“’I’ll walk you through it.’ Great. So where the hell are you, rock lady?”

I really need to ask her name.

Seph looked around. She was sitting on a grey expanse beneath a grey sky. The silhouettes of grey trees flickered oddly around her, sketchy afterimages without any substance. In front of her, a polished wooden tray sat. Aside from the faint blush to her pale skin, the tray and its contents were the only colour in this odd, grey world.

She could feel the bite of frost on her skin, but the air wasn’t actually cold. It wasn’t warm, either. A total lack of temperature caressed her with still silence.

Seph looked around wildly. In a new place again. Ripped away just as she thought she might have begun to get a handle on things. There didn’t seem to be anything around her. There was just grey. Before her crossed legs, the tray sat. A blue sphere, a gold sphere, and a silver sphere. Their respective colours swirled under the surface like the technicolor glimmer of soap bubbles. Between them, in a little divot, sat an acorn.

Okay. So, in a grey nothing, with three options. Three obvious options, anyway. Maybe four.

The acorn is unlike the others, so it is the obvious first choice.

Hmmm... but obvious doesn't mean best. I'll ignore the acorn for now.

She looked for clues as to what each orb signified. They seemed identical, apart from their colours. Seph picked up the tray, to see if there was anything written underneath it. Nothing. She hated this. It was obviously an important choice, but there were no clues but the colour.

And there’s no guarantee that the colours mean the same thing to me as whatever system I’m in.

She would just have to make a choice and live with the consequences. She would not be trapped again, even by her own indecision.

Seph reached out and tried to pick up the gold sphere. As soon as her fingers touched the golden, shimmering surface, the orb popped. It shattered into a swirling vortex of golden light that flowed into her fingers where she’d touched it.

10 Universal Skill Points Aquired.

She braced to be taken somewhere other than the grey, but nothing else seemed to happen. She poked at the box hanging in midair in front of her, then glanced at the unchanged wooden tray.

“Huh. Not a choice, then.”

Are all of these for me?

Seph tapped the silver orb, and it too dissolved into a light show that she absorbed.

You have gained a unique class trait!

Class Trait:

Runesmith

Okay… So basically, my special unique world-breaking cheat is enchanting. I can work with that. Probably? But it says 'class trait', not class. It's been a while since I played any sort of role-playing game but I remember traits being things that modified weapons or people.

Let me have a look. Status.

Nothing happened.

“Status?”

Seph looked for the notifications that she'd seen around the edges of her vision, but there was nothing there. She did see flickering shadows out of the corners of her eyes, but she was fairly sure those were just the strange silhouette trees. She didn't see anything when she turned to look, in any case. Seph shrugged and tapped the blue orb.

You have been sent a guide companion.

What shape will your companion take?

Fairy

Imp

Abyssal nymph

Dragonfly

Raven

Wisp

•••

The list went on and on, but to be honest, Seph stopped reading. Too many choices were overwhelming, and she already knew which one she wanted. It was a little cliche, but she loved the image. She mentally made her selection and the box disappeared. Seph looked around.

“Hello? Magical guide companion?”

The grey nothing continued to be grey nothing.

I couldn’t access my status either. I must be somewhere else. Or maybe frozen in time or something?

The wooden tray sat before her. The acorn was the last thing on it. She tapped it.

You are a Template Seed. Template Seeds are given the opportunity to shape the progression paths of their species on their world.

Species:

Succubus

[Okay]

“What?”

Dread was a lump in the pit of Seph’s stomach. She reached up hesitantly and touched her horns. Seph wasn’t Christian, but she knew what a succubus was.

A demon. A creature of sin and lust, who existed to tempt and corrupt others. That was what the boxes wanted her to be? At least it explained the persistent arousal that followed her even here in the grey void. She wanted to deny it. She wanted to scream and throw the box away from her, but she could feel it in her bones. This wasn’t a request. It wasn’t an option. She was a succubus.

Panic welled, and she clenched her fists.

Calm. As. still water.

Again she forced it down. She knew that it would erupt soon if she didn’t deal with it, but she didn’t want to make important decisions in a panic and regret them later.

Okay. So. I’m a… I’m a succubus. Rad.

She hit the okay button and a new box formed in front of her.

Succubus universal species traits:

Drain others through sexual contact.

Cannot gain magic-related class traits.

Reproduce via conversion.

Are sustained by Essence but cannot generate it.

What would you like your variant of succubi to drain to produce essence?

What focus would you like your variant of succubi to have?

Almost as soon as this box appeared, it was overshadowed by an angry red box.

Fatal Error: Trait Incompatibility

The air seemed to ripple in the void. She looked around, and it was as if the vast expanse of before had been shrunk into a bubble. She could just catch a glimpse outside it, huge shadows of incomprehensible beings just out of reach. She shuddered and looked down at the acorn. She wasn’t touching it anymore, but it was quivering in place. The grey expanse around her, too, had changed. It felt… deeper. Stranger. As if something else was inside it and glimmering just where she couldn’t see it. She felt an overwhelming sense of dread and wonder. Everything around her felt alien, and the longer it went on the more the feeling built until the tension in the air chimed like a wineglass.

All at once, the feelings vanished. She was surrounded by the same dull grey void, now comforting in its emptiness and familiarity.

“What the fuck was that?”

The boxes in front of her wavered and the red one was replaced with a calming grey.

Incompatibility resolved. Some options and class traits have been altered.

After a moment, a new window popped up. This one was entirely unlike the others, and held a script in a language she did not recognize. She could understand it. Somehow. But it hurt her eyes to read.

Persephone Evans, you have been afforded an… interesting opportunity. Normally, the bounds of traits are inviolate. By obtaining two incompatible traits, you have created a fault in the System. Normally, you would have been destroyed to remove the fault.

This has been prevented. The debt will be called upon.

The Succubus and Runesmith traits have been altered to have synergy.

That was ominous as hell. She felt whispers of rage begin to curl against her self control.

“The debt will be called upon. Just fucking great. Out of one cage, into another.”

Neither the landscape nor the floating boxes had any answers for her. As she tried to calm herself, a mostly familiar message popped up.

Succubus universal species traits:

Drain others through sexual contact.

Cannot gain magic-related class traits.

Reproduce via conversion.

Are sustained by Essence but cannot generate it.

Your Template Seed options have been selected and locked, to resolve a fatal error.

As soon as she had read the last word, a sense of vertigo washed over the succubus. She screwed her eyes shut as colour and detail returned to the world.