The sun lazily rose over the horizon, painting the still-sleeping village of Fibela orange and blue. Inside a small room within a small house, a young boy paced around and frantically went over the items laid out on his bed for the sixth time.

"I have my armor, my sword and dagger, five days worth of rations in case we get very seriously lost, a cape to keep me warm at night, also in case we get horribly lost..."

Ney was overdoing it. The visit to the shrine in the nearby forest was a yearly event, and no one had ever gotten lost on the way there or back. At worst, they'd meet a few monsters, but veteran adventurers were always watching over the group.

Despite this, he wanted to be ready for any and all possibilities. There were a few things he was aware he couldn't adequately prepare for, such as a dragon attack, but he could at least make sure he wouldn't die of cold, thirst and hunger should he somehow lose his way while following the track he had walked several times already.

The young boy stuffed everything in a large backpack before getting dressed, putting on undecorated linen clothes, leather boots, and a belt. He wanted to look good on this special day, so he combed his unruly black hair as best he could and used a small razor, a gift from his dad, to get rid of the sparse beard that now called his chin, neck and upper lip home. Before leaving the room, he splashed water on his face in an attempt to relax his nervous expression, without success.

He entered the home's main living space just as his mother lit up the fireplace with a basic spark spell. Hailing from a village far to the north, she had blonde hair and pale blue eyes uncharacteristic for people living in this province, as well as a surprising resistance to the winter cold. Ney had inherited her eyes, granting him an appearance that stood out compared to his peers, a source of pride for him.

Surprised by the large backpack he was hauling, his mother asked:

"Where are you going like this? I thought today was your visit to the shrine."

He nodded before explaining:

"It is, but I want to make sure I'm ready for anything that could happen."

"What do you... Uh, whatever. Drop your bag somewhere and come help me prepare breakfast, will you?"

Realizing that leaving without eating was a bad idea, and that he had gotten up so early that he didn't have to hurry, Ney agreed to his mother's request. Together, they toasted slices of bread on which they melted some cheese.

Handing over an extra portion to her son, the mother said:

"Go bring this to your dad, he has a big day today so he's already getting the forge ready."

The forge wasn't very far, so Ney decided to leave his bag home and come back later for it. He set out, following a path very familiar to him.

It was now late enough for the village to be properly awake, with various people waving to him or wishing him good morning as he walked down the dirt road leading to the artisan plaza. Farmers were getting ready for another day in the fields, while their wives were hard at work washing clothes in time to catch the midday sun for drying. The sounds of animals being let out in the fields echoed through the village, accompanied by the singing of the various tools and machines waking up inside the artisans' workshops.

Ney's dad was the village blacksmith, with a physique to match. With broad shoulders and powerful arms, an apron covered in soot, several hammers hanging at his belt, and a few burn scars on his hands, he looked right at home next to an anvil.

Unwrapping the bread and cheesed he was carrying, Ney entered the forge, making sure to not disturb his dad as the latter cast several spells on the forge to help with temperature and airflow control. After making sure that everything was in order, he turned towards his son and said:

"Thanks for bringing me breakfast. Ready for your big day?"

"As ready as I can be!"

"Good, good. And don't forget what I taught you: it doesn't matter what skill you get from the shrine, you can still make it just fine as an adventurer."

"You keep repeating that like you expect me to get something borderline useless. I should at least get something average, right?"

"You never know with these things. I already told you about my friend who gave up on his dreams after getting a skill he didn't like, so I won't go over it again... I just don't want to see you come back home in the state he was at the time. I know you have it in you, no matter what."

"Thanks, dad... I'm really nervous because I have no clue what I might get, but you're right, it doesn't have to matter all that much. I'll come back with my head held high, no matter what!"

The father's expression softened as he looked at his son, now of age to receive a special skill and become an adventurer. In his eyes, time had passed too fast. He wasn't ready to see his only child leave the nest, but he had to accept that Ney had reached that point in his life.

"I'm proud of you. I have to get to work now, so see you tonight, okay?"

"Yep, see you tonight!"

Ney reached the village plaza early, but his teacher was already there. She was a retired adventurer who had moved back to Fibela after completing her last dungeon. She then took on the role of teacher for the children who wished to become adventurers, an adequate way of countering monotony.

A quick glance at her student confirmed her fear, and she quickly voiced her disapproval:

"Ney, we're not going on an expedition here! Go get rid of that bag and come back with gear appropriate for the task at hand. How many times am I going to have to explain that being too prepared is detrimental to an adventurer?"

He knew she was right, of course. Carrying too much material would slow the group down and tire them faster, potentially putting them further in danger, but he could never shake off the unease that came with carrying just the appropriate amount of supplies. There was no point in arguing, however, so he turned around and brought the bag back home. He had at least tried.

By the time he came back, most of the other students had arrived. Animated conversations now filled the plaza, the future adventurers discussing what they hoped to get from the shrine and skills they would hate to receive. A small crowd of villagers had also formed, mostly composed of younger children interested in the process of becoming an adventurer, their parents, and the elders interested in seeing for themselves what fate had in store for the next generation.

It only took a few more minutes for the last remaining students to arrive, prompting the group to depart and enter the forest. Ney had become familiar with the path to the shrine, having watched the previous cohorts receive their skills, but this procession felt much more solemn now that his turn had come.

The villagers reached the shrine as the sun approached its zenith. In a clearing stood a stone monument, formed of a stela surrounded by eight pillars, all of it covered in moss and vines. The flow of magic around the structure was palpable, even to the untrained senses of the students. The sounds of the forest were calmer than usual, nature itself showing respect to the gods' handiwork.

The teacher led her students to the stela while giving them a final set of instructions. While it was all things they had heard before, none of them dared ignore her.

A few minutes later, the first future adventurer touched the stela, causing blue energy to light up around her. Words slowly formed on the stone slab, in a language none present could read, as the flow of magic between the monument and the girl intensified. The text began moving, climbing up her arm, causing her eyes to glow in response. The energy around the clearing started swirling, faster and faster, turning into a blue fog as it enveloped her in a roiling mass of magic.

And then, everything was calm again. The process ended abruptly, leaving the girl confused as she stared at the stela.

"I didn't get any..."

Her eyes grew wide in surprise as she felt information flowing into her mind, describing the new skill. After a moment, she snapped out of it and said:

"I got... poison immunity."

A murmur spread through the crowd. Skills that granted any kind of immunity were highly sought-after by adventurers, and poison immunity in particular was seen as the greatest of them all. This was a great start to her career.

The teacher patted the girl's back as she walked down the monument, then called:

"Neyilei, your turn."

His nervosity spiked, but so did his excitement. He felt like he could only be disappointed if he expected to get something as powerful as poison immunity, but he nonetheless hoped that the shrine was currently on a generous streak. He walked forward, bowed to the stela, and put his hand on it.

Nothing happened at first. The air stood still as everyone present held their breath, wondering why the monument remained dormant. The nearby critters turned silent as the invisible flow of energy became heavy and oppressive, causing everyone present to fear that the shrine would, for the first time, reject a candidate. Ney himself started doubting that he'd get anything at all.

Just as he was about to pull his hand back, the stela stirred, and text written in golden light appeared on it. The clearing filled up with a gentle glow, calming the spectators. It was their first time seeing gold on the stela, but their hearts remained at peace under the influence of the ambient magic.

Ney, however, was panicking. The text that was now crawling up his arm hurt like nothing he had ever felt before, and his hand was glued to the monument, impossible to move away anymore. He hadn't heard anything about the process causing any kind of pain, so what was going on!?

He tried to scream, but the sound remained firmly locked in his chest. He tried to walk back, but his body wouldn't respond. As the pain intensified, his only option was to close his eyes and grit his teeth, waiting for it to be over.

Time slowed down as the text moved up his arm, eventually reaching his chest. He felt a strong, suffocating pressure as the searing pain intensified once more. Tears welled up in his eyes as his consciousness wavered. He didn't know what would happen if he fainted, but it likely was his only way out of this situation. He still tried to remain awake, to see the process to the end, but a sudden jolt of energy going through his body caused him to finally let go. He plunged into the sweet embrace of nothingness, the pain that had spread through his whole body slowly fading away.

Ney woke up to the sound of the wind passing through the leaves of the tall trees that surrounded him. He was laying down on a picnic cloth and could hear other people talking and laughing around him, but his dry mouth and sore limbs distracted him from their conversations. He pushed himself up while carefully checking that his his had gone back to responding to his will. Now sitting, he could see that various families, as well as the other students, sharing meals and talking about the skills that everyone had received. He almost jumped when he noticed his teacher sitting right next to him. She smiled and handed a waterskin to him.

"I didn't know how long you'd stay passed out, but looks like you'll be fine to have lunch with us."

Ney accepted the waterskin and took a few long gulps before finally responding:

"What... even happened to me?"

"No clue. I was hoping you'd tell us. Did you get a skill, at least?"

"Right, a skill..."

With everything that had happened to him, he had almost forgotten his reason for coming in the first place. He focused in a way he had done a few times before, reaching deep within himself to trigger a flow of information towards his conscious mind. After a few seconds, it finally revealed itself:

Name: Neyilei Inferd

Class: None

Level: 7

Attributes:

• Strength: 19
• Agility: 12
• Magic: 4
• Spirit: 5
• Vitality: 20
• Toughness: 8
• Stamina: 16
• Luck: 10

Skills:

• Power Strike
• Second Wind
• Common Magic
• Enhanced Vitality I
• Enhanced Class Change

His level and a few of his attributes had gone up since his last check, but his attention quickly moved to the [Enhanced Class Change] that now appeared among the information. He had no doubt that this was from the monument. Focusing on the skill, he caused a new stream of information to enter his mind:

Enhanced Class Change

Rarity: Mythic
Type: Passive

Upon changing class, resets all spent Attribute Points, allowing them to be spent again. Additionally, expands the range of unlockable classes.

Ney went over the description a few times, unsure of what to make of it. The skill claimed to be of "Mythic" rarity, something he didn't even know existed, and affected his Attribute Points, of which he currently had none. He also thought that the second statement was far too vague to get excited about.

Seeing her student deep in thought, the teacher urged him:

"So, anything interesting?"

"I... really am not sure. I got something called 'Enhanced Class Change', but I don't have any idea how good it really is. Says it's a Mythic skill though."

Ney's teacher was stunned. Mythic-rarity skills were so impossibly hard to obtain that she intentionally left them out of her teachings, and one of her own students was now walking around with one, oblivious as to the implications. After regaining some composure, she asked:

"You... are you sure it says 'Mythic'?"

"No doubt about it, yeah. Do you know where it stands on the rarity scale?"

"The vast majority of adventurers will come across a single Legendary skill over the course of their entire career, whether because they have it themselves or because a party member does. For this reason, I didn't teach you further, but... Mythic skills are the next step up, an order of magnitude more powerful than Legendary ones."

"Wait, really!?"

Ney's interest in his new skill grew stronger. If his teacher was reacting this way, then it had to be extremely powerful in some way, even if it wasn't providing any immediate benefits to him. After thinking for a moment, the teacher found a good way to express the difference in power:

"Legendary skills often become the central pillar of an adventuring team's strategy. Being able to negate all damage for a short time, heal any wound no matter how severe, stop time for a few hits, or prevent any spellcasting in a small area, these are all powers that made the success of now-famous adventuring parties. These groups would find ways to maximize the benefits these Legendary skills could provide by crafting powerful tactics that made use of them. By comparison, a country's entire military strategy might be formulated around a single Mythic skill. They're that powerful."

Her student remained silent for a moment, trying to visualize the difference in scale between the two ranks, without much success. From that description, Mythic skills seemed like they could only be incomprehensibly powerful.

"That's... incredible. But my skill only allows me to spend my Attribute Points again when I change class. I'd rather be able to stop time, honestly."

"Ah! It's true that, at first glance, getting some benefits when changing class doesn't seem to be on the same level as other known Mythic skills, but there's probably something in there that makes it truly powerful. At the very least, you have the opportunity to become the most versatile adventurer to have ever lived. It's probably worth it to see where that takes you, mh?"

A glimmer of hope lit back up in Ney's eyes.

"You're right! I'll take the plunge and make full use of this power, and see how I grow as an adventurer from there. Thank you for everything!"

"I'm glad I could help."

The walk back to the village was uneventful, but full of the anticipation created by the newly-acquired skills. This yearly event was, for all intents and purposes, the graduation ceremony of the village's future adventurers. Over the next few days, the eight students of the year's cohort would leave their homes behind and travel to the city of Lucria, where they would officially register as adventurers.

Seeing as one of her students now had a Mythic skill, the teacher took the opportunity to give a very brief crash source on this additional rarity to the class during the walk. While this piqued the interest of Ney's classmates, they unanimously agreed that his skill, despite the obvious usefulness, seemed too weak to be worthy of the label. However, this new knowledge sent everyone's imagination running, leading to animated discussions about what kind of super-powerful abilities might exist out there.

Ney's optimism and enthusiasm quickly flared back up during the conversations. The more he thought about it, the more confident he felt that [Enhanced Class Change] hid some secret from him, and he was determined to bring it to light.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, the group made it back to their homes. After recounting the day's events to his astonished parents over dinner, Ney went to bed, the exhaustion of the day successfully countering his excitement and dragging him to sleep.