Chương 201: Chapter 198 - Dual Class Harmony

Gamielle watched from a distance as Ryan began to resonate with two classes at the same time. It wasn't that insane of a feat. There were always a few outliers that managed to resonate with their classes immediately. Well, resonating with an Epic Trial class within a month had been the fastest Gamielle had ever seen, normally those people were often weirdos that truly acted like their class even before they got it. Many adventurers never resonated with their classes.

It was considered important at the top end, where leveling up Epics could take forever… but at the lower end? It normally only provided an initial boost to your levels…. Then maybe a little bit of an experience multiplier depending on how well you aligned with your class' concepts. So, it wasn't that insane. Technically he was resonating with one Epic Trial class and one Epic class of his own. So he was using a conceptual skill to force resonate with two classes at once? She could see that making sense.

It wasn't that insane. Then he smiled which caused her heart to skip a beat. She scowled in annoyance at her own stupid emotions. Then Ryan brought his hands together, and the really insane thing happened. —— Ryan had searched up the definition of what a metamorph even was.

'Meta' had a few definitions but now one stuck out to him the most. It originally meant 'beyond'.

'Morph' naturally meant change. Simply put, a [Metamorph] was to change beyond what it was. Now he understood why the Manager thought the class was impossible to complete before the Trial System's timer. Understanding and getting all nine classes to become one? That sounded impossible. Well, it was too late for regrets now, there was no point contemplating the impossibility of his task. All he had to do was to take things one step at a time.

First he'd meld two classes together, then another, then another, until all the classes formed and he transcended the Trial System. Then he'd go kill the Manager. And the [Veilpiercer Assassin] began to resonate. Two class resonance in one as Ryan tried to manage both perspectives into one. One was a necessary role, the other more of a job. The Arcane Saboteur: To bring anarchy and destruction to the civilized world. Blow up the current system with their own magic because the powers at be were rotten beyond repair.

The Veilpiercer Assassin: To pierce through the veil and kill a target. A prominent individual that had pulled the wool over everyone's eyes Two classes resonating at the same time. But it wasn't enough, Ryan was greedy, he already had experienced two Epic classes before. Them merely resonating independently wasn't what he wanted. The shattersword started to shake. He tried to quell the mana but he didn't have enough control over it still, it wanted to explode, to cause destruction.

Ryan took a breath and held the sword out in front of him, sliding his hand lower so he was gripping the pommel with his left hand. Then he brought his right arm at the handle. A longpoint stance. Two hands on the handle with the sword pointed forward. Ryan's eyes staring forward as he smiled with a streak of wild enjoyment at what he was doing. A focused hand, a targeted hand. A precision strike for the explosive.

Though the Arcane Saboteur did not care about the casualties, only that its goals were met in the end. The Veilpiercer Assassin cared about professionalism and about having proportional efficacy, it would not do with wanton destruction— And Ryan's hands shook when the classes started to disagree. The perspectives weren't aligned at all, both being stubborn bastards over what should happen. The volatile mana was reaching the tipping point.

Ryan had underestimated how difficult it would be to get two perspectives to work together. The idea had been good in his mind. An [Arcane Saboteur] and a [Veilpiercer Assassin] sounded like the perfect blending of concepts working together. Except they weren't the same. But even the slightest disagreements from the differing perspectives were making it difficult to meld. Too strong and too stubborn, both of them. It was perhaps why class resonance was such a fickle thing to get right for most people.

You had to align perfectly with the class or it would throw you out of resonance. The sword exploded in his hands. … Ryan lay there with burnt hands and face, the rest of his body and gear having been protected by his robes. Gamiell looked over at him, her face and torso covering the sky.

"Did anyone else ever tell you that you're an idiot?"

"A lot more people recently, yeah."

"You haven't even attempted to meld skills together. Why did you think you could just meld classes like that?" Because I'd done it before.

"Just a feeling. [Arcane Saboteur] and [Veilpiercer Assassin], it makes sense that they'd work, right?" What was the difference between the Manager's Abode and this time? The target? His motivation? The [Conceptual Neophyte] holding everything together? The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Gamielle shook her head in exasperation then plopped herself next to him and stared out in the distance.

"I can't believe you can treat your classes like they're different entities while still resonating with them. You know that's weird right?"

"Why is that?" Cerul had gone back to flying in the sky. It had changed tactics, while it was still bombarding the poor plant from above, this time it waited until the roots would come up to digest the dead plant matter before diving down and pulling them all into the sky.

"Because to resonate with a class it means you and your class are one and the same. I'm not sure how you can treat them like they're different and resonate with two at the same time."

"Hmm. It's probably that super secret skill I'm never telling you about." Ryan ignored the glare he got from Gamielle. That was right, he hadn't managed to meld the classes together at all. He had added them one by one, stacking the concepts together until the [Aura Tyrant] collapsed under the weight.

"Ah, I think I got a little too hasty. Right. One step at a time." Ryan stood up, almost startling Gamielle. He then started to go through his sword forms once more. Moving, flowing with his body. Focusing on his classes. The [Arcane Saboteur] was one who wanted to blow everything up. Make a change in the world with as much impact as he could. The [Veilpiercer Assassin] wanted to make a targeted change. Minimize casualties by going for a priority target.

Neither needed to be forced together, they could both work side by side. For now. He stabbed forth with his right arm, threw a knife with his left and did a small hop. Trying to switch between acting like an [Assassin] that wanted a clean strike and a [Saboteur] that was willing to risk it all. Both classes resonated once more, and before Ryan knew it, something else started to happen. The [Arcane Saboteur] started to follow suit after its counterpart. Learning from the way it found its target.

It honed in on the way the the [Veilpiercer Assassin] saw through its target. After all, more efficiency meant more things to blow up in the end. Ryan followed that feeling, letting the changes shift throughout his body. The volatile core in his shoulder churned less and became quieter, the mana channels in his left arm became more focused as the notifications hit. Precursor skill [Arcane Seeking] (Rare) learned! [Arcane Volatility] leveled up! [Arcane Volatility] level 10 -> 11!

A stab forward, crackling the ambient mana around him. The Veilpiercer Assassin did not want to be left behind. Skill [Pierce Barrier] (Rare) learned! [Pierce Barrier] learned— Ryan ignored the notification, he felt like he could do better. Or rather the [Veilpiercer Assassin] could do better. The Veilpiercer Assassin might have been good at striking true but sometimes barriers were too perfect. Those would need more power to pierce through, it watched how the volatile mana reacted in the Saboteur's hands.

Skill [Manabane Strike] (Epic) learned! [Manabane Strike] level 0 -> 1! And Ryan used his new skills in tandem. A combination skill. [Arcane Volatility] + [Manabane Strike] Both classes flowed in harmony. Not merged together, but in a way that was better than just two independent classes resonating on their own. They were learning from each other, competing against each other, improving their own skills as time went on.

Two different classes making connections with each other to dive further into their own specializations. Breadth giving birth to depth. Ryan continued to meditate the day away. Spending some true time to consolidate his own skills. When a certain Cerulean Crow came to harass him for slacking off, it was rebuffed by a magical barrier. When it took offense and glanced at where the barrier had been cast from it immediately panicked and flew off. Gamielle was watching, entranced, but she was not alone.

For a certain [Witch] also once had two classes. —— Gamielle had given up in trying to delude herself that what she was watching wasn't absurd. Epic skills were supposed to be works of a lifetime. Leveling one without sufficient achievements could take months even years if you got deep enough. Those with early class resonance did often get an initial boost in new skills as the Trial System took spare achievements and the concepts and stabilized them. But this? This was all Ryan.

Two classes in working together in a twisted sort of competitive balance. Like they were rivals. Which was stupid if you thought about it. You were basically acting as a rival to yourself. Right, he's an idiot, that's why it works. The classes as well, they sent shivers down her spine. Two classes designed to kill [Mages] like her. A threat she had never felt since she'd become a Fallen. Twice now actually, the first had been the encounter with that [Aura Tyrant]. Was that why she liked him?

Was she that superficial that someone giving her heart a little thrill was what gave her attraction? Whatever thoughts were going on in her head, Ryan cared nothing for it, he was just out there swinging his shattered stick around, looking like he was having the time of his life. Gamielle shook her head. He's too young anyway. Not that she was old, mind you. She was still quite young for a half elf. Not to mention, dragonslayers of her realm could live for thousands upon thousands of years. So… she was quite young.

While Gamielle was having a war with herself over the appropriateness of her attraction to Ryan, her mother's presence landed at the worst possible timing. Gamielle hastily erected mental barriers. At any other time her sloppy barriers might have seen that as something to look into, but now? She was completely focused on Ryan. Gamielle internally breathed a sigh of relief… at least until the alarm bells started to ring in her head. The Witch Tyrant was only focused on Ryan.

Watching the classes continuously resonate. Her mother, who was trying to find a way to meld her two Legends together, watched. As if sensing her thoughts, her mother began to speak.

"He is progressing faster than I expected. Harmonizing two classes together and setting them up so he could attempt to meld them later. It will be a good example to observe." One of her pupils then split to look down at her.

"Why are you not focusing on your own faith, daughter?" Gamielle rolled her eyes. —— Sector Ten… A certain heroine was laid flat on her back, half of her armor was fully melted and was practically useless at this point. Her body was repaired, as if like new and nothing had ever happened.

"So this is what it feels like." Getting her armor repaired would be a pain. She doubted she could order one from the Dwarven Tyrant anytime soon. She would have to prioritize her soul weapon first. She lifted the handle that had been warped under her own new might. The weapon never broke, not even when Kormelax melted his own lair with her in it. No, it had broken when she tried to kill the Manager.

"Damn that barrier is tough." New Quasi-Legendary class or not. Even with all of the gear she had prepped, even when she used the entirety of Kormelax's Blessing… it hadn't even scratched the surface of the Manager's barrier.

"Ah well, next time then." That was the thing that the others didn't know about her. She had listened to Ryan's struggle and identified the Manager as a problematic entity to check out. When she confronted the entity about it, it became pretty damned clear what it was. A monster that needed to be slain. That was one of her jobs you see, her along with a couple others at the ninth realm. To stop monsters from ascending through leveled zones. They weren't perfect, or that organized really.

They'd formed a little after the hero generation. When Gamar had slaughtered tens of thousands of people. They had hoped that it would be enough for them to keep guard and filter the next generation. They'd been wrong. And now it was time for Seffara the Sapphire to climb the realms once more.