“So, Jeb,” his mother said as they started to clean up from lunch, “I know we haven’t had time to talk about what Skills you’re going to focus on. Has anyone given you the Skill Book yet?”
“The what now?” Jeb had no idea what his mother was referring to, and that apparently showed on his face.
“I don’t know if it will be as useful for you as it was for your sister, but there’s a group of high Tier Farmers and other Classes who belong to the Unnamed who have gone through and made a list of relevant Skills and some Class Building advice. The Class Building is probably less useful for you, but having a list of what’s available might help you plan some Skills to try to work for.”
“That would be incredible!” Jeb said without hesitation, “where can I find it?” He was getting ready to go back to the Library if he needed to.
“Oh, I have one here,” his mother said, pulling out a book, “some of the descriptions are vague to save on space, and there are a few other volumes somewhere with the more specific Skill Descriptions and requirements, but this should have most of what you need, especially since at least someone in the family probably has any of the Skills.”
“More specific Skill Descriptions?”
“Oh, right, we haven’t had that talk with you yet, have we?” his mother said. “In short, it’s very difficult to get two Skills which do the same thing. The common example we use is Running and Sprinting. They are not identical, sure, but they have a lot of overlap. If you get either Skill, it’s nearly unheard of to get the other. There’s a lot of Theorycrafting around what specific Skill is optimal for different builds, but that’s far more your grandfather’s interest than mine.”
“If there’s Theorycrafting, there must be some difference between the Skills,” Jeb thought aloud.
“So if we look at Running versus Sprinting, the major difference is in scope.” His mother explained, “Running describes a much larger number of activities than Sprinting. In this case, since everything that Sprinting covers, running also covers, Running is often called a Parent Skill to Sprinting. Generally, Parent Skills are better for a wider range of tasks, but Child Skills are better at what they do.”
“So a person with Sprinting would have a higher maximum speed than someone with Running?” Jeb asked.
“Could be! It also depends how each person builds their Skill up. Someone with Sprinting might focus it on Endurance instead, and be able to maintain their top speed for longer. Generally, though, yes. If you try to perform the same task with the same training, you’ll do it better with the more specific Skill. You lose out on all the breadth, though.”
“Hmm, is there any way to change what Skills you have?” Jeb asked, thinking about how he might want a more or less specific Skill in different scenarios. After all, having Mud Magic might make Earth Glyphs easier, but he had a feeling it would make learning Air Glyphs more difficult. If he could change them, that would be ideal.
“There’s a few ways to answer that question. There are Skill Removers, though they charge far too much for any of us to afford them. When you change Classes, it’s common that Skills relating to either Class can change. At the most basic version, almost every Class-Granted Skill changes when you Tier up. Other than that, though, there are a few reports of being able to shift a Skill through focused effort. As with everything relating to Skills, though, it’s easier to do the lower your Tier. It’s also easier the newer the Skill is.”
“That’s a lot to consider,” Jeb said.
“I’d advise against planning a Build which relies on changing Skills,” his mother said, seeing the look in his eyes, “I know it’s worked for some members of our family, but it’s failed others. Then again, they did ultimately end up happy with their Class, so I suppose it’s half a dozen of one and six of the other.” They’d finished cleaning by the time the conversation was done, so Jeb went up to his room to study. As he did, his mother called after him, “we’re expecting a fairly full house at dinner tonight, so if you want advice on your path, tonight would be a good time to have ideas and questions.”
When Jeb got to his room, he noted that his hands and forearms were feeling better and decided to practice his scales again. It was strange. The music felt like it came more easily without the Bard watching, but the music that came out felt worse. It was almost more hollow, though Jeb couldn’t explain what that meant.
By the time that he finished the scales and picking patterns, his hands were starting to get sore again, so he cleaned the lute and put it away.
Now there were a few options for what to read. Jeb placed all the books out in front of him to pick between them. The different Elemental Primers all went into a single pile. Learning a Glyph would help Jeb with at least part of what he was trying to accomplish, and he did have Quests for every book. Then again, he wanted to be more than a Mage, and focusing all his efforts on Magic wouldn’t help him there.
That also somewhat ruled out the Bardic Magic book, for all that he was curious how much different that kind of magic was from his Glyphs. But, he also had a meeting with the Bard scheduled in a week, so that probably didn’t need to be done now either. He put the Lute Method Book on the same pile. Jeb was still struggling with scales, and he doubted that the book would have any great advice, especially since the Bard seemed to think the struggles were natural.
That left the general Magic Primer and the book his mother had just given him. At that point, it was an easy enough choice. Jeb flipped an hourglass to make sure he was watching the time.
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Congratulations on getting your First Class! This book was created thanks to the generous efforts of a number of Classholders. Though it is not an official Republic piece of writing, many have found that it contains useful information. We have consulted with as many Fourth through Ninth Tiers belonging to the Unnamed as we could, and we compile their advice for Skills and Class progression in the back of the book. Of course, there are some Skills that almost certainly serve you regardless of what Class path you are taking. First and foremost, a Vitality-related Skill helps ensure that you remain hale and hearty long past what your Tier might otherwise allow. High Tier Classes, especially those referenced in the book, tend to grant Vitality, but a high Vitality doesn’t undo the damage of aging. It’s best to head it off early, and as such, the authors strongly advise you to get a Vitality Skill before your second Tier, and if not then than as soon as possible. The authors understand that you may not have time to peruse this book in full before you need to start making decisions about your future. If this is the case, please look in the back index for the section titled “Skills for Any Path,” and try to start working on those. For those with more time, it is still advised to look at those Skill layouts, as they are fairly well Theorycrafted to give a high number of easily completed Quests that will lead to a balanced Statistic Load for the Physical Statistics and the generally relevant Mental Statistics. Though there are some Classes which would benefit from Magic Affinity or Mana Depth, information on how to obtain those Skills is generally more restricted, and so we have been advised to avoid publication of them. If you should find a need for such a Skill, we recommend visiting your local Library.
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Thankfully, that would not be a problem for Jeb. It had only been a few minutes, thankfully, but he was enthralled. He was a little confused why this book assured him that he needed balanced Statistics, while the Primer on Magic claimed the opposite, but maybe he would find justifications for both reasons within their books.
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Jeb wanted to see what Skills would grant Vitality, so he hoped that there was an order to the Skills. As it turned out, all Skills that generally focused on a Statistic were grouped together. The “Skills for Any Path” section didn’t have any paths that stood out to him in particular, which made sense. They all assumed one of a fairly small number of Class Skills at the First Tier, which he didn’t have. A little disenheartened, Jeb started looking through the Vitality Skills, hoping to find one that spoke to him.
Nearly all of the Skills were Synergy Skills, which meant that he would need to learn at least two other Skills to unlock them. Still, one caught his eye fairly quickly, since it seemed to touch on four of his Statistics.
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Synergy Skill: Athletics: Qualification Criteria: Gain a Running and Lifting Skill Effects: Gain slight boost to all Physical Statistics, increased by following Quests. Quests: Repeatable Quests of stretching (Dexterity) exercising (Vitality) for a number of minutes equal to the Statistic they increase. These Quests can be repeated daily. An astute reader might note that nearly every Running Skill focuses on Endurance, and nearly every Lifting Skill focuses on Strength. As such, this is a generally effective Skill for those who lack any relevant Class Skills.
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Jeb quickly paged to the Running and Lifting Skills. Of course, they were each Parent Skills, and there were a number of potential options that would all work to unlock Athletics. Jeb read through the descriptions for them all. Most required that he do some action every day for some set amount of time, which was fine, but not ideal.
Just out of curiosity, Jeb flipped to the Skill Description for Running.
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Physical Skill: Running Qualification Criteria: Run continuously for ten minutes per point of Endurance you have (One hour per six points). Effects: General increase in running efficiency, endurance. Quest: Initially, a daily repeatable Quest of running for a minute per point of Endurance. As you grow in Tier, this Quest often changes to something more relevant to your Class, especially if it is an Endurance Class.
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That seemed nice. Not only could he unlock the Skill in, he looked at his Status, one hundred and sixty minutes, he could also get another point of Endurance every day. That would have to be helpful no matter what his Class was. After all, he knew that most of his family members only slept a few days a week, if that. They all attributed it to their high Endurance Statistics, and Jeb had no reason not to believe them. Quickly, Jeb looked at the lifting entries, and saw that the best was probably the Parent Skill of Lifting.
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Physical Skill: Lifting Qualification Criteria: Lift weights for three minutes per point of Strength you have every day for a week. Effects: General increase in lifting efficiency, strength. Quest: Initially, a daily repeatable Quest of lifting ten pounds per point of Strength. As you grow in Tier, this Quest often changes to something more relevant to your Class, especially if it is a Strength Class.
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That seemed doable, but since it would take a week to unlock, Jeb decided to put it off for later.
Mind made up, Jeb went downstairs to go for a run. If his math was right, he’d need to run for a little under three hours to unlock the Skill. He had more than enough time to do that before dinner, so he went downstairs to begin his run.
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
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Jeb Human Age: 16 Class: Least Mud Initiate Level: 1 Experience: 519/100
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Total Statistic Load: 116 Physical Load: 57 Strength: 14 Dexterity: 8 Endurance: 16 Vitality: 15 Presence: 4
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Mental Load: 59 Intelligence: 16 Willpower: 20 Magic Affinity: 12 Mana Depth: 3 Charisma: 8
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Mana: 210
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Glyph Attunement: 6 Least Conjure Water Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Earth Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Earth Tier 1 Spell Least Create Earth Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Earth Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Earth - Efficient Tier 3 Spell
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Skills: Least Mud Magic Meditation Mana Manipulation Spell Glyphing Glyph Groking Gift of Gab
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)