Chapter 375 - New Skills!

I opened my eyes after selecting the only class I could’ve.

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[*ding!* Congratulations! You’ve gained the class [Bookwyrm]!]

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No levels in it. Drat. Resetting my class didn’t seem to bring stored experience over. I wanted the almost 900 stat points per level!

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My improved senses made me the ultimate sneak. I could tell what Iona and Auri were doing in the living room. Skye was studying in her room, and Varuna had left about an hour ago. Reinhard’s room was the only one I couldn’t peek into, the kirin having established a number of privacy runes in her room.

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Smart. I should probably offer to make a set for Skye, so she didn’t think I was constantly spying on her.

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Onto my new skills!

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[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Spatial Affinity]!]

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Affinity, fun.

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Figuring out the affinity tree had been one of my earlier classes. It came in four tiers, corresponding to the four stars in the constellation I’d seen when I built [The Dawn Sentinel].

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Affinity came first. It was the ‘basic connection’ to the element. I could technically ditch the skill, but my skills would be significantly more expensive. As I leveled the skill up, I was technically getting more efficient, but after the first few dozen levels I’d need to look long and hard to see any gains.

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Authority came next. The connection was improved. The efficiency was dramatically better, and most importantly, I’d get offered better skills than I would with affinity. Upgrading affinity to authority wasn’t easy; I’d been trying for years now with no luck. The generally accepted method was to completely surround oneself with the element.

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Iona had apparently done it while in a frost wyvern’s lair, ice all around her. It was why we went to stargaze at the lake together, hoping that being under the vast starry sky would nudge our affinity towards becoming authority.

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Mastery came after that. It was the advanced connection, with great skills, and a minor ‘sense’ of the element around whoever had the skill. The efficiency was naturally greater than Authority. It also came with a minor resistance towards the element. If Iona got [Ice Mastery], she probably wouldn’t feel the cold until it got cold.

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I had no idea how [Earth Mastery] would work on a high-speed rock, but I suspected that was the minor aspect of the protection.

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Spirit was the final tier. A perfect connection, dramatically improved efficiency, a strong sense of the element, and the most powerful skills. Being able to turn into the element was one of the better-known skills that required spirit, but it wasn’t the only one.

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The nice thing about improved efficiency is it pseudo-multiplied my magic stats. If I was getting triple the oomph out of each point of mana, it was like my mana pool was three times as large, like my regeneration was three times as strong, and my larger skills looked like I had three times as much magic power supporting them.

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[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Reading]!]

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Reading: You saw the name of the class, right? Read faster. Comprehend more. Let the visions that the book takes you down become richer and more vibrant. Always know where you left off. Always able to open a known book to the right page. Read in the dark. Read better.

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The keystone skill for the class, it was exactly what the class wanted to do, just like my healing class wanted [Dance with the Heavens]. A pity there wasn’t an experience boost or anything.

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[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Lair]!]

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Lair: What good is a Bookwyrm without her own personal lair to devour books in? Small pocket dimension for reading. Can only store books and limited furniture. Space increased per level. 160,000 mana per cast.

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HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK. This was more like it! A personal pocket dimension!? Just for reading!? I had never heard of anyone having a personal pocket dimension. I suspected Acquisition had extra-large loot bags, but this was in a literal realm of its own.

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The draconic theme of the class was starting to rear its head.

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And that mana cost!! 160,000 mana per cast?? I only had 25,000 magic power! At 300 magic power per level, I’d need another 450 levels just to cast the skill!

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[Channel] jumped to the top of my list for a general skill that I needed to acquire.

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[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Bookwyrm’s Hoard]!]

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Bookwyrm’s Hoard: Every bookwyrm needs a collection of the most precious books, safely stored away and immediately available. Book spatial storage. Increased collection size per level. Mana cost scales on book size.

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My mind instantly jumped to spellbooks. Unless something about the skill was wonky, I could grab and store my spellbooks, spells already inscribed and ready to go, arcanite in them and everything, and have every single one at my fingertips at all times. With [Reading], I’d also be able to instantly open the spellbook to the right page.

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And that was before I considered having books to read at any time, any place! If I ended up in a similar life to when I was a Ranger or Sentinel, I’d always have books to read, without needing to cart them around!

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For the sake of completeness, I should see if I could store non-books in there, and see when something counted as a book. Could I slice a mango up finely, carve some words into the flesh, and store it in my hoard?

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I was also a little concerned about the mana cost line. [Lair] was absurdly expensive, and I knew as a rule Spatial was the second-most expensive element, right after Storm.

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Thinking about storing different objects made me realize a flaw with [Lair]. It didn’t say anything about other people. I doubted I could get Auri or Iona to join me in the [Lair].

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This called for experimentation! Right after I finished seeing the rest of my skills.

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[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes]!]

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Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes: You’ve snuck around a dragon’s lair under her watchful eyes, trying desperately to read the contents of the books in her library, unable to touch or move them around to read the contents. No more! Now you can read the pages of a closed book! Forbidden archive? Secret library floor? Magical encryption? As long as you can see the book - and understand the language - you can read it!

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That… huh. It was a skill. The practical use seemed limited for such a grandiose name. I quickly checked ahead, but no. I’d only gotten offered 8 skills.

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I did wonder if [Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes] worked with [The World Around Me]. Something to test!

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The skill jumped to the top of my list of ‘replace or evolve’. Maybe I could merge it into [Reading]! The two seemed like they had enough overlap.

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These were the initial skills on a level 8 class, nevermind the purple draconic quality to the class. I’d need to work to develop the skills, just like I’d needed to work on my other classes.

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Although… maybe I wasn’t giving ‘break magical encryption’ enough credit as a line. I hadn’t done a ton of digging into the subject. I believed knowledge should be freely available, and disdained the idea of locking or encrypting my notes, nor did I have the right mindset and inclination to try and break encryptions. For all I knew, someone would kill to have a skill like this.

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I’d have to see.

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[*ding!* [Bookwyrm] has leveled up! 8 -> 9. +40 Vitality, +40 Speed, +100 Mana, +100 Mana Regeneration, +300 Magic Power, +300 Magic Control from your class! +1 Mana, +1 Magic Power from your element! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid)!]

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Ooooh, I leveled! I briefly wondered if it was because I was reading the text of my new skills - a classic [Bookwyrm] activity - or if Auri was doing something phoenix-like, and I was getting experience funneled from her.

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I was fairly certain she got experience just by living. It was unfair!

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Wait, hang on. Something was weird.

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Chimera (Elvenoid)!?

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I pulled up my status.

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[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 25]