Zoe woke up in her core space.

Floating through the void, she drifted between the streamers of crimson and gold arcing around her. The web was still glowing very brightly, but a huge section of it was horribly damaged. It wasn’t just frayed and tangled like it had been before — no, a whole chunk had a hole in it.

It was as if someone had taken one of the larger, more dense knots and attacked it with sheers.

Countless loose ends dangled at the edges, every one of them bleeding off mana at an alarming rate. Zoe realized she had to do something about it. While her core was still fully intact, the damaged knot had been very close to it, and with every pulse of her core, more mana cascaded away into nothingness.

To make matters worse, the edges continued to erode. The threads were unraveling, other knots were starting to come undone, and bit by bit pieces of her broke off into the darkness. She had to do something about it, and quickly.

She also wondered how she was still alive — but she quickly brushed that thought away. Alive she was, and she had to get to work if she wanted to remain that way.

Drifting into the hole, Zoe thought hard about how to approach the process of mending this disastrous mess. Should she go for speed or for accuracy? On the one hand, she needed to survive the immediate situation, which suggested that she should do it as quickly as possible, neatness be damned.

On the other hand, she had an instinctive feeling that a bad fix would cause significant issues down the line. She had a long way to progress, and she didn’t want to screw her future self over.

The decision was tough, but she forced herself to make up her mind. She was going to rush it. After all, it would likely hurt her in the long run, but you couldn’t exactly set yourself up for future success if you died right now.

Grabbing threads almost at random, she began tying them into quick, simple knots. Bundling as many together at a time into a single thick rope, she tied off the end with the most basic granny knot. It was inelegant, but it would have to do.

Zoe went around the rest of the hole and repeated the process. Not long after, she had five different clusters, all tied off at the end. They continued to leak a small amount of mana, but it was slowing down. It was a trickle now rather than a flood.

Going around again and tightening each knot reduced the mana loss even more.

Satisfied with her work, Zoe zoomed out of her core space and re-emerged back in her waking body.

The pain hit like a truck.

In all honesty, it wasn’t really that bad — but going from the mostly sensationless void of her core space to her blood-soaked, torn up body was a bit of a shock this time.

{+11 Mana}

{+14 Mana}

… … …

{+8 Mana}

{Lesser Vampirism has gained multiple levels! Lesser Vampirism is now level 8}.

{Meditation has leveled up! Meditation is now level 13.}

{Heal Wound has gained multiple levels! Heal Wound is now level 10.}

{Introspection has gained multiple levels! Introspection is now level 20.}

{Introspection has reached Tier 1. New ability options are available.}

{Pain Resistance has leveled up! Pain Resistance is now level 9.}

That was a lot of information. Zoe attempted to take a deep breath, and then she choked on blood.

Sitting up far faster than she should have, she opened her eyes and tried to assess the situation. The source of the blood soon became clear. A stream of blood hung in the air, rising up from a bucket beside her and forcing its way down her throat.

It was a weird and confusing sight, but then Zoe remembered that Lily was a blood mage.

The blood mage in question was resting beside her. They were both on a pile of stuffing — now soaked with blood and other dubious fluids — and sunlight streamed in from the slits between a wall of curtains.

It was a tight space, however — not at all a proper sick bay or even bedroom. There were boxes and crates around them, and the ceiling was quite low. It also wasn’t square, and the ceiling was arched.

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Lily turned her head and stared up at Zoe, who in turn pointed at her mouth. The blood was still trickling in, which would probably make talking or even just moving around rather difficult.

Seeming to get the idea, Lily cut off the stream and dropped it back into the bucket.

“Can you talk?” Zoe asked as she simultaneously activated {Medicinal Diagnosis}.

“Yes,” Lily barely managed to croak out. It appeared that she had lost over half her blood. Zoe stared at the bucket. Is that hers?

“Where are we?”

“Pirate ship.”

Zoe had already activated {Heal Wound} — but for the very first time, she wasn’t using it on herself. She immediately realized two things. First, it was just about as effective on other people as it was on herself. Well, at least when they were close by. She might need to test it further.

Second, it gave her a lot less… feedback, for lack of a better word. She could tell that it was working, but it wasn’t as obvious what it was doing as when she used it on herself. That’s probably what {Medicinal Diagnosis} is for.

In any case, she was pleased to see that Lily was definitely going to recover.

“Fucking hell,” Lily hissed, “I forgot how nice it was to have a healer.”

Zoe rolled her eyes, and Lily sat up. “I’ve been having to make do with Andric’s remedies ever since we were paired up,” she explained. “The elders didn’t want to spare a healer for us since one of us was already a good alchemist.”

“Are healers that rare?”

“Yeah. It’s not an easy path for most people to awaken, but it’s ridiculously useful for everyone else. Most healers get snatched up by the nearest sect who can afford them. Becoming an awakened healer is pretty much an automatic in anywhere.”

“I guess that would make sense.”

“Yep. And combat healers like you are even rarer. Obviously a healer is incredibly useful to have with you while you’re in thick of it, but most of the higher ups in any sect or guild don’t think it’s worth it. They’d rather keep the healers safe. So you try to just survive long enough to make it back to them.”

Zoe frowned but didn’t say anything. While the thought of being a highly protected and highly coveted professional — so to speak — should have been appealing, the idea of it already rubbed her wrong.

Lily was looking quite good now. Color had returned to her cheeks, and her eyes were no longer so glassy looking. “Is Andric okay?” Zoe asked.

“Yeah. You should go check on him as soon as you can, though. He just got a glancing hit to the shoulder. He managed to get us out of the ferry and now he’s playing captain.”

Nodding, Zoe stood up and stretched. A moment later, she set off towards the curtain while activating {Medicinal Diagnosis} on herself.

Everything looked fine. But that couldn’t be right. She was shot in the heart, and her mana channels were all out of order. So she tried again.

{Physically healthy. Mentally healthy but abnormal. Recently suffered significant spirit wound — spirit is currently scarred.}

Zoe did a double take. My literal soul is scarred? What the fuck… That obviously sounded really bad. But how did that even work? It was just a physical wound, right?

She also didn’t appreciate the system calling her mentally abnormal. Even if it might be true.

In any case, she found Andric right beyond the curtain. He was on a complicated contraption that looked sort of like an exercise bike combined with a flight simulator chair. It definitely wasn’t the kind of control she expected an aircraft to have — it looked like it was operated more with pedals and levers than with a wheel or joystick.

“Back from the dead already?”

Ignoring him, Zoe inspected his shoulder. It already looked like it had healed up quite a bit — but not correctly. Funnily enough, she wasn’t a doctor and knew fuck all about anatomy — but she could just tell that it was all wrong.

“I should probably fix that.”

“Be my guest.”

As she activated {Heal Wound}, she checked her mana.

{Mana: 80 / 230}

Low, but not too bad.

As the flesh rippled and redesigned itself, Zoe diverted her attention to the landscape below. It was still all ice and snow, but something was shimmering in the distance — like a distant mirage, or a far off wall of heat.

“What is that?”

Following her finger, Andric looked at the shimmer. “Oh, that’s because we’re nearing a biome transition. We’re headed for the scorched wastes, and so coming from an ice mana biome, the boundary has a lot of turbulence.”

Zoe blinked. Biomes? A hot place next to the tundra… Does this mean that this world just has random geography types placed next to each other?

“So what is dying like?”

Andric’s question caught Zoe off guard, and she had to think a moment about what he even meant. “Wait, do you mean I actually died?”

Instead of answering right away, he gave her the most incredulous look, as if she were the stupidest person he had ever met. “Yes.” Returning his attention to controlling the airship, he shook his head slightly. “Your beast core is the only thing that allowed your spirit to persist after your heart exploded.” He shook his head. “You should probably check your status.”

Numbly, Zoe did just that.

Zoe Blackwell

**Lesser Demon of Wrath / Undetermined - 23

Traits: see available?

Abilities: {Kinetic Manipulation - 6, Bronze}, {Heal Wound - 10, Silver}, {Medicinal Diagnosis - 3, Bronze}, {Mana Manipulation - 8, Bronze}, {Cleansing Hellfire - 1, Bronze}, {Kinetic Strike - 6, Bronze}, {Physical Enhancement - 2, Bronze}, {Pain Resistance - 9, Bronze}, {Meditation - 13, Bronze}, {Introspection - 20, Silver}, {Acid Resistance - 3, Bronze}, {Lesser Vampirism - 8, Bronze}, {Lightning Resistance - 7, Bronze}, {Kinetic Enhancement - 5, Silver}, {Venom Resistance - 8, Bronze}, {Poison Resistance - 3, Bronze}, {Manasight - 2, Bronze}, {Cold Resistance - 16, Bronze}, {Breath Control - 1, Bronze}, {Stealth - 1, Bronze}

Perks: {Last Defiance}, {Righteous Ire}

Mana: 66 / 230

Several things jumped out at her. First, the abilities were getting really messy — but that was hardly important right now. No, the changes were more alarming.

First, her species now had an extra… what, item? But it was marked as ‘undetermined.’ What did that mean? She also had a new category labeled traits. What were those? And then, even more alarmingly…

Where the fuck were her classes?

She stared for several seconds in shock before tapping Andric hurriedly on the shoulder. “What the fuck happened to me? I don’t see my classes, and I also —”

“You died.” Cutting her off, the alchemist shook his head and took a deep breath. “You were already a demon, but you were ascended. Or descended, depending on how you look at it.” He paused. “But you still had a mortal, human shell. It’s gone now.”

Returning his attention to the controls, he shrugged one shoulder. “That’s why you lost your classes. You’re not a person, at least according to the Grand Design. You’re an awakened… creature. A spirit beast.”

“A monster.”