The first pulse I sent was charged with as much energy as I deemed safe. And even that amount was not enough to make anyone come even close to the limit of corruption.
The next whole five minutes I spent carefully observing if any of them stepped on the line and sending more pulses whenever needed. With Charlotte, it had been faster, but it was also on a single person to focus my pulse and energy on.
The bugs of corruption appeared at different times and quantities on several people. My hypothesis, which I would have to validate as soon as the experiment was over, was that higher levels made the person more integrated and dependent on the System. Thus, removing it became more difficult.
As soon as the first bugs made someone fall on the side of turning to dust, I had to stop with the pulses altogether. It was a game of rat and mouse from that point on. A few concentrated beams of corruption hit those who were still not there, and small needles of pure energy killed bugs from those that were too far gone.
Sweat dropped from my front, and my hands were shaking. My energy was sitting at 487/1790, reaching the zone I was no longer comfortable with anymore. The hectic pace was slowing down as more of them reached the point of equilibrium.
“You are fighting a battle against yourself! A battle against surrender and quitting. Remember who you are, what you want!” I encouraged them.
I could keep the corruption in check and stop it from pulverizing them, but completely erasing it would defeat the whole purpose. It had to be them regaining control of their life and claiming them back from the System.
They were fine soldiers who clearly wanted to improve. Like a summer rain, tiny drops in the form of corrupted individuals were landing next to me.
“Do you have a [Corrupted Class Book]?” I asked every one of them when they came.
The answer was always yes, sometimes with some additional explanation on my part on how to find the book. My own class book eagerly absorbed their classes without issues, but this time the original book still survived the process.
These books still had an owner, unlike Charlotte’s, so it didn’t really make sense for me to keep them. Their only way to know about their class and how to advance required these books, so me stealing the books wouldn’t help.
And I also didn’t want every single person coming at me with questions about their own class. I had enough trying to figure out mine.
When I was summoned into this world, they didn’t properly corrupt me. I became an error because they wanted to have me under control. My class book was part of that; without it, I wouldn’t have been able to progress.
That’s not what I wanted for any of them. I needed them to get stronger and to voluntarily serve under me. Slaves, mindless warriors that couldn’t act on their own, would get me nowhere.
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I briefly looked over every one of the classes they obtained. Melee, magic, and ranged—all started with the ‘corrupted’ prefix, signifying that my job was done.
[Corrupted Vanguard] [Corrupted Venomblade] [Corrupted Elementalist] [Corrupted Enforcer] [Corrupted Soldier] [Corrupted Magus]
I was happy to see that the [Scout] that had been spying and tracing the fourth also decided to give the idea a try.
[Corrupted Shadow] [Corrupted Pathfinder] [Corrupted Ranger] [Corrupted Tracker]
My predictions were perfectly coming to life. My book was being filled with black page after black page. There was some rare exception with the mages, with some taking some pale red tones and only one being bright red—[Corrupted Chaos Sorcerer].
Everyone had finished and passed by me, except one person—Jonas. As the highest-level individual and the only one that had evolved, I had spent exorbitant amounts of energy to make the corruption kick in. And even when it did, I still had to redouble my efforts to make it stronger.
I was genuinely curious to see what his class would be, so when he finally stood in front of me, I took my sweat time to read over his own class book. It was the only one I did it for.
[Warden of the Corrupted]
> When commanding corrupted troops, they receive additional bonus attributes based on the Warden’s level and abilities.
>
> The Warden must vow to protect a city. Units fighting within the confines of the city receive a boost to morale. Additionally, in their domain—the chosen city—the Warden can thicken and manipulate corruption to their army’s advantage.
>
> Strategist at heart, the Warden must use corruption tactics to bring their army to victory.
It was clearly a class not designed for me, even if the page wasn’t completely black but a shade of beige. In a way, I had been leading lots of people lately. In a carefree and detached way, but I had many people under me.
My [Corrupted Class Book] was filled to the brim; there was nothing else for me to do. I refilled the energy in my pocket space and quickly looked at my status.
Status: {
Name: Darian
Energy: 1790/1790
Classes: {
[33] Advanced Corrupted Bloodshaper
[25] {The Third Eye of Corruption}
}
Attributes: {
Strength: 13
Agility: 32
Vitality: 10
Intelligence: 48
Wisdom: 54
Stamina: 11
}
Skills: { ... }
General: { ... }
}
“Alright! Jonas, I’ll be coming back every day for the next week to corrupt the rest of the citizens. Please inform everyone and have them ready.“
I went back to Core, excited to see what my {The Third Eye of Corruption} would become.