As we were walking to our homes, Onre asked me if I was given a choice of Ki Healer skills upon reaching Level 4. I told him yes, and that they were HPR Boost and Share Health. I explained that I did not know what they were yet, and I had asked Interface to wait for sometime after dinner to give me the descriptions and let me choose.
Most everyone started speculating at that point. But Rina was tired, and Ralf said they would head straight home. Grandma suggested that the rest of us come up to her den where we could relax and discuss my choices. Carrie said she had little interest in adventuring skills and had homework to get done. She veered off to go straight home.
Arrjee said he had homework too, but wanted to be part of the discussion involving my leveling choices. So that’s what we did, and Rhonda, Rhetta, Barrie, Arrjee, Onre, and I all found ourselves seated up in her den.
I started off by saying I had made all my decisions for Levels 2 and 3 during my last two sixdays, just Interface and I. I was glad to have more feedback this time. Dad suggested that the adults mostly observe, watching “the boys” discuss matters. I let them know if anyone had anything they thought relevant to say, that they please do so. I would appreciate feedback from everyone.
Then something I had never seen before happened.
Interface has invited you to join their party.
Do you accept?
“This is new.”
You did say both “anyone” and “everyone”.
“This is new and cool. Yes.”
I was the last one to join.
RS1: Are we really directly speaking with you, Interface?
RS1: Oh, this is Rhonda.
I: Yes. Hello everyone.
RS2: Hello. I must be RS2 – Rhetta.
BS: Hi, Interface. I have never seen text like that before.
I: I had to share it with your interfaces. It is a text style from Earth. Forrest loves it.
FR:
AS: Hi, Interface. I like your text also. Jacques must have had bad taste.
OL: I agree with Arrjee. Hello, Interface. I want to thank you again for your help with my build. Sharing information about Ki Prestidigitator and Mindsmith was invaluable.
I: You already did, immediately after Forrest told you. I hear everything he hears. But now I am able to tell you directly. “You are welcome.”
I: I suggest you speak normally. I am sure it will be more natural for you. When I have something to add, I can do it this way.
We agreed with Interface’s suggestion. There were smiles and a general good mood, I think at the opportunity for a new experience of this kind. It even felt new to me, to be sharing Interface via the Party Interface instead of alone reading his private windows.
I began the discussion concerning my level. “The first thing I would do alone with Interface would be to get descriptions of my two skill choices. Does anyone have anything they would like to say first?”
The grown ups remained silent, which I had expected based on Dad’s earlier suggestion. Arrjee and Onre agreed it was a good first step.
“Interface, describe HPR Boost.”
I: HPR Boost is a full-body heal of yourself only. It works by accelerating your HP Regenation (HPR). Vitality is a significant component. Rank F values:
Ki Rate: 1/sec
HPR multiplier: 2.95x
“My other two Ki Healer skills have an efficiency modifier, which is the factor for the wasted ki. It looks like this one doesn’t waste ki. At Rank D, my current HPR is a little over .25 HP per minute. While this is active, I’d be gaining just over .7 per minute. With no other Ki use, I could maintain it for a little over 4 minutes. Just 3 extra HP total. I'm not sure this skill is worth much.”
Onre looked at Arrjee. “Is he always like that?”
Arrjee replied, “Yes. When it is not numbers, it is thinking about thinking. But he is getting cute.” I rolled my eyes. My charisma would have reached 10 now, so it could be noticeable.
Grandma advised, “Don’t dismiss this skill out of hand. When your HPR reaches Rank C, expect a doubling to it all. Plus when HPR Boost ranks, its multiplier will surely increase as well. Also, don’t forget that your ki capacity will significantly improve over time.I agree it seems unimpressive at first, but don’t choose skills based on their Rank F capability, and don’t ignore related factors.”
Mom smiled, “That is the same thing she told me 20 years ago.” I agreed I would keep that in mind.
“Interface, describe Share Health.”
I: Share Health is a full-body heal of another being. It costs very little ki, but most of the cost is your own health, much of which is transferred to your patient. It only improves health, and has no effect on toxins or other factors which might be causing health to be adversely affected. Rank F values:
Ki Rate: 1/min
HP cost: 25/min
SP cost: 25/min
Efficiency: -60%
“Okay. In one minute’s time, I lose 25 HP and my patient gains 10. I have enough health to keep this going for 8 minutes, so about 80 health total.”
“I don’t know if that is wise,” Onre said, “bringing your own health down to almost 0. Wouldn’t it be better to assume you want to keep your own health at least at 50%? Then you would only have 4 minutes and heal 40 HP total. A lot of the time you might be able to switch to Heal Other, and start spending your ki instead of your health.”
I confidently stated, “You make a good point, Onre. Overall, it is clear to me that Share Health will provide greater benefit. Someone else gets healed by 10 HP in a minute instead of me at just 0.7.”
Arrjee countered, “That is both incorrect and selfish, brother. Look at it from your team’s perspective. The team can lose 15 HP in a minute or gain 0.7. Plus many weeks from now, when you actually need to use HPR Boost, it could actually be improving your health by 4 or 5 HP per minute.”
“But if someone is very injured and I am not”
Onre interrupted, “You’ll stab yourself and make everything better. Not generally productive. Think ahead. You are Level 8, with your main skills at least at Rank C. Plenty of HP. Plenty of Ki. These two skills are a set. Heal someone else with Share Health, using essentially no ki. Then heal yourself with HPR Boost and ki.”
“You boys are doing a great job in evaluating this,” Dad encouraged.
I: I agree.
“If I think of them as a set, I won’t be able to take the other one until Level 7. So which do you think I should take now?”
Onre replied, “I think I would be taking HPR Boost first. You have no ability to self heal now, except boost your HPR slightly with Meditate. At least with this new power the boost is a lot larger and you can still think about other things. And I bet once your Boost is at D and your HPR is at C, your overall regeneration will be significant. Get started ranking it now!”
Arrjee agreed with him. I asked the adults, but they just said both would develop into good powers.
“Interface, do you have an opinion?”
I: Yes.
I paused for a few seconds. “He gets like this.” Everyone smiled. “Which one do you think I should choose, Interface?”
I: I have more of an observation, really. You have two friends, future adventuring mates, who would rather you be able to heal yourself than provide a full-body heal to them. My opinion is that you should give heavy weight to their advice. Also, the order is slightly academic, because by the time the adventuring school opens, both you and Onre will likely have both powers.
“Okay, with several of you advising me to think longer term, and with the advice of my friends, Interface, I select HPR Boost.”
I: Granted Skill: HPR Boost, F
“Cool,” I say. “That is the main leveling issue. I normally do a few other things, too. Should I wait until later, or do all of you still want to participate?”
Dad replied, “I have not had a lot of bonding time with you son. I’d like to stick around and observe how you think.” Everyone agreed with him.
“Okay. I’ll just start doing what I normally do. Well, both times before. Just speak up if you have anything you want to say. Interface, Query Level.”
I: Level 4 + 11 / 4807, 14 days for Level 5 to unlock
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Hmm.
“Something just occurred to me. What happens to any xp I get after 4807 if it is not 14 more days yet?”
Grandma answered, “It continues to accumulate, but at a lesser rate. I am sure Interface can tell you the exact math.”
I: Rhonda is correct. Once you reach 4807, and are braked from reaching Level 5, you will begin losing 30% of your xp. 70% will be accumulating toward Level 6 however. In the general case, you can gain xp for up to three levels ahead. For the first advance level, you keep 70%. For the second, you keep 49%, and for the third, you only keep 34.3%. If you somehow manage to earn enough xp for your next three levels, any xp above that is completely lost. Remember that there is no braking schedule for ranks, so you can freely continue working on your skills even if you are not gaining xp.
Arrjee concluded, “The braking is going to impact us a lot more than Forrest.”
Onre countered, “True, but we will have seven days to train skills for each one he gets. Since we will not be around for thousands of years, I’d rather be improving the skills quicker than gain levels but be less skilled.”
Arrjee wondered, “I have not heard of anything, but is there something that will limit how fast I can increase my attributes outside of the leveling system?”
Both Dad and Interface replied that there was not. Arrjee seemed happy, and with the dedication he had used in building his attributes, he had a right to be.
I wondered if they knew the specifics. “Do you guys know of the ‘Rule of 40’ that throttles attribute gains within the leveling system?”
Mom asked, “You mean sometimes when you level, you get less attributes than other levels? There has been some study on that, but I don't know the details. Could you describe this ‘Rule of 40’?”
I asked, “Do you want to take this one, Interface? You were the one who explained it to me.”
He explained to them the same thing he explained to me about 10 hours ago. I continued with, “So now I know about ‘Rule of 40’, which throttles attribute level bonuses and level braking, which stops someone from leveling too quickly to begin with.”
With a laugh, “I am sure if there are any other level system surprises, Interface will be sure to surprise me.”
I: Yes.
----------------------------------------
“Okay everyone. You are going to have to scroll your party interfaces for this next one. Interface, query character sheet.”
I: Name: Forrest Rhodes
Race: Covargh
Sex: male
Age: 16
Primary Class: Martial Artist
Secondary Class: Ki Healer
Level: 4
Base Attributes
Agility: 20
Charisma: 10
Dexterity: 20
Endurance: 19
Intelligence: 19
Luck: 10 (1 from river stone)
Perception: 18
Strength: 19
Vitality: 19
Wisdom: 22
Free Points: 3
Level bonuses
Race: +2 Agi, +2 Dex, +2 Str, +2 Vit
Primary Class: +1 Agi, +1 Dex, +1 End, +1 Int, +1 Per, +2 Wis
Secondary Class: +1 Cha, +1 End, +1 Int, +1 Luc, +1 Vit, +2 Wis
Consolidated Level Bonuses
+3 Agi, +1 Cha, +3 Dex, +2 End, +2 Int,
+1 Luc, +1 Per, +2 Str, +3 Vit, +4 Wis
Stats
HP: 212/253, max = (Luc + Str*3 + Vit*6)*(1 + Lvl/10)
SP: 268/268, max = (Per + Agi*3 + End*6)*(1 + Lvl/10)
Ki: 143/295, max = (Int + Dex*3 + Wis*6)*(1 + Lvl/10)
Temp: 203 (Int + Wis*3 + Cha*6)*(1 + Lvl/10)
Granted Skills
HP Regen, D
SP Regen, D
Ki Regen, D
Ki Punch, D
Dodge, D
Claw Strike, D
Heal Other, E
Bless Blood, E
HPR Boost, F
Learned Skills
Meditation, E
Running, D
First Aid, D
Swimming, E
Wrestling, F
Drafting and Sketching, D
Tactics, D
Firefighting, F
Common Ki Skills
Analyze, E
Dark Sight, E
“Woah. Interface is showing more information than usual. I think the extra is all for you guys to better understand my build. For one thing, he normally doesn’t show me the temperament stat at all, but I guess since I brought it up earlier, he thought he would show you the math.”
“Oh, dear, that is a lot.” Grandma went to her desk, and started writing what she wanted to remember on her pad.
I agreed with her, as was the consensus. “He only showed me the individual level bonuses when I first reached Level 1. Since then it has only been the consolidated bonuses. But this way Onre can see what his level bonuses will be from Ki Healer. I’m sure they will be different for his race and primary class, though.”
He asked, “Why does it say you are a Covargh and not a Hybrid or I guess it should be Covargh-Human Hybrid?”
“Well, Jacques was an Earth Human with no knowledge of Covarghs. We just had made-up tales about wolfmen, I think Interface just simplified it for me. Also, full Covarghs think of me as a Covargh, and I think of myself as a Covargh also. Remember, what Jacques actually asked for was to be a ‘wolfman-man’.”
I: Character sheets are normally kept simple. Note that his Level is “4” and not “4 + 11 / 4807”. For the rest of it, Forrest is correct. I included information of more interest to everyone else than him. He already knows the math formulas for the derived stats, for example.
“I just noticed I could be using HPR Boost right now. Now I just need to figure out how to get this new skill started. Just a second.”
I had not dismissed my stat display, which had popped up at the Inn. I moved it out of the way of the Party Interface window. Okay, I want to raise HP throughout my body. Imagine ki flowing everywhere, and think about healing.
I announce, “There, it is on. I feel a slight tingle. And I can literally watch my ki gauge go down. I forgot about max ki rising due to my level, so from full I can keep it up for 6 minutes now instead of a little over 4. Exhausting my ki should do wonders for building my Ki Regen skill, too.”
I: Since HPR Boost accelerates HPR rather than healing you directly, you are gaining extra rank points for both HP Regen as well as the rp for Boost itself.
“Nice,” I replied. “That goes in the ‘good surprise’ column.”
Dad anticipated the future, as usual. “You and Onre are going to be able to have nice synergy in your ki and health regens. The way HPR Boost and Share Health will work together, you’ll not only be able to train those easily, but the regens as well. I guess you can trade off who hurts whom initially.”
Onre quipped, “That will be Arrjee’s job.”
Arrjee responded with, “Happy to help!”
Mom noticed something. “Forrest, why do you have three free points? We only get two.”
“Interface can verify this, but I believe it is one of the ways immortals receive at least a little compensation for the limitations of their immortal archetypes. In my case, in exchange for being absent from the world six days out of seven, I get the extra free point per level. Also, my level 0 attributes have a base value of 10, although as you know, my charisma and luck started low, at 6. The low values were for Forrest specifically, not all my future lives.”
I: That is correct. Those benefits will remain for all his future lives, as will his 6-day absences.
“Speaking of free points, I am thinking about putting two of them in vitality in order to enhance the various healing skills and my overall health. I would also normally put the third point in perception, because it lags behind. For levels 2 and 3 I put most of my free points in charisma and luck, but now that those are 10, I believe it is time to focus on other aspects of my build. What do you guys think?”
Arrjee commented, “Other than the two lagging ones, you have an unusually balanced build. I know many people tend to focus on a few attributes which they believe to be most important.”
Onre said, “I like the balance. It just seems right for a martial artist to favor body and soul equally.”
“I did not say I disliked it, but it is uncommon, right?” Dad and Grandma verified that it was.
“On Earth,” I explained, “they did not have classes and levels, but there were games where players pretended to be characters that had them. The fact that I actually have them now feels very weird and wonderful. My playstyle has always tended to be a balancer. Many top-ranked players would laugh at my build, and they could often kick my ass. Sometimes, though, I would surprise and beat them because they were used to fighting the “strong here”, “weak there” characters. They called those using such builds “min-maxers” by the way. Maximize what you want by minimizing what you feel is less important.”
“Anyway, with my natural inclination toward balance, and agreeing with Onre’s point about it seeming right for a martial artist, I’ll probably keep striving for balance. Does anyone have strong opinions favoring a min-max build, or actually dislike my proposed use of free points?”
Arrjee replied, “I believe Master Trillet favors the min-max style, but he is my master not yours. For Level 4, doing what you say makes sense. Next Tuesday you can ask the martial arts master what he thinks for future levels.”
“Does anyone have further comments?” I waited several seconds, but no one spoke up. “Interface, please add 2 free points to vitality and 1 to perception.”
I: Perception: 19
Vitality: 21
HP: 223/270
SP: 269/270
“Forrest,” Mom wondered, “I do not recall you ever mentioning the Drafting and Sketching skill. What is that?”
“It is a nascent skill of mine. It combines two abilities Jacques had. Drafting is a rigorous drawing of something showing dimensions and shapes. The drawing can be an item such as the board used to play Think, or an architectural plan. It is detailed enough to give it to a craftsman, and he will know exactly what you want built. Jacques originally learned it doing his grades, but he continued to use it in his construction work.
Sketching is a free-hand drawing, like I drew at our meeting about the school. In fact, I acquired the skill while drawing that sketch. To further develop the drafting part of this, I will need a number of simple tools to assist me. I probably should talk to a carpenter or tinker or someone who needs to plan out what they are building.”
Arrjee reminded me, “You’ve got to bring your lucky coin to Mista Smithson so he can make the belt buckle. Maybe you can do that in the morning and talk to him about these tools.”
Mom commented, “Jacques must have been fairly good at these things to start you out at Rank D.”
“Well, everyone seemed to like my sketch.”
Dad informed me that he had passed the sketch along to the temporary site foreman for the school. It had apparently been valuable in estimating the scope of the project.
“When the two Skolturi get here,” Dad said, we expect to draw up a more detailed layout. You can be involved with that if you wish.”
“Thank you. I am happy to provide input from the sidelines, but I was never in a senior position of any of the building projects I was involved with. Remember that I gave up the building trade to become a fireman.”
“Why is that skill only at F?” Arrjee asked. “I would have thought a nascent skill like that would have started a lot higher.”
“It would have, but just like awakeneds, I can only start four nascent skills at above F. By the time I got Firefighting, I had already learned three D ones – First Aid, Drafting and Sketching, and Tactics – and Swimming at E.”
“You really are a lot like an awakened,” Grandma said.
With a little smile, “That was what Interface informed me while I was not telling you the whole truth that first day. For all practical purposes, before I had my first sixdays, I was not different than an unborn awakened.”
I: Too much information at once can serve to conceal the truth.
Grandma replied with a thoughtful smile. “As can concealing it. But I remember how lost, uncertain, and afraid Forrest was. In similar circumstances, I doubt I would have revealed the whole truth either.”