I figured I had ignored the rest of that original tutorial box enough. I finally had the time to process what I was seeing right in front of me…or, rather, below me. As the city caught fire, I looked at Chula Vista in the distance. I knew that I could only see the levels of the zones adjacent to me, so I needed to get south to see the zones adjacent to that one. Unfortunately, south of Chula Vista was Tijuana. Luckily, if I got a few miles east of here, the high rise apartments gave way to nature preservations. I’m sure most people would have the same idea, but the current situation had me thinking that there might not be many people left.
I went ahead and thought on the single word, “Profile”. I figured if that was how I opened the map, then that was how I opened everything else as well. I was proven correct. A blue menu popped up in golden letters that was obscured by another blue menu in front of it.
Please Select Your Class!
Alright. Well, I’d love to if you would get out of the way. I closed out of the box and a new one appeared.
Hello, Tyler G!
As a reward for reaching Level 5, all players will be able to select a Class. These Classes contain special abilities known as “Active Skills”. These “Active Skills” will be awarded every 5 levels in perpetuity. The options are random, but mostly based on your current choices so far as well as your class. Please choose carefully, as there is an incredibly limited amount of ways to reverse this decision.
So there is a way to reverse the skills? That was good to know, I guess. I wondered just how limited “incredibly limited” was. Maybe one per person? Maybe it was some special reward for completing a challenge? I hadn’t seen any evidence of loot, but my one and only kill did just fall 18 stories to his death. There was still a lot I needed to figure out. I closed out of that box as well.
Class Selection (Level 5)
1. Paladin
2. Knight
3. Barbarian
4. Samurai
5. Ranger
6. Rogue
7. Monk
8. Mage
9. Warlock
10. Shifter
11. Bard
12. Priest
I scrolled through the list of options. Each one provided a decent level of explanation on the core concept of the class. The only one that stuck out to me as odd was Samurai. It wasn’t exactly a traditional form of RPG class. Additionally, it seemed rather localized as well. Why have “Samurai” if you weren’t going to have “Ninja” or “Mongol Warrior”? I shrugged and scrolled down the list until I found a class description that stuck out.
Shifter Class
As a Shifter, you will be one of the most unique individuals. You will not have Active Skills, like the rest of the population. Instead, you will obtain “forms”. These forms will encompass any and all non-humanoid creatures from across Earth, including those that have been recently generated.
As a Shifter, your forms will be even more random than the rest of the class’s skills due to the sheer volume of opportunities. The points you spend in your stat tree will help narrow down the available forms in your next selection as well as empower your forms.
I tried to scroll down more only to realize that that was it. I tried to ignore the confusion as to why this was here and exactly how bad of a coma I had to be in to not wake up yet, but it wasn’t working. Where was the rest of the instructions? Was that enough to go off of?
I slumped down on an ac ventilator, 18 stories in the air and wind blowing through my hair. Screaming and crying from the streets down below drifted up to me. What the hell was going on? I wondered why I wasn’t seeing military helicopters flying around before realizing the electricity was out. How though? What sort of EMP would just take out everything from coffee makers to watches to planes? This was insane.
I put my head in my hands and my hands on my knees. I wanted this all to go away. I just had to close my eyes for long enough and it would. That’s it. That’s all I had to do. I just had to be like Dorothy and click my heels 3 times.
It didn’t work.
———————————
I sat there for a while, staring at the sky. I had no watch and it’s not like my phone had suddenly started working. I had no idea what time it was.
I spent that time considering a few options. Where do I go from here? What do I do? What should I choose for my ‘class’? If this was at all like a game, did I really want to be the stereo-typical ‘badass ranger’ or ‘stuck-up paladin’? I didn’t think so. I wanted something…unique.
My thoughts kept drifting back to that Shifter class. I could turn into what sounded like animals. Still, the idea was just an idea until I had another thought. Birds weren’t humanoid. I could choose the Shifter Class, choose a flying form, and get the hell out of this zone! That was a good idea.
I got excited and immediately opened my Profile again. I happily selected Shifter. It gave me a boiler-plate message asking if I was sure. I clicked agree. The profile then immediately went to the next window. All I needed was a bird.
Active Skills (Level 5)
1. Shift Wolf
2. Shift Giant Cobra
3. Shift Penguin
Fuck. Not that bird.
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. Alright…mobility. I needed mobility. Penguin definitely wasn’t going to do it for me. Cobra? Slithering along the streets that were now littered with basketball-sized Urchins and broken glass didn’t exactly sound great. Also, exactly how big was a Giant Cobra? Was that a real snake or something like Giant Rhino? Was it a game animal?
Without thinking, I opened my phone to try to google ‘Giant Cobra’. It didn’t work…right, no electricity. This was all on me. I had nothing else to go off of. Cobra seemed like a risk. It might be super cool, or it might lead to me getting my stomach cut up every 10 feet. Penguin was just fucking stupid. This game was obviously trying to get me killed. There really was only one option and it was boring as hell. I wanted to be unique and now I was going to be the most traditional were-animal in existence.
I selected [Shift Wolf] and was annoyed when yet another 'are you sure' message showed up. I clicked accept and another pop up box showed up.
Passive Skills (Level 3)
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
1. Pain Tolerance - Feel less pain from physical and mental effects.
2. Tracker - Be able to see footprint icons of known creatures.
3. Silence - Walk and breathe without making noise.
4. Navigation - Be able to easily identify the correct path.
5. Self Repair - Effects such as bleed, poison, psychosis, etc. will do less damage and go away quicker.
These were all sort of boring as well. I was hoping for some form of combat ability, but quickly realized that that might not have been an option. In fact, the system had pretty clearly told me that wasn’t an option. Still, I could have gotten a buff or something. I had some resistance options and some quality of life options.
[Pain Tolerance] seemed like a waste. It didn’t say anything about improving my ability to not die. It just meant things would hurt less. It wasn’t a useless skill, but I wasn’t choosing it. [Tracker] seemed cool, but was it really going to help me get out of San Diego? I didn’t think so. The last three at least seemed helpful for my current goals.
[Silence] seemed effective. I could easily avoid the blind Vampire creatures. All I had to do was not intentionally make a sound or step on anything stupid and I’d be fine. [Navigation] also seemed useful. I could find my way out of the city without having to try to remember my last time using a GPS app. [Self Repair] had value in and of itself. What if those Urchins got me? What if I did get a cut or poisoned? Did I really want to die because I was too stupid to choose a healing skill?
It was a tough choice. I decided that [Silence] and [Self Repair] were both more valuable than [Navigation] and was able to knock out one of the three options right there. Now I was down to two. One would help me not get attacked. One would help me if I did get attacked. I realized that, if I was attacked, everything here was vastly beyond my Level. There was no bleed effect if I was dead. At least for right now, I had to get out of the city. I could worry about survivable encounters later. I wasn’t killing anything in the city.
I selected [Silence] before I could change my mind. I was scared to make the wrong choice, but the system made it pretty clear I was running on an unknown timer. If I wasn’t in a safer area when the stat cap went away, I’d be facing monsters with a whole lot more difficulty than right now.
After selecting [Silence], my actual Profile that I had only vaguely seen in the background was finally visible.
NAME Tyler G. CLASS Shifter LEVEL 5 (4%) GOLD 0 STRENGTH 0 DEXTERITY 0 WISDOM 0 AGILITY 0 CRAFTING SKILLS None SPECIAL SKILLS None ACTIVE SKILLS Shift Wolf PASSIVE SKILLS Silence (1) MAIN-HAND Prehistoric Axe (1C) OFF-HAND None HEAD None CHEST None LEGS None BOOTS None
Well, this was pretty boring. Everything was at the bottom, as I expected, but it wasn't some vast menu of thousands of combinations. If anything, it looked incredibly simple. I just had to figure out what everything meant. It took me a minute to see the small arrows on either side of the 4 stats: Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, and Agility. What did they do? I tried to look for some form of a help menu or information guide and found nothing. I had no idea what these did.
Did my level actually affect anything or was it just the stats? I realized that, without a Constitution stat, Strength was the most likely one to affect me health. I put a point into that and watched a new ‘down arrow’ appear underneath the up-facing arrow. I subtracted it back to zero. Okay, I could change things around until I was certain. Would I have to be certain in my options or could I move them at will later?
I put a stat point back into Strength and the closed my menu. That boiler-plate message that asked if I was sure appeared and I clicked yes. When I reopened my profile, the down arrow was gone.
So, I had to be sure. I went ahead and threw a few more points into Strength. I had no idea how much it actually helped me one way or the other, but I tried swinging my axe around a few more times. It felt lighter, but I couldn’t be sure how much of that was adrenaline mixed with a placebo effect and what was real. I sat back down and decided to throw two points into everything until I figured out what was going on.
In total, I had 5 points in Strength and 2 in the other 3. I still had 7 spare points that I decided not to spend yet. I didn’t know what anything did so it felt silly to spend any of it.
I stood up and felt more energized. I felt a bit quicker. I felt a bit more ‘on my game’. I felt a bit stronger. I wasn’t sure by how much, but there was a definite improvement. I silently hoped Reynold was in the same spot as me.
I took a second to get some space and decided to try to use my ability. As soon as I mentally committed to shifting, it started to happen. I could feel every bone in my body breaking and reforming, but it didn’t hurt. It felt like the part of being at the dentist where you can feel the pressure, but it’s more uncomfortable than anything else.
After only a few seconds, I could tell I was quite a bit lower to the ground than before. My sense of smell was improved and my eyesight was sharper. I looked down to see my paws and their natural weapons. I could feel my tail and wagged it a little. I wasn’t sure what feeling like a penguin would be like, but I figured it’d be quite a bit different from this. I was still myself and had very little “wolf-like” desires. If anything, I was just a human brain in a different vehicle. Still, if I was going to be a wolf, I might as well do some wolf shit. I looked up to the moon and gave off a howl.