---
Well, after the class selection ceremony, we all got split up into different rooms. We were also given a sum of money to spend once we were allowed to exit the castle a week later, after we were given a few classes on history, respect, and PR training. But Kenji knew that if he wanted to win, he'd have to break those rules.
As the sun set, allowing the moonlight to creep in, Kenji got dressed in all black and quickly jumped out from his third-story window down onto a slanted roof below, rolling to reduce the impact. However, it didn't help much, considering it was the cloth roof of a food stand that luckily was empty. Kenji hit the ground with a thud.
After about two minutes of lying there in pure pain, Kenji lifted his hurt body and began to move. He didn't have much time to get what he was after.
He quickly stole a horse from the stables and made his way outside, making sure no one saw him—or at least he believed so. Unbeknownst to him, Zenith was watching the entire spectacle from her bedroom window and was now heading off to report it.
Kenji rode deep into the town surrounding the castle, finally making it to the gates. Considering monsters controlled about 60 percent of the world, it was pretty dangerous to even step outside in most cities or towns. But the capital was different, considering the large population of adventurers. It allowed people to come and go freely with the right credentials, which Kenji did not have at the moment. So his only option was hoping the guard was asleep, like he was in the original game, on a Friday night from 9:01 PM to 3:26 AM, which was just enough time for Kenji to get what he needed.
Kenji had one more problem: he had no weapon. So he quickly and silently made his way to the peacefully sleeping guard and took his blade—a regular longsword, but it would work. It wasn't guaranteed Kenji would run into monsters or enemies, but the blade was just in case, because he had no class. While other classes had innate potential in their fields and an insane growth rate, he wasn't so lucky to get a class in that field. Classes like necromancer even had class-specific abilities that no other class could use.
Now finally outside the gate, Kenji rode on his horse with a bit of effort, considering he had never done this before.
He continued to ride deep into the forest near the village, which was something called a fraction or dungeon. Its time was distorted, so 60 minutes in there was about a nanosecond outside.
The forest's name was THE UNDEAD'S GRAVE.
Kenji wanted this particular hidden class inside the forest for a few reasons: one being its adaptability, and it being a reference to one of his favorite games.
Now another problem: staying too long in a dungeon would begin to corrupt one's mind and break it down. Even if they leave the dungeon, the damage is done, so Kenji was about on a month-long timer to find what he was searching for.
After searching for a few hours, Kenji grew tired and began to climb a tree to sleep. He was smart enough to send the horse outside—or at least he thought so, because the horse couldn't understand what he said, so it was all left up to chance.
Kenji fell soundly asleep and awoke at first dawn, beginning to search again while hiding behind a bush from a large troll walking past. It was a grotesque monster with dry, scaly green skin and a long nose, its eyes pure yellow and its belly the size of Kenji's horse, which was now being used as a snack by the large troll.
Kenji knew that even thinking about fighting that thing was a true death wish at his current power, so he was about to get up to move but stepped on a branch. In that second, the troll was behind him, its fist charged as it punched Kenji. He was lucky to be able to block its strike with his sword, but it still sent him flying about 90 meters until he hit the mountain with a boom as a large crater appeared on the mountain.
Kenji was barely alive. He stood limply, his left arm hanging loosely with the bone most likely shattered, adrenaline coursing through his veins. He began to cough blood as the troll looked at him with a sinister smile, speaking in a foreign tongue, most likely taunting him. Kenji blinked, and once more the troll was right in his face. Then boom! It attempted to hit Kenji once more, but he ducked under, resulting in the mountain behind them being destroyed as rubble began to fall. Kenji quickly slashed at the troll's knee, then its Achilles tendon, trying to finish it with a final upward slash, but the cut was too shallow.
Kenji thought it was over, but before the troll could counterattack, a large boulder fell from the collapsing mountain down onto the immobilized troll, not allowing it to complete its counterattack and crushing it to death.
Kenji wanted to run, but he knew there was one more thing he needed to get from this disgusting creature: its mana stone. Considering a troll was a D-rank monster, its mana stone was located in its brain, and lady luck finally gave Kenji a bone as the troll's large head lay in front of him, untouched from the neck up.
Kenji held his blade high and sliced down with resounding power, cutting the head clean in two. As it fell apart, Kenji grabbed the hand-sized blue stone from its skull. Kenji looked at the stone in shock, considering it was blue. In the game, mana stones came in five colors: the first and weakest was grey, which meant it was a regular monster. Upon absorption, you would get mana. Then there was blue, which indicated the monster had an ability, and upon absorption of the stone, you would get that ability and mana, of course. This mana, once used, would not return, considering it was foreign mana.
Then there were green mana stones, which indicated the monster was a king of its kind, meaning it had the same properties as the blue mana stone, with a bit more extra mana, and the monster was also able to control its kind.
Purple mana stones were the strongest of their kind and were usually only found in SSS-rank variants of monsters. They had the same properties as the mana stone before it, but the mana reserves were much larger and, once absorbed, permanently increased your reserves.
Then the golden mana stone was only said to be found upon killing a god. Its properties were to give you dominion over something equal to your newfound power, and it would greatly permanently increase your mana reserves and also give you a second class.
Kenji, holding the mana stone, said to himself, "So this regular D-rank troll was more like a D+ troll! Hahaha! I almost died. Holy shit!" He sheathed his blade, held his tired, broken left arm, and began to search for a place to rest. As he found a cave, he laid his head down and began to rest.
**Time skip: 1 week**
Kenji had begun to nurse himself back to health. He tried his best to diagnose himself, and it looked like he had two fractured ribs, heavy bruising, a broken arm, and many small cuts on his body from the mountain he collided with.
Kenji sat in the cave, tired and malnourished, looking at his blade next to him and the mana stone in his hands.
He knew if he tried to go outside to hunt or forage, the monsters would smell the blood on him, and he wouldn't be so lucky this time.
He only had one choice left. He began to absorb the mana stone through meditation. As he began, the mana stone turned to pure blue energy that began to surround his body, healing it a bit until the entire stone was gone.
Kenji now sat there a bit healed. His left arm wasn't fixed, but it was usable, and his ribs were completely healed. The cuts were still all over his body, considering there wasn't enough mana to fully heal him, so he chose the priority.
He stood up, now ready to fight once more. He also wondered what ability he got from the stone.
As he subconsciously disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the cave in a black streak, he exclaimed, "Holy shit! My luck is insane! I got the E+ rank ability, Shadow Step! It's kind of bad because of its high mana consumption and long cooldown, but right now for Kenji, it was like finding diamonds in dirt."
He stood and began to explore the cave. As he went deeper, he realized he found it. In front of him was a burning bonfire, and next to it was a knight in scratched and broken armor, its skin long rotten, with a greatsword beside it.
Kenji smiled, "Hello, chosen undead." He slid down the rock wall, landed next to the bonfire, and reached his hand out to grab the flames.
Kenji's entire body lit in bright flames until nothing but ash was left.
Kenji opened his eyes once more, his mental state in disarray and all over the place, as the curse of the dungeon had begun to take little bits of his mind. But it was bearable for now, and it didn't really matter anymore; he had gotten what he came for.
The class CHOSEN UNDEAD—well, considering the devs of Heavenly Blade didn't want to get sued, they made his power set a bit different. Once you die, you are reborn at the nearest safe place in the nude, all gear and equipment lost, but all stats are doubled, including potential. But this obviously had a massive downside: overuse would lead to mental problems and insanity. Also, another problem: normally, the game Heavenly Blade had perma-death, so this class was overpowered. They had to nerf it even more by only allowing one to respawn once a month, and it was one of the rare classes where one could get stronger just from killing monsters.
Kenji sat up, now fully recovered and in the nude. He took the former lighter of the flames' gear and his blade. It stank, but it was very good armor even in its current state.
Kenji walked outside and found a group of F-rank goblins, one of the weakest monsters that relied on strength in numbers.
Kenji shadow-stepped behind the group and slashed about six of them in half with one slash of his blade. He moved quickly to the remaining eight, grabbed one by the head, and smashed it into another, but he left himself open, allowing a goblin to plunge its dagger into the back of his thigh. He pushed straight through the goblin's skull that stabbed him and used its body as a distraction as he flew forward, readying another strike as he slashed the remaining five down.
He gathered their grey mana stones and began to move once more. He was quite deep into the forest; what was a few hours' work for his late horse was a day's work for him. As he reached the forest edge, he stepped out. As time dilated inside the forest, it was day, and the second he stepped out, it was night once more. Considering he only spent around a week in there, no time passed outside.
He began to make his way back to the city...
---
Comment any ideas and I might add them to the story