Chapter -2147483638 (Another Class Up? Already?)

  “Hey, how long is the travel time to the next town?” Ada asked the next day.

  “We have about 10 days travel to reach the next city on our route, barring any interruptions along the road,” replied Marcus.

  “Great, so plenty of time to do a proper class advancement.”

  “Should be, yeah, if you’re ready for it, go right ahead.”

  Ada returned to the world of her soul, and smiled as the oddly comfortable datacenter hummed away around her, almost like a warm hug.

  Lovelace was waiting for her at the same workstation alcove, and Ada proceeded to make another coffee for herself, this time carefully steaming the milk before adding it to the espresso to create a cappuccino instead of her usual flat white. She took a sip, smiled again, and sat down in the spare chair.

  “Alright, what do you have for me this time? More joke classes, or do you want to just get down to the real ones and save us both some time? I’m kinda bouncing around in the back of a wagon out there.”

  “I’m sure we have time to peruse a bit. Want to look at some of the divine offerings this time?”

  “Fuck it, yeah, why not. I got a bit of an explanation regarding the local pantheon. Alex took the time to fill me in on the big five and at least some of the secondary gods that she’s aware of. Apparently there are at least several hundred tier three gods, since that’s where most of the ascended mortals end up.”

  “Yeah, anyone who reaches level 4096 gets to ascend and become a divinity.”

  “Right, and only one human has managed it so far in the entire history of this world, which is only 4940 years. Seriously, they’ve been keeping track.”

  “Well, here, this stack might be interesting,” Lovelace said, handing over a container holding only around a half dozen blue diskettes.

  Ada took the box and raised an eyebrow, “Wow, only 32 levels and it’s dropped to just this many divine offerings? Wonder what happened.”

  “Yeah, who cares, look at them. These got real weird,” said Lovelace.

  Ada opened the box and took out the first disk.

  

  [Soulforged Smith of Hephaestus - Mantle]

  This divine paladin of artifice class is offered by the god of the forge, Hephaestus. Take this class and craft wondrous weapons and armor.

  “Paladin? Hephaestus? Er.. isn’t that the Greek’s version of Vulcan, the god who brought the secret of fire and the forge to humanity? Married Aphrodite despite looking like an ugly little troll or something?”

  So, you’ve heard of me! I see what you’ve done, Ada, and it’s impressive. I helped you out with learning how to shape your body, but the results are incredible. I’m offering you the position as one of my paladins so you can spread my teachings of smithcraft to the masses.

  “The fuck! What’s that voice? Who’s there?”

  Ada looked over at Lovelace, who had what seemed like a relieved look on her face.

  “Oh good, you hear that too. That guy has been bugging me for DAYS ever since the last time you were in here. Would not shut up, asking me about how you’re doing, when you’re coming back, what kind of classes you want. On and on. I barely got any work done. I did, though, in case you were wondering. We can talk about it after you get done picking.”

  That is hardly an accurate description of the time we’ve spent in conversation.

  “From your point of view, perhaps. Anyway, Ada, remember when I told you that something came along and helped me get our body to stay stuck together? Apparently that was this guy.”

  Indeed! I found what I thought was an elemental spirit struggling to give form to its body, and decided to assist. So, what do you think of my offer?

  “Uh, I guess I’ll consider it, what would you require from me in return?”

  Create, teach, love. Occasionally I’ll ask that you take on a task that is important to me or the world. Additionally, you’ll be partially responsible for enforcing the divine decrees.

  “Uh, ok, right, I’m going to have to say no, for now at least. Thank you, though. I’m not ready to make any kind of commitment with responsibilities.”

  A well reasoned response. Very well, go with my blessing and know that the class will remain available should you change your mind in the future. I will watch your life with great interest, forgeling.

  “Right, ok, uh.. I’m going to move on now.”

  Ada placed the [Soulforged Smith] disk back into the box and removed the next one.

  

  [Paladin of Order - Mirror]

  Seira has recognized you and will grant you power in exchange for becoming her paladin. You will dedicate your life to maintaining order among chaos. Take this class to wield her power and smite agents of Xaoc.

  “Uh, I’m just going to pass on this one. Just.. no.”

  Shame, I could have made you strong.

  “Yep, I’m sure. Thanks though.”

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  Once again, Ada returned the disk to the box and pulled out the next.

  

  [Sword Champion - Metal]

  You like swords. Arthrax likes swords. Do swords. Be swords. Swords.

  “Swords. That’s it, just swords? Is there supposed to be some kind of punchline to that? I don’t get it.”

  QUEST!

  “I’m just going to move on.”

  

  [Discordant Fury - Sound]

  Be my agent of discord. Receive the blessings of my family, and I will raise you as one of my daughters when you are ready. Sow strife among the complacent.

  “Um.. what.”

  Lovelace looked over. “What is it?”

  “Did you look at these? Eris, the goddess of discord and strife, wants me to be her agent. I don't even know how to respond to that.”

  Respond however you wish. The leaders of this empire have grown complacent and sure of their positions. I would ask you to disrupt that surety and remind everyone that life is ever mutable.

  “Right, so, I might take you up on that some time in the future, but I honestly just got to this world and I know next to nothing about any of this stuff. I don't know why I keep repeating the same thing, but it's still true. I need to learn more about everything going on before I can make a choice about this sort of thing.

  Very well. My offer will remain open.

  “OK, thanks, I’m going to go to the next class offer, then.”

  

  [Liberator - Briliance]

  You are the chosen of Eleutheria. Liberate an oppressed people from tyrannical rule.

  “Oh, fuck no. No. Fuck this one. I’m not touching this one. What the fuck.”

  You would be a great liberator, champ..

  “Yep, I feel the cause, but that just sounds like a fast track to death. Get someone stronger.”

  There are none who will be stronger.

  “NO. Just.. no.”

  Very well.

  Ada put all the blue disks back in the box and pulled out the final one of the set.

  

  [Simum - Sand]

  Mdz zbvuh ur ukf zpumg bqe esloj ehtrmdulpq.

  “Fucking what.”

  I am the barren wastes. I am nothing. I am desolation. I will give you power.

  “Uh, right. What would you ask of me in return for power?”

  Become the desolation. Grow. Gain power. When you ascend, take my place.

  “Wait, what? Take your place?”

  Yes. Become me. Become the Desolation.

  “OK wow. I really don’t know what to say to that. I don’t think I’m ready for that kind of responsibility, but hey, maybe in the future?”

  Future, yes. Time matters not. Be now.

  “Er.. right. Thanks?”

  Take the power when it is time.

  “OK then.”

  She returned the final blue disk to the container and put it down on the desk beside her.

  “Well, you called it. That was real fucking weird.”

  Lovelace nodded at that. “Yep. Imagine being alone in here, trying to work on decompiling all this crap, and those six constantly bugging you about ‘oh, when is Ada going to show up’ and ‘I really want to talk to Ada about being my paladin’, as if you’d actually take one of these.”

  “Was there anything else you wanted me to look at, or did you have the class I’ll actually want picked out for me?”

  “Oh, yeah, I’ve got it right here.” Lovelace opened a different storage container on her desk and pulled out a green disk. It was suspiciously darker than the previous one that Ada had taken.

  “How do I keep failing upward? Everything Lucius has told me suggests that I really shouldn’t be getting classes offered at this high quality.”

  “Alright, remember how you unlocked that [Soulbonded] skill a few days ago? Some weird shit started happening in here after you did that. My best guess is that you getting the system to recognize a bond that somehow already existed caused it to start pulling in information from a past life or lives that we’ve shared with Alex. End result is your system weight, which affects the quality rating on classes we can generate, started going up, and it doesn’t seem to be stopping. I think even if you decided to go live under a rock in a forest, we’d still keep gaining levels and system weight.”

  Ada thought about that for a moment, and then decided that she didn’t really care about the specific details, as long as the system kept giving her more power. She needed to catch up with Alex, who had recently surpassed level 300 and expected to join the ranks of the Sentinels. Marcus had said he already intended to recommend her based on her healing ability. There hadn’t been a healing Sentinel for a while, the first one had gone missing shortly after being made the first female citizen of Remus, but there had been several others during the war with the shimagu. Unfortunately, the previous one had died near the end of the war, and the role had been left open for the past hundred years or so.

  

  [Blademage - Metal]

  Use your body as a living weapon.

  Ada read through the rest of the details for the class, and it was pretty much a straight upgrade from her [Elementalist] class, with slightly more of a focus on rapidly forming and reinforcing sharpened edges on metal weaponry. She’d also be able to fuse pieces of refined metal objects together, such as attaching a dagger to the end of a rod to make a spear, or simply repairing a damaged sword. It seemed to her that this class was closer to a blacksmith than a pure mage, but wasn’t going to argue the point if this was what the System was going to offer.

  “Well, that seems to be an accurate description for what I’ve been trying to do, alright. Short, but to the point, I guess.”

  “Hey, things don’t have to be elaborate in order to be good. This class is going to do well, and it’s primed to merge once you unlock the second class and level that up a bit. I can already tell that we’ll be back here picking one out pretty soon as well.”

  “Huh.. I guess I still have some overflow experience, and Alex has been sending experience through the soulbond from all the healing she did.”

  “That amount is inconsequential compared to what the two of you are pulling in from past lives. You know the same thing is happening to her, right? Alex’s system weight is also increasing from this. Her next class advancement is probably going to be a huge surprise.”

  “That’s going to be a while, yet. She told me just got her last one at 256 for both her classes, and the next thing that’s going to happen is unlocking her third class when she reaches 512.”

  “I can’t say for certain, but I have a feeling that is going to come sooner than either of you think. Anyway, I don’t have anything else to share, so if you’re happy with that class, let’s get you out of here and back to Alex.”

  “Sure, load it up. I guess I’ll see you again in a few days or whatever.”

  And with that done, Ada got up and left.

  Ada opened her eyes and was surprised to find that she was no longer laying down on the floor inside the ranger’s armored wagon. In fact, she was quite surprised to find that directly in front of her was what appeared to be her own body, minus a head, nailed to the trunk of a tree with multiple swords and the broken heads from several pila stuck into her body. She also sensed what felt like a foreign metal shard stuck into the bottom of her neck, and she could feel nothing else below that. There was also something dry and papery tucked into her cheek.

  “Huh, that's different.”

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  Based on the world from the original work by Selkie Myth

  On Royal Road:

  

  You can also find all of the Beneath the Dragoneye Moons volumes on Kindle Unlimited and Audible:

  

  1 - Oathbound Healer -

  2 - Adventures in the Argo -

  3 - Ranger's Dawn -

  4 - Beyond the Wall -

  5 - Moonveiled Journeys -

  6 - Immortal Moments -

  7 - Return to Remus -

  8 - New Horizons -

  9 - Gladiator Gauntlet -

  10 - Under Ashen Skies -

  11 - Mandate of Heaven -

  12 - The Phoenix Peaks -

  13 - Moonfall -