Without even looking at my status page, I could tell that lots of things had changed. While I was still unsteady on my feet, moving was easier, and I had an incredibly good idea of where my body was at all times. I had a mild form of proprioception before from enhanced physicality, but it was much more intense now. First things first though, I had some alerts about the second rank that I needed to check on.

Alert! Rank Up Successful!

Congratulations on the Rank Up!

The following is important information regarding rank ups for monsters:

As a monster, your ranks determine your overall strength. The benefit that this shows to your race is far more advantageous than to any of the other three, but it comes with disadvantages as well. Because you rely on experience to rank up, you have already hunted and killed many enemies in order to reach level 30. Monsters gain strength by fighting opponents and improving themselves, striving for greater strength every day. Because of this, you have a natural limitation on experience gathered from this point on.

For each rank, the amount of experience able to be gathered from opponents of ranks lesser than yours is decreased greatly. This amount is further reduced by another half for each rank up. For example, at rank 3, you would be unable to receive experience from monsters of rank 1 and would receive half experience from rank 2 monsters.

There is a benefit however as if you manage to slay a monster of a higher rank, the experience is doubled for each rank higher than your own.

Why rank ups matter:

When you increase your rank, you ascend to a higher level of being. At rank 1, you largely have the same amount of strength as a normal human. Because you are at rank 2, your skin, flesh, and bones are all significantly stronger than they were before. All damage you receive from opponents is reduced by half on your end. The damage numbers will appear the same to your opponents, but you functionally have twice as much health and survivability as before. Your damage, however, is not multiplied. This same trend holds true for all races, though the reason is different for each.

As a monster, it is also important to note that your instincts can change from rank up to rank up, so be sure to check again in the future!

Your attributes have also been maxed out to their previous capacity before your rank up.

Good luck, monster! Be the best YOU you can be!

-Luna

Wait, what? That’s freaking insane! All damage I receive is halved now, which makes me more than just a little bit harder to kill. I already had half-decent health, so now to opponents I effectively have twice that again. It now makes perfect sense why that boss had so much health. Bosses must have a similar modifier that makes them harder to kill. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to kill a boss of a higher rank.

I was particularly interested in looking at what changed with my race. My previous instincts were kind of annoying, so hopefully my new ones are a bit more manageable.

Storm Paraelemental Warrior (monster):

This is a juvenile variant of sentient storm paraelementals. Storm Paraelemental Warriors are the younger caste of warriors on the elemental plane of storms. They tend to master multiple forms of combat due to their limitless lifespan and can use their skills to terrifying affect. These paraelementals are humanoid and sapient, making them more powerful than their wild brethren. They are one of the rare breeds of elementals that possess a true corporeal body, making them different from many elementals of their kind. This comes with many intrinsic advantages and disadvantages. One of those disadvantages is that they lose the ability to become incorporeal and are forced to have a body at all times. The body, however, makes them very physically powerful, and gives them the ability to use traditional exercise to increase their physical strength.

As well as this, they also gain greatly increased defense, incorporating precious metals into their bodies making them sturdier and stronger. Also, unlike most elementals, warriors do not have to be weightless in order to fly, though this is at the expense of mana. To facilitate this now corporeal body, warriors grow wings and a tail, similar to their wind elemental kin.

In order to make them better fighters, warriors have multiple cores scattered throughout their bodies, giving them the ability to survive what would otherwise be catastrophic damage to most elementals. In exchange, their ability to cast spells without a spell circle is hampered greatly, and their natural ability to control water, air, and lightning with their minds is limited.

These elementals work well alone, as well as in groups. Due to their natural intelligence, they are known for forming amicable relationships with other races and can be reasoned with, and their inherent instincts are different than those of other lightning elementals.

To hunters, these elementals are a dangerous foe but can be managed. It is better to destroy them at this stage though, for higher castes of elemental warriors are much more powerful, and it is better to stop them before they reach that point.

Instincts:

Freedom Seeker: As embodiments of the storm, these elementals have strong desires for freedom. They dislike confinement and wish to be free in all meanings of the term.

Born Warrior: You have a lust for battle that can only be sated in conflict. If you go too long without a fight, you become uncomfortable and antsy. You also pick up different forms of combat easily and can use them more effectively.

Gleam Lover: You have a fascination with things that shine and sparkle, and are drawn to them.

Well, this was essentially the same page that I saw when I picked up this class, though the instincts have definitely changed. Born Warrior seems fine, honestly, as I fight all the time anyway. The Gleam Lover is sort of weird. It really reminds me of crows and ravens collecting shiny objects, though, considering the big dark wings, I suppose that’s fine. I actually recall a manga where that was a trope as well, so H.G. or Luna clearly pulled that from somewhere. The good thing was, all three instincts were things that I could manage, where being of contradiction was annoying as all hell.

I still had more alerts to go through, though, so I opened the next one to check out.

Rank up milestone reached! Determining Rewards based on Attributes and playstyle!

Race has caused attributes to morph!

Hand-to-Hand -> Heart of the Warrior

Race has granted a new affinity!

Graceful Presence: your skill with flight has granted the graceful presence affinity. This affinity is for those who enjoy showing off their majesty to those around them.

Race: Storm Paraelemental Warrior: +2 str, +2 agi, +2 dex, +1 int, +1 wis, +2 cha

Class: Way of the Storm Martial Artist: +1 str, +1 agi

Heart of the Warrior: +2 str, +2 agi, +1 int

Physicality: +1 str, +1 agi, +1 con

Elemental Affinity: +2 int, +2 wis

Electronics: +1 int

Crafting: +2 dex, +1 int

Graceful Presence: +1 int, +2 cha

Role-Playing Bonus: +5 variable stat points, +1 luk

Total Max Stat increases:

STR: +6

AGI: +6

DEX: +4

CON: +1

INT: +7

WIS: +3

CHA: +4

LUK: +1

+5 Assignable points

Alright, nice. I was getting a buttload of intelligence, strength, and agility, but this time I also got a bunch of charisma as well. It makes sense to me that monsters tend to have rather even stats to start out with though, and based on these trends, I can tell that as I continue to level up my strength, agility, and intellect will continue to outpace the rest of my stats.

According to what the rank up alert said, I should have reached the max amount of all of my attributes during the rank up. That was pretty helpful for me, particularly in regard to intelligence and luck. I also got a bunch of assignable points that I need to spend as well.

After looking over my list, I realized that considering my new race, agility was much more important than constitution and strength. I decided to put three points into dexterity, and two into agility, to try and increase my speed even further.

Name: Victoria (Vic) Gale

Age: 10 days

Gender: Female

Race: Storm Paraelemental Warrior (Rank 2)

Class: Way of the Storm Martial Artist

Job: Unemployed. Good Luck!

Level: 0/40, 0/100 to next level

Affinity: Heart of the Warrior, Physicality, Wind, Water, Ice, Electricity, Electronics, Crafting, Graceful Presence

Character Archetype: Lone Wanderer

Current:

Maximum:

Regen:

Health:

240

240

41/day

Stamina:

255

255

190/hour

Mana:

190

190

240/hour

General Stats:

Current

Maximum

Affect

Strength

19 > 21

21 > 27

Physical strength; pushing, pulling, lifting. Affects health

Agility

21

21 > 29

Physical speed; running speed, acrobatic ability, inertial control. Affects stamina

Dexterity

18

18 > 25

Ability to move with finesse and skill. To move the body as the mind wills it. Affects stamina regen

Constitution

26

26 > 27

The sturdiness of the body; ability to resist damage, poison, and magic. Affects health regen.

Intelligence

16 > 19

19 > 26

Your capacity to learn and remember. Affects mana

Wisdom

21 > 24

24 > 26

Your ability to reason out the best choice. Affects mana regen

Charisma

14 > 16

16 > 20

Your likability; Affects attractiveness

Luck

14 > 18

18 > 19

Affects drop rates, and personal narrative

Unassigned

0

I was pretty nervous to open my skills page, but after going through it, I saw only two major differences, and they were both rather expected considering the rank up. I decided to pull up only those two skills, to see if I could.

Warrior’s Flight

58/70

You gain the ability to fly. Flying speed and height based on skill level and agility. Intrinsic ability has no cost. (126 miles/hour, 126 ft.)

Storm Aspect

3/30

Contact deals +33 lightning damage per second. 100 mana for 33 seconds. 15ft. radius. 27-minute exhaustion.

Obviously, elemental flight had changed to warrior’s flight, but I had no idea what that would change. Storm aspect, unfortunately, lost the damage reduction component, but it still retained the damage, so I couldn’t really complain all that much. I was curious about warrior’s flight, so I went ahead and inspected it.

Warrior’s Flight:

An intrinsic ability of Storm Paraelemental Warriors to fly without reducing their weight. These elementals weigh between 120 and 140 pounds, but still are able to fly because of their intrinsic abilities. By sacrificing some of their magic regen capabilities, they are able to fly through the air like their pure elemental brethren, both hovering and soaring, using their powerful metal wings as foci for mana. Derivations: Enhanced Warrior’s Flight, Chaos Flight, Razor Wing

Wait, 140 pounds? I was freaking seven feet tall and muscular as hell. There was no way. I hopped on my bathroom scale, and my jaw literally dropped. I weighed 126.4 pounds. That was freaking mind-blowing. I had to have taken 400 pounds of metal with me when I ranked up. Where the hell did it all go? This was super freaking strange, but honestly, I wasn’t really complaining. The force I could put behind strikes was unfortunately reduced, but I could rely on speed and storm fists instead, for now. A nice sharp blade would solve my problems as well, but I wanted to max out this class, then take warrior and learn a weapon next. That would greatly help, and if I avoided hunting and leveling while I did this, I could potentially get an even more impressive class later.

For now, though, I needed to train my martial arts, and I needed to learn how to use this body.

Most importantly, I needed to find a way to put on some pants and a shirt.

After much struggling, I found that I could very carefully slip underwear over the talons on my feet, followed by some athletic shorts. I would definitely need custom clothes later. Covering my upper body was much more inconvenient, however.

I ended up shredding three bras with my razor-sharp wings before I found the way to get them on. The end of the wings met my shoulder blades, and the wings themselves had a span of about twelve feet, so I was able to slip a sports bra on over my head very carefully, and position the straps so that they only hit where the wings met my body and were protected from the razor-sharp edged feathers. After experimenting with my new limbs for a bit, I learned to kind of tuck them in on my back where they could be more out of the way so that I could walk around better.

Eventually, I was as ready to leave as I could ever be. There was no way I could wear a traditional shirt or tank top, so this would have to do.

Leaving the bedroom and entering the kitchen for a snack, I saw both Steph and Taylor at the kitchen table pouring over documents. The documents themselves were all hand-written and incredibly neat, and I could tell that many of them were drafted by Cindy. Both of them stopped what they were doing and stared a bit when I entered the room.

“Um, hey guys. Anything happen while I was out?”

Taylor blinked a few times, eventually letting out a loud whistle, saying in a low voice, “Damn Vic, you really… filled out. You’re freaking huge, and those wings look awesome. Didn’t expect you to walk around half-naked though. It’s not really like you, but I'm not complaining. Is that an invitation?”

Ugh. “Oh, shut up Taylor. You literally don’t wear clothes; you have no room to talk.”

She laughed at that, eventually following it with, “Fair, fair. Ill back down... for now. Nah, nothing big has happened yet thankfully. Kait is still out looking for James, Donny got his anvil and forge set up in the lot, and Michael has started brewing potions. Oh, also, apparently when you clear a ruin there is a set amount of time until the monsters respawn. The ruin had no orc at it, but it was surrounded by slimes. Donny said they were stupid weak, but they were still there. The ruin was just as you left it, though. No loot respawned or anything. Trevor and Nick found another ruin as well further to the west, and they left to clear it out this morning. We expect them back tomorrow or so. After the classes became available, lots of people have started going out hunting in the city and the city edges. Most of the people in the city are second waves.

From what we can tell, non-beta testers are much weaker and have significantly less skills available when they start out, like only one or two. What’s more, getting more skills seems to be pretty hard for them without a class, where we can just mess around for a while and a skill appears. The band guys were ticked off that they weren't beta testers, and I bet they're not the only ones. Identify says that second wave people are all considered rank 0 while we all started at rank 1.

We’ve been trying to contact other groups in the area, and from what we can tell, beta testers tend to run in communities. Where there’s one, there are definitely more, and so on. That means that if one member of the gems became a beta tester, you can almost guarantee that there are a couple more to deal with. It also makes sense that we all became beta testers, considering that we live in the same space together.

Oh yeah, and Steph went and checked out the capital building after you said you saw some official-looking people there. She wanted to get help from some official people to get James, but they all basically turned her down saying it wasn't important. They were more concerned about protecting the remaining politicians than helping people. According to her 'We're on our own' if we want to save James.

But... There's more. A lot of people have died, Vic. Way more than we expected. Monsters showed up all through the city, and there was no one to stop them. The lucky ones stayed inside if they could, but lots of the second wave people that went out got killed.”

Damn, that doesn't sound good. I really wanted something to come from the people in the capital. The news of the deaths was shocking as well. It was something I had always expected, but hearing someone else say it made it much more real. It really hit home just how bad this whole thing was. We had freaking monsters roaming the streets in places, and to top it all off, bandits were everywhere as well. Could nothing be easy? I wanted to break the heavy atmosphere a bit, so I decided to deflect her attention.

Sighing, I left Taylor, saying, “Well, alright. Keep up the good work, I guess. I’m going to go out into the parking lot and get used to my new appendages. Having a tail is neat, but also super freaking weird.”

Taylor smiled, bidding me farewell. “Don’t break any of my trees please, Vic! And say hi to Donny for me!”

“Alright Taylor, I will.”

I turned to the window, leaving from the fire escape, but once I was outside, I immediately had to look around to make sure I was in the right place. There were trees and plants literally everywhere. In the alley there were vines growing up the walls of both buildings, and the concrete on the ground had been destroyed or removed to make way for grass and flowering plants.

There were small trees growing on either end, forming a weak natural barrier to keep people from entering the alley. I activated flight, and after a bit of experimenting, was able to use it not unlike before. I glided down around the building to the parking lot in the back and found it penned in on all sides by large oak trees, and found the asphalt replaced once again by soft loam and grass. I saw a small shack in one of the corners, and from it I could hear the ringing of a hammer on an anvil. I guess Donny was working hard, as well.

The first thing I wanted to do out here was to try and equip the gauntlets and boots from the ruin. The extra damage and defense they offered would be immensely helpful, and if I was going to be wearing them, training with them seemed like a good idea. When I held them out to put them on, I watched at the metal around the fingertips changed, making spaces that accommodated my claws. Neat.

Equipping both the boots and gauntlets, I now stood even taller. The three-inch heel on the kangor metal shoes brought my height to well over 7 feet, not including my horns which made me even taller. It was time to try and practice my class skills. First off, I wanted to master the first levels of my two combat arts.

I first thought about the Art of the Blizzard. It was a series of cruel techniques based on an open stance, similar to Muay Thai, but unlike a standard martial art, this one was designed to be used by someone with supernatural speed and reflexes. Imagining the forms in my head, I was shocked to realize that they had adapted themselves to my capabilities. I couldn’t easily form fists anymore, so it now incorporated claw techniques and more foot techniques. At its heart, though it was a complicated method of footwork, allowing you to enter your opponent's blind or undefended spots, and deliver debilitating attacks.

I entered the first form and began moving through the motions of the art, mimicking strikes to vital spots, bringing my feet up to unleash powerful kicks, and sweeping my claws through the air at full force. I enjoyed the feeling of moving through the motions. After I had reached the end of what I considered the first forms, I checked to see if I had unlocked the second level of the skill, but it appears that I needed more work, and so I continued.

This was beautiful. The way that the stances flowed into each other, the crushing blows, and the sweeping attacks. For the first time in a while, I was having fun just working on a skill.

I entered a daze, realizing that I had subconsciously gone into a craftsman's trance. Combat was my craft, and it brought death and destruction to my foes. Time lost all meaning as I attempted to master the technique. After an hour and a half, I could sense that the second level had been unlocked, but I didn’t stop there or switch to the Art of the Lightning just yet.

Over the next eight hours I worked through the first four levels of the skill, until I was thrown out of my trance by a presence behind me. I turned, finding that Donny was leaning against the wall, watching me practice.

Before I acknowledged him, I wanted to check my skills and see the progress I had made.

Job Alert! Skill Alert!

Your proficiency in learning and desire to grow, combined with your unique job “Unemployed” has auto-applied a new job to your character! Congratulations!

Job: Unemployed -> Fighter

General Skill: Craftman’s Trance – lvl 9 -> 16 – (+16%) proficiency gained practicing general skill or job skill *NEW*

Combat Skill: Beginner Art of the Blizzard – lvl 1 -> 4 – (+15%) critical hit damage

Fighter:

An occupation for someone that seeks to learn how to fight. Small amounts of exp are granted when learning combat skills. Derivations are unlocked through continued use and increased aptitude. Job derivations: Warrior, Mage, Fighter I

Well, fuck. I guess I finally got a job. Just one that I never really expected.