There was a flash of Light, and Lukas appeared in a large hall.

He blinked, looking around.

While the hall was visually the same as the hall back in Salaria, with its high ceiling and the same gate in the middle, its size was a different matter entirely. It was almost double the size of that one.

And just like the previous hall, Adepts moved through the space, none of them even blinking at seeing newcomers appear out of thin air instead of through the gate. Some even looked amused, remembering when they were also in that position.

Before he could do anything, a message appeared in front of him.

[Welcome to the Second Floor.]

Melody and Akira materialized beside him a moment later in separate flashes of light, both looking around with the same assessing expression he suspected he was wearing.

"Move aside please." An Adept appeared through the gate behind them, needing the space to move.

They stepped away from the gate area and moved to the side of the hall. This way, they wouldn’t block the flow of traffic in the hall.

"The wish," Melody said immediately, voice low.

"You got the message too," Lukas said.

"All of it," Akira confirmed. "Whoever reaches the top first."

They held each other’s gaze, before glancing at the rest of the room. The other Adepts passing through looked amused, recognizing the expressions on their faces.

One of the passing Adepts even raised a finger to his mouth in a gesture for silence, a smirk on his face. That was as clear a sign as any that they weren’t supposed to discuss the wish openly.

"We’ll talk about this later," Lukas said. "Somewhere private."

They nodded at that.

Then he pulled up his status screen.

[Lukas Valentine]

[Race: Human]

[Rank: E-Rank Adept]

[Class: Thief, Hexblade, Necromancer]

[EXP: 0.00%]

[Stats:]

[Strength: 9053]

[Agility: 8325]

[Constitution: 8879]

[Mana: 10,094]

[Skills: Pickpocket, Lockpick, Cursed Blade, Hex Shield, Blood Armor, Resurrect, Death Bolt, Smite, Wing Fortress]

He smiled as he stared at the numbers. He didn’t know how he compared to other Adepts, but he was sure he could compete with a lot of them. Who knew how many years or months it would take them to gain those same 4000 stat points across each stat?

Then a notification appeared before him.

Ding!

[Requirements met.]

[Thief class detected. You are eligible for a class change. Would you like to undergo the class change quest, or retain your current class?]

[Available classes:]

[1. Thief]

[2. Assassin]

He blinked at what he was seeing before telling his wives.

"Finally," Akira said. "Are you taking [Assassin]?" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Before he could answer, another notification appeared, overlapping the first.

[Fate Key detected.]

[Would you like to consume the key to reveal hidden class options?]

[Yes / No]

Lukas’ eyes were wide as he stared at the notification.

"What’s wrong?" Melody asked immediately, expression serious.

"The Fate Key," he said, not taking his eyes off the screen. "It’s asking if it can reveal hidden classes."

Both of them froze.

"So that’s what it does," Melody said quietly.

"Use it," Akira said immediately.

Lukas selected Yes.

The earlier box expanded. The two existing options remained, and beneath them, new entries appeared one by one.

[Available classes:]

[1. Thief]

[2. Assassin]

[3. Ghost]

[4. Grim Reaper]

[5. Void Walker]

His jaw dropped. A second later, he made the box visible to his wives. And just like him, their jaws dropped in shock.

Now available to him were five classes, with three of them hidden behind the Fate Key, unavailable to anyone who advanced through the standard path without it.

No matter what he did, he couldn’t see any descriptions of what they were. He would be choosing without any indication of what any of them could do beyond what their names were.

But even with just their names, he could tell that none of them were ordinary options. They had to be powerful classes on the same par with [Hexblade] or [Necromancer]. Maybe even more powerful.

"Which one should he pick?" Akira asked, glancing at Melody. "What do you think each class actually does?"

"For this [Ghost]," Melody said first, studying the name, "I think it could be a fusion of [Thief] and [Assassin] combined into something that incorporates the best of both. So a package of stealth and speed to make one a figurative ghost."

"Or it could be more literal," Akira said. "The skills of an actual ghost. Passing through walls, becoming invisible, existing somewhere between present and not present." She paused. "Which would pair extremely well with what you already have."

"We genuinely don’t know," Lukas said.

"[Grim Reaper] is more obvious," Melody continued. "It has to be a class built around death. Maybe something like harvesting life force or commanding the dead."

She glanced at Lukas. "Though given that you already have [Necromancer], there might be overlap, or it might be something we haven’t considered at all."

"Classes are weird," Akira agreed. "He might even get the same skill from two classes."

"What about [Void Walker]?" Lukas asked. "What do you think it could be about?"

"Void suggests space," Melody shrugged. "Or absence. So we’re looking at either a class with skills like teleportation, or something completely out of left field."

"It sounds like the strongest option," Akira said. "Or the most unpredictable one. Those are usually the same thing."

"We don’t know," Melody admitted. "Any of them could be extraordinary. Any of them could have limitations we can’t anticipate."

Lukas looked at the list.

He knew, sitting there, that whichever name he chose, some part of him would always return to the ones he hadn’t.

That was the nature of irreversible decisions. Once in a while, you’d always sit down and ask what could’ve been if you’d chosen something else.

But at the end of the day, he still had to pick.

Melody and Akira looked at him.

"Whichever you choose," Melody said quietly, "we’re with you."

Lukas looked at the five options one final time.

"I’ll choose..."