It turns out that even Heka's tree-class verdict almost broke the one down stairs, as I initially feared. It could handle it barely, but normally the artifact screened novice, not monsters.
You learn if you've entered a new class from your adventure's ID, not the Screener.
The receptionists' artifacts were designed for ordinary applicants—people with ordinary levels of spiritual energy. They weren't built for people like Heka.
Don't worry, the spirits I killed in the Screener? They were not sentient in the way you think.
I'd been replaying the moment in my head—the black liquid dripping, the receptionist's horrified face, the accusation in everyone's eyes.
Doesn't make it okay that I murdered them, since if left alone they WILL become sentient: but those were sparks of souls not thick enough to form a single sentient entity.
They were possibility and potential, not actuality.
