Chapter 3 - Support's Breakthrough (1)

After being backstabbed by Keidrial, SeoHyun logged out.

'100 USD... It's a lot of money, but I think that I can afford it.'

He decided to eat ramen for the rest of the week and bought another character slot.

'This time, I'll definitely pick a cheat class!'

He broke out into cold sweat when he entered the character picking room.

'Huh...? Where is Keidrial...?'

He couldn't see anyone in the place where either an angel or a demon should be standing. The hidden place was also nowhere to be seen.

Warrior, Thief, Magician, Priest...

He could only see the items necessary to pick one out of the four jobs.

'No way... Each account gets only one chance?!'

It didn't take him long to realize that his suspicion was true.

Boom!

SeoHyun, who was having a mental breakdown, came out of the capsule and grabbed his hair.

A Support?!

Even if his job changed in the future, it would probably still be some kind of supporting role. For example: Expert Support, Legendary Support, Support of Darkness, Moonlight Support, etc.

'But why?'

He had definitely chosen a red greatsword.

It was the type of weapon that seemed capable of beating everything and everyone—a job fit for a damage dealer.

But Support?

How could such a weapon symbolize the job of a Support?

"Oof..."

SeoHyun took a bottle of cold water from the fridge and drank it.

He calmed down and placed himself in the capsule again.

He was tempted to start the game with a normal job for a moment, but after thinking about it, he decided to give it a chance. After all, making a decision before taking a better look at the job would be silly.

'Even if it's a support, it's still a hidden job. Right?'

He tried to be positive about his current situation.

'Is it possible that the Support's ability is better than it seems? In the first place, its item is an amazing greatsword.'

SeoHyun rapidly logged in again.

[You've logged in to Asra Online!]

As soon as he successfully logged in, Hyun opened his status window.

[ Hyun (Lv. 1)

HP: 50/50

Mana: 100/100

[Strength: 2] [Agility: 2] [Vitality: 5] [Magical Power: 10] [Empathy: 27]

Skills - <+Open List>

"...Hm."

Hyun fell into silence for a little while.

Even though he was still in the first line of the status window, his job had many issues.

'Okay, I'm going to decide after reading the skills.'

[«The Heavenly God's Protection» Lv.0]

- You can increase the defense of a selected target by 50 + (Empathy / 10).

- Lasts 1 second.

[ «Shield» Lv.0 ]

- You can surround a selected target with a shield for 1 second.

- The enemies that hit the shield will lose consciousness for 3 + (Empathy / 500) seconds.

- If hit, the cooldown time goes down by 5 seconds. <Cooldown time: 600 seconds>

Hyun closed the status window.

What came out of his mouth were insults.

"What the fuck is this?!"

There was a reason for his anger.

First of all, the job had amazing stats… Amazing in a bad sense.

"What is empathy?"

He had played Asra Online for almost eight years, but it was his first time seeing a nonsensical stat like that.

Not only that, but the rest of the stats were also very low.

"Only 2 in strength and agility? Are these stats even possible?"

In Asra Online, most jobs had a base stat of at least 15 points, though there were some exceptions. For example, the Warrior had a Magical Power of 2, and the Magician began the game with 5 in health.

Basically, the Support had the worst stats out of all current jobs available in the game.

Most stats were probably low because of the Support's exclusive 'empathy' stat. He wouldn't complain if that stat were actually useful, but that didn't seem to be the case.

First of all, «The Heavenly God's Protection».

It increased defense by 50 points for one second.

50 points of defense were actually very high. It was comparable to the defense that a level 150 knight had.

Up until level 80 or 90, there wouldn't be any monster capable of dealing damage. So, in the beginning, it would make anyone practically immortal.

The problem was the duration.

"Hmm... A duration of one second, huh?"

Hyun changed the name «The Heavenly God's Protection» to «One Second Immortality».

"Well, at least I'll be able to use it to defend myself from one hit."

Hyun gave the skill «One Second Immortality» an almost perfect score.

Next skill, «Shield».

It was a counter-attacking skill.

The 3-second stun seemed useful, but if you looked at what it did carefully, it wasn't hard to see that it was a trash skill.

The duration was the same as the other one, one second.

But the issue was that the cooldown time was 10 minutes.

The shield was only activated when an opponent hit you; that meant even if you used «Shield», you needed to be attacked by an opponent almost immediately. If not, you had to wait 10 minutes.

A cold sweat rolled down from his ears.

He just couldn't think of a good way to use the Support class.

"Shouldn't they give me at least one offensive skill? Or a healing one. Does this mean that a Support isn't even a healer?"

If he had received the Healer job, he would have been able to join a party and have an easy time.

For example, the Support seemed to be more fit for a simple job, like picking up items.

"Should I just make a new character? No, I should at least try to obtain the ultimate attack."

Hyun decided to calm down and give it another chance.

At level 50, all jobs learned an ultimate attack.

Since it was a hidden class, its ultimate attack could be special.

No! It had to be special!

After Hyun set a goal, he became more motivated.

He took out the 'Newbie's Dagger' from his inventory. And after that, he walked outside of the Starter Town.

The 'Transparent Slime' used Body Slam!

Hyun didn't avoid its attack. Not because he couldn't but because he didn't need to.

«One Second Immortality»!

Boing - The Transparent Slime bounced away after hitting Hyun.

Neither the slime nor Hyun were hurt.

Hyun counter-attacked. The Newbie's Dagger slashed through the slime's body.

[You've successfully dealt 3 damage!]

The slime seemed to be hurt but nothing fatal. After all, slimes had a vitality of 100 points and a regenerative ability.

Once Hyun's attack had finished, the Transparent Slime attacked him again. When it was about to hit him, he activated another skill.

«Shield»!

The slime hit the protective shield and made a loud noise. You could see stars going around in circles on top of its head.

The protective shield that lasted for one second had the ability to knock out any opponent that tried to attack him.

The issue was that it didn't stop the opponents from damaging him.

[You've received 10 damage!]

He sacrificed some vitality to knock out the opponent for three seconds.

During that short period of time, he managed to land two attacks on the slime.

[You've dealt 3 damage!]

[Critical Hit! You've dealt 5 damage!]

Once the time was up, the slime woke up and prepared to attack again.

Hyun used «One Second Immortality» again.

Boing - The slime bounced away once more.

The same things happened for around five minutes. And then, finally…

Squeak! - After making a sound similar to a mouse, the slime was defeated.

Hyun enjoyed the victory after a battle that lasted for 10 minutes.

Hyun looked at the rewards he had gained.

[You've obtained 5 experience points]

Next to Hyun, another player that had just come out from Starter Town was fighting a slime.

He watched the new player.

Hyun thought that the other user must be a Warrior. After all, he used a level 1 skill called «Strike», which was exclusive to the warrior job.

The moment he used «Strike» again on the slime with a Newbie's Dagger.

Boom-!

His attack made a clear and loud sound. It was a critical hit.

Just two attacks…

The slime exploded.

Dumbfounded, Hyun saw the Warrior run away in search of the next monster.

"Screw this game."

Hyun was able to kill 10 slimes in two hours. During that time, he was able to obtain three slime essence and 50 experience points.

The Warrior, however, had killed a Slime in a few seconds and ran past him.

"Not worth it."

Hyun threw away the Newbie's Dagger, but he regretted it immediately, so he picked it up again.

'This isn't going to work. Should I try to join a party?'

If he talked to someone that looked nice, that person might accept incorporating him into the party.

But as the former number 1, he didn't like the idea of using such a petty strategy.

He laid down on the grass and closed his eyes.

A few users walking nearby looked at him with weird eyes, but Hyun didn't notice that.

He was lost in his thoughts.

What he had was a lot of knowledge about Asra Online.

He didn't necessarily have to level up by grinding like everyone else.

What he had to do was use his knowledge and experience. If not, he wouldn't be able to catch up with everyone else.

Hyun started to navigate through Asra his mind.

The first continent, Asra…

Among the five nations, he should begin with the Erant Kingdom.

Hyun tried to remember everything about the Erant Kingdom.

21 castles... Towns... NPCs... Types of monsters that appeared... He tried to remember every single detail.

Since he couldn't find the answer he was looking for, he started to explore another place using his mind.

The Lanpurus Empire.

It had 63 different areas. It was by far the continent's biggest country; that's why it always had many things going on, and a wide variety of monsters appeared in that place.

Mercenaries of Reus... Magical Tower... The Empire's Academy... The continent's biggest workshop...

He tried to remember even the hidden areas.

The Floating Gardens... The Altar... The Thread of Destiny... The Lake of Evil Spirits...

He thought a lot about the different places available.

After a while, he seemed to have found the answer. The look in his eyes had changed.

"Maybe... I can do it..."

He simulated the possible outcome in his head.

Hyun perfected his strategy little by little, and every time it improved, his heart started beating faster.

"It might actually work!"

Hyun stood up.

After going through the entire world of Asra, he finally had a clue. It was a tiny one, but thanks to his calculations, it seemed like something he could pull off.

There was a hunt that only a Support could do!

If everything went according to his plan, he wouldn't need to hunt slimes anymore.

* * *

Asra and Asrian Online had a special newbie bonus.

Users below level 5 could use the teleport gate for free once.

That benefit was designed to help newbie users.

You started at a random town inside the Asra continent when you created a new character.

Most of the time, the town where you start your adventures is decided by your IP location.

But there could be exceptions.

You could also start your adventure in an area that was in the middle of a conflict or a place where strong monsters appeared.

If you started the game in a high-difficulty area, you wouldn't be able to do anything.

That's why they gave users one chance to teleport themselves and change their starting town.

Some people used this benefit to teleport to their friends, but the important thing here was that every character under level 5 received the ability to use the teleport gate once free of charge.

That was the starting point of Hyun's idea.

'If I can use teleport to get out of a dangerous place, I should be able to do the reverse.'

Hyun easily found the teleport gate building.

The Magician in charge of the gate looked at Hyun with suspicion.

"Are you out of your mind? It seems like you're a new 'user.' That place isn't for you. In order to survive there, you need to be at level 60 minimum."

Hyun smiled bitterly.

He probably looked like a newbie who didn't know anything about the world or someone suicidal.

But he didn't want to explain his reasoning to the Magician, nor did he care about what the other person thought.

"Mind your own business."

The Magician's face became red.

"I shouldn't have tried giving advice to a crazy person like you. I'll send you there immediately. Oh, by the way. Going there it's free, but if you want to come back, it will cost you 200 gold."

Hyun stepped inside the Magic Circle. After the Magician moved his hand, he disappeared.

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