A Hidden Class

  Several days had past since Warren had first found Mire. Every day, he climbed up and down the cliffs, each time going up taller and taller cliffs. Currently, he was near the top of the last cliff, the tallest one. He was also dying. On his way to the top, he had come across a narrow ledge with a tunnel half hidden behind a rock. He decided he'd check it out on his way down, and had continued to the top and done so. But after Warren had entered, with Mire on his shoulder as usual, he had been attacked. They were a dozen little rock golems, barely coming up to his knee. What came to mind when he first saw them was primitive gnomes.

  "Grrrragggg!"

  Angry, psychotic, rock gnomes at that. They didn't have any weapons, but they did have their rocky bodies and they used it to their full advantage, punching, headbutting, kicking, and even biting at him. It didn't do all that much damage to his health, especially after all the training he had done, but the sheer number of blows made it difficult to fight. Warren was forced to block with his dagger, which was useless against their hard skin, and swung his club as much as he could.

  "Smash!"

  Warren swung his club again, crushing a gnome golem's head, turning it from hard rock into loose soil. Unfortunately, he couldn't do it often. Finally, after a stony fist clashed with his eye, he came across the solution. He grabbed that particular golem and heaved it as hard as he could at the rock walls. the collision killed it and forced back the gnomes for a moment.

  "Hah! Not so tough now!"

  Warren preceeded to grab a golem and chuck it as hard as he could. It didn't particularly matter where, if it hit the walls it'd die and if it hit another golem, they'd both both be injured and loose a limb or two. After several minutes of this, he used Essence Steal on the remaining few, healing up his health.

  "Whew, that was a work out! Sorry you couldn't help against them, Mire."

  When the last of them crumbled away, Mire had come out of hiding. Mire bobbed up and down, agreeing. Warren had left out some poison plant a day ago and Mire had eaten it. He nearly had a heart attack, thinking Mire would die on him, but instead he received a skill. The skill Poison Body absorbed poisonous things to boost its own toxicity, but poison was useless against the rocky bodies of the golems, forcing Mire to flee.

  "Status!"

  Warren now high Strength, Vitality, and Dexterity thanks to his training, but he keenly felt his lack of mana. If those golems had been tougher, he would've been forced to flee or he'd have been killed. He definetly needed more mana. He rose his Wisdom from 16 to 23 and his Perception went up by 3 to 10. He hadn't detected the golems before they attacked either. Higher Perception should help with that.

  Finishing, he examined the window one last time.

  "Looks good, let's go Mire."

  Swiping the window away, Warren set off down the tunnel, following the way. After several minutes, he stopped examining the ground. Mire hadn't been the only one to gain skills the last few days. He had received the skills Camping, from making camp at the base of the cliff so much, and Tracking, which allowed him to follow the path of the one he followed. It also lit up footsteps for him to see and told him how old they were.

  "These footsteps are larger than the golems... and they were made a long time ago."

  They were old enough that Tracking only picked them up from the disturbed dust and to tell they were made by a man, but too old for his skill level to tell how old. In addition, the footprints only went one way.

  "Let's follow them, Mire."

  Mire bobbed on his shoulder, agreeing. Further along, there was blood drips alongside the footsteps, and Warren could all but predict the result at the end of the trail. The footsteps finally entered a cave, with a large opening in the top, letting Warren see the blue sky beyond it. In the center of the clearing, next to a old campfire, he found what he expected. An old body lay face down, partially covered by some rotten blankets, with a bag positioned near it. Warren ignored the body to search the bag, finding several books in it.

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  "Whew, look at these! Wait, what's that?

  When Warren had been picking up the last book, a piece of paper fell out.

  -ding-

  "Yes!"

  Hidden classes often had special abilities and skills. The dead man had wrote that his class had guarded the land, so it had to be a rare and powerful one. If he got it and trained it right, he'd be able to use it to defend and attack if he ever got into fights. On top of that, this place seemed like an obscure location, so the chances of anyone else having the same class was rare. There was no way Warren would let an opportunity like this pass him up!

  -ding-

  "Wait, what?!"