The Era of Gods

Chapter 486: Chapter 486: Choose a Specialization

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“Boom!”

Eighty yards away, a fist-sized, fiery red fireball exploded above the head of a First Level grey wolf cub, instantly killing the pup with 52 points of blood.

“Damn!”

A nearby Hyenaman and Kobold with draconic lineage were shocked, forgetting to continue attacking the monster in front of them.

Seeing him take down four or five small creatures with a single fireball, the two exchanged glances, and the Kobold with draconic lineage shouted,

“Brother on the path to enlightenment, want to team up?”

He smiled and didn’t say anything, just picked up the dropped fur to complete the quest.

Novice Village was filled with quests and players everywhere, more players than there were monsters, which disrupted his plan to level up on his own.

Initially, he wanted to rely on triple spell damage to level against higher-level monsters, but there were so many players in Novice Village, and the monsters outside were at least five levels higher than him, which made accurate hits problematic, taking four or five shots to land a successful hit, and the efficiency was pitifully low. He had no choice but to return to questing honestly.

According to the game’s mechanics, this was known as level suppression. In this digitized real-world, levels and templates measure the power gap between monsters and players, with low-level players facing a range of suppressions against higher-level ones.

Such suppressions include the inability to land a hit, spells being resisted, and facing high-level monsters that could crush and inflict additional damage, among other disadvantages.

Arrivals were random. There were countless Novice Villages in this world, and he had not seen a single familiar face, nor did he know which Novice Village his girlfriend had ended up in.

With his tremendous magical damage, he completed one quest after another with incredible efficiency. While others were only at third or fourth level, he had already reached level six, carrying a letter from the Novice Village elder and leaving Silver Moon Valley along the small road at the village head.

Outside Silvermoon Valley was a forest called Silvermoon, with a main road that cut through. There were giant trees with diameters ranging from three to six meters, and their vast canopies blocked out the sunlight, making the forest cool and dark underneath.

The forest was lush with underbrush and vines, small animals and insects scurried about, and occasionally the shadow of a wild creature darted by.

Walking on the main road, Lin Xiao reached out and clenched his hand, feeling the moonlight and shadow energy beneath the tree shade, granted by his Star Spirit, along with traces of Earth and Holy energies.

He was certain that ordinary people couldn’t directly sense these energies, but as a Star Spirit, he could.

The monsters near the entrance to Silvermoon Valley were all large crows that could be killed for feathers or meat. Many players around the third or fourth level were grouping up to take on higher-level monsters, but further in, there were fewer and fewer players. Walking two or three kilometers, not a single player was in sight.

The road was relatively safe, with patrols of Knights around level forty on horseback passing by occasionally. These guards could kill the nearby monsters under level ten with a single blow.

Still, one team of Knights couldn’t be everywhere, so along the way, small creatures would occasionally burst out from the roadside jungle, which he easily dispatched with two fireballs each at sixth level.

After about five kilometers, he arrived at a village called Star Moon, where there was another bunch of quests.

This time there was no competition, and the quests were completed rapidly, one after another, earning him a considerable amount of experience, money, and occasionally some gear.

Lin Xiao realized that most of the current quests were designed to introduce players to the basic gameplay of this game world, slowly unveiling the world’s background through one quest after another. Initially, he completed quests as quickly as possible, but later he found that many quest introductions included detailed background information, so he slowed down his pace.

However, this slowdown was relative. With his powerful spell damage, his questing efficiency was extremely fast; only those that didn’t consider combat power would slow him down.

After half a day in Star Moon Village, as other players gradually reached levels five or six and arrived, he had already surpassed level eleven. Having completed almost all the quests there, he took another letter and headed to a nearby town called Mooncolor Town, a gathering place for numerous Novice Villages.

There, he also had to determine his specialization and choose his professional talents.

Specialization referred to mastering a type of element, such as common ones like Flame, Frost, Arcane, and less common ones like Earth, Lightning, Shadow, etc.

Professional talent referred to the enhancement of the current specialization. Choosing a specialization would unlock the Talent Tree, filled with various professional talents, strengthening abilities with a talent point earned per level after ten.

Lin Xiao was now at level eleven with two talent points but hadn’t chosen a specialization yet.

At the gates of Mooncolor Town, he was surprised to see a Half-Dragon Warrior with a dragon head, human body, and a dragon tail talking to the town guard. When the Half-Dragon Warrior saw Lin Xiao, he paused, looked at him carefully, and approached him, saying,

“You’re the third one I’ve seen come here. Let’s add each other as friends; we can team up for dungeons in the future.”

“Dungeons?”

While accepting the friend request, he curiously asked,

“This world has dungeons?”

The Half-Dragon Warrior, who had chosen the name Night Quiet, chuckled and said,

“Since the world has been gamified, there must be dungeons. We just haven’t encountered any yet. When we do, we’ll level up faster by running dungeons than by doing quests.”

“Sounds good.”

Neither mentioned teaming up for quests. Both of them had strong racial talents and could finish quests very quickly by themselves, not needing others to join in.

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Upon entering the town and following the path indicated by the guards, Lin Xiao arrived at a spire in the center of town where mages, priests, magicians, and other magic-based professionals trained.

“May The Light of Magic shine upon you!”

A middle-aged man dressed in a blue magic robe said to Lin Xiao:

“You’ve achieved overnight success, please choose an element to specialize in.”

Below were the three common specializations: Flame, Frost, and Arcane.

Lin Xiao glanced over the three specializations and tentatively asked:

“Are there other specializations?”

To his surprise, the middle-aged man had an answer:

“If you are not satisfied with the specializations listed above, you can choose to seek out different specialization trainers in different locations to complete your job change. Be aware that you only have one opportunity for ‘overnight success.’ If you fail, you can only choose from one of the three specializations mentioned earlier.”

Five different coordinates appeared on the screen before Lin Xiao. Upon closer examination, he discovered they represented five different specialization paths: Holy, Earth, Lightning, Shadow, and Undead.

The middle-aged man continued, stating that in addition to these five rare specializations, there are other extremely rare and powerful specialization paths in the world. These can only be obtained through special means, and Lin Xiao could choose to switch or dual-specialize in these new paths should he encounter them in the future.

Getting any of these specializations seemed an enormously challenging endeavor, so he didn’t ponder too much. Carefully checking the coordinates, he noted that only one of the five locations was within the town; the rest were located outside and at a considerable distance. At the very least, they required traversing one map area. Both Undead and Shadow specializations were the furthest from Mooncolor Town, requiring passage through two maps filled with monsters ranging from levels 30 to 37.

Lin Xiao immediately passed on the Shadow and Undead paths. They were not only unappealing but also too distant, especially given his current level.

That left Holy, Earth, and Lightning as possible specializations.

Earth and Lightning were self-explanatory, but Holy was not associated with priests. Rather, it was derived from the same energy as priests. While priests favored healing and support, Holy mages excelled in offense. Of course, being holy, they also possessed some healing capabilities, serving as the healer within the mage system.

“Hmm!”

He dismissed the Holy specialization almost immediately, as it seemed neither strong in offense nor healing. If it were powerful, it would have usurped the role of priests. So, after some thought, Lin Xiao excluded it from his selection.

That left Earth and Lightning…

One for defense, the other for offense.

Thunder and Lightning are always associated with explosive output. Choosing Lightning specialization would best utilize his Talent, which tripled his spell damage.

The site for Lightning Specialization was located on the map just north of Mooncolor Town in a place named Lightning Hill, inhabited by monsters between levels 20 and 30.

After purchasing some supplies and four small six-slot bags, Lin Xiao left the town and headed north along the main road.

The world in this game was vast. The journey from Novice Village to Mooncolor Town alone was over a dozen kilometers, and distances between features on the greater map could run into the dozens of kilometers—a trip hardly manageable on foot.

Although the world was digital, many basic rules still applied, such as day and night cycles. As night fell and the sun set, the wilderness quickly darkened. Even though the path was well-traveled, lamps were scarce and the spaces between plunged into pitch black, leaving him to walk alone in the darkness.

A massive shadow sprang from the jungle alongside the road, pouncing and knocking him down, wiping out two-thirds of his health with a single strike.

Reacting swiftly, he unleashed an instant Frost Nova, causing a ring of cold frost to explode at his feet and freeze the shadow, along with the fluttering insects on the grass, in place.

He quickly put distance between them and cast an instant Frost armor, then a Fireball spell which revealed his attacker: a Level 21 beast known as the Throat-Ripping Leopard.

Due to the level difference, it only took the leopard three seconds to break the frost and pounce again, this time knocking him out completely—with shield and all.

Waking up once more in Soul state, he found himself in an unkempt graveyard that appeared to be a dilapidated altar. Collapsed stones were covered with moss, and he could barely make out strange runes and inscriptions on the slabs.

Opening the map, he realized he was already in Lightning Hill—just before his death, he had crossed two map areas and was inside Lightning Hill, which is why his respawn point was so far from the main road. He estimated it would take quite a while to run back to his body.

Fortunately, in Soul state, he wouldn’t be attacked by monsters and could also safely scout the map, especially the part of the road he would have to traverse next.

However, as attractive as this idea was, his soul couldn’t progress beyond a certain distance from his body; a Negative BUFF of soul enfeeblement would kick in. A countdown appeared before his eyes. He tried to force his way forward, but the countdown accelerated until his vision went black, and his soul vanished. When he came to, he was standing on a meadow in Silver Moon Valley, surrounded by numerous players who were chatting in the lamplight on the stone steps.

“This… ”

He quickly checked the log and it indicated that his soul had become too feeble to return to his body, so he had respawned at the Hearthstone-bound location.

His default Hearthstone was bound to Novice Village, so after a day and a half, he had come full circle back to Novice Village.

“Well, that’s just great. I ran around for a day and a half and ended up back where I started—this is TMD running in vain.”

He didn’t quite know what to say.

What could he do but run again?

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