Ritualist Page 4

  *10 points for each point in Constitution, once it has increased above 10.

  **5 points for each point in Strength, once it has increased above 10.

  ***5 points for each point in Constitution, once it has increased above 10.

  Characteristic: Raw score (Modifier)

  Strength: 6 (0.06)

  Dexterity: 6 (0.06)

  Constitution: 6 (0.06)

  Intelligence: 16 (1.16)

  Wisdom: 16 (1.16)

  Charisma: 10 (1.1)

  Perception: 16 (1.16)

  Luck: 12 (1.12)

  Karmic Luck: 0

  Joey had no money or gear on him, but apparently had one skill point he couldn’t assign until the second level. Not that he knew what it would do. He looked at the skill descriptions and a handy pop-up informed him that most skills and spells started at ‘novice’ and would get progressively better as they were used. When the level passed ‘nine’, the skill would be upgraded to a zero of the next rank.

  From lowest to highest, the ranks of skills were: Novice, Beginner, Apprentice, Student, Journeyman, Expert, Master, Grandmaster, and Sage. Looked like it would be a long journey to perfect a skill. Joe looked over all the options one more time, and after finalizing his decisions he took a deep breath and accepted the character. The world dissolved into shimmering motes of light, and Joe reappeared in a bustling city.

  ~ Chapter Five ~

  “Welcome to Ardania, capital city of the ‘newly returned to the world’ human Kingdom! It’s actually been about two hundred years, so I don’t know why that is still part of the greeting. Hmm. Maybe it is because you travelers don’t know our history?” A verbose lady greeted Joe as he appeared in a daze. The overload of information didn’t help his confusion. “Can I please ask your class so that I know where to direct you for some initial training?”

  “Um… yeah, thanks. I’m a r- I’m a cleric.” Joe nearly slapped himself at the close call. Right, ritualist needed to stay hidden, or people would not trust him for some reason. He tried to smile brightly, but he was trembling from the strain of standing upright. Joe stooped a bit, letting his muscles relax as he looked down at his skeletal body. People were going to think that he was a ghoul, he just knew it.

  “Oh! Do you know any magic? What deity do you serve?” She looked at him with shining eyes, paying far more attention than he thought he deserved with his non-enhanced charisma.

  “Yes, I can heal and pray for guidance, but my god is uhm… I don’t know yet. I’m undecided?” Joe hedged his words, trying not to give too much away.

  “That’s great! I’m sure you will be asked to join a whole bunch of groups right away! Awesome, I got to meet you before you were popular! How about you head over there for some instruction?” She pointed to an open courtyard, and a prompt appeared in front of his tired-looking face.

  Quest alert! Baby steps: Learn some basic information about using your abilities. Reward: Cleric scepter, Exp: 100. Accept / Decline

  Accepting the quest, he thanked the energetic lady and walked slowly toward the area she had indicated. He looked around, taking in all of the sights and sounds of the city. Joey was full of wonder; he had always needed glasses, and after several years in the army his hearing had been badly damaged. Now, his vision felt as sharp as an eagle’s and his hearing was like that of a bat; he could clearly make out details that he never would have been able to before, and it seemed that he could hear everything for several city blocks while still being able to make out individual conversations. To be fair, he was exaggerating quite a bit, but it didn’t change the fact that perception was amazing!

  Then he got a whiff of the city and nearly gagged. Oh right, a high perception had serious negatives as well. It seemed that hygiene wasn’t overly important here. Joe hurried at a snail's pace toward the square where a soldier–in obviously enchanted armor which gave off its own glow–was screaming at some low level fighter-type player.

  “You call that an attack? I’m surprised that sword had enough force to make it to the dummy, you dummy! How the abyss do you plan on taking down monsters when you can barely lift your weapon? Go find a bow or some other coward’s weapon!” the trainer screamed in the player's face. The person on the receiving end of the shouting had a totally blank expression. In fact it seemed he actually had only one facial expression at all, indicating that this must be one of the players who played with an outdated VR helmet.

  “Anyone know how to skip conversations?” the trainee suddenly yelled in an echoing voice at the people around him, making the soldier glare at him.

  “You want to skip conversations? Fine, you pompous little ass! You are going to die out there, and I refuse to have it on my conscience!” The guard turned, furious, and walked stiffly away, catching sight of Joe as he moved. “You! What do you want?”

  “I’m here for training, sir.” Joe respectfully informed him, trying not to make him angrier than he currently was.

  “No,” the guard grunted, looking at Joe’s sallow face, stooped and skeletal frame, and meager amount of muscle. He sighed, seeming to deflate as he looked at the wreck of a body. “Sorry to say lad, there is not much that I can do for you. You are polite, at least, but politeness doesn’t kill wolves. A sharp blade does.”

  “Ah. Well, I’m not really here to learn about swinging weapons around; I’m a cleric. I was hoping to find someone to teach me how to refine my craft. Healing and such,” Joe trailed off as the guard got an odd look on his face.

  “You mean you are a healer, right? A doctor? Bandages and such are in the supply shed over there.” He pointed at a small building to the side.

  “No sir, I’m a cleric. I’m supposed to be able to heal with magic, but am unsure how to actually do it,” Joe stated sincerely, not breaking eye contact.

  “Well, I’ll be…” the guard’s brow furrowed, “Never seen one of you magic types here before. If you want, you can heal some of my guards, and I’ll try to find a suitable reward for you. Sorry to say I won’t be much use teaching you magic though. If you need to learn, why don’t you,” he snickered a little, “pray about it? A cleric! That’s a good one.” He walked away chuckling, mood seemingly much better than it was previously.

  Joe was a bit miffed, but stopped himself from lashing out. The guard had a point, why not pray about it? He did have that option after all. Joe clasped his hands together and asked for guidance, and after a full minute of waiting he suddenly knew. He looked at the guards that he had been instructed to heal. A red outline showed up where they were injured, and a blue outline appeared around his hand. He moved his fingers in the patterns shown by the blue light, and pushed his intent to heal into the burgeoning spell. A ball of water launched from his hand, splashing against the guard he was targeting. The guard released a startled oath, making a few people laugh. The guard’s face reddened and he took a few threatening steps toward Joe before stopping in wonder. He took another step, testing the ankle that had given him trouble for years, then rushed over to the unknown person and thanked him loudly and profusely.

  A few of the other guards saw this and moved closer, clamoring for Joe to heal them as well after hearing the thankful words being sent his way. Joe repeated his actions, and small orbs of water left his hands to splash against the guards. After the fifth one had been healed, a notification appeared.

  Quest complete: Baby steps. Exp: 100.

  Nice! He had finished that quest in no time flat, as–he supposed–was the intent. The guard that had assigned the quest came over to talk to the men he had healed, and a sheepish look appeared on his face.

  The guard that had been directing the training then came to talk to Joe, “Well. Um. Thank you, holy one. I am sorry that I didn’t trust your words, but false healers come through here all the time peddling snake oil and cures that are often worse than the disease. We haven’t had a real cleric offer their services to the guards in over a decade. The gods have been absent from the common man for too long. If you’l
l wait here, I’ll go get you something we’ve been hanging onto on the off chance it would be of use.” He walked to the storage shed and rummaged around for a few minutes, coming back with a carved piece of wood.

  “Here, this is a cleric’s scepter. Using this will slightly increase the speed with which you can cast your spells.” Joe looked at the information that popped up when he touched the scepter.

  Basic Cleric scepter (Wood). Adds 2-4 blunt damage on strike. -10% cast time when casting cleric spells. 5% chance to use ability [Turn undead] on strike. To cast while holding, simply focus your will and intent into the scepter, and it will do the rest.

  “Listen cleric… my men don’t have much, but they are good men. For some reason, just over a month ago we had a huge influx of travelers. Some of them seem to delight in causing havoc, and a portion of them seem to feel no pain. I am the captain of the guard, and I feel responsible for my people. My men can’t keep up with the crime spikes, and have been getting hurt in the line of duty. Without proper care or magic, they are slowly becoming permanently injured. Will you help us out?” The guard did his best not to beg, but it was clear that he would if needed.

  Quest alert! Baby steps II: Heal at least ten guards. Reward: Exp: 200. Increased reputation with human city guards, and one piece of light armor (variable).

  Joe accepted the quest with a nod; what exactly did variable mean? A smile on his face, the guard captain ran off to send injured guards to the city square. Soon a steady stream of guards walked, limped, or were carried into the area. He moved to the one that was carried in first, focusing his mind on trying to inspect the man’s health bar.

  Perception + healing check succeeded! City guard: Health: 8/1000.

  Oh wow, no wonder this guy was barely moving. Joe got to work; instead of standing back and throwing ice-cold water on the damaged man he moved forward and put his hands next to the wound, trying to be as gentle as possible. He cast the spell ten times in roughly thirty seconds, essentially as fast as he was able to make the proper motion without his scepter. He didn’t want to be poking a wounded man with a stick after all. After ten casts, a new prompt appeared.

  Congratulations! Hard work is paying off, you have learned a variant of the ‘heal’ spell: Lay on hands (Novice I). Effect: Increased healing when touching the target of the spell. Healing done: 10n where n = skill level. Cost: 5n mana. Cooldown: 3 seconds. Range: Touch. As this is a variant of the spell ‘Heal’, it will add progress to the skill rank of the original as it is leveled and can never have a higher level than the origin skill.

  Joe quickly switched to using this new spell, casting it four times in quick succession. He began to feel tired but continued spamming the spell until the guard reached maximum health. The now-vigorous man stood tall and whooped for joy, dancing around and then profusely thanking Joe before running off. After that initial worst case, Joe was able to quickly soothe the injuries of the other guards in the area, far more than the ten needed to fulfill the quest. Being a medic for so long made it hard for him to leave suffering people–especially soldiers–to their fate. Luckily, with his huge mental scores boosting his power, he had a massive mana pool that refilled almost as fast as he managed to use it.

  When the last guard left the yard, he returned to the captain who shook his hand, tears in his eyes. “Thank you, lad. You don't know how much this means to all of us. You really went above and beyond what I asked for. Some of the boys chipped in a few coins to reward ya with some proper armor. So I pulled out the good stuff for you. It doesn’t look like much, but it's the best we can do. This should help keep ya alive, which is what you did for all of us.”

  Quest complete! Baby steps II. For going beyond the requirements without asking for or expecting an increased reward, the rewards have been doubled! Reputation gain has been tripled! (Note: this is uncommon in a harsh, uncaring world such as Eternia.) Exp: 400. Reputation with human city guards has been increased by 3000, from ‘Neutral’ directly to ‘Friend of Human Guards’ (bypassing ‘Reluctantly friendly’ and ‘Friendly’). 1000 reputation points remain to reach “Ally of Human Guards” status. Since this is your first reputation gain, please note that there are many distinct levels of reputation. From lowest to highest: Blood Feud, Loathed, Hated, Hostile, Cautious, Neutral, Reluctantly Friendly, Friendly, Friend, Ally, and Extended Family. There are one thousand points between each level.

  “Here you go; I hope it fits.” The captain hesitated before he handed over a soft robe that Joe put on before even reading the stats. “Just… I want you to know that as good as this robe is, it can easily be used for completely evil purposes, but it’s all we could find.”

  “Thank you!” Joe exclaimed, feeling the plushy robe. It did not look like a bathrobe–totally not–more like a typical monk's outfit. He didn’t hear the guard’s final few sentences, rather, he did hear them, but the words didn’t register.

  “No, young man, thank you! Bobby was stabbed almost to death in an alley yesterday–in broad daylight! Without you he would have likely… died today.” The captain looked away to try to hide his misty eyes. “There was nothing we could do. We were getting a death-fund ready for his wife and kids.”

  After a slightly uncomfortable silence, Joe coughed and redirected the conversation away from tear-jerking dialogue. “Is there anything else I can do to help?” he queried in a blatant attempt to get another quest.

  The captain shook his head knowingly. “I think you have a good handle on your abilities. Good luck out there. Please feel free to stop by anytime you like, and if we have injured, we will pay what we can for your skills if you’d be willing.” Joe agreed to help in the future if it was needed, thanking him and then walking a good distance away before pausing to look at the stats on his robe.

  Perception check failed! Knowledge check failed! Overruled, quest reward and owner of item.

  Undying robe. Item class: uncommon. Adds +5 physical defense, 20% resistance to non-magical cold. Special qualities: Any damage that does more than 20% of your max health at once, which would normally kill you, instead leaves you at one health point. (Note: being hit while at one health will still kill you.) Cooldown: Thirty minutes. Also known as robes of despair or robes of torture, this item is often used by ‘interrogators’ to ensure that they don’t accidentally kill their captive.

  Wow. Why were these labeled as uncommon? Maybe this item just wouldn’t be useful for a regular player? That could make sense; it was likely that warriors had hundreds of health. But for Joe–with his tiny health bar and poor ability in escaping combat–this may save his life many times. After all, twenty percent of his health only amounted to a grand total of ten points.

  Lost in thought, Joe went into the city and started walking around a bit aimlessly. Each time he passed a guard they would smile and wave, which helped him feel relaxed even when he was around some shady looking people. Joe supposed that word had already gotten around about the cleric that helped guards and hoped that if he were mugged, the guards would jump in to help him. Not that he needed to worry too much since he did not have any money on him. His gold had been put directly into a bank account so that he didn’t spawn into the game with a mountain of money crushing him.

  Thinking about changing his monetary situation, he decided he didn’t want to waste time finding a bank to make a withdrawal. Instead, he started looking for the lifeblood of gaming: quests! After wandering for a good chunk of time, he was feeling frustrated. There were no glowing lights to signify a quest giver and he had no map or way to find his way around. This game was very realistic in almost every way, the main difference being that science had been replaced with magic and he was now living in a medieval setting. It seemed that literacy was a given though, because most signs had words and there were many chalkboards up with announcements. Was paper expensive?

  Reading everything he could, he eventually spotted a job board that had standing orders for furs, crafting materials, and other odds and ends. Most were written wit
h extra thick chalk, which made a few of the requests a bit… ambiguous. Was that a request for collecting demons or lemons? They really shouldn’t have used cursive. Looking around, he spotted a group of armed and armored people about to head out of the gates, obviously getting ready to fight some creatures in the wild.

  “Excuse me!” Joe called, jogging over to them. ‘Jogging’ being a polite exaggeration in this case. He had to fight not to show how winded that short jaunt made him, but his pale face easily gave him away. Freaking constitution. “I notice you only have four people *wheeze* in your group. Do you have room for one more?”

  “Oh god, it's a noob,” one of them muttered intentionally loudly. “Run for it?”

  “Sorry, bro-ski. We are a premade team. We don’t accept randos. Especially level one randos,” one of them snorted with a thick Californian accent. “Go do social quests or something. I bet someone around here needs a letter delivered.”

  They left Joe standing there with his mouth open, shocked at their casual rudeness. A moment later, he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see a powerfully built lady patting him on the arm.

  “Don’t mind them; they’re part of a guild that considers themselves ‘hardcore’ players. They’ve been going twelve hours a day since day one. Real world hours, that is. You looking for a team? I might be able to help you out depending on what kind of skills you have.” She grinned at him, reminding him a little too much of a shark.

  “Thank you! I am looking for a team. I’m level one, but I’m a cleric. I have two healing spells, a ranged and a touch version. I hear clerics are rare?” Joe smoothly responded, knowing that he would be a valuable asset and determined not to sell himself short. “Do you think that I could be useful to your team?”

  “A real cleric? Magical and whatnot?” Her eyes bulged a bit and she waggled her fingers at him as she spoke.

  “Yes?” Joe responded in confusion. That was standard for a cleric wasn’t it?