The door shattered under the massive onslaught of 400 Seren worth of [Enhance Ability]. Outside, [Cleric]s and [Guard]s were in a mess of a discussion, apparently about Mayana as both sides hung on to her. Kiresula ran into the hallway, [Fire Strike]ing everyone who tried to stop her. The [Cleric] holding on to Mayana tried to say something, but a [Bite of the Elemental Beetle] into the inside of the mouth stopped the attempt. She screamed at the [Guard] holding on to her: “Let my wife go! Or else!” The latter was a feint as she was down to 8 Seren, but the [Guard] let go.
Seconds later a strike by Kju had him on the floor, weezing.
The group ran upstairs and towards the exit. A [Guard] with a desperate facial expression tried to block the hallway to the outside, but none of the group stopped, Kju merely positioned his shoulders toward the [Guard] and rammed him. The others just ran past, stepping onto him while doing so. He grabbed Mayana only to feel pain in his hand and a wetness that he hoped was not blood. He let go.
In the limited remaining light of day, the group left the stone building and, based on Kiresula’s sense of direction and vague recollection of this village, they ran through narrow passages off the main street until they reached the fields. They knew where to go and that was towards the magical structure, the Siyah Kedi Kalesi.
The trip was shorter now that they didn’t pretend to have the constitution of unclassed glitchlings in the blue system. They didn’t stop until they were in Synthic magic. Kiresula immediately used Serenity and sighed as the synthic magic entered her. She felt like filling out in a way that she had not felt before. It felt like she had been an outline so far, but now someone coloured between the lines. It was not a magic-related thing either. Or if it was not like anything that she had felt so far. She closed her eyes for a moment to feel this more closely, but it passed quickly. As she opened her eyes again, she saw that Kju looked at her in shock. “You look like you have seen a ghost.”
Kju shook his head and instead showed his stats. It was still a mostly blue sheet, with endurance. He pointed to the skills section: Delayed Assignment, Leading a New Path. “I think you have gained a new class. And by that I mean, that the system added a specific class to its repertoire.”
Kiresula gasped: "Is that why the class initially felt so… anaemic?"
Kju nodded: “Yeah. I can’t really do anything against that. But it doesn’t really matter as you need to get into synthic magic for a level up.”
Mayana nodded: “I guess it also did something like that when assigning our classes initially. I didn’t realise it back then, but the first time stepping in synthic magic felt kinda different than any subsequent times.”
Kju pondered for a moment then shook his head: “I cannot find that particular fact out anymore. Anyways, let's go to the elders and tell them about that particular manure pile that we found ourselves in.”
The others agreed and moved towards the settlement. Kiresula was already considering how to best explain what happened in their language, murmuring to herself in bad Je-ashvehanu. That was when they heard footsteps approaching in a frantic sprint. Turning around, they saw a man in the clothing of the [Holy Guard]. “Stop now!” he shouted.
The group ran as fast as their legs and [Ability] attributes could carry them. The [Holy Guard] approached despite that. Mayana screamed: “Stand back! There’s enough broken magic where we are to glitch you.”
The [Holy Guard] shouted: “I want answers! I heard about Kedsel and saw what you can do! I know that there is more that the Holy Order isn’t telling us!”
Kju shouted: “Then run on. It can only be told to glitchlings!”
The [Holy Guard] slowed down and stared at Mayana. “What about… the non-glitched woman?”
Kiresula didn’t turn back and shouted: “What about my lovely wife? Do you have any problems with her?” She intentionally didn’t respond to the unsaid question.
Mayana looked back and screamed: “Stop!” He did and she continued. “You’re three paces away from glitching! Run away because if you accumulate one more Seren of broken magic, you’ll glitch and it will be all your fault!!”
The [Holy Guard] looked quite conflicted. Kiresula saw the broken magic assemble into a structure around him and constricted itself. It started to slow down and then, his entire shape was engulfed in broken magic. Kiresula saw structures form and drift into the person. Their skin lit up and their form vaguely shifted, it became smaller. There was a glowing pattern made from magic that spiralled into him. Then, said structure was seemingly split up, Kiresula assumed it to be regular magic interfering, invisible to her magic senses. Then, another spiral, this time from the figure radiated. Then, the new glitchling sank to the ground.
Kiresula moved towards him. "Careful, your stats might look high, but in the blue system, you are basically crippled."
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
The former [Holy Guard] looked at them: "Okay, I guess now I can qualify." He laughed sadly. "I didn't expect things to happen this way, but I guess it had to happen."
Kiresula asked: "Who are you?"
He said: "Xekuan. A brother of Kedsel."
Kiresula immediately perked up: "What happened to Kedsel? I know that she was in a run with me, but then… everything went to heck afterwards. I know that the Holy Order dragged her to the Dungeon of the Bridge, screaming that she had no idea where the core was."
"Kedsel apparently received a passive skill as a reward from the dungeon. Some kind of improved resilience. Then on the next day, the Holy Order was super-critical as they had no idea of the skill. And then when they tried to see the stat sheet, this skill didn't show up. Huge chaos. They wanted to talk to the core to understand what happened. No one came back. So I might have done something stupid and tried to get answers. Yeah, then I got re-assigned. Only to have, on the very first day of my new job, there was some kind of cluster about the secular government intentionally leaving the minority population to glitch. And in that commotion, a group of glitchlings tore through the town hall as if they had some crazy skills and stats,” the former [Holy Guard] ranted.
“And you ran after them?” Kiresula asked.
“Not only that but I also ran into enough broken magic that I glitched even though this lady seems completely unaffected.” He pointed to Mayana.
Mayana looked a bit embarrassed. “I have heightened resistance against synthic magic. I am sorry if that caused you to glitch.”
The man stared at her: “There is no such skill that I am aware of. But then, I am no [cleric].”
Mayana said: “That is where you are wrong. But then, that is where the Holy Order is wrong. That is where most are wrong. Apart from a few glitchlings and one [Enchanter] who has [Synthic Enchanter] as a second class, despite that not being possible in the system, that you had known so far.”
The man looked at her in confusion: “That one being you?”
Mayana nodded.
He looked at the group in confusion: “But… how do you have a second class when this is not possible?”
Kiresula asked: “Another question maybe: How good is your Je-ashvehanu?”
Xekuan looked confused: “Island-and-Coast language? Bad. I can string some words together. Just what I need to buy some pottery in Jetahkalesa.”
Kiresula nodded: “Do you have anywhere to go? Family? Relatives? Friends? Lovers? Affair partners?”
Xekuan shook his head: “Until a few days ago, I’d’ve said Kedsel. She was also in the order, but she was the most irreverent person I met. My parents… I am not sure. They all are in the Order.”
Kiresula nodded: “Do you think that you can stay with the local settlement for now? If they take you in?”
“The local settlement? The so-called glitchling warriors?” Xekuan asked, “I guess. I am not good with the Je-ashvehanu language or actually any language, but I can try. I don’t have anything against them.”
Kiresula asked: “Glitchling warriors? What do you mean?”
Mayana explained: “There are stories about the settlement here hunting people in huge numbers. Not sure how true it was. I was under a truth spell, they weren’t.”
Xekuan nodded: “I am not sure what they think about this, but it was mentioned in training. I felt that it was their way of coping with an invisible foe, the broken magic, but I don’t know. They didn’t seem to believe that glitchlings had skills or anything like that though… I asked and was slapped and told to stop being foolish.”
As they walked towards the settlement, they mostly did so in silence. Xekuan looked quite confused, quite anxious and twitchy.
They met the elders a short walk later and explained in broken Je-ashvehanu what happened. Kiresula translated in both directions what was said. Xekuan only believed the group when they showed their stats. Even then, he can barely believe what he saw. Eventually, Xekuan asked if he could stay in the settlement even if he was a former member of the Holy Order. The elder nods, but says something that Kiresula took a few tries to understand: She doesn’t want Xekuan to gain a class.
As soon as she translated this, Kju responded in annoyance. The response was long: “This is impossible as long as he stays in a high magic area and worst of all immoral. After the administration had prevented you from gaining classes by trapping the synthic magic in a badly maintained construct, and now you want to do the same? If the system deems actions worthy of gaining a class, it will offer one. Yes, clerics can help but none of the group here had a cleric assisting them in gaining their class. Including me.”
Kiresula translated it slowly and haltingly. She then added: “I understand that you are unhappy with mainlanders. But please remember to judge people by their spirit, not their father and mother, parents, yes? Or parents of parents. But by their doings.”
The elder nodded: “Do you know their doings?”
Kiresula said: “Just little so far, but they… stopped believing in what the Holy Order said. Wanted answers, not lies.”
The elder said: “I will tell the others what happened.”
The next morning, Kiresula woke up early, looked for Yi-é and asked him to take Xekuan on his delves. She hoped that the challenge of the dungeon would help him gain a class despite the elders being against Kju offering help.
Xekuan heard his name being spoken and approached Kiresula in an incredibly unsubtle attempt to eavesdrop. It was clear that he slept little and had cried from his demeanour and his puffy eyes. “What do you say about me?”
She smiled: “This is Yi-é. He loves delving the local dungeon. I asked him to take you with him to get your mind off… things.”
Xekuan smiled and in shaky Je-ashvehanu said: “Hello Yi-é. I am Xekuan. Can we do things together?” (The word used was far less innuenduous than in the English translation. It was a request for community, not intimacy.)
Six grains of time later, the group was on their way to their next destination: The provincial capital.