Keymaster

by Sergey Zaytsev

  The ability to see the invisible. The pet has a 15% chance of finding hidden caches and traps.

  Spiritual Link

  Pending activation

  Stimulates positive memories and emotions and raises morale. Affects the host and their allies.

  Description: hidden

  Development path: variable

  Enchantress

  Rank 1 (37/100)

  The magic flight of the Fairies is capable of bewitching opponents within a 30 feet radius for 10-15 seconds. The effect disappears when the enemy receives damage that removes 15% or more of their HP.

  Cooldown: 5 minutes

  Note: Requires an Essence Crystal to charge the attack.

  Mystic Lore

  Unlocks at level 10

  Cultivation of unique plants.

  Description: hidden

  Development path: variable

  Furrowing my brow, I pondered about what to do with this Spiritual Link. Not a damn thing was clear to me. Tinnie woke up in the meantime and opened her eyes. She stretched her entire body, as if after a sweet dream, and froze upon seeing me staring at her.

  Spiritual Link activated.

  Souls available for unification:

  ● Player [Wisecracker]

  ● Pet [Fury]

  ● Pet [Tinnie]

  Start unification: yes / no?

  I had been waiting for something like this for so long that I accepted it without a second thought.

  The operation is running...

  Wait until the setup is completed and the current operation mode is selected.

  Setup complete.

  Synergy mode has been selected by default. Pet [Fury] will have the Acceleration aura until the Childhood bar has been filled. To maintain the aura, pet [Tinnie] requires an Essence Crystal every hour. In case of death of a player, or any of the pets, the process will be suspended until the missing link has been restored.

  Calibrate: yes / no?

  The message was followed by a series of lines highlighted in red.

  Player detected ...

  Player detected ...

  Player detected. Imposed Curse of Idleness (7). You will lose 7 HP and energy every second...

  Chapter 21

  Grabbing my sword, I looked around.

  Of course. While I was dealing with the Fairy, the wound Flame had inflicted on the vein healed, restoring the “blood” flow. The incubation period of the Eggs had ended, and the evolution into adult creatures started, and we were right in their area of influence. Seven of the round bumps on the wall swelled up right before our eyes. And before they had fully matured, they began to harass us with their Curses. Damn malicious creatures.

  But what if…?

  A sword strike buffed with Searing Flash burned a palm-sized section of the vein. Acid splashed over the floor. Tinnie, who had been observing my actions with interest, flew a bit further into the tunnel and pointed at a vein on the other side of the nest. I smiled and followed her. It was nice to know that we were on the same wavelength. The blade cut into the specified area, thereby slicing the nest on both sides and stopping the flow of acid. The Head-Eyes had almost reached maturity by this time. Seven bulging eyes opened and fiercely glared at me, powerlessly moving the dry sockets in which the acid never appeared. Got it. So you can’t kill them, at least not immediately, but you can stop the growth if the need arises.

  Changing the Cunning stat…

  Noticing the message, I waited a few seconds for the “after-party”, but nothing happened. What gyp is this!? Fine. Time’s ticking, I have to finish everything here and move on. Having finished off the evil little family and gotten a small chunk of XP, I returned to the Demon’s corpse. But instead of dispelling it, I thought that the Synergy effect, to which I had so hastily agreed, was just what the doctor ordered. But where would I get so many grade 1 escs? After all, they were needed every hour; otherwise the process would be canceled...

  Having grasped the direction of my thoughts, Tinnie hovered in front of my face and a picture from the recent past appeared in my mind: I was squatting, pouring Crystals out of my backpack, and offering them to the Fairy.

  “These will do, too?” I realized. “Is it because of the stat reset, or because of the Spiritual Link?”

  Tinnie nodded; her cornflower eyes radiated joy. She had it hard existing in this austerity regime. The changes didn’t leave her indifferent.

  “Great, you tiny thing. Thanks.”

  Radiant with pride, she folded her arms and lifted her nose toward the ceiling; her entire appearance was saying: “Yes, I am great, although I can be great more often.” I felt the weight lift from my shoulders; one serious problem solved itself. Tinnie’s and my communication advanced from sign language to telepathic exchange of images. Sure, it wasn’t proper vocal communication, but it was certainly better than nothing. And who knows? It might turn out to be an even better way of communication in a combat situation that requires quick decision making.

  My gaze returned to the corpse. Another thought made me change my mind again. While we were farming mobs on the surface, I repeatedly watched Colin flay their corpses. Skins were mainly harvested from Sleepy Porks and Sniffers. The Porks dropped Furry Skin, a crafting material which served as the basis for our fur cloaks, while Sniffers dropped Dense Skin which, after some work, could be used for regular clothes and shoes. Having watched the Lowlings do it, I swore to never take the Skinner profession as the process was extremely unpleasant. But my clothes were already looking like a scarecrow’s outfit, and as they wouldn’t fix themselves, something needed to be done immediately.

  It might not work since I didn’t have the Skinner profession, but it was definitely worth a shot.

  Squatting in front of the Demon’s corpse, I carefully examined its skin. Flamespear had severely burnt it along the spine, and several deep cuts tore its left flank and neck. Still, the skin, dense and strong in its appearance, looked usable. Pulling the Bone Slayer out of the scabbard, as a dagger would do much better for such work than a sword, I made a vertical incision, stretching from the middle of the chest and abdomen to the groin. I then cut the skin on the inside of its front and hind legs, and also around the neck. Corrosive blood seeped out of the wounds, forcing me to wrinkle my nose from the disgusting smell. Feeling how quickly the desire to continue was leaving me, I hastily gripped the edges of the skin and pulled... I spent ten minutes cursing, puffing and pulling with all my might, until I finally tore it off the corpse, cutting here and there with the dagger.

  Fury was walking about, curiously looking at what I was doing. I had to shoo her away a couple of times as she was distracting me. Still, the “in-game” process of skinning was much easier than the one in reality. Had it not been so, I wouldn’t have done it correctly or quickly on the first try. Still, I was neck-deep in the foul mucus.

  Changing the Cunning stat...

  Item acquired: Horned Demon Skin

  Durability 56/100

  Fire Resistance: +10%

  Acid Resistance: +10%

  Learn the Skinner profession: yes / no?

  Oh wow! Did I just manage to earn a profession without buying it at the Service Center?! What a nice way to save “money”... Strange that Mashta forgot to mention this. Suspicious even. Were the Lowlings so afraid of competition that they purposefully hushed some info? That was a shame. Maybe that’s why they always shooed me away whenever I tried to participate in skinning the mobs, cooking grub, or picking mushrooms. Once I get out... They had a lot of explaining to do.

  Alas, I had to refuse the system’s generous offer. I would later have to pay to reset it in exchange for a more useful profession. Damn these closed world restrictions. A single profession, what a load of bull. I still haven’t decided which one would be most useful to me. But it definitely wasn’t Skinner. Again with that “Cunning” message. Is it a glitch or what?

  It was no surprise that there were more holes in the skin than there were before the
skinning. Still, I did it without having the profession, so the end result had significantly reduced strength. Leaky as it was, it was still better than what I was currently wearing. Having spread the skin on the ground, I mentally figured out what could be created from an uneven skin pattern with gnarly edges about a foot wide and three feet long. The only thing that came to mind was something like a poncho. I cut a hole in the middle for the head, put it over my clothes and wrapped my belt around it. It was cheap and unsightly, but it had been done quickly. The only problem was that I had no idea how to get rid of the smelly mucus that covered the entire skin from the inside. Should I just put it on as is? The mere thought of it was sickening. If it didn’t dry out in five minutes, I would leave it. I didn’t care, the smell wasn’t worth it.

  “Come here, Tinnie. Let’s deal with you now.”

  Tinnie didn’t respond to my call. Utterly surprised, I looked around. The Fairy looked bad; like really bad. She was on her knees, holding her stomach, and resisting the urge to gag. Her wings sagged weakly, and her golden body was repainted pale blue. Damn it. She is an animal lover, and the Demon, though it was an enemy... Yeah, being Skinner is definitely not for me. Wait a minute ... How could she be sick? All she ate was pure energy!

  “Tinnie, are you playing with me, or what?”

  She giggled, fluttered into the air, and shone with the same intensity as before, staring at me with a completely innocent and shameless look in her eyes.

  “You damn hellion...” I shook my head with a grin. “Hey Fury, why are you so anxious...? Wait, you’re gonna eat THAT?!”

  The Direcat stuck her fangs into the Demon’s side with a greedy growl, tearing off chunk and swallowing them immediately. She sneezed, snorted, grimaced, but chewed. Hunger, as they say, leaves you with little choice; sometimes with none at all. I was scared to be quite honest, the meat still stank of acid.

  “Fury, are you sure you’ll survive that? Maybe we should look for something better? Just wait another hour...”

  “Grrrrr!”‘

  “Eat all you want then. I hope you know what’s good for your stomach.”

  To obtain an Essence Crystal, it was necessary that no less than 30% of the mob’s body weight remained, and the Direcat, despite her appetite, was too small to eat that much. I wondered what she didn’t like about the first Demon. Was she not hungry enough, or...? Maybe releasing the acid out of its veins and removing the skin had made the meat safe to eat? That should be noted.

  I picked up Tinnie with care, sat her on my palm and looked at her stats. Leveling up brought her only five new stat points that were distributed automatically, the system removed the free five. Things worked differently here in the Lunar Rainbow. But there were also good news; having her act as a lure for the Head-Eyes was not for naught, she got extra intelligence and dexterity added to her stats. Also, “hunger” turned into “stamina” and the two terms had merged. Why wasn’t that displayed in the abilities section though? She now had two auras: the already familiar Astral Recharge that granted her accelerated HP regeneration; and the new Astral Purity that made her immune to curses. What a useful thing!

  It was time to distribute the three accumulated skill points.

  Thinking for a moment, I invested a point into Spiritual Link, immediately increasing it to rank 2 and increasing the energy exchange by 30%. I really didn’t mind it paying a bit more for such a skill! After some thought, I invested the two remaining points in it as well, and... The description blinked, opposite its rank a new numerical value appeared in brackets: 2/5. Not exactly what I expected, but...

  Wait. This, just like the reward for the Population Control quest, was another hint. In the Sandbox, you could raise the ranks of passive skills only by spending skill points and they had a level cap while the active skills received new ranks with leveling. That’s why my two passives, Elemental Precision and Elemental Power, easily reached rank 5 and stopped evolving, while all other abilities remained at rank 2. But if these changes affected Tinnie, I now had not five useless skill points, but five very important ones...

  Holding my breath, I tried to mentally invest a point into Soulcatcher. Holy shit, it worked! A line in the Soulcatcher’s description blinked and it reached rank 2. Inspired, I jumped up and began to walk excitedly back and forth, not paying attention to Fury who was watching me in confusion. Satisfied with her meal, she lay down two steps away from the half-gnawed Demon and even seemed to have grown up. Her Childhood bar was now at 4,458 out of 10,000. Wonderful. That’s what it means to finally fill your belly, instead satisfy yourself with occasional rare treat. But back to the point.

  The ranking system now seemed rather easy. If conditions for developing a certain ability aren’t specified, then the standard formula should look something like this:

  Rank 1 (0/100): +1% to PD/MD /crit chance/luck

  Reaching rank 2: 100 actions (1 action = 1 physical strike or ability = 1 point of increment); or invest 1 skill point

  Rank 2 (0/200): + 5% (6%) to PD/ MD/crit chance/luck

  Reaching rank 3: 1,000 actions (5 actions = 1 point of increment); or invest 5 skill points

  Rank 3...

  Wait, let’s deal with the first two.

  If we consider that rank 1 of any ability requires just a hundred actions, then spending a point to get it is plain senseless. Rank 2 is more interesting... Performing 1,000 actions is no small feat after all. But this, too, with some patience, can be leveled up without using skill points. Except for one ability that is...

  Soulcatcher, my special ability, my trump card, required special conditions to develop, and its rank system also had a special layout. To get it to rank 2 it required, aside the hundred trivial body movements, hundred Essence Crystals, which was terribly costly and impossibly unrealistic in the situation I was in right now. Skill points turned into a real cheat. Yes, it’s a one-time thing, but it will significantly increase my chances of survival!

  Soulcatcher

  Rank 2 (0/200: 0/5 SP)

  Unique skill

  Deals PD x4 astral damage to the Forces of Chaos for 30 seconds, converting 60% of damage dealt into HP and energy. Ignores any defense of the Forces of Chaos.

  Cost: 1 Essence Crystal

  Cooldown: 1 minute

  Note: Development after rank 3 is variable.

  Getting 60% is much better than 30%. A couple of simple calculations later, it turned out that a fully leveled Soulcatcher would restore 300-400 HP. There it was, the long-awaited combat healing! And I needed only a point more to get it to rank 3. I had two options: either live long enough to reach level 12 and receive the needed skill point, or punch the required number of mobs in their faces and complete one of the Population Control quests.

  For the sake of the future me, let’s deal with rank 3.

  Rank 3 (0/300): +5% (11%) to PD/ MD/crit chance/luck

  Reaching rank 4: 7,500 actions (25 actions = 1 point of increment); or invest 25 skill points

  Following the same calculation as before, I would get 25 skill points in about 15 levels. That felt impossibly long. An alternative option was to perform 7,500 actions that would probably bring me those 15 levels. But this applied to ordinary skills only. Soulcatcher couldn’t be raised like that because it would need 7,500 Crystals! The alternative rank raising options were probably provided precisely because of such special abilities, and because of the possibility of earning extra-level rewards. In any case, I had to save points for Soulcatcher’s sake. It was totally worth it.

  There was no information about extrapolating the calculations further, but it was already clear that raising any ability past rank 5 would take if not years, then surely many, many months of running around. It was so discouraging that it almost seemed meaningless. The increment was not worth so much trouble. But this, again, applied only to the ordinary skills. Busting your ass for the special ones was worth it. I had a strong feeling that I got myself involved in a completely different game system.

  However
, it was time to be done with theoretical calculations.

  Chapter 22

  I went back to the skin that was drying on the ground and sighed sorrowfully. It was a rag, and a rag it remained. However, for some reason, I refused to give it up. I had nowhere to get firewood from and nothing to craft a stretching frame out of, but... I took out my lighter, charged it with an esc, hardly overcoming the greedy urge to use it, looked skeptically at timid light and put it out. It would take way too long. Let’s try something else. I had Searing Flash and Flamespear, both were Fire based abilities. The first caused damage equal to the sword’s PD, and the second hit quadruple, but over time. I should try both then.

  I used the dagger to cut off two pieces off the edge of the skin, so as not to burn it all in case of failure. I closed my palm and used Flash. Without the Uniq in my hand, the damage was weaker, but the flames were still decent. The piece of skin began to smoke and almost immediately charred. I barely managed to pull back my palm so as not to burn myself. The Spear didn’t work as well, but when the DoT effect expired after 15 seconds, nothing but charred lump remained. Luck is not on my side today. Haste makes waste, it seems. We’re back to square one. After moving the lighter around the edge of the skin for a minute or so, it hardened and became sturdy. If the whole skin was so easily ossified, then I couldn’t wear it like a poncho anymore. Like hell it would bend...

  Cunning: +1 (4)

  Bonus: +5,000 XP; +2 intelligence

  Finally! It seems that the value of a stat is accumulated depending on the actions taken until it results in a stat increase. It’s nice that cunning’s growth came with pleasant additions.

  I then had another “ingenious” idea. However, before zealously embarking upon it, I sent the pets away just in case, telling them to guard the hallway as someone might sneak up on me while I was busy with my experiment. I dispelled the Demon’s remains, looted an esc and a pair of horns and then the other pair of horns out of my bag. Figuring out what exactly was it that I was trying to get, I set to work. It took about ten minutes to cut the skin to the required size, make holes in the right places and fasten the horns to it with straps cut out of scraps.