Josh Hammott must be feeling weird.
He…or rather…SHE was practicing in the training area constantly switching from [Unicorn] form to [Human] form. The Beast form was rather beautiful. Her mane seemed to shimmer with all the colors, rather than ordering from red to violet. Her silky tail was the same way. With such a luminescent presence amongst the pure white hide, it created an intriguing contrast.
On her forehead was a startlingly sharp horn with a strange spiral design that seemed to be made out of some crystal. This crystal, if it caught the light juuust right, it would cause a cascade of rainbow-colored light to shine. In her Moonlight form, the horn stayed, although it became smaller. It lost most of its luster, as if to hide the true radiance it contains.
She stands six feet and 4 inches tall (≈1.9 meters), with a pure white dress that covers her shoulders and reaches her shins. Around her waist is a strange silver like belt keeping her dress from blowing around in the wind. Her hair seems to be a similar color to the belt. Of course, the outfit appears to be a representation of her Beast form.
Josh’s Moonlight form was toned, but not ‘beefy’ so to say. She had no excess fat and had a modest bust. Her eyes were sharp, her eyebrows thin and trimmed. Her lips formed a scowl naturally, as if all she saw would never be good enough. She seems imposing, like a general. Her appearance could be attributed to the Amazons of his old world.
The first thought he had, was
“I’m glad I’m the same height.”
Josh showed no care towards the fact he was a girl. Almost as if he was prepared.
“Sir, of course he would be prepared. Time passes much differently here, after all.”
Dead Skeleton stood off to the side watching Josh because he had nothing better to do.
“S-sir? I-I apologize, please stop teasing me…”
“Hmm? Is something wrong, Dead?”
Josh, hearing Dead Skeleton’s remark, approached, turning back into his male form.
“Sorry, sir. It was just the Creator.”
It would seem that Dead Skeleton forgot his job.
“EEP!! My apologies, Master! *EHEM* Young Josh, I have come to tell you the Top Five Jobs and Top Five Skills. Your Job shall be selected from these listed here, and from the Skills list, the Top Three shall become yours.”
“Ok, cool.”
“The Top Five Jobs are as follows. The first Job is [Laser Princess]. This Job actually comes with a Special Skill of its own, but only at the basic level. The Skill itself is called [Laser Magic]. The point allotment is [Hit] +3, [Perception] +2, [Intelligence] +2, and [Charm] +1 at every level up. With every level up, regardless of Job, you gain an additional two Stat Points that you can allocate yourself.
“That’s good. And I see the lasers are back. Is this perhaps for the satellite?”
“Sort of. The next Job is called [Rainbowmancer]. This Job also comes with a Special Skill. That Skill is called [Rainbow Magic]. The Stat allotment is [Charm] +3, [Intelligence] +3, and [Perception] +2.”
“Umm…what’s with these strange Jobs?”
“I apologize, for I do not know. The third Job is called [Lucky Bastard]. No Special Skill, but it raises [Luck] +4, [Charm] +1, [Hit] +1, [Perception] +1, and [Agility] +1.”
“What…kind of Readers are these guys?!”
“…Well, the fourth Job is called [Bounty Hunter]. This Job does not come with an extra Skill. The Stat allotment is [Strength] +3, [Endurance] +3, and [Agility] +2. A pretty simple Job.”
“That’s good. Whew, thought I would get a strange one again. What’s the last one?”
“Uhh…This one is a little…no, a LOT different. This is probably one of the strongest Jobs I have seen. But…”
At this point, Dead was fidgeting, wringing his bony wrists while dodging Josh’s gaze.
“Maybe we should go sit down…”
“Okay, let’s go to the living room.”
Josh could tell something wasn’t right. When they got to the room and he sat down, Dead had started to bring refreshments. But Dead was shaking so bad, Josh thought he was going to make a mess.
“What seems to be the problem, Dead?”
“Well…I don’t know much about your past, Josh. But I feel like this Job might affect you mentally.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Once again, Josh pondered, wondering what exactly could have riled the poor skeleton up. He decided to listen patiently.
“Okay, so the name of this particular Job is called [Dark Historian]. It comes with a Cursed Skill called [Dark Times]. This unfortunate Skill is kind of like your Race in that it originally is one way, but then has a sealed form. Your race is a [Unicorn] that gets sealed into a [Human] form at night. But the [Dark Historian] Skill keeps you continuously sealed until you activate it”
“That doesn’t seem like a curse, if I can choose when to unseal it.”
“I am not sure you WANT to unseal it. The only way to use the Skill is to…do something you regret. [Dark Historian] forbids you to forget the things that make up your dark history, or the things you regret. This means, no matter what, you will forever hold these thoughts in your head.”
“Well…I’m sure that’s not too much of a problem. After all, humans do many things they regret and learn to grow from it.”
“That is precisely it. [Dark Times] will not work if you accept that regret as a part of you. You will stay sealed as your Stats and Skills’ effects will be halved. Only secrets you want no one to know will release the seal and give you a 450% increase to your Stats and Skills.”
“WHAT?! 450%?! That’s a ton! That defeats any con there is!”
“But you can only activate this Skill if you add to your dark history.”
Josh seems to freeze as realization hits him in the face. His deepest secrets he has never told anyone. Not his friend Katherine, not his mom, and not even his little sister Cyndi knew. He was a closet nerd. Of course he was smart, but he enjoyed playing foreign videogames, watching anime, and reading web novels and manga. Obviously, he would get a little over his head and imagine himself fighting alongside his favorite heroes. He would even imagine his own little world and act out within it.
He knew if anyone in his family found out, sure, his mom and sister wouldn’t treat any differently, but his friends were very against ‘strangeness’. Who knows how Katherine would react?! What about his other family members? He wouldn’t hear the last of it! Josh didn’t like conflict.
In fact, even though he was so popular, he just wanted to get a good education in order to get a high paying job all just to support a life of doing nothing playing games, watching anime, and reading cool stories.
Or rather, that was at first. Over time, Josh had realized he was growing up. He stuffed what he believed to be the dark history of his past into the far recesses of his mind, never to be seen again.
He wanted to live with Katherine, have some children, and teach them football or baseball.
His younger self had, by now, become a blemish. Sure, while here, he indulged his past self a little, but he didn’t want to become HIM again. Anything but that.
Josh was currently sitting on the soft sofa, sweating profusely. Dead Skeleton was still fidgeting because he knew that he himself had secrets he did not want known.
“Nope. Not that one. Anything but that one. Move on. What about my Special Skills?”
“Yes, let us move on. Only the Skills that did not start with a Skill will get the Top Three Skills. Every other Job will only get the Top Two. This poll will be held later and might have other Skills at that time. But for now, first up is [Pheromones]. This Skill will only come into effect when you become an adult. Your current forms are under your current age. This Skill will attract females of any race to you.”
“Won’t I also be a girl?”
“That apparently does not matter to the Readers. The next Skill had to be changed because of copyright. The [Magic is Friendship] Skill raises the power of your spells for every companion nearby. In return, your companions will have an increase in power whenever they’re near you.”
“…I see…”
“There is the [Navigate] Skill, which allows you to see a 3D map of your surroundings as well as shows you a world map of all that you have seen already.”
“That one’s not bad.”
“Indeed. The next one is [Sharp Sight], which allows you to see in many different ways, the flow of mana, through illusions, and even has an appraisal function of sorts.”
“That’s really OP.”
“Most of these are. And the last Skill for today is the [Gamble] Skill which gives you the chance to use a random Skill. You do not get to keep the random Skill, but you can use it for the period of the cooldown of [Gamble], which is one day, if you can. For example, you use [Gamble] and get [Fire Magic]. For 30 hours, or one day in the new world, you can use [Fire Magic].”
“Okay, that’s not so bad…I just hope…nah, never mind. Whatever happens, happens.”
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If you happen to have any good ideas about possible Skills, ideas about the world (which still needs a name), or anything else, let us know in the comment section! Thank you!