[Daily Quest: Slightly Above Basic Exercise has been completed.]
Every day, the notification always phrased it like that, and every day, Luz always felt like whatever mysterious entity had given her her powers was messing with her. The push-ups and sit-ups and whatnot were one thing, but she couldn't believe that running six miles was even slightly above basic exercise; she'd ask an athletic person about it, but the only one she knew would just laugh at her if she complained, so it was best kept to herself.
[Rewards have been deposited into your inbox. Open at your leisure.]
"Open sesame," Luz said in the middle of catching her breath. The translucent square in front of her that spelled out the message was replaced with a facsimile of an email inbox, the only item inside being, "Daily Quest: Slightly Above Basic Exercise Reward." Luz clicked on it and accepted the familiar three rewards she had gotten every time she completed it: an Instant Full Recovery, three stat points, and a Pop-up Dungeon Charm. Luz wasted no time with using the Instant Full Recovery and breathed a sigh of relief as every ounce of fatigue left her system. From there, she said, "Status," and a layout of her status points appeared in front of her.
Luz Noceda LV. 12 [Urban Fantasizer]
HP: 666/666
MP: 108/108
STR: 44
VIT: 60
INT: 98
AGI: 44
CHA: 30
LCK: 33
After thinking about it for a minute, Luz put two of her points into Intelligence—INT—and one into Strength—STR. Having an extra STR point would always be useful, and now that she had an even hundred points in INT, she'd have an even easier time using magic once that eventually and definitely happened. With that finished, Luz went into her items to inspect her Pop-Up Dungeon Charm, the description reading, "Opens a C-Rank Dungeon at ?. Minimum party requirements: 1."
"Great, another one of these." Out of all of the Pop-Up Dungeon Charms Luz had gotten, about half of them didn't give the location for where they could be used, as opposed to all the others specifying some random location in Gravesfield. Luz had probably run around town a dozen times attempting to trigger some sort of change in the description, even bringing Clara and Jacob in on it every now and then to help, but nothing ever happened with them.
It was part of why she wasn't as upset about being sent off to Reality Check Camp as she was a few weeks ago. It was going to be terrible, no doubt about that, but being somewhere out of town might put her in an environment that would allow for the use of the mystery Charms, and maybe even trigger a new variety of quests, as well.
"Mierda, I'm late! Homeward Bound!" Speaking of which, Luz had a bus to catch, so she quickly activated one of her skills and teleported herself to her room; when she made her exit and ran into her mother downstairs, it was as if she had been there the entire time.
"Well, glad to see I didn't have to force you out of your room," said her mother, Camila.
"Yeah, well, if I've learned anything from Azura, and I've learned a lot from her, it's that it's not a good idea to try and run from the inevitable," Luz said as she hoisted her bag over her shoulder and followed Camila out the door.
"I know you don't want to do this, Luz, but it will be good for you. Underneath all of the stuff you think is so boring, this camp is just a place to help kids like you have an easier time making friends."
"I do have friends, you know."
"Mija, you haven't talked to Molly since she moved two years ago, and while Clara is nice, I'm still not all that comfortable with Jacob. The man being three times your age is one thing, but everything else about him is just—"
"He's only twice my age, Mom; two-and-a-half times, at most." Luz could tell that that wasn't making things any better. "Yeah, I know he's a lot, but when you get past that and make sure to have a ton of patience, he's got a lot going on for him." An intricate knowledge of both magic and video games that were both incredibly useful for helping her understand her gaming powers and the world they opened up was one of those things, but she couldn't go and talk about that with her.
"Still, don't you think it'd better to have a few more friends? Especially ones who aren't weird men in their thirties?" Luz nodded her head to that; even without her powers telling her that she had a maximum relationship value with her mother, she knew that she was just looking out for her and trying to do what she could to help. "I gotta go to work. Call me when you get there, okay?"
"Will do, love you!" Camila returned the words, kissed Luz on her forehead, and walked off out of sight. Luz gave herself a good stretch once she saw that she was truly alone, and in doing so, made one of her Good Witch Azura books fall out of her poorly closed bag; Luz laughed at her own clumsiness as she bent down to pick it up.
"Oh, hey there, little guy." Only to stop herself as an owl with a burlap sack in its beak suddenly hopped down atop the book. "You're a real cutie, I'm sure you know that, but could you be a dear and scooch off of there?" Instead of doing that, the owl flew up into the air with the book in its talons and flew away from Luz. "Hey! That is, you know, the opposite!"
Luz gave chase after the owl, and her inability to catch it told her that either owls were surprisingly fast or she needed to put more points into Agility—AGI. The owl—and subsequently Luz—eventually made its way into a rundown cabin in the woods and flew through a glowing door with an eyeball on the front. If Luz had seen something like that a month ago, before she had nearly blown herself up with a makeshift firework of her own design, she might have taken a fraction of a pause at that, but with all of the monsters and dungeon bosses and colorful shopkeeps her powers had brought her into contact with, she barely even paid attention to it as she passed through the threshold and ended up in a tent full of an odd assortment of odd oddities.
"Okay, you flying bandit, where did you—"
[Player has entered new environment: The Boiling Isles.]
[New skill trees are available. Certain items are now usable.]
Luz stopped herself to take in the pair of notifications that appeared in front of her.
"Huh," Luz said. "Not where I expected this to happen, but it beats camp."
Line
Luz Noceda LV. 12 [Urban Fantasizer]
HP: 666/666
MP: 108/108
STR: 45
VIT: 60
INT: 100
AGI: 44
CHA: 30
LCK: 33
Titles
[Urban Fantasizer]
A symbol of wanting more out of a humdrum life. Adds +3 to all stats while in a City.
Skills
[Convenient Protagonist Abilities] Other LV 1/1
The basic abilities of someone in this sort of role. Allows the user to proceed through life as if it were a game. Allows immunity to poisons and physical and mental disorders. Allows for injuries, fatigue, and MP to be restored through sleep.
Unlock conditions: Varies.
[Homeward Bound] Active LV 5/5
Player can select one location to serve as the player's Home. Using this skill will bring the player and their party to their designated Home. Only one location can serve as a player's Home at a time, and the player must be physically present at a location to designate it as Home. Skill cannot be used during battle or in a Dungeon.
MP Cost: 0
Unlock conditions: None.
[Mad Dash] Active LV 3/10
Player is given a sudden burst of speed, followed by an increase to AGI that increases with the player's level. Drains 7 MP every thirty seconds.
MP Cost: 5
Unlock conditions: None.
[Aura Strike] Active LV 5/5
Imbues the player with a mystic aura that can be used to deal damage and protects the player from harm. Efficiency increases with player's STR and VIT. Deactivates after two minutes with a three-minute cooldown.
MP Cost: 7
Unlock conditions: None.
[Aura Shot] Active LV 4/10
Fires a shot of aura from the player's hand that deals physical damage to a target. Efficiency increases with player's STR.
MP Cost: 10
Unlock conditions: Max out [Aura Strike]
[Aura Shield] Active LV 4/10
Imbues the player with a mystic aura that protects them from harm and can redirect attacks away from the player. Efficiency increases with player's VIT. Deactivates after three minutes with a four-minute cooldown.
MP Cost: 15
Unlock conditions: Max out [Aura Strike]
[Big Bad Bludgeon] Active LV 6/10
Focuses aura into a weapon for a powerful strike. Efficiency increases with player's STR. Range and power of [Big Bad Bludgeon] can be expanded by expending MP in increments of 5.
MP Cost: 20
Unlock conditions: Kill twenty enemies with a weapon while [Aura Strike] is activated.
[Maneater] Passive LV 2/10
Makes it easier to interact with and persuade men. Efficiency increases with player's CHA. Efficiency decreases bases on other person's age, preferences, personal feelings about the player, and other various factors.
Unlock conditions: Must persuade a man to side with you on something. Must either be a woman or be attracted to men.
[Casanova] Passive LV 3/10
Makes it easier to interact with and persuade women. Efficiency increases with player's CHA. Efficiency decreases bases on other person's age, preferences, personal feelings about the player, and other various factors.
Unlock conditions: Must persuade a woman to side with you on something. Must either be a man or be attracted to women.
[Taunt] Active LV 7/10
Redirects enemies' aggression towards the player.
MP Cost: 5
Unlock conditions: Complete a dungeon with a party.