The mausoleum looked too small for the four lonely tombs that contained the first bodies of those fallen in Kay’s services as members of the Blood Guard. It also looked too small for what Kay knew would one day be rows upon rows of stone boxes covering still bodies. They would expand when it became necessary, and Kay also knew that this place would one day have some kind of somber and meaningful name, thought of to use as one single epithet to describe a place of honor and mourning. As he stood there, staring down at the four brand-new nameplates that glinted in the light of the magical lamps with each breath that he took, the third thing he knew was that he would grow to hate every addition to this place even more than he hated the first ones.

He heard Eleniah whisper a quick greeting to his detail, who were standing a respectful distance away near the entrance, and she walked up behind him slowly, the quiet sounds of her footsteps echoing faintly in the still room. She reached up one hand and tightly gripped his shoulder.

“I know…” Kay’s voice broke, and he trailed off into silence, clenching his fists tight.

She said nothing, giving him time.

“I know that it wasn’t my selfishness that led to this. I understand that we went out there to remove a threat to our people and to give us space to grow and thrive. We also went out there to make me stronger, to let me level my Skills so I could tier up my Class. But it wasn’t in some power-hungry grasping at more and more for me; it’s for them.” He swept his arm back as he gestured at the city above them. “The more powerful I am, the safer they’ll be because the more powerful I am, the less anyone will want to fuck with us! I want to be stronger so I can be a better leader and a better protector because there will be problems and threats in the future. In the near future even.” He took a deep breath and dropped his gaze from staring up at the ceiling of the mausoleum to the four nameplates again, “I didn’t set out to lead them to their deaths. But they died in my service, under my leadership, and-“ He choked on a sob, his chest heaving as he forced out the words, “-and it sure as hell feels like I killed them myself!”

Eleniah stepped closer and wrapped him in a hug as he desperately tried not to cry. He felt her wave one of her arms before returning it to wrap around his shoulders, and he could barely hear the sound of his detail slowly shuffling out of earshot.

“It’s okay.”

He bent almost in half as the sobs broke free, and tears began to trail down his face and splash onto the clean stone floor of the newly created resting place for the Blood Guard’s fallen. Alone with his friend and mentor, he cried and mourned the four people that had died trying to kill the two Ancients and the fallen that he knew would someday join them here.

Eventually, he wiped his eyes, stood up straight, and took a moment to hug Eleniah back. “I’m… Well, I can deal.”

“Alright.” She stepped back and peered up at him. “What are you going to do now?”

“I’m going to keep pushing towards tier five.” He confirmed, balling his hand into a fist again, but this time in determination. “What I said before was true; the stronger I get, the safer my people are. Another tier five would have turned that battle into a cakewalk! So I mourn those that we’ve lost, and I keep moving forward.” He schooled his face and turned towards the exit, Eleniah close on his heels.

“What’s first, then?”

“Where else but where we started? Blood Manipulator and Blood Shaper are both at level thirty-nine, so we’ll get those to forty first, then go from there.”

╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦

Kay saw the notification light blinking in the corner of his eye and mentally opened it with a thought. He read it with half a mind, most of his focus on the sculpture he was making. He wasn’t the most artistic person in existence, but he wasn’t the worst either, and he hoped that his practice of making life-like statues of people would translate to making simulacra as well.

Since he wasn’t paying attention, it took him a second to read through to realize what the notification said. When he did realize what he was reading, he jumped from his seat, and the gently floating, slowly forming red statue of Murunel dropped to the floor and splashed all over.

“Hey!” His model shrieked indignantly, “Why’d you do that!? I’ve got blood all over my scales now!” She pulled the single sheet that she’d finally agreed to cover herself with when Kay had refused her demand of letting her model nude and wiped some of the blood off her arms. “What the hell Kay? …Kay?”

Kay didn’t even hear her or feel the cooling blood dripping off his face and clothes. All he could focus on were the three lines of text on the screen in front of him.

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

- Skill: Blood Manipulation has reached level 40!

- Workable Class Confluence of Minimum Two Tier Four Classes Achieved!

-Tier Five Class Available!

- Class: Blood Controller Available!

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

Murunel trepidatiously stepped around the gathering pools of blood, trying not to let it get on her bare feet, and cautiously poked Kay’s cheek. “Kay? Are you alright?”

He slowly opened his mouth and murmured, “Tier five Class available…”

“What!” Murunel shrilly shrieked right in his ear, loudly enough to startle him out of his own shock. He jerked away from her and watched as she started jumping up and down in excitement! “That’s fantastic! You finally got there! And only in a month! Look at it! Look at it!”

Kay was having trouble looking away from a specific spot, which had a “those” instead of an “it”. “What?”

“The Class! You get to look at the description of the tier five Classes you earn and the Class Skill they come with!”

“Oh…”

“Well, go on! Why aren’t you…” She followed the direction of his gaze to where he was looking, then back up at him with a smirk. “Oh, I guess I’m distracting you. Well, can’t have that, not now. She pulled the sheet over her, making a rough toga, before sauntering over to his side and nudging him with her hip. “Read the description already.”

“Right, right.” He turned his focus onto the last line of the notification, and a new screen he hadn’t seen before popped up.

[####################################]

View Tier Five Class Option?

Yes/No

Warning! Tier Five Class Options Must Be Accepted or Denied following Viewing of Description or Within One Full Day of Receiving the Option or the Class Will Automatically be Rejected! Should A Tier Five Class be Rejected a Full Level of Experience in the Associated Skills Must be Earned for All Classes!

[####################################]

“What’s up with that?” Kay muttered.

“With what?”

“The warning about the time limit and having to choose to take the class or not. It seems a bit… I don’t know, out of character?”

“Oh! I asked one of the Elders in my family about that once. According to him, it used to be possible to hold onto an option and then pick it right in the middle of a fight or something similar and get a sudden boost of power that your enemies didn’t know was possible. Then one day, you suddenly couldn’t do that anymore, and the time limit was there.”

“A balancing patch, huh?” He mentally set aside the continuously interesting topic of the System as a system and mentally pushed the “Yes” button.

[————————————————————]

Class: Blood Controller (Combination of Blood Manipulator + Blood Shaper)

- Blood is yours to Control. Not life, not hearts, not the ephemeral connection between the members of a family, but physical blood itself. Change the being of blood, the very nature of it, and have it still remain blood, which has become your armor, your weapons, and your tools. Manipulate, shape, maneuver, influence, wield, and above all, Control Blood as you see fit.

Class Skill: Control Blood

[————————————————————]

He focused on reading the Class Skill description.

[————————————————————]

Skill: Control Blood (Level N/A)

- Blood, specifically blood not in a living being, is yours. Do with it as you will within the range of your powers. This passive Skill gives the user a massive increase in the efficiency and power of the Skills Manipulate Blood and Shape Blood, allowing the user to use less mana for all actions, increases the range of both Skills significantly, and increases the durability of all objects created with Shape Blood. Also, this Skill expands what is considered “blood” when the user converts blood between different states of matter, allowing the control of gaseous “blood” and “plasmatic” blood. Higher levels of this Skill improve mana efficiency and increase range and efficiency.

[————————————————————]

“So? So? What’s it like?” Murunel demanded.

“It’s… great? It makes me stronger in basically every way in regards to the two Classes that combine to make it.”

“Well, that’s kind of the point. What’s the Class Skill like?”

“Uh, one sec.” He grabbed all the blood off of himself, the floor, and Murunel and used it to reach out to the door of his private training room, one of the multiple ones he now had.

A moment after he knocked, one of his detail stuck her head in the door. “My lord?”

“Send someone to get Eleniah. Priority for her to come, please, and thank you.”

“Yes, my lord.”

He turned back to Murunel, “Sorry, she should probably hear about it before I decide.”

She grinned back at him, “No problem, you’re right that your teacher and mentor should help you pick out your tier five Class. But I get the privilege of hearing about it before she does! Spill!”

“Alright!” He laughed, “It’s called… wait one sec.” He dashed over to a small panel on the wall with a few glowing symbols on it. He double-checked the ones that controlled the various privacy and anti-eavesdropping spells and wards that covered his training room and nodded when he saw they were all working.

Murunel pouted at him as he walked back.

“Just being safe! Anyways, it’s called Blood Controller, and like I said, it’s a direct upgrade to Blood Manipulator and Blood Shaper, which are the two Classes for it. The Class Skill is Control Blood, which is a passive. It would decrease the mana cost of everything I do with both Skills, increases the range of both of them ‘significantly’, and makes everything I make with Blood Shaper stronger. According to the description, it would also let me make and control blood gas and plasma along with the liquid and solid blood I can already do.”

“That is pretty great.” Murunel mused, scratching at one of her horns as she thought about it. “Obviously, you’re aiming to make something with more Classes to get the best final Class possible, but if that doesn’t make the cut, I’d very heavily recommend grabbing that one afterward.” She glanced over with a sly grin and nudged him with her elbow, “Especially since you’re a fancy pants Class Line Progenitor that can snap easily free up a bunch of Class slots and get a lot of tier five Classes faster than anyone else!”

Kay froze as her words sunk in. “Oh. Oh shit.”

“What?”

“Have you ever had a moment where you’d realized something in the past and knew what people meant, and then it hits you that you hadn’t actually understood until that very moment.”

“What did you realize?”

“I’m going to be absolutely fucking terrifying! Like so beyond terrifying!”

Murunel threw back her head and laughed. “Of course you are! It’s going to be awesome!”

“That’s what Eleniah’s been saying, but you guys are also on my side.”

With that, the aforementioned elven teacher stepped past the Blood Guard, who held the door open. “What’s going on that you sent someone to come get me so damn urgently?” She asked, annoyed, as she headed towards the pair, mostly focused on a few loose sheets of paper she was reading. She stopped a few feet from them and looked up, “Actually, we can come back to that. Why is Murunel basically naked?”