Shard

  Ryun sat on the floor of his home, his old one. The palace in the Twilight Woods territory. Selia had moved here in secret, to prevent another attempt on her life. And he and Erdania had come to stay with her until the counterattack began in full.

  All three of them were on the floor together, Essence thick around them. They’d been advancing together.

  “It’s the same Class again,” Erdania said once she finished leveling up to her third Evolution. “Shard of Reliability.”

  “Attunement?” Ryun asked.

  “No additional one,” Erdania answered.

  Ryun grumbled, but it seemed like there were some drawbacks to doing the things their way. “And perks?”

  “I’m leveling again, there’s only the one,” she answered.

  Ryun sighed. It seemed that their new divine rarity Classes had some drawbacks, not that it wasn’t powerful. Erdania used to have only a single evolution Class, which had changed with the next evolution into the new Shard of Reliability. She got a new attunement, without being able to choose, along with a new perk, again with no choice. Her abilities remained, and she gained three new ones too. She did retain her previous perks and attunement, so that was also good.

  He glanced at Selia and nodded. She hadn’t leveled yet, but she had a lot more invested in her Classes. So if Erdania’s experience was any indication, Selia would benefit more because she would retain her previous Class evolution benefits.

  As she leveled, she told them that she also gained three new abilities, just like Erdania.

  Ryun would get none of it, just a single attunement and one perk per evolution. Even if they were powerful, if Erdania’s are any indication, he couldn’t help but feel like he was being cheated out of more power.

  He did wonder if it would be the same if they didn’t have this Shard Class, but if they had just reached the last tier of another Focus and then started advancing the other. The Shard Class was obviously linked to what they had achieved, their Axioms. Other people wouldn’t necessarily have that when they reached the peak of another Focus. Anrosh didn’t have a single Class, she had a progression through the last tier, though she did have only a single choice and all Eternal Classes, until she ended up with the Herald of the End Class.

  So there was still a progression possible even when capped at a certain Focus. Though, her case was a bit different, he couldn’t assume that it would be the same for others. And he didn’t know how it affected Cultivation if Class was the first Focus completed. Nayra was close to advancing her Path, so they would know soon.

  “You were right,” Erdania said after a little while. “No Oath.”

  Ryun grimaced. He had suspected. There had to be consequences of picking one Focus over another. They got their Bloodlines, but wouldn’t get any additional power from the Class. Probably wouldn’t get an Image from Skills either.

  Not like it mattered, he did feel like he had something similar, only achieved through other means. In the end, he suspected that each focus had the same end goal, to reach for the Heavens and assume an Axiom, claim a throne. For those who succeeded, power of a Focus would mean little. He didn’t even think that it would matter once they gained their full power.

  From what little he remembered touching it… It felt like absolute power over his Axiom, would Perks even matter? It was godhood.

  “My stats are so unbalanced,” Erdania commented.

  “How do you feel?” Ryun asked.

  “Never better,” she chuckled.

  “Our bodies are different now,” Selia chimed in. “We are more Soul than body, infused fully, stats matter when your body is fully flesh and blood, or things that were still… I guess mortal in a way? When your strength is so high that just punching can tear your muscles and bones apart, then it is a problem. We are different, our bodies a lot sturdier.”

  Erdania nodded. “Yeah, I think I understand. Besides, I’m Reliability, my body is solid,” she smiled.

  Ryun shook his head, then focused inward, it was time for him to advance his Class too. They had accumulated a lot of Essence and set it aside for this purpose. Their fights against the Dome, the war before that, they hadn’t spent everything. They gave a portion to the Sect, but they had gained too much. Killing the Unchained hadn’t been without its rewards either.

  He leveled, gaining his attunement and perk. Like with Erdania, he gained three abilities, but didn’t have any option to choose more than that. He hadn’t had a Class before leveling, so he had nothing to retain. His abilities followed the same theme as hers and were assigned to him. He had no choice to pick an additional ability and only gained extra stats, always the same, wisdom and intelligence compared to vitality and endurance for Erdania.

  That was a good thing, his vitality was high, but its effectiveness was diminished since he gained his Axiom.

  His three abilities were: [Strike of the End], [End’s Step], and [Summon Herald]. Same naming scheme as Erdania’s and Selia’s, with theirs being Reliability and Legacy. It seemed like there was something built into this type of Class, and Heralds were a part of it. Neither of them had a Herald, but it was something to think about.

  His attunement was also the same as theirs, with only the name substituted for the End.

  They compared their attunements, and found that they were similar in effects and wording. Which made sense, they were all Shards of their respective Axioms.

  He continued leveling, putting in his stats into wisdom and intelligence as he went as those were the only stats that mattered to him now. He could feel the increases as he went. He had come to a point where it was a constant battle for him to not damage the world around him as he acted. He had to keep his body in check with his will, control his output, otherwise a single expression of Qi or his authority would end everything around him.

  His perks were also the same as Erdania’s and Selia’s, or at least the same tier for tier. He had one extra perk that they didn’t have, as he started leveling from zero.

  It was a unique perk, and one that Selia and Erdania didn’t have as they already had other perks. He wondered what theirs would look like, but shook his head and focused on his own. This seemed different to what he had when he felt an End approaching. This would probably do something similar to his Ideal, but more, allow him to see the most probable way something would reach its End, a person, an object, anything really. He would have to test it.

  He quickly turned his attention back to his Class, and continued leveling. Once he reached the last level, he looked back to his perk list, he had nine Class skills, one for each evolution. Each was powerful in its own way. His last one though… It made him think that his old memories were right. It felt like it was almost fated, especially since he had been thinking about the way to help Tali. He restrained himself from using it, there were still things he had to figure out.

  He raised his head, the others had finished too. Now, he felt ready for the war to come.

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  Ryun Sheets

  My calculator is a bit broken, so the order of perks isn't correct, and if there are any errors please let me know in the comments so that I can fix them!

  RYUN SCREENS

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