Chapter 39 Choices part 1 - Cassis

Cassis was still reeling from Arianna’s actions—his body having reacted most of all—but mentally, he prepared himself to become her guinea pig for real. He closed his eyes again, sinking into his meditation. He felt her hand on his chest once more, but this time, it was a clinical touch rather than a caress.

She pushed her mana into him again, and he braced himself, expecting to feel her overwhelming presence so soon after… whatever that had been before. But strangely, he didn’t.

Well, he felt her—her warmth, her gentleness—but it was like comparing the light of a lamp to the sun. This was nothing like her previous all-consuming presence, filled with her determination, her stubbornness, and her very essence woven into it. Instead, her mana prodded at his, guiding him gently through his pattern once again.

After some time, she pulled back. He opened his eyes to find her watching him expectantly.

“So? Was that better?” she asked.

He nodded. “Yes. This felt just like a friendly touch, nothing too intimate. How did you do that?”

Arianna beamed, clearly proud of herself.

“Well, I noticed that our mana stream actually has a transparent, non-elemental barrier around it. For those who haven’t unlocked their elemental affinity and achieved mana sight yet, it’s a gray barrier that keeps them from seeing their color. The lighter the gray and the closer it is to transparent, the closer people are to seeing their mana’s color.

Then, I realized there’s another barrier in place that keeps people from seeing more than their own type of mana. I kinda broke through that one by accident—it’s a barrier on our eyes.

And then, I figured out there’s even another mana barrier on the outside of our skin. That’s why it’s sometimes hard to absorb ambient mana. You actually need your own mana to help catch ambient mana and pull it in.

So I thought—these barriers must be there for a reason. I tried to separate the elemental affinity from my mana while keeping the non-elemental barrier intact. It was a bit harder, but I managed it, and I pushed my mana into you while still surrounded by that barrier.”

She was a little out of breath from her excited explanation, and Cassis… only understood about half of what she had just said. But it was clear she had succeeded.

“That’s great,” he said simply.

She beamed at him even harder.

“Then you can go help the others now,” he told her with a smile.

She nodded and headed back toward the group, her enthusiasm palpable.

As soon as she was gone, Cassis groaned and let himself fall back onto the grass, stretching his limbs out.

Damn.

The memory of her little revenge still lingered in his body.

Earlier, he shouldn’t have teased her like that, but he had seen red, white hot jealousy raging through him. Helping another woman like that hadn’t bothered him too much as he was quite sure Arianna wasn’t sexually attracted to women, but the next person after Elena would have been Joseph. Sure, the man was older, but as he himself had said, he was good-looking. And now, with the system reversing aging? He’d only get more attractive with time.

Just thinking about Arianna doing that with another man made Cassis furious again. He clenched his fists.

When he had first woken up in the past, he had felt different—lighter, as if the rage from the last four years had drained out of him. The memories of that time had felt faint, and he had hoped to leave it all behind, especially after discovering the truth of her disappearance.

After all, he had always thought of himself as a good guy.

He had been nice and respectful to all women, not just the ones he found attractive. He had called out men who talked shit about women. He had never hurt a woman physically. Sure, he had hurt feelings before—just because he was respectful didn’t mean he wouldn’t call out someone spewing hateful nonsense. And his ex-girlfriends probably had plenty of stories about him. But all in all, he had thought of himself as a decent guy.

So why had it hit him so hard?

When it had become apparent that Arianna wasn’t coming back, he had gone crazy.

The madness, the possessiveness, the rage.

And just now, in that short moment when she had walked toward Elena, it had all surged up again.

He still felt possessive over her—like she was his and only his. He knew it wasn’t healthy, but he couldn’t help it. He had never thought he would become such a caveman.

But he could control his feelings.

Back then, he had turned his anger into playfulness instead, and that had gotten him a reward. He grinned to himself. That was really something they should repeat.

Then, his expression sobered.

But only after he told her the truth.

This incident had shown him just how quickly he could become that version of himself again. And he couldn’t let that happen.

He had to protect her. Even from himself.

Cassis decided then and there—once Arianna reached E-rank, he would tell her everything about how she had come to be in this world. Everything.

That would give him time to prepare, and it would allow her to grow stronger, to become more familiar with this world.

Because after that truth… nothing would be the same.

Cassis took a short break, then walked back to the group. Even before he arrived, he could already hear groaning—though mixed in were a few excited noises as well.

When he reached them, most of the group sat with their hands pressed against their temples, trying to massage away what was clearly an oncoming headache. Elena even had tears in her eyes as she lay sprawled out on the ground.

Arianna stood in front of his mother, guiding her through the process of absorbing ambient mana. His mother looked beyond frustrated, even with Arianna’s help.

After a few moments, Arianna told her to continue practicing on her own, then moved on to Nadine—who was watching her approach with a wary expression. Arianna placed a hand on Nadine’s shoulder and closed her eyes.

She’s probably pushing her mana inside, Cassis thought.

Then, a small gasp of excitement escaped Nadine’s lips.

She had found her elemental affinity.

But Arianna wasn’t done with her yet.

Before Nadine could even celebrate, Arianna immediately made her focus on drawing in ambient mana. She drilled the movements into Nadine, over and over again, until she too sat there frowning, massaging her temples.

It seemed Arianna had finally gone through everyone, but instead of stopping, she circled back to the beginning, starting another round.

Poor Elena actually cried, but Arianna remained relentless, guiding her meditation once again.

Cassis chuckled. He had warned them. She was merciless when teaching. And she didn’t even notice.

He wondered if it was because she simply didn’t understand how difficult it was for others. For her, all of this probably felt effortless. Maybe that was why geniuses shouldn’t teach.

Amused, he watched as she made three more rounds, with more groaning—and even a few more tears—following in her wake.

Finally, when she started toward Elena again, Cassis decided to intervene.

"Alright, that’s enough," he called out.

Arianna looked at him in confusion, as if she didn’t understand why he was stopping her.

He pointed to the horizon. The sun had already begun to set.

Realization dawned on her face. "Oh, you’re right. We should end this for today."

A collective sigh of relief came from the group—but no one moved. They were all too exhausted, their heads pounding from the strain.

Arianna, still looking confused, turned to Cassis. "What’s wrong with everyone?"

His father groaned.

"You were right, son. She really is a demon when teaching."

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A bit later, Cassis and Arianna sat together at the kitchen table with Luke, Nadine, and Violet, eating dinner. They had gone home with the Bristols since they would be using their guest room again for the night.

During dinner, Arianna endured some light hazing, but she took it with her usual grace—and, of course, gave as good as she got.

"After this morning, I really thought there couldn't be a worse teacher than Cassis," Luke said, shaking his head dramatically.

Then Nadine chimed in, grinning. "But then I told him about Helen."

Luke nodded seriously. "She convinced me Helen was worse than you."

"And did you see the smug smiles Marcus and Elena had when we met up at noon? Arianna was definitely going easy on them," Nadine added.

Luke huffed. "When Cassis said Arianna would be teaching us about mana, I was happy. I mean, you’re so sweet and kind. Of course you should be a great teacher."

"But then you turned into a merciless demon from hell," Nadine finished dramatically. "Sure, we made great progress thanks to your relentless pursuit of your students’ perfection, but it was hell."

Luke nodded in firm agreement. "A demon from hell."

At first, Arianna looked proud of herself—but then she frowned. In the end, she crossed her arms and spoke in an exaggeratedly snotty voice.

"Well, I wouldn’t have to be so strict if you’d just do what I asked you to. It’s not even that difficult. Especially since I showed you."

Luke and Nadine stared at her with wide eyes, stunned into silence.

Then she burst out laughing. "Sorry, but your expressions!"

Though still grinning, she softened a little. "And sorry for being so strict today." A hint of embarrassment crept onto her face. "I didn’t actually notice. I just saw your progress and wanted to keep pushing... and then I kinda lost track of time."

Nadine shuddered. "So you’re saying... if Cassis hadn’t stopped you, we could still be doing those mental drills?" She sounded incredulous.

Arianna thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "There’s a good chance. The first time I helped Cassis, I totally lost track of time. I had him going through that non-stop for over two hours."

Luke and Nadine turned to Cassis with horror-stricken faces.

"And you let her teach us?" Luke asked, appalled.

Cassis shrugged. "I survived and gained a lot. Plus, I was there to keep an eye on the time."

Turning toward Arianna, he added triumphantly, "I knew you had lost track of time. Your face said it all back then."

She smiled at him apologetically.

Violet though tired, followed the conversation. Then she asked Arianna: “Are you a bad teacher.” This stunned Arianna and she didn’t know how to answer. Luke put her out of her misery. “No Vi, Arianna is a great teacher but she is very strict. Like Mrs Lumson from your school.”

“Ah so you’re that kind of teacher. That’s ok. I think Mrs Lumson is great and I learn a lot from her. She just doesn’t like stupid students.” Violet said this with all the pureness coming from a child not understanding that she was calling her parents stupid. Arianna couldn’t help but snicker. Cassis turned his laugh into a cough. Children were great for these accidental burns. He thought about his students and wondered what they were doing now.

The conversation drifted into small talk after that, and soon enough, everyone finished their meal and headed off to bed.

In bed, Cassis and Arianna shared the gains they had made from training. Cassis’s skills and spells hadn’t changed, but his stamina had finally reached Expert rank. It wasn’t that he had significantly more endurance than the others, but he was used to pushing past his limits and continuing no matter what. That was how he had built up his stamina over the last few days.

Other than that, his Mana Sight had ranked up to Beginner, and his Mana Control had reached Intermediate. That was probably due to Arianna playing with his mana earlier. He had watched, fascinated, and somehow understood more of what he saw. And then he had marveled at her precise Mana Control. He couldn’t even do half the movements and patterns in his own body that she had been executing inside his and outside hers. That had to be even harder.

Then Arianna shared her own gains. Her Mana Manipulation had already jumped to Expert. She suspected the reason was that everyone had different elemental affinities. By helping them, she had to learn more about each element in order to manipulate it efficiently enough to pull in ambient mana.

For example, she had the easiest time with Luke, since he also had Water as his elemental affinity. A close second were his mother, Aunt Helen and Elena, because they all had Fire, the same as him, and she already had some experience with that element. The most neutral one for her was Wind, since it swirled in currents in a way similar to Water, just far more freely. That included Matteo, Joseph, Benny, and Nadine.

The hardest element for Arianna to work with, surprisingly, was Earth. She had assumed it would be easier since Water and Earth had a supportive relationship, just as Fire and Water had an antagonistic one. But Earth seemed vastly different from Water in its steadiness.

From her explanation, Cassis started to understand why. Even still water was never truly still—there were always unseen currents beneath the surface. But Earth didn’t move. At least, not under normal circumstances. Except for earthquakes, right?

That was the key.

Arianna had to shift her entire understanding of Earth to grasp how its mana worked. Instead of thinking of it as the steady ground beneath their feet, she had to think about tectonic plates.

To put it simply, the world had layers to it. The top layer, our ground, is called Crust. This layer is mostly solid but not whole. It is divided into massive plates called tectonic plates that move incredibly slowly. But when enough pressure builds up between them, they will shift violently, causing earthquakes or volcanic eruptions as the ground cracks open and magma surges to the surface. Now, why do the tectonic plates move?

That is because they are actually swimming on top of the second layer in which is called Mantle. The Mantle is made up of semi-solid rock that flows very slowly in a kind of current. Well, at least the upper Mantle is. The lower part is solid again.

Next comes the Outer Core which is again liquid composed of iron and nickel and extremely hot. This layer also creates the world’s magnetic field.

The last layer is called the Inner Core. This is solid iron and nickel due to the pressure it experiences from the other layers. This is also the hottest layer, almost as hot as the sun.

After listening to that scientific explanation which Cassis was sure he had learned in school about he had more questions than answers about the process. But Arianna didn’t keep him waiting.

She explained how the mana flow of someone with an Earth elemental affinity was very similar to a mixture of the Crust and the upper Mantle. There was an incredibly slow flow to the mana stream and some kind of dense mana clumps were there, too. Every time the clumps bumped against each other due to different circular flows quakes or eruptions would take place. Through these events mana from the stream would shoot out faster entering other currents and giving more movement to everything.

According to Arianna it was fascinating. He shrugged. He would take her word for it.

So, to pull in and assimilate ambient mana she had to take control of mana from eruptions, taking in ambient mana and using the new current to assimilate it. Then the more mana one had the faster the stream would move and the faster new eruptions would take place.

It was completely different from Cassis’s Fire or Arianna’s Water.

From their group the people with Earth elemental affinity were Liam and his father.

Arianna also told him that she suspected that elemental affinities were inherited through the parents. After all Cassis, his mother and his aunt all had fire affinity. Meanwhile Liam and his father had earth affinity and Benny and his father Joseph both had wind affinity. Arianna thought it would be interesting to study.

She explained all this with enthusiasm, but Cassis couldn’t quite muster the same excitement. Still, he listened to her quietly, taking in her words. Eventually, she noticed his lack of response and grew embarrassed, her voice faltering.

Seeing this, he reached out, brushing his fingers against her hand reassuringly. “It’s alright,” he murmured. “I’m happy you’re so passionate about this.”

That seemed to ease her worry, and she smiled softly before settling down. With that, they both drifted into a peaceful sleep, their dreams undisturbed for once.

Cassis and Arianna sat on the bed, both deep in thought. The previous day, they had been too exhausted to make any decisions, but now, with the military set to take them to the parliament for their medals, they needed to choose their new advanced classes.

These advanced classes would give them a boost in their invisible stats as well as enhance their health and mana regeneration. More importantly, they hoped they would provide the foundation to support an advanced mana pattern for their mana circuit as even Arianna wasn’t able to keep the pattern going throughout her whole body. They had already pushed their skills and spells as far as possible in the short time they had. Now, the moment had come to decide.

Cassis didn’t believe the government would betray them, but experience had taught him to be paranoid. In his previous timeline, things had rarely worked out as expected, and he had learned to prepare for every possibility. No matter how small the chance of betrayal, he wanted to be ready.

Cassis stared at the glowing menu in front of him. His Advanced Class Choices. Normally, an Awakener would receive between one and four class options based on their actions, decisions, and the path they had followed since obtaining their Basic Class. The system was not random—it watched every movement, every battle, and every choice.

Yet, before him, six options awaited.

1. Blademaster – A master of swordplay, capable of wielding any blade to its full potential.

2. Warbringer – A relentless warrior who thrives in battle, turning the tide through sheer force and skill.

3. Berserker – A raging force of destruction, unleashing overwhelming power at the cost of control.

4. Spellblade Knight – A warrior who seamlessly blends magic and swordplay, enhancing strikes with arcane energy.

5. Arcane Duelist – A nimble and tactical fighter, weaving magic into swift and precise attacks.

6. Flameforged Warlord – A commander of fire, channeling flames into devastating attacks and battlefield control.

Cassis stiffened when his eyes landed on Berserker. His grip on the bedsheets tightened.

No.

He knew what Berserkers were. He had fought alongside them before. In the other timeline, they were well known—unstoppable forces on the battlefield. Their rage made them powerful, but at a terrible cost. Most survived their battles. Their allies did not.

The fact that the system offered him this class…

His stomach churned.

Had the system seen something in him that he had refused to acknowledge? His anger, his possessiveness, his willingness to fight until his body broke? He immediately rejected the class, shoving the thought away. That was not the path he would walk.

He exhaled slowly, forcing himself to move on.

As usual the system was stingy with details only offering the bare minimum of information. But he could tell a few things from the names and the short descriptions.

Blademaster was the clear and obvious path. It followed his skills and training to their natural peak, making him even stronger with a sword. But was that enough? He had pursued mastery of the blade in the other timeline, but pure technique had not been enough against the later waves.

Warbringer, on the other hand, was a broader combat specialization—less refined than Blademaster, but more adaptable. It focused on power and presence on the battlefield. Would that be better for surviving what was to come?

The next three options mixed swordplay with mana and magic. They would be something different to the path he’d chosen before but would he just sacrifice his strength to shore up his weakness?

Spellblade Knight seemed to focus on incorporating magic into his combat, enhancing his sword strikes and granting more versatility. It could shore up his weakness in mana usage, but how far could that take him?

Arcane Duelist leaned more toward speed and precision, using magic tactically in battle. That sounded promising, but it also seemed delicate compared to his usual fighting style. Would it be practical for the chaotic battles ahead?

Flameforged Warlord immediately caught his attention. It wasn’t just about wielding fire—it was about commanding battlefield control through flames. He imagined setting entire areas ablaze, forcing enemies into disadvantageous positions while enhancing his own attacks. It was a dangerous path, but fire had already become a part of him.

Cassis sighed and closed the menu. No matter how he analysed it, he wasn’t ready to decide yet. He turned to the side—and met Arianna’s gaze.

She had also just closed her status window.

Her face was unusually tense, her brows drawn together. Whatever options she had received, they had disturbed her as well.

For a moment, neither of them spoke. Then, at the exact same time, they both sighed.

“That bad?” Arianna asked, her voice flat.

“No,” Cassis answered, shaking his head. “That difficult to choose.”

She hummed in agreement. “Same.”

Whatever choice they made here would define their future. And neither of them had an answer yet.