The Demon did what he had to keep moving and avoid combat on their way to the Dark Horse Hotel. Even using Colin as a club against a Rogue Golem, grabbing his ankles and spinning him around towards the Golem. After that stunt, Colin thought he passed out from the strain of his head and what the Demon was doing.

When he awoke from the forced nap, Colin lay in his bed with Rielle sitting in hers across from him. Nox looked through a book that he remembered getting from the Prince’s house but hadn’t spent time reading. The only one missing was Larry and Paladin, the latter saying that he’d be back the following day.

“What happened to Larry?” Colin asked, his head pounding from his persisting headache.

“He died.” Nox said, turning the page. “He got you to the Dungeon Portal and was almost here when he was caught by a giant spider Golem and died defending you. Luckily, Rielle went back and found you.”

“Really?” Colin asked, looking back at Rielle. “Thanks you.”

She nodded, smiling a little under his gaze.

“How long was I out?” Colin asked.

Rielle looked p at the clock on the wall, “maybe around an hour,” she stated, shrugging. “Hard to say, I wasn’t with you when you fell unconscious.”

Feeling the lump on his head, Colin decided that he wouldn’t summon the Demon for a little while, even when the resummon timer elapsed. Instead, Colin reopened the last prompt he’d seen before his trip got too bumpy to focus.

The Ritual’ Neuropathic Syphon has been ended early by the target. Total time spent with ritual started:18 minutes and 31 seconds. Total Experience points absorbed and not applied: 691,481 experience. Note: Experience must be added in 24 hours to avoid damage to the holder’s brain. Would you like to apply them now?

“691,481,” Colin breathed, then quietly nodded at the prompt. His will was apparent to the system that controlled the pop-ups.

Level up! Level up!Level up!Level up! You are now level 20 and have gained 20 Attribute Points to spend. You now have 99,183/256,914 to level 21. Due to your Ability, Anatomy of a Boss 1, you can choose a new ability at every fourth level compared to every fifth. When ready, feel free to choose what Ability you would like. Congratulations on reaching Level 20! For attaining this height of power, you can now gain a Career! Careers are an additional route to power, offering unique choices that could affect your growth and specialize your power even further. Be warned that you cannot change your mind once you choose a Career, for the choice will alter your soul. To Choose your Career, say the words; I call upon my guidance counselor. Congratulations, for leveling up more than three times from one event, you have gained the Achievement; Power Leveler. You now earn an additional 1% extra experience when you gain character experience from any source. Congratulations! For being in the first one hundred people, NPC or PC, to get this Achievement, you have been gifted 1 skill point. Your Ritual Magic skill is now level 8. New rituals are now available for your personal use. Your Knowledge: Ritualism skill is now level 7. Your understanding, prompt information, and Charisma bonus have increased by a small margin when Rituals are involved. Due to the Ritual’ Neuropathic Siphon’ using your Mental Magic channels to apply the attracted experience, Your abilities with that skill have been expanded. Mental Magic Manipulation Skill is now level 7.

With the experience used, the pressure in his head eased up somewhat, but the main cause of his distress was the Ailment, ‘Brain Strain,’ and its timer had yet to elapse. With the increase to his personal level, the bonus to his Ritual Magic and its knowledge Skill was fantastic. Not to mention that he now had four skill points to spend, which he was still unsure where he wanted to put them yet.

With the prompts looked at and taken care of, Colin looked to the Goblin. “Nox, what can you tell me about Careers?”

The Goblin’s eyes turned from his book and widened in surprise. “Level 20 already? Impressive, DevilWalker, truly. So, you know now classes and subclasses work; they are a set of paths that have to deal with combat and ways to approach life’s challenges. Careers take the idea of a non-combat approach to improving oneself and upgrading it immensely depending on your choice. I chose the War Chemist Career, which is a combat-focused version of the Alchemist Career path,” Nox explained. Stopping his talk to let Colin think about it.

“So, what? Is it like the choices I make when I level up? I get a choice of things depending on what other skills and levels I already have?” Colin asked.

Nox shook his head, “No, not at all. When you gain access to the Career, you will get points that will allow you to choose from upgrades to your personal Career. It is worth stating that Careers may be the idea of non-combat improvement. Still, anything can be twisted towards that goal, DevilWalker. As I am sure you’ll see.”

“Also,” Nox stated before Colin could ask. “Don’t bother asking how many Careers there are; there are too many to even begin stating them. Plus, I doubt anyone knows them all to be able to give an accurate count. Especially since the system constantly updates itself as the world gets new knowledge,” Nox said, then shrugged. “Just means you never know what someone is capable of.”

“How so?” Colin asked understanding but hoping for an explanation.

Nox nodded, “Paladin. I believe he is some kind of Brawler Class Specialization. One of the types of Sumo, I think. Which would make him somewhere above level 30 but before level 40. And I saw what he did with that gourd during the fight with the Mini-boss; I think he is some kind of Alchemist Career, like me. I don’t know what I would have guessed from his massive build, but I would not have been that.”

“Okay, I think I get it,” Colin said. “So Careers are a choice, where each career offers different paths to grow a skill or set of skills you wish to optimize or specialize in, right?”

Nox nodded again, “more or less. You never know what sort of thing might unlock something special. Heaven’s above, if I had used rituals at all before level twenty when I chose my War Chemist Career, I might have gotten something way better.”

Nodding along with Nox, Colin thought about what he wanted to grow stronger with as of right now. Looking at his skills list, his Ritual Magic jumped to mind immediately, given that it was the most recently used skill and one he wanted to explore. Enchanting was a definite path he planned to pursue, given what he had already accomplished with the skill. Then all his knowledge skills were increasing what he saw in Prompts. Oh, the options were there.

The reason this mattered at all was his Skill Points. If he was going to pick a Career, he would need to decide where to increase himself to maximize his chances of getting something good. To that end, Colin decided to put three points into Mental Magic Manipulation to increase it to level ten and put the last point into Enchanting. He was not sure what he would get, but Mental Magic was sure to come in handy, as it already had, and he was excited to see what other spells he could craft.

But Career-wise, he wasn’t sure what he was thinking with these choices. It was just something that felt… right when he applied the points to his skills. It wasn’t something he could put into words beyond something in the back of his head telling him that it was the right choice, that something powerful would come to pass if he did this. It wasn’t in so many words, of course, but a nagging feeling that would not go away when he looked at the skill.

Shaking that ominous feeling, he then looked at his Attribute points to spend. Four of the points were easy to spend, one point for each level immediately going into Wisdom to assist his Hubris Ability. He then put six points into intelligence to increase his mana pool size and make it a nice round number. The rest were a problem because Colin had many plans and ideas that required the Attribute Points to ensure their success. For now, though, Colin put two points into Strength and Build each to round them out to twenty. To end it, Colin put all of the last six points into Speed Attribute to maximize his movement speed, attack speed, and reaction time.

A prompt appeared, asking if he wanted to apply these changes, and he said yes. Leaving him with scores that looked like this;

Strength: 20 Dexterity: 21 Speed: 28 Build: 20 Intellect: 25 Wisdom: 30 Charisma: 15 Luck: 16

His Health and Mana also made a significant jump due to his new levels, with his HP being an even 600 and his MP a whopping 525. His only regret was that he didn’t put anything into Charisma or Luck, but that would change soon. Once he was out of constant combat, like he was now, he’d dedicate a few levels of attributes to them. But, for now, they weren’t as helpful.

So, Attributes were done, Skill points were spent, the last thing he needed to do before deciding his Career, was to get a new power from the choices list. Speaking the necessary words, Colin got the list and groaned at its length.

I am Me

Requirements: Path of Pride Level 5

your personal identity is strong enough to withstand any outside attempt to influence it. you gain a passive resistance to magic from the enchantment spell school equal to your wisdom attribute. The effect is multiplied by two when you actively and knowing resist an effect.

Unyielding Skill

Requirements: Path of Pride Level 1, Any Skill Level 5

Your pride in your work makes you work easier to succeed and grow. When you take this ability, you choose one skill that you have achieved at least level 5 in. The chosen skill grows 10% faster.

Positive Energy Resistance 1

Requirements: Antagonist Class Level 10, Wisdom 20

Your evil aura acts as a shield against attacks and effects that use their Good Alignment. This ability grants 10% resistance to good aligned abilities

Runic Evil

Requirements: Antagonist Class Level 5, Enchanting Level 1

Your position as Antagonist gives you a unique perspective in regards to your Enchanting skill. This grants you the ability, Runic Evil, granting you knowledge of a set of evil runic enchantments according to your enchanting level.

Sense of Evil

Requirements: Antagonist Class Level 10

This Ability grants allows you to sense psychic resonances of Evil.

Demonology

Requirements: Antagonist Class Level 15, Positive contact with Demons

This skill grants in depth knowledge of Demons, along with their rituals and hierarchy.

Brain shudder

Requirements: Psychic Class Level 10, Mental Magic Manipulation Level 5

Any Mental Magic Spell that you cast has a small chance to Disorient enemies.

Driving Force

Requirements: Antagonist(avenger) Class Level 15

You gain a limited skill that gives you a sense of any being that you are designed against. (The Krimson Spire Guild Members and, to a lesser extent, Players as a whole.)

Infernal Conduit

Requirements: Antagonist Class Level 15, Infernal Magic Manipulation Level 5, Alignment must be (at least) Evil 1

This Ability gives your attacks extra damage against entities that radiate good like how Demon’s radiate Evil.

Telekinesis

Requirements: Kinetic Magic Manipulation Level 5, Mental Magic Manipulation Level 5

This Dual Subskill combines both of its parent skills into the ability to move objects with one’s mind.

Vainglorious Fate

Requirements: Path of Pride Level 15, At least 15 Luck

You are prideful, arrogant, and self-righteous but not without reason. Your Status as one who walks the Path of Pride generates a Karmic magnetism that draws events towards you. These events can be good or bad for you but will always be great in scope. This Ability is greatly affected by the users Luck Attribute.

Ego Blade

Requirements: Path of Pride Level 20

You can channel an amount of your unused Pride Points into your weapon to deal extra Ego Damage. This attack cannot currently stack with other, similar attack skills.

Corrupted Processes

Requirements: Ritual Magic Level 5, Antagonist Class Level 10

When using any ritual, you can add an element of evil to the mix to increase its effectiveness. Rituals using this will have increased effectiveness against Good-Aligned beings, no extra effect against Neutral-Aligned Beings, and depreciated effects against Evil-Aligned Beings. Ordered and Chaotic-Aligned Beings are not affected.

Stress Levels

Requirements: Mental Magic Manipulation Level 10

When you cast Mental Magic on the same opponent over and over, their mind will start to become stressed by the powers you are hitting it with. With this Ability, opponents will now have an invisible (to you and them) Mental Stress Gauge that will determine how much of your power they can take.

Only three new choices? Colin thought as he looked them over. Ego blade was sort of like a power boost to single attack hits, much like his Aligned Strike, only it functioned off of his Pride Points instead of Mana. Corrupted Processes was somewhat fascinating but not really interesting right now, considering he’d only ever used one, apparently high-level ritual. Stress Levels was cool and had many potential uses, but the fact that he couldn’t see the Mental Stress Gauge made him hesitate.

Looking over the previously unlocked choices made him take a hard look at what he hoped to accomplish with his powers over the long term. There were many choices here, several of them were preparatory, like Positive Energy Resistance 1 and I Am Me. While others gave him extra means of finding stuff, like Driving Force and Sense of Evil.

What he needed was to prepare ahead of time and be ready for the things to come. He was not prepared for this event; even if no one else was, he should have had something ready to go for all-purpose attacks. That was the reason he almost chose Runic Evil but decided against it one more time. Even with everything going on, he couldn’t risk anyone discovering that he was a Demon Lord Candidate. Using weapons and skills that were obviously super dark and twisted could be a dead giveaway to someone looking.

Not to mention that there were some things that even he didn’t wish to do to people. He just wished the description gave an example of one or two enchantments.

To that end, Colin asked one question to both his companions. “Hey guys, quick question. Are Demon Summoners a thing?”

Rielle nodded and spoke hesitantly, “yeah, but most are just like the way you do it. You know, Familiar Summoning.”

“I’m not sure about nowadays,” Nox started. “But when some Summoners did focus on Demons, they were usually evil but not always. Some people tried to use them for whatever ends they could devise, and most were somewhat successful. At least, until they weren’t. Why are you asking?”

Colin told him, wanting to know his opinion, “Out of my choices for this level, one I was considering is called Demonology. It gives me knowledge of Demons, along with their rituals and customs.”

“And you’re hoping to use it to gain the understanding needed to summon demons. It’s not a bad idea, DevilWalker. I would just suggest you be careful if you decide to go this route. The Infernal are known for being evil, cruel, conniving, cunning, or downright deceitful. Evil is all fine and good, so to speak, as long as you can control it.” Nox stated. “But it’s your call. If I may… what are your other choices?”

Colin looked over the list and took a couple of short minutes to read everything, with Nox quietly absorbing all the information. When Colin finished, Nox shook his head, “Damn the Heavens, DevilWalker. I can see why this is a hard choice for you. Demonology does sound like a necessary choice for you, maybe not now, but eventually since you are a Demon Lord Candidate. All the others have potential, Especially Stress Levels, Telekinesis, and unyielding skill. I would recommend that you take any of them. Still, I will not deny that Demonology could come in handy.”

“Rielle, what do you think?” Colin asked, hoping for her input. It may be for his own growth and powers, but some of these choices could bring trouble down on their whole group, and he wanted her input in case he hadn’t taken anything into account.

She swallowed as if to take an extra moment and think about her answer. “I think any of those Nox suggested was good, but I also think I Am ME and Vainglorious Fate are good choices. You need to avoid mental attacks, and I Am Me will help with that. Vainglorious Fate could be something that brings you exactly what you need when the time is right. Whether that is a thunderbolt on your enemies or a pit from Hell opening up at just the right time. But unless you have higher luck, it may not be best.”

“So, whatever you think is best, Walker.” She finished, smiling at him reassuringly.

He couldn’t disagree with any of them. But in the end, Colin still selected Demonology and got the prompt he wanted.

You have gained a new skill; Demonology Level 1. This skill functions like the knowledge skills in regard to the fact that the more you learn within this field of study, the more the skill levels. But Demonology is more than a study, it’s an application of the knowledge gained. This means that Rituals, Spells, Potions, crafting, music, speaking, and anything else you do that reflect true Infernal Culture and power shall also increase this skill and grant you more knowledge. This skill can be affected in small ways by the Intellect and Wisdom Attributes.

Colin fell onto his back, entirely absorbed by the knowledge that was being absorbed by his brain. It wasn’t like using a skill stone; this was more like he was seeing and hearing things at super speed and somehow absorbing it all. The sense of what he was getting in his head made his eyes want to roll back into his skull, but the event ended after only a few jarring seconds.

Moaning for a few seconds as the room came back into focus, Colin heard Rielle raising her voice at Nox? No, that couldn’t be right; Rielle didn’t raise her voice. Colin eased back up from the bed and rubbed at his suddenly aching eyes. He heard the end of their conversation while his head came back into focus.

“You’re the Goblin with all the answers, Nox. How could you not know that was going to happen?” she accused.

Nox showed his teeth in a very, not-so-friendly way, “because, I don’t know everything. I know a lot, more so than most people, but that does not mean I know what a new skill will do to him. It’s not like he’s dead or even lost a point of health,” Nox said, looking right at Colin. “See, alive and coherent.

The Death Fey turned to look at Colin, surprised to see him moving, and just stared for a moment, “Walker? Are you okay?”

Colin nodded, “I think so. Why?”

She pointed to his face and said quietly, “because you were bleeding through your nose. That is… never a good sign.” she said, wincing at the confused look on his face.

Wiping his sleeve over his nose, Colin blinked when he saw blood follow his sleeve. He stood up, opened the door to the bathroom, and paused, looking at the room in confusion. “Uhmm, Nox?”

“Yes, DevilWalker?” he asked, his exposed teeth twisting up into a smile.

“Why is the bathroom where you chose to put everything we took from the Auxiliary?” Colin asked, looking through the cramped space that was practically loaded with Adamant Grates, boxes, books, and a few ingots that Colin did not look at hard enough to identify. There were a few more things there, but it was mixed into the jumble well enough that Colin couldn’t tell what they were.

“I needed a rutting place to put it, and in the room with the beds would just ruin the ambiance,” Nox explained. “We had a few excellent finds in there, you’ll thank me when we go through it all.”

“But why couldn’t you keep it in your shadow until I woke up and could start storing it?” Colin asked, exasperated.

“Simple, the more things I store in my shadow, besides me, the less time it can stay in there. These things could only stay for a half-hour due to their magical composition and sheer weight. I needed a place to put them before either the darkness consumed it or it was forcefully ejected out. At high speeds,” Nox added. “Hence bathroom.”

Groaning at the Goblin for stuffing the bathroom, Colin squeezed in and washed his face. His body straining against the weight pressing against it while he cleared his nasal passage. He ignored the towels, given that they were a lot more buried than the sink, and came back out, cleaning his face on his shirt before looking at the two of them.

Colin sat back down on his bed and pulled up the prompt that told him about careers, wanting to reread the phrase he needed to say. With a slow breath, Colin said, “Alright guys, I am going to get my career, and we’ll see what I can do after that.”

Both wished him luck, and Colin nodded in thanks. Then with an official cadence, he spoke, “I call upon my Guidance Counselor,” he intoned as the world around him faded to black.

Colin knew where he was, just as he knew what would happen when he spoke those words. The last time he had seen the Choice Moderator, the Cosmic Entity had stated that he would see him again when it was time to get his Career. But he did not think it would only be a few days until he got there.

“Hello, DevilWalker. Welcome back,” Jim said, his voice coming from behind Colin.

He turned to face the Choice Moderator and was still taken aback by the austere plainness of the man behind his desk. He looked like a Hispanic man with combed-back black hair, a pristine three-piece suit, and reflective glasses that reflected light that had no source. The desk before them was covered in paperwork, had a computer that was connected to nothing, and a lit cigarette sitting in an ashtray.

“Hey Jim,” Colin said, walking towards the man-shaped thing and took the chair opposite him that appeared out of nowhere as he approached. “How’ve you been since we talked?”

“Pretty good,” Jim answered. “Actually, I’ve been great. Since word got around that I am the Antagonist’s Moderator, everyone wants a piece of me. The only thing that could be better would be if I also got to be the Protagonist’s Moderator.” he said, grinning wickedly. “The chicks would dig me then, man.”

“Wait, has the Protagonist been chosen yet?” Colin asked, worried that the biggest problem to his survival would exist already without his knowing.

“No, but it’s only a matter of time. But enough about that,” Jim said, waving Colin off. “I can’t say anything more than that, or my supervisors would have my head,” he said, looking behind him before turning back to his client, “So, you are level twenty now, yes? Ready for your Career?”

“Colin nodded, smiling, “yes, what have you got for me?”

He typed on the computer, and his eyes widened. “Wow, you actually have quite a few choices here, DevilWalker. Here, let’s show you,” he said, turning his computer screen to show Colin the list. He was right; it was extensive.

Psionic Spy (T2) A master of remaining unseen and unnoticed. With a mastery of both stealth and mental magic, those with this Career can expect to creep through the night and get what they need, by page or by mind. Enchanter (T1) While a basic Enchanting Career choice, this Career does offer a wide array of abilities that do not cater to any one path, discipline, or element. Occult Enchanter (T2) The power of the Effigy is not one to be trifled with lightly. This is made doubly so when an enchanter decides he can use one to bolster the other. Mindscape Librarian (T4) A blending of mental magic, your attained knowledge, and uncanny mind has allowed for the realization of a memory construct. As your knowledge grows, so will your Library and the power it can give you. Super Courier (T3) A career that specializes in carrying things from one location as fast as possible. Good luck trying to rob a Super Courier when he is going fifty miles an hour on foot. Scriptural Cultist (T2) A blending of Religion and Effigy Channeling, this Career is known for using the religious texts along the worship of Effigy’s to increase their flock. Weapon Historian (T2) Being the bearer of an ancient and powerful weapon has sparked the need to know and find more. You might as well be Demonically Inspired in your pursuit of more like your own. Ritual Enchanter - (T2) The use of rituals to empower potions, crafting and enchanting is not new. But you can do it earlier and to a more significant effect. Midnight Enchanter (T2) Your mastery of Shadow Magic and Enchanting has given life to some unique ideas that are bubbling in your head. All you need is the chance to do it. Kinetic Enchanter (T2) Your mastery of Kinetic Magic and Enchanting has given life to some unique ideas that are bubbling in your head. All you need is the chance to do it. Midnight Ritualist (T2) Your Master of Shadow Magic and skill in rituals have let you peer into the mysteries that lie within both. Maybe you can unlock and do more if you combined the two? Ritualist (T1) While a basic Ritualist Career choice, this Career does offer a wide array of abilities that do not cater to any one path, discipline, or element. Arcane Lore Collector (T3) Your lust for knowledge, both magical and mundane, knows no bounds. I wish luck to any who wants to stop you from finding it short of brute force. You might as well be a bloodhound for rare spells and powers. Dark Librarian (T2) A shadow has been cast over your Library, and it is yours. All within it is under your protection and perusal. There shall be no page unturned while your shadow is working through the knowledge.

“Wow, that is a lot of choices,” Colin stated, rereading them again. “What are those marks in parenthesis for?” he asked.

“They state that the Career is a tier 1,2,3,4, or 5 career choice. Usually, the higher the tier, the higher the number of skills used to generate that Career. For example, a tier 1 career uses one skill. A tier 2 uses two skills and so on. This doesn’t always mean better, but it usually means it has more… Umph, you know?” Jim stated.

“Why don’t any choices say what they actually do? Why do they have to be so vague?” Colin asked, getting tired of being left in the dark about these details. If he had more info, he could make a better choice.

Jim grinned, “that’s a simple answer. Your Appraisal Skill is too low. You are still just getting the basic descriptions due to the limits of what you can understand due to the skill. Hell, I can see everything, and no, I cannot share it with you. If you cannot see it, then you will have to make your best-informed guess.”

Sighing, Colin reread the list again and found several intriguing and valuable. Psionic Spy sounded good, but so did Ritual Enchanter, Occult Enchanter, and Midnight Enchanter. He was curious about both Tier 3 Careers, but neither really nagged at him like the Tier 4.

Grinning, Colin knew that this Career was the one he needed. The Mindscape Librarian was vague, but it told him enough that he could make a guess at how it could come in handy. Especially since he was pretty sure he knew where the concept of this memory construct came from, and he was excited to see how the Memory Palace could be grown.

“I Choose Mindscape Librarian,” Colin stated, tapping the screen and letting Jim see his selection.

“Good, I’m glad to see that you aren’t a fool. Anyone who gets a Tier 4 or 5 career and turns it down is a damnable idiot. You are in for an interesting time, DevilWalker,” Jim said while typing away at his keyboard. “Annnnnnd done, Congratulations, DevilWalker. When you get back to Rosengard, you will be the owner of a shiny new Career path. Any questions?”

“Yeah, will I be coming back for the level 30 class change?”

“Yes, you will.

“And do you have any suggestions or advice for a lowly mortal like me about the future?” Colin asked, smiling pleasantly at the man.

He returned the smile, “yes, I do. It’s a simple bit too. Trust your companions, even your new ones. Maybe they can help you,” Jim said, putting his cigarette into his mouth, taking a long drag, and snapping his fingers with his free hand.

Colin blinked and found himself back in their Hotel Room, a brand new Prompt awaiting him.

Congratulations, DevilWalker! You are now a Mindscape Librarian! Would you like to open your Career Menu and allocate your 10 free Career Points?