Chapter 13. Selection For now, let's start by getting a skill or skills if I can select more than one for now. Most of the active ones were just normal actions that you could do in everyday life, except some, and I liked one of them. Bloodlust. The skill description did not exactly state what it did but it gave enough of an idea about its effects, I just hope it is useful. [Bloodlust] [Induce fear in enemies based upon your desire to kill them] The skill was vague. Desire and things such as those were hard to measure and how it would affect the enemies was not what I could calculate. The only plus to this skill was that it was a crowd control skill. The description said 'enemies' meaning many targets and that could come in handy. There was one other that I wanted, [sprint] that would increase my speed by a fixed limit, a skill that assisted in escape but for me, it had another purpose. Closing in on enemies. The chief had sharp instincts but if my speed suddenly doubled and I could hit a weak spot early on in the fight, that was a big advantage. I still did not know if the other skills would be available after selecting one and that was why I was not sure which one to select. Bloodlust was a gamble and sprint was the safe option, but in the end, I took the gamble because the skill worked on a concept that I did not really understand and it was probably more fun than [sprint]. "All that thinking was for nothing? Seriously?" The skills did not disappear, only the total number decreased by one, nothing else happened. Now I could also get that sprint skill, but after selecting sprint something did happen. The whole active skill section just greyed out, everyone that was remaining just went five shades darker. [Sprint] [Increase your speed for 30 seconds (max 60 stats)] Only two active skills for now, but there were still the passive ones left. And this was a really, really tough choice because there were skills with a prefix Demon attached to them and on the other hand, was [Slow healing]. 'This is going to be a headache.' [Slow Healing] [Your body gains the ability to slowly heal over time if wounded.] This was tempting, for a long time I wanted something that could heal me and it was right in front of me but on the other skills were skills that had something to do with my bloodline. These were the only skills that had a connection to my bloodline and might be tailor-made for me. The other thing was the skill description which was slowly drawing me towards it. [Demon's Perception] [A massive boost increasing the effectiveness of perception.] [Demon's Control] [A massive boost making the body more responsive and active.] There were other skills that gave a boost in the list but there were three differences that I noticed. First, there was no massive. Second, no effectiveness or greater description just a plain old boost like increasing the stat by ten percent and this was honestly good if it stopped here but this was where the third difference came into effect. There was a limit, written in brackets stopping the stats from crossing 110. The ones with 'demon' had no limits and these skills really matched with my stats. Boost over perception was like something godsend, it was what had helped me dodge arrows and fight, and the control over my body would make everything easier to act upon. This had me tied down but after a long internal debate, I chose the demon skills for one simple reason. "If they can't hit me, why would I need healing?" This was a childish reason, I know but perception could help me in dodging arrows, something that was impossible to even think about was possible a few weeks ago but now I could it just because of perception. And the last thing that made me confirm my decision was the second class. "The second class for sure is going to be a healing one, I don't care if it gives me an option to become god unless it has healing skills." A little too dramatic but the point was that my second class was going to be a healer. And if not the skills would be massively towards the healing aspect. ----------- [Status] Name: Ray Species: ??? Bloodline: Demon of ??? General Skills: Identify lvl 1, Mantra of ??? lvl 5, Demon's martial arts lvl 3, Axe Mastery lvl 1, Dual wielding lvl 1 Strength: 20 Agility: 20 Endurance: 20 Vitality: 20 Dexterity: 20 Intelligence: 15 Wisdom: 15 Perception: 25 Bonus point remaining: 10 ----------- [Primary Class: Demon Fighter] Level: 17 Skills : Active - Bloodlust lvl 1, Sprint lvl 1 Passive - Demon's Perception lvl 1, Demon's Control lvl 1 ----------- Now the only thing left was the point distribution and my last statement just made the process a whole lot simpler. I did not know shit about what intelligence and perception did except some theory and my second class was going to be a mage hopefully, which also gave me a lot of stat points. So the points I got from this class were all going to be added to the stats that affected me physically and the points from the other class were going to those that affected me magically. And if something turned out to be more important than the other, that could be changed when such a case occurred because increasing everything a little was never bad as it was all interconnected. So every level one would go to each strength, agility, endurance, vitality, and perception. In this, strength and agility would be replaced by intelligence and wisdom when I would distribute points from the other class. Dexterity would lag behind and I would need to occasionally add some points to it after stealing from the replaceable stats, if not this would get too much from my small brain to handle. I would leave five points as it was like last time, for an emergency as this 'strategy' did prove to be quite helpful. With all the points and skill matters sorted out, and still having the time it was finally time to meditate and find out what has exactly changed with the masteries and with the mantra thingy. "Whoa..." My mind palace had changed a lot after the class up. There were many noticeable things that had changed and the main thing which drew my attention was a giant seed, it looked like one to me. A seed as tall as me, I who was a proud 6 feet tall man, and in front of the seed sat the avatar meditating. Even the avatar was different, the most prominent thing was that the avatar was now in shades of red and black. And the colors did not combine, they stayed separate but blended well together? It was hurting my brain trying to figure out what was actually happening but if you just looked at the figure it was pleasing to the eye drawing you in. It was a splitting figure of mine without the facial features, the long hair also matched. As for the hair, I decided to keep them as they were, they might become a disadvantage mid-fight because someone might pull them or do some shit but that was for the future, I liked how they looked. Another big thing was that I could move in the mind palace. Earlier it was just me observing the avatar as it did the stances and stuff but now I could move around and observe things closely. I did it before without even realizing it as I was trying to observe the seed but now I could save time because instead of trying to remember what the avatar did I could just learn from it here. There were four runes slowly revolving around the seed horizontally, all grey, all different. I had no idea what they were and why there was something like this here but the only connection was the four skills I had just obtained because the number matched. And if they were truly representing my skills I would know that when I get my other skills, if get them. The pond on which I stood, was never-ending. Even though I referred to it as a pond I could never see an end. The sky was dark as a night sky and everything was illuminated as a moon was above me but I could never see it. When I tried to touch the water below me I could not submerge my hand in it. Every time I walked or touched it with my hand ripples spread out but the water did not feel wet nor did some small drops separate from the larger body.