When she came to, it was all of a sudden. One second, she was out, unaware of the world, and the next she remembered right where she was and what happened. This was in distinct contrast to how she normally woke up after an alert, groggy and weak as a newborn kitten. But a lot less cute. James wished she had a cat.

Flinging her eyes open, she breathed out a sigh of relief at seeing that she was still in the forest and not in the infirmary. She had suspected that was the case when she didn’t hear its familiar sounds. This was likely her one chance to escape and she couldn’t waste it. She wouldn’t. Listening hard, she couldn’t hear anybody in the area, just a few leaves and bird chatter, so she let herself relax. She couldn’t feel any headaches around either. So if anybody was around, they weren’t overly powerful.

Looking at the dot in her vision, she was glad to see that it was blue again. As alive as she might have felt being so close to death, she needed to rest now. Or maybe rest wasn’t the right word, she didn’t feel like she needed sleep. She just needed to recover. Almost like it felt that James was focusing on it, because she most likely was, the blue dot blinked out, replaced by some System text.

You have killed Goblin level 3! Experience is granted.

You have killed Goblin level 2! Experience is granted.

You have killed Goblin level 8! Experience is granted.

…

You have killed Goblin level 3! Experience is granted.

You have qualified for a Class. Begin selection?

She was shocked frozen, forgetting how to breathe for a moment, but in the next second a wild grin enveloped her face and she thought yes.

She could have probably waited for a moment when she was sure there was no chance she’d be found. But she had been waiting for this moment since Christian had first explained what a Class was. She wanted a role. A concrete one that would explain what was expected of her. And if she was going to be by herself from now on, she’d need to be strong. And the best way to do that was to get a Class.

The script in front of her eyes quickly transformed itself.

Goblin Killer

Requirements: You have yet to choose a Class. You are directly responsible for the death of 100+ goblins. You are indirectly responsible for the death of 1000+ goblins. You are familiar with goblin anatomy.

Description: You have made it your life’s goal to hunt down and kill goblins. You hate them to your very core and blame them for all your problems. You are prepared to do anything to see the end of this species of monsters while at the same time being unable to envision a world without them. Whether you meet them in an open battlefield, in the shadows, or in their woods, the goblins better be prepared to run. Even if it won’t help them in your hunt to annihilate them.

Stats per level: +3 Endurance, +4 Strength, +2 Agility, +3 Vitality, +1 Willpower, +2 Free Stats

Commence integration? Warning: Some paths may now be closed to you and yet other opened.

She hated the Class. She absolutely hated it. Nothing about it spoke to her. Remembering Christian’s lesson on Classes, she didn’t want her role, her way to gain experience towards her next level, to only be killing goblins. While she acknowledged that they certainly appeared to be mindless monsters, they had never mindlessly killed her. Did monsters count as animals? She figured they did. She didn’t want her acknowledged System role to be an animal annihilator.

There were other issues with the class beyond her ethical concerns, what would happen when she couldn’t find any goblins? She wasn’t sure how experienced was accrued, but potentially she would only be able to get any by killing goblins. On the one hand, they were plentiful in the Tutorial, but she couldn’t guarantee the same would be the case in the post-Tutorial world. If they were gone, there would be no more experience. It felt like an inherent bottleneck she didn’t want to encounter.

But what could she do? She needed a Class, and this one did provide wonderful stats, at a total of 15 stat points per level, though they were almost all physical. Another thing that didn’t particularly speak to her. James didn’t know how many stats other classes provided, but 15 felt extremely high to her. She was about to think yes, when she saw, to her surprise, that she had more options. She hadn’t heard of that happening to other people.

Pact Intern

Requirements: You have yet to choose a Class. You are aware of the Pact and have considered the consequences. You are in a powerful position in your Tutorial. You have filed 1000+ pieces of paperwork. You have worked with a government.

Description: The Pact can’t do it all by itself, it relies on people on the ground to spread its message. The Pact acknowledges that it has a multitude of species and cultures under its rule and the best way to govern them is to obtain representatives from them. Act as a human representative to the Pact and further your species’ interests.

Stats per level: +2 Charisma, +1 Wisdom, +1 Intelligence, +1 Agility, +1 Free Stats

Commence integration? Warning: Some paths may now be closed to you and yet other opened.

This Class wasn’t better than the last one, though it was at least interesting to read about. She tried to memorize the name, requirements, description, and stats allotment per level so she could reference them later once she had more information on Classes. This Class would probably require her to work with people, aliens, beings, whatever they wanted to call themselves. She literally couldn’t think of a class she’d like less with her social anxiety. Well, she probably could, but she wasn’t going to, this Class description was bad enough.

Garnering experience from interacting with others was not her cup of tea at all. Though it was interesting to see that her class programming project qualified as working for the government since she had given it to them. And that the System considered her to be in a powerful position in the Tutorial since she didn’t really agree with it.

The most interesting aspect of the Class, however, was that it provided +2 Charisma, a stat that she hadn’t seen on her status page before. James theorized that there were some hidden stats you only became aware of if you gained a certain class. Maybe even a Skill. She wondered what her current Charisma stat was, probably negative. Very, very negative.

Hoping to see at least one more option she smiled when that was the case. Choosing between Goblin Killer and Pact Intern would be impossible. That was a lie, she knew she’d choose Goblin Killer and hate it. It simply had a lot more stats and didn’t require working with others. But there was another option, saving her from this fate.

And this Class? This Class didn’t require much though on her part to want to take it.