Chpt. 21) build a friend workshop

Level up, a new natural skill acquired. Skill: silent intimidation; passive ability; have a small percent chance to intimidate someone when you lock eyes with them; doesn’t affect allies.

After reading her new skill, Ford opened her Yggdrass system and looked over her stats and skills to determine where to put her ability and skill points. ‘We just lost our horses. So, maybe something in the Tamer class?’ Ford thought.

“No. have you seen any wild animals here other than monsters? Do something with the possessor class,” Wrath suggested

‘You sure?’

“Yeah, I’m sure. There’s the mechanized servant or whatever.”

‘Right! So, I got to put my points into intelligence.’

“Yeah, but you could use some simple book smarts anyways.”

‘Fuck you.’

“Fuck me, and you fuck yourself.”

Ford rolled her eyes and put all sixteen points into her intelligence. Name: Ford; gender: Female; race: human; Grimoire: antarctictite; class: Ruler/Sin; Level: nineteen. Abilities: STR: thirty-eight plus five; PER: twenty plus ten; END: fifty-two; INT: fifty-one plus ten; AGI: forty-two plus ten; CHR: thirty-two plus ten; LCK: fifteen plus ten; WIS: twenty-six plus ten; SOL: thirty-five.

Skills: natural: carry weight: two-hundred fifteen kg, quick-witted, resilient, strong-willed, cook, sleep paralysis, silent intimidation. Skills: weapon mastery five/five, crystal heart five/five, blood controller five/five, crystal weapon storage five/five, void warehouse five/five, crystal battle music two/five, blood weapons five/five, regeneration five/five, embracing pain five/five, psychosis five/five, strategist one/one, party stats five/five, targeted slaughter five/five, self-repair five/five, battle control five/five, essence ball five/five, essence mortar five/five, essence thrower five/five, essence volley five/five, essence manipulation one/one, essence enforcement five/five, blood salvos two/five, boiling blood two/five, berserkers rage one/one, holistic shield five/five, holistic kill four/five, linchpin five/five, hard-shell five/five.

HP: five-hundred seventy-two; STM: five-thousand three-hundred four; MN: one-hundred seventy-six thousand six-hundred eight; EXP: one-thousand four/five-thousand five-hundred sixty-two. STM recharge: three-hundred seventy-five per second; MN recharge: three-hundred fifty-two per second; Grimoire progression: ten of one-hundred percent. Sixteen skill points are available.

Ford then opened her skill tree. Select Class: Labor, Assassin, Mage, Archer, Beast-master, Warrior, Sin. Mage selected. Select class: Healer, Priest, Necromancer, Light, Dark, Space, Time, Creation, Destruction, Possessor. Possessor selected. Skills: crystal core, weapon possession, mechanized servant, self-repair, astral possession. She ignored the new available skills and put five points into mechanized servant.

Skill: mechanized servant: summon five mechanized servants to fight for you or one mech of significant mass; requirement: INT: fifty, skills: crystal core, weapon possession; summon cost: fifty percent X mana equals S times SOL squared; function cost: one-hundred mana per second per servant or one-thousand mana to run a set time; duration: five minutes; level: five of five.

Since she was perusing her skills anyways and had eleven more points left, Ford looked through some other skills. Select Class: Labor, Assassin, Mage, Archer, Beast-master, Warrior, Sin. Beast-master selected. Select class: Beast-power, Tamer, Whisper, Nature. Tamer selected. Select route: Friends, Companions, Familiars. ‘What’s the difference between these three routes?’ Ford thought, then shrugged and opened companions.

Skill: speak: passive ability; talk to animals; requirements: PER: twenty, INT: twenty, WIS: twenty; level: zero of five.

Skill: bond: create a bond with a willing animal; requirements: PER: twenty, INT: twenty, WIS: twenty, SOL: one, skill: speak; cost: one SOL point; level: zero of five.

Skill: senses: passive ability; share sensations with your bonded animal; requirements: PER: twenty-five, INT: twenty-five, WIS: twenty, SOL: one, skills: speak, bond; level: zero of five.

Skill: companion stats: help your companion allocate ability points; requirements: PER: twenty-five, INT: twenty-five, WIS: twenty-five, SOL: one, skills: speak, bond, senses; cost: ability points; level: zero of one.

Skill: companion class: give your companion a class; classes are assigned randomly and will not be any in the Beast-master classes; requirements: SOL: fifteen; cost: one SOL point; level: zero of one.

Skill: companion skills: give your companion skills for their class; requirements: SOL: ten, skill: companion stats, companion class: cost: skill points; level: zero of one.

Skill: companion’s form: change your form into that of your companion; requirements: END: thirty, skill: speak, bond, senses; transformation cost: one-thousand STM, one-thousand MN, twenty STM per second, twenty MN per second; level: zero of five.

Reading the skills in the Tamer class caught her eyes, and she put a point into all of the skills, leaving her with four skill points left. Then she went into the blacksmith skill trees. Select route: armor, weapon, enchanter, soul forger. Armor selected. New skills are available.

Skill: folding: fold metal using mana; requirements: STR: twenty, END: fifteen, INT: fifteen; cost: ten MN per second, ten STM per second; level: zero of one.

Skill: heating: heat metal, making it easier to fold; requirements: END: fifteen, INT: fifteen; cost: ten MN per second, ten STM per second; level: zero of one.

Skill: shaping: shape the folded metal to the desired shape; requirements: STR: twenty, INT: fifteen; cost: ten MN per second, ten STM per second; level: zero of one.

Ford ignored the other skills and put one point into those three skills, leaving one point left. She closed the screen and looked around the dimly lit camp as Lilly lit another fire. Everyone looked terrified, and their spirits broken.

Ford rubbed Max’s shoulder, stood, and spoke over comms, “Ee, you awake?”

“Of course, I’m awake you yelled in my mind. Under normal circumstances, I would kill you for that, but it was an emergency, so I’ll let it slide. Now, what do you want?”

“You said you had materials to forge things, right?”

“That’s right, but I don’t have a lot of metals. Just enough for a few swords or armor. Not both. I also have a forge you could use. Why?”

“Morgan,” Ford said, looking at the Dwarf. His head slowly raised, and he looked at her quizzically, “You and I got some work to do.”

“What kind of work?” Morgan asked.

Ford smiled and said, “Ee, we’re going to need that forge and materials,” with that, Ee hopped out of her hammock and opened a shadow portal for Ford and Morgan to get to work.

***