Liam stared at the notification again and reread the last two questions.

----------------------------------------

“Would you like to evolve Main Class – Crafter to Main Class – Spirit Weaver? Yes No?”

----------------------------------------

“Did you guys get a notification about evolving your class?” Inyis suddenly asked, bringing Liam’s attention to her.

“Yeah,” Jude stated.

“Does anyone know how long the process will take for the class to evolve?” Aranis questioned as he looked at them.

Jude and Inyis shook their heads before looking at Liam.

“I’m not too sure. It’ll be a gamble for sure, but we need to decide now before it’s too late,” Liam stated as he glanced at the monster’s heading their way.

Do it. Eri suddenly stated in Liam’s mind. Don’t hesitate and do it.

As Eri spoke to him, he noticed the other three suddenly tense and look confused. Liam’s brows scrunched at this.

Are you sure? Liam inquired.

If you don’t then your chances of surviving are a lot lower than it would be if you put it off. Eri stated with some urgency.

Before Liam could say anything to her, Jude suddenly shouted, “Fuck it!”

The other three turned their attention towards Jude as a wave of power started to build up around him. The temperature around him started to rise as steam began to roll off his skin.

Liam saw a small flame flicker in his pupils for a few seconds as he started grunting and breathing heavily. It looked like he was in pain as he brought his arms across his chest while the power continued to grow.

To Liam it looked like Jude was about to burst as his skin started turning red. After a few seconds had passed he let out a loud and powerful roar as a burst of flames suddenly exploded out from him.

Aranis, Inyis, and Liam braced themselves for the impact, but as the flames washed over them they didn’t receive any damage.

The same couldn’t be said for the creatures that were closest to him. The Skeleton Warriors fell backwards as the Rotted Zombies and Mummy Guards lit up in flames.

Amazed and shocked, Aranis, Inyis, and Liam stared at Jude who was studying himself. The flames that covered his body simmered down before he clenched a fist and grinned wickedly.

He looked at the three and stated, “Well, what are you waiting for?”

Inyis and Aranis nodded as they stared at their notifications and accepted.

An invisible power built up around the two shortly after they accepted. Unlike Jude, the power around Aranis felt weird. It had a sharp yet nonexistent touch. Almost like it was illusionary.

The power that was covering Inyis gave Liam the impression that he was in the middle of nature. It was calm yet a hidden danger could be felt within the calmness almost like a predator was lurking around. Not only that, but it felt that Liam’s thoughts were laid bare in front of her.

Liam then saw Aranis’ body start flickering in and out as vines started to run up Inyis’ body. After a few seconds had passed a translucent wave pulsed out from Aranis. As the wave washed over the creatures closest to him, slashes and gouges suddenly appeared all over their bodies.

The vines that had ran up Inyis’ body suddenly shot out towards the monsters closest to her. They pierced through some of the monsters and constricted around some of the others.

Liam felt some excitement from watching this. He wasn’t sure what a Spirit Weaver was, but it sounded cool to him. He looked at the notification still hovering in front of him and mentally accepted it.

As soon as he accepted, he felt a pressure start to build up all around him. He felt an invisible power start to touch his skin. He wasn’t sure what was going on and before he could say anything he felt that power pierce into his body and touch something he was unfamiliar with. As the power invaded his body his sight suddenly grew dark. His body felt cold, and his consciousness faded. The last thing he heard was Aranis, Inyis, and Jude yelling out his name.

Aranis Inyis and Jude were elated with what their evolved class presented them. However, before they could look more into it they felt something odd and dangerous right beside them.

They all turned to see Liam’s body start to fall backwards. That wasn’t the only thing. It felt like his presence suddenly vanished almost like he had died right as he hit the ground.

“What the fuck?!” Jude stated, confused and shocked.

“Is that supposed to happen?” Inyis asked, just as confused as the other two. “Is it possible one could die from evolving their class?”

Each of them froze as words whispered their minds, calming them and taking away their slowly panicked feeling. They were still confused by what was said to them, but they braced themselves for what was coming next.

An eerily ghastly green color suddenly sparked around Liam as his body floated up. His body positioned itself into a standing one, but his feet didn’t touch the ground. Instead, it just hovered a bit as the ghastly green color started to brighten.

A few seconds after it grew to the point he was looking like a beacon, the power shot out and washed over twenty undead creatures, making each of them drop the instant the power covered them.

Orbs of ghastly green, much cleaner than the ones the Lich had produced, escaped out from the dead creatures.

All twenty orbs then flew towards Liam and started to swirl right in front of him creating some sort of shape. After a second had passed, Liam thrusted his right hand out and griped the swirling orbs. The swirling orbs then transformed into a hexagonal lantern with raven black metal and glass covering the opened areas the length of Liam’s forearm.

Aranis, Jude, and Inyis stared at the lantern looking object and felt a shiver run down their spines. Through the glass they were able to see a creepy green light that seemed to be calling for something deep within their bodies. The call was both soothing and dangerous the longer they stared.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Their attention then turned to Liam as his body floated down to the ground. As soon as his feet touched it, his eyes shot open. A ghastly green smoke rolled out from his eyes as they glowed the same soothing and dangerous color that had encased his body moments ago.

“Are you alright?” Aranis asked as he stared at Liam.

“Did you get some powerful class?” Jude quickly asked, excited to know what he had got.

Liam stared off at something the others couldn’t see. After a moment had passed, Liam’s face turned to a frown. He then said with some disappointment, “Its another fucking crafting type class.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mercer watched as everyone panicked and struck as violently and hard as they could against the ice wall that was preventing them from getting to their leaders. He noticed they were attacking with reckless abandon. Not really aiming or thinking.

They were using their stamina recklessly, causing them to grow tired as they struck fast and hard.

This is getting us nowhere. We need to figure something out. Someone needs to take command. Mercer thought.

As he was thinking of something, he heard someone call out, “Mercer! What’s the plan?”

He turned to the voice to see Roman staring at him.

He was shocked to see Roman of all people asking him for instructions. “Why are you asking me?”

“It’s because you’re the one who’s always close by Liam when he leads us. You and he are always talking about strategies whenever we weren’t in the dungeon,” Ariyana explained.

“If anyone is close to being able to lead us right now it’s you,” Avery added. “I’d love to, but leading isn’t something I really want to do. Artem and Blair are in a panic. Roman is surprisingly calm and thinking for once, but even he understands he isn’t fit to lead.”

“Liam has been teaching me things, but I’m still nowhere close to you guys in that area,” Ariyana stated.

Roman glared at Avery’s comments, but instead of arguing with her, he added, “That just leaves you. You took charge when Inyis couldn’t and I think you’ll be able to do so here as well. So, what do we do?”

Mercer stared at them. He felt a bit happy that his teammates trusted him well enough to lead them with their leader’s absence, but as soon as he felt that he recognized another feeling.

Fear. Fear that all these lives were going to be in his hands. Fear that he had to come up with something to get them not only pass this ice covered wall, but pass the hordes of undead monsters streaming in just to get to their leaders before they died.

Is this the pressure Liam was feeling during this whole fight? How was he able to deal with it all while at the same time thinking of strategies? Mercer thought. He shook his head as he tried not to think of any negative thoughts. No. If he was able to do this, then I should too. They are counting on me, and he is waiting for us.

After finishing his thoughts, he began to study the wall. The entire thing was solid and thick. After watching the frontline trying to chip away at it, he noticed there wasn’t a lot of damage done.

It’s either that wall is immune to physical attacks or we just aren’t strong enough to shatter it with pure strength. If that’s the case then… Mercer began thinking before looking for Rez. After he found him, he called out, “Rez! Come here!”

Rez turned his attention over to Mercer and gave him a puzzling expression. After a brief moment he made his way over to him.

“What’s going on…Mercer, right?” Rez asked.

“Yes,” Mercer replied. “Since you know more about Ice Magic than I do, what do you know about this spell?”

Rez studied Mercer before looking back at the ice wall. After a few seconds had passed, he answered, “I know it’s a much higher level spell than what I have, but if its Ice Magic it has a major weakness and that’s fire. However, I don’t think throwing Fireballs all over will do anything. At our level it probably do as much damage as their physical attacks.”

Mercer nodded at Rez’s analysis. “Okay, but what if we focus our Fire Magic in a certain area?”

Rez shrugged. “If someone has a continuous spell going will another threw powerful fire magic then there might be a chance, but I’m not entirely sure.”

An idea suddenly popped into his head. “I know you have Fire Magic, but do you have the spell Wave of Ignition?”

Rez nodded. “I do, but I don’t think having me use it alone will be enough.”

Mercer smiled as he said, “Who said you’ll be the only one to use it?” He then motioned for Ariyana, Avery, and Roman to come over to them.

As soon as the three arrived, Mercer asked, “Avery and Roman, what’s your MP at right now? Is it full?”

“Yeah, I haven’t used anything since Artem refilled it,” Avery answered.

“Same here,” Roman agreed.

“Good,” Mercer started back up. “We’re going to have you two use Wave of Ignition focused around a certain area with Rez. I’m going to use Mana Pulse to try and keep your MP up for as long as I can while you’re using it.”

Mercer turned to look at Ariyana. “I need you to cast Echoes of Sound on everyone. Rotate through us all to help give us that extra boost.”

Ariyana, Avery, and Roman nodded.

Rez stared at them. He was impressed they were able to come up with this strategy. However, he wasn’t sure if it was going to work. The probability of this working was extremely low. He didn’t want to waste any mana unnecessarily. Albeit, after looking at their confident faces, he couldn’t help but want to go along with the plan. After all, it was better than doing nothing.

“Alright, let’s do this,” Rez stated. “But where are we going to focus?”

Mercer looked around and scanned for a spot. He didn’t want to do right behind the Lich since that could spell trouble. Instead, he found a spot on the right side of them. It was in between the door and the Lich where a lot of undead creatures had gathered.

“Right there,” Mercer pointed.

The four turned to look at where he pointed and where skeptical.

“That is where you want to do this at?” Rez questioned.

Mercer nodded. “Yes, I have another idea for what comes after, but I need to confirm something. You guys go stop them from wasting their stamina and inform them what we’re going to do.”

The four nodded and started doing what they were told as Mercer scanned the area to find the one person he needed to talk to. Once he found her, he made his way over.

He called out the moment he was close by, “Mia!” He knew she could be very skittish at times, so he wanted her to know he was coming instead of just appearing.

Mia turned to look at him. Henry was right next to her and looked at him with a scowl as well.

“What do you want?” Henry glared.

“I need your help Mia,” Mercer started.

“What’s this? The genius merchant needs someone’s hel…,” Henry started to say haughtily.

“Not the time Henry,” Mercer cut him off.

Henry glowered as he started back up. “It’s never the time with you. Why should Mia help you?”

“Because if I remember correctly she has an ability that can help us get to both Liam and Jude. And I need her help if we want to get to them as fast as we can,” Mercer quickly stated.

Mia looked at Mercer. She studied him as she listened.

“As much as that sounds so noble, what makes you think she would help you out? What, are you going to take credit again for her….,” Henry started back up, but stopped as Mia put a hand out.

“He’s right Henry. Now’s not the time to dive into the past,” Mia said as calm as she could. She looked back at Mercer and asked, “Why would know about one of my abilities?”

Mercer looked at her. He gave her a sad smile and said honestly, “I truly thought of you guys as my friends since I didn’t have any back then.”

Henry was about to say something again, but stopped as Mia shot a look at him.

“Since I thought of you guys as my friends I took note of as much as I could of you all. Including birthdays,” Mercer said.

Mia flinched at what he said. “So, it comes to that ability. How do you know of it?”

“I was born the same month as you so we both have the same Zodiac,” Mercer stated.

After thinking things over, Mia started to say, “I don’t think I will…”

A sudden wave of power in the air turned their attention towards the area behind the ice wall.

“What was that?” someone questioned.

“You felt that too?” Another asked.

Mercer looked out and tried peering through the ice wall and the crowd of undead. Two more waves of power were felt as objects were seen flying in the air around a certain spot.

Everyone then heard three voices yell out Liam’s name that sent a chill running down his spine.

He narrowed his eyes and tried focusing on what was going on over there. He couldn’t see much since there were so many monsters in the way, but after a few seconds had passed he saw an eerily ghastly green light start to brighten. He then saw a body start to float a bit in the air.

His brows scrunched at what he was seeing and grew even more confused as he heard the Lich say something that made him confused.

“How is that possible? That kind of power shouldn’t belong to anyone but them,” the Lich stated with both confusion and shock.

The ghastly green light then suddenly pulsed out. The color and brightness had faded after reaching a quarter of the way away from the person. However, he felt something wash over his skin that helped calm his nerves.

Mercer grew resolute after feeling that and said with finality, “They are still fighting with all they have to stay alive. Why shouldn’t we do all we can to fight our way to them?”

Mia tore her gaze from the scene in front of her towards Mercer. After a few seconds had passed, she let out a sigh and replied, “What do you have planned?”