Death Cap - One - Great Choices Barring a Greater Future
I returned to my farm.
I don’t know why, exactly. Maybe it was just a familiar route? I was used to going from the cemetery back to the farm with whatever mushrooms I’d gathered. It was probably some part of my hind-brain that was carrying me over, habit over thought.
The farm was a safe place… or a safe-enough space. It was where I worked, where I grew most of my stock, the place where I was pulling on my bootstraps as hard as I could.
I closed the door behind me and stared at the racks. Dada had built those for me.
My throat closed up again and I took a few gasping breaths as I tried to stop myself from crying again. I didn’t have time for sadness. I needed to be angry. I wanted to be angry.
Cursing myself under my breath, I moved to the centre of the room and started pacing.
Work. I’d drown the sorrow in work. Work that would let me murder the same people that had taken everything good out of life.
- Black Lung {Common}
- Child of Poverty {Common}
- Blessing of Feronie {Unique}
General Skills - Level Seventy-Six
- Running {Common} - Level Nineteen
- Knitting {Common} - Level Fifty-four
- Basic Poison Resistance {Common} - Level Three
No primary class. I’d gotten rid of it hoping for a better opportunity. No, that wasn’t right. I’d sacrificed it for an opportunity. Agaric Cleric had been a nice class, I think. I’d learned a lot from it. I think I even started to think of myself as a strange cleric of sorts. It was part of my self-identity.
As far as I was aware, people rarely, if ever, changed their class. Maybe once they reached adulthood, but it wasn’t a common occurrence. Replacing a class was essentially taking a big step back in terms of progress, even if the new class was better.
The exception, as far as I understood it, was for times of war.
That suited me just fine.
[The following classes are available!]
[Mechanic’s Child {Common}]
[Feast Maker {Uncommon}]
[Feronie’s Crusader {Epic}]
[Rot Spreader {Legendary}]
I stared at [Mechanic’s Child] for a long time. The only common class available. It was a link to Dada. Something to remind me of who he’d been, of his legacy.
I dabbed at my eyes with the end of my sleeve. A legacy was well and good. Maybe once everything was done, I’d settle down and try to see if I could make him proud that way. Right then and there, my goal wasn’t the pride of a dead man, it was vengeance.
Skipping [Mechanic’s Child] I looked at the first of my new options.
[Feast Maker {Uncommon}]
Having dedicated yourself to feeding others and providing food for all, you are becoming an expert at creating ample food for every hungry soul.
Class requirements: Provide meals to over a hundred people, grow enough food to feed a thousand, a deep and long-lasting hunger
Class skills: Skills related to growing and preparing meals, [Cook {Common}], [Mycologic Growth {Uncommon}], [Feast Making {Rare}]
And entirely useless to my purposes. I wouldn’t beat my enemies by stuffing them so full that they burst. I could, it would be an ironic death to kill them by giving them the very thing they took away from families like mine, but I didn’t care about ironic deaths. I was too practical for that kind of thing.
You have begun to clean away the stench of industrialization, one mushroom at a time. Grow and bring forth the peace of Feronie.
Class requirements: Harvest and grow thousands of plants or fungi that can cleanse the environment, and any illness caused by your surroundings and the pollution within it.
Class Skills: Skills related to growing plants which heal and clean the environment and the people within that environment, [Mycologic Growth {Uncommon}], [Healing Thumb {Rare}], [Blessed Purge {Epic}]
An entire class built around cleaning and healing. I grit my teeth. How long had this option been there for me? I could have healed my lungs. I could have healed Dada’s hand so long ago!
Not that he needed it now. I could live with the pain in my chest.
[Feronie’s Crusader {Epic}]
Rise! Rise, Crusader of Feronie, and spread the enfeebled wrath of nature. Bring glory onto the Goddess of Nature by grinding her adversaries into the dirt where they might serve as fertiliser for a brighter future.
Class requirements: Have experience as a cleric or priest of Feronie, a powerful Blessing of Nature, the attention of a god, a powerful need for vengeance
Class Skills: Skills related to nature and combat using natural means, [Aura of Growth {Rare}], [Blight {Epic}], [Ritual of Sporemageddon {Legendary}]
That was more like it.
I grinned. The option was far more tempting than the last. No healing, but a couple of skills that seemed actually lethal. And it was a class whose entire purpose lined up with my own.
Feronie wanted a crusader? I didn’t love her, but I could work with her. I think that was good enough.
One class remained, the only Legendary option I had available. My entire body tingled as I opened the screen for that option.
[Rot Spreader {Legendary}]
The need for revenge has grabbed you by the soul, now let your body match your willingness to ruin the world. You will become the living embodiment of plague and rot. Your flesh might melt, your soul might rot, but what few shreds of your mind remain will direct your will to ending those who harmed you.
Class requirements: HATRED
Class Skills: [Blight {Epic}], [Summon Mushroom Elementals {Epic}], [Rot {Legendary}]
Not because I didn’t want to take the class, but because some part of me, a loud and tempting part, wanted me to take this one. It would give me everything I wanted, wouldn’t it? And all it would cost is everything.
But no. I wanted to be able to savour my revenge. I wouldn’t be able to do that if I was some sort of mindless fleshless monster.
There was only one sensible option.
[Congratulations! You have unlocked the [Feronie’s Crusader {Epic}] Class!]
[The following Skills have been added to your repertoire:]
[Aura of Growth {Rare}]
[Ritual of Sporemageddon {Legendary}]
[Because of prior experiences, and because of cross-class compatibility, the following skills are immediately available to you:]
- Mycologic Growth {Uncommon}
- Druid Sight {Uncommon}
- Fungal Grafter {Uncommon}
- Mushroom Magic {Rare}
- Commune with God {Rare}
[You have two remaining Class Skill slots.]
I sighed. I’d get some of my old skills back. That had been a concern. Only two of them though, and there were more than two that I found useful.
Before that, though, I had to know what my new skills did.
[Aura of Growth {Rare}]
By pushing your will and mana into the environment around you, you can encourage the growth of all natural things. As this skill grows, your range and focus will increase, and you may be able to help yourself grow as well.
Category: Nature Magic
That would be useful. Not too dissimilar to my old [Mycologic Growth] skill, but without the restriction and a focus on an area of effect. I’d need to test if it lost some potency in exchange for a wider breadth.
I wouldn’t be picking [Mycologic Growth] as a skill if this was an option. Too much potential overlap. That narrowed down my other choices to just four, which was handy.
Your mana and will gains the tint of rot and death. At will, you can make your presence force sickness, rot, and necrosis onto those you consider your adversary. As this skill grows, so will your range, and you will be able to empower yourself from the natural rot you create.
Category: Nature magic, Necromantic magic
I grinned. Then I gave in to the bubbling in my chest and let out a dark chuckle. Yes, this would do just fine.
Only one skill left. One that I was a little worried about. The way it just kept showing up… it felt a little like Feronie was pushing that option onto any class that could even vaguely accept it.
[Ritual of Sporemageddon {Legendary}]
Deep within a dungeon you shall dive. There you will plead with your Goddess, and with a loyal heart shall prevail. The gift given unto all sentient-kind will be revoked.
Category: Apocalypse magic, Forbidden
Well… that was incredibly ominous.
The description sounded entirely different to any other skill I’d seen so far. I didn’t know what it even did, though I had an idea. Googlᴇ search n0velfire.net
Dungeons were being exploited day and night, all sorts of resources pulled out from within while the dungeon used the world’s mana to restock itself. It was, essentially, an endless supply of nearly-free resources.
If this ritual cut that off… then every factory that relied on those same resources would have to shut down.
It was like taking the ocean away from the fishing industry.
It started with a giggle.
Soon, it was a cackle.
Yes. Yes, that would work wonderfully.