When my vision cleared, I was lying on my back and staring at a stone ceiling.

  The first thing I did was check my face, the memory of broken teeth still horrifyingly fresh. My teeth were fine. My nose was fine. It was surreal, like waking from a nightmare. After checking myself over thoroughly, I concluded that all my injuries were fully healed. My relief at being whole was quickly replaced by anger.

  “Those assholes killed me!” I yelled to the empty room. I was pissed. New plan, hunt down the fucking Greys, and cut them to pieces.

  Decision made, I turned my attention to my surroundings. I was on a bed. It wasn't particularly soft, but it was pleasantly comfortable. The only discomfort came from the chainmail bunching up and pinching my skin. The armor was really not designed to be slept in. I got off the bed and shook the mail back into position. Looking around I finally recognized my room. Or more accurately, the room the Archbishop had given me for the duration of my stay in London.

  I took off the chain shirt and checked it over. It was covered in a thin patina of rust, and there was a small hole in the back where the dagger had punched through. I would have to get that fixed, but that would undoubtedly cost money. I grinned maliciously. I knew where I could get some money.

  I put my armor back on, and was about to leave my room, when I thought to check my journal. The log might be able to tell me more about what happened. I opened up my journal and found the place where that thug had stabbed me.

  I forced myself to read the whole log, resisting the urge to rush ahead to see my skill points. I didn’t remember anything resembling limbo. As far as I could tell I went straight from dying to my room in St. Paul’s. Putting it out of my mind, I flipped through the journal until I found my three skill trees.

  I checked the tooltips for each of the underlined words.

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  Well that’s a lot of information to process. It seemed like the skills for the most part were conditional passive upgrades. Basically, they are “always on” unless you don’t meet the requirements. I didn't see any active abilities like a “Power Slash” or “Sudden Charge” that I could choose when to use.

  This was both good and bad. It meant I could rack up some truly staggering bonuses as long as I was fighting “correctly”, but it also meant that under the wrong circumstances, I would get no bonuses at all. And I would have no panic button ability to escape from a bad situation.

  I couldn’t get a description of future skills, like Footwork 2, to show up. Either the developers wanted to maintain some mystery, or the journal was just buggy. Either way, I decided to see what the other skill trees held before making my selection.

  This tree was much more straightforward. A basic magical attack, or the ability to create items. Depending on how it worked, creating objects could be really game breaking. Jamming doors, selling fake items, and setting traps all immediately sprang to mind.

  That said, the Push skill gave me something my build was missing, a ranged attack. I still wanted to focus on a melee build, but having some versatility would be very useful. Especially if I could activate the skill while still using my sword and shield. Also, the Dispelling Push upgrade called to me. I didn't know how threatening magic will be, but I really like the idea of having a counter to it for when it does show up.

  With that in mind, I selected the Push skill and confirmation box when it appeared. I would get Create Object eventually, but for now I had higher priorities. My choice made, I moved on to my last skill tree.

  So basically it was free stuff on a daily basis or bonuses to dealing with people. Nothing to help me canvas a crime scene though, so I guess I will have to leave that to Inspector Ajax. I could dismiss the ammunition contact right away. It might be invaluable to a different build, but to me it was basically worthless. Bribry might be better later, but for now I was broke, so it did not really appeal to me.

  That left the first aid and holy supply contacts and ethos skills. Having holy water and scriptures could either be fantastic or worthless depending on how they worked. The idea of getting painkillers was very seductive. The game so far had been very painful and anything to take the edge off would be welcome.

  That said, I really wanted to get back at the Grey’s that killed me. The Persuasion by Ethos skill was my best bet for getting information about Slinger from them. Decided, I took the skill and flipped back to the martial tree.

  After reviewing, I ended up taking True Time. It might be tricky to use correctly, but used right it will give a continuous buff to both my offence and defence. My choices made, I put away my journal and struggled back into my armor.

  Leveling had been a fun distraction, but I had a mission to get back to.