Bab 34: CHAPTER 34 [A Knight and a Mayor]
"I'll take option number two. Here's the money?"
You unlocked Good Choice, Level 1.
To get it, make 14 more good (as judged by the game masters) decisions in game situations.
Reward:
+2 to wisdom
Logician, a passive ability, Level 1: +1 to intellect
To see similar messages, go to the Action section of the attribute window.
You learned a new active ability: Sword of Retribution, Level 1
Boosts the strength of your blows by 75% and increases your chances of landing a critical hit by 50%
Activation cost: 30 mana
Recharge time: 45 seconds
You learned a new active ability: Bloodletting, Level 1
Gives you a 50% chance of causing bleeding
Bleeding damage done: 7 health per second for 50 seconds
Activation cost: 35 mana
Recharge time: 1 minute
You learned a new passive ability: Strong Shoulders, Level 1
Lets you wear light armor and chainmail
"Happy?" The old man watched my face closely.
"Certainly!" There was no sense in hiding it. They were good abilities, they didn't take much mana, and they did decent damage. Plus, I could wear light armor. "Can I ask you a few questions?"
"Go ahead."
"How do I use abilities in battle?" It sounded funny to ask, but I hadn't looked that up on the forums yet.
I guess I hadn't thought that far ahead.
He patted the bench next to him in an invitation to sit down. "Look, when you're in battle, and you want to use one, just say it—either out loud or to yourself. That's it. Just remember that you can't have more than five active abilities. If you want to learn a sixth, you'll have to pick one of your existing five to forget."
"How many passive abilities can I have?"
"As many as you want."
"And the second question, these are all Level 1. What happens later? Do they level-up?"
"Good question. The more you use them, the better your chances are of having one of them level-up. They each have their tipping point, but I couldn't tell you exactly when that is. Fight a lot, use them a lot, do a lot of damage, and you'll be fine."
"How many levels do abilities have?" I figured I'd asked the old man everything I could think of seeing as how I had him right there.
"Three. Only three."
"When can I learn new ones?"
"When you get to Level 25. And then Level 30."
"Got it. Levels divisible by five."
"What?"
"Thank you, I said. Time for me to go."
"Hang on a second. I see your path lies to the east?" The old man threw me a look that spoke volumes.
"What? Why do you say that?" I was surprised, as I hadn't even thought about where I'd go next. I had too much to do right where I was.
"I don't know, I just had a feeling. Anyway, if you're in the east, get me some parchment for my flyers, okay? My granddaughter loves flying them, but if she breaks this one, I don't have enough parchment to make a replacement."
You have a new quest offer: Acquire Parchment.
Task: Get some parchment from the eastern end of the continent and bring it to instructor Serhio in Fladridge.
Reward:
1000 experience
Your choice of active ability.
Accept?
Yes, of course. Though I wasn't planning on heading east—yet, at least.
"All right, I'll see you." I gave the old man a deep and grateful bow.
"Good luck, sonny!" He waved and got back to work on the kite's tail.
Tleft the instructor, whose name, to my shame, I only found out thanks to the quest description, and smiled. Life had new meaning and looked to be much more fun thanks to my new abilities. All I had left to do was visit the knight's mission, give them Olaf's amulet, and get my reward.
The mission turned out to be a little building marked by a sign identical to the amulet—a circle with a tear in the middle. I pushed the door open and walked in to find myself in a small room centered around a desk. Behind it, sat an old man who could not have looked less like a knight. He was wearing a robe and writing something. This was the representative of a powerful order of knights? Where was his chainmail, sword, mustache? He looked up from the parchment in front of him.
"How can I help you?"
"Is this the Tearful Goddess Order?" I thought I might have been mistaken. Maybe the building belonged to...oh, I don't know... Who could it have belonged to?
"Yes, the Tearful Goddess Order." He immediately dispelled my doubts, cutting short my attempt to think of what else might be going on. "What do you need?"'
"I have an amulet for you" I pulled it out and showed it to him. "Here, I think it belongs to one of you."
"Wait a second." He jumped up from the stool he sat on and ran into the next room. He returned almost immediately, throwing open the door and announcing grandly, "Master of the Tearful Goddess Order, keeper of the lost temple secret, member of the Council of Involved, Majordomo Hugo von Shlip-penshtain awaits you!"
That was impressive. Involved in what? And what was that about a secret?
I walked through the open door with as dignified and measured a gait as I could muster.
The inside of the room looked much more fitting for a knightly order. The room was spacious, weapons hung on the walls, an enormous bearskin sprawled over the floor, and a fire crackled in the fireplace. I found myself looking at a tall and sinewy older knight. He had a drooping Polish-style mustache and could have been pulled straight from Dragonlance or the movie Crusader.
Shlippenshtain seemed like a strange name for him, as I would have expected something like Pan Tadeusz or Sir Ogloblya.
"Welcome, warrior." The knight nodded his head slightly in greeting. "I am Master of the Tearful Goddess Order Sir Hugo von Shlippenshtain. You can call me Master Hugo. And what is your name?"
"Leyton," I answered. "Leyton from the Thunderbirds clan. I don't have quite as many titles, as I haven't had time to acquire them yet. So you can just call me Leyton."
"Well, if you have bravery in your heart, strength in your arms, and a brain in your head, titles and glory will come. You just need to understand if you really need glory." Master Hugo was being very diplomatic. "Brother Tsimiskhy said you brought an amulet belonging to one of our brothers. Could you give it to me?"
"Of course. That's why I'm here?" I offered it to him.
"Olaf von Dal." The knight looked at the amulet sadly. "He was a fun, carefree boy, and all he wanted was to write the chronicles of our order. You know, Leyton, he even bought a thick book that was orange for some reason. We joked that it turned blue for fear of what he would write in it, but he said that sooner or later his stories about our order would be called the Orange Chronicles. How did he die?"
"I don't know, Master Hugo. I found his amulet in a den belonging to a creature I killed named Burrig. I imagine it was responsible. He was probably just unlucky since he must have been a strong knight and the creature wasn't that dangerous. Maybe he twisted his ankle or was already wounded. Who knows?"
"It's not important anymore." The master nodded his head in agreement. "You say you killed the beast?"
"Well, yes?"
"Can you prove that?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact." I pulled out Burrig's claw, which I had been carrying around the whole time.
"Will you give it to me? I'll keep it with Olaf's amulet to show that his death did not go unpunished."
"Of course." I gave Hugo the claw.
You completed a quest: Remembering the Fallen.
You let the brothers in the knight's order know that he is dead.
Reward:
100 gold
500 experience
+5 friendliness from the Tearful Goddess Order
You also completed an additional action and may receive a variable reward.
"Thank you." The knight clasped his fist to his heart.
"I think it would be fair to give you something more than the standard reward offered for returning the amulet belonging to our fallen brother?"
Ah-ha! That's what Carol was talking about! I thought.
I had been trying to figure out what weapon he was talking about, seeing as how there wasn't a mention of one in the quest description.
"The Tearful Goddess Order is very old," continued Shlippenshtain. "Our storehouses have accumulated many things needed by people in search of fame and great exploits. We also have much gold, which people treasure so highly. Finally, the order has knowledge we can share."
Choose one of the additional rewards available for completing the Remember the Fallen quest:
3000 gold
An item from the order's storehouse matching your class
An ability matching your class
"Choose carefully, Leyton. Pick what you need most."
"What would you pick?" I asked.
~ ~ ~
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone