Core manipulation detected…The changes to your core are significant enough to qualify for an anomalous class.

Slayer of Fate [Epic] [Anomalous]

Class description is unavailable until after it has been selected.

“Well that is incredibly infuriating,” Kal grumbled. The name alone had Kal intrigued. Did it mean it was still rooted in the class he had right now but somehow had taken into account some of the things he had done since ascending? And what about the anomalous tag? He hadn’t heard of that ever happening with a class before. From the way he understood it all classes were at least partially unique, at least after level twenty-five since all kinds of class combinations could be evolved from the base class. Even if you had the soldier class it didn’t mean you had the exact same attributes and skills as any other soldier, it just meant that you were more likely to be offered skills that suited that class. A swordsman could get a cleaving skill whereas a spearman could get a piercing skill instead, even though they could both have the exact same class. So what did the anomalous tag mean? Something truly deviating from the system?

Kal thought it was pretty bullshit, to be honest. Why couldn’t it just show him the description? Then he could make a well-thought-out decision. Did it for some reason need to hide that information from those who didn’t have a unique class?

“You could have at least told me the level benefits!” Kal yelled into the sky. Of course, nothing responded. He doubted the system was paying attention anymore, it had given him the grace period but he doubted it would give him anything else anytime soon.

Fuming Kal read over all his options again and again, sighing when he kept coming to the same conclusion. The only smart choice was to remain a slayer. All the choices were interesting and powerful but right now all of them and too many cons for him to choose. He agonized over it for at least another half an hour before he decided he had already wasted too much time on it. He had other things he needed to do, so he scrolled back to the top of the list and was about to select Slayer, “Ah, fuck it,” he selected Slayer of Fate.

The air in front of him twisted as the golden light of a special system notification appeared before him.

You have proven yourself willing to shatter the bonds of fate and walk your own path. Your path has already diverged from the norm and your continued growth depends upon your willingness to forge your own path.

Slayer of Fate [Epic] [Anomalous]

Something deep within you cries out for blood but through force of will you remain in control. You are a Slayer of Fate, though your power may stem from darker sources you do not lust for the kill but see it as a necessity despite your inner ferocity to break the chains that bind. Wade through your enemies as a bulwark of death, your will unyielding, your might indomitable. The Slayer of Fate is not bound by the archetypes of the lesser classes. Forge your own path through the blood of your enemies and stand apart from all as a paragon of man, your potential as vast as your will.

Level benefits: +5 Strength, Endurance, Will, +2 Vitality, +6 Free points.

Anomalous: Your path is of your own making. From this point forward you will no longer be offered a skill selection every 10 levels, instead, you will be offered guidance in the creation of one of three skills that you have witnessed used, have sufficient knowledge of, or are judged to be predisposed to based on previously forged skills. Whether the inquired skill is forged is up to you. Additionally, your self-forged core allows such skills to be forged to a rarity up to the rarity of your Soul Forge skill. The amount of skills possible to incorporate into one’s core is dependent on the quality of your core and the efficiency of the skill created.

Future Class Evolutions: All future evolutions will be directly associated with the quality of the newly forged core and the skills incorporated at that time.

Skill Capacity: 4/5

Kal’s mouth hung open for a second as he read over the class's description. It had changed and it was clearly affected by his skills and titles now. The original class was obviously inspired by his birthright and the wrath resource that he had stumbled into creating, but now it also referenced his Paragon of Man title as well, seemingly taking part of the theme from several of his other titles. The attributes were everything he wanted honestly. A solid boost to his will would be incredibly useful if he was right about it helping with controlling his birthright. But the next part almost knocked the wind out of him as he started to understand the consequences of his choice. He would no longer be given skills like everyone else was. From now on all of his skills would be created solely by him, no that's not quite right. It only specified that he wouldn’t select a skill to have at each of the skill select levels, so that would mean he could still get the skill the trial promised, or at least he hoped he would. After rereading it again, he relaxed a bit more. Sure it didn’t just outright give him the skill but Kal was starting to think that this could be much better than that.

It appeared that he was right about it being possible to forge skills. It had simply seemed like the obvious next step since he had already created a core and upgraded a skill, if a bit haphazardly. Now he would receive guidance in ways to create one of three specific skills which at first just sounded like the old way with extra steps but it was already giving life to many ideas Kal already had swirling around in his head. As his experience with his core threads grew, it became more and more clear to him that everything came down to the intricate constructs of different attribute and resource strands. He had replicated a simple cleansing skill by combining his vital and physical energies into a sphere around the poison. He had done it with the little knowledge he had about how the two energies worked. What excited him about the change was what he could learn from the guidance and implement it into something else. The more he learned about the strands the more control over his path he would get. There was a limit to the quality of the skills he created though, but he assumed he wouldn’t be able to create one of that quality anytime soon without more time to practice and receive guidance.

The final part about future evolutions seemed too far away to worry about right now. It would be quite some time before he reached that level and if it was based on what skills he had attached to his core at the time of evolution he was sure he could prepare for it by then. When he read the final line of the description he was truly satisfied with his decision. He had always wondered how he had been able to acquire the Soul Forge skill even without a class but now it was starting to make sense. It seemed that every core had a limited capacity for skills. Judging by how it used to work it was one for every ten levels plus one which was the basic skill everyone had Identify filled. He guessed it rounded up, allowing him to be able to gain the Soul Forge skill. The additional skill he got when he ascended could be explained by the fact that he had at least partially forged his own core making it more attuned to him than normal cores. He still suspected the system had assisted him that time but the second time it was all him, which seemed to increase his skill cap even further. It was also possible that incorporating his birthright into his core by using the small amount residing in his wrath resource also played a role in the increased attunement since it was basically using a part of his soul. Either way, now he had one free slot for a skill if he could manage to forge one. For that, he had some ideas but first, he wanted to get away from the corpse field he had surrounded himself with.

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Kal got to his feet feeling a lot better than he expected he would when he was about to break his core for the second time. He picked up his sword and noticed it had definitely taken a pretty severe beating during the time his birthright had control. Its grip had been mostly burned away, and the blade's edge was almost completely dull, with several chips along it. His birthright must have been terribly strong to basically destroy the weapon in such a short time. He thought about discarding it but he had nothing else. Even if he ended up using it solely for reach it was better than nothing. Almost forgetting Kal looked down and thanked some other gods that his pants had managed to survive the ordeal. They still had a bit of charring on them but they had regenerated to almost perfect condition.

He made his way up the closest rise to get a look at his surroundings. Apparently, he had made his way back towards the center of the dome. Only a mile or two away Kal could see the pillar, still glowing with dark power though the color had changed somewhat. He suspected it was because of the grace period preventing anything from getting into the dome to come after him.

Time Until Next Wave: 2 hours, 4 minutes, 11 seconds

He still had some time before the next wave began but he didn’t want to waste it running from the center, he knew that he would likely be at an even bigger disadvantage since he didn’t get to keep any of the experience from the garghounds his birthright had killed. He still felt the grace period's time would be better used another way, so he sat down and relaxed his mind. Kal’s memory from the time his core was broken was incredibly fractured at best, and completely missing at worst. But the little he could remember was incredibly vivid like his perception was ramped up over a hundred times for the tiniest of moments. In those instances he could feel the blood coursing through his veins, the charring burn of his wrath unleashed, but most of all he could feel the will behind each and everything he did in that state. He didn’t get the whole picture by any means but it was almost like looking at a painting where the artist had painted an arrow describing the goal of every movement of his body and every interaction of his internal energies. Even now he felt that when he fought again, a small part of that savage efficiency of movement would carry over to his normal state. It reminded him of when he increased his attribute unity, it felt like that was how he was supposed to be. It felt amazing but it also disturbed him.

Kal wanted to be powerful, and deadly but he didn’t want to be a monster. He felt that if he kept allowing himself to rampage he would simply be taking one more step in that direction. Even now he felt different. He felt calm, almost too calm. Waking up amongst the hundreds of dead garghounds had barely affected him at all. Fighting was getting easy, and killing even easier since the day he fought that rock ghoul in the mines. Kal realized now, that had been the beginning, the first time his rage had truly shown itself that he could remember. Since then it has been back-to-back reckless fights and stupid decisions. It was time to retake control of his path without the need for the recklessness it inspired. It was time for Kal to forge his first skill.

Kalum Lesta

Status

Class:

Slayer of Fate [Epic] [Anomalous]

Level:

25

Race:

Human?

Health:

1850

Stamina:

3000

Wrath:

0

Attributes

Strength:

256

Agility:

122

Endurance:

300

Vitality:

185

Intellect:

109

Perception:

155

Will:

294

Wisdom:

141

Available:

6

Titles

Ascendant, Core Bane, Core Smith, Defier of Dhinir, Planeswalker, Planar Appetite, Slayer of the Strong, Endurance Elite, Strength Elite, Will Elite, Demon Slayer, Paragon of Man

Skills

Soul Forge [Rare], Wrathful Regeneration [Common], Wrath Incarnate [Uncommon], Abyssal Consumption [Rare]

Race

Birthright: Waking