Cassandra: You already got to tier one?
I tried to keep my face neutral, but it was pretty hard to do that considering this new revelation. I had to admit it felt strange, to say the least. It took me several days to get to tier one. And in Astrid's case, we were in the middle of a dungeon surrounded by giant bears. Even then, we still had to push ourselves in order for her to kill enough creatures to get that strong. It felt a bit like we were giving this to Michael on a silver platter. But then again, if he was going to travel with us. More power was always better.
Cassandra: That is kind of amazing. I did not expect you to get a class this soon. But yeah, I can give my opinion. What are the options?
Michael: hang on, let me….
Before he said anything, the three options he had available appeared in front of me.
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Abyssal Diver - Fledgling
Attribute Bonus: 1 point per level
Body + Mind
Memory + Energy
Beneath the waves, where light fades and pressure mounts, the Abyssal Diver thrives. Masters of breath control, underwater combat, and deep-sea navigation, they move with the grace of ocean predators and the endurance of deep-sea creatures.
Skills offered with the class:
Tidal Reflexes - Passive - Fledgling
Reserved Cost: 1 Energy
Water is your ally, granting you unnatural agility when submerged.
Increases swimming speed and maneuverability underwater. Reduces energy cost of movement in water.
Lung of the Leviathan - Active - Fledgling
Cost: 1 Energy
By slowing your heartbeat and maximizing oxygen efficiency, you can endure depths that would drown others.
Extends breath-holding duration significantly. Minor resistance to water pressure.
Duration: 10 minutes.
An Abyssal Diver can acquire skills that enhance underwater survival, combat, and navigation, often mimicking marine creatures or harnessing the ocean's hidden power.
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Precision Marksman - Fledgling
Attribute Bonus: 1 point per level
Body + Mind -
Memory + Energy
Perfection is not an accident. The Precision Marksman trains endlessly, mastering trajectory, wind, and minute adjustments to ensure every shot finds its mark, no matter the distance.
Skills offered with the class:
True Sight - Passive - Fledgling
Reserved Cost: 1 Energy
Your eyes sharpen, calculating distance, wind resistance, and minor movements with inhuman precision.
Grants minor aim correction, reducing penalties for long-range shots.
Perfect Release - Active - Fledgling
Cost: 1 Energy
For a brief moment, the world slows, and your arrow flies with absolute certainty.
The next shot fired ignores minor obstructions (leaves, mist, light cover) and has increased accuracy.
A Precision Marksman can acquire skills that enhance accuracy, long-range combat, and situational awareness, making them deadly even in unfavorable conditions.
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Improvised Archer - Fledgling
Attribute Bonus: 1 point per level
Body - Mind +
Memory Energy +
Who needs a quiver? Sticks, rocks, and even broken weapons can become deadly projectiles in the hands of an Improvised Archer. They fight with adaptability, turning any environment into an armory.
Skills offered with the class:
Makeshift Munitions - Passive - Fledgling
Reserved Cost: 0 Energy
If it can be thrown, it can be shot. You've mastered the art of firing non-standard ammunition.
Allows the use of improvised arrows (branches, rocks, rubble etc.) with reduced penalty. Durability of improvised ammo is increased.
Scavenger's Volley - Active - Fledgling
Cost: 1 Energy
Why shoot one arrow when you can fire three? Even if they're not perfect, quantity has a quality of its own.
Fire a rapid spread of improvised projectiles in a short burst. Accuracy is reduced, but area coverage increases.
An Improvised Archer can acquire skills that enhance resourcefulness, rapid firing, and the ability to turn nearly anything into a weapon.
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Cassandra: What exactly do you want my advice on? I assume your System explained the whole plus and minus, so you won't be confused by what each class was going to give you."
Michael nodded.
Michael: Yeah. That part I know. The thing is more about which one do you think is better?"
Cassandra: Okay. I mean, we can already cross out Abyssal Diver. Sure, it's nice to be able to swim better. But we are not in the right place for it. Even if we want to go to the ocean, getting that one probably not going to help us reach the shore."
Michael: Yeah, I agree with that. Even though it's kind of nice to know that I could get some swimming based skills. What I really want to know is, what do you think about the other two classes?
Cassandra: Well, they overlap a lot. Basically, you're being forced into becoming an archer. So, if you don't like that idea you could ask your System to make a new class. It's just going to take a little while. But if you do like it, I am honestly not entirely sure which is better. I mean, the {True Sight} skill sounds a lot like your {True Shot} skill. At the same time, it could be something much better, you know. Or it can just be something that lets you upgrade your current skills into something new down the line.
Michael: is that possible?
Cassandra: Very much so. Astrid got an upgraded version of something called Chop that was just a basic attacking skill, but now it's an attacking skill that is covered in ice. I also got a literal upgrade from one of my skills and I'm pretty sure that going forward a few other skills I have are going to be better because of a change I made with the System. I'll tell you more later when it actually happens. Either way, I do like that one. But something tells me you are going to need arrows. Actual arrows. And I don't know for sure if the System is going to be a pain about pure wooden arrows. There is a world where it says the skills only work if you have actual iron-tipped arrows.
"Wait, really?" Michael gasped.
I frowned while looking at the man and gestured towards Genevieve and he understood that he shouldn't be saying this out loud.
Michael: Sorry about that. But are you serious? There are skills that only work if I have a specific type of ammo?
Cassandra: I believe so. I mean, Astrid has an entire class that focus on the fact that she has the Frosted Axe. That's the name of her weapon, by the way. It makes sense that some skills would require a specific type of weapon even if it's not a very specific weapon by itself. At least that's what I'm assuming. I never saw one like that, so I can't be completely certain of what I'm saying.
Michael: So I would need to be careful with my arrows, right?
The man continued to awkwardly stare into my eyes while we talked. I was starting to get uncomfortable, but at the same time, we were technically having a conversation. It made sense to stare into someone's eyes while doing that.
Cassandra: Yeah. And just finding them might be tricky enough. I don't have any way to confirm what I'm about to say, but I think that the first one, the Precision Marksman is going to be focused on getting a lot of damage with few shots. While the Improvised Archer is going to be more about firing, a lot of arrows as fast as you can. Part of that is already explained on the description of the classes.
Michael: So it all boils down to what I like the most?
Cassandra: Pretty much. I think your options are so narrow because everything happened really fast but, when they expand a bit more it's going to be all about how do you want to do things. But let me teach you something that I'm not sure your System told you. If you didn't use {Mind Of Possibility} recently, you can call something called Proxy. They are basically a way for you to see how your skills are going to work. You can ask them to use one skill, use two skills, combine them, do a bunch of different things.
Michael: Proxy?
Cassandra: Yeah. At least that's how I call it. It's going to be kind of like a version of you using the skills through {Mind Of Possibility}. Give it a shot.
Michael nodded and stared into the distance. I saw his eyes widening as I assumed his proxy appeared. And I just sat there, letting him enjoy this moment. Sometime later he came to a decision and picked Improvised Archer. Considering everything we had to do and how quickly he ran out of arrows during this fight, he felt that was the best option at hand.
Michael: Maybe one day I can figure out how to make the arrows come back to me, then I'll pick something a bit different. But for now, being able to use anything as ammo is really going to make a difference.
I nodded, understanding his feeling. Having the limitation on needing something to attack would be a very big problem. But I also added that he should try to find something like a melee attack in the future just so he wouldn't be completely exposed if you were to fight against someone who got close to him.
Not long after that, I had a chance to talk to Astrid. The Frosted Lumberjack didn't change her skills, but she added one new one that she acquired on those levels. It was called {Shell Crusher} and as the name suggested, it was a skill made to destroy enemy's defenses. She was at level 16 like I was, and now with 10 points in mind and 22 in body. With 10 Memory Slots, and she used one to take back {Frostbound Grip} since it was on her memory bank. Even with that extra passive, she had a lot more active skills than I did. And still, thanks to her {Emerging Glacier} attack, we could make bonfires out of the open without being too worried about Eaters. After all, the ice would cover the heat from the fire we created.
Once morning came, Genevieve went back to the village, but Pamela stayed with us, to my dismay. But then again, I made a promise to the woman. I promise that I would help her find another place to live and I was a woman of my word. And now, the cat was out of the bag. Pamela knew that we had some strange power and there was no point in hiding it from her anymore. Which made things quite easier for us.
Our day of travel was much more comfortable than we were expecting. For one, there were no monsters that came charging after us. In addition, we collectively agreed to not bother and speak about our powers out loud. Even if Pamela was around, knowing about it wouldn't make any difference without it. Sure, it might be a bit me to rub it on her face that we had something that she didn't, but I wasn't about to change the way I behaved just because of her.
Still, there were a couple of occasions where Pamela asked about getting those powers. Astrid refused to say anything and Michael said he wasn't the one who could do that kind of thing, even though he was already aware he could. As a matter of fact, before Genevieve left, the Hawaiian even gave her the System, spending the only 10% of particles he had at tier one, to do that.
During the night, I had already explained to him that we were not going to comment or complain if he decided to give the System to someone. But I made it clear that I didn't like that idea, not because of Genevieve, but because of Amelia. If the matriarch somehow was able to get her hands on the System, I believed that the village would have a lot of problems.
Either way, we continued heading south until we reach the fork on the road and then turn west. That's where one of the big cities that we had seen were located and the place where we already knew there was a village. And as long as we got there and found a reasonably safe place for Pamela, our small adventure together would be over. And honestly, the more she asked about the System, the more I wanted to get there soon. But it would still take a couple of days for that. At least now we had four people to share the night shift. This also meant that I could sleep properly while we were camping for the first time.
Or so I hoped.