New Myst Connection:

Awareness

New Awareness Abilities:

360 Vision

You can now see 360 degrees around you from where your eyes are.

Anticipate

You can anticipate where strikes will hit, where projectiles will land, and where monsters will move.

New Survival Ability:

Navigation

You have a constant mental map of where you have been making it nearly impossible to get lost.

“Hell yeah!” Jeff shouted and jumped with a fist to the sky, then his vision went wild and he tumbled to the ground feeling nauseous. We was seeing in 360 and it was way too much for him to handle. He closed his eyes and all of it went away.

Tentatively he sat up and opened his eyes again. His vision made him swoon, but he determinedly stuck through it. He needed to just push through the newness of it so he could hopefully get used to it soon.

He could see everything around him all at once, well… kind of. Most of his vision felt like it was peripheral rather than the focused eye sight of what was in front of him. It was like seeing his nose. His nose was always right in front of him, but his brain didn’t process it fully unless he focused his attention on it. He could also focus on certain parts of his periphery, which was now included everything around him. He brought his attention to the System Pillar, which was behind him and to his left. He could see it even thought he wasn’t facing toward it at all. It was bizarre! When he turned his face to look at the pillar the view became, not clearer… but easier to perceive.

It felt a little bit like his memories of driving in a car. It was a little like he had mirrors all around him and he could focus on each of them with a quick glance. If you saw someone driving up in your right side-view mirror you might react to that periphery and glance over for a better view. That periphery now extended to a full 360 view.

He noticed that he couldn’t see all of the sky or ground though. He quickly glanced up and down and then immediately threw up.

That was still too new. Seeing around himself was actually becoming natural faster than he expected, but all of the movement within the few blind spots he still had on the top and bottom of his vision were much worse than before. It was likely just a shock of contrast.

Jeff hoisted himself to his feet, mostly to get away from the vomit. He tried closing one eye and it helped a bit. He could still see all around him, but it helped for some reason. He closed and opened the other eye and saw the world shift a little bit as he alternated eyes. That was just like normal. Well… normal, but amplified to a massive degree. When both eyes were open things shifted again so everything looked natural, with no double vision. It also still seemed to improve his depth perception to have both eyes open.

He walked around his small area in slow circles. After about ten minutes everything just clicked into place and it felt completely natural to him. He remembered reading about a man wearing goggles that inverted his vision back on Earth. After about ten days his brain had wired it so that everything looking upside down suddenly seemed like that was the way it was supposed to be. After taking off the goggles he felt like the world turned upside down again and it took some time for him to readjust back to normal. Jeff felt like that had just happened to him. Everything just clicked into place and the ability to visually see everything all around him at once just felt… natural.

He could catch something in his peripheral behind his head and then focus on it while he turned himself to see it more clearly. It was going to be incredibly useful for his survival. He wasn’t sure how the ability would progress as his Mastery of it improved. He just hoped he would have enough Processing points to deal with all of the info then.

“I really don’t like that feeling,” Kazi said. “Please, never throw up again.”

“Believe me, I never want to. Wait, shouldn’t my Vitality help me with that?”

“It definitely can, but probably not before you hit the Tier 2 Body threshold.” Jeff cocked his head at the response so Kazi continued. “Getting an attribute up to 10 will break you through to the next Tier on either Body, Mind, or Spirt.”

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“Oh, so should I be dumping points into one attribute then? That way I could get the threshold benefit quicker.”

“It’s not a bad idea, but unbalancing yourself is also not ideal. The main issue is your life experience. While it helps you in some cases it can hinder you in others. You’ve spent over thirty years with your body balanced one way. If you suddenly put all your points into Strength, you will have to go through something similar to what you just did with 360 Vision. Your body will need some time to readjust.”

“Ugh, that doesn’t sound fun, but if the threshold benefit is worth while then I should go for it right?” He reasoned.

“I wouldn’t focus too much on boosting one attribute as much as focusing on Body, Mind, or Spirit. Try to keep the attributes balanced enough that you can get there with one level up.”

Jeff thought about that and thought to pull of his stats. Kazi obliged without him having to say it out loud. Luckily, the spore included the added benefits from his equipment and the tea this time.

Body: Tier 1

Strength: 4 Vambrace (+1)

Dexterity: 3

Vitality: 4

Mind Tier 1

Cognition: 3

Processing: 3 Helm (+1)

Imagination: 3

Spirit Tier 1

Might: 4 Tea (+2)

Sense: 4 Helm (+1)

*Depth: 9

He could see how affecting one of the power attributes, Strength, Cognition, or Might could unbalance him. Would boosting one of the speed stats really do the same? He couldn’t imagine Processing would need too much Cognition to function, but maybe it needed the functionality attribute of Imagination to avoid having issues. He wouldn’t want to be in this survival situation with a day long migraine.

“What about increasing Vitality, Imagination or… holy crap,” Jeff finally noticed the final attribute. “When did Depth get to 9?”

“While I was building your Awareness connection. That’s one of the reasons you don’t see many connections with low Depth stats. People usually gain points in it as they are building Myst Connections.”

“Huh,” Jeff nodded in understanding. “That makes sense. Still though, I don’t feel unbalanced by that.”

He felt some amusement coming from the Spore. “That’s because your Depth stat is more a reflection of you rather than an actual boost given by the System. That’s why it’s a different type of stat. You just naturally have a higher affinity to Depth and so it won’t feel unnatural to you.

“With that said, the other functionality stats, Vitality and Imagination, can work well being unbalanced too. That can go either way too, either by keeping them lower or raising them faster will still affect you less than the other stats. They will still affect you, just less. I’d suggest that you get all of your, lets say, Body stats up to 5 and then try to get one stat up to 10. I know I’ve stressed balance, but once you get stronger and 5 or even 10 point difference won’t affect you much. For now though, try to get all of your stats up to 5. That will close the gap between you and any mystical ability you might run into out here.”

That made sense to Jeff. He liked how he felt with his stats increased. His mind was functioning much better than before and that was where he had focused the fewest stats. He could only imagine what getting to higher tiers would be like.

“Is it okay to unbalance the tiers? Like, should I shoot for a tier 3 Body before I raise my Mind to tier 2?”

“Yes, that can work just fine. That is seen far more often by successful Suits than someone raising just one stat to gain benefits. For you, however, I would try to get everything up to tier 2 before you start pushing to Tier 3. Partly due to your life experience, but also because your abilities will benefit from a better split.”

Disc Throw really did use a lot of his attributes. The initial speed of the disc seemed linked to both Strength and Dexterity. The size and power of the projectile was linked to Might. Even the flight of the disc may be linked to Imagination. And his manipulation powers were heavily influenced by Cognition and Processing. That only left Sense and Vitality out of his main skills and there was no way he would let either fall behind. His ability to sense his prey before stumbling upon them may have been the most important so far. If, or rather when, he got injured in a fight he really needed his Vitality stat up to help him survive and recover.

“Alright, enough talking, let’s see if I can get 7 more kills before nightfall and get a new weapon.”