Mercenary System: I can increase innate potential !

Kavasta opened his lips and uttered exactly 3 words.

"Pay-to-win."

"Does that mean anything to you?"

Maxime didn’t understand, but his brain was firing on all cylinders.

"Pay-to-win? A term used in video games?"

"But what’s that got to do with Eternity..."

Then suddenly he began to make the connection, though he didn’t quite believe what he was thinking.

Kavasta noticed his change of expression and smiled.

"Eternity is a pay-to-win game."

For a moment Maxime didn’t react.

Or rather, he didn’t know how to react, so difficult was the information to absorb. It was something he’d never have imagined without being told.

"A pay-to-win game?"

"That’s right."

Silence settled in the room.

"How could Eternity be a pay-to-win game?" asked Maxime.

He already knew that Eternity was a real world, and that was precisely what made any attempt at cheating or the like complicated.

What methods in the real world could give advantages in Eternity?

"Open the box first, and then I’ll explain."

Maxime swallowed and slowly lowered his eyes to the black box in front of him. It seemed banal in appearance, with no engravings or ornaments, and yet something about its weight and texture exuded a certain importance.

He placed his fingers on the lid. The material was cool and smooth, slightly rough under his palms. He pressed gently, looking for an opening mechanism.

"Don’t look too hard, there’s a slot in the middle. Just lift that slot."

Maxime was a little embarrassed, there were so many high-tech objects around that he thought this box, containing a precious secret, had to have a security.

But no, it was like opening a small jewelry box.

The lid slowly lifted, revealing a dark interior. No lights, no special effects. Just a simple card lying inside.

Maxime squinted, expecting to see something more... impressive.

"A map?"

Kavasta said nothing, and simply watched with a smile.

Maxime reached out and gently took it. The paper was thick, slightly grainy, giving off a strange sensation between ancient and modern.

It looked very precious, particularly because of the very realistic drawing on the card.

Maxime even wondered if it wasn’t a photo.

The picture showed a kindly-looking old man surrounded by numerous small animals that seemed to want to cling to him. The scenery suggested a forest.

This image somehow soothed Maxime’s mind, and made him feel good.

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At the same time, he was asking himself a multitude of questions.

How could this card be used, and what effects did it have?

How had it appeared or been made?

As he turned the card over between his fingers, a sound suddenly rang in his mind.

Ding!

[Detected that a 4-star "class" card is in your hands].

[Would you like to absorb it?]

[Yes/No].

Maxime froze.

This was the first time the system had sounded, even though it had nothing to do with his talent or when he was due to join Eternity.

Kavasta, still seated opposite him, crossed his arms with a smirk.

"You just got the notification, didn’t you?"

"Yes...it says it’s a four-star ’class’ type card."

Kavasta smiled with some satisfaction. He was enjoying seeing the confusion on Maxime’s face.

When he’d received his first card, which was just a 2-star resource card provided by his university, he’d also been very surprised.

"So what do you think?"

Maxime hesitated.

"Don’t tell me it lets you unlock a rare class without spending any experience?"

As far as he knew, Maxime only knew about common, uncommon and rare classes.

The common ones being generally the swordsman, spearman and archer classes.

This was a general estimate. Maxime’s class, in particular, could not be common because it was already level 9, and had not reached its limit.

The limit for common classes is generally from level 7 to level 9.

Uncommon classes included riders and commanders, as well as classes related to money-making professions such as merchants, blacksmiths and so on.

They were classified here because, in a world where earning money was the extent to which strength could grow, it was bound to be very useful.

Level limits for uncommon combat classes ranged from level 9 to level 12, while non-combat professions generally had the same limit as common classes.

And finally, there were the rare classes, which possessed unique and very powerful characteristics. There were usually very powerful talents associated with them, such as the Berserker class, which gave fearsome strength bonuses as the user’s wounds worsened!

Such was the case with Samuel, Maxime’s best friend on Earth!

"A rare class?"

Kavasta felt like laughing upon hearing this.

"Tell yourself that a 4-star card is even rarer and, above all, far more valuable than a mercenary with 5-star potential who might be under your command."

As he said this, Maxime’s curiosity burned at its peak.

Although he had two mercenaries with 6-star potential, who were Langus and Kaite, it was only thanks to his talent that he was able to increase the potential of his mercenaries by two stars.

In fact, he wondered if his talent had any effect on Dravus...

But he’d decided to look into that later.

Especially since Kavasta’s reason for saying this was that this card must have cost an immense fortune!

Because a mercenary with 5-star potential was usually a great knight, or had the potential to have strength similar to that of a great knight!

This was the kind of person qualified to become a duke in Eternity! The easiest was to become an earl, since the higher ranks of nobility also required men of grand chevalier level under his command.

And Kavasta said this card was even more valuable than one individual of that level under orders!

"Can you tell me what this card is, Commander?"

"Trust me and use the card. It’s my gift so don’t worry, it’s really a very good thing for you."

Maxime breathed in, then decided to listen to Kavasta.

[Detected that a 4-star "class" card is in your hands].

[Would you like to absorb the 4-star "class" card in your hands?]

[Yes/No.]

"Yes, absorb the 4-star ’class’ card."

As he finished confirming, the watch hanging on his left wrist glowed, as did the card in his hands.

Then, little by little, the card in his hands evaporated into thousands of white lights.

From then on, countless notification panels appeared one after the other in front of Maxime.

Maxime took the time to read each one.

[Unlock the ’Beast Tamer’ class].

"Beast tamer?"

"That sounds really great."

Maxime was really happy, because it was every self-respecting warrior’s dream to be able to fight alongside powerful, loyal animals.

They were also far more reliable than the mercenaries recruited in Eternity.

After all, changes in the human heart are probably the hardest thing to predict.

[Unlock new skill]

[Bestial Bond: Allows you to establish a bond between the host and an animal].

"Basic skill of the new class, and the most important I imagine."

"It’s good that it’s given from the start."

[Unlocking a new skill]

[Rest: A mental space reserved for animals with a link to you. They can rest, eat, drink and sleep inside].

"Now that’s pretty amazing."

This had a rather practical aspect for traveling, but also for keeping animals as an asset in future battle.

As he watched the notification, he felt a space in his mind opening up.

But for the moment, he couldn’t say what this space looked like, or how big it was.

"It’s really a strange feeling, a bit like the sensation of having a new organ and not being able to feel it anymore."

But he was happy.

He looked at the last notification panel.

[Unlock new statistic]

"A new statistic?"

[Bestiality: Unique to the Beast Tamer class. Influences the number of beasts you can link to you simultaneously as well as some of the class-related skills].

"A very important new stat. If I understand correctly, as long as I have enough points in this stat, I’ll be able to contract animals ad infinitum?"

"This literally represents the power to build an animal army as long as the stat is high enough."

But just as these were to be the only notifications, a familiar sound rang out again startling Maxime.

Ding!

"Isn’t it over?"

More notification panels began to appear in front of Maxime.

[Your talent [Nox Limit] influences your new class].

[You’re unlocking a new talent!]

"What’s that?"

"A new talent?"

Maxime was more than surprised.

[Zero Limit (Legendary): Spend gold to improve your beasts’ bloodline]

"What’s that?"

"What’s this totally cheated talent?"

Maxime understood that it was a derivative of his main talent [Nox Limit], but he still couldn’t figure it out.

"A simple reaction to the opening of a class allows you to have a talent of legendary rank?"

Especially since this talent was well worthy of being legendary!

With this, even if he couldn’t find a powerful beast, he could simply take a random beast and turn it into a demonic existence!

This directly solved the problem at the root of his new class!

Otherwise, if he had to regularly replace the beasts that followed him because they were too weak and endowed with limited potential, he’d be heartbroken every time.

Kavasta, standing next to him, could only see the excitement in Maxime’s eyes. But he himself thought it was only due to the fact that he’d obtained a new class, and a very strong one at that.

Little did he know that obtaining this class would cause a chain reaction because of the talents Maxime originally possessed.

Ding! Enjoy more content from novelbuddy

"Isn’t it over yet?"

Maxime was at a loss for words to describe this bewildering situation.

[Your talent [Life Awakening] influences your new class!]

[You get a new skill!]