New World Day 27
I expected to spend a few days healing from my fight with the hobgoblin and his horde, but something unexpected came up. I was sick. For the first time since I gained my resistance and regen skills, some disease laid me low. Pain wracked my body, and I burned with a fever that would astound any Old World doctor. Literal bolts of electricity flickered around my physical wounds and into my spiritual world. Considering the nature of my symptoms, I blamed the hobgoblin’s rune axe for my sickness. I made the mistake of picking up a metal soup can and wound up twitching on the ground when a bolt flowed through the metal and back into me.
That meant no metal and no liquids either. I didn’t know how long the disease would last, but I hoped it wouldn’t be any more than a day or two. Any longer than that and I would be in trouble.
The doors that led from the garage to the workshop and then to the bedroom were open which allowed me to walk all through the basement, but I couldn’t muster the energy needed to get up. All the energy I possessed was expended during my ill fated soup adventure. Instead, I laid there on the concrete and stared at the ceiling. The concrete grounded me, kept me from destroying anything, and its cool touch eased my fever, but laying there flat on the ground did embarrass me. Another situation that was going to be left out of any future memoirs.
I thought about experimenting with my mana, but one glance at my spiritual world showed arcs of lightning melting holes all throughout it. That sight cured me of any desire to touch my mana while I waited for the disease to run its course.
I lacked the energy to move my physical body and my mana was off-limits as well which left me with only one thing to do. I called up the System menu and began to scroll through all of the skills available to purchase. I wouldn’t be able to write the information down in my journal until I felt better, but the Flawless Memory skill from my Job meant I wouldn’t forget anything until I could. That skill meant that my journals were now a way to help me organize my thoughts and level up my Job instead of a way to ensure that I didn’t forget anything.
The Mind stat and the awakening of Psi energy unlocked a wide array of useful skills for me from the System. Three in particular caught my eye. All three were rune skills that I knew would be damn useful. The issue was that they all were expensive. I could purchase one of the three, but the other two were as expensive as the Barrier Runes skill. The one within reach was the Basic Alarm Runes (Passive) (B) * skill. It cost 14 title points, and the description said that it would send a silent mental alarm to the one who carved it when anything came close to the rune. The sensitivity of the alarm was set by the secondary runes from the set. I marked that skill as my first pick of what to purchase and continued to browse the list of available skills.
To my great disappointment, no sensory, dimensional, or elemental magic skills became available. I thought that since the Danger Sense skill appeared as a Job skill for the Promising Adventurer Job that it might be available, but no such luck. I checked out the Trick and Camouflage skills as well, but it was the same story. While those three weren’t available, I did see that the Heavy Blow skill was available. It was 10 title points to purchase. Hmmm. I was interested, very interested. I expended almost all of my ammo during the battle with the hobgoblin. The dwindling ammo supply meant I would have to rely on my axe and magic in order to survive from here on out and all of my skills so far were defensive or enhancement skills. There wasn’t a single attack skill among them. For that reason alone, I felt a strong desire to purchase the skill, but I didn’t want to hurry any purchase so I ended up putting a mental mark next to it and continued browsing the list. Maybe there was a better attack skill available.
I spent hours exploring the skill list. There seemed to be a skill available for every action that you could think of including writing, reading, and language skills. The language skill list was of particular interest. It was longer than any other list I could get the System to create, and just staring at some of the language names brought a headache on. I had always wanted to learn another language, and thanks to the System I could learn one with ease.
Besides the language skills, I did find one other skill of interest. A second attacking skill named Cleaving Blow. The Heavy Blow description said that the user drew upon energy, it didn’t say what type of energy, to increase the weight and speed of an attack. The Cleaving Blow skill needed a bladed weapon, and it focused energy on the blade to increase the sharpness and strength of a blow. They both required 10 title points, but there was a curious pop-up when I selected both of them at the same time.
The System told me that I would have to spend 30 title points to purchase both of them. Considering the System was designed to help and protect us, I knew there was a secret hidden behind those two skills. I thought about it for a minute before it hit me. The skills weren’t mutually exclusive. There must be a synergy between the two skills that required additional energy to impart to whomever purchased both skills. Hmm, that meant there could be all kinds of additional possibilities for skills. If buying some skills pushed up the cost of other skills then were there skills that dropped down the cost of other skills? Could that be why the alarm runes were so cheap compared to the barrier runes?
After what felt like days perusing the skill list, I felt I had the energy to move a bit. The fever, pain, and lightning tendrils were all still there, but they felt weaker than before. I dragged myself into the bedroom and grabbed my notebooks, a few plastic pens, and staggered into the garage. I went to my customary spot marked by the deep red blood stains and sat down against the wall. I had a lot to record and some more time to spend before I overcame the disease. Best get to work.
