I sit down with Anastasia and Axi.
“First, can you tell us more about the power levels of humans?” I ask. I want to learn more about the dangers of associating with civilization.
“Ok. First, you know enlightened races have five class slots. Classes give us stats and work based on their skills. For example, my Tracker class is based on the Tracking skill. Classes level based on their skills. Level twenty means your class is also level twenty, and so on.”
“What if you drop the skill?”
“You can’t. You can only get rid of a class with the help of a priest, and only if you haven’t tiered up with it.”
“What about upgrading skills?”
“Class upgrades as well, and you even have the option to choose in which direction you want to go with your skill, and so the class as well. Most people only upgrade their class skills when they know they won’t lose too many levels. Getting a new skill at level one means your new class has better growth, but you are temporarily weakened. It’s a bit easier for high tiers as they have flat stat bonuses from tiering up. Most people don’t do that and try to level their skills higher before the change. Obviously, only if they are smart enough to have such a high cap. For most enlightened, the hardest part is to raise the cap, not to get more experience.”
“That sucks. Humans have it harder.” Axi says.
“Not really. Goblins have a clear evolutionary path up to 4th tier Ogres, but then you have to evolve like any other monster by raking in achievements and high-level skills and traits.”
“You get some stat points upon evolving, right?”
She nods. “Enlightened has it a bit similar. To increase in tier, you need a class of right rarity over level fifty. Then, your class skill drops fifty levels as a payment, and you permanently merge that class with your soul. Even a priest can’t drop it for you then.
You need better rarities for higher tiers. Uncommon class for 2nd tier, rare for 3rd, vary rare for 4th, and epic for 5th. After that, you have to get a prestige class. Basic classes, such as mine, are based on one skill, but a class can be based on three. Adding another skill to a class is difficult, though. I heard you need to practically use two skills for one purpose, and both of them need to be high-level and relatively high-tier.”
“Do requirements for skill rarities increase after the 5th tier?”
"I don't know. It's high-level stuff. Generally, only geniuses and people with strong backing can get that high."
"Ok." Let's ask something else. "How many stats do you get from flat bonuses from tiering up?"
“For a common skill, it's around 10 total to specific stats, like Archer gets Strength and Dexterity. For the Uncommon class, it's around 30. I don't know about higher rarities. You can tier up with stronger skills for stronger bonuses, but at least as rare as I mentioned. This gives you a flat bonus that replaces lost stats from the lowered skill level, and then you can easily re-level that skill for more stats since your cap is the same as before. You can upgrade that skill and class further, which will give you more stats, but you can't get rid of that class.
“Ok. How many stats do you get from class levels? Also, is this the only benefit of tiering up?” I ask.
“Tiering up also increases your soul capacity for storing mana and makes it easier to attune to mana types. It also upgrades your body, allowing you to have more stats. I think you monsters have a similar system.”
I quickly ask the system, and indeed, my current race allows for up to one hundred physical stats. That’s a disappointment. I wouldn't even be able to completely use a perk from a Legendary skill. I ask for soul skills, but there doesn’t seem to be a cap.
"As for stats, level one hundred in a skill theoretically gives as much stats as a flat bonus from tiering up."
I frown. "How many stats do the enlightened have at tier zero?"
"Children start with 1 in each stat, but get more with age and education, though physical stats are capped at 10 for the 0th tier.
I make a quick calculation. An enlightened person with common classes would have similar stats to 1st tier monster. Similarly, 2nd tier humans with uncommon classes would have similar stats to 2nd tier monsters, but only when assuming their average skill level is only around 20–25. To match someone with skill levels over fifty, high rarity evolution should be required. Also, enlightened people have a starting advantage due to training.
“I see. So, are tier two enlightened as strong as 2nd tier monsters?”
“Yes and no. Generally, yes, but tier only describes someone’s minimum amount of power. For example, a 4th tier can have five epic classes rather than a sequence ending with Very Rare. Or even higher rarity. Bonuses are only dependent on a skill rarity, not a person's tier, so an Epic skill would give as many stats to a 5th tier as a 1st tier. It’s super hard, though. Enlightened people don’t have something like evolution that can give better options based on achievements, so we usually tier up as soon as possible. Geniuses, though, can fight above their tier. There are even legends of heroes that could win two or even three tiers above their own.”
Anastasia continues.
“Tier system is the most popular, but it gives stupid results for low tiers. Because of that, most organizations don’t grade 1st and 2nd tier humans just like that but on different criteria. For example, the Adventurers Guild has Bronze Rank, Silver Rank, Gold Rank, Platinum Rank, and then 3rd tier.”
“Explain why.”
“Sure. That’s because a lot of the strength of a class comes from having a lot of levels. Two zero-tier fighters with all class skills at level one have the same stats, even if one has all common skills and the other has mythical rarity skills. 1st tiers have flat stats from one class, but those stats usually are only a small part in total, making stats from leveling more significant. Because of that, the tier system is totally unreliable for low tiers. There are also caps. They don't give perks, but someone with high caps will be fighting way more skillfully than a person with low caps and maxed experience.”
“Ok. I have a question. Is there a hard cap on skills? Why not level low rarity skills further?”
“I heard there’s a hard cap at level one hundred, but it’s hard to reach it without upgrading your skill, even accidentally.”
I nod. That makes sense. Anastasia continues.
“Adventurers' ranks are given by the guild. It’s usually just a combat test. The Bronze Rank is the starting rank. Silver Rank means you can reliably kill 1st tier monsters. I have it officially, but I should be a Gold by now. Gold Rank means you can fight off 2nd tier monsters, and have some chance against 3rd tiers in large groups. Platinum means you can reliably kill 2nd tier monsters and fight off 3rd tier monsters in a small, competent group. After that, you take the final test for the guild to acknowledge you as a 3rd tier fighter.”
“What about me?”
“You should be around gold rank. Axi with her current strength, is only silver.” I nod. Against monsters, I may be platinum with my magic, but most humans have at least basic magic defense measures. Against humans, my strength should really be around gold rank.
“What are your classes?” Axi asks. I guess she didn’t bother about it or thought Anastasia had the same system as her.
“I have uncommon Archer, uncommon Tracker, uncommon Novice Arcanist, and common Farmer. I’m tier one now with Archer as my locked class.”
“Why not pick the last class? And why do you keep Farmer?”
“I don’t have money to pay a priest for the removal, plus I get some stats from it. As for the last class, picking a common class won't give me much, so I'm a bit undecided. I may unlock the prestige class using one of the skills I plan to use for the last class. The prestige class would be way better than another common class. I also don't have the means to remove classes right now, so I don't want to be rash.”
“Ok. How many adventurers, or more generally, combatants are there?”
“Technically, all civilians are Bronze Rank. There should be around a hundred adventures in the closest town, Fikeral. Around the same guards and soldiers of similar strength. Then there were a dozen gold-rank adventurers and probably around the same number of lieutenants. There are only four platinum adventurers. No idea about soldiers. The mayor is a former adventurer as well, and he is 3rd tier.”
This means the town is several times stronger than us. Direct confrontation is impossible.
“Why won't they kill us?” Axi asks. This is easy.
“Money. Power. Influence. Humans fight with each other for it. They would have to temporarily unite. That’s impossible unless we attack the town.” And each faction is probably not strong enough to kill us without big losses. Even if they did, they would only get Experience Points.
“I still want to try to trade. We need to look for merchandise. Maybe the furs of stronger monsters. Anastasia, you should know the best. After that, you should go and trade that for metal and maybe knowledge.”
“Why would you want metal?”
“For Axi”
“Me? What’s metal?”
“You want to become a craftswoman now, right? Metal is the substance your old helmet is made of.”
A few weeks passed since the conversation about humans' strength. Anastasia started working as the chieftain, leading hunting groups. She was a bit afraid at first, but there was no problem. It seems the rest of the goblins listen to her authority. Axi started to level up her crafting skills. I started teaching her what I knew and also doing a bit of rune scribbling. It would be nice if she could enchant items as well. She doesn’t need to understand the runes; she only needs to remember them well enough to recreate them.
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On the matter of runes, I started teaching Anastasia. With all the new perks, I now knew more than her, and she still had one of her classes based on that skill. She was also sometimes able to add to my knowledge by right-guessing or actually figuring something out. She also managed to upgrade her stealth skills to Sneak on Prey, which was an Uncommon skill. It gave her Ambush Hunter class.
I tested my new magic more. I didn’t manage to achieve any breakthroughs, but I improved my understanding of vitality and my skills. I also tested my new Transplant Soul skill. Firstly, it has a failure chance. I would say only around 70–80% of cases have been reborn successfully.
I don’t know the exact problem. I also tried to kill a newly resurrected monster again, hoping to create an EXP farm. The system informed me I can’t get Experience Points from killing the same creature twice. This isn’t the case for someone else. This method is completely uneconomical for the Transplant Soul skill, but I can do the trick just by controlling vitality. I only created the skill because I couldn’t place Axi’s soul back in her body. This method means everyone can kill a monster once, and it only costs me mana.
It's a bit strange that I didn't get the Resurection skill or something similar. Why? It's another strange thing about the system.
I started using this method to feed Axi Experience Points. I also did so for the rest of the tribe, especially Anastasia, but I have limited mana.
Back to the Transplant Soul skill, I used the skill to transplant a mouse's soul into a rabbit’s fetus. It worked at first, but soon after, there was a miscarriage. It repeated every single time. I opened the rabbit’s stomach to check the result. I kind of expected some horrible abomination, but it wasn’t that bad. I mean, all fetuses looked gross and unnatural, but the experimental one wasn’t much different from them. It had some serious deformations, though.
I repeated the experiment, trying to transplant mice’s souls into a rat. I wanted to check if both species being similar would help. It did. All miscarriages happened later in the pregnancy, and one experiment even managed to survive and was born as a mouse.
After those weeks, we all gained a bunch of experience. Four more goblins evolved into hobs. Axi got some crafting perks and Anastasia bunch of stats from advancing her classes. I got a lot of Experience as well, mostly because Anastasia often dragged 2nd tier monsters to the tribe so we could all kill them once.
You have killed 136 1st tier monsters. You have earned 4760 Experience Points.
You have killed 23 2nd tier monsters. You have earned 11800 Experience Points.
You have advanced to level 3!
Your Vitality Mana Control skill has advanced to level 16!
Your Vitality Buff skill has advanced to level 13!
Your Mana Sense skill has advanced to level 32!
Your Mana Manipulation skill has advanced to level 30!
Your Vitality Bank skill has advanced to level 10!
Your Soul Perception skill has advanced to level 12!
Your Move Soul skill has advanced to level 8!
Your Transplant Soul skill has advanced to level 6!
Your Spear Fighting skill has advanced to level 25!
Your Strategy skill has advanced to level 25!
Your Vitality Clot skill has advanced to level 13!
Your Iron Stomach Trait has advanced to level 21!
Your Vitality Mana Affinity trait has advanced to level 5!
Your Rune Basics skill has advanced to level 28!
Your Plotting skill has advanced to level 18!
Your Leadership skill has advanced to level 18!
Your Rune Scribbling skill has advanced to level 28!
For Mana Sense I pick my old perks: Resolution I and Vitality Sense. For Mana Manipulation, I pick old Mana Lock I, and then for the third perk, I hesitate between Rune Casting and Mana Insulation.
Rune Casting
Become better at creating runes from ambient mana
Mana Insulation
Learn to use isolating mana to prevent interference between different affinity mana types
I pick Rune Casting, as Mana Insulation will only be helpful when I figure out runes more. For Soul Perception I pick my old Decay Sense. This leaves six more perks to pick from. There are two new perks for the Iron Stomach trait.
Armored Stomach
Make your stomach resist even acids and venoms.
Source of Vitality
Make your stomach produce some vitality for your body, at the cost of more food.
Source of Vitality is a bit meh since it provides vitality, not vitality mana. I’m also afraid this will make me starve in the future. I pick Efficient Stomach from the previous list, which allows me to get more nutrition from food. When I arrived in this world, it was spring. Now, summer is in full. I'm a bit afraid of the winter. Next, Strategy. I just picked Will I from it before, so I check the full list now.
Battle Strategy I
Learn how to control the flow of battle.
Resource Management
Learn how to better use your resources.
Long Term Planning
Learn how to prepare your forces for the future.
Counter Planning
Notice the enemy’s intentions more easily in a battle.
An Eye for Soldiers I
Be able to notice talented soldiers and recruits.
Communication I
Create a communication channel connecting you to two of your minions. Only simple signals can be transmitted.
I pick Communication I. I may reset the skill in the future for different perks. I wonder sometimes what perks like Long Term Planning could lead to at high levels. Maybe some limited precognition? Vitality Buff is next.
Faster and Stronger
Greatly increase the speed of vitality flow to create a semi-berserk state.
Efficiency
Decrease cost of vitality mana.
Gates I
Learn how to create vitality gates inside a body to partially offload the skill.
All three perks are very useful. As expected of the Epic rarity skill. I pick Gates I for more runes. It should also decrease my mental endurance expenditure for casting. Vitality Clot is next.
Sails I
Make your clot move faster in vitality flows.
Stealth
Make your clot look more like part of the target’s vitality.
Delayed Activation
Harden your clot at will, after it finds itself at a vital point.
Delayed Activation is meh, I don’t really need it. Maybe it will unlock some options to further control my spell inside someone, but I’m not going just for that. Stealth is also something I dislike. The only way to stop the spell should be to either have vitality mana as well or use isolating mana inside vitality, which is also damaging. Maybe there are other options. I don’t know. I pick Sail I. Having faster activation is great, even if the perk seems generic. I may cycle the skill later for all runes, though. Vitality Bank is next.
More Blood I
Increase the number of possible banks.
Stealth
Make the mark on the sacrificed creatures harder to notice.
Range I
Increase the maximum range from which the skill still works.
I grimace. I wanted more runes, but it doesn’t seem like I will get them from those perks. Actually, I wonder how they work. Rune-based perks and skills are obvious. Runes are magic. The system just shows me new tricks. These options look like an obvious upgrade, but without me doing anything. Obviously, I can also be wrong. As for the choice, all options have some merit. More Blood I should miniaturize runes, showing me how to do so. I probably won’t be able to learn much; I suspect it’s just a matter of being good enough with Mana Manipulation. Range I is obviously useful. Stealth has the highest chance to actually modify current runes.
I pick Stealth in the end, as it could also provide me with an opportunity to train my Mana Sense skill. There are no changes to the rune structure, but the method of casting is slightly different. I will check it later. The last perk is for Vitality Mana Control.
Vitality Flow I
Become better at controlling vitality.
Vitality Mana I
Become better at controlling vitality.
Vitality Weave I
Become significantly better at precise manipulation of vitality mana, at the cost of volume control.
Vitality River I
Become significantly better at controlling a large volume of vitality mana, at the cost of precision.
I frown at the options. They are similar to Mana Manipulation ones, which is not surprising. I expected something better, or at least more specialized. Is it because I still haven’t figured out much about vitality? Maybe the system wants an initial pick to show me specialized options later. Anyway, I don’t want to close any options for myself, so I pick Vitality Flow I.
Perks picked, it’s time for Anastasia’s expedition. The next day, I, Anastasia, and a few hobgoblins march east. The tribe now has over ten hobgoblins. When hunting with Anastasia, we usually leave a 2nd tier monster for last, and then I paralyze them and let everyone in the group kill the monster once, using my control of vitality and souls to resurrect them after every execution. This generated a lot of Experience Points for regular goblins.
Our goal is trade. Obviously, only Anastasia is going to the town. We are only escorting her. There is also the threat of adventurers and monsters, and the merchandise is heavy as well. Anastasia should be fine traveling with it on a nice road, but not dragging it through the forest, or especially not fighting with it.
We give her pelts and some 2nd tier monsters’ bones. We considered Axi’s creations—weapons and armors. She got way better in recent weeks, and she is our best craftswoman now, but her creations are still somehow primitive. We don’t want humans to know Anastasia’s goods are from monsters. Just like that, we go beyond my first cave and further west. Anastasia is our guide, as she is the only one who traveled here. After a few more hours of travel, the forest ends.
There is a village. I guess there are humans inside.
“Is it fine?”
“There shouldn’t be any adventurers there. We will march north for an hour, or maybe two. That place is closer to the town and farther from the villages. You will be able to camp there for a day, with only a low chance of being found out.”
We do so. We find a suitable location after two hours. Anastasia wants to leave immediately, but I stop her.
“Let’s wait for the next day. If you leave now, you will have to spend the night in town. Better to go in the morning.” She nods, and we spend the night there.
In the morning, we load all the merchandise on her, and Anastasia grunts from the heaviness. “I’m fine. I’m stronger now.” She says this and starts to march to the town. I and the rest of the hobgoblins can only wait for now.