Chapter 48 Kaleas

How did you explain to a person born in the Stone Epoch, that you were from the far future? That you had stats and abilities? That you were in a system designed to create the perfect warrior. Era by era. Epoch by epoch.

The answer, as it turns out, is badly.

‘So…you were forced to come here,’ she said, her eyes flickering as she absorbed my words and we entered the ziggurat. ‘Destined to face the Warlord, then you have to go?’

‘Basically yes,’ I said. I didn’t force it. It was a lot to take in. Even from a boy from a crappy apartment in London, let alone a girl of the Stone Epoch.

‘So-‘ She fell to her knees, clutching at her head.

[Warning – NPC detected within developer zone. Error. Searching…searching… Option available. Would you like to convert NPC to avatar status?]

NPC. The word fucking grinded me. She wasn’t an NPC. She was Ayla. Flesh and blood. Strength and spirit. To have her reduced to those three fucking letters…

Error. It didn’t like her being here. Messed with its code.

‘What…what’s going on?’ she said. Her eyes were wide, fearful. Something was happening to her.

Avatar status.

I knelt. ‘Being a sky person…it makes you stronger. Far stronger than any regular person. Do you…do you want that?’

She was in pain. She was wincing. But what she said next, she said without hesitation. ‘Yes.’

I helped her to her feet, and opened my HUD and selected yes.

[Working. Working. Code incomplete. Update missing. Utilising older code. Searching. Applying now. Please stand by.]

Another warning flashed across my screen. I didn’t need to open it — I knew we were running out of time. I opened the party chat.

[They coming. Leave now. Danger.]

[Almost. Go, you go. Me behind you.]

I got Ayla to her feet. ‘Time to leave,’ I said, opening up the HUD.

[Warning – Would you like to leave the developer zone? This will immediately activate teleport without any system prompt.]

Selected.

[Teleport activated.]

[Have a nice day.]

*

It was time to level up.

Level nine. One level from the max level of the Stone Epoch. One level before I would challenge the Warlord and throw him from the mountaintop.

But first, time to make that level count, I thought as I clicked on the golden arrow on my character portrait. The avatar was stoic today. Even he knew how much was riding on this. He looked at me, and simply nodded. We had been in this together from the beginning. Now we would end it.

Level eight. Seven levels of hunter, two of beastmaster. Looking over my stats, and my level, I knew I had made a mess of this. There wasn’t really any synergy between hunter and beastmaster.

I thought back to how I had picked the hunter class right at the start of this. I wondered how things would have been different if I’d gone barbarian or shaman. Then again, hunter had served me well. I’d been outnumbered and outfought more than once. And the beastmaster had been a free level.

No. Now wasn’t the time to worry about the optimisation that could’ve been. The goal was simple. Beat Ironclad.

I stared at my options. A small part of me thought about taking a level of shaman. Magic seemed powerful, far more than I had given it credit for. I had seen both Miggy and Kaleo do incredible things, but no… That would be insane. To take a level of shaman now, when my wisdom was a dump stat.

So the question was really beastmaster or hunter. Ironclad’s perception was high. Stealth wasn’t going to help. The next time we fought, no matter how hard I prepared, I knew it was going to end in a brawl. I selected a level of beastmaster and increased my strength as the main stat.

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