《HARD CORE : Origin of the Species》 1) They say it鈥檚 your birthday 1) They say it¡¯s your birthday My first moment of awareness was seeing a fingertip pulling away from where it had been poking at me. The finger belonged to a man of an uncertain age wearing disheveled, old, mismatched clothing. Not dirty, just sort of thrown on with no attempt to have anything match, and all of it torn here and there in spots which didn¡¯t make anything unwearable, just ill kept. The man was the only thing I noticed because everything else around me sort of faded away other the man. Like he was the only thing in the world that was real. The man seemed to be looking off at a distance as he slowly shook his head from side to side with a look of defiance on his face, and then crossed his arms as he began to speak in a grumpy exhausted sounding voice. I could plainly hear each word he spoke, but they also seemed to appear as burning letters in the air before¡­ my eyes? At least until they dulled and faded away. [Well? You demanded that I deal with this, so I have. Living Cores, all one of them, are now my chosen sponsored race and immune to going Demon. With their birth gift to be Instinctive Knowledge. Which largely means they can understand, and speak the common tongue of whatever land they are created in, along with everything else that comes with that.] He seemed to listen to some reply before grinning. [Sentience is a prerequisite for being a chosen race, so they get that for free, not as my gift. You know I don¡¯t care enough about anything to even try to overstep my position by giving it a double dip.] I can speak? ¡°Who are you? ...who am I?¡± My voice was deep but with a breathless sound to it. Like it was echoing outwards from a deep hole. I kind of liked it. The man gave me a long look before rolling his eyes. [I¡¯m the God of Indifference, and have I never bothered with a name, so that I may not be called. As for you, well¡­] He kicked at something on the floor. [You can have his. Nictob. He certainly won¡¯t be using it anymore.] Then the man was gone, and I became aware that I was in a room¡­ Which was easy enough to do since I could see in all directions at once, including the hazy reddish spot on the stone floor beneath me. Apparently, whatever a Living Core is, it must be translucent, and red colored. The knowledge the Nameless God had... wait, wouldn''t that, ¡®The Nameless God¡¯, be his name? Anyways, thanks to his gift I could judge that the room I was in varied between ten feet two inches to eight feet three inches wide, and it was separated into three sections by a set of mismatched supporting arches near either end of the twenty foot nine inch long room. One side of the room, going longways, was covered from the floor to up near the ceiling in wooden cabinets, hutches, and various shelving units. The other side of the room, longways, was filled up with a series of tables, both flat and angled. Some of the tables had chairs and shorter cabinets stacked on the back of them, along with barrels, jars, and other containers tucked away underneath or on top of the work surfaces. And everything, even most of the chairs, was all filled or covered to overflowing with stacks of papers, scrolls, books and an assortment of various mundane or possibly exotic items. Even the ceiling had various glass globes, stuffed animals, baskets and nets hanging from it. The floor at least was uncluttered, although the stone floor around me was covered in chalk circles and writing in several different colors, all scribbled around the recently kicked dead body of a completely bald, out of shape looking middle aged man partially covered in an assortment of rounded, semi transparent, various colored, lightly glowing, stones. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. He was also lying in a pool of fresh looking blood both underneath and around him. ¡°I guess you must be, or had been, Nictob.¡± The next voice to sound out in the room was a little shrill. It was high pitched and it sounded like it was coming from a distance, as if the speaker had to yell a bit for me to hear them clearly. ¡°Holy Shit! He really did it. You¡¯re...You¡¯re a person now? A Core? You can talk? Do you get a class now, or do you have to wait until you hit your Awakening Day? How old does a rock made from the Chaos adsorbed by a Beast have to be to reach maturity?¡± Whoever was talking to me was up on top of the nearest table, and was far enough back from its edge that I couldn¡¯t see them at all. And they seemed to have no intention to stop talking long enough to let me say anything in return. So it looked like I would have to interrupt them¡­ ¡°No.¡± I said, very firmly. The other¡¯s flow of words trailed off. ¡°No, I can¡¯t speak.¡± There was a pause before a tiny little purple skinned right hand with long dark green fingernails on each finger stretched out just far enough to reach over the end of the table in order to begin pointing at me while wagging their extended index finger. ¡°Now you listen here you little shit. I know you just got created, but I had had a really shitty week. I¡¯ve been kidnapped. Sold off to a crazy cellar dwelling warlock, who planned to drain me alive like I was a Core carved out of a Greater Beast by the way. And right now¡­ I¡¯m stuck in a cold iron birdcage in an underground lair with a dead body and I¡¯m talking to an aberration of the natural order! The hand pulled back a bit and then nearly went limp as it was draped over the edge of the table. It¡¯s mostly still unseen owner sighed. ¡°So maybe spare me the sass.¡± We both took a moment before I began to speak, ¡°I think as a newborn I¡¯m supposed to be very needy¡­ crying all the time. A need for a diaper might even be involved at some point, but is there anything I can do to help?¡± The hand pulled back and there was a rattling sound nearly drowned out by shrill laughter broken up with some scattered words such as, ¡°Diaper.¡± and questions like, ¡°What would you even poop? Pebbles? Glitter?¡± Near the end, I was wished a ¡°Happy Birthday!¡± before the voice broke out in giggling again. ¡°So, if I may ask? What am I?¡± The hand reappeared, palm up and wiggling side to side. ¡°Seriously? You don¡¯t know?¡± I sighed. It felt right and seemed to vent out a little of my dissatisfaction. How useful. ¡°You were here when I was born, I don¡¯t have much to go on here¡­ You have at least one hand, which I seem to be lacking, or much of anything else. I can see my surroundings all around me except for an area in the middle, so I must be the whatever I am inside of that area, but I can¡¯t see myself.¡± A concerning thought occurred to me. ¡°I¡¯m not just an eyeball lying on the floor am I?¡± I mean, that would be fairly inconvenient, what with the lack of an eyelid, but as far as I knew the only other living being in the room was a hand with a bit of arm attached. People consisting of disembodied body parts might even be the norm, with old and going cold Nictob lying there face down with two arms, and two legs as the possible exception. For all I know he might not even have a face pressed up against the floor underneath that bald head of his. He does have at least one ear, but I¡¯m not sure about the other one. If he had a pair of those, the other would be on the side of his head facing away from me. The silence was broken up by some more giggling. ¡°No silly, you¡¯re not an eyeball. At least not a big squishy one. You¡¯re a Core, a big orangy red one which by the size and color must have come from a greater beast with a Fire affinity.¡± The hand slowly began tapping at the edge of the table. ¡°Right, you don¡¯t seem to know all that much even with your Instinctual Knowledge birthright thingy, whatever all that does, so let me explain a little.¡± ¡°As always, you can blame everything on the Gods¡­¡± 2) The low down. 2) The low down. ¡°So first off we had the Elder beings who showed up right after the Creation. Titans, Dragons, Primordials, and of course the Whales. The first of the First, creators of all, and so on and so on...¡± The feminine voice seemed to fall into a rhythm as if she was reciting something that had been repeated over and over to her. ¡°They created the mortal races out of the raw Chaos left over from Creation, but the only way mortals could use Chaos themselves was to first get it processed and then get it handed over to them as a safe little spell by one of the Elder beings so the mortals didn¡¯t hurt themselves, or get all rambunctious and take out one of the Elders. That never ends well.¡± She held up one finger, the underside of which looked to be a lighter shade of violet than the back of her hand and lower arm. ¡°Then the Elders got into a big brawl they called the Dawn War which permanently weakened the barrier between the world and the Chaos that fills in the gaps between realities. The damaged barrier constantly let in traces of raw Chaos that slowly began to change every living thing in the world until they became monstrous Beasts, died, or worse.¡± The voice began to hum and murmur to itself for a bit as I tried to pick out the occasional words. ¡°So each of the Elder beings who hmmm...volunteered? Yeah, that¡¯s a good word for it, volunteered to look after a race of mortals by becoming a god. Each one of them picked one of the mortal races. They sponsored their chosen people and set things up so that every member of that race each got a Class that let them absorb the tiny amounts of raw Chaos from around them to make them stronger by advancing their class. While the unchosen races and all the animals, as well as the plants and bugs, would slowly develop Cores to deal with the Chaos they absorbed. Cores are crystallized Chaos that make living things bigger, and tougher, and even give them magical powers as they became Beasts that they didn¡¯t even need people smarts to use.¡± The hand slumped down. ¡°Sounds neat right?¡± I considered that. ¡°...I think that question is a trap.¡± There was a sharp laugh, followed by more giggles, ¡°I guess you weren''t born yesterday, because¡­ you were born today!¡± There were more rattling sounds along with the giggling. I thought she might be rolling around in that birdcage of hers. ¡°So¡­ So¡­ What happens is that people with classes can absorb a Core after they kill something and cut it out of them, and then they get a bunch of Merit points as a reward they can use to help raise their class up all at once. Everyone else has to take years doing other stuff before they get to level up. And creatures with Cores can use the Chaos from dead people¡¯s classes after they kill them to make their Cores even stronger.¡± ¡°Once a Beast¡¯s Core gets big enough to burst, they turn into Demons and get smart. Then they begin actively hunting people down rather than just attacking people who annoy them.¡± The hand began to rotate around at the wrist. ¡°And around and round it goes. People kill Beasts because they might become Demons that are a real danger and doing so also makes those people more powerful. Beasts become Demons and kill people because they know it makes them more powerful.¡± She stopped spinning her hand around with a finger pointing at me. ¡°And then there¡¯s you. Something new under the sun¡­ with several dozen feet of stone and dirt between you and it, but I think it¡¯s still up there somewhere¡­¡± ...I needed a little bit of time to think all of that over, which I think she knew since she sighed and pulled her hand back out of sight. But¡­ I didn¡¯t have enough information to finish my thoughts, and all the ones I had were just going around and around in my head. ¡°I¡¯m a rock?¡± I heard her cut off a laugh. ¡°Yeah, a living rock.¡± ¡°Who is also a person? She answered me slowly. ¡°...yeah¡­¡± ¡°What happened to the Beast I was in? Was I the beast?¡± I noted the other colored gem like stones still spilled over Nictob¡¯s corpse as well as on the floor around me. ¡°...are these all Cores from dead Beasts? Are they dead, or alive?¡± The hand lifted, palm out towards me as if trying to hold back my questions. ¡°What? No! Cores aren¡¯t alive... other than you. They¡¯re more like organs, or a kidney stone¡­ or maybe pearl would be a better comparison? They are the source of a Beast¡¯s power but also a way to store the Chaos it absorbs so it doesn''t kill the Beast.¡± She flipped her hand around as she began to explain again. ¡°Cores can be cut out of a dead Beast and saved indefinitely. People used them as money, especially the ones that are too strong for most people to convert into Merit points all at once.¡± If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Closing her hand into a fist, she flipped it open again and waved it around as she explained. ¡°If they¡¯re too big, and people break it down to absorb it as Merit points, most of it gets wasted.¡± ¡°...It must be nice to have limbs.¡± There was a hesitant giggle. ¡°...yeah, they¡¯re great. I wouldn¡¯t trade them for anything¡­ But being a rock might be nice too! You don¡¯t have any bones to get broken. And you could be immortal, I mean Fairies like me live for a ¡®looooong¡¯ time, but you¡¯re a rock. I don¡¯t think you can age?¡± ¡°What is a Fairy? Are they people, or Beasts?¡± The hand pulled out of sight, and she didn¡¯t say anything for so long I started to worry. ¡°It¡¯s¡­ not nice to ask about that. But you couldn¡¯t know, could you?¡± ...what did I say? I sighed. ¡°As I understand it, I was basically food until a few minutes ago¡­ I don¡¯t know anything. But you said the dead man was trying to do something to you?¡± She coughed. ¡°Yeah¡­ Fairies are sort of Beasts. We are spirits given bodies by the Mother of All, and we end up getting Cores because it¡¯s our job to absorb Chaos in the places that the chosen races don¡¯t live to prevent Demons from being born. But we¡¯re dedicated to the Mother of All, the creator of all natural life in this world. We are pledged to help her clean up the damage Chaos does to the world, which means we are supposed to be considered sacrosanct by all of the Chosen races, but then this¡­ twisted... ¡° The Fairy went on for a while describing how little she thought of Nictob the first, which required a few minutes before she finished up with... ¡°Then this cannibal tried to draw upon and feed on my Core while it was still inside me to see if he could take a little bit of it at a time that way. So he could then let it regrow and feed on me over and over again!¡± Ouch. To be imprisoned in this¡­ dungeon? Having one of your organs being partially eaten out of your living body. Only to have to wait around, trapped, until it happened again. ¡°I don¡¯t want his name.¡± There was another pause, which she ended with a sharp laugh. ¡°I don¡¯t blame you. And you aren¡¯t some little baby with no choice in the matter. You can just pick out your own name.¡± Good. ¡°What happened to him anyways?¡± The hand reappeared and waved around, ¡°Oh, his little experiment didn¡¯t work, other than making me feel like my whole body was being pulled out of my butt from the inside out. It didn¡¯t look like he was feeling any better since he stumbled back into the shelf behind you, and then a box filled up with you and all those other Cores fell off the top of the shelf and spilled out in midair.¡± She thumped her fist down on the table. ¡°Crack! You smashed into the top of his head hard enough to make a nice crunching sound as you put a dent in his skull, killing him, and freeing up the Chaos from all his levels. Some of which I got a hold of.¡± The hand gave me a thumbs up. ¡°It was enough to advance me to Tier three as soon as I¡¯m not trapped in a cage too small for my new, larger size. So thanks for that.¡± I was a Core, from a Beast¡­ ¡°So I absorbed the rest of the processed Chaos since I was a Core?¡± She laughed again, ¡°No! It doesn''t work like¡­ that¡­ can it work like that? It¡¯s the Beasts that absorb things into their Cores, but then I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever heard of anyone getting killed by a Core¡­¡± The Fairy¡¯s voice drifted off and I tried to get her back on track. ¡°Well, somehow killing Nictob made me a Living Core. Maybe because I was caught up in whatever he was trying to do to you? But I¡¯m a person now, so what do I do?¡± Her hand pulled back. ¡°Well right now, you should have the Child class, and you might be able to level it up, at least until you¡¯re old enough for your Awakening Day when you get to choose a higher ranked class and you¡¯re done with the starting rank Child class.¡± ¡°...I¡¯m a rock. How old could I possibly need to be?¡± She reached out so I could see her snap a finger at me. ¡°No sass! I¡¯m just a Tier Two Glade Fairy. I¡¯m just as in the dark as you are. Just go to sleep¡­ Right, you¡¯re a rock. How are you going to sleep to access your Class Log?¡± Snapping her finger again she began to think out loud. ¡°Oh, you should still have notices and can access them by looking at the flashing light in the corner¡­ of your eye¡­ And you don¡¯t have eyes. Sorry¡± A flashing light? Like the rest of the room, I could see the mostly dark spot underneath me, which I now knew for a fact to be slightly lit up with a dim red light where the various glowing crystals sitting in fixtures around the room were shining through my orangish red crystal body. ¡°I see something flashing. What do I do now?¡± The hand began flapping up and down in excitement. ¡°Oh! Oh! Just say notices!¡± ¡°Notices?¡± 3) First class 3) First class At once words burning with every color all at the same time began to appear before my eyes like the words of The Unnamed God. Each set of the words vanished as I read them, only to be replaced by another set. As with the god, the words had a presence that made the rest of the room fade away into the background. [ Tier 3 Level 1 Vile Arcanist Slain ] [ Bounty of 4,300 Merit Points assigned to Core as sole participant ] Then the words changed, not the color, or their presence, but rather than burning, each letter was¡­ solid. Defined, like they had been carved into stone. -{ What the Error is going on here? }- -{ How the Error did that idiot do this? What was he even trying to do? Oh...That Vile twisted little freak.}- -{ Welp. I¡¯m glad he¡¯s dead. Now how should I¡­ Got it. }- The words changed again, as if I was somehow being allowed to listen in to someone else¡¯s conversation, possibly because it concerned me? First, the words went back to what I was guessing was the baseline ¡®Voice¡¯ of the gods, the burning letters in all colors. [ Spark of life granted to unnamed Core ] The words then burned with various shades of green, each letter seeming to sprout upwards as if growing in the air. )o( Regista? What did you do? I know that you would not create life on a whim.)o( -{ ...sorry Momma All but I had to do something. This Error could have burned everything down. Me included. And I like being alive. }- )o( ...I understand¡­ One of your Elders will take up the matter. )o( [ Child Class assigned. Level 1 Child ] [ Age of Ascension Reached. ] [ Class options generation] [ Living Core = Core Summoner ( Unique ) ] [ Killed high level opponent, unarmed, while in midair. = Flying Fist of Crushing Death ( Rare ) ] [ Lifetime send in company of Fairy Folk = Agent of the All Mother ( Rare ) ] [ Participated in advanced magic ritual = Arcane Devotee ( Uncommon ) ] [ Fire Affinity = Pyromancer ( Common ) ] Reached Age of Awakening = Mundane ( Default ) ] [ Choose a class to advance out of Child class or be assigned to the Mundane class in 10 days ] ¡°I¡¯m being offered Classes?¡± The cage somewhere above me began rattling again as a high pitched squeal filled the room ¡°Yes! You must already count as old enough to advance past your Child class. You should have a few dozen Common classes, several Uncommon, and one Rare if you¡¯re lucky. Take the Rare if you do, they¡¯re the best!¡± I hesitated for a moment, then admitted. ¡°I got two Rares.¡± The sound of the cage went silent. ¡°...two?¡± ¡°And a Unique. Is that better than Rare?¡± The hand reappeared as she began waving at me frantically ¡°Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! What did you get? Tell me the Rares ones! No, the Unique one first!¡± As I read off ¡°Core Summoner¡± more words appeared which I began to read out loud. [Core Summoner. A Core Summoner, due to being a Living Core, does not have to choose between receiving Merit points by absorbing a Core or converting a Core into a Totem to be able to summon a Manifestation of the Beast the Core had belonged to. Instead, they gain the Merit points from the Core and may also summon the Manifestations of all Cores they have consumed without needing to retain the Core as a physical Totem.] Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. The purple hand twitched. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ a pretty good advantage. Double dipping. Summoners normally have to choose one or the other for every Core they get, and they have to watch out for people stealing their Totems to try to absorb them. Which they can¡¯t, only the Summoner who made them into a Totem can do that.¡± She paused. ¡°But Unique may not always mean good, just very, very, rare. What do your Rares do?¡± ¡°Flying Fist of Crushing Death.¡± Words began to appear before me as I said the class name out loud. ¡°It says ¡®The Flying Stone Fist may send themselves flying at an opponent at high speeds, adding their momentum to their attack while being protected against the force of their momentum.¡¯¡± The laughter started up again. ¡°Oh! Let me guess, you just ¡®fell¡¯ into that one!¡± After she calmed down. I continued. ¡°Agent of the Mother. An Agent receives power over Fairy kind, and to assist in their work.¡± The laughter stopped. ¡°...if you want to be safe. There is no better choice, at least for you. We would have no interest in using you as a Core, and you have no body to ever become a Demon.¡± Then she had nothing more to say. ¡°What¡­ I don¡¯t even know your name. But you sound upset. You are my oldest friend. Talk to me.¡± She hiccuped. Then snorted before giggling a little. ¡°Yeah. You¡¯ve known me your whole life haven¡¯t you...¡± After a moment, the fairy began to explain, ¡°Agents of the Mother can be great¡­ or terrible. They have so much power over my kind, and sometimes¡­ they start thinking of us as resources. They figure that they could do so much more for the Mother with another level or two, and our Cores are worth Merit points. As spirits we just get reborn as Rank Ones again, so we don¡¯t really die and the world never runs out of Faries. They even have powers to make us level up faster¡­ which give us Cores that are even better for them to sacrifice.¡± She paused again. ¡°Sometimes it¡¯s even a matter of selling us off to get the money they need for a Quest for the Mother¡­¡± She sniffled. ¡°Is that what happened¡­¡± To you? I left the sentence unfinished as she began crying. No. I would never do something like that. At least, I don¡¯t think I would. But why leave myself with the temptation? ¡°I don¡¯t care what it can do for me. I¡¯m not picking it.¡± She made some protesting sounds, which I ignored. Flying Fist would let me move around, but if I ever needed to attack someone, it would involve flying me, a rock, right at them, which didn¡¯t sound safe. Pyromancer turned out to be all fire powers, which wouldn¡¯t do me much good sitting here on the floor. Arcane Devotee would let me gain Merit points by learning and participating in magic rituals, which seemed to require writing things on the floor with chalk, a difficult task for someone lacking hands, but like Core Summoner with the number of Totems they could collect, the Devotee didn¡¯t have any limit on how many of them I could learn. And I had to assume that even a Vile Arcanist would have a load of Rituals written down on Pack Rat¡¯s collection of papers, scrolls, books, and all the other things stuffed into every nook and cranny of the room I was in. That was a bad habit, someone should have warned Nictob it would be the death of him. The Mundane class said it was the adult version of the Child Class that granted generalized abilities based on your activities. So I guessed if I wanted stuff for sitting around on a cold floor next to a corpse it would be a great choice. But... I was in fact, sitting in a room, on the floor... next to a dead guy. And I looked like a big round ball of free Merit points to anyone who might come looking for him. Having the ability to do something, anything, if someone showed up sounded better than relying on the good intentions of others. Especially anyone who knew Nictob the Vile Arcanist over there. Also, I only had one magic ritual accessible to me right now, the circle I was sitting in that was mostly covered by Nictob¡¯s corpse and was made to eat the processed Chaos from living Beasts, while I had¡­ One, two¡­ five, seven, cores sitting around me. Each of them was capable of giving me access to a different Manifestation I could summon, and those were only the Cores around me that I could see. ¡°I¡¯m going for Core Summoner. I got Cores right here, and hopefully, one of the summons I get can open that cage for you.¡± And then carry me someone safer than here. There was a sniffling sound. ¡°...Thank you.¡± She hiccuped. ¡°Pansy. My name is Pansy, but I hate it and I always try to get everyone to call me Viola.¡± ¡°Hi Viola. Call me... Fell.¡± She giggled again. ¡°Because you fell and cracked his head open¡­ I like it.¡± Well, that and it means something like dangerous when referring to a person. ¡°I chose Core Summoner.¡± 4) Danger close 4) Danger close For a moment the room seemed to go all dim around me, and my thoughts slowed down to a crawl before the multi colored lettering began to appear in front of me again. [ Core Summoner class chosen ] [ +1 Spirit ] [ +1 Any ] [ Class ability: Create Rank 1 Totem] [ Rank 1 Salamander Innate Totem granted ] [ You have sufficient Merit points to advance to Level 2 Core Summoner ] ¡°Viola? I got plus one Spirit, plus one Any, and the ability to create a Totem, as well as something called a Salamander Innate Totem. It also says I have enough Merit to advance to Level Two? And I would rather not just guess at what all that means. So...¡± The fairy hummed for a moment. ¡°Huh. Rank one always gives you one ability bonus in your key ability score, which for you is Spirit which is what you use to power magic. The free point you can put in anything, and everyone gets at least one of those when they level up. Even the Rank 0 classes.¡± ¡°A Totem is how you turn a Core into something you can use to summon Manifestations of the Beasts they came from¡­¡± She hummed again. ¡°And I guess your Core must have come from a Saladmander, so you call one up without needing another Core to turn into a Totem. Cheater. You always got something you can summon even if you don¡¯t have any other Totems. Your class is so Weird.¡± The fairy giggled again, and I found myself getting a little annoyed at her constant habit of finding me so amusing. ¡°Weird? This is coming from a purple fairy. Now can you please explain what an ability bonus is?¡± Suddenly there was a rattling sound. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m not purple. Only boys are purple, I¡¯m lavender!¡± What? ¡°There¡¯s a difference?¡± There was a lingering silence. ¡°Suspicions confirmed. You are so a boy.¡± ...What I was, was so lost. ¡°Got it. Lavender. Now please explain.¡± There was another giggle. ¡°Well, boys have colors from the primary spectrum, while girls are pastels, and betweeners like neon colors¡­¡± Not what I meant. But I let her go on for a while about color coordinating, then where they got their clothing, which was by theft or bribes mainly, then she started going into fairie¡¯s favorite treats they also liked to steal or get offered as bribes before I finally interrupted her. ¡°I¡¯m good just lying here, motionless while learning all about fairy culture. But I thought you might want to get out of your cage.¡± I heard what I imagined to be a tiny purple, sorry, lavender hand smacking up against a tiny lavender forehead. ¡°Oh, right. You have abilities that measure what you can do, and the points you get from levels improve then by a multiple, each point adds ten percent to what you are born with or develop. You can see what you got by looking at the blinking thing and saying Status.¡± ¡°Status?¡± Name: Fell Title: First Born Race: Core Classes: Rank 1: Child 1- Rank 2: Core Summoner 1- Might: Not applicable Agility: Not applicable Memory: 20 Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Wit: 12 Spirit: 100+1 ¡°Might, Agility, Memory, Wit, and Spirit. Am I missing anything Viola?¡± The lavender hand reached out again and gave me a thumbs up. ¡°That is the normal starting array, although you have to split them up later. You should have a plus one next to Spirit.¡± ¡°Yes. And not applicable next to Might and Agility. Is that normal?¡± She hissed. ¡°No¡­ but then, you¡¯re a rock. You can¡¯t move or anything, so I guess the system can¡¯t measure those two abilities? Maybe? Or it may be something else entirely. I¡¯m kind of wandering in the dark here too Fell.¡± ¡°Fair.¡± It wasn¡¯t like she was an expert on these kinds of things anyways. She had said she was a Flower Fairy which unless that was some kind of ironic or misleading name didn¡¯t sound like a scholarly class. Although to be fair, botany was a science. The fairy giggled. ¡°Maybe if you put a point in one of them¡­ no that wouldn¡¯t work. The points multiply the scores, if you got nothing to start with, it would just be a waste.¡± ¡°Yeah. My Wit is lower at twelve then Memory at twenty and Spirit at one hundred.¡± I focused on the blinking light. ¡°Put my anything point in Wit please Blinky.¡± I didn¡¯t feel anything happened to me, but ¡°Status.¡± confirmed I had a plus one after Wit now. And for once, Viola wasn¡¯t giggling. ¡°One hundred Spirit? One! Hundred! Spirit! That¡¯s insane, you have to be at least Tier Two with all your bonuses in a stat to get it that high! And you¡¯re starting there as your base score! Unfair! Cheater! Broken! Dread Roaches!¡± Dread Roaches? Viola screamed more then yelled that last one, which meant that must be really insulting. ¡°Dread roaches? I hardly think it''s fair to call me-¡± ¡°No Fell! You got Dread roaches coming into the room. They¡¯re Demons. They want to kill you since you got a Tier one class now and aren''t protected as a Child any longer. Summon your Saladmander or they¡¯ll eat you!¡± Saladmander? ¡°How?¡± She waved her hand around as if trying to think of an answer.¡±I don¡¯t know. Bite you really hard?¡± From beneath a door at the far end of the room, I could see two long twitching fibers wiggling in the air in front of a low wide dark creature struggling to squeeze under a battered and worn, if still strong looking, wooden door. Viola¡¯s shrill voice screamed ¡°Oh! You mean how to summon something. I don¡¯t know, I¡¯m not a Summoner, but you should figure it out, and quick!¡± Real helpful there. ¡°Blinky, show me how to summon something?¡± Available Totems: Salamander. Rank 1 Innate manifestation. Cost: 10 magic. Available magic: 110 A blue circle appeared around the blinking light at the edge of where I was looking as the roach finally slipped below the door and into the room. ¡°Summon Salamander¡± Everything changed. While I could see the orange scaly lizard in front of me as it stood there, flickering out its tongue and looking around with solid red eyes even as matching red flames flickered along its back from its head to the tip of its tail, I could also see through it eyes. And feel the cold stone floor under its feet. And the Fairy could see it as well. ¡°Oh my gods! It¡¯s so cute!¡± Now that I had a head to look up with, I could see a tiny lavender woman wearing a dress made of wilting multicolored flower petals as she sat crammed inside of a tiny crudely made looking bird cage that was so small that her knees were pressed up against her chest. The cage sat near the edge of the desk above where my Core had rolled to after taking down Nictob. And now that I had a set of eyes, I could narrow them in my displeasure at being called cute. I am fierce, I am mighty¡­ I am half the size of the giant black roach scuttling across the floor at me. ¡°Blinky, give me another Salamander!¡± [ Core summoner can only possess one Manifestation at any time.] [ Innate Manifestations must be possessed while in use ] ¡°That would have been good to know thirty seconds ago!¡± Viola stretched her hand out between the bars of her cage with a pained look on her face as the sides of the narrow gap between the bars seemed to pinch at her upper right arm. Pointing at the roach with her finger she started yelling. ¡°Get it, Salad boy, go bite it! Chew it up.¡± With a sigh, I set the Salamander into a collision course with the first of the Dread Roaches, even as another two struggled against each other as they tried to work their way under the door. Outsized and outnumbered... At least I had gotten to exist at all, even if it was only for a little while.