"Well, that happened," Arla said, as the trio walked back into their home.

"It did," Luc said, "and we should probably talk about next steps."

"Let's do that over dinner," Millie's mom said. "I'll get some stew going, and it won't be long. "Millie, is that okay with you?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," she said.

The walk home had been weird for Millie and her parents. People seemed to keep a few feet more distant as they walked down the streets of Cragfall toward their house. Millie knew that her parents were happy for her because she got what she wanted, but every time someone sidestepped them or moved to the other side of the street, she saw the pitying look one of them gave her.

She did her best to ignore it. She got [Death Mage], which was head and shoulders more than she could have ever dreamed of.

Now that she had a class, she had the magic to call up an overview pane that summarized her newly unlocked stats, class abilities, spells, and other things. Rather than pay attention to anything going on around her, she dove into the translucent window floating in the middle of her vision.

#######

[STATUS: MILDRED COREIA]

CLASS: DEATH MAGE (RARE)

LEVEL: 1

—XP: 0/1000

—HP: 140

—MP: 140

—STR: 10

—DEX: 10

—CON: 14

—INT: 14

—WIS: 10

—UNAPPLIED POINTS: 1

[ABILITIES, SKILLS, SPELLS]

—DEATH MAGIC: Skelemation, Bone Spike, Death's Favor

#######

Millie focused in on the [CLASS: DEATH MAGE (RARE)] text, and another pane appeared as an overlay to the first:

One of the most misunderstood schools of magic, death magic is also one of the most powerful. Piercing the veil between this world and what lies beyond, death mages heal allies, harm foes, and harness one of the most fundamental forces of the universe.

Unlike other Necromancers, a Death Mage draws not only from the arcane essence of mana to fuel their magic, but also from the life and death essences present in everything. Including themselves. A Death Mage walks a line few others are willing: sacrificing their own wellbeing, often bringing themselves to the brink of annihilation, in exchange for unbridled power.

Each level you gain as a Death Mage will increase your CON and INT scores by 2. You will gain 1 free point to apply to a score of your choosing.

Upon reaching level 10 as a Death Mage, you will have the option to advance your class at any Adventurer's Guild.

Millie didn't even know what to think yet. She'd get to the stat allocation later. At that moment, she just wanted to bask in the knowledge and joy that she had gotten what she wanted for so long.

She had never expected to gain one of the rare class refinements for [Necromancer] on her first try. A lot of people were afraid of [Death Mages] for no other reason than the name. She couldn't blame then, but she was definitely going to prove them wrong.

"Millie, honey?" said her dad. "Can you hear me?" He waved his hand across Millie's field of view, back and forth. "Hellooooooooooo?" Finally, she saw that he was trying to get her attention and minimized her stats pane.

Apparently, she had been focused in hard on her new class panels because her mom was already putting the stew into bowls and setting them on the table."

"Yeah, sorry, what's up?" She blinked a few times to clear her vision and focus in on her family. "Was just looking over my stats and spells and stuff."

"We figured," her mom said. "It's exciting stuff, finally having access to the full System."

"Yeah, and I was just reading about [Death Mage], and it seems pretty neat. Powerful. I just wasn't expecting that. I honestly figured I'd get [Cleric] or [Sorcerer] and have to refine my way into the base [Necromancer] after a while."

"That is generally the normal path," her mom confirmed.

"Yeah, speaking of paths," Luc said, and then repeated what he said earlier: "We should probably talk about next steps."

Millie nodded and spooned up a hunk of meat, letting the broth drain back down into the bowl. She inspected the chunk before stuffing it in her mouth. "Sure," she said around the bite, "I guess [Death Mage] is a combat class, based on what the description says. Healing allies, harming foes, harnessing a fundamental force of the universe, that sort of thing." Millie's eyebrows bobbed up and down a couple of times.

Her parents shared a look. Millie had seen that so many times growing up. She kept going. "Figure, I'll head to the quest board at the Adventurer's Guild and find a party to delve with, right? Get right into the action?"

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Maybe, yeah," her dad said. "But I'm not sure you're going to have such an easy time finding a party as a [Death Mage]. Especially being a brand new one."

"And more than that," her mom continued the thought, "you might be a [Death Mage], but you don't know how to use [Death Magic]."

"Oh…yeah," Millie acknowledged. "I, uh, haven't cast any spells yet or anything."

"Yep," Luc said. "If you had gotten [Scout] like that one Bellew kid did, then yeah, I'm sure you'd hop right in a pug—err, pick up group—sorry,kiddo—"

"I know what a pug is, dad."

"Right. Of course you do. Anyway, people get weird around [Necromancers], sweetheart. I've seen people act really weird around people who've refined their way into [Death Mage]." Again, he and his wife shared a look. Millie waited it out. "It can be dangerous a dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, is all."

"To the people around you," her mom chimed in. "Not saying you will hurt someone, but it may be safer, for everyone, at least to start out with—"

"Alone. Yeah, I get it," Millie said.

"We've tried to tell you this might be a possibility, Millie," Arla said. "[Necromancy] isn't something most good people want to mess with."

For some reason, that just struck Millie the wrong way. "Are you saying I'm a bad person because of this?" They had always told her that most [Necromancers] were bad people. And they'd always reassured her that her wanting to go down that path didn't mean she was a bad person. But just hearing them say it now…hurt more than she expected it to.

"No!" her dad reassured her. "Absolutely not. In no way, no. No. You have a good heart and a good soul, Mildred Jayne Coreia. You just might have to convince a few other people of that fact."

Oof. All three names. "You're right, Dad, I know," Millie admitted. "We've been through this. A lot. I got what I wanted, and now I'm going to have to put in the work to have the life I want."

"Exactly," said Luc. "[Shadow Mages] and [Bonecallers] are one thing, but [Death Mages] are in a league of their own."

"One thing we haven't talked about," her mom said, "is what actual [Death Magic] abilities you got. Every class starts with a handful of random abilities from their available pool. What did you get?"

Now that was something Millie was excited to talk about. She pulled up her stats pane and read off her known spells: "[Skelemation], [Gravebolt], and [Death's Favor]," Millie said. "I haven't even read their descriptions yet."

Her mom pursed her lips and said, "You definitely should."

Millie's eyes glazed over as she focused on each of her new spells in turn:

######

[SKELEMATION]

Class Spell: Necromancer

Have you ever heard the saying "everyone dies alone?" Well, it's true. But it's also true that once they're dead, they don't have to be alone anymore! Not as long as you're around. If you've got some bones, then you've got a friend.

Using your power over death, you can reanimate under your control, the skeleton of a creature that has been dead for under 1 hour. The skeleton will follow your orders. Creatures that are higher level than you have a higher chances to resist this spell.

[Death Mage Enhancement] All skeletons raised by the Death Mage will gain at least 1 enhancement from their base version.

CAST TIME: 60 seconds

DURATION: Until the skeleton reaches 0 HP

COOLDOWN: Short

######

"[Skelemation] is…awesome!" Millie said. "There's even an enhancement for being a [Death Mage]!"

Her mother smiled. "That's because it's a base [Necromancer] spell, so advanced classes like yours tend to add some kind of unique effect to them so you don't outgrow them."

"That's amazing," she said, and then turned her attention back to her spells.

######

[Gravebolt]

Class Spell: Death Mage

You're dying from the moment you're born, so why not speed up the process a little? And take someone else with you! Gravebolt takes out a little bit of you to take out a whole lot of them.

You sacrifice a part of yourself to extract and condense your own life energy, inverting and amplifying it into a highly accurate bolt of death energy that causes damage based on your INT. Damage and sacrificed HP from this spell cannot be reduced.

CAST TIME: 2 seconds

COOLDOWN: None

######

"Holy centaur turds at [Gravebolt]…"

"I don't think there's anything holy about [Gravebolt], Millie," her dad said. "Nothing at all."

######

[Death's Favor]

Class Spell: Death Mage

Who's death's favorite? Who is it? Who's the best little death mage around? Is it you? Is it you? Speak! *Ahem* Indeed, simply by nature of being a death mage, you hold a portion of death's favor with you at all times. But with this spell, you specifically call for the eternal repose to shroud you and those around you with its forbearance.

This spell creates an area of effect that leeches a small percentage of HP from anything living to restore an equal amount to everyone in your party who is within the affected area.

Damage from this spell cannot be reduced. You may only have one desecrated area active at a time.

Whenever a minion under your control is destroyed, if this ability is on cooldown, there is a 50% chance for the cooldown to reset.

CAST TIME: Instant

DURATION: 20 seconds per INT

COOLDOWN: Medium

######

"I don't even know what to say about [Death's Favor]," Millie said. "That's intense."

"It is," her mom agrees. "We've told you for a long time that [Necromancers] come with some heavy baggage. [Death Mages] come with even more. But on the upside, you seem to have gotten some nice ones that work together. Not everyone is so lucky."

"The last two don't get any other kind of bonus, though."

"They're [Death Mage] spells already," her father explained. "So they're already attuned to your class's power level. That said, the tradeoff is that you're missing out on some of the more basic [Necromancer] skills like [Rib Cage] to snare opponents and [Corpse Sense], which would let you find more…ammunition…if that's the word for it."

"I can get those other ways, though, right?"

"Sure," her mom said. "Eventually. But like I said, you got some good ones, Mills. We're happy for you."

"We really are," Luc said, reaching out and touching her hand. "You want to go try them out?"

Millie's eyes widened. "Do goblins crap in the woods?"

Luc laughed and stood up from the table. "Indeed they do, my darling, disgusting daughter. Let's hit the graveyard and get you some bones!"