P-System Log

That was a pretty uneventful night. I read some of the books, which Aster was kind enough to use some sort of skill to flip the pages automatically after she went to bed. I also looked over the loot we got. It's a decent assortment of stuff, though none of it seems to be particularly useful. Way better than the garbage from the other dungeons we ran, but it's still a [Common] dungeon in the end. We got some [Currency], I'm pretty sure, though Aster already absorbed all of it, and a few assorted weapons. I think Aster calls them artifacts? That seems to be her general name for dungeon loot.

Jerome fell asleep almost instantly after we got back, so we didn't really have an opportunity to test what they do, but I doubt they're anything special. [Dagger of Lesser Frost], [Impact Hammer], and [Rainbow Medallion]. The third one might've seemed promising, but the amount of W Inertia and mana coming out of that one was positively minuscule even in comparison to the two [Common] items.

Well, Jerome's awake now, so he might try it out, but I don't have high hopes for it. Aster left the inn a while ago and took the loot, so it looks like it's definitely a no on checking those out. I didn't want to waste even more W Inertia on identifying those items further, so I guess I'll just never figure out what they do. Oh well. I can make skills that do them better.

Party Chat

[Jerome Smith]: Where did you go?

[Aster K'lon]: You were still asleep?

[Aster K'lon]: I took the physical drops to the market. With loot this low-tier, there's no point in attempting to use it. It would be useful for a true beginner's party. S'ker natives with [Common] classes might appreciate something like this. However, at our level, they are worth little more than the monetary gain we can extract from them.

[Jerome Smith]: Huh. Alright, that makes sense. Did any of them have any useful attributes? I'm just curious.

[Aster K'lon]: Not particularly. I'm not sure what [Impact Hammer] did since I've only ever seen it in children's toy shops, but a [Dagger of Lesser Frost] is a simple damaging weapon. It adds around a 1R6 to 3R8 frost damage modifier to a knife strike, but it heavily skews towards lower damage. Since neither of us are melee attackers, we do not need it. [Rainbow Medallion] is a way to change the type of damage that a skill does. However, it requires around a quarter of the mana invested into the original skill. It also starts to fail on higher-level attacks. Potentially useful, but I have better artifacts already.

[Jerome Smith]: Cool. We're hitting up a [Rare] dungeon today, right? That should get us some better loot.

[Aster K'lon]: We shall. Depending on the circumstances, we may need to group with another party in order to meet the minimum WPA.

[Jerome Smith]: It's that much harder?

[Aster K'lon]: It is.

[Aster K'lon]: I will return. For the time being, I must continue this sale.

Hero's Personal Log 081 Hey, while we've got time, could I request a new skill? P-System Log

As much as he's gotten a little politer, he's still the same unnecessarily needy Jerome as ever. I'd be more irritated if he was a little ruder, but I'll let it pass. This time.

I'm not going to spend any significant amount of W Inertia on him. I don't regret spending so much to keep him alive, but I don't have any left to spare. No new disgustingly powerful skills for him!

I am willing to experiment with stupid shit, though. I'm bored, and I'm pretty sure Jerome isn't going to go anywhere without Aster. Burning a few W Inertia in an effort to pass the time isn't too bad.

P-System Message Limited resources available. Only [Common] skills are accessible. Hero's Personal Log 082

Yeah, that makes sense. I would guess that the [Legendary] skill took a lot of... whatever Systems use to run themselves. XP? Whatever. I bet that took a lot of whatever resource it is.

[Common] is fine. I just want more abilities. How about... a [Resistance] skill for fire. Can we do one of those?

P-System Log

Hm. There's a fire in this room, set into a little pit in the middle of the room. It's got a chimney above it, but my senses tell me that it doesn't actually have an opening. Some magical thing, I think, a passive skill installed into a piece of the chimney that absorbs the smoke. Neat.

Whatever. The important part is the fire and its associated properties. Now that I have some experience creating a skill out of nothing, I think I've got this. I don't think I even need 10 W Inertia to make a basic resistance skill.

Here we go! I take the properties of the fire, invert them with my epic System mind, fuck around with the laws of physics, and toss a dash of W Inertia onto it to top it all off!

New skill unlocked: [Fire Resistance] Decreases damage dealt to you by fire by 5%. Hero's Personal Log 083 Oh, shit, all I had to do was ask? Damn. Let me test this out... Fire dealt 3 damage to you! P-System Log

Dammit, Jerome.

You managed to make it so far! I almost thought you were a functional human being, and then you go and stick your fucking face in the room's fire?

Well, I guess he's not actually feeling the pain.

Huh, come to think of it, the Health system in this world means that kids are able to be a lot more stupid, doesn't it?

At least he's not coming close to killing himself. I was wondering if I could copy the process of regeneration, but try as I might, trying to copy last night's natural passive regeneration produced nothing more than continued access issues. Looks like I really can't copy it, though the process did still end up fully healing Jerome by the time the night was through.

Oh hey, Aster's back.

Party Chat

[Aster K'lon]: I found a pair of adventurers that is willing to temporarily link parties with us.

[Jerome Smith]: Are we not going to be able to tackle it ourselves?

[Aster K'lon]: While I was out, I went to the Dungeon Corps. I found that our WPA was not high enough for the [Rare] dungeon, but it would be with another pair. As such, they will be meeting with us soon to prepare for the dungeon.

[Jerome Smith]: Great.

[Aster K'lon]: I also successfully sold all three items for prices that were quite high.

[Jerome Smith]: Oh, okay, that's good.

P-System Log

Wasn't Jerome from some rich-ass family? That kind of explains why he has literally zero regard for the value of money. I don't know how much we have nor what qualifies as a good amount in this world, but I guess as long as Aster isn't worried about affording food and board, it's not an issue.

I wonder who the adventurers are.

P-System Log

HAHAHAHAHA WHAT ARE THE CHANCES

We just met the adventurers. After dawdling for a while longer and eating a breakfast (damn, I kind of miss eating), Jerome and Aster set off to the southeast dungeon system. We haven't checked into the official building--which is a little nicer than the [Common] dungeon's facilities, I have to say--but we finally met with the people who're going to be working with us.

Here's a rough translation of them talking to Aster:

Elf Lady: You have to be fucking kidding me.

Dwarf Man: Are you serious?

And then they glanced at Jerome all annoyed and Aster was like "oh."

P-System Log

It's been like five minutes now and Aster has somehow convinced them to come with us. I swear, she's got some magic ability that lets her handle social interactions better. I wish I could be her.

Welp. Here we are now. In a temporary party with the people that Jerome knocked down and was accidentally rude to on our way into this city.

Party Chat

[Arcs S'tar]: You'll keep him from hitting us in the dungeon?

[Thron of the Fallen Skies]: Or casting skills the wrong way? He seems green.

[Aster K'lon]: You would be surprised.

[Jerome Smith]: I'm not that bad. Believe me.

[Thron of the Fallen Skies]: When I see it.

P-System Log

Huh, one of the dungeons of the system is closed. Something about "Core destruction" or the like. That's not ominous.

Thankfully, there's multiple dungeons in a given system! So we're on our way into the second dungeon in the Southeastern S'ker Dungeon System!

Geez, that's a mouthful.

I'm excited, though. W Inertia, come my way! More bosses, more fighting, more of everything that makes this world interesting.

Southeast S'ker Dungeon System

Adventurers ride to the gate

Ready to meet their coming fates

Sword and shield, bow and spear

Who can fight their rising fear?

P-System Log ...that's new.