Zoe was still reeling from the revelation that Andric had just dropped on her when he yelled at her to get back and find something to cling on to.

She was still too shocked to comply, and so she was thrown backwards just a moment later when they entered the shimmering barrier of roiling mana. Shocked to her senses by the sudden chaotic motion, she dropped down to the floor just in time to avoid the next fit of turbulence.

Wind and mana roared in her ears. Something banged loudly, and the ship continued to buck around. Glancing towards Andric, Zoe saw that he was surprisingly relaxed and calm. He was barely even touching the controls.

“The trick is to not fight the turbulence,” he called backwards. “These kinds of ships are designed to stabilize themselves naturally. Trying to fight it is just going to tire you out at best and cause a crash at worst.”

Zoe tried to nod, but another lurch almost made her bang her forehead hard against the floor — and then the ship settled. It was as if a switch had been flipped. They were once again sailing smoothly, with no sign that they had just been tossed around like a leaf in a hurricane.

Rising to her feet on shaky legs, Zoe cautiously approached the front again and stared down at the landscape below. Where once there had been snow, now there was nothing but sandy, dried out, cracked earth and a smattering of drab rocks and pathetic shrubbery.

So weird. But there were much more important matters than the alien geography of this world. Like, you know, the fact that apparently I’m classified as a MONSTER.

To be fair, Zoe had already come to terms with the fact that she was no longer technically human. Rather easily, in fact. However, there was something very different about having her classes removed and given “traits” instead. It felt quite dehumanizing.

Well, again, she hadn’t been — technically — human for the past few days, but still.

Resting her head in her hands for several moments, Zoe forced herself to calm down and approach things pragmatically. So she was a monster now. What would that actually mean for her? She supposed she now had a lot more questions for the alchemist.

“I have several questions.”

“Go on.”

Leaning against the edge of the cockpit — she supposed that’s what it was — Zoe considered what to ask first. Oh what the hell. Just start asking.

“What will it mean for me? Like, is this going to affect how people treat me?”

Andric remained silent for a long moment before answering. “I don’t know?” He paused again. “You still look almost entirely human, so that’s good. It’s not something that happens a lot. Most monsters aren’t even humanoid.”

“But yes, any awakened who analyze you will at the very least have questions.”

Zoe groaned. Just great. That’s EXACTLY what I need. “So what about my system? The Grand Design?” She frowned. “What do classes — I mean, paths — what do they actually do? Other than give you your initial abilities?”

“That’s pretty much all they do, honestly — they determine which abilities you get. Everyone learns skills not directly associated with their path, obviously, but it continues to exert a strong influence. You may have even already noticed that the skills you already have will influence the next ones you end up getting. It’s a kind of feedback loop.”

“Right. So what about traits?”

“Do you have any yet?”

“No. What are they?”

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“They’re very similar to abilities, only they aren’t so much learned as they are innate or… acquired somehow. They’re also often more passive, or just sort of a part of a monster’s biology.”

“I see.”

Honestly, that was pretty much exactly what Zoe had expected. Pursing her lips, she thought about what to ask next. “It says that I’m a lesser demon of wrath, but also ‘undetermined.’ What’s that about?”

For the first time, Andric actually looked at her. He seemed puzzled. “Undetermined? I have absolutely no idea. I’ve never heard of something like that before.”

“Huh.”

Well, that was definitely something to look into, then. “Alright, one more question — what does it mean when an ability is ‘tier one?’”

“Oh, that’s easy. It happens when any ability reaches level twenty. You get to upgrade it to a higher grade. All of your abilities are probably bronze, right?”

“Mostly. I have two silver, though.”

“Oh, huh. Well, either way, you get to rank it up to the next grade, but it restarts at level one. Technically, you can skip that and just keep leveling it, but that’s not recommended in most cases.”

“Does it get worse temporarily?” Zoe asked. “I mean, does starting back at level one even at a higher rarity make it weaker until a certain level?”

“Eh, kind of, kind of not. Getting to a higher grade is a bigger deal than gaining a level. It can really change the ability in a qualitative way. It still might technically be a bit weaker at first, but you’ll usually notice a big difference immediately.”

Zoe nodded. “Alright, I guess I should go ahead and do it.”

“Wait!” Andric looked at her again, his face serious. “You can also consume any other ability you have when you rank up. It doesn’t matter what level the other ability is — but it influences the evolution of the level twenty ability significantly. You can get totally new powers that way.”

Huh. That wasn’t something Zoe expected. “Can it worse? And are there any guidelines on what kinds of abilities to consume?”

“Yes, and no,” Andric replied. “It can make it worse, but it usually doesn’t if you consume something that makes sense to you and aren’t just doing it at random. And no, there are no real guidelines.”

“Alright, thanks.”

Pulling up her status again, Zoe sorted through her list of abilities. It was really quite a mess — she wondered if she could rearrange it. With a thought, she imagined creating a new category. It worked. Grinning, she began sorting through her abilities. It didn’t take long, and she was moderately pleased by the result.

Zoe Blackwell

**Lesser Demon of Wrath / Undetermined - 23

Traits: see available?

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

Perks: {Last Defiance}, {Righteous Ire}

Mana: 66 / 230

So much neater.

Now, it was time to choose which ability to consume to rank up {Introspection}. Zoe did consider ranking it up without consuming anything, but that just seemed so boring. Looking over the list, she tried to think about what made sense.

{Meditation} was the most obvious synergy, of course. She also didn’t want to take anything that was too useful to give up — but at the same time, she wasn’t going to use junk. After all, she remembered what Andric said about not doing that.

Only two other real contenders presented themselves to her — {Cleansing Hellfire} and {Physical Enhancement}.

She quickly narrowed it down to the second. After all, she had {Kinetic Enhancement} to make the physical version redundant, but there was no replacement for the hellfire.

So would it be {Physical Enhancement} or {Meditation}? Zoe spent several minutes debating it back and forth in her mind. Finally, she decided.

{Rank up Introspection and consume Physical Enhancement?}

While {Meditation} had the more obvious synergy, Zoe felt like it was a little too obvious. After all, {Introspection} was already almost like {Meditation}, just more powerful. So she confirmed her choice.

{You have learned Spirit Enhancement!}

{Spirit Enhancement - 1, Gold}

Zoe whistled. She had to admit that the new ability at least sounded really cool. It was also nice to see the shiny ‘gold’ grade on the ability. But what did it do?

{Spirit Enhancement}

{Look within yourself to cultivate your spirit and rise beyond your physical and mental capabilities.}

Well that sounded quite strong — but also cryptic. Quite cryptic.

She would have to test it soon. Smiling, Zoe looked back to the top of her status.

Traits: see available?

Yes.