Path of Dragons-Chapter 3Book 8: . A Question of Class

Sadie missed Dat.

It was such a simple acknowledgement, but powerful in its lack of complexity. For years, he had been her rock. The person she leaned on more than anyone else. He’d always been there, ready with a joke or a poignant bit of advice. He’d helped reign in her worst impulses while offering the support she so desperately needed.

And now he was gone.

Just like Lisa. Or her parents. Uncles and aunts. Cousins. Everyone was dead or so far away they might as well have been. Of her entire family, only Nico and her grandfather, Song Tianwei, remained.

They had made it clear that she was an outsider, too. Not in so many words, but it was blindingly obvious that something had happened while she’d searched the world for help with the Primal Realm. Sadie wasn’t certain exactly why or how everything had shifted, but she knew enough to recognize when her presence wasn’t wanted.

Not for the first time, she wished she’d simply gone with Elijah. He wouldn’t have complained, even if she knew she would have slowed him down. That was the thing about the Druid: for all that Sadie had plenty of power of her own, he was just different, and in ways that she couldn’t quite articulate. Part of it was strength. He had plenty of levels on his status and advanced cultivation to back it up. But there was more to it than that, though she couldn’t really explain the way it all fit together.

And against all odds, she liked him: probably more than she liked anyone else in the world. With Dat gone, that wasn’t a high bar, but the reality of it wasn’t easy to dismiss, either.

Was there a romantic future there?

Her mind told her that it was silly to even consider such an entanglement. Elijah came with complications. He was a good person: at least he tried to be: but he also had plenty of baggage weighing him down. What’s more, he looked at the world in such a strange way that Sadie feared that if they took it much further than the single kiss they’d shared, their relationship would become volatile.

But maybe that was what she wanted. Perhaps that was what she needed. For all her life, she’d made the right choices. She’d only dated people who had her family’s approval. She’d studied what she was supposed to study, and she had strived to embody everything she was supposed to be.

Maybe it was time she made the wrong decisions.

And for better or worse, that was what Elijah represented. A wrong choice. A bad decision. A relationship doomed from the start. But sometimes, that was what people needed, wasn’t it? Did Sadie want to keep going through life, always worried about how her current choices might affect the future?

No.

But also yes.

To say that she was of two minds on the subject: both in broader terms as well as specifically about her budding relationship with Elijah: was a vast understatement. So, to distract herself from a question that had no real answer at the moment, Sadie focused on something she’d been awaiting for weeks.

Her class evolution.

She had reached the appropriate level halfway through the Primal Realm, but without a Branch, she had been unable to take advantage and continue to progress. Now that she was back in Heaven’s Bastion, that was no longer an issue. So, she’d already visited the Branch and received her options.

At almost a hundred options, the number was a little overwhelming. Thankfully, many of those were lower-grade variations of the same class evolution, so they were easily disregarded. From Elijah, she’d learned that there were nine class rarities. In order, they were: Common, Uncommon, Exotic, Legendary, Mythic, Arcane, Celestial, Primeval, and Eldritch. For the first evolution, which marked passage from the Mortal Realm to Ascendence, a class could not exceed Mythic rarity.

She had not reached that mark.

In fact, her highest rarity option was graded as Legendary, and there was only one of those. The rest were a mixture of Exotic and Uncommon. Still, she had spent a couple of hours whittling them down to three options:

Evolution Pathways for [Crusader]

Class Name

Rarity

Knight of the Iron Sun

Exotic

Eternal Sentinel

Exotic

Justicar of the Broken Path

Legendary

Her eyes were immediately drawn to the last listing, if only because it was the lone Legendary option. She focused on it, eliciting a more elaborate description that she’d already read a few times before:

Class: Justicar of the Broken Path (L)

The [Justicar of the Broken Path] is a knight errant, beholden to no force but justice itself. This is a deviation of the [Crusader] class, focusing equally on combat and non-combat roles.

Required Archetype:

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Warrior

Required Class:

Crusader

Required Legacy:

Exalted (within the constraints of the Mortal Realm)

Attributes Gained Per Level

STR

DEX

CON

ETH

REG

9

1

9

4

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4

From what she could tell, it was an incredibly powerful class, and what’s more, Sadie liked the description. It reminded her a little of Elijah’s philosophy. Often, he wandered around without rhyme or reason, completely untroubled by anything approaching a plan. Or at least that was how it seemed. Though, of late, she’d begun to wonder if he had more layers than that impression implied.

Regardless, the sheer weight of the class evolution’s attribute gains was almost enough to force her to choose it without even studying the others. However, there was one factor that gave her pause. The word justicar implied that her path would focus even harder on judgement of other people. That facet of her Crusader class: which included Sense of Sin as well as Confession: had caused her quite a lot of trouble, and it was only recently that she’d managed to wrangle it. So, committing further to that particular path was a daunting prospect, even if it was objectively the best option available to her.

In any case, she moved on to the next one:

Class: Knight of the Iron Sun (E)

The Knight of the Iron Sun is a defender of the weak, sacrificing offense for nearly pure defense. This is a slight deviation from the [Crusader] class, incorporating powerful healing abilities into a defensive mindset.

Required Archetype:

Warrior

Required Class:

Crusader

Required Legacy:

Esteemed (within the constraints of the Mortal Realm)

Attributes Gained Per Level

STR

DEX

CON

ETH

REG

3

1

8

2

5

As expected, it featured lower attribute bonuses per level than the Justicar of the Broken Path, and yet, it was still appealing. Often, Sadie had lamented her relatively weak healing abilities, wishing she could have done more. It seemed that the Knight of the Iron Sun would offer her the opportunity to shift her path to one of defense and protection, adding heals for good measure. From the description, she expected that, if she chose that evolution, she would become practically unkillable: at least by anyone at her level. The trade-off was that she would likely be unable to overcome others’ defenses.

It was a selfless path meant for the sort of person who put the fate of others well above their own. There was a certain appeal to that, especially because it epitomized the kind of person Sadie wanted to be. The problem was that she wasn’t entirely certain it was who she actually was.

After all, if that was the case, she would’ve been the one to sacrifice herself instead of leaving it to Dat.

That thought alone almost made her choose the Knight of the Iron Sun class evolution, though she forced herself to keep going. This time, she focused on the last of the three most powerful options:

Class: Eternal Sentinel (E)

The Eternal Sentinel stands guard over those she chooses to protect. This is a slight deviation from the [Crusader] class, focusing on establishing a domain and protecting it.

Required Archetype:

Warrior

Required Class:

Crusader

Required Legacy:

Esteemed (within the constraints of the Mortal Realm)

Attributes Gained Per Level

STR

DEX

CON

ETH

REG

3

1

10

1

4

On the surface, it didn’t seem very powerful. Sadie knew enough to recognize it as an upgrade to the Sentinel class she’d been offered at level ten. However, there was obviously far more to it, as characterized by the mention of a domain. She only had to remember the Chainspeaker to recognize just how powerful such a thing could be. The only reason she and her companions had beaten the demon was because of the combined effects of Dat’s domain-breaking ability and the overwhelming power of Elijah’s fire breath attack.

Sadie sighed, then lay back in her bed. It didn’t feel like hers anymore. Not after being gone for so long. The rest of her rooms were the same. Sure, all of her stuff was still there, but she no longer felt as if she belonged in Heaven’s Bastion.

Maybe she didn’t.

Refocusing on the decision at hand, Sadie weighed the pros and cons, but she found that, objectively, her choice should have been easy enough. Justicar of the Broken Path was unequivocally the best option. Yet, it scared her. The others were good, too, but would they be enough? After all, Earth was still a dangerous, violent place, and despite the fact that she and her companions had managed to conquer the Primal Realm, she didn’t think safety was in the world’s future.

She needed to be as strong as possible to meet the challenges ahead.

So, her decision was even more obvious. She chose Justicar of the Broken Path.

Congratulations! You have chosen to evolve your [Crusader] class into [Justicar of the Broken Path]. Stand by while appropriate changes are made.

Elijah had already told her what would come next, but even so, Sadie was shocked by the pain that emerged from her chest. It enveloped her whole body, eliciting a scream that echoed throughout her apartments. Doubtless, if her quarters weren’t soundproof, it would have drawn all the worst sorts of attention.

The ambient ethera went wild as it swirled around her, pulsing with every beat of her heart. Then, a wave of pure, life-giving vitality swept through her, like a balm to her agonized body. Then, more pain followed by another pulse of vitality. Over and over again, it swept through her, wave after wave, until she lost track of how much time had passed. It was as if she was being broken down and remade, repeatedly and with every passing second.

Then, finally, it tapered off until only the echoes remained. At last, they too faded until she received another notification:

Congratulations! You have reached the Ascendent tier. All banked experience will now be applied.

In the space of a moment, she gained three levels as well as the attributes that came with them. In the wake of so much pain, receiving such an influx of power was a heady sensation, and a welcome one at that.

She’d have continued to bask in it, perhaps even checking her status, but before she could, there came a chime from the door. With some degree of regret, she pushed herself to her feet and crossed her apartments on unsteady feet. A few seconds: and another chime: later, she jerked the door open.

Immediately, her brother’s nose wrinkled in disgust.

“What have you been doing? You smell:”

“What do you want?” she interrupted, her voice wavering slightly.

“Grandfather wishes to see you. He wants answers.”

Sadie resisted the urge to sigh before saying, “Fine. I’m going to take a shower. I’ll be up in an hour or two.”

Then, she shut the door in Nico’s face. She no longer cared if she offended him. In fact, she was somewhat ashamed to call him her sibling. And yet, he was still family, so she’d refrained from doing what she really wanted to do to him. If he hadn’t been her brother…

Well, she didn’t want to think about that.

Instead, she headed to her private bathroom: a luxury in Heaven’s Bastion: and got down to the business of cleaning away the foul-smelling muck that came with her ascension.