The sound of birdsong roused Hunter from his profound and dreamless sleep. He muttered. “Hey, mom, what time is it?”

There was no answer, and Hunter felt a sharp point digging into his lower back. He groaned and tried to roll over in his bed. When Hunter turned, he realized his bed was much harder than he remembered. He opened his eyes slowly, and reality rushed back to him all at once.

He wasn’t back at home. He had been in a Rift and had died. Or had he?

Hunter sat up to take in his surroundings. All around him, the world looked like it had been washed in spring. There wasn’t a trace of snow, and a warm breeze caressed his face. There were the soft grasses and mountain flowers that he had associated with Snodgrass in years past. Hunter reached down and checked himself over. There weren’t any wounds that he could see on his body. Even the pain he had experienced from the ritual had disappeared. Hunter could almost believe it had all been a bad dream.

He looked further afield and saw that about twenty yards away, the refuge of spring abruptly ended. There was piled snow just beyond his bubble of safety. It looked like two worlds separated by an invisible divide. Just between the two seasons, a silver staff was plunged into the ground. The whirling patterns on the metal were a familiar and welcoming sight to Hunter. The division wasn’t natural, and that was strangely comforting to Hunter. Not only that, but his customary weapon was by his side. He wasn’t crazy. The world really did end, and magic was now a part of his daily life.

The teenager was still confused, but he stood up shakily. He realized that it wasn’t weakness that caused his trembling. He felt like he had been reborn into a new body. There was power in his limbs that he had never experienced before. It was intoxicating in a way. However, the pure yellow sunlight falling on the clearing was even more miraculous.

Hunter turned his head to the sky and tried to drink in the comforting sunlight that reached him. The gray snow and the bloody sun that had been his environment had all but been banished. He closed his eyes and absorbed the warmth of the life-giving sun. A shadow crossed his face, and Hunter opened his eyes to find the source. When he did, he smiled.

A black eagle was circling toward his location. In a couple of minutes, the raptor gently alighted on Hunter’s shoulder. The sharp talons of the bird gripped Hunter’s flesh but didn’t penetrate.

Hey, buddy.

Hello, manling. Or should I call you gray-soul, now?

Gray-soul?

You should probably have a better look at yourself, manling. You’ve changed.

Hunter frowned but checked his notification log. The oldest messages were related to the various skill levels he had gained while fighting in the village. There hadn’t been huge gains to any of his skills. However, he was able to get his Wind Lockpicking and Gale Blade to level five during that time. He moved down to the list and kept reading.

Congratulations! You have absorbed 36 soul gems of a Lesser Greed Tiefling: Lvl 25. You have earned 13,788 experience and +180 attribute points from the soul’s highest attributes!

ERROR…You do not possess a Class and, therefore, cannot earn any experience. Please find the nearest Rift Sentinel and receive your Class.

WARNING: You’re a participant in a demonic ritual. Your spiritual energy is being drained. Refusal to leave the ritual will result in death.

Hunter was familiar with this part. These were the messages he ignored while going through the Lord of Hell’s twisted ritual. The young warrior remembered cycling through his available soul gems at a prodigious rate. He didn’t earn any of the benefits that the notification described. He had barely been able to escape with his life. He pulled up the next announcements.

Congratulations! A Mantle of Protection has been cast over you! You have increased protection from the influence of Faith from any source.

Hunter assumed the mantle was the woven soul energy his dead grandparents had cast over him. He was somewhat surprised anything they did had a benefit to him. It seemed that in their passing, they tried to find redemption. Hunter didn’t know if the protection had any effect, but it did make him feel somewhat conflicted about their presence in his life. It was true that they had mistreated him both before and after the apocalypse. However, they had tried to make up for it in the very end. Hunter didn’t know if he could forgive them, but he could at least accept their gift. He kept reading.

WARNING: You have been influenced by the Cardinal Sin: Greed. You have earned ERROR… [email protected] Faith. All demonic items now have the ability to precipitate skill growth.

Congratulations! You have been blessed by the Divine Virtue: Charity. You have earned ERROR… +#9’86 & Faith.

ERROR…These energies are not synergistic. Your physical form will be destroyed. Please contact the Archivist for assistance.

ERROR…Infernal intervention detected.

Analyzing relevant Paths, Equipment, and Skills.

Synergies Detected.

Evolution initiated.

WARNING: Your race has been forcefully transformed into that of a Nephalem. You have been marked as an enemy of both the Heavenly Host and the Infernal Horde.

WARNING: Due to a race change, your attributes have been reset to the native values of your new race.

WARNING: You have completed the quest: Save the Sentinel.

ERROR: You have already left the Rift. Quest conditions and rewards are corrupted. Please consult the nearest Sentinel for assistance.

Hunter didn’t know what to say. His mouth hung open as he read each word over and over. The most surprising thing should’ve been the race change. That was the logical place to begin. However, he was most annoyed by the quest having glitched out. He was being robbed of his Class and unique Path!

Hunter was filled with rage. All he had wanted to do was leave the Rift and get back to some approximation of an everyday life, and he wasn’t even being granted that! He was changed into some freak, and he didn’t get the rewards the Archivist and its faction had promised him!

Hunter took a few calming breaths and imagined that he was the center of a storm. His emotions weren’t a part of him. They were outside of him. They were spinning with violence and rage, but they didn’t affect his mind. He was inside of them. He controlled them just as surely as he commanded the wind. The exercise took a while, but eventually, his feelings were soothed, and his mind was centered. He let out a heavy sigh before pulling up his character sheet.

Name: Hunter Gold

Title(s): Monster Hunter

Race: Nephalem

Bloodline: The Black Wind

Class: N/A

Level: N/A

Experience: 0/2000

Life: 340 (1%/Min)

Stamina: 340 (1%/Min)

Mana: 340 (1%/Min)

Faith: 0 (0%/Min)

STR: 10

VIT: 10

DEX: 10

END: 10

INT: 10

WIL: 10

CHA: 10

CHA: 10

FTH: 0

Active Skills:

Gale Rush (Lvl 10), Tempest Strikes (Lvl 11), Black Tornado (Lvl 9), Eye of the Hurricane (Lvl 10), Wind Lance (Lvl 10), Soul Bond (Lvl 10), Second Wind (Lvl 2), Wind Lockpicking (Lvl 5), Gale Blade (Lvl 5)

Passive Skills:

Black Wind Evasion (Lvl 10), Kata of the Black Wind (Lvl 17), Shadow of the Black Wind (Lvl 7), Progenitor of the Black Wind (Lvl 5), Maintenance (Lvl 3), Black Wind Augmentation (Lvl 11), Breathe of the Black Wind (Lvl 8)

Resistances:

Fire (Lvl 20), Shock (Lvl 8), Frost (Lvl 8), Nature (Lvl 5), Pain (Lvl 20)

Hunter grit his teeth as he stared daggers at the stat sheet. His health, stamina, and mana had been cut in half. His regeneration rates were gutted even more. The strange part was that he didn’t feel any different. He felt like he still had the same strength and speed now that he had before the race change. He was sure that something else was going on.

He looked at the sheet again, and it finally dawned on him. His stats were in the sixties and seventies before the race change. His resource pools should’ve been gutted by a proportional amount. Instead, they were only halved. That meant that each attribute point was worth more than they were before.

He couldn’t be sure without using a calculator, but it seemed like both his regeneration and resource values were doubled per each attribute point. That meant he was taking a short-term loss, but if he received a Class, earned more Faith to convert to points or absorbed soul gems, he would eventually be twice as strong as he was before.

Hunter frowned when that thought crossed his mind. To do any of those things, he would have to be on friendly terms with one faction or the other, and both considered him an enemy at this point. He sighed aloud at the realization.

Is there a problem, manling? Do you not like the new power you’ve gained?

Hunter looked up to see one of the eagle’s predatory eyes fixed on him.

I like it, but I can’t do anything about it. My new status as a…gray-soul means I can’t get any rewards from the Angels nor the Demons. I’ll be stuck like this forever.

Aquila cocked his head at Hunter.

Do you not know how to make those gems that you consumed for power?

Hunter shrugged, already seeing where the eagle was going.

Yeah, I guess.

So that means you can be a true hunter of all creatures. You can absorb the souls from both the bright-souls and the black-hearts.

Hunter didn’t like the implications. It made sense, but without a faction, his journey would already tricky. At the same time, did he not keep complaining about both factions? Wouldn’t this be his way of being free from them both?

Hunter felt conflicted. He had been on quests since he arrived. He had lied to himself and been convinced that he had made all of his own choices. That wasn’t true. Hunter had been led around by the nose by the angels and the demons.

He was both excited and frightened of the prospect of truly being on his own. Plus, what about his family? His mom and his sister had to be scared out of their minds. They would be wondering where he was and what he was doing. It was easier to forget them when he was in the Rift. There he had been focused on the next step he had to take. Now, there was no one here to tell him what to do. All of Hunter’s insecurities and fears for the future were suddenly dredged up from his subconscious. He was still the scared teenager he had always been.

Peace, manling. I can feel the turmoil in your mind. Don’t be afraid of the hunt. It’s what we must do to survive. I’ll teach you everything I know, and you’ll be an even better hunter than you can imagine.

It was somewhat strange for Hunter to hear his name being used by the bird as a calling rather than just the thing that people called to get his attention. There was a weight in Aquila’s voice that comforted him.

“Yeah, okay, Aquila. Let’s get out of here.”

Hunter started walking to where his staff lay plunged into the earth.

Where are we going?

Hunter gripped his spire and pulled it from the ground. He stared at the whirling pattern running its length as he thought about the question. There was really only one answer.

“We’re going to Arizona to save my family.”

As his last word left his mouth, a pure white light covered him, and the entire world was reduced to a single flash of light. He had felt this way only one time before—he was seeing the Archivist.