“Well shit. That’s a big problem.” William’s laconic statement summarised the situation aptly. Ryan knew that there was no way the Guild could survive an encounter with the monstrous reptile. The question then was whether a move to the Waterberg plateau still made sense as one of the reasons was to move to the vicinity of an accessible Ascension Obelisk. Emphasis on accessible. Fortunately for him, he thought, it wasn’t his decision to make. William’s next statement confirmed that they had a difficult choice to make. “I think it’s time the council discusses your findings brother. I’ll have Michelle set up a chat for us, no sense on returning to the fortress if you have to scout further afield.”
The chat was set up near instantly and John, Alexis and Lizzy joined one after the other. John’s first question pertained to the size of the crocodile problem. Ryan quietly listened as William laid out the observations they had made and ended his recitation with the stupidly high level Ryan had identified. The ensuing quiet spoke volumes. Then John, echoing William’s earlier words, summarised: “Well, shit.”
The following discussion between the council members covered the reports Ryan had made and he was repeatedly asked to clarify his impressions over the past few days. Ryan was made privy to the growing concern of the diaspora from town. Human on human conflict between the refugees was on the rise and the major powers in town were expanding aggressively, looking for edible resources. The guild, hidden away as it was, had had two successful skirmishes with small groups of scouts which they eliminated to the last man during Ryan’s time away. The consensus of the council was that their current location wasn’t tenable anymore. The question that remained to be answered was where to move, and when. John was adamant that they’d need access to an Ascension Obelisk eventually and pushing for scouting more locations. Lizzy and Alexis were of the opinion that the guild should relocate as soon as feasible. Eventually Alexis straight up asked Ryan for his opinion on the matter.
“Ok, first of all, I have no opinion on the situation the Guild is facing currently save for the fact that a move, now or later, is sensible. Unless we engage in human on human conflict our levels will stagnate.” he clarified his stance. “As to the suitability of the Waterberg plateau, I think it’s a prime location. Plenty of levelling opportunities, a location we can easily make defensible, plenty of water.” he added. “You’re all aware of those facts. Another bonus point, in my mind, is the distinct lack of likely human on human conflict since the nearest town has basically been wiped off the map.” Ryan considered for a moment before he continued.
“The only issue is the accessibility of the Ascension Obelisk and the lack of opportunity for scavenging resources from town. However, I feel it’s unlikely that any other location we scout won’t have the same or similar problems. The next likely targets are Rundu, Ondangwa or Walvis Bay. Ondangwa will likely involve human on human conflict as John stated earlier. Walvis Bay is out for obvious reasons. I could swing by Tsumeb on the way to Rundu but it’ll take another few days to scout. Rundu will likely be infested with crocs. If it were up to me I’d move the Guild to the Valley lodge and eventually find a way to deal with Ou Baas. In the alternative, once I’ve grown proficient enough to create two Dimensional Anchors I could safely, for a definition of safe, scout for access to any Ascension Obelisks.”
The discussion petered out quickly after that as John’s main concerns had been addressed to his apparent satisfaction. As soon as the group started going over the logistics of the relocation Ryan asked whether he could be excused or if they needed his input. When told he was no longer needed he exited the chat and considered what to do next. They still had a few hours of daylight left but, given the lack of any prey in the area a hunt was right out. Peering around he saw that Johannes and Miguel were settled in lotus pose. Safe in the knowledge that they were screened by Johannes’ picket-line of animal companions he decided to do some character maintenance. He hadn’t looked at his Character Sheet since he dumped two levels worth of points in Perception, allocated to Acuity and processing, after his paranoia induced extermination spree following his encounter with Panzer. Even then, he’d barely looked at it.
Obsessively agonising over his Stats just wasn’t in his nature and constantly checking up on incremental organic increases sounded more like a chore than anything resembling pleasure. In any event, he’d probably not level anytime soon considering that Fury received 90 percent of their experience until they had reached parity. At least his spree of wanton violence had raised her to level 12 now at almost two thirds of the experience required to catch up to him. It probably would be for the best if they got her caught up quickly so Ryan resolved to do a lot of hunting once the Guild settled in at their new base. A lot of hunting he thought. With that last resolution made he pulled up his Sheet.
Ryan Alexander Hunter, Exsolutus
Wild Shifter
Level
16
Cultivation:
Mortal Realm (high*)
Experience
3636/3960**
Energy:
7158/7832
Soulbonded to Fury
Statistics
Strength
Muscle Strength
30(29)
Intellect
Speed
21(20)
29,0
Tendons
29(28)
20,0
Cognitive
19(18)
(28,3)
Bones
28(28)
(19,3)
Memory
20(20)
Agility
Muscle Speed
31(31)
Will
Resolve
21(17)
32,7
Nerve Speed
Stolen novel; please report.
34(34)
19,3
Force
16(16)
(32,3)
Cartilage Friction
33(32)
(17)
Focus
21(18)
Dexterity
Muscle Control
27(26)
Energy
Capacity
33(31)
24,7
Proprioception
24(22)
31,3
Efficiency
25(25)
(23,7)
Flexibility
23(23)
(30,3)
Regen
36(35)
Constitution
Resilience
32(29)
Perception
Acuity
33(33)
30,7
Healing
32(32)
26,0
Psy Range
13(12)
(29,3)
Shield
28(27)
(21,7)
Processing
32(30)
Available Points
0
Affinities
Kinetic (macro)
22
Kinetic (micro)
21
Gravitational
68>71
Soul
39
Space
80>84
Time
50>51
Matter
12
Electromagnetic
19
Biological
19
Psychic
31>32
Skills
Class Skills:
18 listed
(expand)
Profession Skills:
518 listed
(expand)
General:
10821 (listed)
(expand)
Special Skills:
None
Unique:
None
Achievements
First Kill, Sneaky Bastard, David vs. Goliath, Hat-trick, Liberator, Forerunner Founder, Masochist, Two are One,
Traits
Protean, Indomitable
Mutations
Recombinant Omnivore, Enhanced Senses, Bifröst, Quantum Crystal Processing Lattice
Always having the whole Sheet pop up for review hadn’t bothered him in the past, on the contrary, he’d deemed it necessary so he could quickly familiarise himself with the changes. During his experimental training period he had paid scant attention to the thing in any event, instead sending it to John on a daily basis and rather spending the little energy he had remaining at the end of the day reading John’s reports and analysis on stat growth. Now though, given that changes to his sheet had been increasingly infrequent and that he was intimately acquainted with most of its content he found the format bothersome. Instead of reviewing the changes in detail he started tinkering with the Sheet.
He quickly discovered that he had criminally underutilised the various functionalities the Interface provided. While the layout of the sheet as a whole was pretty inflexible he could easily hide or call up separate elements. It incorporated various analysis functions, changelogs and a veritable plethora of notification options. He messed around with the sheet for a while and even ventured into his Skill lists before quickly abandoning that convoluted mess which, although it had been immensely improved by the patch applied, was as unpleasant to view as before. Eventually he finalised his choices, settling on four templates for viewing pleasure. The first being the basic full sheet with Skills minimised, the second an abbreviated Sheet showing only current Level, Experience, Energy and Stats and the third a bare-bones changelog showing only the changes to Experience, Energy Pool, Stats and Affinities since last viewing. Satisfied with his choices he pulled up the third version which would probably be the one he would use the most.
Changelog
Day:
107
last view:
101
Item
Current
Previous
Change
Energy
7832
7787
45
Stats:
Muscle Strength (Str)
30
29
1
Tendon Strength (Str)
29
28
1
Cartilage Friction (Agi)
33
32
1
Muscle Control (Dex)
27
26
1
Proprioception (Dex)
24
22
2
Resilience (Con)
32
29
3
Shield (Con)
28
27
1
Processing Speed (Int)
21
20
1
Cognitive Capacity (Int)
19
18
1
Resolve (Wil)
21
17
4
Focus (Wil)
21
18
3
Energy Capacity (Ene)
33
31
2
Energy Regen (Ene)
36
35
1
Psy Range (Per)
13
12
1
Processing Capacity (Per)
32
30
2
Affinities:
Gravitational
71
68
3
Space
84
80
4
Time
51
50
1
Psychic
32
31
1
Ryan was pleased at the incremental changes over the past six days. The strenuous activity during the scout had raised his physical attributes a bit, nothing compared to the targeted exercises he’d done during his training regime but pleasing nonetheless. What had him very satisfied indeed was the growth of his ‘organic’ Stats. Cognitive Capacity, Resolve and Psy Range had grown. The growth in resolve he allocated to the resolutions he had made and the perseverance he had been forced to display during the trek through post-Springbuck Armageddon. The other two probably bore some relation to the major use of his perception sphere during the last few days, he really hoped he could distill a Skill out of that monumental effort but even if that failed the exercise wasn’t without worth. Likewise, the growth in his affinities was probably due to the use of those Skills together with plenty of Shifting and spinning up portals.
The moment he had inspected the changes Ryan closed the Sheet. Since he was tinkering with his Interface in any event he chose to have a look at his notification settings which he had studiously ignored after making some small changes initially. All in all he was happy with the setup so he didn’t change anything save for adding a loud double chime for urgent guild alerts and a blinking message icon in the corner of his vision if he had any urgent messages waiting from guild members. Every other notification was set to silent except a soft ding for gaining a Level, Skill or Achievement.
One look at his full notification log was enough to make Ryan recoil and quickly close the thing while shuddering in horror. He had forgotten how extensive that thing actually was and resolved to never again open it unless he absolutely had to. Taking a quick peek at William he saw that his brother was still engaged with his chat so he moved over to the Guild forum. Now that he had a bit of time it couldn’t hurt to update his knowledge base by reading the series of stickies that outlined their understanding of various topics. And boy, Ryan was pleasantly surprised, were there a lot of them. Opening the sticky on Cultivation Ryan started reading.