Second Skin- Fractures

by M Damon Baker

  “Ahh, no, it’s not like that,” she reassured me. “There is an open training ground like you’re thinking, but they also offer smaller, private areas to train in. We would be renting one of those.”

  “Sounds perfect,” I replied. “Would the private area be big enough for me to practice with my bow as well?

  “Perhaps,” Broda answered. “To be honest, I don’t know. I’ve never rented one of the private arenas. I’m not quite sure how big they are or if they can be used for archery, but we can ask.”

  “There are some larger ones where you can work with your bow,” Stel informed us. “We rented one with an old traveling companion once. They cost a bit more but should be suitable for your needs. I believe the targets are even resistant to magic, so it should be safe for you to practice your more... combustible talents.”

  “Thanks, that will be great,” I offered. “Perhaps you and Khorim should join us? We could all train together while we wait for Venna to return from reporting to the Abbott.”

  “A good plan,” Venna chimed in. “I can meet you at the training grounds when I am done.”

  We talked for a while and ironed out the details before heading back to our rooms. While it wasn’t terribly late, we were exhausted after traveling most of the morning just to get to the city, only to be chased and ambushed by the Bloody Hearts once we arrived. It was certainly more than enough activity for one day.

  33

  Once I retired to my room, I tossed most of my gear in a pile on the floor. Although I was dead tired, I knew that I had multiple notifications to sort through and also the coin purse and loot I had taken from Jorum’s body to deal with as well. So, I fell on the bed as I opened the UI and watched as the notifications started scrolling by.

  You have reached 20% proficiency in the Perception sub-skill, Identify Person. Proficiency gains slow after achieving 20% proficiency.

  Experience gained – You have gained 385 XP.

  Experience gained – You have gained 385 XP.

  Experience gained – You have gained 385 XP.

  Experience gained – You have gained 77 XP.

  . . .

  Experience gained – You have gained 77 XP.

  Experience gained – You have gained 32 XP.

  . . .

  Experience gained – You have gained 32 XP.

  Experience gained – You have gained 605 XP.

  Quest completed — You have completed the hidden quest End the Bloody Heart Threat. You have eliminated the ever-present threat of reprisal from the Bloody Hearts and have been rewarded 1100 XP. As a bonus, for your contribution in restoring the Bloody Hearts’ rightful leadership, you have been granted 275 bonus XP.

  You have gained a level! – You have earned sufficient experience to advance to level 10.

  You have gained five Attribute points. Three of your points have been automatically assigned to CON, WIS, and CHA. You may assign the remaining points to any two other Attributes as you see fit.

  For so long, I had been trying to either reach the relative safety of level ten or find some other way to be rid of the Bloody Heart menace threatening me. Then, in a single afternoon, I had achieved both of those milestones. I stared at the notification on my UI for a while, simply basking in my feelings of accomplishment and relief. Eventually, I placed my two Attribute points in Strength and Dexterity, skipping over Intelligence since I had already reached the XP boost limit that it offered. The window immediately closed, and a new prompt appeared–one I hadn’t seen before.

  You have reached level 10. It is now time for you to choose a Specialization. As a Warden, you may become either a Keeper, Protector, or Defiler. Your choice is permanent and must be made now.

  I had no idea what any of the choices meant, so I focused on each one and brought up its description.

  Keeper – Keepers follow the Guardian’s path, seeking their own place among Nature. After choosing to be a Keeper, you will be called by Nature itself to a specific location which you will then tend and protect from any harmful influence.

  Protector – The Protector is the righteous arm of Nature. As a Protector, you will set right that which is wrong and protect the innocent. The Protector’s path is not one to be taken lightly, as it will inevitably set you against powerful enemies.

  Defiler – The Defiler’s path is the road taken by twisted or disillusioned Wardens, those who have come to abhor the Nature they once sought to serve. Defilers use their Abilities to wreak havoc among the natural world, destroying all they formerly held sacred. They are the bitter enemies of Keepers.

  I was faced with a decision that was certain to have untold consequences for me going forward, so I spent a great deal of time considering the options.

  Keeper sounded very Druid-like, and it didn’t really appeal to me. Besides that, I didn’t much like the idea of being tied to a particular place. The world was too big, and I really wanted to see much more of it before I settled down.

  By the same token, Defiler just sounded like being a total asshole. The idea of running around slashing down forests, poisoning rivers, or whatever Defilers did to destroy nature definitely wasn’t for me either.

  But Protector practically called to me. I was already on a personal mission to take out every single raping bastard I could find, so choosing Protector as my Specialization seemed like a perfect fit.

  After a bare moment of hesitation, I selected Protector and the screen dissolved into another new prompt.

  The choice of Specialization grants a one-time bonus Ability. As a Protector, you have been granted the Protector Ability, See Truth.

  I had no idea what that Ability was, but finding out would have to wait because as the window closed, my level-up prompts continued.

  You can now choose a new Ability. You must choose one of the following:

  Rapid Fire — After firing an arrow, your follow-up shot takes half as long as normal to be fired. Cost — 10 Endurance.

  Seeker – Your next single shot has an increased chance to hit. Cost – 10 Endurance.

  Body Blow – Your next dagger attack, if it lands, will cause your opponent to suffer an Endurance penalty. Cost — 20 Aura.

  Impale – Your dagger inflicts a damage-over-time bleed effect. Cost – 20 Endurance.

  Focused Fire – Your next arrow causes increased damage if it hits. Cost – 20 Endurance.

  Long Range Shot – Increase the effective range of your bow. Cost – 30 Aura.

  Achilles Strike – Cripple your target with a slash of your bladed weapon. Cost – 30 Endurance.

  Your choice is final and must be made now. Choose wisely, as you will now only gain a new Ability every five levels.

  That last bit of news came as quite a shock to me. But after a while, I realized that the sheer number of Abilities might get a bit out of hand if I kept gaining them automatically every time I levelled. So, after I examined the list closely, I began working on my decision.

  I wasn’t that impressed with Achilles Strike at first, and the rest of the Abilities were the ones I had already passed over in favor of others. Still, I had to make a choice. Then I remembered the mistake I had made in overlooking Hamstring because I already had Stun, so I decided to take Achilles Strike after all—having the physical debuff in addition to Hilt Bash would round out my melee skills and cover all the bases. When the window closed, I was surprised to see a prompt that I had not expected pop up in front of me.

  Having reached level 10, you can now choose a new Spell. You must choose one of the following:

  Muffle – May be cast on self or ally. Dampens sound in a radius around target. Cost – 20 Aura.

  Detect Life – Casting this spell allows you to detect the essence of nearby living creatures. Cost – 20 Aura.

  Restore Health — May be cast on self or ally. Heals a small amount of damage. Cost – 30 Aura.

  Silence – Surround target with an aura that cancels all sounds. Cost — 40 Aura.

  Stone Skin – May be cast on s
elf or ally. Hardens skin, increasing effective armor against attack or certain effects. Cost – 30 Aura

  Bolt — Release a Bolt of pure Lightning at your target(s). Cost – 40 Aura.

  Flare – Throw a ball of fire at your enemy, which may set combustible items ablaze. Cost — 40 Aura.

  Shard – Hurl Shard(s) of rock against your foes. Cost — 40 Aura.

  Spike – Launch Ice Spike(s), delivering bonus cold damage on a successful hit. Cost — 40 Aura.

  Your choice is final and must be made now. Choose wisely, as you will now only gain a new Spell every 10 levels.

  That was rather harsh—I had only been getting one every three levels as it was, and now I would have to wait until level 20 for my next Spell. Even though Warden was not a primarily spell-casting class, the restriction still chafed at me. I would definitely have to make this decision count, but those choices…

  Finally! Some real magic.

  Bolt, Flare, Shard, and Spike all promised to deliver true magical damage, and they were the sort of magic everyone’s mind imagined when they thought about casting spells. My only problem was choosing among them, and as usual, the brief descriptions in the level-up menu provided little real information.

  Flare seemed awesome—the absolute epitome of a magical spell, but I discarded it. If I needed fire, I already had my Elemental Arrow Spell.

  When I looked back and forth among the remaining Spells, I simply couldn’t make up my mind. Then, I seized upon a single word in the description for Bolt and made my decision. While it was only a guess, the word ‘target(s)’ made me think that the Spell might be able to hit multiple opponents. I imagined that such a powerful effect would probably only come at a high level of proficiency, but it was still the only thing I could see that gave any of the Spells an edge over the others. Once my selection was made, the level-up menu vanished, and when no further notifications popped up, I opened my newly updated sheet.

  Dreya Dae

  Human Female

  Level - 10

  27417/34200

  Health 190/190 Aura 420/420 Endurance 190/190

  Class – Warden – Wardens gain a 10% bonus to skills associated with nature or which have natural effects

  Specialization –

  Mastery –

  STR - 21

  CON - 19

  DEX - 22

  INT - 20

  WIS - 16

  CHA - 25(+1)

  Abilities

  Ignore Armor – Your next arrow will ignore a portion of the target’s armor. Cost – 20 Aura. – 25%

  Stun – Your next arrow has a chance to stun its target on hit. Cost – 20 Aura. – 23%

  Block – You may attempt to use your bow to parry a single melee attack. Cost — 20 Endurance. – 7%

  Swarm – Your next arrow duplicates itself in flight. Cost – 20 Endurance and 20 Aura. – 28%

  Flurry – Perform three rapid strikes with a bladed weapon. Cost – 30 Endurance. – 21%

  Parry – Chance for your blades to block next melee attack targeted at you. Cost — 20 Endurance. – 15%

  Hamstring – The next arrow fired has a chance to cripple your opponent. Cost — 20 Aura. – 16%

  Hilt Bash – Stun your opponent with a successful hilt strike from your bladed weapon. Cost – 30 Endurance. – 9%

  Blood Price – Your arrow inflicts a damage-over-time bleed effect. Cost – 30 Aura. – 17%

  Blind – Your next arrow has a chance to inflict blindness on a successful hit. Cost — 30 Aura. – 18%

  Achilles Strike – Cripple your target with a slash of your bladed weapon. Cost – 30 Endurance. – 1%

  Protector Abilities

  See Truth – Once per day the spoken words of your target become visible to you, allowing you to see the truth held within them. Strength and duration of this effect increase with proficiency. Cost — 60 Aura. Modifier – Wisdom. – 1%

  Spells

  Enhanced Sight – May be cast on self or ally. Improves visual acuity of the recipient in dark or obscured conditions. Cost — 20 Aura. – 27%

  Create Trap – Place a magical trap upon an area. Size, type, and trigger of traps is determined by your proficiency. Cost — 40 Aura. – 19%

  Elemental Arrow – Your next arrow is imbued with elemental energy and causes additional elemental damage accordingly. Cost — 30 Aura. – 14%

  Bolt – Release a Bolt of pure Lightning at your target(s). Cost – 40 Aura. – 1%

  Skills

  Bow – 30%

  Critical Hit – 28%

  Blades – 24%

  Short Sword – 24%

  Dagger – 21%

  Critical Hit – 21%

  Two-Handed – 21%

  Armor – 22%

  Medium Armor – 24%

  Perception – 28%

  Environmental – 28%

  Identify Enemy – 23%

  Identify Person – 20%

  Combat Dodge – 14%

  Subterfuge – 26%

  Stealth – 27%

  Find Trap – 5%

  Disarm Trap – 4%

  Set Trap – 10%

  Manipulation – 9%

  Persuade – 11%

  Barter – 11%

  Survival – 23%

  Tracking – 24%

  Identify Creature (Beasts) – 8%

  Skinning – 13%

  Field Dress – 12%

  Alchemy – 9%

  Herbalism – 14%

  Once I had an actual description for See Truth, I realized immediately what a powerful Ability it was, especially in light of my Protector Specialization. Being able to tell truth from lies would not only let me identify the guilty, but it might just as easily prevent me making the tragic error of taking an innocent life by mistake. I would definitely be working hard to increase my proficiency with that Ability. Oddly, the talent also had a note about a modifier, and none of my prior Abilities had anything like that. Unfortunately, focusing on the text brought up no additional information for me, so I could only assume that the Ability would scale somehow with my Wisdom stat. Once I closed the window, I turned to my final task of the evening.

  I opened Jorum’s coin purse and extended my fingers inside just enough for the magic of the pouch to inform me of its contents. Based on the amount of coin in the pouch, Lukas had not been mistaken about Jorum’s expensive gambling habits—apparently, he also only placed large bets, since the smallest denomination he carried were silver Bits, and his purse contained none of the Coppers that most people used to make their daily purchases. In total, the purse added 5 Talons, 23 Gold Bits, 52 Marks, and 27 silver Bits to my wealth.

  Once I dumped the coins into my own purse, I brought up my Inventory page. Not only to examine the items I had looted from Jorum but also to take a quick look at the gaudy pile of coins I possessed.

  INVENTORY

  Encumbrance 63/231

  Clothing

  Recurve Bow, (54)

  Fine Short Swords, (18)

  Daggers, Fine (3)

  Archer’s Circlet

  Fine Leather Chest Guard (10)

  Fine Leather Pauldrons (2)

  Fine Leather Tassets (4)

  Fine Leather Bracers (1)

  Fine Leather Armguards (1)

  Fine Leather Cuisse (1)

  Fine Leather Greaves (2)

  Fine Leather Boots (2)

  Fine Leather Gloves

  Hunter’s Cloak (2)

  Fine Padded Shirt (2)

  Fine Padded Pants (3)

  Minor Token of Grace

  Ring of Encumbrance

  Never Ending Quiver of Arrows

  Camp blade

  Belt pouch, common:

  15 weak health potions, 14 red crystals, 2 cure disease potions, 2 cure poison potions, 2 purple crystals

  Coin pouch, Soul Bound:

  9 Talons, 44 Gold Bits, 154 Silver Marks, 63 Silver Bits, 192 Coppers

  Backpack 50 slot, 70% weight reduction

  Once I got
over the shock of the ridiculous sum of money that was at my disposal, l realized that the loot I had taken from Jorum had automatically been deposited in my backpack. After focusing on my pack for a moment, the contents came up for me.

  In addition to the sundry items I carried there, there were a few new things that I did not recognize, which were obviously the items that I had looted from Jorum’s body. Some of it was clearly junk, and I discarded those immediately before I examined the few items that remained.

  Dagger, Fine (3)

  Dagger, Fine (3)

  Dagger, Unknown

  Ring, Unknown

  Token, Unknown

  The two fine-quality daggers were similar to my own, and I figured that I could sell them for a decent price. Knowing the evil that had probably been done with those blades, I certainly wasn’t going to be keeping them.

  All of the items labeled ‘Unknown’ had a faint blue glow surrounding them, something I had never seen before. My inability to identify the items, combined with their glowing aura led me to believe they were enchanted or otherwise magical. I realized that I would probably have to pay a pretty penny to have a merchant with the appropriate skill to identify them for me. Stel seemed to know the bazaar well, and I hoped that he would be able to suggest an honest one. I would have to ask him about that the next morning.

  I was about to put everything away and get myself ready for bed when something about the unidentified token beckoned to me, so I took it out of my backpack and examined the small carving more closely.

  The small token was masterfully worked—intricate strands of dark green stone were carved into the shape of meandering ivy and it was polished to a smooth finish. Something about the small item drew me in, and I couldn’t help but feel an immediate affinity for the little masterpiece. A sudden impulse came over me, from where I could not say, and I pulled off the leather thong from around my neck.

  I placed the carved ivy next to my Token of Grace, and the two pieces suddenly began vibrating gently in my hands. A faint blue glow, formerly only visible while the token was in my backpack, surrounded both pieces. I felt the two carvings gently pulling towards each other in my hands, softly at first, but then slowly growing stronger and more insistent. As they guided my hands together, the two pieces connected with a soft ‘click.’