In fact, it took a little less than three days for Johann to be able to move around in the wolfhound form with something approaching ease, thanks largely to the assistance of [Animal Attunement]. Every time Johann delved into the Animal Realm he found his new body feeling more and more natural, as if he had been born with four legs instead of two.
By the end of the first week Johann could move around as well as Malek, though he still had difficulty with his senses. Compared to his Half-Elf body his Wolfhound body had eyes, ears and a nose that felt like a heavy woolen blanket removed. Suddenly he could see, hear and smell everything, and it was incredibly distracting.
Still, it was nowhere near the worst part, or even the second. The runner up prize went to the complete lack of privacy. Even though Johann was covered in fur he still felt completely naked without clothes on. Every time Sergei looked at him Johann felt an irrational need to cover up his private parts with his paws, something Sergei teased him about relentlessly.
But even with the teasing it didn’t even come close to the horror that he experienced when nature finally called. Not having a proper toilet and not being able to use toilet paper may have actually given Johann some trauma. Worse, he finally found out why Malek and Sharptooth would sometimes drag their butts across the carpets back home. It got to the point that Johann forced Sergei to swear to secrecy, using a claw and the dirt to write out the message.
On the bright side, while Johann became unable to form words using his mouth he was finally able to understand Malek perfectly. The conversations they had were, to put it simply, enlightening. Johann began to understand Malek’s mind, how his base values and understanding of the world was so completely different from a persons. Malek on the other hand finally found out why people put on coverings and what that weird bowl in the bathroom was for. He thought it was silly, but then he thought people were silly anyways so it didn’t really affect him.
The first week was, barring the toilet breaks and occasional teasing, an enjoyable break. Then the week ended, and the wilderness training began. The area Sergei delivered them to was visually familiar to Johann but with his new senses it was as if he had stepped into a new world. The smells and sounds that before he had to strain to catch now demanded his attention. If he hadn’t been spending the week trying to deal with his senses Johann would have been curled up on the floor.
The solution that Johann had found was exactly what Sergei had advised, to listen to his instincts, or rather to stop thinking and let his instincts take over. His body already knew how to deal with his senses, it was his mind that was the problem.
The next month was a blur to Johann. He learned to hunt, to stalk his prey through sight, sound and smell. He learned to work with Malek, to move and fight as a pack. Each day was spent either hunting for food or fighting for territory.
When Sergei returned Johann was shocked, he hadn’t even realized that a month had passed by. The other shock came when he checked his status, finding that he had mastered [Animal Attunement] at some point without even realizing it.
Sergei removed the collar from Johann’s neck and, after another bout of excruciating pain as his body shifted, Johann regained his human form. After a short break for Johann to get dressed Sergei opened up another [Nature’s Trail]. The other side of the portal exited on top of a mountain.
As Johann stepped through the arch he was almost blown off his feet as howling wind and stinging rain lashed at him. Johann was instantly drenched from head to toe and chilled to the bone by the freezing water and frigid winds.
Sergei called to him, barely audible over the noise. “Attune yourself to the weather, become one with it and it will no longer affect you!”
Johann sat down on the slick rock and tried to attune. The wind and the rain made it hard to concentrate, or even think. Johann struggled to find the calm, to focus on the skill and seek out the connection, but it felt as if any time he got close the wind and the rain seemed to intensify every time he even got close.
The cold got worse and worse, and finding the calm became harder and harder. Sergei let the kid struggle for a few minutes, hoping he would get it on his own, before he sighed and decided to give the kid a hint.
“Stop trying to find the calm! How can you connect to the fierce and wild weather by being calm?!”
The words pierced Johanns thoughts like a bolt of lightning in the night. His eyes snapped open in realization, and snapped closed a second later as the rain pelted his eyeballs. Ignoring the pain from his eyes Johann stood up and opened his arms, embracing the weather both figuratively and physically. He felt the fierce and wild energy within the storm and in that moment he attuned.
As soon as he connected to the realm of weather it was as if he had activated an enchantment. Even though he could still feel the wind, the rain and the cold it was as if it stopped attacking him. The icy rain went from freezing to refreshing without changing temperature and rather than blowing him down the wind seemed to keep him up.
Most importantly, he could finally hear normally. Even though the wind was still howling it had somehow become background noise despite being all around him. The effect of it all was so startling that Johann dropped [Weather Attunement], the cold and noise slamming back into him.
When he managed to get re-attuned Sergei spoke. “Glad you finally got it kid, I was starting to get worried. Hypothermia is a bitch, trust me. Alright, welcome to Stormbreak Peak, the stormiest point on all of Anlasser. You’ll be staying here until you master [Weather Attunement], shouldn’t take more than a week.”
Johann looked around, finally able to with the rain no longer bothering his eyes. The peak was nothing more than a flat piece of rock about fifty feet across. Anything interesting had been scoured off the face of the rock, if it had existed in the first place. Johann sighed, this was going to be a boring week.
----------------------------------------
It was a boring five days in fact, Johann managing to gain a minor epiphany thanks to the tidbit about being unable to attune to stormy weather by being calm. He realized that Weather was just as much alive as Plants or Animals, it too had different ‘moods’.
As soon as he mastered the skill Sergei and himself retreated back into Sergei’s grove to have an important conversation.
“Alright kid, you given any thought to your build?” Sergei asked once they were seated on Sergei’s surprisingly comfortable tree seats.
“I have.” Johann nodded. “But I’d like to discuss it with you if that’s alright?”
Sergei chuckled. “Kid, that’s exactly what a mentor is for.”
“Thanks.” Johann said. “To be quite honest, I’m not really sure what I want my build to be like. [Grasping Roots] makes me lean more towards controller, but it feels like I should take something damage related for one of my skill slots. I am our teams ranged attacker after all.”
Sergei nodded. “You’ve clearly given this some thought. I’d generally agree with your plan but there’s a couple of points you should consider. First, you clearly have plenty of damage, even just with your [Mana Bolts]. Attuned [Mana Bolts] are powerful enough to rank you among the top in the ranged attackers, so don’t think you’re lacking in that department. Plus, I’m planning on teaching you [Mana Spear] so even unattuned you won’t be lacking.”
“The second point is that if you’re a good enough controller then you don’t have to worry about dealing damage. If you can lock down an enemy so it can’t even move then the rest of your team can rip it to shreds without a lick of damage coming from you. Besides, pure control can often be more helpful than pure damage against the tougher enemies.”
“Also, consider your teammates. Your friend Gloria, whilst being one of the most flexible tanks I’ve ever seen thanks to her Trait she’s lacking in hardiness. Someone tying down and disrupting an enemy she’s fighting would be far more useful than simply another attacker.”
Stolen story; please report.
Johann had a contemplative expression on his face as he thought over Sergei’s words. He could certainly see the point the man was trying to make, but there were a couple of holes in the man’s argument. While he did currently have plenty of stopping power that wouldn’t continue to be the case if he didn’t add more attacking spells to his arsenal. [Mana Spear] would help, but a [Lightning Strike] would eclipse that spell with ease.
Sergei saw the look one Johann’s face and added one final thing. “What you’re forgetting is that Druid’s have always been a mixed bag. They can pour out lightning, entangle with roots, heal others and more. I asked you to think over your build not so that you would choose but more to get your mind thinking towards the future.”
“For a normal person, the skills they master directly influences what classes they unlock, making planning their build important.” Sergei gave Johann a wry grin. “You on the other hand have zero worries when it comes to unlocking classes, at least when it comes to druidic classes, so you have complete freedom when it comes to choosing skills. I would suggest something that buffs Malek as well as something that can target flying enemies. They aren’t common but if you go up against any then your [Grasping Roots] will be useless.”
The added revelation cleared up some doubts for Johann. “Thank you for the advice. I think I’m ready to choose my skills.”
Sergei waved for him to continue. Pulling up his status Johann focused on his first class skill slot. Immediately a list of skills opened up, displaying a large list of skills that he could choose from. The list was too long to read so Johann went about the task of reducing the list.
Since his attunements could be used to boost his spells Johann decided to get one for each attunement. With a mental flex Johann removed everything that had [Plant Attunement] or [Animal Attunement] as a prerequisite. The list shortened considerably but it was still over thirty skills long. He removed the pure manipulation skills like [Cloud Manipulation]. He could simply extrapolate those from the skills he chose, much like he had already started to figure out plant manipulation from [Grasping Roots].
He removed any healing or utility focused skills. Sergei had been right, Druids really were a mixed bag. Even under weather related skills there were still two focused on providing healing. After he had removed those skills he was left with a much shorter list of seven candidates.
Lightning Strike – Call down a bolt of lightning from the sky to strike your enemies. Costs 100 Mana.
Chilling Wind – Bring forth a gust of icy wind to freeze your enemies. Costs 50 Mana.
Storm Call – Bring a roiling cloud of of thunder and rain into being to harry your enemies. Costs 500 Mana. Lasts 10 minutes.
Icy Fog – Wrap your foes in a fog cold enough to freeze bones. Costs 100 Mana. Lasts 1 minute.
Blizzard – Blanket an area in piles of snow and frigid temperatures. Costs 500 Mana. Lasts 10 minutes.
Wind Blade – Slice your enemies to ribbons with a blade of concentrated wind. Costs 75 Mana.
Imbue Lightning – Imbue the essence of lightning in a weapon of your choice and strike down your enemies. Costs 200 Mana. Lasts for 10 strikes.
Imbue Wind – Imbue the essence of wind in a weapon of your choice and strike down your enemies. Costs 200 Mana. Lasts for 10 strikes.
Johann looked through each one and discussed it with Sergei. [Lightning Strike] was a nice, solid damage dealer, one he remembered from when he chose [Grasping Roots]. Once mastered Johann would be able to direct where the lightning originated and where it was aimed. Until then its only weakness came in the form of low ceilings.
[Chilling wind] was another good spell with the added bonus that it was half controlling. The spell would deal a decent amount of damage whilst also slowing and possibly freezing an enemy, a wonderful combination. It came with a major flaw of not being able to differentiate friend from foe, making it almost unusable against close range enemies without extremely good control.
[Storm Call] was what Sergei called a fire and forget. Once Johann formed the spell it would keep going until it ran out of juice. The spell would create a storm cloud over the targeted area and proceed to pour down heavy rain along with the occasional lightning bolt at any creature within range. It was a great spell for bombarding an enemy encampment or holding a choke point but it had the same weakness as chilling wind without the possibility of control. The Mastered version would allow Johann to alter the clouds shape or alter the ratio of lightning and rain but it wouldn’t let him control the lightnings targets.
[Icy Fog] was another fire and forget area spell, one that had the added benefit of reducing visibility to zero. It was also far more malleable, the spell would happily conform to the casters wishes. If Johann wanted to he could create walls, domes and even writing from the fog once mastered. The spell was multi-purpose and had decent damage, its only weakness coming was its short duration.
[Blizzard] was essentially a copy of [Storm Call] that used snow and ice instead of lightning and rain. It was slightly better in that the damage came from the cold rather than lightning making it slightly easier for Gloria to ignore, but otherwise it was exactly the same.
[Wind Blade] was similar to [Lightning Strike], a straight damage dealer. The blade was slower than the lightning, and easier to intercept, but had the added bonus of pushing enemies back and potentially creating bleeding wounds. Once mastered Johann would be able to alter its flight path, making it much harder to intercept.
The two imbuing spells were different in that they weren’t really meant to enhance his own weapons, they were meant for his teammates. The skills were something of a mixed bag for Johann. In any fight that had a bit of preparation he could buff his team’s weapons, letting each of them do extra damage as well as either paralyze enemies or push them back, depending on which skill he took. After checking with Sergei he knew the skills would affect the arrows of a bow rather than the bow itself.
The skill was almost great, but it had a serious flaw. The buff was relatively short-lived, only lasting for ten strikes before needing to be reapplied. In a drawn out battle it would have to be reapplied over and over again, requiring Johann to touch his teammates weapons each time. Even if it was possible it would be highly impractical.
Besides, Sergei mentioned that getting a teacher to impart the general skill [Imbue] would be relatively cheap in Guild Points and from that he should be able to extrapolate both skills with enough time and effort.
Thinking it over Johann struck out both Imbue skills from the list, as well as [Chilling Wind]. The wind spell was both difficult to control and offered less damage than the other spells. [Storm Call] was out as well, the spell not being as good as [Blizzard]. The same went for [Wind Blade] which lost to [Lightning Strike].
It left him with three options, [Lightning Strike], [Blizzard] and [Icy Fog]. Johann couldn’t help but notice how the three spells fit under the categories Dps, DoT and Control respectively. In a way it helped make his choice for him.
Johann had been pondering Sergei’s question of builds for a while now. With his trait he didn’t have to specialize, he could take any skill or spell he wanted to without worrying about future Class options, but as he was looking at his skill options Johann realized that was wrong. Yes, he didn’t have to specialize, but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t. If he was on his own then generalizing would be the way to go, taking skills that covered his weaknesses and letting him handle any situation.
He wasn’t on his own though, he had people that would back him up and cover any weaknesses. It didn’t matter if he lacked damage, his teammates had plenty. With that in mind Johann chose [Icy Fog]. Johann immediately understood the specifics of the spell as its information filled his mind.
Johann didn’t dwell on it though, he had another skill to choose. Focusing on his remaining skill slot another list of skills appeared. With a flex of will the list shortened massively as Johann filtered it by skills that required [Animal Attunement] and [Animal Taming]. Johann wanted a skill that would help him utilize Malek better. The new list only had three skills on it.
Sensing Bond – Create a bond with a friendly animal and share their senses. Costs 10 Mana per minute.
Empowered Companion – Enhance a friendly animal for a brief period. Costs 50-500 Mana. 1-10 minute duration.
Distance Communication – Communicate with a friendly animal over a large distances. Costs 10-100 Mana per minute. 100-1000 meter range.
The choice this time was much easier; [Empowered Companion] was obviously the best option. The other two would have been perfect if Malek was going to scout but the wolf had chosen to be Johann’s protector, keeping his fragile half-elf from being killed. As such, a skill that made Malek stronger, tougher and faster was easily the best option. After a quick discussion with Sergei to make certain Johann chose the skill, the knowledge flooding into his mind.
“Alright kid.” Sergei said. “Now that you got the skills le-”
Sergei was interrupted as a large notification appeared in front of both of them at the same time.
Congratulations people of Terra-127, you have been chosen for an event!