It was going to take a while to get back up to the surface, so I had time to finally go over my status screen. I knew I had gained a level, I had killed too much and been through too much since the last time for me NOT to have gained a level. As I sat down on the floor and leaned back against the rattling lift, I started going over everything that had changed.

HUMAN. LEVEL 5.

STAT POINTS REMAINING: 15

ALIGNMENT: FAITHFUL IMPERIAL.

LITANIES: 27

AUGMENTATIONS: Cybernetic lung(upgrade lvl1, Toxins/environment)

LEVEL: 5267/9600

STRENGTH: 10

AGILITY: 8

PERCEPTION: 10

WILL: 7

LUCK: 18

SKILLS

FEATS

ABILITIES(*)

Wait, did I forget to allocate skill points last time I leveled up? And had I just gained 2 levels during a single combat engagement? Things were starting to look up. I had even picked up a few more combat-oriented litanies on the frontlines If things were this well with the applied bonuses from my feats of circumstance, then I had to wonder if my skills had risen as much as my XP count, so naturally, I immediately opened the tab.

SKILLS

LASWEAPON PROFICIENCY, LIGHT: TIER 3, LEVEL 2.

LASWEAPON PROFICIENCY, HEAVY: TIER 1, LEVEL 4.

STUBBER WEAPONS, LIGHT: TIER 1, LEVEL 2.

STUBBER WEAPONS, HEAVY: TIER 1, LEVEL 2.

MELEE WEAPONS, CHAIN: TIER 1, LEVEL 1.

MELEE WEAPONS, POWER: TIER 1, LEVEL 0.

MELEE WEAPONS, REGULAR: TIER 2, LEVEL 5.

MELEE WEAPONS, SHOVEL: TIER 1, LEVEL 0.

UNARMED COMBAT: TIER 1, LEVEL 2.

ARMOR PROFICIENCY, REGULAR: TIER 2, LEVEL 3.

ARMOR PROFICIENCY, POWER: TIER 1, LEVEL 0

Woah, Woah, Woah, Melee, armor, AND lasgun tiered up since last time? Now that is what I'm talking about! A thought struck me and I opened the "abilities" tab with fervor.

"GET UP GUARDSMAN!!" : This ability grants the user the ability to push through what would otherwise be incapacitating damage, and keep on fighting. One use per week.

ENDURANCE: TIER 2, LEVEL 7 (NOTE: PLANETARY BONUS APPLIED)

DANGER INSTINCT: LIVING IN A WORLD WHERE DANGER IS RELATIVE AND DEATH WAITS AROUND THE CORNER OF EVERY NEW DAY HAVE GRANTED YOU THE ABILITY TO SENSE MALICIOUS INTENT TOWARDS YOU.

NATURAL BLUFFING: SINCE YOUR ARRIVAL, YOU HAVE SPENT A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF TIME DURING CONVERSATION LYING AND TWISTING THE TRUTH. YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED THE NATURAL BLUFFING FEAT.

I mentally clicked the "Endurance" ability to see what my new tier gave me access to.

Endurance: Tier 2, level 7.

Tier 1: Environmental hazards affect you to a lesser degree than your peers. Passive bonus to environmental resistance.

Tier 2: Minor resistance to irritants, toxins, and poisons. Minor passive resistance to harmful environmental effects.

Tier ?: Keep leveling up to unlock the next tier.

That explained why I never seemed to be too cold or too hot. And the minor resistance bonus from the second tier would help me breathe in industrial areas or battlefields with blood vapor. I eagerly went back to the skills to see what bonuses the new tiers would grant me there.

Lasweapons, Light, Tier 3, level 2.

TIER 1: Knowledge of how to use and maintain lasweapons.

TIER 2: Knowledge of manipulation of powerpack output and lasgun power settings.

TIER 3: Knowledge of how to jury rig power packs into makeshift grenades.

TIER ?: Keep leveling up to unlock the next tier.

Melee weapons, regular, tier 2, level 5.

Tier 1: Knowledge of how to use basic melee weapons in combat.

Tier 2: Knowledge of how to inflict the most damage with every hit. Cause targets to bleed violently with every cut and stab.

Tier ?: Keep leveling to unlock the next tier.

Armor proficiency, regular, tier 2, level 3.

Tier 1: Knowledge of how to make proper use of basic personal combat armor.

Tier 2: Knowledge of how to maximize the limited potential in basic armor. Vastly increased chance for anything but a direct hit to be glancing rather than wounding.

Tier ?: Keep leveling to unlock the next tier.

I saw a lot of changes, and I liked what I saw. And I had not even allocated my 15 points yet. I could double some of my stats, and almost triple my will if I wanted to. But with this many points dropped at once, I'm certain the changes would be notable once I made my choice so I would have to wait with that until I had been back and knew I could go to bed afterward. There was still blinking in the corner of my eye and I opened the insistent notification.

New achievement unlocked!

"Flesh decays"

Get your first cybernetic implant. +1 Strength. +1 Agility.

New achievement unlocked!

"Mysterious mercy"

An unknown entity interfered with your life to save it. +2 luck.

Quest received and accepted!

"Who are you?"

Find and identify the unknown entity that helped you survive.

Quest reward: +4 skill points.

Timelimit: Infinite.

Wait, I never accepted any quest! But then again... Getting 4 skill points just to find someone I planned on finding anyway was a hell of a bonus. On the other hand, the fact that a quest was involved with this person also meant that it would not be as simple as asking around and finding a person. There would be danger involved, significant danger at that, if the reward was anything to go by. 4 skill points would be a MASSIVE boon at this point, even with the 15 I had still to allocate. This was cause for concern and made me draw my laspistol on a hunch. Maybe the sniper shooting at me had not been as random as I had first assumed...

"For the love of the holy Emperor, please don't tell me that I have somehow been roped into 40k politics! I am not touching that garbage fire with a 200 ft pole!" I thought to myself as the possibilities started popping up in my head. The political world of the Imperium was as hellish and confusing as the battlefields they fought on. Dozens of different administrative branches, all with their own separate power and secret agendas, working together in the most fragile of ways, with corruption running at an all-time high. Bribes, Favors, backroom deals, threats, murder, conflicting interests, and obligation to the Imperium, all rolled up into one neat clusterfuck of power-hungry idiots, all squabbling over whatever scraps they could steal from each other while minimizing their loss.

This was dangerous territory if I was right. The wrong comment here, the lack of a compliment there, everything could lead to a planetary governor, for some reason or another, to decide they did not like you and would want you removed from the galaxy. After all, the "True and rightful rulers" could not be expected to deal with something as menial as someone else living, if their existence bothered said rulers.

I prayed it was "just" one of the commissars that had taken notice of me, planning some nefarious suicidal task that need a "volunteer" force of outstanding individuals that could be sacrificed for the greater gain. At least that would offer me the chance to look my enemy in the eye when they cut me open. If it was the politics, then I would just get my throat slit at some point, with a murderer that had disappeared before my body hit the ground.

The lift rattled on as my mind raced. My stomach rumbled, so I pulled out a ration of Soylens Viridians and slowly ate the bland and flavorless food while I thought things over.

Suddenly, A crushing feeling of dread and rage washed over and through me, With paranoia burning in every crevice in my mind and my hands trembling from the rage I scanned my surroundings, looking for something, anything, I could rip apart. Anything that would make this feeling go away!

As quickly as it had come, it was gone again and I was left on my hands and knees, panting for breath and trying to get my body and mind under control again. What the hell just happened? Was it a psychic barrier or field I passed through? An intrusive power from the warp? A psyker trying to attack my mind? That... That was an unpleasant and scary experience. A very solid reminder that as much as my power was growing, I was an insignificantly small mote of dust, floating around in a large room of flour piles.

As much as I didn't want to, I immediately put 5 points into my will stat. These mental intrusions and effects were getting too frequent and too overwhelming for my liking. This put it at a solid 13, almost doubling it. Sure, it might be an action brought on by lingering paranoia, but I had consistently underestimated the power of psykers and psychic abilities since my arrival and I was done having my mind messed with in this way.

Another thought struck me out of the blue. The last time something like this happened, my alignment was changed. It was the only circumstance I had been able to narrow it down to. On a whim, I kneeled and started reciting some of the litanies I had picked up while underway, and I slowly felt the residual anger and paranoia dissipate in favor of a serene sense of calm and peace of mind. As I prayed, a small golden blinking started in the corner of my eye. I hadn't seen that color notification before, but I finished my prayers before I opened it

CHAOS FLUX CLEANSED.

Opening the notification flooded me with a batch of new notifications. I was confused beyond reason. Chaos flux? Cleansing? What the hell was happening?? I started on the new notifications.

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!

"The root of chaos"

Chaos and warp energies latch on to people and objects in near vicinity to them. These energies gather into a chaos flux which functions as an anchor for new energies to be drawn towards. The act of sincerely reciting the Emperor's prayers while the flux is active will tear it apart and expel the energies back to the warp. Unlocking this achievement will grant you the ability to see the aura of chaos energies that would activate a flux.

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!

"Cleanser of chaos"

Successfully cleanse an active chaos flux within yourself. +1 Will

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!

"Are you meta-gaming?"

Complete an advanced task outside of your designated skills. Unlocks psychic abilities.

Wait, NO! I DO NOT WANT THIS!! DO NOT GIVE ME ACCESS TO THE WARP!!

......*Ding*

Shit, new notification! No, I am not doing it! I am not opening it!! NO!

...

with a heavy sigh, I opened the new notification.

"PSYKER SUBCLASS UNLOCKED"

You have unlocked the psyker subclass, Please choose a specialty among the following:

Biomancy

Divination

Pyromancy

Telekinesis

Telepathy

Well, this was a different kind of mystery altogether. I had never paid much mind to the psychic lore of Warhammer back home and that would most likely come back to bite me in the ass now. Biomancy and Pyromancy sounded alike, so where pyromancy most likely had something to do with heat and fire, I suspected that Biomancy had something to do with biological matter.

Divination sounded like prediction of some sort, maybe reading the future? That left Telepathy and Telekinesis. I didn't have anyone I wanted to talk to in this world, and speaking in other people's minds without proper authorization from the Imperium was almost a guaranteed execution as a heretic. So, that left Telekinesis. But I wasn't sure. I couldn't be sure. But I had to choose eventually. along with the rest of my 10 points.

I took a look at my updated status screen.

HUMAN. LEVEL 5.

STAT POINTS REMAINING: 10

ALIGNMENT: FAITHFUL IMPERIAL+.

LITANIES: 27

AUGMENTATIONS: Cybernetic lung(upgrade lvl1, Toxins/environment)

LEVEL: 5267/9600

STRENGTH: 11

AGILITY: 9

PERCEPTION: 10

WILL: 13

LUCK: 20

PSYCHE: 1/500

SKILLS

FEATS

ABILITIES(*)

Wait, what was with the plus sign next to my alignment? What the hell was going on? Every time I thought I had this system figured out, something new appeared. And now I had a Psyche stat with what I assumed was a progress counter. I ran through the other tabs again and ended up finding a new ability

"GET UP GUARDSMAN!!" : This ability grants the user the ability to push through what would otherwise be incapacitating damage, and keep on fighting. One use per week.

ENDURANCE: TIER 2, LEVEL 7 (NOTE: PLANETARY BONUS APPLIED)

DANGER INSTINCT: LIVING IN A WORLD WHERE DANGER IS RELATIVE AND DEATH WAITS AROUND THE CORNER OF EVERY NEW DAY HAVE GRANTED YOU THE ABILITY TO SENSE MALICIOUS INTENT TOWARDS YOU.

NATURAL BLUFFING: SINCE YOUR ARRIVAL, YOU HAVE SPENT A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF TIME DURING CONVERSATION LYING AND TWISTING THE TRUTH. YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED THE NATURAL BLUFFING FEAT.

WITCH SIGHT*: Use your psychic abilities to "read" the aura and intent of those around you.

Well, I guess that explains what comes next. I have to use my abilities to level them up. But psychic abilities are never safe to use, especially not as an unsanctioned psyker within the imperium. If I get discovered I can look forward to a very short and excruciatingly painful future. Suddenly, I recalled a sentence from the "Guardsman's uplifting primer"

” harboring or withholding information regarding one he knows to be touched by the warp”

Sentence: “will be whipped, have his eyes put out, and then hung until dead. The Emperor will have his revenge on the unclean denizens of the warp.”

“Any soldier who, through his own will or not, becomes touched by the warp in any way and becomes impure and a danger to security, will be the beneficiary of the Emperor’s Mercy.”

The Emperor's Mercy, of course, being a bolt round to the face, conveniently placed there by the nearest commissar.

This...This is not what I wanted. This is not what I wished for. Using my psychic power around the wrong people would spell death for me. But for me to know which people were safe and unsafe, I would have to use my powers. And every time psychic powers were used, there was a chance that some malicious entity would take notice and decide that life would be less boring if they interfered with the warp user. In theory, anything could happen, from the area starting to smell of sulfur and rotten eggs, to becoming an unbound demon host, allowing a lesser or greater demon to tear a hole between realities and manifest itself in realspace, consuming the psyker in question in the process.

It was a dangerous power to wield and even more dangerous power to actively use. This... This meant I had to dive back into the underhive at some point. But I would have to find a way out of my current PDF outfit to do so, and preferably one that did not involve me faking my death.

The lift continued rattling but it had become lighter and the air was fresher, so I was nearing the surface once more. It was time to put my own plans behind me and fall into the role of a regular PDF trooper for as long as it was needed to ensure my safety. Well, safety was a relative concept, but a role that would not get me executed at first chance.

As the lift reached the top and I opened the door, I was assaulted by the sounds and smells of the bustling civilian area of the hive city under Imperial control. Vendors, beggars, whores, doomsday prophets, drug peddlers, muggers, regular citizens, and everything in between made up the flowing crowd that seemed to be neverending. Nobody spared me more than a passing glance, only briefly stopping on me to wonder why a PDF trooper would have been alone in the underhive, but there was too much going on for me to draw any meaningful attention, so I made my way towards the barracks area. There were bound to be a few campfires going, where I could charge my power packs. A quick rummaging of my backpack how revealed that I only had the half-charged packs in my weapons to spare, the other 10 were depleted. If I got in another fight before I got to charge them, I would be more than useless.

I would have to stay nearby while they were charged. Guardsmen and PDF troopers were downright infamous for the ability to "acquire" items and war gear that was not their own. Thieves and pickpockets back home never even came close to this level of expertise. The black market among the regular troopers, as a result, was brimming with everything from extra rations to body modifications that would make a mechanicus adept squirt copious amounts of oil in pure excitement. I had thought of getting in on the action, but I had no idea what services I could offer that others could not offer at a cheaper price, on account of their connections to... well, anyone.

I would have to test my new "powerpack grenades" and see how effective they were. Perhaps I could make a black market business of modifying gear for others. I had not met any people able to modify technology yet, but then again, technology was very weird in this universe. My lasrifle wouldn't fire if I did not say the prayers of loading and unloading when putting in a new powerpack, for example. It was a weird way of things, but I went with the flow. Nothing else to do if I wanted to live.

It only took 15 or so minutes for me to make the walk back to the designated barracks section of the hive where I quickly found a nice campfire to charge my packs in. I would have to wait a few hours for them to be properly charged and I saw the troopers that passed by sending avarice-filled glances toward the pile of power packs, but a single look at me was enough to make them keep walking. Not that I was a particularly intimidating character to look at, but nobody wanted trouble with their fellow troopers, and while everyone stole from everyone, it was a completely different thing if you got caught doing it.

It was during this waiting period that I heard the step of hard leather boots approaching, in that controlled and foreboding manner that was unique to the commissars. It was hard to suppress the instinct to look up, but a commissar's attention was not something you wanted under any circumstance, and since just looking at them could illicit an impromptu "morale improvement" session. As they got closer, I could feel the tension in my body rise and see it in the troopers that were visible in the corner of my eye. He was walking too slowly to be going anywhere, which meant he was looking for someone or something.

I breathed a silent sigh of relief as he passed by me, but it was short-lived. Barely a half dozen steps past where I was sitting with my back turned, watching the fire and my power packs, I heard him come to a stop and then the gravel under his boot crunching as he spun on his heel.

Five more steps and a voice rang out behind me "Where have you been, trooper?"

Ah, shit!