[SD:FS] The Theme Is "Cat" - Chapter 7

The caravan makes it to the city and everyone splits off to do their own thing. And being a city, especially one so close to a starter town, it has most of what the four want. In particular, June has a time of it. She heads to the adventurers guild first as they have an information desk.

June, “Hello, I’m looking to expand my pool of spells. Where should I head for that?”

The receptionist narrows his eyes, which isn’t the easiest thing for a spiderfolk to do as not all of their eight eyes are equally responsive. “Are you willing to prove that you are a primary buffer?”

June nods, “Besides assay, my only other active skill is Cat’s Paw.”

The spiderfolk shakes his head, “I need more than just your word. Are you willing to have a guild official to use a specialized assay on you? They will be oath bound to not reveal anything besides the fact that you are a primary buffer.”

June, “And by oath bound, so you mean honor, magical, or system based?”

The spiderfolk laughs, “You know? Most people don’t bother asking that. Though this oath in particular is, in fact, system backed.”

June nods, “Then I would be willing to go through with the assay.”

With a smile, the spiderfolk receptionist gestures to a row of empty chairs, “Take a seat and we’ll have the assayer here in a quarter of an hour.”

During this, Gem is having a more exciting time in the merchants district.

Gem points at a seam on a tent, “You call that quality work? Sure, the more visible stitching is nice enough, but whoever made this must have pushed off the less visible work to an apprentice. It is all kinds of uneven!”

The man at the shop’s counter shrugs, “Looks fine to me. Shouldn’t cause problems.”

Gem scoffs, “Shouldn’t cause problems? That shoddy work is going to be the first to start breaking and since it isn’t visible? You can’t catch it early! Besides, uneven stitching is the bane of water proofing.”

And back and forth as the two argue over the price. Of course, this all would have been fine with the guy once Gem bought the tent. Except they decided against it when they didn’t get a good enough price.

Which, to be fair, they weren’t buying it as a “complete” tent. Gem hadn’t exaggerated a single flaw. It was just that all said flaws had to do with the stitching and not the material itself. So, Gem’s intention was to use their spare time around the campfire to extract all the bad stitches and redo the word.

And for that? The asking price was in no way worth it. Of course, Gem wasn’t trying to cut off too much. They understood that the store had bought it as a finished food and so there was no way to buy it for the cost of the materials.

Gem also understood why the clerk didn’t go along with getting rid of the tent. After all, it was a serviceable tent. All they had to do was wait for the inevitable rube to buy it. Not everyone would have spent way too much time watching videos on how to stitch up costumes and cosplay.

And back at the caravan, Samuel is in the opposite position yet similar. Instead of trying to spend money and failing, he is trying to earn money and failing. Sure, there is always a need for someone to move stuff around.

Samuel just isn’t good enough. While being a melee fighter means he is certainly strong, actual porters and such have skills that let them carry more than their Body stat would indicate. And seeing as this was a city, especially one on a popular trade route? There are more than enough porters of all levels. So well before he can find a job, he has to log out for his irl matters.

Emrys, on the other hand, is having a boring time. He went out with a few items to pick up and guess what? He got them! A little bit of haggling, sure, but he wasn’t hunting a deal. Emrys simply made sure he wasn’t getting tourist prices.

Back with June, she ended up waiting half an hour for the specialty assayer to show up. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, the guy just ended up going over on his last job. Once he showed up, though, it was literally seconds after confirming June’s consent.

On seeing June’s surprised face at how quickly it went, the man couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh yeah, I get that all the time. Everyone is used to base assay, which takes time to use.”

June, “But what about your last job? I ended up waiting twice as long!”

The man shrugs, “Different skills. My profession is to assay. Or more specifically, to assay and keep what I see secret. Though this is about the only gig I do that enforces that with a system contract. Few have the pull that the guild does. Anyway, good luck with being a buff focused mage. You’re a rare sort.” And the man leaves before June can respond.

June turns to the spiderfolk and quirks an eyebrow, “Is a focused buffer really that rare? I’m pretty certain that even if you locals might not be the keenest on the role, there are a ton of my fellow travellers up for it.”

The receptionist shakes their head, “It isn’t that people who can buff are rare. Most healers tend to grab a few and just about everyone ends up with a buff they like to self apply. You, however, are an unaffiliated primary buffer.

“Even among you travellers, such a thing is rare. So, we don’t mind providing you with training and skill books. The guild will even provide a discount on such things. But only if you’re a primary buffer!

“Otherwise, everyone and their grandmother would be taking advantage of the discount to buy buffs they only ever intend to use on themselves. This isn’t like starter skills. The system isn’t providing all the books and paying for the lessons.”

June laughs, “A bit passionate about the subject?”

The spiderfolk receptionist sighs, “More like a bit tired of the subject. Because don’t you doubt, people aren’t being graceful when they don’t get the discount because their first spell was fire dart. We aren’t against you grabbing attack spells later on, but it is just a fact of life that no one has enough Mana early on to both buff and attack.”

June, “So what can I learn?”

The spiderfolk pulls out a slim book from under his desk. “You said you had Cat’s Paw. Do you want to accentuate that spell’s strength or be able to buff another aspect?”

June thinks for a moment before answering. “Can I have both?”

The spiderfolk laughs, “Now, normally I’d say no. There’s only so much you can do this early on. However, this branch happens to have one buff in stock that would fit that.

“The original name for the skill is Precision Critical Boost. Short and to the point. Everyone ended up calling it Cat’s Claw. So much so, the name even changed in the system and you might notice the vernacular connecting it to your skill.

“They are not connected and can be used separately. However! Cat’s Paw and Claw, when used together, show a result greater than the sum. Paw boosts a targets dexterity and attack. While Claw boosts chance and multiplier for criticals done by way of precision attacks.

“And yeah, they all stack together in a nice sandwich. Dexterity boosts the ability to target critical points, which are increased in size by the boosted crit chance. That all makes it easier to land the buffed attack damage, which gets boosted once again by the increased multiplier. A tidy little two spell combo.”

June nods, “That does sound nice. Does the Claw work on ranged spells?”

The spiderfolk shrugs, “Eh, you’ll have to test the specific spell to find out. It really depends on if the spell counts as precision damage. A fireball? Nah. A fire dart? Maybe! I’ve heard it can even depend on the caster and how they use the spell. Though on the upside, that does mean a spell can be guided towards working with the buffs as long as the spell has the potential.”

June sighed, “Well, then it might work for my group. Might as well give it a try.”

The spiderfolk nods, “Long as your melee isn’t using a hammer or some such, they should at least be good for it. Even a mace can work with the spell if the spikes are used with some skill. Not dexterity, mind you, but actual skill. All the dexterity in the world doesn’t help if you can’t swing the mace and hit with a spike first.

“Anyway, you can buy the skill book for 100 gold. That’s only a tenth of the market price. Though later on, we wouldn’t mind if you return this favor by selling buff skill books to the adventurers guild. We’ll buy them at market price. Which is less than you can get for them by way of auction, but hey, it’s guaranteed money.”

June sighs and pulls out the gold. This wouldn’t leave her with much, but the buff could represent a massive increase in damage. “So, how do we do this?”

The spiderfolk smiles, “Well, over there is our skill learning room. Give me the gold and stand over there. I’ll be out in a moment with the skill book.”

June rolls her eyes. If this was anywhere else besides the adventurers guild, just handing the money over wouldn’t fly. But it was and so the money changed hands and she headed over where he had pointed her. Though thankfully the receptionist doesn’t take long retrieving the skill book.

“And here’s the book! Word of warning, since you seem to be quite new. Cat’s Claw is a skill that has a small visual effect when being absorbed. Don’t freak out or those of us here in the guild right now will laugh at you. Anyway, have a nice day!”, the spiderfolk receptionist says before handing the skill book over and returning to his desk.

June shrugs at the warning. What will happen, will happen. So with that, she enters the skill learning room and locks the door 

{

Learn Cat’s Claw (Yes/No)

}

And obviously the answer to that is yes. Then the visual effects come into play. The skill book dissolved into a handful of individual pages.

Those pages folded down into origami throwing daggers moments later. All while flying out to circle around June. Once fully folded though, they freeze in place before streaking inward. Each dagger sinking into a weak point.

And through it all, June no-sells the whole ordeal. After all, she already knew that anything done by a skill book will ultimately be harmless. Though when she exits the skill learning room, the crowd outside seems quite disappointed that she didn’t end up audibly reacting. Though the spiderfolk does flash her a cheeky smile and a wink. She simply gives him a nod in return, before heading out to find an inn.

Though, before she can find a place to stay, Gem finds her. “Hey! June! Didn’t think I would find you so quickly. Guess it makes sense for you to be at the guild. Emrys managed to find us a place to stay, if you want. Good price for basically a dorm set up meant for a party like ours.”

June, “What does that mean? I never had to stay in a dorm.”

Gem raises an eyebrow, “Did you not go to college? Like, I guess if you’re old enough that’s possible. The SAI only recently guaranteed advanced education for those who want it.

“Anyway, maybe my dorm situation wasn’t the norm either way? But yeah, basically a central room with an attached bath and four small bedrooms. Though I admit, this is a little fancier than where I stayed for the required semester of dorm living. What I had was basically just two bedrooms attached to a hallway-like area with sinks and a bathroom.”

June nods, “Okay, that makes sense. And I did have advanced learning. It was simply online.”

Gem shrugs, “Eh, fair enough. I could have never managed that. Not that I can’t learn stuff online, but the structured college style learning? Not a chance! Admittedly, I was just going for a general degree.

“Anyway, follow me! The inn we’ll be staying at is over here. It’s located between the gate we came in through and the gate pointed towards the nearest dungeon.”

The Noble Isn't Leaving - Chapter 6

The Secret About The Beds - Chapter 8