Skills for a Sniper

Before anything else, John wanted to know what unique Traits Fianna possessed. If it was anything like Ehtra, that would inform his choice of Skills tremendously.

That was immediately and highly important. With that tool alone, it was verified that Fianna could indeed keep bullets relevant even if they did not provide her with a steady stream of expensive metal. Which John intended to do, but it was nice to know he had options.

A bit vague on the description, but John was familiar enough with the specific kind of metal magic the eastern Tibetans were using to get it. Essentially, he had just been handed a second metal mage who lacked Lydia’s capacity at widespread control but compensated for it with range and finesse for the few pieces she did control. This, in combination with the four extra Skill Perks, made giving her the Sylkarion the most military efficient use of that tool that he could have hoped for.

“We’ll do your abilities first and the Stats after, just so I can verify what you will scale best with,” John told her.

“I’m entirely in your care, Sir.”

John thought the country gal accent was the sexiest drawl in the world, but the softly rolled rs of her mild Irish accent were a close second. ‘I am a creature of habit,’ he once more made fun of himself. Now that she was attached to his mental network, even if he was deliberately excluding her from the intimate layers of it, he felt a connection. It went beyond the fact that they were literally joined at the soul. Simply, it was the habit of only having women that he did get sexual with attached to his thoughts.

Well, them and Stirwin, but putting the tiger-cyborg in the category of a male crocodile was a feat he could not pull off.

“You might be, but this is still the powerset that you will get stuck with. Your input is desired.”

“Yes, Sir,” she said, saluting yet again. “I will provide my personal opinion on each selection.”

John deliberately stared at the blue windows so he wasn’t reminded of how tight that bodysuit sat.

Gaia had indeed made up two choices for no real reason. There was no world in which he would not choose Perfect Shot. The Deadshot passive further bolstered her long range effectiveness. Having a super-long range burst threat available to him was essentially what he had hoped for with her. White Claw was another Rave and he did not need another Rave, she was doing that job well enough. Robot was more of a technomancy route and he did not need one of those either, especially not after Scarlett had made herself a proverbial goddess from the machine.

Still, John allowed Fianna time for an objection. When there was none, he pressed the button, slotting the development into the wanted direction.

The base growth of Aim was 1, so increasing to 2 was a pretty big deal. It did compete with quite potent options. A stealthy sniper was generally better to have than an obvious one, so Camouflage had its obvious application. Opening Shot was alright as a first active Skill, although it did encourage a swifter approach that John did not necessarily want to develop her for.

“Which would you prefer?” John asked.

“Camouflage, Sir,” she answered instantly.

“Mhm… only hesitancy I have there is that I am going to provide you with a weapon that has that exact thing…”

“If I may share my operating philosophy, Sir?” A swift nod was all that she needed. “Guns are designed for specific environments and circumstances. They can be lost and they can break. As I have now become an expensive investment, I consider it best to have reliable survival tools available to myself.”

That was a philosophy John could broadly agree with, especially since he did not have any emergency recall Perk for her.

“Camouflage it is then,” John confirmed.

Gaia was evidently feeling lazy, which he could not blame her for. That being said, Killzone appeared to be the best choice for him. Having something to counteract the weakness of the damage bonus resetting was quite potent. Not necessarily more potent than the Accelerated Aim, but certainly more potent than the Opening Shot.

Fianna agreed, so Killzone was picked immediately.

At least his feedback was being listened to in live time. Overwatch was good as a supportive tool and the area was a lot larger and thus more gracious. Snipe felt quintessential to the way he wanted her to operate and how Fianna had reported she had operated in the past.

Both Skills also gave John the completed picture of what kind of Skills to expect. Long cooldowns that could only be used a limited amount of times per target to invoke devastating damage spikes. It fit exactly with the sniper skillset he had imagined, which was probably why it was showing up.

“Snipe seems the obvious choice to me,” John said.

“Am I expected to deploy on more solo missions or group efforts, Sir?”

“You voiced a preference for the former in the past.”

“In the past, I had neither competent help nor an instant communication path.”

John raised his gaze to meet Fianna’s steely eyes. Now that the question was raised, it was not that easy to answer. Group combat was what the harem already excelled at and John preferred it that way, especially when it came to his familiars. “What are we thinking?” he asked, opinion now shifted to Scarlett and the crafting crew.

“Single missions,” Scarlett answered immediately.

“Yeah, seems pretty obvious to me,” Delicia chimed in. She and the other members of the crafting crew had all arrived while John had made choices. “Especially with the whole Terminator bit. She can still operate as your forward scout, provided we give her some face changes during those missions.”

“I concur,” Lorelei remarked.

“Uh, yeah, got nothing to add,” Lee said.

“I got no opinion one way or the other,” Hailey drawled.

“I like group stuff,” Rave threw her opinion in with an unserious smirk.

John blew air out of his nose. “Solo operative it is. You may participate in group missions at times, but fundamentally I want you to be able to take out specific enemies.”

“Then Snipe is the logical choice, Sir.”

“Indeed,” John agreed and pressed the button.

John was still somewhat invested in grabbing Accelerated Aim, but the other choices continued to be too juicy to do so immediately. White Bullet was incredible at ruining someone’s day, especially when used together with Snipe. The total damage of that bullet at the end would have so many modifiers stacked on it, it was the destructive equivalent of his sexual abilities.

Dispatch was effectively a better version of Opening Shot, as far as John was concerned. To be more precise, it was a fantastic tool to take out weak enemies one by one, especially if they weren’t nice enough to stand in the Killzone for a prolonged period.

In line with the stated build goal, White Bullet was taken.

Warning Shot could be good, but mathematically it was, currently, just Accelerated Aim with a conditional. There was no reason to ever take it. Dispatch was still good, but getting to a Snipe shot in half the time was much better. Therefore, he took Accelerated Aim.

“Alright, that’s the Skills done,” John said. “Now, I’ll give you the Stats. I have to warn you, the sheer increase in physical and mental power in an instant will be pretty overwhelming. So… at ease and sit down.”

“Alright?” Fianna’s military exterior broke for a confused moment, while Delicia practically pushed a chair into the back of her knees.

Even with the warning made, nothing could quite prepare someone for the sheer slap to the previous existence that it was to receive 700 levels worth of Stats over the course of a few minutes. John could have done it in a second, but previous experiences had taught him to give some acclimation periods between button presses, especially when it came to Mental Stats.

John went initially for a balanced approach, getting Physical and Mental Stats to 500 minimum, then raised the selection he deemed most important higher. Both Wisdom and Intellect were priority Stats, both because of old experiences with mind control effects and because of the Aim scaling. Above that, Agility was the priority Stat. It was best if the percentage had an already high base number to scale on.

When it came to Social Stats, John raised her Charisma to 100, purely so she could take further advantage of her beauty in certain situations. Her Libido, he left untouched.

“How do you feel?” John asked, after the last button press was done.

“Like a caterpillar out of its chrysalis,” Fianna answered breathily. She was staring at the ceiling, appearing relaxed all while gripping the armrests with knuckle-whitening intensity. Had it not been one of Scarlett’s metal chairs, the material would have shattered. Even as it was, it bent and crumpled.

“Poetic,” Lee remarked.

“Final touches. I have a few materials I want you to eat so you can acquire some extra Attributes and a Material Bonus. I will warn you, this…” he held up a scale of Nathalia, “…will increase your Libido by 75%. It will be tingly.”

“I do not promise that I will not immediately jump you, Sir,” Fianna flirted back. She clenched her eyes shut. “I apologize, that was unprofessional.”

“That it was,” John answered cordially, then handed the final few materials over to Fianna for consumption. After swallowing the Shard of Destruction, she squirmed where she sat. Military discipline eventually reasserted itself. All of the Attributes selected, he opened up her Character Sheet.

“Very good, you’re almost ready.” John reached into the Guild Hall inventory and pulled out a sniper rifle.

It was an unorthodox piece in several ways. The black and blue metal segments were interlocked in futuristic ways that were as aesthetic as esoteric. The barrel protruded the length of John’s hand from a metre-long casing of triangular metal bits. The right side of the weapon was fairly traditional, with the reloading chamber and all the usual bits and pieces of a single-bullet sniper rifle. The left side had six cables and tubes of varying lengths dangling from it.

“This is the Darkshot,” John told her. “I got it from a Raid. Now that you are strong enough to use it effectively, I’ll entrust it to you. I’ll let you check the Observe so you can familiarize yourself with its enchantments.”

“Splendid,” Fianna muttered and tested the weight of the weapon. She had perfect trigger discipline. Her finger did not touch it and the muzzle was never pointed at anybody. “I thank you once more for your trust in me, Sir.”

“You’ve earned it,” John told her. “Under other circumstances I might have used your ascension for propaganda purposes… but I do hope that, once all of this is over, you can still go back to being my scout. The fact that you can diminish your soul to a mundane level helps a whole lot.”

“We’ll see if we can equip her with some kind of face chang’r,” Hailey said.

“Which is our job, so you can go and take care of regular business.” Scarlett effectively shooed him out with a dismissive wave.

John and Rave took their leave in a decent mood.