Kaia settled back to sleep in front of the fire and Junipher and myself went to the other side of the giant coyote and layed down some bedding we ‘acquired’ from the gnome camps to sleep on. Have to remember to get a proper tent and sleeping gear next time I’m at the kiosk. I layed there silently watching the stars and moon pass overhead with the beautiful woman in my arms. I was about to slip into unconsciousness when I felt her hand slip to my stomach and her fingers probe the threshold of my jeans.

My eyes locked on to her black orbs and I could see the mischievous grin that formed on her face as she playfully inched her hand down my body. “Right now? Really?”

She pushed her mouth up to my ear and breathed huskily into my neck, “Yes, Karl. Right. Now.”

Every word punctuated by her fingers undoing my belt, then unzipping my jeans. Before I could respond to that I found my fully engorged member pulled from my pants and the woman was climbing on top of me humming intently. Fuck it, Karl! You know you want it! And with that final thought I spent the next couple of hours making love to my sexy plant lady. She seemed to sing through the entire event and it was clearly unmistakable to the others what was happening on the other side of Kaia’s massive form. Kaia for his credit didn’t even move, uninterested in the mating rituals of ‘manlings’. At some point I thought I may have heard more than Junipher and my own sounds of love making but I wasn’t really paying attention, because this woman on top of me was an experience I had never had before.

We fell fast asleep when we finished and only woke when Bradley came around and kicked my foot. He had a shit eating grin on his face if I had ever seen one. “Sun’s coming up, thought you might want to get yourself ready.”

I stood up naked and stretched. I looked around for Junipher but didn’t find her. I wasn’t too worried, though when I went to ask Bradley if he’d seen her he interrupted me. “Whoah, big boy, put that fucker away!” He laughed as I looked down and shrugged.

Kaia chose that moment to wake and walk off. My eyes locked on Junipher standing on top of a rock with her arms outstretched basking in the morning sun. Then my eyes locked on the rest of the team. They too were very naked and paired up together.

Bradley laughed louder as he watched the look on my face and then I began laughing as the others began to wake up and look around in bewilderment. “Just what the fuck happened last night?”

Scheel was rolling off of Phil who had a smug look of satisfaction on his face. Valley however squealed when she woke next to the gangly Hawkings who to his credit just layed on the ground with his hands behind his back, a satisfied smile and a serious case of morning wood his only response to my question.

Bradley just shook his head laughing and walked off to the ridge he had stood watch on last night while we collected ourselves. Both women were red faced in embarrassment and proceeded to quickly find their clothes and put them on. Us men on the other hand simply watched like the lechers we were. I mean, the cats out of the bag, no reason not to!

“Men!” the embarrassed Valley blurted out with a shy smile.

“No! Not men! BOYS!” Scheel teased and kicked some rocks at Phil.

“Whoa now! I seem to remember you initiated our little tryst!” He teased with a big smile while hunting for his underclothes.

Junipher came prancing down to me with a giant smile. She was clearly satisfied with her sun time and me time. Heh. “How is everyone this morning?” She asked, oblivious to the embarrassed now half naked women.

“Woman!” Scheel exclaimed in frustration.

“What?” Junipher asked puzzled by the tone in her voice.

“That’s what I want to know?” She said as she tugged her shirt on to Phil’s disappointment. “What song was that last night!?”

“Oh, hmmm, I’m so sorry. I was so taken with the moment I didn’t consider sharing.” She apologized with a straight face.

All of us stared at her slack jawed.

“What? You didn’t want to lie with Karl as well?”

Bradley burst out laughing from the cliff edge as he continued watching the horizon.

“NO! Whenever you two started getting it on. It was like…” Scheel reddened as she tried to explain, Valley cut in at the moment she came to a loss for words, “... an aphrodisiac!”

“Oh, whoops, I was really into it. I guess I wasn’t controlling my empathic ability very well.” She shrugged then wrapped herself around me when I finished dressing.

A thought struck me as Bradley was still laughing at us every now and then. “Uh, who did you hook up with!?”

“I wasn’t affected.” He snapped me a dirty look.

“It is only a limited range, about 10 meters.”

“Coulda warned us!” Scheel blurted as she finished pulling on her boots and Phil finally decided to clothe himself.

“Wasn’t that bad.” Valley muttered while smiling with lust in her eyes at Hawkings. Kinda saw that coming, the way they steal looks at each other between fights and such. On the other hand, it seems Phil was a convenient outlet for Scheel. Meh, he still tapped it, good for him.

When everyone was dressed we ate some protein bars and headed out for the last three encampments. I was riding on the edge of my next level and I knew I would gain my new class by noon if all things worked out well. Everyone else would still be slightly behind me in the level curve and Junipher stated she didn’t think she would gain a level until we started fighting higher tier monsters.

As we trekked to our next stop I noticed a figure far in the distance running across the desert with a pair of animals in front of him. One looked like an ordinary Labrador, the other looked like one of the giant cats that attacked my former apartment building. I walked up next to Bradley and before I could ask he spoke.

“You see ‘im too?”, he asked.

“Yeah, you got slightly better perception, can you make ‘em out?” I nodded as we walked.

“Nah, has a hoodie and a hunting rifle. Has the hood pulled up, though I did see sunlight reflecting off of glasses.” He said with a little smirk.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Danner?”

“Yeah, didn’t we pass his tough shed a couple miles back? Shoulda’ checked to see if he was there.” I said thoughtfully.

Phil walked up next to us and looked in the direction we were with confusion, “What you guys looking at?” He asked as he squinted to try and make out what had our attention.

“What’s your Perception at?” I asked.

“87, why, what’s yours?”

“224.” I responded.

“278, with this railgun equipped.” Bradley smiled completely proud of himself. “We think Danner is following us.”

“Danner!?” He asked louder and looked back harder for the man. “I don’t see shit!”

“That’s ok, I’m pretty sure with your strength attribute you can lift a car, maybe even a truck, so don’t worry about it.”

“Heh, anyway, he’s moving pretty slow. Makes sense I guess, he wasn’t particularly athletic before the system.”

“Yeah, I wonder if he is still allergic to… everything?” I joked as we came over a ridge and saw our next target in the reservoir below. “Shall we?”

This camp presented a new foe, Creek Nagas. They looked as one would expect, snake bottom, humanoid top, with lots of scales and hissing of forked tongues. These ones were brown and tan to blend in with the muddy creek water. We stood on the cliff and let Phil and Scheel take the ones on the shore. Bradley and myself started dropping explosive rounds into the creek and soon bloody brown naga bodies floated to the surface. It was like fishing with dynamite. We still hadn’t received the all clear notification so Hawkings threw an ISOLATED GRAVITY FIELD into the creek which caused the water to swirl and drain slightly, which in turn exposed the Naga King. Bradley took his head off without missing a beat and we gathered up and continued on to our next objective.

We looked back and lost sight of the figure that was following us whom we believed to be one of our co-workers, Danner. With a shrug we dismissed our concerns and continued on. If he wants to join us he can, if he wants to be a recluse living in the barren desert, he can fucking do that too.

The next two camps were just as easy as the last and nothing special. Though I did take note that these camps consisted of Gnolls. It was on the last camp that I received the notification that I had reached level 25. Everyone knew it had happened because I visibly smiled as the notifications rolled in. I skimmed the generic ones until I got to the one that I had been really waiting for.

CONGRATULATIONS! FOR REACHING LEVEL 25 IN YOUR BASIC CLASS, OUTLAW, YOU MAY NOW CHOOSE TO PICK AN ADVANCED CLASS OR KEEP LEVELING YOUR CURRENT CLASS. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE YOUR ADVANCED CLASS OPTIONS NOW? (YES/NO)

“I can keep leveling my Basic Class?” I asked Junipher and Veep as we walked through the desert.

“Indeed, Karl, you can do so if you wish, though I know no one who has done so. The level attribute bonuses don’t increase though you do get them at the same frequency. You do continue earning Class skills though they are rather generic and lack the impact of Advanced Skills and Abilities.”

“What Miss Junipher says is mostly correct, while most of the skills and abilities you receive are generic, you also get a higher chance for skill evolutions. Evolved skills are significantly stronger and more useful than Advanced or Master class skills.”

“Hmph.” I thought about what they said, then Junipher broke my concentration.

“Have you looked over your class options yet? Is the one from your Trance in there?” She, of course, asked a very pertinent question.

“Lemme check.”

When I accepted the request my vision filled with blue text so dense that I decided to climb onto Kaia so I didn’t have to stop the team. Everyone looked at me expectantly and I carefully scanned through dozens of class options with similar sounding names and some that were just generic extensions of the Outlaw class such as Brigands, Bandits, and such.As I quickly scanned the list I found the one from my Trance.

Merciless Reaper of the Foolish. +5 Strength, +5 Endurance, +5 Agility, +10 Free Attribute Points every 5th Level. Reapers are known across all cultures as fearsome individuals that operate on a singular purpose. When the Merciless Reaper of the Foolish steps onto the battlefield enemy and ally alike quake in fear. Often a Reaper’s presence in a battle is the catalyst for success or failure. Reapers are not restricted to specific weapons or armour as their skillset blends well with all martial and magical disciplines. Reapers also make excellent trackers as one of their ancient duties is hunting down and escorting dead souls to the afterlife.

Would you like to choose this as your Advanced Class? (Yes/No)

I hesitated and looked at Junipher with apprehension written on my face. “It is, Veep, show her the details and the ‘short’ list.” I had already told Veep what I was looking for and she was already culling the massive list of hundreds down to a few. The Merciless Reaper of the Foolish was definitely on the short list.

She looked at the details of the class, then flicked through the rest, then looked back at me. “Is it really even a choice?”

Sarcastically I responded, “Actually, it’s quite a few choices.” She smiled and began to humor me as she went over the list. “Well, I suppose you could go with Red Sands Brigand. It synergizes well with your current skill set, though I don’t see how it enhances it.”

“True, what about Lord of the Windswept Desert. It has some nice buff potential.”

“It’s alright, but it’d be a better option for Bradley since it’s designed around keeping foes at a distance and we know you don’t know how to do that, despite how much you love those guns of yours. A better option would be this Forward Operator as it is also a class focused on firearms and gives you lots of explosives to call in.”

“I like Forward Operator.” Bradley chimed in.

“Yeah, I imagine you would, you’re as gun crazy as I am.”

“True, though Merciless Reaper of the Foolish has more punch, and you’ve already seen its effectiveness in your Spirit Walk.” He added nonchalantly.

Veep took the liberty of sharing the short list with everyone gathered and we ended up stopping in the middle of the monster filled desert to discuss my future class choices.

“Warden of Shifting Wastes sounds cool.” Scheel added.

“What’s Champion of the Crumbling Red Desert do?” Valley asked the rest of the group as she perused my class list.

Oddly enough I wasn’t irritated with everyone’s opinion on my class selection. I knew they were excited because they were all on the verge of advancing as well. I also knew I had made my choice last night in the Trance.

“Dude! Merciless Reaper of the Foolish just sounds bad ass!” Hawkings exclaimed with a little too much enthusiasm. “I don’t even know why you’re hesitating.”

“He’s right, Beesh. You know I don’t like the implications, but it does seem a little preordained. You get to choose a new class in what, 50 levels? No sweat right?” He smiled conspiratorially at me. Fucker.

I guess I don’t like the idea that some other force is setting me on a path not completely of my choosing. Is that right though? The class doesn’t determine the outcome, it’s just a tool. All these skills and abilities are just tools to affect the outcome I desire. And I desire to not have my life dictated by stupid monkey fuckers. It’d be naive to think that no one will try to bring the world under their control. So why not me?

Would you like to choose this as your Advanced Class? (Yes/No)

Yes.

I accepted the class and for a moment didn’t feel anything and began to wonder if something went wrong. Then my body briefly seized up and my mind went momentarily blank. I felt something ‘click’ into place in the back of my head and then everything returned to normal. I was then flooded with more notifications.

CONGRATULATIONS! You are now the Merciless Reaper of the Foolish, Level 1.

You have gained the following Skills:

Reaper’s Wrath - The Reaper's Wrath is feared by all. More-so by those who are named his enemy.

Your enemies fear your approach. +20% Chance for all fear effects to penetrate resistances.

Soul Tracking - Some predators hunt by scent. Some by sound. Others by feel. The Reaper seeks out your very soul.

Once the Reaper has the 'scent' of his enemies soul, it is almost impossible to hide from him.

+25% Chance to see through stealth.

+25% Chance to find targets through magical wards.

Sensitivity of Perception related senses increased by 25%

Shool’ Kai Axe Fighting - The Shool'Kai lived on a heavily forested world that gave rise to the Axe being the preferred weapon and tool.

The techniques they employed were proficient in felling tree and foe alike.

Working long days felling said tree or foe was also exhausting.

+10% Damage with Axe type weapons.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have gained the following Abilities:

Reaper’s Cleave - A melee attack that hits all targets directly in front of the Reaper in a 90 degree cone and extends 10 meters out.

Chance to Inflict Bleeding and Fear on all enemies hit.

Heart Seeking Lunge - Cover a distance of up to 5 meters in a single instant to strike at your opponents heart.

If the attack is successful, inflicts 200% damage.

Reaper’s Fluid Grace - When activated, the Reaper moves with a fluid grace only seen amongst the highest ranking martial artists, always seeming to be in the right place at the right time, and capable of dodging even the surest of strikes.

+25% Dodge, Evasion, and Footwork

I read the notifications and I shared the new skill and ability sets with Junipher who nodded approvingly. “Combined with your massive amount of life skills and abilities you know are a very well rounded fighter. While I wouldn't place you as the group tank, you definitely have the ability to deal a ton of up close damage and can muddle their minds to make it almost impossible for them to hit you.”

“Yeah, it felt right, it was like it just slid into place with a click in my head.” I commented as the newly improved settlement came into view. “Guys, I’d like to introduce you to SooHoo Settlement.”