Book 2 Chapter 43 Ellie’s plight

Previously: Jude begins his escape from Geonar, the ‘change’ completes

To the west of Geonar, the countryside ravaged by the recent incursions of the drakes there was a seemly calm cottage. Or at the very least calm and peaceful when compared to the current state of Geonar.

In a room filled with misshapen canister lights, otherwise known as mage lights, Ellie sat in a chair working on overcoming the limitations of the crafter class. It looked as if there had been no progress at all, but a strange glint could be seen in her eyes. Others might not be able to tell, but she was making progress. Frightening progress. Perhaps what she was doing would be called insane by others, as there was no possible way for her to cross the boundaries of what defines the two different kinds of classes.

A crafter cannot do what the fighter type can.

But she had already broken this boundary before. Divine Smith could already gain EXP through combat, which no other crafter could do. But she wanted more. She needed it to be more.

Inscriptions were a powerful way for a wizard to enhance items and Ellie wanted to do it too. Her passion was to make the best items, the best weapons, the best armor. If she couldn’t even try for it, what was the point of living? This was her purpose.

Even her long-lost teacher broke the bounds of what was common sense. He somehow possessed more classes than was possible. She wanted to be like him and when the day arrived when she found her teacher once again, she would show him that she was of the same caliber. That she too could break through the bounds of what was known.

“Theodwin, where are you?” Ellie asked in a moment of contemplation.

Besides wanting to follow Jude, she also wanted to find her teacher. However, she didn’t even know where to look. Knowing that Jude was no small character, she figured that he would one day run into Theodwin again. Great people attract one another, either as friends or as foes.

*Bang!*

Another canister light failed. This one, however, didn’t dent or bend at an odd angle, instead, it cracked straight up and down.

“Interesting,” Ellie examined the ruined light. “So the application of mana is not like natural curves, but harsher and angled.”

Then another thought hit her as she remembered how Jude used to describe things, “Didn’t Jude say that the Modicuit was like this too?”

Most people relied on the System to process their skills. But Theodwin had always taught her to do it as manual as possible. Whether that was the process of forging or even using the quick build skills that all crafters possess, each could be finely controlled. Forging was the most obvious, but the skills were much less so, however, Ellie believed that if she could manipulate her mana into the way the System expected a wizard to inscribe, then she too could inscribe.

“Again!” Ellie said as she started once again on a new mage light.

She felt like she was getting closer to her goal, who knew, maybe the next one would actually work.

If it did, then she would feel more confident to stand next to her teacher. More confident to stand next to Jude.

Perhaps this was the real reason she was working so hard on these canister lights. Jude was someone who blew out all people’s expectations. He was a towering figure in her life that she could not measure up to. But if she too could do the impossible, then her confidence would be enough to…

“To what?” She asked herself. Even she didn’t really know.

To travel with him? She was doing that now. To be a friend? She was already that. To be his assistant? She had done that too. To be his lover? She wasn’t ready to think about that.

To be his peer? To be his equal? Perhaps that was what it was that she was seeking. After all, she wanted her lo-…

“Concentrate Ellie, concentrate!” she chided herself. If she couldn’t focus, then she would never complete this task!

***

Jude landed on the wall between two merlons in a crouched position limiting his visible profile. But when he looked there wasn’t much need to as dead bodies littered the ground. Peering down the wall he could still see some fighting, but it was a losing battle.

He would have liked to help those on the wall, but with the demons coming in from the inner and outer city and those coming from the king behind, there wasn’t much he could do. Besides, any area of effect magic that could cast might also hit the defenders. His control would have to be spot on not to hurt those who he sought to defend. The best option now was to flee.

The top of the wall was very wide and Jude crossed many dead bodies of its defenders as he reached the embrasure between two merlon’s on the other side.

He looked back at the defenders who were facing off at least a hundred demons. Guilt started to appear in his heart, it wasn’t like him to leave people like this behind. But if he helped out in every situation he ran across, then he might not make it out of the city himself.

“To the heck with it, I’ll give them a minute. After that, it will be up to them.” Jude said to himself.

***

Bertrand had been a soldier all his life and after attaining his advanced class and getting it level 30, he was considered an elite by the army. But as he grew older, he sought a position more suited to his age. That was when he was offered a new job.

It had been his greatest honor to be assigned to guard the wall of the Core City. A perfect place to spend out the rest of his days as a soldier. Of course, there were also the benefits of becoming an NPC. But that was beside the point, who would die guarding the Core City wall?

But how wrong did that sentiment turn out to be? Now he was glad to be an NPC, death wouldn’t be the end. But that only held true if the city was not lost. If it was, then he really would die.

Even as an NPC, no one wants to die. Death was painful, and those who had been respawned by the Stone Switch often lost a part of themselves. They said that the more you died, the more you became like a puppet so none of the people who became NPC’s wanted to die. They would fight tooth and nail to stay alive.

Even now, after all of the battle brothers that had died, the remnant on the wall still fought with all they had to fight back the demons. The demons were stronger and now far more numerous. Their only hope was that the king and the true elites of the city came out and fought. However, at this point it seemed hopeless. Who would want to save a city that had already fallen?

Their lives were as good as gone.

Then two calm words spread across the battle on the wall. Two words that struck fear into the hearts of the demons and joy to the soldiers.

“Formless Ice,” the words sounded calm and even though they were not shouted, it was easily heard through the noisy din of battle.

Ice then spread across the ground, accompanied by a very thin fog. Inside the ice bright blue lines took shape. A complicated design quickly formed and every demon within seem to stop mid-action as if they had turned to stone.

Bertrand had seen these kinds of spells before on the front lines of the Beast Lands. He knew that only high-class Elemental Mages could so something like this, but even he wasn’t sure if they could freeze so many monsters at one time.

“Milord, thank you!” Bertrand shouted and the soldiers behind him cheered. But they still didn’t know where the caster that had helped them was.

Then the fog split as if an invisible force had been applied to it, but no one paid attention to that as Jude appeared before their eyes.

“I cannot hold these demons for long,” Jude said, “You need to run, escape the city if you can.”

Bertrand was shocked at the young age of the wizard before him. To his knowledge, only someone who was much older could produce this level of power.

“Milord, we are NPC’s. We simply can’t leave the city.” Bertrand said slightly confused, everyone knows that guards were NPC’s.

“Then you need to run. Hide if you can. For something even worse is coming from the center of the city.”

“Something worse?! But isn’t’ that where the king and all the nobles are?”

“I don’t have time to explain. Just run!” Jude shouted and then disappeared.

“What do we do?” a younger officer asked Bertrand.

“What else can we do?” Bertrand asked rhetorically. “We are soldiers, so we won’t hide. We will make our stand. We will fight!”

The soldiers cheered behind Bertrand and the stepped forward to begin slaughtering the frozen demons while they still could.

***

*Ping!*

“Success!” Ellie cried as the canister light began to brighten.

“Hahaha, it actually worked!” She stood up and turned around letting the canister cast its light across the room revealing the dozens of broken canisters laying on the floor. “Time to check to see what the notifications say!”

Mage Light created! x1

Error in the system.

New class available Erratum

Class Erratum

SPèÿÿÿƒÄ@_^[‹å]ÃÿuQÿu

SèúþÿÿƒÄ[‹å]ÃÌÌU‹ì‹M

WAÿ™+‹øÑÿ9M}eS‹]VëI ‹U4º;ótGSVÿU‹U

ƒÄ…À˜À„Àt&‹‹Ï‹u‰M

‰Gÿ™+‹øÑÿ9M|Æ‹‰Ž^[_]Ëu‹‰–^[_]Ë^[‰Š_]ËE‹U

_‹‹E‰

]ÃÌÌÌÌU‹ìƒìSV‹u

‹ÆW‹}+ÇÁøƒø ~r‹]‹ÿ…ÛŽ€ ÿuEøVWPè

‹ÃƒÄ™‹Î+‹ØÿuÑû‹Ã™+‹UüÑø+Ê؃áü‹Eø+ǃàüS;Á}‹EøPWè‘ÿÿÿ‹

Do you accept this class?

“What is this?” Ellie asked, but before she could do anything new notifications started popping up.

Error in input entry.

Class Erratum Accepted.

“Wait, I haven’t decided yet!” Ellie said alarmed.

Erratum Class outside of System Parameters.

Error in integration to class system.

Ellie breathed out a sigh of relief. She wasn’t sure what this new class was, but it was all very strange.

Erratum Class encountered errors

Erratum Class override

Erratum Class undergoing physical integration

Warning: Your new Class is undergoing physical integration

Warning: Physical integration of classes may cause death. Do you want to continue?

“No! No, I don’t!” Ellie yelled.

Input error, proceeding with class physical integration.

“No! No, no, that is not what I said!” Ellie wanted to say more, but then it hit her.

It felt like something had punched her heavily in the stomach. She keeled over in pain.

Feeling tears coming out of her eyes she quickly wiped them away only to find her hand stained with blood. But she didn’t have time to worry about the blood now flowing out of her eyes, ears, and nose as the incredible pain that started in her abdomen spread across her body like a raging thunder.

Her body was being ravaged by whatever change was happening to her. She had no idea what a physical integration was, but right now she knew it was not something good. She had no desire for a new class, even if she knew what Erratum did, she would not want to go through this kind of pain to get it.

Perhaps she was wrong. Maybe going against the System’s defined class rolls was not something that someone should do. Even Jude had not crossed that line.

But it was now too late for regrets. She realized that this was something that she had brought on to herself. Her only lament was that she would let Jude down.

She didn’t want to leave his side.

Their days together had been the best she had ever had.

“AAAAaahhh,” with one last burst of anguish, Ellie collapsed unconscious in a pool of her own blood.

***

Jude just entered the Inner City and was not far away from the wall when he saw something he had never seen before.

Since starting his escape, he had been on high alert and activated every means of observation to his disposal.

Through Area Analyze, he was now seeing a very strange event. While the conduits could not move unless the object that they made moved, it seemed as if they were vibrating and surging like waves across the ocean. The feeling was akin to an asteroid hitting the sea.

A disturbance this major could not be ignored and Jude quickly calculated the direction it came from.

“Ellie!” Jude was startled to find out it came from the same direction he had Ellie hide.

Now matters were getting even more urgent. He didn’t know if Ellie was in trouble or not, but a disruption of this scale, he would be surprised if she wasn’t drawn to it.

More importantly, it could draw the forces of the demons. This disturbance was so large that even without Area Analyze it would be noticed.

*Crack* *Bang*

Jude saw that one of the nearby buildings was falling apart. The area around it started to radiate different color lights. Then the stone spike started forming out of it and other crazy magical effects light fire and ice began to erupt from the building.

Jude was shocked. The conduits had burst. Something terrible must have happened!

“Ellie,” Jude said, “Hang on, I’m on my way.”

Putting all his abilities to use, Jude rushed forward avoiding any demons he came near.