When a person reaches Level Twenty, they are immediately notified of a Class Change available. Technically, a person isn’t considered an Adept until they accept that Class Change and pick the Class. Potentially, a person could continue to level with their Novice Class. However, there isn’t much of a reason to do so. In addition, a person is only notified if they are in the Real World.

Alaster’s rate of leveling significantly decreased after reaching level eighteen. He had expected to be able to run through the Everfrost Dungeon twice more, one per level. But he had instead been forced to run through it twice to reach level nineteen and three more times to reach level twenty. He had been so focused on killing everything in the Dungeon that he hadn’t even noticed that he had reached the level until he left the Dungeon.

However, despite his nearly overwhelming excitement, he managed to hold it in. He had been careless during the last Boss fight. Two of his Black Guards had nearly been destroyed. His Ring was full of Snow Ape Furs. The Boss Furs themselves took most of the room, forcing Alaster to spend several hours condensing the Bone Cubes even further.

Typically, Dungeons would have a list of Loot the Boss could drop. It tended to be a list only five or seven items long, however, rarely, there were dungeons that dropped only one or two. Everfrost seemed to be one of those rarities. He now had six Mana Cores, all identical, so much so that Alaster didn’t know which was the first one.

After he healed his Black Guards and repaired their equipment, Alaster sat down on a small bone chair he quickly made, it was fragile, but it would do for his weight. The recommendation for new Adepts was to do your Class Change somewhere safe and calm. Take your time. And do it while sitting. There were ways to change your Class while not having to increase your level to the next tier, but they were exceedingly rare, enough that they might as well be legend. What the aspiring Adept chose, would forever be their selection. And if the Adept managed to become an Expert, their Adept Class drastically effected the available selection.

After he had ordered all of his Undead to guard him and situated himself comfortably in the chair, Alaster pulled out the Book of Classes that Alice had given him on his fifteenth birthday. Hopefully, he would be able to read a general description of some of the Classes he was offered. After all, the System only offered the names and the Class it derived from, if there was one.

However, Alaster didn’t select the Class Change. He had Free Points to distribute. He wanted to be as stable as he could before he made a decision as important as this. Bringing up his Status, Alaster put six of the ten Free Points into WIS, bringing it up to one hundred, and the last four into INT, bringing it up to seventy-two.

[Class: Death Mage

Level: 18<20

EXP: 32%<12%

Health: 415/415<435/435

Health Regeneration: 11/min

Mana: 400/400<420/420<440/440

Mana Regeneration: 9/min<10/min

Spells: Necrotic Bolt, Raise Undead, Bone Crafting, Mana Manipulation, Death Touch, Skeleton Creation, Meditation, Necrotic Heal

Strength: 60<64

Dexterity: 52<56

Constitution*: 61<65

Wisdom*: 90<94<100

Intelligence*: 64<68<72

Free Points: 0<10<0]

[Wisdom 100 Bonus Unlocked]

[Wisdom 100 Bonus: Death Pact

Level 1: 0%

An Undead Spirit has bound itself to you, pledging to protect you.

Nurture it, and there will be none better.]

Alaster would have been very confused, but the moment he finished reading, he felt something moving beneath his skin, trying to break out. It moved from the center of his chest, just under the skin, to his spine, a small bulge showing it move. It was a slow process, and one that was exceedingly painful for Alaster. However, as much as he wanted to, he didn’t claw at it or try to hinder or destroy it. The process the System chose might occasionally be painful, but it was never harmful, at least not in a way the System couldn’t later repair.

The ‘something’ finally reached the middle of Alaster’s spine, while he bit his lip to stop from screaming. There it stopped for a moment, before it began to drill into the vertebrae, embedding itself into the bone. Despite all his best efforts, he screamed. Even as the System healed, his bleeding lip and the cuts in his palm where his nails cut, the creature forced itself into the bone.

After what felt like an eternity, the pain stopped, leaving behind a dull ache. An ache the System either didn’t or couldn’t fix. As Alaster’s mind returned to the world, he hoped it was the first one.

‘For something that swore to protect me, it sure is causing me a lot of pain.’

However, instead of the usual silence, he was greeted with a foreign emotion of apology. Alaster nearly fell out of the chair, his sudden movement creating fractures, which his second mind immediately set to fixing.

“Are you the Pact?” He spoke aloud.

He was greeted with an emotion of confusion, so he reworded his question.

“Are you the thing that dug into my back?”

It responded with an affirmative emotion. Alaster did not really understand how an emotion could be affirmative, but when this thing responded, he could feel its meaning. The next hour was spent questioning it, which brought plenty of answers with it, but even more answers.

The creature was actually a spirit that had taken on a physical form in order to bond with Alaster physically, allowing it to protect him physically. However, it didn’t sacrifice Spiritual protection for Physical. It would protect him from both. To protect against spiritual, it formed a type of net around him, that would either intercept or reduce the effect or damage from the Spiritual attack. This protection was always active. When Alaster asked if it was able to disable it, the creature had shown confusion. However, Alaster believed that with practice, it would be possible.

The Physical protection could easily be disabled, however. To protect Alaster from physical damage, it would form armor around him. Currently, it was only able to form a gauntlet, made out of a strange black metal that Alaster could not identify. The gauntlet itself seemed like it had come out of a story book as the armor of a villain. It had sharp edges and ridges, with sharp fingertips. Alaster was not able to remove the gauntlet, and moving it felt perfectly natural, almost like it wasn’t there.

Alaster’s next series of questions was about how to improve it. The answer it provided was both completely expected and not at all. Just like most Abilities, it Leveled from use. Kill EXP essentially, but it didn’t use EXP at all. Instead, the creature would absorb part of the essence of whatever Alaster killed, regardless if Alaster had the armor on or not. As the creature leveled up, it would become better suited to protect him. The ‘net’ would grow stronger and tighter, and the armor would gain more and more pieces.

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When Alaster asked what it remembered of its past life or death, it told him that it couldn’t remember anything from before it appeared within him. Alaster had been hoping that it would provide him with knowledge of the afterlife or ancient history, both being extremely valuable, but he hadn’t really expected much. The System was nothing if not fair. It would not have provided him with something so valuable so easily. Though the blood on his chin reminded him that it hadn’t been so easy.

The emotions and images that it provided Alaster made him think of it as immature, childish. Though he had the impression that as it grew, it would grow in maturity.

Next, out of curiosity, Alaster asked what it physically looked like. He really wished he hadn’t. The image the creature provided wasn’t horrifying in itself. The thought that a creature like that had dug its way into his body was. It looked like a bony spider with sharp tips that allowed it to carve its way around. Alaster didn’t see any mouth or eyes, but that somehow made it even worse.

However, the Bonus wasn’t the only thing he needed to deal with before he chose his new Class, and as much as he wanted to continue questioning the creature, he wanted to choose his Adept Class more. Luckily for him, he currently only had one Ability that needed to be attended to. Though, he certainly wouldn’t have turned away any other Abilities that had leveled up.

[Skeleton Creation

Level 9<10: 42%<13%

Create what none have created

Mana Cost 50/min]

[Skeleton Creation Evolutions:

1. Blueprint. Save the customization of a Skeleton to copy.

2. Creature. Able to create non-humanoid Skeletons.

3. Null. Created Skeletons become minutely resistant to hostile Mana.]

Yet again he was met with familiar Evolutions. Blueprint, right at the top, tempting him. And Null, at the bottom, reminding him of the possibilities. However, once again, the middle option was the one that drew Alaster’s attention.

He had attempted to create animal Undead before, but it never worked. Even if he made the bones exact and if he used the bones of an animal, it would instead create a weird humanoid Skeleton using the bones. Even the Night Children, who usually ran around on all fours and climbed like some kind of spider, was still humanoid.

Blueprint would save him an unbelievably large amount of time, especially as his army of Undead grew larger, but he simply couldn’t force himself to look past the versatility of non-humanoid Skeletons. So Alaster made his choice.

With all of that out of the way. Alaster finally turned his attention to the Class Change. The moment he did, he was presented with a selection of Classes.

[Adept Classes Available:

1. Artisan

2. Armor Smith

3. Black Mage - Death Mage

4. Necromancer - Death Mage

5. Flesh Mage - Death Mage

6. Weapon Smith

7. Bone Mage - Death Mage

8. Engineer

9. Blade Bound

10. Death Knight - Death Mage

Make your Choice.]

There didn’t seem to be any order to the Classes. There were however some Classes he immediately decided against, such as the Crafter Classes. For the rest, he opened the book of Classes he had been gifted. However, the book was as unorganized as the list of Classes. It took him a while.

Black Mage was derived from his current Novice Class. It seemed to focus on the Necrotic Spells. The book described the Class as being able to manipulate the ghosts of the dead to do its bidding and creating an Aura of Necrotic Mana around itself while raining down Spells. It didn’t mention Undead at all. While the Class seemed to be great at causing damage, especially to the living, it also seemed pretty fragile. Like, one lucky or well planned shot could end it. So Alaster moved onto the next Class.

Necromancer was the most infamous option available. And it earned it. A Necromancer could summon large amounts of the Undead. Usually not too particularly strong, but they made up for it in pure numbers. An average Adept might be able to handle five of the Undead at once, but there wouldn’t be five, there would be fifty for each Adept. Every faction would go to war over having a Necromancer. A single Adept Necromancer could change the tide of an entire war if used correctly. Alaster wanted to choose it, it was an obvious choice, but he was always careful. He wouldn’t make his selection until he looked through each one.

He moved to the next Class, Flesh Mage. While Necromancers were always well received and even public heroes, Flesh Mages were considered little better than monsters. Despite that, they were still relentlessly recruited by factions. They could raise Zombies. An Undead that was much more durable and even retained a small portion of the victim’s stats, while they were still alive. The highest level Zombies a Flesh Mage could raise could even use a few abilities of the victim. However, while that was powerful, that wasn’t what they were truly feared for. Flesh Mages, while they had access to plenty of spells, had one particular spell that could wipe out entire cities if it was not stopped.

Corpse Explosion. It did exactly what the title said. It caused a corpse to explode violently, sending flesh, bone shards, and even metal shard depending on what the corpse was wearing, speeding through the air. The explosion is so violent that the debris can penetrate armor and even tear down stone buildings. The Flesh Mage could use it on their own Zombies, but it was known for being used on armies. Corpse Explosion spread, like a disease. All the Flesh Mage had to do was cast it on one corpse, and it would then jump to any corpse within a three meter radius. And if it killed something, it would also cause its body to explode. It could be countered, but if used on an unprepared victim, it could wipe out an entire city, leaving no man, woman, or child alive.

Even Alaster detested Flesh Mages, but that didn’t mean he refused to become one. They were terrifying for a reason.

While Black Mage focused more on the Necrotic Mana side, Bone Mage focused more on creating things out of bone, including Golems. Bone Golems might sound like Skeletons, but Bone Golems were entirely made out of Bone. Just like any other type of Golem, they were extremely strong, and even harder to kill. Alaster had heard stories of someone who used Golems to conquer a city. Despite being severely outnumbered, the Golems were just too difficult to kill. However, Golems were expensive. Each one requires a Mana Core.

Alaster entertained the idea, but ultimately decided against it. It was simply too expensive. While he would still be able to use his Undead and even improve them, just like any other Class, especially when he equipped them with even stronger bone equipment, it wasn’t worth it. Choosing an Adept Class wouldn’t restrict the Novice Class Abilities. He could, if he wanted, become a Blacksmith who used his Undead to carry supplies.

Alaster read the entire description of Engineer, but didn’t even get through half of it before he decided he wouldn’t choose it. It would allow him to build stronger and larger structures, as well as spot the weaknesses within a structure, but that wouldn’t really help him.

Blade Bound sounded extraordinary. It coupled with [Imbuement] to create a Class that seemed custom-built to hunt Mages. He would be able to track Magic, as well as defend against it, even cut through it if he became powerful enough. However, it sounded like it used a lot of Mana in a short amount of time. Used more to hunt down a single Mage, or a small group. Nonetheless, Alaster put it to the side.

Faced with the last option, he couldn’t find it in the book. Even after looking through it several times. That in itself wasn’t that spectacular. The Book contained the brief descriptions of hundreds of Classes, and yet it only detailed a small amount of the total known Classes. A list that was constantly growing as people selected them and learned them. Alaster had no desire to be the first one to experiment with a Class. He wanted to pick a Class that was known, so he could choose the most optimal path with that Class. If he chose Necromancer, he had every intention to travel to one of the cities with a Necromancer and asking them for guidance.

Yet, despite that, Alaster couldn’t help but turn back to Death Knight. Many Adept Classes were considered Pure Classes. That didn’t make them any more powerful or useful. It simply meant that it was the natural and ‘pure’ way the Novice Class was meant to go. For example, a Geomancer was the Pure Class of Earth Mage. Despite both being called Earth Mages, Geomancer was a much stronger version.

Pure Classes typically added little to what the Novice Class already introduced. They usually only strengthened the already known Abilities and capabilities. While an Earth Mage might be able to create a two by two meter cube of solid stone in an hour, a Geomancer could do the same thing within minutes, while also making the stone much stronger in every way.

While many Classes didn’t have a known Pure Class, Alaster couldn’t be sure, but Death Knight seemed like the Pure Class of Death Mage. It just seemed like a fairly logical step forward. But what Alaster was feeling wasn't entirely logical. Something about the Class was almost forcing Alaster to pay attention to it.

‘Are you causing this sensation?’ Alaster asked, the creature dug into his spine.

‘No, but I feel it too. That Class feels special.’ It replied.

Alaster weighed the risks as well as evaluated the benefits of choosing one of the other Classes, yet regardless of how he reasoned it, he always turned back to Death Knight. Against his better judgement, he went with it and chose Death Knight.

Immediately, his vision blacked out, and he could feel himself falling out of the chair. And then, he felt nothing at all.