It was getting on toward evening, and Kraant was tired from the walking and the occasional fight. He hadn’t managed to get Pebl a Life aspect yet, which was a little worrying. He figured the soul-solidification would happen at the same time as the Evolution, so if he didn’t have all 8 aspects it might limit the range of options available. He was definitely going to evolve him, too, and not just shift his contract. The little rock was turning into quite the flexible spell-slinger. He’d even gained some stamina and MP, which seemed to function a little differently from Kraant’s spell slots. Pebl’s spells consumed one MP each, except for Spark. Since Spark had level up, he could now choose to spend two MP to cast a better version of the spell. It didn’t seem quite as powerful as two casts of the level 1 version, but it was faster and it did have a little better accuracy at range, although that might have been his upgraded Control stat. It also had a better chance of catching the enemy on fire, but again, not quite double the level 1 version.

As for Kraant himself, he’d been able to butcher some enemies, and even tried stretching his Sculpt: Flesh skill a little, and carved a morbid meat-rose. It wasn’t particularly attractive, even as far as a sculpture of meat could be attractive, but it stopped rotting entirely. It was now classified as a Trophy, and could be used to decorate a room. In theory, anyway… in practice, once they confirmed the effect of the skill, they hurled it into the trees and Pebl cast Summon Bees. It was the only time he’d ever used that spell, and apparently it was slightly mis-named. It actually summoned a few dozen wasps, that quickly attacked the rose… and when they couldn’t eat it, they picked it up together and flew off. Kraant shuddered at the thought of a nest being built around it like an altar… ugh.

Gina had almost hit level 8 in Arrow of Dawn, and Kraant was close to leveling up in both his classes. After setting up camp, or setting up snares while Gina set up camp, he sat down with his dinner and looked over his Status. It was… not the worst. He could work with this, especially if he kept getting new spells for a couple more levels. Apparently, most magi had to seek out teachers or rare spellbooks to expand their spell list after about level 5, and the NPC’s claimed that you’d get another 5 for levels 1-5 of each “tier” of your class. So, on the way to Archmagus, Kraant would get a minimum of 26 spells or abilities, including the gift of Contract Familiar. Neat! Each spell had been useful so far.

Identity and Attributes

Name

Kraant, Friend of Kue’s Monks

Power

2

Load Cap.

40

Race

Kobold*

Control

6

Stamina

50

Age

22

Charisma

3

Spells

0/2

Size

3’11”

Morality

0

-

-

M.Class

Magus*

Knowledge

3

-

-

S.Class

Trapper

Sense

2

-

-

HP

15/15

Luck

7

-

-

MP

0/30

Authority

0.5

-

-

* Denotes special, hidden modifiers. These can be examined only by the statholder or a Divine-level Appraisal.

Classes

Life Magus

3/10

72%

125/173

Trapper

4/10

95%

287/302

Skills, Abilities, Arts, and Spells

Skills

Abilities

Arts

Spells

Endurance

3

5%

Regenerate 1

MAX

MAX

Craft: Traps

4

5%

Ward: Living

5

2%

Detect Trap

2

3%

Stealth

4

48%

Sculpt: Flesh

1

60.0%

Detect Living

2

23%

Raging Flurry

1

30%

Engineering: Mechanical

1

0%

Contract Familiar

MAX

MAX

Siphon Life

2

0%

Equipment

Head

Torso

Lower Body

Arm, L

Arm, R

Leg, L

Leg, R

Hand, L

Hand, R

Accessories

Void Robe

Loincloth

Shin of Trent

Claws

Claws

0

0

0

0

2

0

1

1

1

0

Interaction Status

Physical

P. Def.

7

P. Dodge, Complete

0.6%

P. Atk., Melee

6

P. Atk., Range

0

Social

S. Def.

3.5

P. Dodge, Partial

6%

Soc. Atk.

4.5

Blend %

3%

Mental

M. Def.

3.5

M. Conceal

1.5

M. Atk.

2.5

Retain %

3%

Legend

Kraant was dissatisfied with his life as a trapper in the Kobold-controlled Hematite Mine 175-B, and left his home and clan behind. He was able to last a few days before his first encounter with the Higher Races, and was captured by a band of elven bandits. He was sold into slavery, brought to the Irongem Mountain Mine 34-C, and used for organ storage. He was nearly killed by Rrrobert, but was saved by the timely intervention of Lung-Tze. He was put under Geas by Lung-Tze, but has been released to the world at large, under the condition that he return at least once a year. He has contracted a Familiar, a simple stone named Peblus Magnificus, and it shares the affinities of Fire and Metal. He wished to sacrifice time and effort to the Goddess Kue, out of fear of what she might do if slighted, and gained the Title "Friend of Kue's Monks". He is traveling with an Arrow of Dawn, and looks forward to progressing as a Magus and a Trapper.

And, of course, his Familiar.

Name

Peblus Magnificus, of the Order of Kue

Power

2

Load Cap.

0

Race

Hot Wet Dark Shining Rooted Anti-Rock

Control

3

Stamina

4

Age

2 days

Charisma

8

Spells

6

Size

Tiny

Morality

0

Spell: Spark

2, 5%

Class

Familiar

Knowledge

6

Spell: Dampen

1, 10%

HP

2/2

Sense

7

Spell: Splash

1, 15%

MP

1/7

Luck

4

Spell: Summon Bees

1, 5%

Authority

0

Spell: Two Shadows

1, 10%

Spell: Flash

1, 15%

Not a bad start. He curled up in the lean-to and logged out.

Nathaniel stretched and popped all his aching joints. He set Clara to editing a few videos together, including a Combat Highlights Reel, and made sure that she wouldn’t include any personal information that he or Gina had shared. That part was a surprisingly tricky maneuver, since Clara didn’t really understand what was too personal to share- just what made for interesting viewing. Like every soap opera or sitcom, she knew the value of secrets and drama for maintaining interest.

He decided to take a walk around the block. He was feeling pretty good, all things considered, but he wanted to work the kinks out of his muscles and give his mind more than a few minutes away from Final Escape. It was a little disconcerting, how long it was starting to take before he really felt like his 1.7 meter body, shaped like a human, was really his. He found himself vaguely missing his tail, missing the ability to sense the life around him. Humanity was too tall, too unbalanced, too blind to the world around them. Although, he admitted, being warm blooded was nice. Maybe he should try to find a fire-aspected tunic or something to go under his robe…

No! Not thinking about the game. Thinking about reality. Smell the Chinese food from the local take-out place, taste the ozone of the oncoming storm, hear the footsteps of that person following him… no, not following him, never mind. They turned the corner. Wait a second, he’d been a solid five meters past that intersection when… Nathaniel felt a slight chill run down his back. Had he always been this observant of the people around him?

He had to get away, he realized. There were too many people, too close. None of them were in arm’s reach, but they crowded him all the same. It was too much, too little space to himself, he had no way to defend himself if someone wanted to rob him, not even a pocket knife! He found himself trying to mentally order Pebl to prepare Spark.

He shook his head. No, this is the city. It’s always like this, in fact it’s usually more crowded. And Pebl was in-game, he wasn’t real. Calm down, Nathaniel. Nonetheless, he turned around and went back inside, walking a little faster than usual. He wasn’t tired, but Kraant was. He could take a nap as Kraant and forget all about this.

“What the hell, man? I thought you were some hardcore gamer.” Gina sounded fairly irritated.

“uh. What?”

“You just logged out, without even warning me when you’d be back. Kraant’s been curled up in ball, and you didn’t even set him to sleep! You just wasted 8 hours!”

“Uh. Sorry about that, I didn’t realize he wouldn’t sleep automatically.”

“Normally, he would. You must have changed the settings somewhere, so he just stays in a kind of coma until you come back. But look, I bet you anything that you’ve got the “exhausted” status from staying up all night after wandering all day.”

“Uh. Yeah. Yeah I do.”

“…dumbass. This is gonna slow us down pretty bad. Here.” Gina reached into her cloak, which apparently had some kind of pockets on the inside, and pulled out a flask of glowing orange liquid. “This is a Firebrand Tonic. It’s not easy to make, or to get, but I have a couple from my starting scenario. It’ll help you ignore fatigue and wounds.”

“Actually, the effect isn’t as bad as you think. It’s only a 5% reduction in Stamina and Control until I get a full rest. One of the perks of my Title.”

“…Huh.” She withdrew the potion and tucked it back into her cloak. “Well then. Let’s get going?”

“Sure.” Kraant reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of jerky. He’d been experimenting a little last night, with Gina’s help. It had turned out alright, all things considered. It sort of tasted like wood, though, which he guessed he deserved for, apparently, oversleeping.

The rest of the day was spent trying to break through to the next level in both of his classes, and trying to find a life-aspected enemy for Pebl. The woods had, initially, seemed like a good place for that, but apparently Life was just sort of a supplement to most creatures. Everything had it, but it never seemed to be the predominant Aspect. They thought that maybe certain healing herbs might have a high concentration of Life mana, but since neither of them were particularly good with herbs (Gina technically had an Herb Lore skill, but she’d never really used it, so it was… unreliable at best), there wasn’t any good way to test it out. Which was worrying, because everything Pebl or Kraant killed gave Pebl some mana that pushed it ever closer to the point where it would have to evolve, or explode. Kraant got the impression that Pebl had already been holding off the urge to Evolve for several encounters, probably since killing the Twin-Tailed Fox… if it couldn’t release the magical pressures inside, its Life mana would get overwhelmed by everything else it had absorbed. That was another good reason to find him a Life source- if he could stabilize his Mana imbalance, then he might be able to push forward a little longer and amass more Mana before the evolution. Of course, the balance was more important than anything else, but a sufficient source might let him stay stable for quite a while, as long as he could find equivalent sources for the other 6 elements. Having been a rock all his life, he was quite stable regarding his Metal Aspect, but the others… they could easily get overwhelmed if he wasn’t careful. Kraant wouldn’t even let him near the fire when they made camp, but still had him use Spark as his main combat spell, in hopes that he could vent some of his overpowering Fire Aspect in favor of a balanced combination.

While setting his snares for the evening, Kraant was delighted to feel a slight improvement in his skills mid-set. Suddenly he was a little more confident, a little more dexterous… he’d leveled up! He pulled up the notification, and discovered his level 5 perk for Trapper… a skill called Reflexes. He skimmed the description and banished the notification, preferring to get a feel for it through practice. Essentially, it seemed like it would activate sometimes, probably based on his Luck stat and his Dodge chances, and instead of simply avoiding an attack, he would turn it somehow to his advantage. Like grabbing an opponent’s sword arm and disabling the elbow with his talons, he imagined. Neat!

He mentioned it to Gina around the campfire later, and she perked up a little. She always seemed more subdued at night, and he assumed it had to do with her Aspect.

“Speaking of which, I was wondering why you don’t mix skills. You only seem to use one at a time, even when they would work together really well.”

“What do you mean?” He cocked his head to one side.

“For example, I have Sixth Sense: Electromagnetism from my 5th level perk in Survivalist. I got to choose what my sixth sense would be, and I picked that one because it works well with my Aspect, but also because it lets me sense hiding enemies, or the little motions they might try to cover with a cloak. I use it a lot to help guide my Light-based attack skills, but I never see you use, say, Sculpt: Flesh while you’re clawing at an enemy with Raging Flurry.”

“Well, in my defense, Sculpt: Flesh only works on meat, not hair or hide. And I have my staff now, that shin the Trent dropped yesterday.”

“Still, though, you must have some useful combinations. Why haven’t you been using them?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it. I’m used to rotating skills so that you’re using the best one at any given time, and I hardly ever pick combat-focused classes anyway.”

“Well, you should think about it. You mentioned that Engineering: Mechanical was leveling really slowly, right? Maybe it’s not because you’re using simple traps, maybe it’s because you’re not making use of the tools available.”

“…Maybe.” Kraant got a little quiet after that, lost in thought. He really should have thought to use Sculpt: Flesh in combat, and he hadn’t made any kind of traps that could be deployed in battle, either. Caltrops, even, would be better than nothing. He looked at his staff and remembered how the tree he’d used Siphon Life on had withered. Maybe… maybe he wasn’t as useless as he’d thought.

The next day dawned bright and cheery, and as he checked the snares he worried a little less about spending his MP than he had before. He used Siphon Life to kill the sapling one was attached to, which immediately took the tension off the rope and made it easier to gather the materials he’d used initially. The next, he used Ward: Living on, making the branch the snare was tied to separate from the trunk. That was easier, too, and gave him a decent boost in the spell, just like warding his foot had. It seemed that precision and focus mattered for gaining EXP from skills. He spent a decent chunk of the day tinkering as they walked, tying and re-tying knots meant to disable joints when the snare closed. It was hard to imagine the struggling of an animal, and realistically predict the way it moved the rope. His Engineering skill gained more from this theoretical practice than two nights of snare-making combined, and even his Craft: Traps improved slightly.