The store page was sorted into several different categories that Owen could pick from. Weapons, armor, accessories, defenses, soul and body temper materials, information packets, and miscellaneous. Owen already knew where he wanted to first start looking. Switching to the miscellaneous page, he skipped past everything without a second glance, until he found a section with items that heal people. He had to hold his shock at bay when he saw potions, but the brief descriptions underneath each item let him know that none of them did what he was looking for.
Scrolling further down, he grinned when he finally found something that fit what he was looking for. The brief description was all he needed to see before buying the item, it costing him 3000 credits.
*You have purchased an item. Pill of Hydra's Recovery. This item will allow anyone who consumes it to temporarily have the restorative powers of a hydra. This item allows for the regrowth of limbs.*
Owen smiled as the item appeared in his hand. A tiny box, similar to a ring bow appeared in his hands. Lifting the top of the box showed a pill gently nestled in the center. It was a deep green color that seemed to pulse to an unheard heart beat. Closing the lid of the box, Owen didn't wait any longer before rushing to the room where Myra was resting. He knocked on the door gently, but didn't hear a response. Feeling impatient, he slowly opened the door to see her sleeping soundly.
He smiled, glad to see she was resting. Grabbing a piece of paper from the desk in the room, he quickly jotted down a note for Myra and placed the box on top of it on the side table next to Myra's bed. He snuck out, doing his best not to make anymore noise that he had to and once the door was closed moved back to the room he had been in before.
Happy he had managed to buy something to heal Myra, he didn't have many other plans for the guild shop in the short term. He was still curious about all of the items he had skipped over, so he opened up the guild store again, the store opening up where he had left off. He was about to scroll back to the top and slowly make his way down again, but one of the other items on the page caught his eye.
*Pill of Potentiality: This item allows the user to see where they have lost potential and help regain some of that lost potential. To see more information about this item, you must purchase it. 1000 credits*
Owen wanted to grown a little bit, but hesitantly agreed. He was curious about what it meant about lost potential. He was pretty sure he had more stats than anyone else at the same level and his weapon mastery with a spear had gotten fairly high in his eyes. At the very least he hadn't seen anyone else with a higher mastery, though so far he only knew Lucas's mastery level. He let his mind wander through the different possible options for what the potential might refer to. Especially because purchasing it to find out what it was referring to could either be a waste of 1000 credits or be some of the best credits he had spent.
Seeing as he had enough to get it now, he decided to go for it. Even if it ended up being a waste, him knowing if he was on a good path for his potential would be a prize in itself. No longer hesitating he purchased the Pill. Another ring sized box appeared in his hands. Identifying the pill inside he nodded when he got the same information, with a little extra added on at the end.
*Pill of Potentiality: This item allows the user to see where they have lost potential and help regain some of that lost potential. Consuming this item will help the user see where their true talents lie.*
Owen tried poking around for the extra information, there was no way the extra information was that tiny blub at the ends, right? He had already spent the credits, so he shook his head and swallowed it. He hadn't originally wanted to take the pill immediately, but the lack of information he had been looking for was frustrating. As soon as he swallowed the pill he began focusing on the energies inside of his core. He pushed them towards where the pill was, using the energy to break down the outer shell.
A hot flash of power burned in his stomach as he felt the shell fall apart, leaving the insides of the pill to be absorbed instantly. Several seconds passed, without anything happening and Owen was starting to feel like he had been scammed. After a full minute had passed, a notification popped up, but Owen didn't notice it at first. He had noticed something else before the notification. It had felt like tiny waves of power were coursing through his body, but instead of the natural flow of energy, the energy seemed to have intention. It would find an area, pause, then find a new area. If he didn't know any better, it felt like he was being searched by the energy.
When the energy finally seemed satisfied, Owen opened his eyes to see the notification that had popped up.
*Would you like to view the results? Y/N?*
Owen selected yes, and his head was both flooded with information and felt like it was being pulled away from his body. Less than a second later and a system window appeared in front of him.
*You have the highest potential in Dexterity and Perception. Currently, you have limited yourself by not upgrading these actively. These were your highest stats in the beginning of your induction due to them being things you were exceptional at. They have fallen behind everything else, making you worse. You can still achieve great heights, but they will be even greater if you play to your strengths.*
*Here is the listed value of your potential compared to the multiverse for each of your stats on a scale of 1 to 10, ten being highest.
Vitality --> 4
Mana --> 9
Strength --> 3
Perception --> 9
Agility --> 5
Resilience --> 4
Dexterity --> 10
Luck --> 2
Chaos --> error, not applicable*
When no other information was forth coming, Owen fell deep into thought. He did remember his stats originally being incredibly high in his perception and dexterity, but he hadn't thought it would truly matter. All stats could be raised and having trained with Xerxes to boost his resilience enough for the tempering, both his dexterity and perception had started to fall behind. It hadn't taken him too long to find a balance with his stats, even if his mana was currently an outlier.
He still wasn't sure of what actual benefits he would receive if he focused on his highest potential stats. Theoretically, it would make him more powerful, but there hadn't been a concrete way of showing it. Owen groaned as he knew he wasn't going to have any chance of figuring it out on his own, so he turned to the information packets page, cursing his luck. Flipping through, he found several information packets that might help him, but he was concerned that he would accidentally choose one that wouldn't tell him the information he needed to know. He only had a couple hundred credits left, so he forced himself to take the second gamble of the day.
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He purchased two out of the three different information packets that might have the information he had wanted to find. A packet about Perception effects in combat and Dexterity's effects in combat. He wasn't sure how heavily they played a role as he hadn't often noticed either of them being the make or break reason he had won different fights. Ignoring the fact he might've just waisted the last of his money, he hesitantly opened the first of the two packets.
*Perception in combat is known to have a variety of effects. First, is the ability to sense oncoming attacks. Second, is the ability to sense yourself and your movements. Third, is the ability to sense the fluctuations of mana in both yours and your opponents bodies. The first and second is widely considered the more obvious results of perception in combat. But sensing the mana fluctuations more easily can lead to improvements in predicting your opponents. Sensing Mana in your own body can let you try and mix up its flow to disrupt your opponents ability to predict your movements.*
*Dexterity's effects on combat can vary widely, but most often it has to do with the ability to outperform your opponent with complex maneuvers to get around their defense. However, with higher dexterity, it becomes easier to control those precise maneuvers, leading to faster progress when training combat masteries. Recommended to find a dexpuzzle if you want to train your dexterity with training rather than free stats.*
Owen sat back as he processed the information. He could now see why his perception and dexterity could be so important, but he wasn't sure what a dexpuzzle was. Checking the guild store again, he found an item called dexpuzzle in the miscellaneous items. Curiously enough, it wasn't too expensive, but it was still out of his budget now. Letting himself fall deep into thought again he tried to of what the meaning of potential would be in those situations. Would it effect how easily he was able to adapt with the stats or would it effect how easily he was able to train them after he reached level 30.
The problem was he couldn't be sure which frustrated him more than anything else. While he saw good reason to keep his dexterity and perception at a higher level than he currently had it, he still didn't understand what the potential was referring to. He needed a brief break from thinking, he had been inside the office closed off from everyone for a little more than an hour, but even that had been too much for his brain. He quickly assigned his free stats in an even split between dexterity and perception.
He stood up stretching and glanced at the last waiting notification again, he still wasn't sure of what weapon he wanted to pick, but he knew it would probably be a sword or a shield. He wasn't sure yet, but he wanted to try and save the choice for when he had a better idea behind what potential meant and try to pick based on that. If he wanted to see results, he would need to pick a weapon that required a high level of skill, but he wasn't sure if just that would fit his needs, since h also wanted the weapon to be useful for something that wasn't just practice.
As he left the room, he saw the Myra's door was slightly ajar, so he with a big smile on his face moved to the door, knocking on it gently. "Come in," He heard Myra say through the door. He opened it wide and walked in grinning as he immediately looked to see her new arm. Instead what he saw was Myra holding the box gently in her right hand and she looked like she was unsure of what to do. When she looked up and saw it was him, a deep flush reached her cheeks, but instead of looking away like she usually did, she gestured for him to sit down.
Noticing the tension behind her movements hesitated, but went along with the serious atmosphere, worried about what might've happened. Before he had a chance to ask, she started speaking. "I'm honored and happy and are thinking or me..." She paused as this time she did look away and Owen felt panic beginning growing in his chest. He was about to speak, but she held up her hand to silence him. "I really do appreciate this, btu I don't think I can accept. I'm someone who likes to take things slow and this is probably the fastest I have ever heard a proposal happening, but it cheered me up so thank you."
Myra turned to him beaming. "I've already talked to Peggy about it and she also thinks you should slow down and try to take one step at a time, even if the world feels like it is ending. But I'm still willing to give a relationship a try. I'm just not going to jump into a full blown marriage." She said laughing slightly. Owen couldn't believe his ears, she had thought the box had a ring inside of it, but maybe the misunderstanding was good. Owen couldn't help the flush that had also crept onto his cheeks as he smiled sheepishly. "I think marriage would be a little too fats for me as well, but you should still check inside the box."
Owen said, but Myra grinned. "I think I'll save it for now, maybe after a couple years I can open it, btu it's far too early to know anything about that." Before Owen could interrupted, Myra had already been in a sitting position and leaned forward, causing Owen to instinctually lean forward as well. She pulled him into a quick kiss, before throwing herself back against the bed and throwing a pillow over most of her face. Owen was dumbstruck and struggled to find any words to say. He could still feel the kiss on his lips and he turned to her still stunned.
Just as he started to tell her what was inside the box, he remembered his note. "Did you get my note?" he managed to ask and he saw a slight twinge of annoyance on Myra's face before he corrected himself. "That was amazing, and I'd be glad if I could call you my girlfriend, but I think all of this happened because of a misunderstanding." Owen said, worried she'd be angry with him, but she just looked confused and a little worried. "What do you mean?" Owen pointed at the box still in her lap. "That's a recovery pill, it should help you regrow your arm, I bought it for you as a present. It should've said in the note..." Owen trailed off as Myra showed him the note that had been left.
"Dearest Myra, I am hoping this works as a sign of my intentions towards you.
Forever and Always,
Your Owen"
Owen looked at the handwriting that was far too neat to be his own and he began darting his head around looking for the culprit. Just as he started glancing around, a very proud looking Peggy waltzed into the room with the biggest grin Owen had ever seen. "Did you guys like my present?" Peggy asked as she looked between the two. In one hand she held a her phone as if she had been taking a picture and in the other hand, she held the original note Owen had left. Myra turned a shade of red Owen didn't even know existed. he wasn't much better as he just stared at Peggy. "You orchestrated this?" He asked, still bewildered.
Peggy grinned and turned her phone to show a picture of them kissing and nodded. "Yup, you guys seemed like you needed a push," Owen pulled Peggy into a tight hug, before releasing her just as quickly. "I have to say this is the best present I think I've ever gotten." He turned to Myra who looked between the two of them, looking embarrassed. "This isn't the worst present I've ever gotten." Myra said quietly before turning to Peggy with a scowl. "You let me think this was a ring, when I could've had my arm back?" There was the old Myra, as she unleashed her Fury at Peggy who just grinned. As she dodged the several items Myra threw at her.
"Come on, you have to admit, it was a pretty good prank. I switched the just before we started talking. And I didn't explicitly say anything about it being a ring, I just didn't disagree." Peggy said smiling, but as if a switched flipped, she turned her head with a serious look on her face. She looked liked she could here something they couldn't before she turned her face with a worried expression.
"We're being attack, several silent alarms just went off, the shields are holding for now, but if we are going to do your plan, you need to leave now." All joviality was gone from her face as she turned to Myra and Owen who had matched her intensity, both already getting ready.
The battle had just started.