After a few hours of Ford getting herself back together and making dinner for everyone. They all slowly began to relax and enjoy each other’s company. With the events of the day, everyone began telling stories of their own families. Surprisingly Farah became the most vocal of them. Followed by Morgan, Lilly, the twins, and Max, all telling fun stories of their families and the past.
They all soon got tired and Ford took the first watch with Ee while everyone else went to their tents to sleep. Ford didn’t say anything for a while enjoying the silence of the night, the warm crackling of the fire, and the soft grinding of Ee carving her monsters. “It was you who saved me wasn’t it?” Ford asked abruptly. Ee never stopped widdling her wood carving, she didn’t even look up from it. Taking that as confirmation Ford continued, “Thank you, for saving me.”
Ee remained silent for a time before mumbling, “Yeah, don’t mention it.”
Chuckling softly to herself for a moment, Ford moved on to her next question, “Do you know what all the stats are used for? Like what’s their quantitative changes to a person?”
Sighing dramatically, Ee tossed her carving into a portal and faced Ford, “What do you want to know?”
“Everything,” Ford answered immediately.
With another great sigh, Ee lifted a finger for every stat, “Strength does pretty much as advertised, increases how much you can lift and use your muscles by five kilograms a point. Also increases your muscle size.
“Perception also does as advertised and increases all your senses you’ll just have to focus on one or two to get the full benefit of it.
“Endurance improves health by ten percent per point, stamina capacity by two percent per point, and stamina recharge by two percent per point. And judging by how you fight you already figured this out.
“Intelligence lets you remember more, think faster, and process the information gained by perception. It also increases mana capacity and recharge by two percent per point. Another thing you’ve probably figured out.
“Agility improves speed, dexterity, stealth, and it works in tandem with strength. Strength has a limit to how fast you can get so agility helps push you past that. It also increases stamina recharge by two percent per point.
“Charisma makes you more persuasive and look pretty or handsome or whatever.
“Wisdom works the same as intelligence but only improves the mana recharge by one point one percent per point.
“Soul you already know, but the one I don’t know anything about is luck. You’ll have to ask the gods about that. All that I do know about it is that it controls drop rates and how the environment reacts around you.” Ee explained quickly in her bored and disinterested tone.
Ford cocked her head in confusion, “Okay, I’ll ask a god about luck, but how does it affect the environment? Better question how does the environment react to someone?”
“Have you ever tripped on a rock?” Ee asked in response to Ford’s question.
“Yes.”
“There you go.”
Ford paused and thought about it for a moment. Then she slammed her fist against her palm as she realized what Ee was saying, “Oh, I get it now. The higher your luck the less likely you are to trip on a rock.”
Stolen novel; please report.
“Or makes it more likely,” Ee said as she pulled out her carving and continued widdling.
Ford felt more confused by this and decided to give up trying to understand it. Silence fell between them again and Ford summoned her Elemental blade. It had been bent and crushed to the point it couldn’t be repaired. Sucking her teeth, Ford rubbed her forehead as she looked at Ee for help, “Is it possible—”
“Not even a little,” Ee interrupted, “That is nothing more than a hunk of metal with magic.” Ford sighed and pulled up her skill tree.
Select Class
Labor selected
Select Sub-Class
Blacksmith selected
Select Route
Armor
Weapon
Enchanter
Soul Forger
Enchanter selected
Skills: Destroy, Transfer, Enchant, Quick Enchantment, Creation, Multi-enchantment items
Skill: Destroy. Destroy enchanted weapons, armor, or equipment to harvest their enchantment. If an item has more than one enchantment, only one enchantment is harvested. Requirement: INT: 30, WIS: 30. Cost: 100 MN. Level: 0/5.
Skill: Transfer. Transfer enchantments from destroyed enchanted weapons. Can only transfer one enchantment. Requirements: INT: 30, WIS: 30, Skill: Destroy. Cost: 100 MN. Level: 0/5.
Ford put one skill point into Destroy and Transfer and dispelled her sword for later. ‘I’ll have to destroy the sword and make a new one. Maybe even make a better one. Still sucks though,’ Ford thought, ‘Weapon-making skills will probably come in handy if I’m making weapons.’
Weapon Selected
New skills available
Skill: Metal Appraisal. Passive ability: be able to appraise a metal ore’s quality based on the ore’s weight, size, taste, feel, and sound. Also works on metals already used in weapons and be able to know the ratios of the metals used. Requirements: PER: 30, INT: 25, WIS: 25. Level: 0/5.
Skill: Quench. Use mana to quench metals after forging. Mana will take on different properties depending on the required mediums. Requirements: INT: 25, WIS: 25. Quenching Time: 1 min. Cost: Air quenching: 5 MN/sec, water quenching: 10 MN/sec, ice-water quenching: 15 MN/sec, oil quenching: 20 MN/sec, water and oil quenching: 30 MN/sec, ice-water and oil quenching: 50 MN/sec. Level: 0/10.
Skill: Hammer Maker. Passive ability: Gain the knowledge to forge simple hammers. Requirements: STR: 30, END: 30, PER: 30, INT: 30, WIS: 30, Skills: Quench, Metal Appraisal. Level: 0/5.
Skill: Knife Maker. Passive ability: Gain the knowledge to forge simple knives and daggers. Requirements: STR: 30, END: 30, PER: 30, INT: 30, WIS: 30, Skills: Quench, Metal Appraisal. Level: 0/5.
Skill: Spear Maker. Passive ability: Gain knowledge to forge simple spears and spear-like tools. Requirements: STR: 30, END: 30, PER: 30, INT: 30, WIS: 30, Skills: Quench, Metal Appraisal, Knife Maker. Level: 0/5.
Skill: Sword Maker. Passive ability: Gain knowledge to forge short swords. Requirements: STR: 30, END: 30, PER: 30, INT: 30, WIS: 30, Skills: Quench, Metal Appraisal, Knife Maker, Spear Maker. Level: 0/5.
Skill: Claymore Maker. Passive ability: Gain knowledge to forge claymore swords. Requirements: STR: 50, END: 50, PER: 50, INT: 50, WIS: 50, Skills: Quench Lvl: 10, Metal Appraisal Lvl: 5, Knife Maker Lvl: 5, Spear Maker Lvl: 5, Sword Maker Lvl: 5, Hammer Maker Lvl: 5. Level: 0/5.
There were more skills to read but Ford grimaced as she read the first few skills and all the requirements needed to make weapons. So she closed the window and asked, “So, if I were to get skills in weapon crafting how important is it to meet every requirement?”
Ee sighed, “If you’re planning on making weapons yourself, they are all very important, and the higher the skill level the higher the requirements. Honestly, it’s a point sink at the level that you’re at right now, so I suggest you wait till your weapons aren’t cutting it anymore.”
Ford nodded and sighed in disappointment and closed her skill tree, taking Ee’s advice, and decided to wait until she gets to a higher level. “Can we train up everything tomorrow?” Ford asked, out of the blue.
Ee, stopped widdling and looked Ford in the eyes, “What do you mean by everything?”
“I mean everything,” Ford emphasized, “Fighting skills, mana control, teamwork. Everything.”
An evil smile spread across Ee’s face as she answered, “We’ll have to do it the day after tomorrow, but I can help with that.”
Ford gulped audibly and nodded, “Thanks. I think.”
***