Blood Shaper

Eleniah laughed for a while. Like, a while. Her laughter was loud and gleeful, like a child discovering fireworks or something equally awesome for the first time. A few times when she ran out of breath, Kay heard her gasp out a few words. Words like, “…can’t believe…”, “…so much fun!”, and “…finally found…!”.

Eventually she stopped and laid against the table, catching her breath.

“Are you done?” He asked.

She looked up at him with bright eyes. “… And you don’t have any idea. Oh, that makes it even better.” She chuckled and sat up. “Alright, come this way.” She stood up and walked off.

Kay sighed, but he followed without saying anything. He could break the agreement at any time, but some instinct was telling him not to. Maybe it was just the base part of himself wanting to spend time around the beautiful woman, but he was pretty sure it was more than that. And if it wasn’t, well he had an out clause waiting.

He didn’t see much more of the medium sized home as he followed Eleniah down a hall and into the back yard. It was pretty basic, with a tall wall of that same local marble blocking off the area from random passers-by. There were a few planters holding various flowers and plants near the door, but the rest of the yard was just bare dirt.

“Run.” She pointed into the yard. “Around the yard, follow the wall.”

“What?” Kay looked from the yard to her. It was at least the size of a decent sized outlet store, which was impressive in and of itself in a cramped city area.

“We’re starting training. Start running around the yard, following the wall.” She pointed again, looking at him calmly.

He glanced back and forth again, then started to jog. That same niggling instinct in the back of his head pushed him to follow her instructions

“Faster!” She called out from behind him, and he picked up the pace.

As he finished his first lap, Eleniah started running with him. Just out of reach, she kept the exact same pace as him, no matter how much he slowed or sped up, she kept the exact same distance. All while running backwards. And she didn’t miss a single turn, her pivots were perfectly timed to miss the wall and keep in front of him. The entire time she yelled encouragements and admonishments to speed up and not lose the pace, but not once did she use insults or try and degrade him, which he had expected at least a little.

Finally, after he’d lost count on the number of laps he’d run, she stopped. “Alright, that’s it for now.”

Kay did his best not to collapse to the ground as he slowed to a stop.

“Don’t just stop here! Walk it off, it’s better for you.”

At her direction he did another two laps walking, then stopped by her side as she waved him down. “Here.” She held out a cup of water to him. “I’ve got more, but don’t drink too fast.”

He took it gratefully and began to drink.

“So, here’s your first question as my new student.” She took the cup from him as he finished and filled it again from a pitcher. “Why did I make you run?”

“What?” He frowned. That seemed like an easy one. “For training?”

“Well, sure, but why running?”

He frowned deeper. “To make me better at running?”

She stared at him, her gaze holding a little confusion. “Yes, to make you better at running, but you have a magic class, wouldn’t you think that I should start training you in that?”

“I mean, eventually yeah, I’d think so. But what do I know about training people?”

Eleniah let out a breath. “Most trainees I get with magic classes are all annoyed about the running.”

“Do people with magic not have to run here?” Kay couldn’t help but ask. That seemed stupid. What if they got ambushed or something? Or hell, he could think of half a dozen instances that would require people with magic running, right off the top of his head.

Eleniah closed her eyes and clapped her free hand to her forehead. “Right off the bat, I forget you’re an Outworlder. Of course you don’t have the same damned prejudices I normally see.” She rubbed at her forehead for a second. “Alright, sorry about that. It’s been a few hundred years since I taught an Outworlder, so it might take me a bit to get in stride again. So, the running thing. How much do you know about how classes and higher tiers empower you?”

“A little bit? Douglas explained some things to me.”

“The BOA gnome? What did he tell you?”

Kay went over Douglas’ explanation, about how each class you got, and each class you upgraded to a higher tier made a person stronger, enhancing them to a larger extent in ways that supported the class they upgraded or gained, and to a smaller amount for everything else.

“Right, so you’ve got the basics.” She set down the pitcher on the ground. “But you’re missing some key information. You definitely get stronger in various ways, and you definitely do get stronger in ways more related to the class in question than not, but do you know how it works?”

“No.” Kay replied bluntly.

She grinned. “I was pretty sure you didn’t, but it’s polite to ask. Everything in this world has some amount of mana. It’s the building block of magic, and it’s what empowers skills, classes, and everything else. When you gain a new class or upgrade an old one, The World, or The System or whatever you want to call it, fills you with mana. That mana begins to build you up, piece by piece, into a slightly better version of yourself. But it starts with where you are right now.”

Kay began to nod slowly.

“A person who doesn’t exercise much and gets a class based around being strong will get their strength enhanced. They’ll be stronger than they could have been without the mana reinforcement, and if you have them compete in an arm wrestling competition with a person in peak physical condition but no class, the person with the class will win every time.”

“But if the person in better shape gets the same class…”

“Exactly.” Eleniah’s smile was approving. “The first person will lose dramatically.”

“So, you’re having me exercise to build up my body now so that when we do get around to improving my class, I get the biggest boost possible?”

Her smile became a beam as she clapped him on the shoulder. “Exactly! You’re going to be a great student! Yes, that, plus the studying and puzzles and things we’re going to do to build up your mind will keep you competitive with the other future powerhouses.”

“And that’s important?”

“With the titles you have?” She nodded emphatically. “Most definitely.”

“Why?” Kay waved a hand at the house, “Back in there when I told you that I had the-”

Eleniah leapt forward and covered his mouth with her hand. “Don’t say it out loud!”

Kay sighed and peeled her hand off. “Alright. When I told you the title I had, you bust out laughing.”

She raised one finger. “First of all, that was pure excitement, not amusement. I am delighted that I have such an interesting student now. Second of all…” She rotated her finger to point on the ground. “I’ll tell you, after some push ups.”

I hate push ups. He complained to himself as he got down on the ground.

“Not like that, tuck your elbows in.” Eleniah moved around him, shifting his form around. “Alright, now start. Same as earlier, I’ll tell you when to stop.”

Her style while he did push ups was the same as the running too, all encouragement and admonishments, no insults or shouting. Kay finished less than thirty push ups before she had him stop.

Kay smiled self-consciously as he tried not to rub his aching arms. “I’m the guy who’s not in the best shape.”

She shrugged. “So? Today and the next few days are all about finding your limits. It’s no big deal where you start, it’s all about where you end up.”

Kay’s gaze became searching as he looked a her. “You’re really nice…”

She snorted a laugh. “Thanks. Were you expecting some pissed off teacher yelling insults at you because you didn’t meet some predetermined goal?”

“A bit, yeah.”

Eleniah grabbed the cup and handed it to him after filling it up. “I don’t like those kind of teachers, and I’m not going to be one. Being encouraging is a much better way to teach people than to be an asshole.”

“Well, I certainly appreciate it.”

“Good. Now, let’s talk about your title. But, inside. I can make sure we’re not listened in on.” She led him into the house and back to the same dining room. “One moment, let me go get something.”

She brought back a similar device to the one that Douglas had used to supposedly block out listeners. The crystal in it glowed in the same way that the first one had as she turned it on.

“Alright,” She said as she sat down. “So, Class Line Progenitor is one of the most sought after Titles there are. Class Creators have a target placed on their heads, because other people will want to steal their insights and get ahead of them. Class Line Progenitors both do and don’t have the same issue. They do, because there are some people that think if they can take out the Line Progenitor and get the same class line, they can get all the branches first and get all the benefits. Most others know that it’s a bit of a gamble to try that and focus on getting the Line Progenitor on their side on way or another. Especially since anyone trying to get Class Creator for all those new branches don’t have the insights of the Line Progenitor.”

“Like what? What benefits do I get?”

“Just look at the Title.”

“What do you mean? It just says its name.”

Eleniah grimaced. “Right, Outworlder doesn’t know the basics because no one taught you it. Sorry, just focus on anything from your status that you want to know about and it will give you more information.”

Kay pulled open his status and focused like she’d said on the title, inwardly scolding himself. Just like Captain Armis told me about the updates. I have to pay more attention!

[————————————————————]

Title: Class Line Progenitor

-The first person to create or discover a new class line, the Class Line Progenitor immediately gains a new class slot of the appropriate type on gaining the title. The Class Line Progenitor cannot lose the base line class of their class line under any circumstances, and they gain an intuitive understanding on how to advance their class into it’s higher tier, and into new branches.

[————————————————————]

“Oh…”

Eleniah leaned closer. “Read it?”

“Yeah, I did, that’s… Great. At least, the first and last bits. Is the part about not being able to lose the base line class good?”

She laughed. “No, it’s fantastic. If you upgrade a class onto a branch off of the base line path and onto a new one, that class becomes the new branch class, and to do that again you have to get the base line class again and progress through it again. It isn’t as hard as doing it the first time, but it is time consuming and uses up class slots. Not only will you not have to worry about leveling up a class again and again to reach new branches and get new classes, each time you do so you’ll get a new slot!”

“There’s no upper limit to the number of slots you can have?”

“Not that anyone’s discovered. The highest known is somewhere around eighty classes.”

“Eighty?”

“Yeah, the tier seven known as the Rune Master is a Class Line Progenitor at least three times over, and they have a huge amount of classes.”

Kay sat back in his chair. “That’s crazy!”

“Yeah, the Rune Master created the Rune Magic line a few thousand years ago, consolidated enough power to rule their own island to the west of here, and they’ve spent the whole time researching new classes and working on their old ones.”

Rocked by the repeated shocks, Kay started at his new teacher. “A few thousand years ago? The way you’re talking it sounds like they’re still alive.”

“Of course they are, they’re tier seven.” Eleniah huffed out a breath. “Crap, another thing you wouldn’t know. Right, the first time you reach a tier after the first, your lifespan increases. By the time you get to tier five you’ll live for around a thousand years if no one kills you.”

Kay felt like his jaw would hit the floor.

Eleniah waved the subject away. “Don’t worry about that now, you have to get to that level first, and it’ll take awhile. Focus on the here and now.”

He blinked at her repeatedly. “Alright…”

“Anyways, your titles are awesome, you have the potential to be powerful, don’t talk about it to anyone not bound by an agreement or that you trust completely.”

Kay rubbed at his face. “I’m not some storybook protagonist! How the hell did I end up in this position?”

Eleniah walked around the table and patted his shoulder. “No, you’re not some hero in a story. But life happens, and sometimes people end up with opportunities that seem crazy. I haven’t been in your exact situation, but I’ve had some similar circumstances, and my recommendation is to just keep going. Take the opportunity and use it while remaining who you are already.”

“And it’s that easy, huh?”

She laughed. “No, it’s not that easy. But it is that simple. Now, lets head back outside and train some more. This time it’s sit ups.”

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