Syl

Chapter 66: Hybrids and Ranks

I woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day, but it still felt too early to head downstairs, so I decided to experiment a little. Now that I had so many [Sub-Cores], I realized I've never tried to remove one or have one in slime separated from my body. Stupid, in hindsight, but I had been distracted with everything going on lately. I maneuvered Epsilon towards my hand and plucked it out.

I examined it carefully, then put some of my slime mass inside a mug and dropped Epsilon inside of the slime. Nothing happened. I then placed my finger inside the slime.

'Interesting. Epsilon, I want you to continuously wiggle the slime mass inside of this mug.'

The slime mass started to wiggle and writhe in the mug. When I removed my finger, immediately, the slime mass stopped moving.

'Well, shit. I thought perhaps it would retain orders even when separated.'

I recovered the slime mass into my one arm, which I shifted into a zombie arm. I severed the arm and retained control over it with [Undead Resilience] but lost my link to Epsilon even though I could still control the arm. It was infuriatingly baffling.

'Maybe an evolution or trait will solve this in the future.' I thought before reattaching the arm and allowing Epsilon to rejoin again permanently.

The last thing I wanted to do was test how free I was with morphing. I created a pseudopod and then added bristles to it, stolen from the Venom Barbed Badger.

'I'd hate to be hit by that.' I chuckled.

I then morphed it into the Blade Wolf's tail, and when I swished it around. With the high level in both my traits, it felt near perfect. My thoughts immediately turned to trying to get a silver slime so that I could add metal to the tail blade, which likely would even improve it further than the original.

'Enough playing around. Let's head down.'

It was just Dewi, Whitney, and Kurt at breakfast. Evan had temple duties, and Roderick was assisting the guild master. The reason for Evan's devout inclination was it could be difficult and tedious to level up Healing magic, as you'd actually need to heal injuries or ailments and couldn't just cast at targets or monsters. His encounter with Bloodrot had ignited a fire under him to improve his magic. I mentally apologized, as it sounded like the infamy of Krutz would live long in this town.

After a spectacular breakfast, we headed to the Adventurers Guild. Tabitha was giddy as she congratulated and thanked me repeatedly for passing my Dungeon Trial. I was confused as to why I was getting thanked until Kurt pointed out that since Tabitha "recruited" me, my achievements would earn her a bonus.

'At least that explains why she's filled her head with so much class and skill knowledge despite using none of it herself.'

Tabitha led us to a small office for our discussion, as apparently, the information would be a bit sensitive and might "piss off" some of the regulars.

"With Syl's levels, class options, and now solo dungeon achievement, the guild wants to promote her to Silver Rank," Tabitha explained.

"I can see why you wanted to keep this private. That would certainly anger the locals. Some newcomer comes around and suddenly outranks people that have been struggling along." Dewi replied.

"Yeah, I still need to scrape off my rust," Kurt added, "If I hadn't seen Syl in action, I'd be grabbing a pitchfork myself."

"Sorry... Rust? Silver?" I asked, feeling very confused.

"Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond. Those are the ranks of adventurers." Tabitha explained.

"Scraping off the rust is a bit derogatory... But basically, anyone below Silver is not seen as a real adventurer yet." Whitney added, "You're very limited in what quests you can accept, and non-adventurers tend to look down upon you."

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I nodded.

"The only issue is that you've done no quests officially. We could give you credit on some of the extermination quests with your harvested goods. The bounty on the Forest King is certainly enough on its own; the issue is there's nothing post-joining. The guild wants you to do a quest as a test." Tabitha continued.

"I believe it will be decided soon with the Guild Master, and Roderick will be the evaluator since he wants to join the staff. So it will be for both of your benefits. But that's for you to discuss with them later. Let's talk about your Dungeon Trial and your new class."

I gave a summarized version of what happened, glossing over some of the slimy details. When I explained the dungeon boss I encountered, they all looked relieved, as sometimes the boss could be very dangerous if you were unlucky. I chuckled at the thought of Simon swapping bosses on a whim. I mentioned picking up Fire Affinity and showed off my [Kindle] spell. I also showed my reward for defeating the boss, to which Dewi complained that even the dungeon was against him.

"So your new class is a hybrid between Mage and Rogue, as you've assuredly discovered. The downside of a hybrid class is your revelations get narrowed down a little. As a Mage, you could have gotten practically any magic revelation. As a Shadowcaster, your revelations will be more limited in scope until a higher level. For example, let's say you could get [Lightning Magic] before level ten as a Sorcerer. As a Shadowcaster, you'd need to be at least thirty." Tabitha explained.

"However, since it's an intermediate job, you've unlocked intermediate skills. You'd never get [Lightning Magic] as a Mage no matter how high your level." Dewi added, "So later is better than never."

"Why is it later, though?" Kurt asked.

"Lightning doesn't fit the class theme of Shadowcaster. It's like asking why you don't use a greatsword as a Dualblade." Dewi answered.

"So what is its theme?" Whitney asked, "I'm curious how magic would help my class."

"Umbral, Corrosion, and Curse from intermediate and everything from basic." Tabitha answered, "That is how the class hierarchy works. If you got an advanced hybrid class, you'd also qualify for every intermediate magic you had the affinity for."

"Please tell me you got at least one. I have to assume you did, or you wouldn't have had the class offered." Dewi asked.

I felt comfortable sharing this, as I wanted to use my magic to hide my slime abilities if I was in public, "Yes. I got [Corrosion Magic]."

Dewi whistled loudly, impressed. "That's a good one. Acid and Poison spells. I think it has a few debuffs as well, basically anything that corrodes away. Fitting for a magical assassin."

The three begged me to show off the spell despite Tabitha's protests. Eventually, she relented, and I ended up casting [Acid Dart] on an old book of Dewi's. He was impressed as it melted away.

"Huh... That might explain your lack of Nature Affinity now that I think about it." Tabitha murmured.

"What do you mean?" I asked. Obviously, I knew the truth, but I'd gladly take any extra ammunition for my disguise.

"While Affinities are usually completely separate, there's a theory that it's impossible to be born with opposites. Corrosion is said to be one of the opposites of Nature."

We chatted a bit longer before Tabitha asked the others to leave, mentioning that the guild master and Roderick were due shortly to arrive to discuss my quest. When they left, Tabitha turned to me.

"Those three are some of the good ones, so no need to worry, but in the future, I'd be a bit more reserved with your personal information. Knowledge can be valuable, and some even trade it. You never know when you find a rare skill or trait, and then you could potentially sell it."

"Thanks for the warning."

"Are there any questions you have for me? I'm technically your handler, so I can offer advice or guidance since it's in my best interest."

After thinking a bit about how I'd broach the subject, I finally spoke, "I want to get a lightning and ice catalyst, preferably one from a slime core. Is that possible here?"

"Wow, Whitney wasn't kidding when she said you had expensive taste. Unfortunately, you won't find them in a small town like this. The only reason there was a fire catalyst here was the merchant specifically imported it to try to make a fortune from our two resident fire mages. Unfortunately for him, one is broke, and the other hates catalysts."

"I see... How rare are the two slimes? What if I wanted to collect the cores myself?"

"White slimes are pretty common, and the main issue is reaching their location, while yellow slimes are on the rare side, but you'll occasionally run into one in a dungeon."

"What about on floating islands?"

"Okay. Seriously, Syl, are you a spoilt rich princess or something?" Tabitha looked at me enviously before she sighed, "Floating islands aren't too hard to find since their locations are monitored since the monsters they spawn can sometimes make problems for us ground folk. And yes, you'd find yellow slimes on them quite easily. The biggest issue is trying to pay for the travel. You could probably buy five catalysts for the price of one trip."

"That much, huh..." I replied, trying to think of a solution, "Are there any other nearby dungeons?"

"Sadly not. And ours isn't ideal. I'm sure you've heard the joke before, but if not for the blue slime farm, our town would likely collapse. It's great that the dungeon is regulating the flow of essence so that we have a radius of safety from monster spawns, but if it had a more profitable theme, our little town could have become a city by now."

I must have looked disappointed while I was lost in my own thoughts as Tabitha tried to encourage me.

"Don't look so down, Syl. On the positive side, if you're looking for bigger and better things, you might really like your evaluation quest."

I was about to ask what she meant when there was a knock at the door, followed shortly by Roderick entering the room, followed by a muscular and slightly elderly-looking man I'd not seen before.