Yesterday, when passing out, Ryan had expected pain on waking up. He had abused his body beyond all reason and the second of full awareness between trance and passing out had consumed him in the raging fire of punished muscles. Absence, blessed absence of pain greeted him when he woke up. “I feel good. How on earth can I feel good after that?” he asked himself, before immediately continuing. “Uhhm, wait, Healing Stat. High healing, heals damaged tissue. Heals training damage. Ugggh, I need a coffee.”

If he was this groggy he must have had way less sleep than he had expected, so all alone in the shared room, he leisurely rose from the cot and looked for his clothes.

“Wait a minute, who undressed me?” another question that he wouldn’t be asking anyone besides himself.

Ryan headed out of the door with a deep yawn that nearly locked his jaw. Jup, too little sleep. He’d head to the kitchen and bother Katrina for a cup of the elixir of life, maybe she’d have mercy on his soul and brew him one from the strictly rationed supply. He was in need.

A couple minutes later he headed out, head drooping dejectedly as Katrina had refused to make an exception for him. Coffee was reserved for Sundays and unless they could trade with Resolute for their jealously guarded stash, would remain that way. Only now he noticed another absence, the little minx wasn’t hounding him with her acerbic remarks. He could feel that she was excited, concentrating furiously and excited, so he knew she was alive but didn’t have a cooking clue where she could be.

“Hmmm, wonder where she is?” ever so slightly worried he shot a message to John and Johannes, asking if they knew where she was.

John’s “b bk in hour” made him smile. John must have concentrated very hard to actually send a message that read like a text message someone would have sent pre-system. The effort to actually have the system write a message in that format was not negligible. Reassured, Ryan headed to the pool. If he couldn’t have coffee, a dip in the bracing water would have to do, plus, whoever had undressed him had definitely not washed him before putting him in bed. He felt positively grimy, covered in dried sweat. It was also time to review his Character Sheet, he wanted to see what the brutal ordeal yesterday had gained him.

The pool area was deserted and once again Ryan was inordinately happy that he had kept such a weird schedule thanks to his training regime and the subsequent hunt. Yes, he hadn’t been very sociable and barely chatted to most members of the guild. Yes, he hadn’t taken part in many communal activities. And yes, as a result he felt a bit like an outsider. But god damn yes, he could bathe on his own and he hadn’t had to do chores, yet.

Ryan didn’t bother to get rid of his clothes, just like him, they had been bathed in sweat and could do with a rinse, so just dropping his shoes, he jumped in. With disgust Ryan watched the spreading cloud of miasma diffusing into the clear water around him. It became so dense that he could actually determine that the outflow of the pool was open thanks to the dark streamers drifting towards it.

“Juk, I’m digusting. Think I’ll soak for a while and review my Character sheet. I can scrub down afterward once I’m properly pruny.” with that thought Ryan settled on the submerged steps and pulled up his Character Sheet.

Ryan Alexander Hunter, Exsolutus

Wild Shifter

Level

15

Cultivation:

Mortal Realm (high*)

Experience

3461/3500**

Energy:

6972/7123

Soulbonded to Fury

Statistics

Strength

Muscle Strength

29(24)

Intellect

Speed

20(17)

28,3

Tendons

28(22)

19,3

Cognitive

18(18)

(22,3)

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Bones

28(21)

(17)

Memory

20(16)

Agility

Muscle Speed

31(24)

Will

Resolve

17(15)

32,3

Nerve Speed

34(23)

17,0

Force

16(12)

(23)

Cartilage Friction

32(22)

(14)

Focus

18(15)

Dexterity

Muscle Control

26(21)

Energy

Capacity

31(25)

23,7

Proprioception

22(20)

30,3

Efficiency

25(21)

(21)

Flexibility

23(20)

(23,3)

Regen

35(21)

Constitution

Resilience

29(23)

Perception

Acuity

28(24_

29,3

Healing

32(26)

21,7

Psy Range

12(12)

(23,7)

Shield

27(22)

(19,7)

Processing

25(23)

Available Points

0

Affinities

Kinetic (macro)

22

Kinetic (micro)

21

Gravitational

52>68

Soul

14>39

Space

79>80

Time

50

Matter

12

Electromagnetic

19

Biological

19

Psychic

22>31

Skills

Class Skills:

17 listed

(expand)

Profession Skills:

518 listed

(expand)

General:

10821 (listed)

(expand)

Special Skills:

None

Unique:

None

Achievements

First Kill, Sneaky Bastard, David vs. Goliath, Hat-trick, Liberator, Forerunner Founder, Masochist, Two are One,

Traits

Protean, Indomitable

Mutations

Recombinant Omnivore, Enhanced Senses, Bifröst, Quantum Crystal Processing Lattice

“Hmmm, I haven’t actually locked the changelog since before the first hunt at the sanctuary. Nice to actually have a pre- and post-training comparison at a glance, John still hasn’t provided me with the breakdown of the results. Also, as I thought, didn’t get a level for the lioness, but I’m close.” Ryan mumbled to himself. “Hmm, what’s this?” Ryan selected the double-asterisk after his experience.

** All experience gains allocated to soulbond until parity is obtained. Please see Prime Rule 27B(Rev 2.1.8.9.7) for details.

Querying the Interface for the rule gave him zilch, but if he understood that correctly, he wouldn’t earn any experience until Fury had caught up to him. Well, we found at least one more disadvantage to the bond.

Rysn moved on to his Stats, the difference between pre-training and post training was immense if looked at from a numbers perspective. In three months, he had raised his objective strength by a further 23% and compared to pre-system he was at least twice as strong overall. It was a scary thought, but Ryan assumed that growth would eventually slow down, levels would be harder to come by and training and cultivation would result in diminishing returns. After considering that more than 60% of his stat growth had come from the latter two Ryan felt a bit melancholic.

“Hmmm, Shield jumped up a lot during the chase for Bugger, no wonder I got an achievement.” Looking at his Stats growing was always a satisfying experience.

“Nice, healing and resilience increased by two and one points since yesterday and HOLY FUCKING SHIT, Regen jumped up a whole 9 points. Wow. Jesus. Unbelievable. I need to talk to John and Miguel. Actually, scratch that. I’ll talk to William, Guild has to know what difference that makes. I wonder why Miguel didn’t pick up on that?”

“Actually, scratch informing William, he might call a meeting. I’ll just ask Michelle to join me when I talk to Miguel and addour conclusions as sticky to the chat. Gah, so weird having a mental discord server. At least the group can’t read my thoughts like Fury. Wait, can Fury enter the chatroom? That might be hilarious. I’ll see if we can figure that out later. Unleash Armageddon. Bahahaha.”

“God, why am I talking to myself? Hmmm, feels weird being alone in my head now, I guess.”

Before his own thoughts distracted him further Ryan sent a quick message to Miguel, then, not willing to wait, called him. When Miguel failed to answer he went back to his character sheet.

“Let’s see, what else has changed?”

Ryan assumed that the improvements to his affinities for gravitational and spatial manipulation where the result of codifying Graviton Perception into a skill. Likewise, the improvements to soul and psychic emanations were probably the result of his soulbond to Fury. Nothing else had changed.

“One last thing to do. How’s my stomach doing?” Ryan checked the status of the analysis of the pride’s DNA.

“Yes, yes, yeees. Finally. No more lion meat.” Recombinant Omnivore had finally unlocked the option of mutating his shield cells. Ryan knew that he’d have to wait until the day was done. He had played with this particular aspect of his interface obsessively and came to understand that Alexis would need to supervise the process and that he’d be out cold until the mutation was complete. He checked on the estimated time on the mutation. “Huh, only nineteen minutes? That’s shorter than most of the other available mutations. Maybe Alexis or Tanya can supervise after lunch.”

He sent a quick query to the two and then, because Miguel still hadn’t answered him, he started scrubbing himself while he reluctantly entered the guild chat to ask if anyone knew where Miguel was currently. The reply was immediate, Leah informed him that Miguel was out hunting with Mike, William and Carmen and was only expected back late in the afternoon.

All alone and with nothing demanding his immediate attention Ryan decided to utilise his time productively and for the benefit of the guild as a whole. So resolved, he headed to the workshop, intent on smithing a few blades and tinkering with weapons. In this area, as in others, his singular focus on the experimental training regime, which arguably had also been for the benefit of the guild, had caused him to fall woefully behind the others. It was high time to start rectifying that regression and sharpen his skills across the board. Just such a shame that he’d have to go for another dip in the pool once he left the workshop again.