System Architect - Ch 124

Satisfied with the way my status looked, I moved on to the notifications. The first was a congratulatory note about picking a class and explaining that I should go through the door to try fighting with the new skills I had gained—or hadn’t, as the case currently was. The next notification was about those skills I hadn’t yet gained.

You have chosen your class. Now it is time to pick your first skill. Please select one of the skills in the list below. If you want to learn more about any of the skills, all you have to do is think that and it will work.

Fireball
Icicle
Wind Cutter
Earth Spike

I opened each of the options separately. They were near identical in how much damage they did and their cost to use. The difference was in the way they operated. Fireball was slower than Wind Cutter, but it had the added benefit of lighting things on fire. Icicle and Earth Spike were similar in shape, but one came from the ground while the other was launched like Fireball was.

Of the four options, Wind Cutter and Fireball were the ones I liked the most. Earth Spike needed ground to use—at least at low levels. While dungeons would all be land-based, I preferred something more useful than that. I had nothing against Icicle, but it seemed boring. It was for similar reasons that I ultimately chose Fireball over Wind Cutter.

As soon as I selected Fireball, another message popped up.

You have reached level 5 in your class. You can select a skill from the following list.

Water Whip
Icicle
Wind Cutter
Earth Spike
Arc
Light Beam
Shadowy Hand

Half the list was what I had already seen. I looked over the new ones. Water Whip was straightforward. It was a thick stream of water that would lash out and hit my enemies. Arc was a bolt of lightning, Light Beam was a laser, and Shadowy Hand would come out of an enemy’s shadow to grip them.

Of those, I selected Arc for one simple reason: it was liable to get through any metallic armor. Heavy armor was liable to be my weakness. Fireball would be dangerous towards anything flammable—like leather or cloth. My spear would be good against lightly armored opponents as well. Arc covered some of the weakness I face from heavy armor.

I waited for a moment to see if there were any more notifications. Seeing there weren’t, I passed through the door and into another room that looked like the field where I’d fought the boar and tested the spears. There was another circle. The message explained that this fight would be more difficult than the first had been—though that was hardly saying much. I dismissed it and awaited my opponent.

Instead of a boar, I saw a small, gangly human-like creature. A goblin! It had a short spear and looked at me with contempt. I readied my spear and shield. I didn’t charge the monster. I’d already fought with my spear and was confident of my abilities there. What I wanted to do was see how my skills worked.

The distinct lack of armor and clothing on the monster made me think Fireball was a good idea, so that is what I shot off first. I felt the mana drain from me as a fist-sized ball of fire ignited just past the tip of my spear. It launched in a graceful arc at the goblin, whose slow reaction time meant that the ball of flames hit it and exploded. The goblin shrieked as its skin was set ablaze.

It charged towards me. As it did, I reached for the other spell I’d learned. A bolt of lightning shot to the monster—its charge halted by the convulsions the electricity caused. I approached cautiously while it twitched on the ground. Seeing that it was still alive, I quickly brought my spear down to end its life. As with the boar, the monster exploded into motes of light.

Using skills makes killing monsters easier, as you have seen. You have been rewarded 10 experience for killing the monster. If you want to continue practicing, you can remain here, though you will not gain any further experience. If you are happy with your results, please continue through the door in front of you to return to the starting room.

Dismissing the note, I walked towards the door. I felt satisfied—as the notification said—with trying out both of my skills. They paired well enough with the spear I had. I had no reason to continue fighting the same monster again and again with no reward. There might be a secret achievement or two by sticking around, but I wasn’t here to be a hero. My work being a hero was over after so many years. It was time for someone else to carry that torch.

The door led me to a room that looked suspiciously like the initial room I’d entered. There were two doors across from me. The door on the right looked as it had when I first entered that room. The door on the left had a comical X painted across it with a sign hanging from it that confirmed—in no uncertain terms—that it was closed to entry.

After gathering my breath on the couch for several minutes, I opened the only door I could. The room on the other side looked like an ancient library. There were shelves upon shelves of books reaching up at least a hundred feet above me. Sliding ladders stood affixed to their tracks, allowing me to climb all the way to the top—if I so chose. As soon as the door behind me latched, a message appeared before me.

This room contains all of humanity’s knowledge of crafts and professions. Feel free to read as many books as you would like. After reading any book, you may choose to experience a day in the life of that craft or profession. When you have sated your curiosity, pass through the door on the other side of the library to enter the room where you will officially choose your profession.

I considered climbing one of the ladders and picking out a few to try but decided against it. I had a good idea of the craft I wanted to do and I didn’t want to stick around in the tutorial for too long—even if time was stopped for the process. So the only thing I afforded myself was to look at the covers of a few of the books at the bottom before I walked through the door.

There was little organization from what I could see. The book for Teacher was right next to the one for Financial Analyst and the one for Hairdresser. What I could figure out was that the more common the profession, the closer the the floor it was. The more esoteric ones would be at the top—the magical ones no one had done before, mostly.

The next room had the same layout as the one for choosing classes. The message that appeared when I entered explained that I needed to choose one of the three professions on the desk—except there were only two options! I had specifically bought something that was supposed to give an extra option if that happened, but maybe there was something else going on because it was me?

The first one I picked up was what the system thought I was most talented with. Systems Analyst. I rolled my eyes at that one. It was just as on the nose as Warlock had been. The deity was obviously fucking with me. The other envelope contained both the one I wanted most and the one I would be happiest doing. I selected Enchanter without giving it a second thought.

You have chosen your profession. Now it is time to pick your first skill. Please select one of the skills in the list below. If you want to learn more about any of the skills, all you have to do is think that and it will work.

Steady Hand
Pattern Storage
Carving
Inlaying

Three of the four did what they said on the tin. Steady Hand, Carving, and Inlaying helped to keep my hands steads, carve better, and inlay more efficiently. The final one was also rather simple, but its effects would be profound. Pattern Storage was my selection. I could get away without the others for now. Pattern Storage allowed me to save a certain umber of skill fractals—or patterns, as the system called them—and recall those patterns later. At level 1, the skill allowed me to save five patterns.

Once my skill was selected, the room I was in morphed into a room similar to what my workshop looked like. There were stations for different crafts around the perimeter—woodworking, metalworking, weaving, and more. In the center was a workbench dedicated to carving and inlaying the enchantment itself. At each station were the tools and materials to do the job. I was wondering what I was expected of me when another message appeared.

Use the workshop to produce an enchanted item. A pattern will be provided. What you make is up to you as long as it includes the pattern. Experience will be given depending on the quality of the product. When you are done, you can exit through the door or else stick around to practice more without gaining more experience.

In the center—where the inlaying and carving tools were—was a sheet of yellowing paper with a drawing of a system fractal on it. Calling them patterns was going to take practice after thinking of them as fractals for so long! The pattern was that of the skill Spark.

I knew—from experience—that the skill was best used as a fire starter. That meant a wooden object was out as the base. Metal would much better withstand the head of a fire without… burning. With that in mind, I walked over to the area with metals. After going back and forth about how to make it—forge something or use the lathe—I decided that forging was unnecessary for what I planned to make.

I found a cylinder of brass six inches long. I stuck it in the lathe before slowly shaping it to my desired shape. After half-an-hour of cutting, I had reduced the diameter considerably. I left one end thicker—to house the enchantment. Then from the thick end, I cut out a handle. Above the handle, the brass thinned to make a wand-like shape out of the brass.

When I was happy with the shape, I took it over to the center workbench. Before I began carving into the metal, I took the time to build a pantograph so that I could reduce the size of the enchantment to fit on the bottom of the handle. That was tricky, as I struggled to get the proportions correct so that it would reduce it by the amount I wanted.

Finally, it was time to carve the enchantment. Or it would have been, if I didn’t need to modify the pattern so that it would create the spark a foot from where the enchantment was placed. That way, the fire starter would make the sparks six inches beyond the tip of the wand rather than in the user’s hand as it would have otherwise done. My experience messing with the enchantments to the weapons before the tutorial came in clutch. I knew how the distance parameters worked very well, so the modifications were not difficult.

I sacrificed a large plate of brass when carving the enchantment on the wand. The plate was there to be the master engraving to copy with the pantograph. Once carved into the end of the brass wand, I filled the voids with lead before polishing it. While not my best work—it would have been better to use steel and gold, for example—it was decent enough. The message I got after completing it certainly seemed to think so.

Congratulations on completing your first enchantment. The item you have created is a brass fire starter of excellent quality. For this, you have been awarded 50 experience. With this, you have completed the tutorial. If you would like to practice more, you will not receive more experience—even if you make something better.

To proceed back to Earth, simply pass through the door in front of you. You may keep any weapons you have and anything you have created. A set of tools for your profession has been given to you as a Quest. Redeem the reward at your convenience.

I dismissed the notification and walked through the door.