original

Levelling by the Sidelines

นักเขียน: Tamaki_Leon

บท 1: Prologue: Tiresome

Through the dark quiet hallways, echoes of footsteps could be heard resounding through the area. There, a black-haired man wearing all black could be seen.

"..."

Silent and seemingly focused, the young man with a white mask on his face made his way deep into the hallways. Step by step, he quietly strolled forward, passing by the same repeated patterns of grey pillars and torches within the corridor.

"...ah." After a while of continuous walking, his movements finally stopped in place, now locking eyes on the large stone door in front of him. "So there It is... The boss room."

His eyes squinted at the sight, letting out a tired sigh in the process. "Hah... For what was said to be an A-ranked gate like this one... It sure doesn't seem like one. Ugh... What a waste of time."

After hours upon hours of exploration in the endless hallways, he was finally at the end. The monsters that he had faced on the way were a joke. An A-ranked gate? Its difficulty felt far lower than that. Perhaps it was because he was an S-ranked Hunter, but it shouldn't have been that easy.

"Sigh... Well, whatever." He shook his head in disappointment, soon taking out his two trusted pistols from his holster. "Let's just get this over with already. I wanna sleep."

With his hands moving forward, the young man, Jace Young, or as how his alias goes: "Ace", gently pushed the gate forward without much force. Despite how big the door looked, a small amount of force was all it needed to swing the gates open.

Then, without any further delay, he entered the room.

...

Stepping foot into the boss' room, Jace was immediately greeted by a large sleeping stone statue across from him. Surrounding it, were a total of ten pillars all in a circular formation, with purple flames extruding out at the top.

"Hah... How ominous..." He frowned, unamused at the sight. "To think that this entire gig was just for a golem... What a pain. My sleep schedule was ruined for nothing."

Grunting, Jace lazily scanned his surroundings, taking note of potential shelter nearby him. Soon after, the two pistols in his hands lifted up, pointing straight towards the sleeping golem.

"Sigh... There's no use complaining." Shaking his head helplessly, his eyes locked on the golem. "An A-ranked Golem boss shouldn't be too hard to pierce its outer layer. So I can take it easy."

As a Marksman class, Jace had the advantage of range and cover. As such, all he had to do was attack and hide behind the pillars. After all, against a slow-moving golem monster, it was nothing compared to the agility and ranged attacks that the S-ranked Hunter had.

And so, at Jace's words, the triggers on his two pistols were pressed, shooting out two bullets covered with a blue hue of mana towards the golem. In the next second, Jace wasted no time as he hurriedly rushed towards the pillars for cover.

However, just as he was about to move, the golem's eyes lit up a bright red. At that very moment, a red beam of light shot out from its eyes, heading straight to where Jace was.

"...!!!" Taking notice of the sudden attack coming from the golem, his actions abruptly stopped, soon leaping back a few steps in order to dodge the attack.

Right at that instance, as Jace reacted to the beam, the golem's next move completely messed up his rhythm. What was once a straight beam of light, suddenly became zigzags, following the young man's movements closely.

"Tch... That's not a golem!" Contrary to Jace's original expectations, he had found himself on edge, rushing towards the nearest pillar he could find for cover. "That's a freaking guardian! Tch... What a pain. What a real pain."

Just a few moments ago, the hunter had been complaining about the difficulty of the gate, and how it wasted his time. Yet, who would have known that to his dismay, he would find himself in this predicament? An encounter with an S-ranked boss monster. A guardian, no less.

"Ugh... What kind of dungeon decides to have C-ranked monsters roaming about while the boss is a freaking S-rank? God... They have the damn audacity to call it an A-ranked gate too..." He complained, back leaning against the pillar. At the same time, his head tilted slightly to the side, peeking out to survey the situation.

The sleeping monster that he had thought was a golem, stood up menacingly from the ground. Its gigantic structure revealed itself, with its height nearly as tall as the pillars, and its arms huge enough to form giant craters on the ground just from a single punch.

"Sigh. How stressful... To have to handle two S-ranked bosses in a day..." His sour mood became even more so at the realization. "Hah... The mana input I have set for these bullets isn't enough. I'll have to put even more effort to get a dent in on that guy..."

With a tight grip on his two pistols, his eyes locked onto his opponent once again. The beam of light had stopped as soon as he had hidden behind the pillar. However, he knew that as soon as he would leave, the ray would come straight to his face again.

Thus, he had to prepare himself. Readying up his two pistols, he leapt to the right, pointing at the guardian almost simultaneously after. In the next moment, bullet after bullet began firing out.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A mirage of blue light flickered out of his two guns as the bullets came raining down on the guardian. Shot after shot collided against its armour. Yet, after the barrage of attacks was over, the overall damage he had done was minimal.

"Tch... The Guardian's armour is just too much..." He frowned, sliding towards another pillar for cover. "Do I have to put in even more effort just to defeat it?" He pinched the bridge of his nose disdainfully, now looking at the two guns in his hand. "Jeez... It would be nice if Bryce was here to tank the damn thing."

Unfortunately for Jace, the entire dungeon run was on short notice, all thanks to the poor management of the Hunter's Association. As such, he was left with no other choice but to solo the entire dungeon.

"Stupid management and their worries for an overflow..." He grumbled, beginning to store away the two pistols back into his holster. In the next moment, his two fingers swiped upwards, soon taking out a long sniper rifle from his inventory. "To think I'd have to use this in a solo raid..."

He never would've expected it. But, it was a must for him to use the sniper rifle. After all, it was the only weapon that he had on hand that would have enough firepower to pierce the Guardian's armour.

"Thank god I'm never going to enter close combat..." he mumbled out. "The endless laser beam is troublesome... But it's bearable. Though, if I had to handle the close-range attacks too... Ugh."

He shuddered at the thought. It was already troublesome enough dodging the meticulous attacks from the Guardian. But to think about the close-range attacks was another level of stress altogether.

"With how fast the laser is... I would only have one chance to shoot per each time I reveal myself..." He thought to himself, peeking out towards the gigantic hunk of junk in front of him. "But to have to deal with the recoil and dodging at the same time..."

The thought was too much work for him. However, with the situation as is, he was left with barely any choice. He wasn't a Striker who could brute force his way through, nor was he a Magician with spells that could help. He was just a Marksman. A renowned Marksman at that.

"Hmm..." Though, despite the lack of choices, he still had one way to ease up on the work. "Let's just go with this then."

Swiping his two fingers up once again, Jace began taking out a few pieces of what looked to be a rock from his inventory. Then, as he was about to move out to attack with the rifle, he threw the rock outwards in the opposite direction.

Boom!

The small piece of rock was blasted into smithereens in the next second. Simultaneously as the rock was obliterated, Jace swayed to the side, with the rifle in hand, soon aiming it straight at the giant's body.

Bang!

The bullet was shot out, blasting straight into the Guardian's armour.

"First hit success..." he said, rolling towards the side and hiding his body behind a pillar. "Now to do it a bazillion amount of times... Sigh."

It was a blessing in disguise that the Guardian was humongous. It meant that accuracy wasn't needed to be considered at all. As such, it was basically a surefire hit. And if a Marksman still missed despite the odds, the next best option would be retiring.

Though, unfortunately for Jace, blindly shooting a big target was as easy as sleeping for him. Thus, he could only helplessly repeat the same dull set of actions: Throw a rock, jump and shoot, and hide behind a pillar.

The 2nd shot slowly became the 27th, 28th... 34th. There were ten pillars in total, and Jace had looped around the pillars nearly three and a half times repeating the same old action. But there was nothing else he could do.

And so, the dull tasks were repeated over and over, until finally, the guardian was defeated.

...

[ You have defeated "Guardian of the Soul Oracle"! ]

"Hah... That was so much of a pain..." After confirming the defeat of the guardian through the notification in front of him, Jace sighed with relief. "...I better get a good commission fee for these stupid last-minute arrangements..."

Placing the overused sniper rifle back into his inventory, the young man began making his way forward to where the fallen Guardian was.

"Those guys won't know I used mana cores as bait, right?" He muttered to himself, slowly scrunching closer to inspect the defeated boss. "Well, whatever... An S-ranked Mana Core should be able to shut them up..."

As he neared the lifeless body, a sudden notification appeared before Jace.

[ Congratulations! You have passed the first Trial of Oracle! ]

"What?" he frowned, unamused at the sight. "What the hell's this?"

[ Affirming achievements in the raid... ]

[ You are the highest contributor to the raid! ]

[ Hunter "Jace Young" is eligible for a class change. ]

"...what?" he blinked in confusion.

[ The class change process will now begin. ]

"...?" As the notifications began pouring in, Jace was left dumbfounded.

[ During the process, your current state of being will be reverted back to your original pre-awakened state. Certain skills and titles will remain, while others will not. ]

"...huh?" Still not getting the memo, Jace clicked his tongue, not having any of the shenanigans going on. "Just what the hell is this?"

[ Your Class Archetype: "Marksman" will be changed to "Synergist". ]

After a few more rows of notifications, the realization finally sunk in. "...WHAT?!"

[ Your class change will now begin. ]

His eyes opened wide in shock, glaring at the notifications with resentment.

"Excuse me? Huh...? Class change?" The situation at hand was incomprehensible to Jace. With the string of events from the morning to now, he was already tired as is. As such, another level of absurdity was unimaginable for him. "Hey, system! Explain!"

He cried out in anger, having had enough for today. Yet, that cry was futile. There was nothing he could do. The changes were already set in stone.

"U-Ugh..." His head began throbbing in pain, forcing his hands to press on his temple. "This... Isn't what I signed up for..." he grunted, vision blurring. "Take it back... Take it..."

As everything around him became a haze, the strength in his body slowly depleted away. His eyes could no longer fight the drowsiness that he felt, and his legs began giving out.

"...back..." Unable to put up a fight any longer, his body flopped to the ground, completely losing all his remaining strength. Before he knew it, everything had gone black.

...

[ The class change process is completed. ]

[ You are now a "Synergist". ]