The roll of part levitated above the sand, glowing brightly like a shining star as it slowly unrolled itself in front of Balthazar.
“Gah,” said the crab as he got ba his feet after the initial scare. “How text be so loud?!”
The scroll’s page fis slow assion and words began appearing on its surface, just as they had that fateful day by the pond so long ago, except now Balthazar could also see them f within his vision at the same time.
“Yes!” he celebrated at the sight of the familiar system in his eyes, despite how much it used to annoy him in the past. “I almost lost hope this would work. Time to get ba business!”
As the crab started reading peared in front of him, he noticed how the text seemed sharper, and much smoother in the way it scrolled into his vision.
“Hmm, it looks like this thing got some improvements. Not bad.”
[Scroll of Character Creation]
[Analyzing…]
[Previous character sheet found.]
[Would you like to re-create your character?]
[Yes] [No]
The crab cocked aalk at the system text in front of him.
“Alright, this thing seems to still see somethiover from the levels I used to have, that’s promising. Maybe that damnable crow didn’t do a proper job of scrubbing everything off when he wiped my system access.”
Already aced to its quirks, Balthazar squinted hard at the first option in the prompt in order to select it, which, to his surprise, blinked and slid through his vision much more easily and smoothly than ever before. It would seem this new version of the scroll and system really worked much better than the a one he was used to.
[Calg…]
[Error!]
[Missing values. Current statistics do not match records.]
“Argh! Of course it couldn’t be that easy,” bemoahe crab, his shell defting in disappoi, but suddenly, a new line of text, smaller and in a different font style, appeared underh the error.
[Manager sessioed.]
[Use manager ands to rollback to st saved values?]
[Yes] [No]
The crusta read through the text owice, and then again, his frown deepening with fusion more each time.
“Manager session? The hell does that mean?” His eyes suddenly stood up. “Wait, that stupid bird was some kind of manager or something for the system. Did he… Did he somehow leave something ‘open’ in my… mind, brain, system, or whatever?”
His thoughts rag like a mouse on a wheel, bits and pieces of what he could uand started to fit together, and he realized that if the crow really had been inpetent enough at his job to leave such a gaping hole in the system, likely vihere would be no way the crab would ever get his cws on one of those scrolls a sed time, then there was no way Balthazar would not abuse the hell out of it.
With full vi, the rebellious crusta pressed “Yes” on the prompt and a barrage of feelings, sensatioions, and a little bit of poking assaulted his entire being. From the tips of his eight legs, to the ends of his antennae, his body felt as if it had been hit by a truck, despite him still not knowing what that even was.
[verting old statistics to new system…]
[Race: Crab]
[Calg base stats for crab race…]
[Health: 40/40]
[Stamina: 30/30]
[Mana: 10/10]
Balthazar rubbed his shell as he recovered from the assault on his senses, his eyes squinting to focus oext presented by the system.
U, a few more lines described his race’s traits.
[Crab race traits:]
[Aquatic Breather]
[As the pinnacle of evolution, your race freely breathe both in and out of water.]
[Natural Armor]
[You ot equip fancy armor, but have a natural bonus to your physical defehanks to your fancy shell.]
[Rending Cws]
[Your cws may not be very good at holding a on, but they give you a signifit bonus to unarmed damage.]
“Huh…” said the crab. “I already knew all these things about myself, but it’s kinda o see them get the proper reition by this thing. I’m starting to like this new system way better than the old one.”
[Previous css found: Mert]
[Would you like to ge your css?]
“Why would I want to ge? I was born to be a mert!”
[Calg previous css experience…]
[Css raermined.]
[Css: Adept Mert]
“Oh, e on! How am I not higher than that already?” the crab pined. “Did you not see that slick deal I made in town for a loaf of bread? Masterful trading right there!”
Balthazar stared at the css ra for a moment, tapping his with the tip of his pincer. “I wonder how many ranks there are…”
Notig how the line indig his rank looked slightly different from the other text, he tried fog on it, and to his surprise, a new window of text slid into view.
[Ranks for Mert css:]
[Novice Mert]
[Apprentice Mert]
[Adept Mert]
[Expert Mert]
[Master Mert]
“Wait a mihe puzzled crusta said. “Did this thing just give me actually useful information for what I was w?! Wow! They really must have improved this system. I like that!”
Notig the field indig his css also seemed “squintable,” the crab pressed on it with his gaze too.
[Css: Mert]
[As a mert, you get an advantage bonus orade with other csses and lower rank merts. Dialogue suits you better than bat, making you gain 200% experience from iations and trades but only 50% from everything else. A mert’s main attribute is Charisma, so you have an improved ce to discover Charisma skills.]
“Alright, alright,” Balthazar said as he read through the description. “Advantages, I like those. I don’t care about going around pig fights with everything that moves like some dumb adventurer, so the minus 50% doesn't bother me. Not sure what the improved ce part about skills means, though. Must be something new.”
[Skills]
[Skills have six possible ranks, from F to S tier, and are taught by tutors or learned by disc and using Scrolls of Potential. Some skills require a certain level in one or more attributes in order to be used.]
“That’s… different. I used to be able to just use points to pick skills in the old system. Guess that’s one of the things they made more plex. Bah, why do they gotta ge what I was already used to? Don’t they know I don’t like learnihings?”
The crab stopped and looked to the side in thought for a moment. “Wait, no, never mind, I get the irony of what I just said. Good thing there’s no one else here to hear me.”
Balthazar spent a few more seds taking in the information in his eyes.
“I’ve never seen any of these so-called ‘Scrolls of Potential’ before. I hope that doesn’t mean I gotta start going around taking lessons from random people to get any skills. I ain’t got time for that!”
He tilted his shell at the text. “Wait. Attribute levels. What happeo those?”
Right on cue, ext slid into view.
[Choose your starting attributes]
[Points to spend: 10]
[Strength: 5]
[Endurance: 5]
[Agility: 5]
[Perception: 5]
[Intellect: 5]
[Charisma: 5]
“Oh!” said the intrigued crab. “I remember three of those, but the rest are new here. That must be what the bird meant when he looked at the old scroll and said it was from back when they only had three attributes.”
Curious to find out more, Balthazar opeheir descriptions.
[Strength]
[Affects your attack power, your physical damage, and how much weight you carry.]
[Endurance]
[Affects your ability to resist damage aive effects, as well as increasing your recovery rates.]
[Agility]
[Affects your speed aerity, as well as making you better at stealth and dodging.]
[Perception]
[Affects your senses and ability to detect things more easily, as well as improving your accuracy.]
[Intellect]
[Affects your mental power, yical abilities, and the capacity to learn and absorb knowledge.]
[Charisma]
[Affects your ability to unicate and influehers, as well as gaining improved bonus effects.]
“Hmm, that’s a lot to take in,” said Balthazar after several minutes analyzing the attributes list.
Pulling back to the previous s, he sidered the initial 10 points.
“Alright, I’ve got a baker to find, no time to waste hesitating about how to spend these. I’m no fighter, so I won’t eveend to eain attributes for that.”
The crab started pag bad forth along the shore, talking to himself as he pondered.
“I used to just put every point I got into Intelligence before, but that was dumb, because I’m already pretty smart,” Balthazar said, gesturing with his cws as he went. “I don’t care fic or casting spells. Now, Charisma, that one I remember used to be pretty nice back when I had my golden shell…”
Balthazar stopped moving and stared at the floating scroll again, still lingering in the air, glowing and waiting for the crab’s and.
“This did say Charisma is the main attribute for a mert, so that seems fitting.” He tapped on his for a moment before throwing his cws up. “Ah, what the hell, I’m not here to py games, I’m here to get big numbers and big advantages! Let’s go all in on Charisma!”
With vi, the crab pced every point he had avaible into the oat.
[Strength: 5]
[Endurance: 5]
[Agility: 5]
[Perception: 5]
[Intellect: 5]
[Charisma: 15]
[firm?]
“Damn right I firm,” Balthazar said proudly. “I firm that I’m charismatic as hell, baby.”
With a smug look, he squi the firmation prompt.
“Uh… I don’t feel any different,” he said after a moment, looking down at himself as if expeg something to have happened.
[You have gained a natural trait!]
“I have?” asked Balthazar, surprised by the new line of text that had appeared in his eyes.
[The Gift of the Crab]
[Trait]
[You dazzle others when you speak, both because of what you say and because of the fact that you speak at all. You have a major bonus to dialogue, based on your Charisma.]
“Just me, or this updated system got a little bit of sass to it now?”
As if disregarding Balthazar’s remark, a new windoeared yet again.
[Calg previous levels…]
[You are level 15]
“Hell yes!” excimed the mert. “I still have my levels. Suck it, you dumb bird! You ’t keep this crab down.”
[Spend unused points now?]
“Of course I’ll use them now. Saving them for ter is for suckers and cowards. Let’s go!”
[Calg…]
[You have gained 3 attribute points per level…]
[You have a total of 42 points to reallocate.]
“Woah, that’s a lot more than before. Let’s go, big numbers, I like them!”
Looking at his attribute list again, Balthazar wondered if he should be reasoake a banced approach, and evenly spread the points across useful stats, perhaps even save some for ter, after he learned more about them.
“Caution belongs in the wind!” excimed the crab as he punched his pincer forward and dumped all 42 points into his Charisma.
[Strength: 5]
[Endurance: 5]
[Agility: 5]
[Perception: 5]
[Intellect: 5]
[Charisma: 57]
He looked proudly at the attribute values, pg the backs of his cws against the sides of his shell like someone who was looking at a job well done.
“Maybe there’s a dowo leaving all the other attributes at base value, but bah… I’m sure it will be fine!”
[You may increase your base Health, Stamina, or Mana by 10 at every level up.]
[You have 14 unused upgrades.]
“Hmm, more choices…” said the crab with a sigh, the hurry to be doh the whole thiing to him. “Alright, well, this should be easier. Mana is out, I’m happy to leave the magic to Druma, I don’t want it. Stamina… I mean, this whole traveling all day really wiped me out, I’m not used to going further than the edge of the road, but do I really want to i points into stamina when all I wanna do is go bay pond soon and never have to do all this much walking again?”
He crossed his arms and reflected oter for a moment, eyes gazing at the su over the o and the occasional starfish that washed ashore across the shore.
“Nah, health is a much safer bet. There’s no going wrong with making yourself harder to kill! I’m already all in on the oat iment for Charisma, might as well do the same for health. Good luck cl me now, idiots!”
With the fidence of an experienced crab who was going through all of this for a sed time, Balthazar fihe re-specialization process and looked at the final character summary.
[Race: Crab]
[Level: 15]
[Css: Adept Mert]
[Health: 180/180]
[Stamina: 30/30]
[Mana: 10/10]
[Attributes:]
[Strength: 5]
[Endurance: 5]
[Agility: 5]
[Perception: 5]
[Intellect: 5]
[Charisma: 57]
[Traits]
[Aquatic Breather]
[Natural Armor]
[Rending Cws]
[The Gift of the Crab]
[Skills:]
[None]
“Alright, I'm gonna have to figure out how to get some skills, but otherwise, I’m pretty happy with how this went. I knew my gut feeling about this beach was going to pay off. My gut is always right!”
Suddenly, something far aulled Balthazar’s gaze. Dark, swirling clouds formed in the sky high above the water, their ter like the eye of a terrible storm.
“That looks… ominous,” the crab said, as a new notification slid into his view, with a red outline and bigger font, invoking a sense ency.
