B3 Chapter 329: Next Steps, pt. 3

Sitting on a plush bear hide, Kaius readied himself to dive into his final skill. This was it — his last major milestone before he evolved his class for the first time.

He quelled his nerves. Whatever happened, happened — no matter what he was offered, it would be good enough. Everything else had been.

Still, he had some questions. While his education had been comprehensive in many aspects, there were some aspects that were lacking. With a full legacy and a mountain of runecraft to teach him, Father hadn’t had the time to cover everything. Many aspects of class development fell under that camp.

In another life, one where Father hadn’t been stolen from him, it would have happened after his class selection. Now, he had to rely on his team.

He already knew about the role of final skills — how they were usually emblematic of the class in some way, and potent at that. Still, he wanted to be sure there was nothing else.

“Before we jump in, is there anything else I should expect beyond the skill being a capstone? Any other differences from my previous selections?”

Porkchop grunted beside him, bobbing his head, “Just remember that the skill might not be more directly powerful. It’s just pivotal — usually something that can become a lynchpin. Other than that, the only major one that I know of is that you might not get as many choices as normal. Might get more, as well.”

A variable number of options? That was weird. He cocked his head, giving Porkchop a questioning look.

Ianmus answered for him, “It depends on the class. It’s more of a statement on how focused it is, rather than quality or capability. I’d expect you to get less. Classes tied to certain institutions, or more specific roles tend to be that way. I’ll probably get more — my class is flexible in the ways it can develop, like most apprentice classes.”

That was interesting — he hoped Vos would be one of them, if it was a skill. At the very least, it made him feel like the chances were better if it was — if it was important enough to appear in the description of another skill, it fit the bill.

His anticipation built — made him feel like jumping to his feet and pacing. Enough delays, it was time to do this.

“Shall we, then?”

His team nodded. Before he could second guess himself, Kaius pulled up his options.

There was only one.

Latent Glyph of Muthryn, Throat of VOS:

Class Skill – Tier I

Affinity: Arcane, Order, Reality

Type: Glyph-binding, Runic

Selection Available!

Heroic

The ‘Glyph of the Godtongue’, only through Muthryn can Truth be spoken into being. Powerful in its simplicity, and wrought to carry only a single hymn, it is designed for one purpose alone — survival of the demands of VOS. This goes beyond the moment: to speak Truth is to be shaped by it, and that metamorphosis requires guidance — lest the weight of VOS become crushing. It is inscribed on the tongue, lest it be torn free in the violence of Truth.

This skill allows you to inscribe a single, extendable hymn, ‘Redoubt of the Speaker’. When cast, this spell-hymn will burn like a wick to provide some measure of resilience to the backlash of speaking VOS.

Additionally, Redoubt of the Speaker can be used to gradually soothe the tears and ripples that VOS leaves in its wake, infinitesimally tempering the soul to better withstand higher order concepts. Muthryn aids this transition — stabilising the self when suffering from backlash.

Creates a hymnbook on the user’s status if one is not already present.

This skill provides an initial understanding of VOS, a syllable of the System’s own script and tongue.

Each level slightly increases the effectiveness of Redoubt of the Speaker, including repair and strengthening from VOS-induced soul disruption.

Each level infinitesimally increases your ability to withstand the damaging effects of VOS-induced soul disruption.

Spell-hymns Known:

Tier I –

Redoubt of the Speaker – Variable Mana

Kaius froze, staring at the name of the Skill. There it was — Vos. Or VOS, he supposed — there was a strange reverberating weight to the word that he could feel through the notification. Somehow.

That alone was enough to stoke his excitement. It morphed into a stomach churn of trepidation, anticipation, and confusion as he kept reading. The godtongue? What the hell did it mean by that?

And an entire glyph dedicated to a single hymn, itself purely to withstand the backlash of something his Skill didn’t even explain? Even the meagre description it did give him raised the hairs on his neck. From what little he knew, anything that improved the soul in some way — even if it was limited to a single facet — was immensely valuable. For something as mysterious as ‘higher order concepts’? It could only be immensely beneficial, even if the danger of it worried him.

He’d noticed something else — something in the description that spoke to runecraft in a way he hadn’t expected.

The System’s tongue? It clearly didn’t mean common — but…

Surely not.

There was only one other thing that Kaius could think of that could be described as the system’s ‘tongue’, its ‘script’. System runes. The same inscrutable ones that covered Depths portals and the artifacts located there. The same ones that morphed and shifted as they pleased, changing with every new look and unintelligible no matter how long they were studied.

How could the Skill teach him one of those? How would he even use a single rune, or, more importantly, how the hell was he supposed to speak a rune in the first place?!

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Kaius frowned — this skill was weird. At the very least, it had to be potent — anything that carried such a clearly signposted warning as this, for a Heroic skill, had to be strong. Right?