With the simple act of setting a name and receiving what was quite frankly an embarrassing trait, Kai felt something was over him.

  The moment the feeling passed, there was a string of notifications waiting for him.

  Old Soul.

  Your soul, while still simple in nature, has grown beyond the expectations of one so young.

  Paired Individual.

  Two souls, two minds and one connection. Everything that can be shared will be.

  Greater than the sum of your parts, two plus two equals five. Nothing adds up the way it should.

  Uncredited Participation.

  You possess an accumulation of system energy that was once reserved for system rewards. Though you have sacrificed the majority of this energy back to the system, much still remains. The remaining energy can be used as and when you wish to improve your future interactions with the system.

  Forbidden Knowledge.

  You possess forbidden knowledge that should have been completely wiped from your being.

  You cannot disclose forbidden knowledge.

  Abyssal Visitor.

  You have stared into the abyss before you were ready and survived.

  Your willpower is increased.

  System protected.

  The system is currently protecting you from the effects of passing through the void.

  “Syl. Correct me if I’m wrong, or is that a lot for a beginner?” He asked, tilting his head as he looked over the list of traits he had unlocked without even hitting the first level.

  “For an initiate. But considering what you’ve technically been through, this is nothing,” Syl said as she too looked over his shoulder to read his system messages.

  “So definitely not special?”

  “Did you get the special trait?”

  “No?”

  “Then shut up.”

  Manual system integration is complete.

  Welcome to the multiverse, Kai.

  “That’s it; we set a name, and it’s done. That’s all it needed.” He said he was feeling a little underwhelmed by the simplicity of officially joining the multiverse.

  “Yup, you should have access to things like your status and the skill systems. You also shouldn't see any of the back-end system messages. The system doesn’t usually let the common user see that it's a buggy mess.”

  “My status? You mean like an equal screen that helps me see my status? I have stats.

  Syl nodded.

  “So… status?” Kai said, copying a hundred litRPG characters before him.

  You can't just say the word; you were instinctively able to open notifications, and yet you're saying status out loud like an idiot! You just need to want to see the information, and it should detect the intent and show it to you.”

  “Is the system always reading my mind?” He asked, not a little worried about the implications of Syl being able to read his mind the whole time.

  “Detecting things like intent, need and desire, etc., is not the same as reading thoughts.”

  “Hmm,” Syl I think you have a nice ass… He thought to himself as he examined Syl for any discernible reaction.

  When she just looked back at him quizzically, he relaxed.

  “Something has been bugging me: why is it like in the computer games?”

  “Oh, that’s a quirk of your world. The integration system assessed Earth and decided this was the best way for earthlings to ease into things.

  I can see your system interface because you're subconsciously letting me. In comparison, system information kind of just flows into me when I focus on what I want to know. But that may also be a quirk from my time as a system authority.

  Within the greater multiverse, it can interact very differently depending on both the individual user and their culture. In some places the systems completely muted.

  You should find that the system will adjust in time. Might even end up a super user like myself because of our connection.”

  “While that is interesting. What I really meant was how did Earth, not yet integrated, even have a concept of the system to begin with?

  Syl looked off to the side in thought. “I told you the system has layers?”

  “Yeah, layers that technically don’t exist.”

  “Exactly. The base layers of the system seem to be omnipresent,” she said, still looking off at nothing, clearly trying to do something with the system. Whatever it was, she failed and let out a frustrated sigh before focusing back on him, “When I still had access, I could get information on anything I wanted to. Just so long as it aligns to my purpose as a system authority.

  To answer your question, I think there is a bit of informational osmosis from that layer. Information somehow escapes from that place and comes through to the material realm, even in places the system is not even technically active yet.

  That’s why you'll find a lot of your world's myths and legends loosely match up with things that currently exist within the multiverse itself, and I mean very loosely.”

  “So Bob was what, an elf? He asked her, hoping to answer the nugget of curiosity he had buried the moment the little pointy-eared man had appeared before him.

  “No. Bob was a very dangerous entity that chose the appearance resembling an elf.” Syl visibly shuddered.

  “Like myself, Bob probably used a racial template that suited his purposes at some point and was able to stick with it for one reason or another.

  It’s those racial templates that are probably responsible for your world's obsession with Dwarves, Elves, Dragons, etc. You name it; it probably exists somewhere, and there will be information stored within that layer I talked about earlier.

  But Kai, I can't stress this enough. You'll want to throw out any preconceived notions you have. The multiverse scale is beyond compression; within the human template alone, there were thousands of subtemplates of the various past and presently existing humans.”

  “So you're saying humans aren't unique to Earth; we didn’t evolve there naturally.

  “That’s complicated; all I know is the system predates Earth.”

  So was Earth seeded with life by the system?

  Syl shrugged. “Don’t know. Is the system responsible for all life in the multiverse, or is it merely curating it in some way? Are you trying to start a debate on the ultimate question of life, the multiverse, and everything?”

  “You’re not a very good system guide.” He said, enjoying the pop culture reference, “The answer is obviously forty-two.”

  “I gave up my access, all my accumulated authority. The answers might have been there, but if I didn’t access the information, I don’t remember it.” Syl said, biting her lip, brow furrowed slightly, looking worried, “Even then, things are fuzzy.”

  “So to summarise,” he said, moving on, “information from this omnipresent layer of the system seeped through into the collective consciousness of the humans; that information became the basis of our wildest fantasies. Except they’re not exactly fantasies of the multiverse, and I should probably curb my enthusiasm when I run into a dragon; it might be wise and willing to chat; it might also eat me? Did I get that right?”

  Syl held out a palm face down and wiggled it. “Close enough.”

  “So think it, don’t say it?”

  Status:

  Name: Kai

  Race:

  Level: 0

  Constitution: Detached Physical Being, Mentally Exhausted, Needs to Sleep!

  Health: 71%

  Stamina: 85%

  ?Mana: 96%

  Physical Core: (88%)

  Strength 4

  Dexterity 6

  Toughness 5

  Vitality 4

  Endurance 3

  Mana Core: (12%)

  Capacity 1

  Control 0

  Conversion 0

  Absorption 1

  Flow 1

  “Inferior human … What's that mean?”

  “It means you fall short of the standard that the system considers the average human.”

  “So it’s not because I’ve let myself go?”

  “No. It's most likely because the humans of your world evolved in an ether-deprived environment. It’s the reason you squishy earthlings needed a super easy tutorial,” Syl said, looking up at the stars above, squinting slightly as she examined something. “If you concentrate on your race, it should elaborate.”

  “You’re a squishy earthling too, you know,” he said, focusing on his race.

  Human - Inferior

  Humans are one of the most common races within the multiverse; they are adaptable and fill many roles. This variety of human is currently inferior to most of their kin due to evolving on a world deprived of Eather, effectively stunting their magical development.

  “You’re right about the weather stuff.” He said he was still not entirely sure what Eather was, but at least he knew it was related to magic now.

  The system has a copy of your physical being waiting to be restored.

  Would you like to use available system energy to improve your race?

  YES / NO

  “Er, Syl, you seeing this?”

  Syl pulled her attention away from the stars above and gave him a grin.

  Kai watched the YES / NO option flicker once more, the new option reading YES / YES.

  “Will I ever get to make a decision in this relationship?” he asked her, not too bothered. He was going to do it; he just wanted her to know what was happening. Still, he needed to look out; that beautiful grin of hers could spell trouble.

  Syl just patted him gently on the cheek while shaking her head.

  Sufficient energy was found to change race.

  Would you like to use your compatible racial templates to change race?

  YES / NO

  He reached out and poked the YES

  The moment his finger hit the text, the message rippled and disappeared.

  Preparing a visual analogue for race change.

  Happy that it had worked, he stuck his tongue out at Syl.

  The message dissipated, but nothing immediately happened.

  “The system's doing something,” Syl said as she looked off to the side. “Oh. Bob, the devious little bastard. He knew this would happen. He hid a few racial templates for where we are going in the information he gave me.

  An image of Kai appeared in the field before him.

  “Is this what having a wax figure of yourself is like?” He asked immediately, taking a dislike to it as he walked around the figure, examining himself.

  “Never seen a wax figure of myself.” Syl said as she watched Kai start to scrutinise his own person.

  The figure was an exact copy; everything was there, every fault, flaw and imperfection. He hated it.

  At five feet eleven inches, he just managed to hit around the six-foot mark with his Crocs on. For years he had been oblivious to people tweaking their height on dating apps; at one inch short of the magical six feet, he’d seen no reason to lie. Later, long after he had given up on dating apps altogether, he had been horrified to find out almost everyone exaggerated their height, and most people would assume the five eleven on his profile actually meant he was much shorter.

  Putting his height aside, he found himself studying his face. Groaning, he realised this wasn't a mirror image of himself; this was what other people saw. He wasn't used to this version of himself, but he also couldn't argue that it wasn't him.

  He had sad, narrow, blue eyes that looked off into the distance. This was probably how he looked when he dissociated or was deep in thought; he couldn’t decide which.

  His large, slightly broken nose angled off to one side; he had broken it when he was young, and the doctor hadn't bothered fixing it at the time, so now he had to live with it.

  He had been told he was handsome, but that was by friends and family, and of course they would say he was handsome. He gave himself a good, hard look. He might have been handsome once, but he couldn’t quite make himself see it.

  His features were all wrong, asymmetrical; one eye was even higher than the other.

  That, and he had genuinely let himself go these last few years.

  His dull brown hair had grown down to the top of his shoulders. Letting it grow long had been easier than finding a barber he liked. He had adopted the same lazy approach with his facial hair, only trimming it when he felt there was an occasion to. He hated the way it came in; it was rough, curly and patchy in places he wished it wasn’t. But at least it helped to hide his fat baby man face, so he kept it for that reason alone.

  Kai stood for a long while just looking at what he had become. He wanted to start over, change everything.

  He found himself wondering if the system would let him change more than just his race when he was pulled from his thoughts by Syl taking his arm and roughly spinning him around to face her.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “You have dysmorphia, you idiot! Stop picking yourself apart like that!” Syl barked at him as she stepped in close, well and truly positioning herself in his personal space.

  “I do not have dysmorphia.” He said, dismissing the claim immediately.

  “I’ve been trying to get your attention for the last minute, and you’ve just been staring at yourself, visibly deflating with each second that goes by.”

  “I’m fine; I was thinking about-“

  Syl levelled an angry look on him, and she poked him hard in the chest to cut him off. “No one who has dysmorphia realises they have dysmorphia until they don’t; that’s the problem with dysphoric disorders.” She said, poking him again as if trying to drive what she was saying into him.

  He raised an eyebrow questioningly at her as he rubbed the spot she had just jabbed him.

  “Kai, don’t make me actually hit you.” Syl pinched the bridge of her nose and stepped in again to wrap her arms around him. “Yes, you are carrying a little extra weight, but you're tall and broad-shouldered. When I look at you, you look back with those beautiful ocean blue eyes, and that smile, that grin, you smoulder.

  "Kai, we've been through all this before; I need you to trust me." She sighed, her frustration evident. “We got past it once; we can do it again. Please, believe me. When you start absorbing essence, cultivating. You will grow, you will adapt and you will change in ways you can’t fathom right now. The higher your path takes you, the more beautiful people you’ll end up seeing as they themselves reach for an ideal. They’ll make supermodels look plain. And believe me, none of them will have started out that way. Except maybe the children of immortals and gods.”

  She pulled back and looked at him, “Let it go and please, just trust me,” her pretty eyes glistening slightly as she pleaded with him.

  He just nodded dumbly.

  Satisfied Syl stepped back and pointed over his shoulder at the blue system banner that he hadn't noticed floating just above his visual analogue. “It's ready for you to decide. You good?”

  He nodded again, but this time with more certainty.

  “You’ll be more than familiar with the choices you’ve got. That familiarity is probably one of the reasons Bob picked out this world for you. No lizardmen, demons or nagas, I'm afraid; not that the system would offer you those, true humanoids only.”

  [ Human - ( Inferior ) >

  “This one is charming, but you would be stupid if you got sentimental now.” Syl said as she reached out and swiped to the left like she was using a dating app.

  < Human - ( Improved ) >

  With the new title card sliding into place, he noticed his copy shift slightly, but all that changed was his posture.

  “The fact that it says ‘improved and not ‘standard tells me the humans we were going to are a little bit better than the average. But that might not be saying much; you humans are ridiculously common, and the majority fall behind the other races by quite a margin.”

  “That sucks; I guess I’m lucky I get the chance to change things up a bit.”

  “Humans are just so adaptable that they tend to grow like weeds anywhere the more specialised races would struggle. They are known for abusing that adaptability, and they are a part of almost every society of the multiverse.”

  Kai laughed, “So the games got that right at least. Not good, not bad, oh and here you can have a couple more choices because adaptable.”

  “What did I say about preconceived notions?” She said, squinting at him as she swiped left again.

  < El ’viairen >

  Fake Kai shifted again.

  Gaining a few inches in height, he lost some girth around his midsection as things moved around. He noted his shoulders narrowing slightly as he looked altogether more agile than before.

  His beard was sucked back into his face as his ears sprung out from the side of his head into long, level points.

  But most strikingly, his facial features grew a little sharper, and dare he say, more symmetrical.

  “What is an el, elvi-“ Kai tried to ask what exactly the choice was, but the word was foreign to him.

  “It's pronounced el-vi-air-en and what do you think it is?” Syl asked as she looked over the changes with slight amusement.

  “I’d say the ears are different than what's typical, but I'll be damned if that’s not an elf. Wait, an elf?” No, that didn’t quite sound right. “Are elves and elfs different in the multiverse?”

  “They are varieties of the same thing, just different sides of the spectrum. And yes, it's basically just an elf, though I wouldn't go around calling one of the el’vie elves. It's an easy way to get smacked.”

  “So this is the high and mighty, pompous kind of elf then. Not the North Pole, present-wrapping variety.”

  Syl threw her head back. “What do I keep telling you?”

  “Abandon my preconceived notions? But come on, you were going to tell me they are good at magic, right?

  Syl looked at him angrily. “Their mana cores are typically more developed than humans, but that doesn’t mean they run around casting missiles or calling down storms on idiot humans. The warrior caste of the el’vie are legendary for their physical prowess and…” she said, halting her own little lecture as if chewing on the next bit.

  Kai smiled. “Go on; you can say it.”

  “Augmented abilities on the field of battle.”

  “So if I want to lean into magic, this is the way to go.” Kai stated.

  Syl looked away from him and swiped left again.

  < Gnomel >

  Seeing the option, she swiped again as soon as fake Kai started to shrink.

  “Hey! I wanted to see that.

  “Your annoyed that you're just one inch short of six feet, and you think you can handle life as a gnome?”

  Kai realised he couldn’t argue with her on that and just waited for the next racial choice to come in.

  < Goblin - ( Superior ) >

  He didn’t say a word when that one flew past, though the superior tag had interested him a little.

  < Orec ’kien >

  “What's that one?” he asked as it passed by.

  “Smart orc. They hit like a truck, have endless stamina, but are absolutely shit with everything else… big bits, though. That’s about it.”

  He grinned at her comment on big bits as the next option came up and paused.

  < Dwarven ( > )

  “I thought you said my ego couldn't help being short,” Kai said as the form shrank back down from a, quite frankly, powerful-looking variation of himself he didn't completely hate, though it might have taken a while to get used to the shade of red.

  “You might actually like being one of the Thick-folk.”

  “Diggy diggy hole?”

  He watched as the form shifted back to human proportions and kept going.

  “The dwarven fascination with resources is not what you think. They ‘diggy’ for resources as much as any other race does. They just make their minds better than most.”

  “Syl, I’m struggling with this expectations thing.”

  Fake Kais form shrank down to about five feet eight inches and slowed. His broad shoulder grew wider, and the muscles on his arm gained more definition as the rest of him filled out his clothes much better than he had ever done before.

  His growth of facial hair had come back from his brief stint as one of the el’vie but it didn't grow longer like he had expected; instead, he was more than happy to see his beard grow full and glossy as the patchy parts he had always hated filled in.

  With the weight he was carrying, Kai couldn't help but admit he made for the stereotypical fantasy dwarf; only one thing didn't fit.”

  “I expected it to be shorter.” He said, not hating this version of himself too much.

  “You do realise your height was borderline above average and that translates across the racial change; besides, dwarves aren't considered short.” She pinched her lips. ”But again, there are some varieties, mainly the under-folk.”

  “So you're about to explain to me that they’re not obsessed with treasure or…”

  “Dwarves have well-developed physical cores by nature, so they are durable and hit hard,” Syl continued, completely ignoring his baited statement. “But that’s not what makes them different. They’re almost always born with a racial trait that allows them to infuse mana more easily than most. They abuse this trait just as much as the El’vie do their better-than-average mana cores.

  So while it is possible to see a dwarven mage, they’re usually the rare individuals that didn't get their racial trait for some reason.”

  “So what is mana infusion good for?”

  “Lots of things,” Syl said as she walked around the fake Kai with an odd look on her face.

  “Some quick examples would be building, smithing, tailoring, enchanting, rune work, making mundane items burn with dragon fire, and ammunition that penetrates barriers and explodes to devastating effect on impact.” Syl squinted and continued, “Bombs that would make nuclear weapons look like child's play without the taboo of the fallout to deal with. Want to kill a dragon? Get it to swallow a dwarven ale cask with one of them inside, ‘Boom’ instant levels.”

  Kai whistled.

  “Don’t be too impressed; everything that can be done one way with mana can also be done a million other ways. We would be here all day if we got into that.”

  Syl came back to his side and looked over the dwarven version of Kai before nodding, “So what is it going to be? Feel like joining the ranks of the el’via and gaining a nicely boosted mana core? Or perhaps an overpowered racial trait is more to your taste, and you live the rest of your life looking up instead of slightly down on people?”

  He thought for a moment, considering his options. “Improved humans not an option?”

  Syl smiled at him. “It’s the most well-rounded. It's what you know. And when a human finds their path, they tend to shine. A lot of the gods started out human, but that might just be a numbers game.”

  Again Kai thought about it, “Jack of all trades, master of none-“

  “Though oftentimes better than a master of one.” Syl said, finishing the often-abused saying for him.

  Kai smiled at Syl appreciatively; he had been going for the full saying and was more than pleased she knew it.

  “What about the next option?”

  “Next option? That was all the templates Bob hid.”

  He just pointed up at the blue box above the dwarf in front of them.

  Syl saw where it showed (>) the characters so dull the characters almost blended into the background.

  With a confused look, she swiped left again.

  < High-Human - ( erRor )

  “That shouldn't be possible.” Syl whispered to herself as the figure of Kai started to shift again.

  Kai watched in anticipation as the figure grew tall again, but before he could take note of any discernible changes, he looked up to see the serene blue of the text box shift, buzz and change to purple.

  “Not happening!” Syl said firmly as she stepped forward.

  Racial change accepted.

  There was a sudden flash of light, and Kai looked up to see one of the two stars above them burst into life.

  His ears suddenly popped, and he was overcome with a wave of hot, sharp pain that rose from somewhere inside him to claim everything right down to the tips of his extremities.

  Unable to keep himself standing through the pain, he collapsed to one knee as the pain receded slightly before coming back again and again, throbbing in tandem with the star above.

  Syl was reaching for him, her lips crying out words he couldn't hear.

  Suddenly the pain stopped, the pain pulled back to his core and he felt the world close in around him as a wave of darkness fell over his vision and he blacked out.

  Kai opened his eyes to see one of the twin stars above him dim significantly as it settled back to pulse gently. They seemed more in sync with each other, the pulses they both emitted more rhythmic than before, almost as if they called to each other.

  Somehow he had been moved to the bed where, beside him, Syl was curled up around a pillow, sleeping peacefully with a mat of fiery orange hair falling around her.

  Sitting up from where he lay, he looked around in confusion as he tried to get his bearings.

  No longer were there just endless plains of indigo grassland.

  From horizon to horizon, black mountains capped in white snow had sprung up to fight a cascading aurora of light that seemed to dance around the peaks.

  Admiring the changes the distant, not-so-distant mountain made, but not willing to wake Syl to find out what they were all about, Kai decided to see what else had changed.

  Despite having an unplanned nap and feeling somewhat more awake and aware than he had before, he had to stifle a groan as he carefully slid himself off the bed.

  Walking off a short way to stretch and work his stiff, aching muscles, he realised a lot more than their cosy little field had gone through significant changes while he had been out.

  Syl, of course, had accepted yet another system prompt without consulting him; the resulting changes had dropped him like a sack of shit.

  It had felt like his own body was eating itself alive, and looking down at himself, he realised it might have done just that.

  The weight that he had been struggling to lose off and on for the last couple of years had just disappeared.

  Lifting up his baggy black t-shirt, he marvelled at the definition and tone he hadn’t seen for almost a decade or more. Twisting and flexing, he realised his new form had gone beyond that of his long-lost youthful vigour as he poked and prodded muscles he didn't even know existed.

  He was amazed by the changes that had overcome him. Everything was different. As he worked through a series of simple stretches, he marvelled at how powerful, agile and flexible he now was.

  Noting after a moment that his little routine had the desired effect of lessening the dull ache he was feeling by a considerable amount, he decided a more system-quantified information panel might better clue him in on what Syl had actually done.

  Status:

  Name: Kai

  Race: High-Human

  Level: 0

  Constitution: Detached Physical Being, Balanced.

  Health: 100%

  Stamina: 99%

  Mana: 5%

  Physical Core: (50%)

  Strength 20

  Dexterity 20

  Toughness 20

  Vitality 20

  Endurance 20

  Mana Core: (50%)

  Capacity

  Control 20

  Conversion 20

  Absorption 20

  Flow 20

  The first thing that caught his attention was the stats; he had no clue how all of this worked yet, but he guessed a four-times increase in his physical stats was nothing to scoff at; it explained all the changes he had gone through.

  Then there were the stats under his mana core; they were twenty times better.

  He had no clue how the other races might have matched up to this option; he decided Syl must have known what she was doing when she forced this High-Human upon him.

  He focused on High Human, but unlike before when the system had told him about why he was an inferior human, the text just buzzed and nothing happened. Thinking he had done something wrong, he tried again. This time it buzzed harshly, the sound triggering a sharp pain to grow rapidly just behind his eyes.

  Threatened with a bad time, he quickly got the message and stopped trying to get any more information. Pinching his nose, he groaned as the headache pulled back and faded away.

  He was not a fan of headaches, let alone migraines; knowing the system could wield one as a deterrent was not a good feeling. At least he thought it was a deterrent; it could be some kind of bug.

  As he was mulling over the strange race, he heard Syl sneaking up behind him.

  “Sorry, Syl, did I wake you?” Kai asked as he turned around the moment before she was in striking range.

  Syl pouted as she got up from where she had been crouching low, and he noticed she no longer met him at the same height: “Making some changes yourself, I see. Love the hair.”

  Syl looked up at him as she threw her hair back over her shoulder, smiling, “Just the hair, still five eleven. You're the one who has grown taller.”

  “I have?” He looked down at himself; he was clearly thinner, definitely way fitter, but taller.

  “Yup, about six six, congratulations, you're a tall king now.”

  “But my clothes still fit. Kinda.”

  “Your waist got a lot thinner, yet your pants aren't around your ankles, are they?

  “No, they’re not…” he said as he checked the fit of his jeans, pleased he wasn't caught out flapping in the breeze in front of Syl.

  “Though it has changed, that’s not actually a real body, and those aren't your real clothes.” She took the bottom hem of her t-shirt and stretched it out for him to see. “I could change this in a thought if I needed to. I would have to start with figuring out what lingerie suits me, them being undergarments and all, but I don’t think you could handle that with everything else that’s going on for you right now.”

  Feeling the heat rise and himself turn red at her remarks about lingerie, he decided to pivot back to his updated status.

  “So, erm, high human, what's that about? I tried to focus on it, and I got nothing but a headache. Are they anything like high elves?”

  Syl looked over at his still-open status and nodded appreciatively.

  “Despite the name,” she said, “high humans aren't humans. Which could be confusing because the High El’vei are definitely elves.

  High Human is a bit of a misnomer by the system, one that I think is intentional. But it could also just be the system putting things into terms you’ll understand.” Syl smiled and waved her hand at his status.

  High-Human changed to now read Perfect Progenitor Archetype.

  “Perfect Progenitor Archetype? Doesn’t sound like a race to me…”

  “Actually, they’re the origin of nearly every humanoid race in the multiverse. People just call them high humans because no one knows their proper name anymore, and they look most like humans.”

  “Wait, humans, elves, dwarves and the rest, they are all descended from this one progenitor race?”

  “Why do you think they can interbreed so easily? They’re an ancient lost race; their descendants are still around, but they have diverged so much the system categorises the different offshoots as their own unique races.”

  “Lost race, huh. So there are no high-humans in all of existence?” He asked, trying to take it all in the best he could without pissing Syl off with preconceived notions of what high humans had implied; most of that was based on the concepts of high elves, and he had a feeling that was also going to get him in trouble.

  All the greater multiverse at least. For some reason the conditions just haven’t been right, either that or something's actively preventing them from popping up randomly like the other races can.

  Why did Bob include it with all the others?

  “He didn’t,” Syl grinned. “The system detected my template and offered it to you. I accepted before it could realise its mistake.”

  It was about then that Perfect Progenitor Archetype started to buzz on his status; they both watched as it popped and changed back to High Human.

  Glad he hadn't been overcome with another headache. Kai turned back to Syl, staring off into space. “What's up?”

  “I just got a message from a system authority.”

  “Bob, come to complain about what you’ve done to me?”

  Race change complete.

  The message popped up out of nowhere.

  Trait discovered:

  One of a kind:

  You are unique.

  Trait applied:

  Adaptable Progeny:

  All your progeny are adaptable and will favour the adaptations, mutations and variations of your mate.

  “Syl, I think I’m definitely special now.”

  “Unique does not mean you're special.”

  Trait: One of a kind, evolving

  “Oh, come on!” Syl shouted off into the air.

  Special:

  You are one of a kind, truly unique.

  Kai nodded his satisfaction, “Told you.”

  But Syl wasn’t paying him any attention; she was looking off at nothing, her lips working slightly but saying nothing.

  “Everything okay?”

  “Yes, just trying to get them to undo that little edit they made before pissing off.”

  “Anything I need to know?”

  “Apparently I have a big sister. She thanked me for waking her up again and told me she would be watching… I don’t think she is keen on you, she said she will have an extra eye on you.”

  “Did she say what her purpose was?”

  “Nope.”

  “So what should we do next? Going to explain my status?”

  “No… We can go over all that when you do your first level up. For now I think we should abuse our time in the void while you are protected and do some training.”

  “The void, that place that was really starting to give me a headache.” He asked, feeling a small knot of worry form in the pit of his stomach.

  “That’s the one.” She said and then looked down at herself, “I know you like the t-shirt, but I think it's about time I come up with an actual outfit. Got some good lingerie ideas I would like to try out, and I can't have you here for that.”

  “What exactly will I be doing?” He asked again, the small knot now more a bundle of worry.

  “Working on your ability to enter this place, of course,” Syl said as she gestured around them both, “try not to go mad while you’re at it.”

  “I don’t think I like this plan.”

  “Don’t worry, you’re special; I’m sure you will figure it out eventually.” Syl said as she reached out, placing her right hand gently on his chest.

  Looking up at Kai, she smiled devilishly and pushed him back out into nothing.