Lucas opened his eyes and knew exactly where he was.

The moment he regained consciousness, if it could truly be called such within the world of his soul, he shot out of bed and moved to the door he knew led out of the room--to the shelves full of Classes on offer. There was a pull on the center of his being that wanted him to return to the bed. There was something his soul was ready to reveal. But now wasn't the time.

The ghost of his past would make way for urgency of his present. The being that had spoken to him said she would give him time, but Lucas's real body was still very much hanging at the mercy of a demon in a goblin's skin. Even if he had all the time in the world, he wasn't eager to have that situation persist.

He opened the door, and exited into a cave. One that was equally as familiar as the bedroom, but he knew shouldn't be located anywhere near it. The woman he'd seen last time he was here was nowhere within sight, for which he was surprisingly grateful. When he'd seen her death...it had hurt him, somehow. He wasn't sure how he'd feel if he saw her again.

But not only was the woman nowhere to be found, there was no one and nothing waiting for him in the cave. At the far end, he could see a door resembling the one he'd just come through, and nothing impeded him from making his way over and leaving the cave behind.

It seemed that, while the ghost wasn't so ready to let him go, it couldn't force the vision he felt looming on him either. After a moment longer spent waiting to see if anything would happen, he moved to exit the cave.

"You are weak, Adam."

He froze as the hateful voice called out to him, hand mere inches from the door's knob. When he didn't immediately move, the voice spoke again.

"You couldn't protect her--you couldn't protect anyone. You will fail again."

Flashes of faces flitted before his eyes, belonging to people he knew and many he did not, but all of them were familiar in the same way. The vision wasn't just limited to people he must've known in his past life, either. The faces of people around the village, of Quinn and his family, of the Elders and guards--of Belinda, Eugene, and Mary. They all appeared before his eyes.

In the vision, he watched himself lose them. It wasn't all that structured or reasonable--he didn't know how exactly he lost them, but each flash was tinged with a crushing sense of failure.

Lucas grasped the handle before him and opened the door, and all at once the visions were gone.

Before he could leave, he turned around and looked to the source of that voice. It took a moment for him to recognize the dark-haired man standing in the middle of the cave through the spite that marred his face. It was the same man he'd sparred with as boys, and as they both grew older, that so frequently appeared in his last vision. He was older, and changed, but buried deeply, Lucas recognized someone he once knew better than anyone else.

"You're not really him," Lucas told the apparition, "so it doesn't matter what I say here."

He turned around and faced the open hallway.

"I won't fail again."

Then he left the apparition behind.

As he walked through the hallway, finally heading toward where he could evolve his Class, Lucas physically shook himself. That had been a strange experience, to say the least. It was as if when he saw those faces and spoke to the dark-haired man, he hadn't been himself. Hadn't been Lucas. He was left unsettled, as if he didn't even know himself, but he wasn't confused.

Someday, Lucas would remember everything he'd been. But until that day, the past would remain behind him.

His guide was waiting just beyond the hallway, at the start of the complex's large, central room. Once again, he looked exactly like Lucas dressed in the cloak his mother had given him, but he also wore an unfamiliar, full-body suit of armor that looked nothing like the leathers of the guards. It wasn't important, but the detail definitely caught Lucas's eye before he readily dismissed it.

"We are short on time today, aren't we?" the guide asked.

"We are," Lucas agreed.

The guide looked at him, contemplating silently and leaving Lucas to wonder what exactly this being that was both him, and distinctly not, had to contemplate.

"A shame," the guide replied, "but there will be other times. Would you like a curated selection of the best Classes we currently have on offer?"

"That would be great, please," Lucas nodded and followed as the guide led him over to a couch and table already piled high with his soul-world's curious Class tablets.

Lucas took a seat and the guide started in on his explanation.

"I've narrowed down the best picks to ten different options, including some variety," he explained. "Not all the tablets before you are alike, and not all of them are direct evolutions of the [Aspirant of the Storm]. There are a lot of good Classes available to you, and it would be a mistake to unknowingly miss out on a good thing just because you initially favor something else."

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

Lucas scrunched up his brow and looked from the tablets to his guide. "But the time," he reminded.

His mirrored-self waved a hand dismissively. "There will be enough. I narrowed the options down with the time in mind. If you want, you could even pick out a couple favorites from these ten and see other options like them, and still your time wouldn't run out."

That sounded all well and good, but with both his and potentially others' lives on the line, Lucas was a bit hesitant to immediately accept the guide's word as truth. However, even though he seemed a bit strange and foreign, the guide was part of Lucas. What happened to him in the real world didn't just carry over, it technically happened to them both. In the real world, there was no separation between the identity of a person and their guide, so he had no reason to lie.

"Ok," Lucas nodded in understanding. "I'll...I'll let you know if I want to see any others."

"Very well," the guide said, "just yell if you need me."

With that, the guide moved to another couch and kicked back in a relaxed position, and Lucas refocussed on the Class tablets before him.

Alright, let's see what we got.

All the Class tablets looked the same at first glance, so he chose one at random and took a look.

[Magus Savant: The Magus Savant is one born to the capabilities of mana manipulation, and whose skill in spell craft is sure to grow. Their eyes are open to the arcane, and with every breath they purify their mana. They know the most natural path is sure to be the strongest, so they have cast aside all affinities but that of the wild energies of the world.

Warning: Some Skills may be changed or removed if you choose this Class.

+10 INT, +20 WIS per level]

Pure [Mage] Class, huh? Sounds strong, but I don't think so, and I'm not going to cast aside my lightning affinity for something I basically already have in a single Skill. Though, maybe it would make [----------] a Class Skill as well...

For the time being, Lucas set [Magus Savant] aside. It could be a good option, and he did see why his guide included it in the ten, but he was a [Healer], sort of, not a [Mage]. He moved on to the next.

[Disciple of the Storm: Once an [Aspirant], you have now joined the fold of the storm. Sought out its truths and discovered your own. But there is more to the wild tempest than you know, and knowledge and power await you in equal measure. Continue down this path, disciple, and become more.

+30 free stats per level]

Looks like a direct upgrade from my current Class, Lucas thought. It certainly sounds cool, but also really unspecific. I don't know, I'll set it aside for now and at the very least, if I don't like anything else, I can be sure that this won't horribly change or remove any of my current Skills.

Lucas inspected the rest of the Classes quickly, one after another. There were a few that he dismissed immediately, like [Cerulean Speedster] and [Hulk]. That first one focussed entirely on speed--and from the description, it could get up to truly incredible velocities. [Quick Step] would merge with [Accelerant Frame] to make an amazing Skill, but the description was also very clear that the price of all this was nearly all of Lucas's combat-ability.

[Hulk] was easily just as specialized, but rather than speed, it focussed on augmentations and pure regeneration. If Lucas chose that Class, [Rapid Regeneration] would likely see another upgrade, but he'd also have to abandon most of his Skills. All in all, he decided it wasn't worth it.

There were three others with similar problems that immediately removed them from consideration. Lucas wasn't exactly quick to dismiss anything, but he knew what he wanted and, more importantly, what he did not. With the nebulous amount of time he had, he wasn't going to waste any on a Class he knew he wouldn't pick in the end.

The next two Classes, however. They weren't so easily dismissed.

[Spirit Sponge: Like a sponge absorbs water, you take in the mana around you. Affinity and form mean nothing. Whether it be ambient or held within a spell seeking out your own harm, the mana is your's for the taking. Though it is immaterial, you may use what you take to augment your physical form and trounce any would-be attackers.

Take from them what they believe to be their's. Take it all.

Warning: Some Skills may be changed or removed if you choose this Class.

+10 VIT, +10 INT, +10 WIS per level]

[Goblin-Foe: In the caves, creaks, swamps and forests. Within the burrows, the mountains, then Dungeons. Hunt them. Fight them. Slay them all.

You will see to the goblins' extinction.

Warning: Some Skills may be changed or removed if you choose this Class.

+6 to all stats per level]

Out of everything he'd seen thus far, Lucas knew those two Classes were powerful. They had similar drawbacks to some of the previous options, and he wasn't too enamored with the idea of losing any of his carefully cultivated Skills, but what they offered was immediately relevant strength the moment he returned to the real world. Either of these Classes would seriously help him solve his village's goblin problem.

Some parts of their descriptions may have sounded a little insidious, but he couldn't dismiss them. Both Classes went into his short-list pile.

Then Lucas was on the last of the ten, and he immediately forgot about all the others.

[Ratian Sentinel: You stand before death and all you hold dear, but you will not falter. They will hunt you and challenge you, but they will not defeat you. Through each challenge, you will only grow stronger. Your touch will heal and destroy in equal measure, and your actions will hold the balance.

Proceed, and beat back the corrupt judgment.

+3 STR, +6 DEX, +6 VIT, +9 WIS, +9 INT per level]

The more he read on the tablet, the more certain he became. Lucas looked up and caught his guide's attention, and when he saw the Class in Lucas's hands, he smiled.

"I thought that was the one you would pick," the guide told him, "you made a good choice."

Lucas stood, and they met before the hallway he'd entered through.

"Let's hope so," Lucas nodded and looked down at the tablet nervously. "I guess I'll find out soon."

"You will," his guide confirmed. "Good luck out there, and I'll see you at level 100."

Lucas bid the guide goodbye and returned to the bedroom. He hesitated at the door at the end of the hallway, but this time, he didn't have to cross through any cave. Whatever memories were trying to resurface had apparently been shoved down once more. Lucas knew he'd have to face them one day, but for now, he had other worries.

With a firm resolve, Lucas got into bed, closed his eyes, and woke up.