Whispers of a Dead Empire

I stood in the abandoned mine, ready and eager to test out my new skills. The adventurers were still concentrated around the safe zone, so I wasn't worried about getting discovered. However, I still brought along a few of my praetorians just in case something happened, which knowing my luck, was almost a guarantee.

I made Alessia stand a little ways behind me since I didn't want her to get hurt in the process of me learning how to use this skill. I cleared my throat and stared at a pile of discarded rocks that looked to be far too heavy for me to move on my own. Now, how was I going to do this? I shifted uncomfortably on my feet as I tried to steady myself. I called on the skill mentally, and I could see faint wisps of whitish-blue energy as they coalesced around my mouth and folded themselves into the shape of a needle.

For a few tense moments, the energy kept forming from the air. The power behind it threatened to slip from my control, but I held on for dear life. More and more energy materialized from the air as it rushed towards me, and as soon as it felt like I was about to lose control, I directed the power outwards.

A strange roar escaped from my lips as the power rushed out in a blinding white cone in an incredible surge of energy and smashed into the pile of rocks, pushing them to the side as if they weighed no more than a piece of paper. For a split second, I was happy with the skill, at least until my world began to spin. I closed my eyes, fully expecting to smash into the ground below.

But I never felt it. Instead, I felt a pair of cool arms wrap around my waist, keeping me from falling. "Worry not, my lady." Alessia's voice echoed in my ear as she helped me steady myself. Though the touch was a bit unexpected, and my heart jumped a bit, though I was more apt to pass it off due to using the skill. At least, that's what I'm going to tell myself.

"Thank you, Alessia," I murmured as another wave of weakness struck my body. Using that skill cost many of my overall resources and left me feeling empty.

It was an exhaustion that seemed to eat at me at a far deeper level than anything I had ever experienced before in my life. Not even the long hours that I used to pull at work could compare. I took a ragged breath as Alessia, and I walked over to a boulder, helping me sit down.

My eyelids grew heavy, but I fought back the exhaustion that seemed to corrode me from the inside. I needed to stay awake. I had to do things, but I was just so tired. Instead of sleeping, I sat there and watched my soul bar tick up, and with each tick, it chased away the exhaustion. I focused on the bar, ebbing between being fully aware and partially comatose. Time felt like it ticked by slowly, as I was lost in my mind.

Slowly but surely, I felt the strength return to me, and I could finally move again. I sat up and stared at the barren stone ground. My mind still felt a little hazy, and it was hard to focus on anything of use. A part of me just wanted to curl up and sleep, but I had stuff that I needed to do. I stood up, fully aware that I was operating on autopilot, and motioned for Alessia to join me as I prepared to teleport back to my office with a quick gesture. I still needed to select my new skills, but those could wait until I finished what I needed to do and get some rest. I didn't want to make choices on a tired mind.

As soon as my world settled down, I walked over to my desk and sat down. Usually, I would put a lot of thought into what I wanted to make, but I didn't care at this point. I just wanted to make enough product to give to that damned adventurer to start having a flow of resources coming in. If I had a massive surplus, I wouldn't care about doing something like this, but my hands were tied on the matter. There was also the matter of essence, which I needed to progress. Considering this trade deal I made, I should avoid spending more essence than I needed to. Ugh, I hated them all. Why did this happen to me?

I quickly dissembled my pen and consumed each separate part. Once I was finished, I decided to recreate fifty-one of them for now and take one from the stack for myself. While that was going, I created a small crate to store them all in. While the familiar moats of blue light rained from the ceiling and slowly formed the items, I decided it was time to finally sleep. "Alessia, in a little while, would you mind storing the pens in that crate and delivering them to those adventurers, please?" I asked as I stumbled over to my bed.

"I suppose I could."

I hummed out an agreement as I crawled under my blankets and buried my face in the pillow, and wrapped myself up. It's been so long since I last slept. Oh, how I've missed my bed so. I laid there for a moment, relishing the comfort and softness before sleep claimed me and dragged me into its loving embrace.

When I awoke, I saw that almost six hours had passed, and I finally felt somewhat normal again. My head had cleared a bit, and the exhaustion that had plagued my being seemed to have faded away. I looked around the office and saw that the crate was missing. Ah good, I'm glad to see that she did it.

For a few more seconds longer, I enjoyed the warmth from my blanket and the softness of my bed. A large part of me didn't want to leave it, but I knew I had to. There was far too much for me to do. So I stood up and moved over to my desk, curious about the new skills that I unlocked along with my class milestone.

Congratulations! You have reached your first class milestone! Please select which branch you wish to specialize in!

DPS

Tank

Healing

Support

Hybrid

I looked at the new list and thought it over. I already had specialized in hybrid the first time, so it's a matter of figuring out what I needed next. With that thought in mind, I crossed out hybrid. Not that I didn't want it; it was just a matter of specializing now. But what did I need right now more than anything?

That fight with the assassins did wonders to open my eyes to what I lacked. The only thing that kept me going was my constant Ki expenditure, but that wasn't enough even then. So, for now, I think I will go with the healing. The sustain would be critical for my success after all. I confirmed the choice, and my screen flickered before it brought up a list of skills that I could choose.

Analyzing skills, traits, and titles..

Please select up to six skills:

Soul Flame: Using a portion of your soul, you can ignite a flame that can be quenched by neither water nor magic.

Anima Lightning: The power within you ripples like lightning and can inflict paralysis and sustained damage.

Resplendent Remedy: Using a part of your soul, you can restore your body to its previous splendor.

Dragon's skin: The strength of the dragons flows through you, hardening your flesh and increasing your vitality and overall defense.

Mending Soul: This skill will help you stave off some damage recently taken.

Rending Claw: Your Ki and soul infuse your claws, allowing them to rend apart flesh and armor as if they were paper.

Double Strike: With your martial ability at hand, you are able to swing your melee weapons at impossible speeds, striking the same target twice faster than the eye can see.

Harrowing Gaze: The power that brims within you explodes outwards, fearing all who gaze upon you.

Soul Barrier: You can create a shield that will absorb all incoming damage.

Deafening Roar: You release a roar that draws attention to yourself.

Double Shot: You can now notch two arrows instead of one and accurately fire them.

Cataclysm: The power of your soul runs rampant, exploding outwards, knocking back everyone around you, dealing heavy damage.

I read all the options, and I was floored by the skills that I saw. My mouth was even beginning to water slightly. These all looked so good, so why could I only pick six? This wasn't fair; I wanted them all. I glared at the screen as I looked it over and saw some older skills that I looked over last time. I wasn't sure how the whole skill system worked, considering that I skipped nine levels off that massive level up, but I would take what I could get at the moment.

So what did I want to use in the future? For starters, I went with Soul Flame to have a steady DPS skill and then regarded the rest of my options. The two healing skills I saw both looked good, but something told me that the Resplendent Remedy would be the best of the two options, though I needed to expand on the use of my soul if I wanted to use it well enough. Once I confirmed that choice, I still had four skills I could choose. Dragon's skin looks like it would be suitable for self-sustaining, so it would be a good pick without a doubt.

Now I had three skills left. I picked up one damage skill, one healing, and one self-buff, so what did I want now? I carefully looked over the skills one last time and picked Rending Claw. It should synergize well with my claw template and provide me with a close-range skill. The soul barrier looked as if it would be suitable for negating a lot of damage coming my way, but since my body had a heavy focus on speed to avoid damage, it felt lackluster. I mean, they can't hurt me if they can't catch me after all. The following skill was Deafening Roar wasn't my quiet thing either since I didn't want to draw attention to myself in a fight. More than likely, it would only bite me in the ass in the future.

As for the other skills, I could use double strike and merge it with Rending Claw, so it was something to consider. What had my attention, though, was Cataclysm and Harrowing Gaze. I could use one for disengage, while the other could use it to stop a fight from happening. I thought it over before I selected those two and confirmed all of my choices. Double strike seemed terrific, and all, but I needed high-impact skills. However, if I saw it on my next level up, I would take it. As for the other well, I didn't intend on using a bow that much.

As my finger left the screen, a piercing headache overtook me as vague bits of details entered my mind on how to use those skills. I clasped my head as the pain wracked me for quite some time before it faded away, leaving me with only the barest hints of knowledge on how to use my newly acquired skills.