Jerome’s heart skipped a beat.
Kingmaker!
So much power. The whole world at his fingertips…
That thought made it even more annoying when, after they got a comfortable distance away from the scene of the battle, Krystyna insisted that he practice unarmed strikes. Wasn’t the point of power so he could get what he wanted without working?
Worse, the gnoll didn’t have any overlapping skills, so Jerome was practicing at half his (admittedly low) skill level. The opposite of power-leveling.
He kept practicing though. Government television was clear: if he wanted any chance at sex he must not only save women in a dramatic fashion, he must also make every effort to do what they wanted. Slavish devotion was the best form of respect.
When the day was over his thoughts of respect didn’t stop him from staring as her armor removed itself, dissassembling into a neat pile on the ground and revealing the exquisite female shape underneath. After all, the whole point of respect was to get access to her Wit and Charm, so it was a motivational video in a way.
During the training he talked as little as possible. He’d never liked his own voice, but the gnoll version of it was even worse. It was like a goat spent thirty years chain-smoking and then learned English. So he trained silently, went to bed, got up, then trained some more.
He practiced unarmed strikes. He practiced herbalism. He practiced Healing and Alteration magics, although given this body’s low Connection he had to wait quite a while for his limited MP to return.
Messages came across his vision as he practiced. There had been a lot that he’d ignored while in combat, but there was no reason not to read them now.
Unarmed strikes has reached level 2!
Unarmed strikes has reached level 3!
Herbalism has reached level 3!
Healing has reached level 2!
Alteration has reached level 2!
Then, finally, it was time. The clock ticked to zero and his body morphed into its true form. With his old clothes still on, fortunately. You never knew how these shifter things could go.
He’d forgotten how skinny he was and how flabby his muscles were. After spending time in a gnoll body — or even Krystyna’s body — he’d gotten used to the feeling of strength. That was, he admitted, a pretty good reason to train.
A flurry of messages came into his vision.
Transformation skill has reached level 2! Transformation menu will show the level of the creature you’re transforming into. Can receive attribute bonus points while transformed.
You have reached level 2! You have 6 attribute points and 20 reserves points to distribute as you see fit.
You have reached level 3! You have 6 more attribute points and 20 more reserves points to distribute as you see fit.
You have reached level 4! You have 6 more attribute points and 20 more reserves points to distribute as you see fit.
Your actions while transformed have given you 5 bonus strength.
Your actions while transformed have given you 12 bonus agility.
Your actions while transformed have given you 2 bonus dexterity.
Your actions while transformed have given you 3 bonus endurance.
Your actions while transformed have given you 6 bonus focus.
Your actions while transformed have given you 5 bonus connection.
Whoa, cool! Bonus points! He’d done a lot of dodging, unarmed hits, and precision striking with Recoil Burst, so it made sense that agility was the place where he got the most improvement.
Name: Jerome Wallaby
Race:Human
Level 4, 17% progress
100/100 HP
100/100 MP
100/100 SP
Statuses: Unassigned points (18 attribute, 60 reserves)
Strength: 15
Endurance: 13
Agility: 22
Focus: 16
Dexterity: 12
Connection: 15
Skills
Special Abilities
Transform Level 2, 1% (unique)
Store, Transform, Preview (level), Pass-through (attribute bonuses)
Recoil Burst Level 3, 47% (unique)
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Burst
Unarmed Strikes Level 3, 57%
Herbalism Level 3, 9%
Identify Herb, Make Potion (see recipes)
Healing Level 2, 25%
Refill HP, Refill SP
Alteration Level 2, 12%
Blessing
Dodge Level 2, 14%
Grappling Level 1, 23%
Swords Level 1, 15%
He was pleasantly surprised with how quickly his stats and skills had risen. Sure, it had taken work — about as much work as he’d put in during the entire last year before New Australia — but the results of that hard work were amazing.
It even felt like his muscles were a little bit firmer, his shoulders a little bit broader. This feeling was amazing… he might keep practicing these skills, even if the motivation of Krystyna’s favor for some reason disappeared.
He wondered where to put the rest of his unassigned points. He decided on an experiment: meditation.
He thought about his body, his mind, tried to take it all in… and then assigned a point to Strength. He felt a small increase in power, in ability. His muscles firmed ever so slightly while becoming, paradoxically, more relaxed. Maybe it was because holding himself up required a smaller percentage of his muscle power now.
Next he assigned a point to Agility. As he did so he felt like he could move just a little bit quicker, a little bit lighter on his feet. It wasn’t just speed, although that was part of it. It was more of a decrease in the gap between when something happened and when he could respond to it.
Dexterity was more difficult to understand. Had anything happened? He picked up a rock and played with it while thinking of the skills that dexterity usually effected in games. Usually dexterity and agility were combined into one stat, so it was a difficult exercise. He thought for nearly ten minutes, trying to peel them apart, but to no avail. All the while he played with the rock, tossing and twisting it.
Eventually he forgot about his investigation and focused on a trick where he held the rock in an open palm, tilted his palm forward so it rolled to his middle finger, then flicking it back to land in his elbow. It took a couple dozen tries, during which he completely forgot about meditation and skills, but he eventually got it.
+1 dexterity bonus. That trick is useless but being more dexterous is always nice.
Ah, that made sense then. Agility was speed of response while dexterity was precise motor control. Agility would be connected with dodging a blow or placing a Recoil Burst on a moving body while dexterity would be connected with shooting bows or crafting trinkets. He put another point into it.
Meditation resumed. He put a point into endurance and felt a tiny bit healthier, like he could run and fight longer without getting tired. Based on the feeling it must be connected with HP or SP regeneration, or maybe both.
He put a point into focus and could feel his mind get a bit sharper and clearer. The effect was incredibly subtle for his normal thinking (maybe that’s why it was called Focus and not Intelligence) but was more clear when he thought about casting a spell. Spell power, then.
Then, finally—
+1 connection bonus. By meditating you have increased your connection with yourself, and thus with all of life.
Well, that answered that question. If it took the place of where Wisdom usually sat in the stats then he could guess that it also increased MP regeneration.
He went ahead and put another point into connection. MP fed his healing ability, and his healing kept him alive. He didn’t want to skimp on staying alive.
That left him with 12 remaining attribute points and 60 remaining reserves points.
The attribute points were easy. Everything except dexterity was useful to him, so he put two points each in the other five attributes. Then, because he was starting to like the feeling of having muscle, he put the last two in strength.
The reserves points he spread equally between HP, MP, and SP. He didn’t know what his next transformation would be, so better to be balanced.
He admired his new stats.
Name: Jerome Wallaby
Race:Human
Level 4, 17% progress
120/120 HP
120/120 MP
120/120 SP
Statuses: None
Strength: 20
Endurance: 16
Agility: 25
Focus: 19
Dexterity: 14
Connection: 19
Skills
Special Abilities
Transform Level 2, 1% (unique)
Store, Transform, Preview (level), Pass-through (attribute bonuses)
Recoil Burst Level 3, 47% (unique)
Burst
Unarmed Strikes Level 3, 57%
Herbalism Level 3, 9%
Identify Herb, Make Potion (see recipes)
Healing Level 2, 25%
Refill HP, Refill SP
Alteration Level 2, 12%
Blessing
Dodge Level 2, 14%
Grappling Level 1, 23%
Swords Level 1, 15%
He could get used to being powerful. If stats had been tracked like this in the real world he might even have put in a little bit of effort back there instead of subsisting on welfare checks.
“Come check it out!” he yelled to Krystyna.
She looked up from her herbalism work and whistled.
“I know, the stats are great aren’t they?”
“I haven’t checked the stats yet,” she admitted. “You look different.”
“Well yeah… I’m me again, not you or some gnoll.”
“No, I meant… nevermind.” She blushed.
Oh yes, he was definitely going to level up some more.
She whistled again. “That is a lot of bonus points. I guess getting thrown into the deep end and developing lots of skills paid off.”
He smiled giddily, happy for the positive attention.
“Well, I think you’re ready now. It’s time to try making a run into town for supplies.”
That’s when the most wonderful message came up into his field of vision, the one he’d been longing for since he got here.
You have been offered a quest.