[Class Requirements Met]

[Sebastian Albrecht has created his first Blade Form]

[Having begun on his path of the blade, Sebastian Albrecht has performed his first saber form. Based on previous experiences and achievements, the blade technique, whilst incomplete, will be named Winter’s Song]

[First skill above (Inferior Grade) earned, conditions met for skill grade system]

[You have learned (Common) Winter’s Song Blade Technique]

[Inept Saber Expertise has become (Common) Basic Saber Expertise]

[Formulating Class Choices for Sebastian Albrecht]

Sebastian looked into his enemy’s eyes listlessly, his gaze focused on the myriads of red text appearing within his vision, fighting to make their way into his sights. Some words were darker, emboldened, yet the words without the extra emphasis on them were what got him excited. Only when things had descriptions, he had realized, were they not system given but evaluated by the system and created by him.

The desire to laugh overwhelmed him, but instead he just coughed up blood onto the asphalt weakly. He had heard Chris run as fast as he can towards the convoy but that didn’t change the fact that he was injured. He hoped that Dallas hurried it up, not for his sake, but his two companions.

He knew it would have been easier to fight if they had all four encircled it from the beginning, but he couldn’t do much about it now. The look in its eyes, the pressure it gave him, the fear it brought back. It was his fault two people had to get injured to kill this thing. It was his fault Hasan lost his arm.

A weird slimy but smooth sensation came over him as the few feet long water serpent slithered along his leg and up to his chest. It couldn’t do much but sit there and accompany him, but Sebastian still smiled as the man did his best to tilt his head up and look at the snake.

His last strike that broke the saber was meant to enrage the beast enough and give it enough pain so that Therin could get close enough to it’s eye without being noticed. Ultimately, it was the play that ended the fight. Unfortunately, the serpent still got hit and so did he. Though, the serpent himself looked fine..

Chuckling through another mass of blood coming up his throat, Sebastian relaxed against the asphalt and closed his eyes, controlling his breathing according to his Vitality Art and finally looking through the options that had long appeared in the corner of his eyes, the ones that appeared when he saw the words ‘Class Requirement Met’

[(Inferior) Bladesman]

[Awards 1 Strength, 1 Constitution and 5 Unattributed Points per Lv]

[The bladesman has begun walking down their path of the blade, sweeping through all obstacles regardless of life and death. Powered by strength, belief and confidence, the bladesman does whatever their heart desires and acts ruthlessly towards himself and others.]

[(Common) Magic Bladesman]

[Awards 2 Strength, 1 Wisdom and 5 Unattributed Points per Lv]

[The Magic Bladesman is a mix of martial mastery and magic mastery. With their control over mana and their physical bodies, they compliment their physical strength with their magical strength. Focused on enhancing themselves with magic, the Magic Bladesman can be the sharpest blade, the swiftest attack, or the sturdiest defense.]

[(Common) Ice Mage)

[Awards 2 Intelligence, 1 Wisdom and 5 Unattributed Points per Lv]

[The Ice Mage shows off the beginning of a long path towards the mastery of the ice element, focused on drawing energy from the world itself only to turn the world into nothing but ice and snow, the Ice Mage is the coldest friend and enemy alike. Their attack abilities are subpar, but their defensive abilities are near unmatched.]

[(Uncommon) Ice Bladesman]

[Awards 2 Strength, 1 Constitution, 1 Intelligence and 5 Unattributed Points per Lv]

[The Ice Bladesman has a unique mastery over the element of Ice with subpar control over water. Through a mix of blade and magic, the Ice Bladesman has perfect defense and offense with their unbreakable ice and their chilling blade. Their heart is cold not only to themselves but to the entire world, and their mere presence chills to the bone.]

[(Rare) Frostblade Warden]

[Awards 2 Strength, 1 Constitution, 2 Intelligence and 5 Unattributed Points per Lv]

[The Frostblade Warden shackles themselves and their enemies, but protects and cares for those around them. A ruthless warden and a ruthless protector, the Frostblade Warden has a superb mastery over Ice and Blade alike. To fight against a Frostblade Warden is to have your soul eternally shackled, but to have their protection is the safest you could be. A Frostblade Warden is unforgiving to all, including themselves.]

The options themselves seemed tailored to him so far. He had a pure magic option, a pure vitality option, neither, a mix, and then an upgraded mix. The upgraded mix didn’t seem quite forthright with him though, and the wording seemed odd. He knew a warden didn’t just mean a prison warden. A warden is just to guard, protect, or watch over something. It’s why people could sometimes say someone was their ‘ward’, the object of their protection or watch.

It was by far the best choice for him either way, giving him double the attribute points he got before he had a class option. At the same time, the vibes it gave off weren’t necessarily good. It seemed like the class an evil boss would have in an MMO game. Would he still pick it? Yes.

Willing it in his mind, all the other text being shown to him disintegrated into motes of light within his vision; only for the words ‘Frostblade Warden’ to suddenly shine brightly and devour them all. The ambient mana in the surroundings abruptly began gathering towards him, the Ice Mana overpowering everything else as the temperature quickly dropped well below winter levels. Therin curled up into a ball on his chest with a content smile, but the militia who had come for the injured stopped in place some few dozen feet away, too cold to keep going.

The mana channeled directly into his body, the Vitality dwelling within voraciously chasing after it all. He sensed it all surge into his bones, changing them qualitatively as they took on an almost crystalline ice blue look. His meridians strengthened and black mucus was forced out of his skin as he felt the impurities forced out by the bone-chilling mana that practically baptized his body.

At the same time, Sebastian felt like his body was suddenly chained down, like the world itself had imprisoned him, though the odd feeling also came that told him it was of his command. He was his own Warden, his own jailor; but he also had the power to pull others with him into this prison of his own making. Make them suffer as he did.

A roar echoed throughout as an ethereal figure suddenly formed above the Burning Sun Cat’s body, looking much smaller yet transparent. The crimson red figure was howling in fury and trying to swipe away at the ice blue chains that wrapped around it; a futile effort. The chains wrapped around its neck and it was forced to the ground in silent indignation, before it faded away.

Sebastian felt a burning mass suddenly appear where his heart was, but the rampaging baptism of ice mana quickly cooled the sensation down until it was practically gone, and within moments the event ended entirely. The wounds from the fight remained, but they had all scabbed over.

The mana in the surroundings felt attuned to him like never before, though a majority of the elements now remained far away from him, as if he was the plague. Only Ice, Water, and a few other indiscernible elements stayed within range of him as he slowly stood up, wiping away the fishy black mucus from his skin and clothes.

Even now the vague feeling of chains wrapped around his skin remained, though they clearly were not there, even as he patted himself down looking for them. It was only a feeling, and so long as they didn’t affect his movements Sebastian wouldn’t mind much. One more minorly unpleasant feeling constantly harassing him wasn’t much of a change at all.

Rubbing the scales on Therin’s head gently as it happily slithered up to his shoulders, Sebastian smiled gently. Therin was on him for the baptism of mana, and considering it’s clear growth by nearly a foot, it clearly received it’s own benefits from taking part. It even healed the injury it received from the Burning Sun Cat

Taking a deep breath, Sebastian looked back towards the crimson red text present in his vision before a new line of dialogue appeared.

[Class Chosen, Profession requirements met]

Rolling his eyes, Sebastian shook his head at the thought of looking through more choices and words to pick a profession, deciding instead to look at his new Status Window. He very rarely took a look at the whole thing as it mostly remained unchanged besides his attributes, but he assumed a lot just changed.

[Sebastian Albrecht, Prime Aspect of Ice and Snow]

[Lv. 10 Human]

[Class: Frostblade Warden]

[Profession: Pending]

[Attributes]

Strength: 22

Agility: 12

Constitution: 25

Intelligence: 14

Wisdom: 12

Perception: 12

Attribute Points: 5

[Vitality Art]

[Dragon’s Hymn Vitality Art, Desolate Stage 2]

[Skills]

[(Unique) Identify] [(Common) Basic Saber Expertise] [(Unique) Prime Ice Affinity] [(Common) Winter’s Song Blade Technique] [(Rare) Ethereal Prison] [(Rare) Ethereal Execution] [(Uncommon) Binding Ice]

[Titles]

[Prime Aspect of Ice and Snow]

Quickly evening out his attributes with the five points he got from Lv. 10, he noticed he hadn’t gotten the extra five for the new class. Meaning he only gets them from now on. It didn’t matter much to him, so he just shrugged and bumped strength up to 25, Intelligence to 15, and Agility to 13.

He quickly noticed the other changes to the status window, though. Profession was now pending, Titles now had its own window, Vitality Art had its own section, and many new skills were added. Even his Ice Affinity was upgraded to Prime Ice Affinity. The classification of skill grades was new as well, and was rather clear except for the inclusion of Unique Grade.

Looking over his new skills, Sebastian brought out their Description Windows with a thought.

[(Rare) Ethereal Prison]

[The Frostblade Warden can choose to imprison and enslave the soul of their latest kill, turning it into a being similar to a familiar without free-will. As such, the Ethereal Ward will fight on the side of the Warden until discarded, executed, or replaced by the Warden. Any soul up to five levels above and of the same tier as the Warden can be imprisoned by this method.]

(Current Imprisoned being was chained with the help of Scorn as a reward for having the first Rare Class, can only be used for Execution and not as a Ethereal Ward]

[(Rare) Ethereal Execution]

[The Warden executes the soul they have within their care, turning them into fuel for one powered-up attack. The stronger the soul, the stronger the resulting boost, but the soul is permanently gone, erased even from the cycle of rebirth.]

[(Uncommon) Binding Ice]

[Summon the world’s mana to chain and bind enemies. Quantity of enemies bound relies on mana quantity, control, and strength. Can completely bind one enemy at the same level, can slow an enemy up to ten levels above.]

Definitely, definitely evil vibes. Imprisoning dead souls and then erasing them from existence for power could not sound anything but evil. Sebastian had the feeling there was even more to it, but just from what Scorn wanted to show him, he felt like a villain. Shaking his head and pushing the thought of being the big bad evil guy to the back of his mind, he focused on the Vitality Art section.

[Dragon’s Hymn Vitality Art, Desolate Stage 2]

[Ice Attributed Vitality Art created by Sebastian Albrecht, the Dragon’s Hymn Vitality Art is incomplete, with only the beginnings of the Desolation Stage having been created. The creator has reached the second stage and was the first after The Light to create his own unique Vitality Art.]

Ignoring a majority of the flavor text, Scorn revealed to him that Vitality has stages and he currently is in the second, something he assumed happened when he broke through the bottleneck he felt during the fight. The same bottleneck let him channel Vitality outside of his body, though it was still limited to objects he was holding. At the same time, his blade technique seemed to be a Vitality based technique, as it was created by using Vitality in his weapon; though he was sure he could still use it as an actual blade technique.

Frowning, Sebastian felt conflicted overall about what just happened. He had received an overall improvement in combat capability even if his stats hadn’t benefitted much yet, but the way he did felt.. Wrong to him. He was sure he’d get used to it, ultimately anything he killed most likely tried to kill him in the first place, but erased from existence-

Wait a minute, does that mean reincarnation is real?