Congratulations!
Bone Thief Defeated.
Bonus Experience Points Awarded
for Defeating a Demon Spawn of Samleos.
Level Up!
Mirror Knight has Reached Level 3.
1 New Skill Available for Selection.
Level Up!
Mirror Knight has Reached Level 4.
1 Attribute Point Awarded.
Congratulations!
Bone Thief Defeated.
Bonus Experience Points Awarded
for Defeating a Demon Spawn of Samleos.
Level Up!
Mirror Knight has Reached Level 5.
1 New Skill Available for Selection.
A barrage of system notifications flashed into existence before Jadis’ eyes the mont she thought to check her status nu. Each one demanded acknowledgent before disappearing, allowing the next to pop into existence. She blinked rapidly, shaking her head at the sudden influx of ntal nu screens.
“Don’t get wrong, D. I am thrilled to be leveling up, but I am just a tiny bit fucking exhausted at the mont. Give a minute to breathe, will ya?” Jadis panted, hands on knees as she slowly ca down from the adrenaline high of fighting the two demons. Both bodies were still wedged into the half-opened door of her commandeered hut.
Looking between her selves, she was bleeding from multiple open wounds and one of her necks was badly bruised from the attempted strangulation. Her feet were also bleeding, having been cut during her pell-ll dash through the forest and back to her base. Aches and pains were making themselves known all over her bodies. She was, frankly, a ss tis two.
Taking advantage of her forethought, Jadis used the jars of water she’d collected earlier to quickly wash off her wounds, dousing them in alcohol and wrapping them up with the remaining cloth she’d scavenged. By the ti she was done, the sun was dipping low in the sky, the western mountains already casting the valley in deep shadows.
Not sure of what else to do with them, Jadis pushed and dragged the bodies of the bone thieves out of her doorway and into the woods, taking them at least a hundred yards away from her hut. She kept careful watch of her surroundings as she did so, fully expecting more of the vicious creatures to co running out of the encroaching darkness. The tension of expecting another attack didn’t leave her until after she’d returned to the hut, gone back to the water source to refill her jars, and returned to the hut again, barricading the door.
Alone with herself in the dark of the completely shut off hut, Jadis sat on the floor, leaning shoulder to shoulder with her double.
“God, I wish I had a bed right now…”
“I’d settle for a blanket. Anything soft to sit on, really.”
She groused to herself, bodies aching from the fight, but a subtle glow of satisfaction was also warming her chest. She’d killed those demons. Two of them, at once. No, it hadn’t gone perfectly as planned, but her plan of catching them in a chokepoint had worked. Even better, her on-the-fly idea of using herself as bait while her other self waited in ambush had also worked. Being able to coordinate attacks against her enemies in perfect synchrony was a massive boon. She had no idea what kinds of classes were standard out in the wide world of Oros, but she was fairly certain Mirror Knight was a top tier choice. She was imnsely glad she had chosen it now that it had proven its worth so many tis over.
“Well, for all I know, most people get classes that turn them into unstoppable juggernauts or all-powerful wizards and I’m just fucking about with my dingy little weirdo class.”
She shook her head at the thought. “Nah. My class is the best class ever. I’m going to continue to believe that, for my own sanity, until proven otherwise.”
“Speaking of my class,” she nodded in agreent to her self-aggrandizing plan, “Should probably take a look at my level ups and all that.”
Jadis grinned, happy to see the results of her hard work so instantly displayed before her. She concentrated and her status nu appeared.
Jadis Ahlstrom
Race: Nephilim
Primary Class: Mirror Knight (5)
Secondary Class: None
Tertiary Class: None
Combined Level Rating: 5
Health: 135/210
Magic: 10/10
Attributes
Strength: 30
Dexterity: 10
Agility: 10
Vitality: 21
Fortitude: 15
Endurance: 15
Arcane: 0
Divine: 0
Eldritch: 70
Focus: 1
Resilience: 10
Will: 5
Jadis winced seeing her health so low. She hadn’t dropped below fifty percent yet, but it had dropped by around forty points compared to what it had been at the start of the day. Considering she’d only regained a single point over one night’s sleep, she didn’t like to see how quickly her health was being used up.
From her level up notifications, she saw that she had gained one attribute point to spend on whichever attributes she wanted. She almost imdiately put it into vitality, considering how much it had helped her before, but stopped herself from making a hasty decision. Her notifications had said she’d earned new skills to choose from as well. She concentrated on her skills nu, eager to see what she had available.
Her vision filled with a large screen, a list of options laid out for her.
2 Skill Selections Available.
New Skills:
Minor Attribute Improvent I
Crushing Blow
Improvised Weapon Mastery I
Light Illusion
Knight’s Rest
“Okay, interesting, we’ve got so options here…” she mumbled, examining the screen that was thankfully unaffected by the lack of light in her hut. “Might as well check them each one at a ti?”
“Yeah, makes sense,” she agreed with herself. “I’m curious about the last one, though. Is that a pun?”
“Probably is. I doubt the gods who set up a ga-like magic system for a whole world to operate on would be above making puns.”
Checking the skills one at a ti, Jadis read through their descriptions, examining and judging their use as best she could.
Minor Attribute Improvent I
Passive Skill. Increases a chosen attribute by 3 points. Can be selected for each attribute up to 5 tis.
“That seems useful,” she said, looking over the first skill. By the description, it seed like a ans to quickly increase the number of points she had in a particular attribute. Though she’d only gone up five levels, she’d already established a pattern. So far, it looked like every even number level was giving her a single free attribute point to spend however she saw fit, while every odd numbered level was giving her the option to choose a skill. If she chose Minor Attribute Improvent, she could increase a stat by three points, sothing that would take six levels to do otherwise.
“Minor Attribute Improvent is a definite ‘maybe’. Increasing my base stats could make a huge difference. Then again, maybe the number of points I get to spend per level goes up at higher levels. Better keep reading.”
Crushing Blow
Active Skill. Empower your next physical attack at the cost of stamina, dealing extra damage. Only works with bludgeoning weapons. Cost – 5 stamina.
Crushing Blow sounded like an amazing skill. Only problem she had was in the cost.
“What the hell is stamina? I an, nothing on my nu says anything about stamina!” She threw up her hands in frustration.
“Maybe it’s a hidden value…?” she guessed, annoyed at the lack of clear instructions. “Considering I don’t have a clue how much stamina I have or what attribute governs it, I think I’ll pass on this one.”
Improvised Weapon Mastery I
Passive Skill. Provides a small increase to the damage dealt by either objects never intended for combat or weapons made by unskilled hands.
“That could be useful,” she mused. “I an, a passive bonus to damage is great, though the lack of specifics on what a ‘small increase’ is does make it hard to choose.”
“And, what about the future?” Jadis pointed at her two clubs that she’d left propped on the wall by the door. “Those are killer and all, but I’m kinda hoping to get so real weapons at so point. This skill would beco completely useless the mont I get an actual weapon.”
“Yeah, I’m right. Pass.” Jadis nodded her head. “I get the feeling these skills are kind dependent on what actions I’ve taken in combat so far, though. Kind of like the class options, I guess?”
“Probably true,” she agreed, moving on to the next skill on the list.
Light Illusion
Active Spell. Create a simple illusion that can distract or obscure. Effects are visual only. Illusion cannot move. Cost – 50 magic.
“Magic!” Jadis cried out excitedly. She had been hoping her class would allow her to cast spells of so kind. She didn’t mind being a lee fighter at all. In fact, the more she fought, the more she found herself enjoying the burn of her straining muscles and the thrill of crushing her opponents in direct combat. Still, magic was cool.
“Look at that cost, though,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ve got ten magic total. This spell needs fifty to cast it once.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty bullshit,” Jadis said with disappointnt. “Well, I could put a free attribute point into Focus, pretty sure that’s what governs my magic pool, then select a Minor Attribute Improvent to increase Focus by another three. Then I’ll have enough mana to cast the Light Illusion spell. But is it worth it?”
“I’m kind of already built towards lee with my high strength,” Jadis debated with herself. “If I sink all my resources into a spell, it’s got to be worth not increasing the power of the stats I already have a natural investnt in.”
“It could be super useful to create an illusion of myself though, for bait purposes. Less chance of sothing going wrong, better ambushes…”
“But how often can I cast it? I’ve got no idea how quickly magic replenishes. What if its just as slow as health?”
“Yeesh, good point, .” Jadis ceded the argunt against going down a magic-centric path. “Let’s avoid picking spells for now, unless one cos up that’s not exorbitantly expensive like Light Illusion is.”
She moved on to the last skill available, the one she suspected of punnery.
Knight’s Rest
Passive Skill. Regain health at a moderately increased rate when sleeping. Cannot regenerate lost limbs.
“Fuck yeah!” Jadis high fived herself upon reading the skill description. “First choice made; I am absolutely taking Knight’s Rest.”
First skill choice definitively made, Jadis reviewed her short list for her second skill.
“Minor Attribute Improvent is the only other skill I feel confident is useful in all situations for , especially if I use it for strength or vitality. It’s kind of a toss up between those two, since I’m not as certain the of the effect of the other attributes. Actually, I’m curious to see it used on an attribute like strength. I’ve seen what can happen when I put a point in vitality. What’ll happen if I put points in sothing like strength? I bet I can get to superhero strong, eventually.”
“But…” Jadis drew out the word, second guessing herself. “Crushing Blow could be amazing, what with all the bone crushing I’ve been doing in the past twenty-four hours. It might be worth the risk. I could even experint with what the description ans by stamina by practicing with it, right?”
The decision was tough. Jadis had hemd and hawed for a few minutes, indecisiveness holding her back. Whenever she’d played RPGs in the past, she’d never been overly cautious with what build choices she made, just experinting with what was available and making it work as best she could.
The choice she made here wasn’t for a ga, though. What she chose had very real consequences for her imdiate and distant future.
With a dual grunt of frustration, Jadis made a concerted effort to push aside her second-guessing. “Hell with it. I’ll take the attribute improvent. I want to see what’ll happen when I put it in strength.”
Caution thrown to the taphorical wind, Jadis confird her skill choices and felt a subtle shift ripple through her body. Her hands checked her bodies for any sign of change, noting no obvious differences.
Flexing one bicep, she wasn’t sure if it was more defined or not.
“Feels a little harder, maybe?” She said, uncertainty coloring her voice as she squeezed the already well-defined muscle.
“Eh, maybe, maybe not,” she tilted her head side to side. “Maybe three points isn’t all that much? It did call it a minor improvent.”
“Yeah, true.” She nodded her head. “Or, here’s a thought, it doesn't affect how my muscles look? I an, that’d be great, actually. If I put a bunch of points into strength and end up looking like Steroid Stacy or so shit like that I’ll be kind of pissed.”
“Well, whatever the case, I know one stat that had an imdiate affect and I’m using it now.”
Jadis concentrated on her nu and spent her free attribute point on vitality, bring her health pool up by another ten. A slight relief to her pains washed over her with the change. She couldn’t help but marvel at the magic of Oros, entranced by the idea that she had actually just made herself healthier with a re thought.
Satisfied with the choices, Jadis ran a final critical eye over her main nu and skill nu.
Jadis Ahlstrom
Race: Nephilim
Primary Class: Mirror Knight (5)
Secondary Class: None
Tertiary Class: None
Combined Level Rating: 5
Health: 145/220
Magic: 10/10
Attributes
Strength: 33
Dexterity: 10
Agility: 10
Vitality: 22
Fortitude: 15
Endurance: 15
Arcane: 0
Divine: 0
Eldritch: 70
Focus: 1
Resilience: 10
Will: 5
Skills
Primary:
Mirrored Body
Knight’s Rest
Minor Strength Improvent I
Secondary:
None
Tertiary:
None
She smiled to see her progress. “Level five in only two days! Not bad in my opinion.”
“Not bad at all,” Jadis said with a yawn, both her bodies yawning and stretching at the sa ti in the sa way. “I bet there’s a bunch of adventurers out there who would laugh at for being such a scrub and not hitting level ten on day one, though.”
Jadis laughed at her own self-deprecation, then rubbed her empty stomach. “I’m fucking exhausted, but we should probably eat, right?”
“We?” She answered her own question with a startled blink. “The fuck am I saying?”
She had actually forgotten for a second that she had been talking to herself, not a second person. Maybe she had been doing a little too much talking to her mirror body for the past while. She didn’t want the people she hoped to eventually find to think she was a crazy person, holding conversations with her own double.
“Yeah, I’m not crazy at all…” she murmured, staring at herself from her seat on the floor while she also got up and walked over to where she’d stored the jars of food and water. She watched herself bend over, giving her a great view of her barely clothed ass.
“Not crazy in the slightest,” she said sardonically, straightening up and bringing her dinner back to herself.
The jar this ti was filled with so kind of pickled root vegetable, vaguely akin to a beet but with an odd horseradish-like tang. She didn’t love the flavor, but finished the jar between her two forms anyway, drinking her fill of water.
“I really hope Knight’s Rest makes a difference,” Jadis murmured, one body laying out flat across the floor, stretching out as best she could in the small hut.
“I guess I’ll find out in the morning,” she answered, keeping watch in the dark while half of her drifted off into exhausted slumber.
A somber silence fell over the place Jadis had claid as a ho. The gentle creak of pines swaying in a mountain breeze was the lullaby that lulled her into complete unconsciousness, second set of eyes too weary to remain vigilant. As her thoughts drifted off into slumber, she wondered what adventure waited for her in the morning.
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