Nilbog rested his back against the wall, in the corner of the gloomy room. He could not sleep on the bed, its soft cushions a foreign oddity to his back. The ground was hard and cold but felt more comforting than the exposed bed. The door was to his right, leaving him in its blind spot.

  He had made his way into one of the more far off locations he thought were more obscure on the second floor, but it seemed he had erred in his decision. Activity still echoed around him, piercing through the thin wooden walls. The streets were abuzz with rioters looting and pillaging, fought against by parties which attempted to farm them.

  Sometimes Nilbog wondered how humans could possibly be more cruel towards each other than to things like him.

  His Shape-Shifting had done him wonders, but overconfidence was a quick killer. The element of surprise won't always be on his side.

  He looked at his hands, the skin on his palms peeling horribly. Shapeshifting into a different body might have changed his looks, but it did not change his injuries. The cuts of his right palm just changed the color and shape according to the shape of his new body.

  The back of his right shoulder pulsed with pain, and a small piece of flesh on the side of his stomach was missing. It burned badly, the shirt he pressed against the wound finally stifling the blood loss. He could do nothing for his shoulder but hope that it would not fester, which was unlikely for his body with his Greater Disease Resistance.

  It took wounds and sickness better than most. He had a couple of layers of filthy cotton unwashed for a few months, before he changed them for the cleaner and more comforting shirts of dead men he had on, but their thickness had protected Nilbog from fatal hits.

  His forearm was both gashed with claw marks, revealing bone beneath the shirts he had wrapped them around. A few scratches remained on his face.

  In all, Nilbog was in very fine condition. His Status Effects screen did not show him to have any injuries, meaning that with the recovery of his HP his flesh will mend.

  Sleeping, if he's cunning enough to catch any tonight, will apply a Rest bonus, increasing all regeneration by 50%.

  The necklace Lady Viss forcibly placed on him seemed to help. Not her personal one, but a smaller, pebble-sized sapphire connected with a silver wire. It rested deep within the heavy layers of his clothes, its coolness comforting the aching of his body..

  Still, even with the added comfort, he was reluctant to even open the Point Screen.

  For Nilbog to make decisions, and attempting to do it while moments from collapsing was not a wise thing to do, but the anticipation was too strong. The Game gave him hope, and it was ripping him apart.

  Better to kill it now than later, he decided, and began to prepare the Rewards Screen. If confidence was a fast killer, then hope was a slow and insidious one.

  He brought his character sheet on the side, reading over the skills he was not familiar with.

  Even as he read Seventh Sense, Nilbog still did not know how it functioned. He had bought it in the last Game with most of his points in the last round, and though it saved his life countless times, it was still a foreign, uncomfortable aspect of himself. It made him feel like he was always a step back behind his body.

  Gourmet Initiate and the strange sounding Murderous Lolie were gained during the downtime. Though Murderous Lolie was a new skill, he did have a similar to one to it in the last Game named Young Blood, meaning that the skill either evolved naturally or just changed-- he couldn’t remember the exact details. Beyond his resources bars, HP, STM, Overall STM, and Life Force, Nilbog had not been able to access any of the menus until now.

  People still gained levels and are able to allocate their points, but beyond the system was mostly turned off. Gaining skills was a very difficult thing to do, relying on years of specific training in order to acquire some skills. Some were accidentally gained, but other than buying them, it was rarely done.

  Still, for a 40 year period, his skill growth was looking pitifully bleak. He’d heard that most young humans started with 5 skills on average with varying rarities, but Nilbog was 40 and had gained only two, and would still face limitations in that, even with the perk of having his age frozen, and having all his rewards increased because of it.

  The top level for his race is level 20, and until he finds a way out of it, he will gain no further experience. As far as he was aware, leveling up was one of the few ways to boost the stats of someone’s sheet, and not parameters. For most races it was 2 stat points per level.

  He also had a feeling the chances of gaining skills were reduced because of his race, though he had no way of finding that out.

  So much lost potential grinded at Nilbog’s consciousness with each monster killed, always attempting to entice him into evolving, but his resolve was yet to waver. He made a solemn to himself, back then, and he would rather perish than break it.

  He’ll never become a Shapeshifter.

  The issue was that until he found an equal or higher tiered monster to consume, his evolution chart will be forever locked.

  Setting aside his hopeless evolution, Nilbog next opened dreadful class, as the issue went hand in hand.

  A large screen opened in front of him. At the bottom was the Player Killer title, connected to three separate paths.

  It was by no means poor; in fact, it was quite an amazing class. The buffs it offered were astronomical, with an offensive, defensive, and utility branch.

  An Epic rating was one step away from the highest, Legendary, or two steps depending on who you ask for where Unique stands.

  Even though Nilbog had received both Young Blood and Player Killer at the same time, Young Blood probably activated before the Player Killer class, as evidenced by the order it is listed in his skill list, and was probably the reason he had received such a powerful class.

  The issue was, in his current condition and for what he was, it was one of the worst classes imaginable.

  Players are the people with the highest chances of winning the Games, Nilbog remembered reading in the library. Even after spending months inside those dingy rooms, somehow teaching himself how to read from children’s book, It was the only piece of information he found.

  In other words, they were the most powerful people in the Game.

  Like that psychotic Pianist.

  And what was Nilbog to do against those? Say he even wanted to climb the ladder, say he actually had the will to pursue that goal: how would he do it, when they would be the most powerful, and with him being stuck at level 20?

  How would he, as a level 20, kill and consume an A ranked monster with a class specialized only in hunting Players, and with him still being stuck at level 20?

  Evolving into a Shapeshifter was simply not an option, leaving him in a paradox.

  It was a miracle, what happened then. He had the opportunity of a lifetime. The only situation that could have possibly saved Nilbog out of his rut: a Player that was an A tier monster that let their guard down.

  He could have killed Lady Viss, and with his Murderous Lolie, he would have probably received her race. A Fairy was an amazing thing to be.

  But he didn’t, and deep inside, he was conflicted. There were a hundred and a half reasons why murdering her was the wrong choice, but none of them seemed to increase his chances of survival.

  A part of him was relieved, but the other cursed him, and he didn’t know which was which. Was it the right choice? Was he a good Rover? A bad monster? A coward for not wanting to get his hands dirty when facing kin?

  She said it herself. No one would have batted an eye if you took that opportunity, Nilbog. No one but the fools.

  Nilbog rested his head on the wall, feeling slight vibrations from some far off battle.

  “I guess I am a fool,” he said, closing his eyes. He would have regretted either decision, but, at the very least, he would have only been proud of one.

  He opened them with a tiny spark. He’d survived four decades in this state; what’s a few more?

  Where others worked on increasing their skills, Nilbog was working on is actual skills, getting the most out of every parameter he had.

  He motioned over the blue reticle, opening the Shop. Other than the settings blinker, which had a cog turning, and held simple settings such as interference and notification preference, the Shop was the last interference button open to him.

  After he pressed it, another screen opened up. A couple of buttons were grayed out, but there were three available to him.

  Going in order, Nilbog opened the System Alteration. Rather than buying skills with points, the System Alteration are changes to the way the Game operated and was unlocked through actions.

  They were not things Nilbog had to worry about, but it was always a good habit to check for any changes or additions to the System Alteration menu, even more than the other three, as it was possibly the only thing that could bring Nilbog out of his predicament--It wouldn’t be the first time that Nilbog missed a notification in the midst of battle, or worse, when he would wake up from sleep.

  He’d heard class change was possible, but the tasks required to unlock it was not known.

  Pressing the back button, Nilbog stared at is two other choices.

  Really, the order in which he viewed Skill Acquisition or Skill Add-ons did not matter--he would view all options before making his decisions, but he still found himself pondering which to go for.

  Sticking to his original intent, Nilbog opened the Skill Acquisition. Four sub-categories opened up.

  Nilbog grunted. His exhaustion was beating his enthusiasm. His Race was locked to the evolution screen and he already looked through his Class skills, but he would still have to study Energy and Life Force, and see if he can even use it.

  He opened the General tab, knowing he would spend most of his points there. General skills were skills that were open everyone, but in nearly all cases they were a weaker variation than skills from class, Life Force, or Energy branch.

  A new window opened, were white, yellow, blue, purple, and red boxes floated in a non-linear order, their colors varying according to their rarities.

  Only a couple of them were legible, however, which made sense. He had no reason to have any legendary skills as a level 20 monster. Most skills unlocked according to his actions.

  He read them one by one, pondering some, and completely dismissing others.

  Though there was a rarity order, some common skills were, in fact, more valuable than rare or epic skills, simply because of their useful effects. Most scholarly communities made a career out of arguing the value of known skills and classes, usually from an F to an S scale, similar to how monsters were ranked by the Game.

  The two largest impacts to the tier were how often the skill would be of use, and how powerful the effect would be when it does get used.

  The first skill Nilbog saw was a perfect example of this.

  This was a core requirement for all humans, especially beginners, considering that the majority damage was because of sharp weapons. It would have been an A tier skill for humans, but considering that in the later levels of the Game, where monsters of people are more likely to blow you to pieces rather than cut you, it did not scale well. It was ranked on C+ for most people and an A for anyone not planning on pursuing any high-level combat.

  Considering Nilbog’s circumstances, it was a great skill for him.

  This was because of the Pianist, no doubt.

  Though picking it would probably remove the shivers that went down his spine each time he thought about her, it was one of the lesser common effects. It might be slightly more useful than normal, considering that most Terror status effects were dealt by Death creatures, the same theme as this Game, it seemed unlikely that Nilbog would get any use out of it. It was too much of a rare Status Effect to waste points on it.

  It was ranked D or less, if his memory served him.

  The Game offered some common builds that people could build for. The Berserker’s build, which was skills that went up in strength with time in battle or by hit proc, was ranked C for hunting monsters, D against other people, but C in large battles.

  Nilbog could see the logic. Berserkers got more powerful as the battle went on, making them useful in long drawn out battles against monsters. They were horrible in duels, considering that most small skirmishes ended in a hit or two, but were useful in war, in where if they could get a few kills, their stats would increase enormously.

  Without stacking similar skills, and without having a Berserker related class, the STM cost was too large for the unlikely case where it would be useful.

  It was very unlikely that Nilbog would choose it.

  Some skills branched off, such as focusing on large battles or small duels.

  The Outnumbered belonged to a horrible category ranking at an F. Having a skill which rewarded being in a severe disadvantage did more harm than good. It would only activate when each enemy that you faced had a higher Power Rating-- the total sum of Brawn, Speed, Armor, and Spirit, meaning that facing five enemies with weaker Power Rating would still fail to activate the skill.

  At that point, you would probably be already dead. Even if they were 20% weaker than you, the disadvantage of facing a group with more knives than you were far too large.

  Duelist, skills which provided bonuses in one on one battles, on the other hand, would have proved useful if he was pursuing his Player Killer class, but since he wasn’t, it was probably around an E, much like other dueling effects.

  Most battles were five on fives, the most common limit for Missions. One on ones were a rare case.

  Easily an S class. The only thing that every fighter, guild, and scholarly institution agreed on, was that skills that saved resources were the most effective use of points, and breathing techniques were the branch that most people unlocked.

  Even if the skill was not powerful, picking it would optimize later skills to have similar effects.

  One leaned towards a more bursty style, which Nilbog quite liked for assassinations or hit and runs, while the other leaned towards more drawn-out battle, which was unfavorable for Nilbog if he was going against someone who was stronger than him.

  Another widely accepted S tier for frontline fighters--even for heavily armored tanks, who would also need to reposition their shields and angle their armor.

  Simply said, getting hit less equates to higher survival rates, even for long-ranged builds.

  Once again, there were two branches, focusing on either short or long battles, with him leaning towards the first.

  Nilbog’s head throbbed, a dull ache pounding on the sides of his skull. His eyes burned, but his eyelids were so heavy that he feared to close them, thinking they would never open again. He didn’t need to check his Overall STM to realize just how beat he was. So much happened, so much much is going to happen.

  He set aside the Life Force and Energy branch for later, and though it was a bad habit, he bought the skills he was sure he was getting. He never knew when danger would strike.

  (Common) Minor Bleed Resistance, (Uncommon) Short-Breath, and (Common) Dodge cost him 35 points in total, leaving him with 25.

  After he would wake up, and double check everything with a sane mind, he would probably buy the increased 5% Speed add-on for Dodge.

  For now, he snuggled himself, each side of the wall a barrier, and tried to sleep, hoping he wouldn’t have too many dreams.