I entered the tavern with the farmers' last words lingering in my mind, but with new resolve. I needed to step up. First, I’d organize the new expedition with Amanda so we could gather more information and experience in this strange world, and then...
"What the fuck...?" The words slipped out as I saw Fabio hanging from the ceiling, holding a bottle of wine with sparkles, like some bartender from a cheesy movie. "What the hell is going on?" I demanded.
"Doc!" Ghimli came running over, nearly stumbling into me. He was already drunk. "You took your sweet time, didn't you? We couldn't wait any longer."
"Wait for what?"
"Leveling up," Bea answered, coming over to pull her brother off me. "It seems we don't have... what did they call it? XP points? Amanda mentioned something about Milestones that I didn’t quite understand." I shuddered when she said that word. "And they did the same thing. What does that mean, Doc?"
"We only advance with quests that grant enough progression. It's for lazy DMs who don't want to keep track of XP."
"I take offense at that!" Fabio chimed in, now standing next to us. "It's for DMs who care about the story and want it to move forward at a good pace, Bea, don't listen to these heretics!"
"Yeah, yeah, we've had this discussion before... But what is this about leveling up?"
"Oh, right!" Fabio sobered up instantly. "You guys made enough progress to earn a new level. Please follow me." Bea nodded, and I followed Fabio to the same corner room as before.
The single table in the middle of the room had my tablet on top. I sat down and began inspecting my attributes.
Name: Doc.
Level: 1 [LEVEL UP].
Class: Paladin
You are the moral compass of your team, a mix of brains and brawn able to cast magic and hit hard. With high Charisma, you keep your party out of trouble.
Charisma +2
STR: 03
DEX: 02
CON: 05
INT: 01
WIS: 01
CHA: 08
"What do I do now, Fabio?" I asked as he tossed a small pouch to me, almost catching me off guard. "What is this?"
"What does it look like? Dice."
"Oh, come on, Fabio. Really? I need to roll?"
"Of course! What's the fun of TTRPGs without dice? It's your turn to roll. Everyone else already did."
"Fine..." I opened the pouch to see six dice inside, all six-sided but each one different. One had only ones and twos, one only fives and sixes, two were regular dice, and the other two had numbers from 2 through 5, with the lowest and highest duplicated. "How does this work? Can I choose where each die goes? Could I power up my dump stats with all the dice if I wanted?"
"Not exactly. You can use one die per attribute, but there's a catch: you have to allocate the die before you roll."
"How is this even fair?"
"Doc, you have dice that go as low as five, and others that only go up to two. It's all about luck and chance. We can't make it too easy."
"I get it." I sighed, taking a deep breath and studying my tablet a bit more.
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I had an all-rounded sheet, and this rolling would make me unbalanced. I needed to allocate them carefully to stay at my best. The best approach would be to maintain the balance I already had and not rock the boat. I was a paladin, so I needed to be strong enough for my party to rely on me.
Looking back at my tablet, I saw six square holes open up next to each attribute, waiting for me to choose my dice. I placed the one with the high numbers in the Charisma slot, the low one in Intelligence, and the two mid-range ones in Dexterity and Wisdom, leaving the regular ones for Constitution and Strength. I could afford a one in those stats, but the odds were low. Bumping my Dex a bit more and adding some Wisdom seemed like a good strategy. The chance to roll a six was worth it. After placing the last die in its slot, they began to vibrate and roll on their own. I worried the tablet would crumble from the intensity, but after a few seconds of apprehension, the results were finally there.
STR: +6
DEX: +5
CON: +6
INT: +2
WIS: +6
CHA: +5
I was shocked by the results. Fabio glanced over my shoulder and let out a whistle.
"Wow. You're lucky, Doc. The others didn’t have such good rolls."
"How are their stats?" I asked, concerned.
"You should ask them about that. I can't divulge such private information. The good news is you can keep the tablets now. The dice are stuck in them, so you can rearrange them at each level up. The first one just needed some guidance." He smiled. "Now, let's get out there and celebrate! It’s really boring with just you and me in here." He turned to leave.
"Fabio. One minute, please." He stopped and looked back at me. "Can you please tell me what we're doing here? No storyline BS or diversions about honor and power. What are we really doing here? I can’t help you if I don’t know."
He turned to look at me, his eyes serious, but the grin on his face was concerning. "That's a good point, Doc. One I’d love to answer right now, but I can’t. You guys need to get stronger before dealing with what’s really happening. I’m asking for something you haven't done in a long, long time: Trust me. Please."
"Okay, Fabio. I’ll try to trust you, but I want to make one thing very clear from the start. My goal is to protect my party—my friends. If your goal leads us away from that, I’ll do everything I can to stop it. Got it?"
He flashed me another grin and nodded. "Loud and clear, Doc. I wasn’t expecting anything different from you. Now, there’s a party out there. We should celebrate." He turned again and left, leaving me alone in the corner room. I examined my tablet again, checking the changes to my sheet.
Name: Doc
Level: 2
Class: Paladin
You are the moral compass of your team, a mix of brains and brawn able to cast magic and hit hard. With high Charisma, you keep your party out of trouble.
Charisma +2
STR: 09
DEX: 07
CON: 11
INT: 03
WIS: 07
CHA: 13
I was stronger; I could feel my muscles tense and harden. I looked at my arm to check my health bar and noticed a gap that wasn’t there before. My health pool was larger, and I didn’t heal upon leveling up. "Good to know," I thought. The mana bar was the same, but now my spell list was longer. I took the time to finally look at them. They had short descriptions, but I had an instinctive understanding of what each one did.
Bless
Bless up to 3 companions. A blessed companion gets a boost on their next attack or feat by the grace of Wee Wee.
Cure Wounds
Use your Mana to infuse new life into your target, granting healing.
Detect Good and Evil
As a Paladin, you must know where evil lies, and you ought to know the good too.
Detect Magic
Don’t be blindsided by magic effects. You have a sense to feel the emanation of Mana in the environment.
Searing Smite
Your faith is the blaze of your power. Infuse your weapon with the flames of your god’s wrath.
Shield of Faith
Protect yourself and your allies with a shield fueled by your mana, granted by the grace of Wee Wee.
Divine Smite
Twice a day, you can claim your weapon as a divine weapon, infusing your strike as a divine tool to punish the wicked.
The flavor of the spells was kind of odd, but similar enough to actual TTRPGs that I could understand. It seemed changed just enough to avoid a copyright strike from the rights holders. I shrugged it off as a quirk of this new world. If Tolkeen was a god here, I supposed this kind of stuff was common enough not to worry about.
I was finally ready to embrace this new world and all it had to offer, and protect my friends in the process. And maybe, just maybe, I could have a little fun between adventures.