Chapter 5 - Paths
Kyrain went into the class with the rest of the group and took his seat as the instructor moved back to the front.
"The next part of the classes is going over the paths each of you have chosen. We have had many questions in the past about hiding your path from people. I'll answer them now to save time. Sure, you can hide your skills and paths, but it will limit your jobs as you can't be effectively added and integrated into a team for jobs.
Years ago, this was fine as the aether was only concentrated around rifts and all anyone ever had to do, is fight on the front lines. Now, with aether permeation at way higher levels across the world we have many different jobs and concentrations of aether creating what we have been calling dungeons. How many of you have heard of dungeons?" The instructor asked.
A few hands went in the air. Ky had learned about dungeons from his uncle Kody, who patrolled the Pacific Northwest and the ocean.
They had a crystal in the heart of dungeon from condensed aether. The crystal begins to feed however many monsters in the dungeon grow way more powerful than they rightfully should be. It's not uncommon for many higher tier dungeons to have multiple A and S rank monsters.
"Dungeons, for all but the strongest among us, require a team or multiple teams to defeat and destroy the crystal. If we do not, the crystals will begin to spawn smaller crystals which will pull more and more aether leading to bigger and stronger monsters. However, those crystals and their shards are extremely valuableas it is,more or less, a universal core that can be used to push people up tiers."
Kyrain and the other boys looked at eachother and smiled at how fun that sounded. They had read books about dungeons, though these crystals were not the sentient ones that built trap filled dungeons, it was still exciting to know there was so much variance across the world rather than just war on the riftlines.
The instructored continued.
"That all being said, it's in your best interest to let the guild know what you can do so it can assess you for different programs available. That being said, we have broken down the skills into four categories. Offense, defense, utility, and speciality.
Offense and Defense skills are exactly as they are skills that are primarily focused on offense and defense. Utility skills are any skills that can accomplish many differeny tasks, but are not focused on offense and defense. It doesn't mean they can't be used in those ways though.
Take manipulation skills. They are utility skills, but can also be used for offense and defense. The last skills are specialty skills. They do things that fall outside of what we can classify, sure they might have offense and defense built into them, but their affects are so great that we can't really classify them as an offensive or defensive skill. These are the skills that become legendary." He said.
Kyrain knew these skills. For his Uncles and mom each had some. Mitch had his flicker, Kody had Call of the ocean king that summoned his Kracken or Sea Serpent, and mom had her Celestial Blessing which healed vast groups of people over a wide area.
"Now! Open up your HUD and take a look at what each of you are working with." The instructor said.
Ky did as instructed.
Name: Kyrain Ekart
Path: Spellbreaker
AP: Null/ AM: 20pps
NOTE: All parameters are based off the flow of antimatter the user can channel per second.
Body: Null/ (T2)
Mind: Null/(T2)
Spirit: Null/(T2)
Skills:
Antimatter Wellspring(p) - A unique skill that allows the user to tap into the beyond and allow antimatter to flow into the user. The larger the tap the more powerful the user becomes.(increase tier)
Antimatter anatomy(p/a) - A unique skill that renders the user's entire being to be created out of antimatter in such a way that it resembles aether. Everything functions as it would as built by aether, but with a flex of the users will they can nullify chosen types of aether around and within them.
Aether sense(p) - A unique skill that allows the use to sense all aether around them. Range grows as new tiers are obtained.
Aether Nullification(a) - A Unique skill that allows the user to use anti-matter to disrupt the flow of aether whether in nature or pertaining to another user. Can be done within close line of sight (15 meters) or through direct contact.
Ky had nothing, but specialty skills. He had unique abilities that only he had he assumed from the fact the system called them all unique and based off what it had said to him when he got the path.
He had been working on opening his "tap" to what the system called "the beyond." It took a lot of effort to get that small trickle he felt in himself leading somewhere to go wider. He was barely able to expand it as much as he had in two years and only recently crossed into tier 2. He worked on it for an hour every morning and every night. It expanded by less than a milimeter each time during that whole hour and it was exhausting work.
Kyrain dismissed his HUD and looked around as others were discussing their paths with the people around them. Elijah who had moved over to sit with them was looking his stuff over based on his eye movement.
"Are any of you guys healers?" Elijah asked.
"Nope." Sebastian said.
"I'm a bezerker. The more I get hit the more damage I deal. A healer would be very welcomed for my path."
"As would it be for my path." Tobias spoke up.
"I'm a Juggernaut. I can take massive amounts of damage both aether and physical. I'm hard to damage, but also hard to heal back up."
Kyrain saw it was his turn.
"I'm a specialty user, I guess. I nullify aether."
Elijah looked at him confused.
"If you nullify aether then how do you live, get stronger, or let me heal you?
"Honestly, I don't know what antimatter is. The system had identified it as something from "the beyond." It works with aether, but can also nullify aether through breaking the formations that make up skills. My skill lets me decide what goes through and what doesn't go through to me as well." Kyrain explained.
Elijah's eyes opened wide.
"Dude! You could be the perfect shield! He almost shouted.
Ky looked at him confused. "What do you mean?"
"Activate your nullification ability and I'm going to punch you." Elijah said excitedly.
"I don't know man, I don't really want to get punched again." Ky replied.
"Then nullify the kinetic energy. Aether just energy as we were told in school. So it should work."
Kyrain thought about it for a moment with a scowl on his face then his eyebrows went up realizing he never really thought outside the box like that.
"It makes sense! Let's try it!" He said.
"Let me know when you are ready." Elijah said bringing his hands up.
Kyrain paid attention to his Aether Sense then he activated Aether Nullification seeing all the aether around and in Elijah.
"Ready." He said and Elijah punched. Kyrain could see a bulging on dark aether then it switched to a lighter aether. As it crossed the space between them he reached out with his Nullification and latched on to it.
Instead of bleeding it, when nhe surrounded it with his antimatter, he noticed something odd. When he enveloped it the aether had nowhere to go. The bonds broke for the punch and skill contained and stopped everything dead in it's tracks. Momentum was energy and he contained it.
He held Elijah's hand in place for a second more when
*crack!*
The energy backlashed sending Elijah flying using his own force.
Elijah immediately got to his feet shaking his arm out.
*bleep!*
Kyrain saw a system notification pop up. He opened it up and jumped up and down excited.