Dagger Mastery skill reached rank 5!

“Finally.” Elise said, gasping for air as she put her hands on her knees, her energy nearing 0. Carsie walked up to her, tapped her on the shoulder, and instantly her energy filled back up while simultaneously she felt her breath return.

“Congratulations. You did great! I think you’re ready to handle the beasts outside the city gates.” Carsie smiled at her. “Unfortunately If you want to learn more from me, it’ll come at a cost.”

“Thanks…. How about kunai, can you teach me how to throw kunai?”

“Sure.” Carsie nodded with a smile. “I’m good with those as well. They’re a bit harder to learn than Daggers though.”

“I don’t see how that’s possible.” Elise joked as she wiped the sweat from her forehead.

“Well… it's one thing to shoot a bow or crossbow.” She motioned to Jaese training across the field. “But with Kunai, first you’ll need to throw them and orient them correctly.” Carsie said as she materialized a kunai in her hand from her inventory and threw it, hitting a target dummy directly in the head. “They’re not very effective unless you can hit vital spots. Then, to take full advantage of them, you need to be able to aim while moving, against moving targets.” Carsie said, then charged forward with a dash, and simultaneously threw 4 kunai, hitting 4 different training dummies in their heads.

“That’s what I wanna do.” Elise nodded as she watched Carsie retrieve the kunai.

“Show me what you’re already capable of.” Carise asked, so Elise pulled a kunai out of her inventory, aimed it by closing one eye, then threw it. The kunai spun around and bounced off the shoulder of the training dummy she was aiming for.

“Ehehe…” Carsie watched nervously.

“It’s hopeless, isn’t it.” Elise sighed as she retrieved it.

“No no no! You can learn it, it’s just going to take a lot of work.” Carsie tried to cheer her up. “Why don’t we take a break first though, I’m starving. Let’s pick it up again in 10 minutes, okay?” Carsie said as she ran off in a hurry towards one of the nearby entrances into the main Academy building. As she did, Elise heard a loud grumble from her stomach. Looking to her inventory, the steak was long gone, and she remembered she had entered Avistion with plans to make it here on her own, but hadn’t thought about food.

She looked to see Jaese approaching, while the elf that’d been training him headed to the main building as well.

“They’re calling for a lunch break. How’s it going with you so far?” Jaese asked as he pulled a bottle of water out of his inventory and started drinking it. Elise locked eyes with the bottle and watched as it funnelled water into his mouth.

“G-good. I’m done with daggers, about to start on kunai.”

“You thirsty?” Jaese asked, watching her eye his bottle.

“A… a little.” She replied.

“Here.” He pulled another bottle out of his inventory and tossed it to her. “I found out you could store items like this in your inventory, so I shoved all the bottles in my fridge into it.” Jaese said. Elise quickly opened the bottle and started chugging it, then watched as Jaese pulled a sandwich out of his inventory. Drool practically formed at the side of her mouth, causing him to roll his eyes and pull another out for her.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. This game is at least extremely convenient, once you get used to it.”

“How’s your training going?” She asked with a mouthful of bread.

“I got the crossbow figured out. I’m not perfect but atleast I won’t be useless. Doubt it’ll be good enough to deal with Tai yet though.”

“That’s okay, Darith said once we finished training we’d start leveling up on monsters.”

“Alright. Good. I’m gonna get started on the Longbow and finish off with hand to hand if they’ll train that here. I should at least already be good with that. What sort of skills did you get with the dagger so far?” Jaese asked.

“The beginner skill was stab... I also learned two others from Carsie…” Elise said as she opened her menu and explained them.

Dagger Mastery - Rank 5

Increases your damage dealt and efficiency while wielding a dagger. This mastery contributes to all damage dealt by physical-based skills while wielding a dagger, so long as that skill is compatible with daggers.

Damage: Weapon Damage + 5 + (50% of agility), (50% of strength)

Energy Cost Per Swing: 5

Stab - Rank 1 (Dagger, Shortsword)

Plunge the blade of your weapon into a target after activating this skill to use it.

Releases a burst of mana into the target once the blade has penetrated the target. Mana cost and damage increase with each rank.

Damage: Weapon Mastery + 10

Mana Cost: 5

Energy Cost: 10

Imbued Slash - Rank 1 (Dagger Only)

Surrounds your dagger with mana, extending its range and improving its sharpness in order to cut targets further away and penetrate basic armor. Higher ranks increase the length of the blade, and its sharpness, as well as increase its mana cost.

Mana Cost: 5 Mana per second

Sharpness: 1 Armor Penetration

Length Extension: 1mm.

Bleeding Cut - Rank 1 (Dagger Only)

Twist the blade after cutting a target in order to activate this ability. Causes the target to bleed and lose health over time. Duration and damage dealt based on Mastery and skill rank.

Duration: 3 seconds

Damage: 1% of Mastery Damage

Energy Cost: 15

“I couldn’t really practice the Bleeding Cut because it doesn’t work on the target dummies.” Elise shrugged.

“Well that’s a given.” Jaese replied as he listened to her explanation of her skills. “Sucks that we can’t get skill experience here. All my skills are rank 1 still as well.” Jaese replied.

“Belle did say this place is really only good for learning how to use the weapons, not for leveling up.” Elise replied, taking another bite. “What sort of skills did you get so far?” She asked.

Crossbow Mastery - Rank 5

Increases your damage dealt and efficiency while wielding a crossbow. This mastery contributes to all damage dealt by ranged attack skills while wielding a crossbow, so long as that skill is compatible with crossbows.

Damage: Weapon Damage + 2 + Agility

Energy Cost Per Shot: 3

Imbued Shot - Rank 1 (Crossbow, Longbow, Shortbow)

Imbues your next bolt or arrow with a bit of your mana, increasing its damage on impact. Higher ranks increase the mana cost and amount of mana you are able to imbue. The damage dealt is still considered physical.

Damage: Weapon Mastery + 5

Mana Cost: 5

Energy Cost: 5

Reload - Rank 1 (Crossbow Only)

Use mana to automatically place a bolt from your quiver into the loading slot of your crossbow. Higher ranks reduce the mana cost and casting time. Can be cast while moving.

Cast time: 5s

Mana Cost: 45

Crossbow Multi Shot - Rank 1 (Crossbow Only)

After casting this spell, your next bolt shot will split into multiple bolts that fire in a fan in front of you, but each bolt will deal less damage. Number of splits, damage penalty, and mana cost change with higher ranks.

Number of Bolts: 2

Damage Per Bolt: 50% Of Weapon Mastery

Mana Cost: 50

Jaese explained each of them to Elise as he read through them.

“The instructor told me not to rely too much on the Reload skill. Most of them seem not that great but she promised they’d be strong once I was able to rank them up.” Jaese said.

“Shooting two at the same time sounds pretty cool.” Elise commented.

“Never thought I’d say this, but I can’t wait until we start fighting monsters, Just so I can know this stuff isn’t a complete waste.”

“Easy for you to say, you get to stand back and shoot at them.”

“Once you get that kunai thing figured out, you can do the same.”

“Right.” Elise rolled her eyes. “That Carsie’s gonna have to be a miracle worker to teach me to throw knives. Darith probably thinks I'll be looking like a Ninja, but I’m prolly gonna be looking like a clown.”

“You won’t know until you try.” Jaese said, trying to reassure her, though the thought of having to learn how to throw a weapon accurately sounded way more difficult than what he was about to learn. The two watched as both of their instructors came back from inside the building and walked towards them. Carsie was holding a small bag, while Luryala brought with her a longbow. Seeing this, Jaese materialized his bow from his inventory.

“Looks like it's time to get started.” Jaese said. Elise finished off the food and water bottle.

“Do you mind if I keep this?” She pointed to the bottle.

“Go for it.” He nodded, and she put the empty bottle in her inventory. Carsie walked up with a giant smile on her face, cheerful as ever.

“I brought you something that’ll help with kunai learning.” Carsie said as she opened the bag and pulled out a thick leather glove with heavy padding on the fingertips and palm, and a strange rune etched on the back. “Put this on.” She said while handing it to Elise. Elise took it, looked at it, then started putting it on her right hand.

“What is it?” Elise asked as Luryala and Jaese watched.

“It’s a magic item, called a Training Glove. The enchantment on it is very powerful, so its very expensive. If you damage it you will need to pay the repair fees which usually go up to 10 000 gold.” Carsie smiled. Elise hadn’t finished putting on yet, and with those words she halted and started taking it back off again, causing Carsie to laugh.

“Relax, it can only be damaged by magic or magical weapons. It was a joke… just don’t use magic on it and you’ll be fine.” Carsie said.

“Do I really need to use something so valuable?”

“Those gloves were made specifically for people who want to learn throwing weapons, It’s been invaluable in teaching Avisition Soldiers how to use them. It makes it possible for anyone to learn.” Luryala smiled.

“A-alright.” Elise said as she began to delicately put the glove back on.

Equipped: Avistion Training Gloves (Grand)

Avistion Training Gloves (Grand)

Type: Leather

Armor: 26

Special: Memorizes the hand motions used to throw weapons using this glove, and helps make adjustments to improve the throwing technique while teaching it to the wearer.

Special 2: Any weapon thrown by this glove will return to the wearer’s hand upon snapping their fingers.

“Great. Now take this.” Carsie said as she forced a kunai into Elise’s hand with the glove on. “Understand how to use them?” She asked.

“I just throw and snap my fingers?” Elise asked skeptically.

“If only it were that easy.” Luryala whispered. “Let’s start over here.” She motioned Jaese away.

“Good luck.” Jaese said and Elise gave him a nod. Carsie didn’t reply to Elise’s words, she instead suddenly pulled a small nemothyne sized stool out of her inventory and placed it on the ground next to Elise as they stood in front of the archery targets. Seconds later, Carsie pulled a book out of her inventory, sat down, then started reading.

“What are you doing?” Elise asked as she watched her for a moment.

“Huh? I thought you got how it works. Use those gloves to throw the kunai at the target, eventually you’ll get it. Our best soldiers usually get it under 50 000 throws. Those gloves work wonders.” Carsie smiled, then went back to her book. “Just wave anytime you run out of energy.”

“Wait what the hell, you want me to throw a kunai 50 000 times?” Elise said with wide eyes.

“Some soldiers take over 200 000 throws. You can only hope for the best. Get to throwing!” Carsie grinned. Elise let out an elongated sigh of disbelief, turning to look at the archery target in front of her. Looking to her left she saw Jaese fire his first arrow from the bow, missing horribly and dropping it. To the right she saw several others learning to shoot bows and crossbows. She was the only one practicing a thrown weapon.

“Here goes nothing.” She said, then threw the kunai. It didn’t even reach the target, landing in the dirt in front of it. Elise then looked at the glove expectantly. “I don’t feel it doing anything, isn’t the glove supposed to help?” Elise asked.

“It’s a magic item not a miracle, you gotta give it time to do its thing. Just keep throwing.” Carsie said dismissively, not looking up from her book. Elise snapped her finger and the kunai re-appeared in her hand. She looked at it, then looked at the target, took a deep breath and hopped in place a few times to psych herself up.

“You can do this.” She said, then threw it again. Another total failure of a throw.

[Gabriel][Mourning]

“We’ll have to get out here to be safe.” Kristen said as she pulled the car up to a parking spot on the side of the road a few blocks from the cemetery. She got out of the car and looked in both directions to make sure there were no police, then opened the passenger door. Gabriel stood up and got out in his normal body, and once it looked as though no one was watching, he transformed back into his Orc form. “I’ll never get used to that.” Kristen said with wide eyes.

“Thank you for the ride, ma’am.” Gabriel replied as he walked in the direction of the cemetery, Kristen following behind him. Gabriel noticed her coming, just realizing now that she had donned black attire and planned to come with him, he didn’t comment on it though.

Just as they anticipated, there were multiple unmarked police cars parked around the cemetery, which Gabriel had experience spotting out. Officers in plain clothing sitting in them, observing their surroundings. He tensed up and did his best to act natural as he reached the open metal gate that lead into the fenced cemetery and walked inside.

Once they made it up the road leading in from the street he could relax a bit. Many of the cars in the parking lot were familiar to him, including his mothers. Kristen followed behind him walking hastily to keep up with the big steps that Gabriel made in his orc body.

“At least the disguise seems to be working.” Kristen whispered, but got no response this time. The cemetery itself had bright green grass that seemed to glow under the clear sky above them, with many trees spread about the field. Despite it being in the city, the size of it allowed for the sounds of vehicles driving on the roads nearby to be drowned out by the wind blowing through the trees.

On the far side a crowd had gathered of people garbed in black attire, Gabriel recognizing them from a distance. It was a mixture of his relatives, friends, and friends of David. The two approached silently to see that they hadn’t arrived too late, but as he approached, Gabriel slowly came to terms with the fact that he couldn’t talk to anyone here.

He spotted a few police officers pretending to be bystanders, they were walking around the cemetery on all sides acting as though they were visitors. He recognized them by how they occasionally put their finger to their ears and glanced around way more than any normal person would.

To avoid suspicion, Gabriel simply went towards the coffin. It was suspended above the 6ft grave, prepared to be lowered in. There was a beautiful display of flowers nearby and a small podium, but no one was standing behind it yet. He took a few steps back from the grave and stood in silence with his head down, and Kristen stood beside him without saying a word.

The size of the coffin bothered her. It was just big enough for a young adult, not unlike Darith. And from it, Kristen couldn’t help but imagine what Gabriel or his mother must be feeling. She turned to look at him and saw tears streaming down his face, but he stood perfectly still and silent.

Slowly but surely, the other visitors began to congregate, and eventually the ceremony began. The priest made a beautiful speech, but it did nothing to calm Gabriel’s emotions. He kept looking towards his mother who was in tears, being supported by other family members that stood around her. All he wanted to do was go by her side to try and comfort her, to let her know he was going to make things right, but the fact that he couldn’t built up an anger inside of him.

The coffin was lowered, people made their peace, and the dirt was poured on top of it, all while Gabriel stood still. He saw Samuel speak with his mother and could only hope he’d say something on his behalf as he and Kristen watched quietly.

“Terrible thing, such a young age. Much too soon to be leaving this world.” The priest spoke, startling them as he approached from behind.

“Yes, it is” Kristen replied.

“May I ask how you came to know David?”

“We, uh, we were teachers, in his school.” Kristen replied nervously.

“I see. Thank you for coming to attend, I’m sure it means a lot to David.” The priest bowed to them politely. They watched him walk away and went silent once more, Gabriel wiping the tears from his face.

“Thank you.” He said to Kristen, and she gently pat Gabriel on the back. “I’m ready to leave now.”

“Alright… one moment.” Kristen said, then walked towards Mrs. Estrada, making Gabriel nervous as he watched. Kristen moved to stand beside her once she had been left alone by relatives, staring in the direction of the grave.

“Hello Mrs. Estrada, my name is Kristen.” She spoke, but Mrs. Estrada didn’t react. “I just wanted you to know that your son Gabriel is safe. He’ll be staying in hiding to avoid the police for now. But he didn’t do anything wrong and he’s working hard to find the person responsible. He wants you to know that he loves you very much.” Kristen said, causing Mrs. Estrada to turn her gaze to Kristen, reamining silent for a moment.

“You know where my Gabriel is?” She asked.

“I.. I do.” Kristen replied. Mrs. Estrada looked around the cemetery in the direction of several undercover police officers, then back to Kristen. “You tell him that if he finds the one that did this to David, that he kills that son of a bitch.” Mrs. Estrada said angrily. Kristen was taken aback, not expecting those words from such a small, modest looking lady, but there was an anger behind her eyes of the likes that Kristen hadn’t seen before. She nodded awkwardly, turned and began walking back to Gabriel. Once by his side, the two walked out of the cemetery together.

“What’d you say?” Gabriel asked.

“I just let her know that you were safe, and that you’re innocent.” Kristen replied.

“And what’d she say?” Gabriel said as he noticed Kristen’s shocked expression.

“She said she loves you and to take care.” Kristen replied awkwardly.

“No she didn’t.” Gabriel shook his head looking away from Kristen.

“No she most certainly didn’t.”

“Good. If she’s like that, it means she’s still got her spirit.” They were silent for the rest of the walk back to the car.

“Hop in, you can stay at our place in between your magic city adventures. I bet they’re all waiting for you.” Kristen said as she got in the driver side. Gabriel glanced around quickly to see no one was looking, then turned back into his smaller body to fit in the car.

“Thank you ma’am.”

Within 30 minutes, Gabriel had gotten back to Kristen’s house, used the Avistion gate to Griffin Square, and arrived back in the training hall to see Jaese working with the longbow and Elise throwing the kunai.

“How’d it go?” Jaese asked as he took a break upon seeing him.

“Was fine, didn’t get caught. Your boys were all over the place though. Looks like you guys caught up a bit while I was gone, you done with your first weapons?” Gabriel asked.

“Yeah.” Jaese replied, but Elise didn’t look, she was focused on throwing. “Kinda itchen to start using these things to kill monsters.” Jaese added as he pulled back another arrow in the bow.

“Don’t be too eager, you’ll end up getting yourself killed.” Luryala mocked him. Gabriel walked closer to Elise to see how she was progressing.

“322.” She said as she threw a kunai, it flew over the top of the target with a spinning motion.

“Don’t think you’re supposed to throw ‘em like that.” Gabriel commented. Elise turned and threw him a nasty glare as she wiped the sweat from her face. “What’s your Kunai Mastery at so far?” He asked.

“Level 1, 0% experience.” She replied grumpily while snapping her fingers to make the kunai re-appear in the glove.

“Still 0% after throwing 322?” Gabriel asked.

“You need to hit a target to get experience.” Carsie said as she sat on the stool beside Elise, not looking up from her book.

“And here I was thinkin’ I mighta fell behind.” Gabriel shook his head to himself.

“And here I was thinkin’ I mighta fell behind.” Elise said in a mocking imitation, but in a whisper so that Gabriel couldn’t hear as he walked away. He approached Hagrim who was using some of the training equipment to do pull ups, but as Gabriel got close he stopped.

“Hey big man, I wanna start on this.” Gabriel said as he brought a maul out of his inventory.

“Another weapon type. This time Maul eh? I know the guy for that.” Hagrim replied, and a few seconds later appeared a large dark green skinned orc with spiky white hair.

“Finally.” The orc said as he stretched his muscles and looked down at Gabriel, Gabriel looking to see his name. ‘Cho’ruk - ???’ “Someone brave enough to learn a real weapon.” Cho’ruk grinned as he brought out his maul. He motioned Gabriel to follow him towards a section with thicker, more heavily armored training dummies.

“You know what a maul is good for?” He asked.

“Hittin' shit.” Gabriel replied.

“Hah, that’s one way to put it. Blades, they’re good for cutting things up. Axes great for chopping, swords good at piercing. But what happens when you fight something a blade can’t scratch? Heavy metal, stone, or tough armor. That’s when it’s time to smash em with this.” Cho’ruk said as he gently pat the heavy end of the maul.

“How different is it from a two-handed sword? I just finished learnin' it.”

“A lot different. All the weight is on the end of your weapon, and you’re always aiming to land a hit with that on your opponent. Also means the handle of your tool is larger, so don’t expect to keep your hands on a tiny little hilt the whole time while you swing this thing. You’ve gotta learn to -” Cho’ruk said as she quickly swapped his hand placements on the maul from the bottom of the shaft to the center, then spread his hands out. “Be flexible with a weapon like this, or you’ll leave yourself vulnerable. Despite what most people think, a maul is a gentleman's weapon, requires skill, and thinking. You can’t just swing out around hoping to cut stuff, you gotta know what you’re doing.” Cho’ruk said with pride.

Gabriel couldn’t help but hear the similarities in his boasting towards Mauls and the boasting his previous trainer made towards swords.

“I’m lookin’ forward to learnin’.” Gabriel said as he gripped the handle of his own maul tightly.

[Darith][Affinity Hunting]

“And that’s the last of the crafting books.” Darith said to himself, having finished another set of books as a tiny bell jingled throughout the library signalling the hour change. He slammed the book shut and looked proudly to Kenneth sitting across from him.

Scholar Mastery skill reached rank 5!

“That’s pretty impressive, not even here for 24 hours yet. Decide on what craft you’re interested in?” Kenneth asked as he looked up from his book.

“Huh? No, I’m not planning on taking a crafting affinity. Just wanted to know how its working to better understand the resource hoarding that the New World guild is doing. Looks like higher level materials have a huge impact on gear quality. Even the jump from copper to iron is big.” Darith commented.

“Hate those guys. Because of them, almost everyone is stuck using copper, linen and pine. Makes it impossible to fight back even if you wanted to.” Kenneth grumbled. “But if you aren’t trying to be a crafter, what are you trying to be?” Kenneth asked.

“I don’t know yet… I started with crafting books because it was the smallest section…” Darith said, as both he and Kenneth turned towards the eastern section of the library. While half of the library was reserved for a combination of stories, folktales, crafting and weapon masteries, history and children’s books, the other half - the eastern half - was entirely on spells.

“Eheh, yeah, it is a bit intimidating. Why not start with Fire magic first? I saw during the Magic Reading yesterday that you’re quite good with Firebolt.”

“Right… and those would be…” Darith whispered as he looked over the thousands of books on their towering shelves.

“They’re color labeled. The shelves marked grey are Spell Mastery, If they’re marked Grey and red, they’ll be Fire spells. Actually, here, you’ll need this.” Kenneth materialized a parchment from his inventory with an inkpen on the table and started jotting it down. “Grey-Red is fire, Grey-Blue is water, Grey-Brown is earth….” He went through indicating how to find each section.

“The Blue section is Aura Mastery, Purple is Conjuration, Green is Life, Yellow is Enchantment, basically the top color on the shelf labels indicate the mastery focus.” Kenneth marked down. Darith looked from his parchment, then looked at the shelves.

“Okay so what’s with those rainbow looking shelves. That one is Blue on top, yellow on the bottom. Over there is Purple mixed with Grey and Red.”

“That’s where it gets fun, you’ll find more complex spells that utilize multiple masteries as well as a spell schools. For example, the necromancer spells you’ll find over there.” He pointed at a shelf With Green, Yellow, then a small grey with black beside it. “Once you memorize the colors affiliated with each mastery and spell school, it gets easy to navigate. Just remember, Scholar Mastery can’t teach you a spell from a spellbook unless you meet the requirements for it, so I wouldn’t bother with any of the advanced spells yet.” Kenneth commented.

Darith motioned to one last section, a smaller shelf labeled with gold.

“What are those?”

“Those are books covering known affinities. They’re long winded and told from the perspective of those who founded the affinity, but if you’re determined to find one that suits you, you can read those. You won’t get the affinities from the books though, for that you’ll have to find the quest related to it. Best is just learning that they exist from those books, and what they do, and potentially where to start looking for the quest. To save you time, there’s a user submitted book at the front of the shelf titled Broken Realm Affinities. One of the first few scholar players here went and did the research on all those gold books, and wrote a shortened version for other players.” Kenneth replied.

“Okay, thanks.” Darith said, standing up and moving to put the last of his crafting books away. Having gone through over 50 books by now, he was noticing a severe diminishing returns on experience gained for Scholar Mastery, and couldn’t help think that some masteries could be much more difficult to level than others. Having finished reading the books in the crafting, refining, and gathering sections, and had obtained nearly all skills possibly related to those masteries. There were a few skills he chose to decline taking as he knew he’d never need them and could come back for them later. Things like Painting and Architecture, he debated taking Brewing but decided against it after learning that the ale made from it didn’t provide any buffs, it just got people drunk.

Luckily the masteries for each category indicated which skills they covered, so he could keep track of what he had without looking through all of them.

Gathering Mastery - Rank 1

Improves your ability to gather raw materials of varying types using the many gathering skills. Higher ranks improve the chance of successfully harvesting materials as well as increases the chance of higher yields. Improves your ability to find materials related to known gathering skills. This skill is influenced by Agility, Strength, Intelligence and luck.

Gathering Skills: Mining(Rank 1), Herbalism(Rank 1), Skinning(Rank 1), Foraging(Rank 1), Hunting(Rank 1), Woodcutting(Rank 1), Fishing(Rank 1), Prospecting(Rank 1)

Refining Mastery - Rank 1

Improves your ability to refine raw materials into workable materials using various skills. Higher ranks improve the chance of higher quality outcomes and reduce the chances of failing or wasting materials. This skill is influenced by Agility, Strength, Intelligence, and luck.

Refining Skills: Weaving(Rank 1), Smelting(Rank 1), Wood Treatment(Rank 1), Grinding and Processing(Rank 1), Tanning(Rank 1), Extracting(Rank 1), Synthesize(Rank 1)

Crafting Mastery - Rank 1

Improves your ability to craft items using various materials and skills. Higher ranks improve the chance of higher quality outcomes and reduce the chances of failing or wasting materials. This skill is influenced by Agility, Strength and Intelligence.

Crafting Skills: Tailoring(Rank 1), Blacksmithing(Rank 1), Leatherworking(Rank 1), Cooking(Rank 1), Alchemy(Rank 1), Woodworking(Rank 1), Jewelry Craft(Rank 1), Dyeing(Rank 1)

He reluctantly moved to stand in front of the spell section. For a moment it felt as though the shelves were growing larger and taunting him. He shook his head and walked towards the Fire spells and began browsing through the title of each book. Most were incredibly thick despite only containing information on a single spell. He found the Firebolt spell book and skimmed through it, not learning anything new until the end where he spotted the name of the intermediate version, Fireball. He then sought out that book on the shelf, and grabbed a few other fire spells that looked interesting.

With 9 books in hand, he stumbled over to the golden shelf and grabbed the large book near the front with writing much easier to read than the others, titled Broken Realm Affinities. With it, he wobbled on back to the table and plopped them down. Cracked his fingers, then opened up the Fireball book first. The terminology was much more complex and there were many illustrations demonstrating the spell circles required in casting it, as well as information on the power and capabilities of the spell. Once he had finished the book, he received a prompt.

Scholar Mastery is attempting to convert the Firebolt Spell(?)

Accept(x) Decline(x)

Scholar Mastery is attempting to convert the Firebolt spell to the spell Fireball

Current:

Firebolt: Rank 99(Max)(?) (Beginner spells cannot go beyond level 99)

Shoots a bolt of fire, dealing fire damage to the first target hit.

Damage: 475 + Intelligence(86) = (561)

Mana Cost: 1

Cast time: 0.5 Seconds.

Cast Command: Firebolt(change)(?)

New:

Fireball - Rank 8 (+7 from Excess Firebolt Ranks) (Intermediate)

Shoots a ball of fire, dealing fire damage to the first target hit.

Damage: 80 + 110% of Intelligence(87) = (167)

Mana Cost: 99

Cast Time: 4.8 (-5%)

Cast Command: Fireball(change)(?)

“It scales a lot better… Firebolt was giving about 5 damage per rank up, this is giving double that, but still… only rank 8 from a rank 99 Firebolt.” Darith mumbled to himself.

“Those intermediates rank up slow, that’s for sure, but they go up to rank 500. A beginner spell pales in comparison to what that Fireball will grow up to be.” Kenneth commented. Darith hit accept, watching as all his hard work into Firebolt transformed into a smaller, weaker Fireball.

“If I get an affinity tied to it, it’ll level up faster, right?”

“And in some cases get bonus effects.” Kenneth motioned to the Affinity book on the table. Darith pulled it in front of himself and flipped the first page open. ‘Written by Intermediate Scholar Master Vincent - ‘To help those find their way in this strange, broken realm.’’ Darith read the cover page, then flipped to the table of contents. The affinities were listed alphabetically, and there were a lot. He stretched his neck left and right, then flicked over to the F section.

“Farmer… Fire Magic, Flameblade, Flame Knight, Frostblade.” He read as he reached the F page. Out of curiosity he glanced over the farmer affinity quickly, then turned to Fire Magic.

AFFINITY: Fire Magic

Requirements: Spell Mastery 50, Firebolt 50/Fireball 1

Experience Bonus: 100% to Fire Spells

Effect Bonus: 100% Fire Spell Damage

Bonus: Fire spells can burn targets, dealing damage over time.

Quest Location: Any Grand Mage in the Magic Academy

Quest Difficulty: Easy

Darith looked at the affinity while going deep into thought. Being an extremely powerful fire mage that could burn things could be useful. But would it really be all he needed to overpower all the players doing bad things? What if he encountered a player strong against Fire magic, or magic in general. He thought back to Thomas and his Ice Magic affinity, and it didn’t seem all that strong. It wouldn’t be enough. He shook his head then looked at the next on the page.

AFFINITY: Flameblade

Requirements: Spell Mastery 50, Firebolt 50/Fireball 1, (Sword Mastery, Dagger Mastery, or Axe Mastery 50), Enchantment Mastery 50

Experience Bonus: 70% to Fire Spells, Sword, Dagger, Axe, Enchantment Masteries.

Effect Bonus: 60% to Fire Spell Damage, Sword, Dagger, Axe Masteries, Fire-based Enchantments

Bonus: Resistant to Ice and Fire spells, Fire Enchantments have 0 mana upkeep costs.

Quest Location: Blademaster Hall in the Martial Arts Academy

Quest Difficulty: Average

AFFINITY: Flame Knight

Requirements: Spell Mastery 50, Firebolt 50/Fireball 1, Any Weapon Mastery 50, Shield Mastery 50, Riding 50, Knight 50, Enchantment Mastery 50

Experience Bonus: 50% to Fire Spells, Weapon Masteries, Shield Mastery, Enchantment Mastery, Knight Skill, Riding Skill,

Effect Bonus: 40% to Fire Spell Damage, Weapon Masteries, Fire-based Enchantments, Shield Mastery, Riding Skill, Knight Skill

Bonus: Immunity to Fire Damage for Self and Mount, 5% Less damage from all sources

Quest Location: Avistion Royal Knight Academy

Quest Difficulty: Hard

“Hm. Immune to Fire damage.” Darith said as he looked over the last one. “A lot of spells and skills involved, so the bonuses you get to them aren’t that high.”

“Haven’t seen many Knight players, but they’ve got a few affinities like that if they get through the Knight Academy.” Kenneth said, looking up to take a glimpse of the page Darith was looking at before going back to his own book. Darith leaned back in thought for a moment, then flicked back to the table of contents to find Cleric.

AFFINITY: Cleric

Requirements: Life Mastery 50, Aura Mastery 50, Enchantment Mastery 50, Radiant Bolt 50/Holy Bolt 1

Experience Bonus: 80% to Life Mastery and Life Mastery Spells, All Aura spells that affect Allies/Self, All Enchantment spells that affect Allies/Self, all Light Spells.

Effect Bonus: 80% to Life Mastery and Life Mastery Spells, All Aura spells that affect Allies/Self, All Enchantment spells that affect Allies/Self, all Light Spells.

Bonus: All spells that affect Allies/Self are imbued with light and change color accordingly. Healing based spells that are imbued with light will instead deal damage when used on Undead and Dark-based creatures.

Quest Location: Great Chapel of Aros - Avistion City

Quest Difficulty: Very Hard

“Bonuses aren’t great but it has high experience and effect bonus…” Darith flicked back to the table of contents and browsed the list. Architect, good at construction and woodworking. Lumberjack, good at Woodworking, Woodcutting, and treating. Great Blacksmith, Master Jeweler, Trader, Alchemist. He even found a Caretaker affinity with 100% bonuses to cooking mastery and cleaning skills. Kenneth watched Darith look over the table and saw him slowly getting overwhelmed.

“Relax, there’s no rush. You remind me of my Granddaughter, she couldn’t find an affinity that suited her either, but the moment she saw Paladin she knew it was for her. I bet when you see the one that's right for you, you’ll know it.” Kenneth tried to reassure him. “Here, try that one.” He pointed at Elementalist in the table of contents. Darith quickly flicked through to find it in the book.

AFFINITY: Elementalist

Requirements: Spell Mastery 50, Firebolt 50/Fireball 1, Waterbolt 50/Waterstream 1,

Lighting Bolt 50/Lightning Shot 1, Earth Bolt 50/Stone bolt 1, Wind bolt 50/Slicing Wind 1, Ice bolt 50/Glacial Bolt 1

Experience Bonus: 75% to Fire, Water, Lightning, Earth, Wind and Ice based spells

Effect Bonus: 70% Fire, Water, Lightning, Earth, Wind and Ice based spells

Bonus: The damage type of any elemental spell can be split to deal half damage as another type.

Quest Location: Grand Elementalist Jaha’do in the Magic Academy

Quest Difficulty: Hard

“How about it, did it jump out at you?” Kenneth asked.

“It looks pretty strong compared to Fire Magic, way more flexible…” Darith said, but didn’t seem convinced.

“Well not to fret. If you can’t find it in there that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. There’s plenty of hidden affinities out there in the world that you can’t read about here. ” Kenneth replied.

“I’ll read through this at least and see what they can all do.” Darith replied as he leaned in to the book. He felt indecision slowly creeping in. In other games when he picked a class or job he didn’t like, or found out was too weak to be the best, he always had the option to reroll, or force his way by overcoming the weaknesses of that role. In this game, if he picked blindly, he wouldn’t be able to change his mind later, and it might not be possible to overcome those weaknesses.

He began flipping through the pages, making sure not to skip over reading any possibility.