The green fields must be ones that had just been updated. Well, I’m either taking Arcane to level 100, or my plan is already out the window. I assume speaking the language of your starting location is automatic, but reading and writing come with the Arcana skill tree.
Most games let people pick their stats, and the goal was to make sure they line up with your class and playstyle. This game gave me Intelligence because it lined up with my class. That is assuming that icon indicates Intelligence. Top to bottom my guess is: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, and Agility. So if I only take levels in [Arcana], I’ll be stuck as a very smart, weak, clumsy, blind guy?
And am I staring off into space right now while I look at all of this? I haven’t heard or seen anything since I leveled up. There isn’t too much on this screen. Oh, Skills is selectable…
Core Skills
Special Skills
So I’m starting out with pretty much nothing. When I couldn’t glean any more information, I closed out the menu.
“Ah?” Amaya gave me a knowing smile. “You just leveled up, didn’t you? I saw the flash in your eyes. Blink, and you’ll miss it."
“I was thinking I might have the unique opportunity to be the first person to get to level 100 in a specific class."
She gave me a thoughtful look. “Your idea is totally worth studying, if you can do it, but life will be hard. You couldn’t even read if you hadn’t gotten that first level of [Arcana]. Class skills become more specialized as you go up in level. The earlier levels are more general life stuff.”
“Well, is 100 levels in [Arcana] worth the grind?”
“Absolutely! It’s my passion. It’s why I became a Pioneer in the first place, and ended up in this…” she gave the library a derisive look; or was that directed at the whole town?
“And maybe we can help each other,” she continued, a bit cheerier. “Each member of the Mage Guild needs to prove her worth. Either with years of grunt work, like cataloging neglected libraries, or… some sort of discovery.”
“So, if I can take a class higher than anyone ever has, you would get a promotion?” I asked.
“For sure. But let’s be real, you’re bound to get a couple of levels in other classes by accident along the way. Even so, it’s still possible to take a synergy class higher than ever before,” she elaborated.
“What’s a synergy class?”
“When classes fit together neatly, they become something new. Like, a level 15 [Elemental} mage from the [Arcana] class combined with a level 15 [Blacksmith] from the [Artificer] class, would be a level 30 [Primordial Smith]. They can forge weapons that do extra elemental damage, for example. They can even forge temporary tools and weapons out of ice. Which can be useful.”
She went on, “Or, a [Warrior] combined with a [Blacksmith] will gain a benefit for using equipment he forged himself. But someone with 15 levels in all three would be a level 45 [Primal Knight]. They can arm themselves and don full plate armor made of ice in seconds, and get bonuses from all of it because they made it themselves.”
“I think I’m getting it. I’ll try to take [Arcana] to level 100, and if I accidentally get another level in something else, hopefully it will be something that synergizes.”
Half an hour later I made my way back to the inn. It was the only restaurant in town, and it was lunchtime. Amaya had gestured to her crystal ball when she told me she needed to confer with her superiors at the Mage Guild about her plan to study me. As I ate I went over the list of Things to Avoid that Amaya had given me before shooing me away.
- Don’t try to identify people, animals, plants…
- Don’t try to evaluate the price of something, or negotiate prices...
- Don’t try to cook, play music, use a knife, sword, wooden staff…
- Don’t pay attention to anyone else doing…
This isn’t going to work, is it? It sounds like I might need some of these skills. I could end up spending a long time in this game. Would I need someone to slice my bread for me? Eating at the bar would have been shoulder to shoulder, so I took my soup back to my room along with my hunk of unsliced bread.
Sitting on my hay bed, and looking down at my bare feet, I decided I really need to find another source of income other than stumbling across dead bodies. As I ate, I checked out the book on my nightstand. Wait, this book's cover is in plain English. But it sure looks like the same book from earlier.
Er, no. It’s the same, written in Marikonian. I’m just suddenly so familiar with the new language that it seemed that way. Each symbol was its own word, like Chinese or Japanese. I started paging through the book.
Incredible. The knowledge of how to read a new language was just slipped into my brain like a thief in the night. Or the opposite of a thief, I guess. It felt less like learning and more like remembering something I hadn’t known I’d forgotten. I guess speaking the language came the same way. It was just so seamless I never noticed. Can I download kungfu into my brain here, like the matrix?
The book was about a lamplighter who discovers how The Alchemist had been hiding amongst the townsfolk. Apparently this alchemist figure needed no introduction. This prompted the town to band together, and thwart the evil machinations of Zarek the Fallen. Was there some sort of connection to The Alchemist and this Zarek? If so, the book doesn’t get into it. At least not in the first half.
Books here were all about 100 pages, which was how I read half of it in the hour I spent nursing my bowl of soup and small loaf of chewy bread that I dare not cut with a knife. The book appeared to be quite old, so it must have happened some time ago. I half expected a quest or something. Maybe that’s not a thing here. Or maybe I need to finish the book?
After an hour I found I couldn’t read anymore. The lunch rush had died down a bit, and I saw some more adventurers relaxing in the inn. This time I noticed that a couple of them had masks displayed on their person. Gorg didn’t look too busy, so I headed his way. “I’ll keep my room another night please.”
He gave me a shocked look, then leaned in conspiratorially, “They’re letting you stay?” Is this guy being serious for once? A long moment stretched out where we stared at each other, taking stock. He is? “Haaa, ha ha ha.”
Nope. Moving on. “Say, I notice a few masks being worn on the hip, but none being worn… you know, like a mask.”
That got him to stop laughing. “You don’t have gods where you come from?”
I shrugged, “Maybe. I’ve never met one.”
“The masks ’re a sign you’re an acolyte,” he explained, “to the gods,” he went on when I obviously didn’t get it. “Ya gotta carry their mask on your person, eyes out to see the world, and for the world to see them.”
“I suppose in a world with many gods in competition, it’s free advertisement,” I thought aloud.
“I don’t know what that means, but the gods don’t compete. Not anymore I mean. They got a council. If you choose one, choose wisely. They ask more than they give,” he went on, “Unless you die. Then it’s very much worth it,” he laughed again.
“What do you mean? Oh, like an afterlife?”
“After… life? No. Dungeon delvin’ is dangerous business. The world needs them, and the coin is good. If things go sideways, a god can send you back to one of the mortal planes.”
“Oh, that makes sense. Like, a respawn,” I said, instantly regretting my words.
“You’re a weird guy,” he said, and walked away, somehow carrying six overflowing mugs at once.
If only acolytes can respawn, then that probably means that everyone with a mask is an essential character, and everyone without one is a non essential character. But that sounds cold. Gorg is clearly a real person. Everyone here is.
But I suppose the average town dueller isn’t likely to die an unnatural death. Maybe you can’t die in town. Is disease a thing here? In a game that I can actually die in, I will definitely need one of those maks. Assuming my death will mean I actually die, and not just return to my world.