In that brief flash of light, Alice thought she heard/felt/saw a question.
What do you want?
Her answer felt as if it was pulled from the middle of her skull: I want to be happy. I want to be able to make friends. I don’t want to be scared anymore.
It all happened at the speed of thought, and a moment later, she wasn’t sure if it had been in her imagination or not.
Congratulations! You have activated a class change seed!
You are able to change your class from General Laborer to She of Many Dragons.
This is a one time offer. Do you wish to accept?
Alice gasped and then quickly slammed her hand over her mouth to stifle the sound.
She looked around with held breath, but no one poked their head into the cubicle to see what was going on.
She looked back at the egg-shaped class seed.
Dragons?
The monsters who slew entire cities? Who hoarded gold? The ones that class adventurers hunted for years to slay for their experience?
Was this… a dark class? Something forbidden?
No other information was provided. Nothing that told her what she would gain and what she would lose. Some classes apparently had moral alignments that Priests and Clerics could see. There was none of that information, either.
If she accepted this class would she become a bad person?
What if she said no?
This was a one time use, single offer. If she declined, the class seed would crumble into dust as if it had never been generated. In time, Alice might be able to convince herself the whole thing had been a bad dream.
But deep down, she knew she would live with that regret for the rest of her life.
No. Good or ill, Alice had to take this chance.
Holding her breath, she accepted the class change.
Warmth swept through her, like a cleansing tide washing in and out, leaving irrevocable change behind.
You have changed your class from General Laborer to She of Many Dragons.
Alice had never seen anybody activate a new class from a seed. That was reserved for people of means. But she had heard stories and expected the egg to explode into glitter, vanish, or perhaps melt into her skin and become part of her forever.
Instead, a ragged crack opened along the length of the egg and bits of shell fell away.
A little dragon head the size of a grape popped out and looked at her.
She was a beautiful rosy gold with brighter edges along her wings, the tip of her nose, and down its spine. She blinked bright yellow eyes at her.
Instantly and completely: Alice was in love.
The baby dragon started pushing bits of shell away, revealing more of her form: two arm limbs, two hind legs, and two wings. There were tiny bumps along the tops of the spine, signaling one day she would have spines.
Alice had helped baby chicks that were too weak to hatch out of the shell on their own. The process could take hours.
But this shell crumbled away from the little dragon within a minute, leaving it clean and dry in a way that naturally born animals weren’t.
“Look at you,” Alice breathed, “you’re not scary at all.”
The little dragon gazed back at her, and though it had hard scaly lips, Alice could swear she was smiling back at her.
The moment faded and slowly Alice’s sense of excitement was replaced by horror.
What had she done? The only reason she was given meals and allowed a safe place to sleep was because of her General Laborer class. What would happen now?
Quickly, she located her subclass system. It had changed.
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Hidden Class: She of Many Dragons
Visible Class: General Laborer
Alice let out a breath. Anyone who was old enough to access the class system would still see her as a General Laborer. That would give her time to figure things out.
But… hidden class? She had never heard of that setting before. Then again, she had never dealt with anything but the most basic of classes.
She looked down at her dragon with regret. “You can’t be here. It’s not safe for you. If the duke finds out…”
The little dragon blinked up at her. Her tiny claws wrapped around Alice’s thumb and she said quite clearly in Alice’s mind, “I’ll stay with you.”
“Did you… Did you just talk?” Alice whispered.
“Yes,” sweetly replied the baby dragon.
Her mind spun. “My name is Alice,” she whispered. “Do you have a name?”
“My name is Primordialis.”
“That’s…” She wanted to say that it was a pretty name, but it wasn’t. It was certainly an impressive name — a scary name. One that reminded her she was holding a real life dragon in her palms. Even if she was a tiny one.
“Pre– No, Primordial… Can I call you something shorter like… Prim?”
“I like that. I like you.” Prim rubbed her little head against Alice’s thumb, and Alice felt her anxiety fade and her heart melt a little. “But I want to stay here and help you.”
“Help me? How can you–?”
She cut her words short as several people trudged by the curtained front of her cubicle.
As soon as they had passed, Alice re-tugged the edges of the curtain tight to ensure again it covered any gaps. Then she shielded the single burning candle stub to dim the light.
“Give me skills, then I’ll help you,” Prim said.
“Skills?”
Alice’s eyes widened. She hadn’t even properly checked her status sheet yet.
Sure enough, not only had it changed, she had several decisions to make.
Alice Turner
Age: 19
Class: She of Many Dragons
Level: 1
Rank: 1
Aspect: 1/1
Aspect 1
“Primordialis”
Level: 1
Primordialis' Skills: 1/3
Mother of All (Permanent skill. Locked.) : Level 0
(Unassigned)
(Unassigned)
View available skills now?
Mother of All?
Alice had never heard of that skill. Then again, the ones she dealt with had always been straight forward. No one ever had to explain what cleaning was meant to do.
Furthermore, it looked like she had to choose two skills for her new dragon. As a General Laborer, her few skills have been assigned to her by the System. She had never had the opportunity to choose them.
“I don’t know… What if I choose wrong?” she asked the tiny dragon. A sick feeling churned her stomach. “What if I mess you up?
“You never could. Whatever happens, we will work through it together,” Prim said calmly.
Alice felt a new stab of shame. The hatchling was minutes old and already seemed more mature and confident than Alice herself. She should be reassuring Prim, not the other way around.
“Let’s take a look together…” Prim whispered.
Available Skills:
Common Sense - Exercises supernatural good sense and sound judgment.
Concealment - The ability to hide and blend into the environment without being noticed.
Authority - The power to give and enforce orders on lesser aspects.
Adaptability - The supernatural ability to adjust to new conditions.
No fireball or other outwardly aggressive skills. Alice was both worried and glad. She already couldn’t imagine sweet little Prim setting fire to someone. On the other hand, the world was unfair and her dragon would need to defend herself.
“Authority?” she asked hesitantly. It gave her a level of power over other aspects. Was that the system’s term for dragons?
Prim nodded her head vigorously.
“Adaptability?” she tried.
“Concealment feels more powerful.”
If you couldn’t fight something, the next best option was to hide.
Alice added both Authority and Concealment.
Prim shivered, and as the skills were assigned, the golden highlights flashed before resettling back to a still brilliant hue. “I like those very much,” she cooed. “Alice, I’m very hungry.”
Oh no.
Alice looked around for food. As usual, she had given her earlier leftovers to the kennel dogs. Junebug had to regain her strength after giving birth.
There wasn’t a scrap left for Prim.
“Can you wait?” Alice asked.
Prim gave her such a sad look that Alice’s heart ached.
No, she couldn’t let her new dragon go hungry. But there was only one place to get food at this time of the evening: by stealing from the kitchens.
The problem was, Alice had never stolen a thing in her life.