Pulling up her talentry, she looked at her progress.
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Lunetta:
Class Level: 4
Race Level: 2
Health: 236
Mana: 199
Stamina: 165
Class Warrior
Profession: ??
Subprofession 1: ??
Subprofession 2: ??
Rank[G]
Human[G]
Bloodline: Fenrir[DS] - (Matriarchal Stable)
An unawakened power lies deep within you. +5% Strength, + 10% Intelligence
Patron: Seyvlia
Affinities: Greater Affinity of the Moon, Greater Primal Affinity of the Wolf, Lesser Affinity of Water,
Lesser Affinity of Storm, Lesser Affinity of Rain
Weapon: Sword[G] A basic combat sword. Cracks litter the sword and some of the edge is dull.
Slashing -Level 1 Requirement
Armor:
Shirt(Clothing)-Level 0 Requirement
Underwear(Clothing)-Level 0 Requirement
Pants(Clothing)-Level 0 Requirement
Strength: 19 +(0.9)
Agility: 20
Intelligence: 22 + (1.9)
Vitality: 19
Endurance: 22
Points Free: 4
Talents:
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Now for those 4 glaring points that she had. She envisioned her talent tree.
For the warrior bit:
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Talent Points: 0
Level 1 "Foundations" Cost 1 Talent Point per invested Point
Weapon Mastery: Increase your mastery of a Weapon of your choosing. 3 Points
Scars of a Veteran: Through your many battles you have scars that serve as protection. (+10 Health + 1 Health per Level) + (12 Health per Point + 1 Health Per Level) 3 Points.
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And for the mage bit she also decided to look at.
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Spell Mastery: Increase your mastery of a spell of your choosing. - Mage 3 Points
Initiate Elemental Mastery: All elemental spells are more potent. (+3 Damage for elemental spells) + (+2 Damage per Point for elemental spells + 1 Damage per Level) 3 Points
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The damage part was quite simple, it does more harm. Quite useful if you can bombard enemies with fire and water and all the elemental shit.
Her first note was that Scars of a Veteran gave her more health per point than endurance, especially so with the first point, it would also scale quite well. She threw her four points into a talent point, then bought Weapon Mastery and focused on the general view of a sword, the most average of swords. If she went with a rapier or some other kind of short sword, she'd be screwed since it would be less effective.
Opening her eyes, she felt a bit more familiar with the weapon in her hand, she could now chop at enemies more effectively.
Talents: Weapon Mastery(1/3)
She leaned into her tree, mentally and saw the next step for the warrior, but she couldn't garner more than that. But for the next question, what do the things even mean? Well after her very scientific experimenting she had determined that Strength and Agility both increase damage, and are dependent on each other, Strength is better for heavier weapons, and agility for sharp stabby weapons.
Though it is also dependent on the armor, so it's what it is. Vitality is quite simple, it determines health and stamina regeneration. Endurance seems to reduce damage, and make health more, 10 health points a pop. Strength only gives 1 health a point, so it isn't every lucrative to invest in Strength to become healthy.
Intelligence just seems to increase mana and that's about it. She doesn't have any spells so testing is quite literally impossible. The "points" on the talents seem to indicate that they only work on the stuff with the last round things. She had a feeling that points in her talent tree won't have a visual effect in the talentry thing itself, moreso a kind of hidden effect.
The health would be there, but it wouldn't show itself at any point, kind of like an invisible force helping her. Since it's quite flat, literally, it won't really scale all too well. The only reason her bloodline's effect even seems to appear is because she willed it.
The next options of the tree showed themselves. It had taken quite a bit of effort to peer into them sadly.
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Swordsmanship Specialization: Increase your familiarity with swordsmanship and any sword skills you use are more effective - Warrior 4 Points
+ (Grants all sword skills an additional minor strength scaling)
Sword and Buckler: Increase the effect of all your stats by 2% for wearing a sword or buckler, wearing both increases the effect of all stats by 4% - 4 Points
(Each point adds 1 All stats while wearing either a sword or buckler, 2 All stats for wearing both)
Thrusting Specialization: Increases your ability to thrust your sword into enemies by a minor amount. (effect has a minor scaling of Strength) - 4 Points
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She wasn't going to be doing any thrusting anytime soon, that's for sure. She's more specialized in slicing stuff. A buckler was also out of the question. She wanted to at least get the full warrior tree's bottom end before moving on. A strong foundation was quite stable. On another note.
Fucking around with her internal mana allowed her to make some swirls here and swirls there. After some nudging she managed to braid stamina and health into it. She felt like she was on the cusp of something, but it eluded her. Such a frustrating and futile endeavor gnoll hunting is quite fun. So how do you hunt a gnoll?
You make sure they are nice and isolated, so you don't get shit in the wound. The more gnolls there are, the more likely it is that they would have the courage to stick an arrow up their ass. From 3 gnolls and on it gets quite a bit more common, but none repeat the skill, because it apparently causes quite a bit of pain to have a barbed arrow up your ass.
Secondly, make sure to get an environment and ambush them. They are quite sturdy, especially level 4's, if you don't manage to end the fight quickly you're going to be in for a shitfest, literally and figuratively.
Thirdly, always make sure to keep your balance, if you fall from a tree, your stupidity and lack of skill will be awarded quite handsomely.
It had happened once to her while she was stalking a level 4 Elite Trapper. It was quite embarrassing. You'd think the gnoll would shoot her, you'd be wrong if you did. The gnoll simply laughed and walked away. If your predator was so stupid and clumsy it's better to just move to your allies.If the predator was stupid enough, you'd make them die by a volley of shit infused arrows.
Now, she stood on a tree, crappy blade - no not a blade with shit on it - in hand. The edges were dull, it could no longer stab anything either. At his point she basically used the flat of the blade, with her weight to injure the gnolls. Not very effective, but that would change with her new talent.
Below here was a particularly difficult enemy. [Gnoll Guard Level 10] she envisioned the fight, and with some prep she jumped down. Before she even landed the doglike creature's beady eyes flicked up. If anyone at level 10 saw the look in it's eyes, they would be scared out of their minds. Why? Because this little gnoll, was waiting.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
A waiting gnoll, was a happy gnoll, a waiting gnoll, meant prey would be fucked.
And fucked she was, the moment she landed a rope sprung, entangling her feet onto a nearby branch. Struggling as she did, a cut of her sword almost did nothing. She then focused on using [Reinforced Strike] and with some finesse the rope was cut. The talent was already coming in quite handy.
The Gnoll Guard charged her with it's large scimitar, she tried parrying it, and although she could feel that if her opponent was just a tiny bit worse that she would've succeeded, it failed. The gnoll slipped by her parry and hit her with the flat of the blade on her side. Before she could react a kick propelled her into another trap, this time her head was what hung.
Suffocation wasn't pleasant, not at all. She used her [Reinforced Strike] to full effect, hitting the rope at a perfect angle. She fell, and she fell. into another trap that is. The Gnoll Guard slapped her with the flat of it's blade again, breaking some ribs before she fell into a pit trap. Before she could react a volley of arrows rained down.
She had underestimated her foe. Thinking quickly she swung her blade with a [Reinforced Strike] ending up with an even lower pool of health. Her stamina was quite high though, so she used normal strikes to very quickly make a roof over her head. The arrows landed to no effect. The gnoll jumped down, cornering her in the little space in the wall she made.
The Gnoll Guard shouldn't be underestimated. It swung it's blade at her. Having no option to dodge, she parried. The gnoll kept striking at her, eventually she could feel when to parry and at what angles she should. That was when it hit her.
Not the blade, but a new skill.
Due to your progress in swordsmanship you have learned [Parry].
Parry[Common]: You gain the ability to parry enemies much more efficiently.
With a sigh, she tried something she had wanted to for a very long time. The situation is also perfect for it. With a parry, she went over and used [Hilt Strike] on the guard, it was bruised quite badly. This kind of retaliatory skill was quite good when enemies had no way to actually damage you. This went on for an hour, where she constantly parried and struck the enemy with her hilt.
The gnoll guard was starting to get impatient. Her use of her hilt was growing. The major disparity between them could be summarized in two words. Experience and power. She had twisted the environment to suit her needs. The gnoll was struggling to hit her with her earthen defense. It was quite effective. Eventually due to her high vitality and endurance she managed to keep her stamina up, and she even managed to get a [Reinforced Strike] in from time to time. Her cuts scattered over the poor creature's chest.
It seemed to be frustrated that the arrows didn't finish her off. Strike didn't really do much besides giving the gnoll a haircut. Reinforced Strike at least had the ability to penetrate some of it's skin. She pushed more and more stamina into the ones she could get off, making it somewhat more powerful, although it was crude.
The gnoll seemed specialized in Strength and Intelligence. It's hits were heavy, but not shockingly powerful. The traps were what it specialized in. The Strength was likely due to scaling of some kind or due to it physically pushing enemies into traps. Like her being kicked into those mean rope traps. It started to get quite sluggish.
With a frown she found an opening, digging the blade into the armpit of the gnoll before retracting it. The gnoll fell back with a screech. Seizing the opportunity she jumped and thrust the sword into it's eye. It caught her blade with it's paw and squeezed. The cracks finally gave out leaving her with a broken sword. Not wasting time on it, she kicked the blade. Since she was quite balanced in Strength and Agility the shock force was quite good.
Unfortunately the blade barely grazed it's eye, and only made it angrier. It threw the shard at her, and with some grace she dodged it. Another rain of arrows appeared. The gnoll looked at her with expectation, it rushed her. Knowing that she was about to be in deep shit she ran back to her hiding spot, the gnoll however managed to tackle her.
A few underhanded blows later she managed to wrestle herself under it. Knowing the outcome the gnoll tried to get up and run, but was held by the warrior. The arrows fell and it was quite decently impaled. A bit of drool managed to hit her forehead. Kicking the gnoll off she saw it impale itself deeper into the arrows.
The main contender for visible damage was the lack of genitals on it. She had at some point ripped them off, leading to it's pitiful state. It stared at her with hatred in it's eyes. Smiling she stepped forward and smashed her fist into it's eye socket. And that was luckily the end of it.
You have slain [Gnoll Guard Level 10] you gain more experience for killing enemies higher leveled than you.
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Lunetta:
Class Level: 6
Race Level: 3
Health: 357
Mana: 300
Stamina: 275
Class Warrior
Profession: ??
Subprofession 1: ??
Subprofession 2: ??
Rank[G]
Human[G]
Bloodline: Fenrir[DS] - (Matriarchal Stable)
An unawakened power lies deep within you. +5% Strength, + 10% Intelligence
Patron: Seyvlia
Affinities: Greater Affinity of the Moon, Greater Primal Affinity of the Wolf, Lesser Affinity of Water,
Lesser Affinity of Storm, Lesser Affinity of Rain, Tiny Affinity of the Sword
Weapon:
Slashing -Level 1 Requirement
Armor:
Shirt(Clothing)-Level 0 Requirement
Underwear(Clothing)-Level 0 Requirement
Pants(Clothing)-Level 0 Requirement
Strength: 27 (5%)
Agility: 28
Intelligence: 30 (10%)
Vitality: 27
Endurance: 30
Points Free: 4
Talents: Weapon Mastery[1/3]
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She made those other numbers turn into percentages, making it quite a bit easier to view. She also noticed something else. A tiny affinity! It wouldn't help that much, but at least her swordsmanship will improve more. On a side note, she had figured out how to channel the affinity of water into a sword.
The result wasn't that great, it made the attacks stronger, but her mana and stamina would drain like floodgates. Speaking of mana, she hadn't really found a way to use it yet. When she used stamina it flowed into her shoulder then into her hand and finally into the skill. Reinforced strike was quite a bit more complicated and followed many more patterns.
Pushing the thoughts out of her mind, she raced back to the academy to buy another sword.
She soon found herself in front of the doors of the academy again. Lhymen simply nodded at her, she was quite sad that he didn't have more hands on training with her, but he had insisted that she get some experience. Gama was a bit more open about it, and she found herself more in his classes. Deciding to go for another session, a sword was thrown at her.
Catching the sword and watching Gama execute a dance was a rather enthralling event. She felt that her sword affinity was growing stronger. Gama was quite an expert in some fields, he had told her how to manifest mana outside her body. "Focus on your mana, use it to control the divergent affinities so that they resonate with yours, then use your history to guide the mana forward."
The history part was garbage, he even admitted so much, but she infused all her affinities into her mana and tried moving the mana in the air. No results. She only got a small result after completely removing any shred of affinity she had.thrown her four points into Weapon Mastery as a talent point. This had helped with her earlier sword training, and made her look less like a klutz.
.At least she had gotten some progress with her mana training. She had also managed to change a skill, though she wasn't sure how good the change was.
You have learned [Slash], due to your practice with the blade. Your training with Stamina, Health and Mana has been awarded.
Slash[Common]: Deals minor increased damage. Low Stamina cost, minor Strength scaling and minor Agility scaling.
The skill was a lot better than any Strike variant she had. She was essentially just hitting enemies with a sharp weapon, useful, but it didn't really amplify her damage by much. She was essentially splashing enemies with her Stamina. Although it is common, it feels more efficient than her [Reinforced Strike] although weaker.
She didn't use [Reinforced Strike] as often due to the health cost, and she wanted to veer away from that. Walking a path of health and blood didn't appeal to her. She had used [Meditation] whenever she was too low to continue the lesson. This all expanded her knowledge of swords, and would be a bit more useful than what a simple talent could give her.
Gama ended up giving her another sword for free. It was an honor thing or something, but she was quite happy with it. Another thing that would be happy about would be new skill choices at level 10. Slash would be quite a bit more useful as well. Something to be unhappy about was that the seer had successfully conquered a village close to the academy, and occasionally sent a single combatant that the principle just killed with a single attack.
It made her confused, until she saw the principle prepare for leaving. The seer is going to have hell when Lhymen starts thrashing it with his sword.