Chapter 86: Grave Consequences

[Adjudicator - Level 25]

“Well, you were right, there’s nothing left of the guy.”

I wasn’t typically one to monologue, but I felt the need to break the mood. The alternative was to stand around dead silent, being stared at by a giant floating eyeball, which would never not be creepy.

“The stronger the man, the stronger his soul upon death, and the more difficult it is to make their rest final. You needn’t worry about this one, he never did more than the bare minimum for a single day of his life, it took barely a nudge to shatter him beyond repair. Never mind him, my proxy is now active, so let me deal with this pesky interference. Purify.”

I hissed and clenched my teeth as the eye glowed white hot, seemingly transferring that same burning sensation onto my skin. I kept my cool however, being no stranger to a bit of rough treatment, because as bad as this was, it still had nothing on chemotherapy. Moreover, it was clearly working, as the purple cloud pouring out of my pores could attest to; even through the biting pain, I felt lighter by the second, feeling the lifting of a weight I’d never noticed take hold. One long, agonizing minute later, and I was free of it, free to slump against the wall and wipe the sweat from my brow, consigning it to the oblivion of my inventory.

“Holy magic and necromancy?” Kyle whistled to himself. “Is that a normal combination where you come from?”

The Adjudicator side eyed him, displaying an impressive degree of expression despite the lack of a face. I wasn’t quite sure if Kyle turned pale as it focused on him, or if it was simply a trick of the light, but he definitely backed away a step as it floated closer to him.

“I did start out as a Healer, a good one too! It was many years after my Class Day when I stumbled upon an impromptu career change, which is the case for pretty much every Necromancer, the System doesn’t assign such a Class to children any more; not because the Class is inherently evil or anything, but due to the typical reaction of superstitious fools who believe it to be so. Having to kill your entire village after they try to burn you at the stake might be good for rapid levelling, but it tends to have grave consequences for the newbie’s sanity, or so my teacher was fond of saying, pun included.”

[Plum withdrawn.]

Kyle groaned at the joke, while I continued an old theatre tradition by throwing ripe fruit at the eyeball. It went right through, splattering against the cell wall to no avail.

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“Are you sure you should be telling me this?” Kyle asked, still sounding a bit dubious but looking altogether more relaxed after the tension broke. “I’m not trying to connect the dots or anything, but sometimes it’s better not to hear it at all.”

“It’s fine. Healers are the most common pre class for a Necromancer, even if you ran straight to the Temples with that tidbit, they’d only lecture you for wasting their time.”

“Is it possible to swap to any class? I mean, I’ve heard of people becoming Bards for the music feature, but other than that, I wasn’t able to find much information on it.”

We were getting a bit off topic, admittedly, but this was a chance for genuine advice from a high level veteran, someone who had decades of experience at minimum, and possibly centuries depending on just when she started dabbling in the craft. There was no way I was giving this chance up, so Harvey and Pumpkin would just have to hold on for a little bit longer.

“In theory, sure. In practice, good luck finding out how, for any Class worth having at any rate. You can become a Civilian just by telling the System you’re renouncing your current Class, so it acts as a catchall for someone looking to retire. The arts and crafts Classes, like the aforementioned Bard just need instruction; a few weeks of learning the basics from somebody who already has the Class you want is enough, unless you’re particularly dumb and can’t grasp the material. A few of the basic combat Classes, you can get just by grabbing a stick and going to whack monsters in the right way for a few days, as long as it’s real combat and you don’t get eaten in the process. Soldier is probably the most complex of those kinds of Classes; if you don’t get it on Class Day, it’s an entire three to six month boot camp to get you up to shape and learn everything needed to qualify; most of the Kingdoms will run this once a year for people looking to enlist, though of course you’ll need to sign a minimum term service contract in return.”

Belatedly, I noticed that Kyle had pulled a notebook from somewhere and was writing all this down, making me think that even what Amelia called ‘basic information’ wasn’t exactly widespread. Or maybe there was something else at play, I decided, seeing the letters he wrote on twisting and turning on the page, before quickly looking away.

“The problem with getting a valuable Class tends to stem from at least one of three issues: talent, knowledge or materials. To become a Mage, you need a minimum sensitivity to mana, or else you’ll be unable to cast even the simplest of spells. The requirement of the Class change is to freecast a spell without the aid of the System, so hopefully your body was born correctly, otherwise good luck with that. To become a Necromancer, I had to find a site heavy with death, and immerse myself in a pool of necrotic energy for a full day and night. I needed my Master’s guidance for the former, and my pre-existing magic to accomplish the latter without my organs shutting down, which kills nine tenths of those who try. Want to become an Alchemist? Sure, all you have to do is correctly brew a low-grade potion, after burning through over a thousand Gilt worth of reagents, assuming your talent in the field is average. Unless you have a merchant’s guild or a noble supporting you, that’s unlikely to be viable. Those are just the middle tier to boot, the lowest rung of the truly desired classes. Compare what it takes to earn them on your own merits, versus winning the lottery on Class Day, and you can start to understand why Children are so valuable, yes?”