Taylor worked on her skills for the next week straight. She was feverish in her dedication, despite the perceived restriction of her skills not growing as fast as they did against a foe. Between school the following week, and her skill practice, she didn't do much else.
Her relationship with her dad continued to grow, though. The two of them seemed to reconnect more and more with each day, and Taylor thanked her power for bringing them back together. They spent almost every evening with each other, watching movies, or remembering the days before… before.
At least when Taylor wasn't working on her powers.
One bright moment happened when Taylor realized that she could create quests for herself. Taylor called them "self-quests". Once she set herself a goal, her power would pop up a window with a new quest. The goal had to be fairly significant though. Little things, like washing the dishes, or finishing a homework assignment didn't trigger her power, but she had gained one intelligence from a particularly difficult math assignment. But things like deciding to grind a specific skill to a specific level, or offering to help their neighbor, the old widow Mrs. Richards shovel her walk did, as well as give her a strength point.
They differed from the other quests, or "power-quests" in that they were easy, and quick. These little quests weren't very lucrative, only netting Taylor about fifty to a hundred experience a pop, but they were regularly popping up. Still, Taylor jumped at the chance to build some experience at all.
She had done enough in the past week that she was almost level three!
One quest, which she was still working on, required her to get all her current skills to level five. It was a goal she had set herself, but she didn't realize just how long it was going to take to get there. The last level of each skill so far had taken ages, and it was mind numbingly boring to cast [Bludgeoning Arrow] over and over ...and over.
Like a Millstone, Grind, Grind, Grind
Raise all current skills to level 5 or better.
Progress: 16/19
Reward: 1000 Experience, Perk: Skillful
Click to expand...
Certain skills were already at or above level five, so she had progress already started when she got the quest. That didn't mean that Taylor stopped working on those quests. Oh no, far from it, she continued [Observing] everything to keep working on that skill. And it payed off in a big way. Once observe reached level twenty, she got a prompt asking if she wanted to "evolve" her skill.
Her power explained that certain skills evolved at max level, gaining additional functionality and use, and increasing the experience cap. [Observe] turned into [Analyze] which allowed her to inspect individual aspects of a targets stat window. Doing that increased the experience that [Analyze] gained, which sped up the growth of that skill even more. It was now at level thirty eight, and Taylor was excited to see what it turned into at level fifty.
She could still practice her archery in the backyard, but that skill had slowed down to a crawl. She was gaining less than a tenth of a percent per arrow fired now. Thankfully it was already at level five.
Some skills seemed to level on their own. Cooking kept going up as she tried new recipes. At this point, she felt like a gourmet chef, and her food was starting to convey stat bonuses. Interestingly enough, they applied to others too, not just herself. She still smiled at the memory of her dad literally gaining energy from a cup of coffee.
[Sprint] leveled every time she ran, and since she had since decided to take up running in the mornings before school. Running was a miserable experience, if she were to be honest with herself. It was almost winter, and the humidity coming off the bay made the cold feel colder. But, it was worth it, since running not only made her faster, it leveled up her Stamina attribute. In the past week alone, she had gained three additional stamina points, and six levels in [Sprint]!
Taking apart her bow and arrows, and reassembling them were enough to level [Fletching] and [Bowyer] with a little bit of [Repair]. And their house was in such a state that there was always something to fix.
Other skills were much harder to level.
[Mana Bolt] and [Mana Blast] were both very destructive, and required that she use them to gain experience. They didn't allow simply creating and dismissing them to gain experience. She couldn't practice those in the basement, because she would leave damage behind. And she couldn't practice them outside, because then she would out herself as a cape.
Fortunately, [Stealth] got a work out in that regard, since she used it when sneaking out at night. The nearby greenbelt was handy there to practice her more destructive and flashy skills. Between that, and sneaking around her bullies in school, [Stealth] was leveling rather fast. Taylor was good enough at it now that unless she lapsed, her bullies could not find her if she didn't want to be found.
Still, [Mana Bolt] and [Mana Blast] weren't at level five yet, though they were close. Taylor figured another night would be enough.
Then there was [Bludgeoning Resistance]. How she loathed that skill. It was stubbornly refusing to level faster than a few percent at a time. She already figured that she needed to get hit with something blunt, but other than smashing her head against the wall in the basement or hitting herself with a hammer, she had no other ideas. It was apparent to her that her skills leveled faster against an opponent, and the wall was obviously not an opponent. She felt stupid headbutting the wall over and over, dealing huge damage to herself for minimal gain.
But, as [Bludgeoning Resistance] was the last skill in her way to completing the quest, she was determined to do so, regardless of how retarded it made her look.
And she was nothing if not determined. The perk reward was too good to pass up.
Perk: Skillful
Increases all skill experience points gained by 5%
Oh yes, that perk would be hers.
She had created a few other skills too. Accidentally shocking herself while repairing an outlet in the study granted her the [Electricity Manipulation] and [Electricity Resistance] skill. It was surreal, watching yellow and blue arcs of electrical energy arc over her hands and arms. She quickly learned that she could apply this energy to her arrows and to her [Mana Bolt] which created [Shock Arrow] and [Shock Bolt] respectively.
Furthermore, leveling [Fletching] taught her how to make glue arrows and flash bang arrows, though she didn't have near the correct resources on hand for those. It was curious though, why her Bowyer skill didn't give her any schematic yet. Perhaps in a few more levels.
Fortunately, none of her new skills were added to the requirement of her self-quest to level her skills to five. She simply needed to finish the nineteen skills she already had.
So, feeling stupid, Taylor placed her hands on the basement wall, about shoulder length apart. Then, she leaned back, and smashed her face into the concrete.
-73
You have been afflicted with the status: Unconscious
---
-61
[Bludgeoning Resistance] leveled up!
Like a Millstone, Grind, Grind, Grind - Complete!
Gained 1000 experience!
Gained Perk: Skillful!
Level up!
You have gained 5 skill points!
Taylor dismissed the deluge of windows that popped up, rubbing at the sore spot on her forehead. But she paused at the window proclaiming her level up. Level three had given her skill points.
"What are skill points?" she wondered aloud.
Yet another window popped up.
Skill points are granted to The Gamer at level 3 and every third level there after. They allow the gamer to boost any one skill by a single level per point.
With barely restrained excitement, Taylor poked the [X] and closed the instructional window.
This was huge. Simply being able to add levels to a chosen skill every three levels was a huge power boost. She opened her skill window, and began browsing her skills, but paused.
She opened her stat window and looked at her attribute points. Her power told her that she would get five skill points every three levels, but she didn't know how often levels would come. So far, it hadn't been that bad. Level two had arrived at one thousand experience, and level three at three thousand. Now, her experience number said she needed to get to six thousand. Based on that, each level took a thousand more experience points than the previous. Her leveling would eventually slow.
Still, it wouldn't help her if she hoarded her points.
She deliberated with herself for five minutes, then decided to spend her points, both skill and attribute points.
A wise decision increases your Wisdom by 1!
Thinking things through logically grants you +1 Intelligence!
Apparently that was the best course of action, if her power could be believed.
Now, it was just a matter of deciding which attribute, or attributes to increase, and which skills.
Her power seemed to favor bows, and bow skills, despite having spells and buffs. Those skills required dexterity. At the same time, she felt she should shore up her weak points. Being all around was sometimes better than being overly specialized. A jack of all trades but master of none, often times better than master of one.
…
She didn't want to do that though.
Based on her abilities, she needed primarily Strength and Dexterity to use her bows, and Intelligence to boost her abilities. Wisdom, Charisma and Stamina, while not at all worthless, weren't as useful to her. After a moment's hesitation, Taylor then put four points into Strength, and one into Dexterity.
The feeling of suddenly being stronger, and more nimble rushed through her. Despite having repeatedly casting her enhancement spells, over and over, the feeling never became familiar. Sure, she got used to the enhanced abilities, but that was most likely her power causing her to adapt more quickly.
She shook her head to clear it from the rush of suddenly being more powerful. Then, she focused on her skill window, closing her stat window. Again, she scrutinized which skill to boost.
A few of her skills were ready to evolve. Both [Beginner Archery] and [Meditation] were at their thresholds. At the same time, leveling her resistance skills seemed to be tedious and difficult. Still, the best course of action seemed to be bringing [Meditation] to level ten, so it could evolve, and use the other two points on something else.
It was decided then.
Taylor added three points to [Meditation] and a window appeared.
[Meditation] reached level 10!
[Meditation] changed to [Zen Meditation]
"What does zen meditation do?" Taylor wondered.
A window popped up.
[Zen Meditation (Active) Intelligence Lv.10/50 0%]
Through calm and focus, The Gamer can become one with the world. Well, maybe not the world, but at least herself.
Increases Mana Point regeneration by 41% while in the meditative state. External stimulus no longer causes interruption.
Click to expand...
"Neat!" Taylor cheered.
Next, Taylor added the final two points to [Bludgeoning Resistance].
Because fuck that skill.
Taylor heard the front door open upstairs, and close again.
"Taylor? Hun, I'm home!"
"I'm in the basement, dad!" she called back.
Then, she noticed that there were blood splatters on the wall from repeatedly headbutting it. Hurriedly, she grabbed a rag from the work bench, accidentally scattering tools, and wiped at the concrete.
A shadow fell from the top of the stairs, and Taylor looked up. Her dad looked down at her, a strange expression on his face. He had a white plastic bag in his right hand.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Uh…" Taylor said.
Smooth. Think, Taylor, c'mon…
The best lies contained a kernel of truth, she reminded herself.
"Cleaning," she said, hoping her pause wasn't too out of place. "I found some mildew, and thought I could clean it out of the concrete." She looked at the wall, and with dismay noted that the blood had stained, soaking into the porous material. "It doesn't look like I can."
"Damn," her dad said. "I'll have to get someone in to spray, or something. Hey, come on up, I brought home dinner."
Taylor took a moment to pull the string on the single bulb light in the middle of the basement before going up the stairs three at a time. At the top of the stairs, she closed the door, then turned and followed her dad into the kitchen, where he was taking Chinese food out of the white bag.
He was looking at her funny again.
"What?" Taylor asked.
"I… it's probably nothing," her dad answered. "Long day, and I'm tired."
Are my powers actually affecting me that much? Taylor wondered.
She noticed changes each time she looked in the mirror. As her physical attributes grew, she noticed that she had been changing too. She was, dare she admit it, prettier. Even her mental attributes were affecting things. She was able to keep up with conversations better, and contribute to them more effectively.
She had tried to make sure she wasn't being too obvious about it, but apparently it wasn't working. She vowed then to do better at it.
"Did you have a chance to stop by the music store?" she asked, as she opened the Styrofoam clam shell container her dad gave her. The enticing smell of sesame chicken and fried rice filled her senses and her mouth started to water.
"Yeah, I did," her dad replied, opening his own container. He got beef lo mien. "Eugene is having a hard time finding parts for your particular flute. Something about it being out of production."
"How much could they have changed a flute over the years!?" Taylor exclaimed. She sat down, and grabbed a plastic fork from the plastic bag.
Her dad shrugged, and started digging into his own noodles.
"No clue," he said around a mouthful of food.
Taylor wrinkled her nose at her dad's bad manners, but dismissed it for the moment. A quick mental command brought up the quest window, and she reviewed the minutia. A thousand experience was a lot. It wasn't enough to level her again, but it was a good chunk. Moreover, she was curious as to what the artifact was.
It wasn't a big deal. She felt ready to go out now, more than she had been previously.
Tonight.
She would go out again tonight, and show the Archer's Bridge Merchants just what she was made of.