“Blessings upon you!” Adel bowed to me, hands coming together to form an open rectangle reminiscent of my System display. “Congratulations, it’s not every day you reach your first milestone, at such a young age as well.”
“Thank you,” I replied reflexively, before parsing what he’d said. “Are you able to see my Keystone Traits as well?”
“Oh no, perish the thought,” Adel shook her head vigorously. “The specifics of levelling up are a sacred and private matter, something held tight between man and System unless you specifically wish otherwise. My role only grants me some surface level knowledge, to assist in my duties, and that’s for the best. Even if I were to try and offer my advice, I fear it would not be of much use; a Cleric and a Merchant walk very different paths in the end.”
“That we do,” I agreed, judging that she was probably being truthful; he’d have had a much stronger reaction if he could see my Unique Class, in all likelihood. “In any event, I think it might be best if I collect my cat and head home for the day. I need to think carefully about my choices going forward.”
“A wise decision,” Adel agreed, before her eyes glazed over, looking into the distance in the way that I’d become very familiar with since my reincarnation.
An earsplitting yowl heralded Pumpkin’s return, clutching a fish nearly as big as himself in a death grip, one that resembled the tuna back on Earth, and nibbling away. He himself was cradled in the arms of a stern looking man clad head to toe in full plate armour, painted in shades of grey and blue.
[Sebastian Tor - Level 11 Guard]
“This is yours?”
Sebastian asked, lifting Pumpkin to head height for inspection.
“Yeah, he is,” I sighed. “A mischievous little gremlin at the best of times, I’m afraid. I was worried too, when he ran off into the staff area; I genuinely thought he might have found himself in trouble, but no, he just wanted a second lunch.”
“That’ll be twenty gilt for the fish, and cleanup in the kitchen,” Sebastian adjusted his grip, now holding Pumpkin one-handed by the scruff with his other hand held out expectantly.
[20 Gilt withdrawn.]
I wasn’t exactly happy to be paying for that, not with so much food readily available in my inventory, but it wasn’t such a sum that I wanted to haggle over it either. Not with people who could make life very difficult for us over even petty reasons, and not when Pumpkin was the one doing a bit of breaking and entering. Besides, maybe he had a good reason for doing what he did?
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[Will: I hope you had a good reason for that?]
I decided to question Pumpkin, taking the opportunity to test out my new means of communication.
[Pumpkin: I was hungry.]
Never mind, he was just being a cat. I let Sebastian place him on my shoulder, still busy eating his unexpected windfall, and decided to make ourselves scarce. Neither Adel nor Sebiastian seemed too annoyed by it, but I figured it was best to wait a bit before we came back, if we ever did; I’d gotten what I wanted out of it already, and there were more important things to do.
As I began the trek back to Harvey’s safehouse, I considered the three options I’d gotten.
[1) The End of the Cycle: Language (All). Immune (Precognition). Immune (Soul Alteration).
2) King of a Hundred Hearts: Upon death, return to before the fatal incident. Masquerade loses one identity. If no identities are available, Masquerade is lost.
3) Cat: You are an honorary Cat in feline eyes. Gain Language (Cat). Access to Cat racial Traits upon level up.]
True to the System’s words, each of them were very different, with benefits and drawbacks aplenty. The End of the Cycle was the most straightforward of them, unlocking all languages and two unusual immunities. The key question that stuck was whether the immunities were selective to account for when things were beneficial to me, or whether it simply invalidated all effects without prejudice. The former was obviously better, though the latter was still workable and a solid choice over all.
King of a Hundred Hearts, by contrast, was a study in extremes. Extremely powerful in that it was the first outright life saving Trait I could take, and extremely dubious because it didn’t specify how far before death I’d go. If it was an hour or more, enough time to prevent or avoid what caused my demise, that would be great. If it brought me back only seconds before the fatal blow, then that was less than ideal. Furthermore, of the three choices, this was the only one to be wholly passive: the others each offered improvements to be active at all times, rather than just a chance at a mulligan when things went bad. I’d still have grabbed it in an instant back on Earth, because death was something everybody feared, but having been through it once already and with confirmation that reincarnation exists? Well, the reaper just wasn’t as scary any more in my eyes.
Between the two, The End of the Cycle was the obvious choice; knowledge was power, and Language (All) would pay dividends whenever it was applicable, but that was before taking into account the third and strangest option of them all. Language (Cat) was mostly useless, as all it meant was that I could trade my mask away and still understand Pumpkin. Being an honorary cat would be interesting, because it implied interaction with a large number of cats, and that was never going to be dull. The main attraction however were the racial traits.
[Will: Pumpkin, can you share your Traits page?
Pumpkin: Sure.
- Nine Lives: 9/9 remaining.
- Omniglot: Understands every spoken language. Ability to speak not included.
- Cheshire’s Glory: Teleport to target within line of sight.
- Cat Scratch Fever: Wounds you inflict fester, causing damage over time and resisting natural healing.
- Lord of Vermin: Language (Rodent)]
Just from that small sample size, it was obvious that there was immense potential in the choice. I didn’t know if I’d get all the same options as Pumpkin, being an honorary cat, but even a single Nine Lives was better than my other Keystone options by a considerable margin, and most of the others were comparable in terms of sheer utility. This was the greedy option, promising unknown rewards with a very high ceiling, and if there was one defining aspect that drove me, it was greed.
[Cat selected.]