Owen got a troubled look on his face after the system had accepted his choice for the final class passive. He wasn't disappointed with any of his choices so far, though a part of him still wasn't completely sold on his infinitely stacking percentage boosts. He still had one class bonus he could choose, but he hadn't yet decided on what he wanted it to be. It was frustrating, especially since he didn't want to start of his class specialty option until he had chosen everything else.

He looked at the bonuses so far and tried to think of what he could choose as his third bonus. He wanted to combine his vitality and resilience, at least as he was sitting there thinking about it, it began to make him want to combine them. He hadn't thought about it much before, but the tests for the two stats had been the same, in fact he hadn't even needed to take a test for resilience since it had been the same as vitality back then.

A lot of stats had passed since then and then had slowly grown further apart in what they could do. He had a decently high vitality, but since it determined how much HP he could use, as he fought stronger people he would need to use more and more of it. On the other hand his resilience from the beginning had been a measurement of how much punishment he could take before falling. It also determined how much less damage he would take from hits. So, if he could combine the two, eh wasn't even sure what it could look like.

He had a couple fantastical ideas, but as more time passed and he considered it, he saw fewer reasons to not. He was pretty sure that nothing too bad would happen to his stats and he had begun to feel confident enough about it that without even considering to double check with Xerxes, he spoke out loudly. "For my last class bonus, I want my vitality and resilience combined."

His body began to shake and Owen realized something that should've occurred to him before he made his choice. When he had combined his intelligence and mana as a temporary test, nothing much had changed. However, his intuition told him that what was happening to his body was the result of his titles and other bonuses conflicting with each other. He wasn't sure why he had thought they would create one stat that received all of his bonuses, but he couldn't focus on his mistake anymore.

Energy rippled through his body and his flesh tore in several places as if being stretched to its limits. His bones began to ache and the whole world the testing hall existed in seemed to pulse. He felt like his whole body was swelling and his vision slowly went black, but he could still feel everything. He gave himself a second to consider where everything went wrong, before an otherworldly pain descended down on him.

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Xerxes winced as he watched Owen's body writhe on the ground. He had needed to warn both Lucas and Briar from getting close as the boy's screams echoed through the entire mountain. Lucas had been worried it was a seizure, which wasn't possible given the upgrades the system brings to both the body and mind, no what was happening was much worse.

Whenever you combined main stats, which wasn't recommended, it needed to be done as early into your life as possible. The higher your stats and the more titles you had, the more power had to be ripped from you, before being reconfigured and forced back into place. Just as the screams indicated, it was an incredibly painful experience, even if there were some incredibly powerful benefits to having some of your main stats combined.

Xerxes ended up needing to hover Owen into the air, to prevent him from hurting himself while flailing on the ground. With his strength being higher than his resilience, even if only by a little, it was possible to give yourself grave injuries while unconscious, since you couldn't actively heal yourself with HP.

He watched and winced, but it was good for him to see first hand what this experience was like. Soon, it would happen to everyone that was part of the zodiac, in an attempt to power up Rat the rest of the way through her ascension. It would be easier for him, since power would only be pulled from him, but it was a valuable experience nonetheless.

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Owen felt his voice go out shortly after the real pain had started. It felt like something was eating him up from the inside, slowly chewing up his body and soul, before spitting it out in a shambled state. Then another wave of pain would follow as it felt like something was trying to fix his body and soul. Then it stopped all at once. Everything in testing hall seemed to freeze and Owen could barely breathe as he tried to recover from the pain.

Looking down at himself, he would've normally gawked at the changes, but he barely had the energy to even notice. All of his focus was on the system notification that he had gotten after saying his option.

*You have chosen to combine stats, Vitality and Resilience.

You have gained the stat, Physique*

*Until changes are permanent, all titles, item bonuses, and skills, will work the same.*

Owen nodded and sighed in relief. He knew that with the way the notification was phrased, that it likely meant there were more changes to his status page, but since he couldn't see any of the differences at the moment, he just checked out his new stat.

*Physique = 66*

He grinned, though he was already well aware that there would be some changes after his secondary class was finished. At that thought he turned his attention to the last thing he needed to do. This one was unique when selecting as compared to the others. He could say he wanted something specific, but he had learned that if he wanted it to encapsulate his entire fighting style, drive for power, and generally who he was as a person. He would need to give it something more than a a single word or sentence.

Making a slight cut on his skin, he let a couple droplets fall from his fingers and he used mana to capture the blood. Trying to condense it in the same way he would an essence marble, he formed a blood marble and held it out in an open palm. He wasn't sure what was guiding his actions, but he didn't feel fully in control of what he was doing. Normally that would've made him extremely concerned, but he focused on finishing his class before anything else. Turning his attention to the marble in his hand, he started to speak. "For my class specialty, I want the class to best represent what I am and can do."

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As he finished speaking, the marble of blood evaporated into the air and the testing hall shook, before a system notification appeared.

*Class Specialty: Wields Chaos, every type of weapon, is able to use resonance, and even dabbles with affinities. You are a jack of all trades, but master of none as your focus is widespread.*

*Your class specialty is the title, Owen Cain's Path. This titles grants the user, Owen Cain, a 25% bonus to all damage dealt by chaos, resonance, weapons, and affinities. 10% boost to all effect created by Polymath skills. Can consume inheritor items, gaining up to 20% of the bonuses contained within*

Owen cheered when he finished reading through all of the bonuses. It was everything he wanted combined into one. Though, something he hadn't expected was the last thing mentioned as part of the title. He had only recently found out about his ability to absorb inheritances item, but seeing it as part of the system itself, especially after so long was a little jarring. But he just tucked it away until he could find time to talk to Xerxes about it.

Now all he had left to look at was how he wanted to allocate his 75 stats, he considered and decided he would try and allocate them according to his potential in each stat. He wanted to pour them into one or two stats, but he was still planning on leaving himself with free stats, so he forced himself to do the smart thing.

*Every level increase stats by

Physique +8

Strength +6

Perception +18

Agility +10

Dexterity +20

Luck +1

Chaos +4

Intelligence +5

3 Unallocated stats*

Looking at it once it was sorted out was more satisfying than Owen had expected, especially after seeing he could give himself a plus twenty to his dexterity stat, and still keep his potential on track. He gave one last look smiling, before he expected to be kicked out of the testing hall, back after double checking the system prompt, he felt a pit form in the bottom of his stomach, he still needed a name for this class.

The worst part, at least to him, was that if he ever got strong enough to be a sponsor in the future, he could offer a version of this class to someone. Which meant the name was important, more important that anything he wanted to name. He spent some time trying to cajole the system into naming it for him, but each time he got on response. Finally, he was getting tired of it and decided that he just wouldn't sponsor anyone in the future.

"I would like to name my secondary class, System Initiate." He spent several seconds thinking he was clever as a prompt from the system asked if he was sure about his choice. He hated that a part of him was now doubting the choice as he felt his skin itch while staring at the prompt to select yes. Now that his class was mostly formed, he would start to move towards the direction he had wanted both with his path, but also in the type of person he was. So, part of him fought back against the half measure of saying the first thing that came to mind, especially since it didn't adequately define who he was or his path.

He sighed and made himself sit down and try to define his path. He was someone who wanted power, both for power's sake, but he also wanted to get revenge. Though that was something he wanted specifically, not who he was. Looking through his status, skills and even the most recent messages from the system. He smiled as he considered how to phrase the name. "I want to name my secondar class, Covetous wielder of Chaos." When he got the system prompt asking whether he accepted or not, he grinned and hit accept.

Thinking about everything he had done and who he was, it was the most apt name he could come up with. He wanted chaos to be a defining aspect of his path, because it offered power that most couldn't hope to wield yet. He looked at the finished system prompt as the world began to shift and warp around him, the signs that he was being sent back to Xerxes's realm.

*Unique Class - Covetous Wielder of Chaos

Class Bonuses:

Intelligence stat

40% allocated stat boost,

combined vitality and resilience, to get the physique stat.*

*Class Passives:

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

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

Can now increase mana stat without end, at a 90% deficiency*

*Class Specialty: Grants the title, Owen Cain's Path*

*72 allocated stat points and 3 unallocated stat points*

He opened his eyes and was surprised to see he was hovering several feet off of the ground. "Wait, I can fly now?" He didn't remember that being an aspect of his class, but he immediately began waving his arms, but he was slowly lowered closer to the ground but not dropped. "Owen, you are going to want to brace yourself. The side effects of your class are about to kick in."

Owen looked down at him slightly confused, before pain wracked his entire body. It wasn't anything like when he had combined his stats, but it was still enough to make the world turn white. He could hear muffled voices, but he didn't recognize any of the words. He wasn't sure how much time passed, but blessedly the white began to darken, before turning completely black as he slipped into unconsciousness.

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Myra wanted to kill something, Ivar had made her wait until the final two days to form her secondary class, after she had demonstrated the ability to use resonance. She wasn't at all sure how it was supposed to work, but apparently it was easier, when your stats were in sync with your potential. She had been anything but in sync with her potential, so she had to spend days fighting through the gauntlet.

The experience of being without her stats had grown familiar to her and resonance began to come easy to her, but whenever she would leave the gauntlet, she would have to train to even feel a whisper of resonance. Supposedly it was supposed to be easier with her summoned axes, since they were a part of her, but Ivar had banned her ability to use them.

So here she was stuck fighting him for what felt like the thousandth time, before he finally stopped and grinned. "It's time lass, you should be able to create a unique class now, but don't expect too much. Only the absolutely insane get anything better than a legendary class from the unique option. But for your future, the unique is the best path to follow. Remember, take it slow and choose what is best for your future as a whole, bet on yourself!" Ivar cheered, as Myra listened intently. She wasted no time after that to enter the testing hall that she had made Ivar describe dozens of times.

One of the skills she gained immediately told her that something was off about the area she had entered. Looking at the end of the hall, was a door that had not been in any of the descriptions Ivar had given her and her battle sense began to warn her of danger. When she had opened the door, she had only been surprised for a moment, but she made a quick slash of her weapon at a copy of herself.

It disintegrated and Myra waited for something to happen, but when something did happen, it was entirely different to what she had expected. She was ripped out of the room and the testing hall slowly began to fall into pieces, being gradually replaced with a resplendent hall. Shrugging, she spent little time wondering what had happened and focused on the creation of her class and the tests that were about to begin