《A Rutilated Fate (Beneath the Dragoneye Moons Fan Fiction)》 Part 1 - Cast Adrift Part 1: Cast Adrift Millionaire youth actress Elizabeth Fereday sat on a bench, tucked away in a corner of a park on her university campus, sketching in her workbook for an art class. The pages of the book were nearly all filled with the random imaginings that seemed to spill from her absent minded thoughts ever since she was a young girl, even before she first showed up on a television set for her earliest commercial. As long as she could remember, her dreams were full of wild alternate worlds full of magical charms and mortal perils. Worlds of unimaginable precious wonders that sparkled and shone with dazzling sunlight. Worlds of unknowable mysteries and complex plots. Even as she¡¯d entered the legal drinking age, she couldn¡¯t be bothered to socialize in her free time, lest she lose that tenuous grasp of her wondrous imagination before she could put the pencil to paper. Her latest drawing depicted a shining humanoid shape surrounded by the Major Arcana of her dreamscape. She¡¯d been gifted a beautiful set of Tarot Cards when she turned eighteen, each drawn with gemstone ink made from some of the most expensive gems in the world. She had to admit to her own fortunate upbringing, given the wealth of her family which led to her early career in the entertainment industry. She was even luckier to be born with a gift for writing the plots for hit new television series as well. Indeed, her star seemed destined to continue to rise all through her life. Therefore, when did it all go wrong? She couldn¡¯t seem to identify when things had gone wrong, but her readings surely didn¡¯t seem to imply this unimaginable suffering. She¡¯d drawn the World card that morning; implying completeness and fulfillment. A total mystery, which was half the fun of card readings. Oh, how wrong she was to feel excitement for that day. While drawing in the park on campus, the air had begun to hum with energy and the sound of shattering glass came to her ears. Before she could identify the cause of the noise, her hair began to stand on end, and the air nearby was torn asunder. An inky blackness within the rippling waves of energy seemed to devour all in her line of sight, while glimmers of starlight shone from the tapestry of night. ¡°Ahh, the smell of the air. At last, I¡¯ve made it back! This must be Earth!¡± A demented older man began raving and then dropped to his knees, kissing the ground. ¡°Ngh!¡± With a shrill cry of surprise, Elizabeth felt herself suddenly being tugged towards the¡­ portal. Yes, the strange man had arrived through some sort of portal, which now seemed intent on devouring her in turn, all while the rambling old man seemed to have lost himself in rambling while tears streaked down his face. ¡°Oh dear,¡± the old man finally seemed to take notice of her as she fought the increasingly insistent pull of the portal he¡¯d opened. ¡°Help me!¡± Elizabeth¡¯s cry seemed to be dragged into the gateway as she reached her hand for something to grasp, toppling sideways in the process. ¡°Dear, oh dear.¡± The idiot, officially nicknamed now, seemed to ponder over what to do as he stepped away from the portal, making no moves to help her. ¡°There is no system here. I have no skills or stats to fix this. Ah, well, surely some god or other will mend the rift. Good day, my dear, and do enjoy your world traveling adventure!¡± Her hands stretched out, desperate for anything to grasp, if only for the chance to claw her way over to the old man and wring the life out of him for abandoning her. Honestly, what a load of nonsense! At least fix the problems you make for yourself instead of troubling others! And what was that about a system, or stats and skills? Frankly, she wasn¡¯t sure what to make of the old man, but she was certainly not ready for any world traveling! Her gaze flickered towards the portal, where her foot was just beginning to pass inside, as her fingers of her right hand snagged a strap of some sort¡­ her purse! Not. Helpful! Even so, she looped her wrist through the straps and felt around for anything to stop this slow but unavoidable pull on her body. Oddly enough, nothing else seemed to be drawn into the swirling starlit doom doorway, only her. And it wanted her badly, apparently. Her left hand caught a small gap between the concrete walkway segments, throwing her a lifeline of sorts. Her slow sliding movement paused for a brief moment, eliciting a gasp from the old man who was now watching from much further away, ¡°Ohh, I would not do that were I you.¡± She understood what he meant immediately, as the portal continued to pull at her, where her right leg was already devoured up to the calf. Her brief halt in motion caused the part of her leg to be devoured, while her body remained still, severing her leg where it met the portal. Pain. A sudden, unfathomable pain assailed her as she cried out, surely drawing the attention of other students going about their mornings, but such thoughts didn¡¯t reach her anymore. Her grip slackened, and she found a sudden surge of power pull her free of the small handhold, devouring her whole body in an instant. Earth was no longer her concern. All she could feel was pain, though dimly aware that she was moving through space at a speed that made no sense to her fragile, pain-addled mind. Pain became the constant companion of a journey that could¡¯ve been days, or likely years. Time made no sense in this transitional experience, and she became more lucid as the pain became a part of her existence, assuming she still existed. The cosmic experience of everything around her was hard to put into words, but lucidity was definitely a problem the longer this went on. There they were. The worlds of her dreams, just out of reach. The jeweled mountains. The vast fields of endless bounty. The ecosystems of increasingly monstrous carnivores. The bloodied battlefields of war torn lands. The realms became less idyllic after the first few. Then came the true nightmares. Worlds devoid of all life, destroyed by the clashes of weapons of mass murder.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Worlds decayed by endless pestilence and decay. Worlds scoured clean by intense rays of unbearable sunlight. As she tried desperately to tear her eyes away from the horrors along the journey, she saw¡­ them. In the gaps between the worlds, kept at bay by some force she couldn¡¯t identify, the universe was full of dangers of all kinds. Pain seared through her anew as she was struck by stray stardust. Holes tore into her body as she was flung through a cloud of cosmic debris. She desperately wanted to scream, but no voice was able to rise from her lips. No reprieve to be found, Elizabeth could only feel her mind begin to slip away into the vast everythingness all around her. Someone¡­ save me! Please. Anything to make this stop. ¡°Anything? Then perhaps¡­ would you be willing to help me with a little something?¡± A voice. A voice in the abyss of the universe! But so much pain. She couldn¡¯t bring coherent thought to form a response. ¡°Allow me to clear your mind a bit.¡± The pain disappeared. Elizabeth felt like she breathed a sigh of relief, but that certainly couldn¡¯t have been true in this endless vacuum of space. Thank you. Um, you¡­mentioned a favor? ¡°Indeed. I am Seira. In my world, I am the Goddess of Order. You are a curious case, to still be nearly whole of body. I can guide you to my world and grant you a haven, but I would ask you to put your recent experiences to work in preventing further harm for me. Specifically, I would ask that you repair damaged spatial reality in that world.¡± Is it impossible to return me to my own world? It may have seemed selfish to ask for aid that would prevent her from aiding in the goddess¡¯ request, but she had to know. ¡°You darling little human. You know not how long you have been drifting through this space, between the gaps in worlds. Your world may have aged a hundred years in the time you¡¯ve been cast adrift. [World Travelers] from my world may attain the power to traverse worlds, but they tend to form incomplete pathways that do not mend themselves. You were likely caught in one such pathway as it decayed naturally, leaving you adrift for unknown quantities of time. The world you know will not be the world that exists now.¡± I see. Your world? How different is it? ¡°You will have to see for yourself. Your time in the rift should grant you some benefits to compensate for how much older you are without unlocking your system. Language will be a concern, I am sure. Then I shall grant you some few benefits to help you along. First, I must remake your body a little.¡± At last, the Goddess revealed her form. Clearly feminine, but hard to really describe beyond that. Black¡­ hair seemed like it wasn¡¯t the right word. There weren¡¯t any strands of hair, so it was more like she had a curtain around her face, perfectly framed and ending at her jawline in an approximation of a bob cut. Her eyes remained closed as if in a state of slumber. The rest of her body was equally unusual, though being the Goddess of ¡®Order,¡¯ it all made some sense. The ¡°clothes¡± on her body seemed to just be differently colored skin, or some sort of bodysuit, like the kind a surfer might wear. Alabaster face, hands and skin, all standing out from the shining silver of the bodysuit she might have been ¡°wearing¡± in some meaning of the word. Beautiful. Elizabeth wasn¡¯t sure why that thought popped into her head, but she could feel the emotion of happiness wash into her mind at the clueless thought she¡¯d let slip away. She really was. Elizabeth wasn¡¯t sure if this would forever change her tastes, but she couldn¡¯t see anything being this beautiful to her eyes ever again, meaning Elizabeth likely would never feel attracted to anyone who was anything less than truly striking in the future. She had to offer her apologies to men in the future. The Goddess of Order was far too perfect to allow her mind to see any men as anything close to such flawless beauty. ¡°Aren¡¯t you such a flatterer? I¡¯d offer you even more boons for such a thoughtful perspective, but I don¡¯t play favorites. I can reward you for a job well done in the future, however. Let¡¯s get started, shall we? This will take you some time to get used to.¡± The next thing Elizabeth saw, a primordial liquid was enveloping her body. She had no clue what it was, but it felt cool to the touch. A far cry from the pain she¡¯d been in before the goddess had alleviated the sensation. ¡°Now, the materials for repairing your body won¡¯t be organic, per se, but it¡¯s the best I can do out here with what¡¯s on hand. Clay¡­ too soft. Metals will be too heavy¡­ I¡¯ll just have to rearrange some atomic components.¡± That last comment seemed a little contradictory of her comment about using the materials on hand, but this was a goddess, and Elizabeth felt she could find some trust in her heart for this being that had surely shattered her thoughts of ever finding true love. Really, if she could pull it off, she would find a way to become a god just to be with such divine perfection. If she could blush while embraced by this liquid in the void between worlds while a beautiful goddess mashed together rocks like putty to fill in her missing body parts, Elizabeth was sure she would¡¯ve. The whole situation was so far beyond her imagination from that morning¡­ it couldn¡¯t have just been that morning, really. Stupid World card. You¡¯re not supposed to be so literal. ¡°Card? Whatever do you mean? Also, I¡¯ll be waiting for your confession when you become a goddess yourself, so do try to reach me.¡± I¡¯ll keep that in mind! And cards¡­ I had them in my bag. They¡¯re Tarot Cards for reading your fate. I drew the World card on the day I got sucked into the weird portal that crazy old man came out of. Elizabeth felt like she could strive for a goal now! But could she actually become a god herself? She¡¯d have to wait and sort that issue out when she had the rest of things sorted out. She glanced at the purse still wrapped around her intact right arm, then held it out to Seira. The purse itself was made of fine leather, and when Seira glazed inside, she immediately withdrew a shining deck of artistically drawn and stylized cards. The Major Arcana. Each card was large and was shining from the starlight all around as the gemstones in the ink of each drawing caught and refracted the light. They seemed especially ethereal in that light. ¡°Well now. Such high quality materials must not go to waste. I¡¯ll be giving you a divine mission, and these shall be a little advance payment for you, so don¡¯t ever lose them.¡± With that, Seira placed a chaste kiss on the cards, then gently pressed them into Elizabeth¡¯s chest, where they vanished into her body with a pale silver glow. I¡­ What did you do? And how would I lose them if they¡¯re a part of me now? ¡°Really, that¡¯s just for safekeeping. They won¡¯t be of any use to you now, but one day, they¡¯ll be your own divine instrument for the mission I grant you.¡± I¡¯m not sure I understand, but thank you. It was all she could come up with after such a vague answer. Elizabeth studied her body to see if there were any notable changes, but she couldn¡¯t see anything yet. She was missing her left foot from the calf down since the portal incident, and the stardust she¡¯d passed through had shredded her left hand and parts of her torso. She didn¡¯t think she¡¯d still be alive if it weren¡¯t for the odd timeless nature of this rift. Seira seemed to have found the right material for her ¡°repairs¡± at that point. A stony looking material was shaped and molded to fill the gaps in her flesh, patching the holes in her lower stomach and fixing her hand. She couldn¡¯t feel anything from those areas, however. It was as if they¡¯d been replaced with stone, and she wasn¡¯t sure how her body could function without organic material. ¡°Do not worry, my future paramour. I¡¯ve ensured that the human functions of your body work around the replacements. In my world, such things are the work of [Biomancers] but a goddess¡¯ work won¡¯t lose to mortal hands.¡± Elizabeth couldn¡¯t believe it. Was that a coy smile on the goddess¡¯ lips? Paramour? And what was Biomancy? What about all the organs she was undoubtedly missing? ¡°Those will be the least of your worries. You¡¯re going to have a long road to recovery, so try to hold tight to those feelings of yours. Good luck, my [Priestess].¡± Elizabeth opened her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. [*ding* Welcome to Pallos!] [Name: Elizabeth Fereday] [Race: Stone Golem/Human Hybrid] [Age: 21] [*ding* Congratulations! You¡¯ve survived your early years, and the system is now fully unlocked for you!] That was as far as she got through the odd notifications dinging and popping up in her field of view before the goddess¡¯ pain nullification wore off, and she began to scream in both pain and complete horror. Part 2 - Sorting Things Out Part 2 - Sorting Things Out Elizabeth¡¯s dreams were haunted by the nightmares of the void. She couldn¡¯t fully grasp the odd, squirming masses that existed within the gaps between worlds, but to her chaotic mind, it seemed as if they were discarded failures at creation that propagated infinitely in a place eyes weren¡¯t meant to see. Some god¡¯s idle subjects of an infinite torture, or the limitless end of some other reality, never to bear civilization again. And she¡¯d been faced with them for an immortal moment. The memories gnawed at her like twisted teeth on her psyche, grinding through her mind like an unceasing maw of teeth making mincemeat of her very sanity. Seared into the back of her mind, she knew she could never forget them, yet never really know them either. She inwardly vowed never to reveal the details of those things to others for as long as she lived. That thought paused her dreamscape for a moment. As if she wasn¡¯t dreaming, and was only wracked with these haunting memories. That was when she realized she hadn¡¯t fallen asleep at all, and it was only her mind that strained ceaselessly against her hardest efforts to push it all away. Somewhere in the din of her fraying nerves were a frustrating cacophony of dinging sounds that just never seemed to end. She desperately wanted to turn them off. As if a gift from her new, beloved goddess, they literally stopped with that thought. If there¡¯s a wish granting thing going around, I¡¯d love some way to stop reliving the awful void terrors! She sent off that thought with a silent prayer, and felt she heard a chuckle in the background of her mind as she felt a sensation in her thoughts like a thick wall split her mind into two, carefully separating away the horrid memories to a corner of her mindscape. Peace and quiet finally settled over her, only for the damn pain to return to the forefront. She dimly realized she¡¯d been screaming in terror, without even realizing her mind had resumed functioning with her body now. That was bound to drive anyone nearby into placing more than a few noise complaints. Now she just had to remember how to properly control her own body again. No biggie. Thinking inward, around the pain assailing her missing body parts, she assessed the vocal areas of her throat, then forcibly stopped the instinctual need to expel her pain aloud. Her vocals finally came under her control as she fought through the pain in a silent agony. She could still feel the sensations of losing herself to those injuries, and regardless of Seira¡¯s efforts, she knew that stone replacements wouldn¡¯t have the nerves to work as anything more than a basic prosthetic. A damn heavy prosthetic at that. She would have to figure out how to live with stone prosthetics, but as she tried to partition the pain she was feeling alongside the nightmares occluding her mind in that remote corner, she found she couldn¡¯t do so, meaning that trick wouldn¡¯t work a second time. She reached out again to that wish granting sensation, praying for a way to escape the pain, only to find little to no succor there. She¡¯d have to get used to it. But first, she needed to rest. She finally invited the bone weary sensation that clung to her to overtake her pain-addled mind, then drifted into a fragile sleep. ~ ~ ~ When Elizabeth next awoke, the pain had reduced to a background throbbing that had her head pounding instead. Constant pain was very migraine inducing. One pain for another. She glanced around, finally, her eyes squinting against the light streaming in from the wooden slats of the window shutters. Everything was built from sturdy stone except the building and the window, with no signs of glass being in frequent use. She got a middle ages vibe from everything, including the simplistic furniture. An older gentleman was seated at a small table nearby, putting a bookmark in the volume he had been reading as he spoke to her in a¡­ language she couldn¡¯t quite fully process. She felt she could grasp the meaning if her mind was working right, but it wasn¡¯t, so she only caught a rough idea without thinking about it properly. ¡°Can I have some water, please?¡± Elizabeth hoarsely croaked out the words, her first time speaking proper words since she¡¯d been on Earth. Goddess knew how long ago that had been. ¡°Of course,¡± the elderly man, who was wearing something akin to clerical vestments, took a cup and filled it from a pitcher from the nearby table and then handed her the small porcelain cup. The cup looked basic, and she hoped it was clean despite her eagerness to take it in her right hand and drink the water with gusto. She didn¡¯t think she¡¯d ever do something in her life ¡°with gusto¡± just a day or¡­ however long ago it was. Somehow her whole life had gone up in inky voidness. That wasn¡¯t a line of thought she could entertain now, and so she shelved that introspection for later. ¡°Are you ready to talk now?¡± The older man seemed to be studying her, or rather something over her head, before flicking his gaze to her hand. ¡°I¡¯m sorry about that. I¡¯m still getting a handle on things.¡± She noticed something odd about how she and the man were each speaking. Namely, she understood his words that were decidedly not English or any other language she could¡¯ve recognized. And when she spoke English back to him, he seemed to fully understand her spoken English. Something was off, but she¡¯d investigate that later. ¡°Well, given that you showed up in our church in a shower of golden light, then went on to start screaming like you¡¯d been through something terrifying, I am certainly finding patience in spades to allow you to recover. Pay it no mind.¡± The man seemed to have eyes that would twinkle with some hidden amusement behind that demeanor of concern. ¡°Ah, I¡¯m sorry about that. The Goddess offered to help me and bring me to her world, but I guess what she did to stop the pain and everything else I was in ended after she dropped me off.¡± Elizabeth tried to sit upright, but her body felt bizarrely heavy from the stone areas Seira had patched over, so sitting upright was a struggle she barely overcame while waving off the old man¡¯s assistance. She didn¡¯t appreciate others touching her, though she felt the goddess was an intriguing exception in retrospect. ¡°You met with a Goddess? And she delivered you to us? Lady Seira did? I can think of no other who would bring you to her temple in particular.¡± The man seemed almost excited at that moment. There was a near fanaticism to his expression, and she felt slightly put off by it. ¡°Umm, yes, it was her. She was the most beautiful person I¡¯d ever seen, even if she wasn¡¯t exactly human for the use of the word ¡®person.¡¯¡± ¡°Indeed, I have heard that descriptions of her do not even do her justice, nor can depictions compare to the experience. You are indeed a lucky soul!¡± ¡°Lucky, huh?¡± Elizabeth reached for another cup of water as she glanced at her left hand. The fingers were stone, as was most of the palm, leaving only her thumb to properly move the way she intended. Lucky to be alive, maybe, but everything before? Not at all. ¡°Might I ask for the full extent of your story?¡± The elderly priest seemed to slip into the pensive atmosphere she¡¯d taken on and pry gently at the circumstances. ¡°I¡¯m not quite sure how to tackle some parts, but in essence, some crazy wizard showed up in my university park through a portal, and I got swallowed up in the process. I drifted through space for some time before Seira found me and filled in the holes in my body before sending me here, saying she¡¯d give me a divine mission at some point.¡± She had some mixed thoughts about being cast away to some new place without much guidance, and therefore, social graces to the rescue. ¡°I¡¯d really appreciate some of the basics if you could bring me up to speed on where I am and what¡¯s going on with my body now.¡± ¡°So it seems you are indeed God-touched, or Goddess-touched, as it were. I will happily tell you things you need to know. The Goddess Seira has entrusted you to our care, after all.¡± The older man launched into a rough background of the world, then the country, then the ¡°System¡± as the largest information heap to chew through. It took hours. Apparently all common knowledge she¡¯d have gotten properly if she were actually born in this world. By the time they were done, she felt a little dizzy, and the priest left her to her thoughts as he went to prepare some food. That would hopefully buy her a good while. To sum things up, she¡¯d been sent to a theocracy called the Sovereign Justiciary, ruled and operated by the church which venerated Seira, the goddess who¡¯d saved her life, if she could actually die in the void between worlds. The city she was in was near the border of the nation. According to the elderly priest, the country had been handling some major crises recently as they mediated between legal infractions between various countries at one another¡¯s throats. The priest felt she was lucky to end up in such a remote church, rather than one of the larger cities where priests would be too busy to care for her in her current state. She felt happy that the goddess had been so thoughtful, and wondered if the recent crisis had anything to do with her upcoming ¡°divine mission.¡± Next up was the head spinning information about the system. According to the old man, this world functioned around ¡°stats and skills¡± offered by what she saw as a game-like system. Overall, the whole thing struck her as far too complex to be a game, though. Poor kids would give up understanding the nuances and tabletop players would hate the number crunching. Every eight points of certain stats would penalize a point from another statistic? The whole thing seemed to be exactly the sort of thing she¡¯d hate. In the end, this was the world she¡¯d been tossed into, and it was finally time to go over her own details, which she¡¯d unwittingly turned off notifications for upon arrival. The excessive amount of notifications had been a huge distraction while she was busy suffering, after all. Carefully, to avoid a deluge of dings flooding her rather frayed mind, she reached out for her current information page, which functioned like a character sheet in a video game. [Name: Elizabeth Fereday] [Race: Stone Golem/Human Hybrid] [Age: 21] [Mana: 40/40] [Mana Regeneration: 23] Stats: [Free Stats: 32] [Strength: 15] [Dexterity: 17] [Vitality: 28] [Mana: 4] [Mana Regeneration: 4] [Magic Power: 4] [Magic Control: 12] So far, simple enough. Apparently, if a person misaligned their mana regeneration values from their overall values in other stats, it was possible to die of mana drain. With that in mind, she¡¯d have to carefully select skills that wouldn¡¯t drain her mana faster than it could recover. She could regenerate twenty-three mana per hour with her starter stats. The immediate problem came from that racial line. She had been avoiding thinking about it before, but it seemed she was, in fact, partially made from stone. She was sure she¡¯d have to find ways to hide those aspects of her body, or else she knew from Earth history how others would view her as being ¡®different¡¯ now. On the other hand, every piece was a gift from that beautiful goddess. A life bestowed back upon her by a goddess who, at least, seemed amused by her fledgling feelings based purely on appearance. She really hoped she could speak with and get to know that goddess more in the future. She promised she would achieve godhood for herself to be with her savior, so she¡¯d have to knuckle down and sort her new life out. Next item on the list, her name. New world, which she felt she was taking surprisingly well, meant that such a long name was in the past. Ellie was a fair option, but struck her as a little juvenile, for no real reason at all. Liz seemed like the right choice. She mentally reflected on the name and thought of herself as ¡°Liz.¡± Disappointment. [Name: Elizabeth Fereday] She had learned from the priest earlier that a person could modify their system displays and notifications quite a bit. Seemed she was stuck without being able to change her name, however. Liz would be fine for social interaction anyway. It was probably a very peculiar name here either way. Skills were the next major item to consider. Apparently, people here in this new world loved the number eight a lot. Eight points in Strength would devour a point in Dexterity, as mentioned before. Not only that, but everyone had eight skill slots per ¡°class¡± and eight ¡°General Skills¡± as well. Eight base elements in the classes, too. Classes would have to wait, though. Her skill choices and their levels would affect her future class options, after all.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. General Skills: [Skill Slot 1: Mental Partitioning 8] [Skill Slot 2: Pain Management 6] [Skill Slot 3: Open] [Skill Slot 4: Open] [Skill Slot 5: Open] [Skill Slot 6: Open] [Skill Slot 7: Open] [Skill Slot 8: Open] Along with a dizzying array of skill options that seemed related to her previous life experiences. It wasn¡¯t a happy thought that the System was reading her mind. It felt like someone might be digging through her memories and the idea felt like such an invasion of her privacy, though she couldn¡¯t actually do anything about it. Liz would be the first to admit she wasn¡¯t able to play games, but the options were a little exciting, though also slightly infuriating as well. Being an actress from her early years meant she¡¯d never had much free time, of course. Her gamer senses were nonexistent, so she always resented those who had more time to laze about in life. She belatedly decided to let the full list of General Skill choices fly. [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Identify]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the Passive skill [Awareness]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Prayer]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Acting]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Performance]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Dancing]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Singing]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Meditate]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Archery]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Drawing]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Sketching]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Painting]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Engraving]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the Passive skill [Vigilant]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the Passive skill [Learning]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Teaching]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the Passive skill [Patience]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the Passive skill [Handsome]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the Passive skill [Princely]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the Passive skill [Clean-cut]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the Passive skill [Dashing]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the Passive skill [Suave]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the Passive skill [Adonis]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the Passive skill [Stunning]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the Passive skill [Adaptable]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the Passive skill [Active]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the Passive skill [Calm]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Running]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Walking]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Fires]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Gardening]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the Passive skill [Imaginative]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the Passive skill [Flexible]!] [*ding!* You¡¯ve unlocked the General skill [Riding]!] She felt slightly attacked. Sure, she had somewhat short hair, with a slightly tousled look that you might see on a stereotypical biker gal. And she was tall. Not quite six feet, but very close. And she had great posture from years of acting and sitting for promotional photos. She was often called ¡°handsome¡± back on Earth. But seriously? She had not one, but six different largely male descriptive appearance skills. If she was going to take one, it would be [Stunning] as the least offensive of the bunch to her own tastes. Oddly enough, she¡¯d shot a bow once in her life. Being offered the [Archery] skill from such a pitiful experience told her the System was potentially teasing her on purpose. Did she really need one, though? She was already plenty attractive. Maybe they affected the perceptions of others? Even that older priest had looked like he had some sort of effect staving off the effects of aging on his appearance. Something to research. Currently, she had two skills she didn¡¯t think she could live without. That seemed like a rapidly approaching problem, given she only had eight slots for General Skills. Most of the skills were self-explanatory, and ranged from the aforementioned appearance skills to skills for basic daily activities like [Walking]. Imagine needing a skill to walk? She was almost there, with the stone foot, but as it turns out, Skills could turn a basic activity into something that was both empowered by, and cost the expense of mana. [Running] to run faster and easier, until you ran out of mana and suddenly had to run on your own body¡¯s ability until the resource recharged. Game mechanics. This is part of why she felt apprehensive about them. She¡¯d have to start making adjustments to her System interface sooner rather than later. The less game-y it all seemed, the better for her mental health. Mental health is very important! Glancing over the list, she saw a few standouts. [Identify] apparently was a staple taken by nearly everyone. You could see the tags of people around you to see what level they were, And it would allow you to gauge the strength of monsters in the world. She didn¡¯t know much about games, and she couldn¡¯t see much fun in only taking on challenges below your own level, but at the same time, this was about to be her own life, and challenging something with a massive level advantage over her could get her killed fast. She¡¯d be taking the skill. Skills she was already adept at seemed like a poor choice for her limited skill slots, and she wasn¡¯t sure how well her acting would help her survive in a new, and likely less advanced world. Something told her that a life on stage wasn¡¯t going to be guiding her to divinity before old age claimed her. Her most recent experiences had her moving towards a life of suffering and hardship, to speak nothing of the goddess¡¯ plans to give her a divine quest. With that in mind, she had to stay focused on what would help her in the future the most. That had things narrowed down to [Awareness], [Prayer], [Vigilant], [Learning], [Adaptable], [Imaginative] and [Flexible]. Between [Awareness] and [Vigilant], she felt that the two had a shocking amount of overlap. Thinking about why both would exist, she thought she might still be missing some pieces of the System puzzle, so to speak. Skills could be merged, so maybe there was something in that aspect to define a pathway from one skill to another. Surely someone has compiled a book of skills and methods to obtain the best ones. It wouldn¡¯t take long for people on Earth to comb through the possibilities and find the best efficiencies. Sadly, she was on her own for this, so she decided to go for [Awareness] and research the subject at the earliest opportunity. Problem was, the old priest had said that people tended to keep their skills and information to themselves as much as possible, so rather than disseminating information, things tended to stagnate. She might have a shot at leveraging her advanced knowledge of Earth¡¯s concepts in this world, within reason. [Prayer] was not negotiable for her ties to Seira. She would take up piety and pray for any opportunity to speak with the goddess. This was what she had chosen for her goal, if only to keep from thinking about what her life had become. She was adept at picking a goal and sticking to it. It would be her driving force in life from now on, she decided. The problem with the skill was that it wasn¡¯t exactly a requirement in the truest sense. You could still pray to a deity and offer mana to them, but the skill allowed a passive flow of mana over time. The long term benefits were unparalleled, but she could see why many people might not take the Skill for their limited slots. [Learning] was the best sort of passive she could think of. Passive experience boosts, based on the description. Given that her goals involved leveling quickly, she saw this as a great chance to jump start the process. She bitterly realized she could¡¯ve snagged a ton of levels from the old man¡¯s lessons earlier if she¡¯d slotted the skill sooner. No sense crying over spilled milk, though. Liz started to think over her last two slots with a more open mind to the future possibilities. Merging skills was a great conceptual idea, and she could see several of her short list options merging quite easily. [Awareness], [Adaptable] and [Imaginative] could easily merge into some sort of combat, crafty, rapid-response skill. Assuming she was going to be in combat. Which seemed like the only option for leveling quickly with a human lifespan. She couldn¡¯t count on her stone golem aspect to give her some extra longevity. [*ding* Congratulations! [Pain Management] has leveled up to level 7!] That notification gave her food for thought. Skills didn¡¯t level up all too fast, given that her passive pain skill was taking hours between levels even at such a low level. Then she read the description properly. [Pain Management: You¡¯ve endured a lot of painful injuries. This skill allows you to manage pain better, allowing you to set your pain levels with a thought. Increased efficiency per level for any kind of pain.] Briefly setting aside her last two skill slots, she mentally fiddled with the skill. She took her migraine and mentally disabled it entirely. Immediate relief washed over her. She¡¯d only mentally tried to push the pain to the back of her mind before, which seemed to be less burdensome than disabling it. The old priest had said these were ¡°meta skills,¡± or that was how her mind¡¯s translation was processing the words. These abilities were the best! She took the opportunity to disable her phantom pain, only to see her mana hit zero almost immediately. [Pain Management] was complicated. Disabling her headaches wasn¡¯t enough to cost mana at all. Disabling her full body phantom pain was apparently a separate cost, and much more expensive. She fiddled with it more as her mana trickled back, twenty-three points per hour, since she hadn¡¯t slotted the new choices yet.. She reflected on her results after some trial and error. The mana cost was based on the amount of her body she affected and how much she turned the pain down. Disabling it for the whole body was right out at the moment. It cost so much she couldn¡¯t even calculate the approximate cost with her current pool. Instead she ended up reducing her missing right foot to a dull throb, leaving the rest to their normal pain levels, though migraines were now permanently a thing of the past. At first she wasn¡¯t really sure how it was much of a passive, but she decided that it was best she not have to focus on maintaining it constantly. It counts as a passive, for sure. [*ding* Congratulations! [Pain Management] has capped at level 8!] Perfect! Increasing the load on the skill made it much faster to level. And it wasn¡¯t the kind of skill that had a breakpoint. She¡¯d hate to break a bone and lose all her mana trying to mitigate a large amount of overall damage. Turning her mind back from her brief distraction to the General Skills issue, she decided to forget the larger list and hope to merge her ideas from before. [*ding* Congratulations! You¡¯ve learned [Identify] ¡ª level 1!] [*ding* Congratulations! You¡¯ve learned [Awareness] ¡ª level 1!] [*ding* Congratulations! You¡¯ve learned [Prayer] ¡ª level 1!] [*ding* Congratulations! You¡¯ve learned [Learning] ¡ª level 1!] [*ding* Congratulations! You¡¯ve learned [Adaptable] ¡ª level 1!] [*ding* Congratulations! You¡¯ve learned [Imaginative] ¡ª level 1!] So, now for the descriptions! She felt a little excited about the future possibilities, despite the overwhelming turmoil her life should¡¯ve been in. She did feel like she should be more upset over things, but she just didn¡¯t feel it, and couldn¡¯t really decide why. [Identify: You¡¯ve looked around the world, and you want to know more. This skill will help you grasp basic information and identities from people and creatures around you. Increased range per level. Current Range .5 Meters] Meters? She figured it would¡¯ve been in feet if it was going to convert to measurement she was familiar with. [Awareness: You¡¯re cautious and aware of what¡¯s around you. Don¡¯t be caught unawares. Increased perception and vigilance per level. -3 Mana Regeneration] Hold on¡­ [Vigilant: You¡¯re constantly on guard for trouble, aware of your surroundings at all times. Increased perception and awareness per level. -3 Mana Regeneration] Stupid system is trolling me! The flavor text was different but their effects mirror each other. That¡¯s what I get for not comparing them sooner. [*ding* [Learning] leveled up! Level 2] She somehow felt like these were going to be a pain. General Skills! Keep going, save notifications for later, System Voice thing! [Prayer: You¡¯re a devout believer in the gods. This skill will passively send mana to the target of your worship. Mana cost varies by user¡¯s choice.] [Learning: You have a passion, a drive for knowing more. You constantly seek out new knowledge, and have acquired considerable amounts of it. Easier to learn new ideas. Easier to learn new skills. Each level comes with a 1% increase in exp for all other skills and classes. -5 Mana Regeneration] [Adaptable: You¡¯re adapting to changing circumstances and need a bit of a boost to help you acquaint yourself faster. React to sudden events more quickly and overcome surprising situations faster. -2 Mana Regeneration] [Imaginative: You¡¯re creatively minded and come up with new ideas constantly. This skill will help you come up with new ideas faster and find solutions to problems that others might not come up with. -3 Mana Regeneration] Liz blanched at the new problem. The mana costs were too high. [Mental Partitioning] only cost mana while active, and as things stood, it was a mandatory drain of around five mana from her regeneration rate. And her current level of Pain Management was running at ten mana from her regeneration. All her costs had her in the negatives and bleeding mana. She desperately looked over her stats for a solution and landed on one line of her system display. [Free Stats: 32] She began allocating points to her Regeneration to balance the scales for now. Stats: [Free Stats: 30] [Strength: 15] [Dexterity: 17] [Vitality: 27] [Speed: 13] [Mana: 4] [Mana Regeneration: 6] [Magic Power: 4] [Magic Control: 12] Every point of Mana Regeneration gave her ten points of mana per hour. Two points had her healthily into the positives. [Name: Elizabeth Fereday] [Race: Stone Golem/Human Hybrid] [Age: 21] [Mana: 40/40] [Mana Regeneration: 12] Stats [Free Stats: 30] [Strength: 15] [Dexterity: 17] [Vitality: 27] [Speed: 13] [Mana: 4] [Mana Regeneration: 6] [Magic Power: 4] [Magic Control: 12] General Skills [:Mental Partitioning 8] [:Pain Management 8] [:Identify 1] [:Awareness 1] [:Prayer 1] [:Learning 2] [:Adaptable 1] [:Imaginative 1] Liz nodded in satisfaction at her stat sheet before letting out a brief sigh. Her next subject was the icing on the cake. Her class read [Child of Earth] and seemed to be the source of her wealth of Free Stats. She wondered how it compared to the base classes of other people in this world. She hoped it wasn¡¯t worse. Then again, the basic classes end at level eight, while the level max was at the lofty four thousand ninety-six. Class advancements at intervals of eight, thirty-two, one hundred twenty-eight, and so on meant that she would have frequent opportunities to improve on the stat values she could benefit from. There was just one problem. She couldn¡¯t get out of bed on her own, since the stone prosthetics were too heavy, and she couldn¡¯t move around much. Classes were improved and more varied at each advancement when you had your skills leveled up. That¡¯s why she hadn¡¯t considered any of the more active movement-based options in her general skills. Everything she chose would allow her to increase her levels before her class advancement, and with any luck she¡¯d find some way around the limitations of the current state of her body. [*ding* Congratulations! [Imaginative] leveled up! Level 2] She was just thinking it ought to ding for her. She was fast coming up with ideas to raise the skill levels efficiently while being largely bedridden. It only made sense. It was time¡­ to see if she could have a chat with a certain perfect goddess. Part 3 - Skill Leveling and Classes! Part 3 - Skill Leveling and Classes! With her skills locked in for the time being, Liz made the effort to try and forcibly expand her senses while closing her eyes. She could distantly hear movement elsewhere in the building, or church as it would seem, and she hoped the faint smells she could catch were something she might partake in eating. Next, she took a deep breath and maintained that feeling of what she hoped would qualify as [Awareness] while composing her thoughts into a prayer. Seira, it¡¯s Liz. I¡¯d be dust in the cosmos if not for you, so I plan to wholeheartedly dedicate myself to repaying your generosity. I know you spoke of a divine mission you had planned for me, and I fully intend on completing whatever you assign to me, but I hope my feelings reach you as well. I fully intend to make sure our relationship is equitable in the end. I don¡¯t want to feel indebted to you, and the best way for me to convey my wishes to you is to ensure no ulterior motives can exist between us. As such, I know I must get stronger. I¡¯ll weather this storm and rise to be at your side someday. I¡¯ll find a way. She tied the message off with a mental bow and post-marked it with eight points of mana, keeping with the metric of this world and the limits of her currently replenishing mana pool. She really needed to decide how to invest her free stats before she advanced her class to the next choice. Liz, I love the choice of nickname. The divine mission isn¡¯t something you can help with now, but it will be a huge relief if you can get there. I hope my gift has been assisting you with settling in so far. Don¡¯t lose the cards when you can finally use them. They¡¯re storing all of your excess mana over time when you¡¯re maxed out and they¡¯re helping with the translation adjustments, just as a treat from me. They¡¯re locked until you have the right skills, you¡¯ll know when you see the class choice one day! By then, they¡¯ll have a lot of saved up mana! I look forward to where you¡¯re going in life. It¡¯s a shame you plan to be my equal someday, you seem like you¡¯d make a great angel. Best of luck, and keep in mind that appearance skills can evolve into other skills, so don¡¯t write them all off just because you¡¯re satisfied with how you are now. I have to go, talk more soon! Liz felt a small shiver through her spine at the gentle voice in her mind. She had someone watching over her, which meant she would have to stay strong. She then mentally adjusted [Prayer] to offer a passive eight points of her regeneration to the goddess. [*ding* [Awareness] has leveled up! Level 2] She turned her head towards the doorway and smiled as she heard someone approaching her room, which sounded like it was the last one along the hallway of an upper floor. The elderly priest entered after a few footsteps, and she took the chance to use [Identify] on him. Which didn¡¯t activate until he¡¯d come close enough to lower a tray of food onto her lap. The range said it would grow with levels, and half a meter was quite close. [Priest - 306] [*ding* [Identify] leveled up! Level 2] She couldn¡¯t tell without a frame of reference, but this older man seemed fairly high level. ¡°Ah, you took Identify, did you? I can tell when people are looking just above my head at my level.¡± He preempted her question with a full explanation right away. ¡°Y-yes, I did. I¡¯ve chosen my first batch of skills, though Seira still recommended an appearance skill.¡± ¡°You truly are gifted if you have such an easy time speaking with her even at your low level!¡± The fanatical look in his eyes returned. ¡°Now, I believe I never got your name earlier.¡± ¡°It¡¯s Liz. Sorry, I got in the habit of not sharing my name with people back home. I was just a little well-known. It would cause problems.¡± She gave the man a faint smile, hiding her slight discomfort over the subject. ¡°I am Sylvestre, [Head Priest] at this temple. Were you the daughter of a world leader or something? Impressive to be so well known as to have that problem at your age.¡± ¡°I was like¡­ a stage performer, I suppose. And in my world, we had methods of sharing performances with anyone anywhere at any time. So even if someone didn¡¯t see me themselves, they might¡¯ve heard the name from someone who did. That method of communication is why our society became so advanced in recent decades. Two people working on similar things could pass ideas back and forth.¡± ¡°That sounds marvelous. In this world, people only pass along information through [Courier] services. If you could afford to send a letter around the world, it would still take years. Most people only know folks in the next town over.¡± Sylvestre offered her yet another nugget about the limited advancements of this world, despite the System. ¡°The system here seems so advanced and powerful to me, I find it odd that things haven¡¯t developed faster here. You said the year was 18,973 and yet, things are so limited.¡± The man sat down in a chair after setting her up with her meal. ¡°My dear, matters between nations in this world involve those with the power to erase a city in moments. We experience periods of extreme upheaval so dire as to reset civilization regularly. The more stable society is, the easier it is for people to gain levels in classes that can cause problems, since fewer people are busy working as [Farmers]. It is the realm of Xaoc, the god of chaos, and our nation strives for peace and stability, even as that stability brings an era of further chaos. All things in balance, in an eternal cycle. Order is a goal, but also a force in equilibrium with its antithesis.¡± ¡°I understand. That¡¯s a bit like my own world. They would often go into cycles of war and peace, each nation building up for the next big conflict. Humanity is the same no matter where they come from, I guess. My interest in Seira is largely personal, but I still plan to follow her purpose with passion.¡± ¡°Lady Seira offers her followers a goal in life to pursue. They are called [Tenets], and each devout of hers is given a singular one to fixate upon. I shall be most curious to see which [Tenet] you will be given. Now, I do find it interesting to hear of elvenoids in other worlds. Perhaps you could tell me more?¡± ¡°Elvenoids?¡± The term caught her completely off guard, distracting her from the subject of Seira¡¯s [Tenets]. ¡°Yes, the elves are the gods¡¯ most perfect creation, and we are all considered lesser by comparison, therefore: elvenoids.¡± ¡°Huh¡­¡± she frowned slightly as she suddenly had to check herself. New world, new vocabulary, translator or no. She mad e a mental note to avoid using the term ¡®humanoid¡¯, though she was dead curious if her translation trick would fix the misstep for her. She wouldn¡¯t risk it. They settled into a lighter conversation about Earth and her version of modern society as she continued to hone her [Awareness], [Learning], [Imaginative] and [Prayer] skills. Eventually, it grew dark outside and Sylvestre excused himself to take her emptied dishes back down to the lower level. She took the opportunity to level [Identify] as [Healers] and other temple staff filed in and out to check on her before the temple¡¯s rigid curfew, which seemed like it was just a few hours after their evening mealtime. If she had to guess, it was around what she¡¯d consider nine in the evening. The world was a mess, according to Sylvestre¡¯s comments. The last Immortal War was over a thousand years ago, and the mortal countries were fraught with corruption. Immortal nations were supposedly in an arms race as well, and she couldn¡¯t help but feel like she¡¯d been brought to a particularly dangerous era. The Immortal Wars topic left her somewhat terrified, and she had mixed thoughts about the subject. To her new understanding, the gods had created a system to print out new deities with regular frequency, and considered elves to be their best creation, as a race that naturally lived forever with high aptitude for all manner of skills. She figured there must be a reason the five main gods needed more deities, but Sylvestre didn¡¯t have the details. Still, a possibility for a war among people who could cross continents in seconds and erase countries in minutes or less did not sound like a fun time. Seira hadn¡¯t seemed too worried, or perhaps she had simply come to terms with the cycles of order and chaos in the world long ago. Still, it was not a comforting thought for her to know that any time some overly powerful maniac with a grudge might just end the whole city she was in at the drop of a hat. She shivered at the thought of being ended before she could even have a chance to achieve her goals. She needed power as fast as possible, so she could carry out her mission as planned. She focused her attention back on her [Awareness] training, stretching her senses out to the world around her, trying to comprehend what might be out there beyond the confines of the temple. ~ ~ ~ Two full weeks. Two damn weeks of working with Sylvestre to boost her skill levels without telling anyone which skills she¡¯d taken. She was going to play it safe and embody the way this world worked. Clearly, it was dangerous to tell others what your abilities were, and it became common practice to hide the details for a reason. She could think of a few ways it could be problematic, so she healthily kept her mouth shut. She invented her own stories and told Sylvestre about them under the guise of retelling Earth stories to boost her [Imaginative] levels. Then she informed him of the game of chess to work on her [Adaptable] skill. [Awareness] ended up being the slowpoke in the end. Skills leveled better off from new and unique uses or under stressful situations. The alternative was to be involved with important people. She had no chance of meeting anyone truly important to the system in this spare room, so she had to do things the long and slow way. [Identify] ended up being the easiest. Just using it on a half dozen fairly high level people was more than enough to cap it. Once all her skills were finally capped, in spite of horrible inefficiency with one of her hopefuls to merge, she finally felt ready to tackle the next two steps: her free stat allocations and her new class choice. Stats: [Free Stats: 30] [Strength: 15] [Dexterity: 17] [Vitality: 27] [Speed: 13] [Mana: 4] [Mana Regeneration: 6] [Magic Power: 4] [Magic Control: 12] It seemed right to even her stats out as best she could, and the fortunate part of her circumstances was that she¡¯d built up decent baselines as an adult, rather than approaching things as an eight year old like children of Pallos did. Glass half empty perspective, however, meant she¡¯d lost thirteen years of skill and level boosting. Second silver lining, the church viewed her as a special person of interest because of her background, and wouldn¡¯t try to restrict her choices. Apparently most families would dictate exactly what their child took and what they would grow up to be. She was lucky on both fronts, because if she¡¯d been born into this world, the families here wouldn¡¯t have given her a chance to become a [Priestess], as they didn¡¯t often wish to give away a possible source of family income to the church. Most members of the clergy would be orphans raised by the church staff themselves.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Her only hesitation about spending her free stats sooner was the off chance they might level off from her newfound usage of the magic stats. Her current totals in those statistics were from the baseline ability value of one, and three points she¡¯d ignored the notifications for when she arrived. Apparently, a grand total of three humans had achieved feats worthy of recognition by the system which thereby offered her a benefit purely by sharing a race with them. Half sharing a race with them, at least. According to Sylvestre, many other races were more fortunate, like elves who often saw the years go by to achieve divinity and ascend to the realm of gods. Must be nice to be an elf. She decided rounding out her stats was smart. She¡¯d gotten nowhere trying to raise her strength by moving her body so far, and she was ready for the wait to end. Regardless, she began assigning her free stats to prepare for the class-up process, giving her an edge in the available options. Stats: [Free Stats: 0] [Strength: 15] [Dexterity: 17] [Vitality: 27] [Speed: 13] [Mana: 14] [Mana Regeneration: 14] [Magic Power: 13] [Magic Control: 13] With her investments, she finally was ready. She called for Sylvestre to inform him she was ready, and with a [Nun] of the church standing guard outside, she took a deep breath. Frankly, a lot could happen to you while classing up, but she had no choice but to trust her unconscious body to the church, after all, she¡¯d been sleeping here for weeks anyway. The only difference was, now she wouldn¡¯t be able to wake up until she finished making her choice. Enough dawdling, it was time. Begin class-up of [Child of Earth] - Wood? [ Y / N ] Her first impression of the manifestation of her soul was utter chaos. She heard this place was a reflection of your inner self, but she hadn¡¯t expected such a nightmarish scene. The room resembled a tent made up of deep violet, extremely heavy fabrics. The problem was the floors and gaps between the folds of the fabric. The floor looked like it was a writhing mass of flesh beneath her completely non-stone feet, only barely separated from her like she was standing on a pane of glass. The tent itself looked like a mishmash of teeth were in the process of chewing through it. She shuddered as she realized that it reflected the torturous things that had eaten away at her mind in the void. Finally, Liz turned her attention to the table in the center of the tent. There, she could see a woman that could¡¯ve been her mirror reflection, except she was dressed in jeans and a leather jacket. She even had the same blonde tips she¡¯d had dyed before her mishap. This must¡¯ve been the manifestation that was intended to help her choose her class. How she missed the jeans and leather jacket she¡¯d worn so often on Earth. She felt the tunics and clerical robes of the church might just be a crime against fashion. Problem was, the other version of herself looked pissed off more than Liz had ever felt in her entire life. ¡°You¡¯ve finally arrived.¡± ¡°Uh, yeah, sorry?¡± Liz frowned at the open hostility. ¡°I¡¯ve got a bone to pick with you! What the hell are you being so dense about? Thought your first skill choice was some magic cure-all or something? You thoughtless idiot.¡± ¡°Yeah, I need you to explain.¡± The other her got up from her seat at the table and rounded on her like a maelstrom. She immediately began to painfully jab her finger into Liz¡¯s chest repeatedly. ¡°Think! You dumbass, when were you ever the sort of person to get hooked on a pretty face and forget yourself in such a crazy manner? Think back. What did you do with all that trauma when you first got to Pallos?¡± ¡°I had all that creepy writhing stuff on my mind again suddenly, so I prayed for something to alleviate it, and got the [Mental Partitioning] skill to split off those memories into a separate part of my brain, to clear my head.¡± Her voice was soft and contemplative. ¡°What went wrong when I did that?¡± The other her let out a huff of frustration. ¡°You locked out about three-quarters of your whole personality in the process. You¡¯ve had a one track mind and clung to the only crap you had in your head that felt safe the whole time. I can¡¯t believe you didn¡¯t notice all your distress at being in a new world, and your unusual enthusiasm was swallowing up your entire personality for that long. Look at this place. You need to take things slow and process it all properly, or hope you evolve [Mental Partitioning] into a selective memory skill.¡± Liz was shocked. She thought about it, then thought some more. She hadn¡¯t had any dreams for the whole two weeks. She hadn¡¯t been in the mood to draw her ideas, either. She didn¡¯t even miss doing her own fortune readings. She¡¯d been relaying things to Sylvestre, but none of her hobbies were showing through her recent life. She¡¯d been oblivious. ¡°No, I wasn¡¯t oblivious to it¡­ I was intentionally avoiding anything that might trigger an emotional breakdown. Ugh, how do I start to fix this?¡± She gestured to the tent, then the floor below them. ¡°You have a single class choice. Anything else is going to be a waste of time. One road to recovery.¡± The spirit version of her returned to the seat on the other side of the table and spread her hands over what seemed to be a crystal ball that appeared from nowhere. She took the seat opposite her other self. ¡°This is your future. Not one I shall read for you, but one you shall make into reality. This world, while powerful, cannot glimpse the future. It can only grant you the power to make the future you seek a reality.¡± The crystal ball on the table glowed faintly with visions of her walking with the stone parts of her body moving like normal skin, only ashen in color. It showed her manipulating stone and walking up rocky walls and cliffs. It even showed her coating herself in stone to protect herself from a dagger in a dark alley. This was totally unexpected. It almost felt like a joke class. A gift from Seira to a hopeful young new [Priestess]. [Rehabilitation Patient of Seira] The class promised to be a true test of her ability to overcome hurdles. Learning to move again, learning to cope with her fractured mind, and getting herself to the point where she could survive this world she was in. She could see why it was the only option. It was her only chance at recovering without spending years of her life suffering in frustration. Most of all, it was a damn Blue Class. Different classes had tiers by color, and Blue was unusually high on that list of scalings. Low tiers were in the white to red spectrum. Those then advanced from orange towards yellow and then to green. Most mortals would dream of getting a Green Class. She¡¯d basically found a loophole and been offered a rare Blue Class because of her connection to Seira. Most divine class options were blue, as far as she¡¯d heard. From there, the class qualities darkened to purple and eventually to black. Black being the most potent class quality came with such rarity that almost nobody was ever offered it without immensely daunting circumstances. ¡°Blue, is it? How the hell did we ever qualify for this, Seer?¡± She tested out her new nickname for her alter ego as she marveled at the luck she¡¯d hit. ¡°You already know most divine options are blue, and this is the weakest tier of divine class. Sure it¡¯s still lucky, but at the same time, your main class will never be anything better than blue either. Also, we¡¯re twenty-one, when most children unlock at eight. Seira has you on the rails from here on out. It¡¯s not a bad deal, given we get to live because of it, but you¡¯ll spend our whole lives as a pawn on the chessboard unless you make your position matter. This is the opportunity. If you die in an Immortal War, it¡¯ll be a hell of a waste. Make. This. Count.¡± Seer gave her a hard stare. Liz could really feel the weight of things now. She needed to sort out her mental issues quickly. ¡°Guess it¡¯s time to take the dive. I¡¯ll fix things up for you by the next time I come back, I promise.¡± Liz placed her hand on the crystal ball and willed it to become a part of her, watching the fleeting ghost of Earth flicker out of her hand into the ball as her old class faded in a sort of final goodbye to her old life. ~ ~ ~ When Liz awoke, she heard a ton of commotion coming from outside her room. She kept her eyes closed, then let the notifications play out before her. [*ding* Congratulations! You¡¯ve upgraded your first class - [Rehabilitation Patient of Seira] - Earth] [*ding* Warning! The chosen class will apply forced skill(s) required by your goddess to maintain your faith. Required skills are core to the class, and therefore cannot be replaced.] [*ding* Congratulations! Your class has leveled up. [Rehabilitation Patient of Seira] Level 8 has increased to Level 32. +20 Strength, +50 Dexterity, +30 Vitality, +50 Speed, +45 Mana, +45 Mana Regeneration, +40 Magic Power, +40 Magic Control from your class, +1 Free Stat for being partially human, +2 Vitality for being partially stone golem, +1 Vitality from your element per level] Great news! She went from level cap to level cap. Bad news? Skill grinding. Again. Also, holy stats! Though something about the stat balance seemed horribly out of alignment. She had a small sense of dread creeping over her. [*ding* You have gained the skill [Earth Authority] due to your race [Stone Golem]! This skill may not be replaced.] [*ding* You have gained the skill [Earth Conjuration]!] [*ding* You have gained the skill [Earth Manipulation]! This skill may not be replaced.] [*ding* For attaining level 20, your skills have been merged and become a class skill! [Pain Management] and [Adaptable] have become the class skill [Tenacity of Stone]. This skill has been set to the original preferences of [Pain Management]. -3010 Mana Regeneration] She mentally blanched at the mana cost, then ran the numbers in her head. She had plenty of mana to spare now. She sighed in relief, then decided to splurge and see what the costs were to negate all of her current pain with the new skill. Currently, she could operate pain free at a cost of -3450 Mana Regeneration. Fair trade. She kept the change. A completely painless full body was still well out of reach, but she could see a chance for it in the future. [*ding* Warning! The Divine Skill [Seira¡¯s Tenet of Equivalent Exchange] will be forcibly placed in Class Skill Slot 1. This skill cannot be replaced. [Prayer] has been removed from General Skills.] [Seira¡¯s Tenet of Equivalent Exchange: You have been saved by the Goddess of Order and expressed interest in not owing her a debt of gratitude. This skill acts as a balancing force between you and the goddess in your partnership. What is given must be reciprocated in kind. Variable mana cost until debt is repaid.] Liz noticed the commotion outside the room was growing in intensity, but decided she would ignore it until she was done reviewing her current status. First thing, she tried flexing her new skills. She needed an idea of the mana costs of using her new [Earth Manipulation] skill. By flex, she meant it literally. She first tried to move her toes on her prosthetic foot. They moved a little, but hardly in a natural manner. She¡¯d need a lot of practice, but for now, she might be capable of getting out of bed. The skill activation was fairly intuitive, and she approved of the new ¡®muscle.¡¯ Next step, she tested her new strength, raising her hand very slowly, she moderated the speed with the utmost care. As expected, her movements were drastically different. If she¡¯d put as much effort into lifting her hand as she¡¯d been using before the class change, she¡¯d have flailed right into the wall with a stone hand like a bludgeon. The stone of her prosthetics seemed to be incredibly dense, and she had to imagine concrete in her old world couldn¡¯t compare to them at all. Slowly, carefully, she used her [Earth Manipulation] to move each finger in sequence. Index, middle, ring and pinky, each balled up into a fist. As a bonus, she had control of them without the connected reactions of each finger adjacent to the one she was moving. [*ding* [Earth Manipulation] leveled up! Level 1-> 5!] The leveling rate on this one was miraculous. Something about the fine control of something necessary to live her life properly must¡¯ve tickled the system in just the right way to pay out the experience bonus points! There was just one side effect problem. She¡¯d still have to rework how she used her body. Instead of moving around purely by her original instincts, she¡¯d have to wire her brain to supply [Earth Manipulation] in place of her muscle memory and train it over from scratch. She shuddered at the thought of relearning how to dance now. Mana cost was a harsh -540 Mana Regeneration, which hurt her old sensibilities, but in reality she could afford it now. Lifeline established, as well as short term goals, she glanced over the skill descriptions. [Earth Authority: You¡¯re partially made of stone. It is part of your everyday life and livelihood in a deeper way than anyone else alive. Efficiency skill. Increased mana efficiency for Earth skills per level.] [Earth Conjuration: Create earth from mana. Increased effectiveness per level, Warning, only conjures material. Requires [Earth Manipulation] to control conjured material.] [Earth Manipulation: You¡¯re partially made from stone. This skill allows you to control the stone within you. Due to your nature, the load of this skill is only able to affect earth within or very close to you. The burden of self control has a high cost.] [Tenacity of Stone: Defensive adaptation skill. Wield the power of the earth and stone and draw on its power to protect yourself from pain and physical harm all the same. Reinforce your body with stone, and negate the pain with a thought.] She was happy with things for the most part, but the Divine Skill seemed like a personal touch from the goddess above and beyond the literal divine class she¡¯d been offered. She was happy with the favoritism she felt from the idea, but then wondered how heavy a burden she¡¯d be asked to bear in exchange for the special treatment. Her [Tenet] skill seemed to imply something more when she overcame the debt it mentioned as well. These were not kind times for the world and nation she¡¯d been brought into. She needed to knuckle down and make every effort to prepare herself for the future. Bracing herself, she considered what she was about to do. She grit her teeth and then mentally released the [Mental Partitioning] she¡¯d left in place for the past two weeks of her new life. This would not be fun, but it would be necessary. [Name: Elizabeth Fereday] [Race: Stone Golem/Human Hybrid] [Age: 21] [Mana: 10,940/10,940] [Mana Regeneration: 3,441] Stats [Free Stats: 24] [Strength: 345] [Dexterity: 1,157] [Vitality: 819] [Speed: 1,213] [Mana: 1,094] [Mana Regeneration: 1,094] [Magic Power: 853] [Magic Control: 853] Classes: [Rehabilitation Patient of Seira] - Earth - Lvl 32 [:Seira¡¯s Tenet of Equivalent Exchange 1] [:Earth Authority 1] [:Earth Conjuration 1] [:Earth Manipulation 1] [:Tenacity of Stone 32] [: ] [: ] [: ] [Class 2] - Locked [Class 3] - Locked General Skills [:Mental Partitioning 28] [: ] [:Identify 12] [:Awareness 8] [: ] [:Learning 20] [: ] [:Imaginative 15] Part 4 - Fresh Air! Part 4 - Fresh Air! The first thing that washed over Liz as she removed the [Mental Partition] was utter terror. She¡¯d forgotten the primal revulsion at things that by all rights shouldn¡¯t have existed. She could swear that she¡¯d seen creatures that were inside out. The fleshy and toothy masses of humanity¡¯s nightmares. She wasn¡¯t sure about what ¡®cosmic horror'' might refer to based on the genre of novels on Earth, but these things seemed like the perfect fit for the term. When she¡¯d seen worlds like her youthful dreams, she¡¯d been amazed by the sheer majesty, but this other side of the coin was totally unwelcome. Her only tool for this problem was a combination of facing her fears and [Mental Partitioning] to carefully wall away the nightmares without locking off huge chunks of her personality this time. She felt more than slightly embarrassed that she¡¯d devolved into a complete simp or something in the process of her transmigration to Pallos. She ignored the background commotion in the church outside her room and grit her teeth as she fixated on what was her current most important task. Thankfully, she could be methodical now. Every ten levels in [Mental Partitioning] had allowed her to create another mental block. She started by gathering up familiar things from her life, splitting away various terrors and fears in her mind¡¯s eye, then placing a wall to keep it out of her consciousness. Then she started doing a sort of mental ¡®airlocking¡¯ by creating another barrier around the next set of memories she wanted to dispose of, and then removing the first wall. [*ding* [Mental Partitioning] has leveled up! Level 29] All in all, it was quick work for the amount of terror she was fighting down. If she had to handle this calmly, she felt she might be able to face off against the worst monsters of Pallos, right? Right?? Okay, maybe not. She was aware that she was writhing on her bed, clutching her head and silently shuddering in the world beyond her current focus, but she couldn¡¯t afford to deal with the shouting outside until this very pressing task was finished. After some time, she found something her mind had already been fending off with clearly faltering willpower. She¡¯d put it out of her mind, but it was what had happened right before Seira had appeared to save her. She¡¯d gotten too close to the mass of things while drifting, and they¡¯d begun to wriggle towards her, threatening to consume her. She¡¯d felt the things groping at her body, seeking to make her a part of the collective mess they made up. She¡¯d connected to them just for a moment, and thereby witnessed the civilization that had birthed these grotesque amalgamations in the first place. She¡¯d been forced to witness the end of all proper life and cried out for salvation from the utter chaos. That was how Seira had really found her. That was how she¡¯d realized what order truly meant. It wasn¡¯t truly the absence of chaos, it was the balance of the cycles of all things. Seira only embodied one end of the cycle, and the cycle itself was a form of Order. That was why her [Tenet] was [Equivalent Exchange]. Her mission was to preserve the exchange of all forces in equal balance. Of course she was the perfect [Priestess] for this concept. She¡¯d seen exactly what happened to a society that lost itself entirely to chaos. She could equally imagine a world of pure order in which no self determination existed. Seira had chosen her for her unique perspective. Her order would not be law, but balance instead. Her mind cleared as she used her skill to seal away the visions with the first feeling of complete clarity in some time. She wasn¡¯t sure she wanted a selective memory skill anymore. Certainly not when these memories were part of her mandate. She needed them, but couldn''t afford to be controlled by them. She opened her eyes for the first time in a long few minutes, reaching out with [Awareness] to synergize with her newly upgraded vitality to get a read on the situation making all the noise outside her room. At some point the door had been closed, but the thin wooden obstacle did little to stop her now. Stats were amazing for listening in on a conversation of such volume with perfect clarity from a completely different floor, at the opposite end of a hallway. She got the idea pretty quickly. First, she set her [Tenet] skill to draw a round thousand mana from her regeneration. Then, she swung her legs off the side of the bed with careful control of her [Earth Manipulation] and her suddenly massive stat values. It was harder than she was expecting even with her thinking she was being careful. Oddly enough, her surprising dexterity was what kept her foot from going through the floorboards. She wasn¡¯t expecting much out of dexterity or speed when she¡¯d seen the high values of those stats in her class. Seira must¡¯ve seen this coming, where she¡¯d thought strength would help to move the heavy appendages better. Her foot wasn¡¯t moving naturally at all. It was like she had a clubbed foot, and in hindsight, that seemed like an accurate description. One step. A little progress. Two steps. A full stride. Three steps. She wasn¡¯t ready to run, but she could repeat this unsteady rhythm well enough to get out of her room. She grasped the door handle with her stone hand. So far, so good. Then the metal handle crinkled a bit under the pressure as she tried to rotate it, applying too much force to her grip. Yeah, that would need some work. She resolved to train this every day. After she sorted out the situation between the [Head Priest] and her new visitor. The [Nun] who¡¯d been guarding the door was suspiciously missing when she opened the door and began to make her way down the hall. Very slowly make her way down the hall. When she reached the top of the stairs, she could see the bizarre situation before her. Sylvestre was there, of course, as were most of the church assistants she¡¯d met in the past few weeks. He was glaring coldly at a person with mottled black and brown fur across their body and vaguely dog-like features to their face. Frankly, their gender was impossible to identify, and her rough translation of the snarls, grunts and barks that made up the language didn¡¯t offer her any insight on that front. There was a minor drawback to how the translations worked. She could identify the words, but not the tone, or nuances of the expressions. She¡¯d only seen humans so far, and many of their expressions and gestures were entirely the same as her own, so she felt rather comfortable. This person, whom she had successfully realized was a gnoll, was a new and entirely foreign interaction for her. ¡°Begone, traitor. You are not wanted here, and your desire to meddle with wards of the church is entirely beyond the terms of your expulsion from the Justiciary leadership.¡± Sylvestre was speaking with a threatening hostility in his voice that Liz had never heard from the man. It was low and cold, as if the whole room was dropping in temperature alongside his quiet anger. Seems he could understand gnoll just fine, but couldn¡¯t formulate the sounds, and the gnoll was operating in kind, each speaking in their native tongues. As a side note, her favorability with the people of this world went up, as she could really get behind a society in which people were willing to meet each other halfway on language barriers like these. The gnoll actually bowed in what Liz thought might be humility to the old priest, and she studied the new person closely. With [Identify], of course. [Warrior - 418] [*ding* [Identify] has leveled up! Level 12 -> 14] Liz momentarily paled. This person was strong enough to slaughter the entire church, and the old man was being combative with them? She stayed half hidden around the corner of the wall at the top of the stairs. To see how things played out, not because she was scared. ¡°I have been commanded to teach a new arrival here by our goddess. I am not here to cause a scene, Sylvestre. I had hoped to keep our unfortunate history out of this situation.¡± The sounds that composed the gnoll language sounded really loud to Liz, and she now knew why such a crowd had gathered and caused such a commotion when she¡¯d awoken from her class-up. Liz briefly frowned. She couldn¡¯t quite tell from the translation, but the gnoll seemed to be embarrassed. Their gaze flickered away from Sylvestre¡¯s every time their geyes nearly met. She sensed drama and her [Awareness] decided that situational awareness counted in her skill description enough to confirm her suspicions. [*ding* [Awareness] has leveled up! Level 9] Liz sensed a broken heart in the air. This gnoll was a previous lover of Sylvestre¡¯s. How did she really know? Love exists in all forms, and she considered herself an expert on romantic advice. Based on what experience? Okay, sure, none at all. But she was really good at reading the room and social skills. She had mended more couple¡¯s dramas in her television career than some people twice her age. She knew it. This was her chance to enter the stage and calm things down. She stepped forward, down a single step of the stairs with her awkward stone foot and just barely remembered to be careful not to put her foot through the wooden steps. ¡°Something going on here? I could barely focus on my new skills because of all the noise.¡± Liz inserted herself with an expertly faked yawn. ¡°Miss Liz, I apologize, this knight was just leaving.¡± Sylvestre gave a pointed look at the gnoll. In truth, Liz was slightly taken aback when she¡¯d first seen this new person. They were decked out in sturdy leathers with a shield on their back and a length of coiled flexible metal cable at their hip. The helmet was what had given her pause. A winged helmet was a distinct myth from Earth. All she could think was that someone from Earth might¡¯ve come to this world and started up a knightly order based on the old Norse mythology? She was making too many assumptions. She¡¯d need to investigate the subject more in the future. ¡°I could¡¯ve sworn I heard the word ¡®traitor¡¯ as well as the phrase ¡®teach a new arrival.¡¯ I apologize for getting involved if this is something I¡¯m not part of, but if my guess is correct, I¡¯m the only new arrival here in recent times. Please, clue me in here. I think I need to hear this.¡± Liz did her best diplomatic insertion and tried to redirect people in the right way to a calm resolution. Align goals and seek expanded information before making decisions or taking sides. Sylvestre bit his lip in hesitation, which created an opportunity for the gnoll to speak up. ¡°My name is Arlyen,¡± names were crazy in translation mode, apparently, because the two sounded nothing alike! ¡°I¡¯m a member of the recently formed Order of the Valkyries, as well as a former [Paladin] of the Justiciary. He calls me a traitor because I am one. I¡¯ll be the first to admit I¡¯ve made mistakes in life, but I don¡¯t feel abandoning my mission to save Sylvestre¡¯s life was one of them.¡± Liz knew she had sensed drama! She didn¡¯t let it show on her face, but she secretly felt very proud of her ability to have read the female gnoll¡¯s emotions despite the racial barrier. Also, Valkyries! Liz was either totally correct about the origins of this order, or her translation just made the name sound like what was familiar to her. ¡°I see. And Sylvestre is the type to tell you to forget him and complete your duty? I can see where the issue would be. And the Justiciary cast you out for failing in your mission? You¡¯ve had a harsh life.¡± Liz could sympathize, but the story felt a little too much like a storybook romance for her to put much emotion into her tone. She really hoped real life wasn¡¯t turning into a cheesy plot of some sort. ¡°History aside, she has been removed from the church and banished from the capital for failing in her duty. Not only that, but our companions were lost as well. I can¡¯t forgive the selfishness that doomed even our leader, Nyx, to the fate she did. Never once has she shown any remorse.¡± Sylvestre seemed particularly cold. It seemed really out of character from what she knew of him, so there had to be deeper feelings there. That said, she knew enough that it would be impolite to pry right now. ¡°Alright, so we¡¯ve established the first topic. Frankly, when put to a split decision, people tend to choose based on emotions more than logic, but I¡¯ve been here for a couple weeks at best, so what do I know? Now, the second topic? Why would you be sent to train this ¡®new arrival?¡¯¡± ¡°Regardless of how the Justiciary has decided to punish me as well as my recent affiliation with the newly founded Order of the Valkyries, I remain a paladin of Seira. The Valkyries are an organization of wandering knights building their reputations, so that makes us function as free agents most of the time. Our leader is already a great hero in the country she is from, so we Valkyries gain some rapport through our ties to her, and that opens many doors. As a member of multiple organizations, I do what I can for Seira while maintaining the image of the Valkyries. She recently sent me a mission to teach a woman at this temple how to fight.¡± The gnoll was a bit long-winded. Liz actually was most surprised the language was able to convey so much information with it. She was happy to avoid needing to learn the full language. ¡°I admit you are the strongest [Warrior] that I know. But in no way will I allow you to take her to such dangerous places as you have been diving into recently.¡± At this point, Liz felt Sylvestre was putting a little too much drama into his mannerisms when speaking to a person he apparently owed his life to. Liz narrowed her eyes, and then considered the political situation with a frown of contemplation. The Justiciary likely had many factions around the various [Tenets] that made up the faith, and it made sense they would form factions as all governments did, leading to powerful mortal classers like Arlyen being a thorn. If her guess was correct, the ¡®failure¡¯ was used as grounds to remove that thorn, and Sylvestre was similarly also sent to this far-away city¡¯s temple along the same grounds. He¡¯s putting on an act to maintain the safety of both their positions! And doing it so well it took me this long to realize it. Impressive, old man. She straightened her posture to her full height, looking down at both of the older faces before her from her position partially up the steps. ¡°I can see the merits to learning to fight, sure, but wouldn¡¯t an association with you cause problems in the future, Lady Arlyen?¡± It was an honest concern. ¡°There is no time for hesitation. An Immortal War seems more likely every year now. I don¡¯t see peace lasting more than a decade longer now. If you don¡¯t quickly gain power and the ability to survive, you¡¯ll die a hopeless death. I flew here this fast just for that purpose. Do you know how far away Khazad is?¡± She had only gotten a basic run-down of races like dwarves at this point, so geography was slightly beyond her. Liz shrugged, shaking her head. ¡°Two weeks by air! I am not turning back now with something so urgent Seira instructed me to do it. Syl, I know you mean well, but now isn¡¯t the time for putting on airs. At this rate, the Justiciary might fall before the next war.¡± Liz had way too many questions. Arlyen had flown there? That sounded impossible for a mortal of that level. She also didn¡¯t miss the way nearly everyone started muttering about the Justiciary collapsing before the next Immortal War. Arlyen was a gnoll, a race who apparently held many of the higher positions in the country¡¯s leadership. She definitely had some sort of information network set up in advance. She made her choice. ¡°I¡¯ll train with you, but I¡¯m not leaving this place yet. I need every advantage I can get. If the country falls, I won¡¯t have to worry about a bad reputation for associating with you anyway.¡± Sylvestre had the look of a defeated man. He suddenly showed his age in a way she¡¯d not seen of him before. The rest of the clergy all seemed taken aback by her decision as well. To some extent, she could understand their disbelief at the idea of her fighting after having been stuck in bed for the past two weeks.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°I can make that work. Syl, is there room for me to stay at the church, or should I look elsewhere?¡± Arlyen moved on like a whirlwind, and apparently there would be no negotiations of any sort. It didn¡¯t take long for Arlyen to force herself upon the church¡¯s hospitality after that. Then the gnoll turned on her heel and strode towards the door. ¡°Well, are you coming, disciple?¡± The lightly armored woman barely paused to glance over her shoulder. Liz had regrets. She very awkwardly tried to follow her new mentor, only to put her foot through the step. She squeezed her eyes shut, pulling her foot free. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯ll fix it! I have no idea how to, but I promise!¡± ¡°Just go, we will handle it.¡± Sylvestre looked at her as if he¡¯d lost his only daughter somehow. ¡°You have more pressing concerns.¡± Liz very carefully made her way towards the doors of the church and headed outside for the first time in her new life on Pallos. Liz sucked in a breath. She couldn¡¯t see the gnoll woman anymore, but it wasn¡¯t because she¡¯d gone far. Now she knew the real reason why the commotion outside her room had been so huge. Before her was a floating monster as tall as the bell-tower of the church, floating by magic in the air. A massive fish? Whale? With wings. It finally truly hit Liz that she was in a fantasy world. [Kun-Peng - 418] [*ding* [Identify] has leveled up! Level 14 -> 16] ¡°Disciple? You¡¯re slow. Must not have much speed. This is Kuai Bao, and he¡¯s a Kun-Peng I met years ago. Raised him from youth. I need to find a place for him to stay while I¡¯m in town. Eats enough to feed a village on his own.¡± Arlyen was buried amongst some saddle rigging that hung from the creature¡¯s opposite side from her. The creature wasn¡¯t quite a fish with wings, more like a serpent with a fish tail, but the scales of its body were sturdy and rugged, more like a reptile, and the wet sheen over them seemed to reflect the light in dazzling ways all around them. ¡°Did you name him ¡®Clever Jewel?¡¯¡± Liz¡¯s comment earned her a raised eyebrow. ¡°That a divine blessing to understand languages? I can see that being handy.¡± ¡°Not quite. It also doesn¡¯t work quite the same on names. I only know it because I know Mandarin from my old world. I¡¯m more surprised to be hearing Chinese names here on Pallos.¡± She must¡¯ve gravely underestimated how common it was for people from Earth to come to Pallos. Just how many missing person cases were transmigrations? How many people mourned for the kidnapping of their loved ones and waited desperately for years to see someone who might never make it back? Were her parents mourning her right that moment? Or had they assumed she¡¯d been kidnapped and desperately sent out offers to pay for her safe return? She couldn¡¯t see that happening. She shook off the brief emotional sinkhole of her old family and life. She¡¯d been loved, but her family was too busy to have been considered a firm presence in her life. She¡¯d have to focus on surviving this world first, and grieve later. ¡°Chinese? That¡¯s not a term I¡¯m familiar with. His kind are often raised by the Dynasty to the South, though not nearly as far as Khazad is. His name comes from the language of the Dynasty.¡± Liz could follow that much. The current region was fairly tropical. As far as she could tell, she was on a southern continent. The Dynasty in question was probably founded by a Chinese person from Earth, or maybe someone from that era of historical China. She approached the giant creature with no small amount of trepidation. She could be killed by a stray swat of its tail, given the level. ¡°Climb on, Liz. And tell me what your build plans are right now.¡± ¡°This might sound strange, but would you believe me if I told you I¡¯ve been stuck in bed until I came out of my room just a bit ago? For the whole two weeks I¡¯ve been here?¡± She sheepishly lifted the hem of the priest¡¯s robes she had been given to show off her stone prosthetic and then held up her hand. ¡°Heavens, what happened to you?¡± The shock was evident, and Liz momentarily wondered if the woman had paid any attention to the hole she¡¯d put in the stairs earlier. ¡°I got sucked through the void by a rift in space, had my body torn apart by cosmic forces, and finally was saved by Seira, who filled the pieces of my body with super dense stone, infused a family keepsake with magic and put it inside me, then dropped me off in the church. I¡¯m only moving right now because I¡¯m using my new [Earth Manipulation] skill to move my leg like it¡¯s normal. Or rather, I¡¯m retraining myself to function with that as the missing piece of how I live my life. I literally just classed up to this. I have over a thousand in speed and dexterity. Moving around is quite the cost to my mana regeneration. Lucky I got a divine class right away, actually.¡± Arlyen¡¯s mouth was aghast at the abbreviated story. Liz couldn¡¯t hide her determined smile. ¡°I can see now why Seira put so much urgency on you. The things you must be dealing with, and yet so strong-willed. You have the potential to go far. Come, let¡¯s get started. You need to see this!¡± Aryen looped one arm under Liz¡¯s shoulders, around her back, then hoisted her up like it was nothing. The woman was surprisingly strong, as she should¡¯ve expected from a high level [Warrior]. The Valkyrie climbed the saddle of the Kun-Peng one-handed with practiced ease, then settled Liz into place and strapped her into the saddle on her belly across the spine of the massive creature. She could feel it swaying as it floated, as if it was swimming in the air. Arlyen, on the other hand, held onto the right flank of the creature¡¯s saddle straps, then closed her eyes and focused on something else for a moment. As if by telepathy, the creature lurched upright, then began to flap its wings as it rose into the air at steady pace. She briefly realized that the creature wasn¡¯t that fast with its size, but she could sense the raw power with each rush of air around her. She looked down at the receding town over the creature¡¯s back and saw just how small the town she¡¯d been in was. She estimated that if every home held a family of four to ten people, across as many as three generations, the population wouldn¡¯t be more than five hundred. It had to be even fewer than that. All the buildings were solid stone work, too. The town was surrounded by forests for quite a distance in each direction, but she could see the signs of a desert to the East, and knew the ocean lay to the North. The Kun-Peng flew directly North, which made sense given the creature resembled a flying fish, but she couldn¡¯t imagine what sort of prey such a thing might hunt. She suddenly understood why a town couldn¡¯t support feeding him. Finally, she cleared her thoughts of all subjects and allowed herself to simply enjoy the wonders of being so high in the sky. Flying was amazing. She¡¯d been thinking of it for a while, but she had several ideas for how she might one day fly. ¡°Ahem, so about your build?¡± Arlen resumed speaking once they¡¯d been flying for a brief while. ¡°I don¡¯t have many plans. My first class was a divine option, and allowed me the skills to survive in this new world despite my circumstances. I imagine I won¡¯t have many choices of my own to make in the future for that class.¡± ¡°Bullshit. Your second class won¡¯t be divine, nor will it be an easy choice. What it will do is decide what advanced elements your Earth might eventually evolve into. My main class is Crucible, built from Metal and Fire. I fight with a whip made of Stygium, which uses the Decay element to wither away enemies. I then have a Lava utility class for survival. If your second class is fire, you could be offered a merged lava class in the future. I doubt that will work for you. You need to stick to earth merge options that won¡¯t leave your body completely immobile. Lava would just melt your human parts while you level a resistance skill. Dark could shift you towards gravity. It is functional for your needs, but the stone won¡¯t be flexible anymore. You could replace the stone of your body with Ooze?¡± Liz grimaced at the idea of a future slime body. No, thank you. ¡°What about Metal, like the base class you chose to get Crucible? I have a feeling my divine mission will involve Spatial skills in the future, and Metal and Dark merge into Spatial.¡± ¡°Metal and your Earth make Gemstone. It¡¯s an option, if you replace the stone in your body. It¡¯ll hurt so much that nobody would ever try what you¡¯d have to do. But the theory is functional. A Metal [Mage] class could work as your second for now. Then you might be able to take a Dark class in the slot if, and I do mean IF, your Metal and Earth combine at 128. To maximize your odds, I¡¯d hold off on your first 128 until both classes reach the milestone, both for class quality and for skill potency. You¡¯ll need one hell of a pain resistance skill.¡± Liz grinned. ¡°I already have one in my [Priestess] class. It allows me to customize my pain thresholds in different parts of my body. I didn¡¯t mention how much these stone bits hurt all over, did I? My second General Skill was [Pain Management]. The only issue is the mana cost to my regeneration.¡± ¡°How much?¡± ¡°The skill costs 3,000 regeneration with no pain settings active. I think total body nullification would cost over 30,000 on top of that. For now, I¡¯m just disabling my normal pains from the areas that are stone.¡± The [Paladin] paled at the cost estimate. ¡°I have my own pain nullification skill, [Mind Over Matter] but it breaks when pain exceeds a certain threshold. Your version sounds like a big tradeoff, if you set it in advance of the injury. But the cost is prohibitive. A physical classer couldn¡¯t stomach that at average mortal levels. Just how much pain would be needed to qualify for that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a merged skill now, so I think the base cost of 3,000 is some passive benefit I haven¡¯t been able to test yet. Speaking of, I have a bunch of open slots now! I should think over my options there now.¡± ¡°How do you plan to fight? You¡¯re a [Priestess] so do you plan to fight like a [Mage] or are you hoping for survival skills in this class?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve never fought before, but I think the [Mage] route is dead. My [Earth Manipulation] is restricted by my circumstances. Apparently it takes so much load to control my body that the range of the skill is limited to my body and the earth I¡¯m touching. The skills are definitely along the [Mage] route, and most of them are locked. I can¡¯t or shouldn¡¯t drop them. But I have three open General and Class Skills each.¡± ¡°I use whips, then switch to my metal skills to shape the whip into close range blades when I need to fight in confined spaces. Whips might work for you, but your body has some very dense natural weapons it would be a shame to not make use of.¡± [*ding* [Learning] has leveled up! Level 21!] [*ding* [Imaginative] has leveled up! Level 15 -> 18!] She let out a hysterical laugh that really felt unusual for herself. ¡°I figured it out. I¡¯ll be a fist fighter. A stone hand and foot will absolutely be the best weapons to make use of. I just need to get a whole lot better at moving using [Earth Manipulation]. As for the second class, I think Gemstone in the future sounds right for me. I know a lot more than I probably should about Gemstones, and I can leverage that. Metal for my second class. Now to pick and work on my new general skills.¡± Kauai Bao settled into a descent towards a small lake several miles outside the town. Once they¡¯d landed, the huge fish creature immediately dove into the lake, and Liz and Arlyen got to work. First up, she started practicing moving with her current skills, then tried throwing a few light punches with her Earth skills. Conjuring earth and stone around her right hand as pseudo knuckle-dusters, then trying to move and keep balance turned out to be an immense task. She mentally disabled the level up notifications for her skills for later. She remained laser focused on her new skill choices, hunting for the best choices. She¡¯d been forced by her family to take a course in her old world for her own self defense, so she thankfully knew how to at least throw a punch without shattering her finger bones, though that mattered a bit less now. Arlyen stood at her side, barking out small corrections until the notification finally appeared. [*ding* You¡¯ve unlocked the general skill [Martial Arts]!] There was the first. She took it right away. ¡°There we go. [Martial Arts] seems best for the basic functions of combat. Now I need something to help with defense, right?¡± ¡°Yes, but your ability to negate pain in the future leans me towards the idea of making you sturdier, rather than more nimble. It¡¯s at odds with your speed and dexterity though. Let¡¯s spar and train some levels and see what happens, yeah?¡± Liz frowned. ¡°You¡¯re going to hit me, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Ayup!¡± Her expression darkened further. She turned up her [Tenacity] skill¡¯s pain thresholds enough to balance out her mana regen as she calculated the increased costs of her [Earth Manipulation] for the complexity of battle. She wanted her mana to trickle at a slight deficit, and ensure she put all her skills to work. She was going to give herself a harsh wall to climb to make her [Earth Manipulation] as second nature as possible as fast as possible. She did her best to settle into an awkward sort of combat stance, and subtly reached out her senses to the stone sections of her torso to ground her balance. Suddenly, she was staring at the sky. She urged herself back to her feet and resolved to focus on staying upright for now, and hopefully avoid a hit eventually. Arlyen was a savage tutor. Every motion was meant as a brutal reminder that people and monsters would try to kill her in this world, and she mentally had to thank Seira for sending such a competent teacher to her. She never liked being coddled. A punch to the gut felt awkward as she had nullified some of the pain there, but it did nothing to help losing all the air in her lungs. [Manipulation] tugged her diaphragm downwards, dragging air back into her lungs and preventing the loss of her focus. A kick to her side felt like a log had impacted her as she finally managed to hold herself upright with her class skills, twisting her body in the air in ways that defied momentum and gravity. Then the follow-up swept her legs and she saw the clouds again. For hours they tore through the forest clearing, launching Liz¡¯s vitality empowered body into huge oak trees over and over. She began to get better at matching the rhythm only for Arlyen to kick up the speed again and put her on the ground again. Problem was, she wasn¡¯t getting tired, nor did she feel the soreness. She had bruises aplenty, but her skills just kept her going through all the torment. Finally, she got something that sounded right to her. [*ding* You¡¯ve unlocked the General Skill [Roll with the Punches]!] [Roll with the Punches: You can take a beating, but should you really? This isn¡¯t recommended, so take this skill to help you redirect incoming blows and reduce their effectiveness. Increased effectiveness per level. -100 Mana Regeneration] She called for a brief break as she thought about what else she might need and thought back to what Seira had said about appearance skills. She chuckled and started fixing up her robes, then brushed the dirt from her hair, tousling it back into the contained mess she¡¯d gotten so used to. She picked out a single option from what her usual boyish appearance was offering her. [*ding* You¡¯ve unlocked the General Skill [Stunning]!] She¡¯d passed up on this one before, but now she took it. A sly grin crossed her face as she read the description. [Stunning: You¡¯re a real catch! If only you were available on the dating circuit for anyone on mortal soil. Your looks might give suitors some pause. Are they really in your league? Appearance effects increase with level. -2 Mana Regeneration] ¡°Guess that decides my skill slots for now. We just have to keep training them up. [Martial Arts] is going up really fast with the beatings, and I can handle this much, so let¡¯s try to push it as much as we can today. I¡¯m getting a better feel for the clumsiness of my current control stat with [Earth Manipulation] so I¡¯ll probably have to class up before that improves too much. That¡¯s the bottleneck more than my speed and dexterity, I think.¡± It was true that she¡¯d been stagnating in maneuvering her body so far. The sort of control needed to move her body was insane, and she could feel the risk of her body tearing apart barely being suppressed by her high vitality. Were her current stats not balanced just right, she might throw a punch and tear the muscles of her body in the process. Rigid control would keep her out of the [Healer]¡¯s clinics. ¡°Time to try out [Roll with the Punches] as a defensive skill.¡± She mentally sorted the priority of her stats for her next class as Arlyen commenced the duels (read: beatdowns) again. Her highest priority stat was definitely going to be magic control. Then the next highest was her Mana Regeneration. The higher those two were, the more she could do for longer without becoming a sack of potatoes on the ground. Next priority was both vitality and magic power. These would govern her output in a fight. She wasn¡¯t going for a high output in a single blow, so her mana pool could afford to suffer a bit. She¡¯d dip into it when her opponents were faster or stronger, but otherwise, she needed raw power without killing herself and the time and regeneration to make it through an endurance battle. Her dexterity and speed would govern her reaction times just as much as her vitality would for her perception. She already had the speed and dexterity to keep up and more, so she could afford to slack on those two, but in reality, she would need both to react in time to enemy movements, as well as react with her defensive skill. Her goal was to dump strength and mana within certain limitations, and rely entirely on magic stats for her physical performance. She¡¯d already discovered that fashioning knuckle dusters out of stone would allow her to move her right fist just as well with her manipulation skill as her left, mostly stone hand could. [Martial Arts] was a real versatile choice as well. It seemed to nudge her body into stances and forms that made it easier to keep her balance. Even her [Roll with the Punches] might¡¯ve felt useless to her if she hadn¡¯t had the combat skill urging her body into the right stances to recover efficiently with her [Earth Manipulation]. She felt the combat improvements right away, even at low levels. Blows that used to hit her hard caused her body to naturally shift in direction with the blow, distributing the force and negating much of the impact. ¡°One second!¡± She called another pause. ¡°Try throwing a punch I can handle at my level, I want to test out what this skill can do in a balanced fight.¡± She moved her fists up in a guard, [Martial Arts] nudging her to slide her right foot backwards, then lower her hips slightly. The fist came at her face with wonderfully controlled speed, and she could see it with vitality and [Awareness], then react with her speed as her body shifted, head dodging the path of the attack, and left hand catching the fist as it sailed by, her hips rotated as she pivoted in place, tugging the punch out of Arlyen¡¯s balance, then [Martial Arts] compelled her to punch with her other hand beneath the gnoll¡¯s outstretched arm, fluidly moving into what should¡¯ve been a shoulder throw. What she got instead were all the earlier steps, but when the final execution should¡¯ve happened, she found she couldn¡¯t move the valkyrie from her position. ¡°This will be a problem. If you¡¯re up against someone with more stats than your magic power can overwhelm, you won¡¯t be able to do something like a shoulder throw. Your strength is laughable, so you can only rely on magic power, and that risks harming your own body if it exceeds your vitality too much. Let¡¯s break for today, and see about working on maxing specific skills tomorrow. Ready to run back to the city? We have to make it before the gates are closed!¡± Liz fought the urge to curse. She would need to get back into her old workout rhythm and use that to bolster her ability to use her body fluidly. A run for two dozen miles back to the city would eat up so much time. And she was hungry, too. [Name: Elizabeth Fereday] [Race: Stone Golem/Human Hybrid] [Age: 21] [Mana: 10,940/10,940] [Mana Regeneration: 1,979/479 (increased cost during combat)] Stats [Free Stats: 24] [Strength: 345] [Dexterity: 1,157] [Vitality: 819] [Speed: 1,213] [Mana: 1,094] [Mana Regeneration: 1,094] [Magic Power: 853] [Magic Control: 853] Classes: [Rehabilitation Patient of Seira] - Earth - Lvl 32 [:Seira¡¯s Tenet of Equivalent Exchange 12] [:Earth Authority 21] [:Earth Conjuration 9] [:Earth Manipulation 32] [:Tenacity of Stone 32] [: ] [: ] [: ] [Class 2] - Locked [Class 3] - Locked General Skills [:Mental Partitioning 30] [:Martial Arts 19] [:Identify 16] [:Awareness 14] [:Roll with the Punches 11] [:Learning 21] [:Stunning 2] [:Imaginative 18]