It was a quiet morning. The sun was peeking over the horizon, illuminating buildings with the comforting glow of dawn.
Lucian had been sound asleep until the world shaking woke him up. His eyes fluttered open and he felt the bed under him shaking. Then it suddenly stopped. He blinked a few times, and felt a new sensation he wasn’t used to, looking down he saw a black tail beside him. “What?” he rubbed his eyes sleepily. The sunlight filtering in through his window felt brighter than before. The shadows in the corners of the room felt shallower. The tail - his tail - shifted across the sheets. He felt it move, it was definitely connected to him. He gulped and gently ran his hand across his new tail in disbelief, “It's soft…”
Lucian also noticed a few other strange things - or rather he felt them.
First, there was an odd warmth in his chest that he barely registered as even present.
Second, there was a difficult to describe feeling inside his head, almost like a tugging at his mind.
As soon as Lucian had registered the presence of these feelings, he gained an understanding he had lacked before - as if struck by a bolt of inspiration, new knowledge bloomed within his mind. He sighed, reaching for the thing he now knew in his heart he could access… A system message appeared within his mind.
System Integration Successful
You have been integrated into the system.
Several changes have been applied.
Your race has been randomly changed to catfolk.
As a catfolk your Agility and Clarity have each increased by 1. Your Agility and Clarity will each increase by an additional 1 every level.
Your post-integration stats have been calculated based on your pre-integration capabilities, and can now be viewed.
You have pending class choices.
Lucian let out a whine. “A catfolk?” Lucian questioned, reaching up and touching the top of his head. He felt a pair of ears. “God dammit. I’m a catboy.” Lucian let out a sigh and, using his newly implanted instincts, brought up his stats. He wouldn’t stay focused on his newfound physical features for long.
Lucian Caldwell (Catfolk) - Level 1
Spirit:
46 of 46 (+1 per minute)
Constitution: 21
Endurance: 25
Strength: 23
Finesse: 20
Agility: 28 (+1 per level)
Intelligence: 26
Willpower: 21
Clarity: 18 (+1 per level)
0 Free Points Available (+3 per level)
Class Skills (0/10):
None
General Skills:
None
“Fascinating.” Lucian muttered as the knowledge came to him. He didn’t spend all his time playing games, but he had played enough to get it.
He inherently knew what each stat represented - he also knew that the warmth in his chest was this “spirit” resource, and that it was both was and was not a core stat like the other eight listed. He knew Spirit grew in relation to his other stats but he also knew he could manually increase it with free points if he wanted to.
This was all jarring to him, certainly, but it felt muted in a way.
Perhaps it was just the ridiculousness of the situation that dulled him, or perhaps it was the feeling of excitement building within him.
Lucian had always had a lot of energy, that's why he did sports. He had always been bored by the mundanities of life, so he played games as an escape from banal reality. College was interesting, sure, but this promised to be infinitely more interesting than any degree he could possibly get.
In truth, the concept of the entire world being turned on its head excited him.
“Well, one more thing to do, I suppose.” Lucian brought up his class choices.
Choose a Class
You have 3 available classes to choose from. Please select one.
Assassin:
Agile damage dealers focusing on stealth and single large hits. Assassins can deal huge damage if they catch their targets off guard.
Spellblade:
High damage close range combatants. Spellblades sacrifice defensive abilities for extreme offensive capabilities.
Sorcerer:
Offensive casters specializing in elemental magic. Sorcerers utilize a large Spirit pool to utilize high power skills.
“Assassins are cool. Sorcerer also sounds cool, throwing around fireballs if I had to guess but…” Lucian let out a laugh, “A spellblade sounds way cooler.” For Lucian, it wasn’t much of a choice - he chose spellblade. Magic was cool and all, but he had always thought swords were cool - and spellblade seemed to get a chunk of both words.
Class Chosen - Spellblade
You have chosen the Spellblade class.
As a spellblade your Intelligence has increased by 2 and your Strength has increased by 1. Your Intelligence will increase by an additional 2 every level and your Strength will increase by an additional 1 every level.
As a spellblade, you have gained 2 class skills.
You have gained [Manifest Weapon] (Rank 1, Level 1).
You have gained [Manifested Proficiency] (Rank 1, Level 1).
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
More knowledge planted itself within him - a feeling he was getting used too uncomfortably fast.
Manifest Weapon (Rank 1, Level 1)
10 Spirit + 2 Spirit per minute - Channeled Active Skill
Channel to manifest a basic spirit weapon. The weapon’s potency scales moderately with Intelligence.
Manifested Proficiency (Rank 1, Level 1)
Passive Skill
You have a baseline of skill with any weapon you manifest.
A smile played across his lips, and he got out of bed - stretching out a bit before hitting the lightswitch.
The lights remained off. “Power must be out,” he thought to himself, “Almost certainly related to all this stuff going on.” He walked into the bathroom and checked the faucet too, thankfully that was running. He had a glass of water to quench the morning thirst before walking to the window and pulling the blinds all the way up, letting more sunlight flood the room. He didn’t see the scene he had expected - instead looking out of the window he saw a verdant landscape, almost like some kind of jungle. “Woah…” he remarked, taken aback by it.
He pulled on a shirt, jeans, and a hoodie. His new tail was just high enough that if he wore the jeans somewhat low it wouldn’t conflict.
He, mainly out of habit, grabbed his phone and wallet as well.
He slipped on and tied a pair of sneakers and walked through the kitchen then opened the door, half expecting to see something or someone on the other side. There wasn’t.
As he walked through the halls he heard a few people talking, some sounded panicked. Lucian was too curious about the outside to really care right now, though - too excited about exploring the changed world around him.
He left his apartment building and looked out at the landscape. The road was cracked and torn up by thick roots. Giant trees pushed out through the buildings on the other side of it from him. He turned to look at his own building. It was one of several buildings not destroyed by what he could only imagine was the explosive growth of these gargantuan trees. He figured the broken up road and massive tree roots was probably the cause of the power being out.
Lucian let out a laugh, looking around as he walked along the side of the road, “This is crazy…” he chuckled, unable to contain himself.
A shadow passed over Lucian as he walked and his ears perked up. A loud screech met them as I large bird-like monster began to dive towards him.
Lucian’s pupils dilated, and he leaped sideways.
The monster crashed into the asphalt, digging its talons into the ground where Lucian had stood. It titled its head, realizing it missed, then looked up at Lucian as he took a defensive posture.
“Now's as good a time as any I guess…!” Lucian laughed, heart beating faster with anticipation as he tried to activate a skill. As if he had done it a hundred times, he felt his Spirit move of its own accord as he activated [Manifest Weapon].
He could see its limitations and possibilities. A basic melee weapon - nothing complicated or specialized. He saw, and he felt, the parameters involved in its creation, and visualized what he wanted. He could feel the Spirit draining from him as he used his skill.
He opened his hand as a handle of blue light formed in it. He grabbed onto the handle as the light surged upwards, forming a crossguard and then blade.
He took a step back as he felt knowledge of how to use his new weapon engrain itself into him from [Manifested Proficiency], and he leveled the longsword made of wispy blue light at the monster, “Alright then, shall we dance?”
The monster opened its beak, revealing a row of razor sharp teeth-like protrusions, and unleashed another screech. It flapped its wings and charged along the ground at Lucian who brought his left hand to the hilt of the sword as well, transitioning to a two-handed grip.
Lucian didn’t know how strong this monster was. He didn’t know if it was level 1, level 2, or level 10. He didn’t care.
He pulled his sword up and stepped to the side, making use of his agility to move out of its way. Even if it had more agility than he did, it had momentum from its charge. Lucian brought his sword down towards its head as he moved to the side.
The monster lurched, twisting its head to avoid most of the blow. But it didn’t avoid all of it. The tip of the sword traced a line across the side of its face and it let out a high pitched noise that made Lucian cringe. He narrowly dodged being hit by the edge of the monster’s wing as he ducked down and pulled back, “Woah!”
Lucian backstepped a few paces, taking up an on guard stance again. The monster, now with a shallow cut along its face, began to circle around him.
Lucian turned to face it as it circled around him. It sized him up with its beady eyes. Lucian tightened his grip on his sword.
The monster moved before he did, rearing up then lunging at him with its beak, intent on snapping Lucian up. Lucian pulled back, but not far enough. The monster’s beak slashed across his left forearm, drawing blood with a nasty but extremely shallow cut - but that put the monster right where Lucian wanted it.
He drove his longsword forward with all the strength he could muster in a deadly thrust. His sword cut through the air, its tip connecting with the monster’s eye. He drove the sword through its eye and its orbital socket, feeling the resistance of bone only briefly before the skull gave way and the sword sank deeper still. The monster screamed and thrashed. Lucian saw the wing coming but wasn’t fast enough this close.
The edge of the monster’s wing nailed Lucian in the chest, and sent him flying backwards into the wall of a nearby building - causing pain to shoot through his body and the air to leave his lungs. Then the monster stopped struggling and died.
The sword embedded in its eye dispersed into wisps of blue light and vanished.
Lucian gasped for air as he fell to the ground, his heart was racing and his body was in pain. If the wall had been closer he might have broken something but he didn’t feel like anything was broken.
He stumbled back and sat down on the ground, “That… was amazing…” he laughed, taking a deep breath.
Aside from the pain, he also felt a strange power surge through his body. He focused on that power. He knew instinctively that it was a level up - in fact it was two.
Level Up!
You have leveled up from Spellblade Level 1 to Spellblade Level 3!
Your Strength has increased to 26 (+1 per level).
Your Agility has increased to 30 (+1 per level).
Your Intelligence has increased to 32 (+2 per level).
Your Clarity has increased to 20 (+1 per level).
As a result of other stat increases, your maximum Spirit has increased to 48.
You have gained 6 free points (+3 per level).
Lucian smiled and laughed again. This was fresh, this was exciting. Despite the fact that his life was probably going to change forever, he couldn’t help but be overjoyed. This was the fresh spin on life he had been looking for.
He pulled up his stats again, he had free points to spend.
Lucian Caldwell (Catfolk) - Level 3 Spellblade
Spirit:
36 of 48 (+1 per minute)
Constitution: 21
Endurance: 25
Strength: 26 (+1 per level)
Finesse: 20
Agility: 30 (+1 per level)
Intelligence: 32 (+2 per level)
Willpower: 21
Clarity: 20 (+1 per level)
6 Free Points Available (+3 per level)
Class Skills (2/10):
Manifest Weapon (Rank 1, Level 1), Manifested Proficiency (Rank 1, Level 1)
General Skills:
None
The free points, he knew, could be added to any stat he wanted - including Spirit as he knew from his revelation earlier, but he didn’t particularly care to increase it right now. The upfront cost of activating [Manifest Weapon] was fairly high, but the over time cost wasn’t high at all - and that fight hadn’t even lasted long enough for that over time cost to matter.
Lucian thought that the skill itself, [Manifest Weapon], was also fascinating. The weapon it created wasn’t weightless - it had a certain degree of physicality to it. He felt that that explained the Strength scaling his class granted… “Perhaps with time, I could make the sword bigger or heavier - some kind of greatsword would be cool to use.”
Lucian felt like he was pretty well off here, “My class gives Strength and Intelligence. My race gives Agility and Clarity. I have passive scaling for half of the stats…” he mused as he toyed with several ideas, “I could lean into those strengths, maximize my strengths but leave my other stats low, or I could try and increase those other stats as well to round myself out…” Lucian considered his choices, “Increasing Constitution would be the smart play… but leaning into my strengths would be more fun… I don’t feel like I need to increase Endurance yet either. The description of the class all but said it was a glass cannon. Agility is useful. If I was faster I would have been able to dodge that last attack. Who needs health if you never get hit?” Lucian knew that this wasn’t a video game - death would be death, perhaps there was an afterlife or perhaps not but either way he only had one life to use.
But the idea of living on the edge and leaning into his strengths was intoxicating.
He put 3 points into Finesse bringing it up to 23, and 1 point into Strength, and 2 points into Agility, bringing them up to 27 and 32 respectively. The added points also caused his Spirit to increase to a nice round 50.
With a smile on his face, and the feeling of his Spirit regenerating, Lucian walked onwards.