Chương 36: The Geezers

Two augment tokens, two fusion tokens, and one shiny evolution token stared back at her. By Kronan, I owe these people too much already, this is enough to buy a full estate with servants back in Greymere, not rent. Buy. She took a deep breath, and knocked on the door before her. No one answered. She knocked again. Nothing.

"Hello, is anyone in there?" she shouted and slammed her fist against the door in rapid succession. The door yanked open, the face of an old man peered out. His head was bald, just small stubs of white remained and he had a short grey beard.

"Yes, who is it? We do not need another delivery of beer today, we still have some left." he yelled at her.

"Dominic brought me here, he said something about System Scholars residing here." She replied.

"Ah, the core girl, yes do come in. We are here to advise you on your newly acquired tokens." he said, ushering her into the homely home. Can these geezers actually help me? I don't want them ruining my skills. She looked around suddenly, just now noticing Talvik was nowhere to be seen. Lazy fucking bird, never around when I need him.

"Sit sit, Edelmar the girl has arrived" the old man gestured to a nice padded chair and then shouted at the top of his lungs. She winced.

"I'm coming! Just a moment Edmund, no need to rush." A voice bellowed down from above in answer. Edmund turned to whisper to her.

"Edelmar is a quack really, no reason to listen to him, now tell me all about your skills and thoughts, where were you thinking of spending tokens?" he inquired.

"Edmund, if you try talking that girl into putting augment tokens on strange skills I'll fill your bed with rocks!" Edelemar shouted from above and thunking steps could be heard on the stairs.

"That damn old man, don't pay him any mind girl." Edmund said and shuffled away to a large padded chair near the hearth. Another hobbling old man appeared at the end of the hallway, this one still had silver hair left.

"I am Edelmar, let us take a look at your skills little girl." he said and came to sit on another chair by the hearth. The chairs seemed to spin and bounce as if on springs.

"My skills? That's a bit personal don't you think?" she hesitated.

"Oh shut yer yap and show us the skills, can't help you if we don't know whatcha have. Bind us if you need to." Edmund retorted. Oh… OH YEAH, I can just use authority…. Nythera pulled on a spot deep in her, tugging authority into place and interweaving it with her voice as she spoke.

"You will not tell anyone about my skills." her voice came down on them like steel bindings, they would never spill the secrets to anyone. Edelmar nodded.

"Not like you need our help, what with your drunken token spending sprees." Edmund commented. She blushed in embarrassment. I should probably stop doing that. Nythera brought her status forth and then shared each, skill by skill. The old men never reacted to them, just stared with pensive looks on their faces. Edelmar was the first to speak "The System has offered me… insights." He then looked inquisitively towards Edmund. He nodded.

"You have tokens right? Let's see them girlie." Edelemar said, gesturing to the small stone coffee table between them.

"I have an upgrade and augment token in status" She pulled out the little baggy Dominic had given her before, and dumped it out on the table, and then pulled all the tokens out from Boxy, behind her cloak.

"And these." Edmund whistled. Edelemar sucked in his breath.

"Thats quite the fortune you have there, we can do a lot with this, girlie." Edelmar said.

"Yes, even without intent we should be able to make something decent work" Edmund scratched his chin "Shall we ignore the old Regal Rigel tale for now" he looked towards his brother.

"Yes, we don't have time to dally, she's got a war to win, does she not?" Edelmar answered. On the table lay three evolution tokens, five fusion tokens, three upgrade tokens, and two augment tokens. A ransom equal to that of a small domain.

"Alrighty, lets begin with your best skill." Edmund said. Edelemar nodded in approval.

"You should apply an evolution token to this skill, Grand Administrator." Edmund finished. Edelemar looked at him like he shit in his tea.

"No, her best skill is clearly Synchronized Thunder, no need to dilute her primary skills so much so early." he spat back.

"What do you mean? The system itself clearly indicated that Grand Administrator has the most potential, it can be fused with other administrative or social skills and making it a primary skill is the only way to ensure it ends up on top of the fusion." Edmund fought back, his bald head turning a shade of red.

"That might be so, but she only has three evolution tokens, one must be saved for Aether Culverin and clearly one for Synchronized Thunder, but my insights indicate that she can already afford the enhanced version of it." Edelmar retorted, his cheeks had become bright red. Nythera spoke up "What if I just do both?". They turned to face her.

"Aye that could work, your Grand Administrator is capped for the time, until you ascend your class anyways." Edmund said, "Definitely save a token for it, it is the easiest case for fusion tokens to be used that I have ever seen." then Edelemar pitched in "but used your token right now on Synchronized Thunder." They both nodded. She picked up the token and brought forth her status, applying it to the skill.

Synchronized Thunder (lvl 8) (1 tokens) Control a single vessel and all mounted artillery pieces on it, including aiming, firing, and reloading. Available ammunition will be automatically loaded. The artillery on the vessel gains +1. 5% reloading rate and +1. 5% aiming speed per level. The vessel gains +1. 5% speed and +1. 5% physical resistance per level. You can alternatively control all artillery within a radius around you of 2. 5 meters + 2. 5 meters per level.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Each artillery controlled costs 2 flux every 5 seconds. Controlling the vessel costs 15 flux every 5 seconds. Her status shut like a brick wall as the update took place, the token having dissolved into her hand. Wait what? No choices? She frantically tried to pry open her status to no avail.

"You did not get options to direct Synchronized Thunder because the skill knows what it is, this is… rare, but not entirely unheard of. You may take solace in the fact that the effects of such tend to be more pronounced than those with options." Edmund explained. She nodded and settled down. A minute passed and her status still rejected her entry. What the fuck is going on? Did I break a skill? Edelmar and Edmund waited patiently, sipping tea, as if this was entirely expected. Finally her status opened.

Synchronized Thunder (lvl 8) (2 tokens) Control a single vessel and all mounted artillery pieces on it, including aiming, firing, and reloading. Available ammunition will be automatically loaded. The artillery on the vessel gains +3% reloading rate, +3% aiming speed, +2% explosive yield per level. The vessel gains +3% speed and +3% physical and flux resistance per level, up to 60%. You can alternatively control all artillery within a radius around you of 5 meters + 5 meters per level.

This Skill carries Designated Capstone Status. Each artillery controlled costs 4 flux every 5 seconds. Controlling the vessel costs 30 flux every 5 seconds. Wow, it doubled nearly everything and it's got some weird line attached to the end.

"What is Designated Capstone Status?" She asked. Edelmar and Edmund jumped up in cheer, far faster than geezers their age should be able to move.

"That's worth its weight in Embers!" Edmund shouted, he clasped hands with Edelmar and they shook.

"That skill will absorb the features of other skills fused into it, as long as you give it a fusion token first, it will stay true to its nature." Edelmar continued.

"If you get more skills with artillery based effects, like your [Artillery Command] and fuse them into the skill, it'll absorb all the best parts without losing its true function. Go collect another three or four suitable skills before doing any fusion with it". Edmund said with a cheer. I see, aren't fusions really bad normally? Every piece of advice tells you never to use them, yet now I can? A rapid series of knocks resounded at the door.

Edmund sighed and hobbled over to the door, yanking it open, his reverie ended.

"I have come to monitor the process." Rowen said, waving from the door. The door slammed shut.

"I don't want to let that brat in." Edmund sighed. Knocks sounded insistently at the door. He opened it again "Fine, but not a word out of you, we were making such good progress before your ilk arrived." Edmund grumbled and hobbled back. Edelmar settled back in his chair "To fight Damien, a Deep Stratum rank from Southmere, you'll need more than this. He's got three class ascensions on you, his total level is probably around… 350?. With all the stats and skills that entails." he pondered thoughtfully. 350?

So he could have… several stats in the range of 300+ and some possibly near 700 or higher. Welp, I'm going to die I guess.

"He'll pursue you like a rabid dog, you'll need stronger skills yet to manage this." Edelmar stated, grabbing another sip of tea.

"He's got the deeper strata enhancements too, his strength will hit harder point for point, he'll get far more flux per resonance than you do." Edmund grumbled, shoving a tea cup into Rowen's hands. Edelmar set down the teacup, "Drop an upgrade token on Giant-slayer." he said, so faintly she barely caught it. She checked it before upgrading it. Giant-Slayer (lvl 8) (0 tokens) When fighting those higher level than you, gain 1% more to all stats per level of this skill. This? I suppose it could be useful to upgrade…

but I've never noticed any pronounced effects. It only activates occasionally and always when I'm too busy to check my stats. She slotted the upgrade token left in her status into the skill, feeling the invasion of system power flood into the skill. Giant-Slayer (lvl 8) (1 tokens) When fighting those higher level than you, gain 1. 3% more to all stats per level of this skill. It barely fucking changed… but I suppose I'll need every advantage I can get.

"What next?" She still had a pile of tokens, and while she didn't want to spend more of the evolution tokens, she had plenty of upgrades to go around. Edmund spoke up this time "Drop a token on Farsight." he poured another cup of tea.

"An augment token this time.".

"Why? I'm pretty happy with the effects, it lets me see from afar and can help line up artillery shots." she asked.

"An insight tells me you will get… interesting options." he answered cryptically. Rowen nodded as if great wisdom was just bestowed upon them. Well here we go I guess. Far-sight (lvl 5) (0 tokens) You can see great distances, clarity and distance scale with level. She shrugged and dropped her first augment token, right from her status onto the skill. Three options appeared before her, new names for new skills. Micro-Sight Precision-Sight Overview What… this is it? No details? Nothing at all? Not even a hint??

She stood mouth agape. To make one of the most important decisions she could on nothing but a hunch. She felt the strings of fate pulling, this decision carried a gravity that others simply did not.

"I know my path." she murmured and selected an option. It just feels right, nothing else will give me what I need. Precision-Sight (lvl 5) (1 tokens) You can see great distances and can lock onto targets, naturally understanding launch trajectories of projectiles. Increase accuracy of any weapons commanded or wielded by 1% per level. By Kronan… Without a word, she flicked the skill up for Edmund and Edelmar to see. Their eyes went wide.

They sprung up, clasped arms, and danced a jig, knocking over several cups of tea.

"We still got it!" Edmund bellowed.

"The greatest System Scholars in all of Myrraval!" Edelmar answered.

"The only ones in Myrraval!" Edmund answered in a jolly tone and both settled down from their jig. Rowen beheld the spectacle from behind, he shook his head, but there was no true disdain within his eyes, merely amusement.

"That skill should be fused with Synchronized Thunder later, try to get at least 2 more skills you can add to the combination first." Edelemar remarked, cleaning up a spilled teacup. Edmund nodded his head "we are done here, you have tokens left, save them for the future, without your first ascension, there's only so much we can do now." His tone was somber.

"Don't spend your future now, wait until you have more to work with, yet unascended, the vast majority of skills you will acquire, you do not yet have." Edelemar added. Not a word was said after. Rowen and Nythera were escorted out of the house. Rowen coughed.

"I will assist you further with your tokens after the conflict, we have resources at the Stormbridge Estate. For now, we should proceed with war preparations." he said, betraying an eagerness she couldn't yet define. Before them, a familiar man strode, blue robes whipping in the wind.

"I've been searching for you all morning, Nythera I bear important news." Noah, the mayor of Grandport said.

"They're coming. Damien's Fleet passed the Kraken's Wrath.".