NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 33: Breakthrough!
After a few very tense and awkward minutes where Yanily simultaneously apologized, begged, wiped down Nivian’s face, and tried to run away, the spearman sat contritely on his knees in front of the tank.
Nivian, for his part, had his three-lashed whip out, pulled tight between his two hands while the small mouths writhed and snapped in Yanily’s direction. “Punishment,” Nivian said flatly, as if pronouncing absolute judgement.
“Now, now, Nivian,” Seena said, gently putting her hand on his shoulder.
“Oh, no, she gave him the shoulder tap—it’s over for Yanily,” Right said beside Hiral, and Nivian started forward while Yanily whimpered.
Seena caught Nivian’s elbow with her hand and tersely said to everybody present, “That was not the shoulder tap. It was the reassuring comfort of a friend.”
“Looked like the shoulder tap to me,” Yanily said.
“It wasn’t the…” Seena started, then blew out a breath. “Nivian, Yanily didn’t mean it, did you, Yan?”
“No! I’m so sorry I knocked over your soup. I’d offer to cook to make up for it…”
Wule physically stepped between Nivian and the spearman. “Don’t even joke about that. That’s almost as bad as Seena offering to…” He trailed off, noticing how close the party leader was to him. “Maybe you should just kill us both now,” he said calmly to Nivian. “It’ll hurt less.”
“Yanily, did you learn a new skill?” Hiral interrupted to hopefully save at least one life.
“Not just that,” Yanily said, making a small gesture, and a green notification window appeared in front of the party.
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: Stormstrider – Unlocked
Do you wish to evolve your current class to Advanced Class: Stormstrider?
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.
Everybody stared at the notification window, stunned, until Nivian gently shoved his brother out of the way and stepped forward to loom over the spearman. Yanily nervously looked up, up, up until he found the face of the tank staring down at him.
The smiling face.
“Congratulations, Yanily,” Nivian said, reaching down and helping Yanily to his feet. “That’s amazing!” Then he hugged the other man, pulling him close to his stew-covered chest. “But, if you ever spill my stew again—or call it soup—not even a class evolution will save you. Are we clear?”
“Crystal,” Yanily gulped, stepping away when Nivian backed up. He didn’t even bother to look down at the stew on his hydra-scale armor.
“Are you going to take the class evolution?” Seeyela asked when it looked like nobody was going to die immediately.
“Why wouldn’t I?” Yanily asked.
“Because you haven’t taken it yet,” Seena offered.
Yanily looked at Nivian. “Something else important came up,” he said with only a small gulp.
Seena waved a hand like it hardly mattered. “That’s all taken care of. Let’s see what this class-evolution business is all about.”
“For once I’m not going first,” Nivian said, his whip gone, and crossed his arms.
“Remember, I can’t heal heart attacks,” Wule said to Yanily.
“You think that could happen?” Yanily asked.
“Hiral explodes practically on the daily,” Wule said. “Anything’s possible.”
“Maybe I should wait until one of you gets a class evolution. I’m sure it’ll be any day now, and I don’t want to steal your thunder…”
“Says the guy with the Stormstrider class path?” Hiral asked, shaking his head.
“Yan, if you don’t hit Yes on that window in the next five seconds, I’m going to ask Nivian to do it for you,” Seena said.
“Yanily,” Hiral said before the spearman could object again, “if you have an evolved class, we can finally find out what’s threatening Fallen Reach. As soon as we clear the next dungeon, we can ask Dr. Benza. Maybe even when we find the dungeon interface.”
“I know… I just…” Yanily started, but he turned to look at his spear, his thumb rubbing up and down along the haft of the weapon where small sparks still lingered.
“Ah,” Hiral said, the pieces clicking for Yanily’s hesitancy. “It reminds you of Balyo, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Yanily said, still staring at the spear. “It should’ve been her who got this class. She had that lightning spear, and despite what we found in the rain, she was always fascinated by the distant storms.”
“Maybe that’s why you got this class option,” Seeyela said, her helm off now. She put an arm around Yanily’s shoulders. “To keep her memory fresh, and to carry on her path.”
“I wouldn’t put it past the PIM system,” Hiral said. “It seems to know what we want… what we need… and this could be what you need. More than just any evolved class, you need this class.”
“I don’t know if I’m good enough for it, though,” Yanily said, only to continue in classic Yanily fashion, “I mean, of course I’m good enough with a spear. Obviously. But, am I… worthy of it? Would she be okay if I took this class in her place?”
Seeyela squeezed Yanily closer around the shoulder. “You know she would. You knew her better than any of us, and despite her hard edges, she always looked up to you.”
“I was taller,” Yanily said simply.
Seeyela’s free hand punched Yanily in the gut, but it wasn’t anything more than a symbolic gesture. “Stop being so dense. If she was here right now, she’d be telling you the same thing we are. Go on, hit yes… after I step back.”
“You’re sure…?” Yanily asked.
“Yes,” everybody else said at the same time, and Yanily took a deep breath while Seeyela quick-stepped away.
“Here goes,” Yanily said, tapping the Yes on the notification window.
The green window in front of him flickered. Then the edges frayed away, the whole thing unraveling into arcing electricity that jumped to the ground. The energy ran a track along the stone floor in a perfect circle around Yanily until the notification window completely vanished, and then the electricity faded as well.
“Is that it?” Seena asked several quiet seconds later.
FWOOOOSH! A pillar of lightning four feet wide burst up from the ground under Yanily’s feet, completely obscuring him, before crashing to the ceiling, sending bolts of electricity zapping out in all directions along the stone.
Hiral took a step back, vision scarred by the afterimage of the lightning bolt, and covered his eyes. Rubbing with the heels of his hands, he worked on seeing anything beyond the blinding white, but when he looked at Yanily and blinked, he couldn’t tell if it was the afterimage he was seeing, or something real.
The spearman stood holding his spear in the center of the lightning, and his body had grown completely transparent—like it had when he’d reached D-Rank. But, instead of the root system Hiral had seen in all the Growers spreading through his body, there were more chains of lightning bolts stretching from his core and into his appendages.
The bolts flickered and stretched, reaching further for Yanily’s fingertips and toes, and solar energy pulsed outward in waves. Another bright flash forced Hiral’s eyes closed again, and he took a step back. When he opened his eyelids again, the annoying afterimage had faded like it’d never been there, and Yanily stood in the center of a scorched circle on the floor.
Electricity rippled along his body from head to toe, the air snapping and popping occasionally, and when he looked up, his irises glowed a luminescent white. Then he smiled.
“Exploding isn’t so bad,” Yanily said. “Tiring, though.” He dropped right down to a seated position.
“Wule, give him a quick check,” Seena said, and the healer moved ahead to inspect Yanily. “How are you feeling?”
“Other than completely drained of solar energy,” Yanily said, holding up his hand where lightning sparked between his fingers, “pretty good. Looks like I get two extra attribute points per level now, and a couple of my abilities evolved—I even have an official jump ability now! What’s it called…? Ah, there it is. Skyfall. Sounds pretty dramatic, but it’s still the same two-part attack I was working on.”
“Two extra points per level is pretty amazing,” Hiral said. “I wonder if all evolved classes get that? Are the points retroactive?”
“They are, but only for this rank,” Yanily said. “I’ve got ten I can spend now, so they are all free points. Looks like my core stats are still the same too. Straight progression. I can’t wait to test all these abilities out, but first, I think I need sleep. Do I check out okay, Wule?”
“You’re fine,” Wule said. “Minor effects from solar energy depletion, but it seems like that’s a common side effect of exploding.”
“You’re using me as your baseline for comparison, aren’t you?” Hiral asked.
“You’re the only one who explodes enough for a baseline,” Wule answered smoothly before returning his focus to Yanily. “A few hours’ rest and you should be back to normal.”
“I might be able to help with that,” Hiral said, the tattoos on the left side of his body rising from his skin. “Looks like Left finished his scouting.”
“Or something finished it for him,” Seena said.
“Also possible,” Hiral said, activating Foundational Split.
As soon as the double appeared beside Hiral, Left put his hand to his left bicep and shaped the Banner of Courage. The familiar dome of golden light surrounded the party, and Left maintained his grip on it to prevent the timer from starting. “Congratulations on your class evolution,” Left said.
“Thanks,” Yanily replied, literally crawling over towards his tent and sleeping bag. “Thanks for the banner too. That’ll help my solar energy… recover… much… fas…” And then he was asleep, only his top half even inside the tent.
“That’s a talent,” Seena said flatly, turning from the unconscious, newly evolved Stormstrider to Left. “What did you find?”
“Death,” Left said, then shook his head. “Sorry, undeath would be more appropriate.”
“Undeath?” Nivian asked. “Isn’t that just being alive?”
“You’re sure?” Hiral asked more seriously.
“I’m afraid so,” Left said.
“That’s not good news. How strong?” Hiral asked, the Growers sharing confused looks.
“Most of what I saw was D-Rank, but there were A-Rank giants patrolling areas of the city,” Left said. “And this city, I believe, is the Lizardman city we saw within The Mire, or one like it.”
“Whoa, okay, slow down,” Seena said, holding up her hands. “We’re getting a little out of control here. Let’s start at the beginning. What’s an undeath?”
“Undeath is a state, like living,” Hiral said. “We call the creatures undead.” He was still trying to wrap his brain around the things Left had told him.
“Great, thanks for explaining that,” Seena said flatly. “Still doesn’t tell me what an undead is.”
“It’s something that’s dead, but still… sort of alive again. Like an animated skeleton, which is the most basic kind of undead, though there are things like ghouls, zombies, ghosts, spectres, and… worse.”
“How do you know so much about these undead?” Seena asked.
“My knowledge doesn’t go much further than this. I just came across them briefly in a book about one of my tattoos: the Way of Light. It’s supposed to be particularly effective against undead, and there were a few paragraphs talking about them there. One thing the entry emphasized was the undead are difficult to kill. Or, kill again, I guess, since they don’t feel pain and don’t have any vital organs. Chop an arm off, for example, and they’ll keep going like nothing happened.
“I honestly thought they were… made up? Hardly anybody gets the Way of Light, but it has some niche uses, one of which is purifying solar energy. That is supposed to hurt undead quite a bit. But, maybe Left can tell us more? You said something about giants and The Mire?”
“The undead are definitely not made up,” Left said. “I mainly saw animated skeletons and zombies—a zombie is just an animated dead body that still has its meat on it.”
“Lovely,” Seena said.
“Both of those types of undead were Lizardmen, the same kind we fought in The Mire,” Left said. “The further I went into the city, the more I saw.”
“How big is the city, do you think?” Hiral asked.
“Compared to the map Dr. Benza showed us back in the Asylum, it’s the entire D-Rank zone,” Left said.
“So, the monsters we have to deal with here aren’t Troblins or snakes, but instead undead Lizardmen?” Hiral asked, and Left nodded. “What about the giants?”
“They were something… different,” Left said. “I was able to use View on one, and it was called a Shambling Graveyard. I didn’t get too close, because it was A-Rank, but it looked to be made up of dozens, maybe hundreds of Lizardman bodies.”
“How many of those did you see?” Seena asked. “No way we can deal with an A-Rank.”
“I saw three,” Left said. “They shouldn’t be too difficult to avoid. Only one crossed the path leading to the dungeon. The other two patrolled off to the sides, similar to how we saw monsters behaving in some of the dungeons. Like they had a set route they followed.”
“Did you make it to the dungeon?” Hiral asked.
“I believe I spotted where the first one is, yes,” Left said. “Up on the seventh floor of one of the taller buildings about a mile from the tunnel exit.”
“That’s not bad,” Nivian said. “We can do a mile in minutes if we need to.”
“Only if we go there in a straight line, and I wouldn’t suggest that,” Left said.
“Why not?” Wule asked.
“Because this was a very populated city at one point, and there is some kind of market directly between us and the dungeon,” Left explained. “There were hundreds of the undead in some kind of torpor. Maybe thousands.”
“Torpor? They were asleep?” Seeyela asked. “Couldn’t we sneak past? We can tie Yanily’s mouth closed if we need to.”
“It won’t work. Even when I was merged with the darkness, thanks to the Way of Shadows, any undead I passed stirred, like they could sense me. If we all tried to pass that many of them, at least some would wake up.”
“And a fight would probably wake more up,” Hiral figured. “You wouldn’t be back here if you didn’t have a plan, though. What is it?”
“I scouted out a secondary route we can take,” Left said. “We won’t be able to avoid all combat, but we can skirt the largest hordes. It’ll take us a lot longer than going straight, but it should be safer.”
“Should be?” Hiral asked.
“The hordes seem to avoid where the Shambling Graveyards patrol,” Left said.
“Wait, you want us to avoid the D-Rank monsters so we can follow the same routes as the A-Rank ones?” Seena asked.
“Yes and no,” Left said. “The giants don’t move quickly, and there aren’t many of them. We move along a path that touches their patrol routes when they aren’t there. To be careful, we won’t travel on the roads like they do, but through the buildings beside them. I saw only the occasional undead in those buildings, so we should be able to handle them without much trouble.”
“Boss?” Nivian said to Seena.
“We’ll take Left’s route,” she said. “There’s risk either way, but he hasn’t steered us wrong yet. Once everybody is back at full strength, it’s time to get moving.”