-Shielded Mithril Kite Shield of Riposting-

(Ascendant)

+9 Vitality

+9 Endurance

+12 Strength

+3 Luck

-Modifiers-

Shielded: Can create a barrier that blocks attacks and magic from the front and absorbs up to 50 damage before breaking.

Riposting: If the user blocks within half a second of a physical attack, the user’s follow-up attack is faster, more damaging, and won’t miss.

Reverberate: If the opponent has a weapon and hits this shield, there is a 50% chance the opponent will drop the weapon and be unable to use it for 10 seconds

-Enchantment-

Make 100 Perfect Blocks To Increase Item’s Grade To [Legendary]

Perfect Blocks: 0/100

“Incredible,” Shane breathed the word out slowly while feeling hit by a strong sense of wonder.

First, it was acquiring the mighty [Time Subjugation] morph. Then it was an enhanced evolution of an already powerful item. All of this happened because of my Luck stat’s integration with Endless Veil’s systems. Shane searched his own feelings on how his [Luck] played its part. I’m….thankful. From here on, I will start boosting my luck stat more.

“Okay, that’s done, and I’m pretty damn thrilled about how it all turned out.”

Is this a turning point for me? Will I get out from under the heel of Cain Prime and his corruption? Shane didn’t know for sure, but his hopeful perspective took center stage within his mind. Rock bottom was when he died deep down in the bowels of the Krooth’s dungeon behind him.

“It’s only going to get better from here. It’s only going to get be—” Rune rubbed his long snout against the side of Shane’s torso.

That gesture Shane took as his new companion agreeing with his optimistically verbal mantra. Okay, what’s next? Shane thought to himself as he absentmindedly observed how his 3D representation looked on his character screen while petting Rune. He sighed at the lack of any distinct changes since arriving in Endless Veil.

I suppose not even a month dead would help me grow a beard. Shane thought with a morbidly fueled half smile. He mentally moved the screen’s focus onto the next tab to the right and landed on his collection of feats and spells. When nothing interesting caught his attention, Shane was about to glance to the left and view his stats again. At least until he noticed another tab to the right that wasn’t there before.

Apparently, there were too many tabs within the window, so this new one had an arrow pointing to the right. Intrigued, Shane commanded the window to stretch from a sixteen by nine ratio to the ratio of an ultra-wide monitor—twenty-one by nine. That did the trick, and Shane read the new tab aloud.

“Subclasses Unlocked!” Shane said the shock of the discovery was like a low-voltage stun gun blasted him in the spine.

He instantly knew this was a new development. Either by the developers themselves in the form of a post-launch patch while he was dead or, even more likely, new content from the director itself—a feat it was easily capable of.

Selecting [Subclasses Unlocked] opened up an entirely new screen on top of the previous window. Unlike the virtual windows Shane had been using so far, this one had a dark-green background that slowly blended to a light green at the top.

-Subclasses Unlocked-

-Congratulations on Reaching Level 10-

-As a Level 10 [Sage], You May Now Pick 1 Subclass-

-Each Subclass Is Granted A Passive Talent Tree-

-Subclasses Are Based On The 5 Beginner Classes-

-Each Level Past [10] Grants 1 Talent Point-

-You Have Been Granted 2 Talent Points-

You May Choose One Subclass:

Warrior Knight Assassin Caster Priest

Shane’s heart raced as he considered all of his options. Unfortunately, nothing on the window was interactable, resulting in the talent trees of each subclass being hidden until chosen. A minor flaw, Shane thought, before ignoring it entirely while becoming completely immersed in the decision.

I don’t want to be tanking for others, so a Knight is out. I don’t have any Assassin-based loot, feats, or spells yet, so that’s out too. Expanded healing could be fun and highly useful with the Priest, especially for making friends and money as a side job. Warrior, hrmm, I love smashing things, and it would improve my use of this shield and any weapon, for that matter. He sighed again without taking his eyes off the screen.

Who am I kidding? I knew the answer the moment I read Beginner Classes. Shane made the selection with his mind, and the screen shifted to reveal a broad tree of many passives fitting his choice perfectly.

-Caster Selected-