Chapter 52：Class

The two drunks stumbled towards the Classer's Hall. Kevin was still drinking as he walked, his mind now at a stage that he was spreading embarrassing secrets. Not about himself of course, rather about Rikkey. Stanis, even in his drunk state, wished that he could just plug his ears as he was forced to hear what no man should have to…

He knew that he could clear his intoxication at any time; he had checked to make sure of that when he had started drinking. All he had to do was revolve his mana and he would be fine, although he didn't feel the rush to do as he enjoyed his intoxicated state, his mind far more relaxed than usual. It wasn't meant to be a long walk but it turned out that stumbling wasn't the best type of transport, and so it was only after Kevin had thoroughly revealed everything about himself and Rikkey before Stanis finally got to escape his grasp.

The Classer's Hall was impressive, even more so since he was drunk. The linings of gold and silver seemed to be flowing rivers, the ferocious carvings of monsters realer-than-real as Stanis began to sweat bullets. The fear he felt instantly caused him to revolve his mana, clearing the intoxication within seconds. The sky was darker than black and yet the Classer's Hall still shone brightly, almost like a firefly in the night.

"Stahrrp it Rikkaii"

That was enough of a cue for Stanis to leave as he left the hopeless man lying on the ground, the door parting as he walked into the hall. The second he passed the boundary, Stanis could feel a wave of mana pass over him, most likely a sensor to make sure he was level 20.

It was like a whole another world inside, the decorations outside like a beggar next to a lord. There were carvings made out of precious-looking materials everywhere, the pillars filled to the brim with these, telling grand stories.

There was also statues and other decorations all over; he truly felt like he was walking through gold as he moved through the hall. It wasn't a particularly large hall, around 20 metres long, but each step he took, he found it harder to take another as his jaw only fell further. It felt like he was dragging his jaw across the floor as he reached the end, a pedestal the only thing awaiting him.

Not that this was some kind of plain pedestal, no, it was fit with more jewels than a person could wish to see in their entire life. Stanis began walking up the spiralling stairs. He eventually reached the top where lay just a plain slab of stone, two hand-shaped holes within the stone. Understanding the prompt, Stanis placed his hands into the holes, his fingers fitting snuggly.

[Stanis Volkov

Age: 18 years

Mana capacity: 59 (regeneration is capacity/4 per hour)

Level 27 (Progress to the next level is 92%)

Strength: 44 [35]

Dexterity: 46 [33]

Constitution: 47[34]

Intelligence: 40[26 -> 27]

Wisdom: 38[26]

Tenacity: 49[31 ->32]

Skills: Layman's Rush, Scout and Sense, Light Healing, Destructive Mana Recharge, Ice shot]

[You are currently being scanned.]

It was close to 30 seconds when the next message came.

[Your scan is finished. Choose one of the classes below:

- Origin

- Tyrant

- Aspiring Mage]

As Stanis had rushed to the Classer's Hall, he hadn't had the chance to ask anyone about what happened inside the Hall. If he had asked, he would have learnt that the system would give him three options to pick from: one that is based on combat ability and aspirations, one purely based on aspirations and another based purely on combat ability. Not knowing any of this, Stanis expanded the classes to see if there was anything that could catch his fancy.

[Origin – One who chases the origin.]

[Tyrant – One who has an obsession with power; a person who will do anything to take and remain in power.]

[Aspiring Mage – One who fights with spells but isn't in the possession of enough to be named a proper mage.]

There wasn't much information about any of the classes from the descriptions and thus Stanis was left to his own devices. From the sounds of their names, he was certain that Aspiring Mage was the worst of the classes, after all, it even had 'aspiring' before the class name.

As for Tyrant, the name itself was like a waking slap for him; it was like the world itself was telling him how obsessed he now was with power. Stanis noted this down in his heart, but even that didn't really lower his desire for the sweet honey.

And as for Origin, well… There was really nothing to it other than the fact it had a cool name. It had a grand name and all, but Stanis was iffy about it as it seemed to have little substance behind its mask.

Now, if Stanis hadn't gotten himself drunk and had instead asked others about classes, he would have had help making this decision. Some classes had titles before the actual class itself, such as aspiring mage, and the quality of that class depended on the title. In this given example, aspiring mage would be worse than a normal mage as they were only aspiring. Most people were given 2 classes with bad titles and thus usually chose the one without a title, whereas others were given 3 and forced to make a hard choice.

As for Tyrant, most people with a desire for power usually had tyrannous or megalomaniac as titles. But there was not a single person in the Village who had yet been offered Tyrant, although this needn't be purely based on his desire as much as a combination of that and his strength.

As for Origin, well, the others in the Village would have known as much as he now knew about it: nothing…

He pondered on the matter for about a minute, thinking about what each Class could open up for him. He knew from the time he had spent with Tanya weeks ago that Classes got special skills related to the class, which were the real allure behind Classes in the first place. Well, that and the stat boosts they could offer.

Stanis had already crossed out Aspiring Mage as its name was nearly not as grand as the other twos'. Now left with those two, he struggled to make a decision but eventually crossed Tyrant out. He didn't have a good feeling about it as its name gave him a bad image of what its related skills would be like…

"Origin"

He decided to make a leap into the dark as he loudly pronounced his choice, the system very quickly beginning the next stage.

Stanis was lifted off the small stage as the air itself began to push him up. He initially struggled but stopped trying after the fifth second as he realised this wasn't a power he could contest, instead opting to curiously watch his surroundings as he was raised higher and higher, eventually coming to rest metres above the centre of the hall.

Next came the painful part, barrages of mana pelting into Stanis. Luckily, or unluckily, Stanis found that his threshold of pain was far higher than the pain given as he remained awake through the whole ordeal, the missiles coming faster and faster as he began clenching his teeth and tightening his fists.

This went on for about 30 seconds in total. No other Classer would be able to tell him what would happen next as all of them had fainted by this point in the process. Stanis himself was only barely conscious as he saw harrowing wisps of mana appear in front of him. He was trained enough to the point that he was so sensitive to mana that he could almost feel it like a sixth sense, but he didn't need any of that to see these wisps…

They were simple balls of burning blue but the fact that they were visible even to the untrained eye made Stanis very scared very quickly, struggling with fervour as he saw the sources of his death drift closer.

"ARRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

A primal roar, one he had believed he would never scream again after leaving Yils's service, escaped his mouth, his head bent back as he lost all strength. Each wisp penetrated his body, his flesh so concentrated with mana that it began falling apart… It was pain unlike any other type, a whole new category of itself. He had already lost consciousness after the first wisp and thus wasn't awake to realise that his body was now just a skeleton floating in the air. And this wasn't even the end…

Time passed and Stanis's whole body fell apart, leaving nothing floating in the air. He was the nothing… And then the rebuilding took place, red coloured wisps appearing which began to solidify into the outline of his body.

All of this took place in about 2 minutes and thus Stanis very quickly awakened, shocked as he realised he was falling… The drop onto the floor wasn't that painful but he still clutched his head while roaring, his mind almost like it had just been torn apart.

His whole life flashed in front of his eyes within the following minutes, his screams eventually dying out as he became entranced by his own life story. It was only when the last scene had finished that he was shocked back to real life, at last realising that the movie he had just watched was one he himself had recorded.

His mind no longer hurt and so he forced himself up, noticing the pedestal at the end of the hall was now gone and thus walking towards the door. Opening the door wasn't much of a struggle but the wave of sound that followed was, the sound almost solid as it pushed him backwards. Fighting back, Stanis forced his feet and took his first step outside, lifting his head, only to notice hundreds of people cheering and chanting with fervour.

One person especially stood out, a large gap around her as she walked towards him. She was a woman with braided hair, her dark skin pasted with dry blood and a spear by her side…