For two straight days, I ran across my domain, spreading corruption left and right. I wouldn’t have stopped at all if it wasn’t because my energy stopped recharging.

Status: {

 Name: Darian

 Energy: 1485/1485

 Classes: {

   [32] Advanced Corrupted Bloodshaper

   [16] {The Third Eye of Corruption}

 }

 Attributes: { 

   Strength: 9

   Agility: 28

   Vitality: 8

   Intelligence: 40

   Wisdom: 44

   Stamina: 9

 }

 Skills: { ... }

 General: { ... }

}

An endless corruption spree that resulted in complete exhaustion had made my {The Third Eye of Corruption} class jump in levels. Downtime was a luxury I didn’t quite have, and time to think and explore the magic in this world was scarce.

The System had the concept of second class, and maybe third and fourth for all I knew. But that was just an easy way to present information to us, the poor humans who could not understand it.

Underlyingly, what the System represented was the user’s ability to understand a complex magic algorithm. Understand and retain it along with the rest of the classes that they already knew.

I didn’t plan to see Bob any time soon, but I certainly wanted my Advanced Corrupted Bloodshaper to be freed from the System influence. With my other class, it just spontaneously happened, but now it was different: I had a better idea of how corruption worked.

“I am going to be my own first test subject.”

There was no one to hear me; I was alone in a room inside Core. Someone, Yasmin, suggested that Core was too simple to describe my original dungeon and the summoning site I appeared in first. And maybe it was, but I liked it. It was the core of my power, the core of my corruption, and the core of my empire.

Probably, using myself to test what happened with humans was stupid. Possibly, it was a stroke of genius. What I needed the most was feedback—to know what happened as I corrupted someone, to pinpoint the changes in their classes. And there was no one better than myself to obtain this information from.

But today we had a visit in Core, and my experiments would have to wait. I dressed myself after checking that my energy was back to its maximum, and I walked outside of the building.

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Door, albeit very crude and rudimentary, had already been installed. The walls were no longer cracked and all rooms were back to a usable state. The dungeon’s fauna, mainly monsters, was kept in check by the city army. And, if my plans went well, they would soon have a new general to guide them.

“Charlotte,” I greeted her as she reached the entrance. “Let’s go inside.”

She was looking much better. There was still exhaustion in her drooping eyes, but resting and eating had speeded her recovery. She was wearing some simple clothes from the Church itself; Yasmin told me she had refused to wear any type of armor.

She acknowledged me, but other than that, she kept silent as we went to my room. She left her assistants with Yasmin in the room we used to hold important meetings.

“Have you been able to think about what we are doing?” I said as soon as we were sitting next to the only table in my room.

“I have,” her voice was resolute and firm. “These past two days, I’ve been reflecting on my own actions with the Sanctum and with the Congregation, both equally evil. I’ve reflected on what you want to do, and I must say I know why you are doing it. Sai-” she sighed when she realized she was about to say saints.

“I could get behind it. I could even be the ruthless hand that executes your will. But I don’t think I can do that now…”

I couldn’t help but think how inhuman I might have looked. My white eyes gave the appearance that nothing mattered to me, and combined with my dreams of dominating the world, she must have thought I was crazy. I had not been expecting her to refuse, and I didn’t know what to say next.

“I see…”

“If this had happened when I saved you, I wouldn’t have thought about it. I was furious with them and would have done whatever it took. So I defied them. I chose not to kill you against the wishes of my faction. Do you know what they did to me?”

I shook my head, genuinely scared of what her answer might be. Her voice was calm, low, and too peaceful for someone who was recalling how they were punished.

“They took away my classes.”

“Wha-?” I didn’t manage to say the whole word.

“They forcefully removed my connection with the System. I can’t sense the mana; I can’t even inspect anything. I have a constant popup in my sight that reminds me that ‘Normal System functionality has ceased to work’. They kicked me out in a random corner of Fixun along with my three underlings, who suffered the same fate as me.

“How would I help you? I am useless. Everything that defined me—my class, my power, my skills! Everything is gone!” She yelled with all her strength to stop the tears falling from her eyes and failed miserably at doing so.

“Listen to me carefully, you will make them pay for this.”

I held her by her shoulder.

“I’ve seen that message before, right when my class evolved from being restricted by the System to being my own. I can’t promise that I will be able to fix it as it was before, but I can promise that you will be able to use magic again.”

“What? How?” Her eyes begged me to give her hope.

“I don’t have a clue about how the System works, so I can’t restore it. But I know that magic is intrinsic to the world, and neither the System nor anyone else can take that away from you. I can give you back the ability to feel magic, and then it will be up to you to regain your powers.

“I intended to try it with myself first, but do you want to be the first?“

“Yes. Please. If I have my power back, I swear to spend every day of my life serving under you.”

“Then it’s decided!”