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Classing up! High color chapter! Patreon hates color! Read on Google Docs! https://docs.google.com/document/d/159vYTjYeZYXfKFLTWUNSiCc7HuOxu6RWhExNPhe4lFw/edit

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I stumbled out of the arena, having held up a good front for the crowd, to where Ocean – and Artemis – were waiting.

“Good work Ranger Elaine.” Ocean said, formally saluting. Holy shit, I was being saluted by a Sentinel.

Artemis shot him a dirty look, pulling me into a hug.

“Good job healy-bug. Proud of you. You’re free now. Need a moment?”

I nodded, resting a moment, gathering my thoughts, then getting up.

“Right, let’s head back.”

“Don’t want to watch Brawling?” Ocean asked.

“I want to get as far away as I can from the crowd that was screaming for me to be raped in front of all of them, thank you very much.” I said, the memory like oily grease on my mind. I spat, trying to get the taste out of my mouth.

“Yeah, let’s ditch those losers.” Artemis said, as we started to walk out.

Ocean sputtered behind us.

“The stands are filled with Citizens! Senators! At least two other Sentinels! And more! You can’t just call them all losers!”

Artemis shot him a look, which impressed me. She was willing to sass a Sentinel. “I can, and I did.”

We made it back to Ranger Academy without further incident, where I technically had the rest of the day off.

It was freeing. I hadn’t realized how much mental load was taken up by Kerberos, wondering where he was, when he’d strike next at me. I had nothing for mental trauma, and his goons torturing me was easily the worst memory I had. Him being dead and gone was freeing, blissful. I was practically skipping and whistling from that.

I still made it to Sky’s lesson, but apart from that, I took it easy. Who didn’t want to fly?

There was no way I’d stand Night up though, and we met at the usual time and place.

“Ranger Elaine. Most excellent.” He started off by saying.

I’d had time to cool off, and while I wasn’t about to start going down a pacifist path, I just felt sick. I’d literally blown someone’s head off, and I’d had every reason to do it. It was the right thing, it was self-defense, I’d do it again, but Night kinda had a point. I’d never deliberately, directly killed another person before, and it was a whole new experience. The sheer intensity of the emotional fallout from it being Kerberos, the demon who’d been on my back, was doing me no favors as well. My emotional state was all over the place.

It was good to cope with the emotion. It was healthy to process it.

Bless the contemplation between each sentence, the silent walking to process thoughts. I had a sense that I was going to pick up this habit of Night’s in the future.

“I believe, in the few weeks left to us, that it is time for you to class up. I shall make no comment on what I believe you should take, except to listen to those who have, with the best of intentions, given you advice.”

Classing up time! My spirits lifted considerably at that.

“Now, with that being said, let us discuss your general skills. Your [Training] skill has reached, more or less, the end of its useful life. You made most excellent use out of it, but at this time, I believe we should replace the skill, and use the remaining time to get your new skill as high as possible, along with getting used to your new abilities, should you change element, or get a particularly interesting new skill.” Night said.

“I recommend you get [Reflexes]. It will help with your reaction time. The hope is, one day, it will evolve with your [Vigilant] into [Speedster’s Perception], a most useful skill.”

We took a few moments while I digested what he said. It made sense, but…

“I know I encouraged Artemis to take the skill once upon a time. I do not know what has happened with her and the skill, but I have reason to believe she still has it or an evolved version.”

I thought about Artemis, and her superhuman reaction time.

[Reflexes] it was! Not that I was going to argue with Night over it.

“It’s hard to say one way or another if taking [Reflexes] now and then classing up will be better than keeping [Training] and classing up. [Training] isn’t that useful, and is unlikely to impact your choices, and [Reflexes] will simply be too low to help.”

Night shrugged.

“It’s unfortunate, but the additional experience gained by [Training] more than makes up for it. Let us discuss your stats.”

Stats

[Free Stats: 1032]

[Strength: 184]

[Dexterity: 210]

[Vitality: 297]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 3546]

[Mana Regeneration: 3967]

[Magic Power: 3079]

[Magic Control: 3406]

We spent a long time walking in silence, Night’s fingers slowly twitching as he performed calculations known only to himself. Finally, he spoke again.

“Right. We shall currently put most of your stats into your Magic skills, to better improve your choices upon this class-up. After, we shall see what you get, but I would encourage you to mostly focus on Vitality and Speed. When combined with [Reflexes], it will do the most to keep you alive. Do not forget a few points in Dexterity, if you ever find yourself losing control, but for the most part you have reached the end of the line in your Strength and Dexterity, if you wish to continue this path of Healer-Mage.”

I nodded, and Night gave me the point distribution he recommended. Rounded out my mana regen, spiked my mana up, a bunch into Magic Power, three points into Vit, and the rest went to my control. Damn trade-offs.

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 184]

[Dexterity: 210]

[Vitality: 300]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 4000]

[Mana Regeneration: 4000]

[Magic Power: 3500]

[Magic Control: 3459]

There wasn’t much more to say. I turned in for the night, with Night wishing me luck in the morning.

I woke up to the usual 4thGong, and promptly turned over back to sleep. I wanted to be as well rested as possible for this, and I’d been excused for the day.

I woke up to the 7th Gong, a tray of food and two women in the room with me.

“Morning! We’re here to look after you while you class up!” The first one said cheerfully.

“Take your time! It’s an easy break for us!” The second one said, showing me some cards.

“Thanks!” I said, chowing down.

“Just checking, you’re fine with however long I take?” I asked. “You won’t get in trouble or anything?”

“Nope! Not as long as you’re still classing up!” The first one said.

A wild grin split my face. Reading time. Yesssssss.

I laid down, closed my eyes, focused on classing up, and felt myself fall back into the world of my soul.

I opened my eyes to Librarian, dressed like a Ranger, red cape, badge and all, and the Library.

“I’m BACK!” I shouted, flexing, doing my best genie impression.

“You’re back!” Librarian exclaimed happily, grabbing my hands, jumping up and down with me.

“And I have all the time in the world! More or less.” I said.

“Yeah, until you starve, or die of dehydration.” Librarian pointed out.

Curses. I knew there was a catch. Note to self, get a “don’t starve” skill so I can do this longer next time.

“Right! Let’s get to it!” I said, plonking myself down at the closest table. Librarian rolled her eyes and pointed to another table, one with stacks of books at the ready. Heaps of books.

Heck, a single bookshelf wouldn’t be able to hold them all.

Yesssssss. Delicious reading-food.

“You know, I had prepped a table for this...”

Mmmm right.

I moved over, and started chowing down on books, eagerly devouring them all. It was hard. I wanted to read as fast as I could, almost skim them, but then I wouldn’t get the content, I’d lose the story. But I had limited time. If I went too slowly, I wouldn’t get to read as much.

I needed to class up more often, and class up in places where I could simply spend hours to days classing up, with no responsibilities. Mmmm…. That’d be hard, but I’m sure I could manage it.

Book after book, tome after tome. Action, adventure, fantasy – wait no, that’d be slice of life here, there was no fantasy, not after what I’d seen. Quiet, peaceful stories. Epic tales, where I overthrew the government, proclaiming myself Queen Elaine the 1st. Sometimes Empress Elaine. Stories where I traded with dwarves, was a diplomat to elves. Stories of riding with centaurs, stealing from giants, fighting off hordes of savage gnomes.

I don’t know how long I’d been there, but there were at least eight stacks of books taller than my head when I heard a soft cough from Librarian.

“We should probably get going.”

Awww, but mom….

The perils of being an adult, of being a Ranger. Responsibility. Bleh.

I went up the stairs to the second floor, where my level 32 class-up had occurred. Given that almost all the books were variations of “Burn things down”, it was a significantly less interesting read. That, and there was a tiny fraction of the novels.

With no small amount of trepidation, I walked up to the third floor.

It looked nothing like the room I’d been in when I classed up to [Constellation of the Healer]. A long hallway met my eyes, with books on stands to either side. At the end of the hallway, it opened up into a large room.

Ranger-Mage was in big letters on a plaque above the door, and that’s where I started to walk, idly checking out the other books on my path, seeing if anything would be tempting enough to distract me.

[Fireball Maniac - Fire] And I was promptly distracted. This class was all about fireballs. Fast fireball, grand fireball, siege fireball, multi-cast fireball, efficient fireballs – the works. The last few months of non-stop [Fireball]had paid dividends with this class. Zero non-fireball skills though.

Ehhhhhhhhhhhh.

Fine, shortlist.

I grabbed it, carrying it with me. I’d dump it at the first solid, yellow class I saw, which I expected to.

[Formorian Exterminator - Inferno] Taking Formorian extermination to 13. Massive bonuses when shooting flames into the endless black tide, penalties when I wasn’t. I had no plans on living on the frontlines. Next!

[Oath-Spreader - Metal] A change of track, going forth and proselytizing about my [Oath] for all who’d hear me.

[Flameclad - Fire] Coating myself in flames, getting close and personal to punch things with flaming fists. Not exactly my style, although the physical bonuses were interesting.

[Magical Professor - Light] Retire from the Rangers, join Artemis’s School of Sorcery and Spellcraft. At least, that’s what I’d need to do to get any use out of the class. Teaching did sound fun, and maybe one day, Artemis would need a healer to teach classes. It mostly fell under what her school could teach.

[Author - Wind] Write as fast as the wind! Swoosh! Having charcoal dance around me as I manipulated it with magic!

Sadly, I’d written my magnum opus, my healing manuscripts. I didn’t have more stories to tell.

Although, I could start plagiarizing Earth stories, using [Recollection of a Distant Life]. Hang on, there was potential here… more retirement options?

Were all my choices here different ways to retire from the Rangers? Seeing if I’d be side-tracked on my path to [Ranger-Mage]? The set up of this room fit – a series of books to distract and side-track me from my goal.

[Scribe - Water] Surprisingly, I was more interested in this class than the [Author] class. It would help me copy my manuscript a bunch, and that was somewhat appealing. I’d get crazy [Oath] experience, and working it out, that could be one of the better ways to improve my healing.

I honestly would never have thought of that.

[Black Widow - Dark] Somehow, I didn’t think I’d get in the habit of murdering former fiancés. Something about doing no harm.

[Papilion’s Puppet - Mist] Well, this one was refreshingly direct. Next!

[Chop and Burn Explorer - Fire] Burning down a fraction of the Kadan clearly encouraged more pyromancy. I didn’t see myself in the large-scale forest fire creating industry anytime soon.

[Pyre-mancer - Ash] Origen’s funeral, the solemn occasion marred by the terrible pun in the name. I was in the anti-funeral business though.

Although, terribly, it’d make me a one-stop shop. “Get healed! If I fail, I can cremate you!”

[Bookworm - Wood] With the Element given, I half expected to need to physically eat books. Nope, just read scrolls. Still needed to figure out how to convince people to switch to books. Or properly invent them.

[Goblin Slayer - Fire] Taking killing goblins to 11/10, just like the number of goblins I’d had to kill on my way to the capital.

More specialization. Power for narrowing my focus.

[Fiery Flower - Fire] Taking [Pretty] to untold heights. A vanity and preening class. Blazing dresses, flaming flowers for my hair, sparks in the air as I danced through the night. A thing of beauty, and I wished I lived in a world where I could happily take it, without fear of harm to my person as a result.

[Ranger’s Mascot - Fire]Similar to [Fiery Flower] from before, but with more focus, more purpose. I wasn’t a mascot though, I was a full Ranger in my own right.

But the mascot class indicated I’d reached the end of the distractions, and was at the room I’d been aiming for from the start.

I made it to the room labeled Ranger-Mage, and a tiered podium met my eyes.

There were five levels to the podium, a small stand in front of it with a sad, battered book, then a few more books scattered around the room. I figured I’d start with the sad book, the scattered ones, then make my way around the room.

[Ranger-Mage – Mithril] the sad book proclaimed, the white text indicating that this was the weakest possible class I could still access.

Seemed like I had, just barely, managed to get access to the class. I wasn’t going to take it. I had no real interest in magical metal manipulation, and a quick skim of the book indicated that there was no [Mithril Conjuration] or similar skill.

What good was a Mithril mage, with no Mithril? Utterly useless. Moving on.

The second book I looked at was one not on the podium.

[Ranger-Mage – Acid]. The fact that it was greyed out meant I couldn’t use it at all. I thought back to my lessons. Acid was Water + Metal, and Water opposing Fire was probably why I couldn’t upgrade.

A quick glance around confirmed that every single book here was [Ranger-Mage]. Right, time to shortcut a bit. Just call each book by the element.

The remaining books scattered around the podium were [Coral], [Mist], [Ocean], [Ooze], [Water], [Ice], and [Mirage],confirming my theory that Fire opposing Water didn’t let me upgrade Fire into an advanced Water class.

I moved onto the first tier of the podium, where 14 books awaited. A quick, quick flip through them all suggested the all had the same number of stats – 40 – all distributed in different ways, depending on what the element wanted. [Lightning] had more power, for example, while[Spore] had more control.

[Erosion]. [Forest]. [Gale]. [Gemstones]. [Lightning] – I immediately grabbed that one, dusted [Mithril]off of its sad podium, and plonked it down. My shortlist was being created, and I’d be lying if I said Artemis wasn’t an inspiration. [Fireball Maniac - Fire] joined it on the shortlist. [Mantle] and [Mountain] – the advanced versions of Metal and Earth - also made the shortlist, from a sheer “everyone calls Metal and Earth practical” standpoint, and I wasn’t going to remove them from the running this early.

[Poison] just barely made the cut, with a large grimace by me. What Arthur was doing was fresh in my mind, but the dose made the poison, and I’d need some serious considering if I wanted to try and side-branch into medicine making, that I could also defend myself with. It required thinking, and as a result, made the shortlist.

I skipped [Sand], [Spore], [Wind], [Earth], [Wood], and [Metal]. Sand just wasn’t my jam, [Spore] seemed like more of poison, but with different aspects, and the rest were entry-level elements, that I had no intention of side-jumping into. If I was going to do, say, [Earth] or [Metal], I’d just pick up [Mantle] or [Mountain] instead.

The next layer of the podium beckoned.

[Brilliance]. [Arcanite]. [Celestial]. [Mirror]. [Sound]. [Verdant]. [Light]. [Dark]. [Void]. [Gravity]. [Decay]. [Miasma]. [Spatial].

Each one had 55 stats, distributed in different ways, depending on what was most useful for the element. I was also starting to see some physical stats pop up, almost all in vitality and speed. Clearly, my discussion with Night was reflecting here somewhat. Was the System giving me more of what I wanted? Did my belief that speed and vitality help mean the System offered me classes with those stats? Or did it rearrange stats for me?

Curious. There was digging and investigation to do here, but it’d be hard to do large-scale testing, not when people grabbed what they thought was best for them, and didn’t share information all that freely.

My bet was the fact that my first class was Celestial, combined of both Light and Dark, was influencing my choices. These were all marginally more powerful, with slightly more stats.

Annnnnd I was a sucker for the Light and Dark classes. [Brilliance], [Celestial], [Mirror], [Sound], [Void], [Gravity], and [Spatial] all made it to the shortlist.

“You can only take one, you know.” Librarian said with more than a little amusement.

“Are you sure you can’t, I dunno, unstitch them and make them all one mega book-class for me to use?” I said.

“Mmmm. And which Affinity skill would you take? Which skills would you pick? You only get eight slots.”

I shook my fist at her.

“Let me dream!”

Librarian just laughed at me.

The third tier was the middle one, and the number of offerings was dramatically reduced. [Steam]. [Ash]. [Lava]. [Storm].

While they were still orange-class, they were now offering me 80 stats per level, a significant improvement. [Storm] was telling in that every point was in Magic Power, letting me know that yeah, I wasn’t close to having enough Magic Power to properly use it.

Ash didn’t call to me. I shortlisted the rest.

The fourth tier.

[Radiance]. [Pyronox]. [Inferno].

100 stat points per level for each of them.

And lastly, sitting on the top, the king on top of its throne.

[Ranger-Mage – Fire]. A whooping 120 stat points per level. The System was clear. Sticking to your path was rewarded.

It’s probably why Artemis was an Earth mage. She saw no reason to get an advanced element, and just stuck with Earth for the bonus stats.

The four naturally got shortlisted, and I sat down to my, quite frankly, absurd list.

I was about to have some serious, serious decision paralysis.

“Help me out.” I asked Librarian.

“Stick with something Fire-based, unless one of the other elements is absolutely perfect. You’re taking a major penalty jumping off of fire. As you just observed.”

Ha! Confirmed! Librarian could read my mind!

I mean, I could read my own mind, so…

You know what? I’m going to stop this train of thought before it gets too trippy. I was Librarian, and Librarian was me.

Fine.

[Lightning]survived – I still wanted to see if I could be a mini-Artemis, a mental coinflip had [Mantle] surviving and [Mountain] vanishing – sure, I could do a deep analysis on being able to manipulate my own armor and weapons versus having infinite ammo, but if somehow [Mantle]was the final choice I’d do the analysis then.

I debated over [Poison], which was against the spirit of “quick cuts” but there we go.

On one hand, [Poison] could easily help make medicine. I wouldn’t be in direct combat when trying to kill something with it. Arthur could give me a hand learning about it.

On the other, the direct combat potential was lower, and was probably slow enough to kill someone that [Oath]might jump in again, and possibly make me heal them.

Although, sleeping powders and paralytic agents were in poison, drastically expanding my non-lethal repertoire…

Argh! Fine! Stay on the damn shortlist!

Right. Trying to cut books here was an utter failure. One outta four removed, and that was more a “I’ll figure that out when I get to it.”

Time for the next tier of shortlist. Let me just-

Librarian stepped in, stopping me.

“Ask for help again.” She said.

“I need help.” I said, meaning it.

“Alright, what do you need from this class, what do you want?” She asked.

“Flying.” I promptly replied. I’d done the fireball thing, and it was great fun, but I was growing up. The method mattered less to me than the results now, and I’d honestly managed to cast a lifetime worth of fireballs. “The ability to defend. Some utility.”

“Let’s talk about defending yourself a bit. Don’t we already have [Veil] and [Phases]?” Librarian asked, stating the obvious somewhat.

“Yeah. Raw, offensive firepower is what I need then, in that respect.”

She nodded. “Good!”

She looked around, and grabbed [Lava].

“For each one, we’re going to say if it’s better or worse than [Lava].Ones that are worse, we cut. Ready?” Librarian said.

“Ready!”

[Mantle].”

“Lava can do everything Mantle can that I know of.” I promptly replied.

“Great, so Mantle’s out. [Sound].

“No flying.”

[Void].”

“Still no flying.”

We rapidly cut the list down to size. It made me sad when I had to let [Lightning]go. Heck, all of them made me sad, but we managed to, with Librarian’s firm prompting, get rid of all of the non-fire classes. Mostly on her beating it into my head that, “Sure, you can fly and defend yourself with [Gravity], but [Lava]does that better and has more stats.”

[Fire]. [Inferno]. [Pyronox]. [Radiance]. [Storm]. [Lava]. [Steam]. [Fireball Maniac - Fire]

[Inferno] and [Fire] were really close to each other. [Inferno] has mass while [Fire] had better stats. Practically speaking, that meant I could physically push people back with my flames, that they could no longer just charge through them without a care in the world. I figured I’d temporarily cut [Inferno]and [Fireball Maniac - Fire], and if [Fire] ended up winning, I’d debate the merits of the three against each other. Kinda like my earlier reasoning on [Mantle] vs [Mountain].

With that, [Inferno] was cut. Well, more like side-lined for a later discussion down the line.

I looked longingly at [Storm], before hardening my heart and cutting it. Everyone telling me that [Storm]mages were almost useless had gotten through to me, even though riding a tornado sounded just as appealing as summoning a thunderstorm. None of those activities were in the book. Little weather manipulations, the scale I needed to impact far beyond what I could manage.

Couldn’t upgrade the class further if I was dead.

[Fire]. [Pyronox]. [Radiance]. [Lava]. [Steam].

[Pyronox] was a bit of an odd duck. Cleansing, removing flames – it was like a high-control version of Fire, with some twists and turns to it. I figure my control was high enough to make straight-up flames work, and [Fire]had better stats.

[Pyronox] got cut.

[Fire]. [Radiance]. [Lava]. [Steam].

I decided to reserve Fire. If anything seemed better than it, I’d take it. Otherwise, Fire was my last choice, so to speak. My backup option. At which point, I’d do my three way comparison.

I could see why Artemis was still an Earth mage. Nothing must’ve appealed to her enough to take an advanced Earth element, versus sticking with the simple, higher-stated, Earth.

[Steam]was the first one I looked at. Hot springs. Baths on the road. Never an unclean day again, steam cleaning every night. Hello. I could practically feel [Pretty]leveling up as I read over the class in detail.

The self-defense portion was fairly weak. Somehow, it was even weaker than [Fire]was in that respect. I’d need to condense steam even harder, heat it even hotter, and then, there was a chance it’d just turn into water as I did it, at which point the mysterious aspects of magic kicked in, and I wouldn’t be able to control it. It would be an amazing element if I opened a bathhouse, but the idea of parboiling someone until the skin sloughed off did not appeal in the slightest. It was a ridiculously ugly way of killing someone.

Heck, [Acid]had cleaner kills, and that involved people screaming as they melted into a puddle of goo. Killing Kerberos was still fresh in my mind, and [Steam] quite frankly lacked the proper “offensively defensive” aspects, as lovely as it was on the utility side.

Thinking about it – when I wanted, needed self-defense, I needed it purely on the offensive side. Between [Veil] and [Phases of the Moon], I had a cockroach-like defense. Nothing like a warrior, but I rated myself as “hard to kill” defensively. I needed offensive firepower, to be able to stop people attacking me.

[Radiance]. [Lava].

From a utility aspect, they both had small amounts, but nothing spectacular. A detailed read showed that my current Fire utility skills would all upgrade neatly.

Lava was fairly solid, as elements went. Solid, in the literal sense, where I could throw up a dome of Lava, and attackers would need to get through it. On the offensive side, I was like Artemis, able to throw high-speed, burning rocks at people.

Although, I’d need to conjure up everything I threw. And Artemis hated conjuring up Earth, due to how expensive it was from the weight. To be fair, she had it on easy mode, constantly walking on endless ammo.

[Radiance] on the other hand, had almost nothing in the defense department. It was all about blinding, burning, searing light. Light that moved quickly, almost impossible to defend against. Radiance that burned so hot, it’d cauterize any wounds left behind.

Searing brilliance that, if I needed it to, would quickly, almost painlessly, dispatch a foe.

It called to me. It fit. My style with my flames had more and more moved towards narrow beams of compressed fire, to better punch through defenses, hit a single spot and damage it. Radiance was the natural extension of this, the entire style dedicated towards thin beams of burning, penetrating light.

As a bonus, it also was high up, the boost from having Light in Celestial giving it a leg up on the other classes, giving me more stats than [Lava].

It was what I needed, what I was looking for. Pure offensive firepower.

I didn’t need the defensive aspects of [Lava], nor did the increased cost of attacks appeal to me.

I decided to check what the description was, having skimmed over most of them.

[Ranger-Mage – Radiance]You’ve glowed like the moon. Twinkled like the stars. Shined like the Aurora. Burned liked a fire. Now, Blaze like the sun! +10 Free Stats, +5 Speed, +5 Vitality, +20 Mana, +20 Mana Regen, +20 Magic Power, +20 Magic Control per level.

“This one please.” I told Librarian.

She smiled at me.

“Great! Let’s go check it out.”

Comments

SelkieMyth

Nobody called Radiance on basis of the cover artwork having blinding light all over it....

Anonymous

I wanted radiance because it is one of the trifecta combo elements resulting from light, dark, and fire. I’m hoping her third class eventually becomes pyronox. Also what are you planning to do about the stats. Any ways thanks for the chapter. Good stuff like always.

Anonymous

So... her first class is the galaxy, her second the sun, which means the third will be something like planet... maybe nature or earth?

lenkite

Ouch! thats a loss of 20*128=2560 invaluable stat points from going off the pure [Fire] path. *sigh* can't be helped I guess.

Anonymous

Thanks for the chapter.

Anonymous

Radiance was a good call; I especially liked the emphasis of blazing like the sun. It definitely fits her theme well and is another aspect where her past knowledge may make her much stronger then expected. Basic knowledge of lasers turns this class from a 8 into an 11 offensively imo.

Anonymous

I think it was the obvious choice beacuse of the theme. Celestial having night/moon themes. So his fire class would evolve in to something to do with sun. She probably wont be able to turn it into laser soon i think.

Scott Frederiksen

Have to say, just patreoned up to read after this chapter. 😅