“I’m not the one who will be taking the job, this person will.”
“Hmmm, this red mantle over here? ......Well, that’s probably fine. Then for now, come to the back, why don’t you? I want to see how good you are.”
Adventurers were people who could die at any moment. Still, if everyone died without completing the job, the one who gave them the job in the first place would have their reputation plummet. Once rumors started going around saying things like, “Don’t post any requests you have at that inn there, you won’t get anyone good,” you’d stop getting any business. That’s why the agent tested your ability like this.
......Or, that’s what Dina whispered into my ear.
When I came to the back of the inn like I was told to do, the owner was there with several stone statues. Each of the statues looked the same: a nice guy with a beard.
That’s a stone golem made by an Alchemist, right?
Alchemist was a class that allowed you to spend materials to make a lot of different gear and tools, of which golems were one. They were NPCs that could fight on their own and were reliable friends to those who traveled solo. Their strength depended on the materials used and the skill level of the maker, and they’d turn out exactly the same given the same conditions.
There was also no way to recover their HP outside of an Alchemist’s “Repair” skill, and once the golem was destroyed, it was over for that golem.
On top of that, there was a problem where the AI picked its targets on its own, so it could end up attacking something you didn’t want to attack. They were convenient, but not something to be used frequently until higher levels.
I also made a lot of golems to inflate my armies during that final battle, but I remembered them being torn apart like paper by the other high level players.
“I’ll have you fight these golems here. I’ll be judging your skills based on how many you beat and how long it takes.”
“Hm, that sounds fine,” I replied and took a step forward.
On top of it being hard to move because of the cloak, my wings were wrapped over my arms, so I couldn’t use them. To be honest, it was quite the handicap, but......well, it’s probably fine.
In the worst case, I can just let my level difference speak for me and use Pressure, but most likely, I should be able to get through with just kicks.
“You ready?”
“You may start any time.”
“Right. Then I’ll turn them on,” the owner said, and the golems’ eyes lit up.
At the same time, I activated a Ranger skill, “Observing Eye.” It was a simple but convenient skill that allowed me to see the opponent’s level and remaining HP. And if the level difference was large enough, I could also see their stats.
The golems’ stats were revealed, and they were:
【Stone Golem】
【Level】: 5
【Race】: Artificial Life Form
【HP】: 68
【SP】: 0
【STR (Strength)】: 73
【DEX (Dexterity)】: 36
【VIT (Vitality)】: 80
【INT (Intelligence)】: 5
【AGI (Agility)】: 27
【MND (Mind)】: 5
【LUK (Luck)】: 40
Hm, well it’s a small fry, just like it looks.
With this level, even adventurers just starting the game can easily beat it after leveling for about thirty minutes. It’s not hard to get stronger than it in even just one battle if a high level player is helping you fight a strong monster.
And there’s five of them...... It does seem like there’s no point to these golems other than helping measure one’s ability.
In fact, it’d probably be better to quit the game if you lose to these.
......Ahh, I should check my stats too, just in case.
To be honest, the level difference is so high it’s hard to tell how far I should hold back.
【Lufas Maphaahl】
【Level】: 1000
【Race】: Heaven-Winged
【Class Levels】
・Warrior: 100
・Swordmaster: 100
・Grappler: 100
・Champion: 100
・Monster Tamer: 100
・Alchemist: 100
・Ranger: 100
・Strider: 100
・Acolyte: 100
・Priest: 50
・Esper: 50
【HP】: 335000
【SP】: 17430
【STR (Strength)】: 9200
【DEX (Dexterity)】: 8750
【VIT (Vitality)】: 10300
【INT (Intelligence)】: 8300
【AGI (Agility)】: 10778
【MND (Mind)】: 9550
【LUK (Luck)】: 9280
【Equipment】:
【Head】: —
【Right arm】: —
【Left arm】: —
【Body】: Queen of Heaven’s Dress
・Status condition nullification
・HP regeneration
【Legs】: Swift Horse Boots
・Field movement speed up
【Other】: Cloak of Seven Days
・Halve all elemental damage
Yeah, this is just bullying the weak at this point.
By the way, you’re not imagining that my stats are weird.
Levels themselves are maxed out at 1000, but stats have no limit. In other words, you can raise your stats as high as you want with doping items. They’re all rare items, but outside of a small portion of them, they’re not that impossible to get. Especially the HP stat item. Thanks to that one being relatively easy to get, my HP is pretty high.
I digress, but for heaven-winged, without doping items but with the same class levels, at level 1000 they’d be at around 70,000 HP. Now that you know that, you should be able to tell just how far I boosted my HP.
Of course, it’s not quite at the level of bosses you’d be expected to fight at max level, but I know it’s higher than most bosses you’ll find out in the world. Being called “The Wild Last Boss” definitely wasn’t for show.
While we’re on the subject, I’ll explain about “Levels” and “Class Levels” too. “Levels” are just what it says on the tin. They’re a stat that’s already a given in RPGs, and they’re raised by fighting to gain a certain amount of experience. The max level is 1000, and it’s impossible to go further than that. Even boss characters adhere to this absolute rule of Exgate.
Next are “Class Levels.” These indicate the levels in a class you’ve acquired, and classes go up to 100. Raising class levels happens at the same time as regular levels. The class you have at the moment you level up is the one that’s raised, and it affects the stats you get for leveling up, so it’s pretty important.
For example, if you want to play a front line character, but you spend all your time in rear line character classes, before long your stats will be far and away from being suited to being on the front line. That kind of situation is quite possible.
I feel like that part of the game is a lot like a tabletop RPG. You can really tell that the previous game of the line was a TRPG.
And once you reach the maximum level of 100 in a class, you’ll get a message saying, “Your class level is 100. Please change classes.” And from then on, until you change classes, you won’t gain any levels no matter how much you fight.
There’s two ways around that.
The first is to do as the message says and change classes. By repeating this, the player will eventually get to level 1000, and with ten classes under their belt, their character will be complete.
Of course, there’s no need to follow the same class until level 100. For example, I’ve only raised my Priest and Esper levels to 50 each, forcing my number of classes to 11.
The other method is to pay for it. By paying real money, you can raise a class’s max level to 200 and can keep leveling that class as is. However, in exchange, there’ll be basically no new skills to learn. Most skills for a class are learned by level 100, so basically the only merit of continuing in the same class is stat gains.
For example, staying as a Swordmaster or a Grappler for the whole 200 levels will get your attack and HP stats higher than most other front liners, which is the biggest reason to pay. Also, some skills scale with class level, so there are a lot of people that pay to get to 200 because of that.
Other than that, let’s see......some classes will unlock a secret class or skill by getting it to level 200, it seems, but most of them haven’t been discovered. People say that, most likely, you won’t find that stuff unless you level your character pretty stupidly.
Anyway, that doesn’t matter right now. For now, it’s time for my first fight since I found myself in this body. I see no reason for this fight to be any trouble, but for now let’s try some stuff out.
One of the golems swung its arm at me.
—I was at max wariness, wondering what kind of attack would be coming, but I lost a lot of my tension seeing the speed of the attack.
—It’s slow. No, it’s way too slow.
What the hell? Is this like a lucky hero’s lucky punch from a certain manga that came out a while back? This is exactly what people mean when they say time stops. With how slow things are, I feel like time is stopped, and I can do anything.
What’s with these sluggish, unmotivated movements? ......Am I being underestimated?
“What dull golems.”
I couldn’t stop myself from voicing my displeasure, and with a light jump I got on top of the golem. Then, with about 10% of my power, I stomped on it.
When it died, the golem was crushed flat like it was made of paper and completely lost its previous form.