Chapter 8: Upward Progress

“What’s Status Tennis?” Tess asked, frowning. “I can’t figure it out by the name.”

“Oh, that.” Ker said, tapping his finger on his chin thoughtfully, “Usually it’s considered a pretty trash Skill, but it might have merit for you. Basically, if you resist a status effect, you have the opportunity to reflect it back at your opponent, lowering their resistance against the status. If they succeed, it reflects back to you, giving you the same penalty, if you succeed again it goes back to them at a larger penalty and so on. Higher rarities allow you to turn it off and on at will, and I believe at max rarity you can apply it to statuses you attempt to give enemies, meaning if they resist there’s a shot at getting them anyway.

“This issue with it is simply a matter of numbers. Yes, it is more likely to hurt your enemy than it is to hurt you, but in the long run those times it backfires become debilitating. Certain status effects can decide a fight by themselves, and sure, getting a few extra kills with it is good, but that doesn’t matter much when it could kill you just as easily. Fortunately, it is a togglable Skill, so most people just keep it off if they get it. However, that drawback isn’t that much of an issue for you, seeing as how your enemies will always get the status if it’s possible for them to get that status, and you will never get it if it’s possible for you to not get it. I’d consider it if I were you, it’s got real potential.”

Tess nodded, putting a check next to the entry for Status Tennis on the packet. It was listed as coming in Uncommon, Rare, and Epic, so Tess figured she might as well just grab the highest rarity version of it. Unless Ker advised against it, anyway. “Is there ever a case where I shouldn’t go for the highest rarity version of something?”

“No.” Ker replied. “Higher rarity versions of Skills or Classes are strictly upgrades, as far as we’re able to tell. If they add extra features to something the new features will be toggleable, so you can just turn off any aspects you don’t like, provided there’s a lower rarity version that lacks those aspects. Oh, but do be sure to specify “highest rarity” and not a specific rarity – it’s often the case that rarer Skills have Legendary or Mythical versions that we don’t know about.”

“Good to know. In your opinion, what’s the best magic Class out of the ones offered here?” She asked, proffering the packet.

Ker waved it away. “Yours. As Alice pointed out, it’s the most powerful Class that any of us have ever even heard of. You’d be stalling your progression in it while you work with another, and that’s a bad idea until you get to higher levels. As I understand it, you only have a problem with ejecting cores, and levelling up Monster Breeder will give you more capacity, so you won’t have to eject cores as often, and you get more slots to use Attributes or the original versions of Skills you get. Once we get past the beginner dungeons, you’ll start seeing monsters that can use magic, so you can just get magic Skills from monsters if you want them. But, if I’m wrong about only ejecting cores being uncomfortable, then I’ll give you my recommendation.”

Tess sighed. “No, you’re right. And I did say I would try a bit more with Monster Breeder, so I can wait, I guess.”

She looked over the list a little more. “Is there any reason I wouldn’t take the Magic (All Normal Types) series of Skills over individual attributes?”

“For you, not really.” Ker replied, “The main drawback of it is that it starts a step below the other magic Skills in terms of what you can learn. With any type of magic, if you want to get access to the more advanced Skills then you need to have the previous Skills in that tree. The All Magic Skills start a step below, with “Cantrip” level magic, while everything else starts at “Basic”. It’s also a lot rarer than typed magic, so even the most advanced magic users have at most the Intermediate version. The most use high level people tend to get out of it is that it counts as a prerequisite for higher versions of other magics and removes the lower or equivalent versions from their pool of possible rewards, as the spells it allows them to use are generally obsolete at that point. But, again, you don’t care about the rarity, so you could just take that all the way to the top.”

“Speaking of, how are there any cohesive magic users, with how luck-based getting the ability to cast any of those spells is?”

“Classes. Having high Luck helps too, but for the most part it’s Classes. As far as everyone’s been able to tell, when you get a Skill that lets you use more of an attribute of magic, it just gives you the next level, so even if a Class only gives one or two of those Skills, that could put you well along the path to using the good spells from that attribute, and unless you’ve already got all the spells, it’s equally as useful no matter when you get it.”

“How many ranks of magic Skills are there?”

“Five normally, six if it’s All Magic. We…think six for All Magic, anyway, no one’s recorded getting anything over Advanced. There’s a chance there’s no Master or Complete, but we don’t see why there wouldn’t be.”

Tess put a check near Magic (All Normal Types) as well. “So, theoretically I could just get all six All Magic Skills and have the ability to use all magic?”

“Yes and no.” Ker replied, “There are combination types that you need Skills for too, and All Magic Types doesn’t grant those. People have theorized that there’s a Magic (All Combination Types) series as well, but there have been no substantiated reports of it. Anyway, with your stats you’re only going to be able to handle maybe one Advanced spell with your mana pool and won’t even be able to use the later tiers. If you really want it get at most Intermediate, but really, I’d recommend picking up a magic Skill only once per dungeon and focus on other things instead. It’ll be more beneficial in the short term, and by the time you have all that magic available to you you’ll actually be able to use most of it.”

“Right, so, I’m getting All Magic and Status Tennis, should I be interested in some sort of weapon Skill?”

“My gut says no.” Ker said, “At least not for the time being. You’d be better off taking something that you can use with anything. I’m not exactly sure how your whole Attribute thing works, but there’s a real possibility you’ll be able to take natural weapons from monsters and use them, and weapon-only Skills won’t apply there. Although…Skills that buff your unarmed combat might. Maybe pick up something like Stunning Blow that only works with unarmed combat just to test it out. Make sure it’s a Skill that causes a status effect, so that way it’ll help you out even if it doesn’t work with natural weapons.”

“I’m not sure being up close and personal is something I’m really suited for with my stat spread.” Tess retorted.

“I wouldn’t be so sure. You’ll likely be at a disadvantage in terms of stats with whatever you meet, yes, but there are ways around that, especially with your Underdog Skill and buffing magic. And most monsters will always go for your teammates first due to Target of Affection, so as long as you’re careful with what you hurt you can choose how many enemies you’re fighting at once. You’ll almost never have to worry about that if you have someone like Ellie with you, so I think it’s a good idea.”

Tess shrugged. “I can try it, I guess. Worst case scenario it’ll be useful in self-defense against other people.”

“That’s the spirit. I…” He trailed off. “Come to think of it, how specific can your choosing of what you get be? Can you make conditions for what you get?”

“Not sure. Haven’t had much of a chance to rigorously test it.”

“Next time we fight monsters, let’s do an experiment, then. Try and get cores from male monsters, and materials from female monsters. You won’t be able to tell what they are in the heat of battle, so I think it’s a workable way to check. If you can specify conditions, then try and grab Stunning Blow only if it works with natural weapons.”

“Sounds good. Anything else you’d recommend before I make my final choices?”

“If you’re getting Status Tennis, work on rounding out your list of resistances. Bleeding is a common status, as is Stun and Dazed, since most pure physical Skills have a chance to inflict one of those. Honestly, though, I would just leave it up to your Luck. If I’m right about how it works, and that is an if, since, due to its nature, Luck hasn’t been able to be seriously tested, then until you decide what kind of role you want to fulfill it’ll just give you the best general-use Skills, and those are not to be sneezed at. Yeah, it’s boring, but it’s also highly practical. Once you do figure out what you want to be doing, I would honestly just leave everything up to luck unless you really want something. It’s more exciting and will fill out your toolkit as best as possible.”

“Best how? Who decides?”

“We don’t know who decides or what criteria they use. You’d have to ask Fortune. We really don’t know much about Luck other than what we can observe, and our best observation of people with high Luck is that they have more synergistic toolsets. I mean, so far what you’ve got works really nicely with what you already had, so expect something similar in the future.”

Tess nodded. “Fortune, any input?”

They waited for a moment, but nothing happened.

“Great. Now I just feel silly.”

“Eh, it was worth a shot.” Ker replied, “You ready to go?”

“I still have to look over the Challenge rewards.”

“Don’t.” Ker said, “The best Skills all come from Challenges, but they’re also the rarest. Our databases for what Challenges give won’t have the really rare stuff in it, so you’ll probably miss out on really nice things if you try and pick.”

Tess sighed, standing up. “I suppose you’re right. In that case, I’m ready.”

“Not quite.” Ker told her. “You’ve got a free slot for a core, right? Let’s find the smallest one and absorb it.”

“Don’t have any reason not to, yeah.” She took the cores out from her bag. The largest cores were from the bear cubs, with the lion cub’s being slightly smaller, and the fawn cores being the smallest. They were generally only barely smaller than a slime’s core, so she felt pretty confident about absorbing it. “If you, um…let me use the bathroom after this, I think I would feel comfortable ejecting it and trying another. Something of this size isn’t much worse than pooping.”

Ker smiled. “Good. I’m proud of you.”

Tess blushed and absorbed the core.

You have absorbed a Dire Deer (Young) Core!

Slots filled: 1/1

You have gained 15 EXP in Monster Breeder!

New core absorbed! Scanning for abilities…

No new Skills or abilities detected!

Displaying core information:

Dire Deer (Young) Core:

Level 2

Estimated Power: 3

Estimated Maximum Power if Enhanced: 4

Current Skills:

None

Current Attributes:

Antlers

Fur (Fundamental)

Hooves

Kemonomimi (Deer) (Fundamental)

Quadrupedal Adaption (Fundamental)

New Attributes discovered!

Antlers:

Gives the creature antlers, increasing the effectiveness of abilities that use the skull, such as headbutts.

Fur:

Covers the creature in a thin layer of fur. This layer of fur may be augmented or changed with further Attributes.

Hooves:

Hardens the creature’s feet into hooves.

Kemonomimi (Deer):

Replaces the creature’s regular ears and tail with those of a deer, as well as providing ears or a tail to creatures without.

Quadrupedal Adaptation:

Allows the creature to easily walk on four limbs. Quadrupedal locomotion is faster than bipedal locomotion but more tiring with less granular speed, leaving only walking speed or running speed while using four limbs. Requires at least four limbs.

“Anything good?” Ker asked.

“Not…really. The best I could get would be some antlers or the ability to walk on all fours, but I feel like being able to turn into slime would be more useful.”

“Agreed. Are you going to try the lion’s core next?”

“Yeah. Um…do dungeons have bathrooms? Like, on the safe floors?”

“In the residential area, yeah. They have some that are separate from any private apartments or anything, I’ll show you where.”

They left the floor and Ker brought Tess to the bathrooms. She entered one and locked the door, then sat on the toilet and prepared to eject the core.

As the core wasn’t that much bigger than a slime’s, the process was nearly identical to ejecting the slime core, with the added bonus of being in a position where she could easily clean up the mess. Once she was done, she tidied herself up and absorbed the lion cub’s core.

You have absorbed a Monstrous Lion (Young) Core!

Slots filled: 1/1

You have gained 25 EXP in Monster Breeder!

New core absorbed! Scanning for abilities…

No new Skills or abilities detected!

Displaying core information:

Monstrous Lion (Young) Core:

Level 4

Estimated Power: 8

Estimated Maximum Power if Enhanced: 12

Current Skills:

None

Current Attributes:

Fur (Fundamental)

Kemonomimi (Lion) (Fundamental)

Night Vision (Inferior)

Retractable Claws

Sharp Claws

Sharp Fangs

Quadrupedal Adaption (Fundamental)

New Attributes discovered!

Kemonomimi (Lion):

Kemonomimi (Lion) replaces a creature’s regular ears and tail with those of a lion, as well as providing ears or a tail to creatures without.

Night Vision (Inferior):

Provides some extra vision in low-light condition. Extra vision is of worse quality than regular vision and does not have color.

Retractable Claws:

Retractable Claws allows the creature to retract their claws at will. Requires claws.

Sharp Claws:

Greatly hardens and sharpens the nails of the creature’s hands and feet, turning them into claws. Increases slashing damage dealt with claws. Requires hands or feet.

Sharp Fangs:

Greatly sharpens the creature’s teeth, giving them fangs. Increases piercing damage dealt by the teeth. Requires teeth.

This, on the other hand, had things she could use. She tried to swap Amorphous (Slimy) with Sharp Claws, and there was an odd sort of…shifting feeling that lasted for about half a minute, at which point she checked found that the lion cub’s core now had Amorphous (Slimy), and she had Sharp Claws.

She tried it out and was met with a fluttering sound from around her feet. Looking down, she found that her socks and shoes had…vanished. She was barefoot, and her nails (both hand and foot) were certainly looking the part of claws, having thickened up dramatically and elongated to the length of around an inch and a half, sharpened to a nasty-looking point.

She reverted it and her footwear came back, much to her relief. That done, she exited the bathroom and met back up with Ker. “All done, let’s go.”

Ker nodded, and the pair entered the next floor of the dungeon. “So,” Ker asked as soon as they were inside, “What’d you get?”

Tess showed him. “Natural weapons, just like you guessed. No telling how effective they are until I use them, though.”

“Well, I’m going to take the backseat here, so it’s a perfect place to test. This floor’s all you.”

Tess took a step forward, and one problem became immediately obvious; her feet were not suited to walking on the cave floor without shoes. “Well…now what?” She asked, gingerly placing her foot into a less painful spot, “I can’t go through the whole cave like this.”

Ker rubbed his chin. “We’ll have to see if we can get you footwear that you can put on solely for when your feet are transformed. If we’re lucky anything you’re wearing will just disappear when you stop using the Attribute, like your shoes do when you start using it. Then you can switch back and forth without worrying about this.”

She stopped using Sharp Claws and let her shoes come back. “We can worry about it after we’ve cleared the dungeon once.” She said, “For now I’ll just use the staff.”

“Right. I’ll play the role of tank, you just practice going in for the kill. Try and attack the most vulnerable point you can while their attention isn’t on you, to get as much out of their lack of aggro as possible.” He adopted a thoughtful expression. “Man, do you know what most assassins would pay for an ability like Target of Affection? It doesn’t work on people but drawing practically no aggro would be so good for them. Might be worth picking up some crit enhancing Skills so you can make full use of that.”

Tess frowned. “I haven’t seen any crits, so they’re not Luck-based, right?”

“Oh, right, forgot you wouldn’t have seen any. You get them when you attack a weak point. Usually, it’s something like the heart, brain, or neck, but it depends on the monster. The basic slimes you fought don’t really have a weak point, so you can’t crit them outside of specially made gear or certain abilities.”

“So…just hit the vitals as much as possible?”

Ker shrugged. “Basically. Normally that’s much easier said than done, but most monsters should just let you waltz right up and take them out. Most. I wouldn’t get in the habit of doing that to monsters you don’t know, though. There’s no telling what’s going to be immune and ready to bite your face off. Best wait until an ally has their attention. That’s enough talk, though. The monsters didn’t seem to aim for you when we were clearing out the last floor, so as long as you’re cautious it should be fine.”

“Right. Let’s do this.” Tess carefully walked forward, paying close attention to the area in front of her, watching for any monsters. Their first enemy came after only a couple of bends in the corridor, one of the deer monsters. It froze for a long moment when it saw them, and then charged towards Ker, paying the much closer Tess no mind.

She took aim and, after a second swung her staff with all her might, hitting the deer’s face with a satisfying crack.

You have crushed Dire Deer (Young)’s skull for a critical 54 damage!

You have killed Dire Deer (Young)! You gain 23 EXP! Monster Breeder has gained 12 EXP!

The deer exploded into a pile of coins and a core, which Tess picked up. “That felt…pretty good.”

Ker smiled. “Killing a monster like that always does. How much damage did you do?”

“Fifty-four with a critical hit. Do they just double damage or…?”

“Yeah, baseline crits double damage and pierce some defense. But…only 27 after the grinding we did and with a hit like that? Swinging that hard and with the monster running forward as fast as possible? Yikes. What level are you?”

“Eleven.”

Ker hissed. “That’s real nasty. Well, at least that staff isn’t anything special, and you don’t have any bonuses or anything. You’re at your most vulnerable right now, give yourself some time to accumulate Skills and things will get better.”

“How long before monsters start using Skills? I haven’t gotten a single one.” Tess replied, frowning

“Yeah, you’re probably not going to get any from the three beginner dungeons. Well…not from the regular monsters, anyway. The bosses will give you some for sure, and you might get some from the monsters in the Challenges, but those cores are going to be bigger. Whether or not you want to absorb one you’re not comfortable ejecting is up to you, but I’d at least consider it once you have more slots to work with. You don’t have to eject it right away or even eject it at all, but it would greatly help you out.”

Tess paused. “I’ll…think about it.”

“Don’t worry too much about it, there’s no pressure right now. Let’s just finish clearing this floor, eh? I’ll tank, you just get used to getting good shots to the vitals.”

Tess nodded, hefting her staff. “I had some aggression to work out anyway. They won’t know what hit them.”

Fighterman481

And we still are making progress with Tess as a person, so I'm letting it slide. We should be out of the thick of it for now, and I'll try to avoid any further "planning" to this extent until Tess decides what she wants her speciality to be, and then I'll just make an offhand note of her deciding what her picks will be and surprise everyone with them, since I think that's more fun.

I almost made the Sharp Claws Attribute shred her shoes completely (and did write it that way for a bit before changing my mind), but decided against it. I'm not a fan of the clothing damage trope in general, and while this instance is justifiable and benign, it wouldn't be consistent with some of the bigger transformations (such as Amorphous (Slimy)), so I decided to go all or nothing.

Anyway, that's all I've decided to say (I'm withholding some things as potential spoilers ;) ), so next time we'll be taking out the Challenge and the boss of Cub's Den, so look forward to it!

And, as always, thanks for reading!