When my vision cleared, I was lying on my back and staring at a stone ceiling.

The first thing I did was check my face, the memory of broken teeth still horrifyingly fresh. My teeth were fine. My nose was fine. It was surreal, like waking from a nightmare. After checking myself over thoroughly, I concluded that all my injuries were fully healed. My relief at being whole was quickly replaced by anger.

“Those assholes killed me!” I yelled to the empty room. I was pissed. New plan, hunt down the fucking Greys, and cut them to pieces.

Decision made, I turned my attention to my surroundings. I was on a bed. It wasn't particularly soft, but it was pleasantly comfortable. The only discomfort came from the chainmail bunching up and pinching my skin. The armor was really not designed to be slept in. I got off the bed and shook the mail back into position. Looking around I finally recognized my room. Or more accurately, the room the Archbishop had given me for the duration of my stay in London.

I took off the chain shirt and checked it over. It was covered in a thin patina of rust, and there was a small hole in the back where the dagger had punched through. I would have to get that fixed, but that would undoubtedly cost money. I grinned maliciously. I knew where I could get some money.

I put my armor back on, and was about to leave my room, when I thought to check my journal. The log might be able to tell me more about what happened. I opened up my journal and found the place where that thug had stabbed me.

Stab wound to the kidney. Body part in ‘severe’ condition. 2 level(s) of bleeding applied.

Slash to left arm. Body part in ‘minor damage’ condition. 1 level(s) of bleeding applied.

Class I Hemorrhage reached. No additional effects.

Grey thug killed. 120 experience gained.

Congratulations, you have reached level 2. You can assign your skill points in the skill tree section of your journal.

Class II Hemorrhage reached. Maximum Stamina reduced by 15% and all skills are more difficult to use.

Blunt force wound to head. Body part in ‘severe’ condition. 2 level(s) of concussion applied.

Stab wound to heart. Body part in ‘maimed’ condition. 1 level(s) of Massive Damage applied.

You have died.

You have been transported to limbo. Time Lost: 5 minutes.

You have been resurrected at your spawn point. All equipment suffers 2% durability damage.

I forced myself to read the whole log, resisting the urge to rush ahead to see my skill points. I didn’t remember anything resembling limbo. As far as I could tell I went straight from dying to my room in St. Paul’s. Putting it out of my mind, I flipped through the journal until I found my three skill trees.

Martial Skill Tree: Available Points: 1

True Time: While moving in True Time your attacks will move with supernatural swiftness and power. This will improve your ability to intercept enemy attacks and overwhelm their defences. Unlocks Fight Under Cover.

Measure 1: Gain an innate sense for your own and opponent’s Measure. As long as you are proficient with the weapon you are welding, you will know the range of each of your attacks. If you spend 5 seconds studying an enemy, you will gain a sense of their Measure. This sense lasts until you lose line of sight to your opponent or study a different enemy. Unlocks Measure 2.

Footwork 1: While maintaining proper Stance and Footwork, you will have supernaturally increased stability and willpower. This will help you resist physical and magical effects that would force you to move. This skill also improves your resistance to fear effects. Unlocks Footwork 2.

Guard Mastery 1: After maintaining a guard for 1 second, you will gain a temporary buff depending on the guard. High Guards grant a bonus to your next attack, while Low Guards grant a bonus to your next defensive action, such as a block or parry. This bonus increases the effective weight of your weapon, making it easier to overcome enemy attacks or armor. This skill is not compatible with ranged or magical actions. Unlocks Guard Mastery 2 and Guard to Guard.

Multi-Weapon Fighting: Each attack you make opens up your opponents guard for an attack with a different weapon. When you hit an opponent with an attack your next attack will hit with increased force as long as the second attack is made with a different weapon and within three seconds of the first attack. This skill is compatible with improvised, ranged, magic, and unarmed attacks. Unlocks Multi-Weapon Chain.

I checked the tooltips for each of the underlined words.

True Time: True time is a method of moving that optimizes for speed. When making an attack, your hand (and thus the point of your weapon) should be the first thing to move. Then your body, then your feet. Moving this way gets the point of your weapon threatening the enemy and covering your own body as soon as possible. This leads to safer and faster attacks.

Measure: A person’s measure is the distance in which they can attack effectively. This distance changes depending on the type of weapon, attack, and footwork used. A spear will have a greater measure than a dagger. A lunge from a rapier will have a greater measure than a cut.

Stance and Footwork: Stances and footwork will vary by weapon, but the common basics include: feet apart, legs not crossed, and deliberate steps. The bonuses from the Footwork abilities will be lost if you are prone, running, jumping, climbing, swimming, or your balance is compromised.

High and Low Guards: A high guard is any guard where your primary weapon hand is above your sternum, while a low guard is any guard where your primary weapon hand is below your sternum. In order to receive the bonuses from Guard Mastery, you must be wielding a weapon you have at least basic proficiency in, and must be in one of the guards associated with that weapon.

Well that’s a lot of information to process. It seemed like the skills for the most part were conditional passive upgrades. Basically, they are “always on” unless you don’t meet the requirements. I didn't see any active abilities like a “Power Slash” or “Sudden Charge” that I could choose when to use.

This was both good and bad. It meant I could rack up some truly staggering bonuses as long as I was fighting “correctly”, but it also meant that under the wrong circumstances, I would get no bonuses at all. And I would have no panic button ability to escape from a bad situation.

I couldn’t get a description of future skills, like Footwork 2, to show up. Either the developers wanted to maintain some mystery, or the journal was just buggy. Either way, I decided to see what the other skill trees held before making my selection.

Magic Skill Tree: Points Available: 1

Push: Release a burst of concentrated force magic directly away from yourself. This blast will act like a strong wind and push away enemies and objects. How far and fast objects are pushed will depend on surface area, weight, and your intelligence score. 20 - 3.5 = 16.5 Second cool down. Unlocks Dispelling Push 1, Precision Push, and Strong Push 1.

Create: Create a temporary item out of force magic. This item will be nearly indestructible and completely immune to magic other than dispelling magic. Object size and fidelity are determined by Intelligence. Object duration is determined by Willpower. 30 - 5.25 = 24.75 minute cool down. 5 + .875 = 5.875 minute duration. Unlocks Mental Blueprints, Large Creation 1, Precise Creation 1, and Lasting Creation 1.

This tree was much more straightforward. A basic magical attack, or the ability to create items. Depending on how it worked, creating objects could be really game breaking. Jamming doors, selling fake items, and setting traps all immediately sprang to mind.

That said, the Push skill gave me something my build was missing, a ranged attack. I still wanted to focus on a melee build, but having some versatility would be very useful. Especially if I could activate the skill while still using my sword and shield. Also, the Dispelling Push upgrade called to me. I didn't know how threatening magic will be, but I really like the idea of having a counter to it for when it does show up.

With that in mind, I selected the Push skill and confirmation box when it appeared. I would get Create Object eventually, but for now I had higher priorities. My choice made, I moved on to my last skill tree.

Utility Skill Tree: Points Available: 1

Persuasion by Ethos: A person is more persuasive when they come from a position of authority, and there is no authority like martial authority. With this skill, the greater marital disparity between you and your target, the better chance of them giving in to your demands. Having a sword while your opponent has a dagger would give you a small bonus. Having an army while your opponent is tied and beaten would give you a large bonus. This is a supernatural psychological effect. This skill is not effective against player characters. Unlocks Persuasion by Ethos 2.

Persuasion by Greed: Money talks. With this skill, bribes will cost less and be more effective. This includes bribing guards to ignore petty crimes, purchasing information, and basically any transaction that is not for a basic good or service. This skill is not effective against player characters. Unlocks More for Your Money and Golden Loyalty.

Contacts: Members of the inquisitor orders are supposed to be self sufficient, but that does not mean they cannot have friends. With these skills, you will receive a small daily donation of supplies wherever your spawn point is set.

First Aid Contact 1: Whether you saved a hospital, or blackmailed a hedgewitch, this contact will keep you in one piece with a supply of bandages, suture grade needle and thread, and pain killers. Unlocks First Aid Contact 2.

Holy Armory Contact 1: The church looks after its own, and not all threats can be dealt with by fire and blade. This contact supplies you with holy water and blessed scripture verses. Unlocks Holy Armory Contact 2.

Ammunition Contact 1: Sometimes you just need a steady supply of ammunition. This contact will supply you with arrows, bolts, or even bullets. The total number of pieces of ammunition received daily will be constant, but how much of each type can be changed at any time in your journal. Unlocks Ammunition Contact 2.

So basically it was free stuff on a daily basis or bonuses to dealing with people. Nothing to help me canvas a crime scene though, so I guess I will have to leave that to Inspector Ajax. I could dismiss the ammunition contact right away. It might be invaluable to a different build, but to me it was basically worthless. Bribry might be better later, but for now I was broke, so it did not really appeal to me.

That left the first aid and holy supply contacts and ethos skills. Having holy water and scriptures could either be fantastic or worthless depending on how they worked. The idea of getting painkillers was very seductive. The game so far had been very painful and anything to take the edge off would be welcome.

That said, I really wanted to get back at the Grey’s that killed me. The Persuasion by Ethos skill was my best bet for getting information about Slinger from them. Decided, I took the skill and flipped back to the martial tree.

After reviewing, I ended up taking True Time. It might be tricky to use correctly, but used right it will give a continuous buff to both my offence and defence. My choices made, I put away my journal and struggled back into my armor.

Leveling had been a fun distraction, but I had a mission to get back to.