Maynard jolted slightly as he found himself stuck in a carriage with four other men, two looking equally as disoriented as he did, and two who looked slightly more comfortable in their own situations. Instantly he mentally tagged the two who looked more comfortable as veteran ringbearers. He did not know why but there was something that instinctively allowed him to know that every single person in the carriage was a ringbearer like him.
As he looked around, the silence gradually became more tense, until the Mediterranean man that sat across from Maynard broke and asked, “Are… are you all from the Forge?”
“Yes,” the wiry Asian man who sat next to him responded. He was one of the two that Maynard had tagged as a veteran, someone that Maynard knew he had to be on guard against. “This is my third mission. You can call me Tommy Chen. I’m a Weapon Master and my ability is Soul Sunder, which allows me to ignore damage reduction when I attack someone.”
Instantly the other veteran, a bulky man with brown hair who looked like he was in his early twenties, spoke, “I’m Adam. I’m a Courtesan and my ability is Fareweather Friend, which lets me invert my relationship score with the unringed, turning friend to foe or foe to friend. I can see that you three haven’t been wholly clued in, so let me give you a quick rundown. You see the mark on your wrist?” He said, raising his left hand and pointing to the three interlocked rings, “Touch this, and you’ll start up your HUD. If you think about your vital statistics then you will be able to see a panel that lists your name and your ability. Every single ringbearer has one, but some are more useful than others.”
“So why don’t you tell us yours?” Tommy asked with a smile that made Maynard feel uncomfortable.
Immediately, Maynard touched his wrist and looked at the screen that popped up in his vision. So that’s what Kai meant when she was talking about the sub-dermal implant. I really should have asked her about it. The screen in his vision was a simple blue panel that listed off his name, level, health, class and ability.
So my ability is called Ramp, huh? I wonder what it does… The moment he thought about it, the box expanded and the definition popped up. ‘Damage output set to 1. Every crit made by you doubles damage output. Resets after combat ends.’ As he read the ability, his heart dropped. The words ‘Damage set to 1’ and ‘Resets after combat ends’ caused Maynard to balk instinctively. His ability had kneecapped him at the starting line, and while it could become strong in the future, he was sorely doubting whether he would be able to get to that point.
The young blond man in the far corner leaned forwards nervously and said, “My name is Callum Alberts, and my ability is called Midas Armour. It turns my flesh into gold, doubles my damage reduction and halves my movement speed.”
“A natural tank!” said Tommy excitedly, grabbing Callum by the shoulders and hugging him, “You’re a rare one, kiddo. I’ll look out for you.”
Callum gave Tommy a wan smile in return as he retreated from the limelight. Following Callum, the Mediterranean man who had broken the silence earlier said, “My name is Philippe Salencia, and my power is called Arcane Arblest.”
“I know that one,” Adam said, cutting Philippe off, “All ability and spell costs are doubled, but the effect is also doubled. It’s a well known ability, and a popular one to boot. You’re lucky, friend. What about you?”
As Adam turned to his right, Maynard gritted his teeth and said, “Call me Mayn. My ability isn’t much. It’s called Ramp, and it doubles my damage every time I score a crit, but my damage is reset to 1 after combat.”
Instantly, Adam’s face fell. He sneered, turned back to Tommy, and said, “Well, we have two useful partners at least. Do we all have the same quest?”
“I was told I had to explore an underground cavern and conquer the tomb that was within,” said Callum.
“Same as me then,” said Adam, “Philippe? Tommy?”
“We don’t match, I have to destroy any records of the ruins within the mines.”
“I have that as well,” said Philippe nervously.
Maynard balked as they all spoke. None of them had goals matching his. Is someone lying? Or has this group just been set up with the explicit task of buggering me? As Maynard kept quiet, the group gradually turned towards him, and stared. He swallowed and said, “I thought you wouldn’t want to know about me, but my task is the same as Philippe’s and Tommy’s.”
“Idiot,” Adam snapped, “We need to check whether your quest runs counter to ours. As it doesn’t you can just sit back, stay out of our way and get on with your life. You won’t be getting any loot from us, but at least you keep your life intact, you know?”
“Sure,” Maynard replied bitterly. As the carriage rumbled on towards its eventual target, Maynard could feel the vibe of the group quickly turn against him. He did not know what his plans were, beyond completing his quest and getting out, but he knew that the revelation of his useless ability had completely ruined any chance of him working with people.
“Something worth noting is that you may have other missions you can perform,” Adam said as he returned to ignoring Maynard’s existence entirely. “If they contradict your primary mission then simply ignore them. The primary mission is a must, as if you fail it after your initial mission you will probably die. There are some circumstances that mean you can have a second primary mission, but do not bet on that happening.”
“How do we check our missions?” Callum asked.
“Same as with your vital statistics. Touch your sub-dermal implant, think about your missions, and a box will pop into your line of sight showing you what you need to know. Usually you’ll have three or four along with your primary mission, so don’t worry about missing a single quest if it clashes with the important one.”
“The last thing you should know about is the storage space,” said Tommy, “Any object in this world that you can touch and pick up with your own strength can go into a personal storage space you have. Be warned though, newbies like you only start with a cubic meter of space, so don’t get overzealous with the crap you put in there.”
“Can we see a list of what’s in the storage space if we touch our sub-dermal implant and think about it?” Callum asked.
“Now you’re getting the hang of things,” said Adam, “You can only see the name and the volume though. If you want to get any information about the object you generally need to speak to Kai or find yourself someone with the Analysis skill.”
“Kai charges a fixed amount, but it’s pretty expensive. Ringbearer analysts are generally cheaper, but can be hard to find. It’s basically a pick your poison situation,” Tommy added, “Is there anything else pressing they need to know?”
“Not that I can think of, except perhaps, if you find an object that calls itself a tome, or a skill book then don’t use it immediately. Skills and tomes are complex. They’re single use, they aren’t one size fits all, but are worth more than their weight in gold, so think about what you want to do with the skill before you just use it.”
As the group began talking about their general plans to complete their missions, Maynard began to tune them out and look at the rolling scenery that went by out their window. Where the hell am I going to find a skill book that can substitute for my defective ability? The fields Maynard could see stretched out towards a forest and a cliff in the distance. Atop the cliff was a dilapidated monastery that gave him a feeling of unease. It stuck out in the skyline like a clown at a funeral, but every time he tried to look at it his sight seemed to slide off it. It was wrong, and he could tell from miles away.
As he looked at the monastery in the distance, Maynard began thinking about how to make himself stronger, but with every idea he had it always came back to the question of how he would make use of his ability. In the end, there were three options for him. The first, and most obvious was that he could find a way to get strong in spite of his ability. If he did that, it would be a waste, but would allow him to progress in the short term. The second was that he went all in on critical damage, but with his lack of information on how common items and abilities that boosted the chance to perform critical strikes were, he could not commit to this. The final option, and the one that Maynard found most appealing was to maximise his chances to make attacks. If I increase my survivability to absurd levels, then not only will I be able to take on most things that try to hurt me, I might be able to increase my damage to levels that are reasonable. I guess I just need to focus on becoming tanky, the question now is how? Absentmindedly, he began tapping his wrist, watching his stats pop in and out of his vision. If only I could see a more detailed version of my stats… The moment he thought this, a second pop-up appeared in his sight.
Are you kidding me? He rubbed his temples as he tried not to yell out loud. This was not everything he needed to know, but it did help him a lot. Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, Luck, Critical Chance, Perception, Hit Points, Magic Power, Damage Reduction, and Magic Reduction. This really is gamified, but it seems like I’m already slightly built towards tanking, which is helpful. What does that ‘crit’ category mean? Is it a percentage chance or some nebulous number that stacks up with something else? I need to ask someone…
