Chương 99: 98: Ben and Colin

After a couple of beers and a hearty bowl of beef and barley stew, Ben and I talked about what had happened out on the homestead. He told me he'd heard about an expedition being sent to follow the goblin bands to wherever they went on the other side of the mountains. Tieg's squad was being put forth as the most likely group if that happened. That made my stomach drop for multiple reasons, chief among them they were our best protection, and the chance of Colin going with them.

I'd definitely argue against that plan of action if it came to fruition, for all the good it'd probably do. Once we'd eaten, Ben turned to Colin and said, "Well? You take that class yet?" Colin, who was quietly nursing his second beer, said, "No, sir, I was going to wait to talk to Tieg." Ben frowned at him.

"You haven't plotted it out already with them?"

"Well yes," Colin said uncertainly.

"But I want to ask him one more time just to be sure." Ben leaned back in his chair and looked at him, a mischievous smile bunching his ruddy cheeks.

"Are you going to be the first person who figures out how to stay out of System Time? Because unless you are, even if you end up with some unknown options from that scroll, you aren't going to talk it through any more." He leaned forward and patted Colin's back with a meaty fist before he said, "I know I may not look like it, but I have a Scout class too. It's not active anymore, but there are three paths. stealth, tracking, and speed." Colin interjected.

"They're called Recon, Pathfinder, and Fleetfoot." Ben looked at him and shook his head, exasperated.

"By the System. I know what they're called, but they're stealth, tracking, and speed, son. What path does Tieg want you to go down?" Colin's cheeks reddened, and he looked properly chastised.

"He'll be happy with me choosing either Recon or Pathfinder." Ben nodded.

"So, you need to decide if you're going to be career army before you come back here to help out with John and your Ma's place. Or if you're going to go off with Tieg's lot. Do they have a preference if you do something like that?" Colin shook his head." No, but Recon is probably the best for their group. Only Rick actually has the Recon path. The others are all evolved Pathfinders. Well, except for Lorcan. He doesn't have a Scout class at all, at least not one he uses. He has a Battle Wizard class."

Ben raised his eyebrows at that.

"I guess it does make sense. Defensive I assume?" Colin nodded.

"Yeah, He just suppresses Shamans until one of the others can kill them."

"This is all fascinating," I said.

"Has his Battle Wizard class evolved like his Druid class?"

"No," Colin shook his head.

"He said they're not sure why, but Battle Wizard never evolves past level 20. Not even for the nobles." Ben said, "I'm sure they just figured out how to properly throttle it. Alright son, quit stalling. What are you going to choose?" Colin sighed.

"I'll go Recon. There's a path that fits better with being a sniper. You can take Unnoticed, and Steady Shot." That was something that confused me.

"Why isn't there a Sniper class? Classes evolve." Ben and Colin both looked at me. Colin spoke up first.

"There actually is one. But no one knows how to evolve it. It can give you some truly long shots. But if you try to use it outside of a defensive fortification, it's liable to get you killed. There's a slow debuff that starts when you zoom in to take a shot. It takes thirty seconds to go away after you shoot. You're fifty percent slower, and you can't use any stealth skills. I'm sure they'll give it to me if I go to training. But it isn't what Scouts use." I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of that.

A real slow debuff. You could forget about classes and the game aspect of things a lot of the time, but sometimes it really mattered. Ben shook his head and gave me his, silly Outworlder look. He asked Colin, "So you'll take both Tier 1 skills? Shadowstep, and Farsight?" Colin nodded.

"Then they said to take Ghostwalk, and Hawkshot." Ben grimaced and bobbed his head side to side.

"Hawkshot is an obvious choice. I'm not so sure about Ghostwalk. Predator's Patience would be better for a sniper." I laughed, "These names sound way cooler than anything I've got, but let me guess. Ghostwalk makes you move through terrain quietly? And Hawkshot gives you long range shots? Predator's Patience definitely sounds like in a video game it would give you a better crit chance if you aren't seen before your shot." Ben and Colin looked impressed.

"That's almost spot on," said Colin.

"Hawkshot doesn't actually give you a long shot bonus, but it does make it so your brain makes better adjustments for distance and movement when taking a long shot. Ghostwalk obviously helps you walk more quietly, and Predator's Patience helps you stay undetected when you aren't moving, and gives a damage bonus if you attack without being noticed.." I grinned like an idiot for a moment, then said, "So they want you to be well-rounded, not focus too hard on one thing for survivability." Ben and Colin both nodded.

I didn't actually know Ben's early history, or even how old he and Janice were. I'd always assumed he was just an innkeeper/spy. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. We were alone in the inn, so I asked him.

"Ben, did you hit level 20 as a Scout? I realized I've never even asked you much about your backstory. I apologize for that." Ben laughed his booming laugh.

"No one ever asks me about that. They just assume I was always an innkeeper. Most people who have inns were." He patted his stomach and said, "I'm not exactly the svelte looking Scout anymore either."

"Oh, so that's part of the disguise?" I asked. His laugh was so loud it almost hurt my ears. He finally managed to say, "No! I just like beer and food!" He was so loud, Janice came out of the back to see what we were on about. We caught her up on the conversation we'd been having. She instinctively looked around. It was 3 p. m. so the inn was empty aside from us and a couple of women who knew everything in the back helping Janice cook for the people on militia duty who hadn't left for their farms.

I wondered what people would have to do with all the small goblin packs streaming back this way. Once she was satisfied no one else was within hearing distance, she sat down and asked Colin about his choices again. She was with Ben on Predator's Patience, but Colin said he had talked this over extensively with Rick, who said he wished he'd taken Ghostwalk over Predator's Patience and regretted it out in the wilds when they were tracking moving bands of enemies.

Seeing her also navigating it so easily, I asked, "Ben, Janice, what is your story?" She looked at me and said, "Right now, here," she pointed around the Inn then cupped her ear, pointing out it wasn't secure.

"We're talking about Colin." That didn't satisfy my curiosity, but it made sense. I was still pretty bad at the spy craft aspect of things. Colin addressed Janice.

"It shouldn't matter right now anyways. I might be level 10. The guys think I should be with all the training we've done. I've also killed a fair number of goblins and wargs. I won't be level 15 yet for sure. I can choose Hawkshot today, then think about Ghostwalk or Predator's Gaze." I couldn't help myself. I brought up the name thing again.

"Why does the Scout class get such cool skill names? I don't have cool skill names for any of my classes. My Farming ones makes sense, but even my Mechanized Cavalry doesn't have cool names. I have Magical Lance, and Damage Shield. Couldn't it have been Heaven's Fury, and Dome of Protection or something like that? Suddenly, a UI prompt popped up in my vision. Your class skill names for Mechanized Cavalry were generic choices generated by the System.

As the first person to hold the class, you can rename each of your skill choices. You must first go to the nearest System Stone in order to make the selection. Note (Your new choices will register in the logbook. It is possible someone will see your choices and make a note of them. I could obscure the notice of your Mechanized Cavalry class, but I cannot obscure any skill name changes.) Well, damn! That answered that question. The first Scout had a flair for the dramatic.

I also had no idea about the registration information. I knew that there were people with access to class stone data, but I hadn't even thought about the possibility that they would know about my new class, or even potentially throttle it. Then, I thought about something else… If they didn't know about my class, could I easily go up to tier 2, maybe even tier 3 if I kept fighting with my tractor? I certainly didn't want to do any more fighting, but it was something to think about moving forward.

Ben clapped, bringing me out of my own thoughts.

"Damn man," Ben said.

"You certainly are prone to lapses in concentration, aren't you."

"Yeah, sorry," I said.

"I got a System message that answered the skill name question. But we can talk about that later," I put my hand to my ear like Janice had done. Everyone nodded. Ben looked back at Colin and said, Alright son, make your choice. Colin took a deep breath, then in my mind, he was instantly back. The grin that developed on his face was from ear to ear.

"I'm level 14! I think most of my Woodsman subclass stuff, and my fighting both counted!"

"That's wonderful!" I said. Ben said, "We didn't discuss perks, what did you choose?" Colin replied, "Here, I'll just share my class with you all." Name: Colin Lloyd Age: 16 Combat Class: Scout Level 14 Perks Forward Observer - You may select up to four other allies who can see any hidden enemies you have detected. Shadow Acclimation - You are better able to see in low-light conditions. False Presence - An enemy with a detection skill will take 50% longer to identify you if you aren't moving.

Subclass: Recon Level 14 XP: 112/820 Skills: Shadowstep - Your footsteps are significantly quieter, and you have a reduced chance of being detected while crouched or stationary. You also receive a minor bonus moving through darkness, brush, or rain. Far Sight - Your vision range increases by 50% when focused, and you can identify targets 50% farther out.

Hawkshot - Your accuracy is improved at the extreme range of any weapon that you are using, your brain is more easily able to track movement when targeting an enemy. Your projectiles are 20% less affected by wind and elevation. I was the first person to speak.

"Your False Presence perk makes me wonder. How does anyone stop the other side's Scouts from just constantly keeping skills active so they see anyone sneaking up on them? Magic makes sense with mana. There isn't a stamina stat that I've seen so far."

"Well, there kind of is one," Colin answered.

"Using active skills, like detection, will drain your energy. Most of my skills are passive if you look at them. But the Far Eye skill gives me the ability to focus. That will cause eye strain, and headaches if you just stay in focus all the time. The more fit and healthy you are, the longer you can do it. But I'd still have a splitting headache if I used focus for more than like ten minutes without an hour break in between."

"K, then how do you stay hidden for those ten minutes? You don't have any true stealth skills." I asked.

"No, but a Pathfinder who specializes in infiltration will have one. I should be shooting from a farther range than most skills would work. Spells have longer range, but then a Shaman would have to go down a detection route. Tieg says we won't run into very many who use that." Colin said.

"What about the other races?" I asked.

"Don't they have countermeasures?" Ben laughed at me yet again.

"John, you're being surprisingly tactical here, but you're overthinking. Colin is going to be fighting goblins, likely most of his life if he chooses the army route. We're not in Tolouse, let Scouts from Tolouse worry about fighting elves and dwarves. We can't account for everything. Classes only give so many choices. We must do the best with what we have. In the end, actual skill still beats Skills."

"You're right," I said.

"Let's have another round of beers to celebrate Colin's new class, then he and I need to get home."