Broken Lands

Sophia didn’t even know what the standard recommendations for Level advancement were. All she knew was that everything was supposed to cost more Wisps afterwards. That seemed like a good enough reason to wait until there was a reason to advance or she ran out of things she wanted; it was pretty obvious that advancing would unlock more Abilities.

She was pretty sure that whenever she did advance, she’d want to put some Wisps into upgrading some of her Abilities. The numbers next to each one were the slot level and ability level. According to Arryn, the merchant who escorted Dav and Sophia to Casterville, taking Abilities at the lowest possible Level and upgrading them each time it was possible was the cheapest way to get good Abilities at higher Levels if you kept using the same Abilities. If you changed them out, it could cost, but Arryn was still convinced it was worth it because it let you use those Abilities along the way.

The logic made sense to Sophia but it didn’t tell her when it was time to Level.

“I’ve been ready for a while now,” Amy admitted. “There’s no point in Leveling if I’m going to stay in Casterville and float between groups as an archer. I’ve been saving points. I might pick up a couple Abilities I’ve been considering, but that still leaves enough.”

“We’re about ready, too, but only barely,” Rae contributed. “Moti needs to Dedicate for the Attributes and I’m missing a Sphere Ability and an Unaffiliated Ability, but that’s all.”

Rensyn nodded and turned his attention to Dav and Sophia. “You two don’t even know what I’m asking, do you?”

Sophia shook her head. If this was like Path Tiers, she was probably minimally ready to move to Tier Two, but she had no idea if that was a good analogy or not. She knew she’d really prefer another few Abilities. They’d only been at this for a few weeks, which seemed fast compared to rising in Tiers.

“I have the general idea,” Dav admitted. “I don’t feel like I should be ready, but at the same time this seems like a lot of abilities for only one level. What are the guidelines?”

Rensyn seemed to stare into the distance rather than meeting Dav’s eyes. It was clear he was looking at something as a reference, probably his own Status. “At the left, you’ll have Body and Core. Most people focus on one or the other; you’ll want that one at least as high as your level. If possible, and it’s almost always possible at low levels, you should aim for twice as high as your level. No matter how high it is, you’ll want to increase it at least once before you level; it’ll only get more expensive. If you use the other one at all, you’ll want to keep it at least half as high as the other; the main exception to that is people without a Core, of course. The usual advice for them is to look for a way to create a Core. Since you two are spellcasters, you have Cores.”

Sophia nodded. With her Body at 5 and Core at 7, she definitely met the minimums he mentioned and would want to increase them simply because of the cost. She wanted to try that anyway, since she wanted to know what it did. Knowing that it would make her body or magic stronger was nice, but it didn’t tell her what it was like. Was it like the Voice’s Enhancements, or was it different from anything she knew?

“The other two columns vary from Sphere to Sphere. If you have a highly restrictive set of choices one to three per category even after choosing other options, you’ll want to take everything in case there’s something hidden behind the third choice; that happens sometimes. Most people shouldn’t do that; it’s spreading them too thin. The usual number for the rightmost column is two to four per category, with at least four that aren’t from Unaffiliated, and always Dedicate to gain anything that gives you an additional category, even if it’s not the direction you plan for your Spheres. You’ll want to increase anything that’s relevant and buy anything that aligns with your Sphere’s direction at later levels, but most people don’t change direction after Level One until the first Sphere change.”

Sophia badly wanted to ask what he meant by Sphere change, but she was pretty sure that asking would mean Rensyn didn’t finish his explanation. She could probably ask Amy, Rae, or Moti about it later anyway.

“The middle section is active abilities, split into categories,” Rensyn continued. “It’s spells and things that act like spells; things like that can appear in the other sections, but that’s all that goes in the middle. If you manage to get an extra category, that’s usually where it ends up. There’s no good way to say how many of those you should have either per category or overall; it varies too much. You want at least one per category and you should take everything you think you’ll use regularly. Don’t overdo it or you’ll end up dropping things when you find out what’s available later; that happens the most in that section. There are two models, really, people who pick a few bread-and-butter abilities from each category and people who try to cover absolutely everything.”

Sophia definitely didn’t cover absolutely everything, but she felt like she had the abilities she’d use the most often. “I’m on the low end,” she admitted, “but other than increasing Body and Core once, I think I meet that.”

“I might have enough Wisps. Maybe.” Dav pulled up his Status. He looked through it quickly, then frowned. “Probably not. Should Core be twice the level I’m leaving or twice the level I’m going to, and how important is Mana Core Specialization?”

Sophia couldn’t remember what Dav’s Core score was, but from his question she could work out that it was under four. It was probably less than three, since at a three the one point Rensyn recommended that everyone add would take him to four.

Rensyn looked a bit shocked for a moment but quickly got his expression back under control. “Ah, it should be twice your current Level before you Level, so the Level you’re leaving. For Mana Core Specialization, if it’s the direction you want to take your magic, you should absolutely take it. Specializations block other possibilities, so so don’t take it if you aren’t certain.”

“Right, enough points then. Barely.” Dav pulled up his Status again but didn’t get very far before Rensyn set a hand on his arm.

“Not here, especially not if you’re Leveling or choosing a Specialization,” Rensyn stated firmly. “Most of the time, choosing Abilities is barely noticeable, but some things are different and a Level is often one of them. Specializations vary a lot. It’s always best to choose Abilities in private in a safe place you can easily clean afterwards, just in case.”

“Clean afterwards?” Sophia stared at Rensyn, horrified. What the heck did the Guide do to people?

Rensyn shrugged. “I don’t like cleaning up puke, and if I let you do it here and you got ill, Mara would make me clean it up.”

A shout of “You’ve got that right!” came from the waitress at the other end of the room.

Sophia blinked. That wasn’t what she’d thought, somehow, though she suddenly wasn’t sure what she’d thought he meant. That did seem like enough reason to not pick abilities in a restaurant.

“Okay, then, if you’re all good?” Rensyn stopped and looked around the table. Sophia nodded along with the others. “If you decide not to Level, let me know in the morning. If you don’t say anything, I’ll assume you did since you’re all close enough.” He pushed away from the table and headed away slower than when he came.

There was something about his walk that made Sophia think he wasn’t looking forward to his next stop, whatever it was.

There really wasn’t a good place for them to go if there was a good chance one or both of them would become violently ill. The bathing pools were public, which seemed like a poor choice of a location to risk being ill. The toilets were a better option, but it wasn’t like the two of them could go into one stall together. Instead, they ended up back in their room.

Sophia had a plastic tarp in the camping supplies she kept in her bag. At least, she thought she did. She hadn’t used it recently, but surely it was still in there?

Dav watched as Sophia pulled item after item out of her backpack. Eventually, he must have decided he’d watched for long enough. “Are you looking for something?”

“I thought I had a tarp in here.” Sophia reached in and pulled the next thing out, a notebook with a pen clipped to the cover. “But now I’m beginning to wonder if I actually know what all I’ve been carrying. I don’t remember this notebook at all, and I’m pretty sure that that binder is something I last looked at years ago.

The next thing she pulled out was a self-contained cooking set that barely fit through the opening that Sophia knew she’d never used but that absolutely matched her mother’s favorite picnic set. “And I think I know who to blame. Dammit, Mom, I know there’s extra space but you’re not supposed to hide stuff in my things!”

Dav made a sound that was awfully reminiscent of a muffled snort, but when Sophia looked up his face was perfectly expressionless. In fact, it was expressionless enough that Sophia knew it had to be deliberate; she knew what she’d heard.

Sophia finished emptying her bag to the periodic sound of muffled chuckles. Every time she looked up, Dav had a straight face, but he was watching her and she could see the laughter in his eyes. After the first few minutes, she couldn’t even be mad about it; it was pretty funny that her mother had hidden useful stuff in her bag. It was a mix of everyday items for travel and papers and books. As far as Sophia could tell, there wasn’t anything that would be useful in a fight. Instead, it was things that would make her life more comfortable.

Once she realized that was her mother’s goal, Sophia couldn’t even maintain her pretense of anger. It was just too funny that her mother had snuck comfortable pajamas into her delving kit.

The books and papers, on the other hand, were a completely different story. Two of them were novels that she’d probably left in there by accident; the puzzle book was similar. When you were going to be without access to external power for more than a day in a dungeon, it was wise to bring something that didn’t depend on batteries, even if you did have a charger that worked on mana.

She could also have believed that a few of the books and notebooks were left from her school years; when she got the backpack, she remembered just moving everything over because it was too much effort to go through it all. She couldn’t believe that was where they all came from, however, since several of them were clearly notes for books on magic her father was writing.

The notebook that was full of information on cross-universal messaging and travel made it even more clear. That wasn’t something her father would have simply had on hand; it was something he’d assembled after her mother’s vision. She wasn’t certain what to do with the fact that he snuck it into her pack rather than giving it to her.

Sophia took another look at the pajamas, then nodded to herself and flipped to the back of the notebook. Her father wasn’t that sneaky. He would have handed it to her, told her to keep it with her, and expected her to do so because it was a good idea and not that hard. She would have, too. No, this was someone else’s idea. At a guess, it was someone who her father had entrusted the notebook to for a good reason.

Several of the pages at the back of the notebook were blackened, but she could guess what they’d once held: a spell to duplicate the contents of one notebook in another near-identical notebook. Sophia sighed. She knew what happened now; her father must have entrusted the notebook to Ita so that she could get it to update, then Ita slipped it into Sophia’s belongings and told Sophia’s father that Sophia had it. Ita wouldn’t even have meant it as a trick; she’d have thought she was being helpful.