POINT OF INTEREST MARKED: Skill Instructors!
The Instructor’s Clearing was crowded beyond belief. I was aware that no player had cleared the Major Quest to move onto the next area, but the mass of people was still ridiculous. Originally, I wanted to talk to the Magic Instructors to circumvent the weaponless issue, but I couldn’t even see the NPC’s in the crowd. I looked to the other side of the clearing, realizing that the Physical and Ranged Instructors were just as populated.
Unsurprisingly, the Support Instructors section was by far the least popular. While it was still incredibly packed, I managed to jostle my way to an Elf NPC.
“Player Magnum D. Would you like to upgrade or modify your Support Skills?”
“Yes!!”
A new window winked into existence, two faintly blinking, familiar icons appearing. An ! covered what seemed to be the description box.
“To prevent an ecosystem where pure grinding is all powerful, there is no true level bar in Equilibrium. Instead, we utilize Titles and Skill Mastery to give players a distinction in stats and playstyle.” The rat kept squeaking, but no sound came out. After a few annoyed gestures and angry foot stomping at something I couldn’t see, he finally continued. “You must interact with a Skill Instructor in any town to unlock, enhance, or modify your skills. The loadout can be changed at any time outside combat.”
An echo of Mousey’s tutorial floated into my head, as a few notifications blipped by.
YOU HAVE DISCOVERED THE Skill Instructors! YOU MAY NOW RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS ON YOUR TITLE AND SKILL MASTERY PROGRESS. PLEASE ENABLE AND CUSTOMIZE THESE FEATURES IN YOUR SETTINGS!
YOU HAVE UNLOCKED Skill Modifiers! Your Bestiary has become more detailed.
YOU HAVE EARNED THE TITLE(S): Slime Killer - I; Weapon Breaker - I; Training Merchant - I; Trash Hoarder - I; Brutal?! - I; Taste of PvP; Scared of Death; Loser!
I frowned at some of the titles before I redirected my attention back to the Skill Mastery window, tapping on the icons to dismiss the exclamation marks.
BLOCK - Energy Barrier: You were given this default skill by your tutorial guide. Some sort of energy is projected by your will, becoming a physical inconvenience to incoming harm.
ROLL - Low: You were given this default skill by your tutorial guide. By quickly ducking and tumbling, you cover a bit of distance.
I tapped again on Block, noticing a drop down option that was absent on Roll.
NEW! (Unequipped) BLOCK - Wall: After hitting the Block from a slime so many times, you have a rudimentary understanding of how it works.
The Bestiary window blinked open, letting me navigate to my sole entry again. There was a mind boggling amount of new text, and a word glowing a deep blue.
~~~
…
Skills: Block - Fragile Wall -X [MANA]: Without appendages, slimes have learned how to emit walls of MANA to protect themselves. Training Slimes sacrifice frequency for power. Sadly, they are so weak that the shield has no discernible advantages.
…
~~~
YOU HAVE DISCOVERED MANA, A PRIMARY RESOURCE!
YOU HAVE UNLOCKED PRIMARY RESOURCES! YOU CAN NOW ASSIGN YOURSELF A PRIMARY RESOURCE TO AFFECT YOUR GAMEPLAY.
I closed my eyes for a moment, unhappy about the fact that I was being info dumped twice in the span of a few hours. Taking a brief rest from reading to glance around, I could now see that many of the faces around me were scrunched up in effort or annoyance.
The fact that I was not alone in suffering made me feel significantly happier.
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“Player Magnus D. Are you still looking to upgrade or modify your Support Skill?” The NPC looked at me quizzically with his feline blue eyes.
“No, I’m done! Before I go, may you explain the process of finding more skills?” I wistfully stared at empty rows littering my Support Skill window.
“There are many methods! The most common is to use Skill Books, which contain skills recorded by another person or the system.” The elf pulled a leaflet out of his pocket. “In fact, I have a free Training Skill Book for you. Please take it!”
Training Skill Book: Dash [1 Charge] - [Consumable] Put a bit more force into your legs and move a bit faster!
I thanked the instructor and threaded my way back through the crowd. I checked the time and realized that if I wanted to sleep on time, I would need to force my way to the other instructors.
The Physical Instructor was a gigantic orange orc with rippling muscles and a huge sword. He was surprisingly well spoken and polite, even ignoring an adventurer to answer my question.
“Well you see, Player Magnum D., RAGE, is a profoundly complex primary resource to manage and manipulate. I have seen many of my comrades in arms bid farewell to their corporeal being while smothered in a haze of almighty but fleeting strength. It is truly an intoxicating sensation. Ah, but I must be terribly stale to interact with, running my mouth despite being a mere instructor. Please take this as my apologies.”
YOU HAVE DISCOVERED RAGE, A PRIMARY RESOURCE!
I couldn’t help but think that, just maybe, there was a huge crowd around the Physical Instructors because of how exceedingly verbose they were.
Training Skill Book: Pummel [1 Charge] - [Consumable] It turns that there’s more to a weapon than its pointy and sharp bits.
Finally was the Magic Instructor, a plain brunette male human NPC with brown eyes.
“I see you have already discovered MANA from your encounters with the slimes. You may also use this resource to empower your Bolt, at the cost of casting it for free.”
As the instructor spoke, I saw a new drop down option appear on the Bolt skill.
“Magical skills in Equilibrium are very different from the support skills and physical skills that you come across. Most players understand the concept behind swinging a sword or putting more effort into running. In contrast, magic is a fundamentally unique concept to each and every new world that you explore.”
The Magical Instructor raised an open palm upwards, iridescent magical threads trailing from a sprouting azure flower.
“Do not limit yourself when it comes to imagining new abilities. If you can grasp an idea, the system will do its best to guide you.” The instructor handed me a small square of white porcelain. “Well, within reason of course.”
Training Tabula Rasa - [Material] Somehow, you can feel the simultaneous clash of complete mediocrity and incredible potential in this piece of ceramic.
Seems like Felix might be able to fire off the Black Fire Laser Cannon sooner than expected.
I left the clearing to avoid the bustling noise and focus on what I wanted from the Tabula Rasa.
The item was no surprise to me. It was a huge power of why the game was popular while it was in development — being able to make your own custom (and possibly unique) skills with the help of a powerful AI was something that no other game had dared to promise. There was obvious skepticism when it was initially announced, but all of it was dispelled when nearly every game reviewer, corporate and independent, praised the system during the prerelease playtest.
The only scathingly negative review was sent in by a popular online internet personality, Kay Levin. They were apparently denied the creation of a lot of fantastical abilities because the system deemed them too powerful.
“When I play a game, that like, promises the universe to me, I expect, like, the universe. Do you think that I, someone who literally dominates every game I play, wants to be limited because other people are just too stupid? It’s catering to the low imagination, low skill population, and that’s disgusting.”
That particular video pulled in nearly a hundred million views in the first week of being released, which made me wonder if it was a marketing ploy more than a legitimately critical video. Considering that Kay Levin had already slammed a dozen videos within three days after the game’s release, I considered it a very safe bet.
I had checked his channel before I logged on, and saw that he had already posted another one, titled: “COPY ME TO BE THE BEST!” I thought about watching it, but it was over thirty minutes long and I was already late to logging in. Also in retrospect, it would’ve hurt the spirit of competition with Felix.
Well, not like I would have heeded Kay Levin’s advice. He had been a somewhat proficient PvP player in the last game me and my friends had played, but his videos were just him beating on weaker players.
The two suns had begun to dip into the horizon, casting streaks of orange and purple that weaved together in the clear sky. I checked the in-game time, realizing that about 3 hours had passed.
“Yo, logging off for dinner. Don’t get too ahead.”
“You’re eating dinner bro? Oh shit, it’s already 7. I’ll get a quick stretch in, thanks for the heads up.”
“You aren’t eating?”
“Nah, stuffed myself at the office. Gotta get the grind in, ya know.”
I scrunched up my nose, remembering that Felix’s workplace always had free buffet lunches.