I sat down across from the blacksmith and decided I should ask some questions before just slamming myself into a profession. I was already leaning towards blacksmithing the moment I picked my class, but maybe information before the decision and seeing what the others would pick or have already picked would be a better idea. “I would like to learn more about professions before I fully settle into a choice if that would be, ok?” I said to the blacksmith.
He stood up, and responded, “one moment me boy, let me grab ye somethin’ to help ye out a bit better. I don’t quite have any knowledge outside of me blacksmithin’” he shuffled his way into his house. I heard some clanging and what seemed like Dwarven curses then he came back out and handed me a book with the title [Basic guide to Professions] I nodded in thanks.
I stood up and before I left, I turned back and inquired, “are you not a depth dweller? I mean no insult by that, I just assumed that because you’re a dwarf.”
He laughed a laugh that was like two solid steel balls clanging together, “no me boy, I be a dwarf yes, but I be a surface dwarf, me kind live normally atop a volcano.”
“Oh, I see that makes sense. Do you have depth dweller kin?” I asked, curious.
He nodded in response “Aye we do, they be not friends of ours though. Great smiths, terrible personalities.” he said as he bellowed another laugh out turning back to his anvil. I chuckled as I walked towards the inn that the gentleman pointed me to earlier and inspected the book as I walked onward, still pretty set I’d be back to learn blacksmithing.
[BASIC GUIDE TO PROFESSIONS]
Index
Benefits of professions…
Main professions
Blacksmithing…
Enchanting…
Jewel crafting…
Tailoring…
Gem cutting…
Tinkering…
Leatherworking…
Alchemist…
Cooking…
Glossary...
These professions seemed really awesome and with our group we could benefit really well from these with the right combinations. I was excited to find the others and discuss the possibilities.
I arrived at the inn and was greeted by whom I can only assume was Jero, “Hello weary traveler, welcome to my humble inn. How may I help you?” a deep voice that I am quite sure came from the tiny man in front of me said, he was about two foot tall, had pure white hair, an overly sized round nose with tiny glasses sitting on top of it, his eyes were beady black with no sclera around them. There was a whole lot of things going on here with this guy that through me for a loop, I stared at him in shock, “Didn’t your parents teach you staring is rude.” Jero said with a tinge of irritation in his voice.
“My apologies sir, I uh, don’t really have a good excuse for my rudeness there…” I responded as I rubbed the back of my head with an embarrassed smile on my face.
He grunted still unamused, “If you need a room or any food, just let me know sir.” I looked around the room to see if the others were around with no luck.
“Have any other travelers come through here recently? I am looking for some friends that came here with me.” I asked.
“No, you’re the first traveler I have seen in a few years.” Jero responded, sounding like the irritation was gone at this point. I figured I could sit down and inspect my menus now and read over this book a bit to figure out what I wanted to do. So, I opened up my menu screen.
OPTIONS
CLASS – STARS ASCENT
STATS
INVENTORY(must have bag equipped)
PROFESSION(must speak to a tradesman first)
I opened my class tab first so I could further inspect the class that I had picked.
CLASS – STARS ASCENT
You are but a sparkle in the sky, not yet powerful, yet not unnoticed. Burn with fury, be the light that guides, and burns with the wrath of the heavens.
Celestial Sanctum- You cast a dome of protection that reduces damage taken for you and any allies inside by 20% and heals you and allies for 2% of total base HP over 10 sec every 1 sec. Dome Lasts 10 sec, 5-minute cooldown.
Abyssal Retribution- Can only be cast after being a target of an attack, hits enemy for 100% of the damage that would have hit you. 8-minute cooldown.
Those were some pretty cool abilities to start with, the cooldown on the attack was a bit rough, but that could be an immensely powerful ability if used correctly so I didn’t see the harm in it. Next, I opened the skills tab to see any changes since I didn’t really have any numbers before.
STATS
LEVEL – 1, TRAVELER
STRENGTH - 7
DEXTERITY - 9
INTELLECT - 17
WISDOM - 14
LUCK - 9
Level Traveler, now that was an interesting thing to see. I tried to focus on the [TRAVELER] text to see if I could glean any more information on it, to no avail. So, I did the next best thing, “Excuse me, Jero.” I said as I walked back up to the bar, “I was curious if there was anything you might be able to tell me about how the leveling system works?” I asked as I sat down on the nearest barstool waiting for him to get done wiping down the other end of the bar.
Jero began looking around his bar for something, once he found it, he brought it up to me at the bar. It was another book, [ Basics to Leveling… and stuff]. What an odd title that was, “This will give you a basic run down on the leveling system, also has some good information about the spells and abilities system as well.” Jero said as he pushed the book closer to me. The book was a leatherbound well weathered and used book.
I looked up to Jero with a smile, “I appreciate it man, mind if I get a drink while I look over this?” I asked.
Jero grabbed a mug and filled it with a greenish blue liquid and pushed it over to me, “Brewed this ale right here by mine own hands” Jero said with a straight back and proud look on his features. I smelled the concoction, it smelled like berries and honey, so I gave it a taste. Man, that was the best and smoothest tasting ale I’ve ever had. It had a bit of an earthy taste to it, with a hint of the berries and honey that I could smell. I noticed a buff pop up in my peripheral, I inspected it.
[Jero’s Ale] – Lasts 1hour.
All stats +1
You feel lighter, and much more relaxed. Don’t drink too much though, you may lose sight of yourself.
That was interesting, I looked up to Jero and asked, “What happens if I drink too much?”
Jero looked up above me for a moment than in realization he looked back down to me, “Ah yes, the buff, well just like with any alcohol if you drink too much you become a bit of an idiot, make bad choices, you know the usual. Though, with that comes benefits, you get more strength and constitution. However, anything past that it becomes a poison de-buff. So just watch how much you drink, and you will be fine.” He responded nonchalantly while cleaning the bar. I nodded realizing I probably should have guessed that. I opened the book and began to read to learn more about the leveling system.
[Basics to Leveling… and stuff]
Welcome to this introduction into leveling! Within this shoddy little book, you may learn something, or not, that is not my problem! Anyway, let’s go over the way leveling works. Levels 1- 100 are Traveler levels after that you will rank up to Adventurer, not much I can tell you about that, since I’m only a level 53 Traveler while I write this book. So far, I’ve noticed you get three free stat points every level, I’ve also heard rumors when you get past the Adventurer levels you pick a sub class, though I don’t know if that source was trustworthy. When you hit level 10 you unlock your first ability choice out of a list that seems to vary depending on your class. After that, you get another choice at level 50. Oh, I guess I should note that there are a total of five ranks known, and one that is rumored to exist. I will not list the sixth rumor since it may not be true. You have what you likely are (since you’re reading this book) Traveler, after that Adventurer, then Veteran, Champion, and finally Legend. I guess your stats get multiplied quite a lot the further in ranks you get. I have no information on how many levels per rank nor how much your stats are multiplied. Just be glad you get this information. As far as abilities are concerned, you get to hold three abilities at a time, so choose carefully! I’ve heard you get one extra slot per rank, but don’t hold your breath for it.
After that, the book just went on about the authors travels and some of the monsters he had fought against. Some useful information to keep handy if I run into any of the creatures mentioned, it also explained some of the wild plants that are edible or poisonous, so that would be of significant help too, unfortunately he or she mentions that the information provided is only within these local forests of this planet. I could only assume that he left this book behind for any new Travelers in the realm. I looked over to Jero and asked, “May I keep this book for a little bit to take some notes, I’ll bring it back before I leave the town.”
Jero who was serving a couple of other townsmen that walked in looked over to me, “Yea, just please make sure to bring it back. Lots of new Travelers are supposed to be coming through here soon.” I nodded in thanks and walked over to a table in the corner to wait and see if any of my friends would be joining me soon.
While waiting for them, I opened the [Basic guide to Professions] back up to delve deeper into the benefits and descriptions.
Benefits of professions – Depending on the direction you want to go within the professions, whether that be becoming a Grand Master, Master, or just an Artisan. There are benefits and downfalls to each direction.
If you choose to become a Grand Master of one profession you not only get to choose two master paths, you also craft items at twice the speed of a master, and materials needed are reduced by half that of master requirements because you have learned how to make items with just the right amount of materials. However, there are some items that a Grand Master can learn that can’t be sold, and the materials required could take centuries to find.
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If you choose to become a Master of two professions you get one master path per class, you craft items two times faster than an Artisan, and materials needed are half of what an Artisan would be required for any item that is not made in the master path. Though you will need the max amount of materials and your craft time for items in master paths are two times that of a Grand Master.
If you choose to be an Artisan, you will not get any master path choices, materials needed are max requirement, and craft speed is normal. You do, however, sell any item you make from any of these professions for 50% more profit, this was implemented due to the fact that Masters and Grand Masters items sell for a lot more than any Artisan was able to make previously.
Main Professions
-Note: Items listed will only be brief descriptions until you pick a profession, and only that profession will provide more information.
Blacksmithing – With the ore you mine and smelt into ingots, you can forge armor, weapons, and more from metals around the realms -Note: Any gems you find within stone around ore will surely shatter if you try to remove them as a Gem Cutter is only skilled enough to remove any gems, so be careful if you see any gems within the stone!-
Enchanting – With materials found throughout the realms you may make existing armors and weapons far more powerful! -Note: Elemental items cannot be enchanted, if you try… well let’s just say you don’t want to attempt that fate…-
Jewel crafting – you may craft jewelry from many things, beads, rocks, braided strings, metals, and anything you may see as a pretty piece of jewelry -Note: ores, and gems will have to be obtained via purchasing, trading, or if you have a good friend that will give you materials, that works too.-
Tailoring – You craft exquisite clothing that can give immense power, or just make you look immensely powerful. You can turn scraps of cloth into clothes for royalty, or just something basic, your creation is to your taste! -Note: Be sure to talk to a local blacksmith about your needles, or you may be a bit sad when you cannot sew properly with a dull needle. Also, you will have to sacrifice some scraps of cloth to make thread.-
Gem Cutting – With the precious gems that you carefully harvest from the worlds within the realms you can cut gems into incredibly powerful stat boosts, elemental and physical damage boosts, resistance boosts, and healing boosts. -Note: All gems crafted can only be instilled into items by the other professions, do not fear though your gems will always be needed! (Also, you get some good money from this profession!)-
Tinkering – With explosive powders, chemicals, or whatever you psychopaths find you can create extremely powerful explosive devices. You also craft bows and crossbows… with explosive arrows and bolts… seriously these guys are terrifying. -Note: You are not immune to your explosives, also some of these guys die when crafting their explosives… if you pick this profession maybe just make the bows and crossbows…-
Alchemist – You may create healing tonics and elixirs that greatly increase stats, damage, or resistances for a brief time. You also create the chemicals that the psychopaths above need for their… experiments. -Note: DO NOT ENABLE THOSE PSYCHOPATHS! No, seriously once you give them a chemical that goes KABLOOEY! They just don’t stop bothering you after that.-
Leatherworking – With leather and scales you harvest from beasts throughout the realms you create stylish armors, which are powerful as well! You may also create backpacks to increase your carrying capacity. -Note: I hope you’re friends with a tailor AND a blacksmith because you will need thread and needles as well if you pick this profession!-
Cooking – You cook delightful food that can give a buff for up to 24 hours increasing stats, damage, and resistances by a fair amount. Also, you can store food for longer than the normal time without it going sour. -Note: This is the only profession without any mastery paths, you’re either really good at it or not. Also, this does not take up a profession slot, so literally everyone can learn how to cook. Seriously, learn to take care of yourself, your mommy won’t always be around.-
I got a strong feeling that whoever wrote this did not have a good run in with Tinkerers. This was an interesting book though. There was a lot of empty pages I am guessing they fill in with the learned profession information. I was leaning really hard towards Blacksmithing, but I wanted to speak with the others before I made any decisions. As I set the book down, I looked up and saw Max walking in, his ears more pointed, his skin was a dark purple color, and his eyes were deep orbs of nothingness, “Max! Hey, buddy over here!” I said excitedly as a stood up with a hand up.
Max smiled in my direction showing some new fangs he gained while he walked over, “James! I wasn’t too sure if I was the first one out or not.” He said as he sat down at the table.
“To be honest, I’m not even sure that I am the first one that was out. Knowing Leo, he might be wandering around the town first.” I said with a chuckle, and Max laughed in agreement nodding. I passed the professions book over to him, “Take a look at this, I was going to just go and learn Blacksmithing, but I decided it might be best to wait to pick anything until we all were together.”
“Yeah, that was my thought as well, I was going to pick up leatherworking for my profession. Figured we could see what everyone wanted to do that way we can work around one another.” Max said while nose deep in the professions book.
Shortly after that, Mel walks into the inn, the face was hers… well kinda… “Holy shit!” I said startled, “Mel, uh… is that you?” She smiled a huge smile that showed the two massive tusks off even more than they already showed. She had a dark mocha like skin complexion, she had grown to be at least eight feet tall, and her shoulders were massive; have you ever seen those muscle competitions? Yeah, those guys are tiny compared to the orc woman now in front of me, her hair had also grown much longer but still raven black, and her eyes were a shocking blue now.
She sat down at the table, somehow not destroying the seat she was in, her voice was quite a bit deeper now, “Did you blokes see the other two yet?” she asked.
I shook my head as I responded, “No not yet. Let me guess you picked the orc race?” She nodded to confirm, “and Max what race are you?”
Max finally looked up from the book and jumped at the sight of Mel, “Good God Mel! You scared the shit out of me!”
Mel and I both laughed at his reaction, after Max composed himself, he slid the book over to Mel and responded to my question, “I am a Drow Elf, I thought it looked super cool. Some of the people in town are not fans of me though… I was worried that I would not be able to talk to anyone here in town at first though because of my class, but Jaq’Kuah told me that this first town is the starting base so we can still do business as usual here, but once we leave; any town that is not abyssal or demonic will not speak with me. In fact, some may straight out attack me.” That made me curious of what classes the two chose, I thought it was a great idea he had chosen an abyssal lined class, that way we can still do business in both dwellings. I was going to ask what classes they chose, but then I thought maybe that should also be discussed with everyone else around so we could all be acquainted with the changes among us as one.
So, I decided to ask a different question, “So if I heal you with an ability would it hurt you since I am celestial based powers? Should we test that out before we get into a situation where it could cause an issue?”
Max looked thoughtful for a moment, probably going through his menus then responded, “Let’s go outside and give it a test, I don’t see anything in my menus warning against it, so this is a testing situation.” I followed him outside with Mel on our heels curious about the outcome as well. I cast [Celestial Sanctum], and a blueish golden dome surrounded us by about ten feet around us on all sides. Max looked fine, he cut his hand with his sharp nail and the wound healed over instantly, “Seems fine to me, that is good to know, though I wonder if it may be because we are partied?” Max said questioningly.
I shrugged and said, “Well we could always ask someone, I don’t want to risk removing anyone or leaving the party just in case that could have a really bad effect.”
We walked back into the inn, and I walked up to the bar to ask Jero about it, and he said, “If he was not in your party the heals would hurt your friend, just as any Abyssal heals would hurt you since you’re a celestial caster.” Jero paused for a moment, “You all do know this is not just a game… right? If you all die here, that is it. There is no going back or waking up back in your realm.”
All three of us looked at each other, Max was the first to say anything after a few brief moments, “I am sure we all knew that in some way, but we have family back home that we need to protect. I will not hesitate to keep my little baby girl from having to face any chance of that darkness haunting her.”
Shortly after Mel nodded her head, “Too right, mate. Besides, I wasn’t up to much back home anyway.”
I looked back to Mel, then to Max and noticed two people walking into the inn. There they were, “Trish, Leo! Glad you could make it! We were just talking about our fates here if we uh… you know fall into that deep sleep.”
Leo just looked at me with a blank look, “Jaq’Kuah didn’t tell you that already?”
Trish just giggled, “You three never seem to ask questions, just run in headfirst. Good thing Leo and I ask all the questions for us.” I inwardly groaned at myself, you think that would have been the first thing I would have asked but no, what do I do? Just see shiny stuff and go after it, like a raccoon.
Trish walked up to me and kissed my cheek, “That is why I married you though, someone has to make sure you don’t do something too crazy alone.”
I laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of my head. Gesturing to the table in the corner I said, “Let’s have a seat.” We all sat down, and I pushed the profession book over to Leo so he could go over it while we discussed our classes and races everyone picked. I went first and explained how my class worked, “…so I think I will lean more towards tank, and off healing when it is needed. If no one picked a healing class, I could go that direction instead.” I finished explaining my plans with my class. Leo, who looked like himself, except for his arcane shimmering skin of purples and blues as if it were a different version of the northern lights moving across his skin explained his class and race next.
“I picked a race called [Auroralis] It greatly increases spell damage, and makes any physical attacks do spell damage instead. I picked the [Chaos Mage] class which uses all the elements but at random, I can’t control what element is used. But I get abilities that can channel a certain element for a brief time.”
My eyes widened slightly, “Dang dude that is kinda epic!” I said after a second. Remembering that my class had some restrictions I decided to ask, “Does your class or race have any restrictions on who you can talk to Leo?”
Leo shook his head and responded, “No both are considered neutral to all of the… factions?”
Max decided to go next since Trish was still looking over the professions book, “I picked the [Drow Elf] race which increases my damage with abyssal abilities and also keeps me from going mad from abyssal poisoning, and my class is [Shadow Archer] Which can use shadows to teleport around the field and does immense damage and poisons. It has some abyssal abilities but for the most part it is very mobile which makes up for lack of survivability. Outside of this town I cannot talk to any races that are not depth dwellers or demons, demons I have less pull with, but I wouldn’t trust a demon anyway.”
Leo looked between Max and I with a concerned look, I said, “Already tested it, I can heal him as long as we are in a party my heals will not hurt him in any way.” Leo’s face was washed with relief. Mel looked over to Trish who for some reason had a way to excited look on her face while looking in the professions book still.
“Reckon it’s my turn to go now, I chose the [Gorath Orc] race, and my class is [Ethereal Revenant] I can make my body ethereal and avoid physical attacks completely and reduce magic damage by half when it hits. I can’t stay ethereal I have to time it right. I can also make my armor and weapons ethereal as well, however; right now, it takes so much energy I would not be able to use it but once every couple of hours or so. Also, I have no alignments either.” I gazed at her in amazement for a moment, Max’s mouth was agape, and Leo’s eyes were as wide as mine.
Finally, I decided to respond, “Mel, that is an insane class to have! Oh boy, I am excited to see you in a fight!” Max and Leo both nodded excitedly agreeing with me.
I looked over at Trish who was still overly excited about what she was looking at in the professions book. She noticed us all staring at her waiting, and with a questioning look she responded, “Oh my God, I can make pretty dresses! When do we get to pick our professions?” she asked excitedly. We all laughed, then realization hit her, “Oh, is it my turn? Um… I stayed [Human] as well and I chose the [Astral Aegis] class. It focuses on healing and support; it says it uses celestial powers to heal and ethereal powers to increase allies damage and resistances. I can also turn ethereal to avoid damage physical and magical. If I use that ability though I won’t be able to cast anything at all for a few hours because of the amount of energy it uses. Oh, and I can use the spirit realm to teleport around the field! That one I can only use a few times, but it says I probably should try to use it sparingly. Also, I can only speak to celestials and earthly dwellers.” Trish was the only one of us that was not really into gaming. Though, she would play tabletops with us on occasion, and she was really good at strategy, she usually always played a healing type of class when she did join us.
We chatted for a bit more about strategies and such for when we hit the road, we also decided on professions that we were going to pick that would be best for the party. We obviously all picked up Cooking, thankfully we were all already good with food, this worlds ingredients were going to make it a bit more difficult to learn. That was ok though, good thing was as we increased cooking it increased knowledge of ingredients and how they would create different food buffs. I took Blacksmithing and Gem Cutting for my professions because I figured if I’m going to be mining, I might as well be able to get everything from the nodes I find. Max took on Tinkering. He was going to take Leatherworking with Tinkering but ultimately decided didn’t want to chance not being able to make both explosives and bows at the most powerful forms. Leo picked Alchemy by itself so he could make sure he would be able to make the best potions possible and he wanted to help out our local psychopath. Mel took on Enchanting so she could make sure we always had our weapons and armors up to the best we could make them, and finally Trish obviously took on Tailoring because she loves fashion. We ultimately decided to leave Jewel Crafting out because according to Jero they were a dime a dozen, so trading for jewelry should be pretty easy to do.
When picking our professions we got some backpacks that came with them for starting out, in each of them came the basic tools for the respective professions chosen, and some starting items. Such as a couple health pots, some bread and water, and about 100 gold each. I did not get an extra bag or anything, just extra tools for the second profession. Gathering our things up and handing Jero his book back, we walked out of the town and began our adventure into this mysterious new world.