Defiance of the Fall Chapter 24: Class

Chapter 24: Class

Zac was slowly moving through the forest. Since the demon blew himself up he had been stealthily roving around the vicinity of the camp. The illusion array blocked sound to a certain degree, but he was afraid that the explosion would have bled through the protection and alerted other demons.

However, he had been moving around the camp in expanding circles for two hours now, and had seen no sight of any more of the demons. While he had been scouting hed also taken the ti to properly bury the two other demons. It wasnt to properly honor the dead, but rather to avoid the bodies getting discovered.

Finally satisfied that he had caught a lucky break and still wasnt found out, he returned to the camp.

He spent so ti cleaning up the camp. So of the loot from the demons unfortunately been destroyed by the explosion. He hadnt expected his captive to go nuclear as soon as he woke up, so Zac had simply thrown the gear down in a pile not far from him.

The bags seed to have contained so vials which Zac supposed were either healing tinctures or poisons. The bags where still whole, but the vials hade cracked. Inside was a ss of the different mixtures glass shards, and Zac certainly didnt want to rummage through it now.

The males leather armor was ruined, but the female demons suit underneath seed intact. But most important was the weapon that Azzun had been carrying.

It was a one handed battle axe. It was much longer than his hatchet, reaching roughly 80cm. The head was single-headed, but with a sharp spike sticking out on the other side, perhaps for balance. The edge itself was a half-moon over 30 cm long. Zac tried the edge with his thumb, and was surprised to see that he imdiately started bleeding.

It was hard for a normal kitchen knife to cut his skin now without so effort, which showed just how deadly his new weapon was.

The handle was black and it appeared that it had so fractals carved onto them. However these fractals sohow seed far more rudintary compared to the ones on the array flags. Finally a strip of so unknown beast hide had been used to create a handle.

This clearly was a weapon for war, rather than a tool as his hatchet. If he had this thing during his fight with the Herald he might even have been able to kill it off with the initial charge.

Zac tried using [Eye of Discernnt] on the weapon as the axe seed to be sowhat related to the system with the pattern on the handle. However, it gave no response. Either the skill couldn't show information about items, or items didn't work like that. He had a feeling it was a problem with the skill, as it was by far the cheapest skill that Nexus Coins could buy. It would be odd if it was too versatile.

Apart from this, he had scrounged up a hooked sword, a couple of knives and various bracers and shin guards. There might be sothing else in the bags, but he would wait until the ss dried out. He didn't really care for the sword and left it to the side, but was delighted with the small knives. They were small and straight with edges on both sides of the blade, giving them excellent balance. He felt they were used for throwing and battle rather than skinning animals and the like.

They would be a great addition to his arsenal, as he was sorely lacking any ranged attack. Every ti he wanted to kill an imp he had to hurl his axe on it or a bunch of rocks. But this would be a deadly alternative which didn't force him to throw away his main weapon. He already practiced throwing rocks and the axe for so ti every day, and swapping to daggers shouldn't be too large an adjustnt.

After going through the gear he finally couldnt wait any longer, and approached the Nexus Node. It was ti for him to get a class, no matter if it was the right choice or not. He pressed his palm against the smooth surface of the crystal, and ntally tried to access the class system.

A new box appeared in his vision with multiple rows.

[Top 5 Class choices]

[Warrior

F Grade, Common. Fledgling combatant. Proficient with lee weaponry. Upgradeable.]

[Acolyte

F Grade, Common. Fledgling wielder of the elents. Initial proficiency with elental magic. Upgradeable.]

[Marine

F Grade, Uncommon. Lowest Ranked naval combatant. Proficient with battles at sea. Upgradeable.]

[Demon Hunter

F Grade, Uncommon. Having dedicated his life for the eradication of the Demonic Race, the Demon Hunter has attained a high proficiency in locating and eradicating anything of demonic nature. Upgradeable.]

[Hatchetman

F Grade, Rare. Their army is an endless forest and Im the lumberjack. Upgradeable.]

[Random F-Grade Class. 92.9% Common. 5.0% Uncommon. 2.0 % Rare. 0.1% Epic. Roll the dice.]

That was all the information Zac could get out of the system. He tried to get a more in depth explanation with ntal commands such as Details and Info, but the short excerpt was all he could go on.

The first thing he noticed that classes did not seem equal. All five choices did have the sa grade, F- Grade, so it seed everyone started at the sa grade. They did however have different rarities, ranging from common to rare in his case.

He did not know how large a difference there was between the rarities, but he could only assu that a higher rarity class would be stronger than a low rarity one.

The second thing he noticed that all the classes were upgradeable. That likely ant that he could get stronger classes in the future, but they would be based on the class he chose now. It might be secondary classes or it might be possible to change classes, but he had no information about this. He therefore had to make the choice under the assumption that his choice would influence his future trajectory to a large degree.

The third was that the available choices seed to be at least partly based on his accomplishnts.

The marine class was likely available because he was situated near an ocean. The Demon Hunter class ca from killing demonic creatures non-stop since the System arrived.

He was not sure about the Hatchetman class, but he had used a lumberjacks hatchet for almost all his kills, so he assud it might be based on that. But it was a combat class going by the description, rather than a woodworking class.

The last choice was a gamble. Even an Epic class was available, albeit only at a 0.1% chance. His luck stat might influence those odds, but it was unclear how. If each luck point increased his chance to get the Epic class by 1 point he wouldnt hesitate. He would roll the dice in a heartbeat. But he doubted it would be that easy, so he felt no need to use this option.

He already had a rare and two uncommon classes to choose from, so he had no reason to gamble. Besides, there might be classes that didnt help him in combat. What if he got a Rare Painter class from gambling? While it might be nice learning a new skill, it would not help him on the island.

He would therefore definitely choose one of the available classes.

First he eliminated Warrior. It seed quite basic, and it felt like most other choices were better. Next he eliminated both Marine and Demon Hunter. He didnt like the prospect of limited boosts. He had no aspirations to live out the rest of the life on the high seas, so a water-centric class did not make sense to him.

He also didnt want to spend his life hunting demons. The Demon Hunter class might very well be the strongest class for him right now, as there still were demons infesting the whole island. However, either he or the demons would be gone in two months, so it didnt make sense to pick this class either.

Abby had told him that the Multi-verse consisted of myriad classes. This ant that it wasn't like hell's gates had opened and the universe was being invaded by demons. They were just one of many potential enemies in the vast multi-verse. So even if he survived, he did not know if there were any other demons on Earth apart from in this particular incursion. Wouldnt that an he essentially crippled himself by choosing a class that could only help him for the first few months?

Finally, it was an uncommon class. While it was better compared to the warrior and acolyte class, it was worse than the Rare class.

That left Acolyte and Hatchetman. Truth be told, he felt that Acolyte was the most intriguing. He did like the prospect of mastering the elents and firing fireballs and lightning bolts at his surroundings.

However, he felt there were drawbacks as well. For one he had no idea if he actually was able to learn spells just from getting the class. What if the basic spells normally were sothing you got in the tutorial? Also, he had invested most of his stats so far into physical attributes, which might be wasted on this class.

The only reason he could imagine he got this kind of class to choose was that he had gotten quite a bit of intelligence and wisdom from his titles. But he almost drooled at the aspect of upgrading the class until he beca a grand magus, who could burn the sky with a sweep of his hand.

But most importantly it was only a common class. It felt like it was sothing that almost anyone could get in the future. Getting a common class when he had rare classes to choose from felt like wasting the advantage that his past month had provided him.

The system rewarded the brave and intrepid. The rare class seed to be the rewards for risking his life every day against the demons.

Of course, Hatchetman sounded a bit stupid, to be honest. The connotation of the word from his professional career was anything but positive, but he felt that it had a sowhat different aning here.

It seed that it sohow referred to being a warrior lumberjack from the description. While not exciting, it did, however, check out a few of his boxes. The class probably would be very beneficial if he used his newly acquired axe in battle.

Out of all the choices, it also seed to be the most tailored for his battle style. It also was the only Rare choice. He did not know how much better each rarity was compared to the one before, but perhaps the difference would be even greater compared to the conditional boost the Demon Hunter class would give against his current enemies.

The drawback was that he couldnt quite imagine what the upgrade path would be. Next upgrade was a stronger lumberjack? A walking sawmill? A corporate shark doing hostile takeovers and selling companies for scraps?

So one of the choices seed to be able to help him less now. But it might end up with him becoming a great wizard. He had always played mage classes when playing gas, so this was quite enticing. It was however only a common class.

The other choice seed to be more suited to his stats and direct power, but lead into an unknown future.

After a long hesitation he finally said good bye to the dream of arcane dominance, and chose the box marked [Hatchetman].