Alice spent several hours looking through the book, forgetting to even find something to eat. Honestly, even more than she needed to think about her potential fourth class and what she might want as her final main class, Alice needed to unwind for a while. As a bookworm, spending some time reading was her preferred method of de-stressing. Considering the fact that most books cost several silver crowns at least, gaining access to books of any sort was quite difficult.

Granted, the book itself wasn’t terribly relaxing the way a nice fictional novel might have been. Though, now that Alice knew magic and other worlds were both real, she doubted she would ever look at a ‘fantasy’ novel the same way ever again. But all the same, she appreciated having a few hours of peace and quiet with a book to help unwind a bit. Thankfully, after their brief conversation, the [Priest] seemed to have picked up on that, giving her the space she needed to really sit down and relax for a while.

Finally, after thumbing through the book and reading some of the more interesting and bizarre requirements for some classes, making a list of some useful achievements she could earn without too much time or effort within the next few months, as well as obtaining some general background information, Alice closed the book, and took a moment to reflect on the more important tidbits she had learned.

First, it was possible to change main classes and Perks from earlier levels. However, doing so required a [Priest of the System] to assist you – and could only be done once a year for Perks, and once every five years for classes. It was technically possible to do this more often, but doing so was known to harm anyone who changed their classes too frequently, causing organ failure, internal bleeding, and a variety of other strange health problems. Furthermore, the [Priest] needed to be higher level than the class or Perk in question, or removal was impossible. Alice wasn’t entirely sure she intended to make use of this, but it was something worth thinking about. She wasn’t exactly sold on her {Foraging} Perk now that she had finally reconnected to civilization, for example.

Another thing worth noting was that most Perks had multiple ‘tiers’ to them – meeting higher Stat and Skill requirements often meant you could get a slightly better version of the same Perk, although there were only a few ‘tiers’ to most Perks. There were, however, some Perks with no tiers, and also some Perks with dozens of different versions. {Barmaid’s Smile} had seventeen different versions listed in the book, which made trying to figure out the tiny differences between each version headache-inducing at best. Apparently, the System had far more than just 5 perks available at each level, as well – in most cases, there were dozens of different Perks available, and then the System selected from whatever seemed to match what you wanted the best, up to a maximum of five picks per level.

Finally, Secondary Classes were nearly useless – they suffered from an 80% experience penalty and only gave a perk every 10 levels, instead of every five – and every single time you got a perk from a secondary class, it was at only half of the class’s real level. In short, at level 10 you got a level 5 perk, at level 20 you got a level 10 perk, etc. All of this made Secondary classes a dubious investment at best.

Alice also accepted her [Scientist] class as her fourth main class. It seemed like the Church had a record of most classes, and [Scientist] was no exception - it had a variety of useful information-gathering and measurement-taking perks she could use down the line. Apart from that, Alice had scanned through the book to search for any clues about the sapience or lack thereof possessed by the System. If she wasn’t sure, ask people who interacted with the System for a living, right?

Frustratingly, there was nothing. Oh sure, there were references to the System changing Perks around as time passed, even creating new Classes and Skills as new discoveries and inventions circulated through the world, which Alice found fascinating. The System, apparently, was far from static, and would continuously adapt to the world around it. Perks related to making steel, for example, had started out as a level 35 [Blacksmith] perk – and the level required to learn the perk for making steel had lowered over and over and over again as the discovery became widespread, until now, {Steel-Making} was available at level 10. Granted, the Perk had been weakened, but it was still noticeably stronger than some other Perks at the same level.

However, there were no direct references to the System ever messaging anyone, or making its intentions known, or any similar display of any intelligence driving its action. Alice had come into reading the book with the idea of trying to re-challenge some of her older and possibly more flawed decisions, and at least so far had learned nothing useful from the exercise. The System creating new classes and Skills could mean it was looking at what people were doing and then adapting accordingly – or it could mean that the System had some sort of automated response that allowed it to adapt to changes, and Classes just happened to be included in that.

The Church worshipped the System as a god, but never seemed to directly investigate the System itself. They investigated Classes, Perks, Skills, and Levels, but never the actual mechanics behind how those worked, meaning Alice was still just as clueless as before about what, if anything, allowed people in this world to level up while they couldn’t on Earth, or why gaining levels reduced aging speed. People accepted levels and slowed aging as miracles from their god and moved on with their life, which meant that if she wanted to figure out what mechanics lay underneath it all, she was blindly groping in the dark.

However, there was one brief mention that gave her an idea for a possible avenue to research, if or when she found enough time and materials for it – a mention that all people had mana inside of them, and that all higher-level people had more mana than those who were weaker or lower level. Alice had been startled by this idea at first – weren’t mages supposed to be the only one using mana? The statements she had overheard at the Tavern, as well as the fact that Mages were created via mana baptism and were incredibly rare seemed to indicate that mana was supposed to be really hard to manipulate.

If that was the case, why was it that everyone had mana? On Earth, people exercised to get stronger, and as far as Alice knew this involved no mana at all. Why was it that in this world, it was taken as common sense that someone with a higher [Strength] attribute would also have more mana inside of their body? That was something she was eager to investigate whenever she actually got the ability to see mana. Which apparently wouldn’t take too long – even if for some reason her [Explorer of Magic] class hadn’t offered her any sort of {Mana Sight} ability, which was apparently a fairly common Perk in most magic-related classes, [Scholar] offered several options for observing mana at level 15. She just had to get there. Unlike her wild theories and speculation so far, the idea that mana somehow increased physical ability was very testable if she could find the right approach.

In other words, a promising avenue for research whenever she finally got her feet under her. She had noticed that people in this world were, almost without exception, stronger than their Earth counterparts, often by a huge margin. The average random person on the street in this world could probably compete with an Olympic champion on Earth with just a mildly physically-oriented build, and apparently Immortals were leagues beyond that. Perhaps mana played some part in why ‘physical stats’ increased so much more quickly in this world for the inhabitants? Alice wanted to see if, perhaps, there was a notable ‘expenditure’ of mana when people in this world did physical activity at superhuman levels, or perhaps see if mana played some sort of role in physical exercise here – she didn’t have an exact idea for how to test this yet, but she could certainly feel the roots of a future experiment forming.

For now, however, she closed the book. As always, she had a shortage of both the ability to measure anything, and a problem with materials and funding. Neither of these were problems she could solve… yet. However, she could at least investigate what her own muscles were doing, mana-wise, when she reached level 15 in [Scholar], so she finally had a direction to go towards.

Her stomach rumbled, and she finally realized how long it had been since she had last eaten. She was hungry.

The [Priest] seemed to hear her stomach grumbling. He simply showed up at her side, like a phantom, before handing her some strange meal – something involving bread and meat arranged in some way that vaguely resembled a calzone made with bread, but packed with a far greater variety of vegetables and spices. Ravenous, she tore into it. She had no clue what ingredients she was eating, but it was delicious.

“Thank you,” said Alice, absentmindedly.

He was silent for a moment, before clearing his throat.

“I know I didn’t exactly leave the best impression, what with all of the trial nonsense, and I won’t make excuses. You did trip a lot of suspicious Perks, and people who trip the same category of Perks without having a criminal class are often plotting something massive, but Lady Vallis’s reaction was… extreme. She has her reasons, but even so – you’ve been put through a hell of a lot more than most people deserve, and for that, I’m sorry.” Another awkward pause.

“Do you want to talk about anything? You seem...nostalgic. And lost.” The [Priest] said.

She closed her eyes, thinking. The knowledge of home was like a heavy stone in her heart, and carrying it alone was… deeply exhausting. She had plenty of facts about home to keep secret, but talking about ordinary, mundane things…that was something she craved. She felt tired and alone, and it had never been worse than today. She hesitated for a moment, before, finally, she spoke.

“My home was really different. There were no Mages, so we had lots of, um, really specialized tools instead. We had a little house and I went to school to learn things. When I went to school, I got to play with the robo - with some of the specialized tools we made. My friend, Maya, always went with me, and we were learning how to code - erm, how to give instructions to the tools properly. I wasn’t that great at it, but I was really enjoying picking it up. I miss that, and I miss her, and...my parents.” Alice felt her voice falter for a moment. The raw wound was there, stronger than it had ever been even though she thought had made terms with it already.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, child.” The [Priest] reached out towards her shoulder for a moment, before he hesitated and moved his hand back.

Alice shook her head. The [Priest] hadn’t directly had a hand in forcing her to reveal her classes or endangering her, and she could faintly recall him glaring at Vallis when she had started launching an attack during the trial. She was afraid of this world, but the secret of her being an {Outworlder} was already out, at least in a limited way. There was no reason she couldn’t talk about home a bit, although she would stay quiet about the technology present there for now, just in case.

“I… I want to talk about it. My mother and father...” Alice took a deep breath, choking down a lump in her throat.

“My mother was a normal mom. She cooked my favorite meals for my birthday, and took care of me when I was sick. My father sold a kind of tool called electronics. He was at home less often, but whenever I did well in school, he would have a little grin on his face that let me know he was proud of me. I just…” her voice faltered, much more heavily this time, and a hot sensation started forming near her eyes.

The [Priest] was silent, as if mulling over either her words, or his. His annoyingly handsome face twisted into a perplexed state for a moment, before cautiously, he ventured a question.

“I wish I could tell you that it will get better, but I honestly can’t, can I? The System creates trials for all of us to allow us to grow and reach greater heights, but sometimes they can be cruel. While effort is rewarded, similarly, some trials can be difficult for us to walk out the other side of. However, as long as you’re still alive, you always have the potential to keep moving forward. The System creates struggle and reward equally. And if it gets too hard for you to bear, you’re free to take time away from things. It’s important to take mental breaks every now and then, or you’ll collapse.”

Alice took time, mulling over his words. She didn’t have any particular desire to worship the System, but she was starting to see the appeal, in a sense. The belief that your struggles were always meaningful, and the knowledge that succeeding would cause your god to reward you. The idea that she might never see her family again was so painful.

“If I - … No, nevermind.” It was a stupid wish. She had wondered, for just the briefest moment, if maybe the System really could be something like a god. If maybe she could be ‘rewarded for her struggles’ by seeing her family again if she passed the right trials.

No. Empty wishes and hopes wouldn’t get her anywhere. She needed to be practical about this.

The [Priest] raised his arm again, and after hesitating for a moment, patted her on the shoulder. She could feel something she hadn’t felt before, especially in the cold trial room. It was the feeling of kindness.

She tried to keep her emotions steady. She was going to think carefully about everything, and she needed to make a plan about what she was going to do next. Her classes wouldn’t pick themselves, and she was going to make a better…

She had no place to sleep, and nothing to eat, and she needed to…

She had to make plans…

It was too much for her. Her eyes were getting hotter and hotter, and for the second time that day, Alice cried. This time, instead of crying alone in a courtroom where she had narrowly escaped disaster, she sobbed into the [Priest]’s shirt, crying like a child while he gently patted her back.

* * *

The next day, Alice woke up in a small bedroom. The room was small, but next to her bedstand there was a plate of hot eggs. For once, she didn’t even bother wondering how the eggs had stayed hot, even though she was pretty sure they had been placed there a while ago. She ate them, and then walked into the next room, where she could see the [Priest] puttering about, moving a few boxes filled with objects around and referring to a book with numbers on the front.

“Good morning, Lady Alice,” he said.

“Good morning, [Priest] Friedheim.” Alice was much calmer now. She could, vaguely, remember Father Friedheim giving her something to eat and then tucking her into the bed, almost like a real father after she had collapsed yesterday.

“Did you like your breakfast?”

“I like eggs. Thanks. Erm… Thank you for yesterday as well. I…ah… Sorry.” Alice wasn’t actually sure why she was apologizing, only that it felt wrong not to.

[Priest] Friedheim chuckled a bit. “You don’t have to worry about it, young Lady Alice. Everyone needs a helping hand from time to time, after all.” The [Priest] gave a light chuckle.

“Do you want to talk about it? Yesterday, you weren’t entirely coherent when you were trying to talk. Sometimes, talking can help.”

“I… Maybe. It’s just…” Alice trailed off.

“Talking about home is difficult, no? If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.”

After a while, Alice decided that no, she wasn’t in the mood for talking about home any more right now. Maybe another time, but right now, the emotional wound just felt too raw still. Especially after breaking down yesterday. She wanted to make plans, though, and for that she needed more information. Therefore, she redirected her attention to what she needed to do. Her emotional state was still a bit messy, but she was put together enough that she could focus.

“What’s the Society of Starry Eyes? Why did that bi – why did Lady Vallis have such an extreme reaction to the term? Also, what’s the tragedy of Allenheim?”

“Lady Vallis is… not a bad person, but she is… impulsive. Do you know – of course you wouldn’t, you’ve been in town for only a couple days, no? In that case, you should know that the Vallis family is a Viscount family, and Lady Vallis is from one of the branches of that house. However, due to the fact that she is a mage, she is valued as a potential marriage piece for the house, so the main Vallis branch adopted her – you see, mages have a much higher chance of producing magically gifted offspring, which means that most noble families are eager to marry their children to other nobles who are mages wherever possible. Her birth father was still partially responsible for raising her, however, and he wanted her to have a decent head on her shoulders. Mages are expected to guard non-mages from harm – they are the protectors of society and the shield against monsters. So her father took her to a town that had reported a sighting of some odd creatures, and several disappearances.

“The odd creatures were not monsters. The Society of Starry Eyes is a small group of rogue mages that experiment with forbidden magic – chief among these are human experimentation, although they have also experimented with less common types of illegal and taboo magic as well. Such as dimensional magic, which you’ve already heard of, as well as other extreme forms of research.

“Apparently, two [Organic Mages] of the Society of Starry Eyes captured some of the villagers who they assumed wouldn’t be missed and tried to create the ‘ideal form of humans.’ The results were… disastrous for the people involved. People with too many eyes, not enough limbs, their bodies twisted and warped...” the [Priest] shook his head. “The two mages were captured by the guards and summarily executed, of course. The Vallis viscounty hired [Organic Mages] to work with the survivors, and they’re doing better now, but by all accounts the initial effects were...horrifying. And more than a few of them were children.

“A few years after the incident, an earl’s son told Lady Vallis to her face that her viscounty was cursed, and that was why they were wasting money feeding and healing cursed monsters. The argument escalated until she beat him into the ground, right in front of his friends. The Vallis family was most displeased with her unladylike behavior, as well as the fact that she struck a higher-ranking noble, so they sent her to the South to get her out of the public eye for a while.

“Her history with the Society of Starry Eyes is pretty heavily influenced by that. Once she calms down, I don’t think she’ll do anything to harm you, but it is a delicate subject. I recommend you never bring it up when talking to her, if you do so in the future. In fact, I recommend avoiding her – even if you aren’t a member of the Society, you’re a reminder of them, and she likely sees you as a pointless, dangerous risk.”

Alice winced. She still didn’t like the other woman, but at least her knee-jerk reaction to Alice seeming to be from the Society made sense, now. At the same time, Alice felt a much greater level of fear towards the Society of Starry Eyes - if they were willing to experiment on humans, she was far luckier than she had realized when she had somehow wandered away from the place they had summoned her.

“As for the tragedy of Allenheim, when scholars first started theorizing about dimensions, they also theorized the possibility of moving from one place to another instantly. Most nations jumped on the idea, as did many mages – imagine what a world of instant transportation would look like, trade and logistics utterly transformed forever. It would be revolutionary, and any mage who solved it would surely be remembered for ages to come - or would become an Immortal just from the sheer levels involved in discovering a whole new branch of magic. Speculation, both scholarly and economic, was rampant, and mages started forming seeds and experimenting.

“This was cut short fairly quickly, though. A think tank of around 900 mages managed to… sort of succeed in doing dimensional magic in a country called Allenheim. They formed a portal from the capital to the largest trade city in the country, in fact, with a great deal of money behind them.

“And then, several times the amount of mana they used almost instantly broke on both ends of the portal they opened. More than half of both cities went through a mana baptism within the next twelve hours, even those that ran from the city once they realized what was happening. The initial release of broken mana was simply too dense. The survival rate was only 0.8%, and less than a tenth of the original mages even survived the effects of the broken mana poisoning to go to trial. Worse, a few of the people who survived the baptism began creating broken mana on their own – the mana in the air around them broke spontaneously, just by brushing against their skin. Some of the people who rescued the first batch of survivors frequently suffered their own broken mana baptism in turn, like a spreading plague. The kingdom collapsed - the capital city and the largest trade city being crippled overnight destroyed the economy and ruling class so thoroughly that there was no way it was coming back afterwards. Of course, you don't need to worry - the mages in town would be able to see it if you were creating Broken Mana, so you're luckily not going to baptize and kill others just by being near them.

"In any case, ever since then, countries have adopted a slightly more… cautious approach to dimensional magic. It holds great promise – but if there is enough mana, mages, and time poured into it, it can also have catastrophic consequences. The most notable researchers of said magic in this era is the Society of Starry Eyes. You can understand why Lady Illa is so concerned over the idea that they might have been active close to Cyra.”

Alice shuddered. Were these the people who had summoned her to this world? She was suddenly incredibly thankful that whoever had summoned her to this world hadn’t made an appearance so far – she didn’t want to think about what would have happened to her if the Society had summoned her and the summoners had lived to get whatever they wanted from her. She was also incredibly thankful that she didn’t produce broken mana like the survivors of Allenheim. Otherwise, she doubted even the [Priest] would have stepped in for her. Innocent or not, someone that could kill hundreds of others just by being near them was a problem just by being in civilization.

“How likely is the Society to come after me?”

“Well, it depends. Illa and I are working to make sure that nobody talks about your more… unique aspects, since the Society might come after you, and by extension the town, if they know. That being said, if they were the ones who summoned you in the first place, it probably won’t matter too much, since they probably already know, or will whenever they bother to figure out what happened to the group that summoned you in the first place. On top of that, even though it’s illegal to share details of a criminal trial outside of court, and we’re even going as far as to enforce it with {Trade Contracts}, it’s still possible that some information might leak out, eventually. There are just too many people involved to keep it quiet forever. I recommend you keep an eye out – take some combat [Classes] and get some real training. It’s better to be safe than sorry, just in case it comes to that.”

Alice nodded, quietly thinking the situation over. After a few moments, she also thought back to Illa's offer - training and some monetary compensation in exchange for some time exposed to potential danger. It might not be a bad idea to get a better idea what she might be getting into...

“What do you think of Illa? I mean, overall?”

“She made you an offer, did she?” The [Priest] gave a chuckle. “Illa is one of the strongest mages of this generation. She made a name for herself fighting the Rakari nomads to the north for over a decade, and she’s probably above level 75 in her [Warmage] class. I know for a fact she’s level 34 in [Town Leader] despite having the class for less than three years, and also has around 50 or 60 levels in some sort of [Kinetic Mage] class, 31 levels in [Influential Wife], and 42 levels in [Teacher]. She also has a decent reputation and connections in the North, although they’re a bit tenuous, and her husband is a very successful merchant. Illa’s lived a pretty darn colorful life, but she’s one of the best potential backers in the South. And even if her personality is a bit… strong, in the three years I have worked with her I have never known her to be malicious or unfair.”

Alice paused, parsing the information the Priest had just given her. After a moment, a thought struck her. “Why don’t you know her levels in [Warmage] and [Kinetic Mage], if you know all of her other classes?”

“It’s considered impolite to ask about combat-related classes. However, most people actively boast about noncombat classes – especially craftsmen. I’ve seen plenty of shops where the craftsmen just directly list all of their Perks somewhere so that they can drive up the prices people are willing to pay for their merchandise. By contrast, keeping your combat classes secret might save your life someday.” Huh. Good to know. Come to think of it, the person who had made Alice's clothes hadn't tried to hide the Perks she was using on Alice's clothing at all - in fact, she had actively asked whether Alice wanted more applied in exchange for a fee.

“Thank you, Priest Friedham. I appreciate your time and being here for me.” Alice stood up from her chair.

“It is no trouble, child. Providing spiritual guidance is the duty of all [Priests of the System], after all.”

Alice nearly departed from the church, before she finally remembered why she had come here in the first place. Even though she had already accepted the [Scientist] class, she could definitely do with some advice on her build right now.

“Priest Friedham, would you mind talking about my classes with me? I need some advice.”

“Ah, you have two class slots left, yes?" One, actually, but I don't want to bring it up. "In that case, let’s talk.”