99/100
Congratulations! Through hard work and perseverance, you have increased your Luck by one point. Continue to train and learn to increase this further.
Congratulations! You have killed the following:
1x Drow squad leader for a total of 3,500xp
2x Drow soldiers for a total of 4,000xp
Progress to level 15 stands at 123,030/120,000
I was gutted. My mana regeneration had been halved until I could level the mana manipulation skill up, and it had effectively removed the opportunity for me to use stealth around any magic user at all.
I seethed inwardly while I forced myself to my feet, snapping directions out as I led the way to the entrance to the smuggler’s path, which was now a Drow home. It wasn’t far; maybe twenty meters through the trees to a large mound, overgrown with rocks. I’d clearly drawn the Drow away from covering the entrance with my wild approach, as we could see a handful of plates of food and a campfire that smoldered away merrily just inside the entrance.
As we walked, I brought up the last notification, realizing suddenly what I’d missed in my irritation before…
Congratulations! You have reached Level 14! You have 5 points to invest in your stats. You are now at 3,030/140,000 Exp toward Level 15.
Well, I was glad to see I’d finally hit level fourteen, and was climbing towards 15, but I now had to decide on the allocation. Did I continue to try and ‘fix’ myself, by dumping points into the weaker areas, such as putting all five into, say Charisma, or Luck, or did I keep building my stats? I considered what my Charisma was doing to me so far, I’d probably have been able to turn the ‘Reeve of Lorek’ to my side if it was higher…but he was a fucknut, and I’d wanted to smash his teeth in as soon as I’d met him.
I could concentrate on building my Charisma organically; maybe try chatting some random people up when I reached the city, and pile the points into Luck…or I could fix some of the damage my new ability had done, and bring my Mana Regeneration back up a bit.
I flicked my eyes from one side of the character sheet to the other, picking reasons to choose different things each time, until I sighed, and gave in to what I knew I needed to do.
My training with Flux and Bane had made it clear; I’d be able to raise my purely physical stats though practice, and as such, piling points into them right now could be classed as a waste, especially as each level was harder to earn than the last. The problem with that was that I had to survive long enough to make use of those methods.
I sank four points into my Dexterity. It was the stat that directly affected my weapon handling, and the likelihood to fumble a move, which brought it up to twenty-five, then I dumped my single remaining point straight into Charisma.
I hated doing it; it felt like I was wasting the point, but for all I knew, I’d need it, and it galled me that my lowest stat was directly related to my looks and popularity. I’d never had that much trouble getting laid, after all… admittedly I usually went out in Newcastle, so it wasn’t hard, but still.
I stomped straight inside, watching out for the signs I’d been told about. As we walked into the darkness, Lydia’s squad lighting torches behind me, I soon found the first trap.
I’d begun to calm down by the time I found it, which was lucky, as I almost missed it, despite the Drow telling me exactly what to watch for.
I paused, crouching down as I spotted the faint tripwire close to the ground, at the beginning of a field of rippled dirt. I grinned, liking the simplicity of the trap.
The rippled effect made it much harder to see the tripwire, and you instinctively moved closer to see what had caused the ripple, pulling in close enough to both trip the wire, and to be hit by the dozens of poison flechettes that would be fired from the concealed, heavily modified crossbow.
I had everyone move back, and I slowly examined the bow, finding a poisoned needle hidden in the grip right where you’d lay your hand to disarm it.
“Sneaky bastards…” I whispered, avoiding the needle and disarming the trap carefully, a notification springing up once I was done to tell me that my ‘Traps’ skill had increased by one.
I dismissed it quickly, too busy checking to see if there were any more traps to pay any real attention. The Drow hadn’t warned me about the needle, and I wasn’t sure if it was because he’d forgotten, which was unlikely, or if it was a last attempt to kill me.
“To the left,” Bane whispered, and I looked up at him questioningly. “The ground to your left has something hidden in it; I can sense it,” he said, and I crouched down further, examining the ground. Sure enough, there was a hair-thin strand of silk that led to a second needle trap, and I disarmed that as well., stashing away the various parts and passing the crossbow to Bane to examine.
“It’s an assassin’s weapon all right,” he commented, and I felt the approval.
“Keep it, if you want.” I replied, and then shook my head, calling out to the others. “I’m sorry for back there, people. I had to deal with something, and I’m worried about Oracle.” I received a series of nods and shrugs, and I turned back to Bane.
“You’re probably going to be better at this than I am, and we need to move quickly. How close did you get before you spotted that tripwire?” I asked, and Bane shrugged.
“A dozen feet or so, before I was sure,” he replied, and I sighed. “I would have warned you, if I’d not known you had seen it already.”
“Yeah, I saw it like a foot or two away. You lead, Bane.
