Chapter 67. Both [The class would be based upon the skills you have selected throughout your journey.] [Do you wish for both classes to advance at the same time?] [Yes/No] There were no options this time. The 'Records' said that the classes would be given based upon the skills that I had selected previously, and I had no reason to not believe it. If the system did not know something it would simply show '???', never had it lied or given false information, it could but I doubted that it would. And if there was an option to level up both at the same time, it shouldn't have any negatives of doing so. I sat down with my legs folded and selected 'Yes', and everything blacked out. My senses were muddled, I couldn't tell exactly what I was feeling but it was comfortable. It felt like I was submerged in hot-lukewarm water, something you would imagine being in a womb would be like. I tried opening my eyes, but they refused to. Even if my eyes stay shut, I knew what was surrounding me. A thick crimson-red liquid covered me, there were black shades present harmoniously mixing in with the red. A seed floated before, the same seed that was present in my mind palace. The runes that used to revolve around it now stood still. Some were in groups, while the others stood alone. The ones in the group appeared to be broken, waiting for me to piece them together. The ones that were left alone looked incomplete, a small part of something big. And so I did. First were four black runes, they were already arranged and just had to be brought together. My hands didn't move so I tried to focus, and willed the runes to join. Four red black strings, they were made of mana, touched one rune each and moved them closer to their other counterparts. The strings stopped pushing them once they were close enough and receded. The runes were now attracting each other, coming closer. And when they touched, they fused giving birth to a bigger, more complex rune. As this happened the egg started shining, it was not blinding but enough to gain my attention. A rune was being engraved onto its surface, a rune similar to the newly formed one. It looked exactly the same, but this rune on the egg felt more ancient. It had a certain depth to its aura, something far grander than those two people I had met in the trial. There were five more groups, two groups with three runes, two groups with two runes, and the last group with four runes. I then tried fusing the remaining groups and every time a new rune was created, it was engraved on the seed. The first three groups all had red runes, seven runes had been used up to create three new runes. Now one of the triplets and the last group consisting of four runes remained, but there was something odd about them. The bigger groups consisted of runes that had a greyish color, while the smaller group had two black and one red. There were still many singular runes left and if I remembered correctly, there were too many runes present. In my mind palace, 16 runes revolved around the seed. 8 black and 8 red, but here there were 8 additional grey runes. The four strings moved and fused the group of transparent runes, but this time I felt a chunk of energy leave me. Another rune was engraved on the seed, and the space left was slowly filling up. Three of the strings moved and tried to fuse the last batch, but this time there was some resistance. I concentrated more and forced them to fuse, they did but an even larger part of my energy was gone. I was starting to feel tired, and I knew that there was only one chance left before I would fall unconscious. There were many singular runes left, none of them were in a group. Maybe I could fuse them like the last time, forcing them but I did not know if they would succeed. The groups were formed because there was something similar between each element, rune. If I forced the fusion and something weird came out of it, it would be engraved on the seed and I did not want something unstable to ruin the whole thing. I looked towards the strings and had an idea. I looked towards the largest and the most complex grey rune and guided a string towards it. Instead of making the rune fuse with something else, I made the rune absorb the string. The string slowly reduced in length and the grey rune started growing, but the rune still required more energy. I led another string to the rune and fed it. This time it was satisfied. A new rune was created, it was both red and black. This rune did not appear on the seed, but I felt the seed change. It needed more, the seed saying that I still had two more strings left. I selected one of the black runes, there were only two black runes remaining from my 16 class skills. The last string took was absorbed a grey rune. The black rune grew, parts that were previously not there forming out of thin air. The grey rune also saw similar growth but like the last grey rune, it did not change color, staying grey. Two more runes were now engraved on the seed. The seed had no more space left, and once the last two runes were completely left it vibrated. Every last ounce of energy had left my body. My eyes could close any second but kept them open, I had to, seeing the series of events that took place next. The seed started rotating, it became the center of a whirlpool as the water that submerged was absorbed by it. The force that pulled that water in did not affect me in any way. I stayed there looking at this spectacle. It was like a universe. The seed was the center, while the occasional black spots shone brightly in the red sea. But something that I did not expect occurred. A small white spot appeared in the center of this universe and started to absorb the ocean, I could tell this was not supposed to happen because the seed fought for the liquid. I remembered something similar happening last time. The white egg that the snake eye man had given me. I let it absorb a little bit, but the speed, at which it was sucking up would leave the seed famished. The seed was almost done, and there would be some extra liquid left. It had heard my request last time, so I once again tried to convey that it would have to wait a little more. That it could have whatever was left after the seed was full. The egg hesitated and slowed down. 'Hurry up.' I heard a whisper as the egg stopped. I sighed and said, "Yeah, I will." The egg stopped rotating once it was full and started to release a string similar to the four strings I used to fuse the runes. They wrapped around the seed and formed a perfect sphere. The sphere now wanted a place to go. I had no idea where to send to it, but one place might be suitable. The place where everything that entered my body had decided to reside at. My Heart.