Well, I guess that sheds some light on her class; [Virtuoso], I thought. She has the [Identify] skill for sure.

“Having the [Identify] skill is cool and all, but I am not interested if that’s all you could help with” I said “Everyone would know about my (Legendary) class when the rankings get updated anyway”.

She laughed loudly, bringing her hand towards her face to hide her exposed teeth.

“You’re rather knowledgeable” she said as her pace increased, she didn’t seem to have much difficulty keeping up with me.

She took a deep breath, her gaze seemed focused.

“My class is kind of unique, it only has a single class skill [Mimic]” she said “It allows me to basically copy all the Class Skills of a person, provided that his class is (common), or (uncommon)”.

It seemed rather overpowered, I tried to open my mouth to comment, but she interrupted me.

“It may seem like a powerful class, but it has many drawbacks. I can do anything, yet I’ll never master a single thing.” her gaze seemed distant and even sad for a moment, as if she was lost in her memories. “I can only use [Mimic] once a day due to its cooldown, and both the current and the maximum levels of the skills that I receive get halved. The resulting level gets rounded up in case of a decimal number”.

She closed her mouth and looked at me for a while, waiting for a reply.

“Considering that you have the [Identify] skill, I assume you copied it from Marla” I said.

Not a bad choice, I thought.

“That’s true” she seemed impressed with my level of knowledge, “It may seem like a counter-intuitive decision, someone might say that I should’ve copied one of the offensive classes. However, currently I lacked any information to make objective inferences. Thus, my priority was to search for information, and a [Scribe] seemed like the best candidate among my possible choices”. She kept nodding lightly as she talked, seemingly pleased with her reasoning and decisions.

“It seems that you know what you’re doing. Why are you bothering me?” I was ready to leave. She could certainly be very helpful, especially outside of the tutorial later.

The thing is, I didn’t trust her at all.

She bit her lip for a moment, and then a look of determination filled her eyes.

“I am not sure if you know, but one of the skills I got today is [Contract]” she said, “Check this out”.

-Another Host is offering a contract proposal, would you like to display it?

[Yes]

[No]

I decided to give her a chance. I am a flexible person, and this may be worth it, I thought.

[Contract]

Proposed by: Petra Lehmann

-This contract extends until the end of the tutorial.

-Petra Lehmann is not allowed to break the contract on her own accord.

-Jason Stubbs is allowed to break free from the contract, if he informs Petra Lehmann at least a day prior.

-Petra Lehmann doesn’t have the right to decline Jason Stubbs’ orders, if they’re within her capacity, and if they don’t involve inappropriate actions.

-Jason Stubbs has no obligation to answer any of Petra Lehmann’s requests.

-Both contractors are to help each other to the best of their ability, if the situation is dire and the person in danger didn’t cause the situation indirectly, willingly.

-The relationship between the contractors is to remain strictly professional.

-The contract can be extended if both contractors are satisfied with it.

[Agree]

[Decline]

It seemed rather advantageous for me; this wasn’t how Petra acted in my past life.

“What would happen to the one who defies any of those clauses” I inquired.

“He’d get banned from using the System” she said, her expression was as serious as it was before giving me the contract.

I inhaled deeply. Where I come from, we called this ‘too good to be true’, I thought.

“Stay still”, I said “I’ll be back in a couple of moments”. I sprinted for about four hundred meters in a random direction, because I needed solitude for my next actions.

“Hey system, I’d like to buy some information” I said, the usual shop window. I quickly asked for three pieces of information; whether [Scribes] could break out of contracts forcefully, detailed information on the [Virtuoso] class, whether it allowed the breaking of contracts, and whether the contract proposed by Petra Lehmann had any hidden clauses, whether truly invisible due to illusions, or just exploitable loopholes.

The information cost a total of one hundred points, but I knew that I was asking for advanced information with my request.

Quickly, the system responded by showing four bluish windows.

-Scribes can’t break out of contracts on their own until they reach the D rank (level 75), which upgrades their class and gives them the class skill [Rule Bend].

-Using that skill is only possible under strict conditions, and successful usage comes with heavy backlash.

[Class: Virtuoso (Epic)

You’ve always been a talented kid, able to do all kinds of stuff without much difficulty. However, nothing was interesting enough, so you quickly lost your interest.

You went from being the object of envy to the target of ridicule. You decided to live life without trying hard, seeking pleasures.

Did they perhaps expect so much of you? You pretended not to care, but you secretly kept hoping, for a chance to present itself.

This Class is a memorial of a certain genius kid, who broke records for many competitions. Whether the subject of the contest was physical or mental prowess mattered little to him, his triumph was assured.

One day, he started losing interest in everything. Life was too easy, so he didn’t try much.

That kid managed to reach prominence after the system integration, by being the best Jack-of-all-trades!

His achievement was deemed Epic.

This Class was carefully balanced and optimized to assure some satisfaction.

-Each Level gives the host: 12 free stat points.

-Class skills learned through [Mimic] retain half their original level, rounding the number up in the presence of decimals.

-Class skills learned through [Mimic] can only reach half their maximum original level.

-Gained Two Class skills.

-Upgradable.

[Mimic]: (Epic)

Active

You have nothing that you can call your own; so, you decided to mimic the other kid!

Little did they know, that you were going to become so good from observation alone!

Hey, did you just start telling them that they were doing it all wrong?

-Variant 1: Allows the User to copy all the Class Skills of a targeted host.

(Conditions: Target’s Class must be (Common) or (Uncommon).)

(Mana cost: N/A)

(Cooldown: 24 hours)

[Speed-runner]: (Epic)

Passive

Whenever something interested you, you became obsessed with it!

Your learning speed became exponentially faster, until you burned out or became uninterested!

-Variant 1: Gained EXP is multiplied by 2x.

-Variant 2: Gained EXP is multiplied by 1.25x.

(Conditions: It has a 50% chance to activate the first variant, and 50% for the second variant. The coin is tossed once a day, at the same time you first gained this skill).

-The only way for a [Virtuoso] to break out of the contract on their own, is by using a class skill from another (Common) or (Uncommon) class.

-(Common) or (Uncommon) contract breaking Class Skills aren’t usually available until Hosts hit level 75.

-No concerning loopholes were detected.

That’s a useful class, I thought. She could take care of a lot of things later.

I came back to Petra; my pace was slow this time.

“I only agree to the contract under two conditions” I said, “First, I demand that you keep your silence concerning my skills and some weird things you may see. Second, I’d like for you to add an anti-lying clause to the contract”.

Her face lost all color at my second condition, she tried to say something, but I interrupted her.

“Don’t worry, you could abstain from answering if the answer is personal or difficult to say.” I said, smirking this time “I am pretty sure you have another skill, besides [Mimic]”.

She looked startled, but she nodded nonetheless.

“Fine, if those are your only conditions.” she said “Then, I guess we have a deal?”

She moved her hand forward after she was done speaking, as if she was waiting for a handshake.

I shook her hand. I clicked [Agree] on the status window, which took some of my mana.

“Just don’t expect me to baby sit you” I said “I’d only help if it’s not hindering me in any way”.

“Great!” she said as she raised her right fist in the air “Now we’re officially partners in crime!”

She instantly went back to her happy-go-lucky persona.

“Just drop the charade” I said “It’s disgusting, seeing your ‘act’ after knowing your true self”.

She nodded lightly. Her face seemed more neutral, even a bit sad, and her actions became more refined.

“Much Better.” I said “We’ll meet in the safe room, I suggest you focus on leveling up [Identify] for now. I’ll be back after a while”.

I gave her my twenty lesser mana stones, telling her to store them for now. Each of them was the size of a large grape. she struggled trying to put them all in her pockets, so she held the rest by rolling up her shirt.

I still lack the necessary funds for my money-making scheme, I thought. It’ll be highly profitable if the plan works.

She looked at the small purple gems with wide eyes for a while, then she went back to the safe room without a word.

It’s rather impressive how she could converse with a naked guy normally, yet she finds mana stones astonishing, I thought.

Am I just unimpressive down there? I didn’t let the doubt seep into my heart, as I focused on more concerning matters.

I decided to finish another dungeon and call it a day.

I closed my eyes and tried to imagine a certain location; it was somewhat barren. There was a huge hole in the ground, but it was narrower than the one from the earlier dungeon.

I activated [Zoom] and teleported to the desired location.

Perfect, I thought. This skill has a very long cooldown but it’s working as I intended.

I looked at the ground. The hole had the same color as the one I saw earlier, shifting blue.

I approached it; a notification appeared as my hands came close to the hole.

Dungeon (Common)

Creature Variety: Undead

Requirements: Rank F

(Under Level 25)

Clears: 0/10

Of the three common dungeons available in the first phase of the tutorial, this one is the hardest! The enemies may be vulnerable to both physical and magical attacks, but you never know if they’re gone for good!

-Most regular enemies have low levels.

-Healing spells cause damage to the enemies.

-Death spells have no effect on the enemies.

Warning: It’s advised that you tackle this dungeon slowly, by battling the regular enemies.

Warning: It’s advised that you don’t engage the [Boss] monster at all, it won’t attack Hosts unless provoked.

Warning: Death in this dungeon will cause the Host to become a mindless undead for 24 hours. The experience can cause permanent psychological damage.

This will be my primary money-maker for a while, I thought. I am sure my ‘colleagues’ would pay a lot to be able to clear this dungeon at least once.

Clearing the Undead dungeon usually meant either the Host was very strong, or made many allies in the tutorial. The guilds would offer higher pay to the ones who managed to do it, the people with common classes desperately needed all the resources that they could gather to survive outside the tutorial.

-Would you like to enter? […]

Warning: as there is no one in your immediate surroundings, you’ll enter alone. It’s advised that parties of at least six people, or four including a host with a Healing Class, enter together.

I opened my status screen, only to see that I had 18 remaining stats points. I found my low HP to be somewhat concerning for what I was about to do, so I invested 15 points in VIT and left the remaining three points.

The maximum HP became 200, and the regeneration rate improved a bit.

I felt ready, only to notice that I didn’t have any clothes on me, except for my crown and cape. I shrugged my shoulders at the situation. I have to be the first one to clear this dungeon, in the whole tutorial, I thought.

“Confirm Entry to the dungeon” I said.