Primordial Chaos

"Whilst this may all sound ridiculous to you, it's actually not that strange. Before when I said that these were all his basic runes, it may have been a bit of an oversimplification, but it wasn't far from the truth." said Arovier.

"You see, all the things I just did use runes in their normal creation. Although the runes and energy harnessed by each profession varied greatly, it could not be denied that they were all based on the same principles of runes. So what was the link between all these?" asked Arovier.

"This was the question I set out to solve during my life."

So I followed this train of thought ceaselessly for hundreds of years going back before dawn of your race even going back into a time before the dawn of my own race.

It was a time during the infancy of the universe. A time of primal chaos and unpredictability.

During this time, there was no specialisation or classes. There were no skills or professions, just an overwhelming amount of chaos.

It was then that I realised it.

The energies and runes used in all these professions were all just derivatives of this primordial chaos.

It was the system that had filtered down this primordial energy into these much more stable and controllable derivatives and in doing so created the relatively more stable modern professions of spell scribe, Magic arrayist and such.

It was the same system that made these classes easily accessible to the masses that made it almost impossible to discover this true source of power. But the system hadn't done it out of malice." explained Arovier

"For the average person, primal chaos wasn't something they could just use. The incredibly invasive destructive nature of this energy meant that anyone who tried to harness it would invariably go insane before dying a gruesome death. It was only after countless trials and tests that I would find out the problem was a thing that you should be familiar with by now."

"Taint. The natural pollution that you would accumulate in your soul would prevent you from manipulating the primordial chaos. That's why finding such a pure soul like yourself was outstanding. Even I myself had to spend roughly 200 years purifying my soul before I even dared to touch the Primordial chaos. But in the end, I still did it." As Arovier spoke, a smile began to form on his face.

"What my peers mocked and laughed! What even the gods dismissed and deemed impossible! I Arovier achieved it!!"

As Arovier spoke, a crazed gleam in his eyes could be seen showing obsession needed to achieve something so ridiculous.

So I'll ask again, are you willing to inherit the knowledge of my life"

Leon didn't hesitate before slightly bowing.

"It would be my honour to carry on your legacy, Lord Arovier."

Seeing Leon's swift reaction, Arovier burst into laughter.

"Hahaha! Good, good! "

After this, his figure began to slowly float away.

"Follow me." said Arovier as he waved his hand

With a wave of his hands, the walls of the room began to shake, opening up to reveal an even larger hall.

But just as Leon was about to follow, he couldn't help but look back at his fallen partners in concern.

Arovier also seemed to notice his troubles and quickly added,

"There's no need to worry about them. They're still alive. It's just that they're kept unconscious by my spell."

With this, Leon could now be relieved of his worries and followed the ghostly Arovier into the new room. But as Leon stepped forward into the new section, he was quickly left speechless.

In front of him were hundreds of giant, rusted metallic statues. Each one standing at a height of at least 15ft, with some even going as far as to reach 20ft.

It was just clear that they'd seen better days.

Thick layers of rust coated them whilst the once vibrant runic inscriptions had all but faded as the once flowing circuits of energy could barely even elicit a flicker.

It was then that Leon thought back to the half open construct that had nearly crushed him with one arm in the previous room.

"These are?"

Asked Leon nervously.

"Iron golems." stated Arovier plainly

Hearing this, Leon couldn't help but shiver.

An army of such powerful creations casually just sitting there like used garden tools.

Arovier wasn't joking when he said that it was only luck and the wear of time that allowed them to get here.

If they had arrived in the dungeon's prime, then just one of these golems would have been enough to crush the group!

"It's just that they are in no condition to be used anymore. But don't worry, I still have a gift for you."

With Arovier's words, a faint rumble could be heard.

Slowly, a worn down, 10ft tall, stone behemoth walked out .

"Stone golem!" Commented Leon in awe.

Although it had been slightly worn down over the thousands of years. It had still fared much better than any of the much stronger iron golems in front of Leon.

It's just that Arovier didn't see me to share Leon's appreciation for the stone golem and instead just shook his head as he looked at it.

"As my inheritor, I had been hoping to give you something much stronger along with my inheritance. But as you can see, my collection of iron golems hasn't fared so well and my much stronger Diamond and adamantine golems… sigh! Let's just not talk about it." As Arovier spoke, an overwhelming pain and grief could be felt in his voice.

One couldn't even begin to comprehend the amount of money and treasures he'd spent forging those, and yet because of that cursed war, none of them made it to see this day.

But even with Arovier's disappointment and melancholy, Leon was overjoyed with this development. Not only did he get an inheritance of an overpowered class, he got a bodyguard to go along with it.

As Leon was thinking this, Arovier suddenly flicked his hand as a blue glowing orb shot into Leon's mind.

For an instant, Leon felt a sharp piercing sensation that made him want to scream out in pain but just as the sensation appeared it left just as quickly, leaving Leon wondering what had just happened.

"Stop looking around like a fool. I just gave you the controls of the golem," said Arovier as he floated down in front of Leon.

"Why don't you try controlling it, it's easy. Just send some instructions with your mind. It'll work easily enough."

Receiving the reassurance of Arovier, Leon decided to give it a try.

Concentrating intensely, Leon set out his mental instructions and as soon as they left his mind the golems began to move forward with a level of mobility surprising for something made completely of stone before kneeling in front of Leon, appearing almost eye level.

As Leon looked at the construct, he couldn't help but peer into what he assumed could only be a pair of emotionless glowing blue eyes and ponder whether what was controlling this was some sort of magical variation of AI or maybe even some sad trapped spirit.

But before Leon's thoughts could run wild, he suddenly heard the voice of Arovier speaking again.

"Now that you've got the hang of the golem, it's time to give you something even more important."

With a wave of his hand, 5 tomes appeared in the sky, hovering before Leon. Each one so thick that they would give any former student a crippling case of ptsd.

Even Leon himself couldn't help but gulp nervously as he looked at the overwhelming amount of knowledge in front of him.

"These are all tomes of the just the basic knowledge needed to get started. Magic arrays, magic item creation, weapon and armour enchantments, spell scroll creation. You'll be able to find everything needed for a beginner in those tomes.

And don't worry, they're only this small because of some magic I used on them. In reality, the pages are just a fraction of my knowledge. I just didn't want to overwhelm you. For now, that's why I'm saving some for when I think you're ready.

Behind all of Arovier's boasting, Leon could already see a problem.

As he thought about it, He could already feel an oncoming headache coming on and asked out of concern.

"Erm… Lord Arovier, you previously mentioned that this class goes against the normal restrictions of the system.

So I'm guessing that it would only be recovering the minimum system assistance. With this in mind, I can't help but ask,

"But how long do you think it would take for me to master the basic knowledge in all these tomes?"

"Hmmm." Thought Arovier

"Well, you don't need to go through the stage of purifying your soul and from what I can see, you're rather decently talented. For someone like you, I'm guessing it would only take you around 50 years to master the basic knowledge. So In about 150 years you'll be able to walk through your race's Haven without any worry and who knows? Maybe after a few thousand years, you could even challenge the gods."

Of course Arovier was exaggerating with the last statement but for everything else he said, he genuinely believed.

The only problem was that this was all unacceptable for Leon!

If it took him 50 years to only master the basic knowledge, he may as well have some children and pass on the responsibility of saving humanity to them!

For Leon, such a long time frame to achieve power was unacceptable to take such an opportunity, even if it meant a much higher skill ceiling.

But Leon wasn't stupid.

If he showed his refusal to accept the class in front of this crazed mage, then he could kiss his life goodbye. Besides, he wasn't completely out of options just yet.

After receiving Arovier's opinions, Leon nodded compliantly before storing the books away in his new space pouch.