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["Skills": A Process By Which The System Takes Energy, Whether It Be Physical, Magical, Or Other, From The User And Manifests One Or More Phenomena. This Must Be Done Through The System Due To The Violation Of Various Universal Laws]
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["Fireball": Creates An Explosive Ball Of Flame]
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["Unique": One Of A Kind Traits Belonging Solely To A Single Or Small Group Of Users, Conditions For Being Acquired Are Varied]
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["Curse": A Unique Trait That Comes At A Great Cost To Its User]
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["Ultimate Minmax":
- Locks All Stats Except For One
- Locks All Skill Slots Except For One
- Chosen Stat Can Not Be Changed
- Chosen Skill Can Not Be Changed
- x10 Multiplier Towards Chosen Stat's Effectivity
- Chosen Skill Will Evolve And Grow Along With The User
Locked Traits...]
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…
'I feel hollow... there go my dreams huh.'
'The Valiant Armor Knight is no longer a path I can afford to walk down...'
'This is going to be super complicated isn't it.'
…
*Sigh*, 'alright this really sucks but I can get over it, what I need to do now is assess exactly what I have gained and lost. After that I can try and find the ideal path for myself.'
'Okay so lets think about this seriously, I'm a mage now, let's see...'
Einer began to contemplate his current situation
'I've lost access to stats that would probably be helpful to me, specifically the effects of Wisdom, Agility, and Vitality were massively desirable and are a terrible loss. The increased intelligence, strategic thinking, thinking speed, regeneration and general survivability are all important even from a mage's point of view.'
'However in exchange I've basically gained an excuse to go all in on Sorcery, which also receives a x10 boost to its base effectiveness.'
'My guess is the curse was there since the beginning, but didn't activate until I had learned a skill and applied a stat point. Which means its not a big deal that I'm starting out with a Stone Ranked skill, since it was probably meant to be that way judging by the growth effect.'
'This really would be a massive loss if I was permanently stuck with a Stone Ranked skill, but luckily that isn't the case.'
'Let's just call the buffs and debuffs related to the stats and skills as a net neutral, I've gained a large increase in strength in exchange for being permanently stuck with one stat and one skill. Furthermore, the growth function isn't immediately useful, so as of right now I'm basically only receiving a 10x power multiplier in exchange for my freedom.'
'Great.'
'But I guess it's not the worst, once again if the growth effect wasn't there I really would be screwed.'
'All I can do is hope that those -Locked Traits- are beneficial to me, although I get the feeling it's going to be a mixed bag.'
'the x10 increase in Sorcery's effectiveness explains a lot, like the reason I was able to condense the power so well and efficiently without even noticing, along with having that much Arcane Energy in the first place.'
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["Sorcery": A Stat That Enhances Functions Of The User's Arcana System
Increases Arcane Energy Capacity, Arcane Energy Quality, Arcane Energy Sense, Arcane Energy Control, Arcane Energy Regeneration, And Casting Speed For Magical Skills]
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'This stat is so troublesome... in the first place it has no base in human biology! Like what does the quality of arcana even mean? capacity, control, and casting speed sure, I can generalize those concepts. I guess I should test to see how sense has changed too.'
I crossed my legs over the soft grass, closing my eyes and breathing out the stress that was building up, I then felt for the existence of Arcane Energies around me once again. Sure enough, there was quite a difference from before. I could sense the slowly recovering energy within myself, as well as vaguely, just slightly, feel the presence of Arcana further ahead of me.
Opening my eyes I gazed upon the conflict with the monster horde, adventurers and monsters alike using skills all over. The reason it felt so hazy was most likely due to the distance I was away from the fighting.
Dumping my remaining three AP into Sorcery, I closed my eyes again and noticed a good chunk of my energy had replenished instantly, and I could more easily feel the magical activity in the distant clash with the monsters.
'Interesting, so the new capacity provided by the increase comes filled with energy rather than empty and needing to be filled, that's good to know. This should essentially be the same as having 140 Sorcery points right?'
I made a mental note to look more into how the Sorcery stat worked later, since there was definitely information the System wasn't mentioning.
"Einer... hey Einer... are you awake?"
"wah!? oh Annali... yeah I'm fine."
"Look over there, I think Brad and the others are heading back, probably can't keep fighting."
Sure enough their place on the front lines had been filled with a reinforcement squad of Stone Rankers, and they, along with a few other groups from our side of the horde, could be seen heading away to rest.
When they finally made it over, the first thing Brad did was address the elephant in the room.
"Aisha, Philip, meet Einer, the kid who blasted you in the face!"
I suddenly became panicked, "AH! I'm really sorry! I seriously didn't mean for tha-"
As I went to bow, the female warrior named Aisha interrupted me.
"PAHAHAHAHA! This kid knocked you out Philip?? how idiotic can you be!?"
"Are you stupid? he knocked you out too you dumb bi-"
Aisha and and the scout-type named Philip immediately began bickering as they progressively flung more and more expletives at each other.
Brad then walked up to me and Annali and draped his arm over my shoulder, "See? They don't blame you. It's all cool! They know you helped them out of a tight spot too, so consider it even. In the first place most adventurers don't take issue with that kind of thing as long as everything turned out okay and it wasn't done on purpose, so you should learn to be more laid back. Although there are exceptions, a good amount of adventurers will treat you as brothers and sisters in arms even if you barley know them, as long as you're in our guild together!"
"o-oh. Thanks..."
I heard Aisha yelling again,
"Didn't Brad say he was a newbie too? AHHAHAHA THAT'S HILARIOUS!!! KNOCKED OUT BY A NEWBIE!!!"
Philip reached back into his quiver as yelled back,
"I WILL LITERALLY SHOVE THIS ARROW UP YOUR A-"
Aisha then dashed over to where Annali was, instantly wrapping her arms around the tiny mage girl as she lifted her up and hugged her tight like some kind of stuffed animal.
"Annali~~ When you came to heal Philip I was completely fine right? riiiiight???"
"Shut up, there is absolutely no way that's true, stop abusing the poor girl."
"Abusing? How am I abusing her!? Annali you love me right?? Look at how much she loves me!"
Philip and Aisha kept yelling back and forth, Aisha continually pulling on the cheeks of Annali to silenc- …show off her cuteness.
I stopped paying attention to the 'conversation', and retreated a few steps to lay down on the soft hill, looking up towards the sky as I felt relieved that everything seemed to work out.
The horde was on the losing side of the battle now, and was already on its way out.
Not counting the small number of casualties due to the reinforcements being on the later side of the predicted time, everything had gone pretty well, and I was just glad everything had worked itself out.
Wait... didn't I completely destroy all of the goblins I killed except for the first two?
Do I still get paid for those?
probably not...
damn.