Elysium's Multiverse

Chapter 57

Riven gave Negrada a skeptical look and then pulled up the options for his new class choices. To his surprise, they were indeed combination classes for two of the three options, just like Negrada had talked about—so apparently the system thought Riven was a good match. Athela had told Riven that the system only handed out class options for those who earned them, and apparently the last fight he’d had with the satyr warlord in conjunction with his race evolution was more than enough to get him a spot with these three.

He immediately noticed a couple things here. The first was that each of these class upgrades came with a new ability…which was pretty sweet, considering his first class hadn’t had that. He’d had to learn his abilities in the Chalgathi trials when he’d been given the Novice Warlock class.

The Warlock Adept had a huge bonus that Riven really wanted—the third demonic minion. Having two demonic minions was already a huge boon, and having a third? That just seemed downright unfair. But the big seller on this one was the spell Riftwalk, which he could only assume was some kind of teleport or movement ability. If that was the case, he very much wanted that martial art. Being a mobile caster was something that Athela said wasn’t done often, and not being mobile was often the downfall of many once-successful casters or mages in the end.

The Reaper Initiate class was apparently the type of fighting style that Negrada said Riven had, and although it sounded neat, Riven was a little bit hesitant to choose it based on how it described the class being a “primarily physical” class. He liked magic a lot, and he didn’t see his fighting style changing all that much. Sure, he’d used a hatchet to kill a bunch of thugs prior to the dungeon, and yeah, he’d killed the satyr warlord with his bare hands after enchanting himself with Crimson Ice, but he’d primarily been using magic all along to get to where he was now. To switch it up after investing most of his points into Intelligence thus far would seem a little off to him. He also didn’t know what Flurry was or how it could be used, but it was a martial art, and if he had to guess from the name, it likely involved quick successive strikes against an enemy.

Then lastly there was Blood Paladin, with the strength and defensive bonuses. It would definitely be a good fit for the claymore. The idea of walking around in a cool set of heavy armor, wielding large intimidating weapons, and being hard to kill definitely appealed to him for obvious reasons, as did Crimson Wings if it meant flying. Flying would be even cooler than a teleport, but Riven really didn’t like the idea of utilizing only the Blood subpillar. What if he wanted variety? He was way too early into this new world to be focusing down like that. Not only that, but this class also utilized primarily physical attributes according to the description, and he was dead set on utilizing magic as his primary function—even if he was possibly going to switch it up a bit with martial arts in the future given his new racial evolution.

He thought long and hard about the decision for quite some time, with Negrada waiting patiently.

His thought process was this: he definitely would have liked to become some kind of magical assassin or paladin, but he had no real training in close combat using medieval weapons. He had no real training using a sword, no real training in daggers or assassinating people. Those were relatively high skill-cap classes, and the only reason he’d done as well as he had so far was because he could control mana at a freakish level. He was gifted in magic, according to Athela, which was a rarity in itself but didn’t require the type of training for Riven that it might for other people. It didn’t require the type of training he’d need to be a successful assassin or close-combat fighter. So maybe, one day, if he ever got the training realistically needed to do that kind of close-combat fighting, he’d consider it. Until then he’d stick with what he knew.

He also just couldn’t pass up a teleport—it was too tempting to leave behind. In the end, though, Riven selected Warlock Adept. The draw of another demonic familiar, a teleport spell, and a bonus to all spells under the Unholy umbrella was just too tempting despite what the dungeon had advised. He was staying on the straight and narrow magic route, at least for now, and if he changed his mind, he could always try for a different type of class later.

The following experience was a lot more pleasant than his previous ones. There was no headache, no failure to understand what was happening, and the visions were incredibly straightforward. Or perhaps this is just what Athela had meant on one of their recent scouting trips around the city when she said that Riven was “a magical prodigy” and that he learned things quickly. Perhaps it had to do with his incredibly high affinity for Blood, Death, and Shadow pillars that led him to acquiring these things with such ease—but he was thankful for it regardless. He could only wonder what higher-tiered spells would be like in terms of learning, as he’d understood Tier 3 spells to be significantly worse in terms of failure rates for people obtaining them.

As the process started, his mind went black, and he found himself internally evaluating his soul again. The images and lights representing his memories all passed him by until the core soul structure, a sphere of bright white light, radiated in the center of his vision. The fiery pillar representing the Infernal path was now attached to it as well—a torch of raging inferno alongside the pure, smooth, and bright-crimson Blood subpillar. The Unholy foundational pillar was a multicolored green, black, and red coloring, with Blood being a brighter and purer crimson. They stuck out from the sides of his spherical, radiating soul and acted as converters for his power channels, enabling him to utilize certain abilities as long as the pillars were attached. Then there was the rotating black orb of his forming Gluttony core, which still phased in and out between solid and translucent states. And out of the abyss from beyond the scattered lights representing his thoughts and memories came yet another.

This one was different, though. Instead of radiating light like the rest did, it absorbed light. It was a black mark, in stark contrast to the light of his soul or any of the other pillars, and it gingerly edged its way past the blazing Infernal subpillar to settle down beside it. As it attached itself to Riven’s soul, he felt a cold rush flow through his body. It was a welcome feeling, though, and it felt…right. Just like the Blood subpillar, the Shadow subpillar seemed to welcome him home as if it’d always intended to find him. Unholy and Infernal certainly vibed with his soul well, but in comparison to Blood and Shadow, neither of them could quite compare in how they felt or the synchronizing feeling they had whenever their mana channels reached out.

As the Shadow subpillar solidified and finished fusing to the edge of his soul, Riven then felt and saw another vision.

It was that of the birth of a sun after the passing wave from a supernova. The vision condensed time and space, comparing the stark contrast of the black void to the light given off by the sun—and then it showed the death of the star and the continuity of the void even in its absence. From what he gathered and the feelings he was receiving, the Shadow subpillar was essentially showing him that Shadow was always there and would always remain there even in the absolute absence of light. In the eventual death of the universe, light would cease to exist—yet Shadow would forever remain.

The vision switched again, this time showing a series of holes in time and space, ones that he could travel through by forcing a rift in space—holding that rift open with his mana channels. Where there was absence of light, Riven could find passage and sanctuary. The wormholes continued on and on, forever reaching out into the expanse and onto solid earth until they came upon places where the shadows could not reach.

Channeling mana through the Shadow subpillar, understanding the vision for what it was, and applying meaning to it were the three fundamental pieces to any Tier 1 spell. Channeling mana was a given and easy enough to do. Understanding what he needed and wanted by the ability was also easy enough. Applying meaning and understanding to the vision was the hard part, but unbeknownst to him, even that was child’s play for Riven when compared to the average caster. Pondering the vision of the wormholes led him to a single and obvious conclusion: there was a path to sanctuary in the absence of light that he could tread upon. In fact, he might even be able to establish links between spots by pushing light away even in its presence, expanding the wormholes, tying the loops together like so, and—

Huh. That was all it took? Honestly, it seemed rather simple to him, and it made him question whether or not the system was just screwing with him and trying to make him feel good about himself. Was it belittling him? He’d thought that solution was a rather obvious one.

“I see you have made your choice,” Negrada commented patiently, narrowing its pupil slightly as Riven turned to him. “You acquired your pillar rather…fast…no doubt due to your affinities being so absurdly high. Have you made up your mind on what you want to trade for?”