I woke up at noon, feeling more rested than I'd felt since, well, since I could remember. Pushing my Night Mask of the Mauvari Catelaines off my eyes, I sighed and stretched.

The little marvel had worked as well as advertised. My health and mental resistances both glowed green in my status bar with the 50% boost the night mask granted. 8 hours of boosted stats was incredible. I needed to make sure to sleep more often to refresh that buff.

I hadn't even bothered activating any of the innumerable choices for calming music that came with the mask, but had simply crashed into bed as soon as I got back to my castle. I felt so good, I had to check the countdown to make sure I hadn't slept a full day.

Nope, still day 12. I was seriously tempted to turn over and go back to sleep. We'd finished every requirement to complete stage 2 and could climb to stage 3 a couple days early. Or . . . I could sleep another day.

Just then, Jeeves, my tuxedoed butler, appeared next to my bed, holding a tray with coffee and a hot towel for my face.

"Good morning, sir. I trust you rested well."

I scrubbed my face with the towel, then sipped the coffee. Black, extra cream, extra sugar, just the way I preferred it. "I feel great, thanks. This coffee is perfect."

"Very good, sir." Jeeves stepped back, the tray disappeared, and he added, "Breakfast will be ready by the time you freshen up."

Then he disappeared. I wasn't that gross. I'd used a Laundry Day potion after the fight with Noctarus and his zombie horde, but if Jeeves was gently reminding me to take a shower, I probably should.

The huge, tiled in-suite bathroom included a tub big enough for 4, but I instead chose the shower. Jets of water scoured me from every side, hot enough to have burned my skin back on Earth. I enjoyed the power wash for 10 minutes before emerging.

I even remembered to shave. I'd gotten pretty scruffy after the past 3 days of almost non-stop fighting. It felt good to start a new day and probably a new stage feeling clean.

All of my clothing and gear was fully repaired and cleaned, from my comfort boxers to my Crash Test Dummy armored leather jacket. I didn't expect to fight today, but still dressed in my layered armor. Over my boxers went my form-fitting black eel-hide body suit. The extreme defense it offered was probably enough all by itself, but I didn't want to run around looking like dark Spider Man.

I added my Scaled Wam shirt and chose my comfortable gray Silkspinner Leggings. I decided to don one of the soft pairs of gossamer stockings made by one of the local crafters, then stomped into my Luscaan Explorer boots. To finish the ensemble, I added the fedora-styled wolf leather hat and slipped on my Void Serpent gloves

Just as I finished dressing, Eva's voice surprised me.

"Congratulations, Lucas! Your alternate experience streams have combined to generate enough experience to earn you another level. Stat points allocated, plus 6 free points."

"Level 38? Sweet! That's a welcome message to start the day off right," I laughed.

"Another level shouldn't surprise you," Cyrus chimed in. The AI who ran the death battle game sounded as cheery as ever. "You helped orchestrate a mighty victory over Noctarus and his zombies last night. Many people gained many levels, adding tons of experience to the town, while nearly everyone celebrated, which earned Sam even more."

"I'll take an extra level any day."

My already-good mood raised another notch. As a 35% owner of Sam's extremely popular tavern, I earned a ton of experience and mana crystals. Then with my Temporary Employment scroll I'd won from a loot box, combined with my contract with the town council, I earned nearly the equivalent to 2 council seats in extra experience. I needed every scrap of it since it took me about 7 times as much experience to win a level as anyone else.

My suite was one of 5 in the magically expanded upstairs of my unique mini castle base camp. Whistling a merry tune, I headed downstairs, taking the hallway between the kitchen and my trophy pool room to the huge combined living and dining area at the back of the main floor.

I assigned 1 of my 6 free points into Constitution, pushing the final calculated number over 100 to 101. That felt like an important milestone. I dumped the other 5 into Strength, driving the final calculated stat to 90.

Jeeves had already covered most of the long, wooden table with a breakfast feast fit for a king. Ten types of eggs vied for space with piles of sausages and bacon, slabs of ham, stacks of pancakes and waffles the size of cookie sheets. A bunch of drink options and side dishes packed the rest of the space and I breathed deep the delicious aroma of all that great food that filled the room with a sense of warm homeyness.

One of the cool perks of having a tier-1 evolved human body was that I didn't have to eat as often. My mana directly replenished my body, but when I did eat, I could pack away epic amounts of food. Even so, that feast could have fed me for days, so I wasn't surprised when Jeeves arrived a moment later, leading the rest of my team into the room.

"Finally awake, sleepy head?" my brother Tomas laughed as his girlfriend Jane waved, her eyes glowing with her Phoenix power.

Tomas looked, well, like an older brother of mine. Similar build, about the same height thanks to that extra inch I got with my tier-1 evolution. Same brown hair, although his brown eyes speckled with gold from his titles no longer matched my totally golden orbs.

"I'm surprised you didn't sleep longer," Ruby added, her smile bright and sunny. Her red hair hung loose down her back, and as always, she outshone everyone in the room. She wore a casual in-town outfit of loose brown slacks and a royal blue fitted blouse.

Steve came in last, his black hair glistening as if he'd just barely jumped out of the shower. None of his clones followed, and he wore a medieval outfit of trousers and snowy white shirt.

"Glad you all could make it," I said, waving them to join me at the table.

"We'd be stupid to refuse an invite from Jeeves for one of his famous breakfasts," Steve chuckled as they all took chairs.

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"Indeed, master Steve has done a fine job ensuring we never acquire too large a collection of desserts," Jeeves added.

Steve gasped, "Jeeves! That was supposed to be our secret."

"Forgive me, master Steve," Jeeves said in that same unflappable calm of his.

"So you're the reason my kitchen never seems to have any desserts on hand when I want one?" I asked Steve in as severe a tone I could manage while hiding my own smile. Jeeves was in rare form this morning.

"Hey, Nigel ate even more than I did," Steve objected.

As if on cue, my adorable little sabre-toothed Mammoth Lion murder kitten rushed into the room like a living golden bolt of death. He vaulted across half the room and landed on my shoulder, rubbing his shaggy side against my head.

"What's this?" I demanded as I scratched behind his ears.

"Ruby says that growing kittens need a lot of food," Nigel said simply, then jumped to an open seat. Jeeves immediately served him a giant slice of ham.

When I translated his words to the rest of the group, who only heard them as kitten noises, Ruby tried to look shocked. "I didn't mean to eat all the desserts."

Nigel flopped one ear in a kitten shrug. "Lucas already gives me lots of steak, so desserts are the next best thing."

"Well, try to branch out a bit. I want some of the cookies and donuts today too."

"Sure," Steve said as he took one of the giant waffles and emptied a quart-sized jar of maple syrup over it. "It's your castle, after all."

We dug in and between us, we polished off everything on that table. Superhuman endurance and stomachs were simply fantastic sometimes. When everyone eventually slowed and leaned back in their chairs, stuffed and trying to digest it all, I finally spoke again.

"Steve, you're the first of us to hit level 50, but your class hasn't changed. What are you waiting for?"

"All of you. After what happened to Edmund, I don't want to pick my next permanent spell before we chat about it."

"Good plan," Ruby said.

"Poor Ed," Jane added with a sigh.

Yeah, his plight was pretty dire. He'd been the very first person to hit level 50, but chose an ethereal fast-movement spell that broke his existing earth-focused build. His new class, Ethereal Bridge Warlock, sounded epic, but was really worse than a dud. None of his spells worked properly. He was well and truly screwed until he got up to level 75 and permed another spell that could hopefully rectify the situation.

"So what spells are you considering?" Tomas asked.

"All of them. I mean, I've got my class spells, plus a water whip temporary spell I picked up from the system store this morning." He shared the description with us.

"Water Whip. Uncommon. Create a whip of elemental water out to 5 yards times your Perception. Can use like a regular whip or detonate to deliver powerful blasts of pure force and water shrapnel shards as hard as steel. Uses remaining: 3."

"That's a really good spell," Ruby said.

It was, and I wasn't surprised Steve had gotten another water spell. He'd started the game with one, but used it up. He'd been a plumber back on Earth, after all, so he had a natural affinity with water.

"I agree, and I'm leaning toward making it my next permanent, but all of my class spells are great too. Any one of them could work too." Steve added more softly, "I have a good class. I don't want to break it."

His HVAC Vigilante class was great, with its focus on delivering elemental damage through archery and homemade molotov cocktails. His epic bow also added powerful elemental components that fit perfectly with his class.

"I can't see how a water elemental spell could wreck your class," Tomas said.

When Steve looked to me, I nodded. "I agree." Then I glanced up toward the ceiling.

Steve got the point and looked up. "What do you think, Cyrus?"

The invisible AI answered immediately. "Finally! Someone bothers to ask. I love how you humans rush around with so much enthusiasm but such an adorable lack of thought most of the time. However, with classes, a little consideration goes a long way."

His British-accented voice sounded exasperated. Most people didn't like talking directly with him, but I'd hit it off with the quirky AI on day one and even helped him choose his name.

The relationship had been a bit rocky as I had to fight through a series of intensely difficult challenges to prove myself for the promised power I was supposed to get as the guinea pig in a unique experiment he was running. In stage 2 I'd started seeing the immense power boosts Cyrus had promised.

He'd pushed me beyond my limits time and again, force-feeding me a bunch of mana improvements, among other things. All of that piled on the experience, gaining me a ton of levels and unlocking way more power than I ever could have achieved on my own.

Despite my growing lead in raw power compared to everyone else, the fight against Alpha and Noctarus, the stage-2 bosses, had illustrated all too clearly that even I had a very long way to go. Hopefully I could maintain my fast level speed though stage 3. Doing that would set me up to deal with the ultimate boss of stage 4, Queen Marisara.

Eva, the french-accented female voice who read our achievements and shared other messages interrupted my thoughts. "Congratulations, Steve! For being the first baby human to seek advice before making a stupid choice on your next permanent spell, you receive a gold Thinking Man loot box."

"Yes!" Steve laughed as the shining golden box appeared hovering in the air in front of him. About the size of a small moving box, it flashed and disappeared as soon as he willed it open. It left behind a single scroll.

Steve's smile widened into a grin. "Thanks!"

"What?" Ruby asked.

"New temporary spell. Arcane Barrage. Level 1. Let's me split one arrow into 3 per level of spell. Each arrow can be imbued with a different elemental power, and since my bow already gives me the Moving Target ability, each arrow can target a different enemy within 5 yards of the original target."

I whistled. "Nice. So is this the spell you recommend Steve makes permanent?"

"Indeed," Cyrus answered. "Assuming you wish to take your elemental archery class build to its next evolution."

"Done," Steve laughed, and a second later his eyes widened as he stared at his messages. "This is perfect!"

"How about sharing your new class so we can all celebrate with you?" Ruby suggested.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." Steve sounded very distracted, but still managed to share the details.

"Class: Storm Legion Foreman. You're never alone as you walk with elements and unleash ranged devastation upon all enemies. Stat points: Plus 2 to Dexterity, Plus 2 to Constitution, Plus 5 free points."

"Wait, you get 9 stat points?" Jane exclaimed.

Steve's grin just kept growing. "Looks like it."

"I thought everyone got 5 with classes," Tomas said.

My first class only gave me 3, but my evolved class increased that to 6. With my David Copperfield class now adding another 2 free points per level, I got a respectable 8 points total. Of course, as a tier-1 human, each of my stat points was worth up to 10 tier-0 baby human stat points. For me, they only equated to 6 for now, since my Efficiency was still only 60%. Getting 9 points per level was really good.

Cyrus interjected. "Indeed, with each class evolution, stat points awarded will grow. At your level-50 evolution, stat points can end up anywhere between 7 and 10 points.

"Nine sounds pretty good," Steve laughed. "Thanks for your help, Cyrus!"

"Now that's the kind of attitude everyone should adopt," Cyrus said, sounding pleased with himself.

Steve's class spells had changed, while some of his abilities had upgraded or changed too. Now he could imbue arrows with any element, not just the limited set he'd had access to before. His Robin Hood spell not only split an arrow into multiples to strike the same target while doubling the damage with each hit, but it synergized with Arcane Barrage so each of the arrows could strike with a different elemental forces.

He also got a new spell called Conflux that would unleash an elemental cyclone around a target when struck from 3 different clones at the same time. He also got a Mixed Legion ability that gave bonus damage to every strike when he had clones fighting with him and wielding different elements. Even his Elevated Position ability now allowed him to jump up to 50 feet and hover for up to 5 seconds to unleash attacks from on high.

"Your build is getting really strong."

"I can't wait to try out these new spells," he laughed.

"I hope the rest of us get upgrades that good," Jane said.

Tomas nodded, but looked thoughtful. He'd chosen to not pursue a pure healing class, but ever since Scott died in the Plateau Dungeon, he'd questioned that choice. Hopefully he didn't do anything stupid and wreck his class. Scrap-Heap Surgeon was a really strong one with tons of potential.

As Steve checked out his new class in detail, Ruby turned to me and asked, "So, have you heard from the council? Are we all moving today?"

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