Chapter 13 - Gains

  When I woke up, I didn’t remember anything after the tentacle receded. I opened my eyes and saw a tree canopy. Skadi was sleeping next to me, while Val was reading a book. Once she noticed that I was awake she smiled and said: “Congratulations! You finished your first Quest, cleared your first Dungeon, and met your first extra dimensional entity.” The tentacle thing I presumed. “Now go on and look at your notifications. I didn’t pull you out of there to not hear about the juicy rewards.” I was happy to oblige.

  I asked Val about the name change of my class. She chuckled and said: “You can change your species. That means you could also change your biological sex if you want to. We’ll if you ever cut up a female and learned how the opposite side of naughty bits function. At this point the system considers you to not have an inherent race or sex, so it uses gender neutral language. I am pretty sure you can change that if you focus on it.”

  That made some sense, although I really didn’t know how to change genitals, and I really didn’t want to kidnap and cut up a woman just to find out. Anyway, my ego wasn’t fragile enough to be rattled by the revelation that the system didn’t consider me as ‘male’ anymore. I knew who I was, so I continued.

  So that perk works retroactively. But why 16? One Mage and six [Rangers] that is only … oh … It must also count the [Ranger] I kidnapped from the Village. I killed him after my Oath that’s right.

  That was ominous as all hell. But at least it wasn’t obviously negative.

  Woah. That was not expected. When did I eat a dungeon heart? I should ask Val after this.

  I looked the offerings over. [Greater Wolfperson] was just boring. Also general wisdom is that more and harder Requirements means a better class. [Internal Mana Expert] was also out. That was just not where I wanted to go. I pulled up the descriptions for the other two

  Now that was not a hard decision. I very much preferred to keep my sanity. Thank you very much. I chose [Aspiring Apex].

  I was almost drooling on the floor when I finished reading all that. My Stats were insane. And these new Perks. I never have to shit again. I can dedicate almost all of my body to combat, because I don’t need most organs anymore. I was like an overexcited child while telling Val all this. She gave me a patronising smile and said: “Yep that’s how everyone reacts when they first evolve their class. Quick word of advice. Everyone gets promised the world by their class. The description doesn’t guarantee anything. What it says is what the class wants and/or expects of you. It is not a guarantee. In your case especially. You are given amazing tools to shape yourself into that ‘Apex’ but it is on you how to use those tools.” I didn’t let her negativity get me down. Although I calmed down somewhat and looked at my Stats again. -15 Constitution meant I had died after eating the dungeon heart. Or I was supposed to be dead, but my [Hard to kill] Perk kept me alive.

  That. Left a bad taste in my mouth. I should be dead, yet I gained more than I lost. But I died, but I grew, but I died … That argument rattled around my head for a while. It wasn’t very productive, but as existential crises go I would rate it a solid 7/10. Decent subject, lacking in depth. And believe me, I’ve had a few.

  Anyway after about five minutes of fruitlessly trying to rationalise the fact that I should have been twice over now - and that’s just the stuff I had in writing - I finally stabilised, so that I could continue with my life.

  I gave my Character Sheet another once over before I started experimenting with my new powers.