Nathan Lee’s back landed against the ground with a thud. Dust kicked out in every direction from the impact.

  The open blue sky stretched out above him. He reached up and rubbed his eyes, half hoping that he would wake up inside of his bed.

  Nothing happened.

  No dice, he thought. Looks like I’m not dreaming.

  Nathan forced himself to stand up.

  Miles of forest seemed to stretch in every direction. He walked along until he came to a spot where there was a small clearing.

  He held out his hand and his soulbound town portal opened up, flashing into existence with a pop.

  Any moment now, his friends would come streaming through. Any moment, Chad and Mara, worried about what had happened to him and the others who’d been in that damned game show would come out looking for him.

  And Nathan Lee would have to pick up the pieces, as he always did.

  Before he could second guess himself, he ran backwards and felt his body disintegrate into thin particles of water — the latest reward for his trials in the last circle.

  He flew backwards and backwards, only catching a quick glimpse of Chad's sunglasses as he stepped through the portal.

  Chad, on the other hand, didn’t see a thing. Merely the faintest shimmer of mist in the air, the sun reflecting off of it.

  Eventually, Nathan touched down in a grassy field outside of the forest. He’d lost track of time, too entranced by his new form. He’d briefly experimented with heading up into the sky and trying to go as high as he could — however, there seemed to be some sort of hard limit. He could “only” go up about eleven thousand meters before some sort of invisible pressure prevented him from going up any higher. If Nathan were moderately smarter, he would have guessed that it was some weird physics thing and that he could probably figure out some sort of loophole. Unfortunately, Nathan was not smart and also extraordinarily lazy so he didn't really care.

  Nathan felt his body piece itself back together.

  Something hard jutted up into his rear. He scooted to the side and noticed a piece of stone brick.

  He was directly in the center of a half destroyed home. Whatever had come through had damaged it ages ago. Moss had long since crept up along the remains and the wood beams were rotting.

  Nathan pulled open his town management menu.

  [Confirm transfer?]

  Nathan selected the yes button.

  [Town transfer complete. Town transfer target selected: Chad Mann.]

  [Town transfer complete.]

  Nathan nodded to himself. Very intelligent and insightful logging system, B32. Nathan really appreciated how the window made absolutely certain that Nathan knew that the town transfer had been finished.

  It was for the best, Nathan thought. I was never really suited for all of this high-stakes stuff anyway.

  A small part of Nathan was screaming at him, telling him to go back and explain himself immediately.

  He ignored this part and stuffed it deep inside of himself where he would never have to hear its incessant, whiny voice again.

  A window flashed into existence in front of him.

  [All class requirements met!]

  [After having successfully conquered the challenges of the last circle and fulfilling all of your basic class requirements you are now eligible to select a new class!]

  The screen disappeared.

  Nathan waited for the next one to come up, but was instead greeted with nothing but empty air.

  The screen flickered. The air warped in front of him, and the window finally flashed.

  Nathan could smell the sea breeze in the air. The waves called him in the distance.

  Three windows appeared in front of him.

  [Tidecaller Overlord] — Obsidian rank

  As a master Tidecaller — wait, no, I meant Tidecaller Overlord. I’m sorry, these naming schemes are just getting too ridiculous — you’ll be able to fully become one with your water affinity. Given that you’re already an elemental, this is most likely the next logical step. The class would generally enhance your control of and ability to generate water. Imagine being able to summon an entire lake’s worth of water and launch it at your enemy, then crush them within it using nothing but the power of your mind. That is what this class offers you.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Neat. Nathan was up for crushing people into nothingness through sheer pressure. Except for the fact that the end product was pretty gross.

  [Shaman of the Sea's End] — Obsidian rank

  Remember the kraken? What if you were able to bend it to your will? What if you were able to bend multiple krakens to your will? As a shaman of the sea’s end, your connection to the creatures of the ocean would become near perfect. You would be able to request their aid from across dimensions, for they would recognize you as their forebearer. Yes, many of them will probably be older than you, so I’m not thoroughly sure how it registers in their head that this is the way things work. You’ll be given abilities that would enhance your healing, to allow you to play a support role to those animals. Imagine an army of krakens, all empowered and controlled by you. This is what this class offers to you.

  Nathan’s eyes scanned through the text mechanically.

  Had she already made these before her death? Or did she realize that she was doomed and devoted enough time to make sure that Nathan’s upgrade path would be clear, even as she was getting consumed by the Mother System?

  [Obsidian Fisherman] — Obsidian rank

  You’ll have to forgive me for this title as well. I’m afraid that I’m in a little bit of a rush at the current moment.

  Nathan’s lips quirked downward. It seemed that his second theory was correct.

  [Like the last two, Obsidian Fisherman will be a simple progression of your fishing related abilities. Your control over the [Astral Fishing] skill will strengthen, and will be upgraded to [Controlled Astral Fishing]. Again, you’ll have to forgive me for these horrific skill titles, but I’m currently fending off an eldritch horror that devours universes. With this skill, you’ll be able to peer into the fishing holes that you create. You’ll have an more intuitive sense of where it’ll land and what kind of loot you can expect. With some practice, I expect that you’ll be able to —]

  The text cut off abruptly.

  There was another window hidden behind all of them.

  [Nathan, as I’m sure you’ve figured out by this point, I am most likely dead.]

  Nathan read through the words and paused. There was a tigthness to his chest, and it felt hard to breathe.

  There was more text, but he couldn’t bring himself to read the rest of it.

  Of course he knew that Thalassa had died. The Mother System had made it a point to rub his face in it in the last circle.

  He stuffed the emotion down. Thalassa wouldn’t have wanted him to break down like this, not when there was so much left to do.

  [There aren’t a lot of ways to kill us, but being devoured by a primordial entity from outside this universe is one of them.]

  [I have so much I wish to say to you, Nathan. So many things that were left unsaid that I’ll never get the chance to say. Our relationship started as nothing more than one of mutual use. But over time, you became something else. It’s strange — I’ve only interacted at length with three mortals in my entire life. My lover, my son, and you. Of those three, you are the only one that I feel truly comfortable calling a friend.]

  Nathan’s lips quirked up. Even she was capable of sentimentalism, apparently.

  [I’m casting aside what remains of my essence into the Golden Realm, where the Mother System can’t get to it. Please find it and make use of it. I hope that my death will be of some aid to you. I will lose against the Mother System, but I expect that I should be able to deal a blow and buy you time. Her eye will turn away from you for at least a circle. Maybe more. Don’t waste it.]

  [Revive B32. Tap into the powers of the Golden Realm. Defeat the Mother System.]

  Nathan stared at the final message for what felt like hours.

  When he finally dismissed the message, he looked up and saw that the sun had skipped forward halfway through the sky. If he had to guess, it was about mid-afternoon.

  He rubbed his eyes. There was a faint liquid around his cheek, rolling down in slow streams.

  Nathan ignored the sensation.

  He was fine.

  Everything was fine.

  His hand shook as he brought it up and opened the quest menu.

  Instinctively, in a half-daze, he navigated over to the main quest menu.

  [Defeat the Dark Lord—]

  Nathan skipped past it and went to the side quests section.

  Empty.

  Finally, Nathan went to the class quests section.

  [Collect every type of fish in the seventh circle.]

  Nathan tilted his head.

  His best guess was that no matter what class he selected, Thalassa had made it so that the requirements to reach the next class would be the same.

  He wished he'd had the chance to ask her for himself.

  Did I even know her that well? he thought. At the end of the day, we only saw each other once in a blue moon. It wasn't as if I knew her personally.

  It wasn't like I tried to comfort her and help her when I found out about the relationship between her and Leviathan.

  It wasn't like we'd started working together, being of one goal: to defeat the Mother System.

  It wasn't as if I owed her my life for all of the skills and powers that she'd helped me obtain.

  It wasn't like she was actually my friend.

  So really, there was no reason for me to feel depressed.

  Nathan was doing really great. He was processing his grief in an extremely healthy way that he was absolutely certain would have absolutely no side effects on his mental state whatsoever. Nathan thought that he should get a degree in psychology after the fact and become a professional therapist—that's how well he was processing the events happening around him.

  My parents would be so proud, he thought. Nathan Lee: psychiatrist at large.

  It was then that Nathan heard a high-pitched scream in the distance.

  Before he even knew what was happening, Nathan had transformed into water and was rushing through the air at mach speed.

  Finally, a distraction! he thought. Please, be something ridiculous enough to get me to stop thinking about all of this bullshit—!

  It was a town.

  A town that was on fire.

  A town that had a small flying woman with a fish tail and fish scales flying in midair and fighting against a gigantic worm. Specifically, the worm that Nathan thought he had killed ages ago with the ability to adapt to anything that failed to kill it.

  Nathan squinted his eyes.

  Oh yeah, he thought. I only ejected it in space. And I never got a level up notice.

  Nathan then promptly realized that this was probably somehow his fault, and that he should do something about it.

  His body streamed forward to engage in combat.