Emily was back in her room. She stared at the prompt for a long time before dismissing it, bring up another.
Warrior Monk
Class
Increases stamina by 20% and increases mana regeneration by 15%
Tranquility L1
Skill
You are at peace with yourself and the world around you. Negative mental effects are significantly harder to affect you. Mana and Stamina regeneration 10%
Basic Combat Mastery L1
Skill
You understand hand to hand and weapon combat. You have basic knowledge of all forms of hand to hand combat and weapons.
Emily again stared at the prompt for a long time. It was short but the changes were astounding. Dismissing the screen she checked her skills and saw what she expected. All her hard won skills in weapons were gone. Instead of a long list of basic weapon skills that she had leveled to L9 where merged into Basic Combat Mastery. Emily wondered if this meant weapons that she was not proficient in or never encountered would be available for use. If Emily could use all weapons proficiently that was an extremely powerful skill.
Another skill that was gone was the active skill deep meditation. For a moment Emily felt a ping of loss. That skill was one of the first skills she had received upon awakening in this world and she had used it every day for the last five years.
Shaking away the loss Emily was excited that deep meditation was now the passive skill Tranquility. This meant the skill was always on. Instead of sitting down and activity meditating, she would in effect always be meditating. The bonus to stamina regeneration of 10% combined with the class bonus of 20%, would give her a powerful boost to her stamina use.
Before she received her class Emily stamina would take just under nineteen minutes to regenerate fully, seventeen if she was meditating. Emily tried not to drain her stamina, instead trying to balance stamina use with regeneration rates. With the new bonuses to regeneration and her meditation now being a passive skill, Emil could regenerate her full stamina in just over fourteen minutes.
A knock at her door distracted Emily. Dismissing the screen, Emily got up and walked to the door. Opening it revealed her best friend Golda looking shell shocked. Emily knew Golda had been preparing her own ascension and that she desperately hoped to become a mage. Golda wanted to become a runesmith and show up her father. They both loved each other but dwarf were very competitive when it came to crafting. While Tier 3 Master Smith was respected in dwarf society, it was nothing like the almost reverence a Tier 3 Master Runesmith received. To become a basic Tier 2 Runesmith you first had to be awarded the Tier 1 mage class then take Tier 1 smithing and mana scribe classes.
“Golda what is wrong?
Golda just continued to stare at Emily not saying a word. Taking her by the arm Emily gently guided her friend to her desk chair. After she sat Golda down, Emily turned and closed the door, then took a seat on the edge of her bed. Golda still had not said anything.
The minutes creep by and Emily was content to let her friend come to terms with whatever was bothering her. Finally after almost five minutes Golda said. “I got the mage class.”
Emily would have jumped up and hugged her friend in celebration of Golda getting the class she wished for but held off knowing there was more to this.
“It is a Life Mage class.”
This stunned Emily. Life mages where Tier 3 classers and to receive one as your first class was beating astronomical odds. Someone wanting to become a life mage first had to have the Tier 1 mage class, then, what made the class so hard to get, you needed over 80% elemental affinity in earth, water, and air magic. After you completed your first Tier 1 mage class you then needed to take the tier 2 classes in each magic and only then finally ascending to the coveted Tier 3 Life mage.
Emily realized why Golda was so stunned and tried to be encouraging. “You do not have become a healer. You can still follow your dreams. Who knows with as many classes and hidden classes out there you could become the first Life Runesmith.”
Golda looked more hopeful. “But do I not have reasonability to heal people now with this class?”
That was the main crutch of the problem. Almost all powerful healers were part of the church and used divine healing magic, the next option for people looking for healing were heath potions and elixirs, actual magic healers were so rare there had to be less than a thousand life mages in the Empire’s capital that held over half a million people.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“You do not have to do anything. People have survived before you become a life mage, people will survive if you do not become a healer, and they will survive long after you die.” Emily was all for helping people but not at the risk to your will being. “Besides, like I said, you could become the first ever life runesmith! How awesome would that be? You could pioneer an entirely new class.”
While Emily had never read even a mention or hint that such a class existed in the thousands of books she had read, logically that was because no one ever pursued such an option. Anyone who received a life mage class as their first class would think as Golda did, that they had to become a healer, and a Tier 3 life mage would never even consider spending the decades it would take to go back and take the two Tier 1 classes of smithing and mana scribe, the Tier 2 runesmith, and anther Tier 3 class master runesmith. It would probably take the most dedicated person over a hundred years to level all the new classes.
Golda looked intrigued at this new thought and had a desperately hopeful look. “You really think so? I do not even know what a life runesmith would even be able to do! Heal though runes?” Golda looked even more intrigued at this idea.
“See that would be a discovery of the ages! If you found runes that could heal you could save more lives than you could possibly save working as just a healer. You could even save lives long after you are gone. It could become your legacy!” Emily encouraged enthusiastically. Emily was not even faking enthusiasm to help a friend, the creation or discovery of healing runes would change the world. Everyone would want a runic healing device. Hell even Emily wanted one now they were taking about it.
Golda was smiling now. “Thank you Emily, you are such a good friend.”
They both sat in companionable silence for a minute, just enjoying each other’s company. Finally Golda asked. “Now that I am not having a burning fire raging in my mind, did you ascend? What is your new class?”
“I did! I got a most intriguing class ‘Warrior monk.”
“Warrior Monk? I thought monks were a religious order?”
“So did I! The most fascinating thing about my new class is that all my weapon and fighting skills have been condensed into one single skill!” Talking about one’s skills and stats were only done with close friends and family. Some families did not even do that. Emily had hard gossip of divorces because of one or both partners refusing to discuss their class and stats.
“Really? You worked so hard learning all those skills! The professors were always so dismayed at how quickly you learned and advanced.” They both laughed at the same time, both thinking one professor in particular who had a raging, stomping, fit after Emily showed him she was able to use a dozen weapons correctly and proficiently. The new training professor had been adamant that Emily could not possible know all these weapons at her age and Knight Thornfield had made a sucker’s bet with the new trainer.
“Yes and it had paid off! The new skill is called basic combat mastery and form the description I am now able to use all weapons and combat forms.”
Golda looked shocked again. “All weapons? That is an amazing skill! I thought my class was startling. A class with that skill will make you devastating fighter. I know you secretly hoped to become a mage.”
Emily waved this away. “Yes my stats did skew towards a mage at the beginning but I had planned to take a warrior class after the mages class. This just means I cannot become an elemental fighter. No shooting fireballs for me!” Emily laughed at the joke.
“And the world thanks you! No burning down the city!”
“Hey now! I thought that the tincture would just change the fires color!” Emily defended her attempts to mix a tincture using a verity of ingredients to change a bonfire’s colours to the rainbow. It had ended up shooting flames dozens of meters into the air and almost setting the school on fire but it did have amazing and mesmerizing shifting colours.
Golda laughed. “You were banned from any further classes in alchemy.”
“I still think that was a cruel and heartless overreaction! We are here to learn!” Caused Golda to laugh even harder. Emily joined in; it really was funning in retrospect.
After calming down they sat once more in companionable silence.
“We really are leaving.” Golda said softly.
“Yes it really is happening.” Emily said just as softly.
“We will still be friends.”
“Yes we will always be friends Golda.” With that both girls got up and hugged for the longest time.
***************
Emily said goodbye to Aveline, Eleanora, Cedric, Renwick, and all the wonderful professors who had helped teach her these last five years. Emily had learned and grown so much in her time at Havardr Academy.
Form first waking up hurt and dying on Terra, to enrolling and studying at Havardr, to getting her first class, Emily had many huge changes in her young life but she was looking forward to the next chapter in her life, to finally leave the safe school, ready and able to take on the new world.
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Walking out of Havardr Academy was a surreal experience. It was the first time she had left since she had arrived. Emily took a moment to come to terms with the outside world and then started making her way towards the adventures guild. To start diving in the dungeon you needed to first register with the guild. The adventurers guild was this world’s unions; you could not take jobs posted in the adventurers guild without signing up.
Emily made her way through the crowds. Emily wore her full suite of heavy armor and was still amazed that no one looked askance at her heavily armed and armored self. Emily had a pair of daggers in boot sheaths, four throwing hand axes strapped to her thighs, two on each leg, her belt carried two short swords slanted for cross draw, a hidden punch dagger in her belt buckle, two knifes at the small of back, a bandolier across her chest, hanging from her right shoulder to her left waist, with six throwing knifes at the ready, and a long sword on her back.
Amazingly still, there were even more heavily armed and armored people walking causally around. Emily even saw a dire wolf that was more heavily armored then her that had a slender elf archer riding on top.
Name:
Helartha Inarie L 205
Emily Identity skill was maxed out at L9 but she could only identity the elf’s name and level. Still, seeing the high level of the elf, really brought home the fact that she was only level 1, on her first Tier 1 class. If the elf followed the most common class distribution then she would have two Tier 1 classes, each at level of 25, two Tier 2 classes at the maximum level of 50, and finally 55 levels in her first Tier 3 class, meaning she was just over half way towards maxing out her current Tier 3 class at level 100 and taking her second Tier 3 class.
Emily continued following the flow of traffic, taking a weaving path through several streets, until she finally came to the large squat building that housed the adventurers guild.