Ch5: Choosing a Background & Skills

As soon as Leanna mentions that she wants to move on, a whole new slew of UI boxes pop up in her vision. Right at the center, overlaying the others, is one asking for a name and age.

“Fuck.” Leanna tiredly groans. “I don’t want to spend another few hours thinking up a name...”

Conveniently, a small image of a couple dice appears besides the blank line, which causes Leanna to roll her eyes. “Couldn’t have had that there to begin with, huh? Whatever, lets see what it has. Nasilny? Divoky? Neskrotny? Kruty? The fuck are these? Did they mash buttons randomly or something? Or have they created different languages for each race? Nah, more likely they just took existing languages and slapped them onto different races. That’ll be a real bitch for localization though...”

She then mentally spams the dice, seeing random name after random name. Some of them sound alright, but a lot of them sound pretty odd. After a little while Leanna gives up, deciding to hit it one more time and just take whatever guttural sound it gives her.

“Krvavy? How am I even supposed to pronounce that?” Leanna wonders. “Ah, fuck it. I’ll just assume its ‘Kreh-vah-vee’. It sounds alright that way. As for the age, how about –”

Recommended age: 27The expected natural lifespan of a Drakling is around 140 years old, though they rarely live that long due to the harsh environs they call their home.

“Okay, fine, just interrupt me with a massive popup.” The newly named Krvavy grumbles. “But if that’s recommended... then I don’t care enough to disagree,” she shrugs. “Now what’s next...”

The next popup in line is a long list of various backgrounds, all seemingly relating to the circumstances of birth and early childhood. Beside each one is an associated bonus attribute, which is what she cares more about. She doesn’t mind some proper RP, but not at the cost of gameplay. Though those little bonus stats probably won’t matter much in the long run...

The line following that is much the same, just regarding teenage years or early adulthood. The third, and seemingly final, box contains vague prompts that suggest why she would be away from home on an adventure.

“Wow. That is shit.” Krvavy states. Looking like a completely different person makes it rather easy for her to start thinking of herself with that new name, though she'll undoubtedly slip up at some point.

“Three vague lines about my supposed background. Really goes to show that this is a beta test... But the bonus stats are good enough. Probably. I don’t really know how much a single point is valued at. Still though, getting two extra Might for being the ‘child of a chieftain’, two Willpower for ‘big game hunting’, and two Endurance for being a ‘wanderer’ isn’t bad. Especially since I didn’t have to choose ridiculous things to get the good stat bonuses... But is that all for the background? Is there – wait a moment...”

It is only then that Krvavy notices that the stone room has changed. Granted, it hasn’t changed all that much, but it is definitely different from when she started all of this. For one, rather than being a smoothly hollowed out cube it appears to have become a lot more of a natural cave, with no real sharp corners and a few patches of moss scattered about. Of course, the biggest difference is that the oil lanterns have all disappeared, and a cozy campfire has appeared off to her side.

“How the... Why am I just noticing this now? Did it just change because of my background?” Krvavy questions. “I did choose a bunch of barbarian responses, so being in a cozy cave is fitting. But does that I mean I could have ended up with a mansion or something by choosing all the rich sounding answers? That’s something to keep in mind for when I decide to play a mage to fuck around with the magic system...”

Shaking her head, Krvavy decides to move onto the next part, focusing on doing just that to bring up a small info box.

In time you may learn any skill or ability, but you may choose up to five to begin your adventure with. Each skill will begin at level 5, regardless of how many are chosen.

“Huh, okay. So choose five. Got it. But how many are there?”

Asking that causes yet another box to pop up, filling almost the entirety of her vision with its tremendous size. The scroll bar on the right side of the box is almost unnoticeable with how tiny it is, being barely more than a sliver thick.

“Oh. Yeah. Thousands. Guess that wasn’t an exaggeration.” She states in minor shock, her eyes perusing the options. “Lots of useless things here. Not going to waste my time with arithmetic, etiquette, housekeeping, and damn that is a lot of different music skills. One for each instrument, looks like. Can I sort those kinds of things away? Oh, good.”

With the options narrowed to remove the ones she finds useless, Krvavy begins to read through them, though these choices have just created new questions for her.

“Dammit. Different weapons have different proficiency skills. I mean, it makes sense, but it means that I’ll have to decide what type of weapon I want to use...” she mutters to herself, “hmm... Well, I’ve basically committed to being a barbarian, so a two-handed weapon is a given. But what kind of weapon...? Sword? That’s quite versatile... but no, too boring. Hammer? Those are always cool, but if something has enough armour, like a big monster only possible in fantasy settings, then a hammer would probably just bounce right off... Guess that leaves axes? Good for cutting and chopping things up. What else is there? Spears? Nah, I’ll go with axes.”

“But what about the other skills...?” Krvavy wonders as she continues to look through the list. “Oh, magic. There isn’t anything stopping me from getting some magic, though my stats won’t be the best for it. Wait, it shows the attributes that the skills scale off of? Nice, lets see what will scale off the physical ones...”

After a few minutes of looking through the kinds of magic available to her and the other skills, Krvavy makes a decision.

Two-Handed Weapon Proficiency: The skill of using large weapons that require both hands to wield. Increases the damage dealt by two-handed weapons and the accuracy of their strikes. Associated attribute = Might.

Axe Proficiency: The skill of using axes, the age-old tool and weapon. Increases the damage dealt by axes of any type and the accuracy of their strikes. Associated attribute = Might.

Earth Magic: The magic of the enduring and unshakable, masters of this school can raise and level mountains with mere gestures. Associated attributes = Willpower & Toughness.

Blood Magic: The magic of flesh and blood, masters of this school can bend the bodies of others to their will. Associated attributes = Toughness & Insight.

“Alright, two kinds of magic. Might be a little much for someone who isn’t focusing on that, but they both scale with Toughness and I get two free points into that every level. Besides, they both fit the character: earth magic is a classic tribal thing, and blood magic, well, I’ll be spilling a lot of blood. But wait... That’s only four...” Krvavy mutters as she slowly looks down at her still-naked form.

Sex, the skill of procreation and carnal pleasure. The higher ones level in Sex the more pleasurable carnal activities with them are. Associated attributes = Allure, Endurance, & Dexterity.

“I... I mean... If I have a dick, I should at least know how to use it.” Krvavy justifies the choice to herself. “Fuck... The devs will probably have a whole log of everything I’ve said and done, won’t they...? I am supposed to be finding bugs and all that. So you know what? Fuck you, pervs, you made this a choice, so I’m taking it!”

With a bit of a huff, Krvavy waves away the notifications, ready to move on having made her choices.

Choose a class to begin as. Classes affect the total values and regeneration of Health, Stamina, and Mana while also giving opportunities to gain additional traits and abilities.

Recommended Class: Barbarian

Barbarian is a tier 2 class normally offered to Warriors when they hit level 10, but due to your Race and Background it is available to you immediately. Barbarians gain a bonus of +1 to Might, Endurance, & Toughness.

“I... okay.” Krvavy blankly comments. “It doesn’t look like I have many choices to start off as anyway, so sure, I’ll take the class I’d probably end up taking at level ten anyways. So is that all?”