Aeric Stormrider looked at the weapon rack on the wall. The weapons were all medieval in nature: a dagger, round mace, short sword, long sword, shield, battle axe, spiked flail, and a spear. He also noticed a bow with a quiver of arrows, and a crossbow with a quiver of bolts.
A collection of what Aeric assumed were wands rested in velvet cases as well. Each of the three wands had a different color permeating its wood: a red so dark it was nearly black, forest green, and light pink.
The growling in the hallway grew louder.
Okay, Aeric thought. I've been struck by a lightning bolt, probably died, got a chance to recreate my body in what is probably some computer simulation, and now I'm going to be eaten by a monster unless I can figure out how to use one of these weapons.
He reached for the closest wand which was dark red. He spun around and pointed it down the hallway. The creature was getting closer: a wolf shape wreathed in shadowy wisps of darkness, though it was still another 25 yards or so away.
“Avada Kedavra!” Aeric shouted.
Nothing happened. Not even a little spark. Aeric looked at the useless stick in his hand, then shrugged and tossed it over his shoulder. He turned back to the weapon cabinet to decide what to try next.
The wand spun as it fell. It hit tip-first against the stone floor a few yards away from Aeric and subsequently exploded. Aeric flew face first into the weapons cabinet from the force of the fiery combustion, then rebounded and crashed onto the floor.
Almost as if in slow motion he saw the entire wooden cabinet tip forward. It crashed on top of him, the dagger plunging deep into his thigh while the mace crashed directly onto his head. All went black.
---
Aeric woke up in darkness. At first he wondered if he was back at the customization screen, but he was in too much pain. He tasted blood and smelled an oiled metallic scent along with old wood. He tried to move his arms and immediately regretted it. Sharp metal was poking him from all around. Every movement drove points of pain a little deeper into his flesh.
The blue screen was still visible, even in the darkness.
[Quest: Class Selection Trial]
[Objective: Survive for as long as you can.]
[Secondary Objective: Slay as many monsters as possible.]
[Time Survived: 8 hours, 13 minutes, 24 seconds]
[Monsters Slain: 0]
[Class Ranks Available: Common, Uncommon, Rare]
[Note: Softcore Death Penalty is active in this area.]
Carefully angling his neck, Aeric looked around and saw that the open cabinet had entirely enveloped him. A small crack was visible where the wood met the stone floor. He groaned in pain. He heard the light click-clack of footsteps on the other side of the cabinet.
“Hello?” Aeric called out. “Is anyone out there?” A shadow came over the crack of light and Aeric heard the huffing sound of a creature trying to sniff at what was underneath the cabinet.
The shadow wolf, Aeric thought. The wolf scratched lightly at the wood, but its claws were not well suited to breaking through the thick furniture. Perhaps it would dig its way through eventually, but Aeric didn’t expect to be seeing it any time soon.
I’ve got to get out of here, Aeric thought. There was only an inch or two of space between his chest and the cabinet. He felt claustrophobic for a moment, but forced himself to breathe slowly and deeply to calm down.
He tried moving his legs, then immediately stopped. Shifting his weight had made him realize the dagger was still deep inside of his leg. The dull, throbbing pain had been such a constant that he hadn’t noticed it until now.
Existence was pain.
Every movement he made brought more pain.
He decided the best thing he could do now was just rest again.
Maybe someone will come find me.
---
[Time Survived: 12 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds]
[Monsters Slain: 0]
[Class Ranks Available: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic]
At twelve hours into the quest the word “Epic” appeared in the list of class selections. Aeric was feeling weak from a combination of hunger, thirst, and loss of blood. He didn’t dare attempt to pull the knife out of his leg: having seen enough movies to know that was a quick way to die from blood loss. At this point the wound had stopped bleeding anyway, as long as he stayed still and bore the throbbing pain of it.
The sounds of scratching were coming from all over the cabinet now. There were clearly more of those wolves: probably an entire pack of them. They didn’t seem to be making any progress on breaking through the cabinet though.
There was no chance of sleep with all this racket. Aeric fell back on one of his old hobbies he had sometimes used to distract himself after finishing his math tests: exponential multiplication.
Two to the power of zero is one.
Two to the power of one is two.
Two to the power of two is four.
Two to the power of three is eight.
---
[Time Survived: 16 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds]
[Monsters Slain: 0]
[Class Ranks Available: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary]
At sixteen hours the word “Legendary” appeared in the list of class selections. Aeric had lost count of his twos exponent math long ago and had started over with other numbers. Distracting his mind had dulled the pain a little, but seeing the “Legendary” keyword appear made him feel excited. He wasn’t sure what that would mean exactly, but he was sure it was good.
He wanted to continue on: to see what was possible beyond Legendary, but he wasn’t confident he’d be making it to twenty hours. He was feeling weaker by the hour, having no way to recover from his wounds, no water to drink or food to eat.
All he could do was hope that the notice about “softcore death” meant something good in this case.
You never know, Aeric thought. I am pretty sure I’ve died once already when I was struck by lightning, so maybe death isn’t the end after all.
A light appeared in the cabinet above Aeric’s head. A claw had finally broken through the wood enough to expose him.
Ah crap, Aeric thought. He carefully fumbled around in the dark to see if he could reach any usable weapons. He felt the wooden shield and tried to carefully maneuver it above him to cover up the damaged wood. There wasn’t much space, but he managed to provide a bit more protection.
---
[Time Survived: 16 hours, 35 minutes, 5 seconds]
[Monsters Slain: 0]
[Class Ranks Available: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary]
The wolves were on top of Aeric now. Once they had scratched out enough of the wood to form a big enough hole, they began using their powerful jaws to peel the wood up piece by piece. Aeric tried his best to push them away with the shield, but it only bought him a bit more time.
A wolf clamped its jaws down hard around the shield and yanked it away. Aeric looked up into the faces of half a dozen shadowy canines.
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Huh, he thought. They all have slightly glowing red eyes. That’s interesting. And that big one’s eyes are glowing stronger than--
He did not finish his thought, as the wolves tore him to pieces.
[Quest: Class Selection Trial]
[Quest Complete!]
[Time Survived: 16 hours, 36 minutes, 43 seconds]
[Monsters Slain: 0]
Aeric found himself back at the infinite blue void. He couldn’t see his body anymore. All of his existence was limited to what he could see in front of him. Simple white text on a blue screen.
[Please choose your class.]
[Class selection availability: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary]
[Class selection filtered by combat styles used during quest: Null]
What followed was a list of classes at each rank. Common held the most, while each of the subsequent class ranks held fewer and fewer until Legendary only contained one option.
To Aeric's surprise, the classes seemed focused on things other than combat. He supposed that made sense considering he hadn't managed to score even a single hit on the wolves with any of the weapons. There wasn't any data on his preferred fighting style. Perhaps whoever or whatever made this list assumed he wanted to avoid fighting.
[Common]
[ - Baker]
[ - Tailor]
[ - Carpenter]
… 46 more
[Uncommon]
[ - Armorsmith]
[ - Weaponsmith]
[ - Fletcher]
… 13 more
[Rare]
[ - Arcanist]
[ - Diviner]
[ - Chronomancer]
… 7 more
[Epic]
[ - Alchemist]
[ - Nullifier]
[Legendary]
[ - Twinborn]
Aeric looked over the options carefully. As far as he could tell he could take all the time he wanted in this place. He read each class’s description, starting with Baker.
[Baker]
[Imbue breads, cakes, and other baked goods with astra, allowing the creation of magical food containing healing or otherwise beneficial enchantments.]
[Tailor]
[Imbue clothing and soft armors with astra, allowing the creation of magical outfits containing a variety of enchantments.]
[Carpenter]
[Imbue wooden constructs with astra, allowing the creation of fortified buildings, furniture, or other woodworking projects.]
Aeric continued on skimming through the rest of the Common rank classes. It was more of the same. He wasn’t sure what astra was, but it all sounded basically like putting magic into things that didn’t normally have magic. He proceeded to the Uncommon ranks.
[Armorsmith]
[Channel astra with each strike of your hammer, specializing in the creation of magical metal armors.]
[Weaponsmith]
[Channel astra with each strike of your hammer, specializing in the creation of magical metal weapons.]
[Fletcher]
[Channel astra as you use your skills to craft bows, arrows, crossbows, bolts, specializing in the creation of magical projectile weapons.
Aeric wasn’t sure why the Uncommon classes said he would be channeling astra instead of directly imbuing the materials he was working with. There was probably some nuance that he didn’t understand, but he couldn’t figure out any way to get more information out of it. The Rare ranks were a bit more interesting.
[Arcanist]
[Instinctively understand how to create small-scale astral loops. Allows the creation of rune stones as spell storage. Spells from rune stones can only be cast by someone with the ability to channel astra.]
[Diviner]
[Instinctively understand how to create large-scale astral connections for the purpose of temporarily enhancing cognition and spacetime awareness. Increased levels gain the ability to more accurately predict future probable outcomes of events.]
[Chronomancer]
[Instinctively understand the natural astral connections between reality and spacetime. Support those around you by causing time to flow at different rates for specified individuals within a localized area.]
These sounded much more interesting. Creating rune stones that could store spells for later? Peering into the future? Slowing down or speeding up time? Aeric would have smiled if he had a body, as he thought about the possibilities opening before him. He read through the rest of the seven other Rare classes, and then continued on to the Epic rank classes.
[Alchemist]
[Gain the ability to innately understand the perfect combinations of ingredients that contain the touch of astra within them. Create powerful potions, ointments, poisons, and other similar elixirs with properties far above what can ordinarily be created.]
[Nullifier]
[Gain a new sense: Trace. This allows you to innately identify and measure nearby astral connections, as well as tracing them back to their sources. This is not a skill, does not use astra itself, and will become as natural as any of your other senses. Gain the ability to disrupt astral connections temporarily, eventually learning how to sever those connections permanently.]
Aeric considered these two options. He could imagine using the Alchemist class to become a powerful potion maker. He’d probably become rich fairly easily. Then again what he knew from movies and books suggested that potions usually required rare or expensive ingredients. He didn’t feel much like hiking to the top of a snowy mountain just to get the petals of some flower.
Then there was Nullifier. He assumed that astral connections had something to do with making things magical in the first place. He wasn’t sure, but it sounded like Nullifiers were the perfect counter to magic users. He wasn’t thrilled with the idea.
Maybe the Alchemist class would be better after all. He could imagine himself growing his shop, earning money bit by bit, living the true American Dream. Eventually he decided to read the final class available to him. The only legendary class he had available.
[Twinborn]
[Exceedingly rare, Twinborn are created with two bodies instead of one. The Twinborn’s mind is expanded, allowing them to remain in full control of both bodies at the same time. Each body will have its own subclass with additional restrictions due to the Twinborn cognitive processing requirements. Based on your quest outcome, you may choose from any of the following classes for the first body: Nullifier. Note that Twinborn is a hidden class and will not be identifiable, with each body’s subclass appearing as if it is the main class.]
Aeric thought about this one for a long time. Two bodies? How would that work? One of them would have to be the Nullifier class, which didn’t thrill Aeric. He had been hoping for some sort of Lightning Mage like his namesake, Stormrider. He wanted to shoot lightning bolts out of his hands and laugh like Emperor Palpatine! The ability to disrupt astral connections sounded like something that had no showmanship about it.
Not that Aeric had ever been one to draw attention to himself back when he was Eric Smith. But in his imagination as Stormrider the Wizard he had always thought he’d be putting on a show and drawing everyone’s attention. If he was starting a new life, or whatever this was that was happening, why not go for what he’d always dreamed of?
He eyed the Alchemist class option again. It was sounding more and more appealing. He could imagine himself finding some magical girlfriend who was secretly royalty while taking on apprentices and running a potion shop, raising its rank over time. It sounded great. Still… he felt in his gut that passing on a Legendary class would be a choice he’d regret. Not to mention whatever being Twinborn actually meant.
Why couldn’t he have had Twinborn Alchemist as an option? Nothing for it now though. He mentally selected the Twinborn Nullifier option.
[You have selected the class: Twinborn, subclass: Nullifier.]
[Confirm choice?]
[Yes / No]
Aeric tried to speak the word “yes”, but remembered that he had no mouth. He mentally focused on confirming the choice instead.
[Congratulations! You are now a Twinborn with a Nullifier subclass.]
[Status]
[Aeric Stormrider]
[Class: Nullifier - Epic]
[Hidden Class: Twinborn - Legendary]
[Trace - innate sense to identify and measure nearby astral connections]
[Astral Disruption - channel astra into an identified astral connection in an adverse way that disrupts the flow of that connection.]
[Weapon Skills: None]
Aeric read over his status screen. No weapon skills. He wondered why it was even mentioned if there was nothing to say about it.
Just rubbing salt in my wounds, I guess.
As the status screen loaded, Aeric watched the body displayed in front of him gain a new outfit. He now saw himself wearing black pants and a black shirt with a floor length cloak draped over his shoulders. He would have sighed if he’d had a body at the moment, feeling disappointed in what he saw.
Of course Nullifier is some emo class. At least it didn’t dye my hair black too.
His hair was still the same dark blue that he had selected when creating his class. As he watched, his soccer athlete preset slid over to the side, and words appeared in the space next to it.
[You must now select your Twinborn body.]
[Preset - Elsie Stormrider]
[Create New]
Elsie! I can give you life after all!
He selected the Elsie Stormrider preset, and she appeared next to Aeric. They certainly didn’t look like twins. Elsie was a bit shorter and had her cascading red curls in contrast to Aeric’s height and dark blue hair. They were both on the skinny side, though he had left some of Elsie’s torso settings maxed out, which gave a slightly unnatural perception of her overall body shape.
Feeling slightly embarrassed at his earlier teenage impulsiveness, Aeric looked for a way to make things look a bit more normal. He couldn’t see any way to edit Elsie’s customizations without going all the way back to scratch. The preset could not be edited anymore. He looked at Elsie’s face and made up his mind.
I don’t want to spend so much time working on this again. And honestly it’s not like it’s that bad: everything is at least realistic looking, even if it’s a bit over exaggerated.
[Confirm Twinborn Body Customization?]
[Yes / No]
Aeric mentally selected “Yes”. Once again his vision faded to black. When his senses returned, he discovered he was back in the stone room. It only took one glance down to realize things were already different compared to last time.
[Quest: Class Selection Trial]
[Objective: Survive for as long as possible.]
[Secondary Objective: Slay as many monsters as possible.]
[Time Survived: 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds]
[Monsters Slain: 0]
[Class Ranks Available: Common]
[Note: Softcore Death Penalty is active in this area.]
Time to do this all over again, Elsie thought.