Pax settled back into his chair behind Jules with a flutter of anticipation. He couldn’t wait to see what happened when he tried Magesecond Fenix’s new idea. But even if they couldn’t figure anything out about Jules' class choices, they’d keep going. This time they’d flood one of her spheres with all of their mana until they made something happen.

  He ran through his mental checklist and, thinking about the upcoming mana cost, Pax realized he’d forgotten the mana stored in his Spectral Mirror. He quickly pulled his shield out and propped it up against his leg. Pax suspected they’d need all the mana they could summon.

  “Don’t worry,” Amil said when Pax looked his way. He held up both hands with small bottles in each. “I’ve got the potions ready. Just Echo me when someone needs one.”

  A quick glance around showed that everyone else was ready, too, all with a mix of nerves and excitement in their body language. With a nod, Pax closed his eyes and dove in. This time, when he used their mana to settle the chaos inside of Jules, he moved right to the next step.

  With easy skill, he drew up a slender finger of his light mana alone. Focusing all his senses on the largest sphere, Pax gently probed it with a flare of his.

  Around him, he could feel the rapt attention of the other four watching with their own Mana Sight. The sphere of energy reacted immediately. His mana hit like a rock dropped into a still pond.

  Chunks of the energy in the sphere scattered away in all directions. Pax kept pushing a trickle of light inside and watched. The dispersed energy coalesced into discrete sections that circled his mana, keeping distance, but acting with what looked like curiosity.

  Then, like inquisitive animals, they darted in closer to his light mana, like it was an interesting intruder. They didn’t stay away for long. First one fragment, then another darted in, snatching at chunks of his energy. Pax felt tugs on his mana, so he knew the first few were successful. More joined in, prompting a feeding frenzy full of excited greed.

  Pax grinned, thrilled about everything he was learning. The energy in the sphere had never acted like this before. He kept his mana to a bare trickle to give him more time to watch and note as many details about the reactions as possible. Fenix had been right. His probe of light mana was doing something.

  Now Pax just needed to figure out what. As he observed, he considered what he knew about the five classes. Which one was the best fit for this type of behavior?

  Crafters were curious, right? They analyzed everything before diving in with abandon to experiment and create. The response he saw didn’t really fit with warrior or worker energy. He expected those to be solid and strong, not hyperactive like this one.

  That left merchant and mage. Pax frowned. With some mental gymnastics, he could see how both might fit. Merchants focused on analyzing many variables, and everyone knew they had trouble controlling their greed.

  And the mage class? Pax had no idea how that type of energy would manifest. With nine elements, counting light, the mage class was too diverse to predict how its energy would act when poked. In fact, Pax wondered if it would be different every time, depending on the element the candidate had the most affinity for.

  With a sigh, he shook his head. He’d learned all he could about this first sphere of energy. Hopefully, he’d gain a better understanding by examining the others. He was more than happy to attempt an awakening without knowing what class Jules might get. But if he could help her get something she wanted? That would be amazing.

  He really wanted to give her a future she was excited about. It would be the perfect way to provide closure to the guilt she still seemed to feel about her part in his and Amil’s capture back at the beginning of this crazy adventure.

  With a quick twist, Pax cut off his light mana and moved to the second largest sphere. This one reacted much differently, increasing his hope that he’d figure something out. Instead of scattering immediately, the energy in the second sphere opened and seemed to welcome the influx of his light mana.

  As he made closer contact, Pax saw the energy split into fragments like the first one had, but with much more deliberate movements. Each section also maintained a slender thread of contact with his light mana while peeling away, like a brother who used a finger to barely touch the sister he was teasing.

  Pax narrowed his focus to find specific features of the different fragments and noticed they were much different in both size and feel, another marked difference from the first.

  Pax felt a subtle draw on his mana from the points of contact. As each segment sipped at his mana, they changed in subtle ways. The largest segment that took up almost half the space seemed to give off a solid thrum of energy. The earlier undulations of this sphere stilled, and the energy seemed to solidify instead.

  Another smaller segment nearby changed, too. A roiling energy grew within it, flickering back and forth, the movement visibly speeding up. There were other chunks, but they were much smaller, making it difficult for Pax to see as many details.

  Straining to note everything, Pax compared his observations to what he knew about the five classes. His excitement grew. It was easy to see how this reaction would fit with the mage class. It responded so eagerly to his light mana, like the other elements always had. And the various separations could easily relate to distinct elements based on the changes in their characteristics. It seemed to be a perfect fit.

  Pax watched until he’d observed all he could. Then, he cut off the mana and took the time to investigate the last three spheres of energy collected around him. He owed it to Jules to be thorough, despite a need to save as much mana as possible for the last step.

  Over the next few minutes, Pax hit one discouraging result after another. The other spheres of energy were too small. He couldn’t get them to interact with his light mana no matter what he tried. He even tightened down his mana to just a slender needle. Nothing. It was like trying to poke a tiny cloud that completely ignored his actions.

  When he drew back and took a moment to consider the results, he frowned. Gathering information on only two of the five spheres wasn’t ideal. If he’d been able to get a reaction from the other three, it would have helped him map out better guesses.

  As it was, his best guess put Jule’s largest sphere as either merchant or crafter. The exciting part was his guess that the second one, almost as large, represented a mage class. Sadly, it didn’t seem as if either of them matched what he’d expect for a warrior class. Of course, he could be completely wrong about all of it.

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  Based on the list of her preferred classes, Pax should attempt the one he thought was mage. But what if it ended up being crafter where the first one was merchant, which was higher on her list?

  His thoughts quickly degenerated to a lot of second guessing that had no answers. Pax cut it off and decided. She trusted him to do what he thought was best, and he couldn’t pass up the shot at a mage class.

  With his focus front and center, Pax moved on to the last step of the process. This was unfamiliar territory, so he took his time and worked to be as thorough as possible. First, he drew on all of his mana types, twisting them into a formidable cord of power. Pride filled him as he looked at the results and realized how much he’d grown.

  Next, he shifted his attention to the other four mages, their mana close and ready to contribute. He drew on all four and wrapped the borrowed mana around the solid column of his own. With a simple flex of his light mana, the ultimate emulsifier, he merged them with his own, leaving four trailing threads leading back to each of them.

  That left one more step before the ultimate test. He needed to drain the energy of the other four spheres. Not sure exactly what that entailed, Pax focused on how he was drawing mana in from his friends, while also remembering the feel of the beasts who always latched onto his light mana to drain as much as they could. He just needed to do the same to the other spheres.

  Pax split tendrils of power and elongated them until one touched each of the other spheres in Jules’ inner space. Then he reversed his usual pushing of mana and pulled. After a brief hesitation, something popped.

  Raw, aspectless power shot up his connection and wherever it came into contact with his light mana, it seeped easily into the rest of his construction. It was a matter of moments before the other four spheres shrunk to small, empty husks.

  They actually looked pretty sad with the disappearance of their animating energy. Pax really hoped this was the right thing to do, because he was pretty sure there was no reversing what he’d just done. He’d absorbed the plain energy into his pulsing collection of power with no way to separate it back out.

  There was only a way forward now. Pax drew on the calm his Meditation made second nature and took one last look on all the power he’d gathered for the attempt.

  It was time.

  With careful movement, Pax connected to the sphere he hoped contained the seeds of a mage class. According to Fenix, the last step was to flood the chosen sphere with all their mana and the energy drained from the others.

  Pax blew out a slow breath and pushed rich power into the sphere in a slow stream. For a moment, he worried it would overwhelm the energy of the sphere. But then the sphere’s internal components responded with the same hunger they had shown earlier toward his light mana.

  They sucked down as much of the combined mana as he gave it. He watched the sphere bulge and grow, quickly expanding to fill the space they were working in. Pax risked everything. He opened the floodgates and poured even more inside. No reason to hold back now.

  With a surge, the sphere expanded even further, passing his presence and spreading out to push through the rest of Jules’ body. It swelled with power, constrained by her body to change from a sphere to fit the shape of her limbs as it shot through her torso and moved out to her limbs.

  What would happen when it finished? The power felt overwhelming to Pax. He couldn’t imagine how this felt to Jules, a kid without a class and still shy of adulthood.

  Pax hurried to push out his mana senses to keep track of the rapidly progressing process. A few moments later, the powerful energy made it to the ends of her fingers, hitting and washing backward like a wave of water. It hit her toes a second later and did the same.

  Pax stared, his tension rising as nothing new happened. Around him, he felt the pressure slowly increase in Jules’ body as the power had nowhere else to go. Her insides looked like a waterskin being overfilled and stretched. He could sense the attention of the other mages and knew they must be worrying, too.

  Was there something else he needed to do? Had Fenix forgotten a crucial last step? The pressure kept increasing, and Pax waffled on what to do next. Should he cut off the mana he was feeding into the process? Maybe it had plenty of energy and just needed time. He ran through what Magesecond Fenix had said. The light mage gathers all of their mana elements and pushes the combined power into the chosen class energy until it permeates the entire body.

  He’d done that. So, now what? He didn’t want to hurt Jules. But if he cut off the process a moment too soon, that would be just as bad. Checking his mana, he found it still over half full, the aid of his four friends helping a lot. On his own, he was sure he’d be about out by now.

  A quiet moan came from Jules. It sounded like a stifled expression of pain. He knew it had to hurt a lot if she was letting her pain show. Worried and discouraged, Pax reached for the stream of power to twist it closed.

  And then it happened.

  A sudden explosion of energy flared so brightly that it blinded his mana vision. He cut off the mana immediately, blinking his inner eyes as he frantically tried to see what had happened. As the spots faded, he saw that the bulging power had completely disappeared, leaving behind an empty inner structure, a deserted wasteland.

  Pax scrambled to examine everything, only slowing when he saw nothing broken or hurt. In fact, all of her organs seemed to be perfectly fine, though her heart and lungs were working faster than usual.

  Something nagged at him, tugging at his attention. As he finished checking on her vital functions, he finally realized what it was. The typical chaos inside her hadn’t returned after the event.

  An excited cry from Jules made a nervous hope flare back to life inside him.

  “Time to pull out. Carefully.” Pax spoke aloud, for those without an Echo.

  As he cut off his connections to the four mages, Pax was down to just his own mana. It surprised him how much weaker he felt. He attributed it to the tremendous contribution from the two senior mages.

  With as much care as he could, Pax followed their example, extricating his connections from everywhere he’d been monitoring. In a few moments, he blinked open his eyes and took his hands off Jules’ head.

  It seemed to be what she’d been waiting impatiently for, because she immediately shot up from her chair, spun around and threw her arms around him.

  His eyes went wide at the unexpected gesture from the usually careful girl. He chuckled. “So, are you going to tell us what happened?”

  She seemed to suddenly realize what she was doing and leapt back, her cheeks flushing bright red. When she looked up and saw him smiling instead of chastising her, her grin returned. “It worked! I can’t believe it worked.” She looked around the room with pure joy. “I finally have a class.”

  Relief flushed through Pax at her announcement. A wave of excitement and pride shot through him as the implications of their success cascaded through his thoughts. This was going to change everything.

  “Well, don’t keep us all waiting.” Rin gave her a gentle nudge. “What did you get?”

  Everyone in the room fell still, waiting for her answer.

  A smile of awe filled her expression while her eyes were wide, filled with traces of disbelief that anything this good could happen to someone like her.

  “I’m a mage.” The words came out soft and full of amazement. “I’m an earth mage.”

  With a huge smile, Pax pulled out his list and crossed off the line he’d added to the part about completing their crew quest. (1st step: organize mana in full body of a little). A quick check of his notifications made his grin widen further.

  ***

  Skill Boost: +3 to Altar Interface Level 1 (Epic) - 27/100

  Skill Boost: +18 to Ascendant Mana Integration Level 2 (Legendary-evolved) - 23/200

  Skill Boost: +12 to Elemental Meditation Level 3 (Common) - 123/300

  Improvement to your Path of Understanding Earth: +4. Level 4 - 132/400

  Crew Quest: Part 5: Awaken rebel children to their new classes without the empire’s help - 1/5 (+1)

  ***

  He reread that last line twice, so excited about the prospect of helping all the Viper littles finally become adults. Not only that, Jules was a mage, not a worker like he’d feared.

  Then the second to last notification caught his attention, along with what Jules had said at the end.

  Wait. She was an earth mage? Without going through the Crucible?

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