You’re alive. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything.

-Neil Gaiman

==Sevso==

My eyes were fixated on the water of the ocean far below. The waters reflected a long trail of light as sunset neared.

Gnaeus was beside me, leaning on his staff, and looked out over the water with me. The roadway here ran right beside the cliffs and the water crashed on the shore far below. Small chunks of ice were cast up on the narrow beach, even as larger ones lurked in the deeper waters and were outlined against the distant horizon.

Save for the ice, the ocean was flat and endless. It was so different from the valley with its mountains that had surrounded me my entire life, save for these last few days.

The roar of the waves and the wind carried up the cliffs to me. I could smell salt in the air.

I turned to Gnaeus.

“We are going to cross that?” I said.

“Eventually yes. We are headed north a little ways first. And we will need to wait until at least mid-Thaw for a captain willing to cross.”

He pointed down to where the waves were rolling in an ever repeating pattern.

“You see where the water is right now?”

“Yes?” I said, confused.

He pointed left, to the south, where an inlet carved further into the face of the rock.

“See that line most of the way up the cliffs?” he said.

“Yes.” I said. And I did. A dozen feet or so from the top of the cliff rocky shells clung to the cliff in a progression that continued all the way down to where it met the shore.

“By the end of Thaw, the ocean will rise to there,” He said.

“The ocean rises? How? What makes the water rise?” I said.

I gestured out to the ocean. It was vast beyond comprehension. I looked at the line on the cliffs; it was more than a hundred and fifty feet from where the ocean was now.

“Where would the water even come from, or go in the first place?”

He chuckled.

“I remember when I first learned about it. That was from tutors though. It seemed interesting, but not really special. I hadn’t seen the ocean yet though. I couldn’t imagine how immense it really was. I had a similar reaction to yours, back when I first saw the ocean. I knew where the water went, but the magnitude of the change really struck me then…” He trailed off.

“Sorry, sorry. Guess I’m getting old to start reminiscing like that.”

He pointed to the many feet of snow.

“That is where the water goes though. Massive amounts of snow pile up in some places, but that is just a drop in the bucket in the end. No, it is to the far north and south that the real answer lies. Every Freeze massive amounts of water, well… freeze. The poles are the coldest places in the world and ice accumulates there. It gets cold enough the oceans themselves freeze. The ice is lighter so it lifts out of the water, and then more attaches from the bottom. Eventually the ice reaches the bottom of the sea, but new ice continues to form there. So much ice freezes that mountains of ice push up out of the water.”

Gnaeus pointed down at the water.

“The water is actually lower than usual for the end of Freeze, since Thaw is overdue. It might end up delaying us some. Nothing to be done about that now. By this time of year the poles will be massive frozen mountains miles high and a thousand miles across. Enough water to fill a good portion of the ocean.”

I marveled as I looked at the water below. I tried to imagine entire massive mountains of ice. My mind failed. I couldn’t really understand the scope, it was beyond me.

This was my first time ever leaving Allalus and the valley. The shapes of the plants, mostly dormant, and the few animals that were active in Freeze were alien to me, let alone this. And Gnaeus had assured me there was far more I couldn’t see, but it lay buried beneath the omnipresent snow.

And now I had reached the ocean for the first time.

Our departure from the city had only taken a day after our initial discussion. Gnaeus went to talk to the guildmaster and then arranged all the supplies that were needed. All the supplies were in a plain seeming bag at Gnaeus’ side now. Its only decoration was silver patterns over brown cloth. A bag that was smaller on the outside than its interior. I couldn’t claim to understand how it worked, but Gnaeus said he made it with a spacial mage years before. Now several days later we had finally met the coast.

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Shurum touched the horizon as the waters burned a molten bronze. Otga was almost directly above Shurum now. Not quite touching yet, but soon enough.

Fire and ice met upon the water, light shining across it all.

For days now my emotions had been in turmoil. First in confusion and anxiety as I tried to understand what had happened to me. Then there was a natural addition to that anxiety due to Gnaeus. However, he had proven a friendly enough traveling companion, and had shared his knowledge freely as we traveled. And now my emotions were beginning to settle.

I had been afraid, but what exactly had I lost?

In the best case scenario I might have become one of the slum lords. I would have ruled over a tiny section of the slums in a constant battle for territory. And I would almost certainly have died young. And even if I had jealously guarded my power well enough to grow old… I doubted I would have earned much more than the money I had already been granted. More likely I would have moved up to become a more powerful enforcer and no more, if I was lucky. And when age or injury inevitably saw to my decay, that would have been the end unless I had saved enough to eke out the rest of my life. More likely I would have ended up begging on the same streets I once patrolled, viewed with the disdainful fear of other enforcers who saw in me a future they both expected and feared.

And if times had gotten hard enough I might have been forced to become an adventurer. Unprepared, untrained, and without money to equip myself I had less than a one in a hundred chance to survive a year.

So what had I been so afraid of?

I was healthy. Healthier than anyone I had known before I left the slums. I had money. I had food and no fear of where I would get more.

So I had a dungeon as a Master. So far its leash had been light enough. Certainly lighter than anyone I had served in the slums. And a life-debt could only be formed by genuine selflessness. I didn’t understand how a dungeon could be that, but there had been hints Gnaeus knew something.

Whatever had happened, as I looked out over the sea I felt gratitude. I would likely have never left the valley if my life had continued on as it had before. I would never have seen this. I wanted to see more like this.

For a quiet instant, I just let myself feel my gratitude and the peace of the moment.

Then a message from the system interrupted me, and a procession of text was ready for me.

Your class has changed.

You are no longer a Street Tough, you have become a Dungeon’s Surveyor.

Your level has increased by one.

Status

Name: Sevso

Race: Human

Subtype: Male

Health: 100% - Perfect Health

Status Effects: Life Debt (Permanent)

Mana: 50/60

Primary Level: 6

Class: Dungeon’s Surveyor

Former Classes: Orphan, Urchin, Pickpocket, Street Tough

Ability Points: 9750 (+1900)

Class Skills:

Explorer’s Map I

Dimensional Deposit I

Dungeon’s Delight I

Inexorable II

Titles:

Orphaned

Survivor II

Thief II

Muscle I

Lucky Fool V

Back from the Brink I

Trailblazer I

New Class: Dungeon’s Surveyor

You are the first of your species to gain this class.

As a servant of a dungeon out and about in the world you serve by collecting information, objects, life, and otherwise that your dungeon desires.

Gain new levels by exploring, collecting samples, and returning what you have gained to your dungeon. As always, experience can be gained by slaying the monsters and otherwise of the world.

Gained new class skills:

Explorer’s Map I

Gain an innate understanding of your location relative to where your have been and the ability to map out new territories that you explore.

Dimensional Deposit I

Borrowing the power of a dungeon you gain the ability to store, but not retrieve, samples for your patron. Can store minerals, liquids, as well as sufficiently thick gases. Can store magical materials. Can store seeds and eggs. Can store plant and animal parts that are dead or disconnected from the primary organism.

Dungeon’s Delight I

You are the first of your species to gain any degree of this skill.

Intuitively understand your patron’s desires in relation to your class.

(First) Always know the direction of your patron…

Error…

Ability already gained from Life Debt status effect, status effect permanent

…

(First) Gain greater physical capacity via the Inexorable skill

Inexorable I

Combines lessor skills like: Strength, Brawn, Toughness, Fleet of Foot, Swiftness, etc… into a single skill. Makes your body superior to what it once was.

You have lost skills:

Toughness and Strength from your Street Tough class have been removed.

Dexterous from your Pickpocket class has been removed.

Quickness from your Urchin class has been removed.

These skills have combined with Inexorable I to raise it Inexorable II.

You have gained a new title:

Trailblazer I

You are the first of your species to gain the Dungeon’s Surveyor class. You are also the first to gain the Dungeon’s Desire skill, which is contributing to the next level of this title. As an individual trailblazing a new path for your species, go out and secure the future, or fail and become another dead-end.

+1000 Ability Points

+2% Additive bonus to learning speed of all skills plus an additional +2% additive bonus to any learning bonuses from titles and skills. (The first 2% Additive bonus will be removed if the learning skill is gained.)

I almost fell over as changes swept through my body. For a moment I felt slower and weaker as skills were stripped away from me. And then it reversed, but even more so.

My muscles tightened, the power in them strained against my bones. My bones grew stronger and my joints, surrounded by layers of muscle were held securely even as the joints themselves flexed with new springiness. My lungs breathed deeper, and the cold receded. I was not exactly less cold, but it impacted my body less.

My vision grew clearer and my hearing deeper. I could feel the wind more sharply as it pushed between layers of clothes with subtle fingers, like a pickpocket that stole away warmth. Everything that I was clarified. My body was simply more. My feet were steady as the stone of the path beneath them, and I knew that even if I slipped I would be able to keep my balance.

I could tense and do a handstand if I wanted.

So I did, with one hand.

The cold stone of the path ground against my palm as I erupted with laughter. It might have been able to cut my skin before, but I was far tougher than I used to be.

Upside down and filled with a new euphoria my laughter echoed down over the cliffs as the sun slowly drifted below the horizon, leaving Otga to temporarily rule the sky. Yamash would claim it from them soon enough with the fall of night.