Three pillars rose around me. This time, though, I wasn't standing on nothing. I was stood up on my pillar, on Arcane Mage, in the Autodidact's training grounds. I guessed that there was some symbolism to this. I had reached the peak of what these two could offer me, and now it was time to move on to new and better things. To reach higher than these, my Tier 1 Class and Profession, could bring me.

  The pillar I was on seemed to have grown. More training dummies dotted the area, and I felt like the density of wisps had increased significantly. The ones that surrounded my platform, though, were much larger. Even standing in the center of the training grounds, as I turned to them, I felt that they consumed the sky.

  I turned my attention to the first of the three pillars. This one matched my own in many ways, it held the same wisps of energy and lights in the sky, though this one seemed even brighter and more blue, somehow.

  So, Arcane Mage but more Arcaney. Got it.

  This one seemed like a logical choice, a direct upgrade, but there was one thing that still bothered me. The Mana-Infused Homunculus had resisted my magic. In purifying it further, wouldn't I be further opening myself up to creatures like that?

  While I would love to explore just how far I could get using pure mana, taking a risk like that just felt stupid, especially knowing that being so hyper-specialized could kill me. While min-maxing and focusing on doing just one thing worked great in video games, in real life, I needed versatility. Well, some versatility. I liked magic, so I probably wouldn't be taking a physical class.

  The next pillar looked... edgy. It was purple, but the wisps and auroras in the sky were red. On one side of the pillar, I could see a waterfall of what I suspected was blood. The notification that came after supported this suggestion.

  Yup. Edgy. That said, it did help alleviate my issues with Arcane. It would probably have some healing spells, too, which would help in case my current fighting style of simply out-ranging my opponents ever failed, which I knew would happen eventually. Though, the final part of the Class info was a bit ominous. What did it mean, suffering injury? Was this class going to kill me or something?

  The next pillar looked cool, at least. There were no rivers of blood, and it looked mostly similar to my current one, but there were empty spaces along the sides which occasionally erupted with Arcane energy whenever an Arcane wisp got close enough. Somehow, that rubbed me the wrong way. Poor guys.

  This would almost certainly be a powerful class. That said, now that I'd tapped into the lazy side of me with casting Arcane Bolts at things until they died, I wasn't sure I could go back. Not to mention, the magic that I'd used so far made me feel all giddy inside. If I took Arcane Rogue, I'd probably need to take skills that were physical, or focused on making rituals into traps. While I liked rituals, I wasn't sure I wanted to waste a skill slot on them quite yet.

  This class was far too spread out for my liking. It went right back into what I'd been talking about. While only being able to do one singular thing was bad, and made you predictable and easy to counter, spreading yourself too wide was dangerous in its own right. If you could barely do a dozen things, then the one guy who could do a single thing really well would push you down the stairs, throw a bowl of pasta in your face, and you'd end up in another world. Simple as that.

  That guy who could do a single thing really well, though, wouldn't be able to throw that pasta bowl past your shield, and then you could shoot him. Not as effective as the bowl of pasta, sure, but the point was that if you could do more than one thing, then the chances of your getting countered were reduced, and the chances of you countering someone else were greater. That said, spreading yourself too thin would result in you not having enough hands to hold your fork, spoon, shield, and gun, meaning that you might not be holding the right one at the right time. Losing a fight that I could easily win just because I had too many options would be embarrassing, not to mention perhaps get me killed.

  With all that in mind, I picked Arcane Blood Mage, in spite of the clear edge. High Arcane Mage sounded great on paper, but it felt like a trap. Maybe if I weren't in this cave, I would take it, but for now, I decided that trying to aspect away from pure Arcane would be a good idea.

  I felt the platform beneath me give way, and I turned for a moment to see the training grounds turn to ash as the pillar below it fell apart and crumbled, falling into the infinite fog below. A moment later, I stood on the fresh platform, and could confirm that there was indeed a red river. When I dipped my hand in, I could feel power surging through it. Out of curiosity, I gave it a taste, and found that it just tasted like spicy carbonated water, though with a distinct tang of iron. From the way it disappeared from my hand quickly after I'd touched it, leaving a slight red coloration to them, I guessed that it actually was blood, though mixed with an absolute shitload of Arcane Mana.

  I looked up from the river, knowing that there would be a Profession choice now.

  I wasn't disappointed.

  I spotted three large buildings around the platform. The closest was what seemed like a library, so I went there first.

  It had been a while since I'd been in a library, and my soul ached at the sight. I missed reading quite a lot. It was one of the few things that had ever held my attention back on Earth. Movies were alright, but a story was told best when it was left to the imagination.

  I could infer from the Scholar description that the Profession wouldn't offer me any boosts to my skill speed, which immediately detracted from it. I was worried that when I got out of this cave, I would be sub-par compared to the rest of the world. If I had been able to get to Tier 2 so quickly, then what about the rest of the world? What was the average? Tier 3? Higher? If so, in my current state, I would be a weakling. The gap between being Tierless and Tier 1 had been orders of magnitude, even if my stats said that I was only about 70% more fit than a regular human. I felt healthier, more in shape, than I had ever been before, even when I'd been working out. I felt smarter, too, and like I carried a certain weight to me that I couldn't quite put my finger on. What would the gap between Tier 1 and Tier 2 be like? I couldn't imagine it getting smaller.

  With that in mind, I stepped out of the library. Next, I made my way over to a concrete building, surrounded in a barbed-wire fence. There were multiple holes in it, and I got the feeling that the building had been abandoned for a long while.

  It was obviously a prison.

  As I walked through it, I felt myself being tugged along, guided down this hall, then the next. It was like my Autodidact's Sense, in some ways. Soon, I found myself at a door, being compelled to open it. For a moment, I was somewhat wary, but then I remembered. This place was created by the system, just for me, to decide my new Profession. While I didn't know much about the system, I doubted that it would put a monster in a place like this. And so, I opened the door.

  The walls were splattered with blood like a fresh coat of paint. Viscera lay rotting in the corners of the room, guts and fleshy bits spread about as though a particularly sadistic interior decorator had gotten their hands on the place and told to run wild. In the center of it all lay a stone table, perfectly sized to fit a human onto, complete with straps to tie a victim down and a rack of tools hanging off the table, ranging from tweezers to a handsaw. A small bin sat on one end of it, and I could somehow tell without looking into it that it would contain nail clippings and finger bones.

  On the table rested a glowing red ritual, one that the system wouldn't Identify for me. I could only assume that it was malicious in nature.

  Surprisingly, the scene didn't bother me too much. But, of course, none of this was real. It was all a scenario generated by the system, and as I stared at the rune in what was clearly a torture chamber, that sentiment was reassured to me.

  Was this another Blood option? It seemed like it. The stats seemed to mesh well with my new Class, at least. Maybe there was some synergy with having both my Class and Profession share an attunement? Perhaps. There was another ominous ending as well.

  I left the room, then the prison as a whole. Depending on what this next option was, I might not have to come back here.

  Tormented Autodidact it was, then.

  A few minutes later, I found myself within that same prison complex, though the place had become much larger, adding in more cells, hallways, offices, and there were many more open spaces and cracks in the floor and walls. Through those, the open plains of the Class pillar could be found. The Arcane Blood wisps had invaded the place, too. Wherever I went, though, I always felt pulled back to the torture chamber.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  The grotesque scene had only gotten worse, as the door had been torn off its hinges, and the gore had spread into the hall. A few of the wisps had managed to find their way there, and were feasting on the blood and dismembered bits.

  It was in that room, sitting on the table, that I was offered my skill choices.

  But, first...

  After considering it for a moment, I said yes. Arcane Affinity had proven useful to me so far, and making it stronger could only be worthwhile, yeah?

  This one was easier to accept. Arcane Bolt had carried me very far up until now, and I wasn't just going to trade up my kick-ass magic spell when I didn't know if I'd get a replacement.

  Wicked Balance scared me. A lot. Vampiric Caster was useless unless I got some kind of Lifesteal effect, too. I was still deeply considering taking Arcane Rejuvenation. It looked like a healing skill, at least. Blood Strike might have some sort of Lifesteal, but it seemed like something of a risk, one that I just didn't really want to take. Charge would either let me charge up my Arcane Blood Bolts for more damage and range, or would be another physical skill that I didn't want. Again, a risk I didn't want. Frustrating.

  I was starting to regret not taking Manipulation when I'd gotten Arcane Mage, and upgrading it as well, to a lesser degree. At the time, Manipulation had seemed stupid, but now... Arcane Blood Conversion looked like the upgrade to Conjuration, though I imagined it would cost Health to use. My only issue with Manipulation and Conjuration skills was that I needed to take both in order for them to be the most effective, but I'd already made the mistake of upgrading my Arcane Affinity, thus denying me that option. Union looked like it might meld my Arcane and Blood together better, but I didn't know what that would do. That, or it would average some of my Mana pool into my Health. I wasn't sure I wanted either.

  I resolved to think more carefully before upgrading skills in the future. It appeared that it wasn't such a no-brainer after all. At least, not for the Major Skills. Arcane Blood Bolt had been an obvious choice, and it hadn't failed me. Having no plans to try to shift to a more melee-focused build, I took Arcane Rejuvenation, and wary to take Arcane Blood Manipulation, as I only had the one ability that could use it, as well as Arcane Blood Conversion, which sounded like it would either drain my Health to fill my Mana, or act as a Conjuration skill that still damaged my Health, I took Arcane Devourer, which at least kinda sounded like a Lifesteal Skill. Ominous, sure, but Lifesteal. Maybe.

  Well thank the system. Arcane Devourer had paid out. Arcane Rejuvenation though... Originally, I had wanted a spell to heal me using my Mana, but Wicked Balance said that anything that cost one instead cost both. Hopefully I hadn't just picked up a dead skill.

  I promised myself that I would think more the next time I upgraded a Skill, especially a Major one like Prodigy. The question was, how much had Prodigy helped me? I had gotten Arcane Bolt to level 5, but would I have gotten to that point regardless? Would Arcane Affinity be at level 3? How about Autodidact's Sense, the skill that had helped me find the rituals? The truth was that I didn't know. I accepted the upgrade, not wanting to risk my progression pace, even if it did make me feel a little stupid.

  I knew that I had to accept this one. I hadn't yet received any notifications about completing the Quest Objective involved with breaking the rituals, so I still needed Autodidact's Sense. Hopefully the upgrade wouldn't change the skill to the point where I couldn't use it for that anymore.

  Ah... Right. Sadomasochism Profession.

  For the Major Skills, Inflictor of Pain, Listen to their Screams, and Masochist's Glee were instantly out. I wasn't planning on being tortured, or torturing anyone. Shed The Flesh was out because I wasn't a Necromancer. That left Through The Pain, so I picked it. It was a little better than the others.

  Glimpse The Abyss also sounded like a Necromancer thing, but I was willing to consider it. Harmful Craft sounded interesting, though it sounded like an actual crafting skill, and other than some Homunculus bodies that I was using for food, I didn't have crafting materials. Shared Suffering and Victim's Rebuke both sounded like they'd hurt anything that hurt me, though the fact that this was my Profession made me suspect that the damage would be minimal, if there was any at all.

  That left Blood of the Scholar and Glimpse The Abyss. I'd passed up the Scholar class, but had still read it over. Scholar was an information-gathering Profession. This made me think that Blood of the Scholar would give me knowledge about... something. Or maybe it would upgrade my Inspection ability? Glimpse The Abyss sounded dangerous, and this Tier Evolution had already given me plenty of harmful skills. Blood of the Scholar it was.

  Those were actually pretty great. I was feeling mostly satisfied with this Tier Evolution.