Finally, Lucia looks at the time, "Say, isn't it quite late already? Where are Therese and Darius? They should've been here even before you."

"Sorry for being late, I, uh, got lost in my work", answers the bunny-eared girl Karen while entering the room unannounced.

Two more assistants follow here as well, waving hello as soon as they come into sight, "Greetings."

"Yeah, hi", I turn towards my wife, "Were they invited as well, Lucy? I thought it was primarily Darius and Therese."

"No, I didn't", she replies.

Karen nods, "Correct, I was asked to come over. I should tell you that Therese's unable to come over, she got a bit sick."

"Just a bit? Are you sure it isn't the glitchy plague finally getting to her? Exactly as feared..."

She scratches her ear, "Dunno, I wasn't told any details."

"And anything about Darius?"

She replies, "No, nothing. Why, should I have heard something?"

Eclaire sighs, "That would've been better, I think we should rather visit them then. I don't like this mystery."

Lucy agrees, "Yeah, I think so, too. They are too important to ignore. Especially Darius thanks to his connection to the Glitch Zone's barrier."

"Right, we really should. And I really don't understand why they kept silent and didn't send for me to 'cure' them", I'm already getting up.

But Karen stops me, "Could that wait a bit? We have a bit of business with you as well."

"Is it that important?"

Her ears droop, "It... might be?"

I don't like the thought of letting Therese off the hook that easily if worst comes to worst, we've too much strenuous history for that. And Darius... well, we'd be extra-doomed if he bites the dust and, consequently, the barrier falls.

But ignoring our resident glitch expert would be just as problematic. But then... she didn't seem to be in that much of a hurry to get here, her work seemed more important from her point of view. So what is it?

I don't really have a sane choice here, do I?

Hesitately, I sit down again, "Then, please. Try to make it quick."

Karen tries to explain, "Right. So... it is about your unnatural ability to create the Hybrid classes. I... need one as well."

I mentally facepalm, "Ah, right, it was inevitable that you'd get sick as well. Sorry, didn't think of that."

"Ah, no, I didn't mean for that reason. Not yet, at least. I need it for our research."

That's why you stopped us? The delayed visit to the two sick ones may literally be a matter of life and death for everyone here, at least in Darius' case.

Eclaire admonishes her, "You can explain the details later, Karen. You know we might be on a tight time limit here."

Karen agrees, "Right. First, could you tell me how you create those classes?"

"I guess I could simply show you. I use this skill for that."

I reveal the skill info to her.

Essence Drain

[ERROR: UNKNOWN REQUIREMENT O-7734]

When you drink at least 100ml of the blood of a creature, you retain a Blood Echo of the victim.

This lasts for either 1 year or until it is used in the following effect: Choose a target between yourself, one of your familiars or a creature you touch.

You can sacrifice up to 8 skills from your own, the chosen creature and any by Blood Echo-linked creatures' skills.

These sacrifices are used to create an í̷̪l̶͚͠l̸̖̒e̷̢̚g̶̪̅ḁ̴͑l̴̠͂ extra class or mutate an existing extra class of the target creature.

The sacrificed skills can't be regained.

If a skill originates from multiple sources each instance is treated separately.

You cannot trade skills fundamental to a creature type, e.g. [Undead] or [Spirit], this way; they are only a valid sacrifice if their owner is the target of the process.

If skills were sacrificed the recipient must've lost at least 2 skills in the process, otherwise, the process fails.

The created/mutated class varies by the offered skills and essences of the involved, and, in case of mutation, on the extra class that gets modified.

Sacrificing multiple skills does not guarantee a better result.

If at least 3 skills are chosen to be sacrificed you can preview the result without losing the skills and still abort the process.

When the class creation is successful, the class granting this skill increases its level by 1 unless it is already your highest-leveled class.

A given target can only receive (1 + skill level / 15, at most 5) additional extra classes this way.

Karen looks over it for a while, "I... can't read any of that. How do you make any sense of it?"

"You can't? On my end, it is a mostly normal description like for any other skill. What exactly do you see?"

She hesitates to answer, "...glitch characters. A whole wall of them. With their random movement, it looks like a river of errors. It is kinda hypnotizing."

Absolutely not what I expected. I assumed the description would be readable to anyone.

But what does that mean for me...

Eclaire adds, "Tell me about it, Karen. I don't understand it either, and in contrast to you I've already been a target of that skill."

So being a Hybrid doesn't let you read it either. Not sure if that makes me feel better or worse. Can I only read it because I own the skill, or... am I too far gone already?

I don't want to think about it. I really don't. I want to stay 'me', goddamnit!

"Well, guess I have to explain it after all."

Karen and her assistants take out some writing utensils from their inventory and start taking notes, "Please, do."

"So what I've figured out so far is I need either a bit of blood from the class-receiving person or they need to be one of my familiars. Then I can either leave the result up to chance or try to stir it in a rough direction by sacrificing some of their skills."

Karen interrupts me, "And the newer familiars? They received a Hybrid class as well."

"The skill doesn't say that. But then the trigger section of the skill description is an error as well, so that's probably just it and the System has no way to display the relevant activation requirement."

"I see. And about the skill sacrifices, who has to lose them?"

"There seem to be very little restrictions on that. For example, for Iris's Hybrid class, I could sacrifice one of my titles and two of her skills."

Karen scratches behind her ears, "Huh, so even titles count? Weird, they shouldn't be related. What about stealing skills from a third party, would that work?"

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Haven't tried it yet, but it might work. At least according to the description, I should be able to draw from the same pool of donors; any familiar or person whose blood I've consumed recently."

Lucia chimes in, angrily, "What about when you took some of my blood and tried to create something weird from it? My title did disappear - if only for a short while."

I ignore her anger, "True, I did that. But that was a class for me. I don't know if I could steal a skill from let's say Jack and create a new Hybrid class for you from it."

Karen states drily, "Jack is dead."

Ah, right, I forgot. He took the wrong bath.

"Not the point, it was just an example. Well, the only restriction on that topic I know of, is that the recipient of the Hybrid class must've given up at least 2 skills, or, well, titles, I guess. Unless we pick random, then anything goes."

She finishes writing her notes, "I see. What does it say about changes to the memory? There are some Hybrids that now can't remember a time before anymore or are convinced they've always been like that, evidence to the contrary be damned."

"No clue, the description has no hint of that as a possible outcome. But when we consider how normally access to certain titles or classes and a person's personality go hand in hand, it might be a similar effect. Maybe it works in reverse as well. You can't pick a courage-related title when you often exhibit cowardice, so I find it likely that a monster-adjacent class might suppress some human aspects, at least for weak-willed people."

That is just my personal hope. I didn't reject paradise and chose to become a vampire just to have my personality eventually overwritten by a poorly created glitch class, goddamn it!

Eclaire pats me on the back and whispers into my ear, "That's exactly why I tested you when you created your Hybrid class. You know, because we were worried..."

I whisper back, "Yeah, I know."

Karen continues her inquisition, "Jared, did you know any of the affected people?"

"No clue. So far, I haven't noticed anyone that would be affected that way. Why is that relevant?"

She sighs, "My colleague theorizes that it is related to how you feel about the person that receives the Hybrid class, or your mental state at the time, something like that. You know, since you've basically... god-like control over our lives now..."

"I don't have that. I don't exactly decide what you get. Most of it is outside of my control."

"I understand. But humor me for a moment, assuming it was true, in how much danger would I be right now?"

"None? We don't really know each other, do we? ...look, it is getting late and I'm worried about the Darius and Therese situation, so can we get a move on, please? Well, you know my options for the creation now, so do you want one now or do we want to delay it?"

"One more moment, please", she turns to one of her colleagues, "You have my examination values from earlier ready, right?"

The assistant nods and shows a piece of paper, "Yes, I have them here."

The other assistant takes a big, black box from her inventory, "The measuring device is also ready."

"What are you up to now?"

Karen points at the paper, "We want to measure a few things. As you know, Hybrids are more resistant to the glitch infections caused by the stuff all around us, and as Therese reported to me, it even cured your wife, Lucia, from a severe dose. Well, as a scientist I don't particularly appreciate leaving these things up to speculation. Or rather, if we knew more we might be able to find a more permanent solution to the entire situation."

"Yeah, that makes sense. So you want to make a before-after comparison of yourself? Of what exactly?"

She commands the second assistant to unpack the box, "Please be careful with this; as you know, we can't replicate these devices", then turns to me, "Well, to make it simple, Jared, it scans several parameters of what you would commonly call a soul. Uh, explaining it properly would take too much time, and as you said, you want to get going soon. Well, I guess we're ready. Can you give me a Hybrid class now?"

"Just a random one?"

"Yeah, that is preferable. Most people got those as well and if there should be significant differences between the two types then it makes more sense to focus on the more common variant for now."

"Fine by me, please give me your hand."

She does as told, "Like this?"

I grab her hand, mentally assign her a random Hybrid class as requested, and let go again, "Done."

She looks confused at me, "That was all?"

"Yes, you can perform your examination now if you want."

She scratches her head with a suddenly appearing second pair of long bunny ears, "Yeah, I guess so. Dang, I got basically nothing, other people got cool stuff like flight or powerful monster-exclusive attacks."

"Since when do you have four ears?"

"Do I?", she grabs the additional pair, "That... are not ears, are they? No, I hear nothing through them."

She plays around with them a bit until they suddenly grab the assistant's black box, "They are more like additional hands, huh. Useful. So can you start now the measurements?"

The assistant starts working, "At once, Karen."

While they do their thing with the box and its contents, I check Karen's status.

Name Karen Status mana-sealed Age 17 (frozen) Classes Scholar 16, Pyromancer 16, Weaver 11 Race Bunny Folk 10 Extra Hybrid 8 HP 2622/2454 MP 0/0 [2848] SP 3502/4193 STR 349 DEX 808 VIT 544+20 MAG 489 FTH 448 WIL 516+30 CHA 701 Equipment Lab Coat Skills Cure Magic 8 (Rank 1), Earth Magic 8 (Rank 1), Fire Magic 16 (Rank 2), Light Magic 8 (Rank 1)

Generate Offspring 8, Light Orb 8

Scrutinize 16

Meditation 16

Ageless 1, Curiosity 10, Extra Language 16, Familiar 1, Fire Resistance 16, Quick Learning 16, Sleepless 1, Stamina Boost 10 Weakness Fire, Poison, Coffee

The only unordinary thing is that her current HP is above her maximum HP, but I guess that is from the Hybrid class's negative HP growth...

Hybrid M̶a̵t̷h̸ ̴R̶a̵b̴b̵i̴t̴ extra class Growth Rates

-6 HP, 0 MP, 23.5 SP, 0 STR, 11.5 DEX, 1 VIT, 0 MAG, 0 FTH, 1.5 WIL, 3 CHA Generate Offspring (M̶a̵t̷h̸ ̴R̶a̵b̴b̵i̴t̴)

20 SP, only usable while in a dungeon, 2 minutes cooldown

Create a wild M̶a̵t̷h̸ ̴R̶a̵b̴b̵i̴t̴ of a level equal to this skill's level. Poison Weakness

I feel like I should recognize this skill setup, it seems to belong to a creature I've seen before but can't recall where. Must not have been too important, I guess.

Anyway, she only got one skill from it and it is incompatible with her according to the status screen. But is that because she isn't a monster like it was designed for, or because it breaks its usage restriction of being in a dungeon? If the latter, does that mean we're not a pseudo-dungeon after all?

Well, we really should've gone with the skill sacrifice version, her MP pool is part of what keeps the barrier around the Glitch Zone intact, she really could've used a Hybrid class with a high MP growth because of that. Too late now.

Oh, hey, this time my not-so-divine class did level up, up to level thirteen now. When I gave a random Hybrid class to Eclaire it didn't, so what is different? Maybe because she is a spirit?

Thinking about it, the skill is called Essence Drain, not something like Hybrid Gift or something equally stupid. And I doubt it is just for show, so far, skill names mostly line up with their effect, except maybe when the System encounters problems with the translation. Elly once said as much, the effect determines the name.

However, who can say that it holds true for these glitch-generated skills? They didn't even have readable names at the start, just a random mess. It only formed a proper name after some time. Who knows what the trigger for that was?

Either way, whatever the skill may 'drain' would in the end then come from me, since as a spirit, she is a part of me, is that the cause? The skill takes something from her that she then in turn takes from me. A blatant zero-sum.

Argh, screw waiting, this is getting unbearable. Who knows how long their examination will take, the Darius situation may take a turn for the worse until then.

"Alright, Karen, you've got what you needed, we're leaving. I just can't shake this bad feeling..."

Lucia agrees, "Likewise. Karen, you can come over tomorrow and tell us the results once you're done."

Karen nods, "Yeah, sorry for making you wait so long. I should've sent you along sooner. But yes, we'll come and give you a report and more explanation when we've arrived at some conclusion."

One of the assistants bows, "I also apologize, we get too easily lost in our work."

Eclaire says her farewells, "Well, see you tomorrow then."

With that, we leave and head over to the military headquarters.