Chapter 200

“What are your options!” M'redith asked in excitement as she prepared to write down Sha'li's reply.

Sha'li shared her list with the group.

As a level 1 Icemaiden you have been awarded a Class Choice. Please choose from the following selections:

1. Frost Bolt – (common) – Fires a single six inch hardened shard of ice towards a target doing moderate damage. This ability has a chance to ignore a percentage of the target's armor based off of the ability's rarity. The bolt, once fired, tracks the initial target for up to 5 seconds and will hit unerringly so long as it reaches its target within 5 seconds.

2. Sleet Sheet (uncommon) – A single vertical 12' by 12' sheet of sleet, one foot thick, is called in to being at a location specified by the user. The sleet acts as a sandblaster only using ice instead of sand and is strong enough to scour the armor right off of an enemy – or far worse should the enemy not be wearing any armor. The sheet lasts for ten seconds and remains stationary for the duration of the ability.

3. Shatter (very rare) – Any targets that are debuffed with the CHILL status are FROZEN. Any targets that are debuffed with FROZEN are shattered, their bodies turned in to hundreds of sharp icy shards that burst and do damage to any other nearby enemies in the area – this process is fatal to the shattered enemy. Not all enemies may be shattered. Should an enemy be resistant to shatter they will instead take damage.

4. Steel Cannon (rare) – Glass cannons are for losers! Covers the user in a sheath of glassy transparent ice that has been hardened in to something akin to steel. The field prevents all damage to the user for ten seconds. The field follows the user wherever they move to and does not hinder their movements at all. While active all ice based class abilities are enhanced – every hit with an ice ability will inflict the CHILL debuff. If a target is already chilled then it is FROZEN instead.

Sha'li was a little confused but some of the words were colored blue and were underlined, just like they would be on a web page. Sha'li mentally 'clicked' on a few of them and was presented with new information.

CHILL – while under this debuff targets have their movement speed and attack speed reduced by 5% for ten seconds. This debuff may stack up to 10 times. Every time the ability is applied the timer is reset to ten seconds.

FROZEN – while under this debuff targets are unable to move or take any actions. This debuff lasts for 2 seconds. Every time the ability is applied the timer is reset to 2 seconds. Frozen targets take 20% more damage from ice abilities.

The group was quiet as everyone tried to puzzle out all of Sha'li's options. Advanced classes were quite a bit different from the basic array of classes. Icemaiden for example allowed every ice attack the chance to apply CHILL or FROZEN to their targets – in addition to whatever the Class Ability they used did as well.

The Class Abilities themselves seemed a bit more complicated too. They did things, for one. Not just one thing, but multiple things per ability. Even the common ability Frost Bolt seemed like it had a trick to it – it ignored a percentage of armor – how much it didn't specify.

The abilities also seemed to be part of an overall plan for the class itself. The class used the CHILL and FROZEN debuffs with every ability. Then the Class Abilities themselves sometimes had additional effects that could trigger off of those same two debuffs. The class was all about stacking debuffs and picking abilities that made those debuffs more dangerous, more common, or both.

Sha'li looked over at M'redith in excitement, “How do I choose? I want them all!”

M'redith grinned as the others chuckled at her outburst.

“I don't blame you. Those are some incredible abilities. You've got a difficult choice, even more difficult than would be usual for a level 1 ability choice. The first ability? That's a great level 1 class choice. It's a spell that you can cast over and over, a basic attack spell – a good one. Normally I'd tell you to take that as it is the easiest to use.” M'redith suggested.

Sha'li didn't say anything so M'redith continued while she wrote the ability descriptions down as fast as she could. The others watched her write and talk at the same time, an impressive feat in and of itself.

“You just point and shoot – easy. The others aren't so easy or useful,” M'redith began to explain before Aiden interrupted her.

“You don't think Steel Cannon is useful?” Aiden asked in surprise.

M'redith shook her head, “That one is pretty useful but would be better if she had other abilities to use while she was in her Steel Cannon form. They're all like that except for option 1. Sleet Sheet sounds nice but would require careful placement during combat – tough to do in the heat of the moment sometimes. Shatter is awesome if you have other abilities but otherwise won't do anything for her right now. And Steel Cannon is amazing but can't be fully utilized until she has another ability too – such as her first option, Frost Bolt.”

Norri nodded, “Sure, but will she be offered these abilities again?”

M'redith shrugged, “Maybe? Maybe not? Sometimes you only get offered an ability once and then never see it again.”

“So what should I do? Pick the most useful one, Frost Bolt? Or pick a rarer ability that will become more useful in the future after I gain more abilities?” Sha'li asked in a worried tone of voice as her Choice began to weigh on her.

Aiden grinned, “It's up to you. Even if you were to meet another Frostmaiden she wouldn't have the same abilities as you. Every Frostmaiden would be different. So pick what you like, what you'll use.”

Norri grinned, “Pick the fun one!”

Sha'li smiled, “Which one is that?”

“The one where no one can hurt you for ten seconds!” Norri replied with an evil grin.

“How about you Jay? What do you think?” Sha'li asked as Jay had yet to give his opinion.

Jay shrugged, “I think it's an easy choice. You wanted teeth, not armor. Only two of those abilities give you teeth right now. Frost Bolt, and Sleet Sheet. The second ability might be a bit tough to aim in combat just as M'redith said. I noticed though that Sleet Sheet doesn't specify that only one may be up at a time, which opens up a few interesting possibilities. Frost Bolt though is the best – easy to use, very easy to aim, hard hitting, and even armor won't necessarily stop it.”

The others had gone quiet as Jay gave his opinion and were now considering it.

“But the others are all rarer,” Sha'li said a bit sadly.

Jay shrugged. “Rare is nice but useful is better. And there is nothing saying that you can't upgrade Frost Bolt later on as you gain more experience and gold.”

“That's right! I have a class now, I can upgrade my abilities!” Sha'li thought about that before she nodded once as if to tell the others that she had made up her mind.

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“I want Steel Cannon very badly. I love the idea of being immune to damage... but like Jay said, I wanted teeth, not armor.” Sha'li said with a smile.

Sha'li made her choice. She turned to face the door they had entered through that was still shut tight and aimed her hand at it. She said, “Shoot! Fire! Go!” but nothing happened.

Jay smiled but didn't laugh at her, she was trying something new and had zero training to rely on. “Try thinking of the ability and your desire to use it instead of saying what you want it to do,” he suggested.

Sha'li tried again and this time a six inch dagger of ice formed in front of her hand and began to rotate so fast that it blurred before it shot out with a streak of blue light and slammed in to the door. Shards of stone exploded out of the door's surface from the impact and the shard stayed lodged in the door for a few seconds before it melted rapidly in to nothing.

“That was fun!” Sha'li said with excitement as she hammered the door with another Frost Bolt. It flew through the air in a blue streak before it struck the door with a deafening sound. A crack began to form along the door's surface. The bolts didn't hit the way Aiden's bolts did – Aiden's melted in to his targets, Sha'li's destroyed her targets with overwhelming force.

M'redith wrote a few more lines in to her notebook, closed it carefully, and stowed the book and her writing implement in to her bag. “Thank you Sha'li, that was amazing. I've never seen a class like yours before!”

Sha'li laughed, “Me neither!”

Everyone got up and Norri looked over at Sha'li. “You'll need to get a staff now!”

Sha'li raised an eyebrow, “Why's that?”

Norri shrugged, “I don't know – all the mages seem to have them. I think the staff does different things for different classes. Mine? I have to grow my own – but once I do it will be able to do all sorts of cool things!”

Sha'li turned to look at M'redith, “Really?”

M'redith nodded. “Although I've no idea if having a staff helps mages cast or anything like that. I know Jay's just lets him poke at enemies and Aiden's doesn't do anything for his healing. Now that I think of it though Norri is our only mage and her staff is pretty important to her class.”

“Oh I know what we can do!” Aiden suddenly exclaimed. “We could ask Glenda at the library if they have any information on mages and staffs and even Icemaidens.”

M'redith nodded, “We can do that, sure. We could also ask Warren if he knew if there were any other benefits to a mage carrying a staff.”

Norri shook her head, “Wouldn't T'lly know better? Isn't she a mage?”

Aiden shrugged, “I don't know – is she?”

The group went quiet again as often happened. They gave some serious consideration to what asking T'lly for help might end up like.

“I like the library idea,” Sha'li suggested even though she was unfamiliar with T'lly.

“Ok, that is what we'll do then. We could even go tonight after dinner if you wanted,” M'redith pointed out.

Sha'li grinned in excitement, “I'm free! Let's do it! This is so exciting!”

“Are you even interested in becoming an adventurer?” Aiden asked out of curiosity.

The scent of bananas, pears, and coffee filled the room.

“Mmm.” Norri said in appreciation.

“I don't know,” Sha'li said shortly after she had flashed Norri a quick smile for the compliment. “I like my life as it is but the only way I'll be able to get more Class Abilities would be to gain levels. And I can only gain levels by running dungeons, right?”

Jay shook his head, “There are other ways too but running dungeons is the most predictable and reliable method.”

“I guess I'll have to think about it. I like working at Redgrass but it would be fun to go out on dungeon runs every now and then,” Sha'li said as she tried to decide what she wanted.

“You'd need to attend the Guild basic training course,” Aiden pointed out. “I bet they'd make some concessions for you, maybe even private classes. Especially after they find out you have an advanced class!”

“Are they that rare?” Sha'li asked in wonder, her face still flush with excitement from gaining her class.

M'redith shrugged, “I've been studying class abilities since I was little. Yours is the first advanced class I've seen. They're pretty rare for humans.”

Sha'li nodded at the reminder that she wasn't quite human. Only that wasn't right – a notification had informed her that she was entirely human, just with some elvish characteristics. Over 80% of what made up a true elf was also present in Sha'li, along with her base human body. That was a lot for Sha'li to think about. She wasn't half anything even though she had spent her entire life thinking it was so. She wasn't sure how that changed things for her. Or even if they did.

She set it aside for future thought, perhaps in a less stressful environment.

M'redith had watched Sha'li lose herself in her thoughts and gave her a minute or so to work out whatever she was working on in her mind. “Hey, come back to us Sha'li,” she said with a kind smile as Sha'li startled out of her thoughts.

“Right. Sorry. What next?” Sha'li said happily as she ran her fingers through her hair and sent a wave of fiery color racing across it.

“Next is the next room,” M'redith said as she got to her feet and offered Jay a hand to help him up. Norri did the same but for Sha'li. Aiden was left to stand on his own, a challenge he accepted with aplomb.

After Jay had removed the upgrade stone from the box he had pulled from the wall the box had gone dim and the light from within it had gone out. The box was empty and had no further items in it. That was ok – the one item it had held had ended up being quite the find for the young group.

“Well that was fun. Congratulations again Sha'li! We're so excited for you!” Aiden said as he patted at himself and brushed some dust off of his pants from sitting on the ground.

“Ok everyone back in line, we're going to head in to the next room. A few new things to keep in mind. Sha'li is now armed and dangerous. Now that you are capable of fighting I want you to hold back unless we tell you to attack. We'll keep you in the same position in our stack as before, ok?” M'redith asked Sha'li who nodded solemnly.

“Just as before, don't walk past the group, never walk past the trap finder, and if you see something then say something. No one is going to get upset at you for asking questions or pointing things out, ok?” M'redith finished as she took her spot at the front of the line.

Sha'li nodded once again. “Got it,” she confirmed for M'redith verbally.

“One last thing,” M'redith said. “Don't use all of your mana unless it is an emergency. If you use it all up you're going to end up feeling very sick.”

“It's awful!” Norri added.

Sha'li nodded one more time and her hair shimmered in waves of reds, oranges, and yellows as the scent of cedar-wood and cinnamon filled the room.

“Ok, everyone in line?” M'redith asked as she turned slightly to double check. She didn't comment of Sha'li's scents and no one else did either.

“Moving!”