It was decided to split the world into several realms. The clashing was torn apart, sealed away. A realm was created for every species and each realm was meant for this species alone...
But you already know that, don´t you? Yet I haven´t given you the chance to understand the deeper meaning behind those words, the intricacies of this universe. You may even have thought more about all of this than I assume. Probably not. Or did you? Who knows but you yourself?
Confused what I'm on about? Yeah me too
Anyways, don't worry, all you need to know is that I'm about to introduce you to species and realms a little more. Nothing more, nothing less. So, allow me to broaden your knowledge.
Now, where to even start? Let´s go with the basics first? Ah yes, maybe something like this would work. Imagine me clearing my throat:
Interestingly enough, a realm is always dominated by only one intelligent life-form. For the Humans´ Habitat it´s only Humans, for the Demons´ Domain it´s only Demons. Simple, is it not? This rule is absolute, neither were there nor will there ever be any exceptions to it.
Call it coincidence or intention, but the ruling life-forms were created of fairly similar physique. To simplify, let us say that they all resemble what we call a humanoid form. Of course, there are cases in which this statement does not apply, for instance when a Demon |Evolves| into a |Hell Hound|, then they look more akin to a four-legged beast. But not only are those happenings quite rare, but they are also optional, individual choices. By that I mean that Demons certainly can |Evolve| into non-humanoid forms if they meet all conditions, but they by no means have to. In contrast, all Demons are born the same. If you were to change their skin color and remove their horns, there would be no way to distinguish a Human baby from a Demon newborn, visually at least. I myself find that fascinating.
But please don´t get me wrong, I am by no means implying that there are no differences between species: If anything, each species differs greatly in behavior and perceives the world and life in their own way, even from birth. If you were to observe a Demon baby and a Human baby for no more than a minute, you would immediately know who is who from behavior alone.
All this is fine and well, but there is one major, decisive characteristic that lets all other discrepancies look minor. It draws a clear line between all intelligent species, a special trait unique to each one of them - That is the way they increase their might, their different ways to get stronger.
Let me explain:
Thanks to our little protagonist you already know that Demons gain fixed |Stat bonuses| with Level-ups and leap over their limits by |Evolving|. That is how it always was for them.
Now Humans, they gain only few, almost insignificant amount of |Stat Points| upon every Level-up. Their advantage is that they can distribute them freely. Nonetheless, If this were their only gain, then even the strongest Human wouldn´t be able to hold a candle to a mid-level Demon.
You may have guessed it, that is not the case: On one fateful day, a Human, now engraved in history for eternity, reached a turning point in his research. He developed an |Artifact| that grants Humans the option to acquire a Class once they reach Level 10. Not only do Classes provide fixed Level-up Bonuses, but they also grant |Skills| and facilitate the improvement of those. Classes are seen as the Humans´ main way to attain greater strength. Without them, they would be near useless.
Well, and this brings us to now…
– – –
“How long will you keep at it? There´s no way for a Demon to get a Class!”
“How would you know that? I already told you I´m different from other Demons!”
“That. Doesn´t. Matter! Even if you´re no normal Demon, the concept of Classes only exists for Humans! Tell me, are you Human? Are you?”
“Well, I´m not”
“See?”
“But I have a feeling that it´d work though!”
“A ´feeling that it´d work´? What does this even mean? Haaa, you know what? Fine! I don´t even care anymore!”
Madeleine throws her arms in the air. The little girl, realizing that she was so annoying that she managed to come out on top of the argument, gives off a victorious grin. “I knew you would come to your senses eventually,” she says
Madeleine opens her mouth to protest once again, but quickly catches herself and manages to persist through the Demon´s provocations. She flops on her bed and begins massaging her temples.
“Now tell me, how do you Humans get a Class? What should I do?"
Madeleine sighs. “Well, first of all we need a |Classification Warden|” Madeleine sits and pushes herself up from the comfortable embrace of her soft mattress.
“|Classification Warden|?”
“An |Artifact|”
“Oh really? I wouldn't have guessed”
The receptionist rolls her eyes, but the Demon girl suddenly lowers her gaze to the ground, seemingly lost in thoughts. She then turns to the receptionist again “And where do we get that?”
But Madeleine only shakes her head “Don´t worry about it, I have one of them here.”
The receptionist makes her way to a lone shelf standing in the corner of the room. She takes out a few books, opens each of them to a specific page and puts them beside each other on the ground. Finally, she follows up by putting forth her hand. A few mumbled words leave her mouth as the paper beneath her flutters wildly and shines a bright yellow. The next moment, a low creak resounds from the wall. The entire shelf rumbles and pushes itself to the side. Or more like it seems an invisible hand just did. A dark passage reveals itself, illuminated by |Everlasting Torches|, an unusually rare and expensive product. Stairs of gray stone lead down to what seems to be the abyss.
“Wow” the little Demon whistles two quick notes, making it a little too obvious that she's impressed so it seems not genuine anymore. "But can´t you just break the shelves?"
"I would like to see you try" Madeleine smirks “Want to wait up here? Or you coming with me?” she asks as she grabs a torch from the wall
“I´m coming!” The Demon runs up to the hidden passage where she takes a moment to look around. Though seeing how Madeleine is already disappearing into the deep darkness, she blinks a few times and begins catching up to her.
The descent is long, yet somehow ends in no time.
--
They reach a large room in which the air feels uncomfortably moist. Constant drips of water and the partly moss-covered stone walls create an eerie atmosphere. The place is filled with old looking shelves, tables and wooden boxes. Everywhere the eye can set on are books, documents and tools of various sizes, most of them appear to be |Artifacts|
“I still get chills every time I come here” Madeleine mumbles.
Though the little girl seems surprised by the woman's words: "Why? This place kinda reminds me of home. It´s comfy, no?”
“Really?”
“Yup”. The Demon´s eyes fill with something akin to nostalgia. “It´s only been a few days but I already miss them. I wonder how Ro, Re and Ba are doing?”. She puts a finger on her cheek as she thinks about her family.
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Madeleine gives the girl a curious look. “Your Goblin family?”
“Mhm,” she nods
A moment of silence passes. “You´re really an interesting Demon”
Not responding to her statement, the Demon just proceeds further into the room “Say, isn´t this stuff pretty rare?" she says as she turns a weird golden disc in her hands "How did you get your hands on that?”
“Well, how should I put it… Let´s just say I have my ways” the receptionist says in an innocent tone.
Madeleine too follows the Demon further into the dark room. She passes a table and rummages through one of the boxes, pushing things aside and grabbing a silvery wand that has way too many decorations on it
“Is that it?” the girl asks and comes to her side
“It sure is, so let´s get out of here now” Madeleine replies, turning around.
The Demon remains standing in the room for a little longer, glancing around before nodding to herself as if she just confirmed something and following the receptionist out. “Hey, so how will this thing help me get a Class?”
The receptionist scratches the back of her head “Well, first of all I don´t think it will help at all”
The Demon rolls her eyes
“And secondly, you can trust me with this sort of stuff. I know what I´m doing”
The girl stops in her tracks
“Trust you?”
…
Madeleine stops walking as well and looks back, confused.
“You were really uneasy just a few hours ago, but now you´ve become pretty lively, don´t you think?”
Madeleine, realizing that her life is still practically at the girl´s whim, entirely in her hands, loses her words. She had almost forgotten the girl is still a Demon. Well, not really, but she kinda did. The stupid error her brain made is difficult to explain. Before she knew it, she became too comfortable with the Demon girl being around. How could she, of all people, have let her guard down so easily?
Madeleine gulps. “N-No, sorry. I didn´t mean to offend you or anything…” she mutters and makes herself look as small as possible.
The Demon blinks. She stares at the woman for a bit, examining her, her facial expressions and movements. Then, she suddenly bursts up in laughter.
“W-What´s so funny?” Madeleine asks, her voice somewhere between confused and a little irritated
“You are!” the girl says as she wipes a tear of her eye “You know, I didn´t like the tension we had before anyways. It feels better the way it is now.” she runs past the receptionist “Anyways, don´t worry about it too much. Maybe I shouldn´t have brought it up at all. Now hurry up, I want to prove you wrong already” she smiles, quickly disappearing up and above on the long winding staircase.
Madeleine stands in place for a bit, not exactly knowing what to think. She grits her teeth. ´She... Does she really deserve that?´ She, too, then starts ascending the seemingly endless way up. In the end, she keeps quiet.
--
“Madeleine, you´re slow”. The Demon complains from the bed with her legs dangling in the air
“Sorry… I´m not… Used to going up… So many stairs” Madeleine huffs as she rests her arms on her knees
The Demon jumps up from the bed and crosses her arms “Are you okay?”
Madeleine looks up at the girl, her breathing still rigid “Do I look okay to you?”
The Demon girl ponders “I guess you do?”
A droplet of sweat rolls down the receptionist´s cheek as she clenches her fists, her nails dig into her hands to the point that marks are left. “No, I really can´t let that happen to you” she whispers “I… You need to know something”.
The little girl tilts her head at the sudden change in the redceptionist´s mood. Quite unexpected, she thinks.
“It is true that the |Classification Warden| provides Humans with Classes, but that´s not the only thing it does” Madeleine hesitates before continuing “If used on an incompatible target, it´s not going to end well. In the earlier days when the |Artifact| still wasn't fully developed, many people lost their lives because certain conditions have not been met. Now it has been optimized and the sole condition is being at Level 10 or higher”. The receptionist lifts her gaze from the ground and looks the girl in the eyes “But you're a Demon. I… I don´t want you to die. Not anymore. Please, I´m begging you, rethink it a little. It´s not worth taking the risk, you´re strong enough already, don´t you think?”
The girl listens to the receptionist´s words. She takes them seriously because she decides it would be rude not to. Not when someone puts so much genuinity and sincerity into them. She doesn't want to mock this resolve. But in the end, she only shakes her head
“I told you, it´s gonna be fine”
“But–!”
“No buts. I already made up my mind. Besides, I hit Level 10 the other day so there´s nothing to worry about.”
Madeleine blinks a few times as she blankly stares at the Demon. “You mean you´re only Level 10?”
“That is correct”
“Then, all those adventurers… how?”
The little girl, slowly but surely getting impatient, gestures Madeleine to hurry up. The woman, seeing the Demon´s unflinching eyes, bites her lip in frustration. She then instructs the girl to stand in the center of the room and close her eyes.
The receptionist grabs the |Classification Warden| firm in her hands. Incantations one after another leave her mouth as the |Artifact| begins emitting a dazzling white light. Its glow intensifies by the second.
´Is it... actually working?'
Though all sorts of emotions start piling up, Madeleine doesn´t interrupt her chanting. After about a minute passes, the light suddenly separates from the |Artifact| and is absorbed into the Demon girl´s body. Madeleine lays the |Classification Warden| on her table and watches the little girl jumping up and down on the spot, overflowing with excitement. Actually, this is the first time that Madeleine sees her acting as her appearance would suggest.
“See? I told you it´d work!” the Demon turns to the woman who seems slightly out of breath.
“This… For the first time. Are you sure you´re not actually Human?”
“Are you doubting me again? Look, here, I even got horns you know?”
Madeleine shifts her gaze to the girl´s head. How... How does she notice only now? There are clearly horns on her head. Could it actually be Obfuscation?
“No, I believe you. It´s just... incredible, but I think I´ve learned my lesson,” she eventually says
“What lesson?”
“That you are absolutely ridiculous”
The little girl tilts her head “In a good way I suppose?”
The receptionist tries to remain serious, but her lips turn up into a faint smile “I guess so”.
Madeleine gathers her thoughts before speaking up again “Now that it has come to this… I didn´t explain anything in detail yet, but it seems I have to now”
The Demon girl nods in approval
“You should be able to see multiple options in front of you, right?”
The Demon girl nods again “Yep, it´s a little similar to my |Evolution|”
Mage Apprentice
----------------------------------------
Rarity: Normal
Bonus:
(per Level-up)
----------------------------------------
Vitality +1
Intelligence +3
Endurance +1
Agility +1
[Skills] granted: [Mana Handling], [Enhanced Cast] General Information: A starting class for those who pursue the way of magic.
Faith
----------------------------------------
Rarity: Normal
Bonus:
(per Level-up)
----------------------------------------
Strength: +1
Intelligence +1
Endurance +2
[Skills] granted: [Prayer] General Information: Say your Prayers.
Cadet
----------------------------------------
Rarity: Normal
Bonus:
(per Level-up)
----------------------------------------
Vitality: +2
Strength: +3
Endurance: +1
Agility: +1
[Skills] granted: [Body Reinforcement] General Information: A starting class for those who aspire to become a warrior.
Thief
----------------------------------------
Rarity: Uncommon
Bonus:
(per Level-up)
----------------------------------------
Vitality: +1
Strength: +2
Intelligence: +1
Agility: +3
[Skills] granted: [Cloaking], [Dagger Arts] General Information: Not actually a thief, most of them.
“But… I really can only infer what they do. The explanations are really bad...” The Demon scratches her head
“You should be happy there are explanations at all. But, that´s where I come in. Listen, this decision is very important. For Humans, it basically decides their way of life, for you… Well, this never happened before but I suppose you should pick one that fits your fighting style?”
“I mean, that was my plan all along?”
“Well, of course, but you really have to listen closely and understand how to utilize each Class to its full potential. This is really important, ok?”
The Demon intended to take it seriously from the very start anyway. With a raise of her brow, these feelings are conveyed to Madeleine without any further need for words.
“Good, then let´s do it like this: I´ll roughly explain each Class you have for option and its Class Advancements. Afterward, we´ll go into detail about the Class that piqued your interest. How does that sound?”
“Uhm, good?”
“Good”