Kid sat against a tree as he checked over his status and looked at the new titles.

Name: -

ID(Hidden): 1095341C47-9

Sex: M

Age: 17

Lvl: 2 *(12)

Exp: 562/9

SP: 2

Species: Cambion(T2)

Race: Etherai, Blood Demon

Role: N/A

Sta: 146.3/146.3

(Vig/2)

Sta Reg: 62.7/hr

(Dex/5)

Mana: 170.3/170.3

(Mag/2)

Mana Reg: 43.2/hr

(Mnd/10 +50%+4%)

--- Vig Dex

Vit: 95.9

(94.1+2%)

Con: 104

(102+2%)

Str: 92.8

(91+2%) Fin: 101.5

(88.1+10+1.5+2%) Agi: 106.7

(93.2+10+1.5+2%) Spd: 105.5

(92+10+1.5+2%) Mnd Mag Int: 91

(89.3+2%) Wis: 98

(96.1+2%)

Will: 91.8

(90+2%)

For: 113.2

(95+10+5+1+2%) Pow: 111.1

(93+10+5+1+2%) Spi: 116.3

(98.1+10+5+1+2%) --- Class: N/A Lvl: 0 Exp: 0/0 Skills: 1. ---

Traits:

Angel Blood, Bidirectional Hearing, Blindsight(ground sense, hearing, water)(5 meters), Blood Domain, Blood Magic Affinity, Glossophobia, Bloodhound, Carnivorous, Curse Absorbent(blood), Dark Magic Affinity, Demon Blood, Dragon Blood, Endoskeleton, Farsight, Four-limbed(bipedal), Kinetic Vision, Night Vision, Nosocomephobia, Trypanophobia(minor)

Racial Skills:

1. Blood Magic(T2) (2) 3. Detect Life(T1) (5) 2. Minor Regeneration(T2) (2) 4. Meditation(T1) (4) 5. Dark Magic(T1) (1)

General Skills:

1. Identify(T1) (4) 4. Drawing(T1) (3) 2. Magic Circle(T1) (3) 5. Precision(T1) (2) 3. Mana Manipulation(T1) (4) Ultimate Skills:

Titles:

Adrenaline Junkie, Deadeye, Double Death, Guerilla, Hand of Death

Abilities(Hidden):

Blood Manipulation, Draconic Might, Enduring Mana, Mana Burst, Unholy Intimidation

Potential Skills (Hidden):

Aiming(T1), Dismantling(T1), Jogging(T1), Knife(T1), Sneak(T1)

*Awaiting Level Up

Adrenaline Junkie: Condition: Get an adrenaline rush at least three times within an hour. Passive: Gain the Adrenaline Boost ability. Active: Also all skills are considered 2 levels higher and gain +5% while Adrenaline Boost is active.

Adrenaline Boost: Permanent passive ability. Whenever the individual is under the effects of an adrenaline rush they also receive a +10% to Dex and Vig stats.

Deadeye: Condition: Use a handgun to kill something with a headshot at more than 25 meters. Passive: Increase accuracy with handguns by +5%. Active: Also increase accuracy with revolvers by 5%.

Double Death: Condition: Kill an enemy at the same time that it kills you. Passive: Gain +5% damage against anything actively trying to harm you. Active: Revive in the last temple visited upon death. 30 day cooldown.

Guerilla: Condition: Attack a superior force with an inferior force while using more and smaller attacks and the advantages of nearby terrain to come out victorious. Passive: Gain +5% to damage dealt and stealth skills and abilities when against a superior force. Active: Gain +5% to damage and stealth skills and abilities.

Hand of Death: Condition: Kill something with a total of stats equal to 5x your own or greater and a level of 5x your own or greater by yourself. Passive: Gain +5% to damage dealt. Gain +1% to damage dealt for every 7 levels more the opponent has. Active: Also gain the ability Instant Death.

Instant Death: On use creates a charge of deadly, unstable death mana which can be used to enhance a weapon or spell. The next living struck by the death mana charge will have their stamina and mana immediately depleted, their Vit stat gain -100%, and their soul forcibly pushed from their body, typically resulting in immediate death. Mana cost: 20 mana per every mana charged. 7 day cooldown.

He just stared at his titles for a little while before finally choosing to equip Guerilla. Until it was time to head to the second layer it would probably prove to be the most helpful aside from maybe Hand of Death. The problem with Hand of Death was that he wasn't sure if the cooldown on the ability would affect when he could change titles. Similarly with Double Death, which he planned to swap over to right before going to the next layer, he wasn't sure if his current 'new arrival respawn' would or if its active respawn ability would take effect the next time he died...if he died again...and if it did whether it would affect him changing titles.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

With that done he moved on to his level ups and tried to figure out what to do with each stat point that he had to place before getting the next level up. He ended up putting 2 points into his Int, 2 into his Spi, and 6 into his Fin stats. It was a nice thing to learn that he didn't have to spend the points he got from his species like he did with the normal points. There was also now some signs in his role and class spots that indicated he could now get a role and a class. He gave it some serious thought and then finally decided to go ahead and pick up the Hunter role. Along with that he also spent the 5 points needed to buy the Block Identify skill and dropped Drawing for it while hoping his newly improved Finesse stat and Precision skill would make up for it.

He was feeling pretty good about his current situation when he realized that his revolver was still not reloaded. As he was finishing that he saw Randy finally approaching, apparently done with the work he had been doing. Kid holstered the gun and stood up to get ready to go again. He looked around for a little bit and couldn't see the monster corpse anywhere which confused him slightly. Randy seemed to understand his confusion and gave him a simple explanation.

"Once you get to a certain point it's always advisable to have some kind of spatial storage. Most people start using nothing but at around the fifth layer or so. Anyways, hop on. I want to get back as soon as possible before the rest of my students feel abandoned."

***

While on the way back Kid admitted to having leveled up enough to buy Block Identify which Randy didn't seem surprised by and even offered advice for. As soon as he reached the second layer he would no longer be under system protection which would allow identifying skills to work on him, including his own. Using Identify on himself after every little change, including gaining even 1 experience, would count as a separate use of Identify and his blocking skill would try to block it as well, leveling both up. It was a similar idea to using magic to hurt oneself constantly to boost both the magic skill and its corresponding resistance skill.

Kid sold the meat, skin, and antlers to the guild once he was back in the town and made a total of 60 coins from it due to the poor condition it was in. Before he left Randy and the guild to talk about the manticore, he asked about where he could and should be hunting and was told a few spots along with what he was expected to encounter. He thanked Randy for the help and left to check the area around his tree for some simple and quick prey like rabbits to practice his magic. Rabbits wouldn't give a lot of experience but made for good Blood Magic casting material and their pelts could still be sold.

Over the course of the next 8 days he spent most of his time alone to practice and improve his skills, hunt deer and rabbits, and occasionally learn what he could in the library. He did make some time to also order some new clothes, as recommended, from the tailor. He noticed that his Dark Magic was starting to advance quite a bit quicker than his Blood Magic, which made sense due to the tier difference. As far as his Precision skill went, he was reasonably happy with it even though he couldn't notice a real difference with it yet and wished it would just level faster. All in all it was a fairly relaxing time for him where he got to enjoy trying to learn magic and new spells.

It was after those 8 days during a time where he had just dropped off some of the meat and pelts at the guild for some money when he encountered Randy leading one young woman through the streets. He was quickly spotted and waved over. He let out a sigh and decided to see what his supposed mentor needed. They had barely seen each other since the manticore incident much less conversed so he wasn't sure if there was another problem or anything that he needed to be warned of.

"Hello my wayward charge. Good news, Rana here is the last of my original group to be heading to the next layer. We're heading there right now and after that you get to have my full attention. Aren't you excited?"

"Umm...I guess? Honestly I was kind of enjoying the last week..."

"Well, you can't stay here forever. Not as a salient, at least. Swapping over to be a resident would make any troubles you've been through up to now end up kind of pointless, though. Anyways, let's head over to the temple's gate and let the little miss here move on."

Kid fell in behind the two and walked on in silence. There wasn't a lot he could think of to talk with either of them about at the moment even if he wanted to so he just listened to Randy giving small and helpful tips about what to do and how to live to his last original student. Once they got to the temple Randy led them through the maze of hallways as if he had lived there his entire life until they reached what looked like a dead end. Closer inspection revealed that there was an arch-like pattern engraved on the wall, which Randy reached out and touched while whispering something. Soon enough the entire wall inside of the arch pattern began shining in what Kid could only describe as silvered rainbow colors. I looked kind of like there was a strange soap bubble covering the area.

"Alright, Rana. Even though I did it for you this time, I've explained how to open gates before so from now on you'll have to do it yourself. This one is connected to the main guild in Second City so you should be able to make your away around without too much difficulty. Good luck in your future goals."

"Thanks. And I heard that you," she turned to look at Kid, "have been through some difficult stuff and kind of got left behind. I hope you can make it to level ten and catch up quickly."

She took a deep breath as she turned towards the glowing wall and stepped into it, disappearing from sight. A few moments later the glowing stopped and looked like a normal wall again. Kid reached out and touched the wall only to feel stone at his fingertips. He wasn't entirely sure why he felt that he had needed to test it like that but he did find it kind of interesting. He heard a small snort behind him and turned to see Randy looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Well?"

"Well what," he asked Randy back, not entirely sure what was being asked of him.

"Never mind. So, out of curiosity, what level are you at?"

"Twelve."

"Oh? What class did you grab?"

"I haven't yet. I read that classes take experience away from species levels and figured I should raise that as much as I can first before I bother with classes. What better way to do that than to use my current pseudo-immortality? At least, that was the idea. Recently I've been working more on my skills, though."

"I see. That's...actually not too terrible of an idea. That being the case, why don't we go ahead and start heading out to some of the better hunting spots, then? I'm pretty sure, considering what you've already faced and beaten, that a little hunting while I'm teaching you won't be too much of a distraction and you can get levels faster that way. That said, are there any questions about anything in general you want to ask?"

"Uh...there's one that I've been wanting to ask for a while, I guess, that everyone kept telling me would be answered but never was."

"Oh? Well, go ahead. I'm now your full time mentor and teacher, so I'm here to help you as much as you need."

"Sure. So, what is Aeon? What are the Trials? Why where we pulled away from our worlds or whatever?"

"Hmm. I guess that would be something to ask. Alright, let's do it like this. I'll tell you now that I can't verify how much is absolutely true but enough has been proven to be true that the rest is pretty much considered true as well. This is pretty common knowledge, too.

There are many versions of reality. Or universes. Or worlds. Whatever you want to call it. Anyways, a long long looonnngg time ago each of them had their own...um...overseers I guess we can call them. Some universes had multiple overseers, while others shared a single overseer across multiple universes. The most common thing the people living in each universe called these overseers was 'gods'. Although there were some exceptions, most of these gods who held separate universes from the others were not on very friendly terms with each other. This resulted in both fights between them as well as some attempts to mess with each other's realms. This is actually the reason that many of the C-type universes, like where you came from, still knew about things from A-types and D-types, such as dragons and demons. These gods, as much as they fought, also often took ideas from one another, hence why there are so many universes that are similar or practically the same.

Now, how time works in any one particular universe could also be adjusted slightly in some ways that I can't really understand since I'm not a god myself. This resulted in some advanced ideas and cultures sometimes getting pushed across them as well. The problem was that the gods didn't want to fight god to god since the few times it had happened proved that it would result in the destruction of multiple universes. Instead they settled on making a few rules of engagement, which all of them heavily enforced. This caused several things to happen. First, it depleted their personal forces more rapidly than anticipated. Second, it caused more confusion and havoc in the realms they watched over than expected. And third, it caused more camaraderie and friendships to form than expected.

Eventually, three groups formed from this. The first group was incredibly antagonistic to even the idea of a truce, peace, or friendship between the various universes' gods. They actually enjoyed the conflicts so much that they wanted them to not only continue but escalate further, even it cost them all of their peoples. The second group, although not particularly keen on the idea of true peace or friendship, was at least willing to entertain the ideas of truces and slightly more peaceful interactions to some extent. They didn't want to get too involved in anything further though, instead choosing to focus more on their own business, and decided to be essentially neutral. The last group was made of the gods who had had mostly enough of messing with each other in the ways they had been. They grouped together and decided to make a whole new universe, created with a combination of their resources and jointly ruled by them all.

The first group wasn't happy about it, though, and before it could be fully completed was destroyed. Thus they decided to start a second project. Their individual forces were low, universes lacking resources and defenses, and some who had believed in the creation of the first combined universe too much lost even more. They all needed not just more but better forces. So in their new project they each poured in some of their power in order to create a system that would test people while helping them grow in order to find champions, followers, and forces. They wanted those willing, though. So they set it up so that those without the drive or desire could still have a life they could be proud of. Once everything was set up, they began calling souls from each of their universes and, occasionally through some deal or another, even from some of the neutral universes.

Thus Aeon was created. The Aeon Trials are basically a way for people to prove themselves to the gods by improving themselves and advancing forward. Not all gods are looking for the same things in their followers but most of them are willing to give minor boons to their followers to help them get through the Trials. There's even a rumor that if you can prove yourself enough that the gods would allow you to become one of them. So, I guess the best way to say it would be that the Aeon Trials is a way to find a goal in your life and achieve it. Want to become a god? Want to find like-minded people? Want to create your own society? Want to just get stronger? Want to live a life of relative freedom? As long as you can prove that you have the ability then you can get or do almost anything. With any luck you might even find a god that you can accept and that can accept you. I probably didn't fully answer that as well as I should have but hopefully it was good enough."

Kid thought about what he had heard for a while. Randy was kind enough to stay mostly silent and just watch over him for the rest of the day as they hunted some of the higher level monsters of the area. There was only a little bit of light discussion here and there, some of which was about dismantling the things that had been hunted, and the rest was mostly just advice during the hunt. Kid put most of his thought into what exactly he wanted from the Trials, though. Did he want to find a god to follow? Did he even really want to keep striving for some kind of indeterminate reward? Did he even have a goal? They were all questions that he wasn't sure he had a good answer to yet.