The tree might but holding up fine, but I wasn’t sure for how long. The repeated assaults of the bear-rabbit had started to splinter the base of the tree. Eventually, I think the monster was going to knock my tree over and then slaughter me like a pig. I couldn’t just stay up here forever.

Making sure to keep a firm hold on the trunk of the tree so the impacts didn’t knock me off, I glanced around. It didn’t help me much. There wasn’t anything up here but branches and other trees. Unfortunately, the other trees were too far away from me in order to just jump to another one.

Alright, I thought to myself, doing my best to ignore the repeated impacts to the tree. What else do I have? I didn’t have a weapon; this fucking bear had eaten it. I didn’t have two functional arms. I didn’t have any other tools. All I had was my Status, and a few skills that were not applicable in this situation.

Wait.

My Status?

If I had managed to kill that plant monster, then maybe I had gotten something for it. Since I had woken up, I hadn’t thought to check my Status…

Grasping onto that thin thread of hope, I mentally triggered Hidden Amidst the Spheres. I let out an audible sigh of relief at what I found.

Your Status has changed! Would you like to review your Status? Y/N

Alright, here’s hoping for a miracle. I mentally selected yes.

You have gained six levels! You have sixty unspent Virtue points. Congratulations, you have reached level 10 (14)! Class selection is now available! Would you like to select your class? Y/N

I furrowed my brow slightly. Okay, that was a bit weird. What was up with the two numbers for my level? Ten, and fourteen. I had apparently gained six, or maybe ten whole levels from killing the snake. But I was only level ten, according to my Status? Whatever, that wasn't the most important thing right now. It was time for Class Selection. Azarus and Grey had told me a little about that. Apparently, once you reached level ten, you qualified to select your first class. This was apparently not just a huge boost in power, but you gained more skills directly related to combat. Well, I sure as fuck need that now, so let’s do it. First though, I assigned the sixty points I'd gotten from my level ups in the ratio I'd been doing so far.

I mentally selected yes again. This brought up a new menu that I had never seen before in my Status.

Class Options (Level 10) [Night Owl (Common)] (STR/SPR) [Rebellious Beguiler (Common)] (INT/PER) [Thornblade Acolyte (Superior)] (INT/DEX) [Rhetorical Fist (Superior)] (STR/WIS)

Well. Well, all right. I guess I had to choose from these options then.

I could strike out two of these right away, I’m guessing. From the explanation about Virtues that Grey had given me, I knew that Strength and Spirit were the Virtues of Cultivators. I had already decided to become a Mage instead, so Night Owl and Rhetorical Fist were right out. I couldn’t deny being curious about what the hell a Rhetorical Fist was supposed to be though.

I was a little surprised none of the options had indicators if they were for Cultivators or Magi. I suppose I was just supposed to guess based on the Virtues. They only had what I assume were words that indicated their rarity.

Moving on, that left only two options. Rebellious Beguiler and Thornblade Acolyte. I had no other explanation about how they functioned besides their names and the Virtues listed next to them. So, let's break it down, even though I had a pretty good idea of what I was going to pick. Best I could tell, Rebellious Beguiler could possibly be...some kind of illusions class? That sounded kind of useful in this situation. If I picked that, I might be able to lead the monster back to camp through illusions without ever risking myself at all.

But I didn’t know that for sure, and I had no guarantee that my illusions would be strong enough just after getting them. They might not affect the bear-rabbit enough at such a low level, and then the damn thing would just end up mauling me. Plus, there was the fact that I hadn’t invested a bunch of points into Perception. I’d invested mostly in Intelligence and Wisdom. Which, thankfully, one of the classes favored.

Thornblade Acolyte sounded…fine, I guess? It was an Intelligence and Dexterity class, which was okay I suppose. I’d invested enough points into Dexterity so far that I didn’t feel like I was gimping myself. Most of my points had been distributed into Intelligence and Wisdom, though. I doubted having points in Wisdom was going to hurt me. But at this point in time, I needed to consider what could help me survive this situation the best. Besides, I had a weirdly good feeling about it.

Even beyond that, of my two viable choices, one was a Common rarity, and the other was a Superior rarity. I guess that made it just better overall as well.

Taking a deep breath, and ignoring the growls of the bear below me, I mentally selected Thornblade Acolyte. A new dialogue popped up.

You have selected Thornblade Acolyte. Would you like to proceed with this class choice? All choices are final. Y/N

Selecting yes, I was caught off guard by the sensation of electricity running up and down my spine. I stiffened, nearly losing my grip on the tree trunk. A moment later, the feeling wore off. I resisted the feeling to shake myself like a dog.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I didn’t…really feel all that different, to be honest. A bit disappointed. I’m guessing that I needed to check my Status again. I did so.

You have ascended into the class [Thornblade Acolyte]!] You have learned the class skill Thorn Shot! You have learned the class skill Thorn Grapple! You have learned the class skill Thorn Cloak!

Okay, I hadn’t expected to get three skills out of classing up. Neither Azarus or Grey had said anything about it, either. I guess I was just going to have to survive this in order to ask them. All right, let's try these out. I’ll try the cloak one first.

Thorn Cloak.

Because I was expecting it, I wasn’t surprised when a literal cloak materialized over my shoulders. Looking down, I was surprised by what it looked like however. The skill name was literal, as it appeared to be a hooded cloak woven out of literal thorns, hooks, and burrs, blood red in color. Despite that, it wasn’t scratching me at all. Lifting my injured arm slightly to look inside of the cloak with a wince, being careful to maintain my grip on the tree, I saw that the inside of the cloak was smooth to the touch. Lowering my arm, I took a closer look at the cloak, furrowing my brow slightly. I couldn’t place it initially in my tired state, but I realized why the cloak looked so familiar to me after a moment.

All of the thorns and hooks looked like the kind that had been used by the plant monster from earlier. I was a little weirded out by it, frankly. Were all of these thorn skills like that? Did I somehow only get this class because of my encounter with that thorn snake? I guess that was another thing to ask the guys.

Stopping my examination of my new cloak, I realized that it had been a few minutes since the rabbit-bear had rammed into the tree I was on. Looking down, I found that the creature was milling around in confusion. It had stopped its assault on the tree and was sniffing around the base and the general area. It was almost like it had lost track of me. Was that because of the cloak? Did it have a magical effect or something? I didn’t have time to think about it, because it seemed like the monster had given up. It turned around and started to leave.

Fuck that, I needed this thing. Time to test skill number two. I didn’t know how this skill worked, so I just winged it and pointed the index finger of my good hand at the beast before activating it.

Thorn Shot.

Before my outstretched finger, floating in mid-air, materialized a cruel blood-red thorn the size of my palm. Milliseconds afterward, the thorn shot through the air in the direction of the bear-rabbit with a whisper of air. I didn’t see where the thorn hit the creature, but I sure saw its reaction. It spun in my direction with a startled grunt, locking eyes on my form a moment after. Letting out a furious roar, it charged back to the tree I was up. Hurriedly, I wrapped my good arm around the tree trunk again and braced myself.

Good thing I did, because the impact of the charge this time was the largest that the monster had done yet. So much so that impact generated an audible crack from the tree. Dreading what I would see, I looked down at the base.

Yup, that wasn’t good. The monster had finally managed to break the trunk of the tree. It was only held up by a small section of wood at this point. Already, I was hearing the whole tree begin to creak and groan. The bear-rabbit must have known it too, because it was backing up to finish the job with one last charge. I only had seconds before the whole thing came down.

Fighting panic, I cast a wild eye around me before the memory of my last new skill penetrated my alarm. I guess I was going to have to spider this shit. Locking eyes with the nearest tree to my position, I outstretched my arm again in that direction, palm facing outwards.

Thorn Grapple.

Just like last time, a blood-red thorn materialized before my open palm. This one was different than my shot skill though, as attached to the base of my palm was a vine, similar to the vines of the plant monster from earlier. It shot away from my palm, changing in shape mid-flight, vine extending behind it. It opened up in a cross shape before it reached the tree branch I had been aiming at. Sinuously, it wrapped around the large branch in an unnervingly self-directed manner and dug it’s thorns into it. Seconds afterward, I was yanked off of my feet when the vine attached to my palm began to retract at incredible speed. I flew off of the branch I had been standing on, nearly yanking my arm out of its socket. Good thing too, as seconds afterward I heard the monster slam into the tree for the final time, followed shortly afterward by the tree itself coming down in an enormous crash.

I was nearly horizontal in the air as I was reeled in like a fish to the other tree. Reaching it, I managed to find my footing on a branch below the one my grapple was attached to. Bending over with one hand on the new tree’s trunk, I tried to catch my breath and calm my racing heart from the impromptu flight. I managed after a moment and straightened up, still somewhat shaky. Turning around, I found that the tree I had been clinging to was now flat on the ground, with the monster sniffing around the top of the tree where I had been standing. I let out a breath of relief. All right, these skills seemed pretty good.

Yeah, I could work with this.

In fact…I think I knew how I was going to lead this huge bastard back to the clearing.

I felt an unhinged smile grow on my face.

……………………………………..

I panted as I ran through the last stretch of the forest before I reached the clearing.

I winced at the sound of a furious roar behind me.

The plan that I had settled on was to carefully lead the monster from tree to tree by shooting it with thorns. First, I would grapple to a new tree. Then, I would shoot the creature with a thorn in order to grab its attention and make sure that it didn’t start to wander off. I had found that my new cloak had some kind of effect that worked similarly to camouflage, making the monster lose track of me once I left its line of sight. It wasn’t foolproof though, as a few times the skill hadn’t affected the beast at all. I was thankful that it did work sometimes though, as it made the whole process less stressful. I didn’t think this monster could catch me out of the air since I hadn’t seen it jump upwards once, but I didn’t like tempting fate.

Once I had reached the lower-level region of the forest, I had been relieved to be able to track the time of day again. Judging by the light filtering through the trees, it was sometime in the late afternoon. I didn’t think it was close to sunset, and thus death for me, but it was hard to track. I had to hurry. It had been harder to grapple in the lower forest, as well. The trees had been farther apart, and I had needed to aim more carefully in order to reach a new tree.

I had managed to lead the bear-rabbit through the majority of the woods before abandoning my plan once I got close to the clearing, to the best of my memory. I’d defaulted back to the original pattern of dodging out of its way once it did its lunge, made easier by the cloak. I didn’t know how many new levels I had gotten in my Thorn Cloak, but it had started to affect the beast more often after it lost sight of me following its lunge. Then I would get a bit ahead of the monster and then shoot it again.

Rinse, repeat.

But now that I was close to the clearing, I had dismissed the cloak. I wasn’t supposed to be able to use any skills with a collar on. If I showed up to the clearing with a very obvious skill-made item of clothing on, Magnus would probably kill me anyway. Good thing my thorns didn’t seem to stick around after being embedded into something, in this case, the bear. They dissipated after a few minutes, leaving behind a hole. I didn’t need this asshole looking like a pincushion and giving me away.

Dodging out of the way of another lunge from the monster, I spied something in the distance that caused my heart to leap into my throat.

The exit to the clearing.