Choosing Violence (Part 4)
Before either of them could ask anything further, Conrad said, “No more questions, then? Great!”
He motioned them both in close and knelt down, “This requires some mana and contact. Kneel with me.”
They both did and he set his hands on their shoulders.
Eana felt a tiny tingling thrill. She wasn’t sure if he was casting any spell yet but it certainly felt like magic already. The solemnity of the pose was so ritualistic it felt… sacred. Conrad closed his eyes and Eana saw Idris bow his head reflexively.
“Focus on your skill tree. And while you do I want you to picture a moment when you’ve had intense aggression, the desire to use violent force whether in defense or attack, and focus on that feeling. Amplify it.”
Eana felt a sudden sense of loss. She was a Healer. She was twelve. She’d never wanted to hurt anybody in her life, not even the drones. She just wanted to help people and have them like her.
But that wasn’t true anymore, was it? Sure, it had been what had driven her up until… well, this morning. But now? There was that small voice, that spark of rage that was entirely new to her.
She had wanted to hurt Tomme. Badly.
For two years since she had first acquired her class she had tried to become a Healer. Not just in skills and progression, but in spirit and character. And the results had been a near complete lack of gratitude, animosity, mistrust, and it definitely seemed in the case of Tomme, outright hatred.
She thought of all the faces at the inn that morning. The taunts from Tomme. The Shieldmaiden, Chrys, screaming at her and shoving her away even as Eana attempted to help her fight.
It was so unfair.
All of it.
She was doing her best, trying to help people, to heal, to save them and this was how they treated her?
The anger and vindictive desire to break something, to hurt somebody that had shown itself that morning returned. She didn’t want to give it space to grow and blossom inside her but Conrad had told her to and, well, Chaos take her, it felt good ousting the anxiety that had been her near constant companion for years now.
That had only made her want to shrink and hide. But this?
This made her want to crush her enemies.
And suddenly, a surge of magic swept through her.
Class Discovered
Name: Warrior
Rarity: Common
Description: Hailing from all cultures and backgrounds, warriors share one thing in common: their view of the world as a place where the only true measure of power is one’s capacity for violence.
Investment Cost: 500XP
The constellation burst into existence on her skill tree like the showering sparks of a firework forming the shape of a sword, and then, even as she watched, the icons representing the Warrior class transformed from formless spots of light to gray’ed icons. She did a quick look over the titles of each of them, not wanting to spend too long reading in case she missed something important
Skill Discovered
Name: Adrenaline Rush
Classification: Class/General/Active
Skill Discovered
Name: Toughness
Classification: Class/General/Passive
Skill Discovered
Name: Psych Up
Classification: Class/Warrior/Active
Skill Discovered
Name: Weapon Proficiency
Classification: Class/General/Passive
Skill Discovered
Name: Recovery Block
Classification: Class/Warrior/Active
Skill Discovered
Name: Imbued Strike
Classification: Class/General/Active
“This is incredible,” Eana heard Idris say.
She refocused on him and what she saw on his face didn’t match what she expected.
“Five hundred XP,” he said.
Conrad nodded, “Most tier one classes cost that much unless you end up with a class skill at your investment, like you and your sister. But don’t worry you’ll earn it back soon enough.”
“Yeah,” Idris said, “But if I invest in all this I might end up spending more than half of… everything I’ve saved in my entire life.”
Conrad clapped Idris on the shoulders and took up an encouraging tone, “Don’t look so glum, Light Bringer! We’re not spec’ing into Warrior completely today. We’re just going to learn the fun bits.”
Idris’s obviously fake smile fooled nobody.
Eana wanted to say something encouraging too but, truthfully? She wasn’t sure he should be spending the XP anyway. That was the one big rule he had been following for years and their dad had promised it wouldn’t be forever.
But then again, 500XP was 500XP.
And suddenly Eana had a thought. Why was she focusing so much on Idris? She had the opportunity to class into Warrior now as well. Did she want to do it?
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“It’s just so much more than I imagined spending,” Idris said.
Conrad got in Idris’s face and forced eye contact, poking him in the chest to enunciate as he said, “This is why I brought you out here. This is why you came to find me this morning. This is what you wanted, Idris. It’s called investment for a reason, there are no refunds on XP. You put it up and hope you made the right choice because if you put your points into something stupid,” he tilted his head, his meaning clear, “Then those points are gone.”
He softened slightly, “And that’s also why this makes so much sense. This time it isn’t stupid, this time you’ve got me. I’m going to train you into the kind of Warrior other folks tell tales about. When people catch a glimpse of you in the crowd, your name will spread out from all of their lips like a ripple on a lake. Folks will stop what they’re doing and come running for a chance to glimpse Idris the Warrior. The Light Bringer.”
Idris smiled despite still looking uncomfortable. And though the words were directed at him, Eana couldn’t help but imagine it herself. A dual class as a Warrior and Healer. Dishing out punishment to the people who disrespected her, and then healing them to the awe of the crowd. Healer was a rare class as it was, and most of them likely wouldn’t also spec into becoming a Warrior. Could there be some new class, something only available to people who moved along both paths?
“You’re right, I can’t disagree with any of it. And I’ve made the same arguments to myself,” Idris was saying, “But it’s just so much XP! I never thought about the actual cost I guess… just the result.”
“Then quit thinking about the cost now!” Conrad said with a laugh.
And that’s exactly what Eana did. Before she really knew what she was doing her mental focus shifted onto the barrier surrounding the constellation representing the Warrior class in her skill tree and, like she was pouring a mental pitcher of water, she invested 500XP into the class.
Class Earned
Name: Warrior
Stat Bonus: Strength + 2 , Speed +1, Dexterity + 1, Endurance +2
Eana almost squealed when she saw the stat bonuses. She had gotten some when she became a Healer, but she had been so new to the Path of Order that she couldn’t even remember what they were or how they would affect her.
She was dimly aware of Idris continuing to back away from investing his XP and Conrad trying his best to persuade him as she opened up her status screen to examine her stats.
Name: Eana
Race: Human, Female
Age: 12
Class: Healer, Level 3. Warrior, Level 1
Overall Level: 7
Stats:
Strength: 6
Speed: 5
Dexterity: 7
Intelligence: 11
Endurance: 7
Eana had always been small and her physical stats had lagged behind, and so even the small boosts were noticeable immediately.
She felt suddenly fresh, energized, like she hadn’t spent the last hour swinging a heavy staff against a practice dummy. Feeling the staff in her hands she wondered at why she had thought it was heavy before. She could even go another couple of rounds with that practice dummy.
But she wasn’t done yet. She eyed her remaining XP - 425. Then she took a closer look at the skills available to her while Conrad and Idris argued the same points they had both been over already.
Adrenaline Rush didn’t seem like it would be a great fit. Seeing Tomme use it and hearing from Conrad about what exactly had happened in the fight with Idris gave Eana the impression that it was a skill better suited to her when she had more real experience fighting.
Toughness though. That could be useful. She examined the icon - a grimacing, hard faced woman, and accompanying description.
Name: Toughness
Classification: Class/General/Passive/Advanced Attribute
Description: It is only through repeated physical strain that the flesh can be tempered into something harder. Acquire the ability to turn the lessons learned in physical injury into enduring power and become truly hard to kill. Advanced Attribute - Toughness is not limited to five levels of proficiency and can be trained to level 100 as an attribute.
Cost: 250XP
Now that could be useful. It seemed from the description that the only way to advance the skill was to get beat up, though. Eana didn’t like the sound of that but, for a Warrior expecting to be involved in fighting almost continuously she could see the appeal. As with Adrenaline Rush, she decided to defer investment in that one until she had more experience.
She dismissed Psych Up without much thought. Boosting her strength temporarily wouldn’t be overly useful. The same went for Weapon Proficiency which seemed like more of a bonus to somebody who was already skilled with its enhanced chance to strike critically and reduce stamina costs. Besides, she wanted something active.
She looked at Recovery Block and Imbued Strike. Defense and attack.
Name: Recovery Block
Classification: Class/Warrior/Passive
Description: The secret to winning a fight is often not just the strength of one’s blows, but the ability to take them in turn. By stealing the energy of an attack and repurposing it, the Warrior can turn defense into rest, restoring stamina and gaining the energy needed to renew the assault. Recovery Block restores the stamina of the user for each successful block. Higher levels of proficiency increase the chance to perform a recovery block and the amount of stamina restored.
Cost: 100XP
That could be useful, but again, if she couldn’t last in a fight or didn’t have the agility, skill, and strength to actually block an attack it wouldn’t be much use to her. So she examined the last of the skills.
Name: Imbued Strike
Classification: Class/General/Active
Description: Though Warriors pride themselves on personal strength, weapon skill honed over years, and precision attacks at their enemies most vulnerable points, sometimes even they don’t have the patience to work for victory. By calling upon Order imbued stores of magic, the Warrior’s weapon is able to hit with force many times stronger than skill and muscle alone, creating devastating force. Higher levels of proficiency increase imbueable power and maximum number of imbued attacks.
Cost: 150XP
It had been fun reading the descriptions of each skill and imagining there had been a choice, but as Eana finished looking over Imbued Strike she knew it was the exact skill she would be starting with. Without another thought she invested 150XP and watched as the grayed icon of a swinging sword colored in as it became available to her.
Skill Earned
Imbued Strike
Stat Bonus: Strength + 1
Eana smiled, pleased that as with her Healer skills investing in class skills as a warrior also provided stat boosts.
“I just need a little time is all,” Idris was saying, hands out placatingly. Conrad looked frustrated, a man sure of victory seeing it slip from his grasp. “I’m sorry,” Idris finished, a note of finality in his voice.
“Hey. Idris?” Eana asked.
“Yeah, Yahn, we’re going. Sorry, Conrad. You’re really going out of your way for me here and I hope you can - “
Eana cut him off, “Can I borrow your hammer for a second?”
“Huh?” Idris looked puzzled but handed his hammer over without hesitation, “Why?”
Taking up the weapon Eana found it was considerably lighter in her hands than the last time she had tried to use it. Smiling wickedly she held it up the way she had seen Conrad do it and walked over to a rough looking nearby boulder taller than she was. She widened her stance and engaged Imbued Strike. The weapon glowed with a soft red light and Eana swung.
She wasn’t sure what to expect - she just wanted to hit something and experience the power, or disappointment, that her new skill had to offer.
The outer edge of the boulder where the hammer struck exploded out in the direction of her swing sending rocky shrapnel whizzing through the trees, even putting holes in a few tents unlucky enough to have been staked in the way.
“Whoaaahohohoho!” Eana giggled out, cringing only a little as an adventurer got out of a tent to examine the fresh holes in his shelter.
She turned to see Conrad and Idris staring at her. Idris slack jawed, Conrad beaming at the sight of his new chance at victory.
“Good choice, Warrior,” Conrad said, emphasizing the class appellation. He turned to Idris, “You’re not about to be outdone by your little sister, are you?”
Eana walked back to Idris and handed him his hammer, “Idris we are going to explode so many rocks with this!” she said, overbrimming with excitement.
Idris took his hammer and, with a sigh said, “I guess we have to then, don’t we?”