Congratulations. You have completed the Class trials. Please, pick your starting class. Based on the results of your trails new starting classes have been unlocked. Your basic stats will be adjusted based on the class you choose.

As soon as the message faded, there were hundreds of faces staring at him. Which all promptly flinched, just as Marlow did. There were all of them, each in their own unique way.

Most wore heavy armor, and massive weapons. Others have little to no clothing, but were bound with muscle. Some, even rarely, had intricate robes ordained with wands, staffs, floating orbs, and one even had spirits or ghosts orbiting around him. Or was it himself.

As he spun around trying to spot each and every class, one in particular grabbed his attention. Of course being surrounded by lions, tigers, and bears, was nothing to gawk at. Noticing this the game pulled it forward, with all the other classes becoming a muted gray.

Beast Tamer (Trash): The Beast Tamer, a minor subclass of tamer, mainly relies on his or her creatures both in and out of combat. They, unlike their original class, can also choose how they want their creatures to grow. Such as focusing it to grow in one aspect of itself, becoming mounts, local field bosses, or given enough time their creatures can even become raid bosses. So long as they are able to tame them of course and keep them alive that long. Another downside is that the Beast tamer can only have ten skills and five spells at any given time. The Beast Tamer begins with three skills at the novice rank when entering the game and gains two characteristic points every level and a new class skill every third level. Recommended Stats: Strength, Constitution, and Charisma.

You gain three characteristics per even level. Profession unlocks at level five. You have four characteristic points to spend. Please note that your starting characteristic points have been modified due to your: trials, real life capabilities, and class selection. Please allocate your remaining points now.

Marlow looked over he’s character sheet, which filled his vision. And just to be safe he read the tooltips on each and every stat, to see what they did. Strength was the stat that was related to how hard he could hit and lift heavy objects. Dexterity was how nimble and how good he would be at using ranged weapons and sleight of hand. Constitution was how healthy he was, including both stamina and resistance to poison and disease. It included his appearance and how likely he would be tossed around at higher levels, very good for tanks, warriors, and in his case dealing with animals.

Intelligence determined his maximum mana he could have and understand complicated concepts. As for Wisdom, it is determined how fast mana regenerated, as well as helping him determine if he should do something, it would also help him combine various concepts working in tandem with intelligence to make new and improved methods. Charisma was of course how charismatic he was such as; how likely he was to get good prices at stores, shops, and tarvens, or convincing people to follow or do things for him.

Luck determines everything on an unstated level along with his chances of finding hidden loot without looking for it. Karmic luck just had ‘???’ by it. Then there was perception, it was how well he could focus and spot detail including scenery input aka how much he would feel pain. After rereading the page for the fifth time a new pop up happened.

Growth in Eternium is hard when you are doing nothing. Unlike other systems each day will be a struggle to survive. Especially at the start of your journey, because of this your rewards will certainly be worth it. Since this system is a little unorthodox please note that a modifier of one is a normal adult healthy human.

Each point allocated will increase your modifier by one hundredth of a point, an exception to this is when you reach ten points in any category. At this point that category will increase to one point one in that category moving forward each point moves to fifty the base core will increase by one your modifier will be two at one hundred points it will be plus three. An example of a character with a category of one point four nine, which is forty nine present stronger than the average human. Then if they reach fifty points in that category they will jump to a modifier of two points oh.

The discrepancy in strength is intended to push you as fast as possible. You can earn skill points and characteristic points through your actions, so work hard! You need to be as powerful as possible when the first update comes into play. That is, if you want to survive.

Well then that explains the confusing point system, glancing back and forth between his character sheet, it then suddenly clicked for Marlow. Oh! That explains so much! Finally being able to understand what his character sheet is saying.

Strength- 12 modifier (1.02)

Dexterity- 8 modifier (0.80)

Constitution- 14 modifier (1.04)

Intelligence- 6 modifier (0.60)

Wisdom- 12 modifier (1.02)

Charisma- 8 modifier (0.80)

Perception- 10 modifier (1.00)

Luck- 18 modifier (1.08)

Karmic luck- 0

Upon looking at his character sheet with greater understanding, Marlow of course became very worried.

“AHHH! But I got out of the way when the boulder was rolling. That has to count for something! No wonder I have such a hard time understanding things, my intelligence was put at a whopping six!!!”

Long forgotten wheels began to turn in Marlow’s head. Mainly old phrases that he heard in passing such as; ‘It’s not all bad, you’ll make it someday’, ‘Just think of all the fun things you can do in summer school’, or ‘It's ok, that’s just a number it doesn’t mean anything’. Well no longer would that be the case if he could do something about it he would. He dumped his four remaining points into intelligence. As he did so he felt as though a great burden was lifted from his head.

After assigning his last point the game politely asked him to input a name. Since he was going to be in this game until humanity was able to reclaim the world, might as well go with something he was used to, Marlow. It was accepted. Apparently it wasn’t taken yet, with everybody joining the game it wasn’t chosen sweet!

Name: Marlow

Class: Beast Tamer

Profession: Locked

Character Level: 1

Experience: 0

Points until next level: 1,000

Hit Points: 90 (50+Constitution*10 for every point over ten)

Mana: Locked

Mana reg: Locked

Stamina: 50 (50+Strength*5 for every point over ten+Dexterity*5 for every point over ten)

Strength- 12 modifier (1.02)

Dexterity- 8 modifier (0.08)

Constitution- 14 modifier (1.04)

Intelligence- 10 modifier (1.00)

Wisdom- 12 modifier (1.02)

Charisma- 8 modifier (0.08)

Perception- 10 modifier (1.00)

Luck- 18 modifier (1.08)

Karmic luck- 0

Current class skills and spells:

Tame (Novice I): When trying to tame a creature into joining your cause, you gain 1n% to add 1n to their tame rank of taming them, where n = skill level.

Tracking (Novice I): Staring deeply into a footprint, overturned rock, or any other traceable evidence, you gain 1n%, where n = skill level, when tracking their current path it will dimly highlight the area that they just passed through. Cool down 5 minutes between uses.

Environmental Awareness (Novice I): When you are in a familiar or unfamiliar environment, you gain 1n% where n = skill level, when using your surroundings to their fullest.

Note general skills such as: Bartering, Scan, Jogging can not be learned while this class is active. You can still use general skills to some degree, but you personally will never be as good as someone with that particular skill.

He did have one skill point to spend, but could delay that until the second level when he would know better what it could do. Then a popup informed him that most skills and spells could be leveled up, but would almost always start at novice and get progressively better as they used. When the level passed nine it would upgrade to zero of the next rank. From lowest to highest the ranks of skills where; Novice, Beginner, Apprentice, Student, Journeyman, Expert, Master Grandmaster, and Sage. Wow, it would take a long time to perfect a skill.

After rereading over his new class, Marlow got excited. If he could get his hands on a dragon or even a phoenix early on he would definitely be making bank when it came to xp. Then he could blaze through levels!

Not to mention he could later hand out other beasts to other people! Since games forced you to pay through the nose to get cool familiars or mounts, he could just sell beasts to them and force them to pay him instead! It looked like this class would be weak without supporting creatures, but there was probably a pet store so that would be fixed early on.

Taking one last look at the avatar that represented his new class, he pressed the ‘yes’ button. As he did so the world faded into motes of light, he felt a falling sensation before reappearing in a mob of flesh.

Materializing into the Eternium was very, stuffy. Not in a ‘Oh my goodness, can you please open a window.’ It was more like fitting twenty people in an elevator kind of stuffy. Trying to get out of this mob, Marlow began edging his way forward, it was very hard since everyone was all packed together like sardines in a can. Oof, I think someone just jabbed me in the ribs.

This continued for hours; Jabbing, wiggling, getting crunched, losing one or two hit points fairly often, and when he did finally get into an open clearing a man with what looked like rubbery skin transformed his hands into dinosaur heads which promptly began biting whoever was closest. He noped out of there faster than a kid leaving school. Backing into the crowd it was.

Minutes later Marlow squeezed through two heavy armored men and there was a small clearing with a bit more elbow room. Finally being able to stand still and take it all in was so refreshing. Taking in a deep breath to get a feeling of this new world that he would be living in until earth was reclaimable, Marlow immediately gagged.

“Oh my, the air was so, humf, I think I’m gonna hurl.” Bending down he tried to throw up, but could not. Must be the game trying to keep the world nice and tidy, that or because I’ve eaten nothing yet. Speaking of food his stomach immediately growled, loudly.

Then he felt something wiggle in my pocket, did someone have their hand in my pocket, glancing down there was indeed a hand in his pocket. Following the unwelcome arm up towards the would-be thief. I saw a sight I would never forget. A very beautiful, pretty, maiden with almond skin, the most greenest eyes you could ever imagine, wearing a forest green cloak that could have been pulled from the trash for all he cared, and a knife that was in her belt just a moment ago. Stab, Stab, Stab.

You have died, Calculating… Being In a safe zone, along with no relations to any organizations, ... your minimum respawn time will be two and a half hours. No experience lost. Please be more careful with who you choose to associate with in the future.

Ouch that really hurt! It felt like he was actually stabbed, which to be fair he was. But still in other games it was a dull ache. Slowly rubbing his aching tummy, I glanced around the room. It was a white room with a bed, a computer monitor with a mouse and keyboard along the wall, and against the other one was a swirling portal with a countdown timer. All and all not a bad place for a respawn room.

With nothing else much to do might as well surf the web. For the most part he watched live feeds on what was happening. As he watched the gigantic monster rise out of the oceans and stomp, swarm over, or in some cases burn the coastal cities to the ground, he felt like this was all some sort of dream one that he couldn’t awake from. He knew that it was only a matter of time until they made their way inland, towards the neighborhood. He then knew that he had to carve out a new home for his family and friends.

Getting up, filled with determination. He walked through the portal, a single second after the timer even flipped down to zero. Stepping into the chilling night of Eternium, he was able to stop himself from getting trampled by a charging horse. Resting after that brief jump scare uncomfortably on the cobble road he got his first notification.

New title gained: Risky (upgrable): Wow. That was a close call But it worked out for you Effect: Having this title show will increase your rewards by 5% but also increase your chance of failure by 5%. Try not to do that again

Please Note that all title effects are active at the same time, though the title you have equipped will be the only one seen when with analysis abilities. You can only have ten at any given time , however if you have more than ten one will be removed at random.

Would you like to have ‘Risky’ as your active title? Yes/No

“Yes, please,” Marlow blurted out. Which got him a few odd glances, though he didn’t notice since he realized how powerful this title made him, combined with his already high luck stat nearly everything would soon be coming up Marlow. It was time to get some quests.

Spinning around looking for the iconic yellow exclamation point floating above the head of a quest giver, Marlow saw no one. Figuring that since it was night time most quest givers were most likely asleep, might as well get a good lay of the land.

Hours later Marlow was pretty sure of three things. One: this city was massive, two: every tavern in said city was packed, and three: the farther out you went from the town square the weirder it got. Earlier he had seen a library refusing to let people in. Now that he was thinking about it, other shops were refusing to let customers in too.

As he pondered this predicament he continued to wander around town. He eventually stumbled upon a burnt down tavern, untrammeled upon by anyone, he wondered what happened here?

The neighborhood he had just entered had a giant building that changed colors every minute or so, almost always going back to purple. No one came near this building in fact, partially because the guards were not too kindly keeping the streets empty. That along with the small detail of the guardsmen’s weapons were glowing illuminating the thin fog curling around the cobbles.

He continued to walk with his head down hoping that the guards wouldn’t question his motives for walking about late at night.

“Well then, I suppose you won’t join us. I guess you can just pay up then.” came a muffled voice around the corner. Followed shortly by a very meaty thwack and the sound of cloth being ruffled. “Ooh, looky here boys, seems as though little witchy has been holding out on us”

Peering around the corner Marlow saw two burly men holding up a small woman in a knock off witch outfit with a very pointy hat, while the third person in a dark green cloak rifled through an even smaller satchel.

The tiny Witch began shouting profanities and kicking at the third figure something along the lines of ‘how dare you go through an alchemist's bag let, alone a soon to be supreme alchemist, ‘I’ll hex you until you're no longer a human’ and after another wack ended with a cry for help. “If you want it to stop, all you have to do is pledge your loyalty to the Hardcores.”

Slinging back around the corner, Marlow pondered this new information. “If this was their recruitment plan, it sucked. Their PR guy must be having a fit, that is if they even had a public relations guy.” He muttered, picking up a nearby rock tossing it up to test its weight.

“Remember, Marlow, you must assert your dominance, if you can't do that then how will you inspire people to stand up for themselves and hopefully give them hope!” He quoted from a book he loved, turning the corner, throwing the rock and pelting one of the thugs in the lower leg after a skip or two.

“HEY, PLEASE, LEAVE HER ALONE!” He shouted and almost immediately regretted that he hadn’t seen them too well in the dark, however the shining metal of the daggers covering couldn’t be mistaken for anything else at that moment.

“OH, well. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be on my way then.” He nodded and began to sprint back the way he came. Only, after hearing ‘get him’ from behind him did he truly begin to run for his life.

Ducking and bumping into walls as he ran was the only thing that would help him escape these burly men. His lungs and feet burned, but he had to keep moving. These were burly men, not your average skinny boy pretending to be tough.

Crash! Oops, looks like he better not be thinking right now! Leaping onto a nearby barrel he crawled over the nearby fence which was immediately smashed and one of them charged through the flimsy wall.

Doubling back he went down a different alleyway only to be narrowly missed as the fence smasher turned the corner and continued his charge. Hugging the wall the second man also easily dodged his alley blind run. Holding his arm up he threw a dagger missing Marlow’s face by the nearest of inches.

Giving a very high pitched yell he ran, taking every turn available to him, until his stamina bar dropped to zero. His leg began to burn as overwork muscles began to complain. Pushing through the pain Marlow still ran on leaving the thugs standing at the head of the street he had just run down.

“What should we do, now?”

“Tell Lilith, we kill the unlucky gormless block, after all this alley will do the work for us anyways.” said the much taller thug to his fence smashing friend.

Marlow was currently in a place called ‘Misla Stree yo sh lev NW’ said a sign hanging by a single link of chain by a rotting post. Though if you removed egos of dirt and rust it would have read ‘Mislay, mad magic, Street. You should leave NOW!’ However, since Marlow read ‘Misla Stree yo sh lev NW’ and not ‘Mislay, mad magic, Street. he thought ‘yo sh lev NW’ was just a street address.

The old timey medieval look was growing on him, even the ever looming shadows. One of the first things that tipped him off that things were not as it seemed was that there were no lights in any of the windows or in the lamp posts. Brushing it off since the lamp man hadn’t gotten to this street yet he continued on, even against his instincts which told him to turn around and walk away. The second thing that gave him pause was the unusual fog, which had begun creeping out from the; doors, windows, and cracks in the cobblestone.

“Well, that’s not natural,” Marlow said to the fog in a very shaky voice. The fog being fog didn’t talk back, just continued to billow out into the open space. In a matter of seconds it covered the ground like a blanket of snow. It was so thick he couldn’t see his own shoes. Trying to swipe it away yielded nothing. The hair on his arms stood up, and might have walked away if they had legs.

The final thing that tipped Marlow over the edge that something was very wrong and he should get out of there was the dim pinkish glow coming from the baker's window. But as he stood there, watching the glow grow brighter bit by bit, he felt so relieved.

Like finally making it back home after a long and stressful day, and no matter what happened next you know you’d be safe because you were home. Being drawn to it, like a moth to a flame, he carelessly walked towards it. Not even hearing the sniffing that came from the nearby alley way.

Pushing the wooden door open into the chilly waiting room was unnerving. Along with letting himself in, the fog reached out like a flood pouring into a new space thinning out as it reached its ghostly hands in. Not to mention that the glow was coming from the kitchen and not the waiting room like he had thought. With each step the floor bored groaned with discomfort.

Reaching the kitchen gave him a fairly bland sight. You had your pot n pans, knives, dried out herbs, flour, salt n pepper, but the one thing which he had unknowingly came for was the pinkish glowing egg resting peacefully in a thach basket. He reached out a hand and rested it on the softly glowing egg, and immediately whipped it back.

“Ow!” Shaking it about he tried to get sensation back into it. That egg had numbed his entire hand. Gentle reaching his arm he poked the opal egg. “Ouch!” It certainly hurt less this time, it felt like he was being drained through his finger tips, even his arm had become a bit numb too. Pulling his finger back he tried a new approach. He gently picked up the basket, thankfully the basket did not numb his fingers.

“No this won’t do.”

Setting the basket down, he searched the building coming back with a sack that could almost be called a backpack. He gently placed the basket with the egg rest in it inside the worn out backpack. He was a Beast Tamer after all and this egg might turn out to be some sort of legendary phoenix important to the world or such nonsense. Then if he took good care of it, it should take good care of him.

“That is if it is even a beast that could be tamed.”

Marlow muttered to himself, as he tied his ‘new’ dusty backpack shut. Taking one last look around the abandoned baker’s shop before leaving the too quiet shop and closing the door. The fog meanwhile had only grown, which was now caressing his knee. Tick, tick, tick, came the skittering of claws on stone. “Hello?”