Chapter 573 (2/2)

He reached out and touched the surface layer of the System, that displayed the notifications. This would let him see the notifications that Tatiana would receive. Nathan had a sense of what his changes did in the people he helped, but those were times when he was navigating primarily by touch. It was much easier if he could use System notifications to confirmed his guesses on what the different feelings meant.

Plus, this would be the first time working directly on a Class without Randidly present. It was… exciting.

Nathan conveniently shushed the tiny voice in his head that said Randidly hadn’t explicitly given him permission to work on her alone. In fact, he had sent a message that “they” would work on it. Now he might have meant that Randidly and Nathan would work on it, but perhaps he also meant that Nathan and Tatiana would work together on it. Right?

As Tatiana’s mind got more behind her images, Nathan felt the Aether stir. She called out to be something more, and the energies of the world heard her, gathering around. This wouldn’t cause any notifications from the System, but Nathan reached out to touch the energies. It would give him a flavor of what she wanted. With that information, he could help guide things later.

From Tatiana, Nathan felt patience and determination. He felt her proclivity for decisive action and shadows. The rustle of silk. A door slowly opening. A blade rubbed in soot so there was no refracted light off the metal blade. Drawing slow, leisurely circles with the tip of the weapon.

Some sort of Assassin? Nathan scratched his cheek. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. There were a few natural links between being a cutpurse and an assassin. But of course, for someone coming right out of the world before the System, they probably weren’t as ready to be violent, right?

Nathan knew a lot of adults had this problem transitioning to life in the System. They simply were horrified that violence was a necessity. But that was the way it was. Even if there were people who could protect you, someday you would encounter a monster in a place where there was no one who could help. If you couldn’t even fight, your life would end right there.

It was another problem entirely to be good at fighting. Even Nathan, who had spent time with some of the best fighters in the world, wasn’t any good. But on that cold night where he was alone with something that would try and kill him, he would fight and survive for as long as he could.

He-

Nathan blinked, then he smiled broadly up at Tatiana.

Her images had infected him! She was… insidious, that was the world. Subtle sometimes. Her violence was ideally neat, but if forced, it would be violent.

Nathan saw one image that began to dominate the others, of a woman with a smile so sharp and twisted that its jagged edges resembled that of a knife wound.

There it is.

Instantly, Nathan focused intently on Tatiana’s soul. First, he used his Skill Revert Energy. Her Class shook soundlessly, then began to melt like a snowman in sunlight. It would be a gradual thing, but it definitely softened up the Class so it was more pliable to the changes that Tatiana was focusing on.

Then he activated Spark Evolution as Tatiana began to get caught up in that image of the woman with the crooked smile. That smile began to dominate everything. Sometimes the woman was whistling, sometimes the woman was waiting, sometimes she was walking down the street with a basket in her hands. But all the while, her eyes were sharp. She did not wander, she approached always.

There was a target, and she would have it dead by the day’s end. A legendary killer that-

Nathan shook his head. Jeez, were all adults so childish when no one was watching? He had already gotten the sense of the image that Tatiana wanted, so when she veered off with these new thoughts and images, he ignored it. Instead, Nathan began to carefully Donate Aether to her, fueling the shift in the Class.

The Class seemed to shiver as threads of Aether wove themselves into it. They destroyed, but they also created. The Class seemed to be melting, but as Nathan upped the amount of Aether he was donating, the Class could regrow itself around the newly acquired parts.

As Tatiana lost herself in that strange dream state fueled by Nathan’s Skill, there was a small smile on her face. Because right now, she was dreaming.