Frozen time was, in Verin’s opinion, always a strange experience. On numerous occasions, she had witnessed those around her entering their class spaces, or in rarer cases, choosing their class. While those experiences tended to last a while for them, to any observers present, they were instantaneous. In practice, this usually meant watching someone’s entire demeanor shift in the span of an instant.
In rarer cases, more drastic changes would occur. Case in point, it had only been a brief second ago that the Lady Calilah had impatiently and immaturely shot off to grab the sundering gem. Somehow, though, the royal princess was now screaming bloody murder while the previously slumbering grand magus loudly berated her.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” The demon attempted to pull at his hair, only for his hands to come up short from the chains which bound him.
With everything he was shouting, Verin had a brief concern that they’d done something truly horrible without knowing it. Had they alerted the emperor somehow? Was the sundering gem trapped in some way? Thankfully, such fears were allayed as soon as the mage opened his mouth once more.
“That sundering gem is hooked up to the spell circle! If you had at least warned me, I could have siphoned off the energy you released to make up for my laughably low mana regeneration rates right now. As it stands, I barely got a third of what I could!” Even imprisoned and restrained, the grand magus addressed Calilah as if she was the one who’d wronged him more than anyone else.
By now, the princess’s cries had fallen off, but she gave no indication of having the energy to respond. Hoping to diffuse the situation, Verin did so for her.
“We apologize for taking such an action without consulting you. Am I to understand that you will regain some mana if I sunder my class as well?” Verin made slow but steady strides towards the gem that would instantly negate years’ of her leveling.
If perhaps she was not entirely thrilled with today’s events, on hearing that there was a second sundering to come, Sett’s entire demeanor flipped in an instant.
“Ah! Wonderful, wonderful. Well then, no sense in tarrying. Now that I’m awake, I’m all ready. Off you go to the class spiral. Good luck, and all of that!” Had he not been chained, Verin had the distinct sense the man would have come up behind her to shove her towards the gem. He was notably disappointed when Calilah finally came to her senses, then, as the princess quickly pulled Verin aside to lay out the details of the class she’d chosen.
It was a responsible thing to do so that Verin could choose something to complement the rest of her companions, but she doubted it would have much of an effect on her choice in the end. She didn’t expect to have too many viable options.
Knowing all that she needed to, there were no remaining excuses to put it off. And so, at last, Verin gently brushed the gem, immediately and irrevocably sundering her class.
Your Rime’s Ruler class has been sundered! Removing all class-quest experience.
You have lost sufficient experience to move you down one or more levels. Your level has been reduced to 11.
It was a dramatic downward shift and a painful notification to read. With every intent to choose a class that focused on frost magic, though, she was certain to regain some of those levels once she picked her class. A host of other unpleasant notifications followed, but Verin paid them little heed, confirming the final prompt to choose a new class.
Whisked away by gray fog, she soon found herself at the base of the class spiral once more.
While Verin made sure to do her due diligence, as she ascended the spiral, she discovered she’d largely been correct. Her offerings, even on the third level, were uninspired and uniformly Rare or worse. It wasn’t as if Rare classes were bad per se; they were just good for… other people. For all that she was willing to make some sacrifices to help out, the idea of sinking to a Rare class frightened her.
It was fortuitous, then, that she still had higher to climb. Reaching the guardian to the fourth level and confirming the proceeding prompt, a black coin formed on her wrist and lifted itself into the center of the fog golem.
Congratulations! You have been granted access to the fourth level of the class spiral. Note, due to the token you have presented, your available classes have been modified and filtered.
Verin would have liked to say that she went forth and spent days debating between all of the incredibly powerful options that were presented to her, but nothing would be farther from the truth. A majority of the classes were completely worthless in combat. Frigid Fortifier, for example, was an ice-based construction class, while Groomed for Greatness strictly revolved around nobility and leadership skills. Plenty of artistic classes dotted the fourth level as well. Mixed amongst the useless options were a few hybrid classes like Arctic Aristocrat, but all of them were peace-restricted and largely inferior to her previous Rime’s Ruler.
To add insult to injury, looking at all the various versions of her wasn’t even that interesting. From her readings, she’d learned that it was common to see yourself changed in all manner of wild ways when perusing the spiral. For Verin, however, nearly every version of herself looked the same, not altogether much different from how she looked already.
When it came to actually viable combat classes, she still ended up ignoring the bulk of them. Ice Armorer created and empowered weapons and armor which she could give to others, completely rendered useless by Tess’s existing skill set. Rime’s Blessing was almost exclusively a buffing class, adding various forms of defense, regeneration, and extra frost damage for her allies while leaving her entirely useless and defenseless on her own.
No, there was no tough call to make. After examining each option a singular time, Verin backtracked to the only sensible choice, gazing upon an almost perfect reflection of herself. Quickly double checking that she hadn’t missed anything, Verin pulled up the class’s description.
Glacier’s Advance
Slowly but surely, your frost magic expands out from you, bringing with it the dawn of a new ice age. While lacking in any true forms of offensive magic, the Glacier’s Advance class excels at all manner of wide-range frost debuffs, slowing, and in many cases, outright freezing any enemies. Coupled with enhanced abilities to create ice-based obstacles and barriers, these debuffs make the Glacier’s Advance a master of controlling the battlefield.
Protected within the center of the class’s cornerstone defensive skill, Advancing Glacier, the Glacier’s Advance is able to act with impunity as they transform the battlefield into a quiet, frigid wasteland.
If not the sort of class she’d ever envisioned herself with, Verin could admit it would work well given her current circumstances. The class’s strong self-defense would ensure that the others wouldn’t need to spend too much energy protecting her, and the debuffs she applied would make her enemies child’s play to strike down. More than that, she would be able to assist with swarms of enemies which neither of her two companions were overly well-geared to handle with their current skill sets.
There was every chance she would sunder the class once they escaped, provided she could obtain another class token, but for now, it was serviceable. With little fanfare, Verin confirmed her selection and departed from the class spiral.
Congratulations! You have selected a class: Glacier’s Advance.
You have preemptively completed three class quests!
With Frost Magic at level ten apparently being a prerequisite for the class, there was no class quest for raising it that far. For bringing the skill up to the Apprentice, Journeyman, and Adept tiers, however, she was rewarded accordingly. It was unpleasant to discover she hadn’t finished any other quests, but she supposed most of the others would be counter-based -- things like “freeze an enemy 100 times” -- which did not include anything done previously to gaining the class.
Still, with the Glacier’s Advance having next to no class-aligned skills besides Frost Magic, it assigned a massive weight to each new tier she pushed the skill, rewarding experience accordingly.
Congratulations! You have reached level 12!
Congratulations! You have reached level 13!
With a flick of her will, Verin forced her notifications to consolidate her stat changes into a single section.
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+24 Wisdom
+18 Intelligence
+6 Perception
+12 Class Points (leveling)
+18 Class Points (quest completion)
Though she’d had and continued to have her misgivings about the class change, Verin couldn’t help but admit to some level of anticipation at the influx of class points. Never before had she been given so many at once, and she was interested to see what sort of skills she could gain with such an influx.
Such optimistic thoughts were quickly tempered by a stream of notifications that Cal must have received shortly prior.
You have passed the first threshold in multiple stats. You have fallen below the first threshold in multiple stats.
Note: Some physical effects from threshold bonuses are irreversible. All other bonuses will be removed.
Adjusting…
Verin reeled as the world about her grew dimmer, blurrier, and altogether less crisp, even as her skin lost much of its luster. The entire experience was massively disorienting, and Verin could feel the start of a bitter migraine coming on. If there was any silver lining, however, she didn’t seem to go through the same pain that Calilah had undergone. Verin would like to say that she was simply more composed than the princess, but she imagined it was mostly due to neither gaining nor losing any physical stats. While her mind would be paying the price for the rapid changes, her body was safe.
Not in the mood for idle chatter, Verin said something passably polite to the grand magus as he rattled on about the mana he’d managed to gather. Hoping to make it to her bed before the worst of her headache came on, she disengaged, trying to usher the others out.
Calilah had little issue in following along, although Tess seemed intent to stay for some reason, evidently having more to talk to the magus about. So be it. If she trusted Tess to go out to the mountains for days at a time, Verin had no reason to hover over her here.
Verin hastened her pace as she reached the winding hallway, scowling as a particularly sharp spike of pain assaulted her.
Abruptly, Verin froze. Unused to her new motor control, Calilah crashed into her back, voicing an annoyed challenge that Verin barely heard. Slowly, Verin schooled her expression back to its default state.
That was… strange. Did I just casually scowl? In front of company no less?
She struggled to make sense of her odd reaction until she recalled a notification she hadn’t given much thought. Scrolling up, she found it once more.
Note: You have a number of skills past the Novice tier which were once class-aligned, but are no longer class-aligned. The leveling speeds of these skills will be massively reduced, and the effects of these skills may be artificially lowered as a penalty. These effects will be removed if the affected skills become class-aligned once more.
That was it, wasn’t it?
My Etiquette skill. I can still feel it, but it’s… distant? Or perhaps subdued would be more apt.
“How peculiar…” The feedback from the skill had been a constant and instantaneous companion to her for years now.
Another stab of pain cut any reflection off before it could begin, and Verin vowed not to stop until she was comfortably in bed.
It was a vow that lasted all of a few minutes until she at last escaped the subterranean tunnels. The very moment Verin stepped outside, she was once again locked into place.
“Hey! Lady V! Are you good, or what’s up?” Calilah barely managed to keep herself from stumbling this time, whacking Verin on the shoulder harder than she meant to. Verin hardly noticed, not even the horrid nickname getting through to her.
But of course, Verin was not particularly good at the moment.
Throughout this entire horrid affair, there had been only a single feature that had bolstered her spirits. Through the gryphon attacks and raw rabbit, the scorpions and the suffocating sand, whenever Verin was at her lowest, she took great comfort in the simple act of looking up.
The sky. That beautiful tapestry of endless mana, swirling about and intermixing, a continuous reminder that for all she needed to escape this place, it wasn’t all bad. Though she hadn’t had the time or the equipment, Verin had oft remarked to herself that she would paint that patchwork sky before she left, if only to share the view that had left her so awestruck the first time she’d seen it.
For the first time since she’d arrived, Verin looked up and saw nothing but endless black. An empty void, lacking in clouds, sunlight, or the barest hint of redeeming features. Stripped of the benefits of her first Perception threshold, Verin had been stricken blind to the mana around her.
“Of course. I am fine,” she forced out.
Having just come from sacrificing the class she’d been painstakingly cultivating for all of her adult life, the shock of it was too great. All at once, Verin felt a heavy exhaustion, suddenly needing her bed for an entirely different reason than she had only moments before.
In a daze, she found her way indoors, happy to be under a roof that could block that oppressive emptiness. Shutting the door to her room and slipping into bed, all manner of bleak thoughts assailed her. Even as her headache worsened, she tried to unravel the negative, jumbled mess in her mind.
Before she could make any real headway, however, Verin drifted off, stuck in a cabin under the dark and empty sky.
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While Verin and Cal made their way back to the cabin, I stayed firmly put. Having passed out right after the grand magus had healed me, I’d never gotten a chance to talk to him. Now that he was awake and in front of me, I wasn’t going to miss my chance.
“Ah, my comatose grand-disciple! What a good job I did -- already walking around. Tell me, are you here to sunder your class as well?”
I had the distinct sense his question was less out of idle curiosity and more out of hope and greed. Unfortunately, I would have to disappoint him.
“No. Thank you for healing me.” That was what a polite person would say, right? “You recovered your mana?”
The demon responded even as his eyes dimmed, half dismissing me now that he knew I had nothing to give him. “Yes, yes. When the mana-draining circle grabs the energy released from the sundering gem, I have a brief window where it’s not draining me, you see. I am happy to say I have even more mana saved up than when I met you three. An unexpected bonus.”
I nodded. “That’s good. So you can teach me more spells now.”
My words were met with a stunned silence, I was worried that I’d said something wrong. But why? It wasn’t as if he could actually do anything important with the mana he’d saved up, and we were working to free him. More than that, he kept calling me his grand-disciple. Didn’t that mean he should teach me things?
“I… suppose. You have to understand, it is rather unpleasant for a mage of my caliber to be perpetually stuck with such low mana reserves. Considering you three haven’t died yet, though, perhaps your chances of freeing me are higher than I initially imagined. Come then. What were you trying to learn?”
Truthfully, I wanted dozens of spells. Archmage Callis had been strict about what he’d given me, looking down upon battlemages who never took the time to get a solid magical foundation. Right now, though, it was more important to hit things hard. Even so, I had something more important to ask for.
“I hit level ten in Spatial Magic. I need a new spell to practice.”
He winced. “Directly imparting spells for advanced magic classes gets increasingly difficult with each new tier, both for me and for you. Not only will such a request take a sizable chunk of my recovered mana, but you also wouldn’t be able to learn any other spells for quite some time.”
That was fine. I was pretty sure Sett would go back to sleep after we spoke, and no one else was going to teach me spells. Why would I care if I couldn’t learn new ones for a while? “That works.”
The demon sighed, seeming to think twice about his offer but ultimately caving. “Very well. Come.” He stuck a hand out, and as I neared, he placed it on my head. Mana flooded through him, leaving me slightly dizzy when at last he was done.
You have learned a new spell: Mold Space
Mold Space
Slightly solidifies or loosens a target stretch of space, effects scaling with mana expanded. Loosened space is more conducive to other spatial effects, lowering the mana costs of spatial spells and increasing the maximum distance of teleportation spells. Solidified space does the opposite, increasing spatial mana costs and decreasing teleportation distances.
Nice. If not anything earth-shattering, it looked like I could use it in conjunction with my other spatial effects to train even longer.
I thanked the archmage, but he waved the thanks away, looking a touch worse for wear. “Yes, yes. That took more out of me than I anticipated. I trust there’s not anything else you need help with?”
Huh. He really was a generous guy, wasn’t he? I hadn’t given it much thought, but what else could I want besides learning new spells? Thinking back to what Sett had given us last time around, one answer did come to mind.
“Enchanting?”
“Pardon?” The demon’s face immediately fell. Maybe enchanting wasn’t fun to teach?
“You made that compass,” I replied. “I want to make stuff like that too.” Mostly, I figured it would be good if I had another compass that could track Cal and Verin. It was easy enough to imagine us getting separated in something like the sandstorm, and with how often Cal ventured out on her own, I could picture her getting lost or stuck at some point.
On a more basic level, though, I was hoping for more things to add to our home. Our own spells and skills made a lot of modern conveniences moot, but without electricity, we were still living a pretty bare bones life.
“Bah, fine. Xan sure chose a greedy one, didn’t he? Here, figure it out on your own.” Despite being empty-handed only moments before, Sett threw out a sphere and a collection of small metallic disks at me which I plucked from the air. “High-level enchanting is hard. Low-level enchanting is laughably easy. Study these. Try to recreate it. Should last you until level 20 if you’re smart.”
I held the objects in front of my face, hoping to study them then and there, but the grand magus was quick to stop me.
“Now shoo! If you want some motivation, I should recover some more mana if you take down one of the storage sites. Until then, don’t bother me. I’m returning to my meditative state.”
His tone brooked no room for argument, and I got the distinct sense that he would force me out of the room if I didn’t leave of my own accord.
Guess he doesn’t like falling asleep with other people around. That’s okay. I get a bit grumpy when I’m tired too. I’ll come back for more of our chats when he’s gotten back to bed. I left the grand magus behind, mind whirling with all sorts of enchanting ideas.
And if that wasn’t enough to keep me busy for a while, there was Cal and Verin, too. Just how strong were they now? I had a sneaking suspicion they’d be eager to show me exactly that.