"No, seriously, what did you get?" Elias asked again. "Don't think I didn't notice how you suddenly changed."

  "Yeah, and don't think I didn't notice you staring." Kiki quipped back.

  "Yeah, that was..." Elias trailed off. "Very strange. Let's not beat around the bush, you were already pretty far up there appearance wise, but it was hard to miss that you suddenly got even more attractive. But it's also... more than just that." he tried to explain, but seemingly was missing the right words.

  Surprisingly, it was Jack who provided an answer instead: "It was an almost spiritual experience." he explained. "Though it doesn't have as much of an effect now that I know. I think our previous reaction was akin to walking up a set of stairs without paying attention and expecting one more step where there isn't one."

  "Yeah, I think that's the right way to put it. The sudden and unexpected change caught us off guard." Elias confirmed. "Though I can still feel it. You feel like you are... more, in a sense? It's a bit strange, but not a bad feeling?"

  "Hmm... The System said something about my Presence." Kiki mentioned what she remembered from the description of the Charm Stat.

  "Anyways, if you want to choose your Class, Elias, you can probably just do so now. There isn't really anything I figured out that the System won't just tell you. And your thoughts are sped up while you choose anyways. I feel like I spent a few hours getting through everything and making my choice, but it's only been... what? a few seconds? Though, if you want to coordinate with me, I chose a Warrior Class. I got offered some mage options, but it felt like a good idea to take something I actually know how to use."

  "I see." Elias said.

  For a moment, it looked like Jack wanted to say something again, but this time he held himself back.

  "Then don't mind if I do. I wanna choose my Class!" Elias made his decision quickly.

  Curiously, Kiki watched, and only moments passed before Elias suddenly changed. Within moments, he lost a bit of his muscle definition and his skin seemed to get a bit more rough. And yet, his skin took on a slightly healthier tone as the bags under his eyes receded.

  But most of all, all of a sudden Kiki could feel some kind of energy surrounding him, like a cloud of static electricity prickling across her skin. But it was less the actual feeling, and more like a premonition of it? Really, it was a hard to describe feeling.

  "Yup, you are right. This shit IS incredible!" Elias proclaimed as he returned from making his decision.

  "What did you take?" Kiki asked, curious. Considering how his appearance changed, she could only assume that he either lost significantly more Personal Stats than her when the System normalized him, or he didn't take a physical Class that off-set the loss.

  Kiki wasn't a guessing girl, but she assumed it was the latter.

  "Earth mage. Might be a bit of a risk in the short run..."

  "Why would..." Jack tried to complain, but Elias spoke over him.

  "...but I'm hoping that I will be able to build walls and stuff in the future. You know, to keep most of the nasty things out of this place. I'm also hoping that I can learn to detect anything that might try tunneling in from underneath." he explained.

  "Fine." Jack admitted.

  "What about you?" Kiki decided to ask Jack.

  "I don't think so. At least one of us shouldn't be tied to this... System." he said, a bit of venom in his voice.

  Even after having calmed down, it seemed he still had some issues.

  In that case...

  "Let’s take ten minutes to figure out what those Skills we got can actually do?" she asked Elias.

  "You two do that. I'm going to check the armory in the meantime." Jack decided, sounding a little frustrated as he stood up from where he sat.

  Because obviously, the hidden apocalypse bunker would have an armory... I guess that is what you get when you combine childhood dreams with the foresight and money of a successful CEO? Or maybe daddy was a bit more of a doomsday prepper than I thought?

  "Yeah, good idea. Maybe a little demonstration after, and then we can figure out what we do from there." Elias seemed to agree.

  "Let me take a look then." Kiki decided, and for the sake of her company said out loud: "[Status]"

  =====

  Name: Kindra Koch

  Class: [Warrior blessed by Luxuria] (uncommon)

  [Level]: 0

  [Applied Achievements]: 0

  [Available Achievements]: 9

  Stats:

  Skills:

  [Luxurias Blessing]

  [The Bigger the better]

  [Less is more]

  [Equipment swap]

  =====

  No matter how often she looked at it, Kiki couldn't help but feel a bit insulted at her low Personal Intelligence and Wisdom Stats. Even if the System itself had actually confirmed that it DIDN'T mean that she was stupid.

  Recalling the Systems explanation, a low intelligence simply meant that she was a bit slower, which was certainly true. It wasn't like she had bad problem solving abilities, or couldn't solve puzzles. She simply couldn't do so as quickly as others did.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  =====

  Intelligence

  Determines how fast your mind can process thoughts.

  Partially determines your ability to concentrate on a task.

  Partially determines your resistance to mental influences.

  =====

  And low Wisdom merely meant that her memory was bad. Which was why she made a habit of taking extensive notes and writing to-do lists.

  =====

  Wisdom

  Determines your ability to memorize information and recall it.

  Determines your ability to maintain a mental image.

  Partially determines your ability to concentrate on a task.

  Partially determines your resistance to mental influences.

  =====

  Taking a closer look, the first thing she noticed were her Stats. Where she should have been seeing only the number one hundred due to the so-called 'Base Stats', only her Charm was looking the way she had expected it to.

  But instead of diving into her Stats, she instead chose to look at her Skills, considering that was probably where the answer lay.

  =====

  Luxurias blessing (epic)

  Calculate Charm while ignoring Gained Stats for the sake of this Skill.

  Add 3% of effective Charm to all other Stats, before Personal Stats are applied.

  =====

  Thought so. Here is my answer already. But... if the rarities work as Elias said, this should be two ranks above uncommon... Isn't just three percent a little bit too little? Or is it? I get like, 8 Stats per level from my Class and Free points. So this Blessing is giving me currently between five and six levels worth of Stats? Which... Honestly, I have no way to tell if that is a lot or not. But I guess the effect will only get stronger as my level increases. It also incentivises me to put all my free points into my Charm, since it will also affect wherever else I might have put them otherwise, even if not quite as much.

  How much extra would I even get out of each point that goes into Charm?

  So, one point multiplied by my Personal Charm, so it's two point four. That multiplied by three is... right, seven point two. But that's then divided by a hundred, so every point of Charm is zero point zero... seven two? Urgh... But it also counts for all other Stats, which are... six? Something around half a point in total? I guess it's not much since it's split up across six Stats, but also kinda a lot more than it appears considering it's just a three percent bonus?

  If I were to put all my Free Points into Charm as well, It would be something like a point in all Stats but Charm for every two levels?

  Of course, that's without considering that my Charm Stat will probably become kinda insane?

  Anyways. Next!

  =====

  The Bigger the better (uncommon)

  Tools bigger than average are up to 20% more effective.

  Your proprioception is added to applicable tools at 10% of your effective dexterity.

  =====

  Huh, here is that popi-thing again, that was mentioned with dexterity.

  =====

  Dexterity

  Determines the degree of fine control you have over your physical body.

  Improves your proprioception.

  Improves your sense of balance.

  =====

  Maybe...

  "Hey, Elias!" she called for his attention.

  "What?" he asked, his eyes slowly focusing on her, though still seeming distracted and absentminded.

  "Do you know what that prop-thing is that was mentioned in the Dexterity tab?" Kiki asked, hoping he might know.

  "Proprioperception? It's your ability to sense your body's position in relation to itself. You know that challenge where you stretch your arms out to the sides, close your eyes, and try to touch just the tips of your pointer fingers together without missing?"

  Kiki nodded. It was one of those "challenges" that were unexpectedly difficult, so for a week or two everyone tried to make a bet out of it at her old school. And once everyone knew about it, it simply disappeared again.

  "Essentially, better proprioception would make you better at that." Elias explained.

  "Thanks." she said, going back to thinking about the Skill.

  So, first question, is my... tool? Why does it say tool and not weapon? This IS supposed to be a Warrior Class... Maybe it’s so I can use a shield as well? Well, does my sword count as 'above average in size'? Let's hope it does.

  Though '20% increased effectiveness' sounds kinda nebulous for an effect. There is simply no way to tell how much of a difference that would actually do without testing.

  On the other hand, the other effect sounds much more useful. Didn't Jason even talk about this at one point? What did he call it? 'Being one with the sword'? I wonder how that will affect how I can use it. But I won't be able to test it here, the bunker is way too small for that.

  Though, maybe that would actually make it exactly perfect for testing?

  I'm only worried about the thing about being 'bigger than average'. There is simply no way to tell by what metric this is measured. If it's measured based on the biggest sword in the world, I bet someone tried already to make some kind of twenty meter monstrosity that only technically is a sword, just to get into the World Record Book… I would need a ten meter sword just to be average then.

  Yeah, that’s not gonna happen…

  Next!

  =====

  Less is more (rare)

  Originating from every piece of armor you wear, a skin-tight invisible barrier extends radially to non-covered areas until it covers an area equal to that of the origin armor piece.

  Barriers that would overlap, instead connect and spread further in other directions.

  These barriers infuse the user's body within 1 cm with a durability equal to the originating armor piece adding to the body's natural durability.

  =====

  So... If I'm understanding this right, as long as at least half my body is covered in armor, this... 'barrier' will cover the rest of it? And make my body just as strong as the armor? No, a bit stronger, since it's added on top of my body's durability?

  So... It's basically a Skill purely for the sake of appearance? So I can get away with not wearing a helmet or something like that? I get a damn Rare Skill and its cosmetic!?

  No, wait! It's actually a centimeter thick, so as long as the armor I'm wearing isn't thicker than that, which would be impossible to carry, my body should be stronger than the armor.

  But then again, my Skin would have to stay elastic or I wouldn't be able to move any more, so wouldn't I still get a bunch of bruises? Then again, the elasticity would essentially prevent an attack from breaking through the skin, different from the armor that might get pierced...

  Urgh... even with the bruises, it sounds like using as much of this effect as possible would be optimal.

  But for that I would essentially need armor that only covers half of my body. Where would I even get... something... Damn it!

  It wouldn't just be easy, she knew exactly where to get an armor that fit that description perfectly...

  Moving on! Let's hope this last one isn't as much of a flop.

  =====

  Equipment swap (uncommon)

  Very quickly swap your equipment at the cost of 100 Skill internal energy.

  Maximum Skill internal energy is equal to Effective Charm.

  The internal energy recovers at a rate of 1% per minute.

  Current Energy:

  240/240

  =====

  The hell is this supposed to mean? Swap my equipment? What equipment? And with what? I mean, it probably means other equipment, but where would that even come from... I don't know, this feels kind of... incomplete? Or is there some kind of storage function we simply don't have yet?

  And why does this Skills energy only scale with Charm? I mean, all my Skills seem to be centered around the Stat, so it does make sense. But the previous Skill also got energy from Vitality and Endurance... Then again, which other Stat would make sense for a Skill like this?

  Maybe I should just try it? Worst thing that can happen seems to be nothing. And if there is something bad that happens when you try to dry-fire a Skill, it would be better to test right now where it's relatively safe.

  Then, let's see if I can't get this to work without saying it out loud too.

  [Equipment swap]!

  At that moment, two things happened.

  First, Kiki got a message from the System.

  =====

  No connected inventory found!

  Swapping equipment.

  =====

  And second?

  "Uuuuuiiiff!" a strangled groaned escaped her throat as she felt like someone just kicked her in the nuts. And wasn't that a very strange feeling to have?

  *****

  "So. Rapidly growing testicles while wearing way too tight panties feels like a kick in the nuts. Noted." She said drily as she tried her absolutely best NOT to freak out completely.

  It had taken her a while to convince the two men that she was fine, despite the clear pain she was in. Of course, at that moment she wasn't sure if she was actually fine or not, but as well as she knew the two security guards, she had no intention of sharing any of her crotch-related problems with them.

  So, after spending some time biting back the screams and convincing them to let her go to the bathroom on her own, she now found herself in the batch, alone and with her pants down. And a very different set of 'equipment' than she was supposed to have.

  "What the hell am I supposed to do now?" Kiki mumbled to herself.

  Wait! Can't I just…

  =====

  Equipment swap (uncommon)

  Very quickly swap your equipment at the cost of 100 Skill internal energy.

  Maximum Skill internal energy is equal to Effective Charm.

  The internal energy recovers at a rate of 1% per minute.

  Current Energy:

  151/240

  =====

  Phew! [Equipment swap]! Please and thank you!

  Pleasepleaseplease! Let this work!

  =====

  No connected inventory found!

  Swapping equipment.

  =====

  Again, a warmth spread through her crotch, and this time she got to watch the slightly disturbing sight of her new addition rapidly retracting back into her body, before getting replaced by a much more familiar piece of anatomy.

  She gave herself a quick feel, just to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be, before squeezing herself back into her underwear and pants.

  "Phew!" she sighed in relief, wiping some non-existent sweat from her forehead.

  "So it was THAT kind of Class... Luxuria damn it!"