She was utterly flabbergasted and took a moment to actually figure out how to respond. Ultimately she just said, "Thank you. I won't forget your generosity especially after you both had already saved my life as well."

"There's no need for all of that. After all everyone here gained quite a bit from this excursion. The unexpected creatures that came here after you have dealt with this place provided a good source of both experience and real combat training. Plus there is the gear that we got from completing the two quests," Benedictus said trying to downplay his moment of generosity so he didn't let it go to his head. 

"We can talk about all that later. How about we focus on getting some of that gold," Marcelina suggested trying to refocus them on the treasure trove in front of them. 

"I'll let you two ladies take the sword and count up the gold. I trust you both to divide it up equally since we all now have access to the shop. Everybody did a good job so everybody deserves an equal cut of the coin. Well you both deal with this I'm going to go butcher that giant monster Roksazza killed a week ago. It's corpse still looks fresh enough to get some decent materials," Ben stated while making his way over to the corpse of the giant monster.

About an hour later all 5 of them had left the hidden dungeon and made their way back to the clearing where they knew they could use the hover car. Benedictus, Marcelina, and Roksazza each now had an extra 2,600 gold that they could use in the ascension shop. Roksazza now had a new greatsword that complimented her original fighting style of dual wielding colossal swords. Ben was able to harvest a couple dozen scales and fangs from the boss monster along with one of its horns.

While Benedictus was getting the hover car out and enlarged so they could ride in it back home, Marcelina was more focused on her character sheet as she was struggling to make a decision on her legendary path option. She wanted to pick something that she could be okay with while also making sure it could help her continue to be useful to the group. Despite the encouragement that Ben had often given her, she was very aware that she was the weakest of the group. Her abilities allowed for her to make up for that somewhat, however it did not change the fact that her class was primarily one of support.

Benedictus had realized that she was struggling to make a decision since she had been staring at her character sheet the entire time they were making their way from the hidden dungeon entrance back to this clearing. At first he didn't want to say anything but he could see that she was truly in need of help. Her face gave away that she was struggling on making a decision and that a lot of her more negative thoughts were probably clouding her judgment. 

"Still can't make up your mind yet," he asked her. 

She let out the long sigh, "Nope. I want to make a decision that I think will work going forward, but I also don't want to pick something that will not help me keep up with the rest of you. I've already ruled out several options but I'm trying to decide between these last three that still seem promising." 

"Let me take a look. This kind of stuff was my hobby back when it was just actual video games. Some of that insight may help with finding something that fits perfect with what you have in mind," he requested politely. 

"Sure. I think I could use an expert's help in that case," she agreed expanding her character she for him to better read everything.

The three options that she had singled out were called: the Blood Moon Beastmaster, the Hivelord, and the Clawknight. 

The Blood Moon Beastmaster seemed to be a path that would allow her to control creatures like lesser vampires, werewolves, and chimeras. In exchange for having control over much stronger creatures she would take a reduction in the number of creatures she would game far less supportive abilities than some of the other subclass options. It also provided that if she had three of any specific type of these unique creatures that she would be given the possibility to bind with she herself could gain a lot of their positive abilities and benefits and none of their negative ones. 

The Hivelord was a legendary path all about bugs. It's specifically restricted to only being able to bind with bug type creatures going forward and any creatures that she was already bound with would undergo a metamorphosis to take on certain bug like qualities. However all of the bugs that were bound to her she would be able to control as an extension of her own mind and consciousness acting as one entity with many bodies. She would essentially have her own hive mind. It also guaranteed that she could bind with any insect toy creature even against that creature's will. It was a good option but definitely didn't fit her. 

The Clawknight was probably the one that she was most likely thinking of taking given what he saw. It definitely fit more of her overall aesthetic. It essentially restricted her to only being able to bind with mammal type beasts in a similar fashion to how the hivelord restricted her to only insects type creatures. However in exchange she would be able to take on pseudo transformations that essentially made her a hybrid of herself and one of the creatures she was bound to. It virtually would have no support abilities whatsoever and would make her more of a frontline combatant with most of its versatility coming from the types of mammals that she would bind with and gain a pseudo transformation alongside. 

He was going to suggest the Clawknight since it fit her, but then one of the ones she had disregarded caught his eye. He briefly looked at some of the words in its description and saw something just for a moment that caught his attention. He focused back on it before he gave his initial suggestion and decided to read the entire description of what it was and what it provided. It was called, the Ascendant Evolutionary.

The Ascendant Evolutionary was a path that drastically reduced the amount of creatures you could bind with to a tiny number, but you gained absolute control over them and they must obey any order that you give whether verbally spoken or mentally commanded. Not only does it give you absolute control over a creature that you are bound to but it apparently allows for a bound creature to adapt and evolve based off of devouring parts of other creatures in large enough quantity. This can apparently either give new abilities or adaptations that permanently change the creature. The choice of whether or not the bound creature gains an ability or an adaptation is solely left up to the owner to decide. 

He realized that it definitely went against Marcelina's entire current skill set and fighting style, but something about the wording resonated with him. He started to realize that something about this was calling for him to suggest it. Thinking about it a little bit he realized this might be the impact of his skills. Just like how his stats increase so do his skills and he has pretty good insight. Maybe this was calling for him to suggested based off of what his insight is telling him would probably be the correct choice. 

Thinking about it just for a moment he ultimately decided to trust that feeling and pointed to it telling her, "This one. I think my passive insight is telling me that this is what you should take if you want to truly keep up with us. I know mentally you've been beating yourself up about what you can and can't do. I think that's why this one is calling out to me a little bit more than the rest. Something about it just feels like the right choice." 

She looked at it and then back at him. She was clearly uncertain about whether or not to trust him so she asked, "Are you sure? Do you really think this one will be the best choice?" 

"Yeah. Like I said I have this gut feeling that this is the one you need to pick. I feel like my instincts are calling out to it," he reaffirmed. 

She thought it over for just a little bit. Ultimately she chose to trust him. If he felt like that was the right choice it most likely would be. She had faith that he wouldn't lead her astray. She confirmed with the system that she had chosen the Ascendant Evolutionary legendary path.

After confirming and making sure that she was certain of her decision she was given her new subclass. She received her first three abilities from her subclass. 

The first one was called, Focused Adaptive Training. It essentially told her that she could never take more than 5 creatures that she could bind with. If she ever wanted to bind with a creature after reaching her maximum she would have to relinquish her connection with one of the other creatures and take a permanent stat reduction. In exchange both her and all of the creatures that she would be bound with would gain an increase in HP by +250, EP by +400, and stats by +10 to all stats. It also stated that she could bind with any creature no matter the type.

The second ability was named, Absolute Control. It was the ability that allowed her to give an order or command to a creature that she was bound to and as long as it was possible for them to achieve even in the tiniest percentage of possibility they would try to fulfill it. Even if that meant that the fulfillment of the order required for the system to partially take control of their bodies and minds to achieve it to a minor degree. With this ability no creature that was bound with her could disobey her order. However when she gave an order she specifically needed to keep this ability in mind for it to register as an absolute order, otherwise the effect of the ability would not apply. 

The last ability was called, Adaptive Evolution. It essentially stated that a bound creature would need to eat the equivalent of 1/4th worth of a creature to be given an option of a new adaptation or evolution. Once they had eaten the required amount a notice would be presented for her to select whether or not she wanted her bound creature to receive a new permanent ability or a permanent physical evolutionary change. Abilities for much weaker but they did not alter the creature's body. Physical alterations were permanent changes based off of the type of creature that was devoured that varied in level of strength, but they could be quite powerful depending on the creatures devoured. Once in evolution option was presented and chosen after eating a specific type of creature no further options would be presented if that same creature was eaten again. 

Looking at all of it, Ben stared at the information and his minds slowly peace together why he felt so drawn to making her pick this. Marcelina felt that the abilities were kind of okay because she saw that the changes to her overall stats and energy and health were immediate changes that made her and Charles much more efficient. However she did not share the sudden excitement that Ben was experiencing as he started celebrating. He was jumping for joy and shouting in excitement and she couldn't understand why. 

"Are you okay," Roksazza asked kind of confused by his sudden jubilation. 

"Yeah I'm with her on this one. What's with all the excitement," Marcelina asked unsure about why he was suddenly so elated. 

Benedictus realizing how odd it was stopped for a second and he cleared his throat before explaining, "I read between the lines. Looking over the information I realized that if you take it at face value a lot of your abilities were great. But if you look beyond what lies on the surface of the words there is a hidden synergy. Try to bind with yourself right now." 

Hearing his last sentence threw both women for a loop. They were confused and oddly curious by the suggestion. Marcelina herself had not even thought of that being a possibility. She was about to ask why he even would suggest something like that. At that moment though she looked back at her abilities and gave them a read for herself once more with what he suggested in mind. 

After looking over the information again she realized why he came to that conclusion. Focused Adaptive Training and very clearly stated that she could bind with any creature. That would mean that she could bind with a person, and if she could do that it also meant she could potentially bind with herself. Which meant that the other two abilities would work on her. Meaning that she could give mental orders to herself in combat and the system would partially assist her would making sure it could be accomplished. Not only that if she were to carve up some of the creatures that they were hunting and cook and eat them she could also gain new abilities and potential changes to her overall body that would permanently increase what she could do. 

When the realization hit her she couldn't help but feel a little bit excited. If this worked then she could potentially not only keep up with the others but stand side by side with them as an equal. 

She immediately attempted to use her Binding Ritual on herself. She took the point of her dagger and pricked her finger offering her blood once more to initiate the binding. When asked to select a creature to bind with she selected herself. To her surprise the system accepted and since she was binding with herself there was no need to try and gain the consent and willingness of the creature since it was her. Which meant that the binding was automatically successful and she got a notification stating that she had bound herself to herself and she could apply all of the benefits and abilities that she could use on other bound creatures on her self as well. 

When she saw that the idea worked she stood in shock and awe. Marcelina did not expect it to work, even if she trusted Ben, part of her felt like something would prevent it. But he was right. She succeeded with his idea and now it was truly possible to be able to walk side by side with them as an equal. 

Suddenly she couldn't help but to laugh. All that envy that was building up in the back of her mind was starting to dissipate. Replaced by tears of joy as she bellowed chuckles of genuine excitement. Now she felt like she wouldn't be a burden. 

"Hey what's with all the tears. There's no need to do all the crying. It worked didn't it," Ben wondered a little bit confused why she was suddenly tearing up while laughing. 

He didn't get a verbal response as she instead just gave him a big hug. He didn't know how to react to the suddenness of everything. Eventually though he hugged back happy that she felt grateful for his assistance. 

Allowing them to hug each other for a moment, Roksazza watched from the sidelines before clapping her hands to get their attention, "This is sweet. I think it's actually quite cute. But we should go back to base now. I'm starting to get hungry and I think a nice hot meal would be a perfect way to end the day."