※ “Night reveals the structure day obscures.”

  The inn room was small, clean, and quiet. A bed, a washbasin, and a single wall rune casting steady white light. Nothing decorative. Nothing inefficient.

  Lisa folded her new clothes with exact precision and changed into the coarse nightshirt left for guests. Dinner had been unremarkable: warm, predictable, adequate. Beyond the window, the last of the daylight thinned into uniform blue.

  She sat on the bed. The mattress dipped in a controlled, linear way. Acceptable.

  She raised her hand. The interface appeared at once, six class headers aligning with precise clarity.

  

  Warrior.

  Hunter.

  Priest.

  Rogue.

  Magician.

  Witch.

  No anticipation. Only evaluation.

  

  Warrior

  Simple structure. Standard weapon handling, shield positions, armor efficiency. Linear progression.

  Cantrips offered small utilities: cleaning a blade, drying armor, calming a mount.

  Spells relied on stamina rather than mana. Short bursts of strength, grip tightening, brief muscular reinforcement.

  One entry interrupted the pattern.

  A technique that converted personal health into attack power.

  No stated upper limit.

  Partial recovery only if the strike killed.

  

  Hunter (unlocked by Scavenging Lv. 10)

  Skills were divided cleanly between traps and archery. Narrow but consistent.

  Cantrips addressed basic survival: scent masking, heat mitigation, meat preservation, dry footing, quiet movement through brush.

  Spells focused on external tracking: residue identification, trajectory projection, distance estimation based on scent decay.

  One spell held her attention.

  A binding call that assigned a creature as a familiar.

  The structure was primitive.

  The effect was permanent.

  

  Priest

  The structure shifted immediately.

  Every skill referenced devotion.

  Every cantrip required faith.

  Every spell demanded alignment with a deity.

  Invocation.

  Supplication.

  Channeling through an external authority.

  She regarded the list for a second.

  “No.”

  She ran a diagnostic gesture along the interface, searching for a way to mute or hide the category.

  The System did not allow deletion.

  She minimized it to its smallest icon.

  An entire class discarded without further review.

  

  Rogue

  Classical structure. Short blades, evasion, pressure points. Backstab scaling with precision.

  Stealth techniques built on movement minimization and breath control.

  A single skill disrupted the expected pattern.

  It allowed any direct strike to disperse as an area effect.

  Radial, forward, or backward.

  Damage reduced.

  Flexibility increased.

  She noted it.

  Cantrips focused on distraction and misdirection. One caught her attention:

  Channeling nearby insects to swarm a point of choice.

  Crude.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  Effective.

  Spells were situational.

  Shadow anchors, forced stillness, fixed positions required to maintain effect.

  High mana cost for low mobility.

  Poor synergy.

  

  Magician

  Basic staff handling. Gesture shaping. Line-of-sight targeting.

  One gathering skill stood out: extraction of alchemical materials.

  Cantrips were mostly decorative or situational.

  Minor illusions. Light refraction. Color shifting—effects suited for festivals and ceremonies, not combat.

  Spells were crude building blocks.

  Magic missile.

  Energy protection.

  Short-range force pulse.

  Standard arcane scaffolding.

  One spell held value.

  Heal Overflow.

  Allowed health to exceed the normal maximum when repaired by an external source.

  Temporary overcapacity dependent on healing input.

  

  Witch (unlocked by Pestilence Lv.10)

  Skill list centered on harm. Curses, decay, blood-rot variants.

  Direct interference with biological systems. Predictable spread patterns.

  One skill stood out: Energy Leech.

  Converts inflicted damage into both health and mana recovery.

  Self-sustaining by locking a percentage of mana

  Cantrips aligned with natural elements.

  Minor plant urging.

  Soil agitation.

  Simple pest coaxing.

  Small influences, low cost.

  Spells were unpleasant by design.

  Nasty Plague.

  Toxin Bloom.

  Weakening mists.

  Crowd disruption over precision.

  She dismissed the class lists and opened her attribute panel.

  

  STR: 12

  DEX: 14

  INT: 25

  WIS: 10

  Unassigned Attribute Points: 127

  She considered the distribution.

  Wisdom served only priest functions: faith scaling, prayer throughput, divine conduit stability.

  Irrelevant.

  She excluded it entirely.

  Strength and Dexterity defined physical motion boundaries.

  Intellect defined mana throughput.

  The System granted one to two attribute points per level for standard users; negligible growth.

  She looked at her pool of unassigned points.

  The current values were insufficient for the long term.

  She plotted the adjustment curve.

  

  STR: 20

  DEX: 20

  INT: 50

  WIS: 10

  Unassigned Attribute Points: 88

  Simple.

  Even.

  Efficient.

  The changes snapped into place.

  The result displayed immediately.

  

  Health: 200/200

  Mana: 500/500

  A stable baseline.

  More than enough for tomorrow.

  She reviewed the available skills again, isolating the ones with structural value.

  From Rogue:

  Impact Dispersion.

  From Magician:

  Alchemical Extraction.

  From Witch:

  Energy Leech.

  She assigned the points without hesitation.

  Three additions.

  Efficient.

  She activated Energy Leech. The reserve flagged immediately.

  

  SKILL — Energy Leech: Active

  Passive. Reserves 10% of maximum mana to maintain effect.

  Mana: 450/500 (50 reserved)

  Converts 0.5% of inflicted damage into HP and 0.25% into MP, scaling with level difference.

  She reviewed the conversion rules again, selecting the most efficient path.

  One Skill Point became two spell slots.

  Another became one spell slot and two cantrip slots.

  The panel updated.

  Three new spell slots available.

  Two cantrip slots open.

  She filled only what she required.

  Spell slot one: Vitality Conversion.

  Spell slot two: Familiar Binding.

  Spell slot three: Heal Overflow.

  Cantrip slot one: Insect Channel.

  The second slot stayed empty.

  A clean distribution.

  No excess.

  No waste.

  The interface confirmed the assignments.