System Inquiry Detected

Remaining Tutorial Duration: 6 days, 23 hours, 39 minutes

Direct Infusion granted.

And this, pushed into her mind with all the force of a mild headache, is what Experience and Levels and Monsters are. The System is here to create Monsters and Critters and give everyone Classes and Class Powers, and a variety of other features. Players can choose whatever Class they qualify for, and appropriate magic powers will be available for purchase. Experience can be gained mostly by killing monsters or contributing to the deaths of monsters (like with her revealing the Camodile), but also by Crafting things, exploring new Locations, or in other ways depending on one's Class. The Level of something is a rough measure of how much magic power it's been granted by the System. Experience turns into Levels when one has enough of it. Most Monsters are non-sapient automata operating on simplified simulated minds. Monsters are universally hostile to Players.

Her familiars get to her before the utter, unthinking terror that this interaction inspires has passed, and the grey one squeezes up next to her in the narrow tunnel; it helps.

Okay. Well. That's. Certainly something. Why this? (She is not actually looking for an answer to that, thanks.)

She doesn't... want... to deal with this, but it's probably a good idea to pick a class at least? Like if it's not avoidable she might as well accumulate magic from it or whatever.

...later. She will ask about classes and whatever later. When she's not quite so wrung out. Right now she's just going to sit here and be snuggled for a bit.

The group of humans stomp around a bit. There's some more shooting, some faintly heard animal snarls, muffled by the thick layer of earth, a bit later.

After a good ten minutes, the truck starts moving again, slowly.

She hopes they're all right out there.

After another twenty minutes or so she retreats several feet up the tunnel to dig out a side chamber where the ground isn't too moist, to give her little party a more comfortable place to rest. And then at some point they'll need to go hunt - she'll go have a look at the area from just outside the tunnel mouth again to get a feel for her options there, maybe climb up on that switchbox to get a better look at the area, if she needs to, checking carefully for hawks or other flying nasties before going out into the open like that.

There do seem to be some flying nasties in the area. They're all busy dive-bombing the three humans she saw looking through the dead cars on the highway earlier, though. Said humans are running down the road recklessly, while trying to keep the nasties off, a few hundred feet away from her.

Though, there are some signs of rodents around, still. Squirrels and mice. No fish in the pond; It smells a little nasty, honestly.

Yeah, what she should do in the long run is figure out where the humans are dumping their trash, there'll be plenty of rodents there and hopefully less bog smell. Mice will do for now, though; her usual tactics for hunting with her familiars should work fine here, and then they'll be set until evening when it should be a little safer to move around.

Once everyones' bellies are nice and full, she snuggles up between her dozing familiars and cautiously pokes the System on the topic of classes.

Classes Available:

Uncommon:
Earthbender
Silent Assassin
Catgirl
Beast Tamer

Common:
Servant
Student
Laborer
Survivor
Hunter
Scout
Etc.

Much better, that was barely terrifying at all!

The common classes seem pretty bad. What's Catgirl do? How about Beast Tamer?

Catgirl

You have somehow fused catness and humanity, in one way or another, and embraced the power of the cat. As a result, you can now gain powers related to this fusion. A Catgirl retains natural cat-like accessories in human form, including working cat ears, a tail, and sometimes cat paws in place of hands or feet. Your Class Powers will focus on making you even more cat-like, and enhancing the synergy between human and cat traits.

Bonus: You can actually transform into a cat. No upkeep for this transformation as would normally be required if it were gained through a Class Power. Class Powers remain 100% effective in cat form.

Body per Level: 2
Mind per Level: 2
Spirit per Level: 2

Beast Tamer

By forming a strong bond with natural animals, you have come to understand them- Possibly even better than humans. A Beast Tamer is partners with their chosen animal or animals, guiding and caring for them, and being cared for in return. Whether you befriend an entire menagerie of natural animals, Critters, and even Monsters, or simply focus on one or two close companions, your Class Powers will focus on enhancing and supporting your companions.

Body per Level: 2
Mind per Level: 1
Spirit per Level: 3

Catgirl seems solidly mediocre for her purposes - she doesn't expect to be spending much time bipedal, and if she does, she wants to be able to pass as mundane, not advertise that she's a shaman - but Beast Tamer looks good, especially if it lets her add creatures to her group without making familiars of them; ideally she'll be able to do both, but in particular not having to worry so much about keeping her whole group safe at every moment would be nice, what with all the monsters.

How about Earthbender?

Earthbender

You have gained a thorough understanding of soil and stone, and a measure of attunement to the Earth's nature. Whether simply through deep meditation, doing a lot of digging, or something else, you understand earth in a way that few do, giving you a new level of influence over it. Your Class Powers will focus on control over rock, stone, soil, sand, and similar materials, a flexible and powerful ability.

Notice: Some Class Powers have been adapted to enhance existing foreign paradigm earth manipulation ability.

Body per Level: 3
Mind per Level: 1
Spirit per Level: 2

Not not interesting, but yeah she's taking Beast Tamer.

She'll have a look at Silent Assassin first, though, just to make sure she's not making a mistake there.

Silent Assassin

The hunter, the killer, never heard or seen. You have developed your skills in the hunt for some time now, whether up close and personal or from a distance, and silence and the night are an assassin's best friends. By going down this path, you will become an ever more stealthy killer. Your Class Powers will focus on sneaking, attacking from stealth, and escaping from danger.

Body per Level: 2
Mind per Level: 3
Spirit per Level: 1

Hunting is more fun than she'd expected, but it's not where she wants to focus. Beast Tamer it is; she thinks her intention at the System.

There's a sudden rush of energy, of magic. It feels like healing, healing, something she didn't even have before healing into place and becoming more, corded muscle and tough skin and a deep awareness of magic that she's never truly felt before. Like the energy inside her is suddenly like water or clay, easy to move. Like there's something under the world, the bones and underpinnings of reality, just barely able to be glimpsed-

And then the same happens to her familiars, at least the surge of energy and physical strength part. Their senses all seem a bit sharper too.

Denice Dimas

Beast Tamer

Level: 1

HP: 60/60
MP: 120/120
Experience: 240/1000

Body: 6
Mind: 5
Spirit: 12

Companions: Cat (male), Cat (female)

Conditions: Trauma

Class Powers: None

5 points available to assign. Assign points to earn Class Powers and Class Upgrades.

Available Class Powers:

Healing Overcharge 0/5 - Rapidly heals a Companion's HP, up to Spirit*Power Level HP per second. Costs 1 MP per HP healed.

Battle Instinct 0/5 - Companions move 5% faster and do 5% more damage in combat per Level.

Mana Sustenance 0/1 - You can use MP to replace the basic needs (food, water, temperature) of your Companions, though not yourself.

Shared Senses 0/5 - Companions' senses are 10% sharper per Level of this power. You can view Companions' senses for %&e# MP.

Position Swap 0/1 - Instantly switch places with a Companion up to Spirit*Power Level meters away. Costs 10 MP. Cooldown: 5 Minutes.

Natural Armor 0/5 - Companions negate the first (2*Power Level) HP worth of damage from any source. Companions take 2% less piercing and slashing damage per Level of this power.

That's much more tolerable when she's braced for it, thankfully. She reads.

She'll take Position Swap and one Natural Armor, to start with, and can she get anything about how much MP Mana Sustenance uses?

3 Points remaining.

System Inquiry Detected

Remaining Tutorial Duration: 6 Days, 23 Hours, 1 Minute

Mana Sustenance costs are estimated and vary a lot based on how much need there is. For best results, use Mana Sustenance along with reduced rations rather than replacing food, water, and safe temperatures entirely.

Cat (male): 7-30 MP/hour depending on extremity of conditions.

Cat (female): 5-20 MP/hour depending on extremity of conditions.

Mana regenerates at 5*Spirit per hour before any other bonuses.

She does some math, scratching little lines in the floor to keep her place, and concludes that that's a reasonable trade if she wants it, though not so good that she absolutely needs it. She's almost certainly going to want more Natural Armor, and Battle Instincts seems like a potentially desirable choice depending on the situation; Mana Sustenance and Healing Overcharge depend on context and how good her existing healing power is in these numbers; Shared Senses seems like a bad deal since she'd only get half of what it's meant to give her. The real question here though is how she's going to be living, whether she can settle in comfortably with the humans or perhaps some Critters or whether she needs to be more prepared to fight. Hopefully the former.

She wiggles around to snuggle properly with one of her companions to target her with their healing magic; she doesn't need it, but maybe she'll learn something about what the System thinks of it anyway.

Cat (female)

HP: 50/50

Well, it was worth a shot.

She'll doze until evening, then, unless there are concerning noises to deal with or anything.

Before she wakes, thin feelers of tree roots start inching down the tunnel, exploring and growing with barely any dirt-scratching noise. If one manages to actually touch any of them, it will sting sharply.

The little den she dug out isn't any bigger than it needs to be to be comfortable for its occupants; it won't take much time at all for the roots to brush up against the cats once they start exploring it.

All three cats jerk awake, and the stung one yowls.

The tip of the root is a sort of - sucker like formation, like a mouth. It glows red and wobbles around, trying to latch on and feed.

The entrance of the burrow has several more worming their way down aggressively, now that one has had a taste of blood.

The familiars panic, flailing around in the enclosed space trying to find a way out; Denice keeps her head enough to try digging a tunnel to the surface from the back of the den but she's liable to take a little bit of a clawing as they try to get past the vines the straightforward way.

Oddly, the clawing doesn't seem to actually... Hurt? It's a brief instantaneous ping of pain, and then nothing. The vine things aren't invulnerable either, they can be held off and cut up with claws.