Chapter Twenty-Nine
Melanie and Jackson began their class evolution by submitting their wishes to the Judge. Notifications unfurled within Jackson’s mind.
Evolving your class is a two-step process. First, you will pick your evolved class; next, you will pick new skills or weaves or merge existing skills and weaves to create new, more powerful versions. Note that, due to being in Lazarus’s Inheritance Pocket World, your choices have been expanded.
The notification vanished, to be replaced by Jackson’s choices. Each choice had a description next to it.
Vampyre Assassin: The vampyre assassin uses weaves like blood veil and blood weaves formed into weapons to silently take out their foes. This class is a blend of weaving and stealth.
Blood Monk: The blood monk combines supernatural unarmed combat and movement with weaves of blood to devastate their enemies. Blood Monks are able to enter a meditative state to control their hunger and increase their regeneration.
Vampyric Mage: The Vampyric Mage manipulates blood to form constructs made of blood weaves, as well as empower their allies with their blood weaves. Vampyric mages can even eventually drain the life force of others.
Vampyre Blood Lord: The vampyre blood lord is the pinnacle of vampyre’s blood classes. The vampyre blood lord is not only capable of manipulating the blood of others but is also a master at enhancing themselves, making their unarmed combat incredibly deadly. Utilizing weaves of blood and destruction, the blood lord increases their speed, strength, senses, and regeneration beyond that of lesser vampyres or even other similar creatures. The blood lord will eventually unlock the ability to turn others into vampyres and use the blood ascendancy skill at master rank. However, blood lords must feed more than other vampyres to maintain their increased power.
Jackson immediately did not want to take Blood Lord. The class was clearly the best, yet there was one line that ruined it for him. He needed to feed more. He hated to say it, but he was afraid of his deadly hunger, and this class would certainly lead to him feeding more. He was tempted to pick up Vampyre Mage, and in fact, he was going to do so before Lazarus piped up.
“You need to stop being afraid of your hunger.”
Jackson looked at him, frowning.
“It is part of you. If you treat it like an enemy, all you’re going to do is succeed in making it worse for you.”
Jackson crossed his arms and shook his head.
“If I embrace it like you want, I’ll end up truly being a monster.”
Lazarus blew out a frustrated breath and pointed a finger at him.
“It’s already a part of you, fledgling. You’re treating it as if it were separate, but it isn’t. If you stopped treating it that way, it would be easier. I know of what I speak, fledgling. I am your elder; listen to me.”
Jackson sighed. Embrace his hunger. No, what Lazarus wanted him to do wasn’t embrace it; he wanted him to accept it. That was hard. He wasn’t sure how to even begin. Lazarus must have read something on his face, because he said,
“You can take the first step by taking that Blood Lord class. You know it’s the best choice to make. That class is only offered because of the inheritance I am offering you. If you don’t take it, you’ll come to regret it.”
Jackson sighed, rubbed the back of his neck, and looked at Melanie.
“What do you think?” He told her about his options. She tapped her lips and nodded before replying.
"Blood Lord is the best. I understand the hesitation, but I think Laz has a point. It is part of you. Maybe the best way to deal with it is by learning to accept it. I think you should take the class. Besides, I’ll be here to help you.”
She gave him a reassuring smile. It made her look warm, like a ray of sunshine bursting forth from gray clouds after a storm. Jackson looked away and coughed.
“You may be right. Blood Lord, it is then.”
Jackson willed his wish to the Judge.
Congratulations! You are now a Blood Lord! Note that this class will be hidden thanks to your Hidden Bloodline skill. Your class will instead be shown as The Lord Class to anyone who analyzes you. Now you will have the opportunity to select new skills. Note that some new skills require you to merge your existing ones. You may choose three weaves and two more skills. See the following options below:
Blood Lightning Surge (Journeyman Weave): By combining blood lightning and blood mist, you can create this weave. This weave is a powerful beam of concentrated destruction and blood aspect, dealing devastating damage to anything it comes into contact with.
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Veilstrike (Journeyman Weave): Infuse your unarmed strikes with blood weaves; each strike enshrouds the opponent in darkness and binds them with blood weaves. This weave is created by combining blood binding and a blood veil.
Ebon Eruption (Journeyman Weave): An upgraded version of destruction infusion, ebon eruption surrounds you with a cloak of destruction aspect, enhancing your speed, strength, and senses. The Ebon eruption highlights weak points in your enemies, revealing ideal places to strike.
Blood Nova (Journeyman Weave): Unleash an explosion of blood and destruction weaves, damaging all in its path.
Radiate Fear (Journeyman Weave): By unleashing blood weaves, you can instill fear in your foes.
Unarmed Combat (Apprentice Skill): This skill grants you a basic foundation in unarmed combat.
Blood Lord’s Gaze (Apprentice Skill): This skill transforms mass charm into a skill and infuses the power into your eyes, allowing you to, with a glance, paralyze your foes.
Blood Infusion (Apprentice Skill): Enhances regeneration at will, though this increases hunger.
Jackson’s mouth fell open, and he opened and reopened his hands. There was so much to choose from, and all of them were good in one way or another. He honestly wasn’t even sure where to start. Blinking his eyes and holding them open for a second, he let out a breath and started from the beginning. The blood lightning surge sounded truly awesome. His blood lightning was good and had been his main way of attacking thus far, but this sounded like a straight-up solid upgrade. It cost him his blood mist ability, but as he hadn’t used that ability very much as it was, he didn’t think the cost was too much.
Veilstrike looked amazing as well; however, if he took it, that pretty much guaranteed that he would have to take the unarmed combat skill. Still, he felt like it would be a good pick. Especially if he took an ebon eruption, it was just straight up better than destruction infusion, and if he used that with a veil strike, he felt like it would be a devastating combination.
Then there was blood nova, which seemed like an excellent weave for dealing with many foes. Other than blood mist, or maybe mass charm, he didn’t really have much of a way of dealing with many foes. It could be useful. Radiate fear also seemed nice, a good way of controlling things and maybe outright avoiding some fights.
Then there were the skills, and he didn’t have nearly as many options to choose from as he did with weaves. Unarmed combat seemed nice because it would give him a way to fight up close and personal and really make use of destruction Infusion, or even Ebon Eruption if he chose it. In fact, Ebon Eruption, Veilstrike, and Unarmed Combat seemed to have great synergy.
Blood infusion was nice, but again, he was wary of the increase in hunger. It wasn’t even really about being afraid of it, though yes, he was still wary, but rather he already had to feed more with the new class, and adding more on top of that just didn’t seem like a good idea. He did like Blood Lord’s Gaze. Sure, he had to give up mass charm, and the gaze seemed to only work on one person, but he had used mass charm exactly once that he could think of. Part of that was most certainly on him; he just didn’t think about using it much.
Gaze seemed like a giant upgrade. Paralyzing foes just seemed better to him than making them fight for him, especially if he went the unarmed combat route. He looked at Lazarus.
“Any thoughts?”
Lazarus nodded, “Remember what I said earlier, fledgling, focus. You need to pick skills and weaves that work together well.”
Jackson rubbed his chin and chewed on his inner cheek. He knew what was standing out to him, and he knew what he needed to choose. He made his selections.
You have learned about Blood Lightning Surge, Veilstrike, and Ebon Eruption. You have lost Blood Binding, Blood Mist, and Destruction Infusion. You have learned Unarmed Combat and Blood Lord’s Gaze. You have lost mass Charm.
Jackson grinned and let out a breath of satisfaction. While he was at it, he assigned his two attribute points. One to will, and one to dexterity. With that done, he brought up his status sheet, given he had not looked at it in a long while.
Name: Jackson Grey Level: 30
Race: Human (Shown) Vampyre (Hidden)
Lives: 2
Domain Aspects: Blood and Destruction
Class: Blood Lord (Hidden Class) The Lord Class (Shown Class)
Attributes: Mind: 15, Strength: 12, Dexterity: 17, Constitution: 15, Will: 19
Skills: Minor Regeneration (Apprentice Level 12), Consume Blood (Apprentice Level 15), Hidden Bloodline (Apprentice Level 1), Enchanting (Apprentice Level 23), Analyze (Basic Level 12), Unarmed Combat (Apprentice Skill Level 1), Blood Lord’s Gaze (Apprentice Skill Level 1)
Weaves: Blood Lightning Surge (Journeyman Weave Level 1), Ebon Eruption (Journeyman Weave Level 1), Veilstrike (Journeyman Weave Level 1)
Eden Coins: 9960 Faction: Unsworn Attribute points: 0
Jackson couldn’t help but feel a sense of deep satisfaction. He had started at the bottom, and now here he was nearly 30 levels later. He had fought creatures and had experiences out of a storybook. He felt the knowledge of all of it settle on his shoulders, a weightless kind of weight, yet felt all the same. He clenched his right fist and looked down at it. He could feel power within him—power and cold, savage hunger. He looked over at Melanie, who, throughout all of this, had been undergoing her own changes.
“What about you? How’s it going over there?”
She smiled, showing adorable dimples.
“I picked up a druidic ranger class. It’s basically an upgrade of what I was already doing. Except I can duplicate my empowered arrows if I wish, creating a volley of them. I can also befriend and communicate with animals. I am also able to empower myself, my strikes, and what not. Even increase my speed, so maybe I can even keep up with you.”
She grinned a little wider at him.
Jackson gave her an enthusiastic high-five. Lazarus spoke up,
“I think you two made good choices. Choices that will carry you far into the future, down your own paths. Class evolutions don’t happen often, especially like this. Your skills and weaves will expand and grow in strength, but I doubt you’ll end up evolving your class a second time. Appreciate this experience and enjoy it. Now, the real work begins. I hope you’re ready.”
Lazarus gave an almost sadistic grin.
Melanie and Jackson shared a look. That was precisely when the room began to shift. It turned and spun like a tornado; it nearly made Jackson dizzy. It was so fast. When the room finally settled, it had completely changed. In its place was an arena—a black stone arena marked with a crimson border.
Far to the left, outside of the arena borders, was a hot spring, the steam of which rose into the open air. Jackson followed the steam up and found a night sky above them, twinkling with diamond stars and a full moon hanging in the air. Its pale light highlighted the arena. He could feel the air on his skin as Lazarus spoke once more.
“It’s time for your training to really begin.”