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“Before any of that, I was under the impression that gods in this universe couldn’t just appear anywhere they wanted. So how are you here?” Seraphiel asked.
“Obviously the rules don’t apply to me.” Mother stated, as if that should’ve been clear from the start. “The so-called gods of this universe get a bit nippy about such irrelevant details though, so I’ve mostly stuck by their arbitrary rules. You are my Champion though, even if only partly, and now you are my paladin. In a sense, you’re a walking talking temple, which means appearing around you is ok, even by their rules.”
Seraphiel groaned at the thought. “Just to be clear, I’m not going to be taking orders from you. You and Father lost any right to give me orders when He exiled me. If that means I’ll have to pick another Class, I’ll do it.”
Mother made a calming gesture. “Don’t worry. You know I’m not the type to order you kids around.” Not entirely untrue, although that depended on Her mood. “I’m certainly aware of your disinterest in particular at being ordered around by your Father. That said, I may have a thing or two that I may request your help with. You’ll be compensated, and if you’re philosophically opposed to my requests, you can turn them down.”
“Good.” That promise certainly eased her worries. A little.
“Besides, you’ve always sort of been our paladin anyway. You were originally created to protect the universe and your siblings. You might not have been called a paladin, but that is essentially what you were in spirit. Protection is an important duty of the paladins after all.”
“Probably why I fell into the role so easily in other universes.” She muttered.
"Probably. Anyway, the positive thing is that now we can see each other more easily." Oh, joy. "Now don't make that face. I know our relationship hasn't always been the best, but I'd like to make an effort to mend things. As trite as the expression might be, spending some time as a mortal helped me see the light, so to speak. Besides, I’d like to meet your mother in this life as well. It’s only fair.”
Seraphiel wasn’t sure if that was a disaster waiting to happen, or a potentially good thing. “I hope you’re not expecting me to go spreading ‘the good word’ about you? I took the Paladin Class, not the Preacher Class.”
Mother frowned. “Why would I want worshippers?” She said as if tasting something bad. “Yes, the gods of this universe get their powers from the mortals that chant their name and the glory their Champions bring them, but I don't. I mean, theoretically, I could get more power, but that'd be an infinitesimally small drop in an endless ocean. Why bother? Your Father cared a bit about such things, which is why He did the whole commandments thing, but that was mostly an early attempt to keep bronze-age peasants in line."
“See, this is why I ask, because I don’t know. I have some ideas about how you’d react to certain things, but I was exiled before most of these kinds of things became pertinent.” Seraphiel pointed out.
“All the more reason for us to spend some time getting to know each other.” Mother stated happily.
Oh. Joy.
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After finally managing to get some peace and quiet, she made her way to the training hall of the Knight track students. It was time to come up with some Skills.
She decided to get the easy one out of the way first. She had two new Skill slots for Shinmei-ryū, and she already knew what she wanted. She focused on one of the basic forces of the universe, and suddenly felt a little lighter.
[You’ve gained the new Skill: Gravitokinesis! Making yourself lighter or your enemies heavier are just some of the things that can be done by manipulating gravity. Want to create colliding black holes to annihilate your enemies? This is where that path starts. Would you like to accept the Skill? Y/N]
Yes, she would. That was a given, as this was one of the manipulation Skills she wanted to later combine with the others she had from her Farseer Class. Gravity manipulation by itself could be very useful at higher levels, but she mainly took the Skill to combine it later. In the beginning, the effects of the Skill would be relatively minor.
The other Skill was equally easy to choose, especially now that she'd decided on the Paladin Class. Paladins were about many things, but one of their main strengths was to buff themselves and their allies. That would combine well with the ability to debuff enemies, which is what the Skill she'd chosen could do, in combination with the Chronomancy and the new Gravitokinesis.
Instead of trying to channel her psionic powers into a complicated technique, she instead pushed it outside her body, to create a field of power that would put pressure on her enemies. The pressure had many uses, but the basic gist was that it reduced the power of anyone caught in the field, making them weaker, slower, and more susceptible to being injured. It could be used to instill fear, stun or paralyze someone, or even cause pain and physical damage, though it was rather inefficient for that use. It was another technique she had copied from elsewhere, and it was designed to work together with the other abilities of the Class.
[You've gained the new Skill: Reiatsu! The power of presence is something that many beings possess in different forms. Dragons reject hostile magic and instill terror, while gods instill awe and adulation. You have learned to weaponize your presence to weaken your enemies, and to protect yourself from harm. Would you like to accept the Skill? Y/N]
Yes, of course. The only reason she hadn’t picked the Skill up straight from the beginning was because it required a certain amount of power to be really effective. The technique wasn’t exactly peak of efficiency, instead being something that you used to dominate weaker foes. For enemies of equal power, there were more efficient ways, although if used in conjunction with just those powers of hers that improved her in melee combat, she could become a very effective brute.
Moving on to the Paladin Skills, the first one she had little choice in. The so-called Skill tax. The affinity Skill. At least in her case, her previous experience had created a combination Skill of Holy and Light Affinity, which made all her light and holy-related Skills more effective. She already started with the Skill. She could replace the Skill if she really wanted to, but that would be the height of stupidity as it made all her other Skills more effective.
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For her first actual Skill, the decision was also made for her, but she didn't mind. It was the basic foundational Skill for all Paladins.
[You’ve gained the new Skill: Purity of Body! Your body is constantly immersed in the holy power of your god and tolerates no impurity or corruption. Vastly increases your resistance to all types of corruption, be it natural or magical. Grants practical immunity to most poisons and diseases, as well as reduces the effectiveness of all types of magic and abilities that corrode your body. Would you like to accept the Skill? Y/N]
Yes. She also knew that at higher levels the Skill would be able to help resist mental corruption and even direct magical attacks and not just corruptive magic like curses and magical maladies. This Skill, more than any other, rendered Paladins such annoying enemies as they became juggernauts that shrugged off almost all attempts at not facing them directly, something they were usually very good at. Another important facet was that the Paladins could also help remove such effects from others with…
[You’ve gained the new Skill: Cleanse! Remove diseases, poisons, corruptive magic, and any other malicious effects from yourself and others. Charisma allows you to extend the effectiveness as well as the number of targets affected. Would you like to accept the Skill? Y/N]
Yes. Yes, she would. This Skill was likely one of those that later on would combine with the previous one, or a healing Skill, but it was quite useful and necessary. Speaking of healing Skills…
[You’ve gained the new Skill: Holy Light! Use the power of Light to heal the wounds of your friends and allies. Would you like to accept the Skill? Y/N]
That one was an easy pick. Healing was always useful. This spell wasn’t the most efficient method, but what made it inefficient was also what made it good, which was how broadly applicable it was. The Skill was good at healing all kinds of injuries, regardless of source or type, which it paid for by being more inefficient than more specific healing abilities. This Skill alone wouldn’t allow her to replace all healers, but it would allow her to keep herself or a friend or an ally alive until the healers could work their magic. Then again, if her stats did become high enough, the Skill could theoretically heal just about anything.
However, better than healing injuries was preventing them in the first place.
[You’ve gained the new Skill: Aura of Protection! You improve the effective Vitality of yourself and those affected by the Aura. The scale of the improvement and the area covered by your Aura improve with the level of the Skill and your Charisma. Would you like to accept the Skill? Y/N]
Yes. Auras were the staple of Paladins, and she knew this Skill could evolve to have additional effects. Alternatively, it would likely be able to evolve to strengthen the current effect further. She activated the Skill and could feel that the effect currently was relatively minor. Even if her Charisma was quite high, the level of the Skill was simply too low to allow for a huge increase. On the other hand, the Aura covered almost the entire training hall. A rough estimate was that she was currently improving her own Vitality about 1% of her Charisma, though it was tough to say exactly. Not a lot, but the amount would increase quickly.
Next, she attempted to focus the holy power to apply an empowering effect on herself. She knew how to do it from her past experience, but to her surprise, the power seemed to hesitate a little, as if trying to decide what sort of effect to take. Finally, it seemed to make up its mind and she felt herself grow empowered in all her stats. Not by a lot, but an improvement nonetheless.
[You’ve gained the new Skill: Royal Blessings! Blessings can take many forms, from simple increases to luck and slight improvements in Strength of Vitality to an increase in the recovery of mana or other resources. Your extensive expertise in blessings has allowed your Blessings to best mold to their target's needs. Would you like to accept the Skill? Y/N]
Huh. Yes, but huh. It seemed this was one of those cases where she was jumping ahead of the curve. This Skill would require some further study and experimentation.
Alright. Time to move on to something more active. She tried to form the holy power into a protective Skill that would help shield her and her allies. Something more active than her Aura.
[You've gained the new Skill: Bulwark! Sheathe yourself and your allies in the protective light, increasing your own effective Vitality as well as transferring a portion of the attacks they receive onto you. Would you like to accept the Skill? Y/N]
An effective defensive ability. Yes, she would accept.
Something more offensive for a change. The holy power flowed out of her, covering the area around her.
[You’ve gained the new Skill: Hallowed Ground! Anyone hostile stepping on the grounds you’ve decreed to protect will find themselves burned by the Light, while your allies will find their resolve and willpower strengthened. Would you like to accept the Skill? Y/N]
Hmm. Some of these Skills were beginning to overlap a little, which wasn't bad. Not only would the cumulative effort be greater, but it also implied some of the Skills could be combined in the future.
Next, she pulled out a training sword and struck a training dummy a few times before she got the feeling right. The power tried to form along the sword into some sort of holy blade effect, but she already had the psionic equivalent and she didn’t think the two would necessarily play nice together. Instead, she just wanted to have the power of light strike the target instead, and finally succeeded.
[You’ve gained the new Skill: Smite the Impure! Expel the power of Light to hurt your enemies. Greater effect on targets that could be considered impure, such as demons, undead, or the mutated. Would you like to accept the Skill? Y/N]
A bit zealot-y sounding, but it’d do for now. And this would be able to combine with her psionic powers. Nowhere did it say that she absolutely had to use a melee weapon as the conduit. How about lightning that also zapped the target with Smite? Possible, even if it would require some practice to get right.
She'd been slightly hesitant on her last Skill. She knew Paladins had a penchant for armor-related Skills, but the armor Skills of this universe were already messed up. She finally decided to just take the plunge and a transparent golden glow surrounded her, slightly looking like the outlines of an armour.
[You’ve gained the new Skill: Armoured in Light! With the power of the Light, anything can be armor if you try hard enough! Improves the effectiveness of any armour Skill and improves your effective Vitality as the Skill level increases. The less armor you wear, the greater increase you gain, but you also gain improvements to effective Charisma, Agility, and all power regeneration. If wearing no armor, functions as an armor Skill of equivalent level and type. Would you like to accept the Skill? Y/N]
Mother damn it! The System had finally snuck in that skimpy armor Skill she'd been dodging so far. It was an annoyingly good Skill as well. Getting a boost to three stats and power regeneration? That was just silly. And it would even work together with a normal armor Skill, effectively doubling the boost. Just like she'd expected, the Paladins got the best armor Skills, and this was without any evolutions! Yes, she would take it.
[Congratulations! [Oath of a Paladin] has leveled up from 1 to 2! Strength +10, Vitality +10, Willpower +10, Charisma +10, Conviction +10.]
[Congratulations! [Oath of a Paladin] has leveled up from 2 to 3! Strength +10, Vitality +10, Willpower +10, Charisma +10, Conviction +10.]
[Congratulations! [Holy Light Affinity] has leveled up from 1 to 2!]
[Congratulations! [Aura of Protection] has leveled up from 1 to 2!]
[Congratulations! [Aura of Protection] has leveled up from 2 to 3!]
[Congratulations! [Royal Blessings] has leveled up from 1 to 2!]
[Congratulations! [Royal Blessings] has leveled up from 2 to 3!]
[Congratulations! [Armoured in Light] has leveled up from 1 to 2!]
[Congratulations! [Armoured in Light] has leveled up from 2 to 3!]
Eh? Two levels?
That made her scratch her head a bit before she realized something. [Been There, Done That] improved all her Class and Skill leveling by 300% at this point. And the three Skills that had leveled were Skills that were passive. [Armoured in Light] and Aura of protection were always active, while she'd applied the blessing to herself earlier. In fact, the affinity, and [Purity of Body] were also always active, just that she hadn't been subjected to any type of corruption, so that didn’t level. Leveling those Skills would be stupendously easy. Of course, all of the passive Skills would improve even faster when subjected to situations where they were needed.
Maybe leveling this third Class wouldn’t take all that long after all? Only half of the Skills required active participation in the first place.
“Oh dear. Once Kaede hears about this…” She’d be poisoning her food constantly, just to train [Purity of Body].
“Once I hear about what?” Kaede asked, as she and Tatsumiya walked through the half-open doors.
“Nothing, nothing. What brings you two here?” She asked the two teachers.
"Well, we heard reports of flashes of light from the training room in the middle of the night, so…" Kaede explained with a shrug. "And don't think you can change the subject like that."
“I got my new Class.” She stated a bit evasively. “Had to get the new Skills settled.”
“A Paladin, eh?” Tatsumiya looked above her head, clearly using some sort of identification Skill. She’d naturally left her new Class visible instead of obfuscating it like with her real second Class. “Good. We could use proper guardian types.” After a moment she frowned a bit. "Don't Paladins usually start out mostly as a martial Class? I was under the impression that the real light-related Skills become available only after evolution."
“And since when has Seraphia ever done the usual thing?” Kaede asked, before turning to Seraphiel with a small, serene smile. “The Paladins. They get a skill to fight off corruption, don’t they?”
Tatsumiya’s frown suddenly turned a little evil. “They do. That’s one of the only magical Skills they should get right from the beginning. A very powerful one at that.”
“Well now. We wouldn’t be proper teachers if we didn’t allow our student to train her new Skills, would we?” Kaede stated solemnly.
"Yes, it would be a dereliction of duty," Tatsumiya responded with the same solemness.
Seraphiel just gave a defeated sigh.