Of Skills and Overpreparation

The walk home was actually quite nice for John; the sky was a vibrant blue, with few clouds in sight. The worst of winter’s chill had passed with the final weeks of the break, but a gentle breeze still kept the temperature reasonably cool. As an upside for an introvert like John, the streets and sidewalks were mostly clear since the school and work days hadn’t ended yet. John inhaled, held, and exhaled one more time, enjoying the fresh air as he trekked onwards.

’I wonder if those points in Endurance are helping to keep my feet from getting sore.’

Aside from the chance to rest his mind, the open streets also presented John with the opportunity to play around a bit more freely with his [Reshape Matter] ability.

He’d messed with it a little earlier, but hadn’t tried anything interesting. Now, John found himself just playing around with it, swooshing small breezes from side to side in front of him.

’I’m severely limited on mana for now, so I can’t really move any significant quantities of anything,’ he reasoned. ’Maybe I should try and do something with it though, instead of just messing around. I could try some kind of air attack.’

John mentally shrugged.

’Maybe I should just keep it simple and try for some kind of air... blast or something? Fus Ro Dah?’ John continued internally, ’Oxygen seems like a safe bet for a generic element. At least there’s plenty of it. Some kind of rock might not be an awful idea either.’

The Gamer sighed and stretched his neck out, realizing that he could argue himself in circles forever.

’I can’t keep being an Analysis Paralysis Andy. I ought to just do something.’

John held up a hand, palm open, fingers curled just enough to form a rough ball shape. He drew upon the knowledge he’d gained earlier in the day once more, and his fingers began to tingle as he channeled his mana. Reaching out to the particles in the air, oxygen was beckoned to his call.

’I’ll try something easy… just like a push.’

He envisioned the air gathering in his palm, swirls of oxygen, glowing green with mana, compressed with growing ****. He imagined a radiant **** of green mana and air being launched from his grip, exploding out with tremendous **** to meet some imaginary foe.

What actually happened was a little bit of air fluttering around his hand, tickling his palm, before farting out in a soft, breezy puff. Scrunching his face, John looked down, embarrassed, as his own wind literally blew up in his face.

Impressive.

John bit his lip as he flushed.

’That was awful. This is going to be harder than I thought.’

The Gamer checked his mana, pulled out a granola bar to buff up, and prepared to try again.

---

Nearly half an hour of walking later, John had almost arrived at home. He took note of the familiar sights of his own neighborhood, passed the bus stop, and headed down his own street. As his mana ticked up one more point, The Gamer took a deep, shaky breath and raised his hand again.

Sweat ran down his forehead. He focused on the shape and on the feeling of the mana he was infusing in the air. John could feel the wind as it flowed over his fingers into his palm. There was a restlessness to the mana in the air, a yearning for freedom. It didn’t like trying to be controlled. It wanted to wander, to rise and flow across the skies.

He’d had no reference for this before today, no instinct or understanding of magic or how it felt, but he thought that he was starting to get it now. The movement of mana was a very internal feeling, like something that came from deep within his body.

The more that he’d tried to make this spell work, the more he’d been able to feel how he was connected to the element he was moving. A profound sense of calm came from focusing on his mana, a sense of oneness with his surroundings.

John curled his fingers inward as the mana finished flowing into his palm. The winds wished to scatter, but The Gamer denied them their escape as best he could. It was still leaking, but the ball he held didn’t collapse. He’d switched from oxygen to nitrogen, remembering that there was so much more of it in the air. The higher concentration had made it much easier to call together and compress.

John swallowed and pointed his hand at the sidewalk just in front of him.

As his mana began to empty again, John bent his arm back, then shoved it forward, launching the ball of air. It flew with little fanfare, but, for the first time since he’d started attempting to create the skill, it didn’t blow away. Its trajectory was simply a straight line, leading the projectile to impact against the sidewalk in front of John. It did little more than blow dust off the concrete, but it was enough for John.

He noticed a small red dot appear on his notifications. Quickly, he tapped on the notifications button, and expanded the new window that he’d been given.

A small, green crystal popped into his hand, a sphere, with a small swirl of copper around it. It was light in his hand, and he brought it up to his face to inspect closely, opening a window for its skill.

’It… it actually worked,’ he thought, exhilarated. ’LET’S GO!’

John fistbumped the air and bounced a little with joy. As The Gamer started walking up the driveway towards his front door, he smiled wide at his shiny new skill gem.

The Gamer’s bag was quickly emptied and set aside as he unequipped his jacket and laid down on his bed to think.

’Hmm… There are actual damage numbers with this now, and the area went WAY up from what I was practicing with… he thought. ’Mana cost of twelve though. Wish I knew for certain which stat increased that. Still pretty sick to have!’

John stored away the gem in his inventory and opened his character sheet. The regeneration boost from the food he’d snacked on while walking home had helped keep up the pace of his practice, but going forward, it didn’t seem as sustainable. Unbuffed, John worked out that his new combat skill would take just over ten minutes of regeneration to cast.

That brought John’s mind back to his skill slots, where he wondered if there could be potential for mana cost reductions on a skill upgrade.

’I guess I ought to check it out,’ John resolved, sitting up against his headboard. ’I need to know how these things work. May as well try it.’

John opened his character sheet and tapped on the mastery points on his character sheet to open the window. The [Observe] and [Reshape Matter] gems currently filled the two slots he had. The two special slots for [Gamer’s Body] and [Gamer’s Spirit] were still grayed out and locked. John tapped [Observe]’s slot to try and replace it.

WARNING: Skill Removal Cost: 20% Total EXP.
This will remove 1 level from skill: Observe

“Wait, WHAT?” John shouted. “‘REMOVE ONE LEVEL?’”

He threw his head back in frustration, only to bash it into his own headboard. His red health bar flashed as he rubbed the back of his skull.

’Dang it. What the hell do I do now?’ he lamented. ’I guess it's good it isn’t a permanent lock. Still, I coulda used a warning on that one.’

John righted himself and looked back at the windows he’d opened.

’So I need to be picky about what skills I slot in. Reshape Matter is, I think, more important for now, maybe the most important, so if I replace one, it should be [Observe]. I probably don’t have to just yet though, I wouldn’t think. Kick the can down the road, then’

’I guess if I’m going to want to choose at some point, maybe I should try and make another skill, so I can see what all I’m able to do.’

John closed his open windows, changed out of his uniform into some comfortable sweatpants and a t-shirt, and left his room.

Heading downstairs, John began to form ideas for his next skill. He decided that he should still focus on elements that were always around, for ease if nothing else, so elements like earth and air seemed the most prudent choices. Water wasn’t necessarily a given, unless he could condense it.

’I wonder if I could freeze ice out of the air with that one skill point thing from earlier…’ John mused, exiting to his backyard. ’That might be fun to play around with actually. Maybe I’ll try and make something with ice AND something with earth. Diversify a bit.’

The Gamer closed his eyes, drawing upon his understanding of basic elements in the games he played to try and discern the general traits of each; he didn’t really know if there would be good correlation there, but he had nothing else to go on. He was supposed to be The Gamer, right?

’I usually like Earth magic stuff… Geometry, defense, all sounds good. But I also kinda want another attack. Maybe a structure thing? A pillar?’ John reasoned. ’Yeah, I could do, like, a spike or something. Might be able to trip or block something, even if I can’t hit it.’

John walked over to a corner of his yard where he was wedged between the fence and the side of his house, hoping that nobody would notice any upturned earth as he practiced. He secretly hoped that his earlier experience molding art clay might help speed up the learning process.

Exhaling, John focused on what he could feel as he reached out with [Reshape Matter]. Unlike the wind, the earth was far more structured and static, and thus, much easier to grasp and bring together. Earth sought discipline and steadiness. The downside to this was speed; grouping enough of the minerals in the dirt to make an attempt took much longer than simply trying to bundle air.

The ground seemed to pop as a mound of earth, somewhat shaped into a cone, erupting from below, almost knocking John over. He groaned, backed up, and set back to trying.

’Well, at least the clay is already there for next time.’

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John threw attempt after attempt at the earth, making slow progress. He’d taken to imagining his manipulations to be like animations he’d seen of tectonic plate movement. Build up tension, then snap and release it.

It took The Gamer about an hour to get the hang of basic earth manipulation well enough to even make the spike shape he was hoping for. Another hour passed before he was remaking the spike fast enough that it might actually hurt someone enough to count as an attack.

The spike itself wasn’t anywhere near as large as John had hoped, but he figured that size didn’t matter as much as ****. He hoped it would suffice, for now at least.

His new skill gem resembled the very spike he’d been working on, a spearhead of crystalline amber with a base of copper.

’Both my skills are “Lesser.” Am I just low level,” he wondered, “or did I do something wrong in making them?’

Checking through his inventory, John pulled up the gems he’d received for the skills, taking note of a detail he’d missed before - rather than “common,” both gems were labeled as “flawed.” Comparing the new ones to his [Observe] gem, they didn’t seem damaged, but their metal accents were made of a somewhat tarnished bronze instead of the smoother silver-steel of the common gem.

“There’s definitely some kind of system there… not sure exactly how it works, though,” John mumbled to himself, frowning. “Anyway, one more test.”

He allowed some of his mana to regenerate, then set himself a small area in the backyard to cast his new skills for real. First, he confirmed that he could use his skill even without socketing it. Then, The Gamer took a deep breath, and reached inside himself for the mana.

John extended his arm, pointing forward.

Casting a real alchemy skill was far different from using his reshaping ability, as he quickly learned. His magic focus began to float slightly above his hand. John’s arm and open palm glowed with rings of brown-orange light, and he noticed a semi-transparent outline of a spike in the middle of his vision.

As he looked around, the image moved, direction and angle moving as John willed it to, though he was constrained by angles connected to the ground.

’It’s got a targeter! That’s pretty user friendly,’ John thought, playing around with the channeled spell. ’Feels a little weird holding it in limbo like this… kinda like I gotta sneeze. Ugh.’

After a couple minutes of practicing with moving the spell, John closed his hand, and the condensed clay in front of him erupted from the ground into a jagged spike of earth. There was a soft pattering as clumps of dirt fell down around him. It was oddly shaped and not really all that sharp, more like a worn stalagmite than a sharpened spike, but it worked.

’It’s certainly violent enough at least. I wouldn’t want that to hit me,’ he thought, heading back inside for the moment. ’That’s two pretty cool skills I’ve got now… Maybe I should work on a third? Could spend some time playing around with ice.’

“Eh, why not, I’m on a roll,” John said with a smile.

He spun around quickly into his best Frozone pose. “FREEZE!”

The Gamer opened up his Mastery Slots again and pulled up the options for [Reshape Matter]. With a goofy grin, he selected Freezing Point.

Before John could decide on how he wanted to tackle testing out his new ability, he received a popup.

“Oh, um… Well, that’s a thing,” he mumbled, momentarily deflated. “I guess video game characters are kinda supposed to do quests, so that tracks. Hmm…”

He tapped the quest and received the acceptance benefits.

A violet gem appeared in his hand, an egg shape, with branching bands of steel embedded within it. It had far more heft than his others, and it shimmered with many colors as he held it up to the light.

’Guess I’ve got a change of plans here,’ The Gamer thought. ’Five hundred bucks is a pretty insane motivator. Let’s see what we’ve got here.’

’The heck does “barrier” mean?’ John wondered, narrowing his eyes at the tags and description. ’I guess I’ve found the things that I’ll need to fight at least.’

’This is pretty cool, I think. So I don’t need to go traveling the world or anything to find a dungeon to run,’ The Gamer thought, getting up. ’But... I don’t think I should just go wandering into some kind of MMO dungeon or something, not without some supplies and equipment…’

’Maybe a weapon in case I run out of mana?’ John wondered. ’What kind of things could I really have to fight, though? Me? I guess it might just be some tutorial area...’

And so The Gamer set out around his house, hoping to find what bits and bobs might be useful to someone entering a dungeon.

---

The search was somewhat fruitful; he hadn’t found any surprise suits of armor or anything like that, but he supposed that his parents had neglected to build and stock an armory. He’d tried to scavenge as much sensible equipment as he could think of: a crowbar, a hunting knife, thermal clothing, a flashlight, a lighter, first aid kit, etc.

’Not exactly even starter gear... maybe the “weapons,” I guess,’ John thought. ’It’s a good thing Dad kept some of this stuff in the garage from the last time we tried something outdoorsy as a hobby.’

John had donned his new gear set: the thermal underclothing, a pair of jeans, and a padded winter coat, and stood in the middle of his room with a full inventory and packed backpack. His mana had mostly refilled and he had equipment, so he thought he’d have started feeling good about taking on the dungeon, but his stomach was starting to knot up.

He practiced swapping back and forth between his weapon slots a few times. The primary set had his magic focus, and the off set had his improvised melee weapons.

’Food and water? Check. Spares to eat for regen? Check. Focus? Check. Equipment? Check. Gems? Check. Crowbar and Knife? Check….’

John ran through his mental list for a second time, then a third. The potential danger of actually being the character taking on a dungeon was starting to get to him, but he tried to stay the course. John had waited long enough that his mana had refilled to full, but only grew more anxious by the minute.

His course of action seemed simple enough. Just push the button.

Start the adventure.

Make a decision.

Do something

So John sat there, stomach doing backflips, rolling his dungeon gem around in his hands.

’Come on, John… you’ve got to start sometime. It’s probably just a tutorial. Just do it…’

He gulped, stood, then raised his hand, willing his new skill into action. John’s world disappeared into blackness, save for a single line of text.

Opening Dungeon

“Well, here we go,” John muttered, hand clutching his focus painfully.