Chương 30: Chapter 29

Time seemed to freeze as Adam's mind sank into the pitch-black world of class advancements. Within the darkness floated small, lazy motes of light, each containing a possible path forward for his Shield-Healer class. The brightest light held a projection of Adam using his body as an immortal shield, just as he had against the four skeletons. The Immortal Shield path focused all of his skills and spells inward, transforming him into the ultimate tank. But Adam didn't feel that was the right path.

While he had bragged about his body becoming the ultimate weapon, that wasn't actually what he wanted. There was another path. He just wasn't sure what it was yet. Currently, it was shrouded in layers of fog, but it was waiting for him to uncover it. He searched through the seemingly infinite class paths, hoping to find the one. One path took the invisibility trait of his shields and applied it to his body, turning him into the Invisible Man. Wrong.

Another amplified his healing spells to the point that they would mutate anything affected by them. Some of the mutations were interesting, but most were horrific. Definitely not that one. Yet another gave him abilities like Green Lantern, except with shields. Essentially, he could craft anything with his imagination. Blades, guns, cannons, tanks, jets, even living beings. While cool in concept, it still wasn't what he was looking for. Not that he actually knew what it was he was looking for.

He could only hope he would recognize it once he found it. There was even one that reversed his heals and turned them into curses. Interesting. Still wrong. Eventually, he stopped his fruitless searching and stood still in the inky darkness. Using his entire being, he willed the incorrect paths to vanish. The process was exhausting and felt like he was shaving away bits and pieces of his mind with a dull file, but one by one the possibilities disappeared. Soon, only a few dozen paths remained.

He disregarded the ones he had already seen and searched through the remainder. They were filled with wondrous abilities and incredible powers, but none of them were the one. With growing certainty, he dismissed them all. The final lights winked out, leaving him alone in the darkness.

"None of them are right," he mumbled.

"What is it that I want?" The question echoed through the void as he searched himself for an answer. What did he truly want? The answer emerged slowly, as if it had always been there waiting for him to notice it. It must be free. Without limits. Able to flow effortlessly from one style to the next. It must... evolve. A smile spread across his face.

"Oh, I see." He finally understood. Reaching out with his will, he summoned the near-infinite pathways back into existence. Then he reached farther still, pulling at the empty space beyond them. More pathways emerged from the darkness, drawn toward him by sheer determination. Soon, countless motes of light surrounded him, transforming the void into a limitless expanse filled with innumerable stars. Then he began pulling them together. The lights streamed toward the center where he stood. Hundreds became dozens.

Dozens became handfuls. Handfuls became one. As the possibilities merged, unimaginable feedback surged through his mind. Countless futures flashed before his eyes. Countless versions of himself. Countless classes. Countless lives. Several times he nearly lost himself entirely. The boundaries separating Adam from the infinite possibilities began to blur. His sense of self frayed at the edges as the endless sea of starlight threatened to swallow him whole. Only his determination held him together.

He refused to let go. Refused to become just another possibility drifting within the darkness. Yet even determination had limits. As the strain continued to build, his thoughts grew sluggish. His memories faded and his purpose slipped away. Bit by bit, he began forgetting who he was, why he was here, and what he was trying to accomplish. The stars surrounding him seemed welcoming now. Comforting. All he had to do was stop struggling. Stop resisting. Become one with the endless expanse.

Just as he was about to surrender, a semi-transparent screen appeared before his eyes. Activating hidden talent: Main Character's Boyfriend Gaining a burst of the main character's luck Adam blinked.

"Hm? Main character...?" The words stirred something within him. A memory. A face.

"Oh, that's right." A grin spread across his face.

"Mei." The fog clouding his thoughts shattered. His identity snapped back into place, and before the clarity could fade, Adam seized the merging pathways and forced them together. The final fragments fused into a single point of light. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. It shone brighter than a star. Brighter than the sun. Its radiance flooded the darkness, washing away every shadow until only an endless white expanse remained. A realm of infinite potential.

Adam gazed into the brilliant light and finally saw what he had been searching for. — — — Game Breaking Event Occurred! The tutorial administrator blinked at the warning message displayed in bold red letters across his monitor.

"First I have to deal with a main character and her boyfriend, and now this?" He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes.

"Just let me rest..." he muttered.

"This was supposed to be a cushy job where I could sleep all day and get paid for it." His gaze drifted toward the pair displayed on one of the monitors.

"Seriously, how can there be more of them?" With a long-suffering sigh, he opened a word processor on his laptop and began typing up a report. Despite his title of Tutorial Administrator, he didn't actually have any authority over the tutorial itself. The only things he could influence were system messages and item descriptions. Not exactly a prestigious position.

"Speaking of which, where's my least favorite duo?" He scanned the hundreds of floating monitors surrounding him until he found the one he was looking for. The display showed a once pitch-black world now illuminated by a radiant sun. The administrator stared at it for several seconds. Then he slowly closed his eyes.

"Haa... shit." He reopened the document. — — — Adam returned to the present feeling as though a lifetime had passed. Yet judging by the frozen expressions around him, he quickly realized not even a second had elapsed. With a casual wave of his hand, the four skeletons collapsed onto the sand. Dead. Or... deader. Battle Complete - Victory! Defeated Skeletons - Lv. 55 x4 A minuscule amount of XP awarded Mei and Granessa both blinked. Neither of them had any idea what they had just witnessed.

The skeletons had simply fallen apart. There wasn't any spell notification, Adam had merely waved his hand and they died.

"Hey, Adam, how'd you do that?" Mei asked.

"Yeah, how?" Granessa added.

"I moved the ambient mana in the air to strike their cores," Adam answered with a shrug. To him, it hadn't even felt like using a spell. After his class advancement, he had become far more attuned to the mana surrounding him. Manipulating it in such a simple manner felt almost as natural as moving an arm. Mei clearly didn't understand a word of that explanation.

"Oh." She nodded as if it made perfect sense. Then she immediately moved on.

"Congratulations on advancing your class. What rank did you get?" Granessa, however, looked as though the world had just been turned upside down. Her fingers loosened. The massive axe slipped from her hands and landed in the sand with a heavy thud.

"You're an archmagus?!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. The word echoed through the sandy dunes. Archmagus... magus... us... Adam winced and scratched at his ringing ears.

"I don't think so?" he replied.

"My class is still Shield-Healer. Strangely, it actually regressed instead of advancing. It's Common grade now." He paused.

"Although there is a weird plus symbol after it. So... Common Plus, I guess?" Granessa immediately shook her head.

"Archmagus isn't a class. It's a state of being. The title refers to people capable of commanding ambient mana directly. They're the most feared mages in existence."

"Oh, no." Adam shook his head.

"I'm nowhere near that impressive. I didn't command the mana to attack. I just moved it a little and let it bump into the exposed magic cores of the skeletons. Against anyone else, it probably wouldn't do anything more than brush harmlessly against their skin." Realization dawned on Granessa's face.

"Ah." She nodded.

"You're a seedling." Adam stared at her.

"A what?"

"People who can manipulate ambient mana are called archmagus seedlings, or simply seedlings. It means you possess the potential to become a true archmagus someday." Her expression became more serious.

"However, most seedlings never sprout."

"Interesting." Adam considered that for a moment before remembering the other issue.

"But what about the plus symbol next to my class? Do you know what that means?" Granessa shook her head.

"No, sorry."

"It's fine." Adam shrugged.

"I'll figure it out eventually. My class still works, so it's all good."