Chapter 110. [?]
In this world, individuals gained the ability to select their Class when they reached level 25. Initially upon learning about classes, Levi had thought the whole thing felt rather constrained. To him, classes came across as predefined archetypes that determined a person’s path for them. The System was basically closing all other possible avenues of progression, forcing a person to improve only within their class.
It wasn’t until a brief lecture from Liliya that Levi realized his mistake. The Class selection process was highly tailored to the specific individual, to the point where it was the person that made the Class, not the Class that made the person. The System took into account not only a person’s existing skills and abilities but also their past history and general personality to determine what potential classes to offer as choices.
For example, someone who trained extensively with a sword all their life would likely receive the default [Knight] class as one of their options. However, if they also held an interest in magic, then the System might offer them the [Spellblade] class. If they were patient, methodical, and had excellent emotional compartmentalization skills, then the [Assassin] class might be open to them. And if they were really, really skilled with the blade? Well. They might just be offered the class of [Sword Saint].
At level 100, individuals then gained access to Class Evolution, which was determined by two things: how they’d specialized their personal build, and what sort of person they’d grown to become. For example, a mage who learned mostly elemental magic skills might evolve into the Elementalist class; similarly, a warrior who was always the first in and last out of any fight might evolve into the Vanguard class.
At level 1000, individuals apparently gained access to Class Transcendence. Levi didn’t even know what that was. The books in the Institute’s library didn’t contain the term at all. Perhaps it was guarded knowledge?
Or maybe it was because nobody had ever reached level 1000 before…
No, there was no way. Right?
Levi admittedly didn’t have the best frame of reference when it came to these figures. This entire time, he hadn’t bothered to learn the specific numbers and statistics because with his System locked, they hadn’t applied to him. A choice he was coming to regret…
At any rate, Levi was rather curious to see what choices the System would offer him. He was pretty sure he already knew what to expect. Indeed, his base classes were pretty obvious:
[System Notification: Please select one of the following Classes:]
[Option 1: Mage]
[Option 2: Assassin]
[Option 3: Spellblade]
Levi was a little surprised to see that [Assassin] was an option for him – though he supposed it made sense. He’d effectively been Death’s personal assassin, after all. Spellblade, too. Levi was proficient with the blade, but he hadn’t used one in a while. Though, Sever and Cleave probably counted as a blade… Huh, that was rather creative of the System, actually.
He briefly deliberated between options 2 and 3 before giving a shrug and just selecting [Option 1: Mage]. Call him basic, but he had at least some pride as a mage. After spending so much time practicing and honing his magic, it’d feel rather off if he didn’t select that as his Class.
[Congratulations! You have selected the [Mage] class!]
[Calculating Class Evolution…]
Levi blinked, but before he could curse out the System for taking so long to load, the Chorus suddenly materialized before him and lashed out with a series of whiplike strikes. Multiple sonic booms sounded around Levi as he weaved back and forth, avoiding each strike with mere millimeters to spare. Was it just him, or had the Chorus gotten even faster?
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY ARM?” The Chorus shouted. “UNDO THIS! I DEMAND YOU!”
Levi snorted. “What on Koxus makes you think you’re in any position to make demands of me? No, really, do take some time to reflect on what you just said.”
He leaped back to avoid the Chorus’s angry tendril, taking a moment to marvel at just how light his body felt. With his System unlocked, the difference truly was day and night. Levi almost couldn’t believe he’d survived without it up until now–
He sobered up a moment later when he remembered that his counterpart must’ve also experienced this, except in reverse. The former Levi Ironwood had spent thousands of years familiarizing himself with the System, learning all its ins and outs, fine-tuning his build such that it was perfectly optimized – and then had to cut himself off in this final loop. And unlike Levi, he didn’t have magic to call his own.
Levi didn’t even want to imagine what an infernal hell it must’ve been.
The Devourer let out a screech, and the smile on its left head spread even wider until its face practically inverted upon itself.
Then, even more Time was blasted into the Roots Record, sending the entire chamber into temporal disarray. Time sped up in some areas, slowed down in some areas, straight-up stopped in several. The room became a labyrinth where one false step would result in becoming temporally locked, and subsequently unmade from existence.
Levi channeled more magic to his eyes as he continued evading the Devourer and Chorus’s strikes while sending back spells of his own. Not for the first time, he whispered a thanks to his younger self for spending so much time researching and training his True Sight.
Ding!
[System Notification: Finished calculating Class Evolution paths!]
[System Notification: Please select one of the evolved [Mage] classes:]
[Option 1: Archmage]
[Option 2: Necromancer]
[Option 3: Arcane Assassin]
[Option 4: Soul Warlock]
Levi split his consciousness into two, running simultaneous thought threads so that he could stay alive while reading the new System pop-up message.
[Archmage] was rather expected. He didn’t know exactly what the title meant in this world, but Liliya had mentioned it being a legendary class before. In his previous world, archmage was a title granted to any mage who made a sufficiently impossible breakthrough in any field of magic. Levi had been promoted to the exalted ranks by accidentally recreating Death’s ability to observe and cut the death lines.
[Necromancer] came completely out of left field. Levi supposed that he had enough of a connection with Death that the System decided to just offer him the choice. But Levi’s old job as Death’s servant had literally been to hunt down necromancers and any others who dared to violate the sanctity of life and death. He had no intention of being a hypocrite in that regard.
[Arcane Assassin] sounded interesting. Levi didn’t expect to see another assassin-related class, but his role as Death’s former servant probably had a large enough impact on his life and history to significantly influence the System’s choices. For a few seconds, Levi considered it. If nothing else, it would be rather nice to match with Qorbin. A Grand Assassin and an Arcane Assassin walked into a bar…
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[Soul Warlock] was more than a little perturbing. Levi assumed it was due to his knowledge of soul magick of the most forbidden. He’d only used soul magick twice before in his two lives – once to destroy those million souls, and once to heal Hawke’s daughter’s soul – but both times had been life-altering enough that they caused the System to offer him the choice of [Soul Warlock].
Levi immediately knew that he wouldn’t select that one. Soul magick was one of the most forbidden branches of magic for a reason. Besides, truth be told, it had too many bad memories associated with it.
With [Necromancer] and [Soul Warlock] automatically out of the question, the choice then came down between [Archmage] and [Arcane Assassin]. Levi’s brows drew together in concentration even as he leaped through bursts of miasma and clouds of suffocating spores.
What to choose, what to choose…
Ah, fuck it.
Even though he’d more or less been Death’s personal assassin, Levi really preferred the term ‘servant’. Choosing an Assassin-related class would run counter to that agenda.
As such, he mentally thought, Option 1.
[Congratulations! You have selected the [Archmage] class!]
[Calculating Class Transcendence!]
Ruefully, Levi realized that he had made the most obvious choices possible. [Mage] into [Archmage]... What a surprise. Perhaps he should’ve chosen another path, but he supposed ultimately that was the greatest weakness of all mages: when offered the opportunity to learn more magic and gain more spells, no self-respecting mage could possibly say no–
The Chorus sang.
Levi halted in his steps as an odd, hypnotic tune drifted over him. He couldn’t recognize the melody, but it sounded familiar somehow, like being greeted by an old friend. For once, the Chorus’s voice didn’t sound harsh or discordant, but rather it sounded almost angelic in nature–
YOU KILLED THEM ALL.
YOU CAUSED THEM ALL TO DIE.
YOU MURDERER.
–and suddenly, Levi’s psyche was assaulted once more. Guilt, sorrow, self-loathing – waves upon waves of negative emotions crashed against his mind, battering and boiling all at once.
“YOU’VE SINNED BEFORE, HAVEN’T YOU?” The Chorus crowed in triumph, still singing its song in the background despite speaking at the same time. “HOW DOES IT FEEL, LEVI IRONWOOOD? TO BE DRIVEN MAD BY THE WEIGHT OF YOUR OWN SINS?”
Indeed, it was so overwhelming, so intense, that Levi almost couldn’t hear himself think. His mind was a turbulent vortex, and the only reason he remained sane was because…
Well.
These emotions were all so very familiar.
Even so, it affected him. The Chorus was a being who specialized in mental and psychic attacks, and it showed; this attack was leagues more proficient and effective than its paltry physical strikes. Levi didn’t even know how the Chorus had managed to pierce his mental defenses with this latest attack; normally, the thin layer of magic shielding his eardrums was enough to prevent auditory psychic attacks like this from working. Was the magic embedded in the note arrangement itself, instead of the sound waves? Was that even possible?
Well, it didn’t matter. Levi could figure out the mechanism later; for now, he had to withstand this brutal assault. But it was hard. His psyche was already shaken by the Devourer earlier – plus the reminder from the System of all the souls he’d destroyed.
YOU DON’T DESERVE YOUR LEVELS.
YOU DON’T DESERVE YOUR NEWFOUND POWERS.
Fuck. Levi gritted his teeth as his vision blurred and the voices in his head grew stronger and stronger. And – where were those screams coming from? Did the Chorus somehow agitate even the soul imprints on Levi’s soul? Oh Goddess…
The sound of screams in his mind became almost deafening as for the first time since Levi’s talk with Anastasia in the Adventurer’s Guildhall, the imprints on his soul came to life with a vengeance, the voices of a million soul echoes overlapping with one another, each spewing pure vitriol and bitterness and hatred.
YOU KILLED US ALL.
YOU ENDED OUR LIVES.
YOU DESTROYED OUR VERY SOULS.
YOU TOOK AWAY OUR SACRED RIGHT TO DIE.
AND YOU SAY YOU WANT TO BE A HERO?
HAVE YOU NO SHAME?
DOES SOMEONE LIKE YOU DESERVE TO BE A HERO?
WITH YOUR HANDS SO STAINED BY OUR BLOOD?
Levi winced, stumbling past the Devourer’s miasma and navigating through the temporal destabilizations. He threw up multiple shields to buy himself some time as he tried to figure out how to neutralize this attack.
Ding!
[System Notification: Finished calculating Class Transcendence paths!]
[System Notification: Please select one of the Transcended Classes]
[Option 1: Manslayer]
Levi didn’t even read the rest of the screen.
He could only give a bitter laugh.
What? What sort of a class was that supposed to be?
Liliya had once theorized that the more history and strength of character a person had, the more it would affect the choices the System offered to them. For her, while she was very skilled with the blade, it was dwarfed by her sheer passion for swordsmanship. There had been others more skilled than her before, but in terms of pure drive and love for the sword, no one came close. That was her theory on why she had been offered the [Sword Saint] class.
Consequently, for the System to offer Levi the [Manslayer] class…
What did it say about him?
That he was an existence shrouded in death? That he had taken his first life when he hadn’t even reached double digits of age? That he’d been sent to kill countless people by Death himself? That he had one of the highest direct kill counts in both his previous world and this new one?
His gaze drifted down, and he read the next entry:
[Option 2: Soul Calamity]
These weren’t even related to [Mage] anymore. How in the world were these the upgraded classes of [Archmage]?
Though, the System did say ‘transcended’ and not ‘upgraded’...
Was that what Class Transcendence meant? To go beyond one’s Class and enter a whole new realm, one that was determined purely by their character and not the skills they chose?
[Soul Calamity]... It was certainly a class fit for the only person in recorded history to have destroyed a million souls.
A dark haze settled over his mind. The constant screams, the flood of hatred, the accusations from the souls he’d violated, the Class options from the impartial System… They all worked together to fracture his psyche even more. Years of guilt and self-hatred bubbled up within him like corrosive lava, rushing through his veins and setting his entire body aflame.
Perhaps the voices were right. Really, who was he to still pursue his childhood dream of becoming a hero? To even dare dream that he had the right to sully that perfect, incorruptible ideal? He was nothing more than a mass murderer, someone who even now had only leveled up so much due to the innocent lives he’d slaughtered–
His eyes fell to the third and final option.
He froze.
For a long moment, he stared at it. His magical shields slowly fell one by one around him as the Devourer and Chorus whittled them down, but he paid them no attention. He stood unmoving, not even breathing, as he just stared and stared.
Then, his eyes became bright.
[Option 3: Hero]
“H-How?” he choked out. He spoke to no one and everyone at the same time. “How could you offer me this choice after the previous two? After all the sins I’ve committed, after all the people I’ve killed?” His tone became almost desperate. “Oh, I understand now. It’s because of my counterpart, right? Because our soul signatures were merged, so his actions are considered to be my own–”
[NEGATORY. THE {RECORDS} OF THE PRIOR INHABITANT OF THIS BODY HAVE ALREADY BEEN SEALED. ONLY THE {RECORDS} OF THE CURRENT INHABITANT WERE CONSIDERED IN THE CALCULATIONS]
“Then why?” Levi demanded.
[BECAUSE WHAT BETTER CLASS IS THERE TO DEFINE {LEVI IRONWOOD}?]
Levi fell silent, stunned.
Then quietly, with a touch of hesitance as if he was afraid to even choose it, he whispered: “Option 3.”
[Congratulations! You have selected the [Hero] class!]
And then a sudden massive amount of information burst into Levi’s mind from seemingly nowhere. Knowledge of passive abilities, skills he’d never learned before, muscle memory that didn’t exist a second prior–
[Class Passive: [I Need a Hero] – For every soul you are fighting to save, gain a small boost to your stats]
Huh.
Levi paused. A thought occurred to him.
Since the Devourer was an extinction world-ending threat, then…
Wasn’t Levi, technically, just oh so very technically, currently fighting to save every single soul in this entire world?
And as his passive took effect...
Ding!
[System Notification: You have 272 new unused skill slots! Would you like to proceed with skill selection?]