Due to your traits and actions, you may gain up to 5 Bronze-tier skills from the following list.
Phantom Limb
Blade Resistance
Fog Cloud
Misty Blade
Paralyzing Venom
Cooking
Firearms
Due to your traits and actions, you may gain up to 1 Silver-tier skill from the following list.
Phantom Self
Blood Echo
Electric Shield
Blood Magic
Assassinate
As I look through my options, I stride around the corpses I’ve made, mulling over what I’ll pick in more than one way. I kneel down next to Jarreth’s body, readying my Devour skill, and then I realize that the magic lines in his armor are still pulsing with energy.
He’s dead. I know for a fact that he’s dead. The system has told me as much.
So why is his magic still active?
As I crouch closer to the dead man, the armor glows brighter.
A synthesized voice spills forth from the bright green lines.
“Inconvenient,” a male voice—I think it’s male, at least—says, the words heavily distorted as if he’s speaking through a thunderstorm. Is he speaking to me? “I suppose we’ll need to send more than the chaff next time. If there is a next time.”
It’s not a cryptic message, but I also can’t glean much from it. Presumably, he’s talking about me. Why is he talking through a dead man’s armor? Who is he talking to?
The lines flash painfully bright, and it’s only because of my freshly enhanced Mind (Speed) stat that I have the presence of mind to Bloodstep away.
Even as the world turns red and I dash from my location, the armor detonates. Force and green flame alike send my blood-form flying backwards, though thankfully it’s nowhere near as powerful as my mirror-self’s. I remain intact as a wave of energy attempts to disrupt my being.
As I come out of Bloodstep, remanifesting myself on the sandy ground, another corpse’s armor detonates. This one catches me off guard, and I’m sent tumbling head over heels, rolling onto the ground. A dozen spots of pain light up my back, and I fall.
And then I catch sight of my own armor.
Shit.
I activate Temporary Shape Self and Siphon at the same time, using the last of my daily uses for the latter skill to drain power from the armor and fuel the former. With no time for cleverness, I simply make my legs and arms as thin as I possibly can before activating Bloodstep again as soon as I withdraw them from their armor.
Temporary Shape Self advanced to level 3!
It pulls deep on my magic reserves, drawing strength until my well is nearly completely dry, but it’s well worth it. Less than a second later, the bracers I was wearing explode as well. With the magic mostly drained out of them, they’re small detonations, no larger than the size of my head, but that would’ve been more than enough to annihilate my limbs.
When I count seven separate detonations, I relax where I’ve landed. Flecks of metal and bone have embedded themselves into my torso, and I spend some time picking them out one by one, using Shape Blood to speed the process along.
The corpses are unrecoverable. The detonations have blown them to pieces, and the rocky battlefield where I killed the guards has been turned into a crater-scarred canvas dotted with blood and ash.
The countermeasure that the voice in the armor presumably activated wasn’t meant to kill.
It’s succeeded in stymieing my progress, which is irritating. With the corpses torn to shreds, I can’t gain XP from Devouring them now.
The benefits of my level increases do alleviate that irritation, at least. I notice that there are some skills like Lessened Bleed that I no longer have the option to gain. I suppose that’s the system realizing I have no need for something like that? It sucks to lose the option, but I’ll take what I can get.
It’s also interesting that I now have access to a couple of spells that definitely don’t fit my build so far. Fog Cloud, Misty Blade, and Electric Shield are all spells that I either Siphoned away or borrowed via Devour. Now, I’m getting them offered as level-up skills.
I’m not planning on actually taking any of them apart from Misty Blade, but it’s interesting to see. There’s a lot of potential for skill gains in the future, then.
That thought turns sour once again when I realize how much potential was stolen from me by post-mortem armor bombs, so I start picking my skills.
Blade Resistance (Common)
Tier: Bronze
Level: 1
You have a penchant for taking cuts and walking them off. Reduces damage taken by nonmagical edged weapons by 5%.
Resistances category created!
Each resistance is now 3% more effective.
The message comes out of nowhere when I take the Blade Resistance skill. Checking my stat sheet reveals that my three resistances—pain, poison, and now blades—have indeed been moved to a separate subcategory. It only gives me a mild boon, but I’ll take it.
Misty Blade (Rare)
Tier: Bronze
Level: 1
Coalesce the air into your blade. Imbue a bladed weapon with magical force. Upon wounding an enemy, your target will begin to freeze.
Firearms (Common)
Tier: Bronze
Level: 1
Steady your aim and fire. When active, you gain a 20% boost to accuracy with firearms.
Phantom Limb (Rare)
Tier: Bronze
Level: 1
Create a projection of a limb at a distance of up to 5 feet.
This one’s not incredibly important, but having a third hand to knife-fight with can’t hurt, right?
Phantom Limb (Bronze) and Temporary Shape Self (Bronze) are compatible skills.
That’s a new one, but instincts tell me it’s been a long time coming. It’s kind of surprising that nothing else I have has triggered this yet, but maybe it’s the class evolution and levels that have finally caused the first skill combination to occur.
I accept the combination.
Phantom Limb (Bronze) and Temporary Shape Self (Bronze) have been consumed.
New skill unlocked: Phantom Shape
Phantom Shape (Rare)
Tier: Bronze
Level: 4
Create phantom limbs at will. Maximum usage 24 minutes per hour.
As with most skill combinations, it’s both more and less than the sum of its parts. The levels of the two skills that make it up have been combined, and it’s obviously stronger than Phantom Limb. On the other hand, I don’t think I’ll be able to pull off the limb-shrinking feat again until I get another skill or skill combination that enables me to do so.
I test the skill out, willing six bladed limbs to burst from my back. It’s much less draining to use than Temporary Shape Self was, I immediately notice, but the limbs I create are less corporeal. Half-ghostly spider-like arms that taper to a point extend from my body. Controlling them is second nature to me, as if they’ve been part of my body since the day I was born.
I keep the limbs active as I walk around, trying to find any intact items I can loot from the bodies.
I have one more free Bronze-tier skill, so I take it.
Paralyzing Venom (Uncommon)
Tier: Bronze
Level: 1
Create a weak venom that paralyzes an enemy for 1 minute upon entering their bloodstream.
Venom is no longer active after one minute.
Paralyzing Venom (Bronze) and Venomous Bite (Bronze) are compatible skills.
Yeah, that was pretty much to be expected. Now that I’ve done one skill evolution, parts of the cloudy parts of my fragmented memories seem to be clearing, revealing more information about the world and system to me. I’d much rather have all the information now, but I’ll accept a gradual increase in my knowledge so long as I don’t run out.
Paralyzing Venom (Bronze) and Venomous Bite (Bronze) have been consumed.
New skill unlocked: Paralyzing Bite
Tier: Bronze
Level: 6
Activate this skill to inject paralyzing deathadder venom into a bite wound. Can be used 7 times per hour.
This one is just a raw upgrade to Venomous Bite for no cost at all. Very useful.
Finally, I have one Silver-tier skill that I can take. Phantom Self doesn’t look very useful when I already have Phantom Shape. Electric Shield is useful defensively but doesn’t fit my style of fighting. Quickstep and Assassinate are interesting—both of those were options that I would’ve received had I chosen to evolve into a Gunslinger or Assassin, respectively, but I’m getting them as options even though I didn’t choose those classes.
That just solidifies it for me. Struggling through thousands of deaths, making less than zero progress again and again and again, it was worth it.
Despite that, I don’t actually want those skills right now. They both have useful features, but there’s one more esoteric one that draws my eye.
Blood Echo (Rare)
Tier: Silver
Level: 1
Blood comes and goes easily. Manifest an echo formed of blood that will act independently of you for 1 second.
One second isn’t a lot, but the skill will upgrade with time. More importantly…
I activate the skill, my six half-incorporeal limbs still active, and an exact copy of myself bursts out from me, a woman’s silhouette colored completely red. She has my spider-limbs.
Without a target to unleash her on, the blood-Evelyn just strikes out at a shrub, bloody limbs tearing apart dry twigs and leaves before she collapses. The magic that holds her together disintegrates, and gallons of blood start to fall.
But the blood itself doesn’t disappear. I take control of as much of it as I can with Shape Blood, swirling it around myself in a crimson spiral.
Shape Blood advanced to level 9!
Convenient.
Blood Echo costs a lot of power to use, but it provides me a ton of blood to use without having to cut myself. Furthermore, the echo actually does seem to have good combat potential, which will only increase with time.
After I spend a few minutes looking around for anything useful, I give up. The detonations appear to have destroyed every weapon, piece of armor, currency, and so forth. There’s nothing I can loot from the bodies.
And, I realize, I left my gun on the train.
I sigh. It looks like I’m not going to upgrade Firearms anytime soon.
Objective: Find Sapphire in Ravendale
Arrive in Ravendale free and alive.
Distance to target: 43 miles
Reward: Bronze-tier skill
The objective to find Sapphire is still burning in a corner of my brain, but the reward no longer pulls me now that I’ve gotten so many new skills.
There’s something that draws me to it more, though, and it’s not the skill.
Sapphire—Saph, whatever she wants me to call her—has a deeper hand in my existence than I thought she did.
I need to find her. The thought of her is etched into my mind, white hair and blue eyes and a dangerously mysterious smile.
Ravendale is further down the train line. I don’t think I’ll be able to navigate my way there on my own—there’s no map accompanying the objective or anything, so I think I’ll get back on the train.
Getting back on the train is easier said than done, of course. First, I need to climb upwards.
That’s not the hard part. With the six extra spider-limbs, I’m able to find every tiny handhold and foothold in the cliff, propelling myself up as if I’m walking on flat ground.
When I’m at the top, though, I face an empty set of rails.
The train at Outpost 17 comes once every 24 hours. I don’t know if the same applies for trains in this random part of the country, but it’s safe to assume I’m not going to get frequent shots at this.
There’s not much vegetation on the narrow cliff where the rail runs, but I try to keep myself low to the ground anyway. At this point, my shift is pretty ruined by combat, so I feel less bad about covering myself in dust and dirt. I’ll clean it off later—for now, Stealth tells me this is the best way to avoid being spotted by the person driving the train when it comes.
I spend the next few hours resting by the rails, letting my magic regenerate. When I have enough, I start practicing Misty Blade. Without a target to attack, I’m not able to do much with it, but I do get it to level 3.
Day turns to night, and eventually, I hear the tracks rattling. My hearing is sharp, so I catch the train long before it gets close to me. I prepare myself, pressing my body close to the ground.
A minute passes, then two. I’m starting to worry that the train has stopped when it barrels around the corner, its speed far greater than I remember it being.
I activate Bloodstep as soon as I see it, and I still almost miss it. With the entirety of my magic reserves regenerated, it doesn’t take much out of me, and I throw myself upwards, aiming for the top of the train.
The skill ends, and I tumble. I hit the top of the train, but I’m not moving at the same speed as it is. I fall backwards, the impact of the fast-moving metal surface scraping the skin off where I make contact, and I bounce once, twice, three times—
I use Bloodstep a second time, focusing the entirety of the skill towards moving forward and matching the speed of the train. This time, when I hit the surface, I’m ready for it, and I catch myself.
As soon as I stabilize myself on the surface of the train’s ceiling, I flatten myself on it, holding onto a hatch to keep myself from blowing off.
Slowly, I clamber along the length of the train, staying low, and I make my way to the back.
I swing down, and I find myself face to face with a door at the back.
To my surprise, it opens. There’s a short hallway here, which I assume leads to the passenger cars. With no other features, I can only assume this is an escape route.
I crouch my way in, my feet touching down on soft carpet, and I prepare to cast Disguise Self once more. With the help of Acting, I should be able to make an excuse to get back on the train.
And then the door at the end of the hall opens. A young, cloaked man steps through, a lit cigarette in his hand.
I stare at him.
He stares at me, looking me up and down. He takes in all of me—the dirt, the ripped dress, the still-undisguised red of my eyes.
He drops the cigarette, barely-disguised panic clear in his eyes. “Who the fuck are you?”
I sigh, half-tempted to kill him here and now. Fortunately for him, Acting provides me a better alternative.
“Hi, I’m Evelyn,” I tell him. “I’m your new partner.”
Slifer274 2/3 for the day, one more coming in a few hours!
Due to your traits and actions, you may gain up to 5 Bronze-tier skills from the following list.
Phantom Limb
Blade Resistance
Fog Cloud
Misty Blade
Paralyzing Venom
Cooking
Firearms
Due to your traits and actions, you may gain up to 1 Silver-tier skill from the following list.
Phantom Self
Blood Echo
Electric Shield
Blood Magic
Assassinate
As I look through my options, I stride around the corpses I’ve made, mulling over what I’ll pick in more than one way. I kneel down next to Jarreth’s body, readying my Devour skill, and then I realize that the magic lines in his armor are still pulsing with energy.
He’s dead. I know for a fact that he’s dead. The system has told me as much.
So why is his magic still active?
As I crouch closer to the dead man, the armor glows brighter.
A synthesized voice spills forth from the bright green lines.
“Inconvenient,” a male voice—I think it’s male, at least—says, the words heavily distorted as if he’s speaking through a thunderstorm. Is he speaking to me? “I suppose we’ll need to send more than the chaff next time. If there is a next time.”
It’s not a cryptic message, but I also can’t glean much from it. Presumably, he’s talking about me. Why is he talking through a dead man’s armor? Who is he talking to?
The lines flash painfully bright, and it’s only because of my freshly enhanced Mind (Speed) stat that I have the presence of mind to Bloodstep away.
Even as the world turns red and I dash from my location, the armor detonates. Force and green flame alike send my blood-form flying backwards, though thankfully it’s nowhere near as powerful as my mirror-self’s. I remain intact as a wave of energy attempts to disrupt my being.
As I come out of Bloodstep, remanifesting myself on the sandy ground, another corpse’s armor detonates. This one catches me off guard, and I’m sent tumbling head over heels, rolling onto the ground. A dozen spots of pain light up my back, and I fall.
And then I catch sight of my own armor.
Shit.
I activate Temporary Shape Self and Siphon at the same time, using the last of my daily uses for the latter skill to drain power from the armor and fuel the former. With no time for cleverness, I simply make my legs and arms as thin as I possibly can before activating Bloodstep again as soon as I withdraw them from their armor.
Temporary Shape Self advanced to level 3!
It pulls deep on my magic reserves, drawing strength until my well is nearly completely dry, but it’s well worth it. Less than a second later, the bracers I was wearing explode as well. With the magic mostly drained out of them, they’re small detonations, no larger than the size of my head, but that would’ve been more than enough to annihilate my limbs.
When I count seven separate detonations, I relax where I’ve landed. Flecks of metal and bone have embedded themselves into my torso, and I spend some time picking them out one by one, using Shape Blood to speed the process along.
The corpses are unrecoverable. The detonations have blown them to pieces, and the rocky battlefield where I killed the guards has been turned into a crater-scarred canvas dotted with blood and ash.
The countermeasure that the voice in the armor presumably activated wasn’t meant to kill.
It’s succeeded in stymieing my progress, which is irritating. With the corpses torn to shreds, I can’t gain XP from Devouring them now.
The benefits of my level increases do alleviate that irritation, at least. I notice that there are some skills like Lessened Bleed that I no longer have the option to gain. I suppose that’s the system realizing I have no need for something like that? It sucks to lose the option, but I’ll take what I can get.
It’s also interesting that I now have access to a couple of spells that definitely don’t fit my build so far. Fog Cloud, Misty Blade, and Electric Shield are all spells that I either Siphoned away or borrowed via Devour. Now, I’m getting them offered as level-up skills.
I’m not planning on actually taking any of them apart from Misty Blade, but it’s interesting to see. There’s a lot of potential for skill gains in the future, then.
That thought turns sour once again when I realize how much potential was stolen from me by post-mortem armor bombs, so I start picking my skills.
Blade Resistance (Common)
Tier: Bronze
Level: 1
You have a penchant for taking cuts and walking them off. Reduces damage taken by nonmagical edged weapons by 5%.
Resistances category created!
Each resistance is now 3% more effective.
The message comes out of nowhere when I take the Blade Resistance skill. Checking my stat sheet reveals that my three resistances—pain, poison, and now blades—have indeed been moved to a separate subcategory. It only gives me a mild boon, but I’ll take it.
Misty Blade (Rare)
Tier: Bronze
Level: 1
Coalesce the air into your blade. Imbue a bladed weapon with magical force. Upon wounding an enemy, your target will begin to freeze.
Firearms (Common)
Tier: Bronze
Level: 1
Steady your aim and fire. When active, you gain a 20% boost to accuracy with firearms.
Phantom Limb (Rare)
Tier: Bronze
Level: 1
Create a projection of a limb at a distance of up to 5 feet.
This one’s not incredibly important, but having a third hand to knife-fight with can’t hurt, right?
Phantom Limb (Bronze) and Temporary Shape Self (Bronze) are compatible skills.
That’s a new one, but instincts tell me it’s been a long time coming. It’s kind of surprising that nothing else I have has triggered this yet, but maybe it’s the class evolution and levels that have finally caused the first skill combination to occur.
I accept the combination.
Phantom Limb (Bronze) and Temporary Shape Self (Bronze) have been consumed.
New skill unlocked: Phantom Shape
Phantom Shape (Rare)
Tier: Bronze
Level: 4
Create phantom limbs at will. Maximum usage 24 minutes per hour.
As with most skill combinations, it’s both more and less than the sum of its parts. The levels of the two skills that make it up have been combined, and it’s obviously stronger than Phantom Limb. On the other hand, I don’t think I’ll be able to pull off the limb-shrinking feat again until I get another skill or skill combination that enables me to do so.
I test the skill out, willing six bladed limbs to burst from my back. It’s much less draining to use than Temporary Shape Self was, I immediately notice, but the limbs I create are less corporeal. Half-ghostly spider-like arms that taper to a point extend from my body. Controlling them is second nature to me, as if they’ve been part of my body since the day I was born.
I keep the limbs active as I walk around, trying to find any intact items I can loot from the bodies.
I have one more free Bronze-tier skill, so I take it.
Paralyzing Venom (Uncommon)
Tier: Bronze
Level: 1
Create a weak venom that paralyzes an enemy for 1 minute upon entering their bloodstream.
Venom is no longer active after one minute.
Paralyzing Venom (Bronze) and Venomous Bite (Bronze) are compatible skills.
Yeah, that was pretty much to be expected. Now that I’ve done one skill evolution, parts of the cloudy parts of my fragmented memories seem to be clearing, revealing more information about the world and system to me. I’d much rather have all the information now, but I’ll accept a gradual increase in my knowledge so long as I don’t run out.
Paralyzing Venom (Bronze) and Venomous Bite (Bronze) have been consumed.
New skill unlocked: Paralyzing Bite
Tier: Bronze
Level: 6
Activate this skill to inject paralyzing deathadder venom into a bite wound. Can be used 7 times per hour.
This one is just a raw upgrade to Venomous Bite for no cost at all. Very useful.
Finally, I have one Silver-tier skill that I can take. Phantom Self doesn’t look very useful when I already have Phantom Shape. Electric Shield is useful defensively but doesn’t fit my style of fighting. Quickstep and Assassinate are interesting—both of those were options that I would’ve received had I chosen to evolve into a Gunslinger or Assassin, respectively, but I’m getting them as options even though I didn’t choose those classes.
That just solidifies it for me. Struggling through thousands of deaths, making less than zero progress again and again and again, it was worth it.
Despite that, I don’t actually want those skills right now. They both have useful features, but there’s one more esoteric one that draws my eye.
Blood Echo (Rare)
Tier: Silver
Level: 1
Blood comes and goes easily. Manifest an echo formed of blood that will act independently of you for 1 second.
One second isn’t a lot, but the skill will upgrade with time. More importantly…
I activate the skill, my six half-incorporeal limbs still active, and an exact copy of myself bursts out from me, a woman’s silhouette colored completely red. She has my spider-limbs.
Without a target to unleash her on, the blood-Evelyn just strikes out at a shrub, bloody limbs tearing apart dry twigs and leaves before she collapses. The magic that holds her together disintegrates, and gallons of blood start to fall.
But the blood itself doesn’t disappear. I take control of as much of it as I can with Shape Blood, swirling it around myself in a crimson spiral.
Shape Blood advanced to level 9!
Convenient.
Blood Echo costs a lot of power to use, but it provides me a ton of blood to use without having to cut myself. Furthermore, the echo actually does seem to have good combat potential, which will only increase with time.
After I spend a few minutes looking around for anything useful, I give up. The detonations appear to have destroyed every weapon, piece of armor, currency, and so forth. There’s nothing I can loot from the bodies.
And, I realize, I left my gun on the train.
I sigh. It looks like I’m not going to upgrade Firearms anytime soon.
Objective: Find Sapphire in Ravendale
Arrive in Ravendale free and alive.
Distance to target: 43 miles
Reward: Bronze-tier skill
The objective to find Sapphire is still burning in a corner of my brain, but the reward no longer pulls me now that I’ve gotten so many new skills.
There’s something that draws me to it more, though, and it’s not the skill.
Sapphire—Saph, whatever she wants me to call her—has a deeper hand in my existence than I thought she did.
I need to find her. The thought of her is etched into my mind, white hair and blue eyes and a dangerously mysterious smile.
Ravendale is further down the train line. I don’t think I’ll be able to navigate my way there on my own—there’s no map accompanying the objective or anything, so I think I’ll get back on the train.
Getting back on the train is easier said than done, of course. First, I need to climb upwards.
That’s not the hard part. With the six extra spider-limbs, I’m able to find every tiny handhold and foothold in the cliff, propelling myself up as if I’m walking on flat ground.
When I’m at the top, though, I face an empty set of rails.
The train at Outpost 17 comes once every 24 hours. I don’t know if the same applies for trains in this random part of the country, but it’s safe to assume I’m not going to get frequent shots at this.
There’s not much vegetation on the narrow cliff where the rail runs, but I try to keep myself low to the ground anyway. At this point, my shift is pretty ruined by combat, so I feel less bad about covering myself in dust and dirt. I’ll clean it off later—for now, Stealth tells me this is the best way to avoid being spotted by the person driving the train when it comes.
I spend the next few hours resting by the rails, letting my magic regenerate. When I have enough, I start practicing Misty Blade. Without a target to attack, I’m not able to do much with it, but I do get it to level 3.
Day turns to night, and eventually, I hear the tracks rattling. My hearing is sharp, so I catch the train long before it gets close to me. I prepare myself, pressing my body close to the ground.
A minute passes, then two. I’m starting to worry that the train has stopped when it barrels around the corner, its speed far greater than I remember it being.
I activate Bloodstep as soon as I see it, and I still almost miss it. With the entirety of my magic reserves regenerated, it doesn’t take much out of me, and I throw myself upwards, aiming for the top of the train.
The skill ends, and I tumble. I hit the top of the train, but I’m not moving at the same speed as it is. I fall backwards, the impact of the fast-moving metal surface scraping the skin off where I make contact, and I bounce once, twice, three times—
I use Bloodstep a second time, focusing the entirety of the skill towards moving forward and matching the speed of the train. This time, when I hit the surface, I’m ready for it, and I catch myself.
As soon as I stabilize myself on the surface of the train’s ceiling, I flatten myself on it, holding onto a hatch to keep myself from blowing off.
Slowly, I clamber along the length of the train, staying low, and I make my way to the back.
I swing down, and I find myself face to face with a door at the back.
To my surprise, it opens. There’s a short hallway here, which I assume leads to the passenger cars. With no other features, I can only assume this is an escape route.
I crouch my way in, my feet touching down on soft carpet, and I prepare to cast Disguise Self once more. With the help of Acting, I should be able to make an excuse to get back on the train.
And then the door at the end of the hall opens. A young, cloaked man steps through, a lit cigarette in his hand.
I stare at him.
He stares at me, looking me up and down. He takes in all of me—the dirt, the ripped dress, the still-undisguised red of my eyes.
He drops the cigarette, barely-disguised panic clear in his eyes. “Who the fuck are you?”
I sigh, half-tempted to kill him here and now. Fortunately for him, Acting provides me a better alternative.
“Hi, I’m Evelyn,” I tell him. “I’m your new partner.”
Slifer274 2/3 for the day, one more coming in a few hours!
