'"Really!?"" Both Ryu and Laurent instantly rose up from their respective seat as soon as they heard the announcement.

"Are you really sure about that, Honoka?" asked Laurent to the short orange-haired woman that's presently smiling very brightly.

"Yeah, there's no doubt that this was the requirement for a Druid Class, out of our 50 enlistees, 40 are able to advance to the Druid Apprentice this year with these methods," replied Honoka enthusiastically while handing out the report paper;

The study of 5th Class, Druid Apprentice:

Basic Idea:

Equality on three main stats. (Strength, Agility, and Intelligence) Balanced distribution on three out of four minor stats. (Resistance, Vitality, Perception, Mana) Minimum of a total of 45 free stats had been allocated.

Method:

A total of 50 enlistees would be divided into 5 batches, each containing 10 of the enlistee that would be guided on the Fire City Dungeon. Every batch would be observed by one instructor from Laurent Association. Based on the previous year's results, the first batch would distribute the stats as the following way; +10 on all of the main stats and +5 on all of the minor stats (total of 50 free stats) to determine if the basic idea was accurate or not. The second batch would distribute the stats as the following way; +10 on all of the main stats and +5 on all of the minor stats expect for Resistance (total of 45 free stats) to determinate the exact required stats. The third batch would distribute the stats as the following way; +10 on all of the main stats and +5 on all of the minor stats expect for Vitality (total of 45 free stats) to determine the exact required stats. The fourth batch would distribute the stats as the following way; +10 on all of the main stats and +5 on all of the minor stats expect for Perception (total of 45 free stats) to determine the exact required stats. The fifth batch would distribute the stats as the following way; +10 on all of the main stats and +5 on all of the minor stats expect for Mana (total of 45 free stats) to determine the exact required stats.

Results:

The first batch succeeds in becoming a Druid Apprentice. The second batch succeeds in becoming a Druid Apprentice. The third batch succeeds in becoming a Druid Apprentice. The fourth batch failed in becoming a Druid Apprentice. The fifth batch succeeds in becoming a Druid Apprentice.

Conclusion:

From the study, the stats required for advancing to the Druid Apprentice are as the following;

STR: 30 VIT: 15 AGI: 30 PER: 10 INT: 30 MANA: 15 RES: 15

The 3rd batch enlistee will soon follow a trail with the others when the related party leveled up once more.

"I guess it's another great leap for humanity." Hearing Ryu's comments, Laurent nodded in joy. To be exact, it's not only Laurent that's filled with this emotion, but all of his association members will also surely exalted when they heard the news.

How can they not? After all, it's another confirmed Class! Although the members can't become one, at least the future generation could take another option in choosing their Class.

Furthermore, it took them a whole 12 years to found the exact requirements for this new Class. So, of course, this fact exalted them even more.

Just as when Laurent wants to take out the champagne to celebrate this moment, Honoka quickly interjected, "Wait, hold your horses!"

"What? Was there anything wrong?" Toward the puzzled face, Honoka's smile began to grow even broader, "That's not the only good news that I've bought with me."

"There's still more!?" Ryu couldn't help but feel curious about the upcoming sentence that Honoka will deliver. Was the news will be on the same par as the previous one?

"Well, it's not a new Class, but a new Tier. Our first Druid Apprentice, Han, has advanced into Druid Class!" Placing another document on the table, Honoka then continued, "With that, the research regarding Druid Apprentice strength and weakness can be concluded in that paper."

Because Laurent hand still holding on the champagne bottle, this time, it's Ryu that read the report aloud.

Druid Apprentice Strength and Weakness (100% Completed)

Strengths:

Every time Druid Apprentice leveled-up, they gain a total of 22 stats. (7 which could be distributed freely like other Classes); In term of automatic stats allocation, Druid Apprentice was the most balanced one out of the 7 discovered basic Class; Could use all weapon category; Capable of doing tanking, offense, and support role; The Class could be considered the second strongest after Thief.

Weaknesses:

A high level of understanding and wisdom is needed to bring out Druid Apprentice full potential; Although it could take on all roles, it would always stop at a level of intermediate, not advance; Based on the 2nd point, it's hard for Druid Apprentice to focus solely on one type of role.

"This Class is really a jack of all trades," concluded Ryu as he placed back the report. Listening to this, Laurent redirected his gaze toward the sole woman in the room, "Honoka, did you already hand those out to the enlistee?"

Different from the information about the Basic Class report, this one is actually aimed for the Druid Apprentice candidates. Using this type of data, Laurent had hoped that the candidates would be able to grasp a better understanding regarding their own Class.

So, after confirming that Honoka had distributed them to the Druid Apprentice enlistee, Laurent quickly took three of the champagne glasses from the drawer before filling them up for a one-shot.

He then raised his glass, "For the association!"

Honoka also lifted her glass, "For the future!"

Ryu soon copied the motion, "For humanity!"

"""Cheers!!!""" Toasting with each other, they immediately gulped the white wine down to their throat in one go. After that event, Honoka had gone back to the institute building that's tasked for the research. Meanwhile, Laurent and Ryu still stayed inside the room as their matter wasn't done yet.

"So what's left is Cleric and Thief, huh," said Ryu as he took his seat.

"Yeah, both are problematic, we could take up to another twenty years to discover the exact requirement for them," spoke Laurent while messaging his temple. It wasn't really an overstatement when he said this, it's because the one that discovered the Cleric and Thief Classes are respectively at level 26 and 30 when they've entered the Chamber of Choices.

Chamber of Choices, it's a room that's located literally beside the Dungeon entrance, it was one of the most important sites as it's where people could advance their tier. It's named so because when an individual entered the chamber, they must choose an avatar of themself -which later called Class- to exit the place. In case the said individual doesn't have any choices shown at them, they could exit from the chamber right away.

Now, from here comes the problem, firstly for the Cleric Class, the related individual testified that he had allocated the free stats on both Int and Mana, which are actually the same requirement for Mage. The said person also said he had been shown Mage too, but he chose Cleric instead as he had never seen the type before.

Using that testimony for the basis, the research team arranged the stats estimation for the Cleric Class. Which when the first result is out, it was far from being satisfactory as 90% of the enlistee ended up into a Mage.

For the Thief Class, no one succeeds in becoming one even after they hit level 10. So, there's speculation that maybe for a Thief, it needed more than 50 free stats distribution.

Of course, not everyone agreed with the statement as it later caused a split in the study, one that firmly believes that the required level was just like another Class, and the other that thought that it could take a minimal level 15 to become a Thief. Because of this, the already sparse enlistee got divided again by two, slowing the research progress quite significantly. If it were set into a percentage, Cleric progress was advanced from 38% to 44% while Thief is still stuck at 8%.

Didn't want a further headache, Laurent decided to took another cigarette in his place, "Let's just trust Honoka on that one, she's really talented on that field after all."

"By the way..." Putting his cigarette on the ashtray, Laurent then moved back Ayano sculpture that's being switched from Dark City to Sea City before he smirked, "You thought I didn't notice it?"