Evolution of a Healer

Welcome to the adaptation point.

Please wait calmly while your form adapts to the new environment.

The text seemed to float on nothing, and was the only detail Cyn’s eyes could make out in the inky darkness. Darkness wasn’t quite the right descriptor though, and if Cyn wasn’t so preoccupied with other thoughts she might have noticed it was more of an absence of anything at all and not just an absence of light.

Is that…comic sans? Really? Font choice was clearly the most important thing to notice, at least if you worked in website development like Cyn did. How she got here, or even where ‘here’ was came as an afterthought. She got over the initial confusion quickly though, and tried to look around. Only to find she couldn’t move. Actually, now that she thought about it, Cyn could not even feel her neck to move it. Or her torso. Or anything at all. Even her eyes. She could clearly see the floating message, but noticed she couldn't feel her eyelids. Or see herself blinking. Normally the human brain ignores those microseconds of darkness, but even when Cyn consciously thought about the idea of blinking she did not see it happening.

That is when the panic set in. Adaptation point? New environment? What the fuck? After a few more moments of attempting, and failing, to flail around, Cyn tried to think of the last thing she was doing before now. It had been a Saturday, so instead of getting up early to go to work she had slept in until nearly lunch. Then a pretty typical day of playing video games. She had just bought the newest expansion pack for a popular MMO a week ago, and predictably for a gaming enthusiast, had been dumping all of her free time into it.

Leftover pasta for dinner, more dungeon runs, then…sleep. The last thing I remember doing was going to bed. Cyn actually found that realization pretty comforting, and relaxed to wait out the ‘adaptation’. This was clearly a dream. She had never had a lucid dream before, but there's a first time for everything. She was no stranger to weird dreams as a whole. Luckily, Cyn did not have to wait very long for the message to change.

Subject is 79% compatible with system environment.

Minimum adaptation levels reached.

Skipping forced evolution and proceeding to…

The text flashed by so fast Cyn could not read all of it before it vanished, leaving only the nothingness behind. She did wonder what ‘forced evolution’ could mean, but since it sounded pretty ominous it seemed like a good thing it ended up being skipped. Was it to change her into something completely different? Perhaps just make her more compatible with this system environment?

Cyn did not get to ponder on forced evolution for more than a few breaths before she had the sudden sensation of being moved. She still could not feel her body, but she had a strange sense the area around her was changing rapidly. Then, a flash of blinding light and a rush of sensations that sent Cyn to her knees, dry heaving as she suddenly felt her body again. She had to take a minute to just breathe, eyes closed and kneeling on the floor, before the horrible rush started to fade. That was almost as bad as the time I tried acid in high school.

When Cyn could open her eyes without a new wave of crippling pain she noticed she appeared to be in what could only be described as a blue void. The surface under her was only barely a darker color than the rest of the area, the color reminiscent of a computer crash screen. It lacked any details or texture and, save for the very normal looking folding table about ten feet away, it was empty. Nothing as far as the eye could see, no way to determine distance or light variance. Overall the endless flat blue gave Cyn a deep feeling of discomfort.

Standing, she chose to instead focus on one of the two things that were not blue. Herself. Taking account of all her fingers and toes Cyn noted that nothing appeared to be missing or injured other than a lingering nausea. She was pretty sure she went to bed with a few random bruises, since her pale skin bruised easily, but those seemed to be gone. One blessing at least, even if it only meant she could make new ones bumping into stuff. She was still wearing the pajamas she remembered going to sleep in, consisting of a pair of black cycling shorts and a t-shirt a few sizes too big. The shirt was one of her favorites to wear on a lazy day, featuring a large cartoon frog swimming in a coffee pot. Coupled with a tangled mass of red hair, Cyn was sure she looked like a walking disaster.

Satisfied she appeared to be whole at least, Cyn then decided to take a look at the only other not-blue object. A gray folding table. She had taken a few steps towards it when text once again appeared in front of her, floating now above the table.

Focus

Cyn waited for more text to appear, but nothing else happened. With only that vague instruction she decided to take a walk around the table. The only thing she discovered was that the text seemed to remain facing her no matter what angle she looked from. Odd, but it felt a bit like using a virtual reality phone app. The text was there, but also kind of separate from everything around it. Cyn tried to touch the text, but that only confirmed that it did not seem to be physically there and nothing on the table looked like it could be projecting an image.

While studying the floating word Cyn felt a slight itch behind her eyes that grew until suddenly what could only be described as a pop-up window appeared in the lower left corner of her vision. It relieved the itch upon appearance, washed away by a short burst of warmth that seemed to radiate out from inside of her skull. Like the floating text the pop-up felt like it existed separate from everything else. Unlike the floating text, no matter where Cyn looked, the pop-up remained in the same place in her line of sight. At least it was partially transparent, so the small box did not give her a true blind spot.

It was however pretty small and difficult to read. Cyn had never tried to read something in the corner of her eye before, and moving her eyes to look left did not help its positioning. After nearly a minute of struggling she figured out how to make the window a little larger, at least while attempting to focus on it. As soon as Cyn stopped thinking so hard about reading the pop-up, it shrank back to its original size. It would take some practice, but it was probably a good thing it shrank back down on its own. Even though she could partly see through the pop-up, having it take up so much of her vision seemed like it could become inconvenient depending on how often it would happen.

Not that it matters how often it happens. This is a dream. A pretty strange one though, even for me. Maybe it was brought on by that article I read the other day about the possible uses for virtual reality. Cyn shook off the thoughts and chose to focus again on the pop-up to actually read it.

Focus on the idea of yourself to view your information and status.

Clearly, this whole thing was some kind of tutorial. At least this instruction was less vague, if only slightly. Actually, the ‘idea of yourself’ was pretty vague. It was almost a philosophical concept. Who is she? Who is Cyn Price? I mean legally my name is actually Cynthia but… Cyn did not get to finish that thought before a much larger, but still partially transparent, pop-up appeared. This one took over nearly all of her vision, but for the moment Cyn was not bothered because what she saw was much more interesting then the first pop-up.

Name: Cynthia Price

Race: [Human]

Class: N/A

Profession: N/A

Health Points: 9/10

Mana Points: 40/40

Stamina Points: 20/20

Free Points: 0

Vitality: 1

Mind: 2

Will: 3

Strength: 1

Agility: 1

Luck: 2

Racial Skills: [Dimensional Translator][Inspect]

Class Skills: N/A

Profession Skills: N/A

Feats: N/A

A bona-fide stat screen. It lacked any of the frills and design details Cyn would have expected to see in a modern RPG, being just text in a semi-transparent box, but since it was actively obstructing her vision the simplicity made more sense. Alongside her status information there also appeared to be notifications, the first two being about the racial skills Cyn saw already listed.

New Skill Learned! Dimensional Translator (Unique) - You are able to understand all languages native to the dimension of your birth.

Useful. Extremely useful. Cyn would give just about anything to have this kind of skill when she was awake. ‘Unique’ was an odd thing to have in the skill title. She would have to look at other skills to see if that meant anything. The wording in the description also seemed to imply the idea of multiple dimensions existing, but even thinking about the implications of that idea gave her a headache, so Cyn moved on to the next notification.

New Skill Learned! Inspect (Common) - Focusing on a person, object, or idea may reveal more information.

This was the skill the floating text had been trying to get Cyn to use. Or perhaps teach her? With the third notification being the small pop-up she had gotten when Inspecting the floating text, she assumed the list of notifications were in chronological order but without some kind of timestamp there was no way to tell how long had passed between them as far as she could tell. Inspect also had an odd word in its title, this time being ‘Common’ and based on experience Cyn suspected that the skills may have some sort of rarity scale.

The fourth and final notification just told Cyn she could remove notifications and close her menu by focusing on them. She removed the first three notifications, but since the final one seemed like a way to continue a tutorial Cyn left it for now to look again at the list of stats.

She tried to use Inspect on her name by focusing on it, intending to change it since not even her family called her Cynthia, but nothing happened. Inexplicably she felt like the skill was activating, but it did not seem to work when used on her name. Cyn tried a few more times before she moved on, frustrated. This was her dream, why the hell was she not able to change her name? Next she tried to use it on her race, Human, and the ensuing pop-up did confirm that the skill just did not work on her name.

Human - The root of all humanoid races. Highly adaptable and with unrestricted evolutionary possibilities, humans embody potential.

Once Awakened, humans will gain +1 to all stats and +2 free points when leveling up.

Start with 10 stat points pre-allocated.

Awakened humans are able to irrevocably alter their evolutionary path to become or even create another humanoid race through their decisions and actions.

Cyn was not sure what she expected to see when using Inspect on her race, but it certainly was not that. The line about being adaptable and potential was probably the closest thing to what you would get if you had asked Cyn what a human was, philosophically speaking. The stat points were also a little surprising, since in her experience games with point allocation either made it entirely free points or it was based on class.

This is a dream. Cyn had to remind herself of that. Surely she had seen something similar somewhere else, and that was what her unconscious brain was digging up. In the rest of the description, two repeat words stood out to Cyn, ‘humanoid’ and ‘Awakened’. ‘humanoid’ seemed to be an umbrella term for a group of races based on the context here. Her understanding of the word meant basically any race with basic intelligence and reasoning, along with having a body shape similar to humans. But that might not be the case here. Without more information, she would have to keep that idea on the back-burner for now.

‘Awakened’ on the other hand was actually pretty simple once Cyn took even a moment to think about it. An Awakened human was one that could level up. Kind of ironic naming, since she could not level up when actually awake. What stood out more than anything else was the final line of the description.

Awakened humans are able to irrevocably alter their evolutionary path to become or even create another humanoid race through their decisions and actions.

That was…kind of terrifying actually. Especially without any knowledge of what other humanoid races were. If it was something that could only be done consciously it would just be interesting, but the idea that her actions could suddenly make her not human anymore made Cyn extremely nervous. She reminded herself again that this was just a dream, but the nervous feeling remained.

She attempted to distract herself by continuing to go through her menu, but the only other things that responded to Inspect were the two skills she had already seen through the notifications. She could make pretty good educated guesses on what each of the stats did, but for now she was not going to get any detailed information on them out of Inspect. Cyn did notice she was missing a health point, but considering how awful she felt once she could feel her body again it was almost a surprise it was only a single point missing. Hopefully that would regenerate on its own, or maybe her dream world would have free health care so she would not have to worry about that number reaching zero.

Still feeling a lingering nervousness, Cyn finally closed the fourth notification and vaguely saw through her menu the floating text change and objects appear on the table in front of her. She was a little bit smug about her hunch being correct, that closing the notification would continue the tutorial, and closed her menu to face whatever came next with a slight smirk.

A smirk that changed into a full grin as soon as she could see the objects resting on the table, before even taking the time to read the new floating text.

The road before you is filled with strife, and no one can survive walking it alone. Choose how you will contribute to the collective survival of your dimension.

The new text was on point for what Cyn expected based on the objects. Evenly spaced on the table was a small round shield, a longsword, a pair of crossed daggers, a wooden bow, and a wooden staff. This was clearly going to be how she chose a class. Cyn already knew she would be picking up the staff, although the presence of only a single staff instead of an expected two nagged at her. To Cyn that meant that either a kind of mage or a healer was an option, but not both. Either way, she wanted to Inspect all of the other options first. Starting with the shield, which she assumed would be a tank class.

Guardian - A root class focused on defending allies. The Guardian sacrifices power for survivability. Root classes are highly malleable, and are prone to specialized evolution through your decisions and actions.

Guardians will gain +2 Vitality, +1 Strength, +1 Agility and +1 free point when leveling up.

Cyns' assumption appeared to be correct. Years of pouring over MMO games and RPGs had not gone to waste. All jokes aside, the only thing that stood out was the concept of a ‘root class’. The description of human had used the same word before talking about evolution,and even mentioned decisions and actions the same way. Inspecting the longsword solidified the repeating motif.

Warrior - A root class focused on raw power. The Warrior sacrifices speed in order to hit their enemies hard. Root classes are highly malleable, and are prone to specialized evolution through your decisions and actions.

Warriors will gain +2 Vitality, +2 Strength, and +1 free point when leveling up.

Evolution. Decisions and actions. Those were the motifs here. The idea of a class that was shaped this way was pretty cool to her, but the same ideas being present in her race was no less nerve wracking. Perhaps being human was just too ingrained into her sense of self. Cyn had no interest in either Guardian or Warrior, and was pretty sure she knew what the next Inspect would tell her.

Rogue - A root class focused on speed. The Rogue sacrifices power in order to move more freely around the battlefield. Root classes are highly malleable, and are prone to specialized evolution through your decisions and actions.

Rogues will gain +1 Vitality, +3 Agility, and +1 free point when leveling up.

She had actually expected that description to talk about fast attacks, not movement. Interesting, even a bit appealing. Cyn rarely considered melee for herself however, and next up was her default choice anytime a game did not have a magic system.

Archer - A root class focused on ranged attacks. The Archer sacrifices survivability to instead take out targets from a distance. Root classes are highly malleable, and are prone to specialized evolution through your decisions and actions.

Archers will gain +1 Strength, +1 Mind, +2 Agility, and +1 free point when leveling up.

It was rare for her to play a game without magic, but when it did happen Cyn felt ranged was the next best thing. There were even some cases where she preferred it in single player over magic options. But unless this final Inspect pulled the rug out from under her, Archer was not happening.

Mage - A root class focused on magic. The mage sacrifices physical combat power in order to use magic more efficiently. Root classes are highly malleable, and are prone to specialized evolution through your decisions and actions.

Mages will gain +2 Mind, +2 Will, and +1 free point when leveling up.

Did that count as pulling the rug? Cyn read the description of mage again, baffled. Nothing there seemed to even hint at what a mage could do. Even worse, they used magic ‘more efficiently’. That could mean a lot of things, but she was reading it as one of the worst case scenarios. Whatever a mage did, other classes could do too. Mages were just better at it.

And now she had a real problem on her hands. If given the option, when playing a MMO or co-op game, Cyn would always choose to be the healer. How much she enjoyed that varied moment to moment and depended heavily on who she was playing with, but ultimately she found the role rewarding. No one wanted to play the healer, but no one wanted to play without one either. Being good at it had made her invaluable in most MMO games, and it was rarely a struggle to find a group for whatever she needed.

Plus, Cyn could not deny that she was a little petty. Being in charge of who gets healed and who gets to hug the floor was pretty satisfying when people pissed you off.

If she wasn’t playing a healer, dazzling feats of magic and mayhem was an acceptable substitute. But that description was giving her nothing. If she wanted to play it safe, she should just choose Archer. Its role was very clear, and if other classes could use magic that opened the door to some fun possibilities.

But ultimately, did this really even matter? I am dreaming. If it's a good dream, things will be fine. If it's some kind of drawn out nightmare, there is no right answer anyway. Satisfied with that flawless logic, Cyn did what she really wanted to do anyway. She chose magic.