Starting from Zero

Chapter 3 — Character Creation (2)

The system prompt sounded again. “We will now commence the calculation of your second prize item.” It was another two seconds of silence. “The result of your second prize item is that you will receive an additional main profession as well as an additional job. Because normal accounts can have one main profession as well as two jobs, you will therefore have two main professions and three jobs. Next, please designate your main professions. As you are of the Demon Race, there are some professions you will not be able to undertake. You can choose from these six professions: Warrior, Spellblade, Shadowblade, Dark Warrior, Beast Tamer and a.s.sa.s.sin. Of these, Beast Tamer is part of the hidden professions that not everyone has access to.”

“Could you introduce them?” I was still going through with this prudently, listening first before making my decisions.

“The warrior profession is a profession of purely physical attacks. It has bonuses in attack power, defense, as well as regeneration attributes. In the future, Warriors can upgrade to become Knights, Holy Knights, and then Dragon Knights. The Spellblade profession has a mix of physical attacks as well as magic attacks. It possesses bonuses in attack power, defense, magic, magic defense, regeneration speed, as well as magic regeneration speed. However, the bonuses for each are not too high. Spell Blades will upgrade to Mage Bards, then Spirit Warrior, and finally DemiG.o.ds. The bonuses for the Shadowblade profession are similar to the Spell Blade’s, and they will upgrade to Magic Minstrels, Evil Spirit Warriors and finally, Great Demons. The Dark Warrior’s bonuses are similar to the Warrior’s, and their profession upgrades are, in order, Dark Knights, Dullahans, and finally, h.e.l.l Knights. Beast Tamers rely mainly on keeping magic pets and servant familiars for battle; they can also use magic attacks as well. Their bonuses are for magic attack power, magic defence, magic regeneration speed, number of pets that can be kept and number of familiars that can be controlled. In the future, they can be upgraded to Summoner, then Monster Spirit, and lastly, Beast G.o.d. The a.s.sa.s.sin profession is mainly physical attack oriented. It has bonuses for attack power, agility, and the servant familiar control stats. a.s.sa.s.sins will rise in grade to become Hitmen, Murderers, and lastly, G.o.dslayers. The above are concise introductions to each of these professions. Have you decided which profession you will choose?”

My character’s name is Zi Ri (lit. Purple Sun), so I ought to take a shadier path. Because of this, I’ll definitely not be choosing the Warrior or Spellblade professions. Although Shadowblades benefit in both martial arts and magic, in the end, it’s still strong at neither, so I won’t be choosing it. Shady professions like the a.s.sa.s.sin do not suit my character, so I’ll be pa.s.sing that one up too. “May I ask if I can choose two main professions?” This time round, I didn’t dare to make things difficult for the system anymore, so I used polite speech as much as possible.

“That’s right!”

“Then, set my main professions as Dark Warrior and Beast Tamer.”

“Main professions confirmed. Now, we’ll begin the selection of jobs. The jobs you can choose from include: Blacksmith, Alchemist, Appraiser, Breeder, Stonemason, Porter and Mailman.”

The old rule of getting advice first applies again. “May I know what the specialities of each profession are?”

“Blacksmiths can learn the technique of gathering and can obtain many special materials, and will upgrade to Forgemasters. Alchemists can collect herbs themselves to make bottled medicine, and they can upgrade to Immortal Alchemists. Appraisers can identify items as well as monsters. They can upgrade to Appraisal Experts. Breeders can capture pets and servant familiars themselves, and have bonuses for control of pets and servant familiars. They can upgrade to Magic Beast Experts. Stonemasons can build houses themselves, as well as collect precious stones. They can upgrade to Architects. Porters don’t have their own special abilities, but the job can increase your HP and endurance limit, and they can be upgraded to Bearer. Mailmen have no special abilities, but have endurance and agility boosts instead. They can upgrade to Intelligence Agent. The above are these professions’ specialties. Have you decided on the jobs you will take?”

“I’ll still use the elimination method.”

“Alright!”

“While the stonemason can build his own house, the chances that I’ll come to use it are not high. Delete.”

“There are still six professions; you have to eliminate three more!”

“Although Alchemists can refine their own medicine, I certainly have no time to leisurely look for herbs in the mountain. Eliminate.”

“Five more items!”

“Although Porters and Mailmen have bonuses, I doubt they’ll be a lot. It’ll probably not be too useful. Eliminate.”

“Only Blacksmith, Appraiser and Breeder are left. Are you sure you’ll be choosing these three professions?”

“Yes. Confirm!”

“Confirmed profession choices, next up will be the calculation for the third prize.” It was still two seconds of silence. “Your third prize has emerged, the prize you have received is that you will randomly be awarded four automatically added bonus stats.”

“What do you mean by random automatically awarded bonuses?”

“Random automatically added bonus stats mean that these four points will be added by the system randomly after you’re done allotting points into your stats. Therefore, you have no way of knowing what stats will be added for you.”

“d.a.m.n! Then wouldn’t I have to consider it as not having any bonus stat points added! Forget it, at least it’s better than not having any.”

“Then, please start allotting stat points for your character!” Suddenly, a stat box flashed in front of me. “The stats you can add points to include: Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Charisma, Energy and Const.i.tution for a total of six types of stats.  A standard character has a thirty fundamental points, but since you are of the Demon Race, three extra points will be added to your basic points. As you were the first player to choose the Demon Race, you will have an additional reward of one point. Therefore, the points you can distribute come to a total of thirty four. In addition, we would like to point out that your basic points will directly affect your future stat bonuses, and you will be unable to change this bonus in future. Later on, your points will be automatically distributed based on the proportion of stats allotted now, and the player’s opinion will not be taken into account. Have you decided how you will distribute your points?”

“May I ask what that distribution based on proportion means?”

“After this, every time you level up, you will get thirty four basic points. These basic points will automatically be distributed based on your current distributed figures to your stat points. For example, if you a.s.sign thirty points to Strength, then every time you level up in future, thirty points will be added to Strength. Otherwise, if you a.s.sign no points into Strength, then in future, the points in Strength will always be zero, no matter how many times you level up.”

“Got it! Then how do these stat points affect a character’s performance? What is the specific conversion rate?”

“Sorry! Publicly, this game’s specific conversion rate can only be up to the player’s own speculation. The company only allows us to inform players of the relationship between stats and basic points.”

“Then tell me how they’re related!”

“Strength points affect your regeneration, physical attacks, physical defense, as well as endurance. Agility affects your movement speed, magic attack speed, physical defense, magic defense, physical attack accuracy, as well as magic attack accuracy. Intelligence affects your magic value upper limit, and the types of magic you can learn. Each type of magic has a certain Intelligence requirement, so you will only be able to learn the corresponding magic if you fulfil that criteria. Charisma mainly affects the number of magical pets you can rear, the number of servants familiars you can recruit and the att.i.tudes NPCs will adopt towards you. Characters with high Charisma can frequently receive NPCs’ special hidden a.s.signments. However, it needs to be specially explained that once you’ve distributed your points into Charisma, even if your Charisma increases in future, it will only affect your relationship with NPCs. This is because your appearance, as well as the number of magical pets and servant familiars you can control will only be affected by the first time you allot stats into Charisma, and will not increase with your Charisma stat in future. Energy affects your magic attacks, magic regeneration speed, physical attacks’ accuracy and magic attacks’ accuracy. Const.i.tution affects your HP limit, health regeneration speed, stamina, and magic limit.”

“So complicated! For heaven’s sake!” I began to enter a state of frantic calculation and thinking — Twenty minutes later. “I’ve decided. I have thirty four basic stat points, right?”

“That’s right. It’s a total of thirty four points from the basic thirty points in addition to four points from the prize.”

“I want to first add two points to charisma. This attribute doesn’t seem to be very useful, so I’ll only put a few points into it.”

“You still have thirty-two basic points.”

“I don’t intend to mainly use magic, so three points in energy is enough.”

“You still have twenty nine points.”

“As a Warrior type character, I should have strong attacks and high virility. I’d like to add thirteen points to strength and eight points to endurance.”

“You still have eight basic points. You have yet to add points to agility and intelligence.”

“If agility’s too low, there might be situations where I’ll keep getting MISS. I want to add six points to agility. Put all the rest in intelligence.”

“Stat distribution complete. Now we will commence the random stat distribution.” The stat box flashed and the system reminder voiced once again. “It is concluded that the random stat will be added to Charisma.”

“Ah! How can I be so unlucky? How did it end up getting added to the most unimportant item!” Even though I felt really depressed, I could still accept it. After all, I was taking it for free! “Is there anything else I have to set up now?”

“Your character setup is complete. Your stats are now as follows.”

“It seems acceptable! Although it isn’t OP, it’s still not bad.”

I was looking at the numbers, when the system prompt suddenly spoke yet again. “According to your main profession and jobs, the bonus to stats will be carried out. The numbers are as such after the additions.” A white light flashed yet again. I feel like my brain’s been flashed giddy!

I opened my eyes and looked! How is this a character? It’s practically become an abnormal creature! Now, the first few stat items were:

The scariest were the last two stats. Magic Pet Number (CTRL) had actually become 7, and the Servant Familiar Number had actually grown to 10. I was extremely afraid that the system had made a mistake. “May I ask why there are so many magical pets and servant familiars? Was it calculated wrongly?”

“There’s no error in the calculation! Charisma had six points added to it, and according to that, as well as the 50% ratio of magical pet number to Charisma, you will have three magical pet numbers. However, as Beast Tamer is one of the professions you’d chosen, there is a bonus of one magical pet number. Breeder happens to be one of your jobs, so you get another bonus of 1. Because you are of the Demon Race, you will have 2 basic pet numbers per se. Therefore, your actual magic pet number is 7. As for the number of servant familiars you can control, it would be 150% of your magical pet number; excluding the remainder, which would be 10. By the way, magic pets will level up with the experience they acc.u.mulate from battles, while servant familiars will remain at the level they were caught at. Magic pets cannot be changed once they are selected, so please choose carefully. Servant familiars can be released, so they can be swapped for better ones at any time.”

“Thanks! I understand now. Can I start the game yet?”

“Hold up, you still have a prize you’ve yet to receive. Now we’ll begin calculations.” This round took an entire half hour, and I almost thought the system had crashed! “Your last prize is an addition of five to the hidden stat, Luck.”

“Adding five to Luck?”

“Yes. The luck stat can not be seen in the stat box. However, every point in Luck will affect all your probability calculations. Each point in Luck will add ten percent to an advantageous roll, which goes to say that your gear drop rate will be higher than others’ by 50%, and your chance of losing equipment after being killed by monsters will be lower than others’ by 50%. Generally, heavy attacks that may even result in deadly strikes which deal double damage will also occur more often. If you have a shield equipped, the probability that you will block enemy attacks will also be very high.”

“Whoa! Such a hack! After gambling for half a day, this stat is the most OP! Haha! Haha!”