SSS Awakening: I Can Class Change at will

Chapter 153: Selene’s Benefit

Moon glanced at Yara, seeing the wistful yearning in her expression. He understood that feeling, the desire to transcend limitations, to reach beyond boundaries others considered absolute. He had felt that exact feeling when he was judged as a null by the system, he’d felt as if his entire world had crumbled, and it did.

Being born with a limit that others didn’t have wasn’t easy to handle, it came with its own sets of challenges that were difficult to overcome.

After a moment’s consideration, Moon spoke carefully. “Yara, there is a world outside this realm. A vast world worth investigating and experiencing. It’s filled with wonders and opportunities your people have never encountered.

Once we have the ability to leave this place, and we will find a way eventually, You could come with us if you wanted to. You could see that world for yourself, potentially even find ways to break past the limitations holding your people here.”

Yara’s eyes widened with surprise and hope at the unexpected offer.

But Moon’s expression grew more serious. “However, I need to be completely honest about the risks involved. The world beyond Lunaris is vast, yes, but it’s also incredibly dangerous. It’s filled with unknowns and threats you can’t imagine. Not everyone outside is kind or honorable like your clan.”

His voice took on a harder edge. “Most people kill without hesitation to gain benefits, be it resources, power, territory, or simply because they can. They might take advantage of your unfamiliarity with their world. They might exploit you, enslave you, or kill you without any mercy simply because you’re different or vulnerable.”

Moon met her eyes directly. “And there’s another critical factor you need to understand, there’s no guarantee you could ever return to this place once you leave. The mechanisms that brought us here might be one-way. You could be permanently separated from your clan, your family, everything you’ve ever known. Unless you reach the power of the benefactor, which had been able to come here somehow, but that’s incredibly difficult to do, it’s not an easy road.”

Yara’s expression changed from excitement to uncertainty, Moon’s words clearly impacting her understanding of what such a choice would mean to her life.

She hesitated, opening her mouth as if to respond, then closing it again without speaking. Her eyes drifted back to watch Selene’s combat, using the distraction to avoid making any immediate response to Moon’s profound offer.

The final three crabs fell in succession as Selene executed a devastating attack that was composed of earth spikes to immobilize, wind blades to distract, and fire to deliver killing strikes through the opened defenses.

Selene stood among the six massive corpses, her breathing less haggered than usual, her eyes blazing with triumph as system notifications appeared in her vision.

With a huge smile spreading across her face, Selene turned toward Moon and practically shouted with excitement, “I reached level twenty-four! One more level and I can attempt my class advancement!”

Selene jogged back toward the group, still riding the feeling of progression.

Moon grinned broadly. “Excellent work. That fight was impressive, your breathing is much more controlled now than it used to be. You’re no longer gasping heavily after intense combat.”

Selene nodded enthusiastically, clearly pleased with her own progress. “Yes, my constitution attribute has increased naturally through my level ups. I’ve also deliberately invested several of my earned attribute points into constitution specifically, so I don’t exhaust myself as quickly as I did when we first started working together.”

Meanwhile, Mirage took advantage of everyone’s distraction to quietly approach the dead crab carcasses and began devouring them with enthusiastic hunger. Moon noticed the behavior in his peripheral vision but acted deliberately oblivious, a soft smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

’I didn’t expect him to be the incarnation of gluttony when I first picked him up from that group of awakeners,’ Moon thought with fond amusement. ’But I suppose his evolution and constant growth require enormous food intake. Let him eat, we won’t be moving from this place anytime soon.’

Yara watched Selene’s jubilant celebration with complicated emotions, she felt real relief and happiness for her friend’s achievement, combined with lingering uncertainty from Moon’s earlier words about the mysterious world beyond Lunaris.

Although they no longer spoke directly about the offer Moon had extended, it still remained firmly planted in Yara’s heart, impossible to forget or dismiss entirely.

Selene opened her status screen to review her updated stats and resources, her eyes immediately landing on significant information she’d been tracking carefully.

She’d finally managed to accumulate enough lives to meet the resource requirements for evolving her primary skill to Epic rank, the upgrade she’d been working towards since she had awakened.

But despite achieving this milestone, Selene felt deeply conflicted about actually executing the evolution.

The cost of evolution was incredibly high. Upon investing the required lives to push her main skill from Rare to Epic tier, she would be left with almost nothing remaining in reserve. If she died even once in this realm, she wouldn’t have enough lives to afford the death penalty of 500 lives.

Unlike safer zones where dying simply meant re-spawning with manageable debuffs, this hidden realm was catastrophically dangerous. The death penalty here would claim her permanently if she couldn’t pay the cost.

Although dying and re-spawning did present a substantial bundle of debuffs that made her significantly weaker temporarily, she would still fundamentally remain alive. With Moon’s protection and support, she could survive on her next life if death occurred.

But if she spent everything on the skill evolution and then died? Then that would result in a True Death.

After hesitating and running mental calculations of risk versus reward, Selene made her decision. She would hold off on upgrading her skill for the time being. The circumstances they were currently facing were too dangerous, and there was absolutely no need to take such an enormous gamble right now.

She could wait until they’d cleared this realm and returned to safer territory before making the evolution investment.