Explanations pt.2

“It does, doesn’t it?” Cal didn’t bother to hide the pleased grin on his face. “By the sound of it, I can basically do anything.”

Alia snorted. “Almost anything,” she corrected. “The description says so. I’m sure there must be some limitations to what you can do.”

He shrugged. “Maybe. Still, you have to admit, it does sound awesome.”

“True,” she conceded. “Now open up your stats.”

He did as she asked.

[Stats]

HP: 50/50

MP: 50/50

SP: 0/0

STR: 5

VIT: 5

AGI: 9

DEX: 8

SPI: 5

DEN: 5

EDI: 0

As he finished reading his stats out, Alia nodded. “Seems pretty standard. That SP must be the unique stat I was talking about.”

Cal rubbed his head sheepishly. “I don’t know what any of them mean actually. Can you give me a basic run down?”

She gave him that look again and sighed. “Fine. The first is HP which gives you a value of your overall health. The next is MP which is the same for mana. Strength-”

“Hold on,” he interrupted her. “How is my health quantified? Does it reduce if I get hurt? Do I die if it drops to zero?”

Alia simply leaned forward and rapped him sharply on the head.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“Did that hurt?”

Now he gave her the look she had been giving him all morning. “Of course it did!”

“Did that reduce your HP?”

He paused and checked his HP. “No it didn’t...”

She gave him a smug smile. “Just getting hurt doesn’t reduce your HP. It depends on the severity of the damage. For example, if you get stabbed, your body can’t shrug it off in a few seconds; not like the hit I just gave you. It will impede with your mobility and bring you just a bit closer to ****. It will need medical attention. Those types of damage will reduce your HP. Got it?”

“Yeah,” he grumbled. “You didn’t have to hit me though.”

She ignored him. “As I was saying, Strength gives you your overall physical strength, so direct melee attacks, the weight you can carry are affected by this. Vitality is simply your durability. If I stab you now, you’ll bleed to **** in a few seconds but if you have higher VIT, you’d take longer to die. So increasing VIT increases your HP. Following so far?”

“Stop talking about stabbing me.” He nodded in confirmation nonetheless.

“Agility is pretty simple. It’s your movement speed. Dexterity is a bit convoluted. It governs the overall control you have over your body. How do I put this...” she thought about it for a few seconds. “If you have very high Agility, you’d be tripping over your own feet every time you try to run at full speed, or crush a fruit every time you pick one up if you have high Strength. Dexterity helps you avoid that. There are other class specific uses but that is the basic.”

She paused and he nodded, gesturing her to continue.

“Spirit gives you your mana pool. The higher it is, the more mana you have. Density is for your spirit what Strength is for your body. The more DEN you have, the more power your mana attacks will pack.”

Cal took a moment to go over his stats again. “All of them are very low except AGI and DEX.”

Alia shrugged. “That doesn’t surprise me. You’re a scrawny ass kid who spends most of his time running and picking pockets.”

He gave her an annoyed look. “I’d say I’m in pretty decent shape.”

She snorted in amusement. “Your stats tell me otherwise. When you get your class, your stats are raised to a minimum of five; meaning, your STR and VIT were below average before last night.”

That would explain why he was feeling healthier. Still, it hurt his pride just a little bit to have his stature rubbed on his face.

“Whatever.” He ignored her amused grin. “What about the other two, SP and EDI?”

“Of that I have no idea,” Alia admitted. “They’re most likely your unique stats. Read their description.”

SP: Shaper Points- The total points you have available to make changes.

EDI: Edit- This stat governs the maximum SP you have available. Every point increases maximum SP by ten.

“They’re both at zero though,” Cal pointed out.

“I haven’t read about the specifics of unique stats so I can’t comment,” Alia said. “People with unique starting classes are incredibly secretive so there aren’t many records of them. My guess is, it can be raised like any other stats by assigning stat points?”

“I can raise my stats?” Cal was suddenly excited at what he was hearing.

“For the love of- Yes you can raise your stats! You get five points every time you level up that you can assign anywhere.”

He edged forward in his chair in interest. “So if I raise my STR, I’ll become stronger and put on more muscle?”

Alia gave him a curious look before bursting out laughing. “You won’t get taller if that’s what you’re trying to ask. You’ll look more like a well built dwarf.”

He instantly deflated at hearing that. His height was one of his major sore spots. He had gotten his hopes up for a minute. Although his luck seemed to have turned around by finally getting a class, he would be stuck with his hei-

‘Wait a minute.’

He went over the description of his class again. If he understood it correctly, his class would allow him to anything; that meant including himself. A grin crept its way back up his face.

“What are you smiling about,” Alia asked suspiciously.

“Oh nothing,” he said conspicuously. “Now, what are [Skills] and [Perks]?”

“You likely won’t have any [Skills] at this point.” As she said, nothing came up when he tried to open it. “As for perks, basic classes won’t have any. They are usually gained through [Quests] or other actions but I’m guessing you will have one.”

Once again, Alia was spot on. The girl’s incredible knowledge was saving him a lot of trouble. He doubted he’d be picking things up this quickly if it wasn’t for her.

[Perks]

Shaper (Class Perk) - Allows you to change anything to your will provided the necessary SP is spent. The nature of the change determines how much SP is spent. Shaping objects depends on the material the object is made of, the ownership of the material and the enchantments placed on it. Shaping monsters depends on the level difference, relative health and monster hierarchy. Shaping people depends on their level and their disposition towards you. Restrictions- Cannot edit [Soul Bound] objects, cannot tame monster aggression, cannot change people’s disposition or their core personality.

Wait, shaping people? He could change people? The implications of what he was reading were suddenly very staggering. Just the thought of what he could do made him lick his lips in nervousness.

“Alia,” he began. “It says here that I can change people.”

“What?”

He read out the description of his perk to her. He could have kept it a secret, he could have read only select parts of the description but he didn’t know if hiding it from her was a good idea. She was his best friend and there was no one he trusted more. This power was even more frightening than he thought and she had been nothing but helpful so far.

Alia was quite for a few seconds, processing what he said. “It’s good there are restrictions to your class then. For one thing, you can’t make someone like or hate you or anyone else.”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s what disposition means, how people feel about you and each other. It also says you can’t change their core personality,” she explained. “I don’t have to worry about you making me a psycho killer then. I don’t particularly enjoy hurting people.”

Cal appreciated that she was trying to make a joke to put him at ease. When he started reading the description, his mind instantly went to where any hot blooded male’s would. Though further reading only scared him. He didn’t want to be someone who changed people to his whim. For better or worse, he liked people the way they were. Alia’s charm and personality were what attracted him to her in the first place. Well that plus she was stupidly hot.

That wasn’t to say he wouldn’t be using the power to his benefit though. He wasn’t ashamed to admit that he was an **** pervert after all.

“Anyway, I assume you know not to tell anyone that you have a unique starting class?” She gave him a fierce look. “Unless you want to be kidnapped and experimented on for hundreds of years that is.”

Cal shuddered. He had heard from adventurers about the horrors of human experimentation they had encountered. People were sick and would do anything to get more power.

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation and Alia let the person outside come in. Neera stepped inside and gave him an appraising look. She was shorter than him by two inches but the high pony tail she had rose three inches above her head. As typical of goblin customs, she had the front half of her head shaved and it was covered in clan tattoos. Numerous piercings adorned her face and she was no doubt considered a great beauty among her green skinned kin.

The attraction was lost on Cal though. He just did not have a thing for goblins.

“Heard you got your class runt,” she said. Her voice held only a faint trace of the squeak the others of her species had. “Congratulations.”

“I’m taller than you,” Cal shot back, annoyed. “I’m not a runt.”

“I’m tall for a goblin. You’re very short for a human,” she replied with a chuckle. “What class did you get?”

Cal almost told her before he caught himself. “[Rogue]”.

“I guessed as much,” she said with a nod. “Catch.”

Cal shot up from his chair and fumbled to catch the object thrown at him. Neera had given him a sheathed dagger. He drew it out of its sheath and knew that it was very sharp by the glint the edge gave off. The blade was about the size of his forearm and it felt very comfortable in his grip. He had no doubt that this was a weapon of very fine quality.

“Thank you,” he told her with a deep bow. He knew why she was giving him this. Now that he had a class, we would need to go to the dungeon to level up. That meant fighting monsters.

“And this,” Alia said, making him look up, “is my gift.”

She held up a red and brown cuirass. Like the clothes she had given him, it was a bit worn but it looked like it would fit him perfectly. He wondered why she even had one. Once again he was left wondering about her past and how her life had been before he met her five years ago.

“I can’t take this,” he protested. “You already fed me and gave me clothes.”

“Nonsense.” She walked up to him and placed the cuirass on his torso, sizing it up. “It’s not like it’ll fit me anymore.”

“But-”

“Just take it Cal. At least you’ll get some use out of it.”

Cal looked at her, catching the hidden pain and sadness behind her eyes. “Thank you.”

Alia smiled widely and pulled him into a warm hug that he was growing to love. A few seconds later, she bent down and pressed her lips against his cheek.

Cal’s face grew beet red. Alia had kissed him. She giggled once she pulled back and looked at his face.

“What was that for?”

“Your gift.”

“You already gave me a gift.”

“That was for getting a class,” she said. “This was for something else. Happy eighteenth birthday Cal.”

His eyes widened. In all the excitement, he had forgotten the first line of text that had greeted him in the morning. He finally knew what his birthday was.

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A/N: Criticism and comments welcome.