Origin ARS 3 (Origin A.R.S.) (8 page)

Scott turned towards Rhea. “Did you know that I strike fear into the hearts of fish men everywhere?”

Rhea squinted at him then quirked her right eyebrow. “No, I did not.”

He trotted merrily over to the fish man who spent the last several minutes in an attempt to dig to the other side of the planet then casually punched him in the back. The Shar-Shar jumped up, looked at him and then screeched in fright.

Scott started to punch him again, but the fish man flailed his arms around rapidly. Several items appeared in the air and dropped to the group. A loud
*ding!*
echoed through the air.

<<<
Message
>>>

A Shar-Shar warrior has offered you all of his worldly possessions if you will spare his life.

Do you accept his offer?
Yes | No

<<< * >>>

Scott looked at the random items casually and then back at the fish man. He mentally accepted the offer but pointed at the frightened fish. “Go. Tell others about what you saw here today, and let them know the true face of terror.”

He had regained a little mana so he wasted it in order to emphasize his point. He casually pointed to the side and unleashed his burn spell. When the fiery explosion went off the Shar-Shar screeched in fear once more then turned around and ran toward the sea at all possible speed. He waved his arms in the air in a spastic manner while a trail of strange and foul smell liquid trickled down to the ground from between his legs.

Scott laughed at the ridiculous scene then leaned down and collected his new treasure. Several interesting items appeared in his inventory.

“Neat, a new skill ring...” He eyed the soul of the fisherman ring carefully.

He turned to call out to Rhea but the battle music ended and the cool island beat returned. A battle report appeared before him. His eyes opened wide as he realized exactly what he saw before him.

<<<
Battle Report
>>>

Victory!!!

Your party defeated a contingent of
312
Shar-Shar warriors in a running battle! Due to the number of opponents that were defeated your party will receive additional rewards.

+ 86890 EXP

+ 61000 Fayth

+ 624 Ability Points

Item(s) Acquired:

Fish Scales X 246

Coral Spears X 7

Cracked Coral Spears X 112

Shar-Shar Tooth Necklace X  5 [
rare
]

Special

Torrent Spear X  1

Soul of the Fisherman X 1

Coral Armor X 1

Fayth X 234

Medium Pearl X 1

<<< * >>>

Scott noted the special items that he had received, but realized that it was just a list of the items that the last Shar-Shar had bribed him with before he had fled to the sea. What really excited him was the message he received immediately afterward.

<<<
Level-Up!
>>>

Your acquired experience exceeded the necessary remaining requirements to master your equipped lore skill ring. The remaining experience has been applied directly.

You have gained five levels at once!

Level 13 -> Level 18

<<< * >>>

“Holy Shit!” exclaimed Scott. That battle had been insanely profitable for him. Due to the fact that the battle report and rewards never came until the battle was completed, most fights dragged on for a while and involved many different opponents. The overall level of the Shar-Shar had been nearly twice his current level, but they were weak against magic and their status dropped a bit on land. In short, the battle had been long but worth it.

“What happened?” called Rhea. She ran over to Scott, a concerned look upon her face.

Scott grinned at her. “Finally finished with my survival ring and gained five levels at the same time.”

She laughed at him then shook her head. “Of course you did. Humans and their bonus experience...”

“How did you make out?” asked Scott.

“I gained more than half a level’s worth of experience for that fight. If we grind a bit more, I could probably make it to ten before midnight.” said Rhea.

He nodded to her. Her obscene experience costs greatly slowed her leveling speed, but she made up for it with ability point scraping and extra stats after reincarnating. If it were not for his leveling speed he would not be able to keep up with her. At the same level, she would no doubt be much stronger than he was.

Helping her reach level ten was important. It would keep them within a decent range level-wise, but it would also allow her to access her higher-tier skills again. She had already mastered them, but she still had to reach a proper level to use them. Reincarnation was odd that way. Though, it did mean that someone who had reincarnated could spend their ability points on new skills or they could build their stats instead of relearning old skills.

“Do you know what this does?” asked Scott. He held up the soul of the fisherman lore ring for Rhea to examine.

She eyed it carefully then nodded. “It’s probably one of the items that we have been looking for all of this time. I got one earlier, but I have not been learning it since I am in need of gaining experience to level.”

“I see. I’ll put it on and work on developing it. We can see if it is worth your time after I learn it. It only needs twelve thousand experience points after all.” said Scott. Unlike the survival ring, it was not special. It could be filled with experience after a few good battles.

“Sounds good. By the time you learn that I should be close to leveling, since you aren’t going to be gaining as much experience fighting the monsters around here as you were earlier.”

“Rub it in why don’t you.” said Scott, before he stuck out his tongue.

Rhea laughed at him softly. “Sure, any time. What’s a girlfriend for, right?”

Scott pulled her close and gave her a warm hug. “This, I think.”

“You’re right.” she murmured softly and pressed against him. “This is exactly what a girlfriend is for...”

The light danced softly in her eyes as Rhea looked up at him. She could feel a gentle, yet powerful, warmth building inside of her. This was the sort of moment she had longed to be a part of for quite some time.

The light of dawn shined down upon the sea causing a gentle interplay of light and foam that created a beautiful and mysterious vision. The music of the world, a soft calypso beat, picked up in volume as the vibrancy of the world at dawn intensified.

Atop a rocky outcropping a lone figure stood staring at the sea. He was a mighty fisherman. So mighty, in fact, that the sea had gifted him with the fins of a fish so that he could hunt the waters with far greater skill and precision than any normal man might achieve.

Scott looked out at the water then raised his left arm. Instinctively he opened his forearm fin and smiled. It was the true power of the
Soul of the Fisherman
. When he had the effect activated he could fight and maneuver in the sea like a true denizen of the ocean. The last few days on this island had been spent to acquire a few useful items, but this was the one that was most necessary.

The aquatically upgraded man lifted his coral spear and began to whirl it around with expert fashion. He had gained the spear-wielding skill when he had become a mighty fisherman. Technically, he had spear fishing skills, but that translated to decent overall spear wielding skill anyway.

He whirled his spear faster, faster, and then it became nothing but a blur in his hands. When he sensed that the movements of his weapon had reached the peak of his current abilities he cried out. “Howling Gale!”

The coral spear flashed brightly for a moment and Scott whipped it down and forward in one clean movement. A blast of tornadic wind raced outward from the tip, howling like a deranged freight train. The gentle and mysterious sea was momentarily ripped apart by the violent winds.

“Looking sharp.” said Rhea from nearby.

Scott looked back at his companion and smiled. Her scales were far less noticeable than his at present. If anything she looked like her body had been covered in glitter. She had light blue fins that matched her hair, and a sweet smile upon her face.

He hopped down to greet her with a warm hug. They shared a sweet kiss that caused the fin on the back of his head to flare open and become fully erect.

She giggled around his lips then pulled back. “So, how do you like it?”

“I always like kissing you, silly.” said Scott in a playful manner.

“Not that you goof, the new skills!” said Rhea. Her face had darkened several shades and the bridge of her nose had become tinged with a pink shade. He always seemed to know the best way to make her feel embarrassed.

“Ah, those are wonderful! I never knew the reason for the special effects when I used my spells.” said Scott.

“Yeah, synchronicity is great.” said Rhea.

After Scott had gained his survival skills and developed the soul of the fisherman, he had finally learned the answer to one of the mysteries in his life. The reason that he could freeze someone directly with his freeze spell, and cause other random effects when his spells were used in specific ways, was
synchronicity
. Basically, skill and spell combinations that had nothing to do with the skill tree!

He had used those abilities naturally when he fought barehanded. It was a part of the sorcerer class, after all. However, after gaining the synchronicity skill through his survival skill-set he could now synchronize his spells to other learned weapons. He could not combine every spell with every type of weapon, but he could perform fairly intricate effects if he trained in their usage.

There was no system assistance for gaining skill through synchronicity, well none outside of the synchronicity skill itself. That was one of the most common methods for high-end players and locals to differentiate themselves from the others in their class. Everyone could learn to synchronize, but only dedicated training would allow someone to develop their ability to synchronize into the creation of unique abilities. That was the general thought process, anyway.

“Why didn’t you tell me about it sooner?” asked Scott. He’d had a great deal of fun learning to use new spell effects with his spear skills and creating new methods of using his unarmed combat skills now that he could use the true form of the synchronicity ability.

“It wouldn’t have mattered. You needed to develop your survival skills, first. At least the ring you used is a divine level artifact so you’ll never lose your skills.” said Rhea.

“Yeah, that was the reason for why it took so damned long to learn them...” Scott was glad that he would never lose his survival skills, or boomerang skills, but eighty-thousand experience points was a lot for a Noob to lose!

“It’ll come in handy when you reincarnate. When you master divine-tier skill rings they stay mastered, remember?” asked Rhea. She kissed him sweetly once more.

Scott stopped thinking about the situation for a moment and spent his time enjoying the sensation of holding Rhea in his arms. He had acquired the experience necessary to acquire his Soul of the Fisherman abilities, Survival Skills, and even the Goblin Soul ability. Though, he’d had very little reason to use the latter ability.

They broke off their kiss and smiled shyly at each other for a moment. Their relationship was a work in progress, but sometimes they had moments like this when everything just felt like it worked.

A short amount of time passed and they separated. Rhea sighed softly, “Scott, I’ll be back this afternoon.”

He nodded to her. “I’ll try not to be abducted by any beautiful perverted fish people, or accept any confessions of eternal love while you are gone.”

She poked him in the chest. “You better not!”

He grinned at her then kissed her on the nose. “Go do fish-girl elf stuff. I need to finish spending my ability points anyway.”

She kissed him on the chin in response. “Right, I’ll be back soon.”

They hugged each other tenderly for a moment then Rhea leaned back slightly and sighed. Kiley and Neira were not nearby so she chose to log off right there. Scott caught the unconscious form of the elf-goddess and lifted her up. He carried her to their tent like she was a fairy tale princess and gently placed her into her bedroll. He kissed her softly on the cheek then pulled her blanket over her.

“Even with fins, you’re beautiful.” said the man. Who was he kidding...? They made her look even more exotic. He looked down at her for a moment then idly wondered if there was a skill ring to make someone look like a cat girl or a fox. Perhaps one that gave her horns and batwings? The image of Dragon-Rhea glittering in the sun caused a goofy and mildly lecherous smile to cross his lips for a moment.

He shook his head to clear the absurdly exciting imagery away then went out to bask in the morning sun. He had a small number of ability points left to spend, after his recent upgrade of his status and skills. He also needed to verify a few things.

Scott unequipped his current gear and then equipped his street clothes. He wanted to see his status without additional aids or changes. He called up his status screen to see what had changed and to verify the number of points that he had, and to see exactly what he needed stat-wise. He planned to spend most of his remaining points on acquiring more spells and a few things for Ero. He had already spent several thousand of his points on developing his three new skill rings and adding the additional stats and stat level-up modifiers to his status.

<<<
Status
>>>

Name:
Scott Jacobs |
Class:
Sorcerer |
Race:
Human

Title:
The Unbreakable

Age:
18 |
Level:
18

EXP:
149,128

Next Level:
10001 - 7999

Ability Points:
483

Health:
270[270] |
Mana:
214[214]

Attack:
110[562] |
Defense:
139[607]

Strength:
113[113] |
Agility:
117[117] |
Accuracy:
74[74]

Intellect:
120[120] |
Luck:
56[56]

<<< * >>>

“Nearly four thousand ability points spent, but I think it will be worth it. I can already one-shot Shar-Shar with simple punches and kicks sometimes.” He had proven that just a few hours ago. His attack strength was higher than their average health, and they had terrible defensive skills. What was worse, the poor scaly bastards did not put out enough attack damage to get past his raw defense anymore. Though, that was only true when he did not equip his spear. Things were a bit more even in the water now, unless he used his howling gale spell to annihilate them in a gruesome display.

Of course, with synchronicity in effect the downgrade in attack and defense was not a problem at all. He had access to an almost absurdly powerful underwater attack skill now.

Scott looked over his stats then decided to check his survival skills to make sure he had not missed anything.

<<<
Survival
>>>

Survival abilities are designed to help you overcome obstacles and to continue to live despite all odds. These skills relate to the ability to survive any and all situations, and often work in conjunction with other skills.

Observation
- The ability to determine threats and the potential usefulness of items.

Scavenging
- The ability to get the most out of any situation, especially after defeating an opponent.

Herbal Lore
- The ability to know the properties of plants.

Field Cooking
- The ability to cook items found in the field in a quick and efficient manner.

Synchronicity
- The ability to effectively combine various skills in order to create a more powerful effect.

<<< * >>>

The survival skill set had multiple extra abilities that could be learned over time, such as making maps or creating traps. They combined the five basic skills, such as scavenging and observation, in order to allow for the ability to effectively create a new result. There were also several extra level-up modifiers for stats, and a few basic modifiers that started at the lowest level. Scott had taken advantage of that to increase his status by a large amount.

The only thing he did not increase was his attack and defense stats directly. He chose the modifiers, but it felt like a waste to increase those two stats by a single point when he could increase his strength or agility by one point and gain a four point increase those stats.

Increasing attack and defense directly would wait for a time when he had a lot of extra points to spend, and fewer things to spend them on. Why spend two hundred forty-five points to increase his attack by five points, when he could spend the same amount on strength and have an effective increase of twenty points for attack? Sure, that only counted when he fought unarmed, but the effect held true for other weapons as well. His spear, for instance, had a basic attack modifier that allowed for double his strength to be applied to attack. That increased to a triple his strength if he fought underwater while his fisherman form was activated.

Scott thought about things for a moment. He could use higher powered spells, but what he needed was greater variety and possibly a few more physical combat skills. Ero also needed to have her level increased to six and a few of her abilities unlocked.

He pulled up Ero’s status screen then opened her skill menu. He could not give her stat modifiers for level-up, which meant that he should focus on her abilities. Her individual stats could be raised, but at the moment she could only do things once per day. She needed more ways to feel useful.

His eyes lit up when he saw the one thing his party lacked most. “Four hundred ability points, but definitely what the doctor orders...”

Scott chose to activate Ero’s
Sacred Water
ability. A soft cry in the distance told him that the girl had realized what had happened. Ero had been spending time with the engaged mermaids while they were on watch. They got along well together for various reasons.

The next thing the sorcerer knew a flaming meteor shaped suspiciously like a naked fairy streaked across the island at high speed. The fairy girl stopped short and fluttered excitedly in front of Scott.

“What! What?” asked the girl, while she flailed her arms.

“Hi, Ero. I just activated one of your abilities...” said Scott.

“I know!” She lunged forward and latched onto his face with great excitement.

“Ack!” cried Scott before he fell backwards and landed in the sand.

The frisky fairy giggled and hugged his face tightly. “Thank you! Thank you!”

It took a little time to calm the happy girl down, but after she managed to get ahold of herself she fluttered around and made little excited gestures. “Water! Give me some water Scott!”

He opened up his inventory and took out a bottle of water. He showed it to her and she shook her head.