The answer was not verbal, but instead appeared as a notification.

  Options for Grand Boons:

  1) +15 to all stats

  2) +10 to 3 resistances

  3) 1 Master Level Skill

  4) 1 Master Level Spell Usable mana free 3/day

  5) Sufficient XP to Regain Level Prior to Most Recent Death

  6) Maximized Faction with 1 group

  7) 1 Unique Piece of Gear of Mythic Quality

  I stared at the options. Some of them again were booby prizes. The bonus to stats was static. While gaining 75 stat points would be significant, even to me, it would fade in value over time. The same could be said about the resistances.

  I was already far enough along in faction with players that I wasn’t going to use this boon for that. This left me with four options, though. Regaining nine thousand XP would have been colossal as a player, but I had already proven I could level up fairly quickly as an ogre. So, I discarded that option too.

  Now, it got tougher. I decided to ask another question. “If I choose a skill, spell-like ability or the piece of unique gear, who will decide what I get?”

  There was another pause before the answer came back.

  For Master Skills, you will be given three options relevant to your class and build, or you may choose to Master any of your current skills.

  For Spell Like Abilities, you will be given three options relevant to your class. One from each of your affinities and one selected based upon review of your needs.

  For Unique Gear, you will be given a piece created by the system to shore up your weaknesses.

  If I read that correctly, none of the options were bad. Getting some skills to master wouldn’t matter that much. Like making my piercing weapons skill master level would make me a great spear fighter. That might seem great for a while, but it would quickly lose its luster. On the other hand, if I took mastery in a skill like enchanting or alchemy, it could be a game changer.

  The spell-like ability likewise could make me considerably more powerful now. Of course, its value would lessen as I leveled up, but skills and spells only became harder to obtain the higher your level became. And no matter what, it would be a freebie without mana. So, I could always treat it as a type of ace up my sleeve.

  The gear was tempting too, though. I knew I would eventually obtain gear, but my player character had never had a piece of gear at mythic tier. That was only one step less than legendary and as of the last time I had known, no legendary gear had been discovered in the game yet.

  Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that no matter how good the gear was, it could always be taken from me. It was down to two options. The choice between them was really one of how I saw myself. If I wanted to be a crafter, then I should choose the master level skill. But I already knew that wasn’t me. I was a fighter who might also craft, not the other way around.

  So with that I triggered my choice and was given a list of three options for spell like abilities I could use.

  Talisman of Arctic Force: Enhances the body of all party members within 50’. Duration is 6 hours.

  Effect: Targets Max HP are increased by 2,500 for the duration.

  Effect 2: Targets gain a cold aura, causing 15 cold dmg per second to any enemy within 3’ also granting cold resistance 100, fire resistance 80

  Effect 3: Targets gain STR: +60

  Effect 4: Targets melee attacks gain 10% chance to trigger Arctic Blast upon a successful attack. (Arctic Blast is a level 70 spell)

  Call the Venom Pack: Conjures 3 spirit wolves who fight or protect the caster. Duration: 5 minutes. Spirit wolves are level 95. Poison/Disease Immunity, HP: 7,000. All attacks also do poison damage and add both poison and disease counters.

  Spirit Zone of Malaise: Creates an AoE debuff affecting all enemies with the area. Enemies who leave the AoE have a 70% chance that the effect will cling to them for the duration. AoE: 60’ radius. Duration: 60 seconds. All enemies within radius suffer the following effects:

  Effect: -75 to all elemental resistances

  Effect: Attack Speed -30%

  Effect: Spirit Damage 15/second

  Effect: +1 curse counter every 5 seconds

  I stared at the spell-like abilities. They were each overwhelming. Of course, what had I expected from master level spells. So, an incredible long duration buff that would make me and my allies considerably more powerful. I realized that once I was around players, they would pay a fortune for that buff before they went on dungeon dives. The HP buff or the Strength bonus alone would have made it valuable, but adding the damage shield, elemental resistance, and an ice attack made it feel broken. That was probably the point of a grand boon.

  The pets were tempting. With those, I could clear a zone like this in minutes. The only downside to the pets was their short duration. Five minutes would be longer than most any fight I should be in, except perhaps a boss raid, but dungeons could take a few hours to clear. If I went that route, I would have to be very selective in my use of them.

  Then there was the final option. An incredible debuff that would kill most enemies I fought by itself. The spirit damage would equal nine hundred HP over the duration, apart from anything else that was done. Any wizards I was allied with would bless my name for this spell. It would cripple enemies to their elemental attacks and allow them to hit much harder. Even my frost and fire spells would benefit immensely from it. Again, the problem was the limited duration and limited uses.

  I laughed as I anguished over the decision. I think the old expression was that this was a first world problem. If I sat there for too long, I would continue to talk myself out of whichever one I was leaning towards at that moment. A decision had to be made.

  So ultimately what decided it for me was the duration of the effects. That and what my chief goal was. I wanted to be desirable to player parties. It would be hard to turn me down when I could offer a buff like that.

  No sooner had I made my decision than I found myself respawning back where I had just been. The grass all around me was scorched. The remains of the monsters I had fought were destroyed. My new armor was on my body, and I felt the power it added to me.

  I immediately cast Talisman of Arctic Fury on myself. The power that swelled through me was like an ocean. I felt indestructible. As I looked at the buff icon in my display, I noticed that the duration was nine hours rather than six. That so completely rocked. Apparently, the bonus of my Hex Warden affinity also affected this spell like ability. I couldn’t contain myself but had to open my character sheet.

  NPC- HI 3a5.x290

  Integration: 27.3%

  AI Usage: 14%

  Call Name: Oogliefrank

  Monster Race: Ogre

  Ht: 9’2” Weight: 848 lbs

  Class: Shaman- Hex Warden, Pack Caller

  Level: 21st

  XP to Level 22: 0/1,000

  Available XP: 523

  Strength: 69 (136) +10%

  Agility: 43

  Constitution: 78

  Mind: 65

  Will: 142 (170) +20%

  Unassigned Free Stat Points: 20

  HP: 3,303/3,303 +10%

  HP Regen: 1.46/second

  Mana: 1,870/1,870 +10%

  Mana Regen: 6.8/second

  Armor Rating: 26

  Physical Resistance-

  Slash: 18

  Blunt: 8

  Pierce: 7

  Fire Resistance: 105

  Cold Resistance: 130

  Electric Resistance: 30

  Acid Resistance: 10

  Necrotic Resistance: 0

  Radiant Resistance: 0

  Poison Resistance: 31

  Disease Resistance: 31

  Skills: (relevant)

  Blunt Weapons: Proficient 1

  Piercing Weapons: Proficient 3

  Skinning/Butchering: Basic 20

  Cooking: Basic 20

  Mana Channeling: Proficient 2

  Rapid Meditation: Basic 20

  Dodge: Proficient 12

  Spell Forging: Basic 10

  Spells: Flameburst (B-20), Regeneration (B-20), Flash of Light (B-20), Spirit’s Protection (B-19), Home (B-5), Levitation (B-10), Root (B-17), Walking Sleep (B-18), Wolf Spirit (B-10), Frost Rift (B-20)

  Signature Spells: Frostburn (P-3)

  Spell Like Abilities: Talisman of Arctic Force 3/day

  Racial Abilities:

  Starting Stats: STR: +25, CON: +20, AGI: -5, MIND: -5*, WILL: 0*

  Iron Gut: Poison and Damage Resistance equals level +30%

  Rage: 1/hour

  Frostburn Durability: increased physical, cold, and fire resistances

  Stun Immunity

  Trans-dimensional Body (B-1)

  Class Abilities:

  Hex Warden: Strength +10%, Buffs and Debuffs- Duration increased by 50%, Mana Cost reduced by 50%. Electricity Resistance: +50, Fire Vulnerability: -20.

  Pack Caller: Will + 10%. Spirit based spells +25% duration. Caster level is treated as 25% higher for the purpose of learning and casting spirit spells, Mana Cost of Spirit spell -25%. Fire Resistance: +50, Electricity Vulnerability: -20.

  Spell casting

  Faction:

  Players (General): acquaintance (+2,000)

  Beasts: Hated (-3,000)

  Ogres: Neutral (240)

  Ghazban Village: Polite (+1,075)

  Monster Races (General): Feared (-2,000)

  Active Buff/Debuff:

  Talisman of Arctic Force

  Despite having looked at my sheet many times before, I noticed several interesting things as I looked at it this time. Sadly, my integration had gone up by another .2% with this death. I guess it was unavoidable. At least I now have twenty free stat points.

  The second line, which was for AI usage, had gone up an entire 2%. I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Part of me was pretty sure that anything which tied me more closely to the AI which ran this game world was probably a bad thing.

  It’s way of relating to me in the loading matrix had been bizarre. AIs were generally created to serve humanity, but this thing clearly thought of me as its servant. Its ultimatum that I would serve it one way or the other was creepy because there was no megalomaniacal laughter that went along with it. It was stated as a simple fact.

  Some simple math also showed me that bonuses from my armor were added prior to my percentage boosts. But the bonuses from my buff were added after the fact. In looking at my stats, I didn’t know how, but I somehow gained two more Will and Constitution. I wasn’t mad, but I also didn’t like it when the numbers didn’t make sense. It came from reading too many litrpg.

  That was when I noticed another modification to my sheet. Under my racial attributes, there was a line for Trans-dimensional Body which was listed as Basic level 1. I checked my logs and there was nothing from the system regarding that change.

  It was beyond me how I could have gotten some type of new bloodline feature without getting a notification. I wondered if it was somehow outside the functioning of the system. Initially, I rejected that idea, but then I had to wonder. After all, I was locked in this zone because the system claimed there was some breach from outside the system. Who knew what was possible?

  I was so distracted by the changes in my sheet that I almost didn’t notice something on the ground. Everything else had been scorched by the explosion but laying there on the ground was the clawed hand which I had hacked off as it tried to reach through the breach. It didn’t seem to have been damaged at all by the explosion which killed me.

  I tried to Assess it to see if there was anything I could learn about it. All I got for my trouble was a headache. There wasn’t even an error message or anything, and the longer I stared at it, the more I started to see black lines running across my vision.

  If I was honest with myself, the item terrified me, but it was also outside the system. How that was possible still defied my understanding of everything I thought I knew. There it was, as clear as day, that couldn’t be denied. It was ugly and wrinkly. The claws were long nails of obsidian black, while the skin itself was gray. What’s more, there was no blood leaking out of it.

  Finally, I decided it was worth the risk. I bent over and picked it up. No sooner had my hand touched it than I heard the words in my head. “Would you be free?”

  I dropped it back to the ground immediately. After another minute of staring at it, I poked it with my spear. Nothing happened, so I bent over and picked it up again. This time I didn’t hear any voice. Maybe it was just my overwrought imagination. Who could blame me after all I had been through in the past few weeks? I dropped it into a pouch and determined to find a place to rest for a few hours.

  Chapter 28- Looking for Trouble

  There was too much weird going on now. I just wanted to rest. So, I head back to the outer edge of the zone. Simple to be certain, I tried climbing up out of the valley, but hit a wall. There was no pain. I would take one step too many and suddenly find myself facing the other way. Definitely no way out now.

  If I were smaller, I would have climbed one of the few trees. From what I had seen of the mobs in this zone, none of the serious predators were going to be up in a tree. I knew there were drakes here even if I hadn’t encountered any so far. I also knew they were far too large to stay in a tree. Of course, so was I.

  The next best option was trying to find a cave. I knew that several hills here had caves in them. They were often lairs for bears or giant beetles, but I could clean one of those out if it meant having a secure place to sleep. After thirty minutes of intentionally avoiding any of the traps that were in place, I lucked into a cave in the outer wall of the zone.

  Much of the zone was surrounded by high cliff walls with a few places where the ridge was low enough to climb over and two designated paths in or out. The cave was on the small side, which helped me feel better about anything I might find in it. I began by tossing in a Flameburst.

  When nothing growled or screamed at me, I assumed it was empty. My nightvision was good enough to see inside so I crouched down and crawled in. For all the adrenaline or whatever the digital equivalent was, which had been pumping through my veins for quite a while now, I managed to fall asleep quickly.

  I must have been even more tired than I realized, because when I woke up the sun was already high in the sky, signifying late morning. My stomach was growling, which also showed me it had been a while since I had eaten. I pulled a chunk of bear meat out of my bags.

  Instantly, I realized my mistake. I should have set up my fire before pulling the meat out. An almost overwhelming urge to bite down on the chunk of raw flesh filled me. The rumbling in my stomach turned into a pinching pain as it tried to overwhelm the rest of my senses. I buckled down and pushed it aside, but not without trouble. I already knew what the notification that popped up would be about, so I disregarded it as I got busy gathering wood.

  Time for a late breakfast. A little wood and a little mana channeling later had a nice roaring fire. I practiced my skills by pushing harder with mana, channeling to keep a Flameburst spell constantly on the edge of going off. The point was to keep the heat as high as possible without actually letting the spell explode.

  Within minutes, I had a good bed of coals to work with and level up to Mana Channeling (P-3) to show for my trouble. I let my frying pan heat up while I cut the bear meat into thick steaks. It was a bit tough, but I was an ogre.

  I rendered some of the bear fat down to fry the meat in. Then, for good measure, I threw in some of the root vegetables I had found while gathering wood. Before long, I had steak and fried potatoes cooking up. The meat was from a level nineteen bear, so I felt it might be worth trying to pour some mana into it.

  Keeping the heat just right so the steaks initially seared to lock in their juices and then sprinkling some salt and pepper on it helped. Holding the heat also worked both my mana channeling and cooking skills. Then I pushed it further by trying to infuse mana into the meat. The root vegetables just wouldn’t hold any mana, so I didn’t bother past the first one that exploded.

  Meat, on the other hand, seemed willing to soak up mana. Maybe it was because it was from a formerly living being or not. What made that distinction in digital constructs baffled me. It was further fuel for my suspicions that things were not all as I believed them to be.

  In the end, I was able to infuse a fair amount of mana into the steaks. I did end up burning one of them. Given that I was cooking over ten pounds of meat, that didn’t seem too bad. My larger mana pool made doing the multiple tasks easier.

  Cooking didn’t level up, but I could feel that there was something blocking it from going to the next level. From the little that I knew about crafting skills, each tier marked a vast improvement from the tier before it. That was the case with melee and magical skills, but apparently the difference was even greater with crafting skills. I would likely have to pass a test of sorts. The problem being that the system might not tell me what that was until I figured it out on my own.