Nothing out of the plan.

I turned beathing heavily, only to find myself confused by what I saw. There was no one there, no hero or even an animal of any sort. It took me a few moments to notice that the stump from the tree Scar had cut down was now much more grown, and at an angle. 'Did I... Hit him with a tree?'

I gave a slightly **** chuckle, still not quite believing that was the case. Regardless, no other creatures or events came forth, proving that that must be the case. I took a lot of deep breaths, coming off my adrenaline rush after the fight. 'I actually did it, I don't know why I both did and didn't doubt myself, but I did it. Now then, let's see how that helped with xp.' Looking at my notifications, there was one at the top that almost made me pass out.

Greater Enemy Defeated
+250 generic xp

I stopped breathing for a moment as I stared at it. 'This is not helping my heart rate. It says generic xp, which before has meant it goes through all the multipliers, meaning...' My eyes went yet wider. 'Thats 2,000 class xp and 4,000 monster xp.' I tried to keep myself together, taking more deep breaths as I went to the rest of the notifications.

Apex Skill Unlock
You have reached level 10 in the class line (Priest) for the first time. You may Construct one of the Apex Skills of this class (Rites). Please choose two traits from the following list:
Reanimation (Necromancy) (****), Projectile (Application) (Combat), Recovery (Support) (life), Beam (Application) (Combat), Empower (Support) (GROWTH), Disorient (Curse) (mental), Weaken (Curse) (DECAY), Contagious (Application) (GROWTH), Festering (Application) (DECAY), Summon (Application) (Support), Dispel (Application) (Curse), Target (Application) (Combat), Aura (Application) (Support), Sense (Application) (Support), Malform (Curse) (GROWTH), Cleanse (Support) (DECAY), Leech (Support) (Curse)...

The list seemed to go on forever. This seemed like a complicated system, so for the moment I decided to leave it for a better time. To my understanding, this would not be a set skill like the others, and I should therefore put much more thought into it, hence why I would put it off. I turned to the next messages.

Skill Unlock
You have reached levels 11, 13, & 17 in your class for the first time; you may choose 1 (3) of the following 6 (8) spell/ ability options:
(Ability) Holy Inspiration (Class) (passive), (Spell) Lesser Enhancement (Class) (divine), (Ability) Sermon (Class) (divine) (active), (Spell) Mutation (life) (DOMAIN), (Spell) Incur Momentary Evolution (life) (DOMAIN), (Spell) Sensor (mental), (Ability) Judgement (Passive) (divine), (Spell) Lesser Smite (Class) (divine)

It was somewhat nice to have a higher choices to options ratio, but I did notice something in this fact. 'It has always added two options for every new choice before, but only added one per for this time. I suppose this is a blessing though, I wont be overwhelmingly swamped with choices.' The best choices were somewhat difficult to find. Sensor sounded like a spell that allowed me to gain an alarm or such, yet with Divine Mark I could already do that, so it wasn't too useful. I liked the sound of Judgement, and while it most certainly could be fickle it still intrigued me enough to choose it. On the other side of the spectrum, a spell named Lesser Smite didn't seem excessively useful when paired with my current skillset. So, I looked at the old options and picked up Mutation, and after much deliberation with myself, Sermon, as it was vague but still possibly very useful for my purposes. With my choices complete, I looked at their effects.

Judgement (Passive) (divine): When fighting a being your god judges as wrongful, you gain a 10% boost to all stats. This wrongfulness can be that they are evil, they will do evil, they seek harm towards your god's domain, that they are in defiance of the Laws That Be, or similar such things.

Mutation (life) (DOMAIN): Cause a momentary change in the construction of the target. The target can be you or a creature you touch. The mutations can include hardened skin, claws, a tail, fangs, or other such biological features. Consumes mana depending on the severity of the mutation every second.

Sermon (Class) (divine) (active): You give a speech to a group who is listening to you about your god. The outcome of the faith of the listeners is multiplied, weather it causes them to lose or gain faith.

They were interesting yet situational abilities. Sermon was definitely valuable, but also could turn against me. Mutation seemed like something I could use on myself or allies to give an edge in combat, but was not universally applicable. And then there was Judgement, an ability that could be immensely powerful or useless dependent on how lenient it was. 'Does it let me just think that they are evil, and give me the buff? Or do I have to believe/subconsciously think that they are for it to work. And... what are the Laws That Be? The title is capitalized, so it's some official thing instead of a term for natural laws.' I shrugged, and decided to try asking the HUD.

The HUD reacted violently to this question. A new pop-up appeared, though it was different from the others. There was text on it at first, but it became jumbled and unreadable much to fast for me to read any of it. Then, the text started to form themselves seemingly into a conversation between two unknown figures, one forming out of random pulled letters and the other changing letters to fit:

hE doEs Not kNow

System Registers Knowledge Present

Knowledge nOt hiS

System Draws From One Source

Source nOt wHoLe

System Does Not Understand

Do Not teLl hE is nOt yeT ReAdy

System Will Comply

And with that the window closed, leaving me very confused. Who were these two talking? The second one seemed to be part of the HUD, seeing as it worked with it perfectly and seemed to speak in the third person as "System". The first speaker, however, I could not figure out. It wasn't either of the sisters, it wouldn't make sense for it to be. Neither spoke like that, neither would they need to tear into the HUD in order to do something, as least to my understanding.

With another mystery added onto the pile, making two this night alone, I shook my head and checked my next notification. This one was also important, yet it could not wait like the Rite decision. Clearly, this needed to be dealt with sooner than later.

Evolution Available
Max level (10) of monster tier (I) reached, User may evolve into one of the following higher tier (II) monsters:
Dryad (Nature spirits that draw power from forests)
Phantom (An undead spirit hybrid that uses dark magics)
Elemental Sprite (A being of pure elements, the weakest of its kind)
Animal Spirit (A spirit harnessing the likeness of an animal, gaining the ability to use its traits and form at will)
*Rare Unlock* Corruptor (A spirit that lives to taint others with its influence, turning them to its whims)
*Rare Unlock* Sage Spirit (A spirit that draws upon holy power, granting it a kinship with the light)

I looked over the options as I considered what I should become.