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Alex hopped up on a large cleared desk, treating it like an examination table in a doctor’s office and preparing himself. “The skeletal attribute seems like it should be more of a sure thing, so I’ll save that for last.”
Natasha grunted in agreement. “Getting uncertainty out of the way? I suppose I can see that.”
Brianne lifted an eyebrow. “That’s the opposite of how I’d do it, but you can do as you wish. They are your attributes.” She then amended in a teasing tone. “Your Life.”
Alex smiled in return. “True enough. Well, here goes nothing.”
He took a deep breath and accepted the first of the two offered attributes.
System Notice:New Attribute Acquired
Basic Dissonance of Tonality (Level 1)
Details:Innate ability to make the sounds you utter, whether using words or not, unpleasant, grating, or otherwise intimidating to those who hear you.
Description:So, you heard the wail of a banshee and thought to yourself, ‘That could be me, one day.’
…Alright, then. Today seems to be your lucky day, from a certain, odd, point of view.
Your body has been altered, allowing you to infuse your utterances with energy, imparting various minor effects through the waveforms sent forth.
The sounds you make with your mouth can range from unpleasant to grating, or from uncanny to fear inducing depending on your intent and the amount of energy invested at the time.
Regardless, your utterances will be able to carry further, if you so desire them to.
Note: Non-magical recordings or transmissions of your utterances will not impart the full effect.
Apology Tutorial Addendum:Banshee vocal cords are useful to some alchemists. With this alteration, yours will be as well, if to a lesser extent.
You have been warned.
Alex would have screamed if he’d had a voice with which to do so. Instead, he emptied his lungs in a horrific, silent gasp.
His throat felt like it caught fire, and he briefly saw the women’s faces take on an aspect of concern in the harsh light that originated from whatever was occurring behind and below his chin.
A moment later, the pain had passed, and as he ran his fingers over his affected flesh, his hands couldn’t find any issue with his throat or neck. He was panting quietly as he lay sprawled on the table. Funnily enough, to his momentarily addled mind, the thing that stood out the most was that he was rather in need of a good shave.
Brianne stepped forward, pulling his hands away, before her magic swept through him.
Alex both sensed the mana with his mana sense and felt it moving through his body as something within him resisted. He got the feeling that he could put the weight of his will behind that resistance, but he couldn’t do anything more to lessen it. Good to know.
“You are in perfect health, if still weaker than I’d have expected from my investigations in the past.” She frowned for a moment before continuing. “It is also taking more mana to scan you than before. Regardless, there is nothing wrong with your neck.”
Alex let out a sigh, feeling the smallest amount of mana go with it.
The sound was like the opening of a tomb, raspy, dry, and promising ancient curses. To Alex’s ear, it sounded like something he heard from a movie.
It seemed that the other two heard it as something more real.
Brianne flinched back, and Natasha suddenly had her spear in hand, her eyes slightly widening.
“Thank—” Alex cut himself off as more mana flowed to enter his voice, the single word somehow evoking a feeling of the final pronouncement of an executioner.
He focused inward looking upon his mana as it circulated through him. He didn’t want to put energy into his voice. As such, he went so far as to create a bit of an exclusion zone around his throat as he tried again.
“Thank you.” His voice was normal, if a bit hoarse, and the two visibly relaxed. It was a mild effort to keep the power back. “This is… interesting. What was it like to hear?”
Natasha shuddered slightly. “I was instantly certain that you’d been possessed somehow… or… I don’t know.”
Brianne gave a tight smile. “It was like running up to a person you thought you knew, and having them turn to face you, only to realize it was someone else, someone who did not like being approached.”
Natasha added in. “Even the two brief sounds were clearly inhuman.” She frowned. “More than human?” Her frown deepened. “I’m not sure how to convey it.”
Alex nodded. “Let me try something. Is that alright?”
The two exchanged a look, then nodded in agreement.
He focused, allowing some mana to approach his neck again and intending to be intimidating. “This is my desk.”
Brianne jerked her hand from the tabletop, stepping back in a clearly involuntary action.
Natasha, however, didn’t visibly react. Though, Alex did sense a slight shift in the mana around her. The Russian gave a slow nod. “Since I was expecting it, I felt like I could bear through it. How much mana did you use?”
Alex shrugged, restraining the effect. “A point? Maybe two.”
She nodded. “I took more than that to keep from reacting. That might be the difference between having a resistance or not? I don’t have an efficient way to fight the effect, but I still can.”
He grunted. That did make sense, and it lined up with what he’d experienced resisting things as well. “I’ll have to practice with this, but it could be a wonderful surprise if I’m ever fighting something sapient.”
“Agreed.” Natasha smiled. “Not to mention you could burn through someone’s mana, if it truly costs you less than it does them.”
Alex gave a slow nod. “Though… I imagine there are counters, likely many.”
She shrugged. “Possibly. We have no idea how common sound attacks are.” She chuckled. “For all we know all it takes is earplugs to resist.”
“Fair.”
Brianne decided to participate. “While it was instinctive, I think that part of the reaction was because I trust you, and am not wary of you doing me harm.”
Alex tilted his head to the side, considering. “That actually makes a lot of sense. You are mentally open to my words to begin with.”
Natasha shrugged. “It could also be your Magical or Mental Power against our Fortitude of some kind. We just don’t know enough.”
Brianne sighed. “Well, as fascinating as this is, I doubt we’ll quickly find answers. Do you want to do more testing, or shall we do the other one?”
Alex gave a slow nod. “That’s fair. Alright. We might do more testing after, or we could just go relax for a bit.”
The others smiled, but he didn’t wait for more response before accepting.
System Notice:New Attribute Acquired
Basic Skeletal Structural Remodeling (Level 1)
Details:Innate ability to shift the base state of your skeletal structure, that which you will return to upon magical or mundane healing.
Description:So, your bones are not to your liking… your bones? Your bones now?
Fine…
You have fought creatures who can wield their own skeletons as powerful offense and defense, and you decided that’s a pretty cool racial trait they have. In fact, it would be nice if you could have it for yourself.
Your Life has learned to alter the blueprints of your very skeleton. As such, all wounds of the skeleton are no longer such, being a simple reduction in your HP and healed when your HP replenishes, and infirmities of the skeleton are now only wounds, needing HP, not Life, to correct.
Alex had a moment of confusion as the next part was… different somehow. It seemed to have more weight as he read it despite it being visually the same as the rest.
System Note:This is an unregulated ability. While you will receive System assistance due to this being expressly a granted attribute, you do not have any safeguards or restrictions to ensure the changes you make will be beneficial.
You have been warned.
Continue to be interesting, and you just might earn further direct intervention.
Or don’t, the choice is yours.
Alex had just started to frown, reading through the notification and added note, when the sensation hit him.
It began with an odd itching from deep inside, and he felt mana and other energies flowing into his very bones coming from a source he couldn’t sense.
The itching built to a sharp stinging, as if ants were biting him from the inside. He began writhing on the table, trying to contain his reactions.
He failed.
“GAH!” His restraint had fallen away, and the yell of unrestrainable pain caused both Natasha and Brianne to flinch away, even as the Healer had been reaching for him.
Alex hopped up off the desk and began furiously pacing and scratching at his arms.
A moment later, he dismissed his greatcoat and scratched harder.
The momentary pain of tearing through his skin was actually an odd sort of relief from the horror growing within, then Brianne’s hand landed on his shoulder, healing washing through him.
The healing knit his skin and muscle back together, then dove deeper, encountering his bones… encountering what would now respond and restructure beneath the influence of healing magic.
Alex’s eyes widened in the moment of clarity, but he could do nothing.
Brianne gasped as mana was practically dragged from her, and the process that had been occurring under the influence of his own regeneration was suddenly supercharged.
He had only the briefest instant of sensation as his entire skeleton reared up and smacked him with agony all at once, throwing him into the blackness of unconsciousness.
System Notice:In the interest of fairness and expediency, all Initiates have been or will be returned to full functionality at the conclusion of their scenario.
Superfluous thoughts and issues momentarily blocked for further expediency.
Alex groaned as his mind returned to consciousness even as it read the notice.
That was… very nice actually. He barely had time to consider the words before he was hit with the Quest Complete notices.
Group Quest [Endure]: COMPLETEYou have chosen to stand with others, and you’ve succeeded.Now, build up your base of operations and range outward for supplies.Maintain a secure base of operations for 30 days.Keep those who trust you safe.
Reward:Based upon results achievedUnlock the next Tutorial ScenarioExperience
Individual Quest [Endure]: COMPLETEYour chosen path is that of a defender.A defender must have those whom he defends.Gather more survivors under your charge and keep them safe.
Reward:Based upon results achievedExperience
Calculating…
500,000 Merit Awarded [MAX]
Total Merit? 526,195 merit
He felt the experience roll in as well. It wasn’t sufficient for a level-up, but it was still a very nice amount. I really need to figure out my second class sooner rather than later… but not now. Maybe near the beginning of the next scenario once I know what that is.
As to the other reward? Well, he’d apparently maxed out the Merit awards he could have earned from the scenario which was at once gratifying and irritating. It was gratifying because it meant that he did as well as he possibly could have, and it was irritating because it meant that he’d likely done more than he needed to, at least from a rewards perspective.
Still, in looking back on the non-Initiates—and Initiates too obviously—that he’d helped, he couldn’t find it in his heart to begrudge the effort. He hadn’t really helped them for them. He’d done it because that was the man he wanted to be.
With that in mind, he took a look at the final notice.
Undead Scenario[Team]: COMPLETERewards:To be decided and distributed as a Team
Once more, he’d barely had time to read that before the world came back into focus, and Alex found himself back in the conference room where he’d originally teamed up with his group, or at least one very much like it. All around him, his companions were grinning with only one exception.
He felt James’s absence, but he'd already had time to grieve and come to terms with the young man’s death. It didn’t make it hurt less, but it made the hurt less central to his thoughts.
It also let him focus on the true overlying reality.
Now was a time for celebration.
They’d done it.
They’d survived the first scenario.
They’d won the first round.
The Endof Choose Your Apocalypse, Book 1
Final status sheet:
Alex JohnsonLife-Aspected Human (Epic), E, Level 10Class: Life-Aspected Great-Bladesman (Epic), E, Level 10Class 2: UndecidedHP: 13041/13041SP: 10820/10820MP: 3916/3916
Titles:Reactive ResilienceSystem Initiate
Physical Stats:Power: 200.2Agility: 289.8Fortitude: 289.8
Mental Stats:Power: 143Agility: 248.4Fortitude: 143
Magical Stats:Power: 195.8Agility: 177.1Fortitude: 184.8
Unused Points: 19
Attributes:Basic Dissonance of Tonality (Level 1)Basic Resistance - Acid (Lvl 4)Basic Resistance - Curse (Lvl 3)Basic Resistance - Examination (Lvl 7)Basic Resistance - Magic (Lvl 6)Basic Resistance - Venom (Lvl 1)Basic Skeletal Structural Remodeling (Level 1)
Blood:Life Finds a Way (Unique)
General Skills:Great-Blades Initiate - Dadao (Rare)Advanced Kinesthetics (Rare)Inventory (Common)Analyze (Common)Danger Sense (Uncommon)Basic Mana Sense (Rare)Basic Mana Manipulation (Uncommon)Basic Carving (Common)Speed Reading (Common)Crude Magical Symbol Facilitation (Common)
Spells:Shaped Force Burst (Common)Create Rations (Common)Create Water (Uncommon)Detect Life (Uncommon)Detect Unlife (Uncommon)Basic Small Force Blade (Uncommon)Life Blood Transfusion (Common)
Class Skills and Spells:Life’s Active Defense (Uncommon)Multi-Strike (Common)Life Manipulation (Common)
Class Bonuses:All Life related Spells and Skills cost 50% less to use.Your Life related Spells’ and Skills’ effects occur 50% faster.Your HP is calculated at Racial Base + 15 x Physical Fortitude.Your MP is calculated at 20 x Magical Power.Your effective Physical Power is 40% greater for physical attack and defense when you are armed with a great-blade and unrestrained.You take 25% less damage from Physical attacks when you are armed and unrestrained.
Unrewarded Kills:NA
Merit:526,195
Final Tutorial Merit Multiplier to be applied:1.5x