As Aurus walked towards the group that was slowly gathering, he looked around more carefully. Right now about twenty had gathered in total and ten more were approaching. As for the other seventy, they were divided into three categories.
There was one group of individuals that could be seen looking around carefully, they numbered around fifteen and despite the fact that seventy percent of the people here were warriors, over half of the people in that group consisted of mages. Aurus assumed these people were somewhat capable, just like those that were gathering together.
The second group of individuals numbered about thirty. They were lying or sitting on the ground resting, whining, or shivering. They were most likely the cowards that didn’t get up because they were cold, sore, or afraid. For now, they seemed to be the most useless group.
The final group of individuals consisted of the final twenty-five. They all had screens open Aurus couldn’t see but they seemed like they were complaining on the forums about the realism, either that or they were angrily looking at their status. These were mostly warriors and Aurus wasn’t sure whether they would end up capable or not.
“I see, so the head class does seem to show the personality of the player at least somewhat. Amongst the more analytical group, a lot of mages exist and the group of angry people mostly consist of warriors.” Aurus mumbled. Since he was still in a tutorial he decided to continue speaking out loud when he had the opportunity, it could provide unexpected benefits.
Just as he thought this, a game screen appeared in front of his eyes.
| Congratulations player ‘Aurus’. Due to your insights your ‘Wisdom’ has increased by 0.1. |
“Oh?”
When Aurus went ahead and checked his status he noticed a new statistic had appeared, Wisdom, it had a whopping number of 0.1 behind it.
“I see. Now I’m guessing this is some sort of hidden tutorial showing players that stats can be unlocked and raised by showing certain attributes.”
| Congratulations player ‘Aurus’. Due to your insights your ‘Wisdom’ has increased by 0.1. |
Surprised by the appearance of another screen he continued, “I’m guessing that within the actual game, without the appreciation buff, it would be much harder to gain new stats. The existence of the easily unlockable wisdom stat also increases the number of stuff players will say out loud…”
| Congratulations player ‘Aurus’. Due to your insights your ‘Wisdom’ has increased by 0.1. |
“Alongside the wisdom stat, other hidden ones should also exist. But not just this, skills you already know may also appear if you show yourself doing them properly.”
| Congratulations player ‘Aurus’. Due to your insights your ‘Wisdom’ has increased by 0.1. |
“After reaching one in the stat, it will probably be harder to gain wisdom stat points, for each increase in the proper number, the wisdom portrait would have to be more advanced.”
| Congratulations player ‘Aurus’. Due to your insights your ‘Wisdom’ has increased by 0.1. |
Thinking of what else to say, Aurus paused for a moment.
“Colours are based on perception, you actually never know if your green is the green other people see.”
| Congratulations player ‘Aurus’. Due to your insights your ‘Wisdom’ has increased by 0.1. |
“All war is based on deception.”
| Congratulations player ‘Aurus’. Due to your insights your ‘Wisdom’ has increased by 0.1. |
“Never try to peek into a girls’ dressing room.”
| Congratulations player ‘Aurus’. Due to your insights your ‘Wisdom’ has increased by 0.2. |
“Ah, I see, so more profound findings will give you a greater number of wisdom points!” Aurus exclaimed
| Congratulations player ‘Aurus’. Due to your insights your ‘Wisdom’ has increased by 0.1. |
“Ehh, hmm, now let’s see if it’s any harder to get stat points after you reach one. One of the great things about books is sometimes, there are great pictures.”
|Congratulations player ‘Aurus’. Due to your idiotic insights your ‘Wisdom’ has decreased by 0.1. |
“Huh, I guess I said something stupid.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
| Congratulations player ‘Aurus’. Due to your insights your ‘Wisdom’ has increased by 0.1. |
After quickly trying another couple of basic quotes, the wisdom stat no longer increased, it indeed seemed that getting it to 1 was easiest, a starting point to explain the mechanic that was increasing stats the natural way.
He also did hope it wouldn’t keep doing this while he was in intense situations, it would be rather annoying if you were fighting, and then suddenly a screen popped up in front of you showing you increased your strength by 0.1. Then again, if such a thing did happen, it would likely be fixed in an update.
Done messing around with the little toy that was the system, Aurus finally went ahead and properly approached the group that had gathered. They now numbered thirty-five with some other individuals also deciding to join the group.
“Eh, okay. So like, we can go attack the Lizardmen from the left and take them out. The guys with weapons in the front and when they kill someone, someone else can take the lizardman's weapon. Right?” a nervous warrior said, trying to take control of the situation.
“No, why should we take all the risk! We can make some handcrafted spears so the people without weapons can hold them back and then we can jump in and slaughter them all with our swords!” a second warrior with a sword in hand said as he imagined some sort of epic battle scene.
Aurus saw there were two mages trying to get some words in occasionally but every time they tried to a louder warrior went up and tried to convince the others to let them take the lead.
Looking around, Aurus realized this probably wasn’t a random collection of warriors and mages. Even though it would seem this way when looking at the diversity between people that grabbed weapons and those that didn’t, Aurus knew there were a lot of different tutorial stages already and the words they said and the choices they made earlier, made the system decide to bring these people here to decide their class. If they were all capable or perfectly rounded not enough problems would pop up and peoples’ personalities and style wouldn’t be properly assessed, hence the game tried to create conflict indirectly.
If Aurus had said this out loud he would’ve gotten half a wisdom point but alas he didn’t think of it and even if he did, it probably shouldn’t be said out loud in this situation.
While he was thinking of this, one of the mages managed to get in the suggestion to maybe scout out the island first and see if there were any places to train or get items but because he didn’t speak loud enough, he quickly got ignored and interrupted by yet another warrior.
This did make it clear who was and wasn’t an idiot though. Between the twenty people that were close enough to have heard the mage’s suggestion, three had slightly annoyed expressions on their faces when he got interrupted. Looking at them, there seemed to be two other mages and one warrior. The warrior was coincidentally also the person who had taken everything they could from the rooms just like Aurus, everything they could carry that was, or so Aurus figured.
He looked at the large woman once more. Now that he was closer he could have a better look at everything she had on her. She had a large spear in hand of which the wooden section was completely cracked. her leather boots seemed in decent condition though. On her waist, she had a worn belt that was still in working condition with a small cloth bag that had something inside on one side and a small, cracked tomahawk on the other. Her iron helmet especially looked like it would fall apart with one more bump but it also differentiated her since she was the only person here with a helmet.
While more idiots were presenting their equally dumb plans, Aurus moved to stand just behind her, allowing him to look into the cloth bag that couldn’t close properly. Inside were about six coins that looked like they were made out of copper, he couldn’t get a good look at them but it was clear they were some sort of currency.
Forming a small plan in his head, Aurus took a small step forward and to the left within the crowd, placing him beside the lady who still had an annoyed expression on her face as she continued to listen to people speak.
“Tch, they aren’t the brightest, are they,” Aurus mumbled, just loud enough for the lady to hear it but not so loud for her to guess it was directed at her, she still nodded though.
“It’s like watching a bunch of drunken fools fight over an egg when they don’t even know where the egg is,” she responded in a similarly quiet tone as her annoyance turned to dejection after an audible sigh.
“Now if only there were someone here to guide them in the right direction. You know, lead them.” Aurus said, in a clearly staged, lamenting voice.
But when the woman looked at him with a hint of skepticism, he surprised her with his next words, “You know, someone like you. Who is clever enough to take all the items within the choice rooms and strong enough to beat some idiots into shape if they cause trouble.” Aurus said with a slight smile on his lips. He had to admit, these words rolled off of his tongue surprisingly easily.
“Still, the lady looked at him with suspicion now, “And why would you help me do that? If anything it’d probably help me get a better class but you wouldn’t be helped so much. Why help me instead of trying to take control yourself?”
Seeing her suspicion, Aurus knew he had bet on the right horse. He then pointed towards her belt. “I want that belt as well as half of whatever you have in that cloth pouch over there,” he said, pointing at the objects he asked for.
Now that he asked for something, the lady was much less suspicious, “Why should I give you anything though? All you’ve done is try to convince me to take the lead, not like I can’t figure that out for myself.”
“Well, you’ll find I’m quite good with words, and plans. I’ll assist you in taking the lead properly, with a decent plan in hand, and I’ll be the first to vocally support you. Thus far, everyone that has tried to make a plan has been shot down instantly, immediately having someone support you will instantly change the way everyone looks at you. Oh, the name’s Jay, by the way, Jay Collin.” Aurus said, making up a name on the fly.
Despite the lack of anything concrete thus far, seeing how nothing looked like it was about to change, the woman nodded. “And I’m Taralia Lowyck. So, what’s your plan.”
It seemed she had taken the bait as she took off her belt, placing her tomahawk between two pieces of wood armor where it shouldn’t fall out and sneakily taking three coins out of the pouch and placing it within Aurus’s hands. She even showed him the rest when she was sure nobody was looking so he could confirm there were only six coins in total.
Aurus took a gamble in her and it seemed that Taralia was willing to do the same with him.
| Congratulations player ‘Aurus’. Due to your actions, you have gained the skill: Manipulation (Novice) |