by Jamey Sultan
He got to work, scooping handfuls of dirt on top of the fire to extinguish it.
Darkness reclaimed the forest. James couldn’t see a thing.
As his vision adjusted, basic shapes took form. At first everything was vague, blobbish. But as time wore on, the foliage slowly separated into distinct shapes. It was still dark, but the darkness was at least manageable.
You have gained 1 Skill Rank in Night Vision.
You are now Skill Rank 7.
His Night Vision Skill gave everything a green tint, like a cheap pair of night-vision goggles back on Earth. He could see fairly well around the patches of moonlight, but the further he looked from the slivers of light, the worse his vision got.
James noticed a patch of darkness that pulsed and shimmered in the night air as he scanned the treetops. He drew his dagger and held it in his hand, feeling the weight in his palm. Holding it by the blade, James aimed at the suspicious patch and threw.
The dagger soared through the air beautifully.
Then landed with a solid thunk in a tree twenty feet to the left of his target.
You have gained the skill: Knife Throwing
Knife Throwing (Skill Rank 1):
+ 1% accuracy when throwing knives.
If what you did could be called knife throwing…
James barely had time to read the message before he had to dodge another blade of wind. He rolled out of the way and sprang up towards the cloud of darkness, which swooped towards him, taking the form of the Moonshadow Moth as it closed in. When it reached James, it hovered, beating its wings furiously, creating a heavy gust of wind that pushed him backwards. Again, its wings glowed a dim blue. The gale screamed in his ears, accompanied by the drone of hundreds of tiny wind blades.
But the moth was finally close enough to reach.
It was now or never.
James hunched his shoulders against the wind and pushed forward, ignoring the shallow cuts that formed on his body from the barrage of tiny, needle-like blades of wind.
His health bar flashed as James closed in on the moth and swung his sword at its abdomen. The glow around the moth’s wings faded, traveling back up the body and into the moth’s head. Briefly, the moth’s eyes flashed a whitish blue. It fell from the air, landing on the ground with a soft thud. The howling gale that it had summoned faded away, leaving an ominous silence in its wake. James coughed, panting with exertion and covered with blood. His health bar hovered at 15% and flashed in warning. Before the moth could recover from being stunned, James stabbed down straight into the moth’s head, killing it instantly.
You have killed a Moonshadow Moth (Level 5)
+ 13 experience points.
Help the Helpless III: (3/3 Star Moles) (1/1 Moonshadow Moth).
You have completed the quest: Help the Helpless III
+ 21 experience.
Level up! You are now level 5.
Congratulations, you have reached level 5 and can now choose a class from the list of available options.
Maybe you won’t be so useless now.
James read through his prompts as he retrieved his knife and sheathed it.
I leveled twice! And I can choose a class!
James quickly scanned the list of available classes.
Rogue
You have started the path of the shadows. Rogues specialize in taking down stronger opponents while hidden.
Warrior
A straightforward fighter that focuses on melee combat.
Explorer
Dangerous wilds? Fiery Fields? Underwater Kingdoms? No land is too exotic for you. Explorers specialize in visiting new places and making their mark, all in search of epic loot!
After reading through the classes, James decided to close the list. He could make his choice later, after consulting with Nana. Instead, he reveled in his level up: He was sure he’d be leveling much slower without his ring decreasing experience he needed to reach new levels.
James spent the next few minutes debating where to put his stat points. He wanted to distribute them as evenly as possible per Nana’s advice, but he couldn’t see how Intelligence and Wisdom had helped him at all so far. But they were his only stats under ten, and maybe he’d stop making so many stupid decisions if he had more points in them, he wasn’t sure exactly how that worked. He tried to raise his Charisma and Luck, but it looked like they couldn’t be raised manually, so he gave up and placed two points in Intelligence and two points and Wisdom.
The cuts on his body slowly closed up over the next few hours while he tried to find the path out of the dungeon. It was fascinating how healing worked in this world. From his observations, he healed at a normal rate when it wasn’t enhanced, but the Star Mole meat had multiplied his recovery time by twenty. As someone who had worked in the medical field before being pulled to Novis, this fascinated James.
In the morning, he waited for the smithy to open to turn in his quest. A few minutes later, Kyrwin left his house, which was next door to his forge.
He greeted James. “You have the ironweed?” He asked.
James handed over the plant.
You have completed the quest: Picking Plants
+ 11 experience.
Level up! You are now level 6.
I bet you’re glad you have that ring now, huh?
James grinned. He was leveling way faster than he should be, but he wasn’t going to complain. He placed two points each in Strength and Dexterity before waving goodbye to Kyrwin. “If that’s all, I’m going to head over to talk to Nana,” James said as he left the smith to his work and headed back up the forested path.
Chapter 11
Back at Nana’s house, James sat at the kitchen table with a hot mug of tea. He’d just finished telling her about his training over the past month when a notification popped up.
You have completed the quest: Helping the Elderly II.
+ 5 experience.
Nana sat listening to him quietly and only spoke once he’d finished. “It sounds like you’ve learned a lot over the past month. But how are you feeling?”
James thought about it. He’d been too busy to really think about the fact that he’d been whisked away from his home and brought to Novis. If he were being honest with himself, he didn’t want to think about it. So, James did what he always did when he had a lot of emotions. He pushed them down. “I guess I’m okay. Still confused about a lot of things, but I’m learning a lot about this world.”
“That’s good.” Nana smiled kindly at him. “You can’t expect to learn everything at once. Do you have any questions I can help answer?”
James nodded. He had a billion questions, but knew she wouldn’t be able to answer everything he wanted to know.
A few questions weighed on him more than others. What kind of lunatic has a dungeon for a garden? And why did your garden try to kill me? He decided to play it safe.
“What class should I choose?”
“What options did you get?” Nana asked with a smile.
With a thought, James pulled up his list of available classes and read them out loud.
Rogue
You have started the path of the shadows. Rogues specialize in taking down stronger opponents while hidden.
Warrior
A straightforward fighter that focuses on melee combat.
Explorer
Dangerous wilds? Fiery Fields? Underwater Kingdoms? No land is too exotic for you. Explorers specialize in visiting new places and making their mark, all in search of epic loot!
Nana listened to the options and nodded. “What class are you thinking?”
James tapped his chin. “Explorer sounds like a fun class. I‘ll probably be adventuring around a lot. But I also like the idea of a stealthy character. It’ll help keep me alive.”
“You make some good points, but I would suggest you choose the Warrior class.”
James was surprised. “But the Explorer class looks amazing!”
Nana nodded. “I understand why you
would think that, but it is a double-edged sword. When you choose your first class, you want to be as general as possible to give yourself room to grow. If you choose the Explorer class or even the Rogue class, you’re boxing yourself into a specific build. You want to choose a general first class and let yourself develop naturally.”
That made sense to James. If he chose something like the Rogue class, then he’d have to be stealthy for the rest of his life. If he was fighting a Warrior head-on, he would always lose. “So how do classes work?” James asked.
Nana Rasner stirred her tea for a silent moment before she spoke. “I guess I’ll start from the beginning: From the time they are born until they reach the age of fifteen, children don’t level. On the day of their fifteenth year, then they can gain experience. Once they gain their first experience point, they level up to two and can start assigning points. When they reach level five, they can take a Basic class. That is what you are about to do.”
“Okay. But then what?”
“The next class upgrades come at level twenty-five, when you can choose your Journeyman class, level fifty when you can choose your Advanced class, level 100 when you can choose your Master class, level 250 when you can choose your Grandmaster class, level 500 when you can choose your Sage class, and level 1000 when you can choose your Divine class. Once a person reaches the Sage levels, they must choose a unique, never before chosen path. There are under a hundred sages currently in existence, and less than ten known Divines.”
“Are the Divines the Gods?” James asked. “Is one of them the one who branded me?”
Nana laughed. “A good guess, but no. Divines are equal in power to the Gods, but they were born mortal.” She tapped her chin. Some are worshipped as gods, but most prefer to work on their own goals that mortals like us can’t comprehend. But enough about them. The chances that you encounter any of them in your lifetime is laughably small.” She stopped short. “I guess not as much for you,” she muttered, more to herself than to him. Looking up, she shook her head. “I don’t know what Sytar wants with you, but if you ever see a Divine, run.”
James nodded in somber agreement. “I’m not looking to die anytime soon.”
“That’s good.” Nana smiled at him. “Anyway!” She clapped. “Back to classes. You get to choose your specializations at—”
“What’s a specialization?” James interrupted.
Nana glared at him. “I was getting to that. A specialization is another way to customize each class, adding your own unique flare. For example, if you are a Warrior and only fight with swords, then you can choose the Swordsman specialization to change your Warrior abilities so that they apply to swords only.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“The more specialized the Ability, the more powerful it is. It is a way of increasing your power without boxing your progression. Your choice in specialization doesn’t affect your future class choices.”
“So, when can I specialize?”
“As I was saying.” Nana stared at James, daring him to interrupt. “You specialize at levels ten, forty, seventy-five and level 200. Once you reach Grandmaster, you start to develop your own unique path which will lead to Sagedom.” Seeing the lost look on James’ face, Nana tried again. “Let me explain with an example. I started at level five with the Planter class, a class specialized in growing things. Then at level ten I specialized in herbs, making my abilities more powerful when I grew herbs. Then at level twenty-five I chose the herbalist class. After that… well, that’s too much to talk about. Do you understand?”
James nodded. “I think so. Thank you for explaining.” He was glad to have Nana around. Choosing a class sounded incredibly complex, and he appreciated the guidance. He thought about what else to ask and remembered the herbs he’d picked. “Do you have any Herbology books?” He asked. He’d been interested in how medications worked on Earth and thought it would be cool to review a basic Herbology book to see how things worked in Novis.
Nana Rasner got up and quickly rifled through her shelves while giving James a stern look. “If you ruin this book, I will tan your hide and use your skin to bind a new one.”
James gulped an agreement and carefully accepted the proffered book. “This will give you a description of some common potion ingredients, and a few basic recipes. It’s a good place to start.”
Potion Making for Dummies:
Rank: Common
This manual has some basic pictures and descriptions of useful plants and a few introductory potions.
After handing James the book, Nana looked at him grimly. “We need to talk about your Brand.”
Well, that was ominous.
James was about to ask her what she meant, when a loud knock on the door interrupted them. James jumped in his seat, nearly tumbling to the ground.
Ferko entered the house and grinned when he saw James. “Are you ready to go?” Ferko asked him.
James glanced at Nana Rasner questioningly. She looked back at him innocently and turned to Ferko. “He’s ready. Can you explain it to him while I go grab the charms?” She got up and left the room. James let out a heavy yawn. His sleepless night was starting to catch up with him.
Ferko turned to James and explained. “My farm has been plagued by a group of Rabbans lately. Normally I can deal with them on my own, but something is different about these, and I needed Nana’s help to deal with them. She was making me a few charms to undo whatever curse is affecting them. She suggested I have you place the charms.”
You have been given a quest: Rabid Rabban I
Rabid Rabban I: Take care of the Rabbans plaguing Ferko’s gardens.
Suggested level: 5-10
Reward: Unknown
Penalty for failure or refusal: Unknown
James wasn’t sure how he felt about being voluntold to go with Ferko, but he supposed it would be a good experience.
As he waited for Nana, he chose his class, following her advice.
You have chosen the class: Warrior.
New Level-up bonus:
+ 4 Free Stat Points
+ 1 Endurance
+1 Ability point
You have unlocked the class tree! You have one unused Ability point. Would you like to spend it?
James selected ‘Yes’ and his vision was overlaid with a skill tree. The tree was divided into Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III Abilities, but only the Tier I Abilities were visible. The only way to see the higher tier Abilities was to unlock the previous abilities that led to it.
Warrior I
Increased Damage (0/10):
The strength of your body flows through your weapon, increasing your damage.
Warrior I
Immovable Object (0/5):
Your iron will flows through your armor, bolstering its defense.
Warrior I
Raging Bull (0/3):
*Requires Shield
Charge forward like a raging bull, pushing enemies aside.
He also had the Ability that he’d gained when he appeared in the cave; Death’s Stare, but for some reason he couldn’t put any points into the Ability. When he tried, a notification let him know that he lacked the requirements to increase it.
Disappointed but not surprised, James thought about it for a second before assigning his point to the Increased Damage ability. He would have preferred the Raging Bull ability, but he didn’t have a shield and wasn’t sure when he would get one.
You have gained the ability: Increased Damage (Warrior I)
Increased Damage (1/10):
+ 10% damage to all weapons
The strength of your body flows through your weapon, increasing your damage.
As soon as he made his selection, two Tier II Abilities appeared, attached to the Increased Damage node.
Warrior II
Split Weapon (0/10):
*Requires Increased Damage 5
Your weapons have a chance to shatter your opponent’s weapons
Warrior II
&
nbsp; Sharper Tools (0/5):
*Requires Increased Damage 3
In the hands of a master, even iron can cut through diamond.
James briefly wondered what “tiers” meant in the Sharper Tools ability, but after thinking about it for a bit realized that it was probably talking about different material strengths. He wasn’t sure what the tiers of material were, but remembering how his iron dagger had barely scratched the spider carapace in the cave, he knew he needed the Sharper Tools ability.
James closed his windows and browsed through his new book while he waited for Nana to return. She came back a few minutes later carrying a stack of parchment slips. She handed the stack to James, and he examined them. Each was about four inches long and an inch wide, with arcane symbols scribbled across them, glowing a soft golden white.
Charm of Cursebreaking (x50):
Rank: Rare
A charm infused with life magic that has been primed to break curses.
