On his way back to the quarry town Leif ran into Nayet, Tollumi and a very flustered looking Manny. The foreman ushered the horse he was riding to move to the side of the road, while the two adventurers rode closer on the mount they shared. Nayet held the reins in one hand as she waved towards him with the other, her husband winced as he dismounted, one of his arms wrapped in bandages.
“This is great! Wonderful news!” Manny said, running a hand through his greying hair. “We thought the worst may have happened, but it didn’t, and now everything is fine.” The man grabbed the lantern that had been tied to his horse's saddle and scampered forward.
“Everything is fine?” Nayet asked, scowling at their temporary employer. “Your people misidentified a highly evolved monster and almost got us all killed!”
“Well yes… but no, the creature was as we thought, just at a significantly higher level.” The man placated, though by Nayet’s scathing response that he almost immediately wilted under it was likely he had already made this argument several times before.
Tollumi shook his head, a wry grin stretching his lips as his partner went off on the quarry manager. “Glad to see you’re alive, friend, thought you were dead for sure when that thing took off with you hanging to its side.”
“It was a near thing. Almost fell into the sea, never knew seabirds could be that aggressive. I didn’t expect to see you out here, unless there are more search parties I missed?” Leif said.
The adventurer frowned. “No, we’re the first and only, took most of the day to finally set off. The merfey was using the quarry as a nest, the innermost part was full of around fifty eggs, when the… I think it was the father, fled into the sky with you grappling it they all started to hatch. Tiny bastards wriggled off in every direction, biting people, slithering into houses.”
“The eggs were ready to hatch already? Wasn’t it less than a day?”
The adventurer shrugged. “If I’m remembering my monster lore correctly, male merfey carry the eggs inland when they’re nearly ready to hatch, the rivers and gullies are probably much safer for baby monsters than the open seas.”
Leif imagined dozens of vicious little monsters swimming along riverways, attacking settlements and retreating into the water before they could be hunted down. The thought wasn’t pleasant. He reached out and placed a hand on the man’s shoulder, [Healing Palm] poured restorative, life attuned energy down his arm. Tollumi let out a soft gasp, his eyes going wide. Then he grinned, flexing his arm and wriggling his fingers.
“Very nice, what do I owe you?”
“I don’t need payment.”
“That's… very generous of you, but I’d feel guilty not giving something in return, getting my arm healed in Ahle-ho would have been quite costly.”
Leif paused as he went to dismiss the adventurers offer. Maybe he could get something from them after all. “Fine, how about you guide me around the city, I think we’re both going in that direction.”
Tollumi nodded thoughtfully. “Sure, that’s no problem. You never been to Ahle-ho before?”
“Never.” Leif affirmed.
They turned as the conversation behind them picked up in volume.
“Y-yes, yes! I assure you Miss, I will pay the promised amount in full. I would never try to short change those who valiantly defended our town.” Manny babbled, his hands up and palms out as if trying to surrender.
Nayet’s gaze flickered towards where her husband and Leif were standing, there was a twinkle in her eyes that promised mischief. “But my dear friend, the monster was not only stronger than you claimed it would be, but we had to deal with its offspring as well. Don’t you think that would indicate the promised payment is insufficient?” She pouted, the expression made to hide a smirk. “Because I think it’s insufficient.”
“No… Now, now, let's not get hasty!”
===
Night had well and truly fallen by the time they returned to the quarry town, strange geometric phenomena drifted near invisible through the cloudless sky, their presence only made apparent when they warped the stars they drifted in front of.
The two adventurers offered to let him ride in their place, but Leif rejected the offer, he didn’t want to kill the poor beast. Nayet constantly prodded verbally at an increasingly sullen Manny, Tollumi listening in silence with a faint smile on his lips.
The turbulence shelter was mostly empty, and while Manny insisted that they stayed the night in the nearby inn, all three of them rejected his offer. According to Nayet the aged man would likely try to reduce their pay by stating that they had accepted hospitality, and judging by the way the quarry manager’s shoulders slumped as he trudged away Leif suspected she was likely correct.
The shelter felt almost uncanny without all the carts and families cramped within, as if the large building was absent of its singular purpose, the empty space within somehow less real than it had been the night prior.
He had spent most of the journey back contemplating his class promotion, so when everyone within the shelter had fallen asleep, he was free to begin the process. So he summoned the promotion seal from his spatial ring, and selected the option that would allow him to merge the [Adept] and [Attuned: Life] classes. The small object of shaped crystal woven with intricate patterns of metal flashed in his hand, then broke apart as the world faded all around him.
===
As with his two previous monster class evolutions, he materialised within a completely blank world, devoid of any details or stimuli. Like the last time he was within this space, Leif distinctly felt that something was missing, but the feeling was vague and distant. He shook the feeling away, slumped to the featureless floor, and focused on the system message that had appeared.
Promotion for the [Adept] and [Attuned: Life] classes is commencing!
Please review your current classes before proceeding!
===
[Adept]
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Through persistence and grit you have come to possess a natural inclination for the healing arts and an understanding of the body.
Tier: 1 (Foundation)
Level: 4/10
Class Perk:
+50% To the effect of life aspected skills
+50% To the effect of enhancement (Body) skills
Your healing skills are 50% less strenuous on the target’s body
Growths:
Free Points: +1
Might: D
Alacrity: E
Intelligence: D+
Willpower: C
Spirit: C+
Charisma: D+
Base Stats: Might: +1, Willpower +2, Spirit: +2, Charisma +1
===
[Attuned: Life]
You have felt your connection to life, and have chosen to solidify it. To be attuned is to walk in the steps of something greater.
Tier: 1 (Foundation)
Level: 6/10
Class Perk:
You and those around you naturally recover from wounds at an accelerated pace
+50% To the effect of life aspected skills
+50% To the effect of skills that heal or restore
Growths:
Free Points: +1
Might: E
Alacrity: E
Intelligence: D
Willpower: D+
Spirit: C
Charisma: C+
Base Stats: Intelligence +1, Willpower +1, Spirit: +2, Charisma +2
===
He read through the listed information, skipping over the three total skills he had between both classes. [Healing Palm], [Restful Recovery] and [Aura of Recovery] were all straightforward abilities. Leif was curious to see how the base attributes of a tier 2 class would compare to his tier 3 monster class.
Proceed? Y/N
===
[Adept of Self-Restoration]
Through the repeated usage of self healing abilities, you take the step to reinforcing that aspect of your power, imbuing your body with more potent regeneration at the cost of a weakened ability to heal others.
No stranger to battle, an adept lives and dies by their ability to channel vital energy to where it is needed most.
===
So this was the class promotion that would favour [Adept] over [Attuned: Life] in the merger. It was nothing spectacular, this was no legendary class of sea serpent riding or monster ant slapping, and that was fine.
If Leif was being perfectly honest with himself, he was tempted to pick this class immediately, since an increase to his self recovery would almost assuredly compound on the abilities of his [Scion of Aeons] class. If [Adept of Self-Restoration] provided the expected increase to body enhancement skills as well as some sort of boost to self healing Leif suspected he would become quite nearly impossible to kill, assuming his opponents were of a similar level and there were no environmental factors to consider.
But he would do his due diligence and read through all his options, there was no reason to be hasty.
===
[Attuned: Vitality]
You share a powerful connection to the aspect of life, and have moulded your potential around this connection, even communicating with the will of mana itself.
Deepen this connection, and expand your authority over all that lives. Being attuned to the aspect of vitality takes you down the path of being a healer beyond compare.
===
That was… both more and less than he had expected. Leif reminded himself that his ability to use spell workings at all was due to [Life Spells] skill the [Attuned: Life] class had offered him at level two.
Yes, spellcraft was powerful, potentially far more powerful than he knew. Leif was also at a bottleneck of sorts with upgrading his [Font of Life] skill, a combination of cultivation and spellcasting that both seemed to have unbelievable potential, while also being far more complicated to advance.
He drummed ivory fingers on his knee. It was tempting to take this class, but it appealed to him less than [Adept of Self-Restoration]. Was it necessarily worse? Unlikely. But it would likely be a more complex class, and there was something about power from relative simplicity that felt more natural.
Leif hadn’t been sure the class promotion selection would provide him with a third option, but sure enough there was one more class to potentially select. This one needs to be really interesting for me to consider it at all. He thought, reading over the final class.
===
[Healer of the Forest]
Your dedication to the healing of vegetation, the restoration of devastated environments and your elevation of beasts many would consider powerless grants you an uncommon perspective on the role of a healer. While your ability to restore flesh and bone is commendable, your mastery over weaving life into wood is perhaps even more impressive.
Call upon natural magics to empower your dominion over life, and increase your capacity for healing by channelling vitality through the medium of wood.
===
Damn, that’s actually not bad at all.