Select Class?

“Damn it AIAI, you have the worst fucking timing!” I said.

Negative. My timing is impeccable. The rate at which you level is determined by your actions alone.

“Well my timing sucks then. I was about to finish that fuck.” Even though my body was gone, I still felt as though my blood was racing.

Confirmed. You are a lucky, predictable, cheat and your timing is inadequate. Select Class?

“Let’s just get this over with so I can get back there and finish those traitors. What are my options?”

The list of available Classes is extensive. Select Class?

“I can’t pick until you tell me my options.”

Confirmed. Stubborn.

“AIAI, how can I possibly pick if you don’t tell me any choices?”

The list of available Classes is extensive. Select Class?

“For fuck’s sake! Let’s narrow down the scope first, shall we?”

Confirmed. Specify request?

“Interesting. O.K. show me the options that have the highest value in terms of gear.”

Confirmed. Sorting by gear value. Listing selection: Bronze Golem, Noble Knight, Exchequer, Silver Smith, Connoisseur, Artificer. Select Class?

“Noble Knight is gonna be a big upgrade on the Lordling Class right?”

Confirmed. Stat and Skill increases between those Classes are similar.

“What’s a Bronze Golem?”

Bronze Golem provides: +1 Brutality, +1 Constitution, Gain Skill: Polish Off, Gain Upgraded Skill: Heavy Metal, 50 gold & Bronze Armour of the Golem.

“So it’s a super heavy tank build. It doesn’t have much in the way of stat increases. What’s the value of that armour?”

Request denied. Select Class?

“Fair enough. Show me the Classes with the greatest overall stat increases?”

Confirmed. Sorting by Stat increase. Listing selection: Wizard, Rogue, Ranger, Warrior, Witch, Warlock, Soldier, Craftsman.

“Wow. So the more standard ones have higher stat increases and I’m guessing the more unique options have the rare gear or unusual skills?”

Irrelevant. Select Class?

“I’m guessing Witch and Wizard are variations on the same class. Both probably boost Magic, but maybe Mind a little too?”

Confirmed. Select Class?

“What does Warlock offer?”

Warlock provides: +1 to all known Stats, +2 to chosen Stat, Gain 100 Gold & Occultist’s Robe.

“Holy shit. That would be 11 stat increases. Wait, unless that includes stats I have heard of but haven’t gained a point in yet? Like Bloom… Which is it, AIAI?”

Request denied.

Sigh. “Tell me about wizard?”

Wizard provides: +5 Magic, +5 Mind, Gain 100 Gold & Occultist’s Robe.

“These stat increases are awesome, but it kind of sucks that they don’t come with any cool skills or like… Perks. Do any of the classes come with Perks?”

Confirmed. Sorting by Perk Unlocks. Listing selection: Wight, Morphling, Hellion, Wraith, Fracturion, Sorcerer, Executioner.

“I would have expected Sorcerer to be on the standard list. What’s different about it?”

Sorcerer provides: +3 Magic, +2 Mind, Gain Perk: Chosen Affinity, Gain Upgraded Skill: Oversurge, Gain 100 Gold & Occultist’s Robe.

“That would really lock me into this elemental build I’ve been moving towards, but I’m more interesting in branching out. I want more adaptability."

Confirmed. Your indecisiveness is incurable. Select Class?

“You know, taking my time to choose a class is actually the sensible thing to do. You shouldn’t rush me so much. It makes me feel like I have a countdown over my head.”

Confirmed. Countdown initiated. [20] seconds remaining.

“Fuck you! Stop the countdown.”

Request denied. [19].

“Shit. Show me the Executioner?”

[18]. Executioner provides: +2 Brutality, +2 Constitution, +1 Mind, [17] Gain Perk: Harvestial, 100 Gold & Executioner’s Mask.

Fuck, fuck, fuck! I don’t have time to think! I should definitely pick a class with high Mind though. Even if the perks are cool.

[16].

“What does Witch provide?”

Witch [15] provides: +3 Magic, +3 Mind, +3 to a chosen Stat, 100 Gold & Occultist’s Robe [14].

“Can the chosen stat be Mind?”

Request [13] denied.

“Fuck you, AIAI. Seriously.”

[12] Select Class?

“What does Hellion do?”

Hellion provides: +1 to all known Stats [11], Gain Perk: Devour, Gain Upgraded Skill: [10] Spirit Seek, Gain 100 Gold & Forlorn Brigandine [9].

Devour… the perk I had before. Yes, It was good. I want it back, but it doesn’t come with much in the way of Mind. Maybe, there is a better one that has cool perks and a solid Mind boost?

[8].

“Shut up, AIAI! What even happens when you finish counting?”

[7] Confirmed. Something will happen when the countdown reaches zero [6].

She’s making this shit up as she goes just to fuck with me.

“I need more time, AIAI. This is an impo—”

[5].

“I pick Hellion.”

Confirmed. [4] Thank you for choosing your [3] class. NULL instantiation begins [2] now.

“Stop counting!”

[1] Request Denied.

“Fuck you.”

Goodbye [0].

----------

Stat Increase: Brutality +1, Charisma +1, Constitution +1, Dexterity +1, Perception +1, Magic +1, Mind +1, Necrosis +1, Tinker +1.

Unlocked Perk: Devour.

Basic Identify evolved into Spirit Seek.

100 Gold added to your Pocket Book.

Magic Stat 10 attained.

Specialisation available.

For the briefest moment, I saw the tavern flash before my eyes. Blood, sweat, and quicksilver streaks were frozen in the air around me. Rivers of spilled drinks sprayed out in the air above the pit as the members of the crowd lost their grips and their minds in the uproar. A hundred flushed faces painted with gob-smacked expressions looked down on Imber and I.

He knelt before me. My arm outstretched with the dagger buried in his throat.

And then it was gone. The crowd was gone. Imber was gone. My dagger was gone. As quickly as the world returned it was snatched away again. But unlike the instantaneous transportation to AIAI’s zone, I actually felt myself being pulled to somewhere new this time.

It was like the rocking of a ship at sea or a sudden stop after running full-sprint. My insides seemed to jerk to a halt. I was yanked by my naval into darkness.

Everything was still and silent.

“What the fuck is this now?” I asked. “I have perks and armour to look at and I was in the middle of a fight, this really isn’t the time to be snatched away into darkness. Whoever is behind this come out… please?”

No one answered.

“I can’t see a thing.”

I held my arms out around me and tried to make sense of my surroundings, but I couldn’t feel a thing. Not even a breeze. Everything was completely still.

I walked forward carefully with my arms outstretched in front of me. After a few steps, my fingers brushed up against a cold, metal wall.

It was perfectly smooth, polished metal. I knew it was some kind of metal because it felt vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t have named it.

Keeping the metal wall on my left, I stumbled along in the darkness. I was moving slowly in the darkness, but even so it was a few minutes before I felt a change in the air.

I stopped moving and listened.

There some faint gurgling sound, something like trickling water down a drain or the wash of sand in a timer.

The darkness was no longer as pitch black here. My eyes were beginning to adjust the the near-perfect darkness. I couldn’t see any details, but the cave or tunnel I was standing in opened up into a cavern. The levels of darkness were distinct. I looked up at the opening, the angles were too smooth and exact to be a natural cave. The tunnel was hexagonal.

Please don’t let this be a humongous, metallic beehive.

I walked towards the gurgling sound, but the wall ended at the opening. I would need to step out into the open cavern if I wanted to follow the sound.

Yeah, I’m not doing that.

I slid my hand over the corner of the cavern wall and followed the black metal as it curved around.

I considered calling out again, but my pulse had risen quite a bit in the darkness and I wasn’t feeling as confident anymore.

“AIAI,” I whispered. “This better not be you fucking with me because of the countdown. I picked before you reached zero. You can’t punish me for choosing my class before you finished counting.”

I wasn’t even sure if she knew what happened outside of her Instantiation Zone.

If my new gear is back in the darkness of that cave, I’m going to flip out.

A flicker of light over to the right caught my eye.

I hurried towards it. The ground was smooth, so I wasn’t worried about tripping, but even so I trod carefully. Only the patter of my footsteps echoed back to me over the faint gurgling.

I rounded a slight corner and spotted a wooden torch sputtering on the ground. The light it gave off appeared to be magically dimmed at first, but then I realised that everything was black.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Once I held the torch in my hand, I could see that I was perfectly well-lit, but my surroundings still seemed to be obscured by shadows.

The metal of the walls, ground, and ceiling was a mysterious smooth blackness that shimmered and blurred. I recognised it at once.

This is the same material as my dagger… wait, where is my dagger?

I was weaponless, except for a torch, but I felt confident enough to leave the wall and approach the gurgling sound. I remained vigilant to ensure I was walking in straight lines. I didn’t want to veer off and start circling myself.

The gurgling emanated from a disturbed pool of quicksilver. Waves swept out from a central maelstrom.

Not only is the metal the same as my dagger, but there is also a large pool of quicksilver? This is too much of a coincidence. Where the hell am I?

In all the chaos of levelling up, I had barely registered the notification that my weapon was evolving… now that piece of information seemed quite relevant.

Someone sniffed.

There are a few sounds that are simply impossible to mistake and the sniveling of a runny nose is one of them. Someone was quietly weeping in the darkness.

----------

As the light from my torch fell on him, the boy raised an arm to shield his eyes.

He was young, barely a teenager. His cheeks and eyes were red, not just from the firelight. He had been crying for a long while. Alone in this dark place… I couldn’t blame him.

“It’s O.K. kid,” I said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

He sniffed and bent his neck trying to look at me past the torch in my hand.

“Who are you?” he asked.

I don’t know.

“I’m Null,” I said. “Who are you? And what are you doing here?”

“I don’t like it here. Where are we?”

“I don’t know. But I’m going to get out of here. Do you want to come with me?”

He wiped his nose with his sleeve and rose to his feet.

“Alright. Lets go,” I said.

“It’s dark,” he said.

“Just stay close,” I said. “Don’t look at the torch. Let your eyes adjust and you’ll see better. If you see anything like a change in the darkness, point it out. You got that?”

He didn’t answer so I looked back at him and he nodded.

I led him back towards the gurgling pool of quicksilver.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Quicksilver.”

“Why is it making that sound?”

“I think it’s draining away,” I said. “There might be a way out wherever it’s draining to, but I would rather find another way before risking it. If we are still here when it empties, we may have to go down into that pool, but for now, I think we should walk with the wall on our left.”

“Why?”

“That’s a trick people use in mazes. Follow the wall with your left hand and take every turn you come across, as long as it is a left turn. Then you will never get lost.”

“How come?”

“Because you can always retrace your steps by taking every right turn.”

“Oh. That’s smart.”

“It’s simple. That’s why it works. It lets us put our minds to use on other things instead of remembering every turn we take.”

We walked on past the quicksilver pool until we found the wall, then we began to follow the wall with our left hands sliding across the smooth stone. Every time I stopped to listen for new sounds, the kid bumped into me.

“You don’t have to walk so close. I’m not going anywhere,” I said.

He took a step back, but stayed as close as he could. I could tell he was scared. I had been frightened myself, but now I knew there would be a way out.

“So who are you, kid?” I asked. “What’s your name?”

“I…” he started to answer, but quickly trailed off into silence.

I turned to look at him and saw him scowling at the ground.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I don’t remember my name.”

“Huh,” I said. “You know, that’s kind of the same as what I’m going through. I don’t really know who I am.”

“But I know who I am,” he said. “I just can’t remember what they call me.”

“What who call you?” I asked.

“My family,” he said. “My mother, my brother, and my sisters. I can remember them and my home. I remember the dogs and Big Wendal.”

“Who is Big Wendal?”

“That’s our bull. He has six wives and he has a big red patch over his ribs and one of his horns is crooked.”

“You’re talking about cows?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “We have chickens too and a couple pygmy griffons.”

“Where do you come from then?”

“Pentamorel,” he said.

I frowned and continued to walk. I had a bad feeling growing in the pit of my stomach.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” I asked.

“I… I don’t know,” he said. “What about you? Where are you from?”

“I’m definitely not from Pentamorel. I can tell you that much.”

“Oh,” he said. “Well, you’ll love it when you visit. The city is a bit much, but out where I live, everyone is really nice.”

The talking seemed to be helping him relax a little.

“Remember to keep an eye out for anything, especially a change in light. It may lead to the way out,” I said.

The wall was curving gently and I had the sense that we were starting to slope upwards, but it was gradual enough that I could almost be imagining it.

“Did you hear me?” I asked.

I turned around and he was gone.

I was alone in the darkness.

----------

I searched for the kid for a long time. I retraced our steps all the way back to the quicksilver pool, risking stepping away from the wall to hike into the darkness every few minutes to try to find some sign of him.

“Hey, Kid!”

I hadn’t heard him leave. If something had grabbed him, how did it move so quietly?

“Where did you go?”

Eventually, I turned around and continued on without him. I reached the point where the smooth ground began to slope uphill and I followed as the sleek metal grew steeper and steeper, then I came to a set of stairs.

At the top of the stairs, there were two white flames flickering on wall sconces and between them stood a narrow archway.

I ran up the stairs two at a time and walked through the archway.

A long corridor stretched out in front of me. The same smooth, black metal covered every surface, but the texture had changed slightly to create the impression of paved stone.

I crouched down and run my finger over the crack in the paving and as I had expected, it was fake. There was no crack, the paving was as smooth as the hexagonal chamber I had first arrived in. It was only the appearance that had changed.

Strange.

As I rose to my feet, a new sound reached my ears. This was another noise that was hard to mistake: snoring.

I walked down the corridor glancing into the rooms on either side. They were small cubes barely large enough for a table with a single chair. Some of the rooms had small beds and little else except a bucket or a stool.

In one such room, I found the sleeper.

He was a young man, remarkably similar to the boy from before, but maybe a decade older. He was snoring like an old drunk and I could smell him as soon as I entered the room.

I reached out to shake him awake, but just before I touched him, he jerked up and vomited.

I jumped aside and just managed to avoid the splatter that splashed up off the floor.

“Yuck,” I said.

“Sorry,” he groaned. “I shouldn’t have…”

He vomited again.

“Look, I can see that you’re going through something right now,” I said. “But do you know where we are?”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “We’re in the jail, obviously. If you forgot that, you must have drunk even more than I did.”

He threw his head back to laugh, but then changed his mind and vomited instead.

I waited until he had finished and then caught his attention again. “I don’t think this is a jail,” I said. “Look at the walls. They aren’t real stone.”

He lifted his head to look at the wall and groaned. “Urgh,” he said. “I feel terrible.”

This guy isn’t going to be any help at all.

“I’m guessing you didn’t see a kid come by here a little while ago?” I asked.

“A kid?” he asked. “In a jail? Not likely.”

“Who are you anyway?” I asked.

He frowned at me. “It’s just on the tip of my tongue,” he said. “I can’t quite remember.”

That figures.

“So why do you think this is a jail?” I asked.

“I remember getting arrested, that’s why. Fucking Frontier guards always acting so high and mighty.”

“What were you arrested for?”

“I punched a bloke who was looking funny at my girl.”

“And you were drunk, I assume.”

“I was, but that’s not the issue. He had it coming.”

“Because of a look?”

“You don’t understand. You don’t know what she’s been through.” His eyes had unfocused. I wasn’t sure whether he was still seeing me or seeing his girlfriend.

“She’s tough and that’s what fools people into thinking she’s doesn’t care. But she does care. You just have to take time to understand her. She listens to me. I get her,” he said. “I was the first person she told. I know why she puts up with the Frontier fuckers even when they treat her like shit. I know the whole picture.”

“I don’t even know who you’re talking about,” I said.

“He was a freelancer, her father. The Frontier hired him to scout a dungeon, but he never came back. The whole team came back except for him. Don’t you think that’s suspicious?

“The Frontier wouldn’t even investigate. Fuckers. That’s why she joined them. She’s gonna climb the ranks and find out for herself what really happened. She won’t tell no one, but me. That’s why she puts up with their shit. She has to until she has the power to change things from the inside. They’re all corrupt as shit. I’m the only one she trusts.”

“Well, now you’ve told me,” I said.

“Oh, shit,” he said. “Please, don’t tell anyone.”

He leaned forward and vomited.

“Vidari, I’m sorry,” he cried.

“Imber?”

The torch in my hand flickered. The flame dimmed, then rose once more to reveal an empty bed. He was gone.

I was alone once more.

"What the fuck?"

----------

At the end of the corridor, the metal walls expanded into a large, well-lit chamber. Pillars stretched up from the ground to the ceiling in two rows.

I walked between them towards a figure crawling away from me.

I didn’t need the light to know it was Imber. But as I caught up to him, I was surprised to find him smaller than I expected.

“Imber?” I called out.

He stopped crawling and turned to face me. It was the boy from earlier.

“You found me. I was scared without you.”

He looked at me strangely, his eyebrow curling up. “Null, are you alright?”

“Imber, what is this fucking place?”

“You remembered my name.” He smiled. “Thanks. I was lost without it. I think I found the way out. It’s up ahead.”

I walked around him and continued on through the pillars. Within a few steps, he had caught up. He was running to keep pace.

“Wait for me,” he said. “You said to come with you remember?”

“Yeah.” I sighed. “I remember.”

I don’t know what this is, but I have a feeling I’m not gonna like it.

“What’s this all about, Imber? Where are we really?”

“I don’t know,” he said.

I looked down at his face and he seemed genuine. He was frightened, but trying to put on a brave face.

We reached a point where the pillars spread out into a wide circle. At the center were two figures.

One was crouched, the other stood before him with a dagger to the fallen’s throat.

Beside me, the young Imber gasped. “What are they doing?”

That's us... this is fucked up!

“Null, is that you?” he asked, but his voice had changed. It was deeper again.

I turned and saw the young man again. The boy had aged once more into his drunken future self. He swayed where he stood.

“Looks like one heck of a fight,” he said. “I wonder what they’re fighting about. Probably a woman.”

“No,” I said. “It’s about justice.”

The drunken Imber grunted. “Same difference. There will be a woman in there somewhere.”

Katri’s smirking face flashed through my mind. I clenched my fists, but said nothing.

Drunken Imber walked ahead of me, circling around to get a better view of the fight. He stopped a few paces away and stared at my duplicate.

“You look fucking furious.” As he spoke, he turned to look at the fallen fighter. “What did this guy—”

Imber fell silent. I couldn’t see his face.

“Oh.” His shoulders slumped. “I remember now.”

He turned to look at me, his face was old and haggard. His wretched expression of hopeless remorse drove an icy lance through my heart.

“Why have you brought me here, Null?” he asked. “Is it not enough to just kill me?”

“I didn’t do this,” I said. “I don’t know what’s happening.”

He looked into my eyes, searching for a lie. “You really have no idea?”

“I can take a guess,” I said. “But your guess is as good as mine.”

“I doubt that,” he said. “What would your guess be?”

I stared around the huge chamber of sleek black metal walls and shimmering pillars. The metal was both alien and yet incredibly familiar. I had seen it before. The quicksilver pool had also stood out to me. It wasn’t the first time I had come across such a large quantity of the stuff and I had also witnessed a great deal of quicksilver being absorbed into my blade, a blade which just so happened to be the same colour and texture as the walls we were surrounded by.

“I think,” I said. “Somehow, we are inside my blade, but I don’t know why.”

“The blade you killed me with,” he muttered.

He shook his head and glanced at the fighters again, then his brows knit together in anger. “I yielded!”

“I know.”

“I fucking yielded, Null!”

“That means nothing,” I said. “You yielded because I disarmed and defeated you. When you threw me into that dungeon, you never gave me the chance to yield. When you ambushed me in the woods when I had barely even begun to understand this world, were you willing to let me yield? You were the first people I met!”

“We were hired to do just that,” he said.

“That doesn’t change anything!”

“We thought you were a monster. They told us you were a monster.”

“Well, I wasn’t.”

“You weren’t. What are you now?” he asked, then turned to look at my duplicates face again. “Come see for yourself.”

I walked around the circle until I could see the expression on my duplicate’s face.

The face, my face, was livid. The brows were vicious curls. The snarl revealed fangs and bared teeth. And the eyes… the strange, obsidian eyes turned to look at me.

Those aren't my eyes.

The head turned and my duplicate smiled at me.

“I wanted to meet you,” he said with my voice.

“Who are you?” I asked, but I already knew.

“You already know.” The smile was playful, but his eyes were blacker than the darkest night.

“You’re my Soul Blade.”

He spread his arms and in his hands, two daggers appeared. They were longer and sharper than the Rondel Dagger I had pulled from my chest, but I recognised the same handle.

“At your service,” he said, with a bow. “For now.”

----------