My (Monster?) Hero Life

Kace lay on the bed in his new room completely exhausted. They had made it back without a hitch after the battle in the forest. Then they spent a lot of time giving the details of the operation to the King and Vaskra.

It turned out that Gyn and Kharja had to take a detour which led them to cross paths. They had come across one of the Kings scouts that were keeping tabs on the Heroes searching for where they had gone. If they had went straight to the caves then they would have run into a hero party.

All in all they did manage to bring one hundred trolls back with them. The impending next clash with the Heroes was not looking so bleak now. Although if anything, he did have concerns about the possibility of the Mercenary Guild joining in now.

With a heavy sigh he returned his attention to the notification log. He had definitely gained from the battles. Though by how much he was not sure.

[Notification: Rewards have been calculated. Rewards can not be received until you sleep. Update to life settings will take place during this period.]

Basically if he wanted his exp and that he would have to sleep, which he was planning on doing anyway to recover. It was the part about updating life settings that had him confused. 'There's only one way to find out for sure.' he thought, as he lay his head down and waited patiently for his exhaustion to overtake him.

*

Kace awoke in luxurious bed, draped with white silk sheets. The sky was dark with stars dotted on its canvas looking down on him. In a panic he sat up to look around.

The bed was on a stone platform, situated in the centre of a tiny floating island. Clouds drifted past around him as he looked at the beautiful flowers planted around the perimeter of the island.

"It's been awhile huh?" a familiar voice said from behind the headboard.

With a gasp he looked back, only to see a young woman with wavy green hair and bright, sparkling green eyes staring at him. Resting her arms on the headboard as she studied him.

"Do I know you?" Kace asked confused, the voice was somewhat familiar but he was certain he had never met anyone who looked like this.

"How can you say such a thing?" the woman playfully gasped, "And here I thought you gave your soul to me!"

Realising something was wrong with what she said Kace groaned. He had been calm because he had thought this was a dream. Now he was sure it was not.

"Eve..." He muttered.

"Ding, ding, ding! Give the winner a medal!" she teased.

Kace groaned even louder at this.

"I thought I was done with you? You haven't been around at all since I got here!" he complained.

"Ofcourse not. There are rules that must be followed. Even for me." she said as she smiled, "Though just this once I kind of bent them a little."

[Notification: Stored rewards granted. Bonus granted.]

[Congratulations! You have reached Level 5!]

"What the hell!" Kace jumped in surprise.

[Life settings updated. Monster System Liberated. Hero System Liberated. Class System Liberated. Party/Raid System Liberated. Quest System Liberated.]

[System conflict detected. Merging systems. Removing obsolete system settings. New system created. Hero System has merged successfully with Monster System. Monster Hero System Liberated.]

[Drawing three compatible classes. Drawing complete. Please select your class.]

Lurker: A monster class well known for its stealth abilities and ambush tactics. +10AP, +10MP, +5 to Speed and Agility. Unique Skill: Deep Fog. Description: At the cost of 20 MP cast a wide area spell that creates a sense fog. Users and allies sight will not be affected within it's area. Can only be used once per day.

Abyss Mage: A monster class that focuses on dark magic. Seekers of the Abyss prefer the darkness. +20 MP, +5 to Intelligence and Wisdom. Unique Skill: Abyssal Curse. Description: At the cost of 20 MP, once per day cast a wide area ritual curse. Those caught within it's area will have their AP and MP sealed for three minutes.

Hexblade: A monster class that specialises in Close combat and dark magics. +10 MP, +10 AP, +5 to Strength and Intelligence. Unique Skill: Empower. Description: At the cost of 20 MP, once per day cast a wide area hex. Those caught in it's area of effect will suffer a 20% decrease in all attributes temporarily transferring these stats to you. Lasts for three minutes.

Kace just looked at these in shock. Too many new things had been thrown at him at once.

"What the fuck is going on?" he muttered.

Eva's face lit up in a wide grin.

"It's your rewards for surviving the Tutorial levels." she announced as she laughed to herself.

"Tutorial levels! What the actual fuck?"

"Well, usually if too much is thrown at someone right at the start it goes to their head a bit. They get too fixated on levels, skills and the like and end up dying because they rely on it too much. They end up thinking that their skills is the only way to fight. So up to level five all of this is kept from them." she said as she shrugged her shoulders like it was no biggie.

'What about the times I almost died because of a lack of them?' This was what he wanted to scream at her but kept his mouth shut.

"Oh right. That was just a warning. Don't rely on your stats too much. Sure they help but as you already know the system isn't native to this world. So there's flaws where the law of the world and the law of the system contradict each other. Usually you wouldn't die unless your health hit zero but as you've found out getting a hit off in a weak area can still outright kill them or yourself off."

Kace groaned, he had already learned this flaw when dealing with his enemies however it was now confirmed the same could be done to him. 'I'll have to stay on my toes no matter how strong I get.'

"Ah, right. Now that you have the Monster Hero System unlocked you can use [Inspect]. It works automatically when you get into combat and will give you some useful information."

Kace raised an eyebrow out of concern. He had already noticed that his own level was not the equal to the levels of those around him.

"I know what you're thinking. Don't worry. It comes with a conversion system. So it equalises the differences in each race. So the value you see is the level you would have to be at to equal them. Your lucky that you spawned in this area. Its basically like a wildlife reserve. The heroes have just been managing the population so that their new recruits can gain levels."

Kace sighed with relief. It would be good to finally be able to properly gauge the strength of his opponents. Before he had thought that his level system was the same as others only to find out that was false. For instance a level 2 orc was about equal to a level six goblin. Ofcourse ranks would come into play in various ways that could close the gap but it was definitely a relief to have this in place.

'I wonder what Grugda's level is?' he wondered as he thought about the fight in the forest.

"Ah, you can check the different functions that are available when you get back. For now you should focus on picking a class. Don't worry too much about it. As you raise your level you'll get the chance to advance the class. So what are you going to pick?" Eve asked innocently.

Turning his attention back to the class selection he considered his options.

Lurker basically appeared to be an assassin class. So far he had been forced down this road and he had suffered when he was caught in a head on confrontation. 'It'll basically strengthen the skills and style of what I'm currently doing.' he thought. He was not keen on continuing this route but it might be for the best.

Abyss Mage would give him the chance the go in a whole new direction. His mana pool was not great just now but this could solve it as he levelled up with plentiful MP gains and some serious firepower.

Hexblade on the other hand would basically patch up the areas where he was currently lacking. It would be more versatile and could help him survive in tricky situations.

It was a seriously tough decision for him. He had gotten into the groove slightly of the assassin playstyle but so far it did not show any promise if he got caught in a big battle. Without the opportunity to ambush his enemies his overall power would be weaker.

'Should I choose Abyss Mage or Hexblade then?' he questioned himself. All the while eyeing the Lurker class not quite sure whether definitely write it off...