“Heavy Protector… Is that good?” The group laughed at Arturo, who was literally given the class he’d always deserved. “Geez, man… Are you sure you didn’t always have that?” Liam asked, with a hint of admiration. The princess stepped in to answer, her eyes shining with excitement. “The classes are rooted to your inner selves! It chooses a class that thinks best fits your skills.” The group paused, before all looking at their pages once again. Apparently some were a bit embarrassed of their classes.

They all had done the ritual, had pricked their blood to put on the page. He’d seen the same thing happen to them all, a burst of flame from the page and then their eyes glowing a strange color. It would happen to him the moment he let the page touch his blood. He had to do it soon, though. Everyone else had already done it and him being last would make it seem as if he was showing resistance.

With a deep breath, he let the wound on his finger allow the blood to fall to the page, and then waited the couple of seconds it needed to activate. He must have been nervous, because time seemed to slow to a crawl as he watched the blood seep into the page. It wasn’t until he looked up and saw no one move that he understood something was wrong. Everything was set in a hazy dark fog, shifting and changing as he himself moved as if the light couldn’t reach his eyes correctly.

Was this what the others had experienced? It might have explained their stupor after they did the ritual. He waited patiently for it to end, until he heard voices. “How foul, I’d have expected more from a human being.” “Indeed. Look at his brain. It barely functions.” “Indeed… its as if I’m looking at a golem. I’m surprised he doesn’t just fall over.” He looked around cautiously, unable to see anything in the hazy dark.

“Hello? Who’s there?” He knew they were insulting him, but he knew better than to act out in this condition. Besides, their voices had little malice in them, more just pity and disappointment. It wasn’t something he had to worry about. One of the voices spoke up, standing out from the rest due to its kind tone. “Oh, how terrible. For such a short lived being to feel so little… I can fix you if you join me, child.”

Fixing. It was always that word when it came to him.

It wasn’t until the princess healed his wounds that he understood just what that meant. How much he actually needed it. “Fix? How?” He asked, looking around but still not seeing anyone. He hated how the voices appeared in one ear and then the other, as if they were talking around him only a few feet away. “She’s lying, boy. Your cure is not worth servance to such a god. Become strong in body and your mind will soon follow.”

“Hush. The boy needs his medicine. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind such a prestigious role, either way.” The voice was full of sing-songy amusement, as if his illness was but a game to her. He couldn’t trust her. “I decline. If there really is a way I can… fix myself, I’m sure I can find it myself.” He was confident about his own skill, the only reason he had given up finding a cure in the first place was because of the limits he had before. Now? Well, this world had definitely been a complete eye opener for him.

No longer was finding a cure just a downward spiral into a world of pills… With magic, with terrifying beings that could speak into his mind…

Beings that despite not being there, could run their hands down his neck.

“Please try to be a bit more lenient in your refusal, darling. Gods don’t take kindly to being denied.” His throat shut, the lining of invisible fingers pressing into his neck. He made a mistake, he had not expected them to have such an ability.

“I’m… Sorry.” He barely managed to sputter out. His begging did nothing, though, and it wasn’t until one of the other voices spoke up that she stopped. A smooth, condescending voice spoke up to stop her. “Stop this, woman. He is a hero, and he’s come to help your bastard child. What more do you need?” His vision faded as the hold lasted a few more seconds, before he heard an auditory sigh and a sudden release. He dropped to the floor, gasping in precious air as the world around him brightened again.

These ‘gods’ were against him. A few seconds of silence passed, and for the moment he almost hoped they had left. No luck. The voice appeared to his right, close and gentle enough to sound as if she was whispering inside his ear. “Please, darling. Help out my precious disciple. She… She’s quite innocent, and I doubt this summoning was the king’s doing. I can’t intervene when it comes to mortals, but…” He felt the gentle brush of fingers going through his hair. “I can intervene with heroes. Please remember that.”

He nodded, unable to speak due to his sore throat.

“Good. Now, I assume you weren’t just acting uncouth towards me. You don’t want to fall under service with any god, is that right?” He nodded again, keeping his eyes toward the ground. Gods, people, he couldn’t trust anyone in this world. “...Don’t be like that, child.” Said a gruff voice, “It isn’t all bad. Find yourself through this goal. Experience the world as your friends do. A broken mind is no excuse not to have fun.”

He absentmindedly nodded again, a chill running up his spine as he realized these monsters could read his thoughts. It was obvious in hindsight, considering how easy they figured out his condition. Still, he felt invaded. Torn open. His mind was the only part of him he was able to keep to himself and now these people were-

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“Oh for the love of… Just send him back before he goes insane. We’ve already corrupted too many heroes as is.” “...don’t say that. We-” The voices faded into the distance as time readjusted, and his eyes burned as he fully experienced the world at full speed again. “Gah… What the hell.” He rubbed his eyes, groaning in pain as the bright burning flame in front of him finally fettered, falling to the ground as a piece of paper.

His head was pounding, to the point where he could barely pay attention to the world around. It was as if he’d been awake for a week. “Oh, He actually did it. About time. …Jack?” They called out to him but he didn’t care. His head was full of problems no solutions. The gods knew of his illness, and if they had access to the others’ minds then his secret was no longer safe. Things might be safer if he searched for a way to cure his mind…

The others could accept the truth easier if they knew he was healed. He could have lied but he wasn’t sure if those gods would call him out for being untruthful. From what he knew of gods, they preferred those with an honest path in life. His path was as honest as he could manage, maybe the only reason he hadn’t been killed. His knowledge on gods and demons were limited, mostly since the concepts had no real impact in his career choices.

He wished he had just a bit more curiosity in those types back then, oh how useful the knowledge would have been now. Finally, the headache subsided enough for him to roll his head back to the table. He didn’t expect what he saw. Everyone was around his paper, making halfhearted comments with funny looks on their faces. Joviality mixed with some worry. Liam turned to him with a big grin on his face, one of the few with a genuinely happy smile.. “Hey, at least you can’t say it doesn’t suit you, buddy. Haha! At least you got an S in something, I wasn’t that lucky, you’re real lucky, though. Apparently…”

He ripped the paper out of his hands, feigning annoyance. “What the hell does that… mean?” The page was… well, he wasn’t sure if anything was different from the rest, since he hadn’t bothered to check but… It certainly wasn’t something he could consider normal.

Puppeteer- (Lvl 1)

The strings of magic are something everyone in the world uses, to some extent. Whether they mold and stretch them through spells, or flex and harness them through their tempered bodies. Even the simple act of living a quiet and mundane life can pull the strings in large and conflicting ways. The strings of magic are universal, and through proper preparation and training you can be the one to control their strings, whether one wants it or not.

Strength- D

Constitution-C

Perception- C

Agility- C

Arcane- A

Willpower- A

Luck- S

Skills- (Strings of fate) (Weaving fortune) (Capture Puppet) (Train Puppet)

“...Puppeteer? The hell do I do with puppets?” Shit, this was bad. If he didn’t play this off somehow this would make him look terrible. He looked at the others for an answer, but they all just had the same tightlipped smile on their face. He wasn’t an idiot. Of course he knew what the ‘class’ stood for. It just wasn’t anything good. It wasn’t until Mary finally sighed and pointed to the description that he realized he had to make do with this failure.

“You know damn well what this means, Jack. It’s not like we expected anything else though. You were always a little snake.” He laughed anxiously, noticing just how much she was downplaying the truth. Despite everything, she wanted to help him. She turned around to the others for a reaction, and they all laughed. He was grateful. “You wanna know what I got? Let’s get our papers, guys.” She even changed the subject, what a good person. He watched as they each went to get their papers, wondering why she would go through the trouble of helping him.

Was it guilt for breaking up with him? He had in fact told her his deepest, darkest secret after all. Maybe she still had feelings for him? That… Would be problematic, considering what she already knew. Old thoughts crossed his head, thoughts on how he could solve the problem. None of them involved staying a good person, however, so he brushed them aside. At the very least, she was there to support him for the moment, and that was all that mattered.

For now, he had to play a role.

The princess saw them all reach for their papers and clapped her hands. “Ah! I’m sorry. It’s my first time doing this. Everyone, please tear your own paper in half. It doesn’t have to be clean, just make sure it’s your own.” We all looked at her in confusion, before they took their papers in their hands and tore them. The pages fell apart in their hands, crumbling to the floor before dissolving into a blue light as the pieces hit the floor.

Jack watched them for a minute before he decided on doing so. They all stared blankly in front of them for a moment, before turning to each other with a confused look. He decided it was safe and tore apart his own page. He watched it crumble just as theirs did, and braced just in case the gods wanted to hurt him any more.

Nothing happened, and he opened his eyes to find the page in front of him, the same black paper with white lettering as before, only larger and completely flattened unlike before. He looked to the others curiously, wondering if they saw the same thing. He almost asked until the doors behind him burst open, the strength behind the door so powerful that the massive doors shattered the walls next to them.

The man who had done the deed was massive, as tall and big as Arturo, wearing fur armor with a massive sword on his back. Beside him was a brown haired man in a crown and royal robes, a red cape and the same green eyes as the princess. “Anna! What have you done!?” He looked around the room and saw Jack and the rest, all wearing completely different clothes from the rest of the fantasy style garb they had, and only became even more terrified. “What… What did you do!?”

He turned to the princess, whose face was a mix of mortified and determined. He recalled what the goddess had told him as she was strangling him to death.

Ms. Princess hadn’t gotten the permission to summon from her pop.

And if he didn’t do anything about it then he’d be… punished.

Goddamnit all.