Surviving as a Broken Hero

The thing’s skin was thin, and its bones were light enough to be crushed under his kicks. He felt some twinges around his heart, suppressed twinges of sympathy he felt for the rat-men. After all, they had been the ones to invade the home of the rat-men, had they not?

Mia faced off against the last rat-man, which had been splashed with less light than the rest and was pointing its sword at her in a hyper-focused state as they circled each other.

With Rodrig’s rat-man lying on the ground, he forced his already strained legs to run over as quickly as possible and did all he had the energy for—he braced himself and charged into the rat-man shoulder-first, sending its light body tumbling sideways. Its hand let go of its sword as it flailed about from the sudden, unexpected attack.

Mia, seizing the opportunity, rushed forward. She didn’t even bother with the jagged bone sword the rat-man had held as she jumped up and landed feet-first into its skull, which crunched like a snail shell underneath her boots.

“Hah…”

“Hahahahahaha!”

Maybe it was just the stress from the situation, but the two found themselves laughing together, their voices echoing out of the small dungeon as the boulder over the entrance rolled away and another message popped up before them.

Ting!

[[Dungeon Complete!

Reward: 100XP per person]]

They each received their own separate System messages shortly after that.

[[Engaging System]]

[[System Awakened!]

[[Congratulations on killing your first enemy!]]

[[Please select your class:

《Ritualist》

《KickWizard》

《Savior》]]

Rodrig looked over his messages, trying to dismiss them for the moment, as he first wanted to discuss the matter with Mia.

[[Initial Class Selection Cannot be Dismissed!

Please select your class!]]

‘Strangely insistent… Okay…’

“Mia, are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“Class selection options? Yeah. Is this like what the Hero had?”

“I’m not sure, but we should choose carefully. What do you have?”

After they found out that they could focus on a class to expand on it, they shared the details with each other as they thought about what would work best in their situation.

[[Ritualist – Rarity: C

Allows one to make use of complex rituals to customize magic to one’s liking.

Buffs to learning ability and problem-solving abilities.]]

[[KickWizard – Rarity: S

A unique class based on utilizing a series of kicking techniques with unique spellcasting and self-buffing techniques to dance around the battlefield, legs becoming instruments to change the world.

Buffs to mobility and perception.]]

[[Savior – Rarity: A

A rare class based around saving others through sacrifice of self. Pain perception becomes greatly reduced and even the mightiest of blows can be withstood without flinching.

Buffs to toughness and survival abilities.]]

Mia seemed keen that he pick the KickWizard class, but Rodrig had never really been the super fast or mobile type. He realized that it was perhaps his chance to change things around and become that type, but he decided against it in favor of something he was more comfortable with.

…Which also ended up ruling out the Savior class.

‘What kind of masochist would pick a class that basically requires them to get hurt?’

The System seemed to be encouraging him to choose all sorts of weird fighting options. Was it perverted somehow?

He shook the thought away. It was easy enough after that to select the Ritualist class, though he felt a tinge of regret that it had the lowest rarity.

‘Still, it can’t be bad, right?’

Mia watched him light up with a blue pillar of light before it faded and he stood there, looking no different.

“So…?”

He patted his body and looked at a System window only he could see.

“It says I have abilities of some sort now… I think I just have to…”

Rodrig brought his hand up and snapped, squinting at his fingertips as he concentrated and a flickering flame appeared.

She had to admit that, even though being able to summon fire was impressive, the flickering flame didn’t really leave her awestruck.

Still, she did her best to placate him.

“Wow! It’s like you’re one of the warriors from the tales now! Able to fling fireballs and stuff at the flick of a finger!”

He grinned and rubbed his head as the fireball vanished.

“It looks like my abilities are geared more towards setting things up and preparation anyway, so maybe I’ll be able to do a lot more after some experimentation? What did you decide on?”

Mia looked back at her own options.

[[《Assassin》

《Transposition Fighter》

《Trickster》]]

[[Assassin – Rarity: C

A rare class based on ambushing an unaware opponent and killing them before they can even react.

Buffs to mobility and perception abilities.]]

[[Transposition Fighter – Rarity: A

An extremely rare class based on becoming a master of all weapons, freely turning one weapon into another. A simple stick can become a mighty spear or a massive greatsword and wielded with absolute ease with but a thought.

Buffs to strength and endurance.]]

[[Trickster – Rarity: A

An extremely rare class based on becoming a positional master of the battlefield. Freely move without restriction and seemingly be in multiple places at once as you reposition instantly.

Buffs to spellcasting and mental calculation abilities.]]

Her own options, compared to the ones Rodrig had gotten, were harder for her to pick from.

She was able to rule out Assassin fairly easily, as it was both ranked the lowest and seemed kind of like a worse Trickster, but the choice between Transposition Fighter and Trickster was tough.

On the one hand, she really enjoyed the idea of never being defenseless and of having an element of surprise as a master of anything she picked up, but on the other hand, being able to move without restriction and be a sort of teleporting assassin was also greatly appealing.

In the end, after some thought, she picked the Transposition Fighter class, realizing that she would probably have to be tough enough to directly face enemies head-on if she and Rodrig were to fight again—especially seeing that Rodrig’s class apparently required a long time to properly set up effective spells.

Blue light engulfed her, and she was welcomed with the screen that Rodrig had been looking at, customized for her alone.

[[System

Name: Mia

Class: Transposition Fighter

Level: 1

XP: 100/1000

Mana: 300/300

STR: 14

END: 16

AGI: 14

PER: 12

MAG: 4

MANA: 18

Innate Skills:

《Transposition Fighter》

User gains high starting stats and additional choice of two +2 bonuses per level.

Current Bonus: +0

Active Skills:

«Transpose»

Allows the user to transpose materials and weapons they pick up into other materials and weapons at the cost of mana, increasing depending on how different the new material and shape is from the current one.

Cost: 25 Mana

Passive Skills:

«Master of Weapons»

Awakener is able to freely wield all weapons instinctively and with great skill.]]

Seeing her «Transpose» skill, Mia’s eyes locked onto the bone sword that had been left by the rat-man that Rodrig had charged into.

She picked up the sword and focused on it, willing it to «Transpose» into a metal sword of the same size with an even, sharp edge and a balanced weight.

[[Transposing Weapon…

Transpose Cost: 200 Mana

Cost of changing material: 100 mana.

Cost of changing structure: 50 mana.

Cost of changing quality: 50 mana.]]

The weapon was encased briefly in a shimmering blue light. The blue light then faded, revealing a dull, iron sword with a sharp edge that swung easily in her hand.

It appeared that the «Transpose» process wasn’t as easy as she had been hoping for.

She had originally been imagining wielding a weapon that freely changed forms as she fought, or of changing a stick into a majestic blade, but it would do for the moment. Plus, wouldn’t she be able to change the iron sword she had created and upgrade it over time as her mana refilled?

Rodrig also had to admit to himself that her ability seemed much cooler than his at a glance.

‘I wonder what kind of abilities KickWizard would have had…’

It was too late to change, and he still didn’t think he would even want to, but it for sure seemed like a flashier class. Though he was loath to admit it, flashier did look cooler.

[[System

Name: Rodrig

Class: Ritualist

Level: 1

XP: 100/1000

Mana: 100/100

STR: 8

END: 6

AGI: 10

PER: 12

MAG: 20

MANA: 10

Innate Skills:

《Ritualist》

User gains high starting MAG, able to cast spells from any class with enough preparation time.

User gains +1 bonus per level after 1 to MANA and MAG.

Current Bonus: +0

Active Skills:

«Ritual»

Allows the user to envision the spell they want, creating a blueprint of the spell shape and chant that the Ritualist will have to complete to cast their spell. Mana costs can vary depending on whether the Ritualist spends longer holding the spell before releasing.

Cost: ??? Mana.

Passive Skills:

«Master of Mana»

Awakener is able to freely shape their mana and elemental attribute.]]

It was the opposite of flashy, but it at least allowed him an unprecedented level of freedom based on what he wanted to do. If he thought about it, it was basically the ultimate utility class, was it not? He could heal, do damage, and even help allies and hinder enemies.

He looked at Mia, and they both seemed to have a similar thought as they grinned at each other.

What would they be able to do as they leveled up?

There was only one way to find out…