Soul 5

Focus 5 Spirit 5 Will 5

Body 5

Strength 5 Vitality 5 Agility 5

Mind 5

Intelligence 5 Mana 5 Control 5

Luck 5

Once more Dix was infuriated only long enough for more notifications to show up immediately after he scanned his stats. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he promised himself that he would stop getting pissed about things he had supposedly “lost” after the tutorial. He had been prepared for the skills, so they hadn’t made him that angry, but he had no warning about losing his stats. The thing that helped him to calm himself was not knowing if he had actually lost anything. He had never seen his stats before, so maybe a five was higher than what he had had before. With another deep breath, he looked to the newest notifications.

Congratulations! For placing in the Champion section for the Test of Incarnation you will receive one additional stat point to all stats!

Congratulations! For placing in the Champion section for the Test of Mental Capacity you will receive one additional stat point to all stats!

Congratulations! For placing in the Champion section for the Test of Affirmation you will receive one additional stat point to all stats!

Congratulations! For completing the Tutorial without sleeping all stats governing your pools will be increased by five points!

And just like that his irritation was gone. Yes, there was still the chance that it might have been higher, but he would never know and never ask. Sometimes it was better to just leave things in the past where they belong. Besides, he’d earned a staggering fifty four points from his accomplishments in the dungeon. That was over eight levels worth of stat points. A fitting reward for all of the work he had put in.

Dix was about to start flipping through different sections of his new system when the clearing of a throat made his head snap up. The dwarf he had completely forgotten about was leaning against the wall with a smirk on his face. Dix just shook his head, and set the similarly forgotten bowl that once held stew down between his legs on the bed. Chuckling he said, “Sorry about that. The tutorial messages were a little long. Hell the whole system thing is still exciting.”

The dwarf barked out a laugh and replied, “Oh, I remember. Even after all these years I can still vividly recall the shock of the whole transfer experience.”

Dix was trying to figure out what was more surprising. The lack of Scottish accent, the more American east coast accent the dwarf now had, or the fact that he was also a transfer. In the end he probably settled on the last, but was unable to articulate it, as his jaw had hit the floor.

The dwarf, seeing his dumbfounded expression, nearly fell over in laughter. One hand was balled up and pressed to his mouth in a failed attempt at stifling his raucous laughter, and the other was pounding his leg as tears rolled down his cheeks into his beard. Dix took a fair bit to recover enough from his shock to actually try to be annoyed, but failed in the end and joined the dwarf in laughing at himself. Obviously he wasn’t the first transfer, but he hadn’t expected the first person he met to be one as well. As he thought about it some more, he hadn’t really expected to be inside a building either. He had figured the gods would just drop him in the wilderness somewhere with nothing but the clothes on his back.

Dix stopped laughing before the dwarf, and simply waited for the man to get it together again. Eventually the dwarf stopped, but mostly because he had started choking from lack of air. After a few gasps and coughs, he got himself upright once more. “Ah, sorry, man. That was great.” He coughed a couple more times, then approached the bed, hands waving about as he spoke. “Anyways, my name is Thunk. Unoriginal, I know, but better than some. Also, not really acceptable to most of the other dwarves, but I picked the name before the race. By the time I could change it, I didn’t care anymore. Now, I’m a Priest of Balance, and I’m here to help you get settled in. What’s your name?” At the end of his short speech he proffered a hand.

Dix set his bowl off to the side of the bed, and accepted the hand up, turning it into a shake as he introduced himself. “Call me Dix. I’ve got a ton of questions, but I guess the first is if there is any way to prove you’re a Priest of Balance. No offense, but the gods told me to be careful.”

Thunk chuckled again, then said, “Share Basic Information, Dix.”

Much like all the other notifications he had received, information appeared in his mind. He hadn’t really paid attention to how the information was displayed to him before as the contents had his full focus, but now he noticed. There was no box obscuring his vision, or hidden in the corner of his sight. Instead it was as though he suddenly had another screen on his display. Somehow he had another visual panel in his mind, separate from his normal vision. He couldn’t touch it as it was merely a visual display, but he could interact with it using his thoughts. He also didn’t really need to read it as the information was injected directly into his mind, the display was just to keep it organized and be reviewed.

Name: Thunk

Level: 93

Race: Dwarf

Class: Priest

Deity: Balance

Title: Priest of Balance

“Well, that’s neat. I wonder what my information lo-”

Thunk interrupted him, “Ah ah, wait. We’ll go over it together, but let’s go somewhere a little more comfortable first. It may take a while, and we’ll need drinks. Follow me.”

As the dwarf led him out of the room, down a hall, and up some stairs, Dix reflected on how many of the people that had guided him through new things since his death were all drunks. Admittedly, neither Crossroads, nor Chance actually got drunk, but they both certainly knocked back more than a few beverages. If legends were to be accepted, then this dwarf would most likely be the same way. Shaking his head to clear the sour thoughts, Dix instead tried to inspect his surroundings.

The building they were wandering through seemed to have a lot in common with the room he had awoken in. Stone construction, with geometric patterns and knots for decoration around doorways, floors, and ceilings. The doors were all the same dark wood, as were the stairs, although there seemed to be stone underneath them. He refrained from checking further with Mana Sense. The floor above the first was where things started changing. The short hallway at the top of the stairs had fewer doors that were spaced further apart, and ended at an open archway. Beyond that looked to be the nave of a cathedral, but they instead turned into one of the doors in the hallway. Inside was a sitting room with a small bar. The seating was variously sized overstuffed arm chairs made of leather over wood frames.

Thunk never even looked back as he gestured to an appropriately sized chair for Dix, and walked over to fill a couple of tankards from a cask at the end of the bar. Handing one to Dix he explained, “Even with all of the people who have come here from Earth, there are still a lot of things that haven’t been updated. I’d love to have a number of different taps to pull beers, but only dwarves reliably make something drinkable. For some reason, almost everyone who was ever a brewer back on Earth seems to have become a dwarf, and the rest just can’t dedicate the time to do it real justice. Thankfully, dwarven culture celebrates good brewers, so they are some of the most respected and well paid people around. Cheers!” So saying, he tipped the tankard up, draining it in only a couple seconds.

Dix attempted the same feat, but took significantly longer. The ale was strong, with a smooth earthy flavor to it, and a nice burn on the way down. Judging by the burning in his throat and the warmth in his stomach, Dix estimated it to be nearly the same alcohol content as good whiskey. Wiping his face with the back of his hand, he passed the tankard back to Thunk who refilled both before sitting down, leaving the tankards on the small table between their chairs.

Before Thunk could start on his spiel, Dix asked, “What was up with the accent when we first met?”

The dwarf snorted, “Just messing with you. People from Earth expect every dwarf to talk that way, so I do it to give them that little burst of realized fantasy. After that though, it’s too much work, so I just speak normally. And speaking of work, let’s get to it. Say ‘Share Status’ and my name, then pull up your Status for yourself so we can go over it together. I need to see what I’m working with, so I can get you the best training. Balance said to help you as best I can.”

Dix was a little leery of how much help this dwarf could help him, but he seemed to be of a reasonably high level, and a better price. “Share Status Thunk.” He followed it up by calling up his status right after.

Name: Dix

Level: 0

Race: Runeborn

Visible Race: Folk

Class: None

Titles: Touched by Death, Pheremonal

Traits: Adaptation

Soul 8 Focus 8 Spirit 13 Will 8 Body 8 Strength 8 Vitality 13 Agility 8 Mind 8 Intelligence 8 Mana 13 Control 8 Luck 8

Racial Skills:

Runic Memory

Mana Seed

Mana Flow

????

????

Skills towards Class:

Enhanced Strike

Enhanced Throw

Enhanced Shot

Devouring Stride (35)

Channelling

Overload

Return

Raise Dead

Touch of Death

Empower

General Skills:

Meditation

Mana Sight

Mana Sense

Mana Manipulation

Advanced Martial Weapons: Humanoid

Advanced Magical Weapons and Tools

Sex Skills

Resistances:

Fire

Mana

Ice

Lightning

Earth

Water

Air

Force

Pain

Dix looked over all of his stats, skills, and information, finding everything as he expected. He was only a little surprised to not see his sub skills listed, but figured there had to be a separate section that displayed those to not make the listings so massively huge. He also didn’t have any numerical values for any of his skills, other than Devouring Stride. He was about to try and figure out how to get more information on his skills when he noticed Thunk. Originally the dwarf had just been mumbling to himself, but over time he had started breathing heavier. Now his face was drenched in sweat, eyes wide in shock, and a hand clenched to his chest. Is he having a heart attack?

Dix reached over and shook his shoulder, asking, “Hey! Are you alright? Answer me! Thunk!” When no response was forthcoming, Dix hauled off and slapped him. The aftermath of that action surprised him, as his hand hurt like he’d slammed it in a car door. Looking at his bruised hand, Dix suddenly felt a light tingling enter his body and flow into his hand. A glance to the side showed him Thunk had been the one to heal him.

“Sorry about that. You really shouldn’t hit people so much higher level than you. You’re lucky that all you had was some bruising on the bone. If you had punched me you would have broken most of the bones in your hand.” Thunk seemed to be aware of the world around him again, although he was still sweaty and obviously disturbed.

Dix shrugged. He didn’t really care about the pain, he just wanted to make sure the dwarf wasn’t dying on him. “You back now? I thought you were having a heart attack.”

Snorting, Thunk responded, “I probably was. Your ridiculous status damn near killed me dead.”

“What do you mean?”

Thunk just shook his head and sat back in his chair. He sighed, and stroked his beard for a moment, before draining his tankard again. Getting up to refill it, he finally answered Dix, “There’s so much wrong with it I’m not actually sure where to start. Hell, we’ll start where I did.”

He sipped a little of his ale before sitting back down. “I started at the bottom of your listing as I read back over it. Most of the instant transfer didn’t really register, and I prefer to read through things like this when I have the time. You have nine resistances, which is rare enough for experienced native adventurers, yet alone new transfers. Then your skills… Well, we’ll get back to those. Then there’s your race issues. I can only assume that your ‘Visual Race’ is what you look like, since you look like most of the Folk. As for your actual race, the Runeborn were wiped out so long ago they are mostly just a legend now. A legend that you somehow managed to become.”

When Thunk paused to shake his head, Dix opened his mouth to explain, but stopped when Thunk snapped a hand up. “Nope! Don’t you dare tell me how that happened. I really don’t want to know. I also don’t want to know how you managed to have the only skill that is actually illegal as a Trait.”

At Dix’s confused look, he elaborated. “Adaptation was outlawed ages ago. People who had it were all killed. Books that detailed how to get it were burned, and anyone who had read them were forced to accept a Soul Binding. If they didn’t accept it, they were killed too. Other than that the skill existed and was outlawed, the only thing that I know about it is the official reason it was outlawed. Apparently Adaptation can allow interbreeding between races. I can only assume that it takes a very high level in the skill to cause the effect, but who knows for sure. As to why it was enough to make it outlawed, well, again, who knows. I’ve never looked deeply into it myself, but I would guess racism, traditions, and strangely powerful mixed breeds all reared their ugly heads. Whatever caused it, you’ve got the massively upgraded version. If anyone finds out about it, you’ll be hunted by every government agent, soldier, bounty hunter, mercenary, and adventurer that can get a hold of the job.”

All Dix could think was, Damnit Balance, like I wasn’t going to have enough trouble. And Crossroads, all you could say was “more interesting?” Ugh, fuck you both. Despite the rather unpleasant emotions he directed towards the gods, Dix was already past weighing the good and the bad. He was fairly certain nothing could be done about it now, but he had a couple questions for Thunk to clarify how he could proceed. “Question. Can people see my Traits somehow?”

Thunk shook his head while explaining. “No, not unless you share your status with them. There’s not really any reason to share that with anyone, and even the adventurer’s guild only needs your basic information. As long as you don’t talk about it you should be ok.”

“There’s no way to get rid of it?” Thunk simply shook his head. Dix thought for a moment more, then asked, “What is a Trait anyways? Some sort of upgraded skill?”

Thunk rubbed his face with both hands before straightening to speak. “Traits are skills that have become more than just a skill. Skills that have physically changed someone, permanently, can become Traits, but there is more to it than just that. They are something that has become intrinsic to your very existence. Something that you can no longer live without. Traits are a part of all that you are or do.”

He thought about it for a bit longer, then spoke again. “Hmph. Adaptation as a Trait could actually be a great thing for you, if you really lean into it. If it really does what it says, then you should try and encompass it into your role. And with the skills you have now, it will probably be necessary that you do so.” The disparaging tone he took on when speaking about Dix’s skills was impossible to miss.

Before Dix could ask about his skills again, Thunk moved on. “Your statistical system choice is good. Nice and balanced. Some small oddities that work as good dump stats, and nothing so powerful that it will disturb anyone. With the number of points you get, and how the whole set is organized you should do well with whatever role you choose to follow.” The dwarf was nodding his head as he scanned over Dix’s stats, pleased at what he saw. “You even have a decent distribution for now, and an above average starting point. Most transfers tend to be in the three to five range for most stats, although you get the periodic weirdo with nines in mental and/or physical stats. The natives normally have fairly average stats, even the nobles, but still higher than most transfers. It is strange that your stats are so equal all across the board, though. What is up with that?”

Dix was too busy running comparisons in his mind, verifying that he was a bit ahead of the curve, to notice that Thunk didn’t actually expect an answer. He also missed Thunk’s second almost heart attack in as many minutes. “When my race changed all of my stats reset to five, but I got some bonuses from stuff during the tests.”

The Earth-born dwarf was stunned to silence. He had never even heard of people getting any sort of bonus from the testing sections. As far as most people were concerned they were just some awful thing concocted by the gods to determine a person’s worthiness to serve. His rumination on how happy he was at being incapable of speaking about all the dangerous things he learned about Dix was interrupted by the man himself.

“Alright, what’s wrong with my skills? This is the second time you have mentioned them, and neither seemed positive.”