Kiresula woke up, slowly. She felt energetic but also confused, which was a bad combination. She felt weird about herself and as she looked around, she realised that she had a system notification.
Secondary class gained: Elemental-Somatic Mage
She checked the class description and the spell list. It seemed to be a very specific class. A class that had abilities to enhance herself and her allies using elemental magic. The system was clever in so far as it prevented both turning into a monster, which was something Kiresula feared as well as it prevented becoming a monster not in shape but in behaviour. Getting mad with power like the person in the vision did to that village. These were monsters. She checked her status:
Name: Kiresula
Species: Emergent Glitchling
Highest Class Rank: Emergent
Highest Class Level: 5
Classes: Seferian Mage (Rank: emergent, Level 5), Elemental-Somatic Mage (Rank: emergent, Level 1)
Power: 383
Might: 30
Fortitude: 306
Willpower: 47
Speed: 389
Agility: 115
Mental acuity: 146
Perception: 128
Magic: 513
Magical force: 172
Magical control: 193
Magical defence: 148
Social: 128
Charisma: 50
Empathy: 70
Cunning: 8
Health: 286/286
Magic: 480/480
Skills: Improved casting, Seferian Fortitude, Control of the Pioneer, Immediate Escape (only for: Dungeon of the Bridge), Enhanced Synthic Restoration
Learned Spells: Illuminate, Sunlight, Freedom of Movement, Travelling Light, Nightly Sojourn, Waterproof Object, Icy Terrain, Foggy Terrain, Spherical Vision, Enhance Ability, Grains of Time, Northern Star, Bite of the Elemental Beetle (Rank 3), Wind Step, Fire Strike
She checked the spells. Wind Step was a way to spaceshift, albeit with serious limits: Only in the direction of the wind and only as far as the wind would go in a certain, short timeframe. Fire Strike was a way to empower a physical attack with fire causing higher damage, more so when she was in direct contact with fire. It would not protect her from fire though, though the spell description mentioned certain other spells that would do so.
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She then saw Kju at the door with seemingly angry intent and checked [Grains of Time]. She gulped at the time that had passed.
Kju turned his head with a hectic movement. “Kysan! You’re awake?”
She nodded: “Yeah. And yes, it worked. I gained a secondary class.”
Kju smiled broadly. “That’s great! I really thought it would fail. Everything about it took so long. Including the selection.”
Kiresula nodded: “I noticed. Was it more than one day?”
Kju shook his head: “No, why do you ask?”
Kiresula explained: “I have a spell that tells the time but not the day. So, I wanted to make sure the time was not as long as it felt.”
“Oh, I see. Sorry, I am so low on magic that I have no idea what your spell situation is and forgot about,... [Grains of Time], right?” Kju asked.
“Yeah, that’s the one.” There was a momentary pause before she continued: “I wasn’t aware that you could see our spells.”
“I hadn’t been able to tell you all the things I got in the recent level ups. But yeah, I can see the synthic side of your status. Though I can only do so for allied people. I will be able to do so for others at level 32, though with a higher magic cost,” he explained.
“It must be convenient to see the class progression of everyone. Can you tell me something about my new one?” Kiresula asked.
“I can’t, sorry. I have no available magic. I don’t even know what your new class is. I know that you went through all the selections time after time, seemingly unhappy with all of them, but not leaving the selection either. And then something happened. It was not like when people cancelled it. It was not like when people accepted it. And it took forever. But then, I am only level 10. I know little about the system and what I can find out costs a lot of synthic magic. And right now, I am at less than 0.8 Seren,” he explained.
Kiresula looked shocked: “You have fractional magic reserves?”
Kju looked shocked as well: “You don’t?”
Kiresula tried to use a [Illuminate] with less than one Seren, but this seemed impossible. “I don’t think I do.”
Kju looked surprised: “I never realised this difference. I need to find out more when I can, but I always see magic as fractional, not as integer.”
Kiresula bit her lips for a moment, her look distant. She thought about fractional magic. It obviously made sense. Magic generally felt like water – or syrup, so cutting a drop into two halves was obviously possible. And yet, it felt like there was a barrier blocking her from doing just that. Kiresula tried to understand what blocked her, but even this was futile. She ran into a wall, a limit,... a system restriction? Maybe. She was not sure about it.
In the meanwhile, Kju glanced around, quietly focused on several directions where Kiresula saw nothing but the sheer wall.
Kiresula asked: “Are you hearing something there? Apart from the general ruckus?”
Kju didn’t turn his head: “Mostly the general ruckus, but… it became louder recently. And it sounds like they are close to letting their fists do the talking. Lots of invectives were thrown.”
“Do you know what happened?” Kiresula asked.
“I am not sure but we sure as heck need to get out here.” Kju hit the door fruitlessly.
“Let me try.” Kiresula went to it and used [Fire Strike] against the door. She cussed as punching a door with full force hurt. Checking the door, she saw the door to be superficially singed as if a candle flame had been held to it.
Kju raised an eyebrow at that. He didn’t say anything, but looked at the singed fistprint in thought.
Kiresula made a pained noise. The strike had felt like she had reached into the flame of a candle. A huge flame. It was not something that caused any signs of burning on her hand, which she was grateful for, it was just a temporary pain. It still sucked not to have immunity to her own attacks, but, checking the spell list for future spells, there were ways to become resistant against the effects. The entire spell list was confusing though, it seemed to be smaller and consisted mostly of spells for one magic point. It was as if this class had no progression. But… weren’t the visions from the first threshold at level 64? Was this a class without evolution? Or maybe without progress past a surprisingly low power of two? She realised that she had been murmuring to herself as well as pacing in the cell as she had been thinking.
A while later, Kju motioned to her and made a motion to listen. He was silent himself and so, Kiresula quietly put her ear to the door.
She heard angry voices, shouting, and,... and one of the voices in all of this mess was Mayana’s. “Mayana! My dearest! Are you okay?” she screamed.
There was a loud bang, then Mayana screamed.
Kiresula grabbed Kju: "Get through that door, someone hurt Mayana!"
Kju looked confused, then was hit by an Enhance Ability. His eyes widened in shock and then he kicked into the door and he hit it.