He had grown so quickly from a single session, that the loss of experience for his character level and traits felt negligible. The short time he spent looking over his stats filled him with pride, but he had bigger fish to fry. He wanted to have a look at his new class.
|————
|Classes
|————
|Primary Class: Edgemaster
|Class Leveclass="underline"
|EXP Until Next Leveclass="underline" [
|Skills:
|+Mastery – 1— [
|+Edge – 1— [
|Speciaclass="underline" Edgemaster is locked as your primary class.
|Speciaclass="underline" Classes may not be changed or removed.
|
|Secondary Class: Thermomancer – 80% Power (from multiclassing)
|Class Leveclass="underline" 3
|EXP Until Next Leveclass="underline" [
|Skills:
|+Thermoregulate – 6— 49% [
At first glance, Dakkon thought that the skills for the class were wrong. A broken experience meter and character level must mean that the class couldn’t progress. At worst, his rare class might be glitchy and not work at all. He took a closer look at the skills.
|+Mastery: This unique skill improves the strength of all classes by 10% per rank. Further ranks in Mastery may only be achieved by advancing two classes to adept status (level 15). Current effect: +10%.
|+Edge: This unique skill allows the player to have an additional active class per rank. Ranks in Edge may only be achieved by advancing a class to mastery status (level 30). An edgemaster may not have inactive classes and should choose them carefully. Current effect: +1 active class for a total of 3 simultaneous classes.
Dakkon worked to wrap his head around the information. His skills weren’t buggy, they were shackles. Now, he would be stuck as a thermomancer forever. Worse, he was now 20% weaker than a regular thermomancer, which was not powerful in the slightest, and would only be on par after getting four classes to level 15—and since he would be limited to only learning one more class until he could get one to level 30—that meant he was crippled to mediocrity for his immediately foreseeable future. It wasn’t even that the class was weak. It was easy to see the strength of it, given some time. After getting the first three classes to level 30 and another to 15, he would begin to grow far more powerful than the average player. If he had acquired the class at a higher level, after he had already gotten a few classes to level 30, then the skill would probably have been a blessing. For now, though, at the beginning of his journey, it would drag him down. Each class he learned would be substantially weaker than a beginner taking the class as their primary.
Dakkon reconsidered his situation. It wasn’t ideal, but in time he had the potential to grow into an insanely powerful character. After several minutes of hovering in the door of the inn, Dakkon returned to being pleased just before the innkeeper shooed him off for scaring away any potential customers. He walked out the door and into the village’s center.
The village center looked as expected after an assault. Some buildings lay burnt flat, as though they were the fire pits of giants. Others were scorched but stood as sturdily as they had the previous week. The center of the square held six men rebuilding the well which had collapsed, no doubt from the concerted blows of goatmen. Dakkon approached the oldest and most distinguishably not laboring of the men.
“Do you know where I can find Barrcus,” asked Dakkon, suspecting that the old man could very well be who he sought.
“And why exactly are you looking for me?” replied the weathered old man. “Can’t you see we’re busy?”
“I’ve come to claim my bounty,” said Dakkon. “I was the fifth member of the group who drove away the goatmen which assaulted the village.”
“Oh, you are, are you?” the worn Barrcus said with a hint of amusement. “And I suppose you’ll want your reward in platinum?”
“That would be fine,” admitted Dakkon, relieved. “Or gold. I’m not sure I could carry smaller denominations.”
“Now look here, I don’t know who the hell you are!” hollered Barrcus. “I’ve never seen you before in my life, and I’ve got a knack for remembering faces, boy.”
Dakkon’s blood froze. Could not visiting the old man before completing the quest have ruined his chance for a reward? Nonsense. “My name is Dakkon,” he said with shaken confidence. “I tracked the goats to their lair, freed—Oh, the girl!” Dakkon had suddenly remembered there was a villager who could testify for him. “Did the lady the goats dragged off ever make it back to town?”
Serendipitously, at that moment, he was nearly knocked off his feet from behind by an embrace that felt more akin to a tackle. “Oh gods!” the woman wailed, tearful with her thanks. “You’re all right! You didn’t come back to town with the others. I’ll tell you, I assumed the worst.”
“You made it home?” Dakkon asked, relief clear in his voice for reasons both altruistic and self-serving. He was surprised as much by the timely appearance of the ex-captive as by her sudden hug. “Are you well?”
“I’m no worse, thanks to you, master Dakkon,” the villager said, smiling, as she wiped away her tears with the sleeve of a conservative, but worn, blue dress.
Dakkon felt proud of the title by which he was addressed. “I’m glad to see you’re safe.” After he was released from her grasp, he turned to face her and asked, “Would you do me the favor of introducing me to Barrcus?”
“Mr. Barrcus?” the woman tilted her head in confusion. “But, you’re already talking to him.”
“Right,” said Barrcus. “I get it, already. Forgive me, boy. I’m sure you understand that you weren’t the first to try and claim the 280 gold set aside for you. I was doing you a favor by not handing it out lightly.”
The reward sounded off. By his previous count, Dakkon was only supposed to be getting 120 gold. “Is that the amount it came to, split five ways?” he asked.
“That’s what it comes out to,” said Barrcus. “Truth be told, I thought you were dead and gone. Another day or two and I’d have used all of that money to help pay for restorations.”
Relieved to find out that his bounty had not been spent before he had the chance to claim it, and feeling grateful for the unexpected increase in reward, Dakkon generously offered, “You may use 40 of the gold to help fund rebuilding the town.”
“Well…” the old man started then paused, “We’ve already used 80 of it for new livestock that’ll be arriving later today… Given the circumstances, I reckon it’s only fair that you should be given your pick of them, should you want.”