by Daniel Annan
“So, what’s next? I plan to sleep for a bit, but seeing the good mood going round, I was thinking we could have a feast or something similar. Can we do that?” I asked Mira specifically.
“Well, yes. If we use money from the treasury, it should be doable, but a wasted expenditure in my candid opinion,” She answered idly, not making eye contact.
“Don’t worry, we all make mistakes as we grow. Let’s call this our first mistake, eh?” I replied with a wicked grin, which my toothy companion mirrors instantly.
Mira gave us both an even stare that despite its neutrality, spoke of disgust and disdain. I made a calming gesture and signaled to Clarent’s ‘backpack’ which was essentially a big cloth stuffed with loot and coin. Thanks to his high strength stat, carrying something like that was only a visual problem.
“We got some loot from our little party in the forest. How does five hundred gold sound for the feast?” I said, grabbing the yellow coins and dropping them at Mira’s feet with a dirty leer.
For her part, her ears only twitched once before straightening. “That should cover the costs for over three hundred and fifty people, yes,” she affirmed with a sigh of defeat.
“Alright, let’s get this party started!!!” Clarent and I gave a bro first, laughing as we rubbed our hands together in anticipation. Today was gonna be one hell of a day, and I was definitely enjoying it to the fullest, no matter what. After getting stabbed by that C-list villain, I felt I deserved to spoil myself a little. And why not? I was rich!
“My lord, the party will need a few hours to be arranged. Cooks need to prepare meals, notices to be given, work to be finished or put in a proper state of arrest and much more,” the spiteful Rabbit answered. She must really hate parties!
“Well, how long will it take then?” I asked with a little bit of exasperation. Talk about a mood killer.
“Approximately twelve hours, My Lord. That should translate to 10pm this evening.”
Wait, what? “You also measure time in AM and PM?” Wasn’t that a lot more modern than these folk should have? I mean, IO was styled after every MMO’s typical setting: The Medieval age. In the medieval age, they didn’t even have the minute as a part of measurement of time. They usually counted time in hours and used the sun’s position or something like that. I learned that during one of my google fueled ‘intellectual debates’ with Keith.
Mira and Clarent gave me that eye which told me I had said something that even an infant of this realm was aware of. Realizing that there was no point in hearing my idiocy explained, I waved off the coming elaboration, opting to walk into the town hall proper.
My companion and my advisor silently followed me, creating an awkward silence as we walked that was punctuated by the sound of our footfalls on the concrete. Walking through the corridors, I took a few turns that should lead to my bedroom. I clicked my tongue when the corridor I expected to lead to my chambers ended up putting me almost in front an unfamiliar set of double doors.
Walking stately up to the door, I thrust my hand out, grabbing the handle to push it open.
“My Lord, I don’t think you should...” Mira started, but never got to finish.
Instead of my master bedroom, I was greeted with the blessed sight of women bathing. Women of different colors, sizes and beliefs, yet all of them united this day to shout one word.
“Pervert!”
That word was accompanied by lobs of whatever items were nearby. Some were as mild as fruits – who takes fruits to the bath? Rich bourgeoisie women that’s who – while some were life threatening. An example would be a dagger that was hurtling – with frankly startling accuracy – towards my face. With my high speed stat and counterattack sub-skill, it was easy enough for me to arrest the offending material from the air. As such, my focus was stolen as a bound book hit its mark with full force – my nibbly bits. With a single ‘oof’, I fell to the ground, uncomprehending.
__________________
Well done! You have learned the sub-skill ‘peeking’
The only way to learn this skill would be to be caught peeking. Filthy pervert.
Note: This is a sub-skill of perception. That doesn’t make you any less despicable.
“I have no words for a pervert like you Jax.”
__________________
__________________
You have gained a skill level!
Peeking has reached level 1
1% chance not to be caught peeking.
__________________
The prompt was an insult to a very literal injury. One that saw darkness creep from the edges of my vision as I slowly blacked out from the pain.
Chapter 8
Political discourse
“Urggh…” I moaned as I slowly came to consciousness. My hands moved down to my important parts immediately, making sure the mighty thruster was still attached and functioning. Seeing that it was as a matter of fact, still operational, I opened my eyes and looked about my surroundings to see a well-lit master bedroom with extravagant furnishings. It must’ve been a few hours since I was knocked out by the low blow. At least, I could say that I had a reasonably good night’s sleep.
“Fei, where are you?” I asked the ambient area.
“Right here, master. I hope you’re feeling better. I was quite terrified when you suddenly fell over,” came her high pitched voice from the top of my chest.
She slowly walked across my torso, stopping when she reached my chin. Sitting down on it, she flicked my lower lip, which tickled more than it hurt.
“Really, you should think before you act Master. One day you’ll end up walking into a lion’s den!” She admonished.
“I think I already did that. How long have I been out?” I asked her, my eyes struggling to focus due to her size and proximity.
“About 8 hours, I think. There’s still time to attend the party if you’re worried,” she answered, lifting off my face and flying away.
Rising from my bed, I shook off my residual grogginess and noted that I’d been stripped down to the bone. Admiring the almost flawless copy of my birthday suit to the game, I searched around for my clothes. I saw them in a chair set near a desk on the right side.
Picking it up, I realized the damage had been repaired completely and the black blood cleaned out. I doubted anything could have fixed such a gaping hole this perfectly, nor restored the original color of the attire to such a degree. I guessed the Invulnerability of the items came into play? I could understand the logic.
If the attire were to repair as soon as it were breached, it would form an active part of my defense, making my clothes virtually impenetrable. But by allowing the attire to restore itself over time, it allowed assailants who had breached the attire to make use of the same gap in a follow up. While this may sound like a bummer, it at least told me that if any other players gained boons as good as my own, they’d suffer from this too.
Donning my Lordly gambit, I walked out of my room to see an agitated Dragon Knight pacing in front of my door. Upon sighting me, he quickly rushed over and spoke quickly – which was uncharacteristic to say the least.
“Great, you’re awake. I was hoping to summon my soul familiar after the party and wanted to know if you’d be okay with that?” He asked earnestly.
“Sure, I have no problem. I wondered why you didn’t summon it before we left however, but I assumed you had your reasons,” I replied, a little subdued by his intensity.
“It’s because soul familiars take on the level and certain traits of their summoner. What am I saying, you have one yourself, so you should know. The difference is that at my level, I should summon a Dragonling instead of a full Dragon which most other Dragonkin get. The reason this is a boon is because I can direct the path my familiar will take from an early stage – instead of getting whatever I have to like most others. The typical level for Dragonkin who manage to gain the ability is level 65, which is not easy to reach.”
His explanation raised more questions than they
answered. Level 65? The level cap for heroes and classes in IO had always been 50. I have never heard of a hero going above that level. And from the way Clarent was talking, this wasn’t something we could attribute to my Seamless ability. This was apparently a game mechanic.
“That’s excellent then. I’ll be around when you start the summons, just call out to me in dragon tongue,” I told him, placing my hand on his shoulder. “Where will you perform the summoning?”
He thought for a second and as if a lightbulb flicked on above his head, he snapped his fingers. “The courtyard! Behind the townhall is a wide courtyard with paved ground and no obstacles. It should give me a lot of space to work with!” He exclaimed with visible excitement.
“Great, great. Thanks. Gotta go prepare. Sometimes, summonings can go… weird. It’s like a lottery and sometimes, you can draw something you never expected,” He stated, rushing off before I could change my mind.
Well, as long as his familiar didn’t raze the town to the ground, we should be relatively fine. Probably. Whatever the case, we could probably subdue it before things got extremely out of hand.
Master, where are we headed?
No particular spot. I guess there’s time to roam a bit and get a feel for our home, eh?
Uh sure. I’ll be sleeping on top of your head if you need me.
I felt the comfortable weight of my tiny familiar dive on top my scalp, parting my hair to make her own nest. Rolling my eyes at her exaggerated sigh of contentment, I opened my character page.
Name: Jax
Age: 21
Title: Lord
Liege: Queen Erea
Alignment: Neutral
Class: Hero
Level: 15
Exp: 2500, 5000 to next level
HP: 360 MP: 340 SP: 350
Strength: 30
Speed: 29
Intelligence: 30
Endurance: 30
Charisma: 27
Defense: 30
Luck: 28
AP points: 90 SP points: 18
Primary Characteristics:
Blessing of Vena
Burst
Seamless
Secondary Characteristics:
Fire breath level 1
Minor scaly hide level 1
Mental connection level 2
Dragon tongue
Minor Blessing of Fire
Goblin Bane level 1
On Glory’s Wings level 1
Skills:
Construction level 8, 35% to next level
Perception level 4, 7% to next level
Examine level 4, 78% to next level
Fire magic level 6, 80% to next level
Swords level 10, 70% to next level
Air magic level 4, 27% to next level
Restoration magic level 1, 23% to next level
Water magic level 2, 27% to next level
Sneak level 6, 90% to next level
Light armor level 7, 29% to next level
Mining level 1, 10% to next level
Woodworking level 1, 10% to next level
Stonecutting level 1, 10% to next level
Sub skills:
Backstab level 4, 0% to next level
Execution level 3, 0% to next level
Massage level 1, 60% to next level
Counterattack level 9, 99% to next level
Peeking level 1, 10% to next level
Description:
Humans are the most prominent race in the realm, with a great aptitude to all fields they endeavor in. Eventually becoming the most populous, humankind has yet to reach its full potential.
With a whole 90 points to distribute, I realized that having more points wasn’t exactly a good thing. It created the problem of deliberation and here, there was no hunchback shaman to pressure me into making a quick choice, so sections of my mind broke off and started debating on where to put what. The great psychological civil war of my mind ensued, with the sides fighting for Strength and Speed carrying the battle with their sheer power. In a surprise upset, the forces of Luck won the day by not fighting. They just watched as the other forces tore each other down, then planted their flag over their corpses. Brutal and efficient.
So far, my luck had played a pivotal role in anything and everything, so it was no surprise that I felt that stat needed a bump. I sent a strong twenty points into it. Next come the battle stats, Strength and Speed. These two played an important part in allowing me to own those greenies like the boss I was – though Clarent did most of everything. I divided 30 points equally between the two. As for the three survival stats, I remembered how desperate I was for some extra stamina back there. I shared another 30 points equally between the three. The final ten points I divvyed up between the two battle stats equally. Sorry Charisma, but those keynotes I held had given me enough lessons on the topic.
Shifting to the perks page, I first stroked my mental ego at the sight of 18 whole points. Delighted by the responding ‘purr’, I dived into the skill I had to skimp on earlier – Swords. I bought all the perks I left out before, “Swinger”, “Hack and Slash” and “Pinpoint”. They opened up to a wealth of new perks, all of them greyed out, meaning I could not see their details until I progressed further.
No worries. With 2 skill points per level, I’m not going to be running tight until I hit level 50 in this class. Then when I upgrade and start from level one in a new class, I’d get even more skill points!
Closing the Swords page, I moved to the Perception tab, which I also noticed had some excellent utility perks. Buying both “Hawk eyes” and “Clear view”, I felt my eyes sharpen slightly while some sort of film layered itself over my eyeball which felt weird, but did not hamper my sight in the least.
Skipping the Light Armor tab since I had already purchased all I could get, I roved to the Fire Magic section, in which I had only been able to purchase the starting perk “Beginner Fire”. I now looked at the three new paths and whistled in appreciation. “Quickfire casting” allowed me to cast all fire spells instantly, but cost two SP points. “Pyromancer” further increased my fire magic damage by 20%, increasing the chance to cause an organic explosion by 5%. “Dual cast” allowed me to overcharge a fire spell if I cast it from both my hands. The MP cost was tripled however. Seeing that Fire magic was my most potent field, given my minor blessing and OP Fire Breath spell, I bought all three, opening six new choices. Unfortunately, those were also blocked to me at this stage however.
With half my points remaining, I moved over to another very important tab, Sneak. Since I planned to go out and explore dungeons as well as cities – allowing my town to grow rapidly and save time – I definitely needed this skill to be at its very best. I opened the tab and bought the very first skill “Transparent” which made me 20% harder to detect regardless of terrain or lighting. Four new paths opened up from there as well. “Muffler” reduced the noise of my footfalls by 30%. “Second skin” reduced my armor penalty from 60% to 40% for all armor classes. “They see me rolling” gave me the ability to roll while crouched without breaking stealth at a penalty of 30% higher chance of detection. “Hide and sneak” gave me the ability to pause combat the moment I crouched, but my ability to remain undetected was dependent on my sneak skill. Seeing no reason not to, I bought them all.
With four points leftover, I decided to make my final purchases in the magic skills aside from fire, buying the first perk in each. Then the first perk in Construction, “Artisan” which allowed me to create my own blueprints for buildings and devices. I hoped this world was ready to enter the industrial age, because I was bringing my knowledge in here.
Satisfied with my purchases, I checked my page once again.
Name: Jax
Age: 21
Title: Lord
Liege: Queen Erea
Alignment: Neutral
Class: Hero
Level: 15
Exp: 2500, 5000 to next level
HP: 460 MP: 440 SP: 450
Streng
th: 50
Speed: 49
Intelligence: 40
Endurance: 40
Charisma: 27
Defense: 40
Luck: 48
AP points: 0 SP points: 0
Primary Characteristics:
Blessing of Vena
Burst
Seamless
Secondary Characteristics:
Fire breath level 1
Minor scaly hide level 1
Mental connection level 2
Dragon tongue
Minor Blessing of Fire
Goblin Bane level 1
On Glory’s Wings level 1
Skills:
Construction level 8, 35% to next level
Perception level 4, 17% to next level
Examine level 4, 78% to next level
Fire magic level 6, 80% to next level
Swords level 10, 90% to next level
Air magic level 4, 27% to next level
Restoration magic level 1, 23% to next level
Water magic level 2, 27% to next level
Sneak level 6, 90% to next level
Light armor level 7, 89% to next level
Mining level 1, 20% to next level
Woodworking level 1, 20% to next level
Stonecutting level 1, 20% to next level
Sub skills:
Backstab level 4, 0% to next level
Execution level 3, 0% to next level
Massage level 1, 60% to next level
Counterattack level 9, 99% to next level
Peeking level 1, 10% to next level
Description:
Humans are the most prominent race in the realm, with a great aptitude to all fields they endeavor in. Eventually becoming the most populous, humankind has yet to reach its full potential.
Satisfied with how everything looked so far, I closed my character page and accessed my equipment’s tab. It showed me a three dimensional image of my body with slots where equipped armor and items should go. One by one, I checked each piece of armor and equipment.
__________________