The first thing Annabel Thorne noticed when she woke up was the sound of her own screaming.
The second thing was a translucent glowing green square with white text hovering in the air before her.
You have learned: Pain Tolerance Level 1
You have learned: Bleed Resistance Level 1
Your Endurance has increased by 1
Warning! Your health is critically low.
"Ah," she thought to herself as she screamed. "Video game apocalypse scenario. Scrolls-style skill gain."
You have learned: Mental Fortitude Level 1
Level up!
Warning! Your health is critically low.
Purely on instinct, her game mechanic knowledge took over and she sang.
"~Oh, won't somebody heal my wounds
Or I'll never get more poon
I'll die a lonely lonely girl
Won't somebody heal my wounds?~"
As a soft glow took over her body and the pain subsided, Annabel saw another message pop up.
You have learned: Song of Healing Level 1
Your Wisdom has increased by 1
You've unlocked a bonus stat: Charisma
Your Charisma has increased by 1
She could breathe again. The ridiculousness of her scenario didn't really phrase her. Annabel had lived a weird life. As a trans girl in Brooklyn, sleeping her way through the weirdos and misfits of the underground art scene, she'd seen enough that nothing surprised her anymore. One time she watched some random queer slather themselves in cold mashed potatoes on stage and yell "Call me grandpa!" at a chick in a clown suit like it was a sex thing. And that was the early part of the show. Not a lot phased her anymore.
She took stock of her surroundings. The ceiling of her shitty apartment had caved in. Song of Healing was some kind of over-time effect, apparently, because she watched a piece of sharp metal from the cave-in slowly eject itself from her abdomen as her body gradually mended itself. She collapsed back onto her drywall-covered bed and groaned. The next step was obvious. "Status," she spoke in her mind.
Name: Annabel Thorne
Level 2
XP 50/300
Strength: 4
Agility: 6
Vitality: 6
Endurance: 8
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 11
Bonus stats:
Charisma: 11
Unspent ability points: 2
Annabel mulled it over. "Strength being my dump stat checks out. At least endurance is relatively high considering I don't exercise. I'm guessing 8 or 9 is roughly where the middle of the human bell curve would be. Considering my physical attributes I'm glad I unlocked another mental stat. Was it because the song I made up was about getting pussy?" She shook her head and kept reading.
Title: None
Passive Skills: Unflappable Level 1, Adaptable Body Level 1, Quick-Thinking Level 1, Pain Tolerance Level 1, Bleed Resistance Level 1, Mental Fortitude Level 1
Active Skills: Song of Healing Level 1
Annabel collected her thoughts and poked through the mental menu system. Her idea about how skills gain worked was correct. She did something, and that something became a skill. And gaining skills meant gaining XP. Which meant leveling up. This was stupidly exploitable and she's have to test it out as soon as she finished healing.
She seemed to have started with some passive skills, probably based on whatever came up with her ability scores. Unflappable was definitely thanks to her years of seeing weird shit in NYC, both out in public and by going to underground performance art shows. It gave her high levels of resistance to shock, fear, and similar emotions. Probably would make her hard to sneak up on, too.
Adaptable Body was a gift from the heavens. "Years of forming your body to your wishes have produced a physical form that is well-suited to adaptation. You no longer need exogenous hormones to survive, producing them internally instead." The skill description went on from there, detailing additional effects, but Annabel truly did not care. Whatever cruel gods had forced this upon the world, at least they weren't transphobes.
She smiled to herself at that thought as ideas began to form. "Gods, eh?"
The other skills were more or less what they self-explanatory, and she finished reading about them. It was time to get up and move. There was an apocalypse happening, apparently. But she'd have to get out of her room first.
Her room barely qualified as a walk-in closet. It didn't even have a window, which was definitely not up to fire code. What it did have was a blue, white, and pink aluminum baseball bat with the words BASH BACK spray prainted in black using a stencil. She definitely didn't have the stats to use it, but she need to get out of here fast. She picked the bat up and started swinging, trying to clear the debris to get to the door. And because she could, she also started singing.
"~Take me out to the baaaaaalll game
Take me out to the croooowwwwd~"
You have learned: Song of Strength Level 1
Strength flowed through her limbs as she cleared the debris. "I'm becoming a bard," she realized.
You have learned: Heavy Strike Level 1
You have learned: Light Strike Level 1
You have learned: Blunt Weapons Level 1
Your Strength has increased by 1
Level up!
Annabel paused to catch her breath. That's what she'd been waiting for. 2 more ability points to put wherever she wanted. The strength increase was useless as were the weapon skills. What mattered was the experience points from skill gain. She smiled to herself, knowing exactly what she would do with her new ability points, and added all 4 of them to Charisma.
Name: Annabel Thorne
Level 3
XP 70/500
Strength: 5
Agility: 6
Vitality: 6
Endurance: 8
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 11
Bonus stats:
Charisma: 15
Unspent ability points: 0
Title: None
Passive Skills: Unflappable Level 1, Adaptable Body Level 1, Quick-Thinking Level 1, Pain Tolerance Level 1, Bleed Resistance Level 1, Mental Fortitude Level 1, Blunt Weapons Level 1
Active Skills: Song of Healing Level 1, Song of Strength Level 1, Heavy Strike Level 1, Light Strike Level 1
Becoming slightly stronger in an instant, or slightly more durable, or slightly wiser whatever that meant hadn't been that noticeable, likely because she was in the middle of something when it happened. But becoming hotter and more charming in a flash? Four points at once instead of just one? Annabel felt that. It was like when her doctor finally let her start Progesterone all over again.
She was turning into quite the charmer.