Perhaps it was a stupid promise I made in the heat of the moment, perhaps not. What I know is that I felt the System react to it, although thankfully not with an explosion that destroyed even more the cave system I was in.
Which reminded me that I should at least check my status before rushing back into the rubble of the destroyed temple.
You have sworn an Oath to your bonded companions. You swore to get Elyra and Vespera out of the temple that now serves as their tomb, and to release them from the bond that ties them to you should they desire to be free.
The Oath has been recognized by the System, and will grant rewards upon fulfillment.
It was nice of the System to offer encouragement, but I didn’t need any. I broke many promises in my past life, but no more.
Before doing anything, though, I looked at the rest of my status. That’s when I frowned. Why did I get no message when I supposedly unlocked my Class?
You have gained the Class [Wielder of Light and Darkness]!
You share a bond with companions much stronger than you, which they offered willingly. Class upgraded to [Conduit of Light and Darkness]!
Your companions freed you from your obligations, but you still chose to bind yourself to them with an Oath. Your bond deepens. Class upgraded to [Chosen of Light and Darkness]!
Class Level up!
[Chosen of Light and Darkness] 1 → 2
+20 Str, +20 Dex, +20 Vit, +20 Int, +20 Wis
+1 Class Skill point.
What the hell System? I felt rage simmering within me. Are you telling me this stupid magical software wasn’t going to show me all that unless I asked?
I shook my head. I was wasting time. Summoning my Survival Rations—now at level 2—I quickly opened my status. I needed to see what was going on there.
Status: Sol Nightguard
General Level 3
1 General Skill point available.
[Chosen of Light and Darkness] Level 2
1 Class Skill point available.
Str: 32
Dex: 32
Vit: 32
Int: 32
Wis: 32
General Skills:
Survival Rations 2
That was crazy. The general level had increased, and I faintly remembered getting a notification when I managed to escape the temple. At least this was much better than leveling up after falling and breaking my legs, but the bonuses were insignificant.
What almost made my eyes bulge out of my skull was seeing the bonuses that came from the class. If I was reading it correctly, it was going to be twenty full points on every single attribute every single level?
Absolutely crazy. I almost couldn’t believe it. Crazier still was seeing not one but two class evolutions in a row. I had no idea how common such things were, but I don’t think very common. The System itself had gone to great length to highlight the fact that not only had I bonded with two beings much stronger than I was, but that the bond was willing. I remember Vespera being quite vexed by that, it had to be important.
And then, the fact that I swore an Oath, then they released me, and then I swore right back again was seen as somewhat significant. Who was I kidding—not somewhat, but very significant. It made me wonder about the power system in this world, but I didn't have enough data to speculate. Apparently, from what Elyra and Vespera had said, classes remained even if the companions died or were abandoned but… I was pretty sure you couldn’t deepen a bond unless the companion was alive, well, and liked you.
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I smiled, feeling warmth spread to my chest. Nevermind that two gorgeous women offered their power to me. My brain was struggling to come to terms with it. What it wasn’t struggling with, though? Magic! Stats! Power!
I had never felt better in all my life, not even after taking one or two drops of Green!
It almost erased all the pain of the last… how many days had it even been since I fell in the hole? It felt like weeks but it could have just as easily been only a couple of days. The fever and the infection had made every single waking moment feel like an endless torture, while the time I spent talking with Elyra and Vespera felt all too short.
Thinking about them filled me with purpose. Those strange magical shields around them had saved them from being crushed to death, but I wasn’t going to leave them there. Oath or no Oath.
I felt a slight pull deep inside my body slacken at the thought. Ah, apparently the Oath was already tugging at me, seeing that I was wasting time.
“No worries, mister System. They were ready to sacrifice themselves just to save me, I’m not going to leave them here.”
With that, I turned my back to the tunnel and its promise of escape and walked back towards the large cave. The temple was all but buried in rubble, and I had to climb over fallen boulders and piles of dirt to reach the top of the mound. If I didn’t know there was a ruined temple below all the rock, I would never have guessed.
I began to dig, using my raw strength to lift rocks the size of my head like they were nothing. I struggled with the larger ones, but I could confidently say that I was deadlifting a couple hundred kilograms and barely even breaking a sweat. The power was intoxicating, and this was all just from gaining one level?
“Chosen of Light and Darkness,” I muttered to myself as I worked.
No matter how much I poked and prodded the status, there was nothing else there. No description, nothing. Just my stats, my name and levels, the general skill and a window with the Oath. And yet, I felt like there was more to my class than just a fancy name and a lot of stat points per level. There had to be. The word, ‘chosen’, felt heavy and rich with meaning.
Ah, I almost forgot. The skill points. I felt the urge to rush to get a new Class skill, so instead I decided to start with the General Skill point I could spend. It looked like you got one every level, at least at first. I clicked the blinking notification, remembering the first time I did.
The memory hit me like a hauler. For some reason, my mind seemed to recall the pain in perfect detail, followed by the disgust and anger I felt when I saw the mockery of the System offering me running skills after I had broken my legs. I recalled the sweeping relief at seeing the food materialize, and only now did I realize how much I cried while I ate the salty piece of jerky the System had given me.
I snapped out of the memory almost as if in a daze. I had never been good at remembering things, especially with how the continuous cycles of cryo-sleep fucked my brain and sense of time. It must be the stats, I realized. If I didn’t want to lose myself in long trips down the memory lane, I better keep my awareness firmly planted in the present. There wasn’t much around me, just a dark cave and some faint orange light coming from the crystals that had survived the collapse, but the physical work of moving all the stones was enough.
The moment my mind started to wander, I felt the memories threaten to overwhelm me. Instead, I navigated the System menus to see what General Skills I got offered this time around.
General Skills available:
Running
Athletics
Dodging
Ah, it looked like the skills didn’t go away if you didn’t choose them.
Re-roll available skills? (Costs 1 General Skills point)
“No thank you,” I said.
Of the three, I chose [Dodging]. The moment I did, I was almost dragged back to the moment I escaped the collapsing temple, but I forced my mind to remain just where it was. I didn’t want to go back there, not when the the event was still fresh in my mind.
I kept moving the stones with my bare hands. I worked and worked, until I finally heard a voice.
“Sol?” It was Elyra.
“Sol! You idiot!” Came Vespera’s voice moments later. “You don’t need to free us. You can go!”
“Stop,” I said immediately. “Don’t release me from the Oath again, please.”
I kept digging, and the sound of a boulder rolling down the small hill of rubble muffled Vespera’s voice.
“What did you say?” I asked.
“She grumbled that you must be doing it to get the rewards from completing the Oath,” Elyra said in her stead.
“He must be!” Vespera shouted.
I said nothing, and just kept digging. The two women kept bickering, but their voices were strained and labored. I did not interrupt them. Even though I have never been good at reading people after spending so much time alone in my hauler, the feelings coming through the bond were enough for me to understand what they were doing. They bickered, but there was no hostility there. Instead, under the surface, I felt a lot of fear and apprehension.
They were trying to distract each other from feeling it.
When I stopped digging to eat and drink, I felt their fear spike.
“Sol?”
I was surprised that, of the two, it had been Vespera who called my name. Her voice had none of the sharpness it used to have, sounding like a scared little girl instead.
“I’m here,” I said. “Can’t you feel me through the bond?”
She didn’t reply immediately. I was starting to worry, eating my food quickly as to waste as little time as possible, but I admit that I was worried I had said something wrong. Perhaps I had.
“Bonds are for familiars and pets,” she spat. At least, I felt her fear of being abandoned lessen as her hate for the System distracted her. “Willingly given or not, they are between master and servant. A master has total control over the bond.”
“Even though our bond was created between equals, Sol,” Elyra explained. “The System doesn’t care for any of that. To it, we are beasts, sources of power and nothing more. You, on the other hand, are a human—one of the three sentient races.”
“I don’t like it,” I said, finishing up my food. “Is there a way to change it?”
Vespera laughed. “Only a fool would want to change the nature of the bond. Don’t you get it? You have total control over us!”
“I don’t want total control! That’s it, I’m releasing you as soon as I free you.”
With that, I went back to digging. I did not miss the sudden spike of emotion I felt from both of them the moment I promised to free them, nor did I miss the fact that it was mostly fear. Fear of being left alone.
