FMH ~21!

- Andre -

“You know what?” Xan told a sweating and bleeding Andre. “A year isn’t all that bad for figuring out how to make your first real circle. “Beyond that, you are really embracing the theory more than any other generation of Druid.”

“Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that you let those bear-hunting bees at me when I didn't fully internalize the lesson?” Andre replied in a dead-tired voice around still-swollen lips.

“I didn’t let them through. You did, because you thought that you could skip steps.” Xan shook his head with mock sadness. “That doesn’t matter right now! You made your first circle!”

Andre let his head fall to the side, taking in his surroundings. There were wolves, chittering bugs, horrible yet natural amalgamations… if he hadn't succeeded this week, he would have been in range of the creatures that seemed to be afflicted with an unnatural hunger for his flesh. “Ya~a~ay.”

“So… how do you feel?” Xan expectantly prodded.

“I’ve been stung by insects that can kill bears, slashed by insectoid talons and… and…” Andre blinked. He sat up and felt at his previously swollen skin. “What’s happening?”

“Oh, did I not mention that when you are in an area fully bound to your magic, the bound objects happily donate their essence to empower you? No?” Xan tapped his chin. “Strange, that seems like something I would tell you. Didn’t we have that lesson?”

“Xan! Empower me? What just happened?”

“Ugh, simple terms still needed?” Xan *tsk’ed* at his charge, but his smile was getting harder to hide. “The things bound to you will boost your recovery when you are in range. Healing, mana regeneration, stamina. Everything. With enough bound to you, you will eventually be as difficult to destroy as a natural mountain. Ultimate defense means ultimate defense.”

“Now we’re talking!” Andre sat up with a wild grin on his face, but was slapped back down by Xan.

“Let’s not forget that you are only bound to grass. You have the empowerment and boosts of a weed, Andre. Also only when you are on the ground bound to you.” Xan laughed as Andre spat out a mouthful of blood and looked around fearfully. He was now surrounded by beasts on all sides. “Oh, don’t worry about them. Those are my bound creatures.”

A bugbear walked past and gently high-fived Xan before skittering off. The others also dispersed, and Andre could only look around in exasperation. “A year of threats, and none of it was real?”

“It was all real, Andre.” Xan waved at the area around them. “How do you think I bound them? I needed to get them all in circles, and you didn't seem to mind being the wriggling bait for me.”

“As respectfully as possible, I really kinda hate you, Xan.” Andre closed his eyes and swallowed. He ignored the response and looked at his status.

Cal Scan

Level: 1

Current Etheric Xenograft Potentia: 57/200 to level 2!

Body: 3.2

Mind: 8.2

Presence: 3.75

Senses: 3.45

Health: 76

Mana: 170

Mana regen: 2.43 per second

The constant running, meditation, and control exercises had allowed Andre to increase every aspect of himself. Not terrible increases for the last eight-ish months, certainly not something that could be done back on his mana-poor home planet. Even so, that was all he had to show for an entire year of throwing himself into his studies as if his life depended on it. Not even level two, and his abilities at the very minimum necessary to do the work Xan required of him. It was enough to drive a man into doing very dumb things. “Xan, how far can I increase my stats through non-leveling?”

“He wants a lecture after tuning me out to preen over his stats?” Xan shook his staff at the younger man, then shrugged and sat beside him. “Sure thing. Through training, you can get any sub-characteristic up to ten. That is considered the ‘mortal limit’. After you break through the mortal limit by leveling, you could continue increasing your characteristics indefinitely. There are simply diminishing returns with any training you can do, so that would take a long time in a mana-rich environment to see significant gains. Tell you what, say ‘extended status sheet’. Time for you to learn what all your characteristics do for you.”

“Thank you.” Andre had never seen this portion of his characteristics before, new meant exciting! “Extended status sheet!”

Cal Scan

Level: 1

Current Etheric Xenograft Potentia: 57/200 to level 2!

Body: 2.45

Fitness: 3.8

Resistance: 2.6

Total Health points: 76

Total physical output: 190 kilos

Poison/disease resist: 3.2%

Mind: 8.3

Talent: 7.3

Capacity: 9.1

Mana regeneration: 2.43 per sec

Total mana: 170.2

Spell Cooldown reduction: 5%

Presence: 3.75

Willpower: 4.7

Charisma: 2.8

Dominate resist: 14.10%

Dominate chance: 8.40%

Stealth break: 18.75%

Senses: 3.45

Physical reaction: 2.9

Mental energy: 4

Dodge chance: 2.90%

Magic resist: 4.00%

Stealth engage: 17.25%

Health: 71

Mana: 170.2

Mana regen: 2.43 per second 

“As you can see, there are three sub-sub-categories. Each sub category impacts one and a half of the doubles-subs.” Xan wrote out all of Andre’s states in the sand. “Fitness determines physical output, fifty kilos of lifting power per point, and half of poison or disease resistance. Resistance is the other half, as well as determining your total estimated health; fifty points plus ten health per point.”

“Okay…” Andre looked at that information and sighed. “I feel strong and healthy though. That seems so… low?”

“Prove it wrong, then. No one else ever has, but you go ahead.” Xan snorted at Andre’s sour expression. “Mana regenerates at a third of your talent, and talent is worth four total mana per point. Capacity is worth ten per point, and everyone has a base of fifty mana. Also, capacity allows you to use abilities faster. You already have a five percent cooldown reduction, that’s outstanding for being natural.”

“Thanks…?”

“I hope you’re seeing the pattern here though.” Xan pointed at the next data, “Dominate resist, a third of willpower divided by ten. Two-point-five times will and charisma, divided by one hundred, boom, stealth break. Charisma uses the same formula of Dominate Resist to generate Dominate Chance.”

“Last one, Dodge Chance and Magic resist are just their characteristics divided by one hundred. Use the incomplete data to extrapolate which is which. The two, multiplied by two point five and added together, divided by a hundred, give you your stealth option. Questions?”

“Ah… one. Here.” Andre pointed at ‘total mana’. “This one is in the center, and is the combination of the two sub-characteristics. All the other combos are the bottom line, why is this one different.”

Xan slapped him to the ground, erasing the numbers and letters that had been scraped there. “You think I understand what was going through some moron enchanter’s head when they decided to brand us like cattle? Who cares which line is which!”

“I just like consistency!” Andre cried out. “Sheesh, Xan, you’re so slap-happy today. So… now what? How long is training supposed to last? We get to level ten, and make it back in time for the time limit?”

“Notsomuch.” Xan leaned back and looked upward. “It sometimes takes centuries to reach level ten. Think like this: you need two hundred Potentia to get to level two. All of that is used up to get you that level, it is gone. You start back at zero exp, and need three hundred to get to the next level. But! What’s this? Fighting the same monsters over and over gives diminishing returns on Potentia? You need to fight a variety, or find some tens of thousands of the same creatures and slay them to gain Potentia?”

Andre nodded in understanding. “The patience, and the length of time needed to gather that many of the same creatures, would be better used simply seeking new challenges.”

“Correct again.” Xan looked at Andre suspiciously. “Did you level up and increase your mind again?”

“Nice, Xan. I’m smart, drat it!” Andre huffed at his bearded fellow. “So… total experience to get to level ten? That’s… all the individual levels added up… are…”

He sketched out the sums on the dirt in front of him, “Twenty-three thousand, one hundred.”

“That’s right.” Xan spat out a pile of mush, yanked up a blade of grass that Andre had bound recently - making the young Druid flinch - and started chewing on it. “It’s very doable. Lots of High Humans in the employ of the various Kingdoms. By the way, ‘High Human’ is the race humans get after reaching level ten. Want to figure out why there are… like… two Paragons that interact with our plane? That’s people at level twenty or above. Do the math for one reason, and I’ll tell you the other.”

Andre started, and it took him a few minutes to struggle through the large numbers. When he saw the result, he was pale. “Two million, eight hundred sixty-five thousand, five hundred total Potentia? That’s possible?”

“More than possible.” Xan bobbed his chin, now fully stretched out on the grass. “That’s also if you use all your Potentia only on upgrading yourself, but that would mean you only ever have level zero or level one abilities, whatever tier they might be. You think that your Archmage is gonna have only level one spells? He might have a maximum tier ten, level nine spell. Imagine that: a spell that gained enough power that it is on the cusp of tier eleven. That's enough exp to level it to level ten, multiplied by ten times that amount to reach the next tier, repeated ten times if you start with a tier one spell. Insane, right?”

“Yeah… I suppose that’s one of the reasons people want higher-tiered spells, or in our case, abilities? What’s the real difference between tiers, beyond ease of leveling up to maximum?” 

“We’ll talk about that another time. You don’t have any abilities anyway, why worry about ‘what ifs’?”

“Huh.” Andre tried to think of the sheer amount of death that one person must have dealt out to gain millions of Potentia while Xan nodded at him. “You said that there was another reason there aren’t many Paragons?”

“Yup.” Xan stood up suddenly and dusted himself off. “You think that sigil on our heads can force a Paragon to do anything? At level twenty… a Paragon can just leave. That’s also the reason we are treated so well in our respective kingdoms? Paragons can leave… but imagine what happens if you had been treating your powerhouses poorly, and they reach the highest level of power possible for this planet. Your control over them is suddenly gone… what next?”

They both shuddered. Andre ventured a question, “Has that happened?”

“Of course it has.” Xan quietly responded. “Ever heard of the Scarocco desert?”

“Yeah?”

“Used to be the Rocco grasslands.”

“Ah.” Andre swallowed deeply. “That’s a part of my kingdom, isn't it?”

“Sure is.” Xan patted him on the back. “Why do you think it’s so important that your kingdom gets a well-trained Druid that they treat well? What class of Ascender do you think was treated poorly the first time around? Now, I think break time is over. Now that you can make your circles, you can finally start improving yourself.”

“Eight months of being stagnant in Potentia has really been getting to me.” Andre agreed with his mentor. He hefted his staff and started walking alongside Xan, having plenty to think about. “What’s next?”

“What are you talking about?” Xan stopped and looked at the young man quizzically. “All you did was learn how to make a binding circle, Andre. You haven't completed the task I set out for you. You still need to bind everything on this hill. Get to it.”

“You suck!”

Xan’s only response was to slap Andre in the face and walk away laughing as the youngster spat blood onto the ground once more.