It took Gabriel a while to found the strength to focus on his Anchor Page selection, but finally, he did.

  The first thing presenting itself was another Perk selection.

  Varied.

  His vocabulary, shaken by the experience, was short.

  Description.

  Wow… one better than the other…

  What do I choose?

  Air resistance. I can almost replicate that with Built to Fly, for now, though I’m guessing that would be a spectacular trait for any archer.

  I don’t know, really. Maybe Mass is not an issue would not be as effective for now. I mean… I’ve yet to face some mass related problem...

  Oh, come on, who am I kidding? I’ll go with Mana Manipulation.

  Gabriel unconsciously closed his eyes, preparing for pain.

  But nothing came. He could only feel the weird feeling he tried when another tether joined, failing, that place which was his Soul.

  The fact that pain did not come did bring a little bit of relief to his still shocked mind.

  Gabriel gave a sigh of relief.

  I’ll check its functions later. For now... next!

  Well, the second Perk is pretty clear. Let’s see.

  Oh, those ritual circles Olive and that german hikikomori girl used, nice.

  So it is not a free thing, only having the party interface up, whatever that is, cost Mana, that party summon though… it’s useful, but holy shit, if it’s expensive.

  Ho-ly...cram! Gabriel’s eyes were wide.

  Fucking hell, I want both Magic Circle and Skill Trap! Pretty please, Anchor, can you give them both?

  The Anchor did not answer.

  A-hole…

  Gabriel sighed. But his attention was mostly drawn toward Skill Trap. It felt somehow really good. They added versatility to his lacking battle style, which could not be simply skipped in order to claim the Magic Circle Perks for which he could have no real use, given his lack of Magic.

  He had to face a Challenge, whatever that was, and he needed a solid power increase. The promise of a future reward was not enough to push him over choosing Magic Circle.

  Ok, give me Skill Trap… fucker.

  Gabriel squeezed an eye shut in anticipation of pain, but once again, it did not come. Another tether failed to bind to his soul. Yet again, giving him access to this other Perk.

  Alright, let’s see. It’s Skill choosing time now, eh? And since it’s stopping me from placing my Attribute points, I guess I need to choose an Affinity Skill.

  Well, I was planning on having a Resilience Skill… but, what the hell Affinity is good too!

  He didn’t even need to skim the Skills, selecting the one he wanted right away.

  I wonder how it works.

  Do I have to choose a Spirit Skill now?

  Another Perks selection? Anchor, what are these?

  Woah… this has a lot of implications… Does Brill’s hiding ability relate to that Spirit Fade thing?

  Fascinating.

  But I’ve only got one choice. So… touch without sight would be… impracticable.

  Gabriel did not know what to do about it. But after thinking about the fact that maybe with Spirit Perception, he could hear Liz’s voice, he almost thought he would just choose that, until something from inside of himself, Liz, pushed him to a decision.

  Liz? Is that you?

  Another vibration.

  You want me to take Spirit Sight?

  Once again, she vibrated, accompanying that, an image of her nodding appeared in his mind for a fraction of a second.

  Alright then, it’s your Perk, after all.

  Let’s go with Spirit Sight, Anchor.

  Fuck there it is-

  His head felt like it was about to explode for a few seconds. His eyes, ears, nose, and mouth started bleeding; a faint sweat of blood poured out of his skin, but everything ended just as fast as it had started.

  A minute or so after he recovered from the application of this new tether, things started becoming really weird.

  A new feeling awoke in his chest, something he had never felt before, or to be more correct, something he had never before felt so profoundly, took a clear form in his mind.

  It was his own soul.

  At first, it felt like fire yet like water at the same time… it felt weak but strong, warm but cold, immense but imperceptible, close but oh so distant.

  And Liz was there. She was all bundled up, sitting by and at the same time inside of that liquid fire in his chest.

  He could feel her, somehow with all his sense, or maybe with this one new, indescribable sense that had just developed in him, and she could go as well.

  But the world as he knew it had just taken one huge turn because sensing the Liz inside of him and his own soul or whatever that was, was not all that had changed.

  Gabriel could feel it crawling on his skin, like smoke hanging in the thin mountain air. There were other presences around him.

  Opening his eyes felt like a chore. His head still pounded, but he had to, and doing so, he saw them.

  Spirit, he could see real, transparent spirits filling the room. Animals, sentients, weird constructs, but objects too. They were there giving substance to the empty chamber.

  I can see them… was this why it was so empty before? Is interacting with them the way through the Challenge? But what would have happened if I had accepted the Challenge before I leveled up? Thinking about that possible situation made his skin crawl.

  Gabriel got up, still a bloody and smelly mess, he headed toward the closer spirit-looking thing. It was a sentient, a really weird man looking creature, very hairy, clothless thanks to the amount of fur covering it. Gabriel decided that it was a he.

  Other than fur, the young man noticed that the sentient had a crown of bones protruding from his head and hooves instead of feet. His legs were digitigrade. He was transparent, inconsistent, one could say, and his color was that of Liz, an innocuous grey, faint but not too much. It reminded Gabriel of a lack of proper color.

  If it could be considered as such, the creature walked around a construct, this too was not there before, and even though it had clear colors, it looked faint and transparent, yet somehow more consistent. It was some sort of device pumping something from the ground.

  The man worked on the construct, a weird tablet in his hand, where he signed something.

  Gabriel saw the creature look around, entirely past him. He was not able to see him, least of all, perceive him.

  Is this some sort of echo of a past… something? Or is it entirely fake?

  A part of the Challenge, maybe?

  Gabriel was about to try and touch his shoulder, just to gauge what effect it would do, but he stopped before doing anything else.

  What if the Challenge has yet to start, and interacting with one of these things is the trigger? I’ve still got to finish things up. What if I don’t meet the criteria? What if my Attributes are too low with dealing with the Challenge? I need more time… and maybe clothes, but most of all, I need my arm back.

  He looked at his stump. It did not hurt anymore, it itched, but it had looked longer at least. He knew he would have to wait for his Life to regenerate to full for himself to heal his arm to full.

  Currently, it stood at 1, but it would soon tick to 2. He needed less than twelve hours to heal to full. That was if he did not put any new Attribute points or Pools points into Life.

  That was when he finally realized his advantage for the first time.

  Wait! With a Pool of measly ten Life points, I can regenerate my body to full much faster than anybody else, which relies on Life to survive! Yes, yes, that’s it! I’m not reliant on Life! But I can still resist blows and damage by relying on Resilience… Of course! Of course! Now I get it! Gods… what an unfair advantage.

  With a refund sense of self-worth, Gabriel headed to his clothes and bag. The smell was intense.

  But he snatched the bag, hoping to find something to eat or drink, or water to wash the clothes… but he found nothing, nothing at all. Only potions.

  Sitting heavily on the floor once again. Gabriel sighed and turned to focus back on his Anchor Page.

  What he had to do now was to assign points.

  He had 19 Attribute points plus one free point, free probably because he could place it wherever he wished, maybe even in the Spirit section of his Anchor Page. He had to try to find out. Other than those body Attributes points, he had 5 Spirit points and 40 Pool points.

  He already knew what to do with his Pool points, so that was the first thing he did.

  Five points went to Energy, five to Spirit, and the remaining thirty to Mana. He knew that thirty was a lot, but he now had three skills requiring Mana, his Sk’rayr spear, and Analysis, which he knew he would probably really abuse, given his new environment.

  So all in all, it was a good deal. He could have gone with 10/10/20. What he felt he could power-level Built to Fly if he had more Mana at his disposal.

  The next thing he did was placing Spirit points.

  What? He said to Liz, vibrating her discomfort from whiting him.

  Do you want to have a say in the placement? Then come out, because I have no idea how to-

  He felt something rippling inside of him and tearing out of the inside of him. The lizard jumped out of his stern.

  Gabriel staggered backward, plopping on the ground.

  He felt strangely empty for a second, only to feel renewed as his Liz came into his vision. He smiled unconsciously. “Holy shit, you’ve grown!”

  Liz was bigger, almost twice her previous size. He didn’t want to say, but she looked a tad bit more like a dragon now.

  She was roughly three-foot-seven now. Gabriel, counting with his fingers the boost in Affinity, felt it was right. She had grown an inch for each point in Affinity.

  Liz circled around him, then she got up on her legs and launched on his back, biting him softly on the neck. Gabriel laughed with joy, and Liz remained like that for a little while.

  “Alright, alright smoochy lizard. Are you ready to add your points?”

  She circled once again in front of him. Then sat, almost like a cat, closing her mouth and nodding.

  “You want them all to Power, don’t you?”

  She nodded vigorously.

  “You know that determines your Passive Skill, right?”

  She nodded even more vigorously.

  Gabriel sighed. “Alright, here goes.”

  He placed each point into Power, and at the same time, they felt they had become capable of doing everything they wished if they just wished so.

  “Damn! Much better than Stamina!” Said Gabe with a chuckle.

  “Alright, the next one is a little more complex. We need to make intelligent decisions here. Our survival depends on the next choices.”

  “So, listen, my idea is that of going full Alacrity, Resilience. Alacrity was my stats of choice even before, but I’ve just had a realization, and going Resilience will definitely net us the best reward, especially since the next Skill unlock will reward us with a Skill which will effectively double it. So, what do you say?”

  Liz started moving around, pacing as if mulling over something.

  Gabriel looked at her, amused.

  Once she finally calmed down, she nodded and mimicked something with her mouth.

  “What? Are you trying to say… Resilience… over Alacrity?”

  Liz nodded again.

  “Look at that, my girl wants to speak. Alright, it’s decided then!”

  So with his current 9 Alacrity and 10 Resilience, Gabriel split his 19 Attribute points so that he would place effectively double them.

  He felt super thrilled. The world around him seemed to slow down; at the same time, he felt his skin, muscles, bones, organs tighten, their density seemingly increasing.

  It took him a while to adapt to the new feelings. His Alacrity had brought forth and the new and improved state of his body.

  After that, he mulled over the one free point remaining to him, reaching toward his Spirit point; he tried willing to place it on Liz’s Power, feeling no resistance to the action.

  So it was possible…

  Now that he knew that it was possible, he placed it to his Power.

  His new and much-improved Anchor Page looked like this.

  He nodded in appreciation.

  “Alright, time to get out of this place, eh?”