Chương 33: Dealing with the fallout

Ethan felt his legs waver. He forced himself to stay standing. The prisoners were looking at him like they might attack.

"Why?" the old man asked quietly.

"He was right there." Ethan let out a breath and looked over the group. There were only half the prisoners remaining. Others lay on the ground lifeless. He should have just forced everyone to leave once he found Leah. But they had made their decision, and so had he.

"We would have had to fight Bella to get to him."

"He needed to die!" The words came out raw, ripped from somewhere deep. The older man's knuckles were white around the hilt of his sword. Ethan sighed.

"I know." The admission seemed to take some of the wind out of the man, but only slightly.

"You don't know," the old man shot back.

"You didn't spend weeks in a cage. You didn't wake up to knives cutting into you. You didn't watch people dragged away and never come back." Ethan held his gaze.

"You're right, and I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"He was right there," he repeated, quieter this time.

"You had him." Leah had moved at some point and now stood at Ethan's side. He noticed Alice was with her. Ethan forced himself to breathe evenly. His rib screamed with every inhale, and the burn in his leg from forcing mana through it was getting harder to ignore.

"You think I don't understand what he deserves?" Ethan asked.

"You think I don't want him dead?"

"Then why?" the man demanded.

"If I killed him," Ethan said slowly, "Bella would have tried to stop me. And failing that, she could have gone after any one of you. And she's faster than any of you. Faster than me on a good day. You saw her fight." The old man's jaw worked, but he didn't interrupt.

"And even if I got past her," Ethan went on, "you think that would have ended clean? She would have fought to the death. We would have lost more people."

"That was a risk worth taking," someone muttered.

"For you," Ethan replied.

"Not for me." Silence fell for a moment. Ethan knew he had made the right decision. They would have to deal with it however they could.

"So that's it?" the old man asked.

"He walks away because he's useful to her?"

"I won't stop you from going after them, but from what I understand, the necromancer will be dead soon anyway." Alice spoke from beside him.

"He's right, you know. You think attacking her would have gone well?" she asked.

"She cut through five guards like they were nothing."

"She was the reason we survived that cliff fight," Leah added quietly. Her voice was thin but firm.

"If she wanted us dead, we would be. She saved me. Even if her motives might be questionable." The prisoners didn't look happy, but Ethan could see they didn't have too many options. The choice had been taken from them. But he felt it was necessary. Ethan's eyes roved over the room. The reanimations still stood frozen around the chamber, dozens of empty eyes staring at nothing.

"They won't fight without his command," Ethan said quietly.

"And something tells me he won't be able to issue it anytime soon." Ethan looked back up at the prisoners.

"We should kill them." Several heads snapped toward him.

"What?" one of the warriors asked.

"They're free kills," Ethan continued.

"They're not defending themselves. And the necromancer is gone. You need levels. This is your chance to get the power you need to pass the Mirage." The older man stared at the nearest reanimation, jaw tight.

"You're offering us to kill our own people?" he asked.

"These aren't whoever they once were. You'd be honoring them by allowing them to rest. You should know that." He looked around at everyone, not understanding why they wouldn't do it.

"You won't take the free levels?" Ethan replied.

"Consider it a peace offering."

"I denied you your revenge," he said.

"I won't pretend otherwise. But this? It might make you powerful enough to survive and take your revenge at a later date." The scout swallowed, but Ethan could see hope in his eyes.

"And you?" Ethan looked at his notifications, skipping all the kill confirms and skill levels for now. Congratulations! You are now [Warrior Lv. 17] … Congratulations! You are now [Warrior Lv. 20] Str +1, End +2, Ag +1, Per +1, Will +1 Ethan quickly assigned his free stat point to Endurance, giving it an extra eight points from level sixteen. He'd hoped it would help with the ache in his body, but it did little to comfort him. He would need to keep assigning them to Endurance or get some proper armor.

But that was for later. What he was focusing on now was far more important. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Congratulations! You have reached level 20 in your class. You have reached your first class evolution. Please visit a system monolith to acquire a new class and continue leveling.

"No, the levels can be split between the lot of you. Leah, make sure you do it as well." He turned, looking at her intently. She stood beside him, searching his face.

"I don't know if I can." Ethan paused.

"What do you mean? You need to get stronger."

"These are people, Ethan." He paused. Was that what the problem was? But they were fighting them just moments ago. Ethan took a breath and looked at it from Leah's perspective. She had just been dumped into the trials, survived the desert, and then kidnapped. She likely hadn't had time to come to terms with things like this. He sighed.

"These aren't people. They are puppets. Slaves to their master, forced to do whatever they are told. Their souls are trapped. One way or another, they will all find peace. Be it by my blade or yours. But I understand if you won't do it." Alice stepped forward, leaving Leah's side and walking toward the reanimations. She stopped in front of a man. He was no taller than her, with curly blond hair. Blood covered his face from a missing eye.

She touched his shoulder and whispered something to him that Ethan chose not to listen in on. Then she drove her blade through his neck. His body crumbled to the floor. Ethan watched the other reanimations for movement, but nothing came. It was to be expected, but he had never been one hundred percent sure. As if broken by a spell, the other prisoners began to move as well. The older man studied him for a long moment, then nodded and turned around. Ethan faltered.

The burn from forcing mana into his muscles reignited. He could feel remnants still flowing through his legs. Something gave, and Ethan felt himself about to collapse. Before he could steady himself, Leah caught him. Her arms wrapped around his side, bracing him awkwardly but stubbornly.

"I've got you," she said.

"I'm fine," he muttered.

"You're not." She adjusted her grip, shifting his arm over her shoulders properly. He glanced down at her hands. They were still stained with blood. But they weren't shaking anymore.

"You did well," he said quietly. She didn't answer immediately.

"I almost died," she replied after a moment.

"But you didn't. You survived. And you'll keep surviving."

"You're an idiot," she said.

"Probably."

"Thank you." Ethan nodded and rested a hand on her head.

"You really should gain some levels from this experience, though."

"It really is all about your own strength now, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Will you be alright?" Ethan didn't respond. Instead, his hand fell from her head and he slipped off her shoulder, catching himself as his own weight strained his legs. Leah seemed to look determined and began to move. All around the room, people were finishing the reanimations off. It looked like a massacre. But Ethan knew it was the right thing to do. His eyes found the monolith. He began to hobble toward it, walking through the blood that now soaked the floor. When he reached it, the final reanimation fell.

The older man moved beside him. There was still grief on his face. Still anger. But something else now too. Resolve.

"We're stronger," he said. Ethan nodded.

"Good." The scout flexed his fingers experimentally.

"I hit level twenty." Ethan allowed a small tired smile and touched the monolith. The moment his hand lay on it, the shop appeared. However, this time it was different. Waiting for him was an unavoidable prompt. Congratulations! You have one evolution available. Based on your experiences so far, you have been awarded five class options. Please select one. [Swordsman] uncommon The blade is an extension of your body. Together you grow side by side.

Str +2, End +1, Ag +2, Per +1, Will +1 [Vanguard] uncommon First into the fray. Last to yield ground. Str +2, End +2, Ag +1, Per +1, Will +1 [Knight] rare You are steel given purpose, and purpose given form. Str +2, End +2, Ag +1, Per +1, Will +2 [Battle Master] rare Experience has refined your instincts. Every movement is deliberate, every strike calculated. Str +2, End +1, Ag +2, Per +2, Will +1 [Templar] rare Discipline shapes your strength.

You stand firm where others falter, wielding blade and conviction in equal measure. Str +2, End +2, Ag +1, Per +1, Will +2 Despite everything that had happened, Ethan felt a smile form on his face. This was far sooner than he had planned for. Last time, he hadn't been given the option for a rare class until level forty. Although he knew who he was back then and who he was now were two completely different people, it still made him happy to see how much he had fast-tracked since his first time round.

Still, Ethan forced himself to look at all the options available, starting with [Swordsman]. The class itself would be good. Ethan knew of quite a few people who had become powerful figures from taking the class and its following evolutions. It focused solely on attacking and defending with a blade and could be evolved into something like [Manablade], which was quite tempting. But over the last few weeks in the desert, Ethan had plenty of time to go over exactly what he needed and wanted to do.

When he had first been thrown back through time, everything was chaotic and surreal. Now that things had settled down, he had more time to think and had begun to formulate a proper plan on what kind of build he wanted. All this was to say that [Swordsman] wasn't one of the options he really considered. While it was a good class and he was good with a sword, that wasn't all he was. So he looked at the next option. [Vanguard] came next. Ethan considered it longer than he had expected to.

The class suited the way he fought when things turned ugly. The stat spread was also solid—Strength and Endurance heavy, with just enough Agility to keep him mobile. It was a solid class, but was it something he wanted? Not really. Then there was [Knight]. He let his eyes linger there for a moment, then deliberately forced himself to keep reading, even if he knew he would come back to this one. He shifted to [Battle Master]. In all honesty, this class was extremely tempting. It felt closer to who he was now.

His perception had saved him more times than raw strength. His ability to read a battlefield, to anticipate angles and movement, had carried him through encounters that brute force never would have. The additional Perception scaling was attractive. So was the Agility boost. And the thought of the offered skills it would provide was tantalizing. But Ethan left it for now and looked at [Templar]. He hadn't really expected to be given this option, but it was a decent class.

The stat spread mirrored Knight almost exactly, both being Will-heavy. Which was a good thing. Will mattered more than people understood. It determined how much pressure you could withstand. How long you could keep going before giving up. But Templar carried a connotation. A direction. Conviction. Templars tended to align themselves to causes. To creeds. To external ideals. Even if the system never stated it outright, the path shaped you. He had seen it happen.

People who took classes like that slowly narrowing until the world became black and white. Ethan didn't believe in black and white. He believed in results. He returned to [Knight]. In all honesty, he knew he would take this class again. It was etched into his soul. He often wondered if that was because he had taken it last time, and just like [Templar], it had shaped him. But more than that, Ethan knew what the class had to offer.

He knew where he could improve and how he could make himself far stronger than last time. Now he just needed to make it happen. So his resolve hardened. His path forward was clear. Ethan selected his new class.

"I choose [Knight]."