Owen just stood there speechless for several seconds. All of his options were completely different now and instead of only some of the features being customizable, all of them were. He tried selecting the class bonuses option, mostly to see if he would be given a menu he could use to help make decisions. Instead, he felt like the world slowed down, what felt like an endless stream of information entered his mind and then in what felt like the same instant, it was over.

But he understood now, at least he understood what his limitations were regarding his class bonuses. Wanting as much information possible, he quickly selected both the class passives option and the class specialty. Again, information filtered into his brain, he gave himself a second to actually process it, before he moved himself back to the real world.

He spent some time trying to gather his thoughts while waiting for Xerxes to return from whatever he had ended up going to do.

Class bonuses were by far the most interesting, especially with some of the effects he could get from the list of possible class passives. Class bonuses mostly revolved around his stats. He could add a stat using one of the bonuses, he could get a percentage stat boost to any stat, or even combine some of his stats. Combining any of those options with the possible class passives, could leas to insane general power increases.

One of the best aspects was that if he so chose, he could increase the amount of bonus stat slots he had access to, even though there were only normally two. Another thing he could theoretically do with his passives, other than increasing stats, was that he could affect his usage of weapons or boosting skills, or even make it so that a specific skill didn't require the usage of mana. The class specialty was the only option he didn't feel like he quite understood. He knew, from the knowledge he had gained inside of the testing hall, that he could have his class specialty be something as simple as a basic focus on chaos energy.

On the other hand, he could have it contain his entire fighting style, just so long as he found a way to identify it. It was definitely intricate enough that he wasn't sure he wanted to make any changes at least until Xerxes had enough free time to explain it to him. Even with the knowledge the system had given him access to, it didn't help him to know how to properly apply it, or even get the best effects.

Several more minutes passed without Xerxes returning, so Owen turned his attention to something that had been battling for attention, ever since he had gotten it. Opening his list of skills, his eyes looked to the most recent addition to the list.

*Farseeing: Level 11

Grants the user the ability to peer through the structures of reality. Fate, illusion, and defenses cannot hold back your limitless sight. Higher the level, the easier it is for the user to see things unseen. Needs to be sufficiently leveled in order to view more than one branch of fate.*

Owen felt like his eyes were about to fall out of his head. He had the ability to look into the future now? It was a weird thought and even weirder still that there was an item that allowed someone to get the skill simply by putting on the necklace. He had to assume that it was one of the inheritance items you could find in a tutorial to get the inheritance class possibility, but even still, it was strong. He had been able to pierce through some kind of veil or maybe even illusion without much effort, just by having the skill run passively in the background.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. Looking up, Xerxes was standing with a tired smile on his face. "Before anything else, I am going to need the farseeing amulet back." He said holding out a hand. "What even is this thing, it is super overpowered compared to anything else I have seen." Owen said as he began taking the amulet off. In the process he got a system notification just as it was fully removed from around his head.

*Would you like to add the farseeing inheritance knowledge contain in this amulet to your farseeing skill? Y/N?*

"Hey, Xerxes, I just got a notification telling me that if I want I can absorb the inheritance knowledge from that amulet." Owen said as he passed it to Xerxes. He practically flinched and Owen was immediately concerned, but Xerxes turned his attention fully to Owen, looking him deep in the eyes. "The system is giving you the option to absorb inheritance knowledge? Do you have a skill that let's you do that? Has this happened before?"

All the questions came rapid fire, Xerxes barely taking any time to breathe in between questions. This time Owen was the one to gesture towards some chairs and Xerxes seemed to remember himself and shook his head while smiling. They both ended up walking to the small table in the courtyard anyways and when they sat down, Owen took the chance to pour them both tea as he explained what he knew.

"I don't have a skill for it, I have been offered a class related to it, back when I had cleared my first gate. But this is the same exact prompt I got when finding a jeweled monkey emperor amulet." Xerxes nodded his head and Owen was glad he wouldn't need to repeat the whole story. "When I tried taking off the amulet the first time, I am not sure what happened, but I woke up inside of the testing hall with the copy of me telling me that I was being too greedy. I'm not sure if it was because they thought I was going to try and absorb the amulet, but I got the system prompt right as I was removing the necklace."

They went into silence for a while as each of them took a sip of the tea and Owen couldn't help but release a relaxed sigh. He heard Xerxes start speaking and he pulled his attention away from the delicious licorice tea. "Do you know anything about the farseeing tribe?" Owen shook his head as he took another sip and Xerxes nodded. "The farseeing tribe had been a tribe of beast folk that were inducted into the system, but rather than the system enveloping the entire world with its power, it only surrounded the farseeing tribe. They grew quickly and became dangerous even faster as the key characteristic of their race was their sight and the system granted them boons that increased its power."

"By itself it isn't anything that is overly strong, but any connection to the farseeing is highly sought after because of the uniqueness surrounding their induction but also their power. So far, they are the only ones to have developed a way to see into the branches of fate, which made them terrifying opponents. So, you can imagine with all of the attention on them, why this amulet is dangerous?" Xerxes half asked at the end and Owen nodded. "Why wouldn't you just destroy the amulet then, if it is so dangerous to have?" Owen asked and Xerxes seemed to think it over.

"When I was given the amulet, it was to try and resurrect the farseeing tribe if possible." Owen's eyes flashed at the word resurrection, but Xerxes shook his head. "I am sorry, my friend, it was a poor choice of words, with the amulet, I could create a new tribe of the farseeing." Xerxes didn't bother to mention that his associates now knew he had it, but he did decide to mention they knew he had the skill. "Several of my associates were not very happy that I let you use the amulet, even if it was to prevent the sins from gaining control of your body and mind."

Owen felt his face go white and Xerxes stared for a moment before slapping his own forehead. "I forgot to explain where we go from here." Xerxes said apologetically and Owen could only wait for him to continue. "That ball of energy you found and bound with your mana, is a special kind of soul virus. If you don't know for sure it is there, then it won't show up in any form of sight, except when using the farseeing skill."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"The virus by itself takes several different forms, with the goal of interrupting the process of creating a secondary class. It will change the class itself to one that better suits the sins and while the class is forming insert itself into the process making you more susceptible to either being taken over or being convinced to join." Xerxes said seriously and Owen nodded, though he was pretty sure he didn't understand all of the negative connotations. He was already against the sins and a part of him wanted revenge, but he wasn't rushing to get it. Though maybe he should, they had tried to interrupt his secondary class gains, but Owen waved away the thought.

"So, should I wait to form my class then?" Owen asked. He was now more thankful than ever that he had decided to wait, so that he could speak to Xerxes first. "No, you should be fine now to start creating you class, if there were still any issues, one glance at your core using the farseeing skill, would tell you everything you need to know about whether the virus is still there or not." Xerxes answered. Owen nodded and quickly dove down into his core, after several seconds of carefully inspecting it, without the skill reacting, he brought his attention back outside himself and nodded.

"I couldn't find anything that resembled the remnants of a virus." Owen said and Xerxes nodded. "In that case then, you should be ready to start creating it." "Is there anything I need to know? I am worried about picking options for the bonuses, passives and the specialty, since I know I will be locked into my path after I create the class." Surprised made its way onto Xerxes's face, but he quickly masked it with a thoughtful expression.

"The only advice I can give is related to the class specialty option, go with your gut in the moment and be as true to yourself as possible. Actively selecting something for that option can either be a great boon or disastrous, so just trust your gut. As for the bonuses and passives, you cannot really go wrong when selecting choices in those. As long as they boost your path in some way, it should be good." Owen nodded his understand and became quiet for a while. He was thinking about what he wanted to do with the options and he remembered the option to combine some of his main stats.

"If I wanted to combine some of my main stats with the bonuses, would that be bad?" Owen asked. He didn't feel like it was a stupid question, especially since he knew some stats could upgrade, so maybe combining them would work similar. When he turned his attention back to Xerxes, he just saw him shrug. "Combining main stats can sometimes be good, other times it can lead to issues. As long as the stats are at least somewhat complimentary, such as vitality and resilience, you should be fine, though I don' know if I would recommend doing so as one of your bonuses, when you could get so much more out of them."

Owen gave himself a little bit longer to think about any other questions he might've had, but eventually he just nodded once to Xerxes and disappeared and the world warped around him.

When he appeared in the testing hall, the prompt for the class creation immediately appeared again. Selecting his class bonus option first, he paused. He still wasn't fully confident he knew where he was taking his class, but focused on what he felt was right to choose. Selecting the first open option of the 3 possible class bonuses, a voice echoed through the hall.

*Name your desired class bonus.*

He paused for only a moment, but decided. "I would like to add the secondary stat, intelligence."

*You have gained the intelligence stat. This stat has been gained through your secondary stat.*

"I would like to combine my mana and intelligence stats" Owen said next and there was a pause, before he got another system notification.

*You have combined the stats, Mana and Intelligence. These stats have turned into the stat, origin mana.*

That hadn't quite been what Owen had been expecting and he was able to quickly find the description of the stat through his menus. Apparently with these two stats combine, he could now use purified mana and after adding an affinity to it, he would be able to practically instantly cast it. While he liked the idea, he wanted to think on it for just a bit longer, so he said out loud. "Can I change that selection?"

As soon as the words left his mouth he got a notification telling him his origin mana split into intelligence and mana. "I would like permanent percentage boosts, to all of my stats." Again the system seemed to pause for a moment, before a prompt appeared.

*You have 40% percentage boost to allocate between all of your stats.*

Owen immediately wanted to add a 40% buff to one of his stats, but instead, quickly adjusted it so that each of his main stats increased by 5 percent, except for luck, which he put the 5% bonus in his new intelligence stat. He decided to save his last bonuses for if he had any ideas later, so he switched to the class passives options.

He had thought about what his first choice had been for a while, always hovering in the back of his mind. Feeling ready, he hoped his idea would let him circumvent some of the beginning limits of the classes, so when he asked, his voice was slightly shaking from nervousness. "Please increase my weapon based damage as a scaling percentage of my dexterity." He didn't get a response from the system for several minutes and Owen had started wondering if the system hadn't heard him, but just as he was about to ask again, he got a notification.

*Weapon damage permanently increased by 6%, scaling off of the ten percent value of your dexterity stat.*

Owen cheered at the notification. It had worked exactly how it had wanted too. He had been worried for a long time about not focusing on combat stats as much, and while his control had gotten several times better, it still felt weird to see some of his stats being almost three times lower than his highest ones. Now he didn't have to worry about his combat potential, since as his dexterity got stronger, his weapon damage bonus would also get stronger.

Now even if his dexterity was increased to 100, without his other stats changing, his weapon attacks would by then be doing 10% more. And if his stats ever got into the thousands, he could only imagine how powerful each of his attacks would be. Satisfied with his first choice, he considered trying to do the same with his other leading stats, but something inside of him made him want to pick something else.

"I would like my combat resonance to be stronger by a percentage amplifier and if possible, would like to see how strong it is compared to one of my normal attacks."

*Combat Resonance has gained a 1% damage amplifier. Damage is now 2001% weapon damage.*

Owen's eyes bugged out and he started laughing, no wonder he had been able to kill monsters stronger than him with such ease, he had been hitting them twenty times, each time he hit them once. He quickly had the system remove the most recent change. He couldn't really worry about his combat resonance if the bonuses were only going to be different by a percentage point, so he selected the next best thing.

"I would like all damage with my affinities increased by a percentage increase." Part of him had wanted it to scale with another one of his stats and depending on the bonus he would get, he knew he might still make the same choice, but he was having a hard time focusing, as his mind was still trying to consider possibilities.

*Affinity based damage increased by 40%*

Owen was immediately uncomfortable with his weapon damage option. While he knew in the long term it would be several times better, he needed to actually live that long in order to make it worth it. He wasn't sure how long he spent considering all of his options, but eventually he sighed. He couldn't in good conscious pass up the option to infinitely grow stronger a different way from his stats, even if it it would make him weaker now. He had the system change the bonus to be similar to his weapon damage bonus, but instead scaling off of his mana.

*Affinity damage permanently increased by 5%, scaling off of the ten percent value of your mana stat.*

The final choice had been easier than the others, especially since a part of him still ached that he was losing out on some power. The final option for his passive had been being thought about for a while. He had known that after his secondary class was formed, he could no longer actively farm stats in between levels, as those stats were separated between his class and secondary class. So, now it was going to be harder to actively increase his mana stat, unless one of his class passives allowed him to increase it whenever.

"I want the ability to increase my mana stat actively."

*Your speed in increasing your mana stat has decreased by 90%, limit has been removed. Can now increase mana stat without end.*