Chapter 34: William Reaches Level 11.
That day was difficult for William. Joseph's words had confused him.
His words, implying that they were not the only survivors in the world and that the rest would fight to obtain resources and improve themselves, made him think incessantly.
He talked to everyone he could until evening and kept up good relations with people. Mick, Min-Jun, Kim, and Jason were all doing well. Eliza, Marcus, Edmond, and Pete were shouldering the military power of Hope City with Joseph.
They were training people to challenge the Open Dungeon. After that, they would fight the field bosses.
William could more or less estimate the power of the creature in the open dungeon with his current power, so he wasn't worried at all.
While everyone was busy training, he looked at them and thought to himself, "I can defeat that boss by myself."
And finally, evening came. Everyone William knew had gathered in the garden where the Ley crack was.
Today was the day William would evolve.
They were very curious about what kind of evolution he would undergo.
Especially Joseph. There was more anxiety than joy and happiness in his eyes.
They had undergone a normal evolution, and the rarest class they had encountered was one percent rare. But William's situation was different.
All of William's stats were maxed out! On top of that, he had 110 evolution points. This increased his anxiety. When he calculated the probabilities and considered the odds, William should have had a 0.1% chance of selecting a class.
He didn't know what kind of effects such classes would have. He was worried about whether it would be good or bad.
Still, he hoped for the best.
He hoped that William would become the best with this broken blessing. He had now removed himself and others like him from the equation.
If there was a future, it would be built on William's shoulders.
William took a deep breath and focused. After nodding to Joseph, he focused on "yes" on the system screen.
William suddenly saw an incredible information panel in front of him.
He counted all the classes suggested to him one by one. There were exactly 100 classes!
"What am I going to do with so many classes? Which one should I choose?"
William immediately looked at the classes one by one and ranked them according to their rarity. The least rare was a warrior class.
[Ley Cutter (%1)]
[Ley Cutter: Special fighters who combine sword techniques with Ley. They can charge Ley into their sword strikes. Ley +10%, Ley Control +10, Weapon Affinity Index +20, Physical Damage Substat Points +10]
[Ley Slash (Passive): Normal attacks are charged with Ley. (Increases Ley charging range, power, and penetration effects.)]
[Double Ley Strike (Active): Two swords attack simultaneously, glowing with Ley. The amount of Ley charged into one is copied to the other. (Ley-charged attacks grant Power +20%, Penetration +10%)]
William took a deep breath in astonishment. "Is even the lowest rarity this?"
"A class that allows Ley energy to be copied? That's broken in a word, and it's 1% rarity! How many classes are there in this universe?"
William continued to look at the classes. He examined the ones with interesting names.
[Shredder (0.5%)] It was a class based entirely on physical strength. It came with a new sub-stat, and the class's abilities were all related to shredding. It was very strange and incomprehensible.
"What will it be at level 21? Another evolution? If evolution is available again, will I choose a different class? If I choose a different class, will I have to mix two classes? Or will I evolve into a higher version of this class? There are so many questions and answers..."
The system did not leave him alone. He hadn't asked the system many questions lately, but at a time like this, receiving such answers to such questions made him happy and calmed his heart.
"Every ten levels, there is a chance to evolve in all classes. Evolving a second or third time in the same class depends on the rarity of the class and the level of its progenitor. If a class is chosen and there is no chance for that class to evolve a second time, you can continue with another class."
William's eyes widened. For a moment, he wanted to get out of this screen, out of this world where he had lost consciousness, and headbutt Joseph. They should have known that such a possibility existed.
"So what, if I choose a class with a 1% rarity and the progenitor of that class died at level 31, I will only be able to evolve 3 times at most???" William frowned.
Fortunately, the system's response was not long in coming.
"The scale of how far classes can go according to their rarity rate is shown below."
A table appeared before William's eyes, just like a statistics table.
[Rarity (%) Average Level Cap
10% 30
5% 40
1% 50
0.5-1% 60
0.1-0.5 70
0.01-0.1 80
0.001-0.01 90
????-???? ??
"Although this limit seems absolute, it is only a visible limit. A class can be moved to a higher level, and when a level higher than the progenitor is reached, the person becomes a 2nd Generation progenitor."
William nodded. "I see. So I can take a class to a higher level, but I guess that requires a lot of effort and talent."
William then continued to look down the list. He saw several classes with the potential to reach Level 90. To be honest, these classes caught his attention.
[Sword Saint (0.002%)]
[Twin Stars (0.01%)]
[Storm (0.004%)]
[Echo (0.001%)]
[Traveler (0.001%)]
[Breaker (0.001%)]
[Indomitable (0.001%)]
[Weaver (0.001%)]
William looked at these classes, and a single sentence crossed his mind.
"Damn it!"
William felt like crying. "How are these classes recommended to me? And why are they so rare?"
"Classes are recommended based on the user's physical characteristics, statistics, affinities, mental state, spiritual power, compatibility, and potential."
William shook his head at this notification. "Then how am I supposed to choose? I've read them all, and damn it, they're all so powerful!"
William shook his head. "I guess I have to choose based on where I want to go in the future. What do I want to do... What do I want to do..."
William thought for a long time, even thinking that hours had passed.
"I... I don't want to choose..." Then he remembered Lyra Solara, whom Joseph had mentioned. Her world had been destroyed. She had lost the war.
He thought of the people in the shelter.
His memories with his family... His past and, most importantly, his future in this world came to mind.
"I... could I be a progenitor?" The moment William thought this, all the names on the panel in front of him disappeared, and a new name appeared.
[Progenitor (0.0001%)]
"Um... Now what?" William focused and read what the progenitor had brought him.
[Progenitor: You are the progenitor of a class! Your passion is to create and develop a class! The class exists because of you, and if you are not there, you can find students to continue the class!]
William stared blankly at the screen, and after reading the progenitor's explanation, a question appeared in front of him.
"Do you want to go to the class creation screen? Y/N"
William chose 'no' and returned to the class selection screen. He breathed a sigh of relief. He was about to wet himself when he saw that all the other classes had disappeared. "If I don't like it, I can go back and choose a class."
The progenitor was now there, and this time it didn't appear later. It was always there. William selected the progenitor and answered yes to the question.
Then, a screen appeared in front of him, just like in the games.
The character screen! There was a three-dimensional image of a body similar to his own, and he could rotate and zoom in on this three-dimensional image with his thoughts.
Then there was a screen with main statistics points and sub-statistics points. All the points had '+' and '-' symbols on their edges.
But there was a problem. There were thousands of parameters! Thousands! Reading all of them with their explanations could take years.
William looked at the screen with all seriousness.
"Impossible?" Then he shook his head from side to side several times.
"DEFINITELY IMPOSSIBLE! THESE MAKE NO SENSE!"
William's eyes searched around, but he couldn't find what he was looking for. "How am I going to do the abilities? There's no explanation?"
William struggled, entered a few sub-statistics, and tried, but the result was the same. He couldn't select any abilities.
There was no ability screen. This left him with a big question. If he couldn't select abilities, what was the point of being the progenitor of a class?
Then he thought, "Maybe I'll create the abilities after I create the class? Are they expecting me to create abilities with a higher level of understanding? But how? How am I going to implant bonuses such as power and speed into these abilities? How... How..."
William had a lot of questions in his mind, and the system refused to answer him. It was as if it were silently watching from a corner.
"Is this a mind game?" William stared into space for a few seconds.
"Fuck it!" he said and started adjusting the parameters.
He looked at the points he had been given. The bonus points given as a percentage were 100. His normal stat points were also 100.
He immediately started making adjustments.
He had a class in mind. He would create the most deadly, most dangerous, most powerful class!
Balance, strength, speed, ley, perception, all would exist for him.
He chose five of the thousands of sub-statistics. All were for the creation of a versatile class.
After a while, William stopped.
"What am I doing? This isn't my path." No matter how powerful the class he created would be, it would not be as powerful or rare as the classes he could choose from.
He froze.
For a few minutes. Without thinking or doing anything. Because he couldn't do it, he couldn't take that last step. He couldn't create a new class.
A serious expression appeared on his face. "Can I create a new class at Level 21 or Level 31?"
The system's voice echoed in his head. It was just one word, but for William, it was enough to open thousands of doors at once.
"Yes."
William returned to the selection screen.
He looked at the classes. Among the hundred classes, there were five that could be considered broken.
[Traveler (0.001%)]
[Echo (0.001%)]
[Indomitable(0.001%)]
[Weaver (0.001%)]
[Breaker (0.001%)]
[Traveler: You have a wandering spirit. No entity can hold you back. Your actions are untraceable. You were born to explore, see, know, and travel. SPEED +20%, Evasion, Reflexes, and Accuracy Substat +10%]
"Ten percent? Ten percent??? Damn it, this is broken!" He knew that the bonuses Marcus, Joseph, and others received for their sub-statistics were only point-based, but he didn't know that they were percentages.
At first, he might not feel any effect.
Ten percent meant three points for him, but as he improved?
As he leveled up? As he rose, these percentages would give him more points. And he wasn't even counting the extra points he had.
This brought the question to his mind. "If I choose any class, will I die immediately because I've exceeded the point limit?"
The system's answer was simple. "No. The points will remain passive. They will be activated when you level up."
William breathed a sigh of relief. He wouldn't have been able to sleep if he hadn't gotten that answer.
The point system was very restrictive and prevented the excessive accumulation of power. He didn't know what it was for, but he was sure there was a logical reason behind it. William then looked at the abilities of the traveler class.
[Cosmic Step (Passive): There is no such thing as distance. Those are all sweet pink lies made up by children and young lovers. Speed +20%]
[Cosmic Pen (Active): You love to record things. Your class is your pen, and the world is your notebook. You mark an enemy as "a threat you've seen in the past." Your first attack against this target deals 300% damage. If they target you, their first attack automatically misses.
You can also completely cancel 1 attack by calling a single "scenery" or "memory" as a defense (a memory scene is briefly replayed visually).]
"Unbelievable. Truly unbelievable. The very existence of such a class is ridiculous, and I think the system doesn't like this class either."
[System Warning: This class requires extreme mental strength. It can have serious side effects on a person's mental health. The speed bonuses it provides are misleading. The ability is difficult and limited in use. The amount of Ley and Body strength it consumes is ridiculous. Not recommended.]
"There's no way I can choose this class. My head already hurts."
William turned his head and looked at the other classes. There were four more broken classes he needed to examine.