by Dakota Krout
“Right.” Joe lost his train of thought, needing to restart. “We did great work, though. Getting the entire town on our side in three days was simply an impossible task, alright? Let me pay for a night out. I’ll get us all nice rooms at an inn; we can drink and get to know each other. You don’t have to come, but just so you know, I will be getting you three into the guild even if this whole town thing doesn’t work out.”
The others perked up instantly at the end of his impromptu speech. Each of them had been a tiny bit concerned that they had been doing so much work with so little to show for it. Having assured access to a Noble Guild–and the rare quests they were sure to get to take part in–made the last two days’ worth the effort. Everyone agreed to meet at the inn near the square in about two hours, so Joe went over to give a report to the guild.
As he arrived at the guild hall, he was impressed to see three covered wagons being loaded. They were massive affairs, wagons that stood twelve feet high and were wide enough that they must have trouble turning on the city streets. Aten wasn’t around; apparently, he was still in the process of choosing his specialization. He was due back the following morning before the caravan departed, so Joe left a report with a couple other ranked guild members and trudged back to the inn.
Sitting down at an empty table and ordering a drink, Joe found that he had a bit too much free time for his tastes. Deciding not to waste it, he pulled out his puzzle cube and began spinning the multitude of faces. He got a few in alignment and was even able to solve another riddle! At the end of an hour, he smiled as the now-familiar pop-up appeared.
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.
Perception has reached 30 points! Based on your attempts in the past to view the stats of friends and foes alike, you have gained a new skill: Scan (Novice I).
Skill: ‘Scan’ has acute affinity with the Ritualist class! ‘Scan’ has been upgraded to ‘Intrusive Scan’.
Intrusive Scan (Novice I): Stare deeply at a target, some would say in an almost loving manner. Those people would be wrong. As you attempt to analyze an enemy, your eyes allow you to view more than a typical scan. Effect: Over the course of five seconds, additional information about your target will appear. In the first second, you will see their name, class, and title. After two seconds, their highest stat will appear. At second number three, you will be able to see any ongoing effects that might be affecting them. No information will appear on the fourth, but after a full five seconds, any weak points your target has will appear as a red light in your vision. Time needed to scan will decrease only in higher tiers of this skill.
Use caution. After the first second, there is a 20% chance each second that your target will feel your eyes upon them. If they do, they are nearly guaranteed to feel uncomfortable or outright hostile. They will also know exactly where they are being watched from.
Joe felt conflicted. Why was it that his extra-useful skills all felt so… creepy? He could already imagine using this skill in the bar portion of the inn and some lady looking over and seeing a bald man in a robe staring at her unblinkingly. Heck, he could complete the creep effect by breathing heavily from low stamina. He rolled his eyes at his thoughts. On a positive note, this was an incredibly useful skill. It seemed to combine all of the abilities he would expect a politician, scout, and assassin to have into a handy–if somewhat odd–skill.
His reverie was interrupted by his new team entering the building. Joe waved them over and started a tab. Promising all of them a hangover cure, Joe bought all the drinks for the table. Sure, he was a thrifty man, but there were times in life that spending time getting to know someone really well simply cost a bit of coin.
It was a good night, and at one point, a red-faced Bard got onto a small stage in a corner and sang some karaoke. There wasn’t any equipment for it, but for once, no one threw anything at him; instead, the patrons cheered for him uproariously. He took an unsteady bow and stumbled back to the table. He sat down next to Alexis and put an arm around her, pulling her against him.
Alexis’s eyes got wide, and her face reddened. She looked uncomprehendingly at Bard as he leaned in for a kiss… “Hold it, hold it.” Joe put an arm in Bard’s way and waited a moment until Bard stopped trying to make out with the skin covering his elbow. “None of that while drunk. Cleanse!”
Joe had only dealt with the dehydration factor of drinking when using Cleanse in the past, so it was interesting to him how much the booze acted like a poison. It made sense when he thought about it, but for some reason, he hadn’t been expecting it. After a few long seconds, Bard was cleared of any effects the alcohol had on him, so Joe then turned and Cleansed Alexis. After doing so, he got up and went to the bathroom to give them a bit of privacy, as well as to… well, he had been drinking.
He came back to the table to see two smiling people leaning toward each other and talking animatedly while kissing intermittently. After a moment of confusion, Joe made them get out of his spot and turned to look at Bard and Alexis. “Who were they?”
“No idea, they just stumbled over and sat down,” Alexis told him while smiling shyly. Joe could just barely see that the two of them were holding hands under the table. Now that they weren’t making drunken decisions, Joe was happy for them. Knowing how shy Alexis could be, he didn’t mention anything out loud. He did give Bard a thumbs-up when she was looking at a different part of the room, though.
As the night wound to a close, Joe rented a few rooms and went back to the table to distribute keys. He paused and watched in silent wonder as Jaxon performed a trick for everyone, perfectly adjusting a pretzel and turning it into a breadstick. Amid the cheering, Joe shook his head and handed out the keys. Bard glanced over at Alexis and handed his back, giving Joe a broad wink. Joe rolled his eyes. He was happy for them, but he really hoped this budding relationship wouldn’t impact their teamwork. Or make one of them choose to save the other instead of him if there were a dangerous situation. Maybe he should put a stop… oh, they left?
Joe shrugged and went to his room, taking a luxurious and private bath. It was well past the time that he should be asleep, but he couldn’t stop himself from pulling out his notes and books about rituals. He read over them in a new light and saw ways of using them that had eluded him in the past. How had he ever thought this one was for combat? It was obviously an earth shaping ritual for creating the foundations for buildings. This one wasn’t a fancy way to attack at range, it was a… Joe sat up in bed and stared at the ritual he had previously deemed useless. This was a remote activation sequence!
He shook his head, furious at his previous narrow-mindedness. Joe felt the need to increase his knowledge and ability. He opened his character sheet and moved to the skills section. He was at rank nine of the Student rankings. He had been holding off on adding another point because he was worried that he had been pouring too many skill points into this category without exploring his other options. But now… Joe added a point to the skill and looked at the notification.
Skill increase failed! As this is your class ability, it is impossible at this time to increase it via skill points. You are a Student in the study of rituals, and the difference between a Student and a Journeyman is not a simple skill point. There is a qualitative difference, but one that has a simple explanation. Specialization is the road that leads a Student to Mastery.
Well, that was unexpected.
~ Chapter Seventeen ~
After sleeping in a clean, safe environment on a comfortable surface, you are well-rested! 10% skill and experience gained for four hours. 10% stamina and mana regeneration for six hours.
Joe awoke with a sour taste in his mouth. Shamelessly using his divine-given spell–Cleanse–he cleaned his mouth and whitened his teeth before sitting up in bed. He was still a bit disappointed, but now he had a clear goal in mind.
He had planned to specialize in the future, but it was an amorphous concept that he was ambivalent toward. Now his lack of motivation to reach level ten was actively impeding his progress in the game.
To that end… Joe opened his quests and looked over the various tasks he needed to complete. There was one that he had been holding onto for a while that he should have already completed, but he hadn’t wanted to use his skill points on. Joe debated with himself but then groaned and added seven points to his spell ‘Shadow Spike’.
Quest complete: Playing Your Fake Role II. You have learned the basics of spellslingers and walked their hallowed halls without retribution! Part of the reason Mages aren’t lashing out at you may have been from killing their leader in a spectacularly brutal fashion, but still, nice job! Reward: Exp: 1500. Intelligence +2. Skill point +1.
Quest gained: Playing Your Fake Role III. Set a new class as your public class. This quest will update based on your choice.
Joe looked over the gains, feeling cheerful. This had been a good way to wake up; he enjoyed opening his eyes to a huge boost in experience. He thought about setting another class so he could get the quest right away, but the only extra class he had access to right now was Jumplomancer; which had skills in the Master ranks already. He had a feeling that setting that as his next quest would be difficult though… it was sure to have great rewards…
Then he remembered that the skill he used to do the majority of damage had just reached beginner zero. He winced as he saw the new damage and mana requirement. Without any other skills impacting it, the spell would cost a full one hundred mana per cast. Not only that, but shadow spike would only be that cheap if he had his class set as a Mage. Otherwise, it would be five hundred mana per cast. He felt a bit sick to his stomach.
Quickly calculating his bonuses, he found that the spell would actually only cost seventy-two mana per cast if he were set as a Mage. That was a bit more feasible; he would get… oh hot dang, with all the intelligence increases in the last few days, he was up to eleven hundred and sixty-five mana! Back on track, Joe parsed out his options. If he used his Mage armor at full power, he would lose access to one hundred and fifteen mana. That meant that he would be able to cast shadow spike a grand total of… fourteen times. Not bad at all, actually.
Changing to his cleric class would reduce that to a grand total of two attacks, though and… he paused as a truly unpleasant thought crossed his mind. Would using Mage armor as a cleric cost five times more mana? He had to check, right now. Since he already had his character sheet open, it was the work of a moment to change his public class. Preparing for the worst, he activated Mage armor. Or, more accurately, he tried to. The skill seemed… slippery? Almost as though he were relearning how to use it. He pushed through the difficulty he was having, gaining a headache as his mana rapidly depleted.
He knew how to use this ability; why was he having trouble? Joe slowed down, analyzing and manipulating his mana usage more carefully. He compressed the mana that was billowing around him, shaping it and applying his knowledge of the skill. He had to stop and let his mana regenerate, but after ten minutes, he began again. He focused his willpower on making the skill work correctly, and after a few moments, it *snapped* into place. Joe was pleased but confused about the struggle he had just gone through. Then notifications began to appear in a swarm.
Skill gained: Divine Shell (Novice I). This skill is a staple for any cleric that wants to be able to walk outside city walls without an escort! So long as your chosen deity does not abandon you, you can use your mana to shield yourself from harmful spells and physical attacks. Effect: For every point of mana devoted to this spell, negate half a point of damage from primary sources of magic and one point from primary sources of physical damage. Increase conversion by .025n where ‘n’ equals skill level.
Extreme skill synergy detected! The skills ‘Mage Armor’ and ‘Divine Shell’ have similar effects. By paying one hundred gold, you can combine these two skills into one single skill. The level of the new skill will be the average of the original skills, and any remaining skill points (rounded up) will be returned as free skill points! If you do not have the necessary gold on hand, you may combine these skills at a later date or choose to have the money taken from your bank account. As this is the first time you have found two skills with extreme synergy, you have been informed as a courtesy. You will receive no further information on skill synergy from the system.
New system menu available! Congratulations! You have unlocked the ability to use ‘Soul Forging’! By meeting certain requirements, you can combine skills or even classes! Be careful, as combining skills with low synergy will lower the new skill’s efficacy.
“Now that… is an interesting development.” Joe opened the new tab in his menu, looking over the options. He currently had twenty-eight skills, but none of them offered any information on synergy with each other. He dragged two skills over to the ‘combine’ section, but all that appeared was an associated cost. Fiddling with the skills, he found that he could add as many as he wanted, but for each skill added the price doubled. Three skills? Two hundred gold. Four skills? Four hundred gold. He decided that unless he did proper research, he couldn’t risk the few abilities he had.
However, he knew for a fact that he had two skills with extreme synergy… and he was very curious. He placed Mage Armor and Divine Shell into the combination area, selected the option to pull the money from the bank, and confirmed that he wanted to combine these skills.
You are about to combine two skills: Mage Armor and Divine Shell. Are you sure? Yes / No.
Joe selected ‘yes’.
Are you sure you want to combine these skills? This is your last chance. After this point, you will need to relearn the skills from Novice level one! Yes / No.
Joe rolled his eyes and selected ‘yes’ once more. So what if he would need to relearn the skills, he knew how it was done now. As soon as he pressed the button, both of the skill names turned grey, and an icon of a cauldron appeared. Both skills dropped into the cauldron, and a notice appeared.
Time until skills have combined: 12 hours.
Title Gained: Never satisfied. By gaining access to the Soul Forge before specializing–as well as creating a new skill–you have proven your burning desire to improve! What style, what passion! What a disaster in the making! Still, there are benefits to forging ahead of the competition. Effect: Gain a permanent +5 to Wisdom. After creating ten skills or three classes, this title will turn into a skill which allows you to gauge skill synergy.
Caution! Nine of a possible ten titles have been gained!
Of course there was a timer until he could use his skills again. At least this process didn’t hurt, and… that title was amazing! Joe stood and prepared to start his day. He switched back to his Mage class, pouring mana into his Mage Armor… and got no effect. So he couldn’t use the skill while it was being combined? He opened his status once again. No, it seemed that the skill was unusable because he didn’t have it anymore. Alright, he would just do the same thing he did before and… how had he activated Mage armor last time? Pumping mana into the air around him, right?
Joe tried to remember exactly how to do it, but he just… couldn’t get the hang of it! He’d need to go back to the Mage’s College and buy the training again, he just knew it. With a frustrated growl he stood up to storm away, but he calmed himself with the knowledge that in twelve hours he wouldn’t need the skill anymore anyway. He opened his door and went in search of his team, finding them nursing cups of coffee in the dining area.
Jaxon had a dissatisfied expression on his face for the first time since they had met–excluding when he had gotten his neck broken by a bear–leading Joe to believe that he was feeling absolutely terrible. He went over and Cleansed the Monk’s hangover, and soon, a terrifying smile had returned to the man’s face.
“Are we all ready? The entire guild is moving to the town today; we should go be part of the fun,” Joe announced as they all finishe
d eating breakfast. They stepped out of the inn, and it was only a short distance to the town square, so they made idle conversation for a half hour before the first carriage of the convoy trundled toward them.
It took ten minutes of slowly moving through the narrow streets, but eventually, all three wagons were in the square, as well as most members of the guild. Aten noticed Joe and smiled, walking over to him with a wave. “Good to see you! Notice anything different?”
“About you, or the area in general?” Joe looked at him and didn’t see anything new, but before he opened his mouth he remembered his new skill. Activating Intrusive Scan, he stared intently at Aten. One second passed.
Name: Aten. Class: Guild Commander. Title: Noble Guild Master.
“Oh, a new class! Congrats!” Joe clapped Aten on the shoulder, wincing as his armor sparked and shocked him. “Ow! Jeez, warn a guy. How’s the class? Like it?”
Aten grinned and tapped his breastplate. “Sorry buddy, she has an enchantment to zap any attackers, so the sudden slap musta startled her. The class is amazing; it provides bonuses like you wouldn’t believe, and it’s augmented even further by being a Noble Guild.”
“Anything extra special?” Joe waggled an eyebrow at him, making Aten laugh.
“Well, ranking up let me double the amount of people that can be in the guild and gave me a once-weekly skill that lets me borrow the stats of all guild members in a certain range for a full minute. I tried it out when I first got it, and all of my stats jumped to over two hundred!” Aten’s eyes glinted as he spoke, obviously relishing the memory. “A bit of a downside to that, though… they lose their stats while I am using them. So I become super powerful, and they become weaker. This doesn’t debilitate them; it only drains them down to their nearest threshold.”
Joe gulped at that thought. His nearest threshold was ten for all of his stats. What would happen if he lost all of his intelligence and wisdom while a fight was going on? The conversation only reaffirmed his choice to get those stats above fifty. Right away. “That’s a really… cool skill; any idea when you’d need to use it?”