“So I just touch this thing to claim it?” Ray asked.
The crystal didn’t feel warm or cold under Ray’s gaze, yet his skin kept prickling, the air around the spire carrying a pressure he couldn’t explain. It stood too straight for the valley, too clean among ruins and wildflowers, and the light inside it moved with slow patience, colours folding over each other in tight spirals that never quite repeated. Around him, the ring of dragonkin held their positions with rehearsed discipline, but Ray could hear it anyway, the tiny shifts of boots in grass, the drag of leather on a spear haft, the shallow breaths that came out sharp through clenched teeth. No one spoke. No one wanted to be the first to make noise near something this old. Vaeldren’s silence pressed the hardest, because it carried expectation. Ray had been dragged across half a world, pushed through mountains and hunger and fear, and now the whole convoy was hanging off one simple movement of his hand. He hated that he could feel the weight of it settling on his shoulders, even though he didn’t want it, even though he’d never asked to be the hinge that held their future together.
Vaeldren didn’t move for a long moment. He was assessing Ray in contemplation.
“Laddy, you should know… We’re only doing this because we can’t claim it. Once you’re done… you can choose to pass the leadership to us.”
Ray was hesitant. “What should I be expecting?”
“You’ll get your class choice first, then… hopefully the crystal will respond.” Vaeldren said.
Vaeldren’s eyes didn’t leave Ray’s hand. He looked calm, but his jaw was tight, and Ray noticed the way the older dragonkin’s fingers flexed once at his side, a small tell of impatience he was trying to crush down. Layla stood off to the flank of the ring, shoulders high, arms folded hard, gaze bouncing between Ray and the spire as if she was scared she’d blink and lose it. A few of the dragonkin were staring at the crystal with something close to worship, the kind that grew out of desperation rather than faith, and that set Ray on edge more than any beast ever had. He’d seen what desperation did. It made people sharp in all the wrong places. Somewhere above, he heard the convoy murmur and shuffle, bodies packed tighter, every human trying to get a view through trees and shoulders. Ray could feel their hope pushing down on the clearing, thick enough to choke on, and he had to swallow twice to stop his throat from closing.
Master… Miu pressed into his mind again, Goodluck!
Ray swallowed… hesitated for one last beat, then placed his hand on the crystal. His world vanished into a pile of system boxes.
[Congratulations on reaching a Civilisation Crystal, please choose your class.]
Ray focused on his class options. Three portraited classes appeared side by side in his vision.
====================================
Class Selection Available
====================================
Option 1: Convoy Guard
Rarity: Common
Rank: F
Description: Hold the line. Take hits. Be useful until you break.
Trait: Defence Specialist
- You gain 3 skills related to defensive support, or shielding.
--------------------
Option 2: Trail Scout
Rarity: Common
Rank: F
Description: Walk first. Die first. Make it easier for everyone else.
Trait: Perceive the World
- You gain 3 skills related to perception and stealth.
--------------------
Option 3: Pack Hauler
Rarity: Common
Rank: F
Description: Carry. Endure. Keep moving until your spine gives up.
Traits: Carry the Load
- Your internal inventory is doubled in size and can store larger objects
====================================
Ray stared. He could feel contempt dripping from every option. The System was showing its fangs. Three Common options, all quite frankly… shit. Vaeldren’s hope pressed close behind him, the entire ring holding their breath, waiting for Ray to choose his class, so he could get on with claiming the Crystal.
Ray took his time. If he was going to pick a shit class, it was going to be the best of the crap. His eyes shifted between the words. Looking for anything that could potentially help him. At first, nothing came. He was about to just pick one at random, when he noticed something green flick into his vision. Right in the edge of his periphery, he could see a border that shouldn’t be there. There was another class… hidden to him.
His pulse kicked hard.
He tried to look directly at it, and it slid away. He shifted focus, and it blurred. He pushed, and pressure pushed back, tightening behind his eyes until his head spun and the ground threatened to punch him in the face.
The green flicker kept slipping the moment he reached for it, and the harder he tried, the worse his head felt, pressure building behind his eyes until his vision pulsed with dark spots. The class portraits stayed crisp and smug in front of him, waiting for him to accept the System’s joke and move on, and the crystal under his palm hummed faintly, almost amused by his struggle. Ray’s fingers curled against the spire, knuckles whitening, and he realised he was doing it again, letting the System dictate the rhythm of his breath, letting it bait him into panic.
You’re going to pop a vessel in your brain, Miu sent, and even through the bond Ray could hear her tiny huff of annoyance. Calm down. You’re doing the dumb human thing where you argue with a wall and act shocked when it wins. Ray tried to laugh and failed, the sound catching in his throat. He forced his shoulders to loosen, forced his lungs to take a slow breath in and out, and the world steadied a fraction, the sharpness returning to the edges of the windows. The green border stopped darting away and started waiting, hovering at the edge of his awareness as if it had only wanted him to stop flailing.
Calm down… I can sense your panic. Stop it and breathe. I won’t let you die from stupidity, Miu sent.
Ray swallowed. He closed his eyes and loosened his grip on the crystal slightly. He calmed himself and slowed his breathing. The shaking in his body slowed and the screens in his vision slowly became more orderly.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
He felt his heartbeat thump. He felt as the green border slid cleanly into view, pushing the others to the side.
[Warning, external interference detected]
====================================
Additional Class Offer Detected
====================================
Option 4: Arkus Wayfarer
Rarity: Epic
Rank: F
Source: Arkus Gaia
Traits:
Burden of Growth
- Experience required to level is multiplied by 20.
Boon of Growth
- Stat points gained on level-up are doubled.
- You learn new skills at twice the rate (does not effect skill experience levels)
Note: Does not affect stat points gained from training, equipment or titles.
====================================
Ray’s breath caught. This class… It would certainly hamper him, but… if he treated it like a hard mode in a video game, he could come out of this all the stronger.
Vaeldren’s impatience cut through his thinking. “Well… what’s happening?”
Ray kept his expression flat. “Nothing, just picking from shit classes,” he said.
Vaeldren’s jaw tightened. “Aye. Figures, most people get trash and common classes.”
Ray turned his focus back toward the class. He didn’t think about it any longer. He mentally pressed the option.
[Warning, this is not an accepted path by the system. Please go back and choose again]
Ray mentally refused the command and forced the class to be accepted. A green glow washed over his body, blinding those around him. A new system voice filled his ears.
[Purging inherent system… Error… Purge failed. Attempt to Quarantine…]
Ray’s vision went red… His hand trembled against the crystal. He could feel the power emanating from it, entering him. The light inside the crystal pulsed and vibrated. The air tightened around him.
A global message slammed into everyone in the clearing at once.
[Global Quest Issued: Kill Ray Atton]
[Reward: Unique Title, 5-year halt on System Expansion]
The red message hit the clearing and stole every sound from it. Ray felt the reaction travel through bodies before it reached voices, a tightening of posture, a sudden stillness, eyes snapping to him, then to Vaeldren, then to the crystal. One dragonkin’s grip shifted on a spear with a soft scrape of wood against scale. Another took half a step without meaning to, then froze when he realised he’d moved. The reward sat in the air between them, heavy and simple, the sort of offer that couldn’t be denied. Ray saw it land in faces, the quick mental arithmetic people did when survival was a coin and the System was offering to pay. Some looked sick, horrified at what it asked. Some looked relieved, because the System had given them something they could act on instead of drowning in uncertainty. Layla’s eyes widened, her mouth parting like she wanted to speak and couldn’t find a word that belonged in the moment. Vaeldren didn’t flinch. He didn’t look surprised. A calm washed over him.
Ray’s stomach dropped. No… It wasn’t his stomach, it was pain. He looked down to see a sword protruding through his chest. He hadn’t even felt its contact. In a single burst, he grabbed at the sword sticking out of him uselessly. His breath left him, his knees buckled and his hand slipped on the crystal, leaving a smear of blood against the silver glow
Vaeldren leaned close, voice low and gentle. “Sorry boyo,” he murmured. “Our race needs this more than a single person. You’ll be remembered as the martyr who saved our kind.”
Vaeldren’s words barely reached him. They slid past the roar in Ray’s ears and the sudden cold spreading through his chest. Ray’s fingers clamped around the blade like it would stop time if he held on hard enough, but the metal was slick and the strength was already leaving his arms.
Around them, the clearing didn’t erupt straight away. It froze. Everyone had heard the global quest. Everyone had seen the reward. The air itself felt tighter, as if the System had pulled the world closer and told it to watch. Dragonkin stood with weapons half raised, eyes darting between Ray and Vaeldren, waiting for which direction permission would fall. A few took one step back, faces pinched, horrified at how fast it had happened. A few leaned in without thinking, the reward already doing its work behind their eyes.
Layla’s voice cracked the stillness.
“Vaeldren!” she screamed, and it wasn’t anger first, it was disbelief, raw and childish in the worst way. She tried to surge forward and two hands caught her, one from behind, one from the side. She fought them for half a second, then stopped, staring at the sword sticking out of Ray like her mind had refused to accept the shape of it.
Ray couldn’t even turn his head properly. He could only see her in pieces, the shake of her shoulders, the flash of scales, the way her tail lashed once like it wanted to cut someone in half.
Master!
Miu hit his mind like a body slam, panic sharp enough to make his teeth clench. The bond vibrated with her fear and her fury, and Ray felt her moving somewhere at the edge of the clearing, low to the ground, fast, unseen. He wanted to tell her to stay hidden. He wanted to tell her not to do anything stupid. He couldn’t spare the breath.
Miu… Ray pushed the word through the bond like dragging it through mud.
I’m here! I’m— Her voice stuttered, then turned savage. I’m going to bite his eyes out.
Ray coughed. Blood hit his tongue and he swallowed it because he didn’t have the strength to spit. His vision narrowed, tunnelling on the crystal and the sword and the red tint bleeding into the edges of everything.
Peter, he sent. The thought tasted like iron. Get Peter out.
What?
Now, Ray forced. They won’t let him live. They’ll call him a witness. They’ll call him a risk. They’ll—
Miu went very still in his mind for half a heartbeat, then her voice snapped back in, tighter. I hate them.
Later, Ray sent. Run first. Bite later.
Vaeldren straightened slowly, withdrawing his hand from Ray’s shoulder as if he’d just finished a necessary chore. He didn’t look shaken. He looked relieved. It was like he had planned this all along but that couldn’t be true could it?
“Hold,” Vaeldren said to the ring, and his voice carried in that calm way that made people obey without realising they’d stopped thinking. “No one touches the crystal until the System settles. No one loses their head. We have a chance here.”
A few dragonkin nodded. A few stared at Ray like he was already a corpse. Someone muttered a prayer. Someone else muttered something about titles. The reward was already turning them into strangers.
Ray’s hand slipped off the blade as Vaeldren slowly removed it from his chest. His fingers wouldn’t close properly anymore. The crystal’s light blurred. The class window had vanished, replaced by a flicker.
[LIFELINE ACTIVATED — 41 HEALTH RESTORED.]
[Ding! Skill: Lifeline has reached Level 3.]
[Quarantine—]
[Error—]
[Stabil—]
Pain arrived a heartbeat late, blooming outwards from his chest in a hot surge that turned instantly cold, his body trying to shut down around the injury. Ray’s hands clamped around his injury, trying to stop the blood flow. The crystal’s light smeared in his vision, bright silver turning into a blur that made his stomach roll, and his ears filled with a low roaring hum that drowned out the clearing. When Vaeldren drew the sword back, Ray felt the empty space it left, a hollow collapse inside him that made his knees buckle hard. Then Lifeline hit, a thin thread of warmth crawling through his veins, forty-one points of life shoving him back from the edge, just enough for his heart to catch again and beat once, twice, stubborn and wrong. It didn’t fix him. It didn’t seal the hole or put the blood back, that was too much damage. It simply gave him a moment of peace, and that was almost cruel. Ray tasted iron and swallowed because his mouth wouldn’t coordinate anything else. The red warnings stuttered through his sight in broken fragments, quarantine, error, stabilise, the System arguing with itself over what to do with him, and through it all Vaeldren’s voice stayed calm, giving orders, turning the clearing into a controlled shape while Ray bled at the centre of it, a problem being managed.
Ray blinked hard. The skill activated but he could still feel himself fading, awareness dropping away and coming back thinner each time.
Vaeldren crouched again, bringing his face close, and this time there was something almost apologetic in his eyes, which made Ray want to laugh and vomit at the same time.
“Ye did good, boyo,” Vaeldren murmured. “Truly. But this reward… This is our only shield. Five years. Five years to build walls. Five years to train younglings. Five years before the System pushes into the mountains and grinds us down.”
Ray tried to speak and only a rasp came out. “Are… You… Working… For… The… System?”
Vaeldren didn’t deny it. “I did what was needed. I didn’t know it would be this clean.”
Clean. Ray almost laughed. He tasted more blood.
His eyes shifted, barely, and he saw Peter at the edge of the slope above, half standing, half crouched, confusion plastered across his face as the convoy reacted to the global message. Peter looked like he wanted to run down. Like he wanted to help. Like he still believed people could do the right thing when the world was watching.
Ray forced the bond again, pouring every scrap of strength into it.
Miu. Now.
I’ve got him, she sent, and there was a grim satisfaction in it. He’s slow. I’m biting his ankle.
Ray’s throat tightened, and the closest thing to relief he’d felt in days passed through him. It didn’t last.
Vaeldren rose. He lifted his blade, its edge catching the last of the sun, and the movement rippled through the ring. Fighters shifted their feet. Someone took a step closer to Ray, eyes bright with anticipation, like they wanted to be the one to make sure.
Ray understood the shape of what was about to happen. His chest burned. His heart felt like it was slipping. His vision went grey around the edges. He couldn’t fight. He couldn’t run.
But he still had one thing.
His title. His one-time clause. The System’s promise, buried under all its insults… if it could even work.
Ray dragged air into his lungs. It came in wet and wrong. He forced the words out anyway, barely louder than a breath.
“System…”
Vaeldren’s blade came crashing down. Entering his stomach. Ray’s mouth filled with blood again. He swallowed and spoke through it.
“Activate Meeting.”
For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then the world stuttered.
Pressure settled onto his body, Vaeldren’s sword snapped inside him and chunks of metal pushed their way out. With a crunching sound, Ray’s body folded in on itself. With a loud pop, he vanished.
Vaeldren stepped back instinctively, his eyes widening. The other dragonkin murmured, their focus on him. They had forgotten about Peter.
Ray felt the bond with Miu stretch, not break. Still there. Still attached.
The clearing vanished.
The crystal vanished.
The last thing Ray saw was Layla’s face, twisted with horror, and Vaeldren’s back turning, walking to place his hand on the crystal again.
And then there was only white. The familiarity of the void hit him.
Ray tried to breathe and couldn’t feel lungs. Tried to blink and couldn’t feel eyes. His pain was still there, suspended, muted and… maybe, slightly healing?
A presence pressed against him. Ray’s thoughts came slow and heavy.
Meeting, he reminded himself. If he was going to die, he might as well do it where it all began.
Back on Arkus, heard around the world, the system chimed a congratulatory message.
[Quest Complete. The System will halt it’s expansion for 5 years.]