Where there is a monster, there is a miracle.

Pre-Fall Poet

Moore’s original plan had been to dump everything in a single shot. All the skills first, with their pre-requisite, then all the specializations, and then skill lists sorted by the multiplier for each. Provided they understood the context, it would give them a complete list of what was available from the System, as far as he knew. Once you’d have that, all you would need was a way to measure your stats, and you could, in theory, design your build without his help.

And then, of course, said System had given him a curveball with the level 8 specializations. Because, of course, the System hated him somehow, he was sure of that. The Master and now Minister sets of specializations were throwing all of his carefully planned data dumps in disarray.

He had been happy to plug his last hole into the set of all thirty possible level 5 specialization mixes with Vanguard Battler, the Strength and Authority mix that he had lacked until now. And now, he faced having to raise all sorts of stats if he wanted to complete all those 20+18 or even 21+17×2 hybrid combos.

He could certainly do it, given how fast the XP was flowing and expected to be flowing in the next few days. But he would have to take a break from his data dump schedule. Today, he’d wait until he could raise Tom and Peter to level 8, but unless he’d misjudged, he wouldn’t be able to do both before he finished the skill data dump from Johanna, probably around or just after lunch. And, of course, he needed even more for the other non-primary specializations. Agility-based Explorer variants were going to be easy, given that he’d given Tom 20 before he knew about that one.

But then he needed at least 20 in Perception for the Sentinel set. And of course, that meant raising Peter’s Perception once again since he was the cheapest, and then raising the currently useless Authority and Empathy for completion. More XP was needed, and more delays waiting for books to be converted into Settings Scrolls.

And fuck. I’m sure I’m getting additional skills unlocked with a wider horizon, and they’re not listed in the first dump. I am so taunted by the System.

Wait a minute, if I raise Perception first before Levels, then I can add those skills to the dump… But if Tom needs 21 for some hybrids… or another specialization track…

Fuck cleanliness. I do the current batch and nothing more. If – no, once – I get more skills later, I’ll do a partial dump, and hope they recognize it. It’s Gomez’s job, after all.

Okay, maybe I’ll raise Johanna’s stats to 18, so that I get all five Masters but that’s it, the rest can wait until next time.

How much XP am I going to need for that next ability of mine? No, really?

Fuck unplanned events. Where is my wiki???

“So, what did you get?” Johanna asked Petra.

“Three.”

“Three Artifacts? I couldn’t tell from your pack, the way the mana plumes mix, but it did look thick…”

“Yes, three. I was seeing additional spots as soon as we got close to the previous one. And there is another, further away, but we didn’t have time yesterday. We’ll check it today, I think.”

“These ruins are a treasure trove.”

“Heavy mana zone, you mean?” Petra asked.

“That’s my guess. The more mana, the more likely you have to have Artifacts around.”

“And beasts.”

“You spotted some?”

“We found a few. We saw a pack of Canids, but they didn’t come at us. We fought two Felids, though. One nasty earth-based version. It did have Tremor.”

“Ouch.”

“Not as strong as mine, but I was pretty much the only one to keep stability against it. I kept it locked away, and we got her with arrows from a distance, where she couldn’t get at us.”

“She?”

“Who knows? But the other did have visible equipment, and she did not, sooo…”

Johanna laughed and almost remarked “you probably got a level from that” before shutting down.

“No trousers? Or skirt? A hat?”

“A pair of glasses, and two pairs of gloves. The glasses are easy to figure out, you see like you got one of those binocular things. Everything is much closer. A bit disturbing, too. No idea about the gloves yet. I suggest testing like your friend Ulrich did, that’d be easier.”

“We’re getting one pair, then. The rest goes into the common pot for expedition pay bonus, I guess.”

“Can I pick the pair?”

“Hey! It’s high time to equip Tom anyway since he’s always on the frontline. After getting that Hammer from the spider thing, it’s a good start. If we can find the Talent they have, it’d be even better. We’ll have to make sure they do not disable one of his.”

“Well, it’s not one of mine. Except for Tremor, that is. I should probably do it somewhere safe. I’ll start doing more tests.”

“It’s likely not to be a known one. Gomez says there are 411 Talents, apparently.”

Petra whistled.

“Ready to work?” Gomez asked as they headed to the work area.

“Let’s finish that inventory,” Johanna replied.

The conversion restarted and once again, she produced a series of pre-requisite parchments before making a Talent. She recognized briefly Regrow, which was the latest Talent for Laura.

“How high do you think this goes?” she asked Gomez.

“Pretty high. The Level seems to be the main driver individually, but if you cumulate the qualities, then you get quite a lot.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“You all seem to have gotten your Talents in order of Level by the way. It’s less marked in others’ case…”

“Possibly because they already had multiple Levels? While we got new Talents as soon as we got Levels.”

“That’s my hypothesis. Your patron seems to have focused on Talents that needed fewer qualities regardless of Level for others.”

“Presumably to avoid needing to make too many parchments without Talents.”

“Seems quite right,” Gomez replied.

“So, you deduced new things?”

“Uh uh,” he replied.

“Meaning?”

“I’m quite certain that Talents require a base amount of Levels and qualities. That’s the only thing that makes sense, given some of the would-be costs. I haven’t had time to study multiple sets, but… The thing is, Level seems to be a limiter too.”

“Meaning?” she asked again.

“It’s obvious that you do need enough Levels to get any Talent. You don’t spend them, or the Gauge Stamina would report a loss, I’m guessing. But the amount of Level is unrelated to the amount I’m seeing here,” he pointed at the latest parchment.

Johanna realized that one had seven Levels until you got to the actual Talent.

“So?”

“It does make sense in a way. Level is marked as a requirement, and that matches your respective progressions. I checked, by the way, and yes, the first Talent you made required two Levels. Mana Sight did not, but you presumably had already two Levels by then anyway. And the third, which you got later, does require three. In your cases, you never got a Talent with a higher Level requirement than the one you were supposed to have at the time. So Level both limits which Talent you can pick, and how many you can.”

“That’s why it is separate from the qualities,” she realized.

“It makes sense that way.”

She fell silent, keeping with the near-automatic conversion. She could even ignore the cold seeping under her fingertips. It was a sensation that lasted as long as the conversion was ongoing, without any lasting consequences. She wondered if having one of the cold-resistant Talents would make it disappear. Not that she was likely to have any. Not being a Fire Shaper… no, a Fire Master now.

I wonder why Miles wasn’t a Metal Master. Does it require lots of qualities, which he did not have enough of?

“We’re getting close,” Gomez finally said.

“Uh?”

“I counted, compared to the first catalog.”

The basic parchments came more and more numerous. She thought the nine preliminary mixed parchments for a Domain of the Skies were a lot, but the current one was at 18 already. She was finally putting aside the Agility and Shadow Wings when Gomez announced “that’s the last.”

As a confirmation, she failed to convert the book immediately. She looked at the sun and realized that several hours had gone by. She stood and stretched.

“Lunch time?”

“I’ll check with the cook if it is,” Gomez said, before muttering “that last Talent was a bit weird”.

“I wonder what’s next,” she said as she slurped the last of the plate’s content.

The food was not that varied, but compared to the usual fare of scavengers, it was worthy of a city inn. And besides, they’d pulled tables and chairs from inside the Library. If it had been better lighted, they’d have used it as an inside campsite, but the mid-August weather was holding good, so, they camped outside.

“Presumably specializations. It would make sense,” Gomez said from across the table.

“More work. That’s not what I signed for,” she joked.

Helena Silvers was keeping watch, while the two men were sleeping. They’d spent most of the night hunting game to make sure the mounts would stay fed, while she kept company for her Canid.

Her much-changed mount.

They’d applied the various sheets they’d stolen, even the simpler ones. The ones with simple quality names had failed, but almost all of the rest had taken, except for the first four-way, and one Authority with Fog Cloud. She had thought the name matched her mount’s original mount-skill, the ones that gave him his name. It made sense that if Mists already had that particular ability, it wouldn’t work.

George had tried the latter on Runner, and the paper had immediately sparked, causing his mount to suddenly breathe the familiar fog, causing Mists to startle and growl. Helena thought it so cute that her mount seemed jealous of another gaining his original skill. The four-way still refused to work on any of the three mounts, so they finally stashed it.

Hank was definitively going to sneak in again for more. It did not look like his earlier foray had been detected, and he’d be even more careful, but she guessed that the opportunities for stealing between the Tallers were more limited. The Camp had started by stealing supplies from unsuspecting Tallers during the End, after all, even before they became Mooneyed.

“That must be how they gain mount-skills. They make those sheets, with all kinds of abilities labeled on them. And then they pick which ones they need,” George had said.

“But then, why can’t we? Because we’re Mooneyed and they’re Tallers?” Hank had asked.

“Has the horned one mount-skills?” Helena had asked back.

“I think he has. At least he trains with that spear of his, and his moves seem weird,” Hank had replied.

“Then it does not make sense. There must be a different thing.”

“So. We must try more tests.”

She’d given it more thought while the other two were getting rest. If they could gain mount-skills, it was going to change everything. Even having the ability to increase their mounts’ basic skills would be huge.

One of the risks of coming here was that returning without the expedition could be very dangerous. But Mists… well, Mists was now larger. She always had to hoist herself on top of him. But each mount-skill had also increased somehow his size, just as the initial foray into the valleys of awakening where she’d brought him as he was close to adulthood, where she’d found his name-skill.

And why not? Mists now had Steam Breath. A Frostbite. Water Walking, apparently. Ice Darts – which she had no idea how translated into something for a mount. Some kind of Domain of the Ice. Split Stone. Lastly, Evaporate, which might be anything. And she now needed him to flatten himself on the ground if she wanted to be able to climb.

The weirdest part was that the saddle and bags had… also increased in size, somehow. She barely fit on the saddle. Although the rations in the bags hadn’t expanded the same way. That would have been handy to get extras.

She was contemplating the ways the three could use that particular madness when a huge sound came from the wood that covered the space between the ruins.

A Greater Beast is hunting, she realized, as the two men stirred, awakening at the alarm.

“Mists”

Male Canid, 6 years, 9 months

Ultimate Steam Canid

Level: 9

394/430 mana (+29 per hour)

1 unallocated skill point

XP: 31,539

STR: 16

Ice Dart (57)

AUT: 19

Frostbite (85)

Split Stone (28)

AGI: 17

PER: 15

DEX: 17

Evaporate (43)

EMP: 21

Fog Cloud (93)

Steam Breath (51)

Water Walking (30)

Domain of the Ice (30)

Bodily immunity to cold, down to -365°F (-220°C)

Requires 51% less oxygen

Requires 30% less water

57% better sight

Bodily immunity to fire, up to 730°F (388°C)