84 – Intentions

Kam flinched when Alexandra stepped back into the room. He looked back and she met his gaze with a smile.

“I have one more thing to do,” she said, rushing back to her seat.

She laid her journal on the table and flipped the pages to her class perk selection.

Three new options.

“Good news?” Kam asked, returning to his book.

She nodded. “Level up.”

“Congratulations.” He paused. “Will you trade your robes?”

“Not yet. I’m only level four.”

He didn’t answer. She read the first option.

Contribution Points – Replace all non-daily quest rewards with contribution points. Contribution points can be traded for rewards of your choosing. The number of awarded contribution points is equivalent to the value of the original reward.

She had to read it again to understand. If she got it right, it meant that she would get to choose the reward of her event quests instead of it being automatically assigned.

Alexandra flipped back to her status.

[Giant Slayer] (Rare) – 2

[Curse Unraveling] (Uncommon) – 3

Those two skills and a few attribute points. She tapped her fingers on the table. Having a choice was always better. She was just trying to calculate how much better it would be.

She was happy with Curse Unraveling. Considering her situation, she would have probably picked it anyway. Since the perk said that the reward’s total value was the same, she would have been able to afford it.

Though, it raised the question of what reward would be available for purchase.

Could she save contribution points for later use? If so, how much would she need to save for an epic skill or for something better?

Giant Slayer was a good skill, but if she could choose, she would have taken something else, and she wasn’t sure it was a good thing.

Maybe the system knew better.

She shook her head. She didn’t want to let the system, whatever it was, control her life. Choosing her rewards was good.

Except she didn’t have any event quests in the pipeline. Sure, there was the one she’d received after speaking with Raymond, but it required her to reach Platinum.

She counted with her fingers. Each rank had her upgrade all her perks and get a new one. Bronze was level five, Silver level ten, Gold level seventeen. Twenty-six. She’d need to reach level twenty-six to finish that quest.

It would take years.

She reset her count. If each level needed fifty more experiences than the last…

“Four years and a half,” she whispered.

Kam looked up.

“Never mind,” she said.

He returned to his book.

There was a good chance she would receive another event quest before then. But it was betting on uncertainty.

She decided to look at her other choices before making a decision.

Reroll – Once a day, reroll your daily quest.

Alexandra knew that one, she’d almost taken it at level two. She would have regretted it, Event Quests proved to be much more valuable.

Well, that was in part because she didn’t fail a single quest. She might feel differently about her choice if she had lost her streak.

Just thinking about losing her streak bumped her desire for Reroll a few notches up. It wasn’t a guarantee she would never fail a quest, but it was better than nothing.

She read the final option.

Streak Enhancement – Improve the bonuses received for each streak milestone. Applies retroactively to all streak milestones that have already been achieved.

Yes, some protection for her streak was nice. Yes, the ability to choose rewards sounded cool. But a better, enhanced streak? The notion itself felt blasphemous.

Her streak could, and would, get longer. But it would never get a qualitative improvement unless she took this perk.

She had to restrain herself not to pick that perk right away.

Calm down, Alex. No impulsivity. Think rationally.

“Fuck.”

“What?” Kam asked.

“Good perks. Can’t choose.”

He nodded. “Understandable.”

Okay, the first argument against taking this perk is that it doesn’t tell me how it will improve my bonuses.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

So far, she was getting 2% to all stats. Since none of her attributes were above fifty, it did absolutely nothing. Not even one extra point.

But it was her streak. Her fucking streak. If she didn’t choose the thing that made her streak better, was she even still herself?

The case for Contribution Points was clear. She wanted that perk. But she didn’t know when she would be able to benefit from it. It could be months, or worse, in which case she’d already have leveled up several times.

She discarded Reroll entirely. She wasn’t the kind of person who missed quests, anyway. But the presence of Reroll in her list meant that perks could be offered a second time, which sealed the deal for her.

She wouldn’t benefit from Contribution Points now, so she would take it later.

It wasn’t an excuse to get a shinier streak.

It really wasn’t.

She selected Streak Enhancement.

Diligent Quester II -> Insistent Quester II

Insistent Quester II: Reach a 25-day daily quest streak. +2% All stats, +2% skill experience.

She stood up, looked at Kam.

He met her gaze.

“Ever heard of skill experience?” she asked.

He didn’t blink. “Who hasn’t?”

“Is it what I think it is?”

He shrugged. “It’s used to quantify how much you need to train to level up a skill.”

She nodded. Just as she thought.

“Then, is a 2% skill experience boost good?”

He put his book down. “Which skill?”