Ana and Rayni looked at each other across the low fire as Rayni gathered herself, settling into a thoughtful pose. “Okay. So, ah… I’ve never been the one doing this. Bear with me, yeah?
“So. You probably know this bit, at least, but anyway. When you get your first Crystal, your first natural Crystal, I mean — you can’t force it — you’re able to see your Summary and pick a Class. What Classes you can choose from depends on your Skills, mostly. Supposedly there are some Classes that unlock from Achievements, but that’s basically never going to affect your first Class.”
“Question,” Ana said as Rayni stopped for a moment. “How do you know what you have available, and how do you pick?”
“What? But you have a… You know what, doesn't matter. You open your Summary, and you focus on your Classes. You’ll know your options, see them or hear them or whatever, and if you look at one you’ll get a simply description and a question if you want to pick that Class. Or switch, in our case, since we already have Classes.”
“Right. Thanks,” Ana said, thinking to herself, You can open the Classes part?
“Sure. Anyway, even if the Class you want isn’t there when you pick your first one, there’s no reason not to just pick something. As long as you don’t waste any Crystals on it, your level 1 Abilities should help you get the Skills you need for the Class you really want, right? And then you just reset.”
“So everyone who isn’t a basic Class like Fighter has reset or switched at some point?”
“Hell, almost anyone who has the Fighter Class will have reset, too. You need at least one Skill with a weapon to get Fighter, and some others. And you’re only kind of right. They also could’ve Evolved their Class to a higher tier. Like, Captain Falk Evolved his Guard Class to Peacekeeper at some point, and Petra didn’t start out as a Custodian. A lot of people get to Evolve around level 15,” she added, apparently sensing that Ana was about to ask, “although the requirement is usually level 10. Just, most people don’t have the Skill levels yet by then. Now, as you know, when you level, you gain Abilities. And a lot of Abilities improve with your Class level. That’s one reason that people may choose to reset instead of switching, since your Abilities can get a lot more powerful that way.”
“The other reason being faster leveling in the new Class, right?”
“Right. So, important thing to know about Abilities and changing Classes is this: if you switch Classes, you keep your Abilities, but they stop improving. If you reset, you lose your Abilities along with your Class. But if you Evolve your Class, all your future levels still count towards your old Abilities. So unless you want to make a radical change, like switching from an artisan Class to a combat one, evolving or even resetting is almost always a better choice than switching.
“Next, Attributes. I know you know how to spend your Advancement Points—” Rayni grinned across the fire at Ana, who gave her a two-finger salute, something she’d picked up from Mr. Stamper. The gesture translated surprisingly well. “—so I’ll assume you know how the costs work?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Now, there are some things the descriptions don’t tell you. I only know two, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more. Vitality makes you healthier, but it also affects your aging, so a lot of people like to invest in it at least some. And Willpower, like I told you, reduces the amount of sleep you need. Though if your Willpower is much higher than your Vitality and Endurance you might end up where you don’t sleep enough for your body to recover properly, and you’ll have to remember to rest more. Still, that’s a luxury problem, I’d say.
“You asked about Enhancements, so I’ll assume you don’t have any Attributes over 25. Enhancements are kind of like Perks, except you get them from Attributes, yeah? Every Attribute you get to 25, effective, that is, you get an Enhancement, and then another one at 50. You might get them at 75, too, but I couldn’t tell you. Never talked to anyone who had an Attribute that high. Just like Perks, you don’t know ahead of time what you’re going to get, but it usually reflects how you act pretty well. Like, I’ve always been out in the dark a lot, and when my Perception hit 25 I got Darksight. Huge boost to how well I can see in the dark. A lot of people get that one. But some Hunters or other people who do a lot of tracking get Bloodhound instead. Or you might get something for hearing, or something else. You’ll probably be happy with it, though.
“Now, Skills. You know what Skills do, right?”
“Honestly? Not really. Sometimes it feels like I’m using a Skill, if that makes sense, but I’m still not sure if they do anything, or if they’re just a measurement of how skilled I am.”
“You never looked at a Skill?”
Ana often felt self-conscious in some way, but it took a lot to truly embarrass her. Part of that was that most people’s opinions of her didn’t affect her. Part of it was that she could admit her own flaws and failings. But from the way that Rayni asked that, from the way that she so carefully schooled her face, Ana felt her face heating up. She’d looked at her Attributes. She’d looked at her Race, and her Abilities, and her Perks.
Somehow, for all that she’d wondered, she’d never actually looked at a Skill.
“Do you want to try that now?” Rayni asked, her voice kind and patient.
“I know that I asked you to explain it like you would to a child,” Ana said sourly, “but you don’t need to treat me like one.” She really hated feeling embarrassed.
“Sorry,” Rayni said, raising her hands defensively. “It’s just, these things are so basic to me. To anyone, or so I thought. I learned about this as a kid, and my own mom gave me the Talk when…”
Rayni froze, then looked across the fire at Ana, her eyes widening with the slightest tinge of horror. “She gave me the other talk at the same time,” she said carefully. “You… you don’t need that one, do you?”
“What, exactly, are you referring to?”
“About your blood weeks, and boys and all.”
Ana sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “No. You don’t need to tell me about that. I’m 26 years old. I’ve been dealing with that shit for half my life. Thanks for the… consideration. Can we continue?”
Rayni visibly relaxed. “Yeah, of course. You really should check out a skill, though, just to do it. And I’m guessing that you just have a list of Skills with no order or anything? By first letter, if anything?”
“Yeah?”
“You can reorder them, if you prefer. Have them in order of what level they are, group them by type of Skill, stuff like that. If you ask me, you should do that when you look at them.”
“I’ll do it once we’re done. Promise.”
“All right. The short version is that Skills make you better. We know that because people improve noticeably from one minute to the next when they get a Skill level. The exact effects depend on the Skill, but it’s generally what you’d expect: Archery makes you more accurate and quicker with bows; Tracking lets you spot and follow the right tracks more easily. Stuff like that. Then, on top of that you have Perks. You get those every five Skill levels. They can do all kinds of things, but usually permanent effects, or Attribute bonuses. Sometimes effects that only work in some situations. The bonuses pretty much always go up with the Skill level, or the level of a Skill you Merge your Skill into. And don’t give me that look! I’m getting to it!”
Ana again schooled her face. She wasn’t annoyed at Rayni. This was exactly why she’d wanted Rayni to go through all of this with her. But merging Skills? Another thing she’d never heard of! Her own ignorance irritated her, and she wished that the Wayfarer could have dumped it into her head or something. “Sorry,” she said. “Please.”
“Right. Merging Skills. Easy example: Tracking and Trapping can Merge into Hunting. Get them both to level 10 or higher and you’ll get a notification, and a reminder whenever you look at your Skills, asking if you want to Merge them. Easy! Now, good parts and bad parts: a Merged Skill gives all the benefits of the Skills that went into it, so it’s like leveling all those skills at once, but you lose out on Crystals. You keep your Perks, but you can’t get new Perks for the Skills that were Merged. And your Merged Skill will have the level of the lowest Skill that went into it. So that might make some of your Perks weaker for a while. At the same time, Merged Skills have their own Perks, that you get immediately up to whatever level your new Skill is at, and their Perks are just plain better. So, yeah. Good and bad. Important thing, though: a lot of Classes above the base tier require Merged skills. Like, my Huntress Class requires you to have Hunting. Makes sense, yeah?”
“Sure, yeah. But it sounds like it may be worth just getting your regular Skills up as high as you can before you Merge them.”
“Yeah, depends on what you’re trying to do. For one thing, for those who don’t throw themselves into danger all the time, Skills are also their main source of free Crystals. But using myself as an example, if I’d been happy just being a Tracker, which was my first Class, I could have just kept leveling my Tracking and Trapping skills. I’d have some more Crystals today, and some extra Perks that I can’t get now. But Hunting has Prey Sense as a common Perk at 10, and I wanted it, so I Merged the Skills. Then I Evolved to Huntress because I was here, and I wanted the Danger Sense Ability. The forest here has much better hunting than back in the Primes, but it’s way more dangerous. No demons there, only regular predators. Anyway, since I was planning to Evolve my Class, I could have stayed as a Tracker, got more Abilities and Perks, then Merged my Skills and Evolved to Huntress.”
Rayni’s cadence made Ana’s ears itch. It was like she was verbally capitalizing every other word, and the language they were speaking was built around that. Skill and skill, Ability and ability, they weren’t entirely different words, but they had a different sound to them. Hunting was not the same as hunting. Ana understood the difference. She did it herself, naturally, when she spoke. It would still take some time to get used to.
“Now, I can’t force you to do anything, but you really should take a couple of minutes to look at your Skills, if you haven’t. We have a while before sunrise.”
“I have some Advancement Points that I’ll have to spend if I open the Summary,” Ana said. “I’m not sure where I want to put them.”
“Are you serious? Why are you sitting on points if you’re not banking them for something?” Rayni said incredulously. “That’s ridiculous! Every point of effective Attribute makes you better, stronger, more likely to survive! They make you level faster! Spend them! You have all the time in the world to decide once you’re in there, anyway!” Then she grinned, her eyes sparkling in the firelight. “Just try to keep your voice down this time.”
Ana flipped her off good-naturedly, and time stopped as she brought up her Summary.
INDIVIDUAL SUMMARY Name Anastasia Cole Race Outsider, Summoned (Human aspect) Age 26 Classes Guardian Angel (6) (Hidden, shown as Companion (6)) Experience 0/2450 Storage 5 Shard, 2 Growth Crystal (Least), 3 Growth Crystal (Lesser), 4 Growth Crystal (Minor), 4 Growth Crystal (Medium)
Attributes Attribute Base Multiplier Effective Strength 18 1.3 23 Endurance 20 1.2 24 Vitality 19 1.3 24 Agility 21 1.1 23 Dexterity 18 1.1 19 Perception 16 1.3 20 Acuity 16 1 16 Willpower 18 1 18 Charisma 21 1 21 Connection 16 1 16 Advancement Points: 5
Abilities Hidden Class (Guardian Angel) Guardian Angel Devotion Danger Sense (Special) Companionship
Perks Iron Body Predator
Achievements Hunting Party II Party Delver I
Skills Skill Level Acting 3 Camping 2 Charm 3 Command 2 Crossbows 1 Deception 2 Defense 2 Harvesting 1 Herbalism 1 Inspect 2 Intimidation 5 Long Blades 2 Negotiation 2 Sense Motive 2 Shields 2 Short Blades 3 Tracking 1 Unarmed Combat 6
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Spending her Advancement Points was as hard as she’d expected, when Ana looked at her Summary. Doing math in her head had never been Ana’s strong suit, but her increased Acuity made it much easier to keep track of the numbers. There were no less than five Attributes, she realized, that she could bring up to 25: Strength, Endurance, Vitality, Agility, and Charisma. Considering what she’d learned about Enhancements, getting any of them above the 25 threshold might make her life noticeably easier, so she was definitely boosting one of them.
One thing immediately occurred to her. She had 5 points to spend. Agility only needed 2 points to bring it above 25, while Endurance and Charisma needed 3. Strength and Vitality, though, each needed 4 points. That made things easier, since she could eliminate Strength and Vitality in the name of getting two Enhancements at once.
Eliminating Vitality also freed her from the possible embarrassment of moaning in front of Rayni, which was a benefit in itself.
Since Agility was the cheapest Attribute to boost, it was locked in. The question, then, was: Endurance or Charisma?
Endurance had more immediate benefits. She was out in the forest, intending to walk long distances every day and hopefully getting in a fight or two. Two extra points of endurance would be nice in itself, even without the Enhancement. Charisma, on the other hand, would increase by a full 4 points for only a small investment. It seemed to make people generally friendlier towards her and would help her with pretty much any social interaction. It didn’t matter whether she was haggling, trying to talk someone over to her way of seeing things, strong-arming someone, or trying to keep her secrets. Charisma was the Attribute for social Skills.
Yeah. She chose Charisma. She was already pretty solid when it came to her physical Attributes, and getting both Endurance and Agility seemed like overkill. Besides, Charisma offered the biggest boost, and she was curious to see what it would do.
Her mind made up, she distributed her points. Both Attribute modifiers went to the second Step, with both Attributes hitting 25.
With that, her Summary closed, and two notifications called for her attention.
Congratulations! Your effective Agility now equals or exceeds 25. You have gained the Enhancement Combat Acrobatics.
Combat Acrobatics: You have come to rely on your mobility in combat, for both offense and defense. When in combat, you have greatly increased control of your movements when both your feet are off the ground.
Congratulations! Your effective Charisma now equals or exceeds 25. You have gained the Enhancement Arresting Gaze.
Arresting Gaze: there is something about your eyes that others find fearsome or alluring. When you lock eyes with another creature there is a chance that they will hesitate, allowing you to seize the advantage. Effectiveness depends on your Charisma and the opposing creature’s Willpower.
Rayni must have seen her stir. “Hey, Ana, you done? Ana? Ana, are you… done?”
Ana turned and locked eyes with her across the fire, and Rayni froze. It was only a fraction of a second before Rayni blinked and finished her sentence, but long enough that Ana had to force herself not to grin. She was going to like Arresting Gaze! It should work nicely with her Perk, Predator, too, when she was trying to intimidate someone. “Not quite,” she said. “I just finished spending my Points. I’ll have a look at some Skills, now. Maybe all of them, since we have time.”
Rayni blinked, looking slightly stunned. “...Yeah, you do that.”
Back in the Summary, Ana silently scolded herself for never having even tried this. The first thing she did was to mentally command the list to order itself by type of Skill, and the list immediately reshuffled itself into four groups:
Skills
Social Skill Level Acting 3 Charm 3 Command 2 Deception 2 Intimidation 5 Negotiation 2 Sense Motive 2
Survival Skill Level Camping 2 Harvesting 1 Herbalism 1 Tracking 1
Weapons and Combat Skill Level Crossbows 1 Defense 2 Long Blades 2 Shields 2 Short Blades 3 Unarmed Combat 6
Miscellaneous Skill Level Inspect 2
She focused on Acting, the same way she would when she got a new Ability, and of course it was that simple! She quickly went through the list, reading the short descriptions and hoping to glean something useful.
Acting: Improved believability per level when trying to pass yourself off as a different person, or when acting out a scenario for others.
Charm: Improved ability per level to convince others or to improve their opinion of you, through speech, text, or body language.
Command: Improved effectiveness per level when issuing commands, through speech, text, or body language.
Deception: Improved ability per level to deceive and misdirect, through speech, text, or body language.
Intimidation: Improved ability per level to bend people to your will through fear of reprisal, through speech, text, or body language.
Negotiation: Improved ability per level to improve the terms of deals and agreements, so that they are more favorable to you.
Sense Motive: Improved ability per level to read the intentions of others, in speech, text, or body language.
Simple, but not incredibly useful. Higher Skill level in Acting meant that you were better at acting? No shit? And there were no numbers, which was annoying. She’d slowly started to enjoy being able to quantify things.
At least it was nice to know that the social Skills worked through writing as well. That hinted that they helped with word choice and formulating sentences, which would imply that they actively improved, for example, how you expressed, not just how what you expressed was received. An important distinction, since that meant that Skills only directly affected yourself, and not others. Having other people’s Skills mess with her head was not something that Ana had been worried about before, so having some reassurance that that wasn’t the case was an unexpected but welcome relief.
The Skills in the Survival group followed a similar pattern.
Camping: Improved ability per level to find an appropriate campsite, organize a camp, and set up shelter.
Harvesting: Improved ability per level to successfully identify and harvest the correct parts of plants, creatures, and mushrooms.
Herbalism: Improved ability per level to find and identify known plants and mushrooms, and to determine the properties of unknown ones.
Tracking: Improved ability per level to find and follow tracks.
That was about what she had expected from the Skills, though the descriptions of Harvesting and Herbalism suggested that they’d help with remembering things, which was another useful tidbit.
That left the Combat and Weapons group, and Inspect all on its own in the Miscellaneous group.
Crossbows: Improved accuracy and ease of operation per level for crossbows.
Completely predictable.
Defense: Improved ability per level to determine how best to deflect or avoid an incoming attack.
That was a little more interesting. Rather than reducing damage when she defended herself, which wouldn’t have surprised Ana at this point, the Skill instead helped her decide if and how she should try to block, parry, or dodge. That sounded monumentally useful. The lack of a dedicated Dodge Skill also suggested that a high level in Defense and a high Agility was the way to go if she just wanted to get out of the way, which her new Enhancement, Combat Acrobatics, should help with.
Long Blades: Improved ability per level when attacking or defending with long bladed weapons.
Short Blades: Improved ability per level when attacking or defending with short bladed weapons.
Again, not very informative. Although the Skills did say that they worked for both attack and defense, and there was no mention of simply increasing damage done, only the nebulous “ability” with the weapon. There was also nothing that told her where the line was between a long and a short blade.
Shields: Improved ability per level when blocking or deflecting incoming attacks with a shield.
Nothing about using a shield as a weapon? That was vaguely offensive.
Unarmed Combat: Improved ability per level when attacking or defending using hands, feet, knees, elbows, or any other body part, as well as when initiating, holding, and trying to escape grapples.
Ana was biased, but she was quite happy with that. Not that she intended to go around getting into brawls, but she’d done a lot more unarmed fighting than she could have possibly predicted in the week-and-change since she’d been dragged into this weird world, and she didn’t see that changing for some time. And from what she’d seen so far, most people here, even the Delvers, didn’t actually train to fight other people. That gave her a distinct edge as long as no swords or anything were involved.
Well, she’d still have an edge with knives, as far as she could tell, but honestly? Fuck knives.
The last Skill was Inspect.
[Inspect: Improved ability per level to determine the Race, Class, and levels of another creature, as well as their threat level, if any.]
That was… confusing. She could already tell what Race, Class, and level someone was, and every demon she’d looked at had a threat level. So what was the benefit of a higher level? Just Perks? She’d have to ask.
Finally, for the sake of completion, she looked at her Class. She’d already done that, of course, but this time she willed her Summary to show her which Classes she had available. And it was as simple as that. A list of choices appeared, with options like Fighter, Pugilist, and Apprentice Actress. She could look at them for details, and when she did, she was asked if she wanted to switch to the new Class through a reset or a Class change, or if she wanted to remain a Guardian Angel.
She did, in fact, want to keep her current Class. What kind of idiot would willingly change to anything else?
“All right, Rayni,” she said, dismissing the Summary. “I’m done. Let’s talk.”