Sacred Souls: Genesis

There were three major class guilds in Lionheart City: magic, melee, and gunner. Beneath them were many smaller branch guilds.

The Fighter-class guild which Jiang Qiao led Zhao Mingwei to was a subsidiary of the melee class guild.

However, the NPC named Chao Yuan who was in charge of class advancement sighed when Zhao Mingwei requested for his class advancement quest inside the guild.

“Your Strength is too little. It’s the wrong decision to choose the Qi Bender class, but I do see another possibility in you,” he said.

Zhao Mingwei shot Jiang Qiao a glance then. Wasn’t that NPC supposed to rein him in for some hidden quest when he discovered great wonder like him?

Be that as it may, Zhao Mingwei’s Strength points were only 5 after using the Potion of Amnesia, leaving him useless amongst the Fighter-class guild.

“You made me remember my weak past self. Young sacred soul, do you insist on reaching for the Qi Bender class despite that weak body of yours?”

‘No, I wanted to take the Brawler-class…’ Zhao Mingwei thought, but nodded when he caught a gesture from Jiang Qiao.

After all, he was a small fry with only 5 points of Strength.

“I can see the resolve in your eyes. Well, it’s fine… your body does possess great talent for magic and you would be able to bear this power.”

With those words, Chao Yuan undressed the upper half of his body.

His strong muscles were laden with old scars, and there was a tattoo of a roaring lion on his back.

The tattoo looked as if it was alive, and Zhao Mingwei felt as if he could hear it roar.

“This is an aurabeast tattoo, a power I inherited from a faraway ancient country. You only need to pass the trial of the aurabeast to receive strength that is no weaker than Qi Benders, but the chance of death is likely. Do you accept it?”

A series of system notification popped up in front of Zhao Mingwei right after Chao Yuan spoke.

[Hidden class advancement quest started: Aura Bender]

[Quest: Enter and challenge the Mirage of aurabeast dungeon alone to obtain the class advancement mission. Attempts of clearing the dungeon is limited to 3. Requirements are: Level 25, 250 Intelligence points and above, 15 Charisma points and above.]

“Limited quest?” It was the first time in eight days of playing that Zhao Mingwei received an NPC mission with possibility of failure.

After all, the greatest advantage players had was their ability to die which at most lose them some EXP and gold, allowing Zhao Mingwei to challenge any quest again anytime he wanted. On the other hand, he might lose the chance for the class advancement to Aura Bender if he failed this limited quest.

“I accept. Gotta try every hidden dungeon.”

Both Zhao Mingwei and Jiang Qiao were extreme hardcore players who always started every new game with the toughest difficulty, and would uncover every secret the game had to offer before moving on to a new one.

Tough challenges would not deter Zhao Mingwei. In fact, it was an enjoyable process.

“Your Strength points is only five. Can you do it?” Jiang Qiao reminded Zhao Mingwei that he had diverted all his stat points to Intelligence.

“Never hurts to try,” Zhao Mingwei said as he accepted the class advancement quest.

Jiang Qiao watched as he vanished right in front of him as he was teleported into the class advancement dungeon.

“Open a portal, Ocean Blue. I want to spectate.”

Since Jiang Qiao was essentially idle while waiting for Zhao Mingwei, he could see for himself how much he understood the game.

“Let me check. Should be here…”

With a wave of a hand, Ocean Blue opened a blueish portal, and Jiang Qiao entered with his soul form.

The other side of the portal was a space as profound as the universe, the center of which was an arena of pure-white boulders.

Zhao Mingwei had assumed a stance, prepared to face the special monster of the dungeon… but after two seconds, the arena boulders suddenly split apart, whereas a tower rose rapidly in its center.

Then, the boulders on the ground began to float without any form of sequence beneath the control of an unseen power.

Jiang Qiao could see the challenge of the special dungeon right then too.

It was to climb to the top of the tower.

“Isn’t that a platform game?” Jiang Qiao glanced at the tower, which interior was hollow—to climb it, the player has to step on each of the floating boulders.

Be that as it may, there was no order of the boulder arrangement, and they would switch positions from time to time.

“He seems to be smiling.” Ocean Blue caught the look on Zhao Mingwei’s face when he cleared the quest.

It was a leisurely smile.

“Probably because professional players usually trained like this.”

Jiang Qiao whirled a circle in the air using his spectral form.

For normal people, it was a great challenge for their body’s reflexes to climb the tower on those boulders. Anyone a little clumsy would probably drop the abyss beneath after leaping around ten meters.

That being said, professional VR game players were different—such content could be included in their day-to-day training, making them comparable to athletes.

Zhao Mingwei was clearly an outstanding figure even amongst professional players. With the agility of a fighter, he leapt and easily landed on a hovering boulder.

The boulder barely sank an inch when he pushed down on his foot to leap again, reaching a higher boulder.

Zhao Mingwei was showing Jiang Qiao the play of a great parkour athlete.

He never stopped moving once, landing one second and jumping to a higher boulder the next, a chain of movements that left Jiang Qiao in awe.

Be that as it may, the time limit for the challenge was five minutes, with the numbers of boulders decreasing continuously. It was when there were around ten meters left from the top of the tower that Zhao Mingwei finally made the first mistake—stepping on a boulder that was too small, which caused him to slip.

It came at a great cost—he slammed down heavily on the ground from over hundreds of meters above. The number -3256 appeared over his head and his HP bar was immediately empty.

Nonetheless, he chose to resurrect on the spot and made his second attempt without further ado.

He was also much more careful, and was not underestimating the challenge at all. Then, at the same distance when he failed last time, he ran into the same problem of having no landing spot.

However, just as he was about to fall again since the boulder that he landed on could not take his weight, he quickly caught hold of a rock floating over him, before finding a new stepping stone to his left. With that, he leapt up to the edge of the tower, extending his hand to catch its edge and climb over it with a little effort.

That was when he was welcomed by a creature seemingly formed from lightning that was at once a dragon and a tiger.

Zhao Mingwei assumed a combat stance, but cursed inwardly when he saw that the creature was Level 50.

Even so, the tiger-dragon did not attack him.

“You have completed my trial with excellence, challenger.” A mighty voice spoke right beside Zhao Mingwei’s ears. “You have what it takes to inherit my power.

[Aura Bender class advancement quest completed.]

[Accept?]

Zhao Mingwei did not think and clicked the [Accept] button right away, and the enormous creature turned into thunder and lightning, streaming into his body.

He definitely felt a special power appearing in his body then, nourishing him!

He quickly turned on his skill and attribute interface to check for new skills after his class advancement.