With my hopes renewed, I told everyone else about my discovery and confirmed that my mother was also not under any current orders. Despite there being potential that this might be a trap we decided to go forward with the plan. We would leave one week before I was scheduled to head to the capital.

Riza, Penelope, and I began to go out into the forest dealing with the minor monsters in the area. There wasn’t anything massively dangerous, but it was still better experience than just training. There were some Acid Hogs, being an endemic problem, but it was mostly just slightly larger versions of animals from Earth. Like the large cougars that live on and come down from the small mountain nearby.

There were also wolves that were closer to the size of dogs, but they had Air element powers. They could bark super loudly and with enough force to actually push us back. They weren’t too dangerous as long as they didn’t completely encircle you.

It only took me two such trips to get to level 60, really level 61, but what mattered is I was high enough level to unlock my second class. I had done everything I could to prepare for it. I put my last 6 free stats into Magic just in case it helped me unlock a better quality healer class.

I’ve also been debating with myself if I should take the Diagnostician class or the Bioshifter class first. I think leveling Bioshifter will be easier even without Diagnostician. However there is a real chance my second class will just level super slowly until I unlock my third class. I believe it’s only when both classes combine that they become truly powerful.

That being said I know enough biology to probably utilize the Bioshifter class enough for it to be useful on its own. I’ll just have to be very careful since each time I use the class it will be like experimenting on the patient. Generally I think I’ll have to use lab rats and myself as a test subject before I can ethically use the magic on another person.

I decided to get my new class as soon as we returned to the manor. Taele and Penelope agreed to stand guard by my door since I was entirely defenseless while I was getting a class.

My mother was in her workshop toiling away on more potions. The vast majority of the potions she made went to the Halcroft treasury, but it was worth it to both buy goodwill from our captors and to occasionally have just enough leftover ingredients to make a potion for us.

I laid down in bed and once again felt the strange paralysis start to overcome my body. Having experienced it once, it was a bit less panic inducing, but still felt terrible to slowly lose control of my body. A moment after I felt every part of my body become limp and motionless my mind went blank.

My eyes shot open once again in the vibrantly colored room, Mel standing in front of me. “Three weeks, four days, not quite a record, but pretty darn close to it.” She had a chagrined look on her face.

I glanced around to see the combat class door shadowed and the sign on top of it not illuminated. Guess I can’t even check to see what my combat class options were at all this time. “Well I couldn’t very well leave my favorite system administrator all alone.” I said with sarcasm lacing my voice.

Mel gave me a bit of glare. “Hmm, well if you’re going to be brat I guess I won’t deliver Nuala’s message.”

“Wait! No, I mean…” I stopped pleading when I saw her smile.

Mel giggled. “Na, telling you will be way more fun anyways.” She spun around then when she spoke next it was in another person’s voice. The voice of a girl, it was high, but just had a hint of rasp to it. “Tell him… I mean her…” There was a chuckle different from Mel’s. “That’ll take some getting used to.” Another pause. “Tell her, I’ll stay around Tyrael for 5 years, she just needs to drop my family name in any major town and she’ll find me before too long.”

I felt warm bubbles as my smile grew at the message. She was still Mary, I could still hear some of her playful inflection. It has become more tempered, but she is still herself, just in the same way I’m still Jacob. The core of me is still a person from another world, but now I’m also Alea. The Alea part of me has become more and more dominant each day, but the nerdy doctor is still who I am. It seems Mary/Nuala is experiencing something similar.

“Thank you, Mel. What you’ve done for us. I don’t know if I would have ever found her without your help.” I could feel tears in the corner of my eyes.

“Well I am pretty great, magnanimous, and generally awesome aren’t I?” Mel said. “You should do well to remember that.”

“I absolut-”

I was sitting in a chair, my hand hovering over the accept class button. I glanced at the class, it was a Ysarian Princess class. High grade, the stats were pretty good, and the element was Fire. I looked at it for a bit, I wanted this class. No… I had plans for Bioshifter Curist. If I took this class I’d have to delay my healing class significantly.

“I can’t stop you, but so help me!” Mel yelled at me.

I looked at the accept class button one more time. It called to me, something in me really wanted to take it. I felt my hand twitch moving toward it then stop again. No! What the absolute fuck was I doing? Sure I was a princess, but I wanted a healer class.

That thought settled in but something told me it was wrong in some way. Why… go to all the work of being a healer when I could just escape and become a princess in truth. I could return to the Ysarian capital, meet my grandmother the queen and just live as a princess of the throne.

“Mel… What is happening?” I managed to say, but my mouth snapped shut a moment later.

“Alea? Are you back?” Mel asked concern in her question. “That haughty little bitch almost ruined your life.”

Wait? What? Wasn’t it only the two of us here? Who was she talking about? “What?” I asked as my hand dropped from the accept button.

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

Mel huffed. “You are being controlled.” She pointed to the bracelet on my right arm, the emerald one Halcroft had given me on my birthday. When she pointed at it I remember for the first time in the last two months I was even wearing it. Had I been wearing it the whole time? “The emeralds are mind stones, Halcroft is trying to create a new personality to overwrite yours.”

My eyes went wide. “What the fuck?!” Now that I was thinking about it, memories of missing time came to me slowly. I would be doing something then suddenly be in another place. It has been happening with more and more frequency lately!

“You need to get that thing off in a hurry!” Mel shouted. I went about trying to do so right away, but my hand just phased through it touching my wrist under it. Mel gave me a look like I was a dumbass. “You can’t do it here, you are just a magical avatar. You have to take it off the moment you get back to the real world.”

Right… magical avatar. That made sense. Wait… it’s been making me forget about missing time and about it for the better part of two months. “What if I get back and forget about it again?” I asked hurriedly.

Mel considered. “Right… mind stones do tend to protect themselves like that.” She tapped her pointer finger against her chin seemingly deep in thought. “I suppose I could link your mind to the stones, it’s more or less the same thing I do to bring you here. That way you should be able to contest Halcroft’s claim on the stones. Hmm, but I doubt your Animus is high enough to even use them, you’d have to just take it off the moment you woke up.”

I have no idea what any of that means other than the Animus part. If what she is saying is true I won’t be able to use the mind stones to undo whatever damage they have done, but I would at least be able to resist their effect long enough to take them off. Then something terrifying occurred to me. “Alright… but what will happen if I take off the bracelet while my mind is still in the stones?”

Mel’s lips pursed. “I mean your mind won’t be in the stones, just linked to it. Once it is removed the link should be broken.” Then she paused for a moment. “Now what will happen when the link is snapped, that I have no clue about. Never done anything like it before.” She just shrugged.

Cool, so the only way to not have my personality overwritten by some artifact was to experiment with my mind. I glanced again at the princess class in front of me. It was somewhat surprising that it wasn’t a Hakan Noble class instead. I mean if this personality was created by Halcroft wouldn’t she want to be Hakan rather than Ysarian? Well it didn’t really matter, this other personality clearly wasn’t me if she thought being a princess was more important than being a healer.

I got out of the Noble chair, then walked over to the Healer chair. “Well I guess I don’t have a better option. Go ahead and link my mind to the stones I guess.”

“Oh, I can’t until you leave anyway. Currently your mind is here entirely, when I return it I should be able to run it through the bracelet which will make the link happen. It’s all I can really do in your world. I don’t really have a lot of power there.” Mel flushed a bit at the last sentence. Maybe she wasn’t quite as powerful as I thought.

“Alright, I’ll do this quickly then… I’d like to check all my options but…” I said somewhat absentmindedly as I got into the Healer chair and saw the list populate.

“But you don’t want another personality to make choices for you.” Mel finished my sentence. “Seems like a good plan.”

I only had options for Fire, Earth, and Water, so I hadn’t managed to get a dual element class. Not too surprising really. I opened Fire to see each of the three previous classes, except now Bioshifter Curist and only Bioshifter Curist was medium grade. All my work paid off, and got me a pretty significant upgrade on the class.

*Bioshifter Curist [Fire]

Medium Grade

Description: Bioshifters are a rare subset of healers and mages. They can change certain minor aspects of almost all life. Bioshifter Curists are focused on utilizing the magic of change to help heal others, whereas mages use it to alter life to suit their needs. Be warned Bioshifting is an extremely difficult form of magic that requires a deep well of knowledge to utilize effectively.

Stats Per Level: 2 Vitality, 1 Animus, 2 Magic, 3 Manipulation

Main Skills: Fire Affinity, Bioshift

Class Skill Slots: 4

Class Skill Tags: Fire, Healing, Knowledge, Science*

Nice, one extra Vitality, Magic, and Manipulation per level. I would get 100 extra of each stat over the course of my first 100 levels due to this upgrade. Getting any less than a Medium grade class would have weakened me pretty significantly in the long term.

There were still lingering doubts in the back of my mind though. I could take the high grade princess class and get 2 more stats each level. Plus the stats were more balanced.

Wait! What am I thinking? This is the stupid mind stones influence. “This is the class I want.” I said with conviction hoping it would quell the doubts in the back of my mind. It didn’t seem to help, yet the accept class button still appeared.

“Thanks again Mel…” I glanced over at her. “You quite literally saved my life…”

Mel shrugged. “You are just super lucky I find you so entertaining…” She glanced to the side and coughed. “I mean I like you so much. Yeah that’s what I meant.”

I snorted at her probably partially true antics. I couldn’t exactly begrudge her watching my life if it meant she would help me like she has in the past. “Well, here I go.” I smiled. “I’ll see you in a couple more months assuming I don’t get mind controlled into another person.”

Mel laughed as I hit the accept button. My consciousness was sucked out of the strange place Mel inhabited. Unlike the last three times my mind had been transferred to or from the real world I felt myself be… squished for lack of a better word. I felt strained as if my consciousness was shoved through a grater.

Then I was back in my body, my eyes the only thing I could move. I blinked a couple times, clearing away the fuzzy feelings of having gained a new class. Before the system could start sending me messages I disabled them all. I had to focus on dealing with the bracelet first.

Painfully slowly the feeling returned to my body, but it started high up on my face and slowly moved downwards. I groaned as I waited what felt like hours until I could remove the damn bracelet. Each second that ticked away felt like torture in the moment.

Finally I felt my upper arm move, I flopped my left arm onto my right arm. My hand couldn’t move yet. It just sat there atop the mind stones entirely useless to even begin removing the cursed item. I swore under my breath as I began to feel panic slowly inch up my mind.

My fingers twitched then I could move them. I flopped my right arm over and without looking began to feel at the latch on the bottom. I wanted to push myself up, but without my legs working it was difficult. I concentrated on the damn latch, it wasn’t some flimsy single piece, the entire thing had stayed on during the basilisk fight.

Finally I felt the latch detach only to realize it had two latches. I swore under my breath as more of my body began to move again. I sat up and now that I was looking I easily undid the other latch, the bracelet falling from my arm.

A horrible screech resounded. It felt like it was coming from my own mind. My eyes bulged as pain wracked my head. It felt like it was being slowly ripped apart. My arms flew to my face as I tried desperately to make the pain stop. I pressed into my temples, but it didn’t stop. I tore at my face, hoping I could end it somehow. Yet it still didn’t stop.

Then my body began to shake as I flopped limply onto the bed. I couldn’t stop it now, something was coming. It burst out of me like a shot, then darkness.