------------Atlas------------
Atlas could feel the life essence of the beasts being drawn into his classes. Atlas began testing his senses with the siphoner class sensing the mana within him, like a predator smelling food nearby. His class could sense the lingering power of the dead beasts and it was calling to him as his mark had just before his class changed. He could decern from his ability to sense his own essence and mana he could decern a few basic abilities from the class. He could technically raise the dead, but everything he raised at this level would end up being a zombie weaker than the original. He also had the ability to commune with spirits. Atlas asked Shuichi to hang back while he tested something. Having realized what allowed him to become a necromancer he might be able to get a rare class from the Yetis, but this would be completely different, he'd be getting mana from outside of his body, not within... but the necrotic mana in the mark wasn't his own. He had to test the limits of his ability. He plunged his hand into the wound of the club-wielding yeti, he could feel the ice and enhancement mana within them, though he could also fee their essence within his marks. After a while of nothing, just before he was going to give up, the knowledge of the Brawler class flooded into his mind. It seemed to give him enhancement mana and two spells, blade fist, and improved reflexes. He tested the ability on the ground near one of the yeti corpses. It split the heart creating a small meter-sized fissure in the ground, less than half a meter deep. When he went to test the improved reflexes nothing seemed to happen, nothing until he went to move. It was jarring for him, his arm was moving far slower than it should have but so was Shuichi, "Shuichi, I can see in slow motion!" is what he said, but to him, there was a delay between each word and a large delay from the start.
"A combat class?" It was odd to have both a magical class and combat class, but it was strange to have five classes all in the same spot anyway which made sense to Atlas but he was too excited to try again.
Atlas moved on to the second corpse and almost immediately lost his excitement, almost vomiting at the sight, but he vomited a little bit after. They looked so human and clearly had intelligence if they could make or use tools this well, it was unnerving "but only a fool passes up free gold, even if it's from the hand of a slaver." He said begrudgingly before trying to drain the other Yeti. He felt cold as the knowledge of ice flooded his mind. He was given access to ice, water, and wind mana, as well as the Ice Creation spell. "Hey, I wanna try something." on an icy mountain, something about the environment made using ice easier than the death magic he had just used. Atlas used his new ice creation spell to create stairs, he could only make about five but having the ability made climbing easier, he'd create handholds and footholds for them to gain purchase on the cliff when they couldn't just walk. He began to focus the essence from his classifications into his ice classification till it felt like it was going to burst. Suddenly a whole new world burst into vision around him as he could see a metallic aura flaring from his body. The knowledge of ice within him suddenly expanded, he now knew how to make denser colder ice, he also gained the ice mirror image spell.
Shuichi paused, "Did you just rank up?"
Atlas beamed, "Yep, I used their life essence."
Shuichi turned around to face Atlas, suspicion and confusion clearly evident in his expression."But your mana shouldn't have increased much so soon after getting a class. The ones you had before didn't even work properly. How much mana did you start with?"
Atlas's face quirked up as he began to contemplate the new information, you need to reach a mana requirement too. He quickly thought about all the things he knew that could increase mana, Using spells, eating monster meat, being in high mana zones...then he realized, he could absorb mana, this whole time he's been using the ability to protect himself but maybe it's been speeding up his progression? It was too early to tell so he'd just have to wait and see, "Not sure to be completely honest with you." Once they made it to the other side it had been over a dozen hours and they were drained. They began to set up camp, "I'll take the first watch." Atlas chimed in.
Shuichi narrowed his eyes, "Why?" Atlas paused, he didn't exactly have a reason, It's polite I guess? Shuichi must have noticed the confusion on Atlas's face because he sighed and opened up his tent, "Just don't hesitate to wake me over anything suspicious okay."
Atlas smiled and nodded, "Okay." Several hours went by as Atlas began practicing with Ice Mirror Image. From what he could gauge, it would create an ice duplicate of whatever he wanted, it would look and feel like the real deal if a little cold but the functionality remained as functional as an ice version of the object. With a little practice, he was able to get the ice mirror images of himself and Shuichi to move around a little. This slowly began exhausting him so he decided to call it quits there the rest of his watch went by smoothly before he woke Shuichi to change shifts.
-----------Shuichi-----------
Shuichi sat and laced his legs one over the other as he leaned back against a large icy boulder. He closed his eyes and began to meditate. Being a caster type he had a glaring weakness, he couldn't take on opponents with overwhelming speed or durability if they were melee-based. They'd always close the distance and finish him, now summoners could fix this with their summons even more so in Shuichi's case as he could summon a mythical dragon... but it was a baby so it was no better than having a secondary caster on his side. If it were an adult he'd have never been able to contract it in the first place, it was only the kindness he showed the mighty toddler during one of his trials that allowed him to contract it after gaining his class. But he knew of a cultivation technique, he pickpocketed it off of an adventurer a few years ago. Being an orphaned guild brat allowed him a great deal of knowledge your average noble or commoner might not know. After all not everyone was cut out to make it as an adventurer, it was a dangerous field even if it was mostly worth the rewards. Although it couldn't help him much then with his meager control of mana, he could certainly use it now. The user of the technique would slowly change the color of their mana over time as they condensed it rather than waiting for whatever a class did when you reached the maximum mana output of one's cores and spirit while meeting the essence requirement. Purify, condense and then pull in ambient mana to fill the void and repeat. He did this for a little while his mana going from its hazy clear color to a more solid metallic color but still not quite iron. I can't let him surpass me so fast. It may have been hypocritical to get mad at a cash cow for producing cash but he had felt something so good after the battle, he was stronger than Atlas, stronger than a man with five classifications, but now it seemed that Atlas would keep getting jumps in power, already iron and he'd only had his classifications a day or two. The sound of soft footfalls in deep ice broke his concentration. He shot up and looked around expanding his aura. Although he wasn't quite an Iron ranker, he had a nearly iron aura and so he'd at least be able to feel anything within his aura if he focused on it. He soon felt the presence of a man. Out of the shadows came a large man in head-to-toe, tight-fitting, black clothes and wraps, but it looked well worn as if they were hand-me-downs, "Oh it's only a kid, come on guys let's make this quick, collar them!" suddenly three more figures emerged all in black clothing but theirs resembled typical bandit's garbs. Slavers.
-----------Atlas------------
Atlas woke to the sound of an explosion going off outside his tent. To his credit atlas shot up reaching for a weapon, a weapon that wasn't there... until he sent ice mana to his hand, sword, sword, sword, sword, sword, sword, sword, sword, sword! A sword made of ice formed in his hand. YES! He charged out of his tent to see Shuichi and his dragon fending off... four Bronze Rankers. Atlas almost dropped to his knees, he was going to die. He slowly sat back as he tried to steel his will but he couldn't, they were all a rank above him and with the reflexes and senses of a Bronze, there was no way they could sneak attack them or plan a way around their defenses. "Circle around him and collar him." Even better, we won't die, we'll just be made slaves. He was on the verge of a full mental breakdown when suddenly he could feel his necromancer class respond to the cold dark energy that leaked out of his vampiric mark. It was like a part of his soul was touching another part of itself but it felt so different, like when you compare your limbs from an accident when only one of the pair was mangled. He knew what he had to do. He began forging a massive ice spike, although their senses extended far beyond him, they were still focused on the battle, it was like he was in the peripheral of their senses while they were hyper-focused on something important. He only had one shot at this as after it fired they'd be aware of him. He launched the tree-sized spike into the back of one of the casters, a petite blonde girl that couldn't have been that much older than himself, maybe in her late teens. He felt sick but didn't have time to dwell on it. The bandits all turned to Atlas. Shuichi to his credit didn't hesitate to release a bolt of lighting with twice the power he normally did blasting one of them off guard bandits towards the ledge while his dragon finished them off by blasting them off the mountain. The two remaining bandits looked at each other before charging their respective targets. The bandit that chased Atlas was wearing all black tight-fitting clothes with rags draped around his body. Atlas didn't have time to waste thinking about the strange attire, filling his body with enhancement mana as fast as he could, haphazardly dumping the mana into his limbs. With explosive speed, Atlas launched toward the man to meet him. Their blades clashed and Atlas regretted his decision immediately, this man was clearly close combat-oriented, and Atlas didn't have any formal skill with a sword. His ice sword was knocked from his hands but he didn't need it this close. Atlas gripped the man's arm and drained mana from it as fast as possible while using that mana to increase his strength. He immediately felt something awaken within him as the bronze mana he gained quickly overwhelmed his own iron mana. He loved this feeling of battle, of tasting the power of those stronger than himself. The bandit to his credit didn't hesitate to follow through with his swing, it would have killed the boy but in times like these even atlas wouldn't fault him for going for the easy kill, but atlas was rapidly growing stronger while making the power of his own enhancement spell weaker. He broke away but it was already too late. From his other hand, he pumped as much death mana as he could forming an orb between them. As soon as he lept away from Atlas, he was consumed by death. The blast took nearly half of the bronze mana he just absorbed but that was an acceptable loss for survival. Suddenly he felt the Bronze aura of the man flare up again, "Looks like I just found me a ticket to a promotion."
Atlas's eyes darted to Shuichi where he saw the dragon struggling to protect him while he charged a massive electrical ball while his opponent taunted him. We need to escape. Atlas began charging death and life mana in his hand as the man recovered. He looked to the corpse of the caster he had impaled behind the broad-shouldered Attuned. "Handle this then!" Atlas shouted as he fired the blob of mana. The Attuned bandit easily dodged, but the mana wasn't for him. The blob enveloped the caster as he attempted a long-range create undead. He had no faith it would work, it was his first time attempting the spell and he was already trying to edit it, something that should only be tried after mastering the spell. His worry was unfounded, he beamed as the figure of a blond caster walked right up behind the bronze ranked bandit and bit his neck open. Could he not sense her? Could his aura not protect him? Is it her class? He'd have to find out later, for now, he was running low on the bronze quality mana he had absorbed but the undead zombie caster was still active, even better the enhancer type attuned seemed to be turning into a zombie himself, with a four on one they could pull off this win. With a mental command, the zombies rushed their former partner, the bandit didn't stand a chance. He was ripped limb from limb after being distracted enough by the zombies for Shuichi to zap him and Atlas to freeze him.
Shuichi let out a loud relieving sigh, "We almost really died there."
Atlas stood and smirked, having spent less of his own energy than Shuichi he could stand tall and gloat, "Almost only counts in horseshoes and mana bombs."