Whether they were a dime a dozen or not, the nearest planet that fit Annie’s bill was a week away. When she showed him the relative positions of the two star systems on her charts, he figured they’d be there in an hour. They were so close he could hardly see the space between them. She patiently explained how galactic distances worked, how limited they were in terms of what they could feasibly reach at all, and how fast he could expect a ship to go when it was manned by a single level two nobody.


    None of it was as exciting as he thought it would be. It got even more boring when she explained exactly how much slower she’d have to go to avoid threats before he gained enough levels to convince the system to equip her with historic Actolian armaments.


    Even so, the first day in space was exciting. Stars whizzed by the windows, and every now and again Annie would maneuver past some sort of anomaly that she said would increase her speed. After months of nothing working as a cheap imitation of a gas station employee, it was down right spell binding. At least for a while.


    “I’m bored. God help me, Annie, I’m so bored.”


    “Just keep sitting in that chair. If you manage to get a piloting skill, you’ll cut days off our travel.”


    “I already told you I don’t understand anything on these screens.”


    Annie was insistent that every second he spent in the captain’s chair came with a small but real chance he’d gain a piloting skill, which was apparently distinct from him being a Bound Captain. The skill he already possessed had to do with binding his levels to Annie’s capabilities, and had nothing to do with amplifying them any further from that baseline.


    For that entire day, she had him contemplating a dozen screens that were, to his uneducated eye, no better than pure, unfiltered nonsense. If Annie said it had a chance of giving him a skill, it probably did. Given that there was no limit on the number of class-relevant skills someone could get, it would be an incredible upside with no downside. It hadn’t happened yet, though, which meant he was going out of his head with boredom.


    “Sigh.” Annie pronounced the word. Nick did not correct her. “You might as well do something different, now. I’d imagine you aren’t even trying to understand it, now. That’s no good.”


    “Different like what? I’ve already looked out every window.”


    “You have a hybrid class, Right? Heavy on the path? Well, get walking already.”


    Nick didn’t know how to do that, but he didn’t say so because it didn’t matter. Every path was different, even the same path as experienced by two different people. He didn’t know exactly what that meant besides what the system’s beginner’s guidebook said about it, and that wasn’t exactly detailed.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>


    <b>Class Types</b>


    System-granted classes come from a variety of different heritages, built from different foundations. Every class typ follows a few common rules, and no type is correctly thought of as superior to another. Instead, they simply manifest the same general rates of growth in strength and capabilities while accessing that growth and progress in different ways.


    <b>Work-based Classes</b>


    Sometimes referred to as Grinding or Questing classes, work-based classes grant progress based on individual accomplishments. Every monster they slay or sword they craft creates a distinct portion of accumulation that pushes them forward towards their next level. Their strength can be accurately estimated by simply looking a their current level, which in turn accurately reflects the experiences and dangers they have faced.


    The most relevant exception to that kind of estimation comes in the form of titles, which acknowledge certain very rare or very difficult accomplishments by granting stats and capabilities beyond what their level implies.


    A person holding a work-based class will find their strength grows most when they consistently push themselves to defeat the toughest foes or create the most exceptional items, especially when they do so in the greatest quantity possible.


    <b>Path-based classes</b>


    Differing in their method of progression from work-based classes, path based classes generally advance based on insight into the class itself. As a path-based class holder moves around the universe, they can use their own observations and experiences to pursue understanding, which in turn pushes their class forward.


    Estimating the strength of a pure path-based class is a more difficult task than determining the strength of a level-based class. Though their power still receives a system estimate in the form of levels, how they perform at any given level can vary wildly depending on how much they’ve practiced and meditated on their skills, their philosophy, and their goals.


    Work is still very much a part of path based classes, just as practice and thought can be part of a work-based class. Advancing in a path based class is often a process of absorption and digestion of experiences. Often, the fastest growth of a pathed class comes after some period of hardship, danger, or especially relevant experience.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Seeking out experiences and allotting an appropriate amount of time and effort to thinking on them is vital to the continued progress of a pathed class. While tutelage and guidance can be a benefit to those with a pathed class, any teaching that moves them further from their own path in favor of someone else’s comes with a risk of stalling or even setting back their own understanding.


    <b>Hybrid Classes</b>


    Representing a slow drift to unifying the two major types of classes, hybrid classes benefit both from hoarding accomplishments and from meditating on them. The hybrid class holder benefits in an absolute way from accomplishments, just as a work-based class might. They also benefit from the understanding those accomplishments drive, just as a path based class holder would.


    The exact balance of these two sources of growth differs between each hybrid class.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    If all Nick needed was general understanding, these descriptions would have been great. Now that he was in the worst explained category of class and his survival depended on understanding it better, he found them utterly wanting.


    Flawed as they were, they still gave him some guidance on what to do here. Avoiding Annie’s directions would benefit him, even if she clearly knew more than he did. He had to do the work himself.


    He took his knife in hand and started swiping with it. Even with his class feeding him information on how to hold the weapon and strike, it still felt awkward. He hadn’t been a knife fighter back on Earth, which hadn’t seemed weird at all there. He now wished he had at least taken a few self defense classes, or something. He needed to understand as much as possible as soon as possible and he had almost no experience to feed into that process.


    After playing with the knife a bit, things still started to get a little better. Pulling his gun was a big part of that. He couldn’t shoot it inside, but it still reminded him that he’d be holding that weapon in his right hand if he wanted any chance of hitting his targets at all. That meant the knife would have to be in his left hand, which got him thinking about what he’d do with it when it was there.


    Nick imagined a stink wraith was coming for him, something that was easy enough to do after fighting thousands of the things. With enemies like the wraiths, the best thing to do would be to shoot them while they were far away. If there were a lot of them, he doubted he could do that. In that case, he’d have to either kill them with his knife or at least keep them far enough away that he could still use his gun effectively.


    “Keep the knife forward. That’s simple enough. The gun is doing the work, and the knife is giving it space. Easy.”


    Except it wasn’t. Coordinating knife-slashes with gunfire was hard. Doing anything with his knife made doing anything with his gun difficult, and he kept finding himself either clubbing at pretend monsters with the barrel of his gun or aiming his knife like it could fire projectiles. It was hard work just to keep from accidentally slashing his gun arm with his knife when he tried to do more than that.


    For now, he’d be choosing between one type of attack or the other, and he couldn’t imagine that was how it was supposed to work.


    Nick stopped moving and thought more about that. He had seen enough movies to know what this all should look like. He’d slash and dodge, then fire his gun at point blank range. He’d hit someone''s eyes to make them move back as he dove behind cover then unloaded on his target. It would all flow.


    Best of all, he’d always have an option. Once he got his long gun, he could use it to shoot things from far away. As things closed in he could drop it and use his revolver, keeping his knife up until they got to melee range. Depending on what he was fighting, he could lean on the option that worked best. It wouldn’t be like a swordsman, who had to take face-fulls of stink wraith juice because they could only fight one way. He could fight however he wanted, whenever he wanted.


    Or at least he could if he could just work out the problem of being an uncoordinated slob. Frustrated about that one limitation, he decided to give up and just think about what could be, if he could just pull off all the flips and spins he couldn’t do. If he could stab someone in front of him while shooting someone else under his arm without even looking.


    This went on for a while. The only thing that stopped it was the system itself surprising him with a reward he had no idea he was earning.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>


    <b>Essential Class Concept Discovery</b>


    Through meditation, you have discovered and solidified your connection with the concept of Freedom. A strong resonance with the concept is present in both your class and your own psychological make-up, indicating a clear compatibility with your personal path.


    The simple ideas of being able to go where you like and of doing what you like once you get there are only small facets of freedom, a casual understanding that puts only the barest of scratches on the surface of the subject.


    Your contemplation of the concept has granted you some progress towards a new class skill. As you continue to ponder freedom, you may discover related sub-concepts that open new doors to progress in distinct, related directions.


    While this concept has been automatically linked to your class, the decision of whether or not to pursue understanding of freedom is fundamentally yours. There are no direct, guaranteed downsides to choosing to abstain from further meditations on freedom.


    The initial discovery of this concept has added five points to your quick stat.


    <b>New Skill Development In Progress</b>


    You have taken the first steps in the development of a new skill, which will for the time being be represented in your status as a series of question marks. A developing skill has an uncertain form. It may become a variety of different things depending on the situations you encounter and the choices you make during its creation.


    No direct guidance on how to complete the skill or what eventual form it will take is possible. Over time, continued meditations or activities like those that led to your current state of progress have a high likelihood of completing the skill.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    “Woo!” Nick yelled, pumping his fist. “Woohoo! I did it.”


    “Oh, you are awake. I wondered how long you’d sleep.”


    “Sleep? I wasn’t asleep. I was thinking.”


    “For eight hours?”


    Nick blinked.


    “Wait, I was thinking for eight hours? No wonder I got a class concept.”


    “YOU DID WHAT?”