Arc Three: Preparations
“Hey, you, you’re finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Society ambush. Same as me, and that dragon over there.” Kali said, jerking a finger at Siph.
Lilith blinked. “What?”
Kali giggled. “You heard me right.”
“So…I wake up, ready to begin your massive, world-changing plan, and the first thing out of your mouth is a meme?”
“A meme from the intro to a game! It works! But, seriously, how are you feeling?”
Lilith took a moment to take stock of herself. “Honestly? Awful. I feel weak, sickly, and tired.”
Kali nodded. “That’s to be expected. I had to set all your attributes to what I want the “average” value to be. I’ve gone ahead and given you a skill that’ll get you back up to your old stats soon, but it’s going to take a few levels. If you want to check go ahead and think about your Status and you should get a pop-up window.”
Lilith went ahead and did so and was greeted with three pop-up windows, similar to the ones given to her by Help Yourself or Instinct.
Warning: Due to the sheer number of racial classes possessed, information about racial classes has been relegated to its section, appended to the bottom of the Status. Experience has been collapsed into a percentage next to level, exact experience will be shown on the information on for each racial class.
Warning: Due to the sheer number of racial classes possessed, racial classes have been merged where applicable to reduce clutter. Merged classes level up as one class, and have shared abilities merged. There is no difference between a fully advanced merged class and fully advance separate classes.
Status |
Name: Lilith |
Attribute Affinity: None (Sealed Affinities Hidden) |
Attribute Resistance: None (Sealed Resistances Hidden) |
Titles: |
Achievements: Dragon Whisperer It Takes a Village Original Sin Original Sin: Greed Original Sin: Envy Original Sin: Lust Original Sin: Pride Original Virtue Original Virtue: Humility Original Virtue: Kindness Original Virtue: Charity Original Virtue: Patience One and Only Progenitor |
Active Skills: None (Sealed Skills Hidden) |
Passive Skills: Weighted Training Body (Lv. Max) Accelerated Growth (Temporary) (Lv. Max) Identification Obfuscation (Lv. Max) King’s Knowledge (Lv. Err) Form Anchoring (Lv. Max) (Sealed Skills Hidden) |
Racial Classes: Humanoid (Sentient) (Perfect): Lv. 1, (0%) Non-Humanoid (Sentient) (Perfect): Lv. 1 (0%) Animal (Terrestrial) (Perfect): Lv. 1 (0%) Animal (Aquatic) (Perfect): Lv. 1 (0%) Animal (Volant) (Perfect): Lv. 1 (0%) Plant (Perfect): Lv. 1 (0%) Monster (Humanoid) (Perfect): Lv. 1 (0%) Monster (Terrestrial) (Perfect): Lv. 1 (0%) Monster (Aquatic) (Perfect): Lv. 1 (0%) Monster (Volant) (Perfect): Lv. 1 (0%) Monster (Plant) (Perfect): Lv. 1 (0%) Undead (Perfect): Lv. 1 (0%) Dungeon Core (Perfect): Lv. 1 (0%) Other: Lv. 1 (0%) |
Special Racial Class: Chimera (Perfect): Lv. 1, (0%) |
Lilith stared at Kali, trying to figure out where to even start. “Uh…”
Kali smirked. “Questions, I assume?”
“A lot. First off, what’s this Original Sin business?! I don’t seem to recall exhibiting any particularly sinful qualities, but even more than that, how can I have both Envy and Kindness?! I thought those were two opposing qualities!”
“That’s by design.” Kali said. “Mind if we talk about this one last, though? It ties into our later plans, so it just fits better that way.”
“Fine.” Lilith said, holding her hands up. “Alright, we’ll start from the top of the list, then. So, class. How does it work? What’s “Progenitor”?”
Kali motioned for Lilith to sit down next to her on the bed, and Lilith gratefully did so, wincing as she realized just how sore she really was. Siph sat down behind Lilith and rubbed her back. Lilith flashed her a grateful smile; knowing that her mother was there to support her did wonders to soothe her nerves, and she was immediately glad that Kali decided to take Siph with them.
“So, let’s lay out the ground rules for how this system works. Fortunately for you, you’re getting this information straight from the source instead of the pop-up everyone else will get, so feel free to stop me and ask questions whenever.”
“Class is just what you think it is. It affects what Skills you can learn, and the distribution of stats you get upon Leveling up. Racial Class is basically a Domain from the old system, just easier to understand. Both Class and Racial Class gain experience from defeating enemies, whether through killing them, incapacitating them, convincing them to stand down, beating them in a cooking contest, anything that could be counted as a “victory” could potentially give experience. Some Classes gain more experience from certain types of victories than others, and some can’t gain experience from some types of victory. The Thief Class won’t earn any experience from defeating someone in a cooking contest, but the Chef Class certainly would.”
“Each Class also has a modifier for how much more experience the next level up will take, ranging from .01% to 10%. Racial Classes have one too, but their experience is counted separately, and comes from all victories, if at a reduced rate compared to normal Classes. Each class has a maximum level of 100, and reaching that level will unlock a special Skill, as well as “lock” the class Skills in place when you perform a Reset.”
“Classes can be changed at any point…with a couple of caveats. First, any progress towards your next level is replaced. Then, if the new Class’s experience scaling is higher than your previous Class, it changes to match. This doesn’t scale back if you change off the Class, though, so be careful! You shouldn’t need this as much as others, though, thanks to King’s Knowledge. Anyone can use Skills they’ve unlocked from Classes that aren’t their current Class, so reasonably the only reason you’d need to switch is if you need to level another Class right away, or if the Class you got isn’t living up to expectations.”
“But King’s Knowledge should give you all that information in advance, so unless something’s gone horribly wrong you should know all the benefits a Class can give you in advance. You should know everything from experience scaling to stat bonus on leveling to what skills you’ll learn when. Everyone else is going to be flying blind, so don’t take that for granted, alright? ”
“But, for the sake of argument, let’s say you’re finding it hard to level, and you want to ditch some of your levels. In that case, you can perform a Reset. This sends you back to level 0 in a specific Class, losing benefits you got from leveling that Class, including Skills. If you were level 100 in that Class, though, while your stats still decrease, you get to keep those Skills, and if having that class at a specific level was a prerequisite to anything, it’s still treated as if it’s level 100.”
“As for Progenitor, that’s a little present from me!” She smiled mischievously. “It’s for being the system’s first time. So, be gentle, alright?” She paused for a second, letting Lilith process what she said before smiling even wider. “And by be gentle I mean don’t be gentle at all. By the time I’m done with you, I’m planning to have you break the system hard enough that it’d beg for mercy if it had a consciousness.” She winked. “All consensual, of course. You’re free to step out any time you want, and as the closest thing to the system’s aforementioned consciousness, I’m all for this.”
Siph’s momentarily tightened her grip on Lilith, and she knew there would be no backing out if Siph had anything to say about it. She was riding this out until the end, come what may.
“Alright, so…” Lilith began. “I think I get what’s going on with Classes. But, still, what’s Progenitor’s focus? What do I get from it?”
Kali nodded. “An excellent question. When you have a window up, just focus on any specific part of it with the intent of learning more and you’ll get more information. Windows relating to you like Class information have their own shortcut, so just think about that and it should pull it right up. Go ahead, do it now, then ask your questions.”
Class: Progenitor |
Rank: Unique Stat Increase on Level: +1 all stats EXP Scaling: .01% A class given to the first being to have the system. |
Skills: Level 5: Growth Up (Minor) Level 10: Class Experience Up (Minor) Level 15: Racial Class Experience Up (Minor) Level 20: Skill Experience Up (Minor) Level 30: First Come, First Serve Level 40: The Early Bird Gets the Worm Level 50: First and Foremost Level 75: Journey of 1000 Miles Level 100: Alpha and Omega |
“What’s the Rank mean?” Lilith asked.
Kali tapped her forehead with her palm. “Duh, can’t believe I forgot to mention that. So, Skills, Classes, Achievements, Titles, and items have Ranks. A Rank is a general indicator of how rare something is. From common to least common, you have Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mythic.”
“And Unique?”
“And then there’s Unique and Exclusive. They’re considered outside the regular rarities, and items don’t come in them. Something Exclusive can only be had by one person at one time. If someone more fitting comes along, the least fitting person is stripped of the thing and it gets passed on to the new person. The Title a ruler of a country would have would be Exclusive. Unique is something only ever given to one person. For instance, the founder of that country might get a Unique Title.”
“Alright, so Progenitor is Unique because there can only be one first, right?”
“Yup!”
“And why’s the experience scaling so small?”
Kali shrugged. “I tailor-made the Class for what we’re doing now and that was the lowest the system would let me go without it throwing a fit. I wanted to make it 0, but I learned my lesson, it’s a bad idea messing around with things when you’re not exactly sure what you’re doing. This system is pretty popular among my peers, so I just shamelessly took it and added my system as a sort of…add on. That’s greatly oversimplifying things and I had to get outside advice on how to even do that, so long story short I just turned it down to the point where it would be basically free instead of trying to force it to be actually free. This is a real outlier, though. I think the next scales by 0.5% every level? Don’t remember. “
“Alright. And the Skills?”
Kali pouted. “It’s no fun if you find out now. I mean, you could just look at the information with King’s Knowledge, but please? I want you to be surprised.”
Lilith hesitated. She was curious, yes, but she didn’t really have to know, right? Better to keep Kali happy than to sate her curiosity. “Alright.”
Lilith swore she caught a hint of a frown on Kali’s face after she said that, but it was gone just as soon as it appeared, leaving her to doubt whether she actually saw it. “Anyway, I think I get the gist of Classes. Why is there all this stuff about sealed things on my Status?”
“Oh, that was just to keep your skills from affecting your stats for setting the average. They’ll all unlock after you level up once, so it’s no big deal.”
Lilith tapped her chin and smiled as Siph moved to begin rubbing her shoulders. “I think that’s everything but the Original Sin thing.”
Kali straightened up. “Ok. So, the Sins and Virtues thing. The two systems work a little differently – the Sins are all obtained through some quantifiable goal, and don’t really mean you have that quality.”
She paused, frowning. “Actually, maybe for someone with weaker mental resistance it might nudge them in that direction? It’d only really be noticeable after completing all the requirements, so they’d probably know what they’re getting into at that point. Ah well, something to look into later. Anyway, it shouldn’t be noticeable enough to affect you before you level up and after you’re all unsealed any lingering influence should go away.” She stopped for a moment, embarrassedly coughing into her fist. “Point is, they’re designed that way for the sake of competition for the title of Sin. It has a pretty nice Skill and stat boost to go with it, so I’ve heard a lot of the more…unsavory people tend to go for them once the word gets out. Honestly, you probably don’t meet most of the requirements, but the system likes to always have one person appointed to each Sin and Virtue, so you get to skip a bunch of stuff for being the first person to get any relation to that Sin or Virtue at all.”
“Virtues are a little more complex than Sins, though. They are based on merit and analysis of the person’s psyche instead of a simple checklist. They don’t take having a position as a Sin against you provided you don’t actually do anything sinful. In fact, it’s often easier to get points towards being a Virtue if you’re a Sin, as the system sees it as walking a harder path to keep to that Virtue or something.”
“Fortunately, these are all backdated, so they take into account things from before you got the system. You can go ahead and check what exactly you did to unlock those later, but from the quick peek I took here’s the simple version: Greed for having Exclusive or Unique things, Envy for having skills that were gained from others in some fashion, Lust for having really high charm, Pride for having subordinates, Kindness for agreeing to help with a project like this for no particular reason other than wanting to help, Patience for not being angry with those that wronged you, Charity for giving when you didn't have much to give, and Humility for treating those “far below” you as equals. Probably Alex, if I had to guess, but it was vague.”
Kali clapped her hands. “Great. When I list it like that, we’re farther along than I thought. This shouldn’t take too much time at all!”
Lilith got a sinking feeling in her stomach. “Let me guess. You want to get me all of the Sins and Virtues?”
Kali nodded happily. “Yup! That’ll net you a really strong Title and Achievement, as well as free up that stuff for others to get later. As a bonus, even if the titles of Sin or Virtue are lost, none of those abilities will be able to be taken away from you once someone more qualified eventually comes along. Because, believe me, that’ll happen for at least some of those pretty fast. Pride in particular will be gone the moment we open the system to everyone…”
Lilith could practically see the gears turning in her head as she considered that.
“No, change of plans, we’re going to make sure you can hold on to that one until our adjustment period is over, then let it loose. I’ve got an idea that I’m reasonably sure could work, but we can talk about that later.”
“So. Right now we need to get you strong. As the Administrator, I can’t be constantly down there making sure everything goes the way I want, and I doubt I would be strong enough to do so anyway. Once I officially switch systems, the world does too, so I can’t powerlevel beforehand and I have to babysit the thing to make sure everything works as intended after the switch, so the most I’ll be able to spare is an avatar, maybe two down there.”
“I mean, I mostly used an avatar to interact with the world, and they’re strong enough to be information specialists for the Council, but nothing more. Not nearly as tough as a lot of combatants the Council would have. But, going down myself requires concentration I can’t afford to give at that time, so we’ll need you to do the heavy lifting for me.”
Kali frowned, looking at Lilith. “And that’s where our first snag comes in. Since I needed someone without any hang-ups about to any one group of people, I wanted someone who’s never been in a war. And that’s a pretty big drawback, because the people you’ll be keeping in line are mostly people who have hundreds of years of fighting experience.”
“So,” she said, getting up and stretching, “Since we can’t just get you all that fighting experience at once, we’re going to have to get your specs high enough that it doesn’t matter. An ant can only do so much against a dragon, you know?”
“Step one of that plan, get all the Sins and Virtues. I’ve already got that figured out, so don’t worry about that. Step two, get as many Classes and Skills as possible, preferably Resetting a few at level 100 for best effect. Step three, train with those Skills and your new stats so you’re used to those. Question mark, question mark, question mark, profit. Any questions?”
Lilith shook her head.
Kali grinned. “Perfect. We start now! Chastity should be the next easiest one, so let’s work on it.”
“How?”
“Simple.” Kali adopted a serious demeanor, looking Lilith squarely in the eye. “No matter what I do or say, you are not allowed to have any contact with me for the next ten minutes, sexual or otherwise.”
Lilith frowned. “Simple enough.”
Kali smiled slightly. “We’ll see. Siph, I need you to leave the room, it won’t count if you’re holding her back.”
Reluctantly, Siph took her hands off of Lilith’s shoulders and left the room, leaving only Lilith and Kali. The room was filled with a sweet smell, and Lilith found herself growing somewhat drowsy.
Had Kali always been that attractive? She hadn’t paid much attention to her before, but she really struck a striking figure. The way her usually conservative dress sense clashed with the way she acted, and the way her current sloppy clothing left just enough to the imagination to get one hungry for more.
Kali smiled. “It’s been a long day. Do you want to come and snuggle with me for a bit before we officially start?”
That sounded great, honestly. Get some time to detox with a cute girl before starting serious work, just enjoying each other’s company…
Kali sat down on the opposite side of the bed from Lilith, and Lilith scooted closer to her.
“Yeah, I’d love…” Lilith paused. Something wasn’t right. Didn’t Kali say the next ten minutes earlier? That meant she already started, right? That meant she wasn’t supposed to touch Kali, right? But…she offered, so it’s had to be fine, right? But Kali said no matter what she said or did to not touch, so that comes first, right? But that was in the past, and this is now, so that’s more important, right?
Lilith was frozen in place for a solid ten seconds, conflicting lines of logic running through her cloudy thoughts. Eventually, she got off the bed and went into the corner. “N-not now, Kali. I’m going to keep my word. No touching.”
A box appeared in the corner of her vision, but she was too out of it to notice or care.
“It’s not really touching if we just touch through clothes, right? We can do it while wrapped up in blankets or something, that way you don’t break your promise.”
A tempting offer. For 30 seconds Lilith’s increasingly faulty logic circuits ran, eventually outputting a response with a metaphorical sputter. “I think that still counts. I’m going to stay here.”
Another box popped into existence, just as ignored as the first. There was silence for another thirty seconds, broken only by Kali shuffling somewhere out of Lilith’s view.
The shuffling stopped. Then started again. Then stopped. Rustling. Shuffling. Nothing.
Lilith was finding it even harder to think now. Why? Was she just that tired?
“Hey.” Kali whispered, right into Lilith’s ear. Lilith jumped, scrambling back towards the corner in surprise. Kali’s pajamas were looser now, and the bed looked to be arranged so that there were two visible sides.
“You’re tired, right? Why don’t you just lie down? If you roll over in your sleep, it’s no big deal. Accidents happen. It’s not your fault.”
Lilith nodded mechanically, stumbling to her feet. “Yes.”
She moved to take a step, but something stopped her. What? It was something about the bed. Why would it matter if she rolled over?
The twisting, burning remnants of those same logic circuits screamed at Lilith as Kali laid down on one half of the bed.
“We’re…sleeping…together?” Lilith mumbled.
“Of course! It’s my bed.”
That sounded right. It was Kali’s bed, so it made sense Kali would sleep in it.
Wait. Wasn’t there a reason sleeping together with someone was wrong?
For the life of her, Lilith couldn’t remember why.
Oh well. Not remembering why something is bad isn’t a reason to do that thing, so Lilith stumbled her way over to one of the beanbag chairs and curled up in it, swiftly falling asleep.
Kali shook Lilith awake. Yawning, she stretched and took stock of the windows that had popped up.
For respecting her wishes and refusing to snuggle with Kali while under the effects of aphrodisiacs and decision inhibitors, you have gained the Acolyte of Chastity title. As you are the first to gain this title, you gain the Achievement Original Virtue: Chastity, the Title Original Virtue: Chastity. Because you have the Title Original Virtue: Chastity, and there is no one currently holding Virtue: Chastity, you gain the Title Virtue: Chastity. Because you have the Title Virtue: Chastity, you gain the Titles Disciple of Chastity and Embodiment of Chastity while ignoring the usual requirements. As you are also the holder of Sin: Lust, you gain the title Arbiter of Lust and Chastity. |
For managing to ignore Kali's enticements while under the effects of aphrodisiacs and decision inhibitors, you have unlocked the requirements for the Title Disciple of Chastity. As you already have this Title, no further benefits are gained. |
For choosing to not sleep with Kali while under the effects of aphrodisiacs and decision inhibitors, all while doing so on principle and as the current holder of Sin: Lust, you have unlocked the requirements for the Titles Embodiment of Chastity and Virtue: Chastity. As you already have these Titles, no further benefits are gained. Congratulations, you have obtained the Skill Chastity's Clarity! |
Chastity’s Clarity Level 1: 0/100 EXP (Gain EXP by using Chastity’s Clarity to cleanse effects) Rank: Exclusive Allows you to spend 1,000 mana to cleanse yourself or a party member of a charm effect. If you are affected by a charm effect, Chastity’s Clarity will automatically activate after 1 minute. Begone, thought. |
“Great job.” Kali said, smiling. “Sorry about the drugs. I made sure to give you just enough of a dose for it to count for the system, but not enough to actually get you to do anything you normally wouldn’t. And if you had tried, I would have stopped you and taken the blame myself. And then I made you drowsy so you would be able to sleep it all off. Feeling better?”
Lilith examined Kali again. She looked normal, no trace of the unnatural attraction she felt earlier. “Yeah, feeling fine. Now that I’m thinking about it, though, why do I have Lust right now? My Charm is at 10, so even if it’s backdated, I shouldn’t meet the requirements at the moment.”
Kali shrugged. “While I was setting the system up, I made sure there was a tiny one-way connection to Carmen, enough that it could read her current status. It treats hers status as a part of your status, even if technically she’s disconnected from you. Right now, the system just thinks Carmen’s locked out of it or something, so as long as she doesn’t suddenly lose that charm, it’ll be fine. Would be unfair to strip someone of a title like that every time someone temporarily lowered their stats, right? So, the title looks for someone’s normal stats, not ones from temporary buffs or debuffs.”
Lilith nodded. “Alright, so, what do I do next?”
Kali grinned. “Nothing!”
“Nothing?”
“Yup! You’re going to kick back and do nothing while Siph gets you some experience! It won’t take more than a day, and she’s already working on it, so what do you say we watch a movie or something?”
“Sure, why not?”
this is the first time i've seen a novel using the legendary system from skyrim (i assume you got the idea from skyrim seeing as there is a reference in the beginning).
I'm afraid it wasn't directly ripped from Skyrim. It's just based on item rarities in game in general. I'm...actually not terribly familiar with rarities in Skyrim since I never bothered with any of that, I just sorta walked around and equipped something if it looked better than what I had, which wasn't often. I focused more on just doing whatever random crap I felt like, and hunting for better gear didn't really factor into that because I usually play max sneak it and basically doesn't even matter lol.
@Fighterman481 ah i was talking about how you can reset your level back to 0 in a class. that's called making a class or job whatever it is legendary. i don't think skyrim actually has a rarity system? i mean aside from when you're improving a weapon or item but aside from that...
@UncrownedKing Oh, that I was a little confused because I was pretty sure item rarities are fairly common in this sort of novel. That was...also something I never used lol. While this system wasn't consciously designed after anything, I'd say it'd probably takes more from Disgaea or other similar games where you do a lot of grinding and change around the classes of your units. I'm a min-maxer at heart, so I've done a lot of that sort of thing.
That's not to say Skyrim didn't influence it. Because I do vaguely remember looking at that system and going 'neat' and then ignoring it, so there's a non zero chance my subconscious just lifted stuff from that.
The funny part is the sins/virtues seem to already have a few contenders in place already...
Oh they absolutely do. The only reason Lilith is getting more than one is that she's the only one in right now. Expect most of those Titles to go to other people once this gets opened up to everyone else.
@Fighterman481 Which is likely to burn at least one uppity angels bum...
@Syth_Dracous Not saying any more because spoilers but we're definitely going to be seeing at least one Sin or Virtue among people we know already...
She lack the title Virtue: Liberality.
It's been fixed, thanks!
Sloth is a sin.....
I have a very lazy mouth that wants to disagree with you...
Thanks for the chapter.
hers as a part of yours, even i - of you
Fixed, thank you!
Interesting idea with leveling up through victories. I'm gonna have to ask for more clarification though. Does a victory against oneself count? Something like hard, repetitive training or overcomming one's limits. Next, how are victories graded? Does the same victory always grant the same amount of exp or does it scale based off factors such as risk and the amount of effort that went into the victory?
The classes part was a bit confusing. It seems you can have multiple classes at once. Is there a limit to the amount of classes you can have? Does only your 'active' class level or can all classes level at the same time? Is there some kind of downside to having multiple classes at once that would make it reasonable to delete your classes when they are directly connected to your strength? I don't know how big the stat bonues one would gain from a normal class are, but progenitor seems to give you +99 to all raw stats at level 100, which suggests that class levels are really important to one's survival.
Hm. For a victory against yourself, I think it'd be partially dependent on your mindset, but I think most of that experience would go to your racial class. For regular training you'd at the least (rarely) gain experience based on a 'victory over ignorance' or something. If it was, say a practice spar, you'd certainly get experience, although less than you would get in a straight battle to the death. Victories don't scale based on the effort you put into them or how tough you are, but experience offered will vary based on how "difficult" the system expects the opponent to be in a vacuum. For combat, that'd mean looking at stats, levels, skills, etc. The only caveat is that both sides have to put some effort into whatever they're doing, so you can't just have "fights" where someone does literally nothing to grind experience. Throwing the match is acceptable, provided it was deemed to have enough effort put into it.
Alright, so maybe classes are best illustrated with an example
Imagine you're level 200. 100 of those are in a generic "mage" class, 75 in a "swordsman" class, and 25 in something like "cook". You have one class that is your "main" class. This is the only class that is actively gaining experience. All the rest just sit there. You can switch this "main" class at any time you want, but your experience resets to 0 when you do, so you lose all progress towards the next level.
As for why you would reset, it's supposed to be a risk/reward type of thing. Progenitor does have solid growths, especially for how easy it is to level, but in general it should be something like an investment. Higher tier classes (usually) have much higher growths than classes below them. For instance, a hypothetical "archmage" class might give +3 Magic Power and Defense per level, while a "Mage" class gives +1 (any class details in this post aren't official, by the way. They're just placeholders).
The big draw for wanting to reset is making it easier for you to level up. If you've ever played an incremental game, it's kind of like that. Provided you're resetting at level 100, you have skills that'll make levelling again easier, and no matter what level you reset your racial class(es) stay the same. Resetting a class before level 100 is supposed to be a raw deal, and is really only to be used if you made a major mistake.
Let's take that hypothetical level 200 from earlier. If they reset either the swordsman or cook classes, they'd lose the associated skills and stat bonuses, but the experience required to get to the next level would drastically decrease. Since experience scaling compounds (as it's x% more than the current value), it's not going to be much of an issue with lower levels or with classes that don't have much scaling, but if you just let it be it might become a problem.
So, let's do some quick math because I feel like it (and I will, of course, tweak numbers around. I've just gone with this to make the math easier). If those three classes all had 1% scaling, that person would need ~730 exp for their next level. If they removed Cook (because the stat bonuses wouldn't be great and they don't need the skills), they would only need ~570 experience. If all those classes had 5% scaling (which is pretty large), at level 200 they'd need just over 1.7 million EXP, and getting rid of cook would bring that down to ~500 thousand. Which is a pretty big difference.
Resetting at level 100 is all short term vs long term gains. Someone at level 500 who hasn't reset a single class vs someone who's reset 5 isn't really going to be much of a contest. Not only will the person who's reset have more skills to work with, the classes they have are likely higher-quality as well.
So, it's a balancing act. Is keeping those stat boosts going to make you level faster or slower? For something like Progenitor which is basically free, there's no reason to reset, not really. For something that might have great skills but mediocre stats? Might be worth it.
That make sense? It's super late here so that might only make sense to my tired mind, so let me know if you have any other questions.
@Fighterman481 That certainly clears up a lot for classes. So basically, you can technically have infinitely many classes, but the amount of exp you need to level up will rise accordingly, so clearing out some of the classes with weak stat boosts or high exp modifiers might be a good idea. You mentioned something about higher tiered classes. Is this to say that certain classes can only be unlocked by 'mastering' other classes? Also, do you need some kind of ritual/item or can you pick up any available class any time you want?
I'm still not sure about the exp system though. If effort isn't relevant as long as you as least try, then is that to say only achievements matter? Then there is the part about both parties having to put in some amount of effort. It certainly makes sense if you try to fight somebody who doesn't want to defend themselves. Beating them can't really be considered an achievement in most cases. But there are also a lot of situations where the goal is to beat the opponent without them even knowing you are there, let alone retaliating, such as sneak attacks. Do assassins have to announce their presence before killing anyone? They can probably be considered to have won against the guards passively trying to guard the target, but if the target doesn't know they are going to be attacked, how could they try to defend against you?
Then there are non-combatants. Warriors' main job usually is to fight *against* something, but what about cooks and carpenters? Their job is to make something *for* somebody, not to have showdowns with eachother every time they want to make something. Is a cook making a delicious soup considered a victory? After all, I'd assume this fell under the repeated practice category. (It would be so funny if society changed from "I would like to order this meal" to "I challenge you to cook me this meal! Should you succeed, I shall reward you the monetary compensation listed on this menu!" to accomodate victories.)
As an aside, do non-combat classes also gain exp from killing creatures (i.e. hunting monsters) or do they only get exp from job-related activities?
@Thorium Yes, certain classes can only be unlocked by mastering other classes. A swordsmaster class would almost certainly require a mastered swordsman class, and a spellsword class would likely require swordsman and at least one magic class mastered. No ritual or item is needed.
Ah, good point with assassinations and the like. In that case, I'd say it counts as having won against attempts to spot the assassin coming, even if those aren't actively being made.
Honestly, I'll have to think a bit more about non-combat classes like cook or carpenter. I might end up making some classes have special 'non-victory' ways of gaining EXP or something to accommodate that (like a standing "the class challenges you to do x"), but I'm not 100% sure yet.
Killing things will always gain EXP for your class, although that amount of EXP may differ depending on what your class is and how you kill it. A swordsman isn't going to get as much EXP from killing someone with magic as a mage is. That also means if a cook cooks something to death they'll gain...honestly a pretty decent amount of EXP from that kill.
As an aside, killing anything can give you EXP, provided it's something mobile and with enough cognizance to at least run away (so you can't level up by plucking weeds. Well, unless you're a gardener or something? Again, I'll have to fully flesh non combat classes out). So, theoretically you might end up with people fighting over who gets to kill that stupid bug instead of who has to. It probably wouldn't grant too much EXP unless it was really poisonous or something.
By the way, thanks for asking these questions, it's really helping me knuckle down and fully flesh this out. I didn't even think of half these things, so it's good to get it out of the way now instead of later :).
@Fighterman481 No problem. I like asking those questions for that exact reason - it makes the author think about it, preventing it from becomming a plot hole or loose thread later. (Well, that, and I'm just curious because I find it interesting.) Though I'm not exactly an expert on the writing part of storytelling, I can imagine it being a lot easier to fledge things out in a discussion compared being in the middle of writing a chapter and going "f*ck. I'm gonna need some way to fix this loophole in the magic system I've spent the last 15 chapters explaining.".
For the non-combat classes, I suggest not limiting yourself to the victory condition. Something basic like doing job related activities could be a good way to have them earn exp. Whether that should also extend to combat classes (could be training regiment for warrior ect.) is up to you. If you really wanna double down on the victory thing, you could also do something along the lines of having people challlenge themselves (e.g. a cook goes "tonight everything I make will be of at least x quality") and rewarding exp based on how hard said challenge would be to complete.
Also, how diverse are classes? There are presumably crafting classes such as cooks and carpenters, and there is almost always some kind of generic merchant/trader/peddler class, but what about service classes like maid, accountant, manager, store clerk or even prostitute? They would be a lot harder to measure achievement-wise than crafters that could be judged per item produced.
I guess this could tie into the goal of the system. If it is meant to augment people's lives, then such classes make sense. However, if Kali just wants to make people stronger to have a fighting chance against other worlds, then such classes aren't nessesary. Crafters still make sense because equipment is an essential part of one's power, but I can't really see most service-classes bringing much combat potential to the table. This thought is particularly interesting because most fantasy stories with tons of classes are set in a medieval society where almost everyone are in the production sector rather than service.
Next, what happens when a normal person (or a newborn) gets the system? Lilith was set to level 1 since she was given the progenitor class, but would a normal person be assigned a random class or would they be a level 0 no-class or something? Do babies have the option of choosing a class from birth (though they will have no idea what they are doing), can the parents set a starting class, or are classes unlocked at a certain age?
Lastly, progenitor gives balanced stats, but you described a hypothetical mage class giving +1 Magic power and Defence. That means a level 91 mage has 100 Magic power and Defence, while the rest of their stats are stuck at 10. Basically, unless it is common for everyone to be at least level 200-something to balance out their stats, most people are gonna end up horribly min-maxed. Imagine walking around on the street with 90 Magic power and Speed, knowing that any old carpenter could 1-hit KO you with 80 strength.
(God save anyone committing to reading this comment thread. At this rate it will end up as long as another chapter.)
@Thorium (No kidding lol. I'll have to put some of this information in an author's note later down the line)
Yeah, not limiting myself to the victory thing is probably the way to go for non-combatants. I'll have to think about how exactly I want it to work, but I think just doing things related to the class should be the way to go.
Classes are pretty diverse. The system's designed to be able to create new ones as the world advances, so there's going to be quite a few modern-day classes like "engineer", "pilot", etc. Basically, if it's a job that's recognized by a lot of people, or if the system deems someone to have made a discovery, or if it's just in the default classes that came with the system, it exists.
Service classes won't bring much combat potential to the table, no. Their big benefit is going to be quality of life skills, or indirectly increasing combat potential via creating higher-quality goods. They were a package deal with the system, though, so there wasn't much Kali could do. Even if she removed those classes, they'd just show right back up as the system recognized them, and the only way around that is to mess with the nuts and bolts of the system itself, and she's not willing to attempt that.
Fortunately, racial classes, skills, achievements, and titles all give or can give stats as well. So, it wouldn't be quite as bad as 10 in all stats but a few. Racial classes are designed to help alleviate that weakness, and using those skills you get should get you to a point where being one shot shouldn't be a huge issue. But, I'll have to give this one some more thought when deciding what exactly the spread of stats gained on level is, maybe make it more akin to fire emblem where they just influence growth rates of stats instead of being a fixed +x to y stat on level, to help prevent that issue.
Oh, and as for HP/MP/STA, every level in any given class is going to increase those values somewhat. Some classes will have increased growth for those (mage might give more MP, for instance), so even in that hypothetical situation, hopefully that mage wouldn't be one-shot because of their HP. I mean, theoretically it could happen if the other person used a skill, but bets would be off at that point because that mage would also probably be able to one shot the carpenter with a spell and then things just get nasty.
As for newborns, I would assume they're locked out of "officially" choosing a class until the systems decides they're old enough to know what they're getting into. Instead, their racial classes will get a massive buff to EXP earned, putting them (somewhat) on par with a normal class.
When a normal person gets it after the system officially switches, they'll be forced to pick a class. I mean, they could just not pick one but I don't see many people doing that. The window they get is going to gradually start growing larger and blocking more of their vision to the point where if they don't pick a class they won't be able to function. Don't want anyone being paranoid and refusing because they're afraid of bad things happening to them, you know?
@Fighterman481 Heh, if you don't want people to get paranoid, rather than forcing it upon them by blocking their vision, I'd recommend you give them a note like "you may change your class at any time". Maybe hit them with a sales pitch like "The system gives you the ability to do MAGIC, gain bonuses to your craft and the power to punch through walls. Oh, and did we mention MAGIC?". That'll get 'em.
Also, what happens to the people who are in a situation where they need to concentrate when the system goes online? Are half the people driving suddenly gonna crash because they get jumpscared by a blue screen that keeps blocking their vision until they've read and responded to it? I mean, in most stories I've read where a system suddenly gets introduced in modern day, it is followed by the fall of society, so they just kinda go with the "if you can't survive, too bad" approach, but I can't see Kali doing that if she has a choice.
As an aside, will monsters start appearing on earth, or are they gonna have to stick to cattle and wildlife for that murder exp?
@Thorium Excellent question. It's going to start pretty out of the way, in the top left corner of their vision, and gradually grow larger the longer it's ignored. A sales pitch is a good idea, and one will probably be sent out, although I still think there'd be some diehard paranoids who wouldn't listen (because there's always at least one). It'd take days to get to the point where it's completely blocking your vision, though.
Society is going to stay pretty well together. The "important" people on Earth all know about magic and whatnot, so I have faith in their ability to keep some semblance of order together. Especially when some classes will incentivize keeping your job to level up. And the police class will gain bonuses to stopping unlawful conduct, so I think there's not much to worry about with regards to superpowered crime.
The one thing that will take a big hit (eventually) is the transit system, because once people start getting teleport magic or high enough speed to outpace cars, those kind of become moot points. Well, I guess a theoretical ___ driver class would be able to increase driving speed, but not everyone's going to take that.
Monsters will not suddenly start appearing on Earth, but they won't be limited to normal animals for that sweet sweet murder exp. Not going to say any more than that, though, as that delves into some spoiler territory and is gonna something of a big deal in the next arc.
@Fighterman481 Thanks. I think that's it for this round of Question the Author, but I'll be sure to ask again if I need anything else explained.