Not long after Jason separates from the lionman’s group he settles down. While not night yet he knows there will not be any monsters ahead today. Maybe tomorrow more will come from within the wasteland. For now, though the other group will have cleared the way. With little else to do Jason settles down to check over his progress. Pulling up his character sheet he reads through everything.

Basic Info

Name: Jason

Level: 9 - 0.52% [+2lv 0.52%]

Legal Status: New Player

Title: Willful Survivor

Normal Stats

Strength 37 ( 23[Base] + 10[Eq] + 4[Set] ) [+3] Toughness 45 ( 31[Base] + 10[Eq] + 4[Set] ) [+1] Agility 41 ( 27[Base] + 10[Eq] + 4[Set] ) [+3]

Auxiliary Stats

Defense 42 ( 30[Eq] + 12[Set] ) HP 40 Energy 4

Organizations

Adventurers Guild - Basic Member - Rank F

Odd Ones Out - Team Member - Leader

Bonuses

Knowledge Bonuses:

+2% success rate when using an Energy Herb as an ingredient or growing one. Ability to identify the maturity of a Herb with relevant Identify Skills

Discovery Bonuses:

+2% success rate when using an Energy Herb or growing one Able to get a feeling for maturity of a Herb without a skill Control of Experience intake

Titles:

Willful Survivor - Increased ability to affect the System through your Will

Skills

Energetic Body Reinforcement

Accepting only purity of body and mind you have given up past concepts of self for the uncertainty of truth.

Initiate Level 9 - 7.12% [+5lv 7.12%]

Rarity: Truth

Type: Passive, Cultivation

Effects:

Filtering Cycle - Gain only 10% of absorbed energies but they are extremely pure Purity of energy - Because of the purity of your energy higher levels have a lower scaling on what is needed to level up and the energy does more Body/Mind Unification - Despite any stat limitations your ability to fully control your body strengthens Energized Flesh - Can hit incorporeal things for 27% [+15%] of normal damage with body Material Body (Hard Leather) - With time your body can become like living metal or hard like a diamond [Leather -> Hard Leather] Untainted Core - No longer does your body attempt to mimic internals so status effects like broken bones heal twice as fast because you don’t have any

Desolate Traversal Technique

A combination of traditional parkour and energy use. While considered a basic skill it is highly ranked among them. Generally learned by rogues it is however open for anyone to learn. This skill has ranked up through comprehension of parkour being about efficiency of movement. A rare feat as it has been noted by an unnamed master that, “teaching a man parkour isn’t about how to jump over walls but rather beating into them that most of the time you should just walk through the gate”.

Apprentice Level 6 - 12.9% [+5lv 12.9%]

Rarity: Uncommon

Type: Passive, Movement

Effects:

Traction Assist - Based on predicted goal the System will modify the friction between user and any surfaces they are in contact with Powered Grip - Through the use of energy a user is able to temporarily stick to surfaces Distanceless Step - A combination of efficient movement and unconscious Energy use makes each step travel just as far as it needs to, including farther than it visually should have

Energetic Poison and Venom Resistance

One of the rare active skill based resistances. While still able to passively provide benefits this skill really shines when directly used. As there are many types of poison and venom the System has decided it is best like this rather than a stat as this allows more variety without littering the stat line with entries like ‘elven paralysis poison resistance’. Uses the best percentage.

Initiate Level 5 - 0.0%

Rarity: Exquisite Beginner

Type: Passive/Active, Energy, Adaptive

Effects:

Willful Purge - Able to send charges of Energy through the body to break down poison and venom in the body Poison Resistances - Immunity to Trash rank pain poisons Trash rank non-damaging poison resistance - 52% Trash rank poison resistance - 34% Low Normal rank poison resistance - 10% Normal rank poison resistance - 1% Venom Resistances - Trash rank paralysis venom resistance - 72% Trash rank non-damaging venom resistance - 22% Trash rank venom resistance - 10% Low Normal rank venom resistance - 1%

Blast Punch (Variant)

The normal Blast Punch is a ranged mana based skill similar to burning hands. A magic user would concentrate pure Mana around his fist then punch the air sending out a glowing ball of pure magic. Someone developed this skill to help fire mages counter low level fire based enemies. Preferred over the mana missile skill as the user does not have to focus on guiding it and thus allow dodging directly after use. However, that is not this skill. Not only has it been changed to use Energy instead of Mana it is no longer ranged. This Blast Punch is like the classic one inch punch, trying to get the most out of a short distance. However, instead of focusing the body’s explosive strength into a small burst of motion this skill focuses the users Energy. While someone can use it with a regular punch as long as the fist is punching the skill will work. This change causes the skill to no longer be ranged but as a tradeoff the Energy will only be used on a hit and some Energy will be pushed directly into the enemy providing armor piercing.

Novice Level 8 - 30.68% [+27.71%]

Rarity: Variant Beginner

Type: Energy Attack

Effects:

Frugal - This attack only uses energy on a successful hit Pure Force - Not affected by most types of resistance Armor Piercing - As the attack partially forms inside the enemy some damage will ignore armor. At the current level this distance is short and so will not pierce equipment or exceptionally thick natural armor.

Farming

You have shown yourself to be proficient at this classic skill. Don’t look down on it as these lands contain many mysterious plants with uncountable effects.

Novice Level 8 - 63.65% [+2lv 63.65%]

Rarity: Normal

Type: Passive, Production

Effects:

Sub-Skill Acquisition (Farming) - Allows one to gain the sub-skills related to farming Land Sense - Grants a sense for the condition of any area you could grow your plants Growth Assist - Plants under your constant care grow up to 10% faster Specialty (Energy Herb) - Having gained the skill through exclusively growing one type of plant all effects of the Farming skill and Bonuses are doubled for it

Equipment

Living Amber Skeletal System

Description:

This masterpiece of magical items is the opposite of the undead. While undead are the living that are killed and turned into magical items, this is a magical item turned into a living piece of a creature. An intricately carved full skeleton made entirely of Magical Amber. It was then hollowed out leaving just the barest of a lattice work. When magically implanted into the host the bone marrow was grafted into these cavities. Because of difficulties and dangers that appear when trying to enchant a living creature they have instead been imbued with magic.

Effects:

Sap like Blood - The blood produced by the marrow is more viscous and sticky when it leaves the body. Slower bleed rate and more likely to stop bleeding Crafted Bones - Because of the material and structure, the bones are tougher and can take an impact easier One and the Same - Despite being a magical item they will not show up as a separate item and only appear under the possessors character screen. Any attempt at removal will face the same difficulties as removing a person's actual bones. Soulbound - Not even death will part you from this item

Bonuses:

+5 [base] toughness +5 [base] hp

Complete Weaponless Rabbit Leather Martial Arts Beginners Set

Set Items:

Beginners Rabbit Leather Helm Beginners Rabbit Leather Jerkin Beginners Rabbit Leather Arm Guards Beginners Rabbit Leather Belt Beginners Rabbit Leather Grieves Beginners Rabbit Leather Boots

Description:

An Exquisitely crafted set of gear made entirely out of the cheapest quality of Rabbit Leather. Only through years of research and many crafters blood, sweat, and tears was this level of quality reached while keeping such a low price. All the pieces of this set have been specially created to be swapped between several configurations and thus there is no step by step set bonuses for it. A pair of boots, grieves, and a bastard sword are just as valid of a complete set as wearing something in every equipment slot. As for how it looks. Best way to put it is they tried.

Bonuses:

+30 Defense +10 Agility +10 Strength +10 Toughness

Set Bonuses:

+12 Defense +4 Agility +4 Strength +4 Toughness

The growth in both Energetic Body Reinforcement and Desolate Traversal Technique shocked him. Both advanced by 5 levels and Desolate Traversal was even Apprentice rank. His best guess is the area matches where it was developed. After all a wasteland is quite desolate. Outside of that his cultivation’s Energized Flesh ability has advanced linearly with skill level. To have his ability to hit the incorporeal go up by 3% every level is impressive. Other similar skill effects tend to front-load the increases early on. However after 50% the increases decline at a significant rate. Few ever get beyond 66% ability to interact. The linear increase of his effect provides hope of reaching 100% interaction.

Though all this fluff gathering by him on his skills is to distract himself from a realization. He had been going about something the hard way. Every morning he would guess and theorize about it. However Jason had the ability to remove all that guesswork. All of his trial and error to figure if his Energy Herbs had matured. He needed none of it because of the Discovery Bonus that would let him judge the maturity of a plant without using a skill. An actual skill might provide more solid info but that wasn’t needed for this.

Jason takes out his six Energy Herbs and sets them out. As the ability is not a skill, he will need to figure out how to use it. First though is to check on how the berries, both those he picked and the ones still on the plants, are doing. He had picked 20 berries. Five of them harvested with a bit of stem and a couple leaves still attached. This seems to have worked the best. The remaining 15 that had just been picked already started to wrinkle and lose their glow. On the other hand the five are looking fresh still though the leaves have dimmed. Jason nods to himself. While he never studied herbs in depth what he does know is special plants need special harvesting techniques.

He turns his attention back to the plants themselves. The Herb without any berries looks impressive. While Jason had been pruning them to make them more bush like this one expanded even more. It was the only Herb that overflowed the pot he planted them in.

The plant with a single berry still had glowing leaves. The fact the berries absorb Energy from the leaves was clear as a darkened area spread out from it. A good thing too as the three plants with five berries each had completely dark leaves. While Jason assumed the berries absorbed more Energy the single berry plant actually proved it. With the five berry plants it could have just been that Energy dissipates off the leaves.

The last plant stabilized at 32 berries and the leaves had lost their glow days ago. The part that makes it different is that unlike the other plants it has gone further. Not just taking the Energy but with how the leaves are shriveled up the berries have sucked up the liquids as well. Though while it does not look healthy, the plant should survive for a while longer.

Finished with a visual check up of the plants Jason turns to his ability. It would have been easier if he had a skill to try it with first. However life happens and he can only grope in the dark with this problem. “It shouldn’t be too hard. I have had the ability for a long time. With the bonuses they don’t get handed out unless you can already use them. Thinking about what I had shown to the game there wasn’t much. This Discovery was right when I first entered the game. All I had done was sense my Energy and push it into the Guild’s Id stone thing. I can try something similar with the plant but pull the Energy back.”

Jason sits down in front of the plant with one berry and begins to meditate. Instead of cultivating like normal he instead swirls his Energy around. At first his control is shoddy. Until now he just used it through skills. While gaining the skills at first he had to move the Energy afterwards, the System took care of it. Now he was moving it free-form. Not being satisfied with this he settles in to practice.

After a couple hours, he has it under control. While rough, Jason’s Energy is flowing in a tight whirl around his heart core. He pulls a sliver of Energy away from this whirl. Guiding this sliver of Energy out to his hand then back. Another sliver, this time smaller, gets pulled out and returned. A couple more times he repeats this until the slivers no longer shrink. His control at its limits and a slight pounding around his temples he judges himself ready.

Jason raises his hands up on opposite sides of the plant with a single berry. Ready he once again extracts a sliver of Energy and sends it to his hand. This time though instead of just returning it Jason sends it out of his palm. He can still loosely feel the Energy as it loses coherence and passes through the plant. However as soon as it reaches his other hand and re-enters his body a burst of information filters into his mind. While this information is flowing Jason struggles through it to make sure the Energy returns to his core. Then he relaxes and lowers his hands before going over what he has learned.

A flavor, a sound, a color, something in between? Whatever it was Jason could only label it as trippy. In this barrage of strange a few points stood out. A cold winter’s wind for something dead or dying. The smell and color of a cherry blossom of a thing filled with life. The final sensation is the crunch of a ripe melon of something ripe to bursting. Overall, not very helpful. Then an idea strikes him. Repeating his actions but this time instead of his palms around the whole plant he puts 2 fingers on both sides of the berry. The sliver of Energy flows through the berry and with less distance stays together better. With its return besides a few faint sensations it immerses Jason in the feeling of a crunchy melon at the peak of ripeness.