Initial ranking: 2608 of 5,304,184,488
Aaron blinked. 2608 was a pretty random number. When he saw the ranking countdown, he had two possibilities came to mind. Either he would be near the very top for his performance in the Shadow Trials and overall strength, or he’d be in the middle or bottom due to his low level. 2608 was too low if it was strength-based, and too high if it was level-based, so he read through more carefully to see exactly what it meant.
Trial points weren’t mentioned… he wasn’t sure why exactly, but maybe it was not to off-balance the ranking too greatly. After all, most people were excluded by the trials, and those who made it were already at the top of the heap. Adding the points to their totals would just skew this more in their favor, and unlike Aaron, most trial takers wouldn’t have needed any extra points to sit at or near the top of the rankings.
However, while Trial Points weren’t included, Titles, Achievements, and wealth were, and Aaron had some very impressive Titles and Achievements, as well as some very expensive items. Those probably helped boost his rank a lot, while his low level and complete lack of Tutorial Points held him back.
When you think about it, my ranking is actually really fucking high, isn’t it?
The only thing that really made sense for his high ranking was that either the temple and his mythical rewards were doing the heavy lifting, or his Titles were… or maybe a bit of both. Still, to be ranking 2608 out of over five billion whilst missing the entire Tutorial seemed like a lot.
Hmm…
He glanced across at Marko and Zach, who had both stopped working on the corpse to read the notifications about the ranking system.
Zachary Miller [ Level 45 ]
Titles: [ Beast Hunter ]
Planetary ranking: 704,689,001
Marko Petrovi? [ Level 49 ]
Titles: [ Beast Hunter ]
Planetary ranking: 599,894,659
Huh, Aaron thought.
Both of these rather average hunters were ranking in the top billion. That actually surprised him and made him wonder just how weak most people were.
During his run as Elvanas, Aaron hadn’t actually come across anybody outside of their settlement before it was destroyed. The ranking system also wasn’t activated, for whatever reason. But maybe that was just the limitations of the trial. The point being, all of the combatants from his elven camp were stronger than these two. That might have just been because he was there to push them, but it was a telling observation.
Okay, so the average human is weaker than I realized they would be. I'm guessing that the same goes for the other races, too, since all of us appear to be part of the same rankings.
He then reopened the ranking list and scrolled up to the top ten.
Planetary rankings:
- Darius Nessar
- Raksha Tiksus Vakmal
- Johan Svensson
- Ernest Sheridan
- Erdek Foulbreath
- Talia Rhineheart
- Ikran Teshk Ungari
- Vikran Takeshi Udon
- Kim Soohyun
- Edwan Coser
Aaron blinked. This wasn’t what he had expected. Darius had overtaken the top talent thal’kesh in points, despite having a lower level. And although he didn’t actually know whether or not he was right, he had suspected that Raksha had performed better in the trials than Darius and had expected the thal’kesh to take the top spot.
But that was hardly the most surprising thing he spotted on the list. Talia was one of the first to arrive in the trials, but Johan and Ernest were both above her in the rankings now. Also, the goblin leader was higher than he had expected.
And who the hell is Edwan?
He hadn’t watched that many top rankers in the viewing room, and so it wasn’t that surprising that he missed people. He probably missed a bunch of powerful people who didn’t quite make it to the top of the rankings. Also, there had been a couple of other humans at the meeting they had during the trials. Maybe Edwan was there? He considered.
Still, it was a surprise to see a name he didn’t recognize in the top ten, especially when there were other top talents he had met in the trials missing.
Scrolling down a little further, he spotted Joseph Lefiti at rank 14 and Emmy Sharp at rank 19, further confusing his understanding of the rankings.
There had to be things providing points he wasn’t aware of, perhaps things related to their new world.
Shelving the thought, he glanced over at the two hunters again, who quickly got back to work when they spotted him looking at them.
“It’s fine. You don’t have to be scared of me. I’m as curious about this ranking system as you are,” he said.
“Interesting, isn’t it?” Marko said as he made precise cuts on the hide and carefully peeled it back. “They didn’t mention anything about a ranking system in the Tutorial.”
“They didn’t?”
The men looked at each other curiously.
“Did yours mention it?” asked Zach.
“Ah, no,” Aaron said. “It’s a long story, but I don’t really know much about the Tutorials. Suffice it to say, I didn’t exactly get the same Tutorial experience as most people.”
“How so?”
“I’ll go into detail later. For now, I’ll just say I missed out on a lot.”
“Really? That’s hard to believe. To think, you still got such a high rank. Incredible. Not that I’m surprised, what with how you handled that owlbear.”
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Aaron realized that, while his rank might seem kind of low to himself, after everything he had achieved in the trials, he probably looked like a straight-up celebrity to these two.
“Eh, it was nothing. I’m sure we’ll find far worse out here.”
“Worse?!”
For a brief moment, he felt bad about scaring them, but then he reminded himself that things wouldn’t be getting better anytime soon. Maybe once the world was tamed and settlements grew into cities. But for now, things were going to be tough, and survival was going to need some guts. There was no point in babying people. In fact, doing so might actually be bad for their development, he realized.
“Yeah. I’ve had unique experiences, and I know a bit about what we’ll face. There are all kinds of beasts and monsters in this world now, including D-grade ones. Not only that, but they’re all getting stronger, just like we are. If we fall behind and the beasts outlevel us, they can absolutely make this world their own. And from my understanding, that’s not even that rare. So, if I were you, I’d man up.”
Marko swallowed and glanced across at Zach, and then the two nodded at each other.
“Thank you. You’ve already been such a big help to us. I hope we can live up to your expectations.”
“Expectations? I don’t have any. I said all of that for your benefit. Now, finish up already. Let’s get moving. I’ll let you kill the weaker beasts we come across. Hopefully, you can gain levels quicker with me watching you back.”
Aaron wasn’t going to sacrifice his own growth for these two. But he needed to continue pushing himself. He knew that advancement was often based on achievement, especially when it came to Skill and Class options. He had grown as strong as he had because he took on impossible challenges. If he now started to grind weak beasts and monsters, it would just limit his potential. If anything, having these two around to take the low-quality kills was a benefit to him.
At the end of the day, he was better off taking a little longer to level and doing it at a higher quality, while having his life threatened. In the long run, this would make him far, far stronger, and besides, he was already used to punching up, anyway.
Marko finished up, and Aaron got up and made his way to the corpse. “Excuse me,” he said, passing the two and getting his hands dirty.
He was no butcher, but he couldn’t just leave so much good meat to rot. And so, he proceeded to very roughly cut the body up as the two men watched on, grimacing at the gory act.
“Okay, let’s move,” Aaron said, placing the last of the meat in his scabbard and glancing at his compass.
“You’re going to eat that?”
“Yeah? I don’t see why not.”
The two men shared another uneasy glance, but left it at that. Aaron didn’t even take note of them. For he had already opened his status page as he walked.
“Keep up!” Aaron said, and Sooty skipped alongside him as they pressed on into the primordial-looking jungle that now seemed to cover much of their new world, dotted by trees that would make redwoods look like dwarves.
He felt no need to waste any more time standing around. He could pick a new skill as they walked, and they might have a long way to go.
Wait, this world is supposed to be absolutely massive, isn’t it?
Suddenly, he got a sinking feeling. What if he were on the other side of the world from Talia?
He glanced back at the two men walking behind him. He could use [ Spectral Rush ] and eat at the same time, covering ground much faster. But could they keep up? He had already decided that he was going to save them, and it didn’t feel right just abandoning them.
Aaron groaned internally.
Dammit! Okay, first I pick a Skill, then I can figure out what I’m going to do about this journey.
“Sooty, I’ve got a Skill to pick. Wanna help?”
“Hell yeah, bossman!”
Food Fight [ Uncommon ]. It’s unconventional, some would even say absurd. But you, well, you’re more than happy to bring food to a knife fight. When activated, this Skill transforms food held by the user into missiles that can be used in combat, thus making the use of food in combat far easier.
The Bigger They Are [ Rare ] You’re a real big game hunter, searching the multiverse for bigger and bigger prey. Passively provides damage and armor-piercing benefits to your attacks when fighting enemies at least twice your size.
Flowing Spirit Style [ Epic ] Styles elevate the martial combatant, and you’ve taken to your spirit for inspiration. Passively draws the user closer to their spirit, making the use of spirit-based attacks and aether flow more naturally and, by doing so, improving their power.
Spectral Projection [ Epic ] Why be bound to your body, when you can walk the world in spirit form? When activated, the user can separate their spirit from their body and is no longer contained by usual limitations, allowing them to travel great distances using their spirit alone.
Feral Brawler [ Epic ] [ Set: 1 of 4 ] You are not bound by what most perceive as sensible. You relish battle and fight with everything and anything you can muster. When activated, Feral Brawler draws on your raw emotions, amplifying them to bring you closer to your instincts and increasing your strength and speed. Unlike normal berserker Skills, you do not lose yourself, but your emotions can still get the best of you if you’re not prepared.
“Do ye really want to be a food fighter, bossman?”
“No,” Aaron grimaced. “Of course not.”
“Just asking.”
He couldn’t deny that he would be able to make use of the Skill if he were to select it. But not only was it Uncommon, but he really, really didn’t want to lean into that. It was one thing to cheat himself out of a difficult situation, and another thing entirely to become some kind of food-fighting maniac.
Moving on, both immediately agreed that [ The Bigger They Are ] was not for him either. There was no way he was wasting an entire Skill slot on something like that. Not when he spent as much time fighting human-sized enemies as he did huge monsters.
Flowing Spirit Style sounded right up his alley, though, and Sooty agreed. But it was vague, and he figured if he were going to select a style, he would take just the one. And nothing about it sounded special enough to commit to. Especially when he would have to sacrifice a Passive Skill Slot to do so, and all his Passive Class Skills were too useful to even consider dropping.
Spirit Projection, on the other hand, did sound useful. However, it was essentially a scouting Skill, from the sounds of it. To take the Skill, he would have to surrender a combat Skill, which he just wasn’t sure about.
“Hmm, maybe,” Aaron murmured as they curried onto the final option.
Feral Brawler did, in fact, sound like a perfect replacement for [ Relentless Scourge ]... Well, almost perfect. There was one huge, undeniable problem.
It really didn’t suit the techniques passed down to him by Yendal. Sure, he wasn’t trying to emulate her, but this seemed like a bridge too far. Taking on Oozagh’s energy was one thing, but a “lite” berserker Skill was essentially doing a full U-turn on what she had taught him. Yendal’s style, and Aaron’s, by association, was about rational observation, prediction, and precision. He needed to consciously watch Fate and make choices that would allow him to avoid bad fates and achieve good ones. This Skill, however, looked like it would lean away from that, focusing on his instincts and emotions rather than skill.
It was a pity, though. Being part of a set made him want to see what the rest of it had going for it.
Then again, it would be a complete pain in the ass to try to fill out an entire set, especially if it wasn’t perfect for him.
After all, how would he make room for 4 Class Skills to finish the set? Once he got the fourth Skill, it would, of course, turn into one. But he would have to give up so much to get there, and everything he had was useful.
So, in truth, a set didn’t mean anything unless he really wanted to finish it.
In the end, it was a rather easy choice to make. He wasn’t going to throw out everything Yendal had taught him, even if he planned on weaving his own path.
Not only that, but the more he thought about [ Spectral Projection ], the better it sounded, and he shared his views with Sooty.
“Hmm, ye got a point, bossman,” Sooty nodded. “It’s a utility Skill, but since most can’t see spirits, it could be pretty handy. Besides, who knows, maybe it’ll be more than that with an upgrade?”
That was a good point, he thought. If he could upgrade it to more than just a spying and scouting Skill, then it could prove an amazing asset to his current Skill set.
With that thought in mind, he decided to take a risk. After all, he didn’t really need a low-level buff like [ Relentless Scourge ] that much anymore. It was a little bit of a shame to surrender the skill without replacing it with a new buff, but he could live with it.
Besides, it wasn’t like it was his last Skill choice ever. If he regretted it, he was sure he’d get another opportunity to pick up a buffing Skill in the future.
No additional Class [ Active ] Skill slots available.
Discard [ Active ] Class Skill: Y/N?
Aaron confirmed the prompt and discarded [ Relentless Scourge ], and suddenly, he realized that his two new companions were looking at him.
“Oh, right. Hey, do either of you two have movement Skills?”
“I have a retreat Skill to help disengage from fights,” said Marko.
“I’ve got a leaping Skill that gives me some good vertical mobility,” said Zach.
“That’s it?” Aaron groaned.
This was going to be a long trek.
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