The interior of the pod was blessedly cool and quiet, the hum of its dormant systems a familiar comfort. The node was housed in the pilot’s compartment: a small, silvery pyramid set into the console, inert and waiting. This was a minor node, nowhere near powerful enough for inter-system transit or grand quest bestowals—that required a full ley-line nexus, the kind you’d find on a capital ship like the Crow or a Fleet station. A copper-grade node like this was for the basics: communication, basic system access, and, most importantly, for solidifying your first real step on the path of power.

  I sank into the pilot’s chair, the leather creaking softly. Taking a steadying breath, I placed my palms flat on the cool metal surface of the pyramid.

  It came to life without a sound, but I felt it—a resonant hum that traveled up my arms and settled in my chest, synchronizing with my own newly agitated core. A hologram, all shimmering silver and blue light, materialized in the air above my hands, displaying the familiar, unfathomable interface of System 7.0.

  Welcome to System 7.0!

  Advancement to adulthood complete!

  Wood stage cultivation root complete!

  Meridian activation complete!

  Tin stage dantian formation complete!

  Basic cultivation technique- Maenad basic manual installed!

  Basic circulation- Maenad basic manual installed!

  Welcome to the copper stage! Currently you require four steps to complete the copper stage and advance to the bronze (foundation) stage:

  

  
1. 
   
     Expand your advancement pool (x5) to increase the energy density of your dantian.
   
     


  
2. 
   
     Purify your meridians in order to fully circulate each density level of your dantian.
   
     


  
3. 
   
     Advance your basic circulation through choosing a class or developing/discovering a new technique.
   
     


  
4. 
   
     Choose your bonded or unbonded status.
   
     


  

  Congratulations! With your advancement to (copper) stage you have gained eligibility for one of the following classes:

  Power, raw and untamed, roared through me. It was a headier feeling than any stim or drug. It was potential made manifest. The node’s interface helped me visualize what was happening inside my own body: my dantian, the reservoir of life energy at my core, had just expanded from a placid pond into a swirling, storm-churned lake. The meridians, the channels that carried that energy throughout my body, glowed with new intensity, eager to be used.

  This is it, I thought, a thrill of fear and excitement coursing through me. The first real choice. The one that sets your feet on a path. Wood stage was childhood, and tin stage was adulthood without a path. Most low worlds couldn’t even advance to tin, but my world, despite it’s gravity and what others considered a hellish environment, was an advancement world, meaning it could survive higher-ranked individuals altering existence with their mere presence, one of the reasons my forebears chose such an otherwise unpleasant planet.

  I knew the arguments against the system. Purists, hermits, and ascetics on a hundred worlds claimed it stunted true potential, that it handed you power on a platter instead of making you earn every scrap through meditation and ancient, painstakingly preserved techniques.

  They were the same sorts who refused genemods that could eliminate horrific inherited diseases, calling it “unnatural.” To me, that was just pride and stupidity. The node system was a tool. An impossibly ancient, terrifyingly complex tool left behind by god-like humans from a forgotten age, a customized library of every conceivable expression of human potential.

  Nobody knew how many classes existed, or if the system itself created new ones on the fly for people who truly pushed the boundaries of what was possible.

  There were known paths, of course. Well-documented progressions of classes that led to predictable, powerful endpoints. Back on Korse, my path had been chosen for me almost from birth.

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  I was to walk the Path of the Dimensional Warden. It was a respected, powerful progression: Common Pilot at Copper, Uncommon Spatial Navigator at Bronze, Uncommon Hyperspace Hunter at Orichalcum, Uncommon Drone Plotter at Iron, Uncommon Drone Warden at Steel, and finally, the Rare Dimensional Warden at Silver. It was a path of control, of understanding the fabric of space itself.

  It was a path to real power and respect, one that completely ignored my latent Forces affinity because, well, what use was brute force to a Warden? I’d been excited for it. It was my ticket to someday dealing with the EMP pulser in the Korse system, the ancient weapon that kept knocking my people back into the dark ages.

  But that was a choice made by a child who expected a long, peaceful decade in the Tin stage, maybe bonding with a nice, safe Charlotte or a city-bred baseline. That girl had been shoved into a box, shipped off to a penal battalion, tested, trained, and thrown into the deep end with a damaged Paladin, a mysterious XO, and a destiny that seemed to be writing itself in blood and starlight.

  I’d gained traits like Triage and Enchantment through sheer, desperate necessity, not through careful class selection. I’d learned to remote dropships through terrifying canyons and sense the spiritual cancer eating the man I…

  I shoved that thought down. The point was, my experiences had blown the door off my known possibilities. The path to Warden felt… safe. Predictable. Almost sterile. Was it really the right path for a girl who could feel the pain in a ship’s engine, heal a dying trooper, and was being groomed for something far greater and more dangerous by a privateer Commander and a living weapon?

  Settling the roiling energy in my core, I took a deep breath and began to sift through the list of available classes the system was presenting to me. It was no surprise that even at Copper, I had Uncommon choices staring back at me. My life had been anything but common.

  Classes were tiered by rarity, but that wasn’t a simple measure of power. It was a measure of specialization. A Common class gave you good, solid, general-purpose traits. An Uncommon one gave you traits that were more niche, more potent within their specific focus. Those traits could then combine and evolve to unlock even higher-tier classes down the line.

  Most of the troopers outside had a single, bodily affinity—Physical or Ranged. They’d trained for years, and that training, combined with their affinity, had likely earned them a solid Common class like Man-at-Arms or Sharpshooter right out of Tin. Their traits would be things like ‘Power Strike’ or ‘Deadeye’—incredibly useful, and incredibly broad.

  I’d done things backwards. I had the affinities first—Forces, Spirit—and I’d gained specialized traits through sheer, dumb luck and survival instinct. Triage. Enchantment. I’d built the house before I’d poured the foundation. Now, the system was offering me classes that could provide that foundation, that could structure the chaotic potential I’d already unlocked.

  The list shimmered before me, a menu of possible futures. Just the very first screen alone was rife with possibility, and it was by no means comprehensive.

  Common: Field Medic. A foundation of healing and support. Enhances Triage trait, grants ‘Battlefield Triage’ ability, slightly increases spiritual recovery. Pathway to: Combat Medic (Uncommon), Corpsemaker (Rare).

  Common: Systems Operator. A focus on technological interfacing and drone control. Enhances remote operation efficiency, grants ‘System Diagnostic’ sight. Pathway to: Drone Controller (Uncommon), Fleet C&C Specialist (Rare).

  Uncommon: Maenad Chanter. A class unique to your bloodline. Focuses on the use of sonic forces and emotional manipulation through voice and presence. Enhances Forces affinity, grants ‘Siren’s Call’ ability. Pathway to: Battle Chanter (Rare), Void Singer (Mythic).

  Uncommon: Magitech Adept. A hybrid class for those who bridge the gap between technology and spirit. Enhances both Technology and Spirit affinities, allows for the sensing and minor manipulation of techno-spiritual systems. Pathway to: Artificer (Rare), Soulsmith (Mythic).

  I stared at the first set of options, my heart hammering against my ribs. Each one was a door, and walking through it would change everything. The Medic was safe, expected. The Systems Operator was the obvious choice for a droner. But the others…

  The Maenad Chanter called to the deepest part of my biology, the part that thrummed in response to David’s presence. It was power, raw and terrifying and mine.

  The Magitech Adept… that was the class of someone who could feel a gremlin in an engine. Someone who could understand, on a fundamental level, the connection between a man’s soul and the Caliban implant trying to consume it. Someone who could maybe, just maybe, build a better one.

  Outside, the sounds of battle had died down. The first wave was over. The troopers would be catching their breath, drinking water, checking gear. They were waiting. My time was limited.

  I looked at the list again, then inward, at the storm of energy in my dantian and the man whose fate was tied to mine by a quest and something far more personal. The path of the Dimensional Warden felt like a dream from another life.

  Time to wake up, I thought, and reached out my will to look at more options.