Her smile is tight, and her racing heartbeat flutters through the bond.
“What can I pick from?” she whispers.
Level 15 is different. It is the point where you stop being just another adventurer and begin walking a path of your own choosing.
I sit beside her for a long moment, remembering my own choice at Level 15: the pressure, the fear, the pride, and the hope. Back then, I stood alone before a list much like hers, wondering what kind of life I was supposed to build in a world that still felt strange and empty.
Then I look at Kit and know I made the right choice.
Harem-Master.
The name had sounded absurd when I first found it. But I hadn’t wanted to spend my life as just another adventurer chasing monsters and loot. I wanted something more, something that meant I would not have to walk through this world alone.
I wanted something magical.
And there she is.
Emotion tightens my throat. I blink it back and offer her a smile.
“Let’s go through them together.”
Choosing a subclass is more than a mechanic. It is a declaration of who you intend to become. Mine promised devotion, influence, and strength drawn from bonds forged through intimacy and trust. I hadn’t chosen it for dominance, but for the power found in connection, the ability to protect those closest to me, and the chance to grow stronger beside them.
Now Kit faces the same crossroads.
I expand her subclass interface. Pale light shimmers between us, arranging the available subclasses in the air like ghostly cards.
Shadow Hunter: Lurker of nightmares, deadly precision.
Blade Dancer: Graceful, agile, impossible to hit.
Assassin: Pure death, nothing more.
The list goes on…
Trickblade.
Veilstep Duelist.
Violet Whisper.
Kit sits cross-legged beside me, leaning close. She can see the HUD’s soft glow but can’t read it, so I open each subclass in turn and read the details aloud. Because she is my bonded companion, the system requires me to make the final selection for her.
As far as I’m concerned, that doesn’t make the choice mine.
Her violet tattoos pulse softly with anticipation as she listens. She tilts her head at some options and scoffs at others. One makes her giggle. Another sends a small shiver through the bond.
“Kobolds wouldn’t stand a chance against that one,” she mutters as we examine Shadow Hunter.
She grows quieter when I explain Blade Dancer.
“That one’s beautiful,” she says. “All motion and instinct. Like wind through petals.”
I nod. “It suits you.”
“Or…” Her eyes flick toward me, bright with playful intent. “Violet Whisper. Illusions and perfume. Makes people fall in love…” Her smile sharpens. “…and bleed.”
She gives me a pointed look. “Sound familiar?”
I manage a halfhearted laugh.
Then something in her expression changes. The teasing slips away, leaving her thoughtful and strangely vulnerable.
“What did it feel like when you chose Harem-Master?”
I meet her gaze.
“It felt like I was choosing you, even before I knew it.”
The glowing cavern seems to quiet around us. Kit reaches over and rests her hand on mine.
“I’m glad I chose you too,” she says softly.
For a moment, a dangerous thought flickers through me.
Does she really feel that way?
Or is it the bond, the magic of the class I chose, gently guiding her heart toward mine?
It is a question I can never truly answer.
And maybe… I don’t want to.
Her fingers tighten around mine, her smile warm and certain. I turn my hand beneath hers and lace our fingers together.
We turn back to the interface. At the bottom of the list, one final option waits beneath the others.
Rogue: Spirit Blade
I open it and read the description aloud. A Spirit Blade becomes a phantom between heartbeats, a shadow touched by the spirit within. Their weapons carry soulfire shaped by Willpower, slipping past armor to strike at the part of an enemy that flinches, doubts, and fears.
Kit’s eyes meet mine before I finish.
“That one,” she says.
There is no hesitation in her voice and no need for debate. Her Willpower has never been just a number on her sheet. It is the part of her that endured the cage, chose an uncertain future, and kept rising every time the world tried to force her down. Now that strength can become her blade.
“Spirit Blade,” I confirm.
Kit nods. “Choose it.”
I make the selection.
Pale lavender light surges through the vines and flowers tattooed across her skin. Kit draws both daggers as spectral energy spills along their edges, transforming simple blackened steel into weapons veiled in soulfire. The bond hums between us like a plucked string as a new designation flashes across my HUD.
[Kit: Rogue, Spirit Blade]
[Status: Harem-Bound]
Kit rises and turns one dagger beneath the cavern’s glow. Its spectral edge leaves a pale violet trail through the air.
She grins like a predator. “Finally. I can fight beside you for real.”
The kobold caverns suddenly feel smaller, their narrow tunnels too familiar for what she has become. I rise beside her.
“Then let’s stop hunting kobolds and find a real fight.”
Kit flicks one glowing dagger into the air, catches it cleanly by the hilt, and starts toward the exit.
“Try to keep up, Master.”
There is no ceremony as we leave the cursed cavern behind, only the steady rhythm of my boots beside Kit’s silent steps. Her spectral blades shimmer at her hips, still humming with the residue of her awakening, and her tail moves with the same quiet confidence she wears on her face.
For the first time, I am not ahead of her or behind her.
I am walking with her.
The cavern entrance arches above us as we emerge into the open air. I don’t look back. No more grinding. We are a team now.
Kit turns her amber eyes toward me, bright with something fierce and hungry.
“What’s next?”
I smile. “Something with a little more bite… and plenty of bark and sap. Bushmen Forest.”