"Tell me about mastery level rewards. I got three options to choose from after all my Skills reached Adept level."

"That's normal for every Classer. It's how you can customize your own growth. You were given a choice between a True Rune, a Skill Point, and a Class Trait, correct? It will happen every time your Class reaches a new mastery level for its current Tier."

"So what does each thing do?"

"You don't know? Have you received no education on your power system?" Cloud asked incredulously.

"I know what a True Rune is, that Classers can generate their own and that they need them to grow, but I don't know why or how they are used. I have no idea what Skill Points or Class Traits are. I was taught how to fight, among other things, but I didn't have Classer teachers."

None willing to teach me anyway.

"I understand. Then allow me to explain in full." She coughed softly, as if to call attention to herself. "True Runes are magically realized concepts in the language of magic. If you have made your Skills, you are already aware of how a Classer can use them. You will need to combine two different True Runes for every new Tier 1 Skill you wish to create."

"Can't I just use the True Runes I already have to make my future Skills?"

"You can't repeat combinations in any Skill. I'm gonna assume that you still have your first three True Runes?" Evelyn nodded as confirmation."You can use those separately with other new ones you get, but you can never combine them the same way. You need to get True Runes, and that need is only gonna grow exponentially as you progress in your Class."

"Why is that?" Evelyn asked, grunting under her breath as she felt the broken bones in her legs realigning and sealing themselves.

Regeneration was always an uncomfortable feeling, but she was glad for the improvement to her Endurance. She had never been in such a sorry state before and recuperated so quickly. A few more minutes and she would be able to walk again.

"Once you master a Skill, you need to add a new True Rune to it to upgrade it to the next Tier. As you advance your Class Tier and get new Archetypes in your Stats, you'll make more Skills, all of which will need a new True Rune each to evolve them into a new Skill. See what I mean? Right now, it's easy, just get one more True Rune, and you could theoretically combine it with the ones that make your starting three Skills to evolve them, although I don't recommend you do. It's better to be thoughtful about your choices and not damage your own progression in a hurry. Get a different True Rune for each of your starting Skills at least."

Evelyn did the math in her head, frowning at the result.

"That means one to three True Runes more to get my Ecologists Skills to Tier 2, then if I can't repeat combinations, that would mean at least another three new runes for Archetype, per Tier... Yeah, I can see that number growing very fast at each new Class Tier. That free True Rune is sounding more tempting now."

"You could take that, but that's only gonna hurt yourself in the long run. Most Classers who take the free True Runes are those who don't actually engage in combat. It allows them to grow at their own pace while avoiding danger. I have nothing against them, not every Class is imagined by its creator to fight. Many just want to fulfill their own wishes with magic, even if it's just doing their job better or pursuing a passion. I'd say that about 70% of Classers are actually non-combatants."

She blinked at that information as she processed the implications of a world where Classers could just be everyday people who did specific things better or had weird, wacky powers for no other reason than just wanting to have them. As far as Evelyn knew, Classer society in Neo Vorath was very beligerent, where noble houses were always at odds with each other for one reason. The infighting and armed conflicts, sanctioned by the Tetracrown, of course, had become part of the great city nation's economic growth.

Nothing fuels technological innovation like constant war, be it internal or against hordes of monsters. Classers were famously violent warmongers, bloodthirsty and greedy, always looking at ways to get stronger for their houses or their own glory. One thing was true: thanks to all those fights, the noble houses had no shortage of trained Classers ready to defend their Districts.

Evelyn saw a darker conclusion of putting empowered egomaniacal battle maniacs with very little psychological maturity in repeated high-stress scenarios.

You get a recipe for disaster in the shape of wraiths, born out of a corruption of their Class Cores.

Neo Vorath could have been a much more interesting place to live if Classers were more like the ones Cloud is describing.

"So I should look at the other two options then?" Asked Evelyn, who had just recovered the capability to move her toes. Her legs were healed enough to walk, so she gingerly tried standing up with the help of her runitronic arm and the tree she had been leaning on.

Sister Cloud did not answer, nor did she offer to hoist her from the grassy ground, still grossed out from putting the metal arm back on its socket. Even though she had found the interaction funny, as she always did when it came to her disability, there was clearly something more there that worried her. A cultural reason. The druid had mentioned it was gonna be a problem that they would have to deal with.

If people gave her the stink eye for having a metal prosthesis, she could always keep it in her Inventory until she needed it, but she'd prefer not to. She felt naked without it.

And it felt like her link to home. To Alice.

As she breathed in and out, enduring the pain of her slowly resetting ribs, now that her lower body was healed enough, Evelyn tried mentally talking to her inner passenger.

Are you there? Can you hear me?

There was a slight warm sensation, like a phantom hug. Alice was there, but she just couldn't communicate. Not beyond the sense of touch.

I wonder why that is. Maybe if I get better Awareness or I level [Pulse Link] up, we'll be able to talk? I could use a friend right now. I don't care where you came from or what you are. You are Alice, and that's all that matters to me, you hear me?

The hug felt tighter, even though there was no one with her but Sister Cloud, who kept her distance with a mix of distrust and disgust.

"Can you walk?" The bird mask druid asked. "Good, we really need to move. I know where we must go. We may find more monsters along the way, so it would be better if you could defend yourself. Use every chance you get to strengthen your Skills. We are gonna need it. And to answer your question, yes. I'd advise that you refrain from ever taking the free True Rune unless you desperately need it. It tends to be a thematic and easy fit for your Class, but it's a trap. Skill Points or Class Traits are the real choices."

Evelyn responded to a crack in her ribs with a grunt as the broken ones sealed up, letting her breathe more deeply without any piercing pain. Her human arm was still broken, and she had a fracture in her skull, but she wouldn't heal any faster just standing around while her mission was in danger.

She needed to rescue Jaqueline Dupont. The woman that Alice and Malice used to be. Her favorite and most hated person across time and space, all in one package. Her feelings on the matter were wildly complicated, but this mission was the single thread she could cling to for the sake of her own sanity. If she could change something in her future for the better, she would.

Evelyn was going to fix everything.

"Let's talk and walk." Said Evelyn as Sister Cloud guided her into the thick of Wildenterra, away from the remains of the overgrown fruit farm.

They abandoned the open path on the tall grass, which Evelyn figured would lead to the small sanctuary with the summoning circle in the middle of a flower field, and instead delved deeper into the forest. Sister Cloud seemed to know where she was going, advancing relentlessly except when she would sometimes stop, raise her masked head at the sky for a moment, then adjust their direction if needed.

In the meantime, she explained to Evelyn how to make the best choices for her growth as a Classer.

"While there are several other ways for a Classer to get new True Runes, Skill Points, and Class Traits can only be normally acquired through Class Tier mastery level-ups."

"Normally? So there are exceptions."

"Some, but extremely rare. You shouldn't count on it happening, but yes, it's possible. Let's just focus on what's realistic instead, okay? Skill Points are pretty straightforward as rewards go. They allow you to use them on a Skill to modify something on it."

"Like what?"

"Anything really. It's like a redo for a Skill. You never know how a Rune combination is gonna turn out, right? It's born out of randomness guided by intent. The clearer your concept and ideas, the more sure you can be that the Skill is gonna be what you want. And yes, while some surprises can be nice ones, like a Skill you'd have never thought about on your own, they can also be really detrimental for your general skillset. They essentially allow you to test things safely and undo mistakes."

"So it's like a respec in a video game." Muttered Evelyn, remembering some of her Earth knowledge.

"Oh, so you originally come from an Earth era where those exist, too. Jaqueline won't shut up about them. She is convinced that at least one Classer must be able to recreate them using magic. I'll admit I'm curious to try some of that earthling interactive art she so dearly described to me."

While the mental image of druids playing video games in a magical forest was endearing to Evelyn, she didn't let it distract her from something Sister Cloud had just said.

"Hold on. When you say 'Earth era', you mean there are Returned that have come from other times?"

"You really are sharp, aren't you? Most Returned get really surprised when other earthlings they meet have no idea what they are talking about. It's always those that start with an Awareness Archetype that figure it out earlier than the rest." She chuckled a bit under her mask as she gracefully ducked to dodge a branch on her way. "Summonings don't pick earthlings from the same period or even the same area of your world. Returned can be from anywhere and anywhen on Earth. That's why saying you are from Earth's future is actually the better play for us to justify how you look and the things you may let slip when talking."

"You'd need to know how Earth's future could look to reach that conclusion so fast." Pointed Evelyn.

"Jaqueline has taught me much about your world's culture. I know what sci-fi is. I have, in fact, read several of your novels. She has a Skill that allows her to recreate anything written she has read before. That also includes comics and manga, by the way."

"Does that mean people in this world know a lot about Earth?"

"Not really." Sister Cloud admitted in a much somber tone. "Truth is, due to how Returned are treated here, most of them never get the chance to spread knowledge about their culture. There's a relatively recent movement from just a couple of Cycles ago, born in an academic city far from here called Primariella, where they research and interview Returned and their descendants to gather information and piece together Earth's history and culture. It's the biggest trove of safeguarded knowledge in the world. Jaqueline really wants to go there to spread her perfect copies, but in Vorath City, things are... different. Things like that are seen with malicious intent, blasphemy to brainwash youths into Earth's warped values, and make them abandon the teachings of the Goddess. I think it's stupid and outdated thinking like that that is getting us nowhere after so many Cycles."

"Aren't there druids in Primariella?" Asked Evelyn, suddenly curious to hear about other places. She hadn't even considered, so focused she was on her mission, that there was a world out there ready to be explored.

"Oh, there are. They are just a much different Circle than us. We are of the Hunter's Circle, while the one in Primariella is the Diver's Circle. We are protected by Elder Grand Father Tree while they are by Elder Grand Mother Lake."

"Let me guess. The city is in an enormous lake." Said Evelyn in a dark tone.

"Yeah! Wow, you Awareness Classers really are something else. How did you know that?"

"I just followed the logic." She lied, repressing the intense dark thoughts running in her mind. "Someone named Tree in a city in a big tree, then the one named Lake would be in a city in a big lake."

But it was far from just that, even if the naming convention of these druid Elders fit their location. Evelyn only knew of one city that gathered knowledge, located in what had once been, in a distant past, a great lake, big as an inner sea. All that water was gone in the age of Neo Vorath. Just like every other natural source of it. Without runitronics that used the appropriately elemental-aligned mana, there was no free water to be drunk by anyone anymore.

That lake was dry, its interior filled with the biggest repository of information in the world. The heart of the true power in Neo Vorath: runitronics.

The Chrompendium. Where all the minds of all runicrons were siphoned of all their hard work for the supposed benefit of mankind. In reality, it was just for the control and hegemony of the Tetracrown, but runicrons had no say in the matter. Except for those rare cases like Alice, who, as a free runicron, wasn't forced to give up a full copy of her mind even if her Core was destroyed and remade.

The sacred place where runitronics had been born. One of the three seats of power of the runicron metal sages.

If Primarella was really the birthplace of runitronics, then it would also be the center location of District Prime. The first true District of Neo Vorath, founded after Old Vorath was abandoned. The one that truly started it all.

The capital of the future.

Where the Tetracrown ruled the world.

"I would also love to go there someday. Sounds great." Evelyn said, clenching her teeth so hard she had to resort to her Endurance to not break them. She was grateful that her druid companion was ahead of her so she couldn't see the demonic expression of pure hatred twisting her face.

"I'm not sure if I'd like it there, but I'll admit I'm curious about their ways. Primarella is the second largest city in Wildenterra, but its druidic Circle is actually the smallest. I'm not sure why, so don't ask me."

They had been walking for a while, maybe over half an hour, when Evelyn heard a growl in the tall grass. Following the direction her Awareness was pulling her to, she threw a couple of pieces of metal debris with her runitronic arm charged with an activation of [Hylosynthesis]. The cable vines found their target, and soon enough, a whining sound marked the location where a monster had been trapped.

Evelyn took out her Edge Punk knife and rushed towards the trashing creature. It was struggling against the cable vines, now stronger as her Action Skill had reached the Expert level. The amber blades were still having some trouble in piercing through the now familiar exoskeleton of petals of what seemed to be another Petalter monster, like those cats from before.

Only this time, the parasitical petals weren't on cats but on a big wolf. At least that's what Evelyn thought at first, until she saw the six legs and the long thorax. It was whining similarly to how a wolf in pain would, its head certainly looked kinda wolf shaped, made by the wrapped petals, but it was far from having the body of any normal wolf she could remember from Earth.

The enormous stinger protruding from a long insectoid abdomen spoke of a very different animal family from canines.

"Oh, great. It's a beewolf! It seems like a petalter colony has bonded with it. That means we are closer than I thought to our destination. Taking that shortcut through the forest was a good idea after all." Said Sister Cloud, coming from behind her.

Evelyn didn't ask questions, just aimed from a prudent distance and shot a few more tiny pieces of metal in rapid succession. This time, she used the [Grow Metal] Runeskill from her runitronic arm to turn them to the size of a baby's fists, with all the inertia of being launched at high speed with her runitronic fingers, but a considerable increase in weight.

Like small cannonballs, the growing projectiles hit the monster hard one after the other, leaving dents all over its body, but alas, none of them managed to pierce its petal protection.

Disappointed in her lack of success, Evelyn took her metalwood staff and wacked the monster in the head as it struggled against the cable vines and their amber blades.

Her runicronic-powered strike left a dent in its head, but it didn't manage to kill it or even do any considerable amount of damage.

"This one is much tougher than the others." Said Evelyn as she threw a few more pieces of scrap, growing more cable vines from them to hold the creature in place.

"Naturally. It's a much bigger host than those budeye cats from before."

"Host. So this thing is not dead underneath those parasites?" Evelyn asked, as she tried to bash the monster a couple more times before giving up and pulling out her Edge Punk knife from her Inventory.

"The petalters are not parasites." Explained Sister Cloud. "A parasite kills its host. They are symbiotic plant-type monsters that are considered as one when they form a colony hivemind; these two monsters are in a mutually beneficial relationship. The beewolf is very much alive; it has just gained a living armor. This petalter colony is a wild one, but they can actually be raised in captivity. The Hunter's Circle is the only Circle that has learned how to do that after many Cycles of trial and error. Few have bred a variant after many generations that can be used for armor. It's strong, durable, and it only needs to feed on a little blood to survive."

"You actually wear these?" Evelyn pointed to the opening flower head of the beewolf, revealing a furry monster with insect eyes underneath and very sharp rows of teeth. It was like taking a wolf and a wasp and mixing them in a cocktail of anger.

"Not me personally, but the green tunic druids from the Path of Blooms raise them. Or rather, they grow them. Moss was from that Path; that's why he could take over a small wild colony to make up for losing his head. Add to that the moss with his mana already in it, and you have a druid willing to abandon humanity to survive."

"It's still crazy to me that he didn't die from that."

"Oh, he did die. At least the human part did. He just chose to turn fully into a monster rather than to become one with nature. He used his primal form the wrong way. Ironically, he became the very thing the radicalists like him say to despise: a dark druid. One that uses their connection with nature to deny death and instead feed on it."

"Not surprised that someone like him willing to murder an innocent family of farmers for power, turned out to be a hypocrite."

Evelyn sent mana to Edge Punk to activate its singing sonic blade, attached it with her cable vines to her staff using [Hylosynthesis] and [Pulse Link], and started to poke the monster with her makeshift spear. For good measure and to help with its mastery, she also added the verdant taser. If she wasn't gonna take the free True Runes, then she would need the ones the verdant tools could provide when she mastered them.

This proved effective, as the sonic blade went through the petalter armor, but not without some effort on her part. The monster it had bonded to also had its own natural exoskeleton under the shiny flower petals. The creature snarled furiously, trying to bite the weapon off her grip as it couldn't reach her thanks to the long reach of her polearm. Annoyed, Evelyn commanded her cable vines to coil around the monster much harder, immobilizing it as Evelyn continued her grim harvest.

After a few minutes, she finally managed to give the killing blow to the trapped monster, receiving notifications for her exploits.

[You have defeated Petalter Beewolf - Tier 1 x 1]
[You have obtained [Armor] True Rune Fragment x 1]

"I got a fragment, but it was for a different rune this time."

"Lucky! It's usually quite rare to get a fragment, much less two in the same day, just from the handful of monsters you have fought. Which one did you get?"

"[Armor]. The previous one was [Petal]." Evelyn looked at the body of the monster, which she was now noticing was in fact not disappearing. "How come it doesn't turn into dark smoke?"

"What do you mean? It's dead, it can't do anything anymore except rot."

"In the future, the monsters I've killed turn into dark mana smoke when killed, leaving only their Cores behind. Which reminds me..."

Evelyn focused her Awareness to find the location of the Core, finding it in the usual spot for most creatures, the middle of its torso. Slashing with her weapon, she opened the carcass and took a small marble, storing it in her Inventory. Then she found another inside a sack in the inner side of one of the petals in the beewolf's nape.

[Beast Core - Tier 1 x 1 stored in Inventory]
[Plant Core - Tier 1 x 1 stored in Inventory]

She wasn't sure what monster Cores could do for her in this world without runitronics to be engraved with them, but she hadn't survived for years salvaging everything she could find to waste loot of any kind.

"You have told me what Skill Points do, but you didn't say what Class Traits are."

"By selecting that, you get the chance to customize what your Class is about with little pseudo Skills. They won't level up on their own, but they are attached to your Class Tier and mastery level at any given time. They are mostly little things, like swimming better or distinguishing types of weapons, things like that, but they do add up, so most intelligent Classers choose that option almost every chance they get."

"I do have a problem. I don't have a Class yet."

"That's not ideal, but it's fine. You are a late bloomer; it happens on rare occasions. Many Classers don't know what they actually want until at least their second Archetype. We can work on getting you to Tier 2 as soon as possible. You could still select a Class Trait. Your subconscious knows enough about your wishes and the essence of your being to offer you a choice of little additions to help shape that Class better."

Sister Cloud looked up to the sky once more, then she started walking off, determination in her footsteps. Focusing her Awareness, Evelyn

"We are close. I hope you learned from killing that one, cause you are about to face a whole lot more where we are going."

"And where is that exactly? You seem very sure about where Jaqueline is, but I just know it smelled of honey. Could have been any other place with it."

"Not that has the kind of spicy honey you described. I know who makes that and where. Which is strange, cause we never had problems between us before, nor did I think she had anything against Jaqueline and Brother Marrow. I really need to pay better attention to the people around me if I missed Sister Jelly being part of the radicals..."

"Is she a druid too? What does she do?"

A not-so-distant sound cut their conversation short as a thunderous boom shook the trees around them.

"Explosive honey." Answered Sister Cloud succinctly, running at full speed towards the place where a fierce battle was occurring.