I nodded to myself in self assurance as I knew that I was making the right choice, just based on how rare the class I was offered was, and mentally selected the Merchant Manufacturing class.
One thing I had noticed about the class selection process was not only did I get FAR more options than anyone else who was talking about it on the news or social media sites but I also got many options for the rarest classes. Even though there were no system explanations of what the various classes truly WERE, many of them seemed to have names that were fairly self explanatory so I had high hopes for the class I was now stuck with as well.
After feeling energy swirling within for a few minutes I patiently sat and waited for it all to be over so I could start figuring out my class.
"Ding! Congratulations user, you have gained the Unique class Merchant Manufacturer! You are the first sentient being to be offered a Unique class in the last ten millennia! Do you wish to publicize your fortune?"
I immediately started imagining how being so rare could actually come back to harm me rather than help. I had read a great many stories where "the nail that stands out gets hammered down" as the current power groups and governments would do anything to maintain their power bases… including attempting to kill those they can't recruit.
Knowing that I would be extremely weak while lower level, that I also didn't really know what would happen after the Tutorial period, I decided I would keep my class choice to myself. I could most likely come up with a plausible alternative that would explain away what I could do, especially having been offered so many classes relating to crafting and mercantile skills.
"Please do not announce or share my information with anyone else, if possible, System. I don't know enough about my class, my world's ability to survive the Tutorial, or what comes next when we fully connect to the multiverse to risk it." I calmly replied out loud, hoping the System would understand and react appropriately.
"Ding! Understood user, please be aware that while the System will not make any announcement there are still skills, items, and technology that may be able to discover that you have a high rarity class. Your personal system can hide your specific information such as class rarity, name, levels, perks, etc however there are other classes based around accurate information gathering that can counter such things. System recommends that user level as quickly as possible and look for a class specific perk, skill, or quest rewards that off the ability to better obfuscate your true identity."
"Ding! Congratulations on selecting your class user, now that the class assignment process is complete please follow the on screen prompts to gain insights into your class as well as to select your initial perk(s), skill(s), and to open your System Integration welcome gift!
Merchant Manufacturer - This class is a unique grade class that grants the user the ability to affect and change the multiverse on a grand scale in a grand fashion. This class allows the user, in its simplest form, to use any form of energy or matter to craft items based around the universe that you are currently occupying and to set up and run trade networks using the System itself.
Initially you will only be able to craft items by hand using local materials and energy supplies but as the class grows, and you select new skills and perks, you will be able to choose new directions to grow. The resources can be any solid matter, any form of energy, and the amount of time dictated by the schematic you decide to create.
Later the class will also allow the user to set up manufacturing facilities, either manned or unmanned, that can create items for any universe that you have already visited. This class is also the ONLY class that can sell items to the System store and will also gain schematics for any system items acquired in any way.
For example, in your universe you can gain technology schematics that allow you to make items based around technology, electricity, and advance your tech level to unbelievable heights. You may gain these schematics by creating them yourself, scanning items in your world to create base schematics, from enemy drops, quest rewards, or from any item purchased or gained from the System. You may then use your class to set up a trading safe zone that can sell or trade the items you have created to others.
Your class gains experience and grows whenever you craft an item, sell an item, and whenever your items are used to defeat enemies. You still gain experience from combat, quests, and all the other normal options that others have as well but considering Unique classes need thousands of times more experience points to level up versus any other class rarities user is recommended to use his class abilities to their fullest.
Level 1 of Merchant Manufacturer grants you the following starting skills and perk:
Starting Active Skills:
Create Item - This skill allows you to create an item from your own memory and creativity. This skill is very mentally taxing and can leave you mentally exhausted very quickly. The level of mental energy needed to use is dependent on the user's knowledge and understanding of what you are trying to make. If the user is trying to make a simple knife that he has created in the past, the mental energy requirement is very small. If the user is trying to create a combat droid that he has only ever seen in movies and comics the drain will be extremely high and will likely take many days or weeks of work to complete. Any item created in this fashion will grant the user a schematic that will allow automated production in the future.
Manufacture Item - This skill allows you to select a schematic and create any number of copies of said item using selected materials, energy supply, and time per item produced. For example, if the user created a knife using Create Item, they can then use that schematic to create more knives using local materials and an energy supply, each knife only taking 5 seconds to complete. While using this skill the user can not perform other actions or use other skills. Items made using this skill will not have any special attributes or bonuses that are not already included in the schematic.
Trade - This skill allows you to enter into a System backed trade brokering sub-dimension with any other selected entity(s). While performing a Trade the user cannot be harmed and the trade details are all guaranteed by the System. For example, you meet another user and use Trade to attempt to sell them a knife you have manufactured. You and the user are pulled into the Trade sub dimension where you can discuss terms. You share the item details of the knife to the other user and he agrees to take three knives in exchange for him, and anyone he gives the knives to willingly, not to perform any aggressive or detrimental action towards you for 12 earth months. You complete the Trade and they then attempt to rob you. The System would step in and enforce a penalty to the other party along with a warning. The penalty is automatic and may enforce either the other user to render services or take away items up to a certain value. If the user continued to break the agreed upon Trade terms additional escalating penalties would then be applied based on severity of the actions taken.
Create Trade Zone - This skill, which will evolve over time as you level up, allows you to designate a small building and turn it into a Trading Zone. Inside the Trading Zone you may create items, manufacture items, and buy/sell/trade with any other System user. Any user inside the Trade Zone CANNOT be physically harmed in any way, shape, or form. When creating the Trade Zone you must set "operating hours" of at least 8 hours and up to 16 hours per day during which time the Zone is open to the public to enter and do business with the user. When the Trade Zone is not open only the user, and those he designates as employees, are able to access and remain in the protection of the Zone. The user also has full control over setting rules for the Zone, kicking out users from the zone, and enforcing bans on the zone. This skill is extremely flexible based on the needs and desires of the user so please explore further options and details personally.
Starting Perk:
"I Love My Job" - This perk grants the user bonuses on any items they manufacture or create from scratch as long as it is an item the user found interesting to make. For example, you get a schematic to make healing potions from a monster drop which you then manufacture a hundred of to trade, none of these items will have a bonus because it's just a trade item to you. However you use Create Item to make what you think is the best flavor for a healing potion ever… Code Red flavored Healing Pots! You spend time getting the taste just right, adding just the right amount of caffeine to give it a little kick, and to really emulate that overweight gamer flavor palette juuuussssttttt soooo… and you succeed! You turn this into a schematic and make 100 of them and find that each of them has a beneficial bonus to the user. Some of the pots heal more over time, some have a large instant heal effect, some of them have a minor function that repairs the durability of all items currently worn by the user after being drunk, and some of them grant bonus experience for each point of damage healed."
After reading through the initial screens of what my class is, and the few hints about what it could potentially become, I knew that I had chosen correctly. I chose the right class, I chose to keep it a secret, and I would continue to choose to be a creator. The idea of being a superhero in a zombie apocalypse was of course tempting, but the idea of being the guy who supplies others with the gear and supplies needed to survive and thrive? That suited me perfectly and was a role that I was excited to fill.
Don't get me wrong, I was more than willing to head out zombie hunting or to face any threat to me and/or my people head on, but I was more than content to find others who were better at it and keep them supplied and able to face those threats for me. I didn't know if the zombies our world would soon be facing could do the whole "bite the living and they turn to zombies" thing but if so crafting a cure and getting a Trade Zone up seemed pretty important… not to mention wildly lucrative for me. I mean hey, just because I want to help people doesn't mean I can't make good profit while doing it and leave both sides walking away from any trade feeling like they got a good deal.
I had no problem being a hard assed price gouging bastard… to people who deserved it and could afford it. I called it the asshole tax and if you want to act like one then you get charged like one. Likewise if I run across a mother with a sick kid do you really think I could sleep at night if I price gouged the hell out of her for the medicine she needed to save her little one? Hell no I couldn't and if I ever start to feel like I could I have people around me I trust to kick my ass and bring me back from the edge of insanity. A trade with those in need can be as simple as getting them to promise me that they will come by and cook me dinner some night, using my kitchen and supplies, which they will then share with me so we can talk and exchange information.
I refocused on the System and away from my internal thoughts as I continued with the initial setup of my class.
"Ding! Please select one passive skill and one perk! The starter package has been placed in your inventory and can be opened at your leisure!"
The screen with available passives popped up alongside a second screen with available perks and my mind was officially blown.
"No wonder this class is Unique… these are so BROKEN and AMAZING!" I shouted as I started doing a weird little happy dance.