Ob saw a young man; the young man was staring at him intensely. It looked like the young man was speaking, but Ob heard nothing. Ob walked closer, and the words were finally audible. “You’re a disgrace. I can’t believe Mom and Dad ever adopted you. You’re trash and always have been.” The young man told him.
Ob tried to respond, but before he could, another voice spoke up from behind him. “I don’t know why you’re so mad at me, my guy. YOU cheated off me, YOU stole the car, YOU got in the accident. I ain’t do none of that. The only thing I’m guilty of is being the only family member to come see you in prison, and this is how you treat me?” The other voice said.
“Oscar, get outta my face, man. Don’t nobody wanna hear this ultra nice guy routine! I hate you.”
“Brother, what did I do to you? Why do you hate me.” Oscar asked.
“You have no idea how hard it is to live up to the prodigal son! Here comes Oscar with perfect grades, here comes Oscar with the perfect girl, here comes Oscar with doing great, Oscar, Oscar, Oscar. That’s all I ever heard. You’re hot garbage, bro; I was stuck livin' in your shadow. Just you wait when I’m outta here. You’re next. Just you wait.” He hung up the phone and walked away, leaving Oscar by himself.
Ob woke up after passing out. Man, I have got to stop doing that, Ob thought. He rubbed the back of his neck, realizing it was drenched in sweat. That was a nasty memory to dream about. It felt so real. Like I was reliving that moment. Why did he think that I was some perfect person? The threat. I don’t remember him saying that at the jail. I know he stormed off but something about that seemed off.
“Oh good you have woken up.” Abigail said walking up to him, “here eat. We were talking when Eclipse was dragging you in. It appears you used all of your manna, congratulations. You are on your way to being a full magic user.”
Ob sat up and took the offered food with glee. He hadn’t eaten while in this new dimension and he was starving. “Thank you. I feel different. I feel strange” Ob said in a raspy voice, in between bites.
“You advanced my friend!” Vincent said excitedly “Welcome to the bronze tier.”
“I advanced? VON?” Ob began to check his notifications.
Status: Enemy defeated - Succubus
You have defeated a Succubus.
Reward - 5000 gold pieces
Reward - Dark Heart
Level up - Skill: Dragon's Breath
Dragon’s breath is now level 5
Dragon’s breath is now bronze tier, Dragon’s breath can now be used through items.
Level up - Power: Natural Power: Draconian Ally
Draconian Ally is now level 2
Level Up - Power: Nurtured Power: Slayer
Slayer is now level 3
Status: Advancement
You have advanced from Normal to Bronze
You have gained an additional 15 coins to add to your attributions. Total coins: 27.
“A succubus huh?” Ob said mostly to himself but out loud.
“Is that what you killed? Damn. Ob, that is impressive, they are notoriously tough to kill.” Vincent said.
“I uh, had a lot of help. Eclipse did the damage from the outside.” Ob admitted.
“That’s not how to kill a succubus though.” Vincent replied “Yes your awesome dragon companion did a devastating blow that aided you. Succubus can only be killed from inside. Their exterior skin is nearly indestructible. How did you know that would work?”
“I didn’t. I got lucky. I knew that I was too weak to attack it and do any damage. I saw it open its jaw to try to attack us. So once I felt the manna surge through my body, I blew fire in its mouth. Thinking that there was a chance I could kill it cause most creatures are more vulnerable on their insides. It was a gamble.” Ob replied.
“That is not luck.” Abigail said. “Luck is rolling dice and getting what you wanted 3 times in a row. You displayed instincts.”
“Do you have a power that is related to killing? Like Hunter, Assassin, Executioner -“
“Slayer” Vincent and Ob said at the same time.
“Right,” Vincent said, “is that what you have? Slayer. That is not exceptionally rare. Rare as in very few people have it because it requires some divine intervention. But rare because few people have that ability. ” Vincent said, sounding almost too impressed. “Slayers have the ability to sense how to kill their opponents most powers relating to killing does, but a slayer is much more precise. I would have known about their strengths instinctually but not know how to kill it. You’ve got a rare power and a gift my friend. It means you have a crazy resolve.”
“So I've been told…” Ob said distractedly.
“That still does not account for the fact that she was 13 levels higher than you Ob.” Abigail interjected “Even with your smart thinking or how you call it “luck” your damage should have been absolutely minimal to her. How are you so strong?”
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“I honestly don’t know, Abigail.” Ob responded innocently, still hiding his ability which gave him a massive strength bonus. “I want to know, I have all these coins from leveling up. I want to distribute them wisely but I am not sure what the best thing to do is.”
“Well that depends,” Abigail said, raising a hand to Ob “Let me finish, are you wanting to work alone or work in a party? Alone you would want to be well balanced. Taking care to be able to handle most situations, in a party though, you can be more specialized and your party members can cover the rest. We have already offered you to join our party. You also have Eclipse to think about, she is your lifelong companion so even there you have a bonus strength that you won’t need, cause you will never be walking alone.”
“I see. I guess that makes sense. For now though, I think I will put them all evenly as I am at such a low level. Having a strong foundation before specializing will be good. Thank you, Abigail. You have answered an immense amount of questions, your wealth of knowledge is well noted.” Ob said, giving her a respectful nod.
Status: Ob Jones
Has allocated his attribute coins:
+10 to Vitality
+10 to Speed
+12 to Strength
+10 to Manna
You have unlocked the ability to view your attributes. To view your attributes view your character icon in your HUD.
Attributes: Ob Jones
Vitality: 200
Speed: 135
Strength: 137
Manna: 480/480
Ob started to glow as he was allocating his coins. The swirling bronze streaks looked like mini jet streams from jets flowing around him. Inside the swirl, he could feel the strength applying to his muscles, his vitality and manna pool increased to a large depth. Ob was starting to feel very powerful and he couldn’t wait to start training.
“Very good. Now, let’s train!” Vincent said very excitedly.
“I have three skills to unlock, one is for one of my power sets, and the other two are from the federation. I have one final question but I can ask after we begin training” Ob said.
“Ask it now,” Abigail did her best to sound annoyed when she really enjoyed all the questions.
“What can you tell me about items and the rarity scale?” Ob asked.
“Hmmm “ she raised an eyebrow “did you get a rare item?”
“Yes, the dragon charm, remember?” Ob said pointedly.
“Right, right, right” Abigail’s face felt flushed with hot red heat. How could she forget? “Um anyways, Items are based on rarity by how often and how few of them appear. Think of it like odds there are some items that are found everywhere, wooden swords & shields, 1/10 for instance is not very many to find or 1/1m. That is much harder. The ranking system is Basic to Uncommon to Rare to Legendary to Divine. Divine in itself is so rare it is believed to be a gift from a god and that is it. When it comes to selling loot, the higher the rank the better the price you would get in return.”
“That is where the fun comes in '' Vincent added, “that is what makes crusaders so rich, some people are lucky to have an extra skill or power that provides bonus rewards or loot to completed missions or defeating monsters! Having one of those in your party is a great way to get yourself some top gear. There is another scale that is not based on how often an item appears. It is also based on the quality. This doesn’t happen for every item you see, typically produced, meat, armor, weapons, etc. You see there are these creatures called grats, huge beasts with large two front teeth, sickly flesh on their clawed hands, with a long skin tail that extracts toxins. Anyways they often drop their hide a legendary quality legendary rarity Grat hide will run you for 300 gold pieces. A lower quality, let’s say uncommon sea witch cauldron basic rarity that sells for 600 gold pieces. When it comes to selling these things it is easy to think higher quality and higher rarity means more money but that is not the case.” Vincent paused to take a bite of food “If you can find a skilled craftsman, sometimes they can take your low quality, high rarity item and turn them into high quality and high rarity.”
“That makes sense, how can I tell the quality?” Ob asked “My UI tells me the rarity of an item and even classified it for me. Although I did receive an item that is all question marks and I don’t know what that means. I am also guessing different armor provides different bonuses?”
“Typically there is a different color of the name when identifying an item that can receive quality bonus. What item are you referring to? Might I identify, do not worry, I cannot take it from you unless I kill you, which would not be good for me” Abigail asked innocently, while also peering suspiciously at the sleeping dragon, who Abigail could have sworn she saw a smile reach its lips during that moment.
“It’s called a Soul-Home Builder," Ob said. At that mention, Eclipse’s eye shot open and she walked over and lay right next to Ob, full intrigue to the once sleeping dragon.
“Were you fake sleeping…?” Abigail asked, feeling the embarrassment once again. Eclipse offered no response, just simply looked back at the elf. Abgial continued, “no matter. A Soul-Home builder is a question mark to identify due to its extreme conditions. 1) you have to have unlocked a soul-link, 2) you have to have a deep internal connection, this is based on nature of both beings being linked, 3) there must be some reason your soul-link can’t roam the world with you freely, the home will allow it to travel with you within your soul, typically when that happens they will appear on your body somewhere, depends on the link. 4) you have to be lucky, you can have all those conditions lined up and still not get it. And number 5) this one is still heavily debated, but you may have to have some looting power, skill, or ability. It will just appear in people’s hands or inventories.
There are some things I noticed about you and Eclipse, Ob, and that is that your bond is growing fast. It has been 3 days and you two have already done coordinated attacks and taken out creatures many levels higher than you, which is an impressive accomplishment. You two also seemed to be both inherently good-natured, which should not be possible for dragons. All I know about dragons is that they are born neutral and you Eclipse seem as if that neutrality leans good by default.”
“That is because you have never heard of my species, little elf.” Eclipse replied. “I am of the astrological dragon species. We are unique in the fact that we are born either good or evil. It is true that I am good and my mother, the Queen, is good, but my other siblings are not. They are the new conquer queens and kings of the East, West, and South clans. My mom must have sensed the nature of Ob, well she knew he was a Draconian before he even knew that he killed a wraith, so she offered me to join before I even met him.
I am telling you this information with the trust that you will keep my secret just that. I like you two, you are fun and have been nothing gracious to Ob and myself. I am not as trusting as my counterpart however, I am not naive, I have seen the horrors of this world. I am also not that young as you all have believed, young to dragons and yes technically still a newborn but I am nearly 30 years old.” Eclipsed finished.
“Thank, thank you” Abigail stammered “I suppose I can divulge my secret since you have entrusted me with yours.”
Abigail began to tell about how she is a princess of her elven kingdom and is next in line for the throne. She explained that her dad, the current king, had sent her to be a crusader for several years before she could even make the decision if she wanted to take the throne, “He told me that it is not in my nature to stay in one place, I must go and explore.”
The group paused their discussion to go back into the town to retrieve some food and sleeping supplies. Ob had just gotten a large haul of gold after all. As they walked into the city the vendor from a few nights ago appeared with a huge smile, “My friend, my friend! You have helped us greatly, thank you for saving us from that team of succubus. After you vanquished their leader, the rest of them left afraid you would come back and finish the job. Please allow me to provide a hot meal and a warm place to stay. I cannot accept no for the meal and the place tonight, you can return to your travels after one night, please please.”
“As long as you tell me your name.” Ob replied with a genuine smile, shaking the man's hand.
“My name is Lanilion but you can call me Lani.” the vendor replied with glee.
“Nice to meet you Lani, this is Eclipse, my dragon companion, Abigail and her partner Vincent. We are pleased to actually meet you. We would love to stay, and we thank you for your hospitality.” Ob replied respectfully, after introducing him and his friends. The group followed Lani to his home, Ob thought to Eclipse, this is a trap, be ready to attack. Eclipse started to prepare her deadly fire attack. Eclipse sent the message to Abigail and Vincent through Dragon Speak.