Cal, not taking any chances, shot off from the others, making a beeline for the sundering gem. After all, who knew? For all that Verin talked about “etiquette this” and “etiquette that,” Cal wouldn’t put it past the noble not to honor the sacred right of “dibs.”

Then again, she probably didn’t need to worry. With how big the room was, the frail woman would probably be huffing and puffing by the time she got to the center, even if she had some way to match Cal’s Dexterity. Still, there was no point in giving her the chance. In a flash, Cal honed in on the smoky gray jewel that was the cornerstone of this entire mad plan, paying the sleeping demon no mind as she placed a hand atop it.

You have made contact with a sundering gem. Would you like to sunder your Infiltrator class?

One confirmation later, and Cal was hit with a wave of less-than-stellar notifications.

Your Infiltrator class has been sundered! Removing all class-quest experience.

You have lost sufficient experience to move you down one or more levels. Your level has been reduced to 14.

Not great, but not awful, either.

Despite having access to her city’s Scepter of Assignation, Cal had gained her class the standard way, by reaching level ten. As such, it was guaranteed that she would be at least that high without her class quest experience. The other four levels were likely half from the ridiculous amounts of fighting she’d done in the past few months and half from all the skills she’d learned and leveled with Hexauara. Her Stealth skill alone was probably worth a large portion of that experience given that she’d leveled it all the way to 60.

All stat points gained from your class have been removed.

All stat points gained from levels above 14 have been removed.

Reduced stats will take effect in one minute.

Warning! You have fallen beneath the first threshold in one or more stats. If you do not rectify this before your reduced stats take effect, you may lose certain threshold bonuses.

A quick check revealed that she’d be losing the bonuses for all four of the stats she’d managed to get over the first threshold: Constitution, Dexterity, Charisma, and Intelligence.

Note: You have a number of skills past the Novice tier which were once class-aligned, but are no longer class-aligned. The leveling speeds of these skills will be massively reduced, and the effects of these skills may be artificially lowered as a penalty. These effects will be removed if the affected skills become class-aligned once more.

A list of said skills followed, the chief offender being Stealth. Hopefully, most of those issues would fix themselves after she chose her class.

You have reached level ten and do not yet have a class. Select a class now?

Eager to grab something new before her stats left her, Cal readily accepted the prompt. Just like she recalled from several years prior, a thick gray fog encompassed her. When it departed, she found herself at the bottom of the class spiral.

“Long time no see. Honestly forgot how spooky this place looks. Not that I have anything against the color gray, but it’s a little much, don’t you think?” Her question remained unanswered as she took in the space.

The class spiral, as per its name, was a spiral which began at the bottom of a massive, inverted cone, the walls of which were a monochrome gray slate. A pathway wound its way up and around the walls, growing progressively wider as it climbed upwards. Exactly how high it went, it was impossible to say -- the same thick fog that had taken her here hung heavy in the sky, obscuring the top of the spiral from view.

Periodically along the path were alcoves in the stone walls, all of which she knew contained a potential version of herself. The only other feature of note were the guardians, each successive level of the class spiral blocked off by a golem of white metal and fog. They stood at great intervals, spanning the entire width of the path forward.

“Let’s see what I’m working with…”

Cal started up the spiraling pathway, only sparing cursory glances at the figures coalescing out of fog in each of the alcoves. The first level of the class spiral was incredibly basic, and something told her that neither Tess nor Verin would be thrilled with her if she returned a common Warrior.

“Hi pal. Mind if I slip past you?” Reaching the first of the guardians, Cal politely asked for it to move aside. The towering golem complied as a notification welcomed her in.

Congratulations! You have unlocked one or more second level classes! Unlike the basic classes below, second level classes are only offered to those who have met the requirements to unlock them.

If slightly more interesting, the second level didn’t hold much to catch her eye. As the level was mostly about unlocking new classes through various skill and achievement requirements, the bulk of her choices were geared towards empowering her existing skills. Most were Rare rogue variants, though they focused more on stealth than any form of combat. She moved on.

Congratulations! You have unlocked one or more third level classes! Third level classes are more advanced variants of the classes on lower levels, reserved for those who have gained sufficient Prestige.

Here, the real options began. Cal moved to the next alcove, caught off guard when the fog thinned out to reveal… nothing? When a window finally popped up to explain the class, she couldn’t help but chuckle.

The Unseen

Undetectable. Untargetable. Unseen.

At the heights of this class, no one will ever see you if you don’t want them to. Traipse through dragons’ dens with impunity. Slip under the noses of the most vigilant guards. Gain free admission to the theater for life. Do whatever you wish, and none will be the wiser.

Amusing if somewhat superfluous at this point. Cal could already do all of that as long as she had enough stamina and mana. Devoting her entire class to something that a single skill could do felt like a waste.

The third level kept going on and on for what seemed like forever, Cal’s Prestige much higher than the first time she’d been here. In fact, it was probably higher than Tess’s had been when she’d first chosen her class. Much as before, she passed a fair number of rogue classes, though her offerings were more varied this time around: Opportunistic Ambusher, Templar of the Shadows, Demonic Striker, Argent Hoard Queen. The last in particular brought a smirk to her face -- would her father think she was planning a coup if she came back with a class name like that?

All things, however, must end, and at last, Cal reached the guardian for the fourth level.

“No chance you want to let me through even without a class token, do you? I am sort of friends with a god, you know.”

The golem remained unmoving, the only sign that it had heard her being a notification.

Levels past the third are reserved for those who have been granted access by the gods or are upgrading an existing class.

“Figures.” Right as she was planning to turn back, however, Cal had a particularly foolish thought. “You don’t suppose…”

Briefly, she attempted to activate a few active skills and cast some light magic. To say that they fizzled out would have been an overstatement -- it was as if none of her skills even existed here. Still, she had to be here in some sense, right? Cal wasn’t actually sure how class selection worked, but maybe her soul or mind had been projected here?

“Not like my skill description had any caveats like ‘Note: This super incredible Legendary skill doesn’t work in mental spaces or soul projections,’ right? I mean, that would be kind of lame for an actual Legendary skill.” Thus said, Cal reached within for what was likely her most-used skill over the past few months.

With little fanfare, she vanished.

Man, I’m really awesome sometimes, aren’t I? Still, that was the easy part, in a way. For the true test, Cal cautiously slipped beneath the foggy guardian, slowly inching forward until it was well and truly behind her. When no accusatory notification or raging golem followed, she sighed in relief.

“Do I even have stamina or mana here? No, right? Can’t I just keep doing this? Or is this draining my actual body?” Cal could feel as the excitement bubbled up within her, and instead of looking at her new options, she sprinted for the end of the fourth level.

Almost unconsciously, she slowed as she reached the next guardian, and when she finally began to move beneath it, a weight started to push down on her. Even under her Legendary invisibility, she suddenly had the eerie and intense feeling of being watched, and she froze in place. Before Cal could decide whether or not to move forward, a new notification greeted her, entirely different from the others.

ONE LEVEL CAN BE OVERLOOKED, CHILD. YOU WILL, HOWEVER, FIND MOVING FORWARD TO BE… UNWISE.

“Nope. Not fucking with that.” Without a second thought, Cal backpedaled to the fourth level. “Fourth level! I love the fourth level. Great options here. Definitely satisfied with these ones.” Doing her best to put the entire encounter from her mind, Cal got to work examining her new choices.

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Whereas the previous level mostly held Rare classes with a smattering of Epics, the fourth level was an Epic buffet. The variety was far greater here as well: The third level mainly held classes directly related to her skills, but with the bonus of ascending a level, she qualified for a fair number of classes she wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Almost a fourth of the classes didn’t even mention stealth or thievery in any way.

It was about halfway through her new options when Cal finally saw it. A new form pulled itself together before her, and immediately, Cal was enrapt.

Shrouded Sovereign

She’d done it. A Legendary class. All her time with Hexaura, and she’d actually managed to pull it off.

Naturally, the figure was herself, but the differences were so stark that Cal could hardly believe it. To start, the sovereign’s entire being was translucent, whispy, and incorporeal. More than the physical effect, Cal could also feel her mind rebelling against her, pushing her to avert her eyes even as it commanded her to select the class.

Eschewing her preferred roguish garb, the sovereign was bedecked in all manner of billowy, black garments with gem-encrusted silver jewelry everywhere the eye could see. It was equally regal as it was tasteful, but Cal could tell it was more than that. It was flashy. A statement. Every bit of it was horribly ill-suited for stealth, bracelets and rings doubtlessly clanging against each other with each movement as clothing would brush against everything in a wide radius.

With a collected an imperious smirk far past her years, the sovereign seemed to revel in the contradiction. Such things were beneath her. If she didn’t wish to be seen, she would not be. It was as simple as that.

After spending some time gleaning what she could from the class’s description and letting her instincts guide her for the rest, Cal could confidently say that the class was incredible, revolving around and empowering her Legendary skill while also incorporating the rest of her higher skills. At higher levels, she could expect her Apex Shroud to cost essentially no resources at all. Much more importantly, she’d be able to extend the skill to more than herself, rendering her allies and her other skills fully undetectable.

With the sense that darkness, light, shadow, and mental magic would all be class-aligned until ridiculously high levels, Cal was certain she could become a force to reckon with in her own right, but that wasn’t the selling point of the class. She would be a sovereign. A ruler from the shadows. Unseen and spoken of in only whispers, but deftly puppeting the world about her to reach whatever outcome she desired.

The class was perfect. Powerful. Even elegant, in a way.

It was a cruel trick of fate, then, that it was everything she didn’t need right now.

Barring the grand magus teaching her dozens of spells, she wasn’t in a position to learn any strong offensive magic right now, and the class didn’t come with physical fighting options. Especially with Verin soon to grab a class without direct damage, she would be leaving Tess as the only real fighter. Sure, there were some cool tricks they’d be able to pull off if Cal could lend her Apex Shroud to Tess, but that was it. One cool trick.

There would be no intelligence agency at her beck and call. No king to whisper into the ear of. No secrets to pilfer and expose or throne to sit on. The bulk of its advantages would become moot, and there was absolutely no way she’d be able to complete any class quests to level it up.

And so it was, that with great effort and much cursing, that Cal pulled herself away from the class. When she completed her first circuit of the fourth level and discovered it had been her only Legendary offering, her cursing returned in full force.

“Well, fine. Not like I wanted all of that responsibility anyway.” Maybe a decade from now, she could sunder her class and think about it again, but once she got out of here, all she wanted was class that leveled from harmless pranks and going on vacation.

For now, though, she would focus on the classes that were immediately helpful.

Her first big choice had to do with Stealth. If she chose a class where Stealth was class-aligned, she would almost be guaranteed several levels the moment she chose it from fulfilling a number of its class quests. On the flip side, with Apex Shroud and and a Master tier Stealth, she was already far stealthier than she needed to be for this dungeon, and any class where Stealth was class-aligned would inevitably offer her a fair share of pointless class skills that didn’t help her in combat. In many ways, it was a question between immediate power and longer-term growth.

The second factor was the tradeoff between power and sustainability. On the one hand, Cal wanted to focus on Strength or Intelligence so she could cut through any armor and deal massive damage once she snuck up on something. On the other, putting all her points into Endurance and Wisdom would allow her to use her Legendary skill for much longer periods, and she wouldn’t need to quickly tap out of longer fights like she had in the desert crypt.

With all of this in mind, Cal ruthlessly culled the many choices down until, several eternities later, she was left with three: Reaper’s Singularity, Obvious Assassin, and Indefatigable Onslaught.

All were Epic, and none were as multifaceted as Shrouded Sovereign, but each of them would be helpful in different ways.

Reaper’s Singularity was a version of her with a scythe and cold eyes that promised death. While it was stealth-based, it could deal ridiculous amounts of damage courtesy of a very harsh penalty placed upon it: For any target she hit, she needed to kill it with a single strike. Failing to do so would almost entirely negate any further damage she tried to deal to the target, even years down the line. That penalty was offset by a host of class skills that would make her very good at killing things in one strike.

In a similar vein, Obvious Assassin was another stealth-based penalty class. The figure for it was magnetic, idly flipping a dagger with a playful grin. The class awarded great bonuses to any sneak attacks at the cost of making them far harder to pull off. On taking the class, she would become far more noticeable, every eye subconsciously pulled to her, be they humans’ or monsters’. Her Stealth would be less effective, and her enemies’ danger senses would receive bonuses. Given her ability to ignore most of the downsides with Apex Shroud, the class suited her well.

Indefatigable Onslaught was the odd man out. No stealth. No daggers. No assassination. It was an honest-to-gods fighting class, and it looked the part, too. Rugged and scarred with a banged-up longsword, the fighter version of herself had a defiant spark within her eyes. With the bulk of its stats going into Endurance and Wisdom, and the rest of them split between Strength and Intelligence, the class would make sure she could hit hard and keep doing it.

The vast majority of its skills would either increase her regeneration and longevity, or allow her to dump great amounts of stamina and mana into her attacks to strengthen them. She was fairly certain that if she took it, she’d quickly gain a skill much like Tess’s Overload Weapon, which she could charge up under Apex Shroud before slamming into her target. While it had a fair number of selling points, Cal also knew she wouldn’t have fulfilled any of its class quests yet, keeping her at level 14 for the time being. She’d also have to train up all sorts of skills she’d never touched before.

With the real world frozen in time as she made her decision, Cal had no qualms about making her choice slowly. She laid down on the cold stone pathway, her face twisting in all sorts of pensive, conflicted, and frustrated manners. Largely ignoring how good the classes were in general, she tried to imagine what sorts of situations she might find herself in over the next however-many months or years.

Probably a lot more situations where I’ll need to scout ahead for the others. Lots of fights with ridiculously strong enemies, either with a lot of health, or a lot of armor. And then probably the opposite -- swarm fights against tons and tons of weaker enemies, like the crypt, but worse.

There would also undoubtedly be biomes that forced her to heavily rely on her Apex Shroud, too. While meant to make her invisible, it was “broken” in many ways. For instance, if she was stuck in a blizzard, some predators would notice if the air around her was growing hotter from escaping body heat. Her shroud fixed that by both masking and maintaining her body temperature. Without any solid resistances, she would be forced to keep the skill up 100% of the time if they found a frost or fire biome.

To be honest, it wasn’t her first choice. Frankly, it wasn’t her second, either. But as Cal reviewed what she needed from her class, she recognized that there was only one real option that could handle all of that. Pulling herself from the ground, the no-longer rogue moved to the class that would be hers for the foreseeable future, meeting its defiant eyes with a roguish grin.

“All right, pal. Looks like it’s you and me. Can’t say I ever pictured myself with a class like this, but let’s get along until I can get out of this place.” And sunder you for something better, she left unsaid.

Confirming her choice, Cal was once more encompassed in a wave of fog. Moments later, she found herself standing over the sundering gem by the grand magus, a deluge of new notifications assaulting her.

Congratulations! You have selected a class: Indefatigable Onslaught.

+20 Endurance

+19 Wisdom

+7 Strength

+6 Intelligence

+13 Class Points

Achievement Unlocked: Legendary Offerings.

Unlock at least one Legendary class.

+50 Prestige

Future Legendary classes are now slightly easier to qualify for.

Achievement Unlocked: Class Thief

Steal a class from a level of the class spiral you weren’t granted access to.

+100 Prestige

Permanent access to the fourth level of the class spiral.

A stern reminder not to try leveling up this achievement.

Before Cal could even process the last line of her achievement, her body was wracked with pain as a more drastic set of notification hit her.

Stats finalized.

Note: You have one or more skills which you no longer meet the minimum stat requirements for. These skills will have greatly reduced effects and may not level until you meet the requirements for them again.

You have passed the first threshold in multiple stats. You have fallen below the first threshold in multiple stats.

Note: Some physical effects from threshold bonuses are irreversible. All other bonuses will be removed.

Adjusting…

Even as Cal’s muscles were injected with a massive dose of strength and stability, she could feel as they grew rigid, pain assaulting her as her speed was sapped from her. Her skin felt as though it was wilting, disconcerting and painful sensations erupting from every nerve on her body.

She cried out, the loud noise having a fully unintended consequence.

Right beside her, a demon opened his eyes. Taking in the scene before him at a glance, the grand magus yelled out at a volume to match Cal’s cries.

“No! Foolish girl. What are you doing?”