Chapter 42. Evolution
Congratulations, you have completed the Mystic Job. You can now evolve the Mystic Job into one of two advanced Jobs:
Option 1: Thunder Mystic
The Thunder Mystic specializes in Storm spells.
Mystic Job has the following changes.
Lightning Strike evolved into Lightning Strike 2. Call Lightning from the sky that deals 19 damage and stuns all targets within a 3 yard area every second for 2 seconds. Critical strike chance of Lightning Strike increased by 10%. Cost to cast: 30 mana. Cost to buy: 300 Job Points
On Level up: 2 Constitution, 1 Dexterity, 3 Intelligence, 4 Wisdom, 2 Perception.
New Passive: Lightning Shield. Surrounds you in a shield that reduces all incoming damage by 10% and shocks attackers with Lightning, causing 9 damage every time you’re attacked. Cost to maintain: 1 mana/second. Cost to buy: 300 Job Points.
Option 2: Restorative Mystic
The Restorative Mystic specializes in Healing over time spells.
Mystic Job has the following changes.
Rejuvenate evolved into Rejuvenate 2. Cast on a friendly target that restores 37 health and another 37 health over 8 seconds. Can stack on itself up to two times. Cost to cast: 30 mana. Cost to buy: 300 Job Points.
New passive: Critical Restoration. When you critically strike an enemy with any skill, your party member with the lowest percentage of their health is granted a buff: Restore. Restore: heals 9 health and restores 9 stamina over 8 seconds. Can stack up to 3 times. Cost to maintain: 1 mana/second. Cost to buy: 300 Job Points.
On Level up: 2 Constitution, 1 Dexterity, 3 Intelligence, 4 Wisdom, 2 Perception.
“Janica,” I said. “I just got an option to evolve my Mystic Job.”
“Awesome,” she said. “What are you gonna go with?”
The first thing I noticed was that the level-up bonuses were better than they used to be, but still not as good as the Instructor Job. Janica was leading me toward a crit build, and both setups were critically-strike focused. Thunder Mystic seemed like a great option. Lightning Strike 2 was powerful. Its critical strike chance was 10% higher, allowing me to restore more mana with my Tribal Set bonus. Synergy like that was important if I wanted to scale up. And the fact that it hit twice with a single cast, stunning and then stunning again was great. Lightning shield was cool. The 10% reduced damage would come in handy. And yet, it felt like kind of a tank skill. One mana per second to maintain was no joke. That was half of my in-combat regeneration, and anything that cost me that much mana needed to be worth it. In a thirty second fight, it would use up thirty mana. With me on the backlines, I could see myself not using Lightning Shield most of the time unless I completely changed my playstyle.
Restorative Mystic was also interesting. The evolved Rejuvenate was expensive at thirty mana per cast. But it could stack on itself twice, which means it would work for me for many levels. I also noticed that it healed exactly thirty-seven health, then another thirty-seven health. I had thirty-seven Intelligence, which meant that the spell probably scaled with my Intelligence. And because it did twice my Intelligence in healing, it scaled doubly well. The most interesting part of Restorative Mystic was the new passive. I only had 10.2% critical strike chance right now, but if I could enchant all my gear, I could bring that up above 20%. While the effect wouldn’t proc all that often yet, in the long term it could be really powerful. In theory, I could provide a lot of healing and stamina regeneration to Janica just by critically striking with spells. Granted, Lightning Strike wasn’t all that effective for doing a lot of critical strikes. It was too expensive and took too long to cast. I would need to find a better attack spell. Hopefully something cheap and with a high critical strike chance.
I had mostly made up my mind, but I needed to check on something first. “Janica, can these Jobs evolve further?”
“No,” she said. “Mystic only evolves once. For our long-term plans, we need to find you items that unlock a couple other Job Classes. I’m hoping that these drop from bosses within the dungeon or we find something we can work with in a treasure chest. We need Jobs that give you access to fire and another that gives you ice. But your Instructor Job can evolve. So can your Musician Job.”
My eyebrows lifted. Getting better stats per level-up would be huge. Especially if I could get more Dexterity and start pumping up my crit chance. And my Musician skills were very useful, especially because they didn’t require any mana to use. Having skills that cost stamina was almost like doubling my usefulness.
I selected Restorative Mystic.
Congratulations, you evolved your Mystic Job into Restorative Mystic.
I set my Job as Restorative Mystic. Before I did anything else, I wanted to get enough JP to buy my new spells. I adjusted my Loadout, adding all of my new skills. Now that I had more options, I began to see how powerful it would be to get an extra spell slot or passive slot. But that didn’t happen until level twenty. I replaced Rhythm with Critical Restoration, wanting to try it out. My three active skills were Rejuvenate 2, Lightning Strike, and Tempo.
We headed down the first hallway, exposing classrooms on either side. Taking a right at the end of the hallway, we continued to kill small groups, working our way around a sort of open area. At the end of the large room, a staircase led downward. We took it.
I leveled up again by the time we went down the stairs.
Janica cheered. “That’s level ten,” she said. “Big one for me. I got my Uppercut skill and my weapon Expertise jumped to fifty. Which means I can Ground Slam as well. If I had other weapons, I’d have gotten all kinds of new tricks.”
“Congrats,” I said.
“Do you know what we’re looking for?” I asked Janica.
“We have to go down four levels,” she said. “At the fifth level and every five levels after that, we’ll get a safe place to recover and buy things. We’ll also get an elevator key that will allow us to go down to the fifth level from the lobby. The elevator only goes down in increments of five. So when we reach level ten, our key will upgrade. And so on.”
That seemed pretty smart. We wouldn’t have to start on the first floor every time we wanted to progress.
“Within every increment, there are two things we’re looking for. A librarian and a hidden item. So keep your eyes open for hidden stuff. Put that Perception Attribute to use.”
The second floor down was one large round dome with a staircase at the opposite end. The room was lit up well with Glow Vines, which circled the space, the floor below, and the dome above. Like blue Christmas lights. The room almost had a forest feel to it. Between vines, three Dark Iron ore veins glittered and sparkled with black and silver. A single mob guarded the room. A ghostly bear the size of a small truck. It snored, peacefully, at the center of the room atop a pile of Glow Vines. Huge slobbery rattles left its nose, in and out, in and out. The snores echoed around the space.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Undead Bear
Level 12, Rare Elite
HP 140/140
Stamina 210/210
Mana 30/30
“Can we avoid it?” I whispered. “It’s sleeping so peacefully.”
“It’s a rare,” Janica said. “And you need the guaranteed Uncommon drop. We might even get an item that unlocks a new Job for you. Plus, the Dark Iron Ore…” she seemed to be drooling.
“Can you mine that?”
“Yeah,” she said. “And Mama needs a new weapon.”
“Did you just call yourself ‘Mama’?”
Janica ignored my question and charged in. She followed up with a new motion where she swung her mace upwards into the bear’s jaw. It’s health had only dropped to 94%, but t he bear ha d a debuff that I hadn’t seen before.
Armor reduced by 5% for 8 seconds.
“The Armor on this thing must be really high,” she called out.
The initial stun wore off, and the beast roared into the air, putting a debuff on both of us.
Physical damage was reduced by 20%.
“I need a sharp weapon,” Janica said between swings. “I can’t put a bleed on this thing without one.”
I started pounding out the beat to “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake, activating Tempo. “Should I start to dps?”
“Not yet. Wait until I get it down to 70%.” She Uppercut again. The bear’s Armor reduced again and the timer refreshed on the debuff. Slowly, Janica was weakening the tough creature.
“How many times does that Uppercut stack?” I asked.
She swung upward again, her mace whipping through the air with precision and power. “Ten,” she said.
The bear swiped at her with a clawed paw, knocking her back and putting a bleed on her. Her health dipped to 90%. And the bleed was causing her to take two damage every second.
Two damage per second wasn’t bad. I could keep up with that.
The bear swiped again, and her health dipped to 80%. The bleed doubled. It was up to four damage per second.
I casted Rejuvenate 2 on Janica for the first time. I created golden tendrils like the unevolved version of itself, but with more flash and light. Like someone had added glitter to the visual effect. My hands moved like before, but with an added gesture at the beginning.
By the time the Undead Bear hit 70%, Janica had four stacks of bleed on her, and was taking eight damage per second. And the bear kept swiping at her, increasing the bleed effect before the stacks could wear off.
“We need to let the bleed effect fall off,” I said. “It’s starting to get bad. I don’t know if I can keep up with it.”
“Okay,” she said. “Let’s chain our stuns. That’ll eat up five of the eight seconds. Then I’ll kite until it wears off.”
“I’ll start,” I said, loading up a Lightning Strike. It bolted down, and a big yellow thirty-seven popped-up over the bear’s head. I had crit with that spell. I looked to Janica’s health bar. I had given her the Restore buff, and it gave her health and stamina every second. Right afterwards, I threw another Rejuvenate 2 onto Janica, who had dipped to 40% health. Green numbers floated over her head. One… Four… One… Four…
She retreated from the bear all the way to the back wall, getting ready to charge at the beast.
At that moment, the game seemed to slow down. Our impromptu plan came into fruition before my eyes. The perfect timing of the stun, followed by another that counteracted the beast’s dangerous ability . Janica’s brilliance in reducing its armor, playing the encounter with wisdom and creativity. And I realized a dangerous thing. I was having fun. And that scared me, a little. This game was supposed to be a way out of my normal life. If I grew too attached to fighting, leveling, dungeon diving, would I be able to make smart, responsible decisions that would pay off for me in the long run? Had I been pulled into the trap of adventure?
Right before the stun wore off, Janica charged the bear, stunning it for another two seconds and Uppercutting. The bear’s Armor had been reduced by 40%.
The bleed effect ticked down on Janica. Five… Four… Three…
She flitted behind the bear, keeping a moderate distance.
The stun wore off, and it started chasing her. Her health ticked down by 10% per second.
The bear turned, slowly, trying to swipe at her. But she kept flying in a circle behind its back as quickly as the bear tried to turn toward her. Like two children playing chase. Except that one of the children was a ferocious animal trying to bleed the other to death.
Two… One…
The bleed effect wore off, reducing her incoming damage significantly.
After that, I relaxed while Janica slammed the bear down to 30%, then 20%. I watched my mana bar and noticed that after a handful of seconds, my mana started regenerating more quickly. Instead of going up by 1.5 mana per second, it was going up by three mana per second. I toggled my Critical Restoration off, and my mana regeneration jumped to four mana per second, its full rate. I casted Rejuvenate 2 on Janica, topping off her health. My mana regeneration went down to two mana per second. I counted the seconds until it went back up to full. It took five seconds.
This was a major breakthrough.