Ember Abiss: Rot Mage

“Okay, so I don't even know where to start.” Ember said to Willow, looking overwhelmed and confused. “How do I know if I chose a good skill? What determines what skills I have to choose through? Are there always 4 options? Will the three options I didn't take stay available? Oh! And what about affinities, what even is an affinity?”

“Slow down dear.” Willow interrupted, “I can only answer so fast. Hahaha.” She chuckled. “Now for the first question… what was it again? Ah that's right you asked how do you know if your skill choice was good, correct?”

“Oh, yeah that was first.” Ember answered.

“Okay, well this has a simple answer and a more difficult one. Simply put if the skill resonates with your soul and you are able to utilize it, it was a good choice. Now the more difficult answer, the skills you are offered are all skills that you will be able to use in some form or fashion. Not all skills can be found useful in all situations or even most. Take Thorn for example, his first skill was hard light. Yes he is getting utility out of it, but as an aspiring adventurer I don't see him getting much use out of it. Unless he were to level it high enough to evolve or use a skill fusion request to combine it with another skill, his best contribution to a team would be a walking torch.” Willow informed Ember, growing more and more frustrated as she spoke of Thorn's skill.

She let out a long sigh before continuing. “Sorry, the boy is smart but he can be a little dumb sometimes. Hehe. Now, the reason I brought that up was to help demonstrate the concept of the right skill for the right roll. Your roll is, put simply, what you plan to do in life. Say you want to be an adventurer like Thorn, as an adventurer would you want to travel alone or with a group? As a solo adventurer you would be solely reliant on yourself on all occasions. So you would want well rounded skills to keep yourself alive while still offensively powerful enough to hold your own against your enemies. Now, on the other hand if you were to join a party you would want to focus on a specific roll in said party. Take Thorn again, he wants to be a mid to rear line caster that dabbles in support. His hard light covers the support side fairly well but he won't be doing any actual damage with it. If I were him I would have taken his level three skill spark as my level one instead of hard light. Most likely he chose it due to light being his main affinity and lightning being secondary or tertiary.” Willow paused, seeing a question in Ember's expression. “Are you following so far?”

“Uh… I think so, but it also brings up more questions.” Ember answered honestly. “Firstly, what's an adventurer? Are they like the people in video games and anime? Taking jobs to collect plants, escort merchants, or kill monsters? If so, what are rolls? Like D.P.S., tank, healer, and support?

“Ah, that's pretty much correct.” Willow answered with a smile. “I don't understand that last bit though. What is a D.P.S. and tank? I understand healer and support but I've not heard of the other two.”

“Oh!” Ember exclaimed, a little excited to not be the one lost for a moment. “Umm the first one explains itself once you know the acronym. D.P.S. stands for damage per second. It would be the person or people dishing out the most damage in an encounter. A tank on the other hand is the person at the front, taking all the damage and agro for the squishy types.”

Willow cocked an eyebrow at Ember, “Squishy?”

“HA! Ehehehe.” Ember burst into laughter, “ha, yeah, hehe, squishy. The magic types stamina types that don't focus on defense and turn themselves into a glass cannon. Big boom, but a small rock could shatter it.”

“Ah, that does make sense, It is just that I have never heard anyone refer to casters, stalkers, and support classes like that.” Willow stated. It is an interesting description but I wouldn't recommend saying that to anyone else. Especially if they happen to be an adventurer, I doubt anyone that's put their life on the line would appreciate such a… weak description.”

“O…oh. I'll keep that in mind.” Ember replied sheepishly.

Willow just gave a smile back in confirmation. “Now that last one, you called a tank, that is a near perfect description of what we refer to as a turtle. Nine times out of ten a turtle wears plate mail or some other heavy slow armor while utilizing a shield of some shape. A lot of knights will take on that path, as well as some paladins and warriors. It's much less likely to see a lightly equipped front liner so turtle became the go to blanket term for most defensive builds.”

Ember rubbed her temples while taking in everything so far. “Okay, I can understand all of that, but how do we unlock the right skills for the right roles? I didn't see any prerequisites for my four options but I doubt everyone gets the same choices. I didn't see hard light or spark on my list.”

“Ah, that is a very good question.” Willow said wryly, scratching the side of her head. “No one really knows for sure what unlocks skills but the consensus so far states that skills are unlocked through various achievements, having an affinity that aligns with the skill in question, and reaching a certain level in any skill clearly connected to the desired skill. For example, the likelihood of unlocking a beast taming skill without any other animal or beast related skill would be little to none, the recommended first step is to take menagerie tongues, soul link, or telepathy. The first gives the best chance. If you don't have any skill or affinity already in the path you're after you can always work for it. The more effort put into a task the higher the chance of getting a skill related. If you practice the spear daily you will eventually unlock a spear based skill or even a spearman class.”

Ember gave Willow a dubious look, “So I level my skills I want more of, and if I don't have the skill just try really really hard?”

“Yes.” Willow said flatly. “Effort is the key to everything. Without it you wouldn't gain experience in anything you do except for that which you are naturally gifted in. Now for the last two questions, yes once an option is unlocked it will remain unlocked. You can only unlock new skills every other level until you reach the first milestone. After which you can choose a class, and classes will grant an active or passive every five levels, alternating between which each time. You should be offered an active skill first in most cases, but a few support and focused classes may offer passives first.”

“Milestone?” Ember asked with her head tilted.

“Ah, a milestone is a point in your life where you are given a challenge. Completing the milestone successfully will allow you to progress past your current point. The first milestone is at level nine. You will have to complete a system given challenge the better you do the better rewards you will be offered. Like rarer classes, fusion requests, and possibly greater. Although if you fail to complete the challenges you will no longer be able to progress through the system.” Willow Explained. “I hope all of this has clarified your questions deary.”

“Yes, it's answered a lot but I'm still confused by affinities. Like what does it mean to have an affinity to something? I'm just more likely to get those skills or…?” Ember asked.

“Oh, I guess I did glance over that part in my explanation earlier. So, to have an affinity with something means that your body, spirit, and soul all resonate with the mana signature of the aforementioned element, energy, or concept. So to give an example, I have two affinities, my primary is paper and my secondary is knowledge. In simple terms I am most compatible with paper magic as eighty percent of my mana production is paper mana with the remaining embodying the concept of knowledge.” Willow answered, with the patients of a parent teaching their child.

“Wait…” Ember looked back perplexed. “How can you have an energy representing a concept? I don't understand.” Ember placed her elbows on her knees and cradled her head in her palms. “How does energy, something you physically interact with, affect a concept or idea? It's an idea right, just something in your head? Does it mean you have an Aura that let's people learn faster if they stand close?”

“Yes and no…” Willow replied. “Conceptual mana generally does exactly as it seems it would. Simply because it is what it is. To answer the last question, no. I do not have an Aura skill nor have I unlocked one. Auras are fairly rare at lower levels and nearly unheard of before unlocking a class. How do you know of the Aura skill? Was it popular in your homeland?”

“Oh… umm… no, before coming here no one I knew had a system, skills, or magic. Just normal level less humans. I just saw Aura as an option for one of my skills.” Ember replied nervously.

“...” Willow stared at Ember for a moment in disbelief. “Wha… how? That's amazing, I'm curious which Aura skill you have, but don't tell me unless you feel comfortable doing so. It is considered rude to ask about someone's skills or stats if you're not family, close friends, or at least working together in a party.”

“No, no! It's fine!” Ember interrupted, waving her hands back and forth. “Honestly I don't mind at all. I could use some confirmation on my thoughts about how it works.”

“I would be happy to help. Which Aura skill do you have? Fear? Calm?” Willow asked, curiosity clear in her gaze.

“Oh it was just called Aura and it is a passive skill I can turn active.” Ember stated, while opening the description for her aura skill. “It says it is an Aura produced from my excess mana regeneration and it is tuned to my main affinity. It also said I can pump mana into it to actively power it. So I guess my assumptions are that it won't stay on constantly as long as I remain below max mana, if it's attuned to my main affinity it's destructive to everything, and if I put more mana into it, it will either work faster or farther away.”

Willow stared at Ember as if she were a gem among rocks. “Do you mind if I ask about your main affinity? Only to help me understand the effect for your final statement. From what I understand it sounds like you are correct with the activation and mana depletion theories. You will most likely need to test the skill somewhere to discover the true extent of its uses.”

“I don't mind.” Ember said with a smile. “It's a little odd though… at least I think so. It says Rot is my main affinity and I have a Rot Aura. So I guess I'm wondering I'd It will rot faster or just farther away.”

“Hmm, intriguing.” Willow said, scrunching her eyebrow in thought. “I've never heard of a Rot affinity, it sounds like it would be closely related to death magic or maybe a branch of nature magic. I won't inquire any deeper into your status but if you want to know more I highly suggest testing out your new skill.” Willow glanced around at all of the expensive furniture and books around her. “Outside of course. I suggest the Forest edge for weak critters but if you're unsure against them you can rent time at the training field behind the guild house.”

Ember froze, thinking back to the horned bunny Thorn killed on the way here. ‘I don't know if I want to kill a little bunny if I'm not going to be eating it.’ At that moment the image of a rotting rabbit carcass popped into her mind. “Blehg!” she gagged ‘Nope, no, never, not happening. That's disgusting.’

“I don't want to try hunting yet…” Ember said shakily after swallowing back her repulsion. “How much is the training area? Or food?” Her eyes grew wide, “Fungus! How much is rent? Or an inn?”

Willow walked over and placed a hand on Ember's shoulder to calm the panicking girl. “Slow down. Take a deep breath and I'll explain.”

Ember looked up to Willow meeting her gaze, Eyes filled with concern.

“For today don't fret. I will talk with Thorn about him bringing you along tomorrow to get registered at the guild and join him with training. I think group training could do good for both of you. Plus he can help fill out the registration form for you, seeing as you didn't take translation as a skill. Heh.” Willow said with a laugh.

“Umm… speaking of… could I bother you for lessons?” Ember asked nervously. “I'll pay of course! I can clean, cook, and I'll be getting registered soon so I'm certain I'll find something I can do there to make money. What do you even use for money anyways?” Ember spouted frantically.

“Heh. Ehehehehe! Yes, yes you can take lessons. I work at the library, it's not the biggest you'll find, but I take pride in my establishment.” Willow said glowing with pride. “Once you get settled into town, come and see me. I will work out an affordable payment for you then. I won't overcharge you so make sure you have food and somewhere to stay. Safe to stay… not camping in the woods with the beasts and animals.”

Ember looked down to her feet. ‘I love camping though.’

“Y…yes ma'am.” She said sullenly. “I'm just worried about not being able to communicate again once I go.”

Willow raised an eyebrow. “Go? Where are you planning to go? It will be getting late soon, so you can spend tonight and tomorrow in my daughter's old room. It hasn't had much use since she left to move to the capital two years ago so I don't mind and I know she won't.”

“Th… thank you! I really appreciate it. I promise to pay you back.” Ember said happily, turning to hold Willow's hand.

“Then you can clean up after dinner.” Willow said with a smile. “If you will excuse me I'm going to explain your situation to Lord Brindle, Thorn's father, he runs this territory and owns this house. He was made aware of your arrival around the time I was brought over I believe. Thorn informed him that you didn't speak the language so I was asked to meet you.” She smiled before turning to exit the room. “Thorn, lead her to my place if you're free. Ember dear, make yourself at home and I will meet you shortly. Stew is on the fire cooking, if it seems low could You add a log as well?”

“Oh, umm… yes ma'am not a problem. I'm happy to help.” Ember gave a smile.

“Something Willow's home.” Thorn said nervously, gesturing to the door.

“Yes. Thank you.” Ember smiled and followed Thorn's lead to Willow's place.

“I'll see you tomorrow Thorn. Bye!” she said, waving.

“Tomorrow!” Thorn shouted back happily as he made his way back home.