CHAPTER 4: CAMPFIRE TALES
Thomas kept an eye on the strange boy dressing his own wounds. Which he did with a skill a sixteen year old boy should not have. Unhesitating, correct order and even manages his own wounded arm. Also no reaction to the violence, none of the usual shaking a beginner should have surviving - barely - his first battle. Thomas scratched his head in confusion. How the hell do you survive enough trouble before System Activation to reach that level of self-control?!
Turning back to his team, he watched them doing the grim work. Looting any metal the goblins had carried, stacking the bodies, building several piles on the road. Dealing with the body of the travelling merchant who had allowed them to ride on his wagon. And that of his no less dead son.
There are days where I really hate this world.
* * *
Finished with both the bandages and the notifications, Arcanis got back to his feet and looked around. Thomas still stood by his side, keeping an eye on him, while also scanning the area and watching the others. The rest of the adventurer party was busy piling the goblin bodies on the road, the wagon still where it had been before, two body-sized bags at its side. Scanning the battlefield with an experienced eye, he estimated the goblin bodies to come to a count of about somewhere between 110 and 120. And those adventurers took them out in no more than a minute. For the loss of only two people no less.
I really need to break old habits. Charging in without a thought was ... yeah, not my smartest move ever.
"You all done, patched up and ready?" The big adventurer named Thomas interrupted his train of thought.
Arcanis nodded in response. "Yeah. Still hurts, but I won't bleed out anymore. Thanks again for the kit" He handed back the first aid kit he had gotten from Thomas.
Thomas accepted it back and replied "Good." He swiftly inspected the dressings "Looks decently done. Better than expected, really. That should do for now. Alright boyo, now that the immediate has been seen to, we'll need to deal with the rest." Thomas swept with his right arm to indicate the battlefield. "As you can see we're doing some cleanup for now, which is a bit of a priority, lest we attract more monsters with the bodies. Probably not a great idea to have you picking up bodies with your wounds, so either sit at the sidelines and recover in the meantime or try and deal with the horses if you have a hand for that. After that, we'll be continuing along to Erfurt. If that's your goal - not seeing why it shouldn't be, given that that's the only city in this direction of the road - you're welcome to ride along with us."
With a parting nod, Thomas moved out to help his teammates, leaving Arcanis to his thoughts.
Nothing better to do, Arcanis followed the advice, went to the wagon, noticing that one of the two body bags was a lot smaller than the other. The two horses oddly did not appear spooked, even though they had just been right in the action. If he had to describe their state, he would have used the word 'dazed' instead. A sweetly smell in the air and a broken bag on the bottom told the rest of the tale. Probably drugged to help avoid the horses messing up the ambush.
Time passed swiftly, with Arcanis handling the horses while the adventurers saw to piling the bodies. Then Thomas would fetch some container from the wagon and pour some liquid over each pile, whereupon Maria would use flint and steel to light it. After waiting a bit and making sure the fire would not reach and consume the trees, the adventurers returned to the wagon and loaded up the body bags. Thomas then silently gestured Arcanis aboard, sat down on the driver seat and made the horses slowly start moving the wagon again.
None of the five seemed in the mood to talk, and thus Arcanis, respecting the mood, was left with inspecting the wagon or looking out of the back of the wagon as they kept on rolling down the street to Erfurt, his own dark thoughts his only real companion.
* * *
The journey had been silent, but eventless. However, due to the delay caused by the Goblin attack, they were not going to make it to Erfurt in the same day. As evening came, they found a suitable camping spot close to where the road would cross a creek.
With the adventurers setting up camp, Arcanis fell back to handling the horses. Unhitching the team, leading them to the water and binding them with a long rope so they could still graze gave him another welcome notification.
You have raised the skill: Animal Husbandry to level 2
+1 Mana, +4% Credibility when interacting with animals, +4% Sensitivity towards animals
Once everyone was done with their tasks - the others had set up tents and started a fire - they all gathered around the campfire. The shortest among the adventuring party - the team archer - was busying himself with a pot, putting together a dinner.
The comfortable, familiar scenario seemed to be lifting the mood, the dark cloud cast by the events of the day being banished. With that, Thomas finally spoke up. "Alright everybody, a bit late, but I suppose introductions are in order" A mostly easy grin on his face as his eyes swept around the group, gathering everybody's attention, before settling on Arcanis.
"Let's start with the most important amongst us!" Thomas continued, broad grin on his face as he pointed at the archer stirring the pot. A short fellow, probably not quite 1.60m, with brown hair, short and wild. The man in question grinned back, giving the pot an extra-stir before responding.
"Yo. The name is Ricardo - Ricardo Shar. Just Ric or Ricardo is just fine though. I'm the team's scout and archer. Also the cook, though that's more a 'by elimination', rather than a 'by skill' thing" He gave Thomas a wicked grin "No offense, but we decided to not have Thomas help us train our Poison Resistance any longer."
A low chuckle made the round as Thomas responded with a rather rude gesture. Giving the pot yet another stir, Ricardo used the long spoon then to point at the sole woman in their group. "Maria, why don't you continue?"
"Sure, why not" the woman in question replied, then turned to look at Arcanis. "As you already know, I'm Maria. No surname. I'm the team swashbuckler, dual-wielding those swords here" she continued, patting the grips of the the two swords she had placed in their sheaths on the ground by her side. "Not much more to say really - if it comes close and is an enemy, I cut."
She then pointed over to a young man - probably no more than nineteen if Arcanis were to guess - barely larger than Arcanis. His hair cut in a military style - as in 'almost none at all' - made it hard to determine the color in the campfire-light conditions. Light leather armor, two large steel daggers on the ground by his side, and an almost panicked look in his eyes when put on the spot painting the perfect image of a rogue.
"Come on, Tow, or do you want Maria to - again - introduce you for you?" Thomas interceded, when a couple of seconds did not yield a response. A flash of panic went over the young man's face at that before responding "Ehm, n-no, I don't think that will be needed!" He turned to Arcanis "As Thomas already mentioned, I'm Tow. A-Actually the full name is Towlar Rish, but my fr-friends - everybody, really - calls me just Tow!" He looked down a little, unsure, before continuing "I too do scouting, but am otherwise more of a close combat kind of person."
"And quite good at that" Thomas threw in "perfectly sneaky about things and never where the enemy expects him." He continued as Tow was squirming almost adorably at the praise, the rest of the team grinning at the young, shy man's discomfort. Not expecting Tow to handle to hand-over, Thomas waved with a hand gesture at the final member of the team.
On the small side with no more than 1.65m, the bald man looked at Arcanis with calm eyes that almost seemed to shout equanimity. "Shinji Kurasawa" a short pause "Brawler"
Thomas grinned at that while Maria gave her bald teammate an encouraging push. "Well, as you can see, Shinji is more of a man of deeds than words." Thomas jumped in "Excellent at that though, saved the bacon more than once in our last dungeon dive."
Huh, dungeons are a thing here. More to ask for details about...
"Alright, I suppose that makes me the last one. The full name is Thomas Endosi. Glorious leader of this band of misfits ..." At this there was some booing, Maria throwing sticks and grass at him "... and as the shield and sword imply, I'm our frontliner - or tank - holding enemies at bay while the others deal with it with impunity, thanks to my noble sacrifice." A cheerful grin decorated Thomas' face at that line, while intercepting the projectiles from his team using his left hand only.
Growing more serious, Thomas wiped the grin off his face and looked more pointedly at Arcanis. "Ok, now you know about us, time to spill the beans. Who are you and just what the hell did you think charging in so horribly underprepared, I'd happily believe you coming in straight from Activation Day!?"
Having had some time to think about how he wanted to handle this inevitable situation, Arcanis answered with as much truth as possible. "I'm Arcanis, and as you figured out I am indeed as green as can be." He schooled his expression to make it look uncertain - which did not exactly require much acting - before continuing. "My memory goes back a total of one day, when I woke up with pretty much a blank status sheet, no skills, no nothing..." the others were sharing a frown at that "... well, mostly nothing, anyway."
Thomas seemed like he wanted to speak up at that but Arcanis continued right away. "I woke up in a forest close by, near a village. Was found by a local boy - nice kid, really. But village life is not for me, so I set out for the closest city. Find a job and all that. More precisely ... I'm not really a blank slate. I still have intuition, habits I don't know where they come from but ... they are still there. For example, I still had some notion how to swing a staff that came to me the moment I gripped it."
He looked at Thomas "or how to dress wounds, when handed the first aid kit." Arcanis looked down for a moment before continuing "anyway, that intuition is basically nagging me to ... something. I figure it might be the adventuring life, but time will tell.
"Anyway, that is the reason I so stupidly charged without considering the lunacy of it: I saw travelers under attack, so some instinct had me charging in before considering the risks." mumbling a little Arcanis added "not that you needed much saving anyway"
Looking up, Arcanis saw Thomas nod slightly, while the others gave him sympathetic looks.
"That sure explains quite a few things." Thomas replied. "And yeah, that basically sounds like you woke up on Activation Day. Oh yeah, you probably wouldn't know given your circumstances. Activation Day is the day you get access to the System - skills, classes, notifications and all the things that come along with that. Which for humans usually happens on their sixteenth birthday. There are - very - rare exceptions, where the system unlocks earlier when under mortal threat. And you certainly look the age, so it might well be that yesterday you had your Activation."
The team leader gave Arcanis a friendly smile. "Well, you have rough times ahead of you, my condolences. You are welcome to keep traveling with us tomorrow until we reach Erfurt. We are based out of there, so that's as far as we go. Happy to introduce you to a few people if you figure out what you want to do then.
"In the meantime, you probably have tons of questions, so feel free to ask while we are waiting for Ricardo to finish his magic. Probably black magic, but ..." he gave his teammate a grin "... I suppose better than what I'd do to the ingredients"
The potato shattered against Thomas' forehead, splattering bits of vegetable through his hair.
Arcanis grinned at the antics, thinking for a few seconds before starting with this first question. "If you are offering, I'll definitely take you up on the offers." he nodded gratefully "I can definitely use the help and have tons of questions. The first of which would really be this: Just what do you do as adventurers? What was this journey about for you?" looking with a sad look at the wagon "And who were the two who died? Teammates?"
"Well, we go on adventures, right?" Thomas replied with a nod "Okok, bad answer, couldn't help myself" he added with a mischievous grin. "Welllll, we are mostly mercenaries you can hire for whatever you need, so long as it is legal. There is an adventurer guild that spans the entire nation. Customers go there and post tasks while offering a bounty. Adventurer teams then pick up the task from the guild, do it and get their reward.
"The guild's role is to play intermediary and provide the trust needed for such task. Customers can rely on the guild to vet and police the adventurers, to ensure the task gets done and that service quality is ... adequate. Us adventurers get a central location to get tasks from and protection from getting shafted by employers. Something that is unfortunately frequent for those working outside of the system."
Thomas paused, filling a cup from his canteen and sipped from it. "Usual tasks include gathering requests from dangerous places, or hunting down beasts terrorizing the peasants. Local administrators and garrison commanders are some of our most frequent customers. Merchants also tend to hire us as escorts for caravans."
Maria spat into the fire at that, drawing a dirty look from Ricardo.
"Anyway, that's what we were doing here. Escorting mister Lasandro from Erfurt to Rabenstein and back. Grand job of that we did, eh?" Thomas stared into the fire, a complicated look on his face.
"A-At least the c-contract wasn't broken!" Tow threw in. Arcanis gave him a curious look and Tow expanded hastily "t-the contract actually s-says to protect the g-goods, a-and those are still f-fine!"
"As if that really matters!" Thomas gave Tow a dirty look "That's semantics and you know it." Thomas took a deep gulp from his cup "They were ours to protect. We failed."
"Hate to disagree" Maria threw in from the other side. Then continued, grinning lightly "Oh, who am I kidding, I love to disagree actually." shifting to a more sober expression "Arthurio and his kid die in an ambush from overwhelming force. Not some beast, not some random monster. Poisoned arrows, one large volley and it's kind of his own issue if he didn't make sure his physical stats were up to that. Not saying we shouldn't avoid insisting on a reward here, but also absolutely no reason to beat yourself up over your so-called 'failure' here. It's great you take your responsibilities serious Thomas - it's one of the things I like about you as our leader - but there is really no need to borrow guilt for things beyond our control!"
Thomas still stared into his cup for a second, before looking up and nodding at Maria. "Fair enough. Still won't be happy about it, but you do have a point there."
He looked back to Arcanis. "Anyway, that's what we were doing here and what adventurers tend to do. That said, the other big thing we do is dungeon delving. Dungeons are magical places of infinite resources ... and infinite danger!"
The adventurers shared a conspiratorial look, before Thomas shook his head in negation.
"Well, alright, more realistically," Thomas continued "a dungeon is a cave system with a high level of ambient mana. Some special plants and fungi can grow there. Sometimes we can find nodes of the rarer forms of minerals and ores.
"The catch is, it also summons magical monsters, which can very much ruin your day. Finding good stuff is fairly random and usually you are not the only team trying their luck. Dungeons aren't really alive, but they do appear to have some animal cunning and ability to react to us, so ... things change and there are often quite a few traps. Also, dungeons grow over time, and some of the older ones are downright deadly, even to the most powerful adventurers."
Ricardo interrupted the tale by handing out bowls of stew to each of them.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
"Thanks Ricardo, smells delicious." Arcanis complimented after taking his own bowl. A companionable silence descended as everybody was busy with their own dinner.
* * *
Thomas looked at the young stranger as they silently ate their dinner. His eyes were interesting to follow. The warrior was quite certain his explanations were met with interest. Probably he really hadn't known these basic facts of life.
Also, judging by the light in his eyes, adventuring might actually be his thing. He sure has the intuition and reflexes for it, judging by today. Even if his stats are abysmal. That however can be fixed.
* * *
Once everyone was fed, Thomas returned to his explanation. "Before I forget, one part I probably should go into a bit more if you plan to go into adventuring yourself: The Adventurer Guild does more than just manage the contracts. They also offer training for new recruits, help setting up teams and provide a ranking system. The system is designed to help find the right job for the right person. It is also used to control access to dungeons - wouldn't want to send some beginners to die in a dungeon that is simply above them, would we?"
Thomas grimaced at that, though he did not expand on what memory caused that grimace.
"Pretty much every guild office also includes a bar for hanging out among fellows. They also offer simple lodging at a reasonable fee." A cheerful grin at Ricardo "Very useful that, if you already have seduced every inn-owner's daughter in town and the young ladies started exchanging notes."
Ricardo groaned at that. "One time! It was one time and you keep dragging out that corpse at every opportunity." A poisonous look at his team leader "For years!"
"Guilty as charged" Thomas responded, obviously unruffled by his teammate's glare. Arcanis couldn't help but chuckle at that.
"Anyway" Thomas continued, "That answer your questions on that? Anything else you want to know?"
Arcanis leant back at that. "Actually, yes I do" he replied "I do have a few questions about my status sheet. Is there a way for others to see it? Or for me to share it with others? Or parts of it?"
Obviously thinking about it for a bit before answering, Thomas finally replied "I am not exactly the greatest expert on the system, but ... to the best of my knowledge, there is no way to share it. Neither all nor parts. I also know of no way to scan your status against your will. Maybe there is something for that that the Wizards or Clerics can do, but if they do, they aren't telling anybody about it. And even if that were the case, it definitely is not a widespread capability. For example, there are no city guards that can demand to see your status before granting you entry."
"Actually," Maria threw in "I can think of at least one way a Cleric might be able to do so in a manner of speaking." Thomas threw her a curious look and she expanded "Well, I do know that some Clerics have the ability to detect lies. Theoretically they could have you read your status under that spell and thus ensure accuracy." her expression not exactly happy at that. Maybe a memory there she doesn't care for? "Not exactly something they can do without burning all bridges though. Anyway, I don't expect us adventurers to have to care about that however."
Arcanis chewed on that piece of information for a few seconds before nodding to Maria in agreement. "Thanks, that's good to know. Both about the limits and how to potentially circumvent it." Looking back to Thomas he continued with his next question "Next question then: Classes. I have a section about them on my character, but I don't have one and have no idea what they do or how to obtain them."
Thomas raised an eyebrow in surprise at that, before responding "You... right, memory loss. You obtain classes by meeting their requirements. Usually this is done by having a trainer teach you, but there are other ways that you can obtain one. Sometimes simply ... Inspiration hits you and: BAM! Other cases may be triggered by something that happened to you. And let me tell you, not all of them are positive or helpful. Heck! Get thrown into prison and you get the 'Prisoner' class. Whether you want it or not.
"There are hundreds of classes out there. In fact, there is a theory that they are created by the System as the need arises, so their number could be unlimited for all we know.
"Anyway, about acquiring a class, let's take the class 'Adventurer' for example. Yepp, it's a class. All of us have it by the way. And there are three known ways to acquire it. First of all, no matter which way you want to go, you must meet two requirements: You must have every attribute at twenty-five. Then you must also have at least one weapon skill at five or higher.
"Once you have met both conditions, any of the following three ways will get you the class: Joining the Adventurer Guild. Get your member card and you get the class. Oh, and you get to keep the class if you stop being a member, so there is no obligation here. Less easy, but without any strings attached, if you get twenty people holding the class calling you a fine adventurer, then that's that as well. Mind you, they need to mean it, so getting a bar drunk and starting a drinking song with questionable lyrics doesn't work. Yes, it has been tried, yes it was fun." Thomas interrupted for another sip from his cup before continuing.
"Anyway, both options obviously require that the class already existed beforehand. So how did it all start? Well, the third option to get the class is to go out there and actually have an adventure! Simple, huh?
Anyway, once you have the class, what do you get out of it? Classes generally provide three benefits: Skills, Perks and Stats. Specifically, classes can upon acquisition grant a skill. Adventurer will get you the 'Detect Traps' skill."
"Trust me, you will need that one in any dungeon" Maria threw in from the other side of the campfire.
"Yepp" Thomas nodded "Can't rightly tell you how many adventurers were, but it is safe to say, that without that skill, the profession wouldn't really be a thing. That said, skills are nice, but the Perks are generally better. Why? Well, they give their benefits without you having to level them. They just are. The Adventurer class will get you the 'Spirit of Adventure' perk, which gives you a flat bonus to trap and treasure detection. Very profitable that.
"We tried ironing out the benefits but we are not quite sure how the formula works, as different people have different percentages. Or plain dumb luck. Anyway, Perks and Skills are both great to have, but the real reasons to get classes are stats.
"Or more specifically: Classes extend your maximum attribute values!
"You probably haven't reached any yet, but without any classes, all of your attributes are capped at one hundred. If you want to go beyond that ... well, get a class. Or two. For example, the 'Soldier' class raises your cap for Agility to a hundred-fifty and Strength and Constitution to two-hundred. On the other hand, 'Adventurer' raises every single cap to a hundred-fifty.
"Which by the way is a common argument against the class, because while it gives you a bit of everything, it doesn't specialize in anything."
"An argument you will find with most nobles, rich folks or wizards, who have all the time and resources they need to get the fancy stuff and like looking down on us" Ricardo threw in, disgust written plain on his face.
"Not all of them do ..." Maria added, but added unhappily "... but most of them, unfortunately."
Thomas nodded to the exchange. "That's pretty much the state of things there. Better classes give greater boosts, but come with steeper requirements. Oh, and there is a limit to how many classes you can have. The exact limits vary depending on species and class tier.
"Which is the next - and last, to be honest - thing about classes. The more powerful a class, the higher the tier. Humans usually can have three tier-one classes, two tier-two and one tier-three. Adventurer and Soldier are both tier one classes. On the other hand, the class 'Knight' would be tier two.
"Higher tier classes often have requirements on which class you must have in the lower tiers. So having the Adventurer class might block a slot our dear nobleman needs for his tier three class of choice."
Maria jumped in on that note. "For example, for the class 'Royal Guard' you need the 'Knight' class and a mastery class such as 'Swordmaster', both of which being tier two. The 'Knight' class then requires you to have the 'Horseman' and 'Spearman' class, while 'Swordmaster' requires you to have 'Swordsman' and a second martial class. No space for the 'Adventurer' class in that set."
"But for most of us mortals" Ricardo continued the jumping narrative "those considerations really don't factor much into things, so picking whatever seems right is ok."
"Besides" Arcanis joined in "I'm guessing we don't really have to worry about pleasing nobles too often, I'm guessing."
Tow nodded in agreement.
Thomas took over again "Well, that's pretty much it, as far as classes are concerned."
"Is there a way to increase the number of classes you can have in a given tier?" Arcanis asked as a follow up.
Thomas shook his head in negation. "Not that I know of, anyway"
"Actually, there is" Maria spoke up. All eyes turned to her, her teammates with surprise written in their expressions.
"Well, there is." she added defensively "It is just extremely unlikely in general. There have been a few extremely rare cases where adventurers found items that would extend the limit. Only in the most deadly of dungeons. And they would only work for the finder, as one unhappy ruler found out when he confiscated the item."
Thomas nodded in acceptance. "There you have it, Arcanis. A definite 'Yes, but you don't have to worry about it'."
A light chuckle made its round, before Thomas continued with a grin on his face. "Anything else, while you get to interrogate us?"
Up to the challenge, Arcanis picked up a thinker's pose, pretending to think for a few seconds. "Well, now that you mention it ... indeed I do ..." some good-natured groaning ensued "... anything I really should know about skills? One thing I wonder about in particular is the attributes they give. Some of them offer a single point while others go up to three of them ..."
Thomas nodded at that before answering "Good point actually and I suppose you really should know about that. Basically, all skills give you a total of three attribute points. In most cases, that's divided across three different ones, one point each, but there are a few that double down on a single attribute. Can't think of any that dump everything on a single stat though.
"Anyway, three attribute points each, plus another bonus, whatever that may be. The thing you don't know about is that there are more attributes than you currently have. A lot more, actually. And your skills won't show their benefit until you have unlocked the attributes they grant.
"Some of the attributes are well known, others are well-guarded secrets. Some are mysteries the world can only wonder about.
"Many of the missing attributes are associated with special professions and classes. For example, the attribute 'Faith' is fairly well-known, but it is only relevant to Clerics and similar classes that deal with gods.
"Hm ... do you have the skill 'Pain Tolerance' already?"
Arcanis nodded in confirmation.
"Can't say it surprises me after the last fight. Anyway, if you check it out, you will notice it gives you only one point of Constitution and no other stat."
Checking against his status, Arcanis nodded again in confirmation.
"Well, the reason behind that is that the skill actually gives you one point in Constitution and two points in Resilience! Most of us have that one already unlocked, so we get the full benefit."
He theatrically held up his nose in pride. Most of the team turned contemplative, and not the good kind of contemplative, obviously remembering something unpleasant. Tow on the other hand was having trouble sitting still, looking envious.
Noticing their youngest member's attitude, Thomas quickly continued "Nothing to rush towards, Tow. The thing about this attribute ... it unlocks from being in one unfortunate, painful conflict too much."
The envy was instantly wiped off Tow's face. "Yepp, a real bummer of an attribute, but a useful one to have anyway. Helps you resist, to prevent giving in in the face of adversity. But definitely one you would hope to not need."
"Hope ain't always work out, alas" Maria offered.
"That it ain't" Thomas agreed. "So yeah, that's how those attribute boni work. As for the other benefit a skill may offer ... all I can say is that it works and is almost always worth the effort. Not all skills have a quantified per-Level benefit. In other cases, it is quantified, but the numbers are meaningless without context that is not offered. Doesn't really matter though, the benefit is real, even if you already capped your stats.
"When it comes to raising skills however, there are a few things to consider though. First of all, there is a diminishing return on skill updates per day. So the more skills you raise, the harder it gets to raise more before having a good, long rest. This does not apply to skills gained in combat, which always happens at the end of combat. Doesn't matter how much you swing your staff during, all updates are granted at the end of combat only. Also, the 'Trainer' skill allows you to help your trainee reduce this effect."
"One of the main reasons to have a trainer" Maria added.
"If you can afford one" Ricardo threw in.
"True" Thomas took over once again. "That said, there is one important outlier to the regular skill upgrade progression. Weapon skills. Specifically, every five level you reach in a weapon skill, you unlock a maneuver. Once you do that, further progress in your weapon skills is directly tied to your maneuver skill levels. And the further you take your main weapon skill, the more associated maneuver skill levels do you need to accumulate to progress further."
"Or" Ricardo interrupted "simply put, the deeper you want to develop your weapon skill, the more maneuvers you need to master."
"Right" Thomas took back the narrative "what I meant. Anyway, this system means most people focus very strongly on a single weapon. We usually acquire the early levels for many weapons to grind out attribute points, but once we hit the cap, focus strongly on a single one to truly master it. Because those maneuvers and their maneuver strength percentage really make or break a fighter-"
Thomas stopped as Arcanis raised a hand to indicate a question. "One question on maneuvers while we're on the topic. You said they get unlocked every five levels. Is there a way to unlock them early? Is the maneuver you get affected by how you use the weapon? Are their schools for a certain style, where the teacher affects what you get?"
"Going into the deeper depths here, are we Arcanis?" Thomas replied with a chuckle. "Well, to answer your questions in order: Yes, you can unlock a maneuver outside of the usual rotation, it just is very, very hard. Less so if you have a teacher. Many maneuvers have a minimum skill level though.
"Yes, the maneuver earned is affected by how you use it. And yes, school and teacher have a strong effect on what you are offered as well, if present."
"And before you ask" Maria interrupted "The strongest maneuvers are indeed generally controlled by elite schools or masters, that restrict their teachings to the 'worthy', which usually means nobles or the otherwise very rich."
Thomas nodded. "Indeed. It gets even worse for you though" He nodded at Arcanis' staff "There is a distinct dearth of Staff maneuvers. Specifically, there are two known staff maneuvers, and I have yet to see anybody who raised the skill beyond twenty due to that."
Arcanis frowned in displeasure, then ran his hand over the staff at his side. He had decided to forgo the use of his inventory in the presence of the adventurers so far, unsure whether that was a common ability, and thus had been forced to carry it along. Great, I barely decide to try some new, more peaceful weapon and the System decides to sabotage me right away. On the other hand, it doesn't make sense for the System to treat weapons so fundamentally differently from each other, so there may be something the people here missed so far. Wouldn't it make for an interesting challenge for this cycle? Maybe found a new martial arts school for staff fighting.
Stuck in the moment of thought, Arcanis missed the odd look Thomas gave him.
After giving Arcanis time to digest this, Thomas decided to close out the narrative, as well as the question session, with nightfall almost complete. "Anyway, so that's the basic way skills grow. Other than that weapon idiosyncrasy, it's just a matter of keeping up using it and challenging yourself to your limits - the greater the challenge, the greater the skill growth.
"From a fundamental growth pattern, civilians just keep on working on what they do. Maxed out attributes usually matter little for them, except for the ones directly related to their profession skills. Fighting professions tend to swiftly max out their attributes - really, most adventurers you meet will have the same attribute distribution - and they then grow with their skills. Especially with their primary weapon's skills and maneuvers.
"Finally, not like it really matters here I suppose, but I have heard it said that Clerics work completely differently, needing to progress in their relationship with their god - whatever that means. And a friend told me that wizards are actually more about raising attributes, having a huge load of extra stats to manage. Wouldn't know though, given how secretive that bunch of people is."
"Elitist jerks, the bunch of them" Maria added in with a disgruntled expression on her face. Both Ricardo and Tow nodded in assent.
"Interesting" Arcanis answer slowly. "What are other spellcaster types like?"
"What 'other' spellcasters?" Thomas asked perplexed by the question.
"I mean the non-Wizard kind. Or is that the only type there is?"
"I know of no other" Thomas answered, obviously still baffled.
"Well, I suppose I'll figure out how to get those Wizard attributes then. And how they work. Would be a shame not to, after al-"
"Muahahahaha!" Maria interrupted Arcanis laughing out loud. Pointing at him she slowly managed to get a grip on her mirth. "It's not qu-*hmf* quite as simple as that, boy. Not just anybody can do magic you know?"
Arcanis uncomprehending look almost triggered her off again.
"You see, the Gift of Magic is actually incredibly rare. If you don't have it, obtaining it is incredibly hard and expensive." She took a moment to let her breath even out before continuing. "Only the richest of nobles can afford a Potion of Potency. Sorry, but it's just ... not possible. Better pick another dream, rather than guaranteed disappointment."
Following a spontaneous urge and his sense for the ridiculous, he held up his hand, pointed at the sky and simply said "Firebolt."
Five disbelieving pairs of eyes followed the burning projectile rise and then dissolve at the limit of its range.
* * *
Having had trouble sleeping, Arcanis had moved over to the creek, close to the two horses, sat down and stared at the beautiful, starlit sky. He was still sitting there when a short time heavy steps came closer and Thomas sat down at his side.
"You do realize that your amnesia story doesn't hold water, do you?"