Reaching the surface once again, I aimlessly trekked through the forests, thinking.

With the failure of taking over the snake, I was forced to redo my plan. The creature was too weak to contain my soul, but it clearly handled it much better that the weaker flying greenrock. This meant that maybe it would take a 3rd grade, or even 2nd grade beast for their brains not to melt down due to prolonged exposure to me. but there was still hope for me to find a vessel.

...the problem was how to actually find one.

The System had made it clear that dragons were 3rd grade and could probably reach 2nd, so they seemed like a fairly safe bet, but they were probably extremely rare, and it would take at least a few weeks to find one, most likely. And also, this was just speculation based on the limited data at hand, but beasts of the same grade as dragons would probably be equally as rare, too.

There was something else I could do, though, and that was going to a human settlement, where apparently something called 'Class Crystals' had appeared, to get a Class and be able to go past level 10, which I had reached when I killed the serpent. The System had very kindly told me all of this when I reached level 10, or otherwise I would've been clueless.

Another upside of staying in this form is that I would be able to level up extremely quickly this way, and even though I didn't want to assign any stat points just yet, it would be great to have them for when I finally possess a body and somehow figure out what build I wanna go with.

Thus began my slow journey out of this cursed forest. My memories had slowly come back to me (although it could also be because of the 10 points I decided to add to Capacity), and even though there were still some holes and blurry periods here and there, such as the last day of my life, I had more or less regained my sense of self and thus put a closure to one of the many existential crises that were currently plaguing me.

I also encountered plenty of monsters between 8th and 7th grade prowling around, gathering quite a lot of information about them. I felt like the results from [Inspection] were too big and wordy though, and ended up cutting down the description to a basic rundown of the target's strengths and weaknesses, made the attributes appear next to each other and more compact, along with removing the age and the useless bit between parentheses nest to the race, which only served as a distraction. Using the skill on a random passing wolf, it now looked like this:

Firefang Wolf - 8th Rank - level 3

Element: None, despite the name suggesting otherwise

Attributes: 34 STR, 47 AGI, 23 END, 31 VIT, 2 INT, 3 CAP, 14 SPW

Description: Fast and deadly for those yet to get a class but weak against wind and physical attacks, more so if hit in the underbelly or neck.

As I rejoiced at my masterful use of abbreviations which had mostly been ripped off from online media, I felt the density of the thick trees around me decrease at a noticeable pace, and soon there stopped being any at all. For a moment I was concerned about having reached an ocean, but I quickly expanded my awareness downwards and confirmed it was plains that lay before me.

'Good, villages are always in plains. now it's just a matter of finding it.'

The inner monologue and constant inner jokes and fooling around had managed to keep me mostly sane these past few days, but I wouldn't really be able to stand it much longer. I couldn't interact with any physical objects other than by possessing beings (which made them blow up), but at least if I got the right class I could maybe get some kind of perk to communicate with others.

I really needed it. Not being able to sleep, eat, drink or do anything at all really, other that crawling forward and messing with blue screens had been extremely taking on my psyque, and I desperately needed someone to talk to.

I had said the plains thing as a joke, but there really was a town here. Actually, scratch that, it was more of a huge settlement of camps and tents erected upon an endless sea of concrete and roads.

'I guess this used do be a decently sized city, but any building of more than one floor was deemed 'too complex' and removed, only leaving the floors, that are basically solid and thus simple.'

I already knew I wouldn't be able to interact with anyone, but what had really gotten me was that people didn't even seem to notice me, not even when I passed directly through them. Even the Flying Greenrocks has more of a reaction than them. I used [Inspection], on one that was fairly toned and looked like was good at organising people out of curiosity, mentally telling the System to give me the full version of the description, and the System quickly compiled the information for me.

Jonathan Duke - Human - level 0

Class: None

Attributes: 6 STR, 3 AGI, 4 END, 3 VIT, 7 INT, 6 CAP, 6 SPW

Description: Having recently come out of university with a major in Ethnic Studies, Jonathan was about to start his first job when the world changed irrevocably. He is now trying to survive by gathering supplies and building a small refugee camp with the people from his neighbourhood. Has yet to meet a single monster and can be easily be taken out with a swift jab or spell at the neck, heart, or head, and even more easily immobilised by targeting the crotch or the tendons at the back of his ankles.

'Wow... this skill is really too much of a cheat. There's no privacy at all... also, I didn't really want to picture that last part. I wonder if this only works if you have higher Soul Power than the target... I think the screen that appeared when I unlocked Soul Power had said something like that. That's good, I won't have to worry about anyone spying on me.'

As I was thinking that I was also expanding my awareness to its limits, and soon a strange structure inside an underground parking lot caught my attention. It wasn't very big, at most a meter tall, but my awareness simply couldn't go through it, something I had never experienced before. I made a beeline for it, my max speed now almost as fast as the jog of a normal human, and for the first time was really grateful for being able to phase through the floor. Soon, I was in front of it.

'This has to be it.'

Thinking that, I formed my awareness into a tendril, something I was only capable of doing after long hours of practice, and touched the Class Crystal.

...

nothing happened.

No notification, no pop-up, no congratulations, nothing.

'What the hell? Work you goddamned thing!'

Annoyed, I tried to force the tendril into the thing, only for it to get repelled by a strong force.

Warning. Please do not try to force your soul into the Class Crystal, it is impossible. To utilise the Class Crystal, please touch its surface. Physically.

If I was already angry before the message, now I was seething. 'What the hell kinda discrimination against incorporeal beings is this!? Physical my ass! F*ck! Wait no, FUCK!! I'm not gonna censor my own fucking thoughts!'

After the metaphorical tantrum, I did my best to calm down and analyze the situation, but no matter how I looked at it, I always arrived at the same answer.

'Damn. Looks like I gotta go kill a dragon. It's unfortunate, but I'm going to be stuck at level 10 until then.'

As expected, killing... no, finding a dragon was easier said than done. Since the day I set out from the plains, over a month had passed. I didn't know the exact time, because whenever I inspect monsters from a certain point the age stopped showing up as days and changed to '1 month', and there were no other ways to count days when you barely notice the difference between daytime and nighttime. I had crossed the plains and swampland, gone through rivers and mountains, but the highest-ranked creature I had encountered had been of the 4th Rank. It was a giant, rock-skinned turtle with a small island on its caparace that apparently reigned over the entire swampland, but even that big thing had only withstood my soul for under a minute before its brain turned into mush.

Well, at least I got an achievement, [Slayer of the Powerful], for killing a foe 100 levels over my own, which increased all my stats by another 10%. It was laughably easy for me, but in 'normal' circumstances, you'd either need extreme lack or a ton of wealth to hire someone powerful to carry you.

Still, the fact that something so strong died so quickly made me realise that not any dragon would do, I most likely needed a 2nd Rank one.

I was recalling my journey to keep me busy as I climbed a mountain (more like flew up it though) which would put even the Everest to shame, when I suddenly felt the world shudder and mountainous piles of snow fly down the cliffside from above.

Ignoring the snow, I immediately perked up. 'That... that's gotta be the fabled dragon roar right!? Come on! This has gotta be it!'

I flew so fast up the mountain that I made a new speed record (about the speed of an athlete running, but upwards), and finally got to the place where the roar seemed to have come from.

As expected, there was a giant cave there. I entered, fully expecting it to be decked out with treasure chests and piles of golds and silver, but I found none of that. 'It makes sense. The dragon had no time to collect anything, after all.' Still, I was not discouraged, as the thing I had come for, the dragon, was here.

It was a giant, 40-odd-meter-long lizard with silver blue scales that reflected- no, they somehow emitted a pale light (that I could only detect with my radiation detection).

Two marble-white horns that would be taller than any man adorned the sides of its forehead, and its four strong legs were each tapered off into five fingers with equally white claws. It had folded, bat-like wings running down its back, and I could guess that when extended they would measure no less than 15 meters long. Each. With each breath it produced a strong vacuum and then let out a gush of freezing wind (judging based on how slow the air molecules vibrated)

Its eyes were closed. The beast was sleeping. Then, the roar before... Was it just a snore!?

Recovering from being mind blown, I cast [Inspect] on the magestic beast. 'Please give me the full description.'

Zefrass Whitehorn - Elder Ice Dragon - 2nd Rank - level 0

Element: I wonder what it could be???

Attributes: 3523 STR, 2679 AGI, 4347 END, 2811 VIT, 2508 INT, 2783 CAP, 3204 SPW

Description: Quite literally the peak of the food chain. This majestic, strong and nigh-unkillable creature can fly through the skies and unleash powerful ice magic instinctively through their breath, horns and even claws to combine it with physical attacks. No one knows what they would turn into upon hitting max level, but you better pray for that to never, ever happen.

As for their weaknesses... unless you manage to get eaten by it in one piece and without turning into a popsicle and ravage its insides, getting past those scales with physical or magical attacks will be very hard. Also no, there is no metal that specifically counters them. jeez.

As I recovered from the sheer might of this thing, only two thoughts went through my mind; 'It seems The System has a knack for sarcasm,' and...

'If this body doesn't do the trick, nothing will.'