When Alcor's eyes next opened, he found himself in a hospital room, attached to various life supporting machines. He could feel that his torso was tightly bandaged and an oxygen mask was placed on his face. His whole body throbbed dully and he could especially feel a nagging pain from his waist, where he seemed to have got stitches to close up a wound.
"Ah, so far it has been one of the worst beginnings to one of my reincarnations." Alcor sighed as he talked to himself, "The moment I first opened my eyes, I already seemed to be on the verge of death. A pretty ominous start even from my point of view after all my various experiences in all those different worlds."
Alcor was not actually a person or a being of this world. He was a being who would reincarnate to different worlds in bodies of various beings to live a new life and acquire new experiences. He had been a God, a Demon, a Hero, a Ninja, an Archmage, a Monster, a Divine Craftsman, and much more across his many lives.
The reason he could do this was because of a unique system that was bonded to his soul by an unknown power in his first life. This system was named by Alcor as the Reincarnation System. It allowed him to reincarnate in various worlds and acquire new experience and knowledge. But that was only the tip of this system's ability.
"Well, as long as I am just lying here like a salted fish, might as well check my status." Alcor thought. Status was one of the functions of Reincarnation System which allowed him to view certain information about himself in a more quantifiable form.
'System, you still there or not?' Alcor called out in his mind.
[Yes host, always present.] Reincarnation System's AI replied back to him.
'Show me my status in this world. Lets see what kind of surprises await me.' Alcor said.
The next moment, a translucent floating frame appeared in front of his eyes with information written on it. This was Alcor's current status as displayed by the system.
Name : Alcor (Rodas Rao - Current World)
Race : Human
Gender : Male
Job : None
HP : (Calculated by VIT * 10. Denotes your optimized Health Points. Available only after equipping a job card)
MP : (Calculated by INT * 10. Denotes your optimized Mana Points. Available only after equipping a job card)
STR : (Denotes your optimized Strength. Affects Physical Strength and Attack Power. Available only after equipping a job card)
VIT : (Denotes your optimized Vitality. Affects Health, Physical Defense, and Self-Recovery. Available only after equipping a job card)
AGI : (Denotes your optimized Agility. Affects Movement Speed, Reflexes, and Dexterity. Available only after equipping a job card)
INT : (Denotes your optimized Intelligence. Affects Mana, Thinking Speed and Mental Power. Available only after equipping a job card)
WIS : (Denotes your optimized Wisdom. Affects Perception, Comprehension, Mana Recovery, and Spiritual Defense. Available only after equipping a job card)
LUK : (Denotes your optimized Luck. Affects Causality of all events related to you. Available only after equipping a job card)
CHA : (Denotes your optimized Charisma. Affects Appearance, Leadership, and Affability. Available only after equipping a job card)
Skills : None
Talent : EXP *100
'Hmm, the explanations of the stats have not changed. I am a human male, my preferred choice always. I do have to choose a job from one of the initial Job Cards I have to activate my stats. Until I activate them I will be a normal weak chicken who can be severely injured or killed at any point, just like my current situation.'
'I also don't seem to have any skills in my current body, at least none that are important enough. Unless the system ever deems lazing at home and playing video games a skill.' Alcor thought.
Job Card are templates/avatars of different jobs acquired from Alcor's experiences in different worlds. They provide optimized stats that overlay on Alcor's actual body, transforming it into a more enhanced form depending on the optimized stats acquired.
For eg: equipping an Apprentice Warrior Job Card will make Alcor better at physical skills, giving the Alcor increased Strength, Vitality and Agility.
Job Cards also makes it easier for the Alcor to acquire or develop skills related to that particular job. Developing the skills related to the equipped job card is necessary as the repeated use of skills related to the job card is one of the main ways to level up a job card.
Stats change when equipping or DE-equipping a job card. When switching a higher leveled job card for a lower leveled one, a drastic change in stats will occur.
Skills don't change upon changing a job card. Skills can always be used once acquired, regardless of whether the job card used to acquire the skill is still equipped or not.
'Lets get this equipping job card business out of the way first.' Alcor thought in his mind, 'System, display my current available job cards.'
A list of jobs emerged in front of Alcor on the translucent frame.
Apprentice Warrior (LV1 - EXP 0/10) - STR+3, VIT+2, AGI+2
Apprentice Mage (LV1 - EXP 0/10) - INT+3, WIS+3, AGI+1
Apprentice Hunter (LV1 - EXP 0/10) - STR+1, VIT+1, AGI+3, LUK+2, CHA+1
Student (LV1 - EXP 0/10) - STR+1, VIT+1, AGI+1, INT+1, WIS+1, LUK+1, CHA+1
'Oh, I will have to begin with apprentice level jobs yet again it seems. Is their no special quality to this world? Is that why there are no special jobs available right from the get go?'
'I remember in my previous world I was able to acquire the Demonic Swordsman job as my first job. Ah, that was a good time. Hmm, wait a moment. System, what is this Student Job? Why are its stats displaying a balanced growth across all stats?'
[Your current body has used this identity, that can also be considered his job, for the longest time while also doing wide range of activities related to it. That is why system has deemed to add it as a job.]
[This job displays a low but balanced growth potential across all stats. It is recommended by the system that you pick this as your first job until you can unlock further job slots.]
'Oh ya, I can use this Student job to get a bunch of initial stats, especially the more difficult to raise stats such as LUK and CHA. I can always set one of the apprentice combat jobs as my second job once I unlock a slot.' Alcor thought.
Multiple Job Cards can be equipped simultaneously once the Additional Job Slots are unlocked. There are different unlocking conditions for each job slot. Maximum number of job slots possible is five, including the Initial Job Slot.
Initial Job Slot : Unlocked by Default
First Extra Job Slot : Level Up a Job Card to Level 10
Second Extra Job Slot : Level Up 2 Job Cards to Level 20
Third Extra Job Slot : Level Up 3 Job Cards to Level 40
Fourth Extra Job Slot : Level Up 4 Job Cards to Level 80
'Hmm, this plan makes sense. Okay system, set Student as my first job.' Alcor said decisively.