Riva wasn't what you'd call happy about the fact that her life was used as a test for the system. But there were more pressing matters at the moment.
"What do you suggest to overcome the effects of the racial skill?"
[System suggests purchasing the 'Self Control' skill by paying 20 life energy]
"That's new, you quantified life energy! Show my status."
[Unable to show stats. Insufficient user data]
"Argh!" Riva ruffled her hair in frustration and rephrased her command.
"Show me the stats that you have the data for."
┌─────────────────────────────── ─ ─
│ Name: Riva
│ Race: Human Undead [Evolution currently not possible]
├─────────────────────────────── ─ ─
│ Life Energy: 23
├─────────────────────────────── ─ ─
│ Strength: Lower Average
│ Speed: Average
│ Physical Defense: Above Average
│ Magic: Unavailable
├─────────────────────────────── ─ ─
│ Skills:
│ Physical: Haste
│ Racial: Craving for Life
└─────────────────────────────── ─ ─
"That's already better than what you had before. So you were collecting my complaints!"
[Affirmative]
"At least there's some hope!" Riva's tone had become flat and sarcastic. It was easy to tell that she was suppressing her boiling emotions beneath the disguise of disinterest.
"Show me the description for 'Self Control'." Riva commanded.
[Description: 'Self Control' is a tiered skill in the domain of the mind. 'Body Control is the related skill for the domain of the physical body.
'Self Control' will strengthen the user's will and let them control and monitor their state of mind.*]
"System, What does that small '*' stand for?"
[An appended warning: *Experience with similar skills suggests: This skill may lead to the user splitting their mind into multiple personalities and might cause disassociation from mind and body. The TDH system appreciates user's sacrifice.)]
"Right, good to know you're behaving like a shady TV sales program. Keeping that particularly unimportant tidbit in the small print. You have no actual test data for the skill, right?"
[Affirmative. System predicts this is going to change in the near future]
"Because I have no other choice?"
[Affirmative. 'Self Control' is the best option available to user in order to deal with 'Craving for Life']
So it's not giving me a choice. Just you wait, I'll find a way to get rid of you as soon as I solve that stupid racial skill issue. Riva thought to herself. She hated the feeling of having no control over her life.
"Okay, I'll pay the 20 energy for the skill." she relented.
As much as she hated doing what the system wanted her to, it was better than accepting her current state.
It was only a matter of time for her to lose her awareness to her instincts. And losing control was dangerous. Without any rationality, she would be easy prey.
Undead were hated by almost all species. Being discovered almost assuredly meant her death. She was far too weak to outlive a regular extermination squad formed by the adventurers guild.
After agreeing, Riva felt how the energy and vigor she had just refilled through hours of feeding left her body in one go. It wasn't as bad as when she left the dungeon but she felt tired and drained nonetheless.
Instead knowledge of the new skill entered her mind. 'Self Control' was described as 'tiered' because it required the user's understanding. Contrary to 'Haste', which would always work in the same way and wouldn't grow with her comprehension.
She closed her eyes and immediately began practicing the skill to gain initial comprehension aka. level 1.
It was hard to concentrate with her hunger and desire for the energy of living beings gnawing at the edges of her mind. To Riva's relief, it had calmed down a lot after her interactions with the system. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to concentrate at all.
Just as she grasped the first bit of understanding a window prominently flashed into her mind's eye. It showed a turquoise progress bar that was flashing brightly as '+1's flew towards it, gradually filling it.
"Hey, can you top that?"
[Stop what?]
"The light show," Riva grumbled giving her all to not lose the bit of focus she held towards the skill's understanding.
[Unable to comprehend]
"Shut off the progress bar!!"
[Unable to comply]
The '+1's stopped pouring into the bar.
"Then change the color or something!"
Riva felt the strong urge to strangle whoever was responsible for that piece of junk.
The color of all windows changed to black. Which was much better especially since it had become dark and night had fallen.
"See, you can do it if you try!" She said in sarcastic encouragement.
Like this Riva comprehended her first level of 'Self Control'.
It feels weird. It's as though I'm looking down on myself. I can't prevent the hunger but I can regulate the way I perceive it.
I merely need to give importance to something else. That's the reason why being angry worked to quell the instincts. As long as the emotion of anger is more intense than the hunger I won't feel as though it's controlling me.
She put all her focus into being driven and determined for the time being.
What should I do now? I can control my feelings and I no longer need to sleep. The perk of being an undead. Time to check through the system's features.
After thoroughly looking through every known feature, she had a rough idea about all the available functions and how her stats worked.
She had reset her window color in the process since it proved hard to read the current one.
Riva also inquired about the evolution which was mentioned behind her race in her status window and learned that it would require her to collect and store a sufficient amount of energy.
The next evolution required a total of 50 points worth of life energy. Once she collected enough, she would need to pass an evolution quest. To her dismay, the quest turned out to be a feature that remained in development and had yet to be implemented.
She still decided it would be a good idea to save the amount especially since she intended to hunt anyways. That way she could evolve as soon as the update hit.
I feel like the remaining life energy will last me three days if I'm conservative and don't fight. With a fight, it'll be a day at most. I don't feel safe with this meager reserve.
These facts also imply, one unit of life energy, as shown by the system, equals the amount needed for a single conservative day of unlife.
A part of me thinks that it's unfair and most of all brutal to kill that many creatures to extend my life. I'm stealing years' worth of life from them but to me, it's barely three days' worth per creature.
The other part thinks that their sacrifice is an honor, to feed an intelligent advanced lifeform such as I. What other worth would they have had?
With the newly gained 'Self Control' I can see that the first one is the opinion I should have held when I was human and the second is the one that is my current nature.
Riva then set aside her controversial feelings and prepared to hunt.
Last time despite not using "Haste" since she was consumed by her instinct, she still managed to easily catch her prey due to the buffs given by the racial skill. Once activated it improved almost all her physical features as long as it came to hunting and feeding on prey.
For her first target, she chose to completely restrain her instincts and use "Haste" instead. It barely took her 25 minutes to defeat another deer.
Damn, I managed to defeat it, no problem, but using "Haste" cost me 2 energy, while I gained 3 from the target. The gain is so much worse than before since the racial trait consumes far less energy.
Probably because it's a natural part of my being in contrast to the artificial boost in speed given by "Haste". Or maybe the balancing is just that bad. Wouldn't put it past the system. And then there's that other problem…