A fresh tingle of excitement flickered through Malan at the fresh notification. He’d been waiting to discover the first of the skills his bond would unlock, so that he could get an idea of what kinds of things they would entail. He was slightly surprised that he’d gotten one simply for putting on the groundsuit, but he supposed it made sense.

Acting on the ground required an entirely different set of abilities than operating a ship, even one as intuitive as the Starbound, and whilst he had plenty of piloting experience in his life, action on the ground was something entirely different. Idly, as he focused his attention on the option to allocate his skill points, he wondered if that had been accounted for by the bond. Would a novice pilot be granted options to bolster their skills early on, where he had instead been given them to bolster his options on the ground?

Malan began to pace, a little awkwardly at first, attempting to both get used to moving in the groundsuit and read his skill options at the same time. Fortunately, he found the suit a much easier adjustment than piloting Tanwen, as it was essentially just moving as he normally did.

He couldn’t help but notice the extra power in his stride, however, and the extra force behind his upper body movements. Each subtle shift of his muscles sent small pulses of celestial energy through the suit, enhancing his movement. Everything felt faster and stronger. More powerful. Before looking at his options, he performed a few exaggerated exercises—some burpees and push ups, as well as some ungainly shadow boxing.

Malan’s smile grew as a quick burst of exercise that would have left him more than a little breathless barely affected him. He thought back to the level-up screens, where it made clear that any stats he allocated there also applied to the groundsuit, and whistled. What would he be capable of in a handful of levels? How far was it possible to take this?

Trying to temper his growing excitement, he finally turned his attention to the waiting skills menu.

New skill options unlocked!

Groundsuit Advancement - Choose a specification for your groundsuit.

Warning! Choosing one option will remove access to the others from the Pilot permanently. An option Must be Chosen before exiting the Starbound Unit.

Skills Unlocked:

Groundsuit Advancement: [Starblade, Lvl. 1]

Evolves your groundsuit into the [Starblade, Lvl. 1] variant. Starblades are the frontline fighters of the Starbound. Able to hit hard from range and up close, as well as possessing great durability, their role is to take the fight to the enemy head on. Accepting this advancement grants appropriate stat increases, modifies your groundsuit and Starbound loadouts, and grants access to related skills, titles and upgrades as you progress.

Cost: 1 Stat Points

Malan frowned. Modifies groundsuit and Starbound loadouts was a little more than he bargained—certainly it was more of a significant decision than he’d been expecting. Still, as far as options went, Starblade was fairly self explanatory, and easily dismissed. As much as he liked the idea of growing to become a top-tier badass, he knew damned well it didn’t really fit him.

It wasn’t so much that he thought he didn’t have the stomach for it—after the Jauda and Talia, he felt there wasn’t much that would be able to rattle him more than they had—but more that he felt there would likely be other options among the four that were currently being displayed that would fit him better.

With this in mind, he turned to the next two, confident that he wouldn’t be returning to view the Starblades option again.

Groundsuit Advancement: [Shadowstrider, Lvl. 1]

Evolves your groundsuit into the [Shadowstrider, Lvl. 1] variant. Shadowstriders are the clandestine wing of the Starbound. In combat they aim to catch their enemy unawares, entrapping them or striking from out of sight. They are able to cloak themselves to hide from notice, and use celestial energy to render enemies helpless. Accepting this advancement grants appropriate stat increases, modifies your groundsuit and Starbound loadouts, and grants access to related skills, titles and upgrades as you progress.

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Cost: 1 Stat Points

Groundsuit Advancement: [Starweaver, Lvl. 1]

Evolves your groundsuit into the [Starweaver, Lvl. 1] variant. Starweavers focus on bending ambient celestial energy to their will. In combat, they are capable of producing potent attacks of celestial energy, and are able to use the flows of energy in their environment to create a wide variety of effects. They can also use celestial phenomena to access amplified states and abilities for a short time to achieve effects far beyond that which other Starbound of their level are capable of. Accepting this advancement grants appropriate stat increases, modifies your groundsuit and Starbound loadouts, and grants access to related skills, titles and upgrades as you progress.

Important: You’re status as Voidborn may enable you to acquire bonus titles and skills, and advance faster than other Starbound in this area.

Cost: 1 Stat Points

Malan couldn’t help a small grin. This was an awful lot more like it. He could accept not being the all action hero type. Attention made him uncomfortable for starters, so the idea of being able to melt into the shadows whenever he fancies appealed to him deeply, and the idea of celestially powered claoking devices was an incredibly tempting carrot for the technician in him.

On the other hand, Starweaver seemed to hold all the cool factor of the Starblades, without having to be quite so gung-ho about things. His ability to actually see the flows of ambient celestial energy, as it said in the description, would most likely be a huge benefit to him as he grew his abilities.

However, Starweaver was one of two options that had an additional note attached to the description, so he turned his attention to the last option.

Groundsuit Advancement: [Celestial Warden, Lvl. 1]

Evolves your groundsuit into the [Celestial Warden, Lvl. 1] variant. Celestial Wardens are the technicians of the Starbound. Highly capable with technology and able to use celestial energy to manipulate it in ways otherwise impossible, they are highly versatile, using technology to both supplement their combat abilities, support others fighting around them, and hinder the enemy. Accepting this advancement grants appropriate stat increases, modifies your groundsuit and Starbound loadouts, and grants access to related skills, titles and upgrades as you progress.

IMPORTANT: Your existing expertise in technology may enable you to acquire bonus titles and skills, and advance faster than other Starbound in this area.

Cost: 1 Stat Points

Malan licked his lips as he read over the entry for the Celestial Warden. It would be dishonest of him to say he wasn’t incredibly tempted by it. The focus on technology played to his strengths perfectly, and its description seemed to indicate that he would still be effective in dangerous situations. Added to that was the potential to help anybody he might be working with, and he might have been torn between this and Starweaver but for one thing.

“Your existing expertise…” he muttered, and smiled.

It was that sentence that sealed the deal for him, really. All four options sounded good to him—Starweaver in particular was incredibly tempted. But they all seemed to focus on either granting him brand new skills and knowledge, or played off his innate status as a Voidborn.

A Celestial Warden, however, focused on the skills and knowledge he’d spent his admittedly short life working hard to cultivate. It enhanced something he’d already built by his own hand, rather than simply giving him something on a plate.

His grin growing, he selected [Celestial Warden, Lvl. 1], and sucked in a breath as a icy wave of power pulsed through him. His arms vibrated, and the shards of suit began to shift and reform around his forearms. They coalesced into a pair of gauntlets, one for each arm, stone grey, with a small unit atop each forearm that had a small hole on the front that glowed luminous green.

New Skills Unlocked:

[Engineer’s Gauntlets, Ranged. Lvl. 1], [Engineer’s Gauntlets, Melee. Lvl. 1], [Engineer’s Gauntlets, Interface. Lvl. 1]

There was no description for these skills—there didn’t need to be. His mind span, as new information assaulted him from across the bond. The purpose of each skill. How to use them. The technical details of his new-built gauntlets.

He gasped, the flow of information tying off abruptly, the bond clearly adjudging he had enough. Malan took a few measured breathes, and peered down at his gauntlets in wonder. These would be his suit’s main weapons and feature for the foreseeable future. The three skills they granted him were mostly combat orientated, bar the last.

The gauntlets were able to switch between ranged and melee modes according to his will. In ranged mode, they fired measured bursts of celestial energy, roughly equivalent to most small arms fire, though the effectiveness would increase as he used them and levelled the skill. In melee mode, his gauntlets would produce a field of celestial energy around his hands, allowing him to deliver powerful blows and block strikes his own hands could never, without compromising his shields.

Of course, at Lvl 1, these skills would be weak. But as he used them, they would level, and unlock secondary and tertiary powers, as well as growing in power and effectiveness.

The third skill was a support skill. The gauntlets were also capable of interfacing with nearby technology for various purposes. At the moment, he was limited to hacking basic security systems, but those capabilities would also grow as he used it.

All in all, he was incredibly satisfied. He already knew enough to see these as foundational skills—the basic building blocks for what he would grow into as a Starbound.

Just as he felt ready to leave his ship, another notification blinked into life across his vision, catching him off guard.

Bonus Skill Unlocked!

Your existing engineering expertise has granted you early access to a new Celestial Warden Skill. Allocate Stat Point(s)?