Chương 40: Talents in the Void

As soon as I'm within striking distance, he lashes out and hits me for 51 damage. That's a lot more than he should be able to do. A lot more than anyone else has been able to do in a long time. I slash back, and only do 47 damage. So he's doing more to me than I'm doing to him. That's bad. That's really bad. What's less bad is that El is also hitting him, and so is Gigi. She swats him with her shield, sending him staggering a little bit and right into El's axe.

I stab him while he recovers from that, and I take comfort in knowing that, though he might be able to outmatch me one on one, he doesn't really stand a chance against the three of us all at once. You have defeated Bandit x15, Bandit Scout x2, Bandit Warrior x2, and Bandit leader. You gain (12, 000+4, 000+5, 000+3, 500= 24, 500/3) 8, 166 experience. You have gained a level! You have 9 attribute points and 1 talent point to spend. All right. Nine points in attributes.

Let's put three each into Agility, Vigor, and Willpower. That puts my hit points at 975, my MP at 625, and my stamina at 800. It also raises my defense to 98. It leaves my other stats low, but that's okay. I'm trying to build survivability a bit more, then I'll worry about things like my charisma. I don't need to be charismatic just yet. And maybe I can naturally become more charismatic. That could happen, right?

I could leave the talent point for later, but it's clear that El is also going through her options, so I'm guessing she hit level twenty five as well. Since she's taking the time, I might as well do the same. There are a lot of new options for talents at level twenty five.

There's one called Improviser which allows me to develop my own abilities, one called Jack of All Trades that gives 25 levels of skills, one called Liar that gives a bonus to subterfuge against others and one called Aware that gives a bonus to resisting subterfuge and lies.

There's one called Sturdy that reduces the damage I take from physical attacks, one called Merchant that gives a bonus to negotiations and haggling, one called Engineer that lets me learn recipes as I break down gear, one called Nonthreatening that reduces the amount of aggro that my attacks create, and even one called Amphibious. It allows you to breathe underwater. And there's even a talent for an animal companion. If I take an animal companion, it would probably end up being a wolf, right?

I mean, that would just make sense. I could use a wolf companion. Depending on how the companion worked. If the companion is the same level as me, and gets stronger as I do, then it makes sense. It would be a companion, and possibly another combatant for our team. It would be enough for me to be willing to go off on my own if I had a companion that got stronger with me. But if it's set at a certain point in strength and power, then even if it's massively powerful now, it's not worth it in the long run.

What if I get a wolf that's level 30? It'll be great for the next five levels, pretty good for another five levels after that, and then it will start to become a detriment. Improviser sounds like a good one to take. That might save me some money over time, if I can develop my own abilities. But then again, if it's possible to develop my own abilities, maybe I can just do that and I don't need the talent for it. I really do like the Nonthreatening one.

That would allow me to do a lot more damage in combat without drawing attention to myself, or at least without having the monsters immediately tag me. Honestly, though, none of these talents are appealing to me. Neither is omniglot or any of the other talents that were available at level twenty. I want something that is going to help me now, but what do I want it to help me with? That's the real question. The thing I need to most right now is the capacity to deal damage.

If that's all I want, then I could get the Exemplar talent again for strength this time. If I wanted to withstand damage, I could get Exemplar for Vigor or I could take Toughness or even Sturdy. What else can I take if I want to deal damage? For that, the talents are a little bit shallow. There really isn't anything that automatically makes you deal more damage. I suppose that would be asking for too much. What I need to do is find a talent that is going to help me over time.

There's one that gives me a bonus to my experience, increasing my XP gain by 10%. That one's called precocious. But that's a trap. Yes, I'll get levels faster, but it's still a waste of a talent. What else is there? I move down the list. There's an option for telepathy, short ranged. An option that gives 10 ability or spell points, one that gives ethereal beauty, one for nobility, and one for danger sense. I almost take the danger sense one just on principle. It's always good to know when there's danger coming.

But it doesn't help with my initial problem of dealing damage. Maybe ambidexterity because it would allow me a second weapon to fight with. Spell Engineer lets me to figure out spells by watching them get cast. Fast reflexes makes me move faster, increasing my attack speed. That might be the way to go. My weapons already increase my attack speed. Increasing it further doesn't literally increase the amount of damage I do with each attack, but it means that I attack more often, which works out to be the same thing.

More damage in the same amount of time. I have the ammunition that I can handle being a faster shot. I select Fast Reflexes, confirm my choice, and get the full explanation for it. Fast Reflexes: Attack +10% faster with all attacks, add +10 to your agility. That's a benefit I wasn't expecting, and one that I'll definitely take. It puts my defense at 108, putting it into triple digits for the first time, and it will increase the amount of damage I do with my bow, allowing more than just the bonus ten percent speed.

I look at El, and I can guess which talent she took. She probably took the one that reduces physical damage, making her even tougher. Or maybe she took one that makes her stronger. I don't know. But I know we're both probably better in combat than we were when we took out this bandit encampment. And we haven't even started looting yet. My main interest in looting is the bows of the two guys up in the tower.

Those bows did a lot of damage, and something tells me that they're better than the bow that I currently have. Either that or those two had something else that made them do more damage. Sniper's Bow. Rare weapon 12/20. Damage 60-72. Bone Bow. Rare weapon 14/20. Damage 80-92. Both of those are more powerful than what I have, but shoot more slowly. My new talent makes up for half of the speed loss, though.

I go with the bone bow, which looks like the wings of the bow were fashioned from the bones of a very large creature, held together against a carved wooden handle that fits well into my hand. It pulls back a bit harder than my ranger bow, which explains some of the speed loss. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Those aren't the only treasures we find.

The bandit leader had a sword that is apparently better than what Gigi was working with, because she claims it for herself. It's wicked looking and a little bit longer than her dark blade, but I notice she doesn't get rid of the dark blade. Maybe we'll run across some light infused enemies at some point and she'll pull it back out, but for everyday use, the bandit leader's long sword seems to be more her style.

In addition to the other equipment, which now makes all of our bags a bit on the heavy side, we find a golden treasure chest right in the middle of their outpost. Thankfully, it looks like the bandits themselves were also trying to open it, because there are lock picks in a pile next to the chest. There's also a much larger pile of discarded and broken picks nearby, meaning they tried and failed to get it open.

It takes me about an hour, and the majority of the picks that are still waiting there, but I get the chest open and another two levels of pick lock to boot. You have opened a gold chest! You gain 5000 experience! You find 3 platinum, 50 gold, and 50 silver. Ranger's Blade (recipe), bone dagger (recipe), clawed axe (recipe). Axe of the Bear, Wanderer's chest plate, steel gorget. Ring of might, ring of speed.

Ability scroll: hamstring, ability scroll: desperate stab, ability scroll: stinging defense, ability scroll: observation. Spell scroll: regenerate, spell scroll: feinting ghost. 15 magic crystals. That, more or less, solves our money problem. Each platinum piece is worth 100 gold. So that's essentially like we each got 116 gold from the chest. I also get three more weapon recipes, since neither of the girls seem to want them.

The axe of the bear, naturally, goes to El, and the steel gorget goes to Gigi, making her even more heavily armored. I take a look at the wanderer's chest plate, and it seems ideal for me. Wanderer's Chest Plate. Rare chest armor 1/20. +1 armor, +10% movement speed. Not as good as my leather shirt, but it'll get better as I improve the level, which shouldn't be hard. There's a work bench in the outpost, so I should be able to spend some time improving all our gear if we're willing to take the time to do it.

The real debate comes with the two rings. There are four ability scrolls and two spells; we each get one ability and one spell. That's no problem. But someone is going to get the shaft when it comes to those rings.

"Whoever doesn't get a ring gets first and second choice of the scrolls," I say.

"How's that sound?"

"How about the fact that you got the recipes means we get the rings?" Gigi counters. I can't really argue with that. So I don't get a ring, but I do get recipes. Well, I have my bracelet that improves my willpower, so I guess that means we all have an item that improves one of our stats. So I guess that's still fair. They do still let me get first choice of the scrolls. I go with stinging defense. Stinging Defense. Common Ability 1/5. Casting time: instant. Stamina cost: 1/second. Cooldown: instant.

Defend against unarmed attacks, dealing 50% of your defense skill in damage to your opponent each time they attack. I can use that indefinitely. It only works against unarmed attacks, which means attacks from beasts and monsters that don't have weapons, but that's most of what I seem to fight. And the higher my defense score gets, the more damage it will do. El takes the Hamstring ability, and Gigi goes with Desperate Stab. Hopefully, those will do some serious damage and help them in combat.

I'm tempted to take one of the spells, but Observation seems to be calling out to me, and I end up taking that instead. Observation. Common Ability 1/5. Identify enemies from an additional 10 feet away. That doesn't seem like it would be all that helpful, but after climbing a tree to count the number of bandits in the encampment, I can see its potential. When I get it to level five, it will probably give me an additional fifty feet of identification, which is a lot.

I'm pretty sure it's more than double the range I already have. Knowing what I'm going up against from a distance will be very helpful, especially as an archer. What surprises me is that Gigi takes regeneration and not El. I'd think that El would want a spell that helped refill her health when it started to get low, but I guess she isn't worried about that. I can understand it; her hit points are so high, and with Shell they're even higher. Plus she already regenerates health during combat.

It's slow, but I guess it makes enough of a difference for her. She's a big old sack of hit points, and doesn't seem to mind getting hit. Besides, Feinting Ghost sounds like a nice defensive spell, and maybe that's worth more to her than regeneration.

"I think we should head back to Elmspire," Gigi says as we finish gathering and distributing loot.

"My bag is almost full, and I'd like to sell this stuff and see if we can get some new combat abilities or better weapons before we go out looking for things that are bigger and nastier than what we've come across so far."

"Agreed," El says.

"I agree too," I say.

"But maybe not right away? I'd like a chance to improve some of our stuff before we start traveling again. It's probably safe here in the fort, and I can make our armor a little bit more effective and maybe even improve some of our new weapons while I'm at it."

"You do that," Gigi says.

"While you're doing that, El and I will hunt for some food and cook it up." I want to do the cooking, so that I'll increase my own cook skill, but I can't really argue with them wanting to improve their own skills. Besides, I'll be doing the work on our equipment; I have to let them do something with the time they have. So we split up, the two of them going out and using the skills that I most want to improve while I'm back here using the secondary skills that I need in order to improve our equipment.

I start off with the Bone Bow, adding grip tape to the handle and tightening the bow string a little bit, rubbing some wax on the string to keep it together better and then adding a bit of bracing leather to the wings of the bow to keep the bones from splintering. It goes up three levels, bringing the damage to 86-98. Not quite breaking a hundred, but close enough to do 173 damage on a single hit. That's not bad.

I sharpen the ranger's scimitar and sand down the handle a little bit, adding the last of my grip tape to it to make it sit more easily in my hand without worry of it slipping around my grip. That raises it to level 18, increasing the damage to 51-61. I work on El's new axe, adding bear claws to the handle and wrapping a bit of bear fur around the haft to make it easier for her to grip. The axe seems to appreciate that, and goes up in level and in damage as I work the handle to a better balance for her.

I also tighten up the bandit leader's long sword and add a few panther claws to the crossbar, making it more appealing for Gigi to use. Once everyone's main weapons are improved, I get to work on the armor. For the boots of the wanderer, I carve a bit of a tread on the sole of the boot and then install laces on the front, conforming the leather more to my leg and giving it a more snug and comfortable fit. This improves the level and the armor bonus both to 10.

Then I start tightening straps on the wanderer's chest plate, adjusting it so that it covers my chest more fully, attaching fur to it that will protect my stomach and my back at least a little bit, and generally work the leather so that it's more flexible and fits me better. By the time I'm done with the armor, it's level 6, my total defense is 114, and the girls are done hunting and cooking what they hunted. Also, my armorer skill has increased to 15, my bowyer to 4, my scrapping to 10, and my smithing to 17.

That puts me just one point shy of completing the quest for secondary abilities. Maybe tonight I'll make a few more arrows and complete that quest. It won't get me to the next level, but every little bit helps. Also, going through all the items and getting the right pieces for the right products has increased my scrounge skill to 10, which is what I need for the ranger class. I'm not there yet, but I'm getting closer all the time. The food, cooked rabbit, is delicious. Better, I'm sure, than anything I could cook.

It seems that El had some salt with her, which gives the flavor more depth and makes the entire thing more mouth watering. I don't know how it works, but it's delicious. And it leaves us with a tiny buff: +1% movement speed for three hours. It's not much, but it's better than nothing. I'm much faster than the girls are, thanks to my two wanderer items. I should probably make them wanderer boots so that they can move faster and we can cover more ground more quickly. Maybe I'll do that when we get back to Elmspire.