Evolving Classes In The Apocalypse-Chapter 24: A Transcendent Novice

[The Definition of your existence has been built upon]

[Your Class has evolved]

[You have become a Transcendent Novice]

[Your Attributes Cap has increased]

[You have gained +40 attribute points across all your attributes]

[You have received a new Class Trait]

[You can received a new Class of higher rank]

[Class: Weapon Novice has been successfully integrated]

[You can use the Class Skills, and spend Definition Essence to advance the Class Stage]

The world of pain did not stop. My consciousness couldn’t keep up, and still the pain tore through whatever barrier separated me from full awareness, reaching for me like something alive and hungry.

It was savage and cruel, the kind of pain that made you reconsider every choice that had led to this exact moment. But I guess it all turned out well in the end. The integration had worked. That was the only thing that mattered.

Still, the pain of integrating Classes into your Definition was something I would not soon forget. Cruel enough that a small, honest part of me genuinely questioned whether I wanted to go through it again.

But the payoff was far more interesting, and the true crux of all of this was the last notification. I had not even opened my eyes when it settled into my mind.

’I can also make them into Transcendent stage!’

That single realization eradicated my worries of the Classes I steal being stuck at a stage. The implications were... significant, to say the least.

As I became aware of my surroundings, I noticed two things at once. First, I was being dragged again. Second, my body felt wrong. Not wrong in a painful way, wrong in the way that wearing someone else’s shoes felt wrong. My body was lighter, less of me than there should be.

The dragging continued even after I opened my eyes, but it didn’t bother me much. It was bearable and this was different from before, when I had to bite down and clenched-fist my way through every pain in the past hrough sheer will alone.

Everything actually felt so manageable that I caught myself smiling as my back scraped across the stony plains. The rope around my body had gone slightly loose which made me feel like I had become thinner.

I summoned my profile while still being hauled along like cargo, gravel grinding beneath my shoulder blades. It hurt but not so much. And that was almost funnier than the pain itself had been, because these were the sensations that Awakened Novices got to enjoy.

Of course, I was not an Awakened Novice. I was a Transcendent one.

A laugh nearly escaped my throat. I swallowed it, but only barely.

[Axiom Status]

[Name: Axel Rubravis]

[Main Class: Hollow]

[Sub-Class: Weapon Novice]

[Rank: Novice]

[Stage: Transcendent]

[Attributes]: [Strength:50], [Agility:50], [Vitality:50], [Spirit:50], [Perception:50].

[Essence: 0/50,000]

[Class Trait]: [Absence], [Stability]

[Sub-Class Skills]: [Appraisal]

There was something about seeing this profile and its changes that I couldn’t fit into words. Every number had jumped and all my attribute had doubled. The person attached to these stats was not the same person who had been dragged unconscious across these plains.

I inhaled deeply, feeling the difference settle into my lungs, my chest, my bones. Then I pulled against the rope.

The Adept stopped and turned around. He stared at me with a small frown as I stood up, shook the loosened rope off my body, and untied the one binding my hands. The motions came easier than they should have. Smoother. Faster.

I stared down at my body for a moment.

Indeed I had trimmed down somewhat, I wasn’t being delusional.

’Gaining fifty strength attributes along with agility and vitality must have helped me lose weight.’

"Did you lose weight? What the heck?"

The Adept squinted at me.

"Were you using your mundane skill to bolster your weight all this time?"

He paused, eyes narrowing further.

"Wait, you’ve been fat for a long time... then it must be the other way around."

He laughed.

"Interesting. So your own ability simply helps you reduce your weight. How convenient, huh."

I raised my hand, signaling for him to wait, and turned my attention back to the runes the Axiom was projecting before me.

Bad timing for a conversation, but he didn’t seem to be in any hurry if he could stand there chattering like an elderly woman at a market stall.

[Main Class Description: You’re not a part of the system, you’re a hungry black hole. You’re an aberration, an absence given form and must gain Definition to sustain your primordial hunger or it will consume you]

[Your ability to consume Definition allows you to absorb new classes as Sub-Class]

[Class Trait Description: Because of your hollow nature you have failed to awaken a Class Skill and awakened a trait instead. You’re not fully Defined but also not Undefined]

[Absence Trait: You’re invisible to perception and sensors. Target lock abilities can miss. Taunt mechanisms can ignore you]

[Stability Trait: Your mind is an impregnable fortress. You are immune to Mind-type effects. Hallucinations, memory corruption, madness — none can touch you.]

[Sub-Class Description: Born from the Axiom’s answer to those who lack a singular gift but possess an insatiable hunger to master the tools of war. Where other Classes define what you fight with, this one defines how fast you learn to kill with anything you touch.]

’Oh...’

I had guessed the Class was something of this sort from the name alone, so the surprise was mild. But reading it, having the words settle into me as confirmed fact rather than speculation, carried a different weight entirely. I moved on to the skill, my eyes scanning only what mattered.

[Appraisal: Upon gripping any weapon, your body reads it through contact, weight, balance, optimal grip, design intent, structural flaws, fighting style that best suits it.]

I raised the rope in my hand and consciously commanded the skill.

My eyes let out a cold glow. The rope, for a single moment, seemed to radiate a light that acknowledged me, as though something within it was responding to the question my fingers were asking. Then I saw:

[Standard Hemp Rope — 7.0m]

[Classification: Tool]

[Reclassifying...]

[Classification: Weapon (Improvised)]

[Weight: 0.9kg]

[Balance: Neutral — Balance point is variable, determined entirely by grip position and technique applied]

[Optimal Grip: Loop anchor at dominant hand, 40cm slack for striking range, secondary coil on forearm for redirection control. Three alternate configurations available depending on engagement type]

[Design Intent: Binding, hauling, load suspension. Not designed for combat.]

[Wielder Lethality ceiling: Awakened Mundane — Extreme, Established Mundane — Extreme, Ascended Mundane — High, Transcendent Mundane — Low. Awakened Novice — High, Established Novice — Mid, Ascended Novice — Low, Transcendent Novice — Low, Awakened Adept — Low, Established Adept — Low, Ascended Adept — Low, Transcendent Adept and above — Ineffective]

[Structural Flaws: Fraying at 1.3m from left terminal. Tensile failure under 112kg of lateral stress. Fray point will snap before any other section. Moisture weakens overall integrity by approximately 40%]

[Fighting Style: Close-range grappling. Strangulation. Joint manipulation and dislocation. Whip-style strikes at extended range. Best suited to ambush and confined spaces. Poor in open engagement against edged weapons. Effective against unarmored and lightly armored targets]

I read the last line twice. Then I looked at the rope in my hand. The same rope the Adept had been using to drag me.

I raised my head gave the Adept a dashing smile.