Those Blessed with Talent

[Xicree]

We are too slow, if we trust she can dodge and head for the kill, a spear is a great wepon for keeping the enemy at range, but if we miss a hit we are "dead". If we attack with Autumnt from the front, he can cover up holes in our defense.

Click to shrink...

Remember a spear isn't Only the blade, it's the shaft as well. Which can be used in defensive and counter offensive maneuvers. If we miss an attack the spear allows for a wide range of defenses even if an enemy gets too close to kill with it directly.

 

[PineTreeq]

[X] Spear
Plans
[X] Analyze the enemy. You and Autumn will split up and surround Winter Breeze. You will try to keep her attention with your weapon by thrust attacks, while Autumn will attack from behind using Presence Concealment 1.
-[X] Utilize the length of your weapon to play keep away, while attempting to lure and your opponent into attempting to cross into your guard, using those moments to have Autumn attack directly. If she acts too wary about Autumn then use that also to your advantage, to press the attack... with a bit of distance.
Changing vote

 

[hunter09]

Choose a weapon
[X] Spear

Plans

[X] Analyze the enemy. You and Autumn will split up and surround Winter Breeze. You will try to keep her attention with your weapon by thrust attacks, while Autumn will attack from behind using Presence Concealment 1.
-[X] Utilize the length of your weapon to play keep away, while attempting to lure and your opponent into attempting to cross into your guard, using those moments to have Autumn attack directly. If she acts too wary about Autumn then use that also to your advantage, to press the attack... with a bit of distance.

 

[Darkened]

Since everyone's voting to use analyze, I'll be nice and assume you're clever enough to use it while choosing your weapon instead of waiting for the fight to begin.

I'll also be nice enough to remind you, that even though you rolled badly, the question marks still give you the correct number of digits.

Name: Winter Breeze
Sex: Female
Age: ??
Level: ??
Class: Warrior
Specialty: Clever Knife
Rank: C+
HP: ??/??
MP: ??/??

 

[redaeth]

Name: Winter Breeze
Sex: Female
Age: ??
Level: ??
Class: Warrior
Specialty: Clever Knife
Rank: C+
HP: ??/??
MP: ??/??

Click to shrink...

Interesting. We roll dice for analyze.

Most important thing I think is that she is in the double digits for level. So it should be no surprise that we are hideously outmatched.

Other things to note. She is a warrior, she is going to be better at fighting then us, even discounting level. Clever knife implies a preference for short blades and trickery\deception.

.... I don't think our flank attack is going to work. Though honestly I can't think of what will. It's our first fight as an Adventurer after all.

 

[Darkened]

Interesting. We roll dice for analyze.

Click to shrink...

Perception specifically.

 

[redaeth]

I wonder which is more likely to be true. The young idiot knew exactly what he was implying with whatever story he told, or he did not?

I'm guessing he alluded to attempted rape since the reactions seem a bit overboard for a beating or something similar.

 

[redaeth]

[/SIZE]

Click to shrink...

Misplaced this on the idiots sheet.

Oh my god.
Oh My God.

The idiot part still fits. The young does not. We really gotta use analyze on him IC at one point or another. Little Bee's reaction is going to be spectacular.

 

[Larekko12]

[X]Battle Fork and Shield
[X]Poke at her cuatiously and attract attention while Autumn flanks.

 

[derkan]

What about an Hallberd ?

 

[wayne82444]

I have to wonder if I'm the only one whose first thought was to try a claw based weapon. One of the skills we already have lets us transform our hands into claws, so learning how to fight with them would be good for when we get enough MP to use them regularly.

Also is the Idiot's stat sheet a joke? I find it kind of hard to believe, given that he is listed as being a "divine" class, and the info post after says "Likewise, religious doctrine states that a "deity" class exists above the three categories and is reserved for heavenly beings". Also 11 growth in luck is kind of insane, especially when you consider he is at level 724. Speaking of which, "In practice, those beyond level 200 are shockingly rare, and even the oldest and most powerful masters and legendary monsters do not rise higher than 500" is also in the info post.

 

[drake_azathoth]

Choose a weapon
[X] Spear
Plans
[X] Analyze the enemy.
[X] You will try to keep her attention with your weapon by thrust attacks, trying to circle her and prevent her from closing, while Autumn will attempt to use Presence Concealment to avoid notice until he can attack from behind. If attacked, he is to retreat for another go.
-[X] Utilize the length of your weapon to attack and then play keep away, while attacking more aggressively when Autumn distracts her. If she turns her attention away from you and toward Autumn, attack fiercely but don't overcommit and lose your weapon's range.

 

[Darkened]

Also is the Idiot's stat sheet a joke?

Click to shrink...

Trust your instincts and decide for yourself.

 

[Wawv]

Choose a weapon
[X] Spear
Plans
[X] Analyze the enemy. You and Autumn will split up and surround Winter Breeze. You will try to keep her attention with your weapon by thrust attacks, while Autumn will attack from behind using Presence Concealment 1.
-[X] Utilize the length of your weapon to play keep away, while attempting to lure and your opponent into attempting to cross into your guard, using those moments to have Autumn attack directly. If she acts too wary about Autumn then use that also to your advantage, to press the attack... with a bit of distance.

 

[redaeth]

Also is the Idiot's stat sheet a joke? I find it kind of hard to believe, given that he is listed as being a "divine" class, and the info post after says "Likewise, religious doctrine states that a "deity" class exists above the three categories and is reserved for heavenly beings". Also 11 growth in luck is kind of insane, especially when you consider he is at level 724. Speaking of which, "In practice, those beyond level 200 are shockingly rare, and even the oldest and most powerful masters and legendary monsters do not rise higher than 500" is also in the info post.

Click to shrink...

His class is Scout actually. Its his specialty that has the word Divine in it... and for a Chinese based system that doesn't actually mean he is divinity. Just that it is powerful or unique in some manner.

As for the rest... my inclination is to believe it. Though we might want to cast Analyze on him in the future. It'd be one way to learn his name IC. (Though if it had been added a bit earlier then I'd definitely say oh, tis an April Fools joke.)

 

[Sirrocco]

The question here is what weapon we're going to study. We have a natural claw attack, which we cannot be deprived of. We have one skill that we can buy currently, and likely will develop more, that are special attacks only usable with claw attacks. Our class may wind up giving us similar non-claw beast-attacks from other beasts, but it won't give us any sort of special weapon-based attacks. Also, we have a decent growth rate for affinity, but our current stat in it is 0. Honestly, I think we'd be best off just using the claws that our partner has shared with us. Perhaps after our affinity has gotten high enough, we can invest in some sort of magical claw weapon, assuming it's better than our bare hands.

[X] Weapons are for people who don't have bestial shapeshifting powers. We'll use our claws.

For the idiot... I do not believe that he has a charisma of 0. I don't buy it. I also note that if true, it's things we haven't learned yet... and I don't think that our QM would give us that sort of information without us finding it out for ourselves.

Worth noting that there *are* personal skills that do funny things to appraise.

 

[redaeth]

[X] Weapons are for people who don't have bestial shapeshifting powers. We'll use our claws.

Click to shrink...

Problem with this is we only have 5 mana, and we just used 1 for analyze. Tiger Claws uses 5.

For the idiot... I do not believe that he has a charisma of 0. I don't buy it. I also note that if true, it's things we haven't learned yet... and I don't think that our QM would give us that sort of information without us finding it out for ourselves.

Click to shrink...

He doesn't have 0 charisma, he has a growth of 1. Meaning it can't raise it naturally, but he can do it normally. Either through training or stat raising through XP. Given how old he is and how much experience he probably has he probably spends all his XP on stat raising. He really doesn't have many skills after all.

 

[Sirrocco]

Problem with this is we only have 5 mana, and we just used 1 for analyze. Tiger Claws uses 5.

He doesn't have 0 charisma, he has a growth of 1. Meaning it can't raise it naturally, but he can do it normally. Either through training or stat raising through XP. Given how old he is and how much experience he probably has he probably spends all his XP on stat raising. He really doesn't have many skills after all.

Click to shrink...

On the claws: agh. Good point. Still might be worth grabbing a claw-like weapon, though. Perhaps claw and shield?

On the charisma... it looks like a 0 to me. The intelligence looks downright negative. The MP of 0 seems implausible. Basically, for a number off reasons, I don't buy it.

 

[Darkened]

Not going to weigh on on whether that sheet's real or not, but, I did figure I would quote this.

Level is the most basic representation of power. Measured between 1 and 1000, level denotes
'fulfillment of one's potential'. In practice, those beyond level 200 are shockingly rare, and even the oldest and most powerful masters and legendary monsters do not rise higher than 500.

Click to shrink...

Also his stat currently lists his intelligence as negative 4 stars, though that might be a typo.

(Incidentally, while 1 star is summarized as no growth, if you do manage to get into the 100+ range you should actually see fairly consistent small gains. It's more like, when charisma gets to the point where you're gaining 18+ a level, you'd be getting maybe 2 strength. The core (simple) mechanics I'm using went a little bit off when it was left literally unchanging, so a notional level 1000 character could still expect a bit over 1000ish strength on the whole, which would be utterly useless on things at your own weight-class but still monstrous by any sane standard.)

Edit: Oh right, vote locked. Winner seems pretty obvious.

(Regarding the fact that the Idiot has very few skills, I'll note that high level skills frequently evolve or change forms, often combining or cannibalizing other skills to create a better gestalt. It is notionally plausible that someone might combine 10-20 distinct perception related skills into some crazy enlightenment/local omniscience ability.)

For example, one evolution path would be to raise Analysis past rank 5 and then combine it with Battlefield Awareness to create an upgrade that gives you intuitive understanding of the ability and conditions of everyone around you with a scale and granularity determined by perception.

 

[Sirrocco]

Are these skill evolution paths pre-set, or can we come up with plausible suggestions ourselves, pitch them, and get them implemented?

Do skill merges always happen between skills of the same stat, or can you get cross-stat merges? Do they mix across types? (ie, personal, event, base, supplementary, and studied?)

Also, because I figure this is something we might know (or at least have had a chance to ask), do Bestial Adepts generally fight unarmed, or do they commonly use weapons? Are they known to ever develop in-class weapon-based skills?

For skillcrafting purposes, I'll note that we currently have the following perception-like skills available

- Analyze: read stats
- Comprehend: comprehend moods and natures of beast monsters
- Cat's Eye: increases visual acuity and allows you to see in total darkness
There's also Shadow Affinity (which makes us more adapted to shadow) and Presence Concealment (stealth) which might fit together, or with some of the other of these.

Tiger Claw and Shadow Affinity also look like they might fit together in interesting ways... which might also feed into some sort of a combo with Presence Concealment. Given that Autumn Shade is basically a tiny, fuzzy ninja....

 

[Darkened]

Are these skill evolution paths pre-set, or can we come up with plausible suggestions ourselves, pitch them, and get them implemented?

Click to shrink...

In universe all skills are predetermined via mechanisms I'm not going to spoil.

OOCly you're never going to get a complete skill-tree or a list of all event skills in an area because it's always possible that I'll have an idea or someone will give me a good suggestion.

ICly many combinations/evolutions/etc will be obvious. Some few may be studied even if the component skills were not (Requiring you to experiment or practice to fuse those skills together)

I'll go ahead and say that anyone is welcome to suggest fusions/new skills/unlocks/etc though I reserve the right to tinker as desired and use or not use anything posted in this thread for such purposes with or without any announcement.

Do skill merges always happen between skills of the same stat, or can you get cross-stat merges? Do they mix across types? (ie, personal, event, base, supplementary, and studied?)

Click to shrink...

Same stat mergers are vastly more common, just because it's generally easy to see how analyze synergizes with something like the power to appraise objects. A lot of skill fusions are mostly ways to keep the character sheet down in size (And will give a small benefit to make them worth using).

Skills that use different stats or simply provide a fixed effect may exist.

Also, because I figure this is something we might know (or at least have had a chance to ask), do Bestial Adepts generally fight unarmed, or do they commonly use weapons? Are they known to ever develop in-class weapon-based skills?

Click to shrink...

The specialty is rare enough that no one would know much about it beyond what their own sensing skills can guess. It's one that won't exist below A rank.

Shapeshifting generally would preclude a lot of common weapon strategies, or be an alternative to it. You do have the affinity stat to be quite solid with most conventional weapons.

I will say that no core skill you have requires a weapon, but, say, many of the feline skills could be used with fighting claws or the like, tiger claw is perfectly valid for all of them. Similar outcomes may exist for other trees you unlock.

If you really want to focus on a particular weapon, your easiest method would be to research, find and bind a beast with an actual connection to that particular weapon or work on studied skills that mesh will with your other stats.

- Analyze: read stats
- Comprehend: comprehend moods and natures of beast monsters
- Cat's Eye: increases visual acuity and allows you to see in total darkness
There's also Shadow Affinity (which makes us more adapted to shadow) and Presence Concealment (stealth) which might fit together, or with some of the other of these.

Tiger Claw and Shadow Affinity also look like they might fit together in interesting ways... which might also feed into some sort of a combo with Presence Concealment. Given that Autumn Shade is basically a tiny, fuzzy ninja....

Click to shrink...

Shadow Affinity is mostly a gateway to learning your shadow skill tree. IE: While its useful on its own, it probably won't fuse directly with things. You might combine it with other skills that boost your natural connection to an element or that passively make you more shadowy. (A high level intangibility skill could give you Shadow Body and make Little Bee into a sapient variable dimensional shadow for example.)

Little Bee's shadow element skill tree is full of stealth skills and the like which can fuse within and outside those skills. Conventional invisibility is filtered under shadow, though there are other skills that allow it to work.

That said, skill fusion is one path and it's not one that you need to go crazy with if you don't want.

 

[PineTreeq]

Changing my vote
[X]Fighting claw
(No idea about a plan, someone else can do that)

 

[redaeth]

Changing my vote
[X]Fighting claw
(No idea about a plan, someone else can do that)

Click to shrink...

Vote was closed a couple days ago.

Edit: Oh right, vote locked. Winner seems pretty obvious.

Click to shrink...

 

[PineTreeq]

Oh, didn't notice that.

 

[redaeth]

Oh, didn't notice that.

Click to shrink...

Eh not a big deal, its buried in the middle of a post on a different topic entirely. So I'm not surprised it got overlooked.

 

[Sirrocco]

The specialty is rare enough that no one would know much about it beyond what their own sensing skills can guess. It's one that won't exist below A rank.

Click to shrink...

So... check me if I'm wrong on this.
- The specialty doesn't exist below A rank.
- One gets one's specialty when one hits age 10, along with everything else. Thus, it's only available to those who *start* at the fabled A rank. (or is there a B rank specialty that could somehow grow naturally into it? If so, would we be able to get any insight based on the people who use *that* specialty?)
- B+ up to A- is considered "once a generation" by little bee, though she's not exactly well-informed on the matter.
- on the flip side, WoQM has noted that the number of natural As at any given time is less than 10. Let's be generous and say 9. Let's further assume for the moment that the average lifespan of a martial A is about 25. A rank should certainly help you live to a ripe old age if nothing kills you - but it also makes you generally inclined to go out and do things that might kill you. Let's further assume that natural A ranks are at any given time split evenly between martial, tradesman, and utility (suggesting a significantly higher rate of martial A births than the other two, given that they're also likely to die off faster). Note that my assumptions are at each point biased in favor of having more individual martial As out there doing stuff and gettign recorded than might otherwise be the case. Now note that we had 11 picks available, based on our stat chocies (ie, cha-only and cha/other). Now, leader would be heavy on the charisma (a bit), but let's jsut make a rough estimate of, on average, each of the 5 types having 2 full-stat of each stat, and 1 cross-stat of each pairing in the 8 (so 44 total... make it 48 to even things out a touch). So... roughly 240 viable A rank subclasses for martial. Every 25 years, you can expect to see about 3 of them hit age 10. On average, based on this math, you'll see a natural-born Bestial Adept about once every 2000 years... somewhere in the world.

Huh. That's a thing.

 

[Darkened]

So... check me if I'm wrong on this.
- The specialty doesn't exist below A rank.

Click to shrink...

Correct

- One gets one's specialty when one hits age 10, along with everything else. Thus, it's only available to those who *start* at the fabled A rank. (or is there a B rank specialty that could somehow grow naturally into it? If so, would we be able to get any insight based on the people who use *that* specialty?)

Click to shrink...

Only available to those who start at A rank. There may be similar specialties (And even similar specialties under classes that aren't leader) but they won't be quite the same. Looking into the rough nature of those with similar abilities might or might not be useful.

- B+ up to A- is considered "once a generation" by little bee, though she's not exactly well-informed on the matter.

Click to shrink...

She's really not.

- on the flip side, WoQM has noted that the number of natural As at any given time is less than 10. Let's be generous and say 9. Let's further assume for the moment that the average lifespan of a martial A is about 25. A rank should certainly help you live to a ripe old age if nothing kills you

Click to shrink...

Right now there's 6ish A ranked adventurers alive in the empire. 5 of them are martial, which isn't a particularly representative sample. 4 of them are part of Little Bee's generation. I will clarify and say that this is only for humans in the empire. If we count stuff above A as well as raid bosses and the like the number rises dramatically. (There are more than 8 living naturally S ranked monsters in the empire and its environs, though many are rather inactive or geographically bound.)
The general fates for those born at A rank end up something like:

• Die very early before your talent's really manifested at all
• Develop a bit of power and then proceed to the whole god complex/world domination/etc bit until hubris gets you killed
• Get strong enough and old/detached enough to leave the empire and wander elsewhere going into the really crazy stuff
• Maybe, rarely, die of old age, but that's avoidable.
• Or just live forever until something apocalyptic comes around and wipes out many of the powers that be (For example the rampage of some crazy raid boss type monster.)
• ?????

(Those born at A rank have much higher chances of dying young for the simple fact that anyone who tiers up has already beaten the odds on the whole don't die awfully before coming into your ability thing.)

- but it also makes you generally inclined to go out and do things that might kill you. Let's further assume that natural A ranks are at any given time split evenly between martial, tradesman, and utility (suggesting a significantly higher rate of martial A births than the other two, given that they're also likely to die off faster).

Click to shrink...

Martial classes do have a significantly higher birthrate at high tiers. They're not necessarily all that likely to die off faster.

Note that my assumptions are at each point biased in favor of having more individual martial As out there doing stuff and gettign recorded than might otherwise be the case. Now note that we had 11 picks available, based on our stat chocies (ie, cha-only and cha/other). Now, leader would be heavy on the charisma (a bit), but let's jsut make a rough estimate of, on average, each of the 5 types having 2 full-stat of each stat, and 1 cross-stat of each pairing in the 8 (so 44 total... make it 48 to even things out a touch). So... roughly 240 viable A rank subclasses for martial. Every 25 years, you can expect to see about 3 of them hit age 10. On average, based on this math, you'll see a natural-born Bestial Adept about once every 2000 years... somewhere in the world.

Huh. That's a thing.

Click to shrink...

To clarify, the set of subclasses isn't actually countable. In practice though, even at A rank, you'd be notionally more likely to see something like these 200-240ish (with something like the rest marking up another 3-4 places).

Accounting that you might see a warrior or scout with very similar abilities, yeah the numbers here look about right. Maybe a bit optimistic.

 

[Sirrocco]

Stuff

Click to shrink...

Fascinating.

Right now there's 6ish A ranked adventurers alive in the empire. 5 of them are martial, which isn't a particularly representative sample. 4 of them are part of Little Bee's generation.

Click to shrink...

So... 4 kids and Mu Zen? That kinda says something about the comparative numbers of natural As vs upgrading Bs
...and, if the idiot's writeup is to be believed at all, means that the Mu clan now holds the fealty of more than half of the A ranks in the empire, along with having the only one that's actual rather than potential. That's *also* a thing. If the emperor is indeed taking one of the two remaining A slots, that's even more of a thing.
...especially since there's a good chance that the emperor himself is filling out one of the other A slots. If the Mu family manages to hold on to Little Bee once her contract's up (which they look like they have a decent chance of doing - probably involving some sort of a marriage bond... possibly with the idiot?) they're well on track to maintaining their position for another generation or three.

Martial classes do have a significantly higher birthrate at high tiers. They're not necessarily all that likely to die off faster.

Click to shrink...

I'd meant more likely to die than other A tier types. Just seems like A rank artisans would be less likely to get into fights to the death than A rank warriors, for example.

Accounting that you might see a warrior or scout with very similar abilities, yeah the numbers here look about right. Maybe a bit optimistic.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I was going for a bit optimistic because I realized that it was going to be pretty egregious regardless. So, any previous examples of actual Bestial Adepts are going to be the stuff of myths and legends (barring some sort of B ranked sage type) but there will be similar classes that might well show up at B rank, and possibly even a few at C. There may also be a few stories of A ranked warriors/scouts who were kind of like Bestial adepts with somewhat different areas of focus.

- Pokemon classes - either leader types with a small pack or types from other classes that grab an animal companion or two.
--- good for learning about pack tactics with animal assistants
- Shapeshifter classes
--- good for learning about what sorts of tactics have worked in the past for combatants with our abilities. Sifting through these for the ones with low strength is going to maybe be a bit tricky, but worthwhile.
- beast-emulation classes - perhaps some sort of a B or C rank scout that observes and emulates animal types, or some sort of (animal)-style kung fu expert.
--- might have useful insight into what sorts of things we could learn from what sorts of animals. Especially useful if we identify some area of weakness we want to patch or strength we want to exploit, and want to know what animal type to go to to get skills to help us there.

There's almost certainly some sort of B or C-ranker who's basically a warrior-side bestial adept that only gets one animal, and would be well enough known that you could describe Bestial adept as "one of those guys, but they get a whole team rather than a single companion" and have people both know what you meant and be duly impressed.

 

[Darkened]

So... 4 kids and Mu Zen? That kinda says something about the comparative numbers of natural As vs upgrading Bs
...and, if the idiot's writeup is to be believed at all, means that the Mu clan now holds the fealty of more than half of the A ranks in the empire, along with having the only one that's actual rather than potential. That's *also* a thing. If the emperor is indeed taking one of the two remaining A slots, that's even more of a thing.
...especially since there's a good chance that the emperor himself is filling out one of the other A slots. If the Mu family manages to hold on to Little Bee once her contract's up (which they look like they have a decent chance of doing - probably involving some sort of a marriage bond... possibly with the idiot?) they're well on track to maintaining their position for another generation or three.

Click to shrink...

Errr....

6ish NATURAL A ranks. The missing word rather changes the meaning, sorry.

I'd meant more likely to die than other A tier types. Just seems like A rank artisans would be less likely to get into fights to the death than A rank warriors, for example.

 

[Darkened]

The spear: a wooden shaft with a spiky metal thing on top. As weapons go it's got reach, can be used as a staff or a club and is great for keeping people at a distance. More than that, spears are easy. There's not very much involved with figuring out that you jab people with the pointy part. They're simple to hold, simple to attack with and they'll let you work around the fact that your opponent towers over you. Against Winter Breeze's small but quick blade there's nothing you can think of that would be better, at least nothing you know about.

So you walk toward the rack of spears and grab the first one you see that's around your size. Swirls of silver and gold blend together across the shaft, leading to a black tip so dark it seems to drink in the light. A blood colored pennant dips down from the top. It's flashy, bold and utterly extravagant. Perfect. Lifting it, a struggle, you turn to examine—analyze rather—Winter Breeze before the fight begins. A quietly whispered skill name and a single point of MP tells you her level if not much else else.

C+ and 19... That's not as scary as it could be. At least you don't think it's that bad. Levels go up to 1000 so 19 can't be that impressive! It still sounds like an all but impossible wall. T-this is a punishment right? It's her secretly punishing you, it has to be! Cursing inside, you prepare to fall nobly on her sword, at least until she feels she's taken enough out of your hide for whatever she thinks happened before.

You heft the spear, wobbling slightly, and start to walk toward the room's center, ignoring how off it's starting to feel to hold the weapon. Your arms practically twitch and you have to fight the urge to drop it. The midnight-black tip looks more like wobbly paper than anything impressive or deadly.

"Affinity," Winter Breeze notes with something almost emotive enough to count as amusement, "Should determine your weapon's quality."

Regretfully you put the awesome spear back and grab one a bit less over the top. Holding it doesn't give you the same sensation that it might tear out your soul, but you still sense a somewhat off feeling. You try again, and again until you're holding something that's little more than a (not particularly) sharpened stick made for training.

Event Skill Unlocked: With Unworthy Hands: Know by sight when you won't be able to use an item.
​

Well, at least you're getting something out of this incoming torture. As reluctant as you are to go get beat half to death, you're more worried about so you bend down and whisper instructions to Autumn. Your cat purrs solemnly, and follows you to the center of the room. You guess that means he understands.

Winter Breeze lowers her knife for a moment, smiles at Autumn then bows slightly toward you. You mimic the gesture, before raising your spear.

"Good. Begin."

For this to work, you need Winter Breeze's attention on you. With Autumn staying well behind, you step toward your target, thrusting out with the spear as quickly as you can. Winter Breeze allows you to approach, staring calmly until your spear is inches away from her, then she knocks the spear's tip aside with her short sword and steps forward, sliding the short sword up to rap your hands. As you fumble the spear. Then she stomps on your foot and gives you a light push. Instinctively you try to step back, but the fact that Winter Breeze has your foot trapped sends you crashing down hard.

-2HP
+1XP
​

"Again. Commit less."

You bow then move into place before attacking again. This time you expect Winter Breeze to slip past your first attack and pull back your weapon after the first strike, turning to follow her frantically and jabbing again. Winter Breeze casually steps away from the first strike, and knocks aside the second. As you pull back the spear she steps forward. Her movements are odd, not so much fast as sudden as if you're sure she's moving one way and yet she ends up in another direction entirely.

It lets her slip past your outstretched spear again and the hilt of her blade finds a new home nestled in your forehead.

-1HP
+1XP
​

"Once more. Your advantage is reach, don't be afraid to retreat to maintain that reach. You have legs. Use them."

You rub your forehead and avoid looking at Autumn. You're not lasting long enough to give him a time to move yet.

"Widen your stance, keep your weight toward your back foot."

"Huh?" you look down, then try to fix your legs only to find Winter Breeze's fist burying itself in your solar plexus.

-2HP
​

"Never take your eyes off the enemy. Once more." her tone is emotionless, but you can't get rid of the faint sensation that you're being mocked. You sigh at that then quickly step away and try to assume a tougher stance.

You draw up your stance again and resume your attack. It's almost relaxing. You try (and fail) to land even a finger on Winter Breeze while she floats around your attacks, letting you exhaust yourself and occasionally telling you to change your form, or slipping in to deliver one blow that could easily be lethal. A light poke at your throat, a solid strike with the flat of her blade in the ribs and any number of things that make you really nervous given how sharp her knife looks.

Thinking about it carefully, it's not hard to understand how Winter fights. She uses the flexible short-sword dagger to parry, her impossible movements to close the distance and incredible precision to strike a single killing blow, waiting to strike until you give her some faint opening, or, failing that, until she makes you create one. There's a frightening efficiency in her methods that you almost have to admire... At least if she wasn't using them to paint you in bruises.

-3HP
+1XP
-1HP
+1XP
-1HP
+1XP
​

Still, this works for you. You don't like losing, but if you are losing, you might as well use it. Autumn stays quietly on the sidelines, allowing you to focus her attention on you, waiting with a hunter's patience for his moment to come.

hat's your job in the plan. And on the sixth bout the opportunity comes. Winter Breeze practically teleports out of the way of your attack, only to step into the path of an angry black ball of fur and claws that's not really happy about the woman whose been hurting his master.

Autumn is a kitten. Eventually you're sure he'll be some awesome giant man-eating leopard monster thing that can eat people, but for now he's small and weak and not capable of doing much more than scratching someone. But anyone, no matter how graceful, would stumble a little bit when a cat charges between their legs right as they're stepping back.

Winter Breeze slips half a step and you strike with everything you have. Your spear lashes out like lightning! You've got her! Winter Breeze bends forward, pulling her stomach away from the blow even as she grabs the haft of your spear mid-thrust and throws herself into the air. Somehow, though you don't see the throw, her blade manages to spin through the air smashing hilt first into Autumn's forehead.

More dramatically she manages to bring her leg around in a circle, kicking you in the temple while she's upside down.

-3HP (Autumn)
-5HP
​

She continues her flip, landing in a stance, gracefully holding your spear in a ready stance as you impact the ground with a lot less grace.

You resist the urge to moan and you push yourself to your feet. You walk over to recover her knife, then move to hand it to her. Really, aside from that last one you've taken worse beatings. You're not going to let something this minor ask you to stop no matter how much she likes hurting you or how unfair it is to face off against a C+ ranked level 19 warrior. Winter Breeze takes it, but declines to return your spear. Instead she reaches into her robe and pulls out a single large silver coin, before pressing it into your somewhat confused hand.

"You may have the rest of the day to yourself," Winter Breeze states calmly. Then she presses her hand to your forehead, "Mending" and the pain of your wounds vanishes. She stoops to the whimpering Autumn and does the same.

+5XP
​

You stare at Winter Breeze. You don't want to say something, but generally healing and giving out money are really bad ways to bully someone, unless it's a prostitute and you hired them and... you end that train of thought.

"I was instructed that should your performance exceed expectations you were to be rewarded, as well as given the rest of the day to your own devices. You selected an ideal weapon for the situation, made effective use of both your and Autumn Shade's abilities and executed a strategy that would have been more than sufficient against anyone near your own capabilities." Winter Breeze remains as chilly as ever, despite her kinder words.

"Tactically the last bout was your victory. Physically it's obvious that you lack the physical ability or combat experience to win, and that Autumn Shade lacks the mass to attack properly or effective enough stealth capabilities to genuinely escape my notice. Likewise your form is sloppy, attacks are weak and stance was abysmal," yay, such high praise. You do your best to smile and nod anyway since she might take the money back otherwise, "Short-term limitations such as these have little to no relevance to evaluating the soundness of your strategy. Likewise, your stamina should soon grow to the point where even a single blow wouldn't be enough to stop you, so I can't announce that 'dying' so many times for the sake of luring an enemy into one later victory was an unrealistic choice against most adversaries."

You stare at Winter Breeze, unsure of how to respond. It's not that she's usually severe, it's just that you've never actually heard her deliver a word of praise before. The senior servant reaches out awkwardly and ruffles your hair precisely once before turning and replacing the spear on the weapon rack. Then she leaves.

LEVEL UP
Stamina+3
Agility+2
Affinity+3
Perception+1
Luck+1
Charisma+4
Monstrous Bloodline increased to level 2
​

How do you spend your free time

[ ] Wander around town
[ ] Go Shopping (You have 1S)
-[ ] For something nice
-[ ] For something adventurery
[ ] Practice!
-[ ] The spear
-[ ] Another weapon
-[ ] Something else
[ ] Actually you'll take a nap in the garden
[ ] Play with Autumn
[ ] Study
-[ ] Reading
[ ] write-in