Chapter 4
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You have 1350 "Small Power Rings". Do you want to invest them in character development?
Yes.
Characteristics available for development:
Strength
Endurance
Agility
Intelligence
Crafts available for development:
Drawing
Collecting trophies
Camping
Skills available for development:
The Book of the Drawer's Knowledge - To learn spells, open the menu.
In each characteristic, there are twenty rings. Raising the level, the player gets four free points, which can be spent on the development of basic parameters. I invested forty, thereby making my paladin conditionally equal to a tenth-level character. Conditionally - because a normal paladin would have invested everything in strength and endurance, thereby increasing the attack and the amount of life. My choice would have been considered foolish by any player who didn't know the reasons.
All characteristics affected crafts. A weak character would have penalties for using blacksmithing, a dumb one would not be able to brew potions, and a clumsy one would not reach the top in gem-cutting. Plus, secondary parameters: for example, agility, like strength, affected the size of the inventory. That's why I had to upgrade all four of them.
Okay, now I'm relatively strong, moderately agile, and not quite dumb for my level. With a click of a keyboard, I confirmed the purchase on the virtual marketplace for real money. My character now had two rings plus one strength and a necklace plus two protection. They were expensive, they were fifty bucks each for the ring and eighty for the necklace. The plus-one stamina bracelet was snatched from me at the last minute, and I was willing to shell out a hundred.
In general, items that gave a performance bonus were quite rare. The game, based on a slow and systematic increase in stats and ranks, was balanced accordingly, with many players at level fifty and above wearing items like the ones I bought. But these items in addition had no restrictions on use. Rare stuff. Too expensive for beginners if you buy for gold, and for experienced players is not so necessary. And thus, occupied the niche of "stuff for twinks", new characters of high-level players who had the means to dress their heroes in things unavailable to newcomers. I had to splurge. It might be silly to spend real money on a virtual hero, but considering that I would be spending the most real-time with this hero, it was worth it.
A click on the other button completed the transaction and put fifty gold pieces in my travel purse. Any money transfer transactions over twenty gold went only through the official service of the game's owners. Twenty was just the amount of money a high-level character could earn in a day of playing in a group, slaying monsters. By the way, the exchange rate was approved by the owners of "CoD" and was now 1 gold for 1 dollar. And earning a dollar in life was much easier than earning gold in Creatures.
Again, the account screen, and the section for increasing the parameters:
Drawing - 210 rings. The sixth rank of skill. Chance of successful casting increases by 2% per rank. The effectiveness of sealed spells increases by one rank for every three ranks of casting.
Collect trophies - 30 rings, second rank. Plus 1% to the chance to get loot from the monster for each rank.
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Camping - 30 rings, second rank. Plus 10% to recovery at rest for each skill rank.
Spell Capture - 550 rings. The tenth rank, theoretically allows you to learn spells up to and including the fifth rank. Theoretically, no one has ever pumped this skill higher than sixth. Plus a 5% reduction in recovery time per rank and a 5% increase in the chance of capture. Now I can use this skill once every 135 minutes and have a 75% chance to learn the spell.
Spent exactly 900 rings. All right, let's move on.
Learning new spell recipes. The cost of learning spells is the same as for rank advancement. I need three spells.
Blessing of Amala. Increases all characteristics depending on the rank, adds to the recovery rate of life and to the protection from blows.
Would you like to purchase the second rank Blessing of Amala spell?
Yes.
Of course, a paladin starting at the seventh level could learn this spell, but I had my reasons.
Do you want to buy a Phantom Companion spell of the second rank?
The Companion was a non-combatant pet, summoned for a minute. All of its characteristics were exactly half those of the summoner. It was one of the few spells whose rank did not increase the strength of the spell, but only the duration of the helper's presence.
Yes.
Would you like to purchase a Blood Shield spell of the second rank?
Blood Shield is one of the most discussed spells in the community. Its use created a sphere of magic that absorbed and returned some of the damage to the attacker. In theory, you could walk around the game and, keeping the shield on yourself, just let the monsters kill you with it; there were even funny videos showing it in action. In practice, however, even just putting such a spell on yourself ruined your reputation, and very seriously, not to mention using it in combat! For a paladin of the light deity, the Blood Shield was inaccessible under any circumstances, since it was used by his ideological opponents - the Death Knights, servants of the "dark trinity" of the gods.
Yes.
Spells are studied. 90 "small power rings" are spent. You can see what you've learned by opening the Book of the Scribe's Knowledge in the game.
That's it. Spent 990 rings. 250 - emergency stock for sale, and the remaining 110 to save for later.
Signing out of the account. The rest of the rings will be spent in the game.
"Comp, starting the Creators of Destiny."
I activated the virtual, tablet, microphone and other add-ons
Welcome to the world of Creators of Destiny!
You are using temporary external devices. Please go through the confirmation process.
Take 10 steps on the track. Strike with your sword. Reflect the blow with your shield. Draw a circle in the air with your manipulator. Draw your name on a clipboard. Say your name out loud.
Thank you, devices are activated! The total experience bonus is 35%.
Welcome, Vlad!
It's time to create your destiny!
The helmet showed me a short introductory video - I was entering a room of some kind.
"Hello, rookie! I take it they sent you with a new recruit? That's good, evil never slumbers, and the temple needs fighters!" I looked at the man standing in front of me in a paramilitary dress. Probably some rank of the Order, one of my new chiefs. "Check-in with the Castellan, get some training from the Instructor in the courtyard, and you're free to go till tomorrow morning. I suggest you get acquainted with the City."
After thinking for a second, I bowed briefly.
"You are polite! That's good! Go on, you have a lot to do." The man returned to his papers.
You were given the Quest of training in the temple courtyard.
You were given the Quest to check in with the temple's castellan.
Reputation raised by 5!
Wow. What was that for? For bowing? Politeness counts here, I see. We'll keep that in mind.
I left the office and walked down the corridors of the temple. The treadmill moved in accordance with my steps, and I could turn with the movement of my helmet and the indication of my gloved hand. It was a bit unusual, but I could get used to it, a kind of virtual robot-style breakdancing.
In fact, there was no need to use all the devices while I did not pump anything, and I could just sit at the computer watching my character from the third person, but as it turned out the virtual was very useful. Here, I got my reputation up in one fell swoop. And it takes some getting used to.
I called up the status screen.
Vlad, a rookie of the Temple Guard.
Class: Paladin of Amala the Healer, 1st level.
Life - 132
Mana - 88
Stats:
Strength - 11
Endurance - 11
Agility - 11
Intelligence - 11
Free points - 4
Class stats:
Faith - 1
Reputation - 6
Combat Scores:
Attack Power - 16
Magic Power - 11
Defense - 5
Experience modification - +35%".
Okay, I'll do the experience first, the castellan can wait.
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