Chapter 13: Classe

Apophis opened the class menu and looked at his choices. Though he was pretty certain of which class he would choose, he gave the list a read anyway. Perhaps it would be fun to play another class this time around.

Warrior: Specializes in the use of melee weapons. Broad equipment choices allow for high versatility and survivability. Main stats: Agility & Strength.

Boxer: Fights using martial arts and other unarmed Skills. Huge crowd control potential, as well as the ability to bypass many common defenses against swords and guns. Main stats: Strength.

Sniper: Only uses ranged weapons. Can unleash devastating attacks when given enough preparation time, but this can be difficult without the support of allies. Main stats: Dexterity

Esper: Draws upon psychic powers to control the elements and manipulate the laws of physics. A very difficult class, but with enormous late-game potential. Main stats: Intelligence & Energy.

Engineer: Uses mechanical knowledge to craft robotic pets, armor, and other gadgets. Can create a huge advantage before a fight begins, but can't easily recover if inventions are destroyed during a long fight. Main stats: Intelligence & Energy.

Hunter: Summons powerful war beasts and wields a variety of ranged weapons. Learns a variety of supplemental Skills to help it survive in the wilderness. Main stats: Dexterity.

After giving the list some careful thought, Apophis realized that it would be best to choose his old life's class, after all. He was deeply familiar with it... and also had a few powerful Skill Books to support it.

He clicked on "Esper"

System: Congratulations on choosing the "Esper" class!

With that, the leveling up process was complete.

System: Next available race evolution: LvL 10.

Now Apophis had 5 Skill Points which he could spend on the Esper Talent Tree. Later, if he had many more Skill Points, he could also use them to upgrade Skills he learned from Esper Skill Books.

The ability lists on each class's Talent Tree was huge, especially for Espers, and his list would grow larger as Apophis's Intelligence stat grew. He could eventually specialize in DPS, healing, or support abilities.

However, the most useful abilities for the early game were available right away, and Apophis would likely spend most of his Skill Points in the first few branches of the Talent Tree, unless he found special items later which could exploit the benefits of more situational Skills.

In Apophis's original life, the complexity of the Esper's Talent Tree made it one of the least-played classes, but Apophis had come to understand it very well over his nine years in the game.

All that experience led him to his first decision: putting all 5 Skill Points into ~Firebending~ from the Pyrokinesis Branch of the Esper Talent Tree.

This Skill would allow Apophis to use flames to attack his enemies, which would be considerably more effective than either shooting them with weak guns or punching them.

But at the moment, ~Firebending~ was fairly weak.

In the future, he could improve the Skill as much as he wanted, since there was no cap on the number of Skill Points one could put into a single Skill.

If he felt like it, Apophis could put 100 Skill Points into ~Firebending~ and wield the power of the sun in the palm of his hand.

In addition, gaining other Skills from the Esper Talent Tree would unlock synergies between them, increasing his overall power.

The system was extremely flexible, and the combinations a player could create were almost endless.

Once he'd learned ~Firebending~ Apophis immediately read the skill book for ~Chaos Flame~ the book he'd looted from the Zetark lab.

Not only did ~Chaos Flame~ grant a 100% bonus to all fire damage he dealt, but it gave his skills a unique appearance, as well. Crimson-pink flames burst from the palm of his hand and into the sky of the Gobi Desert.

The light illuminated a pack of coyotes, casting dark shadows from their bodies as they turned towards Apophis's location on top of the hill.

Perhaps drawn by the light, they took off towards Apophis at a run. Before he'd leveled up, this number of coyotes would have meant certain death.

But things were different now.

Apophis hurled a long wave of crimson flames at the closest coyote! The poor creature screamed in pain before collapsing.

System: [Gobi Desert Coyote] killed. Gain 143 EXP.

Wow, double damage was really nothing to laugh at! Apophis was elated. Thanks to completing that quest in the temple, he was far more powerful than a normal LvL 5 player would be.

The rest of the coyotes scattered in terror at the contemptuous way Apophis had killed their leader, and Apophis laughed as they fled.

Then he picked up his motorcycle and continued on his way to the Zetark military bunker whose location he'd learned from the books in the lab.

***

Capital of the Republic of Tyo

The situation with the invading Eternals was becoming untenable for the Republican government.

Refugees were pouring in from all over the planet to the capital, and there was simply not enough space for everyone, nor enough resources. The President was quickly running out of ways to deal with the situation.

Currently, Eternals were estimated to have killed thirty-five million people... but there was also a famine arising from disruption of global supply chains. Several dozen cities had already fallen to the Eternals as the Army of the Republic of Tyo failed to maintain order.

But the President had received some good news from the Federation of United Planets.

They were sending him an army.

The six days it would take them to arrive worried him, but the President knew that there was still plenty of time before the Republic of Tyo irreversibly collapsed.

Once this horrible situation was over, perhaps then the President could get some sleep.