System Lost: My Own Best Friend

"Alright, now that we can all hear each other, let's talk about how to progress," I suggest.

Talla blinks and cocks her head at me. "Wait, did you just switch?"

"I—did we?" I ask, surprised by the question.

"That happens sometimes," Allie giggles. "You get used to it."

"How could you tell?" I ask Talla.

"Hm, I think it might be part of the spell," she says. "Your words felt different. I don't know, it's a new spell. I'll need more time to explore it. Is it rude to ask who I'm speaking to right now?"

"No, I don't think so. I should be Violet now."

"Should be?"

I shake my head. "No, I am. Sorry. It can be a little confusing sometimes."

Talla nods slowly. "I see. So you don't control who's active?"

"Sometimes we do, and sometimes we don't," I say with a shrug. "It's complicated."

"Alright—so you want to discuss the future?" she asks.

I glance up at the sky. It's blue, with a couple of sparse clouds—no different from home aside from the giant band of light arcing across it, even during the day. Now that I think about it, the sun is incredibly hot and the air is dry compared to the cold dank caves we've just left.

"I only meant our classes, but I suppose it would be good to talk about what's supposed to happen next."

"Well...I don't really know," she sighs. "I don't think Draga's going to agree to just letting you go, and now that I think about it...that was probably a dumb idea to begin with."

"Maybe," I hedge. "I certainly don't relish the idea of trying to survive on our own in...are we in a desert?"

I look around at our surroundings again—there's very little vegetation, and the rocky terrain and dry climate doesn't inspire confidence.

"It's a pretty arid region, yeah," Talla confirms. "But we're close to the Sagaa River Oasis, and as we travel antiringward we'll get closer to the grasslands at the heart of the empire."

Oasis sounds good, but I'm a bit concerned to hear that Talla's nation is an "empire." Antiringward is an odd word, but I understand it to mean "north" or more specifically just whichever direction is away from the rings. I guess I don't really know which hemisphere we're in, but I don't want to get distracted.

"So then we just go with you...where, exactly?"

"We'll be returning to Stebaari, my home city. After that—I don't know. I think it's going to depend on how Draga's report goes. We've agreed not to attribute the deaths of Kiera and her entourage to you in the report, but the church might try to demand that we turn you over as a novel anomalous entity."

She sighs and scratches the base of her horn, frowning. "Whether Draga approves or not, I'd like to let you choose for yourself. I plan to advocate for you as much as I can, but it's up to you—would you rather take your chances in the city or the wilderness?"

"I vote city," Allie says immediately. "We barely made it out of the caves alive, and we don't know anything about this world. If we try to run or hide, then we either die in the desert or get hunted down without anybody to defend us."

"I'm inclined to agree," I reply with a nod. "I know we're asking a lot, Talla, but can you help guide us?"

"I already said I would, didn't I?" she agrees readily.

I pause for a moment to let Maggie have her say, but she's been suspiciously silent since Talla started using her new spell. Oh well, I'm sure if she had any objections, she'd raise them.

"Then I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it," I sigh.

Talla wrinkles her nose at that. "Hmm, I think I know what that means, but this spell is kind of weird with idioms. Try to avoid them, if you can?"

I wince. "Right. Sorry. I'll try. Let's go over class options, then?"

"Sure! What options do you have?"

"We haven't actually checked yet, since we were worried about the possible strain," I explain. "Allie?"

"Uh, maybe let's hold off on looking right away?" she hedges. "We can just go over which classes we can fuse together first."

Talla nods in agreement. "That's what I meant, anyway. You've mastered your traveler class and your core class, right? Anything else?"

"The magic one too," Allison provides.

"Okay...well, my appraisal spell marked your core class' primary domain as something similar to [Leader] while your other two classes are [Traveler] and [Fire]."

"What are domains?" I ask. "And what do you mean by 'something similar'?"

Talla rubs her chin and furrows her brow. "Okay, so a person's exact classes and levels are generally considered to be very private information, but there are skills and spells that can extract some of that information. Apart from extremely advanced and powerful divination skills, classes usually read as vague and broad categories that we call domains."

"So your class would be...what, [Mage]?"

"Close!" she says. "My primary domain is actually [Knowledge], which my skill would read as [Scholar], but more advanced appraisals would probably be able to determine sub-domains like [Magic], [Light], and [Healing]. Draga is a [Scout] and [Leader]. Your core class is something I don't have the words for, but it felt similar to leader."

"I see. Maybe cooperation or unity or...multiplicity?" I suggest. "And didn't you say one of your domains is divination?"

"Ooh! Neat word!" Talla exclaims, nodding with approval. "Class domains aren't actually part of the [World Engine] so much as an emergent property of it. Class theory is a pretty messy subject sometimes, but one thing we like to do is fuse lower tier domains into higher tier ones for the sake of brevity. So [Divination] is just [Magic] and [Knowledge]."

"Do you mimic the mechanism's language on purpose?" Allie asks. "I've noticed you describe things in terms of levels and tiers a lot, and you just said 'fuse' instead of like...reduce or condense or something like that."

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Talla blinks. "Huh. You know, I've never thought about it like that, but I guess maybe we do? Or maybe it mimics us?"

"Really? That's not like...a heretical thing to say or something?"

"No, not at all," Talla explains. "The [World Engine] isn't a static thing. It grows and changes, as it was designed to. Even within most church sects, it's pretty well established that we influence it as much as it influences us."

"But you said that what made demons so terrible is that they change the mechanism, didn't you?" Allie presses.

"That's different," Talla counters. "Cultists and demons try to force their will on the [World Engine] against that of the Goddess. It's a more intentional and forceful kind of change than the natural ways that it adapts to a changing society."

"Can we save the religious and philosophical debates for later?" I ask, rubbing my temples. "We're getting way off topic."

"Right, sorry!" Allie apologizes. "I was just curious."

"It's my fault for getting distracted," Talla says. "Unfortunately, it's hard to make any sensible predictions about your core class. [Fire] is also very strange as a base domain, though it's pretty clear that the sub-domain is [Magic], so that helps."

She pauses, staring up at the sky and silently moving her lips as she appears to make some sort of calculations.

"If I had to guess, your core class would combine with the travel class into something [Guidance]-based, while your fire class would lead to something a bit more complicated and abstract...maybe leaning more into magic than fire?" She shrugs. "It's hard to be more specific than that without seeing the options. But you should also consider attribute distribution, and how your non-core classes combine with each other."

I nod, bringing up the descriptions for each in my mind. First Allie's:

[Tier 1 Pathfinder]**

A meticulous explorer charting the unknown. Capable of finding your way through the wilderness and guiding others on your trails.

Skill - Inner Compass: You always know which direction you're facing, and can faintly sense what lies down a path.

Skill - Stretch Supplies: You and any traveling companions gain increased satiation from food and drink.

Attribute bonuses: Awareness, Will.

Advancement: Forge new pathways.

Then Maggie's:

[Tier 1 Firecaster]**

While fire is well known for its ability to spread on its own, it doesn't hurt to give it a little help now and then. Except, of course, when it does.

Skill - Pyropathy: You can sense flames. Dramatically increased Awareness when focusing on this sense.

Skill - Pyrokinesis: You can control flames. Your Power is added to Ego when manipulating fire with this skill.

Attribute bonuses: Power, Awareness.

Advancement: Spread your flames.

"I have been thinking about that," I tell her. "Pathfinder would give us every attribute but Power, while Firecaster would be every attribute but Will. Together, they have a focus on Awareness, with Power and Will as secondary attributes."

"Don't forget about your last class, either," Talla adds. "It may not be mastered yet, but you'll have to integrate it into the rest eventually if you want a four-star class. We should consider how it fits together with the others ahead of time."

"Fair enough," I agree, checking it next.

[Tier 1 Savior]**

A sentinel for the meek. A hero of the sick and injured. A ray of hope for the desperate and needy. You extend a hand to those who have fallen to the deepest pits of the blackest depths and pull them back from despair.

Skill - Protect the Innocent: Dramatically increased Power, Resilience, and Will when fighting in defense of anyone sick, injured, or below your own tier.

Skill - Revitalization: Draw upon the body's energy stores to dramatically accelerate natural healing and repair mortal wounds. When used to heal others, you may draw upon your own energy instead.

Attribute bonuses: Resilience, Ego.

Advancement: Help those in need.

"I don't think it's a good fit for the core class," I explain. "It would specialize us too heavily on Ego and Resilience."

"What's wrong with that?" Talla counters. "Those are good attributes for resisting magical strain, which seems to be an ongoing problem for you."

"Not me, specifically, but I take your point," I sigh. "Still, we agreed that it would be best to make our shared class more balanced, then specialize individually. Savior is also only level six, and it's proven frustratingly difficult to level up."

"You'll get there," she assures me. "I can set you up in my clinic when we get back home. It shouldn't take more than a season or two."

I grimace. "That long?"

Talla shakes her head and laughs. "Most people don't get a three-star class until they're at least fourteen years old—closer to sixteen on average. The fact that you're about to get one after only a couple of weeks is absurd, so no complaining."

"Oh," I reply lamely. "I guess we've got a pretty skewed perspective."

"I'll say," she sighs. "So then let's consider the other ways that your classes can combine. Your Savior class would fit pretty nicely with the core class, probably just strengthening the [Leader] and [Defense] domains. It's also got balanced attribute distributions with your other two classes. With [Travel] you should get something like [Reinforcement], while [Fire] would probably get reversed to [Anti-Fire] and give you a class that resists and combats fire instead of creating and controlling it. Honestly, Savior might be the most flexible out of all your classes."

"Really? I thought it would be the most restrictive."

Talla shrugs. "Class theory can be funny like that. To me, your fire class is the most troublesome. Not only is magic...slightly problematic, but [Fire] and [Travel] as a combination is very concerning. We wouldn't want you taking a class that has you going around starting wildfires."

"I'm not giving up on magic!" Maggie pipes up at last.

"Nobody's asking you to," Talla assures her gently. "I'm just saying that you should probably avoid that particular combination."

"Well now I kinda want to see what it is," Maggie argues. "We can see that one without causing any problems, right? I'm gonna do it!"

"Wait, Maggie, don't—"

[Tier 2 Trailblazer]***

You create new paths through the wilderness, by force if necessary. No overgrowth, undergrowth, flora, or fauna will get in your way. Any who wish to follow in your footsteps need only follow the ashes left in your wake.

Skill - Will o' the Wisp: Create a burning wisp of flame, tethered to you or a willing target, that travels inexorably to any location you've previously seen.

Skill - Burn Fuel: You can rapidly accelerate your bodily functions to either increase your speed or quickly convert food into usable energy.

Skill - Fire Manipulation: You can sense and control flames. Your Power is added to Awareness and Ego when actively using this skill.

Skill - Scorch the Earth: Land burned by fires you create or control is rendered temporarily infertile.

Attribute bonuses: Power, Awareness, Will.

Advancement: Forge your path in fire.

"Holy shit, that's kind of awesome though?!" Maggie shouts excitedly.

"Oh no, not again," I groan. "Allie, please talk some sense into her!"

"Huh?" Allison replies absently. "Sorry, what? I wasn't paying attention."

"Allie!" I scold her. "This is important! You can't just drift off!"

"I know! I'm sorry," she says. "It's just...kind of boring."

"This is our life, Allison. How could it possibly be boring?"

"Actually," Talla interjects. "I have fallen asleep during class theory lectures multiple times. It can get a little dry."

"Unbelievable," I sigh. "Allie can you at least help us, look at the options for our main class before somebody greedily insists on a fancy new toy for herself?"

"Oh! Yeah, sure, lemme just...huh?"

"Now what?" I groan, rubbing my temples.

"I uh...can't seem to expand it?" Allie says. "It's not that it's too painful or difficult, it's just...not responding at all. Like how you described it to me before."

Great. Just what we need. More complications. In a desperate attempt to get ahead of Maggie just fusing her and Allie's classes on the spot, I try bringing up [Unified Wanderers] myself, even though it's never worked before.

[Tier 1 Unified Wanderers]**

[Permanent] - This class cannot be removed.

Many travelers, sharing the same path. Each seeking different things in the same place.

Skill - Locus of Thought: Communicate and coordinate between yourselves.

Skill - The Beaten Path: Gain the effect of one skill from a previously mastered class. Can be changed at will.

Attribute bonuses: Resilience, Ego.

Advancement: Find what you seek.

I blink, then look at the words in my head again just to be sure. There they are, plain as day. No headache, no pain, no difficulty. As if it were just like any other class. And right there at the end are the words that I'd thought only Allison could access.

[Upgrades available]

[Fusions available]

"Huh?"