Rebirth of the Nephilim

Ever since she’d first accessed the decidedly videogame-esque menu system that existed on Oros, one of the first of many questions that had popped up in Jadis’ mind revolved around the class system. What exactly did the menu mean when it referenced Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary classes? At the time, she’d been eager, thrilled, even, to explore the system Oros was opening up to her. Unfortunately, she’d only received a partial answer when she’d been offered several class options and her primary class slot had been filled. Try as she might, she hadn’t been able to re-access the class selection menu that had popped up to choose another class after she’d chosen Mirror Knight as her primary and any other attempts to glean information were fruitless. Without any answers or means of seeking them out, she’d put aside the question of how her secondary class would come into play and focused on other, more immediate concerns, like survival.

Now, here Jadis was, a mess of broken bones and bruises lying on the floor of an abandoned warehouse, with a menu notification screen floating in her mind’s eye asking her to choose a secondary class.

Not that Jadis was uninterested in answering the question of what secondary classes were or how it would interact with her primary class, she was just having trouble expressing much excitement through the pain.

“Maybe we should wait to check this stuff out until after we’ve healed up a bit?” Dys groaned. Her arm was pressed up against the bandages wrapped around the wounds on her lower left side, keeping up the pressure as best she could. She was lying on her stomach, her back a mess of purple bruises from where the bone thief’s attacks had pummeled her. “I’m not sure we’re equipped to think straight right now…” Jadis was fairly certain several of her ribs were cracked and broken from what she could feel.

Jay lay next to Dys, propping her leg with the broken knee up on a nearby crate. “Maybe. We might get something that could help us heal, though. We’d feel pretty stupid if we tried to sleep all this damage off for the next couple weeks and we could have healed ourselves up in a day with some new secondary class feature or whatever.”

“True…” Dys sighed, which only made her wince. Big movements of the chest hurt. “What about our Mirror Knight levels? We can get a new skill there.”

“Plus level twenty gave us five attribute points. I bet reaching level twenty is how we unlocked the secondary class, too,” Jay said, considering the timing. “Well, whatever. We’ve got six attribute points to use. Let’s slap them into vitality and—”

“Wait,” Dys interrupted. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s see what the skill options are first. And the secondary class. We might want those points in a different attribute to help with our healing or something.”

“Good point, me,” Jay said, a little smile playing across her lips.

“You’re welcome, me,” Dys said tiredly, eyes closed as she rested her head on one forearm.

Mentally focusing on what skills level nineteen had made available to her, Jadis read over the first option.

Knight’s Guard

Active Skill. Temporarily increase perception and reaction speed while in a guard stance. Cost – 1 stamina per second.

“That might have been useful during that fight,” Jay said, considering the skill. “Might have avoided taking some of those hits. I certainly would have liked some increased reaction speed while dodging the bone mother.”

“Maybe,” Dys said without opening her eyes. “But I feel like we did more running than guarding during that fight. What even counts as a ‘guard stance’ anyway?”

Jay shrugged. Most of what Jadis knew about combat came from reading books and watching movies or other media. She wasn’t going to pretend she was any kind of trained practitioner of martial arts, but she did feel like she had a basic grasp of what a guard position was.

“Probably have to have our weapons up in a defensive posture or something like that,” Jay murmured.

Knight’s Guard seemed useful, but it didn’t thrill her. Jadis moved on to the next skill.

Mirrored Body’s Shifting Reflection

Active Skill. Transfer injuries from one mirrored body to another. Does not affect health pool.

“Woah,” Jay and Dys said in unison.

“That sounds like a freaky fucking skill,” Dys said, cracking one eye open to look at Jay. “We could just, what, choose which body has the holes in their side?”

“Very freaky.” Jay agreed. “What would that even look like?”

Thinking about the skill sent a bit of a shiver down Jadis’ spines. Seeing wounds magically disappear from one of her selves would be great, but seeing, and no doubt feeling, those same wounds appear on the other of her selves would be horrible, or at least so she imagined. Still, the skill obviously had its uses. If she could transfer Jay’s broken leg to Dys, who was already in no condition to move around much, Jay would be free to walk and thus Jadis could get a lot more done, even defend herself more effectively if needed.

“Freaky as it is, I think that’s probably the best skill for us right now,” Jay finally said.

“Yeah, fine, but next time we get fucked up you’re taking all the injuries,” Dys glared daggers at Jay.

“It doesn’t matter, we’re the same person,” Jay said, tossing her hands in the air in exasperation.

“So then it’s fine if you take all the injuries I have right now.”

“Whatever!”

Jadis was beginning to suspect she might be a bit punch drunk. She was basically arguing with herself over whether her left hand or her right hand should be the hand to hurt. Or, was it more like her two hands were arguing with each other? She was starting to confuse herself.

Taking the skill, Jadis immediately concentrated on trying to shift the broken knee from Jay’s leg to Dys.

As Jadis watched, the purple swelling and pain receded from Jay’s leg over the course of several seconds while the corresponding leg on Dys purpled and swelled, pain blooming in equal and opposite measure. The process was not instantaneous, but took no more than ten seconds total.

“Fuck! Now I’m even more of a wreck,” Dys cursed, her now injured knee uncomfortably pressed against the floor.

Jay, on the other hand, got to her feet, her right leg now fully functional and free to move. It felt and looked as though nothing had happened to it at all.

From an overall perspective, Jadis supposed the level of pain she was feeling wasn’t actually any less or more than when the injuries had been more spread out between her two bodies. She felt what both felt at all times. However, with her Refracted Mind skill compartmentalizing the sensations her two selves experienced, she had to admit feeling all the injuries focus on just one of her felt awful.

“Okay, okay, this is bearable,” Dys said through gritted teeth. “And more importantly, necessary.”

“Yeah, I’m going to start moving more of our supplies, get our shit together. But first, let’s experiment with this skill a bit. See what its limitations are.”

For the next few minutes, Jadis tried shifting injuries between her bodies. She quickly determined that she couldn’t split the difference between her two selves, meaning if she had a cut on Jay, she couldn’t transfer only half of the cut to Dys. It was either all on one or the other of her. However, she could shift very specific injuries. With careful thought, Dys could move the bruises on her back to Jay while not transferring the broken ribs.

Once the limitations were established, Jadis moved several of the more minor injuries from Dys to Jay, giving that half of her self some relief and to make it a little easier for Dys to get into a comfortable position. None of the wounds she put on Jay were enough to hinder her as she went about moving more of her supplies out of the broken smithy and into the warehouse. She’d miss having the fireplace for warmth at night and warm food, but the broken-down corner of the home was too much to fix.

“We can still cook food in there when we want,” Dys assured herself. “We just won’t sleep in there.”

“Mmhmm,” Jay hummed, carrying the crate of honey jars into the warehouse. “Speaking of, we really need to eat.”

“Just pass me one of those jars,” Dys said with a sigh, hand already reaching out as Jay passed one jar to her blindly. “I don’t think I can stomach any hardtack mush right now.”

As Dys popped the wax seal on the jar and stuck a finger into the honey to lick clean, Jay stopped halfway out the door. Both remained motionless for a long pause as a long dormant memory resurfaced in Jadis’ mind.

“Isn’t honey… antibacterial?”

“Yes, yes I think it is.”

“And doesn’t it help speed up healing?”

“Pretty sure, yeah.”

“Am I really that oblivious?”

“Seems like it.”

Moments later, jar in hand, Jay was slathering every scrape and cut on Dys’ body with honey. Jadis was certain all her wounds could be healed with Knight’s Rest, but she was also fairly sure that the amount of healing Knight’s Rest gave her was dependent on upon factors like how well cared for her injuries were. The antibacterial and anti-inflammatory nature of honey had to have some multiplicative effect with her skill, or so she hoped.

“Okay, we’re kind of stalling here,” Jay said as she carefully re-wrapped Dys’ bandages after putting some honey directly on the three antler wounds.

“Right, the secondary class,” Dys said, now flipped over on her back, leg propped up on a crate. “Let’s take a look.”

As she continued to apply the honey to any open wounds, Jadis concentrated on her menu and the secondary class slot. Immediately, another menu popped up. Much like she’d seen when she’d been prompted to select her primary class, the new menu was displaying a list of classes, two of which she was familiar with.

“Dedicated Pervert and Exuberant Exhibitionist…” Jay said aloud with a resigned sigh. “I kind of forgot about those…”

“Hey, at least those being there prove that secondary classes aren’t some kind of special category. It’s getting the same options as the primary,” Dys pointed out. “So let’s get to the good stuff and see what else we’ve got on tap.”

“Yeah, cause those two are out of the question,” Jay nodded.

Doing a quick count, Jadis saw that the list held three more classes, not including the two she had been offered when she had selected her primary class. Checking out the first on the list, Jadis was pleasantly surprised to see it wasn’t some kind of joke class like the other two she’d already dismissed were.

Primeval Barbarian

You have no need of modern armor, or even proper weaponry. Your savage might is aided by only the most basic of arms, which suits you just fine. Most skills from this class will empower your naked defenses and strengthen your barbaric combat style.

“Barbarian?” Jay and Dys said in unison, looking at each other. “We aren’t barbarians!”

Jadis felt a little offended. Sure, she had spent the last month running around in somewhat skimpy leather armor, bashing her enemies to death with what amounted to giant clubs, but she wasn’t a barbarian. She was an intelligent woman making the best of a survival situation in the most effective way available to her.

“…We are a little savage, aren’t we?” Jay finally said, rubbing a bit of honey onto a cut on her upper arm.

Dys held up a hand, putting her forefinger and thumb an inch apart.

“Just a smidge.”

Jadis decided to stop thinking about her possibly barbaric inclinations and moved on, taking a look at her next available class.

Perverted Ritualist of D

Your perverse actions have defiled the temple of a god, garnering his interest rather than his ire. This class will put your depraved nature to good use, allowing you to perform eldritch rituals that will bolster your strengths as well as aid you in performing ever more exciting debaucheries.  

“Another joke class, huh?” Jay said, shaking her head.

Jadis readily recognized that her request to be a futanari was, by its inherent nature, a perverted wish, but that didn’t mean she was a sex crazed maniac, willing to sacrifice a whole third of her potential ability to increase in power to a class centered around fucking. True, she did quite enjoy pleasuring herself. And, yes, true, she did have a bit of a narcissistic love of her own looks, she had to admit that now. And, well, yes, she’d basically made it a ritual practice to go pseudo-fucking in the temple every day. And—

“Fine, I’m a fucking pervert, okay!?” Jadis shouted from both her selves, glaring heavenwards at where she presumed D was looking down on her with a mocking, knowing grin.

“I just don’t like being called out on it, okay?” Jay grumbled with a pout, sitting down next to Dys. “I mean, what the fuck? You cannot tell me D didn’t put that class on our list just to tease us.”

“It’s got his name on it and everything,” Dys said, her face in more of a grimace. “It’s got to be on purpose. Unless the system meant ‘D’ as in…” she motioned down towards her crotch.

“Hmph. Apparently Oros has multiple classes dedicated to being a pervert. I would not be surprised at all if that was a pun.”

“Let’s just check the last class.”

Bone Thief Slayer

You have become an expert in the act of killing the demonic spawn known as bone thieves. Few have the experience and knowhow you do when it comes to putting such creatures to death. This class specializes in skills that will make it even easier for you to slay bone thieves and their variations.

“Specialize?”

Looking over the last class, Jadis couldn’t help but feel it might be a tad too limiting. Bone Thief Slayer’s description indicated it would give her skills specifically for the killing of bone thieves. How well would those skills carry over towards fighting other types of demons? There had to be other types if Oros was offering her a class that specialized in this one species of demon in particular.

Also, what if she was in a fight with something other than a demon? Like, what about bandits? Would this class’s skills be useful against a regular person? Probably, but probably not as useful.

“We’re leaving this area as soon as we can, anyway,” Dys said, waving a dismissive hand. “Once we’re out of here, we might not even run into any more bone thieves.”

“Agreed. This one’s a no go,” Jay said. “I guess that just leaves the Primeval Barbarian class?”

“I guess,” Dys answered, a frown creasing her brow.

Though it was the most useful looking of the classes she had available to choose from, Jadis honestly didn’t feel any draw towards the Primeval Barbarian class. She didn’t want to run around in leather scraps, swinging makeshift clubs at her enemies for the rest of her days. One of the reasons she wanted to get the hell out of the bone-infested abandoned village was to find real civilization, with people and shops and, wonder of wonders, real weapons and armor. Her mauls were effective, and she did like smashing things, but she dreamt of more.

Reviewing her options again, Jadis’ attention was caught by a single word in one of the class descriptions.

“Eldritch rituals…” Jay murmured quietly, “Eldritch…”

With a sudden start, Jay and Dys turned their heads to look at each other.

“Eldritch!”

Jadis Ahlstrom

Race: Nephilim

Primary Class: Mirror Knight (20)

Secondary Class: None

Tertiary Class: None

Combined Level Rating: 20

Health: 36/300

Magic: 10/10

Attributes

Strength: 57

Dexterity: 10

Agility: 10

Vitality: 30

Fortitude: 20

Endurance: 21

Arcane: 0

Divine: 0

Eldritch: 70

Focus: 1

Resilience: 15

Will: 5

   Staring at the menu overlaying her vision, Jadis stared with some trepidation at her attributes.

“Eldritch is our highest stat,” Dys said, a tinge of excitement coloring her voice.

“You really think this Perverted Ritualist class will make use of it?” Jay asked, her tone hopeful.

Dys shrugged with her one good shoulder, which still hurt enough to make her regret the action. “It’s got the word right there in the description. I doubt it’s coincidence.”

“Okay, but if we do take this class, we’ll be playing into the whole pervert thing, guaranteed. Is it worth it?”

Jadis had to stop and think about it for a moment. Was locking herself into what sounded like a class dedicated to sexual debauchery really worth potentially taking advantage of a single attribute on her status menu? Was it worth the risk, when she didn’t even know for sure the class would actually make use of the stat in question?

Would it really be that much of a downside to have a class that gave her a legitimate excuse to do the perverted things she was already doing?

“Okay, fine, you got me, D,” Jay said dropping her head in defeat.

“Perverted Ritualist of D it is!” Dys said with a forced cheeriness, giving Jay a thumbs up.

Unlike when Jadis had selected her primary class, there was no flash of light to blind her. A simple pop up menu appeared before her eyes, acknowledging her selection, then disappeared. That was all.

“I don’t feel any different.”

“Neither do I,” Jay concurred.

Checking her skill menu, Jadis found there was nothing new added. Blinking in confusion, Jadis wasn’t sure what to do until she remembered that she had a spell menu as well, a feature she’d made no use of so far. Looking there, she found a new spell had been added to the Secondary Class section.

Spells

Primary:

None

Secondary:

Debauched Duplication

Tertiary:

None

With a quirked eyebrow, Jadis focused on the spell and read the description out loud.

Debauched Duplication

Ritual Spell. Duplicate the effects of a single passive skill. Effect persists until the ritual is repeated and a new skill is selected.

“Holy shit…” Jay and Dys both trailed off after reading the spell’s text. “That’s—wait. Wait a second.”

Perfectly synchronized, the two bodies of Jadis looked each other in the eyes.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” They asked each other, identical mischievous grins playing over their faces.

“Two hands are better than one…” Jay started.

“…and six hands are better than four.” Dys finished.