--
"Ready?" TJ asked Sieg as they both solemnly stood still.
Sieg nodded at him, excitement couldn't be hidden from his face as he did so. He gripped his waraxe tighter as if he couldn't wait anymore.
"Alright, go!"
At TJ's signal, both of them opened their Profiles and dumped the last bunch of exp they needed to reach 1★ Novice Rank today.
Yes, today is the 10th day since they were allowed in this training room. Meaning that they've accumulated enough exp to finally rank up.
At the instant they added the exp to rank up, a flash of light enveloped their bodies. Then, their senses was flooded by a wave of comfort and their souls felt like ascending.
The exact feeling was hard to explain. They just knew that from this moment onwards, they've changed into something better. The crazy part is that this was just a star rank up, not an actual professional rank up, just imagine what the latter would feel!
This sensation didn't last though. A few seconds later, the feeling subsided and their consciousness returned to the present. They both opened their eyes and saw each other still with a thin veil of light covering their bodies, making them look somewhat otherworldly. The light behaved as if the reflection of a water was on them, it looked bizarre and msytical at the same time.
[Breakthrough!]
[From: 0☆, To: 1★]
[Current Rank: 1★ Novice]
[200 exp needed for the next star rank up.]
Both Sieg and TJ received these string of system messages.
200 exp means spending a good amount of time in this training room for the next 20 days with no pause. The time needed actually doubled and it's going to take more time to fill up.
However, this couldn't dampen the joy and excitement both Sieg and TJ felt at this very moment.
'This is it.' TJ thought to himself. 'My first breakthrough. The first one out of many.'
All of a sudden, everything felt more real this time. He felt like a true upstart combat professional with this right now. It's simply different when progress was visible and real.
Of course, this rank up wasn't just for additional details. It's not just simply filling out the first out of five stars of his current rank. It also brought forth a surge in his overall strength.
In TJ's humble estimates, he's at least 10% stronger than who he was moments ago. And that's all because he simply ranked up.
One thing to note is that, this sudden surge in strength after star or professional rank ups were universal; it's not limited to the combat profession, lifestyle professionals also experiences this.
As for the Hybrid Professions, of course, they too experiences this. But it's not 1+1 because they could be both, otherwise, that would be unfair for the rest. Hybrid Professions are more common than having an affinity with the Fusion Class, after all. Hybrid Professions experiences the same strength surge as the rest.
This kind of strength surge also escalates further down the line. 1★ increases a pro's strength 10%, 2★ increases it by 20%, and so on. Upon reaching 5★, they will receive a whopping +50% in their current strength level.
Professional Rank ups are even more insane because they increase one's strength by 100% at base, essentially doubling their overall strength upon completion.
And this isn't even including the bonuses that Class Changes/Advancement gives.
"Damn, now I understand why everybody's working hard to earn exp. This feeling is just too addictive." Sieg exclaimed as his grip over his waraxe became even tighter.
TJ didn't say anything but deep down, he agrees. This applies even more strongly for him because it hasn't even been that long since his basic skills levelled up too.
He could personally confirm that the feeling of becoming stronger was indeed awesome.
"Gotta move, Sieg." TJ said as he himself walked towards the obstacle course.
"Right behind you, my guy." Sieg replied, following him.
But along with the sudden increase of his strength was the adjustment period. TJ and Sieg needs to reorient themselves with their new strength levels.
Combat Pros must do this. After all, combat was their bread and butter, they can't afford to be careless since they'd be in a battlefield for the most part of their careers. Warriors even more so since they'd be in the frontlines.
As they both ran in the obstacle course, not far away, Lily watched them with a grin on her face.
She knew what happened even if they didn't tell her. She could feel their excitement even from this distance and could piece the other clues together. She didn't say anything because she too felt the same back then.
'The boys are catching up. I can't relax or else they'd surpass me.' She thought to herself.
Lily's eyes then fell on her Profile:
**
[Profile]
Name: Lily Anne Heartveil
Age: 16
Race: Human
Bloodline: Human
Allegiance: East Victory
Profession Archetype: Combat
Class Archetype: Fusion
Rank: 1★ Novice
MP: 1500
--
[Skills]:
• Intermediate Fighting Technique
• Intermediate Footwork Technique
• Meditation Lv.1
• Magic Missile Lv.1
• Mana Enhancement (Self) Lv.1
--
[Boons]:
• Innate Boon: [Cheerful Empath]
• Awakened Boon: [Loved by Mana]
**
TJ wasn't the only one keeping secrets.
The only people that knew Lily was a dual boon possessor were her parents and her teacher. And other than them, nobody else should know, not even her childhood bestfriend, TJ.
Lily felt guilty about it at first. She's used to telling TJ everything. And through their history, she could confirm that TJ wasn't one to spill her secrets, so she was initially reluctant to not inform him.
That said, it's also because she knew TJ that she knew she had to. She was almost certain that TJ would pinch her face really hard if she told him about this, admonishing her for revealing such a huge secret.
TJ would never blame her for keeping this a secret, that's because he's TJ; he's sensible, responsible, kind, and incredibly perceptive. Despite being socially awkward, TJ just gets the situation when it matters.
Besides, Lily wouldn't have stuck with him if he was just pretending. Lily's boon: [Cheerful Empath] was one of the mystical boons that had always been active even before she had her awakening.
Lily had always been able to tell liars apart. She's also very sensitive to the emotions of people around her. No stoic faces can hide their emotions from her. This was one of the biggest reasons why she gets along with everybody and has friends everywhere she goes.
Because of this boon, Lily knew that TJ never faked anything with her. In fact, aside from her own parents, nobody has ever been more genuine to her than TJ ever did, and that's not just because they grew up together.
With all of this, she wouldn't have minded if her father decided to engage her with him. Alas, TJ sees her no more than a really good and very precious friend, so there's that.
"Dude! How the hell are you so fast!?"
Lily's musings got interrupted by Sieg's loud voice. This brought her attention to the boys who somehow got into a race.
A race that wasn't even close as TJ was sprinting way ahead of Sieg, causing a flicker of surprise to emerge on Lily's face.
"I've always been faster than you." TJ casually replied.
"I mean, yeah I know that, but I never thought that you're this much faster!!" Sieg exclaimed and panted.
"That's because his footwork is already at an Intermediate level, unlike yours that's still in the Basic level." Lily casually butted in to clarify Sieg's confusion.
"Is that so? Huh."
"Speaking of which, that's awesome, TJ! When did your footwork breakthrough?" She asked.
"Just a few days ago." TJ replied, "It seems that I forgot to tell you, sorry."
"Don't mind it!" She waved her hand. "But yeah, you should've. At the very least, I could've lended you the Intermediate Footwork Manual instead of you buying it."
"It's not that expensive." TJ understood her point right away when she said this. "Besides, I've got a generous donation from Sr. Maxwell, remember?"
"Oh, yeah! I totally forgot about that!"
She just now remembered TJ telling them about Sr. Maxwell. He told them about Hotshot, the blunderbuss, and the old man's generous donation to him.
Suffice it to say, TJ was no longer super broke, just poor.
2.5 million Geos is a lot to normal people. But even for novice combat professional like TJ, it truly wasn't, given how much money he'd have to spend in the near future.
Even simple repairs would costs 10,000 geos and above for a novice like him. Skill Books/Manuals, like the Intermediate Footwork Manual that Lily wanted to lend to him, was priced at 250,000 geos on the market.
And since the market is alive, these prices can either go lower or, most of the times, higher than they are right now.
Equipment, supplements, skills, these are the three main needs for every pro and all of them have price tags.
Some may even say that geos (money) was just as important to pro as exp does.