The next day arrived without any surprises and Noah woke with one thing on his mind. Level 10. With only three XP to go, he felt an itch to pass that threshold. The boys were still sleeping and he could hear splashing coming from the stream. Not wanting to intrude on Julie, Noah gathered a river stone, and a shard of flint before stepping into the woods. He went north, planning to go back to the clearing with the wolves. As he went he took inventory of himself, his body was feeling good–too good. He lifted his pant leg and found well-scabbed-over bite marks and otherwise healthy-looking skin. The bruising from the bear was nowhere to be seen. Amazing. His constitution was now roughly three times what he assumed to be the human baseline, and it was already quite evident. He wasn’t invincible but he wasn’t so fragile anymore.
After a while, he saw the point where they had crossed the day before, evident by the parade of footprints. He crossed and followed their tracks, namely the dried blood, to the clearing. As he drew near he slowed, thankful for the sound-dampening effect of the dirt beneath his feet, and readied himself for a fight. They had left a lot of meat on the table for any prospective carnivores, and he was banking on exactly that. He rounded the final tree at a snail’s pace and was thankful he did. Across the clearing was a large deer, with jagged black antlers protruding from its head. From its bloodied mouth he could only assume that it too had gained sharp teeth, a favorite mutation of the System it seemed. Noah crept forward, rock in one hand, flint in the other. He made it two steps in before the buck raised its head and met eyes with him. Dang. He thought, expecting it to spook. Instead, it charged like a raging bull, angling its antlers to pierce him through. He stepped in front of a tree and readied himself to jump, utilizing his favorite move. To the deer’s credit, he hadn’t seen this move before, but when its antlers stuck deep into the tree Noah couldn’t help but laugh. The next part felt a little wrong, but Noah comforted himself with the fact that it had just tried to kill him. It wasn’t defenseless, it had just fallen into his trap. With the moral quandary out of the way, he finished off the deer and waited for the all-too-encouraging ding.
[10 XP Gained.]
“Yes!” Noah shouted, too giddy to keep it in. He immediately prompted the System to level up.
[Level 9 > level 10.]
[Apprentice Path Choices Available.]
Combatant
Non-Combatant
Noah stroked his newly grown stubble and analyzed his options. It appeared that this was a defining choice for his development. What that all entailed he didn’t know. One thing was obvious though, if he chose Non-Combatant and lost his ability to fight then he was as good as dead, not to mention the others.
[Congratulations, you have taken the next step on your Path. Non-combat activities will no longer grant XP.]
[Select two primary stats.]
Strength | Dexterity | Constitution | Intelligence | Wisdom | Willpower
Well, there goes the chef dream. Noah thought as he took in the news. This was huge. If the inverse was true for people who selected non-combatant then there would be some problems. He didn’t know if the wildlife could level in the same way as humans, but if they could he somehow doubted they would be non-combatants. He moved on to the next message. Why wasn’t this covered in the tutorial? He assumed that his selection of primary stats would somehow influence their growth but at what cost? He felt like a teenager being forced to decide what he would do with the rest of his life. He barely knew how the stats worked. Would too much of one compared to another be a bad thing? Would he still get free points to allocate? What do I want to be when I grow up? Noah thought, amused by a familiar feeling. Do I want to be fast and strong? Strong and tanky? Magic? He laughed. Okay, not magic. He decided to look at the facts. He knew it was between the three physical stats, and his constitution was already double the others. In the scenario that having too great a disparity was a factor then he ought to pick strength and dexterity. It was the safe choice and had nothing to do with the desire to be a ninja. He made his selection. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
[Primary stats: Strength, Dexterity.]
[Apprentice path grants +2 primary stats per level. +2* free stats per level.]
Noah let out a breath. This was the best-case scenario. It also pointed out just how valuable his Gate choice had been. If he continued to get an extra stat point per level, he would have 33 percent more stats as time went on. The next message took him off guard.
[Caste threshold met. Initiating breakthrough.]
Pain shot through Noah’s body and he felt as if his blood was boiling. He slumped to the ground grateful for the numbness that overtook his senses.
When his consciousness returned, the first thing he noticed was the smell. He was drenched in sweat and felt like all his pores and been forcefully exfoliated.
[Caste Breakthrough successful. New Caste: Iron.]
[Domain granted]
[Iron caste is the lowest tier of citizenship in the multiverse. Higher caste citizens are now permitted to share System-related information with you.]
[Congratulations.]
Noah had a lot of thoughts about those last lines, thoughts that likely wouldn’t get him anywhere. Focusing on the positive, he decided to open his status.
Status
Name: Noah Denter
Race: Human
Grade: F
Domain: Self
Caste: Iron
Gate: 1
Path: Apprentice
Level: 10
Strength: 15
Dexterity:14
Constitution: 29
Intelligence:11
Wisdom: 13
Willpower: 14
XP: 5/100
Essence: 0
Stat points available: 3
Several things had changed since the last time he saw it. His path read Apprentice and he now required ten times the XP to level. Additionally, there was a new line called ‘Domain’ which was somehow a result of his breakthrough, that and he was now an Iron. The System said that he became a citizen, which apparently wasn’t the case before. Then he remembered. She called us dust. Not trash or scum, dust. “From dust, you came, and as dust, you remained.” She disregarded us because we were dust, not just to her but to the System. Noah wasn’t sure what to do with that. Was it possible that no one in his vision managed to become an Iron? He shuddered. That seemed hard to believe. Putting it aside for now he allocated his free stat points; one into dexterity and two into constitution.
He stood up and made a beeline for the stream, intent upon scraping the filth from his body. As he went he noticed something strange. As he walked he could feel the bottom of his feet pressing into his sorry shoes. He experienced each toe flexing and the muscles in his legs tensing and bracing as he ran. It was like he was experiencing every sensation in his body at once. The more he ran, the more convinced he became that that was exactly what was happening. He jumped into the water and submerged himself in the frigid flow. He felt the water in a million places at once as it made contact with his body, yet it formed into one coherent feeling. Domain. This must be my Self Domain. Noah realized. As he washed himself he noticed something else, his body was unblemished. The cuts around his wrists were gone, the scabs on his legs were gone, and the scars on his stomach from the bike accident were gone. He felt strong too, like he had gained several points at once, but when he looked at his status nothing had changed.
There was so much he didn’t know and it disturbed to think that it was humanity’s ignorance that sealed their fate. He would have to change that. Yelling in the distance caught his attention.
“Noah!” Julia yelled, “We need help!”
Noah bolted from the water and sprinted toward camp. He had been away for too long, lost in his revelry. He moved faster than he thought possible and came upon an unexpected sight. Standing in the middle of the camp was an elf, an honest-to-goodness pointy-eared elf, and he held an arrow to Julie’s throat.