Chapter 16: The Perks of an Aura User

Joshua found himself walking down a busy area of the system generated city. For the most part Joshua had just used doors created by the system to travel from place to place but this time he decided to walk through the city itself instead of taking the quick route to his destination. The place was extremely busy with several people moving in and out of buildings all around him. He felt like he was walking around New York City or something with all the bustling of people making their way around.

There were people that were heading towards their guilds that had taken up residence in the city. Joshua had been to Laura's guild when he took Amy to join them and at the time he didn't walk there, but just used a door to enter the lobby. Guilds had become quite popular and a lot of the buildings in his surroundings were guilds of different sizes. There were also several restaurants that people that decided to be chefs as their supporting roles had opened up along with stores that had their own unique flair.

Two places Joshua recognized as he passed by were the learning center and the Training facility that were far bigger on the outside. Although it was a bit of a strange situation where the inside of those buildings lead to their own little dimensions where as many people as possible could go in and out of them without any problem. All of this was unique, but of course this one city wasn't enough to hold the billions of humans that were still alive even after the first phase. Joshua wasn't surprised when he found out this city was just one of a thousand cities that could each hold up to six million people comfortably. So all in all there was plenty of space for humanity.

It didn't take long for Joshua to find himself standing outside of an enormous building that stood out from the rest. It towered over any place nearby and had a large sign out front that was lit up with its name. The building was called the job center and even now Joshua could see several people moving in and out of it. Some youngsters that still hadn't grown up to the point where they stopped aging would rush into the building with excitement. He was sure they were probably looking forward to getting a job for the future before heading out on their little adventures. It wasn't too hard to imagine their excitement after seeing Amy go through something similar not too long ago.

Joshua walked into the building and immediately found himself in a lobby that seemed to stretch on endlessly with several people entering different doors that lead to their own private space to test for their job. Joshua moved along to an open space and swiped at the air in front of him. On the system menu he could see a new function that said local and immediately tapped on it. The system then took him to a screen that said job center and gave a slight menu that showed different things that he could do there. There were other things outside of testing for a job such as looking for a position of work with people that had put out job applications for support workers of guild applications for combat jobs. He ignored all of that and quickly selected the job claiming process and a door appeared in front of him like with everyone else. He stepped through the door and entered a simple room that was empty except for a floating orb about the size of a bowling ball that was set up in the middle of the room.

Looking around for a bit Joshua decided that the only thing for him to do was inspect the orb so he moved over to the center of the room and outstretched his hand. When he finally touched the orb it lit up to a glowing white that was bright enough to make Joshua squint his eyes. While that was happening a screen popped up in front of the light and made it more bearable to look at. The screen suddenly filled up with a little bit of information.

[Scanning…Information found, waiting for testing process to complete]

Joshua looked strangely at the orb as it seemed to thrum for a bit. Soon the screen was replaced with a loading icon that showed how fast the testing process was going. It took a little while, but eventually the bright light dimmed and the test came to an end. As soon as the orb settled down the screen once again changed to show something different.

[Testing complete here are a list of jobs/classes you are qualified for :

Swordsman

Archer

Dagger wielder

Axe wielder

BERSERKER

Healer

Mage

MARTIAL ARTIST

...]

The list kept on going with several jobs that either only took a simple understanding of a weapon or a basic level of intelligence and combat skills. Sense Joshua had been training for most of his life in so many different ways it came as no surprise to him that there were so many different options available. He took notice of some of the jobs being in all caps that showed that the system was probably recommending those classes over the others. Joshua simply smiled at the fact the system still tried to get him to be a berserker in the end before scrolling down through the list of several jobs. There were some interesting jobs here and there and he was sure just about all of the jobs would be able to upgrade in the future into something even more interesting, but he kept scrolling until he came across what he was looking for.

[AURA USER]

It took a while for him to find it, but when he did he took notice of the fact that the job was not only in all caps like some of the others but was actually lit up in a golden color. It was fairly clear that this was definitely the job for him after all of his talents were taken into account. Joshua quickly clicked on it and was quickly met with another short message.

[Would you like to select AURA USER Yes/No?]

Joshua frowned a bit at the fact that the system wasn't allowing him to see what exactly the job entailed, but seeing as it was the only unique job available he decided to trust his and the others judgement and go with it.

[You have selected AURA USER system will now impart the knowledge and traits necessary for the transition process. Keep in physical contact with the orb through the entire process to avoid any complications.]

Joshua complied with its demands and stood still while keeping his hand on the orb the entire time. Soon he found a transfer of energy fill his body and a sudden surge of information fill his mind. For a moment he felt as though he was having a headache, but he braced himself and just waited it out. It didn't take too long for the orb to stop glowing and the odd sensations to come to an end. Then another screen popped up in front of him.

[You have been granted the Aura User job/class. Your stats bonuses for having such title are as followed…Strengthx3, Vitalityx3, Dexterityx3, Intelligencex3, Wisdomx3, Willx5…These will hold true for each level gained going forward. To learn more about your job you can select it in your status menu.]

Joshua was a bit shocked at this new information. Before coming here he had looked up some of the stat totals from other more well-known beginner jobs such as swordsmen or knight. Those classes were far more often seen with the system so it wasn't very hard to find more information on them. If he compared the stats boost from swordsman with aura user he would easily chose aura user. Swords man only gave a plus three to the physical stats while the mental stats of intelligence and wisdom only got a plus two. Will also only got a plus two when it came to swordsman which clearly put aura user on top. Swordsman was supposed to be the more balanced job of the bunch so the fact that aura user was even better at that brought a smile to Joshua's face.

Most jobs were off balance in some way or form, with berserker having an extremely high strength bonus of plus five while its mental bonuses weren't there at all still sitting at the plus one from normal level ups. This news was very welcomed and finally made Joshua believe that aura user was a good choice for him even if he had to struggle so much for it. After calming down a bit he pulled up his stats and before even looking for any changes he quickly clicked on aura user and a description for it popped up.

[Aura User: A well balanced job that uses aura to strengthen the body for combat. Has higher tiers to reach after leveling.

Abilities gained from Job:

Aura Buff (always active when using aura.) – A light glow across the body that strengthens all stats as long as it is in use. Strengthens all stats by fifteen percent of total value.

Aura Hardening (Has to be activated) – The glow across the body grows stronger and denser. This can be activated for three minutes at a time and has a cool down period of ten minutes before it can be used again. While in the hardened state all of the aura strengthening gets regulated to the body's vitality stat and improves the user's defense. Provides a ninety percent buff to the total vitality value.

Aura Pulse – A vibrant pulse that uses the aura to sense out the surroundings. Range grows based on how strong the user's aura is.

Aura blast – A ranged attack that uses aura to send out a concussive force that deals damage based on how strong the users aura is. This ability can be combined with weapons to change the shape of the blast or its range. It can also be used from any part of the body. Cooldown of ten seconds.]

Joshua was stunned at some of the descriptions he was given by the information from the system. From conversations with Thoren he knew that all of the abilities he saw from the outset would be all of the abilities he would have to rely on until he reached level one hundred and was able to go to the next tier. He would still gain some abilities from his soul beast like the ones Laura, Madalyn, and Natalie had during the first phase, but this was all he would get from his job. He honestly wasn't expecting too much, but having a basically permanent fifteen percent buff to all of his stats was crazy. The hardening skill could also pretty much double his vitality whenever he was forced to take a hard blow from a dangerous opponent. That's not to mention the abilities to scan his surroundings for danger and to send out concussive blast every ten seconds. He realized that he probably had a limit to the amount aura his body could have at the moment and would quickly drain himself if he constantly used it all to throw out blast attacks, but he would have to test that all out soon enough.

He exited the screen and went back to his stats to see the difference on that screen. Before he did he let his aura course through his body and fill the area a bit to see how it showed up on the stats screen.

Level 10

Job – Aura User

Soul Beast – Fenrir

Stats (parenthesis number is the bonus stats from levels and Job) [Bracket numbers are skill modifiers]

Strength: 150 (9) = 159 x [1.15] = 182.85

Vitality: 150 (9) = 159 x [1.15] = 182.85

Dexterity: 150 (9) = 159 x [1.15] = 182.85

Intelligence: 150(9) = 159 x [1.15] = 182.85

Wisdom: 150 (9) = 159 x [1.15] = 182.85

Will: 150 (9) = 159 x [1.15] = 182.85

Luck 100 (0) = 100

Joshua smiled as he looked over his stats and could see how he gained over twenty stats points to each stat when his aura was up. He could also see that at the bottom of the stats page he could see a little gauge that showed how much aura he had. He looked at the gauge for a while and it took a few minutes for it to even start draining noticeably at all. When he let his aura settle down he noticed the gauge quickly fill up what had been used in about a minute. Judging by that he could tell he could probably keep his aura up for about an hour without any problems, but using his skills would probably cause him to drain it even faster. All in all it seemed fairly reasonable to him. Now all he had to do is wait and see why this job supposedly went so well with his soul beast. Hopefully it would wake up soon.