"The lass!" Gromorlig bellowed, making everyone jump. His finger shot out to Dotty. "By my father's beard, she's perfect."
"Me?" Dotty squeaked.
"You're a hunter, aren't you?" Gromorlig bounded over and clapped her on the shoulder hard enough to make her stumble. "Just what we need. And here I was thinking I'd have to watch you lot fumble around for days."
Everyone was dumbfounded. Dotty was the solution to their problems? How would Dotty, the youngest member of their group, be able to clear a nest where a Level 135 boss was producing more corrupted constructs every day?
Gromorlig walked toward a wall of the barracks, jostling from foot to foot and humming to himself as he did. As soon as he reached the wall, he placed his palm on the cold surface. Then he leaned in and started tapping.
"Not here." He moved a few feet to the left and did the same. He repeated the process a few times until a large grin split his face. "Just what we need," he said.
"What is that?" Sir Tristan asked. "And what's so special about her Class?" The knight followed the dwarf's movements with growing irritation.
"Listen," Gromorlig kept tapping. "Hear that? No, of course you don't," he mocked Sir Tristan. "That's because you're not a Hunter." He spun back to face Dotty. "But she can, can't she, lass?"
Dotty frowned. "No?"
"Come here." Gromorlig advised with a beckoning finger and then gestured to the wall as if it was some grand creation.
"I don't understand," she said.
"Of course you don't. For now," Gromorlig said. "Put your hand on it."
Dotty did so and then looked at Gromorlig.
"Infuse some of your Mana in it."
Dotty looked blankly at him.
"Lass, just imagine your Mana was moving toward the damn wall."
Dotty could only try and do as instructed by the weird Dwarf and imagined her Mana going through the wall. She was no Mage, but she could try and do as much.
The moment her Mana moved through the wall, something happened, something clicked in her mind.
There was a mechanism hidden inside the wall, something that she felt resonating with her own Class.
But, for some reason, she couldn’t access it.
“There’s something inside the wall.”
“There’s something inside the wall, indeed,” Gromorlig echoed her words.
"Ha!" Gromorlig slapped his knee. "See? She's got it! Let me tell you about Viscera's little secrets!" He wrapped an arm around Dotty's shoulders and moved his palm to showcase their seemingly ordinary surroundings. "See, when we built this city, we didn't just make pretty buildings and fancy bridges. No, no! We filled every street, every corner, every nook and cranny with the nastiest, cleverest traps you've ever seen!"
"That sounds... dangerous," Ted said, unconsciously taking a step back from the wall.
"Dangerous?" Gromorlig roared with laughter. "Of course it's dangerous! That's the point! But here's the clever bit - they only work for certain Classes!”
“How?” Sir Tristan frowned.
“Dwarven engineering, you nonce! How else would they work?” Gromorlig let Dotty go and kept tapping the wall while looking up. “I can’t access the normal mechanisms because my Class doesn’t work anymore. We had to keep the civilians from blowing themselves up, didn't we? That's dwarven engineering for you!”
Everyone looked a bit confused until Monica spoke up.
“They managed to only give certain Classes access to the traps. So, if you’re a Cook, you can’t just blow up the neighbor who stole your pie.”
“Ha! Spot on!” Gromorlig said, taking a few steps away from the wall and then kicking it.
The wall didn’t move, but a compartment appeared a few feet from where he kicked. Gromorlig stuck his hand in the hole and pulled it back with a silver disc in his hand.
“This is a control disc,” he smiled to Dotty. “I’ll teach you how to use those traps you can attune to yourself and those that you have enough Mana for. It won’t be perfect, but that’s your best bet of taking down those pesky spiders.
"Oh, you should have seen it! We had pit traps that only Warriors could trigger, flame vents that only responded to Mages - though those probably won't work anymore, been too long." He stroked his beard thoughtfully. “But the real line of defense was all about Hunters, Engineers, and Trappers. Those are the trap-oriented Classes. We always knew some foes would try and invade our turf and we were ready to give them a good lesson in Dwarven crafting…”
Toward the end, Gromorlig looked at one of the stone statues with longing in his eyes and it took him a few seconds to shake the melancholy away.
"So Dotty can activate these traps?" Monica asked.
"Some of them!" Gromorlig's eyes sparkled with mischief. "Not all - that would be too easy. But enough to give those eight-legged pests a nasty surprise!" He demonstrated by making squishing motions with his hands. "Snap! Crunch! Squish! No more spiders!"
His face suddenly turned serious, the shift so abrupt it made Ted jump. "But there's a problem."
"What now?" Heidi sighed.
"Your Skills!" Gromorlig threw his hands up. "They're terrible! Absolutely terrible! You're all flailing around like drunk miners at a wedding feast!"
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
He pointed at Heidi. "You! All that fire, but where's the control? And you!" He turned to Ted. "One song? ONE? In the old days, Bards had a tune for everything! And you!" He jabbed a finger at Sir Tristan. "Shield work's decent, but your footwork? Sloppy! Sloppy!"
"What's wrong with our Skills?" Monica crossed her arms.
"Everything!" Gromorlig slapped his thigh. "No efficiency! None! Back in the Age of Heroes - now there was a time! Before all this Old Gods and New Gods nonsense. Skills meant something then!"
He got a faraway look in his eyes, his voice dropping to an almost reverent tone. "Heroes could do more with one Skill than you lot manage with ten! They didn't just use Skills - they mastered them!”
"The Age of Heroes?" Ted leaned forward, his earlier embarrassment forgotten. "I've never heard of it."
"Ancient times!" Gromorlig's voice dropped to a theatrical whisper. "Even in my day, it was mostly stories. Skill Efficiency - that was the real magic! Warriors who could split mountains with a single sword stroke, Mages who could call rain with a snap of their fingers, Hunters who could track prey across oceans!"
“That sounds unlikely even at Level 500,” Sir Tristan commented.
“Of course it does,” Gromorlig snorted, “because Skill Efficiency is not a thing anymore! It wasn’t the focus even during the Age of Gods. Mortals were obsessed with leveling to reach Godhood. That’s all they did. And once they did, goodbye to focusing on your Skills now that you’ve got Divinity. No, Skill Efficiency is a thing of old, so old that very few even know what it is about.”
“Come here, lads,” Gromorlig beckoned them and put a hand in his pouch, taking out his monocle. Why don’t you look at your Skills with this? I’ll see if I can fetch a few more later.”
Monica was the first who did so.
*Ding*
You’ve equipped Equisite Dwarven Lens
Skill List
Golden Flame - Lv. 42
SKILL EFFICIENCY: N/A
Obsidian Flame - Lv. 39
SKILL EFFICIENCY: N/A
Phoenix Feathers Lv. 23
SKILL EFFICIENCY: 3%
The bonuses last while the Skill is active or until the rage-triggered secondary effect is activated.
#1 Base Effect: Increases your resilience, physical strength, and physical speed by 100%. The effect increases by 10% for each Level.
Current Bonus: 330%
#2 Base Effect: Increases all of your Attributes by 1. The effect increases by 1 for each Level.
Current Bonus: +23 to All Attributes
#1 Special Effect - Fury of the Phoenix: You gain +30 to All Attributes for each Phoenix Feather you burn. The effect increases by 3 for each Level. Your Vitality is reduced by 30 for each Phoenix Feather you burn. The Vitality cost increases by 3 for each Level. If your Vitality is negative after Fury of the Phoenix runs off, you will die. Resurrecting after dying because of or during Fury of the Phoenix will result in all your Attributes and Skill potency being cut by 80% for the next 24 hours.
Current Bonus: +99 to All Attributes, excluding Vitality for each burnt Phoenix Feather
Cost: 99 Vitality for each burnt Phoenix Feather
Current Number of Available Feathers: 2
Mana Sense Lv. 45
SKILL EFFICIENCY: 6%
Develop the ability to perceive Mana in your surroundings.
Phoenix Step Lv. 22
SKILL EFFICIENCY: 4%
Channel the essence of the Twin Phoenix to move with supernatural grace and speed, leaving traces of flame in your wake. Each step can be enhanced with either the Golden or Obsidian Flame.
#1 Base Effect: Instantly move up at 500% your top speed up to 10 yards in any direction, leaving a trail of your chosen flame. The speed increases by 10% for each Level. The distance increases by 1 yard for each Level.
Current Range: 32 yards
Current Max Speed: 720%
#2 Base Effect: Can be used up to 3 times in quick succession before requiring a brief pause. Maximum uses increase by 1 every 5 Levels.
Current Uses: 7
#1 Special Conditional Effect - Golden Trail: Use the Golden Flame to change direction up to one time while using the Skill.
#2 Special Conditional Effect - Obsidian Trail: When using the Obsidian Flame, increase the damage of your next blow by 200%. The damage increases by 10% for each Level.
Limitations: You can only apply one flame per usage.
Cooldown: After using maximum successive steps, you must wait 100 seconds before using Phoenix Step again.
Obsidian Impact Lv. 32
SKILL EFFICIENCY: 2%
Channel the destructive power of the Obsidian Flame into explosive strikes.
#1 Base Effect: Compress your Obsidian Flame into your strikes, causing them to explode on impact, dealing 500% damage. Damage increases by 20% for each Level.
Current Damage: 1140%
#2 Base Effect: Every third successful strike in an unbroken chain of hits has a 5% chance to create an amplified explosion that would double the damage from Obsidian Impact.
Special Effect - Shatterpoint: If you strike the same spot three times within 5 seconds, the third hit deals 300% additional damage.
Cost: Equivalent to Fireball
Monica passed it to the others after briefly recording the numbers down.
Golden Flame (Level 42): Skill Efficiency: N/A
Obsidian Flame (Level 39): Skill Efficiency: N/A
Phoenix Feathers (Level 23): Skill Efficiency: 3%
Mana Sense (Level 45): Skill Efficiency: 6%
Phoenix Step (Level 22): Skill Efficiency: 4%
Obsidian Impact (Level 32): Skill Efficiency: 2%
How could her Skills have such a low efficiency? Obsidian Impact was so strong she could now blow away the damn Corrupted Spider Constructs and tear them apart like nothing. What did it mean that it only had two-percent Skill Efficiency?
As the others made the round looking at their Skills through the monocle Gromorlig had given them, the results were pretty much the same.
No one had one Skill with more than 9% Skill Efficiency.
“You thought you were hot crap, didn’t you?” Gromorlig asked the group, putting the monocle back in his pocket. “Don’t worry, everyone does.”
“So, why are you telling us this?” Monica frowned. “Can we even do anything about it?”
"Apparently, there used to be ways to train this, but it's all lost now. These days?" He snorted. "People just pile on levels like rocks in a cart and hope it's enough. More power, more levels, more Skills - but no understanding! No mastery!"
He suddenly pointed at Monica, making her start. "Except you!"
"Me?"
"The Avatar of the Twin Phoenix!" He did a little dance on the spot. "The rules don't apply to you! Well, they shouldn't anyway." He squinted at her. "Though you're doing a pretty poor job of it so far!"
"Excuse me?" Monica was confused.
“I was a fan of your stories as a kid,” Gromorlig said. “They all said you had the greatest mastery over your Skills. You’re the legendary warrior who can reach one-hundred percent Skill Efficiency.”
Everyone looked at Monica, who just returned a confused stare.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“If you did, maybe you wouldn’t need the Spear of Dhoznil, lass,” Gromorlig said cryptically.
They had explained the Dwarf that they needed to get inside the Temple of Dhoznil but even Gromorlig couldn’t open the temple for them.
Plus, he had seemed very nonplussed by their mission so far, taking a larger interest in their Skills than in them trying to kill Machina with a Divine Weapon.
“The tales I liked so much were just tales, weren’t they?” Gromorlig said, looking at Monica with a serious stare. “Anyway, I have a way for all of you to raise your Skill Efficiency to 10%. That’s the first threshold. Unlike the System numbaoeuaoeuers, twenty-five, fifty, and one hundred, Skill Efficiency has a major impact every 10% increase. You’ll need it before we go rattle that nest.”