A full day had passed since the incident in the goblin tunnel. Rapide's Friends have not gone out on any adventures since then. Following Noah and Isdiel's return, the group gathered in Lola's room. Rapide explained that Lola had unfortunately been poisoned by the goblins' claws and would need to rest. They would meet again properly as soon as Lola had made a full recovery.
It was the second morning after their return. Lola's recovery was finished, and her and her roommate (the elusive Kat) were beginning to stir. Rapide and Roy were doing their own morning stretches in Rapide's room. Teague was still fast asleep and snoring peacefully in his own room. Isdiel was already downstairs in the tavern, sitting beside the fire and listening to the early morning harp player. And Noah? Noah was occupied with something in his washroom.
Noah looked back and forth from the mirror on the lavatory to the leather-bound book in his hand. He had been reading his Adventurer's Guide since he woke up in that morning. Finally deciding he was tired of lacking even the simplest knowledge, Noah skimmed through the first two chapters. The first chapter gave him a repeat of sorts of what the so called "divines" had told him several days ago. It told him all about how being an adventurer was a noble profession that gave one many different paths and choices in life and blah blah blah. That information wasn't nearly as important as the next chapter, aptly titled "Checking up on yourself".
It was because of that chapter that Noah found himself standing in his small washroom. All that was in there was a porcelain sink and counter, equipped with a little red cup that held a complimentary toothbrush and razor as well as a bar of soap resting in a little wooden boat. The first little bit of the chapter contained quick tips on personal hygiene so, after breathing on his hand and taking a quick smell, Noah decided he would brush his teeth.
This was the first time Noah took a good look at himself since the encounter upon Arrival (the name of his time in the stone building at the start of his journey, as called by the Guide). His gray hair had grown out more since he last looked, with the ends of the untidy mop reaching down a little past his shoulders. He wasn't sure if that was just natural for fae or if he had a special talent for growing out his hair. Noah was sure that it only really applied to the hair on top of his head, though. His face was perfectly smooth, with not even the slightest bit of stubble to be felt or seen. Noah ran his hand along his chin to affirm what he was looking at. He thought that his face looked a bit long at the bottom. At least it looked longer than he had been seeing on all the people around him.
Something did surprise him when he spotted it. Though he was sure that he had relatively dull gray eyes, Noah thought he saw spots of indigo in them. He had spotted a chapter earlier in the Guide's table of contents saying something about races, and he made a mental note to read that chapter thoroughly later.
But hygiene and looks weren't the reason that Noah was in the bathroom, glaring at his mirror. No, that was because of the next part in the chapter. It was the part of the chapter that excited Noah so much that he immediately stopped reading and ran to his bathroom to get ready to try it out. If what the book was saying had any truth to it, all Noah would have to do is glare into a mirror when he was all alone and just think of certain phrase.
Show me how I've grown.
Noah watched in amazement as the book was proven right. The golden text that Noah had seen again and again when he had arrived before was being written onto the mirror. From top to bottom on the right side of the mirror, it provided Noah with information that he had seen before but hadn't fully understood. Since he had read the chapter he had in the guide, however, he had a better idea what all the following text meant:
Name: Noah
Class: Slate
Level: 6
Progress to next: 47%
A bright smile started to stretch over Noah's face. He had managed to level up after all. While he didn't understand all the finer details that the Guide tried to tell him (though he admittedly had skimmed over the sections), Noah knew that it was a measure of getting stronger as he battled enemies and did Jobs and Quests. He was starting to get worried as the text had stopped there. From what he understood there was supposed to be more. As he looked back to double check the guide in his hand, the gold text continued to write, this time on the other side of the mirror.
STATS
STR-12
DEX-12
MAG-12
DEF-12
RES-12
LUK-6
Excess due to being Slate-20
Everything had gone up since the last time he saw it. Excellent, Noah thought. The section that had followed the explanation for how to see the information before him contained what was described as "A brief summary of what each of the stats meant." Noah again switched his view constantly between the mirror and the Guide, eagerly gathering all the knowledge he could about the strange golden text. He noticed that STR was the highest of all of them, which was good since apparently that allowed him to hit harder with his sword. Meanwhile his MAG was the second highest, also a good thing considering how handy Ice Thorn had been for Noah in his last journey. His DEF and RES had gone up a touch so he could take a couple blows, though Noah wasn't eager to take hits from monsters anytime soon and test it out. He wished that some of his leveling points hadn't been wasted on DEX, though. Noah imagined Rapide's DEX was pretty high considering how much his arrows seemed to hurt the goblins, but Noah also decided not to ask him about it (the Guide said it was improper etiquette to ask other adventurers about their stats). His LUK may have been low, and the explanation in the Guide bordered on useless information.
"Blame Lord High Jeanne. This stat does way too much."
Noah recognized Lord High Jeanne's name from earlier in the intro chapter. Apparently, he was the divine entity that had created all of Tera de Fantastique and is also apparently to thank for everything adventurers have ever done and ever will do. He thought that was a bit of flattery though, made even more untrustworthy by the fact that Lord High Jeanne was the author of that opening chapter.
The last line of his stats was confusing to him. There was no information in his guide about what the "excess" was supposed to be. The line "due to being Slate" suggested that it must've been due to Noah's class. He began turning pages in his guide hoping to find any meaning to the phrase when the door to his room burst open.
"Noah!" he heard Rapide call from the entrance. "You in here buddy?"
"Yeah," Noah answered. He looked up from the guide and saw that all the gold text had vanished in an instant from the mirror. He figured it was probably because he was no longer alone in his room. The soft footsteps of Rapide came closer, and Noah turned to see the man standing right outside his bathroom door.
"Get dressed and come downstairs," he said, scanning Noah as he spoke. Again, Noah didn't think very much of Rapide's extended glances. He also had forgotten that he was standing around without a shirt on. "We're having a party meeting."
Noah nodded and Rapide returned the gesture before turning to walk back out of the room. When the door closed behind him, Noah left his bathroom. He frantically searched for a clean shirt, finally found a wrinkled gray one, and tossed his Guide atop his bed before leaving the room and heading down to the tavern.
Volume 2- Training in the Eastern Forests BEGIN
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From the Adventurer's Guide
Section on In-Depth Stat Explanations
STR and why it's dramatically better than all other damage stats
Hi Adventurer. I'm Robas, and I am a badass. I bet you're wondering how I know I'm a badass. Well, it's really easy. It's because I place all of my excess stat points into STR.
STR (or "Strength" as it's known to the brainy) lets you hit things harder. Every swing of my mighty axe improves with each point of STR that I have. STR is so great, I even learned how to do basic math because of it. For every point of STR, the damage I and others do with our big, scary, melee weapons. Every 10 points gives a percentage increase to the damage we do. Sometimes it's a small percentage, sometimes it's a lot. The only way to really know is continue raising STR, which you should do anyway.
STR also factors into the HP Formula, though if you're a badass, you really don't have to worry about your HP. The final matter of STR involves stat check events that can occur in dungeons. STR allows you to things such as hit stuff hard, lift heavy stuff, and tread rough water. Why does it help tread water? Because STR makes you a badass, and water doesn't hurt badasses. Not even drowning can stop a badass.
Oh yeah. I guess if you're worried you can't become a badass and want to use puny ranged weapons, don't worry about putting everything in STR and putting nothing in bitch-made DEX. There's a cure for that I'll teach you about later.
Remember. STR is the best. Be a badass adventurer.
A. N. While I'm working on a later chapter, I changed the stat gain on levels, so I returned to do a small correction on that. Not a serious edit, but a tiny continuity thing. This will not compare to the larger change I have planned for later, which will probably take a bit more time to fix.