"Hey, are you all right?" Lewis called awkwardly to the three elves huddled on a tree branch, their pale faces utterly ashen, while one was constantly sobbing, tears flowing down her face.
It was difficult to tell, but two of them looked female while the other was male. All looked at Lewis and the carnage below with evident horror.
"Leave this place, demon!" Called the female elf, her arms embracing the sobbing and distraught elf who had called mournfully for her father, who was likely one of the two dead elves on the ground.
Lewis was surprised by her words but attempted to reassure them anyway. They may not be humans, but that didn't mean they weren't people.
"It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you. Look, my name's Lewis; I'm a good guy." He called, holding his hands up and giving them a tight smile, but the elves didn't seem impressed, the female elf tightening her hold of the crying one as she glared at Lewis.
Damn, looks like they really don't like me. What am I supposed to do now?
He rubbed his chin as he thought of what to do or say to diffuse the situation, but a stick flew passed him as he was thinking, thrown by the young male elf.
"Begone, foul demon." He called, his body physically shaking and his face turning a dark shade as he stared down at Lewis. He was about to placate them some more, to explain that he wasn't trying to harm them, but the other elf let go of the sobbing one to snap off a branch and throw it at him as well, making him swerve to the side to avoid the branch. They were all screaming at him to leave and calling him a foul demon now, so he reluctantly backed away, not so much for himself but because if they kept shouting like that, they would surely attract more beasts to themselves.
What the hell just happened? These elves are crazy. I guess not everyone can be saved. Lewis thought, leaving the three elves alone as he continued into the forest, unsure what to do now. He had wanted to question these elves about their knowledge and experience, as they were clearly not from Earth, but he got the distinct feeling that they wouldn't listen to him one bit.
But instead of dwelling on the strange interaction, he turned his attention towards the notifications he had ignored until now, a sudden sense of joy and accomplishment brewing within him as he realized slaughtering those steel fang wolves had allowed him to reach his goal.
Congratulations! You have reached level 10
Threshold reached: You can now upgrade your class.
Lewis fist-pumped the air when he saw the notification, the cultivation manual having mentioned that upgrading a class means your race grade will also increase. Since Lewis is currently a G-rank human, his first-class upgrade will also come with added benefits, like a heightened spiritual sense that would allow him to begin actually cultivating his spirit.
Not wanting to be too hasty, he picked up his pace, looking for a spot he could go without being disturbed to start the class upgrade. Since the system shop left him completely helpless, he would rather avoid taking unnecessary risks out in the open if he didn't have to, even if that notification was burning into his very soul, pushing his limits as the temptation to simply dive into it was seriously strong.
After a couple of minutes, Lewis decided to simply climb one of the large trees as the elves had done. It was an easy task with the new strength present within his body, his agility far beyond anything human as he climbed up like a monkey, his fingers digging into the bark to form his own handholds as he reached a wide branch well into the tree's canopy.
Excitedly sitting on the large branch, he made sure he was stable up there to avoid falling out if this class upgrade made him pass out. When he was satisfied, he let out a long and steadying breath before mentally selecting the class upgrade option that had appeared on his status.
The world shifted as he did, his consciousness instantly appearing within an empty space, devoid of color and sensation, with only the system windows to accompany him.
Congratulations! You have met the requirements to advance your class. F-grade evolution imminent. Please select from the list of classes available based on your actions.
Magebreaker: Your body is anathema to mana, making you the natural predator of all mages. Your body is your weapon, your fist striking with both great power and anti-mana, destroying spells and constructs with ease. +1 STR, +1 DEX, +1 CON, +2 INT +1 FREE
Berserker: Your strength is monstrous as you unleash carnage on your enemies. Let your anger and rage act as fuel while instinct guides you. +2 STR, +1 END, +1 CON, +1 WILL? +1 FREE
Void mage: Command the forces of space for pure destruction, imploding the fabric of reality and any foes occupying it. +2 INT, +2 WILL, +1 SPI, +1 FREE
Monster hunter: Expert monster slayer with specialization in the hunt of higher-level beasts. +2 STR, +1 DEX, +1 END, +1 CON, +1 FREE
Arcane nullsmith: All mana constructs are yours to rework, selectively erasing and remolding spell constructs and arcane creations to your will. +2 INT, +2 Will, +1 SPI, +1 FREE
Lewis scanned each option with an intense gaze; the options did not provide a lot of information, but he still analyzed them for any hints of information they could provide. He quickly dismissed a few options; for example, "berserker" and "monster hunter" sounded like lame options. Berserker seemed like it would make him into a raging bull, likely reducing his ability to fight with precision and instead doing the equivalent of rage steroids, which wasn't an appealing option. Sure, he had been angry when he had fought some monsters, but nothing that seemed worthy of calling him a berserker barbarian.
The monster hunter class was a similar situation; Lewis just felt like they were a class that many people would get offered because of how easy it seemed to unlock, but it didn't appear to offer anything special. He eyed the stats he would get for these classes and found that they all offered five points in whatever attribute the class specialized in, with a single free point on top. It meant that whatever class he picked meant that he would begin to specialize in that domain. For example, Magebreaker would be the continuation of what he had begun doing now, but something like Void Mage or Arcane Nullsmith would see him forgo physical combat entirely to focus purely on his mental and magical stats, which, admittedly, greatly appealed to him.
Both mage-focused classes had an identical stat distribution, so it would be the different skills he would get by picking either one that would differentiate the paths. Unfortunately, there wasn't much information on what those new skills and abilities might be, except for the short description.
The class that Lewis focused on the most was the void mage, since he had trouble imagining what it would be like, commanding the force of space for destruction. Like, how? Squeezing the fabric of space to form some sort of quasi-mini black hole?
He almost picked it right away simply to satisfy his curiosity about what that looked like, but also because it sounded a lot like magic to him, despite him not being supposed to be able to use mana. Yet he pushed it to the side for now as he looked at the second mage-type class option, the Arcane Nullsmith. The description sounded a lot like what he had hoped to be able to achieve with his broken mana, to still be able to interact with and reshape mana and spells. It didn't sound like the kind of class someone would pick if they wanted to become some unrivaled power and the new overlord of the universe or whatever, but Lewis didn't particularly want to fight for power; he wanted to live his own life, and now that he had discovered magic, it felt like a deep-seated sensation urged him to study it closer, to strip it down to its bones and understand everything, like a child dismantling his remote-controlled car just to see how it works.
It was a sort of thrill he had never felt before, made all the more intense by the fact that he couldn't even use it himself, his own mana being nothing more than a knife and hammer to peel back the arcane energy, yet just doing that already gave him a huge sense of progression, like every new spell and form of mana revealed a new secret about the universe, the memory of those distinct mana frequencies from back in the dungeon coming to mind as a smile split his face and his heart beat faster, a desire to understand that phenomenon better.
Yet at the same time, he was well aware of where he and the entire world were. The situation they found themselves in was nothing short of a cosmic upheaval, their entire reality shifting without warning, the way of the world irreversibly altered, along with what it means to live in this new era. And it doesn't involve founded research and study of the arcane; they had entered a new period of history, where personal power now matters above all else. No laws or nations are likely to remain to enforce any sense of peace, so the chance of some tyrannical figures or alien beings wreaking chaos on the world is extremely high.
With that in mind, picking this class, which offers no evident combat power or survivability, felt like a bad idea; the only reason he had been able to thrive so far was thanks to his unique combination of anti-magic and spiritual alignment, so sacrificing either one of those abilities would make him far more vulnerable.
Lewis thought back to his recent fights and found that his path of spirit cultivation and anti-mana were actually perfectly suited for each other, both complementing each other, despite them not supposed to be able to exist side by side, not that he even knew what his anti-mana truly was or where it had come from; still, he figured, why break a winning combination?
With a small pang of reluctance, he dismissed the two purely mage-type classes, the Void mage class being the saddest to leave behind, but he had no guarantee that it would actually be useful to him. Sure, imploding space sounded powerful as heck, but it likely had some serious limitations; for example, what if he had a very strict limit to how far the spell reached and how big the area it could affect, not to mention what happens if the enemy has enough time to dodge out of the attack zone before the spell can fully activate? All these questions meant that the class would be a huge gamble that might make him lose his other abilities if he wasn't lucky, leaving him stuck with a cool yet likely limited power when a pulse of anti-mana and a fist to the face would likely be far more devastating to the opponent.
Taking an exasperated breath, Lewis selected the first-class option, mentally selecting Magebreaker for his new class. It would make the best use of the fighting style he had developed so far and strengthen his abilities even further, yet he still felt a little reluctant to turn into a close-quarters fighter. But he had a plan to fix that; after all, he had already proven that his skills could be pushed beyond their normal boundaries, with his ability to pulse out his anti-mana in a wave and his glimpse of mana frequencies being examples of him pushing his skills beyond what they should normally be able to do, so who says he can't eventually figure out how to achieve abilities similar to what the Arcane nullsmith class would have offered, but through his own effort.
You have selected the class Magebreaker, confirm?
Yes/No
Lewis mentally confirmed, a sudden sensation of warmth flooding him as he did. His mind blanked out for a few moments as the system intervened to grant him his new class.
Class grafting successful,
F-grade evolution initializing...
Lewis would have been glad that he wasn't entirely conscious, as his entire being was overwhelmed with power, every atom ripped apart, his entire body disassembled and built back up, and the very foundation of his being now reformed into something better, something stronger and more resilient. His bones condensed and muscles tightened as power settled deep within his frame, far beyond anything assigning his free points had done to him, and an entire reworking of his being was performed within an instant.
When Lewis suddenly regained consciousness, he found himself back on the wide branch as if not even a second had passed, but he felt like an entirely different person. He blinked in confusion before memories of the agonizing transformation came to him, but the sensation of being torn apart at the atomic level was muted, as if he were under some powerful anesthesia during the process, yet he was intimately aware of what had happened to him and all the changes to his body. It was an intensely strange feeling to remember what you just experienced but not feel any sort of distress or pain about it, as if the system itself had muffled the process in his mind to avoid traumatizing him.
He quickly shook his head as the existence of his new class and the changes pushed him to open up his status window and take a look at what had changed.