AN: So, sorry it took me so long, but I got stuck for like a week because I was like, something should happen now, hurry up, but then I was like, I cant just jump over stuff, that's important, and then I got really stuck trying to get somewhere with more action, but had to ultimately realize, that I cant really write in a different way than I do now, one scene at a time, one thing building up on the other and stuff like that.
So, I guess, this story is fairly slow burning, but in return will also be pretty epic in length, that's at least the plan.
Anyway, that's why I update so late. I hope the next updates will not take me that long.
Could you imagine the despair of the first people to witness the slaughter the Grimm wrought upon the empires of men, back before the world was called Remnant, back when Man had risen to Power with Dust and Wit, ruling over all he could perceive?
Could you taste their fear when it all came tumbling down around them? Could you feel their rage and hate turning to terror as all defenses crumbled and all armies were defeated?
And the realization that fear and despair drew ever more Grimm, that the more they fought and lost, the more they would continue to lose until all was gone, could you see that Picture before your inner Eye? Could you imagine such things?
I don't have to, for I remember quite clearly.
I remember and rejoice, for it is not much longer yet, until my wish will finally come true.
My steps were light and easy, balancing my Driftwood over my shoulders, hands lightly resting on its hard and sun-bleached surface. I walked along the beach of my island, keeping look out for anything that might be of interest.
Alas, my island was as boring as it was calm. No traces of intelligent inhabitants could be seen. No traces of footprints apart from my own, no trash, no cold fireplaces, even what driftwood there was, was natural, and mostly too small and fragile to be of any use.
Strolling along the shore line I hummed a song that I could only half remember, singing whatever lyrics would come up from the depth of my mind.
"The Sun burns brightly from the Heavens down on you poor Sinners, or so the preacher said. But Hell will burn much brighter still if you do not change your ways, or so the preacher said."
Before starting my walk around my island I had had a quick look at the rest of the main menu, but had found little of actual use.
Achievements showed me a sheer endless list of greyed out and hidden achievements. Though it did display all my current achievements and the bonuses and titles I got from them, considering how few I had, it was fairly useless at this time.
Quests was equally meaningless, I did not have any quests at this time, and it seemed I could not create any for myself.
And surprise of surprises, general options was just as pointless. Not a single option had been unlocked at this time, all of them hidden and unavailable.
Locked Option:
This option is locked at the time. Unlocking an option is dependent on a number of different factors, amongst them special achievements, quests or specific actions.
Whenever a new option is unlocked a notification will be displayed.
Somewhere along the way I unlocked a new ability, called Identify. That apparently happened because I stared at every little piece of driftwood, shell and interesting looking branch that came across my way.
It happened after around an hour or so of walking and intermittently looking at and gathering shells that a small window opened in front of me. After I stopped cursing because I walked straight into it, I took a look at the golden tinged window, similar in appearance to the achievement window, but somewhat less opulent in its ornaments.
Congratulations! You have unlocked a new Ability!
You have unlocked the ability "Identify". This ability uses all of your senses and skills to rapidly categorize and summarize everything you can know about an object on sight. This offers you a similar amount of information as your item screen would, however it is also available for objects outside of your inventory.
The amount of information this skill delivers scales with your senses and knowledge skills. On higher levels it is possible to find out information about npcs and eventually even characters.
The first thing that went through my mind was not the usefulness of the skill, but rather a question. "Npcs? What the hell? That's the first time I hear about npcs." I pressed the word in the perhaps futile hope of getting a closer explanation, but to my great surprise I actually got an answer in the form of a tiny window barely big enough for the sentence written on it.
An npc is any living creature without higher thought or agenda. This includes most animals and all younger Grimm. Older Grimm or especially smart animals however are named and are counted as characters.
"Hm." Scratching my back with one end of my Driftwood I gave the matter some fleeting thought, and then abandoned it as meaningless. "Unless I can gain some special ability that only works on npc, not really important."
After I closed the window and proceeded with my way another I immediately walked into another opulent screen, similar in appearance to the one before.
Congratulations! You have unlocked a new Option!
You have unlocked the ability "Identify". You may now access the display options.
"Finally some options!"
A quick shout of main menu and a selection unfolded a slightly more useful window in front of me. Most things were still greyed out and hidden, but at the top of the general options window there was now an entry called Display Options.
Choosing it opened another window in front of me with a number of options that could be selected.
Display Options:
Immersion
System Clock (locked)
Highlighted Tracking (locked)
Highlighted Loot
Highlighted Questgiver
I of course accessed said options and discovered a few interesting things.
Immersion gave me access to an HUD that I could modify to my satisfaction. I could display names, titles and short descriptions for basically everything I looked at. I could also display my own Hp, Sp and Ap. I could also activate and deactivate damage and regeneration messages.
There were apparently different Designs available for the displays, but they had to be unlocked separately. What I got where three ancient thermometer like looking glass tubes filled to the brim with a different colored liquid each. The first one displayed my health and was filled with glowing red blood, the same color as the stuff that flowed through my veins. The second one showed my stamina, and was filled with some sicklish looking greenish-gray liquid, though I am not sure why it had that color.
The last tube that displayed my aura then was filled with a clear liquid, with some faint unidentifiable glow the only real sign of its existence.
It was around that time that I realized another problem, that I had overseen until that point. I did not know how to use my aura. I certainly had some, and if I concentrated I could even feel a faint surge of energy from the edges of my awareness, but I got not any closer to actually using it.
As for their looks, they were not too distracting, but still somewhat creepy fitting right in with everything else.
Highlighted Loot gave me the option to highlight every object in my surroundings with a faint glow, depending on its quality and worth. One trial later I deactivated it for everything with the quality Junk and below, since that made me more or less incapable of seeing anything of my surroundings.
Highlighted Questgiver gave me the ability to highlight objects, characters or npcs that would give me a quest if I interacted with them. The color of the glow and its intensity would apparently vary with rarity and difficulty of the quest. But since I had no way of knowing if that actually worked I decided to keep it activated and adapt a wait and see approach.
After a couple of minutes spent trying out the out various options, I continued on, only somewhat satisfied with my decisions.
The second and third hour of my stroll around my island saw me identifying the heck out of everything within reach. Fishes, birds, sand, twigs and branches, shells and seaweed nothing was save from my all observing eyes. And ears.
Most object read more or less the same, insert name here, weight that, description this. All more or less boring. Only a few things really stood out.
For one, I felt like an idiot calling out "Identify!" every couple of seconds while looking at a bushel of half rotten seaweed, or some broken shells.
At one point I was so far gone that I took a heroic pose with my left hand on my hips, right foot in the front and pointed threateningly with my Driftwood at a half sunken and rotting tree trunk and cried out, "identify yourself!"
Upon which I got a window with the item description and a parrot cry in the distance that sounded suspiciously like, "pity the fool! Pity the fool!"
I spent some time searching for that parrot to exact terrible vengeance upon it, alas I could not find it and so continued my travel along the shore line.
The other thing that stood out were a set of tracks that I more or less literally stumbled upon. I was busy looking at an identification window while slowly walking along the beach when my foot broke through a thin layer of sand, under which was only air. The dune I had been walking on had been washed out and broke under my feet, dropping me about a meter or so down. That in itself was more nuisance than anything. The important part was what I saw when I managed to extract my face from the gritty sand that it had slammed into.
Tracks, footprints, traces of something a lot bigger than the bird feet and lizard trails that I had seen thus far. Identifying the tracks opened three windows for me.
Congratulations! You have unlocked a new Skill!
You have unlocked the basic Tracking skill. The Tracking skill will allow you to follow all kinds of tracks and help you identify what made those tracks in the first place. It is also used to track quest objects on the mini map and can on higher levels lead you directly to your prey.
Congratulations! You have unlocked a new Option!
Unlocking the basic tracking skill has given you access to a new Display Option.
A couple of moments after closing the windows I waited for the feeling of knowledge to painfully invade my mind, but then I realized that I already knew how to track. Not particularly well mind but I knew the basics of the basics and it felt as if I had always known them.
That of course, was a stark reminder of just how much I could trust my memory's and instinct and did a good part in damping my, to that point, relatively good mood. The other part that dampened my mood were the tracks themselves, or rather their description.
Tracks (unidentified)
Your Tracking Skill and Identify Ability are not high enough to completely identify these tracks. However partial information is available.
Animal:
great Cat (probability 65%); Wolf (probability 25%); other (10%)
Size:
In the shoulder: 1.5m (probability 65%); 1.3m (probability 25%); other (probability 10%)
Length from head to base of tail: 2.25m (probability 65%); 1.95m (probability 25%); other (probability 10%)
Weight:
190kg (probability 65%); 170kg (probability 25%); other (10%)
Reading that description and trying to imagine the animal that left it did nothing to calm my mind.
I let off a sigh, turned on my back and stared into the blue sky, that was already showing hints of the sunset to come.
After a couple of minutes I had gathered my thoughts and banished all images of sinisterly chuckling, giant cats swallowing me whole and took another look at the tracks.
The combination of Tracking, Identify and a quick visit to the display options allowed me to see the line of tracks as slightly glowing, colored imprints as they vanished into the underbrush of the jungle.
Brushing all sand off me I slowly stood up and took a cautious look around.
Nothing stood out compared to before, the birds were chirping, the sea burbling on the shore, the wind rustling the leafs, and yet, suddenly everything seemed to have taken on a sinister note, as if there was danger waiting behind every dune, death waiting in every shadow.
It took me longer than I'd like to admit to continue my travel along the ocean shore. Always keeping a look out for more tracks. But I also held look out for anything that might help me in a fight. Any long pieces of wood, sharp sticks, anything at all. But alas, it truly seemed as if I was cursed, for apart from my Driftwood, anything that I looked at was either rotten, too small, or otherwise completely useless.
Along the way I slowly trained my tracking skills, but by the time Sunset came I had barely reached half of the first level. Identify on the other hand had reached the third level. Which while not allowing me to more precisely identify objects on sight, extended the item description in my inventory, allowing me to look at a short history of the object in question.
Of course since I picked all items up on the beach, that history was more or less the same for everything in my inventory.
Insert Name here was lying on a sandy beach for at least 2 weeks or more.
The thought of entering a jungle in the night, with who knows what just waiting for me to turn my back and eat me, did not fill me with happiness and so I decided to spend my night on the beach.
A quick look at the map revealed that I had traveled around half of the island, leaving the other half for tomorrow.
I settled down nestled in between two sand dunes, brushing away what shells and branches would have made for uncomfortable bedding and prepared myself for a night of stargazing. Luckily the Weather held on and the night was cloud free giving me an fantastic sight of the night sky.
After a few hours of stargazing and watching the broken moon wandering across the sky I gained a new skill.
Congratulations! You have unlocked a new Skill!
You have unlocked basic astronomy. This will allow you to recognize major constellations as well as reliably calculate the day and month of the year on higher skill levels. It will also allow you to navigate using the stars.
The beauty of the starlit night did a lot to sooth my anxiety and I could slowly feel myself relax and drift away. In my half asleep state it felt like I would fall off the world if I made a careless motion and be set adrift in that infinite space.
That night felt like it lasted forever, my soul and mind unmoored from my body and set loose amongst those shining lights that spread across that velvet soft darkness.
I poured out my heart and soul into that night, all my dreams and hopes, all my fears and nightmares, all swallowed by that infinite starlit sky.
And when my mind and soul returned they brought a small piece of that starlit sky with them. I can not tell you with words of human tongue what things I saw out there, for there are no words in the languages of men to describe things beyond comprehension.
But still I will try my best, for to stay silent would invite forgetfulness, and that night is something that I never want to forget.
So even if my words are mere pale imitations, shadows and echoes I will still try to do them justice.
I saw the star-children, things of fire and light and life turning, twisting, dancing with the cosmos and each other. So great was their majesty that their mere presence bowed space and time to their whims, curving lines and making a single hour of dance last longer than the lifespan of worlds.
I saw and can still see it before my inner eye, the twisting double helix of living comets dancing around each other in an endless mating ritual that had begun when their solar system was born and would end in a glorious inferno, the death cry of their mother star.
Many more things I saw in that night but my body can not hold their memory's and what hidden secrets I learned I have already forgotten.
Once more I awoke to the sight of an ornate window, with the morning sun barely grazing the horizon. I do not know when I fell asleep, but my mind was still filled with memory's of strange dreams and beings so different that the waking mind could not comprehend their form and scale.
However upon reading the text on the window I realized that my dream had perhaps not been quite so dreamlike.
Congratulations! You have unlocked your Aura!
You have unlocked your Aura enabling you its free use. Since you unlocked it using a special opportunity you gain specific qualities relating to your specific achievement.
Though my body was fully rested, my mind was not quite ready to wake up yet, as I groggily closed the window, only to have more open up in front of me.
Congratulations! You have completed a new Achievement!
"And I danced amongst Stars in the infinite Night Sky."
Unlocked your Aura using Stargazing (1/1)
You have unlocked your own Aura, using nothing but willpower, your soul and the infinite vast powers of the Cosmos. This has set you on the Path of mortal transcendence, but you have only made the first step. There are many more to follow if you want to leave behind the shackles of mortality and everything that binds you.
You gain a permanent +1 regeneration bonus per hour to your Aura Points.
Your Aura is permanently aligned with the starlit sky, giving it an alien, otherworldly feeling for all those sensitive to such things.
Congratulations! You have unlocked a new Ability!
You have unlocked the ability "Stargazing". This ability allows you to connect your soul to the energy's of the vast Cosmos, allowing your mind and soul to travel the infinite distances of the dreaming darkness.
Using this ability will enhance your Aurapoint regeneration during its duration, as well as further align your soul with the infinite starlit sky, allowing you more and greater advantages the higher your level.
At the beginning this skill can only be used at night, with sufficiently low light level and cloud cover to see the starlight, but higher levels make that unnecessary.
Since you have unlocked your aura using Stargazing the Transcendence Achievement-path "the infinite starlit Sky" has been unlocked.
Congratulations! You have unlocked a new Ability!
You have unlocked the ability "Meditation". This ability allows you to connect your Soul to the great, but ultimately limited energy's of the planet.
Using this ability will enhance your Aurapoint regeneration during its duration, as well as align your Soul with the World of Remnant, shackling you further and further to the soul of the planet the greater its level grows.
This ability can be used at any time, but certain places and circumstances can have a positive or negative effect on its outcome.
Since you have not unlocked your Aura using meditation the Transcendence Achievement-path "Remnants of Mortality" is locked.
Caution! You have learned conflicting Ability's!
You have learned ability's that oppose each other in their effects on you. You can not level both ability's at the same time. Leveling one will diminish the effects of the other.
The conflicting ability's are "Stargazing" and "Meditation".
"Ah... wut?"
I slowly blinked my eyes at the multitude of windows staring at me, not yet quite comprehending what I was seeing.
It took me a couple of minutes to read and reread the texts, and understanding what they were trying to tell me.
Apparently I had awakened my aura in the night, using stargazing as a focus, instead of meditation as a worldly sage might have done it. Or at least, that's how I interpreted what I now instinctively knew but was hard to put to words.
I knew how to connect my soul to the infinite starlit sky, a being, a place, a time, and so many other things all at once that I could not describe, since the words did not exist in human tongues. My soul had shattered its bonds that kept it tightly wound inside my body, allowing the force of my soul free rein over my surroundings and in shattering those bonds I had expanded my soul with a piece of that indescribable place.
And while this gave me access to more power than before, it also made me ever so slightly less... I hesitated to say human, since I did not truly know what that felt like anymore, even if I consciously knew that I used to be one, but it made me ever so slightly less mortal, less bound to this planet. Like shackles whose existence I never knew about were marginally widened.
Now at the same time I also knew how to connect and bind my soul to the planet, to embrace its life and aura, but a tiny part of myself, that part that was connected to the infinite starlit sky, felt disgusted at the mere notion of binding myself down to this place.
And I had the instinctive feeling that while the effects would be somewhat similar in the beginning, the end results would be vastly different.
I sat around for about an hour, just thinking about the night, those dreams and what the future held for me but ultimately decided that sitting around was not going to solve anything.
With a last shrug of my shoulders I closed all open windows and stood up.
Brushing off whatever sand still clung to me I continued my walk around my island.
I spent the time walking, looking for trails, identifying objects, though I did not bother actually reading the descriptions since it leveled Identify just fine without that, and trying to figure out a way to use my aura for combat.
It took me two hours and fairly close to my arrival point on the island until I finally figured something out.
It was not as easy as simply wishing to make an ability and letting the system create one. I had to understand what I was doing, had to know exactly what I wanted to happen, and had to have an idea of how to get there until the system finally gave me the last push and opened up two new ability's.
The first thing that I concentrated on was my ability to protect myself, or rather my lack of any ability's to protect myself. I had aura, but did not know how to use it for anything, and that had to change.
I instinctively knew the feeling of my aura, not just the way it pooled beneath my skin, filling me to the brim with energy that was more than just life and light. It also brought with it a feeling of expanse, of a distance that could never be crossed, though I found it hard to put that in words. I started there, tried to pull this energy out and keep it outside of myself, which did not really accomplish anything.
Every once in a while I would take a break in walking and just concentrate on the feeling of my aura flowing from within to the without, at the same time connecting me to the world, but also keeping me apart. I started to put my attention on that specific aspect of my aura.
There was the world and there was me. And one was not the other for even though both were connected they were also separated from each other.
For a while I concentrated solely on that aspect, the keeping apart, but after some time realized that disconnecting myself from the world was not something that I wanted to do at the time, even though that might have been useful, running away would not solve my problems, merely delay them.
Then I tried to sort of harden my aura, give it more mass, make it able to absorb things that tried to harm me but I did not know how to accomplish that. I could manipulate the energy somewhat, push it this way and that, but nothing actually did anything.
It was only when I pushed my aura into my Driftwood that I slowly started to understand what it meant to protect something from harm.
As the power of my soul flooded through that piece of driftwood I understood it in a way that I thus far had only understood myself.
I could feel its rigid but fragile body like my own, its hard and sun-bleached surface like my skin. And as I slowly clad it in my energy I started to realize how I could use my aura to protect it from harm.
Simply pumping my aura through it would not be enough, I had to pool it on the outside, decrease the flow of energy and instead of a thin coat I had to create something more like a wall, or an armor. Standing still I compared the flow of energy on my Driftwood with myself, my own body and skin. Determined the differences and the similarity's.
Pooling the energy, increasing the output beyond what was comfortable, stretch and conform it, until what was malleable and soft, became rigid and strong.
I took some time with that, pooling my aura around my driftwood and then hitting it against something until the fragile aura around it broke and then tried it over until the point where instead of breaking it would bend and flex to absorb the blow but would still be solid enough the stop some of the damage like an armor would.
Having succeeded at that I then proceeded to apply that to both myself and my Driftwood until I could uphold it without any additional concentration, upon with I got a congratulatory window right to my face.
Congratulations! You have learned a new Ability!
You have learned the ability "Basic Aura Reinforcement". This ability prevents the user from taking damage by absorbing it with his aura. Any attack that would make damage instead reduces his ap. It also grants him 2 DR per Level while active. The effectiveness and cost of the ability scale with its level.
Congratulations! You have learned a new Ability!
You have learned the ability "Basic Aura Shield". The basic version of this ability reinforces an object with your aura. This enhances the damage an object can make if used as a weapon. An edged weapon will cut easier, a blunt weapon will crush easier, and a pointed weapon will pierce easier. Any damage the weapon takes that would break it are instead absorbed by the aura of the user. The effectiveness of that is determined by his skill in Aura Reinforcement.
"And DR would be what?" A press of the word popped up a small window.
Damage Resistance:
Damage Resistance is the amount of damage a character can take without actually taking damage. The amount of DR he has are subtracted from any damage he takes.
In the process of learning that I also expended what aurapoints I had available, settling at around 5ap, which was somewhat strange, as if a part of my self was missing or faded, bleached somehow.
It was with a thoughtful mind that I finally completed my circuit around the island. Little had changed compared to yesterday, or so it seemed at first. But upon closer inspection the ground revealed to me fresh tracks, similar to the ones that scared me so much the day before. I knew that I had to make a decision. I could either try and hide, or I could try and fight.
In the end there really was only one possible choice. Hiding would not make me stronger, and on a world like this only the strong survive. And had I not sacrificed so much for this one chance to become truly powerful?
The question that opened itself to me was then, what kind of weapon could I craft on this island? My claws and fangs alone would not be enough to protect me, since the beast would certainly have bigger teeth and sharper claws than me.
I could not make a sword here, and there were no useful stones to make a hammer with, perhaps later I could look into gathering shark teeth for a club or a sword, but for now spears would have to suffice. Some for throwing, some for stabbing. So it was with that in mind that I walked into the jungle in the search for useable resources.
Once in the jungle I used Identify on every useable looking branch, which at least gave me some hints whether or not it could be used for crafting. Over the course of several hours, from the morning until the sun stood high in the Sky I scoured the outskirts of the jungle for usable Branches. By the time I had gathered everything I could find, without venturing deeper into the jungle and risk confrontation with whatever beast left those tracks, I had leveled it up to 15. That granted me deeper insight into the history of objects, but also sharpened my senses in a way that was hard to define. Or it would have been hard to define had I not the ability to simple look at my character screen and take a look at my noticing, which had been raised by 3 points, simply by gaining levels in Identify. Another thing that I earned for staring at trees for three hours was a new skill.
Congratulations! You have unlocked a new Skill!
You have unlocked the basic Botany skill. This gives the character basic knowledge about the plants of Remnant. Allows the character to identify names and effects of various plants. The higher the skill the more information is available.
This skill could be used in combination with Identify, giving me more specific information about plants. In my case that was useful for finding out the quality and usability as a building material, which was mostly low, and not very. Likely thanks to my abysmal luck, which did not allow me to just be lucky about finding something useful, or so I thought.
I also got knowledge about the berry's, herbs and spices that could be found on this island. But of course what I found was either not ripe, useful only as bird food or simply just there, without any useful properties whatsoever.
After I had filled my inventory almost to the brim with whatever low-quality resources I could find, I made my way back to the beach in somewhat of a bad mood. That was when I literally stumbled over the one thing that made the last 4 hours of enduring biting insects and stumbling over roots and scratching myself open because of an poison ivy equivalent worth it.
I had not been looking were I was planting my steps, too preoccupied with cursing remnant and every damned plant and bug on it, when the world suddenly made a turn and I ran face first into the ground.
At that point I was just about finished with the world and it took me some self control to not curse with all the power of my lungs. After a couple of deep breaths I rolled on my back and took a look at what exactly it was that I had stumbled over.
The first thing I saw were golden gleaming leafs, scattering the sunlight more like stained glass in a cathedral than mere plant matter. The bark of the tree was not brown and mottled with moss and mushrooms but a silvery grey that was dusted with gold and reflected the light like polished jewelry.
My eyes slowly wandered down the tree where I saw a long, perfectly straight branch laying on the ground. One side of it ending in a point, the other side looking charred and cracked, like an explosion cut it off from the rest of the tree.
I slowly rolled to my knees and hesitatingly reached out for the staff and picked it up, "Identify".
Dustinfused Branch (unique) (equipped)
Quality: Incandescent
Length: 2.1m
Weight: 6.32 Kg
Stability: Middle (+250%)
Damage: (Brawns/2) + 10 (+250%)
Type: Piercing + Special (Steamdust Infusion)
History:
This Branch has been dropped from a unique tree that absorbed a quantity of steam dust from the world itself.
The branch and the tree it came from are unique and thus nameless, leaving their naming to their discoverer.
The branch was cut off from the tree by a lightning strike that cooked of the steamdust within the contact point and created a small explosion.
This branch has been lying here for 4+ Weeks.
"Huh... Ok. … I guess... I can get lucky after all." I slowly pushed the branch into my inventory which by now was more than three quarter full assorted resources. I then stood up and turned my attention back to the tree.
"Identify."
Dustinfused Tree (Nameless)
Size: 16.34m
Weight: Heavy 100t
Level: -
DR: 807,3
HP: 45.630
Advantages:
Growth of Ages, Dustinfusion (steam)
Notable Skills:
Lifeblood of the Earth lvl. 26; Skin of Stone lvl. 23
Basic Attributes
"How the heck did anything manage to even scratch that tree?" A quick look at the branch in my inventory showed me the cause in a lightning strike.
"I guess a critical hit can come from anything. What kind of attributes do you have to have that many hp?"
Body:
Brawns = 3
Toughness = 1755
Nimbleness = 4
Mind:
Brains = 3
Charms = 2
Noticing = 4
Soul:
Aura = 24
Luck = 6
"Ok, how in the hells do you have that much toughness? I mean, HOW?" Shaking my head I took a closer look at the skills and advantages of the tree.
Growth of Ages
This advantage gives the character a supernatural toughness the older he grows. Only the rarest of Plants and Animals gain this, and only through an intense contact with the aura of the planet.
Grants a bonus to toughness equal to five times the age of the character.
"Ok, so you are probably pretty old, and have a pretty high level since I cant see that. At least thats what I think it means when I cant see your level. So how about the rest?"
Dustinfustion (Steam)
The Character has taken dust into himself. The Wrath of Nature made substance this can both help and hinder the character. No matter the nature of the dust he will find himself more in tune with remnant and all its creations, but he will also become more vulnerable against certain forms of damage.
In this case the character has infused his body with Steam Dust. This allows him to rapidly expand liquids upon contact with his aura, creating explosions in anything filled with water, which includes Blood, both his enemy's and his own. Herein lies both the potential and the danger of Steamdust. The user can create explosions within the body's of his enemy's, with nothing but his own aura, but must always take care not to accidentally create one in his own body.
Lifeblood of the Earth Lvl. 26
This skill allows the user to expand his own life force massively, by tapping into the life of the planet itself. Every level will allow him to channel greater amounts of life through his own body, though it still depends on his own toughness, since some limits are not so easily broken.
At level 26 the user gains a bonus of 260% to his hp.
Skin of Stone Lvl. 23
This skill allows the user to harden his skin and use it like armor. The effectiveness of the skill scales with level and toughness.
At level 23 the user gains 46% of his toughness as DR.
"Hm, those are some useful skills. I doubt I can get Lifeblood of the Earth, unless I start meditation, but Skin of Stone sounds like I might be able to use it."
Scratching my head I got the the branch out of my inventory and compared what I could see and feel with the tree.
It seemed that the skills were only active for something that was still part of the tree, for the branch that no longer had any aura or counted as alive, had no special amount of Damage Resistance, though it was still fairly hardy and tough, I could scratch it, giving sufficient force, whereas the same could not be said about the tree, which stayed blemishless no matter how much I tried.
It was with some hesitation that I stretched my aura around my new found spear, fearing an explosive reaction with the dust in the wood.
It was not an aurashield that I created, but rather a simple infusion with my aura, using the skills I gained trough Identify to find out everything I could about the dust inside it and the tree it had been a part of.
It was this way with Identify, even if I not actively used it, the knowledge of the skill was still there, just not as present and obvious as when I got the knowledge summarized on a window. For that knowledge truly came from inside of me, from all my senses and skills, even if I got a helping hand through the system.
What I could instinctively feel through my aura was that I could sort of channel it through the spear and into anything the spear was stabbed into, priming my aura with steamdust. That aura in turn would then turn any non-aura protected liquid into rapidly expanding steam, ripping its way outward in an explosion of scalding liquid.
Which in turn would of course also injure me should I be hit with it, but the potential for damage was truly astounding against anything without aura, and even against those with aura, should they be untrained, or their aura expended, it would surly create a lethal explosion.
After a last look at the tree I marked its position on my map and set out towards the beach.
One quick stop within reach of the water later and I had learned a new, and very useful technique.
Congratulations! You have learned a new ability!
You have learned the ability "Basic Explosion Pulse". This aura technique allows the user to fire a pulse of steam infused aura that detonates any non-aura protected liquid upon contact. Reach of the Technique and Damage increase with level of the ability.
Use of Steam Dust reduces the costs and increases effectiveness.
Of course, that ability was not without its draw backs, for one, if I used it without Dust, it became prohibitively expensive, but every use with my spear reduced its stability, giving me about 50 uses before the spear would break. Good for combat, not so much for training.
After a quick look at the ability description I conzentrated in the reason I had set out a couple of hours ago, crafting. I was fairly certain I could make my spear even better, but for that I needed some training and crafting abilitys. So, I just set down, took out some brokeen shells with sharp edges and one one my javelins in potentia and just started scraping and cutting until the bark came of. Then I whittled one End to a point, an presto, one junk-quality Javelin.
Basic Javelin (equipped)
Quality: Junk
Length: 1.12cm
Weight: 2.34 Kg
Stability: middle (-75%)
Damage: (Brawns/2.5) + 12 (-75%)
History: Crafted by Aeronwen Dougal.
Congratulations! You have unlocked a new Skill!
You have unlocked the basic Woodcrafting Skill. The basic version of this skill gives you a proficiency in the crafting of all basic wood-type items. Higher levels of this skill allow the user to craft more and better equipment. Tool use may be necessary depending on specific Recipe.
Thanks to Identify I now got to know exactly how much the quality of an item influenced its attributes, which, in the case of junk-quality items, was pretty bad. But still, I needed the training, and having a couple of those, was better than not having them and so I got to work. Every crafted Javelin got me 10xp, so it took me ten of them to gain my second level in crafting.
Basic Wood Crafting
Level: 2 (0/200xp)
Allows crafting and repair of Junk-quality and lower items.
+4% quality of harvested wood-type resources.
+4% quality of basic wood-type Items.
1x Basic Javelin (stored)
Quality: Junk
Length: 1.12cm
Weight: 2.34 Kg
Stability: middle (-73%)
Damage: (Brawns/2.5) + 12 (-73%)
History: Crafted by Aeronwen Dougal.
10x Basic Javelin (stored)
Quality: Junk
average Length: 1.11cm
average Weight: 2.32 Kg
Stability: middle (-71%)
Damage: (Brawns/2.5) + 12 (-71%)
History: Crafted by Aeronwen Dougal.
AN: By the way, she really is unlucky, usually anyway. Every once in while I roll a d100 to test if she finds something other than junk. So i rolled once for the first day of the beach, once for the second day, and once for the jungle. And I actually rolled a 100 for the jungle. And then a couple of 90+ to determine what exactly she found.
Anyway, as usual, read and review and until the next time.
