I felt like a kid on Christmas morning as I pored through the grimoire. Spells to hurl fireballs or ice spikes, spells to conjure lightning storms or rend the earth. Conjurations that would allow me to raise dead monsters, rituals to steal their life force or provide healing to my friends. That wasn’t even accounting for all the badass physical abilities, like Purity of Form, which would make me immune to poison and disease, or Crippling Strike, which had a chance to paralyze an opponent with a single blow.

There was a lot of information to wade through—almost an overwhelming amount, and I felt supremely out of my depth. I could use my limited supply of Ward Points to unlock any and all of the abilities, but each had an accompanying list of minimum recommended attributes, and I hadn’t found any information of those just yet. I’d seen my attributes listed out in my character sheet, but I had no idea whether they were good or bad or even what they corresponded to. I needed to get a handle on that, but before I moved on to the next book, I took a minute to examine the five abilities I already had listed on my character sheet: Language of the Heavens, Diamond Body, Arcane Insight, Soul Bound Weapons, and Threads of Fate.

Threads of Fate (Active, Boon of Akora)

Who can know what the future holds? Only the wise of heart and those with the vision that comes from experience. The threats a Vigil faces are as numerous as the sands on the shore and the solutions are just as varied. Unwilling to leave his fate in the hands of the others, the Vigil with the Threads of Fate Boon becomes the master of their own destiny. By visiting an altar dedicated to Raguel, a chosen Vigil may reweave the tapestry of their fate once every 12 hours, reclaiming spent Ward Points.

I read the Threads of Fate description, feeling a spark of excitement ignite in the pit of my stomach. Unless I was reading the description wrong, it sounded like this ability would allow me to respec my spell and ability set once every twenty-four hours, which was great since I had no idea what I was doing or what powers would be useful in the long run. Moreover, Arturo had said that Vigils typically worked in teams of five, or Fists, and now I knew why—no one could master all those Ward Abilities, which likely meant they needed a balanced party, just like in every RPG I’d ever played.

Catch was, I didn’t have a balanced party. I was all by my lonesome—I didn’t even know where to start looking for other Vigils—so I’d need to be able to fulfill every role on my own. Threads of Fate could potentially allow me to create the perfect build for any threat, assuming I knew what I was up against and had time to prepare in advance.

Diamond Body (Passive, Boon of Voch)

The Vigil Bound are called to do battle with creatures of terrible strength, equipped with deadly weapons and powerful magics. Their ability to sustain punishing damage is among the Vigil’s greatest strength. Thanks to the blessed Diamond Body of Raguel, they are capable of running faster, swimming farther, and jumping higher than normal men while also rapidly recovering from even the gravest of injuries and the deadliest of diseases. They can heal in minutes and hours what would take other men months or years to recover from. Absorbing Essence naturally aids in the recovery process as does spending time within the Soul Vault.

Huh. So that explained both my freaky Wolverine Healing Factor and why I could run and hike for what felt like forever without so much as getting winded. Man, what wouldn’t I have given to have this ability during my physical fitness evals.

Arcane Insight (Passive, Boon of Thuriel)

The Vigil Bound are renowned for their keen insight and their curious ability to pierce through the veil of the mundane. Arcane Insight allows Vigils to access the Ascendant System and receive preternatural guidance through signs, secret knowledge, and communion with the shades of fallen warriors who may act as spirit guides. Arcane Insight also allows Vigils to actively view Bounties, Contracts, Blessings, Curses, and Special Instructions from Raguel, even when not in the Soul Vault. The Ascendant System has the unique ability to tailor itself to the individual user, so no two Vigils interact with the system in quite the same way.

More and more things were clicking together now—the pop-ups, the glowing golden script that told me how much Essence I’d received, even Cal’s unnatural presence. I grunted and read over the last two items.

Soul Bound Weapons (Active, Boon of Gadriel)

All Vigils bind with a weapon—sometimes even more than one—investing that weapon with a piece of their soul, transforming it into something far more powerful than a mere instrument of wood or metal. Soul Bound weapons can never be damaged, never need sharpening, and cannot be destroyed. A Vigil may call forth his weapons at any time, willing them to appear no matter the distance, and can also dismiss their weapons to the Soul Vault when not in use. Even after death, a Vigil Bound’s weapons live on as Ghostsoul Relics, retaining a piece of the fallen Vigil’s Essence. Although the core of a Soul Bound Weapon will always remain the same, weapon “skins” can be created and applied within the Soul Forge.

Language of the Heavens (Passive, Boon of Lero)

Vigils are nomads by nature, servants of no ruler and citizen of no country. The work of Raguel often takes them to faraway lands with strange customs and even stranger tongues, yet such things cannot stand in the way of justice, order, and balance. Through the grace of Lero, Vigils are granted access to the Language of the Heavens, allowing them to communicate and read in any tongue known in heaven or on earth.

I whistled softly through my teeth.

Someone had been tinkering around inside my head, which finally explained why I could understand every word in a language I’d never heard of before. I’d save a bundle on my Rosetta Stone subscription. Even more badass than having a pocket translator built into my head was the Soul Bound Weapon description. The ability to summon and dismiss my weapons at will sounded amazing. True, I wasn’t actually sure how to do it, but there would be time for that later.

With a basic handle on my core abilities, I set aside the ancient spellbook and moved on to another hefty tome called The Handbook of the Vigilant.

The leather-bound volume opened with a tediously long introduction about the Divine calling of the Vigilant that I speed-read, skipping entire sections when they got too technical or too tedious. There were lots of interesting tidbits, but it was all dry as the Sahara, and I wasn’t looking for theoretical knowledge or a treatise on theological orthopraxis. I was a wanderer stranded in a different dimension, and if I understood my new priest pal correctly, these village folk had a monster they were expecting me to kill in the not-too-distant future.

I needed concrete, pragmatic answers. A poem on the acts of the Vigil Bound wouldn’t help with that.

After another twenty or so pages I got into the meat of things.

The Vigilant are different than other men and women—a race unto themselves with the unique capacity to actively change their physical and metaphysical abilities through the collection and distribution of Essence. Modifications and changes can only be implemented while the Vigil is within the extraplanar dimension often referred to as a Soul Vault, which exists outside of space in the realm of Raguel the Five-Faced God.

Now we were rocket fuel. I scanned the page until I found a reference guide on Character Attributes.

Base Attributes for Inkarnated Vigils are determined by the individual’s physical prowess and skills prior to death and reincarnation. A ten in any given category is equivalent to an average, healthy adult of the same gender, while a score of nineteen would be reserved only for the most elite athletes and warriors of great renown. Vigils, however, can progress far beyond these human measures, becoming extraordinarily more powerful than any mere mortal. Note that there are no values for Intelligence or other personality traits such as Wisdom or Charisma, as these values are fixed and based solely on the individual.

Brawn: This attribute determines how physically strong and powerful a Vigil is. It also factors into how much raw damage a Vigil can deal when engaging in close-quarters combat.

Verve: This attribute determines how much damage can be taken, how much stamina the Vigil has at their disposal, and how resilient they are—that is, how quickly they recover from a blow. Stamina also powers many of the physical attacks and abilities found within the Ward of Justice.

Finesse: Fleet of finger and fleet of foot—the Finesse attribute deals with the art of precision, agility, and speed. It is an essential component for both ranged attacks and the more intricate crafting abilities located within the Ward of Truth.

Arcana: This attribute is the foundational bedrock for all things magic. Arcana determines how large a Vigil’s Arcana Pool is, and how fast those metaphysical energies regenerate. The size of a Vigil’s Arcana Pool severely impacts what spells a Vigil can cast and determines how frequently those spells can be employed.

Insight: Though Vigils may appear to be human, they are anything but. Thanks to their link to the Divine presence of Raguel, they have access to tools and abilities that allow them to sense evil, ferret out clues, make preternatural connections, and pick up on details others might miss. Insight heightens and hones both the physical and metaphysical senses.

Ascending: The Vigilant are ranked based on the purity and power of their soul. There are Seven Classes: 1. Novice, 2. Disciple, 3. Adept, 4. Master, 5. Sage, 6. Saint, 7. Fatemarked. Each Class is further subdivided into three ranks: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Items of great power follow the same rarity and classification system. Vigils level through each of the three Ranks, starting at Bronze, then ascend to the next class by gaining Essence, through slaying Mortka and completing bounties sent by Raguel.

When ascending from one Rank to another, Vigils are blessed by the Five-Faced God with +1 Free Attribute Point and +10 Ward Points to assign at will. When advancing from one Class to another, Vigils are granted +3 Attribute Points and +20 Ward Points. For the especially ambitious Vigil, Attributes can additionally be increased by sacrificing accumulated Essence; as in all things, however, there is a cost. A balance between short-term gain versus long-term benefit.

Vigils require accumulated Essence—also known as Experience—to Ascend from Rank to Rank and Class to Class. Leveling provides the necessary Attribute and Ward Points to fortify the body and spirit and unlock ever more powerful Vigil Wards. Use too much Essence and risk never advancing, use too little and risk death. Moreover, not all Attribute Points are created equal thanks to the universal law of diminishing returns. The higher a Vigil pushes an individual Attribute, the more costly it becomes to advance through the Sacrifice of Essence.

Attribute Advancement Point Costs in Essence

Note! You cannot spend Essence if doing so will drop you below a current Rank or Class threshold.

That all seemed straightforward enough, though I was a little insulted that I only had a Brawn score of seventeen. Stupid Vault was calling me a basic bitch. Before taking a grenade to the gut, I ran a perfect PFT, which was pretty elite if you asked me. My Verve was a little higher, but I figured that had more to do with surviving drunken barracks parties than anything else. I stowed the handbook, grabbed the grimoire, and hoofed it back out to my slowly spinning avatar. It was finally time to decide on some shiny new abilities to take out for a test drive.

Sure, there was still so much I didn’t know, but I couldn’t let that paralyze me from making any choices. There were monsters out there, and my sudden appearance wouldn’t go unnoticed for long. Chances were good whatever was stalking the streets of Ironmoor probably already knew I was here. And if it didn’t yet, it would within a day or two. I needed to have at least a few rudimentary skills to defend myself with in case the shit hit the proverbial fan.

I popped open my stat sheet then pulled up my Expanded Ward List, glancing at seemingly endless list of skills and spells to select from. The sheer number of options was daunting, but I had two advantages working in my favor. One, I only had twenty-five Ward Points to play with—ten that seemed to come from just being a Vigil, ten from ranking up to Silver, and five more from completing the Dark Lair Bounty—which immediately ruled out most of the big-ticket spells, and two, if I made a bad choice… Well, I could always take another stab at it tomorrow thanks to Threads of Fate.

I quickly paged through the Grimoire of Virtues, searching for two abilities that had jumped out at me on my first read through. Combat Sense, from the Valor Ward, and Kinetic Blast, from the Wrath Ward. Both seemed like obvious choices, though for different reasons.

Combat Sense

In the heat of battle, gut instinct can be the difference between life and death. The effects of Combat Sense are directly proportional to a Vigil’s Insight Levels. During active combat, this sixth sense allows you to dodge, evade, and anticipate your enemy’s moves with uncanny accuracy. Combat Sense has a 2% chance to trigger the Insight Ability Precognition for every thirty seconds the Vigil is engaged in battle. Precognition causes time to seemingly slow down, allowing you to momentarily foresee what your enemy is likely to do before they do it. Combat Sense is always active, and the likelihood of triggering the Precognition Ability increases with greater Insight.

Recommended Attribute Minimums: Brawn, 18; Insight, 15

Kinetic Blast

Draw from your Arcana Pool to unleash a blast of primal, concentrated force directly at a given target. Although this is among the most basic techniques in the Wrath Ward, it has innumerable uses and can be deadly effective against enemies of all levels. The maximum force you can exert is directly tied to your available Arcana Pool.

Recommended Attribute Minimums: Arcana, 14; Finesse, 15

Combat Sense would grant me supernaturally reflexes during battle, while Kinetic Blast allowed me to wield raw kinetic force as a weapon. Basically, badass Jedi Force powers, which I just couldn’t pass up. Both abilities added up to nine points, leaving me with sixteen points, enough for two more low-level spells or one medium-level ability. I wanted to stock up on magic; who wouldn’t want to shooting lightning bolts out of their hands or call down a heavenly fire on their enemies? Problem was, I didn’t actually know how to use magic, and my Arcana score was virtually nonexistent and well below the minimums for every magic spell available.

I was already taking a gamble with Kinetic Blast. There were lots of physical options to choose from. Matchless Endurance would allow me to fight through even debilitating pain while temporarily boosting my Verve and Health Regeneration Rate. Practical. But ultimately, I wanted something a little more… aggressive. Maximum Penetration sounded about as aggressive as they came—so aggressive I was worried about someone filing a sexual harassment complaint against me. Exactly the right kind of skill for a US Marine who liked to make things go boom.

Maximum Penetration

For those Vigils specializing in ranged weaponry, the ability to make the most of every shot is crucial, especially when contending against creatures with powerful armor, supernatural barriers, or thick hides. Maximum Penetration allows the Vigil to actively imbue their ranged weapons with an additional portion of Stamina to penetrate heavily armored targeted. Maximum Penetration also has a 25% chance to pierce supernaturally conjured barriers and a 10% chance for projectiles to pass cleanly through one target and hit another.

Recommended Attribute Minimums: Finesse, 15; Verve, 17

Every word of that description sounded like a Force Recon Marine’s wet dream. At nine points, it was the most expensive ability I was considering, but how could a guy who loved both guns and penetration as much as me pass up on an opportunity like that? And, even with the cost, it still left me seven more points to play with. There were a lot of other cool, practical choices that begged me to choose them—Overcharge, Spectral Roots, Life Siphon—but there was one oddball skill that I couldn’t quite shake from my mind.

Sidhe Pact

While most Mortka are monstrous creatures, bent by their dark and twisted nature, the Fae fall into a unique category: monsters, yet not wholly evil, they’re insatiable in their appetites but also intelligent enough to reason with. With their strange magics, irresistible charms, and powerful glamors, the Fae can make for deadly enemies… or powerful allies. But be warned, dealing with Fae is a treacherous business. They are cunning and deceitful, ravenous for power, and have no human sense of morality.

Of all the Mortka, however, Fae are the most likely to form a Pact of Power; such binding agreements can grant boons and additional abilities to the pact recipient. The Sidhe Pact ability allows you to strike a formal binding agreement with any Fae creature of the Faewylds; the Pact will force the creature to abide by the terms of the agreement through an Essence Bond until the holder dissolves the Pact. For Pact conditions to be legally binding on an entire Court, of which there are hundreds, the Fae must be of Baron Rank or higher.

Recommended Attribute Minimums: Arcana, 14; Insight, 14

I didn’t much care for lawyers, and everything about Sidhe Pact screamed magic lawyer to me at the top of its lungs, but the thing was, I had myself a bona fide fairy passed out on my nightstand back at the Three Chimneys. Ol’ Renholm hadn’t actively tried to kill me yet, but I had a feeling that was for lack of opportunity, not lack of desire. Also, it’s damned hard to kill someone when you’re napping. He would wake up eventually, however, and I had a feeling he might be useful—assuming I could get him to cooperate with me. The little murder parrot knew a lot about magic and ghosts, and I needed to know more about both of those things.

Plus, I had exactly seven Ward Points to spend, and Sidhe Pact only cost five. Seemed like a good way to hedge my bets, all things considered. Before I could overthink things, I spent twenty-three of my accumulated Ward Points—four to Combat Sense, five to Kinetic Blast, nine to Maximum Penetration, and five to Sidhe Pact. My character sheet shimmered to reflect the changes.

I wasn’t quite done yet. I had one Attribute Point calling my name and I wasn’t about to sit on something that could mean the difference between life and death. I was two Arcana points below the recommended attribute minimum for Kinetic Blast, and one Brawn point short for Combat Sense. I didn’t really know how to use magic just yet, and even if I spent my point, it wouldn’t bring me up to the minimum for Kinetic Blast, so I decided to roll the dice and invest it in Brawn instead.

Are you sure you would like to invest [1] Attribute Point in Brawn? Yes/No

Yes.

Crippling pain and a wave of nausea rolled through my belly. Fire exploded along every nerve ending; it felt like someone was detaching my muscles from the bone with an army of razor blades. The Soul Vault shattered around me, and I found myself back in the citadel, on my knees, unable to stand as my muscles wriggled, bulged, and rearranged themselves beneath my skin.

The sensation only lasted thirty seconds, but it was among the worst thirty seconds of my life—and I’d died after taking a frag grenade to the guts. When the hellish agony finally receded, I slowly gained my feet and wiped the perspiration from my eyes. Curious, I lifted an arm and flexed. The muscle was noticeably larger beneath my tunic. My legs felt stronger, sturdier, and the fabric of my pants strained against the muscles beneath. I couldn’t believe it.

“Oh, thank Raguel,” Arturo said in relief. He looked like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. “You’re back. You just vanished. Poof. Then you reappeared like a specter out of thin air. I can hardly believe my eyes.”

“I need to know everything,” I said, feeling simultaneously keyed up and exhausted.

Arturo shook his head. “Indeed, you do, but not tonight.” He gave me a long, weighing look. “You’re dead on your feet, I can see it from here.” He slipped an arm around my shoulder and gently nudged me into motion. “Come, let’s get you back to the inn. This isn’t something you can master in a day, you know. The process of becoming a Vigil is a journey of a thousand lifetimes. Tonight, you need rest—time for your body to adjust to the alterations you just made. We’ll start your training first thing in the morning.”