3) First class

  At once words burning with every color all at the same time began to appear before my eyes like the words of The Unnamed God. Each set of the words vanished as I read them, only to be replaced by another set. As with the god, the words had a presence that made the rest of the room fade away into the background.

  [ Tier 3 Level 1 Vile Arcanist Slain ]

  [ Bounty of 4,300 Merit Points assigned to Core as sole participant ]

  Then the words changed, not the color, or their presence, but rather than burning, each letter was… solid. Defined, like they had been carved into stone.

  -{ What the Error is going on here? }-

  -{ How the Error did that idiot do this? What was he even trying to do? Oh...That Vile twisted little freak.}-

  -{ Welp. I’m glad he’s dead. Now how should I… Got it. }-

  The words changed again, as if I was somehow being allowed to listen in to someone else’s conversation, possibly because it concerned me? First, the words went back to what I was guessing was the baseline ‘Voice’ of the gods, the burning letters in all colors.

  [ Spark of life granted to unnamed Core ]

  The words then burned with various shades of green, each letter seeming to sprout upwards as if growing in the air.

  )o( Regista? What did you do? I know that you would not create life on a whim.)o(

  -{ ...sorry Momma All but I had to do something. This Error could have burned everything down. Me included. And I like being alive. }-

  )o( ...I understand… One of your Elders will take up the matter. )o(

  [ Child Class assigned. Level 1 Child ]

  [ Age of Ascension Reached. ]

  [ Class options generation]

  [ Living Core = Core Summoner ( Unique ) ]

  [ Killed high level opponent, unarmed, while in midair. = Flying Fist of Crushing Death ( Rare ) ]

  [ Lifetime send in company of Fairy Folk = Agent of the All Mother ( Rare ) ]

  [ Participated in advanced magic ritual = Arcane Devotee ( Uncommon ) ]

  [ Fire Affinity = Pyromancer ( Common ) ]

  Reached Age of Awakening = Mundane ( Default ) ]

  [ Choose a class to advance out of Child class or be assigned to the Mundane class in 10 days ]

  “I’m being offered Classes?”

  The cage somewhere above me began rattling again as a high pitched squeal filled the room “Yes! You must already count as old enough to advance past your Child class. You should have a few dozen Common classes, several Uncommon, and one Rare if you’re lucky. Take the Rare if you do, they’re the best!”

  I hesitated for a moment, then admitted. “I got two Rares.”

  The sound of the cage went silent. “...two?”

  “And a Unique. Is that better than Rare?”

  The hand reappeared as she began waving at me frantically “Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! What did you get? Tell me the Rares ones! No, the Unique one first!”

  As I read off “Core Summoner” more words appeared which I began to read out loud.

  [Core Summoner. A Core Summoner, due to being a Living Core, does not have to choose between receiving Merit points by absorbing a Core or converting a Core into a Totem to be able to summon a Manifestation of the Beast the Core had belonged to. Instead, they gain the Merit points from the Core and may also summon the Manifestations of all Cores they have consumed without needing to retain the Core as a physical Totem.]

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  The purple hand twitched. “That’s… a pretty good advantage. Double dipping. Summoners normally have to choose one or the other for every Core they get, and they have to watch out for people stealing their Totems to try to absorb them. Which they can’t, only the Summoner who made them into a Totem can do that.”

  She paused. “But Unique may not always mean good, just very, very, rare. What do your Rares do?”

  “Flying Fist of Crushing Death.” Words began to appear before me as I said the class name out loud. “It says ‘The Flying Stone Fist may send themselves flying at an opponent at high speeds, adding their momentum to their attack while being protected against the force of their momentum.’”

  The laughter started up again. “Oh! Let me guess, you just ‘fell’ into that one!”

  After she calmed down. I continued.

  “Agent of the Mother. An Agent receives power over Fairy kind, and to assist in their work.”

  The laughter stopped. “...if you want to be safe. There is no better choice, at least for you. We would have no interest in using you as a Core, and you have no body to ever become a Demon.”

  Then she had nothing more to say.

  “What… I don’t even know your name. But you sound upset. You are my oldest friend. Talk to me.”

  She hiccuped. Then snorted before giggling a little. “Yeah. You’ve known me your whole life haven’t you...”

  After a moment, the fairy began to explain, “Agents of the Mother can be great… or terrible. They have so much power over my kind, and sometimes… they start thinking of us as resources. They figure that they could do so much more for the Mother with another level or two, and our Cores are worth Merit points. As spirits we just get reborn as Rank Ones again, so we don’t really die and the world never runs out of Faries. They even have powers to make us level up faster… which give us Cores that are even better for them to sacrifice.”

  She paused again. “Sometimes it’s even a matter of selling us off to get the money they need for a Quest for the Mother…”

  She sniffled.

  “Is that what happened…” To you? I left the sentence unfinished as she began crying.

  No. I would never do something like that. At least, I don’t think I would.

  But why leave myself with the temptation? “I don’t care what it can do for me. I’m not picking it.”

  She made some protesting sounds, which I ignored.

  Flying Fist would let me move around, but if I ever needed to attack someone, it would involve flying me, a rock, right at them, which didn’t sound safe.

  Pyromancer turned out to be all fire powers, which wouldn’t do me much good sitting here on the floor.

  Arcane Devotee would let me gain Merit points by learning and participating in magic rituals, which seemed to require writing things on the floor with chalk, a difficult task for someone lacking hands, but like Core Summoner with the number of Totems they could collect, the Devotee didn’t have any limit on how many of them I could learn.

  And I had to assume that even a Vile Arcanist would have a load of Rituals written down on Pack Rat’s collection of papers, scrolls, books, and all the other things stuffed into every nook and cranny of the room I was in.

  That was a bad habit, someone should have warned Nictob it would be the death of him.

  The Mundane class said it was the adult version of the Child Class that granted generalized abilities based on your activities. So I guessed if I wanted stuff for sitting around on a cold floor next to a corpse it would be a great choice.

  But... I was in fact, sitting in a room, on the floor... next to a dead guy. And I looked like a big round ball of free Merit points to anyone who might come looking for him. Having the ability to do something, anything, if someone showed up sounded better than relying on the good intentions of others.

  Especially anyone who knew Nictob the Vile Arcanist over there.

  Also, I only had one magic ritual accessible to me right now, the circle I was sitting in that was mostly covered by Nictob’s corpse and was made to eat the processed Chaos from living Beasts, while I had…

  One, two… five, seven, cores sitting around me. Each of them was capable of giving me access to a different Manifestation I could summon, and those were only the Cores around me that I could see.

  “I’m going for Core Summoner. I got Cores right here, and hopefully, one of the summons I get can open that cage for you.”

  And then carry me someone safer than here.

  There was a sniffling sound. “...Thank you.” She hiccuped. “Pansy. My name is Pansy, but I hate it and I always try to get everyone to call me Viola.”

  “Hi Viola. Call me... Fell.”

  She giggled again. “Because you fell and cracked his head open… I like it.”

  Well, that and it means something like dangerous when referring to a person.

  “I chose Core Summoner.”

  )o( ...I understand… One of your Elders will take up the matter. )o(