Tyler Kimball - Lessgently
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Pallesia - Chapter 185: Spending Points.
🕑 Added 2024-11-27 06:19:28 +0000 UTC--- COMPENSATORY ALLOCATION SYSTEM ---
--- SELECTION TEMPLATE ---
*POINTS: 36*
*Default Abilities:* // Determined through System Registry for subject. //
- [ ] Gravity’s Balance (5 pts) // Natural Selection //
Effect: You have an uncanny ability to avoid falling or losing your balance, even in the most precarious situations.
- [ ] Hollow Presence (5 pts) // System adjusted //
Effect: In chaotic or high-stress environments, people instinctively overlook or forget about you, making it easier to avoid notice without even trying.
*Magic:*
- [ ] Affinity: Fire Affinity (5 pts)
Effect: Gain the elemental Affinity for Fire.
- [ ] Spell: Telepathy: (3 pts)
Effect: Forge a mental connection with another being using base mana, allowing thoughts to flow freely between you both.
- [ ] Skill: Advanced Mana Sense (2 pts)
Effect: Sensing mana has become second nature. Mana Sense becomes a permanant ongoing Passive.
- [ ] Ability: God Kin (15 pts)
Effect: The essence of divine heritage flows through you, amplifying your connection to the magic forces of the world. Your magic becomes more potent. Your intelligence stat has a hidden 1.5x multiplier.
- [ ] Skill: Mana Conduit (10 pts)
Effect: Your body passively filters mana energy over time, allowing you to continue using magic longer without external sources. Doubles Mana Regeneration.
- [ ] Elven Apprentice (5 pts)
Effect: You’ve been taught magic by one of the many races deeply attuned to magic itself. Spells learned through any connection between you and your mentor [Neia Sindris], cost 10% less mana. {Flat additive bonus}
*Class Skills:* // Adjustments made post class as recompense //
- [ ] Mercy of the Healer (5 pts)
Effect: All healing automatically applies the spell Anesthesilosurge at no additional cost.
- [ ] Miracle Cast (15 pts)
Effect: Once per month, you may cast a spell you do not know, or does not exist, at no cost, using your stats as a baseline for effectiveness.
- [ ] Mana Cheat (5 pts)
Effect: Once per week, you may cast a spell at no cost.
*Passive Upgrades:*
- [ ] Healthy Body (4 pts)
Effect: You appear healthy, hale, and whole, and will never deteriorate.
- [ ] Healing Bonus (4 pts)
Effect: +15% healing effectiveness.
- [ ] Boost Ability: [Healer’s Touch] Toggle ( 10 pts)
Effect: You may willingly decide if your ability [Healer’s Touch] will be active on touch.
— You have 48 hours — // Time will not pass in Pallesia during allocation. //
After looking over his options and his available points, Lee came to a conclusion.
He was being shafted.
36 points wasn’t enough to make up for all of his losses, no matter which way you swung it. Some of the options didn’t even look appealing. Fire Affinity looked nice on paper, as it was the one affinity he didn’t have access to, but he could get that from an item. A rare and valuable item, but an item nonetheless. It would be idiotic to waste his points on something he could get by himself in due time. So, Fire Affinity was off the table.
For the default abilities, Lee assumed that the ‘Natural selection’ mentioned meant that Gravity’s Balance would have been his ability had he been born on Pallesia. It wasn’t a bad ability, don’t get him wrong, but it wasn’t something useful for his current class. It would have niche uses in combat, and very niche uses in daily life. That made it something not worth spending his precious points on.
Hollow Presence looked much better as an option at face value, but again, it was an option for combat—Group combat, at that. Maybe the ‘In chaotic or high-stress environments’ requirement would work in a chaotic hospital or medical scenario, but in that case, he’d want to be seen or noticed. In his mind, it was better than Gravity’s Balance, but maybe something to pass on.
Telepathy was an interesting option. There wasn’t a range listed, but if it used his mana, then it would probably be the range of his Mana Dispersion skill. With it being only 3 points, it might fit into his list as a last choice.
Advanced Mana Sense wasn’t that useful. Mages and spellcasters were already incredibly rare, and if he needed to see mana, he could just use his normal Mana Sense. Again, it was cheap. If he ended up with only two points left over, he might as well pick it up.
Looking at God Kin, Lee had a thought. Now, that’s what I’m fucking talking about.
God Kin was an amazing ability. If he chose it right now, his 70 intelligence would jump straight up to 105. A hidden jump, but as long as the effects showed, then he didn’t care. The downsides to God Kin were the 15 points. It was nearly half of his total, and it would be an enormous purchase. Still, it would continually grow throughout his life. Every two points he spent on intelligence would magically turn to three. He wasn’t planning on not putting points into intelligence either. He could shore up some of his lesser stats with the ‘free’ points he would gain from the ability.
For 10 points, he could grab Mana Conduit, which would be an all around good skill to have. Doubling mana regeneration would allow his class quests to be completed faster, allow him to heal more with his spells if the need arose, and fight for longer periods of time. It would be good in and out of combat, in daily life, and help him with his class. A very tempting, if unassuming skill to grab.
At first glance, Elven Apprentice was terrible. But, after thinking about it for a minute, Lee realized that it wasn’t as bad as he originally assumed. It stated ‘Spells learned through any connection between you and your mentor’. This would hopefully include any spell that required air, dark, water, ice, cold, and glacial. After all, Neia did use Mana Infusion to grant him Glacial, along with any of its components. A ten percent reduction of mana costs for a large portion of his available spell repertoire wasn’t anything to scoff at.
Now, for his class skill options, all of them were appealing. Mercy of the Healer would inadvertently save him mana anytime he wanted to use Anesthesilosurge. It was on the cheaper end, point wise, and Lee wouldn’t mind having that as a skill. Gods knows that he’s forgotten to cast it a few times when it was sorely needed.
Now, for the other expensive item in the list—Miracle Cast. Oh, it was amazing. Even with a month cooldown, it was absolutely fucking busted. It would allow him to basically bullshit his way out of danger. He could come up with a completely random spell out of thin fucking air and have it work exactly as he wanted. All the skills that the system had taken away from him? They were back on the table. Dropping flaming meteors from the sky? Yes sir, just once a month. The limits were endless, and it was definitely at the top of his list. 15 point price tag or not.
Mana Cheat was Miracle Cast’s little brother. Good, useful, and not too expensive. Although, if he needed to cast a spell for free, he was already in the weeds. Miracle Cast would just be better, even if it cost more.
The Passive upgrades… Well, Healing Bonus was nice, but without Antithesis of Healing, healing effectiveness wasn’t as important as it used to be. If he had 4 points left over, he might pick it over Telepathy, but it would just be to round out his spending.
Healthy Body was most definitely playing on his insecurities. For his entire life, Lee had been the sickly kid, teen, and then adult. Always gaunt, out of place, and unattractive—in his personal opinion. Nobody would choose to be gaunt and sickly looking, but plenty of people would jump at the chance to appear healthy. It was only 4 points…
Now, the last of the available options… Boost Ability: Healer’s Touch. His one flaw. His downside. His secret… It could just go away. He wouldn’t need to be afraid of being turned into a healing station. The ability to just… turn off his healing was more a blessing than a curse.
He was taking it. 10 points or not, It’s perfect.
After selecting Boost ability: Healer’s Touch, it brought him down to 26 points. The next choice was between God Kin and Miracle Cast. In the long run, God Kin would win out… but Miracle Cast had flexibility. He was going to pick one of them. That was without question. Not choosing either of them was just plain stupid, and he’s tired of being stupid.
As much as he’d like to pick Miracle Cast, God Kin was the better long-term choice. He was going to, ideally, live forever. Eventually, Miracle Cast’s usefulness would fade away. With an infinite lifespan, he should be able to learn enough magic to fulfill his needs in any situation. God Kin would always be useful. Every level would give him extra strength, and if he got into an altercation with someone of a higher level, the stat advantages it gave could hopefully fill the gap.
With a heavy heart, forever sealing away his easy-route of dropping meteors from the sky, Lee selected God Kin.
It stung, but for his future, this was definitely the better play. Even if he hated it right now, his future self will thank him later. He was sure.
With 11 points left over, the choices became much harder. Healthy Body was in the back of his head. He knew it wasn’t a choice that mattered. It would just fix his appearance, but insecurities were hard to kill. It took more effort than he’d like to admit, but he disregarded it as an option, it was useless.
Mana Conduit looked appealing, but it cost 10 points. If he picked it, he’d be left with 1 point, and unable to buy anything else…
After much deliberation, Lee chose Mana Cheat, as he couldn’t pick Miracle Cast with his remaining points, Healing Bonus for a 15% effectiveness to healing, and Advanced Mana Sense, as it was the only way to not have leftover, useless points.
As soon as he selected his final option, dropping his points to zero, his temporary cyan-colored world fell away, leaving him kneeling in front of a worried Em.
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Tyler Kimball
Guess who forgot to hit the schedule button! I did! Oh, well. Enjoy the chapter a little early.
