by Dakota Krout
Joe sighed and ran his hand over his extra shiny head. It came away disgustingly greasy, and he winced at his own filth. Sorry, stomach. A shower and clean clothes needed to come first.
~ Chapter Two ~
Why in the world did it cost more to take a bath when filthy? You’d think that with a lowered charisma from being stinky, they would want you to be clean! Joe’s indignation vanished as he saw two people carrying the tub he had just used. They dumped the water, pouring mud, sweat, various bodily fluids, and blood that had all combined into a viscous slurry down the drain. Oh. That might be why. That had all been on him? The serious debuff was making more sense right now. Joe walked out of the bathhouse in his clean clothes, pleased by how much nicer everyone seemed.
People smiled and nodded as he walked by, and he returned the acknowledgments with a smile of his own. In the last week, news of the fallen Archmage had circulated the city such that when the Mage’s College had joined in the fight against the Wolfmen, Joe’s reputation with Ardania had slowly increased. It finally settled a thousand points higher than it had been, and he was seeing the benefits of having a reputation of ‘reluctantly friendly’. People were nice but didn’t go out of their way to do nice things for him, pretty much just common decency. Perfect. He stopped by a kiosk where they were selling skewers of meat and veggies, buying two and tearing into them.
Basic needs addressed, Joe walked over to the guild hall. Well, the rented army barracks that his guild lived in right now. He had not stopped by in a couple of days, so he was surprised to walk in on a bustling work crew stripping everything out of the building. Noticing the guild leader amongst them, Joe swung over to see what was going on. “Aten! Is the guild hall moving?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Aten replied distractedly, not actually looking over at Joe. “Careful with that! If that breaks, this whole place goes up in flames! Didn’t I tell you not to touch our alchemy equipment yet?”
The unfortunate guild member being yelled at looked down at a bubbling flask that seemed to be getting more unstable. He made a face as the liquid started to churn, and almost dropped the fragile container. Joe had walked over during this exchange and was close enough to take the flask away. He dropped it into his spatial ring, knowing that the distorted time in the ring would allow them to safely either dispose of it or get it back to the alchemist that was working on it. Aten wiped his forehead, removing an increasing nervous sweat. “Ah, Joe. Always a pleasure. Have you finally decided that you want to be guild leader? I would be happy to go on a training spree.”
“I could really go for not being responsible for a half-million dollar investment like this place,” Joe chuckled wryly. “I think I’ll leave it in your more than capable hands.”
“That’s all you think is invested in the guild? Oh, my naive friend,” Aten shook his head and grinned as he spoke. “To what do I owe the pleasure? I figured you were out trying to teach the Wolfmen to be friendly or some such.”
“Nah, just got caught up in research.”
“Learn anything useful? What sort of gains have you seen?”
Joe thought back on his week. “Well, I learned a lot of stuff that will be useful eventually but nothing extra special for the time being. In a week, I’ve gained zero experience but through my research and trial and error… a total of four intelligence, four wisdom, and two dexterity. Did you know that you gain wisdom faster when you make an unintended effect that is really destructive then promise to yourself that you won’t ever do that again?”
“That’s… yeah, I can see that.” Aten rolled his eyes. “Anything getting close to the level fifty threshold yet? Also, is that really the best method for improving your stats?”
“Mmm. Not really getting close to fifty. My intelligence is at thirty-seven, so I am getting closer, but I’m not quite there yet.” Joe admitted distractedly while looking over his status.
Name: Joe ‘The Chosen of Tatum’’ Class: Arch Cleric (Actual: Ritualist)
Profession: Scholar (Actual: Occultist)
Level: 9 Exp: 37,978 Exp to next level: 7,022
Hit Points: 70/70 (50+(20)*)
Mana: 814/814 (12.5 per point of intelligence, +100% from deity, -11% from mana manipulation)
Mana regen: 9.81/sec (.25 per point of wisdom, + 9% from Coalescence)
Stamina: 60/60 (50+(0)**+(10)***)
*10 points for each point in Constitution, once it has increased above 10.
**5 points for each point in Strength, once it has increased above 10.
***5 points for each point in Constitution, once it has increased above 10.
Characteristic: Raw score (Modifier)
Strength: 10 (1.1)
Dexterity: 12 (1.12)
Constitution: 12 (1.12)
Intelligence: 37 (1.37)
Wisdom: 36 (1.36)
Charisma: 15 (1.15)
Perception: 25 (1.25)
Luck: 15 (1.15)
Karmic Luck: +5
“Wait a moment, aren’t you level nine?” Aten asked with surprise lacing his voice. “I’m level nine and I only need to kill a rabbit or something to get to ten, but my strength, constitution, and dexterity are above fifty already.”
“Are you being serious right now?” Joe’s eyes were round and panicked. “That means… you have at least… four hundred and fifty health and over eight hundred stamina?”
“A bit more than that of each of those plus my bonuses from armor and weapons,” Aten confirmed proudly. “You are way behind the curve, buddy. These are stats that almost everyone at this level has, while you are still closer to the stats from a level… four? Maybe five? You need to take the time to grind your skills and do training for your stats. Have you asked for stat training from any of the professionals? You can do dexterity training over at the rogue area; they have a really good obstacle course. Talk to the guard if you want strength or constitution training, and… I don’t know, the library or Mage’s College for mental stats? The others that I know about are for certain classes only, like the rangers only teaching how to grind perception to their people.”
“I didn’t even know that was an option. I’ve just been trying to throw myself into my work, hoping that it would help me get stats…” Joe looked at the ground and grimaced. “I’m betting they have pretty good ways to make you gain stats, don’t they?”
“Yup, any stat below fifty can increase daily if you follow their training plan. The game usually only lets you do the work for an hour or two, depending on what your stats look like. It’s seriously grueling stuff but it can even help rank up your skills a lot faster too. My strength training was all about swinging around a copy of a Warhammer that weighed about three times as much as my standard one. The guys there helped me with my constitution at the same time, either tossing ice cold water on me, coals, or doing a bit of light bruising so that I would get used to fighting either Mages or fighters. Simple stuff, really.”
Joe felt a little sick. Doing that sort of training with his extra-high perception would be really nasty. He wasn’t adverse to a bit of pain, but… even a little pain was twenty-five percent more painful to him than a standard human. Maybe that would make the training more effective? “I might go ahead and stick with… the mental versions?”
“Heh. Thought you might,” Aten snorted at him. “Anyway, back to your question. The guild is moving. I’m not exactly sure where yet; that’s for our scouts to determine. Oh. Right. You haven’t stopped by in a few days. We got another Noble Guild quest from the palace. If you check your guild tab, you should be able to see the details.” Joe was intrigued, so he navigated through his character sheet and opened the quest Aten was talking about.
Guild quest: Base-ic operations. The King has decided that it is time to expand the Kingdom’s sphere of influence to its former glory! Do your part by freeing a village or town from whoever is controlling it and bring the village back under the banner of Ardania. After the area is secure, you can set up your headquarters by building,
buying, or capturing a building to use as your main guild house! Rewards: A permanent base of operations for your guild, increased reputation with Ardania. Failure: Increased rent, loss of reputation with Ardania.
“Oh, neat. So we are going to go take over a town?” Joe rubbed his bald head thoughtfully. “And we have not only permission but orders to do so?”
“We are, and we do.” Aten grinned excitedly. “I’ll let you know when we are going to be going; we plan to bring the entire guild. It’ll make travel interesting.”
“Great! I’m going to have to go find a stat trainer; my methods have hit a wall.” Joe sighed and began his journey to the Mage’s College. “See you later.”
~ Chapter Three ~
Joe strolled into the territory controlled by the Mages, the sunlight reflecting from his bald head, attracting attention from any Mages in the area. Excited conversations followed him as he walked, so he was very glad to get indoors and away from eyes that were filled with either hero worship or bitter anger. Their reaction to his presence mainly depended on how indoctrinated they had been in the manifesto of the ex-Archmage. Some people would never be happy with freedom when they had been trained to enjoy their position in life, especially when their position used to be one of power over others.
An unknown Mage was sitting and studying in the reception hall, so Joe went over, introduced himself politely, and asked for directions to an area where he could increase his stats. He was directed to a small room and, unexpectedly, found that Cel was waiting for him. “Hello there, Joe.”
“Cel! Good to see you, buddy. How have you been?” Joe replied brightly.
“Buddy? I wouldn’t go quite that far. While I owe you for freeing me from what would have essentially been slavery, you also used me against my will to power dark rituals as well as experimented on me with healing magic.” Cel’s face had darkened during his rant.
“Let’s focus on the freeing you from slavery aspect!” Joe beamed a brilliant smile at Cel, trying his best to ignore the rest. “What brings you here today?”
“Hmm.” Cel squinted his eyes at Joe and reluctantly decided to move on.
Skill increased: Speech (Novice II). Charisma +1! Convincing a person to like you when they are unsure if they should is a great way to climb the social ladder! You sweet talker! Maybe you should be using this skill on fewer men, unless…
Joe ignored the rest of the notification. The notices had been a bit abusive since he had messed up and gotten them set to ‘extra snarky’ by the AI controlling the game. Cel took a breath and answered Joe’s question, “Since I do feel that I owe you a tiny bit for your part in freeing us, I asked to be notified if you came in for any kind of training. I assumed you were going to come in for some spell training, but I agree that it is probably for the best that you increase your intelligence and wisdom.” The last few words were heavily inflected, leading Joe to believe that Cel may be trying to hint that he should stop doing stupid things.
“I agree completely!” Joe kept his smile fixed in place, pretending not to understand that Cel was being intentionally rude to him. “I was wondering if perhaps there was anything you have that will also increase perception or dexterity as well…? I need to grow as much as possible.”
Cel tapped the table where they had taken seats with one finger while he thought. “We do… but do you understand how stat training works?”
“Not particularly.”
“That’s fine.” Cel stood up and went over to a chalkboard. He wrote a simple division problem on the board. “You do understand basic math, I presume?”
“Indeed. Continue,” Joe affirmed grandly.
“Mhm. Well, you can only devote either one or two hours a day to a specific stat–based on which threshold you have passed–to raise it by one point. Otherwise, the system awards you points based on your actions in a seemingly random manner. Studying might give you a point to intelligence, maybe one to perception, or it might not give you anything at all. There is a theory that there are hidden percentage bars that fill with something like experience, and you get awarded points over time.”
“Hidden percentage bars, you say?” Joe’s fake smile turned into a real one. He would be having a conversation with Tatum, his deity, the Hidden god about this as soon as he could.
“Yes, please stop interrupting.” Cel wrote out ‘one divided by one’ on the board. “If you spend an hour devoting your time to raising a single stat, it should take one hour to raise it. This only works once per twenty-four hours. If you try to do multiple stats at once…“ He wrote out ‘two divided by one’ on the chalkboard.
“It will increase the amount of time you need to devote by a full hour. Two uninterrupted hours. So you can see that it is almost always more efficient to focus entirely on a single stat. If you tried to do all four of the stats you were asking about, it would take you four hours to see any results though all four would increase at the same time,” Cel finished his explanation and looked over. “All the time requirements double after the fifty point threshold, and the complexity of the training needs to increase significantly as well.”
“I see,” Joe thoughtfully went over this lecture for a long moment, “but you do have a training aid for multiple stats?”
“We do. Are you sure that you want to use one? You need to devote the required time to them completely until you finish, no breaks allowed or you have to start over.” Cel seemed to think poorly of Joe’s follow-through for some unknown reason.
“Yes please,” Joe solemnly intoned.
“Alright…” Cel sighed and rolled his eyes. “Do I even need to ask? Something that will increase perception, dexterity, intelligence, and wisdom all at once?”
“This is why we are best friends.” Joe put his arms out for a hug.
“...Get away from me.” Cel sidestepped the attempted ambush as Joe stood and came toward him. “Your funeral. One four-hour-long training session coming up.” He walked over to a cabinet in the room, pulling out something that looked like a Rubik’s Cube.
Cel looked at the block, rolled his eyes, and handed the cube to Joe. “This is the item you are looking for. Please note that it is covered in dust because no one enjoys four straight hours of intensive studying.”
“Neat.” Joe turned the cube over and over, trying to understand all of the details it contained. “How do I use it?”
“Have you used a basic puzzle cube? Nine squares on each side?” Cel waited until Joe nodded to continue. “Similar concept but with forty-nine squares on each side. Also, not only do you need to get all of the same colors on each side, but there are equations on each square as well. You need to determine the correct answers and line those up. Then you use the answers to the equations on that face as the input to solve the next side.”
“Good lord.” Joe looked at the item in disgust. “You need a college degree to even start!”
Cel finally cracked a smile. “Pretty accurate statement. That’s why it’s so dusty. People used to use it all the time because there is a rumor that completing the cube gave a special reward. We never found out if it was true.”
Joe looked down at the cube again, less apprehensively this time. “That’d be nice. Which side do I start with?”
“That’s part of the training. Figure it out.” Cel started to walk away. “You can take the cube with you; I’ll buy it for you as thanks for helping me remain a free Mage.”
“Thanks!”
“Oh, believe me, in this case, the pleasure is all mine. Good luck.” Cel went off to do other things as Joe started walking back to his warehouse. His rented property was a good halfway point between the College and the city’s library, which is where he would go next if this training didn’t pan out.
He opened the door, went to his desk, and got comfortable. Putting on the Spectacles of the Scholar to mitigate eye strain from reading the tiny writing, he got to work. Joe started reading each face of the squares, feeling entirely disheartened and full of dread as he foun
d that the questions were far too advanced for him. He thought about working to get all the colors grouped but knew it would be a waste unless he put them in order. He had to flip the square quite frequently during his search, but finally he found a blue square that he was fairly certain he could answer.
“What is the sum of all natural numbers below twenty that are divisible by three or five?” Joe pulled out some chalk and wrote directly on his desk. “Three plus five plus… should be… ninety-eight?” Joe looked over all of the numbers on the cube that were the same color. There was no ‘ninety-eight’ on any of them. Joe frowned.
“Did I do my math wrong…? No, it’s… oh! The question said below twenty! I included twenty. Let’s see, minus twenty, is there a ‘seventy-eight’? Yup, there it is.” As soon as he said it out loud, the two squares lit up a tiny bit, showing that they were completed and were supposed to be set together. Joe went on to the next problem and kept going until he got a sudden notification.
Characteristic point training completed! +1 to intelligence, wisdom, perception, and dexterity! These stats cannot be increased further by any means other than system rewards, study, or practice for twenty-four hours game time.
Joe looked at the notification, a bit startled. Had it already been four hours? He looked at the clock included on his character sheet. No, it had been… one hour. How…? His class! Yes! He looked at a small portion of the description for his class again, overjoyed that it even applied to this area.