Day 2, 9:10 AM
I go through the familiar motions of my staff exercises. Fyoor’s rickety body is a wreck, I have mostly recovered from the heart attack, but every move is still sluggish, despite the fact that this man must certainly be younger than I was when I died.
“What happens when you change back into the class you were advancing before?” I ask and lash out with a triple strike combination, sending a shower of raindrops while silently cursing the perpetual rain.
“You lose the attributes which you have previously invested while leveling in that class, you lose the skills you have gained in that class, and start over from level zero. Skill choices seem to be random, but from a limited pool, since all of them are well known and documented.”
The rain does not bother Edna, who is gardening while we wait for Chubbchubb to eat enough antidote to cure its poison.
“So, if I want to keep improving, whenever I change the class it should be a new one. How do I do that?” That is one question I did not unravel in my previous life. Whenever Manny died, I became a king, but while she was alive my class was a bodyguard, despite me being a king for half a century and not moving a single finger to defend her in ages.
“Changing class is involuntary. The Guide does not let you choose a new one, but it isn’t random. The Guide seems to read your mind, your actions, and assigns you a class based on what you are doing and what you focus on.”
“And you can only have one class at any given time?”
Edna confirms, proving my decision not to reveal my other class correct. I mentally bring up the screen of the class which followed me across lives and across worlds.
[Anarchist Level 5
Abilities - Rage, Redo, Blunt, Heavy Handed, Direct, Insightful, Precise, Godly ✦✦, Vengeful ✦, Grandmaster Rider ✦
To level up, help a person wrongfully penalized by the authorities, heedless of the consequences.]
Redo is still red, days away from being useful, and now that I am no longer a king, the level up condition is much more attainable, but the ‘heedless of the consequences’ part is going to be tough.
“What’s on your mind?” Edna noticed my mind was wandering. I need a lie, but a plausible one.
“You have a fine ass for a two-hundred-year-old.” Blunt comes to my rescue. I didn't even notice I was eyeing the rear swaying left and right between the bushes.
Edna shoots up, like I had poked at the said butt, and glares at me.
“I apologize, you were shaking it, and I thought you were making a pass at me,” I lie through my teeth, but the words are shocking enough to rattle her.
“I wasn’t,” she stammers. “I was just humming a song and swaying in the rhythm.”
The way her tongue twists and her cheeks turn red reveals an utter lack of experience in the matters between men and women. Which is good. I may be in a different world, living a different life, but I have no intention of fooling around, despite what Manny had told me.
“I apologize,” I say, the very definition of a chaste knight, “I will forget anything had happened, and I will not take suggestive movements as suggestive.”
Edna turns as red as a tomato, mumbles a, ‘you better,’ and goes back to digging in the dirt, this time squatting, her butt nearly touching the ground.
[You have leveled up.
Select a skill within sixty seconds or a random one will be assigned to you.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Uncanny Nose - Your sense of smell is twice as strong, helping you find wild herbs.
Green Thumb - Herbs you plant grow faster and more resilient than others.]
What the hell? These are useless. In my past life my level up skills gave me a choice between better leading armies and sensing hidden attackers, and here all I get is farming and foraging skills?
Then again, I am a herbalist, these are probably useful to people dealing with herbs.
“I leveled,” I say. “Got ‘Uncanny Nose’ and ‘Green Thumb’, I will choose enhanced sense of smell, because I can imagine myself using it.”
Edna stares at me, but says nothing, so I pick Uncanny Nose, and immediately regret it. The temeronia’s dead sock, to which I have gotten used to, returns with a vengeance, as do the rotten eggs of two dozens pyrineas, rotten cheese of cryonia, and dozens of others ranging from intoxicating sweetness to rot of corpses.
Overwhelmed by the sudden tsunami of odors, I gag, and sit down.
“Lord of Light, this is a torture.” I close my eyes and lie on my back, feeling the spongy, soggy ground with the entirety of my body.
Then I just breathe and endure my torment as raindrops pelt my face.
“Are you all right?”
“Perfect, I just enjoy soaking in the rain.” That’s when I realize something odd, my back is fairly dry, considering I just dropped prone onto a mushy sponge. “The clothes repel water.”
Edna takes a moment to process what I said, but her mental attributes must also be very high. “What would be the point of clothes if they didn’t repel water?”
She has a point. This world’s society has evolved with considerably different needs than what I am used to. They keep their hair long and greasy, their clothes waxed, all to repel water. The only person different…
My mind wanders to the priest I slew. His balding hair was short, combed, and clean, the white clothes he wore were much finer, almost like cotton, and certainly did not have the greasy shine. The bodyguards held umbrellas for him. I have done it again, thinking I’m smart and regarding this world as a primitive version of Earth, when in fact it is full of its own challenges.
Arborea was like that, and I told myself I would not make the same mistake twice, yet here I am again.
“I apologize for the sarcasm. My nose feels like exploding. Do you mind just talking about random, irrelevant things about Everrain to get my mind off of things until I adapt? No secrets. Things little children know. Where do you get your metal? Do you have any animals that are not bugs? How many humans and human kingdoms there are? Are there any scary monsters or different races? Basic things like that.”
Edna humors me. Her people used to get their bronze by smelting copper and tin they mined from a nearby mountain. The mine is not the type of a hole in the ground I am used to. Instead, it digs up into the mountain, to keep the everlasting rain from drowning the miners.
There used to be more mammals around, long before she was born and before the wormlords launched the first war. Everrain has amphibians, mammals, invertebrates, and insects. The world lacks reptiles and birds, but has something Edna describes as horrors, which seem to be mutated creatures, twisted by magic. Most of them are sterile, but some have the ability to procreate.
There were once seven mighty kingdoms, but they fell to the wormlords over the centuries. The refugees and the survivors made a desperate final stand, eventually trapping the wormlords inside the dungeons, and trying to rebuild life in the world desolated by magic and monsters.
Scary monsters were everywhere, and as far as Edna knew, only the human race exists in the world.
Edna was kind enough to distract me for some twenty-odd minutes while giving me the basic rundown of her world, and I have benefited greatly.
At least I covered the basics in twelve hours, rather than two months like last time.
“Thank you, Edna. I am feeling much better now, I will put this point into Physique and check my new level up condition.”
The point in physique makes me feel even better, but I frown at the level up requirement.
[Name - Fyoor Enchanterson
Class - herbalist level 9
Health 16/19, Strength - 16, Agility - 20, Physique - 19, Wisdom - 28, Intellect - 32, Willpower - 26, Presence - 22, Charisma - 23, Composure - 25
Abilities - Literate, Advanced Calligraphy, Initial Arithmetics, Advanced Herbalism, Advanced Healing, Initial Focus, Initial Appraisal, Initial Woodland Sense, Initial Emergency Treatment, Initial Poison Tolerance, Master Rider
Attribute points remaining - 0
To level up, discover a previously unknown medicinal herb of moderate potency or higher
Statuses - None ]
“I believe that this time my level up condition is impossible to cheat around.” I share the condition with Edna, and she agrees. But I can tell she was never interested in me further pursuing my career as a herbalist.
“I will start teaching you magic. I’m fairly certain you will be able to rapidly grow your level.”
It is as I had expected, she wants to use me as a trailblazer to light the path for her. Fortunately, I have prepared a countermeasure.
“I would love to learn magic.” While a part of my act, those words are absolutely true. I have dreamed of magic and casting spells ever since I first watched the Fight of Dragons when I was a boy.
“But…”