Zoe brushed the messages aside, looking out at the planet around her. A small patch of strange, gooey land surrounded by vast waters filled with strange creatures. She chuckled to herself at the situation she was in. She almost just died, not to some evil creature lurking within a dungeon. Not to some terrible beast that lurks in the vastness of space. But to friendly creatures just trying to communicate with her. These creatures were so far from her own reality they may not even be aware that their words were hurting her.

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, smelling the fresh herbal aroma that filled the planet, thinking how grateful she was that the planet was filled with breathable air. The creatures must have helped her when they noticed her struggling beneath the water, but if the planet didn’t have oxygen? There was nothing they could have done. How many of them would even be aware of oxygen? How many of them would be capable of creating it for her?

  This was the closest she’d ever come to death. Closer than when her body was being corrupted by the wanderer’s attack. Closer than when she hid in a tree after her first brutal encounter with a wild boar. Closer than when she overextended up Moaning Point and struggled against the horde of undead.

  All of those encounters were in her control. She was awake, she was present, she was making the decisions to fend for herself. But this time? There was no control, no ability to make decisions herself. Her fate rested entirely on these strange creatures ability to understand what she needed. On hoping the planet had breathable air.

  Each breath she took now was just because she was lucky. She didn’t outmanoeuvre the danger, she didn’t survive because she prepared and was ready for what she was getting into. She survived because she was lucky. There were so many things she could have done better, so many mistakes she’d made that kept racing across her mind.

  Why didn’t she at least test the air before she went into the water? Why didn’t she just create a helmet that would sustain a breathable air around her head before delving into the water? Why did she stick around when she felt the barrage of mental communication? Why didn’t she Cosmic Leap as far up as she could as soon as she felt her consciousness fading away?

  Mistake after mistake. The excitement of exploring a new planet had overwhelmed her, pushed her to do things that she should have known were stupid. It was a wakeup call, more than anything. A sign that she had to be better, had to be more careful. There could be no more impulsive diving into oceans to explore the planet without being prepared. No more dipping her toe into a gaseous giant to see what it did.

  Zoe would live forever, and too often she let herself forget that. Why did she need to explore the ocean now? She could have just made a note of an ocean here and headed back to Abyllan to find a safe solution to explore it. Why did she dip her toe into the gaseous planet instead of trying to store some and bring it back to Abyllan to experiment on in a safe manner?

  Space was dangerous, Zoe was realizing. Far more dangerous than she’d thought it could be. If those creatures were hostile? Zoe would have been dinner, and Emma and Joe would have only found out she died if Lila ever tried to send her another message.

  Emma hadn’t even got the Sending skill yet, too much time spent on the moon not helping Emma learn her skill. And then as soon as Zoe was back, she ran off to the capital to work on herself for a while. And then off to space she went. Stupid, impulsive decisions that didn’t need to be made.

  Zoe stood up and looked out at the creatures in the water still staring at her. ‘Thank you’ appeared in Frost lettering above Zoe’s head and a few moments later, she Cosmic Leaped up into space, feeling for her Spacial Weave still attached to Joe to guide her home.

  As she travelled through space, Zoe summoned a notebook and wrote a letter to send to Emma.

  Hey Emma, I’m on my way home. I’ll be there in probably 30 hours or so. Not sure what time it is right now for you but let Joe know, I found some things out here that I’d like to talk about.

  Mana raced across the letter as it ripped the paper from Zoe’s hand and sent it off to Emma. Zoe giggled to herself, thinking about her friends’ reactions when they found out she was at the cusp of her seventh class already. Green marks! She’d be on the same level as the Okiu she met, even the dragon. Well, Zoe chuckled, maybe not quite. She’d have the same number of classes but how much did that matter to a dragon?

  Over a day of lonely travel through space, Zoe drifted above Abyllan looking for the landmarks she always used to return back to Foizo. A few minutes of orbiting the planet later and she Cosmic Leaped down into the atmosphere, barely even scratching at the amount of mana she could put into each teleport now.

  Zoe Cosmic Leaped down to the ground outside of Joe’s inn, looking inside with her sphere of perception. Kenzie and Sally were both working inside, serving food and pouring people drinks. Zoe was tempted to go in and ask about Sue for a moment, but her excitement got the better of her as she rushed back to her home.

  Emma and Joe were sitting in the kitchen when Zoe appeared next to them.

  “Hey Zoe,” Joe said. “Emma says you found something?"

  “I did, yea.” Zoe said. “Visited a couple planets. One’s just really hot gas, the other’s a big ocean. Almost died on that one. Inhabited by the same creatures that visit the dungeon every so often.” Zoe explained everything that had happened while she was gone, holding back that she’d reached her level cap.

  “That’s terrifying, Zoe.” Emma said.

  “Yeah. But I feel weirdly good about it. Like it was really scary, but I did live, and I am still here, and I learned a very valuable lesson from it.” Zoe said. “I’m not going to be impulsive in space anymore. I need to take my time and explore things slowly.”

  Joe nodded. “That’s what you should have been doing already.”

  “I know. I know that. But I think I found something that might help with that, actually.” Zoe said.

  “Oh?” Emma asked.

  “Yeah. Yeah I’ve got this little thing called a seventh class?” Zoe grinned.

  “What? No way!” Emma shouted. “Really?”

  Zoe nodded.

  “I was expecting you to take decades for this one.” Joe chuckled. “You got lucky, huh?”

  “I did, yup.” Zoe said. “I haven’t looked at my options though. I got a glimpse of it when I checked at first but I dismissed it pretty quick.”

  “Well? Come on, take a look. You got anything cool?” Emma asked.

  Zoe nodded and brought up her class options again. Nothing seemed different at first glance, at least. All of the thousands of classes she was used to seeing still bloating the list beyond reason. There were some new ones as she looked through for her new stats, new combinations of stats. Some powerful magic classes thanks to her incredible amount of Intelligence and Wisdom. But most important, were many classes that required her to already have six class.

  Joe and Emma whispered to each other as Zoe lost herself in all of her class options. They made predictions about Zoe’s class, talked about their plans for dinner or talked about the cats. A half hour after Zoe started looking through her classes, Joe got up and started preparing some food for them to eat. Zoe’s nose was filled with an bright, herbal aroma as Joe brought out some aged fish.

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  Eventually, Zoe made it through all of her new class options and wrote down the ones that most interested her.

  [Elemental Excellence] A master of the elements, bending the fabric of reality to their will. Increased elemental power. Increased magical power.

  Requirements: Has six classes, has at least five thousand Intelligence, has at least five thousand Wisdom, wields at least twenty elements, has the Transcendent feat

  [Spacial Essence] One with the fabric of space, shaping it with a practiced expertise. Gain increased experience while manipulating the fabric of space. Increased spacial power.

  Requirements: Has six classes, has at least five thousand Intelligence, has at least five thousand Wisdom, has visited at least five separate planetary objects, has the Spacefarer feat

  [Realmstepper] An explorer. Gain increased experience while in realms you’ve spent less than a month in.

  Requirements: Has six classes, has travelled across realms

  “Well,” Emma said. “Try them out. What are they?”

  “Hold on,” Joe said. “These classes say you need to have six classes. When you take one, you’ll have seven classes.”

  “That’s a good point. Damn. I didn’t even think about that. Most of the time it says at least but this time it specifically says six.” Zoe bit her lip. “I’m not sure, honestly.”

  “Space, obviously. Right? I mean you want to explore space, Spacial Essence seems to be exactly that.” Emma said.

  “Realmstepper might help you get back home and unlike the first one even if it doesn’t work out you can just replace it with something else.” Joe said.

  “Yeah but if I don’t like it, it might be really annoying to try and get back to my seventh class. I already got insanely lucky once, I don’t think that’s going to happen again.” Zoe said.

  “How do you feel about Elemental Excellence?” Emma asked. “It looks like it could be really good for you if you’re looking for mostly class bonuses and affinities anyway.”

  “That’s true,” Zoe said. “That’s probably the best class in the long term, right?”

  Joe and Emma both nodded.

  “But I feel like Spacial Essence might have some skills that I’d really like to steal, if nothing else.” Zoe said.

  “So would Realmstepper.” Emma said. “They’ll all have powerful skills, probably.”

  “Look at the worst case scenario. Realmstepper, worst case scenario the skills and bonuses are completely useless to you unless you can travel to another realm on your own power, right?” Joe said.

  Zoe nodded.

  “Okay, so that’s really bad, then.” Joe said. “What’s the worst case for Spacial Excellence?"

  “I guess that it just doesn’t give me anything new. A teleport that’s not as good as Cosmic Leap, and some bonuses that compete with my Cosmic Class and end up losing anyway.” Zoe said.

  “And Elemental Excellence?” Emma asked. “I don’t think there’s really a bad outcome for it, to be honest.”

  Zoe pursed her lips. “Not really, no. I’m basically guaranteed some good affinities and class bonuses for my general skills. Worst case I guess is that the blurb is lying to me and I don’t get increased elemental power and magical power. But I don’t think that’s a real thing to worry about.”

  “Okay, and what about the best case scenarios? Realmstepper lets you travel to other realms, and you’re even able to get back home because of it. Spacial Essence gives you powerful space skills letting you travel anywhere you want in moments without a time limit. Elemental Excellence gives you even more affinities than you expected.” Joe said. “Which of those is most exciting to you?”

  “Spacial Essence, I think. Realmstepper is a close second, but I dunno. I just don’t feel that passionate about travelling through realms, yet. I haven’t even explored space much, here. And even then, would I be able to definitely come back if I travelled through realms? I don’t know if I’d be comfortable with it anyway.” Zoe said.

  “Sounds like you want Spacial Essence, but Elemental Excellence would be the safest option.” Emma said.

  Joe nodded. “Do you want to hope for something good, or hedge your bets?"

  Zoe smiled. “That’s not even a question.”

  She pushed the system to give her the Spacial Essence class, collapsing on the table in pain as the system’s mana ripped apart her body and soul.

  “Zoe,” Emma rocked Zoe’s shoulder. Or leg? It all felt the same, somehow.

  Zoe groaned, struggling to hold back her vomit as she opened her eyes and looked around. She was in Joe’s inn? Or the cats’ room? Everything seemed to blur together. She closed her eyes, hoping to shut off the information flooding her mind but it didn’t help. She could still see Joe sitting at his table in his room, scribbling away on some papers. The cats bathing themselves in their room and the piles of unused coal sitting down by her forge.

  “Zoe?” Emma asked, her voice sounding so distant.

  “Mmm?" Zoe groaned. ”What do you want?"

  “Are you okay?" Emma asked. ”You collapsed suddenly.“

  Zoe rubbed her eyes. “What’s happening?”

  “You took a class, I think. Are you okay? Do you need anything?" Emma asked.

  “Oh.” Zoe said. “Right. Give me some time to get used to this.”

  Emma nodded, her head seeming to become one with a raging fire elemental from Flester’s Might as she did.

  The weeks passed as Zoe laid on the table, trying to get used to all the information her new class was feeding her. Everything for what seemed like several kilometers around her was visible, not flimsy glimpses that drifted past but a constant feed of everything that was happening. Zoe tried to stay as still as she could, trying not to accidentally fall through the floor and land in the middle of Flester’s Might.

  When she began to get the hang of it, she brought up the details of her newest class.

  *Ding* You have unlocked the Spacial Essence class. Your body and soul will be adjusted to accommodate the change.

  Effects:

  - Spacial Essence: Gain seventy five stat points for each level in this class.

  - Spacial Being: One with the fabric of Space.

  - Spacial Web: Mana and Mana regeneration increased by 800%.

  - Spacial Insight: You gain experience through the fabric of space.

  - Spacial Might: All space aligned effects are boosted by 850%.

  Available Skills:

  - Space Affinity: Increased Space affinity.

  - Space Manipulation: Manipulate the fabric of space with your will.

  - Spacial Anchor: Form an anchor in the fabric of space.

  - Spacial Warp: Bend the fabric of space.

  - Devastation: Rip apart the fabric of space.

  - Teleport: Travel through the fabric of space.

  - Spacial Tunnel: Form tunnels between two points in space.

  - Spacial Familiar: Summon a being from the fabric of space to perform simple tasks.

  - Storage: Store objects.

  - Untouched Space: Remove dirt and grime from objects.

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