Rune Seeker

“Totally worth it,” Hiral said, opening up the expanded notification window to see what the advanced class did. “Got a class evolution.”

“Advanced class?” Seena asked, her head literally jerking around to look at him.

“Yeah,” he said.

“What’s it do?”

“Checking now. But, call the others a little closer for the Evolutionary Inspiration benefit while I do that, okay?”

“Sure… but not too close. Explosions and all.” She chuckled, then took a wide circle around him at the same time she tossed a few more fireballs into the room.

Okay, let’s see what we’ve got.

Advanced Class: (Lost) Duelist of the Runic Cycle.

Learn from experience, grow through change—the Duelist of the Runic Cycle never stops improving, never stops moving, never stops striving.

Gain +2 attributes per level, starting in D-Rank.

Class Ability (Passive): In the Hands of the Duelist – Any weapon proficiency or training the Duelist has is upgraded to a Weapon Skill.

Class Ability (Passive): Ever Changing – Every time the Duelist changes fighting styles, techniques, or weapons, they gain a stacking bonus of +2% critical hit chance and +5% critical hit damage.

Note: Ever Changing can stack up to 5 times.

Note (2): The Duelist must change styles, techniques, or weapons every 10 seconds or less. Failure to change will result in losing all accumulated bonuses and starting again from zero.

Note (3): Cooldown to change back to a previously used style, technique, or weapon is 15 seconds. Changing back during the cooldown will not result in a new stack of Ever Changing.

Class Ability (Active): (Lost) Chord of the Primal Echo – Second Movement: You have learned the next small part of the ancient music that formed the universe.

Note: (Lost) Chord of the Primal Echo – Second Movement has an increased chance of applying buffs and debuffs when scoring a critical hit, with an additional chance to apply two buffs or debuffs in a single critical hit.

“Not bad,” Hiral said to Seena and the others who had gathered, finally looking away from the notification window. “Like Yan and Seena, two more stat points per level, and a couple of abilities that aren’t flashy but improve on how I already fight. Seems like a good fit.”

“You’re going to take it?” Seena asked.

Thinking back to the rush he’d felt while down in the horde of ants, pushing himself to learn where the chord was taking him, Hiral nodded. “Definitely.”

“Okay, let’s have some of that juicy bonus for you evolving,” Yanily said, spreading his arms out to the sides like he was expecting a big hug.

“You may want to take a step back, Yan,” Seena said. “This is Hiral we’re talking about.”

“Oooh, right,” Yanily said. “Explosions.”

Dozens of concurrent eruptions of flame and force chose that exact second to sound from down in the cavern. Even more followed as they raced up the different tunnels in a brutal chain reaction.

“Pretty sure I’m not the top exploder anymore,” Hiral said flatly, and looked at Seena.

“Whatever,” she said, making a shooing gesture at him. “Get on with the evolving.”

“Sure, sure.” Hiral brought up the evolution window again.

Congratulations! Breakthrough!

Through a combination of your own imagination and the Seed of the Lost, you’ve forged a new path for yourself, should you choose to follow it.

Advanced Class: (Lost) Duelist of the Runic Cycle – Unlocked

Do you wish to evolve your current class to Advanced Class: (Lost) Duelist of the Runic Cycle?

Yes / No

Note: Some abilities will remain the same while others will evolve along with the class.

Note (2): Current attributes will remain unchanged, but class attributes and bonuses will evolve with class.

Taking a deep breath, Hiral mentally hit the Yes button, and an echoing GONG resounded through the chamber. Below them, the explosions and carnage wrought by Seena’s ant-thralls suddenly stilled. Silent for a single heartbeat, the whole dungeon seemed to take a deep breath, then barreled ahead once again, each and every sound following in perfect sequence to the Chord of the Primal Echo.

Bare seconds into the concert of death, the double-helix script tattooed onto Hiral’s skin—and visible through his black coat—ripped outward to encircle him while he floated up into the air. As he hovered fifteen feet above the ground, the rotating yellow script began to be rewritten, the characters and strokes changing to fall in line with the resounding Chord. Simultaneously, knowledge flooded his mind and muscles.

Weapons he’d trained and practiced with suddenly became cemented in his body as Weapon Skills, refining whatever rough edges remained. Even the ones he’d only dabbled in evolved into skills, dozens of years of training fusing into his body in seconds. Thankfully, since he’d already gained a fighting style from the Chord, the pain wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it could’ve been. Still, he felt his muscles and joints stretch to accommodate the strength and flexibility needed to make the most of the new skills.

Even more surprising, additional knowledge of how to use his Rune of Separation blossomed in his mind, connecting with how he could wield his weapons, and how it would increase their sharpness. Why didn’t I ever think of that? Instinctively, he knew this wasn’t the extent of how he could employ other runes, but even the brief enlightenment opened new doors to advancement.

Finally, the imprinting of information came to an end, and Hiral turned his attention outward to the sphere of energy around him. The rotating script burned brighter than ever before, racing along like a burning fuse as it rewrote itself until it reached its end.

WHOOOSH! The energy collapsed in on him in a rush at the same time the entire chamber off to his side reached its dramatic climax, the space filling with flame all the way to the ceiling. Then, as the flames subsided and the chain-reaction explosions sped further down the tunnels than ever before, Hiral lightly dropped to the ground. The double-helix pattern had returned to his skin, but it quickly vanished, replaced by his tattoos and Meridian Lines.

A quick activation of Foundational Split, and Left and Right peeled off of him in billowing solar-smoke to solidify at his sides.

“Oh, that’s pretty good,” Right said, throwing a snappy punch which somehow looked sharper than his previous strikes. “It’s like all these small things I didn’t even know I was doing wrong have been corrected.”

“As you said,” Left said to Hiral, “it’s not flashy, but it’s effective.”

“Oooh, that’s the stuff,” Yanily said off to the side, and Hiral looked over at the other party members to see them all faintly glowing as well.

“Evolutionary Inspiration?” he asked.

“Gave us an ability evolution,” Seena said. “One of the upgrades. You know, the plus at the end?”

“What!? That’s not fair.”

“Well, you did just get an advanced class,” Seena started, but she was cut off by a string of new notification windows popping up.

Dynamic Quest Complete

Congratulations. Achievement unlocked – There’s No Safety in Numbers

You have defeated the ants’ Commander-in-Chief and opened a passage deeper into the anthill.

Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.

“Did… did we kill a Mid-Boss?” Hiral asked after he read the full notification twice.

“Seems like it…?” Seena said.

Maybe the answer is in the next notification window. With that thought, he closed the first to bring up the second.

Congratulations. Achievement unlocked – Never Even Saw it Coming

You have defeated a Mid-Boss or higher enemy without it spotting you.

Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.

“Must be the explosions,” Seeyela said, and the whole party looked down at the wide chamber, where, even now, more ant-thralls rose from the ashes of their corpses and rushed off to antsplode.

“OP,” Yanily said, and just shook his head.

“Overpowered or not, I hit level twenty,” Hiral said, and that comment had the others quickly opening up their own status windows.

“Me too,” Seena said.

“Three,” Yanily said.

“Three what?” Seeyela asked.

“Seena was two, so I’m three,” Yanily said. “Well, twenty. Level twenty. Whatever. Stop being confusing.”

Seeyela shook her head, then looked at Seena and Hiral. “I hit twenty as well, so, what comes next? Are we going to try and clear this dungeon to get our Rank evolutions?”

“How close do you think you are to getting an advanced class?” Hiral asked before thumbing down towards the spawning ants. “If it worked for me…”

Bamf was Seeyela’s only answer as she vanished from sight. The sudden, pained keening caused by the deadly Ghost-Web Venom consuming ants from the inside out told the others where she’d gone.

“Guess we’ll stick around here a bit longer,” Seena said, tossing a few more fireballs down to the opposite end of the chamber from where her older sister was tormenting the monsters.

“Don’t pretend you’re not loving every second of it,” Hiral said, and a huge grin spread on her face.

“Let’s go, Li’l Ur, we have ants to burn!” Seena went back over to the edge, where she and the little lich resumed their maniacal laughter.