Ahhhhhhh… what a nice day, you know? Sun’s shining, roasting a monster over the fire, with a hungry little fiend practically drooling over it on my shoulder…
Well, I’d rather Screech be focused as opposed to not being, well, that. She is the one conjuring this fire we’re using right now, so… who am I to complain?
“Is it ready yet?”
I’m also not going to complain about that either, because she’s managed to cut down her rate of asking it from once every few seconds, to once every minute, so I’m chilling. She can ask her once per minute annoying question all she wants.
“Not quite, give it five or six more minutes?”
“So the sixth time I ask, it’ll be ready?”
“Yes.”
“Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready y-”
“Time won’t magically multiply if you just ask me that a half dozen times. It’s still gonna take six minutes.”
“Dang.”
“So, while we’ve got the downtime here, I’m gonna go ahead and ask you some questions. Oh, that includes you as well Jasper.”
“Mm?”
“Nothing that important, just wondering if you wanted a free skill?”
“...Mm??”
“This thing,” I stick a thumb out at the slowly browning meat of the, admittedly sloppily butchered Stalker. “Dropped an ‘essence’, which gives a skill to anybody who has an appropriately matching class. I figured you’d probably satisfy that criteria?”
“Mmmmm, mmmmm? MMmmMMmmm, mhm?”
“Alrighty! Now how do I use this thing…”
C’mon, just work out for me here game, don’t make me navigate UIs for half an hour… Stalker Essence, use it on Jasper… and-
Incompatible!
Pardon?
Now hold on a moment, whaddya mean INCOMPATIBLE? The Stalker was literally the same race as Jasper hello? How compatible do you gotta be for this to work?
“Oh, uh, sorry Jasper, guess it… didn’t work?”
“...M.”
“Yeah I know it’s weird. Might as well just try it out on everybody, see if anyone at all can use it. In fact, hey Jerry!”
“...Yes?”
Incompatible!
“Dammit!”
“W-wha?”
“Oh, you didn’t do anything, sorry.”
“Is it ready yet?”
“Nnnnnnno. Give it five more minutes. Now, let’s see if you can use this… Though I doubt it, I do indeed sincerely doubt it.”
Use Stalker Essence on Screech?
Y/N
Wha-ehag-okay. Why can she use this? How does that make any sense at all? You know what? At least one of us can use it.
Yes.
Screech-Morrigala Adept
Level 12
HP 164/164
MP 206/206
Stamina 126/126
Core stats
Vitality-15
Strength-7
Intelligence-40
Agility-12
Sub stats
Endurance-12
Luck-1.2
Mana-20
Dexterity-12
Skills
Basic Healing LVL 2-The caster may choose themselves or any target within 1 meter of themselves, healing them for 2+0.45% of their max HP rounded up for 1 MP every 0.45 seconds for as long as they choose to keep the skill active.
Enchanting Call LVL 1-Let loose a cacophony of birdsong, affecting those nearby in a variety of ways. Allies are healed for 10+3% of their HP to a max of 20 and gain a 10% boost to their agility, strength and vitality for one minute. Enemies are damaged by 1% of their max hp to a maximum of 100 and are “disoriented”, randomizing their agro to any nearby foe. Costs 30 MP, 30 second cooldown
Song of Wrath LVL 1-Let loose an ear piercing shriek, dealing 10 true damage to any individual that hears it. Individuals that are damaged by Song of Wrath are “disoriented”, resetting their aggro to its base state. Enemies outside the direct field of damage are instead aggroed towards the caster. Costs 10 MP, 5 minute cooldown.
Stalker’s Sight-Concentrate on a target and mark them, allowing the user and their allies to perfectly track the target. Marks last for five minutes each and can only be applied via line of sight. Costs 5 MP.
Grasp Of Morrigala LVL 2-Target an entity and attack their mind directly with your full focus, heavily restricting their movement based on intelligence and level difference. With a wide enough gap, targets can be completely suppressed or harmed according to the user's will. MP cost scales according to target.
Morrigala Metamorphose LVL 2-Alter your form into whatever you so desire, diverting invested stats into any other category so long as it remains in line with the chosen form, stats converted can be penalized based on whether or not the chosen form makes sense. When inflicted with 10 or more damage at a time, the transformation is cancelled and 10 stamina is lost. Costs 20 MP.
Passives
Elemental Magic LVL 1-Gain the ability to create basic attacks of either water, earth, fire, or air. The strength of these attacks vary based on environmental factors and MP used in their creation, uses magical power for damage scaling instead of physical power. Magical power is determined by intelligence as opposed to strength.
Seeker Of The Divine-Having come into contact with a shred of divinity, your consciousness has undergone intense changes. Each point of intelligence is 1.6x more effective, each point of mana is 1.3x more effective. Your perception of magic is heightened by vast amounts, various illusions will fail to affect you.
Atrophied-Having meddled with the wrong side of the arcane in various ways, your body has become permanently altered. Each point of vitality, strength, and endurance are 0.5x as effective. Using MP consumes stamina at a heightened rate, stamina cannot be recovered without proper rest.
Diminished Presence-Receives less aggro.
So what’s new here… Ah, [Stalker’s Sight], alright. That’s just alright, doesn’t hurt to have, I guess. Though it just had to be on Screech, who has a hard limit on her MP usage…? Eh, whatever…
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“What just happened? I feel kind of weird!”
“You got a new skill.”
“Oh! So that’s what happened a while back! I was always wondering what that feeling was!”
“A while back?”
“Yeah! I found something really interesting, it had a similar feeling to those Mana Truffles, but a lot more… erm… delicious.”
“Uh huh…”
In a rare display of pausing in a sentence, I swear I can feel her consciousness blip for a second, like she’s being sucked back into whatever moment she’s thinking of.
“So uh anyways is it ready yet?”
“Give it four more.”
“Oka-”
…
Hm?
“Screech?”
She’s not moving, perfectly still…
“...Screech?”
I move to wave a hand in front of her, but… I can’t move either.
The hell?
You have received a summons from a higher authority.
Accept?
Y/N
With sleek silence, an entirely black box of text appears before me, everything unmoving, the entire world still.
What the hell…? Are these really level ten activities right here?
…What if I press no?
I kind of… really wanna go with no, the contrarian within me roars strong… but at the same time, I REALLY shouldn’t say no here. As much of a contrarian as I am, I’m also a very curious man.
So, how do I press the “yes” button? I… can’t move.
“-y”
…? Screech? Is that you ol buddy ol pal?
“W-”
Wait, wait wait wait… time isn’t frozen, just… moving really slowly?
Let’s try this again…
Pushing my arm forward with all my might, it very, very, VERY, slowly begins to move forward, inch by inch reaching towards the message before me. And finally after what feels like an ENTIRE, MINUTE, my finger hovers just above the “yes”!
“H-”
Aaaaaaaaand, doink!
And the entire world blacks out.
—
As did my mind, apparently, did I just pass out for a second there?
“Hello, Koth, was it?”
“What?”
I rub at my forehead as I sit up, having previously been lying flat against the ground. The sun is… glaring, which is wrong, it’s like ten o'clock right now. Or well, glaring isn’t quite right. It’s not noon, but more of a bright morning?
“Ah, yes, my apologies. Even in virtual reality, a sudden reality shift can be very disorienting. Please, feel free to take a moment to reorient yourself.”
“Uh huh…”
Who the heck is that talking to me? God my head hurts…
The entire place is… opulently bright, it’s like a… Greek ruin I’d say? Except it’s not, y’know, ruined. After another moment, the sound of running water meets my ears, along with birdsong, all the traditional ambience you’d associate with the perfect romanticized morning.
“Sorry, just give me a second.”
“Mhm, of course.”
I simply breathe in and out, allowing my eyes to adjust to the new sun in the sky. And then turn to face the voice that’s been at my side since I’ve appeared here.
And… there sits a woman, decked out in a suit and tie, very rank and file-like, black and white. In contrast, the table she’s at is very much “heavenly garden” in its vibe, a pure white trimmed in blazing gold.
So… given she’s mentioned virtual reality and is, literally wearing a suit, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say she isn’t an NPC.
“Hup…”
Sucking in a breath, I push myself to my feet, striding forward before pulling out a chair opposite to the woman before me.
“So, what’s up?”
“Hmhmhmhm…” suppressing a chuckle, she brings a fist up to her lips before clearing her throat. “That’s certainly a casual greeting.”
I merely raise an eyebrow in response.
“Huh? Should I bow down in reverence or something?”
“No, no, nothing as absurd as that. It’s just, you’re not exactly expected to adapt so quickly you know?”
“Well… no point in tweaking out is there?”
“Quite so.”
“Welp, you brought me here for a reason, right? Mod of some sort?”
“Hmmm, you could say that. To be more specific, I’m a part of the compensation branch of the Company.”
I tilt my head at her given the lack of explanation as to, well, what the hell that is.
“...The compensation branch?”
“Very on the nose, yes, I’m aware. It’s my job to negotiate with users who have something that… needs to be changed.”
“Pardon?”
“Mr. Koth? You strike me as the kind of man to like to get to the point, so I’ll do just that for you. You have been on the receiving end of quite a few oversights in the game’s code. Some in your favor, others not, I am here to make you aware of what those things were, and then we can discuss compensation.”
…RIGHT THEN!
“...You mean bugs?”
WIth a scoff, she lightly shakes her head. “Yes, bugs.”
“...Am I gonna get my unique passive taken?”
“Oh heavens no, perhaps modified somewhat, but we’d never go that far with adjustments.”
“Right then. So, what’s up?”