“No, that’s fine. Do you want me to give you class shards now?”

  I shook my head. “I’ve already got two that I think are compatible. For now, I think I’d rather see if I can get them on my own. Then if I get something from you, it will be something I couldn’t get on my own.”

  She cracked a true smile for the first time. “I do believe I’m going to enjoy working with you, Mr. Ren… err… Silas. Just don’t think you’re so clever that you forget to ask for help now and then. Don’t forget,” she raised one hand to emphasize her point, “training is as important as leveling. A balance is required.”

  I wasn’t sure that I agreed with her, but then she probably had been doing this for a long time and didn’t have the fate of an entire world resting on her. I simply nodded and went with it, though.

  After a few more pleasantries and a brief explanation about how the mana condensers were slowly raising Anwich from its current mana density and in the process controlling the mana fluctuations, the current mana density was somewhere between basic and common. Eventually, it would end up leveling out between uncommon and rare. According to their experts, the current condenser models were designed to keep Galen’s mana ecosystems balanced to ensure the safety of their entire world. If they attempted to raise the mana levels in Anwich too high, it had potentially damaging side effects globally.

  I went out and ended up staying up late talking to Dori, Crag, and Nevin. We planned, but mostly we just talked about life, and it was relaxing. I liked hearing about what their life was like here on Galen. It helped me to know that life could go on even after the system turned your world… that is, if Earth remained in the top three. Below that… well, yeah.

  There were plenty of horror stories they had to share, and I knew it would be better if Earth could somehow get the top spot, but I didn’t know if that was still within my reach. What I could do though was my best and gather information for worst case scenarios. Knowing these things would help me prepare the survivors as Earth faced its own apocalypse with the system. I could only hope the worst-case scenario was an induction as a dungeon world.

  Then after a night of sleep we got down to serious hunting. Over the next five days, not only did we level up, but we also started observing Greta and her patterns. She controlled a large area as her domain, which included forest, watering holes, swamps and even some foothills. Everything gave way to her and while her level was not that much higher than many of the other creatures, she exuded an aura of power that was impossible to miss.

  The leveling became slower as we began to out-level the monsters we battled. The team actually caught up with me and we ended up at level 28. Selmac used whatever influence she had to get Transhek to allow us to run the unique dungeon again and while we got almost no XP from it, the boss still dropped some great loot.

  All of it went to the team except for the shards I needed to finish my class. It once again seemed like the system was playing a rigged game with me, but I wasn’t going to fight it when it helped me out.

  Class Shard- Projection Mage (common)

  2 x Class Shard- Shield Bearer (common)

  Crag ended up taking one of the shield bearer shards to form his common class and I used the other one, along with the projection mage and the two druid class shards to form my own common core.

  You have placed four common class shards together against your skin. Do you wish to form a common class core with these shards? Warning, process is irreversible once begun.

  As soon as I accepted, I began to feel a slight tingling. The process was no more difficult than it had been to form a basic class, but absorbing it was a bit more painful. It was like the growing pains on fast forward. My body ached and stretched in ways that were disconcerting to feel.

  You have obtained a basic class core: Projection Mage, Druid, Shield Bearer, Druid.

  The nature of your core is influenced by the condition of the shards used in its formation, as well as by your intentions.

  A thought occurred to me. I wondered if the order that the shards were used in meant anything. Before, the rogue shard had gone first because it was the most unusual and it felt like the abilities I had been offered at first focused on rogue more than my other class aspects.

  I didn’t know the answer. Nor was I going to stop in the middle of this process and go find someone to ask. Nevin might know more about it and while I would have trusted him, he tended to get lost in theory rather than practical issues.

  I was positive that Selmac would have known. Whether she’d tell me was an entirely different question. She obviously had her own agenda, and I was still debating on how much trust to give her. She was an enigma, and I wasn’t going to rely on her for my future potential growth, irrespective of how sincere she sounded.

  The projection mage shard was a fringe shard in that it is properly placed upon the border between Common and Uncommon grade. While it will not open spell slots limited to Uncommon grade, the abilities and potential spells which it generates will be stronger than regular Common grade.

  The two druid shards came for a singular creature and thus will have a higher degree of conformity with one another and greater influence from the creature that they came from. Because that creature was also a mana infected flora on an uninducted world, the chance to generate unique abilities is enhanced.

  The shield bearer shard represents a class which deviates from your class build up to this point. It is a more melee oriented class and will influence your further development.

  You have reached level 28. You do not gain any new Passive or Active Ability slots until level 31; however, you will gain new options, which may replace your current options. You also will gain Common grade only spell slots at levels 30, 40, and 50.

  New Passive Ability Option:

  A Shield for All: As long as you are wielding a shield, you and all your party members gain a temporary bonus of +25 to Durability. Shield Projections will count for this effect.

  New Active Ability Option:

  Symbiotic Healing: You sprout a mass of vegetation on your back, which then connects to your party members with tiny filaments. You and all of your party members then pool your regeneration for the duration of the effect or until the last of the filaments are destroyed. Duration: 1 hour. Cool-down: 1 hour after use is concluded.

  I was more than pleased with both of those, but figured I’d talk to the party about the best ways to use them. The only other thing to look at was the changes in my stat gains. It appeared that a common class would net me one extra free stat point, but because of my title, that was two extra, so up to six per level.

  It was interesting to see how my title interacted with the other stat gains. It wasn’t an exact doubling, or maybe it doubled some of the stats which would have gone up on alternating levels so that they now went up on every level. It also seemed that the system wasn’t lying. Projection Mage was a borderline class because I got a base of 5 stats from that shard rather than the 4 I got from the others. I wasn’t going to argue.

  Stat gains:

  Projection Mage Shard: +3 Mind, +2 Will, +1 Perception per level.

  Shield Bearer Shard: +1 Vitality, +1 Durability, +2 in either Strength or Endurance

  Druid Shards (x2): +4 Will, +2 Endurance, +2 Perception

  Free Stats: +6

  Note: The effects of your title: One Small Step/One Giant Leap, have already been noted.

  Chapter 47- A Bear of a Try Out

  I shared the broad strokes of my new class with my teammates. We discussed trading out various active and passive skills for my new options.

  “Dropping Stealth for a Symbiotic Healing seems obvious, now that I’m not a rogue anymore,” I said, “It of course then allows me to trade out Aura of Us for A Shield for All.

  Dori shook her head in disagreement. I arched an eyebrow as I tried to figure out what her thinking was. “It isn’t that I don’t agree with your decision. All of us will benefit from some extra Durability. Heck, that will more than double mine and with your style you’ll be using shields a lot. What I am shaking my head about is that you don’t completely understand what a class is.”

  I wasn’t quite sure what to say, so I went with, “Then maybe explain?”

  Nevin started to speak, but she said, “Nope. This isn’t the time for theory, and neither Crag nor I want to listen to it. If I have to go hunt some massive monsters, then I want us to level as much as we can and take advantage of the extra XP we get with Silas here.” Then she focused back on me. “The simple version of it is that while you choose your class, the class then has an impact on you. As you saw, a rogue can take many different forms. You aren’t nearly as stealthy or stabby as I am, but you still have that stupid Charisma thing working for you. That is going to remain a part of you.

  “Your personality and core nature will shift to match your classes. You were only that basic class for a few days so the impact will be less. You’ve got that ridiculous Forerunner thing going on, so honestly, I don’t expect you to stay at Common for very long either but whether at Uncommon or Rare, you will slow down and once you do the class will start to affect you more.”

  “So my class controls my mind?”

  Again Nevin tried to butt in, but this time Crag was the one to pull him back as Dori answered, “Nothing that direct, but it will influence you. You simply need to be aware of that.”

  After making the changes, we went out hunting again. By the end of the day, I was level 29, and my team were all on the cusp of reaching 29 too. We never saw Greta that day, but that was good. I wanted to raise my level as high as I could before confronting her.

  On the third day of hunting, I was nearing level 30, while the rest of the team was about three quarters of the way into level 29. Of course, that was when we heard the roaring. There was no mistaking this for any of Greta’s lesser kin. It was terrifying even at a distance, but we had been practicing our teamwork the past few days. With Nevin’s charmed pets as our primary healer, Urg as the backup and me the healer and protector, the others were freed up to fight.

  Nevin said, “That was close. There isn’t time for me to charm another monster, but I can re-cast it on this one if you’ll heal it?”

  I nodded and then made sure that we were all ready. I double checked that Symbiotic Healing was working at full steam. That boosted the regen of each member of the team significantly. It included Urg in its effect, but not the charmed pet. I was more than content with that since the eidolon was proving himself to be very competent already.

  I re-summoned him each morning before we went hunting, although I wasn’t sure if he rested better in his unsummoned state. I got the sense that it was like he went home when he wasn’t here, but that home was more a passive state of being than a place where he interacted with friends and family. His nature was still incredibly alien and something which I would need to explore further.

  Re-summoning him had the benefit of allowing Urg’s stats and level to increase. He was a sort of mirror of my abilities and as my stats went up, so did his, although he continued to shift them around to make him more melee oriented. The biggest change, though, was when I re-summoned him the first time after upgrading my class.

  I had immediately felt a deeper connection with him, and it was almost like he could speak to me. His physical form shifted. Rather than the oddly smooth and rectangular form, he took on the shape of a twisted set of vines. Instead of flowers or fruit on the vines though, his buds were small buckler sized shields.

  His entire form was now about eight feet high, but he floated in the air, never quite making contact with the ground. It was bizarre to say the least, but his ability to play the role of tank only went up. I watched as Urg altered some of his buds to shift into myriads of sharp-edged weapons, which could strike out to cause slashing or piercing damage if the smashing of his shield shaped buds wasn’t enough.

  As I looked around, we were all healed up, our mana was nearly full, and we were as ready as we could be at the moment. I was a bit surprised that none of the others suggested fleeing, but perhaps like me, they were caught up in just how much more powerful we’d become.

  Then it didn’t matter. The small glade we were in was a break in the forest. We had been hunting some oversized rabbits with horns that seemed to come straight out of the twisted musings of a dungeon. Their bodies lay all around us and we started to move as Greta walked into the grove.

  She still exuded that sense of power, but it wasn’t as overwhelming as before. The charmed horned rabbit waited as Nevin had it serve as a distraction. Urg had already hidden himself next to a tree. The adventurers were all waiting in the wings with Nevin as far back as he could be in the trees while still being able to use Fire Bolt and his newly added, Ice Spear, which he had added as he leveled up. Dori was invisible to my eyes, but not my mini-map or party sense.

  Crag, on the other hand, I could see standing behind a tree with his big two-handed hammer out. I would have questioned his choice of weapons against Greta. The bear’s thick fur, muscle, and bone was almost certainly built to absorb a great deal of blunt damage, but he had acquired a new ability which enabled him to convert all of his blunt damage into piercing. It would enable him to capitalize on his Strength which was now well over 100 and drive all that force deep into his target.

  The strategy we had discussed was one of distract, debuff, cripple, and then kill.

  The horned rabbit would play its part as the distraction. In just a minute, Greta would be far enough into the glade that we’d be able to hit her from all sides. My task would be to resist her debuff, which would, of course, draw her ire. The next part of the plan relied on Urg to get between me and several tons of raging feathered bear.

  I’d have used Levitation, but the spell wouldn’t allow me to rise high enough off the ground to make a difference. So, I waited.

  They always say that no plan of battle ever survives first contact, but I think our plan went to hell even before contact. The moment that Greta saw me she roared. I resisted the debuffing effect, but saw her charging straight for me. Apparently, she remembered me from before and was intent on not letting me get away again. The trees and even the ground shook from the power of the roar. I was pretty sure it wasn’t me trembling… yeah, who was I kidding, my knees were knocking. But since my team couldn’t see it, I’d claim it was the ground beneath me causing the shakes.

  It was a toss-up if I was simply terrified or having a moment of bravery—but, I kept to the plan. The instant she was within range, I started casting.

  Boon-Bane

  Immediately, the power of the spell hit me, and I felt the magic take effect. With this spell, the entire team would all hit 25% harder and every blow we took would be reduced by 25% until the damage shield of 3000 HP was extinguished. That was about comparable to the total health of our team if you didn’t count Urg.

  I had only a split second to be satisfied by the fact that Greta didn’t resist the Bane part of the spell. Her damage was reduced by 25% and she became more susceptible to all of our elemental damage. She would now take an extra 50 points of damage from each attack. I didn’t have any idea how much HP Greta had, but I imagined that it was a massive amount.

  And then I was jumping back as her claws came down on me. If this had been like the last time I tried to delay her, I would have been ripped wide open by those dagger long claws. I might have enough HP to protect me, but as I was learning that was more of a guideline. It didn’t stop the physics of the situation. HP might keep you alive with your head cut off, but your head was still cut off and you still couldn’t do anything about it.

  I felt the rush of air as the claws missed me by inches, but kept moving. The beast was hardly done with me. Urg was trying to trap him. The eidolon and I had only been fighting together for a few days, but I knew him well enough to know that a death in my realm wasn’t a real death for him. He was more than willing to put his life on the line for mine and was doing so at that very moment.

  Urg shifted away from any type of defensive construct and threw his body around Greta’s back leg. What I took to be an attempt to slow the monstrous bear down only partially worked. Greta didn’t even look back. Something about me, whether it was how my aura had affected her before or if it was because I’d escaped her, had her all riled up.

  Each of Urg’s buds turned into thick needle like protrusions and sank a solid foot into the bear’s body. After making another swipe at me, even she couldn’t ignore the attack from my eidolon. Just as she began to twist her body to attack Urg, she was hit by a flash of motion from the left.

  Crag used an ability which I still didn’t know the name of, but it was clearly some type of bull-rushing ability. It allowed him to cross something like fifty feet in the blink of an eye. If, like me at the moment, you weren’t focused on it. To my eyes, he seemed to be nothing more than a blur of motion until he hit his target.

  The impact from the attack had always been impressive. I assumed there was some type of cool-down on the ability because Crag didn’t use it for every fight, yet when he had, it had always been a tremendous opener. Spined-foxes, smaller feathered-bears or our recent adversaries, horned rabbits were sent tumbling over.