Detected Bloodline: Cat

I stared in astonishment at the odd line of text that hung before my eyes. 'A cat bloodline... does... does that mean that my ancestors diddled cats?!'

Hurriedly, I began asking the odd entity about the Interface's message, but, before I could get more than two words in, it spoke: "For newly blessed worlds, bloodlines are granted randomly to eligible beings who hold adequate resonance with the beast to which their bloodline pertains. It is a common misconception that the bloodlines of newly blessed species arise from the breeding habits of the forefathers of a particular member of the species."

"Oh, alright then, that's good to hear," I tentatively replied. "So, what does a... a cat bloodline do?"

The entity looked at me for a second or two as it weighed its response to my answer. Words alone really struggle to portray just how odd the solid-colored entity looked, especially in relation to the room's walls, which were colored the exact same color as the entity and even held the same texture. The only real way I could differentiate the entity from the wall behind it was thanks to my eye's depth perception; beyond that, the view before me just looked like one well-painted and smooth wall.

"This question heavily relates to the general task set upon me to guide you through the basic usage of the 3rd gift. Thus, if you have no other questions, I shall move to that stage of your initiation," it finally replied.

"I have no other questions," I said, nodding in agreement. It was a lie, of course. I was still curious about that distinct feeling of oddness I felt from the entity. Not to mention that its explanation of the origin of my bloodline wasn't entirely satisfactory, I felt like I had a far greater aptitude towards 'beasts' like mourning doves, or crows, or, heck, even raccoons. Add to all that the fact that the entity had essentially confirmed the existence of God—though seemingly not the Judeo-Christian one with which I was familiar—and other intelligent lifeforms, all in addition to the new game-like system that had appeared out of thin air before my eyes after I was teleported away from an exploding coffee shop, and the arguably subjective nature of the seven attributes that it listed, and yeah, I was fairly confused, curious, and full of questions.

Still, I was just introduced to an IRL character sheet; it was hard to pause and ask a ton of questions of this scary entity, which made me more than a bit apprehensive, when I could just plow on ahead and be led to a tutorial of some sort. Not to mention that it was fairly likely that the entity's following explanation would clear away some of my confusion.

The following 30 or so minutes were filled with the entity's explanation of the Interface's inner workings. Most of its droning sounded like a retail worker telling you about their company's rewards program, and it was mostly full of information I had already figured out or discussed with the entity, but there was a tidbit or two of useful information.

For one, it turns out that the entities that everyone met were instructed to only explain certain things about that 3rd gift and not others. Oh yeah, that's another thing; apparently everyone was teleported in front of an entity at the same time that I was. I'd expected as much, but it was still a touch disappointing to hear that I'm not some super special talent the Interface picked out. Oh, and lastly, apparently, if I wanted to pull up further information about my bloodline and its abilities, all I had to do was envision clicking on the text that had appeared above my attribute sheet, which said "Bloodline: Cat". Doing so pulled up a second window, overlaid above the first, which read:

Bloodline: Cat (F)

Your Cat bloodline abilities include:

1) Feline Constitution (Passive) (Common): Your body is slightly stronger and more flexible, your reflexes, nails, and teeth are sharper, and your night vision and sense of smell are well-developed.

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2) Sharp Strike (Active) (Common): Enhance the sharpness of your next strike.

3) Soft Paws (Active-Passive) (Uncommon): Gain a minor aptitude towards stealth skills and emit almost no sound when moving if this skill is active.

4) Polymorph (Active-Passive) (uncommon): Allows the blessed individual to shift forms between their primary race and their bloodline race. Additionally, should the bloodline holder be a humanoid species with the bloodline of a non-humanoid species, or vice versa, the ability unlocks the ability to choose between pursuing the 3rd gift's Race Evolution tree or Class Selection tree.

Overall, the descriptions were satisfactory enough. The entity had explained, some time during its 30-minute lecture, that skills are granted various strength/potential-based classifications following the order of "Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mythical". It then explained that, in addition to that, Races and Classes also have strength- and potential-based classifications, which, unlike skills, are simply rated from F to S.

Closing both my Bloodline and Status windows, I fought the urge to try literally shapeshifting into a freaking cat and turned my attention back to the off-putting entity. "So, what now?" I asked.

"Now," it said, making an off-putting attempt at a comforting smile, "I lead you to the tutorial. Follow me to the door, please."

My brows furrowed in mild confusion as I remembered seeing no door when I scanned the room earlier, but just as I was about to open my mouth and tell the entity as much, the overhead office light flickered and a door soundlessly appeared behind the entity's plastic chair.

The entity stood up, and all I could think was that the sight of its smooth gray-white legs, with the odd divots the entity's designer had included in an attempt to imitate muscle, only made it look more robotic and synthetic. Still, as it reached to turn the handle of the new door, I got up and began moving towards the door.

Upon seeing I was following, the entity smoothly walked through the door frame, stepping off the gray-white concrete and onto a simple patch of grass, then turned towards me, somehow contorting its plain face into an expectant expression.

Hesitantly, I stepped around the folding table, to the side of the plastic chair upon which the entity sat, and between the 2 paces that separated the back of the chair and the door. Then, after hesitating for a moment, I took a sharp breath through my nose, slowly let it out through my mouth, and schooled my features before stepping through the threshold. Stepping away from the concrete monotony and onto the radiant grass, trading stale, dead air for a breathing and warm wind.

Looking around, I could see we were in a clearing. There were dozens, if not hundreds, of other people walking around the grass, chatting with one another. Even more, I could note a person or two who seemed to be in the same situation as myself, still following around their entities, which looked identical to my own.

A minor flicker of light caught the side of my eye, and I turned to see a white-gray door, complete with a plastic white-gray door frame, appear out of thin air atop the grass. It was briskly opened from within, and out stepped a human and entity pair, the human looking around in wonder and the entity coolly standing by the open door.

I turned my head back towards my own entity and found it a perfect replica of the one I had just been observing: standing straight by the base of the door, close to the hinges, with its hand lazily outstretched to maintain a relaxed grip on the door handle. "I'm afraid this is where I must leave you," it said calmly. "I have fulfilled my purpose. Now it is up to you to make full use of the 3rd gift; may fortune favor you."

Before I had the chance to respond, the entity walked back through the door frame, swiftly and silently closing the door behind itself.

I still stood in the same spot of grass that I'd originally stepped on to, suddenly unsure of what to do with myself.

'It's a bit funny, really, how quickly spikes of excitement can fade into waves of emptiness,' I thought to myself. 'Just a second ago, I was reveling in the freedom of this odd opportunity; now, this freedom just feels like I lost my sense of direction.'

I briefly considered trying out my new-found cat powers, but upon recalling the initial message I read, the one that claimed having a bloodline was incredibly rare, I thought it might be best to keep those abilities close to my chest. I genuinely had no clue about what to expect, and if there's one rule life has beaten into me, it's that when one is completely out of their depth, their best bet is to try and blend in.

Numbly looking down, I unceremoniously sat down right where I'd just stood, staining my butt green with a small grass stain, just waiting for more direction, waiting for some sort of driving force to hit me.

'This really has always been my greatest flaw,' I thought to myself. 'I can neve-'

Then the driving force hit me.

A flashing bell icon suddenly appeared in my periphery. Clicking on it revealed a new system message, one that had likely been sent to everyone if the sudden hush that had fallen over the clearing was anything to go by.

Congratulations on your planet's initiation! As you've adequately familiarized yourself with the basic aspects of the 3rd gift's workings, you've been allowed to move onto the next step in your species' initiation: the tutorial!

The threshold value of blessed beings (1000) has been reached in this lobby, and so you will soon be teleported onto the tutorial setting, where you'll spend the next month. All eligible beings will be guided to a class selection/race evolution lectern upon arrival. May fortune align in your favor.