'I'll become a Thief.'
Don made his choice without hesitation.
The moment the selection was confirmed, another system notification appeared.
[Please enter your nickname.]
This part didn't trouble him at all.
He had already decided on a name the day he purchased the game helmet.
His old ID would never be used again.
That name belonged to a different time, a brief period of glory that had long since passed.
Now he was starting over.
Just like Brother Crest.
After three years away from the world of virtual games, Don had returned.
And this time, he intended to leave his mark.
Sighing he spoke the name clearly.
"Bane."
A soft system chime followed immediately.
[Your ID is available. Proceeding to character appearance settings.]
Don felt a small surge of satisfaction.
Many players ran into problems when registering their nicknames. Repeatedly entering new names could easily waste several minutes.
And in a game like Realms Online, even a single minute at the beginning could determine how far ahead a player progressed in the early stages.
The first hour after launch was priceless.
Even saving one minute could mean leaving hundreds of competitors behind.
When it came to character appearance, Don didn't spend any time adjusting anything.
He simply selected "Original Appearance."
Not higher.
Not lower.
Just himself.
This wasn't arrogance.
Even though Don had never known his biological parents, he was fairly confident they must have been an attractive couple.
Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain how their son had turned out this handsome.
Don coughed lightly. 'Alright… maybe that sounded a little narcissistic.'
With a quick confirmation click, the system chimed again.
[Welcome to the world of Rynoa.]
A brilliant white light flooded his vision once more.
When the brightness faded, Don opened his eyes.
He found himself standing inside a dense forest.
The air was fresh.
Lush green grass spread across the ground, and towering ancient trees rose all around him, their leaves swaying gently in the wind.
Don looked down at himself.
He was wearing a simple coarse cloth vest and shorts, the standard beginner outfit.
It looked… extremely cheap. But at least it was comfortable.
All around him, flashes of silver light began appearing.
One after another, the figures of players started materializing as the system completed their spawning process.
Despite being away from gaming for three years, Don hadn't forgotten the instincts of a veteran.
Instead of rushing forward to fight monsters, he immediately opened his inventory.
The result made him sigh. Empty. Completely empty.
Not even a wooden stick. Then he opened his attribute panel.
And this time... He froze.
[Bane]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Rogue]
[Level: 1]
[Attribute Growth]
[Strength: 9]
[Intelligence: 4]
[Agility: 6]
[Constitution: 6]
[Distributable Points: 5]
[HP: 30]
[Physical Attack: 0]
[Physical Defense: 0]
[Magic Defense: 0]
[Critical Hit Rate: 1%]
[Reputation: 0]
[Luck: 0]
Don frowned. 'That's not right…'
A month ago he had already studied the early statistics of Realms Online carefully.
The Rogue class shouldn't have these growth values.
Without hesitation, he opened the in-game encyclopedia and pulled up the standard Scout attributes.
After comparing the two, His eyes widened.
A normal Rogue's attribute growth was supposed to be:
[Strength: 7]
[Intelligence: 4]
[Agility: 8]
[Constitution: 6]
But his own attributes were different.
Strength had increased by two tiers.
Agility had dropped by two tiers.
[Strength 9.]
[Agility 6.]
Scout classes relied heavily on Agility.
The higher the agility, the better their accuracy, evasion, and mobility.
High agility meant monsters had a harder time landing hits.
But Don's build was the complete opposite.
His strength was unbelievably high.
In fact, It was even one point higher than a Human Warrior's growth rate.
For a moment, Don couldn't help but laugh.
"The system really went all out this time…"
"It actually gave me such a 'perfect' Rogue, normally a rogue had to prioritise speed to evade dangerous situation and discrimination from other players, but with this being what I get I can actually focus on strength and not be at disadvantage."
But after laughing for a moment, Don suddenly became serious.
Without hesitation, he opened the stat allocation menu.
Then he placed all five attribute points directly into Strength.
If the system wanted to give him this kind of build, Then he might as well embrace it.
Unlike many older MMORPGs, Realms Online had very few weapon attribute restrictions.
Strength-heavy builds were perfectly viable.
Since his strength growth was so high, he might as well experiment with a more violent early-game strategy.
Besides, in this game, positioning and mechanical skill played a huge role in combat.
Back when he played as a Mage, monsters frequently closed in on him.
He had survived countless dangerous encounters purely through movement and positioning.
Compared to that…
Playing a melee-oriented Rogue would be even easier.
And besides...
If you could kill your opponent in one strike, there would be no need to worry about dodging. Besides, based on his experience, getting equipments that boosts agility was multiple times easier than getting one that boosts strength directly, so Don's plan was to directly utilise this to his advantage...
Meanwhile, after allocating the points, Don reopened his status screen.
The numbers had already changed.
[Bane]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Rogue]
[Level: 1]
[HP: 30]
[Physical Attack: 45]
[Physical Defense: 0]
[Magic Defense: 0]
[Critical Hit Rate: 1%]
[Reputation: 0]
[Luck: 0]
...
The calculation was simple.
His strength growth was 9.
Each attribute point added multiplied directly with the growth rate.
Five points meant 9 × 5 = 45 attack power.
As for Constitution, each point normally increased health by growth rate × 5.
Even without investing points into Constitution, the system would automatically grant 6 × 5 = 30 HP every level.
This was a universal mechanic used in many online games.
Don stared at the numbers for a moment.
Then a faint smile appeared on his face.
This strange attribute distribution might look like a mistake…
But in the early stages, it might actually become his greatest advantage.