Shuji leaned in excited, clearly unbothered by his tired state,

“It is a very exciting time for us even if many unexpected changes were required for us to move forward. Over the last week, we found ourselves with numbers far greater than what we had anticipated, and that has come with many logistical challenges that had to be addressed before we established ourselves as a Faction. We find ourselves with several impossible gaps in our logistical capability that we hope to find a solution to later today..." He explained, allowing his smile to slip a fraction before forcing it back up to its full state.

"The hardest part for me has been, of course, giving up my quaint shop in the village. I had become quite fond of it, but others with more appropriate classes are taking over. Now it is nothing but administration work until we get a library established…Which I am afraid will not happen for some time. But look at me rambling on. I am here to make sure you are settled back in and advise you before the meeting this morning.” Shuji said, a hungry gleam shining in his eyes at the prospect of learning something new.

“Well, all things considered, I think our escape went much better than expected," Tilly said, trying to catch up with events before being struck by a thought, "Wait! Linus, Mochizuki... Amelia! Have they recovered?” Tilly almost shouted as memories of their injuries hit him like a brick to the face.

Shuji's smile twitched downward for a minute before responding with his usual optimism, “You will see Linus at the council meeting this morning. He is not what he once was, but still serves the people. Don't tell him I said this, but it is probably better that he has taken the position he has with the former empire. Mochizuki made a full recovery, although I doubt you will see her much in the near future. Amelia has woken and seems to be at no risk of becoming one of those... Corrupted. Despite that, nothing we do seems to be able to clear away her current level of infection. She is out on the fields and pasture land now working on a system that will hopefully be able to feed all of these new people. I am afraid in the short term that food will be one of our biggest challenges.” Then before Tilly could ask about any others, Shuji slapped his hands on the mat in front of him decisively.

“Enough about others, human! I have been sent here to advise you before the meeting, and Hiro will not be gentle with me if you continue as you have been.”

“What?” Tilly said, looking down at himself, before it dawned on him… It was finally time to get some answers! No attack, no running for his life. He could actually learn something about this world and the system that governed it.

“Oh Hell Yes!, Shuji. My bad, let's get down to it, can I ask you anything?”

At that, Shuji hesitated for a second, before answering, “I think it is best if we start with your Character Sheet. Lord Hiro is somewhat concerned that you have been… ah… haphazard in your choices so far, and he wishes you to have the best advice I can offer regarding your build going forward. I am by no means an expert, but this is within my area of interest and we believe you could use the help.” He said suddenly looking anywhere but Tilly's eyes.

Tilly’s face, however, brightened considerably at the offer, “Shuji, I don’t know if you think that's offensive. But no one knows more than me that I have been scrambling from day one. I would love your thoughts… But there is something I have to tell you first. It's time I was honest with you and Lord Hiro.”

The last sentence just slipped out of Tilly's mouth, not at all premeditated. But now that it was out there, he found himself torn.

“Please Gaijin, you are among friends, no less than any of our people in my eyes,” Shuji said, concern coloring the edges of his reassurance.

Not suspicion.

Not disappointment.

Concern.

Tilly's voice caught in his throat for a moment, again feeling hesitant to burden the already tired lapin with his problems… As he thought about how best to put it, he felt the subtle throbbing emanating from his side, harder to notice than ever. Or did it feel weaker?

'Maybe it was getting better…

Maybe he could manage it.'

He looked back up into Shuji's earnest expression. He was genuinely offering help and cared about Tilly's well-being. That look pierced through Tilly's confusion and suddenly, just for an instant, he was sitting back in that cabin looking into another set of eyes.

“Shuji!” Tilly blurted out, abandoning any careful shaping of his statement.

“When I went up to fight the Corrupted tree, it infected me with something… Something that I think might be far stronger than anything we have encountered so far. No matter what I do, it is growing worse. I am afraid I might be becoming something even worse than what I burned down in the temple.” The words tumbled out of him in a rush, seeming to rip free from the depths of his psyche. Then it was all out of him, and he felt... light. For better or worse, others knew.

Shuji leaned back on his heels and thoughtfully nodded to himself. His face grew serious as he considered Tilly’s words, but his eyes… They still danced as if he was enjoying a joke no one else had heard and he certainly didn't seem surprised.

“Shuji… Did you already know?” Tilly asked hesitantly, trying to read through the expression on the Librarian’s face.

“Yes, of course. Even if Ichiro had not told us, it would have been plain from several points of observation. But we are glad you are willing to share. This means you are willing to accept help, which does us great honor. What that help will be, however, must still be considered. It is part of the reason I am here, to find out how we must proceed.”

Tilly let out a deep sigh, his shoulders straightening from a slump he did not even know was there.

He wasn’t alone.

“Alright, Let's get to it. I haven’t had a chance to look recently…”

Tilly pulled up his Character Sheet and started to read it out to Shuji, deciding not to hold anything back. This was his chance to finally get some questions answered and maybe even some decent advice on how to proceed.

Jonathan Luke Tillman

Level: 18 (2000/500,000 Exp until next Level)

Display Name: Tilly

Race: Human

Class: Son of Flame

Health: 100%(1.8% per min.)

Mana: 100%(1.5% per min.)

Corruptions Influence: 24%

Status Effects:

Minor Corruption [Hidden] -16% wisdom +11% strength

Titles: [Harbinger], [Resolute], [Origin’s Champion],

[Corruption’s Host],[Trusted Gaijin],[Hostile Environment],

[Scarred Heart].[Divine Wind]

Stats:

Constitution: 18

Endurance: 99 (108.9)

Dexterity: 35 (38.5)

Strength: 13(14.4)

Wisdom: 18(15.2)

Intelligence: 13

Equipment:

Origin’s primitive stone hatchets: +10% to Dexterity. (Legendary, growth type)

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+Imbued Ability Recall.

Origin’s primitive leather armor: +10% to Endurance. (Legendary, growth type)

+Imbued Form Sun Salamander

+Imbued Form Nullspider/Mana Engine Enchantment.

Skills:

-Forestcraft level 12

-Identify level 17

-Cooking level 12

-Beginner Hatchet level 12

-Animal Processing level 9

-Stealth level 7

-Herb Lore Level 2

-Ax Throwing Level 15

-Dual-Wielding (Hatchets) Level 8

-Spirit Walk Level 14

Abilities:

-[Blue] Flame Strike: Channel the fire within you to strike at your opponents. Each strike leaves a smoldering ember at the point of impact and does damage over time. Ember damage is stackable. This Ability has been augmented by your mantle and does 200% more damage to Corruption.

-[Blue] Flame Expulsion+: At the cost of 25-50% of your total mana, you channel the fire within you into a wave flowing from your center, impacting everything around you in a sphere. Ability scales with mana. This Ability has been augmented by your mantle and does 200% more damage to Corruption.

-[Blue] Flame’s Renewal+: At the cost of 5-10% of your total mana, you impart the purifying nature of your indwelling flame, greatly increasing the recipient's ability to remove curses, poisons, and infections from their body. This Ability has been augmented by your mantle and does 200% more damage to Corruption.

-Mana Overdrive: You may perform abilities without paying the Mana cost in exchange for unused Experience stored in the subspace of your soul at a rate of 100:1.

-Wrath’s Shroud: At the cost of 1% mana per second, you may enflame your entire body without physical consequence. You will continually produce flame from your core while this ability is active and any attack you perform will automatically be empowered with your flame.

Titles:

[Harbinger]: One touched by Origin to bring about change, “None may interfere.” This and all other Origin-related titles, abilities, and items will be changed and seen as unremarkable by any deity or deity-aligned faction.

[Resolute]: Your endurance stat is higher than all of your other stats combined. As long as this remains true, you may completely negate one fatal blow per day.

[Origin’s Champion]: You have accepted the mantle of champion from Origin. This will augment your skills and abilities over time to reflect your new nature.

[Corruption’s Host]: You hold within your body a Seed of Corruption. This entity's progress has been slowed by divine interference, but it will take every opportunity to grow until it has subsumed your will. Seeds influence: 24%

[Trusted Gaijin]: The highest honor that can be bestowed on a nonlapin by the ruling class. It marks you as a “friend” to all Lapinkind and they will be immediately predisposed towards offering you any help they may.

[Hostile Environment]: Due to the unique nature of your physical body, foreign substances have a hard time persisting within your physical body. Poisons, Viruses, and Physical Curses will be 50% less effective against you. This Title scales with Endurance.

[Scarred Heart]: Any goal you pursue motivated by a deep heart desire will be met with an unparalleled opportunity by the System. “Guard your Heart, for out of it will flow Unimaginable Strength.”

[A Divine Wind]: When you attack an opponent more than double your level while holding their full attention, you gain a 25% bonus to your attack power.

Shuji rubbed his mustache and muttered to himself as Tilly read, harumphing at certain points and nodding to himself at others. As Tilly finished his last title, he turned towards Shuji who didn't seem to notice he had stopped reading. Tilly himself couldn't help but catch that despite everything he had been through, Corruption's influence had still gone up two percentage points at some point in the battle.

That more or less overshadowed the joy he would have had at seeing the increases in his hatchet-related skills and the surprisingly useful Spirit Walk skill. The only other real change besides his level up was the new ability, Wrath's Shroud which seemed like a continuous lower-intensity version of Flame Expulsion. Whatever else it was, it would certainly be a useful addition, especially now that he had an alternative source of mana. Even if that source robbed him of leveling progress.

All of this and more tumbled around in Tilly's mind as he eagerly looked forward to receiving some sort of context for all the numbers and terms he had been interacting with since day one.

“Well, what do you think?" Tilly finally asked, interrupting the lapin's fugue.

“Ah." He said, breaking away from his musings, "You already had an interesting class when we first met, but now it has grown into a build, unlike anything I have ever read about in the libraries. Am I right in my understanding that you do not receive new Abilities as you level?”

“Yeah. Instead, they come to me at moments when I experience intense emotion. But the process doesn’t seem to be predictable. It just kind of happens.”

Shuji continued to stroke his mustache thoughtfully as he began to get lost again in his thoughts muttering to himself, “Perhaps from a previous epoch, his system compatibility seems both abnormally low and high for a Progenitor class...”

“What is a Progenitor class?” Tilly broke in again, beginning to feel like he was interrupting a private conversation.

“Oh! Goodness me! Mooning over new data like a fresh librarian's assistant! Very sorry, I am here to advise you after all." He sputtered, coming to himself again.

"Some of what I will share with you is theory, but much of our understanding of the plane and your place in it as humans continues to change. It is hotly debated whether we are a derivative of your world or the other way around. Most tend to see what happens on Nephesh as the leading edge of the entire cycle of existence. Our scholarship is very likely biased in this regard. Yet it is well known that in this place ideals, concepts, and even certain embodiments of culture struggle for supremacy. To be a god on this plane is to embody an ideal or concept so completely that it determines your course of action as much as you affect its meaning. What we saw over the capital was the temporary manifestation of humanity's concept of the serpent for example.”

“Whatever it was, it's gone now. That guy got destroyed before I entered the portal,” Tilly cut in, thinking Shuji would want to know.

“No, you saw its manifestation disrupted. The serpent will live on in some form as long as it has believers. The Cult itself exists to propagate terror of its power across the plane. It was weakened for certain, but not destroyed.”

“Excuse me for saying this, but didn't your Goddess die? That's what Hiro said.”

“Not exactly, She gave up much of her sapience to empower the two swords that are our people’s heritage, and create a sovereign crystal that has been our people's Promise through the generations,” Shuji explained solemnly, enjoying the gravity of the legends of his people.

“Uggh! So many questions! Every time you answer one, another comes comes up! I want to know what this Promise is, but first, I want to talk about my Character Sheet and what is up with my class. I have gathered that other people gain Abilities along with their levels, but for some reason, I don’t. What does that mean?”

“Ah, yes! Progenitor classes! It is well documented by interviews with your kind that time does not flow parallel here to your world, rather our two times, and perhaps others, weave in and around each other-”

At that, Tilly looked up sharply, the memory of what he saw in his grandfather's cabin burning brightly in his mind's eye. Shuji seemed not to notice,

“But both of our worlds progress together, and both have experienced Epochs of change. Not much is known about them besides that they mark a major shift in the way power and influence are defined by the System governing our world. They are generally referred to as-”

“Shuji-" Tilly interrupted, - “My class. What can you tell me about it, and what do you think about my stat distribution? I'm sure the rest of this is important. But that is what I need to know now.”

“Ah, yes. My apologies. In these times, I get so little chance to share my passions… Well, it is my theory that your class is perhaps derived from the very first Epoch of power on Nephesh. The Epoch of The Hunter and The Prey. Any concepts that have survived from that time are extremely powerful and I believe your class is the current system's attempt to quantify the embodiment of an ancient power. We call classes not native to this Epoch, Progenitor classes. The system will continue to attempt to quantify your effect on the world, but the actual mechanics of your advancement will defy and at times, break the typical rules governing classes and powers on this plane.” At this he paused, taking a moment to take in Tilly again, some hint of awe shading his eyes,

“Humans are almost always agents of change, renewing conflict in our world, and making sure established power structures are always in question. But I think you represent something much greater than that. I heard from the soldiers what you did outside of the city, and all of us saw the flames. Something like that should only be possible at much higher levels… But it seems you have arrived on the eve of great conflict on our Plane, and in you, we find a way, perhaps, to counter the new dark power that is rising.”