Chapter 13: One Brings Shadow, One Brings Light

[System Update commencing, please standby.]

Strange, isn’t it, how five simple words can decide a man’s fate? Not quite the crushing finality of ‘Guilty’, but intimidating all the same. I’d brushed up on how it worked, of course, I wasn’t completely daft, but truth be told there was precious little information on it. Not even a book, more of a pamphlet, the standardised kind popular with tourist traps, restaurants and missionaries. The entire process was simple, beginning at the exact second one reached adulthood, in the eyes of the System. An update would begin, the Child class was removed, and a new class would be assigned, one that in many cases would remain the same for the rest of the recipient’s life.

Class evolution was noted as possible, but a rare phenomenon that occurred on a case by case basis, the mechanics of which the author wasn’t even prepared to guess at, there was that little information to work with. Furthermore, the pamphlet advised being standing, preferably in an open space, to avoid any accidents, should the class they receive cause a change in size, which was rare but not unheard of. I followed these instructions to the letter, displaying a strict adherence to the rules that I’d never shown for any of my prescription medicines, because this was important, but even so, I still ended up surprised.

[Curious.]

The System was talking to me, I realised. Not just listing something already happening, but actually addressing me directly.

[Human, yet not. Two lives, encapsulated in a single soul. Irregular. The criteria for Class selection will be adjusted, in light of this information. Please wait calmly.]

I obeyed and I waited, because it wasn’t as if I could do anything else. Not when the entire world by myself had faded to monochrome grey, and the door that would have let me back into the main library had vanished from sight. I was trapped, by an entity that evidently, could alter reality at a whim. The pamphlet had never mentioned anything like this, but then again, I doubted many people awoke memories of their past lives, so maybe I was just special that way.

[I see what happened now. A transposition across the sea of souls. Unusual, but not unprecedented, not when expanding the pool of candidates. You’re the first human I’ve seen it happen to, though, so you may want to keep quiet about this. At least, until you’re powerful enough not to end up on some mad mage’s dissection table.]

I nodded, to show my assent: truthfully, I had exactly zero inclination to ever share that part of my history, even before this warning. While many extolled honesty as a virtue, I knew full well that some truths brought no benefit to anyone, only pain.

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[It would be unfair to assign a single Class, as there are none which can perfectly reconcile two distinct sets of perspectives, desires and capabilities. Instead, I will give you something usually reserved for certain rare classes of monsters: a choice.]

I gulped, not even daring to talk, lest I interrupt the System’s train of thought at such a critical juncture. A paranoid precaution, perhaps, but I took it all the same.

[Choice the first, the path of the predecessor, the Class that, in another timeline, an uninjured young man would have received.

Soldier: Defender of the people, and bulwark of humanity. With a strong sword arm, a stalwart shield, and your comrades at your back, your contributions shall shape the course of history. Onward, to distant shores, upon the path to glory!]

Soldier. One of the most common classes, making up well over a third of the Class days here in Allensward. The description was something straight out of a fantasy novel, all but calibrated to the tastes of wide eyed youths, hungry for adventure, which I supposed was the entire point of it. That’s not to say it was all bad: steady employment was pretty much guaranteed, as humanity always needed soldiers for the eternal war. Depending on the deployment, there were genuine opportunities to see the world, pick up new skills, and possibly rise through the ranks to earn a pension, a plot of land, or even, for the very highest achievers, nobility.

Of course, all of the above presupposed a level of talent that Will Swindell simply didn’t possess: he was a middling performer at a small orphanage in a small town, and surely only a frog in the well in the grand scheme of things. My knowledge of warfare on Earth was unlikely to help either, given the very different societal and technological paradigms, even before taking into account the System, and magic. Never mind reaching nobility, joining the meat grinder was far more likely to earn him a shallow grave. No, this was not, and would never be, the path for me.

[Choice the second, the path of the transmigrator, the Class that you, who has assumed the mantle of Will Swindell, align most closely to.

Merchant: A purveyor of goods and evil in equal measure, the lifeblood of nations and marshal of coin. Yours is not a place of glory, envied by the masses and disdained by your lords. Yet through dealings fair and foul, a path opens before you, laid in gold.]

Far from the most flattering description, I thought at the time, even if I begrudgingly acknowledged it as fair. Merchant, after all, described a far wider variety of people than Soldier did, running the gamut from the virtuous sage whose profits are reinvested wholly in the people, to the mundane examples of shrewd dealings, and all the way onward to the amoral and greedy such as, well, myself. It was definitely the preferable of the two Classes offered, as I had a wealth of knowledge and experience accumulated over many decades, were I to pursue this path anew. It wasn’t much of a choice at all, really, which was the source of some confusion. That, and the fact that the System had yet to ask me for my input. So, I stayed silent, kept an open ear, and waited for the other shoe to drop.

[Choice the third, the path entwined. This Class does not exist. You would be the first and the last.]