Available Classes:
Explorer: You embody the spirit of exploration. You relish charting the unknown like the great explorers of old. From the icy caps of the new arctic tundra to the depths of the Underdark, your success is dependent on your intelligence and willpower.
Adventurer: You embody the spirit of adventure. Collecting information, killing monsters, and relentlessly pursuing the next tavern. Whether you live bounty to bounty or become someone great, your success is dependent on your strength, willpower, and luck.
Warrior: You embody the spirit of the warrior. You slay any that needs slaying depending on your inclination. Whether you fight as a soldier, mercenary, or guard, your success is dependent on your willpower and strength.
Please make your selection.
Immediately, I transcribed the descriptions of all available classes into a fresh page on the notebooks, paying particular attention to the final sentences of each.
The repetitive callbacks to the different types of stats made me think there was some connection between the stats of the user, and the classes made available. Perhaps it was the other way around that the classes affected the stats themselves. Both were equally plausible.
Neither possibility mattered, however, as I needed to select one of the options now and begin my skill and stat progression. Taking a second glance over the list of options, I immediately discarded Warrior. Simply put, I didn’t want to be a soldier, mercenary, or guard. If my class was going to give me skill upgrades closer in line with what the system regarded my ‘job’ to be, I should pick something that would help me embody what I thought that should be.
That left Explorer or Adventurer. Explorer was intriguing; it invoked imagery of Indiana Jones, diving into tombs and exploring dangerous locales for treasure and the simple glory of seeing things yet unseen. It was tempting. Very, very tempting.
Adventurer, though, was what I was going to choose. It was a classic for a reason. The simple romance of working for yourself, chilling out in an Adventurer’s guild with a tankard of beer and dirty boots kicked up on the table. Taking jobs that helped people just as much as they put money in your pocket. Plus, it felt like a compromise between both Explorer and Warrior. The combination itself was enticing.
Decision made, I confirmed my choice in the menu. Pulling up my status, I double-checked all of the new changes.
Menu: v1.0.2
Name: Victoria (Vic) Gale
Age: 1 day
Gender: Female
Race: Monster
Type: Lesser Storm Demi-Paraelemental
Class: Adventurer
Core: 0/30 (T1)
Affinity: Physicality, Storm
Character Archetype: Lone Wanderer
Current:
Maximum:
Regen:
Mana:
60
60
50/hour
General Stats:
Current
Maximum
Effect
Strength
10
15
Physical strength; pushing, pulling, lifting.
Agility
10
15
Physical speed; running speed, acrobatic ability, inertial control.
Dexterity
9
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
12
Ability to move with finesse and skill, and to move the body as the mind wills.
Constitution
12
20
The sturdiness of the body; ability to resist damage, poison, and magic.
Intelligence
6
10
Your capacity to learn and remember. Magical strength and capacity.
Wisdom
5
15
Your ability to reason out the best choice. Magical recovery and momentum.
Charisma
10
12
Your likability; affects attractiveness
Luck
10
15
Effects drop rates and personal narrative
Skills: v1.0.2
Proficiency
Effect
General Skills (2/2)
Identify
1/20
Gives user information. Amount and clarity based on identify level. Shows only basic information
Cartography
1/30
Ability to draw and create accurate maps.
Race Skills (3/3)
Stormborn
2/30
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
2/30
Your strikes contain the might of storms. You can use mana to fuel powerful physical attacks by cloaking tools with mana.
Electroreceptivity
2/20
You gain a 6th sense to sense electricity in a range of 10ft around you. Grows more powerful with use.
Combat Skills (1/1)
Novice Swordsmanship
1/10
Basic swordsmanship techniques and skills
Magic Skills (1/1)
Novice Storm Magic
1/30
Chaos Aligned. Control the power of storms.
Archetype Skills (3/3)
Born to Roam
5/100
Skill growth is increased while exploring new places alone (+5%)
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.
With everything in order I wasted no time, leaving the apartment to return to the Garcia’s store. Instead of Mr. Garcia running things, though, I found Elena studiously cataloging the goods.
Elena and I didn’t talk much. She was younger than me by close to five years and had her own interests and friends. She had no designs to go to college, instead electing to continue running the family business which she had been helping at for a long while. Like her mother and father, Elena had transformed into a Kitsune, though she had only two tails instead of three.
“Hey, Elena. Can you help me find something in all of this?”
“Hey Vic. Sure, what are you looking for? If you need breakfast, there should be some people getting things ready outside the hotel.”
“I think I’ll take you up on that breakfast, but what I was really looking for was a machete or sword. Do we have any here?”
“Sure, no problem. There’s a bucket of machetes over there, in the corner with all the tools.”
As she spoke, she pointed off into one of the darker corners of the store, and sure enough, in an old flowerpot, there were close to ten assorted blades.
In central Texas, there were loads of nasty cedar trees and brambles that needed to be cleared out. While the trees were technically native, they had become an invasive species and had a foul tendency to spread into these dense clusters, choking out all other plant life. Not to mention the unbearable allergies they caused when there were too many nearby.
Living with Mom at the ranch house, clearing cedar was a yearly occurrence. What’s more, any time a new neighbor moved in, they would inevitably need to clear out even more of the stuff. Machetes weren’t quite a household item but were by no means uncommon.
After quickly going through my options, I chose an older-looking machete with a simple wooden handle. It felt comfortable in my hand and had a leather sheath I could wear on a belt. Bidding farewell to Elena, I returned to my room briefly to grab one made of sturdy leather with a nice brass buckle. Belt in hand, I fastened the machete on my right leg, and my knife on the other.
When I went to get breakfast at a few collapsible tables set out near the hotel, I found the area full of people who were busily getting started with their day. Most carried weapons of some type, even if they were just working around the camp. To my immense relief, news had gotten out that the city was no longer safe, and everyone was taking it seriously.
As I quickly ate some scrambled eggs and bacon off of a paper plate, I contemplated what I was going to do next. First things, first, I needed to figure out how combat skills worked. Next, I wanted to test my storm cloak skill and figure out its mana consumption rate so I could plan encounters better going forward. Finally, I wanted to work out how to use storm magic.
While magic was an ability tied to my weakest stats, it was an aspect of my power that would be foolish to neglect. If a freshly transformed Water Nymph could produce enough drinkable water for over forty people, then what could someone transformed in the first wave, who should be even stronger, do? I wanted to figure it out.
As I started to leave the clearing to find a more secluded place to practice, I saw Donny talking to a few older guys. They seemed to be having a deep discussion, and I could tell that Donny was excited by whatever they were talking about.
Or I guessed he was excited, at least. He was flashing his teeth a lot, and though dragon expressions didn’t quite line up with the typical human ones, I knew it could either be a smile or a snarl. Both of the older men didn’t look angry or frightened though, so I assumed the conversation was going well, and that the expression was a smile.
As I approached the trio, they all stopped to look at me, conversation put on hold.
“Vic! I heard about what happened, are you alright?”
I smiled a bit, happy that he was worried for me.
“I’m fine, Donny. A bit shaken, but overall I'm doing okay, I think.”
“I’m glad. Did you need help with something?”
“I was just going to test some of my skills and saw y’all talking. I was wondering if you wanted to join me.”
His smile turned a bit strained.
“Sorry, Vic, I think I have some plans for today. These guys, Seamus and Bill, were part owners of a workshop near riverside. They’re knife makers! They have everything, a forge, anvil, and even leatherworking tools! We were going to try and bring everything here and start trying to craft magical gear.”
As I thought about it and started mulling over the potential of his endeavor, I could see that this would be a game changer. If guns couldn’t be enhanced by the system with skills, classic weapons and armor would be invaluable. While there were still some blacksmiths that could make these things kicking around, they were rare. If we could get crafting started early, though, we could be prepared ahead of the curve.
Riverside was just a bit south of here, where the colorado river parted downtown. It shouldn't be that far of a trip, maybe taking only a few hours. If they could figure out how to get one of the cars there without running into a forest that popped up out of nowhere, it would be even faster.
“I think that’s a great idea, Donny. Let me know when you get back, and I’ll share what I’ve learned.”
“Sounds good. Good luck, Vic.”
“You too, Donny. Watch out, and keep safe.”
Our quick farewells made, we set out in different directions, determined to maximize our chances of success in this strange new reality.