“Please tell me she pulled it off?” Sylthis' excited voice carried over the sound of sizzling meat.
Yet another hog from Janet’s hunts was on a skewer, slowly rotating over red coals. The heady scent of infused herbs made Janet’s mouth water. It had been a long, fruitful day for Janet, and it looked like dinner would be just as amazing.
“Oh, yeah. Nearly shit myself at some point,” Brian elaborated. “One moment her shadow fused with the one cast by the ants, then all I saw was them falling over, their mana dispersing into the atmosphere.”
“Just from raw manipulation?”
“Well, yeah, but I’d bet my shiniest pendant that her [Talent] has a lot to do with it.”
Brian was regaling the party with a dramatic account of their adventures in the canyon. He was especially enthusiastic about Janet's new ability.
“What, the Shadow [Talent]?” Sylvia asked, her voice laced with skepticism. “If that were the case, Shadow Affinity would be looked at with a lot more caution than it is today. It would be downright taboo, as a matter of fact.”
“Not the Shadow, Sylvia. The other one.” He patiently explained, a pensive look on his face. “In my opinion, since her soul can naturally fuse with foreign bodies of magic, she possesses some potent Mysteries in that regard. When transferred to an innocuous Skill like [Shadow Bind], the effect is especially profound since the ‘binding’…” he made air quotes with his fingers, “is more in tune with her nature.”
“I see your point, but doesn’t that imply that her [Talents] really might be connected?” Pireus asked. “We already ruled that possibility out.”
“Just because we ruled it out doesn’t mean its totally out of the question,” Sylthis countered, then hurried to explain herself when everyone, including Janet, looked at her like she’d gone crazy.
“To be clear, I’m not suggesting that that is the case. But have any of you considered the simpler answer of two complimentary [Talents]? You know, like a Lava mage will naturally utilize their comprehension of fire in practically every attack?”
Sylthis was in charge of the making the day's dinner. She had requested of Janet one of her hog carcasses killed with [Shadow Bolts] – the kills that did not yield a soul for Janet to munch upon. According to the scout, those kills were incredibly nourishing to one’s physique, and thus was a fitting parting meal for the departing three.
The meat would be paired with a special crispy golden-brown grain bread that Sylthis always carried in her storage, hoarding the loaves with as much vehemence as Janet did her kills.
As for Janet’s payment for the meat, she had requested that the departing three sleuth on her behalf any details to do with Lycanhold. That mission from Gaia was still hanging over her head, and Janet wanted to begin her preparations as early as possible.
“Did you at least get a Skill out of the whole encounter?” Sylvia asked, and four other heads turned to face Janet, eagerly awaiting her answer.
“My Class is still…” Janet began, her face crestfallen. Sympathetic nods joined her in her disappointment. They all knew her Class Skills would remain out of reach until the System deemed her constitution sturdy enough, when all her Stats maxed out at 30.
“How about levels, then?” Sylthis piped up from her position by the fire. Using a dropper, she drizzled a light green liquid from a tiny vial onto the glistening pork rump, sending waves of heady herbal fragrance everywhere. Janet felt her mouth water as the scent tickled her nostrils.
“I remember getting three level-up notifications,” Janet reported, her eyes getting cloudy for a second as she perused through her Status.
“Holy shit!” she exclaimed as she weighed how her Status compared with what she remembered from that morning. Her focus was locked onto the Stats, particularly the Free Points section.
Status
Name: Janet
Race: [unknown] LV 12
Talents: Shadow Affinity (Arcane), Soul Affinity (True)
Blessings: Gaia and Ionus: [Dance of Dual Elements – Life, Death] (upgradeable)
Class: [Binder of Shadow] (Locked)
Subclasses: N/A
Resources
Mana (MP): 240/250
Health (HP): 300/300
Stamina: 210/270
Stats
Vitality: 30
Strength: 17 (23)
Agility: 22 (28)
Endurance: 21 (27)
Wisdom: 19 (25)
Intelligence: 25 (30)
Senses: 30
Willpower: 30
Free Points: 19
Titles
Blessed, Avid Learner
Skills:
General
[Throw] (Basic), [Sprint] (Common), [Cooking] (Common), [Butchering] (Common), [Novice Cartographer] (Common)
Magic
[Meditation] (Common), [Mana Sight] (Rare), [Shadow Bolt] (Uncommon), [Construct Field – Shadow] (Rare), [Mana Manipulation] (Common), [Weapon Cladding – Mana] (Uncommon), [Cutting Edge] (Uncommon)
Class Skills
N/A
Subclass Skills
N/A
Spell Book:
(Empty)
Before she left for the canyon, only her Vitality, Senses, and Willpower had been maxed out. After her little Ant-mageddon, however…
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“What, what is it?” Sylthis queried as another whiff of herb-laden air wafted past Janet’s nose. This time she did not even take note of the tantalizing scent.
“I think I have enough free points to unlock the Class!”
The joy in her voice was infectious. Requests were immediately made of her to share her Status. She did not even hesitate, keen as a bean to broadcast her wonderful news.
“I’ll be!” Brian exclaimed. “And here we thought you were an entire week away from being able to unleash your Class upon the world!”
Brian was smiling like a proud older brother. When he was not being insufferably condescending, he was actually quite handsome, Janet mused.
Even through her good news, Janet realized that she’d miss this group of people that had installed themselves into her life. They had truly become her friends.
“How did you miss this?” Sylvia muttered, lodging a suspicious side-eye at the girl of the hour. “Were you keeping the numbers to yourself so you’d surprise us just before we left?”
“Or are you perhaps just that terrible at arithmetic?” Darius asked, and Janet blushed.
She was the go-to girl on all issues, archaic or simple, concerning magic theory. That was as easy for her to grasp as an alphabet. When it came to calculations however…
“Math requires books and pens to practice calculations,” she answered the party leader and his raised eyebrows. “Runes, languages and all the other stuff require only rote memorization as long as I have the material in hand…”
Her excuse sounded as flimsy as it felt.
“I guess we now have something to occupy the coming weeks as we hunt down the rest of your [Talents],” Darius stated as he summoned his notebook and took down some notes.
“Wait a second, I shared my Status at LV 4, didn’t I? How come I’m the only one who’s bad at math when you all failed to put two and two together?”
Four adults pretended to inspect the horizon. Janet felt her chest fill with warmth as she luxuriated in the sensation of winning a verbal contest.
Unfortunately, although she won the argument, the point about her lacking skills had been made loud and clear. Darius was already drawing up a curriculum, his pen scratching furiously away at a blank white parchment.
That, Janet decided, was future Janet’s problem. For now, all she wanted to do was unlock her Class.
She tried commanding the points into the Stats that were not maxed out, but that only resulted in her glowering furiously into thin air.
“How do I allocate the free points, again?” she asked out loud.
“Just decide on the share you wish to allocate to every Stat, then confirm the dialog box that pops up,” Sylthis explained. “First create a clear image of the final Stat distribution, then impress that upon your Status. The System takes care of the rest.”
Janet did as was instructed. Nothing happened at first, but after ‘thinking at her Status’, a floating box containing the Stats as they would appear after the allocation was finalized popped up.
Stats
Vitality: 30
Strength: 30
Agility: 30
Endurance: 30
Wisdom: 30
Intelligence: 30
Senses: 30
Willpower: 30
Free Points: 2
Confirm: YES/NO
Janet clicked on the bold, dark “YES”, before a smile bloomed on her face. A sensation of euphoria spread through her body, from toe to scalp. The free points were being used to enact transformation throughout her body.
There was a sense of completion, of meeting a threshold inlaid in the pleasure. It felt like an athlete comfortably beating their record, or an archer finally hitting a bullseye accurately at a range they’d spent years practicing for.
Janet knew, without the shadow of a doubt, that her burgeoning cultivation had permanently crossed a threshold. No matter what disaster happened, her constitution had become affirmed at base 30. Officially, her Stats had reached the peak of First Circle.
“Is everything okay, Janet?” Sylthis’ voice cut through Janet’s mind like a flash flood, drowning out all her ecstasy and bringing her back to the present.
In front of her eyes, she saw as her Status shimmered out of existence, then reappeared with a few key changes.
Status
Name: Janet
Race: [unknown] LV 12
Talents: Shadow Affinity (Arcane), Soul Affinity (True)
Blessings: Gaia and Ionus: [Dance of Dual Elements – Life, Death] (upgradeable)
Class: [Binder of Shadow]
Subclasses: N/A
Resources
Mana (MP): 240/300
Health (HP): 300/300
Stamina: 210/300
Stats
Vitality: 30
Strength: 30
Agility: 30
Endurance: 30
Wisdom: 30
Intelligence: 30
Senses: 30
Willpower: 30
Free Points: 2
Titles
Blessed, Avid Learner, Classed, Head Start (I)
Skills:
General
[Throw] (Basic), [Sprint] (Common), [Cooking] (Common), [Butchering] (Common), [Novice Cartographer] (Common)
Magic
[Meditation] (Common), [Mana Sight] (Rare), [Shadow Bolt] (Uncommon), [Construct Field – Shadow] (Rare), [Mana Manipulation] (Common), [Weapon Cladding – Mana] (Uncommon), [Cutting Edge] (Uncommon)
Class Skills
[Shadow Bind] (2/10)
Subclass Skills
N/A
Spell Book:
(Empty)
“Congratulations, Janet,” Sylvia intoned, adding to the flurry of praise and compliments her party had showered upon Janet. There was a smile peeping at the corner of the Elf’s mouth.
“That means she’s over the moon about you finally unlocking her handiwork,” Sylthis explained. “Also about you finally coming into some manner of power, but that’s just a minor ‘by the way’.”
“Yeah, what she said,” Sylvia nodded, then continued in a serious tone. “With this step, your body and mind are fully established to take on the rigors of your magic. The foundation, as Darius would put it, is set. All that remains is for you to utilize your Class to full effect, so your [Talent] can arrive at the threshold as well.”
“At which point you’ll get to evolve into Second Circle and learn your first Spells,” Brian added. “You have no idea how exhilarating it is to mold mana and reality with the raw might of a roaring spell.”
Yes, Janet knew exactly what he was talking about. A spell was a lot different from a Skill, since one could adjust a spell on the fly, creating varied effects and transforming a spell effect to suit any situation. A fire spell, as Brian loved to demonstrate, could be turned into a docile tongue of snaking flames, a brilliant ball to produce light, or an exploding bomb of contained conflagration that scorched everything in its path.
Janet felt sour that the two brought up her missing primal [Talents] that would enable her entry into that world, but she understood their motive. They were tantalizing her with tales of what lay ahead so she’d not get complacent.
More discussion ensued, from the meaning of the [Shadow Bind] (2/10) to what the next steps for her would be.
The 2/10 meant that she’d internalized, or at the very least mastered, 20% of the ‘essence’ of that Class Skill.
Unlike General Skills that could evolve and mutate with the practitioner’s experience, Class skills operated from a static template. They were akin to a pre-set program schematized into ascending levels of mastery, with gradual comprehension of concepts leading to better utilization of a Skills, and thus more power and resource efficiency from deploying said Skill.
Every single advancement of Class Skills yielded SP, with which one could purchase more Skills, and thus earn more SP. The more dedicated one was to advancing their Class, the more they would grow in power. Janet now had 2 SP, still 10 SP short before she could afford her next cheapest Class Skill.
The gamification ensured that the Practitioners remained reliant on their Guild Systems to grow in power since Class Skills only existed in the Almanacs. The Guilds also set the SP price of every Skill.
It was a controversial system, but the Guild racket was the last thing on Janet’s mind. Not only was her Class unlocked, so too was her first Class Skill, and the day’s excursion had given her a glimpse of the kind of power it could help her bring to bear.
Step by step, her number of aces and tools of freedom were growing. Janet knew that she was still in the lowest rung amongst Practitioners, but that was still miles above her station a mere short month in the past.
With a slow exhale, she dove into her dinner. It was sumptuous. Whatever Sylthis had drizzled into the meat complimented its flavor beautifully, adding a whole dimension to the eating experience.
That, when paired with the bread… it was just heaven.
Janet purposed to press the giant woman for her secrets in the art of cooking. She had a Skill that needed improvement there, too.
Janet looked about, takin in the sight of Brian, Darius, Sylvia, and Sylthis, along with her teacher. They all were eating with rapturous smiles. She couldn’t help the sniffle that broke through her stoic mask.
Their troupe would have shrunk to three by morning. It was sad, but the reasoning behind it was sound enough. Other people beside her needed the Slayers’ help, and the whole five of them sitting around babysitting a First Circle was a huge waste.
That she understood did not make her sadness any less real. Or the bubbling anger at the Adventurer group whose proximity had pushed up the date of departure.
All that was however buried beneath the thought of the hunt in the canyon that Sylthis and Darius had spent the day mapping out. With Darius leading the way with his constructs of Light and Sylthis scouting out dangers and opportunities, Janet knew tomorrow would be a huge success.