image [https://i.imgur.com/gC9e8wy.jpeg]
As Will had expected, the next turn gave him the option to stop at Fili and Kili’s. The roll itself would have landed him at the first Space in the caves cluster, which Will felt should be fairly easy to get to, and he really needed to unload some of the huge amount of loot he’d accumulated.
Just for selling his regular good and excellent quality drops Will got a whopping thirty-eight silver marks and seventy copper bits.
Fili adamantly refused to buy Will’s useless light helmet and T-shirt. The Lightning Mane and the Crystalized Cloud were worth a silver mark each, and the Spear Proficiency, which Will would need actual hands to use, was worth another.
He’d decided to hold on to the rest of his skill shards. He had a completely unreasonable feeling that as soon as he’d sold them, he’d find a use for them and be sorry about it.
Of course, some of that money went immediately into buying some of the skill shards Will had been wanting for the past two or three cycles.
A total of ten silver marks went back to Fili’s hands in exchange for the four Resource skills Will had been missing. Mana Pool I, Stamina Pool II, and both Health Pool skills.
Like Fili said, all six shards merged together to form the Compound Resource Pool skill, at the expert tier.
Skill shard: Compound Resource Pool
Tier: Expert
Type: Resource
Level 1
XP 300/400
Increase all resource pools by 20 and then by 20% per level
No. You can’t swim in it.
Aspect: Mana
Tier: Basic
Level: 2
XP: 0/150
Increase mana regeneration by 80% per level.
The combined skill dropped Will’s mana pool II from level three to level one, but dropping a hundred more XP into it brought it up to level two, which actually gave more mana than the level three Mana Pool II did.
For two more silver marks, Will bought a skill shard for the Mana Stream skill, which would bring together Mana Ball and Mana Shield. However, he was out of XP, and actually using the shard would bring both Thunder Ball and Darkness Shield down a level. It would, however, get used as soon as Will had the XP for it.
Skill shard: Mana Stream
Tier: Basic
Type: Mage
Cost: 20 mana
Level 1
XP 0/100
Fires a stream of pure mana up for up to twenty meters distance, dealing slight magic damage. Stream can be sustained for up to 1 second per level, costing half the base cost and dealing slight damage per second.
Just don’t cross them!
1. That’s what I was planning on buying so far. But since I do have more money, I’m going to need to complete the Defender skill set, since I’m going to want to add protection from cold to the Resistance skill.
“No problem there. Defender is a fairly common skill set, so I should have a shard for all four of its basic skills. Which ones are you missing?”
No idea. I’ve got Passive Defense, which I got from Heavy Armor and Resistance merging, but that doesn’t tell me what the other two are.
“You’ll be wanting Challenge and Intercept, in that case. I’ve got both here.”
Skill Shard: Challenge
Tier: Basic
Type: Defender
Cost: 10 stamina
Shout a challenge at your enemies, forcing any enemy within fifty meters to attack you, instead of any of your allies.
Effect lasts for 10 seconds per level
Your mother was a marsupial mole and your father smells of wild sage!
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Skill Shard: Intercept
Tier: Basic
Type: Defender
Cost: 10 stamina
Travel instantly for up to four meters per level, and interpose yourself between an ally and an opponent. Can only be used when an ally is being attacked, and the user will receive the attack instead of the intended target.
Why don’t you take on somebody your own size!
Err… Because there isn’t one around? I mean, you’re all of a meter long, you know!
Will was not happy with the Defender skills.
This two are completely useless to me.
“Yeah, Defender is of a skill set used in groups, usually. Most mini worlds have enough players around to actually make use of it, but with only two of you here, it’s a bit lackluster. But you’ll need to take them if you want to get an expert aspect on them.”
And since I already had Rock on Heavy Armor Proficiency, and I used Fire to get defense from heat, I can’t get defense from cold unless I go for expert.
“Well, you could always put it on your armor. Or get rid of Lava and start over with new aspects.”
Yeah. I think I’ll need to think about that a bit before committing.
“Suit yourself. I’ll probably still have them next time you come around. Anything else you want?”
Hmm. Do you have skills from the Healer set around?
“Can’t help you there, I’m afraid. Healer shards aren’t that common to begin with, and most people who get them prefer to use them themselves.”
Figures. What about the Cavalry set?
“I’ve got Riding and Horsemanship, but they’re both going to be fairly useless to you, I’m afraid. Which is the only reason I have them, since Cavalry is as uncommon as Healer. It’s just that nobody on the mini worlds can use those two.”
Yeah, those sounds fairly useless. Same with that Spear Proficiency shard I sold you. Why do those even exit, if nobody can use them?
“Because they’re used by people from other, bigger worlds, where you actually get bipedal races. You’ll be able to choose to go to one of those and get a new body if you manage to find out what your goal here is and achieve it. At that point, getting the rest of the Cavalry set would be useful for you. You’ll want to buy it from me instead of waiting until you’re at your new world, since it’ll be more expensive where people can actually use it.”
Yeah, that’ll be a whole, I think. No point in buying them now and raising the XP costs any more. Next up is the Beast set. I’m using Claw proficiency, and I’ve got Bite proficiency, but what are the others in the set?
“Beast is a bit of a weird one, since it includes more than four. You need four of them to reach expert, but any four will do. And then you can add in others if you want to, but your average beast can’t use more than a few of them anyway. For example, Flight Proficiency would be useless to you, unless you get some way to fly. Same for Tail Strike, which needs a tail to be effective.”
OK, makes sense. So which two would I be able to use?
“Well, Thick Fur would have been useful for you, but the Defender skills serve the same purpose, and do it better. Albeit for a higher cost.”
Does that mean that I can get Thick Fur and a cold type to beat the cold environment?
“Yeah, that’s certainly an option. But that would increase the XP costs for your claw skill.”
There is that, yeah. What else?
“You might be able to use Kick, and you’ll definitely be able to use Burrow. Not sure about others. I’m not familiar enough with wombats, I’m afraid.”
And the two you’ve mentioned aren’t that useful for me right now. Which means I can leave Claw Proficiency at basic until I have enough aspects for it to matter.
“Anything else you might need then?”
That’s it for the skills I already have then. But I do have four free slots, so maybe it’s time to start using another set.
“Four slots? Weren’t you at eight out of ten last time we spoke?”
Yeah, but I got into a fight with an evil alternate self or something, and it raised my maximum to eleven, along with one of his skills.
Fili whistled at that. “Lucky! Raising your skill slot maximum is nearly impossible!”
Yeah, well, losing that fight would have meant being replaced by a version of me that chose to become an Acetomancer. I’d rather not risk that again.
“Greater risks mean greater rewards. Wait. You got a skill from an Acetomancer? Tell me you didn’t get one of those skills!”
I didn’t! It offered me a choice, and I went with a Mage skill, because I already had two of the set.
“Good! Acetomancy is never a good path to take!”
OK, OK! I believe you! Anyway, since I do have some skill slots, I may as well start filling them up. Let’s see now. I have both Light and Medium Armor Proficiencies. Light is Rogue, which also had Backstab. Neither of those are very good for me, but what are the other two Rogue skills?
“Stealth and Trapsmith. Stealth isn’t going to work for you if you continue to wear heavy armor, but Trapsmith is always good for avoiding traps, even if you don’t want to use them yourself.”
That sounds decent, but I don’t think I’ve run into anything that would qualify as a trap here, so far. What about Warrior?
“Some of the Warrior skills might work for you. Both Power Attack and Rapid Attack will work with your claws, at least, since the bronze claws count as weapons. But Power Attack cost stamina to activate. And Mobility won’t work if you’re wearing heavy armor.”
That might be an option then. I’m not using my stamina enough most of the time. Can I see the two you’ve mentioned?
“Sure. I’ve got both in stock.”
Skill shard: Power Attack
Tier: Basic
Type: Warrior
Cost: 10 stamina/attack
Level 1
XP 0/100
Increase the damage of one melee weapon attack by 1 damage category
Finesse? We don’t need no stinking finesse!
Skill shard: Rapid Attack
Tier: Basic
Type: Warrior
Cost: NA
Level 1
XP 0/100
Increases your attack speed by 10% per level, as long as you are using a melee weapon.
Quantity over Quality!
Not bad. Both of these would be useful, even at level one. Definitely an option, but I’ve got one more I’d like to check before deciding.
“Sure. Not like there’s a line waiting for me, you know…”
Yeah, I’m still not sure I understand the whole instance and mini world thing. Either way, I’ve got a Wizard skill called Lesser Mana Beast. It doesn’t look that good for its cost, but if you have something good to merge it with, it might be worth using?
“Well, the bad news is that I don’t have anything from the Wizard skill set. It’s even harder to find than Healer or Cavalry.”
Damn. And I passed on a chance to get one from my reflection fight in favor of Mana Shield?
“Oof. That’s a missed opportunity all right.”
Spilled milk under the bridge. What’s the good news?
“Lesser Mana Beast is deceptive, and is a lot better than you think. You’ll want to level it up to get it to a useful point, but it’ll be worth it. Especially if you can find other Wizard skills.”
Which are hard to find…
“Sure. But there are ways to get them. And I would also like to point out that if you’re starting to use summoned beings, you may actually be able to use the remaining two Defender skills.”
I see your point, but I’m still not sure about the Defender skills. OK. I think I’ll use the Lesser Mana Beast shard now, and leave it at that. I’ll think again about the Warrior skill shards after I’ve merged Mage up to Expert.
“Your skills, your choice. Pleasure doing business with you.”
You too, Fili, and thanks again for the advice.
Finished with one dwarf, Will moved across to the other side of the establishment, for a good dinner and a comfortable burrow, planning on moving on in the morning.
As much as mornings even meant anything on the Board.