Lighting his lamp, Lauri started reading the skill-book on Identify Item, written in Latin. Ken looked at him, "we're not continuing now?"
"I just shared some loot with Ted so I thought it'd do the same for everyone. Though I don't need to identify it now. I could do that later."
"What sort of items?"
Lauri withdrew from his Item Box a crossbow,120 arrows, red high-heels, shadowy hood and 'Infinite Throwing Stars' that looks like disks with four-blades. "The Infinite Throwing Start dropped identified. They're a ninja only weapon so I figure you've changed professions."
"Since I joined you on the pretext of items, I'm glad to hear it's going to be more than only loaned stuff."
"Also there's some scrolls I want to ask Sophie about."
"Yeah?" Her interest was captured.
He took out scrolls of Tiny Explosion, Burning Hot and Slip. "They're restricted to Mage so does that mean you can use them?"
"Yep. I can cast them or I can learn Tiny Explosion and Burning Hot, since I have the Flame and Charms skills. Either action consumes the scroll."
"And they don't need mana if cast directly from a scroll?"
"That's right."
Lauri passed some to Sophie, "go ahead and learn these two then."
"And for a moment I thought I was the only one not getting at least two items. Thanks darling."
Lauri checked the description of the stockings.
[Black Fishnet Thigh-Highs: You can never be too hot, sporting these eye catching fishnets. Literally. Immune to heat, fire, steam and heat based damage while equipped. As a kicker, also confers immunity to the effects of the Web spell (but not other webs). Prerequisite: Female]
"With Hero gone I'll be the tank now. If you look at the description of the stockings you'll see that it could be a good combo for me to wear them so you can throw your flames around however you want. With that said, I'm not opposed to gifting them to you or maybe we could share them?"
"Kinky but it's only for girls."
"Oh yeah. All yours then..." Lauri tried to end the sentence with one if those flirty buzzwords like Sophie had been using but the words get caught in his throat.
"Thanks darling." Sophie didn't even notice Lauri was trying to say something more.
Everyone decided to let Lauri read his book and then consume two skill-books [Gained Use Magic Device skill] [Gained Identify Item spell]. Lauri kept an eye on his power and mana as he identified the heels but nether decreased. He thought "Probably power then," as power is particularly unclear as far as resource usage goes.
[Blazing Heels: Convert fire spells into a melee kick attack, skipping casting time and adding Agility to damage. Area effect spells are transformed into single target attacks with a damage modifier scaling with size of removed area of effect and how hot the wielders kicks look. Requirement: Sexy Magic]
Thankfully the information was displayed as text and not uploaded into his head, so he decided not to read the rest. "I'll cast the spell, you each have a read and if it doesn't suit you then you can pass back to me and I'll put it on the market." He starts casting identify on each and notes it costs 50 power each until he reaches the arrows. Unsure how stacks work he takes his time trying to cast on the whole stack at once and is relieved that all 120 arrows are identified at once. Also the casting didn't use up power that time, for some strange reason. "Blazing Heels, Cloak of Cloaking, Prey Crossbow, Flaming Arrows. Seems there's a flame theme with this areas loot table."
Billy did a double take. "This crossbow is very rare. Maybe I should give it back?"
"Nice. Balances out that your second item is consumable. Anyway, feels to me like very rare isn't as rare as it sounds."
"It reads like its better than the gun."
"I feel like that gun is more of a trope than a serious weapon. Still, could you show me how to use it?"
The gun is actually really easy to use but the reloading has a trick to it when using its self-generated bullets. "Might using enchanted ammo give it more oomph?"
"Yeah. Bullets don't drop in most dungeons, though. Except for special drops."
"Special drops?"
"Usually quest rewards, I think, but don't know much about it."
"Ah. Like my potion drops."
"Is that a repeatable quest?"
"No, more like, as a one-time reward ankhegs now drop Potions of Agility for me. Though they didn't drop every time when I didn't have my necklace equipped and dropped even less once leveled. It'll be a while before I understand loot table stuff."
Ken gave him a pat on the back. "Don't worry, there's lots of ankhegs in this dungeon."
"Are we continuing? I'll incentivise you with more loot."
"No," Sophie shakes her head. "I'm drained."
Ken says "I'd be up for some more, to catch up with Rebecca."
They finished packing up camp and confirmed the bugs nest to be a dead end. As they travelled back the way they came, Lauri mentioned "I'll assign some attribute points and change professions. Is there any value in not changing professions?"
"Apparently there can be but I don't know more," Ken offered as Lauri brought up his prompt.
[Level 10 - Change Professions?]
{
Stunlock: Reaching 40 levels in Stunlock can keep entire armies perpetually locked down.
Enslaver: Don't stop at sealing your enemies away, make them your pets or pawns. With skills for everything from animals, monsters, humans and eventually even gods.
Unrestricted: An unlocked specialty profession. What better compliment to sealing and restricting enemies than removing restrictions, for yourself and allies. Enough levels and nothing will hold back your assent. Not gods, this very system or even true immortals.
}
"These choices... wow. I wonder if Sealers became unpopular more due to conspiracies than actually being lame or weak."
Sophie took the bait. "Why? What are your choices?"
"Well, one of them is Enslaver. It even mentions I can use it on humans. Seems similar to your charms, if not longer lasting."
"I've heard turn-around is fair game soooo... how about you don't pick that one?"
"Yeah. I'll take Unrestricted. Sounds like it will help my ascent to being a hero."
"You don't have a hero complex, like Hero, do you?"
"He was a bit much, wasn't he?"
"Yeah."
"Nothing like that. It's just something Goddess Dike asked me to do."
"For real?"
"She asked me to create a heroes party, to be more precise. Who knows, maybe you'll be the one called the hero."
"But what about the children? They can't erect statues of me looking like this."
"Hah! I'd love to see that."
["Unrestricted"]
[Gained Freedom of Movement spell] [Gained Unrestricted Magic skill]
Lauri looked at his stats and couldn't help feeling a little saddened. Though equipping his Minotaur Shield made him felt a bit better thanks to its +1000 Toughness. Being a kite-shield it wasn't as long as his Tear-Drop shield so he had some reservations about the swap. With Agility removed from his status he decided to drink one of the Potions of Agility as a test and noticed that his Strength (Fast-Twitch) went up by 1. Lauri thought to himself "well that's going to be handy. Now, how to assign my available points? Do I need to consider that drained level-ups ignore equipment boosts?"
{
Class: Ritualist
Professions:
- Level 10 Sealer
- Level 1 Unrestricted
Effective Level: 11, EXP 42,980/60,900
HP: 5,500, PP: 3,910/4,110, MP: 3
Strength (Fast-Twitch): (61) 271/671, Toughness (Slow-Twitch): (50) 550/550, Memory: 14/330, Reasoning: 8/330, Charisma: 31/330, Luck: -1/11, Destiny: 1/44
Available Attribute Points: 660
Skills: 13
[Skill Category]: [Known]/[Max]
Ritualist: 8/110
Healing: 2/6
Any Class: 2/2
Other: 1
[Skill]: [Current Value]/[Max]
Protection Bubble: 1/10
Control Magic: 3/10
- Sleep
- Hold Monster
- Freedom of Movement
Unrestricted Magic: 0/10
Drain Level: 1/10
Rituals of the Unseen: 2/10
- Aura of Invisibility
- See Invisible
Identify Item: 1/10
Injury Magic: 2/10
- Cure Wounds
- Regeneration
Renew Item: 1/10
Use Magic Device: 1/10
Limit Break: 1
}
First Lauri maxed Charisma with 299 points, for shields. Next 12 in Luck and 42 in Destiny because he can't use potions for Luck or Destiny. He decided against increasing Strength or Toughness as he's hoping to farm potions for them and his items are buffing them, which helps. Checking the cost for his Regenerate spell he finds it's 40 mana, so puts 150 into Reasoning and increases Memory until his MP reaches 40, which ends up costing 141 points into Memory. Lauri cast Protection Bubble on everyone so as to see his shield, then continued to inspect his stats.
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Sophie shakes her head. "I saw your shield earlier but... it's seriously a group shield?"
"Yeah. Between our three shields we should have a good deal of shielding."
"And if you wore the Sexy Leather your group shield would be higher than mine?"
"It would double to 6,600 for each of us. What's your group shield now that you're level 11?"
"It has a 2,200 base. Doubles to 4,400."
"What Attribute does it use?"
"Intelligence. I have a good potential of 20 per level. I've maxed Intelligence to its 220 cap for level 11."
"And are there Potions of Potential Intelligence?"
"They're called Potions of Potential Reasoning but yes."
"Ah, at around 50 SP each, I know of those. So you need 500 SP of them to get to 30 potential per level, a 330 cap at level 11. Which would bring your group shield on-par with mine."
"Is that what you did?"
"My shield uses Charisma but yeah. Everyone brings their main attribute to at least 30 potential. I went further."
"Could I see your status?"
"I shouldn't... but screw it." He shares them with Sophie and she toggles 'potential per level' to be visible.
{
Class: Ritualist
Professions:
- Level 10 Sealer
- Level 1 Unrestricted
Effective Level: 11, EXP 42,980/60,900
HP: 5,500, SP: 3,300, PP: 3,860/4,110, MP: 40
Strength (Fast-Twitch): (61) 271 out of 671 at 61 per level
Toughness (Slow-Twitch): (50) 550 out of 550 at 50 per level
Agility: N/A
Memory: 155 out of 330 at 30 per level
Reasoning: 158 out of 330 at 30 per level
Charisma: 330 at 30 per level
Luck: 11 at 1 per level
Destiny: 44 at 4 per level
Available Attribute Points: 15
Skills: 13
}
"I thought potions could only bring potential to 30 per level?"
"I started with a Toughness Potential of 50 and Strength became 61 thanks to my 6-second maximal exercise routine."
"The one you corrected Hero that it was a whole second more than he said?"
"It's a very important second. At the 5 second mark someone might as well not have exercised at all."
"You didn't put many points into Strength or Toughness? I had assumed those were your mains?"
"Not a single point assigned into either. Only the potions I farm for them. Check it out," Lauri started drinking Potions of Agility until he'd downed 29 of them, bringing his strength to (90) 300.
"Didn't you say those potions are worth 8k each?"
"They're the cheap ones, that's right. It's the Potions of Toughness that cost 12k."
"So 8k by 3 groups of 10 is 80+80+80... That's 240 thousand System Points worth of potions you just drank?"
"Yeah, that's a good estimate."
"Can I have some?"
"Sorry but the way my secret exploit works I need to max all my attributes. Wait until I have spares."
"That'll be never. You need more every level."
"Until I was forced to fight without my Necklace of Greed, all these potions were spares. You're a main member of my party so I'll help you where I can."
"Oh wow. You really are more upset about not having the necklace than the whole 'Hero trying to kill you,' thing."
"I suppose it can't be helped. The moment I tossed my hammer down I knew it was going to be a whole destiny thing."
"I noticed that attribute but didn't want to say anything."
Ken was then prompted to ask "which attribute?"
Lauri looked at him for a few seconds then shrugged. "I'll share my status with you too."
After looking at them for a while Ken comments "Luck started as N/A for me and I had to unlock it but I started with an Agility attribute. Where do your Potions of Agility go when you drink them?"
"They go into Fast-Twitch. I unlocked Luck when I got a -1 in it. I had been hoping to make a joke like 'the more ready I am, the less lucky I'll be' or something like that. But I never had the chance."
"Potions of Agility increase your Strength? What do Potions of Strength do then?"
"They increase my Strength."
"And they've always worked that way?"
"No. I got lucky."
"When?"
"About when I went into the tent with Sophie."
Sophie winked at Lauri. "Say, I noticed your Intelligence attribute reads as Reasoning."
"Always has. In fact, it felt strange to me that Reasoning potions maps to your Intelligence but I suppose it's no more strange than my Strength."
Ken shakes his head. "You're Strength attribute is tiers stranger. I thought my status was getting weird but yours is way out there."
"Oh. Let's see your status?"
"Not happening. Most people aren't as foolish, sharing their status, as you are."
"Then out of consideration, we won't share our levels within the party overlay."
"I'm fine with sharing my level."
"You might be but I have things I need to keep secret."
"I thought so! When Hero's pants were on fire, right?"
"You're onto me. Keep it secret?"
"If you keep my profession secret."
"Deal."
Sophie looks between the two. "You can both tell me, I can keep a secret."
Changing direction of conversation, Lauri looked over to the unspoken Billy and asked "have you selected your level 10 profession?"
Billy nodded. "Yeah."
"I know you're a temp member but feel free to share if you don't mind."
"I changed for Reload Buddy."
"There's an entire profession just for reloading your weapons?"
"Not just mine but other people's, emplacements and such."
"Like, you reload someone else's crossbow?"
"More like a mini-gun or rocket launcher but it does allow me to reload crossbows fast. Which will be good for this crossbow."
"Were those guns you're talking about?"
"The mini-gun is. The rocket launcher, not quite. They're otherworld, super rare, special weapons. They drop from some advanced-tech dungeons found deep in the wilderness and, sometimes, Horses Trot."
"Horses Trot? Seriously?"
"Yeah, it has a lot of floors. Never know what you'll find. Most guns don't generate their own ammo like yours does so ammo tends to be horded rather than used. That said, gunpowder type bullets lose all durability in only a few years, so those bullets end up sold cheap to people happy to waste through them."
"That makes sense."
"It does? Never made sense to me."
"It's the same as having Health Potions in case of emergency. Then when they near expiring, sell them and buy replacements. Adventurers drink them so quickly that for a cheaper price they don't mind the closer expiration dates."
"Guns do make for good emergency weapons so I suppose so."
They arrived at and stopped at the 8 way split, where the stairs to floor 14 exits. Stopping for a moment Lauri thinks to try and move his whole Backpack of Many Items into his Item Box but it fails [Warning: Cannot convert living entity into storage energy structure]. "Huh." He went to remove the gem from the bag but the gem freaked out, "you can't take me out this dimension while inside another dungeon."
Lauri froze. "Whoops. Sorry."
"What was that?" Ken peeked into the bag and saw the gem.
Letting go of the dungeon core, Lauri closed the bag. "That thing you know not to ask too much about."
Sophie tried to look but was too late. "You have something that talks inside your bag?"
"Yeah but take a leaf out of Billy's book and don't ask about it." Lauri gave Sophie a wink, thinking he was just mirroring her own behaviour back to her but actually giving her a signal he hadn't intended to.
"Hmmm. Suspicious. You didn't secretly go Enslaver did you?"
"No but since you mention it, I can see some uses for that profession now."
Ken's jaw dropped. "Can that really be done?"
Lauri nods. "With enough levels the profession boasts it can even enslave gods."
Sophie looks at Ken's reaction and only gets more curious. "Why can't you tell me?"
He shakes his head. "It's because, darling, I'd hate to be forced to kill you."
"But Ken can know?"
"I know his secret, so he can't tell mine. Though if you tell us a damning enough secret about yourself..."
A party of 6 were arriving at floor 15 and Lauri recognised 3 of them as the ones kicking Ken when they first met. Ken seemed to recognise all 6 and waved at them, "hello. Don't mind us."
Their party leader looked over to one of the members. "Go kill Ken."
Lauri checked the guys PvP and saw he had 15 PvP area kills. "Ken, you should run."
"But didn't you say PvP is public and they wouldn't..."
"Look at his PvP. Also, you should be running for the safe zone already."
Ken started running, "this is your fault!"
"We should go with him."
Sophie complains "I can't run that fast." Lauri picked her up and started running after Ken, catching up with him quickly and Billy managing to keep up with Lauri. Sophie actually smiles at being carried like a princess before she asked "Ken, why do they want to kill you."
"Because they're dicks."
Lauri adds "and they know Ken's secret."
"Is that really why they want me dead?"
"The missing Agility Potion didn't go overlooked by me and even an Amnesia Potion isn't going to remove your profession, as it's your starting one."
Sophie recalls the potion Ken opened when Hero couldn't. "I wish I had secrets. I'm so jealous."
Lauri shouts to the guy chasing them "what do we call you?"
"Call me Slasher."
As he's catching up Lauri uses Hold Monster and Slasher face-plants into the ground. "Sorry Slasher but you first need to get more distance from your other party members. Then we'll fight you."
Their party gain good distance but after just 6 seconds Slasher can move again. His party arrived and started poking Slasher as he suddenly jumped to standing. "We'll need our number advantage, not just our level advantage, it seems."