Walking out of the library I am greeted to early morning sunlight peeking through a somewhat overcast sky. It would appear that I was studying for a lot longer then what I had intended. No matter, first order of business is to visit the Adventurers Guild to join and pick up some easy quests for some starting cash. Maybe I will see about the training tokens while I am there. Then I need to gain proficiency with the different crafting jobs if I want to merge them into Inscriptionist. That is more of a long term plan however as that is going to take a lot of research and resources to do properly. But I bet since this is a starting town then we can easily pick up the starting skills at least. Eh, let's worry about one thing at a time. During my musings I had been walking back towards the outer ring where the Adventurers Guild is located right next to a large exit gate. The building itself was completely different compared to any other building I have seen in town so far. It is perfectly square being made up of some dark stone with large floor to ceiling glass windows on the second and third floor. Right next to it is what I presume to be the training tower as it is also made from the same dark stone and raises itself into the air at least five stories. Stepping into the surprisingly modern looking building, I notice there has to be some weird spatial magic going on as the inside is much large then the outside. The ceiling alone stretches past ten feet with recessed lighting in the ceiling illuminating the interior below. Nearest to the door are plush comfortable looking couches and chairs that are arranged for parties to rest and relax after a long day of adventuring. To my left there appears to be what is a big board separated into three sections. Each section has papers nailed into the board, with the left-most section having the most and a noticeable decrease as you continue right. Each section is labelled I,II,III. Directly across the room from me is what appears to be tellers exchanging slips of papers with coins or directing people towards a door to my right labelled 'acquisitions and identification'. Finally to my right is an arch with a sign above saying 'training tower', presumably leading to the attached tower. Walking up to one of the tellers I see it is a short man with a thick beard and dark rimmed glasses.
"Welcome to the Adventurers Guild, my name is Orion, how may I be of assistance today?" The man said with the same jovial tone Father Jonathan had.
"Ah, yes hello my name is Trix and I was wondering how do I go about joining the Guild? Also how does the training tower work?" I ask.
"Oh, but of course, you must be one of the newest Heroes. Joining is free, all you need to do is place your hand on this stone and confirm if the status displayed is correct. Then we issue you an Adventurers Card you may keep in your inventory. It is linked to the Great System as well so it may never be falsified. When you wish to take a quest from the board please only take from your tier or below. The training tower is just through that arch on your right and just in the interior is a board containing all the skill teachers for today. If you do not see any you like feel free to try your luck tomorrow. Also there is a free training yard for newer recruits to practice their skills as well. You will find that entrance right next to the skill board. Are there any other questions?"
"No that helped a lot. So I just put my hand right here?"
"Yes, just place your hand and confirm if this is your status."
"Alright sounds good" When placing my hand I feel a small pulse of something travel through me and I suddenly get a popup.
So they only take the basics of my information instead of any traits or skills I have. There is probably a lot of legal reasons behind that. Hitting yes has that pulse return from the corners of my body to the stone I am placing my hand over.
"Excellent Mr.MoonBright I have all of your information here it seems as though you are within our Tier one range or what we like to call Copper tier. So you may only pick quests from the Tier One section of the board. Just take the paper and keep it within your inventory. The paper is enchanted to confirm if you completed the request so when you do finish come find me or the other attendants and hand that paper in for your rewards. Here is your adventurer card, be sure not to lose it as replacements are costly." Orion then hands over a thick copper plated card with my name, class, race and power level.
"Thank you so much." I say as I put the card into my inventory and start heading towards the training towers. Probably best to start with learning new techniques first.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
walking through the arch a different sensation cascades over me, similar to entering the Adventurers Guild but not quite. Shrugging I head on over to the skill board and see what is currently available.
"Slash" - 1 token
"Brace" - 1 token
"Taunt" - 1 token
"Basic Survival" - 1 token
"Hide" - 1 token
"Magic Missile" - 2 tokens
"Heal" - 3 tokens
So it seems magical skills require more tokens to do learn. Presumably because they are more sought after then physical skills. The trainers who teach these might also use the tokens themselves for something so certain in demand skills can be bargained for more tokens. Well, I have five tokens at the moment and so I can either get both of the magical skills or some physical and one magical. Hearing about the training yard however has given me a good idea. Let's table the usage of my limited training tokens for now and see if this will bear any fruit.
Looking to my right I see a wooden door with a placard next to it labelled 'Training Yard' on it. Stepping through I once again suspect a lot of space magic is going on as the training yard is huge. There is a fighting pit set up where recruits can practice with each other as well as a shooting range with different targets set at different ranges. This place looks pretty popular as well since I can see all sorts of players practicing certain spells. There seem to be a small group of healer players treating injuries for free in order to practice their spells. The shooting range has archers and what look like elementalists firing the different types of bolts. One fighting pit in particular is interesting as there is a man who is dual wielding short swords fighting against someone who is using their fists and has blind folded himself? Probably trying to get a special skill or something. Well let's see if my theory is right. I then pull up the spell I received when getting my specialization.
If I am reading this right then this could save me so much money and tokens. I think before glancing at one particular elementalist who is firing almost invisible wind bolts. There appears to be a soft hue of green displacing the air as the only indication he is firing anything at all. If I could learn that, it would be much stealthier then a flashy fire bolt or how loud that earth bolt was when it hit. Well, here goes nothing. I stare at the elementalist as he is about to launch his next spell. [Study]
A sharp pain pierced into my eyes as the spell failed and a good chunk of what I presume to be my mana left my body somewhere near the center of my stomach. Holy that hurt, I guess I know what backlash feels like now after a failed spell. Ok so I was right that Study could help me learn new spells but wow that hurt when it failed. Well, it's not like I am any stranger to pain so all I can do is keep trying. After waiting a while for the sensation of a chunk of myself is missing fades I can only assume that means I am back to full mana. I do like how its more of an intuitive gauge then just numbers. That took about five minutes so now I just need to continue to do this I guess. Casting [Study] again I am again met with another failed spell notification. This time however something else happened.
Pulling up study I check the differences.
Interesting so every level it increases the chances by 5%? So at level ten I will have a 50% chance to learn a spell just by looking at it once? Isn't that too overpowered? There has to be some catch. After five more minutes I cast [Study] again and instead of the pain of my mana getting ripped from me due to spell backlash, I am met with a deluge of information and a couple notifications.
OH I AM SO IN BUSINESS.
