My class [Death Knight] is just barely legal…

I opened my eyes, a serene calm washing over me. I had achieved… something? Oh, right, my class evolution! The trial! I had succeeded! But… how had I done so again?

My memories had been tampered with. When I tried to remember my trial, or even my earlier trials, I only remembered an endless white void accompanied by… feelings. Emotions?

The first trial was accompanied by a sense of guilt and impatience. As if I had forgotten about something and quickly needed to set about rectifying it.

The second was by far the most painful, the most disturbing. A mesh of hopelessness, despair and agony. Something told me that I should be glad not to remember the contents of this one.

The third and most recent trial gave me a sense of… contentment. As if I had- had made up for something bad I had done, somehow. As if I had found the answer, the solution I had been looking for. ‘A’ solution, rather. One that made me feel proud.

While this mess of emotions slowly floated to the back of my mind, I wondered whether I would ever receive clear memories of what had happened during the trials. Where before I hadn’t remembered anything, now I at least felt emotions paired with the trials. That was an improvement, one that I wasn’t certain was worth encouraging.

Before I could get too lost in my thoughts, a system prompt blocked my vision, distracting me from myself and notifying me of a welcome occurrence.

Ding! Class evolution complete!

Assigning class....[Hollow Death Knight]

[Hollow Death Knight]

An exception among [Death Knights], you lack the guidance of a master. As a result, you are left with the burden of finding true purpose by yourself. Like a hollow pit, mana flows into you and transforms into something else entirely. One day, you will find your purpose. When you do, you will be hollow no longer.

Your signature skill is [Dark pursuer]

Gain 30 stat points in each physical stat, 10 stat points in each mental stat and 10 free stat points per level.

I balked at the description of my newly evolved class. Not because of the summary itself, though. No, that drivel was as obnoxious as it had always been and suitably vague to boot. Poetically, the name had come full circle and returned my title of [Death Knight], while pointing out my lack of a ‘master’. That didn’t bother me much, of course.

What really caught me off guard was my new stat growth. I had expected my stat growth to be doubled, as it usually seemed to do with most of my evolutions. Instead, they had nearly quadrupled! Well, my physical stat growth, anyway. To compensate, my free stat point gain hadn’t grown at all, but that was only a small loss considering the flat ‘30’ increase for some of my other stats.

I did some quick calculations to see if I would be able to reach the fabled ‘fifth milestone’ before my next class evolution after all…

Milestone requirements were multiplied by their respective tier each time, making it almost absurdly difficult to keep up with at higher tiers. The fourth milestone was at 1200 stats, so multiply that by five… 6000?!

The figure seemed impossible to get to with only 150 levels to go before the next tier, but after some more calculations, I realised that I actually had a shot at reaching it! My physical stats would grow by 4500 each between then and now, leaving me only 300 short in each stat to reach the milestone!

If I remembered to keep investing free points into each of them, I would be to reach the milestones, if only barely. Just the thought alone made me giddy… How many tier 5’s could boast about having reached those milestones before their advancement?

After calming down a bit, I inspected my new skills, starting with [Dark pursuer].

[Dark pursuer](0%)

Tier 5 skill.

Manifest the pseudo-elemental ‘Dark pursuer’. It will follow a single command with each use, given to it upon its manifestation. The Dark pursuer can copy any of your skills at your leisure. You cannot use a skill while it is being copied by the Dark Pursuer.

The higher the tier of the skill being copied, the more mana/overloaded mana is used.

Increase skill tier through repeated and creative use.

I was instantly drawn in by this new skill, its implications tantalising. A pseudo-elemental? What form would this pursuer take? Either way, it seemed that I had gained another summon besides Revan. This one wasn’t meant as a mount, but as a combatant of some kind. It could even copy my skills! If I loaned it [Dark embodiment], the elemental would become nearly unbeatable on top of being a tier 5 creature. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to use said skill until I unsummoned the elemental, which was a significant drawback. Nonetheless, it was a powerful skill.

Unable to stop myself, I didn’t even bother looking at the other two skills and activated [Dark pursuer]. The skill responded eagerly, a black tear appearing in the air before me. There wasn’t much space in the cave, though. The tear spread from the top of the chamber to the bottom, before widening into a black, abyss-like hole that covered my exit. A single hand came out of the portal, so large that it barely fit. It sunk into the stone of the cave, as if trying to find a hold to pull itself up by. Immediately, it became apparent that this [Dark pursuer] was far too large to fit inside the cave, forcing me to stop the skill activation and watch in disappointment as the hand sunk back into the blackness and the portal closed itself.

Whatever this dark pursuer was, it was wearing armour. Its gauntlet, in fact, looked almost exactly like those of the knights I would often see wandering the streets of Capital Roa. Except for the fact that it was pitch black, of course. Unlike the shining knights’ armour, this one had drawn in all of the nearby light, sucking it up as if it were a hollow pit.

I sighed, putting off the summoning until later and decided to look at my other new skills first.

[Unstable breaking swipe](0%)

Tier 4 skill.

Empower your next physical strike to deal a disproportionate amount of blunt damage, ignoring a certain amount of armour before breaking it. There is a 10% chance of a dark-affinity explosion upon contact, which automatically inflicts a random curse mark held by the skill holder.

Increase skill tier through use in battle.

[Greater curse resistance](0%)

Tier 4 skill.

Effect, spread and duration of curses are greatly diminished. This skill can be overwhelmed by higher-tiered curses or a great amount of curses spreading simultaneously.

Increase skill tier through use.

The first of the two seemed far less impressive than [Dark Pursuer]. Maybe this was because I hadn’t actually tiered up all of my skills before going right for my class advancement. Instead of gaining another groundbreaking skill, I had been given a rather mundane, if effective, one.

While I couldn’t help but express my disappointment in the skill inwardly, I also couldn’t deny that the skill would have come in handy against the tough armadillos I had faced before coming here. A skill like [Unstable breaking swipe] would have been a godsend. Furthermore, the ability to leave a guaranteed curse mark without needing to leave a wound was also quite convenient. This way, even classers that were a lot more powerful than me wouldn’t be able to prevent the mark and suffer the consequences. I suppose the skill would have its uses, eventually. Active, all-purpose skills like it always did.

The second new skill was even less impressive, on paper. It was highly situational, after all. That being said, I welcomed the skill greatly. Resistances were already incredibly rare on their own and my recent encounter with deadly curses had left me shaken. Something about the new addition made me feel more… secure. Protected, even. If there was one thing my [Dark embodiment] had trouble dealing with, it would be curses, after all. Covering my bases had always been one of my priorities.

With all of the new additions looked at, I took a moment to reflect. Tiering up without training had been a risky move, but it was necessary. If Emeri and I wanted to survive the coming battle, we would have to pull out all of the stops. Unfortunately, the fact that I had left some skills by the wayside meant that the system had granted me two… less ‘inspired’ skills to work with, though they certainly seemed effective. The system had used my recent hurdles as the foundation for these skills, rather than my new class. That was the price I would have to pay.

Besides, my new fantastic stat growth was more than enough to satisfy me and my new signature skill paired well with what I already had available. Overall, I couldn’t say that I regretted my decision. Time would tell if it had been the right one.

I rested for a few more minutes before crawling back out of the cave. Right outside of the entrance I found the familiar form of the dry man hunched over some tomes and drawings that vaguely resembled the fort I had tasked him with enchanting.

“Arthur. Forgot something?” he asked, noticing my presence.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Well, shouldn’t you be getting to your trial right about now? Or have you changed your mind?” he added lamely, not looking up from his work.

“Trial? I just finished it, actually. Why?”

This time he did look up, eyes wide in alarm. “You finished it?!” he asked, incredulous.

I chuckled nervously, not understanding why he spoke so urgently. “No need to sound so surprised, old man. Did you not have faith in me, or something?”

“Child… only a few minutes have passed since you stepped inside of that cave for the first time.”