From what I could gleam from this, the system was running a 'simulation' of the specified class evolution on a model of a soul it had, in this case on a model of mine. Depending on the outcome of this simulation and probably some further analysis and tests with the evolved model soul, the system could then determine the benefits and effects this particular evolution choice would have on the real soul.
Assuming that this was correct, this also meant that the system played way less of an active role than I thought at first. Rather than the one actually doing the evolution, it was mostly a tool providing deep analytic insights into what was happening. The only thing it actually did was stimulating or triggering the respective evolutions.
In extension, the same probably also went for everything else: racial changes, skill acquisition, growth, and evolution, and maybe even certain achievements, though some of them looked particularly handcrafted, like they were the intended way of letting the system interfere in the path of any being within.
All of this was further supported by a truth I had known just days into being transported to this world. Classes, skills, and some achievements were all, without exception, unique. Even if they carried the same name in the system, they were not actually the same thing semantically.
Since the only other repeatedly mentioned major player in all of this besides the system itself was the soul, the one responsible for the actual evolution and growth was most likely that very soul. The system was then never a way of achieving growth, but more like a steering wheel, an analytical information provider, and a small reward system combined into one.
Most importantly, growth would then be completely independent of the system and could exist without it, just in a more primal form. Instead of being able to read through a bunch of evolutionary choices and manually selecting the best one, evolution would probably happen at 'random' times and result in new classes that seemed just as 'random'.
Even if it may not actually be truly random, without anything providing information about it, it might just as well be.
All of this depended on my collection of hypotheses being true, though. Since the basis of my knowledge came from the very thing I was trying the guess the nature of, it was exactly that, an educated guess rather than an actual proof. Still, as long as I didn't find anything disproving that particular theory, I'd go with it as the working one.
Let's talk more about the class itself, though. While the information provided by the system wasn't complete, it should be mostly trustworthy. From the name alone and the flavor text accompanying it, the class seemed incredibly powerful.
One thing I particularly liked about it was the fact that my soul, and maybe my body, would apparently gain the ability to exist outside of planes, realms, or worlds, whatever name you wanted to use for it. The system itself wasn't particularly sticking to any of those names, so they were probably all correct interchangeably. If there were slight nuances to their actual meaning, I wasn't aware of them, which made any sort of distinction useless to me.
If my interpretation of that was truly correct, though, then that meant that this class was a 'way out' of the invasion. The extended threat the system mentioned as one of the end results of this invasion was the destruction of this realm. While probably devastatingly deadly for any normal beings and natives of this plane, I could just go and leave. While it didn't directly mention anything about actively leaving planes, I'm sure I could figure something out, or, in the worst case, survive when the world inevitably shattered.
The morality of leaving an entire world to die after directly being tasked with its salvation was questionable but arguable in the light of me being forced to take that responsibility with no option of refusal. For all I knew, I might actually be the only person currently within the plane capable of closing rifts, which made me the only viable choice to begin with.
In that case, defending with the argument of me not having a choice would be unfair since the system didn't have a choice in this matter either. In the end, it's a big philosophical conundrum, one to which I didn't have a satisfying answer.
Well, even if I could probably justify the choice of leaving all of it behind for myself and manage to live with the inevitable guilt, it didn't feel right. In my last outburst, I had ranted about the fact that I got chosen as the [Sentinel] over someone like Blake. Immediately turning my back to that and saying that I didn't want it was just wrong. I did want it after all. I liked being the [Sentinel] and I really wanted to be special. I mean, honestly, who didn't secretly want to stand out positively and be someone special?
No matter what, I couldn't just leave this world behind, not after I had already mentally accepted the responsibility of averting the invasion. I had implicitly accepted the task, and I would see it through to the end.
The class was a solid choice, much better than even [Planar Architect], but it still wasn't entirely what I really wanted. It didn't give me the same feeling that [Broken Star] gave back in tier one. The class was cool and incredibly powerful, yes, but was it truly me? Did this class represent me in any way? It did fit in many ways, and maybe it represented a fragment of my past, but it wasn't what I wanted to be in the future.
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It was a type of freedom, but not the one I had longed for ever since I got trapped down in the depths of the Great Labyrinth. If the last class turned out to be bad in some other way, then I'd still choose this one for obvious reasons, but it didn't feel like the missing puzzle peace I had been searching for.
Additionally, I would also pivot away from any form of fire-based abilities with both [Planar Architect] and [Singularity]. While they weren't absolutely vital for me, I still liked them, and that was important. Fire was what I started my journey with, and it played the major role in my development, both ability-wise and externally.
While space- and reality-related abilities were also cool and even required for actively fighting against the still prevalent invasion, they were secondary in priority for me. The last class I had available, [Celestial of the Sun], at least spoke to me in that direction. If one thing could promise me fire and heat, it would be the sun itself.
[Celestial of the Sun] (Legendary+)
The beginning of an ascension born from endless tides of soot and pain. From within, persistent will and an endless flame, burns bright to enlighten a path yet to be explored. In dissonance to fate, a mellow light cuts to strike a nostalgic chord.
Shackled and bound for unreasonably long, a flame suppressed will only grow in strength. Finally unbound and free to go, a crime still waits to be undone. Duty-bound, a fate as prison, what remains are chains of unknown length.
A newborn star among the constellations of old, a familiar orange rises from the ground. Walk among those that have remained so cold and prove that it is you who deserved to be crowned.
Race changed to Celestial.
Soul now produces mana through [unknown].
(Warning: Results of Simulation of current model of soul for this evolution were neither always deterministic nor finite. Direct and transitive effects could not be further determined. This does very likely not implicate any sort of immortality in the event of death.
Records show a total of 0 evolutions under similar conditions, of which 0 were successful and 0 failed. Estimated chance of success: NaN%. Choose at your own risk.)
Grants: [Greater Sun Affinity], [Greater Celestial Affinity]
Same message, huh? From the bottom part of this description, it's actually not too different from [Singularity]. The message is the same, though it's probably a generalized message that is played out in every description where it is needed. While I couldn't be too sure about that due to the similar nature of both descriptions where it was included, I thought it to be logical. Otherwise, why would they make such a general record count and all?
There isn't anything included about being able to survive outside of realms this time, though. On the contrary, however, this time it explicitly mentions producing mana, while the text in [Singularity] mentioned 'no longer pulling mana from realm', or something along those lines.
While is is not expressed clearly, both cases go hand in hand for me. Since it no longer gets mana from the place it's in, it inadvertently has to produce it itself. On the other hand, since the soul now produces mana itself, it no longer has to depend on the realm's mana to survive, which, in my mind at least, also implicates the ability to leave realms.
While both descriptions sounded different at first, they ultimately say the exact same thing, namely independence from being part of any realm in particular.
Since comparing the classes through that was a fruitless endeavor, let's talk about the class itself. One thing I liked immediately about this one was the fact that it retained both the 'celestial' and the 'fire' theme, though the latter got upgraded and rebranded to 'sun'. I still didn't know what exactly 'celestial' was doing in particular, but it sounded pretty, which I was a big fan of, speaking honestly.
After all, who seriously wanted their race to be called 'Realmless'? While it was probably cool for someone really edgy, I didn't want the first thing people see when identifying me to be [Realmless, Lv. XX]. It might be a stupid thing to go off of in such an important decision like deciding over a tier three class, but what else was I supposed to go off of here?
Not like the classes were nice enough to provide all the new skills and skill evolutions upfront or anything. While I had a bunch of rhyming flavor text to try and interpret in any meaningful way, in the end it was just a bunch of vague stuff that didn't actually mean anything. Apart from the naming of things and the general theme of the class indicated by the affinities, there just wasn't any useful information to be conflicted about.
Okay, while the naming of things did indeed play a role for me, it was honestly minor at best. It wasn't like I couldn't live with my race being called [Realmless] or stuff like that. In the end, the decision between [Celestial of the Sun] and [Singularity] boiled down to the overarching theme of the classes and their accompanying skills.
[Singularity] promised a deeper dive into the world of realms and plane architecture while also apparently touching upon the topic of space and its vastly more complicated brother called time. It was the branching option I was given in this situation, shifting the paradigm of my skillset and making the skills that were previously secondary into my new main skills.
[Celestial of the Sun], on the other hand, was more keen on continuing onward on the path I was already walking all along. Space and realm abilities were nice to have, and I was glad to be in possession of some, but it lacked the sort of primal connection to fire and heat that I had. For basically my entire lifetime in this other world, fire was the only thing keeping me alive for so incredibly long.
It sheltered me and brought me back from the edge of death so many times. It was fire that enabled me to slay the leviathan when it ate me, and it was also fire that enabled me to survive being eaten in the first place. Everything happened the way it did only because I had fire on my side.
Straying from the path that fit me so perfectly would be sacrilegious in a way. Like I was betraying the very core of my existence, turning my back to fire was impossible now that it had ingrained itself into me so deeply.
The sun was not just a light in the sky, it stood for so much more than that. It was the very thing enabling all life that has ever existed to form and flourish. The sun is, in its core, a symbol for life itself. I had been longing to feel its warmth on my skin for so long, and now it was finally in my grasp.
If I couldn't reach the surface to see the sun again, I'd just bring the sun down here myself. With a flex of my will, I finalized my choice as the window showing my choices vanished back into the nothingness it came from. Then, everything slowly faded to black as a nostalgic warmth enveloped my entire body in its gentle embrace.