Tom sat his ass down after removing the eyeballs of all the draugrs. So gross. He shuddered just from the memory of the act. Fortunately, he didn't have anything left in his stomach to throw up.
He decided then and there to launch a complaint ticket to the developers about making some parts of the game too realistic.
But that was all beside the point. It was time to earn the [Augur] class. Tom triggered his [Meditation], and instantly, his heart rate slowed
<[Meditation] has Reached Level 2>
He ignored the notification as he entered his inner soul, mana space, or whatever the game called it this time. It really didn't matter.
Once he was inside… himself, he could see the inside of his soul. It was a collection of beautiful nebulas of different-colored clouds floating through what might have been space. The constellations in the nebulas represented his classes, and the stars within those constellations were his individual skills. The few stars floating outside of the nebulas were his personal skills. All were just sitting there, just untapped potential.
DING!!!
<[Meditation] has Reached Level 3>
"Blah blah, I heard it a million times before. Skip," Tom muttered as he skimmed the notifications.
This wasn't new to him; he understood the rule of the soul forge. If he had been asked to describe the soul forge, he would have claimed that it was like trying to play Jenga while blindfolded and wearing a shock collar. Fortunately, it was predictable, and people had been adding to the Noralon forms for years. He was pretty sure he remembered most of them.
DING!!!
Tom pressed yes.
DING!!!
Tom selected RUSH, just going through the motions.
DING!!!
SKIP, Tom thought as he pushed the button as hard as he could. He already knew all this.
DING!!!
<[Meditation] has Reached Level 4>
DING!!!
Tom smiled as the notifications came in. His magic skill level was technically lower, but his total bonus had just hit 25% instead of 15%, and now he was going to do the same thing with his life magic.
<[Meditation] has Reached Level 5>
Tom felt an uncontrollable grin spread across his face. The power of the soul forge was his. The song and dance started all over again.
DING!!!
DING!!!
<[Meditation] has Reached Level 6>
<[Meditation] has Reached Level 7>
Tom found it a bit funny that his life magic was now at a higher potency than when he started.
Now came the tricky part. He really hoped that he would remember how the Augur class was supposed to look in this form; otherwise, he would be going for a respawn.
Carefully, very carefully, Tom began to assemble the stars. First came the White Mage class, bridging the gap between his two master classes. On top of those, he added the Seerer, Diviner, and Pathfinder classes for his divination magic. Slowly, ever so slowly, the blocks started to take shape.
But something was nagging at him. It was like someone was poking him in the back of the head, and the closer he brought the blocks together, the harder he was being poked. Finally, the distraction got so bad that he had to stop what he was doing.
"What the hell is that?!" he wanted to scream as he looked around his soul space. He noticed something. A red nebula to his back seemed almost like a massive scar in his soul space. It had six stars hidden within.
"The bloodline …" Tom muttered.
One little star was tapping against the cluster, not a part of the bloodline but attracted to it.
"What the hell is this?" he mumbled to himself as he examined them. One of them was his bloodline, a mix of red and black floating in the void. The other was golden. Tom didn't recognize it. It wasn't until he took stock of all of his other skills that he could determine what it was by the process of elimination. [System Wiki].
He knew that some bloodlines could be upgraded with skills, but he had never heard of [System Wiki] being one of those skills. In hindsight, that wasn't very surprising. [System Wiki] had no practical purpose in the game, with the Noralon Wiki available online. Or it could be part of the new update. He didn't know, but he was excited to find out.
The one downside was that he would lose [System Wiki]. He thought about it. Worthless skill or bloodline upgrade? Bloodline, he decided as he grabbed the star and shoved it into the bloodline hard.
DING!!!
"NOO!" Tom screamed as [Identity] disappeared.
What did I do to deserve this?" Tom asked as he realized his new [Shallow Mediation] would not allow him access to the soul forge. Any second now, he would be booted from his soul space.
"What the hell does that mean?" Tom asked. He almost wanted to weep as his hope of the [Augur] Class drained away.
DING!!!
<[Shallow Meditation] has Reached Level 8>
Tom blinked, just staring at the notification for a few seconds as joy bloomed into his chest, replacing his despair. A forgotten rarity bloodline? Seriously? How? Why? He immediately pulled up the help guide just to check again that the Forgotten Rarity hadn't changed.
Yep, he had managed to get an eleventh-rarity bloodline. Somehow. The notifications made it pretty clear this had only worked because he was in the tutorial. But wow. That was amazing. There was very little information about anything at the Forgotten Rarity.
In fact, Tom only knew of two classes that he could get with that rarity. The first was [Dungeon Master], which required a person to have the [Dungeon Breeder], [Dungeon Architect], and [Dungeon Keeper] Classes all maxed out. The other one was the [Saint]. That one could only be acquired if you were the exclusive puppet of a god. Those builds were basically just puppets for their chosen deity.
But that wasn't what really excited him; it was the [Soul Forge] skill of his new bloodline. The clusters of stars and nebulas in his soul space now had tooltips and actual organization within.
He could see each of his classes, and each one had hints and hidden secrets that spoke to him now as he understood each class's potential. He could see what each class could become and how to combine them to create something more. Honestly, what he was doing before would be best described as solving a puzzle while wearing a blindfold.
He could also see that what he had previously attempted might have blown him up. He started to alter the position of the stars. He needed to consider not only the color of the nebulas behind the stars but also the constellations that the stars were part of. He lined them so that the constellation lines overlapped with each other while making sure to blend the nebulas.
It was like a beautiful three-dimensional puzzle. Each change he made to one part of the puzzle required him to make changes to every other part.
<[Soul Forge] has reached level Level 2>
<[Soul Forge] has reached level Level 3>
<...>
<[Soul Forge] has reached level Level 6>
<[My Mind is My Temple My Soul the Altar] has reached level 5>
DING!!!
"Thank the bloody devs for [System Wiki]. I can't believe that useless skill actually came through for something." Tom shouted as the notifications kept rolling.
He had only just barely met the qualifications for this class. Without [Identity], it had been painfully close, but his new bloodline came in clutch.
DING!!!
This one was simple. It was a meditation skill that gave him free quests and, in other words, free money.
DING!!!
DING!!!
It occurred to him that [Augurs Eye] was somewhat redundant with his new [Thirst for Knowledge] skill. That was a little disappointing. But Tom was willing to write that off as the price for doing business.
<[Prophetic Meditation] Level increased to 5>
<[Prophetic Meditation] Level increased to 6>
<[Prophetic Meditation] Level increased to 7>
<[Prophetic Meditation] Level increased to 8>
<[My Mind is My Temple My Soul the Altar] has reached level 6>
Tom exited [Prophetic Meditation] and flopped backwards, covered in sweat.
"Yes, yes, my brain is better than everybody," Tom cheered as he raised his arms in victory.
The world would bow down to his awesomeness after a nap.
Tom curled up right there on the floor and fell asleep utterly emotionally exhausted.
You may skip to the next Chapter!
Base
Personal: +4 PER +4 WILL +3 INT +3 CHA
Racial: +3 WILL +2 CON +2 CHA +1 SPIRIT
Bloodline: +5 PER +5 INT
Mini-Character List
Tom: Our Protagonist.
AN:
