When Ma’Z woke the next morning, he felt surprisingly rejuvenated despite the relatively short day he had last night. Yawning, he sat up looking at the bright rays of light spilling in from the far window. Heaven was already up, sitting at a table scratching away at something against an easel that he couldn’t make out from his position.

Out of habit he reached for his phone, then stopped himself once he remembered they didn’t exist here.

Or did they?

Looking at his bedside nightstand, there was a pair of objects sitting there that he didn’t remember seeing the night before.

“What’s this?” he asked.

Heaven stiffened, then relaxed before looking over at her fiancé. She gave him an easy smile and said, “That’s a communicator. Basically a cell. It works as a paired device. The longer one has a built-in track pad. You hold click it until a prompt appears asking if you want to pair it with your UI. Once paired, you simply click the button below it to confirm, then a list of your contacts will pop up. You can then scroll to the contact, click it, and then click again to call. Then click one more time to end the call. The smaller one slides behind your ear. You don’t need to do anything special. Once paired, you just press it behind your ear and it’ll conform to the shape of your ear, and outside of getting bonked in the head, you’ll basically forget it’s even there.”

“Ahh, nice,” Ma’Z said wasting no time to pair it up. He noticed it listed himself and Heaven as potential choices. Selecting himself, the view shifted slightly, leaving only Heaven in his field of view as she was his only contact at the moment. Once he pressed the small bar to his ear, he waited as it seemed to semi-meld itself to his head and sat snugly behind his ear.

“Nice. So what’cha working on?” he asked.

“I’m trying to come up with a new booster design for Oraria. The poor girl doesn’t even have an epic. I’m hoping to remedy that.”

“I kind of want to shoot her, if I’m being honest.”

“You’ll probably get your turn but killing her isn’t an option.”

“Yeah, yeah. You need any help?”

“Nah, I’m still planning it out. Maybe once I get to fabrication, but for now, you got your own experiment to carry out, don’t you?”

“Ah yeah,” Ma’Z yawned, “Got anything to eat?”

“I left my card on the nightstand. You should be able to find some food and drink in there.”

“All praise the bag of holding.”

“All praise a good cook.”

“Huh?”

Heaven winked but said nothing more.

“Strange woman,” he muttered, rolling over in the bed to pick up the card. He rifled around for a moment before he found what he was looking for. He gave a dubious look at Heaven as he pulled out a piece of jerky and a juice box and sat it on the nightstand.

She responded by performing a chef’s kiss.

It was a far cry from what he had last night, but if that’s what she felt she was in the mood for, who was he to argue. Plus, he had no desire to cook either and beggars and all that.

So, with a grunt, he took a bite of the jerky, and instantly praised his new god after he’d taken his first masticating chew

“Holy shit, that’s good,” he exclaimed.

The cackle of laughter that followed instantly made him regret his earlier criticism. “Never doubt the cook, yautshi,” she gloated.

This is criminal, how good this is, he thought somewhat bitterly.

In no time, he was finished, barely having taken a moment to revel in the swarm of flavors he was assaulted with. He practically preened when he took a sip of the juice box to wash down his meal. It was hardly a few minutes before he was done, feeling incredibly satiated for how little he ate, but after another minute of savoring the meal, he decided it was time to get to work.

“Stats.”

The display widened in front of him, showing his character sheet as it did before. Chewing his bottom lip, he figured he’d start with his physical attributes first. “Ti Ara Gate,” he said next. His character sheet melted away and what awaited him was a prompt.

For your bravery, you have advanced to Blooded, granting you 20 AP!

In addition, you have unlocked the advancement menu. Please look over your options to decide how you wish to advance as a Sentinel class Rider.

“Oh shit. Yeah. I totally forgot I was supposed to settle on my advancement method,” he said aloud. “Babe? You got any suggestions on advancement?”

“Just click the tab. It’ll explain it all, and you can choose from there,” was all she said.

Ma’Z looked in her direction, but decided to trust her and just look. With a mental click, he opened the Advancement Tab and read over his options.

Advancement:

Cultivator: A cultivator gathers ætheric energy from their surroundings using the elemental forces to augment their attacks and abilities.

Pros: Great for advancement of the Idan Gate. Cultivators boast unparalleled magical prowess, able to gain additional spell slots beyond the normal maximum.

Cons: Cultivators tend to have weaker constitutions, only gaining advancement in the Ti Ara Gate upon reaching a new tier.

Progressor: A progressor gathers ætheric energy within, strengthening themselves physically and mentally, heightening the reflexes of both mind and body.

Pros: Great for advancement of the Ti Ara Gate. Progressors advance at an accelerated pace via levels and can gain additional abilities beyond the normal maximum.

Cons: Progressors tend to be weak in magic, being much slower to raise their elemental affinity, often leading them to concentrate on raising one or two elements.

Warning! This is a hidden advancement path given only to those with silver or gold affinity.

Inheritor: An inheritor gathers ætheric energy from both within and without, having the ability to strengthen their bodies while also having adept magical prowess

Pros: Great for advancing both gates. Inheritors have the unique ability to gain magic, abilities, and traits from conquered foes. While they can’t gain additional spells slots or abilities, they can swap them for stronger/different ones.

Cons: Inheritors have the slowest advancement of all disciplines as they move ætheric energy throughout their bodies and their environment.

Ma’Z sat stunned looking at the third option. He had advanced a tier immediately for helping defeat a monster that was leagues above anything he should’ve been able to handle. Now with that leg up, he effectively eliminated what could have been weeks of grinding to reach the next tier. Plus it gave him access to additional spells and abilities. What wasn’t there to like?

Mentally, Ma’Z made his choice.

Congratulations, you have chosen the Inheritor Advancement Path.

Would you like a preview of each gate and their description?

[Yes] [No]

Ma’Z mentally selected yes, and watched as his character sheet melted away, replaced by two windows, aplty named the Ti Ara Gate and the Idan Gate.

Selecting the Ti Ara Gate, the window expanded showing him five nodes labeled might, reflexes, intellect, and will in a square configuration, with durability set in the center.

There was a line connected to each node, all of whom intersected with durability. Selecting each on in turn, Ma’Z read the description on each node to get an idea of how each stat was broken down.

Might – governs physical prowess. A higher might score directly increases the ability to lift, push, pull, carry, and throw objects that can be physically manipulated. Each increase results in a 20% increase above a base of 450 kg.

Reflex – governs physical agility and nimbleness. A high Reflex score directly impacts one’s perception of time and space and reaction time. Each increase results in a 2 kph increase in speed above 40 kph, and reaction time is increased by 2ms above a base of 200ms.

Durability – governs robustness of mind and body. A high durability score directly impacts one’s pain threshold and overall physical and mental stamina. Each increase in durability reduces harm by a factor of 1 and increases stamina by 1 hour above a base of 5 hours.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Intellect – governs computational power. A high intellect score directly impacts one’s ability to multitask and process information. Each increase increases computational speed by .2 per second above a base of 5 per second.

Tenacity – measures concentration. A high tenacity score allows one to maintain concentration while under duress and directly improves spell efficiency. Each increase in tenacity raises concentration and efficiency by 2% above a base of 30 seconds.

So Durability is essentially the god node, Ma’Z thought to himself. Any increase in Durability would essentially increases the robustness of any of the other stats, increasing their effectiveness, like reinforcing bones so he could run faster or lift bigger weights, or strengthening his mental faculties to cope with doing multiple complex calculations on the fly or remembering things under stress. Of course, all of that was irrelevant without increasing any of the relevant stats, thus the interdependency.

He had 20 AP to distribute, and he was thankful that the descriptions were written in his own language and not the native terminology that everyone else seemed to use. Still, he had a lot to chew on.

Each point he added was going to change his body in ways he couldn’t imagine. Thinking on how he felt when operating his erzalis, he could see how much it’d benefit him to be stronger, to be faster, to have a higher situational awareness.

It didn’t apply to just combat, but to driving as well. Hand eye coordination, reaction times… those were the tools of his trade, and racing was his ultimate MO. So, going with the path of least resistance, he went ahead and pumped his stats to the brim.

Ti Ara Gate: :

Might: 13

Dexterity: 20

Durability: 15

Intellect: 15

Will: 11

It was… strange. Ma’Z shot to his feet as his body began to ripple and change before his very eyes. Bands of muscle wound themselves a little tighter, his perception grew sluggish, and he could’ve sworn someone was massaging his brain and squeezing out the stupid.

It felt indescribably weird.

After what felt like but a few seconds, however, it was over. All of the tingly sensations in his body subsided. His vision returned to normal, and the brain massage ceased.

Or so he thought.

The moment he moved to look at his hand, he could immediately tell his vision was much sharper than it had been before. His body jerked unnaturally fast, and his awareness of his surroundings stood out in a clarity he hadn’t noticed before.

“This is… incredible,” he said. “Feels weird as hell, but it feels amazing too. And look at that muscle definition. I feel like a brick.”

Heaven smiled at her fiancé, knowingly. “You’re just getting started, honey. Ya still got a long way to go, and you’ll probably want to sit back down. You haven’t even chosen your new abilities yet, I’m guessing.”

Ma’Z did as instructed, nearly falling over instantly as he sat down faster than he intended, before throwing his arm back to catch himself harder than he meant to. It was jarring suddenly being in a body that obeyed a little too well.

“Ok. Yeah. That’s wild! I’m surprised I can even talk normally with the way my body is behaving, let alone think straight. Am I suddenly talking really fast, or at a normal speed?”

“Definitely fast,” Heaven laughed.

“Jesus, so I have to learn how to talk normal too? Is this sounding a bit better? Do I need to slow down more?”

Heaven laughed again as she moved to stand in front of him and held out her hands. Ma’Z put his hands in hers and looked at her wonderingly.

“I’m going to show you a trick we picked up that should help you acclimate to the sudden changes in your body.”

A prompt appeared before Ma’Z from Heaven asking if he wanted to accept her friend invite.

He accepted without hesitation.

Another prompt appeared asking if he wanted to share Vision with him. Again he accepted and involuntarily clamped down on Heaven’s hands. If she was bothered by the sudden squeeze, she didn’t show it.

Instead, she said, “Ok, now close your eyes and listen to my heartbeat.”

Ma’Z did as instructed and listened with his newly enhanced hearing. Listening to the steady bump bump, she went on to explain, “Our synth bodies aren’t too dissimilar from our human bodies. We eat, sleep, breathe, we have a pulse, and feel pain. But our bodies are still different, and those differences are profound. You can hear my heartbeat, yes?”

Ma’Z nodded.

“Calling it a synth body is a bit of a misnomer. They’re genetically designed from the ground up, meaning all the way down to my base genome, you wouldn’t be able to tell me apart from any other elf in the world. What is different, however, is the presence of cybernetic implants, and a slurry of nanites that course through our bodies.

“Those cybernetics are what allow us to pilot these bodies, and the nanites practically ensure that our bodies will never get sick and can recover from often severe injuries in a matter of hours, if not minutes without the aid of some recovery device. Those nanites are also how we build muscle and cognitive speed so rapidly.

“Advancing tiers, means an increase in nanite production, which means unlocking more of our body’s potential. This is how we can get so strong so fast. But the nanites can only do so much. We’re still piloting a body, and no amount of nanite technology can force our distant minds to immediately comprehend being able to run ten kilometers faster than we did the day before, but minds are elastic. They can essentially get used to anything given time. You still with me?”

Ma’Z nodded again.

“So my heartbeat is currently beating at a cool seventy beats per minute. Focus on that. Listen to the rhythm of my heart and try to match it to your own?”

“I can do that?” he asked.

“Meditatively, sure. It’s not normally something you can do on a dime or anything, but by putting your attention squarely on that task, you can force your breathing in a such a way that your heartrate can raise or lower accordingly.”

“Uh. Right. Yeah. I knew that.”

“Dummy,” she teased, slapping him in the arm. “Anyway, match your heart rate to mine. You’ll find it’s easier than it should be possible thanks to the nanites. You should then feel your mind and muscles start to relax. This should help you feel your new body. Feel its weight, the cognitive increases in your mind. Can you feel anything?”

Ma’Z continued to concentrate on his breathing. He could feel more than his own body, though. He could feel Heaven’s as well. He could feel the warmth of her hands as if they were his own. He could feel an awareness of every inch of her body. He could feel the air enter and leave her lungs.

It wasn’t long before he could feel his breathing synch up with hers. His breathing became her breathing. His warmth became her warmth. They were completely synched up.

He opened his eyes, once again seeing the double vision of what he was seeing and what she saw. She was looking down at him. She felt weird. A familiar sensation he hadn’t felt in years. Like the way he first felt when he was crushing on her hard.

Putting that aside, he started to move his hand slowly, flexing his fingers tentatively to gauge how it felt. His eyes were still darting around, so he concentrated on slowing that down as well, scanning the room and taking in the increased detail.

“Guess I should go for a jog soon if I want to test my upper limits, huh?”

“Yeah, we have a training facility within the fraternity for that very purpose. Comes with a whole microfabrication suite to create any environment you can think of so you can train in any kind of war scenario imaginable. It can also recreate any kind of track you can think of to practice driving on,” Heaven said.

She felt the spike in his heart rate. “Ah. Got your attention now, huh?”

“Considering this freakiness going on with our shared Vision, yeah. You definitely got my attention.”

Heaven blushed slightly once she realized what emotions she was projecting and cut the feed.

Clearing her throat, she said, “Right. So, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you chose Inheritor for your advancement type?”

Ma’Z raised an eyebrow and was about to say something, but remembered that Heaven had silver affinity and would’ve had the option as well.

“Yeah. The freedom to pick and choose what spells and abilities I picked up seemed too good to pass up.”

“Right? Granted, the slower advancement has been really affecting my growth rate, but I should be hitting Chosen tier soon enough.”

“That’s awesome! Congrats are in order,” Ma’Z said smiling cheerfully.

“Thanks, but I haven’t crossed that bridge quite yet. So, I’m trying to tamp down my enthusiasm until then,” Heaven said smiling back.

“Well, I’m happy for you either way.”

“Thanks. Well, since you advanced a full tier out of the blue, I’m guessing you got a list of abilities to choose from?”

“Actually? No, they automatically filled in after I spent my physical points.

“Huh? That’s normally a progressor thing. Well, I’m sure you’ll be able to change them later when you defeat more enemies. Have you had a chance to look at them yet?”

“No, I was planning to do that next before my body started spazzing out on me.”

“Well then, maybe you should go ahead and do that now,” She grinned. “It’s good practice to see what you’re working with.”

“Look and behold my visage, for it is what excitement aspires to be,” Ma’Z smiled.

Grabbing the crystal, he resumed his foray into his physical gate and looked over what was available to him now that he had assigned his attributes.

Strength

* (none)

Reflexes

* Burst Momentum: you can use a small amount of æther to generate sudden bursts of movement even from a standstill position.

* Snap Shot: (passive) your initial weapon accuracy when reacting to danger increases by 30%.

* Wheelhouse (unassigned): choose a trait of your choice. Once chosen, that trait is strengthened by an additional 30%.

Durability

* Evasive Tank: (passive) due to your raw instinct, whenever you dodge an attack, you build up an ætheric shield that absorbs 15% of the damage taken. This effect can stack up to a maximum of 60% from consecutive dodges.

Intellect

* Ætheric Conservation: (passive) when casting a spell, you have a 20% chance to cast that spell without using a consuming æther.

Will

* Minor Telekinesis (racial): with a thought, you can lift an amount equal to 100 times your Will score times 3. This ability consumes a minor amount of æther per second.

“Ok, so either my eyes are broken, or these abilities seem to be… busted,” Ma’Z commented.

Heaven turned to look at the display and after a moment let out a low whistle. “You can say that again,” she said. “Your battle acumen is going to be off the charts. Can you show me the description of your Raw Instinct?”

Ma’Z obliged, pulling up the description.

Raw Instinct: (racial) As if pulled by Fate, you seem to know what to do even when your conscious mind doesn’t.

“Ma’Z. What the falsh kind of ability is this? Like, I know I’Lu are supposed to be all mysterious and stuff, but this is… seriously, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you cheated,” Heaven said. Her eyes were as wide as saucers, and Ma’Z’s expression didn’t look much different.

“I mean, isn’t that kind of what instincts are though? You just kind of, like act because something in your gut said to do it.” he said, scratching his head.

“Boy, it said Fate! That’s just so… meta. There’s no mechanical meaning established. It’s basically telling the world you’re one with the Force or some mystic nonsense.”

“We can wield magic, Heaven.”

“Which has a codified mechanic and is supposed to be next on your agenda of things to do. You got any ideas in mind?”

“Uh, that’s a negative ghost rider.”

“Did you even read up on how the Elements work?”

Ma’Z bowed his head in shame, “I uh… No ma’am.”

With a sigh Heaven put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “Of course you didn’t,” she said. Grabbing a chair from her table she pulled it in front of Ma’Z and said, “Well, listen up honey, ‘cause it’s magic exposition time.”