"I'm back, Dad."
"Kevin, welcome back. How was your first time out? Was it quite--"
Tang's smile disappeared and he stopped mid-sentence when he saw Kevin, covered in blood and wearing tattered armor.
"What happened, Kevin? Did you encounter any danger out there?" Tang asked solemnly.
Kevin silently placed several short swords wrapped in torn shirt on the ground and took off his armor, then looked up at Tang with tired eyes.
"Yes, Dad. We met a Goblin Warrior when we were fighting against the goblins. It was too strong for Eric and me to defeat, and Robert ran away. So in the end, Eric died, and I survived."
Looking at Kevin, who was exhausted and sad, Tang could only comfort him by saying,
"You can look at it in a positive light. This means that your career choice was correct. Choosing to become a priest did help you survive better."
After hearing Tang's words of comfort, Kevin didn't feel any better, because he knew that he didn't survive solely because of his priest career.
It was mainly because he had gained a sudden career called "Underworld Person." The combination of this career's skills and the healing abilities of a priest allowed him to revive and even kill the injured Goblin Warrior. It was the combination of these factors that allowed him to come back alive. Kevin had many questions about his newly acquired career, and he wanted answers from his more experienced father, Tang.
"Dad, I want to--"
"Let's talk about it later." Tang interrupted Kevin's question and looked at his son who looked quite disheveled from head to toe.
"Kevin, I know you have some questions for me, but you don't look well right now. Go clean up and change your clothes first before coming back to talk to me."
Upon hearing this, Kevin indeed felt uncomfortable with the mixture of sweat and congealed blood on his body. He grabbed a few pieces of his own clothing from the innermost bedroom, took a bucket of water, and began to scrub himself clean behind the house.
After a while of tidying up, Kevin put on clean clothes, soaked the dirty clothes he had taken off in the water bucket, and then returned to the house.
"Well, you look much better now. Sit down first and tell me what you want to ask me," Tang brought two chairs from the side, sat on one of them, and gestured for Kevin to sit down as well.
As Kevin sat down, he felt his tense body relax a lot as he pressed his weight onto the chair. Even his mind was no longer as nervous as before. He thought for a moment about how to ask his question.
He recalled the body of the goblin warrior lying on the ground, Eric's appearance lying in a pool of blood, his own body after death lying against the wall, and one of the reasons for all of this, Robert's escape and his words,
"Because... because I don't know how."
"I'm actually a thief."
"I thought, like Eric, I could awaken the warrior profession by fighting a few goblins."
And his own words,
"But for now, we can only awaken one profession. Once you awaken the thief profession, you can't awaken the warrior profession."
And also the mechanical female voice he heard and the new profession he gained, "Underworld Person", in that pitch-black world with no light after his death.
Profession! This was the question he cared about the most.
"Dad, what exactly are professions? Why do we have this kind of power? Can we only have one profession?" Kevin asked his question.
"That does sound like a pretty important question," Tang lowered his head and pondered for a moment.
"First of all, Kevin, you should know that no one knows the answer to questions like what exactly is the power of a profession, where it comes from, and how we are able to obtain it. Even now, no one has a definitive answer. About twenty years ago, five years before you were born, I was twenty-two and living in my hometown of Hua Country in the east. "
Tang's eyes seemed to glaze over as he recalled the past.
"Suddenly, the apocalypse came. The world was divided into many different realms, separated from each other. As various monsters appeared, we also gained strange powers in the form of professions and skills. They were similar to the electronic games we had at that time. After a long time, we still didn't know the source of these professions and skills, but we could only figure out how to obtain them. Perhaps professions and skills were given to us by the gods so that we could survive in this absurd and suddenly changing world."
In Tang's words, there seemed to be a lot of emotions involved. These feelings have been with him since he experienced the sudden change from a peaceful and beautiful world to a world full of crises, and witnessed the deaths of many people around him.
"In a very accidental event, I encountered spatial displacement. Luckily, I wasn't killed by the space turbulence and ended up here, but I can't find a way back. I've been living here for a long time, met your mother, and gained you. But let me get back on track."
As Tang spoke, the light in his eyes dimmed a bit, indicating that he didn't want to continue on this topic.
"You can only obtain one profession, and even after completing the requirements for another profession, you cannot obtain another profession. But that's only for now."
"For now?" Kevin questioned.
"Yes. Even if you obtain the same profession, the strength of different people will vary. Because professions are divided into levels, when you first obtain a profession, you are only at the first level. After more training and battles for a first-level warrior, using more magic and meditating to grow their magical power for a first-level mage, or more self and others healing for a first-level priest, the profession will advance. Advanced professions will have more powerful abilities, such as stronger warrior strength, more powerful mage magic, and better priest healing effects, and so on."
Tang paused for a moment before continuing,
"Besides professions, we can acquire new skills related to our professions through some chance encounters. These skills are beyond the initial three skills we have. For example, Father Daniel, as a priest, has six skills, twice the number you have. More skills can greatly enhance our abilities. Acquiring new skills requires inspiration and accumulated experience."
"So, can we not obtain other professions besides acquiring new skills?" Kevin asked.
"Don't worry, Kevin, that's what I'm about to say." Tang looked at Kevin anxiously and said with a smile,
"Indeed, at the beginning, we can only obtain one profession. But when our strength reaches the fourth tier, the power of our first profession will increase greatly, surpassing previous upgrades. Moreover, we can obtain a second profession. Kevin, can you guess what profession I am?"
"Since you have made so many preparations beforehand, and I have heard that you are a great warrior, I think you should be a fourth-tier warrior. As for your second profession, I can't think of it," Kevin guessed.
"You're half right, my son. I am indeed a fourth-tier transcendent, but the warrior is my second profession. My first profession is a alchemist, a unique profession in my hometown, similar to a mage."
"Alchemist? Magicians? Dad, can you use magic? Or is it Taoism?" Kevin asked.
"I do have such skills, but they are not direct attack skills like Fireball, but rather skills that enhance oneself and weapons," Don replied.
"Is that so?" Kevin thought of his second profession, "Underworld Person," which he obtained before reaching the fourth tier.
"Dad, is it possible to obtain a second profession without reaching the fourth tier?"
"Well, theoretically it shouldn't be possible, but there is an exception, and that is a secondary profession."
"What is a secondary profession?"
After thinking for a while, Don replied,
"Compared to professions like Warrior, Magicians, Priest, and Thief that most people can obtain and use in combat, there are a few professions that require specialized knowledge and skills that can be obtained as secondary professions. Secondary professions generally do not have combat capabilities but can be useful in other areas. For example, I have a secondary profession as a 'blacksmith.' This profession enhances my ability as a blacksmith."
"Dad, you have a secondary profession as a 'blacksmith'? What kind of power does this profession have? Does it help you forge better weapons?"
"Yes, my 'blacksmith' profession has four skills. The first skill that I obtained when I just got this profession is 'Forging,' which allows me to forge better weapons. The second skill is 'Metal Observation,' which helps me distinguish and understand the state and composition of metals. Later on, I obtained the skills of 'Arm Strength Enhancement' and 'High-Temperature Resistance,' which not only help me in forging but also provide me with some assistance in combat."
So that's how it is? It seems like my profession 'Underworld Person' is also a secondary profession. It allows me to see other people's life states, increase the damage of attacks to enemies, and exist and act in spirit form.
"OK, that answers your question. Do you have any more questions?"
"No, Dad. Thank you for answering my questions,"
"I think you've had a lot of experiences today and you must be tired. Rest for a while now!" Tang said with concern,
"Also, you don't have any companions to go monster hunting with. Take a day off tomorrow and don't go out to hunt monsters. Find some companions first and then go." Tang suggested.
"You're right, I do need some rest and to find new companions," Kevin agreed.