Aegaeon considered his options and noticed he had more notifications. Paying attention to them, he read.

Due to leaving the tutorial period, you have acquired Stats. These stats affect everything about your abilities and powers.

Strength determines your ability to move objects.

Constitution determines your amount of health and resistance to damage, along with health regeneration.

Dexterity is your overall physical prowess and includes your speed, flexibility and adaptability; is also tied to the amount of stamina one has.

Intelligence influences the amount of information you can recall, acquire, and utilize; also is tied to the amount of mana one has.

Wisdom is your overall ability to apply information and utilize logic; also determines mental fortitude and resistance.

Perception affects your understanding of the world around you, and is tied to alertness and response to situations.

Regeneration of Health, Stamina, and Mana is determined individually by an amalgamation of stats and skills.

Skills that affect regeneration and resistance will be modified to determine numerological value.

Status Screen: Aegaeon

Class: Ocean’s Ascendant

Level: 1

Health (320/320) (regen 10/min)

Stamina (320/320) (regen 8/min)

Mana (360/360) (regen 15/min)

Stats:

Strength:24

Constitution:32

Dexterity:26

Intelligence:36

Wisdom:40

Perception:31

Skills:

Sprinting Lvl:10, Deep Thought Lvl:32, Careful Climbing Lvl:7, Dagger Work Lvl:26, Assassin’s Intuition Lvl:4, Perceptive Gaze Lvl:7, Physical Fitness Lvl:13, Pain Tolerance Lvl:8, Aquatic Agent Lvl:52

PP: 55

Paths:

Path of the Racer 0/10, Path of Ideologies 0/25, Forest Traveler 0/20, Path of the River 0/80, Path of the Hunter 0/40,

Completed Paths:

Path of Water 30/30, Path of the Initiate Mage 10/10, Path of Bloodshed 45/45, Path of the Stream 40/40, Water’s Errant 100/100,

Due to stats, some skills will be absolved and boost the stats they belong to by half of their level.

And so it was that Aegaeon lost Sprinting, Deep Thought, Careful Climbing, Perceptive Gaze, Physical Fitness, and Pain Tolerance. The loss of those skills hurt seeing his source of PP dwindle. But Aegaeon figured he could make due, and the boost to his stats was welcome. At the same time however, he did only have 3 skills at this point. That realization left him with a bittersweet feeling. Aegaeon wondered if stats could be trained. As if in reply to this thought, another motivation came up.

Stats are not trainable, however, the spending of PP on paths will award stats specific to the path, many paths also award free stat points that you can add however you’d like.

Aegaeon looked at his Status Screen to see the change that had taken place.

Status Screen: Aegaeon

Class: Ocean’s Ascendant

Level: 1

Health (320/320) (regen 10/min)

Stamina (360/350) (regen 8/min)

Mana (360/360) (regen 15/min)

Stats:

Strength:31

Constitution:32

Dexterity:35

Intelligence:36

Wisdom:60

Perception:35

Skills:

Dagger Work Lvl:26, Assassin’s Intuition Lvl:4, Aquatic Agent Lvl:52

PP: 55

Paths:

Path of the Racer 0/10, Path of Ideologies 0/25, Forest Traveler 0/20, Path of the River 0/80, Path of the Hunter 0/40,

Completed Paths:

Path of Water 30/30, Path of the Initiate Mage 10/10, Path of Bloodshed 45/45, Path of the Stream 40/40, Water’s Errant 100/100,

Aegaeon suddenly noticed that he still hadn’t leveled up, not even from fighting the Amemasu Shark. How was that possible? Shouldn’t he have at least gone up one level from that experience? He was hopeful before fighting the shark that he’d go up multiple. Consigning himself to his reality, Aegaeon looked at the ocean before him.

The waves of the ocean crashed up themselves a distance away from the shore and slowly lapped up the beach. The water appeared sluggish as it crawled up the sand. What couldn’t be denied was the beauty of the waves rising and falling with the sun reflecting off the water. The wind softly blowing with the scent of fresh sea water. There were some birds chirping in the background of the view, and for a moment, Aegaeon considered staying there and simply watching the world from this view. It was simply beautiful.

But time didn’t care much for Aegaeon’s feelings and thoughts and shortly after being captivated by the experience, night began to fall. Not having an established shelter as he had back at the lake, Aegaeon figured the water was his best bet. Aegaeon stepped across the beach, reveling in the feeling of sand shifting beneath him. It was a precursor to the cool water lapping over his anxious feet and slowly crawling up his legs as he walked further into the ocean.

With power rushing to him due to Aquatic Agent, Aegaeon played with manipulating the water around him. He pulled at a wave that was beginning to form and caused it to prematurely keel over itself. It didn’t seem like much, but it was an accomplishment to Aegaeon who still struggled with mass control. The thought and usage of his skills reminded him of his paths; this resulted in Aegaeon pulling them up.

PP: 55

Paths:

Path of the Racer 0/10, Path of Ideologies 0/25, Forest Traveler 0/20, Path of the River 0/80, Path of the Hunter 0/40,

Completed Paths:

Path of Water 30/30, Path of the Initiate Mage 10/10, Path of Bloodshed 45/45, Path of the Stream 40/40, Water’s Errant 100/100,

Aegaeon thought of his paths and the options that lay before him. He could finish off his 3 lowest paths and spend all his PP, finish off his lowest and second highest, or get closer to finishing off his largest. Figuring that greater costs have greater rewards, Aegaeon spent his PP on the Path of the River. Every 5 PP he spent had stat rewards; overall he gained 11 strength and 11 dexterity, that was definitely nice. Maybe this was going to be more efficient than Aegaeon originally thought. But these benefits still came at the cost of PP and he lost his main source of it.

Turning his attention back to the water, Aegaeon dove forward. Most would be hesitant about walking into an ocean with known monsters but water was Aegaeon’s home; it felt only natural to move forward. Taking the plunge into the cool water, Aegaeon peered ahead; nothing but sand as the ocean deepened. Wondering if there was anything here at all, Aegaeon went further, there couldn’t be nothing, as the notifications promised each “newbie” was put into a zone where they could grow. But Aegaeon wasn’t a newbie, was he? Maybe this was a sick joke from the world.

Searching desperately for anything, combing over the sandy bar for hours. He searched for anything at all and was left with nothing but wet sand in abundance. While searching, Aegaeon couldn’t help but focus on the breaking of the waves over his head. He felt the tumultuous power crashing around him during his search. Dejectedly, Aegaeon went back to the beach and sat on the dry sand; his toes touching the edge of sand where the tide still reached.

With his toes wet, Aegaeon watched the waves. Figuring he had nothing better to do, Aegaeon turned his attention to the water before him hoping for an idea of water that could assist him. Turning it into training put an entirely different perspective on the wave breaks; watching the water rise and fall rhythmically. It was the inevitability of the wave breaking that Aegaeon noticed.

While some waves took longer than others, and travelled much closer to shore, the top would eventually fold over itself and the wave wave would be reduced to pure momentum. Without fail the Water’s edge would reach the shore, and push across the sand. Thinking about the water gave Aegaeon a different view of his friend; his only experience till now was placid water on a lake or ponds surface, seeing the magnitude of the oceans water was humbling. A sense of reverence began to settle on Aegaeon as he sat watching the waves, his focus was broken only by the shouts in the distance.

************