Chapter 17 - System - Part 2

Kuro's Village - Kuro's House

"Not really what I would call stopping but I digress."

"A man made a deal with the literal personification of death and that's your reaction?" The old wolfen lets out an exasperated sigh, "Whatever. The second story is worse."

"Basically, a noble who had already started hearing white doves call managed to convince a vampire to turn them after a lengthy session of torture. This made the noble immortal and thus 'immune' to her call. Unfortunately, the noble clearly didn't read the fine print before becoming an immortal. Every immortal aside from true immortals like Gods and Demons are cursed by White Dove when they gain their immortality. For some races like Vampires, the curse is universal. Weakness to sunlight, having to drink blood to survive, etc. In other cases when someone gains immortality through an item or a skill, White Dove will appear and give them a somewhat personalized curse. For example, a corrupt noble may find themselves unable to lie or unable to cross large bodies of water. In any case, none of these curses are outright fatal to the person although sometimes the receiver wishes it was."

"Alas, back to the noble. Committing one sin against White Dove is somewhat forgivable as she is nothing but patient and merciful." Kuritn spots Simons raised eyebrow and corrects himself, "Uh, to a degree. Committing two sins is not. Three is unforgivable in her eyes and the now immortal noble had intentionally committed three. First, he had delayed her, Second, he had denied her, and Third, he had rejected her. Delaying is self-explanatory. Denying her is gaining immortality and Rejecting her is gaining Immortality to escape the finality of the call. She had been generous by not simply taking his life immediately and her kindness was betrayed. If immortality was what he truly wanted, then immortality is what he shall receive. The noble not only received the standard vampiric curse common among all vampires but also a personal one."

"What was his curse?"

"Immortality. He cannot die. His body was rapidly degraded to the final stage of the call and frozen there for eternity. No muscles, thin skin, weak bones, no sight, no hearing, no taste or smell. A rotting corpse in all but name with the noble trapped inside for all eternity. Despite his desperate prayers for death, no gods or demons come to claim him. None willing to provoke White Dove's wrath."

Simon shakes his head and takes the offered pipe. Damn, "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream."

Kuritn nods solemnly before shifting his eyes over towards a small beam of light peaking through the wall, signifying the rising sun and the dawn of a new day. "Ugh. No sleep for me I guess. Anyway, let's get back on track with classes. I'll skip over the stat portion since I've already explained it. As I mentioned before, classes are a specialization one can choose that will unlock new skills related to that specialization. For example, A thief will start off with several basic skills like Muffle which quiets their footsteps and Stealth which makes them harder to detect." Kuritn smiles slyly as he fades into the shadows and moves to the corner of the room, only to be surprised by Simon's eyes still tracking him. "H-How did yo-" he mutters before being cut off "Fuck you that's how," the old solider replies with a grin.

"Ugh, I guess I deserved that one." the wolfen says returning to his previous position. "Anyway. Once a thief gets their first class upgrade to something like Rogue or Scout there muffle skill will upgrade depending on what they chose. My muffle skill eventually upgraded to veil after my 128 class up. Make sense?" Kuritn glances upwards and watches Simon nod before continuing, "Now, this next part is a lot of numbers but it's really important so make sure to keep up and ask any questions you have. I'd rather only go over this once."

"When a person is born, they start at level 0 with 1 in every stat. As they grow older their basic stats will naturally rise as they do more things. I.E. hauling water, playing, etc. They will remain at level 0 regardless of their stat gains until the system judges the user as ready and makes itself known to them. Once that happens they will be given their starter class which they will have until they reach level 8 at which point they will be able to class up and pick what class they want to upgrade to. Each class has a set requirement to unlock as well. Some of these are known like Thief requiring at least 12 points in Dexterity and Speed to unlock, while others are unknown. It's kinda hard to explain but you'll understand once you've done it once. "

"Now, once someone selects their first class they will gain access to their first two active and passive skill slots for that class. Active skill slots allow you to select an active skill like stealth or muffle. Likewise, passive skill slots let you select a passive skill like shadow manipulation or treasure find. I'll talk about shadow manipulation later but for now, let's just keep moving on. Once you've selected a skill you can use said skill. The more you use it, the better you become with it, and the higher its level becomes. Eventually, the skill might even upgrade itself into a new skill without requiring a class-up. I.E. muffle becoming lightfoot which not only makes your footsteps quiet but also makes triggering pressure plates harder. Pretty useful for a thief if I do say so myself." ending with a grin.

"Additionally, You can change what skills you have by thinking about what skill you want to use and what skill you want to replace but as with most things, this has a cost. When you swap out a skill, you lose the skill you swapped out. If it's a class skill it will reset to level 1 but otherwise remain available to swap back in. If it's a general skill, it's simply gone and you'll have to unlock it again if you want it back. It's also painful as fuck to swap out a skill too. The higher the level of the skill you want to swap out, the more it hurts to remove. It's also not a physical pain so things like pain killers or even pain resistants and pain suppression won't do a dam thing about it. Some skills might even kill you if you swap them out, but don't worry too much about that because you'll know what skills those are if you get one. Things like Oaths, Vows, Pledges, or Divine Gifts fall into that category. The former kills you for breaking them while the latter kills you for turning against the god or demon that granted you it in the first place. Word of advice, Never trust the Divine. I'd rather sleep in a fairy ring and make a deal with the fae before I trust a Divine."

"Anyway, general skills are like class skills but well, general, they aren't tied to any particular class. Everyone starts out with two active general slots and two passive slots and will continue to gain one of each every time they class up until they reach ten active and ten passive slots. General skills are things like Running, Jumping, Bartering, etc. That is also where Oaths and the like are typically placed. There are some exceptions to this but I really don't know much about those. After general skills, there are just resistances, titles, and blessings to cover."

Kuritn holds his hand against the flame of a small lighter, "Resistances are what'd you'd expect. There's not a set limit to how many of them you can have but earning them isn't easy. Leveling them up is even harder, however. I gained my fire resistance after being tarred and feathered before being set alight by noble whose daughter I managed to bed." the old wolfen shrugs "Not my fault she liked knotts. Anyway, that damn near killed me but at least I unlocked fire resistance because of it. The higher your resistance level to that element or attack, the more effective it is. Eventually, you can even become completely immune against lower-leveled attacks made with an element you have high resistance to. That's very rate though since gaining resistance in the first place is excruciatingly painful to start with, much less repeating the process again and again to level it. Now, an exception to this is something like fire resistance which can exist both as a general skill and as a class skill. For example, if you become a fire mage, you will naturally be given fire resistance as a passive class skill so you can obtain it without having to earn it the normal way and can level it with the rest of your abilities. However, you can't turn the skill into a resistance nor can you naturally obtain that resistance."

"In other words, you can get fire resistance through your class but it will always take up a passive skill slot for your class."

"Aye, Now if you already have fire resistance when you become a fire mage, you can keep the general resistance but it won't level so long as you have the class resistance equipped, nor will it level like your other skills. That's why most mages don't bother obtaining natural resistances in the first place since they'll get it for free from their class and they can level it up without having to set themselves on fire constantly or something."

"OK, Ugh. This next part is overly complicated and I'm not a priest so take my explanation with a heavy grain of salt if you will. In order to understand Titles and Blessings, you'll need to at least have a basic understanding of the Divines. Let's start with Titles since they're easy. A Title is something that is given to you by the system itself for performing a grand feat and the reward can be anything really but is oftentimes related to the Title. For example, if someone managed to kill 10,000 rats or something, they'd be given the title Rat Slayer and might be able to detect rats around them or even straight up kill them with a glance. It's all random. Titles can also increase your base stats like Vitality and Versatility. Before you ask, no, earning a title that increases your Vitality by coincidence during the call doesn't piss off White Dove. No idea on Blessings though since no one has ever received one while hearing the call but I'll go ahead and guess that would piss her off since it's never happened before."

"Blessings unlike Titles, are not given to you by the system. Instead, they are bestowed upon you by the Divines themselves. In the case of Gods, a portion of that God's power is lent to the person, while a Blessing from a Demon is given to the person. A Blessing from a God can be revoked while a Blessing from a Demon is the person to keep forever. The only difference between a God and a Demon is how they bestow blessings. Not all Demons are Evil, and not all Gods are Good despite what the church of Solaris wants you to believe."

Kuritn stands up for a moment to crack his back, "Ugh. Not as young as I used to be. That should be about it. Any questions?"

"Many."

The old wolfen rolls his eyes and grabs a nearby chair. "Figures. Fuck the floor I'm gettin a chair. Whatcha got?"

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"What are your classes and how did you avoid detection for so long if you're not supposed to be above level 8?"

Kuritn nods his head and smiles, "Aye, good catch. Assassin and Tracker. Level 135 and 56 respectively. Elements are Shadow and Earth but you probably guessed that already. As for avoiding detection, that was mostly luck in all honesty. No one whoever cared that I was above level 8 lived long enough to complain about it. Once I retired and came here I either stayed out of sight in the cellar or went into the forest when the tax man came round. Traders don't really come around here so that's not usually an issue. Also got the disguise ability after obtaining the assassin class. Disguise allows me to hide my level and set it to anything lower than my current level and my rogue tag. While It won't hold up against repeated casts of Identify from someone suspicious or someone twice my level, it's still an invaluable skill to me."

"Identify?"

"Oh yeah, You don't know about that yet. Identify is a general skill that allows someone to inspect things and receive basic system information from them such as their level and general specialization I.E. Mage, Rogue, Warrior, Civilian, etc. If you were to cast identify on me right now you'd typically receive [Wolfen - Level 8 - Civilian] but if I deactivated my disguise skill it's display [Wolfen - Level 135 - Rogue]."

"I see, Out of curiosity, what level were those bandits and the wolves?"

Kuritn rubs his chin thoughtfully as his eyes glowed slightly, "Let me see. Ah. Here we are. The first group that attacked ranged between 55 and 62. The horsemen were between 65 and 70 while the bodies in the wagon are mostly 65's with the 80's mixed in. A couple of them, the leaders I'm guessing, are around 110. The commander was 132. For context the average adventurer normally reaches level 120 before retirement. Soldiers are typically around 100 but don't let that deceive you. Their discipline and training allows them to hit way above their paygrade. I've seen a group of well trained solders take down a team of 120 adventures like it was nothing."

"The wolves?"

"Oh. Hmm. 115-120. The Alpha was 165, not something I would want to fuck with even if I managed to get it alone. That it?"

"You went into the forest?", Simon replied with a raised eyebrow, "Thinning out the hostile population?"

The wolfen smiles, "Aye. Monsters don't have the best of memories. Occasionally they need little reminder on why to avoid us. Admittedly, I couldn't wipe out an entire pack of 120's like you did but three or four to remind them to stay away? Aye. I could do that." he shakes his head before kicking um some dirt beneath his chair, "I was actually out there looking for some of those bandit's when they attacked the village. Soon as I saw the smoke I rushed back but by the time I got here you were already walking around town with your damned willy hanging around." Kurtin's solom expression changes to a grin as he starts laughing, "Oh Divines. I'ma have to put some more points in Wisdom just so I don't forget the look on yer face when you realized you were naked. If a bard had seen that their would already be songs about in every major city across the kingdom. I can hear it now, "And thus did the knightly saint with scars of silver save the savage princess from certain demise, completely oblivious to thy own nethers, considerable as they may be, flapping happily in the breeze while proclaiming his victory over the vile barbarians."

Simon's eyes narrowed at the laughing man which in turn caused him to laugh even harder until eventually falling out of his chair, "Oi! Fuck! Don't look at me like that. That just makes this shit even funnier."

Simon rolled his eyes before letting out a sigh as the retired assassin sat back down in his chair, "Ok. Whew. I'm alright. Damn near pissed myself. Anything else?"

"Breakpoints. You mentioned a starter class upgrading at level 8, and new class slots at 128 and 512. What are the other breakpoints?"

Kuritn nods, "Well, at least you were paying attention. Fine. At level 8 a person can class up for the first time. The class they receive becomes their First class, obviously. At level 16 two new passive and active slots are unlocked for the class. At level 32 they can class up again and upgrade their class. At level 64 they unlock their last two active and passive slots for their class. Level 128 is another upgrade for your First class and also allows you to pick your Second class. Level 256 is another upgrade. Once both your first and second classes are at 512 or above and upgraded, you will unlock your third class slot. After that, I assume it's the same but I can't say for sure. The highest level I've ever seen was a mercenary at 226."

Simon crosses his arm. 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512. 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512. 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512. Why is that so familiar? Wait. binary? Why the hell is binary being used here?

"Kuritn, Do you have something I can write on?" He replies with a shrug and hands over a knife before pointing at the dirt floor. Simon takes the knife and begins drawing out a table on the floor.

"That still doesn't explain levels 4. Kuritn, When a child gains their system access, Do they always have 2 active and passive slots? Even at level 1?"

Kuritn looks up towards the ceiling for a moment, "Come to think of it, no. Didn't think about that part since none of the starter classes have any special abilities. Just different elemental affinities and stat bonuses. Why?"

"Just a moment. When you obtained your second class, did it start at level 8 instead of 1?"

"How di-" Kurtin's cut off by Simon rapidly filling in new sections of his chart.

1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1,024 2,048 4,096 8,192 16,384 32,768 65,536 Starter Class A / P Slot A / P Slot First Class A / P Slot First Class A / P Slot First Class

Second Class U First Class First Class    First Class First Class First Class First Class First Class First Class First Class 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1,024 2,048 4,096 8,192 16,384 32,768 65,536 Second Class A / P slot Second Class A / P Slot Second Class Second Class Second Class

Third Class U Second Class Second Class Second Class Second Class Second Class Second Class Second class 32 64 128 256 512 1,024 2,048 4,096 8,192 16,384 32,768 65,536 Third Class A / P Slot Third Class Third Class Third Class Third Class Third Class

Forth Class U Third Class Third Class Third Class Third Class Third Class

"That's it. Look at this, You said you didn't know what comes next, right? Well, now you do."

Simon smiles as the stunned man's jaw drops nearly onto the chart itself before giving him a slap on the back, "Kuritn, It's a pattern. A repeating pattern. I don't know how long it goes on for but I'm certain three classes isn't the limit. To be honest, I don't even know if there IS a limit."

Kuritn retrieves his jaw as his expression darkens, his tone becoming serious, "Simon, I don't doubt that someone has already figured this out but I can tell you now, this IS NOT common knowledge. I highly suggest you keep the knowledge of this pattern to yourself. The sects that already know of it will kill you to keep it hidden while those who don't would gladly torture you or the villagers to learn of it." Without missing a beat Kuritn's eyes glow slightly and the earth below quickly erases the chart. Without looking up he replies, "Earth manipulation. Came with my second class of Tracker. Helps with finding tracks and hiding my own."

"Anyway, I've just about had enough of this for one day so let's finish up. Each class has an associated element. Like Fire for a Fire Mage or Water for a Water Mage. Each of these classes will include both a passive resistance skill to that element, a conjuration skill and a manipulation skill. Conjuration allows you to create the element in question while manipulating. Manipulation lets you control the element." Kurtin slaps his tights before standing up and heading towards the door clearly unnerved.

"Classes can also be combined to create a new class. A mage who has a class in Fire and a class in Water can combine the two classes to create the advanced element of Steam. When two classes are combined like this a class slot is freed up and a new one can be selected. You can also combine two fire classes together to create a single stronger class. Same with other element types. Anyway, that's it for me. Kayae's starting to wake up and I need to get these bastards started on digging the trench."

Simon glances over towards the stirring girl and heads out the still-open door.