Chapter 14: 13. Conspiracy

The female fairy squinted her eyes at my statement, clearly unsatisfied with my explanation.

So, you’re a bad cop, I thought. I can play that game.

I shrugged, “Look, I am just a regular French teenager. My parents died a couple of years ago and I have no one to look after me. I had been a good student, but I stopped going to school to work as a butcher! I didn’t have any hobbies, till I discovered Pyromancy. An old guy that I met in a bus station taught me the Art! We started with making Nitroglycerin and now we’re here!”

I tried to be as passionate as I could. I didn’t want attention, as explaining the origin of my class would involve exposing my [Shop] feature.

For now, the only card I could play was ‘The crazy motherfucker’.

I kept spewing nonsense, on how I became able to turn my sweat into gasoline and many other things.

It worked, or at least that’s the impression that I got from the male fairy.

“This guy is nuts!” he said out loud “Just leave the poor thing alone, Phaella.”

The other fairy had a wavering expression, before she nodded.

“Alright, Phillian” she said, “I guess we have serious matters to do anyway”

“Yes!” he spoke enthusiastically, “Now, the top three rankers will get some small rewards! This is nothing compared to what you could get later one, but they’re sufficient to motivate you.”

Without a warning, three chests appeared floating around him.

One came towards me. The other two went to Petra, and Finn respectively.

I opened it as soon as it dropped in front of me, I was excited to get this thing for a while.

[Bag of Holding]	(Common)
This item survived eons, tribulations! It was the valuable possession of a sect disciple, before he tossed it away after finding something better. -Internal space: 1 cubic meter. -Self-repairable (The user can speed up the repair process by injecting mana)

 

I can’t believe I am holding this, I thought. In my past life, Chris would’ve killed anyone who laid their eyes on it.

I put the two slime essences and the staff inside it for now.

Zhou Ming and Petra also got some things. I looked at Petra’s direction, I knew what she would get but I feigned ignorance.

“So, what did you get?” I asked her.

“I’ve got three health potions, and three mana ones.” she said “I think it’s a good reward.”

I looked at the vials that she held in her hand, some of them were blue and others were green.

The vials holding the liquid were the same size as the ones the held the slimes’ essence. She showed me the description of both kinds of potions.

[Basic Mana Potion]	(Common)
This is a regular mana potion; you could buy it from any merchant. -Restores 100 Mana.

 

[Basic Health Potion]	(Common)
This is a regular Health potion; you could buy it from any merchant. -Restores 50 HP.

 

They weren’t special at all, as they were consumables, and alchemists would start manufacturing them in bulk after the tutorial.

“You know that Vulpinus sells some of these, right?” I told her “They’re somewhat expensive though, each costing ten lesser mana stones to buy”.

“I’ll take what I can get my hands on.” She said with a muffled voice, “How about your reward?”.

I showed her the bag of holding, allowing her to use [Identify] on it.

Stars formed inside her eyes, before swiftly disappearing. She rubbed her hand and looked at me with puppy eyes.

I knew that she would pester me about the bag in the future, so I addressed the issue immediately, “Don’t worry, I’ll allow you to store your belongings in my bag.”

A big smile appeared on her face, and she was about to thank me when I interrupted her.

“That is, only if you give me some of your potions.”

She clenched her teeth this time, hiding her potions in a small bag. She was about to get away from me when she came to a halt, facing me once more. Her facial expression revealed her anxiety.

Exactly, I can take them away from you by force, I thought.

“It’s fine, I’ll only take what I need, when I need it” I said. “For now, I need a single HP potion.”

She seemed not too happy with my words, but she handed it to me nonetheless.

Good girl, I thought.

“Now that the rewards are distributed,” said Phaella “We can get to the important stuff”.

“The first phase of the tutorial tested your adaptability, creativeness…,” said Phillian, but his tone of voice seemed hesitant as he added “...and team work”.

I laughed audibly, but everyone ignored me.

“The second phase will test your resolve, confidence and capacity to work with limited resources,” said Phaella. “We know that many people got lucky with their classes, but that doesn’t determine their value as individuals.”

“You’ll face one another in this phase,” added Phillian “The hosts fighting each other will be chosen randomly, and they have the right to choose whether they use their Class in the battle or not.”

“If you fight without using your Class and win, you’ll get your tutorial points doubled or take all of your enemy’s points. Whichever you choose,” said Phaella “On the other hand, you won’t obtain anything if you fight using your Class and win.”

“The loser gets their tutorial points reset to zero,” said Phillian “Leaving the tutorial without any points is not advised!”.

“Be careful if you choose not to use your class, as all your stats will be back to their state before the System Integration,” said Phaela.

They encouraged us not to use our Classes, but still allowed us to use them if we wanted to. This created a risky situation. If you want to get points, you’ll have to deal with the risk of your enemy using his Class.

The weaker ones will use their classes to maximize their chances of winning. Losing all their points wasn’t really an option.

As for me, doubling up my points is a very lucrative offer, I thought. Besides, it’s my only way to stay ahead of the three heroes in tutorial points.

My decision was not to use my class, as the host I faced in my past life was an easy one, even if she used her Class.

I looked at Marla for a moment, she didn’t look that enthusiastic about the second phase of the tutorial. Her class was focused on logistics, and she didn’t have a single skill that could help her in combat.

“Don’t worry about the fairness of these duels,” said Phaella “As we’ll oversee the process of arranging them.”

“Yes!” added Phillian “Fairies are honorable creatures, hence our important role in the tutorial.”

“We’ll reveal the program of the battles an hour from now,” said Phaella “The combats will take place in two hours. Use this precious time to prepare yourselves.”

“The location for the battles will be the surrounding wilderness,” said Phillian “You’ll have to use the terrain to your advantage!”

I didn’t think too much about my upcoming combat, as Marla was an easy opponent even if she decided to use her Class.

No one should underestimate the strength of a former butcherer, I thought.

I decided to take a look at my current stats and skills for now.

Host: Jason Stubbs	HP 200/200 (1 HP/580 seconds)
Class: The Burned Man!	Mana 1400/1400 (4.46 mana/1 second)
Level 20: 126165/191000	Stat Points: 24
STR: 15	VIT: 30
DEX: 15	AGI: 17
MAG: 144 (+30)	END:175 (+10)
Class Skills:	General Skills:
[Flame-n-Go]: Level 9	[Zoom]: Level 2
[It’s fine!]: Level 8	[Shut-Down]: Level 1
[Burn That Invader!]: Level 6	[Light Steps]: Level 10
[Kill Them Before They Spread!]: Level 5 You are reading story System Dilemma at novel35.com	[Shadow Assimilation]: Level 4

 

I put another twenty points in my VIT, which increased my HP by one hundred points. The HP regeneration rate also improved somewhat.

I opened my skills’ descriptions one by one, in order to see the effects that the increased levels had on them.

[Flame-n-Go]: (Legendary)

Passive

Alnarius had exquisite fire control, he could control their temperature and keep the flames burning for as long as they didn’t consume their target yet. This allowed him freedom that his peers didn’t enjoy! -The Flames can ignite any target they touch if the Host desires. -The Host can keep the flames burning by consuming mana, either his own, or the target’s if it had mana. (8.53 Mana per second) -The Host can control the temperature of any flames by consuming mana, standard temperature is 600° K, any deviation can be achieved by consuming mana, either the host’s, or the target’s if it had mana. (8.53 Mana to maintain a 10° K deviation for 1 second) -The user can freely control all flames that are 3.43 meters away from him at most. -The host can use ambient mana to sustain the flames if the target is himself.

 

 

[Burn That Invader!]: (Legendary)	Active
Alnarius had a heroic spirit, his desire was to protect his planet from all dangers. Many of his attempts were successful but a lone man could only be present in one place at a time. -Unleashes a concentrated cylindrical blast of fire, suitable for single target damage. (1.56 Kilometer range) (Mana Usage: 90 times the radius of the blast in millimeters) (8-minute cooldown)

 

[Kill Them Before They Spread!]: (Legendary)	Active
Alnarius was alone against armies of powerful fighters, he made up for the lack of competent allies by strong area of effect damage. It still wasn’t enough. -Unleashes a heat blast in all directions surrounding the Host (Sphere) (Mana Usage: 9.2 times the radius of the blast in meters) (13-minute cooldown)

 

[Shut-Down]: (Legendary)	Active
Avoiding problems till they come back to bite you in the ass, that’s the kind of person that you are. -Nullifies all the damage felt by the user for a set duration of time (Mana Usage : N/A) (Duration : 5 seconds) (1 day cooldown)

 

[Light Steps]: (Epic)

Passive

Every place is within your reach! you could enter a bank, steal everything and the owner would be none the wiser. Didn’t your mother teach you that stealing is wrong? Pathetic. -Nullifies all the sound generated by the user’s footsteps. -Enables the user to nimbly navigate through all kinds of terrains. -Increases the maximum movement speed (5.5% increase per 1 point in AGI) -Improves the Host’s control over his body (5.5% increase per 1 point in DEX) (This skill doesn’t use Mana)

 

[Shadow Assimilation]: (Epic)

Active

Shadows are your friends! As long as you have physical contact with a shadow, you’ll completely disappear out of sight. One day, someone with a high-level detection skill will find and punish you! -Hides the host’s present when he’s in contact with a shadow from regular sight and lesser detection skills (Lesser detection skills are: -Common with a level inferior or equal to 3.2x this skill’s level -Uncommon with a level inferior or equal to 2.2x this skill’s level -Epic with a level inferior or equal to 1.13x this skill’s level -Legendary with a level inferior or equal to 0.56x this skill’s level -[…]) (Mana Usage: N/A) (Cooldown: N/A) -Enables the Host to teleport from one shadow to another, within 10 meters range (Mana Usage: N/A) (Cooldown: 9 seconds)

 

The increased levels improved the skills, and the next class evolution at level 25 should bring a qualitative change. I also hoped for some improvement in my fire affinity.

Progressing with this class was much easier than my old (Common) one, I thought. People really aren’t born equal.

*

I was playing with my new toy, when my Communication Crystal started glowing.

“We’ll resume our session tomorrow, Stephan,” I told my toy, “Bring Wilbert with you next time”.

He left hurriedly, barely putting anything over his skin. He wasn’t special in any way, but a sense of normality was exactly what a woman needed occasionally.

“Hello?” I said, I didn’t know who called me because this crystal was linked to many fairies across tutorials.

“Greetings my Queen, this is Phaella,” a feminine voice came out of the crystal “I’d like to report some unusual events.”

Unusual events? I thought. They always say this, yet the incidents are often ordinary.

“Is this about someone breaking down again after dying and respawning?” I said “Or perhaps, a dumb fool tried to steal some items from the stalls of the contracted sellers?”.

“My lady, I am afraid it’s rather interesting this time,” a more masculine voice came out of the same crystal “There was a Classless guy in the beginning of the tutorial”.

“It’s not very common, but some people wasted their lives doing nothing, thus the system didn’t give them any class.” I spoke. “It’s a shame, maybe he’ll find an opportunity after leaving the tutorial.”

“This is not the weirdest part!” said Phaella “He seems like a crazy person from the way he speaks, leading me to think he was delusional! Yet that same guy ended up clearing the first phase with a contribution of ninety-seven percent, and the subsequent rankings showed that he had a class!”

Now, that was interesting.

Maybe he had a strong class specialized in stealth from the start, and hid it using a unique class skill to maximize his advantage? I thought. Or maybe…he’s one of those defected people, which would certainly explain the sudden rise in strength.

Those people aren’t all that common nowadays, but they can do many unexplainable things.

“What’s the rarity of his class?” I spoke.

“It’s (Legendary), my lady!” said Phillian, with an agitated tone of voice.

This certainly makes my first theory more plausible.

“What was it called?” I added, thinking that it had to be something similar to an assassin or a rogue.

“It’s actually a funny name, the system said that it was [The Burned Man!].”

That name, I think I’ve heard some of the Elder Ones talk about it. . .

Suddenly, I remembered something. Something that was concerning.

I need to contact the Elder Ones, as soon as possible.

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