Adam learned an important lesson during his breakdown. Strong emotions caused by traumatic experiences were much more easily worked through from inside one’s own mind. He felt at peace, something he had thought impossible for him anymore. There were still things weighing on his mind, but the burden was much less than before. More importantly, he was ready to face them now.

He’d been mostly catatonic while grieving, just letting the emotions flow through him. When the torrent had slowed he started thinking again. With a much lessened weight on his mind, and the added serenity of the mindscape, his thoughts quickly came to a realization.

Adam might not be strong enough to break the chains of slavery, educated enough to think his way out, or experienced enough to already know the solution, but he did have a tool to become all those things. So, he wasn’t enough yet, but he would be.

When all of the grieving he could withstand was finished, leaving him feeling peacefully hollow, Adam uncurled from the ball he had been in. Rolling onto his back, he looked upon the vehicle of his salvation. His class. Mother. The last notification showed him the true beginning of his new life.

Congratulations!

Gifted Class:

Mother

Skill Gained:

Mama Bear

It didn’t contain a lot of new information, but it was nice to know what skill he had received. Not that he knew yet what it was. He moved on to his status.

Name: Adam (no surname)

Age: 13

Class: Mother

Level: 6

Class Affinity: 3.2%

Life Status: Enslaved, Apprentice

Owner: Duke Quentin Roberts Westbrook DeVille

The first page of his status had only minor changes since he had last looked upon it. The duke was mentioned, and his level had changed. Apparently, either level gains weren’t activated until he actually read the notifications, or his collapse and subsequent entrance into his mindscape the first time delayed them. With a moment's more thought, Adam envisioned a number of other reasons his level hadn’t been updated the first time he saw it, chief among them was Szellem and the System Assistance program. He knew it would be important to figure out in the future, but for now it didn’t really matter.

Reaching out, he flicked his hand as Martin had told him too. According to the older man, thoughts and actions were how you worked with the system from inside your mindscape. As he turned his hand as though turning the page of a book, he thought of the page of his status turning in time with his hand. In response, the panel with his basic information rolled to the side, exposing his class page.

Class: Mother (C)

Level: 6

Class Affinity: 3.2%

The combat variant of Mother. This multi role class is specialized in the care, raising, and protection of children. Roles are categorized as Love, Protection, Discipline, Chores, and Household. With increased physical abilities and a collection of special boons, Mothers are capable of raising even the most difficult of children in any environment. While they are incapable of using traditional weapons or armors, a Mother only truly needs an apron and a nearby cooking utensil to defend or discipline her child. The increased growth rate for a number of crafting and trade skills means she will always be able to handle any of her child’s needs. The granted ability of a Mother is the transformative skill Mama Bear. Every Mother, like bears, will give their all to protect their children, and this ability will make them capable of succeeding from the beginning. Never get between a Mama Bear and her cubs.

Boons granted: massively increased strength, reflexes, and senses; Mother’s Endurance; Mother’s Intuition; increased resistances to sleep and pain

Restrictions: cannot use weapons or armor

Bonuses: increased skill gain with cooking, cleaning, and sewing; added skill synergies with certain crafting skills; added effects for certain tools during combat

Skills: 1 (5)

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Love: None

Protection: Mama Bear

Discipline: None

Chores: None

Household: None

Specialization: None

Adam spent a long time simply staring at the class page. His eyes flickered from piece to piece, trying to make sense of it all. He had known that there must be something special about the Mother class to make him capable of killing Harold, but he never expected what he saw there.

He had read the description, and while it was impressive sounding, it didn’t really do the class justice. He had more than just increased physical abilities, they were MASSIVELY increased. In addition, it wasn’t just a simple one aspect increase, it was strength, reflexes, and senses. The only one he was missing was endurance, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Mother’s Endurance had that covered.

On top of that, the class also gave resistances, and Intuition! Intuition of any kind was normally reserved for evolved classes, or so he had been told. Every fable had a hero with an Intuition boon or skill. They were the very things that let them become the heroes they were. Their Intuition kept them safe from assassins, traps, natural disasters, and incorrect puzzle solutions. It would even help them spot that one weak point, or misaligned array structure that they needed to strike to defeat the villain and save the world.

Sure, he would never be the hero rushing to the rescue of damsels everywhere without being able to use weapons and armor, but he could certainly make a fistfull of cash. With a higher growth rate on crafting skills, in time he could become a master craftsman, a guaranteed path to riches. Tailoring wasn’t exactly his idea of a good time, but he actually enjoyed cooking and it came with the added benefit of feeding him deliciousness in addition to making money.

Adam wasn’t sure what to make of some of the other portions of his class description, but considering the sections he did understand, he was certain they were just as impressive.

Still excited, he only glanced briefly at the skills section before turning to the next page that covered them in detail.

It wasn’t quite like the others, as instead of a nice list it had tabs sectioning off his skills into seven different areas. The first one covered his boons in more detail, as well as a brief overview of his situation as it applied to each of his skill categories. His only complaint was the descriptions were woefully short of details in most cases.

Specialization: Must be level 10 to choose a Specialization

Skill points available: 5

Love: 0 (2)

Protection: 1 (5)

Discipline:0 (1)

Chores: 0 (4)

Household:0 (2)

General: 0

Massively Increased Strength: Multiplies physical strength.

Massively Increased Reflexes: Multiplies speed of reactions.

Massively Increased Senses: Multiplies receptiveness of senses.

Mother’s Endurance: Keeps a Mother going as long as needed.

Mother’s Intuition: A Mother knows what her children get up to.

Pain Resistance (S): Reduces pain felt.

Sleep Resistance (S): Reduces the need for sleep.

Adam read through the list twice before he let out a groan of disappointment. The Intuition boon he’d thought was so amazing was a complete dud. How could he have been so stupid as to ignore what had been right in front of his face? It wasn’t the Intuition of a hero, it was the Intuition of a Mother! Of course it only worked on kids.

Phenomenal cosmic power!

Focused on keeping kids safe.

And could Mother’s Endurance be any less explained? Adam had no idea what that boon did. The increases to his physical abilities weren’t much better, but at least they made some sense. At least the resistances were understandable, although the S with them indicated they were skill boons. That made them even better, as he could increase their power in the future.

A quick flip through the rest of the tabs gave him a decent understanding of what was going on with them. The first number was how many of those skills he had, and the second was how many were available to be taken. With five available skill points, he had a fair bit of work in front of him, but he stuck to reading the only full skill description he had for the moment.

Mama Bear: All mothers should be protective of their children, but a Mother takes it to an extreme. Much like the wild bear this skill transforms the user into, Mothers will give their everything to defend their children from harm. Be warned, giving your everything has a cost. Deactivates when threat is no longer perceived.

All physical aspects increased to match the perceived power of the threat at the moment of skill use. Status set to Berserk (Defensive) if children are present. Period of weakness follows use. Duration and severity of weakness dependant on the amount of power needed to match the threat. Can only be activated in defense of yourself, or your children.

Mama Bear’s description explained everything that the notice of Harold’s death didn’t, including how he had actually managed said killing. It gave him the power he needed to kill Harold, but cost him his consciousness for a period of time. It was worth it, but he would need to take special care when using the skill in the future.

With a much better understanding of his class and his skills, Adam looked at his five available skill points and smiled. For the first time in his life, he was looking forward to shopping. Maybe his class was affecting him already?