Kai wasn't sure how long had passed by the time he woke up, all he knew was that he was weaker now than before he went to sleep.
At least this time his soul hadn't been shattered, it was only that all of his stats were halved, this time for a little over four days.
It wasn't too bad thought. He and Cecilia were temporarily safe. They could take their time digging out of here.
What Kai was worried about though, was Petunia. The young girl was out there by herself and he wasn't sure how she would manage.
Well, not exactly by herself, she had Remy, and she also had Esurient as Kai hadn't recalled the blade so it could go out and protect Petunia while they were in here.
It wasn't exactly a bad situation, it was just that it would slow them down for a little while.
Sighing to himself, Kai cracked his neck and let his fingertip light up once more. He felt well refreshed after sleeping, albeit he was weaker, he didn't feel too bad.
And it was only after the cave was lit up in the dim violet light once more did Kai realise that Cecilia had woken up, and that she was staring directly at him, a sorry look in her eyes.
One that Kai wasn't exactly sure the meaning of?
"What... is it?"
Cecilia flinched, making Kai wonder why she hadn't been expecting him to ask her anything.
"I'm... sorry, for making you worry."
Kai sighed and lowered his head guiltily. There was no need for Cecilia to be apologising, he had gotten them into this mess by being cocky and overconfident. He had believed that just because the Polar Demon was a lower level than usual that it would be an easy fight.
The current situation was a result of that overconfident.
"There's no need for you to be apologising, you nearly died because of me. In fact, I would have died if it wasn't for you, if anything, I should be saying sorry to you and thanking you."
Cecilia bit her lower lip softly, her hands gripping onto the thick fabric of her winter coat.
"Yeah, but the only reason we ended up fighting that... thing was because you wanted me to reach level 10. And the only reason you got hurt in the first place is because you were trying to protect me."
Two very different sides of the same story, and yet Kai couldn't help but think that he was still the one in the wrong.
So he would have to figure out a way to make it up to her.
But that would have to go on hold, because now it was time for Cecilia to pick a class.
Well, and a skill, but a class selection was always cooler.
"So... What are you going to pick first?"
Cecilia looked up at Kai nervously, her hands fidgeting with the hem of her coat.
"I'm not sure, what do you think I should pick first?"
Shrugging in response, Kai answered the question as simply as he could.
"I picked my skill first because I thought that it could impact the options for my class. It didn't end up happening, but I just found picking the skill first to be more fun."
After closing his mouth, Kai realised that he had actually forgotten to ask about something that had happened a while back.
"Now that I think about it, I never actually asked you what skill you got at level five."
Stopping fidgeting, Cecilia's eyes moved from left to right, as if reading over something. Once she had finished reading she spoke.
"Oh, it was a simple skill, it just gives a boost to my flexibility, especially in my fingers."
Kai nodded. It made sense that Cecilia would pick a skill like that, considering that Mana Threads were her whole thing.
But he was still a little jealous. He would have loved a skill like that, something like increasing the strength of his body or something. He obviously had his boosting skills, but he would also just love some sort of passive skill that would make him a little tougher, considering that he was treated like a ragdoll when fighting the Polar Demon.
"Well, I'd say pick your skill first, but its up to you in the end. I'm not sure would anything change if you pick your class first, like would you get offered a skill that suits your class, just you do you."
Cecilia nodded, going over the two options in her head before deciding.
"Alright, I'll pick my skill first, I'll read them all out and you tell me what to pick."
Kai blinked and stared at her blankly.
"Why?"
Now it was Cecilia's turn to blink.
"Why pick my skill first? Well, you also picked your skill first, so I assumed-"
"No, I just mean why tell me all of the options, just pick whatever skill you think would work for you."
Cecilia opened her mouth, as if to say something, but she ended up holding back in favour of just getting on with the skill selection.
"You can tell me how many skills you got offered though..."
After watching her eyes move from left to right once more, Kai got his answer a moment later.
"Five."
Kai inwardly cursed. He had only been offered four back when he had done this skill selection, and he never got to figure out how many he actually got when he was to pick his second class as the system ended up picking for him.
Cecilia was over fifty levels below him and she had already beaten his record of skills offered.
And due to the fact she had been offered five skills, it took a while for her to get through all of them.
... There must have been some particularly incredible skills, considering that her eyes kept lighting up whenever they were looking right, at the end of a sentence.
Minutes passed in which Kai patiently waited for Cecilia to make her choice. He still had to recover anyway, so it's not like he was in any real rush.
Until, finally, Cecilia had made her choice and selected a skill.
Watching her exhale, Kai waited a moment before speaking out.
"So... what did you pick?"
Cecilia smiled happily, meaning she must've gotten a pretty good skill to be that happy.
"It's a Rare skill that allows me to infuse my body with my Mana, making it more respondent to external Mana and makes weaving my Mana Threads easier."
Why couldn't Kai have gotten this lucky back when he was going through his first selection? Although Contract of Artemis had ended up being the best skill he could have ever hoped for and was now a staple of all his abilities, back then there was no guarantee that it would end up being incredible. There was also the fact it was limited to a single beast, and Kai wasn't sure how exactly to upgrade it to allow him to contract another creature.
But now that Cecilia had selected her skill, it was time to move onto the very reason they had gone through all of this. All of the fighting, all of the scouting, all of it had led up to this very moment.
It was time for Cecilia to pick her class.
Kai would be lying if he said he wasn't excited. Sure he had other companions back in the Tutorial, but Sofia was the only one who had mentioned anything about her class, that class being an Astral Archer.
Hell, that class sounded absolutely incredible, especially when tied in with the fact she had that outstanding Innate Ability that Failure said could unlock other abilities.
Still, Kai was very happy with his own Innate Ability, especially considering the fact that it had unlimited possibilities, just he was too inexperience to actually control it.
He looked forward to the day he was actually able to control what creatures powers he borrowed, other than Umbra and the occasional use of the seed growing in his soul.
But now that Cecilia was picking her class, Kai chose to remain silent as not to distract her. He watched as her eyes moved from left to right, eagerly taking in every word, her eyes shining so brightly that it reminded Kai of a child on Christmas.
Hell, with all the snow combined with the fact that he had no idea what day it actually was, maybe it was Christmas.
Kai wasn't sure if this was a good or bad way to spend the holiday, trapped in a cave with Cecilia.
... It wasn't exactly bad to be honest.
But just as that thought had entered Kai's mind, it quickly vanished as the sound of Cecilia's voice brought him back to reality.
"Okay. I picked my class."
Kai nodded, also eager to find out what she had picked.
"So... What class did you pick? What's it called."
Cecilia took a deep breath before finally saying the name of the class she had chosen.
"Mana Weaver."