“Let me tell you first. It has worked out for me a lot ok?” Jason looked at the dwarf with a placating smile on his face.

“Get on with it lad.” Jason winced at Baghric’s grunt. Jason eyed the dwarf who was standing there, arms crossed in expectation.

“Alright… I’m doing a Luck build.” Jason closed his eyes ready for an onslaught of insults. After a few moments he looked at Baghric only to find him standing there glowering and tapping his toe.

“Well lad I need specifics. Keep in mind that it’s very rude ta ask about someone’s stats and talents, but I need ta get ye settled in te guild and ta do that I need to know where ye’d fit,” Baghric glared at Jason. “So. Tell. Me.”

“My uhh… my luck stat is 35 right now,” an intake of breath at that. “My talent is Touch of a Gambler. My skills are Lodenstone of Chance rank three, Well of Fortune rank two, Aura of Misfortune rank one, Unnatural Endurance rank two, and Unnatural Speed rank two. My class is called Blessed One.” At that last statement Baghric grumbled even more furiously than he yelled at the academy.

“Lad I forgive ye for this because yer new obviously to te system and have never been taught better. But abyss laddie could ye not have chosen a skillset with a higher chance of survival. Going all in on luck is bad enough but te also take te Cursed One class. Oh abyss how’re we gonna get ye to survive to get to te second bottleneck.”

Baghric rubbed his face with his hands and sighed. When he let his hands fall his shoulders slumped with them and his face sagged slightly. He looked tired. So, so tired. Then he looked at Jason and sighed once more.

“Let me tell ye bout the Cursed Ones or te Blessed Ones as tey like to call temselves,” Baghric straightened himself and gained back the youth he had lost for a minute there. “They go all in on luck expecting tings just to fall into ter laps. Luck don’t work like that. Not exactly at least. They don’t really understand that they're trading so much for so little. In the long run it’ll be worth it, but only two out of te millions of people who chose this route ‘ave ever made it to te part where it’s worth it.”

“No laddie. Most of ‘em die in te first twenty levels. Ye see to level up once ye become a Blessed One you ‘aveta go and experience extreme luck. Of te good or bad variety. Ye earn experience like that. Ye also earn experience from skills. Yet if ye only get experience from skills and not luck then ye just wasted yer class. I know some who’ve done that and made it past the level 24 bottleneck, but the new classes tey got ta choose from were just te basic classes again. Instead of advanced ones.”

“Ye now will ‘aveta go into dangerous places laddie. Just to get some experience that others would spend a day in the city getting. Frankly if ye survive past level 25 ten yer still not safe. Ye ‘aveta get all te way to level fifty or sixty before I’d consider ye to actually ‘ave made that class ye picked worth it. Te Blessed Ones are te Cursed Ones to everyone else. I think ye can see why with how low te chance of survival is.” Baghric stopped talking and just looked at Jason. Jason’s mind was going a thousand kilometers per hour thinking about all this new information.

So for one I’m joining a guild. That’s amazing and awesome, but how am I gonna form a party? Do I get a party? Will anyone want to party? What is the academy? What are these bottlenecks that he’s talking about? He said that the guild would teach me but what exactly are they going to teach me and can I ask for more lessons about specific things if I’m confused? How the hell did I accidentally pick a class which will almost certainly get me killed? How do I even understand him? How’s he speaking english?

Some of the thoughts were new and some were old thoughts being repeated for the hundredth time. Jason in all honesty wasn’t that bothered about the survival rate. He could see by his stats why they so frequently died. There’s such a large chance of a random event occurring and yet the stat for goodluck was so low it might as well be a fifty fifty chance as to if the event is good or bad. I still don’t know if that is a daily thing or what the number is out of. Maybe I should ask--

“There’s one good thing laddie.” Jason perked up and stared at Baghric when he said this.

“What is it?”

“Ye’ve already broken past the first threshold in a stat.”

“Threshold?” Jason didn’t remember a notification telling him about that.

“Ye noticed that yer luck stat jumped after getting past thirty points in it yes? Well that was a threshold. Every thirty points in a stat ye cross a new threshold and each point in te stat is worth more tan before. The fourth threshold goes all the way to 180 points in a stat and te one after that I’m not sure. No one has been past that threshold in history. At least no one who said anyting.”

That’s why my luck percentages jumped so much. I thought it was just a late application of some class bonus or something. But no it’s just that I stacked into luck. Neat. Jason was about to say something when Baghric just kept talking.

“As for ye skills and talents. Well good choice on te Gambler. Improving two styles of skills faster is usually much better than improving one faster. Good job choosing te passive luck skills. It means that yer already soon going to get the good ones and fell outta te trap of expecting there to be luck active skills. Te runni---”

“Wait Baghric. There are luck active skills why’re you acting like there aren’t?” Jason was genuinely confused here. There was an active and a passive list for the luck skill tree and he had even checked the luck stats active skill list and there was nothing there. Baghric just snorted.

“I want ye to go to the luck stat skill tree me boy. I want ye to click active and tell me what ye see.” Jason did exactly as Baghric asked him.

“I see the tier one skill I unlocked. Then I see tier two and tier three and their experience costs,” Jason looked at Baghric not understanding what the odd dwarf was going on about.

“What’s missing lad?” Jason looked once more at the skill tree and realized something. There were no ellipses underneath tier three and it’s cost. Usually after unlocking the first tier of a skill tree tier four and it’s cost showed up and underneath that were ellipses. Jason just to check that went to the luck passive skill tree.

Tier 1

unlocked

Tier 2

unlocked

Tier 3

1,000 exp

Tier 4

10,000 exp

Tier 5

??

...

...

Yup there it is. Tier four and five, costs, and then ellipses showing that there are more tiers. Holy shit does the active luck skill tree only have three tiers. What about all the others?

“Baghric what about all the other tiers?”

“It’s luck boyo. Ye can’t train luck. Te only active skills it ‘as are one for taking luck from someone, one for taking luck from nature, and one for an aura that decimates everyone’s luck in the area round ye. Similar to ye Aura of Misfortune but much much worse.”

“Now te running skills were a necessity in yer situation. After all ye probably were constantly looking to escape that place. Aura of Misfortune was a good choice because giving enemies a boost during combat ain’t gonna be good for ye to say te least. I’ll help ye get some good skills later boyo. Skills more inclined to combat. If I’m gon get ye to survive with that cursed build o’ yers, ten yer gon need all te combat help ye can get. Now tell me how ye got in te system.”

This is where Baghric seemed genuinely interested. It seems like I did something actually pretty amazing by eating those torture fruits. Or at least rare. Jason explained to Baghric how he had come across some dead students and how on their bodies had been these weird blue fruits. He got so passionate about his explanation of the pain and what exactly had happened and why he ate them that he didn’t notice Baghric’s face growing more and more joyous.

At the end of it he found himself out of breath and unnerved by the memories of the fruit.

“HahahaHAHAHAHAHA HA! LADDIE!” Baghric shouted with as much subtlety as a cannon ball. “Ye sure got some spunk in ye. Ye ate those beast fruits eh. I like it! Whatever it takes to survive me boy. Whatever it takes! If yer body could take that ten I’ve no doubt that ye can at least survive past level 24. Afta that though well yer gonna need to show me ye ‘ave te resolve.” Baghric went to Jason’s side and gave him a slap on the back as he laughed. Jason stumbled forward a bit.

“Well laddie usually people sit in a dungeon protected by already initiated warriors. They'll absorb mana passively and actively until they reach the system’s requirement. I like yer way better. Ta abyss with patiently waiting! Ta abyss with safety! Yer gon eat ta mana and it’ll become part of ye whether it wants ta or not! HAHAHAHAHA!!” Baghric kept on laughing like a maniac.

I was sure he was a mage. Now though I’m leaning towards berserker. Are there berserkers? Probably. Maybe? I’ll ask later.

“I’d prefer to not have to do it again. I'll be honest.” Baghric slowly stopped laughing and looked at Jason. Jason could still see the amusement in his eyes.

“Oh laddie ye’ve already advanced past te first bottleneck. Now ye ‘ave ta do it again te same way each time.”

“Huh?” Baghric started howling with laughter.

“Ye ‘aveta eat more beast fruits sonny. Yers will be te most interesting breakthroughs in history I guarantee it.”

Baghric started walking again leaving Jason behind with a fear for his future and so many more questions. It was only after a minute or so that Jason jolted out of his reverie and saw Baghric in the distance head high to the sky and body shaking with laughter. Cursing the crazy dwarf in his mind Jason ran after him.