My heels struck against the ground repetitively as I ran and ran. It was meditative, I thought, which was very welcome because I did NOT feel calm at all. I decided to open up the notification screens to keep my mind busy.
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Achievement Unlocked: [David and Goliath] (+1 Proficiency Point);
Achievement Unlocked: [Lost Innocence] (+1 Level);
Achievement Unlocked: [Close Call] (+5 Hitpoints);
Achievement Unlocked: [Level 10].
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Clicking on the achievements, I was given explanations for how I got them. David and Goliath was given to me for defeating someone who was ten or more levels higher than me. Lost Innocence… did you have to fucking rub it in, achievement screen? I got it for killing Tiber. Close Call was for surviving a combat encounter after going below 5% of my total HP, Level 10 was self-explanatory.
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Character Level Up! Lv. 6 -> Lv. 11
4 attribute points gained.
Class Ability unlocked.
Combat Ability unlocked.
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Character Level Up! Lv. 6 -> Lv. 11
Allocate 4 attribute points:
Strength: 13
Dexterity: 16
Toughness: 12
Knowledge: 14
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 11
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I reached the conclusion that Heritage made me gain half of the power of the racial ability of whomever I possessed, seeing how my Dexterity was improved by 2 and my movement was decently faster.
It was high time I figured out what the effects of the attributes were on combat.
Strength corresponded with the damage of physical attacks, ability to use heavier weapons and armour, ability to grapple and disarm enemies.
Dexterity corresponded with the ability to dodge blows, land blows, and improved damage for Rangers and Rogues. For me, it improved the chance for my spells to hit.
Toughness corresponded with protection and health. This seemed the most valuable to me, based on how it would improve my natural armour and health.
Knowledge corresponded with the power to identify your opponent's class and abilities. For me, it also improved the damage of my spells and increased my mana pool.
Wisdom corresponded with the ability to predict your opponent's next move, see through illusions and resist mind-controlling effects. It also made it easier to spot hidden foes.
Charisma corresponded with the ability to disguise your moves and fool your enemy.
For me, the most important things were knowledge and toughness, both responsible for the size of my two most important pools - health and mana. I split my points equally between the two. Pressing confirm, I felt my body reinvigorate as more information about the world surfaced in my mind. At a certain point, the amount of knowledge I gained made me recognize just how much I still didn't know about the world around me. I craved for more. Philosophy of just this century wasn't enough, I needed to know about the last MILLENIA.
Checking over my body, increasing toughness seemed to have visual effects as well. Pulling up my shirt, I saw a 4-pack on my previously firm belly. Nice.
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Select Proficiency (1 available):
Out-of-Combat:
Strength:
Athletics
Dexterity:
Acrobatics
Sleight of Hand
Stealth (Unlocked)
Knowledge:
History
Cultures
Arcana
Religion
Medicine
Wisdom:
Perception
Investigation
Insight
Nature
Survival
Charisma:
Persuasion
Deception (Unlocked)
Intimidation
Performance
Combat:
Unarmed Fighting
Simple Weapons (Click for more options):
Shortbow (Unlocked)
Martial Weapons (Click for more options):
Longbow (Unlocked)
Hand Crossbow (Unlocked)
Scimitar (Unlocked)
Armour:
Light Armour
Medium Armour
Heavy Armour
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All the usual TTRPG suspects were there. Grand. I figured I'd put the proficiency point into persuasion, I might need it very soon.
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Select Combat Ability (1 available):
Feint!: You can lure your opponent to defend where he shouldn't. In melee combat, cancel your attack before knowing whether or not it succeeds. Your next attack automatically succeeds.
Cat-Dance: During an enemy's movement you can choose to move along with them. You may do this to block an enemy's way with your body.
Sneak Attack!: Whenever an enemy is unaware of your presence, the result of your attacks against them is a degree higher than what you would get otherwise. (Critical failure turns into failure. Failure turns into success. Success turns into critical success.)
Sprint: Once per combat, when moving, you may choose to move twice your regular speed.
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Sprint felt like an obvious choice for defence, but Sneak Attack! would be a good choice for offence. I went with Sneak Attack!, deciding that I wouldn't have to run as much if I could end the fights faster. I was reminded that I forgot to pick a MCA.
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Select Minor Character Ability (1 available):
Knack For It: The first time you perform a specific activity, your result is a degree higher than what you would get otherwise. (Critical failure turns into failure. Failure turns into success. Success turns into critical success.)
Friendly Face: You find it easier to make friends. First time you meet someone in a noncombat scenario, their disposition towards you is improved slightly.
Quick Eye: You catch details faster than others. You can look around and investigate faster than most.
Pack Camel: You can carry twice your regular carrying capacity without being encumbered.
I've Read About That: You can draw on your pool of knowledge to figure things out. Once a day, when you are faced with a problem requiring mental acuity, you may use Knowledge instead of Wisdom.
Tempter: Through interacting with someone, you instinctively learn their preferences and desires. After a minute of talking to someone, you gain information about their sexuality. After ten minutes, you gain information about their kinks.
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Friendly Face would go along with me picking up a bunch of charisma proficiencies. Even though my charisma wasn't very high, I could still probably get along with most people even if I wouldn't be able to manipulate them well.
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Select Class Ability (1 available):
Heightened Spell: Once per combat, you may use twice the mana required to channel a spell in order to heighten its effect. Double the damage dealt by the offensive spell and double the duration of its effects if it has any.
Diverse Magic: Unlock an extra element to channel.
Silent Spells: Outside of combat, your spell components and their effects do not produce any noise.
Mana Recovery: Outside of combat, recover 0.41% of your total mana every minute.
Repelling Magic: Your offensive spells knock enemies away 5 metres directly away from you every time they're hit by them.
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I want all of them. Except maybe Heightened Spell, since my Blood Amplification already makes most of my spells heightened.
It made sense, given how I couldn't regenerate health and mana outside of combat without special items, to select Mana Recovery. By my calculations, it would take about 4 hours to replenish my mana and health entirely. This still made my resources unsustainable in continuous and repeated combat, but it provided me the option to recover my resources in case I had a long enough period of downtime between fights.
Selecting Mana Recovery, I felt my mana and lifeforce begin to restore. It was painfully slow, but by the time I made it to the city I would be fully recovered.
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Closing the menus, I continued my jog. I always thought it was weird how people in RPGs ran everywhere they went. I have to admit, though, it feels pretty fucking good. And it's much faster than just walking to your destination. Getting closer to the Nordif, I started seeing more and more carriages (as well as other people) going in both directions of the road.
I considered possessing some of them. It was tempting to improve my attributes through possessing some more beastmen, and I would have a good cover to get into the city. I wasn't very confident about my ability to possess someone without them being restrained or unconscious first, though, and I didn't want to pick any fights.
I ran past the people I met, some stumbling out of the way despite me not even coming close to hitting them. Huh, there's NPCs.
Eventually, my feet carried me to my destination. By late afternoon, my resources were completely recovered as I laid my eyes on the tall stone walls of Nordif. Archers marched across the top of the walls, I saw, as a squad of guards protected the gates into the city as a queue to enter formed. On the outskirts, there were some houses and farming estates with sprawling fields.
I reminded myself why I wanted to get here in the first place. Nordif was a city of great wealth, drawing in people from all around the world. If I got in, Possession would allow me to make a lot of money and improve my physical attributes. It would also be a good place to lay low. There's a 99% chance that there won't be any consequences for me for helping Boleyn, helping him kill Olem, or for killing Tiber. Almost no-one involved who's still alive knows how I look in my human form. Besides Boleyn, that is. But for that 1% chance, maybe I should find safety within Nordif.
Glancing around, I considered my options of how to get into the city. The guards seemed to be inspecting and questioning every man that went in, so I likely needed a good reason to get inside. How should I get in?