Ivori looked up from his journal, his already well wrinkled brow creasing slightly. Something had changed. Getting to his feet he walked over to the great vaulted windows looking out to the landscape surrounding the tower.

Goranen was the same as it always was; mountains, forests and grasslands fractured and divided by gaping ravines. Fortresses, old, crumbling and abandoned, stood as monuments of hubris. The great rift that first connected this world to the land of men remained standing as an ugly scar on the northern horizon. This was all familiar, but changes were immediately apparent.

The air seemed to tremble with an excess of mana. Unusually large packs of monsters roamed and clashed all across the landscape. Even some few of the stronger variants were making appearances on the surface. Monster populations were increasing rapidly and conflicts were becoming near constant.

This wasn’t all that unusual, surges were infrequent and their cause and purpose were unknown, but they were not an unknown phenomenon. That wasn’t what was odd. It was how quickly it had begun and progressed. A surge, usually, could be noticed well in advance and measures could be taken to reduce the likelihood of harm.

Yet Ivori had heard nothing of an approaching surge. This view was the first sign of it’s arrival to his knowledge. This was bad news, very bad indeed. He had lived almost three decades this side of the rift, longer than any other human could boast. He had seen a dozen surges in that time and yet he had a feeling this would be the worst he had ever witnessed.

Mmmrrg, it feels like my brain is swimming in syrup.

Sitting up, I’m hit with a wave of dizziness that takes a moment to clear away. Shaking my head gently it doesn’t return so I gingerly get to my feet. There’s a soreness in my chest but I dismiss it for the moment. With a thought my stat sheet appears before my mind’s eye.

Name: Maria

Race: Lesser night-kin, young nightmare

Level: 1

Specialization: none

Health: 10/10

Mana: 20/20

Strength: 5

Agility: 14

Constitution: 5

Intelligence: 24

Will: 34

Skills:

Vibration detection, level 2

Grapple, level 2

Rend, level 3

Stealth, level 1

Heightened instincts, level 2

Skill selections pending: 5

Body parts: arms +2, legs, ears +1, nose, fangs, claws, shadow tendrils +3, skin, bones, core heart

Bio points: 6

Other features: Night-kin, (data unavailable)

Huh, I kind of glossed over it before but… nightmare? That’s a bit rude don’t you think? I’m not that unpleasant am I? And lesser? Why must you insult me system lady?

Anyway, that aside, lot to address here. Mana went up by a whole twelve points, might be worth reconsidering the mana manipulation skill. Speaking of, I have quite a few skill selections sitting around. I have a tidy little pile of bio points too but those won’t stretch nearly as far. Let’s take a look at skills first.

Okay, this is interesting. I should have expected as much but I can only do one selection at a time and each new one has new options as well as all the previous options but none of the options from later selections even though I’ve already earned those selections. I can’t look through later selections either, not until I’m done with the previous one. I guess it doesn’t do me much good to hold on to all of them.

[Find flaw, improve ability to find flaws in your opponent]

[Improved awareness, improved ability to notice things in the environment]

I don’t really need to think about this one much. Improved awareness doesn’t need much explanation, my senses suck, this should help. Easy choice.

Next up we have…

[Pierce, an attack using a sharp point to pierce through defenses]

[Shadow flesh manipulation, gain knowledge in actively manipulating the shape of shadow flesh appendages]

Hmm… pierce I have a similar problem with it as I do the slam skill. I can’t exactly aim very effectively. With my senses as they are I would be lucky to hit with it in one out of five attempts.

Shadow flesh manipulation on the other hand is a little complicated in how it’ll be useful but I have some ideas on how it could work. Both of my attack skills change and harden my tendrils in different ways. I might be able to achieve more utility or emulate some attack skills, more reason to not take pierce or slam anytime soon.

Going pretty well so far, what’s next?

[Create pitiful shadow monstrosity, create a shadow monstrosity at the cost of mana and bio points. The more bio points used the stronger the creature will be (mana cost: 10)]

[Claim territory, claim a small area as your territory. Territory will grant small stat buffs and slightly increased recovery rate while you are within. Territory can be lost or relinquished (mana cost: 20)]

Bit weird but okaay… this is the selection I got from the core right? I can’t select any of my previously available skills for this one. Does that mean I won’t be able to access these later? I need to think this through.

The monstrosity creation skill looks like it could be very useful, having something to support me could save me pain in the future. On the other hand the bio point investment will likely be huge. Between the base cost and the continued feeding for them to be useful I might be better off just improving myself for now. I should keep in mind that I might not be able to come back for it though. I can always check with my next selection.

Claim territory definitely sounds like it could be useful and it doesn’t seem to have a resource drain attached. That said is seems a bit static, forcing me to stay in one place for it to be useful. It says I can lose or give up territory but something tells me that would be detrimental to the skill’s growth and effectiveness.

Neither of these really fits my situation right now, I don’t have the bio points to dump into another creature and I’m probably going to be on the move for a while. I could continue holding onto the selection until I can actually use one or both of the skills. The problem with that is of course I can’t get any new skills until I choose one.

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Flarps, this is hard.

I think I want to take the create monstrosity skill. I don’t want to be wandering alone forever, I’d like there to be something that has my back in this place.

Alright that just leaves two more to go.

[Active defense, improves ability to instinctively move the body in such a way as to reduce damage and avoid fatal injury]

[Ambush, gain knowledge in effective use of ambushes]

Ah, this is what I was afraid of, both of these are immediately really good.

Giving it a quick check, I’m relieved to see the monstrosity creation skill is still available. I’ll be able to go back for it later.

Back to the new options, given my overall abilities I’m pretty sure I’m set up to be an ambush predator and at least until I’m able to evolve properly it would probably be best to stick to that. On the other hand, if I move away from those tactics down the line it could become a wasted skill selection, not that it wouldn’t be a huge help now.

Active defense doesn’t help much in a situation where I’m able to kill my opponent before they can fight back but it could be very helpful to have for the fights that don’t go that way. With my low constitution I’m at a disadvantage in any prolonged encounters. I can deal a lot of damage fast but run out of energy just as quickly. Not to mention I can’t take a hit for anything.

But ambush could help shorten fights making that less of an issue! Gahh! What am I supposed to choose here?

Hmmm…

I’ll… take ambush, let’s be honest, I probably won’t move away from the sneaky approach anytime soon, if I do at all.

Okay, last one.

[Charming melody, your voice becomes laced with magic when you sing, causing others to lower their guard]

[Basic trap craft, gain knowledge in creating and utilizing traps]

Aaalright. Are my options influenced by what I pick in previous selections? These feel heavily related to the ambush skill. Weird but, as with most weird things recently, I don’t have a way to get an answer so I won’t worry about it.

Charming melody sounds like it could be something really useful… or a trash diplomacy skill. If it works something like how a siren leads sailors to their doom with a song then that’s exactly the kind of skill I need. But if it works more like a calm emotions type spell it won’t do me much good.

Basic trap craft could also be useful but I have a similar problem with it as I do claim territory, it’s too static to be very useful right now, in my current situation. I think it definitely could be useful when paired with claim territory but I won’t be using that skill, possibly for quite a while.

I guess that makes the choice pretty easy, even if it is a bit of a gamble that it works the way I hope it does.

Okay, now that that’s done, seriously, why fruity? What the heck is with that? I mean, it tastes good so I don’t really mind, it’s just weird ...and makes me hungry. Speaking of, sorta, what to do with my bio points? I have six at the moment so there’s a few things I can do.

Hmm…

Let’s lay them out like this.

[Would you like to spend 6 bio points to bring ears to +2, bones to +2 and legs to +1?]

Yeppers, this seems like a good spread for the moment.

Oof.

As soon as I confirm the selection my legs go completely numb and I promptly fall backward onto my butt. Fortunately my butt is also numb so I don’t really feel it, other than the air getting knocked out of me.

Spending bio points sitting down from now on. Got it.

With that done… what should I do now? I really don’t want to go back out the way I came in but I’m not sure I have another choice. I guess I haven’t really investigated this chamber properly. Let’s take a feel. Anything to keep me from crawling through that tunnel again for a little bit longer. Maybe there’s another way out.

Poking around the space it’s fairly small, only seven or eight meters in diameter. There’s a small pile of dirt in the center where the pillar had been. It must have crumbled when I removed the core. On the far side from the entrance there’s a hole in the floor of the chamber. It drops straight down about two meters to a stone bottom. There’s a narrow opening in the wall at the bottom that seems to continue on.

Another way out! I can explore this way instead of going through that awful tunnel again! For now anyway. The hole being deeper than I am tall might be a slight issue if I want to come back this way later. Maybe I can push myself up on my tendrils? I’ll work it out if it comes to that. No point delaying, I’m hungry.

Sliding down the side of the hole I drop to the bottom along with a small cascade of loose dirt. There’s nothing particularly interesting about the interior of the pit so I just continue on my way. The crevice in the wall is a tight fit, even for my small frame but it’s not nearly as bad as the way I came in, so I’m far from complaining.

The wall scraping against my tendrils is unpleasant the whole way but I manage to struggle my way through until the tunnel widens and I have a bit more space, though still not much. I continue down the small passage which slowly slopes further and further down, until I’m climbing, rather than walking.

With no branching paths to consider and no desire to go back the way I came I continue along my current route. I only come to a stop when I find a decent sized ledge hanging over silent, empty space. Lowering myself down and settling on the stone outcropping, I hang my tendrils over the edge. I don’t find any ground but that doesn’t necessarily mean the bottom is too far to jump to.

I’ll rest here until I have feeling in my fingers again, catch some food if any passes below me and then move on. That seems like the best plan for now. While I’m here though, I’m realizing I never asked about the specialization thing, I’m guessing it’s different for me than it would be for a dungeon core. Care to explain system lady?

[Specialization allows a creature to choose it’s desired path to power. Chosen specialization will affect base characteristics and stats and available skills, mutations and evolutions, it may also alter how how exp is acquired. No specialization selected, would you like to select a specialization now? Warning, delaying choice until after mutations or evolution is achieved may cause complications]

And you didn’t think it might help if you brought this up sooner? Phew, it’s a good thing I decided to push back evolving, though, not sure where I get mutations. Maybe it has to do with bio points? Alright let’s see the options system lady.

[Specialization options:

Hunter, emphasizing strength and speed over stealth capabilities, a hunter chooses to forgo subtlety in favor of proving their strength against powerful foes. Your scars are badges of honor, your struggles only fuel for your drive. Let the long hunt begin.

Stalker, emphasizing speed, stealth and endurance, a stalker never intends to give their prey a chance at a fair fight. Strike from the dark and disappear without reprisal, slit throats in beds and nests or simply chase your prey until it collapses. You are why the wise fear the night.

Breaker, emphasizing strength and durability above all else, a breaker smashes through defenses while ignoring the futile strikes of it’s prey. Well some may look down on brute force, you make it an art form. Break them.

Brood mother, forgoing much of their own development and focusing on auras and reproductive improvements, brood mothers empower their children to fight for them. Grow your children well and you will never need raise a finger to cause your enemies to fall. May your brood claim the night in your name.

Infiltrator, emphasizing stealth and mental prowess, infiltrators alter their flesh to blend seamlessly into the society of their choice. You wield subtlety as a deadly weapon, with the right finesse, your enemies will kill each other for you. All they have built will turn against them.

Matriarch (unique) (fragment), this is a specialization fragment, it can be added to any other specialization. As a matriarch of your species your abilities will grow at a faster rate than those of your kin. Additionally your abilities will grow further for each creature that swears loyalty to you. Rise, matriarch, first of your kin]

Oookay, whole lot going on here also, lot of flavor text, huh? Alright, hunter is an option but I’m not super fond of the idea of seeking out straight up confrontations. That said, in my last life I was never very physically able and a large part of me wants to move as far from that as possible.

Looking at the next option, it’s a bit more appealing. Sticking to the stealthy approach is probably the best thing for my health, not to mention I’ve already picked a couple skills that would become next to useless if I started neglecting stealth as the hunter says it does. Plus that bit about the wise fearing the night is kinda awesome.

The next three don’t really interest me at all. Reading between the lines a bit, breaker screams dumb, slow, brute to me. Don’t plan to give up my mental faculties just to be a bit stronger, thanks. Brood mother I’m going to dismiss out of hand. Not going to explain, just… no, for multiple reasons.

And last and clearly least in my opinion, infiltrator. Don’t get me wrong I see the draw, and a lot of people would probably go for it, but I’ve always been the type to play the monster when I could. Why would I try to become more human? The option pretty clearly seems to stunt my potential, harshly limiting myself in the ways I can adapt. Not to mention, the only thing that gives humans the advantage over most creatures is their intelligence. Here they likely have classes and the like but it doesn’t look like I’d be able to get access to those.

Long ramble short, not my cup of joe.

Then there’s the matriarch specialization, which looks like I’m going to get it regardless of what else I choose. One of the first things that jumps out to me about it is the, first of your kin, bit. Is it saying I’m the first and currently, the only night-kin? That’s mildly concerning in a way but whatever benefits it gives will be much appreciated.

After a short while of consideration I make my selection, in the end it was a pretty easy choice.

[Select stalker matriarch specialization? While advanced specializations may become available later, this decision is irreversible]

I don’t give it much more thought as I confirm the choice and, once again, black out.