I kept digging, stopping only to eat and sleep. I could count the days by how many times I summoned my food, since the skill had a 24-hour cool down. While I dug, I spoke. I knew that the girls were listening, probably bored out of their minds, so I told them stories about my past. I felt a growing detachment to that life the more I spoke. I realized that I left it behind for good now, and the rest of my mind was slowly catching up to the fact. I could feel it, in the way my narrations changed until they felt like I was narrating a movie rather than retelling memories.

  Elyra and Vespera spoke little. They knew some things about magic and the System, but nothing substantial. They didn’t remember anything else, their memories stolen by time and imprisonment. Vespera seemed to think that it had something to do with the enchantments keeping them there, which added to the sense of growing urgency I was feeling.

  Something wasn’t right about this place, and even though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, I had the sensation that time was running out. It wasn’t the Oath—it was perfectly content to watch me dig—it was something else.

  “You haven not chosen a class skill yet, have you?” Elyra asked after a few days.

  I could see her head now, several meters away through a narrow gap in the rubble of stone and bricks. Her halo was dazzling glass while the glowing chains around lit her with gold radiance.

  “No,” I replied.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “I don’t know what to choose, and the options are strange. They don’t look like they would be any good for digging.”

  “Alright, how about you let us help you, spacer?” asked Vespera in her usual snappy voice.

  I heaved a particularly heavy slab of marble and then stopped to open the System window. It was a welcome respite from the physical labor. My arms were burning, and my bare chest was slick with sweat. I was dirty, I realized, but it wasn’t like I could use the ruined t-shirt to clean myself. That thing had gone stiff with coagulated blood, and had been tossed straight into the waste pit at the far end of a nearby cavern.

  [Chosen of Light and Darkness] Skills available:

  Halo of Light

  Horns of Darkness

  Vespera was deep in thought after I told her what the options were.

  “You have a strange class, spacer.”

  I nodded, getting up with a grunt and getting back to work.

  “Does the System say anything else?” Elyra asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “You should pick the halo,” the demon said after a few minutes.

  “Really? I thought you would try to persuade me to pick the horns,” I said.

  “Why? I am a twisted monster, spacer boy. An abomination. What if the skill you pick ends up changing the way you look? The halo looks so pretty on Elyra’s head. I remember staring at it for—you know what? Ignore my rambling.”

  “You are not a monster, Vespera,” I said softly.

  I heaved and lifted rocks faster than before, feeling the exhaustion creep in and not stopping. I wanted to reach her, to look at her in the face. I don’t know why she was saying those things about herself, but I needed to tell her just how wrong she was. She was not a monster, nor an abomination.

  “She is so predictable, isn’t she?” Elyra said in her soft voice. Her giggle was music to my ears.

  “Really? I expected her to say the horns,” I replied truthfully. It had taken me by surprise.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “That is because you don’t know her well just yet. You will learn to see what she hides beneath her cold facade.”

  “Nonsense!” Vespera shouted. “Don’t listen to her. Come on, dig faster spacer boy. Hey! Why have you stopped?”

  I slowly put down the rock I was trying to lift, making as little sound as possible.

  “Spacer!” Vespera shouted again.

  “I heard something,” I whispered.

  That made both women immediately shut up. I looked around, trying to pierce the shadows and failing. Something was moving behind me, I could feel it. I thought I could heard skittering, but my eyes saw nothing.

  “The light will pierce through the shadow,” I heard Vespera say. “Pick the halo.”

  Elyra sighed. “No. The horns might help you more. The cave is shrouded in darkness. The choice is yours, Sol.”

  I remained at the top of the pile of rubble, using the stones I had moved as a sort of natural barrier to look around without being seen. Mentally, I kept the System ready, but did not make a choice of skill just yet.

  Then all of a sudden something launched itself right at me. Like a projectile, it emerged from a shadow, aiming at my face. It was a long, segmented thing with too many legs. Only my stats allowed me to see it approach, and even then it was so fast I almost failed to react.

  I also realized how stupid I had been in not choosing the skill. I didn’t have time to think or reflect on any choice, let alone ponder which skill to take. I chose the halo in a panic, not having the mental energy to think, and that’s when I realized the second mistake.

  I did not immediately know how to use it. Apparently, skills did not come with a user manual. Fortunately, I had [Dodging]. The general skill, coupled with my stats, gave me the instinctual knowledge and physical ability to move to the side. I hit the wall, redirected my momentum, and rolled down the hill of rubble. The sharp detritus dug into my back, painful but not enough to pierce my skin.

  As I finally landed on my feet, more graceful than even a zero-g somersault in my hauler, I finally saw the monster attacking me. It was a centipede, enormous, ugly as fuck. Without thinking, I directed my mind towards my newest Class Skill and pushed as much magic into it as I could.

  It was all instinctual. It was my very first use of magic. But raw stats managed to bridge the gap, compensating for the lack of knowledge and practice. I felt a new source of light appear above my head, a radiant shining halo that looked very different to Elyra’s. From it erupted a beam of white light, bisecting the creature in half.

  The two halves twitched on the ground, but I kicked them and watched them until they stopped moving. The halo vanished.

  You have defeated a level 12 [Skitterpede]

  Due to the level disparity, extra experience has been awarded.

  “Sol? Are you okay?”

  I turned towards the hole, where I saw Elyra struggling to look up, straining against the chains. It must have been awful to be stuck to one position like that, forced to see nothing but rubble mere centimeters away from her skin. I resolved to dig faster, so I could free her and Vespera.

  “I’m alright. I killed a monster.”

  I told them all about it. I had expected to be told off for how I reacted, for being slow and for panicking. Instead, I got none of that. Through the bond, I could feel… pride? Happiness and relief too. How strange. I felt warmth and a smile tugged at my lips. For a moment, it felt like everything was right in the world.

  “Why no level though?” Vespera asked with her usual sharp snappiness. “Stupid System.”

  “Don’t draw the ire of the System, Vespera,” Elyra said patiently.

  The demon ignored her. “It must be because of the two Class evolutions. The stats and skills are quite overpowered, I think. I don’t remember how it used to be back in our days, but fuck me if you are supposed to gain so many points at level one!”

  “She is right, Sol. I get the same feeling: your class is extremely strong, but it might make it almost impossible to level.”

  “That’s okay. It saved my—”

  I suddenly stopped talking, and manifested the halo again. From it shot out another pure white beam of light that pierced through the darkness of the cavern. It bisected a monster, this time instantly giving me a kill notification, and the light revealed many more of them. I stood atop the hill of rubble like a sentry, mowing them down one after the other, feeling slick sweat accumulate on my forehead. My mana ran out before the monsters did, but I was filled with confidence after killing so many and I just picked up the heaviest rocks I could throw and began to bombard the monsters with them. At 32 Strength, I was three times as strong as normal.

  Even though living all my life in zero-g meant that I wasn’t very athletic, the stats helped. Only a couple monsters got close, and I moved out of the way with [Dodging] and then squashed them before they could hurt me.

  General Skill level up!

  [Dodging] 1 → 2

  Still no levels. Neither for the Class, nor the general ones.

  I summoned the daily survival rations, and ate without tearing my eyes away from the side tunnels. There were many, plus even more nooks and crannies where the weak light of the crystals did not reach. Too many places for the Skitterpedes to ambush me from.

  At least [Survival Rations] reached level 3. Tomorrow I would have a bit more food, I hoped. I didn't like how I was forced to work almost half the day with a hole in my stomach.

  As it was, I kept digging and no more monsters showed. When it was time to sleep, I dragged myself into the hole and plugged it as well as I could with stones and broken bricks.

  Sleep caught me off-guard. I heard a melody, a soft singing. Before my mind could realize that it was Elyra, I was already snoring.