Before entering the game, Rhys had thought about many things—
About the game, about the classes, about the path he'd take in the future.
But now, standing within the Class Hall,
The anxiety in his heart gradually quieted,
And making his choice no longer felt like a difficult task.
With the Siphon Authority in hand,
No matter which base class Rhys chose, it would be a perfect fit.
After all, Affixes—no matter what class they're applied to—were a massive force multiplier.
Almost on instinct,
Rhys chose the class he had invested the most thought and effort into,
The one whose advancement path he understood better than anyone else.
Mage.
In his previous life, Rhys had chosen Warrior as his base class.
The reason was simple—
Whether it was the "Shieldmaster" path in the later class advancements,
Or the built-in Taunt ability at the start,
It all allowed Rhys to absorb the brunt of the risk.
And that meant Willa, standing behind him, would be better protected.
But in truth, Warrior wasn't the most suitable class for Rhys.
Years of hard labor had made his body sturdier than most, yes—
But it had also left him with hidden injuries.
And Rhys's strongest base stat wasn't Strength.
Even so, he chose Warrior.
Because of Willa.
Willa's own class, naturally, was Mage—
The kind of ranged DPS class that thrived behind a sturdy frontline Warrior.
Many people envied Willa.
After all, in both PvP and PvE,
Mages were always priority targets due to their low defense and high damage.
But with Rhys protecting her,
Willa almost never took any damage.
Plenty of players even said—
If Rhys hadn't been tied down by Willa's protection,
And had instead advanced into an offensive Warrior path,
His ranking on the leaderboards would've been far higher.
But there were no more "what ifs."
Given a second chance, Rhys no longer chose Warrior.
Not only because his stats weren't ideal for the class,
But also because he didn't understand the offensive Warrior advancement routes all that well.
Mage, though?
He knew Mage advancement like the back of his hand.
Of course he did—he had personally mapped out a perfect class progression plan for Willa.
And now, without Willa dragging him down,
That carefully crafted plan would belong to Rhys himself.
[Class selection complete. Your base class is: Mage.]
[Please name your character.]
"Abysswalker."
[Naming complete. Welcome to The Epoch of Endings, player Abysswalker.]
"Open status window."
At Rhys's command,
A semi-transparent interface appeared before him, similar to the one before.
[Player: Abysswalker]
[Lifespan: 69 years]
[Strength: 7]
[Dexterity: 6]
[Intelligence: 10]
[Constitution: 6]
[Skills: None]
[Affixes: None]
[Free Attribute Points: 0]
Looking at his unchanged stat panel,
Rhys stroked his chin with satisfaction.
The system's stat assessment was simple—
A healthy Common adult was baseline 5 points.
Anything above that was considered Fine,
Anything below that was poor.
Due to years of labor and manual work,
Rhys's four base attributes were all above the standard 5 points of an average adult.
His Intelligence had even reached the pre-class-change cap of 10 points.
However, this didn't mean Rhys was some kind of super-genius.
After all, in the game panel, Intelligence didn't refer to things like wisdom or IQ—
It represented one's affinity with mana.
In other words, Rhys was a natural-born spellcaster.
Choosing Mage was the only way not to waste that gift.
[Player Abysswalker is undergoing class change...]
[Class change complete. You have acquired the skill: Fireball (Common).]
Although he already knew what Fireball did,
Rhys had never actually played as a Mage before—
So he decided to take a closer look at the skill.
[Skill: Fireball (Common)]
[Cost: 10 MP]
[Cooldown: 5s]
[Effect: Channels mana to summon a blazing fireball that strikes the target.]
[Affixes: None]
A perfectly ordinary Fireball,
With no Affixes whatsoever.
Although the cooldown was only five seconds,
The brutal mana cost of 10 MP per cast was enough to give every Mage a headache.
A Level 1 Mage, without any bonus from gear, had only 100 MP.
Even discounting natural regeneration,
That meant a Mage could cast only ten Fireballs before being reduced to a glorified minion.
This was exactly why, in the early stages of team play,
Mages were the most hated class—
Dead weight now, maybe valuable in the future.
But Rhys didn't care about that.
The Epoch of Endings wasn't like those flashy, shallow games on the outside.
Whether it was in terms of design or gameplay depth,
This was top-tier.
Even without mana, Rhys had ways to kill monsters.
"Enter the game."
After composing himself,
Rhys spoke with calm detachment.
As his words fell, a cold mechanical voice began to echo around him.
[Entering "The Sundered Realm"...]
[Your spawn location is: Riverwood.]
As everything before his eyes faded,
Rhys's consciousness slowly sank,
Diving into a deep and endless darkness.
And with his awareness returning—
He appeared in a remote frontier town.
Standing in the center of the plaza,
Rhys could see NPCs all around—some wandering about, some casting curious glances his way—
And of course, a bunch of wide-eyed players, staring around in fascination.
"Holy crap, this game is insane! No wonder they're calling it a generational leap."
"Let me try something—can I take my pants off? No way, it actually works!"
"Damn it! What kind of broken game is this?! I'm a tank Warrior and got one-shotted by a freakin' Slime?!"
Listening to the ridiculous chatter of the players around him,
Rhys let out a soft sigh.
In his previous life, he hadn't been part of the game's first wave of players.
By the time he joined, The Epoch of Endings was already infamous as a death game.
Those who came later rarely underestimated the game—
But now, the first batch of players still had no idea what they were dealing with.
It wasn't surprising they were acting like this.
Take that pants-removing player, for example—
his little stunt had already been witnessed by nearby NPCs.
A drop in favorability was inevitable.
The NPCs in The Epoch of Endings weren't like the stiff, dull ones in other games.
A loss of favorability would directly affect quest rewards—
and in some cases, it might even result in getting no rewards at all.
Rhys had no intention of warning them.
Not to mention whether they'd even listen—
even if he did speak up, it was unlikely anyone would believe him.
Upon entering the game, the system should've already prompted them:
[Welcome to The Epoch of Endings. You are currently in: The Sundered Realm — Riverwood.]
[Riverwood is a safe zone. Current lifespan consumption rate: 1x.]
[Please remember: every death is real. When a player dies, half of their lifespan will be forcibly deducted.]
The cold mechanical voice delivered a brutal truth.
Playing this game required recharging—
But instead of money, the currency was your real, actual lifespan.
The rate of consumption varied depending on the safe zone.
In a small safe zone like Riverwood, one real day cost one day of lifespan.
But in larger zones?
It wasn't uncommon for a single day to drain dozens of days of your life.
"I need to hurry."
Rhys took a deep breath.
He didn't bother with the beginner tutorial quests—
Instead, he turned and walked straight out of Riverwood.
Anyone familiar with the game would've burst out laughing at this.
The Epoch of Endings wasn't your typical hack-and-slash;
it was a place where the roles of hunter and hunted could flip in an instant…
Compared to Fiends, it was players who got culled like grass.
Any single Fiend could be lethal to a player.
Even a wild rabbit by the roadside could potentially solo-kill a player.
Let alone Rhys—who, as a low-level Mage, was among the weakest of the weak.
This move of his looked no different than suicide.
But Rhys knew exactly what he was doing.
Whether it was Siphon or Mage,
both were incredibly fragile in the early stages.
If he wanted to survive this most dangerous period,
he needed to quickly secure a useful Affix.
After quickly leaving Riverwood,
Rhys headed toward the Fiend-infested region on the right.
He hid in the shadows, cautiously watching the little blue creature hopping ahead.
[Slime]
A creature that could be one-shot in most other games—
yet in The Epoch of Endings, Slimes were a nightmare that haunted every beginner.
Rhys drew in a deep breath.
In his previous life, he had escaped death countless times among the Slime packs.
His knowledge of Slimes far surpassed that of any other player.
With a thought, a massive fireball gathered at his fingertips.
Rhys took aim—
And unleashed it straight at the Slime's weak point.
Boom!
The fireball exploded against the Slime's body.
A massive critical-hit number popped up.
The fearsome, monstrous Slime—
was instantly obliterated.
[Authority: Siphon activated.]
[Siphon successful. Generating Affix...]