Lucas woke up in the middle of the night, his room cast in pitch darkness aside from the few notifications that immediately popped into his vision. Though he wanted nothing more at the moment than to immediately inspect his new Class and start planning out his Skills and leveling, the ache of too much time spent prone and without moving overtook him.

"Urgh..." he groaned as he forced his body up and left his room. Blearily, he navigated his way through the kitchen and to the water barrel. Lucas nearly forewent the use of a cup and ducked his head into the water, but even in his addled state he was able to catch himself before doing so. He could save himself a trip to switch out the barrel with fresh water tomorrow just by taking a moment to grab a cup.

Moments later, with drink in hand, Lucas took a seat at the dining table and finally allowed the notifications to roll through.

[*ding Congratulations! [Child of Mana] has become [Aspirant of the Storm]!]

[Congratulations! [Aspirant of the Storm] has reached level 11-21! You have 110 free stats!]

[Congratul--

Lucas dismissed the rest of the notifications, not really feeling up to reading through a veritable flood just now, and instead pulled up his full status.

[Lucas]

[Free Stats: 110]

[HP: 220/220]

[MP: 330/330]

[STR: 18]

[DEX: 24]

[VIT: 22]

[WIS: 33]

[INT: 31]

[Class: Aspirant of the Storm]

[Level: 21]

[Skills:

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

[General Skills:

* [Identify: 10]

* [Healing Arts: 21]

* [Basic Combat Training: 18]

* [Vigilance: 13]

* [Stealth: 13]

* [Cooking:11]

* [Fitness: 21]

* [Learning: 21]

* [Regeneration: 11]

* [----------]

[New Class Skills available!]

Eleven levels, Lucas took a sip from his cup, not bad considering I haven't even slotted my first Class Skill. My General Skills have gone up a bit as well.

It was nice to see the fruit of his efforts all displayed at once like this, but there was something a bit more important calling his attention at the moment. With barely suppressed excitement, Lucas selected the prompt for the new Skills on offer.

[*ding You have received the Class Skill [Accelerant Frame]!]

[*ding General Skill [Regeneration] may evolve into a Class Skill! Would you like to proceed?] [Y/N]

[*ding General Skill [Healing Arts] may evolve into a Class Skill! Would you like to proceed?] [Y/N]

[*ding General Skill [Basic Combat Training] may evolve into a Class Skill! Would you like to proceed?] [Y/N]

[*ding General Skill [Fitness] may evolve into a Class Skill! Would you like to proceed?] [Y/N]

Only one original Skill was available for [Aspirant], but one was more than Lucas had been expecting. He hurriedly opened up its description.

[Accelerant Frame: Channel lightning mana through your body for a 25% boost to STR and DEX so long as this Skill is active. +1% increase with each level.]

The description was exceedingly simple, but also exactly what Lucas had hoped for. Nowhere in [Aspirant]'s description had it been implied that Lucas would be getting a stat-augmentation Skill as soon as he woke up. It must have been thanks to his brief experimentation before entering his soul world, and the somewhat humble capability of the Skill supported that assumption. He'd have to see if he could improve on it at all in the future, but even as is it would be a powerful multiplier to his capabilities at a higher level.

That was mitigated a bit by the fact that Lucas didn't intend to invest overly much in STR and DEX, at least compared to his other stats, but even so he would not complain.

The other four notifications he received required a bit more deliberation. It wasn't that he thought any of them wouldn't fit in his Class, because in truth they all aligned with the direction he wanted it to take, but the tradeoff of evolving and transferring over a Skill would likely be that, if he didn't like it or preferred the General Skill for any strange reason, he'd have to relearn and level it up from 1 all over again. It wouldn't make sense at all for Class Skills to be able to transfer back and...devolve?

So, Lucas considered it carefully, and eventually went ahead with [Regeneration] as a start.

[*ding Warning: evolutions may not be reversed, do you still wish to proceed?]

...

[*ding General Skill [Regeneration] has become Class Skill [Rapid Regeneration]! Level is maintained!]

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

[Rapid Regeneration: +6% HP regeneration per level, +4% MP regeneration per level, +3% power to all lightning magic per level.]

That hardly changed at all aside from the fun part being removed, but a slight bonus is better than an undesirable change. At this point, it should be about...+66% HP regain, +44% MP, and a +33% boost to all lightning magic. Even without any big improvements, this is still probably my best Skill.

Seeing that nothing had gone wrong, Lucas had no more reason to hold off on evolving the other Skills as well.

[*ding General Skill [Healing Arts] has become Class Skill [Arclight Renewal]! Level is set to 15!]

[Arclight Renewal: Channel your mana into a stream of healing energies applied to a selected target. Increased retention and recollection of all healing knowledge per level, +2% boost to WIS and INT while healing with each level, increased efficiency per level.]

[*ding General Skill [Basic Combat Training] has become Class Skill [Tempest Fighting]! Level is maintained!]

[Tempest Fighting: Learn to fight as a force of nature, powerful and unpredictable, quick and decisive. Continue your path toward mastery in combat.]

[*ding General Skill [Fitness] has become Class Skill [Storm Core]! Level is maintained!]

[Storm Core: Increased benefits to endurance, constitution, and agile movements per point in VIT.]

Sitting there, Lucas broke into a grin so wide he felt as if his face would split. Those new evolutions sounded pretty cool, if he said so himself. The actual changes to the Skill were relatively slight, with the greatest one being his healing Skill's ability to actually channel healing magic. Before, it had just been a knowledge Skill for the most part, and while he could replicate healing magic with his mana manipulation, there would surely be benefits to having a dedicated Skill for it.

The other two evolutions were not so intuitive and he'd likely need to try them out soon. There would be a lot of testing, leveling, and experimenting in the future. After all, he now had five Class Skill slots to fill, as well as General slots. He had so much to do, but the immensity of it all did not daunt him. Lucas was both eager and prepared to dive right into it.

The thunderous rumble of his stomach interrupted his thoughts and made Lucas wince.

Maybe after I get some food in me, he corrected. I'm so hungry, I could eat an entire carolf.

----------------------------------------

Lucas was just pulling a batch of muffins out of the oven when he was finally joined in the kitchen. It was not his mother joining him, but rather Eugene coming from her room. The moment the man stepped through the door and they caught sight of each other, both stopped and awkwardly stared. Though perhaps that which made it awkward for both sides was different.

Lucas broke the silence first by setting down the tray he'd continued to hold in his covered hands, and began removing its contents. "So," he casually spoke, "muffin?"

That was enough to snap Eugene out of it, apparently, and he obligingly took the fresh baked good Lucas offered him. At his level, the heat it still held would've been nothing more than an afterthought, and he proved it by taking a bite straight away.

"You're out," Eugene said after taking a moment to swallow. "How'd it go?"

The humorous smile that had been making its way across Lucas's face must have faltered, because Eugene's expression suddenly turned panicked, then confused. "Wait--what went wrong? [Identify] show you're a [Healer] now, so is it a bad Class or something?"

"Oh, no," Lucas quickly denied, "nothing went wrong. Actually, I had a handful of amazing Classes to choose from. I went with an [Aspirant] Class, in the end," he redirected.

The [Warrior] looked as if he wouldn't drop the question so easily for a couple heartbeats, but he relented with a nod and another bite from his muffin. When he looked back up at Lucas, he asked, "An [Aspirant] Class, huh? That's a new one for me. Want to tell me about it?"

Lucas, a little surprised the man didn't know already, readily obliged. "I guess it's a thing [Mage] Classes sometimes get for their second. I got it for my first because of the stuff I can do with mana," he vaguely waved his hand through the air and took a bite of a muffin of his own. It wasn't bad--could use some butter though. "Anyway, it basically helps me make my own Skills and build the Class around them."

He cocked his head to the side in thought, before saying, "I'm a little surprised I'm identified as a [Healer], actually. I only have one, maybe two healing Skills slotted in it and the rest would probably fall under [Warrior]."

"Well, I imagine [Identify] might have a bit of trouble with a Class that changes depending on what Skills are slotted in it," Eugene said with an impressed look upon his face. "What Skills are they, exactly?"

Lucas smiled and leaned forward. "First off, [Regeneration], my healing Skill, my combat Skill, and [Fitness] all evolved and moved over. Finally," he paused, "I got a stat-augmentation Skill: [Accelerant Frame]."

"Nice!" Eugene leaned over and clapped Lucas on shoulder, then he winced and spoke quieter. "I mean, nice. Looks like you'll be able to go forward with your hybrid idea."

"Exactly," Lucas nodded. "[Aspirant] is pretty much exactly what I needed."

"Mmm. You know, now that your level cap was raised and everything, maybe we can look into taking you out of the village with a patrol sometime," Eugene looked to Lucas to gage his reaction.

Taking him out of the village meant taking him on a monster hunt. That wasn't necessarily a given, but stories Eugene had told Lucas gave him the impression that most patrols encountered at least one monster. So what Eugene was really suggesting was getting Lucas some real combat experience in likely the safest environment possible for such a thing.

Lucas had only ever killed a single monster--the skaven that had been chained up in a house's cellar. It hadn't been the toughest fight ever, all things considered, but it certainly had been intimidating. It had also been very good for his levels. Killing monsters didn't directly progress a person's levels, but it provided the perfect sort of challenge for a person to do that himself. A person being him, in this case.

"Yes. Absolutely, that is something I'd like to do." Then he thought it over a bit more. "Can't I still get levels from regular training, though? And I do have a bunch of Skill slots to fill, so maybe we should hold off on that idea for a while."

"Oh, naturally," Eugene agreed. "It's an idea for later, and we would still need to run it by your mom."

"Right. Do you think she would be okay with it?"

"If I were there, and you had a few more levels under your belt, then probably? I think we'll have our best shot at convincing her after doing absolutely all we can to get you prepared."

"Ok," Lucas absently munched on his muffin. "Then I guess I'd better get to planning out my training--lots to do, and there's no point in wasting time."

That earned him a strange look from the [Warrior]. "You know it's like three in the morning, right? We should be in bed right now, not planning anything."

"Yeah, but how long did I just spend in bed? Sleep is the last thing I need right now," he countered.

"Fair," Eugene conceded. "I probably wouldn't want to be in bed any more after spending four days in it as well."

Lucas let out a breathy whistle. "Four days? I thought it was only like two," he shook his head.

"Nope," Eugene clapped him on the shoulder again. "It's time for me to go back to bed, however. I could use the sleep."

"Right, bed..." Lucas looked over to the door Eugene had come out of earlier. The man tensed as he watched Lucas's reaction, and despite technically being only ten years old, Lucas had the maturity to recognize the importance of this moment. He didn't say or do anything for a moment, and Eugene waited while just as tense and still.

"Well, go on. I won't keep you up," Lucas cheerfully bid him farewell.

Eugene finally relaxed as if a great burden had been lowered from his shoulders. To Lucas's surprise, the man didn't immediately go off to rest and instead came over to wrap Lucas in a firm hug. It lasted for a relatively long time, but Lucas just returned it in kind. Finally, when the two of them broke apart, Eugene held him at an arm's length and tousled his hair.

"Goodnight, kid. I'll see you in the actual morning."

Lucas smiled and watched him depart. "Goodnight."

Then he was once more left on his own. Lucas grabbed a bowl from the cabinet, loaded it up with the last few muffins, and moved into the front room from there. He found a comfortable seat before the room's table and dragged over a stylus and leaf of paper. Then he got to work.