything stopping me from becoming superman at one point. Not that I thought that I could. It was a goal that I stuck in the back of my head to cheer myself up occasionally.

I sighed tiredly, going over the information dump Minamoto just gave me about class advancement. Ever since we were evicted from the dungeon, the man had been helping to treat the injured Samurai and Exorcists around us. They were… not in the best condition. Most of them were injured, and a small few were missing chunks of their body; some even missing limbs.

They had haphazardly wrapped their recently amputated limbs with medical wraps or torn pieces of fabric. Whatever they could get their hands on. However, they seemed different from when they first went in. I couldn’t really put my finger on it, but they definitely seemed more somber compared to the excited atmosphere from earlier.

It put into perspective just how lucky I was and how dangerous the dungeon we had just been in had been. And I had exited without any debilitating injury, too. Something that was looked at not too kindly based on the sideways glances I was receiving from five who had fought with me.

I ignored the glances easily, focusing more on what I needed to do now. Minamoto was planning to go and try to rescue Nishimuro and his men, but I was a little too weak to really make any sort of difference. Having a class would at least give me a larger cushion to help my friend.

Was it dumb to try and help? Oh, definitely. I was trying to talk myself out of my decision currently, but the way Yasuda and Wakao looked at me while they went around helping Minamoto grated my nerves. I knew I was susceptible to peer pressure. However, getting pressured to do drugs and getting pressured to join what seemed like a suicide mission to rescue supposedly trapped soldiers from a supernatural army led by a creature that made Minamoto stress how dangerous it was seemed like two very different things you could get pressured into. Only an idiot would get suckered into risking his life for people he didn’t know.

Of course, I was such an idiot. And being such an idiot, I had decided to join them with the plan to try and survive. Which was why I was currently looking over my [status] for the fiftieth time, stressing over every detail.

[True Name: N/A]

Name: David Wyatt

Life Rank: F-

[Stats]

Body: F-

Mind: G+

Soul: F

[Class: Class Advancement is in Progress…]

[Techniques: N/A]

[Skills]

G - [Presence Correction: The ability to correct everyone’s perception of you through Life Energy.]

F - [Mask of Flesh: The ability to copy the physical qualities of anyone by wearing their mask. Must first gain the essence of the person. Can only hold 10 masks. Unchangeable.]

I felt a lifting sense of accomplishment at my changes. Before my dungeon run I had been some weak grass loser, but now I was… slightly stronger than the average man. I think, at least. Minamoto seemed to expect me to know the average strength of people here, and I wasn’t sure what his standards of being weak and strong were now that I knew he was some kind of super-soul-tree man.

Still, I was a bit bummed that I didn’t gain any stats by killing the Face Stealer Centipede, and that was mainly because the previous boost to my stats seemed to occur at the same time as my Life Rank increase. There was definitely a correlation there. Something I needed to pay attention to next time… If I was lucky enough to have a next time, that is.

Ah, I should stop thinking negatively. I was definitely going to survive, and so was everyone. We’d probably go on to all fulfill our dreams later, too. There. My daily dose of positivity has been achieved.

In any case, activating class advancement was rather easy. All I needed to do was pull up my [status] and think hard about it. The rest was just following along with the odd system’s prompts.

[Choose a class. Beware that this choice is permanent. ]

Acolyte

Trickster - Amateur

Foot Soldier

Attendant - Offered

Yep. I was right. There was no way of knowing if these were good or not. I looked around, trying to see if Minamoto was free in order to throw some questions at him. It took me a minute to find the man hovering over a man writhing on the floor. Some vines seemed to be wrapping around the man’s misshapen arm, and I winced as I heard a loud crack as the vines forced it into the correct orientation. A shiver traveled down my spine at the sight.

“Mister David,” I spun as I found a man smiling my way. It took me a minute to jog the memory of who he was, but I found his short, black hair and sharper features familiar. The single sword at his waist was the final bit of information I needed to remember him. “It’s good to see you alive and well. I am glad one of us made it in one piece.”

“Matsu… mura. You’re-” I paused, staring at the stump that was his left arm. There were tightly wrapped white bandages all along the man’s mangled bicep. His arm seemed to have been torn off just above this elbow, leading to an awkward nub that hung from his shoulder. Most of the bandages were stained red, and seemed to have been changed recently.

The wounded man waved the stump at me, wincing with the movement. “Ow, that was a bad idea…” he smiled at my worry. “Don’t look at me like that. This isn’t that bad, trust me. I am a righty anyways. Even my friends back home always told me to lose some weight during training.”

“That’s certainly one way to look at it...” I said, forcing myself to smile. The whole conversation seemed forced. Stilted, as Matsumura tried not to put too much thought on his lost arm. He joked about it, but I could tell it was eating him up inside.

My own situation before coming here had been along the same vein. How one problem of your own seemed to force you to abandon your hopes. How a single mistake ruined your life.

“Do you want to help me pick my class?” I offered. Even now I was running away, but that didn’t mean that ignoring your problems wasn’t one way to cope.

Matsumura perked up at my words, and I caught his eyes checking the two swords on my hip. Both were the ones from Yasuda and Wakao who refused to take them back, saying they were better used to protect me. “I’m surprised you got your first class advancement so quickly. I feel proud. It’s almost like I raised you myself.”

I shook my head at his words. “Thanks for your help, by the way. Your sword saved me quite a bit.”

“...I’m glad it helped you.” His smile seemed a bit strained, and I felt like I just rammed my foot into a door. Damnit, my worst enemy, social interaction, strikes once again. For a second, I considered using [Presence Correction] in the hopes that it could salvage the conversation, but Matsumura just patted me on the shoulder with his right hand. “Right, what classes can you get? I bet you have some pretty good options considering you fulfilled your conditions through a dungeon.”

I briefly listed the ones that showed up on my screen, carefully watching his face as I said each. The second and fourth ones were the only ones he seemed to react to. Much to my dread, he flinched at the first one and had his eyes bulge almost right out of his sockets for the last one. Great. What is it now?

“Are there problems with some?”

“It’s not that. I am just surprised, you know. Your Trickster class seems like a unique class; probably because of whatever skills you have. As for your Attendant class that is… a little awkward to talk about.”

I looked at him oddly. He seemed to avoid meeting my eyes, and I could only half-heartedly glare at him. “What does that class mean?”

“Well… I *cough* *cough* I don’t have much of an idea of the specifics, but the Attendant class is normally offered by a god who has taken a liking to you, but they don’t really want another Priest class. Instead, it’s seen more as a position as a um, courtesan.”

“That doesn’t sound that ba… a what?”

Matsumura looked away. “A courtesan. Um, a prosti-”

“I know what it is, but I’m more confused about the how than the why right now.”

“I’m not too sure, either. All I was told was that you shared some emotions with some god to get the class in the first place. I’m as lost as you are… though, I support you, mister David. Plenty of people have had this class before. I am sure your love will surely be appreciated by the goddess who offered the class to you.”

“I am gonna stop you right there.” I held up my hand, feeling a headache coming on. Seriously, what the fuck is going on? I shared emotions with a god before? When? “Seriously, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Let’s talk-”

I felt the Shikigami around my neck fail as my Life Energy flowing through it finally ripped it apart. The Google translate, or the Translation Shikigami, Minamoto had given me was something that lasted for much longer than normal because it was apparently very easy to accomplish. This meant that the artificial channels took a phenomenally long time to be ripped apart by the different Life Energy flowing through them. However, despite it’s long lasting qualities, there was still a limit.

It was just my luck that I stopped hearing things in English after it broke. Matsumura was talking in front of me, but all I heard was something in Japanese. He was definitely misunderstanding something. I took a moment to realize I was somehow in a misunderstanding comedy… This was hell.

As quickly as I could, I took out another Translation Shikigami from my pant’s pocket. Minamoto had made sure to give me hundreds of them, stating that they would help me until I learned the language. Of course, the fact that real-time translation magic was supposedly extremely easy was glossed over easily.

With an easy application of Life Energy, Matsumura’s voice trailed back into my ears. He was going on some tangent, and I began to get the idea that the guy did that often. I ignored him, clearing my throat to grab his attention.

“Hey, let’s drop it. I am not even going to pick that class. I don’t even know which god offered it anyways. Who knows if they are some weirdo.”

[Amaterasu is offended by your words]

I pursed my lips. Well, that answered many questions.

“Anyways, what about the unique one? Unique is always good, right?”

“Not necessarily.” Matsumura said, shaking his head before explaining. “I am only going to repeat what they taught us in the army, but normally unique classes can be formed from three different conditions,” he held up three fingers and began tapping them with each example. “A special weapon, a technique, or specific skill combinations. Those classes can be good, but they force you down the specific path that is useless unless you want to focus on whatever it was that gave you that unique class. In my opinion, it would be good to skip this early unique class as it probably only provides bonuses to the skill you just got.”

I rubbed my chin. Matsumura had a point. The other two classes were known, and I could probably easily get through the class advancement conditions of ones that were known. Accepting something unknown held a risk right now. Experimenting could bring about victory just as much as it could get me killed.

The only question now was: was I willing to bet on my luck?

“Pick the Acolyte.” I jumped as I found Minamoto behind me. Jesus man, how the hell are you so quiet?

I coughed. There went my idea to bet on luck. Minamoto hadn’t given me a reason to not trust him, even if his actual body was some soul tree or whatever. I trusted the man enough to bet on whatever he said. I was just worried about his aversion to anything to do with gods. “Isn’t that class a precursor to a Priest class?”

Minamoto smiled, shaking his head. “My dislike is with the gods themselves. My dislike for their followers is based on their own character. Besides, your soul stat has always been your highest stat. The Priest classline is the one that is associated with large bonuses to the soul stat, which is most beneficial to you right now. Hopefully, it will let you use your mask a bit better, too.”

“It can do that?” I asked rhetorically. The soul stat just seemed so obscure, and while I knew there was more to stats in general, it didn’t make understanding them easier. Honestly, it felt that the stronger I got the more questions I would have.

“My apologies for intruding, Exorcist of the Sleeping Forest. I didn’t know you wanted to guide, mister David.” Matsumura got out of his confusion of the old Exorcist’s appearance, bowing to Minamoto.

Minamoto waved noncommittally. “Do not worry about that. We need all the strength we can get, and besides, you did a good job of explaining things to the ever curious mister David.”

I felt my cheeks grow hot with embarrassment. Did it really seem like that? I forced my cheeks to not turn pink and quickly picked the Acolyte class. Minamoto had already given his reasons for me to pick it, and he had even personally suggested it. There really was no reason to hesitate now.

[Class picked “Acolyte.” A necessary bond with a god is required for this class. Choose from the gods offering their powers]

Amatsu Mikaboshi

Amaterasu

David Wyatt

I looked through my options. Then, I paused and reread them. After the third time, I realized that I wasn’t hallucinating. This… what did this mean?

“Is something wrong?” Minamoto asked, seeing me with a look of confusion. I could only wryly smile at the old man. How did I even begin to explain this? Or more accurately, how should I explain it to Minamoto? The man was obviously against gods in general, and according to the screen in front of me, I was apparently some type of god.

Okay… let’s brainstorm this real quick. How was this possible? Gods were essentially beings who lived in a world outside of the one I am in, but all that meant was that they were aliens compared to the inhabitants of this world. Then, myself, who is essentially from a different world, is an alien in a similar vein as a god. It seemed like a stretch, but really, I couldn't think of any explanation that fit. After all, being a so-called "god" didn't mean you needed to be omnipotent. At least, I was the opposite of omnipotence. Still, I didn’t have an idea about what that entailed, my existence became a little more sensitive.

With a bit of apprehension, I picked my own name. There was no way I was choosing a god who offered me a job as an Attendant while the other one was just suspicious. Both options weren’t as good as myself.

I gave a soft chuckle as my class settled in. It turned out that the title of Gaijin was rather appropriate for me.