[Soulrot removed.]

[+5 Intelligence, +5 Strength, +5 Constitution, +5 Agility.]

[Rolling for benefits and drawbacks.]

[Lingering Rot status effect added.]

[-2 Intelligence, -2 Constitution, -2 Agility.]

[Spell Resistance reduced to 90%.]

It was the hot flush of my skin burning that woke me up. The clinking of chains was what caught my mind next.

Slowly, I managed to blink away the crust from my heavy eyes.

My wrists felt even more weighed down. Glancing to see that I was clasped in a set of manacles was the first thing I did upon regaining my sight.

Oh, God, not this trope.

I brought my binds up to inspect them.

Solid, iron, and affixed to the cart beneath my legs. I wasn't getting out of them any time soon.

The woman across from me had a far away look in her eyes, but was nonetheless slowly beginning to gaze back at me.

My own eyes were drawn to the collar she wore. It was of a solid, iron construction much like the chains we both had on. However, the ominous jewel that sat ugly in the center of the ringlet was my biggest concern.

Mostly because I could already feel the same item clasped around my own neck.

I cast my gaze to the sky, momentarily letting myself detach from the current apparently less than ideal situation.

It felt like an eternity since I'd felt the sun.

Being trapped inside your own mind was taking being cooped up to an entirely different level.

And, even though I could only see the clear blue above through a tear in the wagon's cover, where warmth and heat was streaming to fall upon my face, it was nice to breathe mostly fresh air again.

I closed my eyes and took that much needed deep breath.

So, it was time to assess the situation.

I was on a wagon. Which meant I had no idea how long I'd been in chains or for what reason.

I exhaled and got down to business.

"Hello?" I asked the woman across from me; my voice sounded distinctly young and undeveloped.

I was definitely only ten or twelve right now, just like the Corruptor had promised.

The pale looking human woman slowly opened her mouth, only to produce a few weak and tired syllables that I didn't understand at all. She honestly looked sick; was that why she was on the cart with me?

Okay, so, I had definitely understood my parent's speech. Which meant I must be far away enough from where I had been born for there to be a different language being used--that, or the woman wasn't from the local area either.

My eyes scanned the rest of the covered wagon. There were a few others I hadn't evaluated yet.

Two more women were present, along with a little girl who couldn't be much more than my age.

The adolescents' red hair shone bright, but she looked much cleaner than the rest of us and wore no chains on her wrist. However, even though the collar she also boasted appeared much more ornate and jeweled than the rest of our own, she was clearly still collared.

I quickly ruled this out from being a group of criminals.

Too many women and children were present; not that women couldn't commit crimes, but the young children made it seem unlikely that this was an above the board operation.

Us all being slaves was more likely.

That made things more difficult though.

Prisoners were usually given trials, or at least told what their crimes were--of which I had committed none.

Slaves, on the other hand, were simply sold.

I couldn't catch a break.

I'd have to figure out how to get free.

A nagging feeling chewed at my heart, however.

Would I make for my first chance at freedom, or would I try and get others out with me if I had the chance?

I was in a child's body and didn't even know my own capabilities.

I just didn't know the answer to that question yet, or what it could even be.

"Hello?" I spoke at the little girl this time. "Do you understand?"

She ignored me at first.

"What's your name?" I asked her again.

Her eyes slowly started to give her away, but I could tell she was trying to hide taking notice of me.

"I speak your language, little one," a woman with beautifully coco hued skin said; her eyes held a sharpness I'd not imagined at first and I noticed that her body was muscled, if starved, underneath the torn and ragged clothes she wore. "I am Nazanin."

Her tone was accented with a foreign, but altogether pleasing, tilt. It was while noticing this that I caught sight of a small point of an ear that revealed itself out from long, hanging hair.

[Nazanin, Level Unknown]

[HP: 50/74]

"Hello, my name is--" I paused and wondered if my own name was displayed so clearly to everyone else and, if so, which of my two it might be.

I didn't think I had noticed anyone's name unless they'd introduced themselves, or they'd been a monster like the Dominator Demon or the Corruptor.

"I'm Castien," I finished and then decided to go by the name Viessa had given me.

A quick glance up to the status bar that quickly populated at the top of my vision proved that the World Spirit heard me.

"Castien," she said. "A very beautiful name, child. High-elven in root, but the human variant."

I'd need to get ahold of a mirror sometime soon. I imagined my ears would be rather pointed since those of the older version of myself had been.

Still, my skin and Viessa's was considerably lighter than Nazanin's was. Was she a subspecies of elf?

"Thank you," I said. "Do you know her?"

I glanced back to the little girl and tried to get her status bar to appear.

[Slave, Level Unknown]

[HP: 27/27]

It looked like the system did indeed hide all but the most basic information unless you knew the details of a person beforehand.

The slave looked to Nazanin hesitantly.

"It's okay," the brown elf woman said with a small, sisterly encouragement.

"It's nice to meet you, Castien," the little girl slowly said and then looked to her feet. "I don't have a name."

Not having a name?

Who would keep a little girl from having a name?

"Who decided that?" I asked.

Maybe the disgust was a little too clear on my tone.

"I would be careful of what you say, Castien," Nazanin warned and her eyes glanced to the back of the wagon. "There are ears everywhere."

I turned to follow Nazanin's gaze.

The wagon moved slowly. I now saw the reason: over two dozen women and children trailed behind the vehicle in a line of clinking binds.

I could see at least three guards on either side of the precession of exhausted looking captives.

The armed escorts were mounted on what appeared to be lithe, desert horses. The warriors themselves were only lightly armored with chest pieces and half-grieves; much of their skin was actually exposed to the dry air, if it wasn't covered by thin and breathable cloth.

They were all straight faced and tired looking; like soldiers just wanting the march to be over--perhaps they had served sometime in the past, but now I saw them as little more than sub-human.

It was the long curved blades that hung on their sides that drew my concern.

Along with their stat blocks.

[Mercenary Guard, Level 3 Fighter]

[HP: 25/25]

Interesting: the actual names of the guards weren't visible, but their classes and levels were--much like the monsters I'd seen during my brief time as an infant.

Maybe willingly putting yourself against someone would reveal certain information about yourself to them? Were the guards not technically opposing us just by being our keepers?

It was strange, but perhaps it made sense.

"Nazanin," I said, but didn't take my eyes off the despicable display of the women and kids stumbling along over the moss-covered and hot sand--many of them barefoot. "How many guards are there in total?"

I heard no response. When I turned my eyes to see why, I saw that she was gazing intently into my own steeled stare.

"I will speak no more of this," she said.

My gaze turned to look at the little girl that was now watching us very closely.

I think I understood now.

The fact that she wasn't chained.

Her healthier looking state.

The better clothes.

She was also collared yes, but this little girl was at the very least a more favored piece of merchandise than we were--perhaps she couldn't be trusted.

I returned my own look back to the resolute, amber eyes of the elf.

I slowly nodded my head when I was sure the little girl wasn't watching us.

The elf woman narrowed her gaze as if wondering on something that confused her.

I broke from her suddenly steely vision and cast my eyes back outside the wagon.

I needed to know how strong I was.

A textbook quickly populated in response to my desire.

[Open Character Sheet: y/n?]

Yes.

[Castien Stoneheart, Level 4]

[Class: Pilgrim 3, Fiend 1]

[HP: 31/31]

[Lifespan: 190 Years]

[XP to Next Level: 2,700/6,500]

[Souls to Next Level: 0/25]

[Attributes]

Strength: 4

Agility: 7 (-2)

Perception: 9

Constitution: 5 (-2)

Intelligence: 10 (-2)

Charisma: 7

Luck: 3

(Attribute Points to Distribute: 1)

[Skills]

Block: 50

Magic Resistance: 90%

Marksman: 50

Medium Armor: 50

One-Handed: 50

Sneak: 50

Speech: 50

Spell Attack: 50

Spell Defense: 50

Spell Efficiency: 50

Trade: 50

(Skill Points to Distribute: 30)

[Spells Known]

Hellish Illusion (Minor)

Casting Time: Instant.

Range: Sight.

Cost: 2 HP/Minute.

Duration: 1 Minute.

You channel Infernal Magic to project your will into the minds of those around you. This will fail to fool those with higher Intelligence, or those who possess a more powerful tier of illusion spell. You may fool a number of people up to half your Intelligence score; making multiple targets see the same illusion counts as one cast of this spell. Making multiple targets see different illusions counts as multiple casts.

Rend Spirit

Casting Time: Instant.

Range: Touch.

Cost: 2 HP/Sec.

Duration: Instantaneous.

You channel Infernal Energy from your soul to do 4 points of psychic damage every second to any creature that you can touch. The spirits of creatures that die from this spell are absorbed to increase your power and soul count; souls vary in their strength and the benefits they grant upon leveling.

[Abilities & Debuffs]

Elder Blood: You gain a 10% resistance to magic from your elven lineage. After the age of eighteen, you will age at half the rate of a human.

Genius: Your high intelligence score makes you incredibly gifted in all aspects of learning. You gain XP at a rate of 25% more than you normally would for any task.

Hawkeye: Your high perception grants you impressive senses. You can slow your sense of time during the moment before attacking or being attacked, though you gain no added physical speed from this ability.

Lingering Rot: For up to a week, or until healed, you will suffer the effects of Soulrot's lingering touch. You lose two points from Agility, Constitution, and Intelligence.

Magebane: You have a 50% resistance to both beneficial and damaging Personal Magic that is stackable with the resistance granted by the Intelligence Attribute. You will never be able to learn Personal Magic.

Mixed Wit: Your mixed genes make you versatile. You learn all skills 25% faster than you normally would.

Road's Grace: Pilgrims learn the Trade and all wayfinding skills at twice the rate of others of their race.

[Inventory]

Simple Traveler's Clothes

Okay then, a lot going on there.

Firstly, it looked like my various classes all added up to my total level. How did that work?

I reached my mind out to the World Spirit in the manner that I remembered worked best; it was really little more than thinking that I wanted information and waiting for the text box to proc.

[Your overall level is the sum of all your various class and profession levels. Overall level determines the XP needed to advance in level. When you level up, unless noted by a specific class exception, you may choose which class you would like to advance by one level respectively.]

Interesting. So no one was locked into a choice or job for their entire lives.

Still, I imagined that if XP requirements for leveling just kept increasing then so too would the difficulty of reaching them.

Which probably meant that there wasn't a hard cap on level, either, but rather a soft one that came into effect when you ran out of time to collect the ever-growing amounts of XP needed to level.

Which was another matter altogether. Having my lifespan listed out so plain to see raised some minor questions.

[Lifespan is the time that you have to live. It is determined by race.]

Can it be increased?

[Yes.]

Really? That was a vague answer.

How?

[Various methods.]

Name some?

[This information isn't available.]

Okay, made sense then: something as sought after as eternal youth wasn't going to be handed out by the World Spirit easily.

It wasn't much of a concern though. For now, one-hundred-and-ninety years, along with slowed aging, was more than enough for me.

How are skill points earned?

[Using skills in a way that challenges yourself increases them by 1. You gain 10 skill points to distribute per level. 50 skill points denotes proficiency, 100 skill points denotes advanced abilities, 250 skill points shows expert status, 500 skill points is mastery. Relevant buffs and abilities are granted and unlocked upon reaching, or exceeding, these progress milestones.]

So, it looked like I'd be getting the majority of my skill points from using skills, rather than leveling, if I wanted to ever reach the higher tiers.

Depending on how generous the World Spirit was with XP, ten points per level just wasn't going to cut it most likely.

Still, I could get one of my class skills up to eighty percent of the way to advanced rank if I used my current thirty points wisely.

But where to spend them?

I had no weapons, no armor, no anything.

I did, however, have the spells from the Fiend class. I wasn't above using them just because of their dubious nature. Not when I knew it was coming from inside me, due to my absorption of the Dominator, and not from some weird pact with some horrific being.

But why did it drain HP?

[Infernal Magic either channels a being's latent demonic lineage, or the power of a patron, through the physical body. Demonic energies are naturally corrosive to life and thus harm the wielder and also consumes their life force as fuel for the spell.]

Fair enough. That was good considering my Magebane trait. I simply didn't have mana and likely never would.

I wondered on the intelligence of that choice. I'd been thinking of this whole new life as too much of a game back during Character Creation. I'd gotten too excited about exploiting a good roll and racial choice to become immune to Personal Magic.

It had almost gotten me killed and now, thanks to Lingering Rot, I only had access to 90% spell resistance anyway.

The Spell Resistance trait did get me thinking, however.

World Spirit, what do the skills pertaining to spells do?

[Spell Attack increases the power of all offensive spells based on skill mastery tier. All magic types included.]

[Spell Defense increases the power of all defensive spells based on skill mastery tier. All magic types included.]

[Spell Efficiency decreases the cost of all spells based on skill mastery tier. All magic types included.]

So even if I used my thirty points I wouldn't see an immediate benefit until I leveled one of them up to one-hundred. Though that would likely be the same with any of the skills.

My current spells didn't seem to cost all that much in terms of HP if all things were considered.

Though I wouldn't be able to use [Rend Spirit] for long, it provided a double multiple of damage to HP cost. Which wasn't necessarily bad.

I just didn't have a ton of HP though. I felt my still high Intelligence processing the simple math, without me even really trying to make my mind do so:

A cost of 2 HP/sec put against 31 HP total only gave me around 15 seconds of cast-time and 60 points of possible damage dealt.

I'd likely not want to drain myself near to death to cast, so that further reduced my maximum damage output.

Also, if I planned on fighting in melee then dropping my health might not be the best idea in many situations; not if other, possible high damage dealing, fighters were also going to be trying to do so.

For that reason, if Spell Efficiency could optimize my cast-time and HP cost then that would probably make it the best choice.

I wasn't too interested in being a glass cannon as I unlocked costlier spells and I didn't yet have any defensive magic to make Spell Defense a concern.

Factoring in again that I had no equipment, I had pretty much made my choice.

[Spell Efficiency increased to 80.]

Now for the Attribute point.

I mentally scrolled back to the top of my stat box.

[Attributes]

Strength: 4

Agility: 7 (-2)

Perception: 9

Constitution: 5 (-2)

Intelligence: 10 (-2)

Charisma: 7

Luck: 3

(Attribute Points to Distribute: 1)

Intelligence was greyed out and unable to be increased further; not that I would have chosen it.

The soft cap on Attribute scores could likely be bypassed through some manner, but I was no longer all that concerned with min-maxing to the detriment of pure survivability.

I deposited the extra point into Luck and felt some relief as it seemed a lot closer now to the average score of five.

I'd get Luck to the neutral level and then I'd see where to take it from there, depending on how important Strength proved to be.

I'd been an avid lifter and athlete in my past life, but I'd already seen the negative effects of Luck in this life.

I had priorities now. Demon and disease induced trauma would do that to you.

I remembered a mention of perks from the World Spirit back during Character Creation. I figured that some might be gained through leveling as well, but I guess it didn't matter too much now.

I had other priorities.

But, at this point, I didn't have much left to do other than to formulate a plan.

I did wish I had been able to test out [Rend Spirit]. Not on anyone, but just so I could see what it looked and felt like.

The HP cost made me wonder if there might be pain involved. Though 2 HP/sec seemed minimal, I imagined it was a cumulative sort of strain.

The mention of soul absorption was also troubling. It appeared as if XP wouldn't level the Fiend class, but rather the consumption of others' lives.

My mind drifted back to the Corruptor and its soul stealing evil.

While I was fairly certain it wasn't the same thing, I wouldn't be doing anything remotely similar to that to anyone who didn't deserve it and, even still, not unless I had to.

I vowed to be very careful with the progression of my newfound and unexpected magical abilities.

I continued to think on myself, my abilities, and the few of my fellow slaves that I had met already.

My mind worked much faster than it once had, though I still found myself annoyed by Lingering Rot's effects. I could very much feel my still sharp intellect being slowed by a weighty margin.

I still managed to begin to formulate a number of possible starting options, drawing on my military and life experience to do so.

Eventually, as the sun began to grow lower against the sky, the slavers and all of us slaves started to come to a stop.

It was time to explore those aforementioned options now.