A Happy Dilemma

After a bitter fight, Pan Long had killed his two pursuers, but he had suffered serious injuries himself.

As long as he survived, though, he had come out ahead.

Chances to fight for his life were rare, and each one drove him forward. Without the sting of a life-or-death battle, many small mistakes would never be seared into his memory.

For instance, if he faced another assassin, he would never again make the mistake of holding a sword yet letting his enemy rush in close.

Martial artists grew stronger through battle after battle, and life-or-death fights taught them most of all. But such fights were perilous. Who knew how many talented young people had died before they could reach their potential?

The greatest benefit the Classic of Mountains and Seas Fragment gave the Pan Lineage was the chance to gain that experience safely.

Take his father, Pan Lei. Without all his experience in life-or-death fights, he probably could not have defeated six experts of his own level alone so easily.

Holding a hand to his chest, Pan Long coughed twice and opened his Character Panel again.

His Experience Points bar was full. He could level up.

According to the system log, setting fire to the military camp had earned him 50 experience. Killing twelve Furris soldiers had earned him 240, at 20 each. Killing the One God Religion assassin and the Warlock had earned him a full 100 apiece!

In the Heroes' Tale series, experience came in three kinds: combat, kills, and story. Story experience was always 50 per event. Combat and kill experience depended on the level gap: 1/2 if he was more than 10 levels higher, 3/5 if he was no more than 10 levels higher, 5/10 if he was no more than 5 levels higher, 10/20 if their levels differed by no more than 2, 15/30 if he was no more than 5 levels lower, 20/50 if he was no more than 10 levels lower, and 50/100 if he was more than 10 levels lower or the enemy was the stage boss.

Those two enemies had been formidable. The assassin had nearly killed him one-on-one. Even if he had not been a Master-class fighter above level 40, he could not have been far off. As for the Warlock, Pan Long had almost killed him the moment he revealed himself, but anyone who could strip away that much of his health in one hit was no weakling.

If Experience Points from a single encounter had not been capped at 100, those two might have given him several thousand Experience Points.

"Too bad I didn't get to activate the Luna Statue. Otherwise, the Experience Points would've doubled again... No, wait. Carrying fifty or sixty pounds would've slowed me down. That assassin might've stabbed me to death right there."

Pan Long laughed at himself as he spoke.

Since he had enough Experience Points to level up, he might as well do it now. Hoarding it would not earn him interest.

But when Pan Long pressed the upward arrow beside "Level" on the Character Panel, he hit a snag.

A system prompt appeared: [Please select a starting class]

Beneath it, eight starting classes stood in a row.

Warrior, Knight, Archer, Thief, Street Performer, Priest, Mage, Scholar.

Pan Long smiled. "No wonder I was still level zero. I hadn't even picked a starting class."

"Let me think. Which class should I choose...?"

Rather than decide rashly, he tried to recall what he had learned from playing the game.

First, Archer and Street Performer were out. Both relied mainly on ranged attacks. Whether he was shooting arrows or throwing knives, neither suited the way he fought.

An extra inch of reach gave an extra inch of advantage, and ranged attacks beat close combat. Even so, a person's fighting style worked best when it suited his habits.

It was not that he could not use the game system to turn himself into a master archer. His father was an Iron Palm expert and a Swift Sword expert, after all, though the two styles were worlds apart.

But that would take a great deal of time and effort.

Skills and fighting techniques might be easy to obtain. Practical experience and the insights gained from fighting for his life were not.

Two utterly different ways of fighting meant twice the experience to build up.

Pan Long thought that if his father had devoted himself to just one style, he might have become a renowned master long ago. Perhaps he could even have fought the Six Fairies of Purple Cloud Palace without getting hurt.

Pan Long had no wish to follow his father's example. He would stick to the way he liked to fight.

Next, he could skip Mage, Scholar, and Priest.

Magic and martial arts could complement each other. Even if magic served only as support rather than his main way of fighting, the result could be far greater than one plus one equaling two.

The problem was that class abilities were closely tied to attributes. His strongest attribute was Constitution, followed by Strength, Reaction, Perception, and Spirit. Luck came after those, while Aptitude was his lowest.

And every kind of magic depended heavily on Aptitude for its power.

His starting Aptitude of 19 was not low, but why ignore other attributes that started above 40 to abandon his strengths for his weaknesses?

Rejected. Rejected.

That left Warrior, Knight, and Thief.

The Warrior's core attribute was Constitution, and it emphasized defense. In terms of attributes, it suited him best.

Warriors could later advance into command or single-combat branches. Cavalry, Archer, Holy Servant, and spellcasting branches were possible too, though there was no need to take them.

The final classes in this line were General, Champion, and Iron Guard. One had a support aura with an enormous range, one possessed a wealth of combat skills, and one had defense so high it bordered on Insane.

Pan Long had no interest in support auras or command classes, but either Champion or Iron Guard would help him greatly, giving his strength a substantial boost.

The Knight's core attribute was Strength, and it emphasized attack power. His Strength was quite high too, making it another option.

Setting aside cross-branch advancements, Knights had four final classes: the flying Dragon Knight, the aquatic Sea Dragon Knight, and the land-based Royal Knight and Knight Commander. Knight Commander was an aura class. The other three were much the same apart from the environments they suited.

He could rule out the command branch. The Knight's core skills were charges—or, to put it plainly, rushing straight in. A high-speed charge could unleash terrifying force. He was a decent rider too. Paired with Knight skills, his horsemanship could make him famous throughout the world for mounted combat.

Perhaps he would become the finest Knight in the Nine Provinces...

As for Thief, its core attribute was Reaction, which suited him well enough.

Thieves attacked quickly and moved faster than any class without a mount. Neither dense forests nor indoor spaces slowed them, making them highly agile. More importantly, their fighting style closely resembled that of martial artists in the real world: fast and unarmored. That meant he could put Thief skills to use in actual combat without the extra adjustments other classes would require.

But the Thief's flaws were obvious too. Its attack power was low, and it relied on critical hits to get by. Otherwise, it could only bully unarmored classes. Skills and equipment that resisted critical hits were not rare in the late game. Similar treasures probably existed in the real world as well—among the elite, at the very least.

Thieves could advance into Assassin or Burglar. Assassins focused purely on offense: sneak in, backstab, and finish the job. Unless the target wore heavy armor, they could kill almost anyone in one strike. Burglars moved even faster and could pick locks and pockets. Many valuable items and pieces of equipment were impossible to obtain without them.

After recalling what those classes could do, Pan Long's first thought was Thief. A Thief could advance to Killer, then Assassin, and finally King of Assassins. At that point, he could appear and vanish like a ghost. If he wanted someone dead, his target might never know what killed him.

He had experienced an assassin's power firsthand in that last fight. His raw strength should have surpassed the assassin's, yet luck had been the key to his survival. If he had that ability himself, he could put a knife in an enemy before anyone noticed. Then he could roam the four seas—where in the world could he not go?

But choosing Warrior would give him a series of skills that increased his health and defense. Just thinking about Iron Wall, a passive skill with a chance to negate any attack, and Grit, an active skill guaranteed to negate any attack for a short time, made his mouth water.

When you wandered the martial world, how could you avoid the blade forever? A little more health and a little more toughness might mean the difference between life and death at a critical moment. It might not be the best choice, but it certainly would not be a wrong one.

As for Knight... Pan Long gave it a moment's thought, then set it aside.

A Knight was formidable while riding a horse, pegasus, dragon, or sea dragon. With a rare, high-end mount, its combat strength could leave other classes half a street behind. But a Knight was no good once dismounted. Charge and a whole string of other skills became useless, leaving him a high-stat, third-rate Warrior with nothing but basic skills. Knights also lost movement speed in many environments. In indoor stages especially, they could only drag the party down.

That class was too dependent on the situation. No thanks!

So it came down to two.

"Warrior or Thief? Which should I pick?"

Even after returning to Luna Village, Pan Long was still turning the question over in his mind.

If he could, he would have said, "I want them all."

Not just the Warrior's defense and the Thief's stealthy assassinations, but the Knight's mighty attacks, the Archer's superb ranged attacks, the Street Performer's ever-changing fighting methods, the Mage's sheer firepower, the Priest's healing, and the Scholar's support... If he could, he would leave none of them out.

But he could not. He had to choose one.

Back in Luna Village, lying on the guest-room bed, he still could not make up his mind.

It was a happy dilemma, of course. Who would not want to agonize over a choice like, "Should I go surfing on my private beach in Hawaii, or relax at my ranch in New Zealand?"

Either choice would be wonderful. He could not lose. But still...

"Which one should I choose?"

After mulling it over for a while, he resorted to his ultimate move.

A coin toss.

He flipped a Great Xia Tongbao into the air. It spun a few times, then landed in his palm.

Tails.

I see. It's fate.

Pan Long nodded, opened the transparent Character Panel, and made his selection.

[Class selected: Thief]

(The End)