“You took longer…” It wasn’t more than a second after Ajax exited the dungeon that Verya was right up in his face. “Much longer than you said it would take you. There isn’t a dungeon break following you out, is there? You should have been able to deal with a floor boss at your power level.”
“No there isn’t.” Ajax took a mont to process everything that was thrown at him before he started answering. “There were plants grown from magma on the first floor, never had a chance to work with those before. What’s your problem?”
“You’re an alchemist, huh?” Verya once more turned her neck in a manner reminiscent of a prey bird eyeing up its next al. “My problem is that we need to get moving.”
“Why the hurry?” Ajax asked.
“Because the first thing Elduin is going to do once he gets ho is complain to his parents.” Verya snapped at Ajax. “Parents who will see this as a good lesson for him and a better opportunity for them.”
“Why aren’t we moving then?” Ajax felt a cold shiver run up his spine at the thought of powerful sidhe coming for him.
“We’re not in that much of a hurry.” Verya realized how paranoid her point made Ajax and while they started to move again they weren’t sprinting. “Elduin can’t move as fast as we did, not to ntion he had to be a lot more careful on his way back since there wasn’t anyone with him. On top of all that he will insist that his parents bring him with them when they co after you and that will slow them down a lot.”
“Why not just leave him at ho then?” Ajax asked.
“Because they like to spoil him.” Verya explained. “There is a reason why he has so much influence over
and others around my level, we all know how his parents dote on him. So you at least make so progress as an alchemist in the dungeon?”
Ajax knew his Skills didn’t grow by leaps and bounds but he was shocked when he looked at his Experience. Already he was more than halfway through Level 57, the rate he was leveling at was nothing compared to what he had managed in Gryndor. Even in the last few months when he benefited from the experience boost the lack of danger or ti pressure outside of two fights hadn’t pushed him as much.
“That good?” Verya raised an eyebrow at his silence.
“I made so gains.” Ajax admitted but didn’t want to overshare. “Speaking of making gains, I still have one question. What do the sidhe know about Skills?”
Verya almost hit a tree and had to swerve at the last mont to dodge it. “That’s too general of a question.” She said after a mont of silence. “You’ll have to narrow the scope of the question or the answer I will give you will be so bare bones you’ll feel cheated.”
Ajax could feel the deal was on her side but he wanted to get a better idea of how the Ascended viewed Skills before he shared anything about what humanoids knew about them. “I want a complete answer to this question. Can we make this one count for more than one. Maybe like two or three? This will an you get to ask
two questions before it’s my turn again.”
Ajax was also testing to see if an agreent that was made could be altered after the fact if both parties agreed. He was especially curious if the change would also be subject to his own restriction of specific wording or if any sort of agreent would work on it.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
“That could work.” Verya nodded. “We will count this question as three question and I will give you a complete answer, deal?”
“Deal.” Ajax felt the Mana swirl a little around them both, he felt so resistance from the Mana inside his body but it was overpowered in short order. This put Ajax on guard, he would have to be careful about any changes he made to any deals in the future or change the wording of his opening statent to any sidhe a little to cover this loophole.
“Where to start?” Verya wondered aloud.
Verya started with the absolute basics that very much matched what the humanoids knew about Skills. They were different rarities, they gave experience when first earned and that they would also give Experience as they leveled but that was variable depending on the impact of the action and the difficulty.
Ajax was surprised to find out the impact of the action mattered. “What do you an the impact of the action matters?”
“It’s not sothing you see as much with combat, crafting or absorption Skills but very noticeable with social Skills. An ambassador creating lasting peace between two races could gain two levels even after they are level on hundred on the back of the impact his actions had when they were backed by the Skill.” Verya explained.
“All sidhe can by default raise any Skill to level one hundred and ten. After that your Trait and political station can add to that all the way to one hundred and fifty.” This revelation almost made Ajax curse the sidhe out. He also couldn’t help but wonder how that would interact with his DIvine Witness Trait, unlike all the other Traits it didn’t ntion anything about not pushing Skills past level one hundred and fifty, though he was pretty sure it was the first addition to be applied to any of his Skill level limits so he was also limited to one hundred and fifty for now. “Then we have rarities. Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Pseudo-Mythic and Mythic.”
“Pseudo-Mythic?” Ajax asked. “What’s that?”
“I’m not surprised you haven’t heard about it, I wouldn’t imagine any humanoid would have one.” Ajax wanted to take offense to that but his [Diplomat] Skill was telling him there was no offence intended. “You see the difference in rarities isn’t linear. The difference between a Common and Uncommon Skill is about the sa difference as between an Rare and Epic Skill, but the difference between Uncommon and Rare is about twice to three tis as big as between Common and Uncommon. The difference between Epic and Legendary is about twice or the difference between Uncommon and Rare.”
Ajax nodded at that. With the number of Skills he unlocked that pretty much lined up with his personal experience. There was obviously a little leeway since Mana Skills were baseline Uncommon at least but he was pretty sure even if the sidhe knew the reason for it, it wouldn’t be common knowledge.
“The difference between Legendary and Mythic is about twice as large as between Epic and Legendary.” Verya took a mont to pause. “Comparitevly.”
That last word almost made Ajax trip on the flat ground. He knew just how powerful Legendary Skills were in comparison to Epic Skills to think that Mythic Skills were twice as strong comparatively to Legendary Skills. He was almost afraid of how much power anyone with a Mythic Skill would have.
“Psedo Mythic Skills are a the odd ones out.” Verya continued to explain. “They are close in power to Mythic Skills and are generally a precursor to getting a Mythic Skill. Unlike other rarities Pseudo Mythic Skills aren’t gained so much as they are unlocked. All you need is five Legendary Skills working together. Legendary Mana affinities are particularly prized for their flexibility in obtaining a Pseudo Mythic Skill.”
Verya continued to talk about Thresholds and how they were used to personalize Skills but other than the scary fact that Mythic Skills had Thresholds every ten levels and that Pseudo Mythic Skills had no thresholds it was all things he already knew. Instead Ajax was thinking about how he could gain his own Pseudo Mythic Skill.
“The final thing we know is that Skills are gained based on your racial disposition and your own personal talent.” Verya said, this caused Ajax to focus on the current discussion and leave his thoughts about gaining a Pseudo Mythic Skill for later.
“Racial disposition?” Ajax asked.
“Most races have a natural disposition for certain Skills.” Verya rolled her eyes. “A fire elental would always gain the [Fire Aspect Mana] Skill, regardless how low his personal talent for the Skills was. That’s not to say there wouldn’t be a difference to how far or how fast he can push the Skill compared to another elental but in terms of gaining it’s guaranteed.”
“Now not all dispositions are pushed as far as Skills being guaranteed and it can also be negative.” Verya continued. “That sa fire elental would have no chance of getting [Water Aspect Mana] regardless of his own talent for the Skill.”
What Verya didn’t ntion was sothing she managed to find in one of the books she read in the study of their village’s elder. She had won access to it in a deal she made when she was a kid but the knowledge stayed with her. While initially beneficial, a race's disposition could actually lower the top end of affinity towards a Skill while also raising the floor. An odd lizard had an above 95% chance of gaining [Water Aspect Mana] but almost none of them
could push it past level fifty.
In this respect Verya was a little ashad to admit that she was a little jealous of humans, which were thought to be the only race that had an absolute zero racial disposition towards Skills, it was all based on their personal talents. Other humanoid races were also leaning that way but it was obvious they had so disposition towards Mana since Mana skills were prevalent among them.
“That should cover everything in terms of general knowledge.” Verya said, and Ajax had to admit he was pleased with what he had learned. “Now it's ti for my questions.”
Reviews
All reviews (0)