The next morning, Mayana and Kju were still somewhat exhausted while Kiresula was immediately awake and ready to go. Which of course meant that it was her turn to prepare breakfast. Afterwards, she led Mayana to the pasture so she could re-do her enchantments. Her levelling was very lopsided, most not reaching her primary class, but she gained two levels in it and finally gained a skill that she wanted to have since her youth but in a nerfed, synthic version: It allowed her to make enchantments more effective by laying down parts of the enchantment at the same time. As Shtiljit saw her re-doing the enchantment, he asked: “Did it fail again?”
She shook her head: “I gained a new skill and wanted to experiment with it.”
He glared at her suspiciously: “I’d rather not you experiment with something our livelihood relies on!”
She looked down before she said: “It’s the same enchantments, just laid down in a more effective manner. I think the term is senkron-enchantments. Just in my strange manner, but you know that already about me.”
He nodded: “I know a bit about enchantments from when we needed to get equipment. If you can do that, it’s actually pretty neat. Are you planning to suck all the experience out of the encounters again?”
Mayana smiled: “If you let us, we’d love to. I doubt you can get a lot of experience from them anymore. You must be over level 100.”
He stared at her: “You are keeping your secrets and we are keeping ours.”
Mayana asked: “I didn’t mean to pry, sorry. But I was curious if this was why Arikan and you allowed us to gain experience that way.”
He nodded: “You’re not that much off. And, yeah, the thing about levels is that you cannot take them with you. And with how broken magic is encroaching everywhere, we expect that we don’t have a long time anymore until we too follow our comrades into the glitch. Then this all would be for naught. You guys are the first thing I actually see work against the broken magic.”
Mayana shook her head: “We are working with it. We are not fighting it, we are working for those who have been shaped by it.”
Kju heard the discussion and added: “Including your friends.”
Shtiljit looked sad at the mention of them: “I don’t think anything can be done there anymore: They glitched. They lost their classes, skills, attributes and cannot regain any of them again.”
Kju shook his head: “The latter is actually not true. I mean, you did see us level up… don’t you think they can as well?”
Shtiljit looked unhappy: “If they can, they sure didn’t so far! If you have the secret ingredient, please tell!”
Kju nodded: “Broken magic. Also, it helps to improve the actual stats over 255, or alternatively to lower the ones that are shown under an arbitrary threshold, which can range from anywhere like the late 200s to something ridiculous like 30. Of course, to actually level up, you need to gain a class, which can happen at random or with the help of a glitched cleric.”
Shtiljit looked shocked about this blunt response. Then he asked: “So, you are saying that there is hope for our friends?”
Kiresula, who had so far only listened, said: “I think so.”
Shtiljit looked at her with an intensity that she had seldomly encountered: “I know that you have Arikan wrapped around your finger with promises and strange enchantments, but if you are playing a confidence scam on me, you will encounter why you never want to go against a 152 [Gravity Mage]! Believe me, I have heard these kinds of things so often: first they give us hope that something can be done to reverse glitching or the like, and then it’s ‘give money for this and for that’ and you are stringed along. So, let me ask you: how much will it cost to find a glitched [cleric] and bring them here‽”
Kiresula took a step back and stuttered: “Kju is right here.”
This surprised Shtiljit, but he: “Ignoring the fact that he claimed to be a gravity mage… what does he need money for to actually do assign classes to my friends‽”
Kju responded more sheepish than the animals on the pasture, who watched the confrontation dispassionately: “I… kinda did… already.”
Now, Shtiljit looked shocked: “You… did? Then…”
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Kju explained: “When Kiresula was making a fool out of herself and Mayana did the enchantments here for the first time, I helped Hsie, Makajj and Kieki to gain their first class… I told them to be mum about it though until 3 weeks after we left, so that this hopefully doesn’t get back to the Holy Order.”
Shtiljit struggled with that idea and asked: “And what did they have to give you to do this?”
Kju smiled slightly: “Nothing. I did this to help the glitchlings… and I might also need the experience to level up.”
Shtiljit ran into the building and demanded the group follow, which they did. He ran to Hsie, who was busy cutting vegetables for dinner. He shouted at the poor glitchling who looked shocked and dropped the knife onto the prep table: “Hsie, please tell me what Kju did to you! No lies, no jokes! I am sick and tired of the way these people try to ingratiate themselves into our group only to scam poor trusty Arikan again. He suffered enough!”
Hsie stuttered and wasn’t able to formulate a clear sentence when Kiresula arrived, with Mayana and Kju behind them. Hsie sent Kju a pleading look, which Kju nonverbally responded to. This made Hsie regain her composure and respond quietly: “He… he told me to imagine what class I would like if I could choose again… then he touched me…” seeing the shocked stare, Hsie added: “on the forehead… and I saw things… battles, but also crafting… the images repeated over and over… and… I was drawn to a particular one… and… then I woke up and there is a new line in my status: Class: Organic Mage.”
Kiresula asked: “So a healer class?”
Hsie nodded: “This was the image I got, yeah. I always wanted to have received a healer class before.”
Shtiljit asked Hsie for her status and Kiresula as well as Mayana and Kju used it as an excuse to get away and instead got ready for the trip to the black waters. While they were doing so, Arikan happened by: “So, I heard things about what you did to Makajj, Kieki and Hsie. I expected you to be a fake in some way, I just wanted to figure out what your deal was. I didn’t expect you to farm our friends for experience…” He looked at the group, then to the ground.
“That is a bad way to say it. I am a cleric of the system, so, yes, I gain experience from leading glitchlings to a class. But that is not why I did this. I did this because it hurts me in my very soul to see a glitchling without class. Glitched clerics, just like regular clerics, exist in a much deeper connection with their system. Becoming a cleric aligns your goals with the goals of the system. So, to me, it was not just a way to gain experience. To me, this was a way to bestow the great gift of a class on the glitchlings.” Kju explained.
Arikan smiled slightly: “I was making a joke.”
Kiresula smiled: “Don’t worry. We understand!” She was not sure if he actually was making a joke, but she didn’t want to get on the bad side of an adventurer of a high level.
Arikan smiled: “So, if in theory the glitchlings can level up, why don’t we take them all with us?”
Kiresula looked a bit panicked: “Because I am not sure I can boost 3 peoples’ Fortitude at once. I have gained a spell that can multiplex a spell to more than one target, but it costs many seren of magic. But yeah, I think we can try it.”
It turned out that Arikan had expected to carry the glitchlings and did so with surprising strength for a fire mage. Or with an enchanted belt, he was wearing on that day but not on the previous ones. He carried Hsie on his shoulders and Makajj in a princess carry manner. They would normally have Kieki ride on the shoulders of Shtiljit, but as he had to save his magic for the trip, Kieki walked through the meadows of the Black Waters boosted by a generous [Enhance Ability], which Kieki greatly appreciated. Fighting the groundsnarlers was different: The new glitchlings would get a strike in and then Arikan would fireball them. This worked differently than they intended, as they all got a fighting class based on the weapon with which they striked. Kieki used a solid tree branch and gained [Improvised Weapon User], Makajj used a dagger and avoided the attention of the creature with learned stealth and thus gained [Hidden Blade Warrior]. Mayana offered to assist in the progression of that class as she assumed her own [Swift Blade Warrior] class to be similar. Last but not least, Hsie brought a sling as she said that she didn’t want to approach the thing at all and gained [Ranged Weapon User]. The concept of two classes shocked everyone, but the group around Kiresula who knew from their own experiences. Shtiljit repeated to himself: “I cannot believe this! I cannot believe this!” and Arikan was silent but at the same time seemed distracted. He seemed to be deep in thought.
The groundsnarlers were fewer, and the group made quick work out of this. The group was able to handle the small groups of groundsnarlers that were around and all but the retired adventurers gained levels
It was late in the day when Kiresula led the group to a place that seemed off to her: Not only was it a consistent source of synthic magic, it also was very little else: While she saw the ground and the plants round there, they were not visible in her awareness skills. She was drawn to this seemingly normal patch of vegetation: Mostly grass and flowers, the lakeshore just being a few dozen paces away. However, Arikan wanted to go after another ‘snarler and didn’t understand her cautious interest. Heck, Kiresula didn’t fully understand it either, but the utter lack of things in her awareness seemed so puzzling. As she approached, she got a bad feeling: Something seemed off. Something in the magic reminded her of something that she had seen before. Then she realised it just as she started falling. As she did, she saw a message:
Welcome to the Dungeon of Kara Sular!
Black Waters Zindanina Hosh Geldin!
Except that the letters seemed to move and twitch. Sometimes looking almost like the squiggles of the Je-ashvehanu. Kiresula cussed. Yes, previous dungeons were barely able to hold it together, but at least the system messages showed. This dungeon however seemed to struggle with even the messages. A cold ran down her spine. She tried to return but the exit was high up and even with her enhanced climbing, she could not scale it.