“Classes?” I whooped and literally jumped with joy.

  I forgot my new Scaled Wam of the Skies shirt added 20% to my already impressive jump height and slammed my head into an exposed wooden beam on the ceiling. I barely felt the hit that would have given me a concussion for sure back on Earth. Instead of my head cracking, the beam did.

  Honestly, that was a super cool illustration of just how strong I’d grown.

  “Of course,” Cyrus responded, his chuckles floating around the room as if he was really there, circling me. “You’ve unlocked 2 permanent spells.”

  “So classes aren’t based on hitting level 25, but on unlocking 2 permanents?”

  “Usually those are one and the same.”

  Again, I wasn’t about to complain. Unlocking classes now felt like I’d just won a diamond loot box. No wonder Cyrus kept telling me lots would change once I hit level 10. I’d thought he only meant escaping the collapse of stage 1, but he’d been referring to unlocking my class and opening the door to more upgrades.

  Eva spoke in her French-accented voice as more text scrolled in my vision.

  “Available classes based on abilities, equipped spells, particularly permanent spells, and your demonstrated focus and achievements so far. You may choose from one of the following classes.”

  A long list scrolled past and I whistled softly. “No one said we’d get so many choices.”

  “The list is usually shorter. You’ve covered a lot more ground than most, accomplished many more unique feats. With Harvest, you’ve been able to use a far greater variety of spells.”

  The list had to include over 100 choices. The names varied widely, from a few straight-forward ones like Fire Mage or Sword Master to a lot of weird ones, like Death Gardener, Thunder Bluff Knight, Starfall Beach Pirate, or Mystic Spiral Ninja.

  “This is going to take all night.” As I focused on each individual name, more information appeared.

  “Would you like me to suggest a shorter list that I believe best suits your skills and reflects your choices so far?”

  “Please.”

  The long list disappeared, replaced by a new list of just 5 class suggestions: Tempest Gladiator, Backdoor Synergy Wizard, River Guide Warlock, Temp Agency Necromancer, and Undercover Mogul.

  I hoped Cyrus wasn’t messing with me. Hopefully one of these classes would work. I started clicking through them for more info.

  Class: Tempest Gladiator. With a focus on combining fighting prowess with magical destruction, the Tempest Gladiator dives into every fight with creativity and overwhelming force.

  Level stats: Plus 1 to Strength, plus 1 to Wisdom, plus 1 free point. Plus 20% effect of both Strength and Dexterity on calculating Agility. Plus 10% effect of Strength on calculating Endurance. Plus 10% effect of Constitution on calculating Life Points.

  Plus 2 to Stick and Knife Fighting ability. Gain the level-3 ability Dual Wield. Gain the level-4 ability Frenzy.

  Dual Wield. Ability. Uncommon. Each weapon used while dual wielding two weapons strikes with 100% more damage, plus 10% per level of ability.

  Frenzy. Ability. Rare. Boost your Agility by 30% and Constitution by 25% for up to 60 seconds plus 10 seconds per level of ability. Warning, Agility and Constitution will drop to 50% for half the duration of Frenzy after the ability ends.

  “Wow. Tempest Gladiator looks like a powerful class.”

  “They’re all powerful, but all focus on slightly different aspects of your skillset. Tempest Gladiator gives the biggest boosts to physical stats and melee fighting.”

  “I do use my blades a lot.” Well, I did when I had blades. I’d get more, but how soon? Would they be as good as Fang and Soulrend? The loss of my swords was like an ache in my soul. Those blades had saved my life many times, particularly Soulrend.

  “If you plan to keep focusing on them, this is a great class.”

  Did I, though? Even assuming I got great new blades soon? As monsters got more and more powerful, would my short swords be able to keep up?

  I’d used them to deadly effect against all my foes, including the flying ones, but it wasn’t my martial skills alone that had saved my life and got me through that apocalyptic hellscape. If anything, my spells had been even more critical.

  The loss of my blades drove home the weakness in my build if I relied on any one weapon. Maybe facing tomorrow without my blades could be turned to a bonus, if I played my class selection right.

  “Does every class grant at least 3 points to base stats per level, or are you going to cut that back down to 2?”

  “No. You suffered with the reduction of your stats up to now, but the stats awarded by classes will not be changed.”

  “That’s good, but how is that possible? You said my 50% reduction in stats for each level was because the mana density is lower.”

  “It is, although stage 1 was worse. Also, stats awarded by classes are a higher level award and open the door for me to tweak things so you don’t get cheated.”

  I considered that for a moment. “This ties back to those secret behind-the-scenes spaces I’ve been finding, doesn’t it?”

  Cyrus didn’t respond. I took that to mean I was on the right track. If those maintenance spaces allowed Cyrus to tweak our reality, learning more might give me a huge advantage. Obviously he wouldn’t tell me anything more at the moment, though.

  Class: Backdoor Synergy Wizard. Leveraging perception and a knack for seeing unique opportunities, the Backdoor Synergy Wizard specializes in combining spells to reach higher tiers of power.

  Level stats: Plus 1 to Wisdom, plus 1 to Intelligence, plus 1 free point. Plus 15% effect of both Wisdom and Intelligence on calculating Perception.

  Plus 3 additional uses to all temporary spells. Gain the level-3 ability Spellweaver. Gain the level-4 ability Mimic.

  Spellweaver. Ability. Rare. Dramatically increase your chances of combining two otherwise non-compatible spells and evolving them into a higher tier spell with twice the power, plus 15% per level of the ability.

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  Mimic. Ability. Rare. Gain a 20% chance per level of this ability to cast any spell you’ve been struck with in the last 15 seconds as if it was a single-use temporary spell you control.

  I whistled softly. “This one’s all about the spells.”

  “Mostly, yes. It vastly increases your ability to leverage and combine spells to unlock powers no one else could access.”

  Tempting, even though it totally left out all my martial skills. Still, the additional uses for all temporary spells was huge. Those two new abilities sounded awesome and I wanted both of them.

  Class: River Guide Warlock. A solo adventurer who can blaze a trail and shepherd others to safety, the River Guide Warlock is a mighty, self-contained warrior, skilled with blades and spells, who still watches over his loved ones from a distance.

  Level stats: Plus 1 to Constitution, plus 1 to Wisdom, plus 1 free point. Plus 20% effect of both Wisdom and Intelligence on calculating Perception. Plus 2 to all martial abilities. Gain the level-4 ability Multi-target.

  Multi-target. Ability. Uncommon. Split a single offensive spell to target up to 1 additional target per level of spell for 60% of the damage.

  “A blend of both paths,” Cyrus said as I mulled it over.

  “Yeah, some good stuff in this one.” The extra points in all martial abilities could really boost my fighting, while the Multi-target ability could prove life saving.

  It only gave me one additional ability, but boosted all martial abilities. At the moment, that meant boosting 2. If I got more, would they get boosted too?

  Class: Temp Agency Necromancer. A Jack of all spells, who deals death and harvests the powers of fallen enemies with equal ease, the Temp Agency Necromancer wields an ever-changing arsenal of destruction.

  Level stats: Plus 1 to Intelligence. Plus 1 to Constitution. Plus 1 free point. Plus 20% effect of Constitution on calculating Life Points. Plus 20% effect of Intelligence on calculating Mana.

  Plus 1 extra Harvested spell slot. Upgrade Soulrend with the Soulbound condition. Gain the level-3 ability Spellbook Savant.

  Soulbound. Epic. The item is linked to your soul. It cannot be lost or stolen, but will return to your hand when called. If destroyed, will regenerate within 6 hours.

  Note. This effect will remain inactive unless you retrieve Soulrend.

  Spellbook Savant. Rare. 10% chance to learn a new temporary spell after witnessing that spell being cast, or 15% chance when you are hit by the spell. Chances increase by 15% per level of ability and an extra 5% for every subsequent use of the spell within 60 seconds.

  “Wow. That one’s got promise.”

  “Indeed. Boost to both life and mana pools and benefits to two of the most-used items in your arsenal.”

  I sighed as I re-read the description. “If I’d had this class a bit earlier, I wouldn’t have lost Soulrend.”

  “Wondering about what could have been is a waste of time,” Cyrus said. “Not even I can say what alternate endings might materialize. Only a very few of the most powerful beings in the multiverse have strong enough alternate reality classes to speak with certainty.”

  I wanted to ask more about those most powerful beings, but didn’t bother. Cyrus loved teasing me with hints like that, then refused to elaborate. So I focused on the class descriptions again.

  That Spellbook Savant ability could help me gain even more temporary spells too. That one was tempting, but I continued anyway.

  Class: Undercover Mogul. You don’t take participation trophies. You excel and crush opposition. You gather titles while lesser men cower in your shadow. Even so, the world has not yet witnessed your final rise to full power.

  Level stats: Plus 1 to Wisdom. Plus 1 to Intelligence. Plus 1 to CHA. Plus 1 free point. Plus 20% effect of Wisdom on calculating Luck. Plus 20% effect of Intelligence on calculating Magical Resistance.

  Plus 30% chance of gaining a new title in any emerald-tier or higher loot box. Plus 20% upgrade to Wolf Blood. Gain the new level-5 ability Dazzle. Gain the new level-4 ability Intimidate. Gain the new level-1 ability Bottle Drop.

  Dazzle. Ability. Uncommon. Once per day, gain a 10% chance per title to render an enemy senseless for 10 seconds. Final percentage increases or decreases by 1% per disparity in your levels.

  Intimidate. Aura. Rare. Surround yourself with a field of pure intimidation as your titles prove to the world your superiority. 5% chance per title to cause enemies to hesitate or retreat. Final percentage increases or decreases by 1% per disparity in your levels.

  Bottle Drop. Cast any potion from your inventory as if it was placed in your hotlist.

  I didn’t like the tone of the class description, but it was undeniably powerful. It gave the most stat gains, and the chance to gain more new titles could be game changing.

  “These are the 5 best classes I could get?” I asked as I rose and paced the room.

  “Indeed. Feel free to browse the others, but they either offer less impressive but similar options, or focus on some of your outlier exploits that do not seem core to your focus.”

  I mulled the choices over, re-reading the descriptions several times. If only I could confer with Ruby, Tomas, and the others, but I couldn’t explain how I was getting my class so early.

  Trying would lead to questions that Cyrus might consider crossing a dangerous line. I still chose to believe that stepping into those cracks in the reality of this game world would unlock a lot more power in the long run. The race upgrade to tier-1 human had ended up with a lot more limitations than I’d expected and almost gotten me killed by slowing my leveling speed. Still, the trajectory was a good one if I could get a lot of progress in stage 2.

  So for now, I had to resist the urge to share anything about the experiment Cyrus was running on me. I couldn’t risk the penalties, and I didn’t want to give Cyrus an excuse to block my progress again.

  On pure stats and the likelihood of getting more powerful titles, Undercover Mogul seemed the clear choice. The problem was, the tone still seemed off. The extra stats and abilities seemed designed to lure me in to take it. I did need more power, but at what price? I sensed the class would shift my focus to lording my greater power over others.

  That was a slippery slope to becoming a tyrant. I’d seen too much of abuse of power already with Abbie and her sex cult, or Trish and Martin Briggs and their compound of browbeaten followers. So reluctantly, I ruled that class out.

  Tempest Gladiator went next. The stat gains were spectacular, but the lack of focus on spell growth was too limiting. I needed a class that melded both martial and magical abilities.

  After more consideration, I declined River Guide Warlock. It offered a great blend, exactly what I was looking for, but the benefits seemed lacking compared to the final 2 options.

  That left Backdoor Synergy Wizard and Temp Agency Necromancer. I studied them both closely.

  “I can’t get 2 classes?”

  Cyrus laughed. “Those are both considered rare classes. Either of them offers enormous benefits. Be aware that some of the abilities offered in the classes you decline may become available elsewhere, or as future upgrade options.”

  “Nice. I figured Dual Wield and some of those might. I dual wielded my blades all the time.”

  “You have a common variant of that ability already. It offers only minimal advantages. As it upgrades, you could very well unlock higher tiers.”

  “I keep forgetting to check the secondary abilities list.” Most seemed useless, but if I was getting fighting-related ones, I should check the list more often.

  “A wise choice. I like your hunger, but you cannot simply combine the benefits of 2 rare classes.”

  “I had to try,” I said with a shrug.

  “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Wayne Gretzky, professional hockey player and sage of progression.”

  “I bet he’d love to hear you call him a sage.”

  “Everyone wants to be called a sage. It usually comes with a big salary bump.”

  I laughed. I didn’t think that was a quote either. Cyrus was in a particularly good mood. That might bode well for the items I’d find in my loot boxes, which I was growing impatient to open.

  First, I turned back to the class choice. Temp Agency Necromancer was enormously tempting with those benefits to Harvest. If I could recover Soulrend, the soulbound ability would probably clinch it for me.

  Unfortunately, the ogre had disappeared with Soulrend stuck in its armor. It could be anywhere, and venturing back down into stage 1 to hunt for my precious blade seemed suicidal.

  As much as I wanted to get Soulrend back, I had to face the reality that my epic ethereal blade was gone. That made the other fantastic benefits of Temp Agency Necromancy moot.

  So I returned to Backdoor Synergy Wizard. Three additional uses for every temporary spell was enormous, plus Spellweaver and Mimic opened the door to the next level of power. As much as I wanted another Harvested spell slot, that would not fundamentally change the power I could wield.

  The two times I’d accidentally unlocked synergies between spells, they’d generated enormous power and saved my life. I’d already proven the power of synergies. That’s why I chose Tether Slide over that short-range teleport spell scroll. No doubt, that’s why the class was offered to me.

  As we pushed through stage 2 and into stage 3, I would need more power. I’d already seen how much more dangerous stage 2 would be compared to stage 1. If anything, stage 3 would be an even bigger jump.

  Then there was Queen Marisara in stage 4, plus her army. She represented a threat many magnitudes higher than anything we’d seen so far. If I couldn’t hit back just as hard, she’d kill me and everyone I loved and doom Earth to destruction.

  I made my choice.

  “Congratulations, Lucas. You have chosen the class Backdoor Synergy Wizard.”