It was what Gamielle had told him before he went back to Earth and got ambushed by Pinkie. Ryan had tried hundreds of visualization techniques over ten days. He had narrowed it down to a couple notable ones.

  None of them really felt like they would fit. All of them work but Ryan had a feeling his Epic would reject it in the end. No… that was a lie, he just didn’t want to follow a path that someone else had neatly paved for him.

  Ryan was greedy. If he was going to sacrifice the ability to use Qi and mana in his right arm then he wanted something greater than anything that had come before him.

  Ryan started with the marrow. He had one understanding that helped bind the visualization technique with his Epic. It was an undying burning belief that pushing himself forwards would be worth it. That, unlike the cold reality of Earth, the Trial System would reward him if he kept moving forwards.

  That unrelenting belief was his fuel, it helped him push forwards into impossible tasks. It burned in his marrow as he bound it.

  The arm flared as it radiated heat. Just from this alone, the arm could wave down heat and burn all his opponents to ash.

  But Ryan wasn’t close to being finished. He focused on the arm and took the next step.

  Heat could make someone flinch but it could also give life.

  He picked coral for this step. For no other reason than coral looked like bone and was alive.

  The binding for the coral was adventurers. Yes, really. Ryan wanted to show the world that adventurers mattered. A simple pure belief in something that he knew was right. It was how he’d stayed on the right path. Adventurers weren’t just necessary but beneficial. They weren’t heroes, they weren’t villains. They were in the end, just regular people given a chance to make something of themselves.

  Imperfect, and sometimes brittle, but damnit they were

  His visualization of coral wasn’t enough to contain the fuel that was his Epic. One day it would grow into something glorious, greater than the vibrant coral reefs he’d only seen in pictures.

  The remainder of the fuel seeped through the porous bones of coral and Ryan took the next step.

  Right into infinity.

  The excess energy that flowed, went into the path of a figure eight. , . It moved and moved and kept picking up momentum. The buildup of unstoppable force unnerved even him. There was too much in motion here. It would keep building and building until his entire arm exploded from the force.

  There needed to be a release valve.

  The release of infinity would be at the wrist.

  He broke one end of the figure eight and the force rushed out in an uncontrolled mess. It seemed like a major mistake. The entire structure buckled and the crack at the end of infinity threatened to spread.

  Ryan started shaping the uncontrolled spill into a usable form. In the end he chose to visualize the spill into roots. The power drew back into extensions of infinity. Roots that had five splits in the end. His hand felt both alien and overwhelming at once. Like he could reach out and crush anything in his grip.

  At the edges of his fingertips he could push the excess aura into smaller tendrils of roots.

  Everything flowed in harmony.

  He clenched his hand.

  Ryan marveled at his arm. So full of power, of potential, and he clenched it into a fist.

  His aura settled into place. [Unrelenting Aura of Intimidation] burned in his marrows. Delighting in a position that exceeded its previous one. Ryan unclenched his fist and clenched it again. He still couldn’t tell how powerful it was. A raging current grew when he clenched his fist. Closing the loop.

  When the hands opened, they desired to extend and take.

  Then Ryan realized he still had [Aura Condensation] up. He deactivated it.

  Having progressed through two realms and an entire class upgrade, his right arm was completely healed. Instead of an arm that felt like sludge it was now something that moved too smoothly, too quickly. Too much power with zero control.

  Larix took position in front of Ryan and put his arms together in front. An iron wall. Ryan smiled.

  Then charged.

  He got close to the iron wall of Larix and let out a punch. It started from the hip, like he’d seen Larix do. Something that didn’t just utilize his whole body but emphasized the rotational force of his new arm.

  For the first time in all their spars, the iron wall was cracked open.

  Larix’s arms went flying as the sect leader was thrown back into the air. The cultivator skidded on his feet but managed to regain his balance. Larix looked over his own arms in surprise.

  “I believe you’ve fractured them.”

  Ryan grinned, “and that was without any aura buildup.”

  He put his fist in his hand and gave Larix a bow. The sect leader deserved all the respect in the world. Ryan sure as hell wouldn’t have tried to tank his own fist after what he’d read in the class description.

  Gamielle looked over trying to be casual in her interest.

  “Soooo what’s the name of that class?”

  Ryan gave her a sly grin, “Epic class. [Arm of the Aura Tyrant].”

  Gamielle made a face like she swallowed a fly, “I regret everything.”

  “Afraid of the new Tyrant in town?” Ryan said with his nose in the air, “I can promise to rule the Obsidian Sect with an iron fist.”

  A spectral hand chopped down at Ryan’s head, this time he managed to block it. His arm moved as quick as he could think, shattering the magical hand. Ryan blinked at his own arm.

  “Whoa.”

  “Hm, Guess I’ll have to add some more mana to my next attack. Shall we see what your new class can do?”

  –

  Classes were an odd thing with the Trial System, or at least the internet believed so. There were so many different options that you could deviate to beyond just the generic [Rogue], [Warrior] and [Mage] that it made you wonder why those three had been the starting choices at all. Why not have multiple preset Trials and extend the range of classes offered? The later Trials deviated so significantly that there didn’t seem to be a need for just the demon king and human king.

  Gamielle of course knew the answer but she wouldn’t share it with Ryan. She was pretty sure that he would do something reckless with the information if he found out the truth.

  His current actions weren’t helping her trust. His aura roots flailed out of his fingers like an out of control wacky inflatable toy. This was just the effects of letting a few of the Obsidian cultivators observe nearby. Gamielle had brought some of them in so that his arm could charge with aura.

  The cultivators had taken a seat and ooh-ed and aah-ed at Ryan’s antics.

  Oh, the fear effect was still there. In fact, it was worse than ever if she was observing correctly. The teens that had finally gotten used to Ryan’s presence were now sweating and trying not to shiver. Only little Taris and little Jilar seemed to take the display on like a challenge.

  The elders, of course, were more measured, using it as a training tool to reaffirm their own resistance.

  It was enough for her to see the way the class worked. The class itself seemed different from the primal fear of [Intimidation]. Unlike the skill, the class seemed to demand their attention, it forced them to come face to face with something that would not be controlled. A force that would not stop and would not be controlled.

  Get out of the way or be crushed under its fist. A true tyrant.

  If she had been younger she might have decided to cripple him here and now. Gamielle had no love for true tyrants and would have personally put down anyone with such a class. If it sounded extreme then you didn’t quite understand the difference between a class and a skill.

  A skill might influence the user and change them over time. It was still malleable and manageable in the long run.

  But evolving into a class? One where the Trial System didn’t offer it to you?

  That meant you already embodied the role, a class did not go away just because you hadn’t learned it. It was who you were. Your body and your soul. It was why the Trial System always started with basic classes. Only offering classes like [Swordsman] if you already embodied the role.

  Ryan swept his hand towards Larix, acting like his hand was out of his control.

  “Whoaaaaa.”

  The tendrils of aura wrapped together and lashed out at the sect leader. Larix raised his arms to parry–but raised an eyebrow, confused at the lack of impact. Ryan had his hand back up in the air and the tendrils rising above him.

  The budding tyrant laughed.

  “Hahaha. Made you flinch!”

  Gamielle made a face shook her head. In this case she had a feeling Ryan’s class wasn’t actually a standard definition of a tyrant. Maybe society’s sense of what tyrants meant had changed and that was enough to influence the system’s classification. Maybe it was how Ryan himself interpreted the meaning of tyrants. He’d grown up thinking the Tyrants were a necessary force of good and that might have had an influence as well.

  It was a stretch, even she’d admit it herself. As far as she knew, the definition of tyrants hadn’t changed… just an addendum was added to every dictionary and most search engines would come up with the Tyrants of The Realm and not actual tyrants.

  Damned the changing of generations and how they liked to throw around random words.

  Gamielle watched Ryan’s face, she was quite certain he was being genuine but she had been fooled by him before. That bit of doubt made her do something that was perhaps unwise. Something her mother had crafted. Modeled after the class orbs in the Manager’s Abode itself.

  Her curiosity got the better of her. Gamielle took a little peek.

  She saw the last thing she wanted to see. At least, at first.

  –

  . For the first time Gamielle shuddered in fear.

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