You have defeated Rabbit (Remedial)! Some of this creature’s Universal Power has been transferred to you.

You have defeated Rabbit (Remedial)! Some of this creature’s Universal Power has been transferred to you.

You have defeated Rabbit (Remedial)! Some of this creature’s Universal Power has been transferred to you.

You have defeated Rabbit (Remedial)! Some of this creature’s Universal Power has been transferred to you.

Theo panted, sweat dripping down his forehead. Before him, a pile of dead rabbits was climbing high, nearly to his waist, and all around him, blood stains coated the forest floor. It was the apocalypse for bunnies in the area, and yet they still kept coming, drawn by his Call of the Wild ability. His stamina and mana were running dangerously low, but his health was excellent, even with the pitifully weak health essence each rabbit gave him.

Another rabbit hopped into the clearing, nose twitching. Exhausted, he raised his staff in both hands, then smashed it down into the rabbit’s head.

Congratulations! You have reached Level 3!

He screamed in triumph, then collapsed onto the ground. He’d been killing rabbits all day, and the sun was nearly setting. Tiberius, startled by his sudden outcry, looked up from the dead rabbit he was chewing on. Theo lay back on the ground, feeling the warm rush of Power wash over him.

Then, from behind him, a voice.

“Um… what the fuck?” Alice said.

Theo turned around, peeking one eye over his shoulder. Alice stood there with a basket of foraged food in one hand and a single dead rabbit in another.

“Did you… get ambushed by a swarm of bunny rabbits?” she said.

“No. I summoned them,” Theo said.

“You summoned them. And then bashed them into pulp with a stick?” Alice said.

“Staff, but yeah,” Theo said.

Alice stepped forward and poked the pile of dead bunnies with an arrow. “You know, killing small animals is an early sign of being a psychopath.”

Theo pushed himself up and looked at the pile of dead rabbits. “Don’t go vegan on me now, Alice. I needed the levels. And… I got to level three,” he said. He let himself smile.

“Damn, just from rabbits?” she said, “you really went absolutely apeshit on those rabbits.”

He shrugged. “We have to. To get Jess back,” he said.

Alice nodded. They’d met as a trio and decided that to take on McClain’s raiders, and save Jessica, they’d all need to be at least level 4. And that meant leveling before the other group could do the same. But Theo figured that three level fours and dire wolf might be able to take on McClain’s raiders long enough to steal Jessica back. Might. They were one level four and three level threes, plus Serafin, at an unknown level and with unknown abilities.

While Alice began to make a pot of stew from some of the rabbit meat and gathered vegetables, Theo pulled up his menu.

Welcome to Level 3! At Level Three, you have the option to select a Path via the Tree of Knowledge. Choosing a path will allow you to focus on learning the skills in that path. Only one Path benefit may be enabled at a time, but a Druid’s Path can be changed voluntarily. The skills learned on one path will remain even if the Druid switches paths. Select a path? Y/N

Theo quickly selected the Yes rune and opened the skills menu, only to find it completely transformed. Whereas before it had been a simple list, now it was in the shape of a tree, or a constellation. Each star in the constellation represented a new skill. The trunk had a mess of stars, almost like a nebula, that showed his existing, general skills. Just off the trunk of the tree were six new branches.

Path of Beasts

Path of the Elements

Path of the Forest

Path of Vitality

Path of Evolution

Path of Greater Mysteries

Theo looked at them, reading each in turn. The number six kept coming up in this Game, wherever he looked. The Hex had six sides, according to his map. There were six essences, six members of his original party. Wherever he looked, that number returned. He wondered if it had any significance before clicking to expand the options before him.

Path of Beasts: The Beast Druid focuses on control and command of animals and animal shapes. On this path, a Druid may decide to collect and evolve multiple animal companions, or to master many forms. Includes the subpaths Path of the Shapechanger and Path of the Beastmaster. Path of Beasts Druids learn animal related skills 25% faster.

Okay, so taming animals and shape changing. Both incredibly useful Druid abilities. The Path of Beasts was a strong contender already. If he had more animal shapes than just the bear, he could fight, spy, and explore in countless new ways. Still, he moved on to the next.

Path of the Elements: An Elemental Druid focuses on the non-living aspects of nature. A fully realized Elemental Druid can summon storms, create wildfires, or mold stone. Includes the subpaths Path of Water, Path of Air, Path of Fire, and Path of Earth. Path of the Elements Druids learn elemental magic 25% faster.

Elemental Druidry wasn’t something he’d focused on at all. He could see what the benefits were, however. Blake wielded fire and electricity to devastating effect. It was a concrete, combat based ability that was usually ranged, and was more reliable than manipulating animals. Already, it was a hard choice. But Blake had a handle on Elemental Magic for now, and Theo wasn’t anticipating that changing any time soon — despite his quest. So he moved on to the next option.

Path of the Forest: A Forest Druid focuses on the manipulation and generation of plant life. A Forest Druid fights by summoning vines, manipulating tree branches, and even transforming their bodies into plant matter. Forest Druids are durable, resilient, and versatile. Includes the subpaths Path of Poisons, Path of the Herbalist, and Path of the Dryad.

Huh. Plant shapeshifting. He wasn’t sure how useful that would be, although it sounded cool. If it came down to it, he would take animal shapeshifting over plants… and would definitely take elemental magic over plant magic. What good was a vine when you could just fry someone with lightning? He skipped over it.

Path of Vitality: Druids who focus on Vitality learn to wield the raw powers of life — and death. A Vitality Druid learns to heal themselves and others, or to drain the Vitality from their enemies, and then use their corpses to create fungal undead slaves. Includes the Path of the Healer and the Path of the Necrodruid. Path of Vitality Druids learn Vitality related spells 25% faster.

That one just sounded fucked up. At least, healing himself would be nice, especially after his run in with the crazy telekinetic lady. But raising fungal undead slaves? He didn’t know how much he wanted to be the boss of an army of corpses. He passed.

Path of Evolution: All things grow and change. Path of Evolution Druids focus on their own evolution. Augment your body with the skills and abilities of your enemies. The Path of Evolution transfers one random skill from an enemy you have slain into your own skillset. The level of the transferred skill is relative to the XP gained from defeating it.

This one… the risk was higher than the others, but the rewards could be higher as well. The last clause was really the only weakness. If he had this skill while fighting the Armor Bear, who knows which of its skills he would have attained? Given, the XP was split six ways, but still. And the rabbits he killed — the XP gained was naturally low, and they didn’t have many skills, but if every rabbit he killed gave him a random skill, that would eventually add up. Add up a lot.

Then there was the aspect of player vs. player. If he killed a Fighter, would he randomly adapt one of the Fighter’s skills? What about an Assassin? The Path description specifically mentioned enemies, not beasts. That meant that humans were fair game. That meant any class’ skills might be available to him. Limitless growth.

He shivered. Was he really thinking about killing humans? He wasn’t a killer.

The Path was powerful. Extremely powerful. But the moral implications…

He passed on it and moved to the next Path.

Path of Greater Mysteries: This Path is not yet available to you. Check back later.

He frowned. Why offer it in the skill tree if it wasn’t available? And what did he have to do to unlock it?

He scanned back over the rest of the options, carefully weighing them. He had it narrowed down to Beasts, Elementals, and Evolution when Blake burst into the clearing.

He was sweating, panting, and carrying two dead rabbits in each hand, their bodies mangled by his summoned traps.

“Level four, bitches,” he said, “and you’ll never guess what else.”

“You found an emergency exit from this god-forsaken reality?” Alice said.

“Nope, even better,” Blake said, grinning, “I found a Dungeon.”