I staggered into my apartment. Taele and mom were still there and they gave me a strange look. It must be obvious based on whatever face I was making that I had been through something difficult. “Alea?” Mom stood concern written plain on her face.
I raised my hand. “I’m fine, just…” I glanced obviously in the direction of Halcroft. “An… exciting conversation.”
“Is everything alright?” Mom walked over to me despite my assurance.
I raised 3 fingers. “I need 3 months… then it's time.” The last dominos had fallen with Halcroft going to the capital without us and my class unlocking. The wariness of the adrenaline crash began to fade as a fire ignited in me. We were truly on the last stretch of our long imprisonment.
Mom’s expression changed when I felt the fire in me begin to burn. I straightened up with confidence. “Now let’s see what the system has to offer me.”
“We’ll be here guarding you while you are under…” Mom said as she stroked my cheek. The look she gave me wrenched my heart. I could practically read her thoughts as she watched her girl become a woman.
At least in some ways. I hadn’t exactly been an early bloomer starting puberty only a year or so ago. Though I could certainly do without the aching chest. Doing a second one of these puberty things really sucked.
“Thanks… I love you… both of you.” I smiled at Taele and she gave me a motherly smile in return. They returned the sentiment then I went into my room and laid down in my bed. I brought up the system and thought about the brand new option ‘New Class’.
I knew getting a class would make me unconscious, but I had for some reason thought it would be like falling to sleep. No, it wasn’t like that at all. My body went limp and my senses failed one by one, I was left for a few seconds paralyzed and senseless. It was like sleep paralysis on steroids.
Then I was no longer in my room. Instead I was in a small room with pearlescent walls. They shimmered in light blues, whites, and shades of pink. The shine wasn’t strong, but it somehow generated just enough ambient light for the entire room to be lit from every direction at once. Despite that the light wasn’t blinding either.
“Welcome, welcome, welcome!” A cheery female voice sounded. Then a figure of an unreasonably beautiful woman flickered into existence near me. She was perfectly proportioned and rather voluptuous. It was like she was designed more than natural, everything about her was too perfect really. Like me she had elven ears.
I felt the first spark of attraction toward this woman. That immediately reminded me of princess Rose and I blushed. I apparently liked both handsome and beautiful women. So it was now crystal clear I still liked women, though that wasn’t too surprising considering almost all elves were pansexual. Oh… did that mean I liked men now too? I hadn’t been attracted to any of the boys and men I had danced with. At the same time the idea wasn’t repulsive so it was certainly possible. Something to explore at a much later date.
“I am Mel, I run the system for all elves, and I have to say I have been looking forward to meeting you Alea! Or do you still prefer Jacob? Dr. Daniels?” She got a quizzical look on her face. She sounded a bit like a ditz if I were being entirely honest. However that did not matter one bit at this moment. She knew who I used to be!
My mind boggled at the idea. She was the one that must give me skills! She was the reason the skill descriptions knew so much about me. Yet she was asking about who I identified as. I very firmly identified as Alea Rothana now, I was a 12 year old female elf, and I felt comfortable with that. It took time but I was now confident I wouldn’t have it any other way. The princess part I wasn’t as confident in, but it was really the least important part.
So either I wasn’t actually as confident in who I was or Mel didn’t know everything about me. “I’m not Jacob anymore and much prefer Alea now.” I said trying to remain calm. “But…” I debated asking her how she didn’t know that.
The ditzy smile on her face became more serious. “How do I not know that?” I paused, not sure what to say next and just gave a nod. “I know much about you Alea Rothana, but I can’t know who you are, only the things about you the system touches.” She explained.
So by that logic if I had never taken the medicine skill my knowledge of medical science may not have been outed. “Can I ask more questions?”
Mel’s smile changed back to what I guessed was normal for her. “Based on the rules, no, but I am quite interested in you.” Her gaze became piercing for just a moment before she giggled. “You have already answered one very interesting question of mine, so I will allow you… three more questions. And don’t worry I’ll still help you with choosing a class afterwards.”
Questions burned in my mind, I had so many. She was something made by whatever god-like creatures made this world, this system. I could learn so much about everything here. But… I was also curious about something. “I don’t want this to be one of my questions, but what did you just learn about?”
Mel laughed, an infectious boisterous laugh. “That the progenitor’s soul assignment system actually works as I was told it does! Assigning souls to bodies that most closely resemble them. You being so firm in your identity is just one more example of it working.”
My mind keyed in on the statement of ‘more’ there. Has something like me happened before? A person reincarnated with memories and an identity intact? Then the color drained from my face. “Is Mary in this world… have you met her?”
Mel’s grin became mischievous. “Yes and yes. I’m counting that as two questions by the way.” I was about to object when she suddenly appeared in front of me with her finger on my lips. “She was here not a month before you, and I told her you were in this world too.” She backed up and booped my nose. “Hopefully that extra bit of information makes it worth two questions.”
Mel had just answered way more than two questions for me. I now knew for a fact that Mary was here, she was still a she, she was alive as of a month ago, she knew I was around, she was still looking for me, and potentially most usefully she was an elf or maybe a half-elf. Mel had met her, and by her admission she dealt with the system of elves.
Now I had a very difficult choice. Would I ask her about the system, about this world, or about the progenitors? Or would I ask her to give me more information about Mary? If I knew her name in this world I would be far more likely to actually find her. Could I maybe also get her position? There were other elven nations on other continents Ysara was the only one on this continent though. If I knew she was in Ysara and had her name I could find her.
The choice was simple really. Did I choose to go after my bestfriend, the only person I had ever truly loved on Earth, or did I learn a fundamental truth of this reality? The logical choice was obvious. I just… I just couldn’t bring myself to give up on her.
“What name does Mary go by in this world and is she Ysarian?” I asked. It was two questions and I knew full well she would call me on it, but I didn’t care. I was giving up on something much bigger for this.
“My three answers have become more like ten… but I suppose it’s fine since my breaking the rules to answer questions about Mary is way less important than other ones you could have asked for.” Mel said in a blythe tone. “Heck I doubt I would even get a stern talking to if a progenitor ever took the time to check on one of us. The last time that happened was just after Creation.” She shrugged.
I smiled, Mel had given me information for free again, and she clearly knew what she was doing. My secrets were safe from the god-like creatures that destroyed Earth. They just didn’t care enough to look into it. As long as I didn’t rock the boat too hard that is.
“As for your questions, no, she is not Ysarian, she is Tyralian, a moon elf, and her name is Nuala Moonshade.” Nuala… that was actually a pretty badass name, it really fit Mary. Although the news that she is a moon elf was not as great.
There are three different predominantly elven nations in this world with several smaller groups within other nations. The three nations were made up of three different ethnic groups, however the phenotype differences were really slight. Ysarian elves are sometimes called forest elves since Ysara is almost entirely dense forest land. Finally there are sun elves. We all share the same patron deities but not surprisingly moon elves focus more on Umbra and sun elves on Lux.
The problem was that Tyrael, the nation of the moon elves was on another continent. Mary… no, I corrected myself, Nuala wasn’t quite on the other side of the world, but she was pretty close to it. Travel in this world was massively time consuming unless you could fly or teleport yourself. To do either of those things you needed to dedicate an entire class to them. Teleporting other people was technically possible, but the ranges were small and it was a huge mana expenditure. I had considered then discarded both possibilities when researching our escape.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The trip to Tyrael would take probably an entire year before I had to find her in an unknown country. I sighed, this was just not something I could consider doing anytime soon. Although I now had a real hope I would see her again. I wasn’t alone in this world. It might take time, but we were both ageless, we had time.
“Thank you Mel… I appreciate you both giving me this information and being accommodating.” I beamed.
A little blush came to Mel’s face. “You are most welcome.” She paused then struck a goofy pose one hand up in the air and the other on her hip. “Now! On to your class!”
“Yeah! I’ve been waiting a decade for this!” I say enthusiastically.
Mel snapped her fingers and two doors appeared on the wall behind her, one labeled profession and the other combat. “So, I’ll be your guide through this process, you can ask me anything you want about classes, but I might not answer everything.” I nodded and she continued. “Behind these doors are your class options broken down into class type and element. You are allowed to go back and forth, it's just an organization thing. You’ll be able to learn a bit about each class, but once you choose one that’s it you’re done looking around. So I suggest taking your time and checking around a bit first.”
Well that was pretty permissive, I could maybe even just check out all my class options just to see how things work. “How many class options do I have?”
Mel giggled. “Oh thousands silly. Everyone has a stupid amount of class options at first, because you can be basically anything. Once you start down a path your future choices will get more and more restricted, but for now the sky’s the limit. You want to be a baker? You can be! A maid? Go for it! A super sexy system assistant?” She paused and grinned. “Sorry no, that’s my job you can’t have it.”
I entirely ignored her joke and she gave me a bit of a frown. I considered everything else she said for a moment. “How does it work anyway? Being the only system assistant for all elves in the entire world?” I asked.
“Oh cutie isn’t it obvious?”
My eyebrows scrunched up. “Uhhh, no?”
“I’m a magical program! Your consciousness is currently controlling an astral projection in a manufactured pocket dimension that’s why we gotta paralyze your body before we can get started.” She went suddenly still and got a vacant look. “Beep boop, Melputer at your service.” She said in a stilted voice.
I rolled my eyes at that. I couldn’t tell if she was being truthful. I mean it made sense I guess, if she was more like a super advanced piece of software there was no reason her hardware couldn’t run parallel versions of her.
“Alright.” I shrugged off her odd behavior. “I guess I’ll start poking around the professional section since I’m confident I’m going to be taking a combat class first.” At my words the door marked ‘profession’ unlatched and swung open on its own.
Inside there were nine comfortable looking recliners each with a word floating above it in midair. The words were 3 dimensional, but no matter what direction I looked at them from they always faced me so that they were readable. The closest one said Healer, and each of the other 8 had the tag of one of the professional classes. In front of each recliner was a screen that was affixed midair so that it would be at head height if I were to sit in a chair. The walls were still that strange pearlescent and illuminated the room from every direction.
Mel followed after me into the room. “Each of these stations will allow you to explore all the class options under each class tag. Go ahead and give it a shot!” She ran over toward the chair marked Noble. I shrugged and just went with it walking to the chair.
I sat down in the comfortable chair and it suddenly began to change around me. The armrests unfolded as my hands approached them revealing two imprints that I could put my hands in. I reeled back at the sudden change, but at the same time the back of the chair began to lower which set me entirely off-balance. My right hand hit the imprint and I saw the screen starting to change at the touch.
Once I was laying back comfortably and looking up into the screen that remained affixed with my eye-line the chair stopped changing. I poked the imprint again and the list on the screen scrolled down a bit. Clearly these imprints controlled the device, and the chairs were designed to allow you to read comfortably for long periods of time.
“How do illiterate people choose classes?” I mused as I began to scan the list in front of me.
“I can’t answer questions about how other people get classes or what classes other people get, but suffice to say illiterate people will be able to access the same amount of information you can.” Mel allayed my concerns. I hadn’t been around a ton of people in my life, but if the staff at the manor was a representative example of the population, literacy wasn’t terribly common.
I took a moment to get used to the controls. They were intuitive, dragging a finger up or down moved the listed information on the screen up or down, tapping caused you to go up or down on the list so you could select specific items. Finally pressing one of the two little buttons on the side with my thumb would select an option or go backward one step.
I went all the way back to the first screen once getting a good sense for the controls. It began with all 6 elements and 3 class grades. If I pressed Fire and Low for instance it would show me all the noble classes with those tags.
For Noble almost all my classes were princess focused. I had Exiled Princess [Fire], Disgraced Princess [Fire], Traitor Princess [Fire], Ysarian Princess [Fire], and so on. I also had Hakan Noble [Fire], Duchess in Training [Fire], and others like that. Clearly the system knew that I could very easily accept my life in Hakan and become a Duchess. In fact as I scroll through the different class grades and elements I found my most powerful option to be Hakan Noble [Earth]. That was a bit sickening, it's like the system wanted me to be Hakan rather than Ysarian, to truly ally myself with my captors.
Curiosity drove me to click on the Hakan Noble class. The class description, stats gained each level, and potential skills appeared on the screen.
*Hakan Noble [Earth]
High Grade
Description: You are a noble within the country of Hakan. By taking this class you are signaling your allegiance to Hakan and its king. You are on the path to potentially become the Duchess of the second most powerful family in the entire country. This great honor will cause your political power to rise to enormous heights.
Stats Per Level: 1 Mental Stat, 1 Strength, 2 Agility, 2 Vitality, 2 Animus, 1 Magic, 1 Manipulation
Main Skills: Earth Affinity, Noble Bearing
Class Skill Slots: 6
Class Skill Tags: Noble, Appearance, Social, Leadership, Slaver, Knowledge, Tactics, Earth, Trade*
Well cool, I could take this class and become better at owning people. I knew slavery was legal in Hakan, but still I hated that this class was even offered to me. How could the system think this class fit me in any way?
“Mel, why am I being offered a class I find distasteful on a fundamental level?” I asked, rather annoyed.
She motioned her hand and the screen disappeared so I could see her. “You are shown every class you qualify for. If you find this distasteful I suggest not checking your best Laborer class, since you very much qualified for several strong slave classes.” Mel said nonchalantly. “Plus you might not remain the same person you are currently in the future. Mental magic that could affect who you are on a fundamental level does technically exist. Although the progenitors barred them from mortals.” She grinned at the horrified expression I made.
“So you’re telling me that someone could make me into a person that would take this class happily?” My mind whirled at the implications that entailed for this world.
“Oh sure, absolutely. Your anima stat would have to be pretty low or the creature or item doing it would have to be insanely powerful. However a mindslaver for instance, given enough time, could absolutely change who you are in every way. There are even a handful of magical items that could make small changes over a long period of time. Creatures currently exist in this world that can do that to even the most powerful mortals in the world. Not that I suspect you will ever meet one, that entire field of magic is enormously rare even before you consider the fact that the creature would need a lot more Magic than you had Animus and Vitality to even get started and even then it would take a long time.” Mel explained the whole existentially terrifying concept to me with a happy-go-lucky attitude making it all the worse. “A magical item on the other hand is more likely, but way weaker than a creature doing it directly.”
Well I already knew this was a deadly world so I guess that just counts as more things that can kill people. “Wait… should you even be telling me this?” I asked.
Mel giggled. “Absolutely not, but meh I like you and the progenitors barely pay attention! I also really don’t want you to get yourself turned into some horrible person. That would ruin the fun of seeing what you and Nuala do.”
Cool so my life was some type of entertainment to Mel. Did that mean she could watch me whenever she wanted? Oh goddesses, she absolutely could, couldn’t she? That was deeply violating. I decided not to bring it up, I didn’t want to make the thing in charge of my system angry at me especially considering she seemed to like me.
I gave up on the Noble station after that, I wasn’t planning to take a noble class anytime soon. It was high on the list for my 4th and final class, but that was years in the future.
I walked around just quickly checking some of the options in Cleric and Student. It seems that since I had taken a casual interest in the goddesses Lux and Umbra I had qualified for some low grade classes like Devotee of Lux, Devotee of Umbra, and Devotee of Sun and Moon. I was an atheist on Earth but here the gods very obviously existed, and for the most part seemed pretty benevolent and positive. Even Hakan’s patron deity embodied only the positive aspects of nobles and strength.
Based on that I hoped the gods were not the same as the progenitors, but I couldn’t really be certain, unless I asked Mel I suppose. I doubt she would answer though, she seemed to actually be worried about revealing anything about the progenitors. For all I knew the gods were created by the progenitors to ensure there weren’t a whole bunch of religions created they didn’t approve of. Stamping out a whole religion was hard once it got going, it would take something like the apocalypse I went through to do it.
As for Student classes it turned out to be way less interesting than I expected. I had a lot of medium grade and even a few high grade classes, but I had harbored a hope that my studying on Earth might get me something crazy strong. Student was certainly a class that called to me as a person, I loved learning new things. At the same time I didn’t really need much help in that arena, especially since I had the Learning skill already. Taking a class for something I was already really good at seemed super wasteful.