Trillia didn't quite understand why she didn't have to evolve into [Runic Scholar] or [Rune Fencer]. That would have made more sense. Nevertheless, she chose [Runic Scholar] as her primary class and [Fencer] as her secondary. Setting the durations to Extendable and Very Short, respectively.

Her reasoning was she could master [Fencer]. Then immediately choose [Rune Fencer]. Since she didn't apparently need to evolve to it. There was some internal struggle to take [Minstrel]. Especially if she took it at Very Short. At worst, she'd have to get the class two levels. At best, it would just automatically maximize, and she could start a class up. The only reason she didn't is because Dawn said taking the class would break the [Mentor] bond.

She could feel Amelia reaching out through the bond sometimes. Checking to make sure she was alive. Even though it was only a few more weeks. She didn't want to suddenly not show up anymore and give everyone a scare.

Trillia honestly just wished she could take four or five classes. A lot of them seemed really good. She mostly wanted to see what [Runic Scholar] was actually like. If it wound up being really good, she was locked in to get it to at least one hundred. If it was bad, she could just void it and move to a better class. Using her Secondary to either burn some Very Short classes down or take [Fencer] into [Rune Fencer].

Nothing happened when she chose the classes, which was odd. But perhaps it's because she was still in this mana soup. The following weeks passed quickly. It was finally time.

The cave was barely lit. A single glowing fleck of crystal caused every other wall to pick up the light and cast it about in a weird sort of rainbow prism of light and color. Immediately she fell over when she tried to stand. As she tried to take a deep breath, she was overcome with a racking cough more akin to a barking sound. She continued to cough as she threw up the remnants of the liquid mana in her system. Her skills kicked into overdrive now that she was exposed.

Trillia was immediately aware that she was not alone in the chamber. Her eyes looked to the other occupants, and she froze. Fear tried to creep its way into her mind. But [Unwavering Determination] promptly ejected the useless emotion. Persona sat there, some thirty feet away. Two other smaller behemoths lounged at her feet.

[Psionic Behemoth - ?? - ???]

[Behemoth - Young Howler - 31]

[Behemoth - Sonic Claw - 38]

Probably Persona's children. Trillia tried to stand once more but found it an impossible task. Even if she had some sort of muscle tone with the exercise. She hadn't actually walked in years. Persona slowly paced towards her. This time when the mental probe came, [Minor Telepathy] latched on. Persona broke the silence with words in her mind instead of images and concepts.

"I can help you walk if you are willing to let me get close."

"I don't think you can do much worse than ripping off my arm and kidnapping me away from my people for years. Alirast seems to have use of us both. "

Trillia waved the great behemoth closer. Using its fur and hide to drag herself to standing. Leaning heavily on the beast's mighty form as they slowly walked around the cave.

"I am glad to see you survived the metamorphosis. I was lucky that mine only lasted six months. I still lost two of my pups during the time I was trapped in the pod."

Trillia winced at that. She hadn't really connected that they weren't Psionic like Persona.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that. I can't say I much like our world core."

Amusement flashed through her mind, along with a grim agreeance and determination. Alirast was making a lot of enemies for itself. Though Trillia had to wonder how effective any of them could possibly be against an entire realm.

"What classes have you chosen? Your Obfuscation is terrifying to pierce now."

Trillia offered a weak nod. Tripping and falling forward. Persona was quick with a paw to save her from smashing her face into the ground. Trillia took a moment to steady herself. Finally, she chose to sit down and take a break. Persona did the same.

"Runic Scholar as my primary and Fencer as my secondary. I have a class available called Rune Fencer that I can take without the need to evolve Fencer. I just want some skills first and a mastery available for the purposes of knowing how to use the advanced class."

Persona seemed to think on it for a few moments. As if going through some mental book.

"Runic Scholar is a rather potent class. It may not seem like it on the surface. But from the minds, I've read throughout my several years of being Alirast's Avatar. It evolves into some terrifying rune-based casters. I think your choices were quite smart. Perhaps take Fencer a second time to evolve it into Rune Fencer. Even if you don't have to, there are benefits to evolving a class. With evolution, you keep or upgrade your existing skills. Mastering a class, then choosing to take the evolution separately, can leave you wanting for offensive skills."

Trillia took all that in and nodded. That made a lot of sense, actually. Maybe she should just evolve Fencer the first time.

"I haven't been able to choose any skills. Is there a reason for that?"

"To my limited understanding of humanoid classes. You get nothing at Level Zero in any class. You must gain at least one level to access the skills of any given class. Level Zero seems to just be a stop-gap to show you've broken through to be capable of utilizing the class. A rather inefficient system, I think."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Trillia could only shrug at that. She could barely manage her own mind. Dawn was managing every single mind in their entire Universe. Trillia felt the system was doing an excellent job, given its scale.

"Does Mom know I'm awake yet?"

Persona only nodded.

"She will be here in an hour or two. They finished the mana sickness potion months back. Sent runners out to Kincairne. The potion has apparently helped their scouts rapidly develop and level Mana Sickness resistance. Some of them may be immune all together in a few years."

Trillia was happy to hear that. Maybe she'd get to see Kincairne. They probably have amazing food. She was a bit shocked that she wasn't just curled up in a ball of tears. In the past, it wasn't all that difficult to overwhelm her, probably a side effect of traits and skills. With a thought, Persona stood, and they went back to helping her learn how to walk again.

Trillia finally realized she had grown quite a bit in the pod. She stood at nearly four feet now. More than double what she had been. The hair on her head wasn't dirty, but it was certainly unkempt and tangled. It ran down to the middle of her block, an almost glowing silver color. The red hue of her skin had darkened even further to an almost black coloring. She looked a bit like the edges of her mother's scale armor. Faintly glowing and molten.

The hardest part of learning to walk again wasn't even her legs. It was that she kept trying to catch herself on Persona without realizing that her left arm was a stump. Persona constantly caught her and helped her stand up again. She closed the two glowing blue orbs that were her eyes, leaning heavily against the behemoth.

"Do you think it's possible to heal my hand?"

The wound had healed some. It basically looked like her hand, and most of her forearm was gone. A stub almost immediately after her elbow. She had remembered most of the elbow being gone as well. Maybe she could attach a blade or something to the arm. She had seen some orc warriors that hadn't gotten regeneration potions in time do that.

Persona had no answer for her, though. Its metamorphosis hadn't been nearly as long, nor had it involved such a grievous wound.

An hour passed. Slow and agonizing as it was. Trillia was finally able to keep herself mostly up and walking around. Persona stayed close to catch her just in case. Trillia was aware of her mother's presence long before her mother actually showed up. It was a bit terrifying, honestly, to feel her mother's auras so much more deeply.

Her mother swept into the cave, immediately ran up to Trillia, and crushed her in a hug. Trillia smiled, hugging her mother back the best she could. Amara fell to her knees, still hugging her. She could feel her mother's body shake and shudder as she sobbed. Afraid that if she let Trillia go, she'd somehow vanish.

Trillia had tears in her eyes as well. Apparently, her skills registered the reunion as something happy. So they didn't immediately destroy the rising emotions.

"I'm sorry, Trillia. I should have never asked you to come back out here. I didn't want to deny you the mission when you seemed so happy and energetic. I'm so sorry that I put you in such a precarious position right after what you had gone through."

Trillia smiled as Amara finally let her pull away some. Reaching her right hand up to touch her mother's cheek.

"That's ok, Mom. I got some pretty cool stuff. I think I'll be way more useful now."

Trillia was trying to make her mother feel better about it. Sure, years had passed, but that somehow didn't seem to bother Trillia all that much. Though somewhere in her mind, the girl knew that it should. Her words, however, had the opposite effect. Amara seemed crushed by them. She had never seen her mother so downtrodden.

"You were always useful, Trillia. You don't have to throw yourself at danger to try and be more than you are."

Trillia's gaze turned cold at that. She didn't know which, but one of her traits was flaring up in her mind.

"I will, and I must. The pursuit of knowledge is never in vain. I've learned a lot from this. I am sure you have as well. Time lost can never be regained, so let us make the most of the time we have."

Amara gave her an odd look. Even Trillia recoiled a bit. That wasn't what she wanted to say. Panic tried to spread through her mind, but another skill or trait crushed it immediately. Even as things like fear and apprehension tried to consume her mind with what was happening, her skills simply crushed all of it. Leaving her at best content and at worst neutral. It was an extremely surreal and disturbing experience for her.

"I can't scan you, Trillia. With any of the skills that should allow me to do so. What happened to you in there?"

Part of her brain told her to keep quiet about it, but none of her skills interfered as she told her mother everything she knew. Well, at least everything about Alirast and herself. She didn't mention that the universe's name was Dawn. That felt private. Dawn obviously didn't tell everyone, and Trillia certainly wasn't going to betray her friend's trust like that.

Alirast, on the other hand, could frankly go fuck itself. As Uncle Cordaos was fond of saying. It had kidnapped her and Persona. Forcing them to change against their will for some great battle it thought they might have to fight.

Amara sat there in silence. Her mind reeling from the information. Trillia could fear the anger and rage stewing in her mother's mind. She vaguely understood that Amara was a [Pact-Bond] because she had been chosen to fight against the [Primordials]. Trillia's mother probably didn't want her to face the same sort of things.

Amara turned her head to look at Persona.

"Are we allowed to take her home?"

The behemoth nodded solemnly. Amara pulled out some furs and clothes for Trillia, who only now realized she was stark naked. That made sense, she supposed. She quickly dressed. As they walked towards the cave entrance, Amara looked down at her.

"You're certain you won't get [Mana Sickness] ?"

Trillia offered her a warm smile.

"I'm sitting at... I don't know this number."

She read the numbers out, one by one, in order from left to right."

"One, three, nine, zero, four, four, six."

Amara's grasp on her hand tightened. The Chieftain seemed stunned.

"What? I know you explained your skills, but...that's more mana than I have by an order of magnitudes, Trillia."

Trillia could only shrug. She didn't realize how potent that was. But, if her mother was impressed, it had to be pretty darn good. Amara said nothing more and led her out of the ravine. Persona didn't follow them, probably happy to be left alone to try and raise her own children for a while.

Amara was on high alert. The area was incredibly dangerous, apparently. Once they stepped back onto the shattered plains, her mother visibly relaxed. Off in the distance, Trillia could see a small delegation of people had gathered. One, in particular, caught her eye.

There was a six-foot-tall minotaur with dark grey fur and two brilliant violet eyes. Trillia pulled away from her mother's grasp and ran over. Amelia caught her halfway and hefted the little orc. One more, she was crushed in a hug. Amelia was already sobbing away.

"I'm sorry we couldn't do more to save you, Trillia. I'm sorry we weren't able to fight Persona. We didn't think it would betray us."

Trillia hugged her friend in return, closing her eyes and smiling wide. She really had missed them all. Maybe it was the cave or the skills settling in. But she hadn't realized just how much she had missed them all. Trillia finally freed herself from Amelia's grasp, moving to grab Amara's hand. Wanting to feel safe and close. Everyone else came by and hugged her. Her brothers, Ba'Shoon, as well as old man Lurog, were there. Uncle Cordaos and her father were apparently watching the camp. A lot had changed in over three years, apparently.

As the group started to make its way back to camp. Trillia sighed, smiling contently.

"I want something to eat."

Amelia burst out laughing before pulling what looked like a smoked chunk of Lovax meat out of her pack, and passing it off. Trillia was happy to be out of that pod. Something in the back of her mind was calling her. Telling her to go to Kincairne. For now, she'd ignore it.