Chapter 4: Statistics

Chapter 4: Statistics

Rain woke with a start, then groaned softly. He was sore in his everywhere, but in particular, his legs were protesting quite loudly. His body apparently didn't like a full day of walking and then sleeping on a hard dirt floor. Rain winced, sitting up, and looking around. Anton was awake and guarding the door, but the others were still asleep. Anton glanced at him, the soft rays of early sunlight streaming past him into the room. He shook his head and looked back outside, seeming content to continue his watch.

Should I offer to take over? He probably wouldn't trust me enough anyway. Screw it, if he isn't asking, I'm not offering. Ow, my everywhere.

Rain decided to lay back where he was, rather than waking everyone up in an attempt to make his way past their sleeping forms and out into the clearing. He closed his eyes and tried to get back to sleep, but the hard ground was far removed from the comfy bed he was used to. Eventually, he gave it up.

He quietly sat up and started to stretch out a bit, working his protesting muscles until he could sit cross-legged without too much discomfort. Feeling slightly better and with nothing else to do, he decided to have another look through the menus to see if there was anything else in there that he hadn't seen before.

Attributes (+20)

Skills (+2)

Statistics

Options

I'll look at skills later. I don't think they are going to sleep in long enough for me to finish that... Let's have a look at some other stuff. Options.

Rain was met with a simple panel with only a few selectable items.

Options

Interface

Tactile [On/Off] [Gestures]

Mental [On/Off] [Keywords]

Verbal [On/Off] [Keywords]

HUD [On/Off] [Configure]

No difficulty setting, huh? This all just looks like UI stuff. HUD On. Nothing again. Maybe if I touch it?

Rain reached out and tapped the On button. Nothing changed other than an Apply option appearing at the bottom of the menu. As soon as he pressed that, the menu closed automatically and his eyes focused on his surroundings again. He immediately noticed that there was a small bluish box in the top left of his field of view. It moved with his eyes, staying in the top left corner no matter where he looked.

Health

200/200

Stamina

157/200

Mana

200/200

Oh, cool. That will be handy. He reached out to touch the panel. It tingled slightly but didn't have the resistance of the other menus and his hand passed right through. Also, crap, I'm gonna run out of stamina if we keep going like this. I started at 200 yesterday. Does it come back? It has to, otherwise, what was the point of... shit, what were the damn stats again? Character...damn it, ummm Attributes.

Attributes

Richmond Rain Stroudwater

Level 1

Experience: 26/100

Unclassed

Health

200

Stamina

200

Mana

200

Strength

10 (+)

Recovery

10 (+)

Endurance

10 (+)

Vigor

10 (+)

Focus

10 (+)

Clarity

10 (+)

Free Stat Points

20

Vigor, that was it. Can I get more info on these? Oh wait, there was that other panel. Statistics.

Instead of replacing the attributes panel, another panel simply popped into place next to it. Rain spent a few minutes looking over the panel, trying to digest the wall of information.

Statistics

Total

Base

Modifier

Health

200

200

0 | 0%

H.Regen

100/day

100/day

0 | 0%

Stamina

200

200

0 | 0%

S.Regen

100/day

100/day

0 | 0%

Mana

200

200

When the slime got to around two meters away, it lunged forward as the last one had done. This time, Rain didn't go for the home run and jumped back instead. The slime landed hard on the ground with a disgusting splutt noise. Quickly, Rain moved back in and poked at it with his spear. It sunk in without resistance, puncturing the slime's membrane and causing it to leak a bit of disgusting smelling fluid out onto the grass. Rain backpedaled, pulling out his spear and scampering back to the safe two-meter distance.

Looking at the slime's health bar, he noted that it had decreased slightly, but less than he had hoped. Oh well, rinse and repeat. And then rinse, ugh.

Rain had to repeat his slime kiting maneuver six more times before he finally finished it off. He hadn't tried to get fancy, and luckily the slime seemed incapable of learning as it kept falling for the same trick over and over. When he depleted its health bar, it simply collapsed and started to lose cohesion. Nice, no fire, no burning vomit explosion. Much better, but still, yuck.

You have defeated [Slime], Level 1

25 Experience Earned

[Level Up]

Yeah, that's right, just me, no party, Rain thought, satisfied, as he dismissed the window.

Looking down at his clothes, he saw that he had been splattered with yellow goo despite his efforts to keep out of the splash zone. He sighed and tried to think of a way to ask Ameliah to help him out. Before he could come up with the proper caveman, he was interrupted by a wave of purifying light washing over him.

Turning, he saw that Ameliah had wandered over to him and was now channeling the same purifying aura that she had used before. She wasn’t standing with her eyes closed this time, instead, she was walking toward him as the cleansing pulses radiated outwards. The slime started to dry and flake away slowly. It didn't evaporate before it hit the ground as it had before for whatever reason. Nevertheless, the mess was getting cleaned up.

Rain smiled at Ameliah as she approached, thanking her. Then, indicating the glowing pulses, he asked “Purify? Aura?” With some clever pantomime, he managed to learn the word for both, as well as ‘firebolt’ and ‘fire evocation’, which had been needed to establish context. Already knowing the word for fire and being able to use Brovose as an example made learning the pairing much easier. ‘Aura’ and ‘purify’ had been easy enough after that, at least assuming that he had correctly guessed the skill from its effect. For all he knew, he had just learned the name of a skill and a tree that he hadn't gotten to yet in his exploration of the skills menu.

As the slime dissolved, Rain noticed a white glint sitting in the middle of the rapidly shrinking puddle. He waited a moment for the puddle to completely disappear, then walked over and picked up the small shining object. It was crystalline, opaque, and about the size of a grain of rice. It seemed to be giving off a very faint white light even after Ameliah stopped maintaining purify.

“Tel,” Ameliah said, unbidden. Rain pointed to the crystal in his hand for confirmation, and she nodded.

“Tel?” Rain repeated. “My Tel?”

She shrugged and nodded. Then turned to walk back to the camp. Rain followed, peering at the Tel and trying to decide how he was going to keep from losing it. Once they returned to the camp, Ameliah noticed that he was still holding the Tel in his hand and dug out a small glass vial from her pack. It looked like a half-height test tube with a cork. She handed it to him silently. He thanked her again, slipped the Tel inside, and re-corked it, before slipping it into a pocket.

Rain noticed that his remaining stew was gone and that there was a suspicious empty bowl sitting near Brovose. He decided not to make an issue of it, instead retrieving a fresh bowl of stew and retreating to his log. Setting the stew down to cool and leaning his spear against the log, he opened up his attributes screen to check a few things.

Attributes

Richmond Rain Stroudwater

Level 2

Experience: 21/200

Unclassed

Health

200

Stamina

200

Mana

200

Strength

10 (+)

Recovery

10 (+)

Endurance

10 (+)

Vigor

10 (+)

Focus

10 (+)

Clarity

10 (+)

Free Stat Points

30

Ok, so 10 more stat points from before. So it is either 10 per level and I started with 10 at level zero, or level one is special. Skills.

Skills

-

Free Skill Points: 3

-

Utility Auras | Aura Metamagic | Offensive Auras | Defensive Auras | |

And one more skill point. Nice.

Rain stopped himself from opening up the skill trees and getting lost down another rabbit hole. It was tempting. The panel had remembered the last few trees he had been looking at and he was eager to start planning out his build, but he had soup to eat. He could see that the others were already starting to pack up the camp, so he regretfully swiped the panel closed and downed his soup, before walking over and returning his bowl. A single pulse of purify was all it took for Ameliah to clean the bowls and utensils.

Damn, that is so handy. I am totally saving a point for that.

As the day wore on, Rain noticed a change in the landscape. The trees were thinning out, and he started to notice signs of civilization. Slowly, the forest transitioned into tilled fields and fences, with farmhouses visible in the distance. Most seemed to be abandoned, but there was smoke curling out of the chimney of one of the more sturdy looking buildings that they passed. He didn't see any people for another hour or so, but eventually he saw an older man working in a field. The man looked up as they passed, watching them warily until they were out of sight.

Looks like we are headed toward a city, or at least a village.

As they continued, the farms started looking more prosperous and less rough, and the road began to see some traffic. A few mounted men and women rode by on horseback. Rain decided that they must be something like scouts or sentries, as they weren't nearly armored enough to be knights or paladins. It seemed clear to Rain that they were the reason it was possible to have a farm without being found dead in the morning with a slime digesting your head. The equipment of the scouts varied, but he did notice that each of them had a small bronze plate hanging from a chain around their neck with some sort of symbol on it. He wasn’t close enough to make out what it was, however.

The scouts ignored them, concerned with monsters and not scruffy travelers, Rain decided. They were being similarly ignored by a man driving a donkey-pulled cart down the road towards them. The cart contained a few barrels in the back, and as it drew closer Rain saw that they were probably for ale or beer, as they had taps in the side. Anton perked at the sight, calling out something to the driver in a hopeful tone. The man shook his head and Anton sunk back down dejectedly and went back to complaining about his feet.

Rain kept an eye on his stamina as they continued in this manner. The sun was setting and he was getting down into the low teens when he decided to ask how much further it was to wherever it was they were going. He was really feeling quite exhausted at this point. His bare feet were aching as he dragged them along, struggling to keep up with the group.

Not having any idea of how to say “are we there yet,” he settled on the caveman equivalent.

“We camp?”

Hegar looked at him, scoffed, and ignored his question. Ameliah gave him an apologetic look, then stopped, seeing how badly he was limping. The others continued, heedless, but Ameliah just motioned for him to stop, then knelt down to look at his feet. They were chafed and sore from the long trek, so much so that he had even lost a few points of health. He had been determined to make it to the camp without complaining like Anton or Hegar, but he was now questioning his stubbornness. Ameliah motioned for him to lift one of them up so she could inspect it. Rain was only mildly surprised to see that he was bleeding from a few small cuts on the sole of his foot.

Ameliah tutted in disapproval and rose to flick his forehead. “Idiot.”

“Sorry,” Rain said, too tired to react to the insult, deserved though it was.

She just shook her head then gestured and reached out with a finger on each hand to touch the tops of both of his feet.

“Healing Word.”

Rain felt the pain suddenly fade and disappear. He lifted up a foot curiously to inspect the sole of his foot and was amazed to see that his skin had been perfectly restored, free of cuts and blisters. He knew what the spell did after the incident with his ankle, but he couldn't get over how amazing it was to be instantly healed.

“Thank you,” he said, then swayed. The healing had done nothing for his fatigue. Ameliah stood and steadied him, then looked toward the others who were barely visible in the growing twilight. They had stopped and were looking back at them.

Ameliah sighed, then said an unfamiliar phrase, shocking him by putting her hand flat against his chest. He staggered back, almost falling, but then noticed that his stamina bar, which had been approaching ten, was now completely full. He realized that he felt much better, the soreness leaving his muscles and his body becoming quicker to respond to his commands. It was a curious sensation, as his mind still felt dead tired, but his body was fresh and well rested.

I guess mental fatigue can't just be magicked away.

“Come,” Ameliah said, motioning toward the others. He followed, and he could hear Hegar complaining at the delay as they approached. Ameliah just ignored him, and Rain decided to do the same. Anton asked her a question, which Rain thought might have contained the word road, and she replied with something Rain couldn't make sense of. Before they set off again, she set down the pack and retrieved a torch, which she lit herself with a flint rather than asking the fire mage.

Yeah, I wouldn't want my head set on fire either.

The group continued for what seemed like several days but in reality was probably only a couple of hours. Rain felt as if he was going to fall asleep walking, his refreshed body perfectly capable of continuing on while he slept. Eventually, his tired eyes noticed light in the distance. Being the first to notice, he pointed it out to the others, which perked everyone up a bit.

After another hour or so, Rain was able to recognize that the light was coming from fires on top of a wall of what looked to be a large city. Another hour saw them to the gates of said city, which were open, but guarded by men in full plate armor and long, cruel-looking spears. He tiredly noted that they had the same bronze plates hanging around their necks as the scouts had. This time, he was close enough to see that the symbol carved into them was a shield.

The guards challenged them, stopping them from passing through the gate. Hegar stepped forward and fished out from under his shirt a plate similar to those worn by the guards. It too was bronze, but Rain couldn't see the symbol.

The guards nodded and stepped aside, allowing them into the city. It was fully dark at this point. Their torch was the only source of illumination other than candlelight peeking through gaps in the odd shuttered window. Rain had no idea what time it was, the sun having long-since set. The city seemed to be fully asleep with no one else out, save the occasional plate-armored guard.

He stumbled as his bare feet struggled with the rugged cobblestone paving the streets, righting himself and following the others. They wound their way through a labyrinth of streets bordered by closely built, multi-story buildings. Eventually, they reached a square with a fountain in the middle and headed towards a large stone building with a wooden sign hanging over the door. The sign had the symbol of a sword crossed with a quiver of arrows.

Ameliah extinguished her torch in a barrel of water near the door and dropped it in a pile with other discarded torches. Hegar pushed open the door to the building, causing soft candlelight to flood into the square. He headed inside and Rain followed, seeing a large reception room with seating and several counters along one side. There was an old, reedy man standing behind one of them but the room was otherwise deserted. Hegar headed over to the man and they had a brief discussion. The man shook his head and Hegar grumbled, then took a pouch from his waist, pouring out a handful of Tel and handing them to the man.

Nodding, the man gestured to a hallway, which Rain was delighted to find led to a sort of bunk room. He heard the sound of several snoring forms as the old man, carrying a candle, guided them to five empty bunks near the front of the room.

Finally, something I'm dressed properly for, Rain thought, throwing himself onto a bunk and pulling the covers up to his chin.