This Class is Bonkers! (This Trilogy is Broken (A Comedy Litrpg Adventure) Book 2)
Page 6
Wes cursed. “Gods damnit. I had six weeks—six glorious weeks—of having the rarest class on the team.” He sighed. “You deserve it, Eve.”
“Are you sure it’s Mythic?” Preston asked.
Wes interjected before she could answer. “What? Is Mythic tier four supposed to be impossible? She killed a bloody griffin.”
“No—I just—it doesn’t sound like a Mythic class. The Defiant.” The healer’s voice fell to a whisper. “It sounds Unique.”
Eve paled. “If you give me a moment, I can tell you. I’ve got more notifications than Wes has bad puns.”
“Right, right.” Preston stood. “We’ll let you read.” He pulled Wes to his feet before the fire mage could argue against Eve’s insult to the highest form of comedy.
Eve waited until the footsteps gave way to the whispered conversation the couple shared before diving into her messages. She began—more so because they were on the top and she was too sluggish to bother sorting through them all—with the classes she hadn’t taken.
Class Upgrade Available: Emissary
Common Tier 4 Class
Requirements: Courier, Envoy, or Diplomat base class. Travel beyond the borders of your home nation.
Through dedication and a fierce loyalty to your kingdom, you’ve worked your way up from delivering their letters to a seat at the table. Travel the lands speaking the word of your monarch and negotiating on his or her behalf.
+10 Mana Density
+10 Intelligence
+2 Mana Density/Level
+2 Intelligence/Level
Eve snorted. The description didn’t match her at all—fierce loyalty indeed! Hells, she may have started as a Messenger Girl, but she sure as shit hadn’t delivered a single letter. She noted with interest that while the class info didn’t fit, the listed stats showed Mana Density instead of Endurance. Eve wondered what that meant.
Unwilling to waste too much time on a class she’d—thank the gods—not taken, she continued on through the list. Perhaps the Common options weren’t worth reading. Approximately twelve notifications’ worth of skimming and scrolling later, the first of the Uncommons popped up.
Class Upgrade Available: Berserker
Uncommon Tier 4 Class
Requirements: Any combat base class. Charge into combat against an enemy above your level. Temporarily reach Strength beyond your level. Hit something so hard your weapon breaks.
For a Berserker, battle is everything. The rush of adrenaline, the exhilaration of mortal danger, the thrill of overcoming your foes with naught but the strength of your arm and the courage in your heart. You revel in it. Channel the rage within you to reach new heights.
+25 Strength
+10 Constitution
+5 Mana Density
+10 Strength/Level
+5 Constitution/Level
+4 Mana Density/Level
+1 Dexterity/Level
Eve shivered. Much as the Emissary description failed to match her, Berserker fit too well. Never once had she considered herself similar to the mindless battle-machines of anger and Strength, but she’d felt that rush, that exhilaration. She exhaled. At least she hadn’t taken it. Eve never wanted to know the sheer rage that so drove the Berserker battle trance. Besides, the stat distribution was bad for her anyway.
She moved on.
Eve scrolled past Battle Mage and Pummeler, Demolisher and Armsman. She skimmed past a dozen variations of Warrior alone, each requiring its own spin on the same list of combat feats. Eve paid them little heed.
Among the Rares she found Demon Slayer, courtesy of her victories in the Temple of Garaxia. It joined the likes of Brutalizer and Wardancer, two classes on opposite ends of the finesse versus pure might spectrum.
Weaponmaster’s presence flummoxed her, if only because it required victories with four different weapons and she’d only wielded three. It took her a solid minute to realize it must’ve counted the time she’d beaten a goblin shaman to death with its own staff. Eve giggled at that.
Similarly Rare was Culler of the Herd, a class seemingly specifically designed for those who’d taken the grindy path to tier 4. Its description promised all sorts of bonuses for repeatedly killing the same species of monster, something Eve hoped never to do again. Truth be told, she wondered how such a skill could ever be used—what use was a bonus against something she could already kill?
Epic presented two options. Spellbound promised synergies with her developing ability to manipulate the magic within her, though it seemed to deal primarily with Spirit. Curious as she was to learn how Mana in her soul would interact with that in her body, deviating from Mana Density as her primary stat seemed like a poor idea. The other Epic possibility was one she’d been expecting.
Class Upgrade Available: Shatterfate Obliterator
Epic Tier 4 Class
Requirements: Any shatterfate class. Kill an enemy more than twice your level. Overcome a dungeon beyond your level. Defeat ten opponents in a single blow with a blunt weapon. Reject your fate.
The further you stray from your given destiny, the stronger your resolve grows. No challenge is too great, no foe too threatening, no path worth walking that you did not pave yourself. You chart your own course through the rocky seas of life, and any that aim to control your passage shall face the full force of your might.
+40 Strength
+20 Constitution
+9 Mana Density
+5 Dexterity
+1 Intelligence
+20 Strength/Level
+10 Constitution/Level
+7 Mana Density/Level
+3 Dexterity/Level
Eve was unsurprised to find the natural progression of the Shatterfate line led to Epic. Finding a Strength class came as some surprise, but she supposed it fit her fighting style better than anything else. She had to wonder if there even were Endurance-based classes at such a high tier. Such things seemed reserved for laborers.
Of course, she didn’t actually use Endurance, but thus far she’d only seen classes converting the stat rather than anything built around Mana Density. She opened the one and only Mythic option.
Class Upgrade Available: Heiress of the Ancients
Mythic Tier 4 Class
Requirements: Legacy of the Precursors Secondary Quest. Manaheart, Enlightened Construct, or Mana Elemental race. Unlock the Mana manipulation skill. Wield the very power that gives you life to conquer your foes.
A living being of Mana itself, you represent the pinnacle of an entire civilization’s greatest work. Though your progenitors have faded to the annals of history, you carry their torch into the infinities of tomorrow. All shall see and all shall know and all shall remember. Wield your inheritance for the glory of lost Burendia.
+70 Mana Density
+11 Constitution
+10 Intelligence
+5 Strength
+4 Dexterity
+50 Mana Density/Level
+15 Intelligence/Level
+10 Constitution/Level
+3 Strength/Level
+2 Dexterity/Level
“Ayla’s tits, that’s a lot of Mana.” Eve let out a whistle, her mind racing with daydreams of the things she could do with five hundred Mana a level.
With the way Mana Rush scaled with both Mana Density and per-second Mana spent, Heiress of the Ancients would get very out of hand very quickly. Of course, she’d still run into issues of too much Strength tearing her muscles apart, but maybe Mana-hardened would upgrade to help make up for that. A girl could dream.
As it was, Eve dismissed the message to find one final class promotion filling her vision.
Class Upgrade Available: The Defiant
Unique Tier 4 Class
Requirements: Forge your own path.
Faced with a class you didn’t like, you fought to change it. Faced with a foe of incredible might, you defeated it. Faced with a destiny unworthy of your fortitude, you shattered it. Through strength, through cunning, through fortune good and ill,
you have overcome challenges a lesser being would deem impossible. You have discovered the truth. It isn’t might or wit or luck that defines greatness, but the insurmountable will of those who refuse to be conquered. Stand tall. Stand stalwart. Stand defiant.
+60 Mana Density
+20 Constitution
+8 Dexterity
+7 Strength
+5 Intelligence
+40 Mana Density/Level
+10 Intelligence/Level
+10 Constitution/Level
+10 Strength/Level
+10 Dexterity/Level
Eve read it again. She checked and rechecked everything about it, from the cryptic requirement to the vague if inspiring description to the stat gains themselves. True to her guess, the totals matched up with those of a Mythic. That felt wrong. Unique was supposed to be rarer than Legendary. Why were the stats only Mythic? Eve didn’t know. There were a lot of things Eve didn’t know.
She had to imagine the two Unique individuals she’d met—the Man of the Mists and the Lady of Whispers—had been stronger than this. They’d seemed so… unfathomable. Then again, Eve had little doubt they weren’t tier four. Perhaps at the higher tiers Unique classes were more powerful. She supposed it didn’t matter in the moment.
Nice as Heiress of the Ancients would’ve been—especially with its greater focus on Mana Density—The Defiant held all sorts of promise. Sure, it didn’t directly reference her race change, but she did still have the secondary quest. That left Legacy of the Precursors as another potential avenue for advancement, one Eve was all too eager to pursue.
Clearing her notifications, the former Striker looked up from her reading to find Wes and Preston staring at her. Wordlessly, Wes offered a skyswallower steak to quiet her grumbling stomach. She had a lot of Mana to restore.
The allure of a hot meal was more than enough to convince Eve to put off diving into her new skills for the time being, especially given the visible curiosity that strained her companions’ faces. Impatient as she was to try out her latest promotion, she could spare a few minutes to put food in her belly and share the news with her friends.
“It’s a shame,” Preston eventually remarked as Eve dug into her second full meal. “That Heiress class sounds like it has better stats for you.”
“You’re missing the point,” Wes interjected with a mouthful of cave mushroom. “The Defiant is better for one reason and one reason only.”
The healer cocked an eyebrow. “Because it’s Unique?”
“Nope.” Wes winked. “Because it sounds cooler.”
For all it’d taken and for all she still ached, Eve couldn’t help but crack a smile and let loose a laugh at the silly comment, even though the act sent bits of partially chewed steak flying through the air. Besides, he was right.
It did sound cooler.
CHAPTER NINE
Unlock, Upgrade, Combine
HER BELLY FULL and her companions’ curiosity sated, Eve sat back against the mossy cave wall to continue her reading. Ready for anything, given the events of the day, she pulled up the first skill upgrade.
Abilities Combined!
Surefooted and Mana-hardened have combined!
Okay, she hadn’t been ready for that. Hells, she hadn’t even known it was possible for skills to merge. Already a smile stretched across Eve’s face. Combined abilities meant an open spot for a new passive. She read on.
Ability Unlocked!
Passive Ability - Defiant Body
The will can only be as steadfast as the shell that houses it. You have cultivated both. Gain increased bone density and sinew strength, resistance to impact, explosive, thermal, and slashing damage. Maintain control of your every motion. Gain increased traction, resistance to uneven terrain, resistance to immobilizing and destabilizing effects.
Eve exhaled. The skill seemed mostly just a combination of two old ones with a few small changes. Defenses against immobilizing effects would certainly be nice, though she couldn’t recall ever actually being immobilized. Other than by the Lynthia city guards, of course, but she doubted an escape attempt would’ve gone over well in that situation.
The other difference she noticed was the lack of poison resistance Mana-hardened had once granted, but she supposed her Ethereal Metabolism took care of that now. Eve didn’t doubt the other assorted resistances would be stronger across the board—she was tier four now, after all. She wondered if they scaled with Mana Density.
Deciding such a concept would be tricky—and painful—to test, Eve dismissed it for the time being to move on to the next message.
Ability Upgraded!
Passive Ability - Haste
A quicker step is the difference between life and death. You run [MND/4]% faster.
Eve had to read the upgrade twice to notice the change. Scaling by a quarter of her Mana Density instead of a fifth wasn’t exactly life changing, but it was certainly nice. At her current Mana Density, the change meant an extra twenty-seven percent movespeed, and each level would be worth ten percent instead of the old eight.
Happy as she was for the upgrade, Eve couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointment as she closed the message. The skill was neither new nor flashy, two things she’d expected from a Unique class. She sighed.
The third notification she opened elicited more of a smile.
Ability Unlocked!
Passive Ability - Defiant Mind
Wield the unmatched will of The Defiant. Your mind is your own. Gain immunity to fear, pacify, and loss of control effects. Gain increased reaction speed. Unlock access to the Fatetorn Gaze general skill.
“What in the—” Eve muttered. Since when did passive abilities grant general skills? She did a quick scan of her remaining notifications and skill list but found no other mention of Fatetorn Gaze. So I don’t have it but I’m able to learn it? Eve wondered. She hadn’t gotten a message informing her she could learn Mana Manipulation when she’d first become a manaheart.
Eve shook her head, mentally adding it to her growing list of uncertainties. Beyond the cryptic bits, Defiant Mind was a definite win. Hells, if the ability was just increased reaction speed she’d have been happy. She needed it, if only to avoid death by accidentally Charging into a wall. She grinned.
Noting no changes to Ethereal Metabolism—which made sense; it was tied to her race, not her class—Eve pulled up the first of her actives.
Ability Upgraded!
Active Ability - Defiant Charge
100 Mana
Face your foes head on. None shall stand in your way. Triple your Constitution and maximum running speed for [MND/5] seconds.
The increased cost was laughable in the face of the four hundred maximum Mana Eve now gained each level, but the Constitution boost was no trifle. She’d have preferred it tied to her Mana Rush—if only for the sake of the Mana-cost scaling—but she’d take any extra survivability she could get. Maybe it’d be enough to withstand another huge burst of Strength.
The skill’s name, on the other hand, left a sour taste in Eve’s mouth. Defiant Mind and Defiant Body she could understand, but just slapping the word ‘defiant’ onto an existing skill? It didn’t even make sense. The last thing she wanted was to wind up with a dozen skills that all sounded the same. She glanced up at Wes. At least he had a bunch of synonyms for fire. All she had was… defiant.
Moving on to her final skill change, Eve let out a sigh of relief to find the name unchanged.
Ability Upgraded!
Active Ability - Jet
X Mana
Momentum itself bends to your will. Massively increase or decrease your personal momentum or that of a single body part in any direction. Velocity change and cooldown scale with Mana cost.
Now this was a variable-cost spell Eve could get behind. Instead of another outlet for massive amounts of Mana, the upgraded Jet granted flexibility. Hells, dumping her entire pool into the skill would be suicide. Splat. She shuddered.
What really caught her attention was th
e cooldown scaling. Eve doubted it would be more efficient to cast the spell for nearly nothing several times in rapid succession, but the idea of dropping small amounts of Mana to make micro adjustments to her motion mid-combat sprung to mind. She’d have to practice. Getting a feel for the Mana scaling would take work.
Shutting the last notification, Eve took a moment to review her skill list, confirming that Mana Burst and Mana Rush had been unaffected. Similar to Ethereal Metabolism, she imagined her class had little bearing on the skills. They were manaheart’s domain.
Shaking her head and pushing herself to her feet, Eve turned to meet Wes and Preston’s expectant stares. “Good changes, but nothing too exciting. I’m definitely stronger, but I don’t feel Unique.”
“Probably because you’ve got the stats of a Mythic,” Wes answered.
“So if I’ve got the stats of a Mythic, and abilities that sound more at home on a Mythic, what does Unique even do?”
The Disciple shrugged. “Beats me. Maybe it’ll change. If Uniques just follow the Mythic progression, wouldn’t Legendary still be better?”
“Maybe it is,” Preston said, “or maybe not all Uniques are created equal. Maybe it’s tied to your quest, or your specific class, or any number of other factors. Unless you have another Unique at hand to chat with, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Wes and Eve shared a sideways look.
The healer continued, “Stats or abilities aside, I can already think of one reason your class is Unique. I can’t see it.”
Wes nodded.
“Right.” Eve furrowed her brow. “You mentioned that. But Shatterfate Striker was the same way—why wasn’t it Unique?”