The kingdom of Aran, a prosperous place and a renowned power in the world. Lines of merchants and travellers went to and fro the gates of Mayrose, it's proud capital.
But one day, a giant, red evil dragon crashed down from the skies and destroyed part of the city, it kidnapped the princess Thea, a girl beloved by the people.
Anxious, the king offered wealth and honor to those that could rescue his daughter from the claws of the evil dragon, whose lair lies in the distant Darkness Mountain Range. Even offering half the continent as a reward.
And so begun the craze of Dragon slaying and becoming the knight in shining armor. People across all nations, sought to slay the dragon and become a son-in-law of the Aran king.
This was the Age of Heroes!
"Bard, I have already heard this story from you so many times my ears have gone numb, don't you got something new?"
Speechless, the middle aged man dressed like a bard, holding a scroll with lute strung in his back, looked at the teenager who spoke to him.
"What story could I possibly tell you? I live here and barely leave this village at all!"
"Then why even chose to be a bard?"
The bard looked helpless, "My entire family are bards, what do you think?"
"Are you about to reach level 30?" The young man suddenly asked.
The bard sighed, "Close, but repeating stories made the EXP yield diminish, it would probably take a month or two."
The bard looked at the young man and said, "You should focus more on yourself. You are about to turn 18, make sure to select a class you can easily level. Sigh, don't be like me."
The young man nodded, dropped a copper coin to the tip bowl and left the village square.
The three moons in the skies above were visible despite the fact that it was daytime. Their size were massive compared to the moon of Earth, his previous world.
Abel, the young man, was originally a college graduate from Earth, but he died on an accident and transmigrated here in his own body. After transmigrating, his body reverted to his younger version. Truly a miracle.
After a year, he still had little understanding of this world. But what little he knew amazed him, because this world operates like a game world, with "swords and magic" genre.
There were two major forces according to the plot introduction by the bard, the righteous Adventurers whose mission is to rescue to the princess, and the evil Dragon who kidnapped her.
Though doubtful, he had no choice to believe this since everyone else does. This princess and evil dragon thing seem to be a real historical event to them.
Though when asked, they don't have the slightest clue where the so called Kingdom of Aran was.
He sighed, the locals knew better, if they believe it as truth, then truth is it.
The thing he had to think about now is the class selection thing.
In video games, this kind of selection occurs after character creation. In this world, it happens when a person turns 18.
Tomorrow would be his turn. How does he know this? It was because he had a character panel.
Name: Abel
Class: Countdown 00:16:32:05
Level: Locked
It just displays three data. After asking, it seemed like the way a character panel manifest is unique to individuals, it could even change in real time depending on the individuals cognition.
Some perceive it visually, like himself, to others it manifest as sound, instinct or revelation. But no matter the means, it can be as precise and accurate as the user wants it to be.
"They say the class available would depend on how you have lived your life before. I hope my one year of preparation is enough."
After learning about class selection, Abel roleplayed as a mage with the village kids. Though the role he got was always the evil mage.
No choice, for the sake of his career, he had to endure this much. Besides, being an evil mage does not seem so bad.
His steps stopped in front of a shack, just outside the village and close to the forest. After knowing that he was a lost traveller, the kind villagers had built him this simple abode.
In exchange, Abel thought the children and some adults arithmetic. He would have wanted to teach them more, but their shallow foundation only allowed this much.
Just outside was an iron pot with glowing coals underneath. Able promptly ate his prepared soup, rested a bit and started to exercise.
He, who once lived in a fast-paced world that preys on attention and dopamine addiction, felt like a fish on dry land when he first arrived.
Fortunately, he got used to life, started socializing and working out to consume his abundant time.
When the skies were dark, Abel washed up and directly went to bed.
He woke up early morning, full of energy and with the three moons still shining in the dark sky.
He took up a hard piece of bread, his breakfast, and slung a bamboo basket on his back, preparing to forage for ingredients.
As for meat, this world was not lacking at all.
According to the lore, the evil dragon's magic forced a pathway to the void into this world.
All beasts mutated, some became strong and fierce, smashing through city walls and causing devastation for miles. Some developed extremely fast reproduction, capable of forming a beast tide every once a month.
Aside from this, Void creatures occasionally appear and take up a piece of this world as their territories.
As a modern man without social life in his past life, how could Abel not be familiar with this.
Was it not the spawn and dungeon mechanics in video games?
If you are strong enough, you can harvest meat like harvesting grains. For this reason, vegetables are slightly more precious than meat in value.
The adventurers and soldiers in the front line would occasionally flood the market with meat.
Then merchants would flock to the capital, getting their hands on some stock and selling them for markup in towns and villages like theirs.
Before heading out, Abel checked his data panel.
Name: Abel
Class: countdown 00:03:36:48
Level: Locked
3 more hours until countdown. That would be around 8:00 AM.
There's honestly nothing to prepare about this. The only thing he had to do when the time comes was to select his class, and after selecting it, level up as fast as possible.
So Abel proceeded with his routine.
He strapped a large basket on his back and carried a lantern on one hand. On the way, people like him had all rose up early heading to forage.
The herbs were plenty and grew fast, but ultimately finite. First to arrive, first to get.
Abel had nearly filled up his basket when the first light of dawn appeared on the horizon. There was still more than an hour left before his awakening.
He returned home and prepared his breakfast and lunch using his harvest and preserved meat, then slept again.
[Ding! Conditions met...please select a class.]
Abel opened his eyes upon a hearing a clear chime.
Name: Abel
Class: Please Select a Class (!)
Level: Locked
Abel rose up. He did not immediately check the system. Instead, he went and finished breakfast, took a bath and exercised, then washed his hands carefully.
After doing all of this, he made sat on a relaxed position and checked the Class options.
-Gatherer
- Lumberer
- Chef
- Alchemist
- Scholar
- Teacher
- Philosopher
- Mage
...
- Hero
The class panel displayed a list of class so numerous he had to scroll down multiple times to see the bottom.
The top ones had a white color, then as he went down, the font colors also changed.
From white, to green, to blue, then purple, gold, and red.
Among his options, white, green and blue were the most numerous and took the most space.
Finally, only one glowing red font appeared on the bottom.
It was the class called [Hero].
Although many adventurers were called heroes, it was just a general title. The Great Hero Arnold's class, who appeared on history books as the one who wounded the Evil Dragon,was also not a [Hero], but [Unparalleled Warrior] who excelled in battle.
Abel did not make a choice immediately, but checked out the gold classes. There were only two of them.
One was called [Rune Engineer] and the other was called [Sage].
Most of his class options were either creative and intellect based class, except for [Hero], which he assumed to be a battle type.
Abel guessed this has something to do with his past life, being a computer science graduate and also game enthusiast.
Seems like his education still has some use.
It was a dilemma, what class should he choose?