Devourer Class

Galahad didn't bother walking all the way home that night, he knew he was much closer to Regin's workshop and drank a two pints of some strange ale called 'Devilish' on the way there. Turns out the name came from the alcohol concentration being much higher than the taste implied.

Diagon was a popular city, so it wasn't uncommon to see pedestrians taking beer out on the streets. Even if said pedestrian was chugging like a parched lemur who just escaped the desert.

Lucky for Galahad, as the exhaustion coursing through his body was refusing to let him walk all the way without stopping anyway, so that was considered his pit stop. The buzz took away some of the pain and helped him reach his destination.

Regin walked into his workshop before sunrise with a crate slung one his shoulder and was surprised to see Galahad laying face up on the couch that didn't look the mustiest. For a moment, the dwarf was concerned that he'd have to explain a dead body on his property, but a loud snore confirmed he was only sleeping.

His initial assumption of Galahad being a corpse couldn't be blamed. The purple and blue bruising all across his body and the black burn marks down his back were exposed.

Regun put down the crate and sat on it like a stool, thinking about how such a peculiar boy came to existence.

"How the hell did you manage to get yurself in such a mess?" He muttered while staring, his bushy brow shuffling with thought.

That statement seemed to involve not only Galahad, but a bit of himself in the mix as well. The dwarf quickly seemed to lose interest and walked down to the bas.e.m.e.nt work floor with his flask in hand.

The sun had risen past the horizon when Galahad woke up, although he wouldn't know it since the old building had no windows. The clock in his corner view was the only indication that he was supposed to start working nearly two hours ago.

As soon as He saw the time; He bolted right up, stressing about missing work. Then the painful memories of the phantom attack came flooding back. The quick motion cracked open a lot of the dried scabbing along his back and made his insides squirm in pain.

[ New Passive Skill unlocked: Mimic's Shell ] [ +150 XP ]

[ New Active Skill unlocked: Vocal Mimicry ] [ +200 XP ]

The strangest thing was his throat and skin felt very agitated as well, like they were singed to a raw sensation. Galahad was still too preoccupied by the internal injuries to take much of an interest, he figured the two new skills and the pain were connected. Now was just not the time to deal with them.

After his muddled brain completely woke up, he eventually remembered he was already at work, but no dwarf was in sight. Just a couple of mana orbs laid out on the table and a glass jug of something very gross looking.

Galahad took a whiff of the jar and made a sour expression; it reeked of dirt, fat, and something wheat based that was beyond spoiled. He took the orbs off the table and consumed them one-by-one, making the internal bruising and fractures on his ribs mend.

The only injuries that remained were the scraps and cuts from crashing landing in the abandoned warehouse, and the long, black burn marks running down his back. The exterior damage across the back was nothing compared to the all internal damage, so Galahad was feeling decent enough to sit up on the couch and try meditation of all things.

It had been half a year since he had felt the mana flow in his body regulate like a normal magician, he wanted to make sure it had finally returned. Galahad was not surprised to feel the mana frame running more active points in his body than the day before.

His magic had returned.

Once he was done giving a lay over on the mana, he noted the volcanic power of Chi was now crossed over with the electrifying storm of mana, both pulsating out of sync with one another. Whenever he focused on one, it seemed to overpower the other. It wasn't possible to sense out both at the same time.

Out of curiosity, he pulled up the stat window, seeing the changes that came with now owning two classes. Galahad would have been lying if he said he wasn't somewhat excited to see what it felt like to wield two classes on his own. It was most likely a first in history to ever happen.

'Its a shame I didn't choose a summoner. I bet the black orb could have used it save me just as well as whatever magic I have now. It seems I'll have to wait for gods know how long to finally reach another class level.'

He kept experimenting with the changes and the class information with the peace of not running for his life. The serenity of the quiet room made the whole process a lot easier.

Until the door busted open with loud, metallic clang.

"Hey, you. Yur finally awake." Regin boomed from the doorway. "You've got the strangest idea of a work and sleep schedule if I've ever seen one, Ya aren't supposed to do both at the same time."

His statement was immediately followed with a loud belch. It seems his day drinking had started before sunrise.

"Well that's just because my body likes to shut down after I inhale a horde of monster orbs. I didn't mean to over sleep." Galahad replied while slowly standing up.

He was only midway to his stance before immediately feeling something wrong. His voice didn't sound right, his dropped and was scratchy. It certainly wasn't his voice.

"Oy, no need to start mocking the one who sacrificed some orbs and some swamp whiskey for yur sorry ass!"

Regin dropped a crate next to the pile of others and furrowed his brow. Meanwhile Galahad was still half standing with a baffled look on his face.

"I-I-I . . . what the hell?!" Galahad shouted in perfect replication of the dwarf's voice.

The actual dwarf noticed that Galahad wasn't dropping his act, he was startled by the way his own voice was behaving.

"ya . . . alrighty kid?"

"Do I sound 'alrighty?' Ya can't hear how f.u.c.kin odd I sound? How the hell is-" Galahad stopped losing his mind and looked through the notifications on the side of his view.

[ New Passive Skill unlocked: Mimic's Shell ] [ +150 XP ]

[ New Active Skill unlocked: Voice of Power ] [ +200 XP ]

"Holy shit!" Galahad shouted with his own voice this time. The discovery of the cause was enough to make his voice change, however it kept going.

"Ha, I don't believe this." His voice warbled again, sounding more like his mother's.

"Kid, ya might wanna fill me in here." Regin was initially aggravated, confused, then horribly concerned when Galahad's voice channeled multiple characters, including a woman.

"Ahh, give me a second." Galahad said with his old school teacher's voice, David Thorne.

[ Raging Inferno ]

[ Vocal Mimicry ]

As he stared at them, he focused on shutting down the newest one. He could only assume it worked when the burning sensation in his throat stopped. It was confirmed after a few seconds of testing, that his voice had finally gone back to normal.

That took the edge off the situation, giving Galahad the chance to explain the last two days of living through hell. He left out the specifics of the elder mimic acting like his sister, and then the black orb taking over. Regin may have known the most about Galahad's predicament, but a few secrets were best kept in his own mind.

Galahad was about to tell his boss a lie about landing directly in the abandon warehouse without blacking out, but then he interjected.

"Good gods, yur a bit screwy aren't ya." Was the only comment Regin think to make.

"Ya got a good swishing through yur head, started a citywide crisis, and nearly died six ways till Sunday. I'm gonna have to get a new assistant by the end of the month if ya keep pulling this crap."

"I know, I'm not always making the safest decisions, but I still need to get that those orbs. So I promise to take things slow after I finish powering up the Dungeon Lock."

"Yeah, give or take the ten something years you'll need to get stronger enough for demons that size."

"Well I am taking it day by day, so hopefully my leveling speed will prove something useful."

"I see . . . Ya know, going back to the first thing ya said; the hittin a sort've tempering cooldown to let your body catch up with your levels. It does fit the bill to somethin I wanted to mention."

Galahad curiosity was peaked. Regin has many theories and stories to tell. Not all were personal stories, but the information he provided certainly proved to be useful.

"I believe that obstacle of level ups you been hitting lately will break through after ya unlock your old class instead of a new one.

Exerting your body around it's normal limitations is one thing, but don't forget that five months ago, ya were coursing with a crap ton of Mana and not Chi. The sudden change in energies is creating a foreign structure in your body. Easing yur way through this will be less likely to break ya down like a carriage with three wheels.

"Don't really get the metaphor, but I get the principle. I need to let the newest stuff slowly evolve and not push it as often. Yet a familiarity with magic might be better than building up a summoner class from the ground up.

"Exactly, once ya get yurself another magician class, possibly the same one, we need to do extensive testing on how they interact with one another-"

"Regin." Galahad attempted to interrupt.

"Not now kid, we need to figure out what exactly we should test, especially if yur class is gonna be something odd like those elemental weirdos or the morons that think their enchanted arrays make for more than works of sloppy art. The pairing of old and new energies might be combative."

Regin kept going on with his eyes dashing around the room. He was no doubt taking mental notes of the tests and new theories, until Galahad interrupted.

Galahad slumped his head forward and brought his palms upward. In the midst of Regin's rant about every magician class available, a loud crackling went off.

Regin then stopped speaking mid jargon. Between Galahad's hands were the crackling of failed mana tethers.

Galahad had no idea what his new magician class was, but it certainly was far too new to let him create mana tethers like before.

The sound of the mana popping in the air was enough to get Regin's attention.

"If you'd let me finish, I was going to tell you I survived the fall into the warehouse as the magician class was released." Galahad gave a chuckling grin.

It seemed Regin was initially trying to get Galahad to unlock magician during his next breakthrough. Ironically the reckless adventurer has already done that just the night before.

"Based on the words floating around in my brain, it's called, Elemental Conduit."