Chapter 49: Class Change Book

Chapter 49: Chapter 49: Class Change Book

He moved around the massive corpse with practiced movements, cutting through thick flesh and carefully removing pieces without damaging them.

The others had already turned their attention toward the treasure chest, but Marcus occasionally glanced back at him to make sure he wasn’t having trouble. Kyle noticed the glances but said nothing. He was determined to finish his work properly.

While cutting through the lower part of the ogre’s abdomen, however, Kyle’s knife suddenly struck something hard.

Clink!

Kyle froze.

His eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the blade.

That wasn’t bone.

He had already cut through the creature’s flesh in this area, and the object beneath it felt strangely smooth.

"What is this?"

Kyle carefully pushed aside the thick flesh with his knife and reached deeper into the corpse. His fingers touched something rectangular.

His heartbeat suddenly increased.

There shouldn’t have been anything like this inside the ogre.

Kyle slowly pulled his hand back and looked at the object covered in blood and stomach fluid.

It was a book.

For several seconds, Kyle simply stared at it.

"A book?"

He couldn’t understand why a book would be inside a One-Horned Ogre’s body.

Perhaps the ogre had swallowed it.

But why would a book have been inside a dungeon monster in the first place?

Kyle carefully wiped away some of the blood with a piece of cloth. The cover underneath was surprisingly well preserved. It was made from dark leather, and strange magical patterns had been engraved across its surface.

The moment he saw those patterns, Kyle’s expression changed.

The strange patterns engraved across the dark leather cover were not decorative. He had seen similar markings before, although only in passing. They were magical inscriptions, the kind used to seal or protect valuable items. His fingers stopped moving as he carefully examined the book in his bloody hands.

Kyle looked toward the One-Horned Ogre’s enormous corpse and then back at the book. The creature had swallowed it at some point, and judging from the state of the cover, it had been inside the ogre for quite some time.

Yet despite being surrounded by blood, stomach acid, and the remains of whatever the monster had eaten, the book had suffered surprisingly little damage.

His heart began beating faster.

Kyle slowly wiped the remaining blood from the cover with a clean piece of cloth. He did it carefully, almost afraid that applying too much pressure might damage whatever was inside.

When the last layer of blood disappeared, several words became visible.

Kyle’s breathing stopped. He stared at the cover.

For several seconds, he couldn’t move.

Then his eyes widened.

"A class change..."

The words came out as little more than a whisper.

He immediately looked over his shoulder.

The other four adventurers were standing near the treasure chest several meters away. Marcus was inspecting the chest while the mage examined the surrounding area for traps. The swordsman and spearman were discussing what kind of treasure they might find inside, while the assassin was keeping watch.

None of them were looking at Kyle. He quickly lowered his head again. His fingers tightened around the book.

A class change item.

Even someone like Kyle, who had only recently entered the world of adventurers, knew exactly how valuable such an item was.

Classes were one of the most important things determining an adventurer’s future.

A person’s natural talent mattered.

Their level mattered, and equipment mattered. But their class could completely change the direction of their life.

Warrior.

Mage.

Archer.

Assassin.

Priest.

These were some of the common classes that could be obtained by adventurers who fulfilled certain requirements or received the appropriate class-change items.

Even a common class-change item was incredibly expensive.

Kyle remembered hearing merchants and adventurers discussing them in Lufast City.

A Warrior Class Change could easily fetch around one thousand gold coins.

For a young man like Kyle, that amount of money was almost impossible to imagine.

He could live comfortably for years without worrying about hunting, working as a porter, or risking his life inside dungeons. He could purchase a decent house, buy better equipment, and have enough money left over to live without struggling.

For someone born in a small village, one thousand gold coins was an unimaginable fortune.

Yet the book in Kyle’s hands was not a Warrior Class Change.

His fingers trembled slightly as he carefully opened the cover.

The first page contained several lines of glowing text.

Kyle leaned closer, his eyes moved across the words.

Kyle stared at the words written across the page, his expression becoming increasingly confused as he read them again and again.

[Class Change Item: Berserker.]

He had never heard of such a class before.

For several seconds, Kyle simply stared at the page.

Then his expression slowly changed. It didn’t matter that he didn’t know what a Berserker was.

It didn’t matter that he didn’t understand how powerful the class might be.

Kyle’s hands tightened around the book as his heartbeat began to accelerate. He immediately glanced toward the others again.

His breathing became slightly heavier. He carefully turned another page, and more information appeared.

[Berserker Class Change.

A class specializing in overwhelming physical strength, destructive combat, and battle frenzy.]

Kyle’s eyes widened.

He continued reading.

The information was limited, but even those few lines were enough to make his heart pound.

Strength.

Destructive combat.

Battle frenzy.

Kyle didn’t know exactly what those words meant in practice, but he understood the general idea.

It was a class meant for fighting.

And fighting was exactly what he needed to become better at.

Kyle’s gaze slowly moved toward Marcus and the others.

Kyle quickly wiped the remaining blood from the outside of the book and wrapped it in a clean piece of cloth. He placed it beneath several layers of monster hide inside his backpack, making sure it was completely hidden from sight.

He moved slowly and naturally, refusing to let his hands shake.

The entire process took only a few seconds. Yet to Kyle, it felt like an eternity.

Once the book was safely hidden, he released a quiet breath.

Nobody had seen it.

Good.

Kyle lowered himself beside the One-Horned Ogre’s corpse again and picked up his knife.