Owen was confused, but Peggy shared a system screen to both him and Myra.

*Essence Specialist is a class focused on using mana inside of the body and imbuing it with an affinity of your choosing and turning it into elemental magic. This class gives the ability to learn skills focused on adding essence to your mana. Awards 3 stat points in mana, 2 stat points in perception, and 1 stat point in affinity, each time a class level is gained. Unlocks the Affinity stat*

Owen just stared for a moment, "I really don't know, I didn't even know that there were stats outside of the normal 8." Myra also looked confused, but then opened her eyes wide. "I just remembered, when I had met with my sponsor, they had mentioned when I get to a high enough class level, I'll unlock some stat called fury." Both Peggy and Owen stared at Myra then. "You didn't think that would be important?" Peggy asked, not sounded mad, but definitely disappointed.

Myra crossed her arms staring at Peggy. "I didn't even know what my class was going to be at the time so I forgot." She said defensively. Owen wasn't sure what to think about the extra stats. He had remembered how his master had explained some of the stats, so he turned to both of them again. Peggy interrupted his train of thought though as she began talking about affinity. "I think my affinity stat controls how strongly I can connect with my classes essence. I haven't put any stats into it yet, since I wasn't sure what it might effect, but if it does controls my connection to the essence, it would make me better at life magic?"

Owen wanted to try and explain it, but he hadn't even thought to ask about the stats, since he had thought there were only the original 8, though Peggy had 9 now and Myra would probably have the same amount soon. "I guess the only advice I can think of that my own sponsor had told me, was to upgrade your stats with free points only if you can't work hard to level them up yourself." Both of them nodded as they had had this conversation shortly after they had all gotten back from the tutorial.

"Alright, so what's the plan then?" Owen asked, but both Myra and Peggy looked disgruntled after he spoke. "Both of us have to focus on gathering as many mana points as possible before we leave for the tier 3 gate, which means you'll be in charge at the office tomorrow." Owen made a sour face but nodded his head at Peggy's words. He knew it would happen eventually, he had managed to stay mostly free of their management problems and do his own thing, but eventually he knew he need to step up.

They left for the apartment and talked for a while longer when they got there, mostly about before the system, but also about their plans for the future, once things were settled. Owen woke up early the following morning and made everyone breakfast before rushing to the clinic building. The day was much more hectic for him than normal and he tried to balance infusing his body with his mana and also the day to day work required. Most of it was trying to direct people for fixing some of the different sections of the small town that was being created in the remnants of Rochester.

They were lucky that after a brief meeting with the Sergeant Major over the phone, they had been granted permission to "assist" the police in getting the city back together and were given the proper documents to shut down most arguments now that the renovations were technically government sanctioned. They still needed to wait before doing anything too drastic before they could have a meeting in person, but for they were set and Owen felt like he was slowly drowning as more and more people came and asked him for things, healing, or for a leadership position in the guild.

Owen ended up needing to call in Lucas for back up and by the time they were planning on leaving for the gate, Owen had felt like he had been fighting tier 2 bosses throughout the entire day. He was getting antsy as Briar's status had changed, indicating that he was done assimilating the skills he had absorbed from the bosses. Owen had began pacing back and forth while waiting for the last minutes to pass by before they could close the clinic doors. He felt like he needed a good fight to settle his nerves, but he wasn't sure why that change had happened. Before the system had shown up he had been satisfied to live each day practically as an NPC, doing the exact same things every day and being satisfied with it, but now the normal monotony of a job made him feel like he was supposed to drag a knife across his skin as slowly as humanly possible.

He got so lost in thought, that thankfully the last five minutes had passed and he rushed over to lock everything up. Lucas seemed just as happy as he was and helped him to quickly close everything before they promised to meet a couples hours later at the gate. Owen rushed back to the apartment, releasing Briar as soon as the door had fully closed. Briar slowly changed back from his bracelet form and began shaping itself into a humanoid type figure.

They looked very different from when Owen had seen them last, though that time they had been blasted full of holes. They seemed more human somehow as their facial features were very reminiscent of someone you might see walking past you on the street. They had a golden blonde hair that was a short cut style. It also had intricate tattoos in a rainbow of colors wrapping across its entire body, which helped distract very the sickly pale color of its skin.

"Long time no see Briar, you feeling any stronger?" Briar nodded and smiled. It made him shiver as the uncanny valley was having full effect. He pushed back his nerves to ignore it. "So, we are going to go take on a tier 3 gate, do you think you could fight evenly with a monster at level 40?" Owen asked because he remembered that in the first tier 2 gate they cleared the hidden boss was able to power itself up to a level 30, so he had convince both himself and the girls to plan for there to be a monster close to level 40. Briar just nodded to the question and Owen sighed in relief.

"That's all I guess, unless you want to go over you skills now, actually we should anyways so we can try and plan how best to fight in a group." Owen said before pulling up Briar's status screen. Briar didn't seem to mind as Owen looked through it until he found the skills. Owen was getting ready to pour into it, but Briar interrupted his thoughts. "I can become a human with the right evolution, I'd like you to help me." Owen looked over shocked as they clearly had had a disconnect on topic, but he closed the screen to look at Briar seriously.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"I suppose I don't mind helping you out, but why would you want to become a human?" Briar paused, but looked into Owen's eyes again. "After the evolution, I was been able to learn to speak and with the devouring of more and more intelligent monsters, I have realized something." Owen waited with baited breathe. He hadn't really let himself consider the fact that most of the bosses they had fought had had the ability to speak. He didn't like thinking about it, as it humanized them more, but he forced himself to listen seriously.

Briar calmly looked around at their surroundings with a bittersweet smile that was becoming more and more human by the second. Owen was surprised that the uncanny valley feeling had completely disappeared already. "I want to be human as being human is freedom, even when another has taken it away. My thoughts are free, I am able to think and feel and I feel like I am becoming able to understand my place. I don't want to be trapped as a secondary creature in the system's eyes, merely there to defeat and collect some experience. I gained the ability to choose my path, but..." Briar paused as they were about to continue and a pained smile formed on its face as it made eye contact with Owen.

"But as soon as I realized I have the ability to choose, it has already been taken away from me. This familiar bond contract is something that binds my souls to yours, if you wished it, I would be dead. That is why I wish to become human, I want true freedom, past the freedom of thought in bondage." Owen just stared, he couldn't process the changes that had happened, but he understood the meaning in Briar's words. They were currently a slave, even if it was called a familiar bond, with the intelligence Briar had reached it was essentially the same.

Guilt riddled through Owen and he looked back at Briar again. "I could see if it would let me set you free now, rather than wait until you're human?" Owen asked hoping to ease the uncomfortable feelings roiling through him. Briar smiled and Owen was again shocked at how genuine he could tell it was. "I don't think that is for the best as of now, I worry I would immediately just become a target. I also don't mind staying with you as your familiar for now, it warms my heart that you even spent the time to listen. I just wanted to let you know of my dreams, hopefully they can become a reality."

Owen wasn't sure how to feel, but he felt like with the conversation they had just had, it would be rude to purposefully look through their status page without permission. "I'll do my best to help out, do you know what you need to evolve into a human?" Owen asked, but Briar shook their head. "I received a quest that is related, but it doesn't list anything specific that will do it." Owen nodded and began hoping that Myra and Peggy would come out of their rooms soon. He was uncomfortable with the level of intelligence Briar had attained, it put everything into a new perspective.

He wasn't certain that it was wrong to have a familiar, but it had started to feel wrong with how smart Briar was. He would have to talk to Briar about it more, as well talk about it with the others, but for now he was okay leaving the topic be for now. Almost immediately after he had decided this, Peggy and Myra exited their rooms and said their hellos to Briar. "Owen said he is going to help me become a human!" Briar said excitedly. Peggy tried to give them a high five, but after a short pause started to show Briar how to give fist bumps as well as high fives.

While Peggy was busy teaching Briar a lot of human mannerisms, Myra moved over to sit next to Owen. "That was nice of you, do you already have a plan to help out?" Owen shook his head and explained that neither he or Briar had any idea yet of how to do it, just that Briar did have a quest to become human, or at least something along those lines. Myra smiled at the explanation. "Well that was nice of you then, it is weird how easily I'm able to tell how excited Briar is about you agreeing."

"I thought the same thing, Briar has already been becoming more and more human as time passed and in the middle on the conversation it went o me getting shivers when Briar smiled to now me noticing how genuine they are." Owen added. "You look like you got a lot running through your head right now, need some help clearing both your head and a tier 3 gate?" Myra grinned and Owen grinned back. They grabbed anything they might want to bring with and within the next several minutes were loaded in Peggy's car driving towards the gate.

Peggy had had him drive for the first time, with him and Myra riding in front and Peggy trying to teach Briar some of the cars games she used to play as a kid. They cycled through some playlists as well and by the time they had arrived at the location the gate was supposed to be, Briar was already singing some classic road trip songs.

They were careful to not get to close to the gate and they only need to wait for about 15 minutes before Lucas pulled up. "Alright, since we are all here now, we need to figure out how we are going to fight as a group." Owen said as he allocated his 5 of his free points into vitality and putting the rest in resilience. "I'm decently tanky, but as of right now I'm slightly better at assassinating enemies." He finished and Myra immediately spoke up. "I'm probably best in a group of enemies so as long as Peggy can stand nearby, I should be good at the front."

Lucas looked sour, but explained that he also was good at the front of the group. It was Briar's turn now and they stepped forward and shared their skill list. Owen had gotten a peek at it earlier, but it wasn't enough to remember anything specific.

*Briar - Level 30

Skills:

Thorn Strike

Overgrowth Domain

Ice Spear

Walking death

Electric Lance

Wind Guided Strike

Elemental Armor

Elemental resistance*

Owen let out a hopeless laugh as he saw the list of skills. Each one looked like it was a strong skill on it's own. Turning to Briar he smiled wide, "I think you might be able to clear this gate alone, you seem really strong." Briar smiled back and began explaining their skills. Most of them were straightforward, like ice spear. Some of the more complicated named ones were given quick descriptions and Owen couldn't help but feel like they had managed to bring a powerhouse into their group.

Overgrowth domain supposedly let Briar summon several inferior roseborn to assist in a fight. Walking death had it emitting a cloud of golden mist that would began to cause damage directly to someone's HP and MP reserves. Owen was slightly overwhelmed by the power, but it was a small consolation that many of the skills required he would support Briar with mana to perform each of the attacks. Which meant Briar wasn't very strong when too far separated from him, which made him feel slightly guilty, but he had already agreed to help so he pushed in from his mind.

They spent another half hour going over their teamwork and how to not stumble over each other. When they felt slightly confident they wouldn't accidentally kill each other, they moved closer to the gate, letting it's energy pull them into it's small world. The world turned black around them for less than a moment before they appeared in the countryside somewhere, with a castle in the far distance.

*You have entered the tier 3 gate, Kingdom of Sianos.

Clear Condition: Lead the resistance to overthrow the current royal family.*