Cass started with the simplest something.

“Accept Avatar,” she said to the window floating before her.

She wanted to save the points for later when she had at least the smallest idea of what was going on.

She was banking on her experience with video games. She expected either they would be saved or the system would give her an error message that the screen couldn’t be closed until all points were distributed. Losing the points when the window closed seemed unlikely.

Nothing happened.

Anti-climactic after all the worry she’d put into those two words.

“I accept my avatar?” No change.

“Confirm avatar?” Nothing.

“I, Cassandra Yuan, accept this avatar.” Nahdah.

“I, Cass, accept this avatar.” The screen flicked out of existence before flicking back a moment later. She scanned it, but the only difference was the name field had changed.

Name: Cass

So, whatever was happening, it was listening to her.

“Confirm Avatar.” She tried one more time. Again, nothing happened.

The free points then, she supposed. Biting her lip she looked over the fields again.

[Str - 4 Dex - 3 End - 4

Wll - 16 Ala - 9 Res - 12

Frt - 3 Per - 5Vit - 7]

3 points to distribute over 9 stats.

This hardly seemed advisable, given she didn’t know what challenges she’d run into, or what a third of these did. What if she was dumped out in front of a monster right away? Slimes or zombies or wolves or something.

Then you should run away, she told herself. No amount of supernatural stats was going to change the fact she had never been in a fight.

Doubling her current physical strength was not going to help. Even if she was pitted against the weakest of monsters she’d seen on TV or in video games it was going to end poorly for her.

Escape should be the goal. That meant speed.

Except, there wasn’t a “speed” or a “Spd” stat. There was a “Dex” which was probably dexterity, which was frequently tied to speed, but not always. And if it had more to do with throwing daggers than sprinting as fast as possible away from the vicious jaws of a hungry wolf, she wasn’t interested in it.

Maybe End then? That was almost certainly endurance, which had to be related to how long she could sprint. Assuming she was going to be dropped in immediate (and escapable at her current speed) danger, that was the way to go.

Except, if the danger was faster than her current speed, it didn’t matter how long she could run away.

Which brought the question back to which stat would make her faster? Dexterity was the stat favored by speedster or assassin classes in most games, but in reality, it was leg muscle (ie strength) which powered the sprinter’s flight. Which would be more useful in this context for her goal?

There was another wrinkle in her Endurance plans. It assumed the danger was immediate.

But what if it wasn’t? What if the danger was lurking? What if it was waiting in ambush? Then avoiding it was more important than running away. Which meant stealth to avoid being seen and the awareness to see it.

Stealth had to be governed by Dexterity if it was governed by anything on this list. There was no guarantee that it was, but nothing she could do in that case. Awareness obviously meant Perception.

That brought her to two votes for Dex, one for Str, one for End, and one for Per.

She hated that she had no context. Everything so far assumed she’d end up in a fantasy land and need to fight (or run from) monsters. And, based on the races on the list she’d seen, that seemed like a good guess.

But there were stories of space elves and space dwarves. What would happen if she was in a sci-fi world? Would there be crazy augmentations that made any physical stats obsolete? Would she need strength if it was ray guns and plasma rifles rather than swords and spears? Would there even be that kind of conflict?

And maybe she’d land in a perfectly civilized place. She had certainly never needed any particular strength or endurance on Earth. How could she be so sure she would need it wherever she ended up? Maybe specializing in what she was already strong at was the better option.

She was spinning her wheels. There was no right answer here. Or if there was, there was no way for her to divine it from the information she had available. She needed to just pick something.

She was level one. If this was like a video game, she’d get more points at level 2, and more again at level 3, and so on. This was likely permanent, but not in a critical way.

She took a deep breath. Endurance and Dexterity. That seemed like the most likely stats to get her out of immediate danger and keep her alive to make another move. She’d start with that. She was about to verbalize her choices when, unprompted, the values changed before her eyes.

Dex 3 -> 5

End 4 -> 5

It had known what she’d decided without her saying it out loud. It could read her mind.

She inhaled sharply and boxed that thought up and shoved it to the corner.

She breathed out and focused back on her body. She didn’t feel any different. Sitting on the ground, she didn’t feel any more dexterous or any more enduring.

Maybe she was overthinking everything. Maybe these were abstract and not tied to her physical body in any way. Maybe the points spread out across two stats were too small of a difference to notice.

Maybe it was because she was sitting still in a place with nothing in it.

She shook her head, not sure if she was glad that she didn’t seem any different or disappointed.

She willed her acceptance of her current stats screen into the void. Nothing happened.

“Accept Avatar,” she said. Maybe some of these needed verbal prompting?

Again, nothing happened.

She clicked her tongue. Really? Still? It wasn’t the free points then? Maybe she could have saved them for later then. No way to know. No point in dwelling on it. But it frustrated her.

How did she get out of here?

Did she need to make a change to every field? Every field that was available to change?

She was pretty sure that there was no way to level up in the void. Leveling up usually required some sort of experience in video games. And while being stuck in an unnatural void was definitely an experience, it wasn’t the death-fueled experience gained by killing monsters which was the usual video game level-up currency.

And frankly, that was a good thing as far as she was concerned. She did not like the idea of fighting anything that might naturally live in an empty void world. Especially not when it had been eldritch tentacles that had brought her here.

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Especially when she was unarmed and there was nowhere to run.

Besides leveling up, there was Race and Concept.

Race she already knew could be changed, though she really would rather not go touching that willy-nilly if she could avoid it. Becoming a graceful elf princess had a certain appeal but not more than the idea of her body changing at that level freaked her out.

Also, the goal was to get home. And there were no elves at home.

So that left Concept. Which was still aptly “None”.

“What is Concept?” she asked. Her Race options had popped up when she’d asked after all.

Nothing happened.

She frowned. How had she phrased the race question?

“What Concepts are there?” Resounding silence. “How do I get a Concept?”

Oh boy, was this not an effective verbal interface. “Help?”

Not a thing changed.

She groaned. Was that it then? She had to change race? Why even pre-populate these fields if you were going to fill them with invalid data?

Elf princess it was then? She looked over the box of options and her eyes bugged out. Her list of options had dropped precipitously. From the uncountably many options she’d had a moment ago, she was down to 4:

Human

Slyphid

Eldryn

Demizar

Where had all her choices gone? The System did not deign to answer. She had a suspicion though. She glared at the Human entry on the window and to her surprise and relief, additional information displayed itself beneath the scroll window of options.

Human - a prolific but short-lived race with a great degree of variation brought on by unbound desire and varying nature.

+3 free points per level

+2 Frt, +1 Vit Base

She wasted no time, focusing on the rest one after another.

Slyphid - born of Aether and Storms, a race not yet set in their path, still beholden to the potential of Mana and not the certainties of Flesh.

+1 Dex, +1 Ala, +1 End, +4 free points per level

+2 Dex, +1 End Base

Eldryn - a race acclimated to the order and finality of the void, beyond the keen of Flesh, forever bound to ########.

+1 Frt, +5 Wll, +2 Str, +12 free points per level

+12 Wll, -5 Res, -4 End, -4 Vit Base

Demizar - born of Flame and Shadow, a race not yet set in their path but dreaming of force unending.

+2 Str, +1 Wll, +1 Frt, +3 free points per level

+1 Str, +1 Wll, +1 Frt Base

She nodded. Her suspicion, though far from confirmed, was supported by what she saw here. All the races listed had at least 3 free points to spend. She was doubtful in the entire list there were only four with 3 or more, but the fact that one of her options also had significant negatives attached to the base stats, and none of those changes would put any of those values below 1 suggested a number of those 3-free-point or greater races had other downsides which would have put a stat in an out of bound value.

Add that Human had only free points, no specific points per level up, and a description suggesting they were unusually versatile, she was willing to bet that 3 free points per level was actually quite high and usually accompanied by several pre-set points as well.

At the end of the day though, it didn’t matter. These were her choices.

She looked over them again, surprised by how much worse Human looked compared to the other three. Was there no concept of balance or fairness and humans had a short straw? Or were there advantages to being human that weren’t obvious from a numbers perspective? Likely, it was a little bit of both.

But again, it didn’t matter. It looked like she needed to change her race if she wanted to get out of here, so there was no point in worrying about the hidden benefits Human might grant.

That left the other three: Slyphid, Eldryn, and Demizar.

Three options she’d never heard of in any media she’d ever consumed.

She started with Eldryn. The description called them “acclimated to the … void” which was where she was now. Probably. Unless some other big, empty, dark place more void-ish than this void existed and this was some other temporary holding space.

Cass stared out at the emptiness around her. There wasn’t a single sound. No light. No nothing.

This was probably the void.

Becoming an Eldryn might give her a clue on how to get out. The stats attached to it were also exceptional. 20 stat points per level? Most of them free to do with as she pleased?

Sure there were a lot of negatives in the Base stats, but she already had plenty of Wll, it was her highest stat by far and she could probably stand to lower it initially.

She was less jazzed at the lower End. Run-away-with-high-endurance was still her primary strategy. Then again, she would get another 9 free points to distribute as she wanted, which meant she could put it right back.

The “forever bound to #######” bit at the end of the flavor text made her hesitate. Bound to what, exactly? Their sterling morals? A particular place? A crazed god? Were gods real where she was going? More to the point, were they active participants in the world? Either way, it seemed like being bound to something would be an obstacle to going home.

She moved on. Slyphid and Demizar had equal stats, +7 per level, +3 base. Their descriptions were similar too, one associated with storms and the other with fire, both saying something about their path being unset, whatever that meant.

She wished she knew what that meant. Wished it didn’t sound kind of ominous.

The biggest difference was one favored Dex and the other Str. Maybe that shouldn’t be the deciding factor, but she had no idea what else would be.

This was probably a critical choice. It was unlikely she’d get another chance to change her mind. She had no idea how she’d change back before going home. Maybe she’d get a chance to confirm her Avatar on the return trip too.

She hoped so as she selected Slyphid and her body exploded around her.

The pain was unimaginable, but instantaneous. It ended as soon as it had begun. One moment, fractures of pain ran over every inch of her skin, lacing through every muscle, diving through her bone. The next, she had no skin, no muscle, no bone. She was nothing but a ball of energy exploding out into the void.

She could feel herself dispersing, being spread evenly across infinity until there was nothing left. Was this how she died? Not even knowing what had happened to her.

No, there was a core in the center where her consciousness was tethered. The rest of her rippled out, flying off in every direction. Even if she did nothing, she would survive this.

But would she still be herself?

Who would she be when she reformed if parts of her were gone?

She was certain now she would reform. It was a gut feeling. Unfounded. Instinctual.

But then, so was breathing.

She had to stop the explosion. Had to draw every bit of herself back to that core. But how did one will an explosion into stopping?

She had no hands, but she grabbed after the expelled energy anyway. She had no arms, but she reached after it. No mouth, but she swallowed it back into herself.

The pain was back. Crushing now. Self-inflicted. It wouldn’t hurt if she just let go. She was certain. Her instinct screamed the pain would be over if she let the energy spread as it had. But she couldn’t let it go. Refused to let it go.

The energy compressed in and in and in. On itself and itself.

It crushed her.

Like she couldn’t breathe.

Like the world pressed in on her from every direction.

Like a star collapsing in on itself.

But something was forming. It was braided from the energy she’d pulled in. Built from the energy siphoned off her core.

A torso. A head. Arms. Legs.

It hurt, and finally, she had a mouth to scream. The air of the void expelled from newly formed lungs in a cry of desperation and pain.

And then there was nothing.

She lay in the void, panting, a dull pain ringing through every inch of her body.

Her new body.

A weight pressed against her chest. An almost bloated feeling filled the pit of her stomach.

But it was over.

She stared down at her hands. To her eyes, they looked the same as before. Gingerly, she stood. There was no point of reference in the void, but she didn’t seem any taller or shorter. Her stomach looked no slimmer.

She grimaced, noticing her clothes were scattered around her. But walking was no more painful or difficult than it had been before. In a few minutes, she’d dressed herself again. All fit as she had expected it to.

Except the already fading pain and her clothes scattered a moment ago she could have almost believed she’d imagined herself exploding. Almost.

Could she leave yet?

As if summoned at the thought, a window popped up before her eyes.

Trait Gained: Bloated Soul

[You managed to hold onto all the mana making up your original body and incorporated it into your Slyphid core. Triple mana core storage.]

The window disappeared before she had a chance to process what any of that meant, replaced with a familiar screen.

Searching for Entry Zone…

[Confirm Avatar Settings:

Name: Cass

Race: Slyphid

Lvl: 1

Str - 4 Dex - 7 End - 6

Wll - 16 Ala - 9 Res - 12

Frt - 1 Per - 5 Vit - 6

Free Points: 1

Concepts:

- None]

“I confirm these settings,” she said, verbally and mentally insisting to the system that she was happy with them. Again nothing. Did she need to finish applying the free points now that she had more of them?

Then she should probably—

The window blinked out, replaced with another.

Nearest Entry Zone now valid.

[Entry Zone Selected.

Avatar Settings Confirmed.

Beginning Avatar Transfer. ]

“What?”

A wall appeared in the void ahead of her, sliding toward her at an even speed. She tried to turn away from it, but even as she turned, it remained before her. Was she truly moving at all?

It slid into her. Sliding past her. Like an opaque soap bubble, it enveloped her.

The last thing she saw before it slid past her and popped was another system message, this one simply saying:

Good Luck!