Your rage increased by 1.

“Are we really planning to do this?”

“Yes, especially since you’re the one who thinks we need an objective. We have two defined for us, if you asked Etc, he’d confirm for you.”

“Of yeah, that reminds me. Mida, we probably haven’t updated you yet that our daemons have new abilities.”

Mida looked up from the notes that she was reviewing. She had rewritten everything he and Flor had already transcribed in a couple of columns for comparison. Mida had additional annotations next to some of those sections. “No, I don’t think so. Let me get to that part of the notes and I’ll add the extra detail.” As she flipped through, she continued, “I can’t tell you how brilliant this is. I wake up each day with this glorious set of notes that two individuals provide, and even though it’s sometimes challenging to dig through it all, I’m making great progress. Okay, go ahead with the extra information.”

Flor jumped in, “It adds a rage meter, has provided us objectives, which they say should automatically appear but in the case that they haven’t can be translated for us, and they speak to us. Kester has also said he doesn’t like being called Kec, so I’ve ceased that. Anything to add, Alastair?”

Alastair had zoned out for a minute to look at his interface while Flor spoke. He came out of the daze to say “Etc says I can adjust the interface so it looks more like a character sheet, with my name at the top, then my health and energy, the rage meter, the time, our coins, then a listing of my attributes and modifiers.”

Mida said, “I don’t recall reading notes about attributes. Can you list those out for me?”

“Uh, sure. Combat Attack-One. Defend-One. Heal-One. Magic-One. Craft-Six. General One-One. General Two-Zero. Learn-One. Lockpicking-Zero. Maps-Zero. Spellcraft-Zero. All the modifiers are zero except craft which is at two. That brings up a few questions. First, these are unlike attributes I’ve seen in any game I’ve played before. Next, I’ve gotten bonuses in some fields by doing some puzzles, but not for things like combat, even though we beat a mini-boss yesterday. And third, why don’t Flor and I have a job class?

“I’m taking it that you’ve completed a few craftings and a couple of general tasks? Are your attributes the same, Flor?”

“I’ve got a couple of points in Learn, a couple in locks, one in each general, and one in crafting. This is probably based on me doing more lock picks and less crafting since those are the puzzle types we’ve completed. Also, when the attribute is two, it looks like the modifier is one. ”

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Mida finished making some notes in her annotation column. “It’s probably based on the attributes you need to succeed in this game since you’ve described everything as puzzle-based. So, I gather that as you gain levels, you might experience some benefit toward doing that type of puzzle, but that’s speculation. I can’t say about the combat bonuses, either. But let’s guess that maybe they occur after more challenging fights?”

“I don’t know. That Mech Mouse wasn’t necessarily easy.”

Mida continued, “Well, let me know if you figure it out, although I can guess more if you like?”

“No, that’s alright. Maybe we should ask Amets…”

“That’s the cleric, right?”

“Yep. She’s a bit nuts, but maybe she could explain about attributes since she says she deals with job adjudication. She didn’t explain it well, though.”

“Oh, that is one I can partially answer. Once I reach Scribe level 4, I can get the Goddess to reclass me, if I desire, or I can remain as a Scribe.”

Flor said, “That’s kinda what I took away from her, but not the details.”

“I’ll be able to reclass as either a Cleric, Scholar, or Wizard, but only after meeting the level requirement.”

“What does it provide you to reclass?”

“For me, if I become a Scholar level 1, basically just the ability to focus on research rather than both research and administration. Based on my lack of persistence, I haven’t ever given thought to pursuing either the wizard or cleric paths. I prefer to delegate administrative tasks, so scholar has been my focus.”

“Hmm. I think you’d make a fine scholar, Mida.”

“Thanks, Alastair.”

“So, back to our initial discussion, before we sidetracked on daemons and jobs…”

“You’re thinking about doing it, huh?”

“I mean, probably. They are our objectives, and we’re both opposed to what is going on with kidnapping children. Plus, we have this fancy new watch.” Alastair held up the chrono.

“You crafted that? How does it work?” said Mida.

Alastair answered, “We’re not sure. We haven’t had the chance to try it yet, afraid that it might do something strange when we’re not in a good place to be safe.”

“My office is as safe as any. You can try it here.”

“Flor, do you want to?”

“No, you crafted it, so you go ahead.”

“Here goes,” he wound the device and pushed a button on the side. Everything around him seemed to speed up except for the chrono in his hand. Flor and Mida seemed to move faster and jerky in time. Flor seemed to stand and look at him closer, then waved Mida over for the same. Then they both sat down again and he pressed the button on the chrono again. A minute had passed on the chrono, so he pushed the same button again. Time sped back up for him and Flor and Mida began to move normally again.

“Whoa! You moved super slow.”

“How much time was I out?”

“Not sure, but it seemed like a minute.”

“That’s what the chrono said, but maybe that means it’s showing real-time and not my quick time.”

“How high do you think it goes?”

“The dial goes to 32, so maybe thirty real-time minutes?”

“We’ll have to think about how that could be useful.”

“Do you think we should consider also getting the fast chrono?”

“I can’t even think how to use this one, let alone that one. How about we shelf it for the moment? Etc, can you make that a side quest? Obtain fast chrono. Oh, also add ‘obtain more health,’ but as a higher priority.” Then, to Flor, he added, “I think we’re going to need some health potions or something also.”