Unchosen Champion

Thick stands of unkempt canal grass, topped with distinctly feathery flowers, lined the water-filled culverts that separated the road from uninspired apartment blocks. The two-story buildings were united by unmanned and rusted gates, and shared unshaded parking spots. Cars partially filled the lots, visible to Coop whenever the breeze caused the overgrown grasses to lean the long blooms to the side. The vehicles looked like they belonged in a junkyard rather than having been commuter vehicles just a few months prior.

Coop was the only commuter these days, strolling down the middle of a road into the deteriorated suburban sprawl at the outer limits of Empress City. The sun burned the back of his neck, and heat rose from the cracked pavement beneath his feet, but he was totally distracted. His concentration was entirely on the current skill choices that awaited his decision.

The little vacation, trekking through the Everglades for spring break, had culminated in enough levels to bring him to his next skill choice, but level 250 had left him with a relatively uncertain dilemma. He had to decide which of four Abyssal Old Ones he wanted to pledge his current path to, each of which corresponded to an established element of his build. After eliminating more than half of the choices, he still had too many to choose from.

If the skills he would be offered for the foreseeable future would be defined by his current choice, he wanted to anticipate as much as possible, but he only had eldritch names and the impression their presence left on him to guide his decision. He reviewed the top contenders, treating the choice as seriously as when he had to choose a class with limited information, though this time all he had to go on were vibes and even less information.

Chaug-lith, the Faceless Inevitability - Revenant Class

Hauvian, the Cosmic Remembrance - Spectral Affinity

Ashevoth, the Hunger in the Mists - Path of the Mistwalker

Sethrak, the Deep Dweller - Mind Attribute

The Path of the Abyss hadn’t really begun yet. Apparently, there were several hoops for him to jump through before setting off, starting with gaining an affinity, and now an eldritch patron deity, but the prerequisites didn’t change how he envisioned paths. Before, he had likened them to the streets between blocks of skills, much like the real road he currently followed, with each intersection representing a choice of path, and the neighborhoods encompassing related classes. The street established by the Path of the Abyss just had multiple lanes. Coop thought that was simple enough for him to envision.

The concept behind the Abyss was broad enough to have room for several tracks. There was a large gulf between the vast void of space, and the depths of the ocean, or bottomless pits, overwhelming darkness, smothering silence, isolation, and even more ambiguous notions like moral despair, but they were all parts of the abyss, conceptually interconnected while potentially distinct.

Of the four Dedication options, the Old One that stood out the most was Sethrak, the Deep Dweller, since it wasn’t completely unfamiliar. When he used Inheritance of the Mists to defeat the Lich, the one that appeared was the Apparition of the Deep Dweller. Notably, it had granted him Mind-based abilities that were enough to overwhelm the fully powered up Undead Chosen. The fact that it was the representative of Coop’s primary attribute didn’t seem like a coincidence. The Deep Dweller had even been the impetus for putting him on the Path of the Abyss in the first place, transforming his active choices at the time by granting him its blessing.

Coop hadn’t forgotten the taste of power he had been granted. If Sethrak had only given him a small sample, the horrible entity had done a good job of making it enticing. He couldn’t deny the fact that he wanted to feel that power all the time.