“And where do you think you’re going?” Olaf asked.
“Back to Mardi’s. I’m tired, Rose is pissed, and did I mention I’m tired?” I said.
“Mic still needs your help,” Olaf reminded me.
“Right, Micaela,” I said. “Fine, I’ll stop by the archive on my way back.”
“I’ll join you, maybe I can find something for me to read while we’re there. I need to improve on my ability to command soldiers,” Olaf said, obviously feeling as drained as I did. And yet he was pressing on instead of taking the well-earned rest.
The archive was still open when we arrived. Libre was sitting behind her small desk in front of the entrance.
“Ooh, Bye-bye, you’re back. And with good timing. Your books arrived a few hours ago,” Libre stated as soon as we entered. I hadn’t even had the chance to say hello when she was stuffing three books into my arms. “Read those outside, please. I know they are skill books, but I cannot stand to see books destroyed like that.”
It was a reasonable request, so I tucked the books into my bag.
“Now, I’ll be locking up shortly, is there anything I can help you with before I close up for the night?” Libre asked quickly.
“Nice to see you too, Libre,” I said, relaxing a little. The small for a Dwarf woman was very disarming, probably a good thing.
“You as well, Bye-bye, Olaf,” Libre amended, her cheeks tinging red in embarrassment.
“Thanks, Libre, it’s good to see you,” started Olaf. “I could use a book on commanding soldiers or something in that realm.”
“Section two, row 5, shelf 6,” she answered quickly. “I would recommend ‘Battle Formations’ or ‘Command Authority’, both by General Hammersmith himself.”
“Thanks, Libre,” said Olaf.
“I need books on Shamans,” I said.
“Easy enough, second floor, section 13, row 20, shelf 20. Anything I have on the Shaman class will be there,” Libre answered.
“Thanks again, Libre,” I said. Looking to Olaf, “I’ll meet you back here in ten?”
“Should be fine,” Olaf said.
The upstairs of the archive was much the same as the downstairs. Section 13, Row 20 was all the way in the back and shelf 20 put me all the way in the corner. There were probably thirty books to choose from. Then I saw a separator, make that 22 books to choose from. The eight books before the separator had titles like ‘A Monk’s Chi’ or ‘The Legend of the Three Finger Exploding Brain Technique’ which admittedly sounded as awesome as it was terrifying. The books after the separator were more in line with what I was looking for.
There were a lot of books with varied titles and the tooltip descriptors were very helpful, but they didn’t really help me know what to look for. I just didn’t know enough about Shaman’s to be able to help. I suppose then that was the first step. I needed to learn more about the Shaman class.
Shamanism: A Study in the Way of the Shaman – A primer of Shamanism providing information about and for Shamans.
This was exactly what I needed to start with. It should give me a starting point at the very least.
I met Olaf back at the entrance.
“Oh yes, before I forget. I received the documentation for you to borrow this book,” said Libre, holding out one more book. It was the ‘Assassination Handbook’ Mardi had finally relented on letting me borrow.
“Thanks for everything, Libre,” I said, accepting the book then adding it to the small pile in my bag.
Back at the manor, the former temple was empty aside from Barkley. The man had been annoyed since the dismissal of the cook and maid, two servants he had vetted carefully before hiring. Since then, he had been working overtime to find replacements but so far no one had been up to his new standards.
“I’m going to look for Mic, you good here on your own?” Olaf asked me.
“Alright, I’ll be here reading, let me know if you need help,” I said. It was fine. I apparently had a lot of reading to do.
“You’re already helping, but thanks,” Olaf said sincerely.
Olaf left not long after and I found a comfy chair with good lighting to sit down and read in. Popping open the three books on Babylonian I ordered, language, history and mythology gaining the subskill for it.
You’ve learned ‘Lore II’ subskill ‘Babylonian Mysticism III’
Lore II
Level: 17
Experience: 18.74%
Professional Skill: Lore is the study of the history of the World Tree and its denizens.
Subskill: Babylonian Mysticism III
Your knowledge of the Ancient Babylonian language, history, runes, and their Mythos has granted you a higher level of mastery. Knowledge of Babylonian Skills and Spells is greatly improved.
I really wished I knew how much ‘greatly improved’ was exactly. I would figure it out eventually . . . if I ever got a Babylonian spell.
With that out of the way, it was time to learn more about Shamans.
I was about an hour in when I heard Rose and Baby enter before I saw them. I gave a friendly smile and wave.
Rose blatantly ignored me and stormed away.
“She’s really mad at me, huh?” I asked.
“You really are an idiot,” Baby said with a heavy sigh that was completely out of place on the childlike body and face the Fairy possessed.
“So it would seem,” I said.
“Chase after her, dummy,” Baby finally said.
I was going to retort but thought better of it. I snapped my book closed, slipped it into my bag, then gave chase as instructed.
I caught up to Rose in the kitchen. She had a jar of what looked like peanut butter and a plate of cookies.
“Hi,” I said.
Rose glowered.
“I’m an idiot, something you already knew,” I started.
“Something we agree on,” Rose replied.
“I’m not good at this stuff,” I said. “I know I like you . . . a lot . . . but I’m not good at what comes next.”
Rose sighed, setting the cookies and glass jar down. “Yeah, me neither.”
“Okay, so, how do we . . . fix this?” I asked.
“We talk, dummy,” Rose replied.
“Talk, I can do that,” I said.
“Real talk,” Rose said.
Ah, that was harder.
“Sit,” Rose said, pointing to the small table in the corner of the kitchen, there were just four chairs, probably what Barkley and the staff used . . . when he had staff.
I sat.
Rose sat next to me.
“When you jumped . . . when I saw you fall . . . for a moment . . . I forgot this was a game. I thought I was really going to lose you and it . . . it scared me,” Rose admitted.
Now I really felt like an idiot. I took her hands in mine. “I am so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking when I did that. I just . . . I wanted the fastest way down and I thought, stupidly thought I might add, that the witch would break my fall.” That jump was epically stupid. I had no way of knowing if Captain Mariette would break my fall or if I would do any significant damage if I did hit her.
Rose squeezed my hands. “Don’t be so reckless in the future.”
I wanted to promise her I wouldn’t be, but that would have been a lie. “I can’t promise that.”
“I know,” said Rose. “Just keep in mind, next time it’s my turn to do something crazy and reckless that will more than likely result in my death.”
I snorted and shook my head. We really were quite the pair. I leaned in and kissed her, something she was happy to return.
“I’m also sorry about your shields,” I added when the kiss broke.
Rose slugged me in the arm, and I swear I felt a bone break. “You owe me new shields. Lucky for you, Baby and I pooled our vouchers to get me a decent replacement,” she complained.
I quickly produced my two vouchers. “You can have mine.”
Rose took them without hesitating. “Good, I’ll
give them to Baby. You are taking me out for another date tomorrow night. Tonight, I want a hot bath, chocolate, and sleep.” Rose kissed me one more time before collecting her plate of cookies and jar of peanut butter. Then, without a word of explanation, she was gone.
“I’ll give that a 6 out of 10 for making up, next time bring flowers,” said Baby, pushing the door open and flying in.
“I’ll remember that for next time,” I said absentmindedly. “Wait, were you eavesdropping?”
“Of course, I was eavesdropping,” said Baby. “I needed to know if I was going to be required to spend the rest of the night comforting my sister or not.”
“So, I’m safe?” I asked.
“From her, yes. From me, no,” said Baby, glaring.
I wanted to laugh at the glare, but I felt this was the wrong time for that.
“My sister, she acts tough. But in truth, she’s really quite the opposite,” Baby said, holding up a hand before I could ask more. “Rose will tell you when she’s ready. I am just warning you, be careful with her heart. Or I will destroy you.”
I took the threat seriously but not as seriously as the warning. I had been getting closer to Rose, so I understood exactly what Baby was talking about. Rose’s toughness was mostly on the outside and very much a defensive mechanism. The fact she was letting me in . . . well, that meant more to me than she knew.
As for Baby destroying me . . . well, I really didn’t know anything about her in the real world, but in the game, she could certainly make my life difficult. It was probably best to tread lightly.
I nodded.
“Good talk,” said Baby, flying away and leaving me in the kitchen alone.
As long as I was there, I ended up making myself a sandwich. I cut the bread way too thick and the meat wasn’t much better, but it was food and sufficiently filled me up. After that, it was back to my comfy chair with good light and the book on Shamans.
The first thing I learned was that Micaela was really bad at explaining anything about her class beyond the most basic of information. It made me wonder how much she understood about her class starting with the Spirit stat and just how important it really was.
Spirit was a stat that Micaela said replaced Wisdom. That wasn’t quite right. It didn’t replace wisdom. It was actually an evolution of Wisdom. It was the primary attribute of Shamans. It was an indicator of her connection with the spirit world. It determined the strength of her totems and how much damage they could do. The most important aspect of Micaela’s current situation was that Spirit also determined how many spirits she could manage. There was actually a calculation of spirit stats to spirit level. As a Shaman’s spirits, the creatures that inhabit totems, got stronger, they would draw on spirit for their abilities and power.
For example. If a Shaman had a level 1 spirit it needed the Shaman to have 2 points of the Spirit stat to maintain it, the requirement going up by 2 points of the Spirit stat with every level the spirit gained. At level 10, the spirit would require a Shaman to have 20-points of the Spirit stat to maintain that totem. Then it got more costly. After level 10, each level required the Shaman to have 4 more points of the Spirit stat, so by level 15 a spirit required a stat level of 40-Spirit.
At level 14, Micaela’s maximum Spirit stat level was 140 Spirit. She currently had eight spirits. If she had kept them in the stone that was rated only to level 10, she would be able to maintain seven spirits at that level. And she recently upgraded the stone of her totems to hold up to a level 20 spirit. If all her totems’ spirits were above level 10, then it was no wonder she was losing control of them, they were growing beyond her ability to control.
There were two solutions I could think of off the top of my head. Option one, gain more Spirit. Gaining more Spirit stats was easy enough according to the book, she just needed to spend time in the spirit world, except that she was limited by level and the cap associated with it. Equipment with bonuses to Spirit would help as would the spell she recently picked up. Option two, improve the efficiency of her Spirit. Ultimately, improving the efficiency of her Spirit would be the best course of action. But that was something that would require more research and time. The unknown in all this was that last part, time. The book didn’t elude to how long a Spirit would tolerate a Shaman lacking the Spirit necessary to maintain them.
I read the book cover to cover but I didn’t uncover any secrets or hidden skills, not that I would be able to as I wasn’t a Shaman. The good news was I now knew what I needed to research. I put the book away. It was getting late, but I hadn’t seen Olaf or Micaela yet. I knew they could take care of themselves, but I didn’t feel comfortable going to bed until I knew they were both back and safe.
As long as I had the time to kill, I cracked open the ‘Assassination Handbook’ and began to read.
It was after 2:00 when Olaf entered, carrying Micaela in his arms. I was going to question him, but he just shook his head and proceeded up the stairs with Micaela.
I closed my book and put it back in my bag. I read quite a bit of it but the distraction of worry for my friends meant I hadn’t absorbed much of it. But, now that I knew my friends were safe, I figured it was a good time to call it a night, but not before I checked my system messages. I was disappointed to see +2-Intellect and +1-Wisdom. Five hours of reading and that was all I had managed. Despite that, there was something of a surprise.
You’ve learned ‘Lore II’ subskill ‘Shamanism’
Lore II
Level: 24
Experience: 91.47%
Professional Skill: Lore is the study of the history of the World Tree and its denizens.
Subskill: Shamanism
Your knowledge of Shamanism has granted you an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of Shamans. Slightly increased defense and damage against Shamans.
Okay, that was seriously overpowered. I don’t know how much slight was, but I would happily take the improvement.
“Sorry about that,” said Olaf, startling me slightly.
“I thought you went to bed with her,” I said.
“I will be, I just wanted to talk to you first. Any luck?” Olaf asked.
“A little,” I answered. “I understand her problem better now. I just need to do more research to figure out how to fix it.”
“Work fast, please,” said Olaf, looking rather sullen. “She lost two of them tonight. Kodiak and Paddington both left her.”
“Oh, Olaf, I’m sorry,” I said.
“She’s barely holding on to the others and she doesn’t understand why this is suddenly happening,” Olaf said. “You said you understand the why now?”
“Yeah, she doesn’t have enough Spirit,” I started, then continued to explain how the stat worked with her totems and the spirits that inhabit them.
“Damn, I wish I knew that before I encouraged her to upgrade to the next level of stone,” Olaf said, shaking his head.
“I don’t think Micaela knew,” I said carefully.
“And of course, her spirits have grown too strong to be put back into the old totems,” Olaf added. “Okay, I’m going to go find that guy Jay, see if he can make Micaela some Spirit clothing. You, keep researching.”
“I was going to anyway. I kind of stumbled onto a new application of ‘Lore’,” I said, trying not to show too much excitement about the discovery, especially given Olaf’s somber mood. I knew Rose would appreciate it so much more, but she had long since gone to sleep, but I needed to share it with someone.
“Great, now how did you break the game?” Olaf asked.
I grinned a little and explained.
“Hax!” Olaf hissed, making me laugh out loud. I had a feeling I had barely scratched the surface of what ‘Lore’ could really do and I couldn’t wait to find out just how far I could take it.
Chapter 27
Breakfast the next morning was somewhat somber. Micaela was neither perky nor happy and her eyes still looked slightly red-rimmed. I felt for her, I really did. It was an unfor
tunate rule among gamers, especially those who play role-playing games like the World Tree Online, know your class. Micaela obviously didn’t get all the information about her class and overextended her abilities.
“Micaela,” I started, startling her. She looked up and seemed surprised to see me there. “I am sorry to hear about your totems.”
“Thanks, Bye-bye,” Micaela said with a sniffle. “I just . . . I don’t understand why they left. I was good with them, wasn’t I? I helped them get stronger. So why?”
“So, Vision told us you were having trouble with your totems. I decided to do some research and learned a few things about the Shaman class,” I explained carefully. I didn’t want to upset her further, but I had a feeling this would not go over well.
“What did you find out?” Micaela asked, looking at me hopefully.
“Your Spirit stat, it does more than just increase your totem effects,” I said. “From what I read, your Spirit stat also determines how many totems you can manage based on their levels. For the first 10 levels, your totems require 2 points of the Spirit stat per level.”
“So, a level 10 totem spirit needs 20 Spirit stat points?” Micaela asked. “But I have that much and more.”
“Per totem,” I added.
“Oh, oh . . . so, I’m safe for now,” Micaela bemoaned. “My totems are all level 12, I have 140 points of Spirit. Is that enough to keep the six I have left? Or will they leave too?”
“I'm trying to prevent that. But at level 12, each totem requires 28 points of Spirit stat,” I said.
Micaela’s eyes widened slightly. “I’m going to lose more of them,” she said, choking up.
“Maybe not,” I said quickly. “Stop, don’t give up hope. I’m still working on the problem. You need to keep building your Spirit up if you can. If you are level capped, then you need to spam that spell of yours until it gives you enough of a boost to Spirit to sate your totems. In the meantime, I’m going to try to find a way to improve your efficiency, so it takes fewer points of Spirit per totem level.”
Micaela sniffed one more time. “Alright, I’ll keep fighting for my totems. Just, don’t take too long, yeah?”
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