I had gained nine levels.

  As soon as I tapped the level-up button inside the leveling screen, it pulled me into a new screen that I couldn’t swipe away. Dave had been right. I couldn’t safely level outside a vault, not unless I wanted my vision obstructed.

  Then again, I shouldn’t need to level in bulk like this every time. It should start slowing down. Right?

  At least the blank walls here made the screen easy enough to see. Since I had started at level 9, the first screen listed some perks about leveling to 10, then gave me a choice:

  Level 10!

  You are now able to choose an Aspect! Visit the Gem Baths to make your choice.

  You gain one spell slot.

  You may upgrade any skill by 1 point. Assign?

  You can 1 stat point of your choice. Assign?

  The skill point excited me, but I tapped around on the stat point, trying to see if there was a way to leave the stat unallocated. I found nothing. It wouldn’t allow me not to assign the thing. The system apparently didn’t like me having unallocated stats.

  Maybe they added that after the Tendua glitch incident, I thought. I tapped Assign on the skill first. It showed all the standard skills the game automatically came with, like climbing and harvesting, plus my Bleeder skill and my You’re Bigger Than I Thought You Were skill. I liked the idea of seeing the Bleed effect less, and the idea of reflecting more damage.

  Maybe I would want to improve one of the standard stats? My Dismantle was, amazingly, already at level three. That was higher than the two non-standard skills. Huh.

  I paged back to choose my stat first instead. This opened up a list of stats. I read through them, then blinked.

  “They added a stat,” I said. “It’s something called Technology…?”

  Dave had started pecking at the corner of one wall. I hadn’t asked why. He turned around.

  “Well, the viewers would lose it if we couldn’t have plasma bombs,” he said.

  “But won’t… plasma bombs… make other weapons obsolete?” I asked. “I mean, lasers are bad enough.”

  It was something I’d been thinking for a while. What was the point of using a bow and arrow against a laser?

  “Are you saying you think technology is obsolete? Against magic?” Dave said, incredulous.

  I swallowed. “But… it’s not really magic, is it?”

  Dave harrumphed so hard his fez spun. “It’s as good as. It’s the—”

  “—qubins, yeah, I know.”

  He shrugged. “I see what you’re getting at, though. You’re right that regular bows and arrows won’t do shit against an explosive nanobot round, but everything good is enchanted in these games, and enchantment is essentially tech when it comes to Trash Planet. It’s technically tech against tech but with prettier effects.”

  I was having trouble following this, but it was more because of how fast Dave was talking than what he was actually saying. Is there cocaine in that wall he’s been pecking?

  “And lasers and things will now rely on this Technology stat,” he finished. “As in, they won’t be as effective as they were in Setup Mode. You’ll need a high Tech stat to use them.”

  My brain caught up to him. “What? I killed a dragon with the laser I had!”

  “Yeah, sure, but then you ran out of charges and blew up the gun.”

  “But if I hadn’t—”

  “Smart people conserve their energy charges, and save them for something way down the road. You were lucky enough to get a high-level Smite box with two more charges in it. That was a Green box. Not many people get those so early. You’re spoiled rotten and you don’t even know it. Also, you started with a high-level gun. Most people didn’t. Remember? That gun was rank 9.”

  “But other people did have lasers! I saw whole buildings go down!”

  “I said most people don’t start with them. Besides, Tech weapons have limiters on them, too. Lasers will need a helluva lot more than 25 Tech stats for you to be able to even use them. Tech stuff will probably be pretty weak in the early game precisely because of how overpowered it all is.”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “But that doesn’t make sense.” He was making my head spin. Did every little decision in this world have to lead to a confusing lecture from an asshole parrot? “I am at Tech stat 0. I have to be. I’m new to the game. So how did I use my laser after coming here?”

  I expected another lengthy explanation. Dave just sniggered and turned back to his wall carving.

  “What the fuck are you laughing about?”

  “Oh, nothing.” He pecked the wall. “Just that you’re a total noob.” He pecked again.

  “Is it a compulsion for you to be an asshole, or is it involuntary, like breathing?”

  “Yes.”

  I groaned loudly, hiding half the sound behind gritted teeth. I scanned the options for my stat point:

  Strength

  Constitution

  Dexterity

  Intelligence

  Charisma

  Technology

  Luck

  Luck was inaccessible as a choice, but still listed. Maybe sometimes, I could add Luck.

  I knew generally what each of these stats did, but since they were all selectable, I took a quick look. If the Conduit had added a whole new stat and removed an old one, there were bound to be other changes.

  Strength still improved brute force, scaling up damage with melee weapons (or going barehanded), and it still improved smithing. However, it also buffed climbing now. That was another basic skill that the game had converted into an upgradeable skill.

  Constitution still improved one’s ability to take damage. It improved shielding and increased HP faster, and it still affected mining. But now, it could improve something called “non-modern traps.” Like Strength, it also improved a new basic skill: flying.

  I couldn’t fly yet, so I had to wonder how that would work. I tapped the word “improve,” since it was expandable.

  Improvement.

  Adding points to a Standard Skill. For every 10 levels of an associated stat, the player may choose to add one point to one of two specified Standard Skills. This point will not be lost if the stats are later lost; however, they cannot be reselected until the player has exceeded the threshold at which they previously made a selection.

  You have unallocated Improvement points. Go to the stat portion of the Character tab to assign them.

  That was a lot of words, but from what I could gather, for every ten points of a certain stat, I could upgrade an associated Standard Skill by one point. Meaning, for Constitution, I could upgrade my standard Flying or Mining skills by one point. I had to only choose one of them, though.

  At least the game wasn’t making me select now. I could apparently save Improvement points for when I needed them.

  This adds a new dimension to things, though. I have to think about which Standard Skills I want to improve on.

  I moved on down the list. Dexterity’s skills were harvesting, which was the same, and sneaking, which was new. Dex increased a person’s speed and evasion, and it now had the addition of improving “non-modern” projectile weapons, where before, it had just listed ranged weapons.

  Intelligence, predictably, improved magic damage and auras, a specific type of spell that stayed active. It could still improve Insight and Crafting, both of which were included in the original game. This had a deeper meaning now, though.

  I could literally improve my perception directly, by upgrading my Insight, I thought. In the game, Insight allowed players to see magical traces, which was good for trap detection as well as finding secrets. I wondered how the Conduit would manifest Insight with qubins.

  Charisma still improved magical buffing and debuffing, as well as improving sales prices and NPC interactions. It still improved cooking skill, which was used to make both food and potions. Now, though, jumping was added to the skill list. Wild.

  Technology improved the use of modern weapons, whether projectile, traps, or melee. I checked back on Strength, only to see that I’d missed the phrase “non-modern” in front of “melee weapons.” So Strength wouldn’t improve a person’s use of, say, a laser sword or laser mousetrap. Only a regular sword or regular mousetrap.

  This seemed somewhat overpowered, but there was a downside to Technology: it only improved one skill, Dismantling. It didn’t offer a choice.

  “No one’s going to pick that,” Dave said. “The viewers prefer fantasy stuff, because they’re all used to seeing modern tech. Lasers are all well and good during Setup Mode, but they get boring fast when there are enchanted staves covered in glowing diamonds to look at. And you don’t find good Tech stuff until the later game, like I said.”

  “Are you always spying on me when I’m in my menus?” I asked him.

  “I’m pecking at a wall, Talon. I’ve got literally nothing else to do but peck and spy, peck and spy.”

  I knew what he was really doing: watching to make sure I didn’t fuck up and pick the wrong thing. Well, right now I had to choose just one of these stats. Luck hadn’t changed; it made drop rates and spawns better. I couldn’t improve that now, anyway.

  I looked through everything one more time, but my stupid human eyes kept gravitating back to the Technology stat. The other Hunters might want higher-damage weapons in the early game, and the viewers might be bored to tears with lasers, but I for one had very much liked having a laser.

  Also, I already had a high Dismantle skill, plus gloves that could give me +10 Dismantle anytime I wore them. This seemed like a real leg up in the early game, all because I’d gone and destroyed my laser. Quite stupidly, according to Dave.

  I was actually sitting pretty as far as random advantages went. It seemed like a smart move to run with what I already had going.

  That said, I liked the idea of Constitution just for survivability. Dave had us both covered on Dex. And Intelligence was calling to me as well, because it improved Crafting. I imagined that I would need Crafting in tandem with Dismantling. After all, if I broke something down into its base parts, I then needed to make something out of those base parts.

  “I’m going to do Tech, then Intelligence. One for one,” I said. “I’ll also upgrade Dismantle and Crafting where I can. This should help me make my own items. Maybe even tailor-made items that make me impervious to more elements.”

  “Sounds. Like. A. Plan,” Dave said between pecks.

  I hadn’t expected his approval. I narrowed my eyes.

  He turned around. It was suddenly comical, to see this little green parrot in his glittery red spinny hat, five feet away from me and almost six feet shorter, standing there in a pile of his own white dust, trying his best to look indignant.

  “Would you just assign the damned stat? At the rate you’re going, I’ll have carved a Nestafren conquerer and his little cock leaf by the time you’re done.”

  I straightened and grinned down at him. “Your translator is getting better. It got most of what you were going for. What’s a Nestafren?”

  “An extinct species,” he muttered. “They died from waiting.”

  I sobered up and took the hint, turning back to my screen.

  “That, and the Conduit,” Dave added quietly.

  I looked at him. He was staring at the wall now.

  Tech it is.

  I assigned my first stat.