And there we go!

I sit up sharply in my bedroll, nearly knocking Olive to the hard floor. She catches herself deftly and whines a complaint, but it doesn't stop me from scratching behind her ears.

After all… today is a big day! Why? Well, because I'm level five now, of course! I'm not going to wait another second.

[Status]

[Name: Ravona]

[Race: Gorgon (Least)]

[System Type: A – Level 5 – XP 231/6000]

[Inherent Skills:]

[Bewilder 0]

[Paralyze 0]

[Class: N/A – Level N/A – XP N/A]

[Class Skills: N/A]

[General Skills:]

[Dimensional Storage 0]

[Identify 0]

[Quickdraw 0]

[Sonic Resistance 0]

[Traits:]

[Gods-touched]

[Titles:]

[At Any Cost]

…

It's nice and clean and simple! And it looks like I got some kind of Trait too…

I wonder what it means.

…Anyway, on to the main course!

[New Classes are available! List options? Yes/No]

So of course I mentally choose 'Yes'.

[Apprentice Warrior]

Basic… huh. Probably not my thing, I think those usually come with sword things, right?

(Yes.)

Alright, well that one is out then. What else?

[Apprentice Shielder]

Closer… mostly defensive, uh, stuff probably. At least I'd get some Skills for my shield I guess… not that I'm bad with Covetous Wanderer, even though I still don't have a firearms Skill other than just drawing it faster. Which is useless! All I have to do is close my grip and there it is!

Anyway, next!

[Apprentice Gunner]

I see. So most of these are focused around a specific weapon…

[Apprentice Academic]

…

I guess it really doesn't matter whether they're alphabetically presented, but somehow it feels wrong that they're offered in any and every order. I assume this one is because of how many years I spent in school.

[Apprentice Animal Handler]

Olive gives me a side eye. Aha, I see. Next!

[Apprentice Diplomat]

…What?

(Eldra.)

Oh. I see.

…Except they all hate me, so there's no point. Maybe my System is suggesting I should spend the time and energy to try to mend that bridge, but it's not remotely close to what I want to do…

I want to be a frontliner. I want to be a vanguard.

Stolen story; please report.

[Apprentice Vanguard]

Does that mean it's listening?

"What I really want it a Class that has both shield and firearms Skills. Do you have anything like that?"

I squint my eyes and focus for a minute just in case it makes a difference. It probably doesn't but, well…

[Apprentice Shield Gunner]

Jackpot!

The others don't seem particularly exciting… who wants to be an 'athlete' or whatever? Boring! Not even related to being an adventurer!

So then… Apprentice Shield Gunner it is!

And not a second after I select it, my face is already flying toward my pillow.

***

I blink myself awake. Huh. I didn't know that was going to happen… mom did warn me that taking a level would make me pass out, but I didn't know Classes were the same.

Well, live and learn I guess. Let's give that a look.

[Status]

…

[Class: Apprentice Shield Gunner – Level 0 – XP 0/1000]

[Class Skills:]

[Enhanced Agility 0]

[Firearms 0]

[Shield Use 0]

[Shield Use (Offensive) 0]

Holy crap, four Skills!? Wow! I thought they usually only came with one or two! Gosh, I can't wait to try these out!

I practically fly out of my bedroll and hop up and down a few times… and yeah, I can already feel the difference. I wonder if it's because of Enhanced Agility or just having a Class at all? It's an important question!

But, well. I probably won't get an actual answer until I either level up more or level the Skill… leveling just the Skill would probably make it more obvious, but what if I get a boost from both, wouldn't that make it hard to tell? And what about Class leveling versus System leveling? I bet I'd get a boost from both of those too!

I can't wait to try this out.

***

…Unfortunately, my party – I may as well start calling them that, instead of Gattas' party – isn't running dungeons today. I'm not really sure how exactly the week planning works here, even though the day names and so on are all the same as where I'm from…

No, instead the younger population is all hanging out at the small lake not too far away from the colony. Nobody is worried about monster attacks or anything since they have repelling gadgets set up in a ring a distance away, tech I'm still surprised they're willing to use considering how conscientious of the 'forest ecosystem' they are. Although… that seems more related to the fae than anything, just making sure the forest stays hospitable to them.

I'm not really sure what's up with their whole fae worship thing. I wonder if Olive would appreciate it.

…

Yeah, she'd probably just find it annoying. She usually likes to be left alone as far as I can tell.

And that's fine. I usually do too.

But, well. I'm bored, so I guess I'll join them.

I wander up to the edges and dump my clothes in a heap, drawing a lot of attention… though I'm not really sure if it's my reputation or the scales. They've been spreading again, now spreading from where they'd been on my neck to halfway down my back, as well as a handful of patches on my arms and legs.

Unsurprisingly, I'm the only person here who isn't a pure eldra. Or, forest elf I guess. I'm still not quite sure what the difference is, but they care about it an awful lot.

After a moment of glancing around I find Gattas and the others and swim my way over, taking a place against a rock alongside them. My cousin nods while Shaya offers a small wave – she's been much more friendly toward me since the other day's events, especially noticeable considering how distant everyone here has been in general since we first came here.

Or, well. Moved here, I guess. Especially considering mom has been talking about building our own place on the outskirts… no one really owns property in the 'traditional' sense here, or maybe they don't in the more traditional sense? They're really traditional here. Anyway, people own houses but not really the land… obviously everyone gives each other space for their own lives, but no one will stop you if you just put up a shelter in an open space nobody is using.

So that's what is probably going to happen.

…

Nebora for her part hasn't even looked up at me, which I guess shouldn't be a surprise. The mage appears to be the most traditional of the group, and even now views and treats me like an outsider.

Well, whatever.

They don't really have a sense of embarrassment or anything for public bathing here. I sure did the first time I joined them, but it's not like they have much else in the way of bathing options here. It's actually really rustic, even with outhouses and everything.

"Hi everybody," I say as I scratch a spot on my back against a rock. I probably have more scales coming in there, but I don't particularly want to look.

Gattas simply grunts in reply. He's never been particularly talkative, even for a forest elf, but that's fine. It's just his personality.

The party mage continues to ignore me. Meanwhile Shaya starts to flash her hands through something I don't understand, catches herself, and suddenly blushes a little bit before quietly saying, "Hello."

…

We sit in silence for a while in the cold water, just soaking in the gentle breeze and slight current brought by the small rivers feeding in and out of the body of water. The whole thing is relatively shallow so… actually, I wonder if someone dug this out.

…

…

Yeah, probably not. That doesn't seem like something they'd do here, more likely they found the lake near the forest and chose to build the colony here to begin with.

Why do they call it a colony, anyway? It's not like they just got here, or like they moved here en masse from somewhere else. They didn't invade this spot, they just moved into an empty space. Plus if I'm not mistaken it's been here a very, very long time. More than long enough to just call it a permanent settlement.

Well, whatever. It doesn't really matter. Probably anyway.

…

I wonder when we'll hear back from the academy or whatever that mom was talking about. I know it was between quarters or something, but I don't really know when those start there… some planes have different years, or the passage of time can be completely different… sometimes minutes and hours on one aren't minutes and hours on another, though you wouldn't know… they still feel the same. It's just that… you could spend an hour on one, and come back to find an entire day has passed on another.

It's really weird and I'm not sure why. I bet if I asked anyone though they'd just say, "because the gods." And that's such a boring answer…

That book Nyx gave me isn't helpful with it either, although it's not particularly helpful in general. I still have no idea what most of it means, nothing is sticking but a handful of surface level things.

I absentmindedly put my hands behind my head to yawn and stretch, accompanied by the sound of a trilling rasp. Which… it takes a moment to realize came from me, somewhere in the depths of my throat.

It does absolutely nothing to stop the weird glances I've been getting… although for some reason Shaya suddenly stands and moves to get out without making eye contact.

Huh. I wonder what that was about.

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