Ch. 9 Ignorance Is Not Bliss

The next morning I decided to sell the Mana Stones I had collected instead of using them. I wanted the boost to abilities, but we had expenses we had to take care of.

Before that though I decided to check my character sheet and see what changes were made.

Name: Odellin Hundai

Level: 5

Str: 14

Dex: 16

Con: 13

Int: 26

Wis: 17

Cha: 12

HP: 270

MP: 430

STA: 130

(0 unused stat points)

SKILLS:

One-handed - 1

Two-handed - 1

Survival - 4

Evocation - 19

Animal Handling - 15

Ranged - 14

Meditation - 12

Stealth - 2

SPELLS:

Force Missile

Mana Arrow

QUESTS:

Progress Quest:

Break 3 Rifts, consume 19 more Mana Stones.

Equipment:

Goblin Crossbow 20 DMG.

Diamond Archery Edge Compound Bow (Uncommon) 50 DMG

Quiver 30 carbon fiber arrows, Titanium Tipped 5 DMG

'Stealth, yessss' I was excited. Stealth was always a favorite skill in any RPG that allowed it. I focused on Stealth and brought up the information window on it.

Skill - Stealth:

Stealth determines your ability to move quietly as well as unnoticed. The higher your Stealth skill level, the less you will be noticed when you wish it. Dexterity contributes to increase the success of Stealth.

So Stealth was gonna be a thing. Images of me dissappearing in the middle of a crowded mall flashed through my mind. I chuckled at my thoughts and sighed.

I also saw the Progress Quest didn't change even though we broke the Rift. 'What the heck, why didn't the quest change?' and as I thought that a message unlike any I had seen came from the 'System'.

System Message: Open Rifts are no longer Rifts in the normal sense of the word. They are Gates to which entry and exit are permitted by all living creatures, within and without.

'Whoah, did the 'System' just respond to me?'...I must have waited for five minutes and shook my head. Maybe the system responded only to specific inquiries.

Either way, I had things to do. I stretched and rubbed my eyes, let out a yawn and climbed out of bed. I wasn't normally a morning person, but apparently I didn't need that much sleep anymore, because when I grabbed my phone it said 7:30 AM and I knew it was about 1 AM before I fell asleep.

I saw Lynette roll over to the side of the bed and grab her phone. She groaned and looked at me with sleepy eyes "It's too early babe. Come back to bed."

I shook my head "I can't, apparently I'm wide awake. Besides I wanted to get to the hospital to check on Claire before I went to the Association to sell all the stones I got from the Goblins on our date."

She rolled her eyes and said "Fine, but before you do change the raccoons' towel and water. I will feed them later. Also, if you absolutely must bring Claire over she is sleeping in the babies' room."

I grinned and leaned over, kissing her cheek before walking over to the raccoon box. "Don't worry honey, Claire would probably love it. Her place is trashed and I don't think she will feel safe in her trailer for now."

Lynette nodded and rolled back over, covering her head with the blanket, "Just make sure she's alright. Send her my love."

I heard another ding as I changed out the raccoons water and towel, I even brought both of them into the bathroom and washed them out in the tub, they were a bit dirty, rolling around in their own excrement. That also apparently earned me another ding.

"3 more levels in Animal handling and one of you girls is going to be joining Bella and me. I am so excited." they both looked up at me and didn't screech but definitely squealed as I dried them off.

Bella came out of the babies room slowly, then turned around and gently pushed the door closed. I stood there in shock, 'Is she getting smarter?' I thought to myself then decided to look at her character sheet as well.

Bella (Animal Companion, Dire Raccoon)

Level: 5

STR: 24

DEX: 23

CON: 23

INT: 9

WIS: 10

CHA: 8

HP: 480

MP: 160

SKILLS:

Dig - 3

Multi-Attack - 8

Tracking - 10

I nodded as I looked over her stats, yeah she was definitely getting smarter and the addition of Tracking as a skill made sense. I looked down and grinned as I scratched her head "Alright girl, do we want burgers or an actual breakfast?"

She looked up at me curiously for a moment then I was hit with the smell of eggs and sausage. 'Oh yeah definitely smarter.'

We walked out to the car and I opened the door, Bella jumping in and sitting in the front passenger seat like she always does.

We drove to one of the family owned restaurants, it was a nice cozy place. When Bella came in after me the lady at the counter freaked out before I explained who Bella was.

She clutched her chest then nodded and pointed to a small booth.

There were three families there already and all of their kids were eyeing Bella like she was a brand new toy that they had to have.

We were there for about an hour and a half, Bella sitting on the cushioned seat, but still eating like an animal.

After half an hour one of the kids worked up enough courage to come over and asked "Hey mister, what is that?" he pointed to Bella.

I looked over at his parents and they gave me an 'I am sorry' look. So I turned to the kid and said "Well young man, 'She' is Bella and she is my magical Goblin eating raccoon."

His eyes went wide and Bella flashed her teeth. He just stood there staring at her until I looked over at his parents and said "I think I broke him".

A couple of the other patrons laughed as he finally snapped out of it and nodded his head walking back to his table.

It was nice. Really nice to have a normal morning.

Then I drove to the Association and was gonna sell all the Stones, but decided against it when it came to the three big green ones.

I know I said I was going to try and deliberate on them, but I couldn't take it anymore and crushed them in rapid succession before I could change my mind. My Dexterity shot up 12 points, sitting at 28.

I grabbed the bag of stones and headed inside to the Exchange. Thankfully it was early enough that there was only one person in line. After waiting for about 3 minutes, I got up to the counter and almost did a jig right there when he told me I would be getting 3,900 dollars.

I was definitely walking with lighter steps when I left the Association building, whether it was due to the higher Dexterity or the just a bit over 7,000 sitting in my account, I couldn't be sure.

I got to the hospital a half hour after that and sadly they wouldn't let Bella inside, so I had her wait in the car and showed her how to open the door if she needed to do her business 'Yep, smarter'.

"Mr. Hundai, you came." Claire had a beautiful smile. No I didn't have those kinds of thoughts, she was just a very heartwarming kind of girl.

I came up beside her bed and sat in the chair "How are you feeling hun?" She shrugged, then looked up at me with tears in her eyes "If you hadn't come when you did, I have no idea what I would have done."

She grabbed a tissue and blew her nose, wincing in pain as she did "My trailer is trashed, I don't have any friends to stay with-" I cut her off right there and grabbed her hand "Lynette and I already talked about it. When they release you you're staying with us and don't even try to argue." I said as she looked about to argue.

New tears came to her eyes and she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around my chest in a hug. "There there sweetie. I promise everything will be fine now. In fact, I was thinking-" then I proceeded to tell her I was planning on getting a bigger house and she was going to get her own room for as long as she needed it.

Her eyes lit up when I told her that and I could tell she was excited. The doctor came in then and said "Claire, your blood work came back clean. The X-Rays showed nothing was broken. So we can release you when you're ready."

Claire smiled and looked at me expectantly and I nodded. She was released an hour later.

I took her to her trailer, which had police tape all around it so she could grab some of her stuff and her laptop which was thankfully undamaged. On the ride there and the ride home she wouldn't let go of Bella, she kept hugging her tight, petting her and scratching her head. Bella was loving it, I know because I could feel it.

I helped her get her stuff inside and saw Lynette in the front room changing one of the babies. She smiled up at Claire who ran over to Lynette. My wife put the fresh diaper on Junior and wrapped Claire in her arms.

I headed back out and decided if I was going to be a serious Breaker I had things I needed to learn. Will would help me with my ranged skills, but I was ignorant.

So I resolved to learn all I could before Will got back. I went back to the association to learn more about the Guilds and different kinds of Breakers and Skills.

When I got there it was full of people. Nobody knew who I was and I didn't know anyone there that I could see. 'Isn't that Johnathon Drake?' I though to myself as I saw a man walking towards the Guilds Hall.

He was wearing a stylized red and green set of Samurai Armor he had had custom made when he reached level 30. I know this because I was a fan of his. He was really the only Breaker I was a fan of, but still.

I walked up as quick as I could and he turned around before I got to him. He looked me up and down before seeing my badge and nodded.

"I could feel you watching me. New Breaker I take it? Haven't seen you around before."

I nodded enthusiastically as he eyed Bella. "Interesting choice. So what's up, you need something?"

I had no idea what to say, I had been following Johnathon Drake's exploits for the last year when he became part of the 'Western Samurai', cliche name but awesome Guild.

I nodded my head and said "Yeah sorry, I came here to learn a little bit more about how everything works, but then I saw you and had to meet you." the words spilled out before I could stop myself, alright I was a fan boy.

He chuckled and said "Dude it's cool. I'm willing to help. We need all the Breakers we can get. So what questions do you have?" he asked as he motioned towards a set of benches outside of the Guilds Hall.

We talked and I asked all the questions I had. It went something like this.

So Rifts can be categorized in challenge levels. 1-10 are the basic Rifts, which I had already seen. 11-20 Are more challenging and have Orcs, Ogres and Hobgoblins mainly. 21-30 have Trolls, Orcs and Ogres. 31-50 have Elves mostly, some of them even have Dark Elves. 51-100 are unknown, but we assume they will come eventually as every six months harder Rifts appear.

All weapon related skills and Mundane skills can be earned without the use of Skill stones, but there are special ones that only can be learned from Skill Stones.

Spells can only be learned from Spell Stones. Although once you have a Spell, once your skill level for that type of spell was high enough, you could eventually learn to manipulate the spell.

I asked about skill levels and he explained what he knew. There were five ranks of skill levels. 1-15 is Apprentice, 16-30 is Artisan, 31-60 is Journeyman, 61-90 is Adept and 91-100 is Master.

Each corresponding rank increases the effectiveness of the skill by another rank. Evocation for example was X2 at Artisan, X3 at Journeyman, X4 at Adept and X5 at Master.

Each rank also gives you bonuses for certain skills that allow you to do more with each skill. One of his Guildmates was an Adept at Stealth and when he got to Adept he had the uncanny ability to be able to make your eyes lose focus as you looked at him. It was cool to say the least.

I asked him how skills leveled up exactly and he said two words 'Practical Application'. He clarified. "I use a Katana, I've trained using Katanas my entire life. When I crushed my first stone my Two-Handed weapon proficiency was 1. I could use a Katana better than most people, but the 'System' only recognized it at level 1. Fighting in a Rift against Goblins leveled it up, but when I would train with people it didn't go up at all. So practical application is the only way to level up a skill."

So knowledge of how to do something didn't quantify any change in skill, it was using the skill in a real way.

I was trying to remember another question that I had, then remembered. "Why doesn't everyone crush tons of stones and make themselves gods. I know I haven't, but I have financial obligations."

He chuckled "You can't. You have a limit to how many stat points you can handle through stones. We don't know why exactly, but you can only increase your stats by a maximum of 40 by crushing stones."

I nodded at that, I would have to think hard about what stones I wanted to boost my stats with if I was limited.

One of his Guild mates called to him and he stood up "Well it's been a pleasure Odellin. I hope to see your name pop up more soon."

I nodded and shook his hand. Then of course I asked him for his autograph, which he gave me with a chuckle and he headed off.

I had some more questions, so I decided to head over and see if I could find someone or something to explain more.

I explored the building for a while, they had a food court, a 'Weapons Shop' and an 'Armor Shop' which I didn't go in, I wasn't level 10 yet. There were also other smaller shops as well. Then a thought struck me 'What if I have to waste Stat Stones to complete my quest'

I read my progress quest again and sighed, it said Mana Stones, so I could theoretically crush all the stones to level up my stats I was allowed then maybe get some Skill or Spell Stones.

I shrugged and headed over to where the exchange was and had to wait an hour before I got to the counter. The same old man from this morning was sitting there. "Back again? Have more stones to sell?"

I shook my head "I want to look at Spell and Skill Stones for sale."

He smiled at that and pointed over to a wall that had a large chute and a Kiosk next to it, there were ten of these side by side. "To purchase Mana Stones just select the one you want and place your badge on the kiosk, it will automatically deduct the price of the stone from your account."

I nodded, it seemed simple, but then I asked "If that's so straight forward why don't they have a setup like that for us to sell them?" he rolled his eyes and grinned "Because I am so friendly. NEXT" and I chuckled.

The kiosk was pretty straightforward and when I swiped my badge it pulled up a screen that showed a full body picture of me as well as my stats and current skills exactly like it looked on my Character Sheet.

I browsed through the spells and was immediately aware of how not rich I was. The weakest spell, Ray Of Frost was 3000 dollars alone. 'Yep, need more money'. Maybe this was why Breakers didn't have stats like gods. They sold most of their stones to get just one of these. Even the skills were in the multiple thousands. Well I had priorities, maybe I would get lucky.

I left the kiosk and nodded to myself 'I need to get stronger, but I won't spend a fortune. I will level what I have until I need something more or get it in a Rift.' With that resolve I headed out.