Congratulations!

  Unique Class selected:

  First Arcanist

  The moment I pick it, I’m overwhelmed by a rush of power and information, and I almost pass out again. Pins and needles spread through me, like when a limb wakes up after being asleep for too long.

  Only it’s everywhere, and getting stronger by the second.

  It permeates every fiber of my being, and just when its on the verge of being too much, it starts to fade as a slew new notices pop into view. But before I can read anything, I’m distracted by the wave of utter relief from the pain I feel all throughout my body. That, and the extreme discomfort as my bones slowly start to right themselves.

  Silent tears fall from my eyes and time passes as I let my concerns quite literally fade into nothing. Eventually, when the lack of pain is no longer enough to distract me, I look at the deluge of notices.

  I have notices. System notices. For me.

  Now that I’m not distracted by pain and my imminent death, it’s time to become a bad-ass Goddess.

  Eventually.

  Maybe.

  Okay, probably not, but still!

  I start working through the countless notices, starting with my four new active skills.

  Enhance Body

  Active, Body

  Use mana to enhance your body, granting an increase to Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity depending on how much mana regeneration is invested.

  For every 1% mana regeneration (max 50%) invested, increase all physical stats by 0.5% (max 25%).

  Arcane Strike

  Active, Body

  Imbue your hands and feet with arcane energy before releasing it into your target with each attack, disrupting mana and causing internal damage.

  Imbued effect ignores light armor and clothing.

  Can invest up to 1% of your total mana per strike.

  Mana Surge

  Active, Body

  A bounty of mana is part of your ever growing repertoire of tools.

  Expel a surge of excess mana all around you, temporarily disrupting spells and enchantments.

  Costs 10% of maximum Mana per use.

  Arcane Regulation

  Active, Body, Healing

  You are the master of your own body.

  Actively control your health and mana regeneration by reducing one to enhance the other, or even sharing your regeneration with others.

  Physical contact required to affect others, and doing so reduces effectiveness by 95%.

  Cannot regenerate lost limbs or brain damage.

  For a moment I just stare at them with a goofy grin on my face. They’re strong, but that’s to be expected of a Legendary Class.

  But what really catches my eyes are the Enhance Body and Arcane Regulation skills.

  Enhance body because, even if it doesn’t enhance all of my stats right now, it’s practically guaranteed to after my Class evolves enough. Almost all Skills have one thing in common when classes evolve: their limitations are reduced.

  With Arcane Regulation, though, I’m just happy to have a Healing skill. Those are usually limited to classes like Priest, Cleric, or Medic. With the vast majority of Healers being poached by, or already being a part of, the Church, it’s become a rarity in the Delvers Guild.

  Which, if I’m being honest, is ridiculous. Sure, alchemy goes a long way to keeping us all alive, but actual healing… well, the difference is huge.

  Plus, it can’t help with lost limbs or brain damage, which is expected. Only High Priests are capable of something like that, and even then only a select few of them can do it. But eventually, after a evolving my Class enough, I’ll finally be able to heal myself.

  Maybe I’ll heal everyone for free, cut the Churches funds a bit.

  I was still bitter with the Church. Years of saving up coin for them to regrow my tail, and they wouldn’t even see me because I was Faulted and an ‘affront to the Gods’.

  Pricks.

  To keep myself from getting more annoyed, I move on to the four new Passive skills.

  Mind, Body, Soul

  Passive, Body, Soul, Healing

  Your mind, body, and soul are one.

  As long as your soul is intact, your body will naturally regenerate over time.

  As long as your body is intact, your soul will naturally regenerate over time.

  Arcane Body

  Passive, Body, Healing

  Your body is magically enhanced, making it more resilient.

  You can naturally recover from most injuries and are more resistant to damage.

  +25% Health

  +25% Health Regeneration

  Arcane Pugilism

  Passive, Body

  You are naturally more adept at hand to hand combat, knowing how best to move and imbue mana into your attacks.

  Hit harder, hit faster, and destroy your enemies.

  5% increase to Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence.

  You deal 50% more damage with unarmed attacks.

  Arcane Infusion

  Passive, Enhancement

  Your body is one with mana, increasing the effectiveness of all body and healing skills on yourself.

  +50% effectiveness of Body and Healing skills on self.

  Oh, I definitely spoke too soon.

  Mind, Body, Soul seems to throw everything I thought about healing myself out the window entirely. There aren’t any restrictions, which means it might act as something of a workaround for those imposed by Arcane Regulation, at least for myself. Even if it doesn’t, it would mean my passive regeneration might be able to regrow limbs.

  Note to self, test if you can regrow limbs.

  Wait, note-note to self, do not chop off your own limbs. I’m getting distracted.

  The only other stand out skill is Arcane Infusion. Enhancement Skills are rare, as they provide boosts to all Class Skills you have. They do become more common with the higher rarity Classes though, so it doesn’t exactly surprise me that I got one.

  The other two skills, Arcane Body and Arcane Pugilism are more along the lines of what I expected of Passive Skills based on what I know. Straight forward bonuses to stats, damage, or both, usually with some imbued knowledge related to the Class.

  It’s nice to know that all of my self defense training won’t go to waste, though. I can already feel the insights I’ve gained from the two skills propping up what I’ve already learned over the years and expanding on it.

  But would a punch or kick do more damage than a dagger in the throat? I’ve seen System enhanced people do absurd things. Now I’m one of those people.

  So maybe?

  The last thing I look at is a new Title I somehow earned.

  Congratulations!

  You have been awarded the titles:

  Speedrunner

  Speedrunner

  Your first Class was of Epic rarity or higher.

  +1 free stat points per level

  +5% to Dexterity and Intelligence

  It’s not particularly powerful like some of the other things I’ve seen, but it’s not nothing either. A free stat point is awesome, and every little boost will go a long way once I really get some levels under me.

  A twinge of pain in my lower back distracts me from my thoughts, causing me to wince and roll to my side. Blessedly, there’s no actual pain in the movement, just a deep soreness. Thank the gods for System enhanced natural healing.

  The pins and needles return, this time shooting down from my tail-bone and causing a spike of ghost pain. It’s nothing more than an annoyance thanks to Pain Tolerance, but still. It’s supremely uncomfortable.

  “The hell…” I murmur, twisting slightly to look at my low back.

  The sight of an ebony puff of fur with pale blue streaks captures my attention entirely, bringing my mind back to the hinted implications of the Mind, Body, Soul skill. Then, it twitches.

  I twitch.

  My mind sputters, immediately rejecting the sight.

  I don’t have a tail.

  As if to refute my mental rebuke, it starts to swish and dance angrily, matching the ferocity of my inner turmoil. But something else makes itself known, now that I’m paying attention to the sensations I’ve apparently been ignoring this whole time. Light flicks of movement at the edge of my upper periphery tell me of yet more surprises.

  With a slightly shaking hand, I reach up and touch my two ears. Both more soft and fluffy than the one I remembered having, and more sensitive to match.

  Not in a bad way, thankfully, but in the way that makes me naturally want to avoid them coming into contact with anything inherently not me. I had already had some aversion to my one remaining good ear being touched by even the cloak of my own hood, but now I get the feeling that even that will be too much.

  Still, the fact that I have both causes me to shake uncontrollably as yet more water makes its way down my cheeks, only this time hope is what brings them on instead of pain or relief.

  I have a tail? I can feel it… and… but… my ears? I can hear through both again.

  I lower my hands as I instinctively wrap my new tail around my waist, hugging it tightly to my chest while the skeptical part of me struggles with all its might to pass it all off as a fever dream.

  I squash the idea violently. Even if this is a dream, for the first time in my life since as far back as I can remember, I’m not missing pieces of myself. There’s no ghostly pangs of loss from the base of my spine and no partial deafness. I’m going to enjoy it.

  Shakily, my good hand moves to groom my tail as I examine myself, and as it does my eyes are drawn to my claws. They’re new as well.

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  Beastkin claws closely resemble human fingernails, just longer, sharper, and retractable to varying degrees based on sub-race. They’re significantly more durable as well, so if anyone were to ask me they’re just better in every way.

  The claws I see on my hand, however, put most I’ve seen or heard of to shame. As a Foxkin, my claws were naturally more delicate in appearance than most, and less functional than, say, a Bearkin’s claws.

  Now they’re longer and much, much sharper. Still delicate in appearance, but clearly shaped for more than just show. Compared to my tail and ears, better claws feels like a drop in the ocean, so don’t linger on them.

  I continue my idle grooming as I try to process the changes, my bad arm pinning my tail. My claws expertly weave through the fur on instinct alone, scraping off the blood and grime, gradually restoring it to a pristine poof.

  Wait… bad arm?

  Among the new sensations, I can feel an underlying strength thats entirely unfamiliar. There’s more surety of movement with each stroke of my tail, and when I look, I find that there’s more definition. More meat where once it was nearly skin and bone.

  My hand freezes mid-stroke, my breath hitching as my gaze locks on my left side. The flesh is smooth. Perfect. Marred with blood and grime, but the scars—the lifelong reminders of my failures—are gone.

  A twinge of pain comes from my tail, and I find myself hugging it so tightly that it hurts. It shocks me back into focus somewhat, but it still takes almost everything I have to force myself relax.

  With quick, shaky breaths I look at my chest, and there I find two fully formed breasts where once there was only one. The left was always absent due to being ravaged by the infection before it could even grow.

  The scars are absent from my left leg as well, at least what I can see of it through the shredded pants, so I stand shakily, readying myself for the final test.

  As I stand, I carefully—and very slowly—put weight on my left leg. There is no pain. No pinching in my hip, no weakness in my knee, no give in my ankle.

  So, I take a step. Then another. And another.

  A laugh bubbles up as I try a jump, and I’m all but cackling like a madwoman when I start hopping around on just my left leg.

  This whole time I’d been ignoring how my body feels, just assuming that I wouldn’t have been able to heal from such old injuries. I even rolled onto my right side out of habit, instead of the left, when my tail made itself known.

  I didn’t even look at my left hand as I groomed my tail, or think of how I moved it to pin my tail to into position for the grooming itself. I hadn’t even acknowledged it, so ingrained was the habit of living with my brokenness.

  But now?

  A strangled whimper escapes my throat and only a monumental force of will stops me from breaking down then and there. I want to cry, to scream, to celebrate. But I can’t. Not yet. This place isn’t safe, wherever this is, and I need to regroup with my party or anyone else from the expedition.

  Where even am I?

  In my explorations with my restored leg, I discovered that I’m in some kind of cavern. It’s small and stifling, but my attention is immediately drawn to the one thing that stands out.

  An ominous dark metal door embedded in the wall. Any light that reaches it from the torches to its sides simply vanishes against its surface, leaving it as close to pitch black as I could imagine anything being.

  It reminds me of the encroaching darkness around the expedition, before the statues…

  A shudder runs through my whole body at the memory.

  Still, I move about my confines, trying to make sense of where I may be. Once I start moving, though, I’m overwhelmed by just how incredible it feels. I feel stronger, faster, and more in control of every movement I make.

  It’s invigorating.

  On top of that, I can just see, hear, feel, smell, and taste… more. Which honestly isn’t an entirely enjoyable discovery, what with all the blood and grime.

  Then there’s the completely new sensation. With every breath I take, I feel mana entering my body and accumulating within my newly regrown tail. The sensation makes me pause to try to understand what, exactly, I’m doing, but I immediately find that it’s almost as instinctual as breathing.

  With a thought, I can stop and start, slow it down and… well, actually, it doesn’t look like I can go any faster than my natural mana regeneration.

  Worth a try.

  On a whim, I try moving some of the mana into my right arm, finding that it’s just as easy as stopping altogether. The moment I release control, however, it quickly returns to my tail.

  Weird… it’s kinda like flexing a muscle.

  I try again, this time focusing intently as I try to move the mana into the palm of my hand, like I’ve seen mages do with the elements or light. It works, but not without a struggle.

  It’s much more difficult to control while outside of my body, but an ethereal blue sphere half the size of my fist floats up from the center of my palm, brightening and dimming in time with my breathing.

  I manage to make it float just off my palm, but when it resists the action the further I push it, I switch to trying to shape it. I imagine the blue glow encasing my hand, almost like a glove, and it almost instantly snaps into place, making me flinch.

  Then it hits me. This is the Arcane Strike skill, or at least it’s part of it. I knew that, thanks to the intuition granted by the skill, but I hadn’t actually thought about it. I should have known better.

  I’ve heard enough Delvers rant on and on about other ‘idiot Delvers who rely too much on their skills’. It takes a long time for someone to solidify the knowledge that Skills and Classes grant in their minds, even with training and a high Intelligence helping.

  I have a lot of work to do… with the System! I have access to the System now!

  The thought is just as exhilarating as it was ten minutes ago, but when I notice my tail trying to emulate my mood a little too vigorously, I force myself to calm down.

  That’s going to take some practice to get under control… Oh, right! Practice. Testing time. But first…

  I walk up to the door and put my right ear to it, then pause.

  With a grin, I switch to my newly healed left ear and listen closely for any signs of life.

  Minutes pass with no signs of life on the other side. I even double check with my old ‘good’ ear. Either the door’s soundproof… of there’s nothing left to hear.

  With a shrug, I move to the side of the space furthest from the door—just in case—and position myself in front of the wall before settling into a familiar fighting stance. It’s one of many basic stances I learned to deal with lower leveled monsters, but nudged oh so slightly closer to perfection by my new skills.

  Still, I find myself subconsciously putting most of my weight on my right side. Leaning into my new skills and stats, I spend some time to correct my posture, evenly balancing on both legs and readying both arms, instead of just the one, to block or strike.

  Unsurprisingly, it feels much more natural. It feels like my tail also helps with stabilizing my stance.

  I’ll have to get used to how my body moves all over again.

  This might hurt—but worst case scenario, I get to test Arcane Regulation. This is a necessary evil. Definitely.

  Not giving myself time to second guess, I punch the wall with all the force I can muster.

  The action is somewhat awkward and uncontrolled, even with the skills aiding me, and my fist lands a bit to the right of where I was aiming. A loud crack resonates throughout the cavern, echoing off the walls and ceiling, followed by a sharp pain in my hand.

  “Ah! Fuck!”

  I instantly regret the knee-jerk reaction to yank my hand away from the wall when the motion causes another burst of agony. With a mix of dread and curiosity, I peek at my hand. Three knuckles are clearly broken, the swelling already obvious. To add to that, the skin on those same knuckles split open on the stone, and are bleeding profusely.

  Shocked, I stare at my throbbing hand for several long seconds. Almost mindless, I try to move my fingers and the pain of it shocks me back into the moment, pulling a gasp from me.

  Feeling somewhat stupid, as though the stone wall itself reprimanded me for being foolish, I wait. The pain is intense, even reduced by Pain Resistance, and acts as a sharp reminder of my short-sighted decision.

  I don’t know what I expected with level one stats, but I quickly shift the blame to my excitement.

  Several minutes pass as I watch with a mix of horror and fascination as the broken bones slowly shift and reset beneath the skin. For a second I worry that it will heal wrong, but quickly discard the idea. If my Skills can regrow a tail, they can fix a few broken bones.

  To take my mind off of it, I decide now’s the perfect time to test Arcane Regulation. With a thought, I shift all of my mana regen into health regen. In a blink, my health regen goes from 23 per minute all the way to 244.

  Wait, what? How did—oh!

  I’d been under the impression that Arcane Regulation would just double my health regeneration while dropping my mana regen to zero when at full power like that. Instead, it added my mana regen to my health regen.

  It's far better than I hoped. In seconds, what’s left of the injury is gone, the blood left behind the only evidence of it ever happing in the first place.

  It was sitting at something like 135% of my total health pool in raw regen. It was no wonder the minor—relatively speaking—injury simply vanished in moments.

  It was fast. Very fast.

  This could be a game changer. Literally the difference between life and death…

  For a moment, I just stare at my bloody hand in wonder. Then another thought crosses my mind. Experimentally, I send just 15% of my mana regen into the skill and try to leave it as a kind of permanent channel of mana.

  It fails the instant I try to set it in place.

  Well, damn.

  Still, it’s valuable information, and I’m incredibly glad I decided to experiment with my newfound abilities before trying anything else. Like leaving this ominous but otherwise hopefully safe room.

  Still, there’s one glaring issue. Skills can’t undo years of ingrained habits. A frown forms on my face at the idea of how much I’m going to have to re-train myself.

  To distract myself from the new chore added to my to-do list, I peek at the wall, only to have all thoughts blown from my mind. A small splattering of blood marks where my knuckles struck the stone and split the skin, but beneath it is a small crack in the stone.

  It was tiny. Barely noticeable, really. But… it wasn’t there at all before I hit it.

  My frown vanishes, instantly replaced with a grin that splits my face.

  I just cracked stone with my bare hands! I have a tail! I might cry again. Or maybe punch the wall again. Or both.

  I almost squeal with excitement, but manage to just barely restrain myself. I realize I’m wagging again, like some eager pup.

  Gods, how do people control these things?

  Without the aid of something ridiculous like enchanted gauntlets, or strength boosting jewelry, making that crack would have been impossible for me before now. And even then, those boosts are limited by how much mana the enchantments can hold.

  Of course, some enchanted items can be absurdly powerful, and that’s not even considering artifacts from the Tunnels… but with arcane Pugilism enhancing my strikes, I didn’t need anything else.

  Better yet, it cost me nothing.

  Well… nothing permanent, at least.

  At that thought, I immediately decide to test Arcane Strike and Enhance Body. With a slight shift in my stance, doing my best to at least start correcting the deviations I felt from before, I’m ready.

  Just like with Arcane Regulation, I know what to do in order to activate the Skills. Mana flows into my arm, spreading through my muscles and bones, traveling all the way to my fist. It doesn’t coat the outside of my fist like I did before, instead somehow filling and reinforcing everything within.

  It happens almost as quick as lightning, but while actively paying attention to the sensation, it feels almost slow. Sharp craggy lines of dim blue light appear beneath the surface of my skin, pulsing down my arm and into my knuckles.

  It almost looks as if my arm was a shattered glass sculpture was put back together with raw energy.

  For being just 1% of my mana, it sure looks impressive…

  Then I activate Enhance Body, and the light from the cracks intensifies dramatically.

  The surge of power nearly overwhelms me. It’s exhilarating… but also slightly terrifying. My heart races, each quick beat sending a powerful pulse throughout my body, and I wonder if my body can actually handle this much strain.

  Then I pause.

  Wait, not just 25%. With Arcane Infusion, its 38%. Oh, I love these skills!

  Deciding to test how long I can keep it active later, I take advantage of the newfound strength and control. I throw everything I have into the wall once more, my posture even better than before.

  This time, my fist slams into the wall, and where it connects, the stone shatters like brittle clay. My fist only cracks through a half inch of it before stopping, but it’s enough. For a moment, I just stand there, gaping at the fist-shaped hole in the wall.

  Holy shit, I just did that.

  I realize then that I’m literally wiggling with how fast my tail is swishing around, and it takes me nearly a full minute to control myself again.

  I swear to the Gods, the first thing I'm doing when I get back to the city is finding a Wolfkin or something.

  It looked like both skills thoroughly reinforced my body as well, to the point that there was nothing but scuff marks on my fist this time. Still giddy, I check my Status before disabling Enhance Body.

  Status:

  Name - Emilia

  Race - Faefox

  Age - 19

  Level - 1

  Health - 173/173 (238)

  Health Regen - 23 (32) per minute

  Mana - 1050/1050

  Stored - 2100

  Mana Regen - 221 per minute

  Stats

  Strength - 16 (23)

  Constitution - 12 (17)

  Dexterity - 22 (30)

  Intelligence - 18

  Wisdom - 52

  Charisma - 15

  Available Stat Points - 3

  Titles:

  System Waker

  Dungeon Pioneer

  Speedrunner

  Combat Class Slot:

  Locked during acclimation.

  Profession Class Slot:

  Locked during acclimation.

  Unique Class Slot: First Arcanist

  Active Skills:

  Enhance Body

  Arcane Strike

  Mana Surge

  Arcane Regulation

  Passive Skills:

  Mind, Body, Soul

  Arcane Body

  Arcane Pugilism

  Arcane Infusion

  General Skills -

  Manaborn

  Fae Ferocity

  Magic Resistant

  Mental Suppression

  Pain Resistance (3/10)