Yup, figured about as much would happen.
…He definitely went at it though. How many bodies did he even manage to munch before he started losing three health a second…? I think it was somewhere around, I dunno, twenty? Twas a far-cry of a feast compared to when he had but a single steak. Didn’t know he had such a ravenous hunger stored within…
“Hnnnngh…”
“Yeah eating like twenty pounds of poisonous meat’ll generally do that to you?”
“Mhm.” Jasper mumbled her agreement
“Now, Screech, if you’ll just give me another twenty or so seconds…”
“But it’s already been six minutes and thirty f-thirty FIVE seconds!”
“I know, I apologize. But, I did level up, and I do need to put my points in. Why don’t you use that time to think about what exactly it is you want to do? Because gonna be honest, I’m not sure myself what exactly you want.”
“I-”
“Besides the Mana Truffles.”
“That wasn’t what I was going to say!”
…Uh huh.
“Okay, well either way, just give me a moment…”
Alright, lemme think here. I’ve got three skill levels to use, two from [Efficacy] investment being refunded and one from hitting level ten… and then just five points. Now usually, I’d be inclined to just keep dumping agility and strength, buuuuuuut… in truth, I must acknowledge, I am not the heavy hitter of this team.
Being fast is well and good, and does allow me to avoid damage easily enough, but at the same time… I simply cannot hope to match the raw stats that my summons have via the massive boosts they get from simply being my summons. Especially now that [Efficacy] has been replaced with [Bearer Of The P-okay you know what, I’m gonna nip this one in the bud and just call it [Fable Bearer]. I’m not calling it by its full name each and every time I use it.
It’s not like the AI for their combat sucks either as far as I’m aware. Jasper isn’t as good as me when it comes to skill in general, but she’s not exactly bad at fighting by any means. The raw stat difference between us definitely bridges that gap though.
Having Screech’s [Featherguard] active can technically bridge the gap, but that weakens her and would also get cancelled if I took a serious hit of any magnitude. It’s most certainly only going to be the play in a more niche scenario.
To put it simply… I’m weak. Weaker by a wide margin at that. I think my highest damage dealt ever is like, thirty? Meanwhile both Screech and Jasper can, and more importantly have reliably hit numbers above a hundred. Not to mention Jasper is practically a brick wall compared to me, she almost has three HUNDRED health because of [Fable Bearer] buffing her by an insane 40%.
So… there’s really no reason for me to ever be fighting on the frontline, bereaved as I am to admit it. I can’t deal damage on a similar scale to my summons, can’t take damage like Jasper can, can’t nuke like Screech can, don’t even have utility in my abilities that could justify being up close.
…Therefore, being the ten out of ten video gamer pro that I am, can I really justify investing even more into a stat that I can basically barely make use out of?
I don’t think I can. Therefore, agility… as much as it pains me to say it, rest in peace. Same to you, strength. You don’t even boost any sub-stats so there’s even less reason to invest in you.
Well, maybe not agility entirely, but for now it’s gonna go bye bye. Agility and vitality are both good for keeping me alive at the least, but I imagine some attacks won’t be, you know, possible to avoid later on in the game?
Anyways… as much as it pains me to do it… here I go investing points… into… eryghaeu, MANA.
It’s just the logical option man! Having more MP enables Screech to do whatever the hell she wants in a fight, and she’s damn threatening without having to worry about stamina! She can basically adjust into any role at will and perform it better than anyone else! …Well, except for tanking, but that’s a given.
And without having to engage in a fight directly, that also lets me funnel her more stamina, and I can also move her MP over to Jasper’s pool in order to enable [Wild Hunt’s Mark] spam on her part… it just… it’s just the play, man!
Mana-12
MP 90/90
Oh, right, each point invested into mana is worth two points. Also ooo my MP increased by a lot how scrumptious!
As for my skill levels? Eh, give one to [Capacity]. Otherwise, I’m just gonna leave the other two unused for now. Not like I really NEED to use them right now. And, at long last, I do believe the deluge of options made available by hitting level ten have been addressed!
“...Alright.”
“Alright?”
“Screech?”
“Yes?”
“What’s first on your agenda?”
“I’m glad you asked! Well as to what’s first, I’m hungry!”
“Mhm, I see. Well I take it you don’t want to eat any of the-” I gesture out to the still dozens of remaining bodies around us. “-Rats.”
“No not really! They’re kind of gross!”
I nod solemnly, it is true after all. I won’t say I quite understood why Jerry was so, er, enticed.
“Alright, then what do you propose?”
“Can’t we go back to that last place with the food?”
“...No, we’d get stabbed.”
“But why?”
“You didn’t notice the icicles flying at you midair earlier?”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“That’s true I guess! But still they had really nice food and I really want more of it.”
“Well, we can’t do that.”
“But-”
“But! I offer you a close second!”
“Yes?”
“If you think you can hold on for.. Mmm, give or take half an hour-”
Almost immediately, I can feel Screech’s talons flex into my shoulder, the news clearly being devastating in the extreme.
“BUT-”
“Hold! Let me explain, please?”
“...”
“You do remember that there were other monsters around this place, right? Did they seem appetizing to you?”
“Kind of!”
“More than the rats here, right?”
“That’s true I guess. What about it though?”
“Well, if you’re hungry, here’s my idea to fix that, yeah?”
I suppose I have a good reason to grind butchering and cooking at the least, if only to satisfy the constant nagging of a certain somebody.
—
~~~~~~~~~
MMMM, just as BRISK as ever! Good thing you can’t get your eardrums ruptured in virtual reality!
“Sorry!”
First time I’ve ever gotten an apology for it, but it’s a little late now…
“Is it that difficult to just give me like, I dunno, half a second of prior notice?”
“I’ll keep that in mind!”
Whatever, whatever… at least Jasper wasn’t out and about this time around, so she can get right to fighting whatever decides to take the invitation to pain.
Hm? Where did I use the skill you ask? Why, in the middle of the ravines of course!
Why, you ask? In fact, didn’t I boldly, explicitly state that it would be a fool's errand to do so some time ago?
Well, one, because I’m a bold fool, two, I preemptively had Screech fire a ball of immense proportion into the vicinity, causing a whole rock slide in this area prior to the sonic attack that she just unleashed, which I was, of course, completely clear of.
I figure if everything’s already displaced, the worst I’ll get is a few pebbles and the like falling down. Of course, the path in this area has been pretty much obliterated, but that’s fine, don’t really need that to deal with whatever comes this way.
Technically taking a bit of a gamble on this front, but frankly? It’s turned out fine as far as I’m aware, after all, no rocks rushing to crush me today it would seem! As for what I am waiting for though…
Any monsters going to show up?
Yes, no, maybe so?
“Once I see something, I’ll [Summon] you directly on top of it Jasper, so just be ready to go, ja?”
“Mm.”
…Seconds pass in a fashion most uneventful, without a monster to be spotted.
Another few seconds, and…
“Should I use [Song Of Wrath] again?”
“How would you even manage that? It has a five minute cooldown, it hasn’t even been a minute yet.”
“Mm-”
“Well I just figured I should ask you always seem to want me to talk about these things?”
“Mm-”
“I mean you’re not wrong? I guess I’d rather you ask for instruction than just do whatever, but at the same time, a few of these things you should just be able to naturally intuit? Like-”
“MM!”
“Hm? My bad Jasper, what’s-”
Jasper is rebelling! Forcefully being summoned!
[Wild Hunt’s Mark]!
55!
Reeling back with a screech, a monster of similar stature to Jasper narrowly avoids having their entire head chunked by the attack, and instead merely takes a claw to the face. Jasper’s skill tracing a trail of red through the lynx’s muzzle.
“Oh, thank you.”
Twould seem I’ve been snuck up on! That’s not like me, what the hell am I doing?
Pivoting backwards, I immediately distance myself between the monster that had crept uncomfortably close, weaving around and atop the fallen rocks that now made up my surroundings.
Karst Stalker-LVL 12
…Erm? Hold on a minute, what’s up with this thing? It doesn’t have “lynx” in its class name, unlike the other lynxes I saw in that horde earlier today. It’s also… level twelve?
Huh. Neat.
And then it lashes out at Jasper in the literal blink of an eye.
38!
…Not as neat.