Jack sat there, staring at his status for a long time. He wasn’t even reading it, after he saw his age his eyes glazed over and he just stared into the distance. He tried to collect his thoughts but they would not come together. He began to hyperventilate, having had hundreds of panic attacks in the past, he looked for some task to focus his unraveling mind on.

Dismissing his status screen, he looked at Jay’s bag. It seemed brand new, none of the scratches and stains it had before, he opened it up and started spreading the items on the ground.

2 - Tactical folding knives

1 - Multitool

1 - Crowbar

1 - Hatchet

1 - Tactical defense pen

1 - whetstone

2 - 9mm boxes of bullets (100 count)

1 - Hand crank flashlight

12 - Hour emergency bright sticks

3 - Firestarters

1 - Compass

1 - Whistle

10 - Pieces of chalk

100 - Ball bearings

1 - Small metal mirror

1 - Pair durable work gloves

1 - Pair rubber gloves

1 - Foldable grappling hook

1 - 100ft climbing rope

8 - Pitons

1 - Climbing harness

12 - Carabiners

2 - Emergency body warmers

1 - Emergency tube tent with rope

3 - Thermal blankets

4 - Ponchos

8 - Pairs of socks

1 - Can of insect repellent

4 - Liter water pouches

2 - 6 oz flasks

12 - 400 Calorie Food Bars

20 - Water purification tablets - each tablet purifies 1 liter of water

1 - Huge first aid kit

1 - Fishing tool kit

After taking everything out and organizing everything into vague like-piles. He calmed down a little. There was nothing he could do. What has happened, happened. The logical part of his brain wrestled with his emotional.

Focusing on his logical side, he packed everything back into the bag. Inspecting the hatchet, he was amazed to see it looked brand new, not a single scratch or dent. He had seen Jay use this in the past, it shouldn’t be brand new. Everything from the bag and on him was like that. The handle of the hatched had a strap to wrap around a wrist; he used a carabiner to attach it to a belt loop, having no other weapon he had to make due. He put one of the knives and the multitool in his pocket. He took off his empty gun holster packing it away.

Not wanting to explore yet he looked at his status.

Name Jackson Calder Race Human Age 5000 Level 2 Health 18/18 Stamina 3/6 Experience 192/200 Strength 6 Dexterity 7 Endurance 4 Vitality 12 Perception 8 Intelligence 15 Available Attribute Points 6 Skills Baking Lvl 2 Identify Lvl 2 (24) Cleaning Lvl 1 Researching Lvl 1

He laughed when he saw his stamina, emotions really can exhaust you. He noticed the secondary number next to his Identify skill and assumed it was his effective level. With all those notifications about breaking thresholds, it was reasonable to assume it was more difficult to get past those levels. Maybe skills could only be as high as your nearest threshold?

He looked at his attribute points, seeing how he was close to leveling and the issue Jay ran into, not being able to invest his points right away. Jack made his second step on the road he hoped would bring him to some sort of caster class, investing them in Intelligence. He invested them incrementally trying to feel any difference they caused, but from his perspective, he was the same as before.

Intelligence 21 Available Attribute Points 0

He quickly checked out his modifiers screen.

Perks Pioneer Dungeoneer Dedicated Dungeoneer Dedicated Pioneer Slow Learner Slow and steady wins the race How are you still alive? The Wizened Sage At your age, you must have aches and pains Buffs Human Resilience Afflictions

Everything looked right to him, his perk list getting long now. What threw him was his afflictions. He hadn’t paid attention to the text of the aches and pains perk beyond the requirement.

At your age, you must have aches and pains Requirement Reach Age 5000

When this perk is received

Heal all current wounds

Repair all carried equipment

Remove all afflictions.

“All afflictions? that's bittersweet.” He laughed morbidly, all this time the cure for his depression was, TIME!? “I guess time does heal all wounds.” His laughter faded into a few sobs as he again thought about his friends.

Wiping off his face he stood up, looking for something to distract him. His gaze fell on the petrified form of the manaweaver, realizing that it was probably alive in there too. In a duel attempt to vent some of his emotions and to make sure this thing doesn’t break out like him, he grabbed a piton and used the hammer end of his hatchet to break the statue apart.

After sinking the third piton into the weavers face; cracks began to web out all over its body, until it collapsed into a pile of broken rocks.

Your party has slain a Female ManaWeaver Level: 6 Your contribution 100% 50% bonus to experience for a party size of 1 You are awarded 28 Experience **Alert** Your party has defeated the boss of a dungeon For the next 100 hours the denizens of ‘The Spiders Den’, will not be naturally hostile to your party. **Level Up** You are awarded 3 attribute points **Alert** You have reached Level 3 congratulations! It is now your time to decide if you would like to continue utilizing Miseth’s system. If you say no please be aware that you will no longer receive Levels or Perks. You will also be locked out of the provided menus. Yes No

Prepared for this question he clicked yes without a second thought.

**Perk Acquired** Genesis Wave Requirement Be present when a world is incorporated, choose to utilize the system. Gain an extra 2 attribute points a level **Alert** Class Feature Unlocked **Alert** New Class Available Choose one. Baker Requirement Baking skill Unlocked Life is full of wonder, love, and laughs; if you can’t find any of those you’ll always have carbs. A baker can take something dull and make it beautiful and sweet. Early mornings and clouds of flour are the destiny of the baker but such is the price of bringing happiness to others. Scholar Requirements Intelligence 20 or more Research skill level Unlocked Unlike wizards or sorcerers, scholars do not seek knowledge for the sake of power. They seek to understand and record; to build a tower of knowledge that all will flock to. All walks of life go to scholars to help them excel on their own paths. Adaptable Dungeoneer Requirements Perk Dedicated Dungeoneer Survive a desperate encounter The life of adventure awaits, for those who are willing to take the risk. The adaptable dungeoneer has the tools and flexibility to help with any encounter. From intricate traps to chaotic magic, if the adaptable dungeoneer survives they will come out stronger.

Baker, his old job, and something he loved to do. Who knows what crafting skills did at higher levels. Depending on what that S.E.T. did, it could make food have special effects or it could just make it tastier. In mythology, baking was the basis of alchemy so that could be where that class is heading. While it could have good possibilities something was pushing him away from it, maybe it was too familiar and he wanted a change.

Scholar, while sounding like a basic NPC class he liked the unraveling the secrets of the universe vibe it gave off. The only thing turning him off of it was the, ‘Unlike wizards and sorcerers’ part. He felt like if he wanted to be able to use magic eventually, that this was not the way to go.

Adaptable Dungeoneer, this one definitely fits the role of an adventurer, although it seemed more like a rogue than anything else. The fact that the class says both risk and survive, in the description made him think it's a high-risk high reward, which in games he loved but in real life not so much. The way it said that chaotic magic could make him stronger was a huge selling point.

It boiled down to what kind of life he wanted to live, one of risk and adventure or a steady life and helping others. Standing up he began to walk a circle around the broken stone spider.

“Safety or Danger?”

“I have played games for years, wishing for an opportunity like this.”

“I just witnessed how fast everything could go wrong.”

“Emily…” his voice caught, shaking his head he continued his debate.

“Everything is gone, I don’t need to feel attached to anything, I can be whoever I want” He was attempting to convince himself that was true.

“I have no idea what the world looks like, how society has changed. If there is even a society”

“Just take care of yourself first, deal with everything else as it comes.” His last sentence stopped his deliberation, knowing what he should choose.

**Class Acquired** Adaptable Dungeoneer Class Features DarkSight The dungeon is full of darkness so to survive you had to adapt to it. Your ability to see in the dark is vastly improved while you are unable to make out colors you can see in any non-magical darkness as if it was dimly lit. Stomping ground You grew up in the dungeon and were molded by it. You know quite a few tricks for getting through one alive. Inside a dungeon: Damage dealt is increased by 50% Damage received is reduced by 50% Pack Mule Spending so much time in dungeons you’ve learned to imitate the way they can make spaces larger on the inside. Gain access to the inventory feature. Current size: 3 feet **Class Alert** Class Skill Available Class Skills do not count towards Skill limit Choose one Skill: (Class) Mimicry Monsters wouldn’t be nearly the problem they are if they were just large beasts; What makes monsters dangerous are their special abilities. It's your turn to even the odds. Skill: (Class) Reverse Engineering Dungeons can have some of the deadliest and most complex devices hidden within them. The adaptable dungeoneer has spent the time to learn how to wield these tools for themselves. Skill: (Class) The Long Game The adaptable dungeoneer is always trying to make the next battle easier. Dungeon bosses are a great way to hone and build your skills. It may not be a fast way to get stronger but playing the long game never is.

He wished he could get more of a description; It seemed like the descriptions were intentionally vague. He was just about to read through the skills again when he noticed movement in the corner of his eye. Jumping to his feet and grabbing the hatchet, Jack scanned the area looking for what moved.

At the mouth of the tunnel leading back to the second level of the dungeon, Jack spotted what moved. On the wall halfway around the corner was a baby manaweaver, it wasn’t glowing and almost seemed to be cowering with its little arms covering its eyes.

Female ManaWeaver Level: 2 Current mood: Scared and curious.

A newly hatched manaweaver.

Quicker and less aggressive than their male counterparts,

but relatively harmless.

Usually only attacks in self-defense and defense of another member of its brood.

While they can still produce webbing,

they can not infuse it with mana until they are more mature.

Age: 5 days

Highest attribute: Intelligence

Highest skill: Sneak For defeating the boss of its dungeon this creature is currently not hostile to you

“Wow, that is a lot more information.” seeing as Identify even confirmed that the little spider was not hostile Jack went back to his new skill options.

The long game seemed like it would pay off big down the line, but he didn’t feel like it would help his current survivability. Jack was always the person to go for the slow build strategies in games, where you just keep building momentum until you're an unstoppable force. The trouble with that is unless you were extra careful it could backfire since you're weaker in the beginning. He’d rather not gamble with that right now.

Reverse engineering was screaming artificer to him; learning about a dungeon’s devices and building them yourself. Artificers were a fun class in D&D, they make magic items and are basically a magical engineer that can’t perform magic themselves. Loving the idea of being decked out in enchanted gear and wand of various uses this skill drew Jack in. Unfortunately, it seems like a crafting type skill and it might not be the best choice for a low-level character.

Blue mages are a type of magic user that learns or steals abilities from monsters. That is what Mimicry sounded akin to. Learning how to mimic a dragon’s fiery breath sounded amazing to him. Blue mages were generally only limited by what monsters they ran into. Since this class was about exploring dungeons he theoretically should encounter a lot of creatures.

Jack looked up from his screen again and let out a tense breath. With a small laugh, Jack realized that at the ripe old age of five thousand he was still plagued with indecisiveness and overanalyzing. Spotting the baby manaweaver again he noticed it was a lot closer and it was staring right at him. A quick use of Identify said it was still not hostile and its mood now was just curious.

Taking a break from his theories he took a long look at the spider. The core of it was about the size of a baseball or fist, with strong legs stretching out ten inches. It was pale blue all over except cobalt lines seemed to originate from an oval blob in the center of its thorax, it was like the spider had a tiny lake on its back with rivers running out to each of its appendages and around to its spinneret. It was now faintly glowing blue, with the red light of the webbing, making it look almost purple. It was covered in small coarse hairs that were noticeably absent along the lines. He had noticed before they had relatively small fangs of about a half-inch; normally spiders of its size would have almost two-inch-long fangs. On either side of its fang, there were small arms called palps that were about two inches long.

What he kept looking back to though, was its big deep black eyes. With six of them it had two larger in the center of its face with a smaller one on the outer side of those eyes, then one on either side of its head. It reminded him heavily of a peacock spider, one of the spiders he’d spent hours looking at online. It was looking up at him like a kitten would. He just wanted to reach out and pet it.

Jack snapped himself out of his daze. He reminded himself while the small ones were cute, the big ones were terrifying. They killed Emily and almost killed the rest of them. He honestly couldn’t find it in himself to be mad at the creatures though. It's terrible what happened but we were the ones invading their home and killing its babies.

He sighed and looked back at the manaweaver, it was still keeping its distance from him. He thought back to the Pack Bond racial evolution he got, cursing his past self for not going into his racial page and reading more about it. It sounded like a way to get some sort of animal familiar or companion. It could be a strong combination if he took Mimicry. Taming monsters and learning their abilities. There are plenty of spiders around like that little guy, he could try to learn something from them or try to tame one.

As he confirmed his choice he hoped that the other options wouldn’t disappear forever; maybe he can unlock them as he levels.

**Skill Acquired ** (Class) Mimicry Level 1 Imitate and copy the non-magical abilities of another creature.

Physical limits may apply.

Increases maximum skill slots available. (1)