《The Fall》Chapter 2
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I couldn't help myself as I pressed 'Yes'.
Possible Feats:
Health I
Health Regeneration I
Conviction I
Conviction Regeneration I
Commanding Presence
Ice Manipulation
It was short. Incredibly short. The only upside was that they all only required one feat point. I assumed this was because they were available as starter feats. Feats that no other new born would be able to get, except for commanding presence. That was a result of Highborn and so I should assume that most other nobles had it. It also seemed rather not me.
Commanding Presence – Your presence commands attention. Others are more inclined to pay attention to everything you do or say. This effect can by mitigated or nullified by sufficient amounts of Willpower. Your presence is dictated by your Charisma.
I could see how some would want this feat, and undoubtedly most children picked it up at some point, but it didn't discriminate between when you failed or succeeded at something. Everything was amplified. My other possible feats wouldn't be available to most others as the Ice Manipulation came from my Ice Born trait and the Health and Conviction feats came from having at least 4 points in Con and Will respectively. Thus, most children would be unable to get them. The health and conviction feats were straightforward and increased their respective statistic by 10 percent. Ice Manipulation though, now that was something special.
Ice Manipulation – You are able to command the very elements, though this only extends to Ice. You cannot create Ice nor destroy it with this feat. You can change its shape and move it as you please. Strength of manipulated Ice is dependent on your Willpower. Speed of manipulation is dependent on your intelligence. Uses both Conviction and Mana.
I immediately bought Ice Manipulation. Between my two Ice related traits it made no sense not to purchase the feat. Also, as a nearly immobile newborn, it would hopefully give me some ability to do things myself. For my second feat I bought Health I. It would help to keep me healthy and whole. I wanted Health Regeneration, but until I could gain enough feat points to take it to tier V it wouldn't do much for me.
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After buying those two feats I was sent back to the original box. I'm going to start calling it my Character Sheet. That just made sense. After making those purchases I realized that I had points waiting for me in the Attribute section. I had assumed that your Attributes grew naturally as you did, but maybe a child levels naturally and then puts points in to stimulate growth. I had no idea. But their descriptions did illuminate some things.
They were all rather self explanatory. Strength affected, well, my strength. With higher levels I could hit harder, push harder, carry more, and whatever else you could think of for strength. Dexterity governed my overall speed and finesse. With higher levels I would move both faster and smoother. I would also have more fine control over my body. Constitution was a real winner though. It represented my health. Both Health and other factors such as my ability to overcome disease, eat questionable foods and counteract poisons such as caffeine and alcohol. Basically, if I had enough constitution I could get hit by a train and just get up and walk it off after wards. It also effects my ability to push myself.
Intelligence determined my Mana and how easily I could learn and retain information. Charisma determined how strongly people would react to my presence. Low charisma doesn't mean that people will automatically hate me, but rather that they hardly notice my presence. Charisma is the most flexible Attribute as it can be affected my your physical appearance. Anything that stands out, be it beauty or horror, will increase your charisma. Anything that blends in with the populace decreases your charisma. These changes aren't by much but they can happen. Willpower, though, was also a gem. Willpower determines not only my Conviction but also how resistant I am to mental pressure. In some instances I can even switch charisma with willpower as the determining Attribute.
Needless to say I wanted to make Constitution and Willpower my main two Attributes as they both helped with the path I wanted to go. Though I did need to pump Intelligence up a bit too. As such I decided to put 2 Attribute Points in Con, Will, and Int each. Afterwards my Attributes looked like this:
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Attributes:
Strength: 2
Dexterity: 2
Constitution: 8
Intelligence: 5
Willpower: 7
Charisma: 2
Free Points: 0
There was only one last section to take a look at and that was my current skills.
Spirit Perception (Lv 1) – You are able to see, touch, and hear spirits. Your Skill Level determines the range of your perception. Your ability to resist the illusion of spirits is determined by Skill Level and Willpower. Your ability to effect spirits is determined by your Charisma.
Cold Resistance (Lv 5) – You are resistant to natural cold. You can still die from exposure and sickness. (You are immune to exposure and sickness related to Ice, Cold, and Winter by your traits) You resist 1 percent of magical Ice and Cold per Skill Level. Current Resistance: 5%
Heat Resistance (Lv 1) - You are resistant to natural heat. You can still die from exposure and sickness. You resist 1 percent of magical Fire and Heat per Skill Level. Current Resistance: 1%
The reminder of immunity to natural cold was nice even if the actual rewards of the skill were rather lacklustre. The other downside is that said immunity will mean the only way to level the skill up will be by subjecting myself to Ice and Cold magic, which I was almost positive no one will let me do any time soon. The big winner of my skills was, of course, Spirit Perception. It seemed like it had to be rather rare. Well, rare for an infant at least.
It was then that the screen blinked out of view. It was almost as if it knew I was done looking at it, my curiosity and expenditures sated.
The sight that greeted had to be none other than my mother. She looked older, about 40 if I had to guess. There were lines on her face. The kind that made her appear more graceful and vigorous rather than old and frail. Her face was covered in a bright smile as she looked down on me. My mother's hair is long and black, curly too. She has copperish skin and rich brown eyes that have specks of green in them. She's saying something to me, though I can't understand what. I squint as I try to understand her, as if that will help me understand her better. It doesn't. Though something else does grab my attention.
A wisp. A small, blue ball of light flitted over my mother's shoulder. It bounced around behind her and I couldn't help but watch. Then it jumped right in front of my mother's face, but she just kept talking. I realized she couldn't see it. If I could, and she couldn't, then that could mean only one thing. This wisp, for that was what I was going to call it, was a spirit. I was mesmerized by it. It danced all around me. I could hear a soft twinkling sound, like a small bell made of starlight.
My mother's eyebrows knit together as she watched me twist around in her arms. I shouldn't have been that active as a newborn, none of her other children were this awake when they were born. She noticed more oddities as I laughed, my eyes clearly following something, something she couldn't see. Maybe the words of the midwife were true.
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