My eyes fluttered open and I sat bolt upright. The freshly enchanted stone glowed dully on the ground in front of me. I picked it up and examined it.

  Weak Glowstone. Inferior. This stone has been enchanted to absorb ambient magic and emit a soft glow. You can choose to have it glow at a constant rate, or flicker like a candle.

  The weak label felt a smidge rude, but I was damned proud that I’d made something magical. As I checked my energies, I saw that my health, stamina, and mana were all below 5 percent. The process had almost killed me. But it didn’t. Hell yes. I entered meditation and read my system messages while I recovered.

  DING! Profession: Neophyte Enchanter has increased from Level 9 to Level 10. New Neophyte Enchanter skill selection available.

  DING! Race: Omnis Vorare has increased from Level 9 to Level 10. New Omnis Vorare skill selections available.

  Now for the hardest decision to date: which skill to get first?

  I took out a small sheet of metal from my amulet and tore one of the corners off like it was a magazine. High strength for the win! As if it were a soft clay, I shaped the bit of metal into a roundish shape and used a claw to mark one side.

  “Marked side is heads. Let's see. Race skill heads. Profession skill tails.”

  I flipped the coin, which landed on heads. Race skill first it is! I had three choices to pick from.

  Omnis Vorare skills available: Three.

  Consuming Strike. Your hunger is so great it can be directed to affect your other natural weapons. Absorb a minor amount of vitality with each strike while this skill is active.

  Gluttonous Leap. Inferior. You seek to feast even upon those who dwell in the skies, and your body adapts. Your leap height is minorly increased when jumping towards a foe.

  Sense Power. Inferior. Your need to consume the powerful has grasped and adapted your perception. Improves the distance at which you can sense and identify powerful prey. The greater the power, the further the distance.

  Being able to heal with attacks would no doubt be useful, but I would have plenty of vitality as I progressed and didn't really think I would need it. Plus, it gave me an idea to try out later.

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  Gluttonous Leap was too specifically pointed to be of general usefulness. Sense Power, on the other hand, would be a huge boon when progressing through the tutorial cityscape.

  Sense Power it is.

  Next up, profession skill!

  Neophyte Enchanter skills available.

  Etch Rune. Inferior. Using your enchanting skills, you can etch runes onto surfaces or objects, creating temporary effects.

  Energy Bolt. Inferior. You've learned how to separate some of your mana from your internal pathways, and can project them at foes, dealing minor magical damage.

  Detect Weave. Inferior. Your understanding of enchanting grants you the ability to analyze and learn what forms were used in the enchantments of Inferior ranked magic items.

  “Tricky, tricky,” I said as I read over the choices. Etching runes onto things, like the ones on the pedestals perhaps, had significant potential and looked a bit complicated without system provided knowledge. I felt like I could probably figure out how to make my own energy bolts without using the skill, knowing it was now a possibility and that it likely wouldn’t be very difficult. Similarly, I figured with a high enough intelligence, wisdom, or perception should help me figure out the enchantment circulation forms, so Detect Weave may not be helpful until I know for sure I couldn’t figure it out myself.

  Not one to beat around the bush too much, I felt the knowledge of etching runes flood my mind. I only had a handful of runes in my repertoire, but thankfully it had one I was hoping to get.

  I set the glowstone on the pedestal, and the runes on it glowed as it lowered into the ground. I moved to the other and searched my inventory for something upon which I may be able to use my new skill. With a few options to pick from, I took out the plate of metal that I had torn earlier and set it on the other pedestal. Nothing happened, as expected.

  Though I didn’t know what the language of the runes was, I pushed some mana into my fingertip and drew in the air before the plate like I’d been writing it my entire life.

  “System knowledge downloads fucking rule!” I said triumphantly. The rune, which looked vaguely like a kite shield with swirling lines throughout it to give it a slightly wooded appearance, spun to a horizontal position before imprinting on the plate. The metal flickered a blue color before the pedestal absorbed it and lowered into the ground. The wall between the pedestals rumbled as a three meter section lowered, revealing a small room with only a hilariously large red button on the wall with “Exit” stenciled above it.

  The shielding rune only drained my mana by 200 points, about a fifth of the total. I knew I could pump more into it to either make it last longer or have greater effect, but I didn’t need to do that, so I would have to fiddle with the settings and do some testing later.

  “Let’s go!” I shouted at no one as I stepped into the room and inspected the button. It weirdly didn’t have a description, meaning the System didn’t separate it from the rest of the dungeon. I had a thought and leaned over, taking a big bite from the button. It tasted like the rest of the dungeon and gave the same recovery, and it grew back just as fast as the walls around it would have.

  I needed to find Jenny and Tim, who hopefully were not among the dead, so I placed a hand on the button and pushed it into the wall.

  My vision shifted as I returned to the tutorial city. My oversized jaw dropped as I surveyed the area. Many of the buildings around me were severely damaged or entirely fallen. I could see numerous points where smoke billowed out. The corpses of chimpcrete rapscallions and a few other monsters I didn’t recognize dotted the landscape. Of particular note were several distant zones that were encased in translucent, faintly purple bubbles. It had only been around 13 days since I entered the dungeon, and some really crazy shit must have been going down out here.

  I felt my Sense Power skill ping a few nearby creatures, and I picked the one nearest to one of the translucent bubble shields.