The silence lingered for a while as both Matt and Tara enjoyed the cool breeze of the summer night.

  Matt was digesting the day’s revelations, while Tara was probably giving him the space he needed to do so. But in truth, none of it mattered for the immediate future. He still had a few months of contending against the dangers on Earth before he needed to worry about all the scheming and hidden agendas. And funny enough, that did make him feel better. It was cathartic in its own fucked up way.

  He winced as the pressure on his soul became slightly more prominent, prompting him to ask Tara about the damage.

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  “Will I need to do something about that soul damage you mentioned?”

  Tara, who was still admiring the beauty of the starry sky, didn’t even turn her head as she answered. “Your soul is strong. Stronger than it has any right to be for a tier 9. The worst of the damage will heal within the next hours, and the rest will recover on its own without the need for intervention in a day or two,” she answered, alleviating his concerns.

  Now, the only thing he had to worry about was how to make it work as a healer in a universe that considered his class useless, and he, as Matt, a danger, or a nuisance, or whatever. He wasn’t even sure anymore.

  “Guess I’ll need really good stuff to make up for what I’m lacking,” he said solemnly.

  “Luckily for you, you’re in the right place for that,” Tara got up, smiling at him, ready to move on to his rewards

  It was true. He was in a reward room. So while he couldn’t change his circumstances, what he could do instead was make sure he had enough punching power to break its nose when the time came.

  He did have one other thing he needed to get done first before getting to the reward room.

  “Let me evolve my skill first, then we can get going,” he responded, starting to open his notifications again.

  It was true. Sulking would do him no good. And while things were bound to get rougher before getting better, he still had the good part of six months to at least come up with a plan. After that, the only thing holding him back would be himself.

  Tara nodded at him. “You’ll most likely get an upgrade for your skill to heal soul damage, since that was probably what triggered the evolution,” she helpfully told him.

  “Huh. You know, the whole ‘healers are extinct’ bit almost made me forget that you haven’t even answered my original question about what had happened with Lara,” Matt reminded the cat.

  “Then you better get on with it. It’s a really good story and I’m slowly starting to forget the important details… who was Lara again?” Tara teased as she walked to her still passed out sister before snuggling into her.

  Matt smiled at the heartwarming scene in front of him. Lara had been annoying, and he still had no idea what had happened, but it was still difficult not to feel bad for the state she was in with her ragged breathing and bloodied fur. She had even quivered a few times.

  He had to remind himself that he had done nothing wrong, but even then, it was still tough to watch.

  No point dwelling on it, Matt thought with a sigh before moving on to his notifications.

  [Mend] (common) evolution requirements met.

  View evolution options?

  Yes/No

  Matt mentally picked ‘Yes’ and three options immediately appeared in front of him.

  [Mend]

  Every warrior needs a weapon, and every healer needs a heal. [Mend] is the main skill in a mender’s repertoire, providing them the ability to repair what was once broken. Has slightly improved mana efficiency. (Effect increased with spirit and willpower.)

  This seems like the standard evolution path, the only upgrade being the skill’s mana efficiency, Matt thought to himself. He could see the appeal of better mana efficiency. It was the most vital resource for a healer, after all. The problem was that Matt wasn’t a typical healer. For one thing, the only one he had to worry about healing was himself, and the skill’s mana cost was already incredibly efficient.

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  Another thing was his mana. He didn’t know how much mana people typically had at his level, but he felt he had an abundance of the resource. It only ever ran out thanks to him using it like it was endless, which it wasn’t, and even then, [Mend] itself was never the reason for it, his orb and wave were the real culprits, so evolving the skill just to get a slightly better mana efficiency felt like a waste.

  He moved on to the next option, hoping for something more tangible.

  [Soul Weave]

  While many focus on the body, you mend souls, fixing what was once broken with but a simple touch while still retaining some of your, once powerful, mending prowess. (Effect greatly increased with spirit.)

  That looks like the evolution Tara mentioned, he thought as he read the description. It was short and straight to the point, telling him exactly what the skill provided. It gave him the ability to mend souls at the cost of being weaker at mending bodies.

  It definitely sounded more interesting than the previous skill. He had never really thought of the human soul as something ‘injurable’, but it also made sense for it to be the case. Having a skill capable of dealing with potential soul damage sounded incredibly useful, if limited in scope. But, to be fair, he didn’t know how common soul damage was, which meant he didn’t know how valuable healing it would be. Something he decided to remedy by asking the resident guardian.

  “How valuable is healing souls?” he asked the resting cat a few feet away from him.

  “Hmm? Oh, the skill evolution,” she replied, realizing what Matt meant. “Soul damage is dangerous enough to make it important, but rare enough to not make it that valuable. I wouldn’t worry if I were you though. If you could resist Lara without suffering any significant damage, then I’m fairly certain nothing out there is going to be able to scratch your soul. Besides, there are elixirs for soul damage. Expensive to make, but common enough that you never have to look for them,” she answered.

  Matt raised a questioning eyebrow at her answer, which she seemed to notice.

  “Finish what you’re doing, then we can talk about Lara,” she told him.

  He shrugged, deciding to do just that.

  While defensively it might not be all that useful, the ‘weaving’ part and implying it compared to [Mend], a skill that literally fused stone, meant it also had amazing potential, whether for growth or even future offensive use. The problem was, once again, it’d need a lot of work before it could reach that point, and until such time it would see little to no use.

  The skill was useful, but not important enough to dedicate an evolution path for this early on. Also, the fact that it only scaled with spirit felt like a downside, even if it had better scaling.

  “Hopefully the next option will be the one,” he muttered, crossing his fingers.

  [Repair]

  To some, mending is not enough, fixing is the ultimate goal, a goal you now pursue. Why heal only the living when you could repair everything in your pursuit to repair the irreparable, fix the unfixable, and treat the untreatable. (Costs 5x more time and 10x more mana to repair the inanimate.) (Effect increased with spirit and willpower.)

  Would you look at that… Guess trying to heal stone wasn’t a bad idea after all, he smiled to himself as he read the description.

  The skill looked like an easy winner. It had versatility and potential while keeping the original functionality of [Mend]. The cost in time and mana felt prohibitive, but it was an upgrade from when he had done it with the altar. If time and mana were the only downsides, then the skill was perfect, but he was also sure there would be other limitations, ones that future evolutions would aim to fix.

  The other two weren’t necessarily bad options, but they didn’t feel like upgrades.

  [Soul Weaving] was one, but in an entirely different direction. He might’ve gone for it if he had more skills on hand, but rendering his most important skill useless on the hopes that he could turn it into a powerhouse later, felt too optimistic.

  [Repair], on the other hand, felt like an immediate upgrade to what he had envisioned the skill being able to do. It still described itself as a skill that fixed things. [Mend] had done something similar, but from what he had been able to do with the skill, there would definitely be more to it then simply ‘repairing’, and that was what he counted on.

  Deciding not to overthink it, and after one last look at the other two skill options, he mentally picked [Repair].

  Warning: There are currently no Initiated with the skill [Repair].

  Proceed?

  Yes/No

  “Tara… is it normal to get a warning when picking an evolution?” Matt asked hesitantly, starting to doubt his choice.

  “You’re a healer. All your evolutions will probably get similar warnings,” Tara answered, brushing him off.

  “Why is it a thing then? Is it just to warn you that there is no one out there you could learn from?” Matt continued his line of questioning.

  “Mostly, but it also acts as a warning that the skill might not be as good, or effective, as you might think since you’re not the first on its path, yet you’re alone on it now,” she answered, still disinterested in the topic.

  “Couldn’t it also mean that it’s a rare path with unexplored potential? Also, do I get something if I’m the first on a skill’s path?” Matt kept questioning, refusing to give up on his soon to be skill.

  “Once again, you’re a healer. Every path is a ‘rare path with unexplored potential’. For any other class it would just mean that it’s a subpar one with none, especially when you’re tier 9. At low tiers, every path possible has been explored and documented, since the system rewards those who are the first on their path with a forebearer title and more opportunities to progress, and every race has armies of researchers and scribes to research and document every skill and path. Even healers were thoroughly studied and researched in a distant past,” she replied, no less bored than she had been since the start.

  Matt thanked the cat for the help, who simply waved him off.

  Feeling satisfied with the answers, he finally clicked on ‘yes’.

  Skill [Mend] (common) has evolved to skill [Repair] (uncommon)