Milo remembered when he'd first encountered Volax-Repat and seen how the great creature was covered in small bony plates that moved and flexed like an intricate set of scale armor. Or like interlocking graphene-iridium microplates. His bony armor wasn't anywhere near as complex. It was protective and flexed where it needed to, but it was also somewhat bulky, and he had to be careful with some of his acrobatics. He wished he could look again at Volax-Repats' armor. Sitting on top of an Arcane Library floating in the Void seemed like a bad idea. But the tail-tip from the rotting eel tooth was giving him a second chance.

  The specimen was worn and decayed from seawater and eel spit, but some of it had survived, and the core held a runic structure similar to what he could see in Altar-Viatar's gargantuan bones. With his goggles, he could see the intricate structure of the remains of the armor and the reinforced structure of the small bone. After observing for over an hour, the system sent a message, with its usual dislike for something older than itself.

  He could feel the change inside himself and watched the bones in his good hand change as the network he'd been building propagated throughout his skeleton and claws. His ruined arm was still rebuilding itself. There were options open to him because of that. But he needed to gain his new class first. And to do that, he needed to first spend the Enhancement points he'd gained.

  He was curious if other players had run into the large, hidden quests that the game hid within storylines, even stories that seemed to be generated by the players themselves.

  He'd gained a lot of his current bonanza for his work in changing Shadowport, hopefully for the better. More than just establishing a trade route from the Hollow to the Engineering Outpost and finding the ancient city. That had involved killing some horrible creatures, but the changes made in the world were just as significant. And now he needed to spend 200 points. A few things he'd been thinking about for some time. He'd found others in the various lists he now had access to.

  Deeprock Engineer Enhancements: 55 points total

  Enhance Machinery 1:

  If a Deeprock Engineer didn't contribute to a machine's design, it isn't as good as it should be. Rebalancing, better materials, better fuel, design tweaks, and Engineering Runes will make it better, and at least 20% more efficient.

  Cost: 5 points.

  Enhance Machinery 2:

  And a Senior Engineer can make it even better, with at least a 40% increase over the original. The design might be strange, utilizing several 'shortcuts' that every Senior Engineer develops.

  Cost 10 points.

  Explosion Resistance: Gain the skill of Explosion Resistance (CON). You never know when a loose nut gets tossed into a gearbox and everything goes BOOM!

  Cost: 10 points.

  Shock Resistance: Gain the skill Shock Resistance (CON). Sure, you thought the power was off...!

  Cost: 10 points.

  Heat Resistance: Gain the skill Heat Resistance (CON). Machines get hot. Blame Thermodynamics and get over it. Or learn to live with it!

  Cost: 10 points.

  And the last two looked useful. One he'd learned of from Sledgemonkey, and the second from Black Eddie's journals after extensive reading.

  Advanced Mech-Suit plate joining techniques: Tired of moving like a human in a suit of plate armor?

  Cost: 5 points.

  Micro-assembly of magi-tech circuitry

  Cost: 5 points

  Increased Stats: 84 points total. STR, INT, WIS, DEX, AGI, CHA, and PER.

  That was a lot of points, but the increases were essential. While he could buy other abilities later, if he passed on increasing his stats in this tier, he lost the opportunity. And as he went up in Tiers, each point of those stats became more valuable.

  The Hollow had several things he wanted, including Major Poison Resistance, Surprise!, and Advanced Stealthy Skulking. He put those on the 'Maybe or Later' list. As usual, there were too many things to buy once he got going. Increased health and mana, increased damage, claw and tail attacks, and the idea he had in the back of his head that wouldn't go away. He stared at his healing arm for a few minutes, then went ahead and spent the points. It either worked, or it didn't. He'd find a use for all the skills one way or another.

  Light of the World: Gain the Aspect of Light and +1 Radiance. You have access to training in Light, Radiance, and Sunlight aspected magic.

  Cost: 10 points.

  Stars in your eyes: Gain the Aspect of Starlight. You have opened up the ability to learn Celestial-aligned magic spells.

  Cost: 15 points

  Playing with Fire: Gain the Aspect of Fire: You may learn and train spells with the Aspect of Fire and Flames.

  Cost: 20 points

  It was a costly experiment, especially since to gain more than beginner spells, he'd have to find an Arcane college, either Uptop or somewhere below. But that wasn't his main goal. With 16 points left to spend, he picked up Magic Sense 1, 2, and 3 for fourteen points, and Canine Speech for two points. With his goggles, he didn't need Magic Sense if looking at something to identify it, or an incoming spell. But it might help him with controlling intricate spells that he wanted to cast. And he felt he wasn't holding his own in conversations with Georgie.

  That done. He moved to Tier Four.

  Milo skimmed down the message, he'd already made the obvious decision. "All of it into toughness. A frail sage like me needs all the Health he can get."

  "I'm thinking I like the new me. Especially my mana pool. I have some ideas for how to put it to use. Now, I think you owe me a reward from that large chest over there."

  Milo got up from where he'd been lying for days. He unwound the bandages and looked at his regrown arm and hand. His fur was just starting to regrow, as shiny and lustrous as ever. He clenched his fist, looking at the interlocking runes in his bones, and the runic formation burned into his palm. He wasn't quite ready to experiment yet. He needed to talk to Gendifur about some of the small control runes she used. They were precise and ideally suited for controlling the flow of liquids and gases in the body. And he needed to check his calculations carefully.

  But before he became absorbed in the math of his new experiment, he had a large Loot Chest to open.