The Gravecaller Who Levels While Sleeping

Chapter 2: A Class Written in Black

The Ascension Loom began with a cook.

"Maya Ortiz," Principal Reed called.

A nervous girl with a red braid stepped into the golden field surrounding the obelisk. Light climbed from her shoes to the top of her head. A moment later, a thin status display appeared above her.

Civilian Class Acquired: Culinary Specialist.

Her friends applauded. A few boys laughed anyway. Maya ignored them, managed a tight smile, and hurried off the platform.

The next student awakened as a physical therapist. The student after that became a warehouse coordinator. Reed kept his speech about every contribution mattering ready, but the crowd understood the numbers. Only about one student in ten received a combat or support class. Those were the people who earned hunting licenses, entered Rifts, and had a chance to get rich before twenty-five.

Then Dorian Cross stepped forward.

Dorian was the other Apex candidate in Northbridge's graduating class. He had never hidden the fact that he considered Adrian a rival. Tall, sharp featured, and already dressed in a black coat cut like a hunter's uniform, he walked into the Loom as though it had been built for him alone.

The sky dimmed.

Not much. Just enough for the courtyard to fall quiet.

Gold light rose from the obelisk and folded around Dorian in the shape of a hunting bird. Pressure prickled over Adrian's skin.

Combat Class Acquired: Shade Runner.

Cheers broke out. A rare combat class. A pair of pale energy blades formed at Dorian's hips. He stepped from the light with a satisfied expression and glanced at Adrian.

"Try not to embarrass the rest of us," Dorian said.

Adrian offered him a flat look. In his first life, he had spent too much energy caring what Dorian thought. This time, his attention stayed on the number rising at the edge of his vision.

More than eleven hundred experience points already.

At this rate, he would have over thirty thousand by midnight.

No hunter in the country would walk away from that much experience.

Names continued. Some students cried with joy. Some tried to hide disappointment. Lucas went near the end, swaggering into the Loom with his split lip covered by a small healing strip.

No omen shook the courtyard when he entered.

Combat Class Acquired: Ember Arcanist.

A red crystal formed above Lucas's palm and threw sparks across his knuckles. His grin returned at once. The students around him applauded, and he turned so Adrian could see every second of it.

"Looks like I won after all," Lucas called.

Adrian did not answer.

Principal Reed's voice carried across the courtyard. "Adrian Vale."

The line opened before him.

For the first time since waking, fear slipped through Adrian's certainty.

He needed the same class.

It sounded insane, even to him. Every part of his previous life told him to pray for anything else. But he knew what lay beneath the class's worthless surface. He knew what he had failed to discover until the last morning of his life.

Adrian stepped into the Loom.

The gold vanished.

Darkness rose from the stone beneath his shoes, swallowing the platform in a column of blue black fire. Gasps rose from the courtyard. Above him, the clouds twisted into the image of a massive skull, empty sockets staring down at the school.

Principal Reed went still.

Lucas's mouth opened in delighted disbelief.

Adrian stood in the cold. Something ancient brushed the edge of his thoughts. It did not speak in words. It offered recognition.

Then the darkness collapsed.

Unique Combat Class Acquired: Gravecaller.

The courtyard erupted, but not with applause.

"No way."

"That is a real class?"

"Isn't that the one in the old reports? The hunter who got killed by a level-one monster?"

Lucas laughed first. Others joined him.

Principal Reed's shoulders sank. A minute earlier, he had looked ready to send a triumphant message to every local station. Now he stared at the result as if the Loom had personally betrayed him.

Adrian opened his status window.

Name: Adrian Vale.

Aptitude: Apex.

Class: Gravecaller. Unique.

Level: 1.

Power: 1.

Agility: 1.

Focus: 1.

Vitality: 1.

Bound Dead: 0 of 10.

Starting Skills: None.

Unassigned Attribute Points: 6.

The window was as ugly as he remembered. A normal combat class began with five points in every attribute and at least one useful skill. A Gravecaller began with the physical durability of wet paper.

There was one difference the others could not see. The word Unique glowed beside his class. As long as Adrian lived, no second Gravecaller could awaken.

He placed all six free points into Agility.

His body lightened at once. The crowd still saw a joke, but Adrian felt the change in the way his feet settled on stone and his shoulders moved beneath his jacket. Speed would keep him alive until he had an army.

"Our star student comes back," Lucas said as Adrian left the platform. "I guess the universe has a sense of humor."

"A comedian with standards," Adrian said. "Which is why it gave you fire instead of a personality."

Lucas's face darkened.

Principal Reed raised his clipboard before a second fight could begin. "Lucas Voss, record your class with Ms. Bell. The remaining students will proceed in order."

The ceremony continued, but nobody stopped looking at Adrian. Their stares followed him as he returned to the line. Some carried pity. Most carried amusement.

He let them have it.

The Continuum count reached eighteen hundred.

At level one, the weak were expected to beg stronger hunters for a place at the edge of their parties. Adrian had done that once. He had thanked people for scraps of experience and apologized whenever his useless class slowed them down.

He would not do it again.

He closed his status window and watched the black residue of the Ascension fade from the ground.

Around him, everyone was trying to decide whether the Gravecaller's appearance had been a disaster or a spectacle.

Adrian knew better.

It had been an invitation.