1000+X = X+X. Therefore X=1000 and the teleportation scroll costs 2000 gold. I was really hoping that this wasn't a hint for later. I answered two questions and reached zero. I now had five minutes rolling over to the next round.
Answer accepted. Current discount bonus: 0.
Question 3. We have a ten-digit natural number. We know that its leftmost digit is exactly equal to the number of zeroes in the number written out, the digit following it is equal to the number of ones and so on until the rightmost number, which is equal to the number of nines. Time provided: 9 minutes.
Now this is more interesting. It's hard to name the number right away, so we'll go down the path of logical deduction. Let's suppose that the number contains only zeroes. Then the first digit should be a 9 — nine 0s and a 9. If we have a 9, then there should be a 1 in the last place. Then we have eight 0s instead of nine. We remove the 9 and put in an 8. We already have a 1, so we'll have seven 0s instead of eight. Now that we have a 1, we'll put it in the second place. But now we have two '1's. And we get a 2 and two less 0s. Damn, I'm getting confused. Starting again. I should write out all the alternatives on virtual paper. I opened the notebook and started to write down different steps.
We have — all 0s: 9000000001. Now there's eight instead of nine 0s. 8000000010. Then, we have a 1, and the number looks like this: 7100000100. Now we have two '1's, so in comes a 2. And we have fewer 0s again. Now the number is 6210001000. Checking. Six 0s. Two 1s. One 2 and one 6. It all checks out. I looked at the timer. There was 4.5 minutes left. Moving on.
Answer accepted. Current discount bonus: 1.
Question 4.
J + S = O; M * A = D; M + M ≠ 2M.
(O / F) + (M + M) — J = ?
Time provided: 8 minutes.
My first answer was no stroke of genius: (O/F)+(M+M) — J = WTF. Not in the slightest. M+M ≠ 2M. This was a bunch of nonsense, not mathematics. If each letter corresponds to a particular number, this formula cannot be correct. Therefore M could stand for two different values at once. This fundamentally contradicts what I know about formulas.
I immediately decided against numbering the letters of the alphabet and using that as the letter number value. The first formula was contrary to this logic, since Y has to be the greatest value. For a couple of minutes I couldn't even see from what direction I should approach this problem. The answer was buried here somewhere, but it would take a lot to dig it up. I looked at the timer. 4 minutes. Dammit! I'll be here trying to solve this rubbish until next winter.
Stop! Winters? Seasonal numbers? How about…
(10 / 2) + (3 + 5) — 1 = 12. So the answer is 'D'! A clever trick they thought of with M + M ≠ 2M! It really isn't equal!
Answer accepted. Current discount bonus: 2.
Question 5.
Continue the sequence: HHHeLiBO...
Time provided: 5 minutes.
Winter. Gold. The square of the hypotenuse. I spent the first two minutes trying to understand the logic and continue the sequence and then two minutes on trying to see if I could come up with any associations. Nothing. When the timer showed only a few seconds left, I typed in a bunch of symbols at random into the answer box. They say that if you give a monkey a typewriter and infinite time it would eventually come out with the complete works of Shakespeare.
Answer accepted. Current discount bonus: 2.
Your answer is incorrect. Thank you for taking part in the interactive questionnaire. Please note that goods bought at a discount cannot be sold to other players. Have a pleasant game!
Not this time. It also became clear why no-one was selling the results of their mental labour. There are probably many know-it-alls, who'd answer all the questions that I got in just a couple of minutes and get a discount so large that the Mage would have to hand over his goods almost for free. So they put a stop to such easy riches.
"Good day to you, traveller," I was met by a venerable-looking old man, wearing a long snow-white robe. "You have passed through the trial four times — a worthy result. In honour of this I will be providing you my services with a direct discount," the mage glanced at my red band, "and a small extra charge. I don't know what crime you've committed, but the band shows that you have not yet atoned for it in full. What is it that you wish to acquire?"
I left the High Mage the most pleased Shaman in Barliona. First, I bought five scrolls of teleportation to Beatwick and Farstead, with the transportation radius of the distance between the two. These scrolls cost me four hundred gold each. Now I can explore the surrounding lands without worrying about how to get back. I found out the cost of the teleportation scroll to Anhurs. And cried. Ten thousand gold with the discount. I think not. I'll use my feet when it comes to it. I also bought two scrolls with the Bone Trap spell designed for a 100-level creature. It cost me five hundred gold per scroll. I decided to try and take the Vagren alive. It might be expensive, but the reward for catching a creature of that level should be substantial. If black goblins started running around this region, chances are that the Vagren is linked to Kartoss too and I wouldn't mind getting an extra bonus from the Mayor.
"Good day and welcome! How can I help you?" Next came the Jewelcrafting trainer. It was time I got serious about getting to know the new capabilities of my main profession.
"I would like to be trained in Jewelcrafting," here I noticed the trainer's face losing some of its enthusiasm. He probably took me for a newbie wanting to study a rare profession from scratch.
"Please touch the book," he uttered in a distracted tone. Touch the book? Why? Damn, why didn't I take an interest in professions as a Hunter? That way I'd know what to expect now. But if I must, I must. I put my hand on an open book with empty pages, which immediately filled up with a bunch of symbols.
"Not bad, not bad," the trainer muttered in a completely changed voice, which now had notes of interest in it, after he glanced over the emerging scribbles. I had no idea what language it was written in and I understood nothing in the symbols and numbers that appeared in the book. "I see you have had clear success in producing Unique and Rare items. You are particularly proficient with rings. Would you like to choose a specialisation for yourself? Picking one costs two hundred gold."
A specialisation? I don't get it. What specialisation? I immediately looked in the manual. I knew nothing of specialisations within a profession.
Search: "Jewelcrafting and specialisations." The text that appeared brought me out of the dark realm of ignorance. Upon reaching level 10 in Jewelcrafting, you could pick your first specialisation: rings, neck chains, earrings, precious stones and custom jewellery. The first level of the specialisation gives a 10% increase to the speed of item design, to their durability and to the chance of crafting a Rare Item. The next level of specialisation unlocks when the skill reaches level 50, the third at level 150, fourth at 250 and fifth and last at level 500. You keep playing and learning, but will still die ignorant, eh? My Hunter did not have a single specialisation and I had no idea of all these special features. I quickly looked at the bonuses provided by my other professions.
Mining influenced Stamina and Strength. At level 10 it gave these stats a 5% boost, and at level 50, 150, 250 and 500 each time added another 5% to the current base level of the stat. That's a pretty handy specialisation: I should run to a Mining trainer right away and get Hardiness.
In Cooking you had specialisations based on the type of food prepared and its subsequent stat bonuses. None changed my main stats. A pity.
Cartography came with Influence on World Perception, scrolls of some kind and extra Intellect! At every five levels in the profession Intellect increased by 5%. I'll start levelling up in Cartography right away! I went into the settings and set myself a reminder every evening that I had to draw the map of the places where I had been that day. This was another levelling-up opportunity, which only depended on my diligence. There was no way I'll be missing out on it.
Trade did not have any specialisations.
"Yes, I wou
ld like to choose my specialisation," I replied, handing over the money to the expectant trainer. A nice fact: although I spent quite a lot of time looking around the manual, the NPC didn't seem to notice it at all. All Imitators have it in their settings to monitor the behaviour of the players and not interfere with them reading the manuals. "I would like to pick the ring specialisation," of all the specialisations rings seemed to me the most neutral speciality.
"Are you sure? Keep in mind, that you would not be able to change your specialisation later. Only the Emperor would be able to remove it."
"No, I am not sure," — What was I saying? "I would like to specialise in precious stones." "I see." Time to do as Antsinthepantsa said on the forum: I am completely switching off my brain as a process and starting to work only on the level of emotions. Rings are more profitable, effective and worthwhile, but I wanted gemstones.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, absolutely."
You have chosen the 'Gem Cutter' specialisation. The speed of cutting gemstones and the chance of creating a Rare gem has increased by 10%.
"Congratulations. Now let’s settle the matter of your training. I can offer you five scrolls which you do not have. They cost two hundred gold each. Would you be taking them?"
Levelling up in Jewelcrafting will cost me a pretty penny, by the looks of it. A thousand gold was gone in a flash. Never mind, we'll put it down as an investment in the future. I bought all the scrolls that the trainer had and immediately learned three of them.
Copper Gem Ring.
Description: Copper Gem Ring. Durability: 40. 3 random Stats from the main list: (Strength, Agility, Intellect, Stamina, Rage). Crafting stat bonus: + (Crafting level) random Stat from the main list: (Strength, Agility, Intellect, Stamina, Rage). Minimum level: 12.
Crafting requirements: minimum Jewelcrafting level 12.
Ingredients: 2 Copper Ingots, Ordinary Cut Malachite.
Instruments: Jeweller's tools. Casting mould.
Gemstone: Ordinary Cut Malachite.
Description: initial cutting of Malachite, though crude, still makes it look attractive. 1 random Stat from the main list: (Strength, Agility, Intellect, Stamina, Rage). Crafting stat bonus: + (Crafting level) random Stat from the main list: (Strength, Agility, Intellect, Stamina, Rage). Minimum level: 10.
Crafting requirements: minimum Jewelcrafting level 12.
Ingredients: 1 piece of Malachite.
Instruments: Jeweller's tools.
Malachite Jewellery Box.
Description: A neat and sturdy box or jewellery. Can carry 5 items. Crafting stat bonus: The Box can carry an additional (Crafting) number of items. Item class: Uncommon. Minimum level: 10.
Crafting requirements: minimum Jewelcrafting level 12.
Ingredients: 2 pieces of Malachite.
Instruments: Jeweller's tools.
I put two more recipes for cutting of Lapis in my bag. They required level 16-17 in Jewelcrafting, and were of little use to me yet. The copper gem ring was a disappointment: despite the stats added by the socketed stone, the ring would only give a +3 bonus by default. I would get a better result simply by combining a wire ring with cut Malachite. But the Common Cut Malachite and the Jewellery Box made my day. Each Malachite cut with Crafting gave +5 to a stat, against the +4 from the Stone Fang and Stone Diamond. Again, a very pleasant bonus. And if the Jewellery Box takes up only one slot in the inventory, it's practically priceless — I would put all the chess pieces there and free up a lot of space. The only downside was that it would be hard to sell it. It could only be used by Jewellers — for everyone else it would be no more than part of the scenery. And buying something that you can make yourself... Is stupid and wrong; I was sure that all Jewellers could make such Jewellery Boxes for themselves. It's decided then — when I get back to Beatwick, I would be making one of these for myself.
"One more thing. I want to make you aware of one restriction straight away. Until you gain the second level in the specialisation, you cannot craft items where the sum of the bonuses raises the stats by more than twelve. I am warning you because I can see that you have a rare stat like Crafting. It isn't every day that a Jeweller has a visit from a free citizen with such a speciality."
"Thank you, honourable sir, for the teaching and the warning," I tried to be polite, but inside I was outraged. I already made plans, picturing in my imagination extensive sales of items with +50 stat bonuses and mentally swimming in gold, but they turned out to be doomed from the start! It was all training and levelling up instead. This was a direct hit on my pocket — until level fifty in Jewelcrafting the stat bonus of my items would not exceed 12. What a snag...
The Mining trainer was an almost square-shaped dwarf, who taught me the Hardiness specialisation for three hundred gold. He even presented me with a patch for my cloak: 'Swinger'. No stat bonuses, just Attractiveness increased by 1. Considering my standard value in that, this is a very relevant addition.
At the Cooking trainer's I managed to learn only five recipes: Roast Wolf Meat, Deer Meat, Hare Meat, Fox Meat and Boar Meat, which restored between 30 and 120 Hit Points. There was nothing else available until level 5.
The last trainer I decided to visit before leaving Farstead was the Smithing Trainer. I did all I could to avoid this profession at the mine, but it still caught up with me. I found the trainer, an enormous orc, sitting by the smithy, from which some player was being carried out. I didn't get it — did that player collapse? If the character had to be carried out, it meant that the player had lost control over him. That was possible only in one case — complete Energy loss.
"He overdid it a bit," said the orc, seeing my interest, "This blockhead was told several times — take a break! But oh no! He's all strong and tough! Now he won't be able to set foot in the smithy for a week — he just won't have the strength. Why are some free citizens so brainless? It's not like anyone will do the thinking for him. What did you want?" The last question was to me.
"I would like to be trained. To end up like that guy," I nodded in the direction of the player, who was being put down by the wall of the smithy. He would regain his Energy in an hour, so nothing really terrible would happen to him. However, the fact that an overworked player would be landed with a week-long 'Weakness' debuff, as the manual helpfully pointed out, was news to me. With a debuff like that you could not work on any profession — whether production or gathering-based. That would be a serious hit on the finances of the careless player. So I won't be removing the Energy loss warning, it can stay where it is.
"Training is simple enough if you have the money. Ten gold for the training and another five for the instruments, said the orc, periodically glancing at my headband. Damn! What stopped me training in Smithing at Pryke?
"Here you go," I gave the orc the money. "My resolve is firm and I would spare no expense."
"Hrm," snorted the orc, accepting the gold. "Maybe there's some hope for you yet, if that's the way you see it."
You gained the 'Smithing' profession. Current level: 1.
You received an object: Smith's Tools (Attention! Does not take up inventory bag space).
I opened the page with the Smithing skill and began to study it.
Smelting ingots.
Description: This ability allows you to smelt 5 pieces of ore into 1 ingot. The speed of smelting is determined by the player's Agility and level in Smithing. Crafting stat bonus: when smelting ore you have a (Crafting) percent chance of discovering a Precious Stone, corresponding to the level of ore.
Ingredients: Copper ingot (from level 1 in Smithing): 5 pieces of Copper Ore; Tin Ingot (from level 10 in Smithing): 5 pieces of Tin Ore; Bronze Ingot (from level 40 in Smithing): 4 pieces of Copper Ore and 1 piece of Tin Ore; Silver Ingot (from level 60 in Smithing): 5 pieces of Silver Ore; Iron Ingot (from level 80 in Smithing): 5 pieces of Iron Ore. Recipes for ingots of level 100+ are bought separately.
Instruments: Smith's Tools.
My heart missed a beat when I read a
bout the Crafting bonus and I immediately went to the manual. The chance of a Sapphire Vein appearing — one thousandth of a percent. Sapphires are mainly obtained by sifting through Elementhrium Ore, from where the drop chance is already half a percent. If I level up my Smithing to 260, I would be able to smelt Elementhrium Ingots, even at my current level of Crafting, I would have a 4% chance of getting a Sapphire. I looked up other rare stones. Emerald: the chance of a vein appearing — two tenth of a percent, drop rate when sifting — two percent. Diamond — one ten thousandth and one thousandth respectively. My palms were sweating from excitement. You needed level four hundred and sixty in Smithing to smelt Phantom Iron, from which you could get a Diamond, but Diamonds were worth enough to cover any levelling-up expenses. I started to pace nervously by the Smithy — now the main thing was to make sure that no-one found out that Crafting and Smithing could combine so nicely. I was sure that the leading clans knew about this feature, but were in no hurry to share this information with competitors. Doing so made little economic sense. Even the manuals and the forum only said that Crafting was a stat that influenced production professions. That's it. The search didn't turn up any other results for 'Crafting', as if all other information on this was removed on purpose. Come to think of it, that made sense — considering the money that circulated in Barliona, bribing or even getting hired as a moderator of the forum or the manual was pretty easy. This meant that I had to keep very quiet about my Crafting and begin to...
My train of thought was interrupted by a quiet cough from the orc.
"Why are you running around here, kicking up all the dust? Did you come here to learn or do laps? If it's the latter, take a hike, we don't want any loiterers here!"
The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2) Page 12
