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.

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“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]

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[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]