The new class was overwhelming. In my room inside Core, where my pulses only reached inside the building, everything had been fine. Even outside, using just my pulses didn’t feel any different than what it had before.

Everything changed the moment I decided to add [Weave] on top. Certainly, a bad decision when trying it out for the first time and being inside a dungeon. A dungeon made out of pure corruption.

I grasped my head and screamed, as if somehow that would make the pain go away. It was a kind of mental agony that I wished no one—not even my enemies—ever experienced.

I was on my knees, crying and pouring my soul out, when I finally managed to stop [Weave]. There was nothing special about it, just the thought of stopping. I just couldn’t get myself to do it before; pain was taking the hotspot and making itself the focus of all my thoughts.

When I finally did, I was left with the ghostly feeling of a cramp. Like a muscle that had just exerted itself too much, my brain was hurting with the aftereffects of my reckless attempt.

Groaning, I plummeted to the ground and rolled over to my back. The day had started too well; I should have known something was about to go wrong.

I am not easily defeated, though. Perhaps [Weave] was a bad idea, but that didn’t mean the other skills were. I made myself as comfy as one could when lying in the middle of a dungeon and used [Awaken].

Or tried to use it.

Nothing happened. My surroundings were still the same, I was still the same. I clicked my tongue and pulled again my [Corrupted Class Book]; I was doing something wrong.

The sacrifice. The missing ingredient was immediately obvious as soon as I re-read the skill’s description. I had to sacrifice something to get benefits in return, and that meant one of the classes I had absorbed so far.

“I’ll sacrifice [Corrupted Soldier],” I decided after briefly checking all the classes I had.

Once again, I cast [Awaken], and this time I received a notification in exchange.

[Awakening failed]

The sacrifice has too little information or is too far from your field of experience.

I could have directly gone for one of the golden pages, which was something I definitely had to try, but I decided to first try a combination of several sacrifices. I took [Corrupted Soldier], [Corrupted Venomblade], [Corrupted Pathfinder], and even [Corrupted Chaos Sorcerer].

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“[Awaken]!”

I waited, possibly for the same short span of time as before, yet seemingly for much, much longer.

[Awakening failed]

The sacrifices have no point in common; nothing can be extracted.

I continued experimenting, but no matter what I tried, these low-affinity classes were getting me nowhere. I assumed that, if I could ever collect enough of them, the situation would turn around. Especially if they were like [Corrupted Chaos Sorcerer], that shared some foundations with my own classes.

I hesitated about my next step. Either it was a huge success or an astronomical failure like humanity had never seen before—or maybe I was exaggerating. Either way, the idea of sacrificing {Corrupt Pulseweaver Inquisitor} terrified me.

I had already decided that I would not use it and that I could improve my pulses by myself, so it was rational to offer it to the gods of magic and corruption. Really, I was just trying to convince myself to do the right thing.

“You better give me something good, [Awaken].”

I was convinced the sacrifice would go through. All the others had failed for reasons that would never be triggered by such a good class. It was created by myself, and that is as suitable as it could get. Gold.

[Awakened Skill]

Your [Third Eye] skill has evolved to [Dome of the Inquisitor].

“Fuck yes!” The curse escaped my mouth without me even realizing it. “Gold never fails!”

No one was listening to me, aside from some monsters in the surrounding area that were probably scared away at that very moment. The class itself must have had much more potential than just a skill, but between never taking it and improving one of my existing abilities, the decision was clear.

[Dome of the Inquisitor]

> Your eye is always open, vigilant, and scanning your surroundings. Within the dome, you can perceive everything. Magic, enemies, objects—nothing escapes the eye of the inquisitor.

>

> Within the range of your dome, your energy is densely connected and relays all the information. You can selectively act only on one part of the sphere of influence. With practice, multiple separated parts can be felt and used at the same time.

>

> Pulses are required to expand the range of the dome.

I was literally drooling. While reading those lines, I was already noticing the changes. I no longer saw a picture that came and went every split second, but an actual movie moving at such a fluid rate that I didn’t notice any cuts.

I couldn’t resist the urge. There was an itch that I had to scratch at all costs. I just had to [Awaken] one more class, {The All-Seeing Corruptive Oracle}. Just like the other one, I would never lock this class in.

“One more time! [Awaken]!”

[Awakened Knowledge]

Magic does not only carry power; it's also an atemporal storage of information.

“Huh?”

[The Origins of the System]

> Desolate lands whipped by winds that nobody knew where they came from. Blackness incarnate roamed the land, spreading death wherever it landed.

>

> The times were wild, chaotic. One mage—the root of all evil—died just for the next one to become worse. A cycle that couldn’t be stopped; to kill a monster, you had to become an even greater monster.

>

> The records show that the System was born from the last monster to ever exist—the [Overseer]. There was a single thought in his mind: there will be no next, for I will know what’s about to come.

>

> The System, in its origin, was not the blessing known to the current multiverse. Surveillance, control, stagnation, obsolescence, and limiting access to the magic that had once been everyone’s domain.