“Excuse me,” Maynard said as the carriage jolted slightly. Instantly Adam and Tommy turned towards him, the look plastered on both their faces showing they would rather not deal with him at all. “I just discovered the detailed statistics screen and was wondering if you knew whether the crit number is a percentage or a flat number that indicates something else.”
“Is that all?” Adam asked, his voice dripping with derision, “It’s a percentage, but with the one or two percent crit chance that people enter the Ringlands with, you’ll be lucky if you crit once in fifty strikes. That is why your power is worthless.”
“Thanks,” Maynard replied, trying to make his face look as calm as possible. Did I hear that right? As he looked back over his stats, he began wondering if his gauge for what was good had been calibrated properly. He knew that the higher a number the better, but he had assumed that any number marked as 10 was average, like in Dungeons and Dragons. Is crit chance different? It might be a derivative stat, based on something else… I’m going to have to try and find out what Callum or Philippe’s stats are to compare. Looking at the group as they chatted amongst themselves, Maynard focused on the two other newbies for a moment before coming to his decision about which he would target, however before he could make any further plans, the carriage rumbled to a stop and their unseen coachman got out, opening the door for them.
Maynard was the last to step out, but as he did so Adam pushed him against the carriage and growled at him, “Don’t you dare f*** this up for us. Just stay out of our way and you’ll be fine, but if you dare to get in my way, then I will turn every single person in this camp against you. Don’t think I can’t.”
Before Maynard could even respond, he had walked off to catch up with the other three ringbearers. Maynard gritted his teeth as he moved away from the carriage, following after the people who had just left him behind. He tapped his wrist and began thinking about his missions when a new screen popped into his vision.
So this is the mission screen that Adam was talking about… Tannerfield monastery, Professor Lockley, Illham… As he read the name he stopped walking. He stood still for ten seconds, before whispering, “There’s no way right?”
Looking around, he took stock of the location of the sun and then made his way to the closest person he could see. One of the miners was sitting on a low wall with a hardhat by his side. Nodding at Maynard, he continued to wipe his face with a rough cloth as he sat in the afternoon sun. “Afternoon, pallie,” he said as Maynard approached, “How can I help you?”
“This might sound like a weird question,” Maynard replied as he pointed to the north, “But is the river Nene that way?”
The miner looked in the direction that Maynard was pointing and nodded, “Yessir, that’s the way to the river, and to Tannerfield. You needing anything else?”
“No, thanks for your help. I’m Mayn, I’m one of the professor’s assistants.”
“Nice to meet you, Mayn, my name’s Harry. I’m just a miner though. It’s not as fancy as a professor’s assistant.” The man gave Maynard a smile as he ruffled his dirty, chestnut coloured hair.
“Say, Harry, do you know anything about the ruins that were uncovered?”
“That I do, Mayn, what would you like to know?”
“Nothing right now, but would I be able to chat with you about it later? I need to meet the professor first before we do any investigation.”
“That’s perfectly fine,” Harry said with a smile, “I’m on cover duty tonight, so I’ll be on site until tomorrow morning.”
“That’s perfect,” Maynard replied, “Thanks for the chat, but I’m going to have to catch up with the other assistants. I don’t want to make the professor mad.”
“I saw the professor by the entrance of the mine not two minutes before you arrived. He should be talking to foreman Ambrose near there.”
“Thanks, Harry,” Maynard said as he walked away. Following after the footsteps of the other ringbearers would have been hard, but with Harry’s directions Maynard found them in short order. They were standing outside a red brick building that seemed to be the foreman’s office, but from the way they were standing and the fact that Maynard could see two people talking inside the building, he had assumed that he had gotten lucky. As Maynard walked up to join the group, Adam gave him a sour look and Tommy ignored him, but Philippe and Callum gave him a nervous smile and a small nod respectively.
It seems that Adam and Tommy haven’t completely managed to convince them that I’m useless just yet, he thought to himself. The question is, should I let them know about this place, or should I keep quiet?Tommy and Adam don’t exactly inspire compliance though, and if I tell either of them anything they will probably just pass it on… I guess I’ll just keep quiet for the moment.
As Maynard came to his conclusion, the door opened and a plump, red faced man in a tweed suit stuck a top hat on his head and growled back into the office, “We’ll see about that!” He turned and looked at the group before him and smiled. “Are you the group that was sent by the university,” he asked in a much kinder tone than earlier.
“Yes professor,” Adam replied, “Though I must admit we were not told much about the ruins.”
“That’s no surprise. There’s not much known about the ruins as they were only found a few days ago, but the foreman insists that the entire place is cursed.” He tutted and began walking too and fro in front of the group, “The fool wanted to send in the occultists from Illham, but I am a man from Trinity Hall Cambridge and I’ll be damned if I let that quack Dickens have first look at a possible pre-Celtic ruin. The man wouldn’t know a Celtic knot if you hit him in the face with it. Either way, I’m here, and you’re here to help me, not Dickens. Now, let me have a look at you all.”
The professor peered closely at all five of the ringbearers, before smiling, “Hmm, what a diverse bunch, an Oriental, a Prussian, two Brits and someone from the Aegean. I’ll keep the Oriental chap with me for now, I’m very curious about the region he’s from so we have much to discuss. The rest of you have an hour or so to settle in, but after that I want you to meet back here as we’re going into the mines. The foreman refuses to send in any workers after dark, so that’s a perfect time for us to explore the ruins in their entirety.”
As the professor motioned for the Asian man to join his side, Adam took a step forward and asked, “Professor Lockley, I was wondering whether you would be able to spare five minutes to enlighten me on your findings so far, I’m curious to learn what makes you so sure that this is a pre-Celtic ruin specifically.”
“I’d love to tell you, young chap,” Lockley replied with a wan smile, “But I’d rather you settled in for now. We can go over it on our way down to the site. I admire your drive to learn, but there’s a time and place for everything.”
Adam’s smile gradually slid off his face before he quickly recovered to his standard, slightly aloof sneer. He nodded politely towards the professor before walking back towards the carriage with Callum hot on his heels. A warm feeling filled Maynard’s chest as he watched the man who had snubbed him get snubbed in return but he did not dwell on it. Instead, he moved towards the lost-looking Philippe and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Excuse me,” he said, “Philippe right?”
“Yeah, and you’re Mayn,” Philippe replied cautiously.
“I am. I was wondering if I could ask you something. I need to verify something about my stats and I was wondering if you could tell me yours.” Seeing Philippe still acting stand-offish, Maynard tried the next trick in his playbook, “I’m still trying to work out a way to use my useless ability. If you could help me with this it would mean a lot.”
Philippe scratched his cheek as he looked at Maynard before dropping his shoulders with a sigh, “What do I need to do?”
Maynard gave a quick glance to the area around them before motioning that they should move out of the main road. They moved out of the muddy road and beside the foreman’s building before Maynard spoke. As he leaned against the red-brick wall, he popped open his own stats screen and said, “I just need to know what the numbers are on your detailed stat screen. Not your level or HP, but rather your primary stats like Strength, Dexterity and such.”
“Okay,” Philippe replied, “That’s not too much of an ask. I have 12 strength, 10 dexterity, 8 constitution, 17 intelligence, 14 wisdom, 12 charisma, 3 luck, 4 critical, and 5 perception. Does that help?”
“Yes, actually.” Maynard quickly scribbled the numbers down in the ground in front of them. He could not help but feel that the stats that he had been given, as well as the stats that Philippe had were something he had seen before. He racked his brain, focusing on the first six numbers that Philippe had given him. “This is almost the standard array…” he whispered.
“What did you say?”
“So there’s this thing in some tabletop role playing games called the standard array, which is a simple way to weight stats and spread them evenly. I think whatever deity is playing with us has used an array to simplify things.”
“So you’re saying we’re in some kind of game?”
