Chapter 293
Added 2017-11-14 05:13:35 +0000 UTC
The group of the 6 of them arrived as Star Cross, everyone in a rather good mood. They had encountered a recently spawned Tier I Raid Boss, taking it by surprise due to David’s quick warning, and were able to harvest three pieces of equipment from its corpse. One of which Thea offered to David, but he shook his head firmly, gesturing to Simon.
So Simon found himself with his first piece of System generated equipment.
Chainmail of the Metal Scarecrow Lvl 22: An armor made from the torso of the Iron Scarecrow. Powerful deterrent against flying opponents. Endurance +5, Stamina +30.
Simon couldn’t keep the smile off his face. The boost to Endurance could keep him alive, but the Stamina bonus helped him keep up his mobility for longer in a fight! With this alone, he definitely felt safer. For the first time, SImon felt like it was worth the effort to come out here to town.
And he hadn’t even gotten his Class yet.
“You can find the village chieftain in the lodge, he will take you to the Village Spirit.” Thea said, almost as if she could read Simon’s mind, she waved to a few passing people. “I have to head up and back to the Wild Rider’s preserve, hopefully we meet again.”
She flashed David a smile and rode off on her bear, the pair lumbering forward. The two others split off, going there own ways.
Star Cross was set up strangely because it was built on the bones of a weird corner of town that contained two gas stations, two motels, and a quaint little inn. The Inn was called the Star Cross, which was where the Village got its name, and the other buildings had been retrofitted to suit their new purposes. The motels had been expanded, and now seemed more like a dormitory than anything else. One gas station was a weapons and supplies store, the other food and storage.
The road between the two gas stations was filled with stalls, where people sold their wares. There was also a large, recently constructed stable at the far end of the road on which these buildings sat, and from what Simon could see, it was filled with some very strange mounts.
Evidence of the Wild Rider.
Apparently David’s thoughts had gone in a similar direction, because he was looking over towards the stable and frowning. Then his quizzical gaze shifted to Simon.
“...Probably built it for all the people pledging to the Wild Rider. Because it is so close to here.”
David’s gaze sharpened, and he made a vague gesture in the direction that Thea had left in. Simon’s eyes widened. If he was understanding the man correctly…
“You… Don’t know about the Wild Rider? About Champions?” Simon asked, feeling confused. David shook his head.
So for 5 minutes they stood there and Simon explained what he knew of the Champions, both from the notifications and from gathering information since while people traveled through his small spring. Although he had only been gone for several hours, he already felt a small pang of homesickness. It had been… a rough few months, and that place had kept him safe, so-
But then he mentally chided himself at his diverted attention. Much more intriguing was the fact that David seemed so perplexed by the Champions. Had he somehow… missed their arrival…? But that didn’t really make sense. Unless he was held captive for a while before he was beaten and released…? But that would make his captivity at least a month…
At some point, David seemed satisfied, and just shrugged and then pointed towards the Star Cross Inn. Back to business.
Nodding, Simon followed David, who walked confidently through the crowd towards the Inn. It was… illuminating to see how people treated David. Simon had thought that Thea’s reaction was somewhat strange, especially since she hadn’t yet seen him in action. How had she so quickly known that he was powerful…?
But everyone here knew, somehow. Not in a direct way, Simon guessed, but through some sixth sense. Taller and broader men stepped out of the way of David, almost subconsciously, shooting him furtive glances once he walked past. Looking at David’s back, Simon once again reevaluated his companion.
This sort of comfort will the scrutiny he was seeing, this confidence… perhaps he was famous before the System? Like a high rankling person in MMA or something…? It wouldn’t really explain the scars though, which were not wounds you received from fighting with fists…
When they arrived at the inns doors, a bored looking man scanned them both. “What are you here for?”
“I-” Simon gulped down his spear and tried again. “I want to get a class.”
“Oho. Usually we don’t get classless riffraff showing up these days. Everyone who wants one is already a member of a village. Everyone else is either settled or part of the Class research initiative. Why so late, boy?”
Simon frowned. He was 14, and the man in front of him was middle aged, but he had sorta assumed most of those dumb things had disappeared. Apparently, that was not the case. David folded his arms, standing behind Simon, giving him the strength to open his mouth once more and say, “Because I waited.”
Waving a hand, the man turned away. “Fine, fine. No need to unleash your pet dog on me. Jeesh. Standard procedure, an applicant has to select one of four roles to determine the test for the Class. Are you a tank? Damage Dealer? Control? Or Support? Are both of you taking the test?”
David shook his head. Simon thought about it.
“I suppose… support?” The man nodded, going over to a messy desk and rummaging around, before producing a piece of paper.
“Support eh? Alright… what kind? You can choose Physical, Mage, Healer, or Detector.”
“Like…” Simon hesitated, glancing at David. David pointed forward, mimicking Simon when he shot the blast of water at the monkey. Simon blushed.
“...Mage.”
“Mage, easiest test, too. Lucky you, you have a chance. Support type? Just show me what you can do.”
A flash of anger rose in Simon’s chest. But instead of lashing out, Simon felt profoundly sneaky. “David, punch him.”
David grinned, then walked calmly towards the man, his fists clenched. The man snorted.
“Nice try, but I’m a melee tank. Clever, kid, but-” The man hadn’t moved at all as David approached, and even let David karate chop him.
The bone shattered with an audible crunch. Screaming, the man fell to the ground. The inn went silent around them.
Simon was wide eyed, looking at David. David, for his part, seemed extremely confused. He looked at his hand, then at the man, then back to his hand. Then he turned to Simon, and of all things, shrugged.
“Oh for the love of-” Simon said, rushing over to the screaming man, pointing. He activated Mending Stream, and the water fell on the man’s body, very quickly numbing the pain and jump starting the man’s natural healing process.
“I was kidding earlier, I’m a healer,” Simon said, thinking on the fly. “I just wanted this to demonstrate my ability.”
“You…! You fuckers!” The man said, furious, his eyes hard, but he was trembling still, sitting on the ground, glaring at David. Luckily the break was a simple one, and within 30 seconds, the bone had healed, snapping back into place, restoring mobility. The pain was undoubtedly completely gone, but the man rose, cradling his arm.
“If you think that you can join the town after injuring me, you have another fucking thing coming!” The man bellowed, just as a group of guards, led by a familiar face, ran into the room.
“Heh,” Teo the warrior chuckled, taking in the scene with his direct gaze. “Causing trouble already? No wonder Thea liked y’all. What seems to be the problem?”
Comments
Believe so, Lyra being held captive
Radar
2017-11-15 23:10:07 +0000 UTCBetter he forgoes class entirely and relies on randidly . he might not even need that since he lives in an aether rich enviromental he doesn't need an external aether source, at least until his abilities outweigh the amount of aether he passively gets from the pond
2017-11-15 22:46:27 +0000 UTCBut isn't donnyton's village spirit something evil masquerading as lyra
Gavin Olsen
2017-11-15 17:59:04 +0000 UTCPerfect agreement about that one.
2017-11-15 10:51:22 +0000 UTCChances are that guy is the equivalent of donny so Simon might not be able to get a class, which would be for the best, if he gets one, it should be from donnyton or not get one at all.
Aesoir
2017-11-15 03:13:27 +0000 UTCOne thing I noticed is that at the end you don't say what bone "David" breaks until the guys gets off of the ground holding his arm. That threw me off a bit
BigBuckler
2017-11-14 22:50:37 +0000 UTC@Magic the problem I mentioned is the discontinuity of the skill. If puddles decides to use a notification to fix the discontinuity he needs to do it some time after the equip skill hits lvl 25 and before it stops being used in the story.
Alan McBrayer
2017-11-14 22:28:18 +0000 UTCAlso, @Alan McBrayer, that spear wasn't a problem really, he mentioned when he got it his equip skill wasn't high enough for it, and then he broke it
MagicWafflez
2017-11-14 19:41:48 +0000 UTCRather than being obsessed with it, I'd say that we're debating which way would be least troublesome to deal with the discontinuity. Retconing is committing to a lot of editing later which sounds painful
MagicWafflez
2017-11-14 19:36:48 +0000 UTCYeah I'm hoping Randidly comes across a village far from donnyton and just sees one of Arbor's sprouts and hears the story if of a group of elite warriors guarding a pair of 8 year old on a pilgrimage.
Alan McBrayer
2017-11-14 19:34:42 +0000 UTCWhy are people obsessed with Equip. It's not worth it. I've never seens people so damned obsessed with something the author clearly wants people to forget
Tibstrike
2017-11-14 19:28:35 +0000 UTCIt's an easy fix puddles4263. Just add some text in the training village notification that the equip skill is no longer needed because the next step has started. Or you could go one step further and make it so when Randidly's was able to equip the spear made from the first tribulation killed on the world that the equip skill is no longer needed any in the cohort. That way you can fix the problem and make Ghosthound look like a badass. It makes sense that the equip skill is only needed at the start of a system takeover when people lack a class.
Alan McBrayer
2017-11-14 19:28:19 +0000 UTCThen we'll never find out what the stats were on the dagger ghosthound gave declan D: Edit: I looked back and saw that puddles changed how that worked, it does tell you the stats~ Anyway, it's not broke and they discuss equip a lot in the first few arcs (like how those movie stars don't get it) and there are still levels on items. So I don't think it's worth retconning it out. Seems like a lot more work than just adding a loophole to the belt's text
MagicWafflez
2017-11-14 19:02:38 +0000 UTCAt this point it's easier to retcon out than it would be to add back in.
Choboman
2017-11-14 18:57:38 +0000 UTCthe next chapters gonna start with a laugh... 'David' points at the doorman and says "Asshole... weak asshole."
2017-11-14 18:13:19 +0000 UTCAlso the Ghosthound has never really equipped anything but that necklace he got from the cats before he beat the tribulation. He never really had more than one or two pieces on that gave him any stats.
CptJimmy
2017-11-14 18:04:27 +0000 UTCBack when RG first showed up in Spear World, Divvit told him that he fought at about the competency of a level 15 spear user. “...based on what Shal has told me, and what I’ve seen… you are about as powerful as someone at Lvl 15." Later conversations with Shal indicate that his actual skills are lower than that, but his stats are higher and compensate. So maybe he had the physical stats (Str, Agi, Rea, Per) of a level 20 spear user. Factor in that his mental stats didn't get a chance to show and are higher than typical spear users, and his total stat count might have been equivalent to a level 25 back then. That was back when he had total stats adding up to 860. Now his stat total is 1821, so I guess his stats would be equivalent to a normal guy at level 60 or so?
Choboman
2017-11-14 17:24:31 +0000 UTCAlso, you could explain it not growing being because he was using subpar equips that were < lvl 25. The text in the equip skill says it levels by wearing higher level equips. So now that the tournament is over he can start wearing high level belt and gaining lvls in it again
MagicWafflez
2017-11-14 17:17:38 +0000 UTCXD... Yanno, it's not unsalviageable... The belt is the only notable equip gotten from shal's world... It was introduced in ch 201... You could either add a sentence about how he won't get the base stats, but will get the engraved ones... Or put a lvl bypass in the runic stitching text~
MagicWafflez
2017-11-14 16:59:20 +0000 UTCDon’t speak of it.
PuDDleS4263
2017-11-14 16:58:45 +0000 UTCThe equip skill got ret conned around the time engraving came about. It stopped lvling at 25 even though randidly went through hundreds of pieces of in Shal's world and he got the benefit of the lvl 49 belt
Alan McBrayer
2017-11-14 16:52:37 +0000 UTCSimon still needs the equip skill before he gets those endurance points.... I hope randidly makes him some low lvl engraved equipment
MagicWafflez
2017-11-14 14:45:28 +0000 UTCI cant wait to see arbor! And all his old possey! Even though its only been a few months, i hope they've grown stronger!
2017-11-14 13:21:48 +0000 UTCYeah the transition here was fine, it’s all just meet and greet anyway
Radar
2017-11-14 09:37:40 +0000 UTCWell Simon said there was no one in the zone that had even reached level 50. After level 30 there is a big jump in the difficulty curve. I think Decklan said he only gained 2 levels from fighting raid hordes in their mid 20s for 14 hours straight.
Alan McBrayer
2017-11-14 09:23:53 +0000 UTCI think you have to assume that on earth a lot of people are going to have been inefficient in how they gained skills and leveled up, assuming the class research initiative isn't super popular, so instead of doing the thing on Shal's world where you would gain skills for as long as possible then get a class (better in the long run once the exponential growth starts working for you) a lot of people will probably be running around with high levels but low skills/path diversity. Hence why the super proud "melee tank" can't figure out how his arm got snapped if he is used to having a level advantage to cover for everything.
2017-11-14 07:59:02 +0000 UTCWell if your comparing him to other people you gotta assume that they would have high skill levels as well even if they had fewer skills. Compared to an expert on Shal's world he is probably around lvl 35. He was roughly equal to the artisans in the tournament, but they had a more focused build while he is both mage and melee. On earth he probably is lvl 60-70 from stats ignoring his absurd regeneration. Remember that lots of paths had a reward that gave +1-5 stats per level.
Alan McBrayer
2017-11-14 07:46:46 +0000 UTCZac you seem to think that the champions in the zone came from Randidly's soulskill. The champions descended before his inner world was developed and none of his races were undead. Personally I think the transition is fine, you see it fairly often in fantasy genre. Going from the party meeting someone odd on the way to a city: to the party arriving at the city. I mean what did you think they were gonna do once the bear and ghosthound stopped playing?
Alan McBrayer
2017-11-14 07:30:17 +0000 UTCI bet it’s being saved for when he uses his skills, which are on a ridiculously high lvl for earth, but he needs to heal them first. Plus his stats have been trained for 2~3 years more than earth due to the time difference, and his time in the other cohort seems to have a slight time difference as well. I wonder how his champions will recognize the creator of their world from his Aether... or if they notice at all.
CptJimmy
2017-11-14 07:15:32 +0000 UTCGood chapter. The transition between 292 and 293 was a bit janky though, I think you need either a bridging scene or a couple of lines between Randidly playing with the bear and their arrival in the town. I like the way you balanced Randidly against the rest of Earth, but if you ever do go back through and make revisions, I'd recommend you foreshadow it a bit more. Let me know that it's possible for that to happen to a skill so it feels more natural when it happens. Just a bit of a minor personal gripe, I kinda hope you don't go for the silent protagonist for too long. I know it's part of Randidly's character now but I like dialogue too.
FusedBump96
2017-11-14 06:24:22 +0000 UTCYeah, but remember that those who have classes also get stats from paths, so if a person has a good class and many skill/ paths, their stats will outrank somoen of a higher level with a worse class and fewer available paths. Then their is soul skills which is another big source of strength. Ultimately, level only really tells you how many stat pints the village has given u, not how many path have been completed or level of skill which is where most strength comes from
2017-11-14 06:09:02 +0000 UTCWell it depends on the class. But of the ones whose lvl up stats are known, you get about 3~4 stats a lvl. Randidly's starting stats were between 1 and 4 with 32 stats in total. He now has 1765 stats (up to non patreon chapters). ... So about level 400. Remember most ppl get stronger with skill levels not stats. Also, earthlings don't have the stat tier to get really good classes~ maybe the higher levelled ones get more~
MagicWafflez
2017-11-14 05:50:03 +0000 UTCI think for the most part, levels only really indicate your connection to your village and the attribute boosts of your class. Some of the levels we've seen mentioned were all over the place, but the tournament was for people under level 20 (or was it thirty), and the power we saw there far outranked any of the highest levelled people we've seen on Earth.
ElectricintheForest
2017-11-14 05:39:29 +0000 UTCI think I read it was around 30, but it depends on class. I think the importance of the last arc was to show that what really matters is skill level and application of skill (images imagination...)
2017-11-14 05:30:18 +0000 UTCSo what would Randidly's level be if you just looked at his stats? 25? 30 or more?
Kurt A
2017-11-14 05:23:59 +0000 UTC
