Bibliomancer ~ 5!

~ Five ~

Sam didn’t die as he expected. It was a strange feeling, being alive when you weren't supposed to be. Something that was very hard to describe, but he felt that most people would somehow understand.

The whole world had stopped, frozen; the boulder mere inches away from crushing him beneath its immense weight and apparently-not-unstoppable momentum. His parents were still there, as was his sister and doggo, but someone had pressed the pause button on everyone but Sam. There was a sharp *ding-ding-ding* followed immediately by a message appearing in the air like a mirage in the deep desert.

Well, you didn’t finish all the trials, but hey, you know what you want, and you’re sticking to your guns—good for you! Plus, you really tried. And you were pretty close. Farther than anyone else has made it… though this is day one, so that’s not a super huge achievement. But hey, take your wins where you can get them! Based on the results of your trials, new starting classes have been unlocked! Your basic stats will be adjusted based on the result of each test after you choose a class!

Title unlocked: High Five, I Tried! This title will cause NPCs to have pity on you, because dang it, you’re a good person and you tried! Effect: Randomly, an NPC might gift you with a small trinket. It could be a crust of bread, a tidbit of information, or even an invaluable object. -5% prices at good or neutral aligned shops.

Please note that all title effects are active at the same time, but the title you have equipped will be the only one others can see without analysis abilities. The maximum number of titles you can have at any given time is ten.

The world swam around him, blurring on the edges as he was transported to a new room, absolutely packed with people. Not any ol’ people, though, but him. Fifty iterations of Sam in various attire and poses, all standing in neat, orderly rows. As he moved, they moved, mimicking his every motion. He lifted an arm and so did they. When he smiled, a clone army of himself beamed back in return. Alright! Now this was what he’d come for!

Slowly, Sam moved into the rows, examining the uncanny doppelgangers.

There were versions on him with bulging muscles, heavy armor, and all manner of weapons. Versions with him in leathers, others where he held beakers and flasks. Class names hung above each head like faint storm clouds, colored with ghostly light. He ignored the barbarians and heavy-hitting melee warriors. The thing was, classes like those would have a huge advantage in the early game play. Chances were, a ranger or a warrior class would go in, ready to kick butt and take names—immediately effective.

But he was going to be in a DIVE pod for three freaking months, and with the time compression, that would feel like six months. Six months of near constant play, in the game for twenty-four hours a day. Although math was his worst suit by far, he’d just given a lecture on trig, so it wasn’t hard to come up with a rough estimated projection of the amount of time he’d be in Eternium. Two-thousand one-hundred and sixty real life hours, or four-thousand three-hundred and twenty hours if he were accounting for compression.

That was a metric butt ton of game time.

If he played things right, he could end up being one of the most powerful players in the meta, especially if some of these options were restricted or rare classes.  magic class would be as weak as single ply toilet paper early on, but later… later he would have a tremendous edge. So, he ignored the brawlers, bypassing them without a second thought, focusing instead on the glowing versions of himself, most of them clad in robes. He examined one that might have been a generic priest, but passed it over—he was here to adventure, to quest, and had no desire to play a pure support class.

At least not exclusively. He had no problem laying down some team buffs, but he wanted to slay. Healing was for people who were afraid to make other people bleed!

“Combat magic classes,” he ordered the group of himself.

The figures shifted and whirled, the columns and rows rearranging themselves until only five figures stood before him, all highlighted with an ethereal glow. One looked like a Druid Build—decked out in furs and soft leathers—another was clearly a summoner, what with the stately black robes sown with mystic sigils and a trio of little gremlin-looking creatures marching around him in a circle. That might be an interesting option, though the idea of lurking at the rear behind a wall of puppets waiting for his minions to do the heavy lifting didn’t sound all that fun. Sam looked over each, before moving on to a class called Aeolus Sorcerer, which was a subclass of the Mage branch.

This, now… this looked promising. Using the Tool Tips icon loitering in the corner of his vision, he pulled up more info.  

Aeolus Sorcerer. A unique subclass of Mage that has a mastery over the forces of wind and air. The Aeolus Sorcerer intuitively understands magic—it is a part of him that is as natural as breathing. Those choosing this class have naturally large mana pools and regenerate mana at a far faster rate than their more generalized brethren. They also naturally learn new class-compatible spells every third level without any training from an outside source. Although they have some defensive capabilities, Aeolus Sorcerers tend to lean toward combat oriented spell craft; making excellent field mages.

Overall, their spells are less powerful than those of a basic Mage at the same level, but the spells can cost less than half the mana. The Aeolus Sorcerer gains four characteristic points to spend per three levels, and one point of intelligence and wisdom on every even level. Because of their affinity for spellcraft, Aeolus Sorcerers receive a minor penalty against their strength and constitution. Intelligence, wisdom, and dexterity are the suggested characteristics for this class. Do you want to start the ‘game’ as an Aeolus Sorcerer?

Bingo. This was the one, he could feel it.

Since Eternium was so new, and a tightly guarded secret, there was really nothing out about the gameplay or overall mechanics. But, based on Sam’s past experience with MMOs, this looked exactly like the kind of class he wanted. Adventure-oriented, action-based, good gameplay up front with the potential for high power later on. Most importantly of all? It looked like it would be fun! He had no intention of being a pro-gamer or making his living as a live-streamer; eventually he would return to the real world and help his dad and mom run the family business.

But until then? He just wanted to have a blast. This was it. The trials had been terrible, but this was definitely worth the pain.

Congrats! You have accepted the unique subclass, Aeolus Sorcerer. Professions unlock at level five. You have four characteristic points to spend. Please note, your starting characteristics have already been modified due to your trials, real life capabilities, and class selection. Please allocate your remaining points now.

With a thought, Sam pulled up his character sheet.

There were ten stats to choose from. Strength, agility, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, charisma, luck, karmic luck, and perception. As a former gamer, most of those terms seemed pretty self-explanatory; in a game this new, strange, and immersive, however, he didn’t want to take anything for granted and run the risk of being wrong. Afterall, most people didn’t know that DnD Sorcerers used Charisma instead of Intelligence as their primary trait for spell-casting—what if this turned out to be similar? So, instead of simply bypassing those details, he used the tooltips feature again to get a bead on what everything did.

Strength, it seemed, was the stat which determined how much he could carry and how hard he could hit with weapons or his fists. Dexterity was the explosive speed he could muster, his ability to contort his body, how well he could do complicated tasks like picking locks, crafting goods, or using ranged weapons—a trait that would likely come in handy as a ranged spellcaster.

Constitution determined how healthy he was, how much stamina he had, and his overall resistances to poison and disease. It also determined his physical appearance and made it harder to be knocked around at higher levels. Good for tanks and warriors especially. That was probably the least important trait for Sam, considering he planned to hit hard at range. A little extra health probably wouldn’t hurt, though. No point in being unnecessarily squishy if he could avoid it, especially if he was going to play solo for any length of time.

As expected, Intelligence determined how much mana he had at any given time, in addition to how well he could understand complicated concepts like spells or engineering. The most interesting tooltip was the entry for wisdom. Apparently, wisdom determined how fast his mana regenerated, as well as an esoteric statement that wisdom would ‘help determine if he should do something.’ It would also let him combine various concepts, working with his intelligence to make new and improved things.

The problem was, he couldn’t really get his mind around that notion. How in the world would having an altered wisdom score help him to understand whether he should do something? It wasn’t like the game could actually make him wiser, yet that seemed to be the implication.

Only time would tell how that mechanic actually worked.

Charisma, as in various MMOs he’d played, determined how people would interact with him, and his ability to get good prices buying or selling. It would also impact his ability to lead or convince others to do things with or for him. As a social outcast he expected to have a low Charisma score, but was pleasantly surprised to find he had a thirteen, which wasn’t at all too shabby considering his highest score, Intelligence, was at a seventeen. He wasn’t sure that made sense, but he’d take any edge he could get.

Luck was something that affected all the other stats on an unstated level, as well as his chances of finding rare items or loot without specifically looking for them. As in real life, he seemed to be abnormally lucky with a base score of fifteen.  Karmic luck wasn’t explained even a little bit, but if Sam had to gamble, he’d say was probably how a player’s alignment was tracked. He’d played games where a single good or bad decision could have a drastic outcome on almost any given storyline, so maybe this was similar.

Finally, Perception was the ability to spot details. This was everything that came from sensory input and would increase how well he experienced and interacted with the world. He noted that he had somehow scored an incredibly low five in perception, which seemed even more shocking than that his Charisma score was so high. People had accused him once or twice of being absent minded, but a five? Really? He wasn’t that absent minded and unobservant, was he? Couldn’t be. But there it was staring him right in the face like an accusatory finger.

Right below the Perception was a note on the side that caught his attention.

*Be warned! Increasing perception will enhance how much pain players actually feel, as well as all other sensations! Eternium is not responsible for damage to player’s mental state. For more information please read the capsule handbook included in your order!

On the plus side, you have the Perception of a burnt piece of toast, so you shouldn’t have too much to worry about! I would watch out for rotten food and poison if I were you, though. Also, steer clear of those Rogue classes, because a Mage-based class with a perception of five will be a bigger mark than Big Mark—a robust Innkeeper who happens to be named Mark, and guess what? Big Mark has way~y~y higher perception than you.

Well. That was super insulting. Guess it was just part of the flavor of the game. Dismissing the message, Sam surveyed his current stats, mulling over just which scores he should increase.

Characteristic: Raw score (Modifier)

Strength: 12 (1.12)

Dexterity: 13 (1.13)

Constitution: 11 (1.1)

Intelligence: 17 (1.17)

Wisdom: 16 (1.16)

Charisma: 13 (1.13)

Perception: 5 (0.05)

Luck: 15 (1.15)

Karmic Luck: 2

The whole system seemed a little wonky to him, especially the raw score verses the modified score, and what practical effects that had. But after spending a little more time pouring over the tooltips, examining the stats and their relationships to each other, he earned another pop up that seemed to lay everything out nice and neat:

Growth in Eternium is difficult when you are doing nothing! Unlike other systems, each day will be a struggle to survive, especially at the start of your journey. Because of the difficulty, the rewards will certainly be worth your effort! Since this system is somewhat unorthodox, please note that a modifier of ‘one’ is considered a normal, healthy adult human. Because you’re a book-smart, brain-dead college kid with a pampered upbringing and no real-world experience, your perception score has been negatively impacted to a high degree!

Each point allocated will increase your modifier by one one-hundredth of a point. An exception to this is when you gain your first ten points in any category. At this point, your score will increase to ‘one point one’ in that category. Moving forward, each time a category increases to the next multiple of fifty, the base score will increase by ‘one’. At fifty points, your modifier will be plus ‘two’. At one hundred points, the modifier will be plus ‘three’. For example, a character with forty-nine points in a category will have a modifier of 1.49, which is forty-nine percent stronger than an average human! Then, if they reach fifty points in the category, they will jump to a modifier of 2.0!

The discrepancy in strength is intended to push you to develop as fast as possible. Skill in the areas you focus on will quickly allow you to reach higher than others of the same level, even if you have similar stats! You can earn skill points and characteristic points through your actions, so work hard! You will need to be as powerful as possible when the first major update comes into effect. That is… if you want to survive!

Huh, the developers on this game sure had a flair for the ominous and slightly creepy flavor text. Putting that aside, Sam had a pretty good idea of exactly what he should do. Hitting fifty points in a given category sounded like the real goal, since that would maximize the point multiplier, giving the greatest overall boosts. But he really needed to bring up his perception stat, which had a negative value multiplier. With a point-zero-five modifier he was liable to be as gullible as a toddler and miss pretty much everything that wasn’t directly hitting him in the face like a baseball bat.

After a moment, he decided to drop two of his four points into Perception, so he was slightly more perceptive than a shiny potato; then he added another point to wisdom, bringing it up to seventeen. His last point he dropped into Dexterity, since that was the lowest of his three Class-essential character traits.

With his points distributed, he finally input a name.

He could, in theory, start a new character if he botched things too badly—though he didn’t relish the idea of redoing the tests—but he really didn’t want to get stuck with a stupid gamertag for the next three months. How bad would it be to have a lame name like PwnerBwner_69 for the rest of his days? So, instead, he chose his own name, Sam_K, and was pleasantly surprised when it went through.

But then, these were young days. The game had only been active for less than twenty-four hours, and only those with quite a bit of money to throw around were likely on at this point. Moreover, most of the players on the server would probably be going with funny names like Shadow_Stalker, GlitterGurl, ExcitedPear, or Kangaroar!  

His chosen named populated followed by the slightly insulting title he’d earned.

Name: Sam_K ‘High Five, I Tried!’

Class: Aeolus Sorcerer (Mage)

Profession: Locked

Level: 1 Exp: 0 Exp to next level: 1000

Hit Points: 70/70 (60+(10)*)

Mana: 212/212 (12.5 per point of intelligence)

Mana regen: 4.25/sec (.25 per point of wisdom)

Stamina: 65/65 (50+(10)**+(5)***)

*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: 12 (1.12)

Dexterity: 14 (1.14)

Constitution: 11 (1.1)

Intelligence: 17 (1.17)

Wisdom: 17 (1.17)

Charisma: 13 (1.13)

Perception: 7 (0.07)

Luck: 15 (1.15)

Karmic Luck: 2

Class skills and spells

Wind Blade (Novice I): Select an enemy target to attack, inflicting 3n damage, where n = skill level. (Air-aligned magic) Range: Ten meters. Cost: 5n. Cooldown: 1.5 seconds; hand gestures must be completed to cast.

Instinctual Casting (Novice I): As a Sorcerer, you automatically have an innate knowledge of spellcasting. You are able to cast any spell that is at the same rank as this ability, for an increased (variable) mana cost. Passive, no cost.

Cool. So right off the bat, Sam would be able to sling magic, and with the Instinctual Casting ability, it looked like he wouldn’t even be required to do much training. At this point, he had no money or armor, but he did have one outstanding skill point—though it looked like he wouldn’t be able to do anything with that until second level. Which was probably for the best. He didn’t know enough about the gameplay yet or the overall meta to make an informed decision about what to use those points for, though the tooltips did provide a little bit of context.

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 were: Novice, Beginner, Apprentice, Student, Journeyman, Expert, Master, Grandmaster, and Sage. Which meant with he had a long way to go before he was anywhere close to mastering even a single skill. Eh, that was fine. A game like this wouldn’t really be enjoyable or hold his interest if he could max out his character in the first week. Better if he had to work at it for a while.

Looking forward to the adventure to come, he accepted all changes and the world dissolved around him.