The attributes were also different. Players had three attributes: Physical, Mental & Social. Players gained 1 attribute point for each character level-up, and each point can be invested in any of the three attributes.
Usually, a player started with all attributes at zero, and one assignable point. But as a goblin I started with 1 point in Physical, -1 in Social, plus 1 assignable point…I guess it was a race modifier. It stands to reason that goblins, who were a warlike people would have a higher affinity for the Physical attribute, which was somewhat balanced out by the -1 in Social. Which, given that goblins were ugly savages, was also understandable.
Having a point already in Physical definitely offered a small combat advantage. I could, in theory, invest my free point in Physical and effectively be equal to a 2nd level character in terms of brute strength. However, that would be foolish. As a goblin I was small and relatively fragile. No matter how strong I got as a goblin, larger opponents, which was pretty much every other race, would always be physically stronger than me. Besides, my real advantage was my personal experience as a player. I knew the game, and its rules like the back of my hands (better even, as I hadn’t spent much time watching my hands IRL for the past few years). I knew how characters progressed, what strategies to employ when fighting different kinds of monsters, how to exploit my enemies’ weaknesses; but most importantly, I knew how to use magic.
Brute physical strength was nice, I guess, but it was not the path to true power. But even if I never added another point to my Physical attribute, the single point in it now, while I was still a newb character was nice; at the very least it gave me a tiny advantage by increasing my hit points and physical resistance.
Now, for skills… Murphy’s Bitch was a real wacko deal. Guy must have been drunk off his ass, or whatever the equivalent was for a super intelligent quantum based AIs. Still, I could see the skill’s advantages.
Behind all the clever wording, it was basically the Luck attribute that was common in so many other RPG games. It was a passive skill, so I didn’t have to worry about it and it could prove useful in the future, especially with the increased progress from having the Prime badge for it. The (*) mark meant it was not dependent on any of my attributes, which was excellent, meaning there was no upper-level cap to it and it could theoretically be raised to level 100 even if I remained at level 1.
Some players didn’t understand the skill system fully, or how beneficial it was to have skills not dependent on an attribute, or without a level cap. The first 10 skill levels were Novice ranked. Once a player broke past skill level 10, the rank was promoted to ‘Apprentice’, opening more advanced options in the skill. At skill level 51, the rank advanced to Expert, to Master at level 101, and to Grandmaster at level 201. The implications of this system were often missed by new players. It meant that to reach the rank of Grandmaster, a player had to, at the minimum, be a level 190 character with 191 points in a single attribute.
Now, the Analyze skill was a true beauty. Similarly to how a player can learn the Lumberjack skill by repeatedly hitting trees with an axe, I gained the Analyze skill when I had carefully scrutinized the goblins as they approached me in the bone cave. It was, potentially, a game changing skill, worth its weight in gold. I was willing to bet that each new skill level increased its range and probably upgraded how much information was shown as well. I didn’t get the Prime for that skill, but that was not a surprise. NPCs and boss-ranked monsters had to have some information about players to interact with them, positively or bloodily. It was safe to assume that many NPCs had this skill, as I suspected Bogan did. But I was the only player that possessed it, an unexpected little benefit of the curse.
The skill already showed 40% progress to level 2. It should be fairly easy to level up, especially if all I had to do was use it on everything on sight. The (M) marker next to it, signified it was tied to the Mental attribute. Which meant that, right now I could only raise the skill to level 10. If I wanted to raise it higher, to Apprentice rank and above, I would have to invest points in the Mental attribute. But that wouldn’t be an issue. I had already decided that my goblin will specialize in magic, which depended heavily on the Mental attribute.
Well, no time like the present, I thought and concentrated for a moment, investing my free point in Mental. I checked my character sheet again:
Name: ##@!
Level: 1 (5%)
Race: Monster Race [Goblin]
Attributes: [0 points available]
- Physical 1
- Mental 1
- Social -1
Skills:
- Murphy’s Bitch 1 (10%) (Prime)
- Analyze 1 (40%)
Pools:
- Hit Points: 15 (1P X 10, 1M X 5 )
- Mana: 15 (1P X 5, 1M X 10)
Traits:
- Goblinoid (+1 Physical, -1 Social)
- Experience threshold -20%
I moved down to check the Pools. It was a list of my character’s calculated stats; replenishable resources, armor, and resistances. These ‘stats’ could not be leveled up or trained directly.
It looked like spending one point in Mental tripled my mana pool, from 5 to 15. And I was only level 1! That was 50% more than any other 1st level player with the same Mental attribute.
Not bad at all! I grinned. I could get used to playing this character.
The extra mana was from the Physical attribute, which was primarily tied to the health pool, but also contributed to the mana pool, just to a lesser degree. Every attribute point invested in Physical granted 10 HP and 5 MP (mana points).
Similarly, the Mental attribute was primarily connected to the mana pool, and to the hit point pool as it's secondary. That ensures that warriors, who primarily invest attribute points in Physical, will still have some mana to draw on for various skills, and mages will have some HP to beef them up physically, since they invest mostly in Mental. Otherwise, at level 100, a pure mage will still have only the base 10 HP.
The Effects section was a display of all the achievements, special bonuses, and general effects that were applied to the character. And here, as I suspected was the reason for my Attribute modifiers. I had the very aptly named effect called Goblinoid. I snorted in derision. Apparently being a goblin was considered to be an ongoing Effect.
So the game considers me to be afflicted with Goblinoidism eh? I chuckled at my own smartassedness
But what the hell is that that last one on the list? Negative 20% to experience!? What the hell!? This is a serious handicap!
I didn’t get it. Wasn’t being a goblin bad enough on its own? That means I will have to grind an extra one fifth of the total experience points needed for each character level. That was not fair!
Distressed, I opened my current experience bar, there! A measly 12xp damn it!
Wait a minute…I paused, thinking.
Something didn’t add up. Cautiously excited, I accessed the system log messages and scrolled back. The only XP I had gained since logging in was for knocking down that annoying little git, Bek. There it was, right there:
I’d gained 10 XP but it showed as 12 XP on my XP bar. I started laughing raucously, startling a pair of female goblins walking past.
I checked my character sheet for the effect details again. It was an XP threshold, not XP gain as I had mistakenly assumed. It meant in practice I earned 25% more points than other players would for the same ‘experience!’
I guess the developers felt that goblins, often considered experience fodder for low levels players, didn’t have much chance to level up, and needed a little edge. So the requirement for leveling was reduced, which in effect was translated to +25% in experience gain. What a lucky break! I could actually get to like this new character!
Smiling, I revisited the item I saved for last: my new name.
That was also weird. When a player first creates a character, the game prompts the player to select a name for the character. The game will not pr
oceed until a name is chosen.
But as I was already inside the game during my transformation, it could not force me to select a new name. So instead of a proper name, it displayed some unintelligible gibberish, probably machine code. I concentrated on the name field and a system message appeared:
Please select a name for your character
I thought, then smiled and actively thought at the window: GuildKiller
The name, GuildKiller, is already taken, please select a different name
Over 50 million players played the game since its launch, so no surprise.
I tried again: RevengeOnTheBastards
The name, RevengeOnTheBastards, is already taken, please select a different name
I tried, GoblinMayhem, GoblinRevenge, KillAllPlayers and even ScrewY’all. But to no avail, they were already taken. Screw that! I thought hotly. Well, there was no real hurry to decide right now.
The name, ScrewThat , is already taken, please select a different name
Shut up.
A bit annoyed I closed the message, and considered my current situation.
I was tired. Aside from the short, rage induced break earlier, I’d been logged in for almost 20 hours straight. It was definitely time to log out, have a rest, clear my mind and start planning my new in-game future.
But before that, I had to check on one more thing, I had to see if it was possible to reacquire my skills and spells.
Magic worked differently from other skills. You could learn Lumberjacking by repeatedly chopping at a tree with an axe. But how do you learn a fireball spell or healing magic if you didn’t already know how to cast them?
It took a while, but eventually players did discover magic skills. Once someone learned and received the Prime badge the spell could just be granted to others. Most players with a Prime badge in a useful skill sold the skill to other players, making a nice profit. It’s what I did when I first learned magic.
True, no one would drop 50 gold to learn from a Master Digger; a couple of minutes with a shovel would work for that just as well.
But spells...spells were tricky. Spells were governed by the Mental attribute, not defined by physical action. Players jealously guarded the secrets of how to gain magic skills, so the cost to learn from them was outrageous.
For example, the most basic ‘Light’ spell cost about 500 gold to learn.
Some people spent a lot of Real World money to buy in-game currency so they could afford spells and specialized skills. Just six months after the game was released, the monthly revenue from NEO currency sales averaged over 20 million USD.
Of course, there were rich players selling their gold at 10:1 for USD and living comfortably in the real world, without actually needing a real-world job.
Magic masters with Prime badges were especially well off; they could earn thousands of gold in less than an hour, just by selling and teaching spells to other players.
I lucked out that way once before, now I needed to find out if I could recover my lost game ‘knowledge’.
But, I needed a quiet place to concentrate. When I had come through the tunnel from the cemetery, I’d seen an opening that might be a small alcove. I headed back in that direction, and found the opening indeed led to a small alcove. It went back about 2 meters, and curved around slightly, so if I sat in the very back, I wouldn’t be visible to anyone passing by.
Yes, it would do just fine.
I sat, cross-legged, with both hands resting on my knees, and closed my eyes. I concentrated on my breathing. First, a few deep breaths to center myself, then I started a rhythmic breathing, that I learned in my teens. One quick inhale through my nose, followed by a slower exhale through my mouth. I began to feel more relaxed as I continued focusing more and more only on my breathing. My exhalations became longer, and longer, each one taking away a bit of my stress and rage, as if the negative feelings were sludge congesting my lungs, and breathing drained it away.
I was quite an energetic teen, so I was taught meditation to calm and relax me, and to help improve my self-control. .
After several minutes of the breathing exercise, I was completely relaxed and calm, and my whole body felt loose.
Next, I concentrated on my toes, feeling them, being aware of their existence without actually moving them. I visualized a dim glow emanating from them, and imagined ‘heat’ coming from the golden light. I slowly ‘moved’ that feeling a higher up my body, maintaining my concentration and awareness as the light slowly crept, centimeter by centimeter up my feet…my legs...my upper body, and then my head. I held the feeling and awareness of every single part of my body firmly in mind, imagining it radiating an intense light. It was strangely blissful but energetic at the same time.
Unhurriedly, I sat just breathing and maintaining that aura. Once I felt ready, I proceeded to the most difficult part.
I tried to manipulate my aura. I firmly held onto the sense of power radiating from my body, then I attempted to move it, bending it to my will. Nothing happened at first, but that was expected. I focused more and forced the light to concentrate in my left palm. Slowly, the light started drawing away from my legs and head, and into my open palm. I could feel my palm heating up, as it collected the light, pulsing with energy. It was done.
I opened my eyes.
I looked down. My green goblin hand was now glowing with blue power! Yes! Success!
I then realized what a weirdly comical image I presented; a small foul looking goblin, sitting in lotus position and executing Hindu chakra meditation techniques. I chuckled and then started laughing in earnest. The laughter drained away any residual negative feelings I might have still had, and I felt completely cleansed and in control.
Wait for it... I thought. And sure enough…
You’ve learned a new Skill: Mana Manipulation (M) [active, monster race]
All life is suffused with mana, the essence of magic. Through the power of your awareness and strength of will, you have learned how to actively access your own mana reserve and wield it in various ways. Further increase of this skill will lead to a higher mana pool, faster regeneration, and stronger mana using spells. Mana Discipline.
Current level 1: Novice.
Effect I: Mana pool: +10
Effect II: Mana regeneration: +1% of base
Effect III: Spell effect: +1%
And that was my biggest secret playing as Arladen. This skill was how I taught myself magic and spells. It was the governing skill for the Mana Discipline school of magic. It enabled the manipulation of raw mana with one’s will. When used to create distinct effects, new spells could be created with relative ease.
But something was amiss....I frowned as I noticed the absence of the Prime badge in the skill.
What is going on? I had the Badge for this same skill when I played as Arladen, but it was missing now. The only reason I could think off was that as Arladen I didn't have the 'monster race' descriptor next to the skill name. Damn crap-N-shite! I thought in outrage. This meant…I frowned, thinking all the implications through.
Could there be duplicate but separate skill branches? One for players and one for monsters? It made sense. That way the stronger monsters and bosses couldn’t monopolize the entire set of skills. It kept the player skills and badges available for player characters to discover and use.
Thinking about it more, I suspected there were actually three branches. The NPCs had their own Magic using characters, and Primes too. There were records of powerful NPC archmages in NEO’s history from before the time that players started playing the game. But players were still able to learn the same spells that NPCs had, and receive the Prime badges for them. That led me to believe that the non-monster NPCs had their own skill branch too.
I sighed when I realized something else; it also probably meant that every new skill I learn will already have a Prime, some monster. Unless I can come up with a completely new, never before seen skill… I shook my head, dismayed. Well, there is nothing I can do about it.
I was cheered up a little by what came next.
And now for the second part! I turned my attention inward.
Effortlessly, I accessed my mana pool using just my thoughts and intentions. It was a neat little trick that was quite difficult for most players. Activating an ability by thought alone was almost impossible for most people. But three years of playing the game made it second nature to me.
I directed a portion of my mana out of my body. A softly glowing ball of blue energy manifested, floating in the air. I put both hands on the glowing ball and began to stretch and reshape it. Using both my hands and my will, I molded the ethereal substance. A recognizable shape began to emerge from it, first the sharp diamond shaped point, then the slim length of the shaft connected to it. I examined my creation critically, smoothing and straightening it a little bit here and there, making the point a bit sharper; until a glowing blue dart of pure blue force floated in the air before me. I gathered my will once more, and flexed it like a muscle. The dart shot off at tremendous speed, blasting the rock I was aiming at into jagged little fragments.
You’ve learned a new Skill: Spell: Mana Arrow (M) [active, monster race]
You can create an arrow out of pure mana and launch it to strike your enemies.
Note: Some creatures may be resistant to Mana Arrow, while others may be especially susceptible to it. As a mana Discipline spell, more mana can be channeled to further increase the effectiveness of the spell. Mana cost: 5
Current level 1: Novice.
Effect I: Arrows per cast: 1
Effect II: damage: 5-10
All done! I thought happily to myself.
I’d just relearned the first spell I’ve ever invented in NEO.
The spell was basically just raw force, shaped into an arrow. Simple, efficient. That was one of the
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