Level 10
Level 11
Level 12
Level 13
Level 14
Level 15
Could you believe it? I couldn’t. That many levels at once? A lucky seven? It was cracked. Broken. OP. Worse, it was HORRIBLE STORY PLANNING IF YOUR LIFE IS A LITRPG NOVEL. You just can’t give out that many levels at once. It’s not fair. It’s too fast. Where do you go after this?
Although, to be fair, Scorpio McSpiderface, the boss character, had been way out of my league. It had to have been something you fought as a party or ten levels higher than I’d been. With magical weapons. I never should have survived that ordeal. One clean hit would have killed me. A glancing blow had almost done it. One lightning bolt dead on would have fried me.
I couldn’t see it, but there had to be a hidden luck stat somewhere that was off the charts, or I’d rolled a nat D20 or something for that fight. I couldn’t think of any other way to explain why I wasn’t currently being digested in a giant scorpion’s bowels.
Rapid-fire pulses of restorative energy flashed through me, leaving me dazzled. But the holes in my body and arms filled back in, and my broken hand cracked and felt like it was being twisted in a vise, but when the pain lessened, I could achingly use it again.
My stats rose by 21 points, a natural blackjack, which was fitting because I felt like a winner:
Level 8
- Strength 17
- Speed 17
- Health 28
- Mana 8
- Intelligence 13
Level 15
- Strength 17+3=20
- Speed 17+8=25
- Health 28+9=37
- Mana 8
- Intelligence 13+1=14
One more to intelligence. I didn’t feel any smarter, but it was nice to think that the system saw me using brain a little at some point during the whole ordeal. Maybe when I lured the scorpion into the water.
That super low mana score was starting to worry me. What if it wasn’t only for spells? What if all my skills used mana? What if that determined their power or the cool down or how often I could use them?
With the levels came skills. Unfortunately, it wasn’t one of those systems that came with descriptions, helpful hints, or paragraphs of flavour language that allowed you to spend ages going over the details of each and imagining all the different scenarios they could be useful. Nor did it have a snarky AI with a personality that thought itself funny or wanted to step on you. There were just skill names. Some came with choices, but others were just forced on me.
The first was a choice between [Resistance: Disease] and [Resistance: Lightning]. I already had [Lesser Resistance: Disease], so this would be an upgrade. Or I could add a whole new resistance. Getting hit with diseases was likely going to happen more often than getting hit with lightning. Although, for all I knew, this entire desert could be filled with creatures with lightning attacks. Maybe it was a regional theme. And what counted as lightning? Just what came out of the sky? What those scorpions had been throwing at me? Or would it also apply to other energy attacks, like lasers or plasma or something? Did I want to have more resistance in one field or diversify to cover more bases?
I couldn’t move on to the next skill until I’d chosen. So I agonized over it, knowing that, if this new life was anything like the stories, these choices could heavily impact my future.
As tempting as it was to diversify, it was difficult to accept that lightning would be that much more common than disease. I was still suffering from gut problems and infected wounds. I had to think I was still in danger and that this kind of thing was going to be common. So I upgraded to [Resistance: Disease].
The next skill was just awarded: [Unbreakable Spear]. I assumed this one came because I’d used my spear earlier. Nicked it a few times in the fighting. I didn’t know if weapons breaking was something that happened a lot. Maybe this world had secret durability stats for things. Or maybe wood just gets worn out. This skill might be a little useful, but only as long as I used a spear. Sure, the spear was a great weapon, probably better than a sword in most cases, but I’d have to be careful not to get locked into using one just because of this skill.
The next choices came up: [Fists of Fury], [Minor Breathe Underwater], [Staunch Light Wound].
Being able to breathe underwater for a short time could be very handy, even life-saving. It would have been super awesome to have it about ten minutes prior to getting the skill. Kinda late to the party, System. I wondered how useful this was going to be in the desert, though. Not that I necessarily had to stay in the desert. Unless the entire world was a desert. But maybe there was an ocean over the horizon.
Being able to stop a light wound from bleeding would be convenient. But a light wound likely wasn’t life-threatening, unless it worsened. Did it have a cool down? If so, how long? If I had a bunch of wounds, would I be able to spam it and prevent things from getting worse?
What the heck was [Fists of Fury]? This one seemed like a wildcard. As a martial arts fan, I’d watched some of the classics, like the Bruce Lee movie with a similar name. Was this an offensive skill where I punched really fast? Or did my anger fuel really powerful punches?
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I had more general questions as well. If I picked a skill, would it level up and become better or more useful over time? If I passed on a choice, would it ever come up again? Ignorance of how the system worked made every decision potentially damning.
I stared at all three options in my digital system vision thing. Indecision filled me with angst. I worried I’d make the wrong choice. I’d read a couple of litrpgs before. They had been good fun. But I had entirely skipped over the lengthy and inane sections talking about skills. Just bored me to freakin’ tears. I couldn’t have cared less about some fictional system’s details. Too bad, because maybe if I had read those sections, I’d be better prepared for how to evaluate choices like this.
Let that be a lesson: don’t skip the skill sections in case you, too, ever end up in a game world.
Breathing underwater and staunching wounds could be great at higher levels, especially the latter.
But an offensive skill might be really cool. Who doesn’t want to be more like Bruce Lee? Well, other than him being dead and all. I didn’t want to emulate that part. I was pretty relieved the system had decided to heal me and keep me alive.
Why was I even thinking about it? I’d just had my body chewed up multiple times by monsters. I needed that healing-type ability badly. With the punishment I’d been taking, it would level up in no time. The sensible choice was [Staunch Light Wound].
So I chose [Fists of Fury]. Because it seemed cooler.
Literally, the instant the choices disappeared, I had buyer’s remorse. I was such an idiot. Either of the others would have been a smarter option.
The next skill was another forced one: [Chef’s Kiss: Fried Arachnid]. I stared at it for a good three minutes. Then I looked up into the night sky and addressed the System, “Just no. Is this you trying to be funny? Does someone up there think they have a sense of humour? Do you want me to come up there and kick the stones out of you? Force-feed you some spiders? Yeah?”
The skill faded away. Which was good. Because I did not want to make spiders and scorpions a regular part of my diet. The moment I left this oasis behind, I’d never touch one of those things again, ever.
My vision darkened. The world around me faded into the background. For a second, I thought I was dying. Then the sound of drums reverberated through the air, through my whole body. Three large, colourful icons appeared in a horizontal row, once again, their edges kind of smoky, with wisps of colour bleeding off into the night. Above was a title, and a deep, evil voice read the words, followed by the options:
CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY
Path of the Scorpion
Path of Blood
Path of Air
The drums and scary voice filled me with tension. This felt like a really defining moment. Was this like choosing a class? There was no explanation, no description for each. But the pressure of choosing right was a hundred times worse than it had been before picking [Fists of Fury].
I muttered, “This is going to define me, isn’t it?”
Despite the pounding drums and my anxiety, I tried to force myself to slow down and think about the options. I could only guess at each.
Path of the Scorpion had probably come up because I’d just fought a bunch of the bastards. Maybe it led to desert survival skills. Maybe I would grow a tail and shoot lighting out of my ass. Maybe my hands would turn into pincers, making life way harder outside of combat. Whatever it did, scorpions weren’t exactly symbols of nice things, so I worried that option would take me down a dark path.
Path of Blood, however, sounded even more evil. Blood magic? Would I have to kill and bleed people to perform spells? Could I pull blood out of people and make items with it? Or was it a vampiric skill? Maybe the system saw me being injured and sick so much, and this was a lifesteal path. Potentially very useful, but again, it sounded like something very dark. Unless it was a path related to curing diseases or genetic manipulation or something. The path might be something medical and scientific. Which was a thought that might have been more believable had the evil voice had not returned and read the options over again.
Path of Air. My first thought was all those idiotic anime where some guy gets an air power and starts throwing around ‘blades’ of air that can cut through rock or steel. As if that would work. I hated that sort of thing. Then again, what if it meant flight? What if it led to air superiority skills and I could hover over enemies and rain down death from relative safety? What if it was air manipulation in a more realistic manner, like I could create a bubble of air around someone’s head and suffocate them. That would be an OP way to defeat a dragon without having to fight it. Or infuse an explosion with a sudden rush of oxygen, making the boom bigger? Or maybe I could blow wind, power a hundred windmills at the same time, and make a fortune grinding wheat into flour.
There are two sides to making decisions like this. One is about how useful and practical something is, its extrinsic value. The other is intrinsic: how does something match up with our identity?
It was hard to debate the practicality of any of the choices because I was purely guessing at all of them. Even if I’d known more, each option tugged at my sense of self, and probably would have tempted me into a more emotional decision regardless. So it came down to the intrinsic.
Did I see myself as a scorpion? As a vampire? As a moronic airbender?
Well, just thinking that question caused my anxiety to double. Contemplating our identity is such a massive thing, right?
Good ol’ System came to the rescue.
The drum beats sped up. The evil voice shouted, “CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY”. The icons began to slowly blink. Because apparently life-altering decisions should be on a FUCKING TIMER!
Rushing myself, I mentally tossed the option of Air. Screw it. I’d slap myself silly if I ever found out I’d thrown away the ability to fly, but I just couldn’t get dumbass air attacks out of my head and my prejudice won out. So no Air.
The drum beats sped up. The evil voice shouted, “CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY” even louder. The icons began to blink faster. Time was running out, fast. My eyes bounced back and forth between the black scorpion icon and the red blood icon. Which to choose? Or should I choose neither? Would more classes come up later? Or would not choosing leave me without a class at all?
“This sucks! Why isn’t there a tutorial mode first?”
I was a fan of vampires, the cool ones, not the sparkly ones. Dracula could walk around in the sun just fine. But plenty of other stories had vamps turning to ash when hit by UV rays. I was in the middle of an all-sun-all-day desert. Then again, lots of women loved vampires. Maybe it was the power or maybe it was the penetration, but either way, chicks dug the immortal bad boys of the night. That wouldn’t be so bad. Or the option could have nothing at all to do with vampires, and I’d wind up in a lab analyzing blood samples like a computer, far away from anyone sexy.
Maybe it was being faced with so much unknown, but I felt myself drawing inward, felt more conservative. The Scorpion path seemed connected to what I’d just been through. I might have been totally wrong about that, but that was the feeling my primitive brain latched onto. I had an idea of what the scorpions were like, what they were capable of. So, with a hearty amount of dread, I picked Path of the Scorpion because it was the most familiar.
The evil voice returned as the other two options faded away,
“Excellent.”