I made sure to leave town before anyone had a chance to see through my disguise. I wasn't entirely confident in that 'Difficulty 6' thing, and I knew that, regardless, the gig would be up once the body was discovered. I had no idea where the old man lived, and I, likewise, had no desire to set foot near his Chimera again, so the wisest thing for me to do, no doubt, was to set out straight away.
I grabbed some jerky and other essentials from the vendors on the way out of town. The men looked at me funny, I supposed at the time that my voice wasn't quite right, but I didn't have trouble procuring supplies for the next month from the gold in my pocket. In retrospect, I am certain that the trouble was less about my voice and more about the dark bloodstains dribbling down my shirt and dripping softly from my spare money pouch. I can only imagine that the villagers thought Mr. Arrol had finally finished off the 'poor girl' he had been keeping chained away, but, either way, they didn't comment on it and I hardly even realized that it was a problem in my elated state.
Skill Increased: Deception +1
Not one to press, my luck, however, I stayed not a moment longer than I needed to. I traveled out, west, instead of the east this time, and I quickly looped around north. It seemed a bad idea to follow the same escape route I had taken before, and I took comfort in the fact that there would be another forest to potentially hide in if I were to travel far enough north.
It took some work, but I was eventually able to review my status update history as I walked. If I ever spoke with Bob 37 again, I decided, we were going to have words about how living in a hellscape did not in any way justify a clunky, third rate UI. But I had no desire to suck up to him ritually, only so I could bitch him out moments later. Thus, I supposed, the matter was tabled for the time being.
I scrolled through the messages I had been dismissing over the last couple days until I found the key bits that I had been looking for:
Congratulations! Level Up!
"Soul Level 2!"
New Traits Unlocked!
Enhanced Skills (Lvl 2): Skullcap raised from 25 to 50 for all applicable skills. Skill advancement penalties likewise reduced.
Secondary effects unlocked.
The following skills currently known have received secondary effects:
Witchcraft - Increased chance of learning or discovering new spells. Witchcraft may unlock new, spell-like abilities.
Toughness - Elemental resistance increased by 0.4% per level of toughness
Anatomy (Affinity) - Now boosts the effectiveness of healing spells and restoration magic.
Enhanced Trait: Born Witch
Witches' Masquerade size and shape restrictions lessened. Limbs no longer required to remain entirely humanoid in form. Creative usage may unlock additional skills or abilities.
Champion: Level 2
Level 1 characters meeting applicable pre-requisites may now level up by killing you. Have fun out there!
New Ability Points Available! +10 (current ability cap: 20)
Skill Increase! Interrogate +1
Skill Increase! Anatomy +1
It was all very interesting. What really stood out to me, personally, though was the whole 'Limbs no longer required to remain entirely humanoid in form' thing under the 'Masquerade' trait. The other abilities and warnings seemed more passive, or more applicable at some future date or skill level, but that... well, that was an ability I figured I could use, literally, right friggin now.
Miles away from Oak Town and finally turning north, I let my shape slide back into my original, soft elven form. It seemed like it would be best to work from a blank slate, with the tricky business of changing or improving upon assumed forms better left to some future day.
I narrowly focused on my nails as I traveled. Concentrating on chipped ivory and misshapen cuticles. It... wasn't quite the same as wearing a shape that was well known to me, such as my old human form, or the face of my tormentor, and it took some time for me to figure out the trick. Even still, I breathed a sigh of wonder and relief when, finally, my fingers bent and twisted into a new, more animistic form.
And indeed, the feel of claws extending and retracting from my slim fingertips was unlike anything I have felt before in my entire life. I watched, entranced, scarcely aware of my footsteps, while I rhythmically played with the sharp points. Claws out! Sheathed. Claws out! Sheathed.
And, more, I was quickly rewarded with yet another status notification:
Skill learned! Wicked +1 (Witchcraft)(Dexterity)(Wisdom)
True Witches learn to overcome their limitations by twisting their own anatomy. With some creativity (and a high tolerance for pain) the truly Wicked may learn to duplicate other, forbidden, effects.
I spent the rest of the day experimenting as I walked. I managed to shift so that a fine layer of warm fur covered most of my body.
Skill Increased! Wicked +1
I took off my shoes and shifted my feet into the large pads of a lioness. Paws, with claws that I found, could be extended to provide additional traction through mud and brambles.
Skill Increased! Wicked +1
I increased the size of my arms and decreased the length of my legs, adding a second pair of clawed pads for hands, that allowed me to run/trot across the ground upon all fours.
Skill Increased! Wicked +1
I even managed to shift my long, elfin ears into small, furry cat ears. Mostly just to see if I could. But, strangely, I noticed that my hearing sensitivity was rather sharply increased during the transformation...
Skill Increased! Wicked +1
I discovered the joy of life as a wild animal as I ran - as I hopped along through the fields of Westershire on four, padded, paws and listened to the sounds of the world around me. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before in my life. It was like nothing anyone I knew, back in my old life, could have even imagined. And, for the first time in months, I found myself grateful to be here. Grateful, even, to be alive.
The weeks passed and I ran, and ran, and ran. My Toughness climbed and climbed, it seemed, with every step I took. And the wild exhilaration of being alive kept me in high spirits as the days turned into nights turned into days.
Skill Increased! Toughness +1
Skill Increased! Toughness +1
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Skill Increased! Toughness +1
Skill Increased! Toughness +1
My sharpened senses allowed me to avoid human settlements with ease, as well as the occasional traveling human or monster. I wasn't leveling anything up from my fastidious alertness, however, and I contemplated that my perception was likely being determined by my base Wisdom, supplemented currently by my skill in Wickedness (due to the cat ears). It wasn't anything I could know for sure, I guessed, but if it were me, that would be how I would likely have designed the system.
It was a line of thinking that brought me all the way back to my currently unspent points for Attributes. It seemed like an easy choice, on the face of it. To max my Wisdom, as my Classes main stat, followed by maxing Intelligence, to further reduce my cooldowns. I was curious what it would do if I reduced the cooldown on Nifhelm's Breath, for example. Would it be an instant cast? Or would it be reduced by seconds instead of minutes, the way it seemed to work for my heal spell, Eternal Pact?
That said, I thought back to my time since arriving in this strange land. Would slightly reduce cooldowns have helped me much against the kobolds? Would they have done anything for my first, failed escape? The answer, to my mind at least, was a clear, unmitigated 'no'. And with that being the case, I started to consider other, broader strategies.
The first point was a gimme. And, although I wasn't entirely sure how Wisdom affected my spells and skills, it seemed to have the largest breadth of skills affected out of my many attributes. Considering I had no idea how Wisdom affected my skills or spells, it just seemed all the more important to me that I maintain as a primary stat regardless. The first point I, therefore, locked into Wisdom without a second thought.
Do you wish to increase your Wisdom attribute to 20? (1 Ability Point invested)
Y/N
Yes, yes. Max that one out already. Now, let us see. Ohhh. Wait. I glanced over my stats and noticed that my amount of Hitpoints had increased from 47 to 66. Not bad for a single point investment, after all. It occurred to me then that, if I invested a number of points into vitality, I could potentially double or even triple my current HP total.
Still, as tempting as that was at first glance, I eventually put the idea aside. I had a fairly decent healing spell at my fingertips, with a particularly short cooldown (most likely thanks to my affinity). And, while taking more abuse might save my life at some point, the way things were going it would seemingly do little more than prolong my suffering and agony - what, if I continued being caught flat-footed and run down like a stray dog.
No, as tempting as it was, hitpoints were really not what I needed the most. When it came right down to it, I needed two things. First, I needed to better integrate with society. If I kept being captured, outwitted and used with every new town I came across, this fantasy land would very quickly show itself to be the hell that it, well, that it in fact was.
And so my next investment went directly into Charisma.
Do you wish to increase your Charisma attribute to 18? (2 Ability Points invested)
Y/N
Yes. And there we go. I hoped that that would dramatically increase my chances of outmaneuvering men like Arrol in the future. Or, if not, at least convincing more people to aid in my escape. You know, rather than just sitting there like lumps and waiting for the enslaved lady to come heal their boo-boos. Fucking ingrates.
Anyway, for the remaining points, I decided to do something a little bit more practical, if it wouldn't help my actual Witchcraft all that much either. I, too, had noticed that my new Wicked skill was affiliated with my Dexterity. And, after the many days of running, the wind in my hair and the taste of freedom finally, once again upon my lips, I found I was quite taken with the stat.
More than anything else, I decided, I needed to be faster. I needed to be more lithe, and swift, and daring. What use, after all, where claws if I was constantly tripping over my own feet? What use were fir and teeth and tail, if I was to spend the rest of damned eternity trapped in a room being force-fed gruel and stale potatoes?
I sighed as I pulled up my interface and allocated the rest of my points. It was almost sad that my intelligence was going to be completely ignored - I am, after all, a creature of the modern world. And, I held in my heart a half-acknowledged hope that, when I finally did awaken, these new skills and boosts would be carried with me into my mundane, human life. Who, after all, would hesitate to max out their intelligence if it meant better scores on tests, and aptitude examinations, and performance reviews?
But the wind in my hair and the dirt beneath my paws would not be denied. And, for now, survival was paramount.
Do you wish to increase your Dexterity attribute to 15? (7 Ability Points invested)
Y/N
Yes. And with that confirmation, I felt something different than I had when raising my less physical stats. It felt like my body became lighter, like a feather dancing across the rocky plains. Each loping step carried me farther, each bouncing footfall carrying me higher than ever before. I felt like I could do cartwheels, could do handstands, could walk across water itself. And it was an amazing, beautiful thing.
It's a good thing, in fact, that no one was there to see me as I spent the rest of the day half loping, half dancing along, hardly even bothered to move in a straight line. Rather, I moved, dancing along further and further north for the pure and simple joy of the experience.