“The choice may be harder for Maud, but I think I’m already sold on Combat Rogue. I’ve been eying it since the mont l identified it anyway. Mixing that with my courier class is going to do wonders for my battlefield mobility,” Glorp said as he looked at the list of class orbs we had available. The final count was a little over six hundred identified and a few strange ones that l had set aside for later examination. He didn’t want anyone risking touching those yet.
“Yeah, it’s a pretty good pairing for ya. What kind of mana orb are ya thinking?” l asked as he bobbed around my garage. Following the bunkhouse, Trolke’s next job was going to be building the workshop out more, getting us room to really play around with different combinations of orbs as well as space for to run my experints. Eventually, I would want a clean room with so very strongly reinforced walls as well.
“What I really want, I don’t think we have any, at least I haven’t seen anything listed, so I guess for now I’ll settle for a body-enhancing orb,” he answered, sounding slightly disappointed with the choice.
“We can always get you so socket swap reserve equipnt later, though that’s likely to be pretty far down the line before we can afford anything like that. We might be able to get a crafter before we can afford anything on the open market. I’ll look into that,” Pryte said, seeming to also pick up on Glorp’s mood.
“What kind of mana orb were you hoping for, Glorp?” Sanquar asked.
“Well, it’s not so much a specific orb itself. I think a few would do it, but I wanted sothing to play around with the friction of the ground,” he answered. I could easily see how powerful sothing like that could be, and I already understood how it would play into his build. Instant boosts of speed or quick monts of traction while he rocketed around the battlefield. Considering he was already hard to see now, that would make him nearly unstoppable.
“Oh, ya wanna control the battlefield, do ya?” l asked, also catching on.
“Yep, That seed like a big missing part from the group,” Glorp answered.
“Well, kid, I’ve got so good news for ya,” l said as he produced a light grey mana orb that I had forgotten about from his System storage. “It took damn near forever ta figure just what this thing was. Ain’t never seen its like before. It’s a clay mana orb, one of the weirder environntal ones. Honestly no clue where it ca from, haven’t even heard of it before, and sure as hell ain’t seen it used in the Arena, but as far as I can tell, it lets ya ss around with the dirt composition. That should cause quite a bit of chaos as ya learn to use it.”
“Huh, interesting. I’m not sure if it’s exactly what I had in mind, but it sounds close. I’ll take it,” Glorp said with a giant smile, the earlier disappointnt having completely vanished as l handed over the orb.
“Environntal mana orbs are always so strange and so oddly specialized to the place they were created, but yes, as far as I can rember, I’ve also never seen a clay one. This should be very interesting, Glorp,” Sanquar agreed.
“That was easy enough. How do you feel now, Glorp?” I asked.
“Excited. I know potentially everything might go very bad for us in the future, but right now this is one of the best monts I’ve had in a long ti. My family is here, Cecile and Elody are working on treating my sister for free, there’s plenty of food and now I can even start thinking about my own future. I kind of just figured I’d always be taking care of them. Don’t get wrong, I love them. It’s just I feel free in a way I don’t think I have since my parents died,” he answered, his smile faltering as the sad mories surfaced.
“Aww,” Maud said, reaching out and pulling him into a hug.
“This brings us to Maud, which is actually going to require a bit more testing,” Pryte said as he produced a whole table from his System storage. Could I place things bigger than I could pick up into it? I hadn’t tried it yet, but it was sothing to rember. The table looked similar to the setup I had had back in my room in the archives.
“Ah, a full System interface, was wondering if we got one before or after the floor ten,” l said, agreeing with my observation.
“After, but I called in a few favors. This was originally just going to be so I could get an early start on the needs for our headquarters, but it’s a good thing I have it since we need to test if Maud can even use this yet,” Pryte explained.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“What do I do?” Maud asked, finally releasing Glorp from her hug.
“Assuming it works like it did for , pull up a chair and sit down in front of it. It should bring a nu like you’re in virtual reality. It’s a very jarring sensation at first,” I answered, giving her a warning I hadn’t had.
“Okay. Sitting is one of the things I am great at!” she said, grabbing a nearby chair and pulling it up to the table before placing herself into it and imdiately yelling in excitent.
“I… believe that ans it worked,” Pryte said.
“Huh, my stats are kind of boring, gonna need to pump those up! Can I see the quests next, oh, interesting. Wonder how I do that.” Every ti Maud said one of these things she paused and then continued speaking. I was sure it was just the System speaking back to her, though this did give a new idea to try after we finished with Maud. What would happen if Sanquar tried to interact with the System?
“Odd, I wouldn’t expect her to have quests without the world being integrated yet,” Pryte said.
“I had quests,” I replied. I, in fact, had a lot of them, several that still needed to be completed.
“Yes, but the System saw you as an outsider, which usually happens to help acquaint them with their new reality, not that it’s a common sight anymore. Remind to have a conversation with you about System expansion later. I guess it’s possible it’s seeing Maud the sa way, which could be very interesting,” Pryte explained.
The noise of the chair sliding back from the table alerted us that Maud had finished before her voice did. “Um, I have two quests. One says to save a weird planet designation, but that was just clearly Earth, easy enough to figure out. The other one says it’s a chain of quests for a special class orb.”
“I have the sa quest to save the planet. I wonder if any humans would just get the sa at this point. Are there any details for the class quest?” I asked. It was possible there weren’t any. One of my quests was classified still, and it had been there for awhile now.
“Uh, one second, I’ll read you exactly what it says,” She said, scooting her chair back toward the table. “Inheritor Class. Speak to the Jritotle.”
“I’m sorry, did you just say Inheritor class?” Elody said, speaking up for the first ti since we had begun.
“Yep, is it like a turtle? It sounds like a turtle,” Maud asked, standing up and stretching her legs.
“The Jritotle is the last of his kind, an ancient mana beast. As for the Inheritor class, that is a soul mana-based class and generally only given out as secondary classes, not primary,” Elody said.
“You’re going to have to fill us all in more, as I’ve never heard of an Inheritor class before,” Pryte said, turning toward Elody.
“You likely wouldn’t. It’s almost always only a classpath that paladins find themselves on. For whatever reason, though, the System has decided that Maud should gain an aspect of the Jritotle, and the implications of that worry ,” Elody said, pulling several books from her storage space and placing them on the nearby table.
“So is this generally just a path on a paladin class, or is this its own class?” Pryte asked, his eyebrows raised, looking both confused and interested.
“Inheritor classes are often created through paladin classpaths as a way to pass on their knowledge to those entering the order. It grants initiates aspects of the paladins that ca before them. You can, of course, directly beco a paladin class as well, but starting out as an Inheritor helps to guide those on the path. I suspect Maud’s quest may involve the creation of a new paladin order,” Elody explained, now flipping through books with half of her eyes focused on that task.
“That sounds cool, um, why the worry though? Am I going to die?” Maud asked, frowning.
“No, one mont,” Elody said, rapidly flipping more pages. “Ah, here, I knew I had read sothing before. Often, at tis before catastrophic faction wars the System seemingly begins to give out more lost and rare classes. It’s been theorized that it is an attempt by the System to control the damage it predicts is coming. If we consider everything here, including Dave’s faction, that would suggest a path we are barreling toward.”
“We were already heading that way long before the rediscovery of Sanquar. It’s been too long since any major expansion. All the large factions are about ready to burst at their seams. What do you do when there are millions of princes demanding their own lands and nothing to give them?” Pryte asked, shrugging as he spoke.
“Yeah, this ain’t that surprising to either. Shit’s been getting pretty bad for a while now,” l added.
“We aren’t in any position to fight a war, are you guys really expecting that?” I asked, looking from face to face, trying to ignore the newest pressure building on my chest.
“Yes, but we won’t be the center of that. Hell, it likely will barely involve us. There’s nothing here anyone wants besides so old grudge against Sanquar. Why the people Korl represents even care this much is beyond at this point. Honestly, while a faction war could be devastating for the Spiral, it might help us,” Pryte said, relieving so, but not all, of the pressure. I wasn’t really sure anything could help all of it anymore.
Fifth awakening in the season of the Grand Walrus. The exact statent of the Jritotle is copied below.
DUAMROTIREHNIGNIRB
Official Scribe of the Jritotle’s Words
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