Chapter 57

Chapter 57

Riven gave Negrada a skeptical look and then pulled up the options for his new class choices. To his surprise, they were indeed combination classes for two of the three options, just like Negrada had talked about—so apparently the system thought Riven was a good match. Athela had told Riven that the system only handed out class options for those who earned them, and apparently the last fight he’d had with the satyr warlord in conjunction with his race evolution was more than enough to get him a spot with these three.

[Class Upgrade Options:

Warlock Adept: The Warlock Adept is a direct upgrade from the class Novice Warlock and emphasizes demonic minions with a high damage output through magical attacks. You gain additional negative charisma. You will have a percentage upgrade to all Unholy pillar and related subpillar spells through this class, you will acquire an additional demonic contract slot when you hit level 35, you will acquire more stat points per level than you did as a novice, and you will experience visions from the system concerning Unholy pillar abilities more often by taking this class. Bonus structure for Staves, Cloth Armor, Willpower, and Intelligence included. (Comes with the knowledge of the Shadow subpillar and the Shadow spell Riftwalk.)

Reaper Initiate: The Reaper Initiate is the first in line for a class style that primarily focuses on physical attributes, encompassing Unholy, Blood, Death, and Shadow abilities. This class employs Stealth bonuses for those who would be assassins, spies, or thieves. This class has bonus structures for Scythes, Crossbows, Small Blades, Axes, Cloth Armor, and Light Armor, as well as Agility and Strength, but also applies smaller bonuses to Intelligence. (Comes with the knowledge of the Blood martial art Flurry.)

Blood Paladin: As a Blood subpillar specialist primarily focusing on physical attributes with martial arts, the Blood Paladin will also gain bonuses to magical and miracle-based abilities to a lesser degree. This class gives very good bonuses to heavy armor, shields, mental defense, and large weapons, as well as good Sturdiness and Strength stat increases per level. It also has a very high bonus structure for the Blood subpillar abilities but has no bonus structure concerning any other pillars. (Comes with the Blood miracle Crimson Wings.)]

He immediately noticed a couple things here. The first was that each of these class upgrades came with a new ability...which was pretty sweet, considering his first class hadn’t had that. He’d had to learn his abilities in the Chalgathi trials when he’d been given the Novice Warlock class.

The Warlock Adept had a huge bonus that Riven really wanted—the third demonic minion. Having two demonic minions was already a huge boon, and having a third? That just seemed downright unfair. But the big seller on this one was the spell Riftwalk, which he could only assume was some kind of teleport or movement ability. If that was the case, he very much wanted that martial art. Being a mobile caster was something that Athela said wasn’t done often, and not being mobile was often the downfall of many once-successful casters or mages in the end.

The Reaper Initiate class was apparently the type of fighting style that Negrada said Riven had, and although it sounded neat, Riven was a little bit hesitant to choose it based on how it described the class being a “primarily physical” class. He liked magic a lot, and he didn’t see his fighting style changing all that much. Sure, he’d used a hatchet to kill a bunch of thugs prior to the dungeon, and yeah, he’d killed the satyr warlord with his bare hands after enchanting himself with Crimson Ice, but he’d primarily been using magic all along to get to where he was now. To switch it up after investing most of his points into Intelligence thus far would seem a little off to him. He also didn’t know what Flurry was or how it could be used, but it was a martial art, and if he had to guess from the name, it likely involved quick successive strikes against an enemy.

Then lastly there was Blood Paladin, with the strength and defensive bonuses. It would definitely be a good fit for the claymore. The idea of walking around in a cool set of heavy armor, wielding large intimidating weapons, and being hard to kill definitely appealed to him for obvious reasons, as did Crimson Wings if it meant flying. Flying would be even cooler than a teleport, but Riven really didn’t like the idea of utilizing only the Blood subpillar. What if he wanted variety? He was way too early into this new world to be focusing down like that. Not only that, but this class also utilized primarily physical attributes according to the description, and he was dead set on utilizing magic as his primary function—even if he was possibly going to switch it up a bit with martial arts in the future given his new racial evolution.

This one was different, though. Instead of radiating light like the rest did, it absorbed light. It was a black mark, in stark contrast to the light of his soul or any of the other pillars, and it gingerly edged its way past the blazing Infernal subpillar to settle down beside it. As it attached itself to Riven’s soul, he felt a cold rush flow through his body. It was a welcome feeling, though, and it felt...right. Just like the Blood subpillar, the Shadow subpillar seemed to welcome him home as if it’d always intended to find him. Unholy and Infernal certainly vibed with his soul well, but in comparison to Blood and Shadow, neither of them could quite compare in how they felt or the synchronizing feeling they had whenever their mana channels reached out.

As the Shadow subpillar solidified and finished fusing to the edge of his soul, Riven then felt and saw another vision.

It was that of the birth of a sun after the passing wave from a supernova. The vision condensed time and space, comparing the stark contrast of the black void to the light given off by the sun—and then it showed the death of the star and the continuity of the void even in its absence. From what he gathered and the feelings he was receiving, the Shadow subpillar was essentially showing him that Shadow was always there and would always remain there even in the absolute absence of light. In the eventual death of the universe, light would cease to exist—yet Shadow would forever remain.

The vision switched again, this time showing a series of holes in time and space, ones that he could travel through by forcing a rift in space—holding that rift open with his mana channels. Where there was absence of light, Riven could find passage and sanctuary. The wormholes continued on and on, forever reaching out into the expanse and onto solid earth until they came upon places where the shadows could not reach.

Channeling mana through the Shadow subpillar, understanding the vision for what it was, and applying meaning to it were the three fundamental pieces to any Tier 1 spell. Channeling mana was a given and easy enough to do. Understanding what he needed and wanted by the ability was also easy enough. Applying meaning and understanding to the vision was the hard part, but unbeknownst to him, even that was child’s play for Riven when compared to the average caster. Pondering the vision of the wormholes led him to a single and obvious conclusion: there was a path to sanctuary in the absence of light that he could tread upon. In fact, he might even be able to establish links between spots by pushing light away even in its presence, expanding the wormholes, tying the loops together like so, and—

[You have successfully acquired the Shadow subpillar. You have successfully interpreted and learned the spell Riftwalk. Congratulations!]

[Riftwalk (Shadow): Channel mana into your Shadow subpillar and focus on the place you wish to travel to. Then rip open a portal in space and pass through it, allowing you and other people or objects nearby to pass through until you close the rift. Mana cost is dependent upon length of space traveled and time maintaining rift.]

Huh. That was all it took? Honestly, it seemed rather simple to him, and it made him question whether or not the system was just screwing with him and trying to make him feel good about himself. Was it belittling him? He’d thought that solution was a rather obvious one.

“I see you have made your choice,” Negrada commented patiently, narrowing its pupil slightly as Riven turned to him. “You acquired your pillar rather...fast...no doubt due to your affinities being so absurdly high. Have you made up your mind on what you want to trade for?”