My head was spinning. I hadn’t even obtained the spells I gained at level ten. Yet here I was at level sixteen and being offered enough XP to push me up to level twenty-one. Something was up. The age-old rule that if something was too good to be true, then it probably was applied. Maybe I could become an elite now, but how would that affect me?

Was this the AI trying to bind me to the tribe? Maybe elites were permanently connected to the tribe they rose from. Or then again, if I leveled up and became an elite, would it make it impossible to join parties with players?

That last one didn’t really make sense. It was obvious that I would level up at some point. I just needed to figure out why the system was awarding so much XP for this simple quest. I knew that killing those high mages had been a rare opportunity, four levels of XP for one spell. It was unlikely that I would ever get a boost like that again.

Then there was the obvious point that if I leveled up to level nineteen and then allowed myself to die, I would be back at level ten. But with eighteen free stat points banked for when I made it back to level twenty. It hadn’t been that hard to level thus far, nothing like the battle, but it had still gone as expected.

If it weren’t for that enormous boost just for defending the village, I wouldn’t have worried about it. Shemi interrupted my thoughts as she walked over to me. “Chief want know what youz wait for. Village need elderz.”

At first I was confused by what she meant, but then I realized that what the game termed elites were the same people that the village referred to as elders. “How do you know about that?”

“Spiritz tell mez,” she replied smugly.

“Why can’t I hear the spirits the way you do?”

“Hmm… maybe cuz youz not elder yet. Maybe youz too ooglie.”

There it was again. I kept expecting her to break into a toothy grin, but apparently, she really thought I was ugly. She wasn’t the only ogre to have mentioned it. I shook my head. Why should I care what a bunch of AI run digital creatures thought?

Another of the surviving outcasts came running up to Shemi, and the two started speaking. I ignored them because I was lost in my own thoughts. Sometimes the best thing to do when you couldn’t decide was just to focus on something else. So I pulled up the spell options I had from reaching level ten.

I was offered six different spells. The problem was I could only choose three of them.

Spirit Sight (Basic 7) Allows the caster to see the invisible. Duration: 1 hour. Mana: 30.

Tainted Breeze (Basic 8) Creates a stream of poisonous mist which affects any targets in the AoE. Range: 50’+2’/level. Width: 5’+1’/level. Duration: 10 seconds +.5/level. Effect: Poison damage 10 per second for duration. Continues for up to 3 seconds after fleeing the AoE. If the target does not resist, a poison counter is added every 5 seconds. Poison counters stack and increase the effect of all poison counters by 10%. Poison counters can only be removed magically. Mana Cost: 40+2/level.

Light Healing (Basic 9) Range: 100’+2’/level. Instantly heals target for 60+5/level. Mana Cost: 20+2/level. Cool Down: 10 seconds.

Wolf Spirit (Basic 10) Range: Touch. Duration: 1 hour + 2 min/level. Effect: Movement speed increased by 40+1%/level. Mana Cost: 20 + 2/level.

Snake Spirit (Basic 10) Range: Touch. Duration: 1 hour +2 min/level. Effect: Increases Faction with all those viewing target (except caster) by 500+10/level. Mana Cost: 50 + 2/level.

Levitate (Basic 10) Range: Touch. Duration: 1 minute + 10 sec/level. Effect: May move up to 10 lbs./Will point up vertically at the speed of a 10’/level per minute. Mana: 50 + 1/sec. May only be used on willing targets, beasts or inanimate objects.

After reading the descriptions, I knew exactly which ones I wanted, all of them. Light healing was not as mana efficient as Regeneration, but sometimes the ability to apply instant healing would be useful. Still, I would probably put that on my wish list and hope to learn it later.

There was another consideration that I hadn’t thought about until now. As a player in Legends of Selmia, I could only load up ten spells at a time. I could know any number of spells, but only those ten could be kept active. It wasn’t a big deal to switch out spells, but it took a couple minutes at least depending upon the level of the spell. I wondered if I would have the same limit as a Hybrid Intelligence.

The ability to see invisible objects or people was a commonly sought magical spell in just about every book or movie I had ever seen. In practice, I had not found it to be nearly as useful. That didn’t mean it couldn’t be. Nothing like letting the rogue think they are sneaking up on you when you actually see them the entire time. But often, the deadliest sneak attacks came from creatures with stealth abilities rather than actual invisibility. So, Spirit Sight got put on the back-burner as well.

I hadn’t chosen to be a Plague Bringer because I wasn’t really into that play style, but a good AoE spell would be useful. Then again, having seen Shemi use a similar spell to such a powerful effect during the battle, had me second guessing. I would list that as a maybe right now.

Wolf Spirit was an almost certain pick. I didn’t know which it fell under Hex Warden or Pack Caller, but it would definitely be boosted by one of my two affinities. Additional movement speed would be critical when I got to the point where I was trying to reach the players. Knowing that, I just went ahead and accepted it as one of my spells.

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That was my tenth spell, but no warnings triggered. I wondered if signature spells counted the same as regular spells. I had never heard of a player with signature spells, so maybe not.

I went ahead and clicked to accept Snake Spirit. Faction boosts were likely to be a thing that I needed. Especially until I got to the point where I could complete enough quests and earn faction with the relevant groups. I was only at Tolerated with players, after all.

With one spell left, I had to go with what felt most natural to me. Levitation was a utility spell, but I knew that a creative caster could use it both offensively and defensively. I would probably still pick up some poison spells later, but they just weren’t my thing right now.

When I tried to accept Levitation, though, I got another notification.

You may only have 10 active spells at a time. Before you can activate this one, you must return another spell to your spell book. Fortunately, from my time as a player, I knew the spell book being referred to was a tab on my character sheet, rather than an actual physical book. Still, a decision had to be made. Ultimately, I decided on returning Frost Rift. Frostburn did the same thing, just a little better. It was more costly, but I could only afford to keep so many attack spells active simultaneously.

Since I had crossed a new threshold, I could also attempt to make another Signature Spell with Spell Forging. But I didn’t want to jump into that too quickly. I needed some time to think about it.

Now, I had a bigger question to answer: to level or not to level. Shemi interrupted my thoughts again. “Youz help needed. Must bez more elderz. Needz youz rescue Kittikork.”

“Rescue Kittikork? Where is she?”

“Mez no knowz or not have ask youz to find herz. Youz no hear very good mez thinkz.”

“Maybe she just died in the battle. But that reminds me. I wanted to ask you something else. How long until the rest of the village respawns?”

It seemed strange to me that the others had not respawned yet. Whenever I was killed by Tulbat or a monster, I respawned immediately. At least it seemed immediate to me. I still hadn’t gotten stuck in limbo speaking to that droid like AI since the first time.

“Howz youz not know anything. Die from monsterz and respawn. Higher thresholds take longer respawn but always respawn. Killed in battle and gone. Needz make new ogrez.”

I knew I was gonna regret asking, but I still didn’t have this all figured out, “How do we make new ogres?”

Shemi shook her head in disgust. “Youz must bump oogliez with girl ogrez.”

As if her words had placed a spotlight on me, I saw a dozen female ogres staring at me. Most of the ogres were male, but there was still about twenty percent that was female. The differences were subtle, but they were a bit more petite and moved with more agility. They also had a higher representation among the outcasts.

I groaned but Shemi said, “Chief no can do by himself. Wez need many ogrez afore village be destroyed.”

“Why can’t the other male ogres do it then?”

This time, she actually placed her head in her hands. “Must bez elder. Mez, chief and youz must bump ooglies with other ogrez making new ogrez for tribe.”

This was too much. I couldn’t bear this. The thought of … well, doing that with an ogre was beyond disgusting. But to have to do it multiple times to repopulate the tribe. I had to assume that the gestation process was abbreviated, otherwise the village wouldn’t be respawned for months. And I remembered Shemi saying something about ogres always appearing as adults. So maybe it wasn’t exactly what I thought it was.

But it was all a moot point. A moment later, a bright flash of light appeared in the center of the village. Two large iron golems stepped out of the oval which was floating in the air. After them, a robed human came out, followed by two more golems. Lightning bolts started leaping from the human’s hands and every ogre that they hit was struck dead.

Even the chief was cut down almost instantly by one of the golems. I knew I had seconds left, so I accepted enough XP to take me to level nineteen. Then I felt my chest explode outward as a super-heated blast of plasma ripped through me. I fell to the ground with the words.

You are being sent to respawn.