Andrew's new traits were simple to use but the actual execution was tricky. Thanks to his Sensitivity, Andrew could micro manage his Energy to a ridiculous degree, so the Shaman made him spend an hour figuring out exactly how much Energy he needed to use Void Step, since if he wasn't taking a full load, he didn't need to use all of it. Unfortunately, it also made it clear that his traits didn't take into account the stats from his other core, which was a bit disappointing, but ultimately Andrew figured the stats were more like an ability than something physical, so it made sense. After that he started teaching him how to make the most of his Void Step. It didn't conserve his momentum, so if he wanted to use it to attack, he needed to position himself so he'd have an opening, which meant waiting for his opponent to commit to an attack. However, that only worked once before they'd start throwing in feints, so he had to figure out how to tell whether they'd actually committed to an attack or not, which was a lot harder to do without an emotion sense.
"Better!" The Shaman exclaimed after a quick exchange where he mixed feints and real attacks together as Andrew teleported around him. "You missed a few good openings, but you've got the basics down. Just keep practicing and you'll get better. How's your Energy doing?"
"I only have about four points left." Andrew panted.
The Shaman nodded. "Then we'll call it for the day."
Andrew nodded in agreement. Your Energy pool took an entire day to refill naturally, so even with the boost from his inner sight skill he wouldn't be up for using any of his new abilities again for at least a few hours. He shuffled back into the house and grabbed a glass of water, downing it quickly before refilling it and taking a seat at the table, sipping at a slower pace.
"So, what are your plans moving forward?" The Shaman asked, sitting down across from him.
Andrew paused, considering the question for a moment. "Well, I'm not going exploring any time soon… at least not far. I'm still too weak. I need to focus on learning how to use my affinities and picking up the ancillary skills I need to round out my capabilities, like a stealth skill and a negotiation skill. Oh, and I'll have to transform my navigation skill into a survey skill. Which means I'll need to work on my Draw skill and my navigation skill…" Andrew paused to do some calculations. He already knew the negotiation skill would cost him five skill points, stealth would cost him two, survey either three or four, depending on whether he used Observe or Concentrated Examination… oh, who was he kidding. He was definitely using Concentrated Examination. That left him four more points to work with. He should probably get something for tracking, which… he let out a sigh. His Concentrated Examination was doing work. But what would he merge it with? He paused. Would stealth work? Examining the hidden steps? Made sense, right? He glanced at the Shaman. Why not just ask? "Would merging a study skill and a stealth skill create a tracking skill?"
The Shaman nodded. "One of the better ones, yes. Though with your skills… it may be better to simply learn how to track on your own. You have plenty of skills related to observation, and your stealth skill will show you what signs to look for, since that's what you need to remove to be stealthy, so all it will take is some practice to learn to look for the signs outside of that context. I'd suggest you focus on Energy Control instead. Something to help you make use of your affinities outside your traits."
Andrew blinked at him, processing the fact that he'd actually forgotten he could learn how to do something outside the system. "Uh… yeah, that sounds like a good idea." He muttered awkwardly, before quickly continuing. "What's a good skill to merge with Energy Control?"
"Energy Control is one of the few skills you don't want to merge with anything else. Instead, you want to advance it into Energy Manipulation." The Shaman replied. "With Energy Manipulation you can start picking up manipulation skills for your specific affinities, granting you an even larger bonus than Energy Manipulation alone due to synergy. The more skills you can stack on a single effect, the better. Particularly when it comes to magic. Though that can wait until after your second Class advancement, since it's best to spend as much time as you can developing your Energy Control, since its quality will affect every other magic skill you have.”
Andrew nodded along. He definitely needed to pick up Energy Manipulation then. "That still leaves me with at least two more skill points… what should I do with them?"
"You should use them to Advance your skills to increase their quality. Definitely Advance your inner sight skill if you can, though that can wait until just before your Class Advancement." The Shaman replied. "Based on your goals, I'd recommend you focus on Advancing your survey skill as well. Or your kicking skill, depending on how much you struggle with combat.”
Andrew paused, considering the Shaman's suggestion. Once he got survey, stealth, and negotiation, his build was pretty much complete… he didn't need more skills at that point, he just needed his current skills to be better. Even Energy Manipulation was more of a bonus, rather than a requirement. "Wow… I never thought I'd actually run out of skills to get."
"Most builds are relatively complete by level twenty-five." The Shaman nodded. "From there, you focus on refining your skills. Maybe pick up a crafting skill, which will benefit you at the higher levels."
Andrew frowned. "Why would a crafting skill help?"
"Because once you out level the area, you need to depend on skills to level up, for which crafting skills are the best. Crafting skills reward experience based on the quality of your work, so as long as you continue to refine your craft, you'll continue to level up." The Shaman explained.
"So… the Tailor, Blacksmith, and Alchemist?" Andrew asked.
"The Tailor was a scout, the Blacksmith a warrior, and the Alchemist a mage." The Shaman nodded.
"Huh… What do you mean by 'out level the area'?" Andrew asked.
"Once you're so many levels above the average level of the creature's in an area, your leveling will slow to a crawl. Usually you top out somewhere around ten levels over, fifteen if you dedicate yourself to killing as much as you can for a few years, though if the rank is lower, that'll decrease by about three or four for each rank lower, and the reverse if it's higher, though that practically never happens. After that, you either need to find a higher level area, venture into a danger zone, or find a high-level dungeon-"
"Wait, what are those?" Andrew asked, interrupting his explanation.
"Danger zones and dungeons?" The Shaman asked and Andrew nodded. "Danger zones are areas of- well, danger, like volcanoes or glaciers. Areas like this are full of Aspected Energy, which infuses the plants, which are then eaten by the animals, which are eaten by other animals, making them stronger. Since these areas are generally hidden or isolated in addition to this, they can become frighteningly dangerous, full of creatures with levels in the hundreds or even higher. Dungeons, on the other hand, are chaotic sub-spaces full of hidden dangers and populated with mindless constructs that attack any foreign entity on sight. Additionally, as creatures fight and die in the dungeon, it becomes stronger, the space larger and more dangerous and the constructs higher level. They are valuable resources for increasing the level of a population, but if you aren't careful and fail to destroy it before it grows beyond a manageable level, it could lead to a dungeon break, where the dungeon bursts and the constructs are expelled as real creatures which lay waste to their surroundings."
"They become real?" Andrew asked incredulously. "How?!?"
The Shaman shrugged. "Who knows? It's just what happens. Thankfully it also destroys the dungeon in the process. Otherwise, certain high-level dungeons would continually flood the surroundings with powerful creatures over and over and we'd be lucky if all other life wasn't eradicated in the process."
Andrew grimaced slightly, finding the idea of a dungeon even breaking once too much. It sounded like a Beast Tide, only worse because the people here weren't in a position to handle it. “So how do you destroy a dungeon without causing a break? You know, in case I run into one while I'm out exploring.”
The Shaman chuckled slightly. “Optimistic, are we? Well, if you ever do need to destroy a dungeon, then all you need to do is destroy the dungeon core.”
“And how do I find the dungeon core?” Andrew asked.
“I have no idea.” The Shaman grinned. “Dungeons aren't exactly something goblins deal with on a regular basis, and if we did find one… Well, we wouldn't be goblins for very much longer. Dungeons are excellent places to gain achievements and achievements lead to evolution. But if all else fails, you can simply evacuate the area and let the dungeon break naturally, then clean up the mess afterwards. After the initial rush, the new creatures calm down and become more like normal animals, spreading out and finding their niche in the world, so they're more easily managed."
Andrew frowned slightly, before shaking his head. He probably wouldn't be dealing with dungeons any time soon, and even if he did find one, he could just ask more questions then. "Okay, one last question, why do ranks matter?"
"Because killing something of a lower rank grants less experience." The Shaman replied simply. “Experience is based on challenging yourself and a lower rank is innately a lesser challenge.”
Andrew sat back in his chair, taking a sip of water as he considered everything the Shaman had said. The rank thing was annoying, but it wasn't that big a deal, particularly when he could add in his animal core. With the extra stats he gained, he could fight well above his level. Andrew paused for a moment as he realized how well set up he was to be powerful in this world. Just having two cores was huge here, unlike in the Beast world. Not that multiple cores weren't a benefit in Beast world, but Advancement wasn't limited there. As long as you had access to ability crystals, you could keep growing pretty much infinitely. Here, on the other hand, once you reached a certain level, you were pretty much stuck, so being able to get to that level twice was a huge advantage.
Anyway, the long and the short of it was that Andrew needed to hunt. Andrew's lips curled up. It always came back to that, didn't it? If you wanted power, you had to go out and grab it. The only difference was that he needed to make sure to keep his skills up in between. Andrew nodded. He knew what he needed to focus on at the moment. Go out and find something high level to kill, get a few levels for his animal core and a level for his goblin core so he could pick up Walk again while practicing his Hide skill, after which which he'd need another level, which would let him merge the two for a stealth skill, then another for the skill point for Energy Control, then another level to Advance it, then the negotiation skills… or should he work on survey first? Eh, the point was, he needed levels. But before then… he needed to wait for his Energy to refill. Might as well work on Hide in the meantime, right?
*
"Okay, now, let's find something to kill." Andrew muttered. He'd finally found the time to head to the Outside and hunt, ready to see just how effective this animal core would be in Beast world. Not that he was expecting it to be amazing or anything, but if he could level and use ability crystals, well, extra power was extra power, right? Plus, he was kinda looking forward to finding out how many levels a Beast was worth. It didn't take long before he found one of the ever-present Squirrels and tore its head off with a quick swipe of his talons. "Alright, let's- eh?" Andrew frowned as he checked the animal core and… nothing. Where was the experience? He scratched his head, wondering why it didn't work, before realizing it might be because he had too many cores. The Shaman had said that large groups, particularly large groups full of people higher level than you, would severely decrease your experience gain. If all his cores counted as a person… yeah, that could be a problem. Maybe… Andrew tried lowering the auras in all of his cores to a minimum, except his Lizard core, which he kept just strong enough to still kill a Squirrel fairly easily before heading out to find one. Not much later… “Still?!?” Andrew groaned in exasperation. If this didn't let the animal core level, then the whole thing was a lost cause. He scowled down at the Beast for a moment, before another idea hit him. If he couldn't level the animal core using System world methods, then maybe… He cut out the Squirrel's ability crystal and popped it in his mouth, focusing as the energy from the crystal flowed into him, directing it towards his animal core, and… "Ha!” Andrew grinned victoriously as the energy flowed into the core. “Okay, let's see what you've done."
[Level: 4
Strength: 16
Agility: 24
Will: 16
Intellect: 0
Energy: 20
Sensitivity: 20]
That… wasn't as big a difference as he'd thought. Only four levels? For a Beast? That… didn't seem right. Even a shitty Beast like a Squirrel was miles better than the creatures he'd been fighting on System World! It'd have to have at least a hundred in each stat, which would be like… level twenty? Somewhere around there? Either way, it definitely should have gotten him more than four levels! Andrew paused. Maybe it was because he'd used a crystal? And now that the core was stronger, maybe it'd actually gain experience… Andrew nodded, searching for another Squirrel. Which… still didn't give his animal core any experience. “Shit.” Andrew sighed. “Well, maybe we can try the ability crystal again? Or I could just feed it aura… shit, why didn't I do that in the first place?” He shook his head, shifting his aura into the animal core until it reached level twenty and tanking the rest of his cores’ auras before finding yet another Squirrel to kill, hoping that this time he'd get some damn experience, and… “Fuck!” Andrew cursed. “Alright, I give up. This thing is useless.” He grumbled, pulling aura out of the animal core until it was back at level one.
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Honestly, he wasn't sure what he'd expected. The fact that he could use ability crystals to level it up at all was already a miracle! It was an alien core from an entirely different reality! It shouldn't even exist in this one! The only reason it did was because Andrew was… "The fuck am I?" Andrew muttered, shaking his head. It wasn't the first time he'd asked himself this question. He started getting suspicious after the incident during the Beast Tide, and then the time he'd died really just drove it home, but he was definitely not just a Beast. He'd have to be an idiot to not realize it by this point. However, he still had no idea what he was, or how something like him was even possible. But that just figured, didn't it? It wasn't enough that he was a Beast, which was weird for a Bonded, who were weird for humans, but he was weird for Beasts as well! That was three levels of weird! Not just weird, not just super weird, but super ultra weird!
*Hey, what the hell?* Cathryn asked incredulously. *What's got you all mopey out there? I know you aren't hurt.*
*It's nothing.* Andrew sent back with a sigh. *I'm just… coming to terms with the fact that I am completely, irrevocably abnormal. I mean, I'm currently a part of a tribe of literal monsters, and I'm still the worst abomination around! I mean, when I took the rabbit folk cores, the scouts freaked! What I can do is just weird!*
Cathryn paused for a moment. *I mean… yeah? But I thought you already knew that?*
*I mean, I did.* Andrew sighed. *It's just… I mean, I know it, I'm just having a hard time accepting it. Like, why do I have to be weird? All the time? I know I can't change it, and I'm just going to have to get used to it, but… I don't know. It's just frustrating sometimes. Like… Why did it have to be me?*
*I guess… It had to be someone, right?* Cathryn offered. *Plus, if you weren't, we would never have happened… maybe you wouldn't even be with Jing. You wouldn't be the same person, because you wouldn't have had the same experiences. I guess the question is… would you give up what you have just to be normal?*
Andrew blinked. He… hadn't thought of it that way before. Well, he'd had thoughts like that before. Like, if not for his friendship with Benjamin, he'd probably never have gotten with Cathryn. It's just a fact of life that things build on each other, and if one thing changes, so does everything that comes after that. It'd just never occurred to him that him being weird was one of those things. Or at least, it hadn't occurred to him recently. Before all this, before Li Jing and Cathryn, back when the fact that his life sucked was all he thought about, he always thought about the fact that if he was just normal his life would be so much different. So why hadn't he thought about it when his life was good? *I think- I still don't like the fact that I'm weird, but… I do like the way my life has turned out despite it. Ugh, I can't believe I actually have to be grateful I'm weird now.*
*I prefer to think you're grateful for me.* Cathryn sent back along with a smirky feeling.
*
"Oof!" Andrew grunted as Li Jing fell into his lap. "How was your day?"
"Good." Li Jing muttered, snuggling into him.
"Anything you wanna talk about?" Andrew asked.
Li Jing shook her head. "No."
Andrew nodded, the two of them sitting there cuddling for a moment, before Andrew frowned as something occurred to him. "Hey Jing. Do you ever feel like- I'm not saying this is a problem, but- do you ever feel like we don't… talk enough? I mean, I love us just cuddling like this, just being with each other. It's just us. But when I think about it, me and Cathryn talk a lot, cause we're in each other's heads and it's just a thing, and… well, I don't want you to feel left out or anything."
Li Jing blinked at him, taking a moment to take that in. "I- think it's okay? I don't feel like I need to talk to you any more than I do… Unless, do you want me to talk more?"
"I- don't? I mean, I enjoy talking to you, but… I don't know, I feel like I almost get more of you when we're just sitting here cuddling like this." Andrew replied.
Li Jing smiled at him. "Me too."
Andrew smiled back. "Okay, cool. I just- I wanted to make sure you were okay, you know? I don't want you to feel like I'm neglecting you."
Li Jing frowned. "I don't think we need to talk… I just need to know you think about me. And I know you think about me."
Andrew raised an eyebrow. "You do?"
"Of course." Li Jing smirked. "Cathryn and I do talk." Andrew froze. Why did that make him nervous?
*
Andrew stepped out of a portal dropping him right at the edge of the forest. "Alright, let's do this." He muttered, before slinking off into the forest. It was… actually oddly relaxing. Stalking through the wilderness, looking for prey… this was what he did! Andrew rolled his shoulders. "Oh yeah, I'm gonna enjoy this." Andrew chuckled, his steps lightening as his legs shifted to rabbit folk legs and carapace covered him, stalking deeper into the forest, paying close attention to his aura sense, searching for the just right prey. After all, he was going to need some juicy achievements for his second Class advancement, right?
The outer edge of the forest seemed to be a weaker area, all the animals Andrew encountered topping out around level ten, so he ended up heading deeper, following the slowly increasing average level. In the process, he focused on practicing his navigation skill, almost purposefully getting himself a bit lost as he navigated through the dense foliage. He also took some time to practice his Hide skill, since it was the perfect area for it, and the average level didn't exactly increase quickly, so after an hour or so of travel, he needed something to break up the monotony. It also gave him some time to play with Shadow Energy, though he couldn't do too much, since he didn't want to waste his energy. He only used about a point an hour, which was well below his regeneration rate, but with his Sensitivity, that still gave him a lot to work with. It not only let him observe how Shadow worked, but it let him practice his Energy Control as well.
It was getting close to evening when Andrew finally found something at a decent level, a rather surprising jump from the level fourteenish creatures he'd been seeing, right up to around level twenty. With his animal core, his true level was about fourteen, and with his new traits and the rest of his bullshit, a level twenty seemed like the perfect challenge. Plus, if all else failed, he was fairly confident he could run away, because… he switched to his ant form as he flew closer. Who could catch a tiny, teleporting ant? Particularly since at this size, teleporting would cost him practically nothing, and with his Sensitivity, he could actually pay nothing.
The creature was in a small clearing, so he had to land in some bushes near the edge before transforming back into his goblin form so he could get a good look at it, finding himself staring at a large bear as it clawed at a small mound near the center of the clearing. It'd clearly been at it for a while, having dug out a large divot in the hardened earth, which probably had something to do with the other aura Andrew now noticed, which was inside the mound. Andrew from slightly as he studied the aura in the mound. It felt… strange, for some reason. It wasn't exactly weak, but it was faded, and he couldn't get a good grasp on it. Andrew considered it for a moment, before shrugging. Obviously whatever was in the mound was scared of the bear, so if he could kill the bear, he probably didn't have to worry about whatever was in the mound. The question was, could he kill it?
Andrew refocused on the bear, grimacing slightly. The thing was huge and there was a reason adding mass was a perk for ranking up. The more mass you had to put behind it, the more effective your Strength stat would be, and since the bear was clearly a Strength focused creature, getting hit by it would suck. Then again, he did have his Void Body helping him out… But then again, even half a hit from a bear was still a pretty significant hit. Of course, with his Void Step, he could probably avoid getting hit period… Andrew considered it for a moment, before letting out a sigh. "Fuck it, I can always run." He muttered to himself. Plus, his aura healing still worked, so as long as the bear didn't one-shot him, he'd be fine. And even if it did one shot him, that just meant… Well, he wasn't sure what the result would be, but he was pretty sure he'd just end up back at level one. Annoying, but not really a problem. He took a deep breath, before letting it out. "Let's do this." He growled, suddenly disappearing from the bush as he teleported into the air above the bear, putting all his Strength, plus an Energy boost, into his first kick, right to the bear's head!
The bear's head barely moved, but the bear still stumbled from the strike, proving that the head was still a weak spot, system or no. Andrew flipped away as the bear roared in fury, recovering and moving way faster than any animal that size rightly should to swipe one of its massive paws at him. Andrew Void Stepped out of the way, the bear charging after him with a roar. He sprinted towards the edge of the clearing, the bear hot in his heels, heading straight for a tree only to Void Step away at the last minute, reappearing behind the bears head and delivering another Energy powered kick to its head, causing it to stumble as it rammed into the solid… oak? Didn't matter. Andrew managed to get another four good Energy boosted kicks in before the tree burst into pieces as the bear pushed through it, roaring like- well, like some little piece of shit mutant was seriously pissing it off. "If I had claws, you'd be dead." Andrew grumbled, teleporting away. Why the hell had he thought that kicking would be a good combat style?!? He needed to rip and tear, not bludgeon and club!
"Okay, time to switch things up." Andrew muttered as the bear swung around, its eyes literally red. Tends to happen when someone uses your head as a tap floor. With the same freakish display of speed, it charged towards him again, Andrew Void Stepping across the clearing then standing his ground as the air began to distort in front of him. He took a few steps back, waiting for the bear to charge through the distortion, and then… The portal snapped shut, separating the front and back halves of the bear! Andrew quickly dodged to the side as the bear skidded past him with an anguished whine, whimpering pitifully as blood pooled around it.
“Damn it.” Andrew sighed. The portal was supposed to close on the front half of the bear, not the back! Now it'd take a few minutes for the bear to die, instead of a few seconds. But he didn't have that much control over his portals. Any Energy he fed it couldn't be taken back and it would keep going until all the Energy was gone. Unfortunately, there wasn't much he could do to help things along, because repeatedly stomping on something's head was not a good way to put it out of its misery, so he had to just watch the bear slowly fade away. Unless he took the bear's core of course, but then he wouldn't get any experience, which would defeat the point of even doing this. “I really need claws.” He grumbled.
Finally, a few minutes later, a rush of experience flowed into him, signifying the bear's death, and Andrew let out a sigh of relief. He was fine with killing, but letting things suffer while they died just bothered him. “Speaking of…” Andrew muttered, turning to the mound, taking a step towards it only to let out a yelp as he tripped. “What the- huh…” Andrew paused as he took in his legs, specifically the brand new spike emerging from his heel. “Where did that come from?” He hesitated for a moment before shifting fully into his rabbit folk form, his eyes widening as he grew, turning into a towering mass of muscle, still keeping the general shape of a rabbit folk, in the same way a house cat was the same shape as a tiger. Just add fangs, claws, and heel spikes apparently. Andrew grinned slightly as he turned back into his goblin form. “Okay, now that I can work with. But first…”
Andrew turned back to the mound, walking over and placing a hand on it, focusing on his aura sense, trying to get a better view of what was inside. There… was something in there, that was for sure. Andrew couldn't tell what the thing was, but it wasn't big, and it obviously wasn't doing great according to his aura sense. "Hmmm… I can either save it, or at least give it a quick death, right?" Andrew muttered to himself. Leaving the thing to die in a hole in the ground just felt wrong. He couldn't even bear to watch the bear die slow, and it tried to kill him! After he attacked it, sure, but still. No, he had to at least do something.
Andrew approached the divot the bear had been working at, his hands growing claws, or at least longer, more useful claws, and carapace as he began to dig. The bear had been pretty close, so with his increased strength, it only took him about half an hour to finish the job and break into the small pocket. "Finally." Andrew grunted, wiping the dirt off his face and waving the dust away. "Now, let's-" Andrew began, before freezing. Lying on the floor, looking like she'd lost a fight uncomfortably recently, covered in burns and wounds that looked suspiciously similar to what you'd get if a certain goblin chieftain hit you with his ax, was an elf… and she was wearing a rather familiar cloak, just like the people he'd seen the night he'd grabbed the rabbit folk cores. "Oh, shit." Andrew cursed. How the fuck was he supposed to deal with this?!?