by Sean Oswald
“Fine,” Jackson said, although David wasn’t sure that he really meant it. If there was one thing he knew about his family, they were not the kind to leave others behind, and while that made him proud of his son, it was also a complicating factor in this situation.
Dave cast Ablative Armor, and then once he was sure it had been three minutes, he started running to the area where the frogs were congregated and eating fish that Eisuke and the others had dropped on the ground. It actually sorta made sense, and Dave was glad they had done it like this. There would be fish to attract the frogs and then hopefully dead frogs to attract the dire crocs. Once he was close, Dave waited for Jackson to get fairly close. He couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty about just slaughtering these creatures, but he would have to take stock of that feeling later. It was something that had to be done, but it didn’t change the fact that right now they just looked like a bunch of frogs, just frogs the size of bulldogs hopping around and making their oversized ribbit sounds. They had been relatively easy to kill when he was level four. Now more than twenty levels later, they should be trivial. Oh well that was why this was power leveling.
He reached out for his mana and began casting Lightning Bolt. Dave knew it was likely going to be massive overkill, but it would give him a chance to try and fork the bolt a third time. The surge of the magic building up and the coursing down his arm before igniting into the charged plasma of an electrical stroke all happened in a couple seconds. Then as it burst forth, his will split the bolt at the speed of thought, once, twice, and finally with great strain, so much so that the veins were standing out on his temples. He was able to fork it a fourth time.
Each bolt slammed into a hapless frog, cracking their armored back and sizzling the flesh inside in an instant. Dave was pretty sure that even the base damage from this spell would be enough to kill them and so wasn’t surprised when four notifications popped up saying that they had died. The old X-men joke went through his head, and he couldn’t help but look back at Jackson and say, “Do you know what happens when a toad gets struck by lightning?” Then answered himself, “It croaks.”
He didn’t have time to see Jackson groan at the dad joke. The frogs didn’t even seem to know what had happened and were mostly just still eating the fish. He quick cast Minor Enlarge and then cast Fleeting Fury. The combination of stretching muscles and expanding bones with the emotional rush he felt from the new spell was intense. He rushed forward with his sword drawn and began skewering frog after frog with a single thrust. He was faster than they were, so even the ones who fled couldn’t get away. Even without activating Offensive Stance, each blow ended an amphibian life, and the XP notifications kept popping up. This fight was unlike any that he had ever been in since coming to Eloria. He felt more like he was stepping on ants than actually fighting monsters, which had been scary a couple of months before.
Long before Fleeting Fury’s minute duration ended, all of the twelve were dead, and it was sinfully easy. After making sure they were all dead, Dave turned to Jackson again who said, “That was amazing dad. You are a beast.”
“Um, is that a good thing?”
“Absolutely.”
“So did you check your XP? Did you level up?” Dave asked Jackson excitedly.
Jackson was beaming from ear to ear as he said, “Well this was the first notification I got.”
Your party has defeated:
12 Average Horned Bullfrogs Level 5
XP: 30 x 2 (killing blow bonus) x Tier penalty 50% x Numerical Bonus 100% =240/2 (party) x Level 0 penalty = 36 XP x Racial Bonus +25% = 45 XP
* * *
Congratulations. Ding!
You have gained sufficient XP to reach level 1.
* * *
You have 2 new character points.
You have 4 unspent character points.
* * *
You have 2 new stat points.
You have 2 unspent stat points.
“With the XP that I gained at the Royal Academy, this was enough to reach level 1. Thanks so much, dad. Oh, and there is another notification too.”
Hidden Quest Found: Class Determination- you have met sufficient requirements to unlock a new class. You have met two of the five class requirements.
1.Suffer repeated beatings which might end many a man without breaking your spirit.
2.Stand up for those unable to defend themselves
* * *
In Eloria, classes are not easily earned, all have significant benefits and equally weighty requirements. Each class has seven ranks known as tiers.
Class offered: Ironwood Monk (Rare) - Tier 1
Class Benefits: +30% CON, +30% END, Damage Resistance increases by 2% for every 1% of health lost. Generate an aura with varying effects based upon the damage taken. Effects determined by further class specific skills.
Class Restrictions: Must fight without armor. Must keep Unarmed Combat as your highest base combat skill. Must keep CON higher than STR and END higher than AGI.
Class Purpose: An armorless warrior whose internal power creates a defense unlike any other for the purpose of showing that the best offense is a good defense.
Unmet Restrictions: 3 unmet restrictions- unknown.
For a moment, Dave didn’t know what to say. That green-eyed monster surged through him. Even though Jackson hadn’t actually received a class ,he had now been offered one. If Dave wasn’t careful, his entire family might have classes before he did. Yet, he was not so selfish as not to be thrilled for his son, so he allowed that joy to bubble out into a big smile upon his face.
“That’s awesome, Jackson. I guess all that stuff that happened at the Royal Academy meant something.” The dark thought in the back of Dave’s mind was that whatever his son experienced at the academy must have been significant enough to trigger the class quest and meant it was worse than even what he had been imagining. In that moment, Dave determined that, no matter how much Emily fought it, he was going to make sure that their son was prepared when he went back.
“My advice is not to spend any of the points yet. Let's see if we can get you a few more levels, and then you can decide how to build yourself up after we sit down and talk about it tonight.” Dave spoke trying to keep the lecture out of his voice.
“Sure thing, dad,” Jackson responded. Right now, he was just so happy to be past level zero that he couldn’t think of anything else.
By this time, the second sun was already up in the sky, and Dave guessed they only had six hours left but still needed to finish the patrol. The good news was that the dead frogs already seemed to be attracting some dire crocs. He made a mental note that they would have to make sure this area was cleaned up, or things could go very badly. The predictable thing about the crocs was that they were very predatory, so an easy meal was going to draw them out. Combined with the fact that humans probably looked like prey to the massive dire crocs, Dave was sure that they would keep coming, at least until there weren’t any more in the area. He wasn’t really sure what the ecological impact of killing too many of them would be, but right now he was only thinking of what would help Jackson
“Okay, so now we will get some bigger game. The crocs are a lot stronger than the frogs, but I still don’t think they will be much trouble for me. I just need you to make sure that you stay back, and if any of them come for you, let me know. I’m still gonna try to fight a few at a time for the XP bonus,” Dave said. Jackson just nodded.
Satisfied, Dave ran forward while casting Magic Missiles at two of the approaching crocs even while he headed for a third. Over the next four hours, Dave was able to engage and kill twelve of the dire crocs all ranging between level fifteen and nineteen and in groups of one to four. It wasn’t quite as easy to fight them compared to the frogs that he’d ended with a single sword stroke. Their armored hide, and the fact that the bigger ones had over seven hundred health, meant that it took longer. The last fight was against two level nineteen crocs, and Jackson almost jumped in when Dave was bitten by
both at the same time. The war cry on his son’s lips died though when Dave picked up the monstrosities and flung them away before finishing the first with a blade through the skull and the second by rolling it over and splitting its thrashing form up the soft underbelly.
“What did we say about you jumping in Jackson?” Dave asked sternly when the fight was over.
“Uh … that I’m not supposed to,” Jackson responded begrudgingly. “But it looked like you were really in trouble; they were both trying to bite you at the same time.”
“Look, I agree that even at my level those things are nothing to be trifled with, but honestly, as long as my Ablative Armor spell is up, I don’t really have anything to worry about. You need to trust me. Besides that, I promise we will somehow find time to go out again tomorrow and do some more so that you can practice fighting,” Dave said, trying to mollify Jackson.
“Anyway, I think that’s all we can do today if we want to try and finish the patrol. The others are probably getting very anxious. So how did you make out?” Dave asked, sounding like he had when Jackson would come back from trick or treating to show off the candy he scored.
“I made it to level nine. I have 18 stat points and 82 skill points available, and according to my sheet, I need two hundred sixty-two more XP to get to level ten.” Jackson got more excited as he spoke.
“Gah, so close to Tier 2, but we really need to finish the patrol. Besides, not sure how good it would be for your body to get too many levels in one day. Just wait till you add stat points. You are in for a big surprise. Also, we told Tabor that he could come with us when we got you up level nine.”
“Sure thing dad, I’m not gonna complain about this at all,” Jackson said as the two of them began walking to where the others had patiently waited for them. Dave felt a little bad about making them wait for over four hours, but it just needed to happen.
Once reunited with the rest of the party, Dave was able to talk to Steffen again and filled him in on the progress. He couldn’t help but overhear Jackson and Tabor also talking and the two boys high fiving.
“… would be possible?” Dave only caught the tail end of the question Steffen asked him.
“I’m sorry, I was paying attention to the boys. I didn’t mean to tune you out. What were you asking?” Dave responded.
“Tune out? What does that mean?” the general asked confused.
Now it was Eisuke’s turn to jump in, “Don’t worry Baron Murkwood is full of curious expressions from his homeland but never seems to get around to explaining them.”
Grimacing at the forest warden Dave said, “Well it’s not like they are secret, more that I don’t think my explanation would make any more sense than the expression.” Then changing the subject, he turned towards Steffen again, “So what were you asking?”
Both the other men looked from Dave and then to each other for just a moment. Their irritation with him crossed the racial divide between them, but Eikhorn decided to let it slide. “I was simply asking if we could make a trip to this dungeon of yours that I keep hearing about. If it truly has Tier 3 creatures in it, then the riches you may be able to get from it are staggering. At the very least, the Adventurer’s Guild will want to pay for passes for their stronger members. Beyond that, I would imagine that any Tier 4 people would pay a fortune for access to something like that. Not that there are very many of those–well, none that I know of for sure, besides Gunidar.”
“And Daichi,” Dave added.
“The monk in charge of your wife’s honor guard is Tier 4?” Steffen asked, incredulity in his voice.
“That is what I have been told, and it seems consistent with what I have witnessed of the man,” Dave said, looking to Eisuke for confirmation, but the elven warden’s face was a mask betraying no emotion.
“I have to admit that it feels like a bit of a cheat. I was able to get good XP off of the Tier 2 crocs because I was in a group with Jackson, but still didn’t get any XP from the Tier 1 frogs,” Dave said.
“No, that's always the way it works. Normally, if you were fighting creatures a tier below you, the 50% XP penalty would apply, but that particular penalty is compared to the average level of the party. On the other hand, there is no known way to get XP from a creature that is two Tiers below you. That seems to be a hard and fast rule which is based upon your individual level,” Steffen said, as if explaining something everyone knew.
“I guess that makes sense. Really, I shouldn’t complain. I gained enough XP to hit level twenty-five,” Dave said smiling.
“No, I wouldn’t complain about that either. I miss the days of leveling up,” Eikhorn said looking off into the distance wistfully.
Dave took that as an opportunity to open his character sheet and apply the stat points. He would wait for the character points till later. He immediately dropped 4 points into Intelligence, raising it up to an even fifty before his land ruler modifier. He split the other 2 points between Constitution for the health and Wisdom for the mana regeneration. He looked over his sheet one more time, admiring the one hundred-and-61 character points he had stored up, but he wasn’t ready to spend those. He hoped to obtain a character class first.
With that in mind, he went through the last of his notifications and was gleefully happy to find one that he hadn’t expected.
Quest Update: Class Determination- you previously met six of the eight requirements to receive the below listed class.
1.Possess Heavy Armor Skill
2.Cast a Tier 3 or higher Evocation Spell
3.Cast a Tier 3 or higher Abjuration Spell
4.Have as a core motivation the defense of others
5.Have as a core motivation the desire to master magic
6. Slay an enemy of at least twice your level with melee alone
Now you have met another criterion:
7. Slay an enemy using magic alone.
In Eloria, classes are not easily earned. All have significant benefits and equally weighty requirements. Each class has seven ranks known as tiers.
Class offered: Arcane Dreadnought (Epic) - Tier 1
Class Benefits: Combine INT and CON when determining Health and Mana, Combine WIS and END when determining Mana Regeneration and Stamina Points/regen. Self-targeted Shaping and Abjuration Spells cost 50% less mana and have a 50% increased duration. +5 to CON/END/INT/WIS
Class Restrictions: Must keep Heavy Armor skill as high as highest magic school. Only gain class benefits while wearing heavy armor.
Class Purpose: A magic-based tank proving that there is nothing a sword can do which a spell can't do better
Unmet Restrictions: 1 unmet restriction- unknown.
The rush that Dave felt from expanding his mind with the points into Intelligence faded into nothingness compared to the thrill he felt at being only one step away from obtaining his class. He looked at the requirements he had already met and tried to gauge what the remaining hurdle would be. The criteria so far addressed his internal motivations in his desire for magic and his desire to protect his family. They balanced his success against an enemy in combat with both melee and magic, and they required that he possess certain skills, like the Heavy Armor skill, as well as enough proficiency to be able to cast Tier 3 spells in two schools. There was a certain symmetry and balance to the various criteria. The way he figured it, the two most likely remaining standards were either some type of mundane skill to counterpart the magic skills he had displayed or the need to cast a Tier 3 spell in another school.
On the one hand, adding another mundane skill to balance the magic made sense, but if that was correct, he would be guessing. If he assumed that the Abjuration and Heavy armor were the balance to one another, then he would need a mundane skill to balance Evocation, thus likely an offensive skill. That prompted him to scroll through the list of possible offensive skills. The berserking and teamwork skills didn’t seem to match up since this class was a standalone tank. Most of the hybrid skills didn’t make sense as they all required magical aptitu
des as a prerequisite to obtaining the skill, and that didn’t go with the idea of this being a balance to evocation. Admittedly, the bravery based hybrid skills looked very much like what he envisioned his class to be, but they all required a certain level in Essence Magic. He had to hope that they weren’t the requirements since he was unable to ever learn Essence Magic, and there were only a few bravery based skills which didn’t have that requirement. Then again, that would be just like Eloria to play that sort of sick joke on him. Trying to be hopeful, he looked at the list of skills which might apply to see what was most likely.
General Combat
Short Blade Proficiency
Blunt Weapon Proficiency
Piercing Weapon Proficiency
Agile Strike
Dual Wield
Improved Critical
Increased Critical Damage
* * *
Stamina Based Combat Skills
Mighty Charge
Cleave
Counter Strike
Spring Attack
Whirlwind Attack
* * *
Bravery Based Combat Skills
Power Attack
Stunning Fist
Sunder
One thought did occur to him. It could be as simple as needing to raise his Heavy Armor skill to match his highest casting skill level. On the one hand, because simply having the skill was necessary to obtain the class, it didn’t seem likely or that it would matter that much. He had the points to spend if necessary, and from the class description, he wouldn’t be able to utilize his special class abilities unless he maintained that equilibrium. So what the heck, he sunk the 39 character points into it.
