They stood there over the Relic Guardian’s corpse for a few moments, staring down at the body of the most powerful foe they’d ever encountered. None of them seemed to have any idea what had happened or what to do. Finally, after a few more seconds, Alka leaned forward.

  And poked the tip of her sword into the Relic Guardian's naked back.

  “Alka!” Vin snapped as she pulled her sword free and began poking all over the man’s body. “What the hell are you doing?!”

  “Just confirming something,” she said, nodding down at her blade. “Look. His flesh isn’t any more durable or special than anyone else's. Even when someone gets as high as their fourth prestige, apparently, their body is just as mundane and boring as anyone’s after they die.”

  “While that’s great information to know, could you please stop stabbing his corpse?” Vin asked, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “Seriously, we can bring it back for Frank to autopsy if you’re that curious.”

  “More importantly, what even happened in the first place?” Scule demanded, staring down at the man’s corpse. “He just… died. Did hunger finally catch up with him?”

  “I don’t think so,” Shia muttered, crouching down and giving the body a more thorough look. “Especially not with his high attributes. I think… I think it had something to do with giving us that artifact.”

  “This?” Vin asked, holding up the warm gem and staring at it. “He did say it was soul magic… You think it killed him somehow?”

  “No. I think his class killed him,” Shia said slowly, tapping her chin as her eyes bounced between the gem to the dead body. “Think about it. Didn’t he literally say something about finally being able to die in peace if he gave us the last dregs of his collection?”

  “I thought he just wanted us to leave him alone,” Alka said, continuing to poke her sword into the man’s body despite Vin’s glare.

  “I thought that too… But come on, he just happens to keel over the moment he hands off the gem? There’s no way that’s a coincidence,” Shia argued.

  “Alright, why didn’t he just give us the gem in the first place?” Scule asked. “He clearly wanted to die. Why let Alka and you try stabbing him instead of just saving us all some time?”

  “I think he was trying to tell us something," Shia said, frowning at the guardian’s corpse. “He admitted to us that there were certain things about the higher prestiges that he physically wasn’t able to talk about. What if showing us his strange, automatic defense ability was the best he could do to try and give us a hint as to what the higher prestiges entail?”

  “It’s a bit of a stretch,” Vin said. “Wait, have you ever asked your master about the higher prestiges? I mean, I always just assumed, but he has to be way up there, right?”

  “He always refused to tell me his official level, as well as anything about the prestiges beyond the first one,” Shia admitted. “He claimed I would learn better figuring it out on my own, but perhaps he wasn’t able to talk about it either. I’ll see if I can’t force him to admit the truth the next time I see him.”

  “Hold on a second,” Vin said, a chill going down his spine as he suddenly realized something. “Have any of you actually discussed the details of your second prestige classes with anyone? The full details, not just the name I mean.”

  “Of course,” Shia shrugged. “I told Erik and some of the elves all about it.”

  “All about it?” he pressed, slowly growing more and more certain of his hunch. “Including your new class ability that lets you pass on damage you would have taken to nearby plant life you imbued with your mana?”

  “Of course I-” Shia paused, blinking in confusion as she racked her memories. “Actually… No, I don’t think it ever came up. I’m not sure how, but I always had something more pressing to talk about.”

  “Scule, what about you? Did you tell Nute or Copi about your immunity to poisons being due to your prestige?”

  “I told them about my new passive,” Scule said, slowly shaking his head as he scrunched up his brow. “But no, come to think of it, I don’t think I ever did. That’s weird. What are you getting at?”

  “I think in the same way the Relic Guardian couldn’t tell us details about his higher prestige class, we’re already under a similar effect, and never even realized it,” Vin finally said, earning some gasps from his friends. “I only just realized that other than you guys, I never specifically mentioned my own Beyond the Veil ability to Spur or the council. Hell, I never even told them about how the level 40 prestige comes with a class ability.”

  “The Gods are preventing us from discussing class abilities with people below our level,” Shia whispered, worriedly looking up toward the heavens. “That’s more than a little concerning.”

  “Uh, guys?” Alka asked, holding her arms out in front of her. “What about me? You told me everything no problem.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “You don’t have a class, you’re still not treated by the System as an actual person,” Vin pointed out. “Though that begs the question as to why Shia couldn’t talk to Erik about it.”

  “Perhaps intelligent magical beasts have their own restrictions?” Shia asked, tapping her chin furiously as her mind churned. “This is so interesting! Some sort of all-encompassing, subtle magic that we never even noticed? How insane is that!”

  “Insane is one word for it,” Scule growled, looking equal parts terrified and angry. “I don’t like the thought of the Gods overseeing everything I say.”

  “They’re Gods,” Alka shrugged. “Isn’t that kinda what they do?”

  “Okay hold on, the realization that the Gods or the System have been subtly steering us away from discussing details of future prestiges with those who haven't hit them yet is one thing, but I feel like we skipped over the more concerning event that just happened,” Vin pointed out. “Such as the Relic Guardian dying when he no longer had any more relics to guard."

  “While it is definitely worrying, it’s not the craziest thing in the world,” Shia said. “We already knew that with each prestige, the requirements for hitting the next one grew more extreme. First being worthy of a class, and then embodying a class. Perhaps by the time one makes it up to level 80, they have to be so tied to a class that failing to follow it doesn’t just result in a lack of experience, but actual death.”

  “Well that’s terrifying,” Alka said simply. “Though this guy was still tied to the old System, right? He didn’t have to go through the weird bottlenecks we do now.”

  “I don’t think the bottlenecks actually change how the prestiges work, I think they just make it artificially harder for people to level up and prestige,” Shia continued. “So his level 80 is probably still going to be the same as ours, provided we can bypass whatever insane bottleneck the Gods have in store for us.”

  “Can’t say I’m looking forward to that,” Scule shuddered. “What if failing to steal something as a high level Rogue means I just die? How is that fair?!”

  “I’m sure there’s more nuance than that,” Shia said as she rolled her eyes. “The Relic Guardian told us himself that he once guarded a massive vault filled with hundreds of incredibly powerful artifacts. Going from that to literally one measly remainder had to be a huge blow.”

  “There’s one other big thing we learned,” Vin said, staring down at the guardian’s corpse. “He said he was level 81. Do you think that means the people in the divine sanctums are all in their fourth prestige?”

  “It would make sense. Though we haven’t encountered anyone who claimed to have been in their third prestige before the Great Reset,” Shia pointed out. “Why leave everything in their third prestige behind, while taking a few people in their fourth just to trap them in a bubble?”

  Nobody had the answers to those questions, but Vin had the makings of an idea as to where they could go to possibly find them.

  “We need to go back to the floating library,” he decided, noting the worried flash of Alka’s eyes as he said it. “If our hunch is correct, that would make the librarian also somewhere in her fourth prestige. Either she, or the insane number of books she has, have to hold some answers for us.”

  “Vin, I’m not sure if you recall this, but we stole one of her super-powered golems,” Scule drawled, pointing over at Alka. “Not to mention some of her crazy magic gems used to power them. You think she’s just going to let that go?”

  “Lumel stole one of her translation artifacts as well,” Vin admitted with a sheepish grin, earning an exasperated gasp from the petian. “Look, I don’t know how we’ll make it up to the librarian, but we have to try. We’ve got too many questions, and she’s got too much knowledge up there. Now that we know continuing to prestige could very well result in a person’s death somehow, we need to figure this out.”

  “I’m willing to give it a shot,” Shia shrugged. “...Though perhaps Alka should sit this one out.”

  “No need to tell me twice,” Alka said, surprising Vin with her lack of argument. “For all we know she has some sort of magic word she can say that will force the golem to take over again and erase me. I’m not going anywhere near her.”

  “That’s actually a really good point,” Vin nodded. “Alright, I guess that’s decided then. The battle for the fifth wave is growing a little too close for comfort, so it may have to wait until after the newest wave arrives. But once that’s settled, we’re hitting up the library once more.”

  “Is it already time to buckle down again and stay in town for a week straight?” Scule asked, smirking as he poked Vin’s cheek. “You gonna make it?”

  “That remains to be seen,” Vin drawled, realizing they had one last problem to deal with. Without Lumel, they didn’t have any easy way to carry the man’s corpse with them. It was while he was scratching his head and contemplating his options, he realized he’d nearly forgotten something.

  Maybe they could get a little more information out of him.

  “Hey guys…” he said, crouching down and placing his hands on either side of the guardian’s head. “There is one other thing we could try…”

  “Oh Gods, I don’t want to see that,” Scule blanched, hopping into Vin’s shirt pocket and shielding his eyes. “Alright, go ahead!”

  Getting nods from Shia and Alka, and a curious squeak from Reginald, Vin took a deep breath and cast False Life. Death magic wasn’t his favorite, but even he couldn’t argue about its uses.

  He watched as his mana flowed out one hand and hit the guardian’s head, intending to form a ring back through his other hand and start cycling. This would ensure the corpse obeyed his commands and prevented any other parts of the body from being brought back to life.

  But to his shock, a familiar, ethereal helmet shimmered into existence around the guardian’s head at the last second, deflecting his mana and cancelling his spell before it could even get started. Speechless, they all stared at the dead body that had just reflexively triggered a defensive ability of some kind. As far as Vin was aware, that was not something that was supposed to be able to happen. He shared a bewildered look with Shia, and a confused one with Alka, who stared at the tip of her sword as if trying to figure out why she’d been able to stab his corpse, yet Vin’s magic had failed.

  “What’s going on?” Scule asked, still tucked away within his pocket as he waited for them to finish interrogating the corpse. “Are you all whispering, or is it already over?”

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