Opening up my classes, I immediately noticed a difference. The “Please rejoin society” message was no longer there. I didn’t know what effect that would have on my new classes, so I started reading through them one by one.

  The first class on the list was much more interesting than most of what I had been offered before. While what I had seen before seemed rather plain, this one was much more complex. Interesting though it was, there were a few unfamiliar terms that I was curious about. Fortunately, it didn’t take me long to find the information I was missing in my codex.

  The rank of the class was something added by one of my recent updates. The higher the rank of a class, the more powerful it’s boons were likely to be. Unfortunately, the requirements for higher ranked classes were also harder to fulfill.

  The tiers of spells related to how many dimensions were required to craft the spell. A spell that required four dimensions was considered to be first tier, with each additional dimension raising the tier by one. Even something as simple as my fire bolt spell was enough to meet the requirements for this class.

  I was a little amused that the training that Ophelia put me through was enough for this new class, even if I didn’t particularly want to take it. I didn’t want to fight anymore if I didn’t have to.

  I did not like this class.

  The reminder of what happened to my people was not a welcome one. With the sudden jolt of remorse, I lost hold on my mana sight spell. The colors from the spell faded away and I was left with a dull and depressing world by comparison. I had to lean against the wall as the flood of memories threatened to overwhelm me.

  Half remembered faces and voices played across my mind. All of them were gone. Everyone in my entire village was gone. The dangers of the jungle had left me with little time for mourning. Now that I finally had a peaceful moment in a safe place, I no longer had a distraction to hold back the despair.

  I wasn’t sure how long I sat there before I managed to get the shaking of my limbs back under control. The moisture I wiped from my face probably wasn’t all from the rain.

  I read over the next class a few times without being able to focus on what my interface had to say. Around the fifth try, I had finally calmed down enough to make sense of what I was reading.

  Reading the requirements for this class provided enough of a surprise to shock me most of the way out of my dark mood. Nobody with the system had ever used sigil painting?

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  Thinking about it, I realized that sigil painters were actually rather rare. Even with the hundreds of people who had lived in Sanctuary Valley, no more than a handful of people had been capable of drawing a functional sigil. It wasn’t unreasonable to assume that everyone that could have figured out how to draw sigils just used runes instead. That did leave me wondering if there was anyone else left who knew how to weave gold into enchanted jewelry.

  Unlike the previous two classes, this one did interest me. I liked painting sigils and would have been happy to teach others how to do the same. The rank was higher than the others as well, promising stronger boons to go with it.

  I was still feeling a bit shaken, but at least I knew one of my classes would be worth taking.

  High ranked classes really did have more challenging requirements. Reading through the list of requirements, I shuddered. The terrifying days I had spent tracing out the runic array in the dark were not something I ever wanted to repeat. Slaying a titan was an impressive achievement, but no class would be worth trying to do it again.

  The class itself sounded very powerful. I didn’t want to fight anymore, but I was still tempted to see what abilities I was being offered. There was an odd word tacked onto the description that I was curious about. What did it mean by heroic?

  Once again, my codex held the answer. A heroic required some sort of legendary deed to unlock. Others would be informed by the system whenever they meet a heroic individual.

  I didn’t see struggling for my life in the dark as particularly heroic, so I hoped that I would be able to turn off that particular feature. It was hard enough dealing with people without any misunderstandings complicating things further.

  I didn’t dwell on it long, as I still had a bit more to read through. Unlike before, where I was offered only four classes to pick from, I now had a fifth thanks to another one of my updates.

  I was once again confused by the requirements for the class. Did it not count the mana pool, codex, or physical enhancements as direct assistance?

  The requirements seemed lacking compared to the previous class. While none of those things were particularly easy, I didn’t find them anywhere near as difficult as killing a titan. Why was this class the same rank as one that required someone to kill giant monsters?

  Regardless of requirements, the class sounded much better than my other choices. It didn’t require me to fight things and would help me discover more interesting combinations of mana forms. The fact that it was also ranked higher than most of my other choices suggested that it would probably be very strong.

  I still considered taking the Slayer of the Mighty class just to see what it would offer me, but in the end I decided against it. I didn’t want to risk missing out on this True Caster class.

  With a thought, I selected my newest class.

  INTERLUDE 9: Eldritch Invaders

  In a small clearing in the jungle, a pool of twisted light displayed images from afar. Its creator watched as the most recent group of the void creatures left their nest of felled trees. After commanding the other end of the magic to follow the creatures, she considered how best to handle this most recent incursion into her realm.

  When the creatures had first come across the expanse of undrinkable water, she had been intrigued. These strange, ape-shaped beings wielded tools and magic like none she had seen before. The thought of examining such complex minds had been tantalizing.

  Upon first meeting the creatures, her intrigue had turned to horror. These things held no mind she could reach. Worse still, the very mana that permeated the world was absent in their deceptively ape like bodies. To her senses, these aberrations were dark and terrible holes in reality, utterly unlike anything she had ever witnessed.

  Horrific though these things were, she had initially held no animosity towards them. Like all living things, they deserved a chance to find their place in the world. She had reluctantly chosen to leave them be as they had destroyed great swaths of the jungle in the creation of their home.

  She soon came to regret her inaction, as these strange entities spread their destruction to the very mana in the air around their nest. The normally abundant mana that brought life to the world was somehow being eroded away. She could no longer stand aside and watch.

  Despite her best efforts, she failed to contain the invaders to their claimed lair. Like the twisted remnants of the dead, these void creatures began to roam the jungle in search of something to fulfill their unknowable desires. Nothing was able to stand in their way.

  Still, there had been some success in reducing their numbers. The ambushes she guided slowed the void creatures, though not without a great cost in lives.

  While keeping an eye on the pool of light, she felt around with her other senses. The jungles around were filled with many, many minds, ready and waiting for her command. While the number of these were growing day by day, their time was still yet to come. Instead, she selected a pack of large cats roaming on the edges of her dominion.

  She didn’t have high hopes for their success, but she reached into their simple minds nevertheless. With a few small adjustments, the beasts were thrown into a frenzy. Another simple nudge sent them to battle.

  She dismissed her magic pool with a flick of her tail. Watching the poor creatures meet their end had grown too painful to watch. It was a terrible waste, but she needed to keep the void creatures away a little longer. Her newest magic was nearly finished developing.

  She just hoped it would be enough.