Chapter 62

  Class Revelations

  There are a lot of times when having a magically infused Skills is amazing.

  Never is a time that I appreciate my skills more than times like right now, where I am covered in drying and seemingly quick drying ooze that threatens to expand, harden and lock onto my body without intervention.

  Fortunately for me, I have my personal unique Skill: Trash for moments just like this, moments where I am covered in muck and drying dirt.

  Just moving is enough to get most of the dirt off, this reminds me of memories of my past life, when I did competitions where we ran for miles, and the only time to cool off was when we had to degrade ourselves by running into and through muddy obstacles as quickly as possible. Afterwards, I remember showering for hours trying to get mud out of places that had no reason to be exposed to mud in the first place.

  Just like I learned from my past life, it is best to rinse yourself off as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, I do not have any water nearby. Nor do I have enough available Mana to use my Trash skill to get rid of all of the gunk that is now covering my body, but I do have a cheat.

  Following the same exact pattern as I did earlier, where I push my Life attributed mana from the center of my core, then back to my body focusing on the exact spot where my Personal Trait Skill is held. Once there, I again feel a slight resistance, despite having done this earlier with my Golden Life Ratio Mana Regeneration*. The only difference is that this time I feel a bit bolder, and am more willing to push myself. I push until I eventually feel the same crackling give that my Bloodline Skill had.

  Not a complete shattering, but a gentle breaking away of harder edges so that the slightly thicker attributed mana can push its way through. Which is good, as I have plenty of Life Mana, as I can theoretically just reset and continue to cycle through the creation process for that type of mana. Also, my Class’s forcefully adapting all of my Skill choices to continue to contribute to my pool of Life mana also helps to give even more mana to work with. Which is ideal when you are covered from head to toe in drying flaking stone sludge.

  Using Trash, I feel instant relief as my skin that had been smothered by drying ooze suddenly felt clean. A wonderful feeling, one that I continued to push in the slow methodical process. Removing the dirt and debris from me, my clothes, and most importantly my weapon. A weapon that I almost lost to being made part of an impromptu statue of solid stone.

  Oddly enough, using Trash like this, had a fresh feeling to it, almost as if I was not just removing the dirt, but also causing my skin to be nourished. Even the parts where the clumps of dirt fell had an impact on the ground.

  What had once been ground that was dense and dark, covered in dead and decaying leaves now seemed to glow with a faint greenish hue. A hue that was quickly absorbed by the ground, but the effect was still there.

  Still, I wasn’t done.

  Not only did I clean the rotting Trash from my skin and body, but I proceeded to cleanse the now dead creature’s remains from the ground as well. Everywhere that I cleaned up in such a way now had a faint glow, if only for a moment before ultimately fading. I equated it to the way things looked fresher, just after wiping down with water or cleaner, but then slowly faded back to the normal dull hue, once the liquid dried up.

  That said, I always liked these types of looks, particularly in nature. It was almost the same thing as going out just after a gentle storm and seeing how everything looked more vibrantly coated in water. The same held true for this moment, at least I thought it was the same.

  It wasn’t until I turned to face the group of gawkers that I realized something might have changed. Yet, before I could think too critically about why they were suddenly staring at me, Madame Bloom took over and seeming to come to some conclusion she nodded to herself before speaking.

  “I think it is time that we take a look to see how your Class has progressed,” Madame Bloom noted.

  Hearing her words, I realized the use of we, which was likely not the royal we, but the actual we as in everyone here should see this. I almost wanted to protest, but then suddenly found myself stating the more important question.

  “How?”

  At that, Madame Bloom just blinked before nodding to herself in seeming understanding.

  “Go to your status page, find the section related to your Class. Focus in on the class, and think ‘Class Definition,’ then think ‘Project Definition,’ and it will send out a copy for all of us to see.” Madame Bloom instructed, as she did, my thoughts went form should I do this, to can I do this?

  It was really the question of whether sharing my information like this was possible that I even tried.

  Following the instructions as provided, I found that it was both possible and completely different than what I expected.

  Somehow what I expected was a grand blue screen that I could open up and have open before me and the others. Which if that was possible, then life would be so different as I felt I could use that to distract people or cause them to focus away from me at important moments. Even going through fights, the idea of sending out a glowing blue screen that everyone could see could cause the momentary hesitation that I needed to pull off a combo.

  Sadly, that was not the case.

  Instead, what I found was basically the ability to copy and paste part of my status, which I would then effectively share with nearby people. My mind equated it to adding an attachment to an email that I could send out to people in the local area to me. It was clear that anyone receiving this package had to be close, for I couldn’t find Luna, or even Mousey. Was kind of sad that I couldn’t send it to Luna, even from this distance, but I guess some system limitations were to be expected.

  Once I did as instructed, I received a system message.

  With that odd warning message appearing within my mental display, I saw a timer begin to count down.

  Only once the data was synchronizing with the others did I take a moment to look over my own class description.

  I could see the moment everyone read all the data, as it was around the same time that I finished reading myself. Then I noticed how everyone had a slight slack jawed look of amazement, as they stopped and then began reading the contents again, as if reading it a second time would somehow change the data that they noted.

  Honestly, I had expected the asterisk note, as that seemed to be the case for each of my new Class Skills, or previous Class Skills that have since evolved. I was also aware of the apparent requirement of needing Life attributed mana. Even the note about all mana Skills being empowered by Life attuned mana seemed obvious. As for the bonuses to Skill activation speed, potency, mana usage, and Skill learning speed, they all seemed to be good, but not exactly anything to write home about, not that anyone from my old home would read my letters.

  Once everyone finished reading a second time, Madame Bloom paused and shared a look with the others for a moment, before ultimately turning back to me and asking the question.

  “Do you have any questions?” Madame Bloom asked.

  I shrugged, most seemed to be fairly straight forward, but I guess there was one question that I had.

  “Yeah, actually. What exactly is the Class Age Modifier?” I asked, as that was the only part that I though I had an answer for, but I still wanted clarification.

  “That’s it? Not on the reason why you got a full 60% modifier to you Skills, despite only having enough class linked Skills to get a 30% bonus?” Madame Bloom asked.

  Hearing her words I blinked for a bit, but then finally responded, “okay, well in that case, yes I’d like to know that as well.”

  Hearing my response Madame Bloom just shook her head, “I don’t know, it is the same percentage as when you started the class with just two Skills. Though at the time, you had only unlocked the one bonus for a 60% bonus to Skill Potency.”

  I opened my mouth, but then closed it quickly, as I didn’t even know how to frame the question that I was now having from this insight.

  “You’ve got questions?” Madame Bloom began, to which I just nodded.

  “Okay, let me break it down by beginning that most Class Skills have what is referred to as a Skill harmonization, where the closer Skills for a particular Class are linked, the more effective the bonus received is. This would be like a Master of Arms receiving a +5% bonus to all individual weapons related Skills they learn.”

  “After the first one, remember the first one just sets the series, while the rest receive the bonus,” Mr. Yi cut in.

  “Yes, everyone after the first one counts. Now while it is a +5% for standard Skills, that is Skills that don’t require mana to activate. Skills that do require mana to activate have a base harmonization increase that is doubled, i.e. +10%. Which should only go up to a maximum of +60%, as that is the maximum number of attuned Skills anyone can receive for any particular affinity. Additionally, with each linking of similarly related Skills, the number of sequences that are improved also increases.”

  “In your case, you have four skills, the first being the series holder, the remaining three directly relate to a new series bonus that is applied to your Class related Skills. Thus, your class seems to both break the mold by giving you a maximum synchronization score, as if you had all seven Skills slotted all of which are Life attuned. Then your class follows the rules by expanding out the number of bonuses you receive based on the number of slotted Skills minus one.” Madame Bloom concluded.

  After a second of reading my face, she took in a deep breath and asked, “still confused?”

  I unfortunately had to nod.

  “Here, perhaps a visualization might be in order,” Madame Bloom began, as she provided her data graph as an example.

  Seeing it all written out made my visualizing the differences much easier. It also helped highlight how my class was a seeming anomaly, as I apparently started with the +60 harmonization as if I had all seven class Skill slots opened and filled with Life Attuned Skills. Though the bonus seemed ultimately useless without the application to the Bonus Fields, which I apparently still had to unlock by opening up more Skill slots and filling those slots with my attuned Skills.

  After seeing that part, I could understand why Madame Bloom wanted me to wait to check out my class as my class does seem to break the normal understandings of this world.

  “Does this make sense now?” Madame Bloom asked, and finally I could nod my head and she actually seemed to believe my response.

  “Good. Now then, as for your first question,” Madame Bloom began, which for a moment I completely forgot my first question as I was trying to understand this new breakdown. I realized this could also be a modifier to help me gauge the strength of an opponent. For a moment, I couldn’t even remember what my original question was, as I had just had to go through a basic Class leveling breakdown, and how my class cheated the system, but only partially.

  Reading my face again, I could see the moment frustration filled her delicate features for a moment, then she quickly regained her composure by taking in a deep breath and speaking.

  “Your original question about what the field Class Age Modifier meant?”

  “Right,” I responded, going back and remembering that at first that was the only real question I had about my Class. While I’ve since had more questions form in my mind about the layout of this world, and exactly what is possible by sharing data, I do still want to know what this odd field is, and what exactly a 163% meant in it, I assumed that was good.

  “While you are too young to really worry about this at the moment, realize that the Class you choose does have a direct impact on your overall health and wellbeing. Not just due to the increased Attributes you can get by working on more slotted Skills, but there is a lifetime component as well. The Gods in their infinite wisdom wished to weed out those that would not push themselves to their maximum potentials. As such, they added the Class Age Modifier to keep those that could best benefit the world, and weed out those that would otherwise waste valuable resources that could go to feed the next generation.” Madame Bloom began.

  Hearing her comments, I was once again reminded of just how dark this world was. The sad part was, as she began, I knew we were just getting started.

  “To begin, I should let you know the official modified timeline as they relate to each class rarity ranking,” Madame Bloom stated, and then proceeded to share the breakdown.

  Honestly, the whole class system felt like it had an elitist mindset while being created. The average age was approximately 70 years old. And most people were forced to gain a class at or before they turned twenty, meaning for people that could only unlock Common classes, their expected age was to be around forty-five years old. As those fifty years with your class, those years would be reduced by 50%, giving the user approximately twenty-five years with their class.

  The entire system seemed wrong to me. Did that mean that there was a component of the system that could actually kill you? Judging by the way Rare Classes had an increase in life expectancy, did that mean that the body could naturally improve the way your body processed nutrients and aged? Was that all linked to the noted Attributes that were unlocked by learning Skills?

  Suddenly, the entire process of getting Skills to improve yourself seemed sadly disappointing. While I didn’t know any of these conclusions to be the definitive truth, it did seem that learning and maximizing Skills and your innate understanding of those Skills was not just important for improving the quality of your life, but also the quantity of your life as well. At least, if I was understanding what was being explained to me.

  “The Class Age Modifier is also important as a unique class holder, as it lets you know how close you are to the next Class Tier rating. With a 163% rating you are well passed the 125% threshold for Epic, and well on your way to achieving the Legendary Class rating,” Markan added, a note of surprise and something else in his voice.

  My mind was reeling from taking in everything. I assumed I likely started out with my class being past the 125% threshold, as I started with having four Class Skill slots open. Now I had to learn that I had the potential to easily outlive others in my grade? Knowing that a lot of students would no doubt be happy with getting any Class to open up more Skill slots and not push themselves as hard as they could?

  Once again, I was debating with the way life here truly worked, when my Master cut in.

  “Now, do you want to know a way that is guaranteed to increase your Class Age Modifier by at least 5%?”

  Madame Bloom spoke, as she did, all I could do was squint at her, wondering if this was even the time for such a discussion. But at the same time, I found myself asking the obvious question.

  “How?”

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