Magic Breaker Ch 16-18

Chapter 16: Classes

[Congratulations!]

The text appears before my eyes again, just the same way it did during the night. It feels quiet, almost personal.

[You have gained access to your class through supremacy.]

[Additional details will be revealed. Brace.]

I set my teeth. A vice clamps around my head. It’s not… painful, at least not overly so, but there’s a pressure. I’m filled with vague impressions, knowledge, just tiny pieces of it. It’s like the system doesn’t want to waste time writing out a long explanation and is just pressing the intuition into my head.

First, I now know what my level means, why it’s only gone up by killing. Supremacy. That’s what the system calls it.

Any and all acts that show one’s dominance over another, that show that I am greater than some other lifeform is an act of supremacy, an act that proves I am worthy of advancement. And the simplest way to do just that is murder.

Plain and simple. Kill something to prove you can.

It’s a little disgusting, but I know more, too. Classes level separately from supremacy, though the two are intertwined. 

If you advance your supremacy, you advance your class. If you advance your class, you advance your supremacy. Experience from the two feeds into one another. But classes add their own experience gain mechanics.

They’re still combat oriented, generally, but they also have some aspect of mastery or learning. Simply practicing can level a class. Upon maxxing it, you get to choose a new one, progressively stacking experience gain methods and multipliers. They also feed into stat growth, and can unlock new skills.

And that’s all. I don’t know what stats they feed, what progression mechanic any given class will have, what their max level is. Are there tiers? Rarity? Builds? What do jobs do? I wanna know. I really, really wanna know. What else is this system not telling me yet? What other milestones are there?

What’s the pattern? Steps of ten? Or maybe the next will be at 25? I’m so curious. I want to know.

“You’re smiling again,” Inu gently reminds me.

I nod, slowly. “Yeah. Killing the boss brought me to level ten. I get to pick a class.”

“Heeeeeh, jealous~” Opal trills with a smile. “Pick a good one.”

[Class Options: <Analyst>, <Debuffer>, <Sorcerer>, <Deconstructor>, <Agony Enthusiast (sponsored)>, <Shadestalker (sponsored)>]

No additional information. I am left with just the names. 

First, I think that Analyst and Debuffer are very simple expressions of my two main skills and the way I’ve used them. I’m very sure they can be used for more, though. [Selection] and [Suppression] are rather vague in their names, after all.

I don’t wanna specialize too heavily either, though. They are what defines me in the eyes of the system, and it’s rather accurate, but that only makes me more apprehensive in letting it have a hand on where to take those skills and how to use them.

The next thing that sticks out is the sponsored options. I’ve drawn the eyes of the Master of Suffering and the Creeping Darkness, after all, so I strongly suspect those are linked to either of my… unsavory patrons. 

Well, patrons is a strong word. They haven’t given me anything yet. Just an offer, clearly.

Neither sounds appealing.

No way am I selling myself to some eye in the sky. Are they gods? Constellations? Mythical heroes? 

I don’t care.

Freedom is worth a million times more than power that comes with strings. 

Sorcerer seems like it was inspired by me getting [Solidification]. It sounds more promising, like it might let me delve further into magic. But it also sounds… more limited. Rigid, in a way? Like I need to walk down the path someone else illustrated for me.

It’s not good enough. I pick <Deconstructor>.

[Class gained: <Deconstructor>]

[Stat bonuses: +1 Vessel per level]

[Experience modules: Deconstruction]

At this point, it settles in. Classes stack. Any new one I get adds experience modules and more stat gains, but the old ones remain. I keep my stat bonuses. I keep my experience modules. And finally, even after mastering a class, I get to keep the skill it gives me.

[Skill bestowed: Deconstruction lv. 0]

I swipe my hand through the box, and it falls apart into motes of light. There is a vague impression of the skill in my mind. It’s faint, but definitely there. Like a button to push, for now. 

But I want more than that. I want to learn it, to understand it, to know what the skill is about. Almost holding my breath, I try to activate it for the first time, to press that button. It asks me for a target, and I decide to be ambitious.

[Deconstruction] triggers and tries to pick apart the pieces of the golden net of mana of the healing skill [Selection] showed me.

[Deconstruction 0 > 1]

[Deconstruction 1 > 2]

[Class up! Deconstructor 0 > 1]

Blood flows from my eyes and mouth again, and I grin. It’s so fucking wonderful.

Strings of mana unravel in front of my eyes. My new skill, [Deconstruction], is nuts. It’s made from lines of mana that spiral inwards, infinitely. Like a complex helix forming into a drill of lines. It is an entire toolbox of smaller and smaller bits and pieces, of scalpels and screwdrivers and things so tiny I cannot even hope to grasp them yet.

My first casting is brute force. It’s taking the helix drill, spinning it, and slamming it into the magic that makes up the healing I manage to remember. The shitty imitation that Inu and I managed to copy and replay, over and over.

It slams into it, tearing that shape apart, mangling it beyond belief. It shears off tiny pieces of mana, flooding my mind with hints, bits of meaning I’m not suited to grasp, thousands of little pieces that make my head ache. 

But I hold onto them. I learn. I understand my new skill better, I understand the healing better. Bits that diagnose your body, that decide how the healing should go. Bits that decide what matter to produce when flooded with mana. Bits that transform that mana into new flesh, that matches your old one. Bits that reinforce bones, that reforge muscles, that make tendons stronger. 

I can see how it lifts my limits, how it takes my body beyond where it should go, how the increase in heart strengthens and changes me. I catch the tiniest glimpse of an idea and it hurts. It sets my mind on fire. 

And then I can’t take any more. My head is full of patterns and structures until I can hold no more and the rest is wasted like so much stardust. The spell gets deconstructed but falls apart before I can memorize it, my mind still reeling from everything I’m trying to hold onto.

My lips twist into a grin, my thoughts race. I can tell that it’s more than any human should be able to remember. The system said our limits had been lifted. Physical and mental. My mind didn’t have stats attached to it, but it was different, already. The exercises of memorization I’ve been doing have been changing me.

I don’t mind. I cling to all the bits and pieces of the healing spell I remember. It’s so distant, so impossibly vast, it feels like trying to scoop up the ocean with a glass, but I don’t mind. I do it anyway, learning, understanding. 

[Class up! Deconstructor 1 > 2]

My class levels again, adding another point to my vessel. My mana grows. My capacity increases, and my blood rushes through my ears. And maybe out of them? My vision is blurry from the blood and pain, my senses feeling dull, so I can’t really tell.

I use my new mana, casting another healing spell, using my understanding to simplify and modify the absolute piece of trash I’d been using before. It works. Some of that blood clears. I breathe. 

Air enters my lungs, and a laugh bubbles out of me. I can’t hold it back. I kneel on the floor, stained with blood and darkness, bleeding from my eyes, and I tilt my head back in laughter. “Hahahaha!”

Opal taps Inu with their elbow, looking just a little concerned. “Has Snow always been like that?” they ask.

The girl smirks in response. “Did you expect anything different?”

I can barely hear their words, dulled by the blood in my ears. It sounds like I’m underwater. I laugh anyway, listening to them talk. 

“No,” Opal says. “No, I suppose I didn’t.”

Chapter 17: Scouting Sylves

Eventually, once I’ve digested most of the gains, I get up from the floor. Inu, Thatch and Opal surround me. “You okay?” Thatch asks. I see that he wants to hold my shoulder, and give him a nod. He pulls me into a hug, and I pat his back.

“Yeah,” I say. “You’re getting blood on your shirt though.”

A wet drop lands on my shoulder. “I was worried about you, Snow.” 

“Ah. That’s…” I feel a little awkward. “My bad, Thatch.”

Inu clicks her tongue, giving me a mischievous smile. “He has a point, Snow. You oughta take better care of yourself.”

I look at her. Without saying the words, I silently mouth ‘traitor’ to her, and she laughs. Thatch pats my back, then lets me go. “It’s… okay,” he says. “Glad you’re okay.”

“Mostly,” I say, grimacing. “My shirt’s ruined. It’s so sticky now.”

“You mean my shirt,” Opal says with a raise of their eyebrows. Thatch laughs and cries a little. Bay gives me a suspicious look, for making her son feel bad. Norman just clicks his tongue, and Jess looks equal parts concerned and confused. “What was that all about?” she asks.

Right. I’ll have to explain it all. “I got a class. It lets me peer into what makes mana work. I overexerted myself a bit too much.”

“A class, huh?” Opal asks, grinning. “What’s that all about, then?”

I give a small sigh. It’s just an explanation. I can do this. “The main level we have is called supremacy,” I say. “Proving to the world that we’re better or stronger than anyone else. Classes are unlocked… somehow. One of the methods is getting level ten, but proving you’re good enough is probably another. Classes have their own levels and add experience gain mechanisms, and work with supremacy, trading some experience back and forth.”

“What’s your class then?” Opal asks with a glimmer in their eyes.

“Deconstructor,” I say, waving them off. “It’s cool. I got bestowed a skill. It lets you kind of trigger it once, but then you learn it and stuff. Like normal skills.”

Opal didn’t let up, though. “What does it do, Snow?! What awesome abilities are you hiding from me? Do I needa shake them out of you?! Give me your lunch money!”

I step back as Opal creeps towards me, making lazy and playful grabbing motions. I stare at them blankly, explaining while walking backwards. “It lets me deconstruct things, Opal.”

They are deeply unsatisfied. “What does that meaaaaan?”

Too fun to tease. I smile. “Oh, dunno. Take things apart, I guess.”

With a swift motion, the greatsword appears in their hand again. “Snow…”

“Right, right!” I say, laughing. “It lets me take apart other skills, learn how they work. Disassemble magic to understand each piece.”

They light up. “That’s awesome! Hey, hey, take a look at my [Bound Armament]! I wanna know how to make it better.”

Without hesitation, they trigger the skill, but I faintly shake my head. “Not right now,” I say, casting the butchered, half-assed healing spell in the back of my mind, and feeling the rushing of blood in my ears pull back a little. “We need to scout.”

At that, Opal drops the teasing. They smile, just a little. “Right,” they say, looking up at the spire. “Sylves is the only one missing, no?”

I smile, nodding. They always get me. “Yeah. Sylves.”

“Where do you think she would’ve gone?” they ask, putting the summoned blade on their shoulder. 

“The forest,” Inu says.

“Yep. The forest,” Thatch provides.

There is nothing to do but nod. “The forest,” I agree. Since she’s not with us, that’s the only real option for her.

“We don’t have any forests around,” Opal notes.

“Not before the terraforming,” Inu says. “Now, though?”

I just nod. “Let’s climb the tower then,” I say. There is a stairwell upwards, behind the throne.

“One problem,” Amelie interrupts. She gestures pointedly at her wheelchair. “That sure isn’t a ramp.”

Opal drops the sword, freeing up their hands. “No trouble,” they say. “I’ll carry you.”

The girl smiles a little. “What are you, a knight?”

“Don’t have any shining armor yet, but you sure are spoiled enough to call a princess,” they say, smirking.

Amelie gasps. “A mercenary, then!”

With a sigh, Opal walks up to the girl, swiftly grabbing the wheelchair and lifting it. Their power must be high. A few strings tie the chair to Opal’s shoulders, courtesy of Amelie’s [Puppeteer]. Then, we walk.

The adults, who still seem a little out of it after the fight, follow us up. They’ve been talking, of course, but I wasn’t listening very closely. We trudged up the stairwell, giving me some time to think. 

The system. What was its main point? Classes, jobs, supremacy. Those seem to be the three aspects. It’s definitely geared towards some kind of end goal, but I’m curious what that is. Entertainment? For the eyes in the sky? That has to be part of it, but it doesn’t feel like the full picture.

Defiance, maybe? The idea of reaching high heights? There are clearly floors to it, so is there some kind of tower to climb? If so, I hope there’s ramps. Otherwise, we might need to send a strongly worded email to some kind of leading department.

Eventually, we reach the top of the spire.

We step out to the roof of the castle. It’s a tower, those notched walls all around the rim that are so typical of castles. I wanna climb on top of them. “Hey, Inu?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Hold my hand for a sec,” I say.

She raises her eyebrows for a second, but does as I ask her, holding onto me. I hop onto one of the ramparts, then climb to the higher one. It’s just thick enough for my feet to fit onto it entirely. I don’t need to balance, but better safe than sorry.

The way down is so far. I wonder what would happen if I fell. Just… splat, like that. I lift my head, not giving the dizzying drop another look.

I feel the wind blowing through my hair, white strands drifting around me, drying out the blood on my face and shirt. Red flakes blow away in the breeze, and I look around. Forests, lakes, overgrown cities, buildings that shouldn’t exist. There are so many things out there.

It makes me wanna see it all. 

Breathing deep, I let the moment last a little while longer. Mana, prickling on my skin, blood rushing through my ears, wind playing with my hair. The world, so much vaster, sprawled out to the horizon.

Norman almost starts whining again, but I can hear someone clap a hand on his mouth. Opal, I’d imagine. I close my eyes. The world is big. It’s just gotten bigger, and I can't suddenly see it all anymore at my fingertips.

For just a little while, just a few seconds, I enjoy it. The silence. The open possibilities. The way the world has changed.

“Okay,” I say into the silence. “Done.” I hop down, then let go of Inu’s hand. “Thanks.”

She smiles at me. “No problem.”

Opal lifts their palm from Norman’s mouth. “The hell was that about?” he asks, grumpily.

“Snow was having a moment,” Opal says, looking down at the smaller man. “I made sure you didn’t disrupt it.”

“A moment?” he asks, impatiently, staring at me. He takes a step closer. “Lookie here, Snow. We all just almost died, and you wanna just stand there and take it in? Think it’s beautiful, huh?”

I look back at him, tilting my head. I don’t see the issue with it. Why’s he asking something so obvious? “Yes,” I say. 

“Inu, I don’t think you should associate with this person,” he says.

The words are icy. Cold. I look at him, then at Inu, then back at him. She gives her dad a long look. Then, she smiles, awkwardly.

“Don’t say stuff like that, dad,” she says. “You know, Snow is quite lovely. I’m glad to be friends.”

Norman looks like he wants to say something else, but keeps his mouth shut. He clicks his tongue. Given the pained smile on Inu’s face, I think she’ll talk to him about this again.

That’s okay. She’s allowed to. It’s her dad. She can make her own decisions. I’ll trust her, fully, and if she decides to exploit that trust, then it’ll hurt. And after that hurt, I’ll live on, anyway.

“Sylves,” I say, my mouth feeling dry. “Thatch. Can you look for Sylves?”

He just nods. “Of course,” he says.

Bay holds his hand as he balances on the rampart, and turns on his [Piercing Gaze]. One of its functions is intimidating opponents, but the other is just very literally piercing through objects. He looks down at the forest.

“See anything?” Opal asks.

Thatch shakes his head, slowly walking around the edge of the tower. “Not yet,” he says. “I’ll keep looking, though.”

And so, we wait. Seconds slowly turn into minutes as he walks around. He takes one trip, then a second, then a third. I see Norman get impatient. He grumbles to Jess about wanting a place to sit down and sleep, to eat some food in peace, and she pats his head affectionately, with a faint smile.

What an effective way to deal with his grumbling. She doesn’t even need to speak. Truly an expert grumpiness dispeller. I am in awe of her ability.

Eventually, Thatch breaks out into a grin. “There!” he says. “Spotted her!”

I smile. “Let’s get her, then.”

Chapter 18: The Forest

We climb back down the spire, then walk through the now nameless castle. The miasma has thinned and dissipated. I get to focus all my effort on [Suppressing] the little creature inside my body again. I’m almost tempted to [Deconstruct] it, really. 

But I don’t do that yet. 

As we walk, I do note that my latest skill broke one of the two patterns in their name. It doesn’t start with an ‘S’. Still ends in ‘ion’, though. 

Let’s see how long the pattern holds.

“Snow. This Sylves is your friend, yes?” Amelie asks.

I nod.

“What do you plan to do after getting her, then? We may need to begin making decisions as a group. I do not wish to simply be pulled along with you.”

Opal flashes me a small smile. Princess indeed. “You’re free to do whatever you like,” I say, waving a hand through the air. “I’m not forcing you to come along.”

She looks at me for a long moment, an armor that’s been wrapped with strings pushing her wheelchair. “Hmmm,” she hums. “I suppose I do not mind tagging alongside your group.”

“What got you travelling with Opal?” I ask.

“Ah, that,” she says. Her lips curl upwards a little, and she lifts a hand to cover her giggle. “We lived in opposite flats in the same apartment building. When the world ended they checked up on me.”

“You live alone?” I ask.

She gives me a long look. “Mostly,” she nods. 

I don’t pry anymore, just nodding. She waits for a while before continuing.

“Opal knew I’m disabled, so they decided to see about bringing me along on their adventure. We figured out how to use the skills. Then, that oaf decided to drag me along into a dungeon,” she throws my friend a sideways glance. 

“That sounds like them, alright,” I say, smiling faintly.

“Ey! I can hear you!” Opal complains, half heartedly. 

Amelie nodded sagely. “Indeed,” she says, ignoring their protests. “Well, I do not truly mind. These skills have been rather useful for me, personally.”

I nod. Being able to make puppets to push her chair must be nice. “Have you put points into heart?” I ask.

“Yes. No, it has not changed my disability,” she says.

“Right,” I say. “Sorry.”

“It was a little rude,” she nods, “but you’re forgiven.”

She really does have the princess-vibe down to a science. I smile slightly. “It’s appreciated.”

For a few moments, we settle into silence, when Jess speaks up. “What’s Sylves like?” she asks.

Inu gives her a longer look. “Kind,” she says. “Cheerful.”

“Energetic and bubbly,” Opal supplies.

“... A bit of a handful,” Thatch sighs.

That makes me laugh a little. “You’re all so silly,” I say.

“Thank you,” Jess says. “I appreciate it. Say, Snow, after this… what will we do?”

I smile. “Learn magic. Survive. Find a way to climb to the next floor. Learn everything there is to learn about classes.” There are dozens of things I wanna do already. Work on my mana puzzle, for one. Dissect the heal skill I’m working on some more. Figure out solidification.

Really, I should already be doing those while walking, shouldn’t I? If Sylves is hurt, I’d want to heal her, after all. I stop myself from humming as I think about the way the system made the mana flow again, and direct it to move that way, too.

Of course, I fuck it up, casting a botched skill with a horrible effect. But it heals me, just a little. I’ve got those bits down tentatively. It’s just a resource sink.

Despite my rather significant vessel stat, it drains my mana. I feel that ethereal power leak out of me like water down the drain, hungrily fuelling something that’s not even good enough to be called a skill.

But it’s okay. I learn, I get better at visualising the bits of the structure I need, slowly expanding it. I’ll make the system acknowledge it, even if I stole it. So, I do it again. And again, as we walk.

Whenever I’m low on mana, I instead work on solidifying small parts of it, turning them into grains, and squishing those grains into each other to create tiny needles.

The mana seems to want to crystallize into rigid, somewhat elongated forms. It’s strange, and I’m pretty sure I could change it, but it works for now, and I don’t mind it. This will do for now. I can move the solid mana pretty fast, and it seems to mess with skills inside someone else’s body.

So, I prep some, as much as my mana lets me, then go back to work on the healing skill.

We walk down the hill from the castle, and then let Thatch lead us. He’s memorized the direction that Sylves was in. Pierced her with his gaze, or something like that. What a tricky skill to figure out.

Mine feel a little more straightforward than that. Well, they’re still nuanced, of course, but his really is rather open to interpretation, isn’t it? I wonder if he could use it like an evil eye type skill. The kind that did damage to someone when he looked at them, literally manifesting the “piercing” part as wounds?

Something to discuss with him when the general conversation dies down a little. I give a small sigh, taking out my headphones and popping them on, looking at the pathetic 50% battery left on my phone. I turn on some music, and the world starts to turn into nothing more than ambiance.

I love noise-cancelling headphones.

- - -

There are goblins in the forest. 

It’s not quite a dungeon, not like the Dreadburg, but it’s still very different from the city. The mana feels denser, here, like someone pressing down on my skin. I don’t like it, but I bear with it.

Just until we find Sylves, I can endure it, surely. As long as I have my headphones.

I keep them on, even as a wolf jumps from the forest to attack us. I split my focus in two, part of my will getting to work on [Suppressing] the animal. Opal then quickly dispatches it, and I focus back on my personal little parasite.

Since I’ve been practicing the healing skill, it’s been getting better. My insides feel a little less messed up, and the creature is being pushed back a bit. It’s growing stronger from eating me, yes, but I’m growing stronger faster.

Just you wait, little parasite. I’ll dissect you yet.

Norman and Bay don’t like the forest. It puts them on edge, constantly nervous. Jess, in comparison, seems to take it fairly well. She just maintains her calm, lashing out with frost whenever needed, then dissecting the bodies.

She’s rather meticulous about it, too, storing bits of wolf meat for later use. It looks a little disgusting, especially since there were still grocery stores to raid, but we’d make do. The first really strange part was when we find a slime.

It’s round, squishy, blue, and held in a thin membrane. It has no eyes, just a small sphere in its middle. A core, maybe?

Opal pokes it with their sword.

The slime explodes.

My friend blinks back, and I [Suppress] the explosion, keeping us largely safe. Some acid spills on me, turning my hoodie into more tatters, and burning a bit through my skin before I suppress its effects, too, and shake it off. More practice for healing, I suppose.

It hurts, though. It really hurts.

“What the fuck was that?!” Norman yells, halfway hidden behind a hissing tree.

“A slime,” I supply.

“I can see that much!” he says, scowling. “I meant why it exploded!”

That makes sense. I nod. “No idea,” I say, bowing down to grab the core. It hurts a little, but that’s okay. Yet, when my fingers touch it, it dissipates into motes of mana.

Some of that pours into me, restoring my pool just a little, and I immediately cast another heal. The itching from the acid dissipates, and new skin grows where my old one became patchy.

I take a long breath. “Well. Any of you good with a bow?” I ask.