As we flew back to Huston, I had plenty of time to think. My mind kept going back to Randy Cotton and his power to bend fate. I knew I couldn’t avoid fighting him for much longer, he was becoming too strong. I also knew even hitting level twenty and picking a second class would not bring me to his level. No, I needed help.
Thankfully I had some good friends and a few new allies to call upon to assist. Before we got to that point though we set down near a rundown steel mill, north of Texas. There was a level fifteen dungeon here, one that Fiona had spotted on our way north. But there were also a lot of monsters roaming the area around the abandoned buildings.
I would only need a few quick kills to level up, then I could decide on my ultimate choice for second class.
***
I hit the hideous spider-like creature with an electrified Stunning Gust, causing it to screech and flail its front appendages. Those appendages were speckled with lamprey-like orifices that easily drew blood and tore skin if they got ahold of you. Each of the six fat hairy legs had these suckers on them, connected to a fat hairy torso with dozens of gleaming red eyes.
La’ Prashu | Level 14
They were not slow, able to scurry quickly along the crooked and broken ground as they attacked. They also had a leap attack that used all six legs to try and attach to their victim.
I had been a bit surprised by their mobility, and I had the bleeding wounds to show for it. Ska and Fiona were easily able to keep out of reach. Ska with his enhanced speed and Fiona by just phasing out as they jumped on her. I was a bit envious. I also wished I still had my armor shield, but that was damaged along with my armor.
I killed the stunned creature I was fighting and moved on to the next.
By the time we had cleared out the eight la’prashu, I had leveled up. I was also covered in bile-green ichor and needed a shower badly.
We made our way back to the fortress to clean up and so I could level and choose my next path.
***
I sat in my study before opening up my messages to see what I received.
You have reached level 20, modifiers increased by 1
5 free attribute points available
Song of Carnage: Increases crit chance by 20% for 30 min 20m range, Cost 150 mana, cooldown 1hour
Word of Power: Your word is law! All within a 25m radius that have a lower Endurance score than your Intelligence score, must obey your every word for 15s, Cost 500m 1 permanent Intelligence point
I took both abilities, although I winced at the cost for Word of Power. It was like my ultimate attack though, so I couldn’t complain too much. Would it be enough for me to kill Randy Cotton, I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to use it.
I placed my ability points and looked at my new stats.
Paul Fuller | Mantra Enchanter | Level 20
Strength: 15(+2) modifier x21
Endurance: 20 modifier x39
Agility: 17(+2) modifier x21
Perception: 17 modifier x21
Intelligence: 25 modifier x39
Wisdom: 15 modifier x21
Charisma: 11 modifier x21
Luck: 15 modifier x21
HP: 780(858)
Mana: 975
Mana Regen(M): 315
My mana saw the largest boost due to my sticking three points into the attribute. I needed to unlock my endurance stat soon or I would quickly plateau once I picked my second class. Speaking of second classes, I didn’t see any popup for it.
I had to dig around my menus for the better part of an hour before I found the option. It wasn’t exactly hidden, but it wasn’t obvious either. A small circle had appeared in my stat sheet, next to my name. I had overlooked it until I got frustrated and mentally tried opening everything.
The massive list of available classes unfurled in front of me, along with actual information for a change.
I had decided not to wait to choose a second class, this would give me the most time to level up whatever I chose.
Congratulations on reaching level twenty. Because of your outstanding drive, you are given the option of choosing a second class. This choice comes with benefits but also downsides.
With the new class, you will gain 5 attribute points for every five levels. The second class starts at level 1 base experience.
You must select which class to assign experience to. This cannot be changed but once a day.
With your new class, your base modifier will not increase until your highest level class exceeds the previous highest class level.
Honestly, it wasn’t that bad of a downside. Sure I would have to split experience but I could quickly level my second class to ten. It was better than dual classing from level one. While those people were strong at early levels, they would have an increasingly more difficult time leveling with the three times experience penalty per level. My biggest downside was losing out on the modifier bonus, it was a bit of a downer but I would survive.
Would you like to choose a second class? Y/N
I took a deep breath before selecting yes.
The screen blocking the massive list of classes winked out. I had no rush as I could choose a class anytime before level twenty-one. That being said, I needed to level my new class sooner, rather than later. I had a feeling the Black Dragon would move again soon.
The first thing I did was look up my enemy's classes.
Fate Spinner: A fate spinner is an advanced class that allows the wielder to control fate to some extent. Whether this means avoiding a deadly blow, blocking a missed attack, or puppeteering the very fabric of fate. Beware, doing so has consequences.
Would you like to pick this class? Y/N
I selected no and moved on to the next class.
Tempusmec: The temporal sword is an advanced class that lets you utilize time alterations to confuse your enemies and make your attacks harder to counter and predict. You may even rewind your personal timeframe to heal grievous or deadly wounds. Along with this class, you age at an accelerated rate based on skill usage. No person can escape the embrace of time.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
I selected no on this class as well but I did look at the class skills, at least the few levels that the system showed. It seemed like that had been another feature damaged by the tampering of the System.
Looking at the skills gave me a good approximation of what Randy Cotton was capable of. It also told me something I had been dreading.
Sever Fate: Use this skill to cause a wound that cannot be regenerated.
Up until this point I still held onto hope that killing that son of a bitch would allow the magic holding my healing up to disperse. Now I knew that wasn’t an option.
I moved on to the list, checking dozens of classes, based on what I had discussed with Fiona. I felt that none of them were really a fit and moved on to my final choice. I took a look at pure magic classes, pure combat classes, even enchanting classes to enhance the capabilities of the fortress. I decided against going that route. While the fortress was a powerful construct, it couldn’t be with me all the time.
I had a few main issues with my current class. One was my ability to fight effectively with a weapon. Some of that was negated with my training, which now that I had the advanced staff skill meant I needed to go see Old Man Trumbo again. But I would never be as competent with a weapon as someone like Randy Cotton that had trained for decades. My skills lay in being unpredictable to my enemy. It was the reason Randy had so easily torn me apart, he had a grasp on all of my skills and tricks. Similar to how I just looked up his. Even the few non-class skills I had, wouldn’t surprise him for long.
Anyone who reached level twenty and looked up my class could determine my greatest weakness, my casting, and exploit that. Sure I had a few spells that avoided this issue thanks to my dungeon clearing escapade. But those only amounted to so much. I needed to be unpredictable again.
It took some finagling of the search criteria to find the types of classes I was looking for. The ones that fit my search were few in number, only returning three results.
Bringer of Oblivion: Darkness will consume the world but not before the Bringer of Oblivion consumes all skills. All consumed skills are lost to oblivion to power your own skills. .25% damage increase per skill level of skill consumed.
Maw of the Void: This class allows you to randomly claim skills from opponents. You may also choose to sacrifice these skills to the void in return for other gifts.
Dark Jester: Your attacks have a chance to steal the opponent's skills, rendering them inert for a period of time.
I looked over the classes and the skills they provided. While Bringer of Oblivion sounded like the strongest class, I had a concern. One of the abilities it gave was an AOE attack that consumed all active abilities, destroying them forever. My concern was the fact that it didn’t have a target designation like my current abilities. Even my AOE abilities said, AOE ally or enemy, that skill simply said nothing. It also didn’t give me the unpredictability I was after. I decided to avoid that class.
Maw of the Void was more along the lines of what I was looking for. It had some significant downsides though. For one it had only three class abilities. The main one allowing for a guaranteed chance to capture a random ability from your target.
I moved on to the Dark Jester. The class had skills that made it a combination rogue slash trap maker with the ability to suppress abilities for some time. I didn’t feel that it fit with my fighting style though. Also, it relied on short swords and daggers as its weapon proficiency. It might have been an interesting class to pick up on day one but I was too set in my ways to switch weapon focus now.
It made my choice easy for me as I selected Maw of the Void. While I couldn’t choose the ability I stole the class did allow me to use the abilities I stole, which was exactly what I needed. It would be impossible for someone that didn’t know me to counter unknown abilities. I looked at the System message.
Maw of the Void: This class allows you to randomly claim skills from opponents. You may also choose to sacrifice these skills to the void in return for other gifts.
Class skills at level 1
Basic hand to hand proficiency
Sunder Skill: 100% chance to randomly claim a skill from your opponent. Requires an open skill slot or skill is lost to the void, Cost 100 mana, cooldown 1 per fight
1X free skill slot
The class was not a human class, it came from a species of octopod-like creatures according to the info page, hence the hand-to-hand combat. That was fine, I already fought with my fists on occasion so learning to incorporate that wouldn’t be too hard. Definitely less trouble than trying to be proficient with daggers and swords.
I stood up, it was time to test out my new class and level.
***
We came out of the dungeon and I was in a crabby mood. While I had leveled the new class to six, I hadn’t gotten a single ability from the monsters inside. I had my theories about why, but choose to wait and test them. I assigned my new stat points and checked out my new skills.
Paul Fuller | Mantra Enchanter/Maw of the Void | Level 20/6
Strength: 17(+2) modifier x21
Endurance: 20 modifier x39
Agility: 18(+2) modifier x21
Perception: 18 modifier x21
Intelligence: 25 modifier x39
Wisdom: 15 modifier x21
Charisma: 11 modifier x21
Luck: 16 modifier x21
HP: 780(858)
Mana: 975
Mana Regen(M): 315
I had decided to increase some of my other attributes this time around.
Reclaim: Sacrifice a skill to the void to reclaim a skill slot, Cost 100m, Cooldown 1 day
Void Lottery: Sacrifice two skills to the void for a random skill from the void. Require an open skill slot or skill is lost along with the skills sacrificed.
6x free skill slots
The level five skill Void Lottery was interesting. It was one of the reasons I had decided to add a few points into luck. I didn’t know if it would help over much, but it couldn’t hurt. I held off on using it for now until I figured out the issue with my main skill for the class. I had nine free skill slots now so that wasn’t the issue. The skill had gone off, draining the mana from my pool but either the creatures I was fighting had no skills or weren’t compatible for some reason.
The trip wasn’t a complete loss. I got a new title and open slot for helping to clear the dungeon.
The Hunter: 10% additional damage on dark aligned creatures
We packed up and completed our trip to Houston.
Ska and Fiona went to fetch the Marshall and Martin, for a meeting, while I made my way to the Bazaar. I needed to commission something and get my armor repaired or replaced.
***
A few hours later I met the Marshall and Martin at that coffee shop.
I saw Martin wince as he saw my prosthetic. The Marshall only raised a curious eyebrow.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” I said as I took a seat.
“You sure about that, it looks pretty bad,” Martin stated
I shrugged. “Trust me, losing a hand is better than dying.”
“I suppose. What’s with the metal fingers?”
I smiled, spinning the hand and actuating the fingers. “It's also a mana cannon,” I said, trusting the two to keep my secret.
“Geezus,” Martin replied, “is that even safe?”
“It’s no more dangerous than wielding magic.”
The Marshall cut in, “so, Paul, what was this important meeting for. I assume it has something to do with why you lost a hand?”
I nodded.
“We were up north when we found a Mohai city, they are mole people. Also kind of pricks. Anyway, they dug a tunnel through the Spine. We decided to check it out.”
“Seems odd of you,” Martin said.
“At the time it didn’t. I’ll tell you why in a minute. We got through the tunnel, a trip of two weeks, through all kinds of underground biomes. The Mohai had established a city on either end. The problem came when we exited on the eastern side of the Spine. Without warning, we were attacked. I managed to identify my attacker as Randy Cotton, the leader of the Black Dragon.”
“What! How did he even find you?”
“His class. He is a dual-class Fate Spinner and Tempusmec, the second one translates to temporal sword. I can only assume he used some ability of his to force an encounter between us. If it wasn’t for Fiona and Ska, I would be dead. I barely survived the attack, not even scratching the man. He was level twenty-three in his main class and level fifteen in his second. I had no chance but I couldn’t escape.”
I told the remaining story of how Ska and Fiona saved me, my falling out with the Mohai Council and losing my hand.
“That’s a lot to take in, Paul,” the Marshall said. “So these Mohai aren’t likely to become allies?”
“Doubtful but I have a way to reduce or even remove their monopoly on the only pass through the Spine.”
I told them about my idea for the magical barges.
“That could work in the short term but we would need to assign someone with mana to oversee the transits. Once commerce picks up it would become a full-time duty. I don’t know if anyone is willing to take on that responsibility.”
The Marshall had a good point. I had another option but it would be some time before that was completed.
“Well, let's table that for now. The real reason I brought you here is that I need help. It’s become glaringly obvious that Randy Cotton and the remaining Black Dragon are actively hunting for me. We need to take the fight to them since they have likely retreated to Chicago.”
“We?” the Marshall asked.
“You said you would help if I needed it.”
“I will help, but I was thinking more around the Texas area or the south. I can’t spare a contingent of men to fly all the way to Chicago with you.”
I deflated as the Marshall looked apologetic.
“I understand. I can do it alone if I must but there is no guarantee I will survive.”
“You won’t be alone,” Martin replied. “I’m coming with.”
“I thought you were busy with diplomatic talks?”
“They are in a holding pattern while the summit gets scheduled. That could take weeks or months. Plus I have my own score to settle with those fuckers.”
“I wish I could join you but my place is here.”
“You can still help, Marshall. Give me the bounty notices on the most dangerous criminals you have.”
“You sure about that?”
I nodded.
“Alright, stop by the office after you two are done, I’ll have them ready to go. Try not to take any unnecessary risks.”
“Thanks for your help, Marshall.”
The man nodded before walking off.
I clapped Martin on the shoulder. “The band is back together.”
He rolled his eyes but I saw the smile creep onto his face.