Death is nothing; but to live any life defeated and inglorious is to die daily.

  ~Napoleon Bonaparte

  Text started scrolling past Sarah’s eyes.

  New Quest: Survive the surprise attack.

  Rewards: Your life. Additional rewards based on performance.

  A quest to survive the attack? So her system path was now interacting and responding to the real world? Was that a good thing, or a sign of a deteriorating mind? More messages scrolled past.

  Quest complete. You have unlocked 1% more of your bloodline potential. Level up. Spirit increased from E1 to E2, Talent increased from F3 to F4, plus 4 free points.

  You have unlocked 1% more of your bloodline potential. Level up. Spirit increased from E2 to E3, Talent evolves to a higher rank, increasing from F4 to F5. Plus 4 free points. Spirit and health restored.

  Quest bonus rewards 1, calculated from your performance.

  Body rank evolution. Body rank evolves from F9 to E0. All body stats reset to E0.

  Congratulations, you have evolved your first rank. Rank evolutions not only unlock significantly more power, but important new opportunities for growth.

  “Whoa!” Sarah exclaimed. Thankfully, no one around her noticed amid the chaos of the emergency.

  Two levels, and a rank evolution? That all sounded important. Sarah watched the message screen carefully, willing it add more text and explain what the heck a rank evolution was, and what kind of additional power and opportunities the evolution provided.

  Instead, the message box disappeared and Sarah gasped as a wave of warmth and power rolled through her with revitalizing strength. Her hands stopped shaking, her head cleared, and her wounds no longer hurt at all.

  She took a deep breath, not caring that the dust-filled air still stank of smoke and gunpowder. She felt amazing and savored the ability to simply breathe without pain. When she moved her hand to inspect her gunshot wound, it was gone.

  “How is that possible?” She whispered, stunned by that more than anything she'd seen from her strange new system so far.

  People could get stronger, so the fact that her path helped her get stronger faster than normal was amazing, but not as totally mind-blowing as insta-healing from a gunshot wound. That was the stuff of fantasy.

  And yet, it happened, just like in the vault. There, she’d been only half conscious and mostly dead, but within seconds had been miraculously restored to full health. This time she was fully aware as the super healing rolled through her.

  She prodded at her shoulder in wonder. The skin under the drying blood was perfectly smooth and unblemished.

  It was like she'd never been shot at all. When she moved the napkins she'd been holding to her jaw and prodded at the skin there, she felt no pain.

  There was so much to unpack in what just happened, but she had no idea how to even begin asking the right questions.

  “Thank you Path of Ancients,” she muttered.

  She might not understand what was happening, but recovering from gunshot wounds was better than amazing. Another message box appeared, interrupting her thoughts.

  Quest bonus rewards 2.

  New achievement. You not only ran into battle to defend yourself and your companions, but you took an opponent's weapon and used it against him.

  New title: Bulletproof Monk. Like the famously-acrobatic Shaolin monks, you dove into battle with fearless disregard to your own safety and still came out conqueror.

  Plus 5 to Talent. Talent evolved to E0.

  Plus 10% effectiveness of Toughness.

  “Title?” Sarah breathed, rereading the text a couple of times. The benefits sounded great. Any increases to the unknown Talent rank was welcome, since she had no idea what it did. The boost to Toughness sounded like it would be a good thing too.

  Yet another message box popped up, replacing the last one before she could dig more into the fascinating title.

  Note: With all ranks evolved do E, all stats and abilities gain a permanent 20% boost to effectiveness. E-ranked Body evolution unlocks improved Regeneration. Plus 10% speed of regeneration of Spirit and Health per additional level.

  Note: Existing F-rank free points evolved to E-rank points at a two-to one ratio prior to the new points from new levels being allocated.

  New achievement. Upon reaching E-rank in your body rank, you unlock the ability to bond a rune. You have unlocked your first stat-enhancement rune.

  Stolen story; please report.

  As soon as she read that text, a burning heat seared into her right calf. Sarah sucked in a sharp hiss of surprise and glanced down at her bare leg.

  That’s when she noticed her skirt was ruined worse than she’d thought. It was split in a couple more places and ragged.

  In any other situation, it would be downright indecent. She draped one of the bloody towels over her legs to cover them up a bit better, then peered at her burning calf.

  A symbol made out of glowing, blue lines of light was spreading across her calf, as if an invisible artist was sketching it out on her skin. It was made of swirling spirals, connected in the center with a knot that also linked them to a stylized feather. The entire design blazed brightly for a second, radiating a sense of movement.

  Then the blue light faded to black, making the symbol look like a brand new tattoo. She'd never gotten a tattoo. When she was younger, her parents would have totally freaked out and claimed she was embracing Satan and evil debauchery.

  Alterego’s policy was to avoid tattoes because the mostly-older renters often frowned on them. Now she had a magical one?

  She reached a tentative finger to touch it, but the black lines of the magical tattoo swiftly faded, like it was sinking into her skin. Within three heartbeats, it was like it had never been there at all.

  More text scrolled into view beneath the description of the title.

  Stat-Enhancement runes add plus ten to an individual body stat and allow you to increase the related stat level beyond the normal cap of 9. This stat-enhancement rune is linked to your Agility stat. Agility increased from E0 to E10.

  Note: Any levels beyond 9 for any stat at the current rank will be lost upon evolution to the next rank.

  A rush of energy poured into her, several times stronger than the results of her daily quest. It radiated up from the now-invisible tattoo on her right calf. She gasped and rocked back in the chair so far it creaked and nearly toppled over backward.

  She barely noticed. Her heart was thundering and burning in her chest and she suddenly felt stronger, and somehow lighter than ever. Those bonus rewards were nothing short of staggering.

  That final note looked important. She’d already seen that there was a hard limit for her stats in F rank.

  Thankfully, she’d managed to evolve to E-rank and they all ticked up to E0. The new enhancement rune pushed Agility up to E10, suggesting she could again start applying free points to push her individual stats higher. Before she could check her character sheet and do that, more messages appeared.

  Quest bonus rewards 3.

  New ability: Basic Tumbling 1.

  You have gained the skill to leap, jump, tumble, and perform basic acrobatic moves. Your footing is 5% surer, and your spatial awareness 5% better per level.

  New ability: Basic Small Arms Mastery 1. You have gained basic proficiency in small arms, including pistols, rifles, and shotguns. 5% faster loading, and 5% improved accuracy per level.

  Seriously? Her system, the Path of Ancients, could award her abilities to increase talents like acrobatics and firearms handling?

  That seemed like a ridiculous amount of rewards for a single quest. Gaining stats and becoming noticeably stronger each day was one thing, but bonus rewards were raining down simply because she fought for her life and lived?

  Not that she was going to complain. They were making her stronger and, more importantly, healed her from her wounds. Feeling better than she had any right to after an encounter with armed gunmen, she turned her thoughts to their attackers.

  That only dredged up more questions. She had no idea who they were or what their purpose had been in the attack. It was not unreasonable for someone to recognize her, but why target her?

  That was scary, and it gave her something to worry about other than the insanity of her system. That worked for about five seconds until police officers started streaming into the building. In all the chaos, she couldn't help opening her character sheet to check the changes.

  Name: Sarah

  Level 3

  Rank:

  Spirit: E3

  Talent E0

  Body: E0

  Body Stats:

  Strength: E0

  Toughness: E0

  Agility: E10

  Willpower: E0

  Health Points: E0 (223)

  Free stat points: 10

  Abilities:

  Basic Tumbling

  Basic Small Arms Mastery

  Titles:

  Bulletproof Monk

  That was wild. If she assumed the messages were real and her path really did somehow have the ability to not only make her stronger, but also heal her and interact with the real world, the ramifications were enormous.

  Both her Talent and Body ranks had evolved and jumped to E0, whatever that meant. It seemed like a big deal, but she still had no idea what the Talent rank meant.

  She’d have to test the boosts to her physical stats. According to that note, she’d get an additional 20% effectiveness from her body stats.

  That suggested her base strength had just jumped a ton, and each additional point would grant her even more benefit than the 10% increments she’d been seeing.

  What did that mean for her strength? She’d benched 250 pounds. Did it mean she could suddenly bench 300? Insane.

  Her free points ended up at 10. She’d had 4 before, and they’d gotten evolved to E-rank at a two-to-one ration, dropping them to 2. Then the 8 new free points had been applied.

  On top of all those available points, her new stat-enhancement rune had driven her Agility beyond the E9 rank limit already. She’d already been pushing the limits of what great athletes could do at F9, and in one fell swoop, she’d just maxed out a higher rank. That had to be worth something.

  Visions of her leaping around like a superhero danced through her head. It was a nice distraction, but she didn’t have much time to test what was going on. She had free points to spend, and maybe the chance to spend some of them.

  Keeping her eyes closed, people left her alone for another minute. She willed one of the free points to apply to Strength, and it ticked up to E1.

  “Boom!” she laughed and quickly applied a single point to Toughness and Willpower too. The minor rush of warm power flowing through her as the points took effect made her smile again.

  As much as she wanted to dump all the other free points into available stats, she resisted, keeping the remaining 7 free points for the moment. Before applying them, she needed to test what E1 stats meant.

  She barely had enough time to confirm those changes before her quiet time got cut short. The police had already secured the prisoners, allowing firefighters and EMTs to swarm inside to help the wounded. Tawnya and Mark were quickly loaded onto stretchers and whisked away into ambulances that speed off with sirens blazing.

  Jill dragged one of the EMTs over to Sarah, explaining that she'd been shot. Sarah stifled a groan. How was she going to explain that she'd miraculously insta-healed?

  As the woman peeled back Sarah's jacket to inspect the wound, Sarah said, “False alarm, actually. I thought I was hit but I think it was just a piece of debris from the explosion.”

  That was a weak excuse, and Sarah cringed internally as the woman looked up from her bloodstained jacket and the drying blood on her skin, to the blood along her face, and frowned.

  “Where did all this blood come from?”

  Sarah shrugged, trying to keep her expression as neutral as possible. “Not sure, but I was trying to help my friends Mark and Tawnya, who both got shot.”

  The woman studied her for another moment, her frown deepening as she glanced from Sarah's face to her shoulder again, but there was nothing to see. She had no wounds. After a moment, the woman shrugged and rose to her feet.

  “Guess you got lucky. Glad somebody did. If you need anything, let me know. There are other wounds I need to treat.”

  She bustled off, leaving Jill standing there, mouth agape, browse furrowed in confusion. “But you got shot. You were bleeding. I saw the wound. How are you not bleeding now?”

  “I don't know. I'm just happy I'm okay,” Sarah said, rising and clapping Jill on the shoulder.

  “Yeah, me too.” Jill pulled her a long hug, although she kept casting confused glances at Sarah’s shoulder.

  Then a police detective marched over, notepad already open, with questions for Sarah about her involvement in the shootout.