The Barmaid was having a glass of wine in her room, and looking at the experience and enhancement points she needed to spend. It was fun, but there was an element of stress to it. Suzette had wanted a nice easy dungeon run and a couple of hundred experience in Agility. They'd done a ton more of that. She'd earned 1700 experience and 12 enhancement points from clearing the first floor bosses, and then 1500 experience from the Rat-Hydra, and 20 enhancement points. The five points from the strange quest were icing on the cake. Now she needed to spend 3200 experience and 37 enhancement points on top of the ones she hadn't spent from before. Not a bad thing any way you looked at it, but she felt rushed. The morning was coming up fast.
Taking a deep breath, she quit thinking about hidden classes, going to a higher tier, or things she couldn't control. There were a lot of things in her life that she couldn't control, she was used to it. Ignore those things, simplify the problem, and enjoy life. She whispered that mantra a few times and got to work. She liked magic, so she'd concentrate on magic and hoped that the Road of Shadows gave her some decent spells.
The first goal was putting points into the Aspect of Radiance. 200 experience had to go there and she added more to bring it to Rank 5. That was a priority. She'd be mainly fighting with her staff and Solar Arrow when she could, and the discount the aspect gave let her cast more spells. This would bring down the mana cost of her cantrip by 30%. Her rank in the RAD stat went to 5, giving her spell more punch.
With +1 RAD from joining the Light, she was at 6 and could buy 3 points with Spirit of the Divine. If she wanted to get to 10, she'd need to dump in another 500 experience points and get to Rank 6, plus a point to raise her cap. Suddenly that big chunk of points didn't seem so big. But points were meant to be spent and more RAD would punch up her damage.
DEX was easy to get to 10. She'd started with +2 from her heritage and would get 2 more from her new class. Combat Darts, Mixology, and Pub Games had pushed her near to Rank 4 and she'd already purchased two points.
AGI was tougher. She only had one skill giving her experience in that stat. But she would get 2 points from her class and could buy more points with Spirit of the Cheetah. 500 experience and 6 enhancement points would get her to 10.
She had +3 to her CHA from Heritage and +2 from her class. Flirt was constantly in use in the Tavern and over Rank 2. She brought it to Rank 3, and with the two points of Spirit of the Swan she'd already bought, that would be enough.
Last was INT. She at 700 points and Rank 4. If she put 1400 experience points into INT Hermetics, Paradoxical Poisoning, and Hermetical Alchemy she could get INT to Rank 7, and 10 total. The rest she dumped into Flirt, bringing it to Rank 5. After she'd gotten her new class she'd be at 13 CHA total. Take that, Mr. Shining Paladin. No way was Timmy going to match that!
She toyed with taunting Timmy with their achievement of killing a Level 10 elite. It would be so fun to see the look on his face! But it was more fun just to keep it a secret. She wondered if she could smile and convince him to scrub the kitchen floor for her. It wasn't that she disliked Timmy. She just hated who he worked for. He wasn't bad, except for his overblown arrogance. Well, and his condescending manner. And the way he treated his team. Ok, so maybe he was something of a jerk. She liked all the gold he was spending, but she reminded herself that he'd probably been spying for his family the whole time.
She compared him in her mind to Ozzy and had to laugh. There was no comparison. Timmy only thought of himself. Ozzy had always tried to take care of all of the people around him. They'd been friends forever, and sometimes more than friends, but their brief love affairs had never lasted. He was too polite to push, and she was too afraid of committing. The long periods apart while working in VR had usually ended their relationships and they'd gone back to being friends. She'd have to think more about that. Having him nearby kept the fears lurking in the back of her head under control, but there was more to it than that. She liked having him around her and liked talking at the end of each day. They were heading somewhere, she just didn't know where.
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She pushed off thoughts of talking to Ozzy for later. She needed to put these points somewhere. The second and third tiers of extra mana were 5 and 10 points each. That would give her another 350 mana. She bought both levels. Ben and she had talked a lot about Trust Me!, a good skill if you want to keep secrets and not answer certain questions. She liked his thinking. The first two levels would give her an edge in fooling anyone in Tier 1 and maybe a little higher.
She had eight points she needed to spend. Tired and wanting to be done, she bought the second level of Magic Sense and tossed the last five points into Hedge Wizard, rolling the dice on five more random cantrips. She'd managed to raise five of her stats to 10 or higher: AGI, DEX, INT, RAD, and CHA. She wondered what sort of bonuses she might get if anything at all. Had ACME known about those and screwed them there as well? She crossed her fingers that would work out like they hoped. But she was confident that she was interpreting the cryptic hint from Hermes correctly.
Thinking about Ozzy again made her remember how beat up he was. They'd talked about getting breakfast altogether, but he could barely walk. Of all of them, he was the one getting hurt the worst in their adventures. And, as usual, the big lug just shrugged like it didn't matter. He bottled up too much of what he was feeling and she worried that one of these days he'd explode. She'd get a big breakfast for him, and since he couldn't move around much, maybe they'd sit and talk. That would be nice. Get him to loosen up some. They'd been close before, and she thought they were getting close again. Maybe this time she could commit to the relationship, and he could show some of the passion and emotion he kept inside. They'd done this dance too many times over the years.
Betty was up already and helped her get a platter together: Four eggs sunny side up, how he liked them, toast, bacon, more bacon, and some hot tea. She carried it outside to where he would be sitting by his flaming hellhole. A good breakfast would make him feel better.
Name: Suzette
Height: 5' 5"
Weight 120
Heritage: Human 90% (+2 CHA, +2 DEX)
Creature Type: Contract Worker
Class: Contract Worker: Barmaid Level 5
You have a role to play in the village of Sedgewick.
Health: 1240
Stamina: 1220x3= 3660
Mana: 1560
STR: 0 (+20 Stamina, +10 Health, per point.)
CON: 0 (+10 Stamina, +20 Health, per point.)
DEX: 9 (Increased chance to hit in combat.)
AGI: 8 (Increased avoidance in combat.)
WIS: 3 (+15 Mana per point.)
INT: 10 (+15 Mana per point.)
CHA: 11 (+15 Mana per point.)
PER: 0 (Decreased chance of ambush.)
RAD: 10
Skills:
Bake Muffin (DEX): Rank 1
Barmaid's Balance (AGI): Rank 5
Mixology (DEX): Rank 3
Flirt (CHA): Rank 5
Pub Games (DEX): Rank 2
Combat Darts (DEX): Rank 2
Brewing (WIS): Rank 3
Hermetics (INT): Rank 5
SS Hermetic Alchemy (INT): Rank 4
SS Paradoxical Poisoning (INT) Rank 4
Minor Poison Resist (CON): Rank 0
Tool Repair (DEX): Rank 0
Aspect of Radiance: Rank 5
Teaching (INT): Rank 2
Enhancements:
Magical Sense 2
If a Tier 1 (or less) creature within 30' has an affinity for a type of magic and may cast spells, you will get a feeling for what type of magic. You can tell if an item is magical and gain an idea of its use if it is a Tier 1 item.
Dark Vision 1
Gives monochromatic vision to a distance of 20' when there is at least some light.
Hedge Wizard
Grants eight random Spell Cantrips
Critical Shot 1
Increases in your chance of a critical hit on a ranged attack.
Extra Mana 3
Adds +400 mana.
Aspect of Radiance
Aspects increase your ability to learn spells and decrease the cost of casting them. And spell that uses Radiant, Light, or Solar-infused mana will be 5% +5% per rank cheaper to cast, up to Rank 10.
Trust Me! 2
Your Winning Smile inspires trust in all tier 1 creatures and helps with tier 2.
Prodigy: Teaching
You gain the skill: Teaching (INT).
Charming Assassin Contract Worker - Tavern Keeper
+2 DEX, +2 CHA, +2 AG,
More of the same, only you're the boss.