Chapter 6: Mirrors

"I want... to think about it."

They look stunned so I explained, "I don't know much yet about which class would suit me best. I didn't even know anything about classes and skills before this." I pause looking at their reaction. "I just want to learn more before choosing."

There were was a few seconds of silence before mom hugs me and dad says, "You're right son, you should get some sleep and think about it for now."

I nod head upstairs to my room. 'My room' huh, it's been six years and I don't know what I want to do here. Before I thought about finding a way back but what if there isn't a way back? I would have spent my whole life for nothing then.

As I lay on my bed I think about my whole life here and what I want to do for now. I check on my status again.

Name: Castiel Newton

Race: D'varf / Efir’esh

Titles: None(Shown)

Otherworlder

Bearer of Blessings

Classes: None(Shown)

Status: Healthy

Physical: 51F

Endurance: 34F

Mind: 2E

Magic: 7F

Traits

Semi-earthen Physiology Lv 5

Aetherial Manipulation Lv 12

Sensory Enhancement(Ocular, Intuition) Lv 1

[Ocular - Status | Intuition - Magic]

Skills(Active)

Accelerate Lv 3

Minor Telepathy Lv 7

Hmmm... skill description.

Semi-earthen Physiology Lv 5 Increases your durability. Armour plates are regenerated through the consumption of material. Skill level increased through the consumption of material. Aetherial Manipulation Lv 12 Control aethereal forces to physically affect objects around you. Power and radius slightly increase as skill increases. Sensory Enhancement Lv 1 [Ocular - Status]

Shows the target's status information based on your current knowledge.

[Intuition - Magic]

Sense magic in a certain radius. Accelerate Lv 3 Increase velocity in exchange of fuel. Reduction of fuel consumption as skill increases. Minor Telepathy Lv 7 Allows you to convey meaning through telepathic waves accompanied by sound waves. The target must be within earshot. Reduction of volume required as skill increases.

It makes sense that has the highest level. It was mom's gift when I turned 1 year old and I've been using it a lot since my baby strength back then can't do a lot of things I want to do. I don't have the same vine pattern as Mom though, instead, tattoos that look like cracks spread from under my rock plates and glow dimly.

is what people use to have a pseudo universal language. Of course, there still are different languages both written and spoken but most people just learn the common language writing as this skill is fairly accessible to everyone.

What a day... I should probably sleep on this. I have a lot to think about tomorrow. I should probably also make a to-do list so I don't forget stuff. I close my eyes for a moment before opening them again. "Ah" I almost forgot my midnight snack I grabbed the rock Sammy gave to me earlier and looked at it for a bit. It looks like a rock... eh, whatever. I chuck it inside my mouth and proceed to sleep.

Mmmmmm mint... was my last thought before falling into unconsciousness.

|POV Julius| [The day before]

"I know we need to consider what he wants Phen, but he needs to at least know how to defend himself." I say with exasperation "He needs a combatant class and as a D'varf it's class he has the most chance to survive with." When Castiel was born I knew this would come up one day, I just didn't think we'd put off this conversation until after he awakens. If only I wasn't born as this damned race!

She looks bothered and concerned, "What if he doesn't choose to have a combatant class? Are you going to force him to get one? Also, he's not just D'varf you know, wouldn't it be safer for him to be at a distance? He can learn magic instead, you've already seen him use my imprint from a young age."

"Our son is smart, I trust that he'll understand if I tell him to choose a combatant class," I say, trying to convince her. Or maybe I'm also saying it convince myself. I love my son and I care very deeply for him, but as a D'varf he has to be careful and learn how to protect himself. Although slavery has been outlawed, there are still people out there that will kidnap us to be sold in the black market.

She hugs me and pats my back to comfort me, "You're scared he's going to get kidnapped, I get it. I'm also scared and concerned about that, but if we don't give him the freedom to choose... we won't be any different from those who want to cage him. Even if you say it's for his own good." She kisses me on the forehead before continuing "If you really trust him, then trust that he'll make the right decision. We'll just support and protect him along the way."

"*sigh* alright... raising a child is such a hassle."

She giggles, "It's just you that's making it a hassle dear. Let's just prepare for tomorrow. Trust him, okay?"

I hope I'm not making a mistake here...

|POV Cas| [Present time]

"Huh?" I opened my eyes and I see... myself? It's me from before being reincarnated. But it's also me now. It looks like someone superimposed both of them. I blinked and it blinked. I raised my hand and It also raised its hand. It's a mirror, but weird. "Okay...?" I sit up and look around and there are mirrors everywhere. I can see every angle of me for the first time. My pale skin and my green eyes from my mother, and the rock plates and reddish-black hair from my father.

I walk around and try to get my bearings "Where the h#ll am I? This looks like a house of mirr-" *bang* "F*[email protected] mirror!" I slammed my face into a mirror and recoil in pain. It looks like it's a maze, like a proper house of mirror type of maze. I keep navigating the maze with my hands in front of me, careful not to bump into a mirror again.

As I turn the corner something changed. All my reflections are now wearing different clothes. I step towards the nearest mirror and inspected it closely.

"It's definitely me, but... something's different. Not just the clothes... ah! My eyes! They're purple?" I use my fingers to touch the mirror and.. warm? Why is this warm... WHAT THE HELL?! The reflection suddenly grabbed my hand and pulled me in. I tripped into him and fell with him pinning me to the ground.

I shoved him off me as hard as I could and he disappeared. Everything disappeared, except for one mirror. Surrounded by darkness I walk towards it and there's a figure inside. It stood quietly there then the mirror shattered. "[email protected]#k!" I recoiled in surprise and felt myself hitting something. I turned around and he's there. It's me, yet not me. Like there's something else there.

I back away but he rushes me and holds onto my head and brief flashes of memories flood my mind. Mostly about a battle, a battle with humanoid rocks and crystals shining brightly. It's less of a battle, more of a trap it seemed. A group of godly beings surrounding me, hurling world-ending spells left and right, exhausting their powers just to kill me.

"Your greed will be your undoing," I say. Wait... Did I say that? I can't understand anything! What is this dream!?.

"Our undoing is fated, inevitable, only by doing this can we change that." One of the glowing figures floating in the sky says. "Then you are dooming everyone else for this? All of your #@!$! and your [email protected]!$?"

"!$_)*!%[email protected]! [email protected]#!$! @[email protected]$ @! $#@!# $$#!$!#$ !#@$#" It all turned to garbled nonsense and I got taken out of the memory with a searing pain in my head. I back away as fast as I can, shouting "WHAT THE [email protected]$ WAS THAT? WHO THE [email protected]# ARE YOU?"

A garbled voice speaks, gentle, soothing, and ethereal, but also sad, disappointed, and full of pity. "Not enough. Get stronger... find... me... speak... soon." He lunges towards me again, planning to tackle me I assume. I dodge out of the way instinctively and it trips and faceplants on the ground.

He gets up and we stare at each other awkwardly.

"...don't... dodge..."

"How about f#ck you?" He does it again but this time he was too fast for me to dodge. I was expecting to get hit so I brace myself. I trip backwards and feel myself falling.

"AH!" I exclaim while sitting up. My bed? I'm okay! That was just a dream, breathe Cas. Was it though? That felt so... real. I stay sitting up for a while holding my head inside my hands. There's so much I need to process right now and there are other stuff I need to do. Ughh I need to think about it at another time. I get my notebook from under my bed and note it down.

Note to self, find out what mirror dream was. I wrote everything I can remember from the dream then moved on to the next thing. To do: Figure out what does, Research about the world, basic classes, skills and traits. I pause thinking about what other stuff I need to do.

*knock knock click* "Morning Cas! Breakfast's downstairs dear." Mom comes in my room and notices my clothing. "Oh! You didn't even take off that hoodie eh? What about all the clothes mom bought you? You don't want them anymore?" She pouts.

I explain frantically "I was just too tired yesterday mom! Don't be upset!"

"I'm just teasing you dear" she giggles. "Come on downstairs we gotta eat. Dad bought your favourite stones yesterday!" She smiles and waves me over. "I wonder how you guys can taste something from those things. They just taste like dirt and iron to me."

I get up and feel strangely more energized than before. I feel a bit stronger and there's something in the air I can't quite put my finger on. I shrug and head downstairs to eat breakfast with mom and dad. Dad's there reading the news on the TV, drinking coffee sitting across mom.

"Dad, how long does it take to get a class? I was thinking if I can get them fast then there'll be no problem and I can just learn everything I want to learn." I ask dad while eating. He looks at me while contemplating how to answer, "Well it depends on a person's talent and affinity towards the class son. For example, the D'varf are natural blacksmiths because of our affinity with metal and stone. This makes it relatively fast for us to learn the class, requiring at most a year for the slowest ones. Your mother has a higher magic stat than most and she's a natural genius when it comes to magic so she got the class in half a year."

I see mom puff up her chest proudly in of the corner of my eye. "The isn't it fine to just get a lot of classes dad?"

"Sure you can get a lot of classes, but what about after that? You'll be slower than other kids who focused on just one or two main classes. They'll have ranked up their class. specialized, and maybe even combined them before you could even start learning how to rank up your own classes. And remember it's best you do it before becoming 12-years-old, you'll have no time apprenticing in the union."

Mom pitches in, "Basically you can learn a lot of classes, but it's best to focus on one or two once you're in school."

"Rank up? What's that?"

He raises his brow at me before answering, "When your class ranks up you can choose to specialize in one or two aspects in your class or mix an entirely different aspect in. For example, if you chose to be a warrior you can specialize in the sword, the spear, the hammer, any weapon you want. Or you could mix in an element and become an elemental warrior. There are thousands upon thousands of paths you can choose from but of course, they all have different requirements."

"How do I get a class? The lady from the Obelysk only said that I can apprentice or I can learn on my own."

He points to the food I forgot was in front of me. "Finish your food first and help your mom with the dishes, then maybe I'll tell you." He then goes back to reading the news. "Ughh fine.." *nom nom*

I finish eating and helping mom with the dishes before sitting in front of dad. "So?"

"What? Ah yes, the class acquisition. It's either you apprentice or you learn on your own." I glare at him and mom slaps the back of his head. "Explain it in detail Julius."

"Alright. When you apprentice under someone through what's called an apprenticeship oath, both of you get a quest. You'll get a quest with detailing the tasks you need to accomplish, and when you finish these tasks the Obelysk will reward you with a class. Although remember that your master can hide these tasks from you. The master also gets a quest, and depending on the agreed terms they can receive a reward from it.

Learning a class alone however is doing the same tasks without the quest, you can look up the requirements of course, but that would take longer because there's no guarantee that you've done the tasks successfully. There's also a chance that one can skip a basic class directly to learning a higher ranked class. There's also an incredibly minute chance of creating a new basic class, but it's been decades since the newest one appeared."

"What are quests? And where does the Obelysk's reward come from?"

"Son you know you can find these out on the Web? We bought you a phone yesterday right?" He raises his eyebrow and smiles at me. He has got a point, it's a good thing the internet exists here, but it's mostly online forums and news websites right now. It's good enough for me though.

"One last thing dad, mom." I pause trying to think how to word my question. "Until.... until when can I decide? About my class choice?" Mom brushes my hair with her fingers "Take all the time you need Cas, we'll support you whichever one you choose."

*phew* I thought there was a deadline I might take my ti-

"But do tell us by the end of next week, apprenticeship exams start then". Dad says and mom slaps him in the head again.

Ah, fu-