After formally joining the party of the Nord siblings we begin our trek back to the city. I cant jump across the trees anymore to get back to the city as fast as possible because I'm now a part of a party and have to fulfill my duty as a Rogue.
Apparently as a Rogue its my job to be the scout of the party. I stay ahead of the party when we are on a job in the wilderness and keep my eyes and ears open for any danger that could befall the party. From what Griffith told me before we started trekking back to the city, most Rogues on Endora are also well versed in wilderness survival and tracking. He said I would have my work cut out for me if I was to handle my duties appropriately. He was going to provide me some books and even said that he would sign me up for a class on wilderness survival.
Andora was a city pretty much for Adventurers who specialized in hunting beasts. As such the city had numerous classes set up to teach the skills necessary to hunt the beasts that were native to the planet. This was critical because most worlds were not like Endora. Hunting here was a lot different than hunting on other worlds which were a lot more developed and full of cities. While that's the case Endora is just one of many planets that is used as a nature preserve. To accommodate the need for beast cores which is what World Games Technology is derived from, there are numerous planets just like it spread across many different leveled zones.
Once night hits we make camp. We camp on the ground since it would be a struggle to get Diesel and Argot up into the branches of the trees. I cook up some of the salamander beasts body since Griffith told me that it was pretty much worthless to use as a tag. I also make some rice. Overall its a relatively plain dinner, just rice and meat. But you wouldn't know it by the looks on my new found parties faces. They all look at me in surprise, well everyone except Griffith, who is currently eating as though the food would be stolen from him at any minute.
Artemis looks at me in a peculiar way before she asks, "You cooked this just now"
"Yeah. Sorry its just meat and rice. Rice is the only thing I picked up when I was buying cooking supplies. When we get back to the city, before we head back into the wilderness, I'll be sure to grab some more supplies. That way we can have more balanced meals." I respond.
Griffith watches the interaction and quietly laughs before saying "One of Cole's hobbies before he became a Player was cooking. Not only does he not mind cooking, he even enjoys it. So your party won't be like most parties who survive only on trail rations while in the wilderness." He directs his comments to Artemis for whatever reason.
"The meals will be better once I start taking those wilderness survival classes. Griffith said they include foraging for edible plants and mushrooms in the curriculum." I say.
"Yeah I think that for the next week or so you guys should stay in the city in order to learn how to work together as a party. Incorporating a new party member is never easy, especially as you all are inexperienced. You'll need to learn how to work together. I think that a good start would be for you three siblings to tell Cole about your abilities, that way he can grasp how important his role will be." Griffith says.
Artemis hesitates slightly before saying "That's probably a good idea. Let me start by saying that the children of war are different compared to the other races of this universe.
While other races can freely allocate their stat points we cannot. Our race has our stat points allocated automatically every time we level up. Also males and females of our race start with different stats and abilities. For males their stats all start at ten besides their constitution and strength. Their constitution starts at forty while their strength starts at thirty. Every time males level up their stat points will only be into constitution. By the time they reach level cap they will have one-thousand and forty constitution.
Now I know this sounds absurd at first but let me tell you about male Nords abilities and then you will understand. Their racial passive is called Steel physique, it increases their strength by thirty percent. Which again sounds absurd considering their strength stat will be stuck at thirty, but that's where their other abilities come into play.
Their next ability is called Radiant Sword, it increases their strength by thirty percent of their constitution. So by the time a Male Nord is level capped at one-thousand when they use this ability it will allow them to possess three-hundred and nine strength. Then if you add up the thirty percent in strength that will cause them to have four-hundred and one strength. This easily allows them to have the damage required to kill something at level one thousand.
Plus they still have their last active ability, it's called Radiant Armor. Radiant Armor increases their constitution by twenty percent, while it also causes their armor to be governed by their constitution stat. Meaning that for every point they have in their constitution their armor becomes stronger. At max level their armor is near indestructible since their constitution will then be at twelve-hundred and forty-eight.
Because of these abilities, in the wars of the distant past the last thing a person wanted to see on the opposing side of a battlefield was a male Nord.
Now I know what you're thinking, that because of their lack of speed that it would be hard for them to actually hit a target with their claymores, but that's not the case. For every stat points you put into strength you actually become faster as well. That's because of how much more force you can put behind your movements. So while a male Nord may not be able to hit certain Builds with ease, against other front line fighters they dominate.
The only ability that both male and female Nords share is called Bloody Energy. Every time we kill a human or beast Bloody Energy allows us to take twenty-five percent of their remaining energy from them and make it our own. This is the only passive that us Nords have.
Every other one of our abilities is an active which requires energy for every second we use them. For all of our active abilities the Energy cost is the same. Each ability costs five Energy a second to use. Which means that at our current levels we can only keep all of our abilities active at once for a little over two minutes. Energy consumption is the one of the biggest problems we face at our level.
But with the use of potions if we're forced to go all out we will be able to have enough Energy to last significantly longer.
One of the other big weaknesses of our race is that unlike most races in the universe, we only get four abilities instead of five. We feel as though it's the price we have to pay for our strength." Artemis finishes up with a nervous look on her face. Which confuses me.
Griffith chuckles when he sees the look on our faces before saying "Shes worried that you'll back out of the party now because of their abilities. I know that you don't realize it yet but for you guys to fight in the higher tier zones they will have to rely on their abilities a lot more than they do now. That's because their base stats will all be so much lower compared to the beasts of those zones. Well at least their non-dominant stats."
Without any hesitation I reply "That's fine, we'll still have your dominant stats to work with, I'm not sure what your dominant stats are Artemis but I'm sure they will be helpful in some way. Besides it's not like my build isn't one dimensional as well, I'm heavily geared towards agility and speed, without my telekinesis I would struggle to take out beasts. Besides by the time we get to the higher zones we will be making a lot more money, which will allow us to be more frivolous with our Energy potions"
Artemis gives me a gentle smile, I assume it's in gratitude for my words and don't think anything of it.
Griffith smiles at us before saying, "Well spoken Cole. If I didn't have confidence in you guys being able to handle the higher ranked hunting zones then I wouldn't have suggested for you all to party up. Now why don't you tell Cole about your abilities Atremis."
Artemis seems to have more confidence now as she says "Female Nords dominant stats are strength and agility. Our strength starts at forty while our agility starts at thirty. Every time we level up our stat points are distributed evenly between our two dominant stats.
My racial ability is called Feathered boots which increases my speed by thirty percent. I know that doesn't sound very good because my speed stat starts at ten but it goes together with one of my active skills.
That skill is called Radiant boots which increase my speed by thirty percent of my strength. Between the two my speed at level cap will be two-hundred and ten.
My last active skill is called Radiant Arrow. It allows me to increase the damage of Radiant Arrow by Thirty percent of my strength stat.
Now I don't know if you know this but an archers base damage actually comes from their strength stat. That's because of the pull of my bow, for every one strength that it takes to pull back a bow the damage of the arrow goes up by one. So I'll be doing seven-hundred and two damage at max level with my Radiant Arrow ability.
Another thing about archery that you don't know is that in order to be a good archer you have to have a high Agility stat otherwise you would never be able to hit a moving target from distance.
As I said before all Nords have the same passive skill which is called Bloody Energy." Artemis finishes her explanation and goes back to eating her food.
"Okay, so that means even at higher rank hunting zones then you will still do decent damage to the beast their since your dominant stats directly affect you damage with the bow. As I thought we have things to work with when challenging higher ranked hunting zones" I say while smiling at Artemis.
Artemis looks at me when I'm done saying this but quickly looks away.
Confused on what I had done to make her do so I was about to ask for an explanation but that's when Griffith interrupts me to say,
"Okay after we finish eating I think you all should go to bed. From now on we will be taking a turn in keeping watch for anything dangerous while the others sleep. This is standard procedure for parties. It's better to start getting used to it now. we'll be taking it in two hour shifts, which means that each night one person will get to sleep the whole night."
We all pack up camp in the morning after I cook breakfast, and continue on our way.
Four days pass by in what feels like the blink of an eye. We were not attacked my any beasts as we passed through the unranked hunting ground. Griffith says this is because beasts can sense the threat that someone poses to them, beasts in the unranked zones typically only attack people if their levels are lower than theirs
Before I know it I'm standing in front of the northern gate of Andora.