The dragon-man shook his head in mock dejection, shoulders slumping to complete the facade. I couldn’t help but feel like there was some truth in the action, though.
“I know, right?” he rumbled,” Of all the things to become, I get turned into a Dragonborn.”
I was struggling to formulate what to say. Should I comfort him? Make a joke? I didn’t know. Instead, I turned to the car, grabbed the duffel bag full of guns, and passed it off to him.
Under my breath, I began to hum the main theme from Skyrim, causing Donny to look up at the sky and groan, loudly. The segue seemed to bring him out of his funk.
I continued grabbing more supplies from the car, passing off what I could, until both of us had arms full.
“So you’re a monster, then? Like me?”
“Yep. I’m a Dragonborn Flamebringer.”
“Fighter? Caster? Something Mixed?”
“Nah, crafting! It looks like a blacksmith-focused class, with some melee-centric abilities as well. And fire breath, of course.”
That was interesting. I had half expected all of the monsters to get combat builds, similar to myself, but I guess that wasn’t the case.
“That actually sounds pretty cool. I’m glad there’s some variation in the different kinds of monsters. I’m a Storm Demi-Paraelemental. I got mixed caster, with a melee weapons focus. Oh, and flight.”
Just to show off, I levitated off the ground around a foot.
“You can fly!? That’s awesome!”
"Says the fire-breathing dragon."
We continued talking about our abilities and some theories on what our builds could look like in the future as we hauled gear upstairs to the apartment. It wasn’t too far from the usual nerdiness of our conversations, so despite the strangeness of it all, it felt almost normal.
We managed to get everything unloaded and upstairs in only two trips, mostly due to our transformations. Donny was even stronger than I was, with a 12 in strength to start. Those shiny scales weren’t just for show, either, and his constitution wasn’t anything to scoff at.
Once we were done unloading, Donny and I had a short food break. Eventually, though, Cindy came and ushered us downstairs.
We all assembled in Garcia’s store. It was just before three am, so we had a bit over eleven hours before the next wave was supposed to occur. Cindy and Taylor had been very successful in their campaign to alert the people on this street to what was happening. The whole Garcia clan was there; consisting of Mr. and Ms. Garcia, as well as their three kids. With them, there was a group of twenty or so scared-looking people doing what they could to stare at Donny and me without being too overt.
I wasn’t offended by it. I looked very, very different than just about everyone else. Donny even more so.
“Excuse me, everyone, excuse me.”
Cindy had risen to stand on the counter, and like magic, every eye in the room turned towards her.
“Now, I have already given many of you a basic explanation of our current situation, but I will explain it once more so that everyone is on the same page.
“Yesterday, at 2 pm, a strange phenomenon occurred that changed the bodies of many people across the city, if not the whole world. We now know that at that same moment, all cell signals and wireless transmissions ceased across the globe for reasons that no one can determine. But what most don’t know, or have only suspected, is that this isn’t the end.”
There were exclamations of surprise scattered through the small crowd, and murmurs of conversation started breaking out.
Clearly, Cindy had managed to gather more information in my absence. I had suspected something about the system was messing with cell phones, but cell signals and wireless transmissions going down across the whole world still shocked me. It felt even more surreal.
“Please, everyone! This is important!”
After a few seconds, the room quieted down once more.
“We have learned, largely due to our transformations, that at 2 pm today everyone else is going to change just like we did. Before you ask, we don’t know what you’ll change into, what you’ll look like, or what this whole thing means. You can be confident though that it won’t hurt you. But we can’t do anything about it.”
There were some cries of disbelief, exclamations of despair, and anger. Panic rose quickly, and some looked like they were about to bolt.
Then, with an angry glare, Cindy shouted over the crowd.
“What we CAN do before that time is prepare!”
With her words, an ethereal blue aura arose, tousling her hair and clothes. Her emerald eyes seemed to blaze with life.
For a time, there was quiet among the group, as they digested that statement. Eventually, side conversations started up yet again, but people remained focused on Cindy.
This time, the murmurs running through the crowd were that of agreement. Of determination. Of doing what needed to be done. Cindy’s voice rang with confidence and power, and I, too, felt something stirring in my chest.
“We can’t rely on the Government, hampered as they are due to lack of communication. If they need help just as much as we do, how can we count on them? But we have some needs that we can address now, together, so that we can prepare for the worst.
“We need food. We need water. We need weapons, and we need people that can use them with discipline. We need to work together! We have a narrow window to prepare ourselves as best we can.
“We need some others to spread the word of what’s coming even further to as many people as we can! I’d caution you against traveling any major distance from your homes, as we don’t know what to expect, but together, we can hit many more houses on foot.”
People were already moving, determined expressions fixed on their faces. They were rearing to go.
“We’ll be using Garcia’s Store as a hub for supplies. If you’re willing to help, come talk to Mr. and Ms. Garcia, and they can point you in the right direction. Thank you.”
Once she was done speaking and had hopped down from the counter, a scattering of applause filled the store, and a slight blush rose to her cheeks. I approached her quickly before anyone else could, pulling her to the side.
“Cindy! That was incredible! How did you do that?!?”
She let out a slight smile.
“I chose my first skill is how. ‘Eloquent Speaking’; the skill lets you read people so that you know what best to say to get your point across. It’s my third archetype skill. Calling it extremely useful would be a laughable understatement.”
“That’s awesome. I should consider picking up a new skill too if they’re that powerful.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
She nodded, expression taking on a serious edge.
“You should. Taylor and I did a bit of experimenting after reading through your notes on D&D. You should probably grab your last Archetype Skill. The other skill categories seem fairly potent and have proved generally useful for their narrow purpose, but the archetype ones are on a whole different level. Getting them as early as possible is probably a good idea.”
“Alright. I’ll think about it. Can you explain what you’ve learned?”
“Go ask Taylor for our notes. She’s upstairs right now, as we didn’t want her distracting everyone. We wrote everything we learned down, though it’s not much. And, Vic, bring Donny with you. I don’t think he appreciates all of the attention.”
With a quick nod, I left Cindy behind. She had already moved to another cluster of people who had questions.
Grabbing Donny who was in the process of being swarmed with curious people, I headed upstairs to meet Taylor. We found her going through the bags we brought back, sorting through all of the things I had gathered. I couldn't help but marvel as her vines crept about her, acting as a seemingly-infinite number of hands. After a quick question, she pointed us to a set of notebooks carefully stacked on the countertop. Grabbing them, I jumped onto the couch, gesturing for Donny to join me as I read.
The books were carefully organized, likely by the ever-meticulous Cindy, so finding the information on skills was simple.
Skills:
General Skills: Magically enhanced versions of regular things people can do. E.g. Cleaning, writing, reading, recordkeeping, running, etc.
Identify: Failed on objects around the house, but works on things changed by system. (i.e. Taylor’s Vines) Magical materials only? Needs further testing.
Race Skills: Limited by both Race and Type. E.g. all magic races can take ‘mana efficiency’, but only Woodland Dryads can take ‘treespeak’. There are some skills in the racial list that could be called both ‘combat’ or ‘magic’. What makes them different? Needs further testing.
Combat Skills: unknown. Selection options skew towards ancient weapons, and all start with key phrase “Novice”. E.g. Novice Swordamanship, Novice Archery, Novice Dagger, Novice Unarmed Combat. No obvious firearm skills available in the basic list. No specific combat skills, E.g. no “Muay Thai”, or “Rapier”. Needs further testing.
Magic Skills: gives access to different types of magic and general control of magical element in question. ‘mana efficiency’ was an option here as well. Needs further testing.
Archetype Skills: Powerful skills associated with specific archetypes. Seem unique to individuals. Choices appear based on desire. Subject: Cindy Shepherd wanted a skill that would help her talk to others, and one appeared on her previously empty list only after mentally asking for one. Needs further testing.
It was clear that the constantly repeated “needs further testing” was an understatement, but what they had discovered so far was still useful. Right now, I was juggling my ability to pick skills once I knew more, and the benefits of getting them early enough to level a bit before the first wave.
Unsure what to do, I decided to go ahead and choose an Archetype Skill on Cindy’s recommendation as Donny did the same.
With a mental push, I willed my skill page to appear.
Skills: v1.0.2
Proficiency
Effect
General Skills (1/2)
Identify
1/20
Gives user information. Amount and clarity based on identify level. Shows only basic information
Race Skills (3/3)
Stormborn
1/30
Increases the effectiveness of strength, constitution, and wisdom when in stormy conditions (+6%). Grants enhanced regeneration when touching water (+60%). Gain mana from enemy storm attacks. (+12% mana steal)
Storm Cloak
1/30
Your strikes contain the might of storms. You can use mana to fuel powerful physical attacks by cloaking tools with mana.
Electroreceptivity
1/20
You gain a 6th sense to sense electricity in a range of 10ft around you. Grows more powerful with use
Combat Skills (0/1)
None
Magic Skills (1/1)
Novice Storm Magic
1/30
Chaos Aligned. Control the power of storms.
Archetype Skills (2/3)
Born to Roam
2/100
Skill growth is increased while exploring new places alone (+2%)
First 1!
1/1
You were the first person to be upgraded. Absorbing ambient mana from kills is easier.
With that out of the way, I sent another internal request.
Would you like to begin skill selection? Y/N
Mentally selecting the affirmative, I focused on my Archetype Skills, ignoring all else. Then, I sent a mental push to bring up my options.
Archetype Skill Selection: 0/1
Available Skills: N/A
Just like the notes mentioned, there were no skills available to start with.
Now, based on the notes, I needed to focus on what I wanted. I had many things to consider; did I get something that would help me navigate? If I was going to be flying everywhere, it was probably an important consideration.
Did I get something to help me fight? Something to keep me safe, or alert me of things that were suspicious?
It would honestly be best if I could get something that helped just a bit with all three… *ding*!
Archetype Skill Selection: 0/1
Available Skills:
Eyes on the Road: (0/5) – You are born to travel. You have a supernatural ability to wind up where you want to be and senses strong enough to keep you out of trouble.
Yes! There it was! I was looking for something along the lines of danger sense, but this seemed… just a bit more. Regardless, it was just too useful to pass up. It ticked all of my boxes! If it could supernaturally guide me ‘where I wanted to be’, then it was something vital for me, who relied heavily on exploration.
With another mental push, I selected the skill, and just like that, it added itself to my sheet.
Skills: v1.0.2
Proficiency
Effect
General Skills (1/2)
Identify
1/20
Gives user information. Amount and clarity based on identify level. Shows only basic information
Race Skills (3/3)
Stormborn
1/30
Increases the effectiveness of strength, constitution, and wisdom when in stormy conditions (+6%). Grants enhanced regeneration when touching water (+60%). Gain mana from enemy storm attacks. (+12% mana steal)
Storm Cloak
1/30
Your strikes contain the might of storms. You can use mana to fuel powerful physical attacks by cloaking tools with mana.
Electroreceptivity
1/20
You gain a 6th sense to sense electricity in a range of 10ft around you. Grows more powerful with use
Combat Skills (0/1)
None
Magic Skills (1/1)
Novice Storm Magic
1/30
Chaos Aligned. Control the power of storms.
Archetype Skills (3/3)
Born to Roam
2/100
Skill growth is increased while exploring new places alone (+2%)
First 1!
1/1
You were the first person to be upgraded. Absorbing ambient mana from kills is easier.
Eyes on the Road
1/5
You are born to travel. You have a supernatural ability to wind up where you want to be, and senses strong enough to keep you out of trouble.
Feeling the passive skill activate for the first time was an extremely odd experience. Instantly, I knew exactly where I was.
I knew how high off the ground I was. I remembered every street name that I couldn’t bother recalling in the past. I knew the layout of just about every street across the city, and where they could take me.
With a slight expression of will, I tried to find the fastest way to Mom’s house.
The route along the roads appeared in my head unbidden, like I had some form of mental GPS, but I also knew that if I flew in a straight line just so, in an angle just slightly below west-southwest, I would arrive where I wanted to be.
For the first time since I had transformed, I couldn’t help but marvel at the wonder of the moment.
A smile rose to my lips.
This was cool as fuck.