Chapter 19 - A Matter of Class

Verity stood with her arms loaded with books as Crimson placed the last few he was holding onto the repaired bookshelf while she was mentally screaming about her own boredom. Once they’d put the books she was holding back as well, they sat down.

“Okay,” Crimson said, “I’ll hear you out this time. What kind of healer [Class] do you want, and why?”

She glared at him, “You should have agreed earlier!”

He shrugged, “I regret nothing, and don’t pretend like you do, I know you needed that.”

With a sigh, Verity agreed with him, then after a moment then spoke, “I was thinking of fully specializing into healer [Classes]. I know my odds of getting a rare [Class] are low, so I thought that if I got three [Classes] I could make up the slack.”

Crimson nodded thoughtfully, “So you want to make a failed build.”

Verity glared at him, “Don’t call me a failure, you want another beating? What’s a build?”

He had the nerve to ignore her threat and said, “A build is the way that you choose, develop, and train your respective [Class] and [Skills]. Anything and everything you have control of goes into a ‘build.’ It’s literally just a term referring to how you ‘build’ yourself.

“Anyway, the reason I’m calling it a failure is that doing that would make you overspecialized. Overspecialization is when you focus your [Stats], [Skills], and everything else too much into one thing.”

Verity looked at him in surprise, “That’s possible? I thought putting all your attention on one thing is good. You know, like getting really good at one thing makes you better than everyone else?”

“That isn’t actually a bad concept,” Crimson said, “but the issue is that a single [Class] is enough for you to achieve the specialization needed, more than that is overkill. It’s a balancing act between focusing too much and focusing too little. If you put too much into a single kind of [Class] you’ll have an excellent distribution for [Stats], but you’ll lose out on [Skills].”

“That doesn’t make any sense, if you take three of the same kind of [Class] you’ll get three times the amount of [Skills] for what you are already doing.”

“Technically correct but, unfortunately, reality begs to differ. As you [Level Up] you occasionally gain [Skills], right? When you get all of the exact same or too similar [Classes] then you’ll have a lot of [Skill] overlap, where you’ll be getting [Skills] you already have or, depending on how the Gods decide to handle things, [Skills] that differ too much from how you fight, rendering them effectively useless.”

Crimson could see the cloud of question marks figuratively floating around Verity, so he decided to give an example, “Let’s take a standard [Skill] to explain the point. When the [Priest Class] reaches Lv.5, they’ll receive the [Skill]: [Commitment]. It’s a [Skill] that increases the effectiveness of [Holy] type [Skills]. What would happen if you took three [Priest Classes] Verity?”

“It...probably wouldn’t be three times stronger, based on the fact that you’re using it as an example.” Verity looked a little confused, but he pressed her for a guess and she said, “Well...I think...it might be confusing if you get all three as [Skills]. They’re passive [Skills], and I know that sometimes [Skills] don’t work well together, so these three might conflict and...I don’t know...you might only be able to use one at a time? Or none of them?”

Crimson nodded, “You’re more or less correct. It does vary on a person by person basis, but it ranges to everything from not working at all to accidentally canceling, to unknowingly swapping between them; there is a whole host of issues with it, but with some training you can decrease some of the downsides I just mentioned. It doesn’t take care of the issue with the fact that they are so similar that they cancel each other out, so you can only use one at a time, but you can kinda make it work.

“Here’s where it gets nasty: you now have three passive [Skills], only one can be used at the same time, which means there’s no point in training all three, and in training just one of them you may accidentally activate the wrong one of the three, which could be especially detrimental -and more likely- in a fight.

“All you did by having three [Commitments] is waste two [Skill] slots that could have been occupied by something worthwhile and useful.”

Verity stared at the floor and thought for a moment. She knew Crimson was smart, she also knew that he did a lot of research and asked a lot of questions, so odds were she could trust what he was saying, but it meant that she’d have to rethink how she did things...could she really only take one healer type [Class]? Thinking over their conversation, she remembered something with a flash of insight.

She looked back up at him as he was writing something into a journal, “Hey Crimson, you said it was possible for something else to happen?”

His gaze intersected with her’s for a moment before the pressure of it softened as his thoughts turned inward.

“Yes, that’s right,” he said, “It’s extremely rare at Lv.5, but it is possible to receive a different [Skill]. You know how people receive different [Skills] as they [Level Up], even with the same [Class]? It’s an extension of that. The Gods look at you as you grow and give you a [Skill] that compliments your current fighting style, which means that you don’t get any worthless [Skills].

“The reason why it’s so rare at Lv.5 is because people rarely have a developed fighting style that early - you could explain it as expressing individuality - which means that there’s no point in giving them a [Skill] that differs from the standard one. Frequently, people who overspecialize don’t go out of their way to develop the individuality of their own [Class], so when they take their current, or extremely similar, [Class] as a [Sub-Class] they’ll receive the same [Skill].

“For those that do develop their fighting style before reaching Lv.5 with the [Sub-Class], they might no longer be a match for the usual [Skill] they’d get, but they might not match with any of the others either, so the [Skill] they get might be completely useless to them. There isn’t a large pool of [Skills] available at Lv.5 in any case, so the odds that you get a [Skill] you don’t match with is high. What happens is that the Gods sometimes decide that the experience you have is different enough to warrant a different [Skill] from what you already have, in this case then they’re thinking that it would be better to give you a [Skill] you could potentially use, but aren’t quite a match for instead of one that you already have. Don’t ask me why they only decide to do this sometimes, I don’t know, and I’m still looking into it.”

Verity wanted to pat herself on the back for following his lecture, but her brain felt fried. The short version was that she should take [Classes] that are different because ones that were too similar would get in each other’s way. Whether by getting [Skills] so similar that they couldn’t work together or by getting a [Skill] so different from how she fought that it would just be a waste.

“Alright, I’m following so far,” she said, “how different do they need to be?”

He stared at her for a long moment in dead silence. She could see him organizing his thoughts behind his liquid metal eyes, he then spoke, “Do you know what a play is?”

Confused, she responded, “If you’re referring to a stage performance, then yes, I know what a ‘play’ is.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean,” he said, “I want you to imagine that a [Class] is like having a role in the play. The more you throw yourself into the performance and accurately portray it to your interpretation of the role, the more believable it becomes. If you only half commit, people will have their immersion ruined and they’ll just see the actor in costume, not the character you’re playing.

“[Classes] are similar to that role, the better you act your part, the stronger you get, and much like it’s possible to have multiple parts in a play, it’s possible to have multiple [Classes].

“Your primary [Class] is a leading role in the play and your two [Sub-Classes] are minor roles that come on when your leading role doesn’t need to be on stage. If all three of your [Classes] are ‘Priestess A,’ ‘Priestess B,’ and ‘Priestess C’ the audience isn’t going to care which one of the three you’re playing, they’re so similar it doesn’t matter, but if you have three distinct roles then they’ll be much more engaged.

“To answer your question, the three [Classes] you take need to be distinct enough to tell them apart without issue, but you should also take [Classes] that play to your strengths.

“Going back to the play analogy, if you’re tall, you should apply for roles that need a tall person. If you’re good at dancing or singing you should do those things, but if say, you can’t sing at all, but are phenomenal at character acting, then that’s what you should stick to.”

Parsing through what Crimson just said, she spoke once more, “My old [Classes] were: [Martial Artist], [FistFighter], and [Berserker], how did I do?”

He hummed to himself for a second, then said, “Two out of Three. [Martial Artist] and [Berserker] are both different, but physical [Classes] which means they’d have a bit of synergy. They are distinct from each other.

“[FistFighter] is the weak link, that one is already covered by [Martial Artist]. They are different enough that it probably wasn’t too much of a hindrance for you, but for them to be that similar there was definitely some clash.”

After hearing that, everything clicked into place for Verity, “I get it, so [Priest], [Dancer], and [Martial Artist] wouldn’t clash, but [Minstrel], [Dancer], and [Bard] would.”

“They could, but I’m personally not too educated about those three. [Dancer] might not clash with either of them, but aren’t [Minstrel] and [Bard] pretty much exactly the same [Class]?”

Verity shrugged, “Don’t know, I just mentioned it because I’ve seen the combination before.”

“Well,” Crimson shrugged back at her, “I highly recommend you look into any [Class] you want and carefully consider it before just ‘going for it.’ If you can get [Classes] that work well together but are distinct then that’s ‘synergy’ and I highly recommend that you aim for it. It’s also possible to take two completely different [Classes] and build them so that they work together. A common example of that is a [Magic Swordsman]. It is composed of two extremely different [Class] types, magic and physical, but they can be very powerful.”

“However, in my opinion it’s better to take two separate [Classes] than get combination type [Classes] like [Magic Swordsman]. You’ll actually have the stats to back that kind of fighting style and your pick of [Skills] from either side to fuse together. What you’re doing is creating synergy where there’s potential instead of seeking out existing synergy.”

Verity nodded and thanked him for the advice, she felt like a bit of an idiot for not thinking so deeply about her [Classes] in the past. She’d just taken whatever looked good and cool, without thinking about them working together. Hearing Crimson who, again, didn’t have a [Blessing] put so much thought into it drove it home.

There was just one final question, “What [Classes] are you going to take, Crimson?”

“I’ll be taking a High-Grade [Swordsman Class], a magic type [Class] - probably [Mage] or [Elementalist] if there isn’t anything more interesting - and a production [Class].”

Verity felt like smacking, “Isn’t that the exact opposite of my problem??? I wanted to ‘overspecialize,’ but with those three it feels like you don’t have any focus at all!”

Crimson inspected her for a moment, then said, “I will open my response by saying that you’re not wrong, but you’re not right. There really is no way to go wrong, no matter what [Classes] you pick. Even what I told you about ‘overspecialization’ might be permissible and powerful depending on how it’s handled.

“However, there is certainly a way of doing things that is more sensible, and a way of doing things that is more personal. What is ‘sensible’ would be taking similar, but different [Classes] and specializing those [Classes] into only the things useful to you. An excellent example of this would be [Assassin], [Thief], and [Scout].

The killing power of the [Assassin], the stealth of the [Thief], and the detection of the [Scout], by specializing those three [Classes] in that way you would create an excellent synergy, but you could also specialize it differently. Instead of focusing on killing ability for [Assassin], you could focus on the method of killing, or on hiding yourself. Similarly choosing different specialization paths for the other two [Classes] to support the different focuses and make up the deficits.

“Most [Classes] have three main distinct paths that can be taken to specialize the [Class], you can choose how many of the three you pull from, whether that be all and generalize the [Class] or one and specialize it.

“Now, bearing that in mind, let me answer your question. I’m considering these three styles of [Classes] because I believe that I can MAKE them synergetic, and not only that, I believe it will even be easy.

“By focusing on sword skills and magical ability I’ll be better at hunting/killing whatever monsters I come across, and by taking a production [Class] I’ll be able to take the items I get from killing monsters and turn them into weapons or items that will make me better at hunting monsters, creating a positive feedback loop.”

Verity cut in, “Yeah, but that means that you also have [Skills] of three majorly different types. If it was just one kind of [Skill], like magical, then you only need magic training, but when you split between magical and physical then you either need to double the time you spend training to keep them equal, take twice as long to train them, or let one type become vastly superior to the others.

“Fine though, I can accept combining magic and physical type [Skills], those [Classes] exist and can be quite powerful. What I can’t accept is the addition of a production [Class], which is not only completely different but takes anywhere from three to ten fold the time invested in a regular [Class]. There’s no way you’ll be able to manage it all! Tell me what you’re feeling, not what you’re thinking. I bet it’s your emotions doing the talking there.”

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He chuckled, “You’re not wrong; as far as what I’m feeling is concerned, then it’s that I like all three disciplines, and can’t choose one over the other. I also feel that it’s important to have a change of pace since working on one thing to the exclusion of others causes burnout, I also feel it’s really interesting, I like making stuff with my hands just as much as I like fighting, but” Crimson nodded, “That’s why I accept that I’m not correct in my thinking, at least as far as everyone else goes, but I think that this approach is perfect for ME. I’m not telling you to do the same, but telling you that I’ll do this, and who knows? Maybe I’ll change my mind, maybe an even better [Class] shows up and I want it instead, who knows? That’s why it’s exciting.”

Verity felt her irritation rise, “You’re contradicting yourself, you told me to carefully think over any [Class] I take, then say that if something interesting shows up that you’ll take it!”

Crimson waved his forefinger at her, “I have not contradicted myself. You’re just making the assumption that I’d go to take a [Class], look at the available list, and immediately take an interesting [Class]. That is an incorrect assumption. Instead, I’d see that [Class], and hold off on choosing a [Class] to do some research.”

She calmed down, “Sorry, that’s my mistake…” she said apologetically.

Crimson waved dismissively, “It doesn’t matter, we’re not in any rush, and I’m just sharing what I’ve learned with you, which has left you with a lot to think over, so let’s leave the rest of this discussion for another day. I have business to take care of in the Temple in Phase 1 anyway, so it’s good to stop here.”

Crimson cleaned up his notes and neatly stacked the books he had on the table as she watched, before standing up to leave.

After walking a few steps, he stopped and turned to her, “Actually, you should come with me, it’ll be a good opportunity for you to speak to some [Priests] and learn about one of the main healer type [Classes].”

Verity blinked a few times, before shooting to her feet in excitement, “Yes! I’d be happy to go!”

They walked down to the reception desk of the Guild and Crimson waved down Sherry, that Dark Elf who stopped their fight, was always smoking, and had horrible taste in jokes. Verity didn’t think very highly of her, but she seemed competent enough with her job. Back when she’d had [Aural Reading] she could see that both of the receptionists who worked with Crimson thought of him as a younger brother, but that connection was definitely weaker with the Dark Elf.

She could also vaguely remember that Sherry also viewed Crimson…competitively? To call them rivals was a gross simplification of the relationship they had with each other. The most amusing part of their relationship was that Crimson didn’t actually think much of her, he was mostly indifferent to her existence and was even frequently annoyed by her.

Verity’s own relationship with her could be defined as just barely above strangers.

Crimson spoke, rousing her out of her thoughts, “Sherry, what do I owe you for the door?”

Waving a meticulously maintained finger at them, the Dark Elf said, “No, you will BOTH be paying, you are both at fault since you were ‘communicating’ so you will equally split the payment! As far as the price! I don’t know, we’ll have someone take a look at it and get back to you. Probably around 40 Royals each, 5 for the ‘communication’ and 35 for the actual door, but it could be higher.”

It was at that moment that Verity decided that Sherry’s drawl was very annoying. It grated on her ears and had nothing…kinda nothing…to do with how much money she was about to be robbed out of.

That was a weekend of binge drinking’s worth of money right there! She’d normally make it last three weeks, which meant that she wouldn’t be able to drink for three weeks! This Imp!

Next to her, Crimson seemed to be in just as much pain over the lost money, but unlike her, he wasn’t angry.

He said, “When can we expect an invoice?”

“Probably by Fallday later this week.” The dark elf of truest evil said.

Verity had no idea how the color representing her was a friendly yellow, it made no sense with how wicked she was.

Moping a little she looked around the guild. Considering it was about two or three in the afternoon, it was fairly packed, with some eating a late lunch in the guild restaurant and some just sitting at tables chatting. There was even a larger group than there used to be inspecting requests on the boards, some of the people in the guild were even vaguely familiar looking to her.

When she’d first arrived, it had been a lot more quiet, and far less crowded. Those that came felt a little lifeless, like they were empty of anything worthwhile. They just came to the guild, worked enough to live, then left, repeating this schedule day in and day out, but in the intervening months something had changed, it was livelier, happier, and no longer felt empty.

She glanced at Crimson, part of the cause for change. Like her, others had seen how hard he was working and it inspired their competitive instincts, gave them hope, and just gave them the desire to work harder. It was an oddly compelling thing about him - especially when he normally wasn’t even slightly charismatic.

The conversations, both Crimson’s and the guild members continued to drone on as the guild’s front door opened and an unfamiliar party of three walked in. Appearance-wise, they were pretty much standard adventurers, just especially bland looking ones. They all shared an aura color of bland grey; it was honestly shocking to Verity how boring and uninteresting they all looked to her.

Glancing at their equipment, she could see that it was all cheap and poorly maintained - chipped, cracked, and dirty like the owners couldn’t be bothered to look after them. In that kind of condition, the durability on it all had to be less than 10%.

While still dealing of the shock of how…bland? Boring? Pathetic. Pathetic the three men looked, they walked up to another one of the receptionist and struck up a conversation. They were apparently traveling south to explore the [Shifting Dream] dungeon, and were just passing through Falst.

[Shifting Dream], like [Goblin Manor], was a Lv.15 dungeon that had creatures with Levels as low as 5, but it attracted a lot of people because it had a lot more valuable creatures inside. It was a dungeon that used a lot of illusions, but the [WIL] requirement to deal with them was extremely low, making the dungeon a lot easier to explore than it should be.

Even their choice in Dungeon was boring.

With a sigh, Verity was about to dismiss them completely from her mind when one - the stupidest looking one - looked over at her and a lewd grin appeared on his face.

Before she could think anything more than, ‘oh great, not again’ he’d started swaggering over. He clearly thought she didn’t notice his eyes roving over her body.

“Hey there beautiful, how’s about you grabbin’ a drink with this me?”

Verity could not be bothered with this kind of idiot, never could, and never will, and she’d never gotten good at turning them down. She just Leveled Up enough that if they tried to force her after she said no, then she’d punch them out, rather than deal with them.

Allowing the disgust to appear on her face, she bluntly said, “No, I have other things to be doing, and I wouldn’t drink with you anyway, I already have a fiancee.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Crimson’s aura - the color representing his strongest emotion - flash a surprised bright yellow, before turning a cautious orange.

A sneer appeared on the man’s bland face, “This kid here? Ha! How about you spend some time with a real adult, not this scrawny…oh ho? What’s this?”

Verity watched as Crimson turned to stare the man down - she could see him lightly avoiding direct eye contact as to not use that weird ability of his, but he was very clearly annoyed. For some reason, the pathetic man in front of her was staring at Crimson with a surprised but warm grin.

“A High Human? I haven’t see one of those in years. No, wait…those freakish eyes of yours aren’t apparent as the ones I’ve seen before, a half? HAHAHA!” The man’s expression warped to an evil grin before he roared out with a mocking laughter and turned to his comrades, “Hey, check this out, we’ve got a Chimera here! He’s half High Human!”

The other two walked up and, after having seen Crimson’s slanted eyes, gagged and took a few steps back. The first pathetic fool slipped around to sling his arm around Crimson’s shoulder and spoke to him in a low voice that Verity could hear, “Listen here, the Guild is a respectable place for real people, not Chimera like you, so do us all a favor and get lost.” The man’s expression warped like he smelled something horrible, “We can’t have everyone else forget their appetite like my friends and I have.”

Verity watched Crimson as he did his best to hide the expression on his face, but he was still easy for her to see through: he was stunned, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He even looked a little sickened.

Sherry behind the counter spoke up, clearly able to hear it just as well as Verity, “Hah~? What kind of nonsense is dribbling from those nasty lips of yours?”

The guy tightened his arm around Crimson’s neck and jerked him around so Sherry could get a good look at him, and had an indignant expression as he responded, “You didn’t know he was a Chimera, right? Now you know, so let’s get this foul thing out of here, it’s already ruined the building by being here, let’s not allow it to make things any more foul.”

The man jerked his arm a few times wrenching Crimson back and forth as he struggled both futilely and silently to get free from the overwhelming strength holding him in place.

“If you want, I can drag it out for you, I’ll already need to burn my shirt, no need to dirty your pretty little hands over it.” He said while giving Sherry what he probably was a suave grin, but just made him all the more disgusting.

Verity stepped forward and spoke loudly, “Release my Party Leader!”

With how loudly she spoke, they caught the attention of the entire room, more witnesses were a must so that Crimson wouldn’t be held at fault for anything, and by tying herself directly to the victim she could personally interfere without becoming problematic.

“You?” The man’s once friendly, if lewd eyes, held a strong look of pity as he looked at her, “I’m so sorry, you probably didn’t know, but you don’t need to worry, I’m here, I’ll protect you from it.”

Verity’s once clear thought process started to get a little murky as red began to cloud her vision, “The only protection needed here is for HIM from YOU! Let him go, now!”

The man responded looking angry, “What are you saying? Why are you making me seem like the bad guy here? I’m not, it’s this THING!” He once more shook Crimson whose face had started to turn red.

Looking at Crimson, Verity’s red vision cleared immediately as she began to fear for his life, “You’re killing him!”

With a disappointed expression, the guy loosened his arm enough for Crimson to breathe and turned back to her, “Yeah, it’s sad that I can’t, but even the law has a bit of kindness toward those who have been abandoned by the Gods.”

In the background, Verity could hear some people getting angry, she could hear many voices of support for Crimson and was even dimly aware of some of the owners of those voices standing up to make their way over.

“He hasn’t been abandoned,” she roared back, “the Gods love him, he deserves everything in the world, unlike goblins like you!”

The guy responded furiously, “See now, what you’re saying doesn’t make sense, but a Chimera like this thing deserving nothing? It does,” he stuck his face next to Crimson’s and spoke with his teeth bared, “You’ve been abandoned by the Gods, you’re weaker, you are cursed with [Rizvim]! And not only that, none of you are ever grateful to your parent races. Show some filial piety, yeah? I’m a human, one of your parent races, so you shouldn’t dirty the space I’m in with your unholy existence! Makes plenty of sense, see?”

As a result of his rage fueled rant, the man once more tightened the grip on his arm, far more tightly than before, and Crimson began to futilely fight once more, this time far more desperately.

For the first time, Verity watched as panic crossed Sherry’s face and she hurriedly loaded her pipe with a collection of plants and lit it, behind her, she could hear as the people who where approaching to interfere suddenly began to rush; they all had one goal - stop the man before he could kill Crimson!

Verity had no time to move, no time to react, and nobody else could reach him before he acted. She watched as Crimson suddenly bared his teeth with his entire face red. He grabbed something out of the air and desperately slammed his hand back against the man’s face. They began to struggle back and forth rapidly with strong desperation in both of their actions before the man abruptly released Crimson, who dropped to the ground and clutched his neck while gasping for air. [Treatment] spells were cast on both his hands.

The man who had abruptly let go of Crimson was also desperately clutching at his face - Verity was shocked to see him hacking water out of his lungs and pure desperation on his face as he tried to breathe once more. After he finished purging his lungs of water, the man puked and laid on the ground trembling as he gulped down air.

The man’s two other friends reacted furiously and tried to jump at Crimson, but the other Guild Members grabbed them before they could hurt him.

Thrumming against her ears were the shouts of the other men, of Sherry, of her own shouts, and the sound of her shoes against the ground as she desperately dove for Crimson to check on him.

Stretching from his collarbone to his jaw was a bruise showing the early signs of forming, he looked almost like he was strangling himself as he kept applying the [Treatment] spell to his neck with a faked calm expression. Seeing that, Verity was struck with a desperate desire to be able to use healing magic, but since she couldn’t and had no idea what else she could do she just rubbed his back. She was also finally able to process what just happened.

For any normal person, it was probably a bit of an extreme move from Crimson to fill the man’s lungs with water, but considering the men were silver rank it was actually holding back quite a bit. Being silver meant being at least Lv.20, which meant that they would have at least 120 more stat points than Crimson, normally with that kind of difference it would mean fighting will everything he had, but having absolutely no chance to win, so it was actually more shocking that Crimson’s attack worked than anything else. Fortunately, he’d been able to take the man by surprise since he’d thought that Crimson wouldn’t be able to hurt him.

Looking around, she finally recognized the people who’d stood up to help, they were all Crimson’s students! The ones grabbing the three were the Gold ranks in his class! At the orders of a coldly furious Sherry, they each grabbed the three on the arms, one on each side, and threw them out into the street.

As they were being dragged out, Sherry stepped out from behind the desk and strolled after them, like an odd entourage while cleaning out, then repacking her pipe with some very nasty looking plants, and finishing it off with a paste that she pulled out of her [Storage], before lighting it with a subtly wicked expression.

Laying on the street, the Dark Elf spoke to the group, “By my authority as [Guild Suppresser], you are hereby banned from the Falst Branch of the Adventurer’s Guild. Any and all stores associated with this branch will not be doing business with you, and you are all to pay a 200 Royal fine to the next branch you visit. Have a nice day!”

She then blew a large smoke cloud from her pipe all over them, which seemed to be sucked into their skin before she stepped back inside.

One of the two who’d stood by got back up to argue with her, but right as he passed the doorway into the guild he stopped dead and covered his nose while gagging, and quickly retreated.

The three stayed outside for a couple minutes looking miserable, glaring at Crimson, and shouting how unreasonable and unfair their treatment was before they slowly left.

Verity watched it all, stunned, then felt just as miserable as the three guys had looked when she realized that she had been completely useless through the whole encounter. She’d just shouted at them!

She watched as the guys who helped Crimson checked on him in concern, then clapped him on the shoulder before leaving one by one. He was finally on his feet as he treated each of them warmly and then patiently waited for Sherry to sit behind the desk once more, a strong red line on his neck.

At this point, the confusion and misery in Verity exploded out and, marching over to Crimson, asked in a hushed voice, “Are you okay? What did you just do? How did you do it?”

He glanced at her, “I’m fine,” he waved casually with a shaking hand, “what, specifically, are you referring to with your questions?”

In a moment, she understood that he didn’t really want to be fussed over, so she accepted his desire to act tough and decided to focus on her other questions instead.

She spoke in a whispered shout, “That water in his lungs, the cold air, what spells did you use? And,” she rounded on Sherry, “What did you just do to them?”

Verity was also stunned to remember that she’d stopped her and Crimson’s fight earlier in the same method, she’d just assumed it was a [Telekinesis] spell or [Skill], but after what she just saw she couldn’t think that anymore!

Crimson shrugged, “I actually used a combination of spells, [Gather Water], [Manipulate Water], and [Chill]. I used [Chill] to lower the temperature of the water I gathered using [Gather Water], then used [Manipulate Water] to shove it down his throat. If I’d been thinking more clearly, then I would also have used [Chill] to freeze it in place, but it’s probably better that I didn’t.”

Crimson informed her of everything he’d done while waving a finger in the air, like he was teaching one of his Classes, and continued “I used cold water because it would shock him more, and take away a lot more of his reasoning power than room temperature or hot water. It was a bit of a gamble because he could have inadvertently tightened his grip instead of releasing me, but it worked out in the end.”

“Regardless,” he said, “the interesting one wasn’t me, but Sherry. You don’t know what [Classes] she has, right? Try asking her.”

[Classes]? There was a [Class] or [Classes] that would let her do things like that? After that thought, Verity immediately wanted to hit herself over the head. She’d seen plenty of weird [Classes], there was no reason for this one to surprise her.

She still needed to ask which [Classes] they were though, just to satisfy her curiosity. Turning to Sherry, she asked, “What [Classes] DO you have?”

Sherry smiled mischievously, and took her sweet time refilling her pipe before she responded, “My [Sub-Classes] are [Aromatherapist] and [Herbalist]. My primary [Class] is [Aulrine], a monster [Class].”

[Classes] all about smell? Really? She did all that with smell?

Crimson smiled warmly at Verity, “I was telling you about picking things that all work together without clashing? Sherry has done it perfectly. Three things that all work together without clashing. If you saw her playing those roles in a play, you could tell which one was which without any issues.”

Verity nodded slowly and jerkily, before sinking deep into her thoughts. If that kind of power was possible using just smell, what could she do with her [Classes] to make them work together to create a powerful effect?