Chapter 4 – The Plotting Begins

The bright light lessens as I find myself with solid ground beneath my feet once more. A cool ocean breeze rustles through my hair as I take a deep breath. Damn, I already missed this feeling, and it hasn’t even been eight hours since I was last ingame. I think I might be developing some sort of addiction to virtual reality.

Looking around, I notice that I spawned in an alley in what I can only guess is a residential area. I can’t see much from here, but I notice I’m fairly close to the city walls.

“So this is Drenerys, huh?” I mutter to no one in particular. This is actually the first time I’ve stepped inside a city in Ascendance Unlimited since my Necromancer had certain occupational limitations when it came to sightseeing. “It feels nice.”

I didn’t read too much up on Drenerys aside from getting a rough estimate of its population, but my first impression of the city is quite favorable. Being a small city on the southeastern shore of the Emperia Empire, Drenerys is an important trade hub connecting the empire to the kingdoms south of the great sea. I chose to start in the city because it’s just large enough for me to be able to operate in while still keeping a low profile, while also being just small enough that there won’t be too many hardcore players loitering around.

“This might actually work out.” I grin, as I find a clean patch of cobblestone to sit on hidden behind a few crates. I’d really like to have a look around, but it would be pretty stupid to walk around without first hiding my class.

I open up my status page for the very first time.

Status:

Name: Rynorn Stabberton - Class: Thief Lord

Race: Halfling - Level: 1

Health: 50 - Mana: 50

Experience: 0/100 - Renown: N/A

Attributes:

Strength: 5(5-10%) - Endurance: 5 - Agility: 5(5-10%)

Dexterity: 5 - Perception: 5 - Intelligence: 5

Wisdom: 5 - Charisma: 6(5+10%) - Luck: 6(5+10%)

Unassigned attribute points: 15.

Equipment: (+)

Status Effects: (+)

Thief Lord Basic Abilities: (+)

Class Skills: (+)

General Combat skills: (+)

General Social skills: (+)

Lesser Magic schools: (+)

Profession: (+)

Unassigned Skill Points: 3.

Unassigned Profession: 1.

Well, that’s pretty much exactly what I expected my stats to be. I already know from experience that the status page can go on forever and ever, so I opted not to show most of the status list to avoid clutter. The good thing is that everything seems to be in order already. I have the customary fifteen free attribute points ready to be assigned, as well as three unassigned skill points and an unassigned profession.

Every class has the same starting points, except for the profession slot. Regular adventurers are not allowed to have a profession, while Craftsmen can have up to four. Since us Villains already have enough problems as it is, the developers were kind enough to grant each of us the ability to select a single profession. Not that it does us much good since the actual tradecraft skills still use up our precious skill points, but that’s grief for another day.

Ah, there never seems to be enough skill points. It’s been a long time since you could go into the world and discover skills on your own, or find some sort of trainer to teach you skills. Each and every skill in the game must be purchased with a Skill point, and every time you want to increase the skill cap at skill level twenty, forty and so forth, you have to spend another skill point to raise the cap. That’s what makes the game challenging, and also rewarding as it forces you to plan ahead and build a unique skill set tailored to your playstyle. I’m not a hundred percent sure yet on which skills to prioritize, but I have made some pretty decent speculations on the subject.

Continuing through my status page, I open up the equipment tab to confirm the meager possessions I have.

Equipment:

Weapon: N/A

Off-hand: N/A

Helmet: N/A

Neck: N/A

Shoulder: N/A

Chest: Rough Linen Tunic. Common. +3% Physical Resistance

Hands: N/A

Ring 1: N/A

Ring 2: N/A

Legs: Rough Linen Pants. Common. +2% Physical Resistance

Feet: Sandals. Common. +2% Movement Speed

Special: Villain’s Mask. Class-Unique. Soulbound. While wearing: Conceals your name but reveals your true name upon death.

The equipment tab is just what I expected, as I’m outfitted with only minimal clothes and sandals. The real reason I wanted to have a look, however, is because of the unique class item: the Villain’s Mask. Every Villain character has access to it, as it would otherwise be nigh impossible to perform combat versus other players without revealing your identity. It allows me to hide my GamerID as long as I don’t die, but it also hides my true class, which would otherwise be an open invitation for any Adventurer to try and kill me on sight. Being a Necromancer, I had the item toggled on at all times, as I then couldn’t hide among players like the Thief Lord does. Which reminds me, I should probably keep this thing off for the time being.

Next up, I open up my Status Effects list. This list shows all the currently active effects on my character, as well as traits and abilities which grant me permanent attribute and skill boosts.

Status Effects:

Halfling: 10% increase to Charisma and Luck attribute. -10% to Strength and Agility attribute. 5% profit to any transaction.

Incognito: Class concealed to: None.

Boss Sized: Stat increase: 75% of Charisma to (Not Selected). 75% of Luck to (Not Selected).

Deep Pockets: Inventory size doubled.

“Hmm.” I mumble as I scratch my head. I’m about to make what is probably my two most difficult decisions going forward. I put a lot of thought into which class to masquerade as, and I believe I found the best choice. My main concern was finding a class that people wouldn’t have a reason to suspect. Someone they would have no reason to try and party up with or invite into their guild, as well as someone who wouldn’t raise any eyebrows if they never left the city.

Naturally, I figured I needed to masquerade as a crafter class. The problem being, which one? I would prefer to not choose a profession at all, but it’s the perfect cover for later. What sort of crafter wouldn’t be able to create anything after all? Crafting professions are the perfect alias. Since I needed to find a profession to have anyway, why shouldn’t I pick one that could complement my playstyle, while also benefiting from one or two of my heightened attributes?

After a good while of reading, I found the perfect profession: Trap Maker.

I know, right? Trap Maker is a profession where you can produce, place and dismantle traps. It requires high Dexterity and Luck to function, which suits me fine. Since my core attributes are Charisma and Luck, and I have the glorious ability to boost two of my non-core attributes by seventy-five percent of my two core attributes, I can freely decide on which direction to take my character.

I have already decided to use one of the boosts on Intelligence, as high Intelligence is required to effectively use Illusion spells. This leaves me with one free attribute to boost. Most people would consider boosting Wisdom to increase mana regeneration, but I don’t believe it would be necessary in my case. I don’t plan on staying in fights for a prolonged amount of time, and neither am I planning on using that many spells per fight to begin with. Increased mana regeneration would just be a waste on me. I don’t have access to any offensive magic schools, as those are all exclusive to the mage-type characters, and even if I could use spells, I never would. Nothing screams ‘Hey, come kill me!’ like a back row fireball dispenser.

Which is what made me decide to throw my last boost into Dexterity. Not only is it a requirement for pretty much every crafting profession, but it is also the key attribute to increasing ranged damage. As a backline fighter, I could really use a way to attack my enemies. The best and most subtle way of doing just that would be with either a bow or a crossbow. Choosing Dexterity as one of my main attributes gives me both attacking power and a decent alias. It’s a win-win situation for me really.

Thinking through it all, I still can’t come to terms with what a silly character I’m building. I’m a freaking Thief Lord slash Illusionist slash Trap Maker slash Archer, with my main attributes being Charisma, Luck, Intelligence, and Dexterity. I don’t know if I should cry or laugh. The whole thing is just too absurd.

I end up selecting Trap Maker as my fake class and assign the seventy-five percent boost from my Charisma to Intelligence while assigning the boost from Luck into Dexterity. Confirming my choices, I release a deep breath I didn’t know I was holding in. I just made a really important decision, one that will determine everything that happens to me from here on out. I’m moving in uncharted territory here, and I can only hope these decisions will pay off in the future.

I decide to forgo opening the profession and skill tabs. Why bother, considering they are as empty as a school at night? The final page I do need to look through for now is the one I have been anticipating for the longest; The list of basic Thief Lord abilities.

Thief Lord basic abilities:

Incognito – Conceal your class with a different chosen class. Effectiveness against Perception checks: 0,5 Charisma + 0,5 Luck. Current chosen class: Trap Maker.

Gold for Blood – Resurrect Underlings for coin. Tier 1 Underlings: 5 Copper. Tier 2 Underlings: 1 Gold. Tier 3 Underlings: 10 Gold. Tier 4 Underlings: 20 Gold. Tier 5 Underlings: 30 Gold. Tier 6 Underlings: 50 Gold. Tier 7 Underlings: 70 Gold. Underlings lose 5 levels upon resurrection. Can not go lower than level 10. Resurrection is only available inside Taverns.

Recruit Underlings – Able to recruit Underlings. Only possible inside Taverns. 1 Underling per 5 Charisma.

Promote Lieutenant – Upgrade an Underling to a Lieutenant. You may upgrade 1 Lieutenant per 50 Charisma.

Establish Hideout - Establishes a Hideout where your Underlings gather, rest, and are assigned jobs.

Boss Sized - Transfer 75% of your Charisma attribute into a chosen non-core attribute. Transfer 75% of your Luck attribute into a chosen non-core attribute. Choices are final. Current choices: Charisma > Intelligence, Luck > Dexterity.

Ah yes, the inherent abilities unique to the Thief Lord. Only Villains have inherent abilities like this, and each class has a unique set of abilities. It’s what defines the classes really, and the abilities are what makes the Thief Lord such a fearsome force to be reckoned with. The best thing about them is that they are abilities and not skills. That means I don’t have to spend precious skill points to unlock them, and I don’t need to grind skill levels. They are just there to be used at my leisure.

Finally done looking through my status page, I make one final adjustment. I dump all fifteen of my free attribute points into Charisma. My single most important objective, for now, is to make certain nobody discovers that I’m a Thief Lord, and the only way to do that is to make sure my disguise is nigh impregnable. My Incognito skill becomes more powerful the higher my Charisma and Luck stat get, which means that I need to keep my Incognito ability higher than my enemies’ perception score. I’m also highly reliant on minions, and if I am to make an impact at these early levels, I need as many underlings as I can get my hands on. Charisma is the way to go in that regard. After making the changes, I once again open my Attribute page.

Attributes:

Strength: 5(5-10%) - Endurance: 5 - Agility: 5(5-10%)

Dexterity: 10(5+6/75%) - Perception: 5 - Intelligence: 22(5+22/75%)

Wisdom: 5 - Charisma: 22(20+10%) - Luck: 6(5+10%)

Unassigned attribute points: 0.

Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. My Charisma and Intelligence attributes have shot through the roof by only adding fifteen points into Charisma. Since the Incognito skill is as efficient as fifty percent of my Charisma and fifty percent of my Luck stat added together, that means my Incognito ability can block a perception skill up to level fourteen. Not quite the amount I was hoping for, but it should keep the prying eyes of most low-level players out of my business. It’s an overall strong ability against players around my own level as it’s doubtful anyone but those severely invested in a perception build will have a chance at discovering me, but since the Villain classes will always be underleveled compared to most Adventurers, the ability isn’t quite as powerful as I’d like.

Well, enough is enough. There is no reason for me to waste time looking through my statistics any further. I have a lot of things I want to get done today, and I’m burning daylight.

Sparing a glance at my clock, I notice it’s already 9 PM. Ever since they released the VR capsules, people have been flocking to the devices for one reason. You can both stay hooked up to it and work, entertain yourself, or play games, all the while your real body is fast asleep. This means that people can technically be fully awake for twenty-four hours per day as long as at least some of the hours are spent hooked up into the capsule. This means there is no need for such trivialities as a proper ingame day and night cycle, as many players only log in and play during nighttime.

Since so many players wouldn’t find it interesting to play Ascendance Unlimited if it was always dark outside when they were playing, the developers had to do something about the ingame clock. To find a decent balance between night and day players, the developers move nighttime to occur between 3 AM and 10 AM. That way, the night players can enjoy four hours of daylight, while the day players can enjoy a few hours of nighttime during the morning. It’s a nice feature, but not really one that applies to someone like me who tries to spend as much time as possible online.

I jump to my feet and brush some dirt off my pants. My buttocks feel a little sore after spending so much time sitting on the hard cobblestone, but it’s a small price to pay to be able to prepare myself for the road ahead. I still have my three skill points unassigned, and I’d rather hold off on using them until I figure out where to go from here.

Regardless, my first priority is to get an overview of my surroundings and find a Tavern to start recruiting some underlings. It’s time to get this crime-train rolling!

Chuu! Chuu!