As the dungeon continued crumbling behind him, Ray tried not to trip on the uneven, sloping floor as he looked over his options for his class evolution. He couldn’t help but gasp a little as he read through his choices. They seemed incredible.
Not necessarily good for him. Not all of them. The very first option, Corruption Sage, seemed to be an extension of his ability to proc status afflictions like Insanity.
In fact, it looked like all of Ray’s offerings were based on what he could already do.
The Soulbinder one was clearly a class that favoured summoning over all else, while the final Sculptor option was related to the various direct-damage spells he used. Shatterclaw with its claws and arm, Sphereguard with its orbs, even most of his summons when he used True Enhancement on them first. What else did a sculptor do but shape what already existed?
Also interesting to note that all three of his options offered access to True Mana.
Though, how in the world True Mana would help with status afflictions, Ray wasn’t at all certain. He supposed Corruption Sage did specialize in utility and buffing spells.
Nevertheless, a class that didn’t prioritize—not that Ray fully understood what the System meant by “prioritizing” here—either his Offensive or his Summoning spells wasn’t one that appealed to him.
Primal Soulbinder was as straightforward as it was enticing. Clearly, it was a heavily summons-based class. Everything Ray called up would be stronger, and he himself would be more powerful too. So long as his summons were in the vicinity. And if Ray was being honest, his summons would almost always be present in a battle.
What really hooked him, though, was the one statement in the middle. Assimilate abilities as well as stats and other innate physiological functions at once.
He had to take a few moments to consider what that meant. A few interrupted moments where the shaking got even worse and Ray quickened his pace. This tunnel was long. He couldn’t tell where the end was, but hopefully, he would reach it before the rumbling far behind did.
The Tower Node of the Skybreaker was moving alongside him. It continued to blink like a lighthouse light seen from one angle.
Back to the class evolutions—Ray could already call up wings and use abilities of the monsters he killed. Lifeblood Chaos could store both. So the only new thing would be storing stats, perhaps?
Intriguing as that sounded, it didn’t make a ton of sense. Or at least. Ray didn’t have much to go off of. For all the monsters he had viewed under the influence of Presence of the Primordial, he had never noted any stats. As Denizens, the Sylvans surely had them, so Ray couldn’t be sure if monsters didn’t or if it was just a limitation of his spell.
Ray considered his last option. If that statement about incorporating a summon’s stats was intriguing, then the entire description of his final option was one giant mystery pot.
Unlike the others, it clearly said he could channel other variants of Mana, not just True Mana. Ray still had the Toxic and Flight Mana crystals. Would he be able to use them if he picked Spirit Sculptor?
All Mana and all spells can now be combined and modified, up to the limits of their capabilities.
Ray really needed a moment to figure out what that part meant. It reminded him of that moment where he had instinctively combined the giant, enhanced True Mana Shatterclaw arm with a Primal Summons of the Greater Windbane Maw.
He winced. Ray pushed out the troubling memories of carrying Randall’s corpse before refocusing.
If that was how these combinations would work, then Ray had to wonder how exactly he could combine all his other spells. It had also said modifications. And limits. Did he even know the limits of his spell? He supposed he couldn’t make the head fly without attaching wings first, but that felt too basic of a limitation to consider.
He was highly intrigued by the combination he had instinctively performed, though. The way the draconic head had gone about and killed his foes was objectively powerful, regardless of other feelings associated with the circumstance.
Also, how exactly was that spell going to enhance his Mana shaping? He imagined making more complicated forms than he was already capable of. Arms and orbs were nice. But what about making entire bodies? Not just human, but monstrous ones too?
Ray had to make a choice. Corruption Sage was just not going to cut it for him, so it would come down to one of the other two. But which one?
He couldn’t make a decision lightly. This moment was the culmination of all his hard work across the entire Floor.
His experiences, both amazing and sour, were the components making up his options. The choice for his future was informed by his past within the Tower. A past that he had conducted with more control over his life than he’d ever had. He couldn’t forget that. As such, the direction he took for his future had to hold on to the same level of control.
No. A greater level of control, if possible. And it was possible. If Ray really looked at his options, he could tell just which he had to go with.
A violent tremor shook the whole passageway, strong enough to make the walls and ceiling crack. Ray did his best to not breathe in the dust falling from overhead and hurried on. When the groaning got really loud, he looked back, only to immediately curse.
The whole tunnel was collapsing. A huge whirlwind was shattering everything behind him, crushing and destroying like a giant, expanding blender.
Ray could feel the funnel’s backwards tug. He called up his wings, using Occultic Apparition alongside it to further boost his speed. Then he shot through the passageway as fast and as powerfully as he could.
“All the Sylvans and everything else inside the dungeon are dead,” he told the Tower Node of the Skybreaker with no small amount of reproach. “So can’t you stop it now?”
The glowing ceramic crystal simply continued to blink as it moved alongside him. He had already attempted to focus on it and make it stop, but it looked like he had unleashed an avalanche. One didn’t stop a landslide after letting it loose.
Ray pushed onwards, faster and faster. Sweat beaded his brow, anxiety making his heart fly in his chest too. Not now. He couldn’t let the twister reach him. He would not. No way.
He hadn’t forced his way out of the final chamber just to get caught in the sky-breaking storm now.
Unfortunately, even with all of Ray’s speed and power, he didn’t make it to the end of the tunnel and out of the dungeon before getting caught by the storm. The ripping vortex drew closer and then he was making no progress forward at all.
Ray cursed loudly, his frantic mind trying to come up with any solution that could possibly help. Nothing came to mind. A moment later, he was being hauled back.
At least he retained enough sense to use Mottling Sphereguard with True Enhancement empowering it again. He needed some time to condense his regular Mana to True Mana to do so, and it was that realization that made Ray remember that he had to pick one of the three evolution options.
The System didn’t consider the destruction of the dungeon as an “encounter” and the Silver True Mana Bracelet was exhausted after that last battle in the final chamber.
Ray was momentarily distracted from making a decision by his immediate need for survival. More True Mana. He needed more True Mana. There was no telling how long the process of evolving his class would take, so he was relying on what he already knew and had a good approximation of.
At the very moment Ray entered the funnel of pure destruction, he was able to activate the enhanced Mottling Sphereguard. The orbs safeguarded him, allowing him to watch the medley of destruction when the wind was trying to rip through his eyes.
There was absolutely no sign of the dungeon anywhere. All Ray saw through the gaps between his chaotic orbs was thousands of broken blue rocks, pieces of gigantic machinery which had to be the mechanisms for the traps inside the dungeon, and corpses. A few Sylvans here and there, but most were segments of Irebolts torn from the main bodies.
All of them swirled alongside Ray in the giant twister, lightning flickering within its whirling, windy walls. Far above them danced dark clouds.
Ray knew the dungeon existed underneath the old, ruined Everair palace the Sylvans had occupied. If he could see clouds, did that mean the destruction conducted by the Tower Node had swept through the whole palace? Was he annihilating the Sylvans within the palace too?
Hopefully, not Kredevel. Something told him the Floor Lord wouldn’t be defeated that easily either.
More importantly, Ray was beginning to feel the storm attempting to pull him apart. The Sphereguard orbs might be protecting him from any stray debris from crashing in, but they wouldn’t last forever. Two had already been destroyed under the stormy stress.
Beyond that, the pressure of the storm was eating away at him, compressing him from all sides. He couldn’t help but flinch every time a lightning bolt seemed to arrow straight at him.
Enough. Ray had to get out of this twister before his defences failed.
That was when he spotted it. A glimpse into the main palace, where things had not been affected by any storms or anything of the kind. Where, despite the destruction caused by the Skybreaker Tower node, the Floor Lord and Kredevel were locked in a furious battle.
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A sense of supreme urgency overtook Ray. He had been in the dungeon way too long. Ray had wasted enough time. He had to act before Kredevel fell against the Floor Lord.
Ray closed his eyes to sharpen his focus. The moment of truth was here. Memories flashed to life in his head.
The first time he had created his constructs purely out of Mana instead of as physical beings. The time his True Mana Shatterclaw had combined with his Primal Summons of the Greater Windbane Maw. The times when his wings had burned with chaotic energy. The first time his summoned draconic maw had fired off its laser breath.
Ray picked his class evolution.
[Class Evolution]
Congratulations, Denizen, on achieving your first Class Evolution.
Arcanist >>> Spirit Sculptor
Your Ascension Class will now undergo the necessary changes.
A sizzling burst of energy coursed through Ray. He couldn’t really describe the feeling. It was like he was now a conductor and a current of electricity was coursing through him, the sensation similar to the first few times he had channelled True Mana.
But this was heavier, bordering almost on the verge of painful. He gritted his teeth and bore through it.
[Class Evolution]
Stat boosts have been applied. Spiritual realignment has been configured. [Legendary] Path has been accounted for. Mana Core has been changed to True Mana Core.
Shatterclaw [Tier 2] >>> Soulstrike [Tier 3]
Chaos Chymify [Tier 2] >>> Spiritsorb [Tier 3]
Presence of the Primordial [Tier 4] >>> Primordial Gauge [Tier 5]
Primal Summons [Tier 4] >>> Primal Spiritcraft [Tier 5]
Lifeblood Crucible [Tier 8] >>> Lifeblood Graveyard [Tier 9]
Mottling Sphereguard [Tier 2] >>> Mottling Spiritguard [Tier 3]
Occultic Apparition [Tier 3] >>> Aethereal Envoy [Tier 4]
Lifeblood Construct [Tier 4] >>> Lifeblood Soulform [Tier 5]
New Spell: Animus Remnant [Utility] [Tier 5]
New Skill: Channel Mana [Utility] [Tier 5]
Ray stared at the notifications. No one had told him that he’d immediately get new abilities or that all his spells would receive a free Tier upgrade with his class evolution. Was that true with all class evolutions, or had he just fortunately picked the right one?
Probably the former. If this was something unique to a specific class, the System would surely have told him. It would be vital information if it didn’t happen regardless of one’s choice.
The near-pain began to decrease, though the sizzling sensation didn’t disappear. It was still powerful, but Ray was beginning to understand—aided by his new spell, Primordial Gauge—that this was a part of his new Ascension Class.
Spirit Sculptor… someone who sculpted spirits. And to do so, said someone needed to exist in both the real world and the spiritual one.
No surprise, then, that his body felt like it was forcefully existing in multiple places at once.
Amazingly, the remaining orbs of the old Mottling Sphereguard didn’t disappear. Instead, they changed. They were less pure spheres now. Instead, Ray could best describe them as a sparking fireball like those seen at the end of sparkler fireworks. Just in place of fire, they had burning, black-and-white chaotic energy.
Alongside that change, there was some kind of connection between each of the not-spheres and Ray. Something there definitely hadn’t been before.
A broken rock came flying in from one side. Ray started, then decided to test out his new, already active spell. He urged one of the sparking orbs to protect him. Instead of simply shooting into the path of the flying chunk of the dungeon and deflecting its path of flight, the orb changed shape into a burning, monochromatic shield.
The debris struck it with a solid thwack before bouncing off to another direction. Ray grinned. Impressive.
Now, to get out of this continuous storm. Ray might have protected himself from the winds and the debris, but the storm had still raised him pretty high. He was closer to the clouds now than he was to the palace floor and the Sylvan he had seen.
But not for long.
Ray used Primal Sum—no, Spiritcraft, that was his new spell now—while focusing on Soaring Wings. A roil of electric-like energy churned within his soul, spiking out of his back. With a short start, he realized he was using True Mana naturally now, without needing to compress his regular Mana into it.
In fact, that was probably part of why he felt so much like he was constantly on edge. Like he had a miniature nuclear reactor inside his chest.
The wings that burned out of his back wasn’t at all like the ones he was used to. The fine, long avian feathers that made it up were now replaced with spiky versions of monochromatic energy, overlaid on each other like scales. Instead of just one pair, he had four now, and his gut told him he could create even more.
Modification. That was what the class evolution into Spirit Sculptor had promised. Ray would need to test just how far he could take his new spells.
For now, he let his wings burn with True Mana and shot out of the twister.
The speed of the motion was incredible. Whether it was gifted by an innate comprehension, or if it was Primordial Gauge working its magic, Ray was starting to understand just how his new spells worked. It was these new capabilities that he made full use of.
Each of the new spikes making up his wings could burn, unleashing the energy used to create them in a powerful jet. Essentially, Ray had strapped an innumerable number of miniature jetpacks on his back, each of which he could fire and actuate individually.
Still stuck in this endless storm from his Tower Node, Ray fired off all his “feathers” at once. Even that burst of speed wasn’t enough to overcome the heavy power of the gigantic twister. That was fine. Ray had a lot more to count on now.
He used Aethereal Envoy, hoping it retained most of Occultic Apparition’s benefits. Considering he felt the boost to his speed immediately, his assumption was justified.
Next, he manoeuvred himself into position, facing the opposite direction while still keeping his firing towards his original location.
Finally, he used Primal Spiritcraft to call up the Greater Windbane Maw along his arm. There was a new, powerful sensation with the spell. It felt like Ray’s own spirit was… growing. Moulding. Strange pulses erupted under his skin, making him feel like he was expanding from the inside, though not painfully. What a strange change.
Instead of a flesh-blood-and-scale draconic head, the maw automatically appeared as the monstrous, spectral version like whenever he used True Enhancement. Then Ray forced it to fire its laser breath.
That injection of momentum was enough. Combined with the buff from Aethereal Envoy and firing every single spiky feather on his wings, Ray finally made it.
He crashed through the ring of twisting winds filled with the remains of the dungeon.
The debris didn’t strike him since he had used another Mottling Spiritguard to keep himself safe. Ray was finally free again. He didn’t relent yet, though. No, first he was going to create as much distance between himself and the tornado as possible, forcing his wings and maw to continue to fire until he began falling.
When Ray landed on the ground, the twister looked no bigger than streetlamp. Its inexorable pull was little more than a draft against his clothes and hair.
[Dungeon Cleared—Halls of the Sky]
Rewards
* 1 Flight Mana crystal
* 1 True Mana Tier Point
* 1 Irebolt Segment
* 1 Grimoire Pamphlet
* +2,000 Essence
* Reputation: +10 Indomitable
[New Personal Achievement—Destructive Trickster!]
You have lured in a great many foes to one location before promptly destroying both them and the location itself. The sheer destruction you’ve caused speaks volumes about the lengths you will go.
Reward
* Reputation: +15 Cunning, +20 Chaotic, +25 Ruthlessness
[New Personal Achievement—Class Ascender!]
You have acquired a class evolution. Your future looks as bright as your actions foretold.
Reward
* Reputation: +20 Knowledge, +20 Devout
Essence to Level 21: 6,940/24,300
[Reputation Threshold Crossed]
For reaching the 150-point threshold, your Chaos now builds Insanity even faster, at 14% per successful hit, and inflicts Tier 4 Insanity upon proc.
For reaching the 100-point threshold, your Cunning now adds additional 8% critical chance with every attack. At 8% critical chance, approximately every twelfth attack will be a critical hit. A critical hit triples damage and always procs any associated affliction.
For reaching the 100-point threshold, your Ruthlessness boosts all your damage dealt even further. All damage inflicted gets a 12% bonus, including damage from any afflictions.
For reaching the 600-point threshold, your Knowledge has raised your Intellect by 50.
Knowledge to next Threshold: 600/800
Ray twisted around. Far as he had taken himself, he was still a bit distant from where Kredevel was still fighting the Floor Lord. For now. Which meant he had a tiny window to check his new spell.
[Information Request—Spells]
Animus Remnant [Utility] [Tier 5]
A primal spirit utility spell that freezes a remnant of the caster’s soul in place, which returns to the caster at a time of need. Stored soul remnant holds a portion of the caster’s Recovery and Mana. At Tier 5, this spell holds 10% of the caster’s total Recovery and Mana, and costs 30 True Mana.
Okay, that was a pretty interesting utility spell. He was starting to see how his evolved Ascension Class would allow him to extend his fighting style in more complex directions. Such as, right now, Ray cast his new spell so that when he ended up in a fight, he’d have a store of Recovery and True Mana to pull from when he ran low on both,
The staticky feel of the spell was definitely strange. Energy frothed and bubbled up in him so intensely, it was almost painful under his skin. The sensation went down a notch when the growing energy seeped out of him, forming a ghostly figure of Ray himself just a feet ahead.
“Hi,” Ray said as his heartbeats slowed down to a more regular pace.
The spectral version of him didn’t reply, only fading until it was almost invisible. But he knew it was still there. Would remain so, until he ended up needing it.
There was no distance limit. Primordial Gauge also confirmed that it wasn’t interactable, so he wouldn’t need to worry about anyone destroying it via any normal means.
He crushed a Mana crystal to top himself up and it only just covered the cost of that single spell. Ray’s heart spasmed at the thought that something was wrong before he felt that intense sizzling sensation within himself again. Right, of course. He was naturally creating True Mana now. Obviously, regular Mana crystals wouldn’t restore True Mana easily.
In other words, he would need to crush a lot more Mana crystals to attain the same restoration as before.
Ray would have taken some time to check his new skill too, but when he looked to his left, his heart clenched. He only just caught Kredevel flying back, apparently struck by a vicious blow from the Floor Lord. Channel Mana’s function was clear enough in the name. He’d have to check the details later.
With no time to waste, he ran towards the battle, and moments later, was struck by a warning.
[Warning!]
Primordial Gauge indicates your presence has been detected by Blooming Perception [Tier 6]. Primordial Gauge has failed to nullify but reduced the effects of Sylvan Dominance [Tier 6].
A strange squeezing sensation pinched almost everywhere inside Ray as he reached the vicinity of the main battle. High Tiers like that could only mean one thing.
Ray had been detected by the Floor Lord.