Equalize
Page 4
Time Warp
Control how time flows in the areas around you or your foes to utterly destroy your enemies and bring death to those you choose. This class relies on self-cast spells prepared in advance and melee or ranged prowess along with ingenuity to destroy targets. Class spells have a limited number of casts per cooldown period but boast high destructive capabilities against enemies. Requires Ether to cast spells along with pre-prepared spells.
Death-Shaman
Control the spirits of death to aid in the destruction of your enemies. Over time, this class gains in overall strength based upon the number of enemies destroyed and controlled by the Shaman. The Death-Shaman must expend spirits to kill other creatures and is constantly in a struggle between using spirits or hoarding them. Class skills consume spirits to devastating effect, thus creating a trade-off between attack and defense. Requires Ether to cast spells along with pre-collected spirits.
The two magic class descriptions and a few others he skimmed made him want to avoid strongly magic-based classes. Not all of the other magic classes were dependent on pre-prepared spells, but they did seem to rely strongly on spells for all aspects of combat. In short, reliance on spells for offense and defense left Rocky hesitant to select one of these classes. He was worried that at low levels, he wouldn’t have the number of spells needed for survival. In addition, he had a suspicion that spell casting would rely on the secondary resource mentioned in his character sheet—his “Ether Pool.” Rocky had no way to confirm this, but the last line in all magic classes mentioned Ether, and it wasn’t a far logical leap for what that might mean.
His main reason for hesitation, however, was that he had one choice and would be stuck with it for the foreseeable future.
Or forever… I didn’t even have a wife! Take a guy on a date first, Gaia.
He went back to the filter and put the subcategory of mage on to the side of remove listings.
· Melee
· Range
· Healer
· Defender
· Summoner
· Cook
· Construction
· Crafter
· Alchemist
· Guide
· Explorer
· Stealth
· Warrior
· Fighter
· Brawler
· Archer
· Ballistic
· Laser
· Mage
· Holy
· Divine
· Earth
· Medicinal
· Champion
· Tank
· Guard
· Escort
· Magic Summoner
· Pet Summoner
· Demon Summoner
· Tamer
· Saucier
Rogue
Thief
Shadow Walk
Outlaw
Scoundrel
Ninja
Gaiden
Shadow
Predator
Hitman
Assassin
Ghost
Prowler
Special Operative
Spy
Speed Demon
Trapper
Killer
Bandit
Burglar
Nightblade
Listing 1-10 of 441
Ranger, Scout, Messenger, Noble, Lord, Death Dealer, Stalker, Assassin, Ninja, Fae Archer
Rocky’s eyes narrowed as he noticed something odd in the search results, and he fiddled back and forth with the filters. His heart began to race as it became more apparent; the classes offered, no matter what combination he assigned, would increase or decrease by a mathematically precise constant. It was even more obvious as he watched the filters and their sub-folders select and deselect as he adjusted them.
Clicking any primary folder would select four of the secondary folders automatically. Once the secondary folders were selected, he could remove them and watch another set number of classes disappear. As he fiddled, a pattern seemed to arise in front of his eyes.
The more he toggled the parameters, the more his temperature increased, and his hands trembled excitedly as he began to realize what was bothering him about the math.
No matter what options Rocky had checked, it would appear that the calculation always added one class to what would otherwise be simple math. It seemed each combat sub-folder contained forty classes, and each primary combat folder contained one hundred sixty. However, if this was the case then where was that one class coming from. This simple pattern made the logical part of Rocky’s mind whir to life as he lay immobile and recovering. Squinting his eyes, he continued to mentally explore and adjust the filters.
A brief, contemplative pause later, he thought he had figured it out. No matter what classes he added to the filter or removed from the filter, the plus one class didn’t disappear, and that logically meant it wasn’t part of any one class.
Internally, his mind fist pumped with delight at solving this puzzle, and with a small smile Rocky, added all classes to the exclude section.
Instantly, he was rewarded with the following class.
Listing 1-1 of 1
Azrael Revenant
Azrael Revenant
Using the ancestral heritage of Rockland Barkclay. Class traced back to Cathodiem guild. Lieutenant Azrael – Black Ops.
Death can come on swift wings, especially when carried by Ether. Once a name whispered in fear of being overheard, Azrael was the silent stalker who was the master of death itself. This class is ancestral and can only be chosen by those with roots that trace back to Azrael. This class was retired to his family line exclusively upon his completion of The Quest.
Speak with a member of your family for more specific details.
Rocky felt his teeth grind together in frustration at the lack of description and the clear indication that the information was removed because it would be shared down family lineage. Even if he could contact his family right now—which he couldn’t—he highly doubted his mom was going to say, “Oh right! Completely forgot to tell you about your Great Uncle Azrael!”
The fact that this was a class that would be locked to him, his family, and perhaps a few other relations made it extremely alluring. However, it was a thought that was whirling around in his head that made him really think this would possibly be the class for him.
Azrael clearly became extremely powerful if he was able to lock a class specifically for his ancestors. This is probably the best evidence I will get of a sure thing.
Even though his blood was boiling with the lack of specifics in the description, there wasn’t really much of a choice when he realized that this class was unique. Once the heritage class was revealed, it was hard to not immediately choose it. Who wouldn’t want to be a silent, stalking master of death, even with the hesitation and frustration that came from the unknown it posed. The class description was vague, but if he was going to take a risk, he might as well make it an epic one.
‘Epic fail’ is a retired term, right?
Rocky’s heart screeched to a stop and ended up in his stomach as his nerves overtook him. He crossed his metaphorical fingers and mentally accepted the class.
A notification popped up.
Class Chosen
(Azrael) Revenant
You are now an Apprentice-Revenant - +1 Agility and +1 Dexterity per level. (Retroactively assigned)
Wait what happened? I am now just a revenant? Well, actually, I am an apprentice revenant!
The Azrael portion of his title seemed to have just been removed and placed in parentheses. Then the following sentence hadn’t even contained mention of it!
How do I call customer support? This clucking thing is broken!
Rocky mentally slapped himself, his cheeks flushing because he was currently in an extremely dangerous situation.
Hurry the Johny candlestick jumper up before something meaner than that house comes along.
He mentally clicked class
skills, and two grayed out skills popped up with nothing below them and two lines leaving each going up. Whatever those lines led to were covered in swirling, white fog.
So much for theory crafting.
Class Skills
Revenant Blade
0/5
Skill gained at 5/5 “Unknown.”
Revenant Bowyer
0/5
Skill gained at 5/5 “Unknown.”
Since his mental slap, a weight had seemed to settle on his chest, slowly increasing the pressure every moment that ticked by. Rocky somehow knew that if he didn’t hurry up, someone’s good china was going to come by to end him.
His tightening chest rushed his decision, which Rocky hated, but there is a time to make decisions in haste and this felt like one of them.
I don’t have any sort of ranged weapon, so Revenant Blade it is.
Revenant Blade has now reached 5/5
Skill gained: Soul Bound Blade.
Soul Bound Blade
100 Personal Ether Cost
Create a soul bound blade from the Ether surrounding you. A soul bound blade once created will level and grow with its owner. Some say a soul bound sword will one day steal the soul of its owner, and others know the truth.
“What truth?!” he screamed aloud. These notification windows seemed to like to give extremely vague and confusing information. The only thing that stopped his inner cursing was that same feeling of imminent danger from before.
The newly minted revenant also hadn’t had five class skill points when he had started assigning them to Revenant Blade.
A thought later and he was examining a changed ‘character window sheet’, as he was calling it.
Rockland Barkclay
Level 8
Health Points: 15/100
Ether Pool: 100/100
Class Selection: Apprentice-(Azrael) Revenant
Class Skills: Revenant Blade
You have 7 stat points and 3 skill points to distribute.
Stamina
10
Strength
12
Agility
19
Dexterity
17
Intelligence
10
Wisdom
6
Charisma
8
Luck
5
Would you like to assign stat points?
Yes
No
He studied the page, intensely trying to understand all the changes he was seeing. His level had increased to eight, and obviously, the value for Agility and Dexterity had increased due to his class. He also had more free stat points to assign and three unassigned class skill points due to the new levels. When he reached the bottom of the page, he noticed that one word was absent: Stasis.
Rocky stared intently at the screen trying to better understand what stasis had signified. Since Rocky had a very small data pool to pull from, he made no assumptions for exactly what caused stasis. All he could definitively say, from the earlier message—“Stasis - Excess Etherience banked”— was that at certain points of development, stasis would store this Etherience, which was what he presumed was giving him levels.
Now that the second-tier class skills were unlocked, he reopened the class skills window with bated breath and a mental click
Skills
Revenant Blade
5/5
Soul Blade Class Skill Unlocked
Revenant Bowyer
0/5
Skill gained at 5/5 “Soul Shot.”
Soul Strike
Once you gain five points in this skill, you can use your personal Ether to cast Soul Strike.
Soul Strike increases the damage of your weapon strikes. Unlock the skill to learn more.
Skill gained at 5/5 “Soul Strike.”
Blood Mend
Once you gain five points in this skill, you can use your personal Ether to cast Blood Mend.
Blood Mend will increase your natural regeneration of wounds and damage. Unlock the skill to learn more.
Skill gained at 5/5 “Blood Mend.”
It appears that maxing out a skill on the first tier opened the second tier. I wonder if higher tiers are more powerful skills?
The decision to hold on to his skill points was disappointingly easy because Rocky didn’t have enough to gain a new skill. Instead, he reluctantly returned to his character sheet. It was time to assign his new stat points.
Still lying on his back and unable to move due to his burnt and damaged body, he couldn’t tell what the class stat points had done for him. However, if the increase in Agility and Dexterity were going to be automatic, Rocky felt that he could avoid those two stat categories at the moment and instead focus on other stats with his free points.
The first thing he did was place a point into Stamina. He had suspicions it increased his health, but he wanted to verify that. After confirming the change, he immediately felt his pain recede, and by checking his health, he saw that both his current and max health had increased by ten points. The difference made his heart soar, as his breath began to come more naturally, his hands felt slightly less scorched, and his skin overall felt less constricting.
More, please!
The ticking clock in his mind made him raise his Stamina to fourteen. Once he had confirmed the change, he felt a comforting heat suffuse his body. Simultaneously, all his internal organs twisted and scrunched painfully. It felt like an instant detox, and he felt the pain induced shackles recede, making movement easier.
Another suspicion made itself apparent as he felt his body begin to heal the damage at an increased pace. The first point hadn’t been noticeable, but having raised the stat by forty percent, Rocky could feel the burns that covered his body receding at a slightly less glacial pace.
This is pretty amazing. The fact that third-degree burns are healing themselves is amazing in itself but this! I could have used this for all those times I got told to, “Apply water to the burn.”
The next decision was not as easy as the first. However, the increase in Rocky’s Health Pool had him leaning towards increasing his other resource, so he placed a point into Intelligence and hoped that he would feel some change.
Unfortunately, whatever Intelligence did wasn’t felt from the single point. Other than increasing his personal Ether pool, Rocky was left guessing at its other effects. Since the experiment was already started, though, he grudgingly placed the last two free points into Intelligence.
That’s when his mind chose to tell him it was feeling the change. It felt like a brain freeze mixed with an out of body experience. He closed his eyes tight against the needles of sharp pain and felt his mind seem to clear and gain access to doorways previously closed to it.
Rocky shivered as he noticed another new feeling. He could feel something in the air; it was extremely faint, but he definitely felt a strange feeling in the space around him. It was almost like a static charge or buzzing power just out of reach. It was extremely frustrating as he waved his arms around trying to grasp it. All the waving arms did was raise goosebumps all over his freshly healing body.
Rockland Barkclay
Level 8
Health Points: 61/140
Ether Pool: 130/130
Class: Apprentice-(Azrael) Revenant
Class Skills: Revenant Blade
You have 0 stat points and 3 skill points to distribute.
Stamina
14
Strength
12
Agility
19
Dexterity
17
Intelligence
13
Wisdom
6
Charisma
8
Luck
5
Cautiously, Rocky raised his head to look at his body. The act caused his abs to send out a pang of soreness as if he had been working out the entire day, but otherwise, he felt remarkably good, considering. He continued the motion and, des
pite many protesting muscles, managed to lever himself into a sitting position with his palms on the ground behind him. The skin of his palms brushed against debris, and the irritation made him glance at the newly healed, pink skin in wonder. With a raised eyebrow, he used his sensitive hands and managed to maneuver his back to lean on the remaining cinder block he had crashed against.
His inner greed menagerie was squealing in delight at what he planned to do next. It was time to conjure that blade. Once he began considering the action, Rocky instinctively knew how to use the spell. He tilted his head, unsure where the knowledge had come from but absolutely confident it was correct.
He sat there, and swirling, blue energy collected in the space just above his hands which he had placed in front of him. As he channeled, he opened his status screen and, as he’d predicted, saw his Ether Pool diminishing. Whatever this spell was doing, it was using his Ether; he was channeling it with his intention to form a sword. The excitement of what he was doing caused his heart rate to increase, a sheen of sweat to appear, and his pupils to dilate.
He sat staring at the swirling, blue, hypnotic energy that was utterly alien to him. At that moment, Rocky also distractedly recognized a floating power in the air all around him. The air was charged with a much sparser ambient energy that felt similar to the concentrated version in front of him. With little else to go on, he assumed Intelligence must have increased his awareness of the Ether he was currently using.
Sitting there, the channeling well under way, he could feel that his attention was no longer fully needed on the task, so he glanced to the red, flashing light in the upper right corner of his vision.