Lines flowed out from the central massive glowing dot to the massive dots around, then each of the massive dots connected to their own surrounding dots, and those continued on as well, connecting to their entourage of dots surrounding them. As he focused on a dot, it would come into focus, with lines connecting its entourage more brilliantly while all other dots not connected disappeared into a haze of lost focus in the background. If Joe focused on the central massive dot in the middle, it showed the connections those around it, as normal, but if he focused on any other dot, a massive glowing gold line would pierce off into the vastness of space coming up out of the map passed his head, seeming to be climbing upwards from the mostly flat two dimensional map. He could drill down, following the map lines until he came to the bottom where all he would see was a single lonely dot with the golden line piercing up out of the map past his head.
He played with the map a good ten minutes or so, fascinated as his imagination struggled to understand what he was seeing. He even dove down through all the lines to the end of the line again and zoomed in on the dot only to feel his breath whoosh from him as his thoughts were confirmed. He was staring at a system, then realized he was actually staring at a gas giant. It was a relatively small one with only thirty two moons, but he could zoom on each moon, and when he did so, found the names of each moon or the cradle when he zoomed out. He went back out to what he now knew was a galactic map, and zoomed in and out on the dots as well, and quickly came to find that many of them were gas giants with their own fifty to hundred moons each.
When he got up to the ones which appeared to be travel hubs, he began to find systems with two or even three gas giants. The further he went up the chain, the more gas giants he would often find in the system, some sporting four or five with one even having six. There were some exceptions, with a few of the higher ones only having two or three gas giants, with one having only one, but almost all of them had multiple gas giants.
His curiosity had him zooming out to look at the highest level system, but when he zoomed in on it, nothing happened, a blank black space greeting him with no information or gas giants. He tried several times, confused, before finally zooming out again, pondering. He frowned, considering possibilities, but honestly couldn’t think of anything much beyond a need for security through obfuscation. It was obviously the center of power, given the way the whole thing was set up, or the path or gateway to it, but that didn’t change the fact that it was hidden. Deciding poking that bear a few too many times might be a bad idea, he backed away and decided to look at what he could explore and most likely without too much concern: Aelthron’s cradle.
He focused on it, and had a moment of disorientation and felt a bit queasy from motion sickness when the whole map lurched to the side until Aelthron’s cradle came into focus. Faded out lines spread out from Aelthron’s cradle like a web, touching several dozen dots around it. Joe frowned when he noticed the faded out lines were faded much more so than the other lines he was used to seeing, and while Aelthron’s cradle seemed to be positioned as one of the lesser central hubs, however it was classified as a hub, it was twinned with another cradle that also connected to the same spread of stars around it. Joe frowned.
Joe zoomed out and went to another cluster at the same level as Aelthron but found only a single hub system. He went through a couple hubs and found only a single hub system. Aelthron was decidedly unique. He went back and looked at the Aelthron hub system once again and zoomed into the twinned system. Hmm… interesting. Taglisea’s Cradle. Huh... The Aelthron / Taglisea combo system happened to be one of the highest systems, just under the main glowing central system, but it was still unique in being a dual system. The lines of connection flowing from Taglisea glowed with vibrant life. Aelthron’s lines connected to all the same systems as the Taglisea system, but were flat; dead in appearance. This… Aelthron isn’t doing so hot, is it…
Joe’s thoughts considered this for a time, but nothing more could really be learned from it, except that he could count the cradles and the number of planes per cradle. This idea intrigued him for a bit, but then he paused with a frown when took in the entirety of the map somehow and noticed that he was looking at billions and billions of systems. It was literally uncountable so Joe turned to other thoughts. He played with the map for a bit before finally sighing and frowning. Man… just wish this was actually a representation of the galactic map in space instead of … whatever this organization is? It would be nice to see how everything is related in space. Would make a lot more sense. As he thought this, he sighed and dropped his head back, then blinked when his map stuttered again. It did a good half a dozen times, the billions of stars reshaping, shifting, and moving, but nothing really happened. They simply seemed to shift around within the location they were at, but all still clustered around their central connection point. He watched with bated breath, excited for a time then grew disappointed when nothing happened. He continued to watch for a time until he suddenly yawned. Ooh… I’m… really tired!
Joe quickly shook himself from his thoughts, putting the exploration of the magic map to another day as his exhaustion was dragging at him and he really wanted to get to bed but also wanted to explore his gains this day as well. Understanding skills appeared to be the significant aspect of this system, and it would come in time, when he had it.
He turned to the skills his thug and white belt tai chi gave him and grimaced in disgust. Thug gave him the exact same skills that grunt had: sword, shield, and bow. Joe couldn’t really understand why a job was identical with identical skills. This is just so … Joe grimaced, and settled himself, looking at the next tai chi job and this time wasn’t able to stifle his grunted expletives. The white belt job had gained the same inheritance as all the spearman and pugilist line, but also gained an inheritance of tai chi itself. These made sense, as the skills and styles were foundational to tai chi. The other skills were a complete waste. He gained a bonus to attack and strength. Which doesn’t make sense? It’s meditative, right? So… shouldn’t it be a bit more intellect based? That would make a lot more sense. Meditation is all about the mind and mental discipline to cont… Joe grimaced and halted his thoughts, his exhaustion leaving him chasing rabbit trails and he desperately needed sleep. Right… stats.
When he looked at what he’d gained, Joe smiled to see another three and a half points base into his physical resistances, but he found the stats for both identical to the previous stats. There was no chang… wait? No… white belt tai chi gives me one point in crushing defense… kinda makes sense… taking a punch, but what’s the point if all of the stats are the same?! And the skills? There’s no…
Joe’s exhaustion was turning to actual pain by then and he forcibly ended his frustrated thoughts on it and turned to using the last of his change job skills and magic heal as much as he could. He ran through all his change job uses pretty quickly then spent the rest of the time he was able to stay awake on magic heal. He didn’t last long, sleep claiming him and despite his efforts to clear his thoughts about how tai chi worked in this system, he fell asleep, worrying over and attempting to understand the convoluted system, his exhaustion total. He had a long, dream free sleep.
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Available Jobs
Current Skills
All Skills
Log
Joe McConnell
Status
Physical Resistances
Magical Resistances
HP
105.00
Physical:
Wind
0
SP
350.00
Piercing
35.00
Water
0
MP
17.50
Crushing
35.00
Earth
0
Attack
175.00
Slashing
35.00
Fire
0
Defense
70.00
Ice
0
Magic
17.50
Gravity
0
Magic Defense
17.50
Thug
35
Magnetic
0
Strength
175.00
White Belt Tai Chi
35
Light
0
Dexterity
70.00
Navigator
40
Shadow
0
Agility
70.00
Loki Primate
39
Space
0
Speed
70.00
Spirit
0
Endurance
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105.00
Mental
0
IQ
35.00
Sound
0
Wisdom
35.00
Electricity
0
Will
26.25
Learning
35.00
Luck
0.00
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Available Jobs
Current Skills
All Skills
Log
Joe McConnell
Status
Physical Resistances
Magical Resistances
HP
210.00
Physical:
Wind
35
SP
105.00
Piercing
0.00
Water
35
MP
35.00
Crushing
35.00
Earth
35
Attack
35.00
Slashing
0.00
Fire
35
Defense
35.00
Ice
35
Magic
35.00
Gravity
35
Magic Defense
35.00
White Belt Tai Chi
35
Magnetic
35
Strength
140.00
Light
35
Dexterity
140.00
Navigator
40
Shadow
35
Agility
140.00
Loki Primate
39
Space
35
Speed
105.00
Spirit
35
Endurance
105.00
Mental
35
IQ
70.00
Sound
35
Wisdom
70.00
Electricity
35
Will
52.50
Learning
140.00
Luck
0.00