Nurk looked through the corpse listings, as was his evening habit. It was a reminder of home. That, in three months, he would soon be out of his place. There had been some interesting new listings recently. Mostly trash of course, Gnolls and other monsters useful only for biomass and materials.

But there had been some gems. Ossian Juggernauts, an invasive species from an anomaly—called demons—and a new, seemingly Enlightened, race. The last one had been particularly interesting. Humans. They had good compatibility with the Undying Strain, as most species did.

They also seemed to be newly inducted, as listings were lacking. Strangest of all, one of the bodies had possessed a Dao and a Thaumic Heart—notable because of its low level. A Traitor then. The System did take a certain glee in empowering them beyond reasonable bounds. It was strange to see one dead so soon for a newly inducted species.

The body had been damaged. Potions had ravaged its tissues—always a danger for those unaware of their potential for toxicity. That hadn’t been the cause of death, though. The Traitor would have possibly survived, if not for its internal organs were eroded away, melted edges dripping with residual Slime. Nothing that would hamper the reforming of the bodies in the Flesh Tuns though.

Still, it seemed like it was time to put in an order of Anti-Limenics. Better that than having to deal with another outbreak of that pest species. A single Slime could tear through a whole army of Undead flesh in a matter of hours. The Undead had many advantages, but living tissue was not the foremost among them. That was a problem.

Yes, definitely time to order a new shipment of Anti-Limenics.

Nurk glanced at the human body on the slab. Come to think of it. He knew exactly what to do with this one.

Chris was a little miffed that there wasn’t a title for killing Traitors, but Gregor being dead was reward enough, he supposed.

He checked through the rest of his Status.

Name Christopher Hill Level 20 Class None Race Hybrid: Human (F-2), Slime (F-2) Cultivation Troll (F-1) Dao Suppression (Black-Foundation) Traits Human Potential, Monster Hybrid, Monstrous Constitution, Monstrous Assimilation, Amorphous, Stone Form Titles Genesis of Blood, Prime Underdog, Agent of Self-destruction, Prince of Poison, Makeshift Master, Prodigy, Legendary Prodigy, Unrivalled Prodigy, Horde Disciple I, Xenocidal, Infiltrator, Anomaly Breaker I, Rift Scion, Surpasser, Area Guardian I System Coins 48493 (6 Stat Points to Allocate) Strength 83 Dexterity 99 Constitution 96 Endurance 79 Intelligence 78 Wisdom 74 Perception 73 Luck 107

He dumped his six stat points in Luck, getting an additional point from his percentage boosts.

Then he checked his quests.

Quest Completed!

Reach Level 20 (1/1)

Reward: Class, Tower Seed (Tower of the Manifold Adept)

A class! He knew what to expect from MMOs, but still, he wasn’t sure how it would pan out. The entry featured prominently on his Status, but whether it was deserving of that prominence was another matter. Well, it was time to find out.

He pulled up his reward and a new screen appeared before him.

Anomaly Breaker – Epic – Roam the world, closing invasive Anomalies and defending other Anomalies from being overrun

Dao Mystic – Uncommon – Further your understanding of the Dao

Inquisitor – Rare – Find and kill Traitors with an array of skills and tactics

Mountebank – Uncommon – Use trickery for prosperity and victory

Slime Battle Alchemist – Rare – Combine alchemy and combat to ruin your foes

Slime Knight – Uncommon – Exploit your Amorphous body to achieve victory

Slime Queen – Epic – Create your Hive and breed various specialties of Slimes to destroy any foe that stands against you

Warrior – Common – Fight on the front lines

Chris looked at the options available. He was spoiled for choice.

Warrior was an immediate no. It seemed far too basic. Hitting stuff was easy, he didn’t need a class to help him do it.

Mountebank was interesting, but he was more suited for combat than in deception—even if trolling was entertaining, it was unlikely he could create an actually useful build centered around it.

Dao Mystic seemed to be a bit too passive, from what he could infer—and he doubted not taking it would prevent him from furthering his Dao.

Slime Knight was definitely an option, but Chris was unsure how useful it would be, since his arm was the only morphable part of himself—he definitely couldn’t regenerate his head. Still, it was promising.

Inquisitor seemed too specialized. Chris was unsure how many Traitors he’d be expected to come across. A useful class against Traitors? Absolutely. Was it the best class to pick for all around utility? Uncertain. It was a Rare class though, which was absolutely a consideration.

Slime Battle Alchemist was promising, mixing crafting and fighting. The other classes so far seemed somewhat focused. Being able to do multiple things would mean that he could always put his skills to use, even when he lacked an enemy to fight. Like Inquisitor it was rare.

Anomaly Breaker, like Inquisitor looked far too specialized for Chris’ liking. Similarly, given how dangerous the Anomaly Breaker, Rift Scion, and Surpasser titles implied them to be, he was happy to give that one a miss. Sometimes he did stupid shit, diving into another Anomaly so soon felt like System-assisted suicide. It was Epic rarity, though, which promised a not-inconsequential amount of power. It was definitely tempting, but after his last experience with Anomalies, and the mandatory quests they entailed, he just didn't want to expose himself to that again.

Finally, Slime Queen. It, like Anomaly Breaker, was Epic rarity. But Chris was inherently unsure of how it would work out for him. The creation of a Hive sounded like he’d be making a nest and then popping out babies for the rest of his life. It would be powerful, but again, too specialized. And he didn’t even want to think about the dynamics of giving birth to millions of baby Slimes.

Chris reread his options. It seemed that most, if not all, were lacking in versatility. Of the lot of them, though, Slime Battle Alchemist seemed to be the only one that might support crafting and fighting—and he had enjoyed his brief experience making potions back in Kingscastle. The other option for crafting and fighting would be Slime Queen, but… yeah… no. That sounded like it could turn very dodgy, very quickly.

Battle Alchemist might also provide benefits to resisting the toxic effects of potions better—stacking with his poison resistance. If so, he could boost himself to absurd levels with potion effects while retaining a mostly human physiology. It was an appealing prospect.

It wasn’t the rarest class on the list, but it had a bit of variation to it, and if nothing else, it would give him a hobby if he messed up his build. Hardly the best reason to base a build on, but there was no point taking a class he wouldn’t enjoy using.

Not to mention that it might allow him to progress by not getting beat up on quite so much.

Mana had a dampening effect on bad experiences, but it also served to warp personalities, heighten aggression, and make people be continually looking forward for opportunities to strengthen themselves. He wanted to spend some time without it twisting his perception.

It was an easy escape route if things went bad; but was it really him making the decisions? He wasn’t sure.

He’d need to be on the lookout for a pain reduction skill when he returned back to his proper settlement, but until then it seemed like going a route of avoiding traumatic experiences might be best. Every single battle so far, he’d had at least a small trickle of mana running into his meridians.

It didn’t take a genius to work out that it had done something to the memories to prevent the experiences coming back to haunt him. It did have its upsides. But it also risked making him into someone who lacked control, someone who grew in power but not in personality, a person unable to change, and unable to take a road that didn’t lead to violence.

He had ties to his old life. Not many, but they were there. His parents, if they were still alive. Allison, his girlfriend. His home town.

Chris wasn’t sure he wanted to leave them behind just yet.

It also reminded him.

He needed to spread the word about what mana did to people. Gregor might have been a dick from the very beginning, but uncontrolled mana had probably played a part in his behavior. Not that he’d seen anyone else try and murder half the town… but… maybe it affected people differently.

He was about to tell everyone else how to control their mana when an alert popped up.

Someone had just tried to take control of Kingscastle. There was a six hour lockout period for non-invasive attempts at capture, but still, no one was meant to be there right now.

With his dexterity, it wouldn’t take him long to arrive, but he still needed to tell everyone about mana, which might take a while. And there was a battle still going on—definitely dying down, but still active.

Come to think of it, a lot of people probably had Mana Manuals now from leveling up against the Gnolls. That would make things easier. He could just teach Bruce and ask him to spread the word around.