When Alice looked at the options for [Explorer of Magic]’s evolution, she saw a massive array of options. In total, there were five options for Class evolution that she could choose from. For most of her earlier Class evolutions, when Alice had evolved a Class from a student-type class to a normal Class, Alice didn’t remember seeing so many options. Alice smiled to herself. Surely, among these options, at least one would assist her goals, right? The first option was quite interesting, although it didn’t align very well with Alice’s interests and needs. Magic Weapons Researcher: A mage who has learned to create a wide variety of enchanted objects, all suitable for use in battles and wars. A Magic Weapons researcher is focused primarily on enchanting and researching ways to deal death to those who oppose them. Unlocked as a result of: Having [Explorer of Magic] at level 100, Have created at least one unique enchantment which has obvious use in conflict, Have researched a variety of unique and unusual enchantments and found ways to turn them into tools for combat. Increases the effect of the Intelligence stat by 40%. Your two highest mana conversion ratio seeds gain an additional 30% mana conversion ratio. Your magic stat’s effectiveness increases by 40%. Alice looked at the first Class evolution option, before she shook her head. If she had wanted to recreate guns in this world using magic, or create other weapons of mass destruction, the Class would have made her path much smoother. However, Alice didn’t want to bring guns and modern warfare to this world. Perhaps other people would discover them and produce them in the future, but Alice wanted no part in it. She had grudgingly accepted that she needed to be able to defend herself in this world, but she still didn’t like fighting. After they fixed the System, Alice hoped that the only combat she would take part in would be training spars with Ethan and the other Illvarian Immortals. Read full story at N()velFire.net The other options and the focus of the Class were equally appealing to her. Alice didn’t feel much need to think about this Class Evolution option in any further detail, and so she discarded it. The second option was much more interesting. A mage who has stepped beyond the bounds of regular research, and has begun to understand the System, mana, and all things associated with both. A Mana Researcher can learn more and more about the nature of mana until they learn every single truth in the world, and discover every single piece of the System. Unlocked as a result of: Having [Explorer of Magic] at level 100, Having at least 5 Rarity 7 or higher Achievements that are based on researching and understanding the world, Having Intelligence stat at 100 or greater, have witnessed the System, have researched and implemented at least one completely unique magic structure for the purpose of understanding the world. Increases the effect of the Intelligence stat by 100%. Classes related to research gain experience 100% faster. The mana conversion ratio of all seeds is increased by 20%. You may select one Perk, related to gathering intelligence or conducting research, and drastically enhance that Perk. This was exactly the kind of Class she was hoping to get. This class had a lot of valuable things for her - it boosted her mana capacity, amplified her intelligence, and most importantly, gave her a useful chane to bump up one of her research related Perks. Alice could already see how useful it might be to amplify something like {Temporal Snapshot}. Furthermore, the description of the Class itself aligned well with her personality. After all, the biggest reason Alice had researched the System was simple curiosity. Alice was drawn to the thrill of discovering new things, of making guesses about how the System worked and then verifying them, and learning more about the nature of this world. Of course, at this point, Alice would have continued to research the System even without her curiosity driving her - after all, she didn’t want to see millions of innocent people die. However, it was still true that Alice loved learning new things about the world. This Class seemed like it was incredibly well suited both for dealing with the current crisis at hand, and also allowing her to enjoy her life after the current crisis was resolved. It was practically tailor-made for her. This was also important because Alice wanted to spend at least some time thinking about her future. Once she chose a Class evolution, it would dictate a big part of how she grew and what abilities she would get in the future. Choosing something that fit her interests was important. Alice decided to label this Class as her first choice. If she didn’t find anything better, she would have zero complaints about taking this Class as her Class evolution. Then, she turned her attention to the third Class evolution option. A mage who has created wonders and feats of magic that beggar the imagination and step beyond the realm of others. A Wondrous Creator specializes in creating new types of magic, enchantments, and any other form of magical construction in order to create true wonders in the world. Unlocked as a result of: Have built multiple magic constructs that others cannot understand or replicate in any meaningful way, have a unique understanding of at least one ‘wondrous’ enchantment that others have a different understanding of, have an [Enchanter] Class, used your unique magic constructs in a practical way that accomplished your intended purpose when building or using the magic construct.. The mana conversion ratio of all seeds is increased by 50%. When using your {Blueprint} Perk or when brainstorming ways to create any new object or magic construct, your understanding of both the materials in question and the completed project will be amplified by a significant amount. All objects you create will receive a major enhancement when you finish working on them (this can only be applied to the same set of materials once, so you cannot ‘finish’ creating something to get this enhancement, then use that finished product as a material in another object over and over for infinite enhancements.) This Class evolution option was quite interesting. In a strange way, this Class was actually exceptionally suited to repairing the System. It sounded as if this Class was essentially an enchantment-focused route. Taking it would probably help her acquire Perks that would boost her understanding of the System - and more importantly, help Alice put this giant mess back together. Based on the Class description, if Alice took this Class, she suspected she would end up in a position similar to Doll. She would be able to create numerous enchantments that stepped well outside of people’s understanding of ‘normal’ enchantments, and she would have all kinds of advantages when trying to create bizarre and unusual magic constructs and enchantments. Enchantments such as the System, which Alice was now standing inside of. For a brief moment, Alice had the absurd thought that if she wanted to create the System from scratch, this Class would be perfect for the job. It almost seemed as if this Class were tailor-made to creating ‘unique’ wonders such as the System, which defied people’s understanding of the conventional laws of reality and made the impossible possible. Alice could definitely see the practical value of this Class - it would make it much faster and easier to recreate the System, with less fuss and difficulty. It might not excel at helping Alice understand what she was looking at - but it would probably help her with the actual work of rebuilding everything from scratch, which might end up taking more of her time than the actual research part of her task. The better question was whether this Class fit her. Alice was willing to sacrifice a few Perk slots to expedite the repair of the System, because all she had to do to fix it was find a [Priest of the System] and swap out her Perks in the future. Now that Alice was nearly an Immortal, she wasn’t worried about spending a few years with an unoptimized build. She was about to have far more time than she knew what to do with, so swapping out Perks based on her needs just made sense. However, Class evolutions were far less changeable. Once she picked one, she was stuck with it. Alice was a researcher. It was what brought her joy. On Earth, she had loved learning about the discoveries of great scientists and researchers. She didn’t mind enchanting - in fact, it had struck her as a reasonably interesting application of magic. That being said, Alice wasn’t sure if she wanted to dedicate her highest level and most important Class slot to enchanting. She treated it as a side option for testing and utilizing mana - not her main focus. Alice decided to put the Class aside for now. She would come back to it if she didn’t find something better - but realistically, she wasn’t sure if she even wanted to take the Class over [Mana Researcher]. The fourth Class was dismissed without much thought - it was a Class called [Combat Explorer]. A researcher and explorer who has turned all sorts of bizarre and unusual Perks from purely research-oriented Perks into combat Perks. A Combat Explorer specializes in twisting even the most mundane and innocuous of Perks into creative ways to kill their enemies. Unlocked as a result of: Have used Perks to harm monsters or humans in ‘unusual’ ways at least five times, have used at least one Perk that was received above level 50 to harm or kill an enemy that is generally more powerful than you, have the {Immortal Slayer} Achievement (or any similar rarity and Achievement with an emphasis on combat against a strong opponent), have fought and killed at least five different species of monster, have at least five different types of mana available to you, have used at least two different types of mana in direct combat in unorthodox ways. Increase the mana conversion ratio of one seed by 100% (You choose the seed). Your passage through time itself is subtly altered, giving you a 5% increase in speed in all situations. Your [Intelligence] stat will subtly change, allowing you somewhat improved creativity and ability to think about unconventional methods of utilizing your Perks to exploit weaknesses or fight enemies. (This alteration makes intelligence have a greater emphasis on increasing thinking speed and creativity under duress). Your Endurance Stat’s effectiveness will increase by 30%. Alice was a bit surprised she had qualified for such a specific - seeming class in the first place. Although, when Alice thought about it more, she had actually gotten into quite a few fights - and in most of those fights, she had found unusual but effective ways to use her magic and her Perks. Most of her toolkit was mostly focused on research, but she had consistently found ways to defend herself, even though she had very few Perks wholly devoted to making herself better at fighting. Perhaps that was why she had qualified for this Class? Either way, Alice had no intention of taking it. It just didn’t align with her vision of what she wanted her life to look like. Furthermore, Alice didn’t like fighting. This Class would almost certainly level up entirely via fighting and finding unusual uses for Perks in combat. If she took this Class, it would probably get stuck at its current level for several weeks, and would level up incredibly slowly. It was not only slow to improve, but it was totally out of line with what Alice wanted after she restored the System. If she restored the System. Alice turned her attention to her next Class evolution, and then smiled. She had thought that [Reality Researcher] fit her like a glove - but the fifth Class was also very interesting.. A mage who shapes reality itself, using their understanding of the nature of mana and the laws of physics and magic. A Reality Mage specializes in understanding reality and then using that understanding, aided by mana, to change it. Unlocked as a result of: Have built multiple magic constructs that others cannot understand or replicate in any meaningful way, have used mana to save or kill someone in a unique way that lies outside of the boundaries of people’s usual understanding, have a compound magic seed with at least 5 different types of mana integrated into it, have an understanding of how beliefs and reality interact with each other via mana. The mana conversion ratio of all seeds is increased by 100%. You gain a much stronger ability to innately interact with ‘belief’ strings of mana in a certain radius. You gain the ability to expend a moderate amount of mana to create a ‘filter’ for belief mana. This filter can either fully suppress or moderately redirect belief mana, assuming enough mana is put into the filter. (Filter burns a moderate amount of mana each second to maintain itself, but can be maintained by external sources of mana once established). This Class was obviously focused on the interaction between beliefs and reality, which Alice had discovered back when she had ventured into the swamp during their journeys across the Shil Confederacy. Alice hadn’t entirely gotten used to leaning on people’s sometimes mistaken perception of reality to accomplish her goals - but this Class gave Alice a good way to either suppress or amplify the impact of people’s beliefs on their surroundings. This interested Alice a great deal, since her understanding of the interaction between beliefs and reality, while decent, still had several gaping holes in it. She didn’t mind devoting years, or even decades, to understanding the relationship between mana, beliefs, and reality in greater detail after she restored the System. Furthermore, the Class was obviously directly relevant to restoring the System as well. Alice had already proven that she could leverage people’s beliefs to somewhat compensate for lacking understanding - that was part of how she had created some of her knockoff System mana constructs during her time in Morendia. This Class interested her, suited her current needs, and had a great deal of versatility for future Perks, when she finished restoring the System. Furthermore, the bonuses this Class offered right upon evolution were exceptional. It was a very good fit for her. After looking through all of her options, Alice decided on her future Class. She was still somewhat tempted by [Mana Researcher], but in the end, she decided to pick [Reality Mage].