Without even looking at my status page, I could tell that lots of things had changed. While I was still unsteady on my feet, moving was easier, and I had an incredibly good idea of where my body was at all times. I had a mild form of proprioception before from enhanced physicality, but it was much more intense now. First things first though, I had some alerts about the second rank that I needed to check on.

  Wait, what? That’s freaking insane! All damage I receive is halved now, which makes me more than just a little bit harder to kill. I already had half-decent health, so now to opponents I effectively have twice that again. It now makes perfect sense why that boss had so much health. Bosses must have a similar modifier that makes them harder to kill. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to kill a boss of a higher rank.

  I was particularly interested in looking at what changed with my race. My previous instincts were kind of annoying, so hopefully my new ones are a bit more manageable.

  Well, this was essentially the same page that I saw when I picked up this class, though the instincts have definitely changed. Born Warrior seems fine, honestly, as I fight all the time anyway. The Gleam Lover is sort of weird. It really reminds me of crows and ravens collecting shiny objects, though, considering the big dark wings, I suppose that’s fine. I actually recall a manga where that was a trope as well, so H.G. or Luna clearly pulled that from somewhere. The good thing was, all three instincts were things that I could manage, where being of contradiction was annoying as all hell.

  I still had more alerts to go through, though, so I opened the next one to check out.

  Alright, nice. I was getting a buttload of intelligence, strength, and agility, but this time I also got a bunch of charisma as well. It makes sense to me that monsters tend to have rather even stats to start out with though, and based on these trends, I can tell that as I continue to level up my strength, agility, and intellect will continue to outpace the rest of my stats.

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  According to what the rank up alert said, I should have reached the max amount of all of my attributes during the rank up. That was pretty helpful for me, particularly in regard to intelligence and luck. I also got a bunch of assignable points that I need to spend as well.

  After looking over my list, I realized that considering my new race, agility was much more important than constitution and strength. I decided to put three points into dexterity, and two into agility, to try and increase my speed even further.

  I was pretty nervous to open my skills page, but after going through it, I saw only two major differences, and they were both rather expected considering the rank up. I decided to pull up only those two skills, to see if I could.

  Obviously, elemental flight had changed to warrior’s flight, but I had no idea what that would change. Storm aspect, unfortunately, lost the damage reduction component, but it still retained the damage, so I couldn’t really complain all that much. I was curious about warrior’s flight, so I went ahead and inspected it.

  Wait, 140 pounds? I was freaking seven feet tall and muscular as hell. There was no way. I hopped on my bathroom scale, and my jaw literally dropped. I weighed 126.4 pounds. That was freaking mind-blowing. I had to have taken 400 pounds of metal with me when I ranked up. Where the hell did it all go? This was super freaking strange, but honestly, I wasn’t really complaining. The force I could put behind strikes was unfortunately reduced, but I could rely on speed and storm fists instead, for now. A nice sharp blade would solve my problems as well, but I wanted to max out this class, then take warrior and learn a weapon next. That would greatly help, and if I avoided hunting and leveling while I did this, I could potentially get an even more impressive class later.

  For now, though, I needed to train my martial arts, and I needed to learn how to use this body.

  Most importantly, I needed to find a way to put on some pants and a shirt.

  After much struggling, I found that I could very carefully slip underwear over the talons on my feet, followed by some athletic shorts. I would definitely need custom clothes later. Covering my upper body was much more inconvenient, however.

  I ended up shredding three bras with my razor-sharp wings before I found the way to get them on. The end of the wings met my shoulder blades, and the wings themselves had a span of about twelve feet, so I was able to slip a sports bra on over my head very carefully, and position the straps so that they only hit where the wings met my body and were protected from the razor-sharp edged feathers. After experimenting with my new limbs for a bit, I learned to kind of tuck them in on my back where they could be more out of the way so that I could walk around better.

  Eventually, I was as ready to leave as I could ever be. There was no way I could wear a traditional shirt or tank top, so this would have to do.

  Leaving the bedroom and entering the kitchen for a snack, I saw both Steph and Taylor at the kitchen table pouring over documents. The documents themselves were all hand-written and incredibly neat, and I could tell that many of them were drafted by Cindy. Both of them stopped what they were doing and stared a bit when I entered the room.

  “Um, hey guys. Anything happen while I was out?”

  Taylor blinked a few times, eventually letting out a loud whistle, saying in a low voice, “Damn Vic, you really… filled out. You’re freaking huge, and those wings look awesome. Didn’t expect you to walk around half-naked though. It’s not really like you, but I'm not complaining. Is that an invitation?”

  Ugh. “Oh, shut up Taylor. You literally don’t wear clothes; you have no room to talk.”

  She laughed at that, eventually following it with, “Fair, fair. Ill back down... for now. Nah, nothing big has happened yet thankfully. Kait is still out looking for James, Donny got his anvil and forge set up in the lot, and Michael has started brewing potions. Oh, also, apparently when you clear a ruin there is a set amount of time until the monsters respawn. The ruin had no orc at it, but it was surrounded by slimes. Donny said they were stupid weak, but they were still there. The ruin was just as you left it, though. No loot respawned or anything. Trevor and Nick found another ruin as well further to the west, and they left to clear it out this morning. We expect them back tomorrow or so. After the classes became available, lots of people have started going out hunting in the city and the city edges. Most of the people in the city are second waves.

  From what we can tell, non-beta testers are much weaker and have significantly less skills available when they start out, like only one or two. What’s more, getting more skills seems to be pretty hard for them without a class, where we can just mess around for a while and a skill appears. The band guys were ticked off that they weren't beta testers, and I bet they're not the only ones. Identify says that second wave people are all considered rank 0 while we all started at rank 1.

  We’ve been trying to contact other groups in the area, and from what we can tell, beta testers tend to run in communities. Where there’s one, there are definitely more, and so on. That means that if one member of the gems became a beta tester, you can almost guarantee that there are a couple more to deal with. It also makes sense that we all became beta testers, considering that we live in the same space together.

  Oh yeah, and Steph went and checked out the capital building after you said you saw some official-looking people there. She wanted to get help from some official people to get James, but they all basically turned her down saying it wasn't important. They were more concerned about protecting the remaining politicians than helping people. According to her 'We're on our own' if we want to save James.

  But... There's more. A lot of people have died, Vic. Way more than we expected. Monsters showed up all through the city, and there was no one to stop them. The lucky ones stayed inside if they could, but lots of the second wave people that went out got killed.”

  Damn, that doesn't sound good. I really wanted something to come from the people in the capital. The news of the deaths was shocking as well. It was something I had always expected, but hearing someone else say it made it much more real. It really hit home just how bad this whole thing was. We had freaking monsters roaming the streets in places, and to top it all off, bandits were everywhere as well. Could nothing be easy? I wanted to break the heavy atmosphere a bit, so I decided to deflect her attention.

  Sighing, I left Taylor, saying, “Well, alright. Keep up the good work, I guess. I’m going to go out into the parking lot and get used to my new appendages. Having a tail is neat, but also super freaking weird.”

  Taylor smiled, bidding me farewell. “Don’t break any of my trees please, Vic! And say hi to Donny for me!”

  “Alright Taylor, I will.”

  I turned to the window, leaving from the fire escape, but once I was outside, I immediately had to look around to make sure I was in the right place. There were trees and plants literally everywhere. In the alley there were vines growing up the walls of both buildings, and the concrete on the ground had been destroyed or removed to make way for grass and flowering plants.

  There were small trees growing on either end, forming a weak natural barrier to keep people from entering the alley. I activated flight, and after a bit of experimenting, was able to use it not unlike before. I glided down around the building to the parking lot in the back and found it penned in on all sides by large oak trees, and found the asphalt replaced once again by soft loam and grass. I saw a small shack in one of the corners, and from it I could hear the ringing of a hammer on an anvil. I guess Donny was working hard, as well.

  The first thing I wanted to do out here was to try and equip the gauntlets and boots from the ruin. The extra damage and defense they offered would be immensely helpful, and if I was going to be wearing them, training with them seemed like a good idea. When I held them out to put them on, I watched at the metal around the fingertips changed, making spaces that accommodated my claws. Neat.

  Equipping both the boots and gauntlets, I now stood even taller. The three-inch heel on the kangor metal shoes brought my height to well over 7 feet, not including my horns which made me even taller. It was time to try and practice my class skills. First off, I wanted to master the first levels of my two combat arts.

  I first thought about the Art of the Blizzard. It was a series of cruel techniques based on an open stance, similar to Muay Thai, but unlike a standard martial art, this one was designed to be used by someone with supernatural speed and reflexes. Imagining the forms in my head, I was shocked to realize that they had adapted themselves to my capabilities. I couldn’t easily form fists anymore, so it now incorporated claw techniques and more foot techniques. At its heart, though it was a complicated method of footwork, allowing you to enter your opponent's blind or undefended spots, and deliver debilitating attacks.

  I entered the first form and began moving through the motions of the art, mimicking strikes to vital spots, bringing my feet up to unleash powerful kicks, and sweeping my claws through the air at full force. I enjoyed the feeling of moving through the motions. After I had reached the end of what I considered the first forms, I checked to see if I had unlocked the second level of the skill, but it appears that I needed more work, and so I continued.

  This was beautiful. The way that the stances flowed into each other, the crushing blows, and the sweeping attacks. For the first time in a while, I was having fun just working on a skill.

  I entered a daze, realizing that I had subconsciously gone into a craftsman's trance. Combat was my craft, and it brought death and destruction to my foes. Time lost all meaning as I attempted to master the technique. After an hour and a half, I could sense that the second level had been unlocked, but I didn’t stop there or switch to the Art of the Lightning just yet.

  Over the next eight hours I worked through the first four levels of the skill, until I was thrown out of my trance by a presence behind me. I turned, finding that Donny was leaning against the wall, watching me practice.

  Before I acknowledged him, I wanted to check my skills and see the progress I had made.

  Well, fuck. I guess I finally got a job. Just one that I never really expected.