Wyn studied the new page to his parchment with a mug of ale. He originally opted to drink water so he could have a clear head, but quickly decided against it the more he thought about his new page. His life was becoming one strange occurrence after another.

  Everyone else was already one mug deep, too, except for Tasha. Wyn had no idea how she refrained from drinking after their revelation. Maybe she drank in private, or maybe she was just that stoic. She stopped John from drinking too much, but couldn’t stop Marcy. She was drinking enough for the both of them.

  Sitting in the guild’s war room, they all had their new parchments from their class upgrades. After Lucy had informed Gregory and the other guild leaders about her role with the Assembly and the events of the night they cleared the ninth floor, they took a couple of days to relax while she formed a plan about what to do next. True to her nature, she didn't share much with the others, though she decide to return home to her family. On the second day, Gregory, Caryn, and Faye met them and told them what was going to happen.

  The group of five had to triple their fees for the next three months and remain in the second tier only while getting used to their third tier classes. They also were forced to assist the city guild with rookie climbs over that timeframe. None of them complained really at all, as at least they were still in the guild. And climbing in the second tier was still going to provide plenty of rewards and experience for all of them. They also had to cover the costs of guild dinners and take last pick of vault items, which only John was really upset about. Wyn thought that portion was hardly a punishment.

  Regarding Lucy, they had told her she was no longer welcome in the guild, though she was already planning to leave. It came out that the Assembly practically bought her way into the Twilight Blades, and Gregory and Nigel were mostly upset that the organization was somehow feeding their sponsors. Whether it was directly or indirectly they weren’t sure, but Wyn could tell it bothered them. Faye told them separately that they immediately petitioned an investigation into their few sponsors to try and root them out, which could eventually impact the guild negatively. None of the leaders were agreeing much on how to handle the situation and it seemed to disturb them a lot that they were so easily bought.

  Wyn didn’t blame them. That was a hard revelation to face. He hoped they pulled through, but only time would tell.

  For now, though, they focused on the present. Gregory still told them to advance their class since they cleared the second tier and ninth floor, and they had entered the tenth floor to find out their options. After discovering them and seeing the pages with information, they came together at the guild hall to discuss as a team per Wyn’s request. If they needed, he wanted to be near some of the more experienced Climbers for input.

  But they wouldn’t help. Not after seeing everyone’s parchments. And now he wished they were somewhere else to keep what they had private.

  “I’m so confused,” John finally said, breaking the silence. “How is this even possible?”

  “I don’t know,” Marcy said, pouring her fourth mug of ale. Cedric promptly snatched it from her and she looked at him with disgust.

  “We can’t discuss things if you’re drunk,” Cedric said.

  Marcy laughed. “It would take another pitcher to get me there. I’m... mostly fine.”

  Tasha set her parchment down on the table gently. “I’m not sure how it’s possible but it’s quite clear it’s real. Look at all of our parchments! That’s not a coincidence!”

  Wyn stared down at his own parchment. He expected his class upgrade. He didn’t know the name, of course, and he was only given one option. But it was how he figured - a clear upgrade from Ruby Strategist. There was only one option to upgrade but that didn’t bother him. It was a great class and had great features. His only decision was for new spells and a skill option from a very limited list.

  The strange part was everyone else also had odd upgrade choices.

  John had been mentally preparing to become a Knight for weeks, if not longer. Wyn knew that when they met Gregory it was already a clear upgrade path in John’s mind, and it was only solidified when they joined the Twilight Blades. But now, on John’s parchment, he had three options. Normally a class had two options for a tier three class, which made everyone curious. Worse, the third class option wasn’t even a known class.

  He had Knight and Defender as the standard upgrade options. The third was called Sword Saint. The features were impressive, though a bit abstract from a typical Knight. John had said that Knights had skills like Fighters that could be shared to allies, and while they all varied based on the individual Climber’s skills they essentially boiled down to being strongest when fighting alongside an ally.

  The Sword Saint was different, though. The description stated that what was his Squire Aura became his Saint Aura, a similar effect though worse than the Knight’s version with a smaller area of effect and less effective sharing to others. The benefit, though, was that it wasn’t its own ability, but instead John could put any of his skills to project as an aura, including two at a time. That made it far more versatile and possibly even useful as John could pick the skill for the situation at hand. The other major change for the class was that a portion of his skills changed to Sword Skills, where they infused his weapon with aura and were far better than their current state, lasting longer and hitting harder. The skills all had secondary effects, like a life draining one similar to Wyn’s Wellspring ability and other debuffing spells in the form of skills.

  The other’s parchments also provided a third, unique class option that wasn't known, and while Marcy’s and Cedric’s were more aligned with their current classes, Tasha’s was a complete class change similar to John’s.

  Her originally intended class upgrade was Summoner, but she was actually leaning towards her special class after reading the benefits. It was called Invoker, and gave her abilities of her summons to be able to use personally in addition to the summons still having great magical powers. Like sharing them together in some sort of magical bond. Her spellcasting would also shift focus slightly, edging more towards having some offensive capability as well as she gained an ability called Invoker’s Might. It seemed to infuse her spells to have an affinity to holy and fire, which was unheard of. She could both heal the group and damage enemies with the same spells, as they gave secondary effects depending on who the spell was cast on. The only caveat was that it worked on area of effect spells or non-targeted spells, but she could simultaneously heal and protect the team while hurting enemies as they fought without any negative consequence for them.

  Wyn could tell it was a strong class. She would lose summoning strength but her Callings would still be powerful with some key upgraded effects. They were still called Summons like the Summoner class, but reading the difference between the two it was clear they would be weaker overall. The difference was the Invoker class gave Tasha more power overall. Which was something she was very interested in. It only took her a few minutes talking about the class when she expressed her desire to take it.

  Hearing Tasha be so adamant about her upgrade made Marcy reconsider. She was shying away from her third option because she hadn’t heard of it before, though after reviewing it with the others - and sobering up some - she was starting to see the benefits. She originally planned for Mystic Hunter, as it gave her more magical ranged abilities, but her new class was even more enticing. It was called Arcane Archer of the Hunt, and it still offered powerful effects. Once she started talking about it out loud she recognized its potential and was easily convinced to pick it.

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  The class gave everything she wanted, and even some things she needed. Some of her equipment would even be redundant, allowing her to pick other items and beneficial effects. But the class allowed her to become more magical, something similar to Wyn with being able to use spells while still giving skills akin to combat. She was obviously more ranged, and could cast ranged spells through her bow while also making every arrow magical with certain effects. Her primary ability was called the Hunter’s Gaze, which replaced her Extrasensory as being more attuned to her surroundings and giving her an additional ability to mark a target. The marked target had a similar effect to Wyn’s Feeble spell, and she had increased damage against it. In addition, she was given overall magic power and mana boosts, making the class downright incredible.

  Cedric’s class made everyone truly question what was happening. It was called Storm Sage, and gave him access to wind and water elemental spells, something that just wasn't present with higher tier classes. Normally an elemental Wizard would upgrade to their elemental Sage, not obtain more elements. He was also granted an ability that let him change or combine his spell’s elements at the cost of mana, as well as the usual increases of magic efficiency and power. It was even more absurd than Marcy's class as he would have the ability to select spells from three elemental classes.

  Reading his class made the others wonder if there was outside influence to their upgrade options, and Wyn didn’t blame them. Storm Sage was too tailored to his current style as a Climber. Like Marcy, it made some of his equipment less useful, meaning he could find others to be even more powerful.

  As their discussion continued, they felt like they needed to tell the others in the guild about their new classes. They would find out eventually, and maybe they had some insight as to what was happening. Plus, Wyn decided that he didn’t want to keep anymore secrets from the guild. Being open and honest was far better.

  After reviewing everyone’s class choices, Wyn was a bit disappointed about his expected class upgrade and not another unique one like everyone else. Was that a function of his class upgrades already being unique? Or was it something else? There were so many questions and he had no idea who to ask or how to find them out for himself.

  Still, he was determined to be the best leader for the group as possible. Now that they only had five members again, it was likely for the best that they would be staying in the second tier for the months to come. They needed to get a handle on their classes and find some other items to be more efficient, too.

  It would be a good time to refocus and be better. The only problem was finalizing his debt to the Assembly now that Mathias was dead. But he had an idea with that that he already discussed with Lucy. He offered his plan to rid himself of debt before, and he’d do it again to someone else in the organization. If they wouldn’t take it, well, he’d patiently pay out the remaining amount and sell off the farm anyway.

  It was time to move on. And he planned to do just that.

  Rounding out the classes, he reviewed his parchment one last time during their discussion.

  Congratulations, Ardwyn Thatcher, on your success. You have completed the second tier and continue to traverse Alistair’s challenges. As a reward, your abilities will upgrade. You have one class upgrade option.

  Skill upgrades:

  Lucidity: Allows passive recovery of mana. Your mark will show the current status of mana and is a guide to your expected amount of recovery time from empty to full. When your mark fully glows you are empty and currently recovering. When your mark is dull and grey you are full. Current time to fully recover: 1 hour (thirty minutes). While recovering mana, spells and skills have a moderately reduced mana cost and your endurance and strength are slightly increased.

  *Chaincast becomes Ability Link.

  Ability Link: When alternating spells or skills in quick succession, this skill activates. You may choose to either double the effect with a second activation or double the effect’s power.

  *Speed Up becomes Sprint.

  Sprint: Increases your speed by a moderate amount for a moderate amount of time. Slightly improves mental processing speed. Speak the skill or mentally will it to activate. Ending the skill early allows you to teleport up to fifteen feet away. Costs a smaller amount of mana.

  Spellcasting (Ruby): Allows the use of spells. Ruby spells are selected from other classes at the cost of a lowered amount of spells, slightly higher mana consumption, and decreased overall mana capacity. You may select spells from the Sapphire, Garnet, Topaz, Amethyst, Emerald, Diamond, and Aquamarine Magician list only. Your mana pool has increased a moderate amount and you have gained a small amount of magical power.

  *Wellspring becomes Siphon.

  Siphon: Lay down a large glyph that covers a twenty foot area. This glyph converts health of enemy creatures into health and mana recovery for you within the glyph’s area while not affecting allies of the caster. You do not have to be inside it to obtain the converted health and mana from the inhabitants of the glyph. The glyph lasts 15 minutes. Costs a less than moderate amount of mana to use.

  Improved Silence Attack: Apply a lingering aura on your weapon. When a creature is hit with the aura-coated weapon, part of the aura is transferred to them, silencing them and not allowing them to cast spells for a small amount of time. Lasts five minutes or when used up to three times.

  Improved Tower’s Blessing: A gift from the Avatar of Alistair. Provides four additional spell slots that may be used from any Magician class. Two spell slots may be a second tier spell and one spell slot may be a third tier spell.

  Class option: Ruby Tactician

  Flexibility is the Ruby Magician’s greatest asset. Some see it as a weakness, but its potential to be useful in all situations is unparalleled. The Ruby Tactician takes this belief and advances it further than the Strategist, addressing problems at hand swiftly as prudence is their power.

  Gain the unique Ability Link skill that replaces Chaincast. Description located in skills.

  Gain 2 additional spell slots.

  Gain 1 skill from a list of 2.

  *Ruby variation: healing spells also recover mana. Defensive spells now defend against both magical and physical attacks if their original description called for only one. All spells now have a secondary effect listed in their description, with offensive spells having a detrimental effect and defensive spells having a positive effect.

  List of available skill choices:

  Guard Up

  Weapon Bond

  Wyn was happy to see Weapon Bond was still a skill option, and decided to choose it. He didn’t regret his choice of picking Silence Attack before, but knew that the other skill was a close second as it provided additional utility. He hoped obtaining it at third tier would provide a nice upgrade, too, but he needed to ask Daniel or research it in some books first. Still, John had enough defensive ability and now could share it that made Guard Up seem more redundant, so it was an easy choice between the two.

  Noting the improvement to his mana recovery was a huge boon, too. With his currently equipped items, he had a total time of thirty minutes of full mana recovery. If he obtained more items - especially set items - that improved it more, he could reduce that to such a short time he might not even need mana potions anymore.

  While the group wound down their shock over their class options they started settling into a familiar rhythm of friendly planning and ideas about how to progress. Cedric continued to provide possible item changes for everyone, saying how his previous recommendations would need to be altered from the unexpected classes, but still had the same overall idea. Everyone’s roles were practically the same. The only real change was how they performed those roles and the benefits they had from their classes and equipment combined.

  Wyn originally had the idea he would be a dual fast damaging and support role, as he was the only other person besides Tasha who could heal or protect. Marcy and Cedric easily had the damaging roles covered, and John was always their defender. Lucy filled the sixth spot nicely with being another tough front line defender beside John, but now that she was gone the role fell solely back to John.

  Seeing his class effects, though, Wyn reconsidered his plan. Why did he need to only stick with damaging and support? Could he support the others by killing enemies faster? Maybe he needed to add being a sort of debuffer to his roles, too, if his spells all had secondary effects. Damaging spells likely had helpful ones to keep enemies at bay, and preventing damage was just as effective as healing it, even if the prevention was from focusing on enemies instead of allies.

  Tasha gained some damaging elements to her new class, which broadened her climbing scope. Couldn’t Wyn do the same? John also had some more options, gaining more offensive and even some healing with the Sword Saint class. One of his skills allowed him to heal and share that healing similar to a Paladin, giving him even more support. Couldn’t Wyn also look to pick up a couple of damaging spells with helpful secondary effects to round out the group? If versatility was his boon, then he wanted to embrace it.

  He settled on the fact that he needed to practice with the others and critique his spells and gear as needed. That was something he likely needed to do since the beginning, but they had been thrown into one situation after another and he never quite felt like he had room to slow down. Now, with Mathias gone and Lucy promising to help him, he oddly felt more at ease than ever.

  Arabelle deserved to have some updates on the next steps. Wyn had already told her about the meeting but she needed to know the outcome. The very different, unexpected outcome.

  As the night wore on, the five continued to drink, the tone shifting from confusion, to surprise, to acceptance, then eagerness and ending with excitement. Their new options gave them all new opportunities to be better, to contribute more to the group, and to show everyone else how great of Climbers they truly were.

  Interesting times awaited them. But Wyn was ready. More ready than he had been in some time.

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