NOVEL WEB Chapter 39: Filling Out
"So, you can handle yourself if anything happens then?" Drake asked.
"This one can only be called an artist when it cometh to fleeing and hiding. Without a doubt your humble forerunner shall return with your bounty in all due haste my liege," Theodore replied with a bow and walked out towards the opening of the dirt road. It wasn’t hard to spot, as there was a huge dead Gnoll currently marking the entrance.
Drake looked at the corpse with a grimace, he would have to do something about that at some point. It would probably be a bad idea to just leave it there to rot.
He shook his head hoping to dodge the oncoming headache that the issue would bring. And walked over to his makeshift tomb. Staring down at it for a moment not sure it was worth opening to get the loot underneath. But his gamer brain prevailed.
You can never have enough loot. He thought.
The feeling of a pull from his head a moment later and a small voice whispered in his ear, "Are you alright..?" Natto asked, in a tone of concern Drake wasn’t used to hearing with her.
"What do you mean? I’m just peachy. Cool as a cucumber," he answered.
Drake tried to give her a deflective answer, as he didn’t want to address it, trying his best to just ignore her.
"...Drake. Drake! I am fucking talking to you ape! Drake!" she said, finally screaming.
"Yes I’m Drake," he reluctantly answered, "What?" he said, after infusing his tattoos so he could punch into the ground and rip the coffin cover off the Goblin.
"Are you really ok? You seemed to have a pretty flaky reason for rejecting dear Theodore earlier," she said in a half pout.
"Dear…? And yeah, I have problems trusting people, after well.. I’m sure you know," he said trailing off, picking up the stone next to the Goblin and placing what little pieces were left of its armor inside his inventory.
"Only bits and pieces I am afraid. It was not on my list of things to get to while I was scrambling to catch up with current events in the tutorial. Would you… Would you be willing to share?" she asked tentatively.
"Nope," Drake said flatly with a thin smile. Moving over to the crater, scouring the area for any skill stones that may have dropped. And to his pleasant surprise he had been able to pick up the stones.
Thankfully it looked like the stones spawned even after he completely destroyed some of the bodies and oh was it a haul.
Natto seemed to turn tight-lipped, even though Drake could see she wanted to ask more. So like a good boy bottling up his problems and past traumas, he just kept picking up stones and identifying them, ignoring the welling feeling of dread combined with existential crisis.
[Skill Stone: Primal] [Common]
[Unlocks a random skill from the Primal tree.]
[Requirement: Open Skill Slot and have at least 1 Warrior based Main Tree or Sub-tree Branch Unlocked.]
[Skill Stone: Greed] [Uncommon]
[Unlocks a random skill from the Greed tree.]
[Requirement: Open Skill Slot]
[Skill Stone: Gambler] [Common]
[Unlocks a random skill from the Gambler tree.]
[Requirement: Open Skill Slot]
[Skill Stone: Regeneration] [Uncommon]
[Unlocks a random skill from the Regeneration tree.]
[Requirement: Open Skill Slot]
"Jackpot!" Drake cheered as he looked over the other stones one by one finding there was a little extra hidden in the piles of stone. Which Drake assumed was because of his awesome spell. The system must be giving him great rewards for his great magical performance.
[Skill Stone: Oppression] [Rare]
[Unlocks a random skill from the Oppression tree.]
[Requirement: Open Skill Slot]
"Natto. Not that I’m not happy I got this," he showed the construct that had now sat down on his shoulder, her legs bouncing back and forth as she just watched him loot, "But getting a Rare Stone from these monsters seems a little wrong, don’t you think?" he asked.
"Ah, I see. That must be from the Tyrant Ant. Oppression Stone correct?" she fired back.
"Yeah, spot on. Do they normally drop that?"
She pondered a bit, and then answered, "With certainty, but do you recall when I said I was surprised the Goblins found a lone Tyrant Ant?" she asked.
"Vaguely…?" Drake answered.
She hit him on the back of the head, "Dolt! Listen to me when I speak!" she sighed before continuing, "Tyrant Ants normally travel in large numbers and never leave their hive’s vicinity for too long. Making it very difficult to kill any without getting swarmed. As I have said, even with them inside the tutorial, I doubt they are meant to be subjugated within the time period," she explained.
"So you’re saying I got lucky?" Drake said, slipping the stones into his inventory.
"I would venture half and half? Depending on your skill set and how long you waited for a straggler, you may be able to accomplish it. Would it be worth the investment? It is impossible to say without knowing the skill you would receive. But I will say with certainty anything gained from an Oppression Stone will be very powerful in the short term, so if we are able to manage gathering more…" Natto said trailing off, her face scrunching to one side as if she was chewing on one side of her mouth thinking.
"Then, if I can keep some slots open for them I should? Is what you are saying,"
"Simply put, yes. Now back to the Outpost, you have more skills to gain, before night falls. And do not think I have forgotten your promise of food. I expect a feast for my hard work today," she said proudly, sticking her nose up to the sky.
Ahhh… I forgot about that. I don’t have any water. Maybe Theo has some? Well I’ll figure it out. I can always just use the stew I have stored, she won’t be able to tell the difference I’m sure. Drake thought, grimacing.
He and Natto soon found themselves back at the entrance of the Outpost gate. Once there Drake pulled out the stones that Natto instructed he would need.
She had told him he still needed to do some back and forth with his skills so that they would round out complimenting each other by filling in the missing essentials in his skills and synergise better overall. Going back and forth now between the Main Class Trees and Sub-trees, to keep them as even as possible.
Drake took a look at his ever expanding status.
[Drake Wallen]
[Race: Human] [F-Rank]
Tutorial Alias [Shot]
[Elemental Miller] [Unique] Level 10
[Vitality] 214 (15%)
[Strength] 266 (20 +10%)
[Dexterity] 200 (30 + 20%) +(40)
[Intelligence] 368 (+15%)
[Wisdom] 221 (15%)
[Endurance] 130 (5 + 15%)
[Free Points] 28
[Skills Branches] Primary: Elementalist P2(1.69%) [F-Rank] 0/5
Magic Sight P1(5%) [F-Rank]
Heretical Mind P1(3%) [F-Rank]
Empty
Empty
Empty
Secondary: Shield Miller P1(0%) [F-Rank] 0/5
Warrior’s Stamina P1(0%) [F-Rank]
Guardian’s Reprieve P1(0%) [F-Rank]
Aura of Command P1(0%) [F-Rank]
Martial Strike P1(0%) [F-Rank]
Empty
Primary Sub-tree: Internal Mastery [F-Rank] 0/5
Of the Apex P1(1%) [F-Rank]
Weak Point P1(0%) [F-Rank]
Empty
Empty
Empty
Second Primary Sub-tree: Soul Mastery [F-Rank]0/5
Mana Manipulation P2(5%)
Empty
Empty
Empty
Empty
Primary Sub-tree: Weapon Mastery [F-Rank]0/5
Empty
Empty
Empty
Empty
Empty
Secondary Sub-tree: Empty
[Titles] First Blood, Two versus One, One vs Many, Monkey Slayer, Living on the Edge, Close Call, Dead Man Walking, Dual Class, Punching Up, Improbability, Rounded, Dog Hater, One Man Army, Dog Killer. Battle of Attrition, First of Your Kind, Goblin Hater, Goblin Slayer.
Oh man I’m going to have to hope I can condense this down or something. He thought before face palming.
"Natto. Can I hide certain parts of my status? It’s uhh getting a bit ya know, long, extended, overdone. Kinda big ya know?" Drake confessed.
Natto looked a little surprised, but quickly recovered, realizing that Drake had always asked questions that should have been covered in the introduction. She dropped down off his shoulder and pulled out her bag of food.
"Certainly," she said, taking a bite out of a freshly pulled roasted nut, "Just think of what you want to hide and the system will do the rest. Surprised Mr. Big Gamer did not think of doing so in the first place," she finished, using air quotations to emphasize her snarkiness.
Drake gave her a quick flick of the forehead and did so, downsizing his status by quite a bit. It now only showed his name, class, level, and stats.
"Nifty," Drake said.
But this wasn’t before he brought up the descriptions of his two new titles he had noticed.
[Goblin Hater]
[Slay 10 small green men. +5% Damage to Goblins]
[Goblin Slayer]
[Slay 50 or more Goblins. There is no reason to leave a single one alive. +10% Damage to Goblins]
Drake chuckled. The only good Goblin is one who doesn’t leave its stinking hole huh? He thought, still chuckling lightly.
"That’s it for pleasure then, on to business!" Drake shouted, trying to get himself hyped up, "What are we starting with?" he asked.
"Would you show me your Skill Trees for a moment," asked Natto.
Drake sat down and lowered her to the ground next to him, willing his status into vision for her to see," Couldn’t you have just merged with me and looked at it that way?" he asked.
"Certainly. But I believe I have been inside you long enough today," she snickered, obviously joking.
"And you call me the pervert," Drake scoffed, with a roll of his eyes.
After a few moments of her scrolling through his skills or lack thereof, she asked, "And what skill stones did you just obtain? Any of the Gambler Skill Stones I mentioned before?"
"Yeah a few. We also bagged a primal, greed, regeneration and the oppression stone I showed you earlier," he answered.
"I see… The Oppression Stone will prove very useful, I would say it should be used next to last. You also have some other rare stones left over. The Fire Skill Stone, Transcendence Stone you will have to consume spaced out to avoid going into a drunken rage again," she said looking at him flatly, "But with the several added stones I think we can fill up most of the skill slots quickly, barring any more interruptions..."
Drake fist pumped excitedly. He could finally get a real feel for his class and start practicing, theory crafting how to best use it. It was always his favorite part of starting a new game and why he had loved his old game the most. It may have been an older one but because of the spaghetti code and the class system, there were new builds popping up even now, 20 odd some years later.
It reminded a whole lot of the TPS he also used to play passionately. The code had been so bad that the community found a glitch that let them come up with an entirely different way to play the game. Using animation canceling to the fullest. Drake had spent the better part of a year just to pick up how to do the very basics in that one. Good times.
Drake pulled back to reality. Standing back up he hustled over to the pile of stones he had left near the green soaked bed, pulling out the skill stones he had just collected, placing them next to the pile.
Natto followed not long after, at a casual pace happy to take it slow as she chewed on the remainder of her bag of food.
"Now that you are finally ready to finish this long process of getting your skills. We can begin with getting the active skills out of the way. From what I have seen you only have a handful of active skills right now and they are all in your Miller Main Class tree," Natto explained, "So we are going to give some to your Elemental side, making sure we can do our best to fill the rest with the strongest passive and utility skills we can possibly get."
Drake nodded, "Where do I start then?"
"You have some Debuff Skill Stones which are great for what we need, use both of them in Soul Mastery. They should be able to give you some nasty effects that will let you deal with casters or mana reliant classes," Natto went on, "Then we can go to your Weapon Mastery Tree for the new Skill Stones you have picked up. This will certainly improve your ability for close combat and weapon augmentation. And with everything you were able to get so far, we have enough leeway to keep a slot open in every tree for Oppression Stones later. Thankfully you are a Dual Class so we have far more to play with," she mused letting an egar grin crease her face.
"Ha! So you are a nerd! You would have to be part me to get so excited about theory crafting and min-maxing like that," Drake exclaimed.
"Shut it!" Natto shouted, "Do you want help or not! Ungrateful…" she grumbled.
"I thought you were a squirrel not a sourpuss, come on now," Drake teased, rummaging around for the correct stones out of the pile.
"Got 'em," he said in triumph, looking down at the two stones.
[Skill Stone: Debuff] [Uncommon]
[Unlocks a random skill from the Debuff tree]
[Requirement: Open Skill Slot]
Not wanting to waste anymore time Drake quickly went through the process of consuming the two stones.
[You wish to consume Skill Stone: Debuff [Uncommon]
[Confirm?]
The moment after confirming Drake was assailed with a very familiar feeling that washed over his body. A few breaths later of battling through the more than slightly addictive feeling he got his new notification.
[You have learned Skill: Atrophy of the Mind [F-Rank]
Atrophy of the Mind P1(0%) [F-Rank]
- A debilitative spell that attacks the mind of their opponent. Through which you are able to disable all forms of mana regeneration, and complex mana manipulation for a short period.
- Spell: Atrophy of the Mind - "Wounds of the soul are not so easily healed. Atrophy of the Mind."
- Target is placed under Mind Atrophy Debuff for 10 seconds. (Increased based on Proficiency)
- Debuff can be cleansed by standard holy magic.
- Cost: Small amount of Mana.
- Cooldown: 2 Minutes
Looks like lady luck still doesn’t hate me as much as that intro construct. Drake thought smiling at the new beefy skill description. It was going to be a great way for him to single out stronger mages or mana wielding classes. It wouldn’t fully shut them down it seemed but, being able to keep someone from doing some of the things Drake himself could, as well as keeping them from regaining any expended mana would be huge for any fight.
"Got a solid Debuff skill from that one, basically a mage specific one," Drake explained.
She just nodded gingerly, waving her newly retrieved nut at him, urging him to continue.
Drake pursed his lips slightly deflated by Natto’s response.
She must just be tired, today has been pretty exciting. And we both didn’t get much rest before the Goblins decided to act as an annoying default sounding alarm clock. God I have PTSD from having to wake up to that annoying chime day in and day out, so much so it almost physically hurts to think about it… Drake thought grimacing.
He quickly shook his head and got back on track, squeezing the next debuff skill for his Soul Mastery Tree. His expression hopeful.
[You wish to consume Skill Stone: Debuff [Uncommon]
[Confirm?]
Trying to get through the process as quickly as he can Drake assended, feeling the cold then warm energy of power from the stone infuse within himself.
[You have learned Skill: Cower [F-Rank]
Cower P1(0%) [F-Rank]
- A skill using your Aura to forcibly make a target flee.
- Skill: "Fear is binding. Cower."
- Target is placed under Terror Debuff for 5 seconds. Any form of damage will break the status effect. (Increased based on Proficiency)
- Debuff can be cleansed by standard Holy Magic
- Cost: Small amount of Mana and Stamina
- Cooldown: 2 Minutes 30 Seconds
"Wow, a fear? Damn, it’s a skill… If it was a spell maybe I could have manipulated it somehow, sounds like it would take Dark Mana and that could have really added to my repertoire," Drake sighed.
"A fear. I see," Natto mused from her seat, "A fear skill is certainly one of the stronger debuffs if used properly. It will certainly be interesting to see how it presents itself as an effect."
She then quickly pointed to a stone on the edge of the pile and addressed Drake again, "Now let us put that Mage Stone into your Elementalist Tree before we move on to your Weapon Mastery, and finally your most rare stones after."
Drake bent down to pick up the stone, gripping it tightly in his hand, but before he moved on something in the description caught his attention.
Hmm. It uses Aura? Didn’t I get a skill for that earlier..? He thought, pulling up his tree list.
Ah! Found it.
Aura of Command P1(0%) [F-Rank]
- Active skill that surrounds the caster with a beneficial aura that increases party member’s attack, defense, and resistance to debuffs.
- Skill: Command - "My soldiers, Rage. My soldiers, Scream. My soldiers, Fight."
- Skill produces a temporary Aura that spans 2 meters from the caster, limited to a total of 10 individuals. The caster is not included in the influence of the skill. (Increased based on Proficiency)
- Aura Buff lasts 10 minutes 30 Seconds. Only one instance of Command Buff can be applied at one time. Aura is not malleable. (Increased based on Proficiency)
- Effects: 10% to Overall Damage, 10% to Overall Defensive Efficiency, 25% to Debuff Resistance. (Increased based on Proficiency)
- Cost: Moderate Mana, Moderate Stamina
- Cooldown: 2 hours.
Drake paused for a moment reading the description of the skill. His mind blanked and then he returned to his process of obtaining the last of his skills. Pretending not to notice the eerily similar skill chant line that may have or may not have referred to one of the best commanders of all time.
He pushed the skill to the back of his mind as it was obviously a dud for his Cower skill. He wouldn’t be able to control the aura as stated by the skill meaning he needed to get one that allowed him to manipulate it at will. Sighing, he did his best to refocus and went through the same process he had become accustomed to for gaining skills and moved through the prompts with practiced ease.
[You wish to consume Skill Stone: Mage [Uncommon]
[Confirm?]
The quick burst of power flowed through his hand and disseminated through his body. The skill’s power felt strong but began to feel muffled as he was coming up on gaining his near 15th skill at this point.
[You have learned Skill: Multiplicative [F-Rank]
Only after inspecting the new skill did he really understand why it felt stronger than something that should have come from an uncommon stone.
Multiplicative P1(0%) [F-Rank]
- A passive skill that allows the caster to create separate instances of spells.
- This skill allows the use of multiple instances of any spell.
- Limit: 1 Additional Spell. (Max 2 instances, including combined forms.)(Increased based on Proficiency)
- No Cost
- No Cooldown
"Holy shit. Jackpot!" Drake said excitedly.
Natto looked over with curiosity, "Hmm? What was the skill this time?"
Drake stupidly smiled back, "It’s this," he said as he formed a fireball in his right hand, then another in his left.
Natto looked on slightly surprised then an ever so faint grin came across her face, "Impressive. A very valuable skill to receive for mages. Also very common," she finished, biting into her roasted nut.
"Aw really? That’s all I get for getting something so good? And what do you mean it’s common! This should be like a game breaker type skill!" he cried, deflated by her explanation.
"Unfortunately, it is in almost every mage's skill set. It would only make sense to have it, the same way most attack mages, have a chant reducing skill, or can outright cast chantlessly," she said her brow raising as she looked pointedly at him, "Now hurry and get through the rest, I have a weird inkling dear Theodore will be back soon."
"Stupid common stones… stupid Theodore… raining on my fucking parade! And why do you keep calling him dear? You’ve only known him for like 10 minutes," Drake asked through creased eyes as he looked at the small construct suspiciously.
Natto coughed and hid her mouth behind her food, "Oh no reason.."
Drake’s eyes perked up as he realized what was going on, "You’re just using that framing because he's doing your dirty work aren’t you! You manipulative little…"
Natto simply smiled and answered flatly, "A girls got to do what a girls got to do."
The obvious manipulation was better than her trying to hide it and still do it. But the fact she was doing it left a bad taste in Drake’s mouth and brought up some more than just unpleasant memories of his past. The face of certain people flashing in his mind, forcing him to cover his mouth for a moment holding back his slight retching.
"Whatever, just don’t come crying to me if it blows up in your face. You hear me," Drake said finally, "Now, what’s next you little vixen?"