Cassis sat in the humming aircraft, finally able to focus on his evolution paths. The roar of the engines and the quiet murmur of soldiers barely registered. His mind was already in the system window.

He still liked Flameforged Warlord. It had carried him through more than enough fights. It fit him too well: straightforward, aggressive, and a little too eager to burn a hole through anything threatening the people he cared about.

But he'd felt some limitations as well. The class was meant for someone to lead, and he was doing that. It was just an ill-fitting coat. Sometimes he wished for something more straightforward.

When the system had told him about fulfilling the evolution requirements the first time, he'd been surprised but checked the classes soon after. But only some of the classes had gained a (+1). No real change. Nothing new.

He'd tried not to be disappointed.

Now, though…

Six options again. Six. He didn't know why he kept getting so many since most people barely got three. Was the system rating his potential that highly?

Carefully he read the new list, brow tightening as each description unfurled.

Blademaster (+1) – A master of swordplay, capable of wielding any blade to its full potential.

Warbringer (+1) – A relentless warrior who thrives in battle, turning the tide through sheer force and skill.

Berserker (+1) – A raging force of destruction, unleashing overwhelming power at the cost of control.

Emberbound Sentinel – A warrior who thrives on protecting his team with his sword and fire.

Hellpyre Duelist – A nimble and tactical fighter, forged in the flames of hell and commanding them.

Flameforged Vanguard – A commander of fire, leading each charge with his fiery temper and attacks.

Cassis' eyes snagged immediately on the one class he wanted to reject outright.

Berserker.

Of course it was still there.

He exhaled hard through his nose. He shouldn't be surprised. His therapist, Dr. Makimovich, had told him more than once that the rage wasn't something he could "fix." It was just… him. A part of him that he could learn to live with, not erase.

Didn't make it any less irritating to see the damn class pop up again.

He rubbed his forehead. At least he had someone to talk it through with now. Makimovich had even signed a mana contract just so he'd feel safe opening up, which was more than Cassis ever expected from anyone, let alone a stranger with a fancy chair and a mountain of patience. And since the doctor lived in Hallowford, not too far from Cassis' home, he'd get to keep working with him for however long this apocalypse allowed "mental health appointments" to stay a thing.

Still. Seeing Berserker (+1) sitting there smugly felt like a system telling him: Yep, that part of you is still alive and kicking.

Whatever. He wasn't choosing it. He wasn't that guy anymore, not fully.

He forced his attention to the rest of the list. First the classes that had been there before.

Blademaster (+1). Too technical. Too clean. He wasn't a perfect-sword-form kind of fighter and he never had been.

Warbringer (+1). A better fit, sure. Aggressive, overwhelming, battlefield-shifting. But it leaned too far into brute force without giving him anything new. He didn't want to just hit harder; he wanted to grow.

The new class choices seemed interesting.

Emberbound Sentinel. He snorted under his breath. Too focused on protection. He liked protecting people, fine, he loved it, he'd die for his team without blinking, but a class centred on guarding felt like putting a leash on his instincts. He belonged in the heat of the battle, attacking with his sword.

Hellpyre Duelist. That one made his eyes linger. It was basically the more fire-based version of the Arcane Duelist he could've chosen at level ten. Precision, speed, weaving flame into technique. If this were the old timeline, he would've grabbed it like a lifeline. A class for a lone fighter with no one to rely on.

But now… he wasn't alone. He had a team. A family. Arianna, if she decided she still wanted him.

He didn't want a class that favoured fighting one-on-one forever. It was too small for the life he was trying to build.

And then—

The last option.

Flameforged Vanguard.

He froze.

Strangely, the Flameforged Warlord was gone entirely. But this… this felt like its evolution, like the system had taken all the part of Flameforged Warlord that fit him and tried to offer and even better fitting class.

The fire affinity had stayed the same. But the Vanguard part… yeah. That hit deeper.

He didn't like leading. Honestly, it exhausted him. He didn't want to carry people. He didn't want the responsibility of being the reason someone lived or died.

But leading by doing? By charging first, taking hits others wouldn't survive, carving a path through the chaos simply by refusing to back down?

That was him.

He could do that.

Maybe that was leadership too, just not the kind that required speeches or strategy boards or pretending he knew what he was doing.

This class tugged at him like gravity. He felt like his decision was already made.

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Before he could choose, a notification blinked across his vision.

[Arianna Sloane has invited you to a party.]

He blinked. Looked up. Sure enough, she was watching him, face calm, eyes a little too intent.

He accepted immediately.

If she was inviting him now, in a cramped aircraft full of soldiers, it meant only one thing: she wanted to talk privately. And the fact she wanted to talk… that had to be a good sign, right?

"I want to consult with you about my class options," she said as soon as the party channel activated. No greeting, no warmth, just efficiency.

It stung, just a little, but the other part of him, the bigger part, was relieved. She still trusted his judgment at least. That meant something.

"Sure," he said. "Tell me your options."

She did.

"I've got six. Luremaster, High Priestess of the Flow, Sanctified Vanguard of the Flow, Flowbound Mystic, Warpriest of the Flow (+1), and Celestial Battlecaster (+1)." She repeated the system's short descriptions one by one.

Cassis' eyebrows climbed higher with each class. A healer vanguard? He never would have guessed the system would offer her something like that, but the longer he thought about it, the more it clicked. Arianna had never stayed in the back line.

Even from level one she was trying to stand between danger and the people behind her. The system wasn't stupid; it adapted to what someone actually did, not what they thought they were supposed to be.

"I just don't know," she murmured. "Should I keep my current class? I feel like it fits me well, but…"

"Tell me," he encouraged gently.

She inhaled too sharply, like she was bracing herself, then—

"Somehow I'm being pulled toward the vanguard class."

A pause. Then the dam broke.

Her words tumbled out fast enough to rival a waterfall.

"Though I love healing, I don't want to be just a healer or mage. I need to be in the front, fighting and defending at the same time. It was terrible being just a healer in the dungeon. I hate being confined to just one role when I could be doing so much more. I think the Vanguard would support this even better than Warpriest. What do you think?"

Cassis didn't answer immediately.

He wanted to, she looked so tense, so earnest, but he owed her actual thought, not the first thing that came to his mind. So he forced himself to slow down.

The system clearly thought she had ridiculous potential. A part of him had gotten used to being surprised by her; another part wasn't sure he'd ever stop being surprised.

He had spent a lifetime sharpening his skills in the other timeline so it made sense for the system to think he had potential. She on the other hand had never even had the chance to train back on Earth, and still she kept pace with him like it was nothing.

That kind of ability, of potential was astounding.

He exhaled quietly.

Luremaster he dismissed instantly. No (+1), thank the gods. She didn't need another bout of being bait for something huge and hungry. He hoped the damn class vanished off her list forever.

The others, High Priestess of the Flow, Flowbound Mystic, Celestial Battlecaster, all leaned toward healing plus spellcasting. Strong mixes, sure, but classes that would keep her anchored in the backline.

And she wasn't a backliner.

She didn't like hurting anything, though she did when it was necessary. But the chaos of close combat woke something in her. He'd watched the way she moved, how she read the battlefield, how she instinctively placed herself between danger and others even when it was stupid or reckless.

He understood it.

Because he felt the same way.

Funny. He hadn't realised how similar they were until this moment. Battle instincts, protective instincts, even the way they led, both from the front, both refusing to hide behind others.

The party which she had led alone into a dungeon had told him that she always charged in first, even when she absolutely shouldn't have. And that only meshed with what he had watched her do in all the fights they'd been in together.

So… Warpriest of the Flow or Sanctified Vanguard of the Flow. Both suited her. But Vanguard…

Yeah.

That one fit her even more than the warpriest.

Cassis forced himself to slowly turn over every little piece of information he had of her class choices. If he wanted her to truly trust him again, he needed to stop acting like he always knew best. He needed to give her the space to decide.

So he broke everything down slowly, carefully, every pro, every con, every instinct pulling him in one direction or another. When he finally finished laying it all out, he summed it up simply:

"…so in my opinion, Warpriest or Vanguard are the best fit for you."

He paused, jaw tightening as a little shame curled under his ribs. He'd made choices for her before. He'd presumed he knew what was best. And look where they were now. Tense, walking on glass, unsure whether the future still had a "them" in it.

He wasn't making that mistake again.

To balance things, he added, "For what it's worth… I get your pull toward the Vanguard. And, funnily enough, I was also offered a class called Flameforged Vanguard. It seems like an evolution of my current Warlord class."

For a moment, Arianna didn't respond. Her silence wasn't heavy or cold, just thoughtful, the kind that meant she was really processing what he'd said.

"That's interesting," she said at last. "But it makes sense. We both like being in the middle of all the fighting."

A soft exhale. "Still, those two classes seem to operate very differently."

He agreed. His class seemed geared towards the most possible destruction. Hers spoke of frontline fighting, protection, healing and buffing.

Another pause, quieter, smaller.

"…Will you choose the Vanguard class?"

"Yes," he answered instantly. There wasn't even a flicker of doubt. "It's everything I hoped for when I insisted we wait to make our advancement choices. I guess you feel the same way about the Vanguard."

Arianna's lips curved into the smallest smile, soft, brief, but real enough to make something unclench inside him, to fan the embers of hope burning in his heart.

"You're right. It feels like it expands what I already do in battle. So… we'll both take them. Alright."

And just like that, their conversation ended. Clean. Simple. No fuss. But the tension between them had eased, just a little.

A heartbeat later, Cassis felt it, a tiny ripple of mana from her. So faint most people would miss it entirely. But not him. He'd learned to read these ripples in the other timeline. It meant someone had evolved.

She'd evolved. And the air around her shifted, subtle but undeniable, a pressure change, a strengthening.

Not wanting to be left behind, Cassis selected Flameforged Vanguard.

System messages cascaded down his vision one after another.

[Congratulations! You have chosen Flameforged Vanguard.]

[New spells gained:]

Fire Strike (Basic)

– (

Attacks with whatever is handy, sword, body part, …, and uses fire for damage.

)

Fiery Aura (Basic)

– (

A mana based aura that amplifies your allies' attacks if they are with you at the front line.

)

[Level gained. Level gained. Level gained. Level gained…. Level gained.]

Cassis felt a huge shock through his body. He'd evolved and now he'd gained 10 levels at once. And those new spells looked promising. He took a look at his status screen, cringing when he looked at his mana saturation. He had been at 62% before evolution, now it was sonly 6.2 %. But his mana felt denser now, and he had more than 3% more ms than in the other timeline, so he was quite happy with what he saw.

Status Page:

Name:

Cassis Walker

MS (Mana Saturation):

6.2%

Race:

Human

Rank:

E

Features:

Awareness (Advanced), Energy Perception (Expert), Stamina Capacity (Expert), Mana Sight (Intermediate), Mana Control (Expert)

Unique:

Pain Resistance (Basic), Poison Resistance (Basic)

Level:

30

Class:

Flameforged Vanguard

Professions:

Instructor (25), Woodcarver (24)

Skills:

Slash (Expert), Stab (Master), Parry (Expert), Deflect (Expert), Counter (Expert), Dodge (Expert), Acrobatics (Expert), Body Reinforcement (Advanced), Dash (Advanced), Bludgeon (Expert)

Ability:

Elemental Affinity:

Fire

Unique:

Shared Channelling (Arianna)

Inventory:

35 m

3

Spells:

Fire Blade (Expert), Flame Burst (Expert), Blazing Body (Advanced), Fire Lance (Intermediate), Mana Blade (Low), Fire Strike (Basic), Fiery Aura (Basic)

Titles:

[The One Who Returned], [Warrior of Flames], [Protector of the Weak], [Monster Bane I], [Superior Survivor], [Giant Slayer], [Steadfast Leader], [Daredevil], [Pioneer I]

Patron:

Sapphire

Hall of Fame:

open

And then the next message made him smile widely. Finally!

[Guild system unlocked]

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