"About 100 or so years into the Sage Era, the God of Light found a soul within a ruined old castle that had been buried under several landslides, the earliest of which, according to his inspection, was 150 years before the Sages appeared. There were traces of other souls having existed in the ruins, but only one persisted stubbornly. It could barely speak any common language, and what could be understood was disjointed. According to the soul, it was the last inheritor and bearer of the ancient class in its entirety. The castle was the last remaining place the class could be found, and upon the first landslide's destruction, it was destroyed forever. The class became a legend, as did the castle that had no name." The System continued to narrate what the God of Light had left in its database for the backstory of the alternate legendary class.
"As all the other souls passed on in grief, the last soul stubbornly persisted, unwilling for the legacy of the ancient class to be lost forever. With the agreement and assistance from the God of Light, the class's legacy was entrusted to the deity, while the soul peacefully faded away from the cycle of resurrection, as it had used every bit of energy it had to resist the temptation of passing on. After receiving the legacy, the God of Light learned why it was so powerful, and how it lasted so long during the ancient Chaos Era. It could actually encompass all 4 contemporary classes' abilities and even its own special kinds. The old chaotic groups of civilizations all had their own patron deity, all of which were actually minor gods in origin, and very few of which remain, so there were often clashes between opposing believers. In fact, after the Sages appeared and formed the Twin Churches, which created the universally recognized current pantheon, there was no real order. Now that there was order, this class had become less powerful, up until the factions of Light and Darkness formed. When they did, the potential of the class soared beyond its contemporary successors. Even if not completely mastered, an expert of this class in current times would be able to fight off a thunder of dragons with ease."
Luca, who had been listening with rapture, inquisitively asked, although half-heartedly, "No wonder it was kept from mortals. Such capabilities are certainly horrifying… Still, he left it to me? Is there any other information that I could get about it?"
"Compared to the simple and straightforward contemporary classes, it has four stages to its growth, and at each stage, it grants the powers of one of the 4 contemporary classes, all while developing its own unique abilities. This very ancient, special class is aptly named 'Spirit Eater'. The core part of the class's growth method is the 'devouring' of souls to grow stronger and gain more abilities, spells, techniques and so on. There are 4 different kinds of souls that the class devour, each of which has their own unique growth path, or at least they do after the God of Light's revision of it with the new post-Sage order. Pure souls come from, in your case, those of the Darkness Faction, while tainted souls come from those of the Light Faction. The exception to the tainted souls are those who are considered bandits or unlawful, and they will be pure souls in such cases. Next, there are beast souls, which come from magical beasts and the like. Finally, demons and Demonic Faction beings yield demon souls. The souls themselves hold some of the abilities and such from whatever beings they came from, which is the reason for the classification. For you to reach the next stage of the Pure track, you would need to gain 100 pure souls."
"Incredible… This class seems to have exceptional versatility, but what's the catch? There's no way it's just as simple as that." Luca's interest gauge was at peak capacity, but his cautious mind still knew there was something off about the class.
The System was quick to respond, laying on the most difficult detail immediately, "All of the growth items and methods for each class become useless to the user, and the only ones that can be used are those made by the user or made naturally. External buffs are halved in effect ad duration, as are all alchemic products. All items not made by the user will cause various drawbacks and problems depending on what the item is. Magic weapons and armor won't work as intended, save for those of Saint or Divine tier. Others cannot teach you spells or techniques, while most books and tomes will, for some unknown reason, along with those that are inherited or of Divine tier. All physical and magical methods to train yourself will become harmful rather than helpful, and the only external healing that you can receive are those of the Priest class and some much rarer sources, such as by deities or semi-divine beings. Anything you learned prior to beginning the class awakening is exempt from all of this and is kept."
Despite its enormous abilities, the drawbacks were most likely what led to its decline. All this considered, Luca weighed the pros and cons, comparing his options in silence for a very long time, before the System spoke again, "Other than its versatility, there is another reason it is so powerful. It is the only known method of cross-class technique and spell fusions. Combining anything from the four contemporary classes is what gives it its greatest power, leading to the God of Light deeming it too dangerous to spread."
This final piece of information triggered more thoughts in Luca's calculative thoughts, adding more to his mental math, "Such an incredible ability, it's no wonder why. A Rogue capable of using Space-type magic would be insanely terrifying. Or a Priest capable of fighting toe-to-toe with a dragon." Almost twenty minutes of silence, along with a question of recommendation to the System, which responded with the Spirit Eater class being its choice even if it wasn't advisable, Luca spent a lot of mental energy to make his decision. "Okay, I've decided. I'll walk that road. System, prepare the Spirit Eater class." As he did so, a pop-up appeared in his sight.
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Warning: This action is irreversible once performed. Confirm class change to Spirit Eater?
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The lad did not expect that, upon confirming his choice, he would be wracked by the most excruciating pain he'd ever felt across both lives, causing him to scream in anguish, breaking the peaceful atmosphere of the courtyard and startling the animals away. From his thrashing body's constant motion, sounds of cracking and tearing came from him, along with rather nasty noises akin to horror movie sound effects. A minute into his transformation, Luca passed out from the overwhelming pain, all while his body continued to writhe.
The elderly mage, Ysmir, along with Darius, who had been visiting his master, rushed into the courtyard and beheld the writhing boy, to which they hurried over to. The latter attempted to restrain him so that the former could examine him. After a good five minutes of struggling, Ysmir was able to, but he discovered that the magic he was infusing into Luca was gradually weakening at first, but after his first attempt to examine the boy's body, it began to rapidly increase in the rate of weakening. As much as he tried, the old mage couldn't find what was wrong with him, despite the brutal noises of bones and muscles ripping and tearing from Luca's intense spasms. Within another ten minutes, Ysmir was certain that his magic would become completely unable to do anything to the boy's body other than cause damage. All he could do was helplessly have Darius bring him inside, limbs restrained by rings made from earth magic so he wouldn't thrash too much as they moved him.