“[Class]?” Glen asked. “And why do I get the sense that the word is in… brackets?” He was doing his best to understand what was happening to him, but some things just didn’t feel right. Words seemed to have more meaning than usual here.
“Right now, I’m speaking directly to your soul, words here convey more than just their most basic meaning. When something is said in a soul space, your intent and your will can reshape anything within. Well at least if you had anything in here, you’re still far too small for that.”
“Alright, well that didn’t really explain much at all.” It was normal for Glen to be calm and collected even in the toughest of times, this construct though was really trying his patience. It wanted to give a long backstory for every question asked, and he just didn’t have time for that. The moment that kept forcing its way to the front of his mind was that Gideon had only given them six months to grow stronger. He needed to be strong enough to protect everyone now, not a decade from now.
MC-198 let out his second sigh, he had become resigned to the fact that Glen wasn’t just going to let him do his job. After his radiance dimming and brightening again, as if he were taking a deep breath, he started back up, “It’s like this, The System is very adaptive. It believes in equity, not necessarily equality. A balance playing field if you will. Not every world has the same level of society, technology, or culture. It’s looking at your specific situation and changing itself around giving you the tools to elevate yourself.”
“So, these brackets are somehow tools? That doesn’t even make sense.” Glen really was doing his best to keep up, but he just couldn’t make heads or tails of anything here. He wasn’t even convinced this was happening at all. As far as he knew he was still fighting off a mind warping poison back in the real world where his body lay.
“The brackets are a symptom of the adaptation. When assessing your body, it was found you have the smallest amount of body augmentation to consider it worth making it the focus of your development. You’re completely unoriginal in every other way on. Be thankful that you’re getting this much. If you were born a berserker on a barren planet your aspect might be rage, and that is a bitch and a half to cultivate.”
“I keep hearing that word, ‘Cultivate.’ First the AI prompts before coming here, and now from you. Why is it so important?” Glen just couldn’t shake the feeling that single word was going to become the foundation that the rest of his life would be built on. Maybe it was because the conversation was happening deep inside his soul, maybe it was intuition, but he got the sense cultivating was going to consume him.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“At its core, cultivation is just to grow. For you if means to grow stronger, tougher, or faster.” MC-198 moved his head up and down to give the impression that he was looking Glen over for a second, “Probably not smarter though. Something tells me that really isn’t your thing.”
“If you’re done insulting me, how do I grow stronger using The System? If it is a tool as you described, I’m going to need every weapon I can get my hands on. The rampant are growing in numbers with every passing day, and now that man, Gideon. We need help.”
“Right, well The System is going to be hijacking and boosting the AI your body is contending with on the outside right now. You wouldn’t know it, but even before this, despite how you might feel, you’ve been gifted an incredible amount of luck. The tiny little creatures tearing you apart and rebuilding you as we speak were designed for the military at the height of your civilization.
“They were meant to help soldiers down whichever [Path] they chose to become an apex predator on the battlefield. With time and guidance, they would have already allowed you to reach the peak of man, now though given centuries to develop you could grow strong enough to reach out and touch the stars.”
“As amazing as that is, it seems like it isn’t going to help me with any of the problems I’m already facing.” Glen was swinging between frustration and anticipation, he just wanted to get started. Was it part of MC’s job to annoy him in the process or was that just his personality? Come to think of it, was MC-198 a person, a machine, or something else entirely?
“That is where your class comes in! I’ve already narrowed down the choices that are available to you based on your current stats and situation. Each class will come with at least one passive ability and one active ability, determined of course by the system. Now there are different grades of class, starting at common, and going up from there all the way to Mythic. Generally, the rarer a class is, the better the bonuses it provides!”
“Now that does sound helpful.” Glen was finally starting to see the light in this never ending darkness, something that could make him stronger right now if what he needed. “So, what classes do I have available to me now? And, did you mention stats?”
“Stats are just some numbers we assign to measure your strengths and weaknesses, right now it is easy because it is just how much you can lift, or how hard you can get hit and get back up. Oh, this is the fun part though, we get to figure out what your base [Class] will be. I wish I could be there to see how it interacts with the [Path] you choose. Now is when you get to make the choice that will influence the rest of your life!” saying that MC-198 spun out a blue screen in front of Glen that perfectly matched what the AI had used to speak with him before. The screen expanded in front of him until it was all that he was able to see across the entire void.
On it was a list, he saw hundreds of [Classes] available, but the overwhelming majority of them were greyed out. At the top of the list, he had nine options available. Two were purple, two were blue, two were green, and three were white.
With his first real smile in days Glen said, “Alright, let’s get started!”