Alistair slowly sat up, his head pounding. His body still ached and his Health was still only at 194/217, a far cry from the last time when he felt completely refreshed.

“You got knocked out fighting again,” a feminine voice called out as the darkness faded.

He struggled to remember what had happened right before he lost consciousness. He kicked Kalgur in the face, completing the [King Orc Hunt] that felt like it had been given years ago. Right before that--

The vision of Alexandra's head rolling on the ground struck Alistair like a train. It had pushed his anger to a point he hadn't ever felt before. But then right before he lost consciousness, he saw her and Oliver alive again. He was thankful she wasn't actually decapitated, but it did beg the question of what actually happened.

"Oliver told me about his ability to make illusions surrounding death, so we used it to distract Kalgur at the right moment. Sorry we scared you there," she said.

"It's alright, I'm just glad you're okay," Alistair said. "So he has another Skill? He already has [Raise Dead], [Dimensional Storage], and an illusion Skill? Rare Classes are such BS. I bet you'll tell me he can touch things and they'll die now."

"He said he gained another Skill called [Death Touch] as well." Alexandra caught Alistair's incredulous look with a grin. "Why don't you check out your rewards? I'm sure there'll be enough there to quash any jealousy."

Looking down, he did have a ton of notifications to go through. Alexandra smiled at him. “Let’s just say I wasn’t disappointed by the results.”

Level up x4! You are now level 23. +8 Agility, +8 Intelligence, +8 Charisma, +8 free Attribute points, +60 Upgrade Points.

Badge Acquired: “Precocious Killer” (Untiered Rare Badge): Successfully defeat the first monster wave before its actual start. All Stats +10. Warning: You have exceeded the number of Badge slots you possess. Swap out Badges or buy another Badge slot.

Badge Upgraded: “Deliverance of Justice” (Tier 2 Mythical Badge): The most important aspect of justice is the saving of innocent lives. Each life you personally save grants +1 free Attribute point, capped at 2 per level (retroactively). (Upgradeable 0/100).

Quest Complete: [King Orc Hunt]. Rewards (73% Completion.): 100 Upgrade Points, 45,100 Gold drachma

Achievement Earned: Rare Fighter (Dueling II) — Defeat a being with a Rare Class. Custom Reward: +5 Karma.

The sheer number of rewards and upgrades he received astonished Alistair. All of it seemed good, but he was most ecstatic about the additional Upgrade Points and drachma. With that much drachma, he could afford anything he wanted in the System Store. Or maybe he should save it for when he actually needed something important? He wasn’t sure either way, but he was sure that he needed to use his Upgrade Points.

He opened his Badges section.

Badges:

“Premium Initiate” (Untiered Mythical Badge): The Final Frontier Empire welcomes your planet at the highest level of hospitality. All Stats +10%.

“Good Samaritan” (Tier 2 Uncommon Badge): Put your life on the line for a complete stranger against all odds. All Stats +7. Upgradeable (5/15).

“Slayer of General Krazz” (Untiered Common Badge): Defeat the General of the Blood Orcs. All Stats +4.

“Deliverance of Justice” (Tier 2 Mythical Badge): The most important aspect of justice is the saving of innocent lives. Each life you personally save grants +1 free Attribute point, capped at 2 per level. (Upgradeable 0/100).

“Mythical Cultivator” (Tier 1 Mythical Badge): Earn a Mythical Badge in your own right before level 50. All Stats +12%. (Upgradeable 0/50).

Increase Badge Slots (0/100)

“Precocious Killer” (Untiered Rare Badge): Successfully defeat the first monster wave before its actual start. All Stats +10. Expires in 23:59:57.

It was a gamble, but Alistair felt like Badges were some of the most effective assets for gaining power. His weakest Badge gave only 4 to all stats, but over time he reasoned he’d be able to gather better and better Badges. With that logic, he allocated 100 Upgrade Points to increasing his Badge slots, letting him keep “Precocious Killer” without having to swap anything out.

Next was the part that Alistair was dreading. He had put off investigating the Talent Trees for too long. It was time to untangle that complicated mess.

Talents:

Body Cultivation Tree

Heart Branch, Skin Branch, Bone Branch,...

Mind Cultivation Tree

Memory Branch, Insight Branch, Willpower Branch,...

Soul Cultivation Tree

Struggle Branch, Reincarnation Branch, Soulburn Branch,...

…

Elemental Fighter Tree

Pugilism (Shared) {Assassin Fist}, Elemental Control, Communion of Spirit

Monk of Order Tree

Pugilism (Shared) {Assassin Fist}, Order’s Strength, Ponderous Meditation

Chaos Assassin Tree

Pugilism (Shared) {Assassin Fist}, Chaos Rising, Void Watching

Lawful Magistrate Tree

Justice Quest (Shared), Enforcement, Divine Law

Merciful Abbot Tree

Justice Quest (Shared), Eye of Mercy, Invincible Heart

Courtwalker Wanderer Tree

Justice Quest (Shared), Wandering Itinerant, Contempt of Court

System Tree

{Missive on Charisma}, {Unveil hidden statistical variables}

Alistair tried to remember when he had gained the {Assassin Fist} leaf of the Pugilism Branch. A vague memory of a notification informing him he had used Upgrade Points to unlock the {Assassin Fist} leaf came to mind. It had been when he was fighting the mob of orcs, letting his fists fly without thinking. That experience implied it was possible to use Upgrade Points subconsciously when they were available. Alistair wasn’t sure he liked that idea, as he wanted to allocate them in a more perspicacious and efficient manner

Checking on his new {Assassin Fist} leaf gave little insight as well.

{Assassin Fist}: The bare-fisted martial arts of the Subverting Calamities Sect allows you to strike your opponent’s weak spots with precision and speed. 64% complete. (Upgradeable 45/70).

Now that he was paying attention to it, he could feel the new muscle memory and knowledge throughout his body. It was like a veil was lifted from his eyes. His old moves were so wasteful, so dreadfully amateur. But he wanted to check out the other branches.

The Body Cultivation was most concerned with improving his body, which made sense. He glanced over the Bloodline Branch, which required a whopping 500 Upgrade Points to evolve his species. Alistair had assumed that the species evolution came with Class upgrades, but now he wasn’t so sure.

The Mind and Soul Cultivation Trees that were shared between all cultivators had a variety of broadly impactful branches, while the branches associated with his Class and Subclass were focused on individual effects. For example, in the Elemental Control branch, he had a choice between three different leaves that would upgrade his [Mana Strike] into an elemental form based on either fire, lightning, or ice.

Surrounding his fist in fire sounded like one of the coolest things that Alistair had ever heard, but he needed to be practical. After fighting non-stop for the past few days, he believed he had identified his weakest point: he lacked a ranged attack. In fact, no one in their party had a ranged attack, unless you counted Alexandra’s meter-long sword.

To be fair, it was a bit greedy to want to be a good in-fighter with his fists while also possessing strong ranged options, but why couldn’t Alistair dream big?

On that front, he found a leaf under the Void Watching Branch of the Chaos Assassin Tree called Void Beckoning.

(0/10) Void Beckoning: (Tier 1 Skill): The aftershock of your punch opens a door to an endless void. Mana Cost: 30. Upgradeable (0/25). Warning: At your current level, you can only gain one Skill per Talent Tree. Selecting [Void Beckoning] will bar all other Skills in the Chaos Assassin Tree.

Looking over his other options a final time, Alistair locked in his decision and put 10 Upgrade Points into Void Beckoning, granting him the Skill with the same name. That still left him with an additional 50 Upgrade points to use. He had already decided to spend 5 on an informational missive on Wisdom, which he hadn’t figured out a use for yet. With the rest, he put 20 into the Justice Quest Branch of his Arbiter of Justice Subclass, which had only a single leaf that gave him a sixth sense for evil and dangerous situations.

With the improvements to his “Deliverance of Justice” Badge, saving lives was a quick and easy way to gain stats, and Justice Quest would allow him to do it more efficiently. Finally, he put his last 25 points into upgrading the Mythical Cultivator Badge. Percentage-based bonuses were becoming quite impactful on Alistair’s stats. He would be able to upgrade it to tier 2 within the next few levels.

After a final peppering of his 8 free points into Constitution, his preparations were complete. He looked up at Alexandra, who was idly flipping her knife.

“Finally done?” she asked.

“Yep,” Alistair replied. The sheer number of options available to him was stressful, and he was glad to be done with it, even if that meant having to face actual problems. “I bet you don’t have more combined stats than me.”

“Let’s see about that.”

He waited for her to tally up all of her stats. Looking at his own, it was trivial to add all of his numbers nigh-instantaneously. His feat of addition gave him pause. He was always good at math, but was he that good? No way. It looked like he found out part of how his Intelligence was affecting him.

“415,” she said smugly.

“456.”

“Fuck you, that ‘Mythical Cultivator’ Badge is unfair. An extra 12% to all stats? Bullshit,” Alexandra complained.

“And I’ll never get that Strength Badge of yours. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. We just have to work with what we have.”

Alexandra raised an eyebrow. “I’m starting to think this whole ‘justice’ thing has gotten to your head. Next thing I know, you’re going to be a motivational speaker and try to gather everyone to sing Kumbaya.”

Alistair stood up, brushing off his clothes. He went red when he realized he had a new pair of clothes on.

“Oliver changed your clothes and washed you off. You reeked of sweat and blood, no offense,” Alexandra said, seeing his embarrassment,

“Everyone’s okay, then? What time is it?” he asked, fumbling around for his phone, which had run out of battery.

“Yep, everyone’s fine. Oliver made it to level 19, by the way. He’s the reason we’re all not six feet under, with his new illusion Skill. The power finally went out. It was a miracle it was still on, to be honest, but I have some charge left. It’s 5 AM. Oh yeah, by the way, the sun is back out. After we killed Prince Kalgur, the normal day/night cycle returned.”

Alistair looked out of the blinds and spotted rays of nascent sunlight. It was nice to see that the red moon was gone; it thoroughly crept him out.

Oliver was at the kitchen table, eating some scrambled eggs. With the burgeoning numbers in their party, they were going to run out of food in only a few more days. They would have to start hunting soon, he supposed. A level 23 human shouldn’t have any problems dealing with the local deer or rabbits, but with the initiation, anything was possible.

“Thank you,” he said, walking over to the Necromancer. “Your Skill saved all of our asses.”

“No problem,” Oliver said nonchalantly, chomping down on some scrambled eggs. “You know, my [Raise Dead] turned into [Zombify] and now I can control up to 30 corpses. So I posted them out on the perimeter since we don’t want to deal with any more intruders.”

“Any more?” Alistair asked.

“Ask Donna. She was the one who told me.”

Alistair found Donna in Tommy’s room on the first floor near the back door. He was glad to see Tamia still wore her inexorable smile like a princess.

“You were attacked while we were gone?” A hint of anger flared in Alistair’s voice.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were awake!” Donna put down Tamia, who was clapping her hands and singing some Disney song. “And we weren’t actually attacked, two people came onto your property, but then they were the ones who were ambushed.”

“What? Who got them?”

“It was hard to make out, but I think he was a man with blonde hair. Maybe tall, I’m not sure. He used a bow and arrow. After he killed them, he left, right away.”

Alistair wasn’t sure what was worse: the guy who killed two people for unknown reasons, or that there were two people stalking Donna and her daughter in the first place. He would have to monitor both, but he had a solid suspicion of who was responsible for the stalkers.

“Did you take the pills?” Alistair asked.

“Yes, I’m level 7 now,” she said. “Though you’re not supposed to take too many of them.”

“You’re not?”

“I checked the instructions when you swallow them, and it says that taking over five can hurt your long-term cultivation because of the build-up of impurities. I don’t think that matters much to me; I’m not trying to be some great warrior, but I thought you should know.”

“Thank you,” Alistair said, as he thought about the ramifications of the pills. The strongest in the world would eventually accrue the vast majority of the wealth. With the readily available pills in the System Store, they could take anyone they chose to level 15 instantly, but in exchange for their long-term cultivation prospects. It was a cruel system, preventing the sheep from ever challenging the lion, but Alistair supposed that was how the new world always operated.

After hearing about the leveling pills, Alistair had to check out the situation for the Mana and Health pills. He opened the System Store and found a surprise.

There was a notification pasted right front and center, impossible to miss.

After reaching the 100,000 player threshold for level 15, the System Store is now open to all! Congratulations are in order, FX-14752. It is unlikely for so many individuals to reach level 15 in just 2 days. You are a remarkable planet of humanoids, for having such low levels of ambient Mana. The leaderboard has now been extended to the top 1,000 players, and each player will be shown their personal ranking when viewing the System Store. On a final note, the System Store is expanding its wares. One such item will interest many of our most powerful players: the Teleportation Circle. After being connected in the Soulnet, two Teleportation Circles can create a bridge to locations hundreds of kilometers away.

Seeing the #977 underneath his name in the System Store window brought a smile to Alistair’s face. It was proof he was catching up to the elites of the world since he was only the 8,175th person to reach level 15.

Leaving the leaderboard aside, Alistair went to the “pills” section of the System Store. There was a large assortment of options, including from 200 drachma 1-15 leveling pills to the 16-30 leveling pills, at 10,000 drachma a pop. But Alistair was most interesting in the Mana and Health pills he had purchased. This time, he looked at the details of the items. Sure enough, there was a disclaimer that because of the impurities in the pill, it was unwise to take too many of them, especially in quick succession. It was a death blow for his plan to suicidally attack his enemies and then swallow a Health pill when need be.

Despite the warnings, Alistair bought three Health pills and three Mana pills, just in case he ever needed them. Better to disrupt his foundations than to die, after all.

With everything ready, he took one last look at his status screen. The numbers were just too good to not admire for a second.

Name Alistair Tan Species Superhuman I (Partially Evolved) Class Magical Pugilist Subclass (HIDDEN) Arbiter of Justice (Legendary) Level 23 Health 295/317 (.396 per min) Mana 205/205 (.440 per min) Stamina 173/173 (.675 per min) Karma (Unlocked) +5 (.008 per min) Strength 51 Agility 92 Constitution 63 Endurance 45 Intelligence 78 Wisdom 39 Charisma 88 Badges "Premium Initiate", "Good Samaritan", "Slayer of General Krazz", "Deliverance of Justice", "Mythical Cultivator", "Precocious Killer"

Talents System Tree - Two leaves, Pugilism Branch (I), Chaos Assassin - Void Watching Branch (I), Justice Quest Branch (I) Skills [Mana Strike], [Eyes of Truth], [Dash], [Fighter's Instinct], [Hand of Karma], [Void Beckoning] Quests None Achievements Discovery (I), Dueling (II)

He had let Jackson Morley go once, and he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.