Chapter 208: System Stones

Tessa picked the mage up to give her a spinning hug, then conveniently placed her down away from the centre of the formation and took her place. The golden light flared and seconds later the Red Dragon Priestess erupted with fire, which coalesced into battle armour, with a shield and spiked flail.

The weapon looked vicious, with five small spiked balls on chains, all engulfed in flames, but the armour was gorgeous. It was a skintight bodysuit made of red leather and dragon scales, showing off every toned muscle of the Dragon Priestess as she flexed, even though it covered her entire body, even encasing her head behind a dragon mask.

Alice was the next one in, and after she stepped away, she activated a bit of magic and a tornado began to whip through the area for a moment before being dismissed.

"I think that it is giving us all Class Skills. Perhaps our Classes aren't fully active? Or maybe we were intended to return to the System Stones on a regular schedule to learn new skills as we got more powerful. Has anyone stood on the central stone twice?" Alice asked.

Lotus nodded. "I did. I left after I chose, and then walked back to yell at Karl once I realized I could have been a dragon."

"Possibly, with an unknown but tiny chance, been a dragon." Karl corrected.

Sergeant Rita stepped onto the platform with more hesitancy, and Karl saw Lotus crossing her fingers, hoping that she might pick the random choice. It didn't look like she did, as only a few seconds later, the light had flared, and she stepped away still looking like herself.

"It gave me Warrior's Tenacity, an increase to my constitution." Rita explained as she checked the group to see who hadn't gone yet.

She was the last of the six, so the next ones up would be the Lieutenant and the Church Guard.

They all gathered around the platform in reverent silence, awed by the aura of Holy Magic that the area was giving off.

"Alright, Guard. You're up next. Pick Random." Lotus encouraged.

"It will randomize your species, gender and class." Karl warned him.

"You're no fun, you know that? He's already ugly, how could it be worse?" The nature priestess complained.

The Guard laughed and ruffled her hair as he made his way to the top of the platform.

He glowed with golden light for a moment, and then smiled as he stepped off the platform.

"It gave me the Sacred Zone spell. It slows hostile targets that enter the area, and weakens them. It's an excellent large battle defensive spell, suitable for buffing an entire battle." He explained.

Then he seemed distracted and nodded his head.

Golden light enveloped all the soldiers at once, presumably as a result of the magic recognizing them as his subordinates who he could activate the System Stones for.

For most of them, it was a short and blissful blessing, which granted them a new skill, but one soldier apparently hadn't been paying attention to Karl's warning, and where a young woman in a military uniform once stood, now stood a female Worgen in battle armour, a combination of leather and steel that left the midriff and lower legs exposed.

A very furry midriff and lower legs with an extra joint, which flexed opposite the existing knee.

"I'm... a Worgen? A Worgen Rogue?" She stammered as she realized what she had done by choosing to randomize.

Lotus ran over to examine her.

"Interesting. She didn't have to start over, she's still Awakened Rank. What skills did you get?" The tiny cleric demanded.

"Uhm, I gained backstab, lacerate, impale, claw, pounce, dash and silent steps." She replied.

The warriors next to her looked impressed. That was a more powerful suite of skills than she had before, a much more powerful one if she had the physical strength and speed of a Worgen.

They weren't technically monsters, as they were considered a civilized sentient species, but they weren't native to the Golden Dragon Nation, so if you saw one, they were normally only passing through between the beast men nations, and wanted nothing to do with social interactions.

Occasionally, they might stop somewhere that seemed friendly for a meal, but mostly they just skirted along the edge of the Nation and kept moving.

With a fully furred body, and a wolf's head, they couldn't pretend to be human like many beastkin could, even if they somehow managed to hide the extra leg joint. So, persecution among humans was a real concern, even though they weren't at war or from officially hostile nations.

But now, she had accidentally changed her species, and that was going to cause at least a few questions and concerns among the military leadership.

Rae approved. The new version of the warrior was much more Stabby than the old one. She even had proper claws, and not just one but two swords.

Her words were slightly garbled by her new muzzle, and she almost bit her tongue once, but she was rapidly adapting to her new form, and looking around at the other soldiers, then at her outfit, which was a harsh contrast to the unit.

The uniform she had been wearing had vanished, but she had others in her bag, and she was still roughly the same size, though she was a bit longer in the leg now, and her boots wouldn't fit even if she still had them.

The Church Guard cleared his throat. "Did anyone else undergo a large change in status? Change of Rank, Class, or appearance?"

One more hand went up, and the unit realized that there was a child in their midst, even shorter than Lotus.

"Crap. Did it revert you to childhood?" He asked.

"Um, I think so, sir? I also randomized, and now I'm tiny. I'm still a warrior class, but my sword change appearance, and my skills changed a little.

I gained bow mastery, target lock, enhanced vision, night vision and forest sense." The child replied.

Tessa looked at them for a few seconds and then went to pat him on the head.

"I have good news and bad news. It didn't change your age, you're still roughly twenty. But you're an Elf. A twenty-year-old elf is still literally a child, and they won't hit puberty for like five more years, after which they will be full-grown in two to three years.

Your new skills are all Elven Racial Skills, so you're now an Elven Warrior, not a Ranger or any specialty class, unless the System Stones told you otherwise."

He shook his head. "No, it specifically said that my class was warrior."

Tessa nodded. "Then on to the good news. Elves live for about five hundred years, so you have a really long time to get used to being short."

The others laughed at his pain, but Elves were incredible warriors, or so they had heard. They were supposed to be super humanly agile, with incredible aim. Which meant that they needed to get their newly adjusted warrior a bow.

Alice grimaced at the Church Guard. "Do you think that we can bury this and pretend that we didn't know about it until after the paperwork is done?"

The Guard smirked back. "I have a better plan. I'm going to blame Karl and Lotus."