Chapter 6: Skill

Chapter 6: Skill

It was the sight of Ameliah leaving that really hammered it all home for Rain. He was alone, isolated by language, culture, and time. Adrift in a sea of unfamiliar faces, unable to speak the language, struggling with his grasp on reality, Rain decided he needed a minute. He walked over to one of the rows of benches along the side of the room, sat down, and rested his head in his hands.

This really was quite a situation he had found himself in. In the left pocket of his pajama pants, he had half of a trail ration, his jaw not having been up to finishing his supper from the day before. In his right pocket, he had the little vial with a single crystal shard inside, no bigger than a grain of rice. Wrapped around the vial was the quest notice, the layer of paper adding some meager protection to the glass vial.

His plain white t-shirt was crumpled and he was barefoot. His messy brown hair was badly in need of a wash, preferably with some shampoo, and only the fact that many of the adventurers crowding the room smelled as bad or worse than he did kept him from dying of shame.

His unusual attire was getting him some stares from the other occupants of the room. Too overwhelmed to care, Rain stared right back, noting swords, shields, bows, axes, spears, staffs, and so forth. No guns, no plastic, nothing even remotely electronic. Just men and women, mostly dressed in shades of brown and green, mostly armed, and mostly dangerous looking. He watched them come and go, his stomach rumbling at his lack of breakfast, and his mouth dry. Sighing, he got up to look for the bathroom and something to drink.

Gus looked up from behind his counter as Rain rose from his seat, but made no move to stop him when he headed for one of the hallways leading off of the main room. Rain hadn't seen anything like a bathroom down the hallway to the bunk room, so he picked the other wing of the building and headed down the hallway. The hallway was dim in the morning light, only illuminated by the windows letting sunlight into the main room.

He found the bathroom, or just toilet he supposed, it not having anything remotely resembling a bath. It left much to be desired. He saw no way for him to wash his hands or even a mirror for him to tame his hair. He tried not to think about all the diseases he was probably acquiring as he walked to the toilet with his bare feet.

His business taken care of, he searched the small room. He noted that they did have something approaching toilet paper, but he didn't need that right now as it hadn't been that kind of business. The toilet had no flush obviously, and he felt no desire to look down the dark shaft. Thankfully, there was a heavy scent of pine in the air from some sort of greenery pinned to a wall, and, while primitive, the facility was clean enough. He still felt like he needed a shower though.

Exiting the bathroom, he suppressed a full body shudder at the thought of his unwashed hands, or, more accurately, the thought of everyone else's unwashed hands. Instead of heading back to the main room, he continued down the hall, following the sound of several people talking. Ignoring closed doors along the hallway, he came out into another large room which seemed to be some sort of restaurant or bar. There were tables strewn about, a bar, with no-one behind it at the moment, and a few people lounging around and talking. Nobody looked up as he came in.

Rain saw a man filling a mug with a ladle of water from a barrel near the bar. Trying not to think about where the man's hands had been, Rain grabbed a mug from the bar, filled it, and drank it down. He re-filled the mug, then made his way over to a table to sit and think.

Well, here I am. Time to think about priorities. Humm. Priority one, don't die. To that end, I need food. I have 1 Tel, but I don't know how much that is worth. I also have half of a nutritional brick, but I'd better save that for later if I am starving or I need to break a window. So then, priority two is food so I don't die and priority three is money so I can buy more food. I guess I could go out and search the city for food, but that isn't solving the larger problem. I'm a little hungry right now, but I have skipped breakfast before, so it can wait.

Fishing out the paper from his pocket, Rain looked at the picture of the slime and the little sword. They must make these this way so people can pick up quests quickly by scanning for the symbols. That, and probably some of these people can't read. Given the tech level, I wouldn’t expect schools to be a thing. Having the clerk explain the quest is a simple solution, at least for stuff like this. Anyway, I think that I can do this, killing five slimes doesn't sound so bad, as long as they come one at a time. Five Tel as a reward seems pretty good I guess, and that is in addition to the 5 that will drop from the slimes. I'd feel a lot better with 11 Tel than 1.

Retrieving the vial from his pocket, Rain shook it, looking at the little white crystal. So monsters drop these, or at least slimes do at any rate, and these adventurers use them as currency. Seems pretty inconvenient, but then again, I'm not sure what they are worth. It could be that 1 Tel buys me food for a month, though judging by how many were in the sack that woman had, somehow I doubt that.

Sitting up and slapping his face, Rain grabbed the vial and re-wrapped it in the paper before shoving it in his pocket. Well, I'm not going to get them just sitting here. I've spent plenty of time sulking about what I don't have, let's see what I do. Attributes. Statistics.

Attributes

Richmond Rain Stroudwater

Level 2

Experience: 100/200

Unclassed

Health

200

Stamina

200

Mana

200

Strength

10 (+)

Recovery

10 (+)

Endurance

10 (+)

Vigor

10 (+)

Focus

10 (+)

Clarity

10 (+)

Free Stat Points

30

Statistics

Total

Base

Modifier

Health

200

200

0 | 0%

H.Regen

100/day

100/day

0 | 0%

Stamina

200

200

0 | 0%

S.Regen

100/day

100/day

0 | 0%

Mana

200

200

0 | 0%

M.Regen

100/day

100/day

0 | 0%

Movement Speed

10

Perception

10

Resistances

Heat

Cold

Light

Dark

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

Force

ArcaneThis chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

Mental

Chemical

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

As an afterthought, he pulled up the attributes menu, hesitated for a moment, then shrugged and dumped 10 points into clarity, bringing his regeneration up to 200/day.

This way, I can go out every day and use all my mana. I think I’m getting an idea for a build here. I need to check the math, but maybe...

Rain was smiling happily as he looked over his status, trying to keep his expectations realistic and failing, his mind wandering off into his own private fantasy of his future badassery.

Attributes

Richmond Rain Stroudwater

Level 2

Experience: 100/200

Unclassed

Health

200

Stamina

200

Mana

200

Strength

10 (+)

Recovery

10 (+)

Endurance

10 (+)

Vigor

10 (+)

Focus

10 (+)

Clarity

20 (+)

Free Stat Points

20

Statistics

Total

Base

Modifier

Health

200

200

0 | 0%

H.Regen

100/day

100/day

0 | 0%

Stamina

200

200

0 | 0%

S.Regen

100/day

100/day

0 | 0%

Mana

200

200

0 | 0%

M.Regen

200/day

200/day

0 | 0%

Movement Speed

10

Perception

10

Resistances

Heat

Cold

Light

Dark

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

Force

Arcane

Mental

Chemical

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

1 | 0%

Skills

Refrigerate (1/10) Exp: 0/100

7-8 cold (fcs) damage per second to entities and environment

Sufficient damage causes slow

Range: 1 meter

Cost: 5 mp/s

Extend Aura (1/10) Exp: 0/100

Extend aura range by 1 meter

Multiply aura mana cost by 120%

Free Skill Points: 1