He spent some time looking at the options and trying to think about what would be useful to him as a resident of a modern world. There wasn't a lot of call for a Paladin wielding a sword and shield these days.
"I could be an Archer and enter the Olympics! Activate Deadeye skill, bulls-eye every time! But there might be some sort of visible indicator when I use the skill, and it would take the challenge out of it all anyway. If that even is a skill I can get. It probably is judging from how vast the selection of everything else is. I really want to see what happens when we unlock the class skills. But first things first. Monk? If I suddenly became proficient in martial arts, that would be insanely useful! So would stealth, so a Rogue maybe? That would probably unlock something like Ninja, or Assassin, although I'm not sure Leah would appreciate me becoming one of those."
There were also a few other things to think about. Was he locked into one class with its evolutions or could he multi-class? If he was locked to one, he'd better pick a very good one. But if the system allowed him to unlock multiple classes, he'd want to unlock a lot of them and then start specializing into the ones he found most useful. That way he could get some varied abilities. It seemed like going with a magic focus would make it a lot easier for people to notice, so while it was something he'd absolutely love to try, he'd probably leave those classes for now.
"Do I have to craft my own gear? That's also a reason to choose carefully. I guess I can buy swords, daggers and bows, but that might be expensive." Erik's thoughts diverted again at that thought. There had to be a way to make a lot of money off of this.
"Hey nice, I'm less than a day into the role and I'm already thinking about how I can use my position to make myself rich! I'm fitting right into the corrupt CEO life!" he snickered.
"Well, I don't want to sit here all night with decision paralysis. Stealth is something that can help me in a ton of different ways and even if I'm locked into this class tree, I'll still be happy with it." He selected the option for Rogue and a prompt appeared:
ACTIVATE ROGUE DUNGEON FOR 100 CREATION POINTS?
"Creation Points? Where do I find those?" He didn't see anything about them on the menu, but on a hunch, he opened his character sheet and there they were, under his hit point and Mana section.
Erik
Class – None
Level 2 Human
Hit Points: 55
Mana: 140
Creation Points: 500
Strength: 12
Dexterity: 14
Intelligence: 14
Wisdom: 10
Vitality: 11
Charisma: 15
1 Stat Point Available
"I'm a level 2 human huh? Wonder how that's calculated. I leveled once off that goblin kill and that's probably where that free stat point is coming from. But once I start leveling a class or classes, do I still also get 'human xp" to go along with it? I guess along with everything else in this mystery of a system, there's only one way to find out! But now the Creation Points, I only have 500. I'm guessing that it's a special stat only available to System Admins, but once again, no idea for sure. I have to spend the points though if I want to get started on this."
Erik said yes to the prompt and waited. Nothing seemed to happen, so he wandered out to the facility hub and looked for the spoke that read Class Dungeons. And there it was, a shining portal that had the word "Rogue" on the wall above it. The portal was blank, not showing any identifying location within. Glancing down at himself, he saw that he looked more like a patchwork level 1 post-apocalyptic grunt raider than a rogue, with his shin pads, leather jacket and bat and shield combo. Most of his clothes were dark, so that helped at least, but the shield was brightly colored and was not going to be part of any stealth build he could think of. He didn't want to just leave the shield lying in front of the dungeon as, even though they weren't hostile, he didn't trust the goblins not to take off with it. Shrugging, he stepped up to the portal and raised his hand.
WELCOME TO YOUR ROGUE TRIAL
Erik appeared in a dark alley, with brick walls on either side of him. It was nighttime and there wasn't much in the way of moonlight. He could tell that he was in a modern setting, but even the streetlights were dim on the street ahead.
OBJECTIVE: FIND THE TARGET AND ELIMINATE IT. BEING OBSERVED IS A FAIL. BEING HEARD THREE TIMES IS A FAIL. FAILURE TO ELIMATE THE TARGET IS A FAIL. FAILURE RESULTS IN CLASS LOCKOUT FOR ONE YEAR. TARGET HAS BEEN MARKED ON YOUR MINI-MAP. THERE IS NO TIME LIMIT. PROCEED
"One year?" Erik almost shouted out loud out of disbelief, but that would obviously be a quick way to fail, so he restrained himself to mouthing the words angrily. "That seems a bit harsh. I'm going to have to leave this shield here for sure, there's no way I'm chancing it flashing in some light."
He looked for a safe place to store the shield and noticed a body against the wall. Getting closer, he could see two daggers sticking out of the very dead man's chest.
"Tell me this isn't how basic gear is normally going to be distributed. Please?" Erik braced himself and took a deep breath, which he immediately regretted. The alley hadn't smelt pleasant to begin with, but taking a big breath while crouching next to a corpse wasn't the brightest thing he'd done recently. After recovering, he steeled himself again and gripped one of the daggers with both hands. He yanked back and fell over, as the knife briefly caught on something and then pulled free with a sound Erik didn't want to remember. He grimaced, put the dagger down and then pulled out the second one. Wiping them both off on the man's pants, he apologized for the act and then backed a good way back before inspecting them. They were double-edged and straight, with a serrated edge on one side. They did look rather plain, but if this was literally starter gear provided by the system, he couldn't complain too much.
He placed his bat and shield by a garbage bin and then set his sights on the street at the end of the alley.
"Wait, mini-map? I don't have a..." he stopped as it appeared in his vision at the top left. It faded when he stopped focusing on it, but he could still the outline. Looking back at it, he was delighted to see a pathfinding arrow on the edge of the map. Walking forward, he realized he could hear his leather jacket creaking. He hadn't worn it much recently and this always happened for a while until it loosened up. It wasn't very loud but at night when there wasn't much background noise, it would stick out. He sighed and took the jacket off, storing it with the rest of his gear.
"I sure hope I can come back for this stuff!" He was wearing a black t-shirt with a Doctor Who graphic on it, but the graphic wasn't too reflective, so he thought he'd be ok still. And it wasn't like the leather jacket was ideal armor anyway. Thinking that it was a very good thing that there was no time limit, he finally headed towards the street. He hadn't seen anyone pass by as he was busy getting ready for the trial, but he could easily have missed someone.
As he got near the street, he heard voices. He used every bit of his dexterity to silently creep up to the end of the wall. The voices weren't that close, but he could still hear the words. They didn't match any language he had ever heard. Peering around as slowly as he could, he saw two humanoid figures about halfway down the block. As the light from the streetlights was dim, he couldn't make out too much, but the heads looked odd. It seemed like the faces were extended far beyond what a humans looked like. They were facing towards the alley, so he continued to watch until they turned away and started walking off.
"Were they wearing masks or something?" Erik wondered, as he checked the other direction as well. It was clear and the pathfinding on the map led across to the alley on the other side of the street. He had two options, run for it and make some noise or try to sneak across slowly but silently. If they turned around for any reason, that second option would probably get him failed out. He preferred to trust in his ability to get across rapidly without making enough noise to alert them. After one last check around to make sure he wasn't missing anyone and that the path was clear, he ran for it. His heart sank as the voices stopped, and as he made it into the alley, he waited for the system to tell him that he had failed. But the notification didn't appear.
Erik went back up the alley entrance and peeked around the corner, only to see the two now fully visible lizard people walking towards the alley. Ducking back, he thought "Great, nocturnal lizards have night-vision, don't they? Probably why the lights are so dim." He turned and jogged up the alley as quickly and quietly as he could and ducked into an alcove when he figured the lizards would be getting to the entrance. He saw them walk by and breathed a sigh of relief when they didn't stop. Either it was coincidence that they had turned and walked back, or the system was rewarding him for overcoming a challenge by not having the npcs pursue him. Whichever it was, it didn't matter now, he had to get going. He wasn't sure how far he had to travel or if there was any danger of sunrise at some point, so he started walking down the side of the alley again.
Three more blocks of this went by with no issues. He did have to time his passage across one street while some lizard people rolled by on gyrobikes on the last, busier section, tails wrapped up around their waists. That was a bit nerve-wracking, as he didn't know exactly what qualified as being "observed" and if just seeing him in the distance would be a fail. He didn't see the dreaded word however, so kept going. After crossing that street, he saw a star on his map, indicating the target. It was in a house nearby. Erik crept up to the fence behind the house and saw both a gate and a barrel up against the fence. Deciding that opening the gate might be noisy due to old hinges, he headed over to the barrel.
Pushing the barrel slightly, he could tell that it was full of something, as it didn't rock when he tried. He carefully got up on top of the barrel and peeked over the fence. The yard looked clear, so he hopped up and over and landed on the ground, perfectly silently he was proud to note. Nothing was stirring in the house and no lights were on. He took a step forward and flinched as a branch snapped under his foot.
TRIAL TAKER HAS BEEN HEARD ONE TIME.
"Ok that's some bullshit right there. Who heard me?" Erik was staying as still as he could, heart pounding in his chest. He heard someone walking down the alley a moment later.
"I feel like that was set up to happen. It was just too perfect." he muttered. Being a lot more careful about where he put his feet, he walked closer to the house and then looked at the possible entry points. There were several windows, on both the top and bottom floors, and one door. On a pedestal beside the door, a lockpick kit sat in plain view.
"Oh come on, be more obvious why don't you? I guess lockpicking is part of a rogue's skillset, so it makes sense that it's part of the trial though. But seriously, just lying there?"
Erik picked up the lockpicks and went to work. He had spent quite a few hours watching a YouTube channel about a lawyer unlocking pretty much every lock ever invented, so he had a decent idea of the process. The lock wasn't very complicated and after much less time than he had expected, he managed to get the door open. It swung open silently, he was very happy about that, and he entered the building. Spending a few moments to listen, he heard no movement and headed over to the stairs. It looked like a newer house, so hopefully the stairs wouldn't be creaky, but he took his time on each step, placing his foot down very carefully. Managing to make it up to the top floor, he checked his map one more time and saw that it led to a door at the end of the hallway.
He walked softly down the hallway past several doors and then froze as one of the doors behind him opened. He barely breathed as a smaller lizard walked out and then turned the other way, going into the other door he had passed.
"Again, seems a little too coincidental that the little guy needed to go to the bathroom at the exact moment I passed the door. Thanks for another heart-attack, System." He got moving again as soon as the door closed, as he didn't know how long it took for a call of nature for lizards, and frankly didn't want to know. Getting to the door, he opened it slowly in case of creaky hinges or something hanging on the back and then slipped inside. He padded over to the bed, yes it was a bed. He had been half expecting something else, what do lizards normally sleep on? Probably not a comfy looking king-sized bed. But this one was, and thankfully it was alone. It was curled up with its back to Erik, presenting a nice, easy target. He checked his map one more time to confirm the target and knew it was time.
"This isn't really real right? This is a made-up scenario done by the System?" Erik really hoped he wasn't about to murder a sentient being just for a trial he had activated. Especially one with at least one smaller sentient being down the hall. He suddenly had serious reservations about what he was about to do. He had previously been occupied with how to get it done and hadn't really thought about the ending scenario to all this.
"System, is this scenario fabricated?" He asked, expecting no response, but was surprised when it did reply:
SYSTEM CONFIRMS TO SYSTEM ADMIN THAT INITIAL SCENARIO IS AN ILLUSION TO TEST SKILLS. TRUE RESOLVE TO BE TESTED IN REAL DUNGEON ENVIRONMENTS ONCE PARTICIPANT HAS UNLOCKED AND ESTABLISHED AT LEAST ONE CLASS. SYSTEM ADMIN IS TO ADD REAL DUNGEON ENVIRONMENTS ONCE A SUFFICIENT GROUP OF PARTICIPANTS ARE AVAILABLE.
"Oh man, what a time to finally answer and then drop all that information on me. At least one class? I'm liking the sounds of that! But never mind that now, back to trying to unlock my first. One thing left to do!" Erik would have taken a deep breath, but he felt like the system would probably use that to cause another "TRIAL TAKER HEARD" strike against him, maybe make the target wake up or something. He pulled out the daggers, thought really hard about how this was all a simulation, and then plunged them into the lizard's back. One of the daggers struck bone, but the other slid fully into the lizard's body. It convulsed and then went still.
CONGRATULATIONS ON UNLOCKING THE ROGUE CLASS, TRIAL TAKER