Kid spent the next two days mostly focusing on his hunting in order to level his class as much as he could. Randy provided some random advice whenever they were searching for the next prey and even provided a little bit of his own history in it. It turned out that Randy had once been more focused into magic and could give a reasonable amount of tutelage in those areas, for instance. Due to that, Kid finally decided to pick up the signing skill and start learning how to do some combat casting with his dark magic, which Randy claimed to have dabbled in at one point. Picking up the Magic Sign skill brought up a prompt asking him if he wanted to move either Identify, Block Identify, or Precision over to his class slot to which he chose Precision.
Randy advised him to try and put any of the skills he could into his class slots a soon as possible since it would help with class evolutions and free up general slots for other skills. Since he was already half filled with magic skills then Randy suggested that he try and get more of them for now and then combine them later. It would make his current slots feel full of things he wasn't trying to focus on but in the future it could end up making a lot more room and it was better to try and get it done early so that he wouldn't have to worry about it when he needed the slots for other things later.
Kid wasn't sure exactly how much sense all of that made but Randy hadn't steered him wrong so far so he decided to just follow what he was being taught and hope that it all made more sense in the future. He did find out that leveling his class also provided some character experience in an unexpected way. Every time his class leveled up he would gain experience equal to the class' level. It was kind of nice to know that there was a system in place that helped keep a class from outstripping the species by too much even if it didn't provide a whole lot of bonus at the low levels he was at right now.
Kid had also equipped the Hand of Death title as soon as he saw the timer disappear, which he estimated to be close to noon, and that gave him a minute off at this point. Tomorrow was when they planned to go to the next layer so Randy suggested that instead of hunting today to get maybe a level that they instead focus on improving his skills as much as possible since it would likely help more than a high level. As he waited for Randy to appear, he looked over his status to see what skills he thought needed the most work.
Name: - (Hand of Death)
ID(Hidden): 1095341C47-9
Sex: M
Age: 17
Lvl: 16
Exp: 83/256
SP: 11.5 (+2.5 racial)
Stat Points(Hidden):
3.5
2.5 (not Vig)
1.5 (Mnd/Mag)
Species: Cambion(T2)
Race: Etherai, Blood Demon
Role: Hunter
Sta: 147.3/147.3
(Vig/2)
Sta Reg: 65.1/hr
(Dex/5)
Mana: 173.7/173.7
(Mag/2)
Mana Reg: 44.4/hr
(Mnd/10 +50%+7%)
--- Vig Dex
Vit: 95.9
(94.1+2%)
Con: 104
(102+2%)
Str: 94.8
(93+2%) Fin: 111
(97.4+10+1.5+2%) Agi: 106.9
(93.4+10+1.5+2%) Spd: 107.8
(94.2+10+1.5+2%) Mnd Mag Int: 93.2
(91.4+2%) Wis: 98.2
(96.3+2%)
Will: 91.9
(90.1+2%)
For: 113.2
(95+10+5+1+2%) Pow: 115.4
(97.2+10+5+1+2%) Spi: 118.9
(100.6+10+5+1+2%) --- Class: Death Dealer Lvl: 7 Exp: 25/54 Skills: 1. Precision(T1) (5) ---
Traits:
Angel Blood, Bidirectional Hearing, Blindsight(ground sense, hearing, water)(5 meters), Blood Domain, Blood Magic Affinity, Glossophobia, Bloodhound, Carnivorous, Curse Absorbent(blood), Dark Magic Affinity, Demon Blood, Dragon Blood, Endoskeleton, Farsight, Four-limbed(bipedal), Kinetic Vision, Night Vision, Nosocomephobia, Trypanophobia(minor)
Racial Skills:
1. Blood Magic(T2) (3) 3. Detect Life(T1) (7) 2. Minor Regeneration(T2) (2) 4. Meditation(T1) (7) 5. Dark Magic(T1) (4)
General Skills:
1. Identify(T1) (7) 4. Block Identify(T1) (1) 2. Magic Circle(T1) (5) 5. Magic Sign(T1) (1) 3. Mana Manipulation(T1) (6) Ultimate Skills:
Titles:
Adrenaline Junkie, Deadeye, Double Death, Guerilla, Hand of Death
Abilities(Hidden):
Blood Manipulation, Draconic Might, Enduring Mana, Mana Burst, Unholy Intimidation, Instant Death(6:23:59)
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Potential Skills (Hidden):
Aiming(T1), Cooking(T1), Dismantling(T1), Drawing(T1), Jogging(T1), Jump(T1), Knife(T1), Mana Line(T1), Quickdraw(T1), Rapid Reload(T1), Sneak(T1), Tracking(T1)
Other than Magic Sign, which he had only just picked up and practiced with enough to bring up to 1, his lowest level skills were Block Identify, which he couldn't work on until he went to the next layer, Blood Magic, which he was slightly hesitant to use while being watched even if Randy knew about it, and Minor Regeneration, which he didn't really want to try and work on for several obvious reasons such as not having masochistic tendencies. The safe bet here was to work on his dark magic as much as possible. He could alternate between using signs and circles and improve all of his magic skills, except Blood Magic, and his Precision skill at the same time that way.
Rand appeared just as he closed his status and they moved closer to the nearby trees to sit down without speaking a word. Over the next few hours Kid worked on his magic with Randy pointing out minor mistakes and tried to teach him new spells. Remembering every last little gesture in signing or line in drawing circles proved to be more difficult than he wished it were so he only learned about three new spells and had the one he thought he knew corrected enough to finally be usable. Out of the 4 spells he could now say that he knew in dark magic, one was just too strong for him to actually use at his low Dark Magic level, though.
As evening approached he was asked if he wanted to continue or prepare for their departure to which he responded that he would visit the library for a while. He took a quick glance at his status as he stood up and stretched and felt a little disappointed that he hadn't yet gotten even one skill to level 10. He apparently muttered the thought out loud since Randy quickly chastised him and told him that having more than one skill over level 5 before even leaving the first layer for the first time was something to be proud of. Kid accepted the praise lightly and agreed to meet at the temple entrance before noon and turned to walk in the direction of the library.
Knowing more about the new life he was living and how things like the system worked, he figured he should take another look at some of the books he hadn't fully understood before. It seemed like there was a lot of emphasis on skills, to the point where he almost felt like everyone thought that stats were more of a fuel for the skills to better operate more than anything else. Whether that was actually true or not, skills were definitely helpful even at lower levels so he wanted to see what kinds of skills he should actually be trying to get to make the most out of them. Randy would be more than happy to give advice on that, he was sure, but he wanted to try and get a less opinionated view and think things through himself instead of relying solely on what someone else thought was best.
It took less than 10 minutes to be seated at a table full of books once he got to the library and as he started to look through the first one he grabbed he knew that he was right in that he could understand what the author was writing about much better than before. As the night went on he found quite a few skills to both try and attain at some point as well as watch out for other people having. As he was finishing one of the remaining books about some more advanced skills he came across a few that he wished he had some spare paper to make notes about and built up the determination to reread about as many times as it took to memorize everything about them.
The first one was called Bullet Time and was a combination of tier 2 skills. It required both the linear evolution of the Gun skill as well as the branching skill for whatever type of gun the skill was intended to work with. The three other tier skills it needed were Trick Shot, Quick Aim, and either Rapid Reload or Quickdraw depending on whether it was a handgun or rifle. The skill would make time seem to slow down for a brief moment while drawing or finishing a reload and allow more precise and quick firing. It was considered somewhat rare due to how few people apparently used guns over the "better" options but he had every intention to continue using a handgun in the future so it was a skill that would be just right for him.
The next skill he looked at was called Critical. It was a bit of a strange skill that would help him hit more sensitive or important parts of his enemies and would work across all sorts of attacks but could also be evolved into a more weapon specific version. He had to combine three aiming type skills and one damage enhancing skill together but none of the skills could be remotely weapon specific which shortened the list considerably. Luckily, Precision and Aiming were both skills in the list so he he was already part of the way to having the requirements.
The last skill was one that the book mentioned as widely desired but rarely obtained. It was a bit complicated and had a slightly weaker version that most people who tried for it would end up getting instead. The real skill was called Sorcery and it took a combination of 7 tier 1 skills to make. The slightly weaker version was called Partial Sorcery and only took 5 out of the original 7 skills. Sorcery could be made by either combining the 7 skills directly or by combining two Partial Sorcery skills that had all of the required 7 skills between the two. The 7 skills needed to make Sorcery were all three casting type skills, the two skills that modified arias and signs to be shorter, Mana Manipulation, and any skill that modified the Magic Circle skill.
Sorcery was considered as the best method of casting magic since it made it almost instantaneous and easier to do so but most people settled for the partial version since it did that the same as the Sorcery skill itself but didn't require having 7 slots all set aside to try and get it. As far as most people were concerned, combining two Partial Sorcery skills was just a waste of the much coveted skill points to get only a minor boost that made little difference. Kid didn't have class slots he could use for it but he figured that if he tried to get the Sorcery skill, regardless of what the book said about how little extra he got for it compared to the partial version, that it would help eliminate any future needs of casting skills so he tried to make a mental note to have that as an initial priority. Thinking about it further, there was even a good chance that Randy was trying to push him towards getting the partial version and that's why he had been insistent on taking those skills as soon as possible.
It had taken a while to read over everything several times and he was starting to feel a little tired, which meant that it was likely morning by this point. He stood up and stretched before gathering the books to bring back to the librarian behind the desk. He thanked the librarian for their service and walked outside to see that the sky was already light and realized that he had been reading for even longer than he had assumed. The sun wasn't directly overhead yet so he knew it wasn't noon and he took his time walking calmly down the streets towards the temple.
Once he got there he saw Randy leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. Kid thought that maybe he had somehow misjudged the time after all so he checked the sky again but saw that the sun was still off to the side a ways. His next thought was that maybe something had happened so he continued walking up to where Randy was to ask what was going on. Before he could say anything, Randy opened his eyes and saw Kid approaching so he waved and explained the situation without being asked.
"Hey, Kid. I thought that I'd come on over and wait ahead of time. This way we don't have to wait if you don't want to. The sooner we head over and get everything settled, the sooner I can head out to get you what you need."
"That makes sense, I guess. I was worried something happened or something."
"No. Well, nothing bad, anyways. We do have someone waiting for us, though, so I'd rather not wait too long if possible but I'm not going to rush you."
"There's someone waiting for us?"
"Hey, I'm fairly strong for sure, but I'm not strong enough to make sure you're protected while I'm somewhere else entirely. Not without help, that is. Don't worry about it too much. They're a good and trustworthy sort. A little strange, maybe, but...hey, you're not exactly normal yourself."
"Rude!"
"Is it really rude when it's the truth?"
"..."
"Exactly. Anyways, did you want to go now or is there something else you need to do?"
"*Sigh* No. I guess I'm ready. Hopefully we're going somewhere I can get a little sleep."
"Should be fine. Come on. Ah. I almost forgot. I should explain how to use the gates so you can use them in the future. Each layer besides this one has several gates spread across them. Some few can only connect to specific gates but those also tend to be privately owned. The public gates will connect to all of the other public gates. You can only access gates in layers you have access to, so even if you try to connect to a gate on a layer you aren't qualified to be in nothing will happen. If you don't know of a certain gate then you can't connect to it either. Every layer after this will have a main guild and an All Temple that will have gates so you can always connect to a layer that way. For private gates, most of them will also have some kind of password or something and that's what we're going to be using this time. When normally using a gate all you have to do is touch the gate and specify where you want to connect to. Questions?"
"How do I learn where other gates are? Also, how do I know if I'm qualified to go to another layer?"
"..."
"What?"
"No, nothing. I just realized that I might have failed you a bit. I should have told you about how to move up layers some time ago but forgot due to the circumstances. So, well, sorry about that. Whenever you get to a new layer the system will tell you what the minimum character level you need to go to the next is. You will also have to complete at least one trial. You have to find and complete at least one trial a year. You can only complete each trial once. Nobody knows exactly how many trials actually exist on each layer before you ask. So you can technically stay on each layer for as many years as trials that you can find.
You can always go back to a layer you've been to before but each layer is considered the same as the highest layer you've been to. So you can still do trials on earlier layers to extend the time until you go to the next layer and travel around layers you've been to freely. No matter when you do a trial it resets the year counter as well. Hopefully that explains how all of that works.
As for knowing where gates other than temples or guilds are...well...how do you learn where anything is? You can try to look it up, ask people, or discover it yourself. Technically you could also make one but there's a whole bunch of stuff with that and you don't need to even bother thinking about that right now. Anyways, here we are."
Randy pointed at the dead end that he had seen with his last student in front of them. He looked at it for a bit and then Randy walked up to touch the arch engraving like before while whispering something under his breath. Soon enough the wall looked like it was covered in a soapy rainbow-colored bubble again and Randy waved him towards it. He took a small breath and stepped through, unsure of what to expect.