The world stuttered.

Reality flickered like a film reel catching on damaged frames. Colors inverted, sounds distorted, and Blake's stomach lurched as if he'd missed a step in the dark. His muscles locked, refusing to respond as waves of foreign energy coursed through his system.

Then, as suddenly as it began, everything snapped back to normal. The alien sun beat down on the scrapyard. The distant hum of Eland's work with the power core resumed. Even the breeze felt unchanged, carrying the same mix of rust and ozone across Blake's skin.

A bright flash filled Blake's vision, followed by a cascade of notifications that settled into a clean, organized display:

[ Level Up Bonuses Applied:

+3 Adaptability, Awareness, Resilience

+2 Vitality, Perception, Affinity

+1 Alacrity, Willpower, Agility

+8 Free Points ]

[ New Class Skills Available: Warden's Insight (Uncommon), Roadwarden's Step (Uncommon) ]

[ ! Synergy Detected: Roadwarden's Step & Title: Edgewalker have synergy. Skill Roadwarden's Step becomes Unfettered Stride (Rare) ! ]

His senses felt expanded. Sharpened. The change was subtle but noticeable, like changing the refresh rate or resolution on a display. Blake's mind processed the scrapyard with new clarity, breaking down the jumbled terrain into tactical segments. He cataloged each rusted hulk and debris pile - cover here, killzone there, choke point ahead. Where before he'd seen random wreckage, now he recognized a battlefield waiting to happen. This way of processing information was something he knew—but instinctual and automatic instead of the result of methodical review.

"You absolute lunatic!" Chimera's holographic form materialized directly in front of Blake, her avatar's features twisted in exasperation. "Do you have any idea what you just did?"

Blake blinked, still adjusting to his enhanced perception. "Accepted a class that felt right."

"Without even looking at the other options!" Chimera's tail lashed behind her. "There were dozens of choices! Hundreds maybe! Some of them probably would have suited you just as well, if not better!"

"If they suited me better, why didn't you mention them?"

"Because I-" Chimera's form flickered, her momentum briefly disrupted. "That's not the point! The point is that you just made a major life decision without bothering to research your options!"

Blake leaned back against the hull plate, crossing his arms. "Sounds like the day I enlisted."

"This isn't funny!" Chimera's avatar began pacing, her translucent paws passing through scattered debris. "A class choice is fundamental! It shapes your entire cultivation path! Your abilities, your growth rate, even your potential for advancement - all of it flows from this moment!"

"And I chose the path that called to me." Blake's voice remained steady, but there was steel beneath the words. "The one that aligned with who I am and who I want to be."

Chimera's form grew more substantial, her outline sharpening as she focused more energy into maintaining the projection. "But how do you know it was the best choice? What if there was something perfect for you and you just... missed it?"

"Then I missed it." Blake shrugged. "Life's full of missed opportunities. What matters is what we do with the choices we actually make."

"That's..." Chimera's tail drooped. "That's a surprisingly zen attitude."

"The life I lead, you to work with what you've got." Blake pushed off from the hull plate, stretching muscles that still tingled with residual energy. "Besides, as I said, you're the one who showed me that specific class. If there were better options, why didn't you mention them first?"

Chimera's avatar shifted uncomfortably. "Because I felt your resonance during the Gnosis. I knew Roadwarden would be a good fit. But that doesn't mean-"

"That there might have been a perfect fit?" Blake finished for her. "Maybe. But I learned a long time ago that chasing perfection is a good way to miss out on something perfectly good."

"This from the man who spent an hour cleaning his sidearm earlier?"

"Maintaining equipment isn't perfectionism. It's survival." Blake patted the weapon on his side. "Speaking of which, we should probably test how this class affects my capabilities."

"Of course," She agreed begrudgingly. "You got two new abilities and you haven't even pulled them up yet. You should be more excited, you know that?"

"Right. Pull em up," Blake deadpanned.

[ Warden's Insight

Channel mana to reveal hidden truths about objects, entities, and environments. Identify physical properties and statistics, uncover behavioral patterns, and expose systemic relationships. Highlights critical context tags, reveals concealed weaknesses, and projects potential consequences of interactions. Deeper mana channeling enables more comprehensive tactical, moral, and systemic insights.

Mastery: Novice

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Unfettered Stride

Enhanced mobility that adapts to any terrain or environmental challenge. Grants heightened agility to scale obstacles, run along walls, traverse ceilings, and stabilize in low gravity. Enables combat awareness for predictive evasion and synchronized attacks. For additional ongoing mana costs, you may create stable paths that allies can follow while providing resistance to environmental hazards.

Mastery: Novice ]

"Your new class abilities are meant to be simple to use," Chimera said, her holographic form pacing through scattered debris. "Think of them like training wheels. The System builds in basic activation protocols to help new cultivators get started."

Blake rolled his shoulders, still adjusting to the heightened awareness his leveling had granted. "Simple how?"

"The mana pathways are pre-configured. No complex manipulation required." Her tail swished through a dust mote. "Just direct your Intent and let the skill handle the rest."

Blake frowned. "That easy?"

"For now. But paying attention to how your mana moves during activation? That's critical." Chimera's form solidified, growing more defined. "Understanding mana flow is one of the most valuable skills you can develop. These basic abilities are perfect for studying the fundamentals."

Blake nodded, spreading his feet to shoulder width. The scrapyard stretched before him, a maze of twisted metal and shadowed corridors perfect for testing enhanced mobility. "Walk me through activating Unfettered Stride."

"Focus on your core. Feel that pool of energy we worked with earlier." Chimera's ears perked forward. "Now imagine moving faster, more fluidly. The skill will respond to that intent."

Blake closed his eyes, reaching for that familiar warmth in his chest. The energy responded instantly, more eager than before. He pictured himself crossing the debris field with supernatural grace, and something clicked. Power surged through his legs, and his eyes snapped open.

The world had... altered. Not in reality, simply in how he perceived space and motion. Each potential path through the wreckage glowed in his mind's eye. His body hummed with potential energy, muscles primed for explosive movement. He took a step forward. Then another. Each motion felt perfectly calibrated, his feet finding optimal purchase without conscious thought. He picked up speed, letting instinct guide him into a sprint.

A twisted sheet of metal blocked his path. Without breaking stride, Blake planted his foot and launched upward. His body twisted in midair, carrying him over the obstacle with fluid grace. He landed in a roll, momentum already carrying him toward the next challenge.

"Holy shit," he breathed, vaulting over a fallen support beam. The movement felt natural, effortless. Like his body had always known how to flow through space this way, just waiting for permission to try. His movements the night prior had made him feel like Van Damme, but this was getting closer to the Matrix than anything.

"Looking good!" Chimera's voice purred in his mind. "But you're barely scratching the surface. Try the walls!"

Blake's eyes tracked to a vertical hull plate. His enhanced perception highlighted possible routes, showing him exactly where to place his feet. He accelerated toward the wall, heart pounding with anticipation.

His first step up the metal surface felt impossible - like defying gravity itself. He could feel the tug of mana on his core as his ability consumed it, and his second step landed true—suddenly he was running parallel to the ground. Three strides carried him across the hull plate before he kicked off, spinning through the air to land in a crouch twenty feet away.

"Now you're getting it!" Chimera materialized beside him, her avatar's features animated with excitement. "If you let it, the skill will highlight traversal paths only possible through applications of mana. Just be careful about emptying your tank."

Blake blinked, and a translucent bar materialized in the corner of his vision. The blue bar pulsed gently, labeled "mana" in crisp text. The indicator showed he'd burned through about a tenth of his reserves during his acrobatic display.

"Not bad for your first run," Chimera said. "Most people drain half their tank learning the basics."

A second bar phased into view below the first one as she spoke. This one glowed a healthy green, "Stamina" hovering beside it. The bar sat nearly full, barely dented by his enhanced movements.

"Your physical conditioning is excellent, so Stamina won't be your limiting factor for a while," Chimera continued. "Though once you start pushing both systems simultaneously, you'll need to manage both carefully."

Blake wiped sweat from his brow. The mana and stamina bars hovering in his vision were useful, but something felt missing.

"What about HP?" Blake asked, remembering countless video games from his youth. "Seems like knowing how much damage I can take would be pretty damn important out here."

Chimera's holographic form tilted her head, ears twitching with curiosity. "Would that be helpful? There is a commonly used metric that approximates what you're thinking of—it reflects your current physical integrity weighted against all sources of regeneration."

Blake's eyes narrowed. Experience had taught him that when someone answered a question with another question, there were usually complications involved. Especially when that someone was as direct as Chimera typically was.

"You're not usually this cagey," Blake said. "If you're asking instead of just telling me, there must be downsides. What are they?"

Chimera's ears flattened against her head. "Consider taking a bullet for someone. You might see your 'health' is high and dive in front of them, confident you can survive it. But what if the round hits something vital? What if you're already dealing with internal damage the system hasn't registered yet? That number becomes a dangerous crutch."

Blake nodded slowly. He'd seen similar psychology at work with body armor. Young soldiers sometimes acted invincible once they strapped on their plates, forgetting that even "non-lethal" hits could disable them.

"But," Chimera continued, "having that data could help you gauge threats more accurately while you're learning the system. Just remember it's an approximation, not a guarantee."

Blake ran his thumb along the grip of his sidearm, considering. The tactical advantages of knowing roughly how much punishment he or an opponent could take were significant. But treating those numbers as absolute truth would get him killed fast.

"Show me," he said. "But I'll treat it like any other sensor reading - just one data point among many."

A red bar materialized above the others, currently showing full. The number beside it read 100/100.

"If I want to, can we peek under the hood and see how all these numbers come together?" Blake asked. "I'm curious about how my Attributes translate."

"Of course!" Chimera chirped. "I can give you the whole crash course with Zephyr's help when we're less pressed for time. It's important information."

Blake watched the bars hovering in his vision. Three simple indicators - health, mana, stamina. Yet behind those bars lay countless systems and mechanics he barely understood. His mind spun with questions about attribute interactions, skill synergies, and cultivation techniques. The sheer depth of knowledge required felt overwhelming.

"There's so much I don't know," Blake said. "Every answer leads to ten new questions. Feels like trying to learn checkers while everyone else is playing three-dimensional Chess."

"That's inevitable." Chimera's holographic tail curled around her feet as she sat. "Most people grow up immersed in the system. Their parents teach them the basics before they can walk. Schools build curricula around cultivation theory. Markets, jobs, entertainment - it all revolves around system mechanics in some way. You've had less than a day to absorb what others learn over years."

Blake rubbed his temples. She was right. He'd been expecting too much from himself, trying to compress years of learning into hours.

"You're right. I need to pace myself." He straightened, squaring his shoulders. "Let's focus on what's in front of me. Let's try Warden's Insight."