(Y6, July 7th)

 The leyline felt like a small steady river. Except that one flowed underground, unseen by anyone except Vantegaard. Now that he had finally arrived, he was able to feel not just the location, but the direction the leyline ran along. This should have been a reasonable boost on his skill progression…

Vantegaard

↑ Health: 553/624 (recovers 144/day)

↑ Stamina: 632/632 (recovers 2.1/s)

↑ Reasoning: 29 (5%)

↑ Dexterity: 26 (8%)

↑ Resilience: 24 (23%)

↑ Strength: 21

↑ Fortitude: 21 (3%)

↑ Reflexes: 19 (1%)

↑ Perception: 17

↑ Presence: 14

↑ Intuition: 13 (27%)

↑ Absolute Meditation 22 (7%)

↑ Sense the Leylines 14 (55%)

↑ Door Knocker 11

↑ Sure Strike 7 (44%)

↑ Sprinting 6 (43%)

↑ Evaluate Minerals 6 (33%)

↑ Bladed Parry 5 (8%)

↑ Jab 4

↑ Night Sense 4

↑ Sculpting 3

=ambiguous=

Level: 3 – 95%

Unused points: 1

Warning! A Minor Leyline overwhelms and replaces your normal skill selection with an ambiguous Tier 5 Earth Magic skill. Resolve the leyline interference to prevent recurrence of this difficulty. Other leyline configurations may still cause further problems.

This warning message was completely unexpected. If Vantegaard interpreted it correctly, then being able to Sense the Leyline also forced his next skill to be an Earth Magic skill? Nobody had ever talked about being able to force specific skills. You simply rolled with the lottery, and you often got things that fit your usual occupation, but not always.

From time to time, you got ambiguous skills, just like during Setup, and that led you closer to a good build. If you could choose skills at will… making a build would be far easier. And if you guaranteed a choice within a specific type, then you’d make an even better build.

Vantegaard verified his “difficulty” by walking away, checking the Interface all the time. Around 50m from the leyline, the warning vanished, and the ambiguous choice reverted to a mere unknown skill. Getting back over the line brought back the message and its associated potential skill choice.

At the moment, he lacked the experience to check, but he was very close… and there looked like a small agate on the ground, which would let him evaluate… yes. It did work. Level up!

Minor Leyline skills

Earthen Presence. Tier 5 Presence. Your presence made manifest carries its own weight.

Earth Sight. Tier 5 Perception. The Land’s bones speak of stories to those who can listen.

Rock Dart. Tier 5 Strength. Solidity and weight are efficient ways of imparting kinetic energy.

As implied, the skill choice was a specific choice of tier 5 skills that looked like Earth Magic skills. He had a choice of a buff skill, maybe a group one rather than a personal, based on description and stat. Unlike the other magical systems, Earth Magics relied on multiple physical stats.

The second skill was informational. A weaker version of the Lay of the Land, maybe? Vantegaard had not brought a hardcopy of every build guide. If the Earth Sight was a known skill, he would have known what to expect.

The third was an obvious choice for the first skill in a Geomancer build. A ranged attack was always good, on Northworld like on Earth. Guns – explosives in general – didn’t work. Besides, he already had another Strength-based combat skill, so that stat would increase a bit faster. Even without doors to kick.

Rock Dart

Tier 5 Strength

Action

Solidity and weight are efficient ways of imparting kinetic energy.

Create and launch projectiles of solid stone.

Power cost: 71

Kinetic damage: 42

Chance to hit: 90.5%

Skill level 5 (base 1)

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Advancement: 0%

And with this new skill… he had a new vital.

Vantegaard

Health: 558/627 (recovers 144/day)

Stamina: 636/636 (recovers 2.1/s)

Power: 9/612 (425+187 – recovers 1.7/s)

Power was the vital statistic associated with Earth Magic. Now that he had a skill using it, it was meaningful and starting to accumulate. And the importance of leylines for Geomancers was immediately obvious. His max power was only 425, but being on a minor leyline would let him accumulate an additional 40% of Power. There was a reason why mage guilds sought the right leyline configurations.

A Meditation later, he had enough power to attempt two dart launches. Unfortunately, without a valid target, the experience gain was minimal. He could grind the skill, obviously, but he wouldn’t gain much experience without trying his darts in combat.

The warning was now gone; his next skill was now the original unknown he would have had without the interference. But Vantegaard knew he would not pick that skill. First, he had to find new leylines or configurations. Until he did, he would sit on his free points.

Vantegaard picked a direction at random along the leyline. Any of the directions would be ok from his point of view. He quickly noticed that, even though the forest was sparse, the path he was following was even lighter. You could see the sky in quite a few places. The leyline was influencing the growth of the forest.

What it did not have such an influence on was the local fauna.

Like before, a small branch crack was his warning. Coming out of the side was another Curiosus, slightly larger than the first. The head profile was slightly thinner, leaving Vantegaard to wonder if this one was a female – usually the bigger of the breed. Unfortunately, there was no way he’d get a look under the tail, which was realistically the only place where he’d be sure.

As the species was wont to do, the wolf patted to mid-distance, then sat on his – her? – haunches to watch this new biped crossing the familiar landscape.

“Well, those combat skills are not going to grind themselves.”

The wolf opened her maw as if laughing at the comment. Well, she wouldn’t laugh long.

Vantegaard pointed his finger and fired the first Rock Dart. The wolf yelped as a big furrow raked her side. Curiosus decided immediately that the biped wouldn’t get away with this. Vantegaard had just enough time to throw a second dart before the wolf was too close and the third attempt refused to fire.

The knife didn’t miss. The first Jab dug in the left paw that the wolf was bringing towards Vantegaard’s midsection, adding a larger wound. The biting teeth didn’t miss, either, and he had to push back, trying to keep the wolf away. Even a wolf-sized beast was heavy and hard to control, at least at Vantegaard’s level.

A larger bite raked across his left hand. While his health hadn’t dropped too much, better finish quickly. Losing more health would leave him exposed to attacks for a long time, as he couldn’t regenerate faster.

A few knife moves and bites were traded until the last Jab ended the Curiosus’ life.

Like the previous fight, Vantegaard did not bother trying to skin the beast. The teeth came out, though, and joined the previous loot.

     Wolf Canine (lvl 12) × 8, common component

There was very little point on applying bandages to his multiple scratches. Bandages worked best if you were not moving, and he still had to find out other people, if possible. The sun’s slant and move said this was early afternoon, so he’d probably trek at least 15-20km before stopping for the night.

Vantegaard meditated, then hoisted his backpack and started back along the leyline. There was a definitive… sense in that direction.

After an hour, he arrived at the end of the leyline – and the forest. The trees had been sparse all along, but the forest stopped cleanly at the exact end of the leyline. Further away, there were a couple of lonely trees, but the whole landscape became a plain, covered in calf-length grasses.

Vantegaard didn’t like very much leaving the leyline. 25m away from it, the boost to his Power total was already halved, and it was going to end quickly. Still, he’d filled the boosted reserves, so he could keep them. That was the problem people had with Earth magic – you could have insane power stores, then you blew your load in combat and ended up a mediocre Mage. Well, at least Vantegaard would have the Absolute Meditation to keep himself topped until he got another leyline.

Judging from the sun dropping slowly, he’d traveled roughly northeast. Without the leyline… well, there wasn’t any particular direction. There were no significant hills, no buildings, no ruins visible in any direction, so why not keep going in the same direction.

Vantegaard had barely set out into the plains when he spotted a moving form to the side. He somehow wasn’t surprised to see the canine that had left the forest’s shade – yet another Canis Curiosus. The predator was probably the most common form of life in the area. And a good one to fight as a lowbie.

There were lots of places in Northworld that were more dangerous than this forest Vantegaard had crossed, but you normally didn’t spawn in one. Normally. Since nobody could track every newbie arriving in Northworld, it was possible that you’d land on a high-level zone. Where every creature would kill you in 3s. In that case… nobody would have heard of it afterward anyway.

Vantegaard had already lost a chunk of his health total, but he was still well above half. So, fighting the Curiosus and gaining some skill again was in the realm of the reasonable. The wolf had spotted him and was coming to investigate anyway.

Like previously, a double dose of Rock Dart took care of the fight’s opening moves. The wolf managed to close the distance just before Vantegaard could fire a third. He had felt the Dart almost starting before the launch aborted itself. The dog felt a bit slower than the previous female.

This impression was quickly confirmed by the fight. The bite and clawing felt slightly easier to deal with. And it took him only two Jabs to finish the fight.

While this didn’t bring any of his skills over 100% value, this still felt like a solid progression. The next fight would give him skill-ups, for sure.

Four more Wolf Canines went to join their friends in his backpack. But the surprise came from the fact that the wolf had… a ring. Something that had lodged itself up one of the paws of the wolf.

     Copper Unadorned Ring (lvl ?), common-looking item ?.

Well, unless he had an identification skill, he needed to rely on his base Perception to figure out the item. And since that worked up to current score, that meant a lvl 18 or greater item. Of course, it was a copper plain ring, in a newbie zone, so it shouldn’t be very powerful. That wasn’t the One Ring from Bilbo. Big-ticket items came from high-level dungeons, not rank 5 outdoor critters.

The ring went on his finger. But, of course, nothing changed on the Interface. It would have been too easy to check – if you didn’t know what the item did, it did nothing.

Except cursed items, of course.

The break was over, and the open plain beckoned.

The sensation of a new leyline surprised him. That one felt larger… and read on his skill as a major leyline classification. This was good, as it should “interfere” again with his skills. Unfortunately, the distance to cover to reach the leyline was larger.

And the sun was setting. It was time to make a camp. Northworld was a wild world, not an American suburb. Trying to trek at night without preparation was courting disaster.

An Earth lighter worked enough to start a fire. He’d used a fuel lighter rather than a gas lighter – the latter seldom worked. He had canned food – chili con carne today! – to last at the minimum the 9 days before the Return option came out. But if he kept killing some random Curiosus, he should try to carve some meat to cook. On Earth, eating wild game was courting parasites, but Northworld food was either from a poisonous species or perfectly safe.

While the chili was cooking, he took the opportunity to use one of his stock of bandages to cover the scratches of the day. Bandages worked to recover your vitals but trying to use them multiple times a day was a waste.

At least, with the encroaching darkness, he had the opportunity to exercise his Night Sense. Unfortunately, on the plains, there were few things to try to see around. And he was not going to abandon his campfire protection.

And of course, none of his attempts at placing stones and sticks and stuff did anything for Sculpting.

Vantegaard

↑ Health: 469/639 (recovers 144/day)

↑ Stamina: 652/652 (recovers 2.1/s)

↑ Power: 493/445 (recovers 1.7/s)

↑ Reasoning: 29 (8%)

↑ Dexterity: 26 (18%)

↑ Resilience: 24 (53%)

↑ Strength: 21 (22%)

↑ Fortitude: 21 (47%)

↑ Reflexes: 19 (3%)

↑ Perception: 17 (1%)

↑ Presence: 14

↑ Intuition: 13 (29%)

↑ Absolute Meditation 22 (95%)

↑ Sense the Leylines 14 (58%)

↑ Door Knocker 11

↑ Sprinting 8 (23%)

↑ Sure Strike 7 (93%)

↑ Evaluate Minerals 6 (51%)

↑ Bladed Parry 5 (18%)

↑ Rock Dart 5 (86%)

↑ Jab 4 (48%)

↑ Night Sense 4 (11%)

↑ Sculpting 3

↑ --unknown--

Level: 8 – 98%

Unused points: 4

Using: Copper Unadorned Ring (lvl ?)

The day had been fruitful. He’d gotten some levels; several important skills were close to growing. The only frustrating bit was that he could get a new skill right now, but without a new leyline configuration, he did not dare try it.

Vantegaard moved to his sleeping bag, watching the starry sky above, and snorted. Apparently, being a geologist meant he was destined to be an Earth Mage after all, instead of a dashing sword and dagger fencer. At least, he would not be forced to wear a robe and pointy hat. Most spellcasters picked padded leather instead.