Ch 3: That Was Easy_It Just Works

Simon returned fitfully to consciousness. The back of his head throbbed, sending waves of pain through his skull. It was fine though. It hurt. It really hurt. But it was fine. Probably the protection from pain that he’d been promised.

As he squinted his eyes, waiting for them to adjust to the light, he heard a voice that made him ignore the glare.

“Hey, you. You're finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there.”

Simon stared at the blonde-haired, blue-eyed nord for a moment before he burst out laughing. “Oh, Ralof,” he said, “this rubbish is why people created mods.”

As the stormcloak gaped at him, Simon looked around.

The cart they were being transported in was bigger than in the game. Two Imperial soldiers in scuffed, mucky armour rode at the front and eight prisoners were held in the back.

In addition to Simon and Ralof, were a queasy-looking Lokir, the aforementioned horse thief, and the gagged Ulfric Stormcloak, the man who’d started Skyrim’s civil war. The man that Talos himself had commanded Simon to kill.

Well… Simon thought to himself, there might be a way to end the war without Ulfric’s death. Still it would be easier to just kill him. Really, the best case scenario would be if the Imperials did it for him before Alduin arrived. Hmm…

The cart’s other occupants were three random Stormcloaks, sat at the back, and one diminutive, dark-haired wood elf, sat between him and Ulfric.

She was dressed in the same sort of rags that some kind soul had stuffed Simon into. They didn’t do much against the wind but it was the thought that counted. Another difference from the game was that they were all bound at the elbows as well as the wrists. It forced them to keep their hands up by their heads if they didn’t want to dislocate their shoulders. The extra level of restriction was probably the point.

After he stared at her for a few moments, wood elf turned to glare at him with massive green eyes. “What?” she snapped.

“Fus Ro Dah?” Simon replied with a smirk. He assumed that this was the dragonborn, the Chosen whose blessing was “damaged.” Technically, she could just be some rando, but it seemed unlikely.

As he spoke, an almost imperceptible gust of air blew out from his mouth to tug at the girl’s… woman’s?... hair. So, that was a thing apparently. No one else seemed to notice, though Ulfric was now staring at him. Fortunately, gagged as he was, the would-be high king wasn’t in a position to ask questions.

“Are you an idiot?” the elf sneered at him.

Simon made an expression mock offence. “So rude!” he said. “We could all be dead in half an hour. Can’t you have a little courtesy?”

She opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by a panicked exclamation from Lokir the horse thief. “What do you mean dead!?”

Simon turned to give him a derisive look. “You’re a prisoner in a cart with Ulfric Stormcloak and a bunch of rebel soldiers. Where did you think this was going?”

The elf smirked. “Maybe he thought we were being taken to have milk and sweet rolls.”

Simon laughed. “Maybe he thought General Tullius was going to suck us all o…”

One of the Imperial soldiers turned to glare at him “Shut up. All of you. I hear one more word and you’re all getting an early execution.”

Simon snapped his teeth together and kept his mouth closed until the soldier looked away. Then he turned back to the wood elf and mimed a blow job as best he could with his hands bound.

She snickered and even Ralof and the Stormcloaks cracked a smile. It was incredibly juvenile and really not that funny but, with the day they were all having, Simon imagined they’d take anything they could to distract them from their rapidly approaching demise. Or the fact that he’d already died once today in Simon’s case.

The rest of the trip passed in silence, and Simon spent the time constructing the outline of a plan in his head. He’d be able to skip most parts of the major questlines because of his foreknowledge. In an ideal world, he’d take the dragonborn to High Hrothgar so that she would be able to help in the fight against Alduin, before heading up north to get the attunement sphere and lexicon from Septimus.

During the trip, he noticed that there were four carts in addition to his own. With eight prisoners each, that made a total of thirty-six Stormcloak prisoners. Thirty-seven if he included Ulfric.

That was more than three times the number you faced in the game, assuming that you chose Hadvar over Ralof in the opening. He didn’t technically have to side with the Imperials for now, but if his plan actually worked, he wouldn’t have much choice. Hopefully Alduin would eat some of them.

Eventually, as they rounded a hill, the rough stone wall of Helgen came into view. It was a lot bigger than he remembered. They bumped along a wide, cobbled street, spectated by various gawking townsfolk, until they pulled to a stop in a courtyard filled with Imperial soldiers. The most notable was a man with short, white hair, in distinctive armour, talking to a group of three high elves.

They were all at least six feet tall with spindly limbs and golden skin. They made quite the contrast to the wood elf sat beside him. Her skin tone was more of a yellowy brown, although Simon was fairly confident that she was shorter than average.

The man, General Tullius, looked less than pleased with their presence. It made sense. If the game’s lore held true, Tullius loathed the Aldmeri Dominion, the nation that the elves represented.

The five carts pulled up along one side of the court. The soldiers driving Simon’s cart hopped down and walked around to the back. The one who’d told them to shut up bashed his fist against the side of the cart to get their attention.

“Alright, you traitorous pigs, on your feet.”

The Stormcloaks scowled, but one by one they climbed off the back of the cart and made their way to the growing crowd of prisoners in front of the chopping block. Unlike in the game, there was no list of names to be checked, just the quiet inevitability of execution.

There were over a hundred Imperials in the courtyard and at least thirty of them had bows. Escape wasn’t an option, which was no doubt why no one bothered. Even Lokir, who was shot down trying to escape in the game, just walked forlornly towards the block with everyone else.

Simon made a point of moving to the front of the crowd. No one tried to stop him. The Stormcloaks may have been stoic, but they weren’t that eager to die. For some reason, the wood elf, who he really hoped was the dragonborn, followed him.

Once all the prisoner’s were gathered, General Tullius walked over to stand before Ulfric. He opened his mouth and took a breath, probably about to deliver the same speech as in the game.

Simon beat him to it.

“I hate to interrupt,” he began, trying to speak as quickly as he could without garbling the words, “but something disastrous is about to happen that will prevent Ulfric’s execution. I highly recommend that you hurry up and get his head off of his shoulders.”

There was a pause, a moment of total silence in which the general’s eyes bored into his, then the Imperial officer grabbed Ulfric by the collar and straight up threw him the ten metres to the chopping block. He marched over, kicked the jarl now kneeling jarl to the ground and grabbed the headsman’s axe. In one smooth motion, he turned around and swung the axe down at the rebel leader’s neck.

As the blade touched Ulfric’s skin it seemed to meet resistance. For a fraction of a second there was a dull red glow as the axe held still, a line of symbols lighting up along the blade’s edge. Then, with a wet thunk, it pushed through and hit the ground.

The ex-rebel’s head, and several of his fingers, rolled away. A river of blood gushed from the corpse, soaking the dirt. Jesus, there was so much blood. Simon should have felt horrified or disturbed or at least a little guilty. Instead, all he felt was a pleasant surprise that his plan had actually worked.

The Stormcloaks all began yelling as Tullius walked back over. Most of it consisted of furious insults against either Tullius or Simon himself. One particularly emotional rebel let out an anguished howl that might have earned him an Oscar had it not been completely real.

“QUIET!” the general barked at a volume which left Simon’s ears ringing.

As the crowd of prisoners stood in shocked silence, Simon heard another sound: the familiar drumbeat of a finished quest. In the top right-hand corner of his vision, a small image of a scroll appeared. As he focused on his peripheral vision, he noticed that there was also a stylized picture of a star floating just at the edge of what he could see. It might well have been there the entire time and he’d just missed it. In his defence, he’d been a little bit distracted.

Tullius came to stand in front of him and spoke into the silence. “Now what’s this about a disa…”

As Simon concentrated on the scroll, the world slowed to a crawl. He could see that the general’s eyelids were slowly blinking shut, but, at the rate they were moving, he had a minute or two until they were fully closed. Overlaid on the centre of Simon’s vision was a list of the tasks given to him by the gods.

[Quests]

Akatosh

Slay Alduin before he consumes Mundus

2 Months

Arkay

Prevent the return of Potema

4 Months

Julianos

Prevent the Eye of Magnus from unmaking Mundus

6 Months

Dibella

Cleanse the necromancer Malkoran from the temple of Meridia

8 Months

Talos

End the civil war in an Imperial victory

1 Year

Kynareth

Preserve the rule of the sun

2 Years

Stendarr

Slay Mirak

3 Years

Zenithar

Slay the Blackbriar family

4 Years

Mara

Slay Shana Elsinor

4 Years

Sithis

Restore the Dark Brotherhood to glory

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

4 Years

Azura

Cleanse the Twilight Star

4 Years

Barbus

Return Barbus to Clavicus Vile’s side

4 Years

Hermaeus Mora

Unleash the Oghma Infinium

4 Years

Nocturnal

Restore the Twilight Sepulchre

4 Years

Sheogorath

Sell 5000 wheels of eidar cheese to Bartrand Verlune on a dark and stormy night

4 Years

With a thought, Simon scrolled down the list. From the green colour of Talos’ quest, he assumed that Ulfric’s death counted as ending the war. It wasn’t quite true. Even as news of the rebel jarl’s demise spread, he imagined that there would be some Stormcloaks who kept fighting anyway. Realistically though, without Ulfric the rebellion lost what little legitimacy it had to begin with.

Of more interest to Simon were the extremely generous time limits on most of the quests. Slaying Alduin within two months was the only one that actually posed a challenge. Assuming that his system worked the way that he hoped it would.

At that thought, Simon tried to back out of the quest menu. The system seemed to respond to mental commands so he pictured Skyrim’s menu screen. After a couple of seconds the list of quests collapsed into a central point before expanding outward into a new list.

[Skills]

[Perks]

[Quests]

[Changelog]

Simon hesitated. On the one hand, he desperately wanted to check out the new perks that Hermaeus Mora had created for him. On the other hand, knowledge would be the main thing standing between him and a brutal, violent death.

With a thought, Simon selected the changelog.

[Changelog]

Nature

* You are unable to naturally bind the Primal, Arcane and Mystic Forces

* Menu time dilation is 500:1

Levels

* Level has been changed to Stage

* Max Stage is 180

* Stage is determined by total Attributes

* Stages 1 to 60 equal 300 total Attributes per Stage

* Stages 61 to 120 equal 3,000 total Attributes per Stage

* Stages 121 to 180 equal 30,000 total Attributes per Stage

* Stage increases cannot be stored and do not refill Attributes

Attributes

* Health protects your Body and Mind from harm and Damage

* Health regenerates at 1% of Max Health per minute

* Magicka enables your Mind to function beyond its limits

* Magicka regenerates at 2% of Max Magicka per minute

* Stamina protects your Body from exhaustion

* Stamina regenerates at 3% of Max Stamina per minute

Skills

* The first 10 Mortal Skill Levels in each Force do not provide an Attribute Bonus

* Lock Picking has been changed to Locksmithing

* Pickpocket has been changed to Pocketry

* Item value for Alchemy, Enchanting, Pocketry and Smithing XP calculations is calculated from the average value of the item across Tamriel

* For the purposes of base Sneak XP, you qualify as sneaking when you are within 45 feet of a person or creature whose presence you are aware of but who is not aware of your presence

* Base XP for all Mage skills except Destruction is equal to the square root of the Magicka cost of any spell cast, without Mind Bonuses, at skill level 15

* Speech XP is gained in any genuine exchange of goods or services for currency or vice versa.

* Locksmithing XP from successfully picking locks is 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, or 21 base XP by rank.

* Base XP for Destruction is equal to the square root of the Magicka cost of any spell cast, without Mind Bonuses, at skill level 15, plus the square root of the Damage taken from the spell by the target/s

* Warrior Skills give a 2% bonus to Body per Skill Level

* Warrior Skills give 10 Max Health and 5% Skill Bonus per Mortal Skill Level

* Warrior Skills give 100 Max Health and 50% Skill Bonus per Legendary Skill Level

* Warrior Skills give 1000 Max Health and 500% Skill Bonus per Divine Skill Level

* Mage Skills give a 2% bonus to Mind per Skill Level

* Mage Skills give 10 Max Magicka and 5% Skill Bonus per Mortal Skill Level

* Mage Skills give 100 Max Magicka and 50% Skill Bonus per Legendary Skill Level

* Mage Skills give 1000 Max Magicka and 500% Skill Bonus per Divine Skill Level

* Thief Skills give a 1% bonus to Body and a 1% bonus to Mind per Skill Level

* Thief Skills give 10 Max Stamina and 5% Skill Bonus per Mortal Skill Level

* Thief Skills give 100 Max Stamina and 50% Skill Bonus per Legendary Skill Level

* Thief Skills give 1000 Max Stamina and 500% Skill Bonus per Divine Skill Level

* Max Skill Level is 300

* Skill Levels 1 to 100 are Mortal

* For a Skill to exceed Skill Level 100 an Epiphany of Self must be achieved which aligns with the Skill in question

* Skill Levels 101 to 200 are Legendary

* For a Skill to exceed Skill Level 200 a Dominion must be formed which aligns with the Skill in question

* Skill Levels 201 to 300 are Divine

* Skills provide the minimum knowledge, proficiency and experience which would normally be needed to reach the Skill Level acquired

Perks

* Three Perks are available for Stage 1 and for every Stage which is a multiple of 3

* Only 1 of each set of Perks can be acquired

* The Stage 1 Perks determine Class and available Class Perks

* Subsequent Perks will cycle through the Body, Mind, Combat, Skill and Class categories

Simon read over the list several times to be sure he hadn’t missed anything. It was reassuring that there were relatively few mentions of XP calculations. Only the mage skills had a truly different calculation method, though the Locksmithing had an extra lock rank. Hopefully that meant that his knowledge of the game would still apply.

The things which stood out to him most were the mention of natural “Forces” and that Skills provided knowledge that would “normally” be needed to get them. It would explain how General Tullius managed to throw a man ten metres if the residents of Tamriel could also level up their Skills. Pre-existing mechanics would also explain why levels had been changed to Stages.

Simon was a little annoyed that he wouldn’t be able to get a second, third, fourth and fifth wind in important fights by using stored level-ups and that he would need to get ten collective levels in each group of the Warrior, Mage and Thief Skills before getting any Attributes. Still, the rest of the changes seemed like they would more than make up for that.

Another thing that stood out to him was the description of Magicka as allowing the mind to “function beyond its limits”. It suggested that magic didn’t actually use Magicka as a power source. So, in theory, if he stacked enough Mind bonuses from Skill levels, he might be able to cast low level magic for free.

He didn’t know what an “Epiphany of Self” or “Dominion” was but even if he got stuck at level 100 for all of the skills, he would still have a Body and Mind 18 times stronger than his baseline. And that was on top of 6,000 of each attribute. Not that he knew how much each point of Health or Stamina would be worth in a real world.

Simon backed out from the Changelog and opened the Skills menu. Despite how much he wanted to look at the Perks, he got the feeling that he had a Stage 1 Perk to choose. Having as much information as possible would only benefit him.

[Skills]

Summary

Stage

Body

+0%

Mind

+0%

Health

100/100

Magicka

100/100

Stamina

100/100

Warrior

Archery

Two Handed

Block

Skill Level

Skill Bonus

One Handed

Heavy Armour

Smithing

Skill Level

Skill Bonus

Mage

Alteration

Destruction

Restoration

Skill Level

Skill Bonus

Illusion

Conjuration

Enchanting

Skill Level

Skill Bonus

Thief

Sneak

Locksmithing

Speech

Skill Level

Skill Bonus

Light Armour

Pocketry

Alchemy

Skill Level

Skill Bonus

Not quite as useful as he’d hoped. It didn’t really tell him anything new. The fact that he started at Stage 1 meant that he’d almost certainly have a Perk available. It was also nice to know that he had 100 of each attribute available for escaping Helgen. There was no way of knowing how far 100 points of Health or Stamina would go but it would have to do.

The Skills menu did also remind him of the change from lockpicking and pickpocket to Locksmithing and Pocketry. It was yet more proof that this Tamriel already had Skills. After all, why would Hermaeus Mora change something for no reason. Well… other than Sheogorath induced madness.

Having investigated every other menu, Simon rubbed his metaphorical hands together with glee. He closed the Skills menu and opened Perks. He was immediately disappointed. Only the Stage 1 Perks were visible; no long-term build planning for him. Still, what Perks they were!

[Perks]

Stage 1: Class

The Warrior

The Mage

The Thief

The Warrior fights on

The Mage warps the world

The Thief flees with ease

Gain double Health

Gain double Magicka

Gain double Stamina

Any one of those Perks was miles in front of the ones in the game. In fairness, they would have been very overpowered. He almost didn’t want to choose, he wanted all three. Double Health would massively increase his long term survivability. And, despite the snarky description of The Thief, never being tired sounded pretty amazing.

However, there were two factors that made him hold off from instantly grabbing The Warrior, despite how incredibly useful it would be both in the immediate future and in the long run.

The note in the changelog said that this choice would determine which Class Perks he received going forwards. This wasn’t a one off choice, it would affect a full fifth of all his Perks.

The other factor was magic. In the game, magic was rather lacklustre. Not only did Skyrim’s magic system lack the flexibility from previous games, but there was a bigger problem. Due to the design of the perk trees and weapon improvement systems, the damage ceiling for magic was much lower than that of physical combat. At higher levels it made magic objectively worse than just hitting stuff.

This was not the game though. He’d had more than enough proof of that. There was a good chance that magic worked in a completely different way. The description of The Mage also drew him to the Perk. There was a clear bias on Hermaeus Mora’s part. Warping the world seemed objectively more powerful than fighting on or fleeing easily.

Feeling conflicted, Simon backed out to the main menu, deciding to hold off until he had more information. He looked through the menu at Tullius’ now fully closed eyelid and took a moment to remind himself of what had been happening before he was distracted.

He willed the menu to close.

Ch 3: That Was Easy

目录