Trillia swiftly swung her left arm up and out away from her, rather effectively parrying the sword-like legs of a [Megapede]. It wasn't a very large one. Some stray that had escaped the many scouting groups from the city to keep the surrounding area clear. Still, it wasn't a pushover for the two women either. Trillia briefly activated [Mana Sight] again to make sure nothing had changed.
[Megapede - Vile Spitter - 37] - Acid Mana Manipulation
The sight was toggled off. Amara and Cordaos had warned Trillia to keep up constant scans when fighting enemies whenever possible. Even monsters could develop traits in the middle of a fight that could drastically change the outcome. While it may not be possible to see what any given trait does. Something like the acid to burn through stone would probably be pretty self-explanatory.
The momentum of the strike spun her hard to the left. Letting her left arm go wide, she slid a foot behind her, heel digging into the ground as she let the momentum flow through her body and into her right arm. Following with a mighty yell and a thrust of her rapier.
"[Riposte]!"
Her blade seemed to curve toward the creature, slicing cleanly between chitinous plates and drawing blood. Trillia quickly hopped back as the body seemed to whip back around towards her. Amelia, on the other side, was shattering legs with a banshee-like howl. Trillia was glad for her traits and skills. When the creature first came upon them, Trillia nearly froze in terror and fear at the memories. It didn't even last a full second before her skills pushed her towards action and stamped out the evil emotions trying to cow the proud little orc.
"[Restorative Chant]!"
Both girls said it in unison, aiming at the other. Trillia raised her left arm as a rain of blades slammed into her. Most slid off of the polished and lightly enchanted lovax shells, some cut deeply into her arm. Suppressing a cry of anguish, the healing from Amelia's chant pulsed through her body.
Amelia turned and ran from the creature as it seemed to focus entirely on Trillia. Amelia let her mallet fall into the hook on her side, used to hold the thing, reaching behind her and pulling out the lute she had been playing on before. The young minstrel's fingers moved rapidly as her sonic-based mana created more than just sound on the instrument.
You're now under the effects of [Hilde's Hastily Hewn Heroics] for the next 5 minutes.
Trillia grinned. She knew that buff. The past few days on the road, Amelia had gone into more of what she was capable of doing. As did Trillia. This particular poorly-named song massively boosted agility, strength, and intuition. Trillia expertly darted between the legs of the best, slamming her rapier up between the seams of its underbelly and slicing side to side. The rapier wasn't that well suited for the use, but it did its job.
The creature twitched and convulsed, unable to get under itself to attack her. It instead opted to stop trying altogether, the massive weight of its body attempting to crush the little pest. Trillia kicked off the thing's body and tore herself loose, catching two deep cuts on her arm as she passed by the bladed legs. She had left her rapier behind, pointing straight up. As planned, the thing shrieked in agony, and Amelia took her cue in stride.
Leaping over Trillia and onto the [Megapede]'s back, she once more had mallet in hand. She pulled back with both arms and, with a mighty swing, slammed sideways into the exposed tip of the rapier. The blade sliced around, nearly cutting the creature in two. It fell instantly with no further struggle. Both girls collapsed. Even with [Restorative Chant], their health and stamina pools had started to dip.
Trillia, despite her injuries, leapt into the air with a whooping holler.
"We did it! We beat an adult! We aren't even dead this time!"
Amelia smirked. They'd have to do some emergency repairs to their equipment and armor, certainly. Most of Amelia's stone plate had been melted away by a stray acid attack. Trillia's rapier wasn't entirely straight anymore. Still, the two had just defeated a creature that had tormented their sleep for some time.
"[Restorative Chant]"
They went back and forth as the skill seemed to work better on others. It was good they could use it on each other. Back and forth they went until their health and stamina were topped off. Mana was never an issue with Trillia around. They also found that if the mana wasn't immediate, then Amelia wouldn't get mana sickness. But if she went from empty to suddenly full, she did. So Trillia just fed Amelia a little trickle of mana to ensure both of them were in fighting shape.
Trillia grinned and looked at the notifications.
Your group has defeated [Megapede]!
More experience is awarded for defeating an enemy at least 20 levels above your Derived Level!
Species: [Mortal]; [Orc] Level 27 -> Level 28
Subspecies: [Mana-Infused Orc-Adolescent;Runt] Level 19 -> Level 20
General Skill: [Mana Sight] Level 0 -> Level 1
Class: [Runic Scholar] Level 2 - > Level 4
Class: [Fencer] Level 1 -> Level 7
Riposte- Level 0 -> Level 1
[Runic Scholar]
Active Skills:
Rune Disruption (In Use)
Rapid Rune Spell (In Use)
Passive Skills:
Rune Sight (In Use)
Unfortunately, the two levels didn't bring new skills. That was sort of to be expected of an extendable class, though.
[Fencer]
Active Skills:
Riposte (In Use)
Passive Skills:
Fencer's Grace
Rapier Mastery
Fleet Foot
Unerring Tip
That... that was a lot of passives. Trillia briefly remembered that the class description did tell her it had a lot of passive skills to choose from.
"Do you need help with that, Amelia? I have four new passives I need to look over, and I'd like your opinion."
Amelia smiled as she pulled out a carving knife. [Megapede] parts were valuable, after all. The girls had a bag of holding on loan from Ralrouk. Both wanted to make extremely good use of it so that they could afford their own.
"Let's both start carving, we will take it slow, and you can read while we work."
Trillia bounced over with a smile, pulling out her own carving knife. The work was a little more difficult for Trillia without a supporting hand, but she could slice off the chitinous plates easily enough.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
"Ok, I'll read them off to you in order."
Seeing Amelia nod, she began.
"Fencer's Grace. This skill doubl-"
She nearly choked as she read the skill, needing to read it several times to see if it was real. Stuttering a bit, she continued aloud.
"Fencer's Grace. This skill doubles the effect Agility has on the damage of your weapon. In addition, every level of this skill increases ease of handling rapiers, or weapons similar to rapiers."
Amelia spoke up immediately.
"That seems really strong. Rapiers are a light weapon, so you can't put much force behind them. I've always wondered how such thin weapons can do such insane damage. It makes sense if that's a basic skill for a [Fencer]."
Trillia had to agree. She didn't take the skill yet, though.
"Rapier Mastery. This skill absorbs the General Skill of the same name. Taking its level and changing the maximum level of the skill from ten to thirty."
Both went silent on that. Trillia chewed her lip.
"Rapier Mastery only helps me handle the weapon. This just seems like a worse version of Fencer's Grace? Plus, if Rapier Mastery stays a General Skill, I don't need to waste a passive slot on this."
Both girls nodded. That made sense.
"Fleet Foot. This skill allows you to use your Dexterity instead of your Agility for purposes of movement or acrobatics. Each level in this skill will allow your body to move faster than it otherwise should."
"That one seems better than Rapier Mastery. You have three slots for the fencer class, right?"
Trillia nodded at the question.
"Seems so far we have clear standouts. Let's see what the last one is. I can just drop the skill and swap them out if need be. I may lose the level of progress, but I can do some testing."
She tugged on the last passive of [Fencer] finally.
"Unerring Tip. Requirements: Rapier Mastery as a Class Skill. This skill allows your attacks with any weapon that benefits from Rapier Mastery to deal bonus damage. The damage is equal to the level of Rapier Mastery (Minimum: 1) multiplied by the level of this skill (Minimum: 1)."
"Well, that sucks."
Amelia harrumphed for Trillia. Both stopped working on the creature dead under them. Thinking about the skills. Amelia offered her thoughts.
"You said yourself Rapier Mastery was just a lesser Fencer's Grace. Maybe drop Fencer's Grace for now and take the other three? Double agility to damage is really good, though."
Trillia rubbed her chin with her one good hand. Her knife sticking out of the corpse.
"I'm almost tempted to not take Fleet Foot. I know it will help me stay out of harm's way, but if I stack damage, that seems like it will just end the fights faster for both of us, right?"
Amelia nodded absent-mindedly at her words.
"Maybe. Well, like you said, you can always change stuff around, right? Maybe you'll get even more passives, then you can drop Rapier Mastery and Unerring Tip."
Trillia was about to go with that, then she paused.
"Wait, it absorbs the skill. If I take it, then abandon it later. I won't get the general skill back, will I?"
Both girls went silent, thinking about it. Amelia finally spoke up.
"I think we did really good here. Maybe take Fencer's Grace and Fleet Foot, and leave your third slot empty. I agree. I don't think it's worth losing Rapier Mastery entirely. Though I am surprised. You haven't leveled it."
"Maybe it can't level because I have the [Fencer] class? All the experience for rapiers is being taken by the class instead?"
After a while, both girls shrugged. Trillia took [Fencer's Grace] and [Fleet Foot], leaving her third passive slot empty. The effects were immediate. Trillia had to stabilize herself whenever she walked. It felt as if she were running instead of just walking.
"That's so bizarre. How do Mom and Dad handle such high-level skills and not just break everything all the time?"
Amelia chuckled as she pulled off another sword-like leg.
"From what Dad has told me, it takes an immense amount of concentration at first. After a while and enough skills, he got a trait called [Body Regulators], which makes it so that he doesn't accidentally break stuff by grabbing it. It's a trait he can toggle on and off. Really handy, apparently."
Trillia nodded. She could believe it. She paused, bringing back up the description for [Fencer]. It clearly stated that it would just absorb Rapier Mastery. Why hadn't it? Why give it to her as an option? She voiced her concerns to Amelia.
"Some stuff changes based on the desires of the user. It's why even if you know someone's classes, you can never be all too sure about it. Maybe your system realized you didn't want changes forced on you. It's hard to tell, really. But that does make me wonder. Maybe hold off for now, but I get the feeling that Fencer is going to significantly benefit from having [Rapier Mastery] as a class skill. Might be worth taking it as your first Mastery skill even."
Trillia thought about that. Looking at her rapier.
"What if I wanna change weapons down the line? Then I have a mastery skill that is mostly useless."
Amelia shook her head, standing to wipe sweat from her brow.
"Not really. You might find a skill later on that absorbs it again. I've heard the [Weapon Master] class your Mom has is like that. You need at least ten weapon mastery passives to have the class unlocked and available. Maybe something like that will help?"
Trillia dragged off some of the chitinous plates that were in good condition. The face had been mostly mangled during the early part of the battle as the two girls tried to disable its acidic attack to brutal effect. The meat was beyond their cooking skills, so it was left behind for scavengers. The girls took a few minutes to use a water rune-etched mana bowl to clean up. Amelia spoke up.
"Let's get a few hours away from the corpse. We can do equipment maintenance and discuss where you should put the stat points you've been saving up."
With that, the two once more began marching toward the dungeon. A few hours later, once they were getting ready to settle down for the night, they made camp. Trillia watched with interest as Amelia made minor repairs to their armor and weapons. It was a skill she'd need to learn herself. As Amelia worked, she also spoke.
"I think your movement is more than fine at this point. [Fencer's Grace] also functionally doubled your damage. So I think you're good there. It's kind of tough to think of what to spend your points on. I know you've been going round-robin at this point. Maybe that is the best course forward?"
Trillia thought about it for a while. Her new sub-species was going to keep her Wisdom far ahead of everything else for the foreseeable future. [Fencer] was feeding her agility every other level.
"What if I did two vitality, one intuition, and one agility? Put scholar points into strength?"
Amelia nodded.
"Your stats, your life. But that certainly seems like a good idea to me. You mostly dodge everything, but the added vitality is great for Stamina and health. That seems smart. You don't need a lot of presence for your skills, at least not until you take [Minstrel], but at the rate, we're going. You can bank enough mentor experience off of me to just auto-master the class at short or medium at this rate."
Trillia gave one final nod before allocating her stats. Bringing up her full status page after to take a look at it.
Name: {Trillia Demonsbane}
[Status: Alive; Scorned Divinity]
Species: [Mortal]; [Orc] Level: 28
Available Stat Points: 0
Subspecies: [Mana-Infused Orc-Adolescent;Runt] Level: 20
+5 Wisdom Per Level
Class: [Runic Scholar] Level: 4 {Stat Points: 0}
Class: [Fencer] Level: 7
Stats:
[Brawn: 90]
\Strength: 39 + Vitality: 51/
[Dexterity: 192]
\Agility: 51 + Wisdom: 141/
[Charisma: 69]
\Intuition: 44 Presence: 25/
Traits:
Runt
Limitless Mana
Thirst For Knowledge
Divine: Unwavering Determination
Alchemical Blood
Spawn Seeker
Racial Skills:
[Orc Savagery - Passive]: - Level
[Orc Constitution - Passive]: - Level 0
[Orc Tenacity - Passive]: - Level 2
General Skills:
[Stalwart Mana- Reactive]: Level 0
[Mana Obfuscastion - Hybrid]: Level 0
[Rapier Mastery - Passive]: Level 3
[Mana Sight- Passive]: Level 0 [Currently: Off]
[Runic Scripture - Hybrid] Level 0
[Universal Mana Manipulation - Hybrid] Level 0
[Basic Alchemy - Hybrid]: Level 1
[Basic Cooking - Hybrid]: Level 3
[Basic Herbalism - Passive]: Level 1
[Lesser Mind Magic Resistance - Passive]: Level 1
[Minor Telepathy - Hybrid]: Level 0
Class Skills:
[Runic Scholar]
Active: Rune Disruption - Level 0
Active: Rapid Rune Spell - Level 0
Passive: Rune Sight - Level 0
[Fencer]
Active: Riposte - Level 1
Passive: Fencer's Grace - Level 0
Passive: Fleet Foot - Level 0
Health: 900
Stamina: 510
Mana: 3,250,000/-