Powering Up!

Raucous cheers cried out all throughout the galleon as the corpses of the fish men were piled up and the wounded guards tended to. It would seem that nobody on the ship had suffered fatal harm during the entire encounter, yet it was interesting to see the injured NPCs being actively tended to while the healthier ones remained sorting things out. The ability for their AI to actively recognize the injured like this somehow just made this crew feel even more real.

Still, interesting attention to detail aside, Marcus was far more focused on the praise. Sure, they probably would have still cheered him on even if half of them lay dead on the deck and he barely scraped by with a handful of HP, but it still made him feel pretty satisfied with his accomplishment.

“Thank you everyone, thank you. Yea, I might’ve been around the block a couple of times with this kind of stuff.” He bragged shamelessly, since none of the NPCs seemed to mind him deciding to go on an ego trip for them. “So, how much further? This tutorial stuff done yet?”

“Tutorial? Haha, was the beast truly so trivial for you that you would refer to it as such? Yes, I believe there are no more beasts for us to worry about. Fortunately, it shouldn’t be much longer now until we reach the shores. You should probably use this time to take some well-earned rest and get yourself sorted. We will alert you when we reach shore.” A jovial elven guard suggested, the plume on his helmet likely marking him as their leader.

“Yea, sure thing. Just got a couple of things to look at first~” Marcus lilted before retrieving his codex from his bag.

Upon laying low the boss of the tutorial, Marcus had been rewarded with another level up. This time however, no new abilities appeared in his toolbar. Instead, a glowing icon appeared upon his hud in the shape of an upwards pointing arrow with the word ‘Level’ beneath it. Looking over his character information, he was pleased as he finally received the opportunity to look over his skill trees. Currently, he had a single point he could put into gaining an ability for his Barbarian class. Despite that, there seemed to be two additional tabs for other trees. One of those was his racial skill tree while the other seemed dedicated to weapons. Of course, he was far too eager to get this point slotted right away to get a feel for his class’s capabilities.

The majority of the skills present here were in gray, all except for a single one in color at the bottom. This seemed to be his core ability as a barbarian, the Rage skill. Pressing his finger to it, a block of text and other details appeared above the selected ability. It would appear that currently, his Rage lasted thirty seconds with the duration being extended as he dealt and received damage while offering him a damage butt for the duration. It would also serve as a catalyst to many of the Barbarian's future abilities. Additional points could be applied to it to increase all of its effects up to three times

Three lines extended upward from the Rage skill, connecting into three separate progression trees. The Berserk tree would focus on enhancing his rage directly, the Unstoppable tree would lend to making him sturdier, and the Bloodshed tree was focused on his offense potential. Looking them over, each category seemed surprisingly robust. They each began with a single mandatory skill to select, which would then branch off into two or three other skills. Those skills would in turn branch off into yet more skills or converge back into one or two options. Many also possessed smaller icons directly beside them that seemed to be able to further modify whatever skill they happened to be attached to.

The icons were also further organized by the shape of the bubble they were presented in. Skills within circle bubbles represented active abilities that he would need to manually activate while those in hexagons represented passives that would be active on their own. Another detail was that most abilities Marcus looked at seemed to either be tied to cooldowns, requiring a resource like Mana or Stamina, all of the above. Some other tags signified whether or not the skill was an area of effect skill (AOE) or dealt damage over time (DOT). Both of his current abilities only seemed to demand cooldowns, making Marcus wonder if he should try to seek out something to make use of his Stamina besides sprinting and basic weapon attacks.

Then again, maybe he wouldn't. The longer he looked over his options, the more Marcus’s head started to spin. He could already imagine his friends spending hours pouring over each and every one of these abilities to theory craft the perfect builds, but Marcus simply couldn’t be bothered. Besides, if optimization of any sort mattered to him, he probably wouldn’t have tried turning an imp into a front line bruiser. No, he was going to pick what sounded fun as he went, and that was it.

He instead focused on his three options to kick off each skill tree. The first was Dominate, a passive which reduced the attack damage of nearby enemies upon the defeat of an enemy while rage is active. Though the effects were temporary, the duration would be increased when upgraded. The next was Resilience, a passive which simply increased one’s maximum hit points (HP) with each upgrade. Practical of course, especially for a tank role, but too bland for Marcus. The final tree offered Charge! An active ability that temporarily increased Sprint Speed and granted bonus damage against the first enemy he struck after activating it. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to possess the ability to be upgraded. Despite that however, this one appealed to Marcus the most by far. He imagined himself dashing towards a horde of foes and crushing them with a massive swing while getting into the fight as soon as possible. Besides, he had a good feeling that he would enjoy what lay further up the offense tree the most. Slapping the ‘apply skill point’ option upon it, Marcus watched excitedly as his new ability popped up on his toolbar, an icon of the bust of an axe wielding imp furiously rushing forward with speed lines trailing off of it.

While he was here however, he decided he’d take a cursory look at the two other trees, baffled by the amount of options once more as he investigated what powers he’d possess as an imp. That said, it seemed as if there were fewer options this time around with racial perk points being gained every four levels as opposed to one skill point every level from his class. It seemed that certain in-game elements could grant additional skill points for it however. Of course, his base ability was right there at the bottom beside his Fire Spit. Looking it over, the description informed him that what he spat was actually a big glob of napalm. A little gross, but it did seem handy. As he had discovered, the ability relied solely on a short cooldown, so he could use it regularly if need be. Though limited in range, the attack inflicted opponents with a burn DOT on top of the initial damage it dealt. This damage and duration could also be increased with further upgrades, up to three, but it could be further modified and upgraded along different skill trees. Speaking of, this one featured three of them as well. The first was Mischief, specializing in stealth and trickery, the second was Nimble, specializing in being quick and mobile, and the third was Inferno which granted and enhanced more fire abilities. Marcus already had a hunch as to which one he was going to go with, but for now, he flipped to the final tab.

This time, he was surprised to find only a single tree, though there was clearly space for plenty more. The one tree there however belonged to the Maul, a heavy two handed weapon designed more for fighting crowds and smashing armor than one on one duels, but all Marcus cared about it for was that it looked silly being wielded by his character. The tree was simple and it did have a good few branches. The only ability on it at the moment however was a passive simply titled Maul Mastery which increased the damage he could deal with Maul type weapons. A tool tip on the side described that weapon skills were gained separately to regular levels, being earned instead simply by making use of the weapon type. On top of that, other weapons would require players to seek out trainers in order to learn them.

With that, Marcus closed the codex and returned it to his pack. That was definitely enough reading for now. By the time he looked away from his book, the guards had returned to their regular duties, leaving him to wonder how long he had his nose buried in character information. Still, he did recall the guard captain’s suggestion. Giving his shoulders a stretch in the real world, Marcus walked forward.

Passing the corpse of the boss he just defeated, however, he was compelled to stop for a moment. On a hunch, he held out his hand to find a small UI popup. Taking a quick look, it displayed a harpoon and a collection of thirty gold on it. So, he was able to loot the bodies after all. There wasn’t much of interest here aside from the “Harvest” option, but it was grayed out for him. Instead, he just nabbed what loot was available before turning and continuing on his way.

Making his way down to the lower decks, it would seem that every NPC he passed felt the need to thank him or congratulate him. As much as he liked being praised, he felt the developers may have laid it on a little too heavily here. Eventually, he returned to the room where his adventure in this world truly started, the room where he created Ember. He looked around the small space a little bit, one last time and… Somebody was sitting there. At the small table in the back, there sat a person, They were completely clad in a hooded black cloak, their name in purple reading Rykard. There was no last name, and their level? Just three question marks. Marcus stared for a moment. The only ones that he had seen before with levels on display were the guards and the enemies he had fought. He also hadn’t seen a purple name at all until now. Was it actually another player? A developer? Or maybe he was some sort of important story character. Either way, Marcus approached.

“Umm, can I help you?” Marcus asked with a chuckle, announcing his presence to whoever this was.

Marcus seemed to garner a reaction from them as they turned their head towards him. Though covered in a black cloak, a hint of something white could be seen. They simply sat there for a moment, glancing in Marcus’s direction before slowly standing up and turning to him. Beneath the cloak, they wore a black and gold set of finery, a thick belt, and a pair of black pants tucked into a pair of black and gold boots. The most striking feature of theirs however was the face, or rather, the mask covering the face. It was white with golden detailing. The eyes of the mask were depicted to be shut and curved which paired well with the jovial grin the mouth of it was sporting. There seemed to be no area for the nose however, just a gleefully smiling mask. Though Marcus could not see his eyes, somehow he knew the figure was looking at him or maybe… through him? Marcus couldn't easily describe it, it was as if he could feel it in his soul that the figure was looking not at Ember, but at him. It was impossible of course, but the mind wasn’t always rational, and this guy certainly had an air about him. The tension however was suddenly shattered as they began to speak.

“Ah! Was this your room? My apologies, I fear I may have gotten lost on the way to my own. Please, don’t mind me and carry on about your business traveler.” he said, his tone a fair bit more jovial than his unsettling aura suggested.

The man then simply began to strut away, head held high as he made his way past Marcus and out the door. Marcus meanwhile was left there, speechless. If anything, he was at least fairly confident now in his assessment. Yep, big story boss, definitely.