I left Cael, planning to meet here in 6 hours, and went to enter. It was 10,000 Ballen credits to enter. I was asked my business and just said commerce. I was let in.
I knew from Cael’s research that entering the door created an instance for just me to interact with the terminal. It looked like a lobby with a well groomed man behind a desk. I went at sat opposite him. He explained I could use him to interact, use a terminal screen or just speak aloud concerning my business. I asked his name, it was Guy. He seemed nice enough so I kept him as my aide. I started bringing out all the dungeon loot I had. It filled the desk and another desk materialized and I filled that as well. I ended filling four large desks. When I was done Guy said 23,978 credits for the lot. I looked at the itemized list on my SYSTEM pad and sighed, the haul wasn’t that great for the effort. Cael said there were skills that could get me better prices but of course I didn’t have any. I started by purchasing 6 SYSTEM com devices for 500 credits each. They were the cheapest model that had a 250 km range and a battery that lasted years. They were for me, Cael, Red, Vlad and future crew. I then searched for spells. They were expensive 2,500-10,000 credits for a tier 1 spell. Cantrips were only 400-600 credits. I searched for ship parts I needed and the cheapest was 2,000 credits. I compared one of the items I sold to what it would cost. 1500 credits to 300 credits, so we were only getting 20% value. I was a little frustrated. I decided to purchase two cantrips, one was infrared vision and the other minor tech repair. I planned to promote the tech repair spell to a regular spell to level it.
Infrared Vision
0 (Cantrip)
Magic Sphere
Fire, Spirit
Mana Cost
20
Range
Self
Effect
allows the castor to see in the infrared spetrum
Casting Time
13 seconds
Duration
60 minutes plus 15 minutes per additional 5 aether
Leveling Effect
increase time of effect
Level 7 Boon:
Not reached
Gives castor the ability to see the infrared spectrum
Minor Tech Repair
0 (Cantrip)
Magic Sphere
Metal, Order, Runes
Mana Cost
20
Range
1 object
Effect
slightly repairs a damaged technological device
Casting Time
40 seconds
Duration
Permanent
Leveling Effect
increase effect of repair
Level 7 Boon:
Not reached
Repairs tech devices, multiple casts on same object give diminishing returns
Well another failure. I needed metal magic, enchantment magic, runic magic as I only had order magic if I wanted to promote the cantrip. I checked and skill scrolls I wanted were 4000-10000 each. All three I needed were 10000 credits of course. Ok back to business. I got Cael a storage ring that could hold 1 cubic meter. It cost 15,000 credits but it was the only thing Cael had asked for. Cael would pay me back in Aether crystals. Well we would have to see if we could get parts for the ship in the city. I pulled out the two summon companion scrolls.
Guy explained I could get two companions or get one companion by combining the two summons, however the second scroll would be 50% as effective. I also could roll randomly for a companion or design a companion. Design? Apparently I had a tier 3 and a tier 2 summon companion scroll. I asked about designing a companion. Guy explained a tier 3 scroll was worth 300 points and a tier 2 was worth 200. I would only get 100 points from the second scroll if I combined them though. So 400 points, was that a lot? The man brought up the interface for me.
I could choose an animal as the base of the construct for between 1 and 1000 points. Sentient humanoids cost between 5 and 500. I asked if companions level up. They received 33% of the leaders experience but didn’t reduce the experience I received. Ok. I selected a human male, 10 points. Before admiring the naked male in front of me I switched it to female. She was very easy on the eyes. Her stat screen showed up.
She had 10 in all primary stats except luck which had NA in the box. Guy explained companions luck was intertwined with mine. I asked what happened if I died and the companion did not. Then she would become governed by SYSTEM directives.
She only had one secondary stat and that was a 1 in Aether tolerance. I started switching to varies races admiring the female forms of other races. I stopped on elf variants which increased the cost to 20. Her base stats changed as well, str, com and stam all dropped to 7 and all other stats moved to 12. She was much more attractive to me, smaller hips, smaller breasts, more athletic body. I started switching through all the elf variants, there were twenty six, and the stats changed slightly each time, when I started around the second time I noticed the image for each race was recycled. I could randomize her appearance for 1 point if I wanted according to Guy or make specific changes for points. I settled on the Glimmer Elf. I entered her name as Celeste. The Glimmer elf had light blue eyes, silvery blonde hair, slightly tanned skin, thin lips, angular features and no body hair. She was just under 6’. She would have easily been a model on Earth and I saw no need to randomize her appearance or make changes. For a glimmer elf the base cost was 18 points. I causally asked why would anyone choose the random option rather than customize a companion and learned from the guy I would get twice the value, so an 800 point companion. Looking at the beauty before me my second head won the internal argument.
Glimmer elves were a space faring breed. She got zero-G movement as a free skill. I could increase her stats, each point gave me 5 stat points or 5 points could add 1 secondary stat point. What did I need for my crew? Pilot, navigator, magitech engineer and mechanical engineer. I decided to try to make Celeste my navigator. It cost 25 points to select the adventurer class for her. I used 20 points to get 100 bonus stat points. I dropped 50 into intellect then 10 points into each physical skill. Celeste had 2 bonus skill slots and 15 open skill slots for being an adventurer. She got two primary skills and two secondary skills as an adventurer. It cost me one point to select a skill to a slot. I selected spellcraft and ranged combat for her two free skills as there were no restrictions and they didn’t cost points. I started designing her as a bodyguard with a mix of magic and ranged combat abilities and planned to add the navigator skills on top. I could raise her skills level by 1 for each point up to level 7. It cost two points from 8 to 23. I found I could select stalwart defender and supplemental Aether core and Guy said that was due to the fact I had unlocked those advanced skills, I couldn’t add other dual stat skills for Celeste. Since I was adding some magic skills I upped her Aether tolerance by 3, raising it to 4 using 15 points. I found I couldn’t add melee combat, the third spell/action tailoring skill for melee combat actions. Guy said that was because the adventurers two free slots could buy any skill. Even dual stat skills? Yes. I was still happy with her having two special upgrading skills. When stellar navigation hit level 7 I found I couldn’t select a boon. My guide said that would be selected by the companion. I really wanted to micro manage this but guessed there were some limits. Adding a free skill slot cost 5 points which I thought was cheap. I decided I should fill all 15 of her skill slots to make sure she would be as useful as possible. She would get also get a new slot every 4 levels. Spells cost 1 point per tier of spell. I bought one tier 3 and four tier 5 spells for her. Celeste wouldn’t have to suffer through raising a tier 1 spell. I did have to have the associated magic skills at level 7 to add the tier 5 spells though. Cantrips cost 1 point each, two points to add them as a free spell. She only had one cantrip slot so I added two free ones. Combat actions cost 1 point each per tier as well and some were restricted. I selected four tier 1 combat actions for her. I was then at a trait screen and there were a lot. I started sorting them. I had been inside for over 5 hours so far.
There were a lot of traits for mounts and combat animals. I found a trait called savant navigator which allowed the companion to do nav calculations in their head without a nav computer and gave some bonuses with a nav computer. I got it for 25 points. I selected the Angelic Voice for 5 points. It gave her a bonus to interactions and bonuses to the singing skill and if this companion was going to be with me for my entire life I wanted her to have a pleasant voice. I found a trait called blood linked loyalty. It gave +25 to loyalty and made it more difficult to lose loyalty. It cost 10 points. Guy explained loyalty. It started at 100 which could go up and down based on how the companion was treated. A companion could break free of me if their loyalty dropped under 0. I bought the trait a little of fear. Another trait I liked was Blood linked, it was an Aether bond which I could use to take 50% of damage inflicted instead of the companion. But it worked both ways so the companion could take half my damage as well. I controlled how much damage we shared.
Loyalty usually increased the more freedom a companion was given according to Guy. Another trait called positive disposition gave her an optimistic and supportive personality. For only 5 points it would be worth it having as I had a few doom and gloom girlfriends in the past. I found another called faithful companion which gave +5 to loyalty and made increasing loyalty easier. I bought it for 10 points. Guy gave me some unsolicited advice saying I should add a few skills outside of utility. It would help with the companions disposition as well as loyalty in the future. I also selected the perfect healing trait which allowed her a 30% increase to health regen and not to have scars when fully healed. It cost 10 points.
Looking at her stats so far she needed some more stamina pool. I used 3 points to add 15 points to stamina. I was down to my last 24 points. She was much stronger than me and could easily kick my ass. Elves already had long life spans but I selected the trait for slowed aging which let her age 80% slower, increasing her life span by 5 times, 10 points. I was down to the last 14 points.
Languages cost 1 point each. I selected English, glimmer elf, and galactic standard for her. I opened another skill slot and dropped a level 1 skill in it. 4 points. I converted them to stat points and dumped 20 points into charisma. I reviewed 8 hours of work.
Name
Celeste
Origon
SYSTEM
Race
Glimmer Elf
Class
Undefined
Specialization
None
Experience
0
Level
1
Loyalty
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
130
Primary Stats - Unassigned 3
Strength
26
Constitution
24
Stamina
34
Agility
55
Speed
22
Intellect
92
Aether
37
Channeling
29
Charisma
35
Luck
NA
Secondary Stats
Aether Tolerance
4
She would have the unassigned stat points to use as she saw fit from being a level 1 adventurer. Her stats were much better than mine and she was just level 1. Leveling her up? Guy said it cost points equal to the level multiplied by 2. I decided she could level up from level 1 on her own. It would let her make more selections for her growth.
POOLS
Total
Regen/Min
Health
600
1.43
Stamina
620
2.17
Aether
1375
2.56
Her pools were ridiculous for level 1 due to her multitude of skills.
Next Skill Slot at Level 4
Unused Skill Points: 2
Skill
Level
Tier
Percent Next Lvl
Stat
Zero-G Movement
1
1
0%
Agil
Spellcraft (Primary)
7
5
0%
Chan
Ranged Combat
3
3
0%
Agil
Starship Combat Piloting
7
5
0%
Agil
Short Blades
7
5
0%
Agil
Singing
3
3
0%
Chr
Dancing
1
1
0%
Agil
Tantric Sex
1
1
0%
Chr
Ship Sensors
7
5
0%
Int
Running
1
1
0%
Stam
Acrobatics
1
1
0%
Agil
1
Stellar Navigation (Primary)
23
10
0%
Int
2
System Navigation (secondary)
23
10
0%
Int
3
Aether Cultivation
7
5
0%
Chan
4
Air Magic
7
5
0%
Aeth
5
Marksmanship
7
5
0%
Agil
6
Aether Rifle
7
5
0%
Agil
7
Force Magic
7
5
0%
Aeth
8
Lightning Magic
7
5
0%
Aeth
9
Stalwart Defender
7
5
0%
Str/Con
10
Supplemental Aether Core (secondary)
7
5
0%
Aeth/Chan
11
Fire Magic
7
5
0%
Aeth
12
Long Blades
7
5
0%
Str
13
Starship Piloting
7
5
0%
Int
14
Starship Piloting Corvettes
7
5
0%
Agil
15
I had spent over half the points on skills. I probably should have made more skills higher as skill development slowed after level 7. But I mostly wanted the extra stat points for her and to be a very good navigator. She would also get a bunch of boons for the level 7 skills. I even left one slot open for her. Giving her the tantric skill, well I was hoping she would be an intimate companion after staring at her naked body for hours. I also gave her skills to serve as a backup pilot.
Next Spell Slot at Intellect 105 (1 spell/15 intellect)
Spell
Level
Rank
Percent Next Level
Tier
1
Personal Force Screen
1
1
0%
5
2
Aether Respiration
1
1
0%
3
3
Flight
1
1
0%
5
4
Plasma Bolt
1
1
0%
5
5
Force Wall
1
1
0%
5
6
7
Cantrips
1 at level 1, 7, 23, 43, 67, 89
Spell
Level
Rank
Percent Next Level
Tier
Light
0
0
0%
0
Clense Body
0
0
0%
0
1
Clean Clothes
0
0
0%
0
I gave her the cantrips I had found most useful for myself. The personal force screen was the upgraded force shield spell I had. Force wall was a very sturdy stationary wall. Plasma Bolt was a fire/lightning spell that I think was similar to the one Leo had mentioned.
Next Combat Action at Int 100 (1 action per 10 intellect)
Unused Action Points: 1 (1 per lvl)
Combat Action
Level
Rank
Percent Next Level
Tier
1
Gerrn Sword Form
1
1
0%
1
2
Line of Sight Accuracy
1
1
0%
1
3
Short Blade Guard Style
1
1
0%
1
4
Kill Shot
1
1
0%
1
5
6
7
8
9
I gave her the Gerrn sword form so we could spare. She had 2 ranged combat actions she would be able to level and tailor. The short blade guard style was because I planned to give her the void dagger. She had 5 open combat slots so hopefully she tailor her combat style to something she preferred.
Ok I approved it and it took 30 minutes for the hologram to materialize. A naked gorgeous elf stood in front of me. Her first words were it would be nice if I had some clothes. Crap I had been staring at her naked hologram for 8 hours and wasn’t thinking. I had nothing besides smelly gym underwear and socks. I went to Guy and was just about to order some clothes but Guy raised an eyebrow at me. I got the hint. I told Guy to give Celeste a 5,000 credit allowance for clothes. I saw a smile on her face as she approached the interface.
The first thing she bought was a dark gray bodysuit. I was sad to see her naked form stepping into it. Although the suit just made her more alluring. I hadn’t realized I had been starring and she mentioned it with a grin. Damn, I felt like a pervert, I had just designed a companion and I realized I was thinking with the wrong head. She asked me questions as she scrolled through her sheets. I told her about the ship and the goal to get it space born. She selected a light spacesuit to go over the skin suit. The helmet was built into the suit and folded over. She got some knee high stylish boots. She then added a belt. She then asked, where to? I said I had a few things for her. I gave her the magical equipment I had planned to give her while I was choosing her skills.
Silver Ring with Ruby, +3 Steller Navigation Skill, +7 Intelligence
White Gold Ring with Sapphire, +5 Starship Piloting: Corvette, +5 Agility
Void Dagger, +7 Agility, +7 Speed, Deep Cut Combat Action
Braided Gold Toe Ring, +3 Stellar Navigation Skill, +10 Intellect
Platinum Brass Stud Earing, +4 tantric sex skill, +2 charisma, +2 agility
I blushed as I identified the platinum bass stud earing for her. She put each item on as I identified it and bound it to herself. She bought a sheath that attached nicely to her new belt. I checked her sheet and her loyalty had gone up 3 points. She asked where to now. I went to Guy to get my change, he gave me a system card that was worth 3,509 credits at any terminal. All the work and this is what we had left. I bought another comm unit and gave it to Celeste, 3,009 credits. I wasn’t sure about Ballen customs towards elves so I had Celeste purchase a fashionable hat to conceal her race’s ears, 2980 credits. I told her we were going to meet a friend.