Chapter 10

The Leveling part 2

The next day, it was still raining, and the caravan needed to stay in Appletown another day for Defoe to get back. Allisaz, Syran, and Tira were sitting together in the girls' wagon. Sryan was certainly racking up negative points with the rest of his group, but what could he do? He needed supervision to complete "The Leveling" so he had to stay in the wagon with all the prettiest elfesses. Both Syran and Allisaz had their system screens pulled up. This would be their one and only chance to become level 2. Tira was carefully having them read system information about what would happen, so they could make their choice. Tira had asked Star to drop Twixia from the party for now and to add Sryan.

* Detecting party members of Ethierstaria starting The Leveling. Transferring to shard 31

* Shard 31 Let's see, from my targets' party, a Star elf and a High elf commoner are going to level two. I think this would be a good time to get to know my target some more; let's use the telepathy link and see how far she jumps. heh.

"What does the screen mean when it says please wait?" said Allie to Tira.

"I don't know; it is always instant for me when I level up," replied Tira. "Maybe it is different for commoners undergoing The Leveling?"

* Etherstaria Lark, please respond with an eek, said Shard 31.

"Eek!" yelled Star out of the blue from where she was reading a book to pass the time. She stood up and gripped her elven sword, searching for whatever had been said so loudly in her... ear?

* Thank you for responding. When you are done panicking about the voice in your head, please say ready, silently, said Shard 31 telepathically.

"What the heck!" yelled Star, and everyone looked over at her. "I am hearing a voice in my head!" Star looked around and outside the windows and yelled, "What do I do, Tira?"

"I see you decided to ask me questions again already; there is such little resolve in the noble Lark house these days. You might give me more information to help you; what did the voice say?" said Tira, trying to answer Star's question.

"It said to say ready, silently!" exclaimed Star.

Tira suggested, "Perhaps say ready silently and see what the voice wants."

"Do you think that is safe?" said Star.

"Probably, since the voice is being polite," said Tira. "Two of your party members started The Leveling, so maybe it has something to do with these two?" as she pointed to Allie and Syran.

Star took a couple of moments to work up her courage, then said to herself, I'm ready. Nothing happened.

"I said ready in my mind, but nothing happened," said Star.

* You need to say ready to me, not to yourself, so I can hear you. "Please tell me when you're ready after you scream again," the voice in her head said.

A squeaking sound escaped from Star, and Tira said, "I don't know anything about hearing voices, to be fair. Oh, I guess you got another message?"

"Well, yes," Star replied. "Apparently I have to talk to the voice for it to be able to hear me."

Star said, ready in her mind to the voice.

* Excellent, I am Shard #31, part of the Lord of Knowledge and Madness. I will be advising you on how to advise your party members on whether they want to accept The Leveling, how to configure their statistics, and so forth. I thought this would be a good opportunity to learn more about you. Why do I want to learn about you? That is a secret. Heh heh heh. Remember to talk to me, and not to yourself.

Why did you say heh heh heh instead of laughing? That's creepy, Star thought to the voice, having to be reminded yet again.

* I am the Lord of Knowledge and Madness. I am also known as the system, so that is self-explanatory. Enough about me; you should be helping your party members instead. Have them read the "consequences of leveling versus not leveling" section first.

Star moved over to Syran and Allie and asked them, "Do you see an option for the consequences of leveling?" If so, please read it.

"Well, yes, and that is the only thing there now." said Allie

"Same, Lady Star," said Syran.

They then proceeded to read what was written when they selected it.

When commoners reach level 2, they have a one-time option to stay at level 1 for the rest of their lives and be protected by not giving heroic creatures experience. If you choose to stay a first-level commoner, you can't have your belongings stolen by heroic creatures; even your flesh, in any sense of that word, has no value to heroic creatures. Lands and properties return to the noble or lord controlling them.

Level one commoners can be hurt or killed, but there is no incentive to do it. All children are also protected by the system in the same way, unless you are a child and have somehow gotten around the system. Note that you are not a child; you can give consent to a heroic creature that you have a friendly or better attitude towards to void this protection for a timeframe that you set. Setting a permanent timeframe is not recommended. If you are a child and your guardians are heroic creatures, they are not subject to this restriction. Spells, abilities, and skills that affect minds and emotions and are made by heroic creatures will not affect you; this includes guardians.

Level one commoners or children who die are reincarnated into their same race after the time to raise them has passed (two weeks). You will not remember your previous life. It's worth noting that whether you level up or not, you won't remember this statement. This is a courtesy from the system. Please do not try to communicate this statement or you will be punished, and no creature has yet been able to communicate this statement to the best of the knowledge of the system, as the punishment is instant death and reincarnation. You who are reading this will fully understand this, even if you normally would not be able to do so. If you do not wish to continue this life, you can attempt to communicate this message.

Creatures born with more than one hit die do not undergo leveling and are not protected. Creatures that start with one hit die but naturally gain more than one hit die or are polymorphed into creatures with more than one hit die can't stop the leveling from happening. Being polymorphed into a creature with more than one hit die is the only known way for a level one commoner to be forced to level against their will. Complete insanity is more or less assured in this case, so you will likely not care anymore.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Animals or lesser-intelligent creatures are leveled up by the system, and generally, each member of the species will have the exact same statistics, abilities, and so on. Genetic or magical manipulation is allowed, so this is not always the case. Classes with pets, familiars, intelligent weapons, and so on, level up their creatures or equipment.

The next section is on the benefits of leveling up!

When you level up, you are still considered a commoner. You can now join a heroic creature party as a commoner. Only one commoner can be in any heroic party. A party can consist of up to six individuals, including pets and familiars that do not count towards this total. A heroic party without a commoner member is limited to five.

A heroic creature must be friendly toward you to invite you to a party. You must be at least friendly towards a heroic creature inviting you to a party to accept. Since you are a commoner, you advance by taking a heroic class every other level. Note that you do not receive extra skill or hit points for these heroic levels unless you only have a single ability modifier. You have more than one modifier! You may take a general ability to receive an additional skill point or hit point each level, but you can only take it while leveling up for the first time. This ability is recommended but not required. You can take a martial ability once as a commoner. If this martial ability is granted by your class when you adopt it, this ability will be refunded.

Your statistics will be changed to no pluses. For any plus you remove, you can advance a different statistic that has a plus. You gain one advancement in whatever the primary statistic of your heroic class when you adopt it. If you did not take charisma as a plus, the other odd plus will advance. You can train a statistic to gain a plus whenever you do not have a plus in your statistics. Every four levels, this plus will advance, and you can train another statistic, but each statistic can be advanced only once for a hedge commoner. If you pick charisma or appearance, you will receive a plus in both and advance in both at the same time. Note that strength and health have actual effects. how much you can carry and how much damage you can take before you die, respectively.

You apply all your race modifiers to statistics, skills, and abilities. You can look at your race abilities in the section titled "race abilities."

You will gain 5 hit points for the first level and 3 hit points for the second level, plus double your health, for a minimum of one hit point per level. If you later adopt "super magician" as a class, you will retain the extra hit point.

You will gain two skill slots plus your intelligence modifiers. If you advance your intelligence, this is retroactive to first level. Downgrading your intelligence is not possible for you. When you adopt your hero class, you will likely gain more skill slots for the next level.

You will gain common for free.

You will not die when you hit zero hit points; you will lose one health modifier for every two hit points you fall below zero. At a negative five health modifier, you will die unless you are magically healed above negative five in the next turn. Each healing die adds one to your health modifier. You will not gain hit points until your modifier is returned to normal. You will not be able to gain hit points until the next dawn.

If your modifier drops to negative ten or more, you will be instantly slain unless you have regenerate or other abilities or spells to thwart this. You will go to whatever god or goddess you worship when you die, and he or she will determine your fate. If you worship no deity, you will be judged by the system. You can be raised from the dead if you are not reincarnated. Certain time restrictions and requirements still apply depending on the level and nature of the spell or ability being used. You can refuse to be raised, and you will be given knowledge of who is attempting to raise you.

For other statistics, they can be affected by various spells and abilities. If you reach negative five, you will be rendered helpless. If you reach a negative ten, you will fall unconscious. Further negatives will have no effect unless they trigger a condition, such as becoming undead. The system does not recommend gaining an unconscious or dead state by reaching a negative 10. You will naturally recover one of each damaged statistic each dawn, or see the healing section.

Do you wish to proceed to Level 2?

* Shard 31: Ok, Star, I'm sorry about having to level you up when you were in trauma; normally it would be a choice after all. If your party members have any questions, I will answer them if I can. I can't answer any questions on whether they should level up. Normally everyone gets the same information to make it fair.

For Syran, it was never a question; being a first-level commoner held no appeal. He quickly hit the "yes" button. He was then asked to make his statistics even, and his racial modifiers were added in. He wouldn't get the last advancement until he trained for his class. Of course, he was becoming a super magician. He was an elf, after all, and received weapons for free. He was going to select light armor for his martial ability because everyone knew that was the best! When he got his class, he would use his magical ability to wear armor. He could just take an extra skill every other level to gain a bonus skill slot for random life skills he might want, but he doesn't want to raise every level. His starting stats were as follows: str 0+ health 1; dex 0; int -1+ will -1; chr 1+; app 1+.

"Do you need any help with your statistics?" asked Star.

"I think I am going to increase my strength and intelligence. Then, I will get a negative advancement in health and an advancement in dexterity, charisma, and appearance."

"The system is telling me that as a super hedge magician, you would want to add to your charisma, so you may want to take that and intelligence now, so you can work towards gaining a health advancement at fourth level. Hit points are critical for a super magician, and as far as extra skills go, gaining one every other level is not as critical as hit points every level. After all, as a commoner, you can add skill abilities at every odd level after third for your general abilities."

"He also suggests a bonus hit point each level as your special general ability, which is effectively a second martial ability, and to take a bonus to hit points each level instead of skills and to take increased hit points per level as your martial feat at third level. This will more than double your hit points. At fourth level, you will have 24 hit points instead of 12 hit points. You can raise your defense with wards, which is a better option for super magicians than having to spend so much on armor that you can just spend a bit of your mana each day to effectively gain it instead. At fourth level, you would need magical light armor to be better than just a cheap daily ward to help your defense rating.

"He then advises you to take Super Blended Arcane Archer as your hedge class and Magical Point Blank as your magical ability." This will let you use your elven bow racial ability and magical power to greater effect. You can even add a plus three to your strength, dexterity, and health by using second level spells at sixth level. You will start with a +3 to attack and more bonus damage than if you took strength, and you can add in spell damage. You can keep up with scaling by adding ranged arcane strike and magical dead eye and body enhancement spells later at sixth and tenth level and adding magical enhancements to your elven longbow," advised Star.

"Oh, I am going to be so cool!" exclaimed Syran, taking her advice.

"What about me, Star?" asked Allie.

"He basically said to take will and health at the expense of charisma and appearance, then take faith healers at 75% and raise your will. Take appearance as your plus to work towards, as the girls in your party can take pleasure in using various tortures to make you look better. Take the hit points and a first-level feat like Syran, and for your martial, take light armor because you will be refunded it when you take your class. Faith magic means you will not need to spend another ability to wear armor, and you can upgrade to medium armor with the refunded martial feat. He said he would explain why all these choices were made, but you would just follow Star's advice anyway," said Star, blushing at what the voice had just had her say after she dropped her guard.

* "You are so cute when you blush," Shard 31 exclaimed loudly, causing all the girls to scream and jump, before leaving to get some real work done.

"The voice not nice!" said Allie, after letting go of the roof of the wagon, as climbing was sort of her go-to for escaping. After she could stop trembling, which took a while, Allie dutifully put in the suggestions and added climbing (armored) as a skill and put another point in cooking.

"Star, don't take Syran out of the party; you need to teach him your magical device skill and any other skills he would like to learn from you."

"Why do I have to waste a skill on that?" exclaimed Syran.

"Would you like to be able to shoot lightning bolts at our enemies from one of the war wagons, activate the wards, and use healing scrolls?" asked Tira.

"Yes!" yelled Syran.

"That is why," said Tira.

The abused wagon door latch had had enough, and with a "crack," young elves tumbled into the wagon.