Class Shift 3- The Story Up to this point (Patreon)

The Story Up to This Point-

Book 1: Tim is brought from Earth following what he assumes was a car crash, but he has no clear memory of it. He learns that he was brought by the god of gambling, pranks and such who is known as one of the four patrons in the new world Iocusinte.

All those who are brought from another world are known as sojourners as are their descendants down to the 40th generation. Sojourners are magical beings who can’t be killed unless all of their HP are exhausted. Subsequent generations also have a lower level cap.

As a 1stgen sojourner, Tim is assigned a trait, supposedly at random by his patron, although he begins to suspect that very little of what Cal-Dakota does is done at random. His trait is: Ephemeral which manifests by repeatedly changing his body and class. Each time he must learn new skills and reassign his stat points although he always maintains his level. He is also randomly assigned level nineteen which he is told is the second highest possible level.

After some tinkering, Tim realizes that falling asleep or being knocked unconscious causes him to have a chance of transforming. He eventually learns that it is a cumulative 10% chance which resets once he transforms.

His initial form is that a very wrinkly, seventy-year-old blood mage but he doesn’t hold onto that form for long before he is knocked unconscious while going crazy with one of his new abilities. When he wakes up, he is inside the adventurer’s guild but in the body of a twenty-five-year-old warrior. At the guild he gains some knowledge about what it means to be a sojourner and is selected by the guild master as his apprentice, although for reasons which are not known at first.

Tim struggles with both coming to terms with his new abilities as well as loneliness as his newness, level, and strange trait cause it to be difficult for him to form friendships. Notably his first friends are a father and daughter who are traveling merchants, Atticus and Cecelia. They turn out to be Patronites which are a group which believes the patrons are a type of god and the 1st gen sojourners are their tools sent to work their will upon the world. Meanwhile, most of the world believes the patrons are only figments of the imagination of the 1st gens.

He also forms friendships with the Silver Eagles an adventuring group he runs a mission with. Their leader Reggie is a guardian while Armon is an elementalist and Lacina is an assassin and Reggie’s wife.

Tim later goes on other missions with Simon, the monk who is the gate guardian for the academy and right-hand man to Charles, the guild master. Kayla an assassin and Magnor who appears to be a dwarf but is what is known as an Ogrian also join them. Tim also gains a spell and is able to turn a mouse he finds into his familiar. That mouse who he named Mischief more than lives up to that descriptor.

Throughout the course of their quests, Tim also takes the form of a beastial and eventually a naturalist. He learns that more than one of the patrons is interested in him as well as finds that the enemies of all the civilized people, the myemars are being directed by some ancient being named Azmarin, who also wants to control Tim.

The book ends when they turn away an invading army of myemar, although Tim knows that they left on purpose. He saw their commander was an archfiend who was beyond Tim in power in every way.

Book 2 begins in the aftermath of the siege on the city. Tim who had formed a rocky romantic relationship with Kayla finds things are complicated by the crush which Cecelia has on him and Cal-Dakota’s command that he keep the eighteen-year-old girl near him.

During this book, Tim strikes out more on his own and determines to gain power from any source possible. This leads him to gain new traits. In book one he had gained Dungeon Shaper which allows him to modify his form based upon monsters he has fought in dungeons but which costs mana to maintain if he is outside of the dungeons.

He then accepts the Crucible of Consumption trait, which is something possessed by the fiends. It allows him to absorb the blood of his fallen foes and gain a variety of stats, XP, and abilities. This leads to him gaining a second source of power which is simply identified as Chaos. It is the power which fuels both dungeons and the fiends.

Throughout the course of the book he changes first to an elementalist, then a dervish, a spiritualist, and finally a berserker. He struggles to learn to control the transformation and makes some progress with the change to spiritualist and again to that of the berserker.

He also unlocks abilities to forcibly upgrade his spells and abilities as well as to pass them on to other sojourners. He begins to realize that his trait: ephemeral enables him to influence the change of more than just his own body and class. He is still struggling to learn the limits of just what he can influence.

He also learns that the patrons were once mortals and that Azmarin was a mortal who had been imprisoned by the other patrons inside the Abyss, which is the only S rank dungeon and is at the center of the untamed lands.

In the final battle he is betrayed by Magnor on the orders of his patron, Rugen. Magnor kills Kayla leaving nothing but her head and limbs. Tim is able to overcome his and gains enough XP to reach level twenty-three. Azmarin had already enabled him to break the Rule of Fours and grow beyond twentieth level. He learns that power ramps up greatly with each level after twenty.

The odd man out in what he learns is his own patron, Cal-Dakota. It turns out that this patron was not one of the original four but was instead some type of arbitrator between them. Through interludes between the gods, we learn that the other patrons Semona and Valarius are working together to prevent Azmarin from escaping but that Rugen the fourth patron has betrayed them seeking safety for his people.

By the end Tim has gained the trait Might of the Righteous from Semona as she wants to become his patron. This grants him +25% damage and 25% damage reduction when he is either avenging or protecting those who can’t protect themselves. He also uses his consumption ability to steal Magnor’s trait when he kills him for slaying Kayla. That trait, Iron Body doubles all of his Hardiness except that which is gained from consumption.

The book ends with Tim throwing himself into preparing for a journey into the untamed lands to deal with the threat presented by the Abyss and to confront Azmarin. He gained not only a powerful axe but also two powerful rings from Magnor after slaying him.

Between the books:

Ring of Monstrous Health        Wt: 0.1

HP: +150, Regen 15 HP/min

Ring of the Battle Magus Wt: 0.1

Mana: +150, Regen 5 mana/min

Now, Tim has Kayla’s body preserved inside his spatial bag known as a soul pouch. He hopes that someday he will be able to resurrect her but still must find a spiritualist who can teach him a spell for this. Even Alin, the 1st gen Asmarian spiritualist who fought with them was unable to do so citing something about Kayla’s soul being trapped.

This book begins with that journey and Tim’s path of revenge. Below, I have included the corrected stat sheets for where Tim and Mischief were at the end of book 2. These supersede the original sheet placed at the end of book 2 which I discovered had some errors.

Prepare yourself as this book may have some ups and downs as Tim changes and finds out exactly what kind of man he will be. Also, not everything may always be what it seems to be. As Cal-Dakota is wont to say- Change is life. Consistency is a lie. Control is an illusion.

Tim and Mischief at the end of book 2-

Name: Timothy Stein

Age: 26  Ht: 6’11” Wt: 279 lbs.

Class: Berserker- Course of Rage (Brute secondary)

Level: 23rd

XP: 328,876/332,000

Hardiness: 157 (+19 consumption)

Flexibility: 34 (+4 belt, +4 cloak, +4 consumption, +8 bracer)

Acuity: 28 (+4 mask, +4 hat, +8 consumption)

Sagacity: 27 (+4 mask, +5 consumption, +8 bracer)

Hit Points: 1469 (+250 and 25/min)

Mana: 513 (+260 and 40/min)

Offense: 24

Defense: 17

Chaos: 129/129

Faction: Terran: +90, Roshya/Asmar: +10, Ogria: -50, Humanity: +75
 Terran Border Guards: +75, Caesar Febrius: +50, Sojourner’s Guild: +45

Traits:

1) Ephemeral III

2) Dungeon Shaper I

3) Iron Body I (doubles Hardiness other than that gained by consumption)

4) Might of the Righteous I (increased damage done and decreases damage received while fighting to avenge the fallen or protect those who can’t protect themselves)

5) Crucible of Consumption III: +19 Hardiness, +4 Flexibility, +8 Acuity, +5 Sagacity, Shadow Step II, Chaos Bulwark II, 50% See in Dark

Titles:

1) Humanity’s Avenger II (+20% damage when avenging the death or mistreatment of humans)

2) Champion: Grinder

3) Green Thumb of Creation (+50% to skills related to plants)

Equipped Class Skills/Spells:

1) Tim’s Augur

2) Taunt of Frenzy

3) Electric Arc

4) Nature’s Lesser Heal

5) Blood’s Potent Rage

6) Valorous Battle Cry

7) Penetrating Cleave

8) Improved Power Strike

9) Chains of Celestial Light

Equipped Magical Gear:

Mask of the Blind Patron A: +4, S: +4, Perception +50%

Choker of Mana +10, +8/min

Runed Belt of Speed- F: +4, Atk Spd: +40%

Ring of Monstrous Health: +150 HP, +15/min

Ring of the Battle Magus: +150 Mana, +5/min

Bracers of Potency- S: +8, F: +8, +100 HP and Mana

Armor Plate Harness

Anklets of Speed - Move +20%

Gloves of Life Drain- 10% necrotic resistance, Life Drain 1/day

Jack Burton’s Hat of Electrical Whooping- A: +4, +50% electrical resistance, +50% power and 50% cool-down reduction for electrical and light-based spells

Cloak of Levitation- F: +4, 1 hour per day

Rugen’s Defender Axe

Name: Mischief

Age: 4 months  Lt: 4.2 inches Wt: 1.3 oz

Class: Treasure Hunter

Level: 13th

XP: 26,012/30,000 (to next level)

Hardiness: 48

Flexibility: 32

Acuity: 20

Sagacity: 20

Hit Points: 169

Mana: 68

Offense: 11

Defense: 15

Faction: Humans- 10

Equipped Class Skills/Spells:

1) Revealing Sight

2) Superior Climb and Cling

3) Master Unarmed Combat

4) Grand Touch of Weakness

5) Nature’s Lesser Heal

6)

Bejeweled Summoning Harness- +2 Def, +3 all stats, +100 HP