The Chaos Lands (Part 1)
This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Idris had pictured a triumphant transition from stunted Light Mage to fully-fledged, confident, dangerous Warrior. It was obvious in hindsight but he had never thought about just how much it would hurt spending the XP that had burned a permanent place in his thoughts ever since his father had forbidden him to use any of it.
Swinging his hammer in the mines and imagining all the foes he would crush somehow never included the bits of actual work, investment, and sacrifice he would have to do in order to make that image real.
But he did it. With a final held breath he examined the visible constellation of the Warrior on his skill tree and began pouring XP against the barrier surrounding it. He wasn’t sure if it was a real sound played for him in his head by the mechanics of Order’s Path of Progression or if he just imagined it, but when the barrier broke it was with the sound of shattering glass.
Power rushed into him as a notification appeared in his vision, and in that moment his doubts, insecurities, and anxieties vanished.
Class Earned
Name: Warrior
Stat Bonus: Strength + 2 , Speed +1, Dexterity + 1, Endurance +2
Unable to resist, he examined his strength stat. The others were good, but at the sight of that 53 hovering in his vision he couldn’t help but grin with pleasure.
He flexed his muscles, squeezing a fist and followed a path of tension through his arm and across his chest.
“Idris!” Eana yelled, grinning, “Stop it!”
He looked at her and realized he had been flexing and releasing his chest, and with 53 strength it was clearly visible through his shirt. He glanced at Conrad, feeling a moment’s embarrassment but forgot it at the sight of the Battle Leader’s clear victorious pride.
“I’d say it’s pretty unlikely we meet anybody who approaches your strength, Idris the Warrior, until we make it to Confluence,” Conrad said, “And even then, with a little gear, you’re still going to be one of the strongest there is.”
Confluence! He still might get to visit the great city.
Idris’s father’s voice said in his head that this was all part of Conrad’s strategy, “He’s filling your head with visions of greatness and showing you all these great sights along a journey he’ll never take you on. It’s a sales tactic, Idris!”
Well? If this was what it felt like to be sold a bill of goods, then Idris was buying and he was done feeling any kind of remorse about it.
“Go ahead and follow your sister’s lead on skill choices,” Conrad was saying, “Invest in Imbued Strike - no need to empty your stores just yet.”
Glancing at his skill tree, Idris saw the myriad skills available to him, Psych Up, Toughness, Adrenaline Rush, Weapon Proficiency, Recovery Block, and finally Imbued Strike. He glanced over the description as he poured XP into the skill, watching the image of a swinging hammer surrounded in an aura of power fill with color and detail. His strength ticked up to 54 as the words and capability of the skill flooded in, but it barely registered to him as his mind ran wild with fantasies. If Eana could break rocks - something he did every day without any enhancements or magical powers - what could he do?
He glanced at his remaining XP, 1145, and though the loss was palpable, the possibilities that were exploding through his imagination made it seem like a paltry sum, soon earned back.
“Does it work like it did for me with Radiance? Will I earn a little XP for each level up I get in proficiency?” Idris checked with Conrad.
“Of course,” Conrad replied, “For general skills and tier one skills, you’ll earn a small reward for each level up. First five XP, then ten, up to twenty-five for the maximum level of proficiency.”
Doing some quick math Idris would need to find a way to make up for 575XP in order to even out what he had spent here and once he had maximized his proficiency with Imbued Strike - which he intended to do as quickly as possible.
“Some skills move up in proficiency just by using them,” Conrad said, “But others only move marginally that way, and make their true gains by being used under the correct conditions.”
Eana nodded vigorously, “After the first level with Minor Heal I didn’t get any proficiency progress unless I was healing actual wounds.”
“Right you are,” Conrad said, “As a warrior skill, Imbued Strike can be trained to a certain degree just with training. ‘Exploding rocks’ as you said, will earn you a little. Sparring a bit more. But it’s usage in real combat that will train the skill fastest.”
“How much progress did you get for using it a minute ago, Eana?” Idris asked.
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Eana’s eyes went out of focus for a moment before she replied, “Two percent.”
“The first level or two are definitely worth grinding out in training,” Conrad advised, “It’s later levels that will take much much longer to grind out that way. It’s not impossible, and since you’re in the mines breaking rocks every day you can possibly grind out the highest level of the skill in a couple of months.
“Still,” he continued, looking away toward the bridge to Confluence briefly, “It’s important to know that there are… other methods for progression.”
Idris heard the unspoken suggestion. Find real fights and move forward faster. The area around the mine had been, for the most part, clear of monsters but maybe closer to the dungeon?
Or maybe… he looked at the bridge to Confluence and realized that in his entire life he had never crossed it. In every direction around any Node of Order, the Chaos Lands existed. And where there was Chaos there were monsters.
“There’s one more ability I want you to consider investing in,” Conrad said, “And believe it or not, it isn’t a Warrior skill.”
The siblings leaned in, listening intently.
“Both of you should have had access to it already since you chose class skills at your investment, and Eana you may already have it, but like with Identify if you don’t know it’s there, sometimes it’s just a gray star and you never have the chance to learn it.” Conrad said, “Something you may have noticed among the adventurers in town is that while some of them carry bags, you never see us lugging around overly much cargo or needing to bring wagons out to the dungeon - at least not typically.”
Come to think of it, Idris had noticed this but never really paid attention to it. He knew the adventurers would take combat items like potions into fights and that they would bring out treasure on good days but how they did this wasn’t something he had been overly concerned with.
“Every adventurer eventually picks up the Inventory ability. It’s indispensable, and becomes available to any tier one adventuring class. I can’t understand how it works and so like with most skills, spells, and abilities we can just accept that Order gives the user the capacity to carry items in a sort of alternate space. You have limited room, which can be expanded slightly by increasing proficiency, but you can put whatever you want into that space without experiencing the weight or challenge of actually carrying it yourself. And you can recall any of it at a thought.”
Idris squinted his eyes in complete disbelief, “Are you kidding me?”
Conrad tilted his head slightly and gave a slight shake.
“Yeah,” Eana said, “I’m pretty surprised Gendra never told me about this one. I guess it never really mattered since I don’t do much mundane healing and never needed to carry much but, still… might be nice to have.”
Idris looked up at the sky and tried not to be angry at his father as he said, “I literally carry hundreds of pounds of rocks and ore day after day and… you know what? Forget it, I’m getting it right now.”
He examined his skill tree. He was a little surprised to see the grayed out icon of a backpack show up near to the constellation representing his Light Mage class. So it had been available to him all this time and all he needed was to learn it existed? Maybe he should be angry at his father.
Ability Discovered
Name: Inventory
Classification: General / Passive
Description: While the path to power can be traveled alone, one must always have access to the tools required to go further. Gain access to a magical one square meter storage space and store and recall items at will. Only non-living items that can be lifted by the user may be put into the inventory. Higher levels of proficiency increase storage space and reduce usage cooldown.
Cost: 450XP
Idris groaned when he saw the cost, but no matter what direction his path took Idris couldn’t imagine a world where he couldn’t make use of it. He invested the XP immediately.
Ability Earned
Inventory
New category available in your Path interface: Inventory
“Well that’s disappointing,” Eana said, “I don’t have enough XP to get it.”
Feeling a little smug that he at last had an ability that they both wanted and that he got to experiment with first, Idris ruffled her hair and said sarcastically, “Don’t worry, someday you’ll catch up.”
She punched him in the arm but smiled anyway.
“You would think that my dad would have let me invest in this skill at least,” Idris said.
Conrad shrugged, “Hate to say it again but your dad might not know about it. The skill doesn’t become available to non-combat classes until the second tier. Graham is a… what is it again?”
“A Carpenter,” Idris said, “He thought it would be useful to class that way when he was first homesteading out here.”
“Right,” Conrad said, “A miner, classed as a Carpenter. I feel like I get the man a lot better now.”
Idris nodded, it was a sore point for his father and as a result he had made every excuse for Idris not to end up doing the same thing.
That being said, he would have to quit blaming everything on his father keeping him in the dark. The man avoided the adventurers and tried to keep Idris away from them as much as he could, but that didn’t make his attempts to keep Idris on a specific path malicious.
He held out his hammer and tried to figure out how he might go about putting it into his inventory when suddenly it vanished from his hands. With another thought it reappeared a fraction of an inch from his right hand. He almost dropped it as it overbalanced and he nearly missed closing his fist around it.
“You’ll get used to it,” Conrad said.
Idris made it vanish again, but this time focused in on his new knowledge of the inventory space he had. He could see it like a glass box and floating motionless in the middle was his hammer. He mentally rotated and moved it around.
“Well that’s going to be annoying,” Idris said,” I’ll have to spend time organizing and moving things to make the most use of the space.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Conrad said, “At level three the space will gain the ability to auto sort itself so you’ll be good. Just put stuff in and take it out over and over and eventually you’ll progress.”
Idris nodded in understanding as he manifested and vanished his hammer out of and back into his inventory. It wouldn’t take too much time to level this ability to the maximum.