After a long and relaxing soak, Vel and I returned to the warehouse.
Reaching an important milestone like a class evolution was usually worthy of celebration. Most adults reached at least their first evolution during their first decade and the village threw a party once or twice every season for the occasion.
The previous day's party had been eventful enough to count in my books.
And after the fun came the work. I nestled with Vel in our web and I pushed the Arachne Body skill to its maximum level.
Raised Skill Arachne Body to rank 5, level 100 for 25 ES (+100 levels)
Class Evolution for Arachne available
"Everything ready?" I asked.
"I've been ready for a while," Vel teased.
"Well, don't let me hold you then," I poked her belly.
I opened the system menu and confirmed everything was unlocked.
Mystic Knight
Evolution: Mystic Sentinel
Requirements Met
[EVOLVE]
Mystic Witch
Evolution: Mystic Weaver
Requirements Met
[EVOLVE]
Mystic Priestess
Evolution: Mystic High Priestess
Requirements Met
[EVOLVE]
Arachne
Evolution: Arachne Prinzessin
Requirements Met
[EVOLVE]
As much as I wanted to, it was probably a bad idea to evolve all of my classes at once. If only to avoid a flood of system messages all at once. Even with multiple mental constructs, too many notifications were a bother.
Evolving Class Mystic Knight into Mystic Sentinel
Skills Magic Combat and Magic Strike consolidated into Magic Warfare
Skills Mystic Enhancement, Mystic Aura, and Mystic Body consolidated into Mystic Essence
Skills Mystic Arrow, Mystic Weapon, and Mystic Armor consolidated into Mystic Arsenal
Skill Spatial Movement upgraded to Spatial Transfer
Specialization upgrade for Mesmer available
Specialization slots remaining: 4/5
Skill slots remaining: 10/15
The Spatial Transfer skill sounded interesting. Some form of teleport ability?
Evolving Class Mystic Witch into Mystic Weaver
Skills Multicast and Swiftcast consolidated into Metamagic
Skills Catalyst Creation and Catalyst Assembly consolidated into Catalyst Magic
Specialization upgrade for Runic Witch available
Specialization upgrade for Crystal Witch available
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Specialization upgrade for Spirit Witch available
Specialization slots remaining: 2/5
Skill slots remaining: 9/15
Evolving Class Mystic Priestess into Mystic High Priestess
Specialization upgrade for Oracle available
Specialization upgrade for Astrologian available
Specialization upgrade for Sage available
Specialization slots remaining: 2/5
Skill slots remaining: 11/15
Evolving Class Arachne into Arachne Prinzessin
Special condition met: All five gemstone evolutions
Next evolution for Arachne Body upgraded to Shimmer Prinzessin
Skills Spider Thread, Utility Thread, Cutting Thread consolidated into Royal Thread
Skills Thread Control and Thread Creation consolidated into Royal Weave
Skill slots remaining: 10/15
"Looks like I was right," I said with a triumphant grin, "I unlocked a special evolution for rank six for having all five gemstone evolutions. Let's try to go for it before the caravan leaves, we have plenty of time."
"On my end, not much to say. Mystic Druid evolved to Mystic High Druid," Vel said, "Mystic Shaman upgraded to Mystic Dryad because I only had plant-related skills, and Mystic Priestess evolved to Mystic High Priestess. You probably got that last one too."
"I did," I confirmed. "Did you also get a lot of skill consolidations? For Arachne, most of my thread related skills turned into Royal Thread and Royal Weave. I haven't read the descriptions yet but they sound fancy."
"Mostly for Dryad, all the plant magic skills fused into a single one called Dryad Magic."
"Do I identify as something new?" I asked. "Since my Arachne class shows up in my status."
"Yep," Vel nodded, "you're a Dark Elf Arachne Prizessin, the latter is marked as tier four. Besides that, level one-eighty, and tier four mage with two stars, nothing surprising."
[Dark Elf (Level 180; Rank 6; Mage⋆⋆)]
"Same for you," I confirmed with identify, "Dark Elf, level one-hundred and eighty, tier four mage with two stars."
"I still have some essence to spend but … it's been a long day already."
"Agreed," Vel turned towards me and put her hand around my neck. "Want to show me those royal threads skills, princess?"
"You should mind your language in the presence of royalty," I said in a haughty voice and bound her hands in place with a snap of my fingers. "Or maybe you need to be … educated," I whispered into her ears.
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Vel and I took it easy for a few days while I monitored my recovery from the molt. We split out time between completing missions around the town, mostly healing requests, which seemed to multiply every day, and hanging out with Rose and Vasati in the evenings. It involved less alcohol and more casual gatherings. Vel and I discovered the many taverns around the guild town and their entertainers.
It was less grandiose than the concert but the atmosphere was often much more inviting. At the start, it was sometimes difficult to find space for me but a few silver here and there exchanged hands and everything was solved. After a while, tavern owners stopped grumbling since our group's presence attracted more clientele from the novelty factor.
We played rounds of dice with strangers. I introduced a few gamblers to the wonders of blackjack, adapted to work with the local card variations. Several of the adventuring parties and locals we had healed also offered a round as thanks. It was good to be paid but smiles and laughs were also a worthwhile reward.
Rose was also thoroughly educated in the ways of the Arachne by Vel and I. She couldn't stop blushing for almost two days afterwards.
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It took about four days until I was certain another molt was safe. Since the skill was already at the required level, Vel and I jumped right in since I wanted to be in full form for the caravan escort.
Available Evolutions
Shimmer Prinzessin
The Shimmer Arachne Princess has mastered all four base forms of magic and is an accomplished mage in her own right. In addition to significant improvements to their existing organs, the four magic gemstones will fuse into a Mage Opal which affects all magic types.
Bonuses:
Mana Core (25000 MP, 500% MP/h), Magic Gland (+20% Conversion Efficiency), Mage Opal (+20% Spell Power)
That molt was, thankfully, significantly less painful than the previous one. Vel and I handled things with a practiced ease. The mutation process took longer once again, almost an hour, but the itch seemed much more muted than usual. The second part, removing the old exoskeleton, went smoothly as well. The gem on my back was replaced by one single iridescent opal and my hairs gained a much more pronounced shimmer.
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Finally, the day to leave came. We exchanged warm goodbyes with Rose and Vasati at the guild hall, the guild offered a postal service so it would be easy to keep in touch, and made our way to the commercial district where the staging point for the expedition was.
The guild town had gotten steadily more and more busy as parties returned from their expeditions in time to catch the caravan. The shops, prepared for it, weathered the assault valiantly and likely made a good portion of their yearly profit on those days as everyone replenished their supplies. I even noticed that a few of them had slightly bumped their prices for the occasion.
Vel and I had, of course, prepared well in advance and with advice from Rose got some good deals. Participation in the caravan escort requires everyone to have the right survival equipment, both to traverse the jungle until we crossed to the next level and survive on the water afterwards.
The market square, usually bustling with stalls, was full of wagons. Merchants and their staff were bustling around making last minute preparations, checking shipping manifests, and that everything was secured properly.
The adventurers themselves were congregated together at the edge. Several improvised tables had been setup and people were making their own preparations. Warriors checked their weapons and armor one last time, mages made sure the right spells were prepared, and rogues … did whatever rogues did, counting their daggers probably.
Vel and I approached the man in charge. He was a mountain of a man, taller than Vel by at least ten centimeters, and with arms as thick as tree trunks. He had a set of leather armor on with two large axes strapped to his belt.
"Ah, you must our healers," he bellowed. "Guild master told me about you."
"Good things, I hope," I said.
"He looked almost sad to see you go," the leader said with a smile, "man's sentimental, let me tell you."
The leader picked up a clipboard from a nearby crate and pulled a pencil from his pocket.
"I'm Ottar, expedition leader, at least as far as adventurers are concerned. And you two are … Liscura and Velatha Vas-Maezra," he looked at us and we both nodded. There were a few quiet snickers in the background, likely from other elves. "Dossier says you work as a pair and can help with defense as well. You'll work with group three in the middle of the caravan. We expect four more healers but minimal combat capability. In case of a serious attack, you'll take point on setting up medical and defend it. All good?"
"All good," I answered.
"All good," Vel added.
"Perfect, caravan leave in six hours when the bean counters have finished bickering. Group three's over there. Feel free to make friends over a beer but everyone needs to be in fighting form when we leave."
With that, we were left to our own devices.
"Over here," one of the warriors from group three beckoned us.
We made our way to the group and a dwarf with a gnarled staff handed us two mugs of mead. Conversations resumed around us and we settled in to wait.
"So tell me, girl," the dwarf asked, "what manner of misfortune befell you to end up like that."
"Well … we were exploring an old temple …"