Nathan Lee's eyes fluttered open.

  He was greeted by the sight of a yellow, brick-like pattern above him. The same pattern lined the walls to his left and right. It seemed he was in some sort of hallway surrounded by these strange bricks.

  A groan echoed from behind him. He tilted his head backward and saw Emi holding her hand against her head. Her white hair was scattered and frizzy, like she had just gotten out of bed.

  "Every time," she rubbed her temples. "It feels like I've just been bitten by a venomous creature."

  Behind Emi, Chad and Mara's bodies lay on the ground. Chad's eyes flickered open, and he immediately snapped awake and looked over at Nathan.

  "You almost went through without me."

  Nathan froze.

  "Oops?" he said.

  It hadn't been on purpose?

  Mara tried to bend her neck upwards, then let her head drop back against the stone floor.

  "It's so bright," she muttered. "Why's it so bright?"

  That was actually a good question. Nathan looked up at the ceiling, only about two or three feet higher than him. He noticed no obvious light source. If anything, it seemed like the light was coming from everywhere at the same time. The bricks, maybe? What an odd design pattern.

  Emi frowned sharply.

  "I know what this is," she muttered.

  Nathan glanced back over at her. "What are these?"

  "Sun bricks. They're rare and typically used for the houses of nobility and royalty at home."

  Nathan's eyes widened. This was the first time that a circle was incorporating things not from Earth.

  Bree touched her hands against the bricks and shook her head.

  "There's not a lot of give. The bricks go about a foot, and past that… I can't feel anything."

  "Try to drill through," Nathan said. He stood up and knocked against the bricks. "I want to see for myself."

  Bree gave a quick nod, and the earth expanded in response to her. The bricks shattered and dripped away, revealing hard, smooth black stone behind it.

  Bree focused intensely on the black stone, and a vein pulsed on the top of her head. After a few seconds, she frowned and let out a breath.

  Sweat dripped from her forehead. "Nothing. I don't know what that stuff is made of, but I'm not strong enough to deal with it."

  Nathan looked from one end of the hallway to the other. There was nothing obviously apparent in either direction. He let out a sigh and shrugged.

  "I guess we should just start walking, yeah?" Nathan said.

  Right as he took a single step, something flashed in front of his vision.

  [All class requirements met!]

  After having successfully conquered the challenges of the last circle and fulfilling all of your basic class requirements, you are now eligible to select a new class—

  The screen flickered and disappeared. A new window immediately popped up as a replacement. Nathan nearly jumped away before he managed to stop himself.

  [A personal message]

  Nathan, as with your previous classes, I've taken the liberty of creating some custom options for you. Rather than the typical obfuscation that I do, I decided it would be a nice change of pace to simply communicate with you directly and offer you a path forward.

  Your last class was, unfortunately, more of a minor step than you probably would have liked. With this latest batch, I've endeavored to accelerate your development as much as possible. There's only so far I could go, given your current limitations and powers, but you made significant progress in absorbing my divinity. As such, I was able to do more… interesting things.

  I've included basic expansions upon your current abilities, along with one option that I feel has more potential than you might think. New abilities, new powers. It'll take time to master them, but I have absolute faith that you will be able to handle it. Best of luck, Nathan.

  The window disappeared and was replaced by three options.

  [Master Tidecaller] - Diamond Rank

  This is a more powerful version of an earlier class you had the opportunity to choose. The main things it would provide are more water-based abilities and control over water. As you know, these classes are training wheels for when you truly master your abilities, but with that said, training wheels will influence your growth later down the line. And there's no denying that the effects that a class provides in the short run might be exactly what you need to have your life saved. I loaded this class up with a few new abilities: [Final Maelstrom], an even more powerful version of True Maelstrom, which will take a great deal of study to get down; an expansion upon your summoning powers, allowing you to call forth even larger and stronger creatures—if you can contract them, of course. And a small upgrade to your healing abilities.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  With that said, I question if this is the direction you need to go in order to face down the source of opponents you know you'll be facing. You need something with a different perspective. I'm not sure this is it. Of course, it's ultimately your choice. You have more than proven your judgment, and I have enough respect for you to allow you to make this decision.

  Nathan was surprised at how serious Thalassa was. Whatever happened in the last circle had really affected her in a strange way.

  Then again, Nathan had been affected too. The fact that the number two was out for his head was not exactly something that brought joy to Nathan’s heart. On the plus side, he had the rest of humanity’s top ten on his side, so that was nice.

  He checked the next class.

  [Deep-Sea Shaman] - Diamond Rank

  A combination of your healing abilities and summoning, this is the more defensive option.

  In the past, you favored this for reasons that I do not quite recall. Later down the line, you took a more offensive approach. I believe this is the correct approach. There are certainly some nice abilities here—I have applied as much care to this option as I have to the others. With that said, what I was able to convey ultimately seems lackluster for the approaching challenges.

  I was able to add a small amount of divinity to this class—giving you the domain of shielding. But I am not sure how useful it would be to you, given that your affinity lock does not lie in that direction. There is also a brand-new ability I was able to create, allowing group healing. However, you can already mimic that effect, and if you are at the point where everybody is lethally injured to the point where that cannot cut it, frankly, you have bigger problems.

  Nathan could pretty well read the obvious writing on the wall. She really did not want to dislike that skill. He wondered if perhaps she was underselling it in order to push her point. Not outside the realm of possibility.

  He checked the third and final class.

  [Abyssal Fisherman] - Diamond Rank

  A return to form, in many ways. You have explored a number of strange abilities, but at heart, you are still a fisherman. It is where your skill points are, and it would be foolish not to acknowledge that. I think it is time to start going back to basics.

  The more I developed this class, the more intriguing the results became. A normal fisherman casts their line into what is in many ways another world. The deep sea is a strange place, fundamentally alien to the land above it.

  It hit me: what if I could exploit a loophole? What if I could allow you to fish in other realms at any time? Poke a hole in the surface of reality and allow you to get something from the other side?

  This is the result of that. Because of your newfound divinity, you have the power to affect the world around you in unusual ways, expressing your dominion over your domain. This class takes advantage of that. Every time you cast a line, if you can learn to control this ability, you will be able to poke a small hole in the surface of the world. Nothing major, not enough to attract too much attention—unless that is what you want. Who knows what is waiting on the other side? Especially in such an interconnected place like the Nine Circles?

  Of course, I could be completely wrong, and perhaps there is nothing useful here.

  It was definitely the riskiest one… but it was also the most intriguing, due to the nature of the fact that it was an entirely new ability with new rules and new ideas to explore.

  Of course, Master Tidecaller was the obvious alternative. It was a simple addition to his current set of abilities, adding and building onto what was already there. It was probably the most practical option. The defensive one was immediately out. Nathan had disregarded that philosophy long ago. It would not be enough to carry him to the final circle.

  After several minutes of thought, he nodded to himself and reached out to touch his selected option.

  At that moment, a hot sensation ran up his left arm, right before he was about to touch the prompt.

  Nathan's arm quivered, his sleeves rolling like waves.

  Chad looked back from his own system prompt that he’d opened up at some point. “Nathan? What’s wrong?”

  Nathan grabbed his arm to try to steady it, which didn’t work. It continued to shiver and shake like it was about to explode.

  “I—I don’t know,” Nathan stuttered. “I don’t know what’s happening.”

  “Did Leviathan do something? Maybe on the last circle—?”

  “No, I don’t think so.” Alternating waves of heat and cool ran down his spine. Something seemed to be severing at his shoulder. “Dammit, get back!”

  Chad took a few steps back, and the rest of the group looked up and paid attention to him. Emi’s hands flared with magic while Chad reached into his inventory for a weapon.

  A familiar presence brushed by the edge of his mind.

  He’d recognize it anywhere, but the amount of time since her last interaction with him confused him.

  Lily? You’re finally awake?

  At that, his arm flared with a bright white light. He shielded his eyes with his other hand, and something ripped free from his shoulder.

  Nathan stifled a startled scream, biting down on his tongue.

  When the light died down, he could feel that a substantial section of his arm was gone.

  Nathan pulled away the hand that had been shielding his eyes and looked down at the remains of his arm. As he suspected, his plant arm had completely fallen off and onto the ground.

  It twitched, and for a moment, Nathan thought that he’d somehow killed her or something to that effect.

  Bree stared at the arm, then back at Nathan.

  “Nathan, why did your arm fall off?” She blinked. “Also, why is it wooden?”

  Chad pinched the bridge of his nose. “You never told Bree, did you?”

  Bree squinted and reached out to rub her eyes. When she was done, she pulled away her hands and looked at the wooden arm on the ground again.

  “Nope, it’s still there,” she muttered. She raised her voice. “So, are you going to let me in on what just happened?”

  Right as Nathan was about to respond, the arm twitched. The half black, half white chimera rose on the shoulder, folded its petals—

  Roots sprang out from the arm, the whole thing untangling like a ball of yarn. The roots burrowed into the ground, cracking the stone like a cracker. They continued to burrow the whole mass underneath the ground until the only thing left was the flower.

  The flower—no, Lily—bent its stalk back and let out a long yawn noise.

  “I finally woke up.” Lily shook about. “How long was I out for? What did I miss?”

  Chad stared at the flower, completely expressionless.

  “You know,” he said, “I remember the whole magic plant arm thing, but I had somehow managed to convince myself that I’d just been hearing things. And then she didn’t say anything for the entirety of the last two circles, and I really believed that it’d just been a momentary lapse in my sanity.”

  Nathan raised an eyebrow. “Chad, we fought against sentient metal spheres, wax figurines, and a gigantic octopus. Is the idea of a talking flower really that much of a surprise?”

  Chad stared at Lily—who at this point was confusedly looking from side to side, then down at the ground as if trying to figure out what had just happened.

  “You know,” Chad said, “that’s a great point.”

  “Ahem.”

  Bree glared at Nathan. “Explanation?”

  “N-Nathan?” Lily’s voice trembled. “What’s happening? We’re not in your town. Why am I down here? I—I feel funny!”

  She started to glow again, and Nathan felt a wave of power hit him, enough to take the air away from his lungs.

  He grimaced.

  This would be all sorts of fun to resolve, he was sure.

  A great start to the sixth circle.

  And he still hadn’t even selected his class.