Cost Subtotaclass="underline" 125
TOTAL POLEARM SKILL XP COST: 125
Skills for Special Class: Skillmeister
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Precision Training 1.
Reduce the XP cost of skills and attributes by 1%
. [Passive] [Requires: Focus 5, Resolve 5].
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Improve to Precision Training 2 for XP cost reduction of 2%. [Passive] [Requires: Focus 6, Resolve 7] [750 XP to improve].
…
Intended Change: None
Cost Subtotaclass="underline" 0
TOTAL SKILLMEISTER SKILL XP COST: 0
Summary
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Available XP: 1,365
Cost of Intended Changes: 1,375
Precision Training Discount (1%): 14
Total Adjusted Cost: 1361
Total Projected Remaining: 11
Confirm?: Yes / No
∇
I confirmed the changes and felt myself grow stronger when it was done. My body was more vibrant, and robust. It was also a little bigger.
I decided to give some thought to how to progress next – whether skillmeister or polearm was the best way to go. While I mulled it over, it was time for a tour of the temple that I was now head priest of.
+4
The temple looked like little more than a cave. The central room was gaping and wide, with a high ceiling that reached toward the top of the hill this edifice was built inside of. Off to the side, a corridor led into the darkness.
If I wanted to explore, I’d need a flame. I stepped outside and peered back into the forest. Ahead of me was the same flat stretch that I had come down, lined by rising slopes on both sides that tapered toward the hill that covered Nola’s temple. This was the only path into the heart of her cave, though it was wide open to outsiders. If more gi-ants came this way – or worse, the terrifying black creatures that swarmed Meadowdale – there was little to stop an intrusion.
There was no sign of gi-ants yet, so I marched into the forest and picked out some kindling and branches to drag back into the temple. I set up the twigs and leaves just inside the building, next to the crumbled remains of the old door.
I rubbed one stick against another stick. I had seen Cahn do this once when he had to light the torches inside Laranj’s temple.
I rubbed, and rubbed. My hands were getting raw, but my fire still wasn’t coming along. I wondered how much of the afternoon I’d have to spend with my stick in my hands before it would ignite.
“Hi there!”
I jumped back, losing any progress I had made on starting a fire through friction.
“Hi,” I said. I reached for my spear just to be safe. The girl standing before me was beastkin, and I had never met someone like her before.
“Hey,” she said, “I’m not here to fight.” She reached behind her and pulled an iron hammer from her belt. “But I will fight if I have to.”
“Sorry,” I said. “I’m the head priest here.”
Ahem, came a voice inside my head.
“The head priest,” I continued, “of Nola, the goddess of clever things and bestower of… I’m new.”
“I’ve never heard of Nola before,” the woman said. The fox ears atop her head continued to flick back and forth, as if they were eternally restless. The bushy tail behind her did the same. They were the only beast-like parts that I could see. Her arms and legs were bare, smooth skin. A tight shirt tied in the front, revealing her pale smooth midriff and squeezing human breasts together. She wore a short skirt and long boots, so for all I knew she had the feet of a fox.
“You know when you’re falling asleep,” I said, “and you wonder if you should get up and write down that thought you just had or if, maybe, you should let yourself fall asleep and hope you remember it in the morning?”
“I never remember it in the morning,” she said.
“Well, it’s Nola that helped that thought along. Praise be to Nola.”
“This doesn’t look like a temple,” the woman said, “so it’s a good thing I’m here. I’m Vixette, and I build things.”
“What kind of things?” I asked.
“Well,” she said, “I see your temple door was destroyed, not that the quality of the stone was very good to begin with. I can rebuild it from scratch. All I’ll need is a little stone and some time. And about 300 gold for a doorframe that size.”
“Ah,” I said. “I appreciate the offer, but I don’t have any gold.”
“What kind of a temple doesn’t have gold?” she asked.
“The kind with a goddess no one’s heard of,” I said.
Rude, Nola whispered into my mind.
It’s true!, I said back. Give me time and we’ll change that.
That’s sweet of you, she said.
“Ugh,” Vixette said. “I can’t find any paying work out here. I really thought things would be better in the human lands.”
“They’re definitely not,” I said. “The god of war is kidnapping all the men for some kind of army, razing all the cities to the ground, and killing the gods off one by one.”
“Hell of a time to be a priest,” she said.
“Tell me about it. Oh, hey! Since I’m a priest, let’s barter. If you work on the temple, I can improve your skills. I’m a skillmeister.”
“You’d trade that service for a measly stone door?” she asked.
“I sure would,” I said.
“Call me Vix,” she said. “Is there a quarry around here?”
I’ll guide you!
“I’ll guide you,” I said.
“Great. I’ll do this work in exchange for better skills. I’d like to make more than just domestic buildings. I want to make offensive and defensive too. Those are in much higher demand.”
“Um,” I said. “Okay. I understand defensive buildings, like guard towers and walls and stuff, but what is an offensive building?”
“Anything art deco, for starters.” She laughed, but I didn’t get the joke. “Just go ahead, upgrade my skills. Then we can get started on the temple.”
“And you’re not just going to run off when I’m done?” I asked.
“A fox lady is a woman of her word,” she said. She didn’t smirk or laugh, so I guessed she meant it. Or she was a good liar. Either way, I had nothing to lose by upgrading her, so I stared at her and opened a menu before my eyes with all of her information. It felt a little voyeuristic, but she beamed at me and waited. She clearly wasn’t shy about her attributes.
“You have a lot of built up experience points,” I said. “But it looks like you’ve already started training. You’ve been to a skillmeister somewhere?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I paid an arm and a leg to get started with my builder class. I thought I’d earn enough by now to go back and train again, but no such luck.”
“Well you’ve saved up a lot of XP since then,” I said. “I can take you to Fundamentals 4 and improve your attributes to what they need to be for all that. Then you’ll have the requirements to unlock a hammer skill, Wallop. Sound good?”
“You’d really do all that?” she asked. “I figured you’d just open one builder skill and make me keep working to earn the rest.”
“You’ll be a better builder if I just open it all now. I could wait if you want,” I said.
“NO!” she said. “I mean, please don’t wait, thank you.”
“Okay,” I said. “Hold still.” She didn’t need to hold still, but I felt like I had to say something like that. Like a doctor might. Not that I was thinking about playing doctor with her…
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