Chapter 74: Dual Class
Sentinel.
This class allowed the user to shape mana into a barrier of countless forms, its structure tied directly to the user’s own life force, reinforced across a scale ranging from twenty to a hundred layers.
The mechanics behind it were elegant in their simplicity, at least on paper. More layers meant more reinforcement. More reinforcement meant more of what the user survived.
At twenty layers, the wielder could absorb an attack from someone within the same power realm without so much as breaking a sweat, the impact dissolving harmlessly against the shield’s surface.
At a hundred, the class reached its true potential. A single attack from someone a full tier above the user could land directly against the barrier and leave nothing behind. Not a scratch. Not a tremor.
But the class offered more than defense alone.
Beyond simple absorption, once a user crossed the hundred-layer threshold, the class allowed them to redirect everything the barrier had taken in, releasing it outward in a single concentrated blast that folded every absorbed attack into one devastating counter.
"Hmmm, interesting."
Ethan rubbed his chin thoughtfully, working through the implications as he read. From what he could gather, this was the same dual class Ella currently used, the foundation behind the defenses he’d already watched hold against fire that should have burned through anything in its path.
He thought back to the pillar of light she’d summoned against the black flame skeletons, the way it had shrugged off retaliation without so much as flickering.
It explained her survivability well enough. What it didn’t explain, at least not yet, was her offense. He hadn’t seen that side of her fighting style in action.
"This one is very versatile."
Ghost lamented from nearby, holding up a second book, its cover marked with the emblem of the Black Guard class.
The lineage traced back to a family within the capital, its foundation built around forging a suit of armor directly from the user’s own spirit, combined with a handful of rare materials and closely guarded techniques. Once completed, the armor merged fully with its wielder, elevating their raw strength by several multiples.
Given enough time and mastery, the armor could even separate from its user entirely, acting independently under command like a secondary summon working in tandem with its owner, capable of holding a line while the wielder moved elsewhere.
Beyond that, the set carried a serious innate resistance to magic, allowing the wearer to shrug off spell-based attacks that would have devastated most other classes outright.
"So why this one?"
In the end, despite everything laid out in front of him, Ethan had already made his choice. Tyrant Blade.
Unlike the other two classes on the table, Tyrant Blade offered no defensive utility whatsoever. It existed purely as an instrument of offense, building a devastating momentum with every strike, each successive attack climbing higher in raw power than the one before it.
There was no cap mentioned anywhere in the description. No ceiling where the momentum simply stopped compounding.
As long as Ethan remained on the offensive while channeling the class, not only would the force behind each strike compound rapidly, but the accumulated pressure would begin to overwhelm his opponent psychologically, striking at something deeper than mere physical fear.
By every account, this was the most difficult of the three classes to train. Its lightning-based foundation required direct infusion into the user’s own body, a process that demanded incredible physical resistance just to survive the early stages, let alone master them.
Most who attempted it never made it past the initial infusion at all.
"Those two are built around layered defense, the kind most summoner-adjacent skills tend to favor. But that one..."
Ethan trailed off, a faint smile crossing his face as a shiver ran down his spine, part anticipation, part something closer to excitement.
This ability, from what little he understood of it already, sat even above Hela’s Black Reaper in terms of raw destructive potential.
"I see."
Ghost nodded once, turning and walking off toward the far end of the library, presumably to gather whatever ingredients the class addition would require.
Choosing a class was one thing. Embodying it, making it truly his own, was an entirely different challenge. There was a very real possibility Ethan could fail to learn the skill at all, no matter how much determination he brought to the process, no matter how badly he wanted the strength it promised.
But then again.
That kid had never been particularly normal to begin with.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,
A few minutes later, Ghost returned to the library carrying a bag stuffed full of ingredients, various components clinking softly against each other with every step, some of them glowing faintly through the fabric of the bag itself.
"We have everything we need. Follow me to the dungeon."
He said it with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, something colder sitting just beneath the surface of his expression, the kind of look that promised more than the words let on.
Had Ethan done his due diligence and actually read through what training this particular skill entailed in full detail, there likely wouldn’t have been any smile left on his own face at all.
"Hela, you should go get Banshee. We’ll need her staff of lightning."
At the front of the group, Ghost turned to Hela and gave the instruction plainly, watching her depart swiftly to retrieve it, leaving only the two of them to continue down the winding path toward the dungeon entrance.
"Someone chose the tyrant blade class again?"
"I can’t believe it, wasn’t that lady Helas original pick? The one she had to abandon eventually?"
"Yeah imagine something capable of dissuading her"
Soon seeing banshee walk down the hallway towards the dungeons, a myriad of summoners began to comment drawing conclusions from word of mouth.
It was a bit of a tradition here to watch exceptional talents try their hand at dual classes. Since not everyone could achieve it, watching others fail was very thrilling.
"I heard it was Ethen who requested it"
"The Algar boy? That’s worth watching" several summoners and operatives of white tower began to crowd slowly clawing their way towards the dungeons.
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