The priest stood there, smiling at Cole. He seemed to be waiting for an answer.

Cole was still in panic mode, but as his eyes darted around the square looking for a way to escape, he saw multiple other golden robed priests talking to other people. He relaxed a bit. The Imperial priests weren’t specifically targeting him. Not yet anyway. But he knew he still couldn’t let his guard down.

Cole decided the best thing to do was act natural.

“Sure!” he replied, plastering a grin of his own across his face.

This only encouraged the priest, who seemed overjoyed that someone had taken him up on his offer. He began to speak with a grand voice,

“Our eternal Emperor Auremon, first and last ruler of the Vestrian Empire sees all and knows all. He is the very one who provided the means for humans to fight back against the monster wave scourge. Because of the glorious Golden Pylons, given to all people as a free gift, civilisation has sprung up across the lands once more.”

Cole began to grow bored. This was stuff he already knew. He had at least hoped to learn something new. Maybe he should press the priest for some answers?

“This town of Venture, as I’m sure you would know, was only established because of the Golden Pylons. Because of our Emperor!”

The priest’s tone took on a sinister edge. “And this town only retains its independence as long as our Emperor allows it.”

Cole lost his fake smile, unable to hide his distaste. That wasn’t harmless street preaching or proselytizing, that was damn near a threat.

The priest seemed to notice his uneasiness and replaced his smile with a gentle one of concerned interest. “But do not worry. Our Emperor is not cruel, or unfair. He welcomes anyone to serve him and reap the rewards. He seeks to make use of every talent of the masses, indeed the very nature of his power, bequeathed to him by the heavens proclaims this to all the world!”

Now that is interesting, thought Cole. I wonder what class Emperor Auremon developed. It has to be something incredibly strong. He opened his mouth.

“Please, good priest. What class does the Emperor use? How did he slay the mighty dragon in the capital?”

“Ah! A scholar of history I see. You are a well-read man. Unfortunately such a divine mystery as that is not one for the likes of you and I to discuss today,” said the priest as he shook his head solemnly, “but I shall leave you with a few of the profound words of Auremon himself.”

“…through truly understanding my enemies, I vanquished my enemies…”

Cole took that in, trying to filter out the dogma and figure out what class that could possibly link to. Perhaps Auremon was some sort of tactics or intellectual based class. Maybe a [Strategist] or [War Scholar]?

The priest bowed to him.

“What is your name young man?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Cole,” came the reply through sheer force of habit. He instantly reprimanded himself internally.

“An unusual name. I will remember it.” The priest smiled once more, reaching out to clasp Cole’s hand. “I trust our paths will meet again”

The priest bowed, released his arm, and then left, off to find another person to talk to.

Cole was left momentarily stunned, unsure how to process the interaction. He shook his head, and walked back inside the Adventurer’s Guild Headquarters, stomach rumbling. He was eager to eat in the mess hall once more. Cole looked for Strike Force Talos until he remembered that they were out taking down a Minotaur. Too exhausted to go through the awkward introduction phase with a group of people, he elected to quickly eat by himself.

The cooking staff at the mess hall continued to impress, with a delicious steak from what he could only assume was some fantastical creature, served with gravy and vegetables. Once full, he headed back up to his room.

Once there he laid in bed, absentmindedly practicing his new method of tracing out runes. He supposed today had been quite productive. As blue and orange flashes lit up the room once more, his mind went to Thesta. More specifically her comments on his lack of strength. He needed to figure out why he was so underpowered, otherwise he’d never be able to help the town. Never be able to help the rest of the people from Earth.

Auremon was supposedly strong enough to single handedly take down a dragon, if the history book was to be believed. Although that wouldn’t make sense if he was a [Strategist] or similar type of class. While they were very effective in combat, with skills that let them move huge numbers of troops in sync, that didn’t match the way Auremon’s and his followers were described. Rather than a traditional military, they seemed much more similar to an adventuring party, but with classes that were individually potent. Cole had seen books in the Guild library that seemed to describe the various exploits of the Emperor’s original followers, who had basically all become high ranking members of the Imperial system.

Perhaps studying these books would give him some more insight into the source of the Emperor’s dragon slaying power, and so Cole resolved to visit the library after breakfast once more.

Thinking back to his own power, or lack thereof, Cole began to speculate. What was happening to all his energy? Thesta said he was forming his runes well, only wasting energy after using them, so there must be some problem with his mana pool. It was almost like something was leeching off his energy source.

Wait.

Cole sat up, and then smacked his forehead in realisation. There was something leeching off his Runic energy. When he’d been the white void of classes, the way he’d merged the [Hallowed Knight] and [Runic Berserker] had been by getting rid of the Berserker aspect entirely, and then by stitching the [Hallowed Knight] onto the part of the class that generated Runic energy, to create the [Hallowed Knight of Runes].

Effectively, the [Hallowed Knight] was the main part of the class, piggybacking onto the [Runic] aspect, and he was only making use of smallest part.

Cole withdrew into himself, picturing his four runes. The Rise rune was the most prominent, blazing a brilliant gold and connected most strongly to his soul. The other three were smaller, glowing in their familiar purple hue, which much weaker connections to his soul. Cole wasn’t quite sure he really understood the concept of having a soul, but he still intuitively knew that that’s what it was.

Hmmmm, he thought. What can I do to give my other runes more power?

Maybe the same method of ‘surgery’ would work. If he could move one of the connections from his Rise rune to another. It’s not like he could use the Rise rune anyway, so there was no harm in trying.

Taking a deep breath with his physical body, Cole got to work.

He examined the Rise rune, reaching out to one of the connectors to his soul. ‘Grasping’ hold of it, for lack of a better word, he began to gently pull, trying to separate it from the golden symbol. He felt pain building up, but It was nothing compared to the life he had lived on Earth.

There was a snap, like a rubber band that had been stretched out until breaking point being released, and the connection came free. The golden glow of the Rise rune didn’t become any dimmer, which he thought was quite interesting.

Now that he was ‘holding’ the free connection, which was filled with a golden light, Cole turned his focus to the three purple runes, trying to decide which one to give a power boost. After mulling it over for a bit, he decided on his Runic Blast. The Strength and Speed were at good levels for now, he thought, and he he mainly needed an offensive power boost. Decision made, Cole moved to complete the second stage of the ‘surgery’.

As he moved the connector towards the rune, it began to tremble, like a magnet attempting to be joined with its pair. Cole brought them together, and pain flooded his body. It was a good pain, the kind that you get after a full body workout. The Runic Blast grew in size, feeding off of its new connection.

Strangely, the purple began to bleed into a lighter shade. When it was complete, the Rune was much bigger, glowing a brilliant gold. The symbol began to shift, changing into jagged strokes that were much more similar to the Rise rune. The pain left his body as the connection was completed. It seemed as if he had been successful. He focused on this new rune, knew that it was called Hallowed Blast. Interesting.

Cole was annoyed that he’d have to learn a completely new rune, after all his work on the original Runic Blast, but he did notice something quite peculiar. Woven into the gold was a faint purple, the framework of the original spell. Cole knew that if he traced it in the old way, he would still be able to produce the old purple Runic Blast, albeit without the power or colour given by the upgrade.

Cole lay back in bed and closed his eyes, exhausted. He would test out the new rune tomorrow.

Flashes of blue and orange continued to light up the room.