Justin closed the portal behind them with a breath of relief. Andrew looked around at the large circular chamber they'd arrived in, particularly the ring of guards surrounding them, weapons at the ready, at least until the portal closed and they relaxed. The leader chuckled at Justin's obvious relief. "Welcome home, Master Thyme. Another productive mission, I see. A new elf this time?" A clearly feminine voice echoed out from behind the helmet.

Justin scowled at the woman's amusement. "Not an elf, no. A Changeling. And you wouldn't be laughing if you were the one who had to jump into that thrice damned forest all the time!"

"If the forest makes you this nervous, why did you take the position?" A younger sounding guard asked curiously.

Justin sniffed. "I took it because that damned forest didn't make me nervous until after I took this position! Do you know how many times I've arrived to find a fresh Uplift standing over the corpse of someone even I would hesitate to pick a fight with? Someone who could destroy me with a twitch of their pinky finger?!? Too many times! That forest is a deathtrap! If it wasn't the sole barrier between us and the monsters, I'd suggest we burn it to the ground and salt the earth so it never returns!"

"It's only happened four times in the last decade." The leader commented, the eye roll clear in her tone. "I would hardly call that common."

"Common enough given the amount of time I spend jumping in and out of the cursed place." Justin grumbled under his breath.

The leader snorted, turning her focus towards Andrew. "A Changeling, huh? I'm surprised she's noble. Aren't they usually monstrous?"

It was Justin's turn to chuckle. "Oh yes, and you wouldn't believe how much it pissed Levi off. It almost makes it worth the risk of entering that damn forest." He shook his head. "However, I believe it is time to hand this young one over for orientation." He patted Andrew on the shoulder, pushing him gently towards the door.

The leader grunted, gesturing for the guards to open the door, letting the two of them leave before closing it behind them. Justin quickly walked ahead, leading Andrew down a long hallway and up a few flights of stairs before they arrived at a large… station? Whatever it was, it was full of more of those circular platforms, which people continually walked on and off of as portals opened and closed behind them. Wherever they were coming from appeared to be private, as there was another set of guards at the entrance, which Justin ignored as he quickly walked off towards a particular circle.

"You can't use personal portals inside the city." Justin explained as they arrived at the circle, waiting for the next portal to open. "Too chaotic, you understand. So we have to make do with the city portals."

Andrew nodded in understanding. It was the same with the portals back on Earth. Even though any Tiger could make their own portal whenever they wanted, they had to use the official portals anyway, because random portals would make it harder to detect when something dangerous made its way to Earth.

The portal opened not long after, and the two stepped through into a lobby of some sort. Justin led Andrew past what appeared to be the public area, up a flight of stairs, and into a small, but comfortable looking office. Justin went behind the desk and fell into a comfortable looking office chair. "It's good to be back." He sighed in a tone of sheer relief, taking a moment to relax before sitting up and gesturing for Andrew to take a seat. "Please, sit. I've already put in a request for your personal orientation guide, but it will take a few hours for them to find someone and send them over, so feel free to ask any questions you like in the meantime. I'm sure you have plenty." He finished with a chuckle.

Andrew took a seat, sorting through the chaos that was whirling through his mind, before settling on the most innocuous question he could think of at the moment. "What is this place?"

"This is the grand city Nobilis, the capital of the entire noble realm, where every noble race exists in peace and equality!" Justin announced grandly, spreading his arms. "Specifically, this is the city hall, which is where the majority of the city's administration takes place, including the retrieval and integration of new uplifts. Even more specifically, this is my office, where I twiddle my thumbs until it's time to venture forth into the wilds in response to a fresh uplifting signature. Typically only happens three or four times a week, so it is a relatively relaxing job, if not for that unholy forest."

Andrew blinked. "That many new races are born every week?"

"Ha!" Justin let out a short laugh. "No, no. The majority of uplifts fit into one of the established races, with maybe a minor variation or two. An elf is an elf, even if there's never been a swamp elf before. Even you fit nicely into the changeling race, though I've never heard of an Essence Changeling before. No, truly unique races are rare. I've only encountered a single one in my entire time in this position and I was lucky." He paused. "Now, that isn't to say these individual variations aren't useful. A normal changeling, or at least a normal noble changeling, can only alter their appearance. Your ability to steal traits… Well, Levi had a point when he said it was monstrous. Even then, the theft is usually temporary, or locked into a certain form. For you to simply have the traits… Well, let me assure you, there will be many people who will be very interested in helping your race grow."

Andrew frowned. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"Well, not to be excessively crass, but…" Justin coughed awkwardly. "We will ensure that you have ample opportunity for… procreation."

Andrew's frown deepened. "How does that work?!?"

Justin sighed. "Well, you see, we noble races have… standards, so we obviously can't just give you mates. That would be a sapient rights violation. Freedom of choice and whatnot. So instead, we put you in a position to find… volunteers. Parties, blind dates, hobby groups, adventure teams, anyway to help you develop… connections with other people. From there it's simply a matter of letting nature take its course. Of course, the details will be handled by your orientation guide. Just don't try to force yourself on anyone and you'll be fine."

Not exactly what Andrew was concerned about, but it answered his question nonetheless. He didn't have to worry about the noble races just giving him women to fuck. That would have been awkward. This was more like the Bonded, where they were interested in his children and willing to set him up to be successful, but they weren't going to force anything. Of course, that begged the question of how he was supposed to handle his relationship with Cathryn and Li Jing in this situation… could he develop other relationships in this world? He was still technically the same person, even with the different body… would being with someone else be cheating or no? Andrew considered the question for a moment, before shaking his head. That wasn't something he could decide on his own. He'd need to talk it over with them.

"Now, you're probably wondering what the deal is with your new system, aren't you?" Justin continued, more to change the subject than anything else. "To start, we have your race. Each time your race levels up, you will receive attribute points equal to your race's rank, plus one, times five. So a rank one would receive ten AP per level, a rank two would receive fifteen, and so on…" He paused, narrowing his eyes at Andrew. "On second thought, don't worry about the math for now. I'll make sure your orientation guide knows to sign you up for a basic education course." Andrew's expression twisted at that. He knew how to do simple math! "Anyway, the point is, each time you level up your race, you get points to spend to make yourself stronger and you level up your race by defeating beasts, or monsters, or even other noble races, though that's illegal in most cases. Don't go hunting other nobles, or it will end badly for you." Justin warned seriously.

"Now, you also have a Class, but unlike your race, your Class won't level up from simple killing. In order to level up your Class, you have to use your skills, and you gain attributes based on your Class Skills. The better your Class Skills, the more attributes you gain." Justin continued. "Now, unlike your race-" He paused, blinking at Andrew for a moment. "Uh, unlike most people's race, your Class is variable. You can reset your Class at any time, and you can even gain multiple Classes, though you can't use them at the same time. Any attributes and traits you gain from a Class will only be available when you're using that Class. Now, most people keep their Classes fairly similar, because while you lose attributes and traits, the skills you've trained are still just as effective. For example, all my Classes revolve around Space and Time, because that's what I know, and that's what I'm good at. I could make a Class that focused on Fire, but none of the skills I've learned have anything to do with Fire, so I would have to start from the bottom and build my way back up to my current capabilities, which would take time. Time that would be better spent expanding the capabilities I already have with Space and Time. It'd be even worse if I attempted to pick up a weapons Class. My race attributes are built for magic, which means I could at best be a mediocre warrior. So don't take your Classes variability as an excuse to be good at everything. You'll just end up mediocre."

Justin went on to explain the stats and how they worked, and after briefly checking to make sure they were the same as before, Andrew tuned him out to consider the differences between the monstrous status and the noble status. The biggest change seemed to be the fact that he didn't have to worry about leveling up anymore, since his Class needed him to put in a concerted effort, and it didn't matter how quickly he leveled up his race. That was nice, but… Andrew frowned. Was this better or worse than his monstrous status?

Justin had just finished explaining the difference between General Skills and Class Skills, adding that he got Skill Points by leveling up his Class almost as an afterthought. "So, any questions?"

"Is the monstrous status better than the noble one?" Andrew asked.

Justin blinked, before leaning back and letting out a long breath. "That is a matter of debate. Many, many debates. Long debates." He explained. "The monstrous status combines race and Class so you level up both at the same time, using either method. The drawback is that their skills tend to be underdeveloped, but their stats… even with tier one skills, the weakest monstrous race can outpace the stat gain of a rank five race by level ten. If they put even a little work into their skills, they can do it even sooner. The true geniuses can become truly ridiculous. Of course, if our Class is the same level as them, that difference cancels out, but it takes time to level your Class to any decent level, while the monstrous races just need to spend a bit of time hunting. It doesn't help that the noble races are the perfect prey for them. They get all the experience from both race and Class. But, back to your original question, in the short-term, the monstrous status has more advantages, while in the long-term, the noble status generally wins out. Unless they focus solely on leveling like a Class… but even then, without the Class reset, their early gains are generally lacking."

Andrew leaned back in his chair. So that's why the tribe was so focused on him. Anyone who had the potential to actually develop their skills was necessary to stand up against higher level members of the noble races. To face the raiders that sought to wipe them off the face of the planet. Andrew's expression twisted. And he'd just gone and disappeared on them. On Corek! He was not going to handle this well. He wondered if they'd find the clearing. His clothes were still there, as was the elf's corpse. And the bear. It wasn't that far from their territory. There was a good chance a hunting party would go through there at some point. What would they think happened? The bear obviously died to him, while the elf clearly died to some large beast… would they think the bear killed the elf then he killed the bear? But then what would they think happened to him? Hmmm… maybe they'd think he killed the bear, which drew the attention of another, stronger beast that killed him before digging out the elf and killing her before evolving. Or just leaving. Did they know about Evolution? The Shaman hadn't mentioned it, but the Shaman didn't mention a lot of things. Honestly, he kinda sucked as a teacher. Great at making a young goblin feel at home, but not teaching.

The real question was, what was he going to do about it? If he was lucky, in a few months he could hit level ten and get the Voidwalker Class again, pick up the portal trait and head back to the tribe. Using his False Status trait, he could appear just as he was before he left, make up some crazy story about what happened… they'd probably buy it? Maybe? However… Now that he wasn't a goblin, Andrew didn't really want to support what they did. He definitely didn't want to hurt them, but he didn't want to be a part of a tribe that by necessity kidnapped women and did… that to them. He wanted to make sure Corek and the Shaman were okay, but otherwise… he didn't really want to be involved. So should he even visit? At least… not as himself.

Andrew shook his head. That could wait until later. For now, he should focus on figuring out what's up with this place and leveling up his Class so he could actually do whatever it was he decided to do. And a good place to start would be actually getting a Class, right? Andrew pulled up his status, hitting the plus next to his Class. Immediately, his Class slot was filled with [Trainee] and he gained a single skill point. He also gained a long list of General Skills. He was about to put a point into Rest, when he paused. Sitting at the top of the list were three skills.

General Skill - Insightful Self Examination: 23 [4]

General Skill - Swift Kick Counter: 24 [2]

General Skill - Precise Navigation: 13 [3]

Andrew blinked. Was this… could he just buy those skills? That was… just a point cheaper, actually. Plus, he needed to buy a skill to level up… and if he waited to get even two stat points, he'd miss a level's worth of stats, let alone waiting for four… Did this actually help him at all? Andrew considered it for a moment. The biggest point was that just buying the skills wouldn't increase their tier, so he would probably be better served by rebuilding the skills again… maybe get them up to tier five? Probably not, but he should at least try.

Still… there was something he could do with this. He could spend his first skill point to pick up something to merge with Swift Kick Counter. Then he'd wait two levels and pick up Restful Meditation. Another two levels and he'd merge that with Concentrated Examination for Insightful Self Examination at level five. Another two levels to merge Swift Kick Counter with whatever skill he chose. Then Walk and another two levels for Precise Navigation at level ten, and hopefully Advancing his Class into Voidwalker again. He'd lose eight stat points overall, but he'd gain another… five? per level from whatever skill he merged with Swift Kick Counter, so it should be worth it. The question was what to actually merge it with…

Andrew scrolled through his skill list, considering which skill would be the best to merge with Swift Kick Counter. Punch would round out the skills, probably turning it into some kind of martial art. He could double up on Kick or Dodge to emphasize one or the other. Could he add Walk to give it some kind of travel aspect? That could be interesting, and it could pair well with his Voidwalker Class… It was a risk though. Not all skills could merge, and if Walk wouldn't merge with Swift Kick Counter… Well, he'd be right where he was before, actually, with his previous Class. No harm done, really. Plus, he could always reset his Class, and he'd have a second Class to build at some point as well… maybe the noble status wasn't so bad after all. Monstrous races were stuck with their skill choices. Noble races could experiment. That was a huge advantage at the upper levels. Though… it still took quite a bit of time to do all that leveling. Andrew shook his head as he spent the skill point on Walk. He just could not figure out which status was better.