Staiven

The aged ratkin steals a few seconds as he and Rhonda work to simply observe his apprentice. While he couldn’t be more proud of her for gaining her class, they still have a business to run. These healing potions won't brew themselves, after all. She came in last night, looking equal parts exhausted and elated, and barely managed to say she got her class before stumbling off to her bed.

He hasn’t been able to get much else out of her about it yet, but working together can be a great opportunity to chat, at least once the mixture is set to simmer. “So… your class, Rhonda?”

The young goblin’s eyes brighten as she’s reminded she hasn’t had much chance to explain just what happened. “Yes! Freddie and I both got our classes! We asked Thedeim to help, and he set three challenges for us!”

Staiven nods and starts preparing ingredients for the lightning resist potions, and Rhonda cleans the various dirty glassware as she continues to talk. “First, we had to capture Vernew, one of the ruling Triumverate of the spiderkin enclave! Even more, she had Queen’s help!”

“Oh, the Alchemist Scion? I’d wager it was a difficult challenge to beat, then.”

Rhonda giggles. “It was, but we also got pretty lucky. Vernew didn’t take us as seriously as she should have. We only barely won, though, by catching her in a web trap… and catching ourselves, too. Tiny helped us out of the web and Teemo told us we won, and Queen wanted to show off a weird alchemical thing she created to help Vernew, but she never got a chance before we won. So they demonstrated it!”

Staiven waits a few seconds for her to say what it was, but a glance shows she’s trying to get him to ask, instead of just telling it herself. He smirks and decides to give her the satisfaction. It’s part of her story about gaining her class, so she deserves to tell it how she wants.

“Well, what was it?” he asks, honestly curious what Queen came up with. From what he’s sen of her work, she’s got a lot of interesting ideas, like that water breathing potion she came up with.

“It was a two-part reaction! First, it would spread a slick of ice and build up energy above the center of it. Then it’d release all that energy in a loud and bright explosion! But it’s not like a fireball, but more like a thunderclap; more disorienting than damaging! I’ve been calling it a frostbang.”

“Hmm…” says the ratkin as he considers what a flask like that would require. “That’s an odd combination of affinities. How large was the flask to be able to contain all that mana?”

“That’s the best part! It was normal size!”

Staiven looks at her like he doesn’t believe her, and she just smiles wider. “Right?! I kinda know part of how it was done, too! That’s how I got my class, but I’m getting ahead of myself.”

He considers just telling her to explain, but holds himself back. She’ll get there eventually. “So what was the second challenge?”

“It was a lot less strenuous than the first, at least physically. I had to help Thing with an enchanting array that would turn lightning into thunder mana for a weird instrument Thedeim is working on. I think it’s some kind of lute or something? It uses plucked strings, at least. But no matter what we tried, it didn’t make different notes! I was pretty sure it was beyond me, and I said so, but something about what I said seemed to make Thing realize something incredible!”

“What’d you say?”

“I don’t remember… something about how he was working with advanced stuff, kinda like Queen’s frostbang. All I knew is one second, he’s working on the array, and the next he’s clearing the workbench as fast as he could! And then, he created a lifedrinking array!”

Staiven pauses in his work to stare at her. “What?!”

“Yeah! I didn’t know what it was until he motioned me forward to examine it, and I realized what it was! And then he countered it! He didn’t collapse it, he just negated it!”

The ratkin puts down his tools to stare, and Rhonda tries to explain, now that she has her mentor’s full, undivided attention. “I don’t know how, but he did something… I dunno? I could feel it was somehow related to thunder or lightning, but it made no sense, like using earth mana in a windblade rune. Whatever he did, though, the lifedrinking just winked out of existence.”

Staiven’s gaze grows distant as he tries to work through what Rhonda could have seen, but his imagination fails him. Using an array meant for one mana type but channeling a different one? It should just be a waste of effort! But he doesn’t doubt Rhonda’s tale. She has a natural eye for a lot of this, even if she doesn’t know the technical details just yet. He shakes his head and focuses on her once more.

“I take it that counted for clearing that challenge?” She nods and he continues. “So what was the third challenge?”

“To get past Rocky and tag Aranya!” she exclaims with excitement.

“You two whittled down the zombie scion before chasing her, then?”

“Nope! I faced Rocky while Freddie went to go tag Aranya!”

He looks incredulous, and Rhonda just giggles again. “I mean, I had Lucas and Fiona to help, too. We tricked Rocky with a team-up attack that let Freddie get past him, and then I got to see some of his magic close up… a bit closer than I’d have really wanted,” she admits, and Staiven is just glad she doesn’t seem to be hurt.

“How did you beat him?” he asks, unable to fathom how his little apprentice could best that beast of a zombie scion.

“I figured out how he does his magic, and broke his control over it! He was kinda in the middle of an attack with it, and face-planted pretty hard when his control broke. That’s how I got my class!”

Staiven can’t help but give his apprentice a small smirk. “So you’re a boxer now?”

She giggles and shakes her head. “No, I’m an Ice Sage!”

He looks confused. “An Ice what?”

“A sage! I was confused at first, too, but Teemo said it’s one of Thedeim’s words for someone with a lot of knowledge and magic, kinda like a teacher, student, and mage all rolled into one!” She practically vibrates with excitement at being able to talk about her new class, but Staiven is practically reeling from what she’s said.

“How…”

“How did I get my class? Because of how I realized what Rocky is doing! Here, look!” She holds her hands out, and forms a small ball of ice, and a small ball of fire, but Staiven can feel she’s hardly expended any of her mana to do it! “Rocky isn’t just making both ice and fire! They’re temperatures! He takes the heat out of one spot to make ice, and puts it into a different spot to make fire! He’s just moving the fire around!”

Staiven sits down heavily on his stool, and Rhonda’s excitement turns to concern. She lets the two opposing elemental balls equalize as she rushes over. “Master? Are you alright?”

“I’m…” he takes a few moments to try to collect himself. Physically, he’s as fine as ever, but Rhonda’s story seems impossible in so many ways! And yet he saw her manipulate ice and fire like they’re the same affinity! But it makes no sense. At least there’s an easy way to tell if she’s telling the truth, or if she’s somehow wrong about all this.

“May I scry your class?” he asks, and she nods without hesitation. It’s hardly any effort for him to create a scrying enchantment on a handy lens, and he almost drops it at what he sees. She’s an Ice Sage, and she’s picked up the Fire affinity now. She doesn’t have the Arcane affinity he would have expected, but if she’s right about what she’s learned, it might be a bit of a moot point. While Arcane can mimic a lot of other affinities, it’s not especially powerful. If she tried to do that fire and ice trick using Arcane mana, it would have cost a lot more.

But how did she get a class he’s never heard of before? It’s apparently because of Thedeim, which probably shouldn’t be surprising, but it is concerning. A young dungeon like that has concepts powerful enough to create new classes? He tries to keep his hand from shaking as he sets the lens down.

“Did Freddie get a new class, too?”

Rhonda still looks concerned, but answers him. “Yeah. He’s a Legionnaire Paladin of the Crystal Shield.”

Another strange word, another new concept, another new class. He’s going to need to talk to Torlon later, and possibly Inspector Tarl… and certainly Thedeim. Rhonda didn’t say it was her own word, but one of Thedeim’s. There is a lot more going on in that dungeon than it’s been letting on.

Before his thoughts can spiral too much further, wondering what Fourdock has gotten into, the distinctive scent of a potion on the verge of being ruined reaches his nose. Existential crises later, potions now!

“Kill the fire and pull the heat out of the batch, Rhonda! Put your class to use saving our work!”