A million different thoughts began to run through Ben's mind as he slumped back down onto the stone slab.
The information he had just read off of the sheer screen, nearly all of it matched exactly to that of his original player information screen that he had when he played Grand Recordia.
There were over 150 different active spells in his list, with many of them being far too niche for such a thing to be a fabrication of a hazy dream. As for Grand Recordia's system of spell ranking, spells could be labeled in the lowest tier of F all the way to Unique tier; spells that only exist for a select few within the game, and for nobody else.
For reference, the list of tiers are as follows (from lowest to highest):
F, D, C, B, A, SR, SS-R, EX, UNIQUE
These tiers measured both the power of said skill/spell and its rarity in comparison to that user's skillset. The most common skill in Grand Recordia was the skill that every player was given no matter what class or sub-type that they have, and it was 'Inspect', providing absolute bare minimum information for the player for whatever object they were holding/looking at. It would be ranked at its default of F, but just because it was ranked at F tier did not mean it was necessarily a bad skill. Realistically, it would likely be ranked as a C, or even B tier skill, but due to its universal application throughout all the players in Grand Recordia, it's common status as a default skill automatically had outweighed its applicability, hence given it as an F tier skill.
But, there was an interesting mechanic present in Grand Recordia depending on how the player develops their skills, and whether they can find a new skill in the game world. Basic skills such as 'Inspect' can be upgraded depending on how often they're used, if the player completes a certain quest, if they discover a skill book, and other hidden mechanics known only to the game developers. This would cause said skill to be ranked up, meaning Inspect in theory could be ranked up to EX tier, or even Unique tier if the player manages to unlock enough of these mechanics to rank up their specific skill tier; but Unique tier is a special circumstance that cannot be traditionally achieved.
From what Ben remembers, the highest he had ever seen a player achieve base 'Inspect' was A tier, but even then, it was considered virtually pointless to put any more effort into ranking up the base skill, as there were pre-existing skills that were already far better in comparison that're a part of that skill's evolution tree. Further down in Ben's active skill list, he had Inspect B --> Evaluate A --> Origin SS-R. This path of skills was considered the most linear development of Inspect to its culminating external skill, Origin, which gave the most information out of both Inspect and Evaluate. Origin could be ranked up to EX tier, but to achieve that, one would have to specialize as the sub-class [Astromancer], divining the fundamental truth of objects through the stars. It was sort of useless, however, as Ben distinctly recalls some players complaining that achieving this ranking only really unlocks more esoteric flavor text for objects than really providing anything worthwhile.
This has to be the game, there's no other way it couldn't be.
Ben looked at his pristine, beautiful hands that were masculine in size but had the tenderness of someone who's never once lifted a heavy object in their life. These are the manufactured hands of his character, of Exceed Light, a healer character he had created and fully maxed out in Grand Recordia.
A passion project of his when he had far too much free time as a boy.
An idealized face and body, the glaring angelic themes, a tacky white motif, this is without a doubt.... my character.
A wave of nausea hit Ben as he squirmed in his seat.
But this nausea near instantly subsided as a glow of holy light engulfed him.
I know this effect; it's the automatic effect of Ailment Resistance activating.
The sensation felt pleasant for him, as if he had been submerged into a warm bath without feeling wet.
But to experience it first-hand like this and not just looking at your character from far away-- it all felt quite surreal. Not even the most cutting edge of modern VRMMORPG's can emulate such a feeling, as most at best can induce 'pressure' on a player, but nothing as complex as the comfort he had just felt.
If this is the game, then maybe that link was an experimental game that induces REM VR externally and not through a headset.
There had been rumors overseas that some governments had been secretly working on inducing REM VR through special frequencies, but the legitimacy of such a thing was dubious at best.
Still, Ben had to try.
If Profile worked... then maybe...
"User Exit!"
He shouted the words out; there was a light breeze in this field of flowers that billowed at his coat. But nothing happened.
"Force Exit!"
Still nothing.
"Logout! System Exit! Override!"
Ben shouted more phrases out into the air, but nothing came to the effect the same way Profile had earlier.
The reality of the situation began to settle in as Ben took a minute to regain his composure.
Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! Ben internally screamed as he maintained a perfect poker face. His absolute training to never show his real emotions was useful in tempering him from going ballistic, it was something he often exercised when dealing with the multitude of rude customers he had to call and or speak to in person as a middle-management representative for the company.
I'm stuck in here; I'm stuck in Grand Recordia.
Ben looked around, at least where he spawned in was quite pretty.
But as he looked around, he realized the very thing that was out of place.
Why am I here? I didn't log out here!
Back when Ben had logged out for the Main Sever Shutdown, he distinctly remembers going to the Chaos Temple of Yaldabaoth along with Zack. That had been the plan all along, to set off fireworks and ride out the night until they were both forcibly logged off.
As for the location of the Chaos Temple, it was a morose, dark landscape of eternal storms and howling winds covered by a blood-red sky as the black fortress-castle of end-game final boss, Death Lord Yaldabaoth, crowned the highest jagged peak of the location throughout the whole game world.
They had chosen the location as they knew other players would find it impossible to scale in groups, as it was littered in level 90 mobs called Black Revenants that usually required at least a party of five to defeat per individual mob, as they were more mini bosses with juiced stats similar to 95 mobs than actual cannon fodder.
For Zack and Ben, however, they knew they wanted to have the location to themselves as to set off the fireworks at the highest possible point in the game, no matter what. But for the both of them who often solely played with one another rather than large groups, scaling the Chaos Temple would seem impossible.
That is, if not for one specific method that would ensure they could cheese the entire high-level zone.
Every player in Grand Recordia is given three class redistribution attempts per account. Usually, one could buy more if they'd purchase it on the cash shop, but because Ben had no job as a teenager at the time and because he didn't believe in microtransactions, he had never bought more than the three he had been given at the start. He had used his first redistribution to change his original class (a [Swashbuckler] main-class), realizing then that that main-class type had been severely nerfed and was more of a gag-class than anything at the time; which was a shame because he really loved pirates. Then using his one-time name change to change his name from Skullyroger to Exceed Light, He changed it to a [Holy Paladin] class, which he then changed again when he realized he hated tanking as it involved having to constantly spoil content for himself through online guides to ensure he knew always knew where to go during a dungeon or raid event.
He had changed it to a semblance of his current main class, originally a [Light Healer], a flexible healer-role that he used up until the very end of the game. He enjoyed not having the direct responsibility of having to lead players (and spoiling content for himself) while also having the very necessary role of healing players, ensuring things would run smoothly and to cover mistakes. It's sort of what he does now as a middle-manager, he doesn't run the show, but he ensures others do their part while putting out any fires that could ruin it for everyone.
But even with this healing-centric support class, it wasn't enough with Zack (he was a [Pure-Samurai], a high-risk, high-reward glass cannon main-class) and him to reach the top of the Chaos Temple. No, Ben had to take a drastic measure if he wanted to get them there, which resulted in the abomination of what he had now.
Specializing into multiple sub-types can unlock special synergies for players depending on what their Main-class is, with the example of the [Mage-Shinobi] from earlier being one of them. But there was the issue of diluting potential if one were to specialize too much.
To reach the Chaos Temple in time for the Main Server Shutdown, Ben hatched the following plan of specializing himself with his final redistribution to become the penultimate healer-type:
[Divine Healer]
A pure support type, a Divine Healer is combination of [Light Mage] and a specialized sub-type involving subject control skills, examples being [Summoners], [Necromancers], and... [Puppeteers].
By sacrificing all possible offensive skills against players and most other NPCs, a player can achieve the highest possible healing potential and Undead/Evil repellence. On paper, it should have viability given how strong its pure healing is with unlocking Divine Healing, channeling direct healing from the Goddess of the game, Recordia. But the issue with pure healing, is that you become a one-trick pony with a lack of flexibility and other options outside of brute-forcing through damage. This also did not help with how Mana intensive the highest-level healing spells were, with a majority of the highest-tier spells even having limited actions per in-game 24/hour cycle.
But, there is a solution to the mana issue through an indirect means, an unusual gambit that Ben had taken to enact out his plan to overtake the Chaos Temple.
It was the inclusion of becoming a [Chimera].
Not to be confused with the traditional idea of what a Chimera is with the head of a lion, body of a goat, and the tail of a snake, the Chimera in question that Ben had chosen as his sub-racial is more of a 'spiritual' one in Grand Recordia.
Through becoming a [Puppeteer] sub-class, a player can actively control subjects if they have a formed contract. Unlike the [Summoner], which can summon subjects and impose a limited amount of control, and the other control sub-class, [Necromancer], which can raise the dead and form an undead army, a [Puppeteer]'s scope is limited, but provides a more complex and nuanced control system to the player compared to the other control-types.
Puppeteers can even control 'conceptual' beings if a pre-existing contract is placed.
As to why a player had to choose [Puppeteer] as their sub-class to become a main class [Divine Healer], it was due to the ability of summoning the highest possible 'Divine' type as a contractor of the Goddess, the ability to summon a [Seraph].
By sacrificing all of one's mana and with a hefty one-month in-game time cool-down period, a [Divine Healer] can summon the conceptual 'Seraph', one of the few summonable NPC types theorized to be able to be summoned above even the max level cap, with the End-Game Boss Yaldabaoth's level of 110 as a point of reference.
More of a devastating holy event rather than an actual NPC, a Seraph practically acts as a direct terminal from the Goddess of Recordia herself, exacting divine punishment ranging in severity to anything considered 'Evil' in the game's karmic calibration.
As for the Black Revenants of the Chaos Temple, they were all calibrated at a Karmic Evil ranking of -1000, beings of pure death and eternal enemies of life.
Yet, even this would not be enough, as depending on how large a player's mana pool would be, the actual level range of summoning a Seraph would generally be capped at around level 90, and this is at the maximum limit of most magic-specialized caster types participating in end-game content.
It is how becoming a [Chimera] comes into play.
By fully sacrificing an aspect of oneself within the game, a player can create an entirely separate 'copy' of a specific aspect they desire.
It is an equivalent exchange, an ultimate, permanent sacrifice for an ultimate, permanent copy. Considered by the majority of the game's players to be far too niche of a min-maxing stat in regard to the effort of making such a dire deal, it's been largely considered as something to avoid altogether for the game's player base unless you want to completely gimp your character.
But for Ben's case, to ensure he could summon a Seraph at its highest possible level, he had decided to completely sacrifice his ability to deal any sort of physical damage whatsoever in exchange for creating an entirely separate mana pool reserve; effectively doubling his available mana.
At face value this might seem to be a favorable deal for a Divine Healer as they lack any sort of offensive spells in the first place, but with a complete lack of physical attack, not even having a single point in the stat, it would mean the following that Ben has been experiencing as he's taking steps throughout the flower field--
Each and every flower he's stepped on or through, none of them have been harmed whatsoever.
And this sacrifice of becoming a [Chimera] is irreversible, even with class redistributions. A player would have to make a completely new character to undo this change.
Effectively, Ben had locked himself out of 50% of the rest of the game if he'd ever decide to switch to a physical class-type, as he'd be unable to deal any sort of physical damage whatsoever.
But it was all necessary to achieve the already difficult challenge of summoning a Seraph, and to elevate it to an end-game raid boss level.
With two end-game level mana pools, rare one-time use consumables that increase his mana, buffs that he had bought off of other players, and specialized equipment that he had farmed tirelessly beforehand for months for this very moment that increased his mana beyond its natural cap, Ben was able to summon a divine event onto the realm of the Chaos Temple with an effective mana pool ranging into one million, ten times larger than the average of a 100,000 spendable units of mana--
The result was a level 120 Seraph, the highest-level NPC to have ever existed within the game.
To put the magnitude of this feat in perspective, achieving a level after reaching the threshold of level 80, it takes on average of one week of constant, diligent experience grinding to level up to the next point. This average increases the further a player levels up, with passing level 85 to two weeks on average per level, level 90 and after reaching a month, and level 95, three months per level from 96 to level 100.
For players to reach the max level of 100 starting from level 1 within the game, they would need to dedicate around two or so years of their life to achieve this, and this is for the most diligent, efficient players to achieve; the average for casual players tends to be 3 years, sometimes even 4 years.
With time in comparison to these levels, a level 100 player is roughly worth five level 90s, or ten level 80s, or thirty level 70s.
Therefore, with Yaldabaoth, who is at level 110, him at his very fundamental core (without accounting for skills, abilities, racials, etc.) is worth ten level 100s, and so forth.
This is capitulated exponentially with his active skills and buffs as an end-game boss, increasing this deficit to a worth of fifty level 100's.
With abilities able to instantly wipe even level 100's, Yaldabaoth was at the pinnacle of the absurd power-scaling of the game.
Therefore, such a thing as a level 120 would've garnered game-wide fame, elevating Ben into celebrity status if other players had witnessed it.
But because it had been summoned in the final hour of the game, only Ben and Zack had witnessed it for themselves. And to them, the spectacle was nothing more but a blinding lightshow as the summoning of a Seraph often included holy rays of light showering its location, bathing everything in pure white.
But the results were clear, it had devastated the surroundings of the Chaos Temple with its summoning, disintegrating each and every Black Revenant there was there, with them numbering in the hundreds spread all throughout the zone.
Ben had left the game thinking he had achieved an unsurmountable feat, to be able to summon such an impossible thing as a Divine Healer, and to completely wipe out the zone of Black Revenants allowing them to sneak past and get to the pinnacle of the fortress.
But one thing he hadn't noticed was that amongst the causalities of the Seraph's wrath, was the very End-Game Boss Yaldabaoth himself; the alert of his death being drowned out by the hundreds of other Black Revenants flooding the screen.
With only one ever recorded victory against Yaldabaoth in the game's lifespan of fifteen years by the game's top-most raiding guild, Knights of Salt, and with that at the maximum player count of one hundred level 100 players geared in perfect, elite gear and actively buffed by thousands of concurrent effects--
Divine Healer, 'Exceed Light', had defeated the End-Game Boss Yaldabaoth, without ever casting a single offensive spell himself.