[Summoner class is now available]
The notification was what Sarah saw as soon as she woke up, her blurry eyes stared at the words floating in her vision in mild surprise. She didn't know what a Summoner was supposed to be, and she didn't spend much time thinking about it. She yawned and stretched her body, she rubbed her eyes and walked out of her tent. There were many other small tents next to hers, but she noticed one was empty and packed to the side.
''Mary's awake.'' Sarah was normally the first person to wake up in their group, but sometimes Mary would be the first, although she wouldn't wake anyone up. Sarah would always tell her not to wander, worried that she would get hurt. Even though Mary was undoubtedly strong, they haven't traversed the entirety of the Unsafe Zones, they haven't even explored the forest they were in and were just walking in a straight line.
Sarah decided to look for her later and went to wake up the rest, she first woke up Henry, who went to wake his brothers. She went to Veronica's side and saw her arousing already, the only person she left alone was Annie. She didn't wake up as early as them, and Sarah didn't want to deal with a cranky Annie, not again.
If they were still in the city, Sarah wouldn't have woken up so early nor would she disturb the others sleep, but they were in the forest where anything could happen. They don't wake up early to do any work – since they had stored a lot of food in their storage spaces –, but they needed to be ever vigilant when sleeping in a forest filled with dangerous beasts.
There was a pond near the clearing where they slept, they all took turns bathing in it. David bathed first and started cooking, when everyone else was done the food had already been cooked. The smell woke up Annie up, she walked up to them and grabbed the plate Sarah had already kept down for her.
''Does anyone know where Mary might be?'' Sarah asked during their breakfast.
''I might.'' George spoke tentatively, then ducked his head when Sarah glared at him. She hadn't quite forgiven him for leaving unannounced and leaving just a crappy letter.
''Hmph. Where?''
…
Mary stood on a tree branch and aimed her arrow at a magical beast, it was a Second Rank bird type beast that had stopped on a tree to rest. Even though they were almost a 100 ft apart, Mary could clearly see it with the skill [Far Sight], the unsuspecting beast didn't know that it was aimed at. Mary let her arrow fly, the release created a strong airflow that ruffled her hair and clothes. The arrow flew sure and fast, and embedded itself in the chest of the beast. It squawked in shock, before falling down to the ground.
'This is it!' Mary thought as she felt herself level up. For weeks she had been hunting beasts and gradually leveling up, and it was finally time for her to reach level 20 too. She closed her eyes and basked in the warm feeling, while also checking the new skills she would get, then she received a sudden notification.
[You have reached level 20; your class has been upgraded from Archer to Ranger]
'What?' Mary opened her eyes in shock. But the prompts weren't done, she received a series of notifications.
[You have completed the quest; Hunt 20 Second Rank Beasts]
[You have received: Small amount of exp points]
[You have received: Charge Bow]
[You have received: Quick Feather Boots]
''Finally.'' She said. She had been looking forward to the rewards ever since she was given the quest, that made her quickly search for Second Rank Beasts to complete the quest it the shortest time possible. Although she had a lot of things to check, she decided to start with her quest rewards.
She first checked the Charge Bolt; she equipped it from her storage space and a bizarre bow appeared in her hand. The bow was dark purple, and it felt firmer than her normal bow, but the strange part was its almost transparent string that was connected to two small wheels at each end of the bow.
Mary grabbed the string and pulled it backwards, the wheels spun rapidly and the arrow that appeared released faint purple lighting. She shot the arrow at a nearby tree, the strength of her shot made the arrow pierce through the tree – but that was expected thanks to her level – but what surprised her the most was the flickering lightning currents that lingered on the tree and burnt the part where her arrow passed through. The currents weren't strong enough to start a fire, but a small part of the tree was burnt black.
''Whoa.'' Mary breathed as she examined her new bow, from what she gathered her new bow was able to imbue lightning properties inro her arrows, anything struck by them would be temporarily shocked.
She smirked at the thought for a few seconds, then kept the Charge bow and brought out the Quick Feather Boots. Brown Boots replaced the ones she wore on her legs, the inside of the boots felt soft, but the outside had a metal sheen, and on each ankle lay a big, white feather.
Mary channeled her energy and jumped from the tree branch, thinking her speed would be faster but nothing of the sort happened. Instead, she found herself slowly falling downwards, it reminded her of the [Hover] skill that Air Mages had, but different since Air Mages levitated while she slowly dropped.
When her feet touched the ground, she finally checked what the class Ranger was all about. The first thing she noticed where how different the three new skills she got were, from what she could gather the Ranger not only snipes but also lays traps.
The first skill she tried was the [Wire]. While using the skill she aimed an arrow at a tree, as the arrow flew a semitransparent thin wire hung on its shaft, the rope was still connected to the string on her bow, so she shot another arrow at the opposite tree. There was now an almost invisible wire in the forest, unsuspecting creatures could trip on it. But since the wire made with her mp it would soon vanish.
The second skill was [Mine]. She now had the ability to meld her [Exploding Arrows] unto flat surfaces, one touch and it goes boom.
The last skill was [Rapid Fire], it was self-explanatory.
These new skills and the rest made her a very self-sufficient hunter, if she was living anywhere other than the Overlord's City, she would have definitely been popular with the butchers.
She heard several rustles of leaves and quickly turned around with her bow loaded, she hadn't forgotten where she was, and was ready to fire at any unpleasant sight. But the owners of the sounds turned out to be Sarah and George, and she should have known, George always walked like an eight-legged mule.
''Hey, Mary,'' Sarah started talking, then gasped when she was closer to Mary. She had been using [Sense] since she followed George, which was why she was able to notice Mary's rise in power, ''You've reached level 20, haven't you?''
Mary nodded her head, Sarah laughed and patted her shoulder, 'That's good, the stronger we are the more we can protect our home.''
''I want to be level 20 too.'' George grumbled.
Sarah glared at him, ''Well, if you were around maybe you would have.''
George wanted to say something but thought otherwise. 'Whatever, I still have a higher level than David and Henry.' He thought.
''Come on,'' Sarah slung her arms over Mary's shoulder, ''Annie and Victoria are about to spar, they're about to reach level 20 too but want to use proficiency points to level up. Let's go watch the show.''
…
Annie and Victoria stood ten feet apart, their energy and magic power churned inside them. The rest of the gang were snacking on berries as they sat far away from them, George chewed on his lips, somewhat aggrieved that he had to witness another person reach level 20 in front of him. Annie and Victoria could intimately feel their strength, they were close, so close to level 20, they just needed an extra push.
Sarah decided to act as a sort of umpire, she walked up to both of them with her hands clasped behind her, ''I want a clean fight, no biting, no pulling of hair, no shameless acts, okay?!'' Annie and Victoria both rolled their eyes, Sarah ignored them and continued, ''On the count of three… one… two… three… fight!'' Then she quickly ran back.
Annie and Victoria waited until she was clear from their vicinity before starting. They both made a move at the same time, Annie used [Multiple Rapier Thrust] while Victoria created multiple ice walls. Five huge phantoms of Annie's rapier smashed into the ice walls, their force cracked and shattered the ice walls one by one, but they lost their force before they could break the last one.
Victoria pushed her hand forward and the last ice wall slid towards Annie, Annie shattered the wall with a thrust, without moving back a single step.
Annie circulated her energy at a fast rate, she ran towards Victoria so fast she was almost a blur. Victoria tried to blast her, but she was too fast for her, she had dodged to the side before the ice could touch her. Victoria created an arc of ice spikes, Annie jumped over it, but before she could get completely clear of them, they exploded.
The explosion blasted Annie to the side, but her Warrior physique prevented her from receiving any damage. When she regained her footing, she immediately jumped away, effectively dodging the ice blast the Victoria shot at her. Victoria activated [Ice Storm] and a frigid wind blasted Annie in the face, since Victoria was stronger than before the skill naturally strengthened too. The harsh wind wasn't able to leave cuts on Annie's body, but it was chilling. Veronica raised her hand to the sky and formed countless huge ice blocks. The ice blocks formed relatively quick and were much thicker because of the cold air.
Annie clenched her rapier tighter and readied herself for the assault, Veronica waved her hand down, and the ice blocks rained down on Annie.
Heavy ice blocks smashed heavily unto the ground, making loud booms and creating small craters. Annie flitted in between the blocks, some she dodged, some she destroyed. She clasped her sword with both her hands and blasted a strong [Laser] upwards, the laser sliced apart three huge ice blocks.
Veronica created more and more ice blocks, and this time she coupled them with [Ice Explosion]. The ice blocks exploded as they landed, showering Annie with ice chunks as she struggled to get close to Veronica. Annie realized that she couldn't bother with the ice blocks falling from above, they would be unstable if she could get close to disrupt Veronica's concentration.
When she had enough space, Annie instantly equipped her Super Sneakers and reached Veronica with one huge leap. Veronica hastily created a wall between them, Annie used [Shatter Thrust] on it and it shattered like glass. Veronica was revealed, but she was ready, several spikes immediately surrounded Annie.
But Annie wasn't flustered, she used [Split] and four phantoms appeared around her, the five rapiers swung about and destroyed the field of ice spikes.
[You have leveled up]
Both Annie and Veronica received the prompt, they both retreated to a safe distance from each other and waited for their upgrades.
Ice began to grow and expand around Victoria, although she tried to contain it a few wisps of magical energy seeped through the cracks. The color of her ice had drastically changed, before it was mostly transparent with a tint of blue, but now it was a deep, dark blue. Just looking at it could send chills down people's spine, it gave Sarah and the rest the illusion of being encased in ice, they felt that one touch on the ice and they would be instantly frozen.
The cold air around Victoria expanded and it froze the entire pond, Victoria stepped on the frozen pond and walked further back, she felt like her upgrade wasn't done yet.
The cold air caressed her skin, and although she was cold resistant, she could still vaguely feel the chill. It reminded her on the winter, but without the snow. For some reason she felt her magic was incomplete, she followed the lead of her magic power and her imagination and condensed the cold air around her, and slowly but surely, snow began to fall around the lake.
On Annie side she stood still with her eyes closed and her sword angled downwards, the steel peeled off slowly and glowed in bright coalesce on lights.
[Conducting Soul Bond]
A bright light bloomed from her chest, cascading her entire body with its radiance. Then, slowly, it began pulsing rhythmically with the light on her sword. She unknowingly began to exude an invisible pressure and the wind picked up around her, in it were tiny flickers of light.
Sarah and the rest stared agape at the two separate phenomenon, level twenty was really a magical level, each class would create a phenomenon that could rival the most fantastical dreams.
Veronica received the skills [Snowstorm], [Untamable Frost] and [Frost Armor].
Annie was given Intermediate Rapier Swordplay, the information was uploaded into her mind, but unlike the basic swordplay she got when she first chose the rapier, she didn't immediately know how to display it, she would have to practice it like any other sword manual. She was given the skill [Rapier Wave], along with an array of things she could now do with her Soul Weapon, since she was the first warrior to reach level 20 and get a soul weapon, she could only slowly explore them herself.
Sarah and the others cheered after their phenomenon disappeared, they ran to Victoria and Annie, patting their shoulders and talking excitedly. Annie smiled brightly, she remembered when she used to struggle with sword manuals that her father found for her in his many journeys around the Dragonstone Kingdom, they were mostly incomplete or weren't useful to her in anyway. Even when she found a complete sword manual, knowing that she couldn't use Aura, she had always felt it wouldn't amount to anything. Annie chuckled a bit in reminiscence, she could barely remember the frustrated girl she was before now because it was being replaced with a strong woman, although her mother would probably smack her if she heard her call herself a woman.
Victoria clenched her fists as a deep feeling welled up in her chest, she only had one thought in her mind; the stronger she was, the more she would make them pay. If she was still alive after the undead attack the Overlord's city, she would travel to the Elven Forest and avenge her parent's death.