Chapter 23: Book 1: Chapter 10 (Part 2 of 2)

I jogged after him and Dean had already retrieved the pad from Shana.

“I’ve narrowed down the possibilities to three,” Shana said.

“What do we have here,” Dean mumbled as he reviewed Shana’s picks. “Human Flamebolt Sorceress, a Foxblood-Human Urban Ranger, and a Silverblood-Elf Arcane Archer. Well, you haven’t exactly pushed the boat out with these, have you. What was wrong with the Naga Pyromancer?”

“I’m not becoming a slimy snake person,” she answered him with a withering stare.

“What’s wrong with snake people?” Dean pressed. “Their scales are actually quite smooth and pleasant to touch, not slimy at all, a common misconception. If you’re worried Torin won’t bang you later, you don’t have to worry, you’ll not lose any of your natural allure.”

“Dean,” I sighed at his continued inappropriate rudeness.

“What? Okay, Naga is off the table. The Flamebolt Sorceress is a decent P-grade class combining affinities for Fire and Lightning magic, but you’ll remain a boring first-tier human. The Foxblood-Human is a bit more interesting being one of the possible second-tier upgrades to Human, but the Urban Ranger class largely wastes your magical potential,” Dean started critiquing.

“I’ve enjoyed using the bow and it was something I loved to do when I was younger and wanted to utilise it more,” Shana interrupted.

“Fair enough,” Dean said. “Finally, the Silverblood-Elf Arcane Archer, which would be my recommendation then as it at least incorporates your magical prowess with the bow use. Unless you want to reassess?”

Dean had addressed me and handed me the pad. His unsaid implication being that as Shana was soulbound to me the decision was mine and not hers. From what I had learned about her, she would likely not object if I pulled rank and forced a choice of my own on her. However, Dean’s recent taunts had put me in an objectionable frame of mind in that regard, and I chose to leave the decision with her without even reviewing the other possibilities.

“We will go with what you are most comfortable with, Shana,” I opined and handed her the pad.

Dean grimaced and shook his head but didn’t gainsay me.

“Thanks, Torin. I think the elf option would be best, but I’m not sure. Is there any way I can see what I would look like?” she asked Dean.

“Yeah, no problem. First, the Flamebolt Sorceress,” he said.

Appearing in the middle of the room was a three-dimensional image of Shana as she would look as the Flamebolt Sorceress. This was the human option and as such there was very little difference except there were red and yellow highlights in her dark black hair, similar to the way my black hair had ice-blue frosted tips. This had to be a side-effect of the magical affinity. The image of Shana had her covered up with yellow and red robes matching the highlights in her hair.

“Next up, the Foxblood-Human Urban Ranger,” he said. “When adopting mixed blood upgrades you have a choice of how many animalistic features you wish to incorporate. Considering your objections about the Naga this is the minimalist version.”

A new image appeared beside the Sorceress. You could tell it was Shana, but her long hair was now a russet red, she was clad in grey leather armour and held her bow loosely at her side. I could see that the backs of her hands had patches of fur matching her new hair colour and her eyes were yellow with slightly slitted pupils. Her ears had points, but were not as noticeable as mine. This version of her was several inches shorter than the human avatar which was her current height.

 “And the front-runner, the Silverblood-Elf Arcane Archer,” Dean finished.

We now had a third image of Shana, this one clad in similar leather armour to the Ranger, but coloured white instead. Her hair was a flowing straw-blonde and her ears were longer and pointed as you would expect for an elf. Otherwise, apart from being a touch taller and leaner, she would be an inch or two over six feet, she didn’t seem noticeably different in any other way.

Shana walked about each avatar and examined all three of them critically.

Stopping in front of the Urban Ranger she said. “I haven’t spent a fair bit of time, money, and discomfort getting waxed regularly at the salon to voluntarily adopt that much extra body hair. The Foxblood is out.”

“Not a problem. I would have advised against it anyway. If you’re looking for a smooth ride,” Dean said and winked at me. “Elves are hairless, except for what’s on their head.”

“Interesting,” Shana whispered in front of the elf avatar and then tutted. “Can we do something about the hair colour, though? I’ve always been proud about not being blonde.”

“I get you. Too many cheerleader Barbie bitches,” Dean chuckled.

“Something like that,” Shana answered him. “Can you do it?”

“Give me a fucking second. I just need to make a minor tweak or two, and presto there we go. What do you think?”

The elf avatar changed. Gone were the blonde locks and Shana’s natural dark black hair was back, her skin tone seemed a little paler, though that might be because the leathers she wore had been switched to jet black. Her brown eyes appeared darker around the edges too.

“Oh, that’s much better,” Shana exclaimed and clapped her hands together. “This is it. I’ll take this one.”

“That okay with you, Bossman,” Dean asked me.

“If it’s what Shana wants then, yes,” I agreed.

Shana nodded her affirmation.

“And done,” Dean said unnecessarily loudly. “Here is your new sheet. Your new class has a higher XP threshold, so you’ll remain as level one until you hit the new required total.”

On the wall opposite, Shana’s new character sheet was displayed, writ large for us to read through. The avatars disappeared and Shana adopted her new look.

Name: Shana Colton		Species:		Elf (Shadowborn) (Tier 2)
Level	1	Class		Shadepath Markswoman (Q Grade notorious)
Physical		Mental (+10%)				Social (+10%)
Strength	3	Acuity		4.4 (4)		Appearance		5.5 (5)
Stamina	7	Perception		6.6 (6)		Charisma		3.3 (3)
Speed	9	Willpower		6.6 (6)		Appeal		4.4 (4)
Dexterity	3	Mental Resistance		1.1 (1)		Leadership		1.1 (1)
Agility	5	Mana Capacity		24.2 (22)		Dominance		1.1 (1)
Constitution	8	Mana Absorption		24.2 (22) You are reading story Corsairs & Cataclysms at novel35.com		Empathy		3.3 (3)
Hit Points	240 (200)	Health		10		Mana Pool		242
Unused XP	1,114	XP to next Level		15,000		Lifetime XP gained		1,114
Armour Slots	6	Weapon Slots		2		Item Slots		3
Upgrade Points		Spec	0	Class	0	Hrm	0	Path	0
Framework Currency		PP	0	GP	2	SP	50	CP	50
Notoriety	114 (Current XP multiplier is x1.24)
Titles	Soulbound
Species Abilities and Benefits
Shadowborn Elf: Health +2, HP +100 (+10 per level), Mental Stats +10%, Social Stats +10%, Armour Slot +1, Weapon Slot +1, Item Slot +1 Affinity for Dark and Chaos Magic. Aversion for Light and Harmonic magic.
Class Abilities and Benefits
Shadepath Markwoman: Levels in class = 1 (Q grade class) Level up grants +1 to all Mental stats, another +1 to Speed, Dexterity, Agility, Willpower, Mana Capacity, Refined Mana Conversion Rate, Appearance and Dominance, HP +100 Archery Skill: +5   Dark Magic Infusion: Grants the ability to utilise dark magic and directly infuse projectiles with dark magic for additional damage. Armour Penalty Offset: -1
Miscellaneous Abilities and Benefits
Quest Imp: (granted by soul bond with Torin Carter) Imp will generate notoriety-based quests for the owner to complete. The completion of any quest can be verified by the imp, not just those it generates. Quest mode: Imps may generate quests during the action. When they do time will seem to slow giving you an opportunity to absorb the quest details before continuing. Notoriety: (granted by soul bond with Torin Carter) Your actions will not affect the metre and it will equal your soul binder’s.
Miscellaneous Negative Effects
Soulbound: Your soul has been bound to another. You must comply with their orders and will. They may dictate your character progression.
Gear:
Shoddy Leather Boots, Shoddy Leather Cuirass, Simple Bow, Bracers of the Bound

 

Shana’s stats were much improved, her Hit Points more than doubled and she was getting percentile bonuses to her Mental and Social stats. The bonus wasn’t as large as mine, but it was a definite step up from where she was previously.

Of course, as I examined her sheet, I couldn’t help but see that everything was not quite as advertised.

“Dean, what the fuck did you do? This is not what we reviewed and approved.” I said angrily.

“Actually, you both asked me to tweak it to change her hair colour back to black and I did. That meant changing from the Silverblood subtype to Shadowborn. Shadowborn elves have restrictions on the magic schools they can use, so they can’t be a generic S-grade Arcane Archer. Therefore, I had to shuffle over to the similar, but superior, Q-grade Shadepath Markswoman class. Not my fault you couldn’t be fucking bothered reviewing it again before confirming your decision,” Dean explained, but could barely hide his shit-eating grin.

“Bullshit, Dean. Shana, was Shadepath Markswoman on your original list?” I asked her.

“No, I don’t think it was, Torin. I’m sorry for not checking things through before accepting,” she said in a worried voice.

I reached over and pulled her into a comforting hug.

“This isn’t your fault. Dean who pretends to be your friend is being a manipulative bastard, again,” I comforted her, while raising my voice and punctuating the last part.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, quit acting like I’ve sold your firstborn into slavery or something. I just gave you a little nudge to select the best combination you could achieve,” Dean said, trying to reason with us, poorly.

“Fuck you, I’ve had enough. I may not be able to hurt you, but I don’t have to put up with your games. Send us back now,” I spat at him.

That’s when I recalled this wasn’t how the Framework behaved. Our business was done here, Dean had no excuse to keep us any longer, and I simply thought about returning.

Blink.

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