I feel warm.
An unusual amount of warm.
This is not necessarily a problem.
In fact, after several days spent inside a dungeon whose climate fluctuated between unpleasantly damp and aggressively crystalline, I would describe the current temperature as exceptionally welcome.
I therefore make no immediate effort to investigate.
My eyes remain closed. My ears stay relaxed against the pillow, and every muscle in my body submits a unanimous request that consciousness postpone all further proceedings until a more civilized hour.
A compelling argument.
Unfortunately, several details begin forcing themselves into my awareness despite my best efforts.
There is a soft weight resting on my upper arm.
Warmth presses lightly against my shoulder and one of my legs, while something heavy and remarkably fluffy lies across my calves beneath the blanket.
Avelyn.
The answer arrives without requiring sight.
Her breathing is slow and even beside me, each quiet exhale brushing faintly against my shoulder. The scent of her hair lingers close enough that she must have moved considerably nearer during the night.
I should probably open my eyes.
I do not.
Opening my eyes would represent the first irreversible step toward getting out of bed, and I refuse to begin such a dangerous sequence without adequate preparation.
I remain motionless for another minute.
Possibly two.
Potentially upwards of twenty.
Time holds limited meaning beneath a warm blanket.
Eventually, curiosity overcomes laziness by the narrowest possible margin, and I open one eye.
Avelyn has migrated.
Her head rests on my arm, where she has shifted closer until one reddish-orange ear presses softly against my shoulder. One hand lies loosely curled on the blanket between us, only a few centimeters from my side, while her tail stretches across my lower legs in a broad sweep of warm fur.
This is broadly consistent with her established preference for physical contact.
More difficult to explain is my own position.
I am no longer lying flat on my back.
At some point during the night, I appear to have angled myself toward her.
Our knees touch lightly beneath the blanket, and my tail rests against hers as though the two entered into some form of unauthorized alliance while I slept.
I study the evidence in silence.
Apparently, I met her halfway.
A suspicious development.
My arm has also begun to lose sensation beneath her head.
This would normally justify immediate corrective action.
However, Avelyn appears deeply asleep. Her face is relaxed, her ears completely softened, and the faint smile resting on her lips suggests she is experiencing a particularly pleasant dream.
Waking the healer who prevented my death yesterday merely to preserve circulation would be ungrateful.
Possibly rude.
Certainly inefficient, considering sensation will return eventually.
I therefore remain exactly where I am. Entirely out of courtesy.
My ears soften farther into the pillow.
Not to mention...
...
My face feels warm.
Nope.
I refuse to think about it.
Absolutely nothing happened last night. As such, my carefully maintained dignity remains intact.
Excellent.
Avelyn shifts slightly in her sleep, pressing closer by a tiny fraction.
My tail responds with a small movement against hers before I can stop it.
Traitor.
Still, the arrangement is undeniably warm.
Comfortable, too.
More comfortable than sleeping beside another person has any reasonable right to be.
This appears to support the theory that close Foxkin friendships involve considerably more instinctive physical contact than I initially anticipated.
A valuable correction to my previous assumptions.
I close my eye again.
Further study can wait until waking up becomes less offensively difficult.
…
…
My ears twitch at the sound of rustling fabric and the sudden loss of warmth I was most certainly not enjoying immensely.
That would be ridiculous.
I open my eyes to find Avelyn carefully pulling away from my arm, moving with obvious effort to avoid disturbing me.
Tragic.
She blinks when she notices I am awake.
“Oh! Sorry, did I wake you?”
I stare at her for several seconds while my thoughts struggle through the administrative burden of becoming conscious.
“No.”
My voice emerges softer and considerably sleepier than intended.
Avelyn’s tail gives an amused swish. She looks slightly aside, making a poor attempt to conceal a giggle.
I blink several times as the implications take far longer to process than they reasonably should.
Then I sit up and discover the source of her amusement.
My hair appears to have staged a highly successful rebellion during the night.
Several white strands have fallen across my face, while the rest has expanded in every direction with ambitions of territorial conquest. One side is flattened against my head. The other possesses enough volume to shelter a modest family of birds.
A monumental aesthetic failure.
I raise one hand and make a largely symbolic attempt to smooth it down.
Avelyn’s composure breaks immediately. Light giggles spill from her as she sits on the edge of the bed.
I give her the most dignified glare currently available to me.
Unfortunately, one of my ears remains folded awkwardly into my hair, while the other has only managed to rise halfway.
The effect is likely less intimidating than intended.
I crawl to the edge of the bed and sit beside Avelyn before retrieving two hairbrushes and handing one to her.
Her hair has displayed considerably more discipline than mine. Despite sleeping through the same night, it remains soft and aesthetically pleasing, while mine resembles a briar patch cultivated by someone with an increasingly unstable relationship with landscaping.
I briefly consider studying the difference.
Then decide I am far too tired.
A tragedy.
Avelyn looks faintly disappointed when I begin brushing my own hair.
I choose not to investigate.
My eyes drift half-shut as I work, each stroke performed with the dwindling determination of someone carrying out vital maintenance before re-entering civilization.
One hundred strokes.
Always one hundred.
Eventually, the battle is won.
My hair falls smoothly down my back once more instead of projecting outward at every conceivable angle like a dam assembled by an increasingly deranged beaver.
My ears, however, have yet to reclaim their normal dignity.
Unacceptable.
Avelyn leans toward me with barely contained excitement, an impressive contrast to the level of sleepiness currently attempting to drag me back beneath the blankets. Her shoulder brushes mine.
Some of the haze lifts at the contact.
Avelyn’s tail gives another eager swish, brushing lightly against the side of the bed.
“Should we do our skill selections together?”
I blink.
Right.
My level sixty-five skill selection.
Avelyn continues before I can answer.
“I wonder what skills we’re going to get,” she says, practically glowing with anticipation. “Do you think the dungeon will affect the selection?”
Almost certainly.
Between the roaming bosses, the Crystal Reaper, and the frankly heroic quantity of violence I contributed to the proceedings, the System would need to display a deeply questionable commitment to mediocrity not to offer me something impressive.
Then again, I am an exceptionally talented and aesthetically flawless individual.
Exceptional rewards are merely the natural consequence of exceptional performance.
I flick my hair with appropriate hauteur.
Or attempt to.
The movement lacks its usual sharpness, and my hair follows with the regal splendor of a grocery receipt caught in a weak breeze.
Avelyn presses her lips together.
Her shoulders begin to shake.
I narrow my eyes at her, though the effect is weakened considerably by the fact that one of my ears still refuses to stand properly.
To prevent any further assaults upon my dignity, I give a small nod and turn my attention toward my status window.
I open the waiting skill selection with the cautious enthusiasm of a fox investigating an unattended chicken coop with no lock.
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Skill Selection activated
Please choose a Skill
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[Starlit Pas de Deux (Legendary)] {New Skill}
Choose one foe to share your dance.
(Active) Mark a visible target and begin the Opening Movement, rapidly accelerating along a chosen trajectory toward them. The first slashing attack performed on the targeted foe gains greatly increased speed and cutting power.
Successful slashing attacks made from distinct trajectories and close evasions against attacks from the marked target advance the dance. Once the required movements have been completed, the Closing Movement becomes available, consuming the mark to perform a high-speed finishing slash whose power increases with the momentum accumulated throughout the dance.
The dance ends if engagement with the marked target is broken or the user suffers a severe interruption.
Scales with Dexterity and Perception.
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[Veiled Meridian (Epic)] {New Skill}
Your blade conceals the star within its edge.
(Active) Compress astral energy within a single slashing attack, greatly reducing external light, flame, and gravitational distortion. The stored energy is released upon contact, increasing cutting power and transferring astral force into the struck target or defense. Stamina consumption increases with the power committed.
Scales with Dexterity.
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[Fractured Constellation (Epic)] {New Skill}
Your blade charts destruction across rigid defenses.
(Passive) Slashing attacks against rigid or enforced materials leave temporary astral fractures along their trajectories. Crossing an existing fracture with another slash causes the lines to spread and releases concentrated astral force at their intersection.
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[Astral Severance (Epic)] {Skill Upgrade}
Your blade divides more than the surface it cuts.
(Passive) Slashing attacks against vulnerable areas gain increased cutting power and carry astral force deeper along the struck structure. Successfully severing a significant limb, armor section, weapon, or other connected structure briefly increases the speed and cutting power of the next slashing attack.
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[Interposing Step (Rare)] {New Skill}
Cross the distance before danger reaches another.
(Active) Rapidly move toward a nearby ally threatened by an incoming attack. The first defensive slash made during the movement gains increased deflection force.
Scales with Dexterity.
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My ears perk, and my tail gives an excited swish.
Then another.
Then one more, purely to ensure the sentiment is properly conveyed.
Now that is a good skill selection.
Beside me, Avelyn’s tail begins swishing as she reads through her own options.
Excellent.
I read through the list several times before nodding solemnly.
Alright.
Reverse order, as usual.
First up: Interposing Step.
Actually not terrible for a Rare skill. For almost anyone other than me, at least.
Judging from the description, it is essentially my own version of Marek’s rapid shielding skill.
Which is just profoundly unfortunate, considering I possess roughly a third of his Vitality, my combat gear weighs approximately two hundred pounds less than his, and I lack a massive steel tower shield with which to absorb the consequences of my life choices.
The only realistic use I can imagine would be heroically intercepting an attack meant for Avelyn, then relying on her healing and my Starborn regeneration to survive the aftermath.
Technically useful.
By the barest possible definition of the word.
Next.
Astral Severance.
An upgrade to one of my more situationally useful skills, Severing Arc.
When I first acquired it, I had been convinced Severing Arc was exceptionally powerful.
To some extent, it still is.
Paired with Horizon Slash, it can sever limbs and joints with remarkable efficiency. Its value drops considerably against stronger opponents, however. Massive creatures cannot have their joints fully severed by a single application, while powerful mana armor can blunt the effect before it reaches anything important.
More critically, my current slashing attacks pale beside Rending Starfire Line whenever I need to break through an exceptionally durable target.
Astral Severance would undoubtedly make the skill stronger, but it would not meaningfully change what I use it for. Severing Arc is already effective against the enemies it is meant to counter, and forcing it beyond that role would accomplish little beyond spending a valuable skill selection on increasingly excessive dismemberment.
If it is not broken, do not fix it.
Next.
Fractured Constellation.
At first glance?
Extremely powerful.
This would be the simplest improvement to my existing kit by far. It shores up my weakness against mana armor while giving Celestial Momentum another excellent synergy, allowing repeated attacks to dismantle magical defenses with steadily increasing efficiency.
Simple.
Effective.
...Slightly useless.
Had I encountered this skill before fighting the dragon, I likely would have chosen it without hesitation. Even before learning just how troublesome powerful armor skills could become.
Since creating Rending Starfire Line, however, my build has veered in an entirely different direction.
Previously, my combat philosophy could be summarized as cutting something a great many times until it developed the good sense to stop moving.
Now, repeated attack spam is considerably less valuable.
My kit has evolved toward accumulating buffs before concentrating them into a devastating strike. Celestial Momentum rewards sustained motion, Starfire Resonance builds through repeated exposure to my flames, and Starfall Sequence already lets me unleash a thoroughly inspirational number of powerful attacks whenever attrition is actually required.
More importantly, my Garden makes endurance battles heavily favor me. In the rare event that I cannot simply break through mana armor with overwhelming force or negate it using Starfall Sequence, I am perfectly capable of draining it over time while my own stamina continues regenerating.
Fractured Constellation would make me better at something I can already accomplish without meaningful difficulty.
Redundant.
Next.
Veiled Meridian.
Easily the most tragic entry on the list. Not because it is bad, but because it is almost perfect.
A powerful active skill? Check.
A line specifically mentioning the amount of “power committed,” meaning it should scale properly? Check.
Some mysterious, nebulous ability to conceal light, flames, and gravity? Check.
I am not entirely certain how it intends to accomplish that last one, but I digress.
It is almost exactly what I wanted from my next skill: a powerful but subtle active ability I could use around random people without inspiring highly inconvenient theories about my Aspect.
An Epic skill I would have been perfectly happy to choose.
Would have.
If not for the skill sitting at the very top of the list.
Starlit Pas de Deux.
Legendary.
The name? Ten out of ten.
No notes.
There is no conceivable reality in which a skill named something that cool could be useless. It appeals aggressively to my entirely reasonable aesthetic standards in every possible way.
The description certainly does not disappoint.
In fact, it is by far the most complex skill I have encountered thus far.
First, the opening attack receives “greatly” increased speed and cutting power.
The instant Starfall Sequence manifested inside the Crystal Reaper’s mana armor made it abundantly clear that Legendary skills operate according to an entirely different standard of fairness. When one of them claims to “greatly” increase something, I am distinctly inclined to believe it.
That gives me an immediate execution-type attack before the rest of the skill has even begun.
Already exceptionally powerful.
Second, it applies a mark and accumulates some form of momentum while that mark remains active, eventually building toward a closing attack.
The references to “distinct trajectories” and “close evasions” suggest that accumulating momentum will not be as simple as repeatedly stabbing the target or fleeing in circles until the skill decides I have done enough.
However, Guiding Star Dance is built entirely around evading attacks with the smallest possible movement.
I therefore find it difficult to believe that unlocking the closing movement would be unreasonably difficult.
...As though I needed another reason to finally create its First Step.
Mental note: stop slacking and make that technique already.
Then there is the closing movement itself.
I am not convinced I can meaningfully estimate how catastrophic the finishing attack of a Legendary momentum skill would be to anything unfortunate enough to stand in its path.
As such, I will not even attempt to do so.
Several other details are far more interesting.
For example, could I use Horizon Slash for the opening and closing movements instead of an ordinary strike? Theoretically, I should be able to.
Severing Arc would activate automatically if the trajectory crossed a joint, although that is hardly the most important interaction.
Twin Arc should mirror the geometry of the original cut. Since Starlit Pas de Deux directly enhances its speed and cutting power rather than creating some separate damaging effect, the mirrored slash should inherit an extremely unpleasant amount of force.
And naturally, there is the most important question.
...Starfall Sequence.
I see no reason it could not duplicate both the opening and closing attacks. Each is explicitly described as a slashing movement, which should place them comfortably within the skill’s requirements.
The stamina cost would undoubtedly be horrific. Replicating even one Legendary-enhanced attack would likely tear a massive chunk from my reserves, let alone the finishing movement after it has accumulated momentum.
But if the target ceases to exist afterward, stamina efficiency becomes a largely academic concern.
Moving away from the damage for a moment, some of the phrasing is also suspiciously specific.
The closing movement explicitly states that it performs a slashing attack.
The opening does not.
It merely says that my “next attack” against the marked target gains increased speed and cutting power.
What happens if I simply... do not attack?
Could I preserve the enhancement for a later strike?
There would rarely be a reason to delay, considering I would surrender the immediate movement advantage, but the wording certainly implies that the empowered attack remains available until used.
More importantly, what happens if I place the mark on an ally?
If the movement component activates before I am required to attack, could I use the opening step to reach someone in danger, refuse to follow through, and then simply dismiss the mark?
Using a Legendary dueling skill as emergency transportation would be an almost insulting application of its intended purpose.
Which makes the possibility deeply appealing.
One skill, so many questions.
It does possess several noticeable weaknesses.
The mark can only apply to a single target, and the entire sequence ends if I remain disengaged for too long or suffer an interruption severe enough to break the dance.
Considering how powerful this skill already sounds, that engagement window is almost certainly short. The skill may be effectively restricted to duels, or at least to situations where I can keep one particular opponent under constant pressure.
Still.
This skill is absurd.
It has therefore earned a highly rare and coveted achievement. One thus far received by none of the skills offered through a System selection.
I hereby award it: “What the hell was the System thinking, giving this to me?”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Skill Selection confirmed.
You have gained the Class Skill [Starlit Pas de Deux (Legendary)].
Skill has been automatically placed into your Skill Storage.
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Excellent.
A brand-new, exceptionally shiny Legendary skill has been acquired.
I pull up my status window and immediately replace Stellar Finesse with Starlit Pas de Deux.
Naturally.
It was only Uncommon, after all.
I do recognize the irony in replacing a passive skill with an active one after making plans to stack Dexterity passives like some manner of suspiciously enthusiastic speed gremlin.
However, when the active skills presented to me are as powerful as Starfall Sequence and Starlit Pas de Deux, a small amount of additional speed becomes considerably less interesting.
Tragic.
With that settled, I open my full status window to bask in my progress like the entirely reasonable genius I am.
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Lyn
Health: 6780 / 6780
Stamina: 20480 / 20480
Race: Starborne Foxkin (Level 67 | Tier 2)
Class: Starlit Blade Dancer [Epic] (Level 67 | Tier 2)
Aspect: Star
Traits: [Starborn] [Atrocity] [Pride] [Living Calamity]
Titles: [Apex Predator]
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Stats
Vitality: 678 [+113]
Strength: 857 [+143]
Dexterity: 2048 [+341]
Perception: 1392 [+232]
Charisma: 132 [+22]
Free Points: 0
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Class Skills (8/8):
[Horizon Slash (Rare)]
[Starlit Pas de Deux (Legendary)]
[Twin Arc (Epic)]
[Astral Veilstep (Rare)]
[Starfall Sequence (Legendary)]
[Celestial Momentum (Epic)]
[Severing Arc (Rare)]
[Starfire Resonance (Epic)]
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General Skills (8/8):
[Inspect (Common)]
[Running (Epic)]
[Evasive Footwork (Uncommon)]
[Astral Manipulation (Epic)]
[Volatile Rune Crafting (Rare)]
[Blazing Star Dance (Epic)]
[Guiding Star Dance (Rare)]
[Exotic Cooking (Uncommon)]
ㅤ
Racial Skills:
Cosmic Perception
Silent Star
Astral Reflex
ㅤ
Special Skills:
[Arcana: Garden of Eternal Midnight]
[Universal Translation]
[Slipstream]
[Peripheral Continuity]
[Load Bearing]
[Homeostasis]
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I nod solemnly.
Two orange skills and six purple ones.
Aesthetically pleasing.
...Except for Inspect.
I glare at the offending Common skill for several seconds, mostly out of spite, before closing the window.
Another mental note: use the Archive to research methods of increasing Inspect’s rarity.
Because it is frankly absurd that I have yet to upgrade it.
The task moves directly to the top of the list.
Naturally.
I glance toward Avelyn.
Her tail is swishing rapidly behind her while her feet kick lightly over the edge of the bed, shoulder still resting against mine.
She notices my attention immediately and smiles.
“Got a good one?”
I smile back.
“Exceptionally.”
Her tail accelerates.
“I did too!” She leans closer in her excitement. “It was a Legendary! I actually got one!”
My smile becomes slightly less restrained.
My tail begins swishing faster as well.
“Congratulations, Avelyn.”
She is practically vibrating now, her expression carrying an almost infectious amount of joy.
Adorable.
Avelyn springs from the bed, landing silently on the floor in an energetic and slightly dramatic pose. She immediately turns back toward me and extends a hand.
“Wanna see?”
My tail gives another eager swish.
“I would love to.”
I place my hand in hers.
For some reason, I still feel warm.