Chapter 8: Strategy Meeting (I)

‘I will now call our first strategy meeting to order. The Master of Discussion will be the Honorable me, and today’s topic will be Royal Road.’

D: ‘All rise.’

All my personalities metaphorically stand up. (Since they lack real bodies, and actual physical descriptions, it is kind of hard for them to do so literally.)

‘You may be seated. I know of certain people’s aversion to monologues, I am not naming names ‘L’, so I will be brief and then open up the topic to discussion, but first a roll call. ‘D’ if you would do the honors?’

D: ‘Of course, my lord. M.’

M: ‘Present.’

D: ‘L.’

L: ‘Here.’

D: ‘O.’

O: ‘Yes.’

D: ‘My lord, it seems everyone is accounted for.’

It seems like I was not invited to this little “get together” you’re having after all.

D: ‘You? Why are you here?’

What? Can’t I wallow in the corruption you chose to lock me up in since long ago?

‘If you are still trapped, then how come we can hear your voice?’

And this is why you are still naïve. You locked me inside your depravity, and you expect me to just sit around and do nothing?

L: ‘Ah!’

It seems like he realized something, and with a name like ‘Logic’, he should have. Seeing as you are all still puzzled, why don’t you let ‘L’, that’s what they call you right? Tell you what you all have failed to see.

L: ‘He is using the taint and those tainted as his eyes and ears much like the ArchDemon does with his darkspawn but it seems like the direction is one way.

‘But that doesn’t explain why ‘D’ and I can hear his voice, we aren’t tainted.’

Well done. 8/10. You even correctly deducted where I ‘borrowed’ this ability from. But you have two mistakes. The first is that even if you aren’t tainted you can still hear me. Because currently I am trapped in the depth of your “soul” that means regardless of where you are, you can hear me, because you cannot escape the body.

Second, the connection is not one way but two ways, I can always attempt to leave my prison but if I attempt to enter one of your ‘mind’s both of us will be destroyed, just like the Archdemon and the Grey Warden who kills it. While it may be fun to kill off one of you, suicidal tendencies just aren’t my thing. But I must be boring you people with my sudden monologue so I will end it there.

M: ‘Is he gone?’

Boo.

M: ‘AHHH~’

Okay I am done now. While it has been fun, I must return to my new home away from home. Depravity doesn’t deprive itself, you know? … What nothing? Also if I feel the need rise up to add something to your little conversation, I will stop by and unload it on you… Nothing still? I guess you guys are just hard to please. Till later then, Ciao.

M: ‘…’

O: ‘…’

L: ‘…’

D: ‘…’

‘…’

D: ‘Should we postpone the meeting until the taint clears and when he cannot intrude, my lord?’

‘We do not have that kind of luxury. The Beta test is fast approaching and if we do not get a concept on what we will have our avatar do, we can’t build a monstrosity specially tailored for the chosen role.’

D: ‘You do speak the truth, my lord.’

L: ‘I’d hate to be the bearer of bad news, but what will happen if you aren’t selected as a beta tester?’

‘Then, I guess we will have more time to strategize our avatar now won’t we?’

L: ‘True.’

‘Before I open this up to discussion, I will restate the topic: How do we want to accomplish our goals in Royal Road?’

L: ‘So what role do we want our avatar to fill?’

‘Basically, yes.’

L: ‘A user of magic would be good.’

‘But what type of magic would we specialize in?’

L: ‘Hmm…’

M: ‘What about someone who uses their wits and guile to cut open a path?’

‘An interesting choice, but how far are we willing to go? Will we end up as a small time crook, or mange to somehow hit it big? Or will we tread down the darker path and simply be a murderer for hire? Do we steal from the rich or for the rich?’

M: ‘Wow, I didn’t think that far.’

‘That is why we are having this discussion. So we can get out all the “I don’t knows” and the “I didn’t thinks”.’

O: ‘What about some sort of Artisan?’

‘Another interesting choice, but…’

O: ‘I know. There are at least ten or twenty artisan type classes and each has their own specializations.’

‘Then you do know.’

O: ‘Yes, to add to the discussion, as I was looking through Royal Road’s game mechanics, I noticed that we will have to physically preform our actions. Albeit the system can assist us or do the task for us if we have the appropriate skill, but if we rely only on the system we cannot improve.’

L: ‘Then inversely, if we can do something, then perhaps we can get a skill for it?’

O: ‘Correct.’

L: ‘Hmm…’

D: ‘Because these roles have yet to be mentioned, I shall throw them out there: The melee and ranged fighters.’

‘You…’

D: ‘Of course, I know there are multiple problems which each, such as whether to be a pure tank, pure dps, or a mix between the two, and if a mix at what ratio. Then there is the armors to take into consideration, the weapon types, the damage types, the type of tanking style and other various choices.’

‘Okay then.’

Because you guys sound so pitiful, I will provide you some of my wisdom at no charge. Really, I won’t take you soul as compensation.

‘…’

Tough crowd. Tough crowd. And now for my words of wisdom: There is such a thing as a Factotum.

L: ‘You mean a jack of all trades?’

Ding, ding. We have another winner. Now leaving yourself as a jack of all trades is good, and you will get by fine in life, but you will never excel at anything. Then again, since you are all just pieces of a whole, you will never amount to anything anyway. Ha. Ha. Ha.

M: ‘That was rude of him.’

L: ‘Hmmm… He does actually have a point.’

M: ‘Are you saying we will never amount to much too? Huh? Huh! Huh!?!’

L: ‘You really are an idiot.’

M: ‘Nuh-uh!’

L: ‘Because getting drawn into a pointless argument with you, will just be a pointless waste of time. Time that we don’t have thus, I will spell it out for you, and for the benefit of the others.’

O: ‘Thank you, please go ahead.’

L: ‘While it is true that a Factotum has general competency in a laundry list of skills, their skills have no depth to them.’

M: ‘…’

L: ‘Your silence says to me that you don’t get it. Let me see… How to explain it in a way a video game addict can understand it… Ah. That’s it.’

M: ‘…’

L: ‘Let us say you have a maxed level character that has every skill. Only those skills are all at level 1. You can get through the lower level enemies with ease because of your level advantage, and you can defeat normal enemies of your own level by using a variety of your skills. But when it comes to the stronger enemies, you begin to struggle. Eventually boss monsters of your level or higher are impossible to beat, and you have to call in those who have specialized.’

M: ‘Oh~’

L: ‘For instance, a Factotum can make a sword just like a blacksmith, but only a blacksmith can make high quality sword that will never dull.’

M: ‘I see.’

‘Thank you for explaining that to everyone.’

L: ‘As I was saying before, a Factotum has a large breadth of skills, but those skill lack depth.’

O: ‘Yes, you said that before.’

L: ‘Now, what if we could add depth to the factotum’s already extensive list of skills?’

‘So instead of having multiple low cards of various suits, we have multiple high cards of all the suits?’

L: ‘Precisely.’

M: ‘The same number of cards, just each card is at its strongest…’

O: ‘Now that is truly stacking the deck in our favor.’

D: ‘What should we call this role that we are trying to assume?’

M: ‘King of all Trades?’

O: ‘We aren’t kings of anything though, not even ourselves.’

L: ‘What about ‘Ace’ instead of ‘King’?’

‘What is your reasoning behind that?’

L: ‘In sports, a team’s ‘Ace’ is their best player. In cards, it is the only card that can beat the ‘King’ which is the top of a suit. Finally, when most things are going bad, most people have an 'ace in the hole' or an 'ace up their sleeves,' which implies they have something that will give them an advantage. Basically it has the connotation of being the ‘best’ or the ‘strongest’.’

‘I see. All in favor of our role being, or attempting to be the “Ace of All Trades” say ‘Aye’.’

L: ‘Aye.’

O: ‘Aye.’

M: ‘Aye.’

D: ‘Aye.’

Because it will be amusing to watch you fail, Aye.

D: ‘It seems it is a unanimous decision, my lord.’

‘Very well. This strategy meeting is now adjourned. We will meet again later to build our better monster. Everyone dismissed.’

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