“Librarian!” I cheerfully waved to my doppelganger.

“Elaine! Great to see you back!” Librarian waved me over.

“Let’s get right to it!” I strode over towards the stairs. Librarian put a hand over her heart and faked outrage.

“Ah! I see how it is! The moment you get access to real books, I’m cast aside! It’s been a year since we last talked and everything!”

I rolled my eyes at her - my - antics.

“We have all the books we could want now!”

“I do want to find out who the killer was! Did her ‘best friend’ kill her as a love rival? Or was it a political assassination? I need to knowwwww!” Librarian whined.

“Well, the faster we make our choice, the sooner we’ll find out, right?”

The room snapped around me, and I found myself in a chair, three books hovering in front of me.

“Right! We’ve got three real options after I filtered out all the nonsense.” Librarian announced.

I looked at the books. They were pretty clear.

[Draconic Sage] - Neither rain nor snow, angels or dragons, mortals or gods, nor all the dangers of the world can keep you from knowledge. Your teachings have shaped the course of the world, and your hunt for new books has led you to peril, secrets, and to brave the wrath of dragons and administration alike. Take this class, and plunder the knowledge of the world. +300 Magic Power, +300 Magic Control, +300 Mana, +300 Mana Regeneration per level.

This class was all about mental skills, reading, knowledge, and the like. It was impressive with the offered stats. [Hunger For Knowledge] would get another upgrade, [Parallel Thoughts] would become a class skill, and the class essentially doubled down on the reading for levels aspects. [Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes] would merge into [Comprehensive Speed Reading].

However, the spatial skills basically went kaput. [Bookwyrm’s Hoard] and [Lair] would both bite the dust, and I wouldn’t be getting anything more.

[Spatial Scholar] - Oh traveler from another world, you are steeped in Spatial Magic. Most people go their entire life without encountering a smidge. You’ve carried your belongings in expanded storage, crossed between multiple worlds, own multiple personal pocket dimensions, have a sphere of senses around you, and more! You are a Spatial Mage, through and through. Dive deep down, and explore the endless dimensions, explore strange lands, and always have a book on you! +510 Magic Power, +51 Mana per level.

The class kept some of the learning and knowledge aspects of [Bookwyrm], but it was something of a side-grade into a pure spatial mage. The stats were correspondingly mediocre. In its defense, they were the two stats I needed to even think of casting the more advanced Spatial skills.

I tapped it with a frown.

“If I wanted to be a space mage, I would’ve taken it from the get-go.” I complained.

Librarian shrugged.

“Third best class offered, and it is a logical progression. How many space magic classes have you taken by now? How many hours have you spent trying to get [Blink]?”

I muttered a curse at how right she was, and moved onto the last book.

[The Very Hungry Bookwyrm] - You were a poor, starving child, looking around to devour books but unable to find a single one around you. You went out into new lands to search for books, finding them with dwarves. Elves. Dragons. When flung to a new land, your first instinct is to find the nearest library, and catch up on what’s happened. Sleep was making you lose valuable reading time, so you found ways to keep reading in your sleep! Honestly, take a break… and take this class, and forge on all the more, never separated from your precious books. +80 Dexterity, +80 Speed, +80 Vitality, +240 Magic Power, +240 Magic Control, +240 Mana, +240 Mana Regeneration per level.

The stats were generous, and fixed my dexterity problem once and for - nope, wasn’t going to finish that thought and jinx it.

It was the ‘logical continuation’ class. It didn’t go as deep into the knowledge and mental aspects as [Draconic Sage], nor was it as Spatial-focused as [Spatial Scholar]. I was rewarded for all my hard work and efforts in my book finding and reading efforts though. Rare books. Forbidden books. Banned books. Hidden books. My endless search for the unknown tomes, along with generous helpings of more ‘mundane’ novels had helped the class quality.

[Spatial Scholar] was right out. I didn’t pick Spatial mage when I’d picked my third class for a reason. I was a [Bookwyrm]. I did understand why it was offered, with the amount of time I’d spent screwing around with [Channel] and [Lair], and the classes, but no.

The question was simple. Did I want to keep some interesting Spatial spells around, or go deeper into the knowledge and mental aspects?

Phrased that way, it was easy. I liked being able to haul around a ton of books. The idea of teleporting, even a little bit, was appealing. [Bookwyrm’s Hoard] literally let me level in my sleep.

“[The Very Hungry Bookwyrm] please!” I picked the book up, satisfied that this selection had been relatively easy and straightforward for once.

“Excellent! Let’s get you checked out.”

I woke up to notifications.

[*ding!* [Bookwyrm - Spatial] has upgraded to [The Very Hungry Bookwyrm - Spatial]!]

[*ding!* [The Very Hungry Bookwyrm] leveled up! 32 -> 76. +80 Dexterity, +80 Vitality, +80 Speed, +240 Magic Power, +240 Magic Control, +240 Mana, +240 Mana Regeneration per level from your Class! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration per level for being Chimera (Elvenoid)! +1 Mana, +1 Magic Power per level from your Element!]

[*ding!* [Spatial Affinity] leveled up! 32 -> 76.]

[*ding!* [Comprehensive Speed Reading] leveled up! 32 -> 76.]

I loved the School. Classes for everything, which made upgrading skills a breeze. [Butterfly Mystic], ironically, was hard to upgrade further, since I’d already put significant work into it, and some of my Radiance feats were difficult to beat. [The Dawn Sentinel] just didn’t upgrade, due to the absurd skills in the first place, and the fact that it was a build-a-class.

[Bookwyrm], as a new class though? Upgrade opportunities, upgrade opportunities everywhere. I’d maxed my skills out, then gone hunting for various ways to upgrade and merge skills. Not everything came with a new name, but my [Reading] skill evolutions were nice.

[*ding!* [Bookwyrm’s Hoard] leveled up! 32 -> 76.]

No [Lair] levels or upgrades, likely because I’d hit level 32 yesterday in it.

The skill was a bust in my opinion. It hadn’t mentioned light, and the [Lair] was pitch black. In a combat setting, it took ages to ‘escape’ into the [Lair], meaning it was no good as a life-saving tactic. I couldn’t bring anyone with me. It was uncomfortable.

Look at me, complaining about my own private pocket dimension.

[*ding!* [Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes] leveled up! 32 -> 76.]

[*ding!* [Vivid Dream Reading] leveled up! 32 -> 76.]

[*ding!* Would you like to merge [Vivid Dream Reading] and [Parallel Thoughts] into [Parallel Dreams]?]

I declined the offer. [Parallel Thoughts] was just too useful of a skill to merge.

[*ding!* [Astral Archives] leveled up! 32 -> 76.]

[*ding!* [Hunger for Knowledge] leveled up! 32 -> 76.]

Perfect.

The more balanced dexterity finally got my speed back under control, and my brand-new stats had increased my magic power and control by roughly 30%.

I was going to destroy the next Gladiator Games.

I got out of bed, and rejoined Auri in the main living room.

“Brrrpt?” Auri asked.

“Ended up taking the standard upgrade to the class. [The Very Hungry Bookwyrm].” I told her.

“Brrrpt!”

“You should class up soon. Use our last two quarters at the School to upgrade skills, and we can see how close you are to unlocking your third.”

“Brpt!” Auri conjured up a little hand, giving me a salute.

I settled down, and started to work.

First things first. I split my mind in two with [Parallel Thoughts], able to think of multiple things at once. The skill wasn’t a passive - yet - and it took focus and mana to use.

I teleported out my fourth spellbook onto the table. I flipped it open to the next, fresh page, and started thinking about what spell I wanted to write next. What was complicated enough that drawing the array ahead of time was useful, but general enough that it wouldn’t rot in my spellbook for years? I’d looked up a few samples, but the really interesting stuff tended to be in private collections. Wizards tended not to share their spells, even if they were in a language I knew! The School was great at teaching us how to construct any spell we wanted, but that didn’t mean I could immediately think of dozens of brilliant spells, nor could I think up nifty shortcuts to make parts in three runes instead of thirty.

Octagony had completely defeated me. I had nothing but praise for the [Wizards] who could wrap their mind around the twisted ways the language worked.

Putting it another way. I’d been given a dictionary, and taught how to write books. There were thousands of brilliant minds out there who’d written their own books, and I’d love to, uh… borrow inspiration… from what they’d come up with.

It sounded pretty bad when I put it that way.

The second split of my mind teleported out the murder mystery I’d been working on before classing up. My left hand caught the book, and [The World Around Me] let me read the novel without needing to have my eyes on it.

Reading comfortably wasn’t good experience, but it did get things done.

There was no time magic, not with the System. But being able to easily do two things at once? I had practically doubled my available time. If I had taken the same class load as the first quarter I arrived, I’d be able to easily manage it. One hand to take notes, a second hand to do homework.

Becoming ambidextrous - or at least making my handwriting legible - was on my list.

I was quietly working and reading when a grim-faced Iona barged in through the door.

I immediately teleported my books back into my [Bookwyrm’s Hoard], snapping my focus back to a single train of thought.

“Who died?” I asked, half in jest, half completely serious.

Iona paused.

“Nobody yet.” She said.

I stood up, splitting my mind in half again. One was focused on fighting preparations. What spells I had at the ready, what the rules of fighting were at the School, an estimate of where we were in the world and what falling from the island would mean, and more.

The other was focused on Iona.

“Sounds like a story. Do we need to leave now, or do you have time to explain?” I asked.

She paused, her eyes flickering.

“I can explain. Might as well, since I’ll probably get expelled from the School at the end.”

Game face was on, and my ‘fighting prep’ track took a sharp turn into ‘oh goddesses no is Iona about to break up with me it’s too soon I thought we had more time noooooooooooooooooooooo’

“Yeah, you better explain.” I internally winced. That came out a lot frostier than I’d intended.

Iona looked slightly hurt by my words.

“Sorry, that came out badly.” I immediately explained. Communication!

“Right. Selene and Lunaris have made their first big ask of me. Some idiot cultivator,” She spat the word with real venom, like finding half a worm in her apple, “has decided to class up, and that insulting the moon goddesses would make for a fine tribulation. The coward knows he’s protected by the School’s barriers, and the two goddesses also know that. Instead of wasting their power, they’ve tasked me to ‘handle it’.”

I frowned as I thought back to how cultivators worked the System. They had a class that wanted to simply meditate about leveling, which was the most broken thing I’d ever heard. Well, until I’d gotten leveling up in my sleep, but I’d earned it, that was fair. Theirs wasn’t.

Because reasons.

They had a whole ‘defying the heavens’ theme going on, and their meditative leveling had no real risks or conflict. It was hard to get enough accomplishments and achievements for a powerful class when all they did was sit around. End of the day, they went for the biggest, baddest achievement they could find.

Insulting the gods. Enraging them to the point where they attempted to smite the uppity bastards.

Now, there were way more cultivators than gods… I think… and the numbers just didn’t make sense to me. If I was a betting woman - okay, to be fair, I was, my issue would be finding a bookie to take the bet - I’d bet that most ‘tribulations’ were just a high level Lightning Classer the Sects had on-hand, who threw moderately powerful bolts at the members trying to class up. Getting a divine’s attention was hard. Getting one of the more important god’s attentions was even harder, then surviving their attempts at judgment?

Whooof.

No wonder everyone said cultivators had a few screws loose! I’d seen divine judgment with my own eyes, it wasn’t pretty.

Now Iona was going to be that divine judgment. Being on a mission from a pair of goddesses was no excuse to break the rules in the School’s estimation, and their retribution would be swift.

A thought jingled at the edge of my memory.

“Hang on, I have an idea. I just need to think about it for a few minutes.” I told Iona. Tension visibly drained from her shoulders, and she half-collapsed onto the sofa.

It sagged dangerously under her weight. We’d been putting a lot of abuse on that sofa…

“Brrrpt! BrrrrRRrrrPT! Brrrrpt, brpt brpt BRPT!” Auri suggested darkly. I gave her a withering look.

“Auri, do you really think nobody would investigate a ‘mysterious fire’ in a place warded to the high heavens, especially one where people die? You don’t think they’d look at the very public Inferno bird with a reputation for being able to burn straight through magic? Think about it! If you’re going to commit arson and murder, you need to do it intelligently!”

I’d given up on trying to teach Auri not to commit arson and murder… but at the same time, she was all talk, and no action on that front. I hadn’t seen her commit any arson or murder…

Wait, shit.

Was Auri actually good at covering her tracks, and had been committing sins behind my back?!

“Brrpt! BRPT!”

…

“You’re right Auri, nobody would ever trace a mysterious drowning back to you. That’s an excellent idea.”

Nevermind on the ‘Is Auri secretly murdering people and getting away with it’ train of thought.

Iona gave a weak chuckle at Auri’s support.

“Thank you, Auri. I appreciate having a friend as good as you to back me up.”

“Brrrpt!”

“Thank fuck.” She said with feeling. “I was so worried about what you’d think. That you’d think me some heartless assassin or cold killer. That I’d cocked it all up.”

I considered sitting next to her, or on her lap, but I didn’t think the mood was right.

Nor did I want the sofa collapsing under the two of us.

One track of my mind was chasing down various ideas, piecing everything I knew together into something resembling a plan. The other kept talking.

[Parallel Thoughts] was weird.

“I mean, how long have we known each other? How long have we been dating? You’ve made no secret of your profession, or how you handle problems.”

Iona waved my comments away.

“It’s real easy to say and think that when it’s abstract. When we’re on a flying island, attending the School. Different when it hits home, when it’s staring you in the face. When I’ve been given my marching orders.”

I snorted.

“My title of Sentinel wasn’t - isn’t - for nothing.” I reminded her. “I don’t like killing people, but I’ve done it before, and I doubt I’ll avoid ever doing it again.” Thank fuck for Linnet and her extensive therapy.

She shrugged her massive shoulders.

“You love the School and being here. Learning. I thought you might pick that over me.”

“People matter more than a book or a fancy scroll.” I retorted.

Please don’t notice the singular, please don’t notice the singular. I prayed. Not to the moon goddesses, they’d snitch on me in a heartbeat.

My plan finally came together.

“AHHA! I’ve got it!” I cried out.

[*ding!* [Parallel Thoughts] leveled up! 28 -> 29]

Iona arched a dubious eyebrow at me.

“I have to handle this. That’s not negotiable.” She reminded me.

I flapped my hand at her.

“Yeah, yeah. I got it. Okay! The moon goddesses desire vengeance, right?”

Iona nodded.

“Prompt and thorough vengeance. They didn’t say what, exactly, had happened, but they sounded mad.”

They never sounded mad.

“Right. Now, the worse the tribulation, the better quality class the cultivator gets. Tribulations can also impact how their class evolves. What if we gave them a curveball of a tribulation?”

Iona’s eyes unfocused as she talked with her patrons.

“Go on.” She said.

“They told us at orientation that students weren’t to call down tribulations on the island. Unsurprisingly, the School takes a dim view on students getting lightning and fire rained down on them.”

Iona slowly nodded.

“So, let’s bury them in paperwork. Bring our complaint to the guards, the clerks, the scribe, the administration, anyone who’ll listen. Complain to the priest at the temple. We’ve got a valid complaint, and while I have no idea how to run it well, you know people like I know books. I’m sure you can make it work. They get expelled from the School, a massive blow to their pocketbook, if not further arrested and imprisoned or fined, their ‘tribulation’ turns into a complete bust from a class quality aspect - what are they going to get, the Dao of Paperwork and Prisons? - and hopefully it assuages the goddesses.”

Does it? I prayed to them myself.

Iona slowly grinned, and bounded back up, filled to the brim with energy.

“Yes… yeeeeeeessss! That works beautifully! With 100% less murdering!” She gave me a quick peck.

“Elaine, I love you, now and forever. Never leave, okay?”

I teared up at the unexpected confession and hugged Iona.

“I don’t plan on it.”

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 26]

[Mana: 702,080/702,080]

[Mana Regen: 368,980 (+780,641)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 1,327]

[Dexterity: 6,294]

[Vitality: 24,921]

[Speed: 24,953]

[Mana: 77,248]

[Mana Regeneration: 77,368 (+85,878)]

[Magic Power: 43,854 (+1,124,855)]

[Magic Control: 43,778 (+1,122,905)]

[Class 1: [The Dawn Sentinel - Celestial: Lv 513]]

[Celestial Affinity: 513]

[Cosmic Presence: 323]

[The Stars Never Fade: 11]

[Center of the Universe: 472]

[Dance with the Heavens: 513]

[Wheel of Sun and Moon: 513]

[Mantle of the Stars: 492]

[Sunrise: 471]

[Class 2: [Butterfly Mystic - Radiance: Lv 444]]

[Radiance Affinity: 444]

[Radiance Resistance: 444]

[Nova Lance: 444]

[Lepidoptera: 444]

[Nectar: 444]

[Solar Corona: 444]

[Scintillating Ascent: 444]

[Kaleidoscope: 444]

[Class 3: [The Very Hungry Bookwyrm - Spatial: Lv 76]]

[Spatial Affinity: 76]

[Comprehensive Speed Reading: 76]

[Lair: 32]

[Bookwyrm's Hoard: 76]

[Beneath the Dragon's Eyes: 76]

[Vivid Dream Reading: 76]

[Astral Archives: 76]

[Hunger for Knowledge: 76]

General Skills

[Long-Range Identify: 380]

[Parallel Thoughts: 29]

[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 256]

[The World Around Me: 36]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 513]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 513]

[Persistent Casting: 431]

[Channel: 25]