Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Eleniah laughed for a while. Like, a while. Her laughter was loud and gleeful, like a child discovering fireworks or something equally awesome for the first time. A few times when she ran out of breath, Kay heard her gasp out a few words. Words like, “...can’t believe...”, “...so much fun!”, and “...finally found...!”.

Eventually she stopped and laid against the table, catching her breath.

“Are you done?” He asked.

She looked up at him with bright eyes. “... And you don’t have any idea. Oh, that makes it even better.” She chuckled and sat up. “Alright, come this way.” She stood up and walked off.

Kay sighed, but he followed without saying anything. He could break the agreement at any time, but some instinct was telling him not to. Maybe it was just the base part of himself wanting to spend time around the beautiful woman, but he was pretty sure it was more than that. And if it wasn’t, well he had an out clause waiting.

He didn’t see much more of the medium sized home as he followed Eleniah down a hall and into the back yard. It was pretty basic, with a tall wall of that same local marble blocking off the area from random passers-by. There were a few planters holding various flowers and plants near the door, but the rest of the yard was just bare dirt.

“Run.” She pointed into the yard. “Around the yard, follow the wall.”

“What?” Kay looked from the yard to her. It was at least the size of a decent sized outlet store, which was impressive in and of itself in a cramped city area.

“We’re starting training. Start running around the yard, following the wall.” She pointed again, looking at him calmly.

He glanced back and forth again, then started to jog. That same niggling instinct in the back of his head pushed him to follow her instructions

“Faster!” She called out from behind him, and he picked up the pace.

As he finished his first lap, Eleniah started running with him. Just out of reach, she kept the exact same pace as him, no matter how much he slowed or sped up, she kept the exact same distance. All while running backwards. And she didn’t miss a single turn, her pivots were perfectly timed to miss the wall and keep in front of him. The entire time she yelled encouragements and admonishments to speed up and not lose the pace, but not once did she use insults or try and degrade him, which he had expected at least a little.

Finally, after he’d lost count on the number of laps he’d run, she stopped. “Alright, that’s it for now.”

Kay did his best not to collapse to the ground as he slowed to a stop.

“Don’t just stop here! Walk it off, it’s better for you.”

At her direction he did another two laps walking, then stopped by her side as she waved him down. “Here.” She held out a cup of water to him. “I’ve got more, but don’t drink too fast.”

He took it gratefully and began to drink.

“So, here’s your first question as my new student.” She took the cup from him as he finished and filled it again from a pitcher. “Why did I make you run?”

“What?” He frowned. That seemed like an easy one. “For training?”

“Well, sure, but why running?”

He frowned deeper. “To make me better at running?”

She stared at him, her gaze holding a little confusion. “Yes, to make you better at running, but you have a magic class, wouldn’t you think that I should start training you in that?”

“I mean, eventually yeah, I’d think so. But what do I know about training people?”

Eleniah let out a breath. “Most trainees I get with magic classes are all annoyed about the running.”

“Do people with magic not have to run here?” Kay couldn’t help but ask. That seemed stupid. What if they got ambushed or something? Or hell, he could think of half a dozen instances that would require people with magic running, right off the top of his head.

Eleniah closed her eyes and clapped her free hand to her forehead. “Right off the bat, I forget you’re an Outworlder. Of course you don’t have the same damned prejudices I normally see.” She rubbed at her forehead for a second. “Alright, sorry about that. It’s been a few hundred years since I taught an Outworlder, so it might take me a bit to get in stride again. So, the running thing. How much do you know about how classes and higher tiers empower you?”

“A little bit? Douglas explained some things to me.”

“The BOA gnome? What did he tell you?”

“Like what? What benefits do I get?”

“Just look at the Title.”

“What do you mean? It just says its name.”

Eleniah grimaced. “Right, Outworlder doesn’t know the basics because no one taught you it. Sorry, just focus on anything from your status that you want to know about and it will give you more information.”

Kay pulled open his status and focused like she’d said on the title, inwardly scolding himself. Just like Captain Armis told me about the updates. I have to pay more attention!

[————————————————————]

Title: Class Line Progenitor

-The first person to create or discover a new class line, the Class Line Progenitor immediately gains a new class slot of the appropriate type on gaining the title. The Class Line Progenitor cannot lose the base line class of their class line under any circumstances, and they gain an intuitive understanding on how to advance their class into it’s higher tier, and into new branches.

[————————————————————]

“Oh...”

Eleniah leaned closer. “Read it?”

“Yeah, I did, that’s... Great. At least, the first and last bits. Is the part about not being able to lose the base line class good?”

She laughed. “No, it’s fantastic. If you upgrade a class onto a branch off of the base line path and onto a new one, that class becomes the new branch class, and to do that again you have to get the base line class again and progress through it again. It isn’t as hard as doing it the first time, but it is time consuming and uses up class slots. Not only will you not have to worry about leveling up a class again and again to reach new branches and get new classes, each time you do so you’ll get a new slot!”

“There’s no upper limit to the number of slots you can have?”

“Not that anyone’s discovered. The highest known is somewhere around eighty classes.”

“Eighty?”

“Yeah, the tier seven known as the Rune Master is a Class Line Progenitor at least three times over, and they have a huge amount of classes.”

Kay sat back in his chair. “That’s crazy!”

“Yeah, the Rune Master created the Rune Magic line a few thousand years ago, consolidated enough power to rule their own island to the west of here, and they’ve spent the whole time researching new classes and working on their old ones.”

Rocked by the repeated shocks, Kay started at his new teacher. “A few thousand years ago? The way you’re talking it sounds like they’re still alive.”

“Of course they are, they’re tier seven.” Eleniah huffed out a breath. “Crap, another thing you wouldn’t know. Right, the first time you reach a tier after the first, your lifespan increases. By the time you get to tier five you’ll live for around a thousand years if no one kills you.”

Kay felt like his jaw would hit the floor.

Eleniah waved the subject away. “Don’t worry about that now, you have to get to that level first, and it’ll take awhile. Focus on the here and now.”

He blinked at her repeatedly. “Alright...”

“Anyways, your titles are awesome, you have the potential to be powerful, don’t talk about it to anyone not bound by an agreement or that you trust completely.”

Kay rubbed at his face. “I’m not some storybook protagonist! How the hell did I end up in this position?”

Eleniah walked around the table and patted his shoulder. “No, you’re not some hero in a story. But life happens, and sometimes people end up with opportunities that seem crazy. I haven’t been in your exact situation, but I’ve had some similar circumstances, and my recommendation is to just keep going. Take the opportunity and use it while remaining who you are already.”

“And it’s that easy, huh?”

She laughed. “No, it’s not that easy. But it is that simple. Now, lets head back outside and train some more. This time it’s sit ups.”