The Warden stood from the table and walked over to an oddly blank stretch of wall. Most of the forge was supported on large pillars, with wide gaps to let in the breeze. What few walls it had were covered in tools. Sam thought he could see at least a hundred different kinds of hammers scattered throughout the smithy.
Arther reached up and touched a small gemstone set into a bracket near the ceiling. “Turn on your tafla, and project it here, Sam,” he called, gesturing at the wall.
Sam blinked in surprise, but touched the bracelet and willed it to project into the other stone. The screen in front of him instantly repositioned, and he limped over to get a better look.
His tafla now took up the entire wall. It felt different to see all the information laid out in one place. His avatar A-posed awkwardly in the middle of the screen, and he noted that it seemed to have been updated to account for his missing finger.
Arther let out a low whistle, and Sam followed his gaze to the top corner of the screen where his updated spira was shown.
[Spira: 7,820]
Sam couldn't help but grin as he looked at the number. Arther's initial reaction to seeing it had been enough to know that he was starting out way ahead of the curve. By the same token—given his self-imposed constraints—he'd need as much of an advantage as he could muster if he had any chance of surviving to the next ring.
“Alright, let's see what your options are like in terms of skills,” Arther said, pointing to a new tab that had appeared at the top of the screen.
Sam cringed, realizing he’d completely missed it when he’d checked his tafla after the opening ceremony. He mentally selected the tab and almost fell over as the screen suddenly burst from the wall and transitioned into three dimensions.
He was staring at what appeared to be a constellation chart. Pulsating stars floated in space in front of him, each with slight variations in colour and vibrance. Small lines ran between them, and the further out they got from the central cluster, the duller they became, until they eventually faded completely.
“Alright,” Arther declared. “These are your skill charts. They're divided into three categories: [Martial Skills], [Enhancement Skills], and [Divine Skills]. For obvious reasons, we’ll be focusing entirely on the first two.”
He reached out and touched an arrow that hovered at the edge of the constellation, causing the stars to spin away, bringing in a new group of skills.
“We’ll start with [Enhancement Skills]. These skills impact the core functions of your body. Strength, speed, agility, perception, and even reaction time. All of these can be improved with skills.” He poked a star that sat at the center of the constellation.
[Basic Constitution - Iron - Common - Upgradeable]
Increases overall hardiness and resistance to physical attacks. Grants some resistance to poison, venom and disease.
[Cost: 1,000 Spira]
Sam quickly read the description, pleased that he could already afford the skill. His eyes were drawn to the title, remembering a question that had been nagging at him since he first saw his titles. “So what exactly are tiers, and how do I upgrade them?”
Arther scratched his beard and shook his head. “Normally, you would have learned this in the tutorial, but I'll try to explain it as best I can. By default, most skills and titles are upgradable. It basically means that however much spira you generate by using the skill, a percentage goes towards levelling it up. Say, for example, you have a tier one axe skill. The spira from every monster you defeat with an axe would go towards levelling the skill to tier two. Every five tiers, you'll have the option to evolve it. Now, remember, tier ups don’t cost additional spira, but an evolution does.”
Sam frowned, “So I get less spira the more skills I use? Does the skill absorb it?”
“No, you still get the full amount, but the percentage is applied across all utilized skills.”
Sam’s brows knit together as he thought it through. “So you're saying a base percentage of the spira I gain from killing a monster is given to all the skills I use in a fight. So I'm actually rewarded for using more of them.”
“Exactly,” Arther replied, a broad smile appearing on his weathered face.
“So for [Basic Constitution], in order to level it, I have to get hit?”
Arther nodded, “Get hit and kill whatever hit you. An additional percentage of spira goes into the skill depending on how impactful it was in the overall fight.”
“So, say I wanted to level up this skill quickly, I should intentionally go out and fight weaker monsters and just let them hit me over and over again?”
“You could,” Arther said, a hint of hesitation in his voice. “There are diminishing returns for repeatedly facing the same kind of monster, and at some point, the reduced spira from weak monsters would make it an ineffective levelling technique.”
“But wait a second,” Sam said, a knot forming in the pit of his stomach. “If I'm supposed to use spira to buy skills, how am I supposed to get to the next Ring?”
Arther gave him a flat stare. “That, Sam, is the most hotly contested debate in the Seven Rings War.” The smith gave a small smirk and patted him on the back. “Luckily for you, it's one I've been pondering for almost seven hundred years.”
Arther pulled up a stool and sat, motioning for Sam to do the same. “There are two primary schools of thought, and both center around what we’ll call ‘investment’. In this case, investment simply refers to how much spira you spend on weapons, armour and skills in a given Ring.
“Some Wardens are of the mind that you should save almost everything in the first Ring, buy the absolute basics and focus on farming low-risk areas.”
Once again, Sam noticed the translation slipping slightly, and he couldn't help but grin at the inserted video game terminology.
“The thought process there is that it decreases the warrior’s chance of taking a debilitating injury. Healing skills are highly limited in the first Ring, so losing a hand or a leg would be a disaster for most warriors.”
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Sam nodded, thinking back to how easy it had been for the dire-rat to chew straight through bone. “So what's the alternative?”
“Spend,” Arther replied, a manic gleam in his eye. “High risk, high reward. Each Warden has their own ratio, but most champions are the ones who spent every single spira their first few weeks. They invested heavily at the start of the Ring and then used the last few weeks to kill stronger and stronger monsters.”
“I think I can guess which one you subscribe to,” Sam said. Arther was practically vibrating with excitement.
“Oh, yes, and I have the track record to back it up. Spend everything up to forty percent of the gate total, then save. That's usually enough to hit Bronze Rank, allowing you to purchase at least one higher-ranked skill. That should help carry you through the end of the Ring while building momentum heading into the next.”
“Forty…” Sam did some quick mental math. “So you're saying I should spend almost sixty thousand spira? That sounds extreme. The smallest dire-rats I killed only gave like fifty. I'd have to kill thousands of them to even make a dent.”
“Or you'd have to start killing bigger things than rats,” Arther responded, a serious tone creeping into his voice. “I won't lie to ya, Sam, this way is riskier, but the reason we do it isn't about making it to the second Ring.”
“Oh?” Sam replied, leaning forward on his stool.
“It's about making it to the seventh.” Arther’s voice had taken on a hard edge. “This isn't a game, Sam, as much as some people treat it like one. Only seven souls out of thousands will survive. You aren't going to war to make it to the second Ring—you're doing it to make it to the Halls of Eternity.”
“I’m doing it to go home,” Sam interjected, his tone brittle.
“Ah, I see,” Arther replied, a small smile crossing his lips. “Someone on Earth you're keen to get back to?”
Sam felt himself going red. “Nope, not for a few years. But I want to see my family, my friends. It's the principle of it. He took me away from my life. I want it back, and I want to make that fucker pay for it.”
Arther hissed, stiffening at the outburst. He turned slowly on his stool, but the still morning was unchanged. “Careful, Sam. You may be an apostate, but nothing good can come from making the gods angrier than they already are.”
“You said so yourself, they aren't allowed to interfere, right? I'm already marked, what more can they do to me?”
“And as you've said,” Arther admonished, adjusting the strap on his apron, “clearly they don't mind bending those rules. There's no point in poking the nest; we have enough to deal with as it is.”
“Fine, I’ll watch what I say. But I'm not forgetting why I'm here.”
“Nor should you,” Arther nodded. “Anger is a weapon, a tool like anything else. Knowing when to use that anger is the mark of a great warrior.”
Sam took a deep breath, remembering the feeling of rage that had coursed through him as he battled the rats. “Alright, so what you're saying is that I should basically spend all of my spira and start investing now. With the goal being that I can get strong enough to kill the really scary monsters and earn enough to make it through the gate.”
“That's the gist of it,” Arther said softly. “But I can't make this decision for you. It's your life. I can only guide you.”
Sam sat there for a long while, considering his options. While a small part of him begged to take the easier path, the clinical side of him couldn't deny Arther’s logic.
“No, I mean, there's really only one clear choice. The sooner I buy the skills, the sooner I can start levelling them up. I should try to get as many as I can early on so they all tier up concurrently. Yes, it's risky, but the potential long-term gains are enormous.” He paused. “Assuming I live long enough to use them.”
Arther let out a booming laugh, “Hah! Get fucked, Algerdon. I told him that any warrior worth their salt would come to the same conclusion. Stubborn bastard insists that the burnout rate isn't worth it. Oh, we’ll show him.”
Sam couldn't help but join in, wincing at his cracked ribs. “So I guess we should start picking some skills. I am very much open to suggestions.”
Arther gave a wolfish grin and began selecting skills at random, grabbing the description boxes of ones that caught his eye and moving them off to the side. He flipped back and forth between the [Martial Skills] and [Enhancement Skills] tabs before eventually settling on seven selections.
Sam stood to get a better look, feeling surprisingly nervous. He knew that this process was morbid; he was making choices that would functionally make him a better killer. Yet, he couldn't help but feel excited. These were the tangible rewards for his efforts—things that would bring real changes to his body. These were his first steps towards true power, the kind that would get him home.
[Basic Constitution - Iron - Common - Upgradeable]
Increases overall hardiness and resistance to physical attacks. Grants some resistance to poison, venom and disease.
[Cost: 1,000 Spira]
[Basic Regeneration - Iron - Common - Upgradeable]
Increases healing and stamina recovery.
[Cost: 1,000 Spira]
[Basic Perception - Iron - Common - Upgradeable]
Increases base perception, including hearing, vision and smell.
[Cost: 1,000 Spira]
[Basic Stamina - Iron - Common - Upgradeable]
Increases overall endurance and reduces fatigue from physical exertion.
[Cost: 1,000 Spira]
[Basic Strength - Iron - Common - Upgradeable]
Increases physical strength.
[Cost: 1,000 Spira]
[Basic Shield Proficiency - Iron]
Grants increased damage reduction when using a shield.
[Cost: 1,000 Spira]
[Simple Melee Weapon Proficiency - Iron]
Grants a base damage increase when using simple Melee weapons. Unlocks access to weapon-specific skills.
Simple Melee Weapons Include: Knives, Clubs, Maces, Hammers, Axes, Spears.
[Cost: 2,000 Spira]
Sam read through the list a few times and found himself nodding. The skills were mostly defensive in nature and would allow him to function well as a solo fighter. They would also complement his existing titles, making him far more resilient than other warriors at this stage.
“Alright, yeah, these seem like a great place to start. Don’t exactly mince words with the descriptions, but if it gets the job done, I’m not complaining.”
He did some quick mental math, realizing he’d have to forgo at least one of the options. Constitution and regeneration seemed like a must. He needed to be able to stay out there and keep farming, and the less downtime he had, the better. Stamina also lent itself to that, and the weapon skills seemed essential given his almost complete lack of training. He’d taken a few karate classes as a kid, but the extent of his knowledge of most weapons was what end to hold.
“So the weapon proficiency allows me to specialize further in those weapons?” Sam asked, noticing it wasn’t upgradeable.
“Aye,” Arther replied, pressing and holding the floating skill. After a brief moment, it lit up, as did the connecting lines between it and a series of other constellations. They resembled various weapons, and Sam noticed he could select the ones immediately adjacent, but the ones further down the path didn’t have any names or descriptions.
“So there is an element of risk here,” he said aloud, processing the implications. “You could start down a path specializing in a specific weapon, but you have no way of knowing what skills you’ll get access to.”
“They’re different for every person,” Arther confirmed. “They’re also affected by what you purchase in other categories. [Divine Skills] will have the greatest impact, combining your martial and divine abilities together to create unique combinations.”
Sam clenched his teeth, knowing he’d have to make do with [Martial Skills] alone. He didn’t regret his decision, but he couldn’t deny he’d made this exponentially more difficult for himself. “So I can select six of these, with some spira left over. I think it comes down to strength and perception.”
“You’ll need to purchase both, so it just depends on which one you start with.”
Sam thought back to his encounter with the dire-rats. Spotting them hadn’t been the issue; even at night, they’d come charging at him without any thought to stealth. His chest throbbed, and he remembered the pressing weight of the patriarch pinning him down. He never wanted to have that feeling of weakness again.
He took one final look at the selection. “So which of these are we starting with? Regeneration seems like the smart choice; the sooner I can get back out there, the better.”
Arther simply raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean, start with? This isn’t something you draw out. You’re buying all of them. A small word of warning, though: this is going to hurt.”
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