“Fine. What’s the worst that could happen?” Fia asked with a sigh. “And that’s rhetorical. You put in all that effort talking me into this, don’t say something that’ll change my mind now.”
The lich’s skeletal mouth almost seemed to twist into a hint of a grin as Fia accepted the Awakening Stone from the lich’s hand. A System Window automatically popped up, as it had last time with the copper one that turned her into a [Bandit].
[Gold Awakening Stone]
Quality: Rare, A
An Awakening Stone inlaid with golden kintsugi in a crack-like and ore-like pattern. Will grant a Class based on the user with a level cap of 199.
Notice! You are holding an Awakening Stone. Would you like to consume it to gain a new Class?
Notice! You are already Awakened. New classes gained will be tracked independently of your current class.
“I’ve never multi-classed before. I’ve heard it’s not popular.” Fia said, looking up at the lich.
“At lower levels, it is not. Each class you have will have its own class level, with your level being the sum of your class levels. Each class will have its own independent experience pool, which can make reaching a new class evolution harder at low levels. How much experience each class siphons will depend heavily on the class. A crafter class may take no experience from a kill, or two combat classes may split the experience based on how much of each class’s skills you used. It always depends. However, gaining versatility and new skills from a second class is almost always a boon.”
Fia nodded, because that made sense. It did bring another question to mind, however. “If each class has its own level cap that contributes to your overall cap, why don’t people just get high level by having a bunch of lower level classes?”
“Well, it certainly happens. It’s one possible way to reach high levels. If you’re an idiot. Class evolutions, which are available each time you pass a tier’s cap, highly upgrade your class. You’ll get more stats per level up and you’ll gain increased perk and skill qualities. Between a level 100 person with ten level 10 classes, and a level 100 person with two level 50 classes, the latter will usually always win. The second person will have undergone four class evolutions, two per class, while the first person will have undergone none. The second person will have higher stats than the first, and each skill and perk they have will be of higher quality, having most likely undergone several evolutions themselves. The first wins only in the category of having more skills and perks, and potentially more versatility. You trade higher quality for higher versatility when you multiclass, and it is a balance to be struck. Most people will take two or three classes if they’re smart, but taking too many will be a hindrance rather than a help.
Now, are you going to keep stalling?”
“Fine.” Fia said, and mentally accepted the Awakening Stone’s prompt.
Ding! Congratulations! Due to consuming an Awakening Stone, you have reached level 1 in the [Sorcerer] Class! No stat bonuses gained for first level. Stat bonuses gained per future levels: +30 Health +5 Stamina, +25 Mana, +0 STR, +3 CON, +2 DEX, +1 AGI, +1 SEN, +2 INT, +3 WIS, +4 WIL, +4 CHA, +5 SOU
Ding! Congratulations! You are now level 8.
Notice! Class evolution from: [None] to: [Sorcerer] detected. Status Condition [Gestation Period] has been removed.
Ding! Congratulations! For reaching level 1 in the Sorcerer class, you have been automatically granted the [Spellcasting (Arachne Bloodline)] class Perk.
Notice! You may pick 1 Level 0 (Cantrip) spell and 1 Level 1 (Novice) spell from your list of available spells.
There was a lot to unpack there, Fia thought, while reading the notifications flooding her vision and listening to the System’s voice prattle on in her head.
Firstly, she gained a level without gaining any stats. That made sense, seeing as at Dungeon Master level 1, and at Bandit level 1, her stats had been almost base stats for her race, Arachne and Human respectively. So gaining Sorcerer at level 1 hadn’t given her any extra stats, though future levels in the class would.
Secondly, apparently gaining a new class counted as a class evolution for the purposes of Gestation Period. That was news to her. She thought she’d have that broken-as-fuck status condition until she reached level 25 in her Dungeon Master class. At minimum, she’d have had Gestation Period until level 25. Higher, if it hadn’t counted gaining the Sorcerer class. But it had, and now she lost it at level 8. That would mean no more ‘easy’ fights like she had against the bear. She was in more danger, now.
Next, she used [Identify] on her new perk, and read the contents.
[Spellcasting (Arachne Bloodline)]
Effects: Allows the user to use Spells in their spell list and gain new spells at specific levels. Due to being a Sorcerer, spells cannot be used as rituals, unless another class or perk is gained that gives this ability. This perk is a variant of [Spellcasting] influenced by being of the Arachne race with no other notable bloodlines. Your list of available spells is influenced by your [Dungeon Master] class, your [Sorcerer] class, your [Spellcasting (Arachne Bloodline)] perk, and your Affinities.
“I gained the Sorcerer class, and it caused me to lose Gestation Period.” Fia stated flatly and neutrally, showing the windows to the lich.
Notice! You have been identified by a high level skill. Full status has been displayed.
A cold chill crept up her spine. Using [Identify] and similar skills on other people was rude at the best of times. At worst, it meant an enemy was about to attack. It was the main reason she hadn’t used the skill on the lich, though the [Identify] skill was such a basic skill it would give her almost no information about the lich anyways. Obviously, the lich had seen everything her status had to offer. Likely even hidden status effects that were not visible to herself. It was an extreme violation, and she would be greatly offended if it weren’t for the fact that the lich could probably instantly smite her without even moving a finger. She stared up at the lich, petrified, as it stood nearly double her height, and they both waited in heavy silence.
“A shame. That status effect was a boon for you, it would have meant quicker progress.” The lich said, giving away no hint of his emotions. Fia realized she had been holding her breath, and she let it out shakily.
“The sorcerer class will be good for you. Not as versatile as the wizard class, but you won’t have to rely on learning spells through others. You will gain them straight from the System. You will have a limited selection of spells, so you may not always be offered what you want, but I have a feeling it’ll work out for you.”
Fia gave a curt nod in response. She didn’t know how to act, now. She was thankful to the lich, obviously, but his presence here gave her an immense anxiety she did not have before.
After a few more exchanged pleasantries, the lich left through his portal, and Fia felt the tension leave her shoulders slightly. She hadn’t even realized what a mental crutch the invulnerability had been for her sense of safety until it was gone. She was a higher level now, technically, than she had ever been as a human, and her stats much higher still… But she had also never dealt with high level beings before. At least not to the lich’s degree. The undead elf positively radiated power and lethality. In the ‘one-flick-of-my-finger-could-kill-you’ or ‘one-uttered-word-could-disintegrate-you’ kind of way.
She still had spells to pick, but a cursory glance at the list left her even more overwhelmed. 246 level 0 cantrips and 493 level 1 novice spells. That’s how large the list of available spells was for her currently. Surely not a fraction of every spell in existence, but a large list of spells the System deems she was allowed to have, based off of her classes and affinities.
To get her mind off of things, she decided to push dealing with the spells back a bit. Her [Web Weavers] were finished with the curtain door in the cave entrance, but instead of bothering her while she was busy, they had opted to begin spinning their own webs on the ceiling of the cave. She ordered them to head to the unfinished spider graveyard section of the cave and begin making a wall to partition off that section of the cave. That would probably take the six of them about a day’s work. The skith was still curled up beneath the core, its standing order to keep watch over it now more important than ever.
She wanted to summon another monster. Something to do physical labor, so something humanoid, or at least able to use the new tools she had gotten. The [Ettercap] she had available would be perfect, but it would cost more mana than she had available. The same was also true of the [Werespider] and [Arachne] summons she had available. None of her other summons were humanoid, so that plan went out of the window until she gained a few more levels. It didn’t make much sense to her that an Arachne she could summon would be so strong. Was the race’s average really that much stronger than her? Did it only count Awakened average and not count un-Awakened? Could she not choose to spend less mana and summon a lower-leveled version? No. She tried activating the skill and funneling less mana, and focusing hard on her intent for the skill. It didn’t work. Maybe in a later evolution or something.
Instead, she picked up the [Sturdy Steel Pickaxe] herself, went to the back of the cave, and just started… Hitting. Cling, clang, ching, ding! Each hit caused sparks to fly, temporarily lighting up the inky blackness of the back of the cave to her lower eyes. Chips of the hard, dark gray, basalt stone would fly off of the wall along with the sparks, splattering her naked face, stomach, and arms. Fia’s frustrated and labored grunts and the sound of steel on stone filled the cave for hours. In the end, it barely made a dent in the wall, as Fia was not particularly strong at all. It was unproductive and only served to waste time and stamina, though it did oddly get her mind off of things for a bit.
As Fia went back to the front room of the cave to lay down under the core next to the skith in exhaustion, her mind had wandered back to the spell list. Over seven hundred spells to look over. That would take hours.
And hours it did.
There were many different cantrips to choose from, some offering very specific effects, such as [Braid] which would braid any hair, rope, silk, thread, webbing, ect into any braid the caster knew or could envision. [Clean] was a tempting one, as it would remove all filth, muck, blood, debris, ect in a roughly 30 feet radius, as well as mending very tiny tears, rips, scratches, and leaving everything looking shiny, polished, buffed, and very clinically cleaned. [Create Item] was a very broad one, that would let her conjure any simple item under some System-determined wealth limit and weight limit, that also would disappear if it got too far away from her. Other than that, for all intents and purposes, it was a real existing tool to use. [Engrave] was similar to braid, it would let her remove a small amount of material from the surface of an object. She had a feeling a lot of these crafter-type spells were being offered due to her Dungeon Master class, as well as the fact that quality of life-type-spells made up the majority of cantrips. Of course, her arachne bloodline part of her sorcerer class offered up spells like [Infestation] which would summon mites, fleas, ticks, and other little parasites and bugs on an enemy. Then there was [Mage Hand] a staple utility cantrip that conjured a hand one could use to telepathically move stuff at a distance and [Mending], another staple cantrip for repairing broken items. [Analyze Materials], [Burden], [Ease Birth], [Ferment], [Hone], [Light], [Message], [Preserve], [Tint], [Trip]. [Chill Touch], [Crushing Curse], [Echoing Blow], [Locate Herbs], [Magic Stone], [Manipulate Water], [Protection from the Sun], [Pummelstone], [Punishing Strike], [Repel Vermin]... The list went on and on.
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Eventually, she was torn between two cantrips: [Manipulate Earth] and [Mold Earth]. [Poison Spray] would probably be her third choice, but attacks were less important than getting her base set up. [Manipulate Earth] and [Mold Earth] were two very similar cantrips with different applications. [Manipulate Earth] would let her move dirt, rock, stone, but not metal, within range. It would be moved very slowly, so there was no real way to use it as an attack. It would, however, let her raise stone to create walls or help move stone out of the way to create tunnels. [Mold Earth] could let her move loose stones and dirt out of the way, but it couldn’t move stone attached to the cave walls. However, it was broader than manipulate earth in that it could be used to create shapes and patterns in stone and change the color of stone. It could also be used to make small, sharp spikes in stone, making the stone floor more treacherous for invaders. It had a broader scope and finer control, but was worse at excavation and building.
In the end, she settled on [Manipulate Earth] as her Level 0 Cantrip. [Mold Earth] and other cantrips could be grabbed later.
Level 1 Novice spells had the exact same problem, exacerbated, as the spell list for them was almost double the size of the previous. This one had a lot more combat spells, or spells that did stuff that cantrips did but better, at the cost of more mana.
[Absorb Elements], [Alter Poison Damage], [Bee Sting], [Crimson Bolt], [Detect Life], [Elemental Burst], [Freeze Potion], [Gloomlight], [Gossamer Webbing], [Grease], [Hex], [Inflict Pain], [Inflict Wounds], [Keen Senses], [Locate Fish], [Mage Armor], [Magic Missile], [Nerveskitter], [Poison Gas], [Shadow Evocation], [Shield], [Witch Bolt], the list went on and on and on.
[Animate Element] seemed like a good one all around. It required having some elemental material on hand, like stone, fire, water, ect, but it would animate that material into a small weak elemental that would obey her orders. It did leave her wondering if the dungeon would ‘unlock’ the elementals for [Spawn Monster] once they died, quickly making the spell obsolete. Or, perhaps, the spell would be more mana efficient. This spell only lasted for an hour though, so it was not permanent. The elementals could be used for labor or combat though. She put it in her ‘maybe’ list.
[Find Familiar] was a staple Level 1 spell, as familiars were common for lots of mages. Though, again, she felt that it was less useful due to her circumstances. Sure, she could share the familiar’s senses and all, but access to one more creature doesn’t justify a whole spell.
After taking a brief glance at her Affinities, she was surprised to learn her best three were Shadow, Arcane, and Spacetime in that order. That also meant any secondary elements born of a mix of those, such as Abyss, Aether, Death, Fate, Soul, and Void, would all be high, too. She figured a good attack spell for right now would be best, in an affinity that she was really good at.
She was mildly disappointed her best affinities seemed so edgy. She wasn’t really interested in necromancy too much, so Death wouldn’t be great, though she wasn’t entirely opposed. Shadow and its advanced form, Abyss, would be great for stealthy attacks in the dark of her cave. Spacetime, however, interested her a great deal. Spells that could manipulate time and space were powerful as fuck at high levels, and though at lower levels they are visually lackluster, they could give one a needed edge to eke out a fight turning against their favor.
[Black Ribbons] creates inky black ribbons of darkness that try to restrain opponents. [Cloak in Shadow] is a protection spell that can make attacks miss the target. [Cloying Darkness] was your standard ranged attack spell, dealing damage and causing a weak blindness effect. [Death Watch] would let you know if the target was close to death, and whether it was alive, undead, or neither. [Deep Shadows] is similar to [Cloak in Shadow] but much more light dependent, being better or worse depending on the light level, and it was an area of effect. There were a lot more, but none of the Shadow-related spells really spoke to her.
On the Spacetime side of things, there were a lot less spells. [Chronal Lance] caught her attention with its cool sounding name, but it turns out it’s just a projectile spell that has a chance to slow the target. It’s a weaker [Slow]. It doesn’t even do damage.
Arcane spells were hard to spot by skimming names, and Arcane itself was a weird element. Basically just pure magic, so most Arcane-based attack spells didn’t really have an elemental damage attached. Or, rather, they did: Arcane damage. It confused her, and she didn’t know the idiosyncrasies of the element, herself, not being a studied mage or scholar. [Magic Missile] fit there, she knew that.
Ironically, choosing the Level 1 Novice spell was much, much harder than choosing a cantrip. The longer she looked, the more she realized she was under the effects of [Decision Paralysis], though the status condition itself was likely hidden from her Status. Assuming it was a real status condition, she’d heard about it but never actually seen it. Hidden status conditions were annoying. One wouldn’t know they were poisoned or having a heart attack unless they had a perk that made it visible on their status, or they saw enough very obvious signs that they knew it to be true before it would appear on their status.
Sighing, she decided to tempt fate. She went outside of the cave mouth, drew the numbers 1, 2, and 3 in the dirt, then picked up a rock and shook it in her hand. Eyes closed, she opened her hand mid-shaking motion, deciding whichever number the rock landed closest to would be the element she settles on. 1 being Arcane, 2 being Shadow, 3 being Spacetime. Opening her eyes… It was 2. Shadow. The rock was right over it. Can’t really argue with that. And of all of the shadow spells she had looked at, [Cloying Darkness] seemed the best, for now. It was boring, but she’d have more spells in the future. For now, it should hopefully save her life the next time a fucking bear wanders into her cave.
[Manipulate Earth]
Level: 0, Cantrip School: Transmutation Affinity: Earth Cost: -10 mana (-10 base mana) Casting Time: 2 seconds Range: 16.6 strides Duration: 10 minutes Voice Activated Hand Activated
User can manipulate all natural earth within range, including stone, dirt, rocks, sand, and other minerals, but not including metal. User can raise, move, and crudely and loosely shape earth controlled by this spell. Earth moved by this spell is destabilized and has vastly reduced toughness and health, and is therefore not advised for defense. Earth moved by this spell is moved slowly and is therefore not advised for offense. Earth moved by this spell can be increased or decreased in weight by 50% for the duration of this spell.
[Cloying Darkness]
Level: 1, Novice School: Necromancy Affinity: Shadow, Death Cost: -57 mana (-100 base mana) Casting Time: 2 seconds Range: 10 strides Duration: 10 seconds Voice Activated Hand Activated
User’s hand is cloaked in decaying shadows, before launching the shadows at a target. If hit, the target takes Death damage and may gain the [Minor Blindness] Status Condition, based on their CON stat, as its visual organs are covered in shadows for a few seconds. Once higher spell levels are unlocked, this spell can be upcasted for the appropriate amount of mana for a higher level spell, causing it to deal more Death damage.
[Dungeon Status] Name: Unnamed Dungeon Master: Fia Rush Theme: None
Core Vitals:
- Health: 172.2
- Mana: 351.88
Floors:
- [1: The Cave]: 1x [Skith], 6x [Web Weaver]
Rooms:
- [1: The Cave]: 1x [Skith], 6x [Web Weaver]
[Status]
Name: Fia Rush
Species: Arachne
Age: 19
Level: 8
Class: Dungeon Master 7, Sorcerer 1
Vitals:
- Health: 172.2
- Stamina: 73 / 141.9
- Mana: 351.88
Stats:
- STR: 16
- CON: 22
- DEX: 56
- AGI: 33
- SEN: 45
- INT: 40
- WIS: 22
- WIL: 34
- CHA: 10
- SOU: 16
Titles:
- [Dungeon Master]
- [Reincarnated]
Perks:
- [West Firnian Language (Human)]
- [Labyrinthine Understanding]
- [Acrobatics]
- [Insight]
- [Webweaver]
- [Lowlight Vision]
- [Spellcasting (Arachne Bloodline)]
Skills:
- [Status Check]
- [Identify]
- [Spider-Climb]
- [Spawn Monster]
- [Web Spinning]
Spells:
- [Manipulate Earth (0)]
- [Cloying Darkness (1)]
Resistances: [None]
Status Conditions: [None Visible]
Affinities: [-]
Arcane: 1.5 [S] Shadow: 1.75 [SS] Fire: 0.1 [F] Earth: 1 [B] Water: 0.5 [D] Air: 0.75 [C] Light: 0.25 [E] Spacetime: 1.25 [A]
Soul: 1.5 [S] Death: 1.625 [S+] Mageflame: 0.8 [C+] Crystal: 1.25 [A] Blood: 1 [B] Psychic: 1.125 [B+] Life: 0.875 [C+] Aether: 1.375 [A+] Abyss: 1.75 [SS] Ash: 0.925 [C+] Dust: 1.375 [A+] Acid: 1.125 [B+] Vacuum: 1.25 [A] Illusion: 1 [B] Void: 1.5 [S] Pyro: 0.1 [F] Magma: 0.55 [D+] Steam: 0.3 [E+] Lightning: 0.425 [E+] Radiance: 0.175 [F+] Nuclear: 0.675 [D+] Deepstone: 1 [B] Mud: 0.75 [C] Sand: 0.875 [C+] Metal: 0.625 [D+] Gravity: 1.125 [B+] Sea: 0.5 [D] Mist: 0.625 [D+] Ice: 0.375 [E+] Slime: 0.875 [C+] Wind: 0.75 [C] Sound: 0.5 [D] Pressure: 1 [B] Brilliance: 0.25 [E] Celestial: 0.75 [C] Fate: 1.25 [A]