As they drove down the road, Lance gave Lydia a quick brief on the system and how to access her status. She accessed her status and gave Lance a quick rundown on her class selection as a Mage, and that her class skill was ‘Magic Manipulation’, and that the system had assigned her profession as Medic. Lance asked her about her Faith designation, and she confirmed that it and her attunement attribute were blank. Lance explained what he had learned so far about Faith, his own Faith assigned to Systema, and the boons he received with every 5 attribute points. Lydia confirmed that she was going to try and make Systema her Faith also. Lance was a little surprised, when she then bowed her head and started saying a prayer under her breath. As she was doing so, Lance got a notification “DING”
Converted one disciple to Systema - Attunement Attribute increased by 5 levels.
Systema Boon attunement level 20 awarded: PARTY - Grants the ability to invite others into a party. Only members of the party with this boon may be a party leader. Party leaders may set energy distribution (i.e. evenly shared, contribution based, or killing blow). All members of a party with this boon may communicate using voiceless party chat, and may share map information and status notifications.
“Yes”, Lydia suddenly exclaimed. At Lance’s questioning look, she went on to explain that she had specifically prayed to Systema, dedicating her Faith to the system. She had also asked that when she reached level 5 in attunement that she be given Omniglot as a boon. Her prayers had worked, and her initial attunement had been set to 10, granting her both the Omniglot boon and the Party boon.
After Lydia’s explanation, Lance immediately focused on inviting her to a party. Lydia accepted, and Lance noticed a very small group of people icon in his peripheral vision. Slowing to a stop for a moment, Lance focused on the icon, and he was given a display of Lydia’s nickname with her resource bars beside them. Releasing his focus from the party, Lance explained to Lydia what he now had available. Lydia stated that she couldn’t wait to increase her Attunement to see if she got the HUD and MAP boons also. Then, Lance heard Lydia’s voice in his mind telling him that she was going to share her status with him. “DING”
Mo has shared their status with you. View? Y/N
Lance focused on Yes.
LYDIA MORALES
Nickname: Mo Species: Human Faith: Systema
Level: 0 Energy to next level: 0/100
Class: Mage Profession: Medic
Sub-class: unassigned Secondary Profession: unassigned
Health: 132 Stamina: 130 Magic: 156
Regen: 1 hp/m Regen: 2 sp/m Regen: 13/hr
ATTRIBUTES
Body
Strength - 10 Dexterity - 12 Agility - 12
Endurance - 11 Constitution - 11 Vitality - 12
Mind
Intelligence - 13 Wisdom - 12 Acuity - 13
Perception - 13 Imagination - 12 Cunning - 10
Spirit
Willpower - 13 Confidence - 12 Charisma - 12
Empathy - 11 Luck - 10 Attunement - 10
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
** Harmony with selected Faith (conviction of belief)
SKILLS
Class Skills
Tier 1: Magic - 1 Tier 2: Tier 3:
Manipulation
Tier 4: Tier 5: Tier 6:
General Skills
*General life skills evaluated. Levels held in abeyance until
proven proficiency.
Boons
Level 5 - OMNIGLOT Level 10 - PARTY
Lance browsed over Lydia’s status. Nothing jumped out at him as anything significant to worry about. They would have to figure out what her Magic Manipulation skill was all about, and see about getting her some monster or beast kills to get her some levels and profession skills. They would also need to do some training montage stuff to get her general skills filled out. Deciding they had dallied long enough, Lance dismissed the status display, took a moment to send his status to Lydia, and put his truck back in gear and started on down the road.
Lydia had dissected Lance’s status while they were driving, and was now commenting and asking questions about it as they cruised down the road. When he explained what his duplicate skill did and how he’d been using it, explaining that was how they now had a second med bag, she mentioned that she wanted him to duplicate her assault pack the next time they stopped. She had a set of spare clothes, as well as toiletries and snacks in there that she would like to have backups of. Lance agreed, praying to the system that she had jerky with her.
Suddenly, off the side of the road, a creature that looked like a zebra mashed up with a kangaroo jumped right out in front of the truck. Lance jammed on the brakes, but couldn’t get stopped before smacking into the animal and launching it about 20 meters down the road. As he was deciding whether to get out and check on it, 5 of the mara came rushing out of the trees near the same location. Instead of following up the road after the downed beast, they turned towards Lance’s truck and started screeching. Before they could launch themselves at the truck, Lance threw it into reverse and started backing up as quickly as he could.
As he gained a little bit of distance on the pursuing monsters, he had Lydia take the rifle and shotgun down from the overhead rack and ensure they were chambered, and on safe. He told her that once he increased the gap to about 30 meters he was going to stop, then race forward to bowl as many of them over as he could. Slamming on the brakes again, he shifted into gear and floored it. The tires squealed and the truck lurched forward, slamming into all five of the vile looking creatures. He abruptly halted their forward momentum again, and again backed up as speedily as he could. All five were on the ground in a mass of disarray. Clearing about 20 meters, he stopped again and hopped out with the shotgun, directing Lydia to take the rifle. Quickly pulling up the party settings he changed the Energy Distribution to killing blow, and instructed Lydia to put them all down.
Lydia moved in and finished each one with a clean shot to the head. When she was done, Lance told her to make sure and Identify and Analyze each one to gain progress on those skills. When she was done, she had gained a level to both skills, gained 150 energy increasing her level to 1, gained a spell as part of her class, and gained the profession skill ‘Minor Heal’. As they climbed back in the truck, she sent Lance the skill description of both the spell and the skill.
Magic Dart - Level 1 - Using Magic Manipulation, compress energy into a dart and launch it at a target. Amount of energy that can be compressed, and the speed of the dart increase with spell level.
Minor Heal - Direct healing energy into a target to heal minor afflictions, injuries, and wounds.
Lance was quite impressed with her gains. Lydia looted the corpses and gained three eyeballs and two chunks of mara meat. She agreed with Lance that the meat was a no-go, and handed the eyeballs off to Lance. He threw them in a plastic zipper bag he had in the back seat with the 4 he had looted previously, and made a mental note to check with Bj?rn or Grimble about them. They climbed back into the truck, and drove up to where the kangaroo style creature lay. It was still alive, but in terrible condition. Identifying it, they found out that it was a Kangabra. It was basically a kangaroo with an equine shaped head, and zebra-like stripes in beige and dark grey. Lydia somehow could tell that her ‘Minor Heal’ would not be enough to get it in functional condition. Lance suggested she use her new spell to put it out of its misery.
Lydia focused on her magic, and pulled a tiny bit to her hand. She then focused on using it as a shell to grab and compress some of the ambient energy into a tight marble. Having gathered and compressed all she could, she pointed at the kangabra’s head, and willed the ‘Dart’ forward. It rushed away at a fairly high speed, probably comparable to a crossbow bolt, and struck the beast in the head. Grateful that it was enough to finish the job, she stepped forward and looted it. She received a small leather pouch, and some kangabra meat. Deciding to keep the meat, Lance grabbed another zipper bag out of the camper, and they packaged it up and put it in the fridge.
The kangabra had given Lydia another 20 energy points, and she was now sitting at 70/200 toward level 2. They climbed back into the truck and proceeded on down the road. Arriving back at the intersection with the mine road, they found the campsite on alert after hearing the gunshots in the distance earlier. Lance explained to Bj?rn and Viggr what had transpired, and the camp relaxed its vigil back to a normal two sentries walking the perimeter on opposite sides of the camp from each other. Grimble came over and coaxed the bushes, that he had restored after Lance’s journey back to the mine earlier in the day, out of the way and Lance pulled his truck back into the wagon circle.
He and Lydia climbed out of the truck, and Lance made introductions to those he had come to know already. They followed Bj?rn and Grimble over to the fire pit in the middle of the clearing, where someone brought them a bowl of stew and a steaming chunk of rich bread. As Lance and Lydia dug into the savory meal, Bj?rn called for everyone’s attention and informed them that they were now blessed with not one but two Travelers, and introduced Lydia to the crowd. There were excited whispers and a few celebratory exclamations throughout the crowd.
Lydia reminded Lance about the eyeballs and the kangabra meat. Lance was already appreciating having her around, besides the emotional fulfillment having found her brought. Finished with his meal, Lance moved over to where Bj?rn was speaking with some of the caravaneers and waited for him to be free. Finished with his company business, Bj?rn turned to Lance asking if he needed something. Lance explained about the mara and the kangabra, and the eyeballs and meat. Bj?rn confirmed that, as far as he knew, no one had found a market for mara meat. The eyeballs were indeed an alchemy ingredient used in manufacturing sight related potions, usually night-vision. The kangabra meat wasn’t a delicacy, but was a relatively nutritional and tasty meat with an abundance of energy, both caloric and magical. Bj?rn agreed that they would examine the goods in the morning, and come to a trade agreement, before they hit the road.
Lance and Lydia had had a grueling day, and soon excused themselves to go get some rest. Walking back to the truck, Lydia remembered she wanted her assault pack ‘Duplicated’, so they grabbed it out of the cab, along with the long guns and climbed up in the camper. Lance tossed Lydia a Lightning Dew and quickly made a complete copy of her assault pack. “A few extra of those could never hurt”, Lance thought to himself. He stepped back outside into the treeline to utilize the “facilities”, and then climbed back into the camper. He grabbed a pair of sweatpants, went into the little bathroom, cleaned up, and changed out of his uniform into the sweats.
Lydia took her turn taking care of business in the bushes, and cleaned up in the bathroom, coming out in a pair of shorts and a sports bra. It wasn’t like the two of them had never worked out in the gym together, and the way they were dressed now wasn’t any different. However, Lance was having a hard time not staring at Lydia. And, maybe the hint of color he caught in her cheeks meant she was experiencing something of the same.
Getting control of himself, Lance grabbed a sleeping bag out of one of the overhead compartments, and started making down the dinette table into the camper’s second bed, while telling Lydia that she was welcome to the overcab queen size. She grabbed his arm, stopping him, and told him that she was physically and emotionally spent, and she would appreciate it if he would sleep with her and just hold her. He acquiesced, and they climbed into bed. Lance forewent setting a short alarm, and decided on four hours to get up and refuel the truck and ‘Duplicate’ the fuel. As awkward as Lance thought it was going to be, they were asleep in no time.
