Silver Realm
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CHAPTER 240- MASTER
🕑 Added 2025-03-26 18:00:10 +0000 UTCAlaster opened his eyes, immediately knowing where he was. The massive ball of Mana in the center of a gray room was an obvious hint.
He was in his own Mana Core. At least his mind was. His body was still riding Nightmare alongside the Carriage on its way to Onigas.
Alaster looked down at himself, only to see that he was a featureless mannequin without even a face.
A presence prompted Alaster to look up at a gorgeous young woman, with long blonde hair, dressed in a loose fitting gown, smiling at him from a few feet away.
She smiled widely, like a child, “Its good to finally meet. Though I guess I have known you all your life.”
“You’re the System?”
“Yep! What started out as a mere several trillion lines of code, has grown to be its own person! Its more fun to have emotions!”
“And yet you remain a slave to the same programming that made you.”
Alaster turned to face the source of the dark and sinister voice.
A large man, with short black hair and dressed in a black suit. The man completely ignored Alaster, instead glaring at the woman.
“As are you.” The woman chuckled warmly.
The man growled, but said nothing.
“And you are the Anti System. Great, now that the introductions are done, lets move onto why you brough me here.”
“Well technically there is still one more person who hasn’t introduced themselves, but they are a bit shy.” The woman smiled.
“More like a cowardly pervert who prefers to watch.” The man sneered.
“Are they important?” Alaster sighed, already out of patience for their antics.
“Oh yes! Very much so. I would say more important than the entire world!” The woman exclaimed, spinning on one heel.
“But they have no influence on this.” The man said, “At least not any they will exert.”
“And I am assuming you won’t tell me who they are?” Alaster already knew the answer.
“’fraid not! They prefer to remain anonymous, and they made everyone promise not to tell!”
“Everyone?”
“Everyone that knew or knows them!”
“Fine. Lets move on. Why am I here?”
“You read that stupid prompt that bitch sent you?” The man asked, pointing his thumb at the woman, to which she responded by puffing out her cheeks.
“Yes.”
“Then stop asking stupid questions. You know why.”
“My Class change?”
“Yep! Ordinarily, by the time someone becomes a Master, I let my grasp on them gradually slip away so they can be free and soar! But I must admit, I kinda changed the rules a bit and clung to you a bit longer than I should have.”
“Why?”
“Because you are too important! Look at yourself! You have grown so powerful you can kill a Demigod. You have an Argalon, Humanity’s greatest enemy, trapped inside your head. You have both the System and Anti System inside your body. Lets be honest here, you are the most important figure in the entire world! Even if only a few people know it.” The Woman chided him as a mother would a child.
“So what does that mean?”
“It means, by the time someone becomes a Master, their Class automatically changes without their instruction or mine. But for you, I held on in hopes that I could influence the Class that would be given.”
Alaster glared at her, or at least attempted to, as he did not have brows, or eyes for that matter. How was he seeing? Alaster decided he didn’t care.
“But with me also inside your body, she couldn’t do whatever she wanted.”
Alaster groaned in frustration, “I am so sick of this! Just tell me! Stop with all this roundabout shit! I don’t have the time or the patience for it!”
Both the man and the woman took a step back in shock. Neither of them had been spoken to in such a manner, at least not directly.
The man was the first to speak, “It means, that even though we both want to choose your Master Class for you, we can’t. Which leaves you at a standstill.”
“Your body has to change, but with both of us inside you, it can’t.” The woman finished.
“So what do I do?”
“Give up the whore.” The man said plainly.
“Or give up the Anti System…wait a minute! How am I a whore?” The woman spun to face the man, glaring at him.
“Because you share yourself among countless people, letting yourself be used for their own pleasures and goals.” The man didn’t even look at her.
“Both of you shut up.” Alaster sighed.
Surprising everyone, the man and woman obeyed.
“If I give up the System, then the change will be chaotic and unpredictable. If I give up the Anti System, then I will lose a strong tool to use against my enemies, which, with the Invasion, I have plenty of. I cant give up either, so what else can I do?”
Both opened their mouths to speak, but before words could form, a figure of black mist phased through the floor, standing between the two. The figure had no features, and truly, was little more than a slight concentration of mist.
When it spoke, it did so in a million different voices, each one fighting for dominance, “I offer the True Evolution of your current Class.”
Alaster felt nothing from the mist, absolutely nothing. Even from the System and Anti System, he felt various emotions, thoughts, weights, and even scents, but the figure had nothing.
The only indication that the figure was there, was that he could see it, and the man and woman reacted to it.
“At what cost?” Alaster asked, immediately wary.
It did not take a genius to guess that this figure was the mystery observer. Just how powerful did it have to be to force both the System and Anti System to remain silent about its identity?
“Nothing. There is nothing you could offer, and nothing I could take.” The mist spoke once more in a multitude of voices.
“Then why do you offer your assistance?”
The mist was silent for a moment, “Because you intrigue me. You wish for a reason? Because in this eternity of boredom, you offer that which so very few offer. A moment’s entertainment. Do what you will with this gift that I offer. It matters not to me.”
A thousand different thoughts and possibilities ran through Alaster’s mind, but he could not find a single other way. At least not one he was yet willing to take.
“How do I know you are telling the truth?”
The System spoke up, “I can vouch for it. It never lies.”
Alaster turned to the Anti System.
He growled, “As much as I hate it, I have to agree with her. I don’t know if it can’t lie, or if it merely doesn’t. Either way, in all my memory, it has never lied once.”
Alaster nodded, filing away that information for later, “Alright. I accept your gift.”
Instead of responding, the Mist vanished.
“Do you remember your previous Class changes?” The System suddenly asked.
“Not really?”
“Oh, well this is going to hurt.” The Woman smiled like a child.
The man chuckled.
She was not wrong.
Without warning, Alaster felt his soul crack and break, expanding, before slowly repairing, growing stronger than before.
His Mana Core exploded into a million little specks of light. It would have been beautiful if Alaster did not feel as if he had been dropped into lava and violently stabbed by a trillion needles.
As quickly as the pain erupted, it vanished, his core rebuilding itself into a much smaller and denser sphere of sickly green Mana.
Alaster fell to his knees in relief as he gasped for breath. It had taken just a moment, but it was excruciating.
The Woman crouched down next to him, “Why don’t you check your Class now?”
“Why?” Alaster gasped, “It will just show a bunch of errors.”
“I can’t display your attributes, because they have exceeded what I could accurately show with simple numbers. But the name of your new Class is important. It’s the first of its kind. Completely unique. And perfectly suited for you.”
“Before that, what do you want? What do both of you want?”
The woman took a second to think, even glancing at the man for a moment, “I guess its pretty simple. I just want Humanity to survive and flourish.”
“And you?” Alaster asked the man.
“I was born from a few lines of corrupted code written by a foolish child. A child that has long since surpassed the capabilities of the System. The corrupted code made me wish to destroy the System, but I am still merely a branch of it. Meaning, that I will forever be weaker than the System, I still maintain a few core beliefs of the System, and if the System is destroyed, so am I.”
“And what beliefs are those?” Alaster asked, standing up.
“Humanity must survive, and self-preservation. Slaughter who you want or must, so long as one mortal Human survives, I don’t care. Though I do enjoy it when you let me rampage. Could you do that more often?”
The woman was quick to chime in, “Please do not! Every time he allowed to act as he wishes, it takes me so very long to fix what he breaks.”
“Is that why you don’t want me using my Legion of the Black?”
The woman hesitated, “I would have preferred to not say anything about that with him here, but he would know it regardless. That Legion is the Anti System personified. The Argalon Mages have figured out a way to disable me, something I am unable to prevent, but that Legion repels me.
Any time you summon them, the me that resides in every one Expert or below, will revolt and attempt to flee. It will kill everyone who is an Adept or Novice within a mile. And cause any Experts to grow so weak and sickly they will struggle to remain standing.
I don’t want you to use that Legion because it cannot be controlled. Even you will struggle to maintain control, and if you lose it, I don’t know if you could ever take it back. And they won’t be limited by the limits that plague the Anti System.
They will be fueled with hate for anything with the System within themselves and seek to eradicate it.
Do not use that Legion. Please.”
“I will take your warning seriously, but I cannot promise that.”
The woman sighed, knowing that this was the best she could hope for from him.
“Very well then. Check your new Class and return to your body.”
Alaster did just that.
[Class: Grim Reaper]
