Immortality – Chapter 2

It was deep into the night when Dante finally got back to his alley, fifty-seven copper lighter and a new glove in tow.

Slumping down into the comfort of a shadow, he couldn’t help but let out a breath of exhaustion. He wasn’t tired physically, but mentally he was spent. Too much had happened in one day. From getting his Status, to purchasing his new combatant’s glove. Despite how tired he was, as soon as he thought about his Classifications he couldn’t help but be wide awake.

Dante fed world essence into his Status, and a blue panel opened up in front of him.

Name: Dante

HP: 92/100

Mana: 140/140 (+1.2/sec)

Strength: 8

Constitution: 10

Dexterity: 11

Agility: 9

Intelligence: 14

Wisdom: 12

Charisma: 4

The Attribute tab that popped up immediately was the same as earlier, aside from the slight gain in HP. His injuries from the beating he took seemed have recovered slightly.

He then fed world essence into the Classifications tab. The panel immediately shifted, and the lists of Classifications opened. He still had ‘0/4 Classifications Chosen’ on the top of the panel, and underneath were the lists of Classifications that he could choose from.

He was already somewhat set on the Warlock Classification, but there were several Classifications that he had never heard of before. Because it would be foolish to rush into such an important decision, he read over those ones carefully.

Dante tabbed through the list and pulled up the descriptions of the Classifications he hadn’t yet heard of.

Classification: Chronomancer

Chronomancers harness and manipulate the power of space and time to vanquish their enemies, Chronomancers can further specialize in either space or time.

Chronomancer Classification grants:

+1 Intelligence per level

+1 Wisdom per level

Assign Chronomancer Classification?

Yes/No

Classification: Shadow

Shadows use stealth and stealth magic to take out their targets before they are discovered, Shadows can further specialize in stealth or assassination.

+1 Agility per level

+1 Intelligence per level

Assign Shadow Classification?

Yes/No

Classification: Blademancer

Blademancers harness their mana to create numerous blades for use in combat, Blademancers can further specialize to increase their offensive capabilities with the created weapons.

Blademancer Classification grants:

+1 Dexterity per level

+1 Wisdom per level

Assign Blademancer Classification?

Yes/No

Classification: Blader

Bladers are duel wielding masters of bladed weapons, using small, concise strikes to masterfully take out their enemies, Bladers can specialize further to increase their physical attributes.

+1 Dexterity per level

+1 Agility per level

Assign Blader Classification?

Yes/No

Classification: Aristocrat

Aristocrats use subtle manipulation to force friends and enemies alike into their desired path, further specialization can increase persuasion or manipulation passives.

+1 Constitution level

+1 Charisma per level

Assign Aristocrat Classification?

Yes/No

Classification: Revenant

Revenants increase their power when attacked to crush their enemies. Revenant can specialize in passive abilities to significantly increase their offensive power or survivability.

+1 Strength per level

+1 Constitution per level

Assign Revenant Classification?

Yes/No

After reading the Classifications, Dante gave a quick prayer of thanks to the Goddess. He was more than happy that he hadn’t made a rash decision and chose the Classifications that he already knew.

He contemplated over several options in his head. Not just thinking about which ones he liked, but which Classifications would complement each other and eliminate each other’s weaknesses. It was helpful that the Classifications gave a clue to their first specialization options.

Specializing happened every ten levels for a Classification, it would make your Classification more efficient in whatever you chose to specialize in. Not only that, but at their base form a Classification gives two different attribute points per level. However, every time you gain a new specialization you will earn an extra attribute point per level depending on what skill you specialize in. This made growth somewhat exponential. The higher specialization level, the more attributes you would gain and then balancing out by making it harder to level

An excellent example of this is the general Warrior Classification. When a Warrior specializes, they can choose to either specialize in an offensive ability or defensive ability. Even though the skills will vary slightly depending on the person, if a Warrior specialized in an offensive skill, it would bring one extra Strength attribute per level. Giving them a total of three attributes per level rather than the standard two that it had before specialization.

It would be better to choose Classifications that gave a well-rounded set of attributes. He could take the Mage, Warlock, Chronomancer, and Blademancer Classifications, which would give him massive amounts of Intelligence and Wisdom, to become an almighty magic wielder. But if he were caught without some form of a magic shield, any sneak attack would end him because of his low Constitution.

Yet another headache to think about was the possible skills that the Classifications would give him. The descriptions gave no indication of what his options would be, aside from the Artisan and Revenant Classifications which hinted at providing passive skills.

Skills were tricky because each Classification could only have one skill until it was specialized. It made the choice of which skills you took all the more critical, as they are the primary determinant of total combat capability.

Dante rubbed his forehead, he could feel a headache coming on.

Next, he looked at the different attributes, it would be best to first identify which ones he should prioritize and narrow it down from there.

Strength was first on the list, it was pretty basic, it increased your overall body strength and the amount of physical damage you would deal with weapons.

Constitution was a little bit more crucial. It would improve your overall resiliency and defense, allowing you to take less damage from an injury. Your overall resiliency was shown by your maximum HP, and your current wellbeing was shown by your current HP.

Dexterity was another multipurpose attribute, not only did it improve your reflexes, but your accuracy as well. Without high enough Dexterity you would have trouble keeping up with high-speed swordplay, it would be impossible to keep up with reflexes that lagged behind your agility.

Agility was pretty basic, it increased your overall movement speed.

Intelligence and Wisdom were different than the others though. They didn’t increase your physical abilities.

Intelligence was a massive overall benefit. Not only did it increase the strength of magical attacks, but it would also increase your maximum Mana by 10 points per attribute. It also had the non-combat application of boosting your ability to memorize things.

Wisdom increased Mana regeneration by .1 mana per second, per attribute. It also had an equally significant benefit outside of combat, it didn’t necessarily make you smarter, but it did increase your ability to interpret the world better. Basically, it increased your understanding and observational skills.

Charisma, the last attribute, was the least defined, and the one he knew the least about. It would basically make you more likable. The attribute itself was determined mostly by both looks and charm.

He actually briefly considered the Aristocrat Classification. A thought that originated with from his desire to be more liked by others. Of course, he almost immediately threw the idea out, the boost in his self-confidence or self-image from the increase in Charisma was not worth nearly as much as the survivability another Classification would bring… and he wasn’t sure how much Charisma would be needed to balance out the negative affects his appearance would bring.

Going through the attributes was completely useless, he wanted them all. Each of them seemed important, and he still couldn’t make a choice. He even thought of choosing a magic Classification in the hopes that the increase in Wisdom would aid him in choosing the others.

But he immediately threw the idea out, one more point of Wisdom wouldn’t make a substantial enough change in his thinking to warrant rashly rushing into a Classification.

Another full hour later Dante came to his decision. He first decided on Blademancer. It was the most rational choice to make. Not only did he not currently have access to a weapon, but if he chose that Classification, he would never be disarmed.

After making that decision, the one after was easy. He decided to choose Blader. It seemed like it would mesh with his Blademancer Classification quite well.

Next, he chose the Revenant Classification, a passive ability may not be fantastic when you only had one Classification, but with four total Classifications, and four skills, a passive ability was too good to pass up. Not only that, the Classification hinted at increasing survivability, which was something he needed if he was going to be fighting hand to hand with his Blader Classification.

Finally, to round out his abilities and plug up any weaknesses, he needed a full magic Classification. He spent a good thirty minutes choosing between Warlock and Chronomancer, but after going over the benefits of each, he couldn’t help but select Chronomancer. Even though Warlock was one of the rarest and most sought-after classes in all of Aleria, he had never even heard of a Chronomancer Classification. It was unlikely that it would give him the same devastating large skills that Warlock would, but space and time magic should also compliment his Blader and Blademancer Classifications quite nicely.

After focusing world essence into the Classifications in his Status, he got a new line of text appeared.

Do you wish to assign:

Blader Classification

Blademancer Classification

Revenant Classification

Chronomancer Classification

Yes/No

*Warning: Any Classification Assigned is Final and Cannot be Altered*

Dante focused the world essence into ‘Yes’. The panel immediately disappeared, and the symbol of the Goddess lit up as bright as it had when he accepted the Status. Worst yet, the same unbearable burning pain that he experienced earlier that day was back. He could feel the symbols for his new Classifications being seared into his wrist.

Several minutes later the blue light faded and the pain disappeared. Dante stared at his wrist. Four new symbols appeared, two on each side of the Goddess’ symbol.

On the left, an hourglass and a blade on a forge. On the right of the Goddess’ symbol was two swords crossing each other in an X, and next to it a drop of what looked like blood.

He couldn’t look away from them. Dante poured more world essence into the Status reopening it so he could check his new Classifications.

Name: Dante

HP: 104/110

Mana: 150/150 (+1.4/sec)

Strength: 9

Constitution: 11

Dexterity: 13

Agility: 10

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 14

Charisma: 4

Dante smiled at the increase in the Attributes that he goten from his new level 1 Classifications. Next, he opened up the Classification tab on the top of the panel.

World Essence waiting to be assigned: 0

Chronomancer lvl 1/10 (0/100 world essence)

Blademancer lvl 1/10 (0/100 world essence)

Blader lvl 1/10 (0/100 world essence)

Revenant lvl 1/10 (0/100 world essence)

All of the Classifications took the same amount of world essence to level, he wasn’t sure if that was standard, or what the implications were if it wasn’t.

Different than merely manipulating it, acquiring world essence was how citizens of Aleria leveled their Classifications, and there are several ways to attain more of it.

Some people got it through medicine made out of rare plants, or by eating food prepared from powerful creatures. Those people were usually wealthy nobles or craftsmen though. The standard way to acquire more world essence for combat Classifications was to kill creatures that have infused themselves with world essence to increase their strength.

This is actually why the wars to stay closer to the center of Aleria, where the world essence was denser were fought so brutally. Not only will you have opportunities to acquire far more world essence in each successive region but when you kill others with combat Classifications, you will receive a portion of all the world essence they have accumulated and leveled their Classifications with.

After reviewing the information, Dante fed world essence into the new Skills tab that appeared next to the Classification tab at the top of his Status panel.

Skills waiting to be assigned for (4) Classifications:

Classification: Chronomancer

Blink: Manipulate the power of space to teleport yourself or an object a short distance away.

Cost: 30 Mana

Range: up to 10 Feet

Choose Blink?

Yes/no

Time Acceleration: Accelerate time in the immediate vicinity around you, resulting in increased speed.

Cost: 5 Mana per second

Time Accelerated: to (1.2) times

Choose Time Acceleration?

Yes/No

Time Deacceleration: Decelerate time around an enemy or a group of enemies, resulting in decreased speed.

Cost: 10 Mana per second

Time Decelerated: to (.9) times

Range: up to 20 feet away in a radius of 5 feet

Choose Time Deceleration?

Yes/No

He thought it over for a moment, all of the skills were amazing. Time Deceleration worked on enemies in an area but cost more. While it might be a better skill if Dante was going to fight in a group, it wasn’t worth the extra 5 mana per second over Time Acceleration if he was going to fight by himself. He immediately threw the idea of choosing the skill away.

Blink was by far his favorite out of the three though, he had heard of artifacts that could use the power of teleportation to move through space, but he hadn’t thought that teleportation itself was more than a rumor. Seeing it on his list of skills was more than a pleasant surprise.

The decision was already made up in his mind, but he still chose to look over the other Classification’s skills first.

Classification: Blademancer

Create Blade: Create a permanent bladed weapon of choice with an average quality.

Cost: up to 50 Mana

Choose Create Blade?

Yes/No

Bladeshot: Create a temporary blade and shoot it to impale your enemy.

Cost: 25 Mana

Range: 100 feet

Choose Bladeshot?

Yes/No

Classification: Blader

Blade Acceleration: Cast a buff on yourself to double agility for a short time.

Cost: 40 Mana

Duration: 5 seconds

Choose Blade Acceleration?

Yes/No

Blader’s Execution: Stab an enemy in a critical location to inflict massive damage.

Cost: 60 Mana

Choose Blader’s Execution?

Yes/No

Blade Dancer (Passive):

Increase Dexterity by 10%

Increase Agility by 10%

Increase ability with bladed weapons

Choose Blade Dancer (Passive)?

Yes/No

Classification: Revenant

Revenge of the Revenant: An all-out attack on a target that increases in damage the more you have been attacked by the target.

Damage: equals exactly the amount of damage taken by target

Restrictions: must first sacrifice double the damage being dealt in mana

Choose Revenge of the Revenant?

Yes/No

Revenants Will (Passive): Increase overall damage dealt by the percentage of total HP lost up to 100%.

Choose Revenants Will (Passive)?

Yes/No

Rebirth of the Revenant (Passive): Heal up to 10% of max HP every time you kill.

Choose Rebirth of the Revenant (Passive):

Yes/No

Dante groaned. He had thought that choosing his skills would be at least slightly easier than when he chose his Classifications. But of course, he was wrong. He could think of situations where each and every skill would be crucial. Just choosing his favorite for each Classification was difficult, but then thinking about how his skills would interplay with each other brought a headache.

Deciding it would be best to start with the obvious choice he began by choosing the Create Blade skill. It was completely necessary, and the reason why he had initially chosen the Blademancer Classification.

Next, he chose the passive skill Rebirth of the Revenant. There were several reasons he thought the skill to be necessary. First, it was the only self-heal he had, which spoke for itself. However, the most important reason was it would keep him in combat longer. It was important because he wouldn’t be able to afford any rare medicines or food that would increase his world essence. Therefore, he would need to go out and hunt creatures to progress his Classifications.

That still left him pondering over his Blader skill.

After mulling it over in his head for quite some time, he decided to take the Blade Dancer passive from his Blader Classification. He wanted both of the other skills but, thought the Mana consumption for them was a bit extreme. The increase in ability with bladed weapons also interested him, even though he had no idea what it did. It sounded like it would work well with his Blademancer Classification in the future though. Not only that, but the 10% Agility and Dexterity, although it didn’t seem like much at the moment, would be massive later when he had far more attribute points.

That done, he looked back to his Chronomancer Classification, still choosing between Blink and Time Acceleration. It wasn’t the hardest choice to make, he easily decided on Blink. He rationalized the decision because he thought Blink would bring him more survivability, and he thoroughly enjoyed surviving.

He reasoned that if he got in a situation where death was imminent, he could simply blink away. While Time Acceleration would have helped him evade more quickly, it was nowhere near Blink’s effectiveness. Not only that, but Dante could easily Blink behind someone for even more efficient attacking. He could also use the ability to teleport items, even though he didn’t know how it would be useful yet. Overall, he was more than pleased with the skill.

Are you sure you want to choose:

Skill: Blink

Skill: Create Blade

Skill: Blade Dancer (Passive)

Skill: Rebirth of the Revenant (Passive)

Yes/No

*Warning: any skills chosen are final*

After a moments consideration, Dante chose ‘Yes’.

The result was slightly anticlimactic compared to the blue glow and burning sensation he had experienced earlier when choosing his Classifications. Nothing happened when he chose his skills, he just had new a new awareness that he didn’t have before. Looking around he knew he could instantly travel anywhere roughly ten feet away. The new awareness even went about ten feet up, which he thought was interesting.

Not only that, he could create weapons by just thinking of them and feeding Mana into the thought. Dante thought of a spear and fed a full 50 mana into it. A standard looking spear made entirely out of metal appeared out of thin air in his hand. He was taken a little off-guard by the weight and dropped it immediately, causing a large clattering sound as it fell to the ground.

Maybe a spear made entirely out of metal is a bad idea until I increase my strength…

That line of thinking done, Dante began to play with the Create Blade skill. He noticed when he made the spear that he didn’t need to use a full 50 mana, so next he produced a short sword of comfortable weight with only 25 mana.

The basic-looking short sword came out slightly chipped with a somewhat dull edge. He had been hoping he could just use less mana on smaller weapons and get the same quality, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

A pleasant surprise came when he held the short sword though. He seemed to have an affinity with the weapon, most likely from the Blade Dancer’s increased ability with bladed weapons passive.

When he swung the swords, the swings came out gracefully, like he was flowing through water. He still didn’t know how to properly use a sword, and if he got in a sword fight with a real combatant he would be chopped to pieces instantly, but the new affinity with the weapon definitely increased his overall offensive ability. Something about the cold steel on his hands when he held the sword just felt right.

A little more experimenting with the weapons he made and he found out that he could actually break them up and make them disappear, even at a distance. He wasn’t sure what sort of range he could do it at, but assumed they would at least need to be in his vision. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to get any mana back.

Needless to say, he made plans to test Create Blade and Blink far more extensively.

For the time being Dante used up almost all of his remaining mana, creating two plain, long daggers that slightly curved towards the end of the blades for a full 50 mana a piece. That done he sat back down into the shadows of the alley so that he could sleep for the few remaining hours of the night.

Tomorrow he would leave Alazel.