“ He’s holding something back” Simmons had just closed the door when Dani’s words rang through the side room.
“ Hi to you too Dani” Simmons croaked as he walked to the coffee grinder and began the process of making himself a cup.
“ You need to push him Dan . His accounts are already inconsistent with multiple other testimonies. The Tower U.I is suspect with the level of information it’s sharing, his training regime beggars belief, and he even lied about his class fusion!” Dani was pacing now, hands gesticulating wildly as her frustrations finally got the best of her.
Simmons sipped his coffee, joining Jim at a small table who was currently looking over numerous notes.
“ Each climber has a vision of their class. Either some form of skill being used that the class uses or for the magical classes a vision of one of their spells being used. None of them saw anything!” Dani stopped with huff, clearly glad to get that off her chest. “ Then he claims to have trained during all of this, which seems closer to torture alongside all of his constant deaths!”
“ Don’t forget that he’s been doing this for months and still hasn’t completed the 5th floor and has yet to mention anything to do with the Black Sun despite claiming he uses Shadow Essence .” Jim chipped in as he turned a page of his notes, “ Five other shadow essence users in the Dowor group claim to have heard the gnoblars mention it at least once when demonstrating any usage of that essence type.”
Dani looked like she was about to start ranting again when Simmons beat her to the punch.
“ What do we know about the Dowor group?” His coffee was already half-gone and he wasn’t excited about it.
Dani sighed “ It’s up there with the Baestremos and Imroynn with the focus on combat. While Baestremos focused on constructs made from Arcane essence with golems being a heavy theme, and Imroynn held some war between demonic entities and rabid dryads, Dowor seems to focus on powerful beasts and frost. Out of the few hundred that have been spoken to each have made mention of wild animals, gnoblars, and this ogre civilization. Most climbers seem to have picked up more relics focusing on physical attributes and essence types ranging from Fire,Wind,Earth, or Water essence . There are outliers but that seems to be what the database has found across the country.”
Dan grimaced at the name Imroynn, that was the World Vault he’d been sent to. The world was a burning ruin, partly devoted to a hellscape where demons crawled between pyres of green flames. The other side was no better. The higher one climbed the more a climber entered the leftover jungles that originally covered the planet. Corrupted dryads and monstrosities hid between trees and even the bushes could poison you or hide tangling vines that racked burning thorns across your body. Simmons had nightmares from the deaths on the higher floors and when he had gotten Executioners Lighting he had felt no small amount of satisfaction laying waste to most of that jungle. It wasn’t a place he’d want to return to or want his son to experience.
“ On top of all of this we know next to nothing about the world secret of Dowor aside from that Shadow Essence might be involved. If he’s withholding his class choices then he might be holding out on more. You have to press him on it!”
“ No”
Dani blinked and Jim looked up from his notes in surprise. Dan took another sip of his coffee.
“ Why not?” Dani was less than pleased but her tone was more curious, “ We’ve had to be harder on some of the others before. What’s different here?”
“ The top brass in the other room, the fact this kid has gone through the Tower, not to mention that he’s shared with us multiple pieces of advice about relics in the Shop and potential class combinations he saw.” Simmons accentuated each point with a raised finger, “ And finally I have a bad feeling about him.”
“Like with Jasper?’ Jim spoke up, “ Tell me he’s not another Jasper!”
Dani was now on edge alongside Jim. Both looked like they’d rather be anywhere but here. Dan finished his coffee.
“ I don’t think it will end poorly, especially if we don’t antagonize him unnecessarily. “ Dan directed that statement at Dani. “ From what I remember from that fiasco is that Jasper left the Tower four months after it appeared, his history showed no hint of his unstable nature…” Dan paused as he looked both researchers in the eye, “ And the World Vault he was sent to was Dowor”.
Both researches blanched as the possibilities began to make themselves none to the two of them.
“ No… I think slow and steady is the way to go with this kid. Whatever he’s wanting to hide will take shape at some point and if he’s potentially met Jasper…”
“ It might be why all the top brass are here” Dani realized, “ They know more than they’re letting on. Why even have us go through with this? “
“ I don’t know but it definitely doesn’t just have to do with the kids' time in the Tower or his powerful class. “ Simmons stood and prepared to walk back into the interrogation room. “ Kelford Booker has stepped in something that I don’t think he’s fully aware of.”
Whatever it was Simmons felt some sorrow for the kid. Got stuck in a combat World Vault , died dozens of times, met Jasper , and now he was in the center of some kind of conspiracy. Simmons just hoped the kid could catch a break.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
4 Months Before
Kelford opened his eyes and thought for a moment that he’d lost his mind. Whispers snuck into his mind, a constant murmur that assaulted his awakening consciousness. Just out of earshot, so numerous and constant Kelford thought he was locked in a room full of people. They pressed upon him from all angles, trying to gain his attention. A pressure built in his head and he closed his eyes and his hands clapped over his ears. He felt the voices pushed, redoubling their efforts on his mind but by that point Kelford had enough. A part of him flexed more out of instinct than command. A flex of essence and the voices fell silent. Kelford let out a sigh of relief as he finally opened his eyes fully.
“ Whoaahhh” He couldn’t hold back the wonder in his tone as gazed upon a transformed space. The altars no longer held their customary weapons, white stone threaded with lines of onyx crystal. Above him the gentle light had transformed into a vibrant purple with the crystal mosaic no longer portraying representatives of each class. Instead a sea of black, with crystalline stars bathed him in their radiance
“ Kelford? Are you alright?”
Kelford turned to T.U.I as he found his feet, surprisingly easier then he remembered.
“ Hey, what happened to this place?”
T.U.I floated for a moment before replying , “ This is a reflection of the class change. It is the first major decision of your entire journey and so it has been reflected in your starting area. If you fail to breach the fifth floor you will see these changes become permanent. From now on you will not be able to change your class choices from here.”
“ And how long was I out?” Kelford swallowed the discomfort of his home being changed so drastically right as he was saying goodbye to it forever .
“ I do not know”
“What do you-”
“ I was disabled while you were unconscious” T.U.I said interrupting Kelford, “ I was disabled until you were done with your class fusion. The Myriad Index has seen fit to fuel me with more essence to keep up with your growth.”
Kelford stood silently as he tried to remember the events right after his class fusion. He remembered bitter cold, voices in the dark, a vague impression of a blade in ice? No matter what he did he couldn’t fully remember what had occurred.
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“ I… had a vision? Was something supposed to happen after the class fusion?” Kelford rubbed his eyes and soon realized that he had multiple notifications trying to make themselves known. “ I remember that I had vague impressions of a sword in ice? Whispers are some such”
“ It is strange that you do not recall this but yes those are things that could occur in a vision. Regardless, congratulations on your successful class fusion! You should look at your rewards.”
T.U.I’s cheer wasn’t as energetic as they usually were but she was right. Whatever was going on he’d made his choice. Everything might be explained by his new class, or at least it might be worth the hassle. Golden words burnt themselves into the world as Kelford was flooded with messages.
Congratulations!
You Have Successfully Fused
Heavy Warrior
And
Acolyte(Shadow)
To Create:
Called of the Black Sun
Called of the Black Sun
For Those With High Enough Affinity, The Black Sun Promises Power
Skills:
Enhanced Strength
Enhanced Willpower
Weapon Proficiency
Heavy Armor Proficiency
Boon of the Black Sun
Radiance of The Black Sun
Active Skills:
Empowered Strike
Spells:
Darkness
Congratulations!
You have Completed A Quest
Master of One
Description:
Fuse Two Classes
Reward:
Free Rare SubVault Unlocked
Warning!!
Further Quests Will Be Blocked Until All Requirements Are Met
Requirements:
Master of One : Completed
The Fifth Floor: Incomplete
Kelford felt a bit let down by his new skills. It was nice to have the mixture of the Heavy Warrior and Acolyte skills now in one class, but he’d only gotten two new skills. Sure, he’d gotten Weapon Proficiency as well, which seemed to be an improvement upon the proficiencies of both classes. Still, a part of Kelford had run wild with opening his new class and seeing tons of broken abilities. He could only internally sigh as he banished those thoughts to the recesses of his mind. The skills would definitely be good but he'd check out the other abilities before looking deeper. Partly so he could see what the relatively less unique skill and spell were like. Mostly so he could save the best for last.
Empowered Strike
Active Skill
Description:
Pull From Your Essence to Greatly Enhance the Power of a Single Strike
Darkness
Spell:
Description:
Cover A Small Area in Essence Fueled Darkness
Foes have a Small Chance of Being Blinded for an extremely short amount of time
Kelford nodded to himself, these were solid additions to his class. With the additional information from the Tower beamed into his head Kelford could tell that Empowered Strike was analogous to the Heavy Warriors Hard Slash. Except it would be influenced by the Shadow Essence that Kelford used now. Between his enhanced strength and this skill he would be able to deal even more damage than before. Darkness would be useful for dealing with large groups if he was being overwhelmed but a part of him definitely preferred having an attack spell. Though he would have to do some testing to see if he’d be impacted by his own spell, Kelford found the spell intriguing. Finally, he turned his attention to his unique skills.
Boon of the Black Sun
Skill
Description:
You are Attuned to Shadow Magic and Find the Flows of Essence Easier to See. The Sun’s Blessing Allows Only the Darkest Shadows To Impair Your Vision
Radiance of The Black Sun
Skill
Description:
You Carry A Part of the Black Sun Within You. Your Presence Unnerves and Reduces the Morale of Foes Within Ten Feet of You. The Effect Increases or Decreases in Potency Depending on the Shadow Essence Available.
“ Not bad, not bad at all”
The attunement skill had been wrapped up into the Boon of the Black Sun and also seemed to grant him some form of darkvision while Radiance granted him a fear effect. Though it would definitely change what relics Kelford would consider on his way up. Either way it was a solid foundation, and he wasn’t too sure how it measured up to the other class options. It was too late to change his mind regardless. With a thought Kelford pulled up the relic vaults he could access.
Congratulations!
You Have Unlocked a Rare Vault!
Please Choose Which Vault You Wish to Unlock
Cunning
Rage
Presence
He looked over the options and couldn’t help himself. With the few of the relic vaults he had unlocked beforehand he had begun to build a theory about what the words meant. They weren’t just about what Kelford considered Cunning or associated with the word. They were what the people of the world had associated with the words. Just like with his first rare subvault of Might granting him an item that increases Kelford’s constitution. He had to consider what the Gnoblars associated with these words to truly control what he got. It may even be doubly important considering that every rare relic Though whether that would change or influence his class beyond the fifth floor had yet to be seen. Regardless, Cunning wasn’t what he was going for and he wasn’t entirely impressed with the low cunning he’d observed in the gnoblars. Considering their fixation on food, the cleverest of the gnoblars most likely needed traps or revolved around hunting. Rage might be interesting as on multiple occasions Kelford had found himself dealing with an enraged gnoblar at the beginning of the fifth floor. So, he did respect their powerful attacks, and a relic influenced by that word would most likely increase his physical attack power. Though it may also mess up his ability to defend himself. Then his eyes landed on Presence. What did Presence mean to a gnoblar?
Kelford thought back to all of his encounters with the creatures. None of them really left him with a sense of their power or anything like that. Really, he looked down upon them most of the time.
“But that’s not entirely true… is it?”
The bigger gnoblars had some presence to them, didn’t they? They stood head and shoulders above the rest and even the more developed gnoblars had greater intelligence. Strength, cunning, some even had magic. Then there was their king. A being so awe inspiring they leapt to his command even so far away from him. Kelford thought deeper as he connected the dots. Relics from this option would increase how the gnoblars felt about him. How they felt about the presence of the person they looked at. What was there to connect each of his examples? What was there to connect the more developed gnoblars and their king when compared to their lesser kin. What was it that the gnoblars felt when they were around them? There was only one word Kelford could think of. Fear
The gnoblars feared and respected their leaders. The leaders were scarier than whatever the others were afraid of. They respected them more because they respected beings that could inspire fear in them. Creatures that were bigger, faster, smarter, more dangerous. That was what Presence meant to the creatures of this world. The feeling of fear that the strong inspired in those around them. Kelford looked at his new skills.
There was only one option that made any sense.
You Have Chosen:
Presence
Congratulations!
You have gained access to a
Sub Vault of Presence!
3 Common Relics
2 Uncommon Relics
and 1 Rare Relic
Are Now Accessible!
Furs of the Warlord
Rare
Description:
Only those who fought and consumed more than any other had the chance to become a Warlord. Their presence alone brought the unruly to heel and the influence of the King to even the farthest Territory.
Grants Minor Resistance to Frightened Enemy attacks
Killing Enemies has a Chance to Activate Warlords Presence
Warlords Presence
Skill
Description:
Grant a Minor Chance to Cause Fear in Foes Around You.
This Will Increase the Chance That They Flee
The armor was of thick furs with cloth weaved underneath. He didn’t recognize the pelt used in it’s creation, thick and harder than he’d seen on the Rams and sabertooths on the fourth floor. It was thick along the shoulders and without his enhanced strength Kelford was pretty sure he wouldn’t have been able to wear it without multiple breaks. As pulled on the last fur covered bracer he felt essence surge for a moment before the fur and cloth molded themselves to his frame. He stretched, finding that his range of motion was not impacted in the slightest. With this on he was finally ready to move on.
“ You ready to go T.U.I?” Kelford pulled out his sword and rested it on his shoulder.
“ I am always ready Kelford” T.U.I replied as she flew next to his side.
Kelford made his way to the double doors that welcomed his confident stride by slowly pulling themselves open. With only a single backward glance to the purple light behind him, Kelford made his way into the Tower once again.
Interface
User: Kelford Booker
Class: Called of The Black Sun
Class Slots: 1
Skills:
Language of the Mountain
Enhanced Strength
Enhanced Willpower
Weapon Proficiency
Heavy Armor Proficiency
Boon of the Black Sun
Radiance of The Black Sun
Active Skills:
Empowered Strike
Spells:
Darkness
Relics:
Furs of the Warlord
Karma: 4780
Inventory: 5/10