Grid who reached a safe and secluded place sat down on the ground to check on his current status and the things he had acquired—
"Status Window!"
[Name: Grid
Level: 2 (85/300)
Class: Beginner
* Can learn new skills when certain conditions are met.
Health: 135/135 | Mana: 15/15
Strength: 10 | Stamina: 7
Agility: 10 | Intelligence: 5
Composure: 1 | Concentration: 1
Stat Points: 0
Weight: 90/200
Items Worn: Wooden Sword.
Skills Possessed:
1. Meditation Lv. Mastered
2. Beginner Sword Mastery Lv. 1
3. Vertical Slash Lv. 1
4. Horizontal Slash Lv. 1.]
"Inventory!"
[Inventory]
[Total Items Stored: 66
Money: 40 Bronze Coins (Weight: 4)
Meat:
1. Rabbit Meat × 21 (Weight: 42)
2. Elite Rabbit's Meat × 3 (Weight: 9)
3. Silver Rabbit's Meat × 1 (Weight: 5)
Equipment: Beginner's Deluxe Boots × 1 (Weight: 20).]
Firstly, he had leveled up; he was now at level two. He now needed 300 experience points to level up again, 200 points more than the previous level, which had required only 100 experience points, out of which 85 points were already acquired by Grid through the 'hidden event'. In fact, after reaching level two, the experience points required for each subsequent level up to level ten were increased by 200. The formula of experience points required to level up would change after a player reached level ten. It would get harder to level up after that. Players below level ten enjoyed the benefit of being a beginner and wouldn't lose experience or drop in levels after death. Grid, in the previous turn, had been lucky to drop in many levels to reach level -3 and acquire extra stats. However, he wouldn't be able to do the same in this life, not that he really needed those extra 40 stats to be a great user again. Currently, he can carry his weight perfectly or even better than in his previous life due to his beyond-godly control and information.
"Anyway, those extra stats from minus level aren't big of a deal since I can gain many from the elixirs on Behen Archipelago in the future."
Unaware of what was to come next, Grid thought about the elixirs from the Challenger Store of Behen Archipelago.
The newly acquired Composure and Concentration stats were also included in the status window. He then focused on his health and weight limit—which were increased due to the investment of stat points in the strength. Previously, 123 health and weight limit of 120—were increased to 135 and 200, respectively. For the basic stat effects before the stats awakening, each stat point invested in strength increased health by 3 points and weight limit by 20 points. 45% of Grid's weight limit was already occupied because of the drop items he had acquired.
'Hmm... 80 weight points in the inventory and 10 in the hand—I should try to increase the weight I am carrying so that it helps me in acquiring the Persistence stat shortly.'
Grid then focused on the skills he had acquired after defeating the hidden field boss.
[Sword Mastery]
[Stage: Beginner | Level: 1
Type: Conditional Passive Skill
Swords of all types can be handled.
* Increases physical attack power and attack speed by 3%.
Skill Activation Condition: When a sword-type weapon is equipped.]
"It's also the same."
Sword Mastery—the very foundation of every swordsman-type class. It allowed users to equip all sword-type weapons and use them, though only when the conditions of use were met. A user couldn't neglect the conditions of use placed on the swords unless they had some special abilities like Sword Saint or Pagma's Descendant. It was a conditional passive skill that Increased physical attack power and attack speed only when a sword-type weapon was equipped. In Satisfy, since there was no concept of 'Saber Mastery' or 'Blade Mastery', most blade-type weapons were put into the category of sword-type weapons, and Sword Mastery was needed to use them. The normal skill had 4 stages each containing 10 levels. Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Master. There was another niche level as well, Pinnacle or Mastered, but that was a stage only some masters reached. It was only achieved when a master swordsman reached level 10 of the skill, the pinnacle, or mastered the skill, to say the least. It also increases the critical rate and critical damage after reaching a certain stage.
'Hmm... I won't repeat the previous mistake... I won't lose this skill. Heck, I won't let the system remove my skills after becoming Pagma's Descendant since I would mostly acquire them through my achievements now; unlike the previous turn where I acquired them because of the class change to the Warrior class. This skill will help me realize my ambition faster than before.'
Although Pagma was a Legendary Blacksmith, he was a Great Swordsman as well. However, the Great Swordsman aspect of Pagma's Descendant was nerfed by the S.A. Group heavily so the user would never be equal to the Sword Saint. The main reason was that Pagma's Descendant couldn't acquire a separate Sword Mastery skill, so the user wouldn't be able to follow a different path from what the class specified. In the first turn, Grid couldn't acquire the skill after changing his class to the Pagma's Descendant. Including the Sword Mastery, he even lost all his previous skills as a Warrior since he was unworthy to become Pagma's Descendant even though the class change book never mentioned a reset or removal of the previous skills the user had. It happened for two reasons: first, he was unworthy of becoming Pagma's Descendant because he had never gotten any official class change quest to begin with since he was neither a great blacksmith nor a great swordsman. Second, all the skills that he had acquired previously before the class change were the class-specific skills of the Warrior class. A legendary class couldn't tolerate the class-specific skills of a normal class which weren't acquired through proper achievements. This resulted in the removal of all the skills Grid had previously. The process was similar to molding where a being's existence and status were completely changed and rewritten to fit a certain mold. Grid, an unworthy being, was molded to fit the container known as 'Pagma's Descendant', removing all the unnecessary things in the process.
The same scenario was repeated with Yura's class change to Alex's Descendant—the inherent legendary Demon Slayer class. This happened, however, with a slight twist. Although Yura had gotten the official quest to acquire Alex's Descendant class, her attributes and aspects as a Black Magician were exactly the opposite of Demon Slayer's. One was a minion of the great demons, while the other was the slayer of demons and great demons. At that time, Yura's status and abilities as a Black Magician were removed, and she became a Demon Slayer completely.
Unlike Yura and Grid, the cases of Kraugel, Jishuka, and Faker were different. Not only did they get the official quests to acquire Sword Saint, Bow Saint, and legendary assassin Lantier classes, respectively, since they were worthy enough, but their aspects and abilities also matched the goal they were working towards. Not only did they not lose any previous skills they had acquired, many of them were even upgraded to legendary skills after the class change occurred.
It was all thanks to Braham who brought Grid out of the constraints of Pagma's Descendant class and made him Magic Swordsman of the Epics in the previous turn. Grid wanted to grow faster and more actively in this turn since he had most of the information he needed for that, unlike previously when he had grown passively. For that to happen, Sword Mastery was an indispensable skill to him for achieving faster growth.
Sword Mastery opened a path to acquire the title of Great Swordsman, Sword Energy resource, and minimum qualification to reach the status of the Sword Saint at certain stages, either through achievements or quests. This was one of the reasons why Grid truly needed the skill. In his starting days, he was very weak against certain enemies and circumstances. He wanted to remove those scenarios by getting stronger earlier and pave the strongest path to become the Magic Swordsman of the Epics earlier. Yes, Grid never wanted to snatch the Sword Saint class from Kraugel, he just wanted to become a stronger and better version of himself.
'I will follow a path similar to Kraugel. I would try to become an expert blacksmith and swordsman so perhaps my accumulated achievements can naturally open a path to the official class change quest—a quest to acquire the legendary class known as Pagma's Descendant. Even if the system doesn't accept my hard work and achievements, I can still acquire the Rare Book of Pagma. Since the Beginner class doesn't have any class-specific skills, and I wouldn't change my class until I become Pagma's Descendant to anything else than present, I wouldn't lose the skills I would have acquired till that time anyways. Though Morpheus would be suspicious in both cases, huh? Well, I'll deal with it when the time comes. It sure would be grumpy at that time.'
"Sigh... Let's just check out the sword techniques."
Grid then clicked on the rare skills he had acquired to check out their descriptions and how they worked.
[Vertical Slash]
[Level: 1
Unleash a vertical slash made from energy. Correct execution of the technique is needed for the skill effect to occur swiftly.
* Deals damage equal to 150% of your physical attack power to a single target within 3 meters.
* Has a certain probability of the 'Cutting' effect occurring.
* Has a very low probability of the 'Bisect' effect occurring. (Cooldown Time: 5 minutes)
Resource Consumption: 60 Mana
Skill Cooldown Time: 1 Minute.]
[Horizontal Slash]
[Level: 1
Unleash a horizontal slash made from energy. Correct execution of the technique is needed for the skill effect to occur swiftly.
* Deals damage equal to 150% of your physical attack power to a single target within 3 meters.
* Has a certain probability of the 'Cutting' effect occurring.
* Has a very low probability of the 'Bisect' effect occurring. (Cooldown Time: 5 minutes)
Resource Consumption: 60 Mana
Skill Cooldown Time: 1 Minute.]
'Hmm... Both are similar in description but their execution is different. Anyway, both are quite nice for the current level. They would be very useful even in the future. However, I lack the mana required to utilize both of these... guess... I will have to increase my intelligence for that. I would have to do that anyway until I acquire the Sword Energy.'
Although both skills had almost the same descriptions, their execution was different. Grid even needed the correct form of execution to use them swiftly during any battle. He could already perform those actions easily because that was one of the achievements through which he had acquired the skills. It would have been difficult for others, but it wouldn't be for him.
Even though these skills lacked a high damage coefficient compared to Continuous Stab or the Spear Shot, the resources consumed were also less, so that wasn't a disadvantage to the current Grid. Additionally, both of these skills had 2 extra effects: Cutting and Bisect. There was around 10% and 0.1% probability for the occurrence of Cutting and Bisect effects respectively. Although both of them had a low probability of activation, the damage dealt to the target was doubled or higher whenever one of them got activated.
[Cutting]
[A single target is cut and dealt with 150% of your physical attack power. Must be equipped with a sharp weapon for the effect to work.
Cooldown Time: None.]
[Bisect]
[Deals 800% of your physical attack power to a single target. Some of the target's body must be cut in order to induce various abnormal status conditions.
Cooldown Time: 5 minutes.]
'These two random trigger effects are the same as the ones in Failure.'
These effects were also present in the 'Failure' that Grid had designed in the previous turn. They were random trigger effects or skills in certain conditions. The active versions of these effects were classified as skills—which required consumption of resources and had higher cooldown time. Bisect skill also didn't need preconditions mentioned in the description of Bisect effect to be used. For now, however, they were only present as the random trigger effects. They worked in tandem with each other. Cutting not only increased the probability of the activation of the Bisect effect but was also a basic condition for that. Bisect effects of both slash skills were separate and didn't share cooldown time as well. The cooldown time for the Bisect effect occurring again was 5 minutes—which was also listed in the description of Vertical and Horizontal slashes. This meant the Bisect effect wouldn't occur again under 5 minutes after activating once.
'These effects may be useful at random times, but not much. Let's go to the main haul. Let's take a look at the drop items.'
[Rabbit Meat]
[It is ordinary rabbit's meat. Helps in the recovery of health and stamina gradually.
* Recovers 50 health points and 5 stamina resource points gradually when consumed after cooking.
Caution: There is a low probability of food poisoning when raw meat is consumed without being cooked properly.
Weight: 2.]
'Same as before.'
[Elite Rabbit's Meat]
[A rare delicious rabbit's meat not found in everyday markets. Helps in the recovery of health and stamina faster.
* Recovers 100 health points and 10 stamina resource points swiftly when consumed after cooking.
Caution: There is a low probability of food poisoning when raw meat is consumed without being cooked properly.
Weight: 3.]
'Hmm... The title is in blue. It's decent, but not much. Anyway, the main course is still remaining.'
[Silver Rabbit's Meat]
[A unique rabbit's meat. It is very delicious and only available to players who have cleared a 'hidden event'.
Helps in the recovery of health & stamina at an extreme pace and increases Stamina stat by a certain amount permanently.
* Recovers 200 health points and 20 stamina resource points immediately after the whole consumption of cooked meat.
★ Permanently increases Stamina by 5~10 points. The better the meat cooked, the better the probability of acquiring a maximum increase in stat would be.
Caution: There is a low probability of food poisoning when raw meat is consumed without being cooked properly.
Conditions of Use: Grid
Weight: 5.]
"Kuhahahat...! Hurray!!"—Grid was laughing and very happy that he acquired an elixir-type consumable just at the beginning of the game.
'Hurray... Red—it's a unique item. I can't believe there was a hidden setting to acquire such a gem of items just at the beginning of the game. This will help me a lot in my current form. Looking at the conditions of use, it seems like only the players who cleared the hidden event can use such items. Maybe... I just hope that there will be more of such hidden events. Well... I will just focus on hunting monsters faster and see if any hidden event is triggered again. Did Kraugel trigger something like this in the previous turn? I will think of it later. Will cook meat later, let's see the description of the last item before.'
[Beginner's Deluxe Boots]
[Rating: Epic
Durability: 17/17 | Defense: 10
Movement Speed: +2%
These very comfortable and lightweight boots are made from the leather of a silver rabbit for the capable beginner who cleared a hidden event.
It is a part of Beginner's Deluxe Set. A bonus effect will be applied when all 4 items are collected and equipped simultaneously.
Conditions of Use: Grid
Weight: 20.]
'Pretty good. Nice... very nice. The title is in purple color, an epic-rated item. The stats and benefits provided are way better than the trash I had as a level 20+ Warrior. Not only that, it's a set item. It's a part of a set. This item mentioned the hidden event gain, meaning there should be other hidden events from where I can acquire the set items of the Beginner Deluxe Set.'
'First of all, let's equip the boots and then cook the silver rabbit's meat and increase the points in Stamina for further growth.'
"Equip the Beginner's Deluxe Boots!"
[You have equipped the Beginner's Deluxe Boots.]
With this, Grid started collecting some dried leaves and small twigs to lit a fire to cook the silver rabbit's meat.
***
Grid collected some dried leaves and small twigs in 5 minutes and was ready to lit a fire...