Fire and frostfire was given life at my will. I could feel the raw, living mana as it ran in circuits throughout my spell-forged runes until they, in an instant, completed their violent purpose.

They all erupted and the world did too.

Gwen and I hit the ground hard as her shout echoed throughout my mind. My stomach reverberated, but a foreign disturbing power was building in me, an energy that had leaked into the runes at the last moment--it was a power that had given them far more force than they should've had.

[Congratulations! Fire Manipulation has reached the Apprentice Tier!]

[Please Choose a Fire Specialization: Concussive, Burning, Concentrated.]

I saw through my companion's eyes as the silver Gatekeepers were blow apart, their alien metal crunching in jagged contours as my runes' implosive force blasted against them from every angle their bodies could offer.

At first the strange, magically resistant silver of the golems' bodies seemed to hold up, but then, with explosion after explosion, the cracks began to show. Then, with a massive sundering noise, the first blast of my runes' fire finally ripped through the most damaged of the two.

Meanwhile, my mind was being sundered by a shaking energy that threatened to tear me apart.

"Clarissa?" Gwen said; a shot of worry shot over our bond as she no doubt detected the disturbance in my soulcore.

And what a fucking disturbance it was.

All of a sudden it was like someone had lit a blazing sun in my mana channels, the overbearing heat of the intruding power shot along all of the pathways that I'd learned to flow my spells throughout.

My hands shook, digging against and into the dirt and grass set before the first of the silvered rings of the citadel.

My teeth chattered. My eyes flashed with energy.

This wasn't my power. This wasn't... What the fuck was this?

"Clarissa! They're still alive!" Gwen roared and I heard a crack of thunder, laced with hurried concern, resound as my friend charged back into battle.

The System notifications continued to flash. Every blip of the textboxes was like a blast of discord within my skull.

[Congratulations! Fire Manipulation has reached the Apprentice Tier!]

Apprentice tier?

What the hell was Apprentice tier?

I lifted my eyes.

Was this surging of power a result of me reaching some threshold of power?

Yeah, that tracked, even through the sudden vertigo and discomfort.

The System continued to prompt me to make choices regarding my skills

If I made a choice then would this resounding headache go away?

[Congratulations! Fire Manipulation has reached the Apprentice Tier!]

[Please Choose a Fire Specialization: Concussive, Burning, Concentrated.]

What did any of that mean?

"Clarissa! We... have... to... finish this!" Gwen roared over our telepathic bond; flashes of violent combat, of claw and halberd, bolted over our mental connection.

I needed to calm down. I needed to right myself.

The System wanted me to specialize my fire magic? It would probably grant me a boost to my power, right?

Had it already?

I remembered how my runes had seemingly gotten away from my expectations of them.

Then the power raging inside of me? Was it meant to be fuel for a greater boost? Was it System energy or my own; it certainly felt like the former.

Questions for another day.

Of the three offered traits, concussive seemed the most straightforward. It probably dealt with fire magic that went boom.

I already had a boost to explosive magic from my [Raging Sorcery] perk though.

What about burning? It sounded useful, but how often did I rely on damage over time?

My sword cut quickly and cauterized quickly; it didn't really catch things on fire. Neither did my fireball spell, honestly, which was more like a bomb. The same went for my runes.

Would the burning trait change that? Give all of my spells a burning attribute and a higher chance to proc a burning effect?

Why can't these things have descriptions, damnit.

My eyes drifted back to the concussive specialization. My runes, my fireball spell, my ability to combust my sword; it all seemed to point to strengthening my explosive power being the safest choice.

But then hadn't I already gotten a boost to the strength of my runes just by hitting the apprentice tier? Weren't they already strong enough?

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Honestly, the only weakness I'd noted as of late was my conjured sword's inability to cut through thicker, mana-resistant armor. I could get around this somewhat by concentrating the mana into a more compressed form, but it was difficult and mana draining

My shaking eyes drifted to the final option. Did the concentrated specialization offer a workaround to this? Would it shore up my weapon's weaknesses and mana-dependency? But what effect would it have on my other spells.

I heard Gwen unleash another roar, this one laced with a violent mana.

I needed to make decisions faster.

I selected the concentrated option.

Almost instantly I felt the burning sun within my veins flare and then abate, the energy flooding into the spiritual flame that surrounded my soulcore. The power weakened somewhat, but it was still there... and the small part of it related to my Fire-Manipulation no longer hurt; instead, it had added something to my abilities.

The pain wasn't entirely gone, though greatly relived, however.

Two more System notifications flashed before me still.

[Congratulations! One-Handed has reached the Apprentice Tier!]

[Please choose a Style Foundation: Strength, Endurance, Agility.]

My conjured sword had dissipated the moment my mind had been overwhelmed by the System energy that had flooded me upon hitting apprentice tier in my skills.

Regardless, I remembered back to all the times I had used the weapon and to when I had first decided to try to min-max my specializations.

All skills were supposed to have an associated attribute, right?

I had just assumed One-Handed was related to strength, since it hadn't seemed to benefit at all from me leveling my Intelligence and Agility--beyond my body being more nimble.

Had one-handed just been leveling purely by itself this whole time?

Did that mean that if I chose Agility I'd gain new benefits to my sword skills based on my power-leveled attribute?

I selected agility as my style foundation without hesitation. Strength and endurance hardly made any sense for my build, after all.

The System energy lurched within me again, barreling through my body and pulsing throughout me. This time, however, I felt the power burning within my inner flame and then pulsing out to reshape my muscles slightly and also imprinting something upon them in ways I couldn't quite place.

One to go.

[Congratulations! Acrobatics has reached the Apprentice Tier!]

[Please choose an Apprentice Path for your skill: Thief, Acrobat, Contortionist.]

Thief was probably to do with moving controlled and quietly. That could be useful, but I hadn't needed to do that too often.

Besides. My magic was usually pretty loud. The option seemed counterproductive to my fighting style.

Contortionist sounded interesting and I was sure it had some niche uses, but again it wasn't really the workhorse sounding path that I wanted.

Acrobat though. I'd leveled and gained my acrobatics skill by dodging and fighting acrobatically; the path was even named after the skill.

I selected the acrobat path, trusting myself that it was probably the best option for me.

The System energy once again circled throughout my mana channels, raging and subsuming itself into my brightly growing soul fire.

Much like with my one-handed skill, the power of my now apprentice level acrobatics skill pulsed back out into my body, loosening my joints and intertwining a limber, explosive feeling power into my tendons and ligaments.

[You have gained the Potent Flames [Un] perk! Increases the power and ease of compression of all fire-based spells with every level in Fire-Manipulation. Spells slightly ignores enemy resistances.]

[You have gained the Agile Blade [Un] perk! Your One-Handed skill will now level along with your Agility attribute, granting ten points per level of Agility. This bonus is not retroactive. Grants a slight bonus to Perception when engaged in combat.]

[You have gained the Acrobat [Un] perk! Increases the limber and explosive nature of your body. Strain on Endurance by the use of the Acrobatics skill reduced with skill level.]

The pain I'd felt before, by the onslaught of the System energies, was replaced with a dull ache. It was even somewhat pleasant.

Slowly, I rose to my feet. My eyes set on Gwen as she swarmed around the heavily injured and barely standing Gatekeepers.

The golems were blasted to hell, missing massive chunks of themselves. Their every movement appeared broken and janky.

Gwen, meanwhile was a whirlwind of fury. She was a natural disaster of lightning and thunder made sapient. Her mana-charged claws tore and shredded, dodging and ripping into the automatons more and more as each second passed.

The panther was determined, unstoppable in her intent to protect both myself and her own life.

But I could feel her body tiring.

I flexed my hand, beginning to pool the mana needed to summon my weapon of choice into my palm.

"I'm coming--" I sent the telepathic message just as another blast of System power rippled through me, causing me to stumble.

It wasn't as bad as before, but it wasn't comfortable.

[Synergy detected between Pure Flames [RU], Potent Flames [Un], Frigid Flames [RU], Raging Sorcery [RU], and Incinerator I [C]. Do you wish to evolve these skills: y/n?]

What in the...?

The System energy then doubled again, if not tripled.

[Synergy detected between Acrobat [Un], Spelldancer II [R], Overclocked [Un], and Agile Blade [Un]. Do you wish to evolve these skills: y/n?]

The invading power made my head spin worse than before, if only because I hadn't expected it to come back. My mana channels were overloaded once more.

Fuck this! I needed to help Gwen. She was doing fine for now; she might even be able to finish the battle herself, but what if she needed me soon? We weren't exactly in a friendly place.

At the same time, even through my annoyance, however, I could instinctively feel my various System highlighted perks shifting within where their influence touched my soulcore. I could feel them orbiting each other, as if the power the System had forced into me was highlighting their potential to be something greater than the sum of their parts.

My eyes hovered and focused in on the two notification boxes.

Somehow, I also knew that I could adjust what the System offered. I could remove or exclude certain perks from whatever combination I sought to create with the binding power the System was granting me, presumably as a reward for leveling the skills related to these perks to apprentice tier. However, I also knew that if I altered the quantity of perks to be combined that I would lose some of the potential my mind was now dancing upon as it perceived the nature of the compatible perks in a new, mind stretching, light.

The System energy tore through me. The only way I'd gotten it to go away last time was to use it, to make a choice.

Hopefully it would be quick.

I selected yes to each prompt, without removing a single perk from either. If I was going to go through this pain, then I was going to get the maximum benefit.

I could have selected no, but besides not knowing what would then happen to the energy ripping through my body... I couldn't deny Gwen and I needed whatever strength we could get. I couldn't risk just losing out on new power, maybe forever.

I didn't quite understand the potential that I was sensing within my perks, but I could feel how powerful it seemed to be. I needed that power. To protect myself, Gwen, and my family if I could ever get back to them--maybe to get back to them in general.

[Perk evolution initiated. Warning: failed evolution may result in death. It is advised that you hold back evolution until you are in a safe place.]

You could do that? The pain of the System introduced energy had felt so pressing? Now the System told me that I could've waited? Why not before?

"Fuck," I muttered; it was the only word I got out before my knees hit the ground and my vision whited out.

The only word, that is, aside for one, singular name: "Gwen--"

The pain that came was overwhelming.

It didn't feel quick.