3. Dual Classes
Vale saw the beast coming well before it was upon her. She might not have access to vital energy to reinforce her limbs and mind anymore, but her senses were hardly dull. The foundation of her Master's training had gone nowhere.
Cool golden eyes analyzed the beast as it barreled toward her. It was like little she'd seen before. It was small, black, covered in scales, quadrupedal, and had a lizard face. It moved quickly, but not much faster than would be expected of a mortal creature. She tracked it as it came closer and closer, keeping her posture relaxed to let it think she remained unaware.
Then, with a simple movement, she thrust her improvised spear forward while stepping away. Despite the crudity of her weapon, the attack was so perfectly executed, and the beast had such a reckless momentum, that it embedded several inches into its right eye—into its brain. It twitched wildly as Vale abandoned the stick to retreat, but she didn't need to ready herself for a second round. After a few thrashes, it died.
Such a weak monster was no match for a Sword Saint's disciple, not even when she'd been stripped of her sword and her power.
***
You have been granted a bestowal. You now have access to System insight.
The class [Sword Saint] has been assigned.
The class [Succubus] has been assigned.
***
Vale jumped in surprise. "Who's there?" she called, spinning in a circle. But she realized quickly that the voice had been inside her head. Faintly male, monotone, the words had been whispered into her mind rather than her ear.
Considering how many strange things had happened since she'd woken, she was able to take this one practically in stride.
"Bestowal?" she whispered. "Insight? Classes? What does that mean?"
Her eyes lingered, by chance, on the corpse of the monster she'd just killed, and something fascinating happened: there were more whispers in her head.
Level 1 Blackclaw Skitterer
The name of the monster dropped into her head, along with its level.
Level, though? What did that mean? Was it similar to the stages and ascensions she once knew, which had described the strength of a person's spiritual core?
She puzzled over this briefly before the next insight arrived. Thinking about the two classes she'd been given provided information on them.
***
Sword Saint
A peerless master of the sword.
Rarity: Legendary
Skills:
Level 1 - [Spiritual Energy Manipulation]
***
Like before, she twitched in surprise. It would take some time to accustom to the formless whispers that could now creep into her skull with no seeming source.
Briefly, she was abashed by the title she'd been given. Sword Saint? Master Northstar was a Sword Saint; she was just his disciple. Yes, she had technically reached the spiritual density required to call herself a Saint, and had studied the blade to do so, it was just… wrong, in her opinion. She was so, so far from being Master's equal that using a title similar to his had always been something she refused out of principle.
A peerless master of the sword.
She snorted at those words too. Again, she was no master; she was a disciple. Peerless? Certainly not. Even Master Northstar hadn't been truly peerless.
Which was why he was dead.
She squeezed her eyes shut and pushed that thought very deliberately aside, taking a deep breath to calm the onslaught of emotions.
Rarity: Legendary
What did that mean? That a class of 'Sword Saint' was extremely rare? That seemed fair… but what did it mean, practically speaking? She would have to ask someone. Though 'finding someone' might be tricky.
Was this the 'new form of power' Lust had mentioned? This class system, and the words being spoken into her head? It certainly seemed so. Obviously it wasn't a natural phenomenon. Yet it had replaced spiritual cores and cultivation? How strange.
[Spiritual Energy Manipulation]
Finally, something that sounded familiar. Even better, focusing on the skill provided more information about it.
[Spiritual Energy Manipulation]: (Novice). As a master of the old arts, cultivate energy and refine it to grow in power. Move it through your body to reinforce yourself and sharpen your senses.
She blinked. In one breath, she was condemned as a Novice, yet also named a 'master of the old arts?'
Perhaps that implied the word 'Novice' meant something else. The relative level of the skill? Could skills be improved upon and upgraded?
She set that idea aside, because the skill's description promised something that instantly set her heart aflutter. Before she knew it, she was seated on the forest floor, cross-legged and hands on her knees, assuming a familiar pose.
Breathing in, she quested out for that sense of vital energy in the air, and more importantly, within herself.
With blooming joy, she realized she could access her spiritual core again.
With crashing disappointment, she realized it was as unrefined as a mortal: as shallow and soft as the day she'd first learned to sense it.
So, she hadn't regained her power. But at least she hadn't lost the ability to rise in strength a second time.
Temporarily, she set aside these realizations, because she had more to study. Without a doubt, she would soon be working on cultivating vital energy to reinforce her spiritual core, but there was no need to do so that very second.
She had another class, and another skill, to inspect.
***
Succubus
A disciple of a carnal aspect.
Rarity: ???
Skills:
Level 1 - [Curse of Restraint]
***
Even at the name of the class, heat rose onto her cheeks. Succubus… her soul was branded with the title 'Succubus'. Lust had already promised the term wouldn't mean what she traditionally associated with it, but lurid ideas ran through her head nonetheless.
Her? A succubus? She hadn't even had her first kiss. Her life had… not been easy before Master Northstar had taken her in. And then, in some ways, it had been even harder: the Saint of Winter Frost had been an exacting Master, and Vale the most willing disciple there could be. So what time had there been for romance?
She hadn't had her first kiss, much less… more than that.
In fact, the curvy goddess atop that mountain had given Vale all sorts of firsts. First woman to grab her breasts, to press her body into her, to cup her hand against… that place.
And that last event of teasing, where Vale's sensitive shaft had slid up soft skin, was certainly the most carnal contact she'd ever had. Her head went dizzy remembering it.
She looked down her body to see ten inches of an unfamiliar weapon standing rigidly at attention. Swallowing, she put it, and all thoughts of Lust's soft body, and the wonderful way it had felt pressing into her, out of her head.
A disciple of a carnal aspect.
Vale wondered if that was her life now. There was power in the class, Lust had promised, and Vale needed power. Now more than ever. Just… how was she supposed to be a Succubus? And did she even want to be?
With apprehension, she inspected the skill that had come with the class.
[Curse of Restraint]: "Nuh-uh—nice try! You're gonna need some outside help if you want to take care of this poor thing." The User is incapable of providing erotic self-pleasure.
"W-What?" Vale stammered aloud.
The previous skill had been a blessing. Skills in general, she would have assumed, would be beneficial. Yet the only skill that came from her Succubus class was… that?
Even stranger, it had been Lust's voice to speak the prefacing words, rather than the cool male monotone from the other announcements. And only the preface; the rest of the skill was his voice as well.
The effect itself… incapable of providing erotic self-pleasure?
Did that mean—?
In disbelief, Vale's hand went down between her legs. She'd been doing her best to ignore the member granted to her, but now she was forced to confront it. The warm digits of her hand wrapped around the ten solid inches of cock there, having not softened from her flustered remembrances of Lust's soft and curvy body pressed into her.
And while Vale could touch herself, with utter amazement, she found she couldn't move her hand.
She couldn't masturbate.
Lust had cursed her with the inability to pleasure herself.
"What!" she exclaimed. "But what am I supposed to do, then?!"
Get help, logic told her.
And it was fitting with her class. Succubi didn't lay around pleasuring themselves all day; they had prey. Or in the most generous interpretation of lore, they had partners.
But even the idea…
Vale was supposed to have someone else 'take care' of her needs?
Just the concept had a full-faced blush burning bright enough that she felt dizzy.
Vale was twenty-one winters old; she was hardly a child. She knew what… sex… was. Just, she'd never had time for it, or more generally, romance. Every minute of every day had been filled with Master Northstar's tasks, and she had been happy for it too. He had, in only a few years, turned her into a prodigy. Or if she were generous to herself, had brought the prodigy forth, like a gem pulled from raw stone.
So it wasn't like the concept of sex was foreign. It was just… very, very embarrassing. Especially with this thing! She looked down at herself, at the sword of pale flesh sprouting from between her legs. The two balls drooping beneath it. It was… so… male. And lewd! Why did her own body seem lewd to her? Heat kept rising on her face, and all she was doing was looking at herself.
"Just don't think about it," Vale muttered under her breath.
Taking a steadying breath, she once again pushed all of those thoughts to the side. What did it matter if she couldn't touch herself? She simply had to repress her urges, and she'd be fine anyway. She'd been able to go weeks, sometimes even months, with how occupied Master Northstar kept her.
And sure… this thing was a lot more aching, twitching, and sensitive thanks to its novelty than the equipment she was used to working with—which had gone nowhere either—but she was a young woman with excellent self control. She would keep herself occupied, and thus not need any help 'taking care of herself.'
Simple as that.
Her tail swished in agitation behind her, distressed, since it was more honest than her brain. Her cock, likewise, throbbed in disappointment. It wanted touching, badly.
One more steadying breath, and she'd wrangled her thoughts into order. Something she managed only thanks to the remaining distractions.
Rarity: ???
Apparently, this class, while granted and recognized by whatever strange System organized this new sort of power, was as mysterious to it as it was to her. It had an unknown rarity, and was unclassifiable. One more piece of proof that the curvy, seemingly-young woman she'd met an hour earlier was more than a regular Immortal, but perhaps a sliver of true divinity.
How incredible. She'd met a goddess in the flesh.
And had pressed her cock into that warm flesh. She had felt a deity's nipples brush against her own. Had felt a goddess squeeze her ass and whisper hot teases into her ear.
Vale swallowed.
After some experimentation, she discovered one more interesting application of 'System insight', as the announcements earlier had called it. While mundane objects like trees and rocks would provide no information when scrutinized, she could look at herself.
***
Vale Whitepaw
Race: Wolf Animara
Level: 1 (Sword Saint) | 1 (Succubus)
Title: No active title.
***
It didn't actually provide much new useful information, besides the mention of a 'title', which was surely important, but which she knew little about. Once she found other people, she'd be able to get answers.
Or maybe not. Maybe such topics were discussed rarely, and only with clanmates. Knowledge had been hoarded during her time as well.
But the basics at least. The basics would be freely shared, simply because of the number of people with access to them.
She found herself excited to discover more. This was such a bizarre system of power compared to what she knew, and she wanted to know if it was how everyone experienced life in this age. Truly, the world she was familiar with had faded into the past. Would any of the old kingdoms exist? Would her Master's clan?
Would the clan of her Master's killers still exist?
That thought sobered her up.
If it did, she had old—yet fresh—grudges to settle. But that was a problem for later.
For now, she needed to get stronger.