Chapter 6: There Exists No [Junko] Class
Blood staining her hands all the way to her elbows, with a stain of wet scarlet on her left cheek, eyes wide open and a bright smile on her face.
Junko read the new screen of information from the System.
[Class Option List]
[1. Frightening Dragonling of Fear]
[Details: A Dragonling Child. New to Life.
This Frightening Child of the Apex Species holds Skills to inflict fear onto their enemies with ease, making even nature itself fear their Power.
Growing to become Frightening enough to scare off even the Gods.
Make them Learn Fear.]
[2. Dragonling of Gravitational Horror]
[Details: A Dragonling Child. New to Life.
This Horror of the Apex Species will soon hold power to turn the world upside down. With Gravitation as their spear and shield, none may approach while they learn to Gravitate entire planets at their enemies.
Grow to squash them like bugs as you fling mountains at them.
Make them Learn Horror.]
[3.Dragonling of Spacial Fright]
[Details: A Dragonling Child. New to Life.
This Frightful Child of the Apex holds Skills to inflict Fright itself onto all their enemies with ease, making even space itself shiver from their Power.
Growing to become Frightening enough to make even Gods struggle to sleep.
Make them Learn Fright.]
[4. Dragonling of Cosmic Dread]
[Details: A Dragonling Child. New to Life.
The Dreadful Child of the Apex Species. Cosmos Devourer and Void Consumer, grow to make All Dread your arrival. For the definition of Dread means to either Fear or Revere.
Grow and learn to create and destroy Galaxies as you please while devouring all else.
Make All Learn to Dread.]
[5. Dragonoid Child of Starlight]
[Details: A Dragon Child with a Humanoid Body. New to Life.
A Blessed Child of the Apex. Choosing humanity over simple power, they are born with both Talent and Potential that they will use to Protect instead of Destroy.
Seemingly Blessed by the Stars themselves, The One Born Under Starlight is fated to Grow and Bring an era of Prosperity.
Give them Hope and Dispel their Worries.]
[6. Dragonoid Child of Freedom]
[Details: A Dragon Child with a Humanoid Body. New to Life.
A Blessed Child of the Apex. Choosing the Mortal desire for Freedom, they are born with both Talent and Potential to be free and become anything they wish whether that be a fisherman, a gardener or an emperor.
Grow to be free and live a long, enjoyable life of exploration and adventure.
Give them Tall Tales to Tell and Enjoyment to Spread.]
Little Junko carefully read and then re-read each of the options. From her status page and previous exposure to everything written about her in the System, she believed that the class must help her become scary to everyone.
Thus she carefully read each and every option at a minimum of 3 times, spending some time to find the 'meanings' behind each word that she didn't quite understand.
From the knowledge she had gained from the System, she at the very least knew of the importance of choosing classes which is one of the reasons she took the choice so seriously and spent such time ignoring the bleeding dead boar and light drizzle of raindrops falling from the leaves above.
Options numbered 5 and 6 puzzled Junko, who didn't find any mention of fear in their descriptions.
As she believed that she Had to become scary for everyone, the choice to not do that was strange to her.
To her, it seemed like mixed messages. The System said that she was destined to bring fear and fright to all life and she accepted that and started to hold pride in being feared when she gets stronger just like her titles and talents said.
But now there was an option here that didn't need her to make others fear her?
Yet if her titles and talents said that she is naturally a terror, why would these even appear? Does she even have a choice in the matter in the grand scheme of things?
These were some of the thoughts floating around her mind. Not quite as wordy and articulate, more so simple and straightforward but nevertheless.
She decided to place those two options away to the side to come back to later.
The 'meaning' behind the word 'Freedom' illuded her as she had yet to come to know its true meaning or what 'not being free' meant.
'Starlight' she understood to a certain extent so she didn't have many questions about that other than the 'Hope' word in its details.
So between the 4 choices of Fear, Horror, Fright and Dread, she was more so leaning towards the Dread option.
For one, it actually gave a description of the word Dread. Secondly, it seemed the best fit for her. To some degree, it seemed to incorporate her titles into the mix and it was the only one that didn't mention 'them' but rather 'all'.
The differences between the words they and them were practically synonymous with each other for Junko, so instead of 'whoever' the other classes were speaking of, All seemed much more encompassing and clear to her.
There was still a problem though. The word Freedom kept bugging her. That and the Humanoid Dragon Child part which she couldn't make heads or tails of.
Currently, her ranking of choices stood as follows:
1. Dragonling of Cosmic Dread
2. Dragonoid Child of Freedom
3. Dragonoid Child of Starlight
The concept of choosing something that didn't fit the System and the feeling of deviation from the obvious option route interested her.
For now, though, she chose to leave the class choice for later while she thought on it further and grew smart enough to choose on her own.
Sitting on her knees as she decided to leave the Class choice screen as it was for the time being, she stood up and went to grab her spear from the boar's mostly cold body.
Some bugs had already gathered at the corpse, digging into their new meal.
To Junko this didn't matter, she had already tried the bugs she was seeing during her time exploring the wildlife of the area and the boar tasted better when it was still warm as that was when the flavour was best, as Junko deduced.
Grabbing the hilt of the spear, she heard something jump as she pulled the spear out with enough strength to make herself fall over.
The 'something' that had jumped was a large feline. Greyish white in colour with bloodied claws and maw, its body striped red.
The stripes themselves weren't there because of blood, they were simply lines of fur, coloured ever-scarlet. They complimented well the large feline's red eyes, filled with bloodlust.
The feline landed and immediately turned around as its pounce had missed its target.
*Cracking*
*THUD* *THUD*
Its claw attack had cleaved a few trees down. Cracking and falling, the loud thud of their contact with the ground was being drowned out by the harsh rain that was no longer being blocked by the ceiling of leaves.
Junko, who sat on the ground, spear in hand, turned to look at the feline.
A grey tiger of sorts. More than 3 metres tall, clearly a predator belonging to the area.
Yet Junko wasn't visibly afraid of the sharp claws and fangs of the growling beast.
Still looking at the feline without even blinking her eyes, Junko stood up. Her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open.
Her eyes were glistening in the rain.
'Sooo biiigggu!'
She thought as the feline took a cautious step towards Junko who still had her weapon in hand.
And in a split second, when the feline expected Junko to blink due to the heavy rain that was now pouring on both of them, it pounced at Junko, giant maw open, rows of sharpened teeth being put on display for its victim.
"Gravitas."
*CRASH*
The feline fell to the ground, breaking a tree that was laying there in half as it could not raise even a single paw off the ground.
Gravity in its area was being strengthened to the point where breathing had become difficult as the huge feline tried to squeeze in any air it could though even that was difficult as the air itself seemed to have been under pressure.
"Ooo. Ah!"
Junko was right in front of the feline's head.
Fear and death was the only thing filling the beast's mind as it pained itself to turn its eyes upward and look at its 'prey'.
Junko was crouched down as she was thinking of all the sharp, pointy and interesting teeth that the beast had in its maw.
Reaching out, she grabbed the beast's nose only to feel the pleasure of its fluffy fur.
"Oh! Aha!"
She sounded in glee.
Compared to the boar, this fur was of great quality. Soft beyond measure and the skin was springy too.
Squeezing her hand to further feel the fluff, she let her spear drop to her side, now fully treating the wild beast as a plaything.
Opening its jaw with force as she heard a small crack, she completely ignored it as she started poking the sharp fangs of the beast.
She couldn't quite bring herself to taste all the parts of the beast since the fur of the feline was of such quality and she started to want to learn how to get such fluffy fur herself.
Closing the jaw again, she then noticed a small bone sticking out of the jaw she had just pried open. Blood was trickling out as she tilted her head while looking at it.
'Fur beast hurt?'
She thought after seeing the look in the beast's eyes.
Grabbing her spear, she stood up and moved to where the beast couldn't see her.
The beast, awaiting its impending death while enduring the pain of the gravity magic and broken jaw, closed its eyes.
Though that was the beginning of the unexpected on the beast's side.
The feline still held value to little Junko.
Feeling something land on its back, the feline beast was surprised to feel the intense gravity magic disappear.
Waiting a moment before moving, its tail flicked back and forth as it felt the presence on its back make not a single movement.
At that moment, it decided to try and escape.
Suddenly pouncing up and running as fast as it could, it took a path where countless trees and leaves would hit its back. Previously it used this path to better clean itself and scratch its back but now it hoped to leave the real 'beast' behind and escape.
Maybe change its hunting territory and get a few cubs after it's out of this situation.
Was what the feline beast was unconsciously thinking.
Sadly for it, however. All it heard from behind its head was loud laughter and giggles followed by a few "Ah"s and "Oh"s as it took a few big jumps above the treeline to try and shake Junko off.
Junko herself was completely enjoying the ride. Grabbing on tightly to the beast's soft fur, she enjoyed the fast wind and view of vast horizons as strange beasts flew in the sky around them. Not filling the sky like the birds but not an uncommon sight.
Junko felt a slight kinship from the strange sky beasts that she hadn't felt before as well as a new sense of rivalry.
The feline beast made it out of the forest and was now dashing through a mostly barren desertified mountain range.
Much to its chagrin, it could still hear the joyful cries of the wild Junko from its back.
After all, she did want to learn how to get a layer of super soft fur for herself by following the beast's habits.
And their small, onesided adventure began.
Filled with light giggles, laughter and unending dread.
...
Eastern coast of the Central Laslands Empire.
"Get the potion barrels on board already you slimy urchin!"
*Thud*
An older man yelled as he kicked a young boy down since he was idly standing there and not doing his work.
"Boy if you don't start working you aren't going to be paid half a copper! The squadron is gonna be here soon!"
The older gentleman had a thick beard and a head of silver hair, one of his eyes was emerald green while the other was grey.
In his emerald-coloured eye, there was a faint mark of a crosshair.
He was wearing typical pirate clothing of dark green, grey and dark red. Around his neck sat three black eyepatches that each had a differing strange symbol of an eye sewn into them.
Between his fingers were two unlit cigars that he used to point at the boat while screaming his lungs out.
As young men and boys were working to move all the crates of much-needed resources onto the ship to get their payment at the end of the day, over the horizon a small battalion of men and women riding horses rode over a small hill, now visible to everyone there.
At the forefront of the battalion of nearly 80 men and women, a man wearing high-end clothing with brown hair and clear blue eyes.
Reaching the coast and the ship a few minutes after becoming visible to the stationed crew, the man at the forefront, the Prince of the empire jumped off his horse as he was going at full speed and did a single roll on the ground before landing on his feet and dusting himself off. The Prince landed a few metres away from the captain of the ship who he was now walking towards with calm and steady steps.
"Is everything ready?"
"Ah, yes your highness, only a few more potion barrels are needed to be brought on board.
All crew members have checked every inch of the ship and they checked them all again. Perfectly ready to set sail."
The captain said as he turned towards his majesty and offered a light bow.
"I'll have my men begin boarding and assist in hastening the material boarding procedures, we must depart at once."
The Prince said while giving a sign to his men that were patiently waiting behind him, some ways away from the boarding crew.
"Aye. Your Highness, are you yourself also departing on the journey to 'that' continent?"
The captain stood back up straight and asked.
"Indeed. Although it is sudden, I must protect the men and women who chose to participate in this mission myself.
I hope I am not causing problems for you, captain?"
"Of course not your highness, it will be a pleasure to have you on board."
"On another note, what will the weather be like on the open waters."
"Hmm. I'll have your answer in a moment."
The captain said after scratching his beard and looking towards the vast ocean.
Grabbing one of the eyepatches that hung around his neck, he placed it over his normal grey-coloured eye and closed it.
Observing the far-reaching sky and ocean as mana flowed around his eyes like a calm breeze, he let go of the eyepatch and opened his eyes a few seconds later.
"Weather will be calm, your majesty. At most, we should look out for any flying critters that hide above the clouds, though your adventurers should be more than enough to spot and deal with them."
The captain spoke ad he turned towards the Prince.
"Good. Once we are sufficiently far away from the coast, call me to the deck so I may bless the ship with my Water Fairy's Skill.
And I do hope you will keep the matter of my Fairy companion a secret?"
"Of course, your majesty. Not a word of them will escape my lips."
The captain spoke with a light bow before moving away from their discussion and continuing to yell at the slow work of his hired crew.
The Prince, now some ways away from the surrounding people, summoned his Fairy to make sure of the captain's weather predictions and get a clearer picture of the mana flow in the atmosphere above the Great Dragon Continent.
What his Fairy shared with him was not the best of news.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone