Samael tilted his head, those luminous eyes fixed on Luke.

  “I’ll start with the obvious notification floating in front of you,” he said.

  Luke’s heartbeat was restless. He wanted an answer about his mother, about everything that truly mattered. But according to Sigil, any conversation would have to wait until they finished dealing with the system’s business.

  “Congratulations, Luke,” Samael continued. “You managed to awaken your Second Class. A rare feat for human individuals below Rank E. You did it while still at Rank F. But know this: once someone reaches Rank E, Second Classes become more common among the races that are permitted to have classes at all.”

  He took a few slow steps.

  “A beast doesn’t have a class. Its power comes from the strength of its core, which the system translates as Rank. But don’t fool yourself into thinking that makes them weaker. Quite the opposite. A colossal Kraken isn’t weak simply because it lacks a class. But explanations like that are for another time.”

  “My Second Class is Witch,” Luke said. “How did I get that? What’s the logic behind Second Classes? What do you mean by talent? And… is it just a coincidence that you taught me the principles of witchcraft in the past, and I ended up awakening this exact class?”

  Samael stopped in front of him.

  “In the past, what I was teaching you was the concept of Witchcraft, with the term ‘Witch’ used to mean a researcher or scholar of the universe’s forces. What you’re referring to now is the Witch class, which is a deep, dedicated student of magic. But it is interesting that you ended up getting that class specifically.”

  Luke frowned. “Yeah. Why Witch instead of Sorcerer or Mage?”

  “That’s the system’s doing; it’s the one that assigns your class,” Samael replied. “But let’s go through a simple logic exercise. You learned that the second class awakens through talent. Charlie had a punching skill and ended up with Boxer, something she actually enjoyed. And your journey up to this point… what was it that helped you get this class? I want to know if you really understood.”

  When the notification first appeared, Luke hadn’t even hesitated: he was sure he’d get Archer. He had thrown himself into that path, pushing his limits while fighting monsters. At first, he could barely shoot a standing target while standing still himself. Running and shooting felt like suicide. Now it was second nature.

  But dedication wasn’t what defined a Second Class. Talent did. And the answer clicked into place, almost as if someone nudged his awareness in the right direction.

  “Mana Infusion,” he said. “I studied mana on my own and managed to awaken a skill from it while still at Rank F.”

  “Exactly,” Samael said, clearly satisfied. “A talent that many would overlook. But you sensed it back when you killed your first Midnight Warden. Then you continued studying mana on your own until you awakened the skill Mana Infusion. That… helped you awaken the Witch class.”

  Luke was still trying to assemble the whole picture.

  “Even so, it doesn’t make sense. That should make me a Mage, not a Witch.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “There is something called requirements,” Sigil said. “Explain why he got Witch instead of Mage, Samael.”

  “To awaken a Second Class,” Samael began, his tone almost instructional, “one must fulfill certain requirements. Similar to a rank advancement. Think of it as filling several glasses with drops of water. Every action you take adds a drop to multiple glasses, each representing a potential class. The glass that fills first becomes your Second Class. You don’t choose it… you simply receive it.”

  The metaphor, simple at first glance, settled heavily in Luke’s mind. He pictured dozens of invisible cups floating around him throughout his journey. Every decision, every attempt, every failure, every fight quietly filling one of them drop by drop.

  And somehow, the Witch’s cup had filled first.

  Samael went on, "In the end, only a few cups were probably close to full. One of them should have been Mage." He folded his arms, studying Luke like some curious experiment. "But you managed to collect a few… unusually valuable drops that helped trigger the Witch instead."

  He snapped his fingers. Flames spun into existence, forming a living ring of fire. Within it, an image shimmered into shape: an old woman deep in a forest, bent over a bubbling cauldron. The scene wavered like a memory pulled from some ancient subconscious archive.

  "There are many requirements for awakening a class," Samael said. "But I’ll tell you the main ones that likely pushed you into Witch. Let’s start with… the cauldron."

  The image zoomed in, focusing on the old woman stirring a thick potion under the faint blue glow of moonlight.

  "This requirement shows a crone in the woods with a cauldron. In other words, a solitary woman in a wooden hut, drawing magic from nature. First requirement: met. At some point, you were in a forest, in a hideout like a wooden cabin, stirring a cauldron while studying nature based arts. In your case, tied to your botanist profession."

  He would never have imagined the system used something so specific and so mundane as part of the criteria for a class. Yet, in a bizarre way, it fit.

  The flames shifted again. Now the old woman offered a gleaming apple to another woman. Her smile was sharp, too familiar from countless movies, stories, and cartoons.

  “Before it even appeared, the system had already influenced your universe by providing knowledge, which led you to create things like pop culture,” Samael explained. “So you’ve probably seen this scene in some movie or cartoon. A witch poisoning someone through something they eat, like an apple. Hmm… think, Luke: when did you make someone ingest poison?”

  The realization hit hard, almost physical.

  "The Beast Lord… and Allison," he murmured.

  It was impossible to forget. The medication poisoning he’d caused in the Beast Lord… and the libido potion he’d accidentally given Allison.

  Samael tilted his head, amused.

  "You know what’s funny? In the classic stories, the witch usually poisons a princess… and you did exactly that," he said, shamelessly referring to Allison.

  The fire twisted again. Now the old woman stood inside a small cabin, a black cat perched beside her on a table cluttered with vials.

  "Do you understand this requirement?" Samael asked.

  "No…" Luke admitted. The first thing that popped into his mind was his soul cat from the Rank Skill, but it felt too bizarre, too on the nose. And yet, he couldn’t think of anything else.

  Samael’s smile deepened.

  “Having a familiar. A witch is known for having one. That was one of the requirements you fulfilled.”

  Luke blinked, letting it sink in. He did have a familiar, technically. Even if the two of them barely got along and could never, under any circumstances, be called friends. The grumpy snake.

  “There are many others,” Samael said as the fiery display faded around him. “I’ll let you work through the rest on your own. Think back on your path so far. A single different choice and you might have awakened as a Mage, a Sorcerer, or something along those lines. But congratulations. You became a Witch.”

  [You have successfully evolved from Rank F (Half-Demon) to Rank E (Half-Demon)!]

  “Looks like the notification managed to reach this dreamlike dimensional space,” Samael said. “Time flows differently here compared to the outside.”

  Luke’s system screen opened.

  [Awakening new Titles...]

  A large notification flashed across his vision, a few titles appeared, and one of them caught his eye.

  https://discord.gg/znGSjCxhkR