Ryan woke up surrounded by cots. Cots on his left, cots on his right, cots at the feet of his cot and probably some above his head as well. He didn’t remember how he’d got here last night but after a short look around figured that Exsolutus had temporarily set up a sleeping hall in the barn slash garage.
He was fairly comfortable and wide awake even though it was fairly dark in here, the faint pre-dawn light shining through the open barn doors barely sufficient to make out the surrounding cots.
Movement in the doors alerted him to the fact that a guard had been posted and that the gaping doors were secured, probably to avoid the air in here being too stuffy. Ryan decided to stay put and use the quiet time before everyone woke up and became active to go through his list of notifications, and there were quite a lot of them.
Skill improved: Identify Weakness improved to Adept rank from Journeyman
Player has consistently observed a variety of targets and successfully identified weak points of their prey. Adept rank assists Player with visual cues when observing unfamiliar targets, based on Player’s increased familiarity with anatomy.
‘Huh, actually forgot I had this as a passive Skill. Wonder how much the knowledge of where to aim for targets was actually improved over baseline by this Skill? Can’t have been much.’ Ryan thought as he moved on to the next notification.
Skill improved: Tracking improved from Adept to Expert
Player has consistently shown familiarity and expertise in tracking targets through a variety of terrains. Expert rank further highlights a variety of cues when Player is engaged in tracking a target.
‘Again. Not something I expected. Glad to see my prior experience has it at such a high rank though. Wonder what further highlighting cues actually entails in practice?’
Skill improved: Hunter’s Mark improved from Novice to Journeyman
Player has repeatedly used Hunter’s Mark to remain aware of targets that were outside of perception range over a longer period of time. Journeyman rank allows Player to mark up to three targets and marks remain stable over a longer period of time. Energy efficiency slightly improved.
‘Fucking finally. About time I can use the Skill on more than one target. Should actually have trained it by keeping ab target marked at all times. Good to know that’s how it improves because I really don’t understand how the mark actually works.’
Resistance gained: Toxins (limited)
Player has been exposed to a potent hallucinogenic based on a protein-polymer chain structure. Players body can more easily identify and neutralise toxins of this nature going forward.
‘That doesn’t tell me much. And what the hell is a protein-polymer chain?’ Ryan thought perplexedly. As far as he understood his chemistry that wasn’t a structure that should occur naturally. Well, things had changed under the System.
The next notification title nearly caused Ryan to shout with joy. Luckily he remembered that he was surrounded by sleeping companions in time to suppress the emerging jubilation to an off-key grunt before he woke his neighbours unnecessarily.
Skill learned: Predator’s Awareness! Toggled Active Skill. Rank: Novice; Effect: Player extends his suite of senses in a sphere around himself to scan for threats and prey. Identification of targets dependent on Player’s understanding of his senses. With increased exposure to this Skill and greater proficiency radius of sphere and Energy efficiency are increased. Required focus also lessens with increased proficiency. Skill becomes passive at Expert Rank with a negligible Energy cost.
Skill has been learned as Player has committed great focus on extensively utilising his entire suite of senses simultaneously to scan the surrounding area for threats or prey at great cost of focus and Energy.
‘Yes. Yes. Yes. Finally.’ Ryan was ecstatic that his sphere of perception had finally been recognised as a Skill by the system. It was about time and he had great hopes for the Skill. Especially since he hadn’t ever received a notification that indicated how the Skill would change at higher ranks. ‘I’ll train the living shit outta this!’ was his last thought before he reluctantly moved on.
Ding! Experience parity reached with soulbonded companion. Earned experience will now be shared equally.
Finally the pair could get back to levelling. Ryan hadn’t kept track exactly but remembered that Fury had reached Level 16 sometime during his rampage after meeting Panzer and the trickle of experience he had earned for participating in the kill of Mr. Grumpy must have pushed her to parity and earned them a chunk of Experience on top of it.
Skill evolved: Basic Ranged Weapon Proficiency at Expert rank evolved to Ballistic Weapon Proficiency at Adept rank.
Player has utilised a variety of ranged weapons over the course of time with a focus on ballistic weapons. Grants greater understanding of ballistics and allows Player to instinctively calculate ballistic trajectories even with weapons that Player is not intimately familiar with.
‘Don’t know if this is an improvement.” Ryan thought to himself. It seemed to limit the category of ranged weapons he had a basic familiarity with but assisted him in his area of focus. Again, he wasn’t certain to what extent the Skill had actually been helpful in the past as he was intimately familiar with using bows, rifles, shotguns, pistols and crossbows. That said, instinctively calculating a trajectory for a weapon he was not intimately acquainted with sounded promising. ’Let’s call it a sidegrade.’ he decided.
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Skill improved: Dimensional Anchor from Novice to Journeyman Rank
Player has repeatedly utilised a Dimensional Anchor to either Shift to or as a portal destination link thereby familiarising himself with the signature of his Anchor. Player has managed to repeatedly link a Portal to a Dimensional Anchor that has been relocated in relation to its immediate surroundings thereby altering its dimensional signature. Signature of one Anchor can be internalised and allows Player to maintain a second Anchor independently of the first. * Warning: If internalised Anchor is dissolved Player will be required to internalise second anchor before another Anchor can be created. Player has insufficient capacity to internalise more than one Anchor at this time.
“About time. But not as good as I hoped. Whelp, guess I’ll leave the Anchor at the Fortress up for the time being.”
Skill Improved: Refractive Shield from Novice to Journeyman
Due to having his Shield manipulated by a Shielder class Player has gained deeper understanding of this Skill.
‘Huh. That’s not entirely helpful.’ Ryan observed to himself. The notification told him nothing he hadn’t already grasped. Yes, it was clear that Shields could be manipulated to provide a variety of effects. The fact that his Skill would eventually allow him to become near invisible in most spectra of light was ample proof thereof. Ryan didn’t see how Linda’s manipulation had let to a greater understanding here.
As he’d thought, that was his last Skill notification. Ryan looked around in the now brighter light and saw that not a single one of his closer neighbours was yet making any moves to get up. Indeed, most were still snoring in concert. With having nothing else to do Ryan decided to call up his new and improved change-log before he went ahead and delved the stickies for some nuggets of wisdom.
Changelog
Day:
111
last view:
107
Item
Current
Previous
Change
Max Energy
7851
7832
19
Experience
3854
3636
218
Stats:
Cartilage Friction (Agi)
31
33
-2
Nerve Speed (Agi)
33
34
-1
Flexibility (Dex)
22
23
-1
Resilience (Con)
36
32
4
Healing (Con)
37
32
5
Resolve (Wil)
24
21
3
Energy Capacity (Ene)
36
33
3
Energy Regen (Ene)
38
36
2
Psy Range (Per)
15
13
2
Processing Capacity (Per)
35
32
3
Affinities:
Space
86
84
2
Psychic
33
32
1
Soul
42
39
3
“What the fuck?” was actually shouted softly when Ryan noticed that several of his Stats had actually dropped. Several people started stirring and Ryan couldn’t help regret the outburst that had woken them. However, this wasn’t good news. John was probably still sleeping but needed to be informed as soon as he was awake. Since the changelog only reported the change Ryan immediately pulled up his Character Sheet to determine if he could get more information there. To his relief, an asterisk marked the stats that had been reduced. Selecting it pulled up a notification.
As this is the first time you have ACTIVELY inspected reduced Stats this notification is available for your perusal. Stats reflect a Character’s condition and abilities. Stats may be temporarily reduced by a variety of effects such as being wounded, exhausted, hungry, poisoned, dehydrated and more. Stats may reduce permanently if Player does not dedicate time to their upkeep. Player can always select to display maximum achieved Stats in a separate column if needed.
‘Actually,’ Ryan considered, ‘John probably knows already. Phew, what a relief.’ While having lowered Stats, probably aftereffects from being poisoned and severely dehydrated wasn’t great it was immensely relieving that the effects were temporary. Ryan considered that he probably had lowered Stats at some time in the past but as he barely ever checked his Character Sheet hadn’t noticed. His Changelog also highlighted it very nicely too so it was the first time he had picked up on it.
At least the gains he had made in Endurance and Energy were gratifying, the former probably as a result of his near death and the latter a consequence of his actions yesterday.
While he was rooting through his Character Sheet in any event it was convenient to check up on his monetary slash crystallic? wealth. And lo and behold, he still couldn’t afford to purchase the quantum crystal lattices needed for Refractive Shield, although he was making strides in the proper direction.
Distracted from his introspection by the sounds of people stirring from their sleep Ryan decided that it was finally time to rise and greet the new day. He’d keep the greeting short and cordial because the day promised to bring a metric shit ton of work which he wasn’t necessarily excited for.