Runeblade

Enraptured by the sight of a potential future, Kaius focused intensely on the words that appeared before him as he focused on the carving embedded into the trunk of the last ash.

Runeblade Initiate:

Class - Tier I

Heroic

Relevant Feats:

Has slain at least 4000 foes of at least level 15 while unclassed. Has slain at least three Champions in single combat while unclassed. Has slain at least nine Champions while cooperating with a greater beast while unclassed. Has slain at least 300 foes with glyph-binding while Unclassed. Has slain a Guardian while unclassed. Has pioneered glyph-binding. Has a complete set of Legacy skills. Has capped all base stats at 20. Has broken the unclassed cap on at least one base stat. Has obtained at least 4 Honours. Has obtained at least 1 Major Honour as an Unclassed. Has a weapon mastery skill of at least Unique Rarity. Has an evasion skill of at least Unique rarity. Has a rune mastery skill of at least Unusual rarity. Has formed a bond of equals with a greater beast of at least Heroic rarity. Has at least one other Heroic skill. Has bound a sword type Growth weapon. Has actively pursued both martial and runic supremacy. Has experienced Aura.

The Runeblades are the militant branch of the Vesryn Order. One and all, they are knights errant, on an eternal quest to strive towards martial and arcane perfection. It is a harsh existence, unforgiving; to become an Initiate is to sacrifice all to the life of the glyph and blade. Astride their life-bonded companions and with their soul-bound blades in hand, they seek the gaze of death, for it is only by staring back unflinching that a Runeblade's true might can be forged.

Even an initiate of the Vesryn Order's Runeblades is a lethal opponent. Their bound blades and companions give them an edge, but it is their utter focus on martial and arcane perfection that makes them indomitable for their tier. Multiple glyphs adorn their bodies, each tuned to maximise a specific aspect of combat-casting. Sword-arts and other esoteric abilities leave little weaknesses to exploit, and their broad span of combat hymns allow them to prepare for any eventuality. When they arrive ready for war, their rune-drenched skin is seen as a promise of violence that brings succour to their allies and terror to their enemies.

All Arcane and Martial affinity skills are improved by 30%

All Spellsword, Evasive, and Glyph-Binding type skills are improved by 60%

Stats:

+3 Intelligence, +2 Endurance, +2 Strength, + 2 Dexterity, +1 Vitality, +1 Willpower per level

Skill Resonance:

Warforged - Strong

Adamant Body - Strong

Runic Lexicon - Strong

Mana Manipulation - Strong

Uncanny Dodge - Moderate

Brotherhood of Ichor and Animus - Weak

Kaius drank in the status of his future class.

This was it, he could feel it in his bones. It was perfect.

Years of blood, sweat, and tears. A lifetime of sacrifice, on his part and Father's. A year in the depths, throwing himself at battle after battle, fighting off the looming ghost of his own demise with fraught fury. The broken bones and ruptured organs. The loss. Everything. This made it all worth it.

He knew now that when he reunited with Father - in this life or gods forbid, the next - he could meet him with shining eyes and pride in his heart. That he could tell him, honestly and truly, that he had achieved everything they had set out for, and so much more.

The class was everything. The pursuit of perfection, the focus on spell and sword, enshrining his values and his bonds. He could not have dreamt of a better class for him.

Kaius grinned, wide and true. "Bear witness Father, a new dawn rises on Unterstern today," he thought, sending his words into the aether.

"This is the one," he said as he turned to his class guide, the words reverberating through the mystic air that clouded the shaded reaches of the final ash tree.

"Like I said, I thought you might like it." Kaius the Elder replied, giving him an easy grin. "Are you sure you do not want to discuss it? Your choice will be final, and more than any other, the first class you choose will impact the direction of your life forever more."

Kaius's green and gold eyes sharped, and he straightened his spine. "There is no need. It has everything I wanted. A focus on the blade and the glyph, and it enshrines my bond," he paused as he realised that he did have one thing on his mind. "I did have one question though. Why is the resonance with Brotherhood of Ichor and Animus weak? With everything the class stated, I would have thought that it would have been strong."

His class guide nodded, clearly pleased that even if his mind was made up, he was not rushing through things.

"That is an easy question to answer. It does align with the class, almost perfectly. There is very little room for it to be brought closer into alignment. That, and as a Heroic skill, it is almost impossible for it to improve in rarity while you are in the first and second tiers." Kaius the Elder explained.

He nodded, accepting the answer. "What now then? I have made my selection, what should I expect."

"I'm glad you asked. You will go through the class up process, which from what I am aware is rather…riveting. Once the system has melded the framework with your soul, any of your general skills which successfully resonate will evolve. After that? It will be time for me to help you select your first Class skill, and it will be time for you to return to the world of the living." The construct shot him an easy grin. "Then I'll just be waiting until the next time you class up for us to meet again."

Kaius frowned, pondering his aged clone's words. "What do you mean waiting? Where do you go during all that time? Are you just stuck here in this forest?"
Experience new tales on empire

His class guide chuckled. "No. I don't exist, not like that at least. It is more like I am a tiny little extrusion of the system's attention, giving weight, context, and familiarity. You do not have to worry about me getting bored, though it is nice of you to consider it."

His eyes widened. He'd assumed his class guide would be some lesser spirit, or some other intelligence employed by the system, not a divine fragment of its own power. That was.. Unnerving.

Kaius the Elder's eyes twinkled. "And that is why that information is not often volunteered, too unsettling for most folks. Not you though; you just take everything in stride. Don't you, Kaius?"

Kaius gulped.

"Before you ask, no, I cannot tell you about the integration or anything else that isn't directly relevant to picking your class." The system said, preempting his next question. "Now, are you ready to pick?"

Taking a slow breath to steady his nerves - two brushes with the divine in a single day was a bit much, even for him - Kaius nodded resolutely.

The deific entity wrapped in a suit made of his own reflection returned a deeply satisfied smile. "Good."

A notification flickered into view, pulling at Kaius's attention with undeniable and inexorable might.

**Ding! Runeblade Initiate Class Available, would you like to proceed? This choice is pivotal and irrevocable.**

Victory and anticipation thrummed through him.

He accepted.

…

Kaius fell into his soul space. The environs were familiar; his soul burned with golden light, surrounded by his gaseous resource pools and the orbiting platinum dexagrammic formation of his legacy skills. The pillars of his aspects hung above his soul, resplendent and waiting for something, though he knew not what.

Something was different though. The thin barrier that separated his soul space from Porkchop's had been thickened, bolstered by the system until it was opaque. He could still sense his brother, but it was if they were separated by an unfathomable distance.

Considering how little he knew of how class selection worked, he might well be. His spirit could have been drawn from his body for all he could tell.

He paused, looking around in confusion. Then, the undeniable might of the system descended on him. The same strange power that it had used to forge his aspects was injected into his core once more.

Kaius braced, waiting for the pain. It never came. Rather than using its power to alter him like it had before, the system started to weave.

The power it wielded was still just as foreign and obscure to him as it was before. He only knew it was potent, far more potent than even Mana.

Gossamer thin threads, shimmering with pearlescence, started to flow through his soul. They dove inwards, whirling in a torrent that completely obscured his soul from his sight. Threads snapped into place, turning from agile and flexible to rigid under the systems ministrations.

There was a method to this madness. Kaius recognised the fundamentals of sacred geometry, in angles and lines that tapped into the very base of reality. Altering truth to their whims. He gasped.

It was a formation. One of mind breaking complexity.

He tried to follow the system's work, a slow and steady thud pulsing through his head as he desperately tracked a million million threads. It was too much.

Individually, each one was almost invisible. The ratios and design of the working too in-depth, too detailed.

His mind quaked; he was forced to slacken his focus. It was awe inspiring, a work of impossible detail.

A cage slowly began to come together, sigilistic emblems locked in place in a lattice of binding wires. He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that even with a million years he would never be able to come up with a work as grand. As detailed.

Each sigil, beautiful in their complexity and each totally unique, served as the vertex to a hexagrammic shell. Wires of unknown power shot to the centre of each hole in the net, coalescing and amplifying. Forming thousands of roaring conflagrations, each one condensing a titan's worth of power.

Trepidation welled within him. Seeing so much raw mystic energy compressed right next to his soul gnawed at him, even with his faith in the might and control of the system.

He bit his lip.

His skills started to sing. A hymn of longing and want.

Not all of them, only some resonated with the charged potential that echoed from the system-wrought formation in waves.

Warforged, Adamant Body, Runic Lexicon, Mana Manipulation, Uncanny dodge, and Brotherhood of Ichor and Animus.

The roaring maelstroms contained by hexagonal arrays continued to swell, and the song of his skills heightened as the waves of power amplified further.

One stuttered, their pure note wavering for a moment before it slowly dimmed and fell silent. Brotherhood of Ichor and Animus. Kaius could tell what happened, even if he had no power over the system's actions, he was still in the boundary of his own soul, and he felt all of the workings impacts clearly.

As he had been warned, the skill was too aligned, too perfect. Even with the might of his class, his bond skill had little room to grow. At least within the confines of his tier. He could only hope that the others would persevere.

Then, a few moments later, one skill fell off key. Its resonance faltered as its tuneless note was overwhelmed in a rush of mystic might. Uncanny Dodge had been unable to come in line with what his class required.

Kaius winced. It was a powerful skill, and an evolution would have brought it to Heroic. Yet now, all that was left were skills that chimed with undeniable purity, aligned tightly with the growing eminations from his nascent class.

Pure intent and mystic might built further, just barely kept within the bounds of the system's arrays. He watched the formation with baited breath. Whatever happened, it would happen soon.

His skills rose to a crescendo, singing out in joy for their coming change.

A thousand thousand incandescent wells of energy imploded, condensing down to monodimensional points in the centre of each six pointed star. Lances of pearlescent light shot free from the base of each nexus. The arrays that made up the web of his class lensed the beams, focusing and amplifying them before they plunged deep into his soul.

His pyre of self roared in primal satisfaction, igniting to new potent heights.

A shockwave of charged power roared out. Focused by his class construct, the wave was amplified.

Kaius gaped at the shimmering wall that tore away from the working that caged his soul. It washed over his soul-space and his four resonating legacy skills screamed with satisfaction, before they shattered.

The system bore down on their ashes, infusing them with the remnant power of his class formation before it forged them anew.

**Ding! Class Forged! Runeblade Initiate obtained!**

**Ding! General Skill Evolved! Warforged (Unique) has become Liturgical Bladeform - Primus Ordo (Heroic)!**

**Ding! General Skill Evolved! Adamant Body (Unique) has become Tempered by Dissonance (Heroic)!**

**Ding! General Skill Evolved! Runic Lexicon (Unusual) has become Tonal Weaving (Unique)!**

**Ding! General Skill Evolved! Mana Manipulation (Unusual) has become Resonance Amplification (Unique)!**