Everybody in this world has a baseline of knowledge about classes. There are three types of classes offered in the form of ‘pillars’ that people could choose from.

These types were; common, rare and legendary.

Class selection was simple. A person would be offered their choice of class from whichever pillars appeared during the selection, and then they chose one.

I’d written a cheat sheet in my system notes listing what types of classes would appear.

1 Pillar = 1 class option.

First five pillars = ‘common’ classes.

Sixth pillar - tenth pillar = ‘rare’ classes.

Eleventh pillar = always a ‘legendary’ class.

Twelve - fifteen = ‘rare’ classes.

Sixteenth pillar = always a ‘legendary’ class.

Getting more than sixteen pillars was considered almost impossible to do, and I wasn’t sure if these were literal pillars or if that was how people in this world labelled the choices.

Obtaining a class was a turning point in people’s lives. Classes offered major boosts to different specialised areas in one’s life and could elevate a person’s position in the blink of an eye.

The issue most people had was a lack of knowledge of the available class options.

Class prerequisites and knowledge for rare and legendary classes was highly coveted and guarded jealously. Even noble households didn’t know the various combinations that would be offered to their members.

To fully determine all the pre-requisites and potential outcomes of even a few class options, the effort of hundreds of people actively trying to receive that class and then sharing their information freely was required.

This was why one of the main draws of Koshima academy was the existence of a single individual.

Alastair Black.

My teacher was calm as he nudged the paper sheets of class information towards me.

My gaze swept over him. This was a man that had the knowledge that countless households wanted to possess, and he was giving away that knowledge to anyone in his class.

That was a gift that even Marked ones found tempting.

I had a lot of expectations for my class options. I wanted something that could give me some real progress towards solving my goals. My surviving of the ascension, or even helping with increasing my reputation. The Gesti family's influence over me decreased with every bit of progress I made.

“Are you just going to stare at them?” Mr Black tapped on the table impatiently.

I looked at the papers and Gold hopped down from my shoulder to get a closer look. I saw a list of sixteen classes.

The first section focused on the five common classes. To my surprise Mr Black had written in the notes that these classes were one hundred percent guaranteed to be offered to me.

There were no exceptions.

Scholar, Symbolist, Magician, Earth Magician, Communicator.

Symbolist (Common):

Stat bonus: +5 free stats per level.

Skills offered upon class selection (Potential) [Maximum 3 offered].

Enhancer Skills [Up to 1-2 offered if in possession of enough base skills]: Symbol Inscription rank up +3.

Mixed Skills [1 offered in rare circumstances]: Symbol Memorisation, Symbol Catalogue, Symbol Overload, Symbol Carving, Symbol Strengthening.

Scholar (Common):

Stat bonus: +3 Intelligence stats per level.

Stat percentage bonus: static +3% to mana.

Mana bonus: +300 mana.

Skills offered upon class selection (Potential) [Maximum 2 offered].

Enhancer Skills [1-2 offered]: Meditation rank up +3, Mana Manipulation rank up +1, Mana Sense rank up +3.

Earth Magician (Common):

Stat bonus: +4 Intelligence stats per level.

Stat percentage bonus: static +4% to mana.

Mana bonus: +500 mana.

Skills offered upon class selection (Potential) [Maximum 3 offered].

Enhancer Skills [1-2 offered]: Earth Manipulation (Rank Up +3 Upon Class Selection), Earth Creation (Rank Up +2), Earth Sense, Earth Grasp, Stone Grasp (Rank Up +3), Earth Spear (Rank Up +3), Metal Spear (Extremely rare - Limited to proficient material - only available with metal attunement).

Mixed Skills [1 offered in rare circumstances]: Earth Construct, Earth Separation, Earth Tremor, Earth Purification, Earth Destruction, Earth Construction (Different to Earth Construct) and Earth Step.

My eyes breezed over them, none of their abilities or bonuses giving me pause. The only class that surprised me a tiny bit was the earth magician class, I had thought that was a rare class.

“There’s a note for that as well.” Mr Black’s voice interrupted my thoughts.

He was right. I saw underneath the earth magician class the caveat stating that it had been changed to a common class due to my attunement with metal. Ordinarily it would be a rare class.

I smiled.

That bode well for my options to come.

There was a total of nine rare classes, and two legendary classes.

Rare classes: Metal Magician, Silver Magician, Scriber, Celestial Emissary, Animal Tamer (or Monster Tamer), Divine Conqueror, Mana’s Friend, Ethereal Elementalist, and Regent Creator.

Legendary classes: Vessel of the Cosmos and Transcriber of Reality.

Judging from the names it looked like my rare classes were also separated into two sections, with the first five rare classes focusing on specific fields I had specialised in during my life, and the last four mixing them together to form something new.

My eyes scanned down the page of rare classes.

Metal Magician (Rare):

Stat bonus: +5 free stats per level.

Stat percentage bonus: static +5% to mana.

Mana bonus: +500 mana.

Proficiencies offered upon class selection (Potential): +1 proficiency to metal material of your choice (Extremely Rare), rank up in proficiency of silver (Extremely Rare).

Skills offered upon class selection (Potential)[Maximum 3 offered].

Enhancer Skills [1-2 offered]: Metal Manipulation (Rank Up +3 Upon Class Selection), Metal Creation (Extremely Rare), Metal Sense, Metal Grasp, Metal Spear, Metal Weaponry.

Mixed Skills [1 offered]: Metal Construct, Metal Harmonization, Metal Separation, Metal Contraction, Metal Purification, Metal Destruction, Metal Construction (Different to Metal Construct), Metal Step, Metal Golem Creation (Extremely Rare), Metal location, Tremor Sense, Metal Communication.

I’d expected this one from the beginning. I was attuned to metal, so I would have the metal magician class option available to me.

What surprised me were the number of options that the class could give me. Some of these were skills that would take me over half my life to learn.

I had to remind myself that they weren’t all being given to me. I would only be offered a set of skills per class, and this list only showed me what could be offered.

I would only receive two or three of these skills

Some of them were incredibly tempting. Metal creation, and metal golem creation in particular were ones that I had always wanted.

Receiving those options were akin to winning the lottery. They weren’t guaranteed, and in the case of the ‘potential’ category there was a strong possibility that I would end up with nothing.

That was why Mr Black had attached the words ‘extremely rare’ to a few of the skills.

I felt a flicker of surprise at how little mana was offered by the class, even with the 5% bonus it was only 1,330 mana given upon class selection. Maybe a bit more if the 500 mana given added to my % boost.

It hardly scratched the surface of the 16,600 mana I had.

Silver Magician (Rare):

Stat bonus: +5 free stats per level.

Stat percentage bonus: static +5% to mana.

Mana bonus: +500 mana.

Proficiencies offered upon class selection (Guaranteed): +2 proficiency with silver.

Skills offered upon class selection (Potential)[Maximum 4 offered].

Guaranteed Skill: Silver Manipulation (Enhancer).

Enhancer Skills [1-2 offered]: Metal Manipulation (Rank Up +3 Upon Class Selection), Metal Creation (Extremely Rare), Silver Creation (Extremely Rare), Metal Sense, Silver Sense, Metal Grasp, Silver Grasp, Metal Spear, Silver Spear, Metal Weaponry.

Mixed Skills [1 offered]: Metal Construct, Silver Construct, Metal Harmonization, Silver Harmony, Metal Separation, Silver Separation, Metal Contraction, Silver Contraction, Metal Purification, Metal Destruction, Silver Destruction, Silver Spikes, Metal Construction (Different to Metal Construct), Metal Step, Metal Golem Creation (Extremely Rare), Silver Golem Creation (Extremely Rare), Metal location, Silver Location, Tremor Sense, Metal Communication, Silver Communication.

Huh.

This one was the same as the metal magician class, with the exception of a few skills that were specialised towards silver.

Then I read it again.

Unlike the metal magician class, this one had a guaranteed skill and a guaranteed increased proficiency provided to me, both revolving around Silver.

I could do a lot with that. The chance to learn Silver Metal Creation also piqued my interest. Metal magic spells took more time and effort to level. If metal creation didn’t create silver then I would have an issue using it for manipulation purposes.

Silver Metal Creation could help me avoid this by allowing me to create silver directly, an incredibly valuable element in this world.

I would never be poor again.

Then again, the materials offered by metal creation were also valuable.

My fingers brushed over the class description, and then my eyes trailed on to the next options.

Scriber (Rare):

Stat bonus: +5 free stats per level.

Stat percentage bonus: static +4% to stat of choice.

Skills offered upon class selection (Potential) [Maximum 3 offered].

Guaranteed Skill: Low-rank Symbol Inscription (Enhancer).

Mixed Skills [1-2 offered]: Symbol Memorisation, Symbol Catalogue, Symbol Overload, Symbol Carving, Symbol Strengthening (Extremely Rare), Material Carving, Material Softening, Material Hardening, Material Treatment, Material Inspection, Material Repairing, Material Control, Material Mobility, Material Immobility, Array Inscription, Array Carving, Array Configuring, Array Connection Strengthening, Array Strengthening (Extremely Rare), Regent Inscription, Regent Material Proficiency, Regent Creation, Regent Strengthening (Extremely Rare), Regent Repairing (Extremely Rare), Regent Analysis.

My scriber enhancer skills list wasn’t long, but that worked out better for me. I only had the symbol inscription skill at the moment, and I would already be guaranteed the symbol inscription skill (low rank), as opposed to my symbol inscription skill (basic).

That was a huge improvement.

It interested me that scriber skills were listed as starting from basic and not low rank like magic was.

My potential mixed skills were a much longer list.

My mixed skills would normally involve the skills I currently had, mixing them together to form a new skill. In this case, I was able to do all these things potentially, and the mixed skills took this into account because they were abilities I had as a person.

There were also a couple of new types of skills for scribers that I hadn’t unlocked yet.

Material, Array and Regent skills.

Material skills required scribers to designate a piece of material to influence. The skill would only work with one material at a time, and was very limited, but also very helpful for scribers.

A skill that stopped people wasting valuable materials was one of the best skills for scribers, according to my dad.

Celestial Emissary (Rare):

Stat bonus: +6 free stats per level.

Stat percentage bonus: static +3% to stat of choice. Static +5% to mana.

Mana Bonus: +1000 Mana

Skills offered upon class selection (Potential) [Maximum 5 offered].

Guaranteed Skill: Divine Decree - Enhance one skill of your choosing.

Enhancer Skills [1 offered]: Enhance one skill of your choosing.

Mixed Skills [2 offered]: Mana Enhancement, Mana Tremor, Mana Disruption, Mana Providence, Mana Sanctuary, Body Enhancement, Body Reconfiguration, Body Transmutation, Manapool Enhancement (Extremely Rare), Divine Presence.

Original Skills [1 offered in rare circumstances]: Celestial Wisdom (Extremely Rare), Insight [Stat] (Extremely Rare).

Possible that there are other skills that are unknown to me.

This was the first class connected to my Marked status.

I smiled as I saw the enhancement skills options. There was no randomness or chance. There was only the option to directly enhance two of my skills of choice.

The mixed skills were more varied.

Each of these rare classes was hyper focused on a single aspect of my life. I was surprised to see so many skill options that involved my mana and body. Then again, those two were the main things impacted by the activation of my Mark.

There were also the original skills to consider.

Celestial Wisdom and Insight.

Insight was a stat, but Celestial Wisdom was a skill.

Original skills were given as options for things that had no basis in the system skills or normal abilities of the class taker. That meant that Celestial Wisdom wasn’t just conventional wisdom, which I had, but something else entirely.

What could it be? My eyes stayed on the skill.

This was the kind of skill that could change my view of the world around me. I would never know how until I received the skill, but that mystery lured me into wanting it.

There was also the percentage bonus to a single stat of my choice combined with a mana boost. If I combined these with my growing intelligence, the boosts would quickly become incredibly high.

However, would it remove the human limiter? If not, then it didn’t matter. I would reach my limit eventually. The percentage boost would be better given to another one of my stats.

I shook my head and noted the question for later.

Animal (or Monster) Tamer (Rare):

Stat bonus: +3 free stats per level. +3 free stats for tamed monsters per level.

Stat percentage bonus: static +2% to stat of choice. Static +1% to Monsters stat of choice. Static +5% to mana.

Mana Bonus: +750 Mana

Guaranteed Attunement Unlocking: Connection Element

Skills offered upon class selection (Potential) [Maximum 5 offered].

Guaranteed Skill: Animal (or Monster) Taming.

Enhancer Skills [1 offered]: Animal (or Monster) Subjugation.

Mixed Skills [2 offered]: Manapool Sharing, Mana Sharing, Mana Transfer, Mana Steal, Dual Connection, Dual Vision, Dual Perception, Skill Sharing, Command Actions, Shield Creation, Regent Creation, Symbol Manipulation, Symbol Overload, Monster Growth, Companion Growth, Companion Communication, Array Configuration, Flight.

Original Skills: Dual Transformation (Extremely Rare).

Possible that there are other skills that are unknown to me.

“Huh.” I narrowed my eyes. “I don’t understand this one.”

I looked up at Mr Black and saw him staring back at me. His expression told me that he had expected my reaction.

“I understand the animal class option, but why was the ‘monster’ option added? Is it because I took part in killing Oubliez?”

The class didn’t look like it would benefit me much. The monster was already dead, and even if it wasn’t I wouldn’t work with it.

“Partially,” His voice was smooth. “However, it’s also because you have become close friends with Mr Gold over here.”

He pointed at Gold.

Gold tilted his head and chirped in confusion, then turned to look at me. I couldn’t help him. I was equally lost.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” My gaze turned towards Gold. “Gold is a puffer.”

Gold squawked in agreement.

“Yes. Perhaps he is. Or perhaps he was at one point.” Mr Black’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “I have done a thorough analysis of all the information you have given me, including the characteristics of your bird.”

He tapped the table and a new paper appeared. I saw a picture of Gold on it, followed by lines of writing. It was an information dossier.

“Did you know that puffers are not magical creatures? They never have been.” He handed the paper to me.

Prospective age, name, type of magic he could use.

It had the words ‘magical companion’ in it, a very common term for the various animals that littered the school alongside their student friends.

Most of the information on the page had been provided by me once the headmaster had confirmed that Mr Black was trustworthy.

Gold looked at it curiously, his talons clacking against the paper.

“After reading your information, and the testimony of the church, I have come to a single conclusion, and added the possibility of this class to the list as a result.”

I brought the paper closer to myself to read properly, leaving space for Gold to look as well.

“What conclusion is that?” My heart sank.

Mr Black gazed down at me.

“I believe that the bird on my desk may be a monster.”