Chapter 45: More grinding.
George was happy to see him when Milo appeared in his camp after dying. He spent some time playing with the little lizard, and ate quite a bit of his stored cheese. He knew the depression and exhaustion would go away soon, but it felt intolerable to feel like crap and not be taking advantage of the downtime to snack on his favorite food.
He also caught up on his experience gains for the last week.
You have gained 500 experience in Mining and 500 experience in STR.
You have gained 100 experience in Identify and 100 experience in PER.
You have gained 100 experience in Poison Resistance and 100 experience in CON
You have gained 50 experience in Fleet of Foot and 50 experience in AGI
You have gained 100 experience in Climbing and 100 experience in AGI
You have gained 200 experience in Bonecasting and 200 experience in INT
You have gained 200 experience in Bone carving and 200 experience in INT
You have gained 200 experience in Rune lore and 200 experience in INT
You have gained 900 Boss experience.
You will gain an equal amount of experience in the skills you apply this experience to.
You have gained 9 Core Skill Points.
He made his decisions quickly. 6 points into the second level of Fiendish Traps, and 3 points into his foundation to raise his crafting. He was going to need the extra crafting slots that those points freed up. The 900 experience went into Dodge and AGI.
By putting the 3 points into his Crafting Foundation, he now had 5 slots for crafting skills. Before, he had only had Mechanic and left the second open. His plans for revenge on the snake would need more skills. He added Trap Making, Tool Making, and Smithing. On Cichol’s advice he added Rune Crafting.
How the different crafting skills, regular skills, and lores worked could be confusing at times, but with the help of the old Bonecaster he was figuring it all out. Rune lore was Lore Skill. It was all book learning and memorization. You could become a scholar in Runes without ever having crafted one yourself.
Bone Carving would let him carve bone into tools, weapons, parts for an automaton, and give him the skill to carve a rune onto a bone. Without Rune Lore, Bone Carving was a practical crafting skill. Together, and backed up by Bonemancy, they would let him produce the magical runes that enhanced materials, held spells, and thousands of other things.
The Rune Crafting skill expanded his options to more than just bone. It tied together all the practical and theoretical knowledge. Of course, he still had to go acquire all that knowledge. Milo was excited by it all.
Getting back his pack and gear proved to be a bit difficult. He carefully climbed the cables up to the mining level, and started working his way through the corridors. His hopes that the huge copperhead had gone back to its lair were dashed as he saw it moving down a corridor far ahead. The problem was that while he knew where part of it's body was, and the direction it was headed, he didn't know where it's head was.
He quietly moved around for a couple of hours, avoiding the snake as it moved through the corridors. At one point, he saw it turn a corner far down the hall and move away from him. It looked different. Sharp growths on it's head formed a natural crown. He was able to identify it and cursed.
Queen Salasha the Rat-Slayer
Level 8 Epic Boss Health 2200/2200
(Huge size, elemental, constriction, tremor sense, keen sense of smell, hammerhead.)
At least she was heading away from his pack. Her majesty was headed down the corridor towards the blocked stairs. Soon after Milo heard the sounds of the giant snake smashing through the rubble. The noise and dust she was kicking up meant it was much easier for Milo to get to his grave, recover his stuff, and get back down to his camp. He had plans for how to take care of the Queen, but it was going to take a lot of work and a trip up to the guildhall. He told George to take a break. The little guard lizard nodded his head and disappeared back to where ever he came from. Milo headed back to Harry and spent a day with the troll and then made his way up the stairs. He had plans to visit first the Miner's Guild, and then go visit the Engineers Guild.
"Can someone explain to my why we have a human taking the test for Journeyman in the Dwarven Guild of Engineers?" Guild master Rolf Morgenthern was making a rare visit down to the basement of the Mechanics Guildhall. If there was one complaint anyone had about him it was that he used a pencil too much and a wrench not enough. His hands were suspiciously free of grease most of the time. Still, no one else wanted to handle the contracts and politics, so he was sure to be reelected.
Several of the Guild Elders chuckled or shook their heads. The Mechanics Guild had opened up to non-dwarves over 500 years ago. Rolf's grandfather had opposed it. His father had opposed it. And Rolf was adamant that the glory days would only return with the 'softies' were purged from the rolls.
5
2200 Primary
Poison Resistance
CON
3
500 Primary Skulk WIS
2
300 Primary Climbing AGI 2 400 Primary Dodge AGI 4 1600 Primary Small Blades DEX 2 575 Primary Tail Fighting DEX 1 200 Primary Mining STR 3 800 Primary Acrobatics AGI 2 300 Secondary Throw Sharp Thing DEX 1 50 Secondary Fleet of Foot AGI 2 350 Secondary Weak Claws DEX 0 30 Secondary Sense Danger PER 2 300 Secondary Forage PER 2 500 Secondary Skinning DEX 0 Tertiary Manipulate Locks and Traps DEX 0 Tertiary Hide INT 0 Tertiary Identify PER 2 400 Tertiary Mycology INT 1 100 Tertiary Open 0 Tertiary Mechanic INT 3 815 Crafting Bone Carving DEX 1 200 Crafting Scrimshaw DEX 0 0 Crafting Rune Lore INT 3 700 Lore Cheesemaking WIS 0 0 Crafting Tool Making DEX 2 500 Crafting Rune Crafting INT 2 500 Crafting Metal Smithing STR 2 500 Crafting Trap Making INT 0 0 Crafting Core Skills SkillCostsRankMax RankSpent Smugglers Stash 3/5/10 3 3 18 27 sf Jumping Jack 2 1 1 2 Whip Tail 2 1 1 2 Unseen Tail 3 1 1 3 Invisible Tail 3 1 1 3 Bonemancy 5 1 1 5 Poison Resistance 1/3/5 1 1 5 primary con Disease Resistance 1/3/5 1 1 2 secondary, con unnoticed 2 1 1 2 Silent Step 2 1 1 2 Abundance 1/2/3/4/5 1 5 1 Breathless 1/1 2 2 2 Skilled Provider 1/2/3 1 3 1 Extra Clever Traps 3/6/9 1 1 9 Cheese Making 1 1 1 1 Total 58
Foundation Max 120 points for Tier 1 (Class Bonus of +15 Evasion, +10 to Forage, Mine)
Combat
Defense
Melee
20+5
Mitigate
0
Ranged
15
Evasion
10+15
Magic
15+10
Resistance
10+15
Crafting
10+15
Harvest
Skill 1:
Skill 2:
Mechanic
Trap Making
Animal products
10
Skill 3:
Skill 4:
Tool Making
Smithing
Herbs, flowers, bark,fungus, fruit. timber
15+10
Skill 5:
Skill 6: Locked
Runecrafting
minerals, gems, stone
15+10
