Well, like I said, he was offered a shitload of Legendary Classes. The three he spent the most time looking at had the stupidest names. Adventurer, Anamagma, and Stone Zealot.
Can you imagine being such a loser that you would even consider getting the Adventurer Class? Only a stupid idiot would consider such. And how is that Class even Legendary? I spit on that Class! Ptooie!
Destroyer – now that’s a Class name. Ashen Dragon is almost as cool of a name as Ace Blacky.
Almost.
Let me bring up the one he ended up choosing. It ends up changing a good amount, but this will give you an idea of the subclasses I was talking about.
[I know about subclasses. Just show me his Class as installed.]
Come on! Please? Just humor me so you can see how some of the Slot Bonuses ended up changing. I saved this just to show someone and no one ever wants to see it and it’s driving me nuts. Just do me a solid here.
You can go straight to the Slot Bonuses or just pretend to look at it if you’re really not interested.
[Fine.]
Thanks, Boss! You’re the best. Don’t ever let anyone tell you differently.
STONE ZEALOT (Legendary 5-Star Class. Number of Slot Bonuses equal to Star Class)
STONE KNIGHT/STONE TENDER/DISCIPLE OF STONE
Stone endures. This is a 5-Star Legendary Class for those with stone related mana-types.
WARNING: STONE ZEALOT creates permanent pathways locking advancement to similar functioning Classes. Dissimilar pathways from prior Classes, Orbments, and sphere lines may lead to inefficiencies in any and all mana usage after taking this Class.
STONE ZEALOT supports three roles – pure guardian specialists (STONE KNIGHT), pure support specialists (STONE TENDER), or pure hybrids (DISCIPLE OF STONE).
Pros: Almost no Orbment restrictions within spheres. No forced line restrictions within spheres. The Slot Bonuses are extremely strong. The fifth Slot Bonus makes significant beneficial physiological changes to Class holder. The Crown Orbment Bonus is very strong. Very few Orbment restrictions.
Cons: The Set Bonuses slightly favor the guardian specialty. The Crown Orbment Bonus applies to specific Orbments or lines. The final Slot Bonus comes with some significant drawbacks.
STONE ZEALOTS must slot either 5 Defensive Orbments (STONE KNIGHT), 5 Support Orbments (STONE TENDER), or 1 Physical, Defensive, Power, Utility, and Support Orbment (DISCIPLE OF STONE).
To select STONE KNIGHT, slot a Defensive Orbment first.
To select STONE TENDER, slot a Support Orbment first.
To select DISCIPLE OF STONE, slot a Physical, Power, or Utility Orbment first.
Class Restrictions
Defensive Orbment slot will not accept Indomitable, Resistant, Resolute, or Tough.
Power Orbment slot will not accept Barrier or any transformation Orbment.
Crown Orbment must be a Defensive or Support Orbment.
Orbment Bonus
STONE KNIGHT/STONE TENDER: With 5 Orbments slotted, gives the equivalent of 5 ranks to the Orbment in the first slot. The Orbment in the first slot can’t be a Crown Orbment.
DISCIPLE OF STONE: With five Orbments slotted, each Orbment gains the equivalent of 1 rank.
Slot Bonus
(1) Endurance of Stone: Killing an enemy instantly fills your core with mana equivalent to roughly 21 minutes worth of the last meditation technique used and provides a minor absorb shield. Lower-level enemies are worth less time but no less than 51 seconds. Higher-level enemies are worth more time.
(2) Stone Stomp: Stomp the ground, sending bits of rock flying in a 5.79-meter 90-degree cone in front of you and trapping the parts of all creatures touching the ground in stone for 3 seconds. Average mana cost, instant cast, 48s cooldown.
(3) Seismic Sense: You perceive more and are more aware of your surroundings and possible threats, both seen and unseen, in a circumference of 24.27 meters around you. This can manifest as a precognitive flash of impending danger. This provides the benefit of the Third Rank SIXTH SENSE Orbment, and stacks with that Orbment.
(4) Stone Body: Articulated rock covers your body, mitigating taken damage by 24% for a duration of 8:12s, as the Fourth Rank Barrier status effect. The Barrier status effect given by Stone Body cannot be overwritten by higher ranks of the effect and can only stack with the BALLAD OF PRESERVATION status effect. Average mana cost, 1s cast time, no cooldown.
(5) Aspect of Stone: You take on aspects of stone. Your Strength increases by 2 full grades. Your Durability, Health, and Spirit increase by 3 each. You gain immunity to weakening debuffs, most poisons, some diseases, and most sources of heat. Your skin hardens greatly, giving you the permanent benefits of the Forth Rank Tough and Resistant Orbments, as well as the 12% damage mitigation of Second Tier Barrier status effect (can be overwritten by higher rank Barrier status effect). Your mind becomes more like a mountain, giving you the permanent benefits of the Fourth Rank Resolute and Indomitable Orbments.
Becoming more like stone comes at a price. Your Agility decreases by a full grade. Your Reaction and Speed decrease by a step. Your mind becomes very stubborn and inflexible. You have a permanent but minor version (3 x tier) of the Mind Fog status effect. You are more vulnerable to cold and water damage.
Crown Orbment Bonus
Endurance of Stone also has a chance to instantly reset the cooldown of Stone Stomp. If Block or Dodge is slotted, its charges are doubled. If Revenge or NULLIFY is slotted, its cast time, mana cost, and cooldown are reduced by 25%. If any chant, hymn, song, MANA BATTERY, innate attribute, or statistic enhancer is slotted, it functions as if it were two ranks higher.
[An interesting Class.]
Yeah. Pretty awesome, huh? Five Slot Bonuses, and they’re all insanely good ones. I’ve never seen a mana-return Slot Bonus. The only mana-return I know of is MANA BATTERY, and this Class even improves that Orbment.
Aspect of Stone – that’s something else, right? That’s a Legendary Class for you.
Did you want to talk about this? I say we wait since it changes soon anyway. In a few seconds, Az’ga witnessed her first true impossibility. Well, second if you count him being offered a shitload of Legendary Classes.
[I’ll wait then.]
The third through sixth areas of the Game each have a puzzle Trial, so four in total. In Hell difficulty, there’s a 50% chance upon entering one of these Trials that false clues will be planted. These clues are extremely difficult to find. Solving these false clues provides a code, but it’s nearly impossible to solve.
If this code is entered as the solution to that puzzle Trial, the party’s killed.
But if this code is punched into a Profile Reader, it unlocks additional items from a special list.
A lot of mind-blowing stuff is on that list, but only three of those items can be purchased in total by the first participant to punch that code in, even if a party acquired the code together.
This code leads to a lot of party members murdering one another. It’s wonderful.
Once entered, the code stops working. The Trial it came from keeps generating false clues and a code, but the code does nothing.
Dan punched in a current working code for one of these Trials.
We submitted a support ticket to get the nitty-gritty on how these codes work. The information we received back says it’s basically impossible for anyone to know a code without getting it the usual way from inside a Trial. The system generates them. Even the system nerds don’t know the codes and can’t just look them up. No one on either side has access to any of these codes.
It’s possible someone hacked into the system and did some highbrow…uh…stuff, but they said only a specialist hacker that was a real expert with our systems would be able to do anything like that and could only do so from inside the system building or the Game itself.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Dan’s no hacker. He’s a fat idiot. And I’m 100% certain he hadn’t hacked anything. Every action of his had been recorded since this Game initiated.
Even if Dan was a transmigrant and knew all about the Game and super-secret cultivation info, there’s no possible way for him to have known a current working code. No one knows them.
Only the last puzzle Trial has static false clues. That’s so participants have a chance of figuring out how it all works and how to approach the false clues in the earlier puzzle Trials.
No one in this Game had entered a puzzle Trial. No one had even entered an area with a puzzle Trial. There’s no way for anyone to know a code without someone doing the Trial first, even the static code in the last puzzle Trial since it changes every Game.
A little further into this story, I found out a possible source of Game knowledge Dan may have had access to on Earth. But this source of knowledge wouldn’t explain how he knew this code. And this source of knowledge can’t be verified either.
There’s only one real possible explanation for this. Time travel. He came back from the future. He knew the code in the future and traveled back in time with it.
[Time travel is impossible. Time flows only one way. This is well known. If it was possible, one of either side’s powerhouses would’ve traveled back in time. There’d be no Game now.]
Or the other side would’ve never betrayed their God.
[It’s a little more complicated than that.]
If you say so but it seems pretty clear cut and we’re taught differently on this layer. And how else could Dan know that code if not time travel?
[There’s a reasonable explanation. Maybe a new type of scrying. I’ll find out eventually. You said there was another possible explanation coming up in the story too. Let’s just continue for now.]
As you command, Boss.
With the code and access to the list, Dan bought three Legendary Orbments. Full ones. Not Foundations. I shouldn’t say bought either, since they were free. He got a physical, STORM. A power, SUMMON INFERNAL. Last was a utility, SIXTH SENSE.
I’ve never seen a Legendary anything in real life, but in the Game, if the quality level of something is Legendary, the whole name is always capitalized like the name of his Class.
Dan slotted SUMMON INFERNAL first, changing his Class to one of the subclasses. Then he slotted STORM and SIXTH SENSE and checked the Profile Reader.
After looking through the changes his mana-type made, he snapped out, “Come on! That’s some bullshit! Permanent is some bullshit. Didn’t even give me the Stat increases. Son of a bitch.”
[What was that outburst about?]
You’ll find out in a second, Boss.
Dan ran a little southeast of the Core Trial and summoned the infernal, bringing his mana down to under 20%. He set the infernal to guard the area and attack any non-mortal it saw.
Curses! There went our great Sortilege opportunity. There was still over an hour left on Az’ga’s cooldown anyway.
[Do you believe he somehow knew Az’ga had an available Sortilege for the tutorial area?]
I don’t. I think it was just a precaution. Want to see his status with the new Class and Orbments or wait until after he levels up? Just FYI, if you want to wait until he levels up, it’ll be a little bit.
[Now. I want to know what his outburst was about.]
You got it, Boss. If something isn’t bolded, it means it’s inactive, just like with our own statuses. Or my status. You seem to have a fancy-schmancy highfalutin one that works differently.
Name: Daniel “Dan” Branigan
Difficulty: Hell (Increase XP by 100% and drop chance by 30%)
Tier: Origin (0)
Level: 0
Soul: SS+ Grade (5-Star)
Mana-type: Magma
Core: Pristine
Stats (capacity for and amplification of intrinsic qualities)
Agility, C Grade (50 Max): 0
Mana, C Grade (50 Max): 0
Reaction, C Grade (50 Max): 0
Speed, C Grade (50 Max): 0
Strength, C Grade (50 Max): 0
Attributes (intrinsic qualities averaged)
Durability (physical and void resistance): 1
Health (disease and poison resistance): 5
Spirit (mental and primordial resistance): 2
Class:
DISCIPLE OF MOLTEN STONE (Ph/D/Pw/U/S. Legendary 5-Star Class. Number of Slot Bonuses equal to Star Class)
Class Restrictions:
Defensive Orbment slot will not accept Indomitable, Resilient, Resistant, Resolute, Retribution, or Tough.
Power Orbment slot will not accept Barrier or any transformation Orbment.
Crown Orbment must be a Defensive or Support Orbment.
Orbment Bonus (1 of 5)
With five Orbments slotted, each Orbment gains the equivalent of 1 rank.
STORM [First Rank] (Physical Orbment, Legendary, unique-equipped, active): You must be holding a weapon to cast this invocation. Casting this invocation causes very heavy weapon-damage to all enemies in a 6.69-meter 60-degree cone in front of you. Higher ranks increase damage and mana cost by 10%, extend range of cone by 5%, and lower the cooldown by 5s. Medium mana cost, instant cast, 1m:27s cooldown.
SUMMON INFERNAL [First Rank] (Power Orbment, Legendary, unique-equipped, active): Casting this invocation summons an infernal guardian matching your level (minimum level 25) that lasts until its destruction or dismissal. The infernal is infused with your mana-type. The Infernal can mitigate and absorb a lot of damage and it deals moderate to good damage to enemies with a ray invocation and physical attacks. Higher ranks increase size, durability, damage of attacks, and range of ray invocation by 20%. Extremely high mana cost, 20s cast time, no cooldown.
SIXTH SENSE [First Rank] (Utility Orbment, Legendary, stackable (2), passive): You perceive more and are more aware of your surroundings and possible threats, both seen and unseen, in a circumference of 8.09 meters around you. This can manifest as a precognitive flash of impending danger. Higher ranks slightly increase effect and double circumference.
Slot Bonus (3 of 5)
(1) Inevitability of Magma: Killing or assisting in killing an enemy instantly fills your core with mana equivalent to roughly 24 minutes worth of the last meditation technique used and provides a minor healing effect. Lower-level enemies are worth less time but no less than 56 seconds. Higher-level enemies are worth more time.
(2) Lava Stomp: Stomp the ground, sending bits of lava spattering in a 4.81-meter 90-degree cone in front of you and trapping the parts of creatures touching the ground in lava for 1 second. Medium mana cost, instant cast, 3m:24s cooldown.
(3) Seismic Sense: You perceive more and are more aware of your surroundings and possible threats, both seen and unseen, in a circumference of 24.27 meters around you. This can manifest as a precognitive flash of impending danger. This provides the benefit of the Third Rank SIXTH SENSE Orbment, and stacks with that Orbment.
(4) Molten Armor: Hot lava covers your body, mitigating taken damage by 12% and returning 9% of all taken damage for a duration of 1:38s, as the Second Rank Barrier status effect and Third Rank Retribution status effect. The Barrier status effect given by Molten Armor cannot be overwritten by higher ranks of the effect and can only stack with the BALLAD OF PRESERVATION status effect. Retribution status effect given by Molten Armor cannot be overwritten by higher ranks of the effect and can only stack with the Reprisal Hymn status effect. Medium mana cost, instant cast, 4m:55s cooldown.
(5) Aspect of Magma: You take on aspects of magma. Your Agility, Reaction, and Speed increase by a full grade. Your Mana increases by a step. Your Durability and Health increase by 1 each. You gain immunity to slowing debuffs, most poisons, some diseases, and most sources of heat. Your skin becomes more like lava, giving you the permanent benefits of the Third Rank Tough, Resilient, and Resistant Orbments, and the First Rank Barrier and Retribution status effects. Your mind becomes more like that of a volcano, giving you the permanent benefits of the First Rank Enraged status effect minus the Stat increases.
Becoming more like magma comes at a price. Your Strength decreases by a full grade. Your mind becomes volatile and unpredictable. As per the First Rank Enraged status effect, you are as likely to lash out at friends as enemies. You are more vulnerable to cold and water damage.
Crown Orbment Bonus (0 of 1)
Inevitability of Magma also has a chance to instantly reset the cooldown of Lava Stomp or Molten Armor. If Block or Dodge is slotted, its charges are doubled. If Revenge or NULLIFY is slotted, its cast time, mana cost, and cooldown are reduced by 25%. If any chant, hymn, song, MANA BATTERY, innate attribute, or statistic enhancer is slotted, it functions as if it were two ranks higher.
Traits (3)
(1) Lone Wolf: Pick an additional Trait. Increase XP by 50% and drop chance by 25%. Joining a party removes this Trait. Fighting within 13 meters of a friendly participant inverses Trait bonuses.
(2) Stalwart Soul: Your Soul Stat is increased by one step (F to F+, F+ to C, etc.).
(3) Hardened Channels: Your channels are hardened and can handle a large amount of mana usage without injury or damage.
[A wonderful Class.]
You can say that again.
[I see he managed to acquire a new Trait.]
Yeah. As I said before, you don’t see that too often in the Game. Since I know you’ll ask, I don’t know why he was receiving credit for only one Orbment with three slotted.
[I know why. Just as the rank of an Orbment is restricted by tier, so are the number of active Orbments. It just counts Origin tier as Foundation, tier 1. It’ll go up to two once he ascends to tier 2, Copper, at level 11.]
It did have two activated at level 11, but what you’re saying doesn’t make sense. Orbments can’t be increased to Second Rank until tier 3 at level 21.
[The number of Orbments that can be active at the same time is equal to the tier, so two at tier two, five at tier five, etcetera. Orbments can be increased in rank at tiers 3, 5, 7, and 9. The first Crown Orbment can be slotted at tier 10, the second at 11, etcetera.]
Oh. That makes sense. But why was he receiving credit for three Orbments for the Slot Bonus then? You’d figured tier restriction would apply to both.
[No. Slot Bonus is a Class function. Orbment Bonus is a function of Orbments and has built in restrictions, such as rank to tier. Why is the STORM Orbment listed above the one he first slotted, the summons?]
That’s how it works on our statuses. It always goes physical first, then defensive, power, utility, and support. If two or more from the same sphere are slotted, it shows in the order they were slotted in.
[I see. Why isn’t the progression towards the next rank of the core showing?]
You can see that? Wow, I’d love to be able to see that for my own core. Hey, you think if you’re sufficiently impressed with my performance by the time this story is over, you’ll be willing to buy Ace Blacky the same type of fancy-schmancy status you have as a reward?
[No. Show me the Enrage status effect.]
Sure. Just keep an open mind about my reward. Let’s see. I’ll just bring up the Orbment.
ENRAGE (Physical Orbment, Legendary, unique-equipped, active): Casting this invocation grants you the Enraged status effect for 1m:12.6s which increases your Agility, Reaction, Speed, and Strength Stats by 5 times your tier. This effect overrides and removes most other mental effects, ignores Stat caps, grants immunity to most mental effects including positive mental effects for the duration, and makes you mentally unstable, as likely to lash out at friends as enemies. When the invocation ends, you become Drained, gaining the Clumsy, Mind Fog, Slowed, and Weakened status effects for 36.3s. No bonus from any source can increase effect past Tenth Rank. Only the highest rank of Enraged status will take effect on the same target and can only stack with the Zerker Hymn status effect. Higher ranks increase Stats by 1, the power of all effects (including mental instability), the duration of the Enraged and Drained effects by 6s, and decrease cooldown 6s. High mana cost, instant cast, 1m:49s cooldown.
[Thank you. A surprising addition to how the Class changed due to mana-type. I would hate to constantly be under the Enraged status effect. I wouldn’t be able to function. It would almost be worth it if it came with permanent Stat increases. The immunity to mental effects is an okay benefit, but overall, this is a huge handicap. I understand his outburst.]
Immunity to most mental effects, Boss. Not all.
At the time, I had wondered if he’d only slot a total of four Orbments to avoid that Enraged status. If not, I was really hoping Enraged would be the last straw and push him over the edge. It would be hilarious if he were to be the one to murder the rest of my team members instead of us techs.