Chapter 4 - Choose Your Path

All right, calm down. If I’m going to be breaking out of some kind of experimental lab, I’m going to have to prep for it. Let’s check and see if I can find out more about my race.

Chimera Created by combining the DNA of several species, the resulting creature is what many would term an abomination. These hybrid creatures can be terribly strong, but many would hunt them for what they are, or enslave them to use them as disposable tools. There are four main types of Chimeras, each based on a different development path. Hunter – Created by combining human genes with those of predatory beasts, the Hunter excels at hunting and tracking. Unfortunately, they also tend to be feral-minded creatures, acting with more instinct than intelligence. Stalker – Stalker Chimeras are feared for their stealth abilities. Their particular combination of genes makes them extremely hard to detect, as they can make themselves invisible at will, and at higher levels can hide themselves from thermal scans, and even become invisible to high-level sensing Psy powers. Battery – These unfortunate creatures are lumbering brutes designed to soak as much damage as possible. They tend to have massive stores of PP, but little ability to use it for themselves. Instead, their controllers use them as a battery for their own Psy Powers, while relying on the Battery to be a convenient meat shield. Infiltrator – Arguably the most dangerous of the Chimeras, the Infiltrator types are typically the weakest of the four when it comes to physical combat. However, their strength lies in their ability to mimic other life forms. They have limited shapeshifting abilities, and are gifted with Mental Psy Powers.

Hmm. I could see a lot of possibilities with those options. I guess that’s what the ‘choose your path’ thing from earlier was talking about, huh? I’ll need to pick one before I go spending my points, then.

My Fame (or lack thereof) was pretty insane for a starting character. Given that one title I had, I figured there was a connection.

That Which Should Not Be You are an abomination created by experiments that are illegal in many systems. Suffer a -100000 Fame penalty to all those who know your true nature. Many governments will not consider you a person, making it legal for anyone to kill you. Some may even pay bounties for your death. Luck starts at 0 instead of 10, as stats normally do.

Well fuck. So, keeping people from knowing what I was could mean the difference between life and death. How I did that would depend on my path, it seemed. With that in mind, I looked back at the paths again.

Battery looked to be an interesting hybrid of tank and support. Except I didn’t feel like being anyone’s Blaster to their Master. That wasn’t going to fly in my book. There were potential options there, but this was the least useful (to me), and the path that would probably be hardest to keep under wraps.

Hunter was also not something I was really interested in. It sounded like a Ranger or Druid type build, or your typical Lycan build. Probably give me excellent DPS in the short term, but it would be wildly obvious what I was, and I didn’t think I could simply gloss it over.

Stalker would be ideal for a rogue or assassin type. I definitely liked the idea of being able to hide from people hunting me once I got up in levels. But did I really want to be an invisible assassin in a universe full of things to see and do? It’d be awesome, if I managed to get to high levels with it, but getting to the level where I could act freely would be a pain.

Then there was the Infiltrator. This screamed ‘doppleganger’ to me, as it would to pretty much anyone who had ever picked up the Monster Manual from any edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Being able to change my face would allow me to adopt a lot of different disguises, so even if I was discovered, I could slip back into the shadows without too much trouble.

The ’weaker in physical combat’ bit was troubling, especially since it seemed like I would be facing a really tough start, but I signed on for a challenge, right? What could be more challenging than taking something that should not be, playing on the hardest difficulty, and doing it with a handicap?

You have chosen the Infiltrator’s Path. +25% Affinity to Mental Psy. +25% Resistance to Mental Psy. +10 to all Mental Stats. Infiltrator abilities unlocked. Base Appearance Setting unlocked. Gender set to Fluid. Shapeshift skill gained. Mental Psy Mastery skill gained.

Well, that was good. I should probably check and see what the individual stats did.

Attributes: Strength (STR) – Strength applies to both carrying capacity and damage from STR-based weapons (most physical melee or thrown weapons). Also plays a key role in your Physical Attack. Dexterity (DEX) – Dexterity applies to damage from DEX-based weapons (most energy melee or projectile weapons). Also plays a key role in your Physical Defense. Constitution (CON) – Constitution helps you to resist toxins, diseases, and other such dangers. Your base HP is equal to CON*10, though other factors may affect the true total. HP Regenerates at a rate of CON/10 per hour. Endurance (END) – Endurance is a measure of your physical stamina. Higher END allows you to hold your breath longer, run further, and so on. Stamina (ST) is based on END*10. ST regenerates at a rate of END/10 per minute. Intelligence (INT) – A rough measure of your brain power. Higher INT helps with memory, problem solving, and more. Your base PP is INT*10. PP regenerates at a rate of INT/10 per minute. Wisdom (WIS) – Wisdom helps with making proper decisions, and with ‘gut instinct’. It also forms the core of your mental defenses, as it plays a key role in Special Defense. Charisma (CHA) – Charisma is not just physical beauty, but force of personality as well. High charisma allows you to better interact with and influence NPCs and players alike. It is also important for those who fight with Psy abilities, as it is key to Special Attack. Luck – Luck is a nebulous attribute, with hidden effects. Has an effect on Crit chances, loot drops, random encounters, and more. Could lead to great rewards, or a ‘lucky’ encounter with a pirate armada. Physical Attack – Applies towards accuracy of all physical attacks. Physical Attack is equal to STR+((DEX-10)/2). Certain weapons may increase or replace base Phys Att depending on their nature (such as projectile weapons or energy blades). Physical Defense – Applies towards dodging or defending against all physical attacks. Physical Defense is equal to DEX+((STR-10)/2). Certain armors may increase or replace base Phys Def depending on their nature (such as power suits or psionic armor). Special Attack – Applies towards accuracy of all Psy attacks. Special attack is equal to CHA+((WIS-10)/2). Certain items and abilities may increase or replace base Sp Att depending on their nature. Special Defense – Applies towards dodging or defending against all Psy attacks. Special Defense is equal to WIS+((CHA-10)/2). Certain items and abilities may increase or replace base Sp Def depending on their nature.

Hmm. So specializing in any one stat could be useful, but is more severely handicapping in this game than it would be in others. While you could throw everything into DEX trying to be the ultimate sniper, if you neglected STR, your accuracy would be crap. So you had to try and find a balance. Even with psionics, this game’s version of magic, you couldn’t just dump everything in INT. Sure, you’d get more PP that way, but the power of your attacks and your ability to defend against enemy ‘mages’ would suffer if you didn’t put anything in your other mental stats. Very clever.

Now, I had to spend my points. Bringing up the point menu again, I considered what I needed most. I was going to be doing a high risk, high reward start, so I couldn’t count on a long training period in order to get my bearings and build my stats. Not at first, anyways. So I had to think in terms of breaking out of whatever lab I was in.

But after I escaped, I would still have to survive, and I didn’t want to blow all my points on things that would only come into play early on. What I really needed were skills and passive abilities. That would provide a lot of benefit in the early game, thanks to not needing to grind stats, and they’d still have some effect in the mid to late game, even if they were just a fallback option for my ‘Lost Everything’ plan. Passives were damned hard to take away, unlike gear (which could be stolen) or abilities (which could probably be sealed).

But I’d still need SOME abilities and attributes, especially support abilities. The hourly regen of HP was harsh. I’d need to get a healing ability, or something like it, if I was going to have a chance of fighting free of a base.

So, I started with Psy abilities, and started spending.

Self-Healing	500 CP	Physical Psy Ability. Heals user for (INT) HP. Costs 50 PP. Cooldown 2 minutes. May improve with use.
Regeneration	500 CP	Physical Psy Ability. While active, user regenerates HP per minute instead of per hour. Reserves 200 PP while in use.
Mind Pulse	500 CP	Mental Psy Ability. Sends out a wave of psychic energy, stunning nearby enemies for 10s. Radius 10 meters. Cooldown 30s. Costs 10 PP.
Influence	500 CP	Mental Psy Ability. Convinces target to perform an action you designate. Costs 50 PP.
Stunning Grasp	500 CP	Energy Psy Ability. Converts PP into electricity, stunning the target like a stun gun. Stuns target for 1 minute. Cooldown 10 minutes. Costs 20 PP. May improve with use.
Psybolt	500 CP	Force Psy Ability. Creates a ball of telekinetic energy that damages physical targets. Range 30 meters. Must have line of sight to target. Costs 10 PP.
Telekinesis	500 CP	Force Psy Ability. Uses Psy to move objects without touching them. Effective STR of telekinesis for carrying purposes equal to INT+5. Costs 5 PP per second. May improve with use.

All right, that would give me a basic arsenal for fighting my way free, and healing myself if I got into trouble, and couldn’t find a medkit. Of course, considering that, at the moment, I only had 200 PP, the healing abilities were pretty damn expensive. Guess I wouldn’t be able to just start off like Wolverine and claw my way through everything. Well, if I wanted to do that, I would have chosen a Hunter or Stalker type.

All right. Next was these Titles, Perks, and Skills. First, I want to do something about that Luck score. Then I’ll work on passives for the rest. That’ll make things easier.

Lucky Bastard	40000 CP	Title. Lady Luck smiles upon you. Also, no one ever wants to sit across from you when playing cards. +20 Luck.
STR Focus	2000 CP	Perk. Gain +1 to STR per level.
DEX Focus	2000 CP	Perk. Gain +1 to DEX per level.
CON Focus	2000 CP	Perk. Gain +1 to CON per level.
END Focus	2000 CP	Perk. Gain +1 to END per level.
INT Focus	2000 CP	Perk. Gain +1 to INT per level.
WIS Focus	2000 CP	Perk. Gain +1 to WIS per level.
CHA Focus	2000 CP	Perk. Gain +1 to CHA per level.
Luck Focus	2000 CP	Perk. Gain +1 to Luck per level.

At this point, I’d already spent more than basic users would have to spend. But I was going to need all this, and more.

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