HC:Pacifist | Ch. 95 - Skills (Patreon)

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Roth spent one skill point on each of the three beginner skills. It only cost one point to unlock them, and he couldn't think of a reason not to learn them all. He checked that the new skill icons were in his character panel and, contentedly, returned to the skill tree.

He was curious to see what kind of skills he had unlocked. To his surprise, the next icons on the branches weren't for new skills but for improvements on the skills he had just learned. Each improvement cost three skill points. As Roth feared, the SP cost increased with each new skill tree branch.

He checked how many skill points he had left. Eleven. He could theoretically upgrade all his skills once, but he wanted to experiment with them first. He wanted to learn more about what each of them did and their effectiveness before deciding which skill branch to invest in.

In some games, completing the full skill tree was impossible. In others, it was possible, but veteran gamers often preferred to fully evolve one branch of the skill tree before investing skill points in other branches. All of this was new territory to Roth. As far as he knew, no one knew what the full skill tree of their classes looked like.

Having learned [Peace Decree], [Peace Treaty], and [Flag Bearer], Roth couldn't help but puff up his chest in pride. In his skill panel were also the other skills he had learned previously. There was [Healing Ray], [Shepherd's Shout], [Taunting Shout], [Grapple], [Search], and [Miniaturize], for a total of nine skills.

He had several skill cards in his inventory too. There were [Badger's Intellect], [Rat Poison], [Ratan's Strike], [Sewer Sludge], and [Green Woods Blessing]. Roth hadn't needed to use any of them and preferred waiting before figuring out whether he'd sell or learn these skills. Of all the ones he had in his inventory, the one that interested him the most was [Badger's Intellect].

Badger's Intellect (Common)

Skill description: By memorizing thousands of poems, the badger's brain develops unique pathways that improve intelligence.

Skill effect: Passive. +5 Intelligence.

Restrictions: Medic or Esper, Lvl. 11.

Since intelligence was a crucial stat for him, it wouldn't hurt to get the boost. He waited for the moment. Roth opened the auction house window and selected 'Skills.' Dozens of thousands of options came up on the screen, leaving Roth frozen like a deer in headlights. From having no options to several thousand left him a bit lost as to what to do.

He studied the advanced search options. He ticked an option that made it so that duplicate items would collapse under just one entry. Instantly the results shrank tremendously. He also found a nifty option that revealed only skills he could learn when ticked.

The results were narrowed down to about a hundred from dozens of thousands. That was much more manageable.

He took his eye out of the auction house window, trying to see if Gary or any of the other IronIre members had come in, and seeing none of them, he relaxed and went back to shopping.

Roth browsed through the list of skills available to someone of his level and was met with many pleasant surprises. He hadn't expected to find skills that were considered to be staples in other classes. For example, Roth could learn [Camouflage] and other skills that improved stealth.

Camouflage (Common)

Skill description: By stimulating the pigments in your skin cells, you can blend into the surrounding environment, allowing you to become invisible.

Skill effects:

Active. Become invisible;

Skill's effects are broken if you are attacked or if you attack others;

Scales with ???.

Restrictions: Rogue, lvl 12.

This was a skill that was traditionally part of a rogue's set. But, since he could learn any skills that didn't deal damage, he could learn this one without a problem. He hoped they weren't expensive. He looked for the price tag and let out a hearty laughter. It only cost two silver. How come it was so cheap?

Roth purchased [Camouflage] without a second thought and learned it. Roth activated the skill immediately and put his hands in front of his eyes. He couldn't see anything. He was completely invisible. What a nice feeling. Roth had always played warrior characters, so he wasn't used to the feeling of being invisible. What an awesome ability.

Buy, why was this so cheap? When Roth had learned some basic skills in the villages of Green Woods, he had paid one silver for each of them. These skills should be much more expensive.

He looked up the forums and soon found the reason why. Most basic skills could be learned from a trainer. For some reason, outside of Roth's understanding, there was also a way to get skill cards for them. Since there was an easy way to learn these skills, the prices of these skill cards were dirt cheap.  Even though they were more advanced, these skills were sold for only two or, at most, three silvers each. Roth rubbed his hands in anticipation! He felt like a tycoon!

Soon he found another skill traditionally belonging to rogues.

Thirty Steps (Common)

Skill description: By using agile footwork, you can temporarily boost your movement speed.

Skill effects: Active. Gain 30% bonus movement speed for 30 seconds.

Restrictions: Rogue, lvl. 11.

Roth's mind returned to the stressful moment earlier in the day when he had escaped the Gazpachos by the skin of his teeth. He could have run away from them easily if he had known a skill like this back then.

It was another basic skill that could be learned by rogues and was also being sold at a meager price. Roth bought it for three silver and learned it. Roth was smiling from ear to ear now. The feeling of bolstering his power by spending a few silvers was addictive!

He moved on to warrior skills. He had always played with warrior classes in other games and was the most comfortable in this section. He found some passive skills that granted extra health, which Roth didn't need. Others granted extra damage. Roth skipped those as well. His eyes landed on one skill that was to his liking. It was the upgraded version of [Taunting Shout] shout. It was called [Taunting Roar].

Taunting Roar (Common)

Skill description: The surrounding creatures react to your threatening grunts and sounds and feel enraged. They will chase after you.

Skill effect:

Active. Draw all mobs in a 5m radius;

The more health a creature has, the less effective this skill is;

Radius is affected by charisma;

Skill effectiveness is affected by strength.

Restrictions: Warrior, lvl. 13.

The power of [Taunting Shout] had been set at a fixed level. The only thing that had scaled had been its radius. The skill's effectiveness was becoming less potent, even with the help of his [Polyglot] title.

This new upgraded form of the skill was much better. The might of [Taunting Roar] scaled with strength! It was being sold for five silver. Roth wondered why it was slightly more expensive than [Camouflage] or [Thirty Steps]. Wasn't this also one of the basic warrior skills? He shrugged the thought aside, bought it, and learned it.

Warning! You already know 10 skills.

Would you like to delete one of your skills to make room for [Taunting Roar]?

Roth put both his hands to his head. What? There was a limit to how many skills he could learn?! How had he not known about this? He had thought there was no limit! Was this one of those pieces of information people considered so obvious that they didn't even bother writing it on the forums?

He wanted to bang his head on a wall. A lot of things were making more sense in his head now. This was the reason why titles were so highly praised in the forums. There was a limit to how much equipment you could wear and how many skills you could have; the only unlimited power source was titles. And levels, too, in case there were no limits to how high levels could go.

That was also why his [Explorer] title was considered epic!

Explorer (Epic)

Title description: Your relentless patience and insight have helped you to uncover many secrets and find locations that no one had dreamed existed.

Title effects: You have the [Search] skill.

The title offered him a skill that didn't occupy a skill slot! Roth was lost as to what to do for a few moments. He had to rethink things. His problem was that his character was all over the place. He needed strength to increase his weight-carrying capacity. He loved having high movement speed, which came from dexterity. But now, his class was pulling him toward wisdom and intelligence. If only there was a way to increase his skill slots.

It was time to dig for information. Roth opened the rescue library and wrote 'skill slots' in the search bar. He got one hit. It was a guide that outlined the pros and cons of joining each of the four main classes of the game. On the part about rogues, it said that one of the biggest advantages of this class was that they had access to 12 skill slots.

When Roth thought about it, he realized he had read something like that earlier but had failed to connect the dots. Now it made more sense. Roth stood up and paced, hoping it helped him to think more clearly.

On the one hand, skills were a fast track to power. On the other hand, getting extra skill slots seemed very difficult. What should he do? Did he have to settle with having 10 skills? So far, Roth had found loopholes and hidden features that fit well with his playstyle.

When he was looking for a way to disguise his identity, he'd been able to find an alternative path. Perhaps he could also find a way around this. The system hinted at this possibility. First, there was the added number of skill slots that rogues had access to. Secondly, his [Explorer] title gave him an 11th skill.

If there was a first and second way of increasing skill slots, didn't it make sense that there would be a third way of doing that? This time Roth decided to go to the forums. He wrote 'skill slots limits.' Praying for the best, he clicked on search.

The many hits showed Roth he wasn't the first person thinking of this.

Help a Brother Out!

#charity #skillslots #unlimitedpowah #kidness #information4information

Poster: FreakishFiend0921

Post: Has anyone found a way of getting more skill slots? Ten is too low! There must be a way. Come on! Please! Pleeeeeeease.

Comments

Ulysses'Sis: Just become a rogue. They have 12 skill slots.

StoneLiver19231: Send me a million gold and I'll give you that information.

There were multiple posts of people asking how to get skill slots and cheeky answers in which people told them to become rogues. Roth went through each of them patiently, looking for any clues. Finally, he saw something that seemed relevant. It was a paid post. The player was willing to sell the information on unlocking extra skill slots for a thousand gold.

A thousand gold? That was a lot of money for someone at Roth's level. And it was just information. What if it led to an impossibly tricky quest? At the same time, based on other guides Roth had seen, this wasn't an unreasonable price to ask for this type of information. He sighed and saved the post to favorites. Maybe he'd buy it later. Roth couldn't afford this now.

That meant that he had to make do with the limits imposed by the system. Roth had to decide what skills he would learn. He studied all ten skills on his panel. He wouldn't do something as stupid as deleting his bread-and-butter class skills. [Peace Decree], [Peace Treaty], and [Flagbearer] had to stay. Roth could never delete [Miniaturize] either. It was an epic skill and had proven its worth many times.

That meant that he had only six slots instead of the infinite skill slots he assumed he had. For now, Roth deleted [Taunting Shout] to make room for [Taunting Roar]. He closed the windows and walked around the gardens to gather his thoughts. He hadn't expected to meet such a bump. He had to think very carefully about what skills he would invest in.

What did his character need most right now? On the one hand, he needed stats. The more stats he had, the more powerful his transformations became. He could learn some cheap passive skills that increased his stats. On the other hand, he needed ways to improve his survivability. Things that allowed him to run fast or hide had been very useful so far. He also needed speed and strength to carry all the goods from his trade runs.

Above all, he could benefit from cooldown reduction. His transformations and [Miniaturize] had very long cooldowns. He needed to find a way to reduce them. Content with his train of thought, Roth opened his window and went patiently through each of the skills he could learn. He selected the three options that seemed to work well for him and bought them.

Ch. 94 - Maximus Secundus

INDEX

Ch. 96 - Busted