We quickly fell into a rhythm of making stairs as we walked. We probably could have gone faster but Brunhilda was clearly trying to get me to grind through the skill levels. Even if my stairs aren’t that… well even. They weren’t exactly the most difficult thing to Construct. Brunhilda had a point though, I wasn’t proud of this work. A master of the craft would probably… judge me quietly.

  That said it didn’t take all of my focus. So, I split my attention. I opened my character sheet and selected ‘Yes’ on the ‘Select Perks and Traits’ option.

  Yep, that was about as word-soupy as I figured. Okay, may as well start digging into the hot, crunchy action.

  Maybe this is just me, but that seemed lopsided as all hell. Yeah, sure, Oracle had potential to see the ‘future’ and basically spy on others or dig up their past, but it also clearly was handing the system a way to mess with my head.

  Wait!

  Not the system, the Titan!

  At least I was pretty sure. ‘Empowered Critical’, Mental Resistance, and the Wrath of the Titan clearly showed that the Narrator's control of the system was not absolute. That would mean that this was probably a choice being offered not entirely by the system, but at least partially by the Titan.

  I looked at the notes more carefully. …not having complete control… That did imply partial control. Perhaps I could use this to find Kate. Another insight stuck and brought up the God Killer notification again. It said someone named Kate killed a god 187 years ago. Was that my Kate?

  That would be a target to start from. Oracle had potential.

  Still I hesitated. It still sounded like it could open my mind to the system. Even if the Titan had a hand in the perk’s function, it felt wrong. The guy I used to be had changed. That level of hatred was beyond who we were. The way he had dismantled Grond, it was malicious. He had wanted Grond to suffer and be afraid. He didn’t help Angelica and Brand either.

  …Was I any better? I beat the bastard to death because he spited me. Yeah, that was a high stress moment and I was scared. But in that moment, I knew he couldn’t hurt me. It wasn’t self defense.

  Morals aside, the real question was would the Titan actually help me?

  In the end I decided not to take the Oracle Perk. The Titan told me he didn’t have the answers. Maybe that was a warning about this perk?

  While I was pretty sure I would take the Titanic Works perk, I held off and looked at the next two.

  Well then that was going to be a tough choice. On the one hand I was initially underwhelmed with Titanic Armor’s performance, but that is because I didn’t understand what I or the perk was doing. The increased defense absolutely saved my life in this dungeon. Several of the minibosses would have dealt out 16 more points of damage a hit. The Cat Sith came to mind immediately.

  Well the terrible laser claws did, at least. Those will haunt my dreams. That monster seemed to live rent free in my head. Seriously, how is it a snow lion?

  Anyways, this Perk would crank my ability to mitigate damage by 13%, which would add up quickly.

  On the other hand punching shit just didn’t really work great against actual threats. Also having had a chance to smash things with a hammer, I now saw the appeal. I think it and the Juggernaut’s bangle interacted to help me knock the big bone beast around. These perks also implied a cyclical nature to perks. So maybe next level the Fist of the Titan option would swing back around. I really did feel more comfortable pummeling things. The constant fighting bare fisted hand ingrained instincts and reflexes in me. What is it worth having a weapon that does more damage but I just keep punching things on reflex? Then again what good was armor that could negate damage if I missed the window to do so?

  Either one of these perks would require me to actually improve my skills. After one hundred stairs worth of reflection, I felt like Titanic Weapon had a lower floor, but Titanic Armor had a higher ceiling. Titanic Armor was going to be my pick because maximum survivability was still the goal.

  Again, I held off on selecting anything. Time to look at the traits. It was a bit odd. Leveling up should feel good. I should be excited. I mean getting more power should be fun. I was still going to get this resolved because i needed the edge to survive, but my brain was treating this like work. My instincts and focus were different than the Titans.

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  The choice here seemed more obvious to me. Increased Body Attribute meant more health regen and higher defense, which further mitigated damage. Perhaps this was a hat on a hat idea, but against Grond that would have likely dropped his damage to a d4 a hit and then my regen would have been able to keep pace. Perhaps I could have had a bigger impact on the fight.

  That said, perhaps I could have just tossed the jerk into my inventory, and had him roll something he was weak in. Then I could turn the Claws of Darkness spell… the Claws…

  Okay, ignoring the fact that I had petulantly ignored magic. Titanic Toughness would render that viable.

  I was all but certainly going to select it but I was going to hold off until I reviewed the last two Perk Options

  Mystic Well was definitely more complicated. Twenty-thousand MP sounded like a lot. No idea what types of MP meant or what any of those skills did.

  Perhaps reading would tell me…

  That sounded potentially extremely powerful. I did note that Absorb still sounds like I was going to experience any effects being used on me. Accumulate would require a week to fill the pool, and Pervade was just the foundation for a Domain. My guess is that would require some sort of wall, and ceiling. Still, part of me liked the long term potential. Also sharing with Allies sounded potentially helpful in the here and now.

  Trouble is I did swear to just take perks with bonuses to attributes and let them carry the day. Was I really going to change course so quickly? Especially since the other argument was magic is awesome. I knew the sting of buyers' remorse for that before.

  Only one thing to do. Time for truly desperate measures.

  “Everyone, I need to ask you about leveling up,” I said.

  “Okay, let’s go. Get all chummy with your drinking buddy,” Brunhilda called as she leaned closer and continued in a stage whisper, “You sure you want to trust the others though? You’ve known them for less than a month.”

  I gave them the summary of the perks and traits I had to pick from.

  Brand looked gobsmacked. Which is very similar to being stunned but polite and British.

  Brunhilda sort of nodded along with the information. She was mildly impressed but seemed to expect I would have unbalanced magical powers. That said, she seemed to know Zach. So she probably had a frame of reference.

  Angelica kicked my shin, “You have magic?”

  “Dark magic yeah,” I admitted.

  Angelica kicked my shin harder.

  “Why?” I asked, stepping over a third kick.

  “You are throwing off the power curve by having it, that causes spectacle creep but you never used it which put you and by extension us behind the power curve. Basically the encounters assume you are using everything you have, but you were sandbagging.” She explained. She started off talking but was just short of yelling by the end.

  Yeah, she was mad. Time to use those instincts I developed being a husband, “I am sorry.”

  This stalled Angelica out. My guess is she expected me to deflect blame or make an excuse.

  “Okay, I believe you.” She said eventually. After another long pause and likely a prod from Celeste she continued, “And I am sorry I kicked you.”

  “Ah, you two are cute together,” Brunhilda cooed before taking another drink of Titanic Brew. “Anyways if we are going to talk crunch. Ignore the Oracle Perk. Every person I have seen take it goes crazy, and ends up being some sort of zealot for a god. Plus it would break my dwarven heart if you passed on a crafting perk.”

  I selected Titanic Works.

  “Be careful with Face-affecting perks,” Brand cautioned, tone completely serious. “With your high Scale you can basically have the same effect of Proper Charm running constantly. Come to think of it, you will likely hit that stage eventually anyways. It is just a matter of time.”

  That was sort of ominous. I couldn’t see a hole in the logic either. I selected Mystical Well.

  Angelica sighed. “I am not comfortable telling you what perk or trait to take. You have to live with them.”

  “I value your perspective. This isn’t about passing responsibility.” I explained. This was mostly about how I had no real idea what i was doing.

  After a short pause, “Take the Titanic Toughness Trait. With the amount of damage you take, you will need it. Plus being able to ignore a condition can be clutch.“

  “How is that different to being immune to a condition?” I asked.

  “Of course you have immunities,” Angelica muttered… not judging me at all, “Okay, so immunity is actually kinda trash. Immunity actually means immunity to the systematic effects. So, like, if you had something crazy like Mental Resistance, you would be immune to the systematic effects of the Extreme Agony condition. So no systematic-enforced flailing. Just regular flailing due to the pain beyond your ability to tolerate. In theory, some people could power through that, but in practice nobody really can. Ignoring Extreme Agony would lower the overall pain felt, which would still be a lot but not more than you can handle by default.”

  “So .. ignoring a condition is better than being immune to a condition?” I ventured.

  “Yep” Angelica said with a nod.

  “What if I ignored being on fire?” I asked.

  Angelica opened her mouth to answer, then stopped. She closed her mouth and shrugged.

  “I know that one,” Brunihilda spoke up, “Your clothes keep burning but you don’t. You need to be a bit careful or you could end up showing your ass.”

  I selected Titanic Toughness.

  I made my own decision with the last one Perks. Titanic Armor 2. I am the tank.

  I lifted the Screed again. Time to make some stairs.

  Nice, perhaps now we can pick up the pace.

  We climbed the latest steps and tried again. Somehow waving this metal bar with handles caused stone more than a hundred yards away to spontaneously transform into a set of steps with a nice railing too.

  Did it make any sense? No. Was I going to complain about it? Not out loud.