‘Show me’ I commanded the system as I zeroed in on the bold [NONE]
\\Hiding some classes due to the influence of Knife of Quiraion
\\Merging duplicate classes
An involuntary sigh of relief escaped my lips as the class list reduced itself to a more manageable amount. There was something weird going on with the system, notifications grabbed my attention in a way that was not entirely just my own mind’s behavior. They were silent but metaphorically loud in the worst way. And with the hundreds of classes that I had? That was an ordeal. There were still dozens of them but that was a far cry from the sheer insanity I was initially faced with. But the system was not yet done.
\\Sorting classes into archetypes
\\Remember that your class choice is not permanent. You will have to choose a new class once your current class reaches its maximum level. Completing lower tier classes paired with high stats, skills and feats will unlock higher tier classes in that archetype. Specialization is deemed to be optimal for most people. Some classes may exist in multiple archetypes as archetypes are only an abstraction for the purposes of ease of selection and are NOT actually a meaningfully real stratification.
And now I was looking at a much more manageable number of windows arranged in a circle around a glowing white circle. The circle pulsed and radiated light outwards that shone upon the text of the windows. It almost reminded me of the Higher Principality that I had seen.
Offensive Magic
Healing And Divinity
Support Magic
Offensive Melee
Protection And Defense
Speed And Assassination
Long Range Offensive
Summoner And Controller
Crafting And Misc Support
Charisma And Leadership
First things first, I needed mobility. I couldn’t travel as I was right now and I was missing my crutches. I had to get myself fixed, and it has to be soon. The healing window expanded until it was as large as the white center of the class screen.
\\CHOIR SINGER (0/10)
A CHOIR SINGER channels the rejuvenating energies of the world through her voice to cure ailments and injuries.
A basic CHOIR SINGER can heal minor bruises and produce light at will. She can also cause those that listen to her song to feel energized. A CHOIR SINGER opens up the SIREN and BARDIC PATHS. At higher class levels, a SIREN can weave nigh unbreakable enchantments and illusions that alter reality wherever her voice reaches and a BARD can make demigods out of mere mortals
MASTERY BONUSES:
+1 to ACUITY, WILLPOWER AND ATTUNEMENT
Completely worthless! Minor bruises and some light? Wow, if that's the quality of things I was looking at then I was in a lot more trouble than I thought. Back in my old world, I had never been one for singing myself and I was not not sure if singing magic was that good of an idea for someone with no experience or training in music. And not to mention singing loudly when I didn't even know what kind of horrors could be lurking in the forest was just asking for trouble. Really though, it would have been a decent choice if I was not in the middle of a forest. It wasn’t bad exactly. Just not very useful.
\\SUPPLICANT (0/10)
A SUPPLICANT petitions a god to perform minor miracles such as healing small injuries a-
Nope. Even if it wasn't limited to just small injuries, being a cleric was not really something I wanted to do. I was already bound to one god’s one task, I didn't want any more unless I was totally out of options. The more chains I had now, the less flexibility I would have down the line. Not to mention the possibility of said chains getting in each other’s way. I really didn't care to become a religious fanatic of any kind. A picture of me becoming a paladin and using skills named Holy Smite Cold Blooded
\\BLOODMAGE INITIATE (0/15)
A BLOODMAGE INITIATE uses her blood to both heal and harm. She speeds up the natural healing rate of the body for allies and induces internal or external bleeding in her enemies at this small step on the Eternal Ziggurat of the BIOMANCER.
At higher class levels, BIOMANCERS can regrow entire bodies, regenerate from small traces of DNA, mutate themselves or others into great monstrosities and absorb biological traits from their foes who find their very bodies in open rebellion against them.
MASTERY BONUSES:
+2 to STRENGTH, VITALITY, WILLPOWER AND ATTUNEMENT
This class had 15 levels instead of the 10s the two previous classes had. Maybe better classes took longer to level up? The Biomancer path certainly seemed to be pretty superior to the ones I'd seen before, both for the future power and the stats it offered for mastering it. I was also sure that I'd find this class in the offensive magic section. Going to that archetype and scrolling past at least eight variations of an elemental mage, I did eventually find it. Making a mental note to pick this as my next class unless something much better was available, I moved on. The rest of the healing magic classes were nothing that I liked but I did find a few other 15 level hybrids. A ki based monk path that purified the body that was also a fast martial artist, an alchemy based potion maker path and a weird class that transferred injury between people. After seeing how disappointing the healer classes were, I was not feeling confident when I checked the support magic classes. Maybe I could get a transportation or divination based class? It was somehow even more disappointing than the healers. Sure I found the things I was looking for but the beginner level classes were really bad. Okay maybe knowing which way was North was actually kind of useful but it wasn't good .
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
I did find something very interesting, if horrifying.
\\MAGICAL BEAST REARER TRAINEE (0/10)
There are two ways to level up, do things associated with a class or kill to absorb the souls of your victims. A MAGICAL BEAST REARER TRAINEE helps with rearing and raising magical beasts for slaughter to empower the next generation of humans. She learns to use spells to calm beasts, boost fertility and clean excreta
This path can progress toward raising ever greater monsters in larger quantities or can branch into HUMAN CHATTEL REARER.
MASTERY BONUSES:
+1 to STRENGTH, CELERITY, VITALITY
I did shudder this time, of course magical factory farming of people was a thing here. I didn't even know where I was or what this world was called but maybe I should not be so hasty to get back to civilization. At least it gave me confirmation that humans were a thing in this world.
Feeling oddly paranoid, I looked around myself and once again my gaze was drawn to the bone monster. It was vaguely humanoid but much taller than a human should be. Yeah, I think I shall use it to make crutches and then think about the future.
Blacksmith apprentice, potion maker apprentice, cook, rune inscriber apprentice, blah blah. I was sure that a prosthetic crafter should be a thing. It could be one of the level 5 healer classes that I had skimmed over. I didn't get the point of those level 5 classes, they only gave a single point to one stat and made no promises of future grand power. Maybe they were just so that people could grind their stats to qualify for better classes?
I was about to go back to the healers when a class caught my eye.
\\BONECRAFTER NOVICE (0/15)
The Unaugured God has ordained that reality will submit to his will and you will see that His dream is fulfilled. A BONECRAFTER NOVICE can use bone to make rudimentary armaments and tools and can harvest the bones from the dead to replenish her material stock. She can use her magic to prepare bones with almost inhuman precision and her stats are multiplied when harvesting bones.
A BONECRAFTER can eventually learn to create great machines of war and golems and even steal the very memories of the dead from their bones. eventually building even mighty ELDER DRACOLICHES will be a child's play for you and you would be able to generate bone from just your magical powers.
MASTERY BONUSES:
+2 to STRENGTH, CELERITY, PERCEPTION AND ATTUNEMENT
I stared at the text in the air before me before dismissing it, stared at the thing I rested against and reopened my status screen. My eyes narrowed. Improvised Tool UseLow Maintenance Scrounging and ScavengingKnife
“You will face more opportunities to increase your power than most.”
Fucking dead god. My face had a grin for the first time since my death.
\\Class [BONECRAFTER NOVICE] selected
It started at level 1 as I expected. 1/15.
\\Mana unlocked due to picking your first mana using class. Attempting to use skills without having the requisite mana will use your very life as fuel. Existing mana consuming effects will deactivate in such a case. Rarely, some skills will consume other resources instead. Keep mana consumption and regeneration rates in mind when using skills.
\\Skill Lesser Bone Harvesting learned
\\Skill Lesser Bone Crafting learned
\\Skill Fossil Identification learned
\\Remember that you can only have 9 active and 9 passive skills at any given time. Please unassign unwanted skills regularly. An unassigned skill can be reassigned but after a long cooldown based on its power and level. Unassigned skills are still available for consolidation purposes. Some skills don't take up slots.
It felt strange to have mana, like suddenly healing from a chronic pain that had plagued someone for decades. It almost made me lightheaded. It felt good. I was dimly aware of my mana like it was a weakened sense. I could reach and almost touch it but it eluded me, flowing between the gaps of my fingers and rolling on me and caressing me mockingly. It was like trying to hold on to something slimy in running water, just not gross. If I could grab onto it, I could do anything. I felt the power of it, how the world bent around it, through it, I could be the one bending the world. It just didn’t want to be held by me for some reason.
I would have spent at least an hour trying to grasp my mana but Cold Blooded
\\Lesser Bone Harvesting: 1
You can harvest bones from corpses for your purposes, be it for augury or potion ingredients. Your stats are treated as being 50% higher when harvesting bones.
Uses 10 mana per minute.
\\Lesser Bone Crafting: 1
You know how to use bone as a material or reagent for your creations. You have an instinctive knowledge of the magical potency of bones.
No mana cost.
\\Fossil Identification: 1
You can look at the skeletal or fossilized remains of creatures to identify their source. You can further infer the life cycles of such creatures.
5 mana cost.
Oh, I could use that to get more information about whatever this Unaugured God was. I stared at the skeleton and thought of fossil identification. I felt the mana that twirled around my body diminish and grow lighter. I tried to commit that sensation to memory. Another thing to add to my now alarmingly large list of things to do, check if mana can be easier to use directly if it was partially used up or I had more to spare.
[Armored Lesser Skeleton, raised just hours ago by an incomprehensibly powerful being to serve some purpose]
\\Fossil Identification is now level 19!
I shook myself and focused on the task ahead, filing away despairing at the relative mediocrity of my now highest level skill for later. And also that I had apparently died to a baby that wasn't even a day old, that was definitely not something I was going to dwell upon. I brought my knife out and began to slowly detach one of those long tibia bones from a weird cartilaginous goo that held it in place. I was a short girl, not even accounting for the malnutrition, and the thing I was operating on was taller than any human could ever be so the tibia was actually the perfect length for me. My mana slowly dropped as I operated on the skeleton. I kept working, my mind focusing almost entirely on the task at hand while occasionally just checking to make sure I still had the mana to spare.
Finally I beheld my great work. Two long bones that shone brightly in the sun. The epiphysis was intact on one end, that would rest under my arms and on the other end, the one that was supposed to make contact with the ground, it was slightly flattened for a better grip. Smaller pieces of the skeleton were tied with strips of my rather abused tshirt to form something that vaguely looked like a grip. I was split on the thing in all honesty, on one hand I was proud of what I'd made out of a skeleton but on the other, it was so rough that I just wanted to move on. Of course both of those emotions were promptly ignored when a barrage of notifications hit all at once.
[Item created: Rough Bone Crutches. Due to working with Godtouched bone, massively increased experience was awarded.]
\\Lesser Bone Harvesting is now level 23!
\\Lesser Bone Crafting is now level 23!
\\Scavenging And Scrounging is now level 8
\\Knife User is now level 7!
\\[BONECRAFTER NOVICE] is now level 15!
\\Class mastered [BONECRAFTER NOVICE]. +2 to STRENGTH, CELERITY, PERCEPTION AND ATTUNEMENT
And then came the pain.
NAME: ANANYA HARTFORD
RACE: HUMAN
ACTIVE CLASS: [NONE]
CUMULATIVE CLASS LEVELS: [15]
MASTERED CLASSES: [1]
AGE: 17
MANA: 60/60 (REGEN 12 PER HOUR)
STATS:
STRENGTH: 8
CELERITY: 7
VITALITY: 5
ACUITY: 11
WILLPOWER: 13
PERCEPTION: 13
ATTUNEMENT: 12
