I smiled at her even if she thought I was ugly, it didn’t hurt to try to be charming. “No, I have simply been saving up my XP. I am ready to cross the first threshold now.”

  “Whatz youz mean?” She asked. The expression on her face spoke of confusion. At least it did now that I had learned to interpret ogre faces better.

  “I simply don’t accept the XP when I get it. Then I allow it to build up until it is sufficient to go to level five in one instant.”

  “Youz having strange ideaz in dat ooglie head of yours,” Shemi said.

  I was confused for a moment. The instructions I had gotten made it clear that this was available to all monsters. But maybe that was just it. Maybe the ogres were so stupid that they just assigned all their XP and stats as quickly as they obtained it. Hmm…

  Not that it really mattered. Leveling up was as simple as a thought. I triggered it and got the following message.

  Congratulations on reaching level 5. This is known as the first threshold. Respawn will no longer reduce you to level 1, but from now on will reduce you to level 5. There are other thresholds which can also lock as you level. At certain thresholds, you will gain additional perks.

  For crossing the first threshold, you gain +1 free stat point and your class will evolve. Outcast can evolve into either an Oracle or a Shaman. You must choose within 1 minute or the choice will be made for you.

  It was much as I had expected. I had already felt the basic stat points being assigned. Eight went into Will, with four into both Strength and Constitution. The bonus points into Will seemed to imply that Shaman was the correct choice. Of course, I had already gone over this before. I realized an oracle might be more like my usual class of wizard. But it also could end up being one of the crazy, mumbling prophet types.

  I definitely didn’t want that. So better the devil I knew than the devil I didn’t. Also weighing in favor of shaman was the fact that I liked the healing powers. As real as pain was to me now, healing was almost an essential. Simple as that, I selected shaman.

  You have chosen the class shaman. As a result, you gain your choice of two spells out of three options.

  Flash of Light: Attempt to blind your enemy with a quick flash of light. The spell has a range of 30’+1’/level. Duration is 10 seconds + 1 second/level. Mana Cost is 10+.5/level rounded up.

  Effect: Blindness- this effect may be resisted.

  Effect 2: Target loses the equivalent of 5 skill from all relevant attack skills.

  Inner Power: Causes target to experience a toughening of their body. Range is touch. Duration is 1 hour + 2 minutes/level Mana Cost: 25+1/level.

  Effect: Defense is increased by 2 +.25/level.

  Effect 2: Target gains temporary HP for the duration equal to 50 + 2/level.

  Compass: Spell will guide you towards a known target or in the absence of a known target will show you north. Effect is passive once cast. Mana cost: 1/minute until ended.

  That was frustrating, in a way. A debuff that might blind a foe and could theoretically take 20% or more of the attack accuracy away from a similar level opponent. That was nothing to sneeze at for sure. Then there was buff, which might not do as much for a warrior, but for me without an armor, it was initially a 33% increase in my defense and that was before I leveled it.

  But at the same time, I was going to have to find my way to the players. It was almost like the AI was taunting me with an ability that I might need later on. I always hated those games or books, where you really had to make one specific decision if you wanted to have a viable build. It was the worst type of foreshadowing. Not that I could really afford to treat this like a game.

  Eventually, I either made a stupid oversight or I simply refused to rise to the bait as I chose the debuff and buff. I felt the knowledge of how to cast those spells downloaded into my head. With a greater understanding of them, I was certain that hunting monsters was going to become much easier. With each new spell came another tattoo ring upon my arm.

  Thinking about it probably took less than a minute, but I could feel Shemi’s eyes on me. I didn’t want to annoy her, but I also wasn’t going to be rushed. I had planned for the free points. Now was the time to use them. My plan called for me to focus on Will as my primary stat. First off, I wanted to be able to resist the way the game seemed to play with my emotions and second, But I also was going to boost my mind stat. It would help me solve problems and contribute to the potency of my magic, or at least that was my hope.

  I also knew that I would still be physically fighting for some time to come until I became part of a proper team. With that in mind, I was going to sink more than a third of my points into my physical stats. I glanced at my character sheet. The increased power was very welcome. I didn’t hold any delusions about being a match for the chief or Tulbat, even with these extra stats. But I knew they would be helpful in a myriad of ways.

  The physical stats had felt painful as I applied them. When I added Strength, my muscles bulged. As I added Constitution, I felt sturdier but the most bizarre was Agility. Of course, it was my lowest stat, and I was adding more points to it than any besides Will. My body grew leaner and more balanced. I felt like I could handle my strength much more easily now.

  Strength: 50

  Agility: 21

  Constitution: 50

  Mind: 20

  Will: 76

  Unassigned Free Stat Points: 0

  Then I was broken out of my enjoyment as Shemi grabbed my ear. “Me no thought youz could get more ooglie, but prove old Shemi wrong you did. Now, you prentice. No cooking today. Today learning spells.” With that, she tugged on my ear and I felt myself being pulled along behind her back out into the forest.

  Chapter 14- Apprentice

  I had no idea what she was doing, but her fingers were pretty strong for an old woman. She kept mumbling about how ugly I was. I really didn’t know what to make of that. I definitely felt trimmer than before, but was still definitely a massive ogre as I towered over her. Well, except when she was pulling my ear down.

  “Prentice works hard. Prentice learn five crafts of shaman.”

  I struggled to get a question out while she was dragging me along. “What do you mean, the five crafts of shaman?”

  “The main onez that shamanz use: Cold, Heal, Spirit, Body, Contaminate,” she replied.

  I listened as she finally stopped dragging me out. “Youz be gudz with some and not gudz with others.”

  Interpreting ogre speak still wasn’t always easy but if I understood her correctly, then she was saying that those were akin to affinities that shamans used and I was likely to be better at some of them than others.

  She grabbed my arm now and looked at the two new tattoo rings which had appeared when I got my new class spells. “Gudz. Didn’t fallz for compass.”

  I just looked at her, waiting for more explanation. “Is trickz of spirits. See’z if youz paying attention. Ogre have mini mapz. Why needz compass?”

  I wasn’t sure that was entirely accurate, but for now it made me feel a bit better. She interrupted his thoughts again. “Showz you cast new spellz.”

  Hmm… so she wanted a demonstration. Easy enough with Inner Power. I placed my hand on my chest and quickly cast it. I felt the power surge within me. The spell cost more to cast than any other base spell I had so far, but it was a great feeling. I could feel a slight buzzing aura around my skin. That must be the extra defense. It likely wouldn’t stop a head on strike but might cause an otherwise glancing blow to miss entirely.

  This led to me taking a look at my health also. HP: 500/500 (552)

  “Now, youz use other spell,” she commanded.

  “I will need a target…” I started to protest. But I stopped as a gray mist came up out of the ground. Shemi was casting something and over the course of half a dozen seconds, the mist took the shape of a wolf. It wasn’t entirely solid, but clearly it was a wolf composed of gray smoke.

  “Youz fight me’z pet.”

  I stepped backward quickly to give myself room to work. One hand was freeing my spear while the other hand reached out. I shouted, “Flash of Light”.

  The spell went off flawlessly, but I immediately got the message, “Shaman wolf summon A43178 resisted the blinding effect of your spell.”

  I tried assessing the creature, but it was on me so fast that all I could do was sidestep and jab with the spear. I was no fool with the spear. Certainly, not a master, but my skill level was as high as basic skills could go. I immediately realized I would need to break into proficient, the next tier of skills before I would have much chance of hitting this wolf.

  At least for players, while skills were not directly linked to level, there still was a connection. A level one player or a level nineteen player could have a 20 in a specific skill that they had worked on, but neither of them could get a 21 in any skill. It seemed like the creators of Legends of Selmia wanted the development of skills and leveling to be separate processes, but not completely disconnected.

  Not that I had much time for thinking about it now. I moved deftly around it, pleased with how much more quickly my body was responding to me now. Agility really had been a good choice. I thrust my spear forward, working to keep the snarling dog of mist away from me. The spear tip barely pricked its surface, but I could tell it caused at least minimal damage.

  I was barely able to keep ahead of the beast's snapping jaws. He was much faster than me and kept trying to get behind me to bite down on my legs. I assumed his intent was to get me down on the ground. I kept the spear moving as fast as I could, trying to keep it at bay. Then it dawned on me that my debuff was going to wear off, so I immediately recast it. I would need to see if my UI could be set up to show countdowns on active debuffs.

  Unsurprisingly, the blinding effect was resisted again, but at least it appeared to be keeping his attacks from being quite as effective. I shouted, “Flameburst” and fire danced along the smoky hide of the spirit wolf. It burned, but didn’t seem to cause the creature any great difficulty.

  It did, however, buy me enough time to finally assess the creature.

  Shemi’s Spirit Wolf Level: ???

  HP: ???

  Not that it did me any good. Usually, summons were around the level of the one summoning them, give or take 25% based upon equipment and skills. But I knew this one was at least over level 15.

  In the end, all of my efforts were in vain. It resisted my blindness effect seven times and while I pricked it repeatedly with my spear or burned it with fire, nothing seemed to really slow it. Finally, Shemi said, “Enough.”

  Her spirit wolf dutifully ran over to her side and sat upon its haunches. Its eyes never left me, though. “That be howz spirit summon fight unguided.”

  “Unguided?” I asked back.

  She just gave me a wicked smile before pointing at me and saying, “Attack.”

  This time the wolf came at me faster. It was far more intentional. My thrust penetrated deeper, but the beast didn’t seem to care. It kept going until it had knocked me flat on my back within two seconds. Its jaws came down around my throat and I thought for an instant that Shemi was one of those cruel instructors. But no, she called it back.

  From there she explained that spirit was her top affinity and she could make her pet much more powerful than that of other shamans by focusing some of her intention into it. At least that was how I understood what she was saying.

  When I asked her to teach me the spirit wolf spell, she just laughed at me. Apparently, that was a level twenty spell, which at least gave me some idea about her minimum level. She said she was going to teach me two spells today. First was one to save me time, and the second was one to help me fight.

  She seemed bothered that I used flame, since in her mind the power of a shaman was cold. I wasn’t going to let that bother me, though. I would use whatever worked. The first spell she taught me was truly useful. It was called Home. It would allow me to teleport myself and only myself to my designated respawn spot as long as I was within 500 miles of the location.

  It didn’t solve my problem of being bound in Ghazban village, but after some questioning, she made it clear that it was possible to change your bind spot. I would just have to find another suitable location. Thankfully, she didn’t ask any questions about why I wanted that information.

  The next spell was eye opening in another way.

  Frost Rift- Basic 1: Creates a cutting blast of cold energy. Range: 80’+1’/level. Cut is two inches wide. Damage: 20-60+3/mastery level. Possible freeze or chill effect. Cast Time: 1 sec. Mana Cost: 30+2/level.

  Assuming freezing and chilling effects were the same as when I was a player, those were some impressive powers for a spell at this level. A frozen enemy didn’t necessarily mean they were encased in a block of ice. It just meant there was enough ice on them to inhibit their movement substantially. Whereas a chilled opponent was slower and less accurate because of being so cold.

  I was also blown away by how much more powerful the spell was in terms of range and damage. It just blew Flameburst out of the water. Seeing my reaction, Shemi said, “See’z fire no shaman weapon. Spirits demandz we chillz enemies' blood.”

  When I asked her which affinity Home belonged to, she said spirit. She said I should use it to hunt further afield. She said she could keep the chief and Tulbat off of me for a few days, but that if I didn’t make it to level ten, then I would be too weak to protect myself.

  With that she kicked me in my back side and then I heard her cast Home. I wasn’t really that far from her hut yet, so I knew most of the monsters around here would be pretty easy for me to handle. I also wanted to try out my new powers.

  I now had a dramatic increase in mana. So, I wasn’t afraid of the costly Frost Rift. It also should allow me to kill monsters at a greater range. I did notice that it started out as Basic 3, so I assumed that meant it was a 3rd level spell. Meanwhile, Home started out as Basic 5, so it was probably a 5th level spell. That matched pretty well with the one hundred mana cost for the spell. I just needed to remember that if I was in a dangerous situation, I had to save 100 mana in reserve to be able to escape.

  For now, I was going to test out my new spells on some of the lesser monsters. There was something incredibly hilarious about blind rage badgers. They could still follow me with their noses, but a couple times they almost scratched their own eyes out trying to remove the blindness effect. After having let the little buggers claw and bite on me for the past month, it was hilarious to see their hyperactive and constantly raging selves running around blindly.

  A single Frost Rift was often enough to kill the level three badgers and a critical strike would kill even a level four. To clarify, that was when I used mana channeling with them. The spells seemed to do near max damage every time and doubling that was significant. More than that, my skill level in the spell shot up. Within an hour, I had hit level 10 with it and by morning time I had hit level 20.

  I came to believe that my significant Will score was causing the shaman specific spells to work much better for me. I wouldn’t complain at all because it justified the fact, I had put so many points into it. My enhanced Agility and Strength also came into play and the jungle cats and rage badgers never stood a chance.

  I didn’t end up collecting very much XP that first night, but when I triggered Home and returned to the respawn site under my own power, it was a good feeling. I had spent the night getting acclimated to my new abilities. Not once had I taken a serious injury and most of the monsters, I could kill before they even reached me. It was a powerful and addictive feeling.

  Once Shemi was up, I told her I had maxxed out Frost Rift and the other spells I had learned other than Home. I hoped she would teach me some new spells, but she didn’t believe me. No matter how much I protested, she insisted that no one could raise a skill that fast. Of course, that only drove home the point to me that the increased Will was having an effect.

  As my punishment for lying, she told me I would have to clean around the village today. The problem being that the warriors were all angry that I wasn’t cooking today. So now when they saw me, I was going to have to do a great deal of dodging to avoid being sent for respawn. So maybe I had been right at first. Shemi was definitely the tough love kind of teacher.

  Chapter 15- Played as a Pawn

  I moved about the village that day, trying to keep my head down. There was a part of me that wanted to test myself against the ogres. Well, I should say against the other ogres, since there was no denying that I was one of them now. I half-way wondered if the AI was messing with my head because it was filled with many violent thoughts.

  How would I even know if my thought patterns were being changed? If the AI did it slowly, subtly enough, I might one day end up just like these ogres. What terrified me about that was not the violence. I was okay with killing monsters. It wasn’t like I was killing actual beings. Most of them were just digital constructs running on minimal AI guidance. Even if I killed players, I wasn’t killing them, just their avatar.