Starting from Zero

Book 1, Chapter 5

Side Classes

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Walking out of the Institution, I began to consider how to level.

First I walked into a store called the "Cloud Hill", and bought a small health potion using 6 copper. Ah, the pain!

Ouch. Just one copper left in the wallet. There's no other way. Go kill mobs and collect money!

I ran for about 20 minutes to leave Cold Jadeite. This grand city is just so different from the rookie village. It's freaking huge! Outside the city is grassland, there are many yaks here. I remember from the official introduction, yaks are level 27, and they're passive offensive. Best targets for new players.

I found a yak at the outside of the herd, rushed over and slashed it. A red "200" appeared. The angered yak hoed at the ground and charged at me. I side stepped and avoided it, then slashed at the yak's back legs.

*Ding* "Leg of Yak injured. Actions slowed by 3 points."

Huh. Attacking different body parts can have various effects, it seems. Looks like I'll have to do some experiment about it. It's good there are plenty of targets here. Let's finish this one in front of me first.

The yak quickly turned around and charged back, I dodged again. And then swiped at the yak's side part. 500 damage.

I see, in [Zero], you get different results by attacking monsters in different areas.

I made another normal attack which caused 150 damage, the yak collapsed. I continued with 4 to 5 yaks and estimated that yaks have around 1k HP. I guess they are the squishy type with a lot of HP.

Since I found out the rules, I started grinding. And reached 24 with less than an hour. I looked at the rankings, and shit these guys are crazy! Now the one on the top is a Warrior called "Big Blade More Killz", now 32. Following him is a level 31 Warrior, then 2-3 people at each level. It's the beginning and the situation is already intense. It would only get even worse in the future! I got no idea how these guys leveled so fast, I can use my OP attack power as advantage, but how did they manage it?

This isn't good! I need to get past them. I need some way to do it.

Right! I should get into the forest, maybe I can run into a high-leveled boss or something. That would level me up quickly! I checked my inventory. One small HP potion. This won't do, I need to buy some more. I've collected 79 Copper on me.

Sigh, maybe this is enough to register my Side Classes. I decided to go try my luck.

When I'm back at the Institution, I've reached 25. This time I went to the Side Class counter. Another pretty elf girl behind it. "Hello, I'm here to register my side classes."

"Of course. Which side classes are you going to register?"

"I'm becoming Blacksmith, Breeder, Appraiser."

"Ah! You are a gifted player! The registration for Blacksmith will cost 20 Copper, 30 for Breeder, and 30 for Appraiser."

"Eh? That's expensive!" I took out the only 79 copper pieces I have on me. Red faced.

The young master of the corporation, now lacking 1 single copper coin! "I only have 79! Can I register two classes for now?"

The elf cover her mouth and giggled. "You're funny. 79 will do!"

"What? You mean, I can just pay 79 Copper?"

"That's right!" Her giggle turned into laughter.

I passed her the pieces. She wrote down several papers and put them up.

The system noticed:"Player Ziri has become Blacksmith and obtained skills: Gather, Forge, Reinforce.

Player Ziri has become Breeder and obtained skills: Capture, Breed.

Player Ziri has become Appraiser and obtained skills: Identify, Secret Knowledge."

"New skills! Haha, I wonder what they do!"

The elf girl saw my mind and explained to me:

"Blacksmith's Gather skill lets your see minerals available for collecting when you fight or travel, or directly find materials from monsters for forging stuff.

Forge skill lets you craft weapons or armors from raw materials, but your skill is now level 0, so you will have a poor success rate. When forging, if you fail, the equipment and materials will disappear. It is recommended to find something cheap to grind your skill level first.

Reinforce allows you to upgrade your equipment. When you find gems or other special materials, you can use them to reinforce your equipment to raise its attributes. But please mind that if failed, you will lose all the materials, AND the equipment will have random attributes lowered. Sometimes the equipment will even break apart.

Breeder's Capture skill is used for acquiring Companions. Tamers are not able to catch companions themselves, they rely on companions to fight but they have to buy them, unless they are Breeders just like you. You can't use Capture skill freely. In theory, all monsters in [Zero] can become your Companion, but if their level is too high, you will only get yourself attacked and killed.

A side note, a monster after capturing is a companion. The Servant of a Tamer means the soul of the companion after they die, not the companion itself. If you want a Servant, you will have to kill your companion and use Capture skill. But you need to be fast, for the companion will disappear after 30 seconds of death, you cannot capture it as servant after that.

Breed skill is long-term, it leverages food and training to make your companions stronger.

The Identify skill of a Appraiser is very practical, players with this skill can directly identify a equipment's attributes. You can also use this skill on monsters and other players, there is a chance you will able to get their names and attributes.

Secret Knowledge is a particular skill, it raises the power of your weapon. For instance, a weapon has a hidden skill which doubles its Attack, then players with Secret Knowledge skill will enjoy this double attack bonus, those without the skill will not.

Okay, that's all I need to explain. You can come ask me if you got any other questions later."

"Thanks! I'll come again. And I'll bring you some perfumes next time."

The smile on her face got larger. "Really? You'd better remember it!"

I left the hall. That elf girl was obviously over-passionate, was that the effect of a high Charisma?

Good! I got to put all these skills to good use. Let's get into the mountains and dig for treasures.