Chapter 20: Skills and Secrets

“Ahhh” I sigh, sitting back and cracking my back to work out the kinks. That was a tough few hours. I’m not sure exactly how long I’ve been here, pouring over the tiny letters that make up The Compendium of Skills. I have to say, Rykmen Blot certainly did his homework. There have to be thousands of skills listed in here and all of them have pretty detailed information.

The downside to all of that is, of course, the fact that there are thousands of skills I don’t care about and probably never will care about, each of which have a paragraph (that is a minimum, there were some which the author was particularly “excited” about which took up whole pages). That makes this an absolute nightmare because I learned quickly that the name of the skill can be deceptive (Is their any name more vague than “Set”?) and so I had to at least skim over every single entry to see if it would be useful to me.

I have to hand it to the developing AI. If this is just the common skills then there must be tens if not hundreds of thousands of skills. Lots of diversity.

That does make me want to experiment in the future to try and find some rare (and hopefully powerful) skills, but this book has given me plenty to work towards for now.

The list of what I want to get is pretty long and there were a lot of other great entries, but spending eternity just learning skills isn’t on my agenda. With that in mind I flip through the book to all the pages I’ve dogeared (I know, I know, but there weren’t any bookmarks around).

Up first is “6th sense”. This skill will supposedly give me a 6th sense (who could have guessed?) that will give me a feeling of danger if there is something/someone dangerous about or if I am being watched. It wasn't the best explained of all the entries, but at later levels I think I will be able to differentiate between different dangers somehow. This seemed exceptionally useful and the only thing I have to do to get it is catch people watching me. The actual number of times I need to do it is unclear, but it seems like the harder it was to catch them the fewer it will be. Being able to sense danger and when I’m being watched sounds invaluable for secret meetings, navigating trap filled dungeons (or trap filled houses as the case may be) and just general life in templa.

Next, I want to learn “Lock picking”. This skill seems pretty self explanatory and it isn’t that hard to see what use an assassin could have for such an ability. It is supposedly is relatively difficult to learn and most of the regular players would probably struggle very hard. Luckily, due to my… unique… origin I may already know my way around a pick and a tension wrench. Judge me or don’t, but it will be undeniably useful.

In addition, I am looking to pick up the skill “Slight of Hand”. This can be used in a variety of ways, but the main one that comes to mind is pick pocketing (Assassination might not always pay the bills and thievery is underrated). I don't have quite as much experience with this as look picking (people aren’t my strong suit in case you haven’t noticed), but I won’t exactly be starting from scratch by any stretch of the imagination. Oh and I forgot to say how to acquire Lock Picking, but it should be pretty easy to figure out. Pick a lock. Same goes for slight of hand, you just have to pick a pocket or do a magic show or anything else that requires slight of hand.

Besides that, “Eye for Weakness” seems like it could be handy. It will allow me to look at an enemy, be it demon, monster or something else, and see week points. The throat of most humanoids is a good example. It turns out that in Templa where you strike is very important. A large health pool will certainly save your life, but if someone cuts off your head then you die, period. It’s part of why weapons have no damage stats. In case you didn’t realize, this was one of those skills that got Rykmen Blot really excited and he wrote about it for a page and a half. A page and a half! Anyway, I’m already on my way to receiving this since I focused on hitting the spine and achilles tendon of that Poisonous High Jumper and the achilles (love that spot) of the warrior dude in the trials.

I will also want to try and get “Dampen” which would help mask any sounds I make (Unless I purposefully try and make noise, it doesn’t prevent that). It will be very helpful in conjunction with stealth and probably allow me to do my job much better. At later levels the sound will be masked more, but after that it gets even better because I will be able to quiet other people as well. That means that I could do silent kills to avoid a dying guard alerting everyone else in the building. (That is just as an example. I’m sure there will be many more uses for silencing others. Its a ways off though so I’ll figure them out when I actually have this ability.) In order to learn this, all I have to do is try and focus on moving and just generally being silent. The book specifically recommended that I try and practice whilst using stealth. Supposedly it is quite a bit harder when you can’t see your feet all that well and difficulty will cause you to learn the skill more quickly.

There were a few more skills that I want to get eventually, but I only have a limited training time and the book didn’t know how you were meant to get these specific skills.

The prime example of this is “Intangibility”. The book was very vague on the details of this skill, but supposedly it allows the user to pass through solid objects like a ghost. That was the actual words they used so you can understand my interest. Can you imagine what an incredible advantage this would be? It could allow you to escape prison with ease (which will almost certainly be necessary for me at some point). It could allow you to survive a deathly strike (also probably going to be necessary). It could allow you to infiltrate any house, access any mark, evade any pursuer (Though all these things depend on there not being a way to counter this. I have no doubt that such methods exist, but I would be surprised if they were common). This skill could be my greatest trump card. My ace.

Unfortunately Rykmen Blot wasn’t aware of any way to acquire this skill, nor did he ever see its system given description. He didn’t know how it was leveled up or if it was race or class specific. He only witnessed it from a distance a few times and never saw the face of its users. His best guess was that it used mana (Whyyyyyyyy?), but he didn’t know that for sure either. The only information that he was able to get when he used analyze (an advanced skill similar to essence sight that gives information on skills or spells) was it’s name.

Intangibility intrigued me and drew me towards it inexplicably. I really, really want this skill. I will look for it and do everything I can think of to acquire it, but that is something for another time. For now, I should try to find out why there are so many books about skills.

I stand up from my chair slowly, stretching as I do so. Phew, glad that’s over with. With my body gradually approaching normalcy I look around at the shelves surrounding me. Nothing jumps out at me so I start to walk around looking for anything that’s out of place.

Running my finger along the volumes I find many interesting entries (like “A Rogue’s Guide to Dangerous Alchemy”), but nothing really strange until one book on the second shelf from the top with an interesting coloring. The jacket material looks like leather, very similar to that of The Compendium of Skills, but it is died to an extremely dark color as though they had soaked it in tar or blood then left it to dry for a few years. I can't remember if I’ve seen any others like it in the library, but I don't think so and a quick glance to the left and right confirms that none are nearby. It could just be a random weird book, but this is a game and the gaming community doesn’t really do coincidences. With that in mind I reach up and try to pluck it from it’s shelf only for the top to tip forward while the bottom stays put.

Narrowing my eyes, I look around for Malthus before quickly scaling the bookshelf to take a closer look.

Ha, I knew it! Leading from the back of the book is a thin, dark string that stretches back then curves down where I loose sight of it. It would be impossible to see from the ground. The base itself seems to be on some hidden hinge to prevent it from going anywhere.

I am about to jump down, but just before I do I spot what may be a title on the front, hidden under a layer of dust. Awkwardly holding myself in place with one shaking hand, I use the other to brush clean the dark leather. When the words finally become legible there is only a simple sentence in red ink. “The Dark Room: Volume 2”.

Huh. That doesn’t mean anything to me, but it certainly tells me a lot (if that makes any sense at all). It tells me that there is at least one more volume out there and probably more. It also means that there is definitely something to this and that finding all the books will probably lead me to a room. Presumably a dark one. Perfect.

I quickly hop down and watch carefully in case the book starts to go back, but the string stays pulled even as I walk away. With that settled (hopefully) I begin to carefully scan the shelves for dark books making sure to be as thorough as I can.

There!

I finally spot one after coming back to an area where I was reading the compendium earlier. This one is one the bottom shelf and is surrounded by two significantly larger books which makes it much harder to find. This specific book is volume 1 (which was confirmed much more easily since it was on the ground and I didn’t have to use any climbing skills to figure it out). Unless I miss my guess volume 3 will be the final one. I’ve been looking around for an hour and a half or three if you count the time I spent looking when I didn’t know what I was looking for and I don’t think the AI is so cruel as to keep me doing this for much longer. Plus, mysterious things always come in three’s.

I continue the search, but the finally one is elusive. I am almost considering giving up… but no, I've invested too much time into searching so I have to continue. If I was a mysterious trick book that lead to a secret room where would I be?

With the daylight that was streaming in the center skylight slowly fading I finaly catch a glimpse of the last volume, It was shielded by another novel which was proper up against the other books instead of being properly shelved. I seriously doubt it was an accident (whoever thought of that is a true sadist), but I found it regardless.

Taking a deep breath and holding my knife in the other hand, I pull on the last string and ready myself for anything that might happen.