Ch 8: Darkness_It Just Works

Deciding that it was best to give Larenia some space, Simon turned back to fetch Hadvar.

In the few minutes it took him to give the nord the all clear and walk back to the cavern, Larenia seemed to have mostly composed herself. Or at least she had put her swords away and recovered enough Stamina to not be out of breath.

Hadvar stared at the near two dozen dismembered corpses in shock. He walked up to Ralof’s severed head, let out a quiet sigh and closed his eyes.

As the silence stretched out, Simon decided to have a quick look at his Skills.

[Skills]

Summary

Stage

Body

+34%

Mind

+34%

Health

100/100

Magicka

100/100

Stamina

340/340

Warrior

Archery

Two Handed

Block

Skill Level

Skill Bonus

One Handed

Heavy Armour

Smithing

Skill Level

Skill Bonus

Mage

Alteration

Destruction

Restoration

Skill Level

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Skill Level

Skill Bonus

Illusion

Conjuration

Enchanting

Skill Level

Skill Bonus

Thief

Sneak

Locksmithing

Speech

Skill Level

Skill Bonus

95%

Skill Bonus

Light Armour

Pocketry

Alchemy

Skill Level

Skill Bonus

75%

Skill Bonus

The large increase in Stamina caught him by surprise and it took him a moment to work out where the Light Armour levels had come from. They were from when he spooked Larenia and got stabbed.

A bit of quick maths revealed that to get him all the way to level 15, Larenia had to have dealt him at least 452 Damage. In one blow. It was unbelievably broken. In the game, even the bite of a legendary dragon, one of the most dangerous attacks available, only dealt 300 Damage.

The interaction between this world’s Damage values and the XP requirements from the game’s system was so ludicrously unbalanced that, even with the slowed time, Simon was almost drooling.

If Larenia just stabbed him 9 more times, he would shoot all the way to level 32 in Light Armour. Of course, the thirty-second level would take almost as much XP as the first fifteen combined, but that was RPGs for you.

If they repeated the same thing with Heavy Armour and Block he would increase his Health seven-fold and more than triple his Body Bonus.

The Damage values also had some tantalising implications for the offensive Skills. Though the numbers probably wouldn’t be quite as large since the Skill Bonuses likely played a significant role in the Damage dealt, and the weapon Skills worked off base weapon Damage.

With a thought, Simon closed his menu and returned to the heavy silence of the cavern.

Eventually, Hadvar looked up from Ralof’s head and turned to Larenia. “How?”

She just shrugged, wearing a flat expression. “I’m stronger than I look.”

They stared at each other for a few moments before Hadvar sighed again. “Fine. We should keep going. Oh, and I’ll need that key back. Imperial property.”

Larenia moved to the door and twisted the key in the tiny lock on its right side, sending a wave of green mist through the engravings and causing it to swing open. She turned back and tossed the key to Hadvar, who vanished it into his Pocket.

He squinted into the darkness beyond the door before looking at Simon. “Any idea what’s in there?”

Simon hesitated before responding. “I should warn you, there have been a lot of things very different from what I’d have expected. It’s not like I know everything. You’re probably better off relying on your own experience than leaning too heavily on my predictions.”

“Noted,” Hadvar said with a nod.

“That being said,” Simon continued, “the next enemies should be a cave of frostbite spiders.”

Larenia snorted. “Well that’ll be easy at least.”

“Really?” Simon asked. “I’d have thought that giant spiders would be fairly concerning.” Though in fairness, they were a pretty weak enemy in the game.

“They can be dangerous if they live long enough,” Hadvar said, “but that is fairly rare. Especially this close to a city. The small ones are too slow and low Damage to be a threat to anyone above Stage 2. Even the strongest aren’t too bad with good equipment.”

“Really…” Simon glanced at the shortsword in his hand, unused since it had been equipped. “Think I could beat one?”

“Probably not safely if you only have Sneak,” the nord answered.

“I have level 15 Light Armour as well, if that helps. It doesn’t seem to do anything though.”

Larenia frowned. “When did that happen?”

“You did stab me.”

“You got 15 levels from that!?” She looked almost offended.

Simon just grinned.

“Well,” Hadvar said, “That’d probably do it. Light Armour doctrine focuses on dodging and avoiding Damage. And level 15 is almost Journeyman.”

Simon imagined someone stabbing at him and instantly knew how to step aside without stumbling or getting too far away to counter attack. Though he wasn’t really sure how to counter properly. Hopefully some One Handed levels would fix that.

“How much base Damage does this sword do?” he asked, holding up his shortsword.

“The Imperial standard for weapons is peak Journeyman,” Said Hadvar, “which is 74 Damage for a sword.”

74 Damage times One Handed’s skill use modifier of 6.3 would give 466.2 XP enough for…

“Would level 9 One Handed help? I’ll get that after my first hit.”

Larenia made a choking noise that became a coughing fit while Hadvar just rolled his eyes and responded. “Imperial soldiers only need level 10 to graduate basic training. With that and the Light Armour levels, you could probably take half a dozen at once. Although you might take some Damage.”

Simon grinned again. “What are we waiting for then? I don’t want to be dead weight forever.” He looked into the dark tunnel through the door. “Anyone got a torch?”

Larenia finally stopped coughing and muttered something under her breath. “I can handle light,” she said in a louder voice, putting her left sword into her Pocket and raising the three middle fingers of her hand to her forehead with the thumb and pinkie splayed. She stayed like that for a handful of seconds, then snapped with her middle finger and thumb.

A dim, lime-sized ball, giving off just enough light to see by, appeared over her head.

“It’ll only last two minutes,” she said, “but I’ll have the Magicka back by then to make a new one.”

With that, they headed off into the dark.

Ch 8: Darkness

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