I start the day early and grab some breakfast and another potion. Who knows what I will find, so I might as well prepare as best I can. I start off at a steady jog, then switch to walking when my stamina hits half way until it is back to full and then pick the pace back up. I reach the edge of the Gnoll area in one hour and then stealth and make my way to the dot on my map. I pause and let several patrols of two to five Gnolls go by. I inspect them and they are all level ten with around 170 hit points each. My Fire Dart is at Expert now, so I can summon six darts, which would allow me to kill one and badly injure a second when coming out of stealth, but for now I avoid them. I really don’t want to earn any more XP while training, even though Captain Varus told me when he deferred XP that includes all XP. The System doesn’t try to differentiate between what is earned by actual training. The deferral of all XP will last until Varus indicates it’s done more the max length of the deferral expires.

After about another hour in stealth I reach the source of the blue dot. There is a small camp fire and three Gnoll are roasting some meat over a fire and the blue dot appears to be the large oak tree they are sitting under. Now that I am in front of it I can see a blue glow through the bark. I carefully case the whole area and just have the three Gnolls. I place myself behind them about fifty feet away and summon a shield, followed by casting Fire Dart with four of the darts hitting one on the left and the other two hitting the one in the middle. The one on the left drops dead and the middle is badly injured as I summon another set of fire darts, directing all of them into the uninjured Gnoll who drops before making it fifteen feet. The last Gnoll while injured is running toward me as I calmly summon four more darts, which drops him at my feet.

I quickly loot them and move to the tree. It feels like a regular tree and the glow appears evenly all around. Well I can think of only one thing to do and get the axe from my inventory. I take a swing at the tree and get a small red negative twenty-three. As I inspect the tree now it indicates hit points 9977/10000. I sigh as I see that, so I am going to have to pay attention to my surrounding between swings both for patrols and the group I killed respawning. I take another swing, pause to listen, and take a quick look around. At such a slow chopping rate my stamina hard drops and I only get in about 120 swings before the 3 Gnolls respawn. I am partially around the tree from them as I cast Fire Dart with all the darts focused on one Gnoll, killing it. The second goes down the same way before reaching me. The last gets in a good hit before I cast a final Fire Dart killing it. My Shield spell is at Beginner now, so it absorbs twenty-five points damage, which handles the blow just barely. I recast the Shield and go back to chopping the tree. It takes me a little more than three hours to finish cutting the tree down and I kill three more sets of Gnolls, with only one of them doing me a little damage. As the giant oak cracks and starts to fall it vanishes. In its place is a wooden stump with a fist size blue crystal embedded in the center with a stack of twenty-five wood to the side. I step on the stump and inspect the crystal which reveals nothing. I reach down to touch the crystal, which shatters to dust leaving a small wooden box covered in beautiful decorative swirls. I lift the box carefully and open it and receive a notification.

Congratulations

You have found the Legendary Deck of Fate. Your Legendary Map is now soul bound to you.

How helpful. I then get a sudden prompt to select my primary attribute: Intelligence, Wisdom, Strength, or Agility with a counter counting down one minute. Crap, I select Intelligence and get another prompt to select my secondary attribute: Wisdom or Charisma with another countdown. I select Wisdom and then get a final notification.

Congratulations

You are now the current owner of the Legendary Deck of Fate.

+ 20 to primary attribute selected

+ 10 to secondary attribute selected

You now have the unique class Arcane Shaper based on attributes selected and your special ability Shaper.

It will take one year for the Deck of Fate to become soul bound, but you can accelerate this process by one day per 1000 XP. You have the option to channel XP from killing creatures into the Deck of Fate. Select the percentage of XP to be redirected to the Deck of Fate. Currently 0%.

Warning: You currently have deferred XP accrued. All currently earned, but deferred XP cannot be redirected.

Too bad, I could have stayed in the Starter Area longer if I could redirect my deferred XP, but that still wouldn't help the Silver Thorns, so probably better not to be tempted.

Then suddenly there is a trumpet sound and bright red text appears in the sky.

System World Event

The Legendary Deck of Fate has been discovered. A one-year timer has started. The Deck of Fate will drop on the holder’s death and the counter will reset with the next person to pick it up. If picked up by a previous owner the timer will continue from the last time it was in that person’s possession. After the timer reaches zero the Deck will then be soul bound until final death of the holder. If the owner loses the Deck all special abilities granted will be lost.

I put the wood in my inventory to give to the blacksmith. Then I enter stealth and make my way back to the village. I have a lot to think about. I spend hours wandering the forest on autopilot before realizing it is getting dark and I never ate lunch. I drop off the wood and the axe collecting twenty-five copper for my trouble, which seems like a small amount now. Then I hit the bathhouse and the Tavern to sit with the Silver Thorns. All of them are a buzz about the World Event, trying to guess who may have found the deck. I listen and ask a few questions and find that there hasn’t been a World Event in over a thousand years. The last was for a demonic invasion in the Domain of Fire. After dinner I go for a walk and climb up on the back side of the Tavern to stare at Vera as the little moon makes its way across the sky. I nearly jump out of my skin as a soft female voice says. “It’s beautiful isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is.” I say as I turn to look at the young female figure sitting on the tile roof next to me.

As she turns to face me I see her eyes, which are completely black with small pin pricks of light. I try to inspect her and nothing happens. She laughs gentle, which is a truly enchanting sound. “I am sorry for interrupting your meditation, but I really cannot afford to wait. My name is Vera.”

“Like the moon?” I ask.

Another gentle laugh as she says. “Well more like the moon is named after me.”

“Then you are the Goddess?” I say with a squeak to my voice.

“That correct, I had to talk to you about the Deck of Fate you found.”

“Oh, are you here to take it back?”

“Not at all. I merely wanted to tell you some of the history behind the deck. You could get this from others, but you seem very distracted since getting the deck. You haven’t even looked at your status page to see what changed with your new class. Why is that?”

“Because I am doomed. With the attention on the Silver Thorns there is no way I am getting out of the Starter Area without someone noticing my unique class or that I have the deck and killing me for it. They will probably want to kill me to a final death as well to make sure no one else knows they have the deck.”

“Hmmm, that is possible, but you should be aware that no one can examine a legendry object except its owner or those they wish to allow to do so. Also, in the case of legendry objects that are not wore they will not appear in your inventory to those skills that allow someone else to inspect your inventory. Finally, unique classes appear as the closest basic class when someone successfully inspects you.”

I perk up a bit after hearing this. “It still leaves the problem with whoever is after the Silver Thorns.”

“That is true, but you are aware more than most that this life is not the end. How do you want to live it? Do you wish to hide in here if possible after the Silver Thorns leave and see if you can sneak out safely? Or will you befriend them and stand with them? It is totally up to you of course.”

I sit there thinking for a while without realizing how much time goes by until she says. “While you are thinking on that I have a story about the decks history. Long ago two gods made the Deck. These gods were twins and sons of the Goddess of Light and the God of Fire. The twins were inseparable and instead of having separate churches had one they shared. They ran their church well and did many great works. Later they created the deck for their champion. Over time their powers grew. Their powers grew so great their father became jealous and is known to of killed one. The others fate is not known. The Deck was lost during the battle between their champion and the Fire gods champion in which they both lost their lives. The fallen god’s name was Garth and the other was Poth.”

“They were your grandchildren, weren’t they?”

“Yes.” She says softly.

I look at her considering and say. “Do you have a quest for me?”

Another soft laugh. “I don’t have a quest for you.”

I can’t help but feel there is something here. The Goddess does not just stop by to chat. “You say no one knows what happened to Poth?”

“That’s correct.”

“The Deck was created by him. Can I use it to find him?”

She does not answer and just continues to look at me. It suddenly clicks. “You can’t answer, can you?”

She starts to smile and sit there silently as I say. “Everyone, no everything is governed by the System, so there are rules everything has to follow, even the Gods.”

I reach into my inventory and take out the box containing the cards and open it. I try to take the deck out of the box and they won’t budge. I inspect the deck and again get nothing. I try to think. I hold the deck and say. “It sounds like Poth was a nice god and if you can help me, I would like to find him.”

Nothing seems to happen and then I receive a notification.

You have received a Hidden Quest.

Take the Deck of Fate to the first church of Garth and Poth. Discover what happened to the Twin Gods.

Reward: Unknown

I see tears in Vera’s eyes when I look up. “Worry not, these are tears of joy. I didn’t think anyone would attempt to find out the fate of my grandchildren. I wish you good luck on your quest. I leave you my mark. If you have need, my churches will help you.” She says as she fades away from in front of me.

I see a faint moon crescent, which is Vera’s symbol on the back of my right hand, which quickly fades. I climb back down and go up to my room locking the door. I finally open my character sheet to see what’s changed, focusing on Arcane Shaper first.

Class: (Mage) Arcane Shaper

Arcane Shaper is a unique class, which will appear as Mage to anyone else. Arcane Shapers have an intrinsic knowledge of how to shape elemental energies and use these energies to cast spells. As a result, they earn ten mana per point of intelligence and .5 mana per minute regeneration per point of wisdom. Base spell cost is halved. Each of the six elemental domains will have a shaping proficiency of half of the highest spell proficiency under that domain plus one tenth of every other spell under that domain. The domain proficiency acts like the Channeling skill for that domain.

At Novice twice the mana can be expended to double the damage range. At Beginner for double the mana the max damage can be inflicted. At Advanced for triple the mana the spell can be maximized for double damage. At Adept for double the mana the spell becomes so intense it reduced any immunity/resistances by 50%. At Expert the spell costs are reduced by half, minimum cost 1 mana. At Master this spell can be blended with another adjacent element for double damage and the same mana cost. At Grand Master for ten times the mana the spell may affect legendary creatures not normally affected by this spell. At Sage up to half of the user mana pool may be used to cast the spell resulting in ten damage per mana point spent. At Legendary all the user mana pool may be used in one casting combining any three adjacent elements doing twenty points of damage per mana point.

The Shaping ability is now split by the six domains and the cost and skill with which this is done will be determined by the domain proficiency. Also, repeated castings of the same shaping can result in discovery of a new spell.

Holy crap, this class will be overpowered when I level it up. With the cost reductions and increased mana pool size I can now pour a lot of mana into a spell if my domain proficiency is high enough.

George Peterson Age: 16 Level: 8 XP to next Level: 3595/3600 Class: (Mage)

Arcane Shaper Race: Harrow Titles: Reborn Fame: 350 Str: 19 Melee Damage Modifier: +9 Agi: 15 Range Damage Modifier: +5 Dodge: 9% (+4%) Con: 15 Health / Stamina: 75 / 75 Health / Stamina Regen: 15% per min End: 54 Pain Threshold: 44% Int: 56 (5) Mana Pool: 630 (70) Wis: 39 (5) Mana Regen Rate: 21.5 per min Cha: 11 Trade Modifier: 1% Per: 47 Favor: 0 Abilities: Night Vision, Ritual Magic (Basic 8, 40%), Fire Shaping (Beginner 5), Water Shaping (Basic 7), Earth Shaping (Basic 1), Air Shaping (Basic 1), Light Shaping (Basic 7), Dark Shaping (Basic 1) Skills: Bows (Basic 5, 0%), Cartographer (Basic 1, 0%), Channeling (Basic 5, 66%), Crafting (Basic 3, 0%), Daggers (Basic 4, 66%), Dimensional Shaping (Basic 1, 60%), Dodge (Basic 9, 80%), Enduring Flame, Herbalism (Basic 8, 44%), Inspect (Basic 9, 23%), Jeweler (Basic 1, 0%), Lore (Basic 3, 33%), Maces (Basic 5, 0%), Mana Chain (Basic 1, 0%), Mana Manipulation (Adept 1, 41%), Numbness II, Parry (Adept 2, 32%), Reading (Basic 2, 0%), Sense Stone (Basic 3, 0%), Shape Air (Basic 7, 34%), Shape Fire (Basic 1, 0%), Shape Stone (Basic 3, 75%), Shape Water (Basic 6, 23%), Shape Wood (Basic 1, 0%), Skinning (Basic 9, 72%), Spears (Basic 5, 25%), Stealth (Adept 1, 32%), Swords (Adept 1, 11%), Trading (Basic 7, 25%), Unarmed Combat (Basic 1, 0%), Veil Spells:

Fire Shaping - Burning Hands (Basic 1, 0%), Fire Dart (Expert 1, 42%), Fireball (Basic 1, 0%), Ignite (Novice 1, 66%)

Water Shaping - Concealing Mists (Basic 1, 0%), Minor Heal (Novice 4, 0%), Ice Dart (Novice 1, 33%), Ice Storm (Basic 1, 0%)

Earth Shaping - Mend (Basic 1, 0%), Stone Shaping (Basic 3, 75%)

Air Shaping - Lightning (Basic 1, 0%)

Light Shaping - Light (Novice 1, 66%), Mana Dart (Novice 4, 20%), Shield (Beginner 5, 19%)

Dark Shaping - Dimensional Shaping (Basic 1, 60%)

Ritual Ward (Novice 6, 80%) - Type: Raw Mana Protective Ward Equipment: * Unallocated Status Points: 7

I settle back on my bed. I need to get a good night’s sleep and start training my spells with the Captain tomorrow as quick as possible.