Devourer Class

Galahad opened his eyes to find the side of his face was pressed against the return crystal platform, and the rest of his body sprawled out on it. The spell on his Karmic plate got him out of the collapsing tunnel just in time, leaving a bit of dirt all around him as well.

Once he confirmed his body was in one piece; He felt something on the grip of the palm and let out a huge sigh.

The huge arrowhead shaped sword was still in his hand, so he quickly started shrinking it to a shortsword while getting up. It would hopefully stop people from realizing he had a giant, blue blade that matched the weapon of the Dark Breaker gossip.

When he looked over the crowd of people inside the gate, he found no one was giving him a second thought. Every few seconds the platform would go off because everyone who was fighting in the dungeon started returning before a tunnel collapsed on their heads.

Just as he stepped off the platform, a full team of magicians came running off the crystal with a few members trailing cinders in their clothes. Seemed the fire elemental monsters were popping up everywhere this time of year.

There were a few people in the giant pavilion giving Galahad an odd glance or two, but that was due to his lack of c.h.e.s.t plate and bloodtorn undershirt. No one really took notice of his arrival from the dungeon, not one of them thought that he might be a solo adventurer returning and he no longer had a distinct skull mask that people were told to look out for in order to meet the Dark Breaker.

Galahad quickly put the sword away before it stopped glowing red and turned back to its sky-blue color, he managed to keep his identity a secret and didn't lose anything of great importance.

Immediately after making sure his gear was properly situated, Galahad started heading out the doors of the pavilion and into the late night streets. Considering everything he had experienced in the last few hours, he was definitely willing to call it quits for the night.

The blood was still pumping pretty loudly in his ears, so Galahad tried his meditative breathing in hopes to slow his mind and body. After the adrenaline passed and his heartbeat started slowing down to below a hundred and forty beats per minute; Galahad started thinking about food and what the black orb said before going dormant again.

'Something about a dog killing its first rabbit. What the hell was it trying to say? And choose my next class wisely? Is he saying I shouldn't pick a summoner class? Why wouldn't I want to bring more advantages to my side? Eventually I gotta get level three hundred orbs and that's not gonna happen anytime soon, not unless I get some decent backup.'

Galahad went over the events in his mind while stopping by a small tavern to get a to-go box of food and beer. He was in and out within five minutes since the owner wanted to get him out of there pretty quickly; his cuts from mimic Keyna and mimic Heath were still dribbling blood down his torn apart shirt and onto the floor.

He left a small puddle of blood on the floor before leaving and a received a few stares when he was standing there waiting for is order. Something about seeing a semi-exposed, bleeding torso of a man staring blankly at the wall was an appetite killer.

'I'm gonna need some new gear before I go anywhere down there again.' Galahad thought as he inhaled the last of the roasted veggies in his paper box full of food. They were cut into convenient little straws before getting fried in a sweet oil; making them disappear even faster into his stomach.

'Selling half the weapons in my pack outta get me what I need. Maybe I could see about buying something as a secondary, using the shortsword and dagger felt more comfortable than this.' Galahad thought as he drummed his fingers on the sheath of the magic sword.

It was certainly a wonderful weapon, a rare piece to behold, but Galahad had no training with it and could only use it to the best of his ability. Heaving around a weapon that dense always lead to problems as well as solutions. Nearly half the time he fought, Galahad would drop the blade and use his own fists to fight.

'Maybe some gauntlets as well, less likely to lose my fingers again.'

He kept thinking about what options might be better than a magic sword, but he couldn't think of anything because pretty soon he was too tired and exhausted to think about his future fighting style.

The forty minute walk made for over an hour trudge in the night. He wanted to stop for a little while in a back alley to heal his wounds, but he had to deal with the pain since one more orb was going to level him level in a flash of sparks and light.

All he could do was eat and make the painful walk home; once he was inside, Galahad consumed four of the mimics and reached lvl. 29.

With a full stomach and wounds healed in the safety of his own property; Galahad made it back home and proceeded to pass out in the armchair inside his living room.

He fulfilled his self made promise to fall asleep in that chair, still wearing his bloody and mostly torn clothes.

*****

Galahad opened his eyes and found he hadn't woken up, but was dreaming. For the first time in a while, he saw the old sight of the hillside just outside of Teramore. It was the same place he had the reoccurring nightmare about his skill tree blowing up till he actually experienced it. The colors were black and white just like it was before, setting off Galahad's tired mind.

'Oh for the love of the gods! If I get dreams that lead to my arm exploding again, I'm just gonna have to start downing those energy drinks they started putting out on the market. No way in hell am I going to deal with this shit again.'

He took a look at his n.a.k.e.d body, finding that nothing was wrong with it but the lack of clothes, and no puddles of living tar were making giant magic arrays at his feet.

Since nothing was dangerous was imminent, he reluctantly took a look at the tree growing behind him.

The first thing Galahad noticed was that he couldn't find any mana filled spears in the trunk like before. All he felt was the Chi running through it the surface in little vein patterns.

'Well at least my dreams update, they got the Chi of the battle class right and - wait, . . . What happens if I activate Fury and Fy- or no, it's Raging Inferno now.'

Galahad willed his only battle class skill to activate and suddenly the whole world began to change. The black and white received a bit of red, giving the tree and the valley of grasslands the tinge of blood.

The tree grew wider and eventually a huge sphere emerged from the base. Galahad assumed it was his recently upgraded skill.

'Alright, so I'm not a magician and I can't manipulate the Chi in my body as well, but maybe this is something I can practice with.'

Galahad went to touch the tree when suddenly the red shading was deactivated. The whole scene turned black and white again.

He took a step back and tried to turn Raging Inferno back, but it didn't work. Everything was quiet.

'Seriously? What the f.u.c.k?!?' Galahad was getting irritated as he was getting flash backs to the tree blowing up on him repeatedly in the past.

He genuinely thought that he was going to have to start skipping out on sleeping from now on, but then something else happened. A rumbling began in his body and it was exponentially increasing.

Galahad looked down and saw he was sweating the black tar out of every pore from his body, a geyser of it was coming out of his c.h.e.s.t too. It rapidly collected into a pool at his feet, which were now locked into place as he could no longer escape.

In just a moment, the puddle of the bubbling liquid stretched out until formed a circle big enough to canvas the whole hill.

Eventually the leaking stopped and the geyser disappeared. All Galahad could hear was the slurping sounds of the bubbling liquid, until it made a flushing noise behind him.

He managed to turn his head just enough to see another tree forming from the sludge at a visible rate. It was facing the opposite position of the battle class tree with no visible energy flowing through it.

Galahad waiting until the darkness at his feet disappeared and was able to move once it was no longer beneath him. He was able to make his way over to the new tree and see what it meant.

'Is this a dream about unlocking a new class? Or is this one of those weird future predicting dream I read about?' Galahad asked himself when he was only two feet away from the tree.

Unbeknownst to Galahad, his research on unique classes and all the weird dreams he had had led him to reading the same book Thorne found the day he encountered the Orb's altar. The book; 'Cosmic Interference in Dreams' by Carden Natellar. It was only a guess as to whether or not Fate was an actual thing, so he didn't think too far into the theory.

Galahad focused and felt nothing coming from the tree and didn't know if he should try activating his skill on the new trunk to get a reaction out of it.

It wasn't like he was being attack by the forces of the tree, but more like a current of power was overcharging his entire being. The tree started growing veins of a familiar blue light he saw on his original tree, at least at first.

The blue tree became something something entirely different from before. Blue veins made it all the way to the ends of the branches and started blooming leaves and flowers.

Some leaves were green, then more popped up orange, then purple, and white. Eventually every color was blooming from the veins of what Galahad could only assume was mana. He saw each flower was a different color as well, it was turning into a rainbow of branches all around him.

Galahad was so engrossed with the miraculous color change of the trees, he nearly forgot about the presence of two yellow eyes staring down the back of his head.

*****

Galahad woke up and in the armchair of his living room with a stiffness in his shoulders. Sleeping in an upright position for more than a few hours was not the best decision he recently made.

As soon as he got up with a stretch and a yawn, he heard someone knocking on the door. He found it rather surprising to have visitors out in the middle of the ghost town, let alone so early in the morning.

The next part of the surprise was finding Terra standing there at the door with a wide grin and a paperbox of food in one arm. She clearly came with some exciting news as she carried a tall, glass bottle of something dark purple in the other.

"Why are you here so early?" Galahad asked, the orange light in the distance told him the sun was on the horizon. 'I never took her to be an early morning drinker.'

"Well hello to you too Mr. Grumpy, and whadda you mean early?" Terra asked in an almost motherly nagging tone. "The days almost over, did you stay up all night in the dungeon?"

Galahad looked up at the sun's position and the internal clock on the orb's system. It was long past noon and he definitely slept longer than he thought. The sun wasn't rising, it was about to start setting.

"Quit staring at the sun like my uncle's lazy cow and let me in, I brought dinner and some news." She said while already stepping inside.

It seemed Galahad had no choice in the matter, but he didn't seem so bothered. She said she had news and the added bonus something fresh and greasy in the paper box; he was always willing to eat.