Welcome Crawlers to the third floor! We have just over 700,000 crawlers remaining. You will have eight full days to complete this floor. We will have a longer announcement later, but we know most of you are currently dealing with your game guides. We are looking forward to seeing what races and classes everyone picks. We have some new, exciting classes available this season! Good luck to everyone!

  "What the heck was that?"

  Bizzeki stared at me like I was an idiot. "That was an announcement."

  "I guess I heard some stuff, but I got distracted and didn't notice the details. Except the first one, outside. Anyways, let's get to this whole class thing."

  She stood, mouth half open as if searching for something to say, then shook the thought away. "It's race before class."

  She did something, and my interface was replaced with big display cards showing weird races with explanations of what they did. "So, these just, like, adjust some stats around? I can be a lyrx elf and get this bonus with knives and jumping?"

  "Not just stats. The dungeon will genetically rebuild you into a lyrx elf. Click the image icon to see what it looks like."

  I stared at her. "I'd stop being me?"

  "You'd still be you, just in a different body."

  "How would Lacie recognzie me?"

  "Your name's over your head. And that's not the priority. You need to pick something that will let you survive."

  I stared at the cards. There were three up, but also a list of others to look at.

  This was all way too much. I didn't play video games. I watched Lacie play them, and I listened to her talk about them, but I didn't play them myself. Mom had nearly lost her mind when she found out I played Mario Kart with Lacie. She would have exploded if I was playing a really complex game.

  "I'm not allowed to give you direct guidance, but just look at what the AI told you to do and take the one that's obviously the most dangerous. It picked things for a reason. You don't have many good options. It's showing you the best ones."

  I look at the first option up. Tarantauran.

  I gagged. I would gain an exoskeleton covered with spiky fur like a tarantula, my head would warp to fit eight eyes—two huge, a band of four below, and a pair on the temples—and my mouth would be replaced with mandibles.

  "I'm not going to turn into some weird beast that my..." I swallowed, realizing I hadn't ever called her my girlfriend, and we hadn't even had a real date, and I'd kissed her but she had never kissed me, and if I turned into something weird she never would. "That Lacie wouldn't like."

  Bizzeki sank back into herself, lifting her vape and staring off to the side. "Why do I always get the dumbest fucking crawlers?"

  I watched her expression become increasingly blank. Very well.

  The three AI recommended were: lyrx elf, night elf, and tarantauran. Beyond those three, there were another fifty options available.

  Stolen story; please report.

  As I looked across those races, I thought back on talking about these sorts of games. Lacie was big on builds, and the thing she said was key was to go extremely hard at maxing something out, or to make a counter-play. By that, she meant finding a way to get two abilities together that usually couldn't be combined.

  It made sense. Sports were the same way. Normally, you specialized as hard as you could, but if you ever had a player who could do two extremely different things together, it could pay off big. It was like the rare—and even rarer as salaries rose and teams became more injury-averse—quarterbacks who could scramble. They weren't a proper running back, but the ability to make a few yards when there was no pass available made them far more versatile and effective than a guy who could only throw.

  "Hey, Bizzeki, what do skill levels mean?"

  She was nodding again.

  "Hey! Some of these say they 'Unlocks higher tier' for a skill. What does that do?"

  "It's great in theory, but never matters in practice. Skills and spells cap out at 15, but most skills never approach that. If you're lucky and have a good run, you might get two or three skills to 15."

  She took a long inhale of vape smoke, then said, "Generally, each skill point is a slight but meaningful improvement over the last. But if you get past 15 it's geometric growth. 16 is four times as good as 15, 17 four times as good as 16, and so forth, until the absolute cap of 20. So, 15 is about 15 times as good as 1 skill, but 20 is 1024 times as good as 15 skill. But that official math is kinda nonsense. The actual curve is way steeper than that. 15 is about a hundred times as valuable as 1 for most skills, and 16 is more than twice as good as 15."

  She settled back. "Fucking waste bothering to help you people." Her head started to nod. "Fucking names. Wish I could forget your names."

  I was starting to feel sorry for her. "Can I check the classes before I pick a race?"

  "Nope," she mumbled.

  That sucked. At first, I was just skimming through the races, then I noticed I could open a blank tab on my interface and take notes, so I went back and began listing out the various races. I could have saved a lot of time by keeping going through. Aside from the tarantauran, the night elf and tundra elf were the only entries in the list that unlocked higher-tier dodge.

  Based on my skill-increase notifications, I already had 13 dodge from unending fight for Glory. So far, dodging was the only thing I'd done, and it had kept me alive. Bizzeki could say what she wanted, I was sure aiming past 15 with that was the right play.

  Night Elf

  The edgelords of the elven races, Night Elves have mignight skin to show how deeply darkly deadly they are. They thrive in the shadows, excelling as rogues of all sorts, and as mages using dark magic.

  -3 to Strength.

  -3 to Constitution.

  +4 to Intelligence.

  +6 to Dexterity.

  +Shadow-Puppets spell

  +10% faster progression of Dark Magic spells.

  Unlocks higher tier dodge skill.

  Unlocks higher tier shadow spells.

  Suffer movement penalties while wearing heavy armor.

  Tundra Elf

  When Scolopendra's Nine-Tier attack devastated the elves, it splintered the Tundra Elves most of all. Scattered to by the catastrophe, the few survivors found themselves alone. Without allies in that dangerous place, they became prey. Those who survived are those who fled. Although skilled at survival, this race's abilities aid with no offensive abilities.

  +6 to Dexterity.

  Unlocks higher tier dodging and acrobatics skills.

  +25% faster movement speed.

  Suffer movement penalties while wearing heavy armor.

  I was fairly sure the tundra elf was worse than the night elf in some technical sense, but it only granted higher-tier dodge. I had been gaining skills that I assumed fit under acrobatics, including tumble and, possibly, light on your feet and balance. Even better, it had ice-pale skin, and that was absolutely ideal for the goth look. The system definitely wanted the night elf, of these two.

  Looks-wise, the tundra elf was icy pale, which meant it would look amazing with dark clothes, but the night elf had obsidian-black skin that also fit that goth vibe excellently. "At least they both look like people," I said. "I'm not turning into some half-animal whatever and expecting Lacie to just accept it."

  I wished I knew more about how everything worked. "Is the Sink Into Shadow ability I used earlier shadow magic?"

  Bizzeki startled, having fallen asleep. "Wuh?"

  "Sink Into Shadow. Is that what shadow magic feels like when you cast it?"

  She shrugged. "I don't know. That is shadow-magic, though."

  That oiliness had bothered me. I wasn't going to commit to even more of that. "Alright, I'll be a Tundra Elf."

  "Dumb fucking crawlers," she muttered, waving a hand.

  A confirmation window popped up and I clicked yes.