We had all surrounded the mysterious statue that had appeared in the middle of the boss room. It was odd how it just came out of the ground, almost as if the Minotaur himself was a test designed to prove if you were worthy of a class.
Ivar and I had both long passed the level one hundred threshold that Seline had said would be one of the requirements. And now that we were this close, I could almost feel the statue calling to me.
The journey to get here felt like a long one, the psychological challenge of the maze, the goblin boss fight on the same floor. Then this mountainous waterfall filled swamp and the swarms of enemies we had to maul threw to make it this far.
Three mini bosses, where in Orgnar took the cake as the one closest to killing me and finally the Minataur boss we had just killed.
All of that took just over a month and a half but it felt like a year at least.
"Remember to pay attention to the colors, that is the only sure fire way to understand how good a class could become. Purple is the best and green is the worst." Seline said as we both hummed in acknowledgement. I doubted if the purple 'epic' really was the best rarity a class could be considered. It was most likely just the scope of her knowledge, surely there had to be higher classes. Just like the hero she spoke of, Lord Hyperius. it was without question that he had to have an insanely powerful class. He killed two gods afterall, he had to have a legendary class or whatever terminology was used to rank it.
"You want to go first?" I asked as I turned to my giant and oddly silent companion.
He looked over at me before shaking his head and nodding at the statue. Taking that as my go ahead I practically pounced on it as if it was a sheep and I myself was a hungry tiger.
My hand found its way to the statue's base and I soon closed my eyes as Seline advised me to do.
The energy in my body was still something I was getting used to, but I could feel it fine. It was foreign, like having a slight ache that wouldn't go away. Not painful, just that it was something that wasn't there before.
So when I felt something grasp it my eyes shot open and I realized that the statue's eyes had opened, and were staring straight into mine.
Before I could even freak out I wasn't there anymore. I felt myself be ripped from my body and flung through the roof of the tower. Past the maze, passed the top of the tower. After the clouds parted I found myself in a vast expanse. It wasn't moments longer that I slowed to a stop in a sea of glittering stars.
I tried to breathe and failed. Any attempt to look at my 'soul' was futile, I couldn't move and lost all of my senses except sight. Though my vision was locked on the stars and surrounded by nothing but pitch black nothingness.
'A..are they moving?' I asked myself in my mind as if I could've sworn the stars were twitching slightly. If I had a jaw it would've hit the floor when the stars came together and formed a swirling vortex. In an almost indescribable display they scattered and formed a….. list?
I noticed the colors before anything else, thousands of greens, hundreds of blues and even a few hints of purple spread out among the thousands of names.
There were so many that I couldn't even figure out where to start. How could I have anticipated there being thousands of classes, but luckily there wasn't any kind of time limit that I could see. Though being ripped from my body and just being 'this' was extremely uncomfortable and down right scary.
So I got work right away and decided to start from the furthest left and go down.
Hours or mabye even days had passed and I hadn't even finished reading through the the first row I had found myself in. Hundreds of classes with vague names and outright useless clues to be found on their functions.
Now some had been easy like the Rare class- Vile Swordsman which would most likely be a swordsman poison master. Focused on damage over time and stacking up poison.
Well for others like the Epic class- Blind Wolf? I had no idea other than it possibly being a transformation class like a Druid that'd turn me into a werewolf.
More hours later and into the second row I realized a few rules these classes had to abide by. The class rarity itself seemed like the luck of the draw. To punish those lucky few the class names would explain less and less the higher the rarity became.
Uncommon classes were simple things, Wind mage, Fire mage, War Paladin, Swordsman.
Rare classes got worse but still solviable. Weapon Master, Sun Ranger, Black Swordsman, Weather Mage.
Epic classes? Well….. Crescent Sword Saint, Blind wolf, Volcanic Archer, Invisible Ronin, Natural Sage, Blooded Triage.
Sure I had some vague ideas but definitely nothing I was sure of.
If I had eyes I knew they would be bloodshot red by now and I'd have bags darker than the space that surrounded me.
Still they would've opened wider in joy that the monotonous task of reading this list was broken by a single outlier. A pure white name, on the last row near the end.
Sorcerer of Ameturas.
Thousands of thoughts flashed through my mind. I had already made the top ten of the exact classes I was looking for, three possible healing classes, four seemingly all around mage classes and three magical warrior-like classes. I had it almost figured out.
This was a wild card in the equation that left me struck still. Pearl white had to be better than Epic, I was sure of it based on the glow and the otherworldly 'feeling' I had from it. Whether that was from mind numbingly reading names for days or an actual gut feeling? I had no idea but I knew it had entered the top of the list just on its rarity alone.
But what could be better than epic? Obviously legendary or mythical based on the current ranking system. Usually after epic there would be mythical and then legendary. Or it could go legendary then into divine. There was really no way to know for sure until I returned to the tower and made a mortal arc, though I was in a boss room? I wonder why a Holy arc never appeared?
Finishing the last of the list felt like minutes in comparison, but what could have competed with the mysterious pearl white class that was obviously a mage. Sorcerer was in the name after all and it was what I chose.
It was another mystical experience because as soon I had made that choice in my mind the stars responded.
They converged on the only different one as if to snuff it out but they failed and only made the one larger. Seconds passed and there was only one name left in the formerly star-filled part of space.
Sorcerer of Ameturas
Huge as if I was watching the title of a cinema from the front row. Soon it broke down back into single stars but now they were all pearl white. I expected them to scatter and return to their places but they converged onto me.
If I wasn't frozen in place I would've jumped back in surprise and fear but I didn't have a choice. The stars tore into me and it was painful, so painful in fact that I lost my only sense. It felt as if the stars were trying to fill a bowl with an endless stream of water.
But the bowl wouldn't spill, it stretched and stretched and when I finally felt it would break, it slowly stopped. The stream turned to trickle and if I had a mouth I would've sighed in relief.
And not long after I felt an ungodly tiredness, as if I had run a marathon after a week of binge drinking. So tired that it would probably be easier to just die then have to wake up in the morning.
If I had retained my sight I would've noticed a pair of dark eyes and similarly colored lips smile down at me. Moments before she turned and a dress of black flames followed her on her way in the vast nothingness.
That didn't stop me from hearing a melodic giggle reverberate through my entire being, quickly shocking me awake.