“Ah!” Alistair cried out as he regained consciousness. The only thing in his brain was a primal urge to kill or be killed and he flailed around with useless limbs.

“Alistair! It’s okay, you’re home. We killed General Krazz and completed the Quest,” Alexandra said, forcibly pinning both of his arms down with her higher Strength. Alistair grew red as he realized what had happened, and that he had almost hit her with his wake-up throes.

“Sorry about that,” he apologized sheepishly. “My body must have still been in fight or flight mode. How long was I asleep? And how did we make it back to my house? You should have no idea where I live.”

“You’ve been knocked out for a good twelve hours. I was worried you were in a coma, to be honest. As for how I got you here, I was lost at first as well, but your Regional Map has a marker for your house. Never mind that, did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Reach level 15, doofus” she replied. “Once I selected a Class, my Health and Mana fully healed. Check out my new status screen.”

Name Alexandra Lykaios Species Superhuman I (Partially Evolved) Class Nature's Barbarian (Rare) Level 16 Health 311/311 Mana 65/65 Strength 108 Agility 33 Constitution 53 Endurance 29 Intelligence 19 Wisdom 17 Charisma 18 Badges "Premium Initiate", "Fledgling Strength", "Orc Slayer II", "Slayer of General Krazz"

Talents Nature's Fury - Rage Branch (I) Skills [Empower Weapon], [Inspect], [Contract], [Barbarian Rage], [Healing Touch] Quests None Achievements Conquer (II)

Alistair stared at the blue screen with wide eyes. There was almost too much information to process, so he went down each option one at a time. Alexandra had gained a new species, more than doubled her Health and Mana, and massively increased each stat while gaining two new skills and filling out her Talents section.

“Wow. I better get on that,” he said, opening up his own status screen. However, instead of his normal window, a red notification popped up.

WARNING: Corruption of file JX-12302, requesting backup, local instantiation FX-14752 … Processing… Backup denied, continue. //Compatibility test…98.6%, continue, reboot successful.

WARNING: Class restriction bypassed. [ERROR 516] //End ERROR. Complete.

The text appeared before his eyes, but Alistair wasn’t sure what to make of it. All he knew was that it didn’t sound good, and he opened his status screen with trepidation, expecting some horrible outcome like being reset to level 1. Instead, an odd sight greeted him.

Name Alistair Tan Species Superhuman I (Partially Evolved) Class None Subclass (HIDDEN) Arbiter of Justice (Legendary) Level 16 Health 143/143 Mana 97/97 Strength 31 Agility 36 Constitution 25 Endurance 23 Intelligence 34 Wisdom 19 Charisma 51 Badges "Premium Initiate", "Good Samaritan", "Slayer of General Krazz", "Deliverance of Justice", "Mythical Cultivator"

Talents None Skills [Mana Punch], [Eyes of Truth], [Dash] Quests [King Orc Hunt] Achievements Discovery (I), Dueling (I)

He gained the same “Slayer of General Krazz” Badge that Alexandra had, and a new Skill called [Dash] which was most likely what gave him the boost of speed he used in attacking Krazz in the forest. However, he was most focused on the new section under Class. He now possessed a Subclass called Arbiter of Justice, apparently of Legendary rarity, which sounded great. But the (HIDDEN) designator confused Alistair, and he opened up the Subclass section.

Subclass:

Arbiter of Justice (Legendary)

You have heeded the everlasting call and have been chosen as an Arbiter of Justice, to enforce the benevolent will of the Pure Dao. Purify your heart with mercy and love and destroy evildoers with absolute impunity. WARNING: Taking actions against the path of justice will result in harsh penalties.

Primary Attribute(s): Charisma

Bonus Stats: +20 Charisma, +2 Charisma per level, +5 Upgrade Points per level

--- Grants “Deliverance of Justice” Tier 1 Mythical Badge

--- Upgrades [Inspect] into [Eyes of Truth]

--- Opens Lawful Magistrate, Merciful Abbot, and Courtwalker Wanderer Talent Trees

Alistair stared at the screen in wonder. He still remembered observing the Class section of his screen back at level 1 with all of his friends. If the best rarity he could achieve for a normal Class was Rare, how coveted was a Legendary Subclass? The weird error messages and warnings made Alistair suspicious that something very strange was going on, and he felt it was best to not share the existence of his Arbiter of Justice Subclass with anyone, not even Alexandra. Until he got more information, it was just too risky.

The good news was Alistair was quite happy with the flavor text for his Subclass and the actions it encouraged. He had already been traveling the do-gooder path, and it looked like it was paying off in terms of opportunities. Not that he didn’t truly want to be a hero and good person from the depths of his heart, but it was just also nice to be handsomely rewarded for it.

While he was curious about the Talent Trees and his new Badge and Skill, it looked like he still had to select a normal Class. Alistair hurriedly opened up the Class section, ready to see his options.

Class:

Warrior (Common) - Primary Attribute(s): Strength and Constitution. There is strength in simplicity. Defeat your enemies in direct combat and refine your path of combat.

Acolyte (Common) - Primary Attribute(s): Intelligence. The Path of Magic is eternally high but begins with but a single step.

[Random] - Take your luck with one of hundreds of different classes provided by the Pathfinder AI at Premium Tier. Rarity capped at (Rare).

Monk (Common) - Primary Attribute(s): Wisdom and Charisma. Namo Amitābhāya. Achieve enlightenment and break the wheel of Samsara.

Magical Pugilist (Uncommon) - Primary Attribute(s): Agility and Intelligence. Strike your foes with fists full of Mana. The way of the fist requires a trail of fallen foes.

Assassin (Uncommon) - Primary Attribute(s) Agility. Become death incarnate. No one is above your sight, and no one is fast enough to evade your blade.

Alistair took in the page and considered his options. The guiding presence of the Pathfinder AI affirmed that he just needed to focus on one of the Classes to select it, which just left his part in making a choice. Random was far too risky, he could end up with a completely incompatible and terrible choice. What if there was a Class like Chef or Gardener?

He also rejected Warrior and Acolyte. They looked like Classes for people who didn’t have any other options, and the Common rarity also dissuaded him. Since he had Uncommon rarity choices, he might as well take them. The only thing that confused him was the Monk option. Nothing Alistair had accomplished or achieved in the last couple of hours screamed “Monk”. He supposed his massive increase of Charisma from Arbiter of Justice might have influenced the options, but he wasn’t planning on shaving his head and donning robes any time soon.

That left Magical Pugilist and Assassin, and after seeing Magical Pugilist, he knew that was the only choice. It was perfectly compatible with his system of fighting and his two highest attributes. Striking his opponents with fists full of Mana was literally his number one thing. Without any doubt, Alistair selected Magical Pugilist for his Class.

Congratulations on being the 8,175th person in the world to reach level 15! The first 10,000 users from FX-14752 to reach level 15 are candidates for becoming Prime Initiates, the greatest honor bestowed upon new planets to the Final Frontier Empire. At this point, you are likely extremely curious as to what has happened to your planet. You will now be shown a brief informational video.

The most beautiful woman Alistair had ever seen popped into his vision out of nowhere. She had black hair with the smoothest tan skin he had ever seen and wore a laced white dress that left nothing to the imagination.

“The location you understand to be your universe is in reality the territory of the Final Frontier Empire,” she said, and as she moved, Alistair could see she was some kind of projection as the light pierced her skin. He looked over to Alexandra, and she just smiled. Something similar had probably happened to her. “She is unable to see me, Alistair Tan of FX-14752. As I was saying, the Final Frontier Empire is just one polity of millions across the entire Multiverse. You heard me correctly. The totality of existence is impossibly vast and the likelihood of you ever even leaving this universe is infinitesimally small.”

She created a projection that zoomed out from Earth at a pace far exceeding the speed of light, showing the solar system, galaxy, galactic cluster and supercluster, and finally the whole universe. But she didn’t stop there, and Alistair’s mind could not even begin to comprehend the scale of the Multiverse. It just… kept going. The size difference between his universe and planet Earth was nothing compared to the difference between the Multiverse and a single universe.

“The power that you have received just the smallest taste of is known across the Multiverse as cultivation. The ambient energy of reality is known by many names: Qi, Ether, Aura, and due to the purification system of our Pathfinder AI, we call it Mana. As you level up, the Pathfinder continuously refines your body, mind, and soul with Mana, making you better in every conceivable way. The man who shamefully attacked your uninitiated world, Atavius Meloi, was a babe barely down his path of cultivation. That should help you to understand just how far the path to eternity is.”

The projection switched to an image of Atavius Meloi kowtowing before a muscular old man who radiated power even through the screen. Alistair knew immediately that the man could obliterate Earth with a single flick of a wizened finger.

“The end goal for all cultivators has been, is, and will always be to reach the Peak and secure eternity. What that entails is unique to each individual man or woman. However, these things are too far away to discuss in detail with fledglings like you. Let us move on to more pertinent details.”

She continued, “In case you were worried, all children 16 and under were exempt from [The First Step] Quest. Extensive testing proved humanoids of average mental disposition to work harder if they believed the youth of their planet was in danger. The monsters that you encountered over the course of the past day were bred in the Imperial heartlands and transported to your planet in order to test and improve your combat prowess. Their stats were adjusted to not be too difficult for you as baseline humanoids.”

“Over the course of the next month, you will be put through a series of Quests to determine who among you deserve to be Prime Initiates, the chosen few who either found lesser noble houses or are adopted into an existing noble house. Your performance will be graded and the individuals with the highest competence and rates of success will be greatly rewarded. In addition, certain areas of FX-14752 that were completely overwhelmed by the first monster wave will be turned into territory for existing factions to set up shop in preparation for complete initiation.”

She smiled at Alistair and wiped away her projection screen. “Now, please open your Class section.”

Alistair obliged the holographic lady.

Class:

Magical Pugilist (Uncommon)

Strike your foes with fists full of Mana. The way of the fist requires a trail of fallen foes.

Primary Attribute(s): Agility and Intelligence

Bonus Stats: +10 Agility, +7 Intelligence, +4 all other attributes, +2 Agility, Intelligence per level, +2 free attribute points per level, +10 Upgrade Points per level

--- Grants [Fighter’s Instinct]

--- Upgrades [Mana Punch] into [Mana Strike]

--- Opens Elemental Fighter, Monk of Order, and Chaos Assassin Talent Trees

--- Opens Body, Mind, and Soul Cultivation Talent Trees

--- Access to Soulnet

--- Access to System Store

“You will have to sort out each of your own idiosyncrasies. Talent Trees are the basis of individual cultivation. Classes will open new trees for you and allow you to select different traits, but there are other avenues to opening Talent Trees besides just your Class. Through cultivation you will improve your body, mind, and soul, removing the impurities that exist from all things separated from the Heavenly Dao. Both of these and many other aspects you can find on your status screen can be enhanced through Upgrade Points which are gained at every level, along with the rewards of some Quests. Upgrade Points can be used for Talent Trees, upgrading Badge slots, upgrading Badges, Skills, and even the status screen itself, if you want to get more in-depth information.”

End of informational video. You now have access to the Soulnet, a proprietary service for interstellar communication, and the System Store, for buying items. Please, if you have any questions, ask. I won’t answer.

Alistair couldn’t help but smirk at the last statement of the Pathfinder AI. The Final Frontier Empire were a bunch of assholes, but they decided to give their all-powerful machine sarcasm? Maybe it was trained on Earth’s data, to give it a sense of familiarity.

There were a lot of new things for him to go over, but the smallest statement from the voice at the end was the most interesting to him. As a member of the first 10,000 people to hit level 15, he would presumably be able to communicate with others who had done the same.

He allocated his 10 free stats with 5 to Agility, 3 to Constitution, and 2 to Endurance, and focused on opening up the Soulnet. It was certainly a long shot and he knew that he was very lucky with the circumstances that let him reach level 15 with 2 hours to spare in the first Quest, but this was the first time he had felt hope about his loved ones since the apocalypse. His sister was a legitimate genius and had a very adaptable personality. If anyone could do it, she could.

He would look at Badges, Skills, Talents, and Upgrade Points soon enough, and as he entered the Soulnet, the world transformed around him.