"That was…generous of him. Usually that stuff costs a premium," said Ray as she looked at me, and I couldn't really respond. Ten Gold was…well and truly beyond the means of the common man. It did make me wonder if the cost my system gave was market value price, or price for construction of the item. I would guess the former normally, but it was still strange to think on, as I moved away, and allowed Lucia and the brothers to approach the Hourglass.
"Well, I'll be putting his and the Crown's gifts to good use, but for now, I think it best that was get on with the business we came here for…however you do that," I said, and Lucia all but giggled as she approached the Hourglass, moving her fingers eagerly, and then shuffling to the side. The three brothers walked up to stand beside her, and then all four, in unison, moved their hands forward.
I was uncertain how the brothers knew to do this, but it mattered little, as they set one hand each on the ring at the bottom of the Hourglass, a tiny metallic ringing noise echoing in my ear, as the device began to shimmer a little in my vision, and then light started to shine from within the bottom half of it, the golden glow spilling out and making it hard to look at them, as more chimes went off in my ears, and my menu forcefully opened.
I was now staring at my interface, the words Class Up appearing between very fancy looking triangle brackets. Below that, the words 'Class upgrade process initiated' appeared. A bit clinical, and not how it looked in Dimensional Sign, but still, the music was right, as I heard plinks of some kind of stringed instrument in the background somehow, as the words faded into icons.
First, the icons for the four party members opened, but then I saw the four icons for the Cardinal Weapons above them, and then eight more icons showing what I could only assume were other weapons, and specialties, all sort of flowing out of the four Primary Icons of the Cardinal Weapons. Parent classes and then secondaries? That guess would remain unanswered as more text appeared, and I nearly felt my heart skip a beat at the implications of it.
'Would you like to let the targets choose freely?' it asked me, with yes/no options below it, and I had to wonder just how it meant that. Could I force the Hourglass to give them certain builds? Was that what was happening? Or was my Bow somehow going to change their will, and force them to want what I wanted them to be? That left me just sort of flabbergasted, but I picked yes on instinct, not wanting to force them into anything they didn't want.
The text and Class Up banner faded, as the party menu opened, the four sheets of Lucia, Strong, Fast, and Shadow overlaying my vision. I got to watch in real time as their bodies before me were soon covered in what looked like flowing liquid gold coming from the Hourglass, the movement of it corresponding to the changing of their character sheets, their stats and skills expanding outward.
Lucia's Class flipped through a dozen things, mostly other words for magic user, but some were interesting. Magic Knight, Magic Archer, Arcane Grappler, Knight Enchanter, and Mana Born Slayer being what I could only assume were mixed classes. Mind she also had more magically inclined ones, including Necromancer, Rift Mage, and something called a Heliotropic Castigator…which meant something like Light Critic or the like, and I could only assume was a Light Magic focused attack mage of some kind.
When it stopped, she had selected Elementalist as her new class, which added both Earth and Ice to her 'Natural' Affinity list to sit with her Fire and Lightning ones. Oddly, the four then branched out, coming together into an element called 'Creation' which was confusing, but I ignored it as her skill list popped up next, and she added several new skills to her abilities, including a nice looking (Consecutive Cast) one that lowered the casting time for each subsequent casting of a spell as long as it was cast right after, allowing her to rapid fire something, which I could think of a lot of, though it would probably strain her MP.
Her spell list grew as well, going from a few dozen, to almost one hundred, as she selected them one after another. All attack spells, I noticed, which showed she had faith in me to bring the boosts, which was nice. I then noticed her stats going up. Not much, mind, but about a twenty percent gain on average, with magic attack being almost twice that at around thirty. Combined with her skills and spells, her overall damage output had probably increased an order of magnitude.
The brothers were the ones I was most curious to watch, however. As their 'Classes' were also their species. At first, it seemed that it was locked, and they would not be able to change it, but then it suddenly flashed, as did the gem on my Bow, and the setting unlocked. As I watched, a bit awed, they shifted through those too. Dragon, Gryphon, Bear, Chicken, Rabbit, Mouse, their lists just kept going as they shifted through them, and I watched as their bodies changed with each shift, growing limbs in odd ways, and even sprouting wings at several points.
Finally, they selected their forms, and with a chime, I watched as their stats rocketed up. Strong's Attack, Fast's Mobility, and Shadow's Magic all doubled in scope. That was a huge boost, and I actually watched as their bodies changed again, becoming more defined along those roles, and their other stats jumped up. Not nearly as much, mind, they were focused on their roles, but still.
Their skills…each got one or two new ones, rather than the almost ten that Lucia had gained. Possibly this was due to the difference between Human and Beastman, though it did make me wonder how Class Ups affected Demihumans. For Strong it was (Proud Roar) and (King's Flare), which, both good, area of effect attacks, one a force based blast in front of him, the other an aura of fire that he could blast outward with or simply have around him enhancing his attack and defense, according to the description.
Fast gained (A Hole in the World), which gave him a kind of ability to punch through portals, if I was missing my guess there. It had a range and mass listed, along with bonuses, and it sounded like it could make hits even stronger passing through them. No wonder he didn't get another skill, given the growth of this one was insane to look at, and he could even pass through them himself if he got it strong enough.
Shadow got two skills like Strong, but one of his was purely passive. (Chunin). It enhanced or made cheaper all of his ninja type attacks, which made sense given the term was for a Journeyman Level ninja, higher than the (Genin), or Low Person, he'd begun as. The other skill was more interesting, (Shadow Conduit) which said he now had the ability to form solid constructs that would extend from his body, with their strength based on his Magic stat, which was higher(baseline wise), than Lucia's own thanks to the Class Up bonus.
When it was all over, when they had finished, only a minute had passed, and their bodies, covered in light, seemed to shine like small suns, before a chime sound echoed, not just for me, but through the world, as the Hourglass sang out as if heralding the changes. The noise scattered the light around them into motes, as a blast of wind flew outwards, forcing me to block my eyes, and as I looked, they turned to face me, and I just stared.
Lucia looked…different. Her stance was firmer, and I could 'feel' the magical energy coming off of her body. She wasn't just a little stronger, Class Up had given her a lot of power to play with, and she smiled, pulled on her pointed hat, and then spun it a little. It looked shinier too, somehow, the black material of it, and the red cloth band tied around the hat looked to have become finer during the process.
The brothers, however, had changed entirely. Strong had gone from a relatively powerful looking wolfman, to a lionman, one that was as tall as Souka, able to look down on me, which was a new feeling. Better, his limbs had ballooned out to match his new form, and he moved with the grace of royalty, as his mane, which wrapped around his head, gave him a look of regality that he hadn't had before.
Fast was a cheetah, his body taller, though not as tall as me, he would now be able to look most of the other Heroes in the eye, and was a head taller than Lucia. He was also built like a runner, with thick legs that were long, and looked able to kick with enough force to probably take someone's head off. His yellow fur seemed to waver, like it was barely holding its motion inside his body, and his spots looked like they were moving.
Finally there was Shadow. His body was now that of a white tiger, and his build looked lankier than either of his brothers. That said, he radiated a power all his own, and one could see his stripes move as he stepped forward, his paws gently touching down, where their treads were loud bangs. He was probably more dangerous by far than either of the other two, honestly, even if he looked like the weakest physically.
The four of them stood straight and proud, as they looked themselves up and down, Shadow briefly making his stripes dance around behind him by using his new shadow powers, causing them to form into whip-like limbs that had spears for heads. Fast seemed to phase a bit, as he moved, subtly, but quicker than before. Strong began to glow with inner fire for a moment, and Lucia, smiling, formed four orbs in front of her, not having to recite the spell aloud this time, as lightning, fire, ice, and earth spun before her slowly, before they stilled, and were smiling at us.
"That is some incredible changes…do Beastmen normally change species when classing up?" I asked, not sure if this was correct, and Ray nodded, sighing.
"They CAN do it, or so I've been told, though I've never seen it happen. Sometimes the species change can even be forced, or so the Guild's rumor mill has said, by various rituals and magical devices. I don't know if those rumors are *true*, to be fair, but given they did, I'd assume it requires some kind of catalyst to produce the effect. Say a legendary weapon that is wielded every few generations?" she said, with a knowing tone to her voice.
Looking at my weapon, I did wonder if it was responsible, but it was quiet as a lump of metal on my arm, and I just shook it off, turning it into its (Chain Breaker) form, and watching as the stat sheet of my beastmen companions…as well as Ray though not Souka or Lucia I noticed, jumped upwards. Mixed with their gear, the three before me, and the one at my side were now the better of anyone I'd seen, even the other Heroes, and while the other two weren't there yet, they weren't that far off either.
"A fine party then. Ray, you said you know all the monster dens and dungeons in this land, correct?" I asked, and she shrugged.
"As a Guild liaison I certainly know a fair few. As I said, if we go north, south, or west, I can tell you where they all are with some clarity. East was not my area of study, but I can make a show of it if you need me to," she said, and I considered it, but then shook my head.
"We're headed northwest, towards Thud, and then beyond it to the steppes. What's the strongest monster you know of between here and Thud, so we can cut our teeth on it?" I asked, and that caused her to pull out a map from her belt that I hadn't even realized was there beneath the white paladin cloak she wore. She took a few moments to study it, but then looked up at me, her eyebrow raised.
"Are you sure you want the strongest? It is quite a beast, and one that has killed all who've gone up against it since times long past," she told me, and I did consider it for a moment. I didn't want to take too much risk right now…but a monster that close sounded like the sort of thing that needed to be taken care of, and right now, we were close enough that if it was between here and Thud, we could retreat and regroup.
"I'm sure we'll be able to beat it, between the seven of us, we have all the skills to take on a Wave. If we can't take down one of the leftovers from those, we might run into problems later," I said, and she seemed to consider that, before nodding and we made our way out, both of the cathedral, and then the city, on our first adventure as a full party of seven warriors, to stand against the Waves.
(Author's Note: Yeah, another one, this time to give some notes to what I'm referencing.
Lucia's new four primary elements are…well the elements from Ninjago, Fire, Earth, Lightning, and Ice make Creation. I enjoy the show, nothing more than that, and these are the elements I can have the most fun with later.
For the three brothers, I decided to add this in, as we never see beastmen get class ups(No Filo and her race do not count), and since we know they can switch species given some backstory for the kingdom ruled by the four divine beasts, and that Heroes have a massive effect on people they're close to, I decided to toss that in.
Strong is Simba from the Kingdom Hearts games…in General Carmine's body from Realist Hero.
Fast's power is essentially The Spot's powerset from Marvel, if done as his base set, rather than the more advanced stuff he can get up to after the whole Power Cosmic upgrade.
And Shadow…is still just Shadow. Ninja is as Ninja does.)
