Chương 58: 57-A Matter of Class

"Okay, Aram, are you sure about your first Competency? It will define your whole Class. It will define you," Dignity asked him.

"There are plenty of Savants in Babylon. You could choose a different Competency if you wanted."

"I am sure of it, Dignity. I want it to be Community. Elena was right. I want to bring people together. I know I was born for this." Only his mother was present. Olana looked at his son with undisguised pride and held his hands for a moment.

"I am so proud of your choice, son. Your calling does not come from me—I never taught you that. Knowing that makes me twice as proud."

"Let's get to it," Dignity said, cutting the scene short. She was Dignity, not Patience, and she had a city to rule. She took Aram's hands and started to focus. Nothing happened. Dignity looked incredulously at Aram. Then she grabbed his hands and tried again.

"I can't activate him! His mind is somehow rejecting the Competency."

"Are you sure?" Olana asked, her voice worried.

"Totally. I have tried four times."

"Please, try some other Competency, Dignity. Teaching will do," Aram asked her. A minute later, Dignity gave up.

"I am sorry, Aram. Your mind rejects anything I throw at it. I can't give you a Class." Aram looked crestfallen.

"I had not counted on this. Today was supposed to be a big day." His mother hugged him.

"We will find together a solution, my son, as we have always done."

"I know we will, mother," answered Aram, hugging her back. She did not want to let it show, but Aram knew she was devastated. Without a Class, his chances of adapting to human society were slim, and he would become a prime target for the Answer.

"I will let you two talk. I have a class to attend," Aram lied as he left the room. He heard Dignity and Olana's hurried conversation as soon as he left the room. He left Dignity's house and wandered through the streets of Babylon, a thousand ideas thundering through his mind. He was the son of an Essential and an Experiential—he had assumed both worlds were open to him. What if the opposite were true? He could be barred from having both Class and Essence powers.

What if that union was forbidden because it would be detrimental? It would not be the first time the Everlasting blundered, playing with forces he did not understand. Two weeks ago, he would not have given a damn. He was a hunter and a warrior, and his mother loved him. That was enough for him. A male hunter. A male warrior. Unfit for Valdar's rigid society, a classless Elf in a city filled with Avatars.

He had felt himself ready for anything when all the enemies he knew were the beasts of the forests where he had grown up. Babylon had shown him a world of wonder and horror. There were big challenges out there—monsters to hunt, innocents to protect, and cities to raise. The Chant was hungry for new Codas, and it needed heroes to live them. He had foolishly believed he could be one of them. He was nothing but an outcast.

He would never fit in either Valdar or Babylon—not because he was different, but because he was less. Tonight, he would take his anger and resentment and turn them into a song. Elves created beauty out of anything.

"It did not work, did it?" The voice suddenly pulled him out of his reverie. It was Elena, his first and closest friend. She sat on some sort of metallic chair that hovered a few inches above the ground. Her crutches were tied to the back.

"Push it, will you? It can move on its own, but it drains less power if someone does it. Morton created it for me."

"I have never seen you use it before."

"I usually don't need to. This is only for outdoors. I love the forest, but the ground there is too uneven. Crutches won't work." Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Let's go outside. I want you to meet a friend." Aram pushed the floating chair in the direction Elena indicated. It was surprisingly easy to move.

"How did you know it would not work?"

"Because on Earth, the system defines humans as the base race. You need a Legacy, a special competency, to live as another race. Essentials do not have that problem because they do not use Legacies."

"You are a challenge to the System. You are both human and not. You should not exist, yet here you are. It does not know what to do with you."

"That is why I keep rejecting other Competencies, because my first one should have been my Legacy, a Legacy that does not exist. Systemless humans can choose to acquire Legacies later in their build, but I can't—I have to justify not being human."

"You got it in one," Elena said, smiling at him.

"Well, you did fulfill your goal, Elena. What was it you said? I will help you realize your full potential. Now we know what it is. My potential is zero."

"Oh, boy. You are so wrong," Elena said, smiling that beautiful, confident smile of hers. They had crossed the gates and were on the outer road to Babylon. The Elven Amazons on guard saluted him cautiously as they passed. They knew he was Olana's kid, but did not know what to make of him. They headed for a copse of trees three hundred feet from the Eastern Gate. They passed a Citizen leading a pack of shadowy dogs.

"Hi, Ephraim, I see Morton upranked you!" Elena waved at him.

"Yep. I am a Boss for the next three days. I am scouting our surroundings, in case the Answer sends an advance group. Enjoy the sunshine, Elena. Dignity will close the city as soon as they get nearer." The man entered the depths of the forest, followed by his shadowy constructs.

"He was a dog breeder when he was human. That is why Morton picked him up for this task." Aram knew the Brotonville Train Station had a peculiar way with its Bosses. Morton, acting as the Station's Core, could temporarily upgrade six Citizens to Boss rank.

"Thank you for coming with me, Aram. I need these walks. There she is."

"Hi, Sophie, did you have to wait long?" Sophie was a young brunette, probably not yet twenty, wearing camo fatigues.

"Not long. It went without a hitch, just as you said. Everyone was so eager to be activated that they forgot to count. They believed me when I said I was the last one."

"Did you get your Competency, Sophie?"

"Yep. I chose Cooking. I am going to be a crafter. It is what I wanted to do all along." Elena hugged her.

"I am so happy for you, Sophie." She then turned towards Aram.

"Sophie is an ex-Fed. She had an assassin class called Gemini Warrior, but Dawn erased it. She has been recently allowed to return from Belona after the Federation fell and she swore the Oath of Babylon. She was reactivated this morning by Dawn herself. She has one activation left, which she can use on anyone before the day is over."

"Do you want her to use it on me?" asked Aram.

"Is this what this was all about?"

"Yes, Aram. I want you to be activated by power coming from the first Alpha, the purest, most unadulterated form of Activation there ever was. Activation as it was meant to be, before Necessity nerfed it with his rules and restrictions. I am sure there is a Legacy waiting for you out there, and if there isn't, Dawn's power will create one."

"But why not ask Dawn directly to do so? Why all this secrecy?"

"We don't know what will come of this, Aram. We can only speculate. But it could be great. It could be important. I told you I wanted to help you reach your true potential, and I meant it. I am not going to turn you into a weapon or a tool for someone else to use. You can only be great if you make your own choices, Aram. And that includes choosing whether to reveal your powers. You could be great, and still have a normal life. I actually took that idea from our vigilante friends," Elena added almost apologetically.

"And Sophie will keep your secret. She is my friend, and I trust her." Sophie's face almost glowed with Elena's praise. She had that effect on people.

"I want to do it," said Aram. Sophie grasped his hands.

"Breathe deep, I am going to release the power slowly, so that you don't lose consciousness. You will see a blue screen appear in front of you. All available Competencies are listed there. During Activation, any Competency can be chosen."

"I do not think it will work that way for him," interrupted Elena.

"He has already been blacklisted from all other Competencies. He will only have one option, and it will be a Legacy." Aram closed his eyes and concentrated as he felt a strange, tingling energy flow into his hands. Suddenly, it was there, before his mind's eye—the blue screen. There were literally hundreds of possible choices listed on it, seemingly following a random order. Community Teaching Beast Taming Words of Power Healing Hex Tailoring They were all grayed out. Not a single one of them was available.

He kept scrolling down with his mind. Scores of unavailable options kept appearing. He kept scrolling for several long seconds. Perhaps his Legacy was hidden somewhere near the bottom. Nothing appeared. He kept scrolling until he could not ignore his own despair. As he was about to open his eyes, he felt Elena's hand fall on his shoulder.

"You can do it," she said. Then, a single option, not grayed out, crawled out from the bottom of the screen. Legacy: Cultivator Aram chose it.