Chương 44: Learning

I shoot up to a sitting position.

"Gods?" Fear worms into my heart as the system screen appears. [Cosmic Novelty] [Awarded to users who have attracted the attention of 10 apotheosized individuals simultaneously at Tier 3 or below.] [Grants slight resistance to presence suppression] Looking back, trouble has his eyes unfocused, likely at a system screen.

"How long ago did you get this?" he asks with concern.

"Not too long, just after I upgraded my class."

"Well, you should be worried. It's never good to have a god's attention on you, especially at such a low level. You need to get some form of obscuration as soon as you can. If you're lucky, they'll find something new and forget about you."

"Is it really that bad?" I ask with worry.

"Yes. It comes with being strong at a low level. I have no doubt that you achieved a high-quality class or some other absurdity that drew their attention. Just know that when you are played with like a toy by the gods, you are very often broken afterwards."

"Oh," My gaze takes me to the ground.

"Yes, 'oh'." He says seriously. After a bit of silence, he speaks again.

"Don't think about it too much. Being in the initial stages of a system-controlled environment should give you some level of protection. Have you gotten any requests to bless you yet?"

"Blessings? No. Is that bad?"

"Eh," his hand wiggles a bit.

"Good, because they aren't quite interested enough, and you should stay that way. Bad, because you don't have one to shield you from the others if they are interested." I don't respond as my thoughts churn. Didn't know I was playing in some grand game already. Still, there were only ten of them watching me, and that was only for a short period after my evolution. My class is cool and built perfectly for me, but I think it's more the species evolution that attracted them.

"Wait, how many gods are there?" He looks at the ceiling as he thinks.

"That's a tricky question. Every source you ask will give a different number, but it's estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands." My eye bulges.

"What!? That many!?"

"Mhm," he says through a mouthful of jerky.

"Makes sense if you think about it. Your galaxy is past the eleven thousandth one to be adopted into the system. Do you know how many planets are in just one galaxy?" I think about it for a moment.

"Yeah, I can see where you're coming from." Standing up, I walk over to the fountain and drink cold water to wash down the meal.

"By the way, you said you helped make a teleportation something. What class does that?"

"Teleportation array, and my class is engraver. I've upgraded it once, but I won't say any more than that."

"Engraver? What's that all about?" He continues chewing while speaking.

"Engravers carve spell formations into different materials. It's pretty simple."

"Simple if you know what a spell formation is," I say with a chuckle"Sorry, I forgot you don't know much about much. Spell formations are patterns that invoke certain properties from mana. Many parts of them are modular. There's a lot more depth to it, but I'm guessing you don't want an entire lesson."

"So that's what the rock you were holding was?"

"Yup" He reaches into his bag and tosses one to me. It's small and rough, about the size of a lighter. Small grooves are carved into one side, reaching deep with twists and turns. The structure reminds me of the tunnels inside anthills. The part where it differs the most is the layout. Some places seem to curve irrationally inside themselves, then back out, while others take on a clear symmetrical pattern. I can tell that a large percentage of it is hidden inside, with no way to see it.

"Nifty," I say with curiosity"That's one of the first ones I've made. All it does is glow. My skills and ability to craft have increased a ton since then, but they still don't compare to my master." I look at him in astonishment.

"You were a slave?"

"Oh, no. No, no, no. It's more like an apprenticeship."

"Ah, I see." I nod and continue looking at the rock. Closing my eye, I return to the landscape of my mana veins. As usual, the mana moves in a beautiful current that makes it difficult to focus on other things. I grab some from the current and push it out of my fingers, where I touch the rock. When I open my eye, a deep orange glow is radiating out from the rock and populating the room. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

A wide grin forces its way onto my face as I laugh and look with childlike wonder. The new light source casts shadows across the room. I can't contain my excitement when seeing something so magical. Trouble watches from the side with a warm smile. After a few seconds, the light dims and disappears, the room returning to the darkness of normal torchlight.

"Damn. I really wish I had chosen to be a mage now."

"Choose?" he asks with a raised eyebrow. I look back at him with the same expression.

"You don't choose your initial class?" He shakes his head.

"No, the system gives you one when you turn a certain age. It's influenced heavily by prior decisions and a bunch of other variables. People usually get what they want, but there have been cases where that doesn't happen. How did it work for you?"

"It was very sudden." I say.

"The system came quickly and gave me only a moment to choose from a giant list of classes. Each one had something called 'inclination' which I assume told us how attuned to them we were."

"Wow."

"There were over a hundred to select, but I never got the chance to choose one." I say sadly.

"What? Why not?"

"At the time, I was making money by taking care of an animal. It hated and probably wanted to kill me, but it was very small and weak. It must have gotten something powerful when the system hit, because it jumped ten times higher than it should've been able to and ripped my throat out."

"Ooh, that's rough." He winces slightly.

"Yeah. I almost died, but the system saved me by teleporting me away and gave me a random class."

"That's horrible. I can't imagine being forced into a completely random class." My status screen appears. [Status] [Name: Kevin Shoeman] [Class: Companionship Pact Leader lv. 18] [Titles: Unyielding Determination, Cosmic Novelty, Inductee of the 11893rd Galaxy] [Health: 770(705)] [Mana: 630(226)] [Stamina: 675(412)] [Tamed Being Slot 1] [Name: Kevin Shoeman] [Species: (II) High Human lv. 3] [Unity: 100%] [Vitality: 52] [Strength: 42] [Agility: 43] [Endurance: 46] [Fortitude: 50] [Intelligence: 30] [Wisdom: 48] [Perception: 50] [General skills: Intelligent Universal Translator, Undying Resolve] [Class skills: Empower Control Companion(lv. 6), Identify Living Being(lv. 8), Heal Companion(lv. 8), One Mind/Two Bodies(lv. 1)] [Tamed Being Skills: Bleed Immunity(lv. 6), Enhanced Skeleton(lv. 9), Danger Sense(lv. 5), Optimized Anatomy(lv. 1)]"Things ended up working out, so I'm not too torn up about it," I say with a smile.

"You got something you wanted, then?"

"Not at first, but I like to think I made some good decisions."

"If you really did upgrade your class in just five cycles, then I'm going to believe that." I chuckle.

"It didn't come without risk. I almost died a few times achieving it."

"Is that why your eye is injured?"

"Yup." Silence passes as I think about the many times I almost died. The first would be when the goblin bit me in the leg in the first few rooms. Control tamed being saved my life, making me react unnaturally fast to the situation. Actually, the first would technically be Buttercup. Another is when I battled my first hobgoblin. I couldn't kill it in the first strike, which made it able to react and put up quite a fight.

After that, there were many different traps that would have killed me if I hadn't noticed them in time. Then, there was the time I was closest to death without a doubt. When the assassin hobgoblin took out my eye and almost killed me in one go. I was dancing on the edge of life and death, even getting a title for hitting zero health. Also, I almost died fighting the troll, the regeneration beating out my damage output and forcing me to kill it with my teeth. Luck saved me more than a few times.

There are certainly a few other times I can't remember perfectly, which also add to the total.

"Dang, I'd forgotten how often I almost died until you brought it up."

"That bad, huh?"

"Yeah, I'm almost at ten, I think." One of his eyebrows raises.

"Ten? How are you not a sobbing mess?" A certain skill pops into my head. I had a bit of a cheat way out.

"Dunno, maybe I'm just built for it," I say with a cheeky smile. Trouble doesn't reply with the same expression, instead looking at me with concern.

"You must have a good reason to push yourself," he says, rummaging through his satchel. The words bring my thoughts to a grinding halt. … A good reason? What is my reason? Do I need a reason? My thoughts bring me to my parents and friends. I can't help them until all of the phases are over, and if they survive, they are likely strong enough to support themselves. Why am I fighting? Why do I bring myself so close to death on repeat? I want to live, and there's nothing preventing me from stopping here.

I'm already pretty strong and ahead of the curve, so it couldn't hurt to play it safe now, right? Despite the rational thought, a constant voice in the back of my mind urges me to fight. Thoughts drift back to the beginning of the dungeon. Why did I take on that first goblin? Is it the system influencing me? No, everything I've learned so far tells me that the system doesn't work that way. Why? Why did I risk myself that day? Countless reasons pass through my mind, but none of them seem like the answer.

-"You alright?" My mind stutters as I'm reeled back into reality.

"Yeah, just thinking." I watch my hand open and close, the multiple tendons working in harmony with the thick muscle in my arm.

"Hey, is there a way that the system can be removed from someone?" He looks at the ceiling, thinking.

"I've never heard of it happening. I don't think so." My fingers brush against each tendon, feeling the grooves between them.

"Why do you ask?" he asks curiously"No reason." Minutes pass in silence as I touch the different spots on my body where heavy changes happened. New bones in my neck and abdomen. Extra tendons in my arms and legs. The fat I lost from every part of my body.

"I just got back from a fight. I'm going to get some sleep. Can I trust you not to assassinate me?" He looks at me in horror.

"What!? I would never-" I interrupt him with a laugh.

"Just messing with you. Goodnight." Loose thoughts invade my mind as my head hits the mattress.

"Kevin, fall asleep for eight hours," I whisper. Trouble says something about me messing with him, but the world darkens as sleep pulls me into its muted embrace.