Wandi was looking at me curiously. “Are you still talking to him?” and I nodded, “Yes, but I finally got a look at what I have. A lot of it is...confusing. Maybe you could help me figure out what some of it means. Unless… umm… Jessie, do you have a line on these things?”

Not exactly. I can certainly provide a dictionary or system definition for those items, but how it applies locally might be very much a mystery. Law, Bushwack, and Apparition for example. I am no longer directly connected to the system, and even if I were, protected planetary restrictions could prevent me from accessing that information and breaking quarantine.

I can, however, still access local classes for your advancement and have minor materialization abilities… based on your available essence, that is.

Which means?

I can use your energy credits to create rewards or local monetary units based on Rift core standards. But doing so may take a great deal of your available essence. I can also assign your free points, help you choose a new class when you have mastered this one at the system standard nine, and help you locate your available traits for empowerment, even if I don’t understand what they are. I can also provide information on using your advancement.

Why did my class change from returned to Drudge?

Most likely, returned was not a valid vocational entry into this world, so when your body was restored, the system attempted to find and apply the closest equivalent. Drudge is technically a basic class, one without any special traits, almost the quintessential basic class, but it provides two points per rank achieved, boosting your total to eight. Most basic classes only offer a single point per level. Perhaps the system considered the fact that you gained several new traits appropriate to your background and biological history fair compensation for losing level one and five trait benefits.

Drudge is not a well-regarded class for obvious reasons but has a huge bonus to learning new skills and applying the benefits of skills you may already possess. The restricted system most likely cannot automatically allocate without accurately gauging your performance.

Wandi was looking at me doubtfully. “It’s not generally a good idea to let others know your attributes or traits unless they are an oracle. They could use that knowledge against you. If you had a shield based around light essence, for example, they would know that dark essence would be the best way to penetrate it.

I smiled, “I trust you. Plus, my stuff seems pretty… generic. The only real specialty defense I have is something called resist mutation, and I assume almost every gun is probably not based on mutation.”

She nodded slowly. “That’s an unusual resistance… perhaps your imagination affinity gives you some sort of shapeshifting ability, or tries to lower automatic effects?

I sighed. “Great. I might get turned into a toad.”

She shook her head, “Maybe not with mutation resistance. I mean, does it say how much it affects you? Like… half or attached to an attribute or something?

“Nope, just resist mutation as an evolution or adaptation?”

She smiled, “That means you just...resist it. That’s wonderful. It might also stop friendly mutations, but at the same time it might stop certain nasty toxins, like necrotics, vampirism, and aspect corruption.”

She is correct. There is a local form of serious aspect corruption, called ‘werewolf’, where a corrupted wolf aspect can infect other aspects and make them become werewolf as well. This leads to violent insanity matched with heightened aggressive instincts, one of the local hazards. Resist mutation may help prevent this infection. It is most likely based on your chimera affinity, meaning mutations can simply be altered the moment they occur. I have a strong suspicion that your mutation resistance is an artifact of the cancerous mutations that… almost killed you.

I nodded, “it might help protect me from getting turned into a werewolf.”

She grinned, “More and more I am looking forward to you becoming a lawkeeper. Vampires and werewolves are a HUGE threat because they can creep into a town, and go undetected for a long time until they are stamped out. You might be able to stop that, without getting turned, yourself. That’s what happened to one of the interim lawkeepers. He went out to hunt monsters and came back AS one and both he and his wives had to be put down when they shifted to monster wolves at a full moon and started trying to eat people.”

I nodded slowly, “Okay, this one… enhanced restoration?”

She laughed! “Okay, now I am getting jealous. That’s a healer trick. Probably part of Reborn. It helps you restore things like wounds and stuff to an earlier, healthy condition if you have enough essence. It won’t fix death, but it comes awfully close.”

“Okay, here’s one… do you know what apparition is?”

She frowned slightly. “That’s a charlatan trait. It lets you appear like you belong, it doesn’t change anything, but people look at how you are dressed and how you act and just automatically assume it looks right. On the other hand, it’s a fantastic tool for a lawkeeper who needs to investigate something shady.”

“Empathy?”

She nodded, “Again, a bit shady, but great for a lawkeeper. It tends to influence how people feel about you, and their trust, and it also helps you understand their motivations. If it isn’t resisted by strong willpower, people instinctively believe you have their best interests at heart. You didn’t use it on me, did you?”

I shook my head, “It takes essence. I don’t even know how to feed these things yet. Then again, I think during our fight, I might have accidentally cheated.”

“How so?”

I shrugged, “I fought some powerful creatures, and gained a special achievement trait that gives me a huge bonus when I am fighting things more powerful than me. You qualify.”

She chuckled, “That still takes real skill. You spanked my butt, badly.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I would like to spank your butt, badly.

You could tell her that, that might influence her towards acceptance, many human females have unspoken desires in that direction.

How about, when I make a personal observation in my head, you do NOT pay attention to it unless it applies to my path, advancement, or essence use unless I directly address you or use your name?

Ah, social faux pas. I understand and apologize.

I smiled a little. “I also have one for fighting a… way too big horde of monsters.”

She shrugged, “Good. That might also be useful to a lawkeeper, and definitely for a delver. I hope I can become your deputy because sometimes achievements trickle down. Fighting better when greatly outnumbered is a huge deal, especially during swarms or raids, and it’s difficult for most people to survive long enough to gain that trait.”

I nodded, “I also have stuff like strength, flexibility, endurance, and something called core.”

She sighed. “Core being in one of your traits is great because that means raising your affinity also multiplies your essence pool, rather than having to build it separately. That also means that, like all traits, improving your core will also improve your affinity. Kind of a win-win, and a great way to surpass bottlenecks.”

“I am envious. I have nature, ranged, and speed affinities, and my cultivation is outside of my affinities so I have to keep them separate. Then again, if your path is very physical, that might explain the traits. Do you have a cultivation skill?”

She could move her cultivation trait into her speed or nature affinities easily enough with proper training. They are separate probably because her aspect taught her a common technique, instead of one fitted specifically to her affinities. Finding a scripture or manual, or speaking to one of the… greenskins that have to learn their cultivation manually, might enable her to make the shift.

The reason your core is in your imagination affinity is that you used imagination on a basic greenskin technique. You, too, could choose to learn a technique that affects a more powerful affinity, like physical. Of course, that will limit you to more physically oriented paths.

Is it often attached to imagination?

Yes and no. Yes, because it clearly has been linked, and no, because I have never heard of that affinity before. However, that doesn’t mean you cannot create a second dantian linked to your higher physical affinity. Right now, your strongest use for essence, due to imagination, is of course empathy, lawkeeper, and Apparition, but I am sure that linking another version of the core trait through physical would enhance those aspects as well. Some people have three dantians, one for each affinity. Currently, you have one, attached to your imagination, and filled by your law affinity.

You already have a minor essence flow through your nervous system and body, as evidenced by your physical traits, actually consciously flowing essence through your body with a physical core could make you… very physical.

I shook my head. Not right now. I’d read plenty of stories where the hero got so physically buffed that even touching other people could hurt them, and call me a pervert if you want, I was hoping for some touching in my future.

Increase your cultivation skills before you attempt to create a new core linked to your physical affinity. That would allow you to control your force far more effectively.

“No?” Wandi asked.

I smiled slightly. “According to Jessie, Our cultivation methods are not exactly fitted to our affinities, they work for everyone but are not really specialized. But that might have to wait. There’s something called manuals or scriptures, and greenskins might know ways that can link them in.”

That’s why they are called ‘basic’ cores. Their aspects give them a method that applies to all humans, just like your method applies to all greenskins… it’s not designed for the imagination affinity, it is simply installed there because of your power. More advanced or better-fitted cultivation methods would usually have titles like ‘nature cultivation’ or ‘Chen Lau seven thousand fists of heaven speed cultivation method’. Cultivators are known for creating grandiose and self-affirming titles for their discoveries.

She nodded slowly, “Is that what those are? Sometimes in rifts, we receive books, scrolls, or plates as rewards, covered in weird diagrams and an unknown language or symbology. Maybe… those are designed for specific affinities? They are usually just stored in case anyone can figure out what they are for, or ever comes up with the language they are written in.”

I nodded, “we might have to look into those then.”

She sighed. “The regent has them. When you become a lawkeeper, he might give you access, but until then, probably not likely.”

I had a slightly evil thought, but I decided to test the waters a little. “What if I found a method called ‘Tony’s main squeeze firearms trait cultivation method’? Would you accept it?”

She pouted, but I could tell she wasn’t really irritated. “If it let me link my core to my ranged affinity? I’d probably take it. That isn’t very nice, though, for a lawkeeper.”

I smiled a little wickedly, “I never pretended to be a nice guy. I want to be a good guy, but good and nice are not always the same thing. Maybe I have plans as a lawkeeper that involve you, me, a bed, and a pair of handcuffs.”

She chuckled, “Well, as long as I agree, that doesn’t exactly break any laws, does it? But, of course, that’s far in the future.” She yawned dramatically.

Whoah. Sixty to zero in two point two seconds. Another good shutdown, but close enough that I was thankful, once again, for my concealing armor. Now I had to bang the idea of being wrapped in that fluffy tail out of my imagination. If only I weren’t utterly broke…

Wait hold the phone… those energy credits, what are they good for?

They can be converted into local currency, used to purchase upgrades for me like a personality module or database, or used for certain specialized gear or enchantment upgrades. I do not currently have access to the galactic market, however, so it’s only good for local purchases and basic gear that are available to all worlds, even protected ones.

Do you have access to cultivation manuals?

Unfortunately, no. Rift cores might have that access to the galactic market as long as it fits into the tech and sorcery restrictions, but I am much more limited. On the other hand, the scrounging quirk has enormous potential, as it allows you to discover and collect crafting materials or valuable items others might miss, like energy cores from beasts you kill.

I want to know more about that, but let’s put a plug in it for a second. So… local currency. What does it cost?

As far as I know, each energy credit is worth a single gold crown. Materializing them, however, will require ten of your essence pool. I cannot do much better in my sad, non-upgraded, and personality-free state. You would likely recover easily from materializing a few coins, but more than a few would likely put you into essence fatigue until you can cultivate and recover.

Do you know the local coins?

There are copper pennies, silver dimes worth ten pennies, silver dollars worth ten dimes, gold eagles worth ten silver dollars, and gold crowns worth ten gold eagles. Those who fight rifts were never intended to starve.