Part 27 - Back to School

  Elizabeth was not a bad student. She was just a busy, working professional.

  She’d missed a fair bit of high school, and somehow, suspiciously, that hadn’t affected her graduation and acceptance into college.

  She did, however, hate that it was all suspicious. If she hadn’t been famous and successful, then teachers wouldn’t have given her a free pass. Colleges wouldn’t have rushed her through the process just to get her name on the roster, or potentially receive a hefty donation from her grandfather.

  “Just how it works.” That was what they’d told her.

  Elizabeth’s issue with all of it was that she wasn’t a fool or an idiot. She was prideful.

  If she’d been told about the things she missed, she would’ve spent her evenings abroad studying the material. It hadn’t been her choice to be ushered along through life and treated to luxury. She did enjoy the luxury, though.

  Okay, sure.

  Elizabeth could admit she had acted like a fool for much of her time on Pallos. In retrospect, being fondled by twisted creatures of cosmic erosion had been a little disconcerting. And being in a new world had also put her off balance. And losing everyone and everything she’d ever known was also a major blow.

  It wasn’t an excuse. Not anymore.

  Something was up, and Seira was treating her weirdly, as was the system, somehow. Everything before the laboratory was now officially being labeled as motivation.

  She had memorized entire movie scripts in a single evening. [Enhanced Recall] meant even at that moment, she could recite the entirety of her career of scripts on the spot. She may not have been given the chance to prove she didn’t need to have her hand held, but Pallos would be on her own terms.

  Every day, she picked a subject, a set of runes, and a table in the gemstone lab.

  She’d shower, prepare some slime, ruin the recipe and try again for an hour. Then eat from the reserves in the closet and head to work.

  She’d pour mana into the rutile she pulled from the quartz in the lab, and then practice weaving it into a mimicry of Sorana’s Runeweave outfits.

  Every time she ran out of mana, she’d study. Memorizing runes was easy. Replicating them was also easy with her especially steady hands and great coordination, and she’d taken years of art lessons in college, too. The issue was that she didn’t have the Skills in the system to actually make the runes function.

  She’d never had a formal teacher in the subject, but she could figure it out. Not every lab in the facility was unlocked and available for perusal, but she knew Henry White was able to create his own set of runes and make them work. He had to have studied them somewhere, and she was certain he had notes. She just couldn’t find them.

  And so she began practical lessons.

  When she grew bored, she’d shake up the practice by reading his various fields of study.

  White was a classer with enough levels to start international incidents all over the world. Anyone with enough levels eventually got a ton of Vitality, meaning their natural lifespan would extend. Henry White was old, according to some of his journals. There were gaps in the dates, meaning he returned to the undersea lab occasionally, but at a minimum, the man had lived to over two hundred years.

  Two hundred years he spent traveling, researching, and taking notes on everything about Pallos and what lived there.

  Dinosaurs. The man had notes on several dozen species of dinosaurs.

  Legendary creatures were next. White had studied as much literature on the creatures as he could, and would get samples of whatever he could capture and dissect, even when they were sapient.

  Plants were his specialty. Liz could believe White had made the undersea lab his first research site, and filled it with research on new flora he found interesting compared to Earth. Pallos was home to some foliage that had only been found in fossilized remains from Earth’s dinosaur age.

  Once things seemed to slow down on new species of plants or animals, White had moved on to the materials.

  Mistweave had caught his attention for years. Fabric that seemed to turn to mist whenever something was about to damage it, making it nearly impossible to ruin.

  The elemental metal types had a few samples, but all were small. Every note taken was deeply fascinating.

  Of course, Liz had begun with gemstones, and that was enough to occupy her for a few days. She didn’t know the date, and didn’t know when one day ended and the next began. She had [Tireless] and it would level often. Each time it went up, she immediately forced herself to… finish her chapter, burn her mana, then get some sleep.

  At some point, days had turned to weeks, probably.

  She finally was satisfied with her plans to class up.

  [Survivalist] had reached level thirty-two while showering a long time earlier, and her skills were getting loosely leveled along the way.

  The skills from level sixteen and twenty-four had been [Desaturation] and [Survival Sense].

  The first was an easy grab. It allowed her to withdraw moisture from non-living things. As expected, it allowed her to dry her clothes. She could also pull the water from a plant and fill a waterskin, for example. A sort of poor-woman’s [Water Manipulation].

  The second skill was a passive that would nudge her mind if she was about to make a mistake that could harm her chances of survival. If she processed a plant wrong for a slime recipe, or was about to eat something hazardous, it would warn her with a tickle in the back of her mind. Very worthwhile, with her culinary testing.

  She didn’t have a healer, but she had tried to do things to level up [Water Resistance] and had narrowed her options to slight drowning attempts. In effect, she tortured herself.

  The skill had successfully leveled a few times, but she’d not received much beyond that and hadn’t gotten a skill to breathe underwater.

  [Detect Water] was the same story. The skill probably had the same slight nudge towards the correct direction, only the fact she was directly below an ocean meant the skill gave her annoying signals that made her want to drop the skill. It was on her list to replace.

  She only had one thing to do before she could upgrade her class.

  She hadn’t spent her free stats in a long time, and they’d built up to nearly six thousand.

  She had a huge lead in Mana Regeneration, with the stat being her highest by roughly double. She had over twenty thousand thanks to her divine class. It meant her mana pool took less than an hour to refill. Which had her studying completely thrown off. It annoyed her to constantly stop, burn mana and return to her work.

  And so, her free stats were invested with certain goals in mind.

  Stats

  [Free Stats: 5,927 -> 34]

  [Strength: 1,015 -> 854]

  [Dexterity: 10,705 -> 12,000]

  [Vitality: 11,559 -> 12,000]

  [Speed: 11,461 -> 12,000]

  [Mana: 8,022 -> 10,000]

  [Mana Regeneration: 20,566 -> 20,566]

  [Magic Power: 10,544 -> 10,339]

  [Magic Control: 10,360 -> 12,000]

  Liz was happy. The stats looked so pretty! But not for long.

  She fell into the world of her soul again.

  “Adieu, Milady of Many Names.” Seer gave a deep bow, and was wearing a Japanese schoolgirl outfit.

  Liz stared, mouth agape.

  “Oh please, it was fitting, plus you did play that one role!”

  “We are not talking about that role. Ever! I was picking noodles out of my hair for hours.”

  “Fair. Now, to see if we can get slime in your hair instead.” Seer gave a small grin as Liz settled in the chair on her side of the table.

  Her guide followed suit, sitting down and performing a slight-of-hand trick to make her thick fortune telling robe appear in her hand. She pulled the outfit over her head and leaned back in her chair.

  “What will you be having today?”

  “Hmm. Still need survival options. My food supplies are low, and unless I want to pop out for some fishing—which is an awful thought—then I need the right class to make these recipes work. That’s how White was eating while there. That’s the bare minimum of needs.”

  “Got it. Now what do you want if possible?”

  “I want something to craft my own runes. It’s a long shot, but it has to be possible. In the same class? That’s where I start to lose hope.”

  “Yeah, I figured. So here’s the deal. I’ll lay out your real choices for you. First, you take a class that gets you to safety, use your last slime food to buy you a few days of prep time, then get out. Second, you take a survival class and stick around, keep studying and learn all you can before finding a different way out, or get to one hundred twenty-eight and take the class at that level to escape. Third, you throw the dice, take something you’re passionate about and risk dying without food, or while trying to escape.”

  Liz nodded, fully aware of her own situation.

  “So, what’ll it be?”

  “Show me my options.”

  Seer’s mouth quirked up into a smirk, then grabbed the crystal ball on the table and tossed it over her shoulder. She reached into her robes and took out a deck of cards.

  “Those were a gift from mom…” Liz sucked in a very sharp breath at the memory of her favorite gift she’d ever received.

  They were beautiful, sturdy cards with shining surfaces, every detail painted in ink that caught the light in the tent and showered them both in sparkles.

  Seer fanned the deck out on the table, then tapped some of the cards one by one.

  Each card that was tapped began to glow and floated to hover in the air between them.

  [Temperance: Girl Scout - Sylvan]

  [The Hermit: Apprentice Pudding Wizard - Ooze]

  [The Lovers: Fated Bride - Water]

  [Death: Heart of the Cards - Acid]

  [The Fool: Diviner - Sand]

  Each class was inscribed as a concept within the image of a tarot card from the major arcana. It was a novel way of delivering classes, but it also had some other implications.

  She decided to take a closer look at each class in order.

  [Temperance: Girl Scout - Sylvan]: You have graduated from basic survival to more expansive skills and opportunities. Grow magically infused plants and use their nature to benefit your chances of making it on your own, no civilization required.

  The color was yellow. Liz had some thoughts about the class, but none of them were close to taking it. It seemed like the safe option, and Temperance as a card tended to imply moderation. Even so, moderation was boring.

  [The Hermit: Apprentice Pudding Wizard - Ooze]: Your studies have brought you to the practical application phase of runic spellcasting. Make yourself at home with slime runes for all your chores and more. Or just etch them into permanent substances like a normie.

  The class was lime green, at least.

  Once again, she felt the system trolling her. It was a cheeky class without much in-depth explanation, but the imagery told her she’d be getting a lot of new skills tied to learning runes and runic spellcasting.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  [The Lovers: Fated Bride - Water]: You’re destined to- NO SPOILERS

  The whole card vanished in a burst of light.

  “Um…” Liz didn’t have words.

  “Huh. A deity literally smote the card and class completely. Shame, it was purple, too.” Seer had her mouth wide open, and after a long pause, finally shrugged and carried on.

  “So we’re not going to talk about it?”

  “Nope. I’m not getting hit next. The system loves jokes, but someone keeps censoring descriptions for you for some reason.”

  With a shiver, Liz decided to leave the smiting deity alone and move on.

  [Death: Heart of the Cards - Acid]: You’re the chosen one. If you just believe, you’ll never lose.

  Liz felt like the class was a bizarre one, and the fact it was on the Death arcana meant it was going in the trash. Plus, the art of the card looked like something from a children’s show. Nobody had spiky hair like that. Orange class quality meant it kept the same quality as her old Metal classes before her merge.

  [The Fool: Diviner - Sand]: Whoever said you can’t see the future? Okay, sure, you can’t actually foresee the fate of things, but you can read the signs. Details matter and add up, even if you don’t fully process them all consciously. Read the factors as if they are the very sands of time, put together the puzzle pieces and make the right educated predictions. Maybe next time you’ll see the mass casualty event coming.

  Liz had heard of [Thinker] classes, and this seemed to be one of them. It was an enticing pick, but Sand wouldn’t help her survive the situation she was in, regardless of the class being another lime green option.

  She’d read the notes from White enough to know he was an Ooze specialist originally, when he’d been studying plants. He’d taken that specialty to a flying school, taught there for a decade and picked up Sand based runic spellcraft while he was there. His later journals had expanded upon his choice of Lava to turn his sand to flawless glass, which had allowed him to create his storage boxes for all the samples in the lab. The class might allow her to follow a similar path, if only she wasn’t hundreds of levels away from a third element.

  “So let me bounce ideas off you, and you troubleshoot them with me.”

  Seer nodded, turning her attention back to the options.

  “Temperance? Growing magically infused trees and stuff. It meets the conditions of surviving, in theory. It works, but it’s boring?”

  “Yes, it does what you said, but no, it won’t really help with survival. It doesn’t allow you to advance the growth rate of the plants unless you pray for a skill that does that, so it only allows you to control the material, or slightly adjust the growth of the plants with an upgrade to [Minor Adjustment].”

  “Understood. The Hermit. Any issues with it? That was the predicted path from basic survival to making the stuff in the recipe books? And it’ll do that and give me the runes I want?”

  “Sort of. The runes for the class rapidly decay with time unless you… Oh duh. Your Gemstone skills make that obsolete. You could make runes that do fall apart, but your [Gemstone Binding] skill will make them degrade more slowly. The Ooze class is weaker, so the divine class will overpower the degradation factor. Huh. Unintended benefits.”

  “Moving on, just in case. Death?”

  “Left it there as a joke, but since [Enhanced Recall] doesn’t work in the world within, you don’t recall a stupid show about a trading card game when you were a bit younger.”

  “Swing and a miss, Seer. Swing and a miss. The Fool?”

  “A sort of cold reading class. Take in the tiny details around you and reach natural conclusions. It’s close to being able to see the future. This is the class Faythe probably has a variant of, but her class allows her to set up the dominos so they fall right where she wants them to. No food, and you lose the water. Not recommended.”

  “You could’ve just said there was only one option.”

  “I honestly thought you’d consider the Water one. Sadly, some unnamed deity blasted it, which I didn’t think they could do. The world of your soul is nearly impossible to mess with. Only Seira has access to yours, since she patched the damage to your soul with her own essence and mana.” Seer dropped a bombshell like it was an afterthought.

  “I’m sorry, she what? How bad was the void thing, really?”

  “Shit. Elizabeth Ana Fereday, are you really this dense? She has you in her grip so firmly you’d think it would be suspicious, yet you’re just happy, lovey and gooey-eyed. At first, she was clearly using you. Something changed, somehow, and now she’s giving you the gooey eyes right back. We’re a catch. We’re [Stunning]. But we are not a realistic partner for a holy goddess, let alone one of the main five. Narrow things down. What has changed?”

  “Well, there’s the Gemstone class… The city, of course… Then the port and the adventurers before those. Anything before that would be back when we last saw Seira in the baths. Unless the baths were the incident where things changed?”

  Seer shrugged, then made a helpless expression. “Can’t tell you, but you have lots of time to think about it when you’re not here. You already made your decision, now get. Go out, now.”

  Liz scooped up the card and headed for the exit to the tent.

  [*ding* You have upgraded your second class - [The Hermit] - Ooze]

  [*ding* Your second class will grant the following stats per level! +8 Strength, +16 Dexterity, +40 Vitality, +16 Speed, +24 Mana, +16 Mana Regeneration, +24 Magic Power, +24 Magic Control from your class! +1 Free Stat for being Partially Human! +1 Dexterity, +1 Vitality from your element!]

  [*ding* [Purify Water] has been upgraded to [Purify]!]

  [*ding* [Blending] has been upgraded to [Concoct]!]

  [*ding* [Water Resistance] has become [Ooze Resistance]!]

  [*ding* [Washing] and [Desaturation] have become [Adhesion]!]

  [*ding* You have unlocked the class skill [Rune Molding]!]

  [*ding* You have unlocked the class skill [Ooze Layering]!]

  [*ding* Congratulations! Your class [The Hermit] has leveled up from level 32 to level 37!]

  [*ding* You have gained the following stats per level! +8 Strength, +16 Dexterity, +40 Vitality, +16 Speed, +24 Mana, +16 Mana Regeneration, +24 Magic Power, +24 Magic Control from your class! +1 Free Stat for being Partially Human! +1 Dexterity, +1 Vitality from your element!]

  [*ding* [Purify] has leveled up! 32 -> 37]

  [*ding* [Concoct] has leveled up! 32 -> 37]

  [*ding* [Adhesion] has leveled up! 32 -> 37]

  [*ding* [Survival Sense] has leveled up! 32 -> 37]

  She was happy and she hadn’t even rolled out of bed yet.

  The smell of tea and sweets reached her nose, as well. A grin immediately spread across her face.

  She gave the descriptions their time in the limelight before greeting her visitor.

  [Purify: Remove all perceived imperfections. If it’s toxic, detoxify it. If it’s poison, this is the antidote. One stop skill for erasing all your nasty substances.]

  Excellent upgrade! It might even take over for what [Washing] used to do!

  [Concoct: You’ve failed to make a lot of things before, so fix that. This skill makes the things you’re not quite getting right on your own.]

  She had either wasted a lot of hours of practice and experimentation, or those hours had gotten her the skill and the class. She chose to believe the latter.

  [Ooze Resistance: Resist the effects of various oozes. Sticky things don’t stick to you as easily. Slimes and Ooze creatures will have a hard time consuming you.]

  She had yet to see any of the mentioned creatures, but it might matter, one day. Although, she’d have to build up the skill first, and then she’d have to likely have the skill higher than the level of the creature… The skill might be on the chopping block.

  [Adhesion: Dirt begone! Stick stuff to what you want to clean, then peel away the offending gunk and find your target clean and dry. No muss, no fuss.]

  She felt like [Purify] might have it covered. She’d be just fine without the extra steps the skill seemed to be implying.

  [Rune Molding: Mold runes from oozes of your choice. Trace the rune you desire and watch it come to life, writ using anything from sap to pudding.]

  She had a sudden realization. Oozes included way more substances than she’d originally thought.

  [Ooze Layering: Layer your favorite slimes and oozes, compounding flavors and effects. Gourmet desserts and complex creations at your fingertips, or the lips of your lover.]

  Speaking of… Liz took the skill offerings, dropping [Detect Water] in the process, then opening her eyes and smiling at Seira. She’d brought a stacked tray of various gourmet puddings, and had two cups of steaming ceylon tea side by side where she sat on a very comfortable looking bench, more than enough room for them both to sit together.

  “Hello, there.” Liz slid into the spot at Seira’s side and put her right arm around the goddess as she beamed.

  “Yes, welcome back. Are you satisfied with your choice?” The deity didn’t need to ask, it was all over Liz’s face.

  “Oh, I’m not sure yet. I’ve got a ball of excitement in my stomach, but in reality, I need to try it all out before I know for sure. I have good feelings about it, though.”

  “Well, I have a surprise beyond the desserts and tea. Go ahead and turn up your [Tenet] offerings for a few seconds.”

  Liz had a very large mana supply, so the value of what she could send to Seira was quite immense. That was, when the goddess wasn’t visiting every day while she was in the undersea lab. Every visit cost a lot of mana to show up and bring along snacks. Which was why the skill hadn’t been going up very fast in recent times.

  Functionally, an [Oracle] had the benefit of having their deity visit them on the cheap as often as they wanted, and the deity could send a diminished form of themselves that only the [Oracle] could see or interact with. Perks of the most illustrious position with a deity’s faithful.

  It finally happened, and even the notification sound was louder than Liz had set them to be..

  [*ding!* [Seira’s Tenet of Equivalent Exchange] has leveled up! 149 -> 150]

  [*ding!* [Seira’s Tenet of Equivalent Exchange] has become [Balance of Order]!]

  [Balance of Order: You have been chosen. Your debt has been paid and the goddess now allows her authority to reinforce your will. Your mana now flows with divine assurance. Offering mana to this link now overloads your skills.]

  “This is totally insane…” Liz had a subtle radiance to her mana within her blessing’s mana sight. She could feel the connection to Seira be reinforced as the skill upgraded. “How much mana was the debt?”

  “Are you sure you want to know?” Seira had a playful smile on her lips.

  “You’d rather I guess. Hmm… I’ve been offering you a lot of mana constantly since I arrived, and then giving almost all of it while I sleep. Quick math says it’s been about one hundred fifty million, give or take the snacks.”

  “You’re a little over, but I’ll give you that one.” Seira… rewarded her with a kiss.

  It felt unbelievable. Liz had never had a kiss that felt so electrifying in her life. Seira was embracing Elizabeth on the level of her very soul, with a sensation of power connecting them so deeply that she might just be drowned out by the sheer bliss of that singular moment.

  All too soon, they parted, and Liz didn’t know if her mind would kick back into gear. It had never been that intense. All the goddess did was smile and stare into her eyes with those radiant irises.

  “I… that was…”

  “Sorry, not telling.” The smile turned coy and the goddess held a small custard dessert towards Liz.

  “I don’t have much more time. Enjoy these and allow me to explain the details of being my chosen one.”

  Liz nodded dumbly, then began to sip her tea—thank the system that [Minor Adjustment] was still around for her to keep her tea warm—and try out the sugary goodness her paramour had brought.

  “[Balance of Order] is a unique skill I offer to the [Priestess] I find the most interesting at a given time. Usually a tenacious person with unique qualities that make them especially ambitious. That person has never also been my [Oracle] before. The road to divinity is long, so my chosen one usually lives a long time. If I give the skill to the person who leads my church, it causes stagnation when the same person is in power for too long. This is why I have moved on from Faythe after over a thousand years as my [Oracle].”

  Liz nodded along, enjoying the tartness of a lemon cream topping. Fun side note, lemon cream counted as a type of Ooze.

  “Faythe needed a mother figure, and I played that role for her. She does not need it any more. You’re special, though I won’t say more. I hope you don’t try to take power amongst my faithful, though. The unique effects of the skill depend upon our debts being equal. If I do something for you, you have to repay that debt first, but when the scales balance out, your mana offered to the skill will directly equate to divine power. It will have perfect efficiency, regardless of image requirements, but aside from that, it’s just more noticeable mana. Even those without [Mana Sight] as a skill will see it in use, so you won’t be able to hide that you’re using divine power.”

  Seira smiled and held out a spoonful of pie filling to Liz as she carried on.

  “Do the wrong thing with it, and you’ll be hunted down. Do the right thing publicly and the people might start to try to worship you or some other silly things. Try to be subtle, but this is your trump card. Speaking of cards, you can use them now. They’re quite expensive though. You just reached the minimum mana pool you need to use a single card.”

  Liz’s eyes widened as she swallowed more pie filling that tasted like raspberries.

  “Wait, you mean… but how do I?”

  Seira kept making that sweet, serene smile as she explained.

  “Turn your mana inward, towards your chest. You should feel a bundle of power there, and once you offer a hundred thousand mana, it should manifest as a single drawn arcana.”

  Liz did as she was instructed, happy she was already eating as the cost would require food to compensate.

  Her chest felt like it was swelling with energy as she pushed the mana into the knot there, even heating up as if her soul was burning with power.

  [The Sun] was the card that appeared before her. She knew what the sun arcana represented. It was a symbol of happiness and uplifting energy. The card even gave off a hopeful aura.

  She turned the power within the card toward herself and embraced the power, feeling it well up within her.

  [*ding* You have gained a level in all of your skills!]

  Liz mulled that effect over in her mind and tried to puzzle out whether the cost matched the effects. Overall, it wasn’t as if she was sitting on a lot of high level skills that were hard to level. She could only imagine how powerful some of the cards might be, though. The deck was a divine artifact, after all.

  “Thank you.” She reached towards the goddess and took one of her hands. “This is all… A huge help. I’ll be every bit the woman you want me to be.” She kissed the back of Seira’s hand, then gave the goddess a sad expression.

  Seira herself was looking at Liz like she was a lover saying goodbye for a long business trip. They’d seen one another every other of Liz’s rest cycles—since she couldn’t tell the time—and could speak with one another at literally any time. Each time, Seira had made that slightly sad expression before she had to leave. It was a little odd.

  “I’ll be back again soon. Work hard, my dear.” The goddess kissed Liz’s forehead before vanishing into thin air.

  Liz made the following day into testing time.

  The cards were too expensive, and she hated the idea of what might happen if she drew a destructive card like The Tower while in a somewhat fragile undersea location.

  Her massive Mana Regeneration stat meant she was topped off within about half an hour and ready to give her skills a spin.

  She was excited, and the idea of finally getting to use runes was trying really hard to compete with the divine mischief she was going to be getting into very soon.

  [Name: Elizabeth Fereday]

  [Race: ----/Human Hybrid]

  [Age: 21]

  [Mana: 101,200/101,200]

  [Mana Regeneration: 141,628]

  Stats

  [Free Stats: 39]

  [Strength: 883]

  [Dexterity: 12,080 (29,112)]

  [Vitality: 12,215 (29,438)]

  [Speed: 12,080 (29,112)]

  [Mana: 10,120]

  [Mana Regeneration: 20,646 (49,756)]

  [Magic Power: 10,444]

  [Magic Control: 12,105]

  [Class 1: [Crystalline Oracle of Order - Gemstone : Lv 172 ]]

  [Balance of Order: 151]

  [Gemstone Mastery: 172]

  [Gemstone Manipulation: 172]

  [Crystallize: 152]

  [Cleavage: 154]

  [Gemstone Binding: 172]

  [Fate's Luster: 141]

  [Templar's Conviction: 52]

  [Class 2: [The Hermit: Apprentice Pudding Wizard - Ooze : Lv 37 ]]

  [Purify: 37]

  [Concoct: 37]

  [Minor Adjustment: 17]

  [Ooze Resistance: 5]

  [Adhesion: 37]

  [Rune Molding: 2]

  [Ooze Layering: 2]

  [Survival Sense: 37]

  [Class 3: [Locked]]

  General Skills

  [Mental Partitioning: 172]

  [Ballroom Dancing: 39]

  [An Eye for Detail: 172]

  [Enhanced Recall: 59]

  [Tireless: 37]

  [Learning: 172]

  [Stunning: 65]

  [Imaginative: 172]