Chapter 25, Class evolution

Getting back to my new cave just as the sky is darkening I crawl in and manifest a celestial campfire in the corner to keep myself warm and the darkness at bay. Curling up in some blankets and leaning against a wall I gaze into the dancing flames. I’m almost scared to look at my status after holding it off this long and I might as well warm up by checking my three weeks of notifications.

Ding! Attribute [Wisdom] has been increased from [275] to [300].

Ding! You have slain [Fungus Parasite - Level 61]. Less experience awarded.

Ding! You have slain [Fungus Amalgam - Level 101]. Experience awarded.

…

Ding! You have slain [Fungus Horror - Level 207]. Experience withheld until class has evolved.

Ding! [Mana Machine] has leveled from [95] to [100]. +[25 AP].

Ding! New evolutions available for [Mana Machine].

Ding! General skill [Identify] has leveled from [31] to [39].

Ding! General skill [Running] has leveled from [69] to [77].

Ding! General skill [Sprinting] has leveled from [67] to [82].

Ding! General skill [Jumping] has leveled from [78] to [94].

Ding! General skill [Dodging] has leveled from [93] to [115].

Ding! General skill [Sneaking] has leveled from [25] to [27].

Ding! General skill [Smoking] has leveled from [14] to [20].

Ding! General skill [Dancing] has leveled from [5] to [12].

Ding! General skill [Small Blades] has leveled from [94] to [123].

Ding! General skill [Dual Wielding] has leveled from [102] to [134].

Ding! General skill [Unarmed] has leveled from [47] to [66].

Ding! General skill [Arcane Daggers] has leveled from [51] to [57].

Ding! General skill [Arcane Missile] has leveled from [46] to [60].

Ding! General skill [Arcane Spatial Ring] has leveled from [45] to [83].

Ding! Skill [Mana Sight] has leveled from [81] to [85].

Ding! Skill [Mana Sense] has leveled from [263] to [274].

Ding! Skill [Passive Power] has leveled from [356] to [407].

Ding! Skill [Arcane Manipulation] has leveled from [415] to [452].

Ding! Skill [Capacitor] has leveled from [103] to [258].

Ding! Resistance [Curse Magic Resistance] has increased from [8] to [27].

“Ari, are you ready to see the compressed status sheet?”

“Yup!”

-Status-

Name: Zelaria

Level: [100]+

Race: Human

Age: [16] (82)

Attribute Points: [0]

Strength: [30] -50%

Constitution: [30] -50%

Vitality: [30] -50%

Agility: [30] -50%

Dexterity: [30] -50%

Intelligence: [163] +100%

Wisdom: [300] +195%

Mana: [3260/3260]

Capacitor: [8410/8410]

Mana regen: [885] / Minute

Traits:

Arcane affinity

Twin Minds

Soulcore

Manabody

Resistances:

…

Curse Magic Resistance: [27]

General skills:

…

Identify - [39]

Smoking - [20]

Small Blades - [123]

Dual Wielding - [134]

Unarmed - [66]

Arcane Daggers - [57]

Arcane Missile - [60]

Arcane Spatial Ring - [83]

Class 1: [Mana Machine - 100] - Evolutions Available [5]

Class 2: Locked

-[Mana Machine]-

You have gone far along the path of becoming one with mana. Wielding the most elusive and versatile form of unaligned mana, the Arcane, was not enough for you. You took the concept of being one with your power and manifested your idea in reality. Continuing down this path will give you the tools necessary to turn your mimicry of biological life into a well oiled machine of unrestrained complexity and possibilities. To wield great power you’ll create a vessel capable of supporting infinite growth.

Perks:

-[Intelligence] +100%

-[Wisdom] +100%

Skills:

-Mana Sight - [85]

-Mana Sense - [274]

-Passive Power - [407]

-Arcane Manipulation - [452]

-Capacitor - [258]

Available skills [0]

Evolutions Available [5]

“Five evolutions??? Let’s check them.”

[Mana Machine v. 2.0]

Continue your path of creating the ultimate vessel to house your future power.

Requirements:

-Arcane affinity.

-[Manabody] trait.

-[Passive Power] at level 300 or above.

-[Arcane Manipulation] at level 400 or above.

“This seems like the standard evolution option for this class, Zel. This should be our last option.”

“What’s with the Gudrun naming scheme?”

“Who knows. Shall we move on?”

[Mana Machine v. 2.1]

You have chosen to take your vessel in the direction of greater power instead of adaptability. Many might fault you for your shortsighted craving but you simply smash them to pieces to prove your point. Less flexibility and more power is the way to make your machine outlast them all.

Requirements:

-Arcane affinity.

-[Manabody] trait.

-[Passive Power] at level 300 or above.

-[Arcane Manipulation] at level 400 or above.

-[Capacitor] at level 200 or above.

“This is a lot more interesting I’d say. It is clearly an evolution branching off from the skill we chose and it probably follows in the same vein. More power.”

“Yes but is the description right? Was it shortsighted of us to select more mana instead of more adaptability, Ari?”

“No, probably not. As we argued at the time it was the best option and I still think it paid off, don’t you agree? We’ll have all of eternity to figure out adaptability if we don’t die.”

“True enough. I’m not too sure about the implied brutishness though. Could it just be wordplay or will our emotions somehow get impacted to get more aggressive?”

“Good question. I seriously doubt it but we’ll have to keep an eye on it going forward.”

[Mana Machine v. 2.2]

Curse? What curse? Power is what you see and no cursewielder will ever harm your machine with their vile magic. You’ve adapted your vessel to curse magic and can now consume it for additional power. Strong enough curses may even be converted towards experience to fuel your growth beyond the mundane.

Requirements:

-Arcane affinity.

-[Manabody] trait.

-[Mana Sense] at level 250 or above.

-[Passive Power] at level 350 or above.

-[Arcane Manipulation] at level 400 or above.

-[Curse Magic Resistance] at level 25 or above.

-[Mana regeneration] above 500 per minute.

-Slain more than 3000 curse born entities.

“This is quite interesting but ultimately useless to us. Getting an evolution specific to recent achievements is not unusual but this one seems almost overpowered.”

“Yes. It would be amazing to be able to get experience from bathing in the cursed downpour but it’s not like we’ll stay in a cursed area forever. As soon as we leave the region or when the source of the curse is gone we’ll be left with a useless evolution.”

“I’m also not quite sure if ‘growth beyond the mundane’ is as literal in its meaning as I think it is. This evolution might make our power grow fast but in ways we do not want it to.”

“Good catch, Ari. This one’s not for us.”

[Mana Machine v. 2.3]

You have beaten and kicked your foes to death more times than you can remember but you always come back to using external mana constructs to slay those which should be beyond you. The power awaiting your every command is now easier to form into the tools you need for slaughter and tough fights alike. Your machine extends beyond your vessel.

Requirements:

-Arcane affinity.

-[Manabody] trait.

-[Passive Power] at level 400 or above.

-[Arcane Manipulation] at level 450 or above.

-[Capacitor] at level 250 or above.

-[Arcane Daggers] at level 50 or above.

-[Arcane Missile] at level 50 or above.

-[Dual Wielding] at level 100 or above.

-[Unarmed] at level 50 or above.

-Mana capacity above 10,000.

-Slain more than 10 entities 100 levels above your own.

-Slain at least one entity 200 levels above your own.

“Look, Ari! Our achievement of killing all those horrors made an impact. We should take it just for that reason alone but looking at what it actually does makes me even more impatient to select it.”

“Wow. Yeah, it does sound pretty amazing. This evolution seems geared towards increasing our combat capabilities, mana capacity and maybe even our ability to manifest stuff.”

“Should we select it? Please say yes, Ari.”

She facepalms before sighing in exasperation.

“Let’s just look at the last one, Zel. It literally takes half a minute. We’re not in that much of a hurry are we?”

“Hmpf. Fine.”

[Arcaneator]

After creating what you consider a masterpiece of a vessel for wielding the arcane you decide to walk down a path granting even greater power in the immediate future. Consume the energy of the world to fuel your grand magic as you cast destruction and creation on that which isn’t considered beneath you.

Requirements:

-Arcane affinity.

-[Manabody] trait.

-[Mana Sense] at level 250 or above.

-[Passive Power] at level 400 or above.

-[Arcane Manipulation] at level 450 or above.

-[Capacitor] at level 250 or above.

-Mana capacity above 10,000.

-Mana regeneration above 800.

“See? Told you, Ari. The last one wasn’t anything to have anyway. Now let’s select the previous one.”

“Zel… This is actually quite a good evolution. It’s not for us at the moment but I could see it being picked by someone else. It’s short sighted though.”

“Yes! And there’s actually something I’d like to change in our current body after we’ve classed up. So we can’t pick this one, and no I won’t make the changes before we get our new class! It’s to celebrate our progress, okay?!”

“Okay, Zel. You’re too cute when you get this excitedly unreasonable.”

I cast an unimpressed look her way. I’m usually cute, aren’t I? Why act like this is any different?

“I can tell what you’re thinking and no, you’re not always this cute. You’re usually a hot, beautiful and dangerous sex machine of a woman. I do like both versions though so don’t worry about it.”

Blushing furiously I get back to rereading the evolution description of the fourth evolution option. There doesn’t seem to be any hidden caveats in the information and giving a mental nudge to Ari I get the go ahead in return. We’ve made our choice.

Ding! [Mana Machine] has evolved to [Mana Machine v. 2.3].

Ding! [Mana Machine v. 2.3] has leveled from [100] to [142]. +[420 AP].

Ding! [Mana Machine v. 2.3] has claimed general skill [Arcane Daggers].

Ding! [Mana Machine v. 2.3] has claimed general skill [Arcane Missile].

Ding! Skills [Arcane Daggers] and [Arcane Missile] have merged into [External Modules].

[External Modules]

Aids in creating and modifying external mana constructs with an arcane mana structure. Manifest anything you wish for into being as long as you know how. Speed of manifestation is calculated by [Mana invested / (Skill Level * 10)] seconds. External Module upkeep is calculated by [Mana invested / (Skill Level * 10)] mana per second. Modification to an already manifested module varies in cost depending on speed, complexity and scope.

Ding! Skill [External Modules] has leveled from [0] to [58].

-[Mana Machine v. 2.3]-

You have gone far along the path of becoming one with mana. Wielding the most elusive and versatile form of unaligned mana, the Arcane, was not enough for you. You took the concept of being one with your power and manifested your idea in reality. Continuing down this path will give you the tools necessary to turn your mimicry of biological life into a well-oiled machine of unrestrained complexity and possibilities. To wield great power you’ll create a vessel capable of supporting infinite growth.

Perks:

-[Intelligence] +300%

-[Wisdom] +200%

Skills:

-Mana Sight - [85]

-Mana Sense - [274]

-Passive Power - [407]

-Arcane Manipulation - [452]

-Capacitor - [258]

-External Modules - [58]

-Empty

-Empty

-Empty

-Empty

Available skills [0]

“Holy shit, Zel. We actually got 10 Attribute points per level. It’s the highest possible during this evolution like our last one was 5. And these class perks? Just amazing.”

“Yes! But look at the skill, Ari. This must encompass everything we manifest everyday. Clothes, celestial flames, daggers, missiles and even our hair ties. All of it will count to leveling the skill and towards helping us create freely using arcane mana. It sounds absolutely perfect!”

“I know! Now how should we spend our attribute points? I think we should spend most of them on physical stats if I’m honest since that is our current bottleneck. We need a body capable of supporting this much power and there’s no other way to do this except for manually improving on our mana structures and increasing those attributes.”

“How about this, Ari. We split 400 points between each of them and put 20 points into our wisdom? That should suffice until our next evolution.”

“Sounds good.

Ding! Attribute [Strength] has increased from [30] to [110].

Ding! Attribute [Constitution] has increased from [30] to [110].

Ding! Attribute [Vitality] has increased from [30] to [110].

Ding! Attribute [Agility] has increased from [30] to [110].

Ding! Attribute [Dexterity] has increased from [30] to [110].

Ding! Attribute [Wisdom] has increased from [300] to [320].

Attribute Points: [0]

Strength: [110] -50%

Constitution: [110] -50%

Vitality: [110] -50%

Agility: [110] -50%

Dexterity: [110] -50%

Intelligence: [163] +300%

Wisdom: [320] +295%

Mana: [3289/6520]

Capacitor: [8435/16821]

Mana regen: [1264] / Minute

As the changes start taking hold it feels almost like being reborn. Strength is flooding my body and my previously full mana reserves begin filling up at an ever greater speed than before. A light flicker goes through all my mana constructs and I can feel the link tying them to me altering slightly.

It isn’t a visual change but one felt at an instinctive level. I know I can make the campfire blazing next to me into a miniature copy of me and make it dance with no more than a thought as long as I know how to.

I could seamlessly shift the heap of blankets covering me into a sleeping bag with no more effort than manifesting a sleeping bag from scratch but this time reusing my already manifested constructs.

It’s the feeling of absolute freedom and control of the arcane mana structures outside of me and it feels amazing. It’s like I’ve been constricted with limitations without noticing, not being able to appreciate how much more I could do without those invisible barriers in place and now finally having my eyes opened to the possibilities.

“You feeling this, Ari?”

“I am. We could do so much more with this new freedom and control. I say we wait with experimenting for a little while though. We still need to get used to our new level of power.”

“We do. But first bring up the status sheet once again. I’ll want to have another look at it now after we’ve evolved our class. I also have some modifications to make to our [Manabody] before we set out again.”

-Status-

Name: Zelaria

Level: [142]

Race: Human

Age: [16] (82)

Attribute Points: [0]

Strength: [110] -50%

Constitution: [110] -50%

Vitality: [110] -50%

Agility: [110] -50%

Dexterity: [110] -50%

Intelligence: [163] +300%

Wisdom: [320] +295%

Mana: [6520/6520]

Capacitor: [9726/16821]

Mana regen: [1264] / Minute

Traits:

Arcane affinity

Twin Minds

Soulcore

Manabody

Resistances:

…

General skills:

…

Identify - [39]

Smoking - [20]

Small Blades - [123]

Dual Wielding - [134]

Unarmed - [66]

Arcane Spatial Ring - [83]

Class 1: [Mana Machine v. 2.3 - 142]

Class 2: Empty - Available [21]

“21 available classes for our second class slot?? Should we check it as well, Ari?”

“We’d better not. We will only be stuck reading through them all and I say we wait with getting a second class until we hit level 200 in our first one.”

“Why?”

“To get better classes of course. It’s no point looking right now though as some of them might disappear or get replaced with better versions as we increase in strength and gain new achievements.”

That made a lot of sense and I thank Ari for the sound advice before standing up and doing a few stretches. Using my will and a bit of mana I pull out my daggers, not with my hands but with arcane manipulation coupled with external modules, making them float around me in lazy circles.

I could have done this before as well but the mana cost was much higher and the concentration needed to keep everything in order was too much to be useful in a fight. Now though? Now each of my constructs feels like an extension of myself. Like the machine has external modules. Explaining the name of the skill.

I still can’t lift myself with arcane manipulation as my body doesn’t count as an external module, which is a shame. Would have been nice to be able to pull myself through the air to mimic flying.

Pulling my hand back before punching the wall as hard as I can without enhancing myself I’m amazed as the sound of cracking stone meets my ears and I feel some of the loose stone grinding against my knuckles before falling down to the floor. It isn’t a large crater or anything but it’s definitely a huge improvement in strength.

“Why is the improvement in strength this great? Would a normal human be able to crack a stone wall with only 50 points in strength?”

“No, Zel. Not a solid rock wall like this at least. I say they’d need at least 100 points in strength to achieve what you just did. The reason why our body is able to perform better is because vitality also helps with our strength.”

“Vitality? Didn’t you guess it would help regenerate our body faster and cheaper?”

“Yes I did. And that is also true but what I didn’t notice in small amounts of increases to vitality is that each point increases the inherent power of each cell in our body. Our normal mana blood contains more mana, our tissue and even our bones contain more mana. It all translates to greater strength during operation on only [Passive Power].”

“I see. So it kind of balances itself out in this case. Interesting.”

I look at the small depression of cracked and loosened rock before I sit back down against the wall and stare into the celestial flames. It’s going to take quite a while getting a handle on my new strength even without enhancements. There’s one thing to do before all that though.

“Ari, what do you think of modifying our appearance?”

“We’re beautiful though? What could you possibly want to change? Won’t we get even further away from the human identity we still cling to if we begin changing ourselves to look any different than your old body?”

“We are beautiful. It’s true. But I want the world to see a part of us that’s currently invisible. You, Ari.”

“Me? What do you mean?”

Ari proclaims her confusion as she tries to parse the meaning behind my words.

“Yes, darling. I was thinking that we could add a rim around our golden iris in pure silver like your lovely eyes and subtly indicate that there’s more than the sun inhabiting this body. The moon peeking out from behind, always there keeping me company. My eternal companion.”

Ari sends wave upon wave of love, practically radiating happiness in strength more akin to the sun than the moon she’s named after.

“I love, love, love you, Zel! Your idea is so romantic and we’ll look even prettier that way. Let’s do it!”

Laughing at Ari’s joy, feeling good about finding something that means this much to my other half, we start the process of modifying the mana structures of our eyes and incorporating it into our body. It takes an hour or so to get it right but we’re really happy with the result.

My golden iris is now surrounded by a swirling, slightly glowing silver rim that’s thin enough to be overlooked by anyone just glancing my way but unmistakable when meeting my eyes. The silver moves like it’s molten metal and they're not far off from what her eyes actually look like.

“Beautiful. This is exactly like it should be.”

“Yes. Thank you again for the idea, Zel. Now let’s get to testing out our new class and body.”

I disperse every construct I’ve been keeping active, my white hair cascading down my back as the hair tie disappears, nipples stiffening slightly as they’re fully exposed to the cold air and goose bumps appearing on my legs as the warm and comfortable work pants disappear. Daggers and sheaths drop to the ground before they’re also gone.

I easily control the mana within me to exit my skin wherever nearest the desired destination and the unaligned mana flow into their arcane mana structures as they take shape all around me.

Clothes, weapons and accessories all appear at once, manifesting from my skin and outwards as the ephemeral azure particles rearrange themselves to shift colors and material substance.

I take note of the mana cost to manifest everything I’m currently wearing and using and it comes down to about 3500 mana. Giving it an upkeep of about 360 mana per minute. I could definitely summon sturdier daggers and more exotic weaponry with my current mana regeneration but I first want to test the limits of the enhancements my strengthened body supports.