“ARISE HUMAN!”
Boyd tumbled out of bed and into the feet of a large, angry, white terrier-wolf hybrid. He had been ejected from the bed when Jellybean Jenkins uprooted it from the ground.
“The area above my tail is itchy. I need you to scratch it. Relieve this itch from my body and you may be rewarded by your Lord.”
Boyd rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “How about a good morning? Or a hello? Or even a tail wag? God damn dude, you are the bossiest dog I’ve ever had.”
“I am neither bossy nor your dog. I am Wolf-Lord of the Seven Plains. Now scratch my tail.”
Boyd harumped and then began scratching the tail. “Not my actual tail fool, scratch the area above my tail. Wolf Lords of the Seven Plains do not like their actual tail touched. Or their paws.” Jellybean Jenkins scowled. “Don’t ever touch my paws.” Boyd groaned again and shifted his scratching. “Not there Human, slightly to the left. Yes. Yes this is the spot. Scratch with voracity and you will incur my gratitude.” Jellybean Jenkins began wiggling his butt against Boyd’s hand and stepping with his back legs in time to Boyd’s scratches. He sighed and groaned. “You have removed the offending itch almost effectively as I removed the head of Rocket Simpson when he tried to usurp my authority as pack leader. This is commendable work Human.”
Boyd kept scratching as Jellybean Jenkins thumped his leg on the ground and wiggled his butt to get the scratching done right. Boyd stopped at one point but a stern growl got him right back to his job.
Jellybean suddenly leapt forward. “We are through with this activity. I must return to my Foray so that I can descend. Goodbye Human. If I encounter you again I will take mercy on you.”
“You do remember that you told me you would send me back to Oklahoma right? You are part of the reason I am in this mess. Whatever happened to that idea?”
“Ahh, yes. Our deal. If you are capable then meet me at the 100th Level and I will see if I cannot get you returned. Is this fair to you?”
“100?! Dude, I can’t even hardly survive on 10!”
Jellybean looked at him. “Because you have contained the itch above my tail, I will offer my aid.” Jellybean howled at the sky until it felt it was going to shatter the roof. Boyd subconsciously prepared to Manatap his Life back but it didn’t actually move. The howl left his ears ringing though.
Jellybean raised his nose to the air and sniffed. He slowly began wandering around the room until he spun in a circle and stopped. He then pointed his whole body towards a direction slightly north by northwest and raised his front paw.
“There is a Training Center approximately 6.4 miles that way. There is a town called CaveHome. It is occupied by,” Jellybean Jenkins sniffed at the air again, “It is occupied by Piscus. They have excellent training facilities. You can remove your Broken Swordsoul status there and begin training again. You have made some modest progress, perhaps you can find something that suits you better. In several years you will have the power to reach Level 100 if you can learn to hunt and kill. It seems unlikely, but that is your most effective first step. Consider us even. You owe me no debt for this information. Now I must be off.”
With that, Jellybean Jenkins leapt out of the third story window and bounded into the morning light. Within a few seconds he was out of Boyd’s vision.
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Boyd was transported instantly into a dense and lush jungle environment.
They were in a partial clearing but Zina herself was hunkered down in some sort small tent. She beckoned him inside. Zina wasn’t in her standard suit, but instead was dressed in a traditional military camouflage outfit. She had her face painted in green and black. She looked side to side before she talked.
“I don’t have long. We had to do this quietly. We got maybe minutes before they cut us off.” Zina moved her head right and left and then pulled Boyd towards her as she whispered. “Listen closely, we’ve past the point of no return. Things just shifted a ton. You definitely have to get a lot stronger. Jellybean’s idea was good, but this time is going to be very different and I cannot help you. You will have many different options this time. Don’t pick something idiotic like Swordsoul. A lot of access to advanced Classes is limited behind things like Achievements, Reputation, Alignment and more. Try and consider what will allow you to personally be effective. Try and think about what you actually want this time. Instead of just reacting, think about what you can become. Try and make it happen for real. Things you want are possible now. Don’t limit yourself.”
“Any suggestions?”
“Anything you unlock with Achievements or some other special entity is almost always better. That’s why your old Foray all had super specialized Classes. You kind of have to feel this out, but you’ll know it when you see it. I have to go. They are closing in.”
Boyd heard a pop and he was back in the Inn.
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Arriving at the Piscus town was largely uneventful, but it gave him time to think about what Zina had said.
Boyd had gotten faster and the inability to feel Physical Exhaustion meant that he could run as needed. 6.4 miles was only around 28 minutes for him on foot now. He took the main road out of CavesWall. It was a risk, but after looking at his map, he didn’t think he could safely get there any other way. Many of the alternate routes took him through large encampments of NPCs. Complicating matters, he had Mana in his Mana array at this point and many groups would be happy to end him according to Salia. Running into a Foray was probably suicide, but a small chance of death was better than guaranteed. What he really needed was a way to get around safely so he could gains Ranks without having to worry about someone jumping him. He spent the time carefully running from one Town to the next seriously thinking about what would allow him to survive.
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SYSTEM: You have arrived at the Hub City of CaveHome.
CaveHome didn’t have Guards, and wasn’t exactly what he was expecting. All of the buildings were largely glass on the bottom and then stone on top. In the bottom of the buildings, there was what Boyd thought looked most similar to a very large goldfish swimming around and monitoring its wares. The goldfish creatures had tiny manipulators at the edge of their fins that they used for writing and other things. It was like they had multiple fins and dozens of fingers. The fish all wore bulky pairs of goggles over their bug-like eyes. Everything was highly self-contained. There really wasn’t much need for Guards as unless you could breathe water you couldn’t access the fish themselves and the bowls looked pretty sturdy.
The town was nearly empty to Boyd’s surprise. He had assumed he would have to stalk around and avoid the other Forays but he didn’t see many and they didn’t seem particularly aggressive. He had a brief and worrisome encounter with a group of Demon-like creatures that he thought spotted him, but he ultimately was able to avoid them. CaveHome was small for a Hub city, largely on account of the fact that the Piscus buildings were relatively small themselves. Boyd remembered he really only had one other place to compare it to though, so he just decided it was what it was.
Boyd struggled to find a way inside the Training Center, but eventually found a small notch in the wall that allowed him entrance. Unlike most of the buildings, the Training Center was substantially larger and didn’t have the glass bottom. This was almost certainly to account for the large difference in size and breathable habitat of the myriad races that would use the facility. He walked into a large room that looked like a DMV. There were multiple windows around the room and inside each of the windows was a Piscus with what looked like a tablet computer. The building was, not surprisingly, completely empty other than the Piscus. Boyd assumed that few Combatants would be interested in training at this low Level as most of them were probably already well setup for The Maze. He had encountered a similar situation when he Multi-Classed in Portcullis. Most of the Combatants were clearly much higher Rank than Boyd and wouldn’t need these services. All the same, Boyd entered the building, took a number and then set down in waiting room. The number was 3, which largely confirmed Boyd’s suspicions that this was not a highly trodden area of Zenith.
A bubbly voice appeared over the loudspeaker, “Now serving #3 at window 2.”
Boyd double checked his number and marched over to Window #2.
Rockrot hits you for 5 damage. Rockrot cannot be cured without Essence of Earth.
He used a pittance of his own Mana to Manatap his life back. “Fucking Rockrot…”
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The Piscus in front of him spoke through a loudspeaker “Hello, I can assist you with any additional Assignment that is needed. Can you describe the nature of your problem?”
"Yea, I got some Broken Swordsoul thing going on and I can’t do my Rank ups anymore. Also I got this shitty Class and I got to switch to something new. Basically I am all fucked up and I got a bunch of Ranks I want to do, but I can’t do ‘em.”
“Excellent! My name is Chiss. I am a registered Class Technician and can provide you with all the information you might need. I can also provide recommendations, and even give you an effective leveling chart to ensure you achieve your goals. Please place your hand on the sensor.”
A small plate popped out of the window. Boyd placed his hand on it.
The Pictus Goldfish began frantically typing into some sort of handheld device, “Ah yes, I see. The Broken Swordsoul effect is a substantial Debuff. Until you have it removed you won’t be able to accomplish much.”
“What’s a da buff?”
“Debuff, it simply means you have something adverse affecting you. You are also suffering from Rockrot although this is a far less severe problem. Also an odd disease for someone of your Race to have…”
Boyd spoke up, “Its normal actually, don’t worry about it. Anyway how do I get rid of this Broken thing.”
“We can resolve this but it will be painful and will have a significant cost. This can be resolved here at this Training Center fortunately. In order to remove this Debuff it will require us removing the Broken portion of your Soul. This has permanent effects and will increase the cost of your Assignment. Please step into the room at the side.”
“Removing part of my Soul? That sounds…extreme?”
“Soulectomy is a fairly standard procedure, but always comes with a cost. This is a procedure provided by any number of Clerics. While Pictus do not believe in the use of Clerical magic, we have Clerics on staff that can perform this. Please step into the room at the side.” The fish motioned him towards a separate area.
Boyd walked into a separate room labelled “Clerical services”. Inside was an old woman knitting in a chair. She was wearing an all white dress that made her look like she was either getting married or participating in some sort of weird cult thing. Boyd thought she was human at first, but then noticed she didn’t have ears which meant she was probably something else.
She stood up from her chair and began looking him over. Her eyes glazed over white as she poked and prodded him.
“Hi!’ Boyd said enthusiastically.
She didn’t respond.
“Can you help my Soul thing?”
Again, no response.
“She took out a pen and paper and scratched a number of figures on it that Boyd discovered he could understand despite having never seen them before.
One partial Soulectomy. Fee 4,000 gold. Unfortunately this one is pretty deep, so you are going to end up with a permanent Soul Wound. I can cut around in different ways though. Choose which route you want me to take. All of them have downsides, but the upside is you will have complete removal of the Debuff. This is the safest way.
Your options:
Soul Wound: Sword Sensitivity - You take 50% increased damage from attacks with any bladed weapon.
Soul Wound: Scattered Soul - You cannot replace Life once it is lost.
Soul Wound: Emotional Cripple – you lose access to Human Emotion.
Soul Wound: Deep Cut – you are permanently restricted from using any Skill provided to Swordsoul. This includes Skills you had not attained.
Boyd thought about it for a minute before realizing it was actually a pretty easy choice. Two of the options were untenable and he finally decided Sword Sensitivity was too dangerous to deal with. He had already almost died multiple times. He made his selection and wrote it on the piece of paper. The Cleric nodded and asked him to lay down on a nearby bench.
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Boyd walked out of the room feeling sick. He checked his character sheet and it had the debuff marker surrounded in gold. Boyd assumed this meant it was permanent.
Soul Wound: Deep Cut – you are permanently restricted from using any Skill provided to Swordsoul. This includes Skills you had not attained.
Boyd wasn’t sure he had made the right choice in hindsight, but he also didn’t have much choice. He didn’t know how many sword wielding crazies were out there, but a part of him thought of Fleon. He didn’t really want revenge or even to fight Fleon. He would prefer to never see him again at this point.
Somehow, he doubted that was possible though.
Boyd stumbled back to the initial desk and waved at Chiss, “Hey, I’m back.”
The Pictus swam around in its chamber before a bubbly voice erupted from the speaker, “Excellent! Just a note before we continue, this is likely to become quite pricey, how will you be paying? My fee is 2,000 gold per hour or a flat fee of 5,000 gold.”
Boyd needed to take his time, so he paid the flat 5,000 gold fee. This was more expensive than Calculating Class options for Multi-Classing and took essentially all the gold he had acquired through various measures. Boyd dumped the pile of gold into a small panel that shot out of the bowl that Chiss was floating around in. Chiss let loose a few bubbles and began hammering away at her handheld device.
SYSTEM: Welcome back to Assignment!
Chiss said, “Wow, this is much better than last time. You now have access to 213/3,273 available Classes. Would you like to see a complete list?”
“Sure, sounds awesome. Well…” Boyd thought for a second about his recent Debuff, “Nah, go ahead and cut out anything that uses a sword or anything that has a lot in common with Swordsoul. I fucked that one up already.”
“Well, the majority of the Classes were Fighter based, so that knocks us down to around 74 Classes. Would you like to see all 74?”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Boyd nodded his head yes, but the list was still longer than he wanted to deal with. He could always go back, but he thought he might take Zina’s advice first.
“Are there Classes that are uhh, something I had to unlock or something that I did to make them available? Like something that’s more special than the other ones.”
The fish creature rapidly punched things into its pad and waved its fins back and forth while it waited on the answer. “That knocks it down to four Classes. Should we start with those?”
Boyd nodded, “Absolutely.”
SYSTEM: Available Classes (filtered):
Option 1: Monk (Unassigned) => Punch-drunk Puncher
Option 2: Wizard => Alchemist => Back Country Chemist
Option 3: Ranger => Bushwhacker.
Option 4: Rogue => Coward
“These are interesting options? I have to admit I am unfamiliar with some of these options. We don’t get a lot of Humans in Zenith.”
“I’m the first actually. Earth doesn’t have magic, so we ain’t never been to Zenith.”
Bubbles appeared from the Pictus’ mouth. “That’s not entirely true. Have you considered the fact that Earth might not be the only place Humans exist?”
Boyd looked at the fish creature and shook his head. “No, Humans are on Earth.”
“And Zemeria. And Polycanus. And… actually, let’s just leave this alone for now.”
“Wait, what? You’re telling me there are other Humans out there?”
The Pictus placed a fin next to the side of its head. “Of course, but we should focus on your Assignment.”
Boyd’s mind was swimming, no pun intended. Other humans? Other human planets? Did he ever have to go back to Oklahoma. He was losing focus on the task at hand, but realistically he also was just told that Humans were not only not alone in the Universe, but other Humans existed in the Universe. He couldn’t wrap his head around the thought.
Chiss snapped him back to reality, “Do you need me to repeat that?”
“What,” Boyd asked?
“I explained the Monk (Unassigned) => Punch-drunk Puncher Class to you. Would you like to hear the explanation again?”
Boyd shook his head and tried to focus, “Yes, explain it again.”
“The Punch-drunk Puncher is a Tank Class that is designed to absorb damage by… absorbing damage. This Class receives a large bonus to Constitution and access to the Class specific Ignore Pain Skill. Ignore Pain is passively functional and gives you a percentage based reduction to incoming damage depending on how much health you have left. It also reduces associated pain with injury. This makes you extremely resistant to multiple blows as long as you don’t lose a large chunk of Life before this activates. You cannot wear armour other than boots, a belt and gloves. To qualify for this class, you must be at least Rank 10 in Monk and have received more damage than you dealt.”
Boyd thought about it, “That seems good.”
The Pictus did a little loop in its pseudo-goldfish bowl.
“This is a relatively common Tank Class for Monks. It has other names for other Races and Originations, but it’s your basic hand-to-hand melee brawler. It doesn’t require a Diety either. It is strong, particularly against repeated blows. It suffers against large single blows, particularly if they occur early in combat. The real problem is that you receive few offensive benefits and are stuck using your fists still. You will get access to all Monk abilities without a Diety though, so it would a huge improvement over your current situation. The Constitution bonus can be anything between +100 and +200 Constitution which, combined with Ignore Pain, would make you nearly unkillable for at least a dozen or so Levels. After that you would struggle without some serious offensive help.”
Boyd marked this one as a possibility. It definitely had potential benefits. “Tell me about the next one.
“The next Class is Wizard => Alchemist => Back Country Chemist. I’ll just warn you that you will have to put more or less all of your available points into Intelligence to make this happen, and those won’t be particularly beneficial to you after that. This Class uses a mixture of Charisma and Wisdom to brew extremely potent potions, but your current Intelligence is so low that that being able to access the initial Wizard Class would take some investment. That being said, the Back Country Chemist isn’t something I am familiar with as it looks like it’s relatively dependent in part on your Race and Origination. One second…” The Pictus began frantically scrolling on its personal device. “Wow, actually I am pretty impressed. I will give you the long and short on this one. The good news – I actually think this is your strongest overall option. The amount of Buffs you could provide to a group would be extremely potent, particularly as many of these aren’t commonly available to Druids or other Classes known to Buff their companions. For instance, you’ll be able to access Mark V Stimulants and Mark V Depressants. Many of these are more powerful than any of the standard Buffs that most caster Classes can provide. Even better, you gain new potions through Charisma and Wisdom naturally, which means you will have constant updates and won’t have to discover recipes. The bad news – it’s a pure Support class. You won’t have many offensive or defensive options realistically. You might even try this route and hope to join some other group. This is a good option. Another negative point here – it looks like you have access to this in part because of your boots. If you took them off, or they were destroyed, you would immediately lose access to most of your Class. You would eventually accumulate enough Skill to not have to worry about this, but acutely it could be a problem.”
“Buffs are good then? What’s a Buff?”
“The opposite of a Debuff. Buffs are good.” Chiss looked worried at this comment, which made Boyd remember he still really had no clue what was happening. He thought back to Fleon’s Foray. This would’ve been nice back then, but he couldn’t support no one and nothing. He needed to be functional on his own.
“The next class is Bushwhacker. It looks like this one is specific to your Origination, but it has a lot in common with a fairly common version of Ranger. Your version seems to specialize in… front loaded damage? I can’t really define it any better. Either way, the Bushwhacker is an Ambusher-type Ranger. You don’t get Stealth abilities, but you get a lot of bonuses to enemies who don’t know you are there or who are caught unaware. The Bushwhacker specializes in a specific kind of trap as well as Alchemy and Large-bore guns. It looks like the basic goal of the class is ensnare something and then either poison it or blast it before it knows you are there. You also get access to leather based armours, but you don’t get any specializations so you will be a little squishy even if you get a decent set of equipment. One of the nice things about this Class is that you almost meet the necessary requirements for stats already which is still what is holding you back from a lot of the other classes. If you add a few Ranks to Ranger and put the points in Agility then you will be set to go. You can add quite a few more points to this Class than some of the other, excluding Punch-Drunk Puncher. This one has some downsides too though. Most notably, you are missing any sort of gear to get started. I wouldn’t try this until you get some equipment. You will automatically specialize in Large-bore guns and can even further specialize into Very-Large Bore guns, so that’s your baseline. Find one or the other of those. The Class is fairly Skill based versus gear based, so you can count on steady improvement, even if your gear isn’t the best, but you need to have something to start. You don’t have anything. Same deal with the leather armour. Overall this one is a little risky. It has the most offensive power, but it’s going to require you to make an effort.
Boyd heard a lot he liked in this one. He thought back to Gorpling camp. He could easily make Experience if he could just blast them down one by one.
“Unless you want to explore other routes, your last option would be Rogue=>Coward. I know the name sounds bad but you should seriously consider this one given your situation. Coward is a stealth specialized class with limited offensive or defensive capacities, but a number of ways of solving problems. Coward gets access to most of the best Stealthing options and you can even convert your Mana directly into improved invisibility. Believe it or not, some of the deepest runs in history have been made by Forays where everyone selects Coward and just does the best they can. It isn’t the most flashy route, but if you just want to escape alive, it might be the safest. You won’t get any additional benefits straight away other than the Stealth ability, but if you can complete Quests and find a way to steal Mana Nodes, it’s incredibly effective.”
Boyd thought about it for a minute, “No on that one. Even if it’s the best option that just ain’t me. I was scared of this place. Not no more. It’s probably dumb, but I just can’t try to pussyfoot my way out of here. Cross that one off the list.”
They reviewed a few other options such as a simple Ranger class, a few other Monk derivatives, and some random Fighter archetypes. Ultimately, his Broken Swordsoul debuff really damaged his ability to use the Classes effectively. It came down to either Back Country Chemist or Bushwhacker. If he could find another Foray to join, then Back Country Chemist was the easy answer. There just wasn’t any real guarantee there though. He liked the idea of getting to use guns, but he just didn’t have any.
“Hey, can I ask you other questions?”
“Possibly? I can only answer specific things.”
“Where would I buy guns and stuff I could use?”
“That, I can answer! Anyone can technically answer that, Guards are very helpful in this regard. There is a Trade Bazaar here in CaveHome, but many of the Dwarven towns sell much higher quality equipment for lower prices.”
Boyd smiled, “I know a town with a Dwarven Mayor near here.”
“They could probably help then. I’d check those merchants first. The Trade Bazaar would have some extremely strong gear, but they would charge a fortune for it. You pay for convenience.”
“How much are guns and bullets and stuff?”
Chiss the Pictus did a little loop in his fishbowl, “Like anything else, its highly related to how powerful they are. Many guns come with an Everloading Bullets enchant, and at this point in the Maze, if you don’t have that they aren’t worth purchasing. Manual reloading is just too time consuming, particularly with Large and Very Large-Bore weapons. You should be thinking 1,000 to 2,000 gold for a couple of decent guns. Armour, probably double that. Trap-making supplies, at least that much plus whatever else you need. You can avoid the Trap-making stuff for now. You won’t get that Skill for a bit.”
Boyd inventoried his money. He had some left from his random activities, but this would leave him broke and he wasn’t sure he would even be able to afford whatever was available. There was no guarantee that he would even find something in his price range.
“What’s the best way to make money?”
“Questing. Jobs. Kill something with money and take it. Same as anywhere else.”
“What’s actually worth money then? I can’t figure out how to tell what is good and what’s bad.”
“You can get some idea based off scanning the item, but ultimately it takes knowledge of what other Forays want. The Forays have most of the money. This is probably more than I should be telling you, though…”
Boyd thought a minute, “Can you transfer Mana Nodes? Can I sell those?”
Chiss let out a few bubbles, “It’s possible but why would you do that? Isn’t that the reason you are here? The Combatants come to claim Mana Nodes. That’s the entire point, right?”
“Yea, but I ain’t here for Mana Nodes. I just want to get home.”
Chiss said, “An interesting proposition you would have to advertise at the Trade Bazaar. I have no idea what sort of price you would get.”
“Where is the Trade Bazaar?”
“Center of town, can’t miss it.”
“I’ll be back,” said Boyd.
“You have to pay first!” Chiss said.
Boyd and Chiss settled up which left him with even less gold than he thought he had. His current plan was his only chance to fix that he could think of.
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The Trade Bazaaar was a genuine No-Combat area. As soon as he entered, SYSTEM flashed a message across his vision indicating that all damage was reduced to 0 in this area, and any attempt to harm other Combatants would result in an extreme response which he assumed meant death.
He had paid 50 gold for a day-trading booth. He was standing at a terminal looking at the offers as they streamed past his screen. The offers were pouring in and had been since the first time he advertised. It turns out that the idea of trading Mana Nodes was a visionary idea that hadn’t established any sort of market value, largely because it was basically like trading gold for dirt. His first offer was ten gold per Node which nearly caused him a heart attack. It shot up almost immediately though until a bidding war began. Ultimately the bidding had started to plateau with the most recent bid at 50,000 gold per Node. Clearly people had been researching him as many of the offers included very specific additions, some of which were extremely specific and involved Rock Golems. He wasn’t sure how others learned so much about him so quickly, but he had become the equivalent of a 15-minutes-of-fame-type celebrity. “The Guy Dumb Enough to Sell His Mana Nodes.”
The question was how many he was willing to sell. He had 10 Mana Nodes he could use from his adventures with Merlot’s Merrymen. He could sell all 10 Mana Nodes and make a small fortune, but it just meant he would have to gather more later. That seemed much more doable with some new gear and some actual functional abilities though. He had completed the Harpy Quest, but it was mostly through a mixture of luck and coincidence in addition to some help from Merlot. That wouldn’t last forever. Moreover, he would have to start completing Quests while avoiding more serious combat which wasn’t always going to be possible.
After a few hours of mulling things over, he had to make a choice or come back the next day and waste another 50 gold. His access terminal in the Trade Bazaar was extremely simple with large brightly lit buttons that indicated each action. He clicked on “Sales” in the terminal interface and then selected the five Mana Nodes he had ultimately decided to put up for sale. The list of offers came in and he went to the bottom of it. His best offer was still 50,000 gold per Node, but he didn’t trust the Foray that was offering it. The accompanying message basically said he could either sell it to them or they would find him and kill him the moment he stepped out of the Bazaar. While that was certainly possible, he didn’t really respond well to threats, especially ones that he couldn’t see. Ultimately he accepted a separate offer:
SYSTEM: Trade offer as follows:
You: 5 Mana Nodes.
Giore’s Gallant Giants (Giore): 200,000 gold. Basic Alchemy Supply kit. Advanced Alchemy Supply kit. 100 Jett Crystals (Unpurified).
The terminal did an approximation of the math for him. This offer was worse than the 250,000 gold the other Foray was offering, but the accompanying note assured him that it would be done without any need for face to face transfer. While he would be safe within the Trade Bazaar it felt a lot safer to simply have it done. He was concerned people might follow him as it was now fairly widely known he was a single Combatant with at least 10 Mana Nodes assuming he hadn’t traded them.
He clicked accept and felt a suction in his gut.
SYSTEM: You have lost 5 Mana Nodes.
BAZAAR MESSAGE: You have a package waiting in locker ZZ546.
Boyd walked around the facility for a bit before he found a sign pointing him towards the locker area. It was an immense hallway that started at A1. He walked what felt like half a mile across lockers of drastically varying sizes before he finally found the right locker. It was fairly small, commensurate with the size of the relatively small items he had acquired. He couldn’t figure out how it would open, but as he moved his hand towards it, it popped open immediately.
The gold was there in the form of four gold chips worth 50,000 each. This was a huge blessing and he had negotiated this as part of the deal, He didn’t know how he would carry things otherwise. The two alchemy kits contained an array of herbs he was hoping to learn how to use through his Skill gained through his boots. He had specifically requested the Jett crystals and some Mindfuck Cactus, but the Foray didn’t have as much as he wanted. They ended up throwing in the Advanced Alchemy Kit which contained some Mindfuck Cactus fronds which would be enough for him to start on crafting some of the more advanced potions. He wasn’t sure what to do with them yet, but he figured they should be either useable or sellable.
Happy that he had made a fair deal, or at the very least, had made a deal that was fair for him, he left the Trade Bazaar and headed back to the Training Center. He was extremely careful to the point of paranoia while walking around town. Whereas once he felt like no one noticed him, he suddenly felt like a marked man. At the same time, he was also aware that the streets were far from bustling, and thus it was mostly just paranoia at this point.
He specifically asked for Chiss at the Training Center and after a few minutes was back in front of the Pictus.
“Made a decision?”
“Yea, I think I got it figured out. Bushwhacker.”
“Excellent!” Chiss said. As a part of her fee, they had mapped out a strategy to get him the necessary stats. He had to take two additional points in Monk (Unassigned) which got him next to nothing other than the requisite Agility to Multi-Class. This was beneficial as he ended up with a substantial number of Ranks in Bushwhacker.
SYSTEM: You have gained (11) Ranks in Bushwhacker.
A massive scroll of text went by him. Based on advice from Chiss, he spent his points on a mixture of Agility and Constitution which would help him with multiple aspects of the build. Large and Very-Large Bore guns both had higher strength requirements than traditional guns, but he was well on his way there from having spent many of his early points on Strength. Chiss said he’d know when to start bumping that one when he could no longer lift a gun easily.
Unlike previous efforts, he went through his Skills more closely. He hadn’t gotten access to Trapmaking yet, but he would in a few more Ranks. He had access to both Large-bore Guns and some options to specialize in his gun preference already.
Gun Specialization, Mark I:
Weapon Handling (guns): Your accuracy and reload speed are improved with all guns.
Akimbo: You can wield a one handed Gun in each hand with no penalty to accuracy or fire rate. Cannot be used with Very-Large Bore weapons.
Very-Large Bore Proficiency: You gain proficiency with Very-Large Bore weapons. While you will still take some damage upon firing Very-Large Bore weapons, you do not suffer from Flinch. You also have increased accuracy and reload speed when using a Very-Large Bore weapon.
The System was pushing him to decide between Very-Large Bore weapons and other types. Weapon Handling was somewhere in between but he figured likely would be a small bonus to everything rather than a large bonus to one thing. Boyd had no idea what the difference between Large and Very-Large Bore weapons was, but at the end of the day though, he knew damn sure that a .45 was better than a .22 and he wasn’t here to fuck around. He chose Very-Large Bore Proficiency. After scanning it in his character sheet, he was quite pleased as scanning it now provided more information. It turned out weapon calibers were quite a bit different here on Zenith. Most weapons used extremely small caliber bullets, almost flechette style. That gelled with what he had scene from Salia. Boyd assumed this was due to the fact it was much easier to pierce armour with smaller, higher speed munitions. He wasn’t a small and light type of guy though and everything above 45 caliber required Very-Large Bore Proficiency. This was fine by him. He’d fine something that fit the bill.
The other big Skill was Targeted Ambush. It gave him a huge damage multiplier when picked what he wanted to hit and it didn’t know he was there. He didn’t understand the math behind it, but it looked like as long as something couldn’t see him, he could fuck it up pretty good. This was a baseline Skill, and he received one additional Mark in it through levels as well. Unlike swords or his Manatap ability, it seemed he received additional Marks just by leveling.
Targeted Ambush Mark II:
Xenophobia: Targeted Ambush attacks on Races other than your own deal substantially more damage.
One Shot, One Kill: After initiating a Targeted Ambush, your next attack does double damage if it hits a marked target.
Gash Bait: Traps set prior to initiating a Targeted Ambush will serve as an attractant to your targets making them more likely to hit your Traps.
Boyd read over the options carefully multiple times. He had never used the Targeted Ambush ability, so he was tempted to save this choice for later. Ultimately though, he decided he couldn’t really go wrong with Xenophobia from the description. He reluctantly chose it. There just weren’t many Humans around so it would always be effective. His number one concern was that he had no idea what the word meant, as he had never seen it before. He grudgingly accepted it, but was still opposed to the fact it looked different than what he used to seeing, and thus he immediately didn’t care for it.