Congratulations! You have unlocked a new Class!

Please visit the nearest Core Stone in order to process your system upgrade!

The nearest Core Stone to your vicinity is 0.3 kilometers northeast of your present location.

Tom Weaver blinked twice, but the words didn’t go away. He rubbed his eyes, disbelieving what he was seeing. He had unlocked a class. While he was sleeping. Two years earlier than even his most optimistic expectations!

He was only fourteen. While he’d had a system and a class for as long as he could remember, that class had been “Child,” the same as all of his friends, and generally everybody he knew until the system deemed them an adult, usually around the age of seventeen or eighteen, but sometimes as young as sixteen. Unfortunately, almost everyone who upgraded from Child got the equally boring class of “Commoner.” At least in Tom’s village.

There was nothing wrong with being a Commoner, of course. According to the last census, sixty percent of the population of Welsius were Commoners. If anything, the Weaver family was unique in that both Tom’s parents had other classes. His father was a Weaver; he had Skills which assisted him in producing high quality cloth. His mother was a Trader, a lesser form of Merchant. Together they ran a successful little business. His mother bought the wool from the local shepherds and the flax from the farmers, which his father turned into a finished product for her to turn around and sell again.

He mentally toggled the notification to make it go away. He’d be able to access it again from the system’s history, not that he was about to forget the words any time soon. Instead he brought up the main page of his status.

Name

Tom Weaver

Health

80/80

Age

14

Mana

Locked (Pending)

Race

Human

Stamina

70/70

Class

Child (Pending)

Strength

7

Level

10 (Max) (Pending

Dexterity

12

Subclasses

Student (Pending

Constitution

8

Weaver (Apprentice) (Pending)

Endurance

7

Trader (Apprentice) (Pending)

He immediately noticed the differences. The first major difference was the presence of (Pending) next to his class, level, and subclasses. The second, and the one that made his eyes bulged out, was that his status now showed Mana! Yes it was locked, but with his class upgrade pending that implied that it was about to be unlocked. Normally, unless you had a class like Mage, Healer, or Enchanter, something which actually used Mana, the system simply skipped it entirely.

Tom had spent his life preparing himself to take over his parents business, but if he were destined to be a magic user instead, he would certainly embrace that path.

“Ma! Pa!” he called, thrusting the blankets aside. “My class unlocked!”

There was a stir from downstairs as his parents responded to the news. Tom rushed to change out of his nightclothes, choosing a dark red tunic and blue leggings for the day. His father stuck his head into Tom’s room just as he was lacing his britches up.

“Care to repeat that, son?”

“When I woke up I had a system notification,” Tom explained. “It says my class unlocked. I’ve got to go to the village core stone to find out what it is.”

Tom resembled his mother more than his father, although he’d yet to grow into his height. Tom’s father, Norman, was of middling size, with black hair and green eyes, and overall a very normal appearance. Tom’s Mother, Sue Weaver, was only slightly more exotic due to her auburn hair, which was rare in this region of Welsius. Overall, there was nothing striking about the Weaver family in terms of appearance.

“Well then, I suppose you’re raring to go find out what it is,” Norman said, pride in his voice. “But I suggest it wait until after breakfast, Tom. When I unlocked Weaver, I gained three skills, and it about knocked me off my feet. I don’t know if you’re getting Weaver or Trader, but either way I wouldn’t be surprised if after the system is finished, all that excitement you’re feeling will be washed away and you head straight back home for a nap.”

Tom paused. “I didn’t know that,” he admitted. “I didn’t get tired when I got my subclasses.”

“Subclasses are a different matter entirely, Tom,” Norman reminded him. “And you slept for twelve hours when we presented you to the stone so that it would recognize you as a Child, and you didn’t get any new Skills that time. Even if you only get something like Barter, I’d expect you to be exhausted by the time the system is finished writing it into your soul.”

That news took a little bit of the wind out of Tom’s sails, so although he wanted to sprint into the village and find out what his new class was, he accepted his father’s judgement. “I guess breakfast sounds great, in that case. I’ll be down in a minute.”

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His father nodded, and closed the door behind him. Tom pulled up his status again, and then the notification, and he pinched himself just to make certain he wasn’t dreaming. A class two years early, and one with mana at that!

He hadn’t mentioned that second part of his revelations to his father. Not yet. He wanted to figure out what his class was first, before he broke the news to his parents that their plans for him to carry on the family business might not work out the way they’d hoped. He wasn’t worried about upsetting them. But there was always the chance that he’d end up being an Enchanter, and he could specialize in making spellcloths for adventurers or something.

After all, he couldn’t really imagine himself throwing around fireballs and lightning bolts. He was too timid to join the Militia, let alone face dungeonspawn. No, if he had to pick a magic class, he’d choose Enchanter for certain. Or healer. Either or, he’d be happy with.

While the Weaver’s were quite prosperous, the dwelling they lived in was no more ostentatious than the rest of the village. What set them apart, however, was that they owned four buildings, instead of just a home. There was also the workshop, where his father worked to make the cloth that the family specialized in, and there was his mother’s little store, which sold a little bit of everything, not just cloth and clothes. Then, of course, there was the warehouse, where his father kept both the raw materials and the finished products of his craft.

Most of their wealth was in savings, logged with the Village Core, redeemable throughout the kingdom. While they could afford to live more lavishly, they were comfortable with the simple life, and while it was known that they ran a successful business, their neighbors would have been put off if they began displaying signs of wealth beyond the obvious comings and goings of merchants come to barter for Norman’s high quality wool and linen.

When Tom joined his parents downstairs, he interrupted them whispering.

“--early, but surely it’s a good sign? We thought he’d be stuck with Commoner for years before he unlocked one of our classes, after all,” his father was saying.

“I’m just worried, Norman. The stones never recognize someone as an adult earlier than sixteen,” his mother replied.

“It just means that he has more time to perfect whatever Skills he gains today before he’s expected to move out on his own,” his father answered, hugging his wife from behind as she tended the stove. The enchanted surface was one of the few luxuries that the weaver family did allow themselves to indulge in, since the neighbors didn’t need to know that they cooked with magic instead of firewood.

Rather than continuing to eavesdrop, Tom walked into the kitchen and gave his mother a reassuring smile. “It’s not like there are any bad classes out there, Mom,” he pointed out. “Even if I don’t inherit yours or dad’s class, you’ll still love me, won’t you?”

“Of course we will, sweetie,” his mother said quickly. “I wasn’t implying that we wouldn’t. It’s just, well, this is a bit of a surprise is all, and you know I’m not good with surprises.”

Tom took a seat at the table, and admitted “I’m a little nervous too. I mean, it’s obviously pretty unlikely, but I do hope that I’m not going to get some sort of meathead class. I’m not like Sevin.”

“It’s almost certainly going to be either Weaver or Trader,” his father assured him. “You’ve been apprenticed with us both for years now, and you must have plenty of experience in those subclasses built up. It probably just hit the threshold based on something you did for us yesterday. It’s absolutely not anything to worry about.”

“I know, I know,” Sue said, scooping the eggs out of the frying pan and onto a plate, which her husband delivered to their growing son. Aside from the eggs, the plate already had toast and bacon and a slice of fruit. Tom didn’t wait for his parents to finish serving themselves before digging in; he was hungry.

He thought about mentioning that his status showed Mana now, but again decided to hold onto that bit of information for now. His mother was worried enough for him already. If he got Healer or Enchanter, then surely she’d be over the moon. If it was some combat oriented mage class … well, he’d cross that bridge when he came to it.

His parents joined him at the table a moment later, and for a few minutes it was just a normal morning as they pretended that their son wasn’t about to go through one of the most important milestones of his life.

Class Day.

After he touched the Core Stone, he wouldn’t be a child anymore. According to his Status and the laws of Welsius. Once the Core gave a person an adult Class, they were legally an adult. Even in the extremely rare instances when a child of six years old received a mage class. But that only happened in high-powered families where magic ran strongly in the bloodline. Mages that emerge from common stock often didn’t evolve their classes until their mid-twenties, usually after having spent years as a Commoner.

“What if I get something else,” Tom asked as they were making their way out the door. “I mean, what if it’s not Weaver or Trader, but something completely different. Something like Enchanter, maybe. What then?”

“We’ll love you regardless,” His mother assured him.

“No, I mean, what’s the plan?” he clarified.

“I suppose if you get a class that we can’t teach you about ourselves, then the plan is to apprentice you to someone who can,” Norman answered. “Even if it’s something exotic like enchanter, we should be able to afford an apprentice fee with that guild. Try not to worry yourself, Tom. It’s just a few minutes until you find out.”

Seeing the wisdom in his father’s words, Tom schooled himself to be patient as his parents walked him to the village square, where the village Core Stone awaited him.

A monolith twice again as tall as a man, the Core Stone was a soft blue color. Not the color of the sky, darker. Tom had heard it called indigo, but while his parents had indigo ink, he thought that the Core Stone was a shade or two lighter than that. It shone lightly at night, but in the day it was just a large crystal, except for the important functions it served.

“Do you want us to gather the others?” Norman asked his son. “We don’t have to if you don’t want to, but we could make a big deal out of this.”

“I’m dying to find out what my class is,” Tom admitted. “I just want to get this over with.”

So he reached out and touched the stone.

Calculating …

Class Unlocked: Controller.

Abilities Assigned: 8

Initializing System Upgrade.

Tom felt lightheaded as the stone … did something to him. Abruptly his old interface was torn away. Words began flashing by in front of his eyes too swiftly to read. Some of them he couldn’t read, because they were in symbols that he’d never seen before. The system abruptly stabilized.

Welcome, Controller, to the Village of Tilluth

Core Name

Tilluth

Controller Options:

Claim

Level

25

Level

HP

30/30

Expand

Mana

43/12754

Reduce

Territory

128 kM^2

Evolve

Floors

1

Summon

Inhabitants

1645

Spawn

Experience

1.2*10^7/9*10^5

Customize

Tom studied his status screen in a daze. Whatever the core had done to him had significantly muddled his head, but as he examined his options, he saw that he had already gained twenty-five levels somehow. More, he realized, as there was experience stored up that was waiting for him to upgrade. So he did, selecting the controller option to increase his level.

That was the last thing he did before he passed out.