Nfirea turned and looked at the little old woman walking over, an embarrassed look appearing on his face. "Grandmother."
"This is not a place for you to play the philanthropist."
"While the Royal Tournament is going on, what you should be doing is buying and gathering herbs."
Lizzie clasped her hands behind her back. Her wrinkled cheeks showed an impatient expression as she spoke in a slightly irritated tone.
"Yes, Grandmother."
Nfirea reached up to scratch his short golden hair and replied in a small voice.
Hearing the brief exchange between the two, Aaron finally understood why this pair of grandmother and grandson, who should have been in the border city of E-Rantel, were now in the royal capital.
That thought flashed through his mind.
Aaron did his best to keep his expression calm.
Despite Lizzie, Nfirea's grandmother, looking like an insignificant little old lady with almost no presence even in the anime,
she was actually the most famous apothecary in E-Rantel and a genuine third-tier magic caster.
Converted into levels, that should put her at level 15 or above—a formidable figure among humans.
At the very least, someone Aaron absolutely could not afford to provoke right now.
Lizzie's gaze fell on Aaron, pausing first on the short sword at his waist, then flicking over his slightly muscular arm.
"Let's go, Nfirea." Lizzie withdrew her gaze without any change in expression, turned around with her hands behind her back, and started to leave.
"Okay, Grandmother."
Nfirea responded quickly and stepped toward the street. Then his figure paused slightly, and he turned back to look at Aaron again.
"You're probably here to watch Mr. Gazef and Mr. Brain fight, right? I heard the seats in the arena are very expensive."
"Um, here, take this waterskin. Eating rye bread dry like that makes it easy to choke."
As Nfirea spoke, he unfastened a waterskin from his waist and held it out to Aaron.
This guy… is kind of annoying.
Aaron's cheeks twitched. If he did not already know Nfirea's personality, this kind of sudden kindness from a stranger would easily make one suspicious.
Moreover,
as someone who grew up an orphan, Aaron had never been fond of this sort of inexplicable goodwill.
"No…"
Aaron had just opened his mouth to refuse when Nfirea simply shoved the waterskin into his hand.
The sudden motion
made Aaron's expression change slightly.
Not because of Nfirea's insistence on giving him the waterskin, but because at the instant they made contact, the status panel suddenly displayed new information.
Vmm—
"Contact with special dual basic-class holder—Alchemist (Genius), Apothecary (Genius). General class acquisition condition triggered."
"General class 'Genius' obtained. Change to this class?"
"Note: This is a general class and does not provide any stat bonuses."
Aaron's arm could not help but tremble as he read the information on the panel.
In the game YGGDRASIL, combat classes were divided into basic, intermediate, and high-tier/special classes. In addition, there were non-combat general classes.
They could also be understood as production jobs.
For example: apothecary, alchemist, blacksmith, farmer, merchant—classes that did not directly help in combat and were essentially support roles.
In the other world, however,
general classes did not only include production jobs. They also encompassed many classes that did not exist in the game at all, such as slave, maid, noble, prince, king, princess, and so on.
These general classes were even less useful than production jobs. Classes like "Prince" and "Noble" were something you were born with, while "Slave" would be obtained automatically later as a result of life experiences.
This was the fundamental difference between natives of the other world and players.
Players could actively choose whether to take a class, while people of this world would automatically gain relevant classes according to their life experiences, even if they were unwilling.
"Change class!"
With almost no hesitation, Aaron hurriedly muttered in his heart.
Having just been agonizing over whether to choose a basic warrior class or a basic caster class, Aaron did not hesitate at all to pick a general class that offered zero direct combat benefit.
That alone showed
how excited he was inside.
General classes did not directly increase combat power, but that did not mean all these general classes—especially the ones that did not exist in the game—were trash.
"Class change successful—Genius: Lv1."
"Genius (General): This class can substitute for any basic or general class and can be changed into whatever class is needed."
"Note: Due to the special nature of this class, leveling it up will not increase base stats, and when converted into another class, it does not grant that class's traits."
Aaron stared at the message and forced himself to suppress the surge of excitement in his heart.
"Are you okay?"
Nfirea looked at Aaron, who was gripping his hand tightly and whose emotions had suddenly shifted, and asked in a slightly puzzled, worried tone.
"Sorry, and thank you." Hearing the question, Aaron snapped back to reality, quickly let go of Nfirea's hand, took the waterskin properly, and spoke in a serious tone.
That thank-you was completely genuine.
"It's fine."
Nfirea did not seem to notice anything unusual. He nodded to Aaron, then turned and walked off quickly.
Watching Nfirea's departing figure, Aaron took a deep breath, his eyes flickering with excitement.
He had never expected to obtain such an ultra-rare general class by accident.
With the class "Genius," Aaron no longer needed to worry about his choice of basic classes. One major headache in his class build had simply vanished.
Most importantly, his margin for error in class construction had increased dramatically.
As far as Aaron knew, there was only one other person in this world who also possessed the "Genius" class: the Golden Princess Renner of the Re-Estize Kingdom.
Calling her the "Kingdom-Destroying Princess" would not be wrong either.
Her "Princess (General)" class was a conversion from "Genius (General)."
This ultra-rare general class was, in truth, somewhat wasted in the hands of the Golden Princess—or rather, in the hands of the natives of this other world.
Only in the hands of a player could this class's true power be brought out.
At this moment, Aaron suddenly felt a loosening in his chest, as if a taut string had finally slackened.
The despair that had been weighing on him all this time had faded somewhat. Even though he had only taken on a general class, Aaron no longer felt quite so lost about the future.
"I also just picked up another important piece of information."
Aaron's eyes grew a little brighter.
Contact with Nfirea had actually triggered the condition to obtain a general class. That was something Aaron had not expected.
Combined with the fact that touching weapons could also trigger class prompts, he now understood two key ways in which his innate ability "Player" allowed him to take on classes.
However—
Judging from the fact that he had only obtained a general class and not the Alchemist or Apothecary classes, ordinary contact with others probably could not trigger class acquisition.
"It only worked this time because Nfirea had the dual 'Genius' traits of Alchemist (Genius) and Apothecary (Genius), which accidentally triggered the general class 'Genius,' huh."
Aaron thought to himself, deep in contemplation.