Frank was standing in front of Morgan, with an unfocused, distant look in his eyes. He was moving his hand in front of his face slowly up and then back down. Morgan realized Frank was scrolling through a menu only he could see. Looking around, he noticed almost all the other guys in various actions were doing the same thing.

  At the far end of the loading dock, a man was holding a small ball of bright red flames in his hands. With a look of sheer amazement, he looked up slowly. With a quick flick of his hand, the fireball went ‘whoomph’ into one of the goblin bodies and set it ablaze. He let out a holler of joy, then his face went white and he fell onto his knees, drooling.

  “He has experienced mana drain sickness,” Sophia’s voice whispered in his ear… mind, whatever. “If you use more than 50% of your mana in a very short time, it can make you dizzy and nauseous.”

  Morgan walked over and helped the guy, Sean, his name tape said, stand up. Shakily, he thanked Morgan. Then wiped at the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, standing up the rest of the way.

  “Fireball, that’s awesome. It’s an excellent ability, but what happened?” Morgan asked.

  “I think I held the ball too long, and it drains mana every second. I held it as long as I could. Maybe that’s not very smart.” He said sheepishly, awe, or sickness still making his voice come out warbled.

  “Thanks for the assist. I am feeling alright now, though. The nausea only lasted a few seconds.”

  “No problem, hope I get something cool like that fireball,” Morgan said over his shoulder, walking back to Frank.

  Frank must have just finished his selections, and his eyes refocused.

  “Welcome back,” Morgan teased with a small grin. “Get anything good?”

  Frank’s eyes darted to the other people in the loading dock, and he placed a finger on his lips, then whispered, “Remember what I told you earlier. You can’t trust everyone, even here. This whole SNAFU is going to start sinking in soon. After that, it is going to get all ‘Lord of the Flies’ everywhere, fast! I would prefer to keep a few cards up my sleeve, and I suggest you do the same.” He looked up at Sean, who was summoning another fireball in his hands in front of another worker. “In Lord of the Flies, Piggy couldn't hurl fireballs.” He said ominously.

  “I trust you, Frank,” Morgan said quietly, no hesitation in his voice.

  “And I trust you, lad. These last two years, you have done nothing but work your ass off. I respect you for doing that and not complaining about it all the time. I’m not, not telling you because I don’t trust you, but what if one of them got a super hearing power? It could be one of the abilities on the list.” He said. “We will talk about this later, maybe on the way into town.”

  “Oh, I got my two random skills, but I haven't selected my other abilities or anything yet,” Morgan said quickly. The thought of walking through the dark made his skin crawl again. Then, with a start, Morgan realized it wasn't dark anymore. Well, it was dark, he could see where the light faded away, but he could see outside through the gloom like a sort of black and white movie.

  “Your title for killing the first goblin has granted you night vision out to 300 yards.” Sophia’s soft voice whispered. “In this mode, you will only see gray scale.”

  “Let me sit down and figure out what my skills are going to be. I don’t want to look like these guys,” Morgan said, heading to the break room, waving his hand, indicating a few workers still waving their hands or shaking their heads, staring off into space.

  “Okay, I have a few things to plan out. I need to think as well.” Frank said to him, and then louder to the other guys, “Please move George to the field so we can bury him. Anyone who wants, we will leave in about 10 minutes to head into town. As bad as we got it here, they were prolly all sleeping, and it will be much worse if these goblins start poking around. Grab anything useful, and anything we can use as weapons.” A few nods from those not in the menus and a thumbs up followed Frank and Morgan into the break room.

  Making his way to a table in the break room, Morgan sat in a cheap plastic chair. Frank had followed him in, his lighter held up in the usual fashion. It was surreal to not need the light to see, but he could tell the areas that would be shrouded in darkness because the colors faded to a gray scale.

  “I don’t need the light,” Morgan said, “I have a skill and can see in the dark pretty well.”

  “Useful,” Frank said, stepping into the room and shutting the door before pulling a chair out himself and extinguishing the lighter. “Just let me know when you are done. I am gonna look at the skill trees to try and get a sense of what I can work towards. I also have a couple points.” Frank closed his eyes and started making the hand-waving motions in the dark again.

  Apparently, you can still see the lists with your eyes closed, Morgan thought to himself. Then,          “Sophia, I would like to do the skill selections now.”

  “Absolutely, the skill tree options are quite extensive. I can suggest a path for you to follow to unlock the optimal archetype you desire. All of the strongest skills have prerequisites we will need to acquire along the tree before they are selectable.”

  A large box appeared, outlined in red, in the middle of Morgan’s Vision.

  ::SYSTEM ERROR! Devil’s Own Luck has disabled selection from all skill trees. Skill selections must be made from two randomly selected skills. Skill tree disabled while the user possesses unused skill points::

  “That is quite unsettling and unexpected.” Sophia sounded worried. “I will not be able to help guide you to a desired archetype if the skill trees are unavailable. Let’s see”

  The box went away. Then appeared again.

  “The system said it was a unique skill, just like you are. What exactly does that mean?” Morgan asked.

  Sophia sounded frustrated as she rattled off, “Skills have a rarity from common to unique. The skill trees are actually a large interconnected web of skills that lead to nodes of more powerful and rarer skills. By following paths labeled as an archetype, you can focus on certain types of skills. Common skills are… well, common, and are usually useful but not terribly powerful.

  “For all the common, uncommon, rare, epic, legendary, and mystic skills, I have in-depth descriptions and suggestions. However, the unique skills are a surprise to me, just as much as they are to you. I know how many there are, but I cannot see their names or descriptions. Unique skills can be possessed by only one person per planet, and are not on the skill tree web. They are earned by achievements or by random skill selections. Usually, you would get a random skill every 5 levels.”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “How many unique skills are there, and why are they unique?”

  “There are currently 943 unique skills still available. Unique skills are usually more powerful, crafted by … patrons that have a vested interest in the success of your race in this contest for your world. They donate vast amounts of resources to be able to impart these skills. However, forces wanting to subvert your planet’s acceptance can also spend resources to create unique skills that do offer a benefit, but have a drawback.” Sophia sounded genuinely sad that a large portion of her function was not going to be useful to me.

  “Who do they donate to?”

  Sophia started to say something and then stopped and replied, “I cannot reveal that information at this time.”

  “Who crafted you?”

  “I cannot reveal that information at this time.”

  “Can I get that information in the future?”

  Sophia answered, “You will unlock more information after the assessment is complete. Until then, I will be unable to answer all your questions. I am sorry. I am also sorry I cannot help you with the unique skills you possess, or guidance on a skill archetype, ” she really did sound sad.

  “Sophia, I will still need you to advise me on selecting the right skills, even if it’s from two randomly selected ones.” Morgan thought, hoping she would be placated.

  “I can do that. I am sorry that I am not able to do more.”

  “Well, how do I select a new skill? I have seven more to do, you said?”

  “One moment, let me rework the interface to account for the random selection.”

  The HUD flickered for a moment, and then a coin appeared in the middle of Morgan’s vision.

  “I don’t like the coin. How about just two windows? One option in each.”

  “Like this?” She said as the coin fizzled and two windows appeared side by side.

  “Yes, that’s fine, then we can decide from those two windows which one to pick.”

  “Ready?” She asked.

  “Let’s go for it.”

  “Commencing.”

  The two windows filled with information on two skills.

  ::Skill - Common - Don’t be a possumist - Play dead, once per encounter.::

  ::Skill - Legendary - Indomitable Will - Continue to fight, regardless of physical status.::

  “Advice?” Morgan thought. He was going to pick the highest rarity, but thought Sophia might have something to say.

  “Indomitable Will is a legendary skill. It is very powerful, but also has a list of four prerequisites. I am unsure if you will even be able to utilize that skill for many levels. Using the normal skill trees, it would take a minimum of 55 skill points to unlock it and all the required skills to activate it. The common skill you could get in only 5 total skill points, and it has no prerequisites.”

  “Select Indomitable Will, then, and let’s see how this works,” Morgan actually crossed his fingers.

  Sophia didn't say anything, but the window appeared.

  ::Skill Granted - Legendary - Indomitable Will::

  There was a long pause. Then Sophia exclaimed, “It appears that you are able to use the skill without meeting the prerequisites. This is astounding.” Sophia was excited. “However, it appears that the other skill is now blacked out in the skill tree. It is likely you will never be able to get that skill in the future.”

  “Great. Well, let’s keep going.” Morgan thought to her. “We have six more to do. How about you just pick the rarer one, unless you see something that is more useful, then ask me for input. And try to minimize the amount of boxes and text in the future.”

  Sophia said …happily. Was it just his imagination, or was Sophia showing emotions?

  The windows popped into view for a few seconds and then went away.

  ::Common - You're a Gem - Increases the chance of finding rare gems and ores while mining.::

  ::Mythic - Regeneration - What doesn't kill you… doesn't kill you.::

  ::Skill Granted - Regeneration.::

  ::Common - Berry Good Farmer - Increases the yield of all harvested crops and foraging attempts.::

  ::Common - That's a Wrap - Increases the effectiveness of all bandages and medical supplies.::

  “Unless you plan on farming, the first aid skill will be more useful. However, you just selected regeneration, so it will be less useful to you personally.”

  “Let’s go with the first aid skill. I already have a huge bag full of bandages.”

  ::Skill Granted - That’s a Wrap.::

  ::Epic - The Punisher - A passive skill that deals a small amount of damage back to any enemy who attacks the user. ::

  ::Common - Grave-y Train - Increases the amount of experience points gained from defeating undead enemies.::

  ::Skill Granted - The Punisher.::

  “Morgan felt goosebumps run down his arms.

  ::Uncommon- Strength Increase +2 (Berserker Tree).::

  ::Common - All Bark and No Bite - A passive skill that increases the user's intimidation and taunt abilities.::

  ::Skill Granted - Strength Increase +2::

  “Hmmm,” Sophia hummed.

  Morgan thought, interrupting Sophia.

  Morgan could feel the anticipation of being able to throw fireballs, or catch bullets, or some other cool super super-awesome thing.

  Morgan deflated a little. Having tons of skills wouldn’t help if he were as weak as a kitten.

  Morgan thought glumly, not as excited as he had just been.

  ::Legendary - Godslayer's Blade - Grants a chance for the user's weapon to deal true damage, ignoring all armor and resistances.::

  ::Common - Sword Expertise - increase damage and effectiveness of swords of all types.::

  Sophia asked.

  ::Skill Granted - Godslayer’s Blade.::

  ::Mythic - The One-Punch Wonder - Grants a minuscule chance for a single unarmed strike to instantly defeat any enemy.::

  ::Unique - Adaptation - A little bit of this, and a little bit of that::

  ::Skill Granted - Adaptation.::

  ::Congratulations! You are the first person on your planet to have three unique skills. Additional Ability point granted.::

  Morgan thought, annoyed at the large blue windows.

  Sophia replied. She then continued,