High Artificer, Ch 18: Professions

The class went on for half the day with an intense study of the artifacts punctuated by the shattering of overloaded runes and fragmented elemental energy.

The students repeatedly exhausted their mana and stamina attempting to destroy the artifacts one after another, but Sam didn’t allow them to use any external recovery methods.

“Exhaustion while crafting is one of the most important factors of success,” he told them. “Repeatedly stressing your recovery is one of the best ways to grow, especially when you combine it with a goal. It is similar to combat against a powerful foe who is just beyond your capability.”

They had been bright eyed and cheerful to start, but now most of them were pale and wobbling on their feet. Only a few had the conditioning necessary to endure the cycle of study and destruction.

“Now your physiques are rebuilding themselves,” he continued. “Your bodies are hungry for energy and are drawing on your resources and potential to grow. So now is the best time to train your affinity.”

He waved his hand at the elemental pillars throughout the hall, which began to glow with brilliant light. From ocean blue of Water to the fiery crimson of Flame and dozens of others in between, the hall’s aura thundered with light and force.

“You should all have found a resonance. Go to the pillar that matches it. Draw in the energy radiating from it like it is mana. Let it run through your blood and bones. The benefits will be meaningful.”

As the students shuffled toward the pillars that they wanted, he checked over their choices and redirected them as necessary. They hadn’t all chosen the best element, or the one that would combine the best with what they already had.

“This should be your last class of the day, so you are welcome to stay for the rest of the evening. Leave when you feel like you cannot absorb any more energy. Then sleep, rest, and come back for the next class.”

He also handed out a few scrolls as rewards for studying the artifacts. The class had made it through five cycles of studying artifacts and then destroying them, so he chose the top report from each cycle and then disqualified them from winning again.

Each of them had written detailed notes on the elemental runes and outlined their best guess at the function of the enchantment. It was barely apprentice work, but it was still better than the rest of the class.

It also showed who had a familiarity with enchanting and who didn’t.

One of the rewards went to Altey and another to Rolen. As expected, they were in the top five of the class when it came to runic awareness. Altey had many lessons with him in the past, as well as with Siwaha, and Rolen had his family background to rely on, along with his more recent endeavors. 

Sam considered not rewarding them, since of all the students they had a more direct route to get scrolls from him, but he did anyway. It was important for the other students to see their success and for Altey and Rolen to understand where they ranked in the class. 

Altey chose an offensive scroll, while Rolen took a healing one.

Each of the scrolls was around Level 120, far more powerful than a new student would typically have access to, but not beyond their ability to activate if needed.

The other three students were a Mountain Dwarf, an Archalis, and a Lifeweaver. Respectively, they chose defensive, offensive, and healing scrolls, each with elements that suited their affinities.

Based on their reports, they’d been trained by enchanters in the past, which gave them a leg up, but they were more curious and exploratory in their answers than the others in the class who also had some familiarity with the craft. 

Their notes were thoughtful and inventive and they didn’t hesitate to guess at structures they didn’t understand, especially the Archalis, who like most of his people was eager to explore new ideas.

The rest of the students tried, but their reports suffered from overly structured schools of thought. They attempted to fit the artifacts into the types of enchantments they already knew, rather than looking at them as something new.

It wasn’t unexpected, just a habit he would have to discourage.

As the students headed toward the elemental pillars, he shook his head to see that there were no other humans here besides Altey and Rolen.

He wasn’t surprised. 

Barely any of the students in the academy were human. It was mostly filled with youths of the High Nine and this class was no different. Most of the ones here were Dwarves, Archali, and Lifeweavers, as well a few Dragon Spirits, and a scattered handful of younger non-human races.

There were no Winged Furies or Wind Wraiths in the class. There had been a few originally, but they’d withdrawn before it started today. That was Jasperi’s work, but she wouldn’t be causing trouble any more.

If those students regretted it in the future, that was on them.

There were also no Winter Sylphs or Cer’Aleth in the class, but that was more innocent.

The Winter Sylphs were not adept crafters with anything except Ice and they had their own traditions for that, so they weren’t as interested in the class. 

It wasn’t intended as a snub.

As for the crystal flame elementals, that was because no Cer’Aleth student was currently attending the academy. There hadn’t been one here in hundreds of years. Children of their race were rare, and when they were young, they tended to stick to their homeland. They only came to the academy occasionally, if they wanted to spend some time with other races.

The academy was more useful for those with a large population and a need for external teachers.

Without the Cer’Aleth and the Astral Titans around, the academy was primarily the domain of the other seven races of the High Nine, who made up about 80% of the students and dominated the classes. The remaining 20% were from the younger races, including humans.

That was something he would have to change in the future, perhaps for the next admission cycles, but it would require breaking a few things first.

As the students meditated by the elemental pillars, Sam spent some time planning future lessons and setting up materials that would be needed, including more artifacts and rewards to motivate them.

He was funding all of this himself. The expense wasn’t significant to  him, but it showed the need for wealth in education. 

Without resources, students could only learn theory. While that was an integral part of a lesson, it was even more important to have hands-on practice.

Perhaps he should have tossed them all into a warded valley and let them fight their way out with runes and scrolls. It would have helped to drive home the necessity of the skills for survival and ingrained them in their memory.

Maybe he could combine the next class with one of the combat or survival ones for an integrated curriculum.

As time passed, one by one the students reached their limit on absorbing elemental energy and staggered out of the hall. They were pale and flushed at the same time, with wisps of energy  escaping from their bodies.

As they walked past him, he wove a few enchantments on each of them to help with the integration and then he sent them out.

Eventually, the class wound down and only Altey and Rolen were left.

“Come over here,” Sam said as he waved them toward the table where he was sketching out an enchantment. “We need to work on your professions more directly.”

Unlike the other students, the two of them still looked bright-eyed and bushy tailed. Their absorption of elemental energy was like a tonic to them, restoring all of their energy. 

That was one of the benefits of having a perfect affinity. The other students were struggling to refine energy that these two took in like air.

The enchantment he was working on would help. Once he infused it into the hall, it would bolster the absorption of elemental energy and enhance the refinement of an affinity. 

As an area enchantment that dealt with so many different elements and that needed great sensitivity to detail, it was beyond the level of the academy’s wards.

Since the students needed constant monitoring so they didn’t injure themselves, he would probably have to assign it to an artifact spirit to manage, which meant building one for his hall. 

Perhaps he would give the spirit an elemental body and it could be his teaching assistant to handle that portion of things. 

He set the plans aside and looked thoughtfully at Altey and Rolen as they sat down.

“Have you decided what professions you’d like to pursue?” he asked. “The rest of the class is just experimenting with their time here, but for you two it would be a waste to leave it until later. You might as well start training them here and in your other classes.”

“Enchanting, first,” Altey said immediately. Her words were accompanied by a nod of agreement from Rolen.

“Then Alchemy, I think,” she added, “and Healing, to match my Lunar Regeneration spell.”

There was no change from their earlier plan, but she was more firm in her decision now, so Sam nodded in agreement.

“Enchanting is easy to pick up here,” he said. “I’ll help to update your Moonlight Tattoo with a proper library for it. Alchemy is harder to find, but Siwaha has given you some instruction in the past, and you can look for another teacher here, perhaps among the Winter Sylphs. 

“There are several of them on the faculty for Ice, Herbs, and Healing, although they are more here to look after their race’s students than anything. I can help you ask one of them or you can reach out on your own.

“As for Healing, since you have a healing spell, you’re already qualified to pick up the profession, but eventually you’ll want to evolve it into a specific one that matches your class. 

“That goes for your other professions as well. Look for ways to blend them with Lunar Ice and the Winter Moon. It should be possible to get unique versions by your First or Second Evolution.”

“I’ll try to integrate them into the survival and combat classes,” Altey said in agreement. “I should be able to take on a variety of roles to test them out. There are some Winter Sylphs helping with the survival course, so I can ask them. They’ve already noticed my affinity and want to know more.”

“Good,” Sam said before he turned to Rolen. “And you?”

“Enchanting, Artificing, and Runic Scribe,” Rolen said immediately. “They’re all interconnected and they’ll give full experience to my Ice Artificer class.” 

“Sensible,” Sam said, “but remember to test out other abilities in your classes as well. Those are nearly the same as mine, so I don’t foresee any problems with the combination. 

“Just make sure to integrate them into the concept of your class so that they evolve later. It should happen naturally if you focus on using them with Ice artificing, the same as for Altey with hers.”

He looked over at the Ice elemental pillar where the two had been sitting before.

“You need to continue absorbing Astral Ice as well as regular Ice,” he said as he looked back at Rolen. “I created a pillar for it that’s nearby, but you’ll want to alternate between the two. Get a good feel for the differences. That will help to continually improve your physique. At this level, you can’t absorb that much at once.

“Now that the introduction is over, both of you need to modify how you approach this class,” he explained. 

“Everyone else is here to learn about basic enchanting and artificing. Whether or not they manage to alter their affinity is up to them and some luck, although I’ll help them most of the way. 

“You both have already done that, so you should use the time to train your core abilities and continue strengthening your physiques. The pillars have intensity settings to help, which you can access with the appropriate keys.”

He spent a few moments giving them the necessary instructions and aura keys, ensuring that they would be able to follow a more rigorous course of study. 

It would look like they were doing the same as everyone else, but it would be more effective.

“Feel free to use the hall as you wish. I’ll update your tattoos so you can teleport directly here. The pillars will always be available for you. 

“As for your enchanting work,” he said, “one of the best ways is to try everything on your own, but to have good examples to show you the path. I’ve prepared what you need. You’ll find it over there.”

He pointed to the work bench that was closest to the table.

“Use that one together. I’ll modify the settings to help guide you through more complex exercises. You should both be building basic Ice artifacts soon enough. I’ll be around if you have questions, but you should follow your own path and interests in enchanting if you want to make it your own. You already have a solid foundation in rune theory, so you’ll learn the basic rules of combining runes with materials soon enough.”

It would be good for them to work together. They were at a similar level and could bounce ideas off one another. They also shared a great drive to achieve.

To anyone else who looked, it wouldn’t be strange if two students with perfect Ice affinities worked together on Ice element projects.

“Make sure to spend some of your time with the other students as well, working on different projects,” he suggested. “It will help you to see what they are doing and the techniques they use, which you can compare to your own. There are a lot of different schools of enchanting. Find what works for you. That’s the nature of unique classes, as well as unique professions. ”

After he wrapped up the instructions, he gave them both a few more words of advice. 

Then he set two silver bracelets on the table. They were subtly engraved with lines that looked like rippling frozen waves. The enchantments on them were dense, but invisible to most eyes, woven into the bracelets’ dimensional structure.

“These are spatial bracelets with some spending money and crafting materials inside,” he explained. “They’re stronger than regular spatial artifacts and can conceal their presence. They cannot be stolen or accessed by anyone else. Use them as you need to.”

They also had another layer of defensive spells crafted into them, just in case the Winged Furies tried to cause trouble, but he focused on the materials instead.

There was enough inside to see them through a year or more of classes, even if he didn’t add more to them, which he would as necessary. He had linked both bracelets into another one of his own, to make it possible to transfer materials to them directly.

They were set up as well as possible. 

Even if he left for a while and his avatars somehow disappeared, they would be fine.

“Any other questions for now?” he asked.

Altey just smiled and shook her head, but Rolen looked up as if he had something in mind.

“Ahh...professor?” he asked hesitantly. “What really is the difference between unique classes and not? I wasn’t expecting to get one. I haven’t found a solid answer yet.”

“Unique classes come in two varieties,” Sam explained. “First are the ones that have existed before, which an artifact like the Ocean Core ensures exist only once within a generation. Those are usually tightly controlled legacy classes.” His first class of Battlefield Reclaimer was like that. 

“The second type is a class that has not been recorded before and that in some way is more powerful than normal for the evolution you are at. It might not always be a useful way, but in your case, it is.”

Sam pointed at Rolen and then at Altey. 

“Unique classes can exist naturally, but it’s almost unheard of. Normally, an artifact helps to define the parameters and assigns it. They help to incorporate the additional power into the abilities and the extra attribute point that you get. 

“Without that, the power could appear in all sorts of strange ways, from prophetic dreams to unique innate abilities, but they’re often not well integrated with the primary class. They can take on uncontrolled forms. Many strange abilities across the galaxy have occurred from that.

“Unique classes like yours are much better, overall. They are designed to take that power and integrate it into your class, which give you far more interesting class abilities than is normal at your level, similar to something you would see at the First or Second Evolution.

“That’s the primary strength of a unique class like yours. Your abilities are perhaps three to ten times more refined and interesting than those of an initial class.

“Altey’s Call to the Winter Moon or Lunar Regeneration, for example, are very rare at her level. A Level 20 Mage might have something like a Frost Wind or Ice Field ability to hit multiple enemies, but it would be much more limited. 

“A Healer might have a basic Touch Healing spell or Slow Regeneration, but almost never something that calls on a natural aura like the moon. She has all of that merged together, thanks to a unique class and subclass.

“Her power is also expressed in her bloodline, which is still developing. I thought it would be called the Bloodline of Moonlit Ice, but the World Core simplified it when she unlocked her class and just called it Lunar Ice to match. It’s not quite as poetic, but it is simpler that it is the same. The other name is hers to use if she prefers it. I can even alter her status page if that’s what she wants.”

Sam turned to look at Rolen.

“You might develop a bloodline in time as well, especially now that you have an affinity for Astral Ice. It will merge with your class and give rise to some innate abilities.

“As for your class itself, Icerune Warden is a way of integrating the defensive aspects of runes and Ice together. It’s also a merger of melee and spell abilities, which is rare. Typically, initial classes are one or the other. 

“Your abilities for that Ice Rift, Warder’s Aura, Runic Revenge, and so on are all more interesting than normal. Even your attack ability, like Altey’s, is extremely flexible and able to be applied to a weapon, your hands, or used as a spell.

“Unique classes are in some ways like getting a First Evolution early, one that has a much more defined path. It is both a blessing and, to some, a limitation. But in your cases, it is a great advantage. The classes match you and you have good paths forward.”

Sam shook his head. 

“I suppose it’s worth mentioning that one of the key differences between the High Nine races and humans has to do with racial abilities and the options they have for their initial classes, as well as some of their higher Evolutions.

“Their bloodlines were enhanced by the Astral Titans long ago and refined to give them better options as a standard trait. Where an Initial Class Human Warrior might receive abilities for Sword Strike, Kick, Bash, and Block, a Winged Fury Warrior will start off with Hurricane Strike, Wind Evasion, Wing Blade, and Armored Wings, all of which are two or three tiers higher, similar to Expert or Elite abilities for humans, not to mention the more unique aspects of Wind and winged combat in them.”

Sam paused for a moment as he let that sink in. 

“It’s almost like they have a free Evolution compared to humans,” he added. “The other races are similar. It makes for a significant advantage at every level.

“The Archali have unique abilities for flame and spells, as well as some mental gifts for memorization and ritual magic, while the Cer’Aleth are born with an affinity for crystal flame and developing interlocking spell structures that can grow on their own. The Dragon Spirits have their innate transformation abilities and spiritual strength, while Lifeweavers are rarely matched in innate healing and unearthing their magical potential.

“The High Nine races also have better starting attributes than humans and there are also some even more powerful racial classes that they have access to, some of which you might see with those royals here at the academy. Preserving those classes in their bloodlines is one of their major concerns.

“However, your classes put you on par with them or even a bit ahead. That is the difference a unique class makes. They are receiving a sort of pre-made class with some of the advantages of a unique one, while you have the real thing. 

“You might not have as many starting attributes as they do, but it’s something you can overcome with training. In reality, Altey is probably close.

“Keep in mind that strength comes from those two things: your attributes and your abilities, which includes your affinities. The name of your class, the tier, all of that is just a description on top of the truth. With enchanting and training your runes and Ice magic, you’re well on the way to gaining even more power.

“Just remember to train if you want to develop all of your potential.” 

Sam wrapped up the explanation with a smile. “Now, along with training here in the hall, both of you should start thinking about how to maximize your fighting strength together. Start with simple tactics that you can build on as your abilities develop. Complex plans tend to break down in the heat of a fight.

“For you,” he said as he pointed at Altey, “start with long-range ice attacks, healing, and your dagger as a back up, preferably thrown, since it returns.

“And for you,” he said as he turned to Rolen, “get to work on those ice strike and shield abilities. Until you can make golems to help, you’re on your own. Fortunately, you two should make a good team. She has attack and you have defense, but you both have the ability to flip roles if needed, especially once you start developing your subclasses.”

With that, he stood up and stretched.

“Alright, it’s getting late for you, so you should head back. I’ll give you a hand tonight and send you back directly. Keep an eye on the Winged Furies and Wind Wraiths. They are probably unhappy with me, and that might extend to you as well, so keep those bracelets with you.”

There were defenses in their tattoos as well, not to mention with Cora who followed his sister everywhere, but it would be good for them to stay aware.

He answered a few more brief questions and then teleported them both home, Altey to the island and Rolen to his apartment. 

It was already late, so it would save them the walk.

As he headed out of the hall and into the courtyard, the night was bright with stars. It reminded him of that morning when the Winged Furies tried to ambush him.

This time, there was another disturbance rushing toward him now that it sensed his presence, but this one was an ally.

“Sam!” Broden shouted as he stomped into the courtyard. “I’ve been waiting out here half of the day for you! What took you so long! Have you heard the news?!”

The dwarf was so excited he was practically steaming at the ears.

“What is it now?” Sam asked curiously.

“The Winged Furies and Wind Wraith factions have ganged up to influence the academy board!” the dwarf said with a growl. “They’ve been trying to get your position as a teacher revoked.”

But then his expression turned into a roaring laugh.

“But guess what? The headmaster outright refused to listen to them! He told the board that if they tried to do something that stupid, he’d incinerate them on the spot! I’ve never seen the old geezer have half that big of balls before!” Broden guffawed as his hands spread out wide, making it look like he was gripping a set of balls the size of an entire bull.

“It was one of the best things I’ve ever seen here! You should have seen those bastards shake as they realized they were arguing with one of the only Sixth Evolution beings in this half of the galaxy!”

Broden roared again, his laughter booming throughout the courtyard as it echoed from the stone walls.

“What did you do to get the old goat on your side like that?!”

The dwarf was laughing so much, it took him a full minute to get himself under control, and then he looked more serious.

“But still, they want to try to push some more faculty responsibilities on you and tie you down with too much to do,” he said. “Stubborn buggers....

“Asperio told them they could try if they wanted and then he took off. I’m not sure what he’s up to, but I expect by tomorrow you’ll start to see some trouble. They’ll be trying to interrupt your classes and load you down with all sorts of junk, and then they’ll try to say you aren’t living up to expectations as a faculty member.

“Figured I’d come and give you a heads up.”