Varewulf Is it not possible to add links in the description, or glossary? I have a google doc full of skill descriptions that I figured readers can refer to, but I wasn't able to find a way to easily link to it. It does contain spoilers for future skills that will appear, and the upcoming patch, but I figured people would find it useful. This time I can give you a link here, but I know I'm not going to remember to place it in front of every chapter. My memory is too rubbish for that.
It was dark when Sara woke up again. She wasn't sure how deep into the night it was. Her new bed had been so comfy that it was possible she had overslept. Hopefully she still had some time before morning.
She hopped down onto the floor, did some stretches, and was about to do Leap training until she remembered she no longer needed to do that. It had been maxed during her journey, as had a lot of other things. Back when she started the journey from Merwyn she couldn't have imagined the sort of skills, and strength she would get along the way.
Then she suddenly felt a weird vibrating sensation. It strangely reminded her of when someone tried to call when you had your phone set to vibrate only. Or if they sent a message. On a hunch she opened the main menu, and saw that the inventory button was glowing. She opened it, and sure enough, there was a third letter there now.
[ Hi! It's me again!
I had a look in on how you're doing, and you're a boss now, huh? Nice! Hope that works out for you! Give them hell! Or something. I was never great at pep talks.
Listen, I'm sorry to go back on my word so quickly, but could I ask you to maybe mention my name to your followers, and maybe some others too? I appreciate you being diligent with your prayers, and I don't want to come off as greedy, but there is something I would really like to do that requires me to gain a bit more influence. Don't worry, I already cleared it with Aina. Ask her if you don't believe me.
See ya around, kid! ]
Mother?
"Yes, Sara?"
I just got another letter from Norax. They said something about having cleared something with you.
"Oh, yes. You are free to do as they ask, if you are okay with it."
What is it they wanted to clear?
"I cannot tell you that yet. Not until we are sure we are able to do it, and that it works. I can promise you it is nothing bad."
Okay...
She could probably do that much. Maybe bring it up at the meeting later, but wouldn't that mean she would be starting a cult? Was that a good idea? Considering Norax had literally given her a second chance at life, no matter how different it was, maybe she owed them that much.
Shaking those thoughts out of her head for the time being, she decided to think about her skills instead. It might be a good idea to focus on levelling some of them. Not just because of what they themselves might unlock, but maybe combinations with other maxed skills would spawn other interesting things, like more merges. So she decided to look through her list for good candidates.
Chomp, Rend, and Poison Strike would get there eventually as she kept fighting things, and didn't need any special focus. Savage Blow was also probably fine so long as she remembered to use it.
Thorn Bind, Poison Bolt, Fireball, and Water Needle she would like to get evolved as soon as possible. Having second tier spells was more fitting for a boss of her level, but that should also come naturally while levelling, or dealing with intruders. She was the boss of the zone now, after all.
Actually... Auntie System had mentioned there was already a filled boss slot. Maybe that was what was hidden away in the north-west.
Healing spells were also hard to level outside of combat. She had a feeling she didn't get much experience, if any, if it didn't actually do anything. So spamming Regrowth while at full health, or Leech if there was no debuff to cleanse wouldn't do much. Her shapeshift forms should level just by being transformed, so... she got into Cat Form right away. She'd do Bear Form after maxing Cat.
Charge was on the list. She figured she could level that alongside Pursuit if she just chased after the smaller mobs. Even if she felt a little cruel just thinking about it.
Throw... still no. Technically she could with Tree Form, but... no.
Death From Above would require climbing trees, and pouncing on things. That one wouldn't level much naturally with her current strategies, so she'd have to do it deliberately.
Kick, and Back Attack were hard to set up without help. Struggle she didn't have any ideas for at current. Stomp... well, she might as well use it.
Poison Needle she could level alongside Paralysis Venom, to see how effective paralysing mobs would be. Having Venom Sac to boost the potency might have actually been helpful for that.
Roar... well, if she could remember to use it. Howl was so much more natural to wolves.
Copy Cast she was looking forward to.
Thermal Vision she had forgotten to use much lately, so she should probably try to stay on top of that.
Quite a lot of the passive skills just went up naturally with time, but there were some that required action.
Trap Sense wouldn't level without traps to sense, and she had no idea if she could find those anywhere in these woods.
Intuition... absolutely no clue.
Dig... now that was one she could work on quite easily. That might be her first go to.
Spider Silk as well just required her to make more stuff. What stuff she wasn't sure of. Some large cushions? A chair? A couch? It would be nice to make something that made this place seem more like a home, but she was limited in what she was able to do.
The resistance skills... were not tempting to level. Though she was getting close on Poison, so maybe intentionally poisoning herself wasn't too bad of an idea? It wasn't a great idea, or even a good one, but it was better than letting someone else poison her in combat. Like, maybe she could shoot herself in the foot with Poison Needle, or something.
Identify she just needed to get back in the habit of doing. Maybe knowing what sorts of useful plants and herbs were around, and where to find them could be used as a bargaining chip with the elves.
Life Magic would probably come naturally since she kept finding ways to make use of it.
And finally Decryption... she had a feeling she didn't have access to anything that would let her level that, unless she found some cave paintings or something.
Okay, time to dig! ... Outside.
She headed out of the cave. It was weird seeing how empty the area was now compared to last n- afternoon. Maybe she should just draw a bunch of symbols in the ground. Try to create art, or something. She'd stop when she saw the sky start to brighten.
[ Dig Skill Level Up! ] . . . [ Dig Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! Skills unlocked: Burrow, Mining. 3 skill point gained. ]
That had gone quite quickly once she had gotten started. It had probably been an hour or two, but she'd gotten really caught up in her little art project. She had tried making a cat, which had been pretty rough. So she'd tried another one, and done better. And another. And yet another. And before she knew it! Max level!
[ Skill Unlocked: Unarmed Expertise. Unlock condition: Have three or more arm strengthening skills at max level. 1 skill point gained. ]
[ Skill Unlocked: Claw Expertise. Unlock condition: Have Unarmed Expertise skill unlocked or possessed, and possess one or more claw attack skills. Replaces Unarmed Expertise. ]
[ Dig (Passive): Makes it easier to dig in the ground, or other suitable surfaces, whether you use nails, claws, tools, or something equivalent. Effect increases with skill level.
Max level bonus: Halves durability drain on digging, and mining tools. ]
[ Burrow (Passive): Able to break through the ground, and move large amounts of earth (or other mass) at once. Effect increases with skill level, including being able to break through harder surfaces. Scales with Dig skill level, Strength, and Dexterity. Price: 2 skill points. ]
[ Mining (Trade: Gathering): Able to skilfully harvest rocks, minerals, ore, gems, etc. with an appropriate tool. Amount, and quality of collected items increases with skill level. Able to identify special veins, and spots that grant rare types of materials. (Ai-note: You cannot use tools, so this skill will be disabled.) Price: 2 skill points. ]
[ Claw Expertise (Passive): Increases attack power while fighting without a weapon equipped. Buff value: (2*skill level)%. Claw attack skills have +(0.5*skill level)% critical hit chance. Price: 1 skill point. ]
Wait, I could have had Claw Expertise way earlier? Though I'm not exactly sure what it means by 'arm strengthening skills'. Firm Grip is probably one, in which case I wouldn't have gotten it that much earlier. Ah well.
[ Skill Purchased: Claw Expertise. ]
She didn't really need the other two, and the Dig bonus did nothing for her right now. While she did consider Burrow for a moment, the use cases seemed too narrow for her. It wasn't like she intended to make her own caves, or dig under city walls, or anything. Maybe she could come up with some use for it, but at least she appreciated the extra skill points from the unlocks.
Cat Form had risen by one level while she was doing her little art project as well. Next... she should probably erase her little cats with Life Magic, in case anyone came across this place, and saw them... she didn't want to, though.
Eh... people can think whatever they want if they find them. I'm sure I'll find some other way to level Life Magic.
Next... she could test the Poison Needle thing. Just a jab in the foot, with Paralysis Venom. Assuming she was able to aim it that way. She stared at her foot, and cast the spell.
The needle itself was oddly painless, maybe because she had the pain settings still turned down quite a bit because of the bear's bone breaking, but she immediately felt a weird sluggishness spread throughout her body, and a yellow poison icon appeared in front of her. It was as if her entire body had stiffened a little, and made it harder to move. It didn't burn like regular poison, but it was still unpleasant, so she used Leech to get rid of it again.
[ Poison Needle Skill Level Up! ] [ Paralysis Venom Skill Level Up! ] [ Leech Skill Level Up! ]
That hadn't been enough, so she tried one more, then cleansed it. Still nothing. Another one, and another cleanse.
[ Poison Needle Skill Level Up! ] [ Paralysis Venom Skill Level Up! ] [ Poison Resistance Skill Level Up! ]
It worked, but she'd needed three shots for one resistance level, even with double experience. And the final two would probably require even more. She sighed at herself for try-harding so much, but since she had started, she might as well finish.
[ Leech Skill Level Up! Level 5 Reached, Bonus Unlocked! ]
[ Poison Needle Skill Level Up! ] [ Paralysis Venom Skill Level Up! ]
...
...
[ Poison Needle Skill Level Up! ] [ Paralysis Venom Skill Level Up! ] [ Poison Resistance Level Up! Level Max Reached! Poison Resistance Changing Into Poison Immunity. 1 skill point gained. ]
Finally...
It had taken 10... maybe 11 or 12 more shots to get the final two levels.
[ Poison Immunity (Passive): Immune to all poisons, and poison effects. ]
Simple, and succinct. The other three skills she had used had risen by a lot too. This double experience thing was no joke. It occurred to her that she could do the same thing with Fireball, but using non-lethal poison was one thing, and setting herself on fire was entirely different. There wasn't really a non-damaging way to burn. And there had been something else in there...
[ Leech (Active): Remove up to two random negative status conditions from target. Nature element property. Warning: certain status conditions cannot be removed. Cost: 2 MP. Refresh: 3 seconds.
Level 5 bonus: Negative status condition removal count increased. ]
Ah, it now says 'up to two'. Interesting.
While she had forgotten to keep track of the light, Environmental Sense helped her feel that sunrise was approaching. It was time to head towards the glade, as she didn't know how early Mirielle was going to show up.
Using Thermal Vision while walking was risky without a guide... actually, that was an idea for later... but she could at least use Identify on anything she found along the way.
* * *
[ Cat Form Skill Level Up! ] [ Identify Skill Level Up! ] [ Balance Up Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! 1 skill point gained. ]
She managed to get another Cat Form level while walking, which left her at level 9, but she had to deactivate it before she met Mirielle. Identify level 9 had now added:
[ Identify (General): Lets you see information about targets and items you focus on. Higher skill levels increase range, and unlock more information.
...
Level 9: Target's Resistance Values. Able to assess quality of epic items. ]
Resistance values seemed like something only the hardcore Adventurers would worry about.
[ Balance Up (Passive): Increases balance, and poise. Effect increases with skill level.
Max level bonus: Holder moves more gracefully. Minor charisma increase. Able to immediately recover from being knocked down, or falling over with a well-timed roll. Warning: failing the roll will make you look ridiculous. ]
What a weird bonus. It almost seemed aimed at roleplaying. Charisma was another thing she hadn't seen brought up before.
Mother, are there hidden stats?
"Yes."
Can you elaborate?
"No."
Wh... why not?
"It would ruin the fun. The world needs to retain a sense of mystery."
Sara blinked. That was a really odd response, but it felt like it wasn't worth it to pursue the issue.
She was almost at the glade when she heard some noise from above. Voices, to be precise.
"It's the amusing creature!"
"The entertaining creature!"
She stopped, and looked up to see a pair of Night Ravens sitting in the branches.
"Where is the funny creature going today?"
"What will it do?"
They were talking to each other, and seemed quite cheerful.
"Hey! Who are you calling a funny creature?" Sara shouted up at them. Both corvid heads immediately snapped to look at her, and she nearly took a step backwards.
"It understands us?"
"It understands us!"
"It heard us! Praise be! Praise be!"
They laughed, though she wasn't sure at what.
"What are you up to today, curious creature?" one of them asked.
"Listen, I'm not 'creature', I'm Sara," she said, already slightly exasperated.
"Okay! What are you up to, curious Sara?"
"No, just Sara."
"Okay, Just Sara!"
She sighed deeply. "I strongly suspect you two are clever enough to know exactly what I mean. It's a name. My name. Don't you have names?"
"Names?"
"Do we need names?" They looked at each other.
Then they laughed again.
"But the creature has a name?"
"That is very interesting!"
"We like you, name: Sara! But you still haven't answered the question."
Aina's ominous words about some mobs being too willing to talk were coming back to haunt Sara. Had she just made a big blunder? But the ravens in Merwyn had helped her out, and these ones had said they liked her, so she might as well try to stay on their good side.
"I'm meeting with one of the Residents, a priest from the elf temple. We're gonna discuss potential cooperation."
"Oh? You can speak with the people too? Very, very interesting. But why call them Residents?"
Were mobs not aware? Or were they testing her?
"That's what the people of this world call themselves. The ones that come from the other world they call Wanderers."
"O-ho~. Interesting, interesting." Both Ravens nodded eagerly.
"We should tell the others!" One said to the other.
"We should, we should!"
Did I just give up information I shouldn't have?
"Can we cooperate too?" They asked.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Sara had to ask in return.
"You make interesting things happen."
"And we are bored. So we want to help make things interesting!"
"Yes, yes! Help, scheme, conspire!"
"I mean..." Sara had no idea which answer was going to land her in less trouble. "I would rather have you on my side than against me."
"Good! So what's the plan?" They clearly interpreted her answer as affirmation.
Should I really tell them? That might be safer than having them guess at what is happening, and take their own initiative. Bored, clever birds sounds like a pot of trouble ready to boil over.
"Well, I'm hoping I can figure something out with this elf. To at least form a non-aggression pact. They don't attack us, we don't attack them. Then they can move into the forest, and hopefully reopen the road going north. I think they also want easier access to the forest's bounty."
"Bounty? What's that?"
"You know. Herbs, mushrooms, nuts, fruit, and more mobs to hunt with less risk. Useful things. We'll figure it out as we go. Aside from opening the road, I'm not exactly sure what they want. That's what we're going to discuss today, I think. And let them know what our demands are going to be to help them."
"Why do you want to help?"
"Uh..." Sara wasn't sure how to answer. At first she had told the other wolves that she wanted to be nice, but they hadn't really gotten into it until she said she thought it would make things interesting. But what was her real reason? Was she also bored? Was it out of curiosity? Was it her human instinct to want to work with other people? Was she just trying to curry good favour for her own gain?
"I guess... maybe I just want to see if we can make the world change, and what that will lead to? And I suppose I kinda like helping people out." So long as they're nice to me, at least, she added silently.
"Change? Yes. We want things to change too, yes."
"But I'm sure you know the Wanderers, and just Adventurers in general aren't always the cooperative type. Killing mobs for experience, and other gains is one of their main occupations. Which is fair, that's just how the world works, but that means we will need some way to differentiate between who is coming into the forest to cooperate, and who is not. A symbol of some sort. We can't just idly wait to see whether they will attack first, or not. If we can get that sorted out, then we can figure out what comes next."
"What comes next, yes. We are very much looking forward to it!"
They began laughing again, then suddenly their heads shot up, and looked in the same direction.
"A person just entered the woods."
"All alone."
"Maybe the one you will speak to?"
"Huh?" Sara hadn't sensed anything yet. "How do you know?"
"Corvids share information quick."
"Yes, quick communication network!"
How do they know a term like 'communication network'?
"Well, I guess I should get going, then," she said.
"Yes, go go!"
"Make change, make interesting!"
"And remember, we want to cooperate too!"
"Just call for us!"
They shouted after her, and then just laughed as she kept walking away.
She had heard that black birds were often seen as omens, but would these be good ones, or bad? Yet it was probably way better than making them angry. She had also heard that corvids could be quite vindictive, and had good memories. If all these mage ravens decided to attack, or torment her on sight, then her life would become quite miserable. She hadn't seen a single zone without some type of corvid so far.
Varewulf Is it not possible to add links in the description, or glossary? I have a google doc full of skill descriptions that I figured readers can refer to, but I wasn't able to find a way to easily link to it. It does contain spoilers for future skills that will appear, and the upcoming patch, but I figured people would find it useful. This time I can give you a link here, but I know I'm not going to remember to place it in front of every chapter. My memory is too rubbish for that.
It was dark when Sara woke up again. She wasn't sure how deep into the night it was. Her new bed had been so comfy that it was possible she had overslept. Hopefully she still had some time before morning.
She hopped down onto the floor, did some stretches, and was about to do Leap training until she remembered she no longer needed to do that. It had been maxed during her journey, as had a lot of other things. Back when she started the journey from Merwyn she couldn't have imagined the sort of skills, and strength she would get along the way.
Then she suddenly felt a weird vibrating sensation. It strangely reminded her of when someone tried to call when you had your phone set to vibrate only. Or if they sent a message. On a hunch she opened the main menu, and saw that the inventory button was glowing. She opened it, and sure enough, there was a third letter there now.
[ Hi! It's me again!
I had a look in on how you're doing, and you're a boss now, huh? Nice! Hope that works out for you! Give them hell! Or something. I was never great at pep talks.
Listen, I'm sorry to go back on my word so quickly, but could I ask you to maybe mention my name to your followers, and maybe some others too? I appreciate you being diligent with your prayers, and I don't want to come off as greedy, but there is something I would really like to do that requires me to gain a bit more influence. Don't worry, I already cleared it with Aina. Ask her if you don't believe me.
See ya around, kid! ]
Mother?
"Yes, Sara?"
I just got another letter from Norax. They said something about having cleared something with you.
"Oh, yes. You are free to do as they ask, if you are okay with it."
What is it they wanted to clear?
"I cannot tell you that yet. Not until we are sure we are able to do it, and that it works. I can promise you it is nothing bad."
Okay...
She could probably do that much. Maybe bring it up at the meeting later, but wouldn't that mean she would be starting a cult? Was that a good idea? Considering Norax had literally given her a second chance at life, no matter how different it was, maybe she owed them that much.
Shaking those thoughts out of her head for the time being, she decided to think about her skills instead. It might be a good idea to focus on levelling some of them. Not just because of what they themselves might unlock, but maybe combinations with other maxed skills would spawn other interesting things, like more merges. So she decided to look through her list for good candidates.
Chomp, Rend, and Poison Strike would get there eventually as she kept fighting things, and didn't need any special focus. Savage Blow was also probably fine so long as she remembered to use it.
Thorn Bind, Poison Bolt, Fireball, and Water Needle she would like to get evolved as soon as possible. Having second tier spells was more fitting for a boss of her level, but that should also come naturally while levelling, or dealing with intruders. She was the boss of the zone now, after all.
Actually... Auntie System had mentioned there was already a filled boss slot. Maybe that was what was hidden away in the north-west.
Healing spells were also hard to level outside of combat. She had a feeling she didn't get much experience, if any, if it didn't actually do anything. So spamming Regrowth while at full health, or Leech if there was no debuff to cleanse wouldn't do much. Her shapeshift forms should level just by being transformed, so... she got into Cat Form right away. She'd do Bear Form after maxing Cat.
Charge was on the list. She figured she could level that alongside Pursuit if she just chased after the smaller mobs. Even if she felt a little cruel just thinking about it.
Throw... still no. Technically she could with Tree Form, but... no.
Death From Above would require climbing trees, and pouncing on things. That one wouldn't level much naturally with her current strategies, so she'd have to do it deliberately.
Kick, and Back Attack were hard to set up without help. Struggle she didn't have any ideas for at current. Stomp... well, she might as well use it.
Poison Needle she could level alongside Paralysis Venom, to see how effective paralysing mobs would be. Having Venom Sac to boost the potency might have actually been helpful for that.
Roar... well, if she could remember to use it. Howl was so much more natural to wolves.
Copy Cast she was looking forward to.
Thermal Vision she had forgotten to use much lately, so she should probably try to stay on top of that.
Quite a lot of the passive skills just went up naturally with time, but there were some that required action.
Trap Sense wouldn't level without traps to sense, and she had no idea if she could find those anywhere in these woods.
Intuition... absolutely no clue.
Dig... now that was one she could work on quite easily. That might be her first go to.
Spider Silk as well just required her to make more stuff. What stuff she wasn't sure of. Some large cushions? A chair? A couch? It would be nice to make something that made this place seem more like a home, but she was limited in what she was able to do.
The resistance skills... were not tempting to level. Though she was getting close on Poison, so maybe intentionally poisoning herself wasn't too bad of an idea? It wasn't a great idea, or even a good one, but it was better than letting someone else poison her in combat. Like, maybe she could shoot herself in the foot with Poison Needle, or something.
Identify she just needed to get back in the habit of doing. Maybe knowing what sorts of useful plants and herbs were around, and where to find them could be used as a bargaining chip with the elves.
Life Magic would probably come naturally since she kept finding ways to make use of it.
And finally Decryption... she had a feeling she didn't have access to anything that would let her level that, unless she found some cave paintings or something.
Okay, time to dig! ... Outside.
She headed out of the cave. It was weird seeing how empty the area was now compared to last n- afternoon. Maybe she should just draw a bunch of symbols in the ground. Try to create art, or something. She'd stop when she saw the sky start to brighten.
[ Dig Skill Level Up! ] . . . [ Dig Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! Skills unlocked: Burrow, Mining. 3 skill point gained. ]
That had gone quite quickly once she had gotten started. It had probably been an hour or two, but she'd gotten really caught up in her little art project. She had tried making a cat, which had been pretty rough. So she'd tried another one, and done better. And another. And yet another. And before she knew it! Max level!
[ Skill Unlocked: Unarmed Expertise. Unlock condition: Have three or more arm strengthening skills at max level. 1 skill point gained. ]
[ Skill Unlocked: Claw Expertise. Unlock condition: Have Unarmed Expertise skill unlocked or possessed, and possess one or more claw attack skills. Replaces Unarmed Expertise. ]
[ Dig (Passive): Makes it easier to dig in the ground, or other suitable surfaces, whether you use nails, claws, tools, or something equivalent. Effect increases with skill level.
Max level bonus: Halves durability drain on digging, and mining tools. ]
[ Burrow (Passive): Able to break through the ground, and move large amounts of earth (or other mass) at once. Effect increases with skill level, including being able to break through harder surfaces. Scales with Dig skill level, Strength, and Dexterity. Price: 2 skill points. ]
[ Mining (Trade: Gathering): Able to skilfully harvest rocks, minerals, ore, gems, etc. with an appropriate tool. Amount, and quality of collected items increases with skill level. Able to identify special veins, and spots that grant rare types of materials. (Ai-note: You cannot use tools, so this skill will be disabled.) Price: 2 skill points. ]
[ Claw Expertise (Passive): Increases attack power while fighting without a weapon equipped. Buff value: (2*skill level)%. Claw attack skills have +(0.5*skill level)% critical hit chance. Price: 1 skill point. ]
Wait, I could have had Claw Expertise way earlier? Though I'm not exactly sure what it means by 'arm strengthening skills'. Firm Grip is probably one, in which case I wouldn't have gotten it that much earlier. Ah well.
[ Skill Purchased: Claw Expertise. ]
She didn't really need the other two, and the Dig bonus did nothing for her right now. While she did consider Burrow for a moment, the use cases seemed too narrow for her. It wasn't like she intended to make her own caves, or dig under city walls, or anything. Maybe she could come up with some use for it, but at least she appreciated the extra skill points from the unlocks.
Cat Form had risen by one level while she was doing her little art project as well. Next... she should probably erase her little cats with Life Magic, in case anyone came across this place, and saw them... she didn't want to, though.
Eh... people can think whatever they want if they find them. I'm sure I'll find some other way to level Life Magic.
Next... she could test the Poison Needle thing. Just a jab in the foot, with Paralysis Venom. Assuming she was able to aim it that way. She stared at her foot, and cast the spell.
The needle itself was oddly painless, maybe because she had the pain settings still turned down quite a bit because of the bear's bone breaking, but she immediately felt a weird sluggishness spread throughout her body, and a yellow poison icon appeared in front of her. It was as if her entire body had stiffened a little, and made it harder to move. It didn't burn like regular poison, but it was still unpleasant, so she used Leech to get rid of it again.
[ Poison Needle Skill Level Up! ] [ Paralysis Venom Skill Level Up! ] [ Leech Skill Level Up! ]
That hadn't been enough, so she tried one more, then cleansed it. Still nothing. Another one, and another cleanse.
[ Poison Needle Skill Level Up! ] [ Paralysis Venom Skill Level Up! ] [ Poison Resistance Skill Level Up! ]
It worked, but she'd needed three shots for one resistance level, even with double experience. And the final two would probably require even more. She sighed at herself for try-harding so much, but since she had started, she might as well finish.
[ Leech Skill Level Up! Level 5 Reached, Bonus Unlocked! ]
[ Poison Needle Skill Level Up! ] [ Paralysis Venom Skill Level Up! ]
...
...
[ Poison Needle Skill Level Up! ] [ Paralysis Venom Skill Level Up! ] [ Poison Resistance Level Up! Level Max Reached! Poison Resistance Changing Into Poison Immunity. 1 skill point gained. ]
Finally...
It had taken 10... maybe 11 or 12 more shots to get the final two levels.
[ Poison Immunity (Passive): Immune to all poisons, and poison effects. ]
Simple, and succinct. The other three skills she had used had risen by a lot too. This double experience thing was no joke. It occurred to her that she could do the same thing with Fireball, but using non-lethal poison was one thing, and setting herself on fire was entirely different. There wasn't really a non-damaging way to burn. And there had been something else in there...
[ Leech (Active): Remove up to two random negative status conditions from target. Nature element property. Warning: certain status conditions cannot be removed. Cost: 2 MP. Refresh: 3 seconds.
Level 5 bonus: Negative status condition removal count increased. ]
Ah, it now says 'up to two'. Interesting.
While she had forgotten to keep track of the light, Environmental Sense helped her feel that sunrise was approaching. It was time to head towards the glade, as she didn't know how early Mirielle was going to show up.
Using Thermal Vision while walking was risky without a guide... actually, that was an idea for later... but she could at least use Identify on anything she found along the way.
* * *
[ Cat Form Skill Level Up! ] [ Identify Skill Level Up! ] [ Balance Up Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! 1 skill point gained. ]
She managed to get another Cat Form level while walking, which left her at level 9, but she had to deactivate it before she met Mirielle. Identify level 9 had now added:
[ Identify (General): Lets you see information about targets and items you focus on. Higher skill levels increase range, and unlock more information.
...
Level 9: Target's Resistance Values. Able to assess quality of epic items. ]
Resistance values seemed like something only the hardcore Adventurers would worry about.
[ Balance Up (Passive): Increases balance, and poise. Effect increases with skill level.
Max level bonus: Holder moves more gracefully. Minor charisma increase. Able to immediately recover from being knocked down, or falling over with a well-timed roll. Warning: failing the roll will make you look ridiculous. ]
What a weird bonus. It almost seemed aimed at roleplaying. Charisma was another thing she hadn't seen brought up before.
Mother, are there hidden stats?
"Yes."
Can you elaborate?
"No."
Wh... why not?
"It would ruin the fun. The world needs to retain a sense of mystery."
Sara blinked. That was a really odd response, but it felt like it wasn't worth it to pursue the issue.
She was almost at the glade when she heard some noise from above. Voices, to be precise.
"It's the amusing creature!"
"The entertaining creature!"
She stopped, and looked up to see a pair of Night Ravens sitting in the branches.
"Where is the funny creature going today?"
"What will it do?"
They were talking to each other, and seemed quite cheerful.
"Hey! Who are you calling a funny creature?" Sara shouted up at them. Both corvid heads immediately snapped to look at her, and she nearly took a step backwards.
"It understands us?"
"It understands us!"
"It heard us! Praise be! Praise be!"
They laughed, though she wasn't sure at what.
"What are you up to today, curious creature?" one of them asked.
"Listen, I'm not 'creature', I'm Sara," she said, already slightly exasperated.
"Okay! What are you up to, curious Sara?"
"No, just Sara."
"Okay, Just Sara!"
She sighed deeply. "I strongly suspect you two are clever enough to know exactly what I mean. It's a name. My name. Don't you have names?"
"Names?"
"Do we need names?" They looked at each other.
Then they laughed again.
"But the creature has a name?"
"That is very interesting!"
"We like you, name: Sara! But you still haven't answered the question."
Aina's ominous words about some mobs being too willing to talk were coming back to haunt Sara. Had she just made a big blunder? But the ravens in Merwyn had helped her out, and these ones had said they liked her, so she might as well try to stay on their good side.
"I'm meeting with one of the Residents, a priest from the elf temple. We're gonna discuss potential cooperation."
"Oh? You can speak with the people too? Very, very interesting. But why call them Residents?"
Were mobs not aware? Or were they testing her?
"That's what the people of this world call themselves. The ones that come from the other world they call Wanderers."
"O-ho~. Interesting, interesting." Both Ravens nodded eagerly.
"We should tell the others!" One said to the other.
"We should, we should!"
Did I just give up information I shouldn't have?
"Can we cooperate too?" They asked.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Sara had to ask in return.
"You make interesting things happen."
"And we are bored. So we want to help make things interesting!"
"Yes, yes! Help, scheme, conspire!"
"I mean..." Sara had no idea which answer was going to land her in less trouble. "I would rather have you on my side than against me."
"Good! So what's the plan?" They clearly interpreted her answer as affirmation.
Should I really tell them? That might be safer than having them guess at what is happening, and take their own initiative. Bored, clever birds sounds like a pot of trouble ready to boil over.
"Well, I'm hoping I can figure something out with this elf. To at least form a non-aggression pact. They don't attack us, we don't attack them. Then they can move into the forest, and hopefully reopen the road going north. I think they also want easier access to the forest's bounty."
"Bounty? What's that?"
"You know. Herbs, mushrooms, nuts, fruit, and more mobs to hunt with less risk. Useful things. We'll figure it out as we go. Aside from opening the road, I'm not exactly sure what they want. That's what we're going to discuss today, I think. And let them know what our demands are going to be to help them."
"Why do you want to help?"
"Uh..." Sara wasn't sure how to answer. At first she had told the other wolves that she wanted to be nice, but they hadn't really gotten into it until she said she thought it would make things interesting. But what was her real reason? Was she also bored? Was it out of curiosity? Was it her human instinct to want to work with other people? Was she just trying to curry good favour for her own gain?
"I guess... maybe I just want to see if we can make the world change, and what that will lead to? And I suppose I kinda like helping people out." So long as they're nice to me, at least, she added silently.
"Change? Yes. We want things to change too, yes."
"But I'm sure you know the Wanderers, and just Adventurers in general aren't always the cooperative type. Killing mobs for experience, and other gains is one of their main occupations. Which is fair, that's just how the world works, but that means we will need some way to differentiate between who is coming into the forest to cooperate, and who is not. A symbol of some sort. We can't just idly wait to see whether they will attack first, or not. If we can get that sorted out, then we can figure out what comes next."
"What comes next, yes. We are very much looking forward to it!"
They began laughing again, then suddenly their heads shot up, and looked in the same direction.
"A person just entered the woods."
"All alone."
"Maybe the one you will speak to?"
"Huh?" Sara hadn't sensed anything yet. "How do you know?"
"Corvids share information quick."
"Yes, quick communication network!"
How do they know a term like 'communication network'?
"Well, I guess I should get going, then," she said.
"Yes, go go!"
"Make change, make interesting!"
"And remember, we want to cooperate too!"
"Just call for us!"
They shouted after her, and then just laughed as she kept walking away.
She had heard that black birds were often seen as omens, but would these be good ones, or bad? Yet it was probably way better than making them angry. She had also heard that corvids could be quite vindictive, and had good memories. If all these mage ravens decided to attack, or torment her on sight, then her life would become quite miserable. She hadn't seen a single zone without some type of corvid so far.
