After three days of grinding in, the system finally told me something I'd been waiting to hear since the tutorial video I half-watched.
Class Evolution unlocked at Level 10. View requirements?
I nearly tripped over a dead Grass Slime as I rolled down the window. "Dario. DARIO. Evolution.
He walked over chewing on nothing because eating wasn't a mechanic yet apparently, just a habit he brought over from real life. "Already?" Level ten?Ten exactly. Just hit on it.
**Warrior – Evolution Paths Available:**
**1. Berserker (Common) — Great damage, poor defense scaling
**2. Guardian (Common) — High defense, party utility**
3. ??? (Locked) - Requirements not met
The locked one drove me crazy, as locked things always do. I looked at the question marks as if by staring hard enough they would turn themselves into an answer. And they didn't.That's the way it's not usually done,' Dario read over my shoulder. "Each base class has one hidden evolution. I've looked through all the guides I've read and no one knows what unlocks it for warrior. People have theories.""What theories? What kind?Bad ones. Mostly 'kill something way above your level.' Which, hey, you've technically already done.
I thought of the boar. About throwing my hatchet at it like a loon and walking away with a rare drop somehow. Perhaps the locked path was not related to level at all. Maybe it was about doing something so stupid that the game's algorithm was like *huh, didn't see that coming* and rewarded me for it.
No evidence existed. I just had a hunch, and seventeen-year-old me was more than happy to test a hunch if it meant not picking Berserker or Guardian like every other warrior in the starter zone. ""I'm still not evolving," I said.
Dario blinked. "You want to walk around as a base class while everyone else specializes?"For the moment. I want to see if I can open the third path before I lock into one of the boring two.""That's either really smart or the dumbest thing you've said today and today you said you wanted to fight a D rank with a wood axe."Which it did." ""Don't say it like that means anything.
We kept grindin. Word had spread through the newbie zone, not about me specifically, but about "the party that solo'd an Ashback Boar on day one," which apparently had turned into a rumor with three separate versions, one of which involved a dragon that definitely did not happen. I let people think what they wanted. Free reputation was free reputation.
By the end of day three, my stat sheet was looking almost decent:
**Level:** 12
STR: 14 | AGI: 8 | END: 9 | DEX: 3 | MP: 4
**HP**: 210/210
No evolution until now. Still no idea what would cause it. But every now and then, something in the corner of my HUD started flickering, a little icon I didn't recognize, gone before I could really focus on it, like the game was teasing me on purpose. "You see that?' I pointed at nothing Dario could actually see, because HUD elements were personal."See what?" "...Nada. Never mind." "
Whatever it was, it felt like it mattered. And in a game that had already taught me the plan is only the plan until the game says otherwise, I'd learned to stop ignoring things that felt important.
*To be continued...*