Muddy Door - Muddy Key

The door was immaculate, there was no signs of burn marks, dirt or decay - only a layer of mud covering parts of the lock; somehow wet still even in such hot and humid temperatures. Just what in the world was this door? There had been hidden loot rooms coded into the game to promote exploration, but this was the first time Sven had ever seen such a type of hidden loot. For a start, hidden loot rooms were usually just hidden behind obscure paths and would never come accompanied by a lock.

Whatever this was, it wasn't a hidden loot room as he knew it, it was something special and unique. Pressing a hand to the woods strangely cool surface he felt something pulsate back from the other side. It was powerful, but its prescience beckoned him inside. Lulling him in with its promises of boons and glory. Sven stopped to look around, this could very well be a trap of some kind, an ambush that could cost him his life, but as he searched the room he could find no better choice. This was the best option he had available, it was all or nothing.

Rattling the lock Sven tried to **** the door open, wondering why the lock was still so muddy, as he tried many ways to **** the door open to no avail, something clicked inside of his head. Opening up his inventory and pulling out the wooden box, the muddy key from inside **** the chest open from its hinges, shattering the box into tiny splinters, this action shocked Sven who instinctively fell back on his ass.

The key had a mind of its own! Gliding towards the wooden door the key inserted itself into lock gracefully, at first nothing, but soon the sounds of cogs and mechanics hidden behind the cave walls began to clink and clank, shift and turn to whatever machinations that governed this hidden place. Then, when all went quite, the door opened to reveal a shining white light that obscured what was inside.

Sven brought a hand to his eyes to try stem the light and to see if he could see beyond the door, but he was having no success - the light was just too all encompassing to see past. If he wanted to see what was on the other side he would have to try for himself. Suddenly it was like he could hear the old village chiefs words of warning from long ago.

'The key comes with a quest, find the door this key unlocks, and slay the evil inside.' Sven gulped, was he really in any shape to be fighting an evil monster of an unknown level right now? Thoughts of the village chief brought back more memories. 'And maybe there was something about sealing something away as well?' The old man finished with something about prime evils but Sven couldn't recall the rest, either way the instructions seemed pretty clear. Get inside, kill the creature and seal its soul. This wasn't exactly an exceptional quest description, a lot of higher level dungeon raids came with this premise - that no human could truly slay a boss, they could only suppress it's power until the next group of heroes arrived to do the same, and so the cycle would continue.

Preparing himself for the worst, Sven stepped back and made a running jump into the strange doors ominous light, and landed on the other side.

The light had faded by now and he was soon subjected to a strange kind of shock all across his body. Gone was the unimaginable heat and foul, fetid air, now replaced with a cold, dank, mossy room. The sudden switch in temperature caused Sven's body to recoil, sending him through waves of shock and then paralysis. Sven dropped to one knee and could hardly control his body, he felt helpless and scared. If he's like this then the prime evil will simply kill him! He can't move to defend himself, let alone see his attacker coming to anticipate attacks. He was a sitting duck.

However as time passed without incident and with no indication that there was anyone else in the room with him and as his body started to respond to his commands, Sven took his first good look at his surroundings. The room was dirt lined from floor to ceiling with no signs of plant life save for the over abundance of moss that patched area to area. The only light source that Sven could make out came from the crumbled, decaying shrine ahead of him.

'Wait, is that what I think it is?' Sven thought to himself as he began to walk towards the ruins, clutching and rubbing the sides of his arms in an attempt to warm himself up a little. Which would have been unthinkable had he done so even a couple minutes prior, but this room was cold, colder than it looked and almost a polar opposite to the fiery plane of hell he had just came from. Entering his inventory as he walked he pulled out one of his last health drafts and chugged it down. The burn marks, scrapes and cuts began to vanish from the surface of his skin, mending his injuries as best as they could, however Alice's healing would have been much more appreciated right now.

Looking around as he walked, Sven couldn't make out any other signs that anyone or anything else lived here, where was this evil monster he had to slay and seal? The room was silent, so silent that he could hear the crunchy sound of his own footsteps echo across the room multiple times over, he hadn't noticed it before but the silence was actually kind of maddening now that he focused on it.

Soon enough he found himself at the foot of the ruined monument, Sven studied the crumbled, moss infested stone and could make out some key features now that he was so close, the remains of a stone flail lay crumbled and half destroyed to the side, on the other side of the structure a stone shield lay broken in half from top to bottom, propped up against the dirt wall uselessly. The head of the stone statue lay at the base of the shrine, its eyes crumbled away along with the rest of its lower half, leaving only the crumbled remains of a gladiator helmet to be identified.

Behind the head and at the base of the statue there was a small, almost corroded plaque covered in dust and tiny stone fragments. Walking up to the statue Sven got close enough to read the seemingly ancient words, long since forgotten and written perhaps a multitude of lifetimes ago.

'Here lies the forbidden class shrine, cursed and sealed by the ancients so that no one else may share it's-' The rest of the plaques description was frustratingly illegible, no matter how much he carefully cleared it of debris. Following the faintest etchings of words lower and lower however Sven's eyes shot open as he read something familiar.

'Gate...' The shrine simply read, the words after it were covered in fragments. "Keeper?" Sven said aloud, breathlessly and almost not believing his luck. A Gate Keeper shrine, here in this dungeon? It wasn't listed by the Institutions maps nor had he heard mention of it while studying, this was a secret only he knew about it. Since the start of the dungeon, Sven had intended to take a generic tank class and then switch to a gate keeper later on, but luckily now he didn't have to.

"Wait a second..." Sven's heart stopped and then began to beat faster as he made out a letter that wasn't a 'K' that followed 'Gate'. Carefully and with due diligence, Sven brushed off the delicate stone surface to reveal what this shrine actually was.

"Gate Master?" Sven could not look any more surprised had he tried to, both brows raised and his mouth hanging agape. In all of his time playing the game and through all of the countless hours trawling the wiki he had never, EVER heard even the slightest whisper of a rumor that there was special classes in the game locked behind secret quests. Gate Master... Just what in the fuck was this place?! So many questions, but Sven knew they would never be answered now - they had all died along with the village chief.

When the name had been uncovered, Sven could feel the strange powerful energy he had felt when he had first touched the door, it swirled around his body and he could feel the ominous nature of the power this shrine commanded. A pop up appeared before his very eyes.

Does the player accept the class change to 'Gate Master'?
(Y / N)

Sven stared at the class name for a while, should he accept such a strange and unknown class? What if it really was cursed? What would the curse entail? Could he really commit to a class other than Gate Keeper? For a while he pondered his options. Without this class there was no way he was escaping this level in the cave, and he only had so many potions left available to use. Also, a part of him felt like if he didn't accept this class now he would regret it later, after all this was a special, unique class that no one had ever heard of before.

Steeling himself, Sven accepted the terms of the class change. As soon as he had done so, white hot lightning spread across his body causing him to fall to his knees, the pain shot through each and every nerve ending and coursed through his blood streams and internal organs, if outside this room was a hellscape of smoke and flames, then this experience was transcending what he imagined as pain and evolving it beyond what he thought was possible for any human to experience.

Curling up into a fetal position, Sven grabbed his head as his body shook and trembled, his mind incapable of following any thought process - all consumed by the agony and ownership of his body by this alien entity that now tormented him. His body rippled and changed as his muscles broadened and filled out, his old set of teeth shattering out of his skull only to be replaced by a thicker, stronger set, his bones cracking and snapping from within, strengthening each time they were broken and then repaired on a cycle that never seemed to stop. His flesh reddened and melted off of his skin only to be replaced by a new set. Endless process of **** and then rebirth of his self played out in this most gloomy a setting. His screams like his footsteps from before echoed and overlapped one another with a maddening fever until finally Sven knelt quietly at last.

Steam rose from his body as he knelt there, his head thrown back limply with his now bulky arms dangling to his sides. With only the whites visible in his eyes Sven began to laugh. It was all he could think to do after experiencing such an indescribable feeling. Rocking his head forward he peered down at his wet hands and knees, soaked by countless liters of sweat, the pool was so clear he could see his own reflection staring back at him, he was still Sven, but different. He looked stronger now, more feral and manly. His red eyes had grown darker, his pupils more cat-like but only ever so slightly.

The laughing stopped, had he gone mad there for a moment? Then again what man, no, what being wouldn't have turned to insanity at such a sensation as that? He was relieved to find he was still intact mentally after experiencing that. Picking himself up he looked over his body, he could feel a new found and incredible strength deep within his core that he hadn't felt before the class change. He felt durable like steel, strong like a giant and overspilling with self confidence. Gone was the worry he had felt of the magma outside that door, gone was the fear of what the minister would do to him now that he had killed 3 students, as he flexed his hands he felt that with these two limbs he could manage anything - and after what he had experienced? There was little room to doubt that he was right on that account.

Opening his character screen he read out his new stats.

Name: Sven Gate
Title: Cursed One
Main Class: Gate Master
Sub Class: None
Proficiency: Alchemist
Guild: PikanVale Academy
Level: 32
Experience: 3456 / 3540

'Cursed One, wasn't my title Gate Keeper before?' Sven wondered, such a title was foreboding of things to come, no doubt. Focusing on the class title, a new screen popped up. It was a skill list for the class, and it looked exactly like the Gate Keeper classes skill list, but with two big differences right at the bottom.

Gate Master unique passive - All skills are 20% less effective.

"Wait, that's bullshit! This class is weaker than the Gate Keeper class?!" Sven felt ripped off as he double checked that unique passive over and over again to make sure he hadn't read it wrong, or the tooltip was just a mistake. Finding that it indeed did make all of the classes skills less effective, Sven sighed out of frustration, that was until he read the next unique passive.

Hated One unique passive - All skills are made 1% more effective for each player killed by the Gate Master. (Current increase in effect: 1%)

"It must be counting Igrasil as a kill... So, I get stronger by killing other humans?" Sven's face grew pale as he read those words, he could only get stronger by killing innocent people? There was no way he could accept this, absolutely no way was he going to to stick with this class. As soon as he found a Gate Keeper shrine he would change classes immediately. However no sooner had he convinced himself of this did a new, more prominent pop up appear on his screen.

All players have acquired at least a primary class, the tournaments will now begin. May the best hero win.