Varewulf Nice.
Sara crashed into the bear that showed up while Kathleen was still dealing with the previous one. She had said she would body-block them if she had to, and apparently she had to. These beasts were relentless.
"Why... won't... you... stay... away..." She growled through gritted teeth as she pushed. She had already used Taunt, so it wouldn't try to break away immediately, but even at her level the grizzly still had the edge in raw strength. If she went into bear form she might overpower it, but she'd lose almost all of her spells. At least she had enough grip with other skills that they were locked in a standstill.
"We come. We fight," the bear growled back at her, then bit into her shoulder. Considering the force, probably with Crush.
"So you can talk..." Sara said, and Chomped back into the bear's chest. "But what will it take..." She pulled back enough to activate Body Slam, even if it was less effective when the bear was bigger than her. "To get you to listen!" She lashed out with Shred.
Some of her Dire Wolves were helping by tearing into the bear's flanks (no doubt making use of their Flanking bonus), and she had air support, but these things were tough. The Hill Grizzlies back in Eron had already been really tanky, but these upgraded Dire Grizzlies felt like they were even tougher than her. Not to mention their frustratingly thick hide.
She had instructed most of her pack to keep assisting Kathleen, since that one was closer to going down, but she simply couldn't let this one break through.
Mist came rolling in. Gloria must have recharged. She didn't have any MP Regen in combat, so in order to keep using her Conjure Mist ability, she needed to forcefully break out of combat with Vanish, then move back to somewhere she could use her class's unique meditation bonus to quickly restore MP and SP, then come back.
Sara had been waiting for that. "Everyone get back!" she yelled to them all, and once she felt the wolves were clear, she cast Poison Cloud directly on herself, and smacked into the ground with Stomp, making the bear flinch. Using that opening, she slid underneath the bear, twisted onto her back, and used Solid Kick with all four legs right up into the bear's underside. Sometimes having a large target was helpful.
That was enough push force to slightly lift the distracted bear's legs off the ground, and she immediately followed up with placing an Earth Wall next to herself beneath it to lift it further upwards, in combo with Arcane Blast to lift it even further above that.
The Earth Wall crumbled, and Sara spun back to her feet before she placed a Thorn Barricade inside the Poison Cloud.
"Gloria! Knock it in!" she shouted, and charged up a couple of Rock Shots that she aimed at the bear's head as gravity was catching up to it. The impact force spun it around so its back was angling towards the ground rather than its belly as Gloria flew into the air, and delivered a mid-air Pounce to smash the bear right into the Barricade, locking down its movements, and inflicting damage as it struggled to get back on its feet while breathing the poison gas. Sara added to the struggle by casting Root Bind to help keep it down. Her roots had gotten quite strong.
Kathleen and the others had managed to take down their own bear, but they couldn't exactly dive into the poison, or the barricade, so it was up to Sara, and the ravens to bombard it with spells while the numerous Damage over Time effects ate away at it. The bear expired shortly before the Poison Cloud did.
If Solid Kick hadn't been enough to create just the tiniest bit of lift, it was possible the bear would have been able to resist the push of Earth Wall, and if she had used Arcane Blast's stronger push first, she wouldn't have had anything to follow up with. It was a lot of things that needed to go right in very tight window of time.
She also smugly thought it was a clever use of Thorn Barricade. Her quick thinking in combat had definitely improved, though she'd had time to workshop the plan while they were locked together, and she was waiting for Gloria to return.
Gloria had played her role well too. Sara had relied on the mist to help confuse the bear, and the improved critical chance was nice. Gloria had even grasped Sara's intent about knocking the bear into the Barricade, though she had expected as much. They worked together well during the bandit raids, so it didn't come as a shock that they would be in sync here too.
The bears were really relentless, but at least for the moment they had earned themselves a breather. Not that they had the option of sitting down. The workers were steadily progressing, probably a little more motivated to speed things up considering the circumstances. Sara, Gloria, and Kathleen had to do their best to keep up with them so they were always in the way of any bears that tried barging in. On the upside the bears seemed content to stay and fight rather than try to break through, but she wasn't going to risk that they would keep doing so.
It was definitely the right call to get Gloria to come along, because without both her, and Kathleen by her side this would have been a lot rougher. Not to mention slower. Even without her buff, Gloria did a lot of damage with her Ambushes, Back Attacks, and other skills. She seemed to have good instincts for where and when to strike. Meanwhile Kathleen was doing really well at tanking the bears, even if they were larger, and stronger than her. She couldn't actually push them to a standstill like Sara could, but her skills left her more than capable of keeping their attention without getting overwhelmed. They needed to rely on Sara's healing, and the ravens' shields to mitigate the amount of damage she took, but they were working as a pretty strong team.
I'm probably going to have a lot of skill level ups after this, Sara thought. And I remembered to turn Skill Gain back on. I should have most of their skills already, but if I can gain Desperation that would be helpful. Maybe I already got it, but I'll wait to check my notifications until after we're done.
There were a lot of popups queueing up.
Actually having the ability to turn her other skills on and off as well might be useful. Mainly for helping with raid balancing, but it could come in handy in other instances too. Like at some point almost everything in her Disabled section would become technically usable, but if she could move things to and from that section as she needed, it would keep her Skill List more readable. It might be worth talking to Aina about it later.
"Let's keep going," she said.
"Yes!"
"Yes, boss!"
Sara found the tenacity of these bears to be annoying, but at least the others seemed to be having fun. Especially Gloria, who was getting to do something entirely new in a place she had never been before. Even if it was just a different part of the forest.
They headed north, since they had fallen behind the road crew. She could sense that the Adventurers were also fighting, but one of the wolves informed her it was just a deer, so they should be able to handle that. Those were still tough, especially at the high level they were around here, but you'd probably need two or three of them to reach bear threat level. Sara needed to remain vigilant.
And sure enough they barely got a 10 minute break before another bear came barrelling their way. Kathleen intercepted it with a Pounce, and they started another dance. Sara applied Rejuvenate, and Thorn Armour to Kathleen (a Shadow Barrier went up around her too), before charging up a Frost Arrow with six copies, and striking right into the bear's large flank when she got a good opening. She could have done more, but she didn't want to burn through her MP too fast. They couldn't be certain that would be the only one.
How much is left? She wondered to herself.
The bears really looked as big as cars, and were harder to break, but Sara's side had the number advantage. While it would be painful, she was sure she could handle one of these bears by herself, but she didn't want to. She was supposed to be the boss around here, so why were these elite mobs nearly as strong as her?
Actually they were probably more around Kathleen's power level overall, they were just annoyingly tanky. But since Kathleen was named, it felt like she should be stronger than them. Perhaps that was merely a difference in build. Their stats were distributed differently. She was able to do things they couldn't, but in a raw power struggle, they had the edge.
It was a slog, but they should have no real issues holding out until the workers were done.
* * *
"The Sara!"
They had just finished putting down the most recent bear when one of the ravens called out to her.
"The people say they're through!" The raven shouted gleefully. She wasn't sure whether it was happy things were almost over, or if it was just having the time of its life. Probably the latter.
"Alright!" Sara shouted back. "Everyone retreat! We're going north to meet up just outside of the forest!"
"Aye aye!"
""Yes, boss!""
As they ran upwards, Gloria got close to Sara.
"Outside...?" she asked in a worried tone.
"Yeah," Sara replied. "They have to check the road all the way north to the crossroads, but from what I saw there wasn't a lot of damage there, so it won't take them very long." She smiled at her friend. "Don't worry, I will be right here with you. We will only go outside a little bit, and then head right back inside. You can wait inside the forest if you'd prefer. I'll be back in a few minutes." The bears should stay away from the very edge. It was getting back down afterwards where they would have to move with all haste to avoid more attention.
"Mm..." Gloria seemed to think about it. "I'll be fine."
If this was a taste of what it would be like to invade this part of the forest, then it was going to be a bigger pain than she had hoped. They would need allies. Strong allies. The elves might not want to commit that much to it, since it wasn't a crucial endeavour. It was just something Sara and the wolves wanted to do. She wanted to see, and maybe fight this other boss. It wasn't like it was going to permanently help with the bear problem either, so she couldn't motivate them with that.
Honestly she should prioritise evolving first of all. That might open up more options to her, and even if it didn't it would be a significant boost to her overall strength. If she hadn't levelled off of these bears already, then she would probably get there after the bandit raid the next day.
She was quite excited to see what her options were going to be.
They burst out of the woods into the open plains of the border zone between the elf, and troll nations. The Dire and Shade Wolves stayed inside, but Sara, Gloria, and Kathleen all exited. Sara didn't think Kathleen was all that interested in seeing the Residents and Wanderers, but she was probably curious about setting foot outside of the forest.
The road crew, and their escorts were waiting for them. The foreman stepped forwards along with a different Druid from last time, a female wolfkin named Kosign. Probably also a Wanderer.
Oh, that's what I'm going to become, right? A wolfkin? Probably? Though it will probably take a while yet.
Her levelling speed was definitely slowing down, both due to needing more experience, and also just having a lot of things to do that meant she couldn't be constantly fighting. It was hard to go to higher level zones as well. She might get stuck in her next form even longer than she'd been a Mystic Wolf.
I'm definitely not getting there before the New Year's patch... I'd need to gain a level every other day, and I don't think that's feasible any longer.
"Thank you very much, Guardian Beast," the elf foreman said. Forewoman? Nah, it was just a title. No need to think too hard about it. "It looks like we'll be able to wrap up today after all."
[ Kuuln Braceleafer - Elf Komeron Civil Service Department Infrastructure Foreman (Civil Engineer Lvl 33) HP: 157/157 ]
Wait, there's a Civil Engineer class, mother?
"It's one of the Trade classes, upgraded from Engineer. They're able to craft various devices and gadgets, and lay out blueprints for construction projects, but among the Residents they also often specialise in maintenance, and repair. Entering civil service is a respected career path for any Resident Engineer, though some do prefer to focus on crafting, or running a workshop."
Sara nodded at the elf, and the wolfkin.
"Greetings, Druid," she said. "I spoke to your colleague earlier. My apologies for not being there to prevent your demise." She hadn't seen the wolfkin around at the time, so she figured she had to be one of the two that died. "I will shift to Tree Form to speak with the foreman directly, but feel free to stay."
"Oh, okay. No worries." Kosign looked a little disappointed.
Sara became a tree, took out her board, and started writing. She was gradually getting quicker at it. Well, a little less so outside of Nyolund, but she had learned in the city that it wasn't as big of a hit as she had feared.
"You are welcome, Foreman. I apologise for not being there all along, but I had business to attend to," she wrote. It was a picnic, but it was still very important.
"I understand," Kuuln said. "None of us expected it would be as brutal as it turned out, so we don't blame you for attending to other things. I don't think the Adventurers do either. I'm glad you were able to respond as quickly as you did."
I left you waiting for forty minutes, though. "Of course," Sara wrote. "From what I remember of the time with the survey team, there shouldn't be much damage out here, so we will wait here for your return. The mobs here are so weak I imagine they won't even bother picking a fight. Though you are right, I didn't think the bears would be quite so problematic. It probably won't be safe to open the road unless we come up with a more permanent solution."
Kuuln nodded. "I am afraid you are correct," she said. "Unfortunately that sort of stuff isn't my forte, so I don't have any ideas for you."
"I will attempt to communicate with them," Sara wrote. "I know they understand me. Whether they are actually willing to listen is a different matter. They don't seem like the types for peaceful conversation. I will take contact when I have something to report, but it might take a couple of days before I have anything worth reporting."
"I understand," Kuuln said. "I will tell my superiors, and pray for your success. We'll go finish up out here, and then... I guess we'll just have to run past the bears as fast as we can on the way back..." She sighed.
"Unfortunately yes," Sara wrote. "Hopefully we will see more peaceful times soon. Perhaps you can come back and review your work once it is safe."
"That would be nice," Kuuln said with a smile. "Okay, we'll go wrap up. Thank you again. And... we'll be counting on you on the way back."
"Good luck," Sara wrote, and put her board away, then reverted to wolf form. It was nicer being fluffy.
The Foreman went back to tell the others that break time was over, though the Druid lingered.
"Um... Guardian Beast?"
"Yes? Is something the matter, Druid?" Sara asked.
"N-no, not..." Kosign fidgeted a little. "I just wanted to say that I'm ha- er... that I'm glad to... that it's nice to meet you."
Sara failed to suppress a giggle. "No need to be so nervous," she said. "I'm also glad we're able to just talk. Until yesterday my only interactions with Wanderers had been to fight them. Not that I necessarily mind fighting you. Both your side, and mine have our roles to play, but it's nice that we don't have to take it personally, and can chat amicably outside of that. Unfortunately I'm not able to come join you for a drink after hours, or anything like that." Cat Form was probably the only one small, and limber enough to get through a regular door, but even that wouldn't really fit in a tavern, or restaurant. The mental image was enough to make her chuckle.
"Yeah." The wolfkin smiled. "I didn't really expect things like this when I first... uh... came here. Though due to my race I have always been on peaceful terms with the wolves here. If only I had that ability back... uh... in my world." She was trying her best to keep up the act of this not being a game, which was cute. If only she knew that Sara knew. "As a kid I wanted to walk among wolves."
"And now you can," Sara said.
"And now I can," Kosign said with a smile. "Even if you're a bit different from... uh... the ones in my world. Especially you."
"Oh? Are you a fan of mine, perhaps?" Sara teased. "Would you like an autograph?" Maybe she was another member of that unusual creatures guild.
"Huh? Um... f-fan is maybe not... um... you know what an autograph is?" Kosign asked.
Ah. Shit. "Someone mentioned it to me, and I found the idea amusing," Sara quickly lied.
"I kinda would like..." Kosign mumbled, then jumped. "Uh, I need to catch up with the others. Sorry!"
"No worries," Sara said as the Druid ran off. Maybe they'd pinged her on the party chat, or something.
Hm... even when I'm able to walk among them like a Resident, I... feel like I'll probably still be a mob at heart, huh? That's just what I've become now. And the longer that is all I am, the more ingrained it will be in me. It will probably be at least another month before I can have my final evolution, and I have already made friends, and established relationships with other mobs. I can't just ditch all of that simply because I'm able to look like a Resident.
Sara pondered it.
Yeah, that's it, isn't it? I won't really be a Resident, I'll just look like one. I'm still looking forward to it. It will give me a lot more freedom to go certain places, and it will open up a lot of things to me, but all of these wolves feel like home to me now. I may be their boss before anything else, but they still feel like a kind of family.
It would be weird when she was no longer a Mystic Wolf, though. How was she going to explain that? A gift from god, from Norax? The world/system deciding to upgrade her more? The god thing was probably easier to explain to the Residents, but the Temple might not like it. Maybe it would be possible to pass it off as a collaboration between Norax, and the Moon Goddess... but the goddess might actually tell the Oracle that wasn't the case.
She put those thoughts aside, and walked over to Gloria was just staring wide-eyed at the scenery.
"So, what do you think?" Sara asked.
"It's so open... no trees..." Gloria said with a sense of wonder. It seemed like she had even forgotten to be nervous. Perhaps it was fine to wait out there after all.
"Yup," Sara said, and sat down next to her. "There are a lot of strange things to see in this world, and a lot of them aren't forest." There were actually a few trees in this part of the zone, but they probably didn't count in Gloria's eyes.
"What's that over there?" Gloria asked.
"Where?"
"There."
Sara managed to pick up on what Gloria was staring at.
"Oh, that's a mountain." To the west, past the troll border, was a pretty big mountain. Maybe it blocked their access to the sea. She couldn't really see how far it extended beyond what was visible to them.
"What's a mountain?" Gloria asked.
"It's..." How do you explain a mountain to someone who has never seen nor heard of one before? "It's like a very large hill made mostly of rock, though they usually have a layer of grassy, and mossy ground covering them. They might even have forests, at least up until a certain height. They stick up really high." That one cut right upwards so sharply after a certain point that it didn't have a lot growing on it beyond that. That made it hard to judge exactly how tall it was.
Gloria went silent for a bit, staring in that direction, then asked: "If... if we go see the ocean some day... can we go see a mountain some day too?"
"Yeah," Sara replied, and rubbed their shoulders together. "We can do that."
While they had a bit of a break, she could look at her popups. No sign of the sparkly level up one, unfortunately. She had a brief glance at the 'enemy defeated' ones before dismissing them all. Six bears was more than they'd ran into with the survey team, and that didn't count the two bears the road crew had ran into before she showed up. She also got partial credit for the deer, and jaguars that her wolves helped beat. She wasn't sure if it was just because the workers were slower than the surveyors, or if the bears were extra aggressive for some reason.
[ Skill Gained: Desperation. ]
She had no idea when that had happened, but at least it was done. Everything else the bears had she had already acquired in some other way. It hadn't levelled up at all, but it probably wouldn't unless she went below 50% HP to activate it. She could turn Skill Gain back off in preparation for the next day so she wouldn't forget.
And then skill level ups... she had thrown a bit of everything she could think of at the bears, not holding back in any way, so she'd gotten a bunch of stuff. She just skimmed through for any new max levels, and dismissed the rest.
[ Poison Arrow Alt. Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! 1 skill point gained. ]
[ Frost Arrow Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! Skills unlocked: Ice Prison, Frost Breath. 3 skill points gained. ]
[ Budding Regrowth Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! Skill unlocked: Recovery Cocoon. 2 skill points gained. ]
[ Rock Shot Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! Skill evolution available. Skills unlocked: Rock Hammer, Quicksand. 3 skill points gained. ]
[ Root Bind Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! 1 skill point gained. ]
That was the risk of having so many things close to maxing out at once. So many new skills unlocked too. Which meant more skill points, but she'd see how much she'd need to spend. At least she should have enough time to look through all of it.
[ Poison Arrow Alt. (Active): You fire a magic arrow with nature element property. Damage value: (1.2+(0.04*skill level))*magic power. Splash radius: 1 metres. (Reminder: Only direct hits have a chance to inflict critical damage.) 60% chance to inflict Strong Poison(?) status for 12 seconds. Poison damage: (5+(1*skill level)) HP every 2 seconds.
Alternate mode: You fire a poison needle that does no damage, but is guaranteed to inflict Strong Poison status for 12 seconds.
Cost: 5 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 3 seconds.
Max level bonus: Strong Poison duration: +6 seconds. ]
[ Frost Arrow (Active): You fire a magic arrow with ice element property. Damage value: (1.2+(0.04*skill level))*magic power. Splash radius: 1 metre. (Reminder: Only direct hits have a chance to inflict critical damage.) Inflicts Slow(?) status for 6 seconds. 10% chance to reduce targets' Dexterity by 20% for 6 seconds. Cost: 5 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 3 seconds.
Max level bonus: Frostbite. Targets inflicted with Slow status from this skill lose 1% of Max HP per second. ]
[ Budding Regrowth (Active): You restore a target's HP. Potency: (1.1+(0.04*skill level))*magic power. Nature element property. Target gains a layer of leaves for 6 seconds that will absorb one attack up to (60+(2*skill level))% of HP healed. Excess damage is still inflicted. Removes Bleed(?) status if present. Cost: 6 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 3 seconds.
Max level bonus: Leaf layer duration: +6 seconds. ]
[ Root Bind (Active): You make thorny roots shoot up from the ground, and bind a target for 12 seconds. Nature element property. Roots can be destroyed. Root strength increases with skill level. Roots can break through certain hard surfaces. Thorns deal light damage to the bound target. Damage value: (2 +(0.04*skill level))% of target's Max HP every 2 seconds. Cost: 8 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 5 seconds.
Max level bonus: Roots have a 30% chance to inflict Bleed(?) status on bound target for 8 seconds if broken by melee force. Roots are slightly more resistant to fire. ]
[ Rock Shot (Active): You fire a magical projectile with earth element property. Small knockback force. Damage value: (1.1+(0.03*skill level))*magic power. Splash radius: 1 metres. (Reminder: Only direct hits have a chance to inflict critical damage.) Critical hits inflict Stun(?) status for 6 seconds. Effective against heavy armour. Cost: 3 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 2 seconds.
Max level bonus: Knockback force: +50%. ]
v [ Evolves Into ] v
[ Rock Blast (Active): You fire a magical projectile with earth element property. Medium knockback force. Damage value: (1.2+(0.04*skill level))*magic power. Splash radius: 1.5 metres. (Reminder: Only direct hits have a chance to inflict critical damage.) Critical hits inflict Stun(?) status for 8 seconds. Effective against heavy armour, and buildings. Cost: 5 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 3 seconds. ]
[ Price: 1 skill point. Evolve: Yes/No ]
Oh, this one! I remember that from my very first day here. I guess it makes sense Rock Shot would evolve into it. The increased splash radius is a little dangerous, but I think it's worth evolving anyway. Effective against buildings... I guess we'll test that tomorrow.
[ Rock Shot Skill Evolved Into Rock Blast Skill. ]
Nothing too exciting about the max level bonuses, but they were nice to have. The really interesting bonuses tended to come from passive skills, not active ones, though there were exceptions.
As for new skills she hadn't unlocked much from Nature, but she probably already had most of the ones available to her at this level via other means. There might be something with odd unlock conditions, or that was only from scrolls, but she wouldn't really know. The one she had unlocked had a curious name.
[ Recovery Cocoon (Active): Druid branch exclusive. You instantly wrap a target up in a cocoon that rapidly restores their HP, and removes most negative status conditions. Warning: certain status conditions cannot be removed. Nature element property. Target is unable to move, or act while inside cocoon. Cocoon restores 20% of Max HP and SP every 3 seconds until HP is fully restored. Allies can move cocoon. Cocoon can be destroyed, but is very resilient. Cocoon strength increases with skill level. Scales with Wisdom. If the target exits the cocoon naturally at Max HP, they will gain +(20+(1*skill level))% movement speed, and attack speed for 15 seconds. Cost: 20 MP. Refresh: 1 minute. Price: 4 skill points. ]
So it's like a super Rejuvenate? It's certainly a very powerful effect, so that price seems about right. Not being able to move kinda sucks, but if it's the only way to save someone... Yeah, I think this one is worth having. I don't know how much I'll actually use it, but I need some aces up my sleeves, right?
[ Skill Purchased: Recovery Cocoon. ]
Then for Ice and Earth she had unlocked:
[ Ice Prison (Active): You encase a target in a magical block of ice, rendering them unable to move, or act. Ice element property. Duration: 30 seconds. The block of ice can be broken. Block strength, and duration improves with skill level. The target takes damage while trapped. Damage value: 3% of Max HP every 3 seconds. Cost: 12 MP. Cast time: 5 seconds. Refresh: 1 minute. Price: 6 skill points. ]
[ Frost Breath (Active): You spew icy magical mist in a cone in front of you. Damage value: (0.4+(0.02*skill level))*magic power. Ice element property. Range: 3 metres. Cone width: Up to 2 metres. Cone size increases with skill level. Inflicts Slow(?) status for 5 seconds. 30% chance to inflict Freeze(?) status for 5 seconds. Cost: 8 MP. Cast time: 2 seconds. Refresh: 10 seconds. Cost: 4 skill points. ]
[ Rock Hammer (Active): You conjure a magical rock hammer with earth element property to strike a nearby target. Medium knockback force. Range: 1.5 metres. Damage value: (1.3+(0.03*skill level))*magic power. Effective against heavy armour. Cost: 5 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 15 seconds. Price: 2 skill points. ]
[ Quicksand (Active): You target a patch of ground which becomes soft, and anyone or anything that stands on it starts to sink down. Warning: allies and party members are not exempt. Earth element property. Duration: 15 seconds. Diameter: Up to (2+(0.1*skill level)) metres, but you can make it smaller if desired. Depth: 1 metres. It is possible to move out of it, but movement slows more and more the further they sink in. How fast they sink increases with skill level. Cost: 7 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 30 seconds. Price: 2 skill points. ]
She felt like she had seen Rock Hammer before, and Frost Breath was just the ice version of Fire Breath.
Then there were two entirely new ones.
Quicksand seemed like it would be very hard to use properly. There were probably some use cases for it that just weren't occurring to her. Maybe something to do with how it made things sink, as well as people? Otherwise it just seemed like a strange kind of crowd control. Maybe it was actually quite suited for casters, since they didn't want to get close to their target anyway. The fact that she could copy cast it was funny, but trying to set individual target areas for all of them sounded like hell. Even for just 2 skill points it felt like something that was a little too finicky to learn how to use.
Ice Prison was a very classic form of crowd control. Make an enemy not be a problem for a bit so you could deal with something else. She could even copy it. But since ice was not one of her class elements it cost 6 skill points. That was too much, even for that effect. A Mage probably got it for 2 or 3. She might reconsider if she found herself with a large surplus of skill points, but thankfully she had several other ways to lock enemies down.
[ Skill Purchased: Rock Hammer. ]
It was possible Rock Hammer was too much redundancy at this point, but at least it was simple to use, and it also had the effective against armour note. Quicksand didn't feel like it suited her, and the other two were too expensive. If she wanted to spend 4 skill points on a breath skill, she'd rather get Fire Breath.
[ Skill Unlocked: Earth Element Up. Unlock condition: Possess three or more earth element skills, and an earth-attuned class. ]
All right, all right.
[ Skill Purchased: Earth Element Up. ]
She let out a sigh as she closed the final menu box. It felt like it had been a lot to deal with. Level 30, and post-evolution would probably be a fair deal to sort through as well. It was a pretty good time to finish though, since she could see the road crew were on their way back.
Varewulf Nice.
Sara crashed into the bear that showed up while Kathleen was still dealing with the previous one. She had said she would body-block them if she had to, and apparently she had to. These beasts were relentless.
"Why... won't... you... stay... away..." She growled through gritted teeth as she pushed. She had already used Taunt, so it wouldn't try to break away immediately, but even at her level the grizzly still had the edge in raw strength. If she went into bear form she might overpower it, but she'd lose almost all of her spells. At least she had enough grip with other skills that they were locked in a standstill.
"We come. We fight," the bear growled back at her, then bit into her shoulder. Considering the force, probably with Crush.
"So you can talk..." Sara said, and Chomped back into the bear's chest. "But what will it take..." She pulled back enough to activate Body Slam, even if it was less effective when the bear was bigger than her. "To get you to listen!" She lashed out with Shred.
Some of her Dire Wolves were helping by tearing into the bear's flanks (no doubt making use of their Flanking bonus), and she had air support, but these things were tough. The Hill Grizzlies back in Eron had already been really tanky, but these upgraded Dire Grizzlies felt like they were even tougher than her. Not to mention their frustratingly thick hide.
She had instructed most of her pack to keep assisting Kathleen, since that one was closer to going down, but she simply couldn't let this one break through.
Mist came rolling in. Gloria must have recharged. She didn't have any MP Regen in combat, so in order to keep using her Conjure Mist ability, she needed to forcefully break out of combat with Vanish, then move back to somewhere she could use her class's unique meditation bonus to quickly restore MP and SP, then come back.
Sara had been waiting for that. "Everyone get back!" she yelled to them all, and once she felt the wolves were clear, she cast Poison Cloud directly on herself, and smacked into the ground with Stomp, making the bear flinch. Using that opening, she slid underneath the bear, twisted onto her back, and used Solid Kick with all four legs right up into the bear's underside. Sometimes having a large target was helpful.
That was enough push force to slightly lift the distracted bear's legs off the ground, and she immediately followed up with placing an Earth Wall next to herself beneath it to lift it further upwards, in combo with Arcane Blast to lift it even further above that.
The Earth Wall crumbled, and Sara spun back to her feet before she placed a Thorn Barricade inside the Poison Cloud.
"Gloria! Knock it in!" she shouted, and charged up a couple of Rock Shots that she aimed at the bear's head as gravity was catching up to it. The impact force spun it around so its back was angling towards the ground rather than its belly as Gloria flew into the air, and delivered a mid-air Pounce to smash the bear right into the Barricade, locking down its movements, and inflicting damage as it struggled to get back on its feet while breathing the poison gas. Sara added to the struggle by casting Root Bind to help keep it down. Her roots had gotten quite strong.
Kathleen and the others had managed to take down their own bear, but they couldn't exactly dive into the poison, or the barricade, so it was up to Sara, and the ravens to bombard it with spells while the numerous Damage over Time effects ate away at it. The bear expired shortly before the Poison Cloud did.
If Solid Kick hadn't been enough to create just the tiniest bit of lift, it was possible the bear would have been able to resist the push of Earth Wall, and if she had used Arcane Blast's stronger push first, she wouldn't have had anything to follow up with. It was a lot of things that needed to go right in very tight window of time.
She also smugly thought it was a clever use of Thorn Barricade. Her quick thinking in combat had definitely improved, though she'd had time to workshop the plan while they were locked together, and she was waiting for Gloria to return.
Gloria had played her role well too. Sara had relied on the mist to help confuse the bear, and the improved critical chance was nice. Gloria had even grasped Sara's intent about knocking the bear into the Barricade, though she had expected as much. They worked together well during the bandit raids, so it didn't come as a shock that they would be in sync here too.
The bears were really relentless, but at least for the moment they had earned themselves a breather. Not that they had the option of sitting down. The workers were steadily progressing, probably a little more motivated to speed things up considering the circumstances. Sara, Gloria, and Kathleen had to do their best to keep up with them so they were always in the way of any bears that tried barging in. On the upside the bears seemed content to stay and fight rather than try to break through, but she wasn't going to risk that they would keep doing so.
It was definitely the right call to get Gloria to come along, because without both her, and Kathleen by her side this would have been a lot rougher. Not to mention slower. Even without her buff, Gloria did a lot of damage with her Ambushes, Back Attacks, and other skills. She seemed to have good instincts for where and when to strike. Meanwhile Kathleen was doing really well at tanking the bears, even if they were larger, and stronger than her. She couldn't actually push them to a standstill like Sara could, but her skills left her more than capable of keeping their attention without getting overwhelmed. They needed to rely on Sara's healing, and the ravens' shields to mitigate the amount of damage she took, but they were working as a pretty strong team.
I'm probably going to have a lot of skill level ups after this, Sara thought. And I remembered to turn Skill Gain back on. I should have most of their skills already, but if I can gain Desperation that would be helpful. Maybe I already got it, but I'll wait to check my notifications until after we're done.
There were a lot of popups queueing up.
Actually having the ability to turn her other skills on and off as well might be useful. Mainly for helping with raid balancing, but it could come in handy in other instances too. Like at some point almost everything in her Disabled section would become technically usable, but if she could move things to and from that section as she needed, it would keep her Skill List more readable. It might be worth talking to Aina about it later.
"Let's keep going," she said.
"Yes!"
"Yes, boss!"
Sara found the tenacity of these bears to be annoying, but at least the others seemed to be having fun. Especially Gloria, who was getting to do something entirely new in a place she had never been before. Even if it was just a different part of the forest.
They headed north, since they had fallen behind the road crew. She could sense that the Adventurers were also fighting, but one of the wolves informed her it was just a deer, so they should be able to handle that. Those were still tough, especially at the high level they were around here, but you'd probably need two or three of them to reach bear threat level. Sara needed to remain vigilant.
And sure enough they barely got a 10 minute break before another bear came barrelling their way. Kathleen intercepted it with a Pounce, and they started another dance. Sara applied Rejuvenate, and Thorn Armour to Kathleen (a Shadow Barrier went up around her too), before charging up a Frost Arrow with six copies, and striking right into the bear's large flank when she got a good opening. She could have done more, but she didn't want to burn through her MP too fast. They couldn't be certain that would be the only one.
How much is left? She wondered to herself.
The bears really looked as big as cars, and were harder to break, but Sara's side had the number advantage. While it would be painful, she was sure she could handle one of these bears by herself, but she didn't want to. She was supposed to be the boss around here, so why were these elite mobs nearly as strong as her?
Actually they were probably more around Kathleen's power level overall, they were just annoyingly tanky. But since Kathleen was named, it felt like she should be stronger than them. Perhaps that was merely a difference in build. Their stats were distributed differently. She was able to do things they couldn't, but in a raw power struggle, they had the edge.
It was a slog, but they should have no real issues holding out until the workers were done.
* * *
"The Sara!"
They had just finished putting down the most recent bear when one of the ravens called out to her.
"The people say they're through!" The raven shouted gleefully. She wasn't sure whether it was happy things were almost over, or if it was just having the time of its life. Probably the latter.
"Alright!" Sara shouted back. "Everyone retreat! We're going north to meet up just outside of the forest!"
"Aye aye!"
""Yes, boss!""
As they ran upwards, Gloria got close to Sara.
"Outside...?" she asked in a worried tone.
"Yeah," Sara replied. "They have to check the road all the way north to the crossroads, but from what I saw there wasn't a lot of damage there, so it won't take them very long." She smiled at her friend. "Don't worry, I will be right here with you. We will only go outside a little bit, and then head right back inside. You can wait inside the forest if you'd prefer. I'll be back in a few minutes." The bears should stay away from the very edge. It was getting back down afterwards where they would have to move with all haste to avoid more attention.
"Mm..." Gloria seemed to think about it. "I'll be fine."
If this was a taste of what it would be like to invade this part of the forest, then it was going to be a bigger pain than she had hoped. They would need allies. Strong allies. The elves might not want to commit that much to it, since it wasn't a crucial endeavour. It was just something Sara and the wolves wanted to do. She wanted to see, and maybe fight this other boss. It wasn't like it was going to permanently help with the bear problem either, so she couldn't motivate them with that.
Honestly she should prioritise evolving first of all. That might open up more options to her, and even if it didn't it would be a significant boost to her overall strength. If she hadn't levelled off of these bears already, then she would probably get there after the bandit raid the next day.
She was quite excited to see what her options were going to be.
They burst out of the woods into the open plains of the border zone between the elf, and troll nations. The Dire and Shade Wolves stayed inside, but Sara, Gloria, and Kathleen all exited. Sara didn't think Kathleen was all that interested in seeing the Residents and Wanderers, but she was probably curious about setting foot outside of the forest.
The road crew, and their escorts were waiting for them. The foreman stepped forwards along with a different Druid from last time, a female wolfkin named Kosign. Probably also a Wanderer.
Oh, that's what I'm going to become, right? A wolfkin? Probably? Though it will probably take a while yet.
Her levelling speed was definitely slowing down, both due to needing more experience, and also just having a lot of things to do that meant she couldn't be constantly fighting. It was hard to go to higher level zones as well. She might get stuck in her next form even longer than she'd been a Mystic Wolf.
I'm definitely not getting there before the New Year's patch... I'd need to gain a level every other day, and I don't think that's feasible any longer.
"Thank you very much, Guardian Beast," the elf foreman said. Forewoman? Nah, it was just a title. No need to think too hard about it. "It looks like we'll be able to wrap up today after all."
[ Kuuln Braceleafer - Elf Komeron Civil Service Department Infrastructure Foreman (Civil Engineer Lvl 33) HP: 157/157 ]
Wait, there's a Civil Engineer class, mother?
"It's one of the Trade classes, upgraded from Engineer. They're able to craft various devices and gadgets, and lay out blueprints for construction projects, but among the Residents they also often specialise in maintenance, and repair. Entering civil service is a respected career path for any Resident Engineer, though some do prefer to focus on crafting, or running a workshop."
Sara nodded at the elf, and the wolfkin.
"Greetings, Druid," she said. "I spoke to your colleague earlier. My apologies for not being there to prevent your demise." She hadn't seen the wolfkin around at the time, so she figured she had to be one of the two that died. "I will shift to Tree Form to speak with the foreman directly, but feel free to stay."
"Oh, okay. No worries." Kosign looked a little disappointed.
Sara became a tree, took out her board, and started writing. She was gradually getting quicker at it. Well, a little less so outside of Nyolund, but she had learned in the city that it wasn't as big of a hit as she had feared.
"You are welcome, Foreman. I apologise for not being there all along, but I had business to attend to," she wrote. It was a picnic, but it was still very important.
"I understand," Kuuln said. "None of us expected it would be as brutal as it turned out, so we don't blame you for attending to other things. I don't think the Adventurers do either. I'm glad you were able to respond as quickly as you did."
I left you waiting for forty minutes, though. "Of course," Sara wrote. "From what I remember of the time with the survey team, there shouldn't be much damage out here, so we will wait here for your return. The mobs here are so weak I imagine they won't even bother picking a fight. Though you are right, I didn't think the bears would be quite so problematic. It probably won't be safe to open the road unless we come up with a more permanent solution."
Kuuln nodded. "I am afraid you are correct," she said. "Unfortunately that sort of stuff isn't my forte, so I don't have any ideas for you."
"I will attempt to communicate with them," Sara wrote. "I know they understand me. Whether they are actually willing to listen is a different matter. They don't seem like the types for peaceful conversation. I will take contact when I have something to report, but it might take a couple of days before I have anything worth reporting."
"I understand," Kuuln said. "I will tell my superiors, and pray for your success. We'll go finish up out here, and then... I guess we'll just have to run past the bears as fast as we can on the way back..." She sighed.
"Unfortunately yes," Sara wrote. "Hopefully we will see more peaceful times soon. Perhaps you can come back and review your work once it is safe."
"That would be nice," Kuuln said with a smile. "Okay, we'll go wrap up. Thank you again. And... we'll be counting on you on the way back."
"Good luck," Sara wrote, and put her board away, then reverted to wolf form. It was nicer being fluffy.
The Foreman went back to tell the others that break time was over, though the Druid lingered.
"Um... Guardian Beast?"
"Yes? Is something the matter, Druid?" Sara asked.
"N-no, not..." Kosign fidgeted a little. "I just wanted to say that I'm ha- er... that I'm glad to... that it's nice to meet you."
Sara failed to suppress a giggle. "No need to be so nervous," she said. "I'm also glad we're able to just talk. Until yesterday my only interactions with Wanderers had been to fight them. Not that I necessarily mind fighting you. Both your side, and mine have our roles to play, but it's nice that we don't have to take it personally, and can chat amicably outside of that. Unfortunately I'm not able to come join you for a drink after hours, or anything like that." Cat Form was probably the only one small, and limber enough to get through a regular door, but even that wouldn't really fit in a tavern, or restaurant. The mental image was enough to make her chuckle.
"Yeah." The wolfkin smiled. "I didn't really expect things like this when I first... uh... came here. Though due to my race I have always been on peaceful terms with the wolves here. If only I had that ability back... uh... in my world." She was trying her best to keep up the act of this not being a game, which was cute. If only she knew that Sara knew. "As a kid I wanted to walk among wolves."
"And now you can," Sara said.
"And now I can," Kosign said with a smile. "Even if you're a bit different from... uh... the ones in my world. Especially you."
"Oh? Are you a fan of mine, perhaps?" Sara teased. "Would you like an autograph?" Maybe she was another member of that unusual creatures guild.
"Huh? Um... f-fan is maybe not... um... you know what an autograph is?" Kosign asked.
Ah. Shit. "Someone mentioned it to me, and I found the idea amusing," Sara quickly lied.
"I kinda would like..." Kosign mumbled, then jumped. "Uh, I need to catch up with the others. Sorry!"
"No worries," Sara said as the Druid ran off. Maybe they'd pinged her on the party chat, or something.
Hm... even when I'm able to walk among them like a Resident, I... feel like I'll probably still be a mob at heart, huh? That's just what I've become now. And the longer that is all I am, the more ingrained it will be in me. It will probably be at least another month before I can have my final evolution, and I have already made friends, and established relationships with other mobs. I can't just ditch all of that simply because I'm able to look like a Resident.
Sara pondered it.
Yeah, that's it, isn't it? I won't really be a Resident, I'll just look like one. I'm still looking forward to it. It will give me a lot more freedom to go certain places, and it will open up a lot of things to me, but all of these wolves feel like home to me now. I may be their boss before anything else, but they still feel like a kind of family.
It would be weird when she was no longer a Mystic Wolf, though. How was she going to explain that? A gift from god, from Norax? The world/system deciding to upgrade her more? The god thing was probably easier to explain to the Residents, but the Temple might not like it. Maybe it would be possible to pass it off as a collaboration between Norax, and the Moon Goddess... but the goddess might actually tell the Oracle that wasn't the case.
She put those thoughts aside, and walked over to Gloria was just staring wide-eyed at the scenery.
"So, what do you think?" Sara asked.
"It's so open... no trees..." Gloria said with a sense of wonder. It seemed like she had even forgotten to be nervous. Perhaps it was fine to wait out there after all.
"Yup," Sara said, and sat down next to her. "There are a lot of strange things to see in this world, and a lot of them aren't forest." There were actually a few trees in this part of the zone, but they probably didn't count in Gloria's eyes.
"What's that over there?" Gloria asked.
"Where?"
"There."
Sara managed to pick up on what Gloria was staring at.
"Oh, that's a mountain." To the west, past the troll border, was a pretty big mountain. Maybe it blocked their access to the sea. She couldn't really see how far it extended beyond what was visible to them.
"What's a mountain?" Gloria asked.
"It's..." How do you explain a mountain to someone who has never seen nor heard of one before? "It's like a very large hill made mostly of rock, though they usually have a layer of grassy, and mossy ground covering them. They might even have forests, at least up until a certain height. They stick up really high." That one cut right upwards so sharply after a certain point that it didn't have a lot growing on it beyond that. That made it hard to judge exactly how tall it was.
Gloria went silent for a bit, staring in that direction, then asked: "If... if we go see the ocean some day... can we go see a mountain some day too?"
"Yeah," Sara replied, and rubbed their shoulders together. "We can do that."
While they had a bit of a break, she could look at her popups. No sign of the sparkly level up one, unfortunately. She had a brief glance at the 'enemy defeated' ones before dismissing them all. Six bears was more than they'd ran into with the survey team, and that didn't count the two bears the road crew had ran into before she showed up. She also got partial credit for the deer, and jaguars that her wolves helped beat. She wasn't sure if it was just because the workers were slower than the surveyors, or if the bears were extra aggressive for some reason.
[ Skill Gained: Desperation. ]
She had no idea when that had happened, but at least it was done. Everything else the bears had she had already acquired in some other way. It hadn't levelled up at all, but it probably wouldn't unless she went below 50% HP to activate it. She could turn Skill Gain back off in preparation for the next day so she wouldn't forget.
And then skill level ups... she had thrown a bit of everything she could think of at the bears, not holding back in any way, so she'd gotten a bunch of stuff. She just skimmed through for any new max levels, and dismissed the rest.
[ Poison Arrow Alt. Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! 1 skill point gained. ]
[ Frost Arrow Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! Skills unlocked: Ice Prison, Frost Breath. 3 skill points gained. ]
[ Budding Regrowth Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! Skill unlocked: Recovery Cocoon. 2 skill points gained. ]
[ Rock Shot Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! Skill evolution available. Skills unlocked: Rock Hammer, Quicksand. 3 skill points gained. ]
[ Root Bind Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! 1 skill point gained. ]
That was the risk of having so many things close to maxing out at once. So many new skills unlocked too. Which meant more skill points, but she'd see how much she'd need to spend. At least she should have enough time to look through all of it.
[ Poison Arrow Alt. (Active): You fire a magic arrow with nature element property. Damage value: (1.2+(0.04*skill level))*magic power. Splash radius: 1 metres. (Reminder: Only direct hits have a chance to inflict critical damage.) 60% chance to inflict Strong Poison(?) status for 12 seconds. Poison damage: (5+(1*skill level)) HP every 2 seconds.
Alternate mode: You fire a poison needle that does no damage, but is guaranteed to inflict Strong Poison status for 12 seconds.
Cost: 5 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 3 seconds.
Max level bonus: Strong Poison duration: +6 seconds. ]
[ Frost Arrow (Active): You fire a magic arrow with ice element property. Damage value: (1.2+(0.04*skill level))*magic power. Splash radius: 1 metre. (Reminder: Only direct hits have a chance to inflict critical damage.) Inflicts Slow(?) status for 6 seconds. 10% chance to reduce targets' Dexterity by 20% for 6 seconds. Cost: 5 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 3 seconds.
Max level bonus: Frostbite. Targets inflicted with Slow status from this skill lose 1% of Max HP per second. ]
[ Budding Regrowth (Active): You restore a target's HP. Potency: (1.1+(0.04*skill level))*magic power. Nature element property. Target gains a layer of leaves for 6 seconds that will absorb one attack up to (60+(2*skill level))% of HP healed. Excess damage is still inflicted. Removes Bleed(?) status if present. Cost: 6 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 3 seconds.
Max level bonus: Leaf layer duration: +6 seconds. ]
[ Root Bind (Active): You make thorny roots shoot up from the ground, and bind a target for 12 seconds. Nature element property. Roots can be destroyed. Root strength increases with skill level. Roots can break through certain hard surfaces. Thorns deal light damage to the bound target. Damage value: (2 +(0.04*skill level))% of target's Max HP every 2 seconds. Cost: 8 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 5 seconds.
Max level bonus: Roots have a 30% chance to inflict Bleed(?) status on bound target for 8 seconds if broken by melee force. Roots are slightly more resistant to fire. ]
[ Rock Shot (Active): You fire a magical projectile with earth element property. Small knockback force. Damage value: (1.1+(0.03*skill level))*magic power. Splash radius: 1 metres. (Reminder: Only direct hits have a chance to inflict critical damage.) Critical hits inflict Stun(?) status for 6 seconds. Effective against heavy armour. Cost: 3 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 2 seconds.
Max level bonus: Knockback force: +50%. ]
v [ Evolves Into ] v
[ Rock Blast (Active): You fire a magical projectile with earth element property. Medium knockback force. Damage value: (1.2+(0.04*skill level))*magic power. Splash radius: 1.5 metres. (Reminder: Only direct hits have a chance to inflict critical damage.) Critical hits inflict Stun(?) status for 8 seconds. Effective against heavy armour, and buildings. Cost: 5 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 3 seconds. ]
[ Price: 1 skill point. Evolve: Yes/No ]
Oh, this one! I remember that from my very first day here. I guess it makes sense Rock Shot would evolve into it. The increased splash radius is a little dangerous, but I think it's worth evolving anyway. Effective against buildings... I guess we'll test that tomorrow.
[ Rock Shot Skill Evolved Into Rock Blast Skill. ]
Nothing too exciting about the max level bonuses, but they were nice to have. The really interesting bonuses tended to come from passive skills, not active ones, though there were exceptions.
As for new skills she hadn't unlocked much from Nature, but she probably already had most of the ones available to her at this level via other means. There might be something with odd unlock conditions, or that was only from scrolls, but she wouldn't really know. The one she had unlocked had a curious name.
[ Recovery Cocoon (Active): Druid branch exclusive. You instantly wrap a target up in a cocoon that rapidly restores their HP, and removes most negative status conditions. Warning: certain status conditions cannot be removed. Nature element property. Target is unable to move, or act while inside cocoon. Cocoon restores 20% of Max HP and SP every 3 seconds until HP is fully restored. Allies can move cocoon. Cocoon can be destroyed, but is very resilient. Cocoon strength increases with skill level. Scales with Wisdom. If the target exits the cocoon naturally at Max HP, they will gain +(20+(1*skill level))% movement speed, and attack speed for 15 seconds. Cost: 20 MP. Refresh: 1 minute. Price: 4 skill points. ]
So it's like a super Rejuvenate? It's certainly a very powerful effect, so that price seems about right. Not being able to move kinda sucks, but if it's the only way to save someone... Yeah, I think this one is worth having. I don't know how much I'll actually use it, but I need some aces up my sleeves, right?
[ Skill Purchased: Recovery Cocoon. ]
Then for Ice and Earth she had unlocked:
[ Ice Prison (Active): You encase a target in a magical block of ice, rendering them unable to move, or act. Ice element property. Duration: 30 seconds. The block of ice can be broken. Block strength, and duration improves with skill level. The target takes damage while trapped. Damage value: 3% of Max HP every 3 seconds. Cost: 12 MP. Cast time: 5 seconds. Refresh: 1 minute. Price: 6 skill points. ]
[ Frost Breath (Active): You spew icy magical mist in a cone in front of you. Damage value: (0.4+(0.02*skill level))*magic power. Ice element property. Range: 3 metres. Cone width: Up to 2 metres. Cone size increases with skill level. Inflicts Slow(?) status for 5 seconds. 30% chance to inflict Freeze(?) status for 5 seconds. Cost: 8 MP. Cast time: 2 seconds. Refresh: 10 seconds. Cost: 4 skill points. ]
[ Rock Hammer (Active): You conjure a magical rock hammer with earth element property to strike a nearby target. Medium knockback force. Range: 1.5 metres. Damage value: (1.3+(0.03*skill level))*magic power. Effective against heavy armour. Cost: 5 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 15 seconds. Price: 2 skill points. ]
[ Quicksand (Active): You target a patch of ground which becomes soft, and anyone or anything that stands on it starts to sink down. Warning: allies and party members are not exempt. Earth element property. Duration: 15 seconds. Diameter: Up to (2+(0.1*skill level)) metres, but you can make it smaller if desired. Depth: 1 metres. It is possible to move out of it, but movement slows more and more the further they sink in. How fast they sink increases with skill level. Cost: 7 MP. Cast time: 3 seconds. Refresh: 30 seconds. Price: 2 skill points. ]
She felt like she had seen Rock Hammer before, and Frost Breath was just the ice version of Fire Breath.
Then there were two entirely new ones.
Quicksand seemed like it would be very hard to use properly. There were probably some use cases for it that just weren't occurring to her. Maybe something to do with how it made things sink, as well as people? Otherwise it just seemed like a strange kind of crowd control. Maybe it was actually quite suited for casters, since they didn't want to get close to their target anyway. The fact that she could copy cast it was funny, but trying to set individual target areas for all of them sounded like hell. Even for just 2 skill points it felt like something that was a little too finicky to learn how to use.
Ice Prison was a very classic form of crowd control. Make an enemy not be a problem for a bit so you could deal with something else. She could even copy it. But since ice was not one of her class elements it cost 6 skill points. That was too much, even for that effect. A Mage probably got it for 2 or 3. She might reconsider if she found herself with a large surplus of skill points, but thankfully she had several other ways to lock enemies down.
[ Skill Purchased: Rock Hammer. ]
It was possible Rock Hammer was too much redundancy at this point, but at least it was simple to use, and it also had the effective against armour note. Quicksand didn't feel like it suited her, and the other two were too expensive. If she wanted to spend 4 skill points on a breath skill, she'd rather get Fire Breath.
[ Skill Unlocked: Earth Element Up. Unlock condition: Possess three or more earth element skills, and an earth-attuned class. ]
All right, all right.
[ Skill Purchased: Earth Element Up. ]
She let out a sigh as she closed the final menu box. It felt like it had been a lot to deal with. Level 30, and post-evolution would probably be a fair deal to sort through as well. It was a pretty good time to finish though, since she could see the road crew were on their way back.
