Under the neon lights of the city, tucked away in a small alley, was Joy. She took a moment to look at the place that had been her home for the past five years, tall, brightly lit buildings surrounded her, fit to be called skyscrapers if they weren’t underground. Earthscrapers? They're just about the only things the surface dwellers built down here, guess they wanted to pack the trash together efficiently.
Maybe they’d be beautiful if they weren’t covered in grime, soot, and all the other shit that she breathed every day. Beneath them, the streets were also covered in trash, the variety of which would shock you. She’s not sure why someone threw out an old-world nuclear fuel rod, let alone how they found it, but that’s just how it was down here.
Coming back to her situation, she was conflicted. Joy couldn’t think of a way to win and quite frankly, she didn’t know what winning would even mean right now. What did she want? She’d never really had to think on it before. When she was a child, all she wanted was to class up, to be superior to all of the people who were stealing opportunities away from her. To live up to her family’s name. Now, even if she had still wanted that, it would be impossible.
The Durand’s had all the power they needed, and they wouldn’t take a risk on a Demonic Power. Honestly, Joy would’ve rather died in a fire than go back to them anyway. That meant the surface was unreachable to her, but what was there to gain down here? Unless she wanted to be the Queen of Scum, there was nothing.
Fuck, that Limited Power drawback was awful. A Null class being shouldn’t have to worry about this! Instead, she’s stuck at class 4 like that dullard noble that she stole - ahem, liberated - her power from. Ugh, this was so frustrating!
She chose to stop thinking about it for a bit, continuing her walk back home, and not even five minutes later, another bandit came out of a random alley. This is why people hate living in the fucking Undercity, shit like this isn’t even uncommon!
Well, she may not be a full-fledged Null, but she was still class 4, and that meant that she was still ten times more powerful than this idiot. Unless they had cyberware that changed that, but she was pissed off right now, so she wasn’t going to think about that.
“Why hello there, princess. How about you do me a favor and just hand over your credits, okay?” He said gently as if trying not to scare her.
What is going on with these muggers today! Why are they all so… gentlemanly?
Joy decided to play along and walked up to him slowly like she was afraid.
“Now, now, don’t be afraid. I ain’t gonna hurt cha. Just give me the money and we’re square, alright” he said in the same tone as last time, like he was trying to comfort a scared puppy.
Then, once she was close enough, she punched him in the stomach with enough force to incapacitate. She may hate her old family, but they still trained her like one of their own until she was forced to leave, honor dictated as such. One facet of training was strength modulation - shit, she was getting distracted thinking about the past.
She spoke to the groaning bandit who was writhing in pain on the ground, “What’s going on with the behavior of the thieves in this area? Why are you all being so polite?”
Through strained breaths, he responded, “New… boss. Said… we have to… be nicer… I don’t know why.” He eventually got out.
Looking at the man on the ground, writhing in pain, she could only think one thing.
Pathetic
She felt her power stir, and to her surprise, it targeted the man on the floor. Activating it was as easy as breathing, with a quick inhale she could see the man’s energy leaving him through his pores and going into her only available power. Pulling up her status she saw something shocking.
Spirit Vision…
*ERROR* A New user of ‘System Seer’ has been detected. *ERROR* System Seer has been renamed to ‘Spirit Vision’. Administrator access required to rename Powers… Mythic Power detected… Analyzing system access… *ERROR* Administrator Level! Limiting Mythic Power’s access to system… Success. Mythic Power functionality… 99.9999% retained. Chances of Power reallocation occurring in the future… Certain. Petition to change/remove Error 10k313F… Failure. Solution to rectify power loss and fix Errors… Success!
Hello, user ‘Joy Durand’ your power ‘Envy’ had unregulated administrator access. Luckily for you, all it was doing was renaming Powers, had it been more, termination would have been required. Your power also flags Error 10k313F, the ‘Power Transfer Error’. To rectify the loss in your Power's efficacy, a 0.00001% loss, and reduce the amount of errors I receive, I have created a sub-system.
It will handle all transfer errors, and it has all currently available Powers in its database, so you won’t need your Power to rename them. Additionally, since I had to install a physical chip in your body for it to work,-
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
what?
you will never have to worry about a disconnection to the system in the future. It can work independently. You're welcome and have a pleasant day. -System
P.S., try not to cause any different errors, the sub-system isn’t designed for them, and they will have to go to me.
Hello, I’m your new Sub-System. I have detected an inefficiency in the way you have your status laid out, would you like me to change it? You can change your status style at any time. Y/N
Sure?
Status Updated, please mention or enact any changes as you wish.
System Seer Type: Magical/Profession Class: 4 Experience: 1896/32,000
Abilities:
System Interface Access (Active)
- Gives access to system interface
Mana Vision (Active)
- Allows user to see Mana
Spirit Vision (Passive)
- Allows user to see Experience
Drawbacks:
Migraine - Intense headaches with overuse
Low Skill - Barring evolution, the growth potential for this power is limited
You have +1 more notifications, would you like to wait until you are done with the thug? Y/N
Sure.
“Hey, I’m going to need you to pretend that you didn’t see me talking to myself, alright?” Joy said, mimicking his earlier tone.
“Whatever you want, ma’am. Scourge’s balls, what are they feeding ya? That fuckin’ hurt.” He said, getting up and holding his side.
“I’m going to need you to send this message to your boss, if I see another brigand on this street, I’m going to his base and kicking his ass, got it?”
“Yeah, okay, got it.” He said dismissively. As Joy was about to smack him for the disrespect, he paused and said, “Ah, on second thought, you might want to take a tiny detour, there maaay be a few more muggers on this street.” He said, slightly embarrassed.
“Why are there so many here, anyway? It’s not like there’s anyone rich here, hell, all my neighbors sleep in or on garbage!” Joy shouted, already past the point of exasperation.
“How am I supposed to know! I just get told where to go and go there!”
Joy took a second, breathed, and then slapped him.
“What was that for!” He shouted in pain
“For annoying me. Now go back to whatever hole you came from.” She finished, disdain thick in her voice.
After the mugger had run away, Joy looked at her notification.
Congratulations, due to your primary Power's Demonic nature, and using System Seer in an evil act, stealing experience from someone weaker than you, you have the opportunity to evolve it into the Evil Alignment
System Spymaster
Boons: Gain [Peek] and [Stealth] abilities
Banes: Lose [Spirit Vision] and reset experience to zero
Accept Change? Y/N
She had heard about alignment evolutions before, and in a way, mythic evolutions were similar, but you got to choose. Alignment determines how your abilities work, and the evolutions you have in the future, needless to say, they were a big deal. Evil alignment Powers are almost always selfish, while good ones are the opposite. Neutral powers could be either.
They really just reflected how others felt about a Power, and how it affects others. A [Thief] was still evil aligned even when they stole from the rich and gave to the poor, and a [Doctor] was still good even when they extorted money from their patients. However, in the case of the latter, they would likely be given a choice to evolve into a [Loan Shark] or something.
All of that begged the question, should she be completely selfish, could she afford not to be? Did she care about the alignment? The resounding answer to that last question was no. The real thing to ask was, could she afford the loss of experience? Losing spirit vision didn’t seem so bad, after all, spirits can only materialize in Astexia, Solistaris’ magical twin universe, so besides seeing experience it was almost entirely useless.
If she was unlucky, losing this progress could knock her down to class five, it all depended on what her starting factor was. For [Spirit Vision] or [System Seer] actually, was 3.2. Experience scales on a base 100 system, so to get to class 4 from class 5 with a 3.2 factor would take 320 experience, to class 3 is 32,000, and so on.
The highest starting factor recorded was 8.9 for Emperor Brontes famous mythic skill, [Gaia’s Chosen]. He didn’t start on null, though, and based on some quick math, she only had ~850 from her old class. If her starting factor was above 8.5, she was back to class 5.
You can’t grow if you don’t take risks. What, am I afraid of one of these amped-up toasters? Yes!
Congratulations on your evolution!
Here is your new Power:
Power: System Spymaster Type: Sorcerer/Criminal Experience: 0/32,000
Abilities:
System Interface Access (Active)
- Gives access to system interface
Mana Vision (Active)
- Allows user to see Mana
Stealth (Passive)
- Gives the user knowledge on how to sneak effectively
Peek (Active)
You can look at other’s statuses without their knowledge
Drawbacks:
Aura of Deceit - Others find you harder to trust
Migraine - Overuse of vision abilities can lead to intense headaches
Now for the most important bit:
Total Accumulated Experience: 889 Effective Class: 5
Shit.