Zoe spent the next few months bringing all of her lower level skills up to one hundred — an accomplishment that was made somewhat faster through the help of her new feat. The impact it had on lower level skills was far more noticeable since whatever general skill affinity seemed to be had a more linear effect on her ability than anything else. At level five hundred, a couple levels was nothing to write home about. But for her fishing way down at twenty one? A couple levels was relatively large.

  The only skill she had still below one hundred was Foizo on the Moon, which she had little desire to spend much time on for the time being. At some point, she’d return to the moon for a while and see everything her dungeon had to offer — how many people had visited the dungeon since the last time she was there? How much progress had the denizens of her dungeon made on the instructions she gave them?

  She assumed the dungeon still existed. If somebody destroyed it somehow, the system would almost certainly have told her that she no longer has a dungeon. It would seem odd for it to let her keep a skill for a system of magic that no longer even existed.

  Would they still be the same denizens she knew? Or would they have changed? It interested Zoe, but not nearly as much as getting her seventh class did. Though, getting her seventh class wouldn’t happen for at least another century, if she were being realistic.

  Once she had her sixth class at one seventy six, she’d have to get to three fifty two just for a chance at seeing her seventh class. If she wanted to entertain the idea of getting to her eighth class — if that even existed, then she’d need to be just as picky then as she is now.

  But she wouldn’t be. Getting to four hundred seemed enough of a trial, let alone seven hundred or even beyond. Which left her some leeway on her seventh class and a fine line for her to balance again. At times, Zoe like to think it would be easy. Whenever a single level took longer than getting all the way back to three fifty two, she’d reset and try again. Never spending more time than necessary on a single relevant level.

  The issue was, that she wasn’t even going to be approaching the theoretical limit of her sixth class’ cap. That would be over five hundred, and Zoe wasn’t going to be scratching four hundred with everything she could do, in any realistic timeframe.

  So the math became much more complicated and Zoe found it much easier to just set limits for herself. Three sixty would be her limit on her seventh class. If she got to three sixty, and still couldn’t get her seventh class, she’d restart and try again.

  That gave her the best of both worlds, letting her get some of those earlier and easier levels in, while also letting her keep a low class for if she ever did somehow manage to get up to the never before seen eighth class. On average, she’d need to reset her class about twenty times to get her seventh class. That was an approachable number, an acceptable number. Still a little scary, but countable. Understandable.

  But first, she needed to actually get her sixth class — and for the first time in a very long time, find a class that she’d enjoy having for a while. None of the ones that she had access to before seemed too interesting, so Zoe foresaw spending quite a bit of time stuck at her cap, searching for feats and skills that would unlock more interesting class options.

  What would she be looking for at this point, anyway, she wondered? For the most part, she had everything she truly wanted. She had powerful enchantments, an abundance of mana. Excellent transportation and even some fun conveniences with her Explorer’s Journey and Traveller’s Tiny Tent. Neither of which ending up super important, but both being quite fun to play with in her spare time.

  She spent a few days going back and forth between Foizo and the Injellar capital, venting to Emma and Joe about what she wanted. Emma argued for a more physical class — a warrior or an archer. Something physical and powerful to help bring up her weaker physical abilities. Joe pushed for a defensive class. A wall of some kind, letting her withstand any frivolous mistakes she made.

  Both seemed like good options, but they didn’t really excited her. They didn’t make her jump with joy, they didn’t solve a problem she’d been struggling with. Though, there weren’t very many problems she did find herself dealing with anymore. Her slow transport had been somewhat solved with her Cosmic Explorer class — Cosmic Leap was far more mana efficient than Cosmic Step was. It still retained much of the same benefits as Cosmic Step, but with the same mana let her travel much further. Four, maybe five times as far for the same mana investment.

  Dragging other people with her was significantly less mana efficient, but it ultimately ended up working out to be still somewhat better than Cosmic Step even when she was bringing along one passenger. With more than one, Cosmic Leap ended up being slower but paired with all of the incredible mana bonuses she had from her classes made little difference anyway.

  Was it enough, Zoe wondered? It was better, it was an improvement. But was it enough for her to be able to travel to other worlds, other planets? She shook her head. It wasn’t. Space was just so much bigger than she expected it to be. She expected it to be massive, and somehow it still blew her away every time she flew through it.

  Which left her with three options that she could see. A powerful physical class, a powerful defensive class, or a powerful space class. Not a cosmos class — Zoe didn’t care much for the time aspect of it. She needed a mastery of space itself. Any mana spent interacting with time was wasted most of the time, in her opinion.

  And of the three, space called to her the most. Travelling the universe was her biggest desire, seeing the other planets and meeting new species called to her like little else. It just needed to be more like a quick trip to Foizo and less like a sombre farewell as she ventures out on a journey for months at a time.

  She didn’t mind being away for months at a time when it was on Abyllan, visiting other towns or villages. Travelling through the wilderness. Sometimes she even wanted to be on her own, to have some time to herself.

  But she needed the option. She needed to be able to say it was over, and she was back to normal life. And in space when she was millions of kilometers away from home, that wasn’t an option. Even if she wanted to come back to visit her friends, there was nothing she could do as she was now. Maybe a class that good made more sense as her seventh class, she supposed. John could do similar feats, from her memory and he was only at about level fifty. His store in Flester’s Might still standing against the dungeon’s magic like a towering dam holding back a raging river.

  Zoe shrugged, and reset her fifth class for the eighty second time, running through the dungeon as she’d done so many times before. In just under a month, she’d managed to get up to level one seventy six and asked the system to show her some class options.

  *Ding* The following classes are available;

  “Oh!” Zoe exclaimed, the excitement welling within her. It almost didn’t feel real to see the notification staring her in the face. She double checked her level again to make sure she didn’t get an extra level just in case — she’d done that once before and it happened to be the class cap, which was a massive disappointment at the time.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Class 1: Earthian (176)

  “Ooh!" Zoe exclaimed again. She’d managed to get her sixth class at just level one seventy six! The absolute minimum that she could get without somehow resetting her first class again, which was something she didn’t think would ever happen.

  She raced out of the dungeon and summoned a notebook to write on as she stumbled up the gradual slope.

  I’ve got it! Gonna go back to Foizo and check out my options if you two wanna join me.

  Zoe ripped the page out of her book and pushed mana into her Sending skill, directing it to Emma, then repeated the process for Joe. She raced through the small town outside the dungeon and to the nearest royal office she could find, cancelling her return trip in a week and getting another one immediately.

  Emma was waiting at the door already when Zoe got home. “You got your sixth class?” Her eyes looked above Zoe’s head for a moment. “And you didn’t go too far this time, either? Really?"

  Zoe nodded. “Yup.”

  “We going back to Joe for this one?" Emma asked.

  “Yup.” Zoe nodded.

  “Alright, let me pack up the cats, then.” Emma said as she ran back into the house. She’d gotten quite a bit of use out of her new Feline Warder class — in particular the Feline Yurt skill that let her shunt them off to a separate dimension where they would be comfortable.

  She couldn’t see inside the space, but when a cat was put inside it she did get a general feel of their mood and without question, the cats always seemed to be pleasant and comfortable. At times there was a surge of frustration, and Emma would pull them out only for them to rush away to a litterbox. But for the most part, the skill seemed to work just fine at what it said it did — not that they had any reason to believe the system was lying, but when it came to the cats’ well being it was difficult to trust what they couldn’t see.

  Zoe and Emma ran through the streets and travelled back to Foizo, stopping in at Joe’s inn. He was behind the counter, polishing some glasses and looked up when Emma and Zoe walked in. He had a bit of work to do before he could take a break, so Zoe and Emma sat around in the inn and waited for him to finish up the massive, bubbling pot of stew that was boiling away on his stove.

  It smelled delicious. Meaty and savoury, with a delightful hint of fresh acidity cutting through the richness. It filled his inn with a wonderful smell — something Zoe appreciated after having been stuck in the damp, moldy dungeon for so long.

  “You want some?" Joe asked when he finished.

  “Yeah.” Zoe and Emma agreed.

  Joe chuckled and sat down, summoning three bowls of a white stew, filled with chunks of meat and colourful vegetables. It tasted just as delightful as it smelled, with a wonderful, luscious mouth feel.

  When they finished their meal, the three of them headed back to Zoe and Emma’s home in the hill. Emma let the cats out, and both of them ran off to their room. Zoe heard some scratching and thumping as they ran around the room and hopped on all of the platforms hanging from the walls.

  “So you’ve got your sixth class now, huh? What’s different about this one? You didn’t bring us along the last time you had your sixth class.” Joe asked, sitting down on one of the chairs in the living room, stretching his feet across the soft rug on the floor.

  “I dunno. Thought it’d be fun. And this one I’m definitely keeping.” Zoe summoned a wooden chair beneath her and sat down on it, floating just off the floor.

  Emma laid down, stretching out on the wooden floor, tapping the tips of her claws against the boards. “You probably thought you were keeping it last time, too.” She laughed.

  “Yeah, I did, honestly. But this one’s gonna be different. I’m gonna keep it, cause I wanna get my seventh class. And it’s a big decision cause I’ll probably have it for, I dunno. A hundred years? Two hundred? Who knows how long it’ll take to get my seventh class.” Zoe laughed. “Crazy to think about, isn’t it?"

  “It feels like just yesterday you were stumbling into my inn about to crap your pants.” Joe laughed, his belly rumbling beneath the red wool sweater he was wearing.

  “Wait that’s how you two met? I knew Zoe met you at your inn, but you crapped your pants?" Emma laughed.

  “I did not.” Zoe said.

  “You almost did.” Joe added.

  “Almost isn’t the same thing as doing. I didn’t crap my pants.” Zoe crossed her arms, the wooden chair shifting to support her as she changed her position.

  “I basically met you by my mum kidnapping you, so I guess you two got off to a better start.” Emma laughed.

  “Yeah that was really bad.” Zoe nodded.

  “I remember you were really worked up about that, too.” Joe added.

  “I was, yeah. I thought I’d lose Emma as a friend. Honestly, I should’ve been more worried about your mom coming to kill me, but I dunno. I met somebody my age, and we got along, and it was really nice. And then I felt like I made a horrible mistake and ruined my life and was going to be left alone in this still very new to me world for the rest of my immortal life. It was really scary.” Zoe said.

  Emma nodded. “Sorry.”

  “No, it’s okay. It’s not your fault.” Zoe responded.

  “No, for bringing it up. I brought the mood down. That’s my bad.” Emma said.

  “Honestly it’s pretty funny now. That was so stupid. We should not have been friends, at all. I should’ve dropped you and ran very far away.” Zoe laughed.

  “Yeah.” Emma laughed. “I’m glad you didn’t, though.”

  “Me too.” Zoe agreed.

  “All’s well that ends well, huh?" Joe asked. ”You almost crapped your pants in my inn, your mom almost killed her, I almost died in a stupid fire. And now we’re here, sitting in a home you carved into a hill with an entire city built around it. I think that is about as logical as things can come.“

  “And I have a dungeon on the moon, don’t forget.” Zoe said.

  Joe laughed, shaking his head. “Right. Of course.”

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