Kay couldn’t describe what he was feeling. There were no words to describe the sensation. It didn’t hurt, or itch, or tingle, or… anything. It just was. The feeling lasted for what felt like an eternity, but as his eyes opened and he saw Douglas rushing up to him, he realized it had only been a few seconds.

Kay was slumped backwards in the chair, with his head touching the top of the back of it. His legs had slipped forward, and he struggled not to fall off as he tried to right himself.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Captain Armis grabbed his shoulder and pulled him up straight. “Don’t try and move around too much.”

“Are you alright?” Douglas asked from next to him.

“That was…” Kay shuddered across his whole body. “Fucked up.”

They gave him a moment to recover.

“So, what happened?” Captain Armis waited until Kay looked a bit better before asking.

“What do you mean? I made the Oath.”

He chuckled wryly. “Most people that make an Oath just see a confirmation appear in front of them. They don’t have, whatever… that was happen.”

“Oh.” Kay glanced around, but there were no screens in front of him. “I don’t see anything?”

“Do the same thing you do to pull up your status, but pull up your ‘Updates’ instead.”

“Alright.” Kay concentrated on that, imagining another tab opening up with new notifications.

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

- Binding Oath Made!

- Skill Removed!

- Class Missing Requirements!

- Class Changed!

- Title Gained!

- Title Gained!

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

“There’s a few things, but they’re a little sparse. Can I make them more detailed?” Kay asked, then realized that was the kind of thing he should just test.

Armis, at this point Kay decided to just leave off the title, nodded. “Yeah, you just focus on opening them like letters.”

Kay was already doing that, focusing on it like the video game menu it seemed to resemble.

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

-Binding Oath Made!

- Kenneth “Kay” Davis has made a Binding Oath! Contents: Kenneth “Kay” Davis will never use the skill: [Blood Puppetry]

- Oath Accepted

- Kenneth “Kay” Davis can no longer use, gain, or posses the skill: [Blood Puppetry] through any means

-Skill Removed!

-Kenneth “Kay” Davis can no longer posses the skill: [Blood Puppetry]

-Skill: [Blood Puppetry] removed

-Class Missing Requirements!

-Class: [Novice Blood Mage] requires the skill [Blood Puppetry]

-Class: [Novice Blood Mage] is no longer tenable for Kenneth “Kay” Davis

-Class: [Novice Blood Mage] removed

-Error! Kenneth “Kay” Davis has designation: [Outworlder]

-Kenneth “Kay” Davis cannot lose only class: [Novice Blood Mage] due to designation: [Outworlder]

-Error! Class: [Novice Blood Mage] is no longer tenable for Kenneth “Kay” Davis

-Conflicting Errors!

-Recalculating…

-Errors Resolved!

-Class Changed!

-Class: [Novice Blood Mage] has changed to class: [Novice Blood Manipulator]

-Title Gained!

-Kenneth “Kay” Davis has gained title: [Class Creator]

-Title Gained

-Kenneth “Kay” Davis has gained title: [Class Line Progenitor]

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

Kay read through each notification in order, following the logic until he got to the last two. Something had happened with his Oath, and instead of just being bound to not use it, whatever controlled this system, The World or whatever, had decided to remove Blood Puppetry entirely, and make it so he could never get it back, which was fine with him. After that, it had tried to remove the Novice Blood Mage class since that class apparently needed Blood Puppetry. But then it couldn’t because he was an Outworlder? He understood it conceptually, but he wondered why. Either way, it couldn’t let him keep his class, since he didn’t qualify for it anymore, but The World also couldn’t take it away from him. So it decided to change it entirely. Kay’s best guess was that Novice Blood Manipulator was based around the Manipulate Blood skill, since it was the only one he had left at this point.

After that, he got confused. Two titles? Class Creator and Class Line Progenitor? You could make new classes? And what the hell did Class Line Progenitor even mean?

“Well?” Armis asked, looking down at Kay. “What happened?”

“It removed the Blood Puppetry skill.”

“Oh?” Armis’ brows climbed towards his forehead. “Interesting.”

“Yeah, and then-”

Douglas cut off Kay by grabbing his wrist suddenly. “Captain Armis, would that remove the safety issue?”

Armis looked down at Douglas for a moment, obviously confused. Then a flash of understanding crossed his eyes and he nodded slowly, his face now blank. “Correct. If he no longer had Blood Puppetry, it would remove any safety issues with the city. He would be free to leave with no consequences.”

“Kay,” Douglas drew Kay’s gaze down to him, his face blank and eyes serious. “Please open your status and confirm that you no longer have the Blood Puppetry skill.”

A little unnerved, Kay opened his status with a thought and checked it over.

[————————————————————]

Name: Kenneth “Kay” Davis

Race: Outworlder Human

Age: 24

Highest Tier: I

Total Tiers: I

Class Slots: 8 Combat Class Slots/4 Non-Combat Class Slots

1 Combat Class Slot Used/0 Non-Combat Class Slots Used

Classes:

Combat:

- Novice Blood Manipulator: Tier I-

Skills: Manipulate Blood - Level 1

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

Non-Combat

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

Titles: Class Line Progenitor, Class Creator

[————————————————————]

Kay stared at the screen in confusion, where had he gotten two new class slots? Were they from the titles?

Douglas squeezed Kay’s wrist with surprising strength and gave him a look. “Do you have the Blood Puppetry skill?”

What the hell is happening now? “No, I don’t have it anymore.”

Douglas looked at Roctis without loosening up on Kay’s wrist. “Is he telling the truth?”

Roctis was obviously as confused as Kay as he glanced back and forth between the three other people in the room. “…Yes, he’s telling the truth.”

“Well then, are we free to leave?”

Armis gestured at the door. “Of course. Without him presenting a safety issue, you and Mister Kay are free to go at any time. I hope you both have a wonderful day.”

“Thank you.” Douglas pulled Kay off the chair and started leading him out the door. He paused just outside of it and turned back to look ath the guard captain. “Lunch later?”

“Sure, tomorrow?”

“Great.” He dragged Kay off.

They got halfway up the steps when Kay finally recovered his wits. “What the hell is happening?”

“Don’t say anything!” Douglas snapped. “We don’t know who might be listening. Wait till we get back to my office.”

Kay stared down at Douglas as he was dragged out of the guard station and down the road by the gnome. Why would anyone be listening? Why would anyone care about what happened to me? And how did Douglas know that something weird happened?

Kay started walking a bit faster, hurrying towards Douglas’ office, and hopefully some answers.