Vivid Stars Online

Viewing the forums was an interesting experience. By this point, there were thousands of articles around, claiming all sorts of things. To parse through the mess, I focused on some of the most popular posts.

One of them looked to have the answer to why so many people were having different experiences. It postulated that each of the classes could have different bonuses from an individual stat.

While there were some basics that seemed applicable to everyone, e.g. Toughness boosting damage resistance and Brawn boosting strength, people were reporting so many different and odd effects that this appeared to be the only explanation.

That meant that what I got from Mind and Will as a Psion would differ from what Elana got as an Engineer. The last part of the theory was that it was your primary, and potentially secondary, stats that had the extra boost.

With that theory in mind, I turned my attention to the Psion-specific forums. While many of the posts there were from still people trying to locate their first ability, some of them had useful information. In particular, I found a solid theory on what the stats did for us.

It matched what I had discovered so far myself. Toughness boosted the maximum Psi energy you could hold within your body, Mind increased the rate at which you regained spent energy, and Will boosted the effects of your abilities.

Some people were asking how they worked defensively against Psionic abilities, however, very few people had actually been the target of one. Deciding to give a little back, I added a post relating my experience with the Lake Beast.

I continued looking for more information on abilities themselves, and whether you could upgrade them or gain another one, however, the only posts either just reported they had been found or discussed their uses. None of them reported the process of gaining an ability.

Curious, I tried creating one myself. As I submitted it, I got a warning that I was trying to share restricted information and it canceled my post. Huh, I thought in surprise. They sure are serious about keeping that a secret. Though I suppose it is one of the primary factors of the Psion path.

I considered trying to find the info on a different site but decided against it. VSO had already recorded me and would likely not be happy if they found me posting or even looking on another site. And with the way things were these days, they would find out.

By this point, the one-hour timer I had set was done, so I logged back in to check out my Psi regeneration. It was sitting at a little under three-quarters full, so I put on another timer for an hour and left the game to continue my search for information.

Next, I moved on to check out the skills forum. There I found the most information yet. Skills looked to be an area that worked the same for everyone and every class, and so had the most complete documentation.

The most useful information I found was a confirmation that class skills leveled faster than normal skills. Most estimates had them increasing at five times the rate, in fact. No wonder nothing was leveling up, I thought with a laugh. The only class skill I had was Psi Sense, and I only got to use it a few times before level five.

There was also one post from someone who had somehow already reached level eleven. They suggested that the skills system changed at that point, however, most of their post seemed to have been truncated.

I guess VSO doesn’t want that part to be public knowledge yet, I mused. Still, it was a useful tip, and now that I had my first ability, it might be time to focus more on leveling. If I wanted to get a constant income stream coming in, then I would likely have to stay near the forefront of the player base.

With my second timer nearly up, I again jumped back in to find my energy levels sitting at over ninety percent full. Deciding to wait the rest of it out, I looked through the Explorer database until I was full.

About two hours and fifteen minutes, that’s a nice improvement with the armlet. Assuming that the regeneration rate is static and not dependent on background Psi energy or something. Better go check that on the Psion forums.

Logging out, I went to do just that. It turned out that it did actually depend on background energy. Some people even reported waiting eight or nine hours to regain all their energy. That’s a nice plus for Altheias then, though I will have to keep it in mind when I leave the planet.

That sparked a thought, and I moved over to the Altheias forum, which was still largely dead. Most of the posts that existed had people complaining about how hard it was or how expensive things were. Some even reported spending a lot of money on trying to run the pirate blockade around the system.

This had mixed results. A few people made it, the rest respawned back on Altheias down a lot of cash. One of these posts finally gave me a full explanation of the death system as well.

The first, and most obvious issue, was that you respawned at your home city with nothing but a basic set of clothes. While you could theoretically reclaim your belongings from your corpse, that would be hard to do with no equipment. Or in these unfortunate cases, if it was floating in space.

Second, the System hit you with both an XP loss and an XP ban. You lost all XP gained within the last week of playtime and it hit you with a debuff that blocked XP gain for another week. This essentially lost you two weeks of progress, one that you had already put time into and one that you would make no progress in.

If you died multiple times without waiting for the time to run off, it would stack the period of the XP ban and push the time that you lost XP out further. Ouch, I thought as I read it over, I'm glad I've avoided it so far. While it wouldn't be completely crippling, it would certainly slow you down.

Moving past that, I found what I was actually after. There were posts from five other Psions, each of them reporting that they had gained their first ability. While they couldn’t discuss how they had done so, it showed me that there were more ritual chambers or other methods of gaining abilities around.

I’ll just have to keep looking, while Item Attunement is great, I would love to upgrade it or gain another ability. Though on thinking that, there is one place that would almost certainly get me one. I still have the location of that cave.

While it was possible that the location would be useless without the Path of the Psion mission chain, I felt that there was a good chance it would still work. All I would have to do was bring myself to enter it and stay there for an unknown amount of time.

Pushing myself to escape the facility had actually helped with that somewhat. While the terror was still there, I now knew that it was something I could feel and move past. If anything, this might be the next step in recovering.

As I continued to think about the issue, I liked the idea more and more. It would undoubtedly be a horrible experience at first, however, it would be valuable for both in-game benefits and for my self-improvement.

Not to mention that I felt odd just sitting on the information. If I waited too long, someone else would stumble across it and I would lose any benefit it had. If I was being sensible, I would decide to do it now or I would sell the information.

Eventually, I hyped myself up to the point of committing to it. The last thing I did that day was to log back in and send a message of to Linnea asking for her availability on another mission. Even feeling better about it, I wouldn't venture down there on my own.

The next morning I logged back in to find that Linnea would be available in two days, however, she had increased her standing in the Mercenaries guild and was now charging three hundred credits an hour

While doubling her rates was a large increase, she was now at a much higher level than she had been during her first mission. If anything, I had been lucky to get her for the same price last time, and I had a hunch that it had been to make bringing Elana along a more attractive prospect.

Given the money I had made so far, and what was coming to me soon, I could afford it. I agreed to the increased rate but warned her I didn’t know how long this expedition would take. After a bit of back and forth, we agreed on a fifteen thousand credit down payment with the rest to be paid within two days of returning to Elendes.

With that settled, I spent a bit more time reading before I was due to meet up with Elana. Just as I was leaving for that, I got a message from Bradford.

The team sent by the city has confirmed your reports. Your reward, after the Guild's fee, is forty thousand credits. It will be in your account shortly. I have also heard that the Duchess is highly pleased as well, so you may gain a separate bonus from her at some point. Don’t expect that to move quickly, though, nobles take their time with these things.

I have also upgraded your access to full Guild Member. You will be able to see our current needs listed in the database. While I may have specific directions for you at times, for the most part, you are free to pick your path. Assisting the guild is not mandatory but will come with significant rewards.

Regards

Operations Manager, D. Bradford

As I finished reading the message, I finally got a quest completion for Path of the Explorer.

Quest Complete

Congratulations on completing the quest: First Mission (Path of the Explorer)

Rewards:

40,000 credits (Awarded by Bradford)

400 XP

Upgrade to full Guild Member

Path Continuation

Another notification immediately followed it.

New Quest

You have gained a new Quest: Assisting the Guild (Path of the Explorer)

While you have aided in reducing the city’s food crises, there is still much to do.

Objectives

Complete 0/3 guild priorities

Rewards

900 XP

Guild Recognition

Path Continuation

Huh, lots to unpack there, I thought as I looked over Bradford’s message and my notifications. Firstly, it was great to get paid, and for a significant amount too. With that and the upcoming payment for the Arkathian ruin, I would have plenty to fund my next expedition. I may even have enough to withdraw some living expenses after that.

It was also the second time someone had mentioned the duchess in relation to one of my missions. I really hoped that would end well, and wouldn’t draw me into any kind of crazy royal drama.

Next was the guild quest, coming with a solid chunk of XP. That brought me about two-thirds of the way to level six. The next quest had a lot more XP available as well, I would have to see about completing that.

I was itching to check what I could now access in the database, however, I was already pushing it on getting to my meeting with Elana. She would be meeting me downstairs, and I didn’t want to just leave her waiting.

I would have to check out the guild priorities later and see how they factored into the plans I had already made. With that thought in mind, I left my room and went to meet Elana.