The branches parted as a figure plummeted through the forest canopy. The sun’s light glinted off a falling blade just before it plunged through an enormous bug-like like creature. The sword slid between stiff, armor-like growths of bark and pierced the creature’s brain or, at least, whatever the strange insect-like plants possessed that was equivalent to one.

Visible mana escaped the corpse as Brivaria’s sword sought to strike second one from behind. She’d discovered these creatures shortly after finishing her rest. At a distance they looked like stag beetles with their six legs, thick armor-like carapace, and large pincers but they were each the size of a large dog. Up close it was clear they were plants rather than insects. The armor closely resembled bark. The legs ended in brown, root-like appendages that dragged along the ground. They could also produce and magically manipulate vines.

Most importantly, Brivaria had seen these monsters before. Granted, the ones she’d seen previously had been roughly four times larger and deep in the bowels of what she later learned was a plant-themed dungeon. Fighting the smaller versions was akin to fighting the larger ones as the weak point was the same. The bark-like plates of armor provided a solid obstacle from the front but the fact that they rose away from the creature’s body left a gap one could exploit from behind. Driving a sword or spear through the soft body and into the creature’s brain would lead to a swift kill.

Normally Brivaria wouldn’t have taken to slaughtering the local wildlife. While she did need the levels their deaths would bring, she wasn’t inclined to go around disrupting the delicate ecosystem. Also she would definitely get in trouble with Balthazar over such activity. What made her fight these beasts was exactly the fact that she had experience fighting them. When she saw the telltale glow of mana draining away from the thing she’d just killed, the angel realized the situation immediately. These were dungeon creatures.

Brivaria’s sword dove into the second plant beetle and she cut through its body. Death took it quickly. Notifications appeared for each kill.

You have reached level 4.

Gained +2 Physique, +1 Endurance, +1 Arcane, +2 Spirit, +1 Awareness, +2 Presence.

Gained one new skill selection.

You have reached level 5.

Gained +1 Physique, +1 Endurance, +2 Arcane, +2 Spirit, +1 Awareness, +2 Presence.

The angel groaned as she regarded the notifications. She was so low level that slaying monsters this weak granted her levels. Even worse, she might need them. If dungeon creatures were roaming the forest then that meant a dungeon was nearby. Those were bad news.

Most of the time angels weren’t summoned for titanic clashes between armies or would-be heroes facing down villains. The most common intervention scenario was dungeon exploration by a high level adventuring party or similar force. Ironically being summoned into a small, underground area was probably the worst place for an angel to be summoned for aid but it was what it was.

Brivaria would cull the escaping monsters as best she could, locate the dungeon, and report its existence to the nearest settlement she was able to find. One low level angel was not a match for a dungeon. Plus, while she did have some experience in dungeon delving and an understanding of the various roles involved, hers was strictly the experience of fighting monsters rather than any of the nuanced exploration that also took place.

With the two plant creatures dead, Brivaria extended her wings and launched into the air. She would look for more monsters and ponder her next skill. Skills in the System were straightforward. Every creature had a list of skills available to them based on their race and class. At every even level, they could take a new skill, upgrade an existing skill if such was possible, or take a skill fusion but, again, only if such was possible. Sometimes additional skills based off an individual’s recent activity were offered but those were very rare.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

As part of intervention training, Brivaria had taken mostly active skills and focused on upgrading them. This was wise, in her mind. If she was only going to participate in a given situation for ten minutes or less then being able to spend all of her mana for short term boosts to make her as effective as possible in those ten minutes was ideal.

Yet what had worked during intervention might not work now. The angel decided that she would try to balance active and passive abilities. Some of her short-term performance would be sacrificed for long-term capability. There was also the matter of having only thirty seven mana at level five. If Holy Bulwark cost three mana to activate then she had twelve activations before she ran out. That was a terribly small number. In fact, it seemed unusually low.

Brivaria regarded her status screen again and then noticed her class was listed as “Winged Templar.” Hadn’t it been “Angelic Templar” prior to her sickness? Her stats looked weird and her class looked weird. Maybe the condition had affected more than she realized. At least her skills were unaffected as far as she could tell.

Brivaria didn’t see any other monsters from the air so she perused the available skills. Winged Templar offered a lot of aerial combat skills. It also offered a flight improvement skill. She would need one of those soon. Lesser Flight was a good skill at low levels but it had its drawbacks. One could be knocked out of the air fairly easily and lift required stamina. The angel expended a point of stamina every time she flapped her wings to gain altitude. Long distance flying would also drain stamina making frequent rest stops a requirement if she wanted to travel by air. Stopping for three to four hours periodically could negate the speed advantage flight offered. All in all, she’d need to improve her flight ability sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile Brivaria’s list of potential angel skills included a wide variety of things. Matter manipulation, energy manipulation, and even some flight-related offerings were among the options. Many of them were boons specifically for speed, communication, and life in Heaven however. That was a whole section of skills that she would simply have to ignore due to now being a primarily physical life-form until her circumstances changed. She did notice one that would help her.

Lesser Shapeshifting (Passive)

Sculpt, resize, and make small alterations to your physical form. Mana cost is dependent on the scale of the change. Gradual and minute changes will cost no mana. Scales automatically with level.

She picked it immediately.

The System had six attributes which augmented the various aspects of a person and a person’s interactions with the world. Physique was how one interacted with the world primarily manifesting in strength and speed. Endurance was how the world interacted with the individual manifesting in stamina, toughness, and so on. Arcane affected someone’s talent for manipulating magic while spirit affected that person’s resistance to magic and reservoir of mana. Finally awareness was how one saw the world while presence was how the world saw them.

Importantly, different creatures with the same attribute were not equal. A giant with thirty physique was far stronger than an angel with thirty physique. The physical or spiritual aspects of a creature mattered. The ability to manipulate one’s own physical form to be inherently stronger or faster was very valuable.

Of course, those very important reasons weren’t the ones that Brivaria used to make her decision. It was the fact that having giant wings made walking through doors nearly impossible and people on Zlithia made a lot of doors. On many, many occasions she’d had to go through doors barely wider than she was. As with inventory, if one didn’t have an item to solve the problem then one needed a skill for it. Maybe Brivaria would be the force of change on Zlithia that she’d always desired to be by advocating for fewer doors. Maybe not.

The musings upon doors and their many failings came to an end as she heard a mournful whine in the distance.

Name: Brivaria

Race: Angel

Class: Winged Templar

Level: 5

Stats: Health 27/28, Mana 37/37, Stamina 27/31

Attributes: Physique 17, Endurance 14, Arcane 18, Spirit 19, Awareness 14, Presence 19

Active Skills: Healing Touch, Holy Bulwark

Passive Skills: Inventory, Lesser Flight, Lesser Shapeshifting, Rest, Traits (Angel)