Panes of glass shattered around them; the very ground heaved measurably as whatever had transpired below leaked through dozens of meters of terrain. No cloud of debris was ejected into the air by the blast; What had once been building Alpha groaned - temporarily holding out against the inevitable before collapsing in on itself – marking its destruction and additionally, the formation of a large sinkhole. In the moments leading up to Incedis’s ‘final’ act, he’d somehow sent Marcus a packet of sorts that contained knowledge of the do’s and don’ts of elemental summoning.

That aside, he was still floundering to understand what exactly just happened over the course of a sort handful of minutes. In the end it boiled down to him once against being overconfident in his strength; if he hadn’t somehow Deus ex Machina Incedis into existence, he along with those around him, would’ve almost certainly been overwhelmed, and that wasn’t even considering Eretyl whom Marcus hadn’t even witnessed fighting.

Thomas broke his train of thinking, speaking timidly in a way extremely jarring considering the man’s personality, “I’m going to be straight to the point. What on God’s green Earth did you pull back there?! That…thing spoke, and NOT in a language I’m familiar with, or anyone on the planet is for all that is matters. Look, after everything that’s happened my faith has been tested to say little of anything else, but when what looks like a bonafide fiend shows itself I can’t help to not worry. And that’s again ignoring an apparent bomb, a very large bomb, from going off.”

Marcus at a loss for words could only listen, mouth agape as Thomas continued to ramble on; funnily enough, both Adrian and Greg embraced the situation in stride, they’d already seen him do borderline crazy things.

“We can debate moral implications once we’ve returned to base and are mostly safe. Before we go anywhere I’ve got an object of extreme importance to retrieve from that there pile of rubble…so, excuse me for a bit,” he finished in an almost dismissive fashion - leaving Thomas to glare at his back without room to respond; not being part of the military chain of command had its perks.

A persistent urge to check his status overwhelmed any sense of self control, causing Marcus to halt on his trek to retrieve the crystal. After asking Adrian and Greg to watch over him, he found a safeish place to sit, and as if triggered by him relaxing, a flood of notifications spilled into his vision unbeckoned.

(AN: Keep in mind these levels ups / skill increases are from both before and after entering the Distortion Vat Facility. Just mushed them together because otherwise they’d end up being super long…and even now it’s still an info dump)

[Level Up + 28 (+2 Bonus for Quest objective advancement)]

Basic Elemental Summoning + 20, Mana Manipulation + 16, Elemental Manipulation + 16, Inorganic Shaping + 11, Scorching Ray + 9, Elemental Sight + 10, Stone Throw + 6, Meditative Mind + 5, Unstable Earthen Spines + 3, Basic Melee Fighting + 6, Overchannel + 5, Mineral Purification + 3, Dodge + 3, Trap Making + 1, Darkvision + 2, Universal Translator + 2

Rather than skill and level up’s drawing his attention, a gold bordered panel shone brilliantly as if begging to be noticed. Without expecting too much, Marcus brought this notification into focus, his mind instantly swept away to the same location as initial class selection, all unbeknownst to those around him.

Finding himself in the familiar void, he assumed that his class had experienced a change; it appeared like with everything else that the System liked using multiples of five for classes too. He didn’t wait for long before a set of screens flashed into existence.

Congratulations for advancing beyond initial class selection - typically, only five to fifteen percent of individuals reach this point. As the first of your original race to achieve level 50 extra options may be available once a Class Evolution becomes available. In accordance with System law, additional information regarding classes is now available for reading.

Like how he’d seen dungeon ratings before, portions of the message allowed Marcus to select them – opening new windows in the process.

Class development is broken into the rarities below. Additionally, within each rarity lies another set of checkpoints, namely – Novice, Apprentice, Nascent, Expert, and Master.

White © Uncommon (U) Rare ® Special (S) Epic (E) Ascendant (A) Legendary (L) Forbidden (X)

Rarity can be elevated through path progression, System rewards, or in other special circumstances, e.g. CENSORED.

Progress within a rarities’ bracket is simply tied to level gains, progressing for every fifty levels gained under any given checkpoint. Offer no immediate benefits, but greatly affect any and all future class evolutions when moving up the rarity scale.

NOTE: Rarely some classes start with an abnormal tier, e.g. instead of Novice they may be Apprentice immediately on selection.

If I’m understanding this correctly, I was pulled into here for a tier upgrade. Does that mean I’m now a Nascent Matter Reshapter? Yep, its right there on my status already.. but why did the System pull me into this space to tell me this; surely it would’ve been more efficient to just send another message. And what does censored even mean here, is the Grand Hegemony able to restrict information even in this space?

Marcus’s mind was ejected from the space after receiving all of the class information provided. Finding himself back in his body, little or perhaps no time had passed for anyone else; the sun hadn’t moved whatsoever during his temporary absence. For the most part everything made sense that he’d seen, aside from the censored portions, and being pulled into that space in what seemed to be a frivolous manner. Maybe it could be that anything related to classes brought you there, or perhaps this only happened the first time you went up a tier; he’d find out in fifty levels either way.

Strange space aside, his PP once again accumulated – even after blindingly using many of them earlier. Sitting at 123 of 200 of Crystalline Bones, Marcus looked for any mention of him hitting its halfway point – finding nothing he could only sigh and move on; maybe the path was preparing for a large shift on completion?

His brazen spending did produce one obvious side effect, Constitution finally crested over the two-fifty mark, trigging an expected set of notifications.

Blood spills from a wounded body in torrents, staining the ground red with your life’s essence. Despite critical damage your vivacity fights back - a seemingly infinite pool of vitality refilling its damage vessel at an astounding rate. Soon enough, mortal wounds that would’ve killed lesser beings close, restoring peak operating capacity. Volume is a measure of quantity that in some respects possess a quality of its own. New Health multiplier: 1.5x

The reward continued following the previous trend of rewards at two-fifty. Doing a bit of quick math in his head, Marcus worked out that after adding the recently earned PP into his current path he’d have enough free attributes to raise both Strength and Agility up to two-fifty as well – all without using even half of his 140 free points. After reaching 170 of 200 in his path, he only needed to use about sixty points to bring both to his attributes up to his goal; eliciting yet more notifications, three in-fact.

Momentum carries you forward, superhuman muscles rippling under the exertion. Ragged breaths escape from your mouth while powerful lungs fight to bring in adequate oxygen. One muscle - the most important of all – pounds heavily, but steadily pumps blood under once unheard-of pressures, reaching every fiber in your body within moments. Straining against impossible odds, only a hardened endurance can pave a pathway towards the future. New Stamina multiplier: 1.5x When milliseconds determine life or death, speed is king. Agile steps weave a lithe body through battle guiding it to somehow always arrive at just the right angle for devastating blows. With the grace of a feline, lightened steps almost imperceptible, hiding your presence from those whom seek you out. Additional 10% Movement speed. New passive ability: (U) Hushed Steps A well-rounded body can more easily be pressed beyond its normal limitations - enabling maneuvers otherwise unviable to attempt. History has shown that situations of extreme stress enable an individual to push beyond what the body typically allows. You have gained that same ability, usable at will, rather than as a subconscious reaction. New Physical skill gained: (U) Surge

New Physical skill gained: (U) Hushed Steps – Level. 1 | At the cost of additional stamina consumption, noise created by walking, and running can be vastly reduced. Note: Does not dampen sound made by worn equipment. Higher levels reduce stamina cost.

New Physical skill gained: (U) Surge – Level. 1 | Doubles physical attributes for extremely short bursts of time. Each subsequent activation raises stamina cost, and damage cause by excess strain. Higher levels reduce stamina cost, lessens self-damage, and lengthens time of each use.

*WARNING – Excessive use can cause permanent damage that cannot be regenerated.

Jesus H. Christ that’s a block of text if I’ve ever seen one; at least I’m almost done.

With a tired sigh, he rounded out his attributes – raising his last statistic, Luck, to fifty at the cost of twelve points. While he was at it, Marcus evenly distributed the remaining free attributes, sixty, among Intelligence, Perception, and Wisdom; thankfully not causing anything strange to happen.

Luck is a vague measure of how often fate seems to bend causality around a person’s actions. At lower levels the bending is fairly minimal - only manifesting infrequently. Rarely on receiving System rewards, additionally bonuses may appear.

Marcus wasn’t sure if he should be happy or not that raising everything to fifty didn’t award him anything. Logically the answer is yes, but after what he’d just experienced a little irrational thinking wasn’t too unexpected. Everything finally complete, Marcus took a final look over his status.

Name: Marcus Diamandis Level - 72 Class - Nascent Matter Reshaper Health: 7350/7350 Regeneration 73.5/Min 1.5x Multiplier Stamina: 6488/6488 Regeneration 922.5/Min 1.5x Multiplier Mana: 8100/8100 Regeneration 1488/Min 1.5x Multiplier Free Attributes: 0 Path Points: 2 Race - Crystal Forged Human Movement Speed Multiplier Casting Speed Multiplier Spell Damage Bonuses 15% 50% 15% Basic Statistics Total Strength 250 Constitution 365 Agility 250 Perception 500 Intelligence 540 Wisdom 496 Charisma 50 Luck 50

Of course, his ‘complaining’ was done in jest and he nevertheless found himself blown away by how fast the System allowed people to grow; though he could see that slowing down soon if the patter for thresholds continued. The last, and undoubtedly the most important thing he’d learned today came from an unexpected source, Incedis. He’d almost mentioned it, but in Incedis’s final seconds transmitted a large block of information; how exactly that worked was once again throw into the pile of unsolved mysteries.

Parsing through the data would take time, although in his brief skimming Marcus already learned just how lucky he’d been. For example, the core within his Berserker once it had collapsed sent out of sort of ‘shockwave’ that could be felt by anything listening. If those same creatures listening latched on to that wave they could follow it back to its source, and if the body was compatible could subsume control of it from Marcus. Meaning that in the end, Incedis could’ve turned around and slaughtered him if he’d chosen to do so. Of course, Incedis would’ve immediately lost control of that body but that didn’t matter if Marcus was already dead. He felt that there was a way to tune that wave towards someone or something specific, but he’d made much too little progress to tell; for now, no more using Pyroclastic Core, and if he really wanted to be safe, no summoning.

Standing once again, he approached the massive pile of rubble and began shaping it out of the way. After what felt like hours, Marcus finally found his target, the crystal that had once been floating inside of the cavern. The innocent act of brushing dirt of its face activated something he hadn’t accounted for.

Viable racial standards met…Processing…Would you like to take possession of this Generation III Mana Generator?