Wichita could hardly believe her ears. What was the System thinking? The [Unworthy] class was unknown to her. But it was not difficult to figure out what type of class it was. What exactly had the System seen in the boy that was horrible enough to justify such a thing?
What had he done to deserve this? How come the System hated him even more than it hated her?
“I haven’t heard of it. But I do know of similar ones. Did you get any Skills?” she asked. Jace huffed, though that might have been from all the running. The boy was clearly out of shape. “No, and the System told me I wouldn’t get any. Is that like…something it will do?”
Wichita pursed her lips as she wondered what she should say. Perhaps lying would provide him some hope. But she would not like being lied to.
“Yes. [Unworthy] is from a special type of class.” she said. “I know of one another in detail, and a few others in the passing.”
The trees were still closing in on them, and Jace was running out of breath. So were Tully and Rose, though the latter looked like she could still hold on. The first two however, they were on their last legs.
“How -” Jace gasped as he tried to speak.
“Don’t talk, it will only make things worse. The conversation can wait.” Wichita answered.
“Can you try carrying him? With your super strength?” Rose asked between breaths. Wichita squinted at the boy.
“I am not sure.” she answered honestly. “What material did you use for the clothes?”
“What?” Rose asked, her voice growing high-pitched. Wichita had a feeling that they didn’t know.
“I need to enchant the clothes to pick him up, I can’t really interact with objects easily.” she said.
“What.” Rose’s answer seemed more like an exclamation than a question. Tully’s eyes were bulging, but she did not have the energy to speak. How were they getting exhausted so fast? The four of them had barely been running for a few hundred meters! A kilometer at most.
Rushing through a new intersection, she realized that they were slacking. Rose barely had time to use her powers anymore, and Tully was in no condition to shoot sword qi to clear obstacles.
Wichita had to wonder what the forest was trying to accomplish. If a beast struck them right now, they would probably die. Heck, they might just die if they ran some more.
“I- I can’t do it anymore.” Jace said, stopping in the middle as he held onto his knees, gasping for breath. Wichita wanted to protest, but it was clearly true. More than that, though, the trees had stopped with him.
Rose was staring at them like she was looking at a monster. “That was—what was that?”
Wichita did not answer, and instead turned her Skill on. [Forgotten Melody] became active as she felt it around her.
The forest was judging. The forest was hungry. The hungry forest was judging, but it was holding itself back.
The forest was judging.
A gaze, ancient, and partial was looking at them, judging them and finding them wanting.
Snapping out of it while it wasn’t overwhelming her, she looked at her companions.
“That was a test.” she said.
“A test of endurance?'' Jace wheezed out from where he had collapsed on the forest floor. Wichita thanked whatever Iridor had decided that the Arcana shouldn’t breathe. This was clearly a great weakness.
“Yes.” she said truthfully. “And no, I think.”
“What do you-”
“Just let her talk.” Tully interrupted before Rose could continue. “Not like -” the younger girl gasped. Wichita got the feeling she was the most exhausted one here. “— we’re going anywhere”
“I used my Skill on the forest. Remember how I said there were three aspects to the forest? The one we just dealt with is the judgmental one. I think it was analyzing our capabilities.”
“To do” Jace gasped, “-what?”
“Judge us” Even Rose could not keep herself from gasping, though her breaths were lighter. And she hadn’t collapsed onto the floor. “— obviously.”
“Yes, but more than that.” Wichita continued. “This is mostly just guesses, but I think the forest is a trial. A fair trial. Think about it, the change came after the fight. Rose and I were the only ones that could fight, so it changed things up. After we got everyone classes, the trials started again.”
“There is more too. I encountered powerful beasts before, but none of them killed me.” she hadn’t thought much about it then, but it made sense in hindsight. “The forest was only throwing weak beasts against me. Now it’s testing us to see what kind of challenges we are ready for.”
“If that was the test-” Jace began.
“- What kind of things are we going to face now?” Tully finished the sentence.
“I do not know.” Wichita replied honestly. “The other two aspects of the forest are…not pleasant. If we have to face them, then I fear for our life. There is a bloodthirstiness to one of them that I dread to face.”
Stolen novel; please report.
“So it’s just gonna get worse.” Jace sighed. “I don’t suppose any of them are gonna be fair? Perhaps give us a way out?”
“I doubt that.” Wichita shared his worries. The four of them had been lucky. This was clearly the easiest portion of the forest. “I would recommend stopping here, in fact I would recommend delaying as much as we can, whenever we can. The more time we have to grow our power, the higher our chances of succeeding.”
“Is there even a chance that we succeed?” Rose spat out. “Come on, you said other transmigrators have died before. I presume this luck thing isn’t foolproof. Is there any chance we get out of here?”
“I can’t say.” Wichita trying to seem confident. In truth, the Heart was the only thing keeping her from becoming a shivering mess. “I am already speculating a lot based on a Skill that is vague at best. Fae magic isn’t something that can be understood easily, it can barely be understood at all.”
“The forest has one of the most advanced and complicated Stories I have heard of. The amount of control, sentience, and power it has marks it as at least Tier 6, likely even higher. The fact of the matter is, we’re here on its whim. As long as we remain within the fairness aspect of it, there’s a chance we live. If we venture into other parts of it though…”
Wichita did not need to complete her sentence. In truth, she did not want. If she did that, then she would be lying. Just because some aspect of the forest had a bloody story, that did not mean it would kill them.
Heck, the chances of the forest’s territories being divided was minimal. There were forests that did that, but it was not usual. Then again, this forest wasn’t usual to begin with.
There were few forests across the world that might have had stories as powerful as this. There were none that could have produced these kinds of effects. Heck, she hadn’t heard of a single area with a such a concentration of spacial affinity. This was a new forest, produced after she’d had her incident.
That told her little. Three Ages was plenty of time for forests to come and go. Wichita was feeling very helpless at the moment. There was so little she could do. There was nothing she could think of that would help them survive, no enchantment she could make, no spell she could cast. If Veruna were here, she might have been able to craft a strategy. But she was no strategist, she had read the books, but it wasn’t her strong suit.
“How about we strategize, then?” Tully asked. “Planning can make things easier.”
Rose growled at her. Wichita frowned at the action. What was that about?
“Is there a problem? There has been some tension between the three of you. I have been-”
“How about we talk about classes instead.” Jace inturrepted. “I remember you saying you knew something about mine? What does [Unworthy] do exactly? I admit I didn’t catch most of what you said.”
Wichita took a deep breath. “[Unworthy] belongs to a group called as Tier 0 classes. The classes are usually given to those that wasted their lives. The ones that did not work at all, that cultivated no reputation and were not deemed worthy of the System’s gift. That said, the System is rather partial with their distribution at times.”
“Does this have something to do with your anger against the System?” Rose asked.
Wichita looked up in surprise. “I did not expect you to catch that. But no, not in this case. The System has not dared to give an Ar-one of my species the class since the Enchanting Queen.”
“A relative of yours?” Jace asked. Wichita was about to say no, but then realized the answer was, in fact, yes. The realization struck her for a moment as she stood still.
“The Enchanting Queen is my ancestor. “ Wichita paused, her words sinking in. The words she had just spoken. ‘The Enchanting Queen is my ancestor.” she repeated, feeling them sink in. Wichita doubted anyone else would understand what she was feeling. Even Veruna did not understand why she treated Arcana’s second monarch as a personal hero.
“…yes?” Rose asked, puzzled. Wichita took a deep breath and calmed herself. There was little doubt in her mind that even these humans would find it strange that she got so excited over being related to the Enchanting Queen. Even that was the Enchanting Queen. Wichita had to calm herself before she let out a squeal in delight.
“As I was saying, the class is given to those that the System deems unworthy for its skills.” she continued, hoping everyone would ignore her outburst. “An odd thing considering that I haven’t heard of someone actually getting the [Unworthy] class before. Just [Trash], [Burden] or even [Waste].
Jace flinched at her examples. Tully opened her mouth.
“Are we just gonna ignore that-”
Rose glared at her sister, shutting her up. Wichita pursed her lips, but decided that this information was not worth keeping secret. “The Enchanting Queen was the longest reigning monarch of my nation, she is something of a…hero to me. I did not mention her because she is not relevant.”
There that should silence the questions. Even if there was so much more to her ancestor.
“But onto more important matters.” Wichita tried to keep her tone business-like. “The Tier 0 classes are not, in fact, useless. If someone with that class somehow manages to excel anyway, they get an enormous boost to their Fae magic.”
“The Enchanting Queen is a good example of that — but I am digressing. The class is also not permanent. There is a criterion to pass it, something one must do to prove that they are worthy. For the Enchanting Queen it was winning a duel against her siblings despite having no Skills, a non-combat Royal Skill and limited talent at magic. For you, I suspect it will be getting the Royal Skill to work for you.”
“Why didn’t that work anyway?” Rose asked.
Wichita shrugged. “I do not know. This entire thing is new to me, I have not even heard of such Skills working for those not of the bloodline, let alone anything else related to the phenomenon.”
“The Royal Skill will likely take time to figure out, the System would not give an easy challenge. But I do know something that will give him the ability to survive and improve his chances of getting the Skill to work.”
Rose raised an eyebrow as Wichita waited for someone to ask the question. “And what’s that?”
Wichita smiled. “Why, it is magic.”
There was silence in the forest as she stared at them smugly. Then her smile slipped. “What?”
“I thought you said you didn’t have combat Skills?” Rose asked. Wichita caught her implication.
“I cannot cast magic due to the System’s restrictions. But I am still Arc-from my species. I doubt it will be difficult for me to teach magic to a human.” she said, then paused. “As long as he has talent. Mana is a fickle thing.”
Rose looked at her suspiciously and then sighed. Wichita decided not to think too much about it. The girl seemed to regard her every action as suspicious.
“Can I ask a question?” Tully asked, raising her hand.
“Of course.” she replied as Rose gestured for her sister to drop her hand.
“Why are you so hesitant to tell us your species?” she asked. “Don’t worry, we won’t judge.”
“I am sorry, I do not know-”
“Come on, it’s clear enough. There are probably bad bad things your family did, but like, that’s not you.” Tully shrugged. “Just look at this guy, his dad is running for president swearing to enslave a bunch of people, and we still followed him here.”
“Tully!” Rose screamed at her sister as Jace flinched. Wichita narrowed her eyes at the three of them and thought about what Tully had just said.
What was this about his family enslaving people? That sounded like his family was important, something she wouldn’t have guessed from his class. How did he end up with a class like [Unworthy] if he came from an influential family? Just being born into one should ensure otherwise.