Vivid Stars Online

Jared Hope

Class: Psion

Level: 14

XP: 1210/12000

Statistics:

Brawn: 14

Toughness: 50

Agility: 14

Perception: 14

Mind: 33

Will: 54

Free points: 4

Skills:

Archeology level 2

Translation level 2

Rifles level 4

Psi Sense Level 5

- Extra Information upgrade (4)

Swords Level 2

Technokinesis Level 6

Enhance Cognition Level 3

Fell Shield level 6

-Fell Vengeance upgrade (4)

Scouting level 4

Ethereal Roots level 4

Unallocated Class Skill

General upgrade points: 11/20

Class upgrade points: 10/20

Traits:

General:

Database of Alien Languages

Strength of Corruption

Psionic Abilities:

Skin Hardening (Novice)

Ethereal Roots (Journeyman)

Enhance Cognition (Acolyte)

Fell Shield (Corrupted Journeyman)

Great Psionic Abilities

Technokinesis (Master)

Status:

Psionic Suppression

Tainted Eyes (Suppressed)

Empty Energy Well (Refilling Suppressed)

It felt ridiculous that I could have gained two levels in just one fight, more than double the XP I'd gained in five months of traveling north. We might not have had that many difficult fights, but the total number was still very significant.

The only thing I could think of was that the spiders had been high-level as well as numerous. I vaguely remember a pile of them large enough to fill the industrial-sized corridor, with more trying to pile over the top.

That suggested a massive number of enemies, more than I'd ever faced in a single battle. Perhaps even more than I'd faced in any five battles. Thinking over the sheer number, I couldn't help but shudder again at how close we came to dying.

I couldn't afford to be so cavalier with diving into the unknown anymore. Even just Linnea and I risked the significant death penalty; taking anyone else would be risking their lives.

That was a dark mental path that was important to consider, but it was also crucial that I didn't let myself get stuck ruminating over it. Instead, I sent a message ahead to Captain Hendricks, asking him to begin preparing a group of our best soldiers.

With it, I sent the scans of the area I had picked up when we were down there and a summary of what we had faced. Hopefully, that would give him the information he needed to make the best preparations possible.

I also added operations planning to my list of subjects to get tutored in. I had no idea what went into putting together a successful operation like this, and while I trusted the captain, I should still know enough to vet any plans he came up with.

It wouldn't happen soon enough to help with this mission, but it would pay off well into the future.

With my immediate thoughts written down, I returned to analyzing the changes to my character sheet. The first obvious thing was my stat changes, both expected and unexpected.

I had the expected gains from leveling twice, along with four free points to allocate, but perhaps even more importantly, my Toughness and Will were back to normal. It had to be due to the psionic suppression negating the corruption's effects, which I hadn't considered.

Given my current circumstances, it was a good change. I had enjoyed the increased Will when I could use my powers, but it would have been essentially useless right now.

Conversely, Toughness was always good and would help keep me alive without my defensive powers. I'd grown used to using Fell Shield to block anything that got too close, and without it, I was bound to start taking at least a few more hits.

I'd better do some retraining there, I realized. There's no point in taking hits out of reflexes that aren't useful anymore. The odds are pretty high that I would still try and create a shield if something came at me unexpectedly.

I paused to note that on my ever-expanding list before returning to the character sheet. I had some decisions to make with my free points. Either I could continue putting them purely into my class stats, with only Toughness being useful in my current state.

Or I could finally put some points in one of my other options. Toughness was excellent, but I already had tons of it, and it only helped me, and only in a fight. If I was going to be commanding groups of people, both on the ground and in space, then I had to start thinking about more than just myself.

It was a hard shift to make, but one that was long past due. Mind was a possible candidate for improving my ability to process information and develop plans, but it was also much higher than my non-class stats.

Of the others, Brawn was largely unimportant to me. While it might help keep a gun stable or in infrequent situations where I had to fight with my sword, it didn't have any other uses for me.

Particularly with the strength enhancement on my new suit of armor. With that, I should have little trouble handling even the oversized rifle Linnea had picked up.

That left two stats: Agility and Perception. From talking with Linnea, I knew that both were important for ranged combat. Agility would help you track a target with your gun, improving your ability to make the smooth movements required for the best aim.

Perception, on the other hand, helped your aim overall. From spotting enemies to keeping up with the movement of fast targets, firing at longer distances, and even targeting vulnerable points, Perception helped with it all.

Either of them would be helpful for my new combat style, but Perception was the stat that would also be useful in non-combat situations. It should help me keep track of the chaotic state of group combat or notice critical clues in a space battle.

It might even help with tracking my subordinates' mental and emotional health, allowing me to step in when needed. With all those advantages, it was rather silly that I'd never thought much about it before.

With my decision made, I took a deep breath and held it as I pushed the increase button four times on Perception. I would never be quite as powerful a Psion as I could have been, and it hurt a bit to see the wasted potential, but I pushed that aside as part of my old thinking.

Statistics:

Brawn: 14

Toughness: 50

Agility: 14

Perception: 18

Mind: 33

Will: 54

Free points: 0

With four points all at once, it was a significant enough improvement that I could immediately see small changes. Everything in my vision looked a little sharper and more defined.

I could smell the hint of a cleaning product of some type, suggesting that someone had rapidly cleaned the shuttle before coming to pick me up, and the thrum of the shuttle's thrusters was easier to pick up through my seat.

"Nice," I muttered under my breath before explaining quietly to Linnea when she turned to look at me.

"Well, yeah," she responded with a snort. "Why do you think I'm so good at sniping from crazy distances? A good Perception stat has a lot to do with it."

I could only nod in response. While I'd known that intellectually, experiencing it was quite different. I would have to allocate more points there and pick up any more Elixirs I could get my hands on.

With the stat points sorted, I moved on down the sheet. As expected, I had ten new points in both General Skill Upgrades and Class Skill upgrades, but what really excited me was the new class skill slot.

I'd been hoping to get more eventually, but I hadn't been able to get solid information on when it would happen. Fifteen was a sensible milestone if you considered the pattern to be every five levels, so I could probably hope for another skill at 20 as well.

The odds were good that it would be a general skill next time, though I couldn't tell for sure. It might even be just class skills from now on. I had an idea of what to use the new slot for, but I shelved it until I could confirm it was possible with my upgrade points.

Continuing down the sheet, I noted with interest that I'd also gained two entire skill levels with Fell Shield. The increase catapulted it to the same level as Technokinesis, a skill I'd had months longer. It made sense, given how much it had been used in that fight, particularly when it provided offense and defense with the Fell Vengeance upgrade.

The higher level would be great when I finally got my powers back, but it wouldn't be useful as long as Psionic Suppression was recorded under my status. It was interesting to see it quantified there on my sheet, but not as interesting as seeing that the Tainted Eyes status was also suppressed.

"Are my eyes back to normal?" I whispered as I turned to Linnea and leaned forward. Her face was surprised as she turned to face me in kind, bringing us almost close enough to kiss. It was an oddly intimate moment as she stared deeply into my eyes, and I could feel my emotions stirring chaotically.

I knew we were somewhere past just dating at this point, but we hadn't talked about the future. It seemed like jumping the gun to do so when we still didn't even know if we could physically make it here from Earth.

I almost said something right then and there, bursting out with how I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, but nerves held me back. Instead, I only leaned forward for a kiss. After we've finished the deal with Broker and know for sure, we'll talk then, I decided.

She returned the kiss enthusiastically before pulling back with a laugh. "Looks like I should stare soulfully into your eyes more often. But yeah, they're back to normal. I'm guessing it's the bracelet?"

I nodded, "Who knows what will happen when it comes off."

She shrugged in response as if saying that it didn't matter in the slightest. The acceptance warmed my heart even further, and I slipped my hand into hers as I finished leveling up.

With the changes thoroughly analyzed, I moved on to managing my skills. I'd changed the type of a skill slot before, turning a general slot into a class skill slot, but this time I wanted to do something different. With all my active class skills useless, I wanted to promote one of my general skills.

The one I was eyeing was Rifles. Even as a general skill it has seen enough use to push it to a respectable level 4, if I could convert the skill itself into a class skill then its progression should shoot forwards.

It would also get access to class skill upgrades, which tended to be more powerful than the general skill ones. With it being my primary combat skill now, that would be incredibly important.

A broad grin spread across my face as I found what I was looking for right at the end of the Rifles upgrade list. It cost a hefty eight general upgrade points and required an empty Class skill slot, but it did exactly what I wanted.

After only a moment's pause to confirm this was what I wanted, I hit the purchase button. A moment later, the skill shifted, appearing again at level 6. That was why I grabbed the upgrade right after reading through it.

The change from general to class skill re-calculated the skill level based on its total experience. With how much cheaper each level was for class skills, it pushed Rifles straight up with my two highest Psi skills.

As I'd expected, it also provided a whole new set of upgrade options for the skill. Some were more powerful versions of the old options, but some were entirely new. Two of the new ones quickly caught my eye.

Aim Assist (5 points)

Passively increases your chance of hitting a critical location when firing a rifle by subconsciously managing micro-movement in your arms. This effect is most prominent when firing single shots.

Scales with Perception

Perfect Maintenance (4 points)

Provides you with an intuitive understanding of maintenance practices designed to bring out optimal performance from your weapon. With a high enough technical proficiency and skill level, it is possible to boost performance beyond the base specs.

Scales with technical knowledge and Rifles skill level

Both were extremely useful to me in different ways. Aim assist sounded like the effect Linnea had mentioned helping her in the early days of VSO. It was an effect that would make my attacks better without any additional effort, and it scaled off the stat I'd already planned to put more points in.

It was a little sad that it worked best in single-shot mode, but that still suggested it would have an effect when firing bursts or in rapid-fire mode. When you were firing that many shots, sometimes you only needed a single one of them to get lucky.

Perfect Maintenance, however, would be a huge help now that I was restricted from using Technokinesis. Ever since I got that ability I'd relied on using it to empower my weapon in combat.

It sounded like this wouldn't be nearly as dramatic an effect, but it would still allow me to use my well-earned technical abilities to boost the base performance of my weapon. Even if it just kept the thing running at peak performance, it would have been a fantastic ability; with the potential for more, it was incredible.

I was left with an empty General Skill slot, but I decided to leave that until I had my tutoring set up. Then, I could select something based on what I learned.

With my final choice made, I closed the window and checked our flight progress. We were nearly there. In just a few minutes, I would see in person how the town had changed while I was gone.