CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX - SKILLS AND LEVELS AND STATS, OH MY!

By mid-afternoon, things had settled into a normal routine. The Scallywags and our harpy crewmates were moving about, making sure everything was in proper order, but it wasn’t with any sort of urgency. There were ropes to tie and sails to deploy, but we weren’t doing any sort of fancy flying. If it took a minute or two, then that was fine.

I took some time to give the Beaver Cleaver an inspection tour after lunch. Just a quick walk around the outside, eyes peeled to notice frayed rope or sails that might need mending. So far though, there wasn’t anything of the sort.

With Awen and Clive both making sure the Beaver was in tip-top shape, the ship was sure to stay afloat for a long time.

“Hello Orange,” I said as I reached the very front of the port hull. That’s where Orange chose to park herself today, right atop the head of our duck-shaped figurehead.

The cat was on her side and curled up in a ball, her fur kind of just... lumping off the top of the duck head like a physical manifestation of laziness in blob form.

“Working hard, I see,” I said with a giggle.

The cat cracked one eye open, yawned, and snuggled in tighter.

I reached up and started petting her, which was rewarded a moment later when she started rumbling. “You’re getting a bit big for the figurehead, aren’t you?” I asked. If she continued growing at her current rate, in a few weeks she’d have a hard time sleeping there. Or maybe she’d slow down and it wouldn’t be a problem. “I’ll ask Awen. I’m sure we can rig up some sort of board or something for you to sleep on. Maybe a box?”

She continued purring, which I decided to interpret as acceptance.

My tour of the Beaver complete, at least for the moment, I descended down to the cabins level, then took a moment to peek in on Awen.

Awen was usually a very lady-like sleeper, even if she didn’t pick up her room that much. Today seemed to be the exception, with her arms and legs sprawled out all over and her nightgown tangled up in a way that was very scandalous.

I clicked the door shut. If she was making little “awa-awa” snores, then she was probably just fine.

“Hey.”

I turned and found Amaryllis at the back of the ship, one shoulder leaning against the wall.

“Oh, hey,” I said. “What’s up?”

“Right now? Nothing. Looking in on Awen?”

I nodded. “I was worried she was still feeling sick.” I gestured to the door to Awen’s cabin. “She looks fine though.”

“She will be,” Amaryllis dismissed. “I doubt she’ll be drinking so much next time. And her sleep schedule might be messed up after today.”

“Maybe she can take the first night shift, then,” I said. “I wouldn’t mind keeping her company. Truth is I’m not doing much to make myself useful right now.”

“Hmph,” Amaryllis said. “I just finished our accounting. Not too sure what to do myself. I might practice my Puppetry.”

“We have accounting?”

One of her brows rose. “How do you think we can afford food? Not to mention fuel and other necessities.”

“Oh,” I said. “You’re good with numbers and such, right?”

Amaryllis’ eyes narrowed. “Yes. I had a full education.”

“Do you think you could help me with my class stuff? With skill points and all? I’ve been meaning to ask you for help for a little bit.”

“Hmph, yeah, sure,” she said. “Come on, this might be better with pen and paper at talon.”

I grinned and followed Amaryllis to the office space at the back of the quarterdeck. In theory, this was supposed to be the captain’s cabin. It had a few windows at the rear overlooking the sky and forests below, and was quite a bit bigger than any of the normal rooms. But really, it wouldn’t be fair for anyone to have a room bigger than anyone else’s. Then again... the Scallywags and other crewmates slept on hammocks. Were we being unfair?

“You’re thinking stupid thoughts again,” Amaryllis said as she reached the desk in the middle of the room and plopped herself down behind it. “Worse, I’m almost certain they have nothing to do with the situation at hand.”

“Hey!” I protested. “You’re not wrong, but it’s still kinda rude.”

“Sit down, you idiot,” Amaryllis said.

I laughed and pulled a chair from the corner over. The chairs had metal caps on their feet, with magnets built into them so that they wouldn’t get flung around if there was a bit of turbulence. I clipped the chair down onto some studs on the floor and plopped myself down. “Oh, wow, this chair is not comfy,” I said.

“I know,” Amaryllis said. “It’s why I’m in the good chair.” She wriggled atop the chair that was supposed to be the captain’s office chair. “Now, I need an idea of what your skills are like, just the skills.”

“Sure,” I said.

She passed over a pen and some paper, and I opened up Mister Menu and transcribed everything as I saw it. It was a bit strange to use a fountain pen. I kinda missed having a ballpoint pen, really.

“Here you go!” I said.

Skills Rank Cinnamon Bun Bun Skills Cleaning S - 03% Way of the Mystic Bun D - 100% Gardening D - 34% Adorable D - 100% Dancing D - 100% Wonderlander Skills Tea Making D - 100% Mad Millinery D - 87% General Skills Insight C - 100% Makeshift Weapons Proficiency D - 100% Archeology D - 00% Friendmaking C - 71% Matchmaking D - 57% Hugging Proficiency D - 75% Captaining F - 00% Cinnamon Bun Bun Skill Points 1 Wonderlander Skill Points 3 General Skill Points 4

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Amaryllis looked over the list, then she slid over a piece of paper of her own.

Thundere Rank Thunder Aspect Manipulation Expert Electrostatic Discharge Journeyman Thunder Clap Disciple Mage Sight Disciple Electro-Couragement Disciple Puppeteer Rank String Manipulation Disciple Anatomical Motion Intermediary General Skills Rank Observe Apprentice Book Smart Apprentice Accounting Apprentice Flying Apprentice Business Sense Apprentice Negotiations Intermediary Bluffing Apprentice Huffing Apprentice Precision Magic Intermediary

“Oh,” I said. “I don’t think I’ve seen your skills and stuff yet.” The ranks threw me off almost right away. If I remembered it right, Rank E was Intermediary, D was Apprentice, C was Disciple, B was Journeyman and A was Expert. She didn’t have anything above that.

“I have... a skill or two that are entirely useless. I’ll need to find a way to get rid of those.”

I stared at Huffing. I looked up to Amaryllis. Then I looked back down at Huffing.

“Don’t you dare,” she said.

Pinching my lips together, I managed not to laugh any. “It’s okay?” I said. “I have a useless skill too.”

“Yes, quite.”

“So, your other skills all look cool. You haven’t spent your general skill points?”

“I will,” she said. “On my newest skill. Precision Magic doesn’t exactly save any mana when I use spells, but it does make the spells themselves more effective, which means fewer spells overall. I find that I’m not fond of being a single-shot woman, and both of my classes require that I spend quite a lot of mana.”

“That makes sense,” I said. “Your Puppetry stuff is really coming along. What’s Anatomical Motion do?”

Amaryllis leaned forwards a little. “It’s a skill that helps move complex objects with string, wire and mana. It’s practically necessary if you want to move a life-like puppet. Or to puppet a living thing.”

Scary! “So, you seem to spend your points a lot across a bunch of things.”

“And you hyper focus yours,” Amaryllis said. She tapped my list with a tallon. “Cleaning at Master is impressive, but it means that a lot of your other skills haven’t really been improved past their natural limit.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I don’t know if I want to save up more points to bring it up to the next rank.”

“That would be eight points,” Amaryllis said. “Eight levels worth of points spent on one skill upgrade.”

I nodded. “But Master Cleaning is really strong. Ever since I hit Rank S I can take out Evil Roots, no problem.”

She hummed. “Well, I see two options for your Cinnamon Bun Bun class. Either you start diversifying now, maybe putting points into the other skills you enjoy, or you save up to bring Cleaning to a level that... well, I don’t know if anyone has ever gone that far with it.”

“Is Master common?” I asked.

“No, not truly. The average level in the world is likely below twenty. Most people in a city will be capped at ten unless they can visit a dungeon. It’s rare that people reach their second cap and visit a second dungeon at level twenty. And even if they do, the short-term gain for spending skill points often outweighs the benefit of waiting long enough to reach Master.”

So plenty of people had the points to get one skill to Master, but it was better to have two good skills instead of one extreme skill? It kinda made sense.

“What do you think I should do?” I asked.

Amaryllis huffed, no doubt putting that new skill of hers to good use. “I can’t tell you what to do. But I can advise you a little. I would save up for Grand Master. Your other Cinnamon Bun Bun skills aren’t that incredible. Dancing would help you in a fight, and Way of the Mystic Bun is likely a very powerful skill, seeing how hard it is to obtain, but in the long run Cleaning magic will likely trump them both.”

I nodded. “Okay. And I guess if we’re in big trouble...”

“Then you can always spend a point or two right away and obtain a fairly sizable boost to two useful skills,” she said. “Maybe you could even put some points into Adorable.”

“No!” I protested.

“It’s a powerful skill. People will underestimate you, and find you more attractive.”

I shook my head, ears flippy flopping wildly. “I’m not adorable!”

“Of course not,” she agreed. “Setting aside your main class, you have plenty of opportunities with General skills and your Wonderlander class. Tea Making is more versatile than I would have thought, though I suppose it’s not too different from the skills some good chefs have. Mad Millinery... how is that working out for you?”

I tapped my captain’s hat. “It’s buffing one skill right now. It can only give me a skill one rank below Mad Millinery, so it’s not super strong yet, but I think it’ll get better?”

“It’s a skill that allows you to have any other skill, but only at a rank below itself, and only when you’re wearing appropriate headgear.” Amaryllis rubbed at her chin. “It’s definitely one of the strangest skills I’ve ever heard of. Very flexible though. A new skill at the drop of a hat, so to speak.”

I snorted at the pun. “I guess so. I have a hunch that it’ll be really good once I hit Rank C with it.”

“You don’t have anything too powerful from that class, I don’t see why you shouldn’t invest every point you do get as soon as you get them, though you might want to save some in case you obtain a game-changing skill.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I don’t know what kind of skill I can expect from the class though.”

Amaryllis shrugged. “Level up and find out.”

“Such helpful advice.”

She shot me a look. “General skills. You barely use Insight as far as I can tell.”

“I keep forgetting!”

“Then practice not forgetting,” she said. “Otherwise it’s a waste of good points. Friendmaking has been useful, I think.”

“Very,” I said.

“Will you bring it up a rank?”

I considered it. “It would take two points. I only have four left. I guess I could?”

“It’s up to you. I’d put a point in Makeshift Weapons, though, it’s one of your only combat abilities.”

“And then a point in either Hugging Proficiency, Captaining, or Matchmaking?” I asked.

“Or don’t put any points in Friendmaking and one in each of them.”

I chewed on my lip. “I really want Hugging Proficiency. And Captaining... and Matchmaking too. I think I’d rather have those than Friendmaking at a higher rank. After all, I already have the best friends ever—I don’t need to get that many more, do I?”

Amaryllis rolled her eyes. “Moron. But it seems like a decent idea. A good spread of decently useful skills, as opposed to a single good but niche ability. The opposite of what you’re doing with Cleaning.”

“Right then!” I said. Time to spend some points!