“I think if we give her three more points in spark, then two more in blaze, we can even them out and boost them. Inferno and Hailfire won’t really work until she can fly and has a lot of fire, which is going to use Blaze, but blaze relies on spark to make the most fire,” Scritch mumbled to herself as her wide eyes peered into the depths of the ball.

“They’re really balanced like that. So if she doesn’t have a lot of spark, she can’t make a lot of fire, and can’t use her other fires,” Scritch said as she assigned the points one by one.

Blast scrambled up to Scritch’s lap and watched the text and charts roll by as fast as Scritch could read and touch.

“How do you know all that?” Leoric asked as he watched with surprise.

Scritch looked up at him, the light within the ball glinting off her large red unblinking eyes.

“Iunno.” Scritch shrugged.

Leoric’s squinted his eyes as he stared at her.

Leoric walked to the bag of the wagon, looked up to the slowly moving sky and squinted.

“What the seven hells?” He mouthed silently.

“Scritch, since you’re in the game of balancing someone’s sheet, take a look at mine,” Baldir shouted in back.

She turned around and pointed the orb towards his back. His information scrolled over.

Baldir Steelfist

Level: 42

Species: Dwarf

Strength: 489/999

Instinct: 89/100

Magic: 025/999

Diplomacy: 304/999

Charisma: 600/999

Intelligence: 56/100

Wisdom: 247/999

Class:

Drunken Monk: 875/999

Mason: 114/999

Titles and Boons:

Bad Influence

Cad

Touched by Luck

Inedible

Scritch poked his ‘Mason’ class and saw several hundred unassigned points. She poked the point pool and a list of scrolling actions ascribed events that had earned them his experience points.

“Heatbutt+ Brick +1, Headbutt+ Flagstone +1, Cornerstone+ head +1,” it read, scrolling through odd combinations of kicking, hitting, headbutting, and being impacted by varying degrees of stone or masonry.

She poked and prodded buttons.

“Masonry Guild Master required to override point assignment. Are you ‘Masonry Guild Master?” the screen read. Scritch poked something and the points spun down as his skill bolstered up.

“Did it just let you do that?” Blast asked.

Scritch shrugged and gave her noncommittal noise. She had a good instinct and that was carrying her far with this.

She opened up the drunken monk tab and looked at the skills.

Drunken Monk: Style: None

Headbutt: 879/999

Plastered Punch: 345/999

Alcohol Induced Rage: 43/999

Ultimate???: 4/999

“Do you literally do nothing but headbutt when you fight?” Leoric asked as they looked through his skills.

They could hear the clank and clatter of a flask opening, the glug of alcohol, and a short yet satisfied sigh.

“Prettymuch,” Baldir said as he thought about it.

“I mean you have more than twice the skills in Headbutt than you do anything else!” Leoric balked.

“What can I say, I am an old Dwarf set in my ways, ya daft ninny,” Baldir grumbled back to Leoric.

-Assignable Points- 12

“Would you like to choose a style at this time? To choose a style, travel to a monastery and complete the quest ‘brew of the gods.’”

“Huh,” Scritch said as she prodded.

“Do I have any of them assignable points?” Baldir asked.

“Yep,” Scritch said as she flicked and moved her fingers about, depositing all of them straight into ‘headbutt,’ and pressing enter before looking up satisfied.

“Why did you do that?” Leoric asked.

“He has a bigger head-butt now,” Scritch said with delight in her eyes.

“No more happy grass for you,” Leoric scolded.

“Awww…”

Blast snickered and choked as a spark flitted across her maw. It startled her and she flailed a bit.

“Okay, so you literally just gave him more points in ‘headbutt’ because it was funny?”

“Iunno,” Scritch said with a shrug.

“Woah, Leoric! Come take the reins, messages from the gods everywhere,” He shouted before spitting a few choice jumbled swears that made Scritch’s eyes go wide.

“That’s my new favorite word, now,” Scritch whispered.

“NO!”

“NO!”

They all shouted in unison.

“Tha fuck’s a cement and why do I know how to make it, now?” Baldir grumbled.

“How the hell should I know!?” Leoric said as the cart jostled. Leoric took the reins as Baldir flailed and tried dismissing all his notifications.

Baldir shouted to himself. The mule laid its ears back and brayed.

“NO I DON’T WANT TO BUILD A BLOODY FORTRESS!”

“Oh that’s bloody brilliant, Leoric. I can make a bedamned gargoyle now!”

“Well fanfuckingtastic! If I decide to settle down, I can go build myself a fucking stone veranda!”

“Wait… I can make golems as a mason?”

Leoric looked over intrigued. “Your magic is kind of low to do that.”

“Figures,” He grumbled.

“I’ve apparently risen a master class in ‘Headbutt’ and has increased my range of attack from 4 feet to five,” He mumbled, “Nice.”

Scritch giggled somewhere within the back of the wagon.

“BEHOLD MY FLAMES,” Blast announced as she ran from the back of the wagon up between Leoric and Baldir and spat a smattering of flame that wavered in the air.

“Nice. Now you can light my dragonweed,” Leoric said.

“Only if you share.”

When Baldir finally had his messages from the gods under control, he took the reins back and sighed heavily.

“We’re going to have to update that sheet you got for me. Even if it’s not official, I wanna make sure that I’m keeping up with this stuff!”

“Do it yourself, I wanna see what mine’s up to,” Leoric said as Scritch pulled up his information on the ball.

Leoric ‘Grandpa’ Hanali

Level: 46

Species: Gnome

Strength: 246/999

Instinct: 72/100

Magic: 612/999

Diplomacy: 802/999

Charisma: 814/999

Intelligence: 86/100

Wisdom: 830/999

Class:

Cultist: Tier-3 14/999

Druid: 642/999

Titles and Boons:

Doubter of the gods: Temporary effect for 2:05:14:18

Bad Influence

Grandfather of Dragons

Thoroughly Baked

Touched by Luck

Cultist

Grandpa

“The grandpa one is new,” Leoric said as he leaned over, looking at his class as Scritch poked it.

“This is a vanity role. It does absolutely nothing,” The role said upon selecting it.

Leoric grumbled, “What does the ‘Touched by Luck’ Boon do?”

Scritch selected it with a soft clink of her nail against the glass. Her eyes wandered, and head tilted.

“Quadruples your chance of random riches. Increases likelihoods of blessings from the gods. Allows you to work under the gods’ favor. All churches of chaos, luck, bounty and harvest gods will offer favor. +20 to instinct.”

“Huh, neat,” Leoric said.

Blast scrambled a little on the top of the wagon, spouting flits of flame.

“What about my Druid class?” Leoric asked.

Scritch tapped it.

“You have two assignable points.”

“What are my skills?”

Druid: Temple: None

Shapeshift: 675/999

Spellcasting: 435/999

Healing: 43/100

Summoning: 64/100

Ultimate Mount: 0/100

“What is this ultimate mount skill?” Leoric asked curiously.

Scritch tapped it.

“Allows you to ride wild beasts without taming them. This is a class skill but may be taught.”

“Give my points to that,” Leoric demanded as scritch moved her fingers over the dim glow of the orb.

A message from the gods appeared in Leoric’s vision.

YOU HAVE LEARNED ‘ULTIMATE MOUNT’ YOUR SKILL IS NOW 2/100.

CREATURES YOU MAY MOUNT AND RIDE:

(Note: This list will expand as experience grows.)

WILD BOAR

STAG

DYER HARE Extinct

“This may prove to be useful!” Leoric said as information poured in front of him and messages from the gods implanted new knowledge of how to mount and ride wild animals!

Blast scrambled down from the top of the wagon and peered in at the two.

“I HAVE THE BIGGEST FLAME,” She said excitedly.

“Good on you, Blast,” Leoric said before watching her crawl across the ceiling of the wagon, her claws sinking into the canvas. The canvas was sagging a little.

“Does she look bigger to you?” Leoric asked.

Scritch watched her.

“Bigger fire means bigger dragon,” Scritch said before opening her own sheet and playing with things.

“Put some points in ranger and then artificer,” She mumbled to herself as she periodically looked into space to read messages from the gods.

She put away the orb in her enchanted pack of holding and rummaged in it until her hand found her arbalest. She pulled it out with excitement.