Like the other two rooms in my class space, the Arcane Augmenter path consisted of a series of steps leading upwards. Unlike the others, each step in the room was home to only a single class skill, taking the form of a wearable item sitting on a pedestal. Even before I reached my new option, something strange happened.
As I stepped from the fourth tier -- home to my Arcane Storage bag -- onto the fifth, I felt an odd lurching sensation. It felt ever so vaguely familiar, and I spent a moment trying to place the feeling, likely only succeeding because I’d experienced it only a minute prior.
“Was that some sort of spatial effect? Compression, maybe? Or teleportation?” If so, it was far, far stronger than anything my skills produced on their own. Despite the room looking fairly normal to me, to my budding spatial senses, it felt as though I’d just traveled a great distance in a single step.
I tried to figure out why that might be before ultimately giving up. Class spaces were weird, and for now, I’d leave it at that.
Besides, I had something far more pressing to consider. Sitting there on the fifth pedestal was an item that felt decidedly out of place. It was a circle of what appeared to be lace, though it was a bit hard to tell given that it was the basic bright blue I’d come to associate with neutral mana. The material had been worked into a fairly basic scoremark pattern, forming repeating sideways x’s all the way around.
Given its exact size and the fact that it was presumably meant to be worn, there was only one thing it could be, the window that popped up dispelling any last lingering doubts.
Arcane Choker
I groaned as I read the words. Were the people in my life rubbing off on my class? Between Suds’ penchant for making me wear ridiculous armor and Hexaura’s oddly goth fashion sense, I legitimately wondered if my class was taking cues from my experiences. After all, if I really needed a wearable item for my neck, what was so wrong with a basic necklace?
Deciding to withhold any final judgments for now, I read what the skill offered me.
Enhances the wearer’s breath control, increasing stamina regeneration. While this skill is active, the user is immune to choking effects. Additionally, cures all coughs and sore throats while also preventing food from going down the wrong pipe or sharp foods from scraping the wearer’s throat.
I almost stopped reading there, about to dismiss the entire skill as some sort of prank. I still didn’t know exactly who created each class, but if it was the gods, I could easily imagine someone like Dex throwing this in there. I pictured the boyish deity grinning at me as he explained his creation: “Get it? It’s a gag skill!”
Luckily, I just barely managed to keep myself reading until the end.
Activating this skill with different mana types will produce different breathing and throat-based effects. The hallmark variants of this skill include effects to keep the wearer nourished and supplied with breathable air for as long as the skill is active.
Immediately, the skill went from an unpleasant joke to the very top of my shopping list. It wasn’t that long ago that I’d reflected on my weaknesses, realizing that my only two huge vulnerabilities were surprise attacks and slow deaths. Having already grabbed Reactive Armor, I just needed to shore up my weakness to slow deaths -- things like starving, drowning, or suffocation. Incredibly, this skill seemed to handle most of those scenarios at once. Never again would I have to worry about journeys through quicksand.
In fact, if it gives me some sort of water-breathing, I might even be able to check out the water biome.
Checking the price of the skill, I attempted to buy it, only to sag in defeat a moment later.
Would you like to purchase this skill for 10 class points?
It was an astronomical sum to me, by far the most expensive skill I’d seen so far. More than that, it was a giant leap from the fourth step to the fifth.
Although, is this really the fifth Arcane Augmenter skill my class offers me? It felt… odd. Given its focus on breathing, I could only assume that I’d gained access to the choker for leveling my Breath Control to the Initiate tier. Though I rarely thought about it, I also had a very low-leveled Digestion skill I’d picked up in Sylum, and I could imagine the choker requiring that too, given its focus on nourishment.
The real question, though, was how many people with the Arcane Armory class would know to level their Breath Control to get the next option on the path? Looking back on it, the storage skill was kind of suspect, too. If someone never ended up grabbing spatial magic, would they be stuck with only the first three skills forever?
I thought back to the strange spatial lurching I’d experienced walking up the stairs, and all at once, everything clicked.
There’s no set progression for this room, is there?
In the other two rooms, it felt like there was a defined structure, with each new skill unlocking related skills that built upon them. Here, though, every new skill seemed entirely divorced from the last. Rather than offering me new options sequentially, it felt like I was getting offered whatever I qualified for. Presumably, the average Arcane Armory would get the storage bag and the choker later down the line, but with the strange skills I tended to pick up, coupled with my occasional gap in basic skills, I was likely grabbing things in a nontraditional order. Had I been more normal, the choker probably would have been offered to me at a time when ten points wasn’t as big of a deal to me.
Do I even bother saving up for it, though? As much as I wanted it, the price tag was pretty painful.
Then again, it might not take as long as I’m imagining. I’d yet to level either of my advanced magics to the Apprentice ranks, but I was assuming I’d get four class points for each of them. Coupled with the four points I already had, that alone would net me more than the ten I needed. Considering it was high on my to-do list to train up Mental Magic and Spatial Magic already, that wasn’t too far-fetched a goal either.
That settled it, I decided. Barring some situation where I needed to spend my points immediately, I’d be banking them for now.
Having made my choice, I prepared to exit my class space. Right before I did so, however, I paused.
Had I bought a shiny new skill, I likely would have returned to test it out. Considering I was going to leave empty-handed, though, it felt like I should at least do something to make my trip into my class space worthwhile. Not that I really wanted to, truth be told, but I was already in the Arcane Augmenter room, wasn’t I?
Guess it can’t hurt to try my class trial again. And who knew? I’d just grabbed levels in my soul and mental resistances, and I was keeping up my chats with the grand magus. Maybe the trial wouldn’t be so mentally taxing this time around.
The pair of monocles beckoned me from their pedestal, and I answered their call. Pressing the lenses up against my eyes, I returned to the main chamber and descended the stairs that had appeared there. Shortly thereafter, I winced as most of my stats were reduced back to ten. As a small mercy, my Wisdom and Endurance were set to 25, but that was it.
As soon as I felt my stats decrease, I began to run, rapidly shifting through all of my Arcane Vision variants. The first time I’d attempted the trial, I’d died within seconds with a spear through my guts, and I had little desire to repeat my performance.
Speaking of which-
There. Uneven air. A gentle breeze caressed my cheek, and I threw myself to the side. A deep furrow formed in the ground right where I’d been standing. Especially with my lowered Constitution, I’d have been bisected had I failed to move. With my successful dodge, the air currents returned to normal.
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As I’d learned well by now, the first attack of the trial was more of a warm greeting. The real test began afterwards as the initial hallway widened out into open space, the ceiling disappearing to reveal a sky filled with gray fog. Having partially explored the area in previous runs, I was fairly certain the trial took place in one giant circle, although my lowered Perception made it impossible to see far enough to know for sure.
The region the trial began in was a geometric nightmare, the wet dream of a colorblind parkour junkie. Universally gray, all manner of shapes shot up from the ground in a way that muddied my vision and made each centimeter forward a fight. While hardly my least favorite region, I had no desire to linger here. It was too dangerous. I started a wild dash to the center of the room.
Shit. As I vaulted over a waist-height barrier, I caught a glimpse of a grasping hand from my side. Unfortunately, I’d been moving through my vision variants so quickly that I’d already moved on, the figure disappearing a moment later.
Death. That was death mana. I hastily switched back to Ghost Eye, and a wispy revenant came back into view, now only a second away from latching onto me. At the last moment, it accelerated, and I was forced to lunge forward, throwing myself against a jutting cylinder and bruising a rib in the process. The incorporeal undead shot by, vanishing the moment it was clear its attack had missed.
Not once stopping, I was forced to dodge three more attacks before reaching the room’s center. The gray landscape abruptly ended, giving way to too many options for me to visually process.
While there hadn’t been any helpful guide, by now I’d largely figured out how this trial was supposed to work. All in all, I was not a fan.
Mostly, that was for two reasons. First, much like the Mana Feet trial, the test for Arcane Vision was massive, with a sector dedicated to each of the nine basic mana types as well as neutral mana. Unlike the trials I’d undergone for my armor and weapons, I had no hope of breezing through the trial quickly.
Secondly, and more annoyingly, those ten sections weren’t sequential like they had been for Mana Feet. Instead, the room was divided up like a pie, with ten slices that all met in the middle. In fact, the entire setup sort of reminded me of the dungeon I was in, with entirely different terrains abutting one another at perfectly straight lines.
That in and of itself wouldn’t have been too bad, but the open design meant there were no save points like there had been previously. If I finished one section of the trial, I would still have to complete it on my next run. I’d only clear the room if I managed to finish everything in one go.
Air. Now at the center of the room, all ten regions wreaked havoc on my senses. Hoping to escape the chaos, I bolted into the section I’d taken to completing first. Wind whipped at me as I took my first steps into the air region, my Gust Sight barely able to make sense of all the input it was receiving.
For all its wind, the air sector was one of the simpler of the ten. Devoid of any physical barriers, the slice was a perfectly flat expanse of rock, not impeding my vision in the least bit. The only downside was that the wind was often so powerful, it formed impassable walls, turning the entire area into an invisible maze of sorts. I ran as fast as I dared, weaving between the fiercest gales even as the others threatened to blow me off my feet.
Gah. Heat. Thermal vision picked up the sight of a vague humanoid form headed my way, completely invisible save for the heat it gave off. Searing its position into my head, I switched back to Gust Sight so that I could find a good spot to evade the incoming attack. One wrong dodge could send me barreling into a wind that would cut me into ribbons, and I had no desire to trade one death for another.
Good enough. I managed to find a reasonably open area without any wind walls close by, shifting back to Heat Sight as my would-be assassin drew near. Its red form clawed at me as I ducked under it, even its passing enough to leave me sweating. Much like all the others, it vanished once its attack was complete.
From what I’d gathered, the ten assassins were the main threat in this trial. Each of the ten were visible only to a single variant of Arcane Vision, and to different degrees, each was a death sentence under the right circumstances. Lest I find myself burnt to a crisp or chopped into pieces without even seeing my attacker, I was forced to constantly cycle through the different mana variants to spot them coming.
Only two facts made this remotely possible for me. The first, as demonstrated, was that each foe would vanish after missing their attack, returning only after some time had passed. The second was that some terrains weren’t hospitable to some of the assassins.
The air region, for example: The fierce winds seemed to deter the water assassin, whose body was made of mist. Likewise, the stone floor kept the earth assassin at bay, a burrowing elemental who only moved through dirt. As it was, I currently only had to keep an eye out for the air, fire, frost, and death assassins, another reason why I favored the region over the others.
A frost attack and another grasping revenant were easily avoided before the air elemental made its second appearance. On the bright side, the region forced me to have Gust Sight activated 90% of the time, making it easier to spot any inconsistencies as soon as they arose. Despite that, already-chaotic feedback from the skill made noticing the windy assassin far more difficult, and I narrowly avoided getting my ankles cut off.
As I continued to run, I finally spotted what I was looking for. While not all of them, most of the winds seemed to be curving in one direction. I made a harsh turn, moving perpendicular to the curve, quickly noting the effect becoming more pronounced. Bit by bit, the winds grew more intense even as they began to unmistakably travel in a circle, forming one giant cyclone. The force made my eyes sting, and it was an effort just to keep them open, let alone scan the area.
Nonetheless, I was close. I pushed through, running with the wind whenever a barrier barred me from moving in my desired direction. My hair was a jumbled mess, constantly getting in my eyes, and I wondered if I would have to cut it to properly clear the trial. Thrice more, I narrowly evaded my attackers, until-
Stillness.
I took a step forward, and all the wind fell away. At last, I’d reached the eye of the storm. For the first time since arriving, I allowed myself a moment’s respite, basking in the few seconds of tranquility before I’d have to brave the wind once more.
A break, however, was not what I’d come here for. Unseen save for the gentle breeze it gave off, a slender object sat in the middle of the peaceful clearing. I quickly snatched it up, a description greeting me even though I couldn’t fully see what I was holding it.
Air-Sealing Spear
Rather than setting off immediately, I simply stood there, awaiting my would-be killers. I was forced to dodge two more attacks of frost and fire before the proper target finally showed itself. The air assassin, nothing more than a mass of twisting wind, flew through the clearing, intent on slicing into me.
For once, I didn’t bother to dodge.
With a well-practiced thrust, I slammed my newly acquired weapon into the elemental. Like a vacuum, the spear went to work, greedily sucking up the body of my attacker. Within moments, the air grew still once more. Having fulfilled its purpose, the spear dissipated, dissolving into motes of air.
This was the true form of the trial. Ten regions. Ten assassins. Ten hidden weapons.
On my best runs, I’d managed to seal four out of the ten. Originally, I’d figured that would be enough to tilt things in my favor. After all, each sealed assassin was one more vision variant I didn’t need to check anymore.
Unfortunately, as if to leave me with one last “fuck you,” the trial was not so kind. Each remaining elemental grew in strength for every new weapon I used. They grew harder to spot. Their attacks were faster. They appeared closer, giving me less warning. It was a nightmare that only grew worse, and only the thought of how often I used Arcane Vision was enough to keep me from abandoning the trial altogether.
While I’d had high hopes for today’s run, ultimately, it wasn’t meant to be. As I worked my way out of the air sector, I moved too fast, making a hasty pivot around a wall of wind. Unused to my Dexterity being so diminished, I botched the motion, clipping the nearly solid wind with my hip.
Down I went, crashing to the stone floor. I tried to scramble to my feet as fast as I could, but it was pointless. Halfway up, my neck prickled as a freezing breeze licked at it. I barely had time to register the sensation before an entire third of my body was ravaged by frost, my very blood freezing solid near instantly. The ice traveled up and down my body, spreading before I could even think to exit the trial. At once, it reached my head, and it was over.
You have failed a class trial!
Class space locked for 12 hours.
I heaved a weary sigh as the forest came back into view, saddened by my pitiful performance. Not even two out of ten this time. Still, I had to admit one new plus: I wasn’t feeling even half as drained as I used to. Perhaps I wasn’t ready to challenge the trial twice a day yet, but I’d at least make it a point to work on it once in a while.
For now, though, I wouldn’t mind a nap. Chaining together Spatial Steps, I made quick work of the trip back to the prairie, retreating to my room to do just that.
And though I did eventually drift off to sleep, I was startled to eventually wake to the sound of someone knocking on my door. Blearily, I called out from my bed. Cal’s energetic voice shouted back.
“Hey! Come on! We’re ready!” Seeming to realize I would have no idea what she was talking about, Cal amended herself. “Verin and I have fought enough. It’s time to go sunder our classes.”
With a groan, I pulled myself out of bed.
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Once more, the three of us descended into the earth, repeating the long, winding walk to the grand magus’ glorified prison cell. Much like on our first visit, we spotted the demon chained in the center of the colossal spell circle, eyes firmly shut.
Given that he’d apparently told us not to return, Verin had voiced some fears that the other portions of our first visit would repeat themselves, especially as I hadn’t told her about my therapeutic trips down here. Thankfully, as we passed the grand arch that separated the hallway from the room, Sett didn’t stir.
Even so, as we slowly neared the sundering gem, it was by unspoken agreement that we stayed entirely silen-
“Dibs on first!” Cal shouted.