Kahli had already learned about [LIN], also known as Lineality, one of Froufrou's new [attributes]. She was interested to see what else Froufrou could now put points to, so she continued to analyze her [paired] companion's character sheet.
[Smeality (SML)]
[Think of smeality like a smell-based form of clairvoyance. The key difference, other than the primary sense tied to smeality being smell instead of vision, between smeality and clairvoyance is that smeality is based on past events. That is to say that you can smell into the past using smeality, and leveling this attribute up will only allow for more effective past smelling functionality.]
Wow. So if Kahli leveled up Froufrou's [SML], she'd be able to smell things from the past. Of course, that kind of sounded like a dog, but at the same time the impression she got from the system was that [SML] would also allow for much further glimpses into the past, far after original smells had washed away. Very cool, and probably very useful.
[Currotia (CUR)]
[Currotia is a property that is hard to grasp and define, however, the key aspect to understand of currotia is that it is the realness and ability for one to impact the perception of time. This is different than the speed of time in that currotia is only how time seems to pass, whereas the speed of time affects how time actually passes, any perceptive changes being an after effect.]
How strange. Kahli did feel a bit of a tinge of jealousy in that Froufrou seemed to have somewhat cooler [attributes] from the [Time Manipulator] [class] than she did, but she got over that quickly. After all, they shared a system and were virtually conjoined at the hip - well, at the purse, as it were.
There was only one thing to do with all these cool [attributes] - level them up as evenly as possible and then pick one favorite that got a single, wild and crazy bonus point all to itself. Just like Kahli did with her own [attributes], and just like any reasonable person with a system would or at least ought to do with their own [attribute] points. There was no real benefit to being lopsided when you could be well-rounded instead, Kahli thought as she looked at her big left foot. If only this foot wasn't so damned big, maybe she could feel like a well-rounded person herself. But she didn't dwell on that pain and agony, she was far too used to burying it deep in her soul and trying to pretend like it wasn't there. Even though it so obviously was.
[Froufrou is requesting to assign her attribute points herself]
What? Froufrou could do that?
"Froufrou, do you not want me to spend your [attribute] points or something?" asked Kahli with a gasp and a wide open jaw.
Froufrou squelched in the affirmative. After all, she'd seen how Kahli had butchered her character sheet - at least in her eldritch opinion, that was. Froufrou thought that one should pick their favorite [attribute] and pour as many points into it as possible. Everything else other than the bare essentials could go straight to hell for all she cared. And Froufrou knew which one of those [attributes] she wanted to level up. She wasn't going to have Kahli mess it all up by trying to keep things even and reasonable. If Froufrou had ten points to spend then she was going to go all in and spend them on something with a wide impact.
[Froufrou is still requesting you allow her to assign her attribute points herself]
Kahli rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine, Froufrou, go ahead."
Froufrou squelched with glee, putting all ten points into Lineality.
[Attributes]
[INT: 20]
[STM: 1]
[CHAR: -2]
[DEX: 10]
[STR: 1]
[LIN: 11 (new)]
[SME: 1 (new)]
[CUR: 1 (new)]
"Wow, Froufrou, that's... great..." Kahli said with distaste. She truly had no comprehension of how Froufrou could do this to her character sheet, much less intentionally, but there it was - there was nothing she could do about it at this point. The [attributes] were spent. At least it made Froufrou happy, and indeed the more Kahli thought about it, the more she felt that maybe Froufrou had made the right decision. Lineality allowed Froufrou to interact physically with adjacent timelines. That seemed pretty impactful in a way that smelling the past and changing how long time seems to pass didn't necessarily. Plus, even if it was hard to sell herself on the choice, it had made Froufrou so happy - and wasn't happiness important, too? Even if it was a little unreasonable...
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
[Froufrou has 1 skill slot available. Would you like to select a skill?]
"Shut the fuck up," said Kahli. Suddenly, she gasped, feeling a little ashamed. But only a little. She definitely wanted to select a [skill].
[Please select a skill:]
[Putrefy (increase)]
[Tendrils of Fury]
[Levitation]
Okay, what was this? Froufrou's new [skill] options seemed way cooler than the options Kahli usually got for [skills]. Okay, maybe that was a bit of an overstatement. Kahli did get the original [skill] that allowed them to travel through time. Still, Froufrou had the option for a [skill] called Tendrils of Fury? That was so much cooler than, say, [Rock Summon] sounded. And [Rock Summon] was a great [skill], it was a very powerful [skill] indeed!
So, of course, Kahli had to look at all these [skills] to see what the best option was. It did seem that Froufrou would at least be a little more willing to let her pick something out here, although Kahli did warn Froufrou that if she allowed her to pick the [skill] she'd probably pick a new one.
[Putrefy (increase)]
[Increasing putrefy again does a number of things. Your constant radius of putrification will increase to fifty feet. Your projectile globule of putrification will double in size and in impact. And, finally, you will gain the ability to automatically putrefy a target for thirty seconds, irregardless of distance, as long as you can see them. Putrefying someone in this manner will cause them to assume all ill effects from your skill, as well as encumber them with pain and agony and reduce their movement speed until it is cut in half.]
Well, that was certainly a powerful increase of a [skill], but Kahli wasn't yet impressed. She wanted to know what else Froufrou could choose as a [skill].
[Tendrils of Fury]
[You are a lean, mean, fighting machine, and your tendrils are all here for it. This skill not only greatly increases the hardness and strength of your tendrils, but it also increases their reaction speed in offensive measures and indeed also their attack power. You'll also get the ability to spin all of your tendrils almost like a windmill for massive attack combos as well as the opportunity to stun your foes.]
Now this sounded like a useful [skill] for Froufrou, especially considering the fact that she always seemed to get her tendrils damaged in fights. It sounded like with this [skill] in her repertoire, that would be a thing of the past - and honestly, that was enough to get Kahli to consider it. Everything else was just a bonus in a way.
[Levitate]
[Who doesn't want the power to fly, free as a bird? Well, now you can! Levitate is, essentially, what it says on the tin - you can float through the air with this skill. That's... pretty much it.]
That was the shortest [skill] description that Kahli had encountered that it almost made her discount the [skill]. Well, almost. See, it still seemed awfully useful, when she thought about it.
However, here was the thing: Kahli and Froufrou had access to one another's [skills]. With that, picking this [skill] for Froufrou was akin to picking a [skill] for both of them. Kahli decided to talk over this with Froufrou, who of course quickly engaged and responded with cheerful bouts of squelching.
It was down to either [Tendrils of Fury] or [Levitate]. Kahli felt a little divided, because there were aspects of each [skill] that they could already replicate. Kahli mentioned to her [paired] companion how, if she really wanted to, Froufrou could summon up a rock and kick her tendrils off it, using its return force as a feedback loop to create a levitation effect. Of course, this was barely necessary, as Froufrou was almost if not always in Kahli's purse. Yes, they could also try and somewhat duplicate [Tendrils of Fury] with Kahli's [Barrage of Blows], but it was tricky to be sure seeing as Froufrou had already had access to that and kept getting her tendrils beaten up by enemies. With that, the obvious choice seemed to be [Tendrils of Fury], which was also of course the coolest sounding of the many [skills]. Kahli confirmed this with Froufrou, who squelched affirmatively.
[Skill selected]
[Tendrils of Fury]
Time sped up to normal. Well, somewhat. They were still frozen in time within Kahli's original [checkpoint], however now Kahli and Froufrou could see the Supreme Time Protector, as well as the two younger versions of the Supreme Time Protector, standing there before them, moving. And that was their indicator that the leveling had ended.
"Welcome to your new [class], you little group of [Time Manipulators]!" said the Supreme Time Protector with pride. "I'm so happy for the opportunity to share my time abilities with you both. You're both very worthy of this, especially considering the hell you went through to make sure I didn't kill myself back there."
"Oh," Kahli chuckled a little, "You knew about that?"
"Absolutely, I did," replied the Supreme Time Protector. "Now, Kahli, go ahead and complete your [checkpoint]. Choose what scenario you want. Hell, tell Sch'laong that you're my envoy now if you want - I wouldn't necessarily consider you one, but at this point you might as well be. Tell Sch'laong whatever you want, honestly, if you pick that timeline. Just make a choice. I'm going to have to get going now, though - I've got elemental putt putt scheduled with these version of my past self, along with a few more versions of my future self as well."
"Okay," said Kahli, suddenly feeling the pressure. She looked down at her big left foot. So it was time to finally choose a scenario, was it?