5
It didn’t take very long to drain the points of all the Earth-based skills that Ned had somehow amassed over his fifty-five years that the system awarded him based on some arcane algorithm or whatever. Soon after that, he started redistributing.
“Hey, what about my beginning attributes? Strength and whatnot. Can I adjust them?" asked Ned.
Hughie looked uncomfortable. "Yes, you could, but my advice is don't. You've earned those statistics, one way and another, over the course of your life and you've grown used to them by walking around being you. Adjusting them now is artificial and doesn't reflect any effort. One minute you’re you, and the next you’re Bruce Lee. It’s sudden and jarring. There’ll be an awkward adjustment period the world might not wait for. It's far safer to earn those points."
"How do I earn those?"
“Training. Effort.”
“Ah.”
“Mmm hmm.”
“Yuck.”
“Yes.”
So, Ned left his attributes where they were to focus on his Physical and Mental Skills.
“Here’s what I’ve got,” he said, moving aside so that Hughie could take a look.
[https://i.imgur.com/dYR8eXZ.jpg]
“The italicized ones are at base, right?" Ned asked.
“Exactly.”
"Thanks, Hughie." Ned took a deep breath. “Now for the professional skills.”
“Let me explain,” said Hughie. Here are the options so far for Credit, each of which starts with a base of twenty-three because of your inherent gifts and training.” He waved a hand and a smaller screen appeared.
[https://i.imgur.com/JzzdP8V.jpg]
“You have one hundred forty points to spend. The question marks are for any subskills you might want to suggest to the system, should you have any ideas that aren’t covered. Those will be granted or not on a case-by-case basis. These are the different types of trust that you might automatically inspire in others, not counting any penalties or advantages that you might incur due to varying circumstances.”
“So, Financial Trust would be like whether or not a stranger would lend me money?”
“Yes.”
“This one would be, like, whether or not they thought I was telling the truth? Being honest? Then whether or not I could be trusted not to break the law, then not to cheat on my girlfriend, then whether or not I’d keep my word when it’s given, just by looking at me?”
“These are skills. Con men, for example, make their living with them.”
“I get it.”
Ned put seventy points into Trust in Word, thirty-five in Legal Trust, and thirty-five in Honest Trust. Financial trust might eventually be useful, especially when he had to borrow money to build his school. Ned wasn’t an adventurer. He didn’t want to slay monsters for their gold, or bandits for justice. He wanted to do what he’d always done which was to do a damn good job teaching kids. But all that was probably well down the line. He might need people to trust him not to violate the law, not to lie about his story, and that he would certainly keep his word as a matter of survival, like, right when he first meets other people.
As for Romantic Trust, well, he didn’t have any plans in that direction and wouldn’t any time soon. That was better earned anyway. A woman that he could trip into bed before earning that trust was probably not worth any long-term investment, and Ned just wasn’t that type of guy.
He entered in the data and the question marks disappeared.
[https://i.imgur.com/nhiEMgz.jpg]
Ned found that he had some questions before he tackled the combat skills.
Hughie explained the rules. “Let me start with Grapple. In function during a fight, this skill contains two parts. The first part is simply grabbing the enemy. The second part is the enemy deciding what to do about it. Should he let you hold onto him or try to escape? If he tries to escape, he’ll apply his strength or any special skills of his own against yours. If he fails, you have options, most of which are automatic successes. Sometimes an opponent will allow you your hold in order for the chance to kill you to prevent that.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The options were Catch Arm, Catch and Lift, Catch and Redirect, Catch Leg, Catch Weapon, Headlock, and Reverse Hold, plus the obligatory question marks.
“My original score in Grapple was, what, fifty… five before I raised it?” Ned asked.
“Yes. You wrestled for a season your ninth grade in high school and your father taught you some Judo he learned in the army. That’s contributed to your overall training and your prodigious Education score.”
“I see,” Ned said, rubbing his bottom lip. “Some of these are self-explanatory. What’s Catch and Redirect?”
“Suppose I’m wielding a rapier against you and do a full lunge. My weight is moving forward in an attempt to power my thrust, ensuring deeper penetration. Whether I miss or not, you, using this skill, can add momentum in a slightly different direction, propelling me into a door frame, perhaps, or down the stairs. It does not, however, cause me to miss. That you must leave to hope.”
“Ah. And why would I want to Catch Weapon? Weapon hurt. No want to catch.”
Hughie smiled. “It may be better than allowing the blow to land where the enemy wants it. Besides, there are some wonderfully good gauntlets and gloves in this game. It’s a maneuver most do not expect for obvious reasons.”
“So, say I catch and manage to maintain a hold on the guy’s arm. The next round you said I have options.”
“Yes. You may twist his arm, maintain the hold, break it, and so on.”
“So if a guy gets me around the neck and I don’t escape, he could snap my spine and kill me next round?”
“Yes.”
“Good to know.”
“You could do the same.”
“With a strength of ten?”
“You could try to do the same.”
“Uh huh. Reverse Hold means to escape the grapple and apply it to the other guy? That’s what it means in wrestling.”
“Yes.”
“Okay, lemme think.”
He raised Reverse Hold to seventy percent. Catch Weapon was brought to sixty and Catch Arm to fifty-five. That only left four points which he placed in Headlock because why not? The others he left at their base of thirteen percent. Until he raised his strength, which he figured he’d better do, he didn’t think that he’d be much of a grappler.
“Kick and Punch,” said Hughie. “Are direct damage dealers and very similar, though kicking does one to six points of damage, where punching only does one to four. You can improve this later by becoming significantly stronger. By itself, blows of this nature do not penetrate even rudimentary armor very well. Professional Skills here can mitigate some of that.” He waved a hand and the Professional options for Punch appeared.
[https://i.imgur.com/O0RirpQ.jpg]
“Bear with me,” said Hughie. “This needs an explanation. Block is the simplest. All you do there is block with your arm, as boxers do. The rest of these require two rolls. One to make the hit, and then another to produce the effect. Called Shot, for example, means that you plan a blow to the Adam’s apple. Making the first roll means you’ve hit him and you’re guaranteed one to four damage. Making the second means you roll damage again.”
“Oo, what if I roll a crit?”
“The damage is doubled, as normal. And, if you roll a crit both times, it’s doubled each time.”
“Wow.”
“Yes, but f you can do it to them, they can do it to you. It goes both ways.”
“Shit.”
“Yes.”
“Knock Prone means exactly that. A hit with damage plus a fall to the ground. Reposition means a hit with damage and an additional shove in a given direction to a certain degree based on your strength. Stagger is a hit with damage that causes you to keep the initiative for the next round. Stun is different. It begins with a Called Shot. You have to make the hit, deal the damage, then you have to make your Called Shot and make the damage roll. This time, however, you make a third roll — your Stun roll — and, if that is successful, you spend the damage you earned from the second Called Shot and that’s how many rounds your opponent is incapacitated.”
“Huh?”
“Okay, say a guy is coming at you with a knife. You punch him in the throat, collapsing his windpipe, causing damage, yes, but making him panic. That’s a Called Shot to the throat, another successful Called Shot to collapse the windpipe, and then a successful Stun roll to cause the panic and keep him from acting again for one to four rounds. Unless you crit, of course.”
“Wow.”
“Again, it goes both ways.”
“I really don’t want to get hit in this game, do I?”
“No, you do not. Unless you have the armor for it, of course, but even that is not a guarantee against a high Called Shot score, even without the corresponding Stun combination.”
“And the options for Kick are the same?”
“Yes.”
“Hmmm.”
So, Ned made the necessary adjustments.
“There,” he said. “This look good to you?”
[https://i.imgur.com/aDuhzV8.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/vIjMXJ6.jpg]
Hughie, after a long look, asked, “You’re sure about the Language and Literature skills?”
Ned just couldn’t bring him to dump what he’d learned over a lifetime from Earth’s books. Hughie warned him that the literature of this planet he’d have to learn from scratch. It had shaped his life and for the better. He saw no reason why it wouldn’t continue to do so.
The Developers had also chosen English as the lingua franca here to simplify the coding and Ned realized that, combined with his knowledge of Earth literature and the points he could dump in here, well, he might be able to produce pretty good stuff for this world himself.
“Yes, I’m sure.”
Hughie was thoughtful for a long moment and then he nodded. “In that case, it all makes sense to me and looks good,” he said. “Some sort of scholarly monk build.” Then the UI smacked his hands together and grinned. "Now,” he said. “I'm allowed to tell you the way to the nearest settlement and there are two almost equidistant from here, so which — "
"Hughie, man, no."
"Excuse me?"
"Hughie, I'm not going anywhere yet. Too dangerous."
"But — "
"What am I going to do, punch to death a pack of wolves?"
"Well, no, but — "
“I’m not ready,” said Ned. He passed a hand through his hair. All the confidence and interest seemed to drain away from him. He grew pale and sullen and, without another word, returned to sit by the shallow pool.