3 – Skill Quests

I detected her the moment she broke through the dimensional barrier and arrived in Laika. She landed in Baleria, a remote corner of Aaron’s lands.

It was always a given that another hero would be called. We were not the first, and we won’t be the last. Not as long as the conflict still raged, the balance unbroken.

Yet, when I saw her face, my hands shook for the first time in a century. I almost let my scrying spell falter.

A familiar one. How interesting.

Too bad we are bound to disappoint her.

Excerpt from the notes of Raymond Ludval, The Iron Vein Magus.

The journal had appeared the moment she was summoned. Shining leather, no clasp, no markings.

“So how does this work, exactly?” she muttered. “Do I just… carry you forever?”

She froze. What if she lost it?

On a whim, she thought about putting it away. Not setting it down, not tucking it somewhere. Just away.

It vanished.

Alexandra stared at her empty hands for a long moment.

“Huh.”

She thought about it again, pictured the cover, the weight. It reappeared between her fingers without drama or fanfare.

“Okay.” She dismissed it again, watching her hand close on nothing. “That’s actually very useful.”

She stood there a moment longer, opening and closing her fist around empty air like an idiot. Then she sat down. Magical world or not, her legs were protesting.

The journal fell open to its last page, and she got back to the task at hand.

Four skills. She started with the least offensive one.

Basic Herbology: Study herbology to the level of apprentice (0/1).

Naturally, Alexandra was starting from zero. Well, not quite zero: she knew the name of one plant. Yet, while she could now recognize the Silver Star Daisy, she knew nothing of its characteristics, distribution, habitat, and all the jazz that would come with a proper education on the subject.

“So, yeah, about zero.”

She flipped through her journal, looking for a description of the skill. Most pages were empty, but to her delight, the last one held what she needed.

Basic Herbology:

Grant basic knowledge of herbs you interact with.
Each level increases the depth of knowledge.

These two sentences raised more questions than they answered. “What is the point of this skill if I already need to study herbology to unlock it?” Presumably, she’d have basic knowledge of most herbs by that point. However, while she complained, Alexandra wasn’t blind to the benefits.

Basic Herbology would give her data on any herb she interacted with. Even ones she had never heard about.

“If it works as I expect it to,” she murmured. With no skill to compare it to, she couldn’t be certain. Who knew how this whole magic thing worked? One thing was sure, it held little resemblance to Lone World Online’s system.

The second line implied that skills had levels. Good to know, but there was nothing she could do with that information for now.

Above the description of Basic Herbology, three other skills filled the final page of her journal.

She sighed. Summon Lesser Fiend, Dark Bolt, and Inflict Weakness. Names she’d almost forgotten in favor of the keybinds she’d assigned them to. The three skills were hallmarks of the Warlock archetype she played in Lone World Online.

Alexandra rubbed her face with her palms, instantly regretting it as pollen and dirt sneaked into her eyes. “Fuck, it burns.” She blinked, cried, shook her head, and after struggling for some time, the sensation subsided.

“Let’s not do that again.”

Anyway, the warlock skills were welcome. The associated quests were not. The worst among them was clearly Summon Lesser Fiend. The skill’s name was the gist of what it would do, which in itself was a little concerning.

Just a little.

In the game, summoning minions was as easy as pressing a button. In reality, she didn’t want to see a Lesser Fiend, even if it was her minion.

The skill quest was worse.

Summon Lesser Fiend: Make a deal with Valudipan, Demon of Tides (0/1).

Suffice to say, making a deal with a literal demon sounded like a terrible idea. Alexandra wasn’t looking forward to selling her soul. She was honestly tempted to discard all three warlock skills, but she knew better. Perhaps she was being paranoid, but she expected Laika to be dangerous, teeming with monsters, bandits, and all sorts of nasty encounters.

At least, that’s how it was in Lone World Online. She needed a way to defend herself.

So, she checked the description and quests of the other two.

Dark Bolt:

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Sacrifice lifeforce to cast a needle of dark magic that corrupts the lifeforce of its target.
Each level increases the power behind the needle.

“This is going to kill me.” In the game, the warlock archetype was built on three pillars: summoning, curses, and dark magic. Emptying her health bar to damage enemies was fine when it was virtual. Obviously less so in real life.

As for the last pillar…

Inflict Weakness:

Applies a curse of weakness to the target.

Each level increases the duration and potency of the curse.

This was better. Useful. Not a danger to her health.

But the skill quest was nasty.