As a Wood rank, I spent a couple of months in the facility before I eventually made several Ruby Marks and left to sell my potions. As I counted my money, I realized that I was rich. Or at least, not broke anymore. The money my potions had given me, as well as the ridiculously overpriced healing potions, had made me eleven Ruby Marks. After I took those with glee from the shopkeeper who I had sold all of my potions to, I went off looking for Chad.

“Sir, who is this… ‘Chad Riding’? Can you give me a description of him?” the lady at the Asora D’ameya Missing Persons Center said.

“Uh, chubby guy with light brown hair, quite short,”

“And do you have the time of arrival?”

I struggled to remember. “A couple months ago?”

“Hmm.” She got up, started talking with somebody behind her, and sat down again. “Well, he didn’t leave, that’s for sure. I’ll keep you updated if anything happens.”

Two days passed without any news. On the third day, as I was sitting on my bed watching the news, a person knocked on my door.

“Are you Everlon?” the man asked.

“Yes,” I said, confused about his purpose.

"We have found your friend, Chad.”

“That’s great! Where is he? Can I go meet him?”

“Ah,” the man scratched his head, “one problem. He’s in the Varne Prison for Unlicensed Magi.”

“What is the Varne Prison?” I asked.

He looked at me in surprise. “You don’t know of the most inescapable prison in the entirety of Q’xam?”

Suddenly, I got a quest.

New Quest: Prison Break

Reward: 150 Levels

Failure: Lifetime imprisonment

Accept?(Yes/No)

So much for the inescapable prison. After all, if there truly was no way to escape, why did the system give him the quest to do so?

“What did he do?” I asked.

“Crimes against the Council. The sentence is lifetime inprisonment.”

That seemed kind of unfair. I mean, that was pretty vague, and the punishment of lifetime inprisonment didn’t seem to make sense. “Why did the Council make that a rule?”

In hindsight, that was probably not the smartest thing to say. The man seemed to agree, as he quickly ran out of the room and started rapidly talking with somebody.

“Questioned the council… Insubordination… Doesn’t know his place…”

Suddenly, I was grabbed by two strong men who carried me into a truck, where everything faded to black.

When I woke up, my head throbbing, I was in a gray room with seemingly nothing inside. There was a pipe dripping water, and a door. That was it. All I had to work with.

I was presumably inside the same prison Chad was in, and I had to not only break out of my own cell but also rescue Chad from his as well.

I tried using Inspect on the walls.

Prison Walls

Material: Adamantite-Infused Stone Bricks

Level up Inspect to see more

I had no idea what Adamantite was, but it sounded like some ultra-exotic material from some faraway place I had no idea about.

Nevertheless, I was not going to break out of here with just my fists. I resigned myself to sitting back and waiting.

And wait I did. I waited for five days, drinking water out of a pipe and eating the scraps the guard brought me through the heavily-barred door.

Suddenly, a guard opened the door to my cell, grabbed me, and dragged me out through twisting, long hallways and into a large, circular room.

“Stay here,” the guard said, dragging me into a cage where he threw me inside, locking the door as he did so.

And so I stood, facing a wall of stone-faced people.

“What are his crimes exactly? List them again.” A person standing in the middle, who I presumed was the judge said calmly.

A man stood up. “Defamation against the Council, spreading misinformation amongst the people, accosting a council individual and attempting to convert him…”

“I did no such thing!” I protested.

“Then why was he in your hotel room?” the man smirked.

“Well, you see-“

“Exactly.” the man sat back down again.

What? I hadn’t even said anything yet!

“Guilty! Take him back to his cell.”

After that… questionably biased trial, I was thrown back in my cell, presumably to be left to rot.

And rot I did. For the next month and a half, I just sat in the cell, my only company being the guard who would occasionally stop by to bring me food. The simple fact was, I was not getting out of here.

At least, that was what I thought before something big happened.

The guard opened the door. Okay, maybe just by a little, and there was still the seven-hundred pound door to push, but he left the door open. Whether on purpose or on accident, I didn’t know. What I did know, though, was that there was a sliver of hope left on my escape. The problem was, I only had maybe a day and a half before the guard got back and noticed.

I started trying to pry the door open, to no avail. The door was simply too dense and large for me to even budge an inch, especially after being borderline-starved over the past two months. Nevertheless, I kept trying for about twenty minutes before I gave up. The door didn’t even budge a bit, and I felt like it was more productive just hitting the wall.

I then realized something: the door hadn’t budged, sure, but the hinges looked like they were about to give way. So, I sent a fireball at the hinges, and the door fell out of the frame and landed with a huge bang. Suddenly, an alarm klaxon sounded. Worried, I dashed out of the door and ran into the open corridor.

As I ran past countless doors, all of them preventing entry into cells no doubt identical to mine, I glanced out of the corner of my eye Chad, sitting depressedly in the floor of his dingy cell. I instantly took a ninety-degree turn, beelining straight for the door my friend was trapped behind. Suddenly, I felt a hand yank me from the back of my neck.

“Fred, I’ve got him!” the guard yelled. I struggled, trying to escape, but then a blast of lightning hit me and everything went black.

When I woke up, I was in some sort of metal room. The entire place was practically filled with all sorts of strange contraptions I had never seen before, all seemingly made of the exact same strange material.

“Ah, he’s up!” a wizened man with untidy white hair sticking out in all directions cried, surprised. “It’s only been two days! How are you feeling? Your friend here is still unconscious, after the taser knocked both of you out. I’m sorry, you know, it was the only way to break out.”

I didn’t respond, busy adding my stat points that I had gained from completing the quest.

Status:

HP: 580/580 (5.8/min)

SP: 10600/10600 (106/sec)

DEF: 902

MP: 10250/10250 (105.5/sec)

Rank: Bronze

Advancement 0 Stage 0 Tier 0 Level 574

Attributes (Unspent Points: 0)

Strength (Talent: Above Average)(Birth: Average)

Rank: Basic D-30 (Actual: Basic D-00)

Dexterity (Talent: Excellent)

Rank: Basic C-30 (Actual: Basic C-00)

Agility (Talent: Excellent)

Rank: Basic C-63 (Actual: Basic C-03)

Constitution (Talent: Average)(Birth: Poor)

Rank: Basic H-88 (Actual: Basic H-58)

Intelligence (Talent: Above Average)

Rank: Basic C-25

Wisdom (Talent: Above Average)

Rank: Basic C-55 (Actual: Basic C-25)

Psych (LOCKED) (Talent: Excellent)

LOCKED: Proceed to Tier 8 to unlock

Meta (LOCKED) (Talent: Above Average)

LOCKED: Proceed to Tier 4 to unlock

Skills:

Space Magic

Rare II

Level 1

Dual Wielding

Uncommon II

Level 15

Basic Rapiers

Common IV

Level 20

Inspect

Common IV

Level 5

Analyze

Common III

Level 5

Fire Magic

Common II

Level 30

Thunder Magic

Common II

Level 30

Air Magic

Common II

Level 30

Earth Magic

Common II

Level 30

Water Magic

Common II

Level 30

Mana Manipulation

Common I

Level 30

Mana Imbuement

Common I

Level 25

Mining

Unranked

Level 10

Alchemy

Unranked

Level 8

Quests:

The Legacy Of The Eviolodons(Locked)

(Locked)

Unlock Quest: “The Legacy of the Eviolodons”

Advance to Tier 11 (Level 424/1000)

Down With The Council!

Eliminate the Magus Council in Tier 12

Location:

Macro: Subspace - Aggressive Realities - Tier 12 - Instance #434

Micro: A’dreya - Dlamalar - Sayamn Plains - Vartur

A waypoint can be set anywhere within the current Macro Location (Waypoints Active: 1/5)

Inventory:

Show?

Affinities Unlocked:

Fire, Thunder, Air, Water, Earth

Potential Affinities Dormant:

Life, Death, Light, Dark, Wood, Metal, Nature, Spirit

Affinities with No Potential:

None

Spells:

Void Flame

Tier 3

Legendary

Healing Wave

Tier 2

Legendary

Earth Surge

Tier 2

Epic

Persistent Flame

Tier 2

Epic

Cyclone

Tier 2

Rare

Thunderbolt

Tier 2

Uncommon

Aerial Blades

Tier 2

Common

Show Tier 1 Spells?(4)

3 more tabs locked - Gain something that modifies those tabs to view them

12 more tabs locked - Advance System to a higher Level to view them

I thought “Class” and clicked “Accept” on the Class Verizon. Suddenly, another torrent of notifications poured out:

Congratulations! Class Gained!

Class: Verizon

Rarity: Mythical II

Perks:

+50 Intelligence

+50 Wisdom

+100 Strength

+50 Dexterity

+100 Agility

+20 Constitution

Spells do 50% more damage

Opposite attunements have no effect

Boosts Fire attunement spells by 50%

Spell cooldown reduced by 25%

Spell area increased by 50%

Rapier pierce increased by 300%

Description:

The ultimate glass cannon, relying only on superhuman agility to avoid any and all long ranged attacks. A hybrid between a Spellsword and a Rapier Master, the Verizon can fight both long and short ranged battles.

Skills:

Overclock - the next attack does 1000% more damage and has 1000% more pierce, but damage reduced by 70% and pierce reduced by 90% for the next hour.

Cooldown: 2 days

Sacrifice - sacrifice one ally in the immediate vicinity to kill up to 20 enemies. The combined levels of the enemies must not be higher than the sacrifice’s.

Cooldown: 10 days

Sun Shield - all physical, magical, and divine damage is negated for one second for every 1000 points of mana. Also rebounds the attack to the enemy with 10% of the damage. Considered a magical shield, not a divine shield.

Cooldown: (seconds used) minutes

Sun Imbuement - imbues your rapier with the power of the sun. Increases pierce and damage by 500% for the next 10 seconds, but your rapier is unusable for the next minute.

Cooldown: 5 minutes

Cool Down - reduces cooldown of any spell or skill that has a rarity below Legendary by 50%. Cooldown: (cooldown on the skill/spell used on)

Eternal Blaze - burns 300 Levels to set all enemies within a radius of 2 kilometers on fire. Fire is only curable via magical or divine means of Tier 5 or greater. Fire deals 100 damage every second.

Cooldown: Until next ascension

I then looked at the potential classes available to me.

Potential Classes:

Flame Rider

Mythical III

Fire Magic Level 100

Bronze F-Rank Agility

Bronze F-Rank Dexterity

Controller

Mythical V

Fire Magic Level 200

Mana Manipulation Level 100

Bronze F-Rank Intelligence

Bronze F-Rank Wisdom

Blazer

Mythical VI

Fire Magic Level 200

10 Tier-3 Spells(Fire Attunement)

5 Tier-4 Spells(Fire Attunement)

1 Tier-5 Spell(Fire Attunement)

Bronze F-Rank Intelligence

Bronze H-Rank Constitution

Bronze G-Rank Wisdom

Flame Knight

Mythical VI

Heavy Armor Level 200

Rapier Mastery Level 100

Bronze F-Rank Strength

Bronze F-Rank Constitution

Flaming Spirit

Mythical IX

Fire Magic Level 200

Mana Manipulation Level 100

5 Tier-3 Fire Spells

1 Tier-4 Fire Spell

Bronze F-Rank Intelligence

Bronze F-Rank Wisdom

Basic S-Rank Agility

Basic S-Rank Dexterity

Basic A-Rank Strength

“Hello? You there?” Apparently taken aback by my lack of response, the man turned to his assistant, a young girl, and said: “Lily, I think he’s out again.”

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Ah, hello! I am Professor Verne Colos, and this is my assistant Lily. We are from the Resistance, an organization. The motive of our organization is to take down the Magus Council, who are unreasonable, corrupt tyrants.”

Wow, they delivered the line perfectly. I was considering joining their organization. After all, their motive was the same as mine.

“Would you like to join our organization?” Verne asked.

“Sure.”