The first book I start reading is “Normal Occupations and how to obtain them”. The first occupation is acquired when a child turns 5 and usually it corresponds to their highest skill, but can also be something they are passionate about. A person can have only 3 occupations active at one time and occupation can only be changed 7 days after the last change. The level of the occupation doesn’t reset when changed and continues from the acquired level once equipped again. The rest is basically a list of occupations, followed by ways to obtain them based on their classification and a little history sprinkled here and there. Combat occupations needed you to obtain corresponding art skill like spear, sword, shield and so on. Production ones were basically the same, you had to obtain either a tool skill like knife, hammer, axe handling or a craft skill like cooking, smiting, woodworking and so on. It was basically the Earth equivalent of “For Dummies Guide” type of book.
Skimming the other occupation books, both Rare and Epic occupations worked on similar principles, but some occupations could be acquired without getting all the skills for it, so once you did, you received the extra skills needed for the job. That is what happened when I got Novice Summoner and received both Magic Contract and Magic Sight. With their help you could progress in your occupation. There is no mention of the occupation Novice Summoner so far, so I think it is probably hidden or special in some way. The Epic one did contain all other Summoning occupations corresponding to the skills I have and a few more, so I read their description more carefully.
The beginning of every Summoning occupation is a ritual to call upon the first summoned being you would sign a Summoning contract with. Depending on what answers your call, you would receive a Summoning skill corresponding to it. The most common ones are Beast Summoning, Creature Summoning and Golem Summoning, but weaker ones like Plant and Insect Summoning have also appeared. More powerful skills like Spirit, Dragon and the more humanoid Fairy Summoning are seen less often, but are much more desirable as skills. There are also unwanted Summoning skills like Undead and Demon Summoning and although not against the law to posses such Summoning methods, they are viewed with negativity and distrust, as they are harder and more dangerous to control.
There isn’t mention of Machine Summoning, but the rest is actually very informative. My cards work as both the Summoning ritual and the contract, so immediately after activating a card I receive the skill and the option for the occupation. There is also mention of Fairies being more humanoid, so some of the summons I posses could pass as fairies, but better not risk it for now.
In the Epic Occupations book there is again a mention of receiving extra skills if you somehow get the occupation without having all the skills for it, but there are also exceptions in some cases or some occupations with unknown ways of obtaining them. I think that applies to my Dimension Traveler Legendary occupation, because I don’t think I received special skills when I got it, just a bunch of perks that don’t translate into sills, like easier leveling and learning of skills and such. And the only clue I have about obtaining it is to go to another world.
In the Epic Occupations book I also found one I am interested in acquiring in the future, Enchanting. It requires one to have a good knowledge of the magic language and have crafting related skills like engraving, blacksmithing or just crafting. There is a mention of high level sewing skill also covering the requirements for getting the occupation.
There didn’t seem to be a book on Legendary Occupations, so I moved on to the one titled “Hidden and special occupations” and this is where I found some interesting ones. There is a section of the book that explains how a number of similar skills can present themselves as a higher profession, like my number of type Summoning skills became the Summoner occupation. If someone has cooking, bread making, baking and other skills in the same category, instead of just Cook, Baker or Patisserie, they could receive the Chef occupation, which receives experience from all mentioned skills when leveling up. Here I also found explanation of the occupations Summoned Hero, Lost One, Called by the World and Dimension Traveler. They had pretty much the same properties, but their origins depend on how the person has arrived here. Another occupation that interests me is Alchemist. There is no mention of how it is obtained, because the procedure is kept secret by the existing Alchemists, but I already have a book explaining how to obtain the skills needed for the occupation.
I wonder if I transcribe the Book of Secret Arts, will it have the effect of a grimoire and increase the Magic of the holder, or will it be just an instruction manual for Alchemy? Either way, if I put to be auctioned, it will get me a lot of money. But I can’t do it at the moment, because if I make a mistake with transcribing the magic language sections I won’t know about it and could become responsible for any accidents that occur in response to my mistake. I will do it after learning the language and the skill itself.
In the special occupations book I also found the mention of Weapons Master and what it did. You apparently needed to learn 10 weapon arts to the intermediate level to receive it and there is a brief mention of the skills fusing into one higher tiered skill after that. But doesn’t that just decrease the number of status points you posses? I will have to read more on the subject in the Skill books. And thinking about them, I open the first one and start to read it.
The Skill books contained a lot more explanations in comparison to the occupation books. There was an explanation and categorization of skills according to what they are for, like fighting, crafting, magic, scouting and such, as well as if they were following a sequence or not, like Novice, Intermediate and so on or like my accuracy skill, which did not follow a sequence. Here was explained how Arts Skills were divided. Novice was the mastering of the tool and if I understand it right, at level 10 an Arts user is as proficient as a master in my world. Intermediate was where various magic techniques are learned, like special attacks in fighting games like flying slashes, energy punches and other such things. Advanced and Master tiers are the refinement and strengthening of said techniques. And here is the surprise apparently there is a fifth tier, Grandmaster, where you are so proficient, you can invent techniques out of nowhere on the spot. There was even an explanation on some special skills that had just 10 levels and others that actually didn’t give stat points.
According to the book language comprehension skills only had 10 levels. Levels 1 and 2 were obtained as a toddler and corresponded to understanding the language. Levels 3 and 4 is learning to speak the language and from level 5 you learned how to write and fill your knowledge on words you don’t know. When you reach level 10 it doesn’t mean you know every word, but you have such good grasp on it, that of you encounter a word you don’t know, you can understand its meaning from the context it was said in. There is brief mention of a skill that can be obtained when you master 5 languages, but no one has been able to achieve that feat in centuries, because some languages have been lost to time and now there are only Common, Stonekin, Sidhe and Magic languages. Doesn’t that mean there are other races in this world? Stonekin are mentioned in fiction as the name of Dwarfs and Sidhe are Elves. I will have to look them up in some books.
Browsing the book for other useful information I read about a skill that doesn’t give status points until evolved and it piqued my interest. If I start actively doing everything with my non-dominant hand I will receive 2 skills, one for the hand I was using until now at level 6-7 and one for the non-dominant one at level 2-3. If I level both skills, Left and Right Hand Control, to level 10 and they fuse I will acquire the skill Ambidextrous, which is required to learn dual wielding and some other skills. I think with me being able to use 2 decks, the skill could come in handy. And I think I will take things one level higher and start training my feet too. I have seen what people are capable of when they train the dexterity of their feet to a high level and I am interested to see if there is a skill like Ambidextrous for feet or some higher level of skill for when both my hands and feet have said skill at level 10. Maybe there is something like Omnisdextrous or something.
Another skill that I will try to learn is Blade Arts. It is a lower form of Weapon Arts, the skill needed for Weapon Master. According to the book there are a lot of people who choose to acquire 3 skill arts of a weapons category like blades, poles and martial arts and then fuse them together. You lose a little stat points from having less skills, but you become able to use all weapons of the chosen category with comparable proficiency and the skill becomes one tier higher, so you lose only like 5 points a level, instead of 10. I also think that is acceptable compromise in order to be able to wield all bladed weapons.
Reading this also solidifies the plans I was starting to make while I was exiting the dungeon. The weapon master bracelet consumes a weapon and upgrades it to its rank. I can construct 2 bladed Duel disks and feed theme to the bracelet and have 2 blades attached to my arms that help with Summoning. With Ambidextrous, Blade Arts and possibly Dual Wielding I will be able to fight both long range with my summons and close range with the blades. The first prototype will be made by slicing up one of the play mats and using it on the blade Duel disks. If it works I will commission a Smith to make better ones, maybe from mithril and have them enchanted. I will have to also find a higher rank weapon master bracelets in the future.
I find and read the conditions for acquiring some other useful skills like danger sense, enemy detection, presence detection and inspect, a lower form of appraisal. Here comes the interesting part, the text about presence detection mentions the existence of the hidden stats and that they have an effect on acquiring skills. People that have a certain number of hidden stats were able to get skills that people without them could not. There is a theory there exist a hidden stat that affects the senses and you have to have enough of it to be able to detect presences by smell, sound and temperature to acquire the presence detection skill. The conditions for getting Inspect is to have observe at level 10 and then pour some Magic in your eyes while observing an object or creature. That connects the skill to the Akasha, which I will have to look up, of the world and gives you wider database from which to draw knowledge. The only problem I have, I need level 5 in Magic Control at the very least or I could rupture my eyes with uncontrolled Magic. With Dian Keto it wouldn’t be permanent disability, but who in their right mind would risk feeling that, just to get the skill sooner?
When I checked the book for my skills, apparently a few of them could benefit from infusion of Magic. Accuracy would evolve into Aim and manifest a sight or scope, I couldn’t quite understand from the description, but my Aim would improve. Navigation could turn into a mini map and automatically mark where I have been and overlay markers from physical maps I observe. But before getting my Magic Control to level 5, none of that was possible.
I write the useful skills and how to get them I my new notebook and move onto the next book on the pile, “Culture, traditions and taboos of the world”. Reading that took a while, because I couldn’t just skim a list of skills and choose which ones to more thoroughly check. In short, the culture of the world developed around Warriors and Spellcasters and their support. The energy in this world empowers the stats of Strength and Magic, so most people started choosing occupations and skills that grant at least 1 of these stats and avoided every other. Even the production occupations relying on Strength and Magic like Blacksmith and Enchanter were more popular than something like Woodworker and Apothecary. At one point things became so skewed, that a law had to be passed for a certain percentage of all crafters have to choose occupations with hidden stats, like Tailors, Cooks, Apothecary and others, because otherwise everyday life would be impossible.
The next section described some traditions developing in different parts of the world and how they started. So many fiction characters would have avoided misunderstandings like accidental proposals if they had read a book like this. Here proposals are made by gifting a bracelet made of intertwining chains around a red gem that represented the love of the two people.
Another tradition that was different was how people greeted each other. Where in my world you shook hands because of some legend about Warriors showing they don’t carry weapons, here where Magic and Skills exist, showing you don’t carry a weapon didn’t really do much, so the greeting is just show of respect and depending on the region consists of either making a fist and taping your chest with your dominant hand, a polite bow, right fist to left palm similar to martial artists in my world or apparently a fist to the upper arm of your counterpart when it came to Stonekin. Apparently they were very crude when it came to greetings. There were slight variations to the greetings in some places, but those were the main ones.
The clinking of cups in this world was the same and apparently for the same reasons. You made sure some of your drink makes it to their cup to make sure if they poisoned you, they will also drink of it. Of you had high enough Poison Resistance, you could be more careless and skip the procedure, but it happened rarely.
I made sure to remember all traditions just in case I didn’t bother to remember some of them and it came to bite me in the ass in the future. No way am I starting a conflict with a merchant because I offered to shake their had and it turned out that was a declaration of war. That left only the section on taboos and it didn’t look to have a lot of text packet there.
Most taboos were connected to the different deities the people in this world believed in and the things they forbid to be done. One such taboo is raising undead creatures, desecration Graves and otherwise disturbing the deceased. Apparently a high enough level priest can resurrect freshly dead people and creatures and that was allowed, and you could command and manipulate summoned undead, but every other undead creature had to be put to rest.
Another taboo is the manipulation of souls and mind control. An old alchemist that lost his loved one, but managed to stop their should from leaving, then went on a long and bloody road of experimentation in order to find a way to create a body for them and transfer their should in it. In the pursuits of that knowledge they made many groundbreaking discoveries, but also killed a lot of people and mutilated their souls. The mind control didn’t have such a story attached to it’s explanation, but it didn’t need to. It was immoral to control the will and actions of another and deprive them of their freedom. I will have to be very careful when I practice Alchemy and avoid using cards like Change of Heart, Brain Control and Call of the Haunted. Resurrection is safe to use, but it could put me on the radar of the churches and the nobility, so I will avoid using it.
The strange thing for me is the absence of the mention of creating life with Alchemy, pursuit of immortality, relations with the same sex and relatives. Did the existence of Magic solve some of the problems associated with relations with same sex couples and relatives? Was the creation of life with Alchemy the solution to same sex relationship and child rearing? Did magic eliminate the problem of inbreeding? So many new questions surfacing. There were still some more taboos mentioned here and there, but I didn’t plan to come anywhere near them, so for now they didn’t deserve a mention.
As I was finished with the book and was reaching for the one about Magic Affinities, the librarian came to tell me the library was closing down, so I returned the books, took my books for learning Magic Language and returned to the inn for dinner.
This time I didn’t order salad, soup, main and desert. From the menu I chose a good sounding meat with side of veggies and heaping of sauce. The meat tastes similar to beef, but it has some wild and gamey flavor to it. And the veggies have both familiar and new flavors mixed in, there is bitterness like a green pepper, sweetness of red ones, savories like tomatoes. The only thing I didn’t like was the bread that came with my dish. I didn’t have any yesterday and all day today, but now that I have, it was hard bread with a lot of salt. I am definitely not ordering any more bread from here. But I definitely have to find an alternative source of carbs if I will start training my body. After finishing my dinner, I paid and went to take a long, relaxing bath.
An hour later I am in my room, dressed in my second change of clothes and reading the Magic Language books. The first thing I learned is, this language is not genetic to the human race, because I didn’t have the same feeling of familiarity as when I was looking at Common written on the dungeon walls. The magic words differed with their element and ranged from rune looking, to Kanji looking ones and some I have no comparisons to. Almost immediately I hear the DING that signifies I learned a new skill and I know I have the first level of Magic Language Comprehension. I spend several hours learning the language, then rested by transferring everything I wrote in my notepad to the new Journal I bought, then I continued with my language studies.
I know I wasn’t going to learn the language in a day and I wasn’t planning to try, but I at least wanted to finish learning the Earth alphabet today. Still, I needed a little break, so I took out the time piece I purchased today and looked at the dial. It had 12 hours, like an Earth clock, so the day probably had 24 hours. I am still not sure about the number of days in a month and an year, but tomorrow I could probably ask to see a calendar with the moon phases or something as an excuse to learn that information. And thinking about days, I set the time piece to 12 o’clock and waited for the Emissaries to vanish, so I could wind the time piece up to the right time.
It didn’t take a lot of time for it to happen, and after I finish setting the time piece, I write in my Journal what happened yesterday and today, activated 2 Last Will, Remedy and Emissaries, then undressed to my underwear and went to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be another day of learning things in the library.
Bracelets....
Briam.....