I wanted to be off and fighting in the forest to gain the remaining XP I needed to reach the next threshold. But my mind was racing. There was so much to think about and yet I kept wanting to speculate about what the crystal of evolution might be used for.
Daydreaming was fine back in a world where machines did all the work and AIs ran most of the world’s systems. Here it could be fatal. I knew there were things I was overlooking and so I forced myself to rest.
Lying down, staring up at the stars, allowed me to calm myself. I had felt raw, burning shame overeating horse meat, not just because it was a horse, but because I had craved it like an addict going for their next high. That had given way to fear. It had been some time since I had lost control of myself. Ogre rage, ogre hunger, who knew what primal urge I was going to lose myself to next?
I also knew I was being used by Shemi and that the combination of introducing more healers into the ogre ranks, along with some simple tactics which I had inadvertently passed on, were going to change the balance of power around here. It didn’t seem like much, but the ogres were already powerful. Adding any intelligence to that power was a dangerous thing.
Still, all of that needed to be pushed out of my head. If I understood what Shemi had said before, I would get an affinity when I reached level 10. Asking her questions about it had been like hitting my head against a brick wall. Her answer was always, “Whatever the spiritz will.”
As I recalled, the affinities available to shamans were for cold, spirit, healing, poison, or buffing and debuffing. Operating under the assumption that I would get to choose one of those when I hit the next threshold, I needed to weigh out the options ahead of time.
The affinity for cold seemed obvious. Each of the new shamans had learned the spell Frost Rift from Shemi. It was their go to attack and was the only element I had seen them use for direct attacks. Healing was great, too. The benefits of being a powerful healer couldn’t be overlooked. That said, I was 99% certain that it was not the affinity I would choose. Being able to heal myself was amazing, but being relegated to a healer role all the time, not so much.
Poison was likely more of damage over time effect. While DoTs were not able to bring about a decisive win in the same way as a powerful spell could, they were often more mana efficient and far fewer monsters had resistances to poison than did to cold. At least that was what I remembered from my time as a player.
Buffing and debuffing held a tremendous appeal to me. It was the broadest of the affinities from what I could tell. I liked the idea of being able to enhance myself or my team and weaken the enemy. Other than being a healer, this would be the one thing that I could do to maximize the probability that a player team would want me with them.
All of that paled compared to the power I saw in Shemi’s spirit affinity. Her spirit wolf was a powerful ally. It was almost as strong as a warrior of a similar level to her and seemed very responsive. Spirit was a bit vague, but there was nothing vague about that wolf. It would change the way I hunted.
The fact that I could potentially get two affinities if I completed my quest made it more complicated rather than less complicated. Now I had to consider what affinities would work best in conjunction. Debuffs might weaken an enemy’s resistance so that it could work very well with either cold or poison. Buffing could be good with a spirit beast. There was just so much to consider.
When I fell asleep, it was a testament to how stressful and draining the day had been. I still had semi-magical hides that I needed to find a use for. And another concern had popped up into my head. I hadn’t seen any faction loss notifications when our raid killed all the humans. But I was still waiting for something bad to come of that. Still, in the end, sleep won out.
I must have slept longer than I expected because there were already other ogres up and moving about. The sun was just barely peeking over the horizon, so the forest still had that magical quality that you find at sunrise and sunset. I saw trios of ogres heading out into the woods and realized what was going on. Shemi was up and pushing the groups to get back out and level.
That was it. A few groups would mean that any nearby monsters would be claimed quickly. I didn’t want to wait for any warriors to be sent with me and I didn’t want any of the other outcasts to beat me to level 10, so I made a beeline for the forest. Fortune favored me this time, and no one saw me leave. I assumed Tulbat and the chief were still sleeping while Shemi was occupied.
I pushed past the areas closest to her hut. Even then I saw rage badgers engaged with two different parties. It was a bit reckless to move so quickly, as I couldn’t pay very close attention to any threats around me. But a part of me was beating myself up. I had been tired last night and, for that reason, hunting probably hadn’t been a good idea. I would have been more prone to mistakes. Oversleeping, though, was inexcusable.
I headed in the opposite direction of the bounding bucks. I might have been able to deal with one of them even at level nine because of my superior stats, but since they moved in herds, that wouldn’t work. Something that fought on its own or in pairs like the rage badgers would work much better for me. As I moved, I cast my buffs, Inner Power and Scale Skin on myself.
Of course, you can’t always get what you want. So, when I hit a clearing in the forest, I almost didn’t notice the shadows moving on the ground until it was too late. Undoubtedly, if I had been a normal AI run ogre, I would have been too slow to respond, thinking the shadows represented an attack from the ground. But I looked up in the nick of time and was able to thrust my spear up to prevent a hawk the size of a Shetland pony from sinking its talons into me.
My spear missed just like its talons did, but the attack was interrupted. The massive bird screeched in outrage that its supposed prey had fought back, but tough. I wasn’t gonna roll over. As the hawk wheeled over, my eyes tracked it. I expected it to fly off since the element of surprise was gone, but no such luck.
This time, I wasn’t quick enough to react as a second hawk dove at me. Those talons were every bit as painful as I had imagined they would be. With the momentum behind its dive, the only reason it didn’t yank away chunks of my flesh was my scale skin buff.
I managed to roll away on the ground, but the two hawks became three and they were each swooping down on me in rapid succession. For a while, I was able to hold them at bay with my spear, but I never managed to make it up to my feet. I got the chance to Assess them, which was interesting.
Fire Falcon Level: 9 HP: 185
Still not much information, but they were all four levels higher than me. Part of me wondered what the difference between a hawk and a falcon was, but it didn’t really matter if they killed me.
Their HPs were low compared to mine, but I assumed that was because they had powerful attacks. That guess was further cemented when, on the next diving attack instead of extended talons, I was hit with a tongue of fire that blasted forth from the bird’s open beak.
It caused (78) damage, which with the early claw attack dropped me down to 450 HP even with the 90 bonus HP provided by Inner Power. The Scale Skin buff also hadn’t seemed to do anything to protect me from the fire.
Casting while on my back wasn’t difficult, but casting while keeping up spear thrusts was a bit harder. Fortunately, spells only took a single second to cast, at least the ones that I possessed did. I began with Endure Elements. Just in time too, as each of the other falcons dive bombed me with their fire attacks. But now they combined for less than (100) more damage.
Still, I couldn’t take a beating like that many more times and I didn’t know what the recharge on their attack was. I reached out and cast Frost Rift rather than my signature spell. Frost Burn felt more natural for me to cast, but I didn’t know how it would interact with the elemental nature of these birds.
It turned out to be an excellent choice. The first caught the full effect of the spell. Not only did it take double damage, which would’ve been enough to kill it all on its own, but it also froze solid and crashed into the ground, shattering into hundreds of pieces. The effect was beyond anything I had expected from the spell, but maybe it was so extreme because the spell had already killed the creature.
That threw off the other birds’ timing enough that I was able to get to my feet. I blasted off another Frost Rift. This one didn’t hit my target squarely, but it was still enough to destroy a wing and bring the bird in for a crash landing. The impact caused enough damage to finish the job off.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The final falcon had gotten wise to my attack and was circling much higher overhead. I hadn’t received any experience yet, so clearly the system AI didn’t consider the encounter to be over. Since the range was only 100’, it wasn’t difficult for the bird to stay out of range.
I was going to have to be crafty. So, I sat back down to portray more vulnerability, and I set my spear on the ground. As the bird tested me slowly coming lower and lower, I didn’t try to blast it the first second it was within range. Instead, I waited until it had committed and then fired off the spell.
The agile falcon still managed to dodge the spell. I had never been so glad that most of the spells in Legend of Selmia had no cool down. With my mana, I could fire it off once a second at least ten times in a row, more if you counted my mana regeneration.
The third blast caught its tail feathers. Unlike a wing that wasn’t enough to take it out, but it was enough to force it to the ground. From there, a couple of spear thrusts finished the job, and I basked in the warm glow of XP. The gain was significant since they out-leveled and outnumbered me. It added up to 183 more XP.
Without waiting, I accepted the XP and enough of my stored XP to reach level 10. I felt the familiar rush go through my body as my automatic stat points were added to Strength, Constitution, and Will. It brought a grin to my face. Nothing like what the next notification did.
Completed Quest- Where Do I Fit? 1.2
You have beaten all the AI run shamans in reaching level 10. Woot, but don’t take too much pride in it. They are required to act with a stupid setting. They can turn it off anytime the system allows them too, but you were born that way.
Rewards: 900 XP, you get to remain on as Shemi’s apprentice. You gain 3 new spells (to follow). You also have the chance to obtain 2 different shaman affinities. (that comes next)
Affinity is a refinement of your abilities as a shaman. This is only the beginning, not the end. The affinity you choose may affect your stats and resistances. It may also provide you with different options for skills in the future. It will absolutely limit your choices when you move forward to specialize at higher levels. It will affect your spells in various ways.
Options:
Frostwalker: Cold Resistance +65%, Mind +10%, Cold based spells are increased as follows- Damage +25%, Range, AoE, Duration +50%, Mana Cost: -25%. Fire Vulnerability -30
Bone Mender: Constitution +10%, Healing Spells effect increased by 50%, Mana Cost: -25%. Caster automatically receives 10% of the healing that they cast. Radiant Resistance +50 Necrotic Vulnerability -20.
Plague Bringer: Agility +10%, Poison and Disease spells increased by 50% in duration, AoE, and virility. Mana Cost: -25%. Poison and Disease Resistance +50. Radiant Vulnerability: -30.
Hex Warden: Strength +10%, Buffs and Debuffs- Duration increased by 50%, Mana Cost reduced by 50%. Electricity Resistance: +50, Fire Vulnerability: -20
Pack Caller: Will + 10%. Spirit based spells +25% duration. Caster level is treated as 25% higher for the purpose of learning and casting spirit spells, Mana Cost of Spirit spell -25%. Fire Resistance: +50, Electricity Vulnerability: -20.
I had pretty much already decided on Hex Warden. Those buffs and debuffs could make me a much better fit for many parties as other than a healer that was likely the hardest role to fill. Scouts, rogues, tanks, and dps players were all far more common.
Bone Mender had some great perks, but I still didn’t want to end up as a dedicated healer. So rather than second guessing myself, I planned to move forward with the original plan. The only lingering doubt that I had was the wording of the quest reward. It said I had a chance to obtain two affinities, it didn’t guarantee I could.
Oh well, nothing for it but to choose. As I triggered the choice of Hex Warden, I felt my body grow stronger. That bonus would only increase with time since it was percentage based.
I began to smile a moment later as I realized that the selection menu was still open. It looked like I was gonna get another affinity. The only difference was that Frostwalker was no longer an option. It appeared grayed out.
Obviously, I had given some thought to what the second affinity should be, but since it had never been certain, I had not thought it out as much as I might have otherwise. And worse, when I had thought about it, I had leaned towards Frostwalker. My direct damage spells were effective even if not overwhelming, but apparently that path was closed to me now.
I still didn’t want to be a primary healer and even worse would have been seen as a heal/buff bot. So, Bone Mender was still out. That left Plague Bringer and Pack Caller. I had never played a pet class, but Shemi’s pet was certainly impressive and the perk of being treated as a higher caster level was nothing to sneeze at.
Ultimately, though, what made up my mind was the fact; I didn’t want to be known as a Plague Bringer. Certainly not when it was already going to be hard enough to get players to accept me in this form. So, I triggered the second decision. The 10% bonus was even more significant this time since Will was by far my highest stat. Yet, as always, when it increased, I didn’t really feel any boost.
As I thought about it, I realized this was quite a perk of being a monster. Players didn’t get to specialize till level 20. That and percentage-based bonuses were always significant in the long term. I still needed to assign my free stat points since I was at another threshold.
I had already planned that part out too, but the dual bonuses to Strength and Will changed my mind. I had ten points to work with. I popped two of them into Mind. I didn’t know for sure what it did for me, but I didn’t want any single stat to be too far behind. Min-maxing was fine for a game, but not so much for my life. Perhaps the only obvious benefit was I seemed to scratch my backside less with the extra points in Mind. Maybe that was my imagination though.
I then added ten points to Agility. I knew that was gonna make me much faster and more dexterous than a normal ogre, but I liked the way adding Agility made my walk a little less bow-legged. The final eight points I put into Constitution.
After that, I pulled up my character sheet to look at the changes.
NPC- HI 3a5.x290 Integration: 26.9% AI Usage: 11%
Call Name: Frank Monster Race: Ogre
Ht: 9’2” Weight: 848 lbs
Class: Shaman- Hex Warden, Pack Caller
Level: 10th
XP to Level 11: 0/1000 Available XP: 1002 Strength: 55 (61)
Agility: 31 Constitution: 63 Mind: 22 Will: 86 (95)
Unassigned Free Stat Points: 10 HP: 630/630
HP Regen: 1.26/second Mana: 950/950 Mana Regen: 1.90/second Armor Rating: 11 Physical Resistance-
Slash: 3
Blunt: 6
Pierce: 2
Fire Resistance: 55
Cold Resistance: 30
Electric Resistance: 50
Acid Resistance: 0
Necrotic Resistance: 0 Radiant Resistance: 0
Poison Resistance: 31% Disease Resistance: 31% Skills: (relevant) Blunt Weapons: Basic 20
Piercing Weapons: Basic 20 Skinning/Butchering: Basic 20 Cooking: Basic 20 Mana Channeling: Basic 20
Rapid Meditation: Basic 20 Dodge: Basic 10 Spell Forging: Basic 10 Spells: Flameburst (B-20), Regeneration (B-20), Flash of Light (B-20), Inner Power (B-20), Home (B-5), Frost Rift (B-20), Endure Elements (B-20), Scale Skin (B-20)
Signature Spells: Frostburn (B-20) Racial Abilities:
Starting Stats: STR: +25, CON: +20, AGI: -5, MIND: -5*, WILL: 0* Iron Gut: Poison and Damage Resistance equals level +30% Rage: 1/hour Frostburn Durability: increased physical, cold, and fire resistances Stun Immunity Class Abilities: Spell casting Faction: Players (General): Tolerated (-1000) Beasts: Hated (-3000) Ogres: Tolerated (-950) Ghazban Village: Tolerated (+75)
Monster Races (General): Feared (-2000)