It took a moment for the beasts to notice it as well, so the first warning that something was off came from the group behind them.
"Look up." Ophelia called, while the others froze, unsure what to do in this situation, as the apparition might be a good thing.
Karl was wondering what to do when suddenly the mage behind him simply vanished.
That brought everyone's guards up, but Karl held up a hand for them to stop. "I don't think he's injured. There is an inscription to the World Dragon on the stone, and I think that it might be System related." He warned them.
The apparition over his head was becoming more solid, but he didn't sense any danger from it, as if it was just an illusion, and not an actual spell effect.
Then, words began to appear in Karl's vision.
[System Active. Checking Compatibility.]
[Checking Qualifications]
[Checking Eligibility]
[First Advancement Trial Completed]
[Upgrade Compatible Skills Found]
Then Karl's vision went dark, and he heard Rae laughing in his mind. [Now you're both gone. But don't worry, I'm calming down the others.] She informed him in an amused tone.
[You are calming down the others?]
[Oh, ye of little faith. I have a transformation toy too, and I am much better at this than Hawk.]
Karl got a mental glimpse of her from Remi's point of view, looking very much like Morgana, the Witch Doctor, in an elaborately decorated black gothic dress and cloak with a face veil and gloves. Except Rae appeared to be larger, as all of the humans present were shorter than the mental image Karl got before his attention was drawn back to the vision in front of him. Only Ophelia's Werebear form, at well over two metres, was taller than she was.
There were ten copies of Karl standing in front of him, each wearing a slightly different set of armour. Some were carrying weapons, some were not, and one appeared to have on cleric robes over the armour, while holding a staff with an Ankh.
That one reminded him a little of Orthos, the Bronze Dragon.
A floating message appeared over the clones, and a stone room appeared, so they no longer seemed to be floating in the void.
[Class Upgrade Options] The message read.
Karl turned to the one in the robes, and activated the system overlay that he normally ignored for its lack of information on people and creatures without system access.
[Beast Cleric] A disciple of the Beast Gods. Gains access to advanced regeneration and Holy Magic.
That wasn't bad at all. But Karl had an important question.
"Do I lose the skills that I already have if I change?" He asked the void, hoping for a response.
[Class Changes affect future advancement paths.]
Hopefully, that was a 'no'.
Karl checked the other images to see what he could learn.
[Divine Hunter] gains a bonus with bow skills. Adds Holy Damage to attacks.
[Ghost Ranger] Uses Ghostfire to create smoke and mist based stealth skills. Gains a bonus on all surprise attacks.
[Beast Avatar] Allows merger with a Spirit Animal to increase the effect of known skills.
Those were all of the ranger looking options, and none of them were particularly appealing to Karl.
However, they were all supposed to be an upgrade to the Beast Master class that he already had, so perhaps they had some special skills that would make them worth it?
Karl checked the Ghost Ranger Class image closest to him and found that while the skill tree was hidden, he could at least see the Class's Core Skills.
[Ghostfire Mist] Appears as pale smoke in a cloud, engulfing a 10m radius from the caster. This mist enhances all other Ghostfire skills, and may be converted to [Ghostfire Purgatory] once the skill is known.
[Ghost Body] Ghostfire Stealth ability that allows the user to become incorporeal while within the Ghostfire Mist, passing through solid objects so long as the user's body touches the mist on both sides at once.
Well, those skills were certainly better than what Karl had been expecting. But neither of them was really his style, and they didn't help his team much unless the Emperor found out that he accidentally freed Leafa. If that was the case, a good hiding spot and a way out of prison were going to be at the top of his priority list.
There was a theme to these advanced classes, Karl noticed. They all appeared to be related to a skill that he or his team knew. The Beast Cleric should be from Eternal Lightning, Ghostfire was a new innate Skill to Hawk, and when he inspected the Beast Avatar, which could merge with a Spirit Beast, he found that its lone initial skill was [Beast Space], the core of the Beast Master's ability to bond beasts.
That one certainly wouldn't be much of an upgrade for Karl, but the ability to merge with one of the team members might be.
Then there were whatever skills were still locked away in the Skill Tree.
The next few were the same way. Not quite what he was looking for. Many of them seemed like Classes that were meant for Warriors, Rogues or Mages who had an affinity for animals. Mostly, they allowed the user to get the basic Beast Space along with a bonus that suited another class.
That left only three options for him to check. The first was [Beast Shaman] which Karl feared was going to be like the others, but actually added Shaman Magic to someone who could already use Beast Master type skills.
The Core Skills of the class were simple.
[Totems] allows the Beast Shaman to create healing, regeneration and earthquake versions of the Totem. Maximum 2 Totems, effect doubles with every Rank.
[Weather Control] The Beast Shaman may create [Thunderstorm] [Blizzard] or [Sandstorm] effects up to 10 metres per Rank in Radius around the designated point.
It was a good class, but he already had a Remi.
The Second last class option was [Beast Noble]. The description for that one was just as simple.
[The Beast Noble gains the ability of {Mental Domination}, to control beasts under their Rank for the duration of their concentration. Up to 2 Beasts per Rank difference.]
It would let him simply order Commander Rank beasts to stop attacking, or join his team, as long as he focused on the skill. That could be useful, but it felt an awful lot like a sleazy cheat ability.
So, Karl turned to the final Class option, to see if there was anything at all which might be worth choosing. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, that much was obvious. But if all the options were trash, or simply not suited to his personality, it might be an opportunity that came when he was unable to grasp it properly.
The description said that this would be his way forward, implying that whatever skills he hadn't taken from Beast Master's skill tree would be unavailable.
He had almost all the good ones, but there were still the Tier 4 offensive skills to choose from.
The final Class option was [Beast Commander]. The Class skill allowed him to bond one extra beast, and to bond new beasts when one was killed or released.
That also wasn't a bad class, in theory. For a combat soldier, it would be an incredible Class, as they might lose combat beasts in battle, and need to replace them.
But Karl had no intentions of losing any friends, beast or otherwise.
With a sigh of resignation, Karl sat down to consider his options. There had to be something to one of these classes that he was missing. Something that would make it worth taking.