Nikolai hung in darkness for what seemed both an impossibly long time and perhaps only seconds.

  It was hard to grasp time when there was simply nothing around by which to measure it. Darkness—no sensation, no sound—just nothing at all.

  Then light appeared, taking the form of a figure. It had the rough shape of a human, but with longer arms, an elongated head, and seemingly no fingers or toes. If he had to describe it, it looked almost like a featureless doll fashioned from matted light.

  The figure gestured with a wide sweep of one arm, and an endless number of what looked like stars spread out before Nikolai, forming a night-sky canopy.

  Despite everything, Nikolai almost felt like shedding tears at the sheer beauty of it.

  A voice rang out in the darkness, emotionless, but not threatening.

  “It is time to choose, Nikolai Travelion. The path is laid before you. Which steps do you wish to take?”

  Information slammed into his mind at a rapid pace, and holograms appeared out of nothing before him. There were several of them—one he recognized from using his ring, detailing his status and spells. Others listed skills, abilities, and more. There were far too many, and he had no idea what he was supposed to do with all of it.

  When no more information seemed forthcoming from the disembodied voice, and he was left hanging among the myriad stars, the figure frozen in place, he began examining the screens.

  He had apparently reached the third stage after fighting the massive ooze monster. So was this how you accepted your class, or rather path? Did everyone experience this, or had the fey king interfered and sent him here?

  Nikolai couldn’t be sure, but doing nothing would accomplish nothing.

  He started with his status screen.

  Nikolai noted the changes. His spells had improved, which was great, and his stats had increased by quite a bit as well. What truly shocked him, however, was his race—it had changed to demihuman, and he wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about that.

  His subrace was listed as Fey, which was probably what the king had meant when he said Nikolai would slowly change. He had made a bargain with a fey, and that had likely been a really bad idea—but he wasn’t about to start regretting it now. No, he was committed, and he would take whatever advantages he could from his new circumstances. Fey were immortal, right? So hey, maybe he would live forever now.

  Mentally sighing—given his lack of a mouth or lungs to do so otherwise—he glanced at his class: Twilight Mage. It seemed interesting, at least, and he was curious to see what it would offer him. As he focused on it, another box of information popped into view.

  Nikolai stared at the description of the class, honestly uncertain what to make of it. It wasn’t exactly clear-cut instruction—easy to understand or particularly helpful.

  Some of it made sense to him, or perhaps he simply thought it did. He wasn’t sure how much impact these principles would actually have, but for the time being, he decided to set them aside for later consideration. There was more information to go through, and something else was already drawing his attention.

  Two windows—or screens, or whatever they were—blinked softly at the corner of his vision. He mentally pushed the status window aside and focused on them instead. The first thing he noticed was that, finally, here were some simple instructions—though even that immediately raised new questions.

  Nikolai stared at the two windows. Nothing more was explained or shown—just that. He wanted to frown, but being unable to do so reduced him to rolling his vision around as he might have rolled his eyes. Unfortunately, that sent the millions of tiny stars spinning, and he spent a few moments pushing down a powerful wave of discomfort.

  He focused on the rune window. Apparently, he was able to choose a rune now. He wasn’t entirely sure how many runes he could currently hold, but having too many wasn’t a problem he was facing at the moment, at least he hoped that was the case.

  “So how do I choose a rune…?” he pondered aloud.

  The figure of light gestured toward the stars surrounding them.

  Nikolai looked at the stars—then he really looked. As he did, information flowed into his mind. This particular star represented a spell called Lightning Net. With only a glance, he understood everything it entailed: lightning-affinity magic that both entrapped and electrocuted its target. The spell was pretty damn frightening to think about. Just imagining being trapped in a cage of lightning made him shudder.

  He examined a few more stars, but quickly became baffled by their sheer number. It would take him a lifetime to look through them all.

  “Could you perhaps just show me light- and dark-affinity spells?” he asked the figure hopefully.

  The figure nodded, and Nikolai groaned as the entire sky swirled in a blinding pattern before finally coming to a halt. There were significantly fewer stars now—but still an overwhelming amount.

  He thought about what he wanted: some kind of attack spell. Recalling his last fight, he remembered overflowing with essence. Perhaps there was a spell that could take advantage of that excess.

  “Can you show me offensive spells that I can empower with essence?” he asked.

  The figure nodded again. After another round of disorienting motion, only a few hundred stars remained. Excited, Nikolai examined several of them, discarding most. They were interesting, but not quite what he was looking for.

  After going through a few dozen, he narrowed it down to a couple of promising options. One was a beam of light, but its dual light-and-fire affinity meant he probably couldn’t use it to its full potential. An exploding sphere suffered from similar limitations, and he also dismissed a spell that formed large claws of condensed magic.

  Then he found something that felt like the right fit—though it came with notable drawbacks.

  Sacrificial Mana Blades.

  The spell allowed him to create weapons of condensed mana, but at the cost of essence to summon and control them. He imagined whirling blades of pure mana and essence carving through the dungeon’s zombies, and the thought thrilled him.

  There was, however, a serious problem. If he relied only on his own essence, using the spell would be tantamount to killing himself.

  On the other hand, if he had access to excess essence through his drain ability, this spell could become devastating under the right conditions—a true trump card.

  “High risk, high reward…” he muttered before mentally selecting the rune.

  The stars winked out, and a stream of information flooded into his very soul. Once the process was complete, he shifted his focus to the skills. He was eager to see what his options were.

  Once again, the figure of light gestured, and the sky of countless stars returned.

  Nikolai considered skills and what he had learned so far. At present, he only possessed a language skill. While it might seem simple, the knowledge that he would never need to study another language—and could communicate with almost anyone—was incredible.

  So what did he actually need?

  He was clearly leaning toward an aggressive caster fighting style. Despite his healing abilities, he wanted to be powerful in his own right—capable of standing on his own. A balanced, self-sufficient approach appealed to him most.

  Increasing raw strength made little sense as a mage, but mobility? That could be invaluable.

  “Could you show me skills focused around mobility and agility?” he asked the figure. Then another thought occurred to him. “Oh—and perhaps something related to the fey?”

  He wasn’t sure why the idea had surfaced, but perhaps his new race opened up unique possibilities.

  The figure gestured, and a large number of stars vanished. Nikolai examined what remained, and the very first skill he inspected made him nearly giddy.

  Ethereal Grace.

  The skill granted the dexterity and grace of the immortal fey—and even listed being fey as a requirement.

  Nikolai didn’t hesitate. He chose it immediately.

  It might have been rash, but he couldn’t help imagining his future self: well-dressed, presumably handsome, darkness swirling around him as he moved with effortless, almost dance-like grace.

  He knew the thought was a little ridiculous, but he couldn’t help how his gamer brain worked. Being powerful enough to face dangerous foes was important—but looking good while doing it wasn’t far behind.

  Satisfied with his choice, he turned his attention to the final selection. He now had an offensive combat rune and a skill enhancing his physical capability—so what should his last choice be?

  More combat abilities were tempting, but was that wise? He was still trapped in a dungeon, had faced death more than once, and needed to find a way out. He had no interest in reaching the bottom—he’d already been betrayed once and was seriously considering cutting his losses entirely.

  What he truly lacked was information.

  He’d spent this entire ordeal on the back foot, always knowing the least about what was actually happening. When he asked the figure for information-related skills, the stars that appeared were focused on gathering information—not providing it outright.

  Unable to obtain direct answers, he refined his focus. Skills that assessed medicinal plants or evaluated metal quality appeared, but none were immediately useful.

  Then he noticed an ocular ability—one that granted basic information on anything within his field of view.

  Intrigued, he narrowed the selection to ocular powers and added the fey aspect to the criteria. A few options appeared. The third one he examined felt just right.

  Discerning Eye.

  The skill allowed him to gauge the relative strength of an entity compared to his own and provided basic insight into magically infused items. It seemed extremely useful given his current circumstances.

  His thoughts returned to the Fey King—how certain he had been of Nikolai’s potential, enough to draw him into his realm and alter his race and path entirely. Whatever power the king possessed to perceive such things, Nikolai wanted something similar.

  After a few more seconds of consideration, he confirmed his choice.

  The figure waved, and the starry sky blinked out, leaving only darkness, the figure, and his status screen.

  The disembodied voice echoed from everywhere at once.

  “You have chosen. The path is laid. It is yours to walk, Nikolai Travelion.”

  As a pull dragged him from the dark space, he glanced at his status one final time—and was genuinely shocked by how much his attributes had changed again. It seemed that skills granted attributes as well, and Ethereal Grace alone had boosted his dexterity by thirteen points.