The box promptly disappeared, replaced by emptiness. He waited impatiently for a new notification to pop up, but as the seconds dragged into minutes, he begin to feel just a touch nervous that something had malfunctioned. So when a new box finally popped up, he clicked it as fast as his fingers could move.
Congratulations, Watchman. Your previous class has now been adjusted for compatibility.
Jasper Welles
Exp: 78/10,000
Health 4000
Spirit 4000
Essence 8600
Heritage(s)
Greater Djinn
Watchman of Aldāru
Level: 102
Level up: x0
Hand of Kas̆dael
Level: 6
Level up: x0
Titles
The Blood Runs True
Betrothed of Kas̆dael
Survivor
Champion of Sappiya
Blessed of Hurbas̆u
Stats
Racial Traits
Class Abilities
Class Abilities
Strength 50
Scion of Flames
Shooting Star
Scales of Justice
Endurance 50
Uplifted
Purge
Scourge of Despair
Vision 20
The Broken Shackle
Eternal Night II
Hand of Judgment
Inspiration 105
The Bramble Crown
Fiery Shackles II
Willpower 110
Locked
Seraph Burst
Intuition 38 (+12)
Heart Stopper (Undead)
Into the Valley of Death
The changes were more numerous than he expected. Stamina had been replaced by Spirit, and his essence and health had both risen substantially, despite the fact he had yet to allocate any of the points from his new levels. His weapon skills had disappeared altogether, and several of his class abilities were highlighted in a deep red, with several notification boxes blinking for his attention.
Taking a deep breath, he began to wade through the changes. The first thing he noticed was that the requirements for most of the spells he already possessed had been altered. With stamina gone, he had expected the few stamina spells he had to be replaced, but instead they appeared to have been moved into spirit along with, to his surprise, some of his other spells.
Essence (8600)
Spirit (4000)
Shooting Star - 500
Scales of Justice - 100 per minute
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Fiery Shackles II - 500
Scourge of Despair - 500
Purge 500
Heart Stopper (Undead) - 500
Seraph Burst - 500
Into the Valley of Death - 500
Hand of Judgment - 4000
Bramble Crown - 500
So, I can cast around 16 essence spells and 8 or so spirit spells before running dry, he quickly calculated. Not too bad. The absence of his weapon skills was baffling though, until he opened the next box.
Please select your new class spells. Three spells are free, and further choices can be selected (or upgraded) from the list with any refunded points.
As your new class is no longer designated as a hybrid mage, you are no longer eligible to learn weapon skills. You have been refunded fifteen (15) points to spend as you please. Do you wish to sacrifice any of your current spells? Y/N
Oh right, the sacrifice system. In a moment, it all came rushing back to him. The original game had featured an almost dizzying array of available classes, so it was no surprise that many people wanted to experience more than one or two of them. At the same time, most players had a hard time abandoning their high-leveled character and all the mounts and gear they’d acquired.
The company’s solution, introduced in the very first patch they rushed out, had been the sacrifice system. Every hundred levels, players were given the chance to do a soft reroll of their character. It wasn’t complete freedom - you still had to choose from the classes offered to you - but it vastly expanded your choices. If you started as a nature-based ranger and were offered a class at 100 that was a stealth archer, you’d get refunded points for any skills no longer usable in your new class, points that could be used on skills from your new one.
Ignoring the button that begged him to select spells to abandon, Jasper scrolled down the list of abilities offered to him. Might as well see my options before making any decisions. The list was longer than he expected, but many of the abilities he rejected outright. Kas̆dael may have said the Watchman wasn’t a necromancer class, but the number of spells that dealt with corpses in one way or another was too damned high. But despite his pickiness, he wasn’t hurting for choices, only narrowing it down after a considerable amount of deliberation.
He locked in his three free choices first.
Flame Charge (mounted) - Set yourself and mount on fire for 1 minute as you charge into the fray. Any target your weapon touches will be set on fire for 30 seconds unless extinguished. Cost: 500 essence.
Spectral Succor - For ten minutes, harness the spirits of the dead to revive your strength. While active, each enemy killed will restore 200 points to health, essence, and spirit. Cost: 1000 spirit.
Speaker of Aldāru - For two minutes, interrogate the ghost of any recently deceased corpse. Cannot be cast twice on the same target. Cost: 400 spirit.
The Speaker of Aldāru was, in Jasper’s opinion, hardly an exciting choice. But after some rather persisting hinting from Kas̆dael about the many, many uses an inquisitor would have for such an interrogation spell, he had reluctantly selected it. It’s not like utility spells aren’t, well, useful, but they sure as hell aren’t sexy, he griped to himself.
The first two, on the other hand, were considerably more exciting. It was impossible to deny the cool factor of being able to charge into your enemy like a human torch, and the value of a spell that could restore both health and essence need not even be defended. But with those choices locked in, he still had fifteen points to spend on something else.
For his starter spells, he had only been able to pick from spells that cost 5-10 points, but the whole list was available for him to choose from now. He didn't need to search long, though; his mind was made up as soon as he saw the option.
Spectral Wings (20 points) - For ten minutes, summon a pair of ghostly wings. Though the wings do not inflict any physical damage naturally, if infused with fire essence, enemies touched by them will be burned. This spell can also be cast on party members or mounts, though no more than two casts of the spell may be active at any given time. Cost: 1000 spirit or essence.
The ability to fly - or make his horse fly - was too tempting to pass up, but he didn’t have 20 points. Frustrated, he scrolled back up to his list of spells. The prompt was still there asking him if he wanted to sacrifice one of his spells. Do I? He clicked yes, and experimented with the list, finally settling on one he was willing to surrender. Heartstopper gave 5 points, just enough to enable him to purchase the Spectral Wings. Not giving himself time to talk himself out of it, he made the transactions in quick succession and threw all his points into his new stat, intuition, before closing the box.
“Happy with your choices?” Kas̆dael smiled down at him, knowing the answer to her question already.
He grinned. “I think so.” He hesitated a moment before continuing, “And, uh, thanks. For, you know, the class.”
The goddess patted his hand fondly. “You have yourself to thank, then. If you had not successfully crossed the bridge on your own, you could not have been offered the class. I had nothing to do with that.”
He nodded, not entirely sure he believed her, but there was no need to look a gift horse in the mouth. “And Dapplegrim? She should evolve now, right?
“Once you return to your world, feed her the pomegranate and it will trigger her transformation.”
He cocked his head to the side as he looked up at her, curiosity glinting in his eyes. “Any chance you know what she’ll become?”
Kasdael's lips quirked up in a faint smile. “You want me to spoil the surprise?”
He nodded eagerly. "Absolutely."
"I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you, then," she said with a laugh. "It is not my gift to spoil, after all."
And with that, not giving him time to pester her with any further questions, Kas̆dael's hand plunged deep into his chest.
As usual, Jasper awoke with a gasp, bending over as he clutched a hand to the phantom pain in his chest. But this time, the pain was smoothed away almost instantly, as the strange calm of the small shrine washed over him. He tarried in the shrine for a few seconds, lulled into inaction by the gentle lapping of the waves against the rocky stilts of the foundation. A warm salty breeze blew off the waters, tousling his hair with a gentle hand, as he let his eyes wander the small chamber.
He could have sat there forever, listening to the subtle lullaby of the wind and the waves, but not everyone was so patient. He barely noticed when a light weight landed on his shoulder, paying no heed to it until a sharp peck nipped at his cheek. “What the hell?” Startled out of his reverie, he whipped his head around to see a small, very impatient bird hopping back and forth between its two legs.
As soon as it saw it had caught his attention, the grey bird bolted from his shoulder, fluttering to a stop at the threshold of the shrine.
He chuckled. “Wait your turn, little bird. I’ll give Dapplegrim the pomegranate as soon as I get back.” He closed his eyes, letting the feeling of peace wash over him again. But his promise had fallen on deaf ears, as a series of sharp pecks assaulted his cheeks.
With a good-natured groan, he stood up. “All right, all right, you’ve won, little bird. I’ll come now.” He didn’t know if the rimākal could understand him, but the pecks, at least, ceased as the grey bird flew ahead of him out of the shrine.
As Jasper stepped across the threshold, his feet paused at the base of the strange bridge. A gap of ten feet yawned between him and the next plank, and he tensed his muscles, prepared to launch himself across the gap, but paused as another idea struck him. Why not? A grin slipped across his face as he summoned his new spell - Spectral Wings.
An unexpected spasm rippled down his back as the essence left his fingers, not pain so much as a strange sensation, but it was enough to pitch him forward face first toward the warm waters below. But his lips never tasted the salt, his fall stopped nearly as soon as it had begun.
The wings responded instinctively to his bidding, slowly lifting him back above the bridge. He craned his head to get a better look, realizing with surprise that the wings were passing through the ropes and planks of the bridge utterly unhindered. Well, I guess they are “spectral.”
The wings looked much like those he had manifested twice before - at the cost of burning his soul. Large, glossy black feathers covered them from end to end, the feathers moving and shifting with the sea winds as if they were actually affected by them. But it was obvious that the wings had no real substance. Dark and wispy, as if formed by smoke, Jasper had no idea how they managed to lift him in the air, but they eagerly responded to his every impulse.
He shot forward, pirouetting through their air in a series of tight rolls and turns that would have put a stunt flier to shame. His arms prickled with excitement as he soared up into the sky, ignoring the rather angry little bird that followed along beside him. He quickly rose above the city, the wings beating with a slow, steady rhythm that seemed entirely insufficient for his speed. Remembering after a moment that the city had some sort of equivalent to a “no-fly-zone,” he turned away, zooming low above the surface of the water, as every fiber of his body thrummed with exhilaration.
Time ceased to have all meaning as Jasper finally fulfilled the dream that had haunted mankind from the first moment they had looked up to the stars that twinkled just beyond their reach. And then, in an instant, his exhilaration was replaced with an equally thrilling moment of terror as his wings dissipated into the winds and he was sent plunging down toward the water.
He failed to recast the spell before he smashed into the lake. The surface of the water felt like concrete - indeed, the fall might just have killed him back on earth - but his new skin tanked the blow like a champ, and when his head broke the surface moments later, he was laughing as he wiped the salty water from his eyes. “Holy hell, that was awesome." The spell definitely needs some sort of timer though, he admitted to himself.
A little grey bird fluttered just out of reach above his head and Jasper felt a slight twinge of guilt as he remembered he was supposed to be following it. “You’re right, I promised, didn’t I,” he said, flicking a little water its way. The bird dodged it, squawking indignantly at him as the laughter took him again. But he kept his word this time, casting the spell once again. Another shudder ran down his spine as the smoky wings reemerged, but they passed through the waters unhindered, lifting him above the waters with strong, steady beats. He wanted nothing more than to soar back into the heavens, but he ignored the temptation, turning his sights back to the shore where his friends, and his little pony, patiently awaited him.