Dan moved his gaze from the screen in front of him, he didn't even know how he moved his gaze from something that followed his line of sight and moved wherever he looked. It was just that once he intended to look elsewhere, the screen disappeared, leaving his sight clear.

  Ignoring that for a moment, Dan studied his mates and their families and saw that all of them had the same expression he must have had just moments ago. Absentminded and unfocused eyes as they seemed to be interacting with something only they could see.

  With everyone absorbed in their systems, Dan too brought his attention back to his own. With the intent to look at it in his mind, the screen manifested itself again, with new messages for him. For some reason, it didn't have the same personalized feel to it as the first few, but just an expression of information.

  "The system shall take a form that is deemed to be easier for you to understand:

  Profile:

  Name: Dan Reeds.

  Class: Class choices available.

  Titles.

  Skills: After the class is chosen.

  It was a simple window, kind of straightforward too. Dan's mind went to games for some reason, RPGs specifically. Those games usually had options like these, even though this was way simpler, there were no attributes or the like. Dan wasn't an avid gamer, but the voyages were long and he did have some consoles in his room.

  Suddenly, Dan noticed that he was feeling a certain way towards some of the options in the profile. Even though outwardly there was nothing unusual about those options, he felt as if something was telling him that he had to check them. As someone from the modern age, Dan soon realised what that feeling was like, a notification, a bright red notification signaling that something had to be checked. It was just that this one was a mental signal, not a visual one.

  Those options were: class choice availability and titles. Each of those was fighting for his attention, like a small red dot on his phone's screen. The one that gave him the strongest pull was the class choice notification, it took all his effort to avert his eyes from it long enough to consider what all this was.

  From what he knew from games and the like, the Class choice option was the most important, and that was even before taking into consideration that the skills would unlock only after he chose a Class.

  With that in mind, he focused again on that option, just for the window to flash and a new one to take its place.

  The following list of choices was made after a thorough scan. It took into account all your experiences till this point, recommending Classes that best represent who you truly are

  Again, after he read and truly understood what the window said, it flashed and changed to something else.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Available Classes:

  -Captain

  -Cruise Ship Captain

  -Abyssal Captain

  -Bonded Captain

  Some of those choices were... Surprising to say the least. Dan kinda anticipated a couple of those, Captain and Cruise Ship Captain were ones he could understand, they were in line with what he expected. The other two though, he didn't even know how to explain. Fortunately, the choices themselves had the same feel to them as before, as if he could expand them some more to get information about what they meant. Doing just that, he watched as the system expanded the first two of the four choices.

  Captain: you've sailed the seas and oceans as the head of your ship. The open waters are your true home and you can't see yourself locked inland. You manage your crew well and you move from one location to another, defending your ship, its cargo and its crew.

  Cruise Ship Captain: unlike your normal counterparts, alongside your ship and crew, the most important thing for you is the comfort and happiness of your passengers. You sail them to locations they have never seen, living adventures of a lifetime in the open seas.

  The first two options were just as Dan expected. The first one was probably just any ship captain, focusing more on managing your crew, raising their morale, and your trips. The second had more to do with the cruise ship aspect of what he did in his life and career, the comfort of his passengers and their journey. Both were normal classes that one would expect when taking into account the thorough scan the system mentioned, he did spend most of his time as a cruise ship captain after all.

  The other two though... Dan couldn't even begin to understand why he got them or how the system came up with them by scanning him. With curiosity bubbling inside, he focused on them one after the other.

  Abyssal Captain: you have been tainted by a being beyond your comprehension. Ocean beasts, monsters and the Behemoths of the deep feel a frightening aura from you and your ship. You give in to that being's call and embrace it. Both you, your crew and your ship shall become something much removed from a human, yet much more.

  Dan's frown grew even deeper as he read the description of the class. The name certainly didn't exude brightness from the start, but he didn't expect it to be this foreboding, he almost recoiled away from the screen.

  "this being..." he murmured to himself. Seeing what they were going through, he could guess that whoever or whatever this being was, it was the reason why they got sent here in the first place. He couldn't remember meeting such a thing or laying eyes on it, though.

  Taking long breaths to calm his nerves, he decided to see the last Class first before giving more consideration to this weird one.

  Bonded Captain: You can't exist without your ship and your ship can't exist without you. You understand each other, help each other and work towards the same goals. You're linked deeper than anyone could imagine. The higher your level gets, the stronger your ship becomes. Your ship's embryonic consciousness will also grow and develop the stronger you two get.

  Dan's mind drew a blank as his heart skipped a beat. It took all his willpower to drag his attention back from that last option, to not just choose it right there and then.

  If he guessed right, then the skills he was going to get had a lot to do with the Class he would take, that was a given in all games he played, made even clearer by how skills were locked til he chose a Class. And if what he saw in the third Class's description was true then he for sure had to make his choices carefully.

  The beasts, monsters and Behemoths in that description made Dan's blood run cold. If all that was shown on that screen was true, and he had little doubt it wasn't at that point, then they were in for a harsh journey in this new world. Taking all that into account, Dan couldn't really bring himself to even consider the first two classes. The first sounded just your standard run-of-the-mill ship captain. And the second focused more on comfort, something he doubted would be of much help to them in this ordeal.

  That left only the last two classes, which were both out of the ordinary and unique in their own ways. The two classes seemed to be on the opposite ends of the spectrum, though. One promised what seemed to be a huge amount of power by giving in to something that sounded frightening. And while the other was just as cryptic and confusing, it still seemed more benevolent when put next to the first. Growing together with his ship and nurturing the ship's embryonic consciousness, whatever that was, sounded way better than what the other Class promised.

  Honestly, if he was only looking at fighting power, the other Class was the obvious go-to. The Class's description screamed offence, way more than Bonded Captain at least. But that wasn't all it came down to. It explicitly said that he, his ship and all the crew would turn into something inhuman. He would never do that to them without their permission and he doubted few, if any, of them would accept it.

  Looking at it this way, there was only one choice. Though, if Dan was honest with himself, he doubted he would choose anything else even if another better option showed itself. Bonded Captain was too good for him to ignore. A connection between him and his ship that made it so they bonded and grew together was already a miracle, adding the growing consciousness made ignoring it an impossibility. He might have been making this decision too hastily, too easily. But the Class was what his heart went with in the end.

  Taking a deep breath, he put his hand on the board in front of him and murmured:

  "Well, big girl, it seems that there is no separating us after all." With a slight smile, he made his choice.