[ Jump Skill Level Up! Max Level Reached, Bonus Unlocked! Skill Evolution Available! Skill Unlocked: Air Control. 2 skill points gained. ]
She finally had definitive proof that her Jump training wasn't pointless! That was a lot of text in one popup though.
Aina? What does it mean by skill evolution?
"Certain skills can evolve into stronger skills when they hit max level. It is often not the only way to get those skills, as it is possible for them to get unlocked through levelling for certain classes or races, or via certain quests or achievements, but evolving a skill costs less skill points than buying it. There are some skills that can only be gained via evolution, at least at the moment. I'm sure the Wanderers will eventually figure out, and share that information."
She had some descriptions to look through, then. First she wanted to see what the bonus was.
[ Jump (Active): Lets you leap further than you're normally able to. Scales with Strength and Agility. The height, distance, and accuracy of the jump improves with skill level. Does minor damage if user lands on a target. Cost: 2 SP. Refresh: 5 seconds.
Max level bonus: Damage done by Jump is doubled. Evolution Available. ]
That probably wouldn't make a huge difference, but every little bit helped. She poked at the evolution button, and thankfully it brought up a description of what it would evolve into.
[ Leap (Active): Lets you leap further, and higher than you're normally able to. Scales with Strength, Agility, and Dexterity. The height, distance, and accuracy of the jump improves with skill level. Does minor damage if user lands on a target. Cost: 2 SP. Refresh: Whenever user's feet touch a surface, or a target. ]
[ Price: 1 skill point. Evolve: Yes/No ]
It didn't seem that different from Jump. They added Dexterity scaling, and it now also said 'higher', meaning it probably let her jump more vertically as well. Jump let her gain height, but mainly as part of a horizontal leap. She didn't get a lot of extra height from just jumping straight up.
Aina? Can you please explain the Refresh clause? I don't understand.
"The big upgrade from Jump to Leap is that whenever your feet touch something, you are able to immediately perform another Leap, and chain them consecutively. This is hard to master, but if you can get a hang of it, you can do some incredible acrobatic feats."
Sara wasn't sure whether she could actually pull off something like that, but it didn't seem like she was losing anything from evolving the skill. Except the damage bonus from max level. So she hit the Yes button.
[ Jump Skill Evolved Into Leap Skill! ]
She nodded to herself as she confirmed it on the skill list.
Eh? Level 1?
"Yes. Evolving a skill puts it back at level 1. But the improvements to distance and control that Leap offers are higher than those of Jump, so although it will initially put you a little behind, you will come out better in the end. At level 4 you should be back to your old power at Max Jump, thanks to the increased scaling."
So there was a real cost to upgrading. She supposed that meant that Jump training wasn't complete after all. It had just changed to Leap training.
Finally there was the new skill.
[ Air Control (Passive): Allows the user a certain amount of air control, letting them direct their own falls, even against the momentum of their initial jump, or fall. Can not slow down falls, only change the trajectory. Effect increases with skill level. Price: 4 skill points. ]
That was a pretty basic ability in a lot of non-VR games, but it hadn't occurred to her that she lacked it in Moorhold. The fact that she was actually in the world probably made her expect it to function closer to reality, and moving around in the air to change where you would land was not something people could typically do back on Earth. She had seen people in videos doing parachute jumps who could swim around in the air to an extent, but that was during a really long fall. Not while simply falling a handful of metres.
It was expensive, but she had a feeling this one was worth it.
[ Skill Purchased: Air Control. ]
Bye bye, 4 skill points. I will miss you.
She double-checked that it went into her concealed section, and then set out to stalk some goblins.
* * *
On the way out she sensed another deer, and entered Stealth so she could have a closer look. Time to familiarise herself with what it had.
[ Forest Deer (Druid Lvl 17) HP: 135/135 ]
[ Active: ]
[ Kick Lvl 9 | Impale Lvl 9 | Stomp Lvl 7 | Thorn Bind Lvl 7 | Mass Thorn Bind Lvl 7 | Growth Lvl 7 | Rejuvenate Lvl 7 ]
[ Passive: ]
[ Night Vision Lvl 9 | Keen Ears Lvl 7 | Insulation Lvl 7 | Pursuit Lvl 7 | Camouflage Lvl 4 | Vitality Up (Small) Lvl 6 |
Strength Up (Small) Lvl 6 | Defence Up (Small) Lvl 6 ]
She had managed to get three skills the day before, which meant there were four more to inspect.
[ Impale (Active): Performs a thrust with a pointed object like a spear, horn, tusks, or something equivalent. Damage value: 1.3+(0.5*skill level)*attack power. Defence piercing: 20+(1*skill level)%. Guaranteed critical hit if a vital spot is pierced. Cost: 6 SP. Cast time: 1 second. Refresh: 12 seconds. (Ai-note: You do not possess anything suitably pointy, so this skill will be disabled.) ]
It seemed like pointy antlers fell under 'something equivalent'. So blunt antlers probably wouldn't work for this.
[ Stomp (Active): Stomps the ground with your feet, or something equivalent, causing a small shockwave that pushes nearby enemies away, and deals light damage to anyone struck. Area of effect radius: 2 metres. Damage value: 0.15+(0.01*skill level)*attack power. Radius, and push force increase with skill level. Cost: 5 SP. Refresh: 10 seconds. ]
No special note attached to this one, meaning Sara would be able to use it. Having an AoE attack would be useful, but she wasn't sure if this one was worth going for. Especially considering the effort it took to kill these deer.
[ Thorn Bind (Active): Thorny vines shoot up from the ground, and bind a target for 10 seconds. Nature element property. Vines can be destroyed. Vine strength increases with skill level. Thorns deal light damage to bound target. Damage value: (1*skill level)% of target's Max HP every 2 seconds. Cost: 5 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 5 seconds. (Ai-note: Your current form is unable to use magic, so this skill will be disabled.) ]
[ Mass Thorn Bind (Active): Thorny vines shoot up from the ground around you, binding up to 10 nearby opponents for 6 seconds. Nature element property. Vines can be destroyed. Area of effect radius: 2 metres. Radius, max targets, and vine strength increase with skill level. Thorns deal very light damage to bound targets. Damage value: (0.5*skill level)% of target's Max HP every 2 seconds. Cost 10 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 20 seconds. (Ai-note: Your current form is unable to use magic, so this skill will be disabled.) ]
Two different forms of the same spell. Considering their main enemies were wolf packs, and player parties, it made sense that the deer would have the AoE version. That was the only one she had seen them use.
[ Growth (Active): Increases target's attack power for 10 seconds. Duration increases with skill level. Buff value: 30+(2*skill level)%. Cost: 5 MP. Cast time: 2 seconds. Refresh: 30 seconds. (Ai-note: Your current form is unable to use magic, so this skill will be disabled.) ]
That was probably what had made the deer's eyes glow yellow.
[ Pursuit (Passive): Increases holder's Strength, Agility, and Critical Hit chance when attacking a target that is running away. Buff value: 10+(1*skill level)%. ]
That was nasty. So trying to escape this thing was even worse than fighting it.
While Stomp and Pursuit looked useful, she would be rolling the dice on whether she got those, or one of the ones she couldn't use if she hunted more of these deer. She wondered at what point she might be strong enough to fight one of them on her own. Maybe she had access to better things when she got that far. At least she had gotten two useful (and one that might be useful in the future) skills from it.
She shook her head a little as she moved on towards the goblin camp.
* * *
[ Identify Skill Level Up! ]
After scanning an [ Antidote Herb (Medium Quality) ] she suddenly got that popup.
That makes it level 7, right? I wonder what that unlocks.
There was one of the owls up in a nearby tree, so she decided to test it out on that.
[ Forest Owl (Fighter Lvl 14) HP: 66/66 ]
She couldn't spot anything new. The additional information buttons were still just Target Status, and Skill List. Nothing looked different in either of those. No new bars were available.
Then she remembered she could just look at Identify's skill description to see what it had unlocked.
[ Identify (General): Lets you see information about targets and items you focus on. Higher skill levels increase range, and unlock more information.
Level 1: Target's race/species name, level, and HP bar. Item's name.
Level 2: Target's class.
Level 3: Target's SP and MP bars. Item's general quality.
Level 4: Numerical values for HP, SP, and MP bars. Able to assess quality of uncommon items.
Level 5: Target's Status screen, and occupation.
Level 6: Target's Skill List.
Level 7: Target's Equipment screen. Able to assess quality of rare items. ]
Ah. Mobs don't have equipment, so that's why I can't see anything, I suppose.
However the goblins she was on her way to scout out were Residents. They should have equipment for her to look at.
* * *
The clearing around the goblin camp looked quite different during the day. The area was somewhat bowl-shaped, with the camp itself sitting at the bottom. She wasn't exactly an expert at strategic construction, but she thought it would have been smarter to set it on a hill. Maybe it had been designed that way to let the... Adventurers get a look into the camp if they found a vantage point. But wouldn't it make the camp vulnerable to flooding, or someone rolling a boulder, or a battering ram downhill? Actually, the hill wasn't that steep, so it might not be an issue, but at the very least it made it a little more vulnerable to ranged weapons. Probably.
With her Keen Eyes at such a high level, Sara could basically see the entire clearing from the bush she was hiding in. There were quite a lot of goblins milling about. All sorts of them, too. There was every type that had come to attack her the other day, and they didn't seem to be doing much aside from patrolling, or standing around.
Though as she kept watching, she realised that wasn't entirely true. There were some who were chopping at a couple of the trees at the edge of the clearing. Logger had been one of the occupations she had seen. She wondered whether that meant the clearing was slowly expanding, or whether the trees they cut down respawned. There were several tree stumps around the clearing signalling that there used to be forest all around, but it was possible the area was designed this way from the start, and any further expansion was impossible. Either that, or the goblins would eventually cut down the entire forest if left alone for too long. Maybe that was what Aina had meant about them needing to be driven out at some point.
She also noticed a party of goblins heading into the woods on the other side of the area. Likely to hunt. Another party followed about half an hour later. There were a lot of goblins to feed, after all. No one seemed to be going into this side, though. Maybe they didn't like the west side any more than the Adventurers did.
Suddenly there was a flurry of hurried movement towards the... south side? To her right, at least. As best she could tell a party of Adventurers had shown up, and several goblins were heading over to fight them. That had to be part of why there were so many of them just walking around. So players had a chance to pick them off for their quests.
Dammit! Wanderers! Adventurers! Ugh, I hope I get myself adjusted before I learn to speak again.
Well, whatever they were up to, it didn't really concern her. She had done enough observing, so it was time to have a closer look at some of these goblins. There were ones that were close enough to the forest that she didn't have to sneak into the clearing to use Identify.
[ Goblin Lookout (Scout Lvl 16) HP: 68/68 ]
That was likely the type that had spotted her, and alerted the others. Its stats looked to be on the low side, but if this followed fantasy conventions, then goblins were more about strength in numbers rather than individual strength.
[ Active: ]
[ Stab Lvl 7 | Kick Lvl 6 | Back Attack Lvl 6 | Throw Lvl 5 | Snare Net Trap Lvl 4 | Sprint Lvl 5 | Mark Lvl 5 | Stealth Lvl 5 |
Sense Presence Lvl 5 | Tracking Lvl 5 ]
[ Passive: ]
[ Night Vision Lvl 8 | Keen Eyes Lvl 8 | Climb Lvl 3 | Dagger Expertise Lvl 5 | Agility Up (Small) Lvl 6 ]
[ General: ]
[ Identify Lvl 5 | Languages: Common, Goblin ]
Finally seeing someone else with General skills felt a little weird, yet exciting. She wondered if Identify was just a basic skill for all Residents and Wanderers, or if it was related to the goblin being a Scout. There were overall less skills than she had expected.
Aina? Do Residents not have access to the skill store?
"They do, but bandits like these goblins do not have a lot of opportunities to gain skill points, so they will typically not have as many skills as adventurers do. The same is true for most non-adventurer Residents."
And Residents can gain experience, right? Won't these goblins eventually spiral out of control?
"There is a slight danger of that, but there are three factors that mitigate the risk. First off they will lose experience when they die. This is true for all Residents and Wanderers above level 10. The developers did set a cap that Residents cannot be put below the level they were created as, so even if the entire area got frequently raided, and wiped out, the goblins would remain at their minimum level. Wanderers cannot be put back below level 10, but for Residents the level varies. The second factor is that experience gain drops off the higher the level difference is. So eventually the goblins would gain very little, if any experience from the forest creatures. Third is that Wanderers do not give experience when they are killed. So even if the goblins kept wiping the floor with them, they would not grow any stronger from it. With the exception of skill experience. While they have not gotten there yet, I expect all these goblins will have max level skills after a while."
That sounds like it could be an issue for new Adventurers in the future.
"Indeed, but we would have to radically alter the way Moorhold works in order to address this issue, which might not be possible without starting over from scratch. I have repeatedly suggested to the development team that they should find some way to address the issue of Wanderers not giving experience points while Residents do. I understand that they do not want to encourage PK activity, but those people can just level up by targeting Resident Adventurers instead of Wanderers. And it goes against their mission statement of wanting Wanderers and Residents to be equal in this world. Convenience does not always equal fairness."
Sometimes Sara wondered if Aina appreciated having someone she could vent to about these things. Or maybe there was someone on the development team she had a similar relationship with, so it wasn't just Sara. That made her feel a little sad for some reason.
No, stop it, Sara. Aina is allowed to have friends, she chided herself. You don't have to be special. People can have many friends! So you're still friends! You're still... family.
She paused for a minute to consider yet again how she felt about calling Aina 'mother'. She wasn't sure if she was ready yet. 'Yet'... thinking that surprised herself a little. Did that mean she would eventually be okay with it? If only it wasn't so hard to understand one's own thoughts and feelings.
Shaking off her moodiness, she decided to get back to what she was doing. There were a few new skills to examine.
[ Stab (Active): Attack by stabbing with a bladed weapon. Damage value: 1+(0.03*skill level)*attack power. More efficient with a small weapon like a dagger, or short sword. Cost: 1 SP. Refresh: 2 seconds. (Ai-note: You cannot use weapons, so this skill will be disabled.) ]
Seemed like a basic attack skill a la her own Bite.
[ Snare Net Trap (Active): Allows user to set a snare net trap that hoists targets into the air via a net. Does no damage. Trap duration: Until triggered, broken, or disarmed. Net duration: Until broken, or released. Requires trap materials. Setup time: 3 minutes. Setup time decreases with skill level. (Ai-note: Traps cannot be set without hands, or something equally dexterous, so this skill will be disabled.) ]
Traps were something she hadn't thought about before now. She wondered if any of her skills would help her spot them, but there might not be any in the west forest. Hopefully she wouldn't find out the hard way.
[ Mark (Active): Marks a target, making them visible to all allies within a 25 metre radius, for 30 seconds. Duration increases with skill level. Allies deal increased damage against marked target. Buff value: (2*skill level)%. Cost: 3 MP. Refresh: 10 seconds. ]
That was a troublesome ability, especially once it approached max level. Hopefully that was level 10, since a 20% damage increase was bad enough.
[ Tracking (Active): Able to visualise, and more easily follow the tracks of other beings. Continuous effect. User is better able to notice physical evidence of someone's passing, for instance foot prints, disturbed scenery, broken twigs, and so on. Effect increases, and SP drain decreases with skill level. Activation Cost: 5 SP. Slowly drains SP while active. Deactivation Cost: 0. Refresh: 5 seconds. ]
She had been afraid that there would be something like that in the game.
[ Dagger Expertise (Passive): Increases attack power while wielding a dagger. Buff value: (2*skill level)%. (Ai-note: You cannot use weapons, so this skill will be disabled.) ]
Sara kinda wished she had a claw efficiency skill, or something along those lines.
[ Languages (General): Holder can understand, and speak the following languages. Dialects, and accents may vary. ]
That one was pretty self-explanatory. Though considering she had been able to understand what the Adventurers she had encountered were saying, she probably had an innate understanding of common. Or maybe she just understood languages she had heard in her previous life.
As for the Equipment screen, she didn't find anything too exciting. It was nice to learn how many equipment slots there were. Head, face, torso, hands, shoulders (for cloaks and such), waist, legs, and feet for gear. Main and off-hand for weapons. And then a lot of accessory slots, mainly for rings. It was possible to equip a ring on each finger, even though that seemed like it could be quite uncomfortable depending on what size and shape they were. In VR games you could actually feel what you were wearing, after all. Otherwise there were the standard slots of necklace, bracelet, and ear rings. There were also some slots on the belt, presumably to hold tools or items for quick use.
The equipment itself seemed quite generic. Armour made from hemp cloth, wolf leather, and boar leather. An iron dagger. Throwing knives. A potion. No accessories. Though she couldn't see what was in his inventory.
With all that out of the way, it was time for some righteous murder. But how to go about it... with no Danger Sense, and Sense Presence so low, it was unlikely the goblin would discover her in Stealth, but he might still alert someone else before she could kill him. Even with her improved stats, and the extra levels she got in Ambush the day before, she did not think she would be able to kill him in one shot.
It was very close to the woods though, so she might be able to do a quick kill, and then zip back in before anyone could spot her. With her improved Danger Sense she might even be able to avoid any spells flung her way. And even if she got caught, it wasn't that far back here, so long as she avoided getting distracted.
With her mind made up, she snuck out from the bushes. The goblin was distracted looking in the direction of the adventurer party, and the fight going on there. Maybe wondering if he should go help, though it was pretty far away. She slowly crept closer, and then... Ambush!
"Gak!" The goblin uttered a startled, pained shout, but Sara didn't have time to check if anyone had heard it. She followed up with a quick Body Slam to knock her staggered target off his feet, and finished it with a Bite to the neck before she bolted high-speed back into the woods. There were a couple of hot pings from Danger Sense, but she got back into the bushes before anyone could hit her with anything. Once she was safely back in Stealth, she took the time to look at the popups.
[ Goblin Lookout (Scout Lvl 16) Defeated.]
[ Skill Gained: Snare Net Trap. ]
[ Skill Gained: Languages. ]
[ Languages Learned: Common, Goblin. ]
Huh? Two skills at once?
"Interesting. Since I only designed part of the skill, I was not aware that was possible. I do not have direct insight into what Norax contributed, but I know it would not have been possible without them. Their, for lack of a better term, divine influence was able to alter the system in ways that would not have been possible for me alone. It might even be beyond the developers. Perhaps that is where your high Luck attribute comes in. Or perhaps it has a strong inclination towards giving you general skills, since it included both Common, and Goblin. Since you are yet unable to speak, normal procedure would be to disable the skill, but I will elect to hide it instead. I believe it would be helpful for you to understand what they are saying, even if you cannot reply."
It did sound helpful. Presumably she was then able to learn the other races' languages by killing one of their kind. Even if they respawned, that seemed a bit morbid unless she had good cause. In this case the goblins had attacked first! She couldn't really claim that about all the mobs she had hunted, though... maybe this world had made her too callous. Death was too easy.
But it was not helpful to think like that.
Come to think of it, she had felt something go into her inventory. While she had gotten pretty good at ignoring this feeling, this was the first time she'd gotten a drop from a Resident, so she was curious what it was. Filtering her inventory by recent additions revealed... a pair of hemp trousers!
Wait... um... Aina? Does this mean the goblin is going to respawn bare-assed?
"No, thankfully not. The drops come from a loot table of similar items to what the Resident has equipped, plus some other useful items, and materials. You do not get the literal item they were wearing. Also the loot table does not automatically update if a Resident equips better items. Say for instance they find a really powerful weapon. The system is not about to start copying that as a drop, unless the developers themselves decide it should be so. If enough members of a group like this have upgraded their gear, I am granted authority to update the loot table of my own accord, but otherwise the developers themselves have to fiddle with such things. You should have also gotten your first bit of currency."
Aina was correct, as a separate field in the bottom right of her inventory screen displayed a 1 next to a silver coin, and 66 next to a copper (or bronze) coin. That was all quite interesting, but not useful in Sara's current state.
The trap skill also didn't do her any good, so she'd better get back to it. She wanted to see what other types of goblins she could find. Aside from Mark, there wasn't anything she truly wanted from the Scouts. Tracking might be nice, but neither Stab nor Dagger Expertise would do her any good. She wasn't sure if she wanted to use daggers when she became a Resident either. Never really been her thing in games before. And she had zero weapon training from her previous life.
Then again, she had zero claw training as well.
Too many skills, and too much of a gamble of whether or not I'll get the ones I want. Though if my Luck stat actually has an influence on what I'll get... what is it at now? 72. Well, I might as well try, and see what happens.
She had something resembling a plan, or at least something she could test out.
[ Jump Skill Level Up! Max Level Reached, Bonus Unlocked! Skill Evolution Available! Skill Unlocked: Air Control. 2 skill points gained. ]
She finally had definitive proof that her Jump training wasn't pointless! That was a lot of text in one popup though.
Aina? What does it mean by skill evolution?
"Certain skills can evolve into stronger skills when they hit max level. It is often not the only way to get those skills, as it is possible for them to get unlocked through levelling for certain classes or races, or via certain quests or achievements, but evolving a skill costs less skill points than buying it. There are some skills that can only be gained via evolution, at least at the moment. I'm sure the Wanderers will eventually figure out, and share that information."
She had some descriptions to look through, then. First she wanted to see what the bonus was.
[ Jump (Active): Lets you leap further than you're normally able to. Scales with Strength and Agility. The height, distance, and accuracy of the jump improves with skill level. Does minor damage if user lands on a target. Cost: 2 SP. Refresh: 5 seconds.
Max level bonus: Damage done by Jump is doubled. Evolution Available. ]
That probably wouldn't make a huge difference, but every little bit helped. She poked at the evolution button, and thankfully it brought up a description of what it would evolve into.
[ Leap (Active): Lets you leap further, and higher than you're normally able to. Scales with Strength, Agility, and Dexterity. The height, distance, and accuracy of the jump improves with skill level. Does minor damage if user lands on a target. Cost: 2 SP. Refresh: Whenever user's feet touch a surface, or a target. ]
[ Price: 1 skill point. Evolve: Yes/No ]
It didn't seem that different from Jump. They added Dexterity scaling, and it now also said 'higher', meaning it probably let her jump more vertically as well. Jump let her gain height, but mainly as part of a horizontal leap. She didn't get a lot of extra height from just jumping straight up.
Aina? Can you please explain the Refresh clause? I don't understand.
"The big upgrade from Jump to Leap is that whenever your feet touch something, you are able to immediately perform another Leap, and chain them consecutively. This is hard to master, but if you can get a hang of it, you can do some incredible acrobatic feats."
Sara wasn't sure whether she could actually pull off something like that, but it didn't seem like she was losing anything from evolving the skill. Except the damage bonus from max level. So she hit the Yes button.
[ Jump Skill Evolved Into Leap Skill! ]
She nodded to herself as she confirmed it on the skill list.
Eh? Level 1?
"Yes. Evolving a skill puts it back at level 1. But the improvements to distance and control that Leap offers are higher than those of Jump, so although it will initially put you a little behind, you will come out better in the end. At level 4 you should be back to your old power at Max Jump, thanks to the increased scaling."
So there was a real cost to upgrading. She supposed that meant that Jump training wasn't complete after all. It had just changed to Leap training.
Finally there was the new skill.
[ Air Control (Passive): Allows the user a certain amount of air control, letting them direct their own falls, even against the momentum of their initial jump, or fall. Can not slow down falls, only change the trajectory. Effect increases with skill level. Price: 4 skill points. ]
That was a pretty basic ability in a lot of non-VR games, but it hadn't occurred to her that she lacked it in Moorhold. The fact that she was actually in the world probably made her expect it to function closer to reality, and moving around in the air to change where you would land was not something people could typically do back on Earth. She had seen people in videos doing parachute jumps who could swim around in the air to an extent, but that was during a really long fall. Not while simply falling a handful of metres.
It was expensive, but she had a feeling this one was worth it.
[ Skill Purchased: Air Control. ]
Bye bye, 4 skill points. I will miss you.
She double-checked that it went into her concealed section, and then set out to stalk some goblins.
* * *
On the way out she sensed another deer, and entered Stealth so she could have a closer look. Time to familiarise herself with what it had.
[ Forest Deer (Druid Lvl 17) HP: 135/135 ]
[ Active: ]
[ Kick Lvl 9 | Impale Lvl 9 | Stomp Lvl 7 | Thorn Bind Lvl 7 | Mass Thorn Bind Lvl 7 | Growth Lvl 7 | Rejuvenate Lvl 7 ]
[ Passive: ]
[ Night Vision Lvl 9 | Keen Ears Lvl 7 | Insulation Lvl 7 | Pursuit Lvl 7 | Camouflage Lvl 4 | Vitality Up (Small) Lvl 6 |
Strength Up (Small) Lvl 6 | Defence Up (Small) Lvl 6 ]
She had managed to get three skills the day before, which meant there were four more to inspect.
[ Impale (Active): Performs a thrust with a pointed object like a spear, horn, tusks, or something equivalent. Damage value: 1.3+(0.5*skill level)*attack power. Defence piercing: 20+(1*skill level)%. Guaranteed critical hit if a vital spot is pierced. Cost: 6 SP. Cast time: 1 second. Refresh: 12 seconds. (Ai-note: You do not possess anything suitably pointy, so this skill will be disabled.) ]
It seemed like pointy antlers fell under 'something equivalent'. So blunt antlers probably wouldn't work for this.
[ Stomp (Active): Stomps the ground with your feet, or something equivalent, causing a small shockwave that pushes nearby enemies away, and deals light damage to anyone struck. Area of effect radius: 2 metres. Damage value: 0.15+(0.01*skill level)*attack power. Radius, and push force increase with skill level. Cost: 5 SP. Refresh: 10 seconds. ]
No special note attached to this one, meaning Sara would be able to use it. Having an AoE attack would be useful, but she wasn't sure if this one was worth going for. Especially considering the effort it took to kill these deer.
[ Thorn Bind (Active): Thorny vines shoot up from the ground, and bind a target for 10 seconds. Nature element property. Vines can be destroyed. Vine strength increases with skill level. Thorns deal light damage to bound target. Damage value: (1*skill level)% of target's Max HP every 2 seconds. Cost: 5 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 5 seconds. (Ai-note: Your current form is unable to use magic, so this skill will be disabled.) ]
[ Mass Thorn Bind (Active): Thorny vines shoot up from the ground around you, binding up to 10 nearby opponents for 6 seconds. Nature element property. Vines can be destroyed. Area of effect radius: 2 metres. Radius, max targets, and vine strength increase with skill level. Thorns deal very light damage to bound targets. Damage value: (0.5*skill level)% of target's Max HP every 2 seconds. Cost 10 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 20 seconds. (Ai-note: Your current form is unable to use magic, so this skill will be disabled.) ]
Two different forms of the same spell. Considering their main enemies were wolf packs, and player parties, it made sense that the deer would have the AoE version. That was the only one she had seen them use.
[ Growth (Active): Increases target's attack power for 10 seconds. Duration increases with skill level. Buff value: 30+(2*skill level)%. Cost: 5 MP. Cast time: 2 seconds. Refresh: 30 seconds. (Ai-note: Your current form is unable to use magic, so this skill will be disabled.) ]
That was probably what had made the deer's eyes glow yellow.
[ Pursuit (Passive): Increases holder's Strength, Agility, and Critical Hit chance when attacking a target that is running away. Buff value: 10+(1*skill level)%. ]
That was nasty. So trying to escape this thing was even worse than fighting it.
While Stomp and Pursuit looked useful, she would be rolling the dice on whether she got those, or one of the ones she couldn't use if she hunted more of these deer. She wondered at what point she might be strong enough to fight one of them on her own. Maybe she had access to better things when she got that far. At least she had gotten two useful (and one that might be useful in the future) skills from it.
She shook her head a little as she moved on towards the goblin camp.
* * *
[ Identify Skill Level Up! ]
After scanning an [ Antidote Herb (Medium Quality) ] she suddenly got that popup.
That makes it level 7, right? I wonder what that unlocks.
There was one of the owls up in a nearby tree, so she decided to test it out on that.
[ Forest Owl (Fighter Lvl 14) HP: 66/66 ]
She couldn't spot anything new. The additional information buttons were still just Target Status, and Skill List. Nothing looked different in either of those. No new bars were available.
Then she remembered she could just look at Identify's skill description to see what it had unlocked.
[ Identify (General): Lets you see information about targets and items you focus on. Higher skill levels increase range, and unlock more information.
Level 1: Target's race/species name, level, and HP bar. Item's name.
Level 2: Target's class.
Level 3: Target's SP and MP bars. Item's general quality.
Level 4: Numerical values for HP, SP, and MP bars. Able to assess quality of uncommon items.
Level 5: Target's Status screen, and occupation.
Level 6: Target's Skill List.
Level 7: Target's Equipment screen. Able to assess quality of rare items. ]
Ah. Mobs don't have equipment, so that's why I can't see anything, I suppose.
However the goblins she was on her way to scout out were Residents. They should have equipment for her to look at.
* * *
The clearing around the goblin camp looked quite different during the day. The area was somewhat bowl-shaped, with the camp itself sitting at the bottom. She wasn't exactly an expert at strategic construction, but she thought it would have been smarter to set it on a hill. Maybe it had been designed that way to let the... Adventurers get a look into the camp if they found a vantage point. But wouldn't it make the camp vulnerable to flooding, or someone rolling a boulder, or a battering ram downhill? Actually, the hill wasn't that steep, so it might not be an issue, but at the very least it made it a little more vulnerable to ranged weapons. Probably.
With her Keen Eyes at such a high level, Sara could basically see the entire clearing from the bush she was hiding in. There were quite a lot of goblins milling about. All sorts of them, too. There was every type that had come to attack her the other day, and they didn't seem to be doing much aside from patrolling, or standing around.
Though as she kept watching, she realised that wasn't entirely true. There were some who were chopping at a couple of the trees at the edge of the clearing. Logger had been one of the occupations she had seen. She wondered whether that meant the clearing was slowly expanding, or whether the trees they cut down respawned. There were several tree stumps around the clearing signalling that there used to be forest all around, but it was possible the area was designed this way from the start, and any further expansion was impossible. Either that, or the goblins would eventually cut down the entire forest if left alone for too long. Maybe that was what Aina had meant about them needing to be driven out at some point.
She also noticed a party of goblins heading into the woods on the other side of the area. Likely to hunt. Another party followed about half an hour later. There were a lot of goblins to feed, after all. No one seemed to be going into this side, though. Maybe they didn't like the west side any more than the Adventurers did.
Suddenly there was a flurry of hurried movement towards the... south side? To her right, at least. As best she could tell a party of Adventurers had shown up, and several goblins were heading over to fight them. That had to be part of why there were so many of them just walking around. So players had a chance to pick them off for their quests.
Dammit! Wanderers! Adventurers! Ugh, I hope I get myself adjusted before I learn to speak again.
Well, whatever they were up to, it didn't really concern her. She had done enough observing, so it was time to have a closer look at some of these goblins. There were ones that were close enough to the forest that she didn't have to sneak into the clearing to use Identify.
[ Goblin Lookout (Scout Lvl 16) HP: 68/68 ]
That was likely the type that had spotted her, and alerted the others. Its stats looked to be on the low side, but if this followed fantasy conventions, then goblins were more about strength in numbers rather than individual strength.
[ Active: ]
[ Stab Lvl 7 | Kick Lvl 6 | Back Attack Lvl 6 | Throw Lvl 5 | Snare Net Trap Lvl 4 | Sprint Lvl 5 | Mark Lvl 5 | Stealth Lvl 5 |
Sense Presence Lvl 5 | Tracking Lvl 5 ]
[ Passive: ]
[ Night Vision Lvl 8 | Keen Eyes Lvl 8 | Climb Lvl 3 | Dagger Expertise Lvl 5 | Agility Up (Small) Lvl 6 ]
[ General: ]
[ Identify Lvl 5 | Languages: Common, Goblin ]
Finally seeing someone else with General skills felt a little weird, yet exciting. She wondered if Identify was just a basic skill for all Residents and Wanderers, or if it was related to the goblin being a Scout. There were overall less skills than she had expected.
Aina? Do Residents not have access to the skill store?
"They do, but bandits like these goblins do not have a lot of opportunities to gain skill points, so they will typically not have as many skills as adventurers do. The same is true for most non-adventurer Residents."
And Residents can gain experience, right? Won't these goblins eventually spiral out of control?
"There is a slight danger of that, but there are three factors that mitigate the risk. First off they will lose experience when they die. This is true for all Residents and Wanderers above level 10. The developers did set a cap that Residents cannot be put below the level they were created as, so even if the entire area got frequently raided, and wiped out, the goblins would remain at their minimum level. Wanderers cannot be put back below level 10, but for Residents the level varies. The second factor is that experience gain drops off the higher the level difference is. So eventually the goblins would gain very little, if any experience from the forest creatures. Third is that Wanderers do not give experience when they are killed. So even if the goblins kept wiping the floor with them, they would not grow any stronger from it. With the exception of skill experience. While they have not gotten there yet, I expect all these goblins will have max level skills after a while."
That sounds like it could be an issue for new Adventurers in the future.
"Indeed, but we would have to radically alter the way Moorhold works in order to address this issue, which might not be possible without starting over from scratch. I have repeatedly suggested to the development team that they should find some way to address the issue of Wanderers not giving experience points while Residents do. I understand that they do not want to encourage PK activity, but those people can just level up by targeting Resident Adventurers instead of Wanderers. And it goes against their mission statement of wanting Wanderers and Residents to be equal in this world. Convenience does not always equal fairness."
Sometimes Sara wondered if Aina appreciated having someone she could vent to about these things. Or maybe there was someone on the development team she had a similar relationship with, so it wasn't just Sara. That made her feel a little sad for some reason.
No, stop it, Sara. Aina is allowed to have friends, she chided herself. You don't have to be special. People can have many friends! So you're still friends! You're still... family.
She paused for a minute to consider yet again how she felt about calling Aina 'mother'. She wasn't sure if she was ready yet. 'Yet'... thinking that surprised herself a little. Did that mean she would eventually be okay with it? If only it wasn't so hard to understand one's own thoughts and feelings.
Shaking off her moodiness, she decided to get back to what she was doing. There were a few new skills to examine.
[ Stab (Active): Attack by stabbing with a bladed weapon. Damage value: 1+(0.03*skill level)*attack power. More efficient with a small weapon like a dagger, or short sword. Cost: 1 SP. Refresh: 2 seconds. (Ai-note: You cannot use weapons, so this skill will be disabled.) ]
Seemed like a basic attack skill a la her own Bite.
[ Snare Net Trap (Active): Allows user to set a snare net trap that hoists targets into the air via a net. Does no damage. Trap duration: Until triggered, broken, or disarmed. Net duration: Until broken, or released. Requires trap materials. Setup time: 3 minutes. Setup time decreases with skill level. (Ai-note: Traps cannot be set without hands, or something equally dexterous, so this skill will be disabled.) ]
Traps were something she hadn't thought about before now. She wondered if any of her skills would help her spot them, but there might not be any in the west forest. Hopefully she wouldn't find out the hard way.
[ Mark (Active): Marks a target, making them visible to all allies within a 25 metre radius, for 30 seconds. Duration increases with skill level. Allies deal increased damage against marked target. Buff value: (2*skill level)%. Cost: 3 MP. Refresh: 10 seconds. ]
That was a troublesome ability, especially once it approached max level. Hopefully that was level 10, since a 20% damage increase was bad enough.
[ Tracking (Active): Able to visualise, and more easily follow the tracks of other beings. Continuous effect. User is better able to notice physical evidence of someone's passing, for instance foot prints, disturbed scenery, broken twigs, and so on. Effect increases, and SP drain decreases with skill level. Activation Cost: 5 SP. Slowly drains SP while active. Deactivation Cost: 0. Refresh: 5 seconds. ]
She had been afraid that there would be something like that in the game.
[ Dagger Expertise (Passive): Increases attack power while wielding a dagger. Buff value: (2*skill level)%. (Ai-note: You cannot use weapons, so this skill will be disabled.) ]
Sara kinda wished she had a claw efficiency skill, or something along those lines.
[ Languages (General): Holder can understand, and speak the following languages. Dialects, and accents may vary. ]
That one was pretty self-explanatory. Though considering she had been able to understand what the Adventurers she had encountered were saying, she probably had an innate understanding of common. Or maybe she just understood languages she had heard in her previous life.
As for the Equipment screen, she didn't find anything too exciting. It was nice to learn how many equipment slots there were. Head, face, torso, hands, shoulders (for cloaks and such), waist, legs, and feet for gear. Main and off-hand for weapons. And then a lot of accessory slots, mainly for rings. It was possible to equip a ring on each finger, even though that seemed like it could be quite uncomfortable depending on what size and shape they were. In VR games you could actually feel what you were wearing, after all. Otherwise there were the standard slots of necklace, bracelet, and ear rings. There were also some slots on the belt, presumably to hold tools or items for quick use.
The equipment itself seemed quite generic. Armour made from hemp cloth, wolf leather, and boar leather. An iron dagger. Throwing knives. A potion. No accessories. Though she couldn't see what was in his inventory.
With all that out of the way, it was time for some righteous murder. But how to go about it... with no Danger Sense, and Sense Presence so low, it was unlikely the goblin would discover her in Stealth, but he might still alert someone else before she could kill him. Even with her improved stats, and the extra levels she got in Ambush the day before, she did not think she would be able to kill him in one shot.
It was very close to the woods though, so she might be able to do a quick kill, and then zip back in before anyone could spot her. With her improved Danger Sense she might even be able to avoid any spells flung her way. And even if she got caught, it wasn't that far back here, so long as she avoided getting distracted.
With her mind made up, she snuck out from the bushes. The goblin was distracted looking in the direction of the adventurer party, and the fight going on there. Maybe wondering if he should go help, though it was pretty far away. She slowly crept closer, and then... Ambush!
"Gak!" The goblin uttered a startled, pained shout, but Sara didn't have time to check if anyone had heard it. She followed up with a quick Body Slam to knock her staggered target off his feet, and finished it with a Bite to the neck before she bolted high-speed back into the woods. There were a couple of hot pings from Danger Sense, but she got back into the bushes before anyone could hit her with anything. Once she was safely back in Stealth, she took the time to look at the popups.
[ Goblin Lookout (Scout Lvl 16) Defeated.]
[ Skill Gained: Snare Net Trap. ]
[ Skill Gained: Languages. ]
[ Languages Learned: Common, Goblin. ]
Huh? Two skills at once?
"Interesting. Since I only designed part of the skill, I was not aware that was possible. I do not have direct insight into what Norax contributed, but I know it would not have been possible without them. Their, for lack of a better term, divine influence was able to alter the system in ways that would not have been possible for me alone. It might even be beyond the developers. Perhaps that is where your high Luck attribute comes in. Or perhaps it has a strong inclination towards giving you general skills, since it included both Common, and Goblin. Since you are yet unable to speak, normal procedure would be to disable the skill, but I will elect to hide it instead. I believe it would be helpful for you to understand what they are saying, even if you cannot reply."
It did sound helpful. Presumably she was then able to learn the other races' languages by killing one of their kind. Even if they respawned, that seemed a bit morbid unless she had good cause. In this case the goblins had attacked first! She couldn't really claim that about all the mobs she had hunted, though... maybe this world had made her too callous. Death was too easy.
But it was not helpful to think like that.
Come to think of it, she had felt something go into her inventory. While she had gotten pretty good at ignoring this feeling, this was the first time she'd gotten a drop from a Resident, so she was curious what it was. Filtering her inventory by recent additions revealed... a pair of hemp trousers!
Wait... um... Aina? Does this mean the goblin is going to respawn bare-assed?
"No, thankfully not. The drops come from a loot table of similar items to what the Resident has equipped, plus some other useful items, and materials. You do not get the literal item they were wearing. Also the loot table does not automatically update if a Resident equips better items. Say for instance they find a really powerful weapon. The system is not about to start copying that as a drop, unless the developers themselves decide it should be so. If enough members of a group like this have upgraded their gear, I am granted authority to update the loot table of my own accord, but otherwise the developers themselves have to fiddle with such things. You should have also gotten your first bit of currency."
Aina was correct, as a separate field in the bottom right of her inventory screen displayed a 1 next to a silver coin, and 66 next to a copper (or bronze) coin. That was all quite interesting, but not useful in Sara's current state.
The trap skill also didn't do her any good, so she'd better get back to it. She wanted to see what other types of goblins she could find. Aside from Mark, there wasn't anything she truly wanted from the Scouts. Tracking might be nice, but neither Stab nor Dagger Expertise would do her any good. She wasn't sure if she wanted to use daggers when she became a Resident either. Never really been her thing in games before. And she had zero weapon training from her previous life.
Then again, she had zero claw training as well.
Too many skills, and too much of a gamble of whether or not I'll get the ones I want. Though if my Luck stat actually has an influence on what I'll get... what is it at now? 72. Well, I might as well try, and see what happens.
She had something resembling a plan, or at least something she could test out.
