Nick was considering the two options when he suddenly toppled over. An influx of energy spread throughout his body, quickly making him turn his gaze to his internal space. He watched in wonder as energy began to flood out of the ethereal rectangles he had assumed represented his classes. The massive influx of energy put what he’d had previously to shame, now his ethereal space was filling with a lively energy that danced around. Nick was amazed by what he was seeing, the small trickle he’d been getting before had been replaced by a flowing river of energy. That’s when he heard the trio around him start laughing.
“Laddy got his first aura!” Kim laughed. “Welcome ta tha big leagues now.”
Suddenly Nick felt an aura surround him, trying to press him down to the ground. Without even having to will it, his energy spread out and joined with the strange film that fit his silhouette. As soon as it did, he noticed that the pressure from the outside aura no longer affected him. His own energy seemed to act like a buffer protecting him from the aura.
“Feel that? It’s your aura protecting you. Congrats kid, you’ve now got yourself an aura.” Jackie said, then retracting her aura. “You’ll want to try and focus on keeping your aura in that position when you’re not using it. It takes practice but it’ll stop people getting the jump on you.”
Nick watched as his energy then tried to return to its careless state, wanting to float around. So he did what Jackie suggested, directing the energy to stay fixed to his silhouette. As soon as he tried to focus on something else the energy would return to doing whatever it wanted. Nick frowned, this certainly was going to take some practice to get used to.
“You’ll get there with time.” Jackie said with a laugh.
Nick then looked down at the level four crystal he was holding. He wasn’t sure which of his classes to level up.
“You guys got any recommendations?” He asked.
“Well, it’s gotta be Explorer.” Leif answered.
“Why?”
“It’s the best class.” He answered with a shrug.
That was fair enough, Nick had to remember that he was dealing with a rather biased source. Of course, someone part of the group called the Treasure Hogs was going to say Explorer was the best class to level up. Nick realised he’d have to hash this one out on his own. He started by breaking down what the level would actually give him; it would give him one skill. Now if he went with Explorer it would likely give him a skill related to exploring, he’d just gotten a combat-related skill from the evolution, but he was sure that was due to the ‘Violent’ adjective and he couldn’t rely on that moving forward. Brawler was likely going to give him a combat-related skill. Which of the skills was going to be more useful to him right now?
If there was one thing Nick knew he was going to be doing, it was fighting. He wasn’t sure when his next fight would be exactly, but he knew it was coming. That made the decision easy for him, Nick crushed the level four gem.
Class Level Up!
Gritty Brawler Level 4!
Skill: Intolerable Weakness - Active
Purge yourself of an ailment and return to fighting condition.
Now that wasn’t a combat skill. Nick was a little disappointed, he’d picked Brawler to level because he thought it would give him something he could use in a fight. Nick looked over the skill and didn’t think too much of it. What did an aliment actually mean? If he got sick could he just use the skill to recover? That sounded pretty cool but he wasn’t sure how useful it would actually be to him right now. Weren’t the skills supposed to reflect his current needs, why was he given a skill like this?
“The brat levelled his Brawler class.” Jackie said with a sigh.
That earned a disappointed sigh from the other two Hogs as well. They didn’t seem too happy about his choice, but Nick felt like it was pretty justified. Nick then approached the button, it was time to check on his status page.
Name
Nicholas Jones
Stickers
+1s (4/4)
Please find better stickers!
Endurance x1
Intelligence x1
Strength x1
Agility x1
Please find better stickers!
Classes
Violent Explorer (Level 3)
Gritty Brawler (Level 4)
Skills
Treasure Sense - Active (6%)
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Lucky - Passive (4%)
Hasten - Active (25%)
Map - Active (2: 10%)
Fight for your Treasure - Active (0%)
Gritty Constitution - Passive (11%)
Deep Blows - Passive (10%)
Jeer - Active (3%)
Punishing Combos - Passive (8%)
Endurance Sap (0%)
Intolerable Weakness (0%)