I didn’t even take the time to look at any of the other professional classes except Healer. I knew I’d be taking some time here. Not a ton, I just wanted the lay of the land, but I wanted to be sure there wasn’t anything I should be doing between now and unlocking my first professional class.
Healer worked a bit differently than the other classes, the professional version of the class only had access to the Water, Earth, and Fire elements.
My Water classes were all low grade. I just hadn’t spent much time learning about potion making. So that wasn’t very interesting.
Where it became interesting was Earth. I had several high grade classes that all seemed to be based on more natural forms of healing. Midwife [Earth] and Fertility Specialist [Earth] were some of my strongest. That made some sense since my sub-specialty had been gynecology. However it seems my medical expertise didn’t transfer seamlessly to better classes, there was just too much of a mismatch. However, one class really jumped out at me.
*Diagnostician [Earth]
Medium Grade
Description: You have a deep reservoir of knowledge about illnesses of all kinds. The more medical knowledge you have the more you will be able to determine what ails a patient. From using magic to analyze blood samples to seeing a patient’s insides you will have all the tools necessary to find the cause of a disease so you or another person can cure it better. Magic healing capabilities of this class are low.
Stats Per Level: 1 Free Stat, 1 Vitality, 1 Animus, 1 Magic, 2 Manipulation
Main Skills: Earth Affinity, Diagnostic Medicine
Class Skill Slots: 6
Class Skill Tags: Earth, Healing, Knowledge, Science*
A science class tag? Were there classes that were based on the scientific method? To my knowledge that doesn’t even exist in this world. However there were rudimentary disciplines in what I would call sciences. Basic knowledge of physics, math, chemistry. Without them the people of this world wouldn’t be able to build anything without magic. Was there a physicist class somewhere out there?
It didn’t matter really, I wouldn’t be able to make new scientific discoveries without an entire scientific community. That being the case most science based classes would be useless to me, just more of what I can already do on my own.
This Diagnostician class was incredibly powerful though. I was now confident I would need something like this class to make Fire healing work in the way I think it can.
I checked my Fire healing classes next. There were only three options and they were all low grade: Metamorph, Mutator, and Bioshifter. I checked through all the descriptions quickly. Metamorph was all about changing your own body to get useful adaptations like gills, claws, scales, etc. but you had to keep to a very specific set of changes you could make. Mutator was able to be used on others, but it was even more limited and took a long time to make it work.
Finally there was the Bioshifter class, that’s the one that really interested me.
*Bioshifter Curist [Fire]
Low Grade
Description: Bioshifters are a rare subset of healers and mages. They can change certain minor aspects of almost all life. Bioshifter Curists are focused on utilizing the magic of change to help heal others, whereas mages use it to alter life to suit their needs. Be warned Bioshifting is an extremely difficult form of magic that requires a deep well of knowledge to utilize effectively.
Stats Per Level: 1 Vitality, 1 Animus, 1 Magic, 2 Manipulation
Main Skills: Fire Affinity, Bioshift
Class Skill Slots: 6
Class Skill Tags: Fire, Healing, Knowledge, Science*
This was it! However my fear that this type of biological magic was going to be difficult was not unfounded. I would need to know exactly what I needed to do at a fundamental level to create the changes needed. However this class description clearly made it possible. I could probably alter a person’s immune system to make them resistant to diseases for instance. However I would need to understand each disease.
So this all meant I needed the Diagnostician class to make Fire healing work. Maybe… if I could somehow combine the two classes I could do it all in one class. Let’s see Fire and Earth together were the Molten element. But when elements combine they don't always keep their original aspects. So I couldn’t know if there was a Molten class that combined Bioshifter Curist with Diagnostician.
“Hey Mel?” I asked tentatively.
“What do ya need?” She asked as she made the screen in front of me disappear.
“Is there a Molten class that combines Diagnostician and Bioshifter Curist?”
“Maybe, but you’ll never get it unless you take at least one of the classes first. Getting a dual element class at first is almost impossible, especially if you don’t really grasp the base concept of magical healing. Now if you took years watching people heal with magic you might be able to get it done. For you with what you have experienced in this life it would be much more likely to get a dual element sword fighting class than a dual element healing one.” Mel concluded her explanation with a wink.
What was that wink for? Did I unlock a powerful sword based class? She was very clearly hinting at something. I got out of the healing chair. “Alright well, I know what I need to do for healing classes now. So let’s head over and see what you’ve been hinting at.”
Mel grinned mischievously. “It’s about time! I can’t wait.” She somehow had a hop to her float toward the exit back to the main room. Mel wasn’t exactly annoying, but I just wish she would choose bubbly or serious and stick to it. The whiplash was killing me.
I stepped into the combat classes room and saw the expected 5 base class chairs, Warrior, Mage, Healer, Cleric, and Ranger. What I hadn’t expected was the advanced class Spellblade chair. Advanced classes were a merger of two base classes, a spellblade was half Warrior and half Mage. Advanced classes were stronger than base classes but also less focused, still the benefits almost always outweigh the negatives. When my jaw dropped at seeing the advanced class chair I heard Mel squee with excitement.
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Mel floated over to the spellblade class chair and swirled around it for a bit before looking at me expectantly. I considered for a moment before I promptly ignored her. I would at least look at all the other class options first. I’m sure I would end up there, Mel clearly knew that my strongest combat class was there.
I quickly checked the cleric seat just to see classes similar to the professional ones for Devotees of Lux and Umbra. Except these classes focused on using their divine power in combat instead of working at a church dedicated to them. Interesting but without knowing more about the gods I wasn’t going to become reliant on their power.
The healer chair had a ton of Light and Dark classes, with just a couple of low grade Air classes mixed in. Air was so different from the type of healing I was used to it just didn’t connect to my Earth knowledge at all. It specialized in healing auras, but I had no real context for such things so I got bad class options for it.
I had a ton of Light and Dark healer classes though, and some of them were quite powerful. Clearly Halcroft’s training method had worked as he intended it. The strongest light healer class was Rejuvenator, it focused on restoring lost or damaged flesh, but it couldn’t restore body parts that had been entirely destroyed or lost. It was clear this class would evolve into something that could restore lost body parts entirely. If I had still been under Halcroft’s order this was the class I would be forced to take.
The Dark classes were more interesting, offering the ability to purge things from patients. I also had a high grade class in the dark element, Purifier. It would allow me to destroy bacteria and break down poison. That didn’t account for all types of Diseases, but I imagined as the class evolved and leveled I would be able to cure more illnesses.
I might be willing to have my second class be a Light or Dark healer with the ultimate goal of merging them into a Spatial healing class. The spatial element was the combination of light and dark and it was powerful. A Spatial healer could destroy disease, regrow limbs, and had the ability to teleport patients or teleport yourself to someone in need. It combined the strength of Light and Dark healing with teleportation abilities that allowed you to be an effective combat healer.
Of course Light and Dark healing had the significant downside of being very dangerous until you combined them with each other or with an Air element. You have to run up into combat as someone without a class focused on fighting. There was a good reason there were few Light and Dark healers in the world, you would need to be guarded constantly since you wouldn’t be able to defend yourself until you get to crazy high levels.
I moved on from the Healer seat. I quickly checked the ranger, warrior, and mage seats just to see what was on offer. I had some high grade warrior classes focused on the Sukeshi claymores I trained with. They were certainly powerful and if the spellblade classes didn’t work out I would go back here to take one of them.
Ranger was a somewhat strange class, it was more focused on monster hunting, survival, and tracking. You gave up some of the combat potential of a Warrior to gain a lot of utility abilities that could help you live and hunt in the wilderness. I had no interest in any of these classes, and they were all low grade entry classes.
Finally there was mage, I guess because I had the meditation skill and practiced it everyday I had actually earned some pretty strong mage classes. I had access to a medium grade class in every base element and one high grade Fire class.
“Hey Mel, why do my Fire classes tend to be the strongest?”
Mel had been floating around the spellblade chair with an annoyed look on her face. She grumbled something I couldn’t hear. “Because Fire is change, and you, being reincarnated with your knowledge intact, have experienced a lot more change than most people your age. Nuala had the same thing happen to her, but she ended up with some other high grade Light and Dark classes so she went down that route instead.”
Well that was interesting, I wondered if I could get Mel to talk more about Nuala. “What type of class did she take?”
Mel glared at me. “I won’t tell you.” She said then stuck her tongue out.
Well it was worth a try I guess. I decided to move on to the Spellblade chair. I could always come back and analyze mage and warrior more after this.
Mel was ‘jumping’ up and down while she floated near the chair and was clapping her hands excitedly. “Let’s go already!” She squeaked impatiently.
I rolled my eyes and sat down in the chair. Just like before it reclined and allowed me hands into imprints to control the screen. A list of elements appeared. Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Light, Dark… then the list continued, there was one more element than normal, Radiance. I had access to a dual element class?!
Dual element classes were always more powerful than single element classes. I immediately selected Radiance. A single class appeared.
*Radiant Redeemer [Radiance]
Low Grade
Description: You have spent years planning your vengeance against your captor. Through it all you have trained and bettered yourself so that once you break your chains you can be redeemed. You have been diligent in your pursuit of the martial form, but have not forsaken your pursuit of knowledge and magic. Take up your Sukeshi and seek vengeance against those that are irredeemable.
Stats Per Level: 2 Free, 4 Strength, 5 Agility, 4 Vitality, 4 Animus, 3 Magic, 3 Manipulation
Main Skills: Radiance Affinity, Radiance Resistance
Class Skill Slots: 6
Class Skill Tags: Radiance, Sukeshi, Magic, Spellblade, Fighting*
Fuck… that was it. That was the class I was looking for. Those stats per level were absolutely crazy too! I got more than double what I would get from a high grade single element class. I would become an absolute monster very quickly. I also knew Spellblades in general were rare, I had only seen one or two during my whole time at the manor.
I would be crazy not to take this class. I had never even heard of someone getting a dual element class as their first class before. Did it have to do with getting the One in a Million and Titan’s Fall achievements? Although I guess I have also been meditating and training with the sword literally everyday for years.
"Mel… how did I possibly get access to this class?” I was totally bewildered.
Mel giggled twirling around in the air before responding. “Hard work and a constant focus on your goal. Being in an impossible situation and creating hope. Plus the system really likes to reward people that get a specific achievement for the first time. No one in the entire world has ever gotten the Titan’s Fall achievement before. Killing someone 100 times your level is basically impossible without artificially setting the situation up and the system would ignore that anyways.” She made a dismissing motion with her hand.
“So I guess… I’m taking this class then.” I was still a little flabbergasted.
“Cool, well just click-” She snapped her fingers and a new option appeared on the screen under the class description. “-that button once you’re ready to go. Buuuuut before you go it was really nice meeting you Alea. I’m really looking forward to watching your adventures.” She floated down through the display and hugged me to my surprise.
I squeaked. “Uhh. Yeah, it was nice to meet you too… thanks for telling me about Nuala.” She released me from the hug and gave me a cheerful smile. “If… when she sees you again please tell her I’ll come for her but it might take me a while.”
Mel put her pointer finger to her chin and her other hand on her hip in an overly emphasized cute thinking poise. “I suppose I can do that for you. But I won’t be relaying a bunch of messages between you two, it is against the rules after all.”
“Thank you Mel…” I trailed off for a bit. “Really, this means a lot to me.” I said more firmly.
“Alright, off you go then.” Mel backed up and made a shooing motion.
“I’ll see you again in-” I considered how long it would take me to hit level 60. “-a few weeks.” I said confidently.
“Oh my, that's quite bold of you.” Mel grinned as I hit the accept class button.
Immediately my consciousness was pulled out of the strange room. For a moment there was only darkness. Then I gasped for air and my eyes flew open. I was back in my bedroom staring up at my ceiling.