I stared at the words hovering over my screen stunned into silence by the overwhelming situation. Ever since the system lock expired for me when I was twelve and I had seen my initial class I had struggled for years trying anything and everything I could think of to properly unlock the system. In almost a daze I shoved the body off me barely noticing my hands shaking as I did so. Slowly I walked to my bed barely daring to even blink, terrified that the words would vanish if I even closed my eyes. As I sat down the words in front of me changed.

Preparations complete, please ready yourself for temporary extraction.

Temporary extraction, I whispered to myself, extraction to where?

I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my head and I began to collapse backwards with pain. As I fell back however I felt as though my sprit was condensing inside my head, and as the feeling in my mind kept growing I closed my eyes and was whisked away to another place.

“Damn it to the lower planes that hurt” I muttered as I opened my eyes, finding myself in my room? But no it wasn’t actually my room instead of the one door to leave there was two and most notably there was not a broken vase or dead maid on the ground

“No you’re not dead” came a voice from directly behind me causing me to jump and turn around. I looked to see a woman standing behind me. Hands on her hips she continued “that’s normally what people ask when they first come here.”

Looking at this woman she had long black hair, a small nose and thick lips. Piercing Brown eyes looked at me through knitted brows. Her arms were crossed over a luxurious set of leather armour with two daggers belted at her waist.

I wasn’t aware I had a twin I said looking at her darkly, as she examined me in turn and I certainly didn’t recall being the uglier one.

My clone smirked at that. “It’s funny watching you pouting at a reflection of yourself.” She said as she started walking toward the door “or at least who you could be, I’m your soul, the manager of your class and skills and most importantly your guide.”

“Is that so Soul” I said, glaring at her and naming her on the spot “ I can guarantee I have never looked like that in my life.”

“I am who you will be once you awake to consciousness, Soul said I am showing you what you could be with your class and skills you take. I demonstrate the basics of your initial abilities and you can come to me with any questions. I also explain to you the basic rules of taking your first step on the eternal path.”

“Are you the reason why I couldn't get any explanation from anyone on anything related to classes?” I asked glaring “Sort of” she said shrugging “there are some restrictions on what can be told to potentials and the unawakened. However you were absolutely screwed over significantly more, But worry not for I am here to resolve all of your questions now.”

“Wait hold on one moment” I said raising my hand as though to grab Soul but her glare that seemed almost physically cutting made me think twice. “What do mean I have been screwed over? Who has been messing with me and my Class?”

“Well lets look over your initial stats shall we” Soul said walking to the wall right next to the door, touching the wall. I watch in shock as the wall seemed to vanish as a display showing my name and some basic details showed up.

Name: Dianne Elizabeth Tianshao

Class: Absorber

Strength

6

Dexterity

8

Vitality

8

Toughness

7

Willpower

12

Intelligence

10

Perception

11

Mana

20

“Well all of your stats are much lower than they should be for basically anyone who has money and wants their children to succeed.” Soul said, “On average a noble will start with ten across the board at minimum for all stats but mana, due to eating specific foods to boost the stats of those who can awaken, and around 50 mana. I suspect someone is doing something to hurt your stats because the average for an awakened individual is 10 across the board and 25 with mana” and in comparison royalty in this realm have managed to get some stats to 25 and mana to 100 starting off depending on their specialty”

“So someone is hurting me and has put me in a horrible position? How detrimental is this? Can this be fixed?” I asked stressed, wracking my brain trying to work out who could have done this. Someone in my family surely. Maybe one of the cooks and some of the staff?

“Well its obviously not good, and those foods don't work on you now you're awake for the most part. so you are going to have to raise it in one of two ways, by exercising or levelling up.”

“And this will offset such a large disadvantage?” I said questioning Soul “Everyone else will clearly level up too and most people awaken a lot younger. And exercise can't do too much surely?”

“Well for anyone but you this would be a near permanent disadvantage” Soul admitted, walking to the door “but you will be fine.”

“What do you mean anyone but me?” I asked, “What makes me so different?”

Getting to the door and clearly seeing fit to ignore me she dramatically swung open the door and gestured inside, leading the way as I walked in, my curiosity piqued but also ready to demand more answers “Welcome to the Absorber class”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Are you serious?” I said, turning around and looking at Soul and pointed at the bland room with nothing but a small wood desk with just three large sheath of papers and blank walls “That's it?”

“What do you mean? This is fantastic! Soul said her eyes shining. The less in the room means the more potential the system thinks the class has! Because the room fills related to your achievements and growth with the class. So a big empty room means the more that can be here, everyone starts with something like this.” Dragging me to the desk and shoving me into the seat she grabbed one pile of papers and threw them into my hands. “This is what you have at the moment to fill in your ten classless slots”

“Is ten the standard?” I asked, looking over the list of potential skills that took up several pages, absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of choice I had.

[Running]

[Walking]

[Basic combat]

[Unarmed combat]

[Ranged combat]

[Dagger combat]

[Improvised weapons]

[Grace]

[Poise]

[Manners]

[Hiding]

[Meditation]

[Senses]

[Eavesdropping]

“Its normally somewhere between five and ten, so ten is definitely better. Also something to be aware of is that you can take any of these at any point and come back to switch them out however if you change you start the new skill from scratch. Also you cant save your capability in a skill if you want to take it back. You start the skill as if you had never used it before however its normally a bit easier to get it back to the same level the second time.”

“Anything you can tell me about the skills I have?” I asked as I threw my feet up on the desk and leant back on the chair to keep reading down the list of skills I had earned

“Well as is normal, A Lot of your skills have similar properties with each other” Soul said pointing at [Grace [Poise and [Manners as well as [Running and [Walking. “Considering its based on your life experience to this point as you age your list will grow dramatically however you for the most part will see them as they come in and are able to change or upgrade your skills as they come in.”

“And crossing over skills probably is not the best” I muttered to myself looking at the list. Soul nodded, “unless you are trying to merge skills which is incredibly difficult, I wouldn't recommend it.”

“Any recommendations?” I asked Soul “I'm a bit overwhelmed with choice here and I'm not sure I'm in the safest spot right now.”

“There would certainly be some questions if someone was to walk in to your room right now” Soul agreed. “You can come back and adjust if you need to, so for right now I would pick [Meditation] the weapon of your choice [Senses], [Running], [Social graces], [Basic medical knowledge] [Bartering] [Learning] and [Climbing]

Not bothering to debate myself I quickly chose the suggested list of skills living daggers as my weapon of choice being the one I had the most practice with and was the most appropriate to carry on my person as a royal lady.

“Once you leave and as you start using these skills you will get more information about them although beginners skills are obviously pretty self explanatory for the most part.”

“Next we look at the most important aspect of this” Soul said, grabbing the next sheet of paper and shoving it at me. With shaking hands I grabbed the paper, closing my eyes and exhaling deeply. This was it. My class. After so many years of being considered and called useless by my family and having it discussed behind my back at court and social eventsI finally got to see what my class was.

Class: Absorber

Allows the user to absorb a fraction of the class of enemies upon death. Chance of success relates to how much higher level the killed target is. Absorbed class starts at base level however can be upgraded as per the classes requirements. Target must be an awakened individual. Other restrictions apply.

Awakening requirements: kill an individual with an awakened class

I yelped and clapped my hands over my mouth in shock. I turned to look at soul and whispered, “is this as powerful as it looks?” Soul nodded

“Never reveal your true abilities to anyone if you can get away with it she said This class is incredibly rare and would be considered an S tier class at minimum and classers will always target the strongest potential classes before they can grow.”

I nodded and then immediately had a thought “Wait did I absorb the class of the person I just killed?”

“Absolutely The person you killed was an incredibly weak rogue class, an absorber is guaranteed to absorb the first class of the person they kill, it’s not the best class to start with but it’s pretty helpful. But first let’s quickly look over your abilities from your class.” Soul said tapping the sheet of paper in my hand for emphasis

[Absorb]

Allows you a small chance to absorb the class of a person you kill. This chance increases depending on how much higher level the individual is than your combined class level and will drop depending on if they are lower level.

The odds of absorbing a class will never rise above 50% and will never be below 0.001%

[Identify]

Allows you to see the class and level of other classers and gives you a sense of how dangerous the user is. Can be fooled by abilities that change the displayed information.

[Disguise class]

Protects yourself from Identifying abilities by projecting one of your absorbed classes as though it is your main class, also reduces the proposed threat level can be seen through by a stronger ability.

[Absorbed Growth]

All absorbed classes level up slightly quicker

This benefit is presently 0.001%

[Aura]

The class's only combative ability allows you to layer all the absorbed classes energies together and emanate that threat as a physical force.

“So comparatively to an average newly awakened I’m probably incredibly weak right now correct?” I asked Soul who nodded

“The benefits of this class come from all the potential it provides from killing other classers. Which means that you have to kill other classers to actually grow which is why the class of our recently deceased maid will be very helpful”

“Well I don’t exactly see myself becoming an assassin for hire so I’m not exactly convinced that I will be gaining any classes at any kind of pace” I muttered looking over the details of my class with my stomach sinking in horror.

To properly advance this class I have to be a blatant murderer I thought. I killed in self defence once but I’m a princess! I’m not capable of this!

“Well” Soul said, wincing slightly “Unfortunately I don’t see that being an issue” I glanced at her suspiciously. “You see, well, the church considers the class an abomination and there are standing orders to kill on site” Soul finished in a rush

“Fantastic” I said rubbing my temples, at this point at the limits of how much shock I could handle. The church was a powerful entity when it came to classers but had minimal power outside of it. Most classers became members and it sometimes acted more as a social hub than a religious institution. Being cut off from it was considered a significant loss to any classer as most system enforced deals and contracts were done through the church.

“Anyway let’s have a look at your last class that you stole” Soul exclaimed clearly attempting to change the subject as she ripped the page out of my hand and placed the last one in there.

Subclass: Rouge

A diverse class that focuses on trickery stealth and deception. Allows the user to infiltrate and strike without being seen. Allows the user to branch out into more specific areas such as assassination, thievery, mage and Intelligence specialties

“One thing to note about is that you start with the skills of the person you have killed and can add any applicable skills you know related to the class which is obviously none in this case” Soul informed me as I looked over the limited skills I had available for this class

[Silent footsteps]

Your steps make no sound unless you wish them to. Your steps also make no vibration and is not affected by footwear

[Basic Shadow magic]

You gain basic manipulation of shadows and related elements. Additional spells can be learned. Current spell list:

Silence.

[Fade]

Upon activation you will naturally fade into the background and it will be harder for you to draw attention. However people will notice you if suspicious or unusual things happen.

[Pickpocketing]

You have deft fingers and are able to take things off a person naturally without them noticing.

[Empty]

[Empty]

[Empty]

[Empty]

“So clearly this was a brand new classer?” I asked “Why would someone so new attack me?”

“Well there is a significant penalty for killing someone below the age of 18 unless they are under 18 themselves.” Soul said “you are very lucky that whoever tried to kill you got impatient rather than waiting until you turn 18 and doing it properly, in fact I would look out…”

Soul trailed off her attention clearly elsewhere.

“What is it” I asked watching Soul look at seemingly a blank wall with an incredible intensity”

“Damn it to a lower plane” Soul swore, looking around “unfortunately you have run out of time, someone else is coming up and you have very little time to spare before they see you and that will raise questions you don’t want to answer”

Scrambling up I looked around and rushed towards the door, following Soul as she shouted last minute instructions. “You can youse the meditation skill to help you get back here as you need, take your time to find out what your abilities do alone and do whatever you can to avoid drawing attention!”

“Thank you” I shouted, opening the door that would normally be the exit to my bedroom to see an opening to what appeared to be a starry night sky. I looked in awe, hesitating only a moment before stepping through back to my new life as a newly awakened classer.