With not a lot else to do, I started going through my stats sheet to first check to see if there was a menu to see how extensive the damage was. There wasn’t, and a brief look at the store showed a ‘health tracker’ for several hundred thousand. Pass. Then I went through the arduous process of reorganizing my screen finally. It’d gotten a little out of hand, and I started with alphabetically. It asked which alphabet and I just went with the default option.
It made the whole thing easier to look through, but was still a mess. It was better though, so I was letting it be. I then started to go through my notifications. There were a lot of skill upgrades and a surprising amount of class experience. Which didn’t make sense, but I wasn’t going to argue.
Summary of On Hold Notifications and Changes
Assessment Tier 1, Rank 9 to Tier 2, Rank 1
Fire Manipulation Tier 0, Rank 1 to Tier 0, Rank 4
Freerunning Tier 0, Rank 3 to Tier 1, Rank 1
Sprinting Tier 0, Rank 3 to Tier 1, Rank 2
Traction Tier 0, Rank 1 to Tier 1, Rank 6
Wind Manipulation Tier 0, Rank 1 to Tier 0, Rank 4
Heal Spell Tier 0, Rank 4 to Tier 1, Rank 3
Stats from Skills
+3 Insight
+2 Agility
+1 Dexterity
+1 Endurance
Assessment
The ability to discern specific elements about people and things. However, effort is needed by the individual to understand what they are assessing, otherwise it is meaningless.
Tier 0: You have a vague idea of what people are thinking, though only the most obvious of things will get through that thick skull of yours. It is now easier to parse a person’s emotional state and validity of their statements by a minor amount.
Tier 1: You have a slightly better understanding of people, and are able to pick up anomalous animal behavior in creatures you have interacted with at least twice.
Tier 2: You have a basic idea of the strength of a person or creature when compared to yourself and can pull up a window that gives a summary of observed behaviors, abilities, and skills with approximate tiers and ranks from observation. Observation is done autonomously and compiled on request.
Freerunning
You are adept at running through obstacles at speed. Combines a variety of movement techniques to make running, jumping, climbing, and sliding easier. Requires 25 Agility and 15 Strength. Requires Sprint, Climbing, Running, or another movement related skill.
Tier 0: The skill helps you pick out different routes and obstacles that can be used to not only move through an environment, but sometimes move faster.
Tier 1: You are able to maneuver along vertical surfaces below 90 degrees in angle easier and are able to reliably jump once after a short climb.
Sprint
You have decided that it’s a good idea to be able to run quickly in one direction. Just be sure you don’t become fast food. Requires 15 Agility.
Tier 0: You can run in a straight line quickly.
Tier 1: Agility now directly effects how fast you can run. Speed will increase for a maximum of Endurance divided by 4 seconds at an increase of Agility divided by 4 times 10%.
Traction
Through unsteady walks in the forest or precarious walks along cliffs or rooftops, you somehow have a strange ability to keep your footing. Whether through expert control of your body, or good shoes. Requires Dexterity 25. Requires 100 hours of navigating difficult terrain.
Tier 0: You are less likely to fall due to slick surfaces or uneven terrain.
Tier 1: Based on Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance, you cannot be pushed or otherwise moved against your will so long as you have proper footing.
I cleared out the descriptions and noticed Heal hadn’t gotten on. I looked it over and didn’t have any options for it. I just assumed that meant it would just… heal better. I still didn’t know how spells worked.
What I did notice, after all the changes finally stopped, was my Agility had passed the 30 mark.
I checked on the traits.
Rhythm of the World
Your body is sync’d with the world around you. Every beat of your heart. Every breath you take. Your body can weave through the world to the music of life and to great effect. The Dance skill can be used in combat to improve your evasive maneuvers and even attack. Beware, in case your opponent changes the tempo.
Flight or Fight
In dangerous situations, sometimes you don’t have time to make a considered decision. In these instances, immediate action is better than freezing. For up to five minutes, your Agility stats will have it’s maximum effective amount doubled (it will not raise your stats). This comes with the usual bonuses of increased reaction time. Note: Time will not slow, you are speeding up.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
WARNING!: Due to the removal of safety restrictions, you will likely cause serious internal injuries to yourself. The higher the effective Agility, the greater the risk of damage. Injuries can include torn ligaments, rupturing internal organs, lack of oxygen to the brain, and death.
Whirlwind
You do not like to stand still, and especially in a fight. Enemies swing where you were, arrows miss by millimeters, and spells just can’t keep track. But you won’t dodge forever. As you move around the battlefield, you gain a stacking increase to any damage you would do. Damage will ramp up to a maximum of Agility time 10% over the course of a minute. Stopping for more than Agility divided by 10 seconds will negate the entire buff.
What the hell, these are all really good. Why were the mental stats so… mediocre? It wasn’t that the traits had been bad, just… not amazing. I had to wonder if the other physical stats would have anything like that. I looked at the stats that were so close to 30 and was very tempted to use my banked experience to level enough to cap them out.
These first, though. And the very first thing I wanted to check was if they were all in the shop. And they were… But not a single one was under eight digits. Flight or Fight was several billion, despite it only, potentially, doubling Agility. But then… I had a thought. I had yet to fully push my Agility stats. I knew logically that I was faster, stronger, and all that from the stats, but I hadn’t tested my limits yet.
The closest I’d come had been saving Zaion.
I looked over at the elf, who was sitting with his back against the wall watching the entrance. Deacon was off to the side, hat pulled down over his eyes. Based on the rise and fall of his chest, I wondered if he was sleeping, and if he could keep the spell up in his sleep. Elayne was outside, and had only come in once to check on me and Zaion.
“Is something the matter, Dani?” Zaion asked, turning to face me. His voice was low, but in the close space it was easy to hear him.
“Just… considering some options.” I said as an explanation.
“From your system, I imagine.” He said, nodding slowly. “You are fortunate to have such access.”
A sudden spike of adrenaline went through me as he said that. I didn’t think I’d been that obvious. “What do you mean?”
“I have observed you making a steady increase in ability over the past week. The tells of increased stats, despite you trying to hide them, are fairly obvious to anyone paying attention.” Zaion looked down at my legs that were still immobile. “And your legs were twitching despite you not healing yourself.”
I blinked, and then heard a quiet chuckle coming from Deacon. Not asleep I guess. “I really need to increase my deception skill or something. It’s been stuck at Tier 0 since I got it.”
“The fact that you have it so low fills me with joy, actually.” Zaion said with a soft smile. “So many have it as high as Tier 3 that it is often hard to trust.”
“Well, I might as well ask your opinions. Elayne’s too, if she’s listening.” I said in the direction of the entrance.
“I am.” She said, and I realized the only reason we were still here was the dark and not to sleep. Guess we all have high endurance. Does that actually help with needing less sleep?
I explained my choices to them, and I heard Elayne grumbling, but couldn’t make out what she said. Zaion asked a clarifying question about Agility, and I thumped my head against the dirt wall behind me. “I’ve got a breakdown of the actual Physical stats.” I explained what they were and gave a basic description of them.
Deacon had actually started paying attention. “How close are your other stats to hitting this effective maximum?”
“Five of them are within five points. I’ll need two levels to get there for Endurance, three for Perception, and four for Constitution if I don’t want to spend any free points. Dexterity needs one and Strength needs five.” I gave them the rundown.
Deacon let out an appreciative whistle. “I guess your mana stats are lower.”
“Power is at 21, but the others are 15.” I closed my eyes and sighed, “I spent the rest of my points getting Power to 21 to clear the ledge, but I probably didn’t need to.”
“No, you didn’t.” Elayne said from the entrance. “Both Deacon and I were there to help and I still had your rope.”
I waved my hand to dismiss her complaints, “Just goes to show a high intelligence doesn’t make me smart, right? Or insight or whatever."
“True.” She said, then stayed quiet for a few seconds. “So, what were you considering.”
I explained the traits I was offered. Zaion looked awestruck, but I noticed Deacon was more thoughtful. “What’re you thinking, Deacon?”
“Oh, I’m a little jealous you get to pick, but happy I got what I did. Rhythm of the World has saved my life a bunch of times.” He admitted. “What about you Elayne?”
“Whirlwind, though it didn’t mention anything about agility. Just said it dealt more damage.” Her voice sounded annoyed. “I’d have loved Flight or Fight though. Especially since I’ve gotten a few traits from my classes to mitigate internal bleeding.”
“I figured there’d be something like that.” I let out a long sigh and checked my inner ‘well’ of mana absentmindedly. It was about half full. “I’m surprised they’re random, though.”
Deacon shook his head, “They aren’t, or at least, people smarter than me think they’re tailored to the person.”
I looked at the options again. “I’ll be honest, I’m tempted to get Flight or Fight.” I left out the insane price in the shop. I didn’t need to get into that. “I’m worried about it killing me, though.”
“You’ll be fine.” I furrowed my brow as I looked at him and he mouthed the words Second Chance. “You can always heal yourself after using it.”
I blinked, eyes going a little wide after. “Huh.. I… hadn’t considered that.” It would be risky… but I could mitigate the risk. “I still need to push my Agility to the limit sometime…”
“I’ll make sure Grimoire treats it as a priority when you get back.” Deacon said and then tilted his hat back down. “Pick your trait and try and get a nap. We’re still deep in hostile lands.”
If so… why aren’t they attacking? I thought idly as I made my selection.
With that taken care of, I took a quick look at my full sheet.
Name: Danielle Rosecrest
Age: 17
Race: Human
Class: Royal Outdoorsman 5
Total Level: 36
Class EXP: 514/800
Experience Bank: 53,600/128,000
Unspent Attribute Points: 0
Statistics
Physical
Strength: 25
Dexterity: 29
Agility: 31
Endurance: 28
Constitution: 26
Mental
Intelligence: 46
Insight: 44
Charisma: 39
Perception: 27
Magic
Mana: 15
Mana Control: 15
Mana Power: 21
Skills
Assessment: Tier 2, Rank 1
Cheap Shot Tier 1, Rank 2
Dancing: Tier 1, Rank 8
Deception: Tier 0, Rank 3
Fire Manipulation: Tier 0, Rank 4
Freerunning: Tier 1, Rank 1
Light Armor: Tier 0, Rank 2
Mana Sense: Tier 3, Rank 14
Mathematics: Tier 2, Rank 13
Riding: Tier 0, Rank 2
Small Blades: Tier 0, Rank 2
Speed Reading: Tier 1, Rank 0
Sprinting: Tier 1, Rank 2
Staff Combat: Tier 1, Rank 2
Swords: Tier 1, Rank 2
Throwing: Tier 1, Rank 6
Tonfas: Tier 2, Rank 4
Traction: Tier 1, Rank 6
Two-Weapon Fighting: Tier 1, Rank 8
Wind Manipulation: Tier 0, Rank 4
Unarmed Combat Tier 2, Rank 3
Traits
Attentive Student
Aura of Authority (Disabled)
Backpacking
Experience Absorption
Experience Conversion
Extrinsic Mana Manipulation
Flight or Fight
Honor thy House
Intrinsic Mana Manipulation
Mana Conduit
Moderator’s Veil
Noble Birth
Noble Pursuits
Personal Library
Second Chance
Second Wind
Spatial Closet (Tier 1)
Treasury (36 EXP/Day)
Spells
Healing: Tier 1 Rank 3
Scan: Tier 0 Rank 3
Functions
Encyclopedia
Inventory
Map
Notes
Quests
After that.. I grimaced and cast Heal on myself again.
And got to feel as my nerves lit on fire. Figuratively. I passed out from the pain.
Which trait would you have picked?