As he approached the fence, a zombie came lumbering out, shuffling back and forth against the barrier between them. Eli healed it to death with two casts, the first one taking almost 80% of its health.
“That was a lot of mana wasted,” he muttered.
He leaned in and looted, opening the corpse like a bag. It held a few coins and some rags, but nothing more. Another one approached, and Eli killed it too, having already regenerated his mana. The second one hadn't reached the fence.
No new zombies emerged. At the top of his lungs, he shouted, "Come get me, zombies! I’m right here!"
While he waited, Eli marked the graveyard so he could Warp to its location.
Groans rose from behind the bushes and trees, and a cluster of zombies emerged. Five in total. Rather than using his regular heal spell, Eli waited for them to push up against the fence, their long arms reaching out.
All of these ones were men, and they'd been dead a good long while. Most of their faces had rotted away, and the stench was horrible. Worms wriggled in their decomposing flesh. Fighting these things up close would be an assault on your senses.
Eli threw down a Sigil of Light in the middle of the group. A circular symbol appeared at their feet, a glowing tree with limbs reaching up in all directions, encircled in light. It lit up the area with a dim glow that rose from the ground, up to about ten feet.
The zombies jerked like they’d been slapped. Eli watched their health bars as their HP started decreasing. By the time the Sigil’s 30 seconds were up, all five zombies were dead.
“This spell is better than I’d hoped,” Eli said with satisfaction. It continuously damaged the undead within its bounds, draining their health. It was slow, but not so slow it didn’t kill them.
More of them were coming now, skeletons as well. It was the same type of horde that the group faced before, when they were forced to flee. Eli waited and cast Sigil twice, cursing when the first one was dispelled by the second.
Apparently, he couldn't have multiple at once. What a shame.
Going into his skills, he added a skill point to Sigil of Light and laughed with joy when the area of effect grew. That wasn’t all. It did more damage as well!
As the zombies and skeletons died, a message came through.
Zack: Why did I just level up?
Eli: I’m at the graveyard, killing things.
Zack: Wow, we get shared experience this far away? That’s not a bad bonus.
Amy: Hell yeah!
Eli briefly wondered if shared experience meant he got less for himself. That, he decided, didn't matter. He couldn’t begrudge them the experience. As a healer, as a support class, his role was clear. He was meant to push others. And push them he would.
“Enjoy,” Eli said aloud, placing another Sigil. Zombies and skeletons continued to die by his hand, falling limp to the ground or in piles of bones.
In that moment, he could think of nothing better than watching the health bars in front of him drain to zero.
A ding sounded in his ear, this one louder than usual.
Congratulations! You have reached level 10. Multiclass options and specializations are available.
Specializations and multi-class options. Interesting. In his experience, that meant either adding on another class, such as Mage, to give himself more offensive power, or specializing in his chosen class. Perhaps he could do both. The system didn’t tell him, though, so like with everything else so far, he was left to figure it out by himself.
He opened his Character Sheet and saw a plus sign by his normal class and a small button saying Add Class. Another button was placed right next to it, reading: Select Specialization.
Just as he was about to look into the subclasses and multi-class options, something slammed into his shoulder.
Eli cried out in pain, stumbling back, moving his hand up and feeling an arrow jutting out from him. The pain made it difficult to concentrate, but he finally dismissed the Character Status and saw a skeleton, taller and more solid-looking than the other ones, knocking another arrow to a small bow.
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He threw himself to the side, avoiding the second arrow. Having healed himself fully, Eli gritted his teeth and pulled the arrow out of his shoulder. It wasn't lodged in deep, thankfully, but the pain still made his head swim. Pulling it out drained almost half his HP, and he healed himself again, then put a Sigil up and started heal bombing the offending skeleton, killing it quickly.
A thin white scar was all that was left from the arrow after the heals. Well, that and a hole in his robe.
Stupid mistake," he grumbled, "not paying attention."
More skeletons and zombies were incoming, but he saw no other ranged weapons.
Ding! You have reached level 11.
Ding! You have reached level 12.
Ding! You have reached level 13.
Zach: I'm leveling like crazy!
Ding! You have reached level 14.
By the time it was getting dark, Eli had leveled up a lot. He had faced skeletons with bows a few more times but found that if he focused on killing those, he could get rid of them before they managed to get a shot off.
Amy: Just reached level 10!
Zack: Me too.
Eli: Not all experience was shared, then. I just reached level 14.
Amy: Really?! I'm coming with you tomorrow.
Zack: Sounds like a good plan. I actually found some interesting recipes I want to test out.
Eli: Sounds good. We'll need at least two frontliners if we're going inside. And I think we should.
Even at that great distance, he heard the sound of the great heavy door to the church opening, the hinges screeching, and a light glow showing from within the large stone structure.
He peered into the gloom. A figure stood there, silhouetted in the flickering light from within. It looked like a robed man, only taller and thinner. It was too far and dark to see any features, but he clearly saw a pair of red eyes turning his way.
Eli immediately Warped back, ending up on the couch on the 13th floor of Infinite Innovation Solutions.
Eli: I think I just saw the Corrupted Lord from the quest. The church doors opened.
Zack: Scary. Are you safe?
Eli: I ran. Let's go back tomorrow and fight that thing. With some more help.
Amy: Let's! For now, I'm going to check out the multi-classing and specialization options.
Eli: Same.
Charlotte still remained quiet, so Eli sent a message directly to Amy.
Eli: Can you talk with Charlotte before tomorrow? See if she wants to come. I was thinking of asking James to join us, too.
Amy: I'll talk to her.
Taking another bite of the burger that'd fallen into his lap when he withdrew another meal from his inventory, he moved over to the Character Sheet window and held his breath as he pressed Add Class.
A new window popped up, a window he'd seen before. It was the one where he'd selected his class, Healer. Last time, he hadn’t had time to get a good look at it, but now he could see the classes arrayed before him: Fighter, Mage, Crafter, Rogue, Bard, Healer, Shepherd, Barbarian, Peddler, Tinker, Beastmaster, Commander, Apothecary.
At the bottom, a button appeared Cancel. So he wasn't forced to pick another class. Good to know. He read the brief description of each class and found an interesting connection in the Healer class. Among the usual stuff about supporting and healing you'd expect, a mention stood out in the description for Healer. A Champion of the Dying Light. Dying Light, like the name of the graveyard.
Often, healers in games would be associated with holy powers or some sort of deity. If his choice of class meant he'd be associated with some strange religion or cult, he'd get really pissed. He didn't feel any different, though. No god whispered in his ear.
He pressed Cancel again and opened the Specialization window, his mouth full of fries.
Three choices were arrayed before Eli. The first option was Crusader of The Dying Light. Its skills and abilities involved the use of heavy armor and a great boost in health and mana. As far as he could tell, it was like a paladin class. A strong option, definitely, but a brief, red text told him all his spells would be converted to skills befitting a crusader. That was a risk. A big risk. Losing Warp and Sigil of Light would hurt a lot.
Eli hesitantly moved over to the next option, Scholar of The Dying Light. That specialization also came with an increase in health, but not nearly as much as the Crusader, and some added maximum mana. It was some sort of damage dealing specialization, Eli figured. The short description read:
The Scholar finds great power in their meditation into the nature of The Dying Light. Power is often found in the quiet places. Use your mind to destroy those who would see The Dying Light winked out to bring about eternal night.
The final specialization was called Priest of The Dying Light. It did not receive as much of a health boost, but the mana pool was greatly increased. The specialization allowed him to wield tomes in addition to staves. The short description read:
Stand as a beacon for The Dying Light to shine down upon. Stand tall and give aid to those who suffer, and salvation to the damned creations of night.
The descriptions didn’t tell him much, but it was enough. The Crusader would be a tank and fighter type, giving him access to mace-type weapons, shields, and heavy armor. In all probability, he would also be able to heal himself and others somehow, but not as well as he could now, and certainly not as well, as if he picked one of the other classes.
As a crusader, he would stand shoulder to shoulder with Charlotte and help her overcome her fear. A great addition to the party, but not what he wanted. Eli felt it in his gut. He was meant to play support, to keep others upright.
The Scholar sounded too much like it was a damage dealer, despite its name. His class already did decent enough damage with the potential for more. This left the Priest. The pure support class which would allow him to continue down the path he'd started on.
Eli picked that option and confirmed his choice. His class changed to Priest of The Dying Light. The multi-class option did not go away, but he'd already decided he wouldn't add on any more classes, at least not yet. Not before he knew more about this world of Aryxia. It was time to take a good long look at what this new specialization offered him.
Amy: Goblins!