Reluctant Heroes Part 5

Bethany smiled when Myst walked over to the table where the group was eating an early breakfast looking like he could use a few more hours of sleep. "How much sleep did you get?"

Myst smiled at the old lady then took a seat next to Ella. "A couple of hours, it always takes me a bit to get used to new places."

"Did you get anything useful at the skill shop?" Rigby asked excitedly.

Rigby's sister sighed. "At least let him get his breakfast, you can ask a bunch of questions once we're on the road."

"I'll go into details on the trip but I picked up some crafting skills and a skill to scan monsters that should be useful." Myst grabbed a sandwich off the tray and started eating.

"Like Libra from Final Fantasy?" Rigby asked excitedly.

"What did I just say Rigby?" Kara asked as she glared at her brother.

"It's a valid question," Rigby defended himself.

'Close enough.' Myst gave Rigby a thumbs up and continued eating.

Bethany smiled as she saw Alice and Sarah walk in with a group of girls and two solidly built men in their twenties with military style buzz cuts and dogtags, black t-shirts and identical dark green jackets and combat boots that certainly weren't local. "More recruits?"

"That's the idea, I'm Dave, my friend is Phil," the guy on the left said with a grin. "I've already signed one demonic contract, I'm not signing another one."

"You signed a demonic contract?" Rigby blurted.

"Close enough," Phil replied with a shrug, thinking about their enlistment contracts. "We don't trust the nobles and I'm not signing an open ended contract so if you're going somewhere else, we'd love to tag along."

"Same," one of the girls said, figuring it would be safer in a group.

Myst glanced over the vaguely familiar girls then at their bags, noticing a familiar flash of color from one of the bags that wasn't quite closed. 'Ah, Sarah's squad.'

"We should get going before all of the drivers leave," Alice suggested, wanting to be out of the city before the nobles realized they were ditching. It was one thing to let people wander around the city, quite another to let them leave without giving up their special skills.

Myst finished his last bite of his sandwich and stood up. "Sounds good."

The soldier on the left studied Myst. "Do you actually have a plan?"

"More or less but no plan survives contact with the enemy so I'm trying to go with a framework rather than a hard plan," Myst admitted. "The next town has a guild and places to make gold which should let us survive while we research ways to get home. Given the nature of the magical contacts and the fact that there very well might be a god involved, I'm going to assume that they actually have a way to send us back which means we should be able to find something with enough time."

"Sounds reasonable and better than sticking around here," the soldier agreed.

"Either way, we should get going," Alice suggested, knowing the sooner they left, the better options they'd have for transportation.

"Works for me," Myst said as he looked at the rest of the group. "Are we good?"

"We're good," Rigby said, knowing his sister had already checked their room.

"We were just waiting on you," Zoe said as she grabbed the tray and walked over to the cheerleaders.

Myst smiled at the twenty year old passing out sandwiches. "In that case, let's go. We can stop by the skill shop on the way."

"Buying or selling?" Dave asked.

"Selling, I have a rare shield bash skill that I don't need and a couple of hundred gold would really help with setup costs," Myst explained as he headed for the door, not seeing a point in explaining that it wouldn't actually cost him the skill.

"Thanks," Phil offered. "Our skills are a bit more useful so I'd hate selling them."

Sarah laughed, knowing that Myst wasn't exactly giving anything up. "Good call."

Zoe put the empty tray on the table then followed the group, hoping she wasn't making a mistake but glad they'd recruited the soldiers.

Myst pulled up his extensively modified skill list and looked for anything else he could copy that he didn't mind people having as the group headed towards the shop. 'Yeah, I might have gone a little overboard tweaking things,' he admitted after several minutes of looking. 'Screw it, I'll just go with the self activated Dark Sight skill I made tweaking the Stealth skill, it's not like they don't already have magical methods of seeing in the dark.'

"Do you want us to hire the transportation while you're looking at skills?" Sarah asked as they reached the skill shop.

"Probably should," Myst replied as he pulled a bag of coins out of his inside coat pocket and handed it to her. "I'll meet you at the gate in twenty minutes?"

"Better make it thirty," Sarah suggested, figuring it would take at least that long to check with some of the trading companies and see what they could find.

"Sounds good," Myst agreed then headed into the shop, glad that they'd found the guys to help.

The shopkeeper smiled at Myst. "Come to buy more skills?"

"And sell if you're buying," Myst said cheerfully as he walked over to the section of the shop that contained skill orbs for weapons, figuring that was the best place to get weapon related qualities.

"What are you selling?" the shopkeeper asked.

"I have a rare shield bash skill and a rare Dark Sight skill orb without any negatives that you might be interested in," Myst offered as he looked over the weapons skills.

"No light sensitivity?" the shopkeeper asked in surprise.

"None," Myst replied with a grin.

"If it's that good, why are you selling it?" the shopkeeper asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Because I have more than one," Myst replied with a shrug.

"Where did you find that?" the man asked, fairly sure he had a luck based special skill.

Myst grinned at the shopkeeper. "Trade secret, are you interested?"

"Of course," the shopkeeper admitted. "I'll even buy the shield skill if it's worth anything."

Myst created a skill orb of the Edged Shield skill and set it on the top of the counter. "Take a look and tell me what you think?"

The shopkeeper stared at the skill orb in disbelief. "Let me guess, if I asked you where you found it, you'd say trade secret?"

"Of course," Myst replied. "If I told you where I found it, you might send other people to look and then where would I be other than broke?"

"Fair enough," the shopkeeper admitted. "I'll give you a hundred gold for the shield skill."

Myst tilted his head slightly as he looked at the man as if he was stupid. "A hundred gold for a rare skill? Considering some of your prices for rare skills that are less useful, you can do better than that, I'm sure of it."

The shopkeeper sighed. "Let's see the Dark Vision skill."

Myst pulled the Dark Sight skill orb out of his bag and held it out. "Take a look."

The shopkeeper examined the skill orb, fairly sure he could get a couple of thousand for it without much work. "That might be worth buying."

"Might?" Myst asked as he started to pull the skill orb back. "If you're not interested, I can always sell it elsewhere."

"Fine," the shopkeeper grumbled. "Seven hundred for both."

"Pleasure doing business with you," Myst replied as he set the skill orb on the counter with the other one. "I'd like the basic axe, polearm and archery skill orbs from the cabinet. Oh, extra damage with all slashing weapons, I'll take that one as well."

"Anything else?" the shopkeeper asked, wondering why he wanted skills that you could pick up with a couple of hours in a training yard for less. Of course, a decent number of people bought basic skills so who was he to complain about people wasting their silver.

"A decent armor skill?" Myst asked as he walked over to the cabinet of spell orbs that the man was selling.

"How impressive are we talking?" the shopkeeper asked, wondering if he knew that wearing armor screwed with spell casting. "I have skills that let you take less damage, skills that decrease the amount of damage your armor takes and skills that do both, which are of course more expensive." He gestured towards the cabinet where he kept his armor skills. "You should probably take a look."

Myst grinned as he walked over and looked at the tags for the various armor skills while the shopkeeper collected the weapon skills he wanted. 'Heavy armor, extra damage reduction, Light armor, better mobility, less weight on that armor skill,' he stared at the 2,000 gold for the level five Knight's skill that 'drastically' reduced the damage from normal weapons while making the knight's armor nigh indestructible along with some basic knight skills, 'yeah, I can't afford that.'

He stopped as he saw the tags for the small collection of Squire's skills the shop sold. 'Allows identification of armor, armor use, weight reduction of armor, mobility bonus in light armor, a small bonus to armor rating while wearing armor and animal handling.' He frowned slightly as he noticed that not all of the skills were the same. 'Better mobility, no animal handling and an increase in effective durability, not bad but not perfect.' He stared as he read the name on one of the other tags, "Stench Squire?"

"Ah, I remember him, it must have been ten years ago, he offended a witch and she cursed his skill or at least that was his story," the shopkeeper explained. "It's a decent skill or it would be if it didn't make you smell like a rotting swamp and animals try to kill you."

'Identification of armor, armor use, weight reduction, mobility increase while wearing light armor, a small bonus to armor rating while wearing heavy armor, and a reduction in durability loss,' he mused, fairly sure he could toss the stench quality and the curse involving animals or at least reasonably sure. "I'll take it."

"Not a bad choice if you're willing to cover yourself in perfume," the shopkeeper said cheerfully as he walked over and unlocked the back of the case. "Don't use it in the shop," he warned him as he grabbed the orb in question. "Do you want anything else in the cabinet while I have it open?"

Myst grinned when he noticed the tag for the Rusty Armor skill. "Twenty gold for a skill that rusts your armor?"

"It also makes your armor immune to fire," the shopkeeper defended his pricing. "It's practically essential for hunting fire lizards and certain types of dragons. Besides, only metal armor rusts."

"Does it protect you from fire?" Myst asked, fairly sure it didn't.

"Eighteen gold?" the shopkeeper offered as he picked up the skill orb.

"I'll take it," Myst said as he walked over to look at the spells. "What do you have for ranged combat spells?"

"That depends, do you want them charred, buried in the earth or struck by lightning?" the shopkeeper asked cheerfully as he set the orb on the counter and walked over to open the cabinet after locking the armor cabinet.

"All of the above," Myst replied as he read the description of Marvin's Marvelous Magic Missiles of Mayhem.

"Excellent," the shopkeeper said, hoping he could sell some of his less impressive spells to the lucky idiot.

'Yeah, I'm fairly sure that counts as false advertising, there is nothing marvelous about inaccurate blasts of force that barely do an appreciable amount of damage other than possibly getting the Force quality and the price.' He smiled at the shopkeeper. "I'll take Marvin's Marvelous Magic Missiles of Mayhem."

"Your funeral," the shopkeeper said under his breath as he collected the spell orb. "Anything else?"

"Of course," Myst replied as he looked over the spells, pretending he hadn't heard the shopkeeper. "Fireball, Shocking Touch, Mage Hand, Water Walk, Shadow Touch, False Life and Holy Bolt to start with." He winced slightly as he noticed the prices on the ice storm orbs. 'So much for that idea.' He smiled when he saw the much cheaper Ice Shards orb. "Ice Shards. Do you have any summoning spells?"

"No, the mage's guild tends to buy everything fairly quickly," the shopkeeper admitted as he grabbed an Ice Shards orb.

"Fair enough," Myst replied as he went back to looking over the collection. "Scarlet's Cursed Garments, temporarily conjures cursed clothing, good for pranks," he muttered, reading the tag.

"You might also like Scarlet's Secure Restraints or Conjure Whip," the shopkeeper offered.

Myst glanced at the price tag on the restraint spell that was next to the other spell then glanced over the rest of the spells until he found the whip spell. 'It's worth the silver on the off chance that I can make a spell to conjure knives or swords.' He shrugged. "Sure, let's go with both of them and Conjure Water."

"Anything else?" the shopkeeper asked, trying to get him to spend more.

"No…" Myst trailed off as he noticed the Demonic Aura description. "Gives a bonus to unholy damage dealt, deals unholy damage to pickpockets and makes you vulnerable to holy damage, why is it cheap?"

"You can get the skill off a number of low level demons and the boost isn't worth taking damage from healing spells," the shopkeeper explained.

"I'll take it." Myst glanced around the rest of the shop. "I don't suppose you have any skills that improve training time?"

The shopkeeper laughed as he started adding everything up. "Not that you can afford unless you have a couple of rare skills that you'd be willing to sell."

"Sadly not so much," Myst admitted. "On that note, can you add everything up? I should get going, I need to meet a friend of mine for breakfast."

"Sure," the shopkeeper replied as he started counting up Myst's purchases, rather pleased by the profit he'd just made off the collection of less than impressive skills and spells and the profit he was going to make off the Dark Sight ability.

'That should give me most of the elemental types and a couple of interesting qualities,' Myst mused as he waited for the shopkeeper to count everything up. 'Should be a bit over fifty if I was keeping track.'

"Six hundred and forty gold, eight silver," the shopkeeper said as he started stacking gold coins on the table.

"Always a pleasure doing business with you," Myst said as he used his Dust Harvesting skill to identify all of the skill orbs while he waited, wanting to make sure they matched the tags.

Marvin's Marvelous Magic Missiles of Mayhem: Lv 1

Target: [Up to Lv][Other]

Range: [SkillLv][20 feet]

Mana Cost: [5] per target.

Effect: Shoots [Up to Lv] balls of [Force] from your hand that deal [Low Damage], [SkillLv]x3% chance to cause direct hit, half damage in [2] foot blast radius.

'Huh, that's better and worse than I was expecting. If I boost the accuracy and the damage, that might be my go to spell. Hmm, actually, if I swap the [2] with [Up to Lv] I can probably control the blasts.' He scanned the Fireball spell orb.

Fireball: Lv 1

Range: [SkillLv][100 feet]

Mana Cost: 20

Effect: Shoots a ball of [Fire] from your hands that you can mentally detonate for [Moderate Damage].

'Hmm, that's annoying, I can't just reduce the mana cost,' he mused as he glanced at the range. 'Okay, 100 feet is nice, that should give my other spell a nice boost.' He looked at his Shocking Touch ability and grinned.

Shocking Touch Lv 1

Target: [Other]

Range: [Touch]

Mana Cost: [5]

Effect: Deals [Low Damage][Lightning] to target, [SkillLv]x5% chance to [Paralyze] target for [10 seconds].

'And we have [Lightning] and [Paralyze],' he thought cheerfully as he looked at the Squire Orb.

Stench Squire: Lv 3

Effect: Passive: Allows Identification of Armor, [All Armor][Proficiency], Weight Reduction[Equipped Armor][SkillLv]X5%, [Mobility Penalty][Light Armor]-[SkillLv], [Armor Rating][Heavy Armor][SkillLv]X2%, Decreases [Durability Loss][Equipped Armor] by [SkillLv], [Rotting][Scent][SkillLv], decrease[Animal Empathy]x10.

'Yeah, that's completely abusable,' he mused as he looked at the Mage Hand ability.

Mage Hand: Lv 1

Range: [SkillLv][5 Feet]

Mana Cost: 1

Effect: Creates a [Hand] out of [Force], allows manipulation as if it were your own.

'Interesting and better than I was expecting,' Myst thought as he quickly looked over the rest of the orbs.

Water Walk:

Target: [Self]

Effect: Allows the target to walk on [Water].

Shadow Touch: Lv

Target: [Other]

Range: [Touch]

Effect: Chance [SkillLv]X3% to pull the target into a shadow realm for [10 seconds] and deal [High Damage][Shadow] to target.

False Life: Lv 1

Target: [Self]

Mana Cost: [SkillLv]x5

Duration: [[SkillLv][5 minutes]]

Effect: Increase [HP][[SkillLv]x5]

Grants bonus heath points depending on your skill for five minutes per level.

Holy Bolt: Lv 2

Target: [Other]

Range: [SkillLv][20 Feet]

Mana Cost: 5

Effect: Shoot a bolt of [Holy] magic at target, deals [High Damage][Limited][Demons][Undead].

Scarlet's Cursed Garments: Lv 1

Range: [1]

Duration: [1]hour

Mana Cost: 20

Effect: Conjure [Clothing][Enchanted][Cursed][Random]

Conjures clothing with a random curse on it.

Scarlet's Secure Restraints: Lv 1

Target: [1]

Range: [2 Feet][SkillLv]

Duration: [SkillLv][Minutes]

Mana Cost: [10]

Effect: Conjure [Restraints] that reduce chance of escaping by [SkillLv]x4%.

Summon Whip:

Range: [1]

Duration: 1 hour

Mana Cost: [2]

Effect: Conjure [Whip]

Conjure Water: Lv 1

Target: [Container]

Range: [5][Feet]

Mana Cost: 3

Effect: Conjure [Up to Lv] gallons of [Water] in target.

Demonic Aura: Lv 1 [Un]

Range: Aura

Mana Cost: [5]Per Second

Effect: [SkillLv] Bonus to magic for purpose of [Unholy] damage. Deals [Low Damage][Unholy] to pickpockets and decreases [Holy] resistance by 100%.

Basic Axe: Lv 1

Effect: Passive Increase[[SkillLv]X2%][Accuracy] with [Axe]s.

Basic Polearm: Lv 1

Effect: Passive Increase[[SkillLv]X3%][Damage] with [Polearm]s.

Basic Archery: Lv 1

Effect: Passive Increase[[SkillLv]X2%][Accuracy] with [Archery].

Rusty Armor:

Effect: Passively decreases [Equipped Armor] resistance vs [Rust]100%, increases [Equipped Armor] resistance vs [Fire]X100%.

King of Blades: Lv 1

Effect: Passive Increase[[SkillLv]x4%][Damage] with [Slashing].

'Yeah, I'm going to abuse the hell out of the conjure water ability,' Myst thought as the shopkeeper finished counting all of the stacks of coins. "I really need a bag of holding," he muttered as he started using all of the skill orbs. "Don't worry, I'm not going to use the orb of stench while I'm here."

"Good," the shopkeeper grumbled as he set a cloth bag on the counter. "Free of charge for being such a good customer. It doesn't have a weight reduction enchant on it like a real bag of holding but it's cheap and should be more than large enough," he offered, knowing the good will was worth more than the two gold piece bag.

"Thanks," Myst said as he opened his enchanting menu and checked the bag, surprised that it was exactly what he said it was. 'Huh, maybe he's not that bad,' he thought as he started filling the bag with gold.

0o0o0

Myst wasn't sure how to feel about copying random skills from people on the way to the gate but honestly, he wasn't harming anyone and the system didn't actually give people notifications when he copied their skills so it wasn't like they'd ever know. He knew he was being a bit of a hypocrite because he'd care if random people copied his skills but he had people depending on him and he wasn't sure how well the adventuring would pay or when someone would come after them with powers they couldn't hope to deal with by playing fair.

Not that any of the random skills he'd grabbed had been particularly impressive but he'd managed to grab Carpentry off a random apprentice getting a bite to eat, Cure Disease off a priest and a riding skill off a guard that looked useful. Mostly there just hadn't been a lot of people to choose from and he hadn't wanted to show off and get in trouble when he was close to leaving.

He smiled as he spotted Sarah and the rest of the group standing by the gate next to a wagon with two brown horses and a stranger in the driver's seat next to the old lady. "At least we've got a local guide," he mused as he walked over to the group. "Are we good to go?"

Sarah smiled at Myst. "Yeah, we were just waiting on you."

"Cool, let's get on the road," Myst said, happy about leaving before they ran into trouble. He wasn't looking forward to walking for a couple of days but there was enough room in the back of the wagon so they could take turns resting.

"Any luck with the skill shop?" Rigby asked as they left through the open gate.

"I picked up some interesting skills," Myst replied with amusement.

"You always say that but you never explain," Rigby complained, pouting a bit more than he'd care to admit.

"He said he'd explain once we left the city," Kara reminded him.

"I didn't get a chance to say it before but thanks for renting the wagon," one of the cheerleaders offered.

"You're welcome," Myst replied as the rest of the cheerleaders added their thanks. 'At least they seem like decent people and not stuck up snobs.'

Rigby turned and looked at the gate then grinned at Myst. "We're outside of the city now."

Myst glanced at the wagon driver and dropped his voice down to a whisper, "Okay, it basically boils down to the fact that I can teach skills so I'm trying to acquire a decent collection so that we have a nice collection of skills."

"How long does it take to teach a skill?" Phil asked.

"Instant which is why I want nothing to do with the nobles and don't really want people knowing I can do anything of the sort," Myst warned them.

"I can't say I blame you," Phil admitted, fairly sure the nobles would gleefully torture people for access to his skill and do worse if it meant they could keep it.

"That sounds more useful in our current situation than my special skill," Dave mused.

"Which is what?" Rigby asked as he looked up at the guy.

Dave looked at the kid, trying to figure out the best way to explain the ability to summon ninja strippers without getting slapped or yelled at by his sister. "I can summon ninjas."

"That's awesome!" Rigby squealed.

"Pretty much," Dave agreed.

Myst scanned Dave and nearly stumbled when he got to the ninja skill. 'Cleaning 4, Driving 6, Guns 12, Hand to Hand 6, Hunting 14, Summon Ninja Strippers VR 1? I guess he wasn't technically lying.' He looked at the skill, trying to figure out if it was worth copying and potentially pissing off a soldier and potential party member if they found out about it.

Summon Ninja Strippers: VR 1

Range: [3][Feet]

Duration: 1 hour

Mana Cost: [10]

Effect: Conjure [Humanoid][Ninja] strippers.

Allows you to summon ninja strippers of various humanoid species with ninja training for an hour, skill level determines their skill levels.

'Humanoid summoning? Yeah, sorry, not sorry,' Myst thought as he reached into his pocket and used his Create Skill orb skill to copy Dave's special skill. He quickly used the skill orb. 'So much for handing out the ability to scan people.'

"You shouldn't just ask people." Kara sighed as her brother blurted, "Can you show us?"

"Maybe later, it takes mana," Dave said, wanting to wait until he had more practice summoning the girls with clothes.

Rigby sighed. "Okay."

"We'll have to work on that, I've got a couple of ideas." Myst turned his attention towards Rigby and scanned his skills, ignoring the rest of the popups after a quick glance showed that he didn't have any health issues.

Acrobatics: Lv 1

Animal Training: Lv 1

Archery: Lv 1

Conjure Spirit Blades: Lv 1 [UR]

Dodge: Lv 3

God of Swords: Lv 1 [VR]

Heart of Wonder: [VR]

Metallurgy: Lv 1 [Un]

Stealth: Lv 3

'Sorry,' Myst thought as he tried to copy Rigby's Conjure Spirit Blades Skill. He frowned slightly when a popup appeared. 'Unable to copy Conjure Spirit Blades at current skill level,' he read the note silently and closed it, weirdly relieved that he couldn't just copy the kid's special skills, mostly because it meant his Skill Manipulation skill might be problematic for someone to copy. 'I really need to find a magic item that prevents people from scanning me or copying my stuff,' he mused as he looked at Rigby's Spirit Blades skill.

Conjure Spirit Blades: Lv 1 [UR]

Conjure: Spirit Blades

Effect: Conjures a replica of a magical sword from myth in your hand.

The powers of the sword are based on skill and the myth of the blade, vanishes five seconds after it leaves your hand.

'Can anyone say Excalibur?' Myst mused as he looked at the Heart of Wonder skill.

Heart of Wonder: [VR]

Requires: Under Thirteen

Effect: Passive: Childlike wonder makes you immune to curses and certain status effects.

'Yeah, that's useless for the rest of us and I can't even modify it.' Myst pulled his attention away from Rigby's skills when Sarah asked, "Are you going to share some defense skills?"

"I wouldn't mind some extra skills," Phil said, feeling a bit vulnerable without his vest and M16 and knowing he only had a limited amount of ammo for his sidearm.

"Sure, it shouldn't take too long," Myst replied as he opened his teaching menu and got to work teaching Phil some of his defensive skills, figuring he'd work on improving his new skills once he taught everyone the basics.