Chapter 6
“But how do you already know you want Ranger?” Oh-jin fumed at Kopius, his arms raised in mock fury. “We have not gone over a single detail. Surely, after all we have discussed, you would in the least have a listen to each.”
“Because Rangers are a little bit of everything… well, except for Bard.” Kopius answered. “They fight from a distance, they get a little bit of magic, a little bit of stealth and a little bit of friendship with wildlife. It's like a catch all Class, well, here it’s a Practice.”
Oh-jin sat in frustrated silence. Kopius was certain that behind those goggles the old chemist was staring daggers at him.
“Notice how I didn’t even bring up the bow and arrow aspect of the Ranger?” Kopius said, throwing in one more dig.
“Indeed,” was Oh-jin’s only reply. The grooves in the old man's forehead had distinct lines in them that suggested a scowl to be forthcoming. Kopius wasn’t sure what a triggered Oh-jin looked like and he wasn’t ready to find out.
“Okay, fine,” Kopius said with raised palms. “You win. Let's read the descriptions.” Kopius pulled his interface back up with the Practice tab showing. He looked at the list of words, tried to focus on the first Practice–Fighter–but no description appeared. He stayed focused on the word and tried a few other ways to highlight or activate the description prompt but it was to no avail. “So, uh, how do I get the description to show?”
“Focus on the word, lad,” Cici instructed, “and then think; define.”
“Yes, yes,” Oh-jin interrupted, “That is how you do it. I have them written down and their benefits, so don’t bother. Focus here.” Oh-jin finished by pointing at the chalkboard and the written Practices. Kopius did a quick peek at the Fighter Practice, per Cici’s instruction, to verify it worked before closing the window and giving his attention to the chalkboard.
“I will write down the affected Attributes for each Practice” Oh-jin began, “and the Skill unlocked with it. Each Attribute receives a plus one, so I will leave the numbers off. Afterwards, I will read the description. Is this clear?”
Kopius nodded, avoiding the obvious ‘crystal’ answer that Oh-jin wanted and the possible explanation that Cici would need. The old chemist began to write and the two men sat quietly. The sound of the chalk sliding across the board was oddly satisfying. Once complete, the left side of the chalkboard read like this:
* Fighter STR CON WIL DEX {Mark}
* Rogue DEX AGL PRE STR {Stealth}
* Ranger STR INT DEX STB {Traceroute}
* Mage INT WIS DUC DEX {Bind}
* Bard INT END DEX CHA {Swoon}
* Druid INT WIS DEC STR {Snare}
“You will find this exact table in one of those books you are carrying,” Oh-jin began. “The Fighter receives plus one to Strength, Constitution, Willpower, and Dexterity.” He pointed at each of the corresponding, three-letter combinations as he read them. “Your Ranger substitutes Constitution for Intelligence and Willpower for Stability. The rest you can reference as you read.”
Kopius nodded along. He needed to listen and wanted to learn. The goal was to move away from his recent mood of being a whiny little bitch and into a realistic frame of mind. A positive attitude would be great, but he would settle for a disgruntled or jaded demeanor too. However he sliced it up, his current behavior was holding him back and he knew it.
“Okay, now pay attention!” Oh-jin lectured. He pulled up a sheet of parchment and started to recite from it:
Fighter- Skilled in weapons, hand-to-hand combat and tactical methods.
Rogue- Skilled in stealth, speed and sabotage.
Ranger- Skilled in tracking, ranged weapons and traps.
Mage- Skilled in the arcane energies, area attacks and mana manipulation.
Bard- Skilled in influence, infiltration and hand-to-hand activities.
Druid- Skilled in elemental magics, shapeshifting and communing with nature.
“Do you need any of that repeated?” Oh-jin said over the top of the paper he was reading.
“No,” Kopius replied. “I’m good.” He was somewhat proud that he didn’t make any snide comments about the length of these descriptions. Oh-jin had spoken like each Practice would take an hour to discuss and dissect. Here, the descriptions were apt but short–very short.
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“Good, good,” Oh-jin said, handing the written notes to Kopus for reference. “Let’s discuss them.”
“Well,” Kopius began, “Rogue sounds the best, I can see why it’s popular. Mage too, but it's a bit vague. What’s arcane energies and mana manipulation?”
“Arcane energies are what a young Mage is equipped with until their Branch Magic is determined,” Oh-jin answered. “The trials you experience would eventually decide which Branch of magic you are best suited for. As for mana manipulation, that revolves around how the magic is used, channeled or summoned. It also deals in mana potency and concentration.”
“That makes sense,” Kopius responded. “I’m still leaning towards Ranger. I already have that Skill though. What happens there?”
“It would level it up,” Oh-jin answered plainly.
“Sweet, it’s already leveled once.” Kopius said, perking up a bit. As he scanned over the list and descriptions several times, Ranger became more and more cemented in his mind. They were loaners-for the most part-with, he assumed, high Stamina, they could live off the land and were skilled with a bow. If Stealth wasn’t a Skill he could get from the Practice, he guessed it could be acquired other ways. He could get weapons training from Quinn so that if it came to close-quarters, he was somewhat prepared.
“Honestly,” Oh-jin spoke up, breaking Kopius from his analytical breakdown of the Ranger. “In my mind, Rogue suits you best. Though it only lists the three, there is more to being a Rogue that will give you advantages on your journey. That or a Druid, given its elemental leanings. It would be a significant enhancement to you as an Air Elemental–”
“Fighter,” Cici said firmly–interrupting the discussion–with no further explanation. The two men waited a few seconds to see if there was more to it but Cici remained comfortably numb to their staring. Seeing as the big man had nothing else to say, they returned to their debate.
“I see what you're saying,” Kopius placated. “I like what Rogue has going on. Ranger just sits better in my mind. It’s like you were saying about the Non-Combatives, knowing what you know. I know how to be a Ranger. They practically call me Strider.” He joked.
“Fine, my boy,” Oh-jin conceded. “We will make it work.”
“Perfect, Ranger it is!” Kopius said with a clap and a smile. “Unless, you want to add anything Cici?”
A shake of the big man's head in the negative was all they got.
Not waiting around for anything else, Kopius returned to his Practice interface screen and mentally selected Ranger. Ranger highlighted and bolded while the other five Practices disappeared in a blink. After a moment, Ranger also disappeared and a new text scrawled at the top of the screen. It read: Non-Combatives. Two columns of text poured onto the interface with such speed that it was unreadable, like scrolling a wiki page at lightspeed or watching the computer run sudo chown -Rv in the command line. Once the wall of text stopped populating, words started sliding to the left and right from both columns. Any word that moved would disappear as it hit the boundary of the interface window. All the words below any moved word would move up into the new vacated space and every word below that would follow. This all happened at the same breakneck speed as it had when it first started, leaving Kopius with no way of reading the words. After several moments, the whole circus slowed down and settled on roughly twenty Non-Combative choices.
“Whew,” Kopius exhaled, “That was kind of cool to watch.”
“Has the list settled”? Oh-jin asked, all business.
“Yeah, looks like… I don’t know, twenty or so.”
“Excellent,” Oh-jin said, turning to the chalkboard. “Let’s have it!”
Kopius listed off what he saw as Oh-jin scribbled them down:
Tracker Artist Craftsman Civics
Negotiator Communications Acrobat
Chef Supreme Enchanter Merchant Custodian
Herbalist Guardsman Scout Spy
Larceny Outlaw Clergy Sailor
Fishermen Entertainer Farm Hand
Once Kopius had finished the list Oh-jin began to strike out words. Acrobat was the first to get scratched, next was Artist, followed by Farm Hand, Entertainer, Chef Supreme and Clergy; all in quick succession. After a moment of reflection, the old chemist nixed Civics, Guardsman and Enchanter. Finally, as if for nothing else than good measure, Oh-jin took down Merchant and Custodian. With Custodian off the board, Kopius breathed in a bit of relief. He didn’t want to have to clean ten latrines or whatever other bathroom challenges might come along with that Practice. Cory had already done his time in the Service Industry and Kopius was pretty sure there were no OSHA standards here.
“Here we go,” Oh-jin said as he dusted off the chalk from his hands. “This is a more manageable list. I do not think those others were suited for your journey.”
“No complaints here,” Kopius agreed.
“Good, good,” Oh-jin said, turning back to look at the remaining Practices. “Tracker, Scout and Spy seem like a proper trio for you. What are your first thoughts?”
“Those are good for sure,” Kopius answered, stalling for time to read the list again. “Herbalist and Fisherman might be useful for traveling. I already have tracking… Spy is probably a must. I see you left Larceny and Outlaw there. What happened to: good way to lose a hand?”
Oh-jin nodded and gestured in a way that basically said, ‘you gotta do what you gotta do.’
“I don’t know. What do you think, Cici?” Kopius said, looking over to see that the big man had returned to his chair and sleeping position.
“Communications.” Cici grumbled without so much as cracking an eye open. Both Kopius and Oh-jin chuckled at the suggestion but Cici remained stoic. Kopius needed to pick three, so even if Communications was a laughable choice there were still two more to go.
“I need three, bud,” Kopius finally said, reminding Cici of the process. The big guy made a few inaudible noises, jerked his hand up to his face to scratch an itch on his face and then returned to the immovable object that he was. Kopius waved his hand in Cici’s face and then returned his attention to the conversation.
“Do you have a list for this too, the descriptions?” Kopius inquired.
Oh-jin pulled a book from one of his many leather pockets and began to read off definitions as he found them:
Communications- A Skill to bring people together or tear them apart, it’s all how you say it
Craftsman- A Skill to create anything from trinkets to towers
Fisherman- A Skill to know where and when to catch your prize
Herbalist- A Skill to know which plants can be eaten, which will poison and which that have application.
Larceny- A Skill to help with petty crime; because nobody wants to work these days
Negotiator- A Skill that could allow you to sell fire to a forge, or trade the dragon for the damsel
Outlaw- A Skill much like Larceny, except it's more of a job at this point—and violent
Sailor- A Skill to navigate waters, fight tides and live a life aquatic
Scout- A Skill to navigate the unknown to see what you can find
Spy- A Skill to observe and gather information–discreetly
Tracker- A Skill to find that which has wandered off