After some hesitation, Alice decided to ask Ethan what to do about the potentially unstable laws of physics. In some ways, telling anyone was a terrible idea, because it would help destabilize the laws of reality. At least, if her theory was correct.

But Alice also didn’t have the information network she needed to verify her theory. She couldn’t do everything on her own, as evidenced by Cecilia’s [Enchanter] team. She needed information to verify her theory, and she trusted Ethan. If it was possible to verify her theory, he could help her – and he would also be able to prevent her theory from unravelling reality.

But Alice resolved not to tell Cecilia unless Ethan said it was okay. As much as Alice didn’t like the idea of keeping information from Cecilia, this was an infohazard that could end the world by accident. She didn’t want to end the world by accident.

So Alice made her way back to Ethan’s office, and told Ethan about her theory. Part of her was hoping that Ethan could somehow disprove her guess – that reality was more stable than Alice gave it credit for being. Instead, Ethan fell into thought after Alice finished speaking.

After two minutes of silence, Alice couldn’t bear it any longer.

“Do you think it’s correct, or not?” asked Alice. “I feel like I'm grasping at ideas here, but…”

“I have no idea,” he said. “Your theory could be true… or it could be wrong. I’m going to be honest and say that I just don’t have the information I would need to verify it. It seems plausible, but I also don’t know if we have enough evidence to verify it yet. I will get my information network to look into interesting occurrences. But the fact that I can’t tell them exactly what to look out for makes it harder to get information. And you’re a better researcher than I am.” Ethan gave Alice a careful look. “I will say that a lot of Achievements seem to be based on what other people perceive to be true, but that could also be some quirk of how the System works. Do you think this theory is correct?”

Alice nodded. “It’s more of a sneaking suspicion on my part – but it seems to line up with other things I’ve observed. I still need more information, though.”

“Let’s keep an eye out for other information, and act as if spreading this theory could make the planet implode,” said Ethan, frowning. “Either way, our priority remains the same – either fix the System, or replace it. We just need to keep a closer eye on public opinion than expected. Which is something I can handle on my end.”

Alice felt relieved that controlling public opinion wouldn’t fall on her. She had enough on her plate already without trying to figure out how to manage yet another ticking time bomb. She already had enough of those to worry about.

 “Is there anything else you need to talk about?”

 “I also had a rather… troubling encounter with a new type of mana,” said Alice. She went on to describe the newly – discovered Alice mana, and how it might influence her.

Ethan actually seemed quite worried when Alice mentioned that. “Do you have a way to stave off the influence of Alice mana? If you were to lose yourself, that would be… very troubling.”

Alice sighed. “I’m actually pretty confident that I’ll find a solution. But when we get back to Metsel, do you mind if I study you a bit more? This is obviously a problem that all Immortals should have to deal with – but you don’t seem very influenced by other people’s perception of you. After all, most people think you’re some sort of amazing master of magic, and yet according to Elder Sujia, you accidentally blew up your training facility when you were first teaching her. It seems to be evidence that your personality remains your own, rather than becoming an amalgamation of other people's perception.”

Ethan’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “She told you that story?”

Alice nodded. “The first time I met her. When we were gathering [Soldiers] to rescue Samantha.”

Ethan actually snorted, before he nodded. “Then you think the System solved this problem somehow for other Immortals?”

Alice nodded.

“Then when we get back to Metsel, you can take a look and see if you can figure anything out. It’s best to wait until then, though. We have half a week left before we reach Metsel, and we’re down a lot of [Guards] and combatants on the ship. I don’t think that Emilia will make a second attempt, since she was willing to flee from battle. But she is an [Assassin], so there’s a chance that she’s trying to get our guard down,” said Ethan.

“Sounds good,” said Alice. “While it will eventually become a problem, right now I can stave off the effects of Alice mana pretty easily.”

“Just be careful,” said Ethan. “And let me know the moment you run into a problem –whether that problem is Alice-mana related or Emilia-related.”

With that, Alice left Ethan’s cabin.

* * *

The Society and Sigmusi didn’t try again before the group returned to Metsel. Alice didn’t encounter any issues from the Alice-mana in her brain either. She kept a close eye on their surroundings for the four days it took to reach the capital, and even frequently scanned the surroundings to see if the [Guards] missed something. But Emilia apparently valued her own life too much to try again. While Alice felt sure that the Society would try again, it seemed like they needed more time to put together the next attack.

As the boat pulled up to the dock in the fishing village near Metsel, Alice breathed a sigh of relief. At the docks, she could see a fresh group of [Guards] ready to replace the old ones. This group had about a hundred people in it ten of whom were level 75. Alice was happy to see the higher level [Guards] after what had happened during the trip. Higher level combatants may be killable with enough numbers on their side, but they were still nightmares to contend with until they ran out of mana and Perks. Having more on her side wouldn’t hurt if things went wrong again.

Then, Ethan and Alice proceeded to one of the Churches of the System in Metsel that had been more cooperative with them, where Alice got an update on how things had gone in her absence.

First of all, the [Willpower] training was starting to produce noticeable results. People weren’t exactly gaining dozens of points in [Willpower] overnight, but when faced with the potential loss of their identity, many people were willing to brave the difficult and painful [Willpower] training to keep themselves safe.

Second, while it wasn’t common, some people were noticeably starting to lose their minds. It was a gradual, creeping decay, but people with the lowest [Willpower] were displaying the same symptoms that Boris originally had. They were obsessively following the ‘behavior’ of their class, and were losing their sense of self as the days passed by. Many of them had family members who had forcibly stopped them from continuing, based on Alice’s suggestions for how to handle this kind of problem. But even so, it would be hard to address all of the cases – so far, Cecilia’s [Enchanters] and Alice only had a small number of enchantments that could fix these problems. And right now, all of them focused on the [Enchanter] class.

The only upside to the fact that symptoms were finally appearing was the boost to [Willpower] training. Seeing these people start to lose their mind and sense of self was part of what had encouraged people to wholeheartedly throw themselves into training. While it wouldn’t fix things forever, it would help until better solutions were available.

Third, a few people had evolved their Classes. They reported getting error messages from their Status Screen during the evolution process, and the first person, who had reached level 5 after evolving their Class, reported that they had gotten a completely different set of Perks than the ones recorded in the book of the church. These Perks seemed to be weaker than they should be. The Perks were more built around what the person in question wanted than regular Class Perks. But they were also much, much worse.

The person in question had evolved their [Apprentice Farmer] class into a [Farmer] class, and at level 5, one of the Perk options for [Farmer] was to give a 3% boost to the effect of the [Strength] and [Endurance] stats. This wasn’t anything particularly crazy – it was just a flat stat boost. The person in question was someone who valued [Endurance] quite a bit more than [Strength]. Their version of this Perk had only given then a 2% [Endurance] boost, and no [Strength] boost at all. The Perk was more obviously tailored to their interests – but it lost any semblance of efficiency in the process.

Accompanying this Perk choice had been a System message written entirely in binary and garbled Illvarian, which the [Farmer] hadn’t been able to understand. Some of the words that the [Farmer] had been able to translate were ‘localized perk source,’ ‘optimization algorithm lost,’ and ‘no connection.’ The [Farmer] hadn’t been sure what to make of those messages, but Alice had a pretty good guess what had happened. She guessed that before the collapse, whenever someone evolved their class, the class seed would download information from the ‘mainframe’ of the System. It would then use that to optimize the perks that person could acquire in the future. When the person in question reached the requisite energy level, the class seed would restructure the mana it had absorbed into the appropriate template after someone finished choosing a Perk. Without the mainframe of the System, the Class seeds were probably using very limited computing power to try to guess what made the most sense for its respective Class – and it was failing miserably at optimizing, since it had so much less data and energy to work with.

At least, that was Alice’s assumption about what was happening, given her understanding of the System and the current situation.

The final issue the [Farmer] encountered was with the Achievement from evolving a Class. One of the benefits of a Class evolution was the fact that everyone got an Achievement each time they levelled a class, which gave them a few minor benefits. Through some testing, the [Farmer] confirmed that, just like every other Achievement, it had taken a massive reduction in how effective the Achievement was. Not the end of the world, but with those two issues combined, Alice wasn’t as eager to evolve her [Student of Organic Mana] Class. Even if it was just a secondary Class, losing around 50-60% of the benefits of an evolution would sting.

On the other hand… Alice was pretty sure that she could solve the problems posed by the collapse of the System eventually. She just needed to figure out how in the world Achievements worked, find a way to straighten them out, fix everyone’s Achievements, figure out how to prevent Alice mana from replacing her personality with a facsimile personality built off of other people’s assumptions about who she was, solve the crisis caused by the collapse of the System, and prevent the laws of physics from imploding. A small, easy to accomplish to-do list.

Alice sighed, before making up her mind.

She had no idea when, or if, she would be able to fix the broken System in its entirety. Losing 50-60% of the benefits of her class evolution would sting – but watching the process would give her more information. Alice had watched what had happened the other two times she had evolved a class, and she had a perfect memory to allow her to double check the differences.

Besides, Alice felt that if or when she fixed or replaced the System, it would be possible to fix all of the broken little numbers in her Status Screen where her Achievements and so on weren’t correctly applied. Evolving her [Student of Organic Magic] Class was going to waste some of her potential gains, but she could recover them later. And improving her abilities now would make it easier to fix everything.

With her mind made up, Alice returned to Ethan’s manor again, and then looked at her evolution options for [Student of Organic Magic].

Congratulations! You have unlocked a class evolution for the class: Student of Organic Magic. Listed below are options for what you can evolve your class into. You may only choose one, so please make your decision after thinking carefully about the future.

Organic mage: The most traditional advancement for Students of Organic Magic. Organic mages have a wide variety of perk options available and can learn almost anything. Be it combat, research, or enchanting, this class trades away the power and precision other class evolutions might offer for a wide and versatile selection of perks. Unlocked as a result of: Having the Student of Organic Magic class at level 25.

Increases effect of [Magic] attribute by 10%. Increases effect of [Endurance] attribute by 10%. Your organic magic seed will have its mana conversion efficiency improved by 10%. You will gain a moderate boost to your instinctive ability to use organic magic, improving the speed and effectiveness with which you wield it.

Alice looked at her first evolution option, before she shrugged. It wasn’t particularly appealing, but if she didn’t find a better option, she would take it. It wasn’t really what she was hoping to get, though. It was just a generic evolution with no real strengths or weaknesses. She looked at the next option.

Organic Spearman: An Organic Mage who specializes in close quarters combat, especially their ability to boost their own strength and heal themselves in the middle of a fight. An Organic Spearman is a nightmare for regular soldiers to fight against in the midst of a battlefield. Unlocked as a result of: Having the Student of Organic Magic class at level 25, having a spearmanship skill at level 10 or higher, have engaged in battle with both monsters and humans several times, have worked with a military unit at least once.

Increases effect of [Magic] attribute by 10%. Increases effect of [Endurance] attribute by 10%. Increases the effect of the [Strength] Attribute by 10%. Increases the effect of the [Dexterity] attribute by 10%.

Alice eyed the [Organic Spearman] evolution for a few more moments than she had expected to. Alice still wasn’t particularly thrilled at the idea of close quarters combat – but on the other hand, being prepared for the worst wasn’t a terrible decision. The class would directly boost her combat abilities, which Alice found appealing, especially after the fight with the Immortal woman who had attacked them on the way back to Illvaria.

But after a few moments of consideration, Alice still decided against it. Most of her combat strength still relied on her kinetic magic – and this was a secondary class, so Alice wasn’t exactly going to be getting a lot of Perks from it. She would probably need at least Perks from level 50 or so to turn melee combat into a useful tool – and she just had much higher priorities to focus on. Even though the class was appealing because it boosted her self-defense capabilities, it just wasn’t good enough. With a surprising amount of regret, she tossed the evolution option into her mental trash bin.

Legendary Organic Healer: An Organic Mage who specializes in healing others, at the cost of the Perks that boost physical abilities that other organic mages have. A Legendary Organic Healer is willing to heal others no matter how ridiculous their methods might be. This particular class variant is only offered to those who have made exceptional contributions to the field of studying and healing the human body, despite their low level. Unlocked as a result of: Having the Student of Organic Magic class at level 25, Having the ‘Creative Healer’ Achievement (or something similar), have the Legendary Healer Achievement (or something similar), have at least 2 Skills related to healing or human biology at level 20 or higher, have the [Basic Medicine] Skill.

Increases effect of [Magic] attribute by 50%. Classes related to research will get a levelling speed boost based on how often and how effectively you have used those classes for healing, with a maximum of a 50% boost to levelling speed. The Mana Conversion Ratio of all seeds is increased by 5%. All Skills related to healing or biology level up 100% faster. Your innate ability to heal the human body without accidentally causing harm is amplified considerably, making it much harder for you to make mistakes and harm or maim your patients.

Alice grinned.

This was more like it.

The fact that the class had a rarity 7 and rarity 4 Achievement as prerequisites for taking the class upgrade was already rather appealing, and the boost Alice would get for taking the Class was exceptional.

Alice usually didn’t think a lot about smaller Attribute effect boosts – but a 50% boost to her Magic Attribute would be huge even if she got no other bonuses. Magic was her most used attribute, and Alice really didn’t think that would be changing in the future. A 50% boost would increase the effect of her Magic stat from 142% to 192%, which was a pretty substantial increase. Then, the Class also offered her a boost to skill levelling speed and mana conversion ratio for her magic seeds, and a small levelling speed boost for her research-related Classes if Alice used them for healing.

Alice was pretty sure that boost would be active most of the time, depending on what the class considered ‘healing.’ A lot of the things Alice had been doing recently helped stave off the impact of the collapse of the System, and Alice thought that would probably count. Even if that part of the class evolution Achievement was unusually picky, the rest of the benefits were still amazing.

Alice checked her final Class notification to see if it topped [Legendary Organic Healer.

Regenerating Lab Rat: An Organic Mage who specializes in using organic magic to heal themselves. Unlike most researchers who delve into forbidden topics of research, rather than using others as test subjects, you have instead opted to use yourself as a test subject. This class will help you survive your own mad experiments, and perhaps undo whatever damage you’ve done to your body along the way. Unlocked as a result of: Having the Student of Organic Magic class at level 25, Having the ‘Creative Healer’ Achievement (or something similar), frequently use yourself as a test subject for your own experiments

Increases effect of [Magic] attribute by 30%. Increase effect of [Endurance] attribute by 20%. Your innate instincts when trying to heal even the strangest of magic-related problems is increased moderately, but only when attempting to treat yourself. You gain knowledge and retain it more quickly when using yourself as a test subject.

Alice squinted at the last class evolution option.

In a very, very weird way, it was actually a bit tempting, because Alice knew that she would probably be doing even more weird things involving the System in the future, and she was going to be testing those things on herself. The Class would probably offer Perks to help mitigate any associated risks.

On the other hand, it only helped her heal problems in her own body, and didn’t provide anywhere near the bonuses of [Legendary Organic Healer]. [Legendary Organic Healer] probably also had better Perk selections later on, based on how much harder it was to meet the requirements for the class. If Alice didn’t have [Legendary Organic Healer], she might have actually chosen [Regenerating Lab Rat], but it just seemed much worse than her other option.

Alice finished checking through her evolution options, and then selected [Legendary Organic Healer]. The mana in Alice’s surroundings seemed to swirl around, and at the same time, one of the class seeds near Alice’s heart burst with rainbow mana… but as Alice had expected, due to the fact that there was no rainbow mana in her surroundings, the evolution of her [Student of Organic Magic] Class felt like it was missing something. She watched as the class seed tried to compensate for this, but even though Alice still didn’t understand most of the fractals involved in a class seed or evolution, it felt like the resulting class seed was… incomplete.

A few moments later, the seed briefly flashed with rainbow mana, just like every other magic seed Alice had seen that seemed to need some sort of ‘activation’ to truly start working, but unlike the other, ‘completed’ Class seeds Alice had seen, every 10 seconds, the class seed flashed with mana again.

Curious, Alice stuck a magic tendril of display mana into the seed and checked to see if there were any hidden System messages associated with the seed.

Perk Database not found. Using local, derivative Perk options

Scanning… please wait. Perk Database not found. Cannot update. Trying again in 10 seconds…

After about 30 seconds, Alice realized that the same System message was just repeating, again and again.

Alice sighed, but then shrugged and nodded to herself. That was about what she had expected, honestly. She had already known that her Perk options would be messed up until the System was back online. She was relieved to know that her Class seed was constantly trying to update itself. It indicated that she could fix the class seed’s Perk selections whenever she got access to the mainframe of the System again. Or whenever she replaced it.

After selecting her Class evolution, Alice and Ethan left the Church of the System. At Ethan’s manor, they found one of Ethan’s [Messengers] waiting for them.

“Lady Alice, Honored Immortal Ethan, the [King] of Illvaria has requested your presence in three days,” said the [Messenger].