Cat With a Raygun

Malcolm carved two wooden training swords. Melanie had one and Joe had the other. It was thought to give the other to Kerras instead until Tess pointed out that with Melanie's increased strength she might accidentally hurt Kerras badly as he has just regular Toughness. Joe had to practice reining in his Strength in order not to hurt Melanie more than needed to help her train Defense and Pain Tolerance. Despite the fact that wooden training swords are blunt, the CGS still considered them as bladed weapons.

According to Malcolm there were five categories of weapons in the CGS: Bladed, Blunt, Quick, Throwing, and Ranged. There was some overlap depending on how you used the weapons. Daggers could advance either Bladed or Quick, for example. Bladed and Blunt both fell under Strength while the other three were Agility.

Since no one there was trained with Bladed weapons, CGS or not, it took 3 days for Melanie to unlock the skill. Joe didn't mention that he unlocked it on the second day, cause he wasn't supposed to have any open skill slots, as far as they knew. Melanie's first spells were Channel Fire, which let her add fire to her weapon attacks, and Speed Boost which increased her movement for a minute. Joe convinced Melanie to practice with her spells more often so he could learn them himself. She used her Channel Fire spell to light the cooking fires throughout the day, and she used Speed Boost more when she was pulling the cart or even when she and Joe were sparring. He'd teleport away using Backtrack and she'd Speed Boost to get to him.

Bladed Weapons (Level 1). This skill affects how you fight with bladed weapons that rely on Strength more than Agility. Higher levels allow you to more effectively wield appropriate weapons and do more damage with them. To train this skill keep fighting with bladed weapons.

Key Attribute: Strength

Channel Fire (Level 1). The spell allows the caster to add fire damage to his weapon attacks. The extra damage is equal to the caster's Intelligence multiplied by the spell's level. At the current level the spell adds fire damage to all attacks made within ten seconds.

Mana cost: 5 mana per casting.

Speed Boost (Level 1). This spell allows the caster to triple his movement speed for a short time. The spell lasts for a number of seconds equal to the caster's Toughness multiplied by the spell's level.

Stamina cost: 10 Stamina per casting

All of the spell training Joe had her do paid off as she unlocked both Mana Channeling as well as Stamina Growth. She also unlocked Defense and Pain Tolerance through their frequent sparring. At night she was reading that book to learn Dwarven and unlocked the Reading skill as well. That's 10 skills unlocked for Melanie.

- - - - -

“So, Melanie. Any idea what you want your last two skills to be? You have three Toughness skills, but only two Intelligence ones. Do you want to focus on that, or do you have other preferences?”

“I hadn't really thought of it,” Melanie replied. “Are there any other skills I'd need as a Smith?”

“The only other skill I can think of that would benefit you in that regard is one that I don't know how to help you unlock. I was only able to do it because of a special Mage ability called Sense Manachlorians.”

Tess perked up at that revelation. “What skill is that, and what does it have to do with being a Smith?”

“It's called Meditation. You know how your mana recovery speed is determined by your Intelligence score and your Mana Channeling skill?”

Both Melanie and Tess nodded.

“Well, your resource pools like your mana or stamina don't just generate out of nothing. When you recover them your body pulls it from the ambient manachlorians in the environment. If you can feel the flow of energy around you then you can redirect it to your body to recover your resources quicker. I've gotten to the point where I can do that while doing other activities, like walking or concentrating on a spell. Of course, that required both the Meditation and the Focus skill, which is pretty important for Mages, I'm told.”

“How do I learn the Focus skill?” Melanie asked.

“You'd need either a spell that takes more than a moment to cast, or a spell that requires you to actively hold it in your mind to keep going. Do either of your spells fit those requirements?”

Melanie shook her head. “No, sorry.”

“Well, we can always try to keep a slot open if one of your future spells allows it.”

- - - - -

A week later Melanie had her first combat. Joe cast Karmic Bond on himself and Melanie, so if she got hurt he could heal himself to get her fixed up. Then he stayed up in the trees while Melanie faced off against a giant boar. This one was all alone, so it would hopefully be easy for her. Joe watched as she approached the giant beast. It noticed her, let out a squeal and began to charge her, tusks thrust forward. For a split second Melanie looked like the scared girl he had first seen back in the underground prison chamber. She took a deep breath and found her courage.

Melanie's stance changed and she grasped her sword in both hands. With a blur of motion she moved to the right of the charging boar and sliced off it's right front leg, a gout of flames rising up along its side from the stump of its leg. The battle didn't last much longer than that opening move. Her Speed Boost still active, Melanie moved around and started stabbing it from the rear where it couldn't use its tusks to attack her in return. After it collapsed she moved up to its neck and stabbed it through the skull, putting it out of its misery.

Joe slowly floated down from the branches above and was clapping. “Congratulations on your first successful combat. The CWEST system will continue to reward you for your efforts.”

“I was so scared when it started running towards me. I was not expecting that. But I remembered the advice all of you gave me, I took a calming breath and realized that its charge was really easy to beat with my features.”

“That's exactly right. You were perfect, as evidenced by your lack of wounds. I'm sure it gave you some Strategy experience as well.”

Melanie grinned widely, “It sure did.”

“I was able to get through my first day of fighting Cutting Crustaceans without getting hurt. Which was good, cause I had a whole 6 hit points. I would have died if they did anything to me.”

“Six? Six! I'm so grateful you guys helped me train so I have much better stats than that.”

“Yeah, you also have armor. I have magic protections now, but I didn't back then. I was a lost scared 18-year-old who didn't even know what CWEST was, just that I had the option to be a mage, and I took it. It feels so long ago, but it hasn't even been a year yet.”

- - - - -

Joe teleported back to the caravan with an unusual looking axe over his shoulder. After getting weird looks from Tess and Eleanor he said, “I figured dragging a giant hide laden with heavy boar meat would be good Portering training for her.”

“It's not that,” Eleanor replied, “That we understand, even expect. What's that bone thing you got there?”

“Oh, yeah, this. This is in case we see any trees we want to cut down or need to cut down for replacement caravan parts.”

“What would we want to cut down?” questioned Tess.

“Well, another Steelwood Tree would be nice, wouldn't it?”

Eleanor shot up from the rock she was sitting on by the cooking fire. “I completely forgot!”

She climbed back up into her wagon and opened a chest of her personal belongings. After a minute she came back out with three bottles handing them to Tess, Malcolm, and Joe.

“I made these back in Trenos when I made the one for Melanie and forgot to give them to you all. Five extra points in your Toughness permanently. Who wouldn't want that?”

Seeing no reason to argue with that logic Joe opened his bottle and drank its contents. He could feel the energy seep into his body. He'd check later, but he definitely got a notification. Tess and Malcolm both took out their Guidebooks and smiled when they saw their increases.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Gymmie called out. “Aren't you going to check your Guidebook, Joe?”

“Oh, no, it's fine. I trust Eleanor's work.”

Kerras was the next to speak out. “Now that I think about it, I've never seen you check your Guidebook. Why is that? Melanie is always checking her progress in hers, and you say that you're training a lot as well, so why aren't you checking your progress?”

For a moment everyone was just starting at Joe, thinking back on their interactions with him in the weeks they've known him. Then Tess spoke up. “I noticed it back in Trenos, but didn't think it my place to pry. You've done so much for us, you're doing so much for Melanie, you should be allowed your privacy.”

Thinking on the matter for a few moments Joe broke his silence, “No, it's okay. You guys already know I've been keeping secrets from you about the town we're going to. Those are the town's secrets. It's in a state of transition right now and it could attract a lot of unwanted attention if certain facts came to light right now. It would make Glior's Mage-making scheme look childish in comparison, except that everything the town is doing is on the up and up. I also have secrets of my own. When Melanie returns in a few minutes I'll share my parts of my Guidebook with you so you'll understand.”