“I liked her better when she made jokes about my luck with romance in private.” Ophelia grumbled as she returned to her regular size.
“Don’t feel bad, Bear lady. Look at how many times Thor has struck out so far, and he’s the most likeable person that I know.” Rae offered.
“That is surprisingly wholesome and helpful. Thank you, Rae.” “But when you find one that you like, I can help you tie him up so that he can’t escape.”
“And there’s the Rae that we were all expecting. I will keep it in mind, though. Who knows, maybe the secret to finding true love is just to make sure that they can’t run away.”
Ophelia winked at Dana as she finished the sentence, but Rae missed the gesture, and thought that the Werebear was only talking about the finer points of web crafting.
The two clerics came out not long after, looking very excited, but otherwise the same as when they went in.
“I got to learn all about trees and magic and my Dragon, and the Goddess.” Lotus began.
Tessa nodded. “I also got a vision of the past, but first it told me that there were no valid upgrade routes available.”
Lotus pointed at her childhood friend. “That! It told me that too, then it got to the important stuff. What were we supposed to be upgrading?”
Karl laughed, and Rae bonked the little cleric on the head. “It was an opportunity for System users to upgrade their class. And possibly for non system users to gain one. We will see once more people come out. The rest of the Spellblades are really taking their time.”
Karl nodded in agreement with Rae’s assessment. “That they are. They must be having difficulty deciding. Corbin only got one option, and it was just what he wanted, but some of the others might have more options than just the one upgrade path. Or, if some of them have no class, but have the option, they might be able to awaken. How many of your Spellblades were recruited before the Divine Injection was widespread?” Corbin shrugged. “Most of them. Not the four Ascended ones, they’re all younger. Tamarind and Muffin both have, or had, classes, and chose to train with the Spellblade Clan. The other two had aptitude for magic, but not for the injection.
The older ones are all classically trained mages, and spent their lives in the Clan working on their skills.”
Rae looked curious as she moved to stand in front of the Spellblade. “Do you think that the little one you call Muffin hates men because you refuse to use her name, or was she like that before?”
Corbin laughed. “She was like that before. Being called Muffin instead of Rose is a punishment she had to accept for her bad behaviour to remain as my Disciple.
She won’t be free of it until she reaches the Commander Rank. That was our deal.”
Rae giggled, then pulled out a small white stone on a pendant.
“I think we can make her a Commander. She is a wind creature, so we just have to feed her a wind pendant, and once she digests it, she should advance.” The transformed spider insisted.
“It doesn’t work like that for humans.” Corbin began.
“Are you sure? I don’t think that sticking it in any of the other holes would work better.” Rae complained.
“No, that’s not what I meant. Don’t go sticking amulets in any of her holes. In fact, I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. What I meant was that a human can’t digest the stone directly. It needs to be made into a potion or tincture to be used on them in a way that they can absorb.”
Rae frowned. “That’s stupid. Why are humans so complex? If I gave this stone to a small wind bird or spider, it would directly evolve.”
The Spellblade sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know why human bodies are the way that they are. But we can’t really evolve, and we don’t use resources the same way as beasts. Maybe it’s just because we’re too different.”
Rae handed the stone to Remi. “Can you grind that to paste to feed to the mage?” freewebnσvel.cѳm
Remi laughed. {There are other ingredients needed. I can see that it would be useful to the Dana Mage, so it should be useful to the Muffin Mage the same way.}
Neither beast had noticed that the mage in question had left the trial, and was now standing less than ten metres from them.
“What did the Naga say? Why is everyone laughing? I don’t speak Serpent.” She asked.
“They were discussing various ways to make a Wind Elemental Stone work to advance your rank to Commander so you could get your name back.” Karl explained.
“And how did that become amusing? I would certainly pay whatever I could to get that concoction, but how is it funny?” She asked.
“It’s a translation issue. It only makes sense if you speak Serpent.” Karl informed her with his best attempt at a straight face.
{Or Hawk.} Remi added, then she got sidetracked and began to sing in Karl’s mind.
[Do you know the Muffin Mage, the Muffin Mage…]
[Yes, I know the Muffin Mage] Hawk sang along with her, while Rae rolled her eyes at their antics.
“What did you get from the orb?” Karl asked, distracting himself from the two singing beasts in his mind.
“I got an upgraded class. Spellblade.” Rose replied proudly.
Lotus perked up at the promise of a gossip session. “Oh, you match. I wonder how many more will get the advanced class, just because they already had all the necessary skills? Does it give cool new abilities?” “I match with who? Corbin? That’s unfortunate. But yes, it does give a number of new combat abilities. Did your Dana get the same class?” She asked.
Dana shook her head. “No, it gave me Murim Battlemage. Similar in effect to the Spellblade Class, but more focused on martial arts. I don’t know why it thought that I needed a more close combat fighting style as a mage, but the skills that come with the class are incredible.” Rose was about to answer, but Corbin raised a hand to stop her. “The others are coming out now. Take notes of what they have gained and let’s get out of here the moment that all of us have returned.”