"Hey guys, this is Lucas, he ended up getting sponsored by the same guy apparently." Owen said as he took a seat at the table. Peggy and Myra said their hellos, and Owen not noticing Briar anywhere began darting his head around. Noticing this, Peggy pointed down to her lap, "They're sleeping, I think something big is happening, but I'm not sure. I felt a big wave of energy coming off of him though." Owen reached over to pet Briar a couple times before turning back to his friends.
"Okay, I've got a couple class options, but I was wondering if you guys had already decided yours. Cause I'm not entirely sure how often we will get to change it or if the classes offered won't adjust depending on what we do. Most of my options for classes sort of make sense, since I can specifically recall when I have done things similar to the class descriptions." Myra nodded and grinned. "I have an inheritance and the best class offered was the inheritance class, so I will just go with that. I best suits my fighting style as well."
Peggy who seemed distracted while petting Briar, spoke up. "I haven't had the chance to look yet since I drove us over here, but my options are interesting. I feel like most of them are what I would consider a support class I suppose. There is one called dueling apprentice, but that is the only combat related one." Owen frowned, "Is that something you want? Or do you wanna go and try to clear another gate and see if we get a better option from you doing stuff in there?" Peggy shook her head and smiled. "No, combat I don't think really suits me anyways. I enjoy it I suppose, but I think I do want to try at least some of the support options listed."
"Alright, I've looked and part of me wants to try each option a lot, however I will probably go with my inheritance class as well. It is the only reason I have been able to actively stay alive and keep up, as well as being the strongest option, other than maybe the devourer class." Looking around everyone seemed settled on an option except for Lucas who still looked uncomfortable. Owen paid it no mind for now and went back to the class list and selected Polymath's apprentice.
A red status screen appeared before him as soon as he selected it as an option.
*Are you sure you want to select the class Polymath's Apprentice? Y/N?*
Owen forced himself to pause. The last time he had seen a red status screen it had been because he had taken the inheritance for himself. Did this mean there were going to be ramifications? But it sounded like Xerxes had known he was going to pick it as a class and hadn't bothered to warn him about it, so it must be fine, right? He hesitantly selected yes and his vision went black.
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The process of creating your own personal universe was exhausting, each star needed to be created and the fundamental laws of creation needed to be followed to the letter, otherwise it wouldn't be able to sustain itself for longer than a few billion years. Aesona was getting sick of the detailed work involved, but that's what clones were good for. She had gotten a notification that had surprised her. Her original apprentice must be dead, which one too bad. It reset her quest, from the beginning, but when you have all the time in the world does it really matter.
She went to swipe the notification away, but the progress bar for the completion of the quest hadn't reset. Frowning she looked more closely at the original notification and could barely hide her surprise.
*A new candidate for the class Polymath's Apprentice has been selected, please give your approval to gain credit for your creation. Y/Error?*
"I can't say no? Why wouldn't a god be able to say no to a mortal?" She wasn't familiar with when new sections of the mortal realm were joined into the system, but she did remember that several days ago she had gotten another system notification about her inheritance. She felt herself grow more and more confused as she set her sights on Xerxes who was still alive, which means she shouldn't have someone with a new inheritance. She looked further and saw him training a boy, recently, but he had traces of her pupils inheritance. Going back even further she found it.
A different boy, who radiated her own power to such a faint extent, it would be impossible to feel with the senses of a god, but it was there. She looked further into this new boy's past and smiled. He had managed to somehow absorb the skill and with it the ability to earn her inheritance. She quickly played the duration of time he had spent in the tutorial in her mind. "Not the most promising, but definitely not bad."
She decided it might be worth the time to see if there were any other abnormalities this time around, she found a couple interesting ones, but nothing that stood out any more that what this boy had done. There were some though, "Maybe it's worth keeping an eye on it this time around. I've never seen what happens when two people share an inheritance."
She selected yes and watched the boy come back to his senses and she smiled. "You've managed to cure more boredom for a short time, here is a reward." Flicking a finger, she watched him receive the quest and she smiled. "It might be worth it to see where he is in the next thousand years." She then turned back to her own quest and groaned, she needed more stars in this area of her universe.
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Owen felt like everything about him was being torn apart, he had only just selected the class and everything had gone black. Then there was pain, so much pain almost as if his body and soul were rejecting the class. Then in less than a moment, it was gone. He had to take deep breathes of air as he felt like he had just been saved from drowning. It took him a couple seconds and Myra gave him a worried look. "You suddenly becoming unresponsive and very clearly in pain, is becoming far to frequent." Owen gave a wincing smile, but shared his status screen.
*You have gained the class Polymath's Apprentice. Your class level will start at 1.*
"I got the class though," He said grinning and Myra rolled her eyes. She seemed to pick her own class, but in less than a second without any reaction, she shared her own system panel.
*You have gained the class Ivar's descendant. Your class level with start at 1.*
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
"That I suppose is how it is supposed to work. Are you sure you're okay?" Myra asked slightly more annoyed now than worried. Owen just smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine. I think I have some small idea as to why I reacted like that, but it shouldn't be a big deal..." A new system panel he hadn't ever seen before appeared, completely interrupting his train of thought.
*You have gained a quest.
Gain 5 class levels.
Progress - 0 of 5
Reward - Unknown*
"I just got a quest?" Owen said confused. "Really, I didn't get one for my class." Myra said also looking confused. Peggy shook her head as well. "I don't know if it's related to the class, it just sort of appeared. It also doesn't say it's related to anything. Well whatever, what class did you pick Peggy?" Peggy grinned and shared her own class panel.
*Essence Specialist - Level 1*
After some congratulations, everyone turned to Lucas who had just been sitting there quietly. "I don't have a class, I haven't cleared a gate yet." Lucas said calmly. "Oh, well what level are you?" Myra asked and Lucas smiled. "I'm level 6." Both Myra and Peggy turned to Owen with questioning glances. "Okay, do you think you'll try running through a gate soon? We are probably planning too, since I personally would love to avoid several gates breaking throughout the city." Lucas nodded with a sly smile on his face. "Do you mind if I join you guys?"
"Let's figure something out first, I'm am planning on trying to repay the favor to master, so you can come with me. But I'm not sure if going as a group of five is going to be worth it, with my already decreased experience gain." Owen said. Nodding Peggy said. "My class is specialized in helping restore other people's resources and buffing them, with a small bit of attack magic. So, I would need to team up with someone if I were to enter another gate." Myra grinned. "Well I happen to have excellent damage output, at the expense of burning through my resources."
Myra turned to Owen then and smiled. "Peggy and I can probably beat a tier 2 gate alone now, but it will depend of it we could actually do it in time, so we might stick to tier 1 gates." "Yeah, I'm not too keen on trying to clear a tier 2 gate with just two...three." Owen said correcting himself as he nodded towards Briar. "I do think we should try our best to clear out a tier 2 though, I would much rather have lower level enemies storm the city than having late teens and early twenty something level enemies attack."
"Maybe we just go into a gate as a group and split up?" Lucas offered and Peggy snapped a finger and pointed at him. "That's a good idea, I would much prefer that, since we might actually be able to clear it in time then." She reached over to give him a high five. "Alight, so then our goal is to try and find a tier 2 gate then?" Owen asked and with everyone giving their agreement. They all began scouring the internet for locations to any and every tier 2 gate nearby. It didn't take long to start finding some, though several were sectioned off by either the police or military depending.
"We are going to have to try and convince them to let us clear it." Lucas said worried. "Or we could bum rush the gate." Owen offered jokingly, but Lucas look at him like he was crazy. "That's a fast way to get shot." "I don't know if bullets would kill him anymore." Myra offered. Both Myra and Owen shared a small laugh and Lucas realizing they were joking let out a small laugh himself. "I found one!" Peggy said interrupting their fun. She showed them the address listed, but frowned. "It says a group of ten entered, but no one left so far." "Let's go clean up that mess then," Myra said.
They all started packing up and Lucas didn't move. "Oh fuck, Lucas can't enter tier 2 gates." Owen realized. Everyone paused and Myra was the first to speak again. "So, go clear out a tier 1 gate with him, level him up and join us at the tier 2. I want to stop and home and shower first anyways." Thinking it was an okay idea, Owen just nodded and searched up the nearest tier 1, which thankfully didn't have nearly as many blocked off by government folks. Picking one, he looked expectantly at Lucas who sighed and got up and pulled out his keys. "So we meet at the tier 2 as soon as possible?" Owen asked as they started walking towards Lucas's car and Myra and Peggy nodded.
The drive was short and Owen spent the time doing his best to describe how the tier 2 gate had worked, and expecting the same thing. They entered the tier 1 gate without much fanfare. Owen had expected a similar world in design for the tier 1 gate, but with lower leveled monsters. Instead they appeared in an enormous white room and a system panel appearing in front of him.
*Number of monsters remaining. 87 out of 100*
"Why is the number that low already," He couldn't help but ask. Knowing no one else had a clue, he tried looking out over the group of monster in the distance but didn't see anything to give nay hints. "Well, it doesn't matter. I'm am going to try and take down as many of these as possible. You just focus on last hits, okay?" Owen didn't actually wait for Lucas to answer and turned to Briar who had reluctantly come with, apparently they were becoming a big fan of Peggy.
"You are only allowed to eat the ones that have been fully killed, unless it looks like Lucas is going to die, okay?" This time Owen did wait for an answer an Briar licked his face with a thorny vine in response. Thankfully, with his resilience it didn't hurt, but he was going to need to figure something out for Briar soon.
Owen gave them both one last look, before dashing off towards the horde of monsters, eager to level his class as fast as possible. His strategy was to bait several of them out from the group and slowly incapacitate them, so that Lucas could get the kill. The monsters made it really easy too. They were short humanoid type monster with dark gray skin and about a dozen different colored eyes on their face. It took Owen a while to find out exactly what they do, but finally one had launched an attack his way. It had launched a lance of fire and as the attack ended, the monsters red eye closed. It then launched a spear of ice and one of its blue eyes closed.
"That's pretty interesting," Owen thought for less than a second before slashing it several times across the face with his spear tip. He then identified it, while it was pacified.
*Kaleidoscopic Gremlin Level 11.
This monster has the ability to shoot a myriad of elemental attacks at it's foes*
He was surprised, but after a tier 2 gate was unimpressed. He shared the panel with Lucas anyways and charged through the groups. It didn't take him long to find out why some of them had been dead already though. He found the body of a human crushed, with a melting spike of ice in his chest. There were burn marks and sections that looked either poisoned or just infected and Owen sighed. He was surprised one of his first thoughts had been for Briar to eat the body, but Owen tossed it into his storage bracelet and planned to just give the body to the cops later.
The next hour or so was a cycle of Owen charging through ranks of the gremlins enemies and Lucas following him close behind, stabbing the enemies with a needle like weapon. Owen had to admit, he felt really strong now. Each of these enemies was within a couples levels of himself, but he was still able to precisely take them down, without expending much effort either. He was a little disappointed when there wasn't a boss fight at the end, but he was happy he had gained a little over 300 experience from the gate as a whole, giving him just enough to finish his own level up.
*You have gained a level. You have 2 unallocated stat point(s)*
"That was really fast." Lucas said amazed as the tier 1 gate closed behind them and Owen nodded. "As I mentioned before the tier 2 gate was very different and I think that some of the bosses in them would still require my friends and I together to take down. I suppose the type of enemy matters too, but yeah that was very easy." Lucas just shook his head in amazement. "I gained 4 levels from that and I unlocked the skill, Jeweled Monkey Emperor's Spear Mastery Level 1."
"Well, it sounds like we can go meet them at the tier 2 gate then, but first, I need some people to stop by." Owen then called the cops to their location.