Kiszo brought me to the back of the cavern, where another stone brick wall had sealed the tunnel. A single small door stood at its center. No guards stood near the door, and I watched as Kiszo raised a metal wedge above the door before she opened it. We walked through, and she slowed closed the door behind us. The door pushed the metal wedge up as it closed, and I heard it fall back down as the door closed fully.

“Alarm, if the door is ever opened, it will push the wedge forward and ring bells. Anyone in that cavern can take out anything that would threaten them, so they don't need guards.”

I nodded to her in understanding, and we began to walk through the tunnels back towards the surface. It wasn’t long before we found the first group of Shinehorns, and I dispatched them without Kiszo’s aid.

Towards the end of the day before I was awarded another completion box. Throughout the day I had finished off the Epidermis and Endocrine systems, and now I had completed the second to last system.

[ System Notification ]

Six Rank B Bone Cores has given 36 Energy

Digestive System: 100/100

I selected the last system that sat at Rank 0.

[ Toxin System ]

This system consists of the user’s liver, spleen, and lymphatic nodes.

Upgrading this system gives the user a boost to their Resilience and Constitution.

Rank: 0

System: 0/100

Upgrade: Yes / No

The back of my throat began to itch before I could select yes, then began burning. The feeling went down my throat before blooming into a searing pain in my abdomen. When the pain finished, I felt the need to relieve myself disappearing. A few moments later, I selected yes on the last system.

[ Toxin System: 22/100 ]

Kiszo had mentioned a few times she needed to get back to her patrols of the town as she was one of the few non-mages who could take out the queen’s guards. I hoped there would be enough Shinehorns to bring me the rest of the way before we left today and headed back to the village.

I raised the Toxin System to fifty-two before the Shinehorns vanished, and we began to run into the Spittles. Kiszo informed me we would be at the dungeon’s entrance within an hour as we cleared out the white bugs. By the time we reached the circular room with the doors, I was only at eighty-eight out of a hundred and mentally crushed.

“You can follow me back to the village tomorrow. You’ll be able to hunt the slimes while we travel. You should be able to get enough from them to reach your limit,” She said as we left the blue and white vortex.

“Sounds good. I need to see what whats cooking because I could eat another cow.”

We settled in around the campfire while the miners chatted away, telling their jokes and tales. The food was a delicious stew with meat and roots like a potato. I devoured bowl after bowl until I was stuffed, then made my way to my bunk. Gurig was sitting on his bunk and was looking at a book sideways. This caught my interest.

“What you reading, Gurig?”

He looked up at me in surprise and tried to hide the book under his pillow before stuttering out his reply. “Nothing, just a collection of stories.”

Not wanting to pry, I just shrugged and jumped up to my bed. I heard him remove the book and begin flipping through pages when I closed my eyes. Teenagers will always be teenagers, no matter what universe they are from.

The following day, Gurig dragged me out of sleep and into the area they used for sparring. We went over the forms from yesterday and then put them into practice. I didn’t land a single hit on the youngling for the entire session. On the other hand, I sported welts all over my arms and legs. I was spared from body hits by Kiszo. At least my healing was sped up, and they vanished shortly after

When it was time for the miners to start their day, I thanked and bid farewell to Gurig and waved to the old bear. The sun above the horizon was beginning to make its way higher into the sky and would be to our backs as we started walking to town.

After killing a few slimes on the way back, I asked a question that had been on my mind. “Kiszo, I don’t mean to pry, but why is it you have two sets of arms when I’ve seen almost no one else with an extra pair. Even your siblings don’t have extra arms.”

“Ah, I was wondering when you would ask me. My class is called Centurion. It’s a fairly rare class among our people and combines the abilities of a warrior and a hunter. It allows me to hunt and kill even the queen’s guard solo.”

“Classes can change your body?”

“Oh yes. Another example would be someone who has a third eye on their forehead. It’s the mark of a Seer. Some other species have other body-altering classes, yet I’ve never seen them. It was fortunate when I received my class. It’s one of the rarer classes our race can receive.”

“How did the arms grow? Did you wake up one morning and new arms!”

She chuckled before replying. “No, they came in slow and took a few years to develop fully. It helps to learn how to use them before they got too big and clumsy.”

“That’s fascinating. Where I come from, no one’s biology has ever changed like that before.”

“Maybe your races classes are normal?

“Maybe,” I lied. I didn’t want to tell her I was from another planet, let alone an entirely different universe. I wasn’t sure If I was an oddity. I had no idea if they had Warlock burnings like back home during our early years when people shunned anything nonnormal.

We walked along the forest’s edge, looking for slimes to kill until I finally got enough energy.

[ System Notification ]

Rank D Bone Core has given 2 Energy

Toxin System: 100/100

My skin began to feel as if millions of insects started crawling over it, then a scream ripped from my throat, and I began to fall forward. Kiszo caught me before hitting the ground. The pain ratcheted up another notch as I felt as if worms started crawling through my body’s center and tearing through every inch of my body as they worked their way out.

Then the smell hit me, and I began to dry heave. Kiszo sat me on the ground and backed away from me, holding her nose. I looked down at my hands, where a dark oily substance began to seep from my pores. The pain went even higher, and I was forced into the fetal position. “What’s happening to me, Kiszo?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like this before. You’re sweating a blackish liquid all over your body. It smells like a carrion’s meal.”

The searing pain kept going in waves. I thought I’d pass out, but the last of the worming sensations finished, and the pain vanished. I closed my eyes and lay there in the fetal position, trying to get my breathing under control. Moments later, I began to dry heave once more when the smell registered. I opened my eyes finally and was greeted by a text box.

[ System Notification ]

Congratulations!

You have reached the next level of your body’s evolution.

You have reached Level 2

Obtained a perk point

After reading it, this box quickly vanished, and a much larger box replaced it within a moment.

[ System Notification ]

Your first Evolutionary Trait is now available.

+ Nervous: Affinitiy Compatibility

+ Sensory: Mana Sensitivity

+ Cardiovascular: Physical Capabilities

+ Respiratory: World Cultivation

+ Muscular: Strength and Speed

+ Skeletal: Internal Resilience

+ Epidermis: Eternal Resilience

+ Endocrine: Body Control

+ Digestive: Mana Sustenance

+ Toxin: Secretion Capabilities

At first glance, each system had a theme. I selected Nervous right away at the words, ‘Affinitiy Compatibility.’

[ Nervous System Trait ]

Mana channels are created alongside the nerve clusters within the body, raising the Mana capacity and Affinitiy compatibility of the user.

Choose: Yes / No

Woah, that was different. Was this how the Classless pushed towards an archetype or close to a kind of Class? Did they level up each part of their body instead of the entire body as one? Curious, I checked on Cardiovascular.

[ Cardiovascular System Trait ]

Mana channels will be created alongside your arteries, veins, and capillaries within your body, raising the Mana capacity and the Physical capabilities of the user.

Choose: Yes / No

Alright. So the system I chose would have a significant impact on my future. The second set of these upgrades was going to install or infuse mana somehow to that system, boosting it. I was betting the Muscular System would increase my overall strength and mentally clicked that one next.

[ Muscular System Trait ]

The user’s muscles and ligaments become mana-forged and use the user’s mana to raise and boost the user’s overall strength and speed.

Choose: Yes / No

That was pretty spot-on, but I thought the mana channels would have gone throughout the body’s muscles. Maybe if you went the muscle-bound path, magic was blocked to you? I went back to look at the previous system for Sensory.

[ Sensory System Trait ]

The user’s eyes become mana-forged, granting the ability to detect Mana.

Choose: Yes / No

What could I do if I could detect or maybe see Mana? That sounded a bit vague to me. Next up was Respiratory.

[ Respiratory System Trait ]

The user’s lungs become mana-forged, allowing them to cycle in ambient mana and convert it to Energy.

Choose: Yes / No

Respiratory allowed the user to convert the ambient mana they breathed into Energy! That seemed to be a fast way of leveling. I didn’t believe it would be better over, say, increased strength to fight and survive or over the use of magic, though. The upgrade was for World Cultivation. Porcu had said Classless could do that later on to increase their Energy. I checked on the following system on the list.

[ Skeletal System Trait ]

The user’s bones become mana-forged and highly resilient.

Choose: Yes / No

Skeletal was another mana-forged, this time for my bones. It read as it provided resilience, probably to damage. I checked on the seventh system.

[ Epidermis System Trait ]

The user’s flesh becomes mana-forged and highly resilient.

Choose: Yes / No

The same thing as my bones, but for my skin. I’m willing to bet, this would protect me from blades, but then blunt objects would shatter my bones. Every system seemed to have pros and cons with selecting them over others. Let's see what the third from last does.

[ Endocrine System Trait ]

The user’s hypothalamus becomes mana-forged, allowing the user to control the level of their hormones via the user’s mana.

Choose: Yes / No

The Endocrine System was about control. It would infuse mana into my hypothalamus and allow me to control my internal hormone levels. I could see how that could be beneficial to lower your adrenal gland production during a fight. The next was the Digestive System, and not at all what I imagined. I stared at the window a while, grasping the implications.

[ Digestive System ]

The entire body becomes mana-forged on a microscopic scale allowing the user to absorb the ambient mana to sustain itself, replacing the need for food and water.

Choose: Yes / No

Would I never have to eat or drink again if I chose this system? I couldn’t wrap my head around that. Would it somehow change the mitochondria in my cells to create the necessary energy for my body off ambient mana? I wish I had someone to talk to about this. I had so many questions. Finally, I selected the last system.

[ Toxin System ]

The liver, spleen, and lymphatic nodes become mana-forged, allowing the user to create venom or poisonous secretions with the user’s mana.

Choose: Yes / No

What the hell? How would it change my body to produce venom or poisonous secretions? Would I grow fangs? Would my body become bright pink to ward off others? That was going to be a very hard pass for me.

Seeing Kiszo becoming antsy, I apologized and told her about my choices. Her immediate reply was to go with one of the mana channels or the mana-infused muscles. Being able to use magic was one of the most significant advantages someone could have in her village. Those with classes that could use physical magic in combat were incredibly strong. She told me about a chief to the southwest who used physical magic and had no equal. He could create armor the size of a hill to battle in.

She explained that they could learn and use many forms of magic depending on their affinity. Being able to boost your affinities with magic would be a great path to growing stronger. I liked the idea of being able to use magic in the near future. Seeing the fireball melt that Gnit during the monster wave was spectacular.

That narrowed down my choices to Nervous and Cardiovascular. Did I want to go full-on magic user to raise my body’s overall strength, or I could wield magic fireballs? The part mentioning boosting mana affinities stroke a chord with me upon reading it once more.

“Kiszo, could you explain a bit more about what you meant with affinity?”

“What I know is everyone is born with various affinities to the elements. There are even those born with ten or more affinities, but that is rare, extremely rare. Depending on the elements you’re strong with will steer your class when it’s chosen.

Many with the affinity of wind make excellent archers. I have an affinity for sound, and it has allowed me to gain better skills for stealth and detection. There are many types of affinities and their corresponding school of magic. You’d best ask Porcu as he’s one of the few magic users in the village and could possibly explain it better for you.”

“No, don’t be sorry. That is precious information and helped me decide on what to take.”

“Oh? What is your choice?”

“I want to go full magic. I want to learn as many types of affinity schools as possible,” I said as I selected the Nervous System.

[ System Warning! ]

Selection can not be reversed.

Choose: Yes / No

Mentally selecting ‘Yes,’ my world went eye-searing white, and the only thought that came to mind was, that’s new before I passed out.