“We got a message,” Ira said as Jonas reached the team’s usual table at the Frozen Boar.

Jonas sat heavily, still feeling the pressure of the multiple port bottles – mostly drunk by the Frenchman – finally making their way to his bladder, unfolded the small letter and frowned.

Adjusted Team,

Did you forget the appointment at the Archives for skill checks? If I’m not there, the other Archivists will be there to see to the tests.

Resilient Spellwrangler Charles Babbage

“Uh?”

“Didn’t they say they had a few items to tease the skills from at level 98?” Laura asked.

“Yes, but I’m still at 97… oh.”

“Yea. You forgot already about your… advantage,” she replied, avoiding to say the reason for the reminder out loud.

“So. Archives. That should be the first thing tomorrow, then. All of us should be there, who knows which skill spheres they’re going to have.”

“Then the Faire?” Laura asked.

“We haven’t much to offer this time. Exploring and running for experience does that,” Jonas noted.

“I’ll do the rounds this time, instead of setting up at a table. Let’s see how this works out,” she said.

Jonas snapped his fingers.

“The skill check makes me think. Maybe we should also not just focus on gear at the Faire.”

Laura frowned, then realized what he was looking for.

“Picking cheap common or just quality pieces if they have skill ranks on them, you mean.”

“Yes. The way the Faire is now going, we don’t need to trade everything to keep it interesting for everyone. So maybe we should be on the lookout for opportunities for us later. Even those for which we don’t have the sphere right now.”

“People like Potentials more for the versatility, so these low-level pieces should be easy to trade for. I’ll do that,” she said.

“So, Jonas, what do you think about the experience?” Guss pushed.

“We still need to compare with lair running in Outapis. But the experience sounded okay-ish…” he said, hesitating.

“But we still could use more gear, is what you’re saying,” Laura said, laughing at the contradiction with the previous conversation.

“That too. But until we have more Milestones, we can’t go deep into multiple tier three lairs, so reliable gear sources still mean tier two. The trunk hasn’t got enough guardians, even if they really give the best gear quality.”

“What did the Frenchman have to say,” Jonathan pressed.

“Not much. He did not run the Brocarres zone regularly. And frankly, the geography he described is not good – it has a chokepoint through which all the traffic in the zone has to go.”

Jonas proceeded to summarize the information he gleaned about their destination.

“So, based on that, we might have to dodge everyone, sneak through the Plaza, and trek to a distant Gate?”

“Yes. I got a small rough map, so at least we know where to go, but that’s basically the idea. In Argenmart, it’s easier, you follow the zone border north for like 15 miles, and you are at the Great Gilded Gate. No, it’s going to be the Brocarres bit that’s hard,” Jonas said.

“And we are supposed to scout that,” Alton said.

“At the first opportunity. Which means first thing after this Sunday’s office,” Jonas confirmed.

“Got my Fast Travel charge coming on Monday, though,” Ira said.

“Uh? Got one, and next…”

“You didn’t spend any while in the Colonies, though,” Guss said.

“This complicates things,” Jonas replied. “You should have told me.”

“Well, we assumed you’d keep track of that.”

“I can’t see your location descriptors, as you’re well aware. But yes, I now realize I’ve drifted from you five on that as well as levels, now. Drat.”

“Ah. Here it is,” Babbage said, carefully unwrapping a long staff.

With the heavy oiled cloth out of the way, Jonas found himself staring at a staff that seemed made of some exotic black wood, with a metallic top looking like a corrugated sphere.

“This particular underlevelled heroic piece is considered heavily broken. It’s originally from a tier five zone Ancient. It is probably an offensive aetherist-type staff since it has no damaging factors… yet its potentials and vitals are utterly useless. Well, wasted on the wrong ones. Lord, I’d pick an exceptional-only staff from a level 100 over this one.”

Babbage handed him the staff, and as he touched it and the descriptor appeared, he saw immediately why it was considered bad for an Aethershaper. No Intellect, no aether. At all. The potentials were high, but not that useful.

Shadow Staff under the Moon

Two-Handed

Heroic equipment

Requires: Level 98

Provides: 96 defence rating, +1 Elemental Spray rank, PRE+29, FOR+24, FOC+23, +2% mind/FOR

Babbage relinquished his grip on the staff, and Jonas held it, as the slightly off-putting sensation of a new skill crawled in his hand.

Skill unlocked: Elemental Spray

Elemental Spray

Aether/Offence

Rank 1: Does 32.5% of total INT+WIS+FOR+FOC+PRE in any elemental damage (the most effective element applies). Costs: 0.49 aether per damage.

“WHAT THE?!?” Jonas exclaimed.

“I guess from the exclamation it was indeed an Aether-Offensive skill,” Babbage smiled. Then his eyes widened as Jonas conveyed the descriptor’s content.

“That’s an interesting one you’ve found,” Howard commented after Jonas had exposed to the gathered Archivists the details on the unlocked skill. He’d confirmed it followed a soft curve, with a 30% and a 0.5 cost at rank 0 once he’d relinquished the staff.

“It sounds absolutely insane,” Jonas said.

“It’s probably for high levels,” Babbage countered.

“How so?”

“You probably would have Intellect being around half of your potential total at that point, but started to collect more potentials, depending on gear and build. And you’d have invested at least half a dozen skill ranks in any base spells already, so until you’ve spent a lot more skill ranks in there as well, it’s mainly useful in a situation where you’ve got the wrong elemental in front of you for your normal build.”

Another Archivist speculated, “And if you’re not a primary Intellect user, but are using it as a supplement to your build, it might end up being better enough to use.”

A third added, “And as more and more requirements pile up in the higher tiers, you probably need high base Potentials already.”

“Well, I have more than that in my potentials. And if I had that staff in hand…” Jonas mused.

“The potentials on the staff make a bit more sense now. I did not expect such a multi-potential skill, though. The most diverse skill is, what, three potentials?”

“Indeed,” confirmed Howard. “There’s a tier five for STR-AGI-DEX, and that one’s only counting the highest of all three. Most multi-Potentials skills rely on only two and in that same highest-of-two way.”

“So… the staff?”

“Didn’t we had this conversation already? Most of the items in the Archives aren’t even ours, to begin with.”

Given the skill math, the weapon would boost it to very powerful, much better than the Flame Bolt. Even without it, the damage was already close, and he always used a single spell most of the time anyway.

“I still wish it could be used for something at least,” he said, before realising how much of a whine this sounded.

“You get a spell several tiers early, at least. Now we’ve got something for any of your two defenders, probably Sir Heard,” Babbage switched.

Flexible Black Steel Handgrips

Hands

Heroic equipment

Requires: Level 104

Provides: 296 defence rating, +1 Spectral Shield rank, +369 end, +260 aet, DEX+22, CON+21

“Uh? Spectral Shield?”

“Yes. I know, you are not with a Stamina and shield build, but the mention of some shield makes everyone think that your Careful Barrier will be the proper Profession for this skill.”

Babbage turned to Jonas.

“If you can temporarily help your teammate?”

Before Jonas could ask how to do so, Guss threw him a small wooden figure. Jonas noticed it had a jacket and a belt stored, but the Puppet had enough room for his Core and the percentage bonus. He reluctantly swapped out the Core, before handing it to Ira.

“Okay. That’s doable now. Even faster,” he said as the gloves blinked out.

“You’re right, though. It is indeed Equipment-Defence.”

Skill unlocked: Spectral Shield

Spectral Shield

Equipment/Defence

Rank 1: Temporarily replaces your off-hand weapon with a shield with the same characteristics. The damage is replaced with a defence rating of 101% of the original weapon’s quality. All shield abilities can be used normally. Lasts 12.5 seconds. Costs: 0.49 aether/item level.

“Sounds useless. For me, I mean.”

Suddenly, Ira’s claymore morphed into a very large rounded targe of floating darkness. His hand was partially visible through the black, a small pale shape barely discernible.

“Whoa. So offhand means my main hand weapon… if it is two-handed. Leaves me with no weapon though.”

Alton threw him a dagger, which he caught, before looking at it.

“Okay, I can use one, I guess. Although I look ridiculous with an enormous shield”

He made a few gestures with the knife.

“Not used to…”

The spectral shield suddenly morphed back into the Claymore of the Doneri Bull, and Ira yelled.

“What happened???” Jonas instantly asked.

“It did feel wrong when it turned back. Like it wrenched my hand… I think… oh, thankfully, there was still room in the Puppet.”

“Why?”

“Your knife moved into the puppet,” Ira said looking at Alton. “Don’t know what would have happened if I hadn’t one…”

“Or if it’s full?” Alton mused.

“You should test that,” Babbage replied.

They made two separate tests. In both cases, the claymore fell on the ground instead, leaving Ira with the dagger in hand.

“So, it can be used with a two-handed build if you have a spare weapon in your puppet,” Babbage mused. “Probably for specific purposes, when you really need some major defence rating.”

“Flat Blade does this.”

“Only for non-basic attacks, and believe me, the defence boost of the spectral shield will be much, much more than your Flat Blade.”

“Anything else?” Jonas asked.

“We still have the gloves you tried last time. And I think you changed skill spheres since, Lady Harvey.”

“Oh. You’re right. I’m Personal-Offence now.”

Laura slipped the Enhanced Gripping Gloves, before shaking her head.

“No Boneshatter skill gain. So it’s not one of those. Maybe a Control-type skill?”

“That, or an Opponent skill, like I speculated originally. You don’t get those before tier five,” Babbage replied.

“Or maybe an exotic aetherist skill? Jonas, want to try? I know it’s not a piece of light gear, but sometimes, you get strange combinations.”

“Sure why not?”

Jonas slid the gripping gloves, but outside of the slight flush of 16 additional strength and additional focus, there was no skill notification appearing.

“Nope.”

“Well, next time you change skill sphere,” Howard shrugged as Babbage handed him the gloves for return to safekeeping.

“Next skill try?”

“At level 122. The name is Earth Body, which sounds like it could be a lot of things, possibly Aether-Defence.”

“I don’t remember an elemental body skill in any list?” Jonas said.

“No, that’s the only mention of those we have so far. So, we don’t expect you to succeed at that time, but there are lots of skill spheres, and only six of you. Cannot have it all.”