Ruth Moore ran through the forest alone, carrying a hammer bigger than she was, as she rushed after her friend.
Parts of her were screaming. Screaming that people were in danger, that surely, somehow this was all her fault. Just like everything was always her fault. It was her fault that her mom was gone. It was her fault her dad had decided to attack Josh. It was her fault that the monsters were attacking now, that people were dying to a sudden swarm. It was always her fault.
But another part of her, a part that was growing stronger with each passing moment, was saying something different. People were always in danger, people always died. She wouldn't wish that on anyone.
She just wanted to be one of the people fighting.
Her dad had always chosen her class, and he had always insisted on Mender. It was safest, he said. It was valuable and useful, he said. It was a good way to contribute without putting yourself in danger, he said.
Ruth had never been a very good [Healer]. She didn't have the battlefield awareness to keep track of an entire party at once, and she didn't have the right mindset for it. She didn't want to fix problems, she wanted to break the thing causing the problems.
Now she had a hammer in her hand and an enemy in front of her.
She breathed deep of the smoky air and grinned.
This is real, she thought.
Now she just needed to rescue her friend from that horse before she came to regret everything even more than she already did. She was also pretty sure it was taking Josh to the [Tamer] controlling the monsters, so that was two birds with one stone.
Three monsters that looked like green-shelled spiders the size of dogs barred her path. A quick Identify labeled them as [Carcinioform Forest Scramblers]. So, crabs. And they had evolved a few times, so they might have a few extra tricks. That was probably where they got the color and forest adaptation.
She yelled and jumped into the air. She raised her hammer over her head, cutting off the flow to the Vareo rune-chain. Just as she brought it down, the hammer went from light as a feather to heavy as a boulder. It slammed down into the first crab like a meteor, shattering the shell as easily as if it was made of glass.
The other two rushed forward, chittering, as she reset the rune on her hammer. She still wasn't strong enough to swing the hammer without the gravity enhancement, but she did have enough strength to punt the closest crab. It spun five feet away and hit a nearby tree. There was a crack, though both the crab and the tree seemed fine. The monster got up, scrabbled left and right angrily, then charged her again.
She was still dealing with the first crab. She used the haft of her hammer, lightweight again, to block first one pincer, then the second. It stepped back, as if re-evaluating the fight, trying to find a way around her defenses.
By now, she had regained a point of mana, so she felt safe activating her rune-chain again. She focused on her hammer, feeding extra mana into it, a twist of the mind that she had grown adept in.
It was inefficient, and she knew there were better ways to do this trick. Every time she turned it off, almost all the mana in the rune-chain disappeared, so she had to fuel it again when she needed it. If she could make a proper on/off gating rune-chain, she wouldn't need to waste mana with that. She needed to study and practice more.
Suddenly the hammer may as well have weighed nothing at all. She dodged around the crab, no longer a plodding glacier, now as fast as lightning. She swung the hammer at the crab, not canceling the rune-chain yet. The mass of the hammer staggered it, but without weight it just wasn't enough. The crab chittered angrily at her before she raised the hammer over her head, brought it down, and canceled the rune-chain at just the right moment.
Blue crab blood splattered the forest floor.
The last crab, the one she had kicked into the tree, had finally recovered and was coming her way. With a grunt, Ruth lifted her hammer up to her shoulder. Her Strength score was 6 now—literally twice her base. Still, her hammer looked like it weighed a thousand pounds, and it felt even worse.
Thankfully, the crab was too angry for tactics, or just stupid. It charged at her with its sideways gait, claws clicking, and she was able to easily predict its path and bring her hammer down, splattering it just as thoroughly as the others.
Red mist rose from the corpses. It stirred, slowly turned white, before flowing into Ruth. She closed her eyes, breathing it in and enjoying the feeling of energy invigorating her every cell.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached level 32! You meet the minimum requirements for class refinement.
You have ONE (1) class advancement resource in your possession.
Would you like to pause your level-up to obtain advancement resources?
Ruth blinked. She had a bloodstone? She didn't have a bloodstone—oh, right, she had a Rogue bloodstone she had gotten from Judith. She had wanted to see what that would do when combined with Enchanter. She selected “no,” so that she could see her options. Despite what the notification said, her level-up was already paused until she selected something for her level 32 advancement. It was just that she could choose Enchanter again and gain the normal bonuses then.
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New windows immediately popped up.
You have FOUR (4) class choices. Seek out additional class advancement resources to expand your choices.
CLASS OPTIONS: Enchanter (Crafter). Primary statistics: Capacity, Sensitivity. This is a Basic Utility class of the Crafter role. Carve runes into objects to manipulate the flow of magic. This is your current class. Shadow (Attacker). Primary statistics: Agility, Perception. This is a Basic Combat class of the Attacker role. Use magic to hide in the shadows and attack from stealth. Bladesmith (Attacker). Primary statistics: Perception, Flexibility. This is a Basic Combat class of the Attacker role. Forge edged weapons. For killing EIGHT (8) enemies using an active rune-chain effect, you have gained access to the Rune Warrior class. Rune Warrior (Attacker). Primary statistics: Strength, Capacity. This is an Improved Combat class of the Attacker role. Use both temporary and permanent runes to enhance your performance in combat. Focuses on personal runes, but party support is possible.
Ruth stared at the notification. Her heart was still beating fast from the fight, and this wasn't helping it slow. The first two new classes were irrelevant, though she did file them away to write down later. Rune Warrior was the surprise.
An Improved-tier class at level 32? It was possible—her dad could speedrun to one by level 24—but this was an accident. Would she have ever discovered this if she didn't have a Rogue bloodstone on hand? She had expected to stay an Enchanter for at least another few advancements. She was pretty sure she knew what the requirements were for the Rune Architect class. That was what she needed.
Well, that was what the party needed. Rune Architect was a [Crafter] class, one of the few Improved-tier [Crafter] classes they had decent information on. In addition to allowing her to continue enchanting weapons and items, it would allow her to make a special type of rune called a glyph that she could draw on any surface. They were normally used as traps, but she had a few ideas for utility.
But... that wasn't what she wanted.
Oh, she was enjoying being an Enchanter. She had figured out how to replicate a few weak magic items, and Vashti was slowly handing them out. She was helping people and getting paid for it. It was perfect!
But she had always known what she wanted. Yes, she wanted to help people, but she didn't actually like being support. When she was a kid, she had wrestled with people twice her size. She had climbed trees and run through streams and laughed when she got hurt. She wanted to be moving, to be doing things, not to sit on the sidelines like a cheerleader.
She hesitated for a moment longer before shaking her head. No, she was being selfish. This class, while nice, would pale in utility to the Enchanter class. Sure, she wouldn't lose anything if she became a Rune Warrior; she could still enchant things, still learn new runes. But if she stuck with what she had, eventually she'd have the opportunity to get an Improved-tier version of the Enchanter class, and that was where things would really take off.
She was just about to dismiss the Rune Warrior notification and choose Enchanter again when a scream tore through the air.
Ruth froze. It wasn't Josh, but the scream was nearby. Someone was hurt, or dying. They were facing monsters, and she was sitting here thinking over a class advancement?
Maybe Enchanter would be better in the long run. Right here and now, though, the people didn't need an Enchanter. They needed a Rune Warrior.
Before she could second-guess herself again, she made the choice.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 32 Rune Warrior! You have 1 free attribute point and 1 class attribute point to allocate. Your class attributes are Strength and Capacity. NEW SKILL LEARNED: Rune Weapon Mastery. Gain a full understanding of any weapon you hold that has an active rune. NEW SPELL LEARNED: Activate Rune. Turn a rune on or off at range. Deactivating a rune pauses its mana consumption; if a rune still has enough of a charge, activating it costs no mana. You may only use this spell on one rune at a time (use extra mana with your Power score to increase the number of runes affected with each casting). Warning: If this rune is not designed to be deactivated, it may break. Size of runes you can activate or deactivate influenced by Power, speed of activation and deactivation influenced by Flexibility, number of runes you can keep active influenced by Capacity, and range of effect influenced by Sensitivity. NEW SPELL LEARNED: Overcharge Rune. Insert extra mana into a rune, increasing its performance temporarily. Effects vary. Warning: If this rune is not designed to be overcharged, it may break. Effect of overcharge influenced by Power, speed of overcharge influenced by Flexibility, number of runes you can overcharge influenced by Capacity, and range of effect influenced by Sensitivity.
Ruth took a deep breath. She could feel every inch of her hammer. The magic running through it from her rune-chain was like an extension of her body. She could feel where it was weakest, where it was close to breaking. She adjusted her grip, changing her balance just slightly.
The new spells were interesting, too. The [Overcharge Rune] spell could be dangerous to practice, so she put that aside for now. She focused on her [Activate Rune] spell, as if she was putting her finger on the trigger of a gun.
Instantly, she could feel every rune in range. The rune-chain on her hammer was the most obvious, but she could also feel her grenades on her belt, and the Strength runes on her armor. She could even feel the runestone talisman that Josh had made, which surprised her. She had assumed the spell would only work on runes she had made herself. That had potential, and she hoped she'd have a chance to test it.
Right now, she just focused on her hammer. She deactivated the gravity rune in the rune-chain. She could only touch one rune at a time, not one rune-chain. That could definitely backfire.
Still, this rune-chain was pretty simple, and was centered entirely on the gravity rune. With it turned off, the hammer was suddenly its full weight again, and Ruth sagged. Even with her improved Strength, it was heavy. But the rune-chain was still stable, just circling the magic in a loop without doing anything.
She focused on it again, reactivating the gravity rune. The hammer was instantly light as a feather, with no loss in mana.
Ruth grinned. This was what she had been waiting for. This was her opportunity to finally do some real good.