The last time he had done a class upgrade was when he was level 10 – and it was an extremely painful process. If Kyle wanted to get the upgrades right now, he needed to do it somewhere out of sight and completely safe from any possible enemy attacks.

Kyle returned to the Genetic Chemicals section, sighing as he sat back down in the chair. Now that he had seen how the hobgoblins and goblins had been experimented on, a burning question began to nag in his mind. How is the System conferring the skills onto me?

Regardless, the moment he thought about the sub-class upgrades, a new system message appeared.

It better be good this time, and before I make a final choice, I should ask for the skills first. Kyle tapped his fingers impatiently, waiting for about a minute before the sub-class windows appeared.

Some of the subclasses were intriguing. Tycoon would be very useful, but Kyle didn’t think he needed any more ‘help’ in being persuasive, that was something that he could control on his own without the System’s help.

Slave Driver was interesting, with the perk of it being invisible. Current slave engravings came in the form of collars, with Kyle having already placed one on Guang Hwa and covering it with clothes. I don’t think I need the System for that. Furthermore, it’s only two, and I can manufacture an unlimited amount of collars.

Drug Cook had the most useless starting active skill. Sure, the System claims that there could be another skill if he upgraded the subclass, but he could easily figure out addiction within a few days.

What he was looking for was a skill that he would not be able to acquire naturally. The Arcia Disruption skill fit the bill slightly – he had never heard of an arcia engraving being disrupted before remotely, only physically.

Either way, he did not immediately dismiss the subclasses. There was still an ample selection of eight more to go, so he pulled up the next four that had been generated.

Inventor is absolutely useless. Kyle could see why the System was generated such a subclass, considering the amount of ‘inventions’ that he had made over the course of his time here. Yet, when armed with the knowledge of the Galactic Era, why would he even need such a subclass?

As for the Revolutionary, while the skill might be useful in certain scenarios, Kyle had more than enough methods to achieve the same goal and objective. Really, the System is looking down on me.

Poisoner was an interesting skill in itself. Knowing the allergies of others would make them much much easier to control. Unfortunately, the cooldown was far too long. If he wanted to profile the entirety of his enemies it might take him months and years. It was also possible that the indicated allergy was non-lethal, proving to be useless. Overall, an underwhelming skill for a poisoner role.

Kyle was not a human nor humanoid supremacist in anyway – the Galactic Era had taught him a simple rule: if it can work, it can be exploited. So Tamer was of interest to him.

However, Tamer was not that much different from Slave Driver. And considering that he had already somewhat subjugated the hobgoblins and was on the verge of obtaining his own overtuned hobgoblin workforce, there was hardly no need for the Tamer class. Kyle thought about it critically, and tried to provide an argument internally that eventually he may come across monsters like giants that would need to be domesticate.

Yet, the auction in the Central Sector last year had already shown him that even a cyclops could be enslaved. Let’s keep these four in view first then.

The subclass Serial Killer originally intrigued Kyle, but when he read the skill he immediately discarded it. He did not need extra help killing multiple targets  - he could easily invent a machine gun for that. And the stronger he grew, the more damage he would already do per hit, sometimes even killing them in one hit with his sniper rifle. Perhaps against large monsters, but even a cyclops can be felled with a single shot.

If he took the skill, it would mean that he had to hit the target about twenty times in order to receive a 10% damage bonus. Does it work against static targets? Might be good for knocking down walls.

Right. Kyle ignored his obvious mistake and continued on. Manufacturer was looking quite good, and he might have taken the class up if it were not for the existence of the A.I and the ancient packing drones that he had seen in the Seed Storage section of the installation. Kyle had no doubt he could eventually repair and modify the drones, given the right materials, and subsequently reverse engineer the drones to make his own arctech versions.

Maybe the System’s drones are far more advanced, but I don’t need that many drones either way. Furthermore, the skill was limited in duration, which paled in comparison to his Seven Snakes members as well as hobgoblin workforce.

The Pact Maker subclass looked fairly interesting. Kyle was clear that the underworld contract was enforced by strength and reputation – many of the contracts served as proof of justice in the event one party decided to renegade on the terms. However, if one party had an overwhelming power advantage, the contract was completely unfair.

The problem laid in the fact that the debuff in stats would be applied to both sides. This meant that Kyle would also be restrained by the laws that he set forth himself. Furthermore, the skill did not guarantee that there was no loophole in the contract – Kyle not having his Galactic Era cranial implant meant that he could not remove such a possibility.

As such, a scenario existed in a way that the other signatory could exploit the loophole, and Kyle would be forced to follow the contract still, lest he wanted to suffer a debuff. It would be good without the downsides.

Shadow sounded good, but Kyle wasn’t really one to sneak in personally. He had followers for that very purpose, even training Sasha to that extent. I could also design an arctech engraving to minimize the sound coming from my feet.

With all the subclasses now presented, Kyle began the process of elimination. He kept in mind that the subclass could generate two skills maximum in the future.

Let’s get the useless ones out of the way. Tycoon, Inventor, Revolutionary, Manufacturer, Drug Cook, Slave Driver, Tamer, Shadow are all useless, even if upgraded.

Kyle swiped with his hands, manipulating the windows in front of him. The remaining list was Pact Maker, Arcia Mystic, Serial Killer and Poisoner.

He held a small hope that Pact Maker would work, but he also noted that even if the signatory suffered the permanent debuff, it would be a one-time affair. With him only having knowledge of the System, it would not be an effective measure to ensure that the other party would adhere to the terms of the contract.

Sure, there was a edge use-case in which he could use it to weaken an enemy, but it seemed too complicated to execute. Any enemy that he could bring to the negotiating table meant that he had a similar power range, or at least, enough bargaining power already. It’s a ‘win-harder’ class, but I don’t particularly need it.

Arcia Mystic was a weird one, and the only subclass to deal directly with the flow of arcia. While the skill was limited in ability, it still served as a potential game-changer in many of the duels. Kyle could think of so many ways he could have made some past fights much easier with the ability to disrupt an engraving. He kept it for now, considering the next class.

Serial Killer’s current skill was not that enticing, but Kyle wondered if the second generated skill would be good. However, it was essentially gambling, and for all the casinos that Kyle has built in his life, he never placed his entire faith in luck, only making decision based on what he had in front of him. As such, he had to discard the sub-class, knowing that his strength would soon dwarf the usefulness of the skill. It’s also a ‘win-harder’ class.

Poisoner was the one that Kyle held the most hesitation about. If he could use the class to know what was Sebastian’s allergies, then it would make it easier to eliminate him. Yet, there was still a vast gap between knowing the allergy and actually executing an elimination plan. If the skill tells me he’s allergic to seafood with nothing but a mild rash… I might just try to rip out the System of my own body.

Unwilling to take the risk, Kyle only had the Arcia Mystic left as the viable subclass. He checked again some of the subclasses that he had eliminated in the first round, going through them again. It’s the only class that provides me with a skill I don’t already know how to implement. Without hesitating any longer, he selected the Arcia Mystic sub-class.

Before Kyle could even brace himself, the familiar sharp, sudden jabbing pain erupted at the nape of his neck.  The fiery pain shot through the nerves, spine and bones like lightning, causing him to wince and fall off the chair, writhing in pain. How is this as painful as the main class upgrade?!

Shit, the System is combining both upgrades into one?!

As he rolled around the floor, a million needles prickling his skin, he could feel the same foreign object in his body slicing away at his internal organs and underlying flesh, as though it was rearranging his vessels and blood flow, albeit in a brutal gruesome fashion.

[Sir, you seem to be experiencing severe distress.] The A.I’s holographic image appeared. [Symptoms include talking to oneself and undergoing extreme cramp cycles. Do you need me to play you some soothing music?]

Kyle grunted unintelligibly, unable to reply in coherent words as the pain continued to envelop his entire being. He began to struggle to keep awake, the continuous waves and bouts of pain nearly making him lose consciousness.

“Ti..tis is nuthin…” Kyle tried to speak, nearly biting his own tongue off. The spasms caused his body to convulse on the floor, making him involuntarily hit his head against the edge of a gas tank before falling unconscious.

M.G.Driver