Eik, Michael, Sonja, and Heath sat around a table at a cafe. It was one of many located along one of the side streets that branched out from a main road that connected the Central Square as the city hub of Forest. Central Square was still overflowing with barricades and Awakened to keep a constant, vigilant eye on the fracture location.

Even during the Great Raid, a sizeable force had been left stationed there in case the Nidafjeld Alliance went ahead with the full scale invasion that half the city seemed to be expecting any minute.

The cafe was a quaint little place that offered one of the most extensive drink menus in this side of town. With lush, bright green ivy growing along the entire outer wall and parasols to provide shade from the sun on hot days, the place was one of the coziest places to spend a day of relaxation.

Eik and Michael had both ordered iced cocoa, having bonded over their shared unwillingness to switch over to coffee.

Heath was nursing a cup of cold milk tea. His usual choice of a sour lemonade apparently tormented several open wound on the inside of his mouth with what he would otherwise have considered “pure, acidic goodness”.

“I can still go and get you something else as well, Sonja,” Eik said to the woman. “Did you see that they have no less than seven kinds of freakin’ milkshakes here? How awesome is that?”

“I’m good, but thanks,” she said and held up her glass of water, complete with a little neon green straw bobbing between the ice cubes.

Eik didn’t look satisfied with that answer. “Come on, girl, I’ll even pay,” he tried, elbowing her arm. “Tell me what your favorite drink is and I’ll get it for ya in a jiffy!”

“My favorite drink is water. Four degrees Celsius, if possible.” She took a sip through the green straw as if to put extra emphasis on her words.

He narrowed his eyes in disbelief. With a glance at Heath he sought confirmation. “That true?”

Her brother shrugged, drinking gingerly from his own beverage. “Yeah, it’s been water since we were kids. The staff at the local burger joints always refused to believe that an eight year old girl didn’t actually want soda.”

“And the tempera—”

“Four degrees, yeah, that part’s true too. She spent three hours straight in the kitchen at home figuring that out.”

Eik raised his eyebrows and nodded. “Damn, alright. I’ll get you another one of those then,” Eik said. “Blue straw this time?”

“Yes, please. Thanks, Eik,” she said with a smile.

“Can you get me a couple of napkins as well?” Heath asked as Eik got up. A crutch lay across his lap and his arm was in a cast which was in a sling.

He had woken up shortly after their return to Forest yesterday. Even after another visit with a D-ranked healer he was still in pretty bad shape, but with regular doses of quality healing spheres and healing it shouldn’t take that long before he could go back to work.

Alright! Shall we?” Eik asked as he sat back down.

“Yeah, let’s!” Michael said and pulled out his wooden plaque.

[Acquired Heal — Lv. 15]

[Acquired Single Protection — Lv. 8]

[Acquired Bind — Lv. 5]

“Not bad,” Heath said with a nod. “Especially Heal and Single Protection leveled up pretty decently. In fact, I think Single Protection saved my life when that asshole Rock Fist Bart punched me. Thank you for that, by the way. Great save!”

The joyful grin that the nervous healer let show fit his face well. “I’ll definitely do my best from now on! I need to take a more active role during battles, as Eik correctly pointed out,” he said with a hesitant glance in Eik’s direction as his grin shrunk.

Eik shook his head. “You’ve been doing much better ever since. And let me just say that, although I still stand by what I meant to say, I am sorry for the way I said it. I said it charged with anger and irritation when I should have broached the topic as the sincere critique it is.”

“Well, if nothing else, it certainly got the message to stick. Thank you,” Michael said cheekily. He slid his plaque to the middle of the table. There was a glint of excitement in his eyes.

[Skill evolution available. Skill available for evolution: Heal]

[Choose one]

[Heal — Mental Annex]

[Heal — Galvanic Fortification]

[Heal — Pain Suppression]

As they read, Michael pulled out a thick ledger from his shoulder bag and let it fall to the table with a thud. He riffled through the pages with intent.

“Ah, right! Here it is!” he said and tapped a finger on a page, reading aloud from them entry written by someone who’d chose the evolution.

“The evolution of Heal called Galvanic Fortification applies a buff to the skin. It doesn’t block damage per se, but rather increases the skin’s toughness for a little while. How long it lasts seems to depend on several factors, such as power of the caster and level of the Heal skill. Since it’s applied to the skin, it doesn’t do much for blunt force.”

“Okay, seems useful,” Eik said.

“Only activates if there was something to heal in the first place. Doesn’t activate on healthy targets,” the healer finished.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“Oh…” Heath said.

“Mental Annex:” Michael continued, flipping to the next page. “When I use it my patients seem to gain better control of their emotions, and negative emotions in particular. A man who was screaming after losing an arm calmed down enough to tell me about it. Still showed clear signs of trauma. I evolved the trait at D-rank. Don’t misuse this skill, please.”

“Don’t misuse it?” Heath asked, leaning in to get a better look at the page. “What does it mean by ‘misuse’?”

Michael looked up from the book. “It’s probably not great for a person’s mind to be essentially emotionally sedated any more than strictly necessary. Surely a good thing in a situation such as the one mentioned here, but imagine if a person starts using it to nullify any negative emotion, no matter how small and insignificant. That could be bad for the psyche, I think.”

Heath pursed his lips. “Huh, makes sense, I guess. So what are you going to pick?”

“Well, the effect of Pain Suppression seems pretty self-evident. They all seem useful, but maybe Galvanic Fortification is a little redundant when I already have Single Protection. Not to mention the fact that you would need to be hurt first for it to even work.”

While Eik was reading over the description again, Sonja spoke. “I think Pain Suppression would be beneficial, but I don’t agree that Galvanic Fortification would be redundant. Your Single Protection has a cooldown, doesn’t it? Another defensive ability, even if it’s weak, could significantly improve our survivability.”

“True.”

“The calming effect of Mental Annex is good for tight situations, but the other two are broader.”

“Good point, good point,” Michael muttered as he chewed on the end of a pen he hadn’t written anything with yet.

Heath slapped his cast. The rough, white surface already had a few sentences from his friends written with a marker. Eik and Michael had been given the marker to leave their own messages of support. “I wouldn’t mind some relief from the aches I’m feeling right now, but maybe it would have been nicer to not be as hurt in the first place” he laughed.

The healer looked at the large tank for a second, eyes wandering along his battered body. “Yeah, maybe I’ll go with Galvanic Fortification.” He picked the evolution without further consideration.

“Who’s next then?” Heath asked. “Sis?”

“I already did mine.” Sonja answered, sipping from the blue straw.

“Huh? What?” Heath asked.

She pulled out her plaque and slid it across the table.

[E-rank — I]

“You’re E-rank?” Heath exclaimed, Eik and Michael stunned into silence. “When did you do th—… Was that why you were so quiet last night? We’re you in an evolution trance? You said you were just tired!”

“I didn’t want to make you all giddy with excitement.”

“Excitement? I would have been ecstatic!” he said, slamming a fist into the table, frightening the other patrons.

She rolled her eyes. “Exactly… You had just woken up from a terrible injury, doofus.”

“Ah, right. Right, right.” He leaned back in his seat again. “You’re right. Continue.”

“Congratulations!” Michael said cheerfully.

“What about abilities?” Eik asked.

She drew the symbol for the ability sheet on the plaque.

[Acquired abilities:]

[Archery — Lv. 24]

[Disengage — Lv. 13]

[Bat’s Ears — Lv. 28]

“I evolved Bat’s Ears into a stronger, more sensitive version. It was the best among the options,” she stated matter-of-factly, retrieving the plaque from the table.

“Alright,” Heath said with a nod. “You didn’t get anything on Archery yet?” he asked.

“I didn’t, no, but I’m expecting it to happen within the next few levels.”

“Nice! Heath?” Eik asked.

The big man hammered his plaque onto the table as the text appeared. “I got some good stuff this time!”

[Acquired Shields — Lv. 25]

[Acquired Fortitude — Lv. 40]

[Acquired Unerring Strike — Lv. 11]

Michael leaned in. “Did you get evolutions on both Shields and Fortitude?”

“Damn straight I did!” Heath grinned and shifted the text.

[Skill evolution available. Skill available for evolution: Shields]

[Choose one]

[Shields — Backlash]

[Shields — Resonating Strength]

[Shields — Timed Rebound]

“By the way, did you find the records?” Heath asked with a glance at Sonja. She fished it out of her pack and set it down in front of her brother. “Thanks!” he said.

“B, B, B… Baaaack—, Back… Backlash! Found it!”—Clearing his throat theatrically, he began to read aloud from the entry—“Upon successfully blocking an attack, a small portion of the force received by the shield will be sent back at the attacker. Ineffective blocks or significant disparity in strength between attacker and blocker can result in failed activation.”

“Seems good. Especially for longer fights where you don’t have the freedom to get your own attacks in,” Eik noted. “What does the next one say?”

“Resonating Strength is a simple evolution that I have been immensely satisfied with. Any time I catch an attack with my shield, a little bit of the force of that attack will become my strength for a short while. Only a few seconds, but if I manage to block something particularly powerful, it can provide the edge needed to finish the fight. Works well with an offensive ability to compliment. I use Cutting Winds myself. Highly recommend.”

“Enthusiastic writer, if nothing else. Really tries to sell it,” Michael chuckled.

Heath flipped a couple of pages, his finger searching through the entries. His eyebrows flew up. “And he wrote the third option, Timed Rebound, as well.”

“How do you know?” Eik asked.

Heath simply began reading. “Hi, I’m the guy who also wrote about Resonating Strength some time ago. For my next Shields evolution I chose Timed Rebound. It’s not as fun as Resonating Strength, but still cool. It requires some finesse and timing (as the name suggests) to get right, but if I manage it my shield bumps the monsters away as if I’d glued a huge spring to the face of it. It’s difficult to control so I think you should get Resonating Strength instead if that’s one of your options.”

Eik frowned. “Is that seriously what it says?” He looked over Heath’s shoulder.

“See?”

“Damn,” Eik said. “I guess Timed Rebound is out of the question then?”

“I guess so, yeah,” Heath nodded.

“You’re actually going to listen to some random guy we don’t even know?” Michael questioned.

The tank shrugged. “He does make a good point. Plus, I think Resonating Strength and Backlash both seem more useful with more forgiving requirements. What do you think, Sonja?”

She gave it some thought before answering. “Resonating Strength.”

“Good enough for me!” he said and chose it, moving to his next ability immediately.

[Skill evolution available. Skill available for evolution: Fortitude]

[Choose one]

[Fortitude — Electrical Resistance]

[Fortitude — Persistent Consciousness]

[Fortitude — Sitting Duck]

Heath had already located the entries for the evolutions of Fortitude. “Persistent Consciousness reduces the likelihood of falling unconscious from blows to the head and particularly strong attacks. Whether it can resist sleeping agents is unknown. It is suspected that it can help maintain a clear head through conditions such as fatigue and sickness, but this has not been proven beyond any subjective doubt.”

He continued to the entry for Sitting Duck. “The effectiveness seems to vary pretty greatly, but the Sitting Duck evolution appears to make us more interesting targets to attack. Almost like an alluring scent. It’s not like a hypnosis. If someone else is a much bigger threat or something like that the monster will probably go for them instead. But it’s really useful for fights with multiple enemies.”

“I can already say I’m not getting Electrical Resistance. I already got a resistance to temperature from the last evolution, and it’s fine, but the other two seem better and more generally useful,” Heath said.

“Persistent Consciousness seems very good,” Michael said, tapping the end of the pen against his lips. “but unless you do receive a blow to the head, it’s not really doing much. With Sitting Duck, it would be easier to get the most out of Single Protection because I could focus on you more.”

Heath made a face. “Mmyeah, they’re both pretty nice, but I think I’ll go with Sitting Duck in the end. Seems like something we could use, especially together with Resonating Strength and Galvanic Fortification.”

“What about you, Eik?” Michael asked.

Eik pulled out his plaque, making sure not to show the script to his friends.

[Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 12]

[Acquired (Unique) Profound Toxin — Lv. 37]

[Skill evolution available. Skill available for evolution: (Unique) Profound Toxin]