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Her eyelids felt so heavy… Isla struggled to wake up. A soft early morning light bathed the room. She was back in their common home, Grace’s bed and breakfast, in one of the guest rooms.
I survived…
“Core, are the rest OK?” she croaked, her throat dry.
[The Butler]: Everybody’s fine.
“Thank goodness… How much time has passed? It can’t be the same morning.”
[The Butler]: You Rezzed two days ago and slept until now. There is something amiss with your stats. I suggest you review them before the rest of your family wakes up.
“Thanks, I’ll do just that.”
Name: Isla Culloden. Lvl. 66. Main Class: Enforcer??? (Rare), Secondary Class: ???
8 AP available
STR: 64 / DEX: 64 / CON: 64 / INT: 75 / WIL: 25 / CHA: 25
What the fuck?
She switched the Class Menu and the notification popped out immediately.
You’re suffering from a possible Class Glitch, because of one of your secondary stats (INT) being higher than your main stat (STR). Make an informed Secondary Class selection to correct this error.
1: Trainer (Rare, INT type). Unavailable for selection. Even if your free APs are to be invested in your Main stat (STR), it would still be lower than the secondary stat (INT).
2: Hunter (Rare, INT type). Unavailable for selection. Even if your free APs are to be invested in your Main stat (STR), it would still be lower than the secondary stat (INT).
3: Mana Monk (Legendary, INT type). Conditioned. Unarmed combat specialist. Imbue your strikes with Mana and Elemental Damage.
4: The Artist (Legendary, Unique, INT type). Conditioned. You are the first person on Earth to use your Energy Shield for other purposes than intended. You have discovered a higher form of Forcefield: Aura. Learn to shape it into Mana Sculptures, Disguises, Illusions, Constructs, or Combative applications.
“Artist! I take the artist's stuff,” she blurted. It was a dream come true. Finally! She will prove to the universe, and Rowan, that she’s smart! An artist!
Warning: An Aura artist is a Legendary tier class, and offers many bespoke choices, because no two artists are the same. Michelangelo and Leonardo are worlds apart.
Sure, their bandanas have different colors.
She dismissed the thought. Now that she was an artist, she couldn’t afford to think like a ‘Merican. Promising herself to read all that was to read about Mona Lisa, or even watch the musical, she continued reading the notification.
Nevertheless, a Secondary Legendary Class is still two tiers over your Main class, which is not allowed.
Noooo… Please, pretty please, I wanna be an artist!
After all, is Douanier Rousseau remembered for his Customs job? Mussorgsky or Chabrier for being civil servants? Bukovski for being a postman?
Fuck… there are more turtle ninja teams?
To obtain The Artist class, it has to be promoted as a Main Class, and your Enforcer relegated to secondary. All the Perks will remain the same. The mutation will produce severe pain and dizziness. Accept mutation: Y/N.
“Of course I accept!”
Isla closed her eyes, waiting for the pain. The dizziness was real, her head turning around like a carousel. The pain… meh. She was used to much worse. When the switch was done, she giddily summoned her new Character Menu, to see the news. The old job’s perks were the same, plus DPS, minus damage, blah blah blah. She read the new perks in one go, then returned to the beginning, because the emotion made her forget everything.
New Perks obtained.
Secondary (former Primary) Class: Enforcer
INT
First Perk: Quick Thinking. You can react instantly to any menace and find ways to counter it.
Third Perk: Tactics. Reading of the battlefield. Synergizes with your husband’s Strategic Sixth Sense.
Yeah. In your face, Grace. Who's the best wife now?
Please choose your INT second threshold Perk:
1: Read the Flow. Understand the opponent’s movement better, and find counters easily. +25% to Parry, Evade, or Block.
2: Go with the Flow. +25% Critical Chance if your strikes follow each other less than 1.5 seconds apart.
Two, of course. It's OP if you know what you're doing.
Main Class: Aura Artist (Bespoke displayed name The Artist awarded for being the first person on Earth to unlock it)
STR
First Perk: When using your Aura as a weapon, your strikes have +25% damage against a target’s Energy Shield
DEX
First Perk: When using Aura as a weapon, your strikes have +25% Critical Chance against a target’s Energy Shield
CON
First Perk: Your Aura melds with the surface of your body, enhancing its Beauty, Toughness, and Regeneration by +25%
Isla erupted up, rushing to the bathroom to check herself in the mirror. She looked years younger, much like she did in the first years of college. Really cute.
In your face, Cora. Do you think you’re the only one able to make puppy eyes, pucker, and pretend you need a strong man to open your pickle jar? Ha ha ha!
Returning to the bed, she read on.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
INT
Perk 1: Aura Weapon (Legendary). You can shape your Aura into a melee or range weapon. The simplest the shape the better the results. Projectiles shot with a ranged weapon have a current range of ten yards before they lose their energy. It Consumes 20 Mana/projectile (ranged weapon) or per second spent in Combat (melee weapon). Can be used to Imbue normal weapons.
Perk 3: It’s Alive! (Legendary) Creates constructs that behave like animated pieces of art, dungeon monsters, or living beings. An amount of your Mana will be transferred to the construct (1 Mana/second), acting as an Energy Pool. Controlling a construct consumes an amount equal to their EP/10 Mana per second. Current control range: 100 yards. Stationary art creations or turret-type constructs can be programmed to feed on the local mana leylines. Mobile constructs can be programmed to attack or defend, at the expense of their Energy Pool. If the EP reaches zero, the construct ceases to exist.
This opens possibilities.
WIL
Perk 1: Look, no hands! You can use your Aura to grab or push things away. Consumes 20 MP/sec. if in Combat or 10 MP/sec. out of combat. Current reach: 15 feet.
CHA
Perk 1: Disguise. You can use your Aura to hide yourself or others behind an illusion. Your chances of success increase if you have a good knowledge of the disguise. Cost: 10 Mana/second.
Hmm… I could have used that when I pretended to be Grace, to get into Rowan’s bed… but that was a bad very thing to do… thank goodness it's behind us.
Please select your new Main Class second threshold perks:
STR:
1: It’s Alive and Dangerous! Constructs made with your INT perk 3 can deliver attacks with 50% of your STR base damage (default level is 10%)
2: Concentrated Power: Increase the base damage power of your Mana weapons by 50% by consuming an extra 20 Mana/second spent in combat. The power coefficient is +100% against Energy Shields.
Let’s go with two.
DEX
1: Critter. Constructs made with your INT perk 3 can deliver attacks with 50% of your Crit Change (default level is 10%)
2: Wieldy. You strike +50% faster with Aura weapons at an added cost of 20MP/second spent in combat.
OK, so it looks like the first choice in Strength and Dexterity helps constructs, and the second myself. But since I went with the second in Strength, I’ll take the second one here too. I like close combat, it's OK.
CON
1: Enhanced Stamina. Less need for rest or sleep, and resist mild poisons. An Artist needs to resist long hours of work, abuse of alcohol, or orgies.
Nope. I'm not that kind of an artist. Go with two, whatever it is
2: Body Fusion Powerhouse. Your STR, DEX, and CON stats all contribute to your Health Pool.
That’s more like it.
INT
1: Harmonics. You can resonate with other forcefields. A good chance to dismiss or take over other people’s shields, or pass through Border-like forcefields.
2: Mind Fusion Powerhouse. Your INT, WIL, and CHA stats all contribute to your Mana Pool
What did Thomas say? Always go for utilities. One.
Your new class has retroactively awarded 2 APs/every ten levels to INT, WIL, and CHA. The points previously acquired in STR, DEX, and CON will not be rerolled, but you won’t get more APs in them at the every ten-level threshold. Your new stats are:
STR: 64 / DEX: 64 / CON: 64 / INT: 87 / WIL: 37 / CHA: 37
Having obtained so many new and cool perks made Isla so happy that she was on the verge of crying, but out of a sudden, noises outside her room attracted her attention. Voices speaking aloud and, for whatever reason, slowly, almost like reading from a paper. Cora and Grace. The first asked:
“You think she’s awake?”
“I don’t know.”
“I wanna check.”
“Let her be!”
“I wanna go shopping for clothes, and need her advice.”
“I can offer you advice.”
“You? You’re dressing like one of those nineteenth-century damsels. I need someone classy and modern, like Isla, showing me the ropes.”
I didn’t know Cora had such good taste, Isla thought. Don’t worry, kid, I’ll be your Fashion master, and you’ll be my Padawan. No one knows sportswear better than me, in the whole County.
“Hi, girls,” Rowan's voice appeared as well. “Is Isla awake?”
“I don’t know. What do you have there? Flowers? When’s the last time you brought me flowers?” Grace’s voice raised in pitch.
“I swear I will… just not now. Sorry, I have to check on her.”
A timid knock on the door. Before Rowan knocked the second time, Isla yelled. “Come in.”
In Rowan’s hands was not only a bouquet but also a box of chocolates. He rushed to hug Isla, kissing her hair. “I was worried sick. Are you OK?”
“I am. But my Main Class changed. I’m an Artist now,” Isla beamed.
“An A-artist? I’m m-married to an artist?” Rowan blurted, widening his eyes and covering his mouth with both his hands.
“Two artists. Two!” Grace yelled from the corridor. “I’m going to teach my art classes. See you later.”
“Isla, I badly need new clothes, you think you can find some time today to help me choose some?" Cora asked from the door.
"Of course, little grasshopper. What about in the afternoon? I need some time to experiment with my new Class." Isla said with enthusiasm, nodding, her eyes shining with happiness and repressed tears.
"It's a plan," Cora cheered, clapping her hands merrily. "Cya, I'll check the County’s settings and prepare the absorptions. Join me when you can… Rowbunny,” Cora said, running away after the last word and evading the pillow Rowan threw at her.
The day was as perfect as it could be, Isla decided. First, she needed to have some morning sex with Rowan, then she’d check on Mona Lisa and other shit.
----------------------------------------
The Town Square was not so big, but Rowan was still discovering its secrets. One of the mansions built by Cora when she was acting as a fake AI had a secret passage that opened in another building, which had a common courtyard with a library, that was in fact just a front and always closed, and in its attic was a portal to the Town’s Core Control pocket dimension.
Cora had insisted on the term, to differentiate from the pocket universes that were dungeons. For Rowan, it was the same, but he wasn’t going to argue on that. He was reserving his arguing moments for when it mattered.
While she was talking nerdish technical stuff and he pretended to listen, they arrived in a large round room, with another portal on the opposite side and a console in the middle.
“What’s there?” Rowan asked.
“The town’s storage. Care to see it?”
Rowan didn’t care, actually, but it didn’t matter too much as long it made her happy, so he nodded. “Yeah, why not.” After passing through the second gate, they arrived inside a gigantic subterranean cavern, miles wide, and at least one in height, the light provided by floating orbs, and in the middle lay the Traipenent. He stopped and gasped, impressed by both the ship’s and the cavern’s size. “I thought you’d dismember it.”
“I'm salvaging parts,” she pointed to lines of components lying in rows. “The Tehchoforge is still too low level to disassemble the outer layer, and for the rest, it’s only one of me, you know. Reliable bots are hard to build, they tend to go Skynet as soon you make them smart enough.”
He realized that almost on her own, she had managed to put together stuff for a fully armored company plus a lot of other useful things, and without ever bragging or taking credit. “You’re doing a great job,” he kissed her on the temple, and she purred. “Could we… err… make it fly again?”
“There are a couple of shuttles that can make it around the Solar system on warp drive, but interstellar travel is not possible without a proper Ship Core.”
“Should we?” he gestured to the portal.
Back in the control room, they sat at the table and Cora summoned a holographic map of the surroundings. “Since we’re home, and this Core is customized for my abilities, you have here all the nearby counties. Touch the ones you want to take over.”
“How many can we get, and still reach level fifty?”
“For level fifty, the Shore dungeon is enough on its own. Or, you can spend the smaller cores to get us to level forty-eight, take a large chunk of land, and go level fifty when we get our hands on more cores.”
Rowan nodded. “Let’s not risk it. Will we be the only ones at fifty?”
“Vegas is close, at forty-five, and Rome at forty now. Rome would be able to level to fifty with ten mini-cores, and they have four of them in storage, but Calveor is too big for that.”
“I guess it’s my fault, for insisting on a large area,” Rowan grimaced.
“Or Viscardi’s, going for Reno. So, where do you want to go?”
Rowan examined the map attentively, furrowing his brows or scratching his head from time to time. “How many mini-cores do we have again, thirteen?”
“Yep,” Cora said curtly while pressing various buttons.
“Then… How about leveling to fifty with the Shore core, and spreading to Barbour, Tucker, and Pendleton with mini-cores? We give six cores to Rome, helping them to reach level fifty, keep the rest in reserve, and go hunting for another true dungeon to help Vegas.”
She turned her eyes toward him. “Sounds good, but… you’re aware that half of Barbour was nuked, right?”
“The southern part, yeah. But you said it’s almost back to normal… can we restore it, if we take it? Maybe building a new town for the Swarthy Elves.”
“Oh, how could I forget?” Cora slapped her forehead. “They pledged allegiance to you, right? You’re the Great Dane now.”
“Thane, the Great Thane,” Rowan shook his head in panic. "Please, don't call me that in public."
“Must be the Universal Translator bugging," Cora frowned. "That’s exactly what I said. Great Dane.”
“Just let it be,” Rowan waved his hand. “So? About those counties?”
“Let me check,” Cora nodded, tapping again on buttons and a keyboard. “It is possible to repair the damage, rebuild Belington and a new city if we spend another mini-core. But by the System rules, will we have to ask the landowners, survivors, or refugees. The new city will be on their lands.”
“Put a word out there: we clean the area and rebuild their town if they agree to give up some land. And please, pretty please, don’t build anything until you check with them. Humans like large bathrooms.”
“I noticed," she creased her nose. "A waste of space if you ask me, but whatever."
"You did a real good job renovating the houses we bought," he complimented her to raise the mood. "Papa likes his for sure."
"Of course he does, he's a gentleman with exquisite tastes. OK," she leaned forward, inspecting the virtual screen, "The voting is live. We’ll have to wait… oh, Barbour is won. That was fast. Guess they prefer us to a government that nuked them. I’ll send them some info about The Swarthy Elves and their culture.”
They stood in silence, waiting for the rest of the results, numbers, and percentages going up and down. Rowan kept staring at the young Nekojin busying over the keyboard, biting the tip of her tongue, concentrating, imagining her confined on the bridge of the Traipenent, for two months, with her only activity being taking care of him and Randolph County.
“It's done,” she said after ten or fifteen minutes. “So, now, you have to choose a name. The suggestions are Turapeba, Bara—”
“No!" Rowan blurted. "Fuck those silly combinations. I want a totally new name for our enlarged County.”
“You do?” she widened her eyes. “Anything in mind?”
“Yes. Cora County. You deserve it.”
She jumped in his arms, over the table, in one single leap.