Chapter 6: Classes

I took Sylvia to where I left the children and we saw them sleeping in the clearing. Sylvia's eyes softened once she saw them and she turned to me, "Where did you all come from?"

"There is a mine a few leagues west of here. We were held captive by the slave trader Dante. He doesn't know that we escaped yet, so if you put the children in different homes then you shouldn't have any problems with him." I answered before I turned around to start leaving, "I'm grateful for this. I hope you take good care of them."

"You're not even going to say goodbye?" Sylvia asked, surprised. "You saved their lives. You should at least tell them that you are leaving."

"I already explained things to one of them. You won't have any trouble with them not trusting you," I said as I jumped to the branch of a tree and looked back at Sylvia, "And don't think we are one big family just because we were all slaves together. We were just victims of the same circumstance."

And with that, I left the clearing and the children behind.

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I jumped from tree to tree through the forest as I made my way toward the north. Now that I activated my system, there was no need for me to stall in moving toward the next phase of my plan.

Obviously, the only thing that was in my mind right now was vengeance. I knew that the threat of the Others was still very real, but they were now a second priority. I would make sure that the heavens suffered at my hands before the Others arrive. I never forgive a betrayal.

But, in order for me to stand a chance against the heavens, I first needed to get stronger. In my previous life, I was able to grow from a slave to one of the strongest rankers in only five years, and I climbed to the top of the tower before I was thirty. No one else has ever dreamt of doing something like that, but in this life, I planned to destroy that record.

To do that, I need to first gain back the source of my dark magic from my previous life. The Rare Artifact known as [Heart of Darkness].

I stopped jumping across the trees and I jumped down as I reached where I was going. The area in front of me was a small clearing surrounded by trees. The sun was already rising and it gave me a clear view of the old man sitting in front of a hut in the middle of the clearing. He was using a stick to draw on the sand and he didn't look up until I was standing right in front of him.

"Are you lost, boy?" the old man asked as he looked up at me with squinted eyes. I shook my head at him and he chuckled. "Then you must not know who I am."

"The old man of the forest. I've heard about you." I said, "They call you a demon that kills anyone that comes into your home."

"If you've heard the rumors, then why are you here?" The old man asked as he continued drawing on the floor.

"I want it," I answered, and the old man immediately stopped drawing as he looked up at me. His squinted eyes opened slowly and he stood up. He was tall and he towered over me with his height and looked down at me, "I want your heart." I continued.

"Are you sure?" he asked, "Many have tried and many have failed. I will not stop you if you wish to continue."

I nodded and the man turned and told me to come with him. He opened the door of the hut and told me to enter. There was no light inside the hut and once the man shut the door behind me, I was left in darkness.

Classes were one of the most important things for rankers. The class that you choose at the start of your journey as a ranker is the class that you will use for the rest of your life. There are six main magic classes in the tower. Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Light, and Dark.

Most rankers - like those born into strong families – already know their classes once they are born because their magic is hereditary. But for many rankers, you will only be given one chance to choose a class based on the first set of skills that you acquire. Many people have chosen the wrong class and ended up regretting it forever.

You can say that your class will determine the sort of ranker you can become. The class you have will give you a great boost in power based on the skills you have. For example, if a ranker with a fire class uses a fire-based skill, it could be almost ten times stronger than when a ranker with a water class uses that same skill. The difference is because of the class that they are in. It will be the same if a ranker in a fire class uses a water skill. It will be significantly weaker than a ranker in a water class using the same skill.

This trial is a very popular horror tale among the rankers on the lower floors. They say that there is a rare skill hidden inside this hut, but anyone that tried to take it was never seen again. I also believed that tale n my last life, and in my desperation to gain power, I decided to come and try. And it turned out that they were right.

The fire, water, air, and earth classes are very common in the temple. Almost every ranker that you will meet will have a variant of one of these four classes. But the light and dark classes are very rare. The only place I saw the light class was when I came in contact with the heavens and all the saints and angels living there. And I have only seen the dark class being used by the others that began the war ten years from now.

A purple light floated across the room in front of me. It zipped around the room leaving a purple trail behind it before it stopped in front of me and floated over my body, "Are you going to do this or not?" I asked and I could hear the darkness preen as it heard me talk. The darkness seemed surprised by my lack of fear. Everyone else that saw it always showed fear.

I stepped closer to it and it swayed from side to side jovially as it preened again. Why would I be afraid of a power that was already mine? "Search my heart," I said to it and the darkness wasted no time as it shot into my chest. I stumbled from the force but I caught myself from falling and waited for it to search my heart as much as it wanted.

After a few minutes, the purple light shot out again and it raced towards my face and 'stared' at me in excitement. The darkness had seen my deepest desires and it now knew who I was and what I wanted to do. If it was not satisfied, then it would have killed me on the spot, but from the way it preened happily, I could tell it was more than satisfied.

[The Heart of Darkness sees great potential in you and it wishes to bond with you. This process is irreversible and it will lead to you losing your human heart. Do you accept?]

"I accept," I said and the purple light immediately shot into my chest again. This time, I felt it crush my heart and take its place and I coughed out some blood into my hand. I forgot how rough that little thing is. It could have been a little gentle with my heart.

[The Heart of Darkness has merged with you.]

[You will gain the following perks.]

[100% Dark Magic affinity]

[50% increase in magic power]

[20% decrease in Magic Power consumption while casting dark spells]

[20% increase in drop rate for dark magic skills and artifacts]

[90% decrease in Light magic affinity]

[Th new class option [Dark] had become available. Do you wish to equip this class? This choice is irreversible.]

[The Heart of Darkness is threatening you with death if you do not choose the [Dark] class]

I felt the heart of darkness glaring at me once that last prompt came up and I glared right back at it. I was going to choose the dark class anyway, but that does not mean that it had a right to threaten me into it.

"If you ever threaten me again, I'll go straight to the church and become a priest," I said and the heart of darkness immediately gasped like it just heard the most blasphemous thing. I glared harder and the [Heart of Darkness] finally preened softly as an apology and looked away. I nodded and accepted the [Dark] class. I needed to set who was in charge right now before we continued. At least the Heart of Darkness now knows that it cannot just threaten me into doing whatever it wanted.

[User: Jason Black]

[Class: Dark Magician]

[Rank: F-]

[Strength: 1]

[Agility: 2]

[Stamina: 1]

[Magic Power: 2 (+1)]

Skills: [Magic Control - F (0.1%)]