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“Going somewhere?” Acelina stood at the now open doorway. Her arms were crossed, but her axe hung from a belt.

Luna turned and bolted, running as fast as her legs could take her. The good thing about her size was that it was particularly easy for her to jump over and crawl under any rubble that she couldn’t just toss aside. Within seconds, she found an exit door, but it was stuck shut. Even after years of disrepair, and using every ounce of her strength, Luna couldn’t even get it to budge.

“GET BACK HERE!” Acelina’s voice boomed through the house. Only a moment later, Madeline was sent flying through the door that Luna was stuck at, providing her an actual way to escape.

Acelina was strong, but apparently, not very smart. Luna jumped out the exit, and went to check on Madeline. To her surprise, she didn’t seem too hurt. Or at least, nothing that would cause permanent damage. Madeline was covered in small scratches and cuts, and was clutching her left wrist. She’d gotten off lightly, considering how fast she’d flown through the door. Luna definitely wouldn’t have survived it.

Madeline cast a spell. After Luna’s limbs started to disappear, but nothing felt different, she realized it was a disguise of some sort.

“Don’t move,” was all the mage said before her face became invisible. Acelina came barreling out of the house soon after, smashing everything that had been in her way. She looked around, and clearly didn’t see either of the two of them. But rather than confusion, a smile lit her face.

“You’re still here, aren’t you?” She called out. “I saw through one of your shitty illusions, and I’ll do it again.”

Acelina walked around the yard. They were surrounded by trees here, but not enough that Luna wouldn’t be seen if she made a run for it. And considering that Madeline hadn’t made a run for it, she could only assume that whatever Skill was hiding them both didn’t work while they ran.

The bandit searched and searched, convinced that Luna and Madeline were still somewhere around. To be fair, she was right, but Luna was getting tired of standing in the same place doing nothing. This was her first taste of freedom in weeks, and yet she was being forced to stand still, unless she wanted to die.

She stayed there for hours, until Acelina finally got bored and left. The sun had already set, so it was about time. She seemed to be reluctant to do so, but even Acelina had duties to attend to, apparently. As soon as she was out of sight, Luna let herself fall to the ground, letting out a sigh of relief.

“You IDIOT!” Madeline yelled, before Luna could even realize her mistake. Her own invisibility ended after that. Acelina darted back, her axe now in hand.

“No hiding this time. You either pay me for the girl, and some extra for making me waste a day, or find out what happens when people try to steal from me.”

From the look on her face, I could tell that Acelina was just hoping Madeline didn’t have the money. Which was weird, since I sort of just assumed a bandit like her would have immediately killed us and then taken whatever money Madeline actually did have.

Either way, Luna seriously doubted Madeline had come with any real money, let alone enough to actually pay what Acelina was asking for. They’d need to figure out a way out of this, somehow. Problem was, the second they started discussing how to get away, Acelina would obviously take the chance to attack.

Decisions, decisions. There was no way they were resolving this peacefully. And if that was the case, then all it meant was that they needed to attack first.

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“Let’s begin with stats, shall we?” Victor was annoyingly chipper when it was so early in the morning. And, needless to say, I wasn’t very happy to be woken up to the sound of his voice.

“Fine,” was all I managed to get out. I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, especially him. But I’d also learned that he never asked questions. He just phrased his demands like them.

“Great! I’ll start at the top of the list, as you see in your status, and work my way down.” He had apparently brought a chair into my tent, and took a seat. “Strength is first. It’s also one of the easiest to understand. The higher your strength stat, the stronger your muscles are. Melee warriors use it to put more power into their swings and stabs, and archers use it to pull the strings of their bows further back.

“Next, dexterity. The more dexterity you have, the more control you have over your own body. Melee warriors and archers alike use dexterity to target someone's weakest points. You used dexterity not long ago to kill Silas, aiming for one of the weakest spots on his body.”

Ugh, he didn’t need to remind me. It wasn’t like I could forget, but I was doing a good job of keeping it out of my mind for now. I didn’t need the extra stress when I was being kept here against my will.

“It’s good to note that both of these are necessary for any fighter. A lot of strength is great to have, but useless if you can’t control it. Similarly, a lot of dexterity can be great, but it’s useless if you don’t have at least some power to back it up.

“Speed. With more speed, you are faster!” He paused, then laughed as if he’d said something funny. “To elaborate, speed will allow you to swing a sword or shoot a bow faster. It’ll allow you to run faster as well.

“While strength, dexterity, and speed are all great if you want to kill someone, vitality does the opposite. It keeps you alive, and it keeps you going. Vitality, by far, does the most, for any single stat. It enhances the durability of your body, and how much punishment it can take. With high enough vitality, you can survive blows that would normally be considered deadly. Vitality also makes it harder to get sick. And at around five hundred, the only way you’ll catch a disease is if it’s magical. Lastly, vitality gives you more stamina, and stamina recovery. You can keep running, keep shooting, keep swinging longer. The most useful stat, in my opinion, but useless on its own.”

That all made sense so far. Though it seemed I was lacking in strength. Dexterity was enough to kill rabbits for dinner, but I’d need to invest more into strength if I ever needed to fend off a pack of wolves on my own. As it was, I still wouldn’t stand a chance. Though, mainly, I needed strength to avoid getting trapped in someone’s grip again. I’d had multiple examples in the past and present of myself struggling to get away from someone, as they effortlessly held me in place.

“Perception boosts all of your senses. Sounds, sights, smells, feelings, and even tastes are all enhanced. Speed and perception are linked, in ways. Whether it's you or someone else, you won’t be able to see if they’re simply too fast. This is especially dangerous if you’re running at speeds higher than you can perceive. You’ll end up running into something and likely killing yourself unless you have enough vitality to live through it. In general, you want your perception stat to be at least three fourths as high as your speed stat. For an archer like you though, you should already be investing pretty heavily into perception, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”

I definitely hadn’t been investing heavily into perception. I willed the System to show my stats.

STATS

Strength: 25

Dexterity: 160 (223)

Speed: 55

Vitality: 55

Perception: 55

Mana: 25

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Magic Power: 25

Free Stats: 135

Dexterity was by far the highest, and my perception was relatively similar to all of my other stats. On the bright side, I had plenty of free stats to spend, so I could fix that.

“Mana is used to activate all Skills that scale off of it. Putting points into the stat will increase both your total mana pool as well as the rate that you regenerate it. Useless to mediocre for most, but absolutely amazing for mages. That said, the regeneration you get from the Skill alone isn’t the best. If you plan to go down the magic archer route, then I’d suggest taking Meditation. It’ll boost your mana regeneration and natural healing.”

I actually knew that about Meditation, but didn’t say anything. Admitting that I already knew the information might get me some praise, which was the last thing I wanted from Victor.

“Lastly, magic power. Simple and straightforward. More power means stronger spells. You can imagine what that would mean for a mage. For someone else, like a healer, magic power will make their healing more effective. My legion doesn’t have any, but some healers with enough magic power can even restore entire limbs, or heal otherwise fatal wounds. Many religious Classes will use mana as well. Priests and Priestesses with higher magic power can call down more impactful miracles from their gods.”

Gods? I knew what they were, but the limited knowledge I had made them seem scary, more than anything. And as much as I wanted to know more, I knew Victor wasn’t finished with his lecture, and I was still too tired for all of this. I technically couldn’t forget any information learned, but that didn’t mean I wanted to overload myself with a whole lot of it. For now, I just kept in mind to not mess with any Priests or Priestesses. If they were even a fraction as scary as I assumed the gods they followed were, then I didn’t want anything to do with them.

“That’s it for stats. Moving on, we didn’t choose your Class yesterday, because you know nothing about elements. At level 25, your Class does not upgrade into a new one. Instead, it gains an element that will change either your current Skills, or the ones you gain in the future.

“There are many elements, and they are divided into four tiers. The first tier is made up of ‘basic’ elements. They are water, fire, wind, earth, light, and dark. They are the most common, and generally the only elements you will be given access to at first.

“The second tier is made up of ‘intermediate’ elements. Usually, these are unlocked at level 100, but there have been cases of people doing so earlier, or even later. Intermediate elements are combinations of any two basic elements. That said, the most common are doubles. For example, while you might see someone with a steam element, which combines water and fire, it’s much more likely to see the element of water combined with water, or wave. Or fire with fire, which is blaze.

“The third tier is made up of ‘advanced’ elements. I’ve never heard of them being unlocked under level 200. Advanced elements are the combinations of three basic elements. Again, combinations of the same element being most common. Three water components will make typhoon, while three fire components will make inferno.

“Lastly, we have ‘unique’ elements. They are called unique, because they have no basic elemental components, and are exceedingly rare. Few are known, and practically none are public knowledge. The only unique element I know of is emotion. Decades ago, I came across a warrior who seemed to be able to use his emotions to increase or adjust his power. It was strange, but powerful.” Victor trailed off, as if he was remembering something. To be fair, he probably was. Having emotion as an element seemed a bit strange, compared to everything else that had been described before it.

“Moving on, I could list all of the known elements, but that would take quite a while. You’ll learn them all soon enough once you see your first battle. For now, let’s go over how each of your elements will affect your Class.”

I honestly wasn’t sure if Victor’s advice would be useful at all here. I was an archer, sure, but at the same time, my Class didn’t have a single Skill directly relating to it. Though, if the descriptions were anything to go off of, then that would change eventually, if not as soon as I actually upgraded it.

Calamity Amnesiac was something of a blank slate. Both of its current Skills were dedicated to learning. The fact that most of their efforts were being put into making me a better archer likely meant that it would give me Skills based on that. I wasn’t sure how much it would help with getting me out of here, but I’d take anything I could get.

“Wind and water are the easiest to predict. Wind will make both you and your arrows faster. Wind Classes usually have at least one ability to assist with movement. Water, on the other hand, will give your arrows some utility, along with some extra damage. For example, they may slow down your enemies, while also hitting harder than they would otherwise. Not as much hurt as wind or fire, but more than earth, which is almost completely defensive for most archers.

“Light and dark are a bit harder to pinpoint. Those two are a bit more rare to see than other elements. And when you do see them, it’s usually a mage wielding that element.”

Guessing off of that, I was assuming that the mage, Madeline, from my dream-memories was actually a mage with a light element. Light seemed the most fitting of the elements for illusions, at least.

“I’m sorry to say that I’ve never even heard of an archer with either element. That said, dark is a very offensive element, while light isn’t. With the plans I have for you, your choices are going to be dark and wind. Make your decision now. We won’t have much time to train if you spend too long on it.”

There he went again. Acting like he was the boss of me. Which he was, technically. I was the one being held hostage, after all. Still, I didn’t like it one bit. The one thing he couldn’t control right now was my Class. He couldn’t force a Class onto me. The closest to that would be threatening to harm me if I didn’t choose what he wanted, but even then, he had no real control over it all.

My actual options were wind, light, and dark. Not very different, but I put light in there just to be petty. Plus, I’d have no need for a Class made to kill once I was away from here. I had to think both long and short-term here. Also, I wasn’t interested in water. It just didn’t sound appealing, compared to the others.

Wind was the easiest option. Power and speed. Both of those were things I wanted, but it was also a safe choice. No one would be surprised by a wind archer. Light or dark though? I could escape easily if no one knew what to expect.

On the other hand, wind was the safe option for a reason. I’d be taking a big risk with either light or dark, but Victor seemed pretty sure that dark would make me an effective killer. But did that mean light would take away my ability to hurt anything? It sounded unlikely, but wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. Still, I found it very hard to believe that a light element would make an arrow to the chest any less deadly, even if it might not add anything to it. I couldn’t discern anything from the description, aside from that it seemed geared toward helping others.

Again, thinking long term, I had much more of a reason to pick light over dark, if I was going to take a risk. I really couldn’t think of a need to hurt something terribly on a daily basis. Maybe light would even have Skill that, well, generated light. No more candles or torches needed anymore at that point.

All things considered, I narrowed the choices down to wind and light. One safe, one risky. Wind likely wouldn’t help much very soon. There were probably dozens, if not hundreds of other wind archers here. I found it unlikely that the legion wouldn’t be able to catch a particularly low-level one that was trying to run away. On the other hand, light could give me exactly the edge I needed.

And if I was honest, I really liked the sound of being unique, as far as archers went. I opened up the Class upgrade menu, and chose Calamity Amnesiac - Light.

System Notification: Class upgrade complete!

System Notification: New Class unlocked!

Calamity Amnesiac - Light - You have spent much of your life surrounded by death and darkness. But you have also searched for change. To break out of the endless cycle of suffering. Bring light to those who need it.

System Notification: You have leveled up Calamity Amnesiac - Light! (Level 25 → 27)

Class 1: Calamity Amnesiac - Light (Rare) (Lvl 27)

- Skill Recall (Lvl 16)

- Heightened Learning (Lvl 15)

[Locked]

[Locked]

[Locked]

Apparently, there had been enough experience left over to boost me up another couple of levels. I wasn’t sure how much that would help, but it was better to have than not, at least.

“I finished,” I told Victor.

“Which did you pick?”

“Wind.”

Victor grabbed my chin, and forcefully turned my face to look into his eyes. He really needed to learn to control his strength, because it hurt. Still, aside from a few unavoidable tears, I didn’t waver. I looked Victor right back into his eyes, with much more confidence than I really had.

Annoyance was visible on his face as he let go of me. Apparently, he believed me, as I wasn’t currently being thrown tens of feet in one direction or another. “Somewhat disappointing, but still acceptable. Now, what Skills did you get?”

I looked through my notifications, and realized that I didn’t have any for new Skills. “None, actually.”

Surprisingly, Victor grinned. “I assumed that would be the case, given your Class and Skills. For now, if you have any free stats, do not spend them.” He held his hand up. “And, I’ll be busy making preparations for the rest of the day. Enjoy the rest of the time to yourself, Luna. Your training will begin in earnest tomorrow.”

Victor left the tent without giving me much time to even say anything back. Not that I had a problem with that. It was early, and all that lecturing and thinking didn’t make me any less tired. I decided to get some more sleep, so that I’d at least be well rested for whatever Victor had in mind the next day. I just wished my cot was comfier.