“So laddy, I talked it through with the group. I’d like you to listen to my request and then the reasoning behind it before you accept or turn it down. Is that acceptable?” Garrus had a serious look again.
I nodded, I could listen. Listening was easy, so easy I totally didn’t miss the first part of what Garrus was saying
“...-nvite you to join the Earth Raiders.”
Wait, what? Invite me to join their party?
“There are a few reasons for that, most of them relate to benefits to you. The first is having a group that knows a lot about the world and can help guide you and teach you about your classes. At least initially, eventually this will become a lot less prevalent to you as you experience more. The second thing is a group that will have your back going forward. It’ll be helpful going into dungeons to have an experienced group at your back to help tell you what you need and how to progress through it. We are pretty well-known around here and one of the strongest parties in the region, if not the strongest one. The third reason we want you is that it’ll be a benefit to us as well. As you’ve probably noticed about your body, elves are strong. Really strong. Stats work off the baseline of the body. The stronger the body is, the stronger your strength stat will make you and whatnot. And based on what you showed us yesterday with that Tunne Mole, your abilities are going to sky-rocket from here.. This point was purely selfish of me, but making sure my party always has the best of the best as the leader is a primary aspect of what I need to do.”
He let out a breath of air as he finished his list.
“That pretty much covers it, we’d like you to join us. We can help you and you can help us, it’ll also save you the effort of having to go through a bunch of the initial adventurer crap if you join up with us.”
“Wow, I wasn’t expecting that to be honest.” I was a little surprised, but I guess I should’ve seen it coming. He was upfront about the fact he wanted me because he knew I had an advantaged position with my classes. If I continued this way I’d be strong. Terrifyingly strong. He wanted in on that. I just had to avoid dying before then. I didn’t see anything bad about this, Garrus and the rest of them had treated me well enough. And instead of taking advantage of me, they were completely upfront with me, even going out of their way to make Penny apologize for something extremely minor to try and stay on my good side.
“Alright, I don’t necessarily see a problem with it. Although I want to bring a few conditions with me if I join you.”
“It depends, but let’s hear it.”
“When the situations are reasonable, I want to fight enemies on my own. I won’t press that point too hard, but I’d like to do it whenever I can. The second thing is that I’d like to be able to leave the group if I decide to do so. I don’t plan on doing so, but I don’t want to be held into some contract against my will.”
Garrus nodded his head for a second thinking about it, he looked at each of his group members who nodded their heads in turn as he looked at them.
He then stuck his hand out to me, “Agreed.”
I shook his hand. He had another one of his signature grins on his face, “Welcome to the Earth Raiders, Alex.”
“So I think first we should get you your first ascension, maybe even your second one depending. I don’t want to rush this and accidentally bite off more than you can chew and get you killed. We probably have about a week and a half, maybe two before we absolutely need to take another mission to earn some cash. What does everyone think?”
“I think that’s fine,” Penny said. She was still a bit sheepish but seemed to be pulling out of it.
“I have a few ideas of other places we can go, but the Moles should serve well enough for now,” Karif responded. George just nodded off from the side. Now that I thought about it I hadn’t heard George ever speak. I wonder if he was a mute.
Garrus stood up from where he was at the table, “Well it’s still pretty early should we head on out and try and get you your first ascension. On the way out there we’ll have plenty of time to talk and answer any questions you might have.”
“Sounds good with me,” I said as I got up from my place as well.
Karif let the spell he had been holding drop.
“Alright let’s get going!” And Garrus led us out onto the streets from the guild and started moving East to get out of the town.
“So what’s up first? What questions do you have for us jumper?” Garrus said, shooting me a glance.
“Well, I guess we can start with ascensions. What exactly do they provide?” People kept making a big deal about them but I still didn’t know why.
Karif was the one who answered, “They provide a lot. They give a flat bonus to stats. The amount differs per ascension and is based on the achievements of the person before ascending. So in turn you should get a pretty decent bonus for killing something one tier above you. That’s not easy to do at higher tiers, but it’s even more difficult to do at low tiers where you don’t have as big of a stat bonus and every point matters more. You also get to ascend your classes. Or really change them up. So you could, if you were interested, combine your fighter class with either of your mage classes. There are a bunch of pros and cons to doing so, but we can go into that a little bit later. Outside of that, the biggest change you're gonna see is a way to spend ability points. Each way differs slightly per person. You’ll understand what I mean when you get there. Normally I’d say save your points and use them to unlock your third class, but in your case, you’re already there so that’s not gonna be something you need to worry about. I wonder if you’ll get a fourth?” Karif fell silent as he went into thought over the future of my classes.
“Alright, guess I have something to look forward to then. The next big thing I was curious about was skills. Some of my skills have damage and stuff based on level, but others don’t say they have damage based on level. I find it extremely unlikely that a skill that uses my sword is capped on damage even if my strength stat changes, if I can hit harder surely I deal more damage, and I assume the same would be for my magic skills as well right?”
“That’s actually really good insight, a lot of people brush over that and don’t consider it.” Garrus was the one to answer while Karif muttered to himself, “It’s actually kind of nuanced, but you’re pretty close with your thought process. Skills that don’t have the stipulation of damage based on level deal damage based on your stats alone and will rise and fall with them as they change, whether you have gear that raises your stats, or if you get hit with a curse that lowers them. Skills that do say based on level are quite literally based on your level. Barring extreme situations they won’t change their damage output based on your stats. As you can imagine it’s both a boon and a curse. On one hand, your stats won’t go down if you get cursed, on the other if you get boosted by a support spell that raises your strength, for example, your damage with that specific skill won’t change either. Outside of the damage issue though, there’s not a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff you need to worry about. Melee skills use a combination of strength to deal damage and dex to hit unless specified otherwise. Agility doesn’t hurt to have to help with getting close as well. Offensive sorceries require a combination of intelligence to deal damage and dexterity to hit as well. Wisdom affects support skills and is usually the baseline modifier for you to work with. Wisdom affects your mana while endurance is for your stamina. Vigor is for health, but it also boosts your perception. A stronger system means stronger organs. Eyes are included in that, the better they are the further you can see and the faster your brain can process the information it sees. Everything else is pretty self-explanatory.”
Wow. Garrus answered my first question to a T and managed to preemptively answer the next question I’d had lined up as well.
“Alright, thanks. What happens to my skills when I ascend my class?”
“Ah, that’s something you might want to see for yourself. It’s nothing bad, and nothing you won’t understand once it happens. Just choose classes that resonate with you and you’ll be set.”
“Oh, now that I think about it. Is there a pain tolerance skill or resistance skill to elements or anything like that?”
“Pain resistance? Not that I’m aware of, life would be a lot easier with something like that.”
“Okay, final question.” I could see the slime field coming up into view, time certainly flies when you’re enjoying yourself. “My third class being a purple class has 7 skill slots while my green and white classes only have 5.”
Karif focused back on the conversation again answering the question for me, “White and green classes only have 5. Blues have 6, purples will have 7, golds with 8. Unique classes vary from person to person and a lot of it is mired in rumor, reportedly the least amount of slots one has had was 3. Each skill was immensely powerful. World-altering, kind of strength. The most a class was ever said to have was 20 slots. None of these have been corroborated by any official sources so don’t think too hard on it. Supposedly there’s even a class beyond unique classes, but nobody knows what it’s called, so it’s a suspicious rumor at best.”
We came to a stop in front of the burrows again, Garrus turning around to face us.
“Alright everyone, we’re going in and probably not coming back out until Alex has his classes at level 10. What level are they by the way?
“7, 7, and 5. The purple seems to be taking a little more work.”
“Sounds about right. Either way, it shouldn’t take too much effort. Anything we need to do before going in?”
“There’s a skill I’d actually like to test. It’s a barrier skill, I don’t know exactly how it works.”
“Alright, go ahead and put it up and we’ll see.”
I took a stance a little away from him and put a hand in front of myself and whispered,
[Barrier]
A shimmering translucent teal-colored barrier sprung up in front of me. It covered a decent amount of area in front of me. It had cost around 10 mana to cast but didn’t cost anything to maintain. I spun around and it stayed in front of me unless I willed it to remain in place. I walked away from it and it stayed until I was about 5 feet away from it before it started to follow me. I could make it appear just in front of my body as well. I tried to bring it in closer and it melded over my body like a second layer of skin that I couldn’t feel.
I turned to the party, “Alright I’m ready one of you give it a smack.” Garrus stepped up and pulled out his sword and gave a light swing into it. It drained a pretty small amount of mana, only about 10 points. “Alright hit it harder.”
“Alrighty put it a bit of distance away from you. Don’t want to hurt you here.” I spaced out the barrier from my body at his request.
And this time he hefted into it. This time it drained a pretty large chunk. About 150 points. Out of nearly 1,000 points that seemed to be pretty good efficiency considering Garrus was 2 tiers above me.
“Hoof, that was my full strength without using any skills. That’s a pretty sturdy shield.”
“That second hit drained about 150 points of mana. I could take about 6 of those before my shield broke.”
“Six? That’s insane efficiency, and it’ll only get better as you level it further!” Karif interjected excitedly. “You said that class is at level 5 still? Oh man, that barrier will get insane later on in your ascensions.”
“Well if you don’t have anything else go ahead and rest up and restore your mana. Do you even have the [Rest] skill?”
“Uhhh, no. I don’t. Although I assume it’s as easy as sitting down with the intention to recover resources?”
“You got it, the skill is pretty great for mages, allows you to recover resources faster in between fights.”
I went ahead and sat down and closed my eyes focusing deeply on relaxation and resource gain. I lost track of time while I did so but eventually, I was shocked out of my trance by the system.
‘Ping’ You’ve acquired the general skill [Rest]
At the time I acquired it, I had also gone back to full.
“Alright, got the skill, I’m good to go,” I said while standing up and joining them by the entrance to the burrow.
“Alrighty, let's do this then.”
And once more we plunged into the depths.
“So laddy, I talked it through with the group. I’d like you to listen to my request and then the reasoning behind it before you accept or turn it down. Is that acceptable?” Garrus had a serious look again.
I nodded, I could listen. Listening was easy, so easy I totally didn’t miss the first part of what Garrus was saying
“...-nvite you to join the Earth Raiders.”
Wait, what? Invite me to join their party?
“There are a few reasons for that, most of them relate to benefits to you. The first is having a group that knows a lot about the world and can help guide you and teach you about your classes. At least initially, eventually this will become a lot less prevalent to you as you experience more. The second thing is a group that will have your back going forward. It’ll be helpful going into dungeons to have an experienced group at your back to help tell you what you need and how to progress through it. We are pretty well-known around here and one of the strongest parties in the region, if not the strongest one. The third reason we want you is that it’ll be a benefit to us as well. As you’ve probably noticed about your body, elves are strong. Really strong. Stats work off the baseline of the body. The stronger the body is, the stronger your strength stat will make you and whatnot. And based on what you showed us yesterday with that Tunne Mole, your abilities are going to sky-rocket from here.. This point was purely selfish of me, but making sure my party always has the best of the best as the leader is a primary aspect of what I need to do.”
He let out a breath of air as he finished his list.
“That pretty much covers it, we’d like you to join us. We can help you and you can help us, it’ll also save you the effort of having to go through a bunch of the initial adventurer crap if you join up with us.”
“Wow, I wasn’t expecting that to be honest.” I was a little surprised, but I guess I should’ve seen it coming. He was upfront about the fact he wanted me because he knew I had an advantaged position with my classes. If I continued this way I’d be strong. Terrifyingly strong. He wanted in on that. I just had to avoid dying before then. I didn’t see anything bad about this, Garrus and the rest of them had treated me well enough. And instead of taking advantage of me, they were completely upfront with me, even going out of their way to make Penny apologize for something extremely minor to try and stay on my good side.
“Alright, I don’t necessarily see a problem with it. Although I want to bring a few conditions with me if I join you.”
“It depends, but let’s hear it.”
“When the situations are reasonable, I want to fight enemies on my own. I won’t press that point too hard, but I’d like to do it whenever I can. The second thing is that I’d like to be able to leave the group if I decide to do so. I don’t plan on doing so, but I don’t want to be held into some contract against my will.”
Garrus nodded his head for a second thinking about it, he looked at each of his group members who nodded their heads in turn as he looked at them.
He then stuck his hand out to me, “Agreed.”
I shook his hand. He had another one of his signature grins on his face, “Welcome to the Earth Raiders, Alex.”
“So I think first we should get you your first ascension, maybe even your second one depending. I don’t want to rush this and accidentally bite off more than you can chew and get you killed. We probably have about a week and a half, maybe two before we absolutely need to take another mission to earn some cash. What does everyone think?”
“I think that’s fine,” Penny said. She was still a bit sheepish but seemed to be pulling out of it.
“I have a few ideas of other places we can go, but the Moles should serve well enough for now,” Karif responded. George just nodded off from the side. Now that I thought about it I hadn’t heard George ever speak. I wonder if he was a mute.
Garrus stood up from where he was at the table, “Well it’s still pretty early should we head on out and try and get you your first ascension. On the way out there we’ll have plenty of time to talk and answer any questions you might have.”
“Sounds good with me,” I said as I got up from my place as well.
Karif let the spell he had been holding drop.
“Alright let’s get going!” And Garrus led us out onto the streets from the guild and started moving East to get out of the town.
“So what’s up first? What questions do you have for us jumper?” Garrus said, shooting me a glance.
“Well, I guess we can start with ascensions. What exactly do they provide?” People kept making a big deal about them but I still didn’t know why.
Karif was the one who answered, “They provide a lot. They give a flat bonus to stats. The amount differs per ascension and is based on the achievements of the person before ascending. So in turn you should get a pretty decent bonus for killing something one tier above you. That’s not easy to do at higher tiers, but it’s even more difficult to do at low tiers where you don’t have as big of a stat bonus and every point matters more. You also get to ascend your classes. Or really change them up. So you could, if you were interested, combine your fighter class with either of your mage classes. There are a bunch of pros and cons to doing so, but we can go into that a little bit later. Outside of that, the biggest change you're gonna see is a way to spend ability points. Each way differs slightly per person. You’ll understand what I mean when you get there. Normally I’d say save your points and use them to unlock your third class, but in your case, you’re already there so that’s not gonna be something you need to worry about. I wonder if you’ll get a fourth?” Karif fell silent as he went into thought over the future of my classes.
“Alright, guess I have something to look forward to then. The next big thing I was curious about was skills. Some of my skills have damage and stuff based on level, but others don’t say they have damage based on level. I find it extremely unlikely that a skill that uses my sword is capped on damage even if my strength stat changes, if I can hit harder surely I deal more damage, and I assume the same would be for my magic skills as well right?”
“That’s actually really good insight, a lot of people brush over that and don’t consider it.” Garrus was the one to answer while Karif muttered to himself, “It’s actually kind of nuanced, but you’re pretty close with your thought process. Skills that don’t have the stipulation of damage based on level deal damage based on your stats alone and will rise and fall with them as they change, whether you have gear that raises your stats, or if you get hit with a curse that lowers them. Skills that do say based on level are quite literally based on your level. Barring extreme situations they won’t change their damage output based on your stats. As you can imagine it’s both a boon and a curse. On one hand, your stats won’t go down if you get cursed, on the other if you get boosted by a support spell that raises your strength, for example, your damage with that specific skill won’t change either. Outside of the damage issue though, there’s not a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff you need to worry about. Melee skills use a combination of strength to deal damage and dex to hit unless specified otherwise. Agility doesn’t hurt to have to help with getting close as well. Offensive sorceries require a combination of intelligence to deal damage and dexterity to hit as well. Wisdom affects support skills and is usually the baseline modifier for you to work with. Wisdom affects your mana while endurance is for your stamina. Vigor is for health, but it also boosts your perception. A stronger system means stronger organs. Eyes are included in that, the better they are the further you can see and the faster your brain can process the information it sees. Everything else is pretty self-explanatory.”
Wow. Garrus answered my first question to a T and managed to preemptively answer the next question I’d had lined up as well.
“Alright, thanks. What happens to my skills when I ascend my class?”
“Ah, that’s something you might want to see for yourself. It’s nothing bad, and nothing you won’t understand once it happens. Just choose classes that resonate with you and you’ll be set.”
“Oh, now that I think about it. Is there a pain tolerance skill or resistance skill to elements or anything like that?”
“Pain resistance? Not that I’m aware of, life would be a lot easier with something like that.”
“Okay, final question.” I could see the slime field coming up into view, time certainly flies when you’re enjoying yourself. “My third class being a purple class has 7 skill slots while my green and white classes only have 5.”
Karif focused back on the conversation again answering the question for me, “White and green classes only have 5. Blues have 6, purples will have 7, golds with 8. Unique classes vary from person to person and a lot of it is mired in rumor, reportedly the least amount of slots one has had was 3. Each skill was immensely powerful. World-altering, kind of strength. The most a class was ever said to have was 20 slots. None of these have been corroborated by any official sources so don’t think too hard on it. Supposedly there’s even a class beyond unique classes, but nobody knows what it’s called, so it’s a suspicious rumor at best.”
We came to a stop in front of the burrows again, Garrus turning around to face us.
“Alright everyone, we’re going in and probably not coming back out until Alex has his classes at level 10. What level are they by the way?
“7, 7, and 5. The purple seems to be taking a little more work.”
“Sounds about right. Either way, it shouldn’t take too much effort. Anything we need to do before going in?”
“There’s a skill I’d actually like to test. It’s a barrier skill, I don’t know exactly how it works.”
“Alright, go ahead and put it up and we’ll see.”
I took a stance a little away from him and put a hand in front of myself and whispered,
[Barrier]
A shimmering translucent teal-colored barrier sprung up in front of me. It covered a decent amount of area in front of me. It had cost around 10 mana to cast but didn’t cost anything to maintain. I spun around and it stayed in front of me unless I willed it to remain in place. I walked away from it and it stayed until I was about 5 feet away from it before it started to follow me. I could make it appear just in front of my body as well. I tried to bring it in closer and it melded over my body like a second layer of skin that I couldn’t feel.
I turned to the party, “Alright I’m ready one of you give it a smack.” Garrus stepped up and pulled out his sword and gave a light swing into it. It drained a pretty small amount of mana, only about 10 points. “Alright hit it harder.”
“Alrighty put it a bit of distance away from you. Don’t want to hurt you here.” I spaced out the barrier from my body at his request.
And this time he hefted into it. This time it drained a pretty large chunk. About 150 points. Out of nearly 1,000 points that seemed to be pretty good efficiency considering Garrus was 2 tiers above me.
“Hoof, that was my full strength without using any skills. That’s a pretty sturdy shield.”
“That second hit drained about 150 points of mana. I could take about 6 of those before my shield broke.”
“Six? That’s insane efficiency, and it’ll only get better as you level it further!” Karif interjected excitedly. “You said that class is at level 5 still? Oh man, that barrier will get insane later on in your ascensions.”
“Well if you don’t have anything else go ahead and rest up and restore your mana. Do you even have the [Rest] skill?”
“Uhhh, no. I don’t. Although I assume it’s as easy as sitting down with the intention to recover resources?”
“You got it, the skill is pretty great for mages, allows you to recover resources faster in between fights.”
I went ahead and sat down and closed my eyes focusing deeply on relaxation and resource gain. I lost track of time while I did so but eventually, I was shocked out of my trance by the system.
‘Ping’ You’ve acquired the general skill [Rest]
At the time I acquired it, I had also gone back to full.
“Alright, got the skill, I’m good to go,” I said while standing up and joining them by the entrance to the burrow.
“Alrighty, let's do this then.”
And once more we plunged into the depths.
