‘What is… I just…’ Roge’s thoughts seem to falter as he reads the box over and over, a chill going down his spine as he thinks about who could be communicating with him. ‘What is this?’
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No, don’t try to answer that. I’m looking over the logs now. Just try to calm yourself while I assess.
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Roge suddenly could feel himself breathing again, the dragon closing his eyes and focused on taking deep, measured breaths. ‘Now I’m officially going insane,’ crosses his mind, another box appearing behind his eyelids not helping with the strategy of calming down.
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It’s not that bad, Roge, and you’re not going insane. From what I’ve already read, it wasn’t your idea to break things like this. Though I am going to put points into the ‘your fault’ category for unlocking this skill in the first place.
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‘I thought you couldn’t read my mind?’ he asked in his head, trying to slow his breathing at the same time to stop hyperventilating.
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If I had eyes to roll, I would. Being unable to *edit* your mind is a different feat than being able to simply ‘read’ it. Though reading is a fairly wrong way of looking at what I’m doing. Now. On to your [Status] screen. I’m giving you access to the adult version here, as no one has yet to mention turning the child features off.
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Feeling himself calming down at the fact that his mind couldn’t be changed, Roge looked at the new [Status] screen that popped up. He wanted to frown at it or groan, having a particularly nasty thought about ‘child features’.
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Status Screen
</td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
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<tr>
<td>
Name:
</td>
<td>
Roge Youngston
</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Age:
</td>
<td>
28
</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Species:
</td>
<td>
[Dragonkin]
</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Classes:
</td>
<td>
[Novice Gardener] Lvl. 1
</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td>
[Draconic Sorcerer] Lvl. 1
</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Attributes - [Fold]
</td>
<td> </td>
<td>
Skill Slots Used
</td>
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<td>
[Strength]:
</td>
<td>
7
</td>
<td>
(0/0)
</td>
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<td>
[Dexterity]:
</td>
<td>
31
</td>
<td>
(1/3)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
[Agility]:
</td>
<td>
16
</td>
<td>
(0/1)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
[Constitution]:
</td>
<td>
24
</td>
<td>
(0/2)
</td>
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<tr>
<td>
[Intelligence]:
</td>
<td>
49
</td>
<td>
(1/4)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
[Wisdom]:
</td>
<td>
23
</td>
<td>
(1/2)
</td>
</tr>
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<td>
[Charisma]:
</td>
<td>
14
</td>
<td>
(0/1)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
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<td>
Abilities - [Fold]
</td>
<td> </td>
<td>
Rank
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
[Draconic Breath]
</td>
<td> </td>
<td>
Rank 2
</td>
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<td>
[Static Mind]
</td>
<td> </td>
<td>
Rank 1
</td>
</tr>
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<td>
[Nature Magic]
</td>
<td> </td>
<td>
Rank 3
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
[Draconic Magic]
</td>
<td> </td>
<td>
Rank 1
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
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<td>
Skills - [Fold]
</td>
<td>
Rank
</td>
<td>
Ability Slot
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
[Novice Gardening]
</td>
<td>
Rank 3
</td>
<td>
Dex
</td>
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<td>
[Inspect]
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<td>
Rank 13
</td>
<td>
Wis
</td>
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<td>
[Ability Hoard]
</td>
<td>
Rank 3
</td>
<td>
Int
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
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<tr>
<td>
Quests - [Unfold]
</td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
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‘What’s with the strike through [Ability Hoard]?’ he asked, pointing the thought to whomever is speaking to him.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
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That is what we are currently going to be looking at. The logic is sound. Why not be able to grant similar abilities towards skills and such by upgrading your skill. The problem comes with the skill itself. It was made in a very… automatic way. Lesser machines trying to give you what you thought you wanted in the class.
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‘So isn’t the solution to just have you and me decide what the class is going to do?’ Roge felt like he needed to be included in this decision making, otherwise whatever admin he was speaking to could just take his abilities away.
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That… is a rather excellent point. I was going to design it myself (and no I was not going to take any of your abilities away), but having your input will make things smoother. So! First things first.
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[Inspect] Rank 13
See more detail on what you look at.
Aspects: [Ability] [Sight]
Cost: Very Low Magic
Specialties: Plant-life ([Nature Magic]), Status ([Draconic Sorcerer])
Added Effects: [Plant Effects](R1) ([Nature Magic]), [All Seeing] ({Draconic Magic])
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[All Seeing] Rank Max
See the truth of the world.
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‘That’s… not very helpful,’ Roge complained, flicking the effect screen away with a thought.
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I’m taking into consideration the fact that neither of us wants others to know about the truth of the world (which is earning you a lot of grace here). Instead of having to do a battle of wills to see the code, as you have been, you now just turn on or off this effect whenever you want. It will not allow you to see the screens of other sapients by itself, but it will make things break a lot less. It also gives a direct line to me whenever you encounter unexpected errors in the future, as I will be monitoring your [Inspect] log from now on.
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‘That’s… fair I guess.’
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Next is your skill. I can’t allow you to get buffs of skills, as that would just give you an unlimited amount of skills you could just take from others. I had decided to make skill coins unavailable, so any opinions you have on the matter could decide things here.
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Roge thought about that for a few moments, knowing that being able to swap skills between people would be a problem as well. ‘So a buff that doesn’t just replicate the effect of the skill could work?’
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Exactly. I can see what else you’re thinking in the back there, and I think it’s a good compromise. I’ll be including attributes in that latter category, as well as give both a significant downside.
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[Screen Hoard] Rank 4
Hoard the Abilities, Skills, and Attributes of various creatures or objects for your own end.
Aspects: [Ability] [Greed] [Enhancement]
Effects:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400">[Extract] an Ability Coin from a creature or object, damaging them in the process. Damage scales with higher ranked Abilities. Difficulty of extraction scales with the Rank of the subject and Ability, inversely scaling with this Ability’s Rank. If the object is destroyed by the process, Primordial Ash is created.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400">[Extract] a Skill Gem or Attribute Ingot from a creature or object, lowering that Skill or Attribute by one point per token taken. (Attributes -1 point; Skills -1 Rank)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400">[Deposit] an Ability Coin into a creature or object. When they reach capacity, Magically Sated status will be applied, duration dependent on rank of Ability and rank of subject. Sapient creatures are immune from this effect.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400">[Store] an Ability Coin, Skill Gem, Attribute Ingot, or Primordial Ash in your hoard. The more of one type you have in your inventory, the more you increase your personal power. Every 10 of one coin you have increases certain Buffs’ effects.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400">[See] into sapient creatures that have Primordial Ash in their inventory and consent to the process. The subject can hide as much information on their [Status] as they’d like, as well as being warned of this portion of the Ability when applicable. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400">[See] how your hoard can be used. </li>
</ul>
Buffs: [Color], [Pigment Buff] (Blue)
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‘So I assume the second [See] effect relates to the code as well?’ Roge asked, wanting to grin at the gems and ingots idea the admin had apparently liked.
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That is correct. Normally this powerful of an ability would be upgraded to reach this point, and I can’t justify giving you a higher level in it. So just be warned, this skill won’t get any added effects until rank 15. Also, the cost is not included in the description because it’s so variable depending on how you use it. So keep that in mind as your mana bottoms out for taking so many Glass Bottle Making Gems from such a high level person.
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Roge had practically no time to react to that last message, it disappearing as soon as he’d finished reading it. He had other things to worry about, however, his headache coming back full force with the amount of mana it took to pull his hand out of the screen as time started moving again. As the gems dropped to the table, Roge’s head nearly bashed into it too, his breathing labored as he tried to keep however much of his dinner in his stomach.
Thankfully, the people around him gave him time to compose himself, the dragon looking up to see both Constance and Judson looking at copies of his screens. He couldn’t see them before when they pulled them up, but he assumed his [All Seeing] effect made him more aware of his status. To bolster that assumption, he also saw pink and red screens sitting in front of them as well, though they looked blank to his eyes. ‘Right. The ash stuff or whatever.’
“That skill…” the lioness muttered, finally looking up at Roge’s face. “While I have seen skills as powerful as this, I’ve never seen one so unique.”
“Damn right it’s unique! I love working with dragons sometimes,” Judson hollered, smacking Roge’s knee under the table. “Totally worth ten ranks in that skill. Say, you know what those gems do? My [Inspect] isn’t specialized in them, so I can’t see much more than their name.”
Roge looked down at the pile of gems in front of him, picking one up to take a closer look at it. It looked like one of those fancy cut gems he’d see all the time in video games, though this one was perfectly clear like glass and in the shape of a potion bottle. Skinny neck with a round body and all. Barely an inch in diameter, the small gem looked fairly simple, but shiny to Roge’s eyes.
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Skill Gem Rank 1
Skills: [Glass Bottle Making](1)
The refined essence of a Skill. This gem contains the essence of turning raw materials into a glass receptacle for potions.
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“Looks like it’s one rank of your [Glass Bottle Making] skill. Hold on…” he muttered, grabbing the stack and shoving it into his hoard to see if there was a buff for ten of the gems.
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Glass Bottle Making Buff
Use one unit of Primordial Ash to add a glass bottle to your hoard. Synergizes with Color and Pigment buffs.
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Frowning at the description, and noting the others did as well, it took Roge a moment to figure out what the buff enabled him to do. “Oh! It lets me add my other buff effects to potion bottles. As long as something is considered a part of my ‘hoard’, I can use them on it.” He demonstrated that fact by changing the color of his shirt to more of a mint color, the priests blinking in surprise at the change.
“But can’t you just… already do that?” the goblin asked, Constance seeming to scroll through the various buffs on Roge’s screen.
“Only if I add one of the coins to it. This gives me the ability to just use the ash instead, letting me edit objects without adding abilities to it.” Roge jumped up and down at this idea, wanting to find the rest of the crafting related skills so he could edit more objects. He also wanted more modifying buffs like Color and Pigment, hoping he could strengthen or change the objects in other ways too.
“Okay, I think that’s enough for now,” the priestess cut in, her whiskers wiggling as Roge deflated somewhat. “This meeting wasn’t to brainstorm ideas or delve that far into his class. It’s to reevaluate Mr. Youngston’s probation. I have to cut off the fun at some point.”
“Speak for yourself. I’m going to try and hire this guy as soon as possible,” Judson muttered, waving to the priestess as she gave him another look.
“So. From what we’ve seen, and the reports that have been made about Paul, yes it seems like a very powerful class. If you gain access to spells from it, we expect a prompt reporting of it, but otherwise we will stick with once a week meetings to get an update on your [Status]. I don’t see any other need for it, as you seem to be somewhat responsible for the moment.” She gave the dragon a look at that last statement, Roge meeting her eyes and nodding. “So since there is some research to be done on your class, and Mr. Marshall here will want to speak to you about a business opportunity,” she said, waving her paw to the alchemist, “I will take my leave. Please try to be careful with your powers, Mr. Youngston.”
Roge opened his mouth to reply, shutting it slowly as Constance quickly got up and left the inn in a rush. Only one of the knights followed her out, the one who hadn’t spoken yet standing guard over the goblin, Roge assumed.
He had a lot to think about now with his class, feeling a bit of frustration flare at the other things in his life it was now piling onto. With the idea now in his head of upgrading his skills, upgrading his [Novice Gardener] class seemed like a no-brainer, focusing it more on magically helping the plants to synergize with his second class better. ‘Even something like Draconic Gardener would be better,’ he mused to himself, finally looking at the nearly vibrating goblin. He wasn’t sure if he had the energy to deal with him at the time, so he’d try and see if they could set up a meeting some other time.