I was knocked off my feet by a staff strike to the chest. The “staff” could easily pass for a pillar, half again as tall as me and wide enough that I would not have been able to grasp it with both hands. Even with my mana shield I would have been bloody mush if the female officer hadn’t been holding back.

“Again,” Talith said.

Talith had been assigned to train me during my stay with the peacekeepers. I suspected it also gave them an excuse to keep an eye on me.

The reasoning given by Sebbit was that since I was not given the opportunity of a tutorial, I deserved some minor compensation by the Hegemony. My lack of training up to this point was something that Sebbit had called an “anomaly.” It was also what made him suspect me of having a connection to the flaming eye that had destroyed most of downtown Charleston, and my life along with it.

Talith was the same race as Sebbit, and he wasn’t kidding when he said that the females of his species were larger than the males. She stood at least ten feet tall, or just over three meters according to my analyze skill. The best word to describe her was spindly, she was tall and lithe. This gave her an incredible reach and flexibility and in no way impacted her strength, as I could tell by holding my aching chest.

My analyze skill didn't work against peacekeepers, so I was unable to get a feel for how strong Talith was - only that she vastly outclassed me. I suspected that the immunity was granted by the system, but it might have been racial or due to them having much higher levels the I did.

Not used to waiting for her orders to be obeyed Talith reached down and dragged me to my feet by the collar of my loaner uniform. “Again,” she said.

I was fed up with her bullying, tired, and hungry. Not a good combination for my mood. I thrust out with my staff, expecting her parry. She reversed her swing turning her parry into a massive horizontal strike and I activated my mana shield. The single hit ate away half of my mana, but it also flung me back far enough to be out of Talith’s striking range.

“Venom Spray,” I shouted. A thin spray of thick green liquid shot from my outstretched hand, but Talith was easily able to block most of the venom by holding her massive staff in front of her face. Small droplets and streams made it onto her uniform, but the material showed no signs of falling to the venom’s corrosive effects.

While her vision was blocked I cast arcane missile twice in rapid succession, using most of my remaining mana. I had leveled the skill to its third level, gaining four missiles per cast. Talith was able to deflect most of the missiles, apparently not as ‘unerring’ as they had been advertised. Two of the spheres, however, were able to strike the giantess in the midsection.

I let out a satisfied grin as I heard a small grunt of pain. I immediately regretted feeling smug as I found a long prehensile wrap around my waist. I was immediately pulled into the dirt and found a large woman with sapphire skin holding a staff to my throat.

“Good,” Talith said “You are beginning to understand.”

“Understand what? Getting my ass kicked is about all I seem to be getting better at.”

“Roles, Mr. Finn,” She said. “You are beginning to understand roles.

“Do you know why most citizens of the Hegemony never receive a class, despite the fact that it gives a massive increase in power and is available to all?”

“Laziness?” I quipped. “Long lines at the DMV?”

“It is not ‘laziness’ or lack of desire. No, most citizens never receive a class because it is binding, restricting.

“You are a mage, yes?” She asked without waiting for me to respond, ignoring my head beginning to shake no. “A mage, spellcasters of all stripes are weak, Mr. Finn. The most powerful mage in the Hegemony could not survive a single minute in combat with me without resorting to spells. Do you know why that is?”

“Specialization,” I immediately said.

“If a mage spends the time to improve their magic to such a high level they must have neglected training in other areas. Someone who had trained exclusively in hand-to-hand combat, a blue skinned devil masquerading as a soldier for instance, would dominate the mage, but only if the mage was restricted to only using hand-to-hand combat.”

“Good,” my instructor said. “But it is not just this, many disciplines exist, and many mages also practice martial paths. It is the class, and the system supported by the Hegemony.

“The class defines us, makes us more of what we are and a little less of everything else. Theoretically I can still learn magic or the sword, but my class focuses on the use of a staff, specifically to defend. Any skills related to the concept encapsulated by a class will level faster, the more specific the concept behind the class the more powerful this effect is.

“I even have trouble learning mundane tasks. I am not a cook, so my being cries out at any attempt to become one. I can only be one thing, and the better I am at being what I am the more powerful I will become.

“Specialization will make you powerful, Mr. Finn. You must find one thing, and do it well, better than anyone else. A class will start you on that path, but you must hold the image inside you. You must become a mage, in your heart. Or a spearman, a vanguard, defender or any of a million classes.”

“Aren’t there classes that specialize in being jacks of all trades, so to speak?” I asked.

“There are, yes Mr. Finn. Adventurers, Factotum, and a myriad of others. They are popular, but none could stand before the pureness of my staff-skills.

"Even the monsters that ravage your world, the Old Ones and Elder Gods, great evils infecting our universe? They encapsulate a concept, they become it. That is what it means to be a god, Mr. Finn. A god is the very essence of a single concept, made incarnate. As long as the concept exists they cannot be truly killed.”

“And Kyr..,” I began. “Er, Crimson Hunter of the Void? What is he?”

“Madness, Mr. Finn. Madness made incarnate, he doesn’t only consume minds he twists them and takes great pleasure in manipulating others. In some ways he is one of the most dangerous of all the old ones. Many are more powerful, but none as insidious.”

We waited in silence for several seconds, a staff still held to my throat, before she relented and let me up.

“Again,” Talith said.

***

Hours later I was laying on a cot in the small Spartan room the Peacekeepers had given me. Next to the bed was a small desk and a stool with no back. I had a small recess in the wall that could be opened or closed by a sliding panel, this is where I kept the clothes and boots I had been given. Also tucked in the cubby was a short sword in a black leather sheath, a gift from Talith. These items and my brown leather jacket were currently my only worldly possessions.

The peacekeepers had given me quite a bit more than just clothes and a sword, though. The training had proved invaluable.

Despite her caution to focus on a single ‘role,’ Talith gave me a fairly well-rounded education and a crash course in martial weaponry. She insisted I learn all the basic weapons and then focus on the one that suited my style best, something she said would benefit even a ‘mage’ like myself. A title I still didn’t accept.

We had been training for roughly a week before she declared our training over. I wasn’t ‘fit to lick the boots of a proper Peacekeeper recruit’ but at least I might not die immediately to a low-level monster. Apparently, that was her benchmark for success.

Despite Talith’s criticism, I had a feeling that I was learning skills much more quickly than I should have been. This was possible due to my high intelligence stat combined with the adaptive learning feat. I could improve my skills simply by watching others fight, especially when they were used on me. Generally, in a painful and violent manner.

My gains during this time had been significant, and I had gained skill levels much more quickly than I would have without training. In addition, my Endurance stat had risen by two without having to allocate any stats to it. Talith told me this was normal but that getting any stat above the species average with just training was rare. Stats also differed by species and the species that Talith and Sebbit belonged to, called Kree’marks, had an average adult strength of fifteen for males and eighteen for females before system enhancements.

I had been trained in all the standard weaponry of the Peacekeepers, the rifle, sword, and staff, each to the third level. I had also gained the physical fitness skill and advanced it to level three, as well. My arcane shield skill increased to its third rank, and arcane missile, venom spray and analyze also each increased by a single rank. This gave me a solid twenty-one FP, but I held out on spending them for now.

I had gained access to a few new feats, such as the swordsman feat. Each focusing on a particular style of combat. None of these drew my eye, however. I was holding out to purchase inspiration. The lack of a description continued to be an annoyance, but the incredibly inflated cost was likely to reflect the feats usefulness. So far, the feats seemed to exist on a tier list, with higher tier feats costing more to unlock. At least, I hoped. Nothing gambled, nothing gained. Or lost.

While I was wondering how I might gain the remaining four FP, I decided to go all in. I’d spend the points I had now and hope for the best.

I didn’t get a single notification until I’d put twenty points into the feat, and I was beginning to get nervous when suddenly a notification appeared.

Congratulations! The inspiration you seek still lies outside your grasp. Despite this failure the journey of discovery has not been in vain. The fleeting glimpses of inspiration you have grasped have opened your mind to the connection between mind and body. +4 Intelligence. New feat(s) learned – Mind Over Body ®.

Mind Over Body ®- You have ignored the advancement of the body, focusing on pursuits of the mind. Despite this you have not shied away from battle. During a rare moment of inspiration, you understood that the body is only as strong as the mind that controls is. Physical limits can be broken, if the mind is strong enough. +20% of Intelligence will be added to all physical stats.

This… this was exactly what I needed. I could follow Talith’s advice to ‘specialize’ without leaving any glaring weaknesses in my build. I would never be a tank, but perhaps a glass cannon made from slightly less fragile glass? The number of ‘free’ stat points was also staggering. If I continued to focus on Intelligence I would quickly surpass a ‘well-rounded’ build.

I mentally opened my ‘stats’ feeling a warm glow as I examined them.

Augustus Finn

Class: N/A

Level: 1

Health: 50

Stamina: 41

Mana: 82

Vitality: 14

Endurance: 12

Strength: 12

Agility:10

Reaction: 10

Intelligence: 24

Will: 8

Perception: 10

Focus: 5

P. Resist: 2

M. Resist: 2

My list of skills and feats was also starting to look rather robust, but I ignored it for the moment. I wondered how I would fare against most level one citizens? Surely this bumped me up at least a level or two in the ratings. I wouldn’t know, however, until I had experienced the benefits of a class for myself.

I immediately cast away any feelings of superiority. This felt powerful, but how would it really compare to those individuals brought up in the Hegemony and given the benefit of generations of meta-knowledge?

I drifted to sleep, properly abashed but still with a smile on my face.