Wild Era 3, Ch 21: Soul Changes

Kelin spent a long time searching through the stars in the Void, looking at every class available to him.

He studied and then discarded one after another as he looked for the perfect one. 

Eventually, he tossed everything back into the Void and stood still, holding a single star in his hand.

He had made his choice.

Of all the classes available to him, there were several that would expand his Path in different ways, but this was the only one that encompassed what he wanted.

It wasn’t perfect, but he was still lucky to have found it.

With some effort, he could make it even better, pushing it to the edge of what it was supposed to be and closer to what he needed.

He spent a little while tinkering with the Class, nudging this part and that as he refined it and laid the foundation for future growth in the necessary direction.

The growth of every ability and skill had to be taken into account, as well as all the permutations of his future Path, and the number of variables was immense.

It was like looking out a chart of the heavens and trying to count every star. After the closest ones turned into branching paths, the number of potential changes was mind-boggling.

Fortunately, he was wise enough to know that the core Path was more important than every change.

He tracked the core identity of the classes after this one, looked for where they could become what he needed, and then he set to work altering this one just enough so that its growth would eventually intersect with them.

It took time. 

Months, perhaps even years, passed as he worked, but time was irrelevant here. This was the realm of the mind and possibility and the strength of his soul carried him forward.

Stars shone above as their light flickered, the more distant future Paths changing with each element he altered and replaced.

Eventually, he looked down at the star in his hand, analyzing its structure and the changes it would create when he absorbed its patterns.

As far as he could tell, it was perfect.

But he wasn’t done yet.

After that, he turned to looking at subclasses and did the same again, altering and adjusting until it created a perfect synergy with his main class.

Eventually, a long time later, two stars shone in his hands, one slightly brighter than the other.

Now he was done, but he still had one thing he could do to make sure this worked..

He looked up at the empty Void and then he spoke to the Path.

“I call on the Mark of Favor you granted me,” he said, “from when I was a guild inspector and dealt with that obstruction to a dungeon. I wish to redeem it to clarify this Evolution and to ensure its future Path.”

He hadn’t needed this for his First Evolution, so he hadn’t called on the Mark back then, but this time he was working with more complicated energies and he needed to be sure.

There was a moment of silence as the Void trembled. Then streams of starlight and golden force filled the air.

The Mark will be redeemed.

As the Path spoke, the world trembled and every star in sight began to move, turning in a slow spiral that made it look like the universe was spinning around Kelin.

Streaks of light in ten thousand colors surrounded him, darting through his body and the classes in his hands. 

As they moved, they balanced and adjusted what he had done, holistically improving the classes and aligning them with the greater harmony of the Void.

This was one of the greatest abilities of the Path.

It was designed to assist with Evolutions and to ensure that everything was perfect.

Without that Mark of Favor, this class might have worked, but he still couldn’t track every permutation of its future.

The Path could.

With its help, every hidden flaw he might have left behind was resolved.

The classes had been bright, but now they changed, shining even more until they resembled polished golden gems shining with starlight.

They were clear, translucent, and pure expressions of incredible power.

Eventually, the Path of Stars finished its work.

The potential of your chosen Classes has been optimized. 

You may continue with your Evolution.

Kelin looked down at the classes and didn’t hesitate. 

They began to dissolve in his hands, turning into massive streams of primal golden light that filled the world, flaring so brightly that even the stars faded away.

Power gathered around him, drawing from the realm he was in, and he began to change and massive rivers of chaotic force pulled him apart and rewove his existence.

Everything stretched and his mind expanded until it felt like he could comprehend everything around him. Deeper Laws and Truths flickered on the edge of his awareness, seen but still hidden, like mighty rivers flowing through eternity that just barely touched the living realm.

Everything physical faded away until there was only energy. He was like a celestial spirit born from the beginning of time, beyond matter and existence. Flames burned everywhere. They were golden, silver, prismatic, and ethereal, made of starlight and the elements. Laws flowed through all of them.

Time stretched out until it felt like he had been there for all of eternity and then time itself began to collapse.

His consciousness shrank back, condensing again, and all the power and connections that he’d been able to feel came with him.

As he was rebuilt into a human form, the aura of that energy radiated around him, forming a mana field. Flames swirled through it, fierce and brilliant, swiftly changing as they spun through the fabric.

His consciousness was broader and his sight deeper. He could feel energies flowing all around him that he’d barely been able to sense before.

He drew in a deep breath, feeling the flows of mana and the elements that made it up, and released it again. It swirled with his inner flames, fusing into the world around him.

He spent a while adjusting to the changes.

When he was ready, he looked up at the calm Void, which was once again filled with stars, but these were brighter and larger than before. A misty veil covered them, hiding them from his sight, but he could still make out some of their potential.

He took stock of his body and the mana field that was everywhere around him, nodding as he assessed the changes.

A mana field of someone at Level 200, which he was now, was usually thin and fragile. It was dangerous to those below that Evolution, but laughable to anyone much higher. 

That wasn’t the case for him.

His mana field was as dense as someone at Level 300, radiant and filled with power. Flames surged through the interior like he was surrounded by an inferno, even without him consciously calling on them. They rose and fell with his breath and the cycle of energy in his body.

He nodded in approval.

A mana field like this would level the playing field against enemies up to the Third Evolution, negating their own ability to suppress weaker expressions of mana. 

Over that, it would be difficult still, but even someone at Level 299 wouldn’t necessarily be able to challenge him, not unless they had a foundation that was just as powerful as his.

It would be down to their abilities, attributes, and artifacts.

When he was ready, he turned his attention to his notifications, which confirmed what he already knew.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire!

You have reached the Second Evolution.

Your Class has Evolved.

You are now a Soulfire Sage (Legendary).

You are the Soulfire Sage. You are on a Path to master Soulfire. You have demonstrated a command of some of the core aspects of the Law, including its resistance to other elements and its ability to blaze with force, but your eyes are set higher. Now you are searching for the wisdom of other Laws to merge into your own.

What you might become in the future is unlimited.

Soulfire Sage gains 30 Intelligence, 10 Wisdom, 10 Aura, and 15 free attribute points per level.

You have gained the Class Ability: Soul Sage (Basic). 

This Ability allows you to encode your soul, memory, and personality into a flame and to create a clone made out of energy, such as Soul power or Soulfire. At the Basic tier, this clone has no inherent power of its own, but it can travel as swiftly as a message spell and you can use it to communicate within a reasonable distance. Once a day you are able to trade places with it. 

It was a step in the right direction. 

His intent was to move his abilities toward reincarnation and at least this was getting closer. 

The key aspect was the ability to convert his physical body into soulfire and to travel to a different location. It wasn’t rebirth from flame, which was what he really wanted, but it was as close as he could get.

It shared some of the same foundation, namely the conversion to flame and crossing time and space, but he would have to keep building on it with future Evolutions. 

If things worked out as he intended, this ability would eventually turn into something much more powerful, especially once he reached the Fourth Evolution and had some command of spatial energy.

For now, he was laying the groundwork and it doubled as a teleportation spell, even if it was limited to once a day. 

Most teleportation spells had distance limitations, but thanks to the once a day use, this one was fairly generous.

The attribute points for this class were slightly over three times as many as he’d gained per level before. Soulfire Ascendant had been 21 per. 

Soulfire Sage was 65. 

Three times was the usual limit for Evolving a class, but his tinkering had taken things further.

He turned his attention to his subclass and the result there.

Your Subclass has Evolved.

You are now a Radiant Mystic (Unique).

Flame gives birth to flame. As a Radiant Mystic, you understand the mysteries of endless flame and are able to inscribe it into the talismans and other enchantments that you create. 

This Subclass is based on the Laws of Endless Flame and Returning Flame, allowing a cycle where a Flame can never die as long as you have the energy to maintain it.

This Subclass still maintains a crafting base, but its focus has shifted to the mystic laws underlying the nature of existence. It is designed to eventually work with those mysteries, allowing you to use Laws as thread to weave a new form of existence.

You have gained the Subclass Ability: Mystic Renewal (Basic).

For a spell, talisman, or enchantment that you have used, once it has expired, you are able to restart it by spending double the initial mana cost. At the Basic tier, this must happen within one hour after the last flicker of its light has faded and the ability will return at 25% of its final strength.

This ability would be amazing for Wildfire, and once the duration and strength increased at higher tiers, it would be even better.

Even after the spell faded, he would be able to recall a storm of Wildfire and unleash it on a new group of enemies at high strength. 

It would also be good for his soul spells and everything else. He would be able to call them back to life with a snap of his fingers. 

It would be especially useful with Ascending Flame, since that took two minutes to double in strength. 

He had to wonder if once it reached the highest tier if he would be able to call a spell back at full strength and then double it again, and then again after that. 

If so, he would be able to create a massive, unending flame.

This was not an ability that should exist at the Second Evolution.  

It was accessing Laws.

He wasn’t supposed to be able to access a Law until he formed a concept at the Fourth Evolution, but this subclass was already starting to do it.

That was why it had become Unique.

He hadn’t been sure it would work, but it was thanks to his prior knowledge and the Path that it did. 

It wasn’t a complete Law, but it was channeling the power of the ones he already had in a fragmented form: Endless Flame and Returning Flame. The echoes he had were powerful enough to allow this to happen.

The ability also adhered to the overall principle of Fire, since that was his path to understanding Reincarnation.

From here, he would have to keep changing the  concept to become what he needed it to be, but it would be the foundation for merging even more Laws in the future.

Soon his classes might break free from their origins and become something completely new.

This was true Evolution.

As he flexed his will, his mana field expanded around him and he felt the flow of the elements in the air, intense and brilliant, especially the movement of Fire and Soul.

His mana field was his aura made manifest. It also worked like a new sense, enhancing his perception of the world, and it was particularly sensitive to the elements that it was based on.

He turned his attention to his status sheet, glancing at the changes.

Kelin Wildfire. 

Titles: Lord of Wildfire, Knight of the Path, Baron of Highmist.

Level: 200. 

Class: Soulfire Sage (Legendary).

Class Abilities: Soul Sage (Basic).

Strength: 200 

Constitution: 748 (1309 after 75% bonus from Soulfire Physique.)

Agility: 228 (252 with Traveler’s Boots)

Wisdom: 584

Intelligence: 1,887

Aura: 1,229

Charisma: 154

He had gained an extra 125 Aura from using Wildfire to wipe out almost everything in this dungeon and the last two. He had also tossed all 120 free points from the last twenty levels into Constitution. 

With the attributes he would gain from this new class, it was the right choice.

When he was done familiarizing himself with the changes, he looked up into the stars and nodded.

As soon as he did, a massive presence filled the Void and the dimension shook. A voice filled with starlight and flames echoed everywhere, making reality tremble.

“Come and see me.” 

With that, the world around Kelin dissolved into streams of starlight and suddenly he was somewhere else.

A massive Titan’s hall stretched out before him, its stones rising like the pillars of creation into the brilliant darkness of the Void. Between the pillars, stars stretched out to eternity, flowing ceaselessly into the future and the past.

Seated on a silver-white stone throne at the center of the hall was the Sovereign of Silver Chaos. 

His presence was so powerful that all the streams of light and power in the Void bent toward him, as if they were bowing to the lord of all things.

Despite that, Kelin felt no pressure to bow himself, only a sense of welcome.

“Welcome back,” the Sovereign said, chuckling as he looked across the hall. “We have a lot to talk about.”

Even though his voice was calm, the words echoed with the power of a thousand exploding suns.