On the Accounting of Levels

John sat in Martius’ study with his girls. Its owner had busied himself with work, while Lynn attended a resting Harker. With the sanguimancer and Kiera both down for the count, the gnome’s guests had been left to themselves, with the instructions to not touch any of his machines. Argent Echo and Piper had gone back to the room they had been given as their temporary lodging.

Beth hadn’t left his side since putting Kiera to bed, even following John into the surprisingly wide chair the study had by the fireplace. He suspected seeing him suffer made her want to keep him as close as possible. A notion the others had, just not to the same degree as the petite acrobat.

“You know,” Vivian said as she picked through one of the books from Martius’ collection as she lounged on the couch that sat close to the chair thanks to a little maneuvering Aeolia did, “Piper wasn’t restrained. And I don’t think she was when they came when you fell unconscious.”

“You think they’ve reached some kind of deal?” Aeolia asked. She sat on the arm of John’s chair, the opposite side from Beth.

“Maybe,” Vivian replied. “Do you think that’s going to affect how we deal with her?”

“I don’t even know how we’d deal with her,” John admitted. “Going up and saying, ‘hey, we know you’re working for my school bully,’ is going to raise questions. Even if she’s not connected to anyone in the Abyss, don’t want Observe’s details getting out.”

“What does that blonde bitch want with me anyway?” Beth grumbled.

“That’s a question I’ve asked myself over the years,” John halfheartedly joked. In a more serious tone, he said, “Hiring a P.I. means she wanted some information on you.”

“Probably to use as payback for what you did on Friday,” Senka speculated from her place on the other side of the couch, her legs gracefully resting atop Vivian’s.

The spirit’s musings were said in a dark tone, and for a brief moment, John was grateful she couldn’t enact her vengeance against her. Mostly because the queen bee wasn’t worth it. John couldn’t help but grin. A week ago, finding out that Vanessa was gunning for him would have left him shaking. Now, it wasn’t even really a concern.

‘Does it really matter if she gets anything? We’ve got too much on our plate to go to school. Don’t think sitting in a classroom for eight hours a day is going to help fight Phantom Reach,’ John wondered.

“I think we can put that issue aside for the time being,” John said. “Piper’s stuck here with us and she can’t really tell Vanessa anything she’s learned.”

“I suppose we shouldn’t take on burdens before we need to,” Senka relented. “But we shouldn’t put them off for too long. Given that we did help Piper and she can’t take what she’s learned to Hawthorne, I think we’ll be able to convince her to say she couldn’t find anything useful.”

“Let’s hope that’s gonna be the case,” Aeolia remarked. “We’ve got way too much shit going on already. All this stuff with Phantom Reach and now the tree thing.”

“At least we’ve got a warning for it,” Vivian pointed out. “And we can benefit from dealing with the dangerous creatures that are going to show up. Both in terms of getting better at fighting and materials we can either make use of ourselves or sell.”

Beth shifted against John before asking, “How are we looking when it comes to that, anyway? Don’t know about the rest of you guys, but I feel like I’ve gotten stronger.”

“You have done a few big moves,” Vivian thoughtfully remarked, putting down her borrowed book. “Those are bound to have increased your mana and your control.”

“I think all of you have probably leveled up,” John said after a moment of thought. “We’ve had a crazy couple of days.”

“Be interesting to see how our battles so far have increased your levels,” Senka mused. “We haven’t really concerned ourselves with it.”

“Suppose it’d be good to see where we all stand before we start dealing with whatever’s going to happen on Wednesday,” John muttered. “And I still have a level up to sort and some other stuff to look at. Anybody want to go first or should I just call everyone’s up in one go?”

“Throw ‘em all out,” Aeolia let her opinion be known. “No need to drip feed it.”

When no objections were raised, John did just that, going in alphabetical order just for the convenience of it.

Given the positioning of the screens in front of John’s face, Vivian got up from the couch and smoothly dropped herself onto John’s lap, her legs draping over Beth’s.

"Comfy?" John amusedly asked as the redhead settled herself.

"Very much so," she replied.

"Not sure how I feel about becoming furniture," Beth remarked in a joking tone as she lightly lifted her legs up slightly. "Think I like to be the one sitting."

"We'll make sure you'll get throne time, princess," Aeolia teased. "And I can think of one time you'd be happy to be a seat."

"What are you-" Beth began to ask before she caught on to what Aeolia was saying and she squirmed slightly.

"We could call it the royal treatment," Senka added, a teasing grin on her face.

"Can we not start down this road?" Vivian implored, her face taking on a red tinge as she shifted atop John's growing cock. "We don't exactly have the privacy needed to reach the end of it."

"I suppose it would be messy if we were to get caught," Senka admitted. "In more than one way."

Getting caught by Martius, Harker or Lynn was enough of a threat to rein in John's passions and he brought them back to the topic at hand.

"Well, looks like everyone leveled up," he said.

"What was I, ten?" Beth asked. When John nodded, she shot her left arm into the air as a little victory celebration. "Three levels in like four days. Pretty good, right?"

"It is tied for the greatest increase, at least in terms of level," John answered. "I'm fairly sure you were at sixteen when we met, Aeolia. And you hit seventeen around Wednesday."

"And then two more levels after that," Aeolia said. "Levels that likely needed my raw experience to reach. So I think I beat you there, princess."

"You had a full week, I had half," Beth shot back playfully.

"Then how about we see which of us will end up on top after dealing with whatever we're going up against on Wednesday?” Aeolia taunted. "Loser has to do whatever the winner asks for a day."

"Deal," Beth agreed without a moment of debate. John and Vivian shared a look, one that showed they both expected Aeolia to win.

“I do wonder how normal people level up,” Senka piped up. “Obviously, increasing their physical or magical ability should be reflected by a higher level, but what about someone whose only defining trait is raw brain power, not magical aptitude. Or what if they only have a silver tongue. Are they limited to stay ‘low level’ by our metric?”

“I mean, I could have grinded on low leveled mobs and put every skill point I got into Charisma,” John pointed out. “So maybe it’s less, ‘how much danger do they represent compared to me,’ and more, ‘how good are they at the thing they do?’ Probably still factors in things like physical and magical power, since I bet most people in the Abyss have higher levels than mundane people. I think you outleveled everyone at school, Beth. Even the jocks.”

“Cus I’m just that great,” Beth boasted. Then she took a closer look at Aeolia’s sheet and said, “Hey, how come I’m only a ‘Fighter’ but Aeolia’s ‘Lead Fighter’?”

“Because I’m just that much greater,” the winged woman glibly retorted, twisting Beth’s words.

“Or because Aeolia was part of the team first,” Vivian diplomatically cut in, her tone clearly reflecting her desire for them to not devolve into even playful arguing.

“I wonder when our guild affiliation got added?” Senka mused, viewing the sheets through John’s eyes. “It wasn’t there the last time I checked. And I’m not too sure about the rank I have.”

“It does fit a bit with how we fought Bill,” John pointed out as he called up his sheet, finding the same additions to it.

“I suppose it does,” the spirit mused, still not sounding too happy about it.

“But why now?” John wondered aloud. “We’ve been together for almost a week.”

Technically, there was never an actual invite given. I’m just letting it be official since you already think you are. And don’t go saying I never do anything nice for you.

“I suppose we never did formalize things,” Vivian said in a small voice, her face beginning to redden.

John pulled her into his chest and murmured, “It worked out in the end. It’s not like there’s someone we had to do paperwork with. Um, right?”

Vivian let out a small snort of amusement. “I don’t think there’s a paperwork guild. Not in the States at least.”

“Then we don’t need to waste energy worrying about it,” John said. “Which is good, as I have some of my shit to sort out.”

“Right, you did level up when we got out of the sewers,” Vivian remarked as she turned her attention to John’s sheet.

“I also got some stuff from fixing Harker and Kiera, too,” John added. “And some kind of skill token thing for hitting level ten. Look at those first or work backwards?”

There was no strong consensus in either direction so John decided to start with the reward from helping Harker and Kiera. He pulled up Spirit Link’s sheet, but didn’t see any changes beyond the experience meter reaching about two-thirds full, which surprised him given he’d only reached level two a handful of hours before.

‘Guess whatever happened with Harker and Kiera really pushed the skill,’ John thought as he tapped the ‘Skill Modifier’ portion of the sheet.

Spirit Link Skill Modifiers

Number of Active Mods: 1/1
Active Mod: Spirit Casting
Inactive Mods: Overlay

Overlay: Assimilate a Non-Aware spirit into yourself, gaining a unique effect depending on the spirit. Other abilities of that spirit are inaccessible while this effect is active. Time spent overlaid with a spirit raises its Rank. Sustain Cost: 16% Max Mana.

Do you wish to activate ‘Overlay’? Yes/No

“Sometimes I hate when games add in mechanics suddenly,” John muttered. “Changes up how I have to think about them.”

“Sounds like this mod only applies to the wind spirit,” Senka pointed out. “I’d say I’m fairly aware of things.”

“That does push it down a bit,” John said. “Even if we haven’t used yours yet, having it in our back pocket is nice. Mana drain then a team restoration is too good to overlook.”

“Let’s not make rash decisions without accounting for every possibility,” Vivian cautioned. “While having something like that in our back pocket is all well and good, ignoring a possible upgrade to what you can do with the wind spirit isn’t a smart move.”

“Wasn’t discounting it completely, but a mod that seems to cut out Senka completely isn’t exactly putting its best foot forward,” John remarked.

“Don’t limit yourself for my sake,” the spirit cut in. “Vivian is right. Keeping Spirit Casting so we can use Dark Forest in a pinch isn’t a good move. It is a move that requires us to both not move or do anything else. A bit too situational for us to use given the current range of our abilities and number of allies.”

“Fair,” John admitted. The ideal situation for Dark Forest to pop off in his mind was one where he and Senka could be protected by allies while they sapped a number of enemies dry before giving that collected mana back to everyone. Which, as had been pointed out, was not something easily pulled off.

Pushing aside battle maneuvers from magical Christmas Land, John called up the wind spirit’s sheet.

“Looks like getting multiple mods has changed up the layout a bit,” John said. “At least it looks like I won’t have to jump through hoops to get the info about the new updates.”

Ignoring the ‘Rank’ addition for now, John tapped the ‘Mod Effect’ section.

Mod Effects

Active: Spirit Casting
Inactive: Overlay

Overlay: +10% Agility. Your mana now has the wind element. You gain the 'Wind Shot' skill.

Wind Shot: Fire off a blast of compressed air. Higher Ranks enable more powerful shots. Cost: (Rank x 10) MP. Range: (Rank x 3) m

“Okay, that is definitely interesting,” John admitted. “I’m not wrong in thinking this would make every skill or Evocation I cast use whatever the wind elemental Effect Mod gives instead of its default effect, right?”

“That is how your powers work,” Vivian answered slowly. “Your mana is an even mix of all the elements at base.”

“Sounds like it's something we should test,” Aeolia suggested. “With something simple, like Observe. I don’t think using an attack would lead to anything good.”

“I can’t say I’m not curious what wind would do to a scrying effect,” Vivian said. “And if you do the switch now, you can change it back to Spirit Casting before we fight off whatever we’re going to find on Wednesday.”

“Well, no time like the present I suppose,” John said, swapping out Spirit Casting for Overlay. He felt a slight shift in his perception of the wind spirit, a feeling that he could pull it into himself. He did just that, imaging the sphere of swirling gusts flowing into himself.

John felt a jolt shoot through him, like someone suddenly poking him, his body twitching slightly. After that, he didn’t feel that different, though with only a ten percent boost to Agility, that was to be expected. It was far less than even an unmanifest Rushing Winds.

‘But it’s not draining my mana, just an upfront cost and a reduction like Senka’s,’ he thought, looking to the benefits of this over the other power. ‘Plus an attack and giving me new options with my other moves. And speaking of that.’

John picked a random vase displayed on the mantle and cast Observe. A wave of disappointment washed over him when a fairly boring display recounting the rather commonplace info for the piece of decor.

“Well, that was a let down,” Beth remarked. “What happened?”

“I don’t…” John began to say when it dawned on him and he groaned. “Observe needs a mix of elemental and normal mana to use an altered effect. And I forgot about that.”

“Guess that means even with those numbers you can still have stupid moments,” Beth joked.

“To be fair, Observe does run differently than the rest of my skills,” John defended his blunder, though in a light hearted manner. “But yeah, egg on my face. Should have double checked. Speaking of checking, better see what this whole ‘Rank’ thing is about.”

Spirit Heightening: Non-Aware Spirits intermingled with you slowly gain power over time. Minor Spirits range from Rank 1 to 5, Major Spirits from 6 to 10. For every level above their base rank (1 for Minor, 6 for Major), the spirit's abilities are increased by 15%. Elevating a Minor Spirit to a Major Spirit may be limited by Spirit Link Skill Level. Leveling to Rank 6 upgrades all of a spirit's abilities, possibly causing all of them to change. At Rank 10, a Major Spirit can be elevated into an Aware Spirit if the conditions for it are met.

Ranks increase based on the amount of time you spend in Overlay.

Rank 1 -> 2: 10 Hours
Rank 2 -> 3: 15 Hours
Rank 3 -> 4: 20 Hours
Rank 4 -> 5: 25 Hours
Rank 5 -> 6: 30 Hours
Rank 6 -> 7: 40 Hours
Rank 7 -> 8: 50 Hours
Rank 8 -> 9: 60 Hours
Rank 9 -> 10: 70 Hours

“That’s a lot of stuff,” Beth succinctly pointed out.

“Yeah,” John absentmindedly replied, eyes sweeping over the text and back again to the benefits he was currently gaining from the wind spirit. “The Agility boost doesn’t get crazy at Rank 5, using my current numbers. But with how it splits spirits up, I can see there being a big jump in power at Rank 6. The air blast move getting more power and range sounds like a good trade off for costing ten more mana each rank, but we’ll have to wait to test that.”

“The way it's worded makes it seem like you can maintain this while asleep, the same way I can remain manifested,” Senka noted. “Gaining eight hours worth of experience in both the skill and the spirit’s Rank while doing nothing sounds very powerful.”

“At the cost of capping the amount of mana I refill to over the same time,” John countered. “I don’t think it's a bad trade. Think I’ll let it run tonight and see how I like waking up with like eighty-seven mana. Or whatever number it comes to if I spent my level up on upping Intelligence.”

With that said, John turned his focus to his character sheet and considered his stats. With the reduction to his free mana Overlay presented, the idea of pumping everything into Intelligence was tempting. That was what he had done with the last level, but he paused when he considered the sort of things that lay ahead of them. With trying to grind out Ranks, it made sense to raise mana, but at the same time, upping Strength meant he wouldn’t have to rely on his magic to fight as much.

“More mana,” he muttered, “or more physical power to not need to cast as much?”

“Would splitting it work?” Vivian wondered. “Say put three into Intelligence and two into Strength. I understand it’s not going to give as big a boost in either, but it gives you some flexibility.”

“True,” John agreed. “Spellblading is a tough road to walk, but having a lot of options is better than going down one road and finding out I need another road’s tools down the line.”

When no one else offered another perspective, John put three points in Intelligence and the remaining two in Strength. A quick bit of math let him know with both Senka and the Wind Overlay active, he’d have ninety two mana free. With that committed to memory, John dismissed every display but his and summoned the last of the things that needed looking at.

Skill Enhancement Token: A silver disk in the style of a poker chip, a 'G' impressed upon one face. You can cash this in to either raise the level of a skill by 1 or unlock an applicable Skill Modification. Simply hold the token between two fingers and declare which skill you wish to affect.

John took one of the two he was rewarded with and critically eyed it.

“So, which skills do I use these on?” he put the question to the group. “Or do I hold them for a bit?”

“I wouldn’t use them on Spirit Link,” Vivian said. “We need to see how much a night’s worth of sleep will level it with two spirits active.”

“Since you’re trying to get as many tools as possible, maybe buff your weapon skill?” Aeolia suggested. “You only leveled it up when we were sparring Saturday.”

John hummed. A quick check showed it hadn’t gained much progress to the next level, making it a tempting option. One that was in line with his mixing of fighting styles. A quick review of his other skills showed only Evocation was close to reaching a new level, which made sense as it reached level four when he was fighting Senka nearly four days prior.

“Hmm, I think I’ll up Large Blade Proficiency and save the other one,” John decided. “There’s not really a need to pump anything and I don’t think using it to try and unlock a mod is the better option.”

No one raised any objection and John followed the token’s instructions. It vanished and he was greeted with a new popup.

Skill Level Up: Large Blade Proficiency Lv. 4. Damage Increased from 7% -> 8%.

“Bog standard there, but that’s that,” John declared, dismissing all the screens. With every bit of accounting sorted, they settled into a somewhat pointless conversation, pleasantly passing the time until either Kiera or Harker woke or it came time for them to sleep as well.

Sleep came first.