The Classless Sorcerer's Self-Stealing System

Two steps to the left.

Shield.

Shift right, shield again.

Chain cast icicle, target outliers.

Breath in.

Breath out.

Breath in…

It wasn't exactly easy to do in the depths of the dungeon, given its hectic nature, but Blychert found himself spending more and more mental energy towards maintaining a strong mind-body connection; really allowing himself to keep more spatial awareness towards not just his place on the battlefield, but also his place within the party rotation itself. Bold Arrow was growing more and more familiar with itself by the day, largely thanks to Xander and Vineta's leadership abilities. Between their active voices and Rosayn's seemingly keen understanding of battlefield tactics, the six of them were coming along quite nicely as a group.

Sure, the kinks were definitely noticeable—slow rotations, clumsy footwork, scuffed support spells, communication breakdowns—but as the delving days and practice days began to add up, those mistakes became less impactful on the group, and if not then the rest of the party was at least much quicker in covering for them than they had been the first few days.

For Bly's part, he was equally as determined as the rest of his party members to make sure that he was always making the most optimal decision. It certainly didn't do him any favors that he didn't have nearly as much experience with party tactics, but the older members of the group were always willing to help him out. Xander helped keep his footwork in check, Rosayn assisted in helping the casters of the party maintain a group spellcasting tempo, and Vineta always had a pointer or two for Bly when it came to simple hacks and quick tricks for dungeon combat.

Some days, it was easy to forget that Bly had an entirely separate resource, one only known to Xander at this point, at his disposal. Bold Arrow made it easy to forget that a classless such as him could thrive in an environment meant for the classed alone. Sure, everything about his "class status" was an outright lie, but his magic was real, his feelings were real, and he tried his best to let that shine through more than anything else.

If Blychert couldn't be someone worth a damn, then Trelen Veil was going to summit a height inconceivable to even the illustrious Alyse Crane's wildest dreams.

Or, at least give a good crack at it, for crying out loud.

A deep, resonating thrum echoed throughout the vast, dimly lit corridor suddenly, followed by a spark of violet light.

Glancing to his left, Bly caught a glimpse of the purplish energy now beginning to swirl around a fixed point, roughly five feet in diameter. In the same instance, a sphere of pure black seemed to grow from within it, causing the light to bend and contort all around the blackened sphere. Not a moment later, the five blue-tonged goblins nearest to it began to yelp, as their bodies were forced inwards towards the gyrating void.

Bly winced, all but certain he didn't need to know what came next. Nevertheless, he watched as the five goblins were ripped apart in a matter of milliseconds, leaving no traces as the sphere evaporated and the light subsided.

"What the hell kind of skill did she get…?" Bly murmured under his breath, furrowing his brow at Lisel just there on the far edge of the party's 'wide' formation, whose bowstring continued to snap and to whizz as she picked off targets in quick succession.

For a magicless combatant, her void-based abilities were growing to be a little terrifying. And she wasn't even specialized as a Void Hunter yet! If there was any doubt that Lisel was in a martial class, there certainly wasn't any more.

Bly shook his head with a grin, otherwise turning his attention back towards the battlefield.

As it happened, Lisel hadn't been the only one to level up. Both Bjadir and Xander had each leveled up to eleven and twelve respectively. And while Bly couldn't exactly tell that there was a marked difference in their skills or abilities, it only seemed to boost the already high moral of the party, so much so that on their sixth time delving the Silver Vault as a party, Bold Arrow was finally closing in on the end of the second floor.

"Think that's just about the end of the second floor," Xander huffed, wiping the blood from his blade, before wiping the sweat from his face, "Vineta?"

Vineta nodded accordingly, "Map data suggest that the end of this corridor will lead straight to the wayshrine chamber on the second floor. Good work, everyone—"

A shimmering spark raced down the corridor suddenly, splitting the air in a searing crackle as it drew near.

"Swift shield—!" Bly muttered, stepping forward as he pumped both his fists full of mana. Releasing them at the same time, a layer of yellow magic unfolded and stood between the backline members of Bold Arrow and whatever was hurtling towards them.

The dual barrier spell shattered instantaneously, causing Bly to stumble down and backwards into Rosayn and Vineta, unable to stand his ground against the sheer force of the impact. Glancing across the ground, a smoking piece of metal debris lay at their feet, but up ahead, the heavy sounds of something large drawing near became readily apparent in the ensuing silence.

"Close it in. Bjadir, with me!" Xander quickly gestured towards the party for them to assume a 'narrow' formation, with Xander and Bjadir taking up the forwardmost positions.

"Trelen? Here—" Lisel held out her arm.

Still reeling from the hit, Bly winced and shirked himself up onto his feet with Lisel's help, and the two of them assumed their roles in the rotation.

Two red lights came into a view—a beady thing, circular in shape. It seemed to float ten feet in the air, growing larger and brighter as the massive, rhythm bangs continued. The corridor itself stood to nearly forty feet at least, which meant whatever was coming towards them must have been large.

But large didn't even begin to do it justice.

The creature resembled a statue, not quite a golem. It had beautiful, silvered details, and a very humanlike face, though its features didn't move. The source of the red light became apparent as the creature came into better view, its eye holes shining with that crimson color. Revealing two massive blades, the creature didn't give much time to stand and awe at it, before it began its assault.

[SAGE ---> Winter System Notification]

> New spawn type [Vault Guardian] detected.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

> Spawn Type: Construct

> Threat Level: Advanced

> Spawn Rating: B

> Spawn Zone: B

"That's unlucky…" Vineta murmured, before saying even louder, "Xander! We need to reposition on the other side of this thing. It'll drain us too fast! We need an escape route just in case we can't defeat it."

"Right—!" Xander nodded over his shoulder, already having parried one of the guardian's attacks, "Get a move on then. The big guy and I got this locked down for now."

"What's the matter?" Bly asked confusedly, as he joined the others in skirting the perimeter of where Xander and Bjadir were mounting their defensive effort.

"Vault guardians aren't particularly common on the upper floors." Vineta panted, "But a B rating is high for the second floor. Trelen, in terms of power, that thing is vastly stronger than the rock thrashers we fought together in your dungeon. A good challenge for us, to be sure, but better make a safe play than not."

"Hm." Bly nodded, understanding the scope of what they were dealing now. No doubt, all of them had learned from their mistakes in the Gleaming Caves about being too headstrong.

In flash, swords clashed, sparks flew, and the battle began between the Vault Guardian and Bold Arrow.

Within the first few minutes, Bly found himself immediately thrust onto the supportive side of things, buffing his frontliners and otherwise shielding his casters whenever the massive construct decided it had had its fill of swordplay, moving into alternate, projectile-based attacks like the one it had tried to take them out with initially.

For a massive statue wrought from silver, it was surprisingly agile. Almost gracefully it twirled and spun around the battle, keeping Bjadir and Xander on the backfoot with seemingly little to no effort on its part. Its blades were easily the same length as the half-giant's body, which made it increasingly difficult for the martial-based fighters to find any contact at close range. Even with a selection of support spells from Rosayn and Bly, the likes of hasten and accuracy magic, the guardian was able to keep its advantage.

"I'm running low on mana. My replenishment spell won't do much good for your stamina pools in a moment." Rosayn said after a time, a flash of healing magic leaving her hands as she rendered a heavy blow just delivered to Xander somewhat futile, "Trelen? Vineta."

"Same here." Vineta nodded.

Blychert winced, re-upping his hasten spell on both Xander and Bjadir, before offering a quick glance at Lisel's situation. She seemed to be holding her own just fine, and so he nodded at the cleric, "I'm alright."

In reality, his mana pool was getting somewhat low as well. Rosayn's continuous spells were a lot more expensive on the curve than his were. And at any moment, he could just as easily bring his transmogrifier into play. They seemed to be wearing down the guardian, but they had certainly exhausted themselves in doing so.

"Anything you guys got!" Xander shouted, his voice weary, "Now would be the time to pump it!"

"Trelen?" Lisel asked suddenly, prompting Bly to look at her. Sweat and grime caked her face, but she looked back at him with a steely expression, saying, "Can you hit it with one of your freezing chains? I should be able to slow it down with a void sphere, but it's moving too fast, I don't think the pull will be strong enough."

"Uh—" Bly grumbled but nodded just as quickly. That was certainly one way to level the playing field. Aiming as best he could, Bly steadied his arm. Even if he missed on the initial shot, the drawback would guarantee a hit, so long as it kept moving in the pattern that it was, "From the heart of winter's embrace, I summon with might, an icy bond, swift and merciless. Freezing chain!"

A clanking crackle of blue, elemental magic ripped across the chamber towards the vault guardian, passing between his two party members with ease. Just as Bly figured, the guardian waltzed around and dodged the initial shot. However, Bly simply yanked as hard as he could, drawing the chain back to him. Find purchase along the guardian's leg, Bly quickly thrust his arm outward in the other direction and tethered the chain in place.

The vault guardian was grappled!

"Lisel!" Bly shouted, but the twang had already resounded, and with it, another brilliant fixation of the ranger's new skill.

The vault guardian slowed, clambering to escape the pull of the void. It fell to one knee but quickly recovered as it lashed out with its blades.

"Hit with everything you've got!" Xander's voice shouted from amidst the chaos.

Spells, arrows, blades… the vault guardian's brilliant armor cracked and shattered, its face falling apart at the seams with each strike. In one final onslaught, it fell to the ground, before being consumed by the gyrating void.

[SAGE --> Raven System Notification]

[Experience gained: +400 xp]

[Experience total: 21,143 xp]

[Cumulative total: 28,187 xp]

A chorus of gasping breaths filled the air, as everyone stopped to collect themselves.

Dropping all of his own continuous spells, Bly worked to catch his own breath too. However, he couldn't help but to lean over and tapped Lisel on the shoulder twice, saying, "Nice one—that skill of yours—it's great."

Lisel sighed, wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead, "It's alright, I guess. I still have a lot to get used to with it. It can be a little finnicky on my bowstring."

"Sheesh, if that's alright?" Bly snickered, "You're going to be pretty nasty down the road. Hey, I'm serious, that was awesome!"

"Oh, uhm—" Lisel murmured, an embarrassed tone of voice if Bly didn't know any better. She turned away for a moment, but looked back with a warm and honest smile, "That's kind of you to say. Thank you."

"Hm." Bly replied with a nod, unable to ignore the fact that his face was hot and there was a small flutter in his stomach all of a sudden.

Cool it. Bly thought irritably to himself, doing his absolute best not to feed any of the fire Alyse Crane had apparently already started for him. It wasn't like… he had feelings for Lisel. Right? Definitely not. They were friends, and party members—no way! Leave it to Alyse to think of something so weird and perverted like that; the psychopath.

Lisel did have a cute smile though…

Gah! Bly felt like he should slap himself in the face a few times quickly, but thought better than to give in to his impulse.

"I'm… going to go find my arrows now." Lisel broke the somewhat awkward silence. Which was all well and good, because Bly's head hurt all of a sudden.

"Sure…" Bly grumbled. And left it at that.

"Trelen of the—apologies, just Trelen." Bjadir's deep and accented voice said abruptly. The half-giant approached as Bly watched Xander and Vineta bantering about something deeply unserious.

"Hm?" Bly furrowed his brow, looking up into Bjadir's icy gaze, and happy to change the subject, "What's up?"

Bjadir offered a serious look momentarily, "Your magic, I don't…"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Bly waved his hand, already upsetting his party members by the looks, "Does it make you uncomfortable? I… can stop. Target someone else, if you want. I just thought—"

"Ah, no…" Bjadir insisted slowly, setting his maul down as he seemed to fight himself over the words he wanted to use, "Rather, I find it quite helpful. I thought, during our off days, we might be able to train together? I would like to gain more experience moving at that speed. I could even show you some of the rune magic of my people, as a trade off? It's not much, but it could be a start."

"Oh? Oh…" Bly nodded, understanding now. Smiling, he added, "Yeah, I'd be happy to! You had me at rune magic. Absolutely, count me in."

"Excellent. Very good. Thank you, Trelen of the—" Bjadir winced, biting his tongue. Grumbling, he added, "No, just—Trelen. Just Trelen. Just Trelen…"

Chuckling to himself, Bly watched the giant move off, and waited for the party to bring itself back together, unable to ignore how different Bjadir and Bredic's mannerisms were. Bjadir was well-mannered but insanely strong. Bredic was skinny as a twig and had the manners of a gutter rat. Even still, Bredic would definitely have gotten a kick out of watching the party grind through the second floor, no doubt about it. No doubt he would have been complaining the whole time.

Bly frowned, suddenly missing the fire mage, and hoped that Bredic would get some free time soon to come and see him.

"Alright, let's head for the wayshrine chamber." Xander gestured for the party to move out, "Time to call it a day. Who's up for Travean food tonight? My treat… aw, come on, Rosayn, don't look so disgusted! Have you even tried it before?"

"I don't like seafood, swordsman." Rosayn said bluntly, "You know that."

"Just a little bit, they have this sauce—"

"No." Rosayn interjected.

"Yeah, yeah… fine." Xander replied. A moment later, however, he said, "How about Lorelic?"

Rosayn's pointed ears immediately twitched, "Well—I suppose that would suffice."

"That's the spirit!" Xander exclaimed, "Bjadir, race to me to the end of the chamber!"

"Xander, I don't think—"

But Xander was already gone before the half-giant could even finish his sentence, whooping down through the darkness.

Bly grinned.

Xander sure was a different a person these days; a brighter and livelier person. Or maybe, this was the real Xander, the one not weighed down by the pain of his past. The antic-filled, troublemaking sort that Vineta had mentioned the other day was on display, if Bly had any guess. But whatever the case, Bly was just happy to be a part of it at all. For the first time in a long time, he felt like he belonged somewhere. He like he was going somewhere.

It was a damned good feeling.