I got sidelined on my way to check on the SUPPORT people by the insistent blinking in the lower right-hand corner of my vision telling me that I had notifications. I had never seen it blinking so rapidly, and even the color had changed from white to red. As I mentally selected the blinking icon, my vision was completely overwhelmed. The first one was a good indication of the bulk of them:

Specter LEVEL 1 hits you for 10 ( 7 frost + 3)

You take 4 frost damage

You hit Specter LEVEL 1 (imbued) for 11 (8 bludgeoning + 3)

You hit Specter LEVEL 1 (focused) for 8 (5 fire +3)

You take 3 frost damage

Specter LEVEL 1 takes 3 fire damage

You take 4 frost damage

Specter LEVEL 1 takes 3 fire damage

Specter LEVEL 1 takes 4 fire damage

You hit Specter LEVEL 1 (imbued) for 6 (3 bludgeoning + 3)

You hit Specter LEVEL 1 (focused) for 7 (4 fire + 3)

Specter LEVEL 1 takes 3 fire damage

Specter LEVEL 1 takes 3 fire damage

Specter LEVEL 1 has died

CONGRATULATIONS! You have earned 50 XP!

That must have been the first woman. The first chunk of damage I’d taken must have been when she passed through me on her way to the lobby, I hadn’t even realized that I was continuing to take damage, though it looked like the continuing damage from the frost lasted a lot less time than from the fire I hit her with. Adding up the points, it looked like a LEVEL 1 Specter had 50 LIFE points, and that they gave the same amount in EXPERIENCE POINTS. Too bad for her, I had 129 LIFE at the start of the fight.

Flicking through the rest of the damage notifications, I hadn’t taken any more hits, but my MANA BOLT shots into the thick of the tornado of ghosts had apparently taken out 12 LEVEL 1s and my GRASPING MANA traps had shredded another 20, though most of those were LEVEL 0s and only gave 10 EXPERIENCE POINTS each. The Spectral Bear was LEVEL 2, but I only got an assist on that one with Father Keller, but it still gave me another 50 XP.

My damage numbers didn’t seem right. If my MANA BOLT SPELL hit at 1 -3, how was I getting so much damage with each hit? I pulled up my SPELLS sheet:

Spoiler: Spoiler

MANA BOLT

COST:

1

TARGET:

60

TIME:

INSTANT

DAMAGE:

1 – 3

On impulse, I looked at the staff in my hand. A moment of focus brought up its properties, and everything made sense:

Spoiler: Spoiler

WEAPON PROPERTIES

HANDS

MATERIAL

TYPE

RANGE

DAMAGE 1

DAMAGE 2

FOCUS

IMBUED

1 - 2

DRAGONWOOD

QUARTERSTAFF

5’

1 – 6

1 – 8

1 – 10

1 - 14

SPECIAL PROPERTIES:

ENGRAVED

SPECIAL ABILITIES:

???

I had always understood that imbuing it with MANA multiplied things’ damage, but I hadn’t thought to try and quantify it, before. I guessed that the DAMAGE 1 and DAMAGE 2 were force multipliers based on whether I struck one-handed or two-, and IMBUED was the word used to describe when I coated the weapon with MANA, but I didn’t know what “FOCUSED” meant. I concentrated on that word and:

FOCUSED: This weapon allows spells to be focused through it, thus strengthening the result

That must be how a simple CANTRIP like SPARK allowed the tiny flame intended as a light or to start a campfire to turn it into a formidable weapon against the specters.

After dismissing the last of the damage notifications, the next ones were LEVEL ups:

CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached LEVEL 2! You have SPELL options available! CLASS CHARACTER points automatically distributed; please roll 1 d6 for free CHARACTER points

CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached LEVEL 3! You have SPELL options available! CLASS CHARACTER points automatically distributed; please roll 1 d6 for free CHARACTER points

CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached LEVEL 4! You have SPELL options available! CLASS CHARACTER points automatically distributed; please roll 1 d6 for free CHARACTER points

CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached LEVEL 5! You have SPELL options available! CLASS CHARACTER points automatically distributed; please roll 1 d6 for free CHARACTER points

“Everybody check your notifications!” I shouted to the rest of the group milling around in the dark hallway, “You may have LEVELed up and have options that will help us with the rest of the fight!”

“What do you mean ‘the rest of the fight’?” one of the nearby men burst out, “we already fought, you mean there’s more?” The last words rose to a high-pitched squeal.

“We have to assume that there will be more,” I said, looking at his frightened expression, “I don’t know that there will be, but we have to be ready.

“Rob!” I shouted over my shoulder, “when you’ve collected all of your arrows, join me in here,” I said, pointing towards the banquet room where we’d gathered the children and those unsuited to fighting, then I pushed past the people who had gathered round demanding to know what other monsters we might face and into the banquet room, shutting the doors firmly in their faces.

I stood just inside and let out a relieved sigh and clicked on one of the notifications about new spell options. Immediately, a long list of possible new spells popped up. It wasn’t nearly as long as the CLASS selection list, but it was daunting, nonetheless. At the top of the list were these confusing instructions:

You have new SPELL options!

You may select one (1) additional LEVEL 1 SPELL

You may select one (1) additional LEVEL 1 SPELL and one (1) LEVEL 2 SPELL, or three (3) additional LEVEL 1 SPELLs

You may select one (1) additional LEVEL 2 SPELL, or two (2) additional LEVEL 1 SPELLs

You may select one (1) additional LEVEL 2 SPELL and one (1) LEVEL 3 SPELL, or six (6) additional LEVEL 1 SPELLs, or three (3) additional LEVEL 2 SPELLs, or one (1) additional LEVEL 2 SPELL and four (4) additional LEVEL 1 SPELLs

I puzzled over the different options, but then the light came on and I facepalmed at my own obtuseness. Each LEVEL, I got an additional spell at the previous SPELL LEVEL. At LEVELs 3 and 5, I also got an additional spell at the next higher SPELL LEVEL, or I could trade them for a lower LEVEL SPELL at a 2:1 ratio: One LEVEL 2 SPELL = 2 LEVEL 1 SPELLs and so on. Adding them all up, I could have an astounding 12 more LEVEL 1 SPELLs, if I traded them all in for that level, or if I took them all at their optimum value, I could have 2 LEVEL 1 SPELLs, 3 LEVEL 2 SPELLs, and 1 LEVEL 3 SPELL.

*DING*[1]

My head swam with the seemingly endless list of possibilities, so I equivocated by pulling up my CHARACTER SHEET and my RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR so that I could distribute my new STAT points so I could see what I really had to work with:

The first thing I noticed was that the numbers for DEXTERITY, INTELLIGENCE, and CHARISMA had each gone up by 4, those being the ones that my SCRIBE CLASS considered as primary STATISTICS. Then, I set the RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR’s minimum to 1 and the maximum to 6 and hit the button 4 times to roll my free STATs. They came up as: 4, 4, 2, and 3 for a total of 13 free STATS that I could put anywhere I wanted.

Spoiler: Spoiler

MENU

CHARACTER

CLASS

SKILLS

ABILITIES

SPELLS

INVENTORY

CRAFTING

JOURNAL

MAP

CONTACTS

TOOLS

TIER 1 INFORMATION

GENERAL

SPECIFIC

MODIFIER/RESTRICTION

STATISTIC

NAME:

TOM NOBODY

RACE:

HUMAN

-1

STRENGTH

GENDER:

MALE

+1

STRENGTH

AGE:

16

+1

LUCK

DEITY:

ATHEIST

-100%

SPIRIT

TITLE(S):

GRACIOUS TO FORGIVE

TIER 2 INFORMATION

CLASS:

SCRIBE

LEVEL:

5

XP:

1,090

NEXT LEVEL:

2,500

TIER 3 INFORMATION

POOL:

AVAILABLE:

TOTAL:

RATE PER

SECONDS TO REGENERATE

LIFE:

129

129

1

10

STAMINA:

125

125

1

10

MANA:

60

60

1

20

SPIRIT:

0

83

1

20

TIER 4 INFORMATION

STATISTIC:

NUMBER:

MODIFIER:

STRENGTH:

15

+3

CONSTITUTION:

15

+3

DEXTERITY:

19

+5

INTELLIGENCE:

19

+5

WILLPOWER:

08

-1

CHARISMA:

14

+2

LUCK:

10

+0

AVAILABLE:

13

In the end, I decided that I needed to raise the MODIFER for each STAT in the most optimum way, which meant going for an odd number. I’d figured out that if you subtracted the base STAT number of 10, which SCHEMA apparently considered the average for everyone, and then divided the remainder by 2, rounded up, you’d get your MODIFIER. Since odd numbers did not divide equally by 2, I could save a CHARACTER point by leaving each one at an odd number and still get the same MODIFIER as the higher, even number.

*DING*[1]

I considered a lot of different options, trying to think ahead to how each point would help me the most, but in the end, I decided that my advice to the people this afternoon—a time that seemed long in the past, but had only been a few hours before—was the best: I had to optimize for the fight now and not worry about tomorrow.

With that in mind, I knew I needed to work on my two main damage STATs: STRENGTH and INTELLIGENCE. Since INTELLIGENCE was a primary STAT, it had already increased by 4, with a MODIFIER of +5, so I raised STRENGTH up to match it. I knew that CONSTITUTION, STRENGTH, and DEXTERITY affected my LIFE POOL, so I put another 4 points into CONSTITUTION to bring it up equal to the other two. That left me with 5 more points. Even though I couldn’t use my SPIRIT POOL at all, and WILLPOWER was its primary STAT, I knew it also affected my MANA POOL, so I brought it up to the next odd number. Besides, its MODIFIER had been a – 1 and I didn’t like the minus. That left me with 2 more points, so I put one each in CHARISMA and LUCK making all of my points odd numbers giving me the most out of the MODIFIERs. After hesitating for a second looking at the CONFIRM Y/N? and selected YES.

Immediately, two more notices popped up:

Roll 1 d6 for LIFE

Roll 1 d6 for STAMINA

I rolled a 1 and a 2 respectively. Immediately, my POOLs updated. I looked at the updated numbers. While both LIFE and STAMINA increased by a noticeable amount, the big winners were in my MANA and SPIRIT POOLs, with MANA now at 90 and SPIRIT at 108—not that it would do me any good, but the WILLPOWER boost helped the MANA, though the totals were still confusing. I really needed to update them sometime when I had more time to try and figure out how each one was figured. Surely, there would come a time when I wouldn’t be fighting for my life when I LEVELed up? Surely!

Spoiler: Spoiler

MENU

CHARACTER

CLASS

SKILLS

ABILITIES

SPELLS

INVENTORY

CRAFTING

JOURNAL

MAP

CONTACTS

TOOLS

TIER 1 INFORMATION

GENERAL

SPECIFIC

MODIFIER/RESTRICTION

STATISTIC

NAME:

TOM NOBODY

RACE:

HUMAN

-1

STRENGTH

GENDER:

MALE

+1

STRENGTH

AGE:

16

+1

LUCK

DEITY:

ATHEIST

-100%

SPIRIT

TITLE(S):

GRACIOUS TO FORGIVE

TIER 2 INFORMATION

CLASS:

SCRIBE

LEVEL:

5

XP:

1,090

NEXT LEVEL:

2,500

TIER 3 INFORMATION

POOL:

AVAILABLE:

TOTAL:

RATE PER

SECONDS TO REGENERATE

LIFE:

167

167

1

10

STAMINA:

166

166

1

10

MANA:

90

90

1

20

SPIRIT:

0

109

1

20

TIER 4 INFORMATION

STATISTIC:

NUMBER:

MODIFIER:

STRENGTH:

19

+5

CONSTITUTION:

19

+5

DEXTERITY:

19

+5

INTELLIGENCE:

19

+5

WILLPOWER:

11

+1

CHARISMA:

15

+3

LUCK:

11

+1

AVAILABLE:

0

Now, I was back to trying to figure out which SPELLs to pick. I flicked open the list almost violently. I just hated feeling rushed, but there was nothing I could do about it. I looked at the list and considered the pros and cons of each different SPELL as I came to them, all the while frustration was burning in my heart keeping me from being able to concentrate. I almost gave up and shut the list completely without making a decision at all when something caught my attention.

Across the room, the farthest from the door was a section that had been set apart for the smallest children. One of the caretakers had a guitar and had began to strum a lullaby. The music flowed from her fingers and spread around the room until every eye in the place was focused on her. The crying and chatter of young children that I’d heard when I first came in the room had all died off; the smaller children were nodding away on the mattresses that had been spread for them while the older ones tried to sit up, but their nodding heads showed they were fighting a losing battle.

As for myself, the music seemed to give me a sense of calmness; the frustration I felt just moments before seemed to dissolve like cotton candy in water. I don’t know why I’d been so frustrated, if anything, I should have been elated at the wealth of choices I had. With renewed determination and restored concentration, I turned back to the list.

It all seemed so simple now. Very quickly, I selected out the SPELLs that I felt would do me the most good. I chose the optimum selection deciding to go for quality over quantity. SCHEMA had informed us that we would be facing LEVELs 0 – 3 tonight, and I’d already faced a LEVEL 2 SPECTRAL BEAR with my (focused) SPARK CANTRIP and (imbued) staff, plus God only knows how many LEVEL 0 and 1 other specters and come out on top. With a cost of only 1 MANA per MANA BOLT or GRASPING MANA, I could spam those spells for quite a while. As the previous battle had proved, I wasn’t the only one here who could fight, either.

In the end, these are the SPELLs I chose:

2 LEVEL 1 SPELLs:

BURNING MANA: Throws a ball of MANA flames up to 60 feet at a single target for 1 – 3 burning damage. Successful hit causes additional damage over time. Nearby targets may take reduced burning damage if initial target becomes fully engulfed. Stackable; scalable.

Spoiler: Spoiler

BURNING MANA

COST:

1

TARGET:

60

TIME:

INSTANT

DAMAGE:

1 – 3

SHOCKING MANA: Charges caster with electrified MANA that discharges on touch for 1 – 3 shocking damage. Target must save for DEXTERITY or become incapacitated for 10 seconds. Any target touching the primary target must save for DEXTERITY or be knocked back. Scalable

Spoiler: Spoiler

SHOCKING MANA

COST:

1

TARGET:

Touch

TIME:

INSTANT

DAMAGE:

1 – 3

3 LEVEL 2 SPELLs:

WALL OF FLAMES: Places a six-foot-wide wall of flames wherever the caster designates up to 30 feet from the caster. Targets caught in or passing through the flames take 2 – 6 burning damage. Burning targets take additional damage over time. Targets who become fully engulfed may cause reduced damage to other targets with whom they come into contact. Scalable

Spoiler: Spoiler

WALL OF FLAMES

COST:

1

TARGET:

6’

DURATION:

60s

DAMAGE:

2 – 6

FREEZING MANA CONE: Fires a cone of freezing MANA 10 feet out with the caster at the apex of the cone. The base of the cone will measure five feet across. Targets caught within the area of effect will take 2 – 6 freezing damage. Targets must make a DEXTERITY save or become frozen solid for 10 seconds. Scalable.

Spoiler: Spoiler

FREEZING MANA CONE

COST:

1

TARGET:

10 x 5

TIME:

INSTANT

DAMAGE:

2 – 6

For my defense, I chose an upgraded form of MANA ARMOR which was basically the same as the LEVEL 1 version, but at half the MANA cost. With a flash of embarrassment, I realized that I’d completely forgotten to cast MANA SHIELD in the previous fight, but I could just set this one on myself at the beginning of the fight and forget about it until it took enough damage that I had to cast it again. It would certainly help to prevent sneak attacks or someone shooting unexpectedly from a distance. While MANA SHEILD had seemed to have more utility when I’d selected it, I could only cover someone from one direction, and as events had shown, an attack could come from anywhere.

MANA ARMOR II: Covers the USER with a shield of MANA that blocks up to 10 damage unless dispelled. Blocks all damage unless negated by SPELLS or item properties. Scalable.

Spoiler: Spoiler

MANA ARMOR II

COST:

5

TARGET:

SELF

TIME:

INSTANT

BLOCKS:

10

1 LEVEL 3 SPELL:

For my LEVEL 3 SPELL, I chose:

MANA LIGHTING: Caster fires a bolt of lightning infused MANA at a single target up to 60’ away for 4 – 10 shocking damage. Target must save vs DEXTERITY or become incapacitated for 20 seconds. Targets take additional shocking damage over time. Targets touching the primary target take reduced damage and must save vs DEXTERITY or be knocked back. Scalable

Spoiler: Spoiler

MANA LIGHTING

COST:

1

TARGET:

60

TIME:

INSTANT

DAMAGE:

4 – 10

With a warm feeling of accomplishment and none of my former frustration, I immediately confirmed my selection. I closed out my screens and looked over towards the children’s area hoping to catch some more of the wonderful lullaby that had helped me so much. All of the children were sleeping soundly as various adults moved between them tucking them in, but the musician was nowhere to be seen.

“Excuse me,” I heard a voice to my right and nearly jumped back as the woman who’d played the children to sleep had left that group and come to stand next to me while my attention had been on my screens.

“Dear God! Don’t do that to me!” I exclaimed.

“I’m sorry!” she cried, “I didn’t mean to startle you!”

“It’s Okay,” I quickly responded when I saw how much I’d upset her, “I was focusing on my notifications and didn’t notice you’d come up. Here, let’s start over…” I extended my had, “I’m Tom, what’s your name?”

“Grace,” she said, “It’s nice to meet you, Tom. I was hoping that I could help out if there was any more fighting.”

Nonplussed, I looked at her. She was young, well, older than my new physical age of 16, but somewhere in her late teens or early 20s, I’d guess. She was a little taller than me, I thought maybe 5’5” or 6”, but it was always hard to tell how much taller than me someone was. She was also slight and didn’t have much of a fighter’s look about her.

“I appreciate the offer,” I started, trying to pick my words carefully so that I wouldn’t continue to upset her, “do you have any particular fighting skills?”

“N-o-o-o,” drawled, “but I’m one of the ones who’s played RPGs before, and I always wanted to be a professional musician, so I chose a BARD CLASS.” As if that explained anything.

“Okay,” I said, “I’m not one of those who’s ever played an RPG before, so you’ll have to tell me how that can help us in a fight.” I added a smile on the end to soften my doubt. It felt fake to me, but it seemed to do the trick, because she perked up and smiled back.

“Oh, I can do BUFFs!” She said.

“Uhh, I remember something about BUFFs from the BEGINNER TUTORIAL I went through, but it slips my mind, can you refresh my memory?”

“Well, just like what I did with the kids, I used a CALMing BUFF—you know, I added ‘CALM’ to everyone’s minds so that the kids would fall asleep faster, and the adults would feel calmer. I can also do COURAGE and I have a DEBUFF of FEAR and one of SLEEP that I can use for the enemy!”

I stopped and considered her information. The CALM BUFF had certainly helped me decide on what SPELLs to choose; it had just stripped all the worry away and made my choices so clear. I could see how that would help in a fight. Also, remembering the near panic when the specters had first appeared, it might help keep people in the fight instead of running away.

“All right,” I decided. “I’m a little worried that you’ll get hurt, but at this point, we don’t have much luxury to pick and choose. I’ll try and surround you with some fighters, maybe put you with the priests so that you can all provide mutual support, will that be okay for you?”

“Oh goody!” She actually hopped up and down and clapped her hands; this perky thing could get old quick. “Just let me go get my guitar and I’ll follow you out!” With that she ran to put action to words and left me wanting to shake my head. I turned and grabbed the handle to one of the doors to return to the hallway and try to coordinate things.

That’s when the screams started.

[1] CONGRATULATIONS! Intuitive Learner + 1%

[1] CONGRATULATIONS! Intuitive Learner + 1%