Rune Seeker

Hiral watched for a moment longer as Yanily spread his arms and legs wide, falling towards the clouds, lightning a constant backdrop behind the man.

Then he was gone, swallowed by the clouds, and a new sound joined the booming thunder – a roar.

The sky – no, the whole world – shook. And made it very clear nobody else was welcome up there for the moment. Hiral included.

Getting the hint, Hiral darted back down the way he’d come, and it took him less than a minute before he landed back on the roof of the Ascender’s Tower. Seena and the others stood there waiting for him, and more than one looked from him to the roof above and back again several times.

“Hiral?” Seena asked, the one word conveying her entire question.

“Advanced class time,” Hiral said in explanation.

“That’s what was bugging him?”

“Yeah, he was close. Just missing the last part.”

“Which was…” Seena trailed off and nodded like she’d figured it out. “The storm. Of course.”

“There must’ve been too much between us and it, or something.” Hiral shrugged.

“He better not evolve up there without us,” Seeyela said, then looked a little guilty. “I mean… ahem. Whatever’s best for him. Just, if he happened to remember our Evolutionary Inspiration, it’s not like I’ve got a very specific skill I’d like to upgrade or anything.”

Seena just chuckled at her sister.

“How long do you think it’ll take him?” Wule asked.

“Shouldn’t be long,” Seena said. “This is Yanily we’re talking about.”

“The definition of an idiot savant,” Wule said with a serious nod.

“Less of an idiot than he pretends to be,” Nivian said.

“Yeah, just don’t tell him we’ve realized that,” the healer said.

“Should we be worried about squids with this?” Seena asked Hiral.

“Don’t think so,” Hiral said. “Yan said their storm wasn’t close. And I think Heaven’s Punishment might be up there. Any squids showing their faces, er, tenacles… they’re invisible. Just, any squids would be stupid to come looking around right now.”

“Then all we can do is wait.”

It didn’t take long, with a bolt of thick lightning slamming into the tower less than a minute later. When the afterimage faded from Hiral’s eyes, he found the spearman standing there, a huge smile on his face.

“Welcome back,” Hiral said. “Figure it out?”

“Oh yeah,” Yanily said. “Thanks for bringing me up there. That was exactly what I needed.”

“You got your advanced class?” Seeyela asked.

“I got two,” Yanily said with a smirk. “Two options that is. Already dismissed one – I didn’t like it. And the other? Well, it’s pretty great.”

“Two?” Seena asked with a shake of her head. “As Wule would say, of course you did. Did you take the other one yet?”

“And have you guys miss out on Evolutionary Inspiration? No way. Buuuuut, since we’re all here…”

“Do it,” Seena said, making sure there was plenty of distance between Yanily and the others. Advanced class evolutions tended to involve some pretty dramatic explosions, after all.

Yanily took a deep breath in response, the fingers around the haft of his spear tightening, while he reached out with his other hand. A tap, like he was hitting the Yes button to accept his new class, and a notification window appeared in front of his outstretched hand. Seemingly made of static lightning, the once-stable window quickly deteriorated, individual arcs of electricity zapping down to the stone floor around his feet.

One after the other, the bolts formed a ring of charged current circling the man, and Yanily looked up at the gathered crowd. Then the damn man winked at them before a truly massive bolt of lightning seemed to weave its way through the arching stones above and completely consume him.

Seeyela groaned at the wink as the torrent of lightning stretched from a fifteen-foot diameter on the top of the Ascender’s Tower – with Yanily in the middle – up to and through the arches of stone above. Almost like a massive tree of lightning, the forks branched out far wider at the top than near the party, and lit up the massive room-like area where the tower resided. Sparks of free-floating electricity appeared in the air all around, while the hair on those who had it – including the poor companions – stood on end under the extreme static.

To Hiral’s extra senses, he felt the advanced class notification window open a channel directly between the PIMP and Yanily. Energy and meaning flowed like the torrent of lightning through the connection, and Hiral closed his eyes while diving into Enduring Mind+.

It all happened at a pace beyond what he could fully witness – let alone comprehend – but the evolution of Yanily’s PIM and class unfurled to him. A few abilities were altered and modified, new ones came into being, like a birth of thousands of connected stars within the universe of the spearman’s PIM. What had once been the roots stretching through Yanily’s body further converted to pure lightning, stretching from fingers to toes – and everything in between. Even more, the energy grew thicker. Stronger. The additional bonus stats from a second advanced class reinforced his physical body, and then something entirely unexpected happened.

That physical form that’d just been reinforced completely changed. The shock of the first change – real wings – booted Hiral’s senses out completely, and he opened his eyes to stare at the lightning in shock.

Just what was Yanily going to be when the lightning faded?

He got his answer a few short seconds later, as the pillar of electricity faded like it’d never been there. The entire area plunged into darkness from blinding white, every eye blinking as it tried to adjust to the change in brightness. In the corner of his vision a new notification blinked, but Hiral ignored it for the moment.

“Oh yeah,” a blurry Yanily said through the tears in Hiral’s eyes, though the man’s voice sounded deeper. Heavier. “I’m liking this.”

Hiral forced his eyes to blink a few more times, and he even used the back of his incredibly soft sleeve to wipe his face. Another second, and Yanily came into focus. At least, that was probably Yanily?

Where the spearman had once stood, well, the best way to describe it was a humanoid dragon. Two legs and arms – one of the hands holding the Splinter of the Storm – and a pair of draconic wings extending from the shoulders, though it looked more like storm clouds between the fingers than flesh. The neck wasn’t long like a dragon’s, and the heavily plated head instead sat on a short neck right on the man’s shoulders, though it still seemed to have the full range of motion as Yanily cracked his neck and jaws. He didn’t have any horns, but he still had to be almost eight-feet tall. Scales covered him from head to toe, very reminiscent of The Fourth Crusade’s. Except, where the Hidden Boss’s scales were white with red edges, Yanily’s were white with electric-blue edging. At least, the scales they could see under the man’s Hydra-Scale Armor.

“What do you think?” Yanily asked, extending his arms out to his sides so they could all get a good look at his new form.

The fingers on his hands were slightly longer than normal – proportionally speaking – and ended with sharp claws. His feet seemed to have an extra joint in them as well, as it looked like he stood on just the balls of his feet. Of course, there were more claws down there too.

“That’s… impressive,” Seena said, obviously as shocked by the change as everybody else. “Are you… is it permanent?”

Yanily’s draconic head shook from side to side. “No, this is my Aspect. It got finalized with the new advanced class. One of the big reasons I took this class.”

“Can you turn it on and off at will, like Hiral?” Seeyela asked.

Again, Yanily shook his head. “It’s got a time limit and a cooldown. Let me just share the notification window with you guys.” He said the last part to clearly indicate not everybody would be able to see the window that popped up in front of Hiral’s eyes.

Advanced Class: (Lost) Spear of the Building Tempest.

For you, there is only one direction – forward. In your wake, the storm rumbles and grows, nurturing allies and destroying enemies.

Grow unrestrained, untamed, and shake the sky with your roar.

Class Abilities

Gain +4 attributes per level, starting in B-Rank.

Class Ability (Active): Aspect of the Tempest – Take on a form befitting a fraction of the power shared by Heaven’s Punishment.

Aspect of the Tempest – Gain a 30% bonus to all physical attributes, a 30% bonus to any abilities with the dragon or storm subtypes, a 30% efficiency bonus to any abilities with the dragon or storm subtypes, and a 30% resistance to physical and elemental damage, as well as natural advantages of the new form.

Note: Duration of Aspect of the Tempest is 1 minute. Cooldown is 5 minutes.

Note (2): Only abilities with the dragon or storm subtypes can be used while Aspect of the Tempest is active.

Note (3): Passives are not affected by the above limitation.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Class Ability (Active): Debilitating Roar – Unleash a roar to break the will and mind of those foolish enough to stand against you.

Debilitating Roar – Enemies within a 100-foot cone of your Roar suffer from the debuff: Debilitated.

Debilitated: Suffer a 10% miss chance, -10% chance to critically strike, -20% Attunement, and a 10% chance for abilities to fail to activate. Duration: 1 minute. Cooldown 1 minute.

Note: Enemies within a 100-foot radius – and not within the initial cone – suffer Debilitated at half-potency.

Note (2): Enemies of sufficient strength can resist the effect.

Class Ability (Passive): Friend of the Storm – Your presence shields your allies from the fury of the storm.

Party members gain 30% resistance to lightning damage and can not be knocked back by wind or wind-based effects at any time, and benefit from 20% increased movement speed while a storm rages overhead.

Class Ability (Passive): A Spear’s Potential – All weapon styles using a spear see increased efficiency, damage, and potential.

The description was – thankfully – not as long as Hiral’s advanced class, but that didn’t make it any less impressive. In fact, as far a straight and direct combat-potential improvement, it seemed to eclipse the Vanguard of the Runic Cycle. Yanily’s didn’t have as much party utility, though the bonuses from Friend of the Storm was… Waaaait a minute!

Hiral did a double take as he read the last part of it. When a storm rages above? Isn’t that… all the time? And a twenty-percent bonus to movement speed? Wow. Maybe there was some more group-utility in there than he’d originally seen.

“That’s pretty amazing, Yan,” Seena said, looking from the window to the spearman and back again. Then, moving closer – the other six party members following – she gave Nivian a look to keep the others back for the time being. That done, she spoke quietly, so only the Party Interface would let anybody hear her words. “Five minutes is kind of a long cooldown on the Aspect. You going to be able to work with that?”

Yanily just smiled in return. “That isn’t accounting for cooldown reductions,” Yanily said with a smile. “It’s closer to three minutes with those.”

“One minute is still pretty short,” Seeyela said, her head nodding to the left and right like she was weighing the pros and cons of it.

“Well, with those cooldown reductions I mentioned,” Yanily said. “It means Skyfall and Dragon’s Breath are both under a minute. Which means…”

“You can use both twice within one Aspect,” Hiral finished for the spearman. “Assuming you time it right. And that thirty percent…?”

“Applies to both of them,” Yanily said. “They’re going to hit hard.”

“They already do,” Right reminded him.

“Harder, then,” Yanily chuckled, then solar energy began streaming off him as his scales and wings dissolved. Within a second, it was just the normal spearman standing in front of them again. “Ah, minute must be up. That is kind of fast.”

“With the short cooldown, you’ll have plenty of chances to practice with it,” Seena said. “That’s a great addition before we go into the B-Rank dungeon. Good job. Both of you,” she added, looking at Yanily and Hiral both.

“Happy to help,” Hiral said.

“Couldn’t have done it without you,” Yanily said. “At least, not right away. Thanks.” The spearman offered another fist-bump, and Hiral happily obliged. That was two advanced classes they had in their party now. They’d go a long way to making the High-B-Rank dungeon easier for them. Oh, and that reminded him, he had an Evolutionary Inspiration notification waiting for him!

Evolutionary Inspiration: Choose a current, random ability granted through achievements to be upgraded, or choose one buff granted by Lost Chord of the Primal Echo to become a permanent at-will ability.

Note: Previously upgraded abilities are not eligible for random selection.

Note (2): Two random buffs or debuffs will be lost from Lost Chord of the Primal Echo in exchange for making one buff at-will.

Hiral blinked at the notification – he was being given a choice this time? He hadn’t gotten that last time, but maybe it had something to do with his Primal Chord being more advanced? Either way, it made for an interesting decision. A random ability upgraded could be amazing, or it could be only ‘okay’. Getting Walk on Water upgraded wouldn’t be nearly as beneficial as getting something like Allied Killing Spree selected.

On the other hand, what Chord buffs did he have that…

Well, that’s actually a really easy choice.

Without a second thought, Hiral selected Hundred Handed from his list of Primal Chord buffs to be made into an at-will ability. As soon as he did, he saw it appear on his active ability list, while the list of possible buffs and debuffs from the Chord grew shorter. Though, which two random buffs he’d lost was… not exactly clear. He’d had so many that…

“What did you get upgraded?” Seena asked him, drawing his attention from his status window.

“I didn’t get an upgrade,” he said, then quickly went on to explain his choice.

“And somehow you just keep getting more and more gropey,” Seeyela said after listening to his explanation. Then she looked at Seena and raised an eyebrow. “Never mind, I really don’t want to know. La la la la la, I’m not having mental pictures…” She stopped in front of Right and Left, the two doubles innocently standing there. A visible shudder ran through the woman’s body. “Uuuugh. Can we please go run the dungeon?”

Seena rolled her eyes at her overdramatic sister, then turned to the spearman. “Yan, how’s your solar energy?”

“Climbing, but nowhere near full,” Yanily said, to which Left shaped his Banner of Courage. “Thanks! Storm is helping as well. I can feel it through the stones above. Give me fifteen or twenty minutes, then I should be good to go in.”

Seena’s head tilted to the side like she was doing the math. Between the upgrade he’d gotten from the Apple of Voltaic Potential and the Banner, twenty minutes wouldn’t be enough for him to get to full, but it should be enough to start the dungeon. “Okay, fifteen minutes and we head down,” the party leader said. “Nivian, you guys are welcome to go in sooner if you like.”

“We’ll wait,” Nivian said. “I think the audience has some questions, and it might be better if there are more people here to answer. We know a few things about advanced classes, so we can help explain.”

Looking at the wide-eyed Bonders arrayed around the party, Hiral had to agree with the tank’s assessment. This was probably the first class-evolution they’d seen, and it was nothing if not dramatic. So, for the next fifteen minutes, the two groups explained everything they knew about advanced classes, and how to possibly go about getting them.

It was more theoretical than anything else, but Hiral insisted they had some good data points to suggest their guesses were at least close. Then again, the Seed of the Lost was a factor they couldn’t measure. Either way, they explained what they knew from having gotten their own advanced classes until Seena clapped her hands together to signal it was time to go back down to the dungeon.

“You feeling good about your new advanced class?” Hiral asked Yanily quietly as they walked back down the stairs.

“Really good,” the spearman replied. “The first one was good – don’t get me wrong – but, I don’t know, something about this just clicked. Like it’s right for me. Was that how yours felt?”

“Not exactly,” Hiral said. “Remember, I edited mine because I didn’t like what I got. I also didn’t get two options to choose from.”

“Eh, that’s true,” Yanily said. “I wonder what’s different?”

Before Hiral answered that, he reached out with his senses for that feeling of concept that surrounded everybody. Like before, Yanily’s was almost rock-hard – not quite up to the level of Nivian’s – but getting very close.

“If I had to guess,” Hiral said. “Wow, I’m doing that a lot lately. Anyway, it’s something to do with the concepts or identities we have about ourselves. Nivian’s belief that he protects is so strong, it actually affects the potency of abilities he uses to that end. Seena and Seeyela are getting closer to figuring theirs out as well, but yours is by far the strongest after Nivian’s. It’s kind of hard to explain…”

“No,” Yanily interrupted. “I get it. I figured it out while I was up there with my sponsor. Maybe it’s not quite perfect yet, but it’s close. I’m the spear that leads the storm.”

As soon as Yanily said the words out loud, a pulse of energy radiated outward from him to Hiral’s senses. Certainty. Solidarity. Purpose. Those words were a truth about Yanily that defined him… even if Hiral didn’t exactly understand what he meant by them. Thankfully, Yanily had a bit more to say on the topic.

“I think I connect with my sponsor a bit more than the others do,” Yanily said. “In our way of thinking, I mean. Not on a direct connectionkind of way. Heaven’s Punishment is a bit of a greedy bastard, but he’s also very protective of things he considers his. It’s not quite the same as Nivian, who does it because people are important to him. Heaven’s Punishment is more because he doesn’t want to lose things. Or, have something taken away? Maybe that’s a better way to describe it.”

“It’s about preventing personal loss?” Hiral asked.

“Yeah, kind of,” Yanily said. “I’m the same way. Losing Balyo hurt me. Hurt me a lot. I never want to feel that way again. Maybe it’s selfish, not considering how other people feel about her death, but it’s my own feelings I’m trying to keep safe. If something were to happen to any of you… I just… I don’t want to go through that. So, I’m going to be the spear that strikes first, before anything can happen to you. The storm that scours away any trace of the threat, leaving nothing of danger behind. That’s me.”

Hiral nodded as he listened. He didn’t consider Yanily selfish for how he felt. In fact, it was a little refreshing to hear somebody be so honest about themselves. And, at the end of the day, it would keep everybody safer, whatever the reasoning was.

He threw his arm over Yanily’s shoulder. “I don’t care why you do it, I’m just glad you do.”

Yanily nodded. “How about you? Do you have one of these concept things?”

“Not yet,” Hiral said. “Still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, I guess.”

“Besides gropey?” the spearman asked.

“Between the scarves and now Hundred Handed, I think I’m there,” Hiral said.

“And we’re here,” Seena interrupted, obviously having overheard them, as they arrived back on the fourth floor. “Time to get serious. Remember, this is a High-B-Rank dungeon. Higher level than us, and likely filled with constructs that offset some of our strongest abilities. We were a perfect counter to the last dungeon, so don’t get overconfident here.”

“We won’t,” Seeyela said. “Romin, you ready for this?”

“We’ll keep you safe,” Romin said, the miniature Wallop nodding beside him.

“You can go in first,” Nivian said to Seena, his own party standing behind him.

“Don’t mind if I do,” Seena said, swiping her hand above the interface crystal. “Enter dungeon.”

As soon as the words were spoken, the blue portal predicably opened, and the party stepped inside without another word. The usual white walls surrounded them, a notification window popping up as the last person entered, the portal closed behind.

Tomorrow’s Vigil – Dungeon

B-Rank

Top Clear Times

XXX : --:--

YYY : --:--

ZZZ : --:--

Attempt Dungeon?

Yes / No

“Interesting dungeon name,” Hiral noted while he activated Foundational Split to call out his doubles, and ignited his pseudo-aspect.

“Long-duration buffs only, for the moment,” Seena instructed – all business – while her flaming sheath flared to life across her body. The others quickly did the same, though it did get Hiral to thinking the group was definitely lacking low-impact, party-wide buffs. Things like Nature’s Bulwark. Instead, they’d gained lots of short-duration, clutch abilities for Bosses. Considering their most recent dungeon excursions – including the ones up on Fallen Reach – that’d worked pretty well.

For this B-Rank dungeon? It seemed like their first real weak point.

Well, I can do something about that. With a thought, Hiral reached out across his Connection with the other party members – including Wallop and his doubles – and focused on his Rune of Increase and their attributes at the same time. That should give them around a twenty-percent boost, and hardly cost him anything.

“Thanks, Hiral,” Seena said, flexing her gauntlet to gauge the buffs. “Everybody ready?”

“Ready,” they all said.

“Good, let’s see what kind of trouble Dr. Benza has gotten himself into this time,” the party leader continued, reaching out to tap the Yes button.

The white walls of the ready room faded away like they’d never been there, a carved tunnel of rock stretching out ahead. Along the walls, brass pipes of all shapes and sizes ran deeper into the dungeon, the stone floor even shifting to metal grating further in. Steam jetted from breaks and joins in the pipe, heat and humidity washing over Hiral, while the whistle of it filled his ears. Deeper, like it was buried within the walls, another constant rumble droned on. And the fact they could even see? There weren’t any of the usual glowing roots, and instead some kind of light ran in a line along the tunnel ceiling and into the hallway.

“Good, you’ve arrived,” a voice said from behind the party. “We were beginning to wonder if our request had been blocked.”

Hiral turned at the voice – familiar, but not. And, when he found the researchers standing there, his jaw dropped.

That wasn’t Dr. Benza. Or Laseen and Fenil, the good doctor’s assistants. No, the researcher they were supposed to escort was…

Vorinal. The Fallen.