Chapter 20: The Choice of a New Class
Night fell as Qin Yuan returned home. The owl blinked its large eyes, curiously surveying the room.
Taking the owl out to eat would have drawn too much attention, so Qin Yuan decided to order delivery instead. He took out his phone and, scrolling through it, explained, “There are pictures here. Just tell me what you want to eat. Once the order’s placed, it’ll arrive in about half an hour.”
Qin Yuan had confidence in some of the modern spices. One of the biggest complaints he had about the Spirit Realm was the food—he often found it hard to get used to, frequently ending up with unpleasant meals.
He proceeded to walk the owl through the various restaurants, letting it choose on its own. After a few minutes of browsing, the owl finally settled on its preferred meal. Qin Yuan looked and saw it had picked a fried chicken and burger place.
“No problem,” he said, waving his hand and placing a large order.
The delivery arrived quickly. Qin Yuan set down two large bags on the table and glanced secretly at the feathers beside him.
The owl tilted its head, inhaling the enticing aroma, its throat working furiously as it swallowed.
Chuckling softly, Qin Yuan unwrapped most of the food and placed it before the owl. “Eat quickly, while it’s hot. It doesn’t taste good once it cools down.”
The owl took a bite of a large chicken leg, its eyes instantly lighting up.
After satisfying the owl, Qin Yuan turned his attention toward the Whispering Grimoire. It didn’t need to eat but had somehow dug out a storybook from somewhere in the room and was engrossed in reading it.
Two ethereal arms extended from the edges of the book, holding it open—a power somewhat akin to a magical mirror sprite.
However, the Whispering Grimoire flipped through the pages at an astonishing speed, leafing through rapidly.
“Are you taking notes or just reading...?” Qin Yuan asked, witnessing this scene.
“Reading,” the grimoire replied matter-of-factly. “Though I don’t possess much combat ability myself, my bloodline grants me some basic spells, like ‘Language Comprehension,’ which lets me understand over a dozen languages. I was just trying it out, and surprisingly, this script is included.”
“Is that so?” Qin Yuan was somewhat surprised.
After scrolling through a forum for a while, he suddenly remembered something else. “By the way, about those elemental crystals and the job change potion—you mentioned you had the recipes recorded...”
Changing one’s profession was the next inevitable step. With nothing else pressing, Qin Yuan planned to address it soon.
The Whispering Grimoire was lying on the desk, dazed. Having rapidly flipped through the already limited collection of books at home, it was somewhat bored.
Hearing Qin Yuan’s words, it perked up.
“Oh right, I almost forgot about that.” The magical book floated over to Qin Yuan and opened to a blank page.
In the next moment, something astonishing happened—words began to appear swiftly, one after another:
“All the records I have are right here.”
Qin Yuan examined the pages like reading a hefty magical tome.
The texture of the pages was peculiar—soft, almost fleshy, unlike ordinary paper.
The sensation was quite novel.
The first page was a table of contents.
It mainly divided into warrior classes and mage classes, each further split into standard and special job changes.
[About Job Changes: After successfully changing jobs, all skills gained from leveling up will be randomly drawn from that profession’s skill pool in sets of three, from which you select one.]
[Mage Job Changes:]
[Fire Mage (Standard): A spellcaster proficient in the power of fire.]
[Class Ability: Heart of Flame]
[Effect: All your fire spells have a 20% chance to cast twice in succession, consuming mana only once.]
...
[Shadow Mage (Standard): A spellcaster skilled in shadow power.]
[Class Ability: Dark Worm]
[Effect: You can summon a dark worm that devours spiritual entities, hiding it within your spells. If an enemy is hit by a worm-infested spell, they suffer mental interference; severe cases may result in the loss of substantial spiritual energy, leading to dementia.]
...
[Rock Mage, Frost Mage, Nature Mage, Holy Mage...]
Qin Yuan counted—just the standard mage jobs recorded here numbered over twenty, each with its own unique skills.
In addition, there were over ten special jobs.
[Elementalist (Special): A master of all elemental powers, well-balanced and versatile.]
[Class Ability: Elemental Affinity]
[Effect: When casting spells, the affinity of each elemental attribute is tripled.]
[Required Materials: Elemental Crystal (Magic Material)★★ + Alice Leaf (Alchemy Herb)★★ + Crystal Mushroom (Alchemy Herb)★★.]
...
[Astrologer (Special): A spellcaster wielding the power of the stars. Nighttime arcane power allows for devastating spells, but they are weaker in daylight, sometimes even less effective than standard classes.]
[Class Ability: Moon’s Choice]
[Effect: At night, all your attributes receive a massive boost.]
[Required Materials: Moonstone (Magic Material) + Glimmer Bud (Alchemy Herb)★★ + Graveyard Flower (Alchemy Herb)★★.]
...
[Elementalist, Astrologer, Dragon Warlock, Ethereal...]
These were special mage jobs, each with distinct traits.
The records were detailed, describing strengths and weaknesses for each profession.
Qin Yuan silently mused that if he could memorize all this, encountering such classes in the future would be like seeing their cards in advance, greatly aiding his response.
“However, I don’t quite understand this Elementalist ability... What is elemental affinity exactly?”
Qin Yuan asked the Whispering Grimoire.
“It’s what you’d call a spell’s innate talent,” the grimoire explained.
“For example, if your natural fire elemental affinity is 3 points and someone else’s is 1 point, the same fire spell you cast will be 10% stronger.”
“Each additional point in elemental affinity increases the spell’s effect by 5%.”
“Of course, those who have activated the level system have at least 1 point in any elemental affinity, with a maximum of 3 points.”
“So it’s easy to understand now. Say your original fire affinity is 5 points.”
“Before the job change, a fire spell would deal 125% effectiveness; after the change, it would deal 175%.”
“And you should know, elemental affinity can be further enhanced. Some magical materials and special items can boost your affinity, stacking up to very significant levels.”
“Elemental affinity is a hidden stat, invisible by normal means, but some Mage Association outposts have specific testing tools.”
The principle was straightforward, and Qin Yuan quickly grasped it.
“I see... That sounds pretty good. So if I stack it high enough, any skill I use could deal double or even multiple times the damage... Hm...” Qin Yuan felt tempted.
Other special professions had powerful abilities too.
For instance, the Dragon Warlock could temporarily transform their body into a dragon, combining ranged spellcasting with close-quarters combat.
Or the Ethereal, masters of incredible spatial magic, able to freely enter the “Stellar Realm” and learn long-distance teleportation at low levels.
But... the problem was, Qin Yuan didn’t possess the magical primary materials these jobs required.
The special professions demanded two-star magic materials, which were scarce and bought up at high prices by the Mage Association, making them extremely hard to obtain externally.
That was the crucial obstacle.
Turning the page, the warrior jobs had slightly fewer options.
There were only five or six standard ones.
[Brutal Warrior, Lance Knight, Agile Swordsman...]
Rare ones were even fewer, only three recorded.
[Assassin, Paladin, Blood Knight.]
But after inquiries, Qin Yuan learned that these were not all that existed.
He showed great interest in this new knowledge, carefully reading every description.
...
A new day dawned. At just past seven in the morning, Qin Yuan, freshly awake and washed, ate breakfast while waiting for the countdown to end.
He sat in his chair, wearing a puzzled expression.
“I think I had a strange dream last night... There was a scene flashing repeatedly, and someone seemed to be whispering something in my ear, but I can’t recall any of it clearly.”
Having no clues, Qin Yuan shook his head and reopened the interface, noticing only a few minutes remained.
There was another strange matter.
The WeChat contact “Shadow of the Past” had vanished as if evaporated into thin air, offering no further replies since that day...
Soon, the countdown reached zero.
The scene before him began to shift.