Justin closed the portal behind them with a breath of relief. Andrew looked around at the large circular chamber they'd arrived in, particularly the ring of guards surrounding them, weapons at the ready, at least until the portal closed and they relaxed. The leader chuckled at Justin's obvious relief. "Welcome home, Master Thyme. Another productive mission, I see. A new elf this time?" A clearly feminine voice echoed out from behind the helmet.
Justin scowled at the woman's amusement. "Not an elf, no. A Changeling. And you wouldn't be laughing if you were the one who had to jump into that thrice damned forest all the time!"
"If the forest makes you this nervous, why did you take the position?" A younger sounding guard asked curiously.
Justin sniffed. "I took it because that damned forest didn't make me nervous until after I took this position! Do you know how many times I've arrived to find a fresh Uplift standing over the corpse of someone even I would hesitate to pick a fight with? Someone who could destroy me with a twitch of their pinky finger?!? Too many times! That forest is a deathtrap! If it wasn't the sole barrier between us and the monsters, I'd suggest we burn it to the ground and salt the earth so it never returns!"
"It's only happened four times in the last decade." The leader commented, the eye roll clear in her tone. "I would hardly call that common."
"Common enough given the amount of time I spend jumping in and out of the cursed place." Justin grumbled under his breath.
The leader snorted, turning her focus towards Andrew. "A Changeling, huh? I'm surprised she's noble. Aren't they usually monstrous?"
It was Justin's turn to chuckle. "Oh yes, and you wouldn't believe how much it pissed Levi off. It almost makes it worth the risk of entering that damn forest." He shook his head. "However, I believe it is time to hand this young one over for orientation." He patted Andrew on the shoulder, pushing him gently towards the door.
The leader grunted, gesturing for the guards to open the door, letting the two of them leave before closing it behind them. Justin quickly walked ahead, leading Andrew down a long hallway and up a few flights of stairs before they arrived at a large… station? Whatever it was, it was full of more of those circular platforms, which people continually walked on and off of as portals opened and closed behind them. Wherever they were coming from appeared to be private, as there was another set of guards at the entrance, which Justin ignored as he quickly walked off towards a particular circle.
"You can't use personal portals inside the city." Justin explained as they arrived at the circle, waiting for the next portal to open. "Too chaotic, you understand. So we have to make do with the city portals."
Andrew nodded in understanding. It was the same with the portals back on Earth. Even though any Tiger could make their own portal whenever they wanted, they had to use the official portals anyway, because random portals would make it harder to detect when something dangerous made its way to Earth.
The portal opened not long after, and the two stepped through into a lobby of some sort. Justin led Andrew past what appeared to be the public area, up a flight of stairs, and into a small, but comfortable looking office. Justin went behind the desk and fell into a comfortable looking office chair. "It's good to be back." He sighed in a tone of sheer relief, taking a moment to relax before sitting up and gesturing for Andrew to take a seat. "Please, sit. I've already put in a request for your personal orientation guide, but it will take a few hours for them to find someone and send them over, so feel free to ask any questions you like in the meantime. I'm sure you have plenty." He finished with a chuckle.
Andrew took a seat, sorting through the chaos that was whirling through his mind, before settling on the most innocuous question he could think of at the moment. "What is this place?"
"This is the grand city Nobilis, the capital of the entire noble realm, where every noble race exists in peace and equality!" Justin announced grandly, spreading his arms. "Specifically, this is the city hall, which is where the majority of the city's administration takes place, including the retrieval and integration of new uplifts. Even more specifically, this is my office, where I twiddle my thumbs until it's time to venture forth into the wilds in response to a fresh uplifting signature. Typically only happens three or four times a week, so it’s a relatively relaxing job, if not for that unholy forest."
Andrew blinked. "That many new races are born every week?"
"Ha!" Justin let out a short laugh. "No, no. The majority of uplifts fit into one of the established races, with maybe a minor variation or two. An elf is an elf, even if there's never been a swamp elf before. Even you fit nicely into the changeling race, though I've never heard of an Essence Changeling before. No, truly unique races are rare. I've only encountered a single one in my entire time in this position and I was lucky." He paused. "Now, that isn't to say these individual variations aren't useful. A normal changeling, or at least a normal noble changeling, can only alter their appearance. Your ability to steal traits… Well, Levi had a point when he said it was monstrous. Even then, the theft is usually temporary, or locked into a certain form. For you to simply have the traits… Well, let me assure you, there will be many people who will be very interested in helping your race grow."
Andrew frowned. "What does that mean, exactly?"
"Well, not to be excessively crass, but…" Justin coughed awkwardly. "We will ensure that you have ample opportunity for… procreation."
Andrew's frown deepened. "How does that work?!?"
Justin sighed. "Well, you see, we noble races have… standards, so we obviously can't just give you mates. That would be a sapient rights violation. Freedom of choice and whatnot. So instead, we put you in a position to find… volunteers. Parties, blind dates, hobby groups, adventure teams, any way to help you develop… connections with other people. From there it's simply a matter of letting nature take its course. Of course, the details will be handled by your orientation guide. Just don't try to force yourself on anyone and you'll be fine."
Not exactly what Andrew was concerned about, but it answered his question nonetheless. He didn't have to worry about the noble races just giving him women to fuck. That would have been awkward. This was more like the Bonded, where they were interested in his children and willing to set him up to be successful, but they weren't going to force anything. Of course, that begged the question of how he was supposed to handle his relationship with Cathryn and Li Jing in this situation… could he develop other relationships in this world? He was still technically the same person, even with the different body… would being with someone else be cheating? Andrew considered the question for a moment, before shaking his head. That wasn't something he could decide on his own. He'd need to talk it over with them.
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"Now, you're probably wondering what the deal is with your new system, aren't you?" Justin continued, more to change the subject than anything else. "Each time you level up, you will receive attribute points equal to ten plus your race's rank times two. So a rank one would receive twelve AP per level, a rank two would receive fourteen, and so on…" He paused, narrowing his eyes at Andrew. "On second thought, don't worry about the math for now. I'll make sure your orientation guide knows to sign you up for a basic education course." Andrew's expression twisted at that. He knew how to do simple math! "Anyway, the point is, each time you level up, you get points you can spend to make yourself stronger and you level up by using your skills or by defeating beasts, or monsters, or even other noble races, though that's illegal in most cases. Don't go hunting other nobles, or it will end badly for you." Justin warned seriously. "Oh, but before you can level up, you have to gain a Class by acquiring a General Skill. Then, once you gain your Class, you will receive two Skill Points and then another two for each level, which you can spend to acquire and develop Class Skills, which will increase your capabilities significantly.”
Justin went on to explain the attributes and how they worked, and after briefly checking to make sure they were the same as his stats, Andrew tuned him out to consider the differences between the monstrous status and the noble status. He got less stat points per level, but he also got two Skill Points… Did that make up for it? It- probably depended on the quality of his skills, huh? A large boost would more than make up for lower stats. Then again, he probably wouldn't get any evolution options, but he would have twice as many skills to gain traits from… Andrew frowned as he mulled it over, not sure how to determine which one was better. He glanced at Justin. Maybe he could just ask? "Uh, what about the monstrous status? Is it better or worse than the noble one?” Andrew interjected.
Justin blinked, before leaning back and letting out a long breath. "That is a matter of debate. Many, many debates. Long debates." He explained. "The monstrous status combines race and Class, letting them develop physically, but hampering their skill growth. They also gain fifteen attributes per level, plus three times their rank, though only a third of their points can be assigned freely. The drawback is that their skills tend to be underdeveloped, but their attributes… The weakest monstrous race can match the attribute gain of a rank four noble race, and while it is harder for them to advance their rank due to their limited skill points, it is by no means impossible. That, plus the physical superiority granted by their evolutions, means that every monster is dangerous, no matter what skills they have. As for the noble races, without any combat skills, we can be practically harmless. However, with combat skills, particularly well developed ones that synergize with each other, we can become truly ridiculous.” He paused for a moment. “But then, so can they with properly synergized and developed skills and evolutions, so honestly, it's a bit of a wash. Particularly if you focus on aspects beyond combat.”
Andrew leaned back in his chair. So that's why the tribe was so focused on him. Anyone who had the potential to actually develop their skills was necessary to stand up against the combat focused members of the noble races. To face the raiders that sought to wipe them off the face of the planet. Andrew's expression twisted. And he'd just gone and disappeared on them. On Corek! He was not going to handle this well. He wondered if they'd find the clearing. His clothes were still there, as was the elf's corpse. And the bear. It wasn't that far from their territory. There was a good chance a hunting party would go through there at some point. What would they think happened? The bear obviously died to him, while the elf clearly died to some large beast… would they think the bear killed the elf then he killed the bear? But then what would they think happened to him? Hmmm… maybe they'd think he killed the bear, which drew the attention of another, stronger beast that killed him before digging out the elf and killing her before evolving. Or just leaving. Did they know about Evolution? The Shaman hadn't mentioned it, but the Shaman didn't mention a lot of things. Honestly, he kinda sucked as a teacher. Great at making a young goblin feel at home, but not teaching.
The real question was, what was he going to do about it? If he was lucky he could hit level ten soon and get the Voidwalker Class again, hopefully get a portal trait, and head back to the tribe. Using his False Status trait, he could appear just as he was before he left, make up some crazy story about what happened… they'd probably buy it? Maybe? However… Now that he wasn't a goblin, Andrew didn't really want to support what they did. He definitely didn't want to hurt them, but he didn't want to be a part of a tribe that by necessity kidnapped women and did… that to them. He wanted to make sure Corek and the Shaman were okay, but otherwise… he didn't really want to be involved.
Andrew shook his head. That could wait until later. For now, he should focus on figuring out what's up with this place and leveling up his Class so he could actually do whatever it was he decided to do. And a good place to start would be actually getting a Class, right? Andrew pulled up his status, hitting the plus next to his Class. Immediately, his Class slot was filled with [Trainee] at level one and he gained two skill points. He also gained a long list of General Skills. He was about to put a point into Rest, figuring he might as well start the same way he had before, when he paused. Sitting at the top of the list were three skills.
General Skill - Restful Self Examination: 24 [4]
General Skill - Counter Kick: 38 [2]
General Skill - Precise Navigation: 13 [3]
Andrew blinked. Was this… could he just buy those skills? That was… just a point cheaper, actually. Andrew considered it for a moment. The biggest point was that just buying the skills wouldn't let him increase their quality… not that he needed to, but he'd need to work on his skills to level up anyway, so wouldn't it be better to work on them in a way that might actually benefit him in the long run? Though… he didn't need to start from the bottom. He could start with Concentrated Examination, which would benefit both his inner sight skill and his navigation skill.
The real question was what he was going to do with the rest of his skill points. He could double down on his pathfinder skills, but… he'd just learned that without some decent skill synergies, he'd be practically useless in combat, so it might be smart to get some more combat skills… or maybe magic? In fact, was being a pathfinder even necessary anymore? These people had phones and teleportation. Would he even need those skills to explore anymore? Andrew frowned thoughtfully for a moment, before shaking his head. No matter what, he was getting his inner sight skill back. After that… Well, he'd need to see what his life was going to look like first.