Auren's chest heaved with effort as he worked to steady his breathing. Tony was surprised to see him short of breath, but considering the overall gravity of trying to summon another God from their place of power, he couldn't be that surprised. Tony's brain kept cycling over what Ignacious had said. Ascendant: Online was not a game and Auren had kept information from him.

As if on cue, Auren looked to Tony with a sheepish expression splashed across his face and opened his mouth to speak.

“No, not right now,” Tony growled.

“What?” Auren's surprised tone mirrored the expression on his face.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Tony’s eyes were locked on the two footprints just a pace in front of him.

It didn’t make any sense. Demnas had been so much more powerful than Tony could imagine, how could Tony live up to that? Like Auren, Demnas had been a God, which means he should have been capable of going toe to toe with Ignacious.

Tony was level six.

Almost in response to his thoughts, a flurry of notifications appeared.

You have unspent Attribute Points!

You have acquired an Artifact!

A Background is ready to be discovered!

You have unspent Skill Points!

You have activated a Saga!

You Survived a direct assault from Ignacious, the Mad King, Bonus XP has been awarded!

Your Artifact’s XP Multiplier has Activated!

You have reached Level 10!

Tony ignored them.

Knowing that this wasn’t a game, but that this was his life now, had not changed the system that dictated his progress.

“Why is the system acting like this is still a game when it isn’t?” Tony half spat at Auren.

“Err- Well,” Auren cleared his throat, regained his composure, and continued, “your body has been fitted with what is called an I.A.A.M. which collects the essence generated by your experiences and victories and turns it into fuel for progression. The I.A.A.M. is what generates muscle mass when you increase your Strength Attribute or conveys knowledge when you increase a skill.”

“What does I.A.A.M. stand for?” Tony asked.

“Innate Anima Amplification Module.”

“And it’s talking to me in game-speak because?”

“Because that is what you respond to best. It amplifies your Anima, your life force. It’s subjective. No one else in the program should have the same displays, options, or advancements. Similar, maybe, but not one hundred percent the same,” the God explained.

“Hm. Well, upgrade time, I guess,” Tony said before calling up his menus.

There was a lot to do.

He had ten attribute points to spend, two more talents to select, another specialization point and twenty skill points to allocate; if that wasn’t enough to work through, he would have to look at the artifact he gained and scour his background page to see which one he could find. Before he could do any of that, a red pop-up appeared.

Saga: “War Against Heaven” has been activated.

Saga Restrictions: Death in combat against Ignacious, The Mad King, or any of his Elite Subordinates will result in Final Death. Be on your guard, and ensure you are appropriately leveled and geared before taking on The Mad King or his minions!

Special: Character Progression in combat where Final Death is possible has been increased by 25%

Oh Goodie, hardcore mode. Tony acknowledged and dismissed the notification then opened his character sheet.

Ascendant Online’s Attribute System operated on modifiers; any score lower than ten was considered “below average” and gave him penalties. Tony put one point each into Charisma, Wisdom, Strength, Endurance, and Wits. Half of his Attribute Points gone, he had to be careful with how he proceeded. He had no negative modifiers, and if he was going to continue through the Knight specialization and kill Ignacious in single combat, he was going to need to improve leaps and bounds in the Attributes that would keep him alive.

The talents that he had selected earlier put him in an interesting position. Tony could go for a “Glass Cannon” build, try to dish out more damage than his enemies could as fast as possible, but that was easily countered by magical defenses or second wind Talents.

The “Life-Biting Essence” upgrade to his Essence Blade talent did reward high damage output, however, if he was going to be hunted down by Ignacious’s flunkies they would be sure to have countermeasures in place.

The silver lining of being hunted across the stars by the Cadre of Judgement meant he’d have plenty of opportunity to abuse the additional XP gain, as long as he didn’t die. Tony put one point into Spirit, another two points into Strength, and two points into Dexterity.

You have unspent Specialization Points!

With a groan, Tony flicked over to the specialization screen and furrowed his brow. The Knight tree contained what would be expected, upgrades to his Oath and Knight's Charge Abilities, talents focused on mounted combat, leadership and squad tactic boosts, blah blah blah.

What surprised him was a pair of glimmering clusters branching off from the Knight tree. On the left was the Paladin Advanced Specialization, bonuses to Charisma, powerful healing spells, abilities to smite the dead and unholy, again, the typical.

This seems a little early to advance the specialization, he thought.

To the right was the “Dread Knight” Advanced Specialization. Tony let out a low whistle as he perused the talents. Dread Knights looked like "Spell Blades: Heavy Metal edition."

Ranged Melee attack talents, bonus damage at low HP, and second wind talents, it was everything he wanted. The icing on the cake was the talent close to the end of the blade Dread Knight tree called “Ichor-Seeking Blade”

Ichor-Seeking Blade Dread Knight Advanced Talent Cost: None Duration: Permanent Effect: Gain 30% Bonus Damage to Essence Constructs and Divine Beings Special: Dealing deathblows to Divine beings will inflict Final Death upon them Note: Social Links with Essence Constructs and Divine beings will fall by 3 Ranks upon purchase of this Talent

Without a second thought, Tony dumped the Specialization Point into Dread Knight, gaining immediate access to the talents “Summon Dreadblade” and “Invincible Will.”

Summon Dreadblade: The Dreadblade is a manifestation of the Dread Knight’s soul Cost: 30 Lore Duration: N/A Cooldown: Special* Properties: Astral, Soulbound Cooldown: Upon destruction or loss of their soul weapon, a Dread Knight must sacrifice 10% of his total HP as an additional cost to cast "Summon Dreadblade."

Astral: The Dreadblade can interact with immaterial entities

Soulbound: No other beings can wield the Dreadblade without suffering tremendous penalties.

The Dreadblade would replace his Essence weapon as a talent. Tony was okay with that. Worst case, the Marital Blade was still intact and a formidable weapon.

Invincible Will: Channel your indomitable resolve to negate a single crowd-control effect. You cannot be affected by the same effect for 30 seconds. Cost: 10 Lore Duration: 30 seconds Note: This Talent is ineffective against physical restraints

That would have been useful earlier.

Selections confirmed, he focused on the "Skills" sub-menu. A notification flashed angrily at him and prevented his access.

Your Background is in the Immediate Area!

Background: Sprit-Tied Pet

You Have been assigned a Familiar Quest!

Man's Best Friend

Objective: Rescue your Familiar

Rewards: Familiar, XP, Familiar Equipment

Conditions: Failure to complete the Familiar Quest within the allotted time will result in the loss of your Familiar Background* (Effect of War Against Heaven Saga)

Tony's throat slammed shut as his heartbeat slammed in his temples. "Max?" he croaked.