Reopening my status screen, I consider the numbers carefully. I’ve only got to more than twenty points in a single stat – Willpower. Intelligence is at eighteen, Wisdom is at sixteen along with Constitution, and Strength and Dexterity are at fourteen. So, the question is whether to add points into my physical stats to bring them more in line with my mental ones or not.
I consider what the scholars in Nicholas’ world think about assigning points. For them, while focusing all my points into one or two stats and leave the others to fall behind is not a good idea according to the scholars in Nicholas’ world, neither is treating all stats equally.
Having a baseline of twenty points in each stat and not letting the strongest stat get too far away from the weakest are two of the three main points the scholars highlight as the most important when considering stat allocation. The third is to lean into one’s strengths. Not all Skills require the same supporting stats; not all people want to do the same things.
Up to now I’ve been mostly making decisions based on what I seem to need in the immediate future: more health, more strength, more mana. But my recent experiences have shown me that there’s more to the stats than what’s displayed by my status screen. My increased Intelligence has made things easier to think through, solutions coming with an ease I’d have envied back in my previous life. I won’t necessarily say they’re always good solutions – it seems like I can’t get away from the fact that I’m human and fallible – but my thought process itself is smoother, faster. If I’d waited to absorb the knowledge stones until I had twenty points in Intelligence, I can only imagine the greater understanding of them that I’d receive. Then again, I’d probably already be dead so there’s that. And there are stats which have proven themselves to have even more hidden depths.
Wisdom, actually, is one of these. Ever since gaining my Meditation Skill I’ve felt like there’s a whole world out there than I can only barely perceive. And though it doesn’t explicitly say in the Skill that it depends on Wisdom, the fact that both Skill and stat are involved in mana regeneration indicates to me an implicit connection. Also, the fact that I gained a point in Wisdom after actually managing to do more than merely perceive the links around me indicates that any more work in that area is going to be improved by having more Wisdom. Unless that wasn’t why I got my point in Wisdom, but then what would have caused the point if not for gaining a greater understanding of the links?
Knowing that the connections aren’t just features of the environment around me but are things I can actually touch, in some obscure way, has lit a fire of curiosity within me. There’s nothing about these connections in the system knowledge stone – is it that I lost it when I absorbed the stone, my brain not ready to receive the information? Or is it not something the scholars have explored? I promise myself I’ll investigate the whole thing more when we’re back home and safe.
For now, though, I take a long, hard look at myself and my Skills. I have a Tamer Class. I’ve accepted that that means I’m strongest when surrounded by my companions, Tamed or Dominated. I’m a team-player, not a lone wolf. A team-leader, if only due to the fact that I’m the nexus of all the Bonds. But, as I know from my experience in corporate, team-leader doesn’t mean being at the front, or even in the middle of the action. In fact, it’s often the opposite: if the person directing the project is also responsible for working on the details, they may lose a sense of the bigger picture. I need to plan my progression based on the fact that, although I need to be able to take care of myself if I accidentally get separated from the group, my principle role is as leader.
Right now, looked at coldly, we have two damage-dealers, a scout, and a healer-fighter – me. That’s a better team than we had on the way to rescue Lathani with only one damage-dealer apart from me. Of course, it’s only a better team if we work together well – and that’s my responsibility to manage as the team-leader. If we find we have gaps in our line-up, it’s also my responsibility to close them. And I can only do that by ‘recruiting’ others for the team – and I do that with my Class Skills.
Dominate is clearly dependent on Willpower as its primary attribute. There may be other underlying attributes, but if so, I doubt it’s any of the physical ones. Tame isn’t as clear. It talks about a beast of moderate or higher Intelligence being able to reject the Bond, but does that mean it uses my Intelligence as a modifier? The fact that it talks about ‘connections’ makes me suspect it has a link to Wisdom, knowing what I know now.
Lay-on-hands is heavily dependent on mana and therefore a bigger pool or faster regeneration would definitely improve my ability to use this Skill. In addition, I reckon that a higher Intelligence stat would help me think through problems and find solutions with more speed and efficiency. Possibly a higher Wisdom level would enable me to connect better with the creature I’m healing, though that’s very much a guess.
Of my other four Skills, Animal Empathy is based on Wisdom with future developments linked to Constitution. This Skill could be important for me to develop since it’ll probably improve my negotiation skills which will be essential to either Tame or Dominate. The way I do Dominate anyway. Meditation, as I was thinking earlier, is not explicitly improved by any stat, but from the description seems to be at least connected to Wisdom; I can’t think that improving the stat would harm it in any way.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
My last two Skills are the only ones which are linked to the physical stats. Stealth relies on stamina to work, and Dexterity to be quieter when moving. However even that one mentioned needing mana for later, more exotic effects. As for Fade, I need mana as well as stamina just to operate it. If I wish it to conceal any more than just visual effects, it will then scale with Wisdom or Willpower. Briefly I wonder how to actually make it do that, then put the thought aside: something to consider later.
While there’s a question over whether having Skills that hide me from the perception of opponents are even any use now I’m part of a team, I’m still inclined to say that they do. First of all, Bastet’s stealth abilities are still far better than my own. If I’m travelling with her, I’m the one who attracts notice. Second of all, even if I have other companions who are less stealthy even than me, if I’m taking more of a back seat when it comes to the fights, an ability to conceal myself could be essential. It worked with the monkiles recently – I stayed in Fade while sniping at the other ranged fighters and Bastet drew their attention. That way, I could control when I revealed myself and thereby the pace of the fight.
Sometimes I feel a bit disappointed that I didn’t take Stun instead of Fade: it could have been a move which proved the turning point of a fight. Then again, if I’d used it against the salamander, it could have either meant that none of us got hurt if it stunned the massive lizard for long enough that Bastet or River could have ripped out its throat, or it could have meant that I was completely out of mana when Bastet was almost bitten in half. However, if I can seriously improve my mana regeneration rate… When I get to level five, I’ll have to see if there’s anything better than Stun on offer; if not, I’ll pick that one.
In summary, it seems clear that Willpower and the mana-related stats are by far more important to me than the physical stats. As much as it makes me feel good to swing a mace and see obvious signs of my victory in the form of crushed skulls, leaning further into the melee-based fighter probably isn’t my best bet. I still need to be able to defend myself, sure, but I don’t need to put loads of points in my physical stats to be able to do that. Not right now, anyway.
My best effect on the fight will probably be in keeping the damage-dealers healed, supporting them from a distance through ranged attacks, and returning them to full health afterwards. Not to mention stacking the deck in our favour from the beginning by bringing the right fighters to the table.
All of which means that my role should be more and more from a distance, assuming I work out a way to heal from a remove, reducing the value of the body stats to me. I need to bring them up to a decent level – twenty, at least – but I’m probably better served by letting that happen naturally in my new labour-intensive life than dedicating level-up points to Strength, Dexterity, or even Constitution. Heck, on this journey already, I’ve gained a point to Constitution and Dexterity without even having to dedicate any Energy to them.
It might be the wrong decision to make, but there are always counter-arguments for every decision; if we let the counter-arguments go on too long, we end up paralysed and unable to make any choice. Adding points to Constitution makes me feel safer – each point is ten health points extra away from dying, after all – but it doesn’t actually do anything to improve my survivability beyond that. Besides, with enough mana, my Constitution stat almost becomes irrelevant – what does damage matter if I can heal it away? Although I suppose that if something like Kalanthia came along and bit my head off, I’d be done for, but I probably wouldn’t survive that even if my Constitution stat was at a hundred points. Or would I?
Anyway, with the decision made to put two points in each of the soul and mind stats, I push myself to my feet. I’m happy about the opportunity to level up, of course I am; I just wish that it’d happened while we were next to the river. Without even any water to wash my mouth out, I’m going to have the worst case of bad-breath ever. Not to mention the body odor of that revolting liquid that comes out of me. Bastet, River, Lathani, and the cubs probably won’t be all that happy about it either.
“Watch my back, would you?” I ask all and sundry before stepping a little bit closer to the hole. Looking up nervously at the sky, I quickly strip off. No point in having my clothes soaked in the stuff, right? Throwing a glance back at the group, I see River watching me in interest and feel a few moments of insecurity. Then I remember that he’s a lizard-man and probably he’s more curious at seeing a body so different from his own than trying to check me out. With effort, I manage to get control over the flush rising up my neck.
The level-up process is the normal mixture of blissful and deeply unpleasant. As soon as I’ve regained full awareness, I quickly rub myself down with a shirt that’s too torn to ever be repaired, doing my best to spit out the rancid taste of my level-up vomit. Situation improved, if not ideal, I reach for my clothes.
Wait, River says and I pause, looking around me warily, including above my head. Has he seen something? Rub the dirt all over yourself, he tells me. OK, apparently not an attack. I turn around to frown at him, my hand automatically going down to cover myself, something about him being mostly humanoid eliciting that reaction where Bastet hadn’t.
“Why?” I ask, frowning, before my question actually sparks a memory. Not my memory; one I absorbed from the wilderness stone. I answer my own question. “To reduce my scent, right?”
Yes, he agrees. Yours is...strong, right now. I can’t help but grin at that. I haven’t had a proper bath in weeks, and I’ve just levelled up. I can live with ‘strong’ as a description. Actually, maybe I can’t – if my scent gives us away, none of us might live with it. With no further ado, I grab handfuls of the ashy ground, rubbing them all over. It feels weird to ‘clean’ myself by putting more dirt on, but that’s life now.
This time when I reach for my clothes, my skin a mucky grey colour all over, obvious even in the moonlight, River doesn’t object. I bet Bastet would have turned up her nose at it, even so. That makes me wonder where my raptorcat companion is – she seems to be taking an awfully long time over her scouting...