It took much longer for Hunter to kill the imp than he had initially estimated. He had to drain his mana four times before the demon finally died. It wasn’t a graceful ending. It fought every step of the way, and in between each volley of fire, Hunter had to use the trident to keep pinning it. Each time it was more challenging to release the weapon. When it finally died, the Archives rewarded him for his efforts. Well, it tried.

Congratulations! You have slain a Lvl ?? Minor Greed Demon. You have earned…

ERROR… You do not possess a Class and, therefore, cannot earn any experience. Please find the nearest Rift Sentinel and receive your Class.

Hunter growled and then kicked his now useless trekking pole. It scattered into the distance, and the teenager thought about retrieving it. The discarded weapon was his and he didn’t like giving it away no matter how useless it was. The thought brought him up short.

The hiking tool was damn near useless at this point. It was useless even in the beginning. It had wounded the imp but had done little other than that. Hunter glanced down at the trident in his hand. It almost felt like it was humming happily. It had drunk deeply from the imp. Its ever-present hunger was sated for now, but Hunter knew that the feeling wouldn’t last for long.

As he was thinking about what he should do with the trident, a flashing icon in the corner of his vision caught his eye. With a thought, he selected it, and the Archives answered.

You have earned 22 Path Points. Please select a Path.

Hunter glared at the notification. There was nothing to indicate what Paths were or how someone earned Path Points. All he knew was the Archivist had repeatedly referred to Paths, and that meant they were something important.

He focused on the word Path and then another flashing icon appeared in his vision. It was hidden until he actually focused on the word. Once he mentally selected the icon, two choices appeared.

Rift Walker (0/100), Archive Neophyte (0/5), Greed I (0/5)

Wondering what each of them did, he selected a point and placed it in the Neophyte path. He was immediately rewarded.

You have earned +4 to Base Health, Stamina, and Mana. You have earned +1 Free Stat Point.

Smiling, Hunter placed another four points to finish the Path. Which each point, he was rewarded another +4 to his base values and a free stat point. When he completed it, he received another notification.

Congratulations! You have completed the Archive Neophyte Path. You have earned the Active Skill: Meditation.

Meditation (Lvl 1): Calm your mind and open your spirit. While meditating, regeneration rates for all base values will improve by 50%. Higher levels will increase the potency of the effect.

Hunter studied the notification. This was the first time that a skill had been described for him. He wondered whether that was because it was awarded to him by the Archives or if it was because he hadn’t bothered to check before. Shrugging, he returned to his Paths.

Rift Walker (0/100), Archive Initiate (0/10), Greed I (0/5)

He was happy to discover that another Path had opened up for him. It looked like it was connected to his first Path. He was curious about what the greed Path would entail, but he was leery of selecting it. The greed items he had obtained seemed to have desires of their own. He didn’t know much about this world, but falling deeper into demonic influence didn’t seem like a safe way to proceed.

Making up his mind, he threw ten points into Archive Initiate. This time, he only received benefits with every other point, and they were the exact same as last time. However, once the Path was completed, he was rewarded with a bigger bonus.

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Congratulations! You have completed the Archive Initiate Path. You have earned +20 to Base Health, Stamina, and Mana, +10 Free Stat Points, and the Active Skill: Cleanse.

Cleanse (Lvl 1): Cleanse your body and cleanse your spirit. While activating Cleanse, foreign toxins and poisons can be mitigated within your body, and foreign influences can be reduced in your spirit. Higher levels will increase the potency of the effect.

Hunter was more pleased with the second skill he was awarded than he was with the first. Hopefully, practicing the skill would allow him to resist the influence of his greed gear. Now that part of his worries were alleviated and he still had 7 points to spend, he turned his eyes to the greed Path.

With a small measure of trepidation, he put the requisite five points into the Path. Each point gave him +1 to Intelligence and Perception. When it was completed, he got another message.

Congratulations! You have completed the Greed I Path. You have earned the Active Skill: Covetous Eyes.

Covetous Eyes (Lvl 1): Greed is knowing what to look for—and then taking it. When looking at an object of the same level, you will learn more about the subject and its value. Higher levels will allow you to analyze higher-leveled subjects.

When Hunter received the notification, he looked up and waited for a minute. He wasn’t sure what to expect, but he hoped it wasn’t some newfound urge to steal everything in sight. He still dimly wanted to go retrieve his trekking rod, but beyond that, nothing had changed. He was pleased with his results. Since he didn’t have enough points to spend on the next two Paths that had appeared, he dismissed the prompts.

Once that was done, he turned to his status sheet. He had been given 15 stats to distribute, and he wanted to shore up some of his weaknesses. His Greed I Path had helped in that endeavor, but now it was time to bring all of his stats to some sort of equilibrium. He knew that it was essential to Min-Max in all the video games that he had played, but this wasn’t a game—it was real life. He didn’t have a dedicated team to cover his weaknesses, so he wanted to shore up everything he could until he learned more about how the system worked.

With that goal in mind, he put two points in Willpower and Charisma, which brought them to ten. After that, he tried to place points in Faith, but he soon realized that it was impossible. Every time he attempted it, he felt like the point slipped out of his mental grasp. After a few times trying to place them, he gave up and moved on to the rest of his stats.

He still had eleven points to give, so he put two in Strength and Vitality while adding another two to Willpower and Charisma. The effect was immediate. He felt his muscles tense and become more powerful. His senses sharpened until he realized he could see the individual whorls in a tree half a football field away. Even his thoughts felt like they were more composed and taking in more information than ever before.

The change was so dramatic that he wondered how stats were related to the average human being. It was impossible that having twenty points in Strength meant that you were the strongest person in the world. He didn’t think he would be breaking any bench pressing records anytime soon. Additionally, it didn’t make sense to gain so many free points in the very beginning by merely surviving his first engagement with a demon. Stats were a subject that he needed more information on.

He put his last three points in Strength. It seemed counterintuitive, but Strength gave him more health while Vitality affected his base regeneration rate. He had come close to dying way too many times, and he hoped his new stats would protect him from any unfortunate accidents. If he had time, he would meditate to boost his recovery.

When he was done, he pulled up his full status sheet for the first time.

Name: Hunter Gold

Race: Human

Class: N/A

Level: N/A

Experience: 0/2000

Life: 210 (.6%/Min)

Stamina: 200 (.7%/Min)

Mana: 240 (.6%/Min)

STR: 15

VIT: 12

DEX: 14

END: 14

INT: 18

WIL: 12

CHA: 12

PER: 15

FTH: 0

Active Skills:

Sprint (Lvl 7), Dodge (Lvl 7), Meditation (Lvl 1), Cleanse (Lvl 1), Covetous Eyes (Lvl 1)

Passive Skills:

Running (Lvl 7), Sword Mastery (Lvl 1)

Resistances:

Fire (Lvl 2), Pain (Lvl 2)

Paths:

Rift Walker (0/100), Acolyte (0/25), Greed II (0/25)

Satisfied with his choices, Hunter dismissed the screen. It was a bunch of information that took up the majority of his vision. He didn’t think it would be wise always to be bringing up his sheet, so he resolved only to bring it up after major changes had been made, and he knew he was safe. Looking around, Hunter knew that he was anything but safe, but he needed to make the changes if he wanted to make it to the Sanctuary.

With a lopsided grin, he hefted his miniature trident and strolled toward the marker on his mini-map. If he were lucky, he’d be able to make good headway on his journey before whatever passed for a sun in the Rift went down. Daylight had already been scary enough; he didn’t want to see what would await him in the dark.