For his entire life, Shin had always dreamed that something better was around the corner. Some greater meaning, some grander destiny. Those dreams had been simple as a mongrel: a bigger cave to sleep in, a safer zone to live in, a sparrow so fat that it could no longer fly. And they’d remained simple as a kobold as well. Because more than anything else, what Shin wanted was a place that he and his pack could truly create a life for themselves.

Shin had been waiting for this his entire life. He could wait a little longer.

SHINKI ITTEN VILLAGE PATCHING (3 OF 100)

Okay this is super boring.

That’s fine, though. There was plenty to occupy his mind. His Status Screen for example; Shin hadn’t taken time for a deep dive since the big fight. “Status.”

The fact that he was Level Friggin’ Twelve sent Shin tumbling into a reflective mood. Just a month ago, being Level Two would have been enough to make him the Biggest Boss, the sort of Ur-Mongrel that would have been a legend forever in the eyes of his packmates.

He could have done it, too. He hadn’t needed to tell the others about Moots’ quest. Paths not taken, and Shin didn’t regret it for a second. He’d rather be among equals in a pack with a future than king of a pile of dead dogs.

Hm. Something was different about this sheet. He had…wait, seventeen unspent Ability Points? Going from Level Ten to Twelve should have only given him six, right? Some quick math revealed the most likely cause: he was getting four points per level now. Maybe from the pack’s Tribal Strength increase?

However it happened, this change put him and the other kobolds one step closer to attribute parity with the greater powers of the world. They were still unquestionably behind, now he knew that the gap could be closed.

There were a couple other changes, too. Better just take in the whole sheet.

——————————————

Name: Shin

Race: Kobold (Citizen)

Class: Schemer (Lvl 12)

Description: Formerly a meaningless mongrel, now a mostly meaningless kobold, Shin is suspiciously adept at turning lucky breaks into obscene windfalls. A sneaky little git, what Shin lacks in refined strategic sensibilities he nearly makes up for in underhanded cunning and shameless opportunism.

Having overthrown his rightful masters through acts of cowardly deceit, Shin has managed to wheedle and cheat his way to a seat of real (if minimal) power. Whether or not he can maintain this facade will rely entirely on his continued ability to turn straw into gold-painted straw.

Stats: (17 points remaining)

Str: 10 Agi: 15 Tgh: 10 Int: 14 Wis: 14 Prs: 30

Traits: Enhanced Senses (Kobold), Ranged Expertise, Ranged Specialization (Undefined) Armor Proficiency (Medium), Simple Proficiency

Class Features: Leadership (Auras Known: Inspiring, Careful, Bold, Crafty), A Certain Low Cunning, Opportunism, Combat Savant

———————

Leadership: Whether through experience, guile, or just personal magnitude, it’s you that all eyes turn to when battle is begun. Your very presence bolsters your allies, granting continuous bonuses based on your qualities as a leader.

Inspiring: Allies gain a 15% boost to Experience gained Bold: Allies deal increased damage, based on the Schemer’s Intelligence or Presence modifier Careful: If up to one source would cause an ally to take increased damage, they take flat damage instead Crafty: The Traits of allies are increased in efficacy. The Class Cooldowns of allies are modestly decreased.

A Certain Low Cunning: You were born among the trash, not the tactics room, and no one would ever mistake you for some grand strategist. But when everything is on the line, and the only strategy that matters is “Survive”, trash will often stand tall while tactics fall flat.

Your Intelligence Modifier is increased by your Presence or Wisdom Modifier, whichever is higher. In addition, whenever you would gain Advantage you may choose to grant an opponent Disadvantage instead.

Opportunism: They say that a hero never kicks a foe while they’re down. You say that a winner never lets a foe get back up again. You’ve learned that your enemies will defeat themselves, if you let them, and you’re all too happy to oblige.

Whenever an opponent gains Disadvantage, you gain access to a contextual suite of reactions and effects. The strength of these effects scale with your level and three Mental Stats, opposed by your target’s level, Mental Stats and mental state.

Combat Savant: The greatest minds of the battlefield spend years crafting their martial art in the High Academies and monastic orders of the world, honing the ability to use their keen intellect itself as a weapon. You, on the other hand, were the top of your class at the School of Hard Knocks, learning suspiciously similar lessons with every filthy fight for your flea-bitten life.

You may use your Intelligence Modifier in place of your Agility Modifier during combat

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Alright, well, first off: Screw you, whoever writes that description section. ‘Straw into gold painted straw’? That plot with the mushroom-seeped wine was some for real gold.

With that out of the way...uh, wow? Shin had been a bit worried about his need for more and more Presence impacting his combat stats, but didn’t Combat Savant solve that problem for him? It was Intelligence, not Presence, but still it was…

…Wait. Shin reread A Certain Low Cunning, trying to make absolutely sure he wasn’t missing anything. So…he could replace his Agility Modifier with his Intelligence Modifier. But he could also add his Presence Modifier to his Intelligence modifier, right? So his combat stat was effectively his two best Mental stats added together?

Seemed good. Pretty good.

This took a lot of pressure off of his stat allotment plan. Dumping as many points as he could into Presence had made sense before, but now that the stat also helped him shoot things it was clearly the optimal choice. Two points per level still seemed to be the most he could give any one stat per Level, though, so he immediately plugged four more points into Presence.

After that, though, he no longer needed to put his remaining points into Agility in an attempt to stay relevant in combat. And as much as he desperately wanted to throw everything he had into Intelligence, diversifying a bit seemed prudent. So he put one point into Agility to smooth out that ugly odd number, then split the rest of his surplus points between Toughness, Intelligence and Wisdom. There.

Four Points per level. That meant no more odd numbers, ever. Bliss.

See? Time flies when you’re powergaming your own life. Now that Shin had taken the time to dig in and do the work, he could now explore the–

SHINKI ITTEN VILLAGE PATCHING (4 OF 100)

Bluuuuuh.

“Gero, Momo. Do you want to go take a walk?”

Gero responded immediately. “Omigod yes this is so boring.”

Momo folded her hands into her sleeves, shaking her head. “I still need to work through a few things on my sheet. You two should go!” Before Shin or Gero could respond, the little cleric was already eagerly pushing them down the road. “I’ll join up later; have fun~!”

Then she scampered off, leaving the two kobolds alone in a silence that was inexorably becoming awkward.

“So…” Gero reached up, unnecessarily tucking back a strand of her short blonde hair. “Walk?”

“Right, walk.” Shin gave a thumbs up. “Good idea.”

“It was already your idea.”

“Oh. Really? Great idea then.”

Gero shoved him as they started down the path. “You dork.”

Woof, thank God for that extra four points into Toughness. Gero’s idea of what counted as playful roughhousing was closer to what most people would consider an all-out brawl. Not that Shin was about to complain.

The strange discomfort safely displaced by their usual companionable ease, the two kobolds leisurely made their way through the scrub woods towards the exit from the zone. There were little PATCHING signs dotting the landscape, too; clearly the change to the outpost was going to bring about an even greater shift to the zone itself. Oh, maybe that water feature would be finished, and Doug would get his job back! Whoever that was, and whatever that was.

Not that Shin was particularly interested in the mysterious Doug and his equally mysterious misfortunes right now. It was chit-chat time. And while his Status Screen marked him as a Combat Savant, Shin was ready to prove that he was a Small Talk Savant as well. “So. Anything interesting on your sheet?”

Nice.

The woman shrugged. “I mean, I think it’s all very interesting. But it’s still just bigger numbers when I hit things and smaller numbers when I get hit by things. Oh!” Her pale brown eyes sparkled. “I got Blunt Specialization. Took Greatclub, obviously.”

“Oh, I have a Specialization, too! Status.” Shin clicked on the Trait in question, the entry opening up into a long list of options. “I didn’t realize I got to pick a specific type of weapon, though.”

Gero nodded, glancing at the bow slung over Shin’s shoulder. “That’s what, a recurve bow?”

“Yeah. I guess that’s what I should take, right?”

“We should figure out what the dumbest option is, first.”

“Okay yes, we are absolutely doing that.” Shin flipped through the list of seemingly every ranged weapon ever produced or imagined, eagerly seeking out the Strange and the Absurd. “How about this: ‘Throwing Sword’.”

Gero cocked an eyebrow. “Throwing Sword? Not Knife.”

“Nope, Sword.”

“So, what, it’s for giants who throw stuff? Or insecure dagger persons?”

“Both. It’s one thousand percent for both.”

“Okay, next.”

“Hmmm….” Shin scrolled a little further. “Boomerang Attached to Rope’.”

“What?” Gero adopted a mock incredulous look. “Shin, that’s not dumb. That’s incredibly effective. Maybe you just don’t get it?”

“Oh.” Shin tapped a finger to his chin, brow furrowed. “I guess I don’t?”

Gero leaned in. “Okay, here’s the deal. You throw the boomerang, right?”

“Uh-huh…”

She spread her hands out, a look of deep satisfaction on her pretty face. “And then you use the rope to pull the boomerang back.”

“Huh.” Tap tap tap. “Don’t boomerangs come back by themselves, though?”

“That’s just an urban legend, Shin.” Gero lightly flicked his nose. “Don’t be so gullible.”

Shin chuckled. “Gosh, good thing you’re here to keep things straight, Gero.” He flipped around a little longer. “Here’s one: ‘Bag Full of Wasps’.”

Gero stopped dead in her tracks. “What? No way.”

“It’s right here on the sheet. ‘Bag Full of Wasps.”

“You’re telling me,”–She grabbed Shin by the shoulders–”That there is at least one person out there throwing full bags of wasps at people?!”

“Um, yes. That is what I’m telling you.”

Gero shuddered. “That is the worst and I hate it.” She glared down at Shin. “You better not pick that.”

Shin crossed his heart. “I won’t.”

“What are you picking, then?”

He tapped an entry on his sheet. “Recurve Bow.”

Gero narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure?!”

“Very, very sure.”

“I don’t trust you. I know you want to throw wasps!” She twisted around, snagging Shin in a loose headlock. “Lemme see your Status Screen!”

“Never~!” He quickly reached out, tickling Gero’s sides. “This is tyranny! Tyranny against wasps!”

“C-Cheater!” The big kobold gasped with laughter, her breath catching in her throat as her attempts to squirm away from Shin’s devious fingers caused them both to topple over. They rolled over one another, giggling and gasping in equal measure, until they skidded to a halt with Shin on top of Gero, their eyes locked and their laughter quickly forgotten.

She smelled so good. Had she always smelled that good?

A thousand possible things to say raced through Shin’s mind. Sorry, my fault! We’re really good at rolling! Let’s just stay like this forever that’s not crazy right? But he couldn’t force any of those objectively perfect sentiments out. Instead, the two simply stared at one another. Until Gero’s head slowly lifted, her eyes starting to close as Shin became more and more consumed by her sweet breath on his face.

Then the loudest belch Shin had ever heard echoed through the trees, prompting Gero to yelp in surprise and full-on flip him ass over teakettle.

Gero yelped in dismay as she regained her senses, rushing forward to help the stupefied Shin to his feet. “I’m so sorry!”

“S’alright..” Shin offered, pawing dizzily at the stars floating around his head. “Think that was Moots…”

Sure enough, they’d reached the old hermit’s camp, and the source of the almighty burp was the man himself. He’d shoved his face all the way into his cooking pot, presumably to lick up the final drips of his pork roast, creating a sort of echo chamber for his already formidable audible digestive side effects.

Moots pulled himself free from the pot with a loud ‘pop’, satisfaction and regret warring for space on his crinkled face. Then he noticed Gero and Shin, and his expression immediately shifted to delight. “Why iffin it ain’t my right good buddies! Y’all pups’re a sight fer sore eyes!”

Gero grinned as she walked over to clap Moots on the back, the embarrassments of the previous moment already forgotten. “So how do you like pork?”

The old man rubbed his stomach, his eyes rolling back in bliss. “Ol’ Moots had no idea somethin’ so tasty was right ‘round the bend! Oh Lordy, I’ll never know how you pups turned out so good, but Ol’ Moots won’t never forget it.”

Shin couldn’t resist a smile of his own. “You’ve helped us too, Moots. In more ways than one.”

“Oh ho? How’s that, then?” Moots eyes took a sly cast. “Like that lil’ delivery y'all had Ol’ Moots make? That special wine, eh?”

“Ah.” Shin managed a bashful shrug. “I wondered if you would notice.”

“Pshaw.” Moots puffed out his chest. “Don’t got no clue when I was born, but it sure as heckfire weren’t yesterday.” He took a moment to run a hand through his lanky hair before offering the kobolds a meaningful look. “So then, them guards are…?”

He made a complicated gesture around his throat that probably meant death, so Shin nodded. “Yep. All of them.”

“Huh.” He thought about it for a moment longer, then offered a little smile. “Well then let Ol’ Moots be the first t’give his ‘gratulations to the new big wigs of the zone, eh?”

He extended his hand, both Gero and Shin taking the hermit up on the friendly gesture without a moment’s hesitation. They gave a start, however, when a prompt appeared above Moots’ head.

Invite to Tribe (Y/N?)

Shin shared a stunned look with Gero as Moots raised his eyebrows, unable to see the screen floating above himself. “What? What’s wrong?”

Gero hesitantly spoke up. “It’s, uh, asking if you want to join us?”

The old man chuckled, a bit ruefully. “Aw heck. ‘Course Ol’ Moots’d love too, but–”

The ‘Y’ lit up with a pleasant chime as Moots found himself enveloped in a curtain of glowing energy. The hermit could only stare at himself in shock as he flared and flashed, the glow bursting away from his body to reveal a newly made man. He was still Moots, no question. But his beard was neatly trimmed, and his scraggles of hair were cleanly shaved. Even his clothes had changed, his raggedy old pajamas replaced with a clean robe almost identical to the one Shin wore.

The surprises didn’t stop there. The sparkling glow had enveloped the hermit’s camp by then, coalescing around his tent. Soon it spread outward, revealing that what was before a sad little sheet draped over some clothesline had transformed into a cozy one-man hut, chimes dangling from the roof sweetly ringing in the wind that sent the well-worn rocking chair perched on the porch creaking.

A small vegetable garden was tucked to the side of the cabin, but the biggest reveal came as the glow passed over unused land and left behind a large, neatly fenced pen where a dozen or so perfectly pink pigs happily wallowed in the mud.

One of the little fellows turned his head towards the dumbstruck trio, offering a pleased grunt to affirm both its existence and extreme contentment. That wound up being the blow that broke Gero’s shock, the Brute rushed over to gasp at the contentedly oinking animals. “They are so cute~!”

Shin could only offer a hapless shrug as Moots continued to stare wide-eyed at his transformed camp. “I hope you, er, always wanted to be a farmer?”

Gero had already hopped the fence, cooing and clucking at the pigs that gathered fearlessly to demand the chin scratches she was eager to give. She knew those were for food, right? Shin glanced back at Moots, only to find the old man’s hand covering his mouth and his eyes filling with tears. “I…Moots, is something wrong?”

Moots quickly shook his head, drawing in a shuddering gasp of air as he squeezed his eyes to gather himself. After a long moment, he sniffed loudly and looked up at Shin. “No, I…it’s just, I’m not hungry.”

Gero called out from the pigsty, completely covered in mud. “So what?”

Moots shook his hand. “You don’t understand; I ain’t never not been hungry. That damned quest, Ol’ Moots always had to be half-starvin’.” He reached out, tears and sincere gratitude shining from his face as he took hold of Shin’s shoulders. “Y'all pups saved me from that curse. How could I ever thank you?”

Shin smiled, half-embarrassed as he patted the now-pig farmer on the hand. “You don’t have to thank us, Moots. Family helps each other. Right?”

Moots wrinkled face burst in a grin at that, sniffling back more tears as he wiped the sleeve of his robe across his face. Gero leaned over the side of the fence, head tilted in curiosity as a thought struck her. “I wonder what happened to your quest, though.”

As soon as she finished the word ‘quest’, Moots’ jaw dropped open and words began to spill out. “Moots is plum tired, I'll tell y’that! Y'all think y'all might do an ol' man a favor? Them piggies need their veggies to keep ‘em growing right; iffin y'all 'venturers'd give ‘em some o’ these here cabbages, Moots'd be mighty grateful!"

There was a small chime as a neat little pile of cabbages in the garden patch lit up, the pigs immediately beginning to snort and squeal in anticipation. Shin turned his head towards Gero, who was already smiling with a nod of agreement. “Well Moots, it would be an honor to be the first to feed your pigs.”

And so he gathered up an armful of cabbages, carrying them over to the pen as Moots approached his new hut. He ran an almost reverent hand across the arm of his chair, letting out a deep sigh as he slowly sank down into it and began to rock back and forth, eyes closed with contentment.

Shin had never seen anyone so at peace.