What now? Anything else I need to prepare? Hmm, upload at 97%, so I guess I can just relax for a minute. Not that the anticipation, or rather dread, lets me. I have a very bad feeling about what I'll get from that class.

Yeah, like that. Exactly like that... Can I get the non-moonspeak version, please?

Every minute or so, more of these garbled messages pop up. They just don't stop coming.

Earlier I would've thought that this would be from Lucia taking some of the lab personnel as familiars. Karen did tell us that the barrier around the Glitch Zone was weakening and they needed more help, more MP, so I offered to create more helpers via familiars. And considering the... accident it isn't out of the question that the Glitch Zone is growing and in consequence, the barrier weakened even further. If so, they would need the helpers ASAP, so I would understand if Lucia made a few more familiars than we initially agreed on, but I've already read through dozens of these messages, so something else must be going on.

I could just quickly fill in the two remaining class slots and go check but... I want to trust them to get this under control without me. For now, at least. This class could change way too much to just throw it all to the winds just for a hunch...

A while later, the class upload is finally finished, but more and more of the glitched messages arrive. Can't do anything about it...

Now, what is my status?

Creak

Huh?

Creak

What's wrong with the "Silver" in front of Elf? It is shaking like a Loony Toons shop sign about to fall off.

Crack

Thunk

...and fall off it did. Left a bump on the ground, too.

Guess I'm no longer a Silver Elf but a... blank? Space Elf? Double-tab Elf? Just Elf?  Something of that sort. But just the name change is the only difference. Stats and skills are still the same. And at least as far as I can see, I don't look any different.

Now, the rest of my stats...

Maybe I should just give in and join the glitch's side... My status doesn't look much better than it anyway...

No, no, no! I will not! I'm me, a vampire, and not a goddamn living, breathing MissingNo cosplay!! Get these awful thoughts out of my head!!

...

After taking a moment to calm down, I double-check my status. Exp is really at 0, again. Vampire Lord is sitting at level 20, did Lucia really waste all of our familiars already? Let me check...

Of course, what did I expect? Why am I surprised by a missing list...

Lucia, what have you done? What's the point of giving the familiars the [Familiar] skill? I'd hope that either Elly or Karen advised her on this but both said that they know little about vampire-exclusive skills. Can't think of a good reason, and now I'm even more worried about what's going on outside. Lucia, what is going on there?

But it says I can add another skill to them, is there anything I could give them to help out?

So much for that... There's no more point in worrying about reaching the final threshold of the [Familiar] skill, we've given them already given all the skills we're allowed to. Pity. Would've liked to strengthen them further.

What else... why's there a new title?

Why do we have that? By my understanding, only Lucia and I should count for that. Anna may have a divine class, but that isn't a Demon Lord class, and nobody else should have a class of that type, so why is it here? Also, the description is weird, usually titles only list an effect and not their whole life story.

Lucia, what the hell did you do while I was away? ...did you feed so much that you now count for two? Err... better not tell her that.

Well, "good luck" indeed. Given the people of this world I've seen so far, I have trouble believing that levels past 30 exist, much less level 100 and beyond. And unless I find an exploit like declaring myself one of my spirits while having classes with a total CHA growth of over 100, I don't see myself ever reaching the threshold to profit from this title. As it currently stands, it is pointless... Well, at least it isn't detrimental, I guess.

So, now for the main attraction, the absolutely broken, unbelievably overpowered cheat class!

 I wanted to say that it has my name on it but honestly, it is a complete and utter mess. And not in a good way.

Most of the stats are downright bad, even if they, uh, match up to the class's name, or what goes for a name around these parts. Two skills haven't loaded, one is as present as my humanity, one is a title and... is that a whole fricking class as a skill!? How does that even work? Well, even with the broken level cap and an imaginable infinite exp exploit, I'll never find out how the hell that works. Not unless someone convinces the system that level 1 is bigger than 1420.

So bad news, I don't have [Radiant Fire] despite it missing an unlocked at X tag, seems to be part of the whole glitched skill-class-skill package. And good news, uh... it doesn't eat up one of my limited elite class spots? Does that count?

Well, I can guess that the first skill is a glitched version of Lucia's [Dark Lord] skill. Hers kills plot armor, mine any active skill a normal person shouldn't have. I think I can unlife with that - unless all skills I still gain from this class happen to be active, then it is a big problem. If I recall correctly, Basluth didn't have any active, divine skills so it wouldn't even help us there... Well, not that I have a say in that...

As for the rest... come on, load faster!

So a one-to-one trade? Is that it? So far I got the impression that the divine class business would be super powerful and not just a mere even trade on a class with poor stats...

But before I can process what that means for our overall situation, the [TWFyY2E=] garbage changes.

What just happened? Did it just... It kinda... fixed itself, and upgraded its effect?

In a roundabout way, I do not gain a skill here but Lucia gains two now, so we go plus one in a sense. I've no immediate objection to that but I've no clue WHAT exactly she gets. For all I know, those skills might even be detrimental like [Undead] is for the most part. Too much uncertainty with this whole business, and I've no input on anything. I don't like it...

Compared to Lucia's [Unholy Matrimony] this is just a major letdown. Hers gives us a lot of freedom with how we move around the upkeep for the summons, basically duplicates gained exp and for what it is worth gives us another slot in a party. [Profane Vows] though, is just two gacha draws that may even backfire...

Suddenly, I get a short, sharp headache and then the skill changes once again.

And why couldn't you say so in the first place? Dumb skill...

God, my head still hurts...

Uh, the skill doesn't say "main spouse" anymore... Thinking about it, this "upgrade" is yet another incentive to extend our marriage to another person. Level, title and class syncing through Lucia's [Unholy Matrimony], two bonus skills through this, the need to create many unique memories to keep the seal on the Glitch Core intact ... why do you want to push me in this direction so much?! Goddamnit!

I can't deny that the idea entices me... I've probably more of that Johnny within me than I'd like to admit.

A moment after snapping out of these thoughts, I look back to my status. It seems [T3VyIGZhcmV3ZWxsIHByZXNlbnQ=] is finally done loading, and as its brethren, its name changes after a moment.

So... I can invite the whole fortress into my party? But considering that exp is evenly split this isn't as straightforward as it could be. More party members mean less exp for me out of a given monster, and to be blunt, not everyone contributes equally to exp gain. Considering the title that lets my familiars add classes without Class Cores as long as one of my spirits has more classes than them, I'd claim that my level is much more important than anyone else's. I don't only need the Class Cores to add more classes but I also have to meet the stat requirements that only grow higher and higher with each class.

Seriously, so far, I'm disappointed with what I've got out of this oh-so-special type of class. Whether hero or demon lord or demigod or whatever, shouldn't they be able to shake the foundation of the world? How the fuck do you do that with this crap!? Stat wise it isn't anything to write home about, lifting the party size limit is pointless when there's a level of quality no amount of quantity can overcome - Basluth's level 300 prison dungeon certainly qualifies for that - and 2 extra skills for Lucia mean little when I had to literally beg that they wouldn't be detrimental...

That leaves as my only hope the empty skill slot, what can I even do with that? I have no button or anything I could press to assign a skill to it. So how can I...

Before I can finish my thought, I'm once again overcome by a massive headache. I can't do anything besides hold my head in pain and endure.

Once the ache ends and I can see clearly again, I notice that the room is now illuminated in a faint green light.

In a panic, I look toward the crack in the ground where the seal was broken earlier. Where before was a faint green mass visible, is now a veritable eco-disco. Various garish shades of white, black and green erupt from that hole.

Shit, did my wish to fill the skill slot allow that abomination to lash out and do its dirty work? It is more than obvious by now that I need to be very, very careful with what I do or ask for, otherwise, I only allow that glitch core to grow and corrupt me further...

I finally understand... [Profane Vows] changed because I gave in... because I wanted it to...

Lucia, please help me...

I check my status again, but the only thing that has changed is that a new skill now occupies the empty slot of the strange divine class.

This... is what the imprisoned glitch has created... because I let it... What abomination has it unleashed upon the world this time?

Error Unknown Requirement O-something? What, can't I pay my doomsday skills in dollars nowadays? Do I really have to obtain a different fake currency? What a bother...

At a first glance, this looks quite powerful. Compared to other skills I've seen, probably too much so. Most people don't have extra classes, but often duplicates of skills with poor or no scaling by skill level.

Grab an enemy or maybe a willing donor, invite them as for lunch, and then sacrifice two skills on my end and take everything else from the guest. If I can stomach the taste, monsters are a dime a dozen as well, and their elites should have enough skills for the melding. Restraining the target will likely be a hassle, but should be worth the effort long-term.

I can easily think of a couple of skills I don't need or could do without. [Undead], [Cure Magic], [Cure Boost], two stacks of [Intimidation], maybe [Drain Touch]. Also [Affinity Magic] or the corrupted [Extra Affinity] depending on how their absence interacts with the skills I've gained from them. Though if [Fire Magic] is any indication I can do without them now; I kept [Fire Magic] after the glitch bath despite missing the source of fire affinity after all.

Then I could also upgrade my allies and spirits by melding whatever skills they don't need into something useful. Nothing in the description says I can't draw from multiple victims at the same time, so I could probably pull a similar trick by hunting some suitable monsters.

Considering the possibilities, it might be well worth it to employ something like monster tamers, a group of people that collect monsters with valuable or rare skills. Ash, I choose you!

There's another factor. My supposed divine class has a title and a different class in a skill slot, does that mean titles and whole classes would be valid targets for the sacrifice? If that's true, this skill is way too open-ended. There are dozens of titles I could take and sacrifice at no detriment, even some titles I already have...

Just for the heck of it, I could try and sacrifice a monster's monster class or at least the [Mindless Monster] skill, see where they end up. If my theory about dead souls returning as monsters is even partially true this would have serious implications.

...here I am, already thinking about how I could use this instead of thinking about whether I should use it at all. If Elly saw that she'd scold me again.

But this is certainly a skill that would fulfill what I wanted out of my divine class. Power, potential, a lot of it, not only for me but for the others as well. But something is certainly off about this and I'm afraid I won't find out until I use it. I know I should be more cautious with it, but as with many other skills, I get a desire to use it. A feeling as if using it was the most normal thing in the world...

I look one more time over the strange skills I've gained from the divine class, so far they look stable, for a lack of a better word. They haven't changed again since I've calmed down, whatever that is worth.

Seriously... for a mess created by a force of pure chaos, all of these skills are way too orderly. To a suspicious degree even. Proper readable names, seemingly balanced effects... well, at least no crazy effects that make no sense or contradict themselves, no extremely high or low numbers, just stuff I could see a game designer come up with and maybe create a game around... This whole class is way too weird. All of its skills look fine, but their origin and the class's name just scream trouble.

I take a moment to sort my thoughts.

So luckily, the new class doesn't change anything major about what I can do, which means I can fill in the missing classes more or less as planned. Just the two choices for the empty class spots and I can finally get out of here. At least I hope that that is the final thing keeping me unconscious.

3QGN73

In case it doesn't work properly, the missing Silver of Silver Elf is supposed to be the same color as the box so that the spacing is still correct. Trying with spaces never looked right to me.

[Essence Drain] is the bastardization of the idea that some vampires can grow stronger when draining a lot of a victim's blood, possibly even (temporarily) gaining/stealing some of their skills or memories, multiplied with creating empowered servants plus skill bloat, divided by balance and taken to the glitch-th power. Results may vary and we may or may not see a first-person report of a victim in the next chapter.

So going by the vote from ch. 13, the majority wanted to see an overpowered but glitched demon lord class for Jared. [Profane Vows] will add:

Spoiler

Lucia

• immunity to effects that restrain movement
• her subjects gain free level-ups if they are below 80% of the level of the summoned spirits

Eclaire:

• she pays her own upkeep
• followers of her religion can retrain production jobs to proper classes

[collapse]

So did I go far enough with that design?

...I'm so gonna regret at least half of the stuff I wrote this chapter.