Jacob felt the kiss of the sun on his skin with the early morning breeze sending a pleasant chill down his spine. He kept a steady pace on his walk home from the park. His thoughts drifted from the early jog, to food, and then Choice of Fate.

I need a clear goal in game. Sevnah and Kronos are experienced players already working on another play through to increase their power. There’s also the cycles of Purification and Apocalypse to think about. The game is almost set up let a tug of war between the light and the dark. Every month one side gets a surge of power to claim more resources.

The amount of resources claimed seems to influence the bonuses with which one can reset. That explains the mad dash the two are making for the level cap of 50. They want to use their gains to stay out ahead of the curve. That’s something that I can’t do due to my choice of using Bound by the Light.

The limit of experience through quests and other rewards severely hampers my ability to power level into this cycle. What’s my play then? If I can’t keep pace with the other players power leveling then I will need a different goal, one that is asynchronous to their gameplay.

My original goal when I created Veralic was to aim for a mercenary character with the potential to develop in the long run. So, Gifts of the Dark looks to be my primary source for growing myself at the start. When I get back I’ll do some research on my current options with the ability. I’ll see what I can leverage through my Dealmaker ability. I need to look for a way that the two abilities interact to generate a net positive gain. With that I can form plans around my next steps. Maybe I can use the boss system since I’ll be hanging around the lower levels?

Jacob’s pace had slowed to a crawl from his train of thought. His eyes had been distant with his thoughts when an older couple walked passed waving hello. His eyes snapped to them focusing as he flashed a smile and returned the wave.

He turned down his street still cast in morning shadows. The gentle rustle of leaves accompanied the gust of wind that brushed his ears. Another minute of walking saw him in front of his door. A twist of the key unlocked his home where he stepped inside.

He closed the door and prepared to kick off his shoes before stopping himself. Habits. I need to change my habits. I’ve grown far too lazy. He bent down as he attempted to untie his shoe laces while stretching out with his toe touches. He grunted with the strain of his stretched muscles.

His laces untied, he shifted his balance over one foot and lifted the other to peel off his shoe. Another shift of his balance found the other shoe removed as well. He bent over once again and placed his shoes on the tiled floor of the foyer.

Pleased with the extra bit of effort, Jacob made his way through the tiny living room to the kitchen. He opened the pantry and pulled out water bottle which he immediately downed. A loud satisfied gasp escaped his lips when he emptied the bottle. He threw the empty container into a sack for recycling and walked to his bedroom.

He peeled off his sweat covered shirt and removed his shorts along with his socks chunking them into his dirty clothes bag. A few strides later he had the bathroom door open and turned on his shower to warm up the water. While he waited for the heat, he grabbed his toothbrush and did a quick brush and rinse.

He saw steam had risen behind him from the shower. He discarded his underwear and stepped inside letting the warmth radiate through his sore muscles. He took a good five minutes slowly rotating under the stream of water as he enjoyed the soreness in his muscles melt away. A quick lather and rinse finished the shower leaving him refreshed and ready for the rest of the day.

He dried himself off with a towel and threw it along with his underwear into the dirty clothes bag. As he moved into his closet he call out, “Hey, Sam!”

“Yes, Sir!”

“Play me some upbeat jazz.” Requested Jacob.

“Loading music titled Morning Jazz – Upbeat Music.” Replied Sam when a relaxing beat echoed throughout the rooms.

Jacob bounced his head in time with the beat as he shifted through his garments. He pulled on his boxer briefs and grabbed a pair of socks with his blue jeans and a black t-shirt. He threw the clothing onto his bed and returned to the bathroom where he applied some deodorant. He tussled his hair into a pulled back mess with a dime sized portion of gel.

He washed the stickiness from his hands and returned to his clothes on the bed. Again, he practiced his balance when he pulled his jeans and socks on. He pulled his shirt on over his head and left the room to get some food from the kitchen.

In the kitchen he opened the refrigerator only to have his face fall in disappointment. Inside the fridge was a barren landscape of condiments and old to-go boxes. Frustrated he emptied the rest of the fridge leaving only the eggs while the rest went into his trash. The eggs he pulled out onto his counter.

He reached under the counter and opened a cabinet door to pull out a frying pan that he placed on the stove top. He flicked the burner onto a medium-low heat and poured a bit of olive oil into the pan. His attention returned to the eggs grabbing three of them. He cracked them in quick succession and scrambled them in a bowl.

A few minutes later and Jacob was sitting at his small two-person table. In front of him laid a simple plain omelet. The jog and time spent cooking left him feeling ravenous. A feeling that he was all too happy to bury by shoveling the food into his mouth.

Finished, he grabbed his plate and pan bringing both to the sink where he quickly scrubbed them down while fighting the urge to just leave them, so he could get to his research faster. Just a few more moments. I don’t want to leave this mess out and develop a bad habit while I’m trying for good habits.

Finally, the dishes were done. He felt like a little kid as he ran to his room and shouted, “Hey, Sam! Stop playing the music.”

“Yes, Sir!” replied Sam as the music cut off.

Jacob bounded across the living room into his game room only to stop himself halfway there snapping his fingers. “Suit.” He reminded himself. He ran back to his room and gathered the gear off the floor where he had left it the night before. With the gear in hand he hustled back to the game room and power on his computer.

Logged in, he booted up the software for Choice of Fate: Online while changing into his haptic suit. He successfully contacted the servers as he pulled on his boots and gloves with his suit. A grin plastered his face as excitement beamed across his face. He grabbed his helmet and positioned himself next to the M.U.C. He pulled down his helmet sending himself into darkness and stepped back until he felt the push of the M.U.C.

The familiar sounds of the machine echoed out through the room as it whirred to life. The tubes and hoses of the M.U.C. snapped and whizzed into place along his suit. He was gently lifted into the air as his helmet bloomed to life.

The planet of Moirai floated in space before him. He reached out with his hands and commanded, “Log in!” Again, he rocketed through space to the planet. This time the journey was far faster and less cinematic. He slammed in his ethereal energy form at the Origin Temple where a statue of Veralic stood.

He spared no attention to any other statues or the center of the temple. He reached out and merged with Veralic causing the world around him to blur from the temple scene to the plaza from which he had logged out.

There he noticed the plaza nearly empty as many players had not yet logged on in the morning. He grinned as he looked around the plaza for a fountain. He spotted one not too far from his current location.

“Practice at every opportunity, right?” he muttered to himself.

He bobbed up and down a few times getting a feel for the rhythm. As if responding to an unseen signal, he leaned his weight forward and used his Dash skill. Dash and bob continued the pattern as he weaved his way through the few players on this early.

He twisted and came to a stop by the fountain. There he sat down and pulled up his ability menu along with his digital notebook. Next to the trickling sound of water, he began to take notes.

He gestured his way through several menus for his Gifts of the Dark ability. In his journal he made notes about abilities that could be purchased. He recorded the level 1 to level 50 abilities cost from 20 P.P. to 1,000 P.P. to purchase. Next, he scrolled over to the permanent stat boosts. There he noted that the cost for a single individual stat boost was 25 P.P. Hmm, that’s a pretty expensive price, at least when compared to my starting P.P. of 100.

Further down the stats portion of the menu he noticed a new pricing scheme to purchase a +1 stat per level bonus. These would cost 625 P.P. a piece every time he wanted to gain the bonus for a stat. The cost in P.P. is comparable to 25 individual one-time stat gains. So, I’ll easily come out ahead after gaining 25 levels… Which brings me to the cost of just buying experience points.

He scrolled to a new part of the menu and found the conversion rate of P.P. to experience. He recorded in his journal that he would need to spend 1 P.P. per 100 experience points. I could power level early using up my P.P., but that would negatively impact my future growth.

He shifted his position on the fountain. The cost-effective route appears to be the purchasing of bonus stats per level and then power leveling. He opened an in-game browser through the menu features and searched up the max stats one could gain from levels. He marked down 750 as the natural maximum of a stat through level bonuses. He pulled up a calculator and checked his numbers. His expression broke into one of shock at he looked at the numbers. To maximize one stat while leveling from 1 to 50 would require a +15 level bonus. That would require a total of 9,375 P.P. for just one stat to max out at 50.

This is going to be expensive. He returned to his browser and searched for sources of P.P. in game. There are various fruits like the Astral Fruit that award 5-10 P.P. Beyond the Astral Fruits are Golden Apples which award 50-100 P.P. The best is Ambrosia Fruit dropped by god-tiered raid bosses which award 500-1,000 P.P. when consumed.

Jacob sighed to himself and muttered, “You really set yourself a challenge here.”

He spent the next half-hour pouring over his options for P.P. when he received the notification he had been hoping to see. There in his friend list was Kronos with a green light by his icon indicating his presence as being online.

Jacob wasted no time and sent Kronos a message asking for a moment of his time. Jacob waited in anticipation for a minute when Kronos finally replied, “Yeah, I’ve got some time to kill this morning. I’ll be in the plaza where I last saw you in about 5 minutes. C’ya soon!”