Class: [Demonic Dealmaker]

  Soul Development:

  Soul Power: 0

  Soul Shell: 0

  Ether: 10

  Mana channels: 10

  Mana Core: 0

  Perks: [Silver Tongue]

  Skills: [Deal With the Devil]

  Interesting. Now it lists all the parts.

  She focused her attention on Ether, and a list opened up.

  Available Ether advancements:

  [Natural Weapon] cost: 2 Ether

  Skill, physical, offensive

  Manifest or retract sharp claws, teeth, and/or horns. The manifested parts are comparable in strength to steel, and muscles related to utilising them are empowered.

  [Leathery Wings] cost: 6 Ether

  Skill, physical, movement

  Manifest or retract leathery wings large enough to allow flight. The wings have the texture and toughness of thick leather.

  [Glamour] cost: 8 Ether

  Skill, physical, illusion

  Through a combination of minor shapeshifting and illusion, take on a different appearance. The disguise must be actively maintained, and its accuracy will be diminished the more it differs from your actual appearance.

  System, will the other options remain after I purchase one?

  Advancements will remain available unless they cease to fit your personal legend. New options will be presented as you follow your personal legend.

  So it works like they taught me normal advancements work. And there was that "personal legend" again.

  There were many theories on what the System meant by the term, but it seemed to be something both related to one's destiny and personal preferences at once. People who have advanced to the point of evolving their Class would sometimes drop hints as to what helped them follow their legend, but it turned out that it was too personalised for others' advice to help much. In any case, figuring out her personal legend was important if Claire wanted to advance to any significant degree.

  Now, show me the Mana Channels options.

  Available Mana Channels advancements:

  [Mark of the Beast] cost: 6 Mana Channels

  Skill, spiritual, buff

  Invest a sixth of your maximum mana into an entity, proportionally enhancing their mind, body, or soul. The spell leaves a small physical mark of the shape and in the spot of your choosing on the target for as long as the spell persists. If given freely, you can revoke the mark and end the spell remotely at any time.

  [Background Check] cost: 3 Mana Channels

  Skill, mental

  Examine the mind of a nearby entity for signs of mental influence, both mundane and magical, to determine whether they are conscious enough to consent to contracts.

  [Arbitration] cost: 4 Mana Channels

  Augment for [Deal with the Devil]

  You no longer have to be an active party to officiate a contract.

  She wasn't expecting an augment option so soon. Then again, since the System provided options based on her "personal legend", it probably took her circumstances into account, and she was in a position where [Arbitration] would be extremely helpful for a permanent job prospects. She could go from being Draxon's contractor to contract officiator.

  Now that she knew all of her options, it was time to make some choices.

  The Ether category was basically immediately solved for her. She would take [Glamour]. Changing her appearance was one of her number one priorities in life. Even if it would be temporary, she wanted to be able to snap her fingers and look like she felt on the inside.

  She wasn't sure whether to purchase [Natural Weapon] with the left over ether, though. Sure, self defence was important, but she wasn't planning to do any sort of Breach work, and if any combat specialists were trying to fight her, the Skill wouldn't do much against them. "As strong as steel" wouldn't cut it against people who could withstand hordes of monsters on the regular.

  So she held off on that for now, waiting to see if new options appeared.

  You have obtained the skill [Glamour]. -8 Ether.

  No new option showed up after she bought the Skill, so she moved on.

  The other category was a much tougher decision. [Background Check] would be extremely useful if she ever got mental manipulation abilities, which she was planning to do at some point. Not to make people into thralls! Just to deescalate conflicts or getting through to stubborn people who couldn't listen to reason. True mind control that took a person over permanently was almost impossible, anyway. There were either spells that provided a subtle effect that was more of a "guiding hand" that could last up to few days, or ones that would overwhelm someone for a few minutes tops, usually by evoking a strong emotion like rage. Either way, minds were resilient and only prolonged or very strong stimuli could permanently alter them.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  And, as it turned out, mind magic had another shortcoming: it could not be used to make someone sign a deal with her. The Skill description implied there was some flexibility, so something like her Perk would probably be subtle enough to not count as impairing someone's judgement.

  [Mark of the Beast] was the one she was considering the most. It was a general-purpose buff that lasted as long as it needed to, which made for a perfect bargaining chip for her future contracts. Sell someone a month of use of it in exchange for a few SP, maybe. The Skill also scaled with her mana reserves, which was good for its longevity as a product. Plus, she noticed the description stated that the target had to be an entity rather than another entity. She could place the mark on herself if she needed a sudden boost. The only downside was that she could only have six marks at a time. Well, five in practice, as she needed to have at least a bit of mana free to make contracts and such.

  [Arbitration], as she'd already considered, was also great for her career prospects. Right now, she had to be involved in a significant capacity in a deal for her Skill to work. She wasn't sure of the limits of that restriction, but her gut feeling told her that merely getting paid for officiating the contract wasn't enough to qualify her as an "active party".

  In the end, she decided to take both [Mark of the Beast] and [Arbitration]. She reasoned that [Background Check] wouldn't become all that useful until she had her own mind tricks to measure with it.

  You have obtained the Skill [Mark of the Beast]. -6 Mana Channels.

  You have augmented [Deal with the Devil] with [Arbitration]. -4 Mana Channels.

  Okay, now I have a bunch of stuff to test. She was the most eager to experiment with [Glamour], so she went to the bathroom to use the sink mirror.

  First, she shaved her face. The less details she had to alter, the easier the spell would be. She should have shaved in the morning anyway.

  The use of Skills was instinctual. She merely had to pour mana into the part or her soul that housed [Glamour], which was easy enough to locate, and think of the changes she wanted.

  Let's start with the acne scars.

  She watched as the miniature craters in her face disappeared in real time.

  Okay, let's see what else I want. Lips fuller, lift them a bit. Let's end the chin higher than this. The brows thinner, more uniform. Move a bit of the fat from the bottom of the face up to the cheeks.

  Slowly, her face took on a shape she felt more suited her. She still had the pudgy quality, but she never had problems with her weight. She was fine with looking fat, as long as she looked like a fat woman.

  She was about to start working on her silhouette, but she finally felt the Skill strain her mind. It took a bit of concentration for the features to stay as she wanted them to.

  The Skill did say it has to be maintained. Oh well, this is more than ove ever had, anyway. I can work on more when I develop my soul some more.

  She looked into the mirror one last time. She loved the face she sculpted for herself, and was loathe to end the spell and return to her baseline. She knew however that she would run out or mana at some point anyway, so it was better to use it as a sort of magical makeup to put on when she went out. One day I'll find a way to make it permanent.

  She turned away form the mirror and released her concentration. She still had a second spell to test out.

  Which meant outing to her mother.

  This is somehow more nerve-wracking than when I was telling her I'm trans.

  She wanted to test both the self-targetted version of [Mark of the Beast] and how it would impact another person. And the only test subject available was her mom. Dad would come back somewhere in the middle of the night. Plus, she knew she had to reveal the demonic nature of her class eventually. She prided herself on not having secrets in front of her loved ones.

  Okay. Here we go.

  "Mom? I need to talk with you about something." Claire said as she entered the living room.

  "Yes, angel?" How ironic.

  "It's about my Class. There are certain things I didn't tell you. I was worried how you'd react." Claire explained, sitting down on the couch next to her mom.

  "Oh, honey, you don't need to worry. I've met plenty of 'dark' themed Classed in my time. The appearance of the Class doesn't dictate if you do good or bad things with it." Ding. She doesn't fully believe that. Ah, fuck. Whatever.

  "So you won't judge me?"

  "No, dear, I won't." No ding this time. Double standards much? At least it's working in my favour.

  "Okay. So, the name is [Demonic Dealmaker], and-"

  Her mother leaned away suddenly, but collected herself quickly. "I... I knew you weren't a believer, but satanism, honey?"

  Funnily enough, Claire did have a phase where she liked to call herself "satanist", but it was more of a quasi-spiritual tie in to anarchism. Satan as the perfect rebel and whatnot. It was mostly the aesthetic appeal for her, though.

  "No mom, I'm not a satanist." Anymore.

  "But you got a demonic Class somehow." Mom rebutted.

  "It's more like... I don't see demons as strictly evil? I've always seen them more as a force of chaos and passion. And sure, to deal with a demon can be a dangerous thing if you don't follow the right precautions, but that's just it: demons have rules. They can't lie, they can't break their contracts, they can't break out of a properly built containment circle."

  Since Classes were deeply personal things, it more mattered how the user themself viewed the concepts their Class represented.

  "Chaos and passion... I suppose it does suit you." Mom responded with a chuckle. "You mentioned rules. It comes with restrictions, then?"

  "Yeah. My starting Perk is cursed."

  Her mom's eyes widened. "I've never heard of that happening."

  "Exactly. The curse makes it so I can't say anything I think is false. In exchange, I can always tell when someone says something they consider false. Crucially, it works regardless of their power."

  "No way."

  "I just told you I cannot lie."

  "It's just... do you know how rare Absolute powers like that are?" Claire could tell the word "Absolute" was spelled with a capital A.

  "I presume very."

  "I have worked with over a thousand different warriors in the course of my career. I've met exactly one person who had an Absolute ability. He was a bowman, and could release an arrow that would always hit the target he chose. No matter the distance, power of the target, it could even be in a different dimension. The arrow would find its mark eventually. He got disappeared, because people in power didn't want a perfect assassin running around. Try not to tell people you have an Absolute, is the point I'm making."

  "...would you get a heart attack if I told you my Skill is also Absolute?"

  Her mother visibly paled. "The contract one?"

  "Yes. The contracts cannot be broken until the terms are fulfilled or rendered impossible to fulfil."

  "What's the catch? There is always a catch with early power like this."

  "The catch is probably my Class' passive ability. I have affinity for soul magic, and can trade soul parts, but I'm considered part demon and cannot grow my soul. I need to advance by getting soul parts from others via contracts."

  "You're... literally part demon?"

  "Effects that consider that will both register me as a human and as a demon, yes."

  "That... oh God... at least it does explain the inherent drawback. Demons and other Breach-spawn don't have God's spark. They cannot advance on their own like us mortals can. That's why they come here in the first place, to feast on God's creation and take its power for themselves."

  Claire didn't appreciate the religious framing, but with gods being a confirmed phenomenon, she didn't entirely dismiss it. She knew her mother's God was real, she just didn't worship him. In any case, with her mom being a Breach veteran and an accomplished wizard, she believed her expertise on the matter.

  "In any case, part of my payment from my new job involved getting some soul parts. Before you worry, it was uncomfortable at worst. They seem to work in the same way SP does for other people, except each type has its own pool of advancements."

  "That would make sense. Depending on the type of ability, gaining it will strengthen different parts of the soul in different ratios."

  "And I got this Skill, [Mark of the Beast]. Despite from the ominous name, its effect is fully positive. I wanted to test it on you."

  Mom's eyes narrowed with skepticism. "What exactly does it do?"

  "It takes a sixth of my mana maximum and converts it into a buff of a proportional strength. I can remove the mark whenever I want, but the boost will remain until then. It buffs mind, body, and soul equally."

  "Why is it called that, then?"

  "Well, the spell will leave a physical marking on the body of whoever it affects. I can make it something small and innocuous, though!"

  Her mother was silent for a while.

  "Fine. But only temporarily."

  Claire hugged her, excited. "Thank you mom, it means a lot to me."

  She put her hand on mom's shoulder, in a spot that was easy to cover with a sleeve. She focused on the Skill and the image of a heart.

  Orange light emanated from mom's shoulder as the picture appeared on her. When the light faded, the mark was black, looking like an ordinary tattoo.

  As soon as the spell settled, mom stood up from the couch. She stretched her fifty year old, scarred body, revelling in her joints popping.

  "It's strong. I wonder if I can..." She lifted her palm up, and a flame appeared, before getting covered in crystalline shards of ice. While she was most famous for her buffing spells, her signature offensive Skill was [Frostfire]. She hadn't used it since the soul injury, as it had been too taxing on her core.

  But now, for the first time in seven years, the woman standing on one leg in the living room wasn't just Claire's mom. She was Vivian Black, the second-evolution [Weaver of the Elements].

  The spell in her hand unravelled as she dropped her palm, and laid back on the couch. She let out an exhausted sigh.

  "It still takes a lot out of me. But I can finally do it again."

  Vivian's expression was conflicted, however. The power she was lended was literally demonic in nature, and she was a woman of God. And yet, the mark didn't erode her soul, quite the opposite. And it was from her own daughter. She herself said that the way one's power manifested didn't define how they would use it. She fought alongside rogues who could have used their Class to steal and assassinate, but instead vanquished monsters with their daggers. She protected a vampire from the burning sun so she could tear through a legion of beasts pouring out of an out-of-control Breach. For God's sake, she was best friends with a thanaturgist who specifically asked the souls of the people he wanted to raise as undead for their consent. And he has saved thrice as many lives as he employed in this way.

  "I suppose He works in mysterious ways..." Vivian whispered to herself.