Sybil and I walked down a long, winding stretch of road, heading in the direction of a forest- a few miles off- that stretched further than my eyes could see.

  After I'd given her some time to cool down, and let her approach me when she was ready, she'd seemed content to simply pretend that nothing had happened. I was somewhat relieved by this, as I didn't want to further strain our relationship by pushing the blood thing any further. I realized that I'd probably pushed it too far, but it seemed that she'd already forgiven me, saving me from any further foolishly formed, stumbling remarks.

  In the week after what had transpired on that day, I'd managed to successfully perform the Lifeblood of Lazareth ritual, netting me 12% Experience to my Profession and my Class for learning the ritual, and another 12% for each time that I'd successfully formed and used it.

  I figured that the XP was only 12% because the ritual itself was a Tier below me. This theory had been confirmed by Sybil, who said that it would have been 25% if it were at my Tier.

  As a general rule, you were awarded 25% XP for tasks that were directly linked to your Class or Profession that were at your Tier, but it was divided by 2 for each Tier below your own, and multiplied by 2 for each Tier it was above your own. That made sense to me, as it meant that more difficult tasks were more greatly awarded by the system.

  I'd managed to complete the ritual a total of 5 times, which resulted in a boost of 60% XP to both Arcanoccultist and Bishop of Blood, and then I'd decided that I was good enough for the moment. My efficiency was still crap, and it took me longer than I would've liked to craft each ritual, but I was tired of sitting around and scribbling all day.

  The one thing was that I was dangerously close to my next Class level, only 6% away. It would have been quite easy to just crank out that last ritual and get the next Class level, but I decided that I'd be fine for the moment.

  Chances were that Sybil and I would meet a few beasts along the way, and I'd just cut them down to gain the last bit of experience I needed.

  We were currently on our way to the Rabid Territories, after all, and the journey would take us through a few dangerous strips of land, gradually getting more and more monster-infested as we went.

  Sybil had stated that the trip would take about a week, so long as we made a good pace, which she said would be about 50 miles a day.

  "Y'know, we'd get there much faster if you let me carry you," she teased.

  "I should be fine walking."

  "Just let me know if you get tired, okay little guy?" She gave me a smirk as she looked at my body.

  I knew she was referencing the fact that my Fitness was likely lower than her own, but it was still odd considering that I was not only taller than her, but actually pretty muscular as well.

  High Fitness didn't always make you look buff, but it did in many cases. At least, that's what Sybil had told me. She'd mentioned that Fitness tried to make your body fit into whatever your idea of a strong, healthy person was, while also unlocking the full potential of your genetics and doing nothing to make you less in-shape, or less possible of the feats that it allowed. For example, while high Fitness would certainly give you muscles- so long as you wanted them, that is- it wouldn't turn you into a hulking bodybuilder with more muscle than common sense.

  Too much muscle could be detrimental, after all. There would not only be a large loss in dexterity, which was one of the two main focuses of Fitness, and your weight would increase. In some ways, that was good, and would give you a lot more momentum and staying power, but on the other hand, if you had too high of a Fitness score, you could end up unable to enter buildings due to your immense weight.

  Sybil had said, however, that the rules were different for some Semi-Humanoid and Monstrous races. She gave the example of Titans and World Leviathans. The former was a Semi-Humanoid race that ended up with a lot of size and strength multipliers, which could supposedly reach the height of a mountain by Tier 4, and the second was a type of Divine Beast that could encircle entire worlds by the time it attained its own divinity.

  Hearing about creatures like that, powerful enough to destroy an entire world, filled me with no small amount of dread. The thought that this second chance I'd received could be snuffed out in an instant...

  It wasn't pleasant.

  Sybil seemed to be a sort of monster enthusiast, and explained to me a lot about different beasts during our long walk. She'd read a lot of books on the topic, as she was meant to be some sort of adventurer/Jehkall family liaison. Her father had meant for her to go into a more political field, and eventually take over the House for him, but she'd wanted a more adventurous life. He'd allowed it, on the condition that she would eventually consider taking up a more political Profession before Tier 3.

  Sybil had almost hit Level 20 in her Class, and had no intention to swap it for a Profession quite yet. As she was a Vampire, and thus Semi-Humanoid, she couldn't have both. It didn't sound very fair to me, but she'd told me that the Racial Abilities, which she received at each Tier, were more than powerful enough to make up for it.

  "Unlike normal Skills, you get an Ability at Tier 0, which is based on your Race, and then another at each successive Tier. The thing is that every single Ability upgrades when you Tier up, including the first one. Your first Ability ends up being the thing that your Race is known for.

  "Some Races, including Vampires, also get a Blessing and a Curse. Usually, the Blessing is granted by the system as some sort of Godly quest reward. At least, that's what I've heard."

  "And what's your Race's Ability? And your Blessing and Curse." I had an inkling, but wanted to be certain.

  "Well, our Ability is pretty obvious, we can feed off and sense Blood Mana. You should be aware that Blessings tend to all follow the same patterns. It's almost always either higher base stats, extra stats per level, or some form of immunity to aging. I've heard of some Blessings that aren't like those, but they usually have horrible Curses to pair with them. Races with extra base stats don't have horrible Curses, and more stats per level also isn't too bad, but immortality is a touchy topic for the system.

  "As for Vampires, our Blessing is that we're immune to the aging of the body. Now, this basically means that our Physical stats are, in some ways, meaningless. This Blessing has pushed many Vampires to become Mages and Administrators over the years.

  Now, we're still not immune to the other forms of aging. Going insane is a horrible way to go. If you stay at one Tier for too long, you risk your soul shattering, or being trapped inside a body that refuses to listen to you."

  "Wait," I interrupted her, "what do you mean?"

  She shrugged. "Getting old while you're overspecialized has consequences. If your Physical stats are far behind your Mental and Astral stats, then your body eventually dies from old age, leaving behind an intact mind and soul to dwell in remembrance. This death is considered the best way to go, as you are effectively sent to your Spirit Realm for the remainder of your Astral lifespan. If your mind then goes, you simply wander Khaos for the remainder of your Astral lifespan. The worst part about this death path is that if some Necromancer or other Dark Astral Mage variant comes around and decides to shove your soul and mind into a magical item, corpse, or just giving you a body of mana, you'll effectively be forced to serve them until either they die or you die, unless you manage to find an even stronger Astral Mage with the right kit to break the spell. That said, it's more likely that said Astral Mage will just kill you or your master. If you're really unlucky, then they might just unravel the previous spell only to shove you into a new one.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  "When an individual dies a Mental death, but their bodies and souls are still fully intact, it appears as though they've gone utterly mad. Their soul still retains their personality, and they simply watch as their bodies go on a rampage, ignoring all factors that may have otherwise prohibited this. They lose access to all their Skills, Features, and Abilities, as the soul can no longer communicate with the body to perform them. Their soul also loses a great amount of the computational prowess that it may have previously been handled by the mind.

  "An Astral death, though, is considered the worst. Even when the soul has been torn, shredded, and shattered- which, by the way, is considered the most painful thing that any being can endure, especially with higher Harmony- the mind and body still remember what they're meant to do. The person just... isn't there anymore," she explained, "It's quite the blow to their families. The person's body and mind are still there, but they're fundamentally different. They're there, but also not. You can tell when something is alive with even a tiny amount of Harmony, and these people just aren't. Some choose to keep these remnants as a memory of the one they lost. Others simply kill it. They're not considered people anymore, not by any government and not by the system. They're more like objects than anything, and they can only perform tasks and react to things in ways that their real selves once did, so they can't even react to or understand their own deaths. They can't learn or grow in any way. They also lose all access to the Endless System. The person simple ceases to exist."

  A shadow passed over her face. "The only people who are happy for the existence of remnants are slave masters and Necromancers."

  A little green man in a dirty loincloth stepped in front of Sybil with a growl. My Inspection told me that he was a Tier 1 Goblin named something I couldn't even read, much less pronounce.

  He didn't appear to be intelligent at all, and was giving Sybil a hungry look that made me feel very uncomfortable.

  I punted the little crap into the nearest tree. He was pasted instantly, less an example of my own Fitness and more a testament to its fragility.

  It had been so weak that I didn't even receive a drop of XP, but my ears were suddenly inundated by a huge number of screeches echoing throughout the forest.

  It seemed that Sybil and I had been so distracted by talking that we hadn't even noticed that we'd walked right into the heart of a forest with terrible goblin infestation.

  https://discord.gg/vyBRyagdbc. That's also the best place to hear about my current plans.