The body of the demon was still there. Demon. Holy shit it just hit me that demons are real and also I killed one. But also, yeah demons are real, why is that so surprising? I feel like I khat already? Fuck I gotta get a handle on this weirdness. Of course, acc to the triage band Severity S Mind Shatter didn’t usually get better without treatment so the weirdness was likely to tinue for the foreseeable future.
Anyway, I looked around and took the se in. Still nightmarish even without the demoing corpses. I carefully shifted out and hissed as I put my injured leg on the ground. I avoided putti on it as much as I could but I couldn’t just hold it in the air forever.
Leaning on the side of the vehicle I started to make my way around it, just to check my blind spots for threats. Nothing moved aside from a few birds on the edge of the field that had e to take advantage of the free meal. Ugh, my guts twisted again at the thought. I did get a good look at the vehicle though, a big ugly lump of geometric shapes. It seemed like it was desigo have angled armor from as many sides as possible, and while I’m sure it was effective the aesthetics of it made it look like a short caterpilr made entirely without any curves. The fact that the treads it was carried on didn’t have any prote also made the seemingly ineered armor of the main body seem stupid. If I was fighting this thing I’d aim for the treads and just leave it crippled. Not to mention that the holes through said armor showed it to have been a waste anyway.
The driver’s on the front also had windshields that were frankly far te for something that was expected to be shot at. The passenger seat had a hole in the roof with a pintle mounted gun, a dead man draped over it. Poor bastard was pletely exposed manning that thing, probably the first to die to be ho.
With no threats found I took a better look at the age, specifically because not everyone was wearing the same uniform I was. Some of the bodies wore a different one, gray with purple ats and a few had red bars on their pels simir to the silver ones on poor dead Bernson. The shoulders of what I was assuming were enemy batants held a symbol. A bck shield with a purple sewing needle crossed with a red sword. I felt a small surge of fear looking at it, some feeling being the st remnant of an otherwise missing memory. I wondered if I would ever get used to that. Best case, I won’t have to and I find someohat fix me in a day or two. Worst… I tried not to let my mind tinue down that path.
With no more w about what ifs, I braced the butt of my rifle on the ground and used it to support my bad leg as I started heading out. There was a worn trail that the armored voy seemed to be using. It looked well used in both dires so I figured even odds of both ways going somewhere with people. Pig forward felt right somehow, but maybe that was some internalized idea of ‘keep going forward! Don’t look back!’ that I couldn’t sciously remember.
Walking hurt. Even with the rifle as a walking stick every movement from my leg was like being stabbed over and over. But I made good time anyway… I think. It felt like progress anyway. But as had bee the mantra What do I know? repeated in my head.
About half an hour into my journey I brought up my Status again and looked at my health. [96/240] Okay so, either health infusions provide forty nine points of HP when imbibed, or fifty and I’d lost one since downing the st vial. The sed seemed more likely and also sent a shiver of worry through me. That meant I was on even more of a time limit than I thought. I didn’t even know what was causing the damage and the battle of the bands happening on my arm still wasn’t talking so I was S.O.L. if I couldn’t find help soon.
I pulled my attention to the rest of my Status and looked it over as I kept moving forward, hoping the distra would help me deal with the pain.
[STATUS]
[Name: ERROR]
[Primary Css: Survivor]
[Sedary Css: Basifantry]
[Level: 11]
[HP: 96/240]
[MP: 1/50]
[Strength: 11]
[Coordination: 16]
[Endurance: 24]
[Focus: 5]
[Willpower: 26]
[Force: 10]
“Oh hey, my MP went up by ohat’s encing… I hope.” I muttered to myself. Of course I also had my skills and single spell to think about, w what they did caused the sight to shift and answer my curiosity.
[SKILLS]
[Sging: better identify both pces to sge for survival goods and the goods themselves. Increased ces for successfully sging parts from damaged goods.]
[Hearty stitution: Poisons, Iions, and Physical Status ditions have a lessened effect.]
[Pain Tolerahe effect of pain on one’s ability to think and act is lessehis does not reduce the sensations of pain, only its effe the mind.]
[Sixth Sense: more easily intuit hidden dangers.]
[Courtesan’s Touch: Dexterity and fior trol are increased, particurly when used on another sapient being. Ability to locate and manipute sensitive locations on sapient beings is increased. Physical sensations given to other sapient beings via touch is also increased.]
[Quick Rest: fall asleep more quickly and gain more rest from shorter periods of sleep. Overuse of skill may result in decreased mental capacity until proper sleep is achieved.]
[Soldier’s March: Long periods of physical activity have a decreased effe stamina, allowing for longer periods of activity before rest is required. This effect is increased for long periods of uninterrupted walking.]
[Sniper’s Eye: Accurad rah ranged onry is increased. Additionally increases damage to vital locations with ranged onry.]
[Favor of the Ferryman: You have e closer to death aurhan most people are capable of. The Ferryman knows your fad has somewhat enjoyed your brief time in his preseo be in his good graces is a rare honor. Do not ge his opinion.]
[3RR0R-3RR0R: The eyes of the Gods do not fall upon part of your soul.]
[SPELLS]
[Soothe:
Cost: 10 Mana
Raouch
Target: 1 living being
With a touch you ease the emotions and pain of a target, calming their mind and l their aggression towards you.]
“Quadruple fuck.” I muttered after reading it all. There was so gods damned much to unpa that. First off, I DIED??? Or at least got so close that I met this Ferryman person which sounded wly familiar in this text. But I came back, so that’s good. Also he likes me? Guess I have friends in, uh, dead pces. Better than enemies anyway.
Also, I had wondered about some of the skills names and that Primary i the picture they paiogether was not a pleasant one. Skills that spoke of a life of struggle and suffering and… wow, I think I know what I was before I was a soldier. Kinda hard to ignore a skill that at least implies I give good hand-jobs and with a hat suggests it was done professionally? I felt torn about that, like I was both thinking less of myself and I dunno, proud I was willing and able to do what I had to to survive? Also a weird part of my miing myself for thinking less of sex workers. Layers of a broken brain, yay.
The sedary css and skills clearly from that css were hough also spoke of a less than happy time in the servio sleep, walking for days, that sounded abht for some reason. I felt tired in my bones in a way that felt a little too much for just the situation I found myself in. Like I’d been tired for months. Hey, maybe I’ll get some sleep once I find someone. A nice warm bed, soft bs, a mint on my pilloould a mint on a pillow? Maybe to make it smell nice? Weird. My brain was weird. I hoped it was from the damage and not just… me.
You know what’s really weird though? I was worried about the vague spookiness of the misspelled error skill, but I was actually more worried about the Sixth Sense skill. Or, maybe worried is the wrong word. More like I had more questions about it. It was far more vague than my other skills, error aside, and I had to wonder what it meant by intuit.
Did I just get a gut feeling? A tingle in my mind like a spider? (Add that to the pile of thoughts I don’t uand) Did I get a message pop up in my vision from the System? For that matter, what did it mean by hidden dangers? Was that limited to something like being ambushed? Traps? Will it work if someone is lying to me or maniputing me? What if someone was trying to sell me food that’s gone bad even if they don’t know it?
Thinking harder about the skill offered no further information, so I stopped thinking about it and thought about my spell instead. I could lessen pain aional states apparently. Though E rank didn’t sound to powerful. Somehow I didn’t think I earhat in the military. It robably something to use on ts that got too ‘excited’. The thought caused a pulsing ache for the briefest of moments from my left arm. Somehow I khe pain was the remains of a memory, and one I didn’t want to remember.
The only thio sider was the error, which had the same kind of distortion as the description of Soul tai, the mysterious status dition I had. It was a bit of a leap, but I was guessing they were somehow reted.
But that seemed to be the end of anything to do with the System for the moment so I dismissed it and started to focus more on my surroundings. But only for a moment. I felt a very small draw of my attention from something else and like with my Status, I pulled it into my view.
[Level 11 reached. You have 5 u Attribute Points. You have 1 uncimed adva sele. Would you like to use these now?]
“Oh nutbunnies. Uh… sure?” I spoke the words even though I knew I needed only think about my decision. It felt more appropriate somehow. Like, I must vocalize my feelings or they don’t t! Whatever that feeli.
“Okay so first thing first, lets take a look at those Attributes.” and the System shifted to a new presentation, just my six Attributes and, thank the gods, a brief description of each.
[Strength: 11 – The physical force your body produce. Allows you to lift more, hit harder, resist being moved, and successfully perform other feats of brawn.]
[Coordination: 16 – Agility, reflexes, fior skills, flexibility, accura bat. Allows oo successfully perform feats involving fine trol of movements.]
[Endurance: 24 – Durability and overall physical health. Every point adds 10 to your Health Pool. Allows oo resist poisons, iions, and other physical status ditions.]
[Focus: 5 – Magical wellspring and Anima width. Every point adds 10 to your Mana Pool. Allows oo cast more or more powerful spells and tract with rger numbers reater ranks of Elementals.]
[Willpower: 26 – Mental and magical fortitude. Limit of how far one’s mind be stressed before a mental or emotional breakdown occurs. Increases rate of Mana geion. Allows oo resist mental and magical status ditions.]
[Force: 10 – Magical power and Anima depth. Allows freater effect of spells and more power to be grao tracted Elementals.]
Well, that answered some questions and raised more. I tried to focus on Anima to see if I got a description of it, but no such luck. Well, it appeared to have something to do with making tracts with elementals and the only one of those I was aware of was trapped on my arm, possibly reassembling itself, and hopefully not killing me or stealing my body when done. Maybe I’d be able to ask it if things turned out better thaher of those options.
I don’t know if it was the pain, cussion, or some weird drive hidden in my lost memories. But I looked at my Attributes and immediately put four of the points into Coordination to make it awenty. It felt o see that nice rouo tens digit in a way that I simply could not describe. Of course I slightly panicked after that, but the idea that I would at least shoot and dodge better now was some fort.
My remaining poi into Focus. Ora cast of Soothe before I was empty didn’t seem like a lot, but I didn’t like the number being that low somehow. Also, some part of me kinda hoped the Blood Elemental was going to be friendly and might be willing to tract with me and help me. Not that I had any idea how any of that worked but it seemed like if you want aal with any real power you need a det Focus score. So here’s to blindly hoping for the future!
With that done I was shown the so called Adva Seles. Which were iing to say the least.
[1. Advance Survivor css to Undying Champion css. Undying Champion gives bes that allow oo survive injuries or situations that would spell certain doom for others. Undying Champions gain access to self healing spells, defensive skills, and the ability t oneself back from the edge of death under certain ditions.]
[2. Advance Basifantry css to Heartseeker css. Heartseeker gives bes to damaging a target’s vital locations in bat, allowing oo inflict far greater harm to a target with their exceptional accuracy. Heartseekers gain access to awareness enhas, movement and accurahang skills, and the ability to igarget’s defenses under certain ditions.]
[3. Advance Basifantryman css to Crusader css. Crusader gives bes to fighting against demons and other fel tainted beings. Crusaders gain access to Light based spells, protective skills, and the ability to boost both damage and defense siderably under certain ditions.]
[4. Advance Survivor css to Noble e css. Noble e gives bes that allow oo perform better while serving those of higher station, both ally and socially. Noble es gain access to emotional manipution spells, mental and iioance skills, and the ability to go pletely unnoticed by others under certain ditions.]
[5. Advance Basifantryman css to Elemental Savant css. Elemental Savant gives bes to trag with and summoning elementals. Elemental Savants gain access to Elemental boosting spells, Anima enhang skills, and the ability to drastically improve the power of a summoned elemental under certain ditions.]
I actually was distracted enough to stop walking and just stare for several long moments. “...Huh.”
