Heath was pleased with the update to the Subskill, though he didn’t care much for the range limitation. Twenty-yards was not very far when he considered most of his illusion spells had a range of around forty-yards, though those also began with a similar range before he ranked them up several times.
“Alright, I think you got the hang of that one,” Stone said.
“Moving on to ‘Andante’?” Heath asked.
“Hold on now, we are not ready to move on just yet,” Stone said. “Being able to put your enemies to sleep is great. But what about your allies?”
Heath hummed in thought. “It would put my friends to sleep, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes, it would,” Stone said. “So, now that you have a song, you need to learn to target the magic effect. To aim it in a sense.”
“And how do I do that?” Heath asked, eager to learn.
“Sound moves in waves, yes?” Stone started.
Heath nodded.
“When you add MP to the music, it is carried along those waves and allows the effect to penetrate anyone hit by those waves. While you do not yet have the skill or level necessary to control sound waves, you can be taught to control the mana in those waves to a small extent,” Stone explained.
“Like aiming the mana at a single target?” Heath asked.
“Precisely,” Stone said.
“Okay, so how do we start?” Heath asked.
“Kimm, I need your help out here,” Stone yelled toward the curtain covered door.
Heath could hear the woman groan in annoyance.
“Really?” Kimm asked, emerging from the office area and back room of the bar. “You couldn’t have grabbed a couple of the idiots from outside?”
Stone just shrugged.
“Fine, whatever,” Kimm said. “Where do you want me?”
“Just stand up here next to me,” Stone instructed, motioning to the spot next to him.
Kimm didn’t immediately move to stand next to Stone. Instead, she went past both men and into the backstage area before reemerging with another stool. She snarked at Stone as she set the stool next to his and took a seat, “There, happy?”
“Very happy, thank you,” Stone replied with his own snark. “Now, Heath, play your song again, but do not add mana.”
Heath nodded and started to play again.
“Good, now I want you to start feeding mana to the music. As you add it to the music, try to push the mana in the direction of Kimm. If you do it correctly, you put her to sleep and not affect me,” Stone continued his instruction, patiently guiding Heath along.
You have learned the skill ‘Magical Music’
Magical Music
Level: 1
Experience: 0.00%
Skill Effect: You have a 10.00% chance to direct mana within music toward a maximum of two targets. Doubles mana cost of Instrument subskill.
Heath smiled at that. It was weak and would need a lot of improvement, but it was a start.
“Good work today,” Stone said. “Unfortunately, we have gone a little over time today.”
It was then Heath noticed the time. They had indeed gone over the one-hour a day he’d been allotted. It also explained Kimm’s glare. “Then I suppose I shall see the both of you tomorrow.”
“See you then,” Stone replied with a friendly smile and wave.
Class Quest Alert: Jack of All 2 (Thief/Bard/Illusionist Only) – Completed!
You have completed the first step in evolving your class into a Jack of All. Now it is time you learn how to use your weapon properly. Attend the Bard School for proper lessons on how to be a Bard. (Requires active title ‘The Bard’)
Reward: +50,000-Experience, Bard Training
Heath was then given another quest.
Class Quest Alert: Jack of All 3 (Thief/Bard/Illusionist Only)
You have found a Bard School that suits you and your training has begun. Continue with your lessons daily until you have unlocked all your Subskill effects. (Requires active title ‘The Bard’)
Reward: Experience, Bard Training
Do you accept this Quest?
Yes
No
Naturally, Heath accepted.
Chapter 17
A few quiet days were exactly what the doctor ordered. Following the mess of a battle through the Bazaar of Beasts, my friends and I were finally able to relax a little.
Olaf spent time working on his Blacksmithing skill while he had a willing trainer, someone he had met inside of the Bazaar. Eventually, he was given a quest to deliver some Javelins to the Meerkatmen Tribe, he dragged Micaela along with him. I was later informed, the Meerkatmen ran the local mining operation. After that, Olaf split his time between the Meerkatmen mines and the Blacksmithing trainer.
Meanwhile Micaela split her time between the mine and training Vision. I wasn’t sure what Micaela was doing to train Vision, but they spent every morning together, or I assumed they did. Micaela kind of just sat in her tent and Vision was out of sight, in the spirit plain or whatever. I hadn’t really seen any improvement in Vision’s skills yet, but I trusted that they were improving somehow.
Marie, Sooty, and Loral pretty much lived at the Hunter’s Union camp, spending their days on their professions. The trio of NPC’s were beloved by the Hunters for the free repairs of their equipment and the no longer creepy taxidermy.
Nahid had become Sooty’s shadow, learning everything she could from the Guerilla, from various ambush and trap tactics to scavenging and tracking. I felt a little bad about Nahid. When we returned from the mess with Leonidas, we found Nahid sitting in camp all by herself, looking rather bored until she saw us, then she looked immensely annoyed. In our rush to leave that morning, we had completely forgotten about the young Catgirl, a mistake I had no intention of making again.
When Harrison learned of the Meerkatmen mines from Olaf, I made sure he understood that farming ore for Marie was how I chose for him to pay me back for his armor. Meanwhile, his evenings were spent working with my friends and I, putting us through our paces. This resulted in several levels to my ‘Team Defense’ skill and it granted me a skill called ‘Team Offense’.
Team Defense
Level: 19
Experience: 4.15%
Skill Effect (Passive): While working in a group to protect a client and their goods or property, your team has a 10% chance to take 1.19% of damage against your client and their goods or property.
It was a minimal gain, but gains were gains. ‘Team Offense’ was a little more diverse, having effects for groups and single targets.
Team Offense
Level: 15
Experience: 67.44%
Skill Effect (Passive): While working in a group to attack a single target, your team has a 10% chance to deal an additional 1.15% damage.
Skill Effect (Passive): While working in a group to attack a group of targets, your team has a 1% chance to deal an additional 1.15% damage to a single target when one or more members of your team attack the same target.
Anyway, it proved to me that Harrison really knew what he was doing and built a little more trust between us.
Baby and Titan were gone every morning, off to explore the Bazaar and work on Titan’s Charisma stat, something that had been steadily climbing since the small Bearfae completed the ‘quest’ I gave him. Baby returned daily around noon to spend time with Rose. I had no idea what Titan was up to once separated from his fiancé, but I assumed he stayed in the Bazaar to continue working on his Charisma.
My mornings were spent sparring with Rose, trying to build up my physical stats. Rose’s primary stats were Endurance, Strength and Stamina and the best way for her to build up those stats was by fighting and swinging around her massive shields.
When the edge of one of those massive shields came speeding quickly toward my face, rather than take the hit, I moved forward, dropping to my knees and leaning back to slide forward, letting the shield pass harmlessly over me as Rose stepped past. I spun while I was low to the ground and
kicked out, striking the back of Rose’s knee, making her stumble a step. Having momentum on my side, I quickly stuck with the butt of my spear into Rose’s lower back. Which when combined with her stumble, sent her falling face first into the ground and landing roughly on top of one of her two shields.
“When did you learn to do that?” Rose complained as she slowly picked herself back up off the ground.
“I just made it up,” I said, offering Rose a hand up.
Rose accepted my offered hand and pulled herself back up. “It was a good move,” she added, then gave me a quick kiss, successfully distracting me.
I paid for the distraction when Rose stomped down on one of my feet. The weight of the mail armor adding to the impact, breaking my foot, and leaving behind an unpleasant ‘Crippled’ debuff. No longer able to support weight, Rose took further advantage by smacking me with one of her shields and knocking me on my backside. I would have complained but Rose chose then to straddle my chest and pin both of my arms.
“Looks like I have you at my mercy,” Rose teased, grinning wolfishly down at me.
“So you do, but now that you have me, what will you do with me?” I asked, matching her grin.
“Oh, I can think of a few things,” Rose said, leaning in and kissing me.
As distracting as that kiss was, I was still able to use my ‘Beginner Heal’ spell to repair the damage to my foot. More importantly, for as distracted as I was by the kiss, Rose was more so, as noted by the fact she had stopped pinning my arms.
I suddenly rolled, pulling her around and reversing our positions, this time I pinned her arms over her head, earning a playful glare.
“My, how the tables have turned,” I teased, leaning close but not kissing her. Rose tried to lift her head to meet my lips, but I pulled back a little, teasing her a little further.
“Stop teasing, and kiss me already,” Rose ordered, having lost patience with the teasing.
I kissed her, releasing her arms and just pulling her close.
“Ahem,” Baby’s voice interrupted rather loudly before we could go any further.
“Go away,” Rose mumbled, breaking the kiss for a moment.
“Nope, it’s already past noon,” Baby said. “We have plans Rosie, and Vision is waiting for Bye-bye to go hunting.”
Much as I would have loved to refuse to let Rose go at the moment, I knew it would be a mistake. So, with one last kiss, Rose and I broke apart and climbed back to our feet, both of us looking rather flushed but happy.
Hunting with Vision was how I spent my afternoons, which allowed Micaela to spend her afternoons focused on mining. After we turned in the quest for the Mfalme Lion, it opened up the Hunter’s Union to working with us. Well, not exactly working with us, but allowing us to hunt beast bounties, which was perfect for me as I had a ‘Thundering Lion Charm’ that still needed to be charged up, it was currently at 23/250. That meant in the last few days, I had only killed 23 beasts that were stronger than me. It also meant I still needed to kill another 227 beasts that were stronger than me. It was very lucky I had Vision to help as he could often spot the beasts I needed to fight and guide me right to them.
“Good hunting, Jack,” Rose said. “If you do well, I might just let you hunt me tonight,” she added teasingly.
Baby scoffed.
“Don’t you scoff at us. I was forced to listen to you and Titan for months, and believe me, you two were so much worse,” Rose chided her sister.
“You two have fun, I’ll see you tonight,” I said, shaking my head as the pair continued bickering as they walked away.
“Minion Number Two, are you finally ready?” Vision asked impatiently.
“Almost, give me a second,” I said, giving the Spirit Wolf a quick scratch behind his ears. Sparring with Rose over the last few days had gotten me in the habit of checking my system messages whenever we finished. In the last few days, my stats grew very quickly, most coming very close to the level 20 cap. Unfortunately, I knew I would see an immediate and drastic slowdown in my stat gains when they did. That said, my system messages today were a little . . . different from usual.
Training Results: +1-Strength, +2-Dexterity, +4-Endurance, +3-Stamina, +2-Charisma
They finally put in a summary. “Yes!” I cheered loudly, raising my arms in the air in triumph. I had only been asking for this option for two months and finally, here it was.
Congratulations! Base Dexterity of 200 reached. Acrobatics Rank II unlocked.
That second message caught me a little flat footed. Previously, my Acrobatics skill had reached level 100 and had an ‘N/A’ for its experience percentage. I thought that was it. That it wouldn’t get any better, not that it really needed to. It was still extremely overpowered already, increasing my chance to dodge by 50.00%. It made me really curious what the skill would do now.
Skill: Acrobatics
Rank: II
Level: 1
Experience: 9.14%
Description: Being able to move in combat is just as important as being able to attack or defend. Acrobatics increases your chance to avoid damage while remaining close to your target to continue fighting.
Skill Effect (Active): Reduces the chance of being hit by an opponent by 50%.
Skill Effect (Passive): Increases your Dexterity Experience Gain by 0.10%
Stamina Cost: -10-SP
It was very interesting, the changes to the skill were unexpected. First, I loved the increase to my Dexterity stat experience gain. Second, when the skill was active it added to my chance to dodge, and despite ranking up, there was no increase in my chance to Dodge, not that I needed it. Third, less good was the increased SP cost, double the cost of Rank I. And last, the skill message formatting had completely changed, now presenting the skill as more of a list than a table. It was a cleaner appearance, which I appreciated. A quick check of my other skills and spells showed the same kind of formatting change, but also got me curious.
Skill: Body Control
Rank: I
Level: 100
Experience: N/A
Description: Control of oneself is a necessary skill for any martial skill. Body Control is a step along that path and can be used to boost one’s physical attributes.
Subskills:
Sudden Boost
Control the Stamina within your body to provide a sudden +2-Strength boost to a muscle group of your choice for 5-seconds at a cost of -20-SP per boost.
Pacing
Reduce the SP cost of all skills by 2%
Amped Up
Control the Stamina within the body to provide a steady +2-Strength throughout the body for 5-seconds at the cost of -20-SP per boost.
Sprint
Control the Stamina within the body to increase running speed by 20% for 5-seconds at the cost of -20-SP per boost.
Jump
Control the Stamina within the body to increase your maximum jump height by 12.50-feet per boost at the cost of -100-SP per boost.
Recoil
Control the Stamina within your body to reinforce yourself and reduce all physical damage taken by 30.00% for 5-seconds at the cost of -500-SP per boost.
‘Body Control’ was also listed as having reached its maximum level or rather level 100 for Rank I. I wondered if it had a similar stat requirement. Perhaps for Strength, or Strength and Stamina, or some other combination? That made me eager to find out. Unfortunately, my stats were taunting me.
Level:
21
Experience:
38.88%
Class: Initiate Warrior Priest of Issara
HP (Health Points):
4,930/4,930
MP (Mana Points):
4,040/4,040
SP (Stamina Points):
3,090/3,090
Base
Total
Strength:
199
249
- Melee Damage Modifier
+199
+249
Dexterity:
200<
br />
260
- Melee Critical Strike Chance
26.00%
26.00%
- Hit Chance
73.00%
73.00%
- Dodge Chance
26.00%
26.00%
Endurance:
378
493
Stamina:
199
309
Intellect:
289
404
- Spell Critical Strike Chance
35.00%
35.00%
Wisdom:
181
226
Charisma:
302
317
Health Regeneration per 10-seconds:
247
247
Mana Regeneration per 10-seconds:
113
133
Stamina Regeneration per 10-seconds:
155
155
Holy Spell Damage Bonus:
202
529
Holy Spell Healing Bonus:
202
438
Carrying Capacity in Lbs.:
1,245
Once again, the format of the information had changed slightly, now showing me my base stats and then the total stats with any bonuses provided by my equipment or skills. As to the stats taunting me, both Strength and Stamina were sitting at a base of 199 each. That was just not fair bordering on cruel.
World Tree Online- the Endless Savanna- 3rd Dive Page 30