The Land Where Light Was Born

The continent players arrive at first after leaving the Island of Beginnings. Known as the Continent of Peace and Order, Alterion was the largest landmass in the world of Laika — and the second great waypoint every player was destined to pass through.

So naturally, I too arrived on the Alterion Continent the moment my quest cleared. The only problem was that the warp hadn't deposited me at the Lumis Domain, where ordinary players touch down.

Then again, this wasn't exactly a shock.

Warrior, Archer, Mage, Knight, and Assassin — the five classes most players acquire at their 1st Advancement. For these five standard classes, 'class guilds' exist in the Lumis Domain. That's why the average player, immediately after clearing their advancement quest, arrives at the Lumis Domain and heads to the guild for whatever class they picked to begin their class main questline.

Hidden classes, on the other hand, usually have no guild of their own, so their holders get dumped in all sorts of random places where quests related to that class can be pursued. So for someone like me, who'd acquired one of the stranger hidden classes among hidden classes... if I had opened my eyes and found myself in the Lumis Domain, that would have been the strange outcome.

That said...

But dropping me straight into the Lumentis Hollow — wasn't that a bridge or two too far?

How did I know where it was? Well...

That's the very message that greets you upon entering the Lumentis Hollow for the first time.

Phew.

[Stream chat reconnected — field transition complete.]

Once I switched the message sharing back on after the field transition, the Constellations began to murmur as well.

The Constellations themselves looked considerably flustered.

And honestly, fair enough — setting aside all the other absurd aspects, this was a Level 40+ hunting ground. I'd landed in plenty of dangerous fields back in the day while testing every hidden class out there, but even for me, this was the first time I'd seen a drop THIS lacking in basic decency.

Of course, I couldn't exactly say that to the Constellations' faces.

-Esteemed seniors, what is the Lumentis?

Well, the fact that I was no ordinary newbie was more or less an unspoken understanding between me and the Constellations at this point. Still, in moments like this, it paid to play the rookie. After all, I had to look at least a little pitiful if I wanted the Constellations to keep showering me with sponsorship, didn't I?

-Why? Everyone said once you reach the continent, you're supposed to start with your class main quest, right?

Now that I looked closely, even these Constellation rascals were secretly kind of adorable. Whenever I played dumb like this, I could practically see them grinning behind their chat messages.

Hah. This is why I hate perceptive Constellations.

-For now, there's only one path, so I'll just follow it a little deeper, seniors.

Aww... worrying about my well-being and everything. How sweet, it brings a tear to my eye.

But if you're worried about me, wouldn't basic human decency dictate telling me at least what level the field is? Sure, I understand the urge to watch me get dunked on, but still — come on! How is it that not a single Constellation will explain, start to finish, what the Lumentis Mine actually is?

"......"

Then again, I suppose they'd reasoned that even in the worst-case scenario, I wasn't fool enough to die without even getting to rip my scroll. And in fairness, now that I'd bought Horus's Feather, I did have a guaranteed safety net in place.

But... even so, it stung, you know?

Hmm...

I was in the middle of brooding over that when —

Ding-!

A system message that blew my bitterness away in a single stroke had appeared before my eyes.

Kyah—

Five thousand points.

-Thank you, senior!

Our esteemed Constellation would continue watching me going forward? I could only prostrate myself before such boundless grace. I shall strive ever harder.

So please, don't wander off anywhere else — keep watching me, alright? Understood?

Elicia Rowell, a fire-attribute mage, was a graduate student at UCL, one of London's most prestigious universities. Her field of study there: chemical engineering. Which is to say... she had never once dreamed that she would one day awaken as a player. Rowell simply liked experiments a little more than other people did, and she was positively obsessed with burning things.

As the only daughter of a considerably wealthy family, she had felt no interest whatsoever in becoming a player and ascending to glory.

"Awakening? Players? Not really my thing."

But once she learned a little more about the world of Laika, the situation changed. The woman who had lived shut inside her laboratory... abandoned even her graduate program and fell head over heels for Laika.

The reason was simple. Inside this world of Laika, she could conduct the explosion experiments she so wanted, to her heart's content.

Fwoosh-!

BOOM- KABOOM-!

In Laika, there was no risk of an experiment going dangerously wrong with real consequences, and no need to worry about burning down the lab. So much so that she never even felt the desire to level up as a player. The sole reason she entered the Gates in the first place was 'research'.

That was why, for nearly three years after awakening, she had remained at Level 1.

"If I ever do end up going through this 'class advancement' thing, a mage would probably be good, right? Then I could run all sorts of new experiments."

So if that 'singularity' had never found her, she might never have left Bereshit at all.

She was, in fact, quite a special mage — one who had developed 'circles' before ever formally advancing to the mage class.

"Oh?"

Fwoooosh-!

"Well, this... is actually rather convenient, isn't it?"

Once she could manipulate fire with magic, she began to think a bit more seriously about becoming a mage. So she leveled up. In any case, advancement wasn't possible until Level 20, they said. And as she diligently conducted her 'experiments on combustion reactions' using the local monsters as test subjects, her levels grew all on their own.

And so she was able to become a mage.

Of course, acquiring a hidden class had been nowhere in her intentions... but she couldn't be bothered to wonder how it had happened. To her, it was merely a very minor variable.

"So let me get this straight, Lowell — you're a Level 37 fire mage? And you can cast, what, two kinds of wide-area fire magic?"

"Yes, that's right. Is there some sort of problem?"

"Hmm... well, I am a little worried..."

"Still, Nobin did say you could definitely pull your weight on damage... and we're an experienced party, so it'll be fine, I suppose."

"Thank you so much!"

And so today as well, Lowell was diligently playing Laika in pursuit of experimental materials. The experimental subject currently holding her interest: the 'Lumen ore' obtainable from a place called the Lumentis Mine.

The Lumentis Mine was, rather unexpectedly, a famous place. To be precise, it was famous among mage-class players as the must-run hunting course for the Level 40 bracket. And with good reason — the Lumen Ghost, the monster most commonly found here, was the most convenient prey imaginable for damage-focused mage builds.

They packed devastating attack power but possessed tissue-paper-thin health bars, and because they roamed about in swarms, they were highly vulnerable to a mage party's area-of-effect attacks. Granted, the mine was still too punishing for a mage to hunt alone, but nearly every party hunting here tried to bring along at least one mage DPS.

'If only I had a mage-type class, this would all be so much easier...'

The problem was that right now, forget wide-area magic — I didn't have a single usable combat skill. And I had, apparently, completed my advancement. Into a bona fide 'hidden class', no less.

The Constellations weren't hyped up for nothing. Reading through the skill descriptions, the whole thing was a textbook disaster.

Worse yet, even after reading it I barely understood it — and I can assure you it's not a reading comprehension problem on my end.

So far, I'd gathered this much: first I make something with 'Lumen Synthesis', then use the Seraphic ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Forge skill with that to craft... something. But ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the part where I have to raise my Synthesis Understanding felt like a wall from the word go. It said I had to study the target — but how in the world does one 'study' a monster?

And the final skill wasn't even unlocked yet...

In other words, I was effectively class-less, and the expectation was that I catch Level 45 monsters as things stood?

Phew. There was no denying it — this difficulty was straight-up absurd. The textbook play here would be to rip my scroll immediately and speedrun back to the Lumis Domain. Grind out some side quests, shore up my foundation, do enough leveling, and then take on the class main quest.

Right. That would absolutely be the sane, rational judgment.

But.

-Eh. I'll give it a shot.

Even so, I couldn't run away like this. Turning tail for the village right now would cost me a day's worth of LP no small amount.

-Scrolls, seniors, are something you rip only when your inventory is full.

Besides, an Alterion Continent scroll was apparently fifty LP at minimum?

Leaving behind the ecstatically raging Constellations' chat, I drew out my trusty blade for the first time in a while and equipped it.

Ding-

Against ghost-type mobs, physical damage wouldn't land cleanly, but I'd just have to make do somehow. The key would be pulling them out one at a time...

Sshhing-!

But at that very next moment — I had been steeling my resolve and laying out a plan — my thoughts ground to a halt.

BOOM- KABOOM-!!

From somewhere came a massive roar, accompanied by the sound of a pile of rocks collapsing.

The roar just now was a variable even I couldn't easily place, so I had no choice but to proceed with a little more caution. I was beginning to move forward again, carefully testing each step, when —

"Lowell! Hold on!!"

The source of that roar revealed itself before my eyes shortly after — in a form that didn't quite match the direction I'd expected.

"I just cast Flare Storm!"

A rather high-pitched female player's voice, drifting over from beyond the stone wall.

"—Huh? You did adjust the party formation, right?"

"...I didn't? ...Then it might get a little toasty...!"

KABOOOOM-!

The content was more than a little alarming, but it was unmistakably the voice of an ordinary(?) player party.