Sleep is for the Weak

“GOOD LAD!” King Edmar boomed with laughter, his thunderous claps filling the mostly stunned silent room.

Level 63? How was that even possible?

For a child to be level 30 was a tremendous achievement. Even Lloyd’s level 44 was considered absurd, and level 63 required more than 30 times as much EXP.

And then, rather than taking a Class he had earned, he had chosen the gambit, the same way that the King and Charles’ Grandfather had done all those years ago. Something unheard of for a first born son of Higher Nobility.

If he failed to at least reach at least Tier 3 before it was time for his marriage, it was likely that his entire house would collapse because of his choice.

“Huh? But why is Charles’ Class so low?” Racheal asked, peering over the balcony of the VIP seating by standing on her toes.. 

Edmar laughed and scooped up his granddaughter, putting her on his shoulder so she could see better. “Your cousin has decided to do things the hard way. He’s going to grow stronger by struggling through the lower Class Tiers, like a man.” Edmar explained, a wide grin on his bear-like face. “Grandpa Bryce and I both did the same when we were young. It's why the two of us are the strongest around.”

“Enough boasting dear.” Queen Lilianna said, reaching up and taking Racheal from the man’s shoulder so that she wouldn’t fall as the King trembled with excitement. “Little Charles is a brave boy. But I am more impressed by his current results. Mehal must have trained them hard.”

The King and Queen couldn’t have been more visibly different. 

Edmar was a giant bear of a man who had on many occasions been mistaken for a pale skinned Ogre with sky blue hair. He was wild and always seemed out of place anywhere but on a battlefield, where his presence still had an otherworldly quality to it, as he swung his greatsword about with glee. Even as he started to move into his late fifties, he was as energetic as a child.

Queen Lilianna on the other hand was a small and sophisticated woman with soft skin and rich golden hair. Her every action was elegant and her smiles calm in an otherworldly kind of way. Even on the battlefield, she was like the steady flow of the tide, strong, but feeling as though it belongs to the scene. A natural part of it that could at the same time go unnoticed.

She was also an Elf. Not a High Elf, just a common born Elf he had met in his travels and who he had fallen in love with after watching her skin a giant Sky Swallowing Python alive with her twin swords.

The King taking an Elf as his Queen had been one of those not so popular decisions. But after Edmar beat the ever loving shit out of the first man to suggest he set aside his wife to take a ‘more appropriate Queen’, people stopped saying anything to his face. Though they still whispered about how his children didn’t inherit his sky blue hair. Saying it was a sign that the Gods didn’t approve of his marriage.

That was what characterized Edmar’s rule. He did as he pleased and everyone else had to just deal with it. He catered to no one, and the political factions could all just sit around, masturbating and waiting for him to die for all he cared. He wasn’t going to give them the time of day.

People either loved King Edmar or wanted him dead, there was no middle ground. He was a man who didn’t take shit from no one, save for his wife. He ended the Kingdom’s isolationism and opened up trade with the Elves, Dwarves and Beastkin, which helped to stimulate the economy a good deal, not caring at all about the effects it had on their culture or the ill feelings between the races, all of whom had been arguing over who was the most loved by the Gods for hundreds of years. He was also a one man army who could defend the Kingdom from outside attacks, and had connections all over the world, but he kept sticking his nose where it didn’t belong and would run off to battle without telling anyone.

He was the head of a group of some of the strongest individuals in the world, but that group consisted of an embittered drunk, an Archbishop who lost his faith in the Church, a Half-Demon whose mere existence had cased Edmar to have an Inquisition called against him FOUR TIMES, an Beastkin witch doctor, a stereo-typical pirate, and several other troublesome individuals.

Edmar was a typhoon, and most of the Nobility wished that one of his brothers had inherited the throne instead, and were all waiting for him to finally pick a fight he can’t win and just die already.

“So, Charles is going to be really really strong?” Racheal asked, looking up at her grandmother, who didn’t look a day over sixteen.

“Only if he can overcome the difficulties of starting from the ground up.” King Edmar said. “It will be several years of hard training in order for him to come back from this disadvantage he has sent himself in.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure, Your Majesty.” Joshua said with a shake of his head. As young Raphaela stepped up to get her Class, revealing an equally large level and choosing the Tier 1 ‘Seaman’ Class. “Those kids aren’t rushing into things the same way you did. They have been preparing to face this for years.” 

“Oh!?” Edmar replied, his face brightening, demanding the man say everything he knows.

“From my understanding, they have been setting aside much of their mana in Mana Storage Crystals for the last four years, so that they can train their Class Skills at a far more rapid rate. Last I heard, they had set aside 30,000,000 units each.” Joshua explained.

“30,000,000? Yes. Things definitely would have gone easier if I had that kind of mana set aside. That’s enough to Master all of the Tier 4 skills, right?” The King said, scratching his chin.

“No. It is a little short, and that is if you are discounting the Tier 1 and 2 skills from your counting. They are about 12,000,000 units off of reaching Tier 4, but they could get a solid way into Tier 3.” The Queen corrected her husband. “They will also need to grow enough Class levels in order to Class Change.”

“They already have plans on how to do that before the Academy opens back up.” Joshua let leek. “They’ve asked me to escort them to the Capital Ruins.”

“What?” Lilianna said in surprise. “Even at their levels, the monsters at that place are too difficult for them, aren’t they? They won’t be able to get any experience there if you help them.”

With them each having a Tier 1 class, they were effectively working with their possible stats halved. While they would be able to fight a single level 30 in a straight fight, they couldn’t handle anything stronger without clever tactics, or elemental advantages. And the monsters in the ruins would be unrelenting in their attack and too strong for them to damage without something like the Scarlet girl’s ‘Song of the Earth’.

“That would be true if they were planning on fighting the monsters directly. But they have other plans.” Joshua replied.

“...The magic circle compression research. Did the girl actually complete it?” Lilianna asked, her dark eyes sparkling as bright as her husband’s had been. Joshua only nodded in reply. “Oh, how wonderful. I wish that I could see it for myself.”

“Then let’s go.” The King said with a big grin. “It’s been so long since we’ve been to those old stomping grounds.”

“Dear, we have hearings with the Tarteo Dynasty to tend to for the next few weeks.” Lilianna reminded her husband.

“Ah… But I want to go stomping.” Edmar said in a rather childish manner.

“Be good, and after they are over, we can go and visit the coastline for our anniversary. I hear there has been a Leviathan class Sea Dragon trying to build a nest down there. It should be becoming very aggressive soon.”

“Oh!?!” The King immediately perked up, both at the thought of the beach and his lovely wife’s swimwear, and the idea of fighting with a Leviathan. “We could have a barbeque.”

“Yes. Let’s.” Lilianna said, making a mental note to tell the castle’s chefs to be ready for the task.

“Hey grandmama, can I go with Charles to the ruins? Pretty please?” Racheal asked her grandmother with puppy dog eyes.

“Hm… I don’t see why not. Just make sure to take Alexandra with you and follow her instructions to the letter. Okay?” Lilianna said. So long as the girl’s bodyguard was with her, and with Joshua around, there wasn’t anything that could threaten her.

“‘Kay!” Racheal said, brimming with excitement.

She wanted to see this magic circle research stuff that had gotten her grandmother so excited. Getting to spend more quality time with her favorite cousin was just a bonus.

---

Why? Why was she ALWAYS the last one in line?

When the children were arranged by status, Scarlet, who was supposed to be the adopted son of a hedge knight, was in dead last. It wasn’t even a competition. The organizer seemed confused that she was even there, rather than receiving her Class with the rest of the commoners.

So she was made to watch as all the other children went to get their Classes before her.

It took so long that she got hungry and tried to eat one of her hidden stacks, three dozen glazed donuts, but the jerks wouldn’t stop staring at her for it.

‘SHUT UP! I’M HUNGRY!’

Stupid [High Metabolism] skill and stupid slow ritual. Would it have killed them to have multiple lines? They do know she can hear them when they say ‘He really was raised by wild animals’. So rude.

Most of the children weren’t very interesting. While Charles, Raphaela, and Garci were all at level 63 and took Tier 1 Classes, most of the rest of the kids were between level 20 and 30 and got Tier 4 or 5 Classes, or Tier 1 or 2 if they were magic focused Classes. There was one Tier 4 magic user and two Tier 6 combat focused individuals.

Was this really the quality of the Nobility? Scarlet found herself… disappointed.

No one in Charles’ group qualified for anything less than a Tier 6 class, even if they did choose a Tier 1. They had all congratulated Caesia before, when she had managed to get the Tier 6 Aqua Princess Class, after all her hard work.

Though apparently she still hadn’t gotten the marriage proposal from the boy she was after, even though having a Tier 6 magic focused Class was a huge deal, and Caesia shouldn't have any problems no matter what boy she wanted.

The only one of the children who was of any interest to her was Lloyd, whose Exalted Paladin Class was a heavy tank type. Something their own party was missing.

It was a pity he wouldn’t be taking the gambit, but he would be a useful companion at the Labyrinth to say the least. Maybe they would be able to convince him to join them. With the right skills and equipment, he would be a really good addition to the party and fill in some holes that they have.

“Bran Silvana. ...Bran Silvana, step forward.”

It took Scarlet a few moments to realize that they were talking about her, and walked forward towards the center stage, hoping that the pendant Professor Typhus made for her would work to conceal her identity without messing with the ritual. 

The circle itself had long since been analyzed by Scarlet. It was some arcane stuff, predating even the Gods, if the stories were to be believed, but it was done without the use of either [Holy Magic] or [Demon Magic], unlike the Awakening Ritual, which had been a mixture of both. The real piece was the orb used for the ritual, a massive stone the size of Scarlet’s head which contained powerful Divination Magic, but powerful as the magic is, it was only tapping into something else. Something that was really beyond the world which was doing the real heavy lifting in this situation. Something really old and really powerful.

As Scarlet contemplated the existence of this ritual, she placed her hand on the stone and found her vision drawn into herself as all of the stress was washed out of her body, as if she had just spent 20 hours meditating.

‘It's you.’ A soft womanly voice, oddly familiar, whispered into Scarlet’s ear.

A network of lights exploded outwards in Scarlet’s mind’s eye, a web containing thousands of possibilities, each a vision of herself in a different place or time, doing something related to one of the skills she had developed.

They were things like teaching or weaving. There was one where she was a famous singer, on stage before a crowd. Another where she was a phantom thief, stealing from some kind of treasure room. Another where she was managing a business.

Blacksmith. Scholar. Dancer. Jeweler. Secretary. More different weapons and magics than she cared to mention. All of them possibilities.

But Scarlet felt herself being dragged away from them. She felt herself being dragged towards a strong point of light in the vast network, so bright that it was like the sun compared to the stars. The light contained a vision of a woman with long red hair, floating above the Earth, all of creation bowing before her as she glowed with divine light.

[Tier 9: Voice of God]

She had known it would be there. Even without meaning to, her [Holy Magic] had continued to advance at a startling rate, along with her [Divination Magic], until her [Holy Magic] reached level 200.

‘Take it.’ The voice said, pressuring Scarlet.

“...No. I… I don’t want it.” Scarlet said. 

It wasn’t merely her plan to start at Tier 1 with the others. She found herself feeling in the depths of her soul that she did not want this Class. That something terrible would happen if she took it.

‘Take it!’ The voice said again, not so softly, the light seeming to glow brighter as it sucked Scarlet in.

“No! I won’t!” Scarlet shouted within her mind. The skin underneath her fingers was burning as the orb started to heat up, and Scarlet tried to pull her hand away, rather not having any Class at all than being forced to take THAT class, but her hand won’t move from the stone.

‘TAKE IT!’

“NO!”

Painful as it was, Scarlet focused on pulling away from the light with her mind, but it was dragging her in. Little by little, she was falling into that overwhelming, terrible light. That light which wished to eclipse all else.

“Scarlet!” Branwen’s voice echoed within her, grabbing onto her spirit and helping to pull her away from the light. “Quick! Make your choice!”

Scarlet nodded her head, looking all around her, doing her best to see the other options through the light coming off the unwanted route. It was a struggle to search through all the possible nodes while continuing to pull away from the light, but eventually she found it.

“That one!” Scarlet mentally shouted before grabbing onto the Class she had always meant to choose. 

And as she grabbed it, the link was severed and she stumbled away from the orb into the confusion that had erupted around her during the ceremony. 

She subconsciously cast a healing spell on her burnt hand as she looked around at the fire which had started to consume the magic circle around her, as the arcane power that had been focused on it was too much for the materials to handle. 

Meanwhile, above her head, the magic board displayed the results of her Class selection.

 

Name: Bran Silvana	Age: 10	Race: Human
Level: 72
Bond: Crimson Raven	Bond level: 72
Class: Mage (Tier 1)	Class level: 1

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