[Your level has increased to lv2]
[Constitution +0.3]
[Spirit +0.4]
[Magic +0.6]
"Leveled up."
After killing four wandering souls, 'Kaze's' level reached lv2.
Rick glanced at the growth attributes. Nothing much to say—the initial excellent growth was a bit higher than the characters he'd created before, but in the game it didn't actually matter much. After all, the essence of this game wasn't about stat crushing or hack-and-slash combat.
Moreover, if you went for a hidden class and successfully changed professions, the growth attributes would stabilize according to the class characteristics.
In other words, if you knew how to obtain a hidden class, players would take that profession's leveling route as early as possible. Before that, the slight attribute differences from leveling were basically negligible.
"Oh, something dropped."
Rick saw that the wandering soul he'd just killed had produced a small orb of light.
[You obtained Soul Jade x10.]
"So that's what it is."
Soul Jade was essential for magic profession cultivation and also served as another type of currency in the game. He just didn't know where it could be used here.
After collecting the Soul Jade, Rick continued grinding levels for 'Kaze.' There were still plenty of wandering souls in the cemetery, and since there were no quest prompts anyway, it would be too painful not to farm the available monsters.
...
Midnight.
Rick had cleared all the wandering souls in the cemetery and successfully brought 'Kaze's' level to lv4.
"Early-game leveling is still pretty fast, but now the wandering souls barely give any experience."
Low experience, no equipment drops—besides Soul Jade, there were only two 'white steamed buns.'
[Steamed Bun]
[Quality: Common]
[Description: Made with white flour. Want to know the effect? Take a bite and you'll understand.]
'Kaze' ate one, and the effect was healing wounds—basically restoring HP.
Worth mentioning that all character attributes were numerical, including health bars, so unless you lost a hand or foot, even injuries wouldn't affect normal character movement. And injuries could slowly recover just by eating a steamed bun.
Well, it was a game after all.
[
Name: Kaze
Gender: Female
Level: 4
Class: None
Constitution 8.9
Spirit 11.2
Magic 12.8
Comprehension 9
Charisma 12
Skills: None
Backpack: Soul Jade x77, Steamed Bun x2
...
...
]
The attribute interface had updated somewhat, but the changes weren't major. He didn't know how long it would take for the wandering souls to respawn, so Rick decided to check outside the church.
On screen, 'Kaze' in her nun's habit walked alone through the church carrying her dagger.
The empty and silent church was suddenly awakened by the sound of a bell.
[You heard the echo of space-time.]
[Reincarnation has begun. Through the gates of Janus, you glimpsed authority from the old days. Black flames have burned from ancient times to now, incinerating ash and dust, unfolding new life.]
[You kneel before the statue of Janus and choose—]
[1: Pray.]
[2: Stare directly at the statue.]
[3: Take copper coins from the donation box to lighten the burden of Goddess Janus.]
"It's twelve o'clock?"
Rick turned to look at the wall clock—exactly twelve o'clock. What space-time reincarnation? Wasn't this just a new day beginning?
But what did this prompt mean?
Hidden class?
No one on the game forums seemed to have mentioned this.
[You chose to stare directly at the statue. The statue seems to be staring back at you, then—]
[1: Pray.]
[2: Take copper coins from the donation box to lighten the burden of Goddess Janus.]
"?"
[You took two copper coins from the donation box to lighten Goddess Janus's burden of bearing the desires of all beings. Being able to help a deity made you feel great.]
[Constitution +0.3]
[Magic +0.3]
"Huh?"
This could increase attributes too?
Rick controlled the character to stand up. Just then, five dark shadows suddenly appeared in the originally empty church.
[Evil Spirit Wandering in the Cracks lv6]
Generally speaking, this meant a game mechanism had been triggered. Rick didn't hesitate and controlled 'Kaze' to charge forward with her blade.
The evil spirits' attributes were higher than the wandering souls. Although 'Kaze' had gained three levels, she'd only gained those few attribute points and hadn't gotten any equipment. Compared to the strength increase brought by the monsters' level increases, it really wasn't enough.
The higher the level, without equipment and skill support, character growth could hardly keep up with monsters.
However, this gap wasn't huge in the early game. For a souls-like game player, it was almost too easy.
After several minutes of fighting, 'Kaze' successfully cleared out all five evil spirits, and her level smoothly reached lv5.
"That's it?"
Rick still felt unsatisfied.
The evil spirits gave good experience and weren't too difficult, but unfortunately there were too few of them.
Speaking of which, was it really reasonable for evil spirits to appear in a church?
[You obtained Ancient Malevolent Spirit - Incomplete]
The item that appeared after clearing the evil spirits was picked up by Rick, and the game interface immediately jumped to new information.
[Ancient Malevolent Spirit (One-Fifth): A powerful evil spirit that existed in ancient times. It can be transformed into a combat-ready Malevolent Attachment Spirit through ritual. In the records of holy texts, users are often crowned with certain mysterious titles.]
"This thing... couldn't be a class change relic, could it?" Rick was stunned.
It really did look like the description of class change relics he'd seen in the game. Maybe it really was a hidden class.
However, this was only one-fifth, and he had no idea how to obtain the rest. Rick checked around the donation box for a while and even took out two more copper coins, but there was no reaction this time.
"The key might be the 'echo of space-time.' I can only try again at this time tomorrow."
Thinking about this, Rick felt somewhat emotional. He hadn't expected that accidentally making a female character would actually trigger a hidden class quest.
Although he wasn't certain yet, he definitely had to carefully nurture this character. After all, if the quest couldn't be obtained again, wouldn't that be a huge loss?
Moreover, he couldn't guarantee that after restarting, the timeline would be the same as now.
"This game should allow creating other characters. If this really is a hidden class, I'll focus on developing it."
Rick thought to himself.
It's just that from what he could see, this game couldn't solve his predicament. The game character's abilities couldn't sync to him. Items could be extracted, but besides two steamed buns, there was nothing else.
He'd definitely be able to get better stuff later, but time didn't allow for it.
With this thought, Rick walked to the window and looked across at the street, discovering that Dirk was gone. He didn't know where he'd gone.
Rick wasn't sleepy, so he chose to continue playing the game.
He had to get up early tomorrow... so he might as well keep playing.
The Governance Bureau's patrol work was basically just going through the motions anyway. Clock in, make a round, and generally as long as nothing happened in your district, you'd be fine.
The exception was that because Fifth Princess Casradi was about to arrive in Berman City, the mayor had personally ordered strengthened city control, raising security requirements by a huge margin.
Turning his attention back, 'Kaze' had already walked out of the church.
There were no more monsters inside the church. Rick planned to look around outside. The city district streets outside the church were silent, with only the occasional creaking sounds from the streetlights on both sides swaying in the wind.
The street scenes were the same as reality. Rick had been to the church area, so he was quite familiar with the surrounding situation.
Following his memory, he controlled the character to walk toward one side of the street, but soon encountered a patrolling police officer.
Police Officer: 'It's curfew time now. Please go back.'
Nuns generally wouldn't be considered suspicious persons. This police officer's attitude was obviously very friendly. Otherwise, in Rick's memory, seeing someone out late at night would at least require inviting them back for a cup of tea.
'Kaze': 'What are the curfew hours?'
Police Officer: 'From 10 PM to 6 AM the next day.'
"Same as reality."
Rick was a police officer himself, so naturally he knew the curfew hours. Curfew would be implemented for the two weeks before and after Casradi's arrival in Berman City.
Seeing he couldn't get around this, Rick took a different route, but encountered another police officer. When the latter walked toward 'Kaze,' he controlled the character to return to the church.
Back at the church, the police officer didn't follow.
After the police officer walked back, Rick controlled 'Kaze' to carefully follow. After walking for a few minutes, he prepared to turn into a side path when he suddenly heard screams.
The police officer ahead heard the sound and immediately ran toward the source. 'Kaze' followed as well.
Soon, 'Kaze' turned into an alley. She stood at the alley entrance and saw from a distance that the police officer had fallen to the ground, his face full of terror.
'Monster, it's a monster!'
"Werewolf?"
Crimson blood flowed through the alley. Under the moonlight, a burly figure was crouched on the ground 'feeding.' A dead citizen's belly had been slashed open, with internal organs mixed with blood and flesh spilling out.
Noticing someone approaching, the figure turned around. Rick saw it was clearly a creature with a human body and wolf head.
Werewolves weren't a race—there were no demi-human races in 'Empress Online.' Instead, they were a characteristic power of a religious force, transformed into some kind of bestial form after being corrupted by using outer god powers. It could be a wolf, or it could be a dog or other creature.
Bang!
The werewolf suddenly leaped and charged, its sharp claws swinging down violently, turning the terrified police officer's head into mush.
"That fierce?"
Rick's gaze shifted to the information displayed above the werewolf's head.
[???]
Very good, no information.
No information meant the level was too low.
On screen, 'Kaze' drew the dagger in her hand and resolutely charged toward the werewolf.
"Let's fight!"