The Pinnacle Warrior

“That’s it!”

Benedict’s excited words were a shining beacon of hope for Astrid.

It was now the tenth day since Gabriel guided them to the lower parts of the Dungeon proper to test themselves against Mithril tier monsters, irregular and otherwise. Each day passed in a blur, and under normal circumstances, she would have loved every moment. The constantly changing landscapes and monsters to face fought to demand her attention, and the constant exploration of what each monster was capable of had been an incessant challenge. She’d fought lamias and arachne, drakes, chimeras, and a hydra. Each of these were something she’d dreamed of as a kid, but with the civil war rearing its head behind her, Astrid couldn’t bring herself to care about these little exciting things. Instead, she could only concern herself with how much time had passed.

Was her mother fighting right now? Was her father tending to the wounded with his talismans? Was Ahna being forced to carry her son and flee from enemies? And, if all these things were happening, could Astrid have stopped them from happening by being there?

Benedict had now reached the peak of level 90, and was the penultimate one to do so. Astrid herself was only a couple hundred experience away, with the actual numerical discrepancies between each party member’s experience count varying by the day, depending on who had dealt the killing blow, who managed to do something that would give them experience outside of killing something, and so on. After taking a month just to study and experiment with spells, Skandr had stepped solidly into the lead and had reached the peak of level 90 less than half an hour before. Muti, then Felix, followed, and now that Benedict was done, Astrid was the last one, with a single fight separating her from her own options being presented to her.

“I saw some sludge monstrosity over there,” Benedict said, chuckling and waving over to the left. “You can kill it, and then finally we’ll all take a look at our options.”

“I’ll do it for you,” Muti said, grinning wide.

In fact, Muti didn’t wait for an answer before she disappeared, her body flashing with shadow. Astrid reactivated Body Surge and followed along, finding the monster that Benedict had actually caught sight of. It wasn’t a sludge monster or a slime, thankfully. Those were, at best, difficult to kill. Instead, it was a stone elemental that had taken the form of a type of mole, except it was about person-sized.

With the two’s burst Skills being pushed to their maximum, they were able to deal with the high Steel tier monster very quickly. When the kill notification flashed in Astrid’s vision, she didn’t care about that, but she did smile widely at seeing the level-up notification.

She and Muti shared excited smiles with each other as they hurried back to the rest of the party. Almost as a testament to how much time they had spent together, Gabriel stood visibly nearby, and he allowed himself a small smile at the obvious results of Astrid and Muti’s hunt.

“Ordinarily,” Gabriel said, interrupting the party, “I would get us all out of the Dungeon proper before you look at your evolution options. After all, most people aren’t in a whole lot of a hurry and prefer to be able to take some time to look at what options are available. However, there’s a good chance that you’ll receive quests that have you getting into fights with things around here.”

“So you’re saying for us to do what we were already doing,” Benedict asked, his tone dry.

Instead of giving a verbal answer, Gabriel just smiled, and Benedict shook his head, waving off the older man.

Then, without any further conversation between the five of them, the Wanderers looked at their evolution options. Astrid felt her stomach twist and, despite the nervousness and expectations, started to read.

Immortal Berserker (Extraordinary): From your youth, you have felt and been moved by fury. Long have you been moved by the intensity of your emotions, positive and negative. After stepping onto the path of the Immortal Warrior and then the Immortal Champion, you have cemented yourself as one who will follow their emotions into battle, to rage against those who have wronged you. Your body is your weapon, and the body of the Immortal Berserker is a honed, deadly thing. An Immortal Berserker turns their wounds into greater strength, and the longer the fight goes, the bloodier they become, the more overwhelming their battle prowess. You have waded through the venomous webs of arachnes, acidic pools of hydra blood, and the flaming breath of chimeras, all of which were of Mithril tier. None were capable of stopping your advance. The path of an Immortal Berserker is one that leads ever onward, blood and broken bodies left in your wake. Those who witness your strength either flee in terror or rally behind you. 

Selecting this Class will bless you with the merging of Immortal Champion’s Physique (Steel), Unconquerable Aura (Steel), Body Surge (Steel), and Mental Fortress (Steel) Skills into the Berserker’s Immortality (Mithril) Skill, and the Smite (Steel) and Spectral Graviton (Steel) Skills into the Murderous Rage (Mithril) Skill. Your existing Immortal Champion’s Equipment (Steel) Skill will be upgraded to the Immortal Berserker’s Equipment (Mithril) Skill, with the auxiliary Skill Blunt Weapon’s Mastery (Steel) becoming Melee Weapon’s Mastery (Mithril). Selecting this Class also grants the Furious Fists (Mithril) and Brutal Fury (Mithril) Skills. 

Attribute growth per level (Racial traits) [Boon of the Hero]: Power +30 (+1) [+1], Alacrity +25 (+1), Fortitude +35 (+1) [+1], Magical Potency +0 (+1) [+1], Self-Mastery +6 (+1), Acumen +4 (+1)

Astrid swallowed around a sudden dryness in her throat. Doing some quick mental math, she came to the conclusion that, as she should have already realized, every one of her levels from her Class alone would give 100 attribute points. So long as it was of extraordinary rarity, of course. But to see this Class, see what it was offering to her, was more than enough to make her tongue suddenly feel like cotton in her mouth. And all of that was simply from reading the description, before she actually thought about what any of it meant.

She wanted to just move onto the next, to see what everything else was, especially since a part of her mentally revolted against her class title becoming “berserker“. Regardless, she focused on the other offerings from the class. The only skill that was even remotely familiar to her was that of the equipment, skill, and she still needed to bring it up to see what the changes in her auxiliary skills would be with this evolution.

Immortal Berserker’s Equipment (Mithril): A compound Skill comprising of: Blunt Weapon’s Mastery (Mithril),  Shield Wielding (Mithril), Steady Load (Mithril). Grants the Skill holder the ability to doff and don their equipment in an instant for a Minute mana cost.

—Melee Weapon’s Mastery (Mithril): Anything you hold, even nothing at all, can be a weapon. Grants an intrinsic knowledge of how to use all melee weapons, whether intended to be one or not. Grants a 75% increase to the destructive power of all weapons wielded by the Skill holder.

—Shield Wielding (Mithril): Grants an innate understanding of how to wield shields. Grants a 100% increase in durability to all shields wielded and a 150% increase to the strength granted by imbuing mana into shields.

—Steady Load (Mithril): Increases the Skill holder’s Alacrity while wearing armor by 60%. While wearing armor, the Skill’s holder will be passively assisted by ambient mana to reduce the strain of wearing heavy armor. While carrying any load of at least 50% of the Skill holder’s weight, the Skill holder’s Alacrity is increased by 40%.

Astrid let out a long, slow breath. The upgrade from Lunt weapons mastery to Malay weapons mastery gave, so far she could tell, the same damage bonus that her previous skill would have, but now she would be able to wield bladed weapons with just as much skill as she used her hammer. That would be really nice, allowing her to have a deeper storage of weapons, just in case whatever she preferred to use wasn’t able to be used effectively against her next enemy. That was amazing. Regardless, this was the most boring of all of the skills that this potential class would give her, and she moved her attention to the next one. Without thinking too much about it, she opened the description of what apparently was the keystone skill of this class.

Berserker’s Immortality (Mithril): This Skill increases the holder’s passive rate of mana, health, and stamina recovery by 300%. For a Severe Stamina cost per two minutes, the Skill’s holder can activate the Skill to increase the Skill holder’s mana, health, and stamina recovery by an additional 600% and increase the Skill holder’s Power, Alacrity, and Fortitude by 150%. While the Skill is active, all damage that the Skill holder inflicts grants additional health and stamina recovery. While the Skill is active, all damage that the Skill holder takes grants a bonus to their Power, Alacrity, and Fortitude. While the Skill is active, the Skill holder gains a 100% increase to their Self-Mastery and Acumen as well as a 200% increase to their resistance to all negative effects. While the Skill is active, allies within 20 meters gain a 10% reduction to all damage taken.

The breath flew from Astrid’s lungs. She felt her eyes widen as she found a place to sit to try to understand what this Skill would do. Passively, she would recover four times as fast as her attributes alone would give her. Then, of course, there was Boon of Indomitability, which she was fairly certain was multiplicative with the boost to her passive recovery rate as given by Physique. It was hard to tell, exactly. Regardless, that would mean that she would visibly heal from wounds without spending charges, and the Skill’s active state would become even more insane.

Giving her the same boost to her attributes as Body Surge already did, but more to Fortitude and making her do more damage the longer the fight went on was crazy. It’d be a difficult balancing act to make sure she wasn’t going to kill herself by running out of stamina and collapsing in the middle of the fight, but when she learned how to use it correctly, the Skill would let her become basically a Boss all by herself. Then, there would be the addition to her attributes, and the words “negative effects” weren’t limited. Could that also apply to all the damage she took? But the next part talked about damage reduction, but was phrased differently…

She shook her head and, with a sigh that tried to convince her that she couldn’t say no to the Class, she looked at the next Skill granted by merging two of her existing ones. 

Murderous Rage (Mithril): For a Moderate stamina and a Minor health cost per minute, grants every one of the Skill holder’s attacks a 200% increase in damage. During the duration of Murderous Rage, the Skill holder suffers from Heavy reduction in rationality.

Astrid shook her head. Just like the attributes, which were so totally focused on the physical three, this Skill was focused on continuing to focus entirely on the continued doubling and tripling down on becoming a killing machine. She almost couldn’t think about the Skill as she mindlessly looked at the other two this evolution would offer her.

Furious Fists (Mithril): Every one of the Skill holder’s melee attacks is strengthened by 70%

Brutal Fury (Mithril): The Skill holder’s mana, without any instruction from the Skill holder, will passively serve to worsen every wound they deal and inhibit the wounded from healing.

Yes, this was exactly the kind of Class that would lead the Barbarians. The kind of Class that she’d have had nightmares about as a child. If she was dropped in an enemy formation, so long as she wasn’t killed in the first handful of seconds, she would be able to rip through them all and come out stronger than she went in. The last two Skills were interesting, the first being a plain strengthening Skill and the second being a reminder of how the Barbarian people looked down on mana. 

The Class wasn’t exactly what she was looking for, but it was immensely powerful. Everything worked together to paint a very obvious picture, and she could see herself able to carve through battlefields, whether they were filled with people or monsters, with impunity. Having looked at the Class in its entirety, she moved on to the next.

Immortal Hammermaster (Extraordinary): From the time that you were bestowed with a Class, you have relied on the strength of arm and the bite of blunt steel to smash all problems in your path. You have grown from strength to strength, and you cannot be stopped. You have grown more precise in the way you wield your weapon, and you have become a warrior capable of using a stone or your fist just as well as your hammer. If an enemy is in your sight, you strike them down, and the echoes of your hammer ringing over the horizon are the surest death knell for those who would test their strength against you. That has been proven against monsters with greater strength than you, be they dragons, hydras, or anything else. Even a difference in tier is insufficient to stop the ringing of your weapon. The path of an Immortal Hammermaster is to stand on the front lines of whatever conflict you determine to be worthy of your attention. With your strength, victory is inevitable. 

Selecting this Class will bless you with the merging of the Immortal Champion’s Physique (Steel) and Mental Fortress (Steel) Skills into the Immortal Hammermaster’s Essence (Mithril) Skill. In addition, your existing Spectral Graviton (Steel), Unconquerable Aura (Steel), Body Surge (Steel), and Smite (Steel) Skills will be upgraded to Spectral Graviton (Mithril), Unconquerable Aura (Mithril), Body Surge (Mithril), and Smite (Mithril) Skills. Finally, your Immortal Champion’s Equipment (Steel) will evolve to Immortal Hammermaster’s Equipment (Mithril), with the addition of the Hammering Strength (Mithril) auxiliary Skill.

Attribute growth per level (Racial traits) [Boon of the Hero]: Power +28 (+1) [+1], Alacrity +15 (+1), Fortitude +28 (+1) [+1], Magical Potency +12 (+1) [+1], Self-Mastery +12 (+1), Acumen +5 (+1)

While everything that the Class gave was amazing, it lacked the excitement of the Berserker Class. Astrid couldn’t help but laugh at herself having the opinion as she reread “the echoes of your hammer ringing over the horizon are the surest death knell”. The Immortal Hammermaster was, so far as she could tell, a direct upgrade to Immortal Champion. It was a somewhat balanced distribution of attributes, though it leaned more directly into physicality, proportionally, than Immortal Champion had. That didn’t matter, and, in fact, Astrid preferred it that way, given how much she depended on her party to cover her weaknesses.

Even though she felt the overwhelming difference between Berserker and Hammermaster, Astrid remained, at best, leery of the first Class. After all, it was a marked departure from what her Classes until now, and the negative effects from Murderous Rage couldn’t be forgotten. Switching Smite and Spectral Graviton for Murderous Rage was a big sacrifice. Could she justify it to herself if she made that choice, to so totally change her approach for what was undoubtedly a powerful Class?

The question bounced around her head as she brought the Skill definitions up for reference.

Immortal Hammermaster’s Essence (Mithril): An Immortal Hammermaster cannot be stopped physically nor spiritually. This Skill increases the holder’s passive rate of mana, health, and stamina recovery by 200%. This Skill increases the holder’s Self-Mastery and Acumen by 75%. Eight times per hour, the Skill’s holder can activate the Skill to recover 50% of all mana, health, and stamina. 75% of all that is recovered is applied to the next attack made. For a Moderate stamina cost, the Skill’s holder can designate up to four other individuals within ten meters whose injuries will be transferred to the Hammermaster at the time of the use of a charge of Immortal Hammermaster’s Essence. A one minute, 100% boost to all affected individuals’ mental resilience will be granted along with mana and stamina to the other individuals as well.

Astrid squinted at the Skill description. At this point, it might as well become something like an Equipment Skill, with auxiliary Skills rolled into it. However, at its core, Essence was basically Physique. The changes to the core, original Skill were the amount of recovery granted as well as boost to the next attack. And, of course, granting one additional person to be targeted if she chose to do so. Then, in place of Mental Fortress, the Skill would grant her a boost to Self-Mastery and Acumen, while the secondary effect of that Skill now went into boosting anyone she included in spending any charges of Essence. 

In truth, she thought that was pretty generous to have the Skill improved. She’d had the opportunity to practice with Mental Fortress against the red shimmerbugs, but that was it. Now, instead of having to think about the Skill and when to use it, now, whenever she healed herself, she’d be buffing up her party against any mind-affecting Skills. That was plenty of a benefit for her and her party, especially since Physique was already a mind-bendingly effective Skill.

With a sigh, she compared the effect of Essence against Berserker’s Immortality. They were vastly different Skills, and it didn’t come as a surprise to her that, while Essence was absolutely a better healing Skill since it could heal others, Immortality was a better finisher Skill. It’d keep her going longer, harder, and keep scaling the longer she kept it active. She still hadn’t looked at the rest of this Class’s Skills, tro say nothing of the third, so she stopped comparing and instead looked to see the other Skill evolutions.

Spectral Graviton (Mithril): For a variable cost of mana and stamina, create a Spectral Graviton. Its origin can be within an item that the Skill Holder is wielding or at any point within fifty meters. The closer to the Skill Holder and the more mana and stamina provided, the more powerful the Spectral Graviton.

Unconquerable Aura (Mithril): For a Severe cost of mana and stamina, creates an aura that reduces all damage taken by those within the same party within forty meters by 20% for three minutes.

Body Surge (Mithril): For a Moderate cost to mana and stamina, increase the Skill holder’s Power and Alacrity by 225% as well as the Skill holder’s Fortitude by 125% for one minute.

Smite (Mithril): For a Minor to Moderate cost of mana and stamina, infuses a weapon of the Skill holder’s choice with mana of an attribute of their choice which will expand and burst upon contact with a foe. Scales with Power and Magical Potency

She couldn’t help but laugh a bit at herself there. Two of the Skills, Spectral Graviton and Smite, already had descriptions that wouldn’t change with the evolution. Well, Spectral Graviton’s listed limit extended from twenty meters to fifty, but otherwise, it was identical, while Smite’s stayed entirely unchanged. In fact, Unconquerable Aura and Body Surge also only had small changes in numbers. Regardless of no real change in description, Astrid knew how much of a change she’d see in these Skills when they evolved. 

That was all about what she expected, and she glanced into the equipment Skill, seeing that, as she expected, the bonuses from Blunt Weapon’s Mastery was about what she’d expected, compared to the Melee Weapon’s Mastery from the Berserker Class. Finally, the last thing from this Class to check, was the bonus auxiliary Skill that was added to the equipment Skill.

Hammering Strength (Mithril): When wielding a hammer, have all attributes increased by 15%.

Astrid’s eyes bugged out. Sure, it was “just” 15%, but as it was, that could almost be compared to Benedict’s burst Skill! She shook her head, no longer quite so sure as to which of the two offered Classes was superior. No closer to making a decision than before, Astrid looked at the last option.

Unfallen Meteor (Extraordinary): You are implacable. You cannot be stopped. As a meteor falls from the skies, so too do your attacks fall on your enemies. To become the Unfallen Meteor is to become capable of deciding when to bring an unstoppable force of destruction down on whatever target you choose. The Unfallen Meteor is pure potential energy, to be brought out against whatever is in your path. You have proven that your body is a weapon, and to elect to become an Unfallen Meteor is to become an indestructible force to level whatever has gained your ire. The seemingly insurmountable gulf of attributes, watersheds, and even tiers is nonexistent before you, and whatever you choose to destroy cannot last. The path of the Unfallen Meteor is to crush that which challenges you. With your power, destruction is imminent. 

Selecting this Class will bless you with the merging of the Body Surge (Steel) and Unconquerable Aura (Steel) Skills into the Skill: Meteoric Descent (Mithril), as well as the merging of the Smite (Steel) and Spectral Graviton (Steel) Skills into the Skill: Meteoric Smite (Mithril). In addition, your existing Immortal Warrior’s Physique (Steel), Immortal Warrior’s Equipment (Steel), and Mental Fortress (Steel) Skills will be upgraded to the Meteoric Regeneration (Mithril), Unfallen Meteor’s Equipment (Mithril), and Infallible Mind (Mithril) Skills. 

Attribute growth per level (Racial traits) [Boon of the Hero]: Power +38 (+1) [+1], Alacrity +14 (+1), Fortitude +28 (+1) [+1], Magical Potency +10 (+1) [+1], Self-Mastery +6 (+1), Acumen +4 (+1)

This… was something else entirely. Astrid couldn’t react, though she was grateful  she was already sitting. Unfallen Meteor? What kind of Class was that? She could assume that it was something good, and unlike Berserker, it wasn’t completely neglecting the mental attributes, though it didn’t give as much as the Hammermaster did. Instead, it was entirely focused on being destructive. Berserker had a greater Fortitude growth rate than Power, 37 and 32 respectively, with Hammermaster balancing both at a growth of 30 each per level.

Meteor gave 40 Power per level. In terms of Power growth, it gave almost double of what Champion had for the past 40 levels. It gave 8 more Power per level than the next closest option, a full quarter of what the Berserker did. In exchange, the Alacrity growth was comparable to the balanced Hammermaster but quite a bit lower than that of the Berserker. Even before looking at the Skills from this last Class evolution option, Astrid could see the differences between each option. Despite that, she hadn’t even begun  to look at the most important parts of the Class. Desperately curious, she opened the first Skill description. Of the three new “Meteoric” Skills, she couldn’t make the decision and finally just started from the top.

Meteoric Descent (Mithril): For a Severe stamina and mana cost, for a split second, the Skill holder ascends into the sky before falling to the ground with the strength of the skies behind them. At the area of their descent, everything within a twenty meter radius is struck by a kinetic burst. Those designated as friendly by the Skill holder will take a reduced one half of the damage. The force of the strike scales off of the Skill holder’s Power, Fortitude, Magical Potency, and Self-Mastery. Upon the ascent of the Skill holder, the Skill holder’s Power and Fortitude are increased by 300% for one minute and a 30% reduction to all physical damage. After the descent of the Skill holder, this Skill generates an aura within twenty meters. Within this aura, all allies are granted a 15% reduction to all physical damage while the aura also functions as a graviturgical field to all enemies. Within this graviturgical field, all enemies are drawn towards the Skill holder. 

“Duchess above,” Astrid breathed, reading through the Skill. As a mixture of Body Surge and Unconquerable Aura, she wasn’t sure what to expect, but she certainly hadn’t expected another multi-part Skill as complex as this one. Instead of just functioning as a burst Skill, Meteoric Descent also served as an area of effect when activated. Then, once the Skill’s burst began, it also granted greater survivability  to herself as well as all her allies. The boost being entirely for Power and Fortitude without anything going to Alacrity was interesting as well, since it gave a slightly higher total boost than Body Surge did, though for a much higher cost.

Then, all enemies being pulled towards her would be great for the Skill, since it wouldn’t help her Alacrity at all, and the growth rates meant that the attribute would swiftly be left behind even more than it already was. Still, she couldn’t help but continue to look ahead at the other three Skill descriptions for this Class.

Meteoric Smite (Mithril): For Minor to Heavy stamina and mana cost, designate a weapon as a meteor and a location as the crater. For an additional Minor to Moderate mana cost, infuse the designated weapon with mana of a selected affinity to explode upon contact with the selected future crater. As the meteor draws closer to the crater, the two will be inexorably drawn together, the crater being destroyed by the touch of the meteor.

As a combination of Spectral Graviton and Smite, Astrid hadn’t known what to expect. Now, though, there was one thing that wouldn’t leave her mind. The thoughts of a potential “Gravity Warrior” Class being offered to her were long gone, but now, Astrid was seeing what she could only expect to be the Class two evolutions beyond that. Though the immediate, straightforward possibilities of the Skill appeared to her, so too did the thought of using this as a repositioning Skill. There was no statement regarding the specific limitations of what she could designate as the “crater”, Astrid immediately understood that this wasn’t a limited Skill, and if she took this Class, there would be plenty of experimentation that she’d be able to make with this Skill in particular, so long as she had any time.

Regardless, the loss of the flexibility of Spectral Graviton did sting a little. She liked the Skill, even though she hadn’t had it for as long as she’d been in Iron and Bronze. Shaking her head at her spoiled thoughts, she moved on to the next Skill, the one that she was most interested in seeing how it changed. 

Meteoric Regeneration (Mithril): An Unfallen Meteor will not fall until they have chosen. This Skill increases the holder’s passive rate of mana, health, and stamina recovery by 350%. Four times per hour, the Skill’s holder can activate the Skill to recover 50% of all mana, health, and stamina. 100% of all that is recovered is applied to the next attack made. For a Moderate stamina cost, the Skill’s holder can designate up to two other individuals within ten meters whose injuries will be transferred to the Unfallen Meteor at the time of the use of a charge of Meteoric Regeneration. The selected individuals will also be granted a bonus to their next attack of 100% of all the recovered resources.

Not wanting to continue to lose herself in her thoughts and opinions, Astrid simply concerned herself with the changes in this particular iteration of the Skill. First was the focus on her passive recovery, it being the highest of the three. The second was the reduction in charges compared to Essence and Physique, with only four charges per hour. Third was the increase in the bonus damage, and fourth, the reduction in the additional people to be benefitted by the Skill. Finally, the addition of whoever she healed with the Skill also dealing bonus damage if healed. Would that impact how much bonus damage she herself dealt? She couldn’t know. 

Having gotten to the end of the Skill options, Astrid didn’t think any longer on these possibilities, instead bracing herself and looking at the final Skill evolution offered by her final Class evolution option.

Infallible Mind (Mithril): The Unfallen Meteor’s mind is their own. This Skill grants an 100% increase to the Skill Holder’s Self-Mastery and Acumen. In addition, those who have chosen to fall into the Unfallen Meteor’s orbit gain a 25% increase to their Self-Mastery and Acumen while within fifty meters of the Skill holder.

Finally, Astrid had read through all the options, and looking at her allies, she could see that they all were also reeling from seeing the various possibilities that were available to them. Everyone was done reading, and the all stepped forward, ready to discuss their options.