Chapter Text
Chapter 1 – An Unusual Choice
Patiently, she watched the waters as the north wind ruffled her grimy, blond hair.
“Hail! Hail!” screamed the crowd as the smiling heroes descended from their barge, hoisting the hacked off head of a monstrous chimera high for all to see.
Its fanged mouth gaped wide open allowing all to see the broken spear tip still embedded inside. The proud Warrior at the front of the party raised his matching, broken spear shaft triumphantly and earned a face full of slightly wilted flowers for his efforts.
His companions – a silk-clothed sorceress and a knight broad enough for three men – amused themselves greatly at his expense, all the while the two twin archers at the back end of their little procession began to hand out pretty stones carved with their party's emblem.
Tanya played her part as she forced herself through the crowd and held up her already pre-prepared stone as high as her little arms allowed it.
“Wow! The Rubyhearts are the best! I bet this token is gonna be worth at least one silver!”
Excitement surged in the spectators as everyone suddenly scrambled for the ‘precious commodity’. Ajoz the Archer and his nigh identical sister, Majoa, were just as eager to hand out the cheap baubles and enhance the value of their name. Within a minute their basket was empty and countless voices bemoaned the limited supply voraciously. This too was by design. Scarcity was half the equation of demand after all.
Tanya followed the victorious party to the guild house, loudly singing their praises and speculating on their exploits beyond the Sword Gate. Other urchins joined her in hopes of earning some bread for their efforts as orphans were in plentiful supply here at the frontier, though supposedly they had it better than those in the far south where one in five children was said to be killed by magical diseases and shadow-travelling bloodsuckers.
She didn’t know if she believed the far tales, but the world always found new ways to unpleasantly surprise her as she was once more reminded.
“Sorry, Blondie, not yet. Just wait a bit, alright?” grinned Weskar the Warrior before slamming the guild door in her face.
The cheers of their fellow monster slayers inside the imposing building could be heard through the wood.
Tanya clenched her jaw, outwardly keeping her calm. Telling their adventurous tales, logging in their bounty and competitively drinking with their rivals would take the rest of the day. Meanwhile she would have to remain here on the stairs, waiting. Because if Weskar and his crew forgot about her entirely during the festivities then she would need to be there to remind them of their promise when they inevitably stumbled back home.
Her tiny foot kicked the granite as she contemplated if she should start begging again. It was demeaning work, but she had long since grown used to it. A few copper coins were worth the indignity of pitifully pitching her voice and making her eyes tear up a bit. In a certain way Tanya could convince herself that it was a street performer job like any other.
Just as she was about to approach a wealthy looking man on his way to the Guild, the doors behind her slammed open again and the gigantic paw of Olidolf the Knight dragged her inside by the scruff of her neck like one would a kitten.
“Shame on you! Little Tanya is still waiting and we are not going to forget her contributions to our rising fortune, my friends!” boomed the hulk of a man with a bass that vibrated through his inescapable grip all the way to her bones. “Especially not on her special day!”
Elaria the Sorceress laughed heartily at her partner’s declaration, teasingly hiding her full lips behind her bejewelled hand.
“Oh my! How true! Where would we be without our little mascot...”
Though her words were spoken in a friendly manner, her eyes only held disdain for Tanya who dangled impotently in the air.
Ten silver coins sprang from her long sleeve as the magician leaned over the counter, stage whispering to the clerk: “One Class Registration for Tanya, no family name. Precisely ten years old today. We are sponsoring her as an act of charity, you see...”
Nodding in a professional and utterly uninterested way, the middle-aged man that held the key to her future accepted the payment, jotted down the information with an apparently self-refilling quill and waved Tanya over.
Olidolf dropped her with an encouraging pat on the back that knocked the breath out of her and Weskar impatiently gestured for Tanya to get on with it. He was eager to get the room’s attention back on himself and the chimera head he was dramatically leaning against.
Tanya whispered an obligatory ‘thank you’ and scuttled into the depths of the estate, heart beating fast with anticipation.
This was it.
The moment she had been waiting for since she learned of the blessing of the System. It was not a true blessing as she had anxiously discovered. No divine strings attached. No worship required. Only hard work and dedication.
That, she was more than willing to give, for the prize seemed tempting beyond belief to her malnourished, sickly heart.
Magic would be hers again. Health and unnatural strength and even an extended lifespan at higher levels too. Just one touch and it could be hers...
The clerk’s keys rattled as he opened the inner vault of the Guild and presented her with the Registration Crystal. The steel chamber was unlit safe for the blue glow of the fist-sized rock itself, plunging the corners into ominous darkness.
“If you would please lay your hand on top of the crystal. The Registration should take but a moment and be totally intuitive. If you should nonetheless have any questions I will be right behind you.”
A not so subtle threat lay in his voice as well. No doubt his plain appearance concealed enough strength to pulp her puny body should she try to steal or damage the priceless artefact.
“Thank you, Mister,” she murmured demurely and stepped inside the chamber.
The light within the crystal seemed to flicker at her presence. There was no going back.
Trembling, Tanya touched the smooth surface of the pulsing gem and felt its warmth increase. A steady hum rose from the pedestal as the familiar feel of mana visibly flowed through her arm. Like an old friend welcoming her home, the mystical energy roused the dregs of magic in her body, filling her with nigh forgotten strength and nostalgic longing.
It climbed to her neck, through her arteries, into her brain-
[Choose:]
Clinical, precise letters bloomed in her mind, stabbing themselves at her very being. A soul-deep need rose through her veins to choose, to decide her destiny.
[Warrior] offered the not-voice and Tanya unthinkingly declined. She had lived a lifetime of violence. Never again did she want to make slaughter her primary occupation.
[Enchantress]
Tempting, but limited. Chained to a desk for the rest of her days, producing valuable wares for what purpose? She declined again.
[Bureaucrat]
Once that had been all she wanted. Even now a part of her wanted to reach out and grasp that floating word. It promised safety. A good education and a modest employment for the local Governor or the Baron or maybe the Guild. But ultimately that was still slavery with a prettier chain. Her contract would force her to absolute secrecy and civil obedience. The taste of such servitude had become unpalatable to her.
[Sorceress]
Among all of her options, here Tanya hesitated the most. Magic, prestige, power were so very close. Few aspirants were deemed fit for this Class and thus its wielders were much desired. Yet, her selection of teachers in the small island town of Oram were hardly sprawling. This close to the frontier she would end up with Elaria and that vain woman was just as likely to sabotage her training as was to forget about her existence altogether.
Not to mention that she would be poached as a frontline combatant due to her abilities. A Sorceress was just a Warrior with more versatility in that respect.
[Noble]
The text was greyed out, unable to be picked even if she wanted to. Tanya did not know why the System presented her with such a useless offer. Everybody knew that only Nobles could grant others this privilege.
Next.
[Ranger]
Supernatural speed and accuracy had their merits, but they did not outweigh the negatives.
[Priestess]
Absolutely not.
[Labourer]
The lowliest of all Classes and also the most versatile. For Tanya’s purposes it was perfect.
Images filled her, imparting on her a vision of what could await her if she were to select this Class.
A tanned, muscular woman was spinning yarn inside a cramped, but intensely homely hut. Herbs dried at the windowsill, porridge was bubbling in an earthen pot by the fire and trophies of minor monsters hung over the bed.
Instinctively Tanya knew that the chair she was sitting on had been carved by her own hand, the wool shorn from her personally domesticated sheep and the firewood cut by her own crudely forged axe. Outside, carrots and cabbages grew in her garden, surrounded by a quaint wall of hand quarried stone.
[Choose?]
Her decision locked in, the glow spiked for a moment, flooding her with intent and then receded to return the vault back to darkness.
“Mmmh... Interesting,” hummed the clerk, a spark of curiosity glinting in his dull brown eyes. “Normal children are only eligible for three Classes on average. I don’t believe I have seen the Crystal award that many offers before... What did you pick?”
“Labourer,” she answered easily and watched his expression fall.
A pejorative sniff marked her as a worthless case in his mind when he hastily shooed her out of the room as if her new low class stink would rub off on him. Tanya remained unperturbed. There would be many more similar reactions like this waiting for her in the future. Scorn, disgust, disappointment... Adventurers and Specialists could not understand her mentality. How could they?
Monsters possessed inborn Classes that automatically grow with age and bloodshed. Man alone was granted the privilege of being able to choose his path through life. This agency not only allowed for the division of highly skilled labour, but also for judgements on the character of a certain Class’ elector.
Mages were intelligent, Rangers crafty, Priests wise, Warriors strong, and Smiths hardy. Each fulfilled a different niche and was in turn shaped by their profession. The System exaggerated their best qualities until they were all that each Class was known for. For example Olidolf – to fit the image of a perfect Knight – adopted a jolly, chivalrous act pretty much unconsciously as much as his Perks simultaneously compelled him to do so.
But Labourers?
To be a Labourer was to be a menial worker. An everywoman. Someone who could help out on a farm in summer and in the mines during winter. Who could craft traps to feed their family one day and build a well on the next. Little, uncomplicated, manifold jobs that did not fit into neat categories. It was the Class of the masses who toiled to keep society running on a fundamental level. Mundanity personified.
It was no wonder that the other groups looked down on them for that. Everybody wanted to be the next Gunnard the Mighty and nobody wanted to be Sachis the pot cleaner. Especially since it cost a not insubstantial amount of money and influence to acquire a Class in the first place. To promote the raising of monster slayers, prices at the frontier were kept low, but further inland it could cost as much as a gold coin to be allowed access to the Crystal.
“And? What did you choose? Labourer?” drawled Elaria who had been lingering at the counter to pounce on her.
Her party was in the middle of a dramatic recreation of their latest hunt. Ajoz mimed the chimera, pretending to struggle as Olidolf grasped his leg.
Tanya let her gaze rest on the scene before she granted the shapely woman a thin smile and a nod.
The Sorceress’ smug smirk turned into a frown.
“Get out.”
Tanya did not need to be told twice. She felt giddy with energy and anticipation.
Pushing open the doors, Tanya deeply breathed in the town’s familiar atmosphere, suppressing a cough as her bad lung acted up again. Everything seemed so much lighter and easier all of a sudden; the hunger in her stomach less pronounced, the scabs on her feet less painful.
Her peaceful, productive, self-determined life as a legal adult was finally beginning.
The next few days were a blur as she chipped away at the easiest Subclasses to advance. Unlike Priests or Rangers or the like, who at a level limit of one hundred could only take five, she had a plethora of options before her at a level limit of five hundred.
With a single thought she could call upon the System and countless potential paths wrestled for her attention. Yet at the moment Tanya was not concerned with wood working or animal husbandry. She needed endurance to survive her weakening body and there was only one way to achieve that.
[Filth Labour] was as the name suggested, dirty work, but it could be easily trained in urban spaces where an abundance of refuse remained a constant problem. By volunteering at the governor’s office to collect dung she received a stamp on the back of her hand and was sent to the street sweepers association. The haggard grandfather in charge considered her knowingly, an old Labourer himself, and gave her a ratty sack and a wooden shovel.
Sufficiently equipped, she went around and shovelled horse and cow and dog droppings into her putrid sack until the stench became nauseating and her back ached. Then she dropped it off at the dung heap which would be cleared weekly. The old man would share watery soup with her that they ate with long spoons in order to keep their hands away from their faces and the food. She appreciated the intent as she could hardly afford soap and her fingers were already raw from scrubbing. After their sorry meal it was back to shovelling manure again.
Some would have deemed it soul-crushing, but Tanya simply saw it as a necessary first step. Each day that she kept at it, she could not only feel her Endurance increase, but expressly see the fruits of her labour be quantified by measurable numbers which was highly motivating.
Labourer (4/500)
Filth Labour (4/50)
Str: 0
Dex: 0
End: 4
Int: 0
Wis: 0
Awa: 0
On the end of the fifth day a strange numbness began to invade her nose which had been long suffering from the disgusting reek of waste. And then, unbelievably, from one moment to the next she could breathe freely again!
[Adaptive Nose – your olfactory perception is enhanced]
A Perk! In a way, Tanya could still not get over the eccentric, game-like features of this reality. To be so directly rewarded for your efforts with abilities that defied common senses was... well, it was both nice and disconcerting. Her nose felt like a machine now. One precision-engineered to filter out whatever smell she disliked and enhance those she wanted to focus on.
The pungent odour of manure naturally suppressed itself and the smell of roses and fresh bread grew ever stronger for it. After tasting the deliciously clean air for a while, Tanya shook her head and concentrated on turning her new ability off again. It would not do to ignore reality. One could easily grow addicted to tuning out the less beautiful sides of life and grow delusional. Perks were powerful, but they should not define her life. They were situational tools, nothing more.
These incentives for reaching certain milestones were one of the main reasons why she had picked Labourer in the first place. No other Class could boast that many Perks, though in return they also earned four times as many Attribute Points. Where her Endurance sat a beautiful five, a Warrior would already possess twenty. She was not bitter about that. It was just how the System worked.
That night she celebrated by splurging on a honey roll. Sweet, savoury and utterly delicious; the enhanced smell of the warm pastry brought tears to eyes. Despite her filth stained feet, this was the taste of victory.
As shovelling animal dung would not bring her further advancement in the Subclass, she moved onto the next job of collecting human waste. Here, the island nature of Oram presented her with a slight problem as small canals and gutters already directed much of the town’s unwanted garbage into the surrounding lake. Still, there always remained more work for her.
At dawn and dusk she went around the rich neighbourhoods of the Inner Isle, which surrounded the castle of the governor, and knocked.
“Excuse me Miss, would you like me to empty your chamber pots?”
“Excuse me Sir, would it be of any help to you if I perhaps took care of your night soil?”
Some regarded her with suspicion or hostility, but most were glad to hoist off the disgusting task to a little girl in exchange for yesterday’s leftovers. In fact, one nice maid even slipped her a whole wedge of cheese and a sausage. Over the course of that week, Tanya ate better than she ever had in this life. It made her feel somewhat stupid that she had never dared to directly ask for such menial tasks before.
Her ambitions had been too lofty, her plans too grand. She had tried to introduce modern marketing and administration to this world; with limited success. Tanya’s ideas had been enough to get by and earn the favour of the Rubyhearts, but it had availed her little in tangible benefit. Oh well, she was nothing if not adaptable.
Over the next three weeks her Endurance slowly climbed until...
[Disease Resistance – reduced damage and increased recovery from ordinary diseases]
A terrible pressure welled up in her chest and Tanya was forced to double over as she hacked up black phlegm. Normally such an effect would be cause for great concern, but she was soon delighted to discover that the cough that had plagued her since spring seemed to have left her lungs. Her breathing in general was more even and weaknesses that she didn’t know had hampered her were repelled.
Sitting down on the stony shore, chamber pot in hand, Tanya saw off the setting sun with a relieved smile. Any doubts she may have had about her choice of profession were wiped away. Health was worth infinitely more than the ability to shoot lightning from your fingertips.
She now sat at a comfortable End: 10, as fit and tough as an average man. Indeed, if one were to add the measly fortitude of her orphan body before the Class upgrade then she was now more enduring than the average man. It was hard to believe, but surviving winter this year might actually be bearable.
Tanya kept up with her knocking for food and connections to the house staff. Some of them were even Labourers themselves who could regale her with their own success stories. None of them however, had surpassed level one hundred. She was still vexed by this societal aversion to ‘exceed one’s betters’ as Camille the housekeeper called it. Tanya had no intention of restricting herself in such a way. Level ten had lit in her a burning desire for more.
Hence, at the street sweepers association, she exchanged her sodden sack for a rough broom made from bound together branches. The thing was tall for her slight frame and made a horrible scraping noise on the flagstones of the streets. Other orphans were already employed in this field so she had strict orders on which streets to sweep at which time.
Some of the older boys tried to bully her into doing their share of work, but she was nimble and not afraid to stab their ankles with a glass shard that she kept on her person at all times. Her Endurance also helped weather their retaliatory blows. In the end, two of them had to be transferred to jobs that did not require standing upright and their areas of responsibility were hoisted off to Tanya as punishment.
She was not at all enraged by this development, though. The town swelled with seasonal workers and merchants during the Cropmoon, tracking in additional grime. More work in street cleaning meant that her Subclass would level faster. At the harvest festival she finally hit the long awaited End: 15.
[Scrubbing Touch – your cleaning is effortless and efficient]
Nobles and fighters would have scoffed at such a putatively insignificant Perk. They received much more substantive bonuses and Skills every two levels, so the prospect of investing fifteen levels for the ability to clean faster was a bad joke. To Tanya it was a heaven-sent.
Not only did her personal hygiene improve by leaps and bounds, but with her now decidedly above average Endurance and this Perk to speed up her work, she could outperform every single street sweeper in Oram thrice over. Come rain, come sunshine, Tanya basically flew through her allotted district as the dirt and refuse evaporated beneath her broom. She took to clearing the nearby drainage ditches and canals in her free time.
People threw away the strangest things. Besides half burnt puppets, pottery sherds and a single shoe, she also found a rusted iron knife – which she of course kept – a bundle full of children’s teeth, painstakingly carved animal bones and single Acidic Slime in a bottle.
That last one was highly illegal as the possession of monsters without a licence within city limits could be punished by hanging. Frontier towns like Oram took this law especially seriously. Even Tanya had heard of the city of Garnau’s fate where the breeding experiments of a Sorcerer had run out of control. Reporting it to the Guild would potentially implicate her in a crime, and she was not eager to serve as the scapegoat for whatever bastard had dumped a shape-shifting omnivore in a public canal, so she simply threw the bottle into the lake as far as her spindly arms could propel it.
Her only witness was a fat, black rat who fearlessly took a rotten apple core from her hand and scurried away.
Sinkmoon turned to Woodmoon, heralding the advent of winter and, fittingly for the coming cold, Tanya’s Endurance rose to twenty.
[Water Resistance – reduced damage and increased manoeuvrability in water]
The water of the imaginatively named Frontier Lake was chilly year-round due to mountain springs that fed it, but now it felt almost warm to the touch. Hypothermia would of course still kill her if she decided to sleep in the shallows. Her Perk just made it take twice as long for her as a normal person.
Tanya even dared to take a little swim in the clearer waves around the Inner Isle, keeping an eye out for drowners beneath the surface. Monster slayers hunted the evil spirits regularly to protect their fishermen, yet one could never be too sure...
Her Water Resistance also helped with washing clothes. In synergy with her Scrubbing Touch she was able to take over the laundry for half a dozen washerwomen. They got to sit around and chatter while she stood waist-deep in the lake and took care of their workload. It was a mutually beneficial relationship, regardless of the fact that she only got paid in hazelnuts.
“Hey Lass, how’s life been treating you?” Olidolf called out from the pier in an unnecessarily loud tone. The natural rumble of his voice reverberated far over the dark green waters and managed to for once shut up the scullery maids. Wonders never ceased.
“Rather well. I am level twenty by now,” Tanya replied easily, waving at the giant of a man with a relaxed smile.
Too late did she remember that she was elbow deep in a pile of yellowed underpants and had been quite literally flagging him down with someone’s unmentionables. Hastily she dropped her arm.
“Twenty!? By the Goddess, that fast?”
The twin archers behind him that had looked impatient at the interruption of their stroll to their destination took notice too, mirroring Olidolf’s shock in a more subdued manner.
“I believe it has something to do with how overqualified I am for a given job, Sir. In my shoes you would similarly gain Labourer levels at an accelerated pace, I believe.”
“What, are you saying that you could have gotten a better Class?” he frowned, visibly confused.
His bushy brows met above his hawkish nose like two kissing mice. The image made her almost chuckle.
“I would not say better, no... But I did have a lot of options which is apparently unusual.”
“I’d say, Lass. The only thing that the Crystal offered to me was to be a Knight! Ha!”
One of the washwomen flinched at his booming chuckle. Two others blushed.
“Could it be because that was presented as your first choice and you picked it immediately?” Tanya sarcastically remarked and Olidolf’s eyes went wide.
“Now that you mention it... Hahaha! Never thought about it! In any case, keep up the good work little Tanya, maybe I’ll rank up soon too! The Prophet of the Baron has foreseen a lesser dragon settling in a valley just north of here and thanks to our growing reputation we got picked to wipe it out. A wyrm shall make a fine addition to our trophy rack,” boasted the man with a playful smirk. “Wish us luck, Tanya! You’re our mascot after all!”
She did earnestly wish him good fortune and bid him farewell. Eliminating even a minor dragon would bring the Rubyhearts great fame and fortune. Despite lacking higher intelligence, they were fearsome beasts that could threaten entire provinces. Hopefully they didn’t cheap out on fire-resistant gear.
Thus she focused back on her laundry and Woodmoon turned to Fogmoon. The air at night turned frigid and the water of the lake regained its bite in spite of her Resistance. Tanya told herself that this was speeding up her Endurance gain, but her blue toes disagreed. At long last, before the day of the Spirit Festival, it finally happened. With her twenty fifth point of blessed Endurance came a new Perk.
[Gentle Touch – greatly reduces all accidental damage to held objects]
As always, the reward was fitting for the profession she was training at the moment, but Tanya could not help but be a little bit disappointed with the Perk. She was not a careless or clumsy person, so this would not assist her much. Still, it was nice to have, she supposed. Hidden benefits would perhaps reveal themselves later.
Tomorrow she would begin the next step of her level growth journey.
Proper, gainful employment at a private business.
Well, the festival came first of course.
There were colourful lanterns and adults in ‘scary’ masks and fireworks to scare off cloud spirits which must have been imported. Parents let their children wave tiny torches through the nightly air to ward away their fears. Hot wine and mead flowed freely from busy stalls. A theatre troupe was performing acrobatics on a rope over the market square. All in all, it was a quaint provincial event full of charm and celebration.
Tanya though, only had eyes for the magic show. Two masked women were launching blue and green illusions of skulls and remarkably life-like faces at each other. Effortlessly each partner caught the silently screaming projectiles of the other in her gloved palm, twirling them around, devouring them or juggling them with incredible agility. Every movement flowed into the other, graceful as if it was choreographed.
And yet their hypnotic act was clearly improvised. They danced through the crowd, hunting each other playfully across stalls and throngs of laughing children. Paradoxically only few people paid them any attention, despite the awesome artistry of their magic. The lithe women’s skill and control put Elaria’s to shame, but the townsfolk merely glanced at them with nary a comment.
Tanya was enraptured. This performance was a stark reminder that magic could be more than a tool as well. More than ‘cast Skill to smash target’. It was art. It was freedom.
Could she theoretically mimic even a fraction of this beauty? Her Class – though lacking in magical skills – did not preclude her from channelling and shaping the mana innate to every living being. Without a focus to streamline the collection and help her weave a spell pattern however, she would just be blindly throwing around raw energy in hopes of somehow assembling a stable structure.
Traditionally, it just wasn’t done.
Immediately closing her eyes, Tanya felt out her body. Behind her heartbeat, in the space between the thrum of her nerves and the rhythm of her breath lay the atrophied trickle of her magic. Mental muscles that remembered catapulting her through the sky to rain down thunder and lightning reactivated, as fresh as the memories of her death. The invisible grip of her studious concentration seized the thread of mana gently and tried to manifest it into reality.
Her efforts were rebuffed.
She coaxed it gently.
Nothing happened.
She ordered it and riled against it.
Sweat fell from her brow as she tore at herself.
Disobediently, the mana did not move outside her body. It was like an undetectable barrier was suppressing her will. The outside world fought her simple energy projection, crushing her resolve with undefeatable indifference.
Tanya suddenly felt a foreign pressure on her forehead and blinked.
Two luminescent, silver eyes stared at her from a mere hand-span away. Shadowed by a dark mask, their icy light froze her in place, seeming to dissect her very soul.
“Doth thou long for the arcane?”
Ancient and inhuman, the question instinctively compelled her to answer. Shivers ran down Tanya’s spine at the stranger’s melodious accent.
“Yes,” she croaked out, unable to look away from the two burning wheels that shone like twin winter moons.
The force pressing on her increased.
“Yet thou are a Labourer, denied this grace by fate’s design.”
How did this woman know her Class!?
“The divine decree is not so readily sundered. Wouldst thou wish to transcend it nonetheless?”
Divine decree? Tanya’s mind was off-balance, spinning in circles. What could this street performer know of subverting the System!? This didn’t make any sense!
But a question had been asked and an answer needed to be given.
“Y-yes. I don’t care about the divine.”
No proclaimed god could constrain human potential. Ultimately man was accountable for all of their actions. This belief had stuck with her through starvation and misery. Never would Tanya surrender her agency to a power beyond her understanding. It would be equivalent to giving up on life itself.
“Marvellous... Verily, such transgression against the world’s order comes at a price. Doth thou accept it?”
Tanya struggled under the overwhelming tide of dangerous intent levelled against her.
“Perhaps,” she pressed out between clenched teeth, “if I knew the t-terms and conditions...”
“Terms and conditions? How quaint.”
The gleaming eyes of the magician crinkled merrily.
“Three terms thou shall receive. Firstly, thou shall not call upon the arcane where human sight may behold its heresy. Secondly, as the arcane was not meant for you, thou shall grow with it like elderkin. Lastly, thou shall not find succour in the afterlife or the Gods’ embrace. Dost thou accept these terms?”
Regardless of the insistent compulsion to reply, Tanya mulled over the outlandish proposal in silence.
Hinging on the assumption that this was not a hoax then henceforth she would not be able to practice magic in front of other people. A sacrifice to be sure, but not a damning one. Hidden magic was better than no magic at all. And no, simple mana-consuming skills like the people of this were keen to rely on, were not true magic. It was like comparing a blowgun to an actual gun. Both shot projectiles, but their versatility was incomparable.
Secondly, she had to grow with it like ‘elderkin’, whatever that meant. Was the woman referring to monsters? Tanya had heard multiple creation stories over the years, some by commoners, and others by priests. They all told of monsters and animals being created first prior to humanity. One experiment by the gods after the other. Monsters were for the most part just magical animals. They lacked access to the System, but grew stronger with age. If that were to apply to her as well, she would not mind. Provided of course that she did not have to wait until she was old and grey until she could do more than produce a light orb.
The third stipulation also did not sound onerous, either. Death was death. That had been the accepted reality in her first life and she had not minded back then. Tanya had no need for some irrational, everlasting paradise. Singing endless praises for the self-aggrandizement of some wannabe god seemed a dreadful way to spend eternity.
Reconsidering her points, she found no fault in them.
“Yes, for the ability to wield magic, I accept these terms.”
Only as a heavy pair of hands fell on her shoulders did Tanya remember that there had been a second sorceress. She felt blinding heat, a sharp crack and her sensitive nose was filled with the stench of ozone.
Then her mind was overwhelmed by a torrent of power and she was subsumed in its crackling maelstrom.
The first thing that greeted her upon awakening in a stack of hay was the cheerful announcement of her System:
[Partial Error – Creator Unavailable – Ignore?]
A/N:
(25/500) Labourer Class (25 END)
(25/50) Filth Labour Subclass
1a (5/5) Dung Collector – Collect dung for fertilizer > [Adaptive Nose]
1b (5/5) Pot Cleaner – Collect + dispose of human waste > [Disease Resistance]
2a (5/5) Street Sweeper – Clear refuse > [Scrubbing Touch]
2b (5/5) Gutter Cleaner – Clear waste from ditches + canals > [Water Resistance]
3a (5/5) Laundry Scullion – Wash clothes > [Gentle Touch]