Second, it has a school of spellcasting that is tied to Darkness and shadows. There are dozens of spells in the school, but more importantly, the Dark Slayer Class knowledge contains all the laws and rules of the spellcasting school. There is more than enough information to design my own spells from scratch.
Third, there are so many Class Abilities that I could never take advantage of them all. The Dark Slayer Class has its own Ability web, and most of the Abilities that I can see are abnormal in their strength. I have the feeling that I just do not understand the ramifications of the Abilities that do not seem abnormal. With the experience cost of raising Ability ranks, I will have to pick and choose which ones to use.
Some of this knowledge from the Dark Slayer Class has a strange echo of familiarity. There is information buried in the depths of my mind from my time as a Shadow Knight, and from it, I already knew some of the concepts associated with the Darkness attribute spellcasting, but my old knowledge is nowhere near as complete as what is in the Aspect Crystal.
Even after the images stop bombarding my mind, I have to spend time just finding the core basics of the Dark Slayer, to say nothing of understanding it well enough to acquire the class. The real pain in the ass part of Primacy Online is that if you do not have a minimum level of understanding regarding a Class, Talent, Ability, spell, or Skill, you can only use it in the System Assist Mode. Up until now, I was never bothered by that, but I never imagined something like an Aspect Class could exist in the game.
As a tingling, stinging sensation, like an electric field, envelops me, I activate my QCP Vision and see hundreds, more likely thousands, of threads from the Shackles of the Domination descending on me. Even though it stings a little, it is not really a painful sensation, but I still detest the feeling. Knowing that the Shackle of the Domination are binding me in the same way that they bind the inhabitants of this constructed reality angers me. I have the desire to hurt someone, a lot of someone's, and anyone from the Church of the Resurrection would be suitable.
Ding!
You have acquired the Dark Slayer Class!
Achievement System – Activated.
Leader Boards – Activated.
World Broadcast System – Activated.
Raid System – Activated.
Guild System – Activated.
Auction System – Activated.
External Quantum Network Connections – Enabled.
Once you acquire your Class, you are able to access all of Primacy Online's primary features. It is no different from the previous version of the game. Assuming that all versions of the game are one game and one world, it makes sense.
Raven Goddess smiles at me, but that darkness that can sometimes be seen behind her eyes is deeper and heavier than I have ever seen it. I do not know what that darkness is. I do not even know if it is real or illusory. There are just too many things I do not understand about this woman.
You should not fully trust in that woman. She has the inheritance of another, and her interests will not always align with your own. The warning from the God Crom Cruach's mental imprint echoes in my mind.
After I release the Dark Slayer crystal, it floats back into the air and hovers about six inches over my head.
I grab the crystal for Earth Master and sink my mind into it. Another wave of tens of thousands upon tens of thousands more images floods my mind. Even being ready for it, I feel like nothing more than some asshole's mental punching bag. As I weather the storm, I try to soak up as much of the knowledge as I possibly can, but I lose more than I hold onto.
Earth Master is just as ridiculously broken as Dark Slayer. I suppose it could be called primarily a caster class, but only if you look at a spellcasting as an extension of melee and ranged combat arts. For an Earth Master, everything associated with earth, stone, metal, and plants are your armor, shield, and weapons. The very field of battle upon which you fight is yours to command. A lone Earth Master is an army unto himself.
Ding!
You have acquired the Earth Master Class!
A second descent of the Shackles of the Domination does nothing to improve my mood.
I release the Earth Master crystal and take hold of the Blood Warrior crystal. The assault of images does not seem as overwhelming as with the previous two crystals, and some of the knowledge has a greater sense of familiarity to it. It is reminiscent of the Shadow Knight Class, but it is decidedly not the same.
Can the connections the Dark Slayer and Blood Warrior Aspect Classes seem to have to the Shadow Knight Class be coincidental? Does the Shadow Knight Class possibly have some connection to Crom Cruach?
Ding!
You have acquired the Blood Warrior Class!
All three of these classes are born out of violence, battle, and blood, but the Blood Warrior is the most extreme of the three. The more blood you shed, both your enemies' and your own blood, the stronger you become. The Blood Warrior is like a Berserker on steroids, but there is more to it. A second facet of the class is a school of spellcasting that allows the Blood Warrior to be a healer by stealing life from his enemies, in the form of their blood, and using it to heal himself or another.
A third wave of the threads from the Shackles of Domination assaults me. I can feel it doing things to me, but I cannot understand what it is doing. I suppose this is what you could call a bad touch.
As I open my eyes, I see Raven Goddess sitting opposite me. With a faint, melancholy smile, she stares into my eyes. "Crom Cruach, you are now the wielder of the three Aspects of the God Crom Cruach. If you live up to your name, you will be like unto a God yourself."
Seeing the intensity of the look in Raven Goddess' eyes, a chill runs down my spine. "You talk as though this was all real."
Again, the darkness appears behind Raven Goddess' eyes, and her melancholy smile turns sad. "What is real, and what is fantasy? Even if this is a constructed reality, I am here. I have a body that needs to eat and sleep. I feel pain. I feel joy. I can love, and I can hate. Is it all fantasy, or is it all reality? Whether here or on Earth, I live my days as though both worlds are real. If I were to decide one was real and one was not, would I still act the same? Would I follow the same code of morality in both? Would I use the belief that one is fantasy as an excuse to not live according to my codes? I do not know the answer, and I do not want to experiment. Both worlds are real, and I will always be Raven. That is my belief. It is up to you to decide what is real and what is fantasy, for you. You will have to decide the way to live that is suitable for yourself."
For a few minutes, I return Raven Goddess' stare, but I do not say anything. Her words seem to be treading the border between sanity and insanity. Her intensity sends a chill down my spine. I do not know how to take her statements. They sound insane, but are they? Is Raven Goddess sane or insane? What about me?
Without being able to come to any conclusions, I do not respond. As a way to dodge this conversation, I bring up the game menu and open my character sheet.
Crom Cruach
Half-Giant : Neophyte
Dark Slayer : Level 10
Earth Master : Level 10
Blood Warrior : Level 10
HP: 740/740
MP: 396/396
Basic Attributes
» Strength: 100
» Agility: 80
» Toughness: 100
» Reason: 72
» Perception: 72
» Willpower: 80
Hidden Attributes
» ???
Derived Attributes
» Physical Attack Bonus: 66
» Magic Attack Bonus: 54
» Physical Damage Bonus: 70
» Magical Damage Bonus: 54
» ???
Talents:
» Danger Sense, Item Ancestry, ???
Abilities:
» Identify Monster (Passive); Enhanced Agility (Rank 0); Spellcasting – Darkness School; Spellcasting – Earth School; Spellcasting – Plant School; Spellcasting – Blood S
chool; Spellcasting – Necromantic School; Shadow Meld (Rank 0); Earth Manipulation (Rank 0); Blood Rage (Rank 0); ???
Skills:
» Basic Melee Weapons; Martial Melee Weapons; Basic Ranged Weapons; Martial Ranged Weapons; Armor Proficiency: Cloth, Light, Medium, Heavy; Spellcasting
System Assist Mode: Off
God Damn It! There are even more of the '???' entries on the character sheet. What the hell is up with the question marks all over the place? Other than unidentified items and monster properties, I never saw anything like that when I played Primacy Online V . I never even heard of anyone having question marks on their character sheet. Is it a bug with the QCP, or is it something else?
The question marks aside, my Attribute levels are crazy. All of my Attributes are on par with the primary Class Attributes for someone around Level 20. I am not just OP. These Aspect Classes are so broken, it is like adding another cheat.
Looking at Raven Goddess, I grin like a madman.
"You look rather pleased with yourself." Looking at me with half-lidded eyes, Raven Goddess gives me droll smile and rises to her feet.
"These Classes are OP." I stand, as well, and stretch. My body is stiff.
As my muscles and joints protest, I grunt "Damn, I feel like I've been sitting for a week."
Raven Goddess chuckles. "No. It has only been about a day."
"What?" I look at the date on my menu bar: First Month 13, 10 RC.
"Well, fuck. I didn't think it would take that long."
Raven Goddess shakes her head. "You absorbed the Aspect Classes of a God. Did you think it would only take a few minutes, like learning a normal Class?"
I shrug and look around. "I need to find a barrow that has a broken weapon belonging to Crom Cruach, the God Crom Cruach that is."
The strange darkness seems to return to Raven Goddess' eyes. "After Crom Cruach's death, Daray took up his broken war scythe. He was one who sought after the meaning of strength. He fell in the Third Fomhoraigh War and is buried to the north of here, but we should wait for dawn to approach his Barrow. It is outside the protected zone created by Crom Cruach's barrow."
"Okay."
Once Raven Goddess sets out her bedroll, she lays down and closes her eyes. After a while, her soft snoring fills the quiet night, and I take another look at the Aspect Class Abilities for my new Classes.
Now that I have learned the Classes, the pages for my three of them have the beginnings of Ability Webs on their Aspect Class Abilities tabs, but other than the Ability nodes that can be acquired at Rank 0, the Ability nodes are blurred out. I am not sure that I can even see the total number of them, but each Aspect Class has a single core ability that must be acquired before all others.
Blood Rage
» After the creation of Light and Fire, you rested within Earth and Darkness for ages beyond counting. When lesser beings that dared to claim Divinity scorned you, they learned what it meant to raise the ire of an Elder God. Rage dwells within your Blood, and your Blood is Rage. When Life's Blood flows from wounds, yours or your enemies', your Rage bursts forth.
» When you take damage, you become Enraged. This can be suppressed through Willpower.
» Every time you damage another, there is a fixed 10% chance that you will become Enraged. This can be suppressed through Willpower.
» For every point, you are below your Maximum Hit Points, you do 1% extra damage. There is no limit to the damage increase.
» When your Enraged state ends, you enter a Weakened state until you achieve sufficient rest. In a Weakened state, all your Abilities are reduced by 50%. The Weakened state can be removed by appropriate magic effects.
» Minimum Level: 10
» Required class: Blood Warrior
» ???
Earth Manipulation
» You were born from Earth and Darkness. Earth is your mother. Her strength flows through your veins, and the worlds created in her image obey your commands.
» Passive Ability
» All positive aspects of any Talent, Ability, or spell related to earth, stone, metal, and plants will be enhanced by 10%. Each additional Rank of Earth Master increases bonuses by an additional 10%.
» Minimum Level: 10
» Required class: Earth Master
» ???
Shadow Meld
» You were born from Earth and Darkness, before there was anything else. Darkness is your father. In the embrace of Darkness, none can find you, and you can move with speed and secrecy.
» When the user enters any shadow, he can enter a state of obfuscation that will render him nearly invisible. The larger and darker the shadow the greater the difficulty to see the user. In complete darkness, the user becomes invisible. Agility, Reason and all appropriate stealth-based Skills, Talents, and Abilities enhance the difficulty of finding a user in a Shadow Meld state.
» Cooldown: None
» Minimum Level: 10
» Required Class: Dark Slayer
» Persistent Ability – Will not be disabled if the user is incapacitated.
» Activation Cost: 10MP
» Maintenance Cost: 1MP / Minute
» ???
Staring at the '???' entries on the three Abilities, I cannot keep from being pissed off. I have always hated being kept in the dark, and I cannot shake the feeling that the QCP is deliberately hiding things. The question is, why?
Without anything better to do, I eventually fall asleep.
Dead Islands, Toraigh
First Month 14, 10 RC
The barrow of Daray does not look any different than the hundred plus others that I have already seen on this island, and like all of them, it has a slab of stone blocking the space between the doorposts and lintel on its southern side.
"This is not like the barrow of Crom Cruach. The stone is not a gate to an isolated dimension. To get in, we need to dig around the slab or break through it."
Raven Goddess looks at me and smirks. "I am not an Earth affinity caster. My magic is associated with Air and Water."
I stare at the barrow with a frown. There were a lot of spells in the Aspect Class crystals, especially in the Earth Master one, but most of them are way above my current Level. There are a number of spells that could alter or destroy the stone slab, but they are all among the ones that are too high-Level for me to cast. The only useful spell that is a Level 10 spell is nothing more than a super digging spell. It might cause the tunnel beyond the stone slab to collapse. If I do cause a cave-in, I suppose I can just keep digging until the barrow stops collapsing.
With a shrug, I begin casting the spell and fail. I fail repeatedly.
"Ha, ha, ha. Oh, this is too funny. Your pronunciation is atrocious." Despite hiding her mouth with her hand, Raven Goddess' eyes veritably gleam with merriment.
"Krrrktaskt Raccclfkht…" My words trail off into nothing, and I glare at Raven Goddess.
After only a few seconds of meeting my glare, Raven Goddess doubles over in laughter.
"Do you want to cast the spell? You seem to know the language already." A vague mixture of irritation and frustration swirls around inside of me. The language is so heavy with consonants that it is almost impossible for me to pronounce the words for the mnemonic. I have been trying for over an hour, and even though I am probably getting better, I still cannot get the spell off.
I have heard various Arcane Casters use this language over my years in Primacy Online V , but I never learned it. Darkness magic like the Shadow Knight and Dark Slayer use has a different language for its spells. The same applies to the Blood Warrior's magic, but I know a bit of that one from Shadow Knight spells, as well. There are at least a dozen languages used for spellcasting in Primacy Online , and it is probably more like several dozens. If you do not use the System Assist Mode, you have to actually master the pronunciation for each one to be able to properly cast the spells that are created using it.
After several minutes, Raven Goddess gets her laughter under control and wipes the
tears from the corners of her eyes. "I know it is mean to laugh at you, but I have never heard the Elemental Earth Tongue butchered so badly. I know the language, but I cannot cast that spell. I have no affinity with Earth. That spell has crossed the boundary from Arcane magic to Elemental magic."
Raven Goddess tries, extremely unsuccessfully, to keep from smirking. "You are going to have to master the pronunciation."
With a vaguely put-upon feeling, I suppress a sigh and turn back to the barrow.
"{Passage Through Earth} "
After several hours, I manage to get out a close enough approximation of the spell's mnemonic to cast it.
Rumble.
The side of the barrow mound starts separating, and a tunnel stretches out in front of me. The walls of the tunnel are rough, and the height is erratic.
I let out a relieved sigh and enter the tunnel. Because the height of the tunnel is less than 2m from bottom to top, I have to duck-walk to pass through it, but at least, I can traverse it.
As I move forward, at a distance of about three meters in front of me the dirt continues to separate.
When my tunnel breaks into another, older tunnel, a small landslide fills the mouth of my tunnel about halfway to the top, but luckily, it does not entirely collapse. I release my spell and force my way through the dirt pile.
As I stand up, a strong sense of unease fills me. It feels like a cold, dead hand clamps onto my heart with an icy grip. I pull out my staff, but nothing immediately attacks.
Exiting the tunnel behind me, Raven Goddess looks around and frowns. "This barrow is filled with Darkness. Daray used to be called the Dark Marauder. You can think of him as the precursor and big brother of the Shadow Knights. He was not a nice being."
"Being?"
Raven Goddess' frown deepens. "He was a mutant Half-Giant. He escaped from the slave pens of the Fomhoraigh in his youth, and somehow, became the last of the very few followers acknowledged by Crom Cruach in the early days of the Third Fomhoraigh War."
Raven Goddess lights a torch, and we move slowly and cautiously down the tunnel. After a bit, it becomes obvious that the tunnel has been dug in the form of a spiral, but there is no telling how many loops it will make before we reach the center.
The Cheater's Return Page 22
