“I lost.” Nicotris said as she laid on her back.
By the time the other three approached us, Nicotris sat up and looked to me. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before speaking.
“As agreed, I apologize for underestimating you, Kiara. You fought brilliantly, and you won against me without the use of brute force to accomplish it. I didn’t expect you’d give me such a tough fight, much less actually win. And yet, you did just that. In hindsight, I’ve come to realize why I struggled to see you as a competent ally.”
Hearing her say that made me feel validated – vindicated, even, but it also left me intrigued.
“So, what was it? Was it my draconic background?” I asked, but Nicotris shook her head.
“No, Kiara. It’s the fact that you possess a powerful parent combined with what I saw as your nonchalant and reckless personality.”
She sighed deeply before she continued.
“I come from a noble family that is devoted to Lady Mett; arguably, the most devoted of her followers in all of Tamery. House Sept has produced generations of champions in her name, and I was raised to follow in their footsteps. As I grew up, I spent a lot of time engaging with other children of nobility. To my dismay, the vast majority of them were insufferable brats with an ego to match. In some cases, they were downright sociopathic. I had subconsciously assumed that the Azure Dragon’s dear daughter would be much the same, and our first impressions of each other did not help with that. Although I’d come to learn eventually that you are not intentionally malicious, I still thought that you were sheltered and spoiled. Of course, it doesn’t excuse my patronizing behavior towards you, but I hope that explains the reasons behind my actions. Your quick thinking and vicious tenacity in our fight more than qualify you to be my equal, and it’s about time I admitted it.”
I wasn’t expecting her to open up and complement me like this, so I looked away and scratched my cheek.
“…Well, you fought hard too. It was pretty close. If you’d noticed the black hole I cast, then I would’ve been done for.”
“But I didn’t, and you won. I lost even with a rank and two class advancements on you, so congratulations are in order. Speaking of advancements, you still haven’t advanced your class yet, have you?”
I shrugged.
“Well, we didn’t have time for me to advance my class. We needed to rescue Jezibel’s father as soon as possible. Also, going into a fight with untested abilities seemed like a bad idea to me.”
Nico nodded.
“Good thinking, but you should advance your class now. You need a powerful attack that can serve as your finisher. One that isn’t as indiscriminate and large scale as black hole. We should stay here and familiarize you with your class advancement before going to question Baltasar.”
That’s surprising; I thought she’d be chomping at the bit to take down the Assassin’s Guild rather than wait for me.
I am not complaining.
“Before you do that, I’d like to apologize to Kiara.” Ati interjected.
“Fooling your allies is often the first step to fooling your enemies, and I had assumed that you didn’t pay much attention to detail anyway, so I ended up treating you as a burden without realizing it. I hadn’t expected that you were much more cunning than I gave you credit for or that my actions bothered you as much as it did.”
Ati bowed his head to me.
“I apologize for not trusting you or treating you as an equal. It was not my intention to offend you. If you can put this behind us, I would be happy to continue standing by you as your friend.”
I struggled to look at Nico and Ati. Why are their apologies this sincere?! I felt my cheeks starting to heat up.
“Okay, I get it, we’re good now! Now go away so I can advance my class!”
The others started laughing.
“All’s well that ends well, I suppose.” Nisos said as I stepped away to trigger my class advancement.
[Celestial Herald]
Secret Class Requirements:
* Possess maximum affinity for Atypical – Force attribute.
* Possess a racial trait for sorcery.
* Possess a divine shard.
* Bested a higher ranked monster with a superior strength attribute in unarmed combat.
* Killed a higher ranked monster with a single Atypical – Force attributed magic attack.
* Killed multiple higher ranked monsters in the same battle.
I sat down with my back to the wall and took a last look at the Celestial Herald class before selecting it and triggering the advancement.
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The moment I did so, my vision of the world was expanded millions of times over. I gasped, as I saw a planet swimming in a sea of emptiness covered in stars, orbiting a pair of suns. As the titanic planet dragged along with it five moons of varying sizes, I found myself on the surface of a cold, dark asteroid that weaved an intricate and agonizingly slow dance through the orbits of the moons, with its descent onto our distant world all but inevitable.
The sensation was euphoric; I felt the fiery rays of the suns, the cold void of the cosmos, the ever-present tug of the planet, and the solid earth of the asteroid. Within it, I felt pulsing mana that swirled pockets of air and warm water in its core, as if it were a magic blender. I lost all sense of time, and eventually the vision faded. I found myself sweating like it was a hot summer day, despite being in the middle of a magic-cooled building.
[Sovereign of Gravity] has advanced into [Celestial Herald]!
[Beloved of Gravity Lv. 10] advanced into [Elemental Dominion Lv. 10]!
[Lady of Attraction Lv. 10] advanced into [Law of Exclusive Attraction Lv. 10]!
[Gravitational Multiplier Lv. 10] advanced into [Force Coefficient Lv. 10]!
[Field of Oppression Lv. 10] advanced into [Herald’s Domain Lv. 10]!
[Black Hole Lv. 10] advanced into [Force Sphere Lv. 10]!
[Force Inversion Lv. 10] subsumed into [Force Coefficient Lv. 10]!
9 Class Skill Points refunded.
New class skill [Sky’s Wrath Lv. 1] obtained!
[Celestial Herald Lv. 50] leveled up to [Celestial Herald Lv. 51]!
[Celestial Herald Lv. 51] leveled up to [Celestial Herald Lv. 52]!
…
[Celestial Herald Lv. 92] leveled up to [Celestial Herald Lv. 93]!
Name: Kiara Azoth
[Dragon Shifter]
[Level 5]
EXP: 1,249,874/3,500,000
Divine Shards: 5/?
HP: 18,120/18,120
SP: 3,470/3,470
MP: 9,359/9,359
Vitality: 631
Strength: 871
Dexterity: 613
Intelligence: 1034
Wisdom: 973
Racial Traits:
[Sapient Creature]
[Dragon Combat]
[Dragon Breath]
[Draconic Vision]
[Draconic Scales]
[Draconic Sorcery]
[Greater Regeneration]
[Shapeshift: Base Humanoid Form]
[Greater Appraisal Obfuscation]
Class: [Celestial Herald]
[Level 93]
EXP: 592,194/675,000
Class Skill Points: 70
Class Skills:
[Elemental Dominion Lv. 10]
[Law of Exclusive Attraction Lv. 10]
[Force Coefficient Lv. 10]
[Herald’s Domain Lv. 10]
[Force Sphere Lv. 10]
[Sky’s Wrath Lv. 1]
Skills:
[Appraisal Lv. 9]
[Sneak Lv. 8]
[Ambush Lv. 8]
[Poison Resistance Lv. 8]
[Spark of Ambition Lv. 6]
[Corrosion Resistance Lv. 4]
[Paralysis Resistance Lv. 5]
[Mental Resistance Lv. 8]
[Pain Resistance Lv. 8]
[Frost Resistance Lv. 2]
[Soul Resistance Lv. 1]
[Mana Manipulation Lv. 8]
[Fate’s Jester]
[Hurun’s Mercy]
[Asexual Reproduction]
Titles:
[Ferocious Underdog]
[Abyssal Cockroach]
[Avenger]
[Indomitable Will]
[Progenitor]
[Giant Slayer]
My breathing began to accelerate rapidly, and my heart thumped so loudly that I’d have sworn it was trying to get out of my chest.
What the abyss was that?!
“Kiara, are you alright?” Nisos asked as the others looked worried.
“I thought class advancements weren’t supposed to be agonizing?” Jezibel questioned, and Nico answered.
“Not necessarily; class advancements do not usually change your body, which is why that misconception spread easily. A mage choosing a berserker class advancement is going to suffer about as much as if they were evolving into a new race. But that doesn’t seem to apply in this case…”
I slapped my cheeks with both hands and shook my head.
“I am not in pain; rather, I witnessed an incredibly strange scene during the advancement.”
***
“An asteroid with all the basic elements heading for our world…” Ati mumbled with a slight frown.
“Is that a metaphor of some kind?” Jezibel wondered.
“I haven’t heard of anything like this before. Sometimes people receive symbolic visions for their advancements – maybe this is one of them?” Nico said.
Nisos raised an eyebrow.
“Maybe we’re reading too much into this? I am not sure a vision like this means anything.”
I took a deep breath to calm my nerves.
“There isn’t much we can do about that vision. I’ll tell mom about it the next time we meet. In the meantime, I think it’s time we check out my new class skills.”
“I’ll go start up the arena again.” Jezibel said and moved back to the controls.
“I’d like to see what the next tier of a mythic class can do up close, if you don’t mind.”
Ati said as he stepped on to the arena.
“Yeah! I want to play ar-, ahem, test my skills before I go throwing them around and hurting someone.”
“Sure, sure. Just make sure not to spend too much time horsing around.”
Nisos smiled in exasperation and moved next to Jezibel to help with the controls.