William began with point allocation, saving what he hoped was the best prompts for last. He decided on the two Enchanter Points would go to Intelligence, the two Fighter Points would go into Strength, and he also put two obligatory points into Charisma. With the racial four wisdom points, He was left with eighteen points to split up. He decided to throw an extra two points into Charisma just to bring it past twenty. He then allocated four points to Dexterity. He then split three points each across the remaining four stats.
{Ascension_Protocol}
{Attribute Changes:}
- Strength: 44 > 49
- Dexterity: 43 > 47
- Intelligence: 27 > 32
- Wisdom: 27 > 34
- Vitality: 28 > 31
- Charisma: 17 > 21
SP cost reduction to skills from changes to Dexterity Attribute. Reductions as follows:
- Dagger Toss 20SP > 10SP
{Resource Pool Changes:}
HP 280 > 310
MP 270 > 320
SP 440 > 490
{End}
William smiled at his stat changes, and dagger toss got the SP reduction he hoped for. He quickly moved on to the second prompt he had:
{Ascension_Protocol}
{Skill Offer:}
Hidden General Skill – Type: Taboo – [Flesh Syphon]
{Description}
A General Skill that brings great benefits, but severe consequences. Bite into injured prey and syphon their life essence through your fangs. Adds 1 point of permanent Vitality per prey. [Cool-down – N/A][Cost – 10SP]
[Notice – If witnessed in the act, maximum enmity will be gained in that region indefinitely.]
Accept Skill?
{Y/N}
{End}
What. The. Fuck? William almost retched at the skill. He re-read it, and this time considered the skill. Was he going to become a fucking vampire if he accepted it? Worse, would he be the sparkly kind if it did happen? The vitality boon was so good though. It also didn’t specify humans specifically, though he had a feeling that it was related, given how he expected he had gained the offer.
With a larger amount of disappointment than he expected in himself, he declined the skill. It was way too far for even him and his growing de sensitivity. William decided to try and cheer himself up with the last prompt and oh was it a glorious one:
{Ascension_Protocol}
{Milestone Skill Offer:}
As a reward for reaching the Human Level 10 Milestone, please select up to two of the listed general skills to add:
General Skill – Type: Party – [Party Interface]
{Description}
A General Skill that serves the function of a co-ordination tool for you and your party members. Skill is passive, and has zero cost. All Party members you choose receive a visual display in their mind listing party members and corresponding resource pools.
General Skill – Type: Self – [Cartographer]
{Description}
A General Skill that assists you on your journey. Skill is passive, and has zero cost. You always know which way is true north. Additionally, you may bring up a mental map of the lands you have explored. Map will list named locations. Map is regional.
[Notice – Areas of region unexplored will be covered in darkness.]
General Skill – Type: Self – [Delver]
{Description}
A General Skill that will aid you on finding new dungeons to explore and conquer. Skill is passive, and has zero cost. While within twenty miles of a dungeon, hidden or public, you can determine the location on instinct.
Proceed to Skill Selection:
{Y/N}
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
{End}
Three broken as fuck skills for hitting level ten. William almost Salivated at what would happen when he got his classes to level ten, then twenty and beyond after that. He managed to reign himself in a bit after a few seconds and considered the two he would take.
The Delver skill was solid for looting and levelling, like any great RPG, but he knew that a HUD for party stuff and a skill to give him a map option together would be substantially more significant at present. After a few more moments of deliberation, he locked in the Party Interface and Cartographer skills. He also anticipated something rather amusing happening given that the system already recognized them as a party. His anticipation was rewarded mere seconds later as everyone else gasped and froze at the sudden mental appearance of the party Interface. William chuckled at the sight, drawing the attention of everyone. He saw looks of incredulity written on their faces and broke out in laughter.
Jane glared at William, “What the fuck?! William?!”
It took a few moments for him to calm himself before he spoke, “Sorry, new skill, Party Interface. Just got it. It shows us each others current status.”
He then continued chuckling slightly and added, “I was hoping for that reaction, not gonna lie.”
Jane looked down, sighed and shook her head in a conceding manner. The others started to chuckle at the situation, before Jane then joined in. It took a couple minutes for everyone to compose themselves before they continued onward, and William was pleased to see that John and Stacey were looking a little less grim then. He took the lead as they kept on in the same direction. It appeared that William’s guess of GAEA’s cardinal directions was true.
The journey took several hours but the party made the most of the time with light conversation. William learnt more than he anticipated through it too. John had two hobbies he loved that William would never have suspected being enjoyed by the same person; Botany, and NASCAR. GAEA could provide a botanist Job potentially, but William doubted a seemingly fantasy world would have racing cars. Wallace enjoyed Football (American), Shooting, and Art. Again, William’s mental stereotyping of his comrades was shaken as the first two of Wallace’s hobbies sounded very much like an ex-soldier’s sort of activity, but Art was surprising, then again, beauty was in the eye of the beholder he figured.
William found out that Stacey liked to sing the same as Jane, and that she enjoyed dance too, which was something Jane abhorred doing. He always found it interesting that Jane liked to sing but hated to dance, but then again, sisters are weird.
The tone was upbeat for the majority of the journey, but it darkened again as Jane mentioned something he had hoped she wouldn’t have spot, “William, did you...bite the throat out of that bandit?”
William saw everyone glance at him, a mix of curiosity and concern. William shrugged, “I didn’t have a weapon handy other than the one that was stuck in my side, but I had to keep it in so I didn’t bleed out. The only thing I could think to use was my teeth. For what it’s worth, it was a horrific sensation I felt doing it. So I took no joy from it.”
“Still...William...I’m worried about you. I just...don’t want you becoming a twisted person.”
He smiled sympathetically at her, struggling to hide the resigned sadness that fought to surface on his face before replying, “Am I not already twisted for killing the amount of people I have?”
She shook her head defiantly, “No. You were defending yourself and others.”
“I didn’t take a diplomatic approach with the bandits from earlier, I approached knowing one side would lay dead at the end.”
“But, they would have...done bad things to everyone. I identified their levels, and I don’t know if many people would have stood a chance. I still don’t know how you managed to fight three at once.”
William tapped his side with one hand and his shoulder with the other, “Not unscathed. I appreciate the effort to defend my actions, but I know that killing is wrong. It is sadly necessary in this world however.”
Jane’s face turned glum and William didn’t know what to do. In the end he just walked up to her and gave her a hug, like when they were kids.
She hugged him back and he said quietly, “I’m glad you most likely won’t ever have to kill someone. I intend to protect you. Protect everyone, well, grudgingly including the Duncans I suppose.”
He felt her chuckle in his chest as she mumbled, “definitely grudgingly. They are so...lazy. Useless too.”
It was William's turn to chuckle then. He let Jane go, gave her a warm smile and after Jane reciprocated it, he returned to the front of the group.
He turned around and just calmly added, “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna go out of my way to use my teeth again. They would need to buy me some drinks first.”
He turned back to continue walking and heard a mix of chuckles behind him. He was worried that they would have judged him harshly, but apparently, they were growing to understand that William would go to whatever length to ensure they survived. After all, no one else was going to.
It was late afternoon when the group spotted smoke over the crest of the next hill. Clusters of trees and foliage were starting to appear, indicating a slight shift in the biome. As they reached the top of the hill, William signaled everyone to lie down and only peak slightly over the top to avoid discovery. What they saw was...interesting.
About fifty meters away from them, slightly lower down than their height, was a small cabin, guarded by two people in the same garb as the bandits, and now William and his party. It appeared to be beside a dirt road that went eastward and westward, small woodland surrounded the cabin on all sides except the hill, but the road ran through it, indicating a fast way for future them to find other settlements. It was after that, that William spotted a three man group of bandits, two bearing swords and shields, shields that were more matching to Viking shields than William’s buckler, and another bandit carrying a bow. They all had travel packs with them too, he noticed.
The Bandits made their approach from the westward road, entering the cabin after briefly speaking to the guards. They emerged moments later with no packs, and travelled eastward, no one out of the five total bandits even bothering to look in William’s direction. “Lucky us.” William thought, as he motioned everyone down the hill behind them.
After everyone had regrouped, William held a finger to his lips and pointed towards the direction of Greenwell, then started walking. He wanted to wait in case one of the guards had high Wisdom and got some kind of high perception skill for hearing or something of the like.
Once over the next hill, William spoke, “Okay, so they obviously have that as a supply depot or, forward operating base?” He asked, looking curiously at Wallace.
The older man nodded sagely and replied, “Yeah, That sorta deployment indicates that they must do their raiding missions after offloading their travel kit. It also indicates that other settlements must be within a certain range like our own, for them to target.”
William couldn’t argue at that. He decided to ask a more...entertaining question, “Should we sabotage it? Most of you have fire capabilities after all.” He failed to hide the excitement in his voice, prompting chuckles from everyone.
Jane interrupted, “Pyromaniac,” giving him a slight, teasing grin.
William just stuck his tongue out at her, prompting more mirth from his companions.
Wallace cleared his throat loudly after stifling his own amusement, before he said, “Sabotage is a good plan, however, doing it soon would be a waste and give up element of surprise.”
William didn’t understand really, but waited as Wallace continued, “It’s better to do sabotage nearer to the time of their raid, that the objective thing says. A day or two before would hinder their assault in one of several ways.”
“What ways are they?” William replied, not bothering to hide his excitement this time.
This gained him a smile from the ex-soldier.
“They can either continue their assault, encumbered by their travel kit, leave a contingent to guard supplies at a somewhat defensible location, reducing the assault force, or potentially delay the assault altogether.”
William knew that all three of those hindrances would greatly shift the tide in their favour. They still had about five to six weeks before the final assault listed, and if they could make even more defenses then the odds would be even more in their favour.
William voiced those thoughts and Wallace agreed. The two agreed to discuss further defenses at a later point once the palisade was completed. With that, the party made their way back to Greenwell as the warm evening mix of orange and purple lit up the sky.