“All right, all right, settle down.”
The class quickly quietened down, Mr. Demerki’s skills subtly influencing them and calming them down.
“I know you’re all excited about the break next week but we’ve still got some learning to do and who knows, there might even be a test on this when you get back-” He paused for the groans. “- so you might want to pay attention. Today we’re going to be covering the elements, their aspects and realms.”
“Now before any of the knuckleheads among you complain, don’t. This information might not be useful for you in the beginning but if any of you want to get to the third Tier, and I assume most of you do, then you’ll almost definitely get a class that at least touches on an element, so pay attention.”
“Okay, who here knows about the elemental realms?” Only three hands shot up. Mr. Demerki wasn’t surprised by the lack of knowledge, nor by the ones who did know something. Most kids didn’t bother learning about the elements unless it had something to do with their race, such as the Alltud twins. It was a bit of a surprise that Torin didn’t raise his hand with his brother, but then again Torin had never been the most studious of children. “Alright. Johann, why don’t you tell everyone what you know.”
Johann spoke up. “The elemental realms are different dimensions that are filled with an element.”
Mr. Demerki nodded. “Anything else?”
Johann paused. “Uhh, oh, there are these things called aspects, but I’m not really sure what they are.”
Mr. Demerki smiled. “Thank you Johann. Does anyone else have anything to add? Ah, Erika.”
The little Aasimar girl stood up. “The Elemental Realms, also known as the Elemental Planes, are dimensions entirely made of an element. Each realm has various inhabitants that summoners can summon through magic. Each realm has a tier, depending on how many types of elements it is made of. The realm of Fire for instance is only Tier 1 but the realm of Lightning is Tier 2 as it is made up of both air and fire. An Aspect is the personification of an elemental realm.”
“Thank you Erika, for that thorough explanation.” Mr. Demerki said. He was entirely unsurprised at the level of the girls knowledge. Being the daughter of the cities highest leveled Thaumaturgic Researcher led her to having learned more than her fair bit, especially when it came to magical subjects.
“Indeed, as Erika said, the various Elemental Realms are made entirely of one or more elements. There are a great many skills that can allow someone to tap into these realms for various purposes. Elemental summoning is one of the more common ones, as is spell empowerment. For warriors it is somewhat common to choose a Tier 1 or 2 realm to tap into in order to boost their own abilities. Swords covered in fire or defenders as sturdy as mountains are some examples.”
“There are also uses outside of combat. By channeling a small amount of an elemental realms power through your body you can increase your resistance to that element. Chef’s, bakers and blacksmiths often tap into the Fire realm in order to feel more comfortable in their workplace.”
“Now, I’ve given you some examples, but why don’t you try and think of some more. I’ll give you ten minutes to try and write down as many as you can think of.”
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Johann very nearly collapsed once more, this time in relief. Right up until the end he wasn’t sure who was going to win. Near the end the two of them had been so close in terms of power and damage output that he wouldn’t have been able to tell their spells apart if not for the difference in element.
“Congrats.”
Johann turned to Mar’a, startled at the sudden voice. “Uh, thanks. Uh, sorry you lost. Your spells were really powerful.”
Mar’a gave a bittersweet laugh. “Not powerful enough I suppose. I have to ask, what class are you? What was that spell? It looked like some sort of lightning bolt but it kept blowing out my flames. Oh, next time I see you I’m going to kick you in the nuts for that.”
Johann grimaced. “Yeah, sorry about that. I managed to get a Druid class as my first and I figured out how to channel weather mana into my [Basic Mana Bolt] spell.”
Mar’a groaned. “No freaking wonder I lost. Sheesh, combining a Tier 3 element with [Basic Mana Bolt] at this level, you must be some kind of prodigy.”
Johann shrugged, feeling sheepish. “Nah, just lucky. Only figured it out last week.”
Mar’a stared at him for a second before sharply turning around and stamping into the exit portal. As she went Johann heard her muttering “Freaking crazy-ass bastard, only had a week to practice and thinks he’s not talented. What the everloving fu-” Then her words faded as she walked through the portal and disappeared from view. Johann just stared after her in confusion.
“Ahem! Could all participants please clear the field after their match!”
Johann started before awkwardly walking/running through the portal.
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Gengorio gnashed his teeth. He’d just seen two of the best ranged attackers of this years crop in a truly spectacular (for their level) match, and now one of them was going home. It felt unfair to see a bright young talent get crushed before she’d even had a chance to truly shine, even if it was only until next.
Still, he knew it was for the best. Every adventurer needed luck, as well as the ability to overcome it. Besides, her failure was also Johanns success, something that Gengorio had not expected in the least. The young druid had been marked down on his list as ‘Great potential but little current power’, something he had agreed with after viewing his first two trials. The fact that the boy had managed to figure out the power transfer aspect of his attunement skills and get it to this level in a week was something he had never seen coming.
Gengorio immediately sent a message to one of his assistants to get him everything they could on the boy. Whether natural talent, a trait or some sort of unheard of training technique, the information department would soon find out. If it was natural talent Gengorio would immediately have a significant portion of resources diverted to the boys training. If it was a training technique then those resources would instead be used to buy the technique off the boy. Gengorio was really hoping it was a training technique; even if it was only applicable to druids it would still be immensely useful.
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If it was a trait on the other hand, that would be significantly harder to handle. The guild would naturally shield the boy from many things, but it was not the all-powerful entity it portrayed itself as. The world was a large place, filled with many forces that even the Adventurers Guild would struggle against, and far too few of them would be unwilling to sacrifice a child for their own gain.
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Torin blew through his second match in pretty much the same way as he did the first, employing the Glorious Dash maneuver, with the only difference was that this time his opponent was a mage. It was a surprisingly common occurrence, some mages preferring to develop their skills along a more utility route. Spells like [Mage Hand] and [Detection Pulse] made dealing with traps simple and [Invisibility] and [Muffle] made sneaking much easier. The downside was that they were far more dependent on mana than the more naturally roguish classes, which led to long wait times as they recovered their resources.
The upside was that they had a fair bit more firepower, a fact that lead to Torin dodging [Mana Bolts] and a [Mana Spear] alongside the monsters. By the time he got back to the starting room he had a lot more bruises than before, along with a worryingly large hole in his arm. The [Mana Spear], an upgraded version of the normal [Basic Mana Bolt], had caught him completely by surprise and only a last second dodge had stopped the crystallized mana from tearing a hole through his heart.
Still, he managed to win, heals landing on him as soon as he did. They did nothing for the hole in his leather armor, but thankfully the free repairs would take care of that. He just hoped they would finish before his next match, running the gauntlet naked might be an entertaining sight but if he lost his dangly bits doing so he would never, ever live it down.
Returning back to his waiting room he studied the tournament table while he took off his armor. There were 21 rogues in total who entered the tournament, now there was only six of them left. One more fight would secure his entrance into the guild. Just one more and he’d be in and no one could say otherwise.
Torin wasn’t really interested in the rankings for the top three, he knew his trick with the speed running was good but if he came upon someone else with ranged damage he might not win. Hell, anyone with any sort of control spell like Johann would immediately decimate him. If the mage had used a spell like that when he was still in the monster room he would have been torn apart.
Nah, let the egomaniacs duke it out for the number one spot, he was happy to just hang back and finish in comfort. Speaking of egomaniacs, or just maniacs in general, he wondered how Gloria was doing.
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Gloria was feeling a lot less maniacal. After the uh, incident, in the first match she had calmed down considerably. When she entered the arena for her second match she entered with the best tanking attitude possible; calm, capable and calculating. As before the large opaque barrier cut the arena in half, separating her from her opponent.
When the barrier finally disappeared and she caught sight of her opponent she slowly but steadily walked towards him, taking him in as she did. Gloria’s opponent was a seven foot tall man decked in plate armor and wielding a tower shield in one hand and a large claymore in the other. The sight made her pause a moment before continuing her walk.
The way he was holding the large two handed sword in one hand showed that he had both incredible strength and impressive dexterity. Coupled with the tower shield and the plate armor and the man had to be carrying over 50 mals in weight. His strength had to be monstrous, and from a trait. The only other explanation would be if the man leveled up to lvl 9 and dumped all his attribute points in strength. Few would be that stupid though; high Strength without a decent amount of Vitality would end up tearing the body apart.
Gloria stopped six feet away, her opponent doing the same. The damaging field was up but both participants ignored it. This close Gloria could see the emerald green eyes of her opponent, the only part of him not wrapped in metal. They weren’t ugly eyes, but the expression in them was.
“What are you doing here? The battlefield is no place for a weak little woman, just resign before I have to hurt you.”
Gloria’s regarded him coolly, letting the stupid he was spewing simply roll of her. “If you truly believe that then you truly are an idiot, and if you think strength is all that matters then you might just be the biggest idiot on the face of the planet.”
Gloria could see his eyes flare in anger but she was already moving, her nimble legs carrying her towards Mr. Idiot while juking left and right to throw him off. Against big and slow enemies plate mail was incredibly useful, but against a faster, more agile opponent it was more of a hindrance than a help.
As she reached Idiot she feinted left while ducking down and, as soon as her opponents sight was obscured by his massive shield, spun round to the right. As if performing a choreographed dance the two circled round each other until Gloria was presented with her opponents large back. Borrowing the momentum from the spin Gloria smashed her mace into the Idiot’s right knee.
Predictably, the heavily armored man immediately collapsed, his leg no longer able to support his weight. Gloria was already rotating, letting the rebound of her mace spin her around to unleash a savage strike directly into Idiot’s ear. The jarring clash of metal on metal sounded out like a heartbeat as Gloria continued to surgically demolish her opponent.
Her Strength was nowhere near her opponents, but it didn’t need to be. By controlling her momentum and carefully aiming at weak spots like joints or ears she managed to keep Idiot off balance and unable to retaliate. When she told him that Strength wasn’t all that mattered this was what she meant. Through a careful application of technique coupled with her higher mobility she had turned the match into a slaughter.
It still took ages. The newly named Mr. Dense (both physically and mentally), had apparently leveled to the limit and dumped all his points in Vitality. With a trait that boosted his Strength it made a certain amount of sense, tough and strong was a tough combination to beat, but neglecting his Agility was beyond stupid.
Heck, ‘Don’t Avoid Agility’ was literally written in the manual. The Adventurers Guild had a manual available to the public that advised on matters such as creating the perfect build for each of the roles. Under the tanking section one of the first things listed was the advice ‘Don’t Avoid Agility’.
Many tanks believed that being able to take a hit was the most important part of the role and admittedly they were right, tanking hits was literally what the role was named for, but it was far better to avoid damage whenever possible. Taking the hit should only happen when it is absolutely necessary as too much damage just put stress on the healer and turned death from possible to probable.
Still, as Gloria landed a hit on Dense for what felt like the hundredth time, she had to admit that the build did have some merit. Dense had managed to throw out a few swings every now and then and if Gloria had failed to dodge even one of them she wasn’t sure she would be able to take the hit. Sadly for Dense, her [Battle Awareness] skill kept her mind focused on his movements and allowed her to flow through the gaps in his attacks.
A minute later the match ended, Dense having failed to land a blow but succeeding in tanking an impressive 112 hits. When coupled with the arena’s damaging field Dense had taken a truly awe inspiring amount of damage, which only served to make his defeat that much more embarrassing. When the announcer finally declared Gloria’s win Dense, who’s name turned out to be Mervin oddly enough, was apoplectic with rage.
“YOU BITCH!!!” Mervin screamed, swinging his claymore with both hands at Gloria’s head.
He failed to even get halfway when an invisible force slammed into him, crushing him into the floor with enough force to crack the ground.
“Participants are reminded that any attempts to harm another participant after the match has been declared shall face immediate reprisal.” The voice was quiet, yet it carried a weight that made it feel like a crushing mountain.
Gloria stared at the lightly twitching and heavily mangled form of Mervin and quietly backed away before turning and very deliberately did not sprint into the exit portal.