My ability selection was delayed by the fact that the ferry was taking on water. Honestly, I couldn’t fault the ship build too much—it had, after all, survived an cephalopor attack—but that didn’t mean I fancied drowning any time soon. It was Arzak—no surprises there—who hurried to organise a means of keeping us afloat.

Not two minutes after we’d beaten the cephalopor—no time for celebrations, even—Arzak had us and the rest of the passengers standing in a line, stretching from the bottom deck to the top. Each of us had a bucket or similar container in hand, and between us we kept the ship afloat long enough for the remaining crew to mend the cracks in the hull.

When the ferry finally made it to the Goldmarch town of Last Soil, I breathed a sigh of relief that we’d encountered no more trouble. If I had my way, I wouldn’t be setting sail again any time soon, but that did pose the question of how I intended to get back to the Tundras without adding literal weeks of travel to my journey.

As we passed through the small town, we noticed a number of its residents hurrying eastwards, many dragging small carts behind them. Lore grabbed one such man by the arm and asked him what all the fuss was about.

The local blinked at him, eyes wide in amazement, and replied, ‘You wouldn’t believe it—a cephalopor has appeared out of nowhere, down the road!’ Without sparing another moment, and likely not wanting to be beaten to the creature, he turned and continued on running.

‘Was anyone hurt?’ I called after him.

‘Who cares?’ the man cried back. ‘The ink will be worth a small fortune!’

I watched the man go before turning to the rest of my party. ‘A small fortune? Why didn’t any of you tell me that?’

Arzak shrugged. ‘Our reward is we are alive.’

‘We could’ve had two rewards!’

This only elicited another shrug from the orc; she didn’t seem to care much for coin beyond it putting food on the table.

As matters moved on for all but the most coin-hungry of us—Corminar and me, who were still grumbling about it—Arzak led us on the road south, towards Tarenthe, where our contact was waiting for us.

I turned my attention instead to the notifications I had queued up: notifications of growth in power.

Ability selection unlocked

Select an ability from the list below:

Option 1: Warped Shield (Worldbending) — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.

So now we’re talking.

It took me a moment after reading this option to fully comprehend its real value, and that value was… game-changing. So far, I’d been pouring all my points into Intelligence, wherever possible, and as a result, I’d been skimping on the Vitality. My mana reserves might be growing fast, but my health bar on the other hand… well, let’s just say a particular bad strain of the flu could still knock me out. The build I was rapidly growing into was one that so many called the “glass arrow”—able to deal some pretty hefty damage, but likely to run out of Health after just one or two decent hits.

I’d known this going in—Val and I had discussed this at depth—and I’d decided that this was a price worth paying for ample mana, at least in the short-term. But with this new Warped Shield ability… maybe that low health wasn’t so much of an issue. After all, this basically worked as a mana-powered health bar. If I picked this, not only would I not have to worry about Stamina for my melee attacks, due to my Mana-Fuelled ability, but I’d be able to not worry about Health either. I could just keep investing my points into Intelligence… forever?

Obviously, this didn’t account for the downsides, namely the part about being hit by a “low-level melee weapon”. I interpreted this as meaning that spells wouldn’t be covered, for a start, and then any meaningful melee attack wouldn’t be either. But I knew what ability upgrades were like, and this ability had the makings of one that would increase in coverage very quickly.

Though my heart was already shouting for this particular ability, I forced myself to read the others with an open mind.

Hidden condition met! Alternative ability choice unlocked.

Option 2: Cloth Storage II (Worldbending) [Requires: Needlework skill unlocked] — Open a portal to an inventory space, wherein you can store up to 10 distinct Needlework supplies.

The synergistic—was that a word?—abilities that required you to progress in other skill trees were always powerful, and I could see that that was the case for this one, too. If I was fully invested in levelling up my new Needlework skill, then this would have been a great one; I could drop this thread and cloth that I’d been lumbering around in my knapsack, and I’d have a larger range of items on hand at any one time.

I noticed also that this was a level II ability. Presumably I’d already long since achieved the Worldbending requirements for the level I equivalent, and so the system was jumping me straight to the next.

A recent memory tickled my mind—that of Elandor “sheepnapping” Lore’s animals, putting them in a so-called “pocket world”. Did this not share some of those qualities? Was Elandor’s ability not, at the end of the day, a storage ability? With this new information, I had to applaud the old elf’s creative use of his abilities—he’d turned a storage one into, essentially, an attack in its own right.

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

Elandor’s ability was far more advanced than mine, of course. Surely storing a good twenty or so sheep required a much higher level than one that stored essentially ten bits of cloth. But it was a start, and if I picked this one, I might unlock new, more interesting, versions in the future…

As always, these decisions came with an opportunity cost. If I selected this Cloth Storage ability, then I was missing out on Warped Shield, and there was no way of knowing when I’d next be able to pick this ability or its higher level equivalent. Not that I was considering picking the storage ability over the one that might keep me alive, of course.

But there was one notification remaining; I still had another possible choice.

Option 3: Local Portal III (Worldbending) — Upgrade to Local Portal II. Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a thirty yard radius. Uses mana/second.

Now, maybe I’d been spoiled recently by all this quick progression, but my understanding of ability selections was as follows.

You’d get normally between three or four choices. The first one or two would be pretty decent, but not Alterra-shattering, and you’d force yourself to properly consider them, weighing up all their pros and cons and use cases. And then you’d… move on.

The next ability choice would be, inevitably, much better. You’d spend a decent amount of time thinking this one through—much more than the previous ones—and you’d actually get excited about this one. You’d think “Yes, this is it. Surely the last choice couldn’t possibly beat this.”

And then it does. The last ability choice is the best, as though the system were sentient. As though it understood drama, and knew to save the best until last.

So maybe I’d been, subconsciously, expecting that again. And then it was Local Portal III. Don’t get me wrong, it was a strong enough upgrade, increasing the radius of my portals some decent amount. I could think of plenty of use cases for it—robbing a bank came to mind, though maybe I was spending too much time around Val—and yet… this upgrade just wasn’t as exciting.

What’s more, I had the lower-level version of this ability already. From my previous experience, I knew that this meant I’d see upgrades quite regularly, unlike the choices for any new abilities that I passed over. Looking at you, Cloth Storage.

Now that I’d muttered that ability name aloud—resulting in a peculiar glance from Corminar—I realised that it really wasn’t a very good name.

‘Styk, dear friend, are you feeling yourself?’ Corminar asked.

Before I could reply, Val piped up from the road behind us. ‘If he’s doing the face that looks like he’s thinking so hard that his head is about to explode—’

‘He is,’ the elf confirmed.

‘Then he’s got himself an ability upgrade,’ Val finished.

‘I do.’

‘Ooh!’ Lore said, turning around on the road in front of me. ‘Need any help?’

I shook my head. ‘You know what? Not this time. I think I know exactly what I’m about to pick. And then, when I do, I’d like you to poke me with your worst weapon.’

Lore furrowed his brow, absolutely perplexed by this suggestion, and I made my ability selection.

Ability unlocked — Warped Shield

Warped Shield (Worldbending) — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.

Immediately, I felt a strange sensation ripple over me—the same one that I got when stepping through a portal. The ability was in place. That was good to know; I didn’t need to remember to switch it on every morning, or anything.

Feeling a strange confidence wash over me, I slowed down my pace a tad and started walking at Val’s side.

‘You here to show off?’ she asked.

‘A bit.’

‘Fine. Tell me about this new ability.’

But I shook my head. ‘No, it’s not that, it’s… With this quest we’re on, there’s got to be some stuff to fight, hasn’t there? And with the artifact’s upgrade, I could progress even faster if I really—’

‘Faster? Styk, you’ve been progressing at whiplash speeds.’

‘And yet not fast enough, is it? I’m done messing around, Val,’ I told her. ‘You know my biggest mistake in all that pyroknight stuff?’

‘You mean other than making a near-godlike figure want to kill you?’

I ignored the jab. ‘It was not spending enough time gathering experience. If I’d done that—if I’d done that properly—then maybe I wouldn’t have had to die in the process of killing him.’

‘Die again,’ Val corrected me.

Again, I ignored her, my mind’s eye instead fixed on a man I’d never thought I’d could be. I saw myself, blazing daggers in hand, a glowing portal open behind me, crowds of admirers throwing themselves at my feet.

With the power of the Sisyphus Artifact behind me, I realised, I could be a hero. A real one.

"Styk"

Level 11 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 26

Intelligence — 107

Dexterity — 38

Strength — 50

Wisdom — 26

Charisma — 8

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 25

Knifework — Level 23

Identification — Level 10

Stealth — Level 6

Needlework — Level 4

Abilities:

Slice — Slice the enemy for physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].

Stab II — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 20%.

Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.

Mana-Fuelled — Passive. Optionally, use mana in place of stamina to activate Knifework abilities.

Local Portal II — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a ten yard radius. Uses mana/second.

Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.

Ash Husk — Convert your flesh to ash, strengthening it against flame for ten minutes. Gain 50% resistance to fire attacks.

Shrill Perimeter — Create a perimeter wall of 20 foot radius, invisible to all but those adept in magicks. If an enemy crosses this perimeter, this spell releases the shriek of a banshee.

Warped Shield — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.

Stealth Attack — Passive. 50% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.

Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +900%