Chương 116: 115 - Perk Selection

Alexandra wasn't sure what to think about Raymond. She made her way back to her room, her head filled with more questions than she'd left it this morning. But she wasn't naive. Not that much anyway. Raymond could act. She couldn't trust him. She couldn't trust anyone. The only thing she could rely on was her own power, which was why moving to a low-level zone was her best bet at escaping the machinations of Laika's powerhouses. When she reached her room, Willow was waiting in front of the door.

She turned when she heard Alexandra's footsteps echo in the corridor.

"There you are," Willow said, moving toward her.

"Let's go. My ancestor has agreed to meet you." Alexandra blinked. Ah. It was true that she'd asked Willow that.

"That… won't be necessary. I found a solution." Willow frowned.

"Are you sure? It wouldn't hurt to get more opinions."

"No, I completed the quest." She grinned.

"Sorry."

"Oh." Willow opened her mouth.

"No, it's good. Don't worry. I'll just inform him of your success." She took another step forward and grabbed Alexandra's hand. Their gazes locked. Willow's eyes were shining.

"But you have to tell me how." Alexandra wasn't sure if she wanted to share her meeting with Raymond. But she knew of Willow's love for enchantments and would be remiss not to share the method with her since it directly affected her class. She invited her into her room and took the time to explain the technique.

"Interesting," Willow said.

"The method itself has its limits, but I'll have to try. Mana Persuasion sounds like a skill I could unlock. Actually, I'll do it now and leave you to your perk selection." She stopped in the doorway and looked back with a smile.

"Thanks, Alex." Alexandra nodded and watched as her friend closed the door behind her. Then she sat on her bed and summoned her journal onto her lap. She flipped the pages, landing on her perk selection. As usual, there were three options. She read them in order. Record of the Quest – Record every action you and your party take in your journal so that they may never be forgotten. She frowned.

"Okay…" This was unconvincing. Why would she want to record her own life? She was living it. It felt somewhat egotistical. The part about recording her party's life was even worse, as it was essentially spying on them. She paused. If she had had this perk when Louis was killed, she would have known with certainty what had happened. Then again, she couldn't even be sure it would be the case. If the perk recorded it from her party members' perspective, a lot would be missing from the record.

But getting the perspective of some people was valuable in itself. Maybe she could get Raymond to join and see what he was truly planning. It was tempting, although that too was dependent on how detailed the record was. She'd also need to convince the people plotting against her to put their names in her journal, which they would likely not be stupid enough to do. She stood up, putting the journal on her bed, and took Clarity of Mind out of its drawer to help her concentrate.

Tapping her fingers on her desk, she tried coming up with evolution paths that would make the perk worth taking. Perhaps if it wasn't limited to her party… That was a long shot. If the evolutions ended up with her life described in more detail, all it would do is waste a perk slot. She took back her journal and moved on to the second perk. She had to be very careful about this selection as it was her last new perk until level eleven, the second level of the Silver rank.

The next four levels would be spent upgrading all of her perks, including this new one, to Bronze, and one all the way to Silver. Streak Freeze – Allows you to freeze your streak. Doing so will deactivate all potential for progress, including, but not limited to, the ability to complete quests, to level skills, or to receive Achievements. Your attributes will be reduced by thirty percent while the streak is frozen. You will lose access to your skills while the streak is frozen.

Streak bonus will not apply while the streak is frozen. A frozen streak cannot be broken. A frozen streak takes one month to unfreeze. Alexandra raised an eyebrow. This perk was essentially the equivalent of a vacation. There were a lot of issues with it, and at the forefront was that every day she didn't spend progressing her streak was lost forever. She didn't hate the idea of taking a break, but she was still very far from matching her initial streak.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Now, that was also a chance to save her streak. One that was a lot more efficient than the reroll she was offered before. It looked like she could just opt out of any daily quest. Only, the cost of doing that was too high. Weakened attributes, no skills, stalled progress. It was a tall ask. One that could cost her more than her streak.

Even in the Iron Library, there hadn't been a day when she hadn't used her skills one way or another. Granted, danger often came from her attempts at completing her dailies, but still. Laika was a dangerous world. She could see the perk evolve to reduce the penalties of a frozen streak, which was not insignificant. And, ultimately, this was a tool to save her streak, a good one, despite the downsides. She read the final option. Contribution Points – Replace all non-daily quest rewards with contribution points.

Contribution points can be traded for rewards of your choosing. The number of awarded contribution points is equivalent to the value of the original reward. She knew this one. Contribution Points had appeared in her level four selection. That it was offered again was a testament to how interested she'd been in the perk. She'd discarded it because of how few Event Quests she had, but now that situation had changed. Event Quests had evolved to Quest Ledger, offering her a new type of quest: Training Quests.

Contrary to Event Quests, she had Training Quests in abundance. She could already see a way to abuse the perk. If contribution points replaced the rewards of her Training Quests, she could pick an easy quest and farm it forever. Well, not quite forever. Even if she didn't spend her contribution points on leveling her skills, the skills would level out of sheer repetition. It also depended on what she could trade those points for and the value the system would assign to the repeatable Training Quests.

A lot of questions she wouldn't get an answer for unless she picked the perk. So far, quest rewards were: experience, attribute points, skill quests, skills, or skill levels. Experience and skill quests were limited to daily quests, so maybe they wouldn't be tradable, but the rest were likely to be included in the pool. Choosing her rewards was naturally better than having them assigned by the system, which was the main temptation of this perk.

Furthermore, Alexandra could imagine that more types of rewards existed. Why couldn't she trade her points for an achievement, a bloodline, or something she didn't know existed? Then she considered how the perk would synergise with her other perks. The link with Quest Ledger was obvious, and so were the benefits she could earn out of Adventuring Party. So far, her friends hadn't benefited from her Training Quests unless they shared a skill with her.

This would change everything, provided the contribution point rewards extended to them. As for Streak Enhancement, it reinforced her decision even more. She already had a way to speed up her skill leveling, one that would only get better as her streak grew. Spending her quest rewards on something else seemed like a better deal. Finally, she tried imagining how the perk would evolve. Now that she'd experienced an evolution, she had a few vague ideas of where it could go. Chief among them was better rewards.

She set her journal down on her desk and tapped her fingers on the wood. Record of the Quest didn't tickle her fancy. It wasn't bad per se, and she could definitely see a way it would help her, but it would be a miracle if she made it work. Even if it did, the idea of spying on her friends didn't sit well with her. It was difficult, but she liked the idea of trusting someone. Maybe she couldn't quite get there now, but at least there was a chance. With a way to know the truth, that chance would be gone.

She brushed the page with her finger, going back and forth between Streak Freeze and Contribution Points. It was a choice between safety and potential, between passivity and proactivity. Fear and confidence. Alexandra would be lying to herself if she didn't admit to feeling a bit of fear. She might fail a daily someday. But fear was no way to live. She might fail. She might lose her streak. But it would only be after she'd put in her best effort. It was her streak. Pure. Unblemished. She wasn't going to cheat.

She selected Contribution Points. Name: Alexandra Ward Class: Heroine of Quests Rank: Bronze Level: 6 (0/300) Strength (STR): 52 Dexterity (DEX): 51 Constitution (CON): 51 Intelligence (INT): 56 Perception (PER): 60 Bloodline: Blood of the Verdant Lord Class Art: [Quest Journal] – A living record bound to its bearer. Generates daily quests tailored to the surrounding environment. Completing quests yields experience, rewards, and contributes to an ongoing streak. The longer the streak, the greater the bounty.

Current Streak: 75.

Class Perks: [Quest Ledger] (Bronze) [Adventuring Party] (Iron) [Streak Enhancement] (Iron) [Contribution Points] (Iron) General Skills: [Giant Slayer] (Rare) - 5 [Inflict Weakness] (Uncommon) - 13 [Dark Bolt] (Uncommon) - 13 [Life Curse] (Uncommon) - 13 [Drain Life] (Uncommon) - 4 [Curse Unraveling] (Uncommon) - 13 [Aggressive Assimilation] (Uncommon) - 3 [Manyfold Style] (Uncommon) - 2 [Mana Concentration] (Uncommon) - 1 [A Face Among Many] (Common) - 10 [Sure Footing] (Common) - 10 [Running] (Common) - 10 [Mana Manipulation] (Common) - 9 [Reading] (Common) - 10 [Basic Hygiene] (Common) - 4 [Basic Herbology] (Common) - 4 [Sewing] (Common) - 10 [Basic Enchantment] (Common) - 1 Achievements: Defiance II, Insistent Quester III, Insurrection II, Uprising II, Rebellion II, Bronze