Delve

Chapter 6: Skill

It was the sight of Ameliah leaving that really hammered it all home for Rain. He was alone, isolated by language, culture, and time. Adrift in a sea of unfamiliar faces, unable to speak the language, struggling with his grasp on reality, Rain decided he needed a minute. He walked over to one of the rows of benches along the side of the room, sat down, and rested his head in his hands.

This really was quite a situation he had found himself in. In the left pocket of his pajama pants, he had half of a trail ration, his jaw not having been up to finishing his supper from the day before. In his right pocket, he had the little vial with a single crystal shard inside, no bigger than a grain of rice. Wrapped around the vial was the quest notice, the layer of paper adding some meager protection to the glass vial.

His plain white t-shirt was crumpled and he was barefoot. His messy brown hair was badly in need of a wash, preferably with some shampoo, and only the fact that many of the adventurers crowding the room smelled as bad or worse than he did kept him from dying of shame.

His unusual attire was getting him some stares from the other occupants of the room. Too overwhelmed to care, Rain stared right back, noting swords, shields, bows, axes, spears, staffs, and so forth. No guns, no plastic, nothing even remotely electronic. Just men and women, mostly dressed in shades of brown and green, mostly armed, and mostly dangerous looking. He watched them come and go, his stomach rumbling at his lack of breakfast, and his mouth dry. Sighing, he got up to look for the bathroom and something to drink.

Gus looked up from behind his counter as Rain rose from his seat, but made no move to stop him when he headed for one of the hallways leading off of the main room. Rain hadn't seen anything like a bathroom down the hallway to the bunk room, so he picked the other wing of the building and headed down the hallway. The hallway was dim in the morning light, only illuminated by the windows letting sunlight into the main room.

He found the bathroom, or just toilet he supposed, it not having anything remotely resembling a bath. It left much to be desired. He saw no way for him to wash his hands or even a mirror for him to tame his hair. He tried not to think about all the diseases he was probably acquiring as he walked to the toilet with his bare feet.

His business taken care of, he searched the small room. He noted that they did have something approaching toilet paper, but he didn't need that right now as it hadn't been that kind of business. The toilet had no flush obviously, and he felt no desire to look down the dark shaft. Thankfully, there was a heavy scent of pine in the air from some sort of greenery pinned to a wall, and, while primitive, the facility was clean enough. He still felt like he needed a shower though.

Exiting the bathroom, he suppressed a full body shudder at the thought of his unwashed hands, or, more accurately, the thought of everyone else's unwashed hands. Instead of heading back to the main room, he continued down the hall, following the sound of several people talking. Ignoring closed doors along the hallway, he came out into another large room which seemed to be some sort of restaurant or bar. There were tables strewn about, a bar, with no-one behind it at the moment, and a few people lounging around and talking. Nobody looked up as he came in.

Rain saw a man filling a mug with a ladle of water from a barrel near the bar. Trying not to think about where the man's hands had been, Rain grabbed a mug from the bar, filled it, and drank it down. He re-filled the mug, then made his way over to a table to sit and think.

Well, here I am. Time to think about priorities. Humm. Priority one, don't die. To that end, I need food. I have 1 Tel, but I don't know how much that is worth. I also have half of a nutritional brick, but I'd better save that for later if I am starving or I need to break a window. So then, priority two is food so I don't die and priority three is money so I can buy more food. I guess I could go out and search the city for food, but that isn't solving the larger problem. I'm a little hungry right now, but I have skipped breakfast before, so it can wait.

Fishing out the paper from his pocket, Rain looked at the picture of the slime and the little sword. They must make these this way so people can pick up quests quickly by scanning for the symbols. That, and probably some of these people can't read. Given the tech level, I wouldn’t expect schools to be a thing. Having the clerk explain the quest is a simple solution, at least for stuff like this. Anyway, I think that I can do this, killing five slimes doesn't sound so bad, as long as they come one at a time. Five Tel as a reward seems pretty good I guess, and that is in addition to the 5 that will drop from the slimes. I'd feel a lot better with 11 Tel than 1.

Retrieving the vial from his pocket, Rain shook it, looking at the little white crystal. So monsters drop these, or at least slimes do at any rate, and these adventurers use them as currency. Seems pretty inconvenient, but then again, I'm not sure what they are worth. It could be that 1 Tel buys me food for a month, though judging by how many were in the sack that woman had, somehow I doubt that.

Sitting up and slapping his face, Rain grabbed the vial and re-wrapped it in the paper before shoving it in his pocket. Well, I'm not going to get them just sitting here. I've spent plenty of time sulking about what I don't have, let's see what I do. Attributes. Statistics.

Attributes

Richmond Rain Stroudwater

Level 2

Experience: 100/200

Unclassed

Health

200

Stamina

200

Mana

200

Strength

10 (+)

Recovery

10 (+)

Endurance

10 (+)

Vigor

10 (+)

Focus

10 (+)

Clarity

10 (+)

Free Stat Points

30

Statistics

Total

Base

Modifier

Health

200

200

0 | 0%

H.Regen

100/day

100/day

0 | 0%

Stamina

200

200

0 | 0%

S.Regen

100/day

100/day

0 | 0%

Mana

200

200

0 | 0%

M.Regen

100/day

100/day

0 | 0%

Movement Speed

10

Perception

10

Resistances

Heat

Cold

Light

Dark

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

Force

Arcane

Mental

Chemical

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

30 free points, strength for offence, endurance for defense, focus for magic. Recovery stats for all three. Right now, I'm sitting at more or less full on health, stamina, and mana. Is 200 a lot? I think not. Should I put points in strength to get more health? How about recovery? Right now I am back to full in everything in two days. Ten points would mean I could recover to full every day. That seems better somehow, at least right now, but... No, let’s look at skills first. Skills.

Skills

-

Free Skill Points: 3

-

Utility Auras | Aura Metamagic | Offensive Auras | Defensive Auras | |

Three points, and hundreds of skills to pick from. Or even hundreds of skill trees. It wasn't like I reached the end of that list. Priority, heck, what was I up to? Well, if 4 is picking skills and 5 is stats, priority 6: customize these dang menus to be a bit easier to use. Anyway, I don't have time to dig through all of these and pick out the exact skills I want. I already found something that looks good with the auras, so let's have a look at those.

Offensive Auras

Tier 0

Immolate (0/10) (+)

7-8 heat (fcs) damage per second to entities and environment

Sufficient damage causes ignition

Range: 1 meter

Cost: 5 mp/s

Refrigerate (0/10) (+)

7-8 cold (fcs) damage per second to entities and environment

Sufficient damage causes slow

Range: 1 meter

Cost: 5 mp/s

Tier 1

Locked (Unlock - 100)

Those both seem pretty brutal. Range is a bit of a problem though.

Defensive Auras

Tier 0

Heat Ward (0/10) (+)

Increase heat resistance by 3.0% for all entities

Range: 1 meter

Cost: 1 mp/dmg mitigated

Cold Ward (0/10) (+)

Increase cold resistance by 3.0% for all entities

Range: 1 meter

Cost: 1 mp/dmg mitigated

Tier 1

Locked (Unlock - 100)

3% doesn't seem like much, but if I got it to level 10, I assume that would be 30%. These... kinda suck, at least right now. Maybe if I found some way to boost them?

Utility Auras

Tier 0

Purify (0/10) (+)

Purify poison, corruption, and contamination

Range: 1 meter

Cost: 10 mp/min

Spring (0/10) (+)

Multiply S.Regen by 110% for all entities

Range: 1 meter

Cost: 1 mp/hr

Summer (0/10) (+)

Multiply H.Regen by 110% for all entities

Range: 1 meter

Cost: 1 mp/hr

Winter (0/10) (+)

Multiply M.Regen by 110% for all entities

Range: 1 meter

Cost: 1 mp/hr

Tier 1

Locked (Unlock - 100)

There is purify. I want it so bad. Instant shower, laundry, and cleaning service all in one. Utility is damn right. The others don't look bad either. Humm, mana regen, but it costs mana. So if I get 100 mana a day right now, boosting that is 10 mana per day, which is less than, hang on, are days even 24 hours here? Wait, why is the range of everything in meters?

…

Just roll with it, I have a big enough headache already. Anyway, uses more mana than it restores for me, but for others it would be good. If I put a bunch of points in it maybe I'd break even eventually. These all could be good, but, I should probably take one of the offensive ones first. I'll be back for you purify.

Aura Metamagic

Tier 0

Amplify Aura (0/10) (+)

Multiply aura intensity by 110%

Multiply aura mana cost by 120%

Extend Aura (0/10) (+)

Extend aura range by 1 meter

Multiply aura mana cost by 120%

Tier 1

Locked (Unlock - 100)

Amplify is nice. So is extend. That could help with the range problem for immolate or refrigerate. Ok, time to make a decision. Is this what I want to focus on?

Rain sat and thought, paging through different trees to check a couple numbers. He noted a few other nice skills available at tier 0, most having higher damage than that listed on the auras on a per-mana or per-stamina basis, but something about the aura trees was speaking to him. What settled it was thinking about what he wanted to do after he was over this initial hurdle. In his past life, some of his best memories were going on adventures with his friends, both in real life and in games. If there was one sure way to make friends in a fantasy world, it was to play a class that was good for the party. Auras had that in spades.

I'm not just going to be some buff beacon though. This support will have some teeth!

Flicking to the offensive aura page, Rain debated briefly, then touched the Refrigerate skill. If he was going to be fighting slimes, he didn't want them detonating when they got near him. One meter was way too close for that to be a valid strategy. The skill ticked to 1/10 and the apply button appeared. He pressed it before he could change his mind. Closing out the menu, he stood, wanting to try out the skill before devoting more points to it.

Rain headed back towards the main room, intending to go outside to test his aura so he didn't bother anyone by giving them frostbite. He noticed that one of the doors on the way to the main guild hall was open that hadn't been before. Peering in as he passed, he noticed that the scarred man he had seen in the bunk room was swinging an axe at a wooden dummy. It seemed to be some sort of practice room. Rain smiled. Even better.

Entering the room, Rain walked over to a dummy near a window, as far from the man as possible so as to not disturb him. Getting within a meter of the dummy, Rain felt a bit silly, practically hugging it as he was. He set the feeling aside to try out his new skill.

Let's see here. Refrigerate.

Instead of a burst of cold, Rain noticed a small window appear in the bottom right of his vision. It was a square with the image of a snowflake. Ah, so that just selects the skill. How do I use it?

Rain concentrated on the image of the snowflake. He felt something at the edge of his awareness, like he was pushing at a barrier with his mind. Re-focusing his effort, Rain gasped as he broke through whatever membrane had been separating him from the skill. He felt cold rush through his veins and a burst of bluish white light shone from his skin as a circle of frost started to form on the ground below him. The dummy was quickly coated in a thin layer of icy crystals and Rain gasped at the feeling of mana flowing through him for the very first time. The frost stopped at a very short distance from him, and he stopped concentrating on the skill, seeing that his mana was quickly dropping.

Rain stepped back from the dummy and inspected it. The frost was already starting to melt, leaving a film of dew over the surface of the dummy and on the floor where he had been standing. Checking his mana, he saw that he was down about 10%.

Damn, that uses mana fast. I don't know how good this will be against a slime. Can I pulse it real fast so it only deals one tick? Is 8 damage a lot? I really don't want to hug a slime while I wait for it to turn into an ice cube.

Not bothering to step back up to the dummy, Rain concentrated on the snowflake again and tried to release a single pulse, pulling back as soon as he managed to break through the barrier. A wave of cold blasted out from him and he was happy to see that the decrease in his mana bar was hardly noticeable.

Nice. Now, the range. If I put another point in it, does the range increase, or do I need to put a point in extend aura?

Rain re-opened his skills menu, noting that the Refrigerate skill was now listed in the main panel, not just under the tabs. When he tried to put another point into it, however, he found that he couldn't. The skill showed (1/10), but there didn't seem to be a way to increase it. Looking at the skills screen, he noticed that in addition to the (1/10), the main panel now had a line saying 0/100 experience next to the skill.

Oh.

Ooooooh.

Skill points are just for unlocking! That changes things. How do I get experience? Practice? Using it in combat?

Rain caught himself musing and forcibly stopped himself. He would find out once it came up. For now, he needed to do something about that range. He flicked to the aura metamagic tab and added a point to extend aura and applied it. He decided to save the last point for later. His thought was to put it in purify, but he didn't want to do that now in case he needed it for a more combat ready skill.

As an afterthought, he pulled up the attributes menu, hesitated for a moment, then shrugged and dumped 10 points into clarity, bringing his regeneration up to 200/day.

This way, I can go out every day and use all my mana. I think I’m getting an idea for a build here. I need to check the math, but maybe...

Rain was smiling happily as he looked over his status, trying to keep his expectations realistic and failing, his mind wandering off into his own private fantasy of his future badassery.

Attributes

Richmond Rain Stroudwater

Level 2

Experience: 100/200

Unclassed

Health

200

Stamina

200

Mana

200

Strength

10 (+)

Recovery

10 (+)

Endurance

10 (+)

Vigor

10 (+)

Focus

10 (+)

Clarity

20 (+)

Free Stat Points

20

Statistics

Total

Base

Modifier

Health

200

200

0 | 0%

H.Regen

100/day

100/day

0 | 0%

Stamina

200

200

0 | 0%

S.Regen

100/day

100/day

0 | 0%

Mana

200

200

0 | 0%

M.Regen

200/day

200/day

0 | 0%

Movement Speed

10

Perception

10

Resistances

Heat

Cold

Light

Dark

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

Force

Arcane

Mental

Chemical

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

Skills

Refrigerate (1/10) Exp: 0/100

7-8 cold (fcs) damage per second to entities and environment

Sufficient damage causes slow

Range: 1 meter

Cost: 5 mp/s

Extend Aura (1/10) Exp: 0/100

Extend aura range by 1 meter

Multiply aura mana cost by 120%

Free Skill Points: 1