8 Becoming a Warrior

[System prompt: Congratulations player Seven, you have gained a level, you have obtained 1 free stat point]

[System prompt: Congratulations on reaching level 5, all stats +1]

In New Earth, every 5 levels represented a milestone, upon reaching a new milestone, players were rewarded with better stats.

Li Wei followed the militia and eventually reached the barracks. The militia told Li Wei to wait for a few minutes, he disappeared and reappeared a few minutes later. He brought Li Wei to an office and knocked at the door before leaving.

-"Enter"

....

An hour later

-"I understand the situation, but from now you need to be careful. The Red Bandits won't let you off so easily, even if you only killed some minor characters. It is best if you cooperate with us."

-"Isn't that equivalent of using me as a bait? I am way too weak right now "

-"Fine, I know how adventurers work, what do you want? Just say it !"

Li Wei looked at the Commander and smiled, he sent a meaningful glance and said :"I would feel much safer if I had a full set of equipment..."

-"... ... ...Fine.. you can have a set of militia's gear. We do have some in the reserve. Here take the crystal"

Li Wei's interrogation was very short, it could not even be called one since the commander already knew that it was true judging from his report of the corpses found outside the town. The only reason he called Li Wei was to set up a plan.

He knew that the Red Bandits would look for revenge, so he planned to use Li Wei as bait to capture some of them alive to find their hideout.

[System prompt: You have obtained the quest "Bait the Red Bandits"]

[Information]

Go out of town adventuring and use the communication crystal as soon as you detect the presence of Red Bandits.

Rewards: ???

Li Wei gladly accepted the quest, even without the rewards, he was already able to get a set of militia's equipment and the militia would also protect him from the Red Bandits.

-"By the way, since I am already at the barracks, may I request a class change? I would like to become a warrior"

-"Oh, you want to be a warrior? You would normally have to come back tomorrow but since you agreed to help us, I will do an exception."

The commander stood up and took something from a chest. "Here use it, place it on your forehead," said the commander while giving Li Wei a red crystal.

Li Wei quickly obeyed, the crystal flashed and disappeared, seconds later the system prompt came up:

[System prompt: You have obtained the class "Warrior", Strength +1, Dexterity +1, Vitality +1]

Players would obtain bonus stat points in their most important attributes upon choosing a class, that was to put more differences between the different classes:

Paladins would get 2 Vitality and 1 Strength

Priests would get 2 Wisdom and 1 Intelligence

Mages would get 2 Intelligence and 1 Wisdom

Rangers would get 2 Dexterity and 1 Intelligence

Rogues would get 2 Dexterity and 1 Strength

[System prompt: Congratulations player Seven for receiving your first class, you are awarded 5 golds]

The 5 golds were basically gifts to the players. It was like giving them the opportunity to purchase a good weapon and start to play the game for real. Not everyone could already hunt during the early stages like Li Wei.

[System prompt: You have received the skills "Strengthen" and "Cleave"]

[Strengthen(level 0)]

Increases the user's strength by 2 for 30 seconds

Mana cost: 20

Cooldown time: 5 minutes

[Cleave(level 0)]

Violently strikes a target with a weapon, Damage +10

Mana cost: 10

Cooldown time: 10 seconds

These were the 2 skills obtained by warriors upon choosing the class. All classes had 2 skills given, one offensive and the other as a utility. As for the level of the skills, it could be increased by repeatedly using the skills.

Li Wei character's stats were now :

Name: Seven

Race: Human

Level: 5 (19/2500)

Class: Warrior

Title: None

HP: 80/80

MP: 60/60

Strength : 11(-2)

Dexterity : 12(-2)

Vitality :8(-1)

Intelligence: 6

Wisdom: 7

Stat Points available : 0

Skills : [Cleave], [Strengthen]

Fatigue: 78%

The obtained free point upon leveling was added to Strength, from the fight with the bandits, Li Wei judged that he had enough dexterity now since he was able to dodge and parry the attacks of the 2 thugs simultaneously.

The fatigue level was very high, Li Wei barely had time to rest between fights in the Northern Forest, he then had to rush back to the town only to be ambushed and have to fight again. The "-1" and "-2" next to the stats were the consequence of the fatigue, once players reach 50% fatigue, it started to affect their stats and it generally took more than 1 day to clear that much fatigue.

Having accepted the quest, Li Wei left the barracks and returned to the inn. It was already 8:14, shops already closed down so Li Wei would have to sell his loot the next day.

It was the first time Li Wei was walking in the town at night. It looked like the nightlife there wasn't too bad. Taverns and restaurants of the main street were booming with people, there was also a night market in an adjacent street where many players gathered. Li Wei even saw a group of players recruiting other players to their party to go hunt at night.

Li Wei ignored all that and went straight to the inn, he was still carrying the 2 bags and needed to leave them in his room.

...

"Wow, you are coming late today, I thought something happened to you", the innkeeper saw Li Wei entering and directly greeted him.

"Yes... Something happened but no biggies... Here, I have a bag full of meat."

The innkeeper took the bag of meat and tactfully remained silent, such quantity was abnormal but she did not ask where he got it from.

"I am so hungry, can I get some food, please. Also, do you know of any way to quickly reduce fatigue ?"

-"The fire is already off but I'll reheat something for you in a minute. As for fatigue, besides sleeping and eating, there are several items that can help with that. To begin with, you can upgrade your room or order higher quality meals, they are more effective against fatigue but that will, of course, cost you more"

She smiled and added "But it should not be a problem for you, you are rich now, I can tell just by looking at the size of the bag of meat. I'll do the count and pay you tomorrow", before disappearing into the kitchen

Li Wei thought for a while, it was true that he had some money now, and already had a set of equipment, if he wanted to be strong, he should not be stingy towards himself.

When the lady came back with a hot meal, Li Wei readily asked to change to a High-class room where he could recover 10% more fatigue per nights when sleeping.

....

The next day,

-"You woke up late today... Here's the money for the meat of yesterday"

[System prompt, You have completed the quest "Collect Meat(Repeatable)", You have obtained 79 silvers and 825 exp]

-"Yes... the new room was very good but my fatigue level is still at 14%"

-"There's nothing I can do about that, here's your breakfast"

Li Wei quietly took his plate and started eating, even though the fatigue recovery was better than usual, there were still some left. Li Wei did not dare leave the town as he would be at risk of an attack of the Red Bandit, he wanted to be at his peak condition when fighting them so today he decided to stay in the town and do some errands, it was better than nothing.

Li Wei first went to a tailor shop to sell his furs. He also took the occasion to modify his belt to accommodate the throwing needles. Li Wei then went to another shop to purchase a second storage bag. Players would never have enough inventory, even with an additional item slot per level, it was not enough considering the large variety of resources one could collect. The bag was of higher quality than the first, it cost 3 golds, but provided 6 storage spaces. It was important to note that players were limited with the number of storage bags they could hold, they could have a lot but only 2 would be in effect, so now Li Wei had 23 item slots.

After that, Li Wei went around town, he went to the quest board to find if there were any interesting quests. On it, he found a wanted post labeled "Soron, leader of Red Bandits", since he was a potential enemy, Li Wei carefully studied the post, the man was apparently a level 10 warrior and could be considered a boss.

Li Wei continued to wander around town, he discovered that there was actually a library on the main street. Many books could be found there about various topics, but the most interesting ones were about the monsters, if players took time to read them, they could actually already get the information about the different monsters available near the town and the best tactics to defeat them...

Li Wei also learned that there was a one-man dungeon available, the Tower of Heroes. It was actually at the training center, one could choose to access the dungeon for 1 silver, it was actually a series of one vs one fights against NPCs, there was a total of 15 floors and the actual record right now was the 7th floor. Since Li Wei's fatigue wasn't completely cleared, he planned on going there this afternoon to gain some experience, it was a good opportunity to learn about the other classes.

Li Wei then went to Carlos' Blacksmith shop, he now had some money and might as well upgrade his weapons. He had to basic daggers and one sword, the sword was as follows

[Basic Sword](Grade 0)

Damage: 3-5

-"Welcome customer... ohh it's you, how do you find the needles ?"

-"Hello, they are very good, but I already lost 2 of them, could I get some replacements? I am also looking for new equipment, the budget is 5 golds"

-"I see, losing them is normal, I already prepared some in advance. For the weapons. I see that you already have a sword and daggers since you are now a warrior, I recommend getting a shield, there are many styles of warriors but a sword and a shield are common among warriors." said Carlos while taking out a shield from behind the counter, "3 gold"

[Round shield]

Damage: -10 (when blocked)

-"I'll take it, add in a pickaxe, I'll go to the western mines tomorrow to start gathering the ores."

-"Finally, I thought I would have to wait a year before getting the ores. The mines are dangerous though, so be careful"

After having obtained the pickaxe and the shield, Li Wei left the shop and bought something at the market for lunch. He then went to the training center.

-"Hello customer, what are you looking for ?" a beautiful receptionist greeted Li Wei.

-"Hello, I would like to challenge the Tower of Heroes, here is 1 silver."

-"Got it, according to your level, you may skip the first 4 floors, do you wish to do so?"

-"No, I will start from the 1st floor, thank you."

-"Then please follow me"

Li Wei decided to fight from the 1st floor because it was an opportunity to get used to the shield, he would also get used to fighting other humans, so far he mostly fought monsters.

Li Wei followed the receptionist into a long corridor and approached a small hall with a large wooden door. On the top of the door was the leaderboard :

(1) Skywalker(Rogue) : 7th floor

(2) Moonlight Shadow(Warrior): 7th floor

(3) Forgotten Child(Warrior) : 6th floor

(4) I AM HUNGRY(Paladin): 6th floor

(5) Wild Cat(Ranger): 6th floor

(6) Weird Name(Mage) : 5th floor

....

It looked like many players have already challenged the Tower of Heroes, conquering the 7th floor was very impressive, considering that the player with the highest level in Little Root Town, Skywalker was only level 6. The level of the enemy one had to fight was equal to the floor's number, so the rogue had to fight someone one level above him.

In the hall, there was also a bunch of players walking towards the exit

-"Grmmm, I only hit the 5th floor, that mage was so annoying..."

-"Don't tell me, I lost on the 4th floor"

The receptionist led Li Wei to the front of the door.

-"This is the entry to the Tower of Heroes, please proceed forward, I cannot bring you any further"

"Thank you," said Li Wei, and he directly approached the door. He touched the door and a dim light surrounded Li Wei, seconds later he vanished from the hall.