Chapter Four Hundred and Seventy-Five - Take Us to the Next Level

A couple of things happened as soon as Booksie was done bonking the boss. First, I got a happy dinging from Mister Menu, who popped up in front of me with a message!

Ding! Congratulations, you have cooked Sue-Chef, level 9!
Due to combating as a team your reward is reduced!

That was some good news! But I couldn't drop everything to focus on that just yet. While no new imps were appearing, those already in the room swooped down at us even as the boss started to fade away.

It only took a bit of effort to clear them out, and that meant a couple more little dings from Mister Menu, though these were less important than the one I got the moment the last imp was cleared.

Bing Bong! Congratulations, your Cinnamon Bun Bun class has reached level 17!
Mana + 10
Magic + 10
You have gained: One Class Point

A level-up! It felt like I'd just gotten one not all that long ago. Then again, that was a few days back, wasn't it?

A few days between level-ups was a great pace, I figured. From what I understood, it was a whole heck of a lot faster than the average person. At this rate, assuming levels eighteen, nineteen and twenty didn't take too much longer to get, I'd be pushing myself way closer to the threshold of third tier, and with it, a third class!

Dungeon Cleared!
All adversaries with the Sue Chef Dungeon are defeated.
All Bosses Defeated.
Broccoli Bunch, Cinnamon Bun Bun, level 17, Wonderlander level 5 is awarded the Sue Chef class.
All class slots filled.
Replace current class with Sue Chef?
Replacing your current class will reset your level to 0.

I shook my head. "No thank you, Mister Menu," I said.

Class: Sue Chef set in abeyance until Class Slot becomes available.

"Huh, a drop." I glanced over to discover Caprica bending down to scoop something off the ground. She raised it before her, turning it this way and that. It was a pan! A big cast iron one, by the looks of it. Caprica hefted the pan a little with a hum. "Heavy," she said.

I smiled, feeling rather accomplished. We'd run a whole dungeon--albeit a small one--in just one morning. That was some pretty impressive work. And the level-up helped! I noticed Awen gesturing and smiling a little, so I figured she might have nabbed a level as well!

I didn't notice the same excitement from Amaryllis or Calamity, so they probably hadn't gained a level from this, but there would be more chances! Besides, I think that Amaryllis might have a few levels on me with her main class while her second was falling behind a smidge.

But the one that really interested me was Booksie. "Did you get the class?" I asked her.

Booksie grinned until it looked like her cheeks might hurt. "I did!" she said. "Sue Chef! This is very exciting. Should I apply it right away?"

"I don't see the harm," Amaryllis said. "But there's also no harm in waiting until we're back at the Beaver."

"Earlier will give her more time to level up her main class too," I argued. "Uh, what is your main class?"

"I was a Librarian," she said. "But I evolved it to Bookhoarder on reaching the levelcap," Booksie said.

I nodded. Right, someone who reached the tenth, twentieth and so on level would be capped at that one until they got a second class, but that didn't mean that they couldn't evolve their primary class. It would just be stuck at level ten regardless. "I don't know if you'll be getting much book-related experience between here and the Beaver," I admitted. "But we might bump into another imp or something on the way out."

"Better to take the new class here and now, then," Booksie agreed with a quick nod. I had the sneaking suspicion that the reason I just gave her was serving as more of an excuse than anything else.

"Sure," I said.

Booksie pinched her tongue between her lips, a look of deep concentration on her face for a moment, and then... not much happened. There might have been a slight shift in the mana around her, maybe, but it wasn't like she sprouted a new set of ears or anything.

"Congratulations!" Desiree said with a clap. "We must celebrate this achievement! In my village, when a young kit gains a new tail, we festoon it with ribbons and parade them around the town. It's a celebration!" She inspected Booksie closely. "Due to your unfortunate shortage of tails, we will have to tie the ribbons around your ears instead."

Booksie giggled a bit nervously.

"We'll have to celebrate, yeah!" I said. I was feeling lots of warm fuzzies at the moment, and I decided to let some out by grabbing the nearest friend for a hug.

That happened to be Calamity, who 'huh'd' as I grabbed him and gave him a proper squeezing. Then I bounced over to Awen and hugged her too! "You levelled, didn't you?" I asked.

"Awa, yes? My second class went up a level. I'm at five now," she said.

"Same as me!" I cheered. I wanted to give her extra hugs, but my arms were busy hugging her already, so Instead I leaned my head down and pat-patted her head with my ears. Awen giggled, lowering her crossbow to her side and giving me a one-armed hug in return.

"Oh, great, she's in one of those moods," Amaryllis said.

"A mood?" Booksie asked. "Ah... Buns have those."

"Where you just want to bounce around and squeeze all of your friends real good?" I asked.

Booksie blinked, then shrugged. "Sure, let's go with that."

She got a hug too, but then it was about time we head out, and Amaryllis was already doing some plotting. "If you want to grow that second class of yours, then your best bet will be to get a strong first skill, something you can use frequently," Amaryllis said. "Maybe, if you plan on doing more fighting, you could pick up a skill like Baking magic?"

"Baking magic, that's what the boss was using, right?" I asked. "It made me feel all warm inside, but not in a fuzzy-nice way."

"Baking magic is an offshoot of Fire magic, or perhaps Heat magic. It's not its own, actual classification of magic," Amaryllis said.

"It isn't?" I asked.

"There are major and minor magics," Amaryllis said. "Though those classifications are mostly arbitrary for the sake of easy categorization. The Sylph have their own system, whereas harpy and grenoil use a shared multi-elemental system that allows for more 'types' of magic."

"Does that... matter?" I asked. "Is Cleaning a kind of magic to the sylph?"

"We'd consider it a hybridization of holy and... I suppose water?" Caprica said. "We divide things by the primary elements, and sub-elements by how much of each primary element they use. It allows a caster to know which magics are closer to each, though it's not foolproof."

"It's more foolish," Amaryllis said. "But I won't drag you into an hour's long conversation about magical classification systems."

Hadn't she just dragged us into that very thing?

"Baking magic isn't an actual kind of magic the way Cleaning is. There's Cleaning-aspect mana. There's no such thing as Baking-aspect mana. It's merely Fire magic applied in a specific way."

Booksie nodded, she seemed to be following along well enough. "And this Baking magic would be a useful early skill?"

"For offensive uses? More or less. It's very slow to work, but it will undoubtedly kill just about anything as long as it can break through that thing's natural magic resistance. It's a very potent kind of spellwork, and surprisingly mana-efficient. But without any skills to help you cast, you need to keep constant focus on the spell, making it... unfavourable for most mages," Amaryllis explained.

"It works at range?" Booksie asked.

"It did on us," Amaryllis said.

"Well then! Can you show me? If I get practising now, I should pick it up as my new class's first skill! It might be exactly what I need."

Amaryllis nodded. "That's why I mentioned it. If you're planning on farming kills for experience with your boyfriend, then a long-range, low-damage spell with a constant effect might be exactly what you need to be marked as a participant in any kills."

Booksie smiled, then gestured to the back of the courtroom. There's a door there, behind the spot where the Sue-Chef had been when we entered the room. "Is that the exit?"

"It should be," I said as I started to skip over. "I wanna check on the core real quick before we pop out!"

I noticed Desiree giving me a weird look at that. She didn't know about roots yet, did she? We'd have to bring her up to speed on that, but it could wait. Just looking at the core wasn't a crime, was it?

I couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of me. Today was a good day! Now, if we could just get a nice party started, and make a few friends in the village, then it would be an even better one!

***