YOUR CLASS IS WAITING

Those words hung in Cora’s mind. She knew, conceptually, this was a big deal, but shit, it was a lot to deal with right after a fight like that.

DON’T WORRY! YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT! I MADE ONE JUST FOR YOU!

[Movie Star (A)]

CHECK IT OUT!

It feels more and more like you’re railroading my individual development.

YOU’RE RIGHT

IM SORRY

HERE, SOME CHOICES FOR YOU

[Movie Star (A)]

[Peasant (M)]

[Nightman (M)]

THERE! CHOICE AND AGENCY!

Fuck you, Cora thought, but smirked despite herself. And hey, Nightman sounds interesting.

ITS NOT!

She focused on it to spite them.

[Nightman (M)]: A (M)undane class focused on alleviating the many horrors that come part and parcel with a Nightman’s duties. Immunities to stink and many common diseases as well as a general boost to [End] mean you will be happily emptying chamber pots and stirring shit for years to come.

Okay, really fuck you.

HEY, ITS GOT AN [End] BOOST! YOU LIKE THOSE!

Don’t test me, or I’ll choose it, die, and you’ll need to isekai some other poor bitch.

A gif of the genie from Aladdin zipping his lips flashed into her vision.

Nerd.

She focused in on [Movie Star (A)].

[Movie Star (A)]: An (A)scendant class, focusing on leveraging immense [Cha] and aura to reality bending effect. Enjoy the magic of the movies, because it's at your fingertips.

Alright that does sound dope.

Cora focused in further.

INITIAL CLASS STAT BONUS: +20 [Cha], +2 Cha per level

POTENTIAL CLASS PASSIVES:

{Entourage}, {Multifaceted}, {Cultural Touchstone}, {Leading Lady}, {One Woman Army}, {Plot Armor}

POTENTIAL INITIAL CLASS ACTIVES:

{Razzle Dazzle}, {Movie Magic}, {One Liner, One Kill}, {Chase Scene}, {Stunt Double}

The bonuses alone would be insane combined with her gifted skills. As she read further into the potential class skills and their effects, she realized she’d begun to drool.

[Big Sys].....?

YES, CORA?

Do I get all of these? I’d be fucking unstoppable!

LOL

I WISH

NO, YOU’LL BE RANDOMLY ASSIGNED ONE OF EACH AT CLASS SELECTION

YOU’LL GET MORE LATER!

….. Is it bad I’m kinda glad I don’t have to pick the first one?

NAH, I MADE EVERYTHING BADASS, I GET THE CHOICE PARALYSIS. LUV U BB

Weirdo, Cora laughed, but right now, she was feelin’ mighty affectionate towards [Big Sys] as well.

Well, I mean, fuck it, I ain’t passing that up. No matter how funny it would be.

She selected [Movie Star (A)]

Cora had expected something like a rush of the ambient Shimmer of the night to crash into her, suffusing her with the power it contained.

She couldn’t have been more wrong.

Instead, it felt like she burned, and blazed, and burst outwards from her core. Her body had been stockpiling this stuff since level 1, using it a little bit, but mostly saving up. Saving up until it had a blueprint, a blueprint her Class provided.

For a moment, Cora could feel each and every one of the trillions of cells in her body, bathed, changed and improved by the Shimmer. Making her more than she was. Or in her case, maybe just making her more of what she was. Bringing the Cora Casanova you saw on the Silver Screen into the real world.

Then she was herself again, her whole self, but better.

[CLASS INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]

[CLASS ACTIVE: {One Liner, One Kill}]

[CLASS PASSIVE: {Entourage}]

Cora grimaced at the active. Not because it didn’t kick ass. But because it was gonna be a bitch to use.

You know I had writers, right?

{One Liner, One Kill}: Any attack delivered immediately after a one liner of sufficient quality receives up to a 1000% bonus to effectiveness

Simple. So simple. She just had to be, you know, clever. On demand. Under pressure.

I BELIEVE IN YOU! CHANNEL YOUR INNER ARNOLD!

Arnold didn’t write his either!

I CHOOSE TO BELIEVE OTHERWISE

Cora moved on, focusing in on {Entourage}, which, conversely, was exactly what she would have picked for her starting passive.

{Entourage}: Aura skill. Extend your {Star Power} bonus to allies within your aura at 50% efficiency. In addition, your Aura now covers your [Household], and [Members] within your [Household] receive 100% of your {Star Power} bonus.

Of the Passives she’d seen, this was the one with the least direct benefit to her, but its potential stat gains were enormous, when accounting for the whole [Household]. One of Cora’s biggest worries was an assault on Luxholme when her and her designated badasses were out kicking ass someplace else. With this, the people in her house, once she got them [Integrated], would be worth any two regular people in terms of stats, just baseline. Once Iain got them trained up and a few got classes? Good fuckin’ luck taking Luxholme with anything but an army. The bonus to her immediate friends was nice too, but less impactful, since they, as a rule, were already crazy badass for their levels.

OOOOOO YOU GOT AN AURA SKILL!

PRAISE BE, RNG!

Yeah? I just thought the bonuses looked good.

THEY ARE, ALL YOUR SKILLS, ARE GOOD, I MADE THEM

BUT! THIS WILL ALLOW YOU TO DEVELOP AND CONTROL YOUR AURA

NOT SUPER IMPORTANT NOW, BUUUUT IT WILL BE

THAT THING YOU WERE TRYING TO DO, HELP RECOVER HAWK WITH THE POWER OF YOUR WILL?

ENOUGH WORK, AND YOU’LL BE ABLE TO DO THAT!

Damn, this was even better than I thought. Hell yeah, [Big Sys], good lookin’ out!

ALWAYS BB!

That isn’t going to be a thing.

All told, Cora’s stat block had taken a quantum leap forward with this, given the base [Cha] bonus, she looked upon it, and it was good.

[Cora Casanova][Level 5 Movie Star (A)]

[Str:5+6(SP)+37(MA)]

[Dex:8+6(SP]

[End:5+6(SP)+5(HH)]

[Vit:8+6(SP)+20(Nanostitch)]

[Agi: 8+6(SP)]

[Int:9+6(SP)]

[Will:30+6(SP)]

[Cha:62+50(Aphrodisia Glands {seduction dependent})]

[Class Actives: {One Liner, One Kill}]

[Class Passives: {Entourage}]

[Skills: {Star Power}, {Method Actor}, {Stat Focus: [Cha]},{Firearm proficiency}, {Hand to Hand Proficiency}, {Handgun Mastery II}, {CQC Mastery I}, {Performance Mastery- Ascendant}, {Harvester I}]

[Titles: [Unbreakable], [Money Maker], [Best Actress]

[Equipment: [Rib Cutter (II)]

[Stat Points:0]

[Skill Points:1]

Good thing I took the [Cha] focus, or I’d have already capped out, right?

AYUP!

Cora thought about spending the skill point waiting for her, but after a quick peek at a new category of skills [Big Sys] had curated for her labeled [Class], realized that was probably going to take more thought than picking between Movie Star, Peasant, and Nightman. And more skill points, most of these took at least three.

Kinda surprised I only leveled up once, tbh, she frowned, spoiled diva showing through. Shame on her for complaining after getting her class.

LIKE I SAID, MAKING SHIMMER BULLETS THAT WAY IS SUUUUUPER WASTEFUL

YOU USED NEARLY A LEVELS WORTH OF SHIMMER FOR THAT

Fuck me, really?

SKILLS ARE THERE FOR A REASON

AND THE REASON IS EFFICIENCY

AND FUN

Good to know. Still think it was the right choice.

YOU DO YOU BB

Stop that!

“So was that lightshow you gettin’ your class, Miss Mistress?” Hawk asked. She was in the process of snapping a Matriarch femur in half to fit it into Cora’s pocket space, which she was just keeping open, closing it occasionally so Jocasta could empty it.

“Oh, uh, yeah, and it’s pretty dope,” Cora answered, looking over her friends through the Party Array. “Y’all should check your stats, I have presents for youuuuu!”

She sang those last few words, and Hawk grinned, eyes unfocusing as she fell back into her own HUD. Then she frowned.

“Uh… I mean, I leveled up and all that, but I’m not seein’ any bonuses,” she said, giving Cora a vaguely accusatory scowl.

“Wait, what, really? I got a new skill, you guys should be getting 5% of my [Cha] as a bonus to everything!” Cora complained. She focused on {Entourage} again.

{Entourage}: Aura skill. Extend your {Star Power} bonus to allies within your aura at 50% efficiency. In addition, your Aura now covers your [Household], and [Members] within your [Household] receive 100% of your {Star Power} bonus.

Oh, I think I get it. Do I have to like… expand my aura or something? What the fuck is my aura?

UGH

THE ONE MOVIE STAR WHO ISN’T INTO NEW WAVE BULLSHIT

WE CAN WORK ON IT LATER, MONSTERS ARE GOING TO RESPAWN EVENTUALLY

They’re going to what!?

“Alright, folks!” Cora said with a newfound sense of urgency, “grab any last bullshit you think looks fun and let’s get a move on, [Big Sys] says we’ll have more incoming soon!”

She activated [Harvester I] and ran her eyes over everything one more time. Skinned, butchered, and even deboned, the Matriarch’s remains were now almost entirely mundane. Save for a radiant blue glow in the middle of it’s scavenged ribcage, which Cora hadn’t been able to see before.

“Yo, Kyra, why didn’t you grab this?” she said, crawling forward to reach in-between a pair of cracked ribs.

“Grab what?”

“Whatever this thing glowing blue in [Harvester] is?”

“I don’t see it.”

“Huh…” Cora stretched, and realized the area glowing blue in [Harvester] looked empty in her normal sight. Until her hand reached it, and a heavy, pulsing, blue ball dropped into her hand. It was as beautiful as a Shimcore, and at least as powerful. Just from touching it, Cora could feel that, it made her hair stand on end like being near a lightning strike. But the Shimcores did that too. What made this one special was that it felt like something. Where the Shimcores were power, this was power with an aspect. A bestial rage, that seemed to pulse and bite and scratch at the walls of its glass prison.

What is this?