The following classes are currently available to you:

Bound Spirit

Autonomous Intelligence

Ocean’s child

Even as I opened the class selection screen I knew I wasn’t making the best decision. That it would be better to wait, better to plan, to see if more options opened up for me. All those arguments made sense in a vacuum, in a frictionless world where scientists perform their ideal experiments. They didn’t account for the mental trauma I had undergone or the slow grinding effect that isolation was having on my sanity. I didn’t need a perfect class or the optimal strategy to take. I just needed something to change about my situation, to give me the hope needed to keep moving forwards.

Arguments for and against all of the classes rolled through my mind, but that simple hope for change is what pushed me to select Ocean’s Child. I already was a bound spirit acting as the intelligence for an autonomous construct. I might have been created and lived my whole life of eight days on the water, but Ocean’s child held the promise of more, of a new and different relationship. That relationship, however tenuous it might be, was something I was eager to explore as I found myself struggling about untethered. Perhaps it was nothing more than a bit of flowery language, but I was hopeful that it was something more, that the carefully chosen words the System used meant that there was hidden significance for me to explore, a connection I could use to anchor myself to.

Prodding it with my mental fingers, I waited as a confirmation screen appeared.

Are you sure you wish to accept the Ocean’s Child class?

YES

NO

One last chance to come back to my senses, to wait till a later date.

I stubbornly affirmed my decision almost as soon as the screen appeared. As the confirmation window vanished, I had the strangest feeling of everything around me rumbling. It was as if the entire world my soul inhabited, the space that contained the entirety of me was revealed to be but a single cog in a greater working, a giant System that was revolving around me for a single eternal moment. If I still had eyes I would have been crying as an outlet for the overwhelming intensity of sensations I was feeling. The connections I had so desperately longed for, that I had gambled to try and obtain were laid bare before me. Even in my short life I had interacted with others, played minor parts in their stories. For Carter, I was merely a prop that he used to teach a new friend a lesson about the sea they both lived by. But in this moment that connection was reversed and expanded upon.

I was not a minor player in Carter’s story. Instead, his entire life, everyone he had ever talked to, every adventure and experience he had ever had, was simply the necessary preparations needed to bring him to the right place at the right time to play a role in my life. The same held true for all the sailors that had roughhoused around me, but I could intuitively sense that there were similar connections drawn between me and every person I had overheard, between me and the enchanter who just happened to be the person to call me into existence, even Walter, the man who happened to be the person to reveal my name to the world.

It didn’t stop there either. Each of them had their own connections to others; parents and teachers, mentors and friends, enemies and lovers. In this moment even those connections were warped by the lens of reality, mattering only in how they ended up impacting me.

It was a heady experience, quite literally being at the center of all existence, even for a moment. It was a humbling lesson, to realize just how vast the world was. If this moment was all my Class had given me, I would have been content. I had been given peace. Not peace from foreknowledge of how the future would play out, and not peace derived from pride. Rather, I had found peace in the knowledge that I mattered, that already the world was a different place from how it was without my existence, and that I could continue to impact the world as it rippled around me.

It was a moment that lasted exactly as long as it needed to, an instant where the infinite was internalized. As soon as I comprehended what was being shown to me it ended, and the system churned once more, metaphysical structures rearranging themselves as the focus was reversed. No longer was I the center of attention. I had become the medium of communication.

[OCEAN’S CHILD]

It wasn’t the first time that I had experienced the unique information density that spells and abilities were able to convey. [Listen] and [Power Strike] were more than a command to listen or a powerful strike. They spoke to deeper things, to the nature of listening, or the purest energy transfer possible in a simple motion. It would take an entire book to explain fully what those abilities managed to convey, but they paled in comparison to what the System had invoked.

When the System spoke, it encompassed the entirety of knowledge. Every piece of information ever discovered about a child of the ocean, every emotional response and relationship that anyone had ever had to the phrase or Class. It was a bidirectional flow of information that passed through me coming and going, resonating and rubbing against all the things that made me up. It was the most thorough way ever invented to ask, what exactly the Class Ocean’s Child meant to me. And the answer it was getting was not something I could formulate or shape to meet a specific goal, but was the raw reaction of my soul to the sudden appraisal.

It was a strange feeling, having my soul examined like that. The closest comparison I could make was the feeling of the hot sun on bare skin after playing in the water. Even if you couldn’t see it, the general warmth and life present let you know that the sun was currently dousing you with all of its energy. Everything that made me, me was illuminated by the System and I, in turn was able to get a better understanding of who I was and what mattered to me.

My experiences sailing on Lake Michigan with my grandfather. Swimming in various pools, lakes, streams, and the Pacific. Sailing to Europe, the sheer vastness of the Atlantic visible beneath me. My desire for independence. My need for affirmation. Some reacted to the system more strongly than others, but all my quirks and curiosities were there in one form or another.

I had worried when selecting this Class that I would receive useless Skills, abilities targeted towards humans instead of the boat construct that I currently was. As the examination dragged on I was reassured that that wouldn’t be a problem. This wasn’t just the Class that I picked; this was my Class. The System cared enough about what I wanted to tailor this class as much as possible to the person I am and the person that I wanted to be. And this wasn't a one-time deal, either. I understood a bit more about the discussions people had had about their classes changing. No matter what I experienced in the future, no matter how many times I might change my mind or the direction of my life, my class would always do it’s best to grow with me. I could work with it to find the tools needed to solve any problem I might face, given enough time and effort.

It was as I came to this conclusion and experienced the relief that followed that the System finished up its examination. Once again it reorganized itself, not to inform or examine me, but to offer me some gifts. They were the skills that came with the class, and while I knew that they would be available to me from the Skill screen if I declined them, I didn’t bother. These skills were puzzle pieces carefully crafted to fit what I wanted, and I eagerly slotted them into place.

With its job finished, the System once again faded into the background. My mental world felt a little bit darker for its absence, and already I could feel the supernatural insights I had gained fading away, leaving only a certain calm assurance in their place. It was a memory I would cherish forever, and I could understand just why Classes were such private things. I wasn’t just Robert the Rowboat anymore. I wasn’t even just an Ocean’s Child. I was an [Ocean’s Child].

New Skill obtained: Saltwater Sense

New Skill obtained: Blessing of the Tides

New Skill obtained: Water Resistance

None of the skills had levels or came with descriptions, but they didn’t really need any. Already I could feel [Saltwater Sense] and [Blessing of the Tides] at work. Saltwater Sense let me know information about the ocean around me. I could ‘see’ the waves as they rolled into the bay. I could trace the seabed underneath me, and could track the few small fish that flitted to and fro. I was still completely blind above water, but simply having another source of information was amazing. Blessing of the tides boosted my Spirit. From the name I had the suspicion it was variable, shifting like the tides themselves, but it would go a long way towards supporting my independence. And while Water resistance didn’t seem that useful to a being made out of wood, I was hopeful that it would mitigate the adverse reaction I had to being submerged. I still had a lot to do before I could go my own way, but I felt better about my odds than ever before.