“Congratulations, You are a Blood Dancer!
Achievement
Rare Air
You attained a Rare Class!
Quest Completed
Attain a New Class!
XP Gained: 200
Reward: A Choice Between Three Rare Classes!
Bonus: Become Novice 1 in the Lockpick Skill!
After following a long path leading from your awakening to this valley you have finally won the ability to choose between three classes associated with the legacy of the Heartrose. Choose well!”
The level of ‘reality’ this damned game was hitting me over the head with was pretty intense. I glanced at the nearby skull and wondered about the woman that had left the imprint in it. She had seemed consumed with rage over the treatment she had received from this man Zethic. Was he the reason she had done all this?
Probably not a good idea to ask.
With a sigh I activated the rest of my notifications, prompting Lydia to start reading them out. Of note, I leveled up from nine to eleven gaining a stat boost to statistics of my choice. I gained the Lockpick and Persuade skill and became Trained in the Analyze skill gaining a new ability:
“Your Keen Eye ability now picks out one random ability, weakness or resistance of an analyzed creature.
Lockpick
Rarity: Common
Requirements: None
Training Level: Novice 1
Key Ability: Agility
Description
Riches are but a single pesky lock away!
Persuade
Rarity: Common
Requirements: None
Training Level: Novice 1
Key Ability: Charm
Description
A true silver tongued devil in training!”
What had I gotten the Persuade skill for? After a moment’s thought I looked toward the exit to the mausoleum and thought of Valerie. I guess I HAD convinced her. That good old Voss charm. For a moment I thought of all the strife the ‘Voss Charm’ had brought me and my loved ones and took a steadying breath before I returned to the leveling.
With a few gestures in the interface I chose to add my level bumps in abilities to Agility and Vitality, which was quickly falling behind. Blood Dancer seemed to be focused on Charm and would likely incorporate that statistic later but I couldn’t get that far if I was dropping dead all the time.
Anaya spoke up, her voice cold and emotionless, “As you saw in the vision, maximizing the utility of the Blood Dancer class is all about causing your opponents to bleed and constantly moving. You move gracefully past your foes and when you strike the blood you shed gravitates to you. You are constantly Blooded. You are as much an artist as a killer. Create arcs of blood that you can move through, and move quickly.”
The pinpricks of blue light that made up her eyes regarded me for a long moment and she said, “I have one final gift for you. The coffin to your right,” she paused as I gestured to the stone edifice, “I hid my tools within it.”
I pushed aside the dust covered of the coffin with surprising ease. It opened to reveal a clean space with two items sitting in its center. A folded dark red leather half cloak made to be worn on one shoulder and a rolled up parcel. I prompted Lydia to read the new items’ descriptions:
“Cloak of the Heartrose
Part of the standard equipment every Heartrose agent wears into the field.
Type: Light
Slot: Shoulders
Total Armor Value: 35
Minimum Requirement: Level 10
Rarity: Rare
Tier: E
Agility +6, Charm +8
Thieve’s Tools
Rarity: Uncommon
Tier: F
+5 to the Lockpick skill“
Gathering the things with an appreciative nod to my ‘teacher’ I commented, “You’ve certainly done more for me than Theodora.”
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Anaya answered while I was pulling on the cloak her response surprisingly firm, “Theodora has her ways. You will meet few beings who wish to end the threat of the Spiral more than her. Where do your plans take you next?”
Tucking the rolled up thieve’s tools into my inventory, I said , “This noble girl is planning on going to Braithe to ask her family for help dealing with the Immolated Order. I’m going with her. Seems a good way to make headway down the Spiral.”
The skull made an approving sound and rasped a husky response, “There is a Heartrose waystation in Braithe. It is likely no longer staffed but there may be some tools left over from the last denizens.”
“That will probably be a huge help.”
She explained directions to the hideout, detailing that I only needed to find a particular tower on the northeastern edge of the city. I then needed to find a way into the sewers and follow her directions, which I asked Lydia to record, and find the hidden stone door that I would need my new Lockpick skill to open.
Nodding after double checking the information I turned to the skull flickering with azure fire and asked pensively, “Is this it for you then?”
She answered calmly, “I have conveyed my message so I will go to my rest. I sense your concern about my fate. Understand that I am but a brief glimpse of the woman who made me. I do not wish to finish what was a glorious life as a trinket in service to various masters for all eternity. I can imagine few greater hells than that.”
Bowing my head I said, “Thank you for giving me the class. I will try to live up to your memory.”
When I looked up the skull sat inert, lightless and quiet. Walking over, I put a hand on it in reverence and then departed the mausoleum. Outside I raised my wrist and checked my equipment.
We are going to have to make this whole Abstract Feeder ability work.
Removing my Heartrose Garb, I tore off the grime and blood stained shirt beneath it and tossed it aside before pulling the small vest back over my bare chest.
Looking down at my leather pants I used one of my daggers to cut them short. I noted that damaging the leather below my knees removed some of the armor’s protective value but figured that having a constant Blooded buff in combat would be far more desirable. The Blazing Boots I had just attained were blackened green leather that stopped at my ankles. Putting my cloak away, I summoned my weapons into my hands and spun them.
This class being called a ‘Dancer’ definitely wasn’t just flavor text. I grimaced at the fact that the only person that seemed to know my real identity in this game, besides Theodora, was KKG. That asshole would have a field day if he saw me prancing through curtains of blood like a heroine from an eighties movie.
“On the other hand,” I thought with a grin, “it’s not as if I was unfamiliar with dancing. To hell with them.”
Shrugging off the concern with a smirk I bounded over the wall of the small graveyard and hurried down the path back toward the vineyard. The vintner’s wife and their son had already started digging into the rocky soil outside the fields. They eyed me with no small amount of contempt and fear as I passed.
On the east side of the fields I found the now considerably changed form of Valerie waiting in the darkness. She was now wearing the armor I had left for her. It seemed as if her broad shouldered and muscled frame just barely fit into the blackened chain and leather armor. The skirt of it came down to just above her knees and was split for ease of movement.
The longsword I had given her was hanging from her left hip and the dark cloak hung around her shoulders and down to her calves. Since our last meeting she had tightly bound her thick onyx colored hair into a bun.
Beside her the vintner, still looking frazzled and soot stained, was speaking in a hushed tone, “...and with everything that has happened are you sure that you want to risk it my Lady?”
She gave him a comforting smile and put a hand on his shoulder, “It’s the only thing I can do. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me and my family.”
The man gave me a wary look and then gave her a numb nod, “I have something to give you then.”
She started to hold a hand up but he grumbled, “Just be my daughter for another five minutes and keep your refusals to yourself.”
She gave a defeated smile and the man hefted two archaic bottles, their glass nearly obsidian in color, and handed them to her.
The young woman seemed genuinely surprised but before he could say anything he grumbled at her, “What did I say?”
She gave a humbled smile and a small bow, “Thank you Master Auvaine. You’ll not be forgotten.”
The grumpy old vintner gave me another wary look and answered as he offered his own stiff bow, “Those are the oldest vintage this place has produced. If not for drink they’ll fetch a high price amongst the high nobles who know their worth.”
Ignoring formalities, the young woman threw an arm around the older man’s shoulders and gave him a stiff hug with a bottle in one hand. He offered a gruff grumble at that and muttered with a voice choked with emotion, “You are our hope young miss,” he glared at me with his final mutter, “watch your back.”
With that he departed back toward the vineyards.
She eyed me with cold disdain as I strode toward her with a smile, “Now see, that farmer’s daughter get up did not suit you. You were clearly meant to wear armor.”
She wiped her cheek as she put the bottles away in her bag growling, “Keep your flirtatious comments to yourself.”
Blinking in surprise I muttered, “That… is that flirting here?”
She ignored me and turned, striding down the nearby road toward the distant mountains.
“Aucore Mountains
The eastern boundary of what remains of L’Chasse. Home to the crater city of Braithe and secrets left by Remnant crusaders.
Questing: Level 9-20”
We spoke very little over the next five hours. I skirted the edge of our small traveling party keeping an eye out for ambushers and Valerie seemed absorbed in her own thoughts. There were signs of other creatures but none of them chose to cross paths with us. It seemed that the general clatter that a fully armored Valerie was making repelled rather than attracted attackers.
After two hours of walking Valerie paused in her tracks and, likely unable to pick me out amongst the shadows, announced to the open air, “We should camp.”
Jumping off the white barked tree I was perching in, I landed beside her.
She eyed me for only a moment before sighing and dropping her heavy pack, “Do you need to rest?”
Considering the question I nodded, “In a way, yes but I have a few more hours in me.” I surveyed the young warrior woman and noted the slight droop in her posture and wrinkles about her eyes. She seemed exhausted.
“You rest, and I’ll keep watch around the camp.”
She gave me a suspicious look but accepted my offer as she turned to her task. The young woman started to prepare the area, grabbing up loose pieces of dried white wood for a fire as I turned to head into the darkness, “If anything happens give a shout. I won’t be far away.”
With that I left the NPC to her task and hurried out into the dark to do some hunting. It wasn’t as productive as I would have liked. I came across another two of the strange Spire Stalker creatures but my level and skills had long since outpaced them. Neither of the ambush predators noticed me before I reversed their role against their will and savaged them with my teeth and blades. After gathering the loot from their bodies I made my way back to Valerie’s camp two hours later.
I found the young Haithan noble seated by her blue flamed fire cradling one of the bottles she had acquired from Master Auvaine. She was clearly shitfaced. I watched her sway there with her bottle humming some unknown tune and growled to myself, “Putting a lot of faith in me to keep you safe.”
With a sigh I strode back into camp. She started with a hiccup and fell over reaching in the wrong direction for her sword, all before she realized it was me. She giggled hoarsely and righted herself. This close I could see that she had also been crying.
Wincing at that I muttered a quick apology and turned to go, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to inter..”
She cut me off with a wave of her bottle and chuckled, “I don’t need your pity Remnant.”
She hiccuped again and finished, “Bloody parasite.”
Turning back to her with a hard smile I said, “I don’t have time to be insulted by you. I’ll be back when you are sober.”
Time to go. Every second I sat here with her was another I did not spend leveling.
Sighing and shaking her head her eyes teared up again as she took another draw from the bottle. Almost to the edge of the firelight I heard her hiss at the strength of the drink and then mutter, “Fine! Leave! Walk away!”
Something about those two words halted me in my tracks. At the edge of the blue firelight I turned to look back at her. Some of her inebriation drained away as she spied the look in my eyes. This time she reached in the right direction and wrapped her hand around the hilt of her sword.
