Julia woke with a start, coughing and hacking. She was vaguely aware of a pulling on her back, but what muddled thoughts she had were all dedicated to getting the water out of her lungs. Her coughing fit ended with retching, but she managed to recover enough to take stock of her situation.

  All around her was water and trees. She didn’t seem to be in a river, since the trees were also submerged. It looked like a river had dramatically overflowed and flooded the entire area around its banks.

  There was a word for this…what was it? Swamp? Marsh? Something like that. The water looked about knee-high, but it was so murky that she couldn’t actually tell the depth. She was just guessing based on how much the trees stuck out.

  She was leaning against the roots of a tree, half her body still submerged. Only now that her thoughts had cleared did she realize Trixy had been pawing at her back. She looked behind her to see Trixy anxiously pushing her back. “Did you drag me out of the water, Trixy?” Julia asked.

  Trixy chirped at her and zipped across to Julia’s front. She chomped down on the gorget of Julia’s cuirass and pulled. “Alright, I’ll get all the way out. Thanks for your help. You probably saved my life,” Julia said sincerely. She didn’t know how long she was out, but any time spent unconscious underwater would be bad, so Trixy pulling her out might legitimately have saved her.

  Julia pulled herself onto the seemingly tall roots of the tree and sat cross-legged. Trixy coiled up around Julia and made a purring sound. It wasn’t exactly a purr, but it was close. It had that guttural quality that suggested the noise originated in the back of her throat. Trixy was undoubtedly becoming more expressive, Julia mused.

  There was a notification blinking urgently in the corner of her vision, but she held off on checking it to replay the events leading to her current predicament in her mind. She immediately wished she hadn’t. She saw it all again—Ravina being teleported, the entire party being slaughtered, Lothier’s death…and Braden’s.

  She was so wet from the marsh that she wasn’t sure what was marsh water and what was her tears, but she started sobbing regardless. Trixy began untangling from where she was wrapped around Julia’s neck and nuzzled up against her head. Julia petted Trixy as she processed. After a few minutes, Braden’s final words started ringing in her ears.

  “Keep moving forward, Jules. Never stop walking.” The words were as much urging her onward as they were haunting her. Seeing him speaking motivational words while his body disappeared was one of the most horrible things she had ever witnessed, but their message was not lost on her.

  She sat up and wiped her face, deciding that tears could wait until she knew she was safe. She surveyed her surroundings with no new revelations. This marsh extended as far as she could see, which wasn’t much. The trees, while not densely-packed, blocked vision beyond a jog or two.

  She decided she was safe enough to at least take care of her notifications. Dealing with whatever waited for her in those was just as important as finding shelter for the moment. Considering Julia was likely teleported in a manner similar to Ravina, she felt it was wise to center herself and take care of the things she could control before worrying about things she couldn’t.

  She pulled up her notifications and instructed the System to stick to the high points rather than detailing every individual thing.

  There it was. Julia had reached Level 25 in that ordeal. She remembered the sludge—whatever it actually was (Abyssal corruption?)—forcing her Level to advance. Was that going to have consequences for her in the future? What even was experience? What happened when one absorbed it? Did it become a part of your being? If so, Julia was likely in for some trouble.

  Regardless, it had to be taken care of, so she pulled up her Class list.

  Julia studied the options with both pride and confusion. She decided to consider the things she knew first. Swordsman and Mage were both expected. They were simply the next in the Fledgling and Novice lines respectively. Wizard was a bit of a surprise. Julia was aware of people taking the Class at Level 50, but here it was being offered at Level 25.

  It seems if you’re offered a Class a threshold before it’s generally available to others, it goes up a stage in Rarity. The Wizard Class she was aware of was offered at Level 50 and only of Common Rarity. It was a Class that focused on preparation. Although it was listed as a Professional Class, it was still useful in combat.

  Wizards made artifacts and scrolls and all kinds of magical tools for a myriad of uses. However, just as a Blacksmith can swing a sword they make, a Wizard can use what they make. This made them plenty useful in adventuring parties.

  Scholar was something she’d not heard of before but made sense. These would clearly be academic types that handled research-related tasks.

  ElectroMage, Water Mage, and Earth Mage were the same as Wizard in that they were typically offered at a higher level. Although she’d not heard of ElectroMage before, she assumed it was offered based on her EM Magic altering from the previous Lightning Magic.

  Arcane Mage was, she assumed, just like the other Mage Classes, but she hadn’t heard of it before. This wasn’t surprising since, based on its Epic Rarity while being offered to her at Level 25, it would be a Rare Class offered at Level 50. Braden had also said she was likely one of only a handful of people that were even aware of Arcane Magic. She was tempted to take this Class immediately, but she continued reading just to be sure.

  Magic Swordsman was reassuring for her, as it implied that she had reached whatever threshold the System required to be offered Skills with swords. She was always worried about focusing too much on magic to the detriment of her swordwork. The Class was a combination of the Mage and Swordsman classes, with a slight boost to conduit enchanting abilities.

  The Combat Enchanter was a class she’d not heard of before, but she assumed it was similar to Wizard. Likely, it focused on enchanting weapons and armor to be used by the creator in combat. It might also have bonuses and boosts for on-the-fly enchanting.

  The final Hybrid Class was strange. Was the System going to turn her into a spirit somehow? Well, not fully, obviously. A demi-spirit was, by definition, not a full-fledged spirit. Still, it sounded awfully close to an evolution rather than a Class. She selected it to view whatever details the System would give her about it.

  Julia stared at the Class Details, slack-jawed. She struggled to make sense of what she saw. She decided to break it down step-by-step to make processing it easier.

  First of all, this would effectively do to her what Trixy’s evolution did. It would convert her physical body into a spiritual one, while upgrading her Fey Heart into a Spirit Core. This sounded like a massive upgrade to Julia. Trixy now had so many options available to her with her Mana Body and Spirit Core Skills.

  However, Trixy’s Spirit Core was marked as (Nascent), while Julia’s would be (Demi). She figured this must mean that Trixy is closer to becoming a full spirit, while Julia would be almost exactly in the middle of the spectrum Braden had described.

  Her hunch about it being an evolution seemed validated, as the System informed her that future Class options would include Evolutionary upgrades. Julia was practically salivating. Wasn’t this a crazy upgrade—getting the benefits of both a Class and an evolution?

  She had to do some mental math to figure out the Attribute distribution. She was slightly worried about the disappearing Body Attributes on her first read, but after a second read, it was less so. It made sense that if her body was made of mana, its physical Attributes would depend on her mana/mental Attributes.

  She began thinking through the numbers. First-threshold Classes (i.e., Level 1 Classes) gave +1 Attribute Point and free AP per Level, plus 1 for each level of Rarity. Future thresholds followed that trend. So, being at the second threshold, a Common class would offer +2 APs to the Class’s main Attributes, and likely an additional +2 free APs to be assigned at will.

  Following this, an Uncommon Class at the second threshold would be +2 to its main Attributes plus an extra point for being one Rarity above Common, for a total of +3. Then, there would be +3 free APs.

  So, working her way up to Epic Rarity at the second threshold, that would normally be +5 APs to the Class’s main Attributes, and +5 free APs for assignment. However, Julia’s Body Attributes would be merged with her Mind Attributes, so she would only have three total Attributes after the Class change/Evolution.

  The System seemed to be deciding that any free APs one would get with the Epic Class under normal circumstances would be divided up among her three existing Attributes, with bias toward Wis and Int. So, +2 to Wis, Int, and +1 to Res from each Class Level, and the 5 free APs would be divided up: 2 to Wis, 2 to Int, and 1 to Res. That was complicated, but Julia finally felt like she understood it.

  She thought long and hard, but she couldn’t come up with anything the other Classes might offer that could trump the potential of the Arcane Demi-Spirit. After spending a while fretting, she once again heard Braden urging her forward in her mind. She pulled up the Class list and selected.

  Julia laid back on the branch she was straddling, hoping the change wouldn’t be too dramatic and make her fall. That was her last thought before a cocoon of white light wrapped around her, and unconsciousness welcomed her back.