Dark Fate: Book 1 – A New Fate
: Chapter 5

The list of skills available to me was… impressive, to say the least.

I’d never been a Greater Incubus, Warlock, or Slave Master before, so all of this was new information for me. However, I could make a few basic deductions, based on what I knew from my first time through the Apocalypse. All of the skills would be useful for me, but they wouldn’t be equally useful.

Starting with the Greater Incubus skills, well, Desire Reflection was interesting, but really, it was the social skills that held my eye. After the Apocalypse, any social skill was a good thing. Oh, sure, at the start a social skill might not seem that important, especially when compared to, say, the ability to avoid getting slaughtered by goblins, but that was only at the beginning. Short term, muscle heads who could slaughter anything in their path were king. In the long term, however, it was the people who had high Charisma and social skills that would end up as the rulers, as they could get people to work for them, and persuade the muscle heads to act as meat shields keeping their enemies at bay. The benefit of those social skills was very fresh in my mind. My ‘friend’, James, had been one of those types, a Priest that could sway anyone to follow the path of ‘righteousness’. Damn, what a fool I was back then. This time, though, I would be the one in charge!

The class skills were all baseline abilities. I hadn’t been a Warlock in my last timeline, but I was familiar with those ‘school of magic’ skills. Much like ‘sword mastery’, anyone who learned a spell (however they managed it) could cast the spell. A Fireball spell that I learned from a book somewhere could be cast without a magic skill. However, having the skill made the spell cost less mana, have a better effect, and be less likely to blow up in my face. All three were good things to have, but not strictly necessary at this time.

And then there were the Profession skills. These were more niche, obviously, because they all had to do with the raising and managing of slaves, which was not exactly as generally useful as a crafting profession, or a profession like ‘soldier’. However, there was a real gem here, in the form of Appraise Value. Appraisal skills, whether for people, monsters, or items, were a mandatory thing as you leveled up. There wasn’t anyone who made it past level 20 without picking up at least one, even if they spent most of their time crafting, well away from people or monsters. This version, obviously, was geared towards their value as merchandise, but it still gave me their name, race, and level, which was all important information. That alone could give me a quick run-down on whether or not I should engage someone, or run away. And if it told me more later, then it was even better.

So, obviously, I picked the Seduction and Appraise Value skills with my two free skill points. Appraisal for the obvious reason, and Seduction to lure victims in. Even if I was overpowered for Tier 1, Level 1, that didn’t mean I was all-powerful. Seduction would allow me to lure in prey, and, once they were branded, it would help me to keep them in line. A far cry from the skills I’d picked when I had decided to become a knight last time.

Hmm. Those all looked normal for a warlock’s abilities. But the error notification said that I had an altered spell list. Perhaps I already knew some spells?

Ah, yes, I recognized those immediately. They were three of the most common spells that any self-respecting warrior class took the time to learn, even if they barely had any MP to fuel them. Heal was weak, but it could be the difference between stabilizing a comrade (or yourself) until the actual healers could get to him, or death. Mending likewise only affected nonmagical gear, but, so long as most of the material was there, you could repair battle damage to weapons, armor, and clothing in the field. It also removed pesky bloodstains. And Mark Enemy was an obvious one, especially when stealth classes existed. Granted, a warrior was unlikely to actually spot a stealth class until it was too late, but if they survived an initial assault, they could mark the enemy, and take the fight to them. It was also good for keeping track of enemy commanders during a battle.

Still, I got to pick two spells. I already had some offensive abilities thanks to the Warlock’s Blood Bolt, and the Greater Incubus’s Hellfire. It would take some work to get the hellfire into something I could readily use on command, but practice and experimentation would eventually give me a wide range of possibilities. That meant I could focus on other things. So, with Offense covered, that meant I needed Defense, Utility, and Support. I had enough Support for the moment, thanks to the spells I already knew. So, defense and utility spells?

Amongst the Warlock spells, the first one that really jumped out at me for being useful at either Defense or Utility was Shadow Armor. A familiar could be useful, but the Armor was the real kicker. I didn’t know whether it would stack with any armor I later found, or had crafted for me, but having a spell that could protect me while I was naked, or when I couldn’t wear armor for some reason, was a major boon in my eyes. So, I picked that as my Warlock spell.

Now, what to do for the Blood Magic spell? There were literally thousands upon thousands of spells that came up in the list when I queried the System. Worse, they were all sorted alphabetically, which left ‘Acid Rain’, ‘Acid Rant’, and ‘Acid Rating’ all in close proximity, even though they did wildly different things, and came from very different classes! (Don’t ask me why Acid Rant was a Bard spell. I don’t want to know.) Still, I managed to filter the responses somewhat, and eventually found something that I knew I would need.

Cunning Linguist was a lower-level Bard spell that, effectively, allowed a Bard to learn a language temporarily. It only lasted for twenty-four hours, and he could only have one language ‘learned’ at a time, but it worked on all languages known by the System, and allowed you to read and write the language, as well. Very useful, especially when aliens were in play. Of course, to learn the language, you had to kiss someone who knew that language. When your tongue touched theirs, you got the language.

It was a stopgap measure, of course. It allowed for communication in emergencies, or during negotiations, but it wasn’t a long-term solution if you wanted to learn a language. There were other spells for that, of course, or just plain old effort to learn the language. There were even magic items that would allow you to understand other languages. Or, there would be, once people started making them. Either way, this was something that would be very useful, since it would lean into the abilities of my race. Even here, in Atlanta, Georgia, there were many different languages spoken, just amongst the humans living here.

I looked over my finished spell list, and nodded. This would do nicely. Oh, I had no doubt that I’d be wanting something more… complete, once I’d gotten going, but for the world as it existed immediately after the Apocalypse? This would be perfect.

I took a deep breath as I saw those notifications. I remembered the last time, when the System was implemented. Talia had been sleeping on her balcony, and had ignored the System prompts. Without input, the System chose initial settings so that it could complete integration. That had been a kick in the teeth for people who had been asleep, but the ones who survived got a chance to ‘re-initialize’. Talia had been unlucky enough to have a goblin spawn in right by her head. Before she could even wake up, she was dead.

But that was the last timeline. This time, I had ‘saved’ her from that fate. She was awake, and likely planning some kind of retribution. She wouldn’t simply accept that I had raped her for her own good. But that was fine. I had the power this time, power I didn’t have the first time I’d been through these events. Everything would change. Starting with me.

I took another breath. This was it. Time for a brand new me to take the stage. And anyone who got in my way was going to feel my wrath. “Yes.”