I woke up the next morning almost unable to move, I was in so much pain. Moaning, I rolled over and felt the crinkle of paper beneath me. Carefully I removed it, wincing as every rotation of my arm sent pain lancing up my shoulder. As I read the note I softly cursed in outrage. Lady Xing had somehow managed to get me one of the most basic missions from the adventures guild, one that even I, someone who had never adventured before in my life knew about. And how I know about it? My father constantly complained that it wasn’t done! And it wasn’t done because although vitally important it was also one of the most disgusting and least profitable tasks that could be done.
Listing #0001v24386
Task: kill at a minimum one hundred monster class rats.
Reward: 10 copper crowns per 100 rats.
Notes: will only accept payments in batches of 100.
Kills will need to be confirmed by the head of each rat.
Date: no due date
Looking at the letter initially all I felt was outrage. I was a princess! And a classer! Why should I of all people do such pitiful work? But as I thought about it some more I realised, there wasn’t any other work I could do. All other missions and particularly all dungeons required youlevels and proof of competency. And as I was the rats could kill me if enough came, it wasn’t as though I had any mass area spells to kill them if I was swarmed.
Sighing and still aching in pain I closed my eyes and slowly breathed in and out. Letting my thoughts settle down as I tried to plan. I knew that I was incredibly weak and I really needed to push myself to gain strength, however pushing myself without a goal would be pointless. I needed more information, and considering Lady Xings less than helpful information there was only one person I could really go to for help. And as I opened my eyes again deep within myself I came face to face with her. “Hello Soul” I said “I have a lot of questions.”
****
Soul looked at me in outrage “what have you done to yourself, your hurt and have made significant levels. You should not be levelling this quickly, and you really need to fix yourself!”
“I didn’t think my gains have been that significant?” I asked in confusion.
“You already have two skill promotions” Soul all but shrieked at me. “In one day, this is not normal!”
“What?” I asked in shock, looking at my status screen only to be washed with a myriad of notifications.
Absorber class has failed to Consume the class bloodhound (Level 23)
Congratulations the Subclass Rogue has levelled up to level 7
Congratulations the Absorber skill Disguise class has reached Level 1 Uncommon! Options for upgrades are now available!
Congratulations General Skill Senses has upgraded from level 2 to level 3
Congratulations General skill Running has upgraded from level 5 to level 8
Congratulations General skill Climbing has upgraded from level 1 to level 2
Congratulations General skill Meditation has upgraded from level 1 to level 2
Congratulations General skill Dagger Skills has upgraded from level 4 to level 5
Congratulations General skill Pain resistance has reached Level 1 Uncommon! Options for upgrades are now available!
Congratulations Rogue skill Silent footsteps has upgraded from level 3 to level 5
Congratulations Rogue skill Basic shadow magic Has upgraded from level 1 to level 2
Congratulations Rogue skill Fade has upgraded from level 3 to level 4
Looking at my entire status sheet I really could see the significant progress I had made and felt slightly overwhelmed.
Name: Dianne Elizabeth Tianshao
Class: Absorber
Strength
8
Dexterity
8
Vitality
8
Toughness
7
Willpower
12
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Intelligence
10
Perception
11
Mana
20
Free Points
29
General Skills
[Senses] Common 3
[Running] Common 8
[Basic medical knowledge] Common 1
[Bartering] Common 1
[Social graces] Common 2
[Learning] Common 1
[Climbing] Common 2
[Meditation] Common 2
[Dagger Skills] Common 5
[Pain Resistance] Common 10 (Upgrades available)
Absorber Class 2
[Absorb] Common 2
[Identify] Common 5
[Disguise class] Common 10 (Upgrades available)
[Absorbed Growth] Common 1
[Aura] Common 5
Rogue Subclass 5
[Silent footsteps] Common 5
[Basic Shadow magic] Common 1
[Fade] Common 4
[Pickpocketing] Common 2
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
“See what I mean!” Soul said throwing her hands up in frustration “You also got a bunch of new skills, two in particular that I think you will like.”
“Oh those do look good I” admitted seeing the skills I had available
[Regeneration (health)] general skill.
gain health and heal injuries converting mana to do so. Cost of healing will depend on the severity and complexity of the damage.
[Stealth attack] Rogue skill
Deal increased damage up to double when the enemy is unaware of your presence prior to the attack being made.
Immediately I replaced my first aid skill with regeneration, belatedly remembering that I probably should have used it yesterday before I set off, and added stealth attack to my Rogue skills, clearing out an empty slot.
“You are incredibly lucky to get that, most only get it after nearly dying. You're likely quite compatible with it, "Soul said, looking as though she was undecided whether to be pissed off or excited about the excellent skill. “and now that you have it you really need to use it unless you want to give yourself permanent damage that it would take an incredibly talented healer to solve” Soul said glaring at me clearly deciding she was upset
“I was that badly hurt?” I asked in some shock. “I know it wasn’t good but I didn’t think was that bad.”
“Yes you were and that’s mostly your own fault for deciding to run and fight whilst hurt and then not doing anything about it, you could have crippled yourself permanently. And whilst I know it’s not entirely your fault it shows the league you are playing in right now. It’s an epic rarity skill and those don’t come around because you are being safe!”
“I don’t really know what else I could have done there” I muttered to myself, louder I asked “what does epic rarity mean in terms of skills? Does that give me a higher starting level?”
“Yes and No” Soul said shaking her head “skills also have a ranking that corresponds both with how hard they are to get and how useful they are, in general if you had a common skill in swordsmanship you would need to level it up to legendary level to be as good as a legendary swordsmanship skill, it just hasn’t been relevant to you as all your general skills are common skills, and I didn’t want to overwhelm you with skill complexity. Being better and putting yourself in more stressful situations will get you better skills.”
“That seems really dramatic of a difference I said in some shock, does that make my skills useless relatively speaking? How far behind am I actually?”
“Im not going to lie to you, you are an incredibly late bloomer and as such you will have a lower quality of skills and levels relative to the average person your age and particularly the average noble, but you already knew that. Your only real option to catch up are via using the absorb skill to give yourself more classes, you get stats from every subclass level as well so you absolutely can catch up in that regard. And whilst you won’t be as strong as any of your peers you will always be more versatile which should be your goal.”
I grimaced to myself. I knew that I was going to do it and use my class consistently, hell I had used it three times in less than 24 hours! But I didn't really want to go around killing any random person, attacking people in that manner would absolutely leave a permanent mark on my soul.
“I also need to understand what Lady Xing was talking about with not explaining things to me and why it was bad enough that it required her to almost cripple me.” I said to soul sitting down and trying to change the topic.
Soul’s expression told me she knew exactly what I was doing avoiding the conversation about using my class but indulged me anyway. “Having information about skills and help with training reduces skill gain and growth significantly, reducing the benefits to about 10% of what you would’ve gained otherwise as it doesn’t count as your own work and rather you piggybacking off someone else. The only exception is if someone has the teaching skill which can keep up to 90% of the efficacy of learning it yourself.”
“That’s absurdly bad” I muttered, “and that must be why the academy is so prized” a growing realisation dawning on me, “it allows youth like ourselves to gain significant knowledge without the knowledge falloff.”
“Indeed,” soul agreed “on top of that and whilst I hate to give that monster any credit, what Lady Xing has done is actually the opposite, she has hampered you and made you fight above your which can encourage levels and skill growth. You got such large levels because you were at such a disadvantage.”
“We are absolutely not giving that woman any more credit than necessary.” I agreed “any other advice about improving my skills, is it worth going for better ones and replacing my current skills?”
“You already know the first option, Soul said looking at me with her arms crossed. “The other things you can and should do is continue to push yourself and put yourself in dangerous positions. People who do that either end up as powerhouses or dead. Although it’s about 1 powerhouse to every 10,000 deaths ”
“Why even suggest it then?” I demanded in outrage trying to glare her down. “I don’t plan on killing myself!”
“Because that’s exactly what you did yesterday, against people who if they had placed their stats differently, or had just acted slightly smarter would have killed you!” Soul exploded “And with your delayed start and surrounded by people significantly more powerful than you who may be trying to kill you, becoming powerful is the only way to survive!”
I stared at her heart thundering as if it was was about to burst out of my chest. Soul seeing my expression took a deep breath and tried to calm down.
“Look I was a bit harsh just then but unfortunately this is what you need to do. You either die on your terms trying to get stronger or die on someone else’s being weak. And we both know that you will always try and be stronger.”
“Any other things I should know?” I asked “and what about upgrading my skills?”
“Don’t upgrade them yet” soul immediately yelped “the upgrades are based on experience and what you need from them, and you can still get levels on it even without upgrading. go back and get more experience and understand how you plan on building out your skills more. You know you will need to use your stats at some point too, get yourself some intelligence so you can actually use your regeneration properly.”
I nodded “thanks for your help. I will hopefully come back soon!”
“You better!” She called out “I have so much to show you when you get stronger!”
And with that I faded back out of my soulscape and back into the real world.
Waking up I immediately used my regeneration skill to start healing myself after throwing 20 points into intelligence to increase my Mana Pool up to 60 and glared back down at the contract to kill rats that I had. Gritting my teeth to avoid crying out in pain as my knee popped back into place I said to the empty room “Okay Lady Xing and Soul you win this round, you want a killer and someone who will push myself to grow you got her.”
