Chapter 23 [SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT] PATCH INCOMING: Everyone will be sent to their dreamscape. You can take as long as needed to review changes, time in the real world will not progress while you are inside. Those that have not been awakened yet will go to a dreamscape where the basics will be explained. And with that, I found myself back in the dreamscape. The first thing I noticed was the changes to the throne room. The length was shortened to about 50 meters. and there was now a balcony going around the sides of the room about 4 meters up. From beside the throne, there were two staircases each going to one of the balconies. At the top, there were doors spaced a couple of meters apart with torches next to them. Only two doors had torches lit up. One on each side. The balcony was held up by pillars that were spaced so that they would be between each door if you were looking from the centre of the room. each pillar ended in some decorations that made it look like there were two outstretched bone arms at the top that helped to hold up the balcony. The balustrade itself also had a bone motif. On the ground floor beneath each door, it still had glass-stained windows. One on the left still had the picture of me fighting the were-rats right underneath one of the lit-up doors. The one on the right was a picture of the Chosen in their bone wall defending the bridge, again underneath the lit-up door on that side. The middle of the room still had the red carpet going down the middle. ending in big double doors that had a skeleton motif. There was a long wooden table with benches on either side and a large chair on each end. The throne itself was on a big raised dais going up 4 steps and looked like it was made out of one big chuck of ebony. I couldn't see the AI that would usually meet me here. Just as I was about to go explore, three big bangs on the doors startled me. "Ehm, come in, I guess" I shouted. The door opened and in flew what looked like a fairy, but it had skeletal bat-like wings. It was also a lot bigger than what fairies usually are and was about half my size. It zipped towards me and in a high pitched fast voice said "Hello I'm the new and improved AI. As told with the new update, you can link dreamscapes, it was decided that AI's should be distinct, you can imagine the confusion that would happen if I still looked like you. We also got upgraded with a new personality for the same reason. You can call me Aimee." It took me a few seconds to process all that was said as she was speaking so fast "Hello Aimee. nice to meet the new you. I think. let's sit down." i walked over to the big chair at the table and sat down. Aimee sat down on one of the benches and conjured up a whiteboard on the table in front of us. "Here ill show you the changes that were made to your stats first." Stats: Strength: 15 Dexterity: 17 Stamina: 20 Intelligence: 12 Willpower: 18 Charisma: 15 "As you can see you gained quite a few stats, most of that was from the battles that you fought and the level-ups that you got from that. You made it all the way to level 10." And Aimee pointed at another part of the screen. "The way paths and levels now work are you don't level until you have put your point into one of the paths that are unlocked. You unlock new paths as usual from certain achievements or training." "I have noted down the paths you have unlocked and in brackets where you unlocked them from. Some will already have points put into them denoting the abilities you already have right now, and you will have a few points left over from your level-ups." Current Level 5 Level ups remaining: 5 Commander (necrolord) : 1 Necromancer (necrolord): 2 Dhampir (race): 1 Fighter (necrolord): 1 Unpicked available paths: Mage (Int above 10) Priest (parents) Skald (parents) Wolfrider (Luna) Architect (study) Summoner (Necrolord) "As you can see you can put points into either your current paths to level them up or diversify and pick up points in other paths. The abilities you gain from level-ups take all your paths into account, but are affected to a large degree by where you put the point in." "Could you give me an example?" I asked wanting as much info as possible before making and decisions. "Ok so let's take two fighter/cavalryman hybrid each have two level-ups available and are level 1 fighter. One puts a point in fighter first and gets a better armour skill, then in cavalry and gets a skill that gives his horse now more armour too. The other goes cavalry first and gets a skill that increases his horse's stamina, then a point in fighter which gives him a charge ability when using polearms on horseback. Both are now level 3 with 2 fighter and 1 cavalry path, but are totally different in build." "Another example is a mage. You might get different spells depending on what paths you already have unlocked. Or sometimes a new path becomes available, that lets you specialise more. The mage path unlocks things like Elementalist and those kinds of paths later on." I looked at where my current abilities were to see if anything changed. Abilities Fast regeneration: regenerate health and stamina twice as fast as normal Immortality: If you get killed you will reappear in your designated place of rest after 1 day. Timer double after each death. The timer resets back to 1 day after a year alive without deaths. Will not visually age past the age of 30. If the dreamscape is bound to a structure you own, you will respawn inside your dreamscape. Dark-vision: Can see in total darkness as far as in daylight. The colours in total darkness are black and white. Light sensitivity: Takes you longer to adjust to sudden changes in light level. Wolf-speak. Can talk mentally with wolves. Wolves must be within normal speaking/shouting distance for the ability to work. Tireless: Units will not suffer any morale loss on forced marches Spectral wolf mounts: Unit commanders get a spectral wolf mount. Spectral wolves look like skeletons in direct sunlight, but at night or in shadow look like ghost versions of wolves. “As you can see the point amount for the health and stamina regen was removed as there are no more hitpoints or stamina. You now just have a bar with a percentage that goes up or down. Which is just a rough estimate of how much more punishment you can take or how tired you are. We found that in combat people were not paying any attention to the absolute numbers anyways, so now we just made it more abstract.” "And finally here is a page on what has changed for the Chosen." Moira's Chosen (Penal legion) Level 10 Size 20/20 (2 per level) Staff-sergeant: Moira Type: Skeleton spearmen Equipment: Weapons: Basic short spear/javelin Long spear Spiked club Lumberjack axe Armour: Full plate Bone Dypilon shield Unit traits: Replenish at 1 skeleton per hour when not in combat. A random unit member gets resurrected. Troops retain weapons and armour they had on them when defeated. Defeated troops and their equipment fade out after 1 minute Unit personality: Penal legion (fanatics). Skeletons in the unit will now regain the memories of the spirits that animate them. Will fight more effectively and gain the ability to communicate verbally. Unit is fearless in battle and eager to distinguish itself. Will follow any order given even if it is suicide. Attached upgrades Bannerman: Carries the unit banner. Unit banner: The wall Unit designation: Vanguard. The unit gets buffs when at the front of the army. Gives morale bonuses to units behind it The Chosen can grow a bone shield on the forearm that can be linked together with others to form a shield wall and become an actual wall of bone. This ability takes 10 seconds to form the shield. And one minute to form a wall. "As you can see, nothing much changed apart from the CP being removed. Now your units will level up as well when you use them, with their max being your potential level, which means your current level plus any unspent points. Depending on the type of troop the size per level might vary. Also, your summons can join you in your dreamscape via the physical entrance." Aimee looked over to the door above the Chosen window "And they even have their own room inside here. Each summoned troop will have its own room." "And then one last thing for your units. Your summons will always get a commander now. When you unlock a new unit, now instead of summoning say a unit of skeleton spearmen, you get a choice between a few specific commanders and unit types." “On to the last thing that you might now notice that is missing, skills. It was decided that locking people into skills was too constraining and arbitrary. now everyone can learn anything they want, and it's just how much study, experience and aptitude you yourself have with that skill that will make the difference.” Before I put points into anything Aimee went through a few dozen examples with me so I would have a rough idea of what to expect. After that, I decided to have a look around first, especially the room the Chosen have and in what Aimee told me would be my own personal room. Clear my head a bit and then do my level-ups.