15 - Spell Selection

Study Two was the classroom Joe and Kendell had passed. It had four two-person tables with sturdy chairs facing a blackboard. Windows filled one wall, while bookshelves and the door covered the others. Underneath the windows were dozens of shallow drawers.

Myllo directed them to a desk while he stood at the head of the classroom. Joe, a little flustered with the pretty guilder sitting so closely beside him, explained what he knew about his affinities and the [No one] trait. When he finished, the artificer began rummaging around in drawers, pulling one open after the next and muttering about something he was looking for. Looking inside the tray-like drawers, Joe could see they were filled with rows of something like skill shards. The only real difference he saw was that each one was clipped off at one end instead of pointed at both. Finally, the bearded artificer found the compartment he wanted, a drawer full of an assortment of odd items instead of the orderly trays of crystals.

"Here we go," Myllo announced, plucking a goose egg-sized rock from the drawer. The oval stone looked like orange-tinted obsidian carved with countless tiny runes. "This baby here is my [Best Guesser]. It will show us your top five affinities. Because I made it to work on enemies, it should have enough spell penetration to get around your cloaking trait. Worst case, it will give us your best three or four. If it gives us any less than three, then someone layered you with a really ridiculously powerful divination blocker."

Joe had no idea what to say, so he just shrugged and looked to Kendell. She unhelpfully shrugged back, though she seemed excessively intent on what was going on.

"Try not to resist, kid. Here we go." Myllo pointed the oblong orb at Joe and spoke a word. A pulse struck him in the chest and face, but it was not at all uncomfortable. It was just a gentle pressure. One of the runes on the stone egg lit up brightly. The glow was the same purple color Joe had seen when he had tested his affinities with Hah'roo, Maszy, and Numat Dhal back in Peregrine Harbor.

"There is one very pretty {Earth} affinity. Almost perfect. Alright, let's see what else we got. If you have anything else that strong, then we have a real mage here with us."

Three more runes alighted, each glowing a rich, royal blue hue.

"Ok. No more Superiors, but that's not uncommon at your level. It usually takes a long time to get even one cat nine affinity," the korrigan explained. "You have three Exceptional affinities here. Unsurprisingly, all three sub-affinities of {Earth}. They are {Bone}, {Mettle}, and the last one is," the small man rotated the rock to read the rune. "{Grave}. Makes sense. You got {Earth} and {Beast} for {Bone}, {Earth} and {Mind} for {Mettle} and {Earth} and {Death} for {Grave}."

A fifth rune began to glow. This one was blue, a true blue without any hint of violet. "And a strong Strong. Oddly, one that has nothing to do with {Earth} or the other two. You have a high Strong in your {Curse} affinity." Myloo ran his fingers down his braided beard before turning the stone toward Joe. "See how the light is not as solid as the {Earth} or {Bone}? That suggests to me that you have recently improved this affinity. Does that jibe with anything you have been doing lately? Have you been hexing the neighbors? Given out the evil eye?" the small man jested.

"I just gained a rare curse-based class," he proposed.

"That'd do it," the little man confirmed while he waited for a fifth rune to alight. Yet none did. "Ok. That is an above-average cloak you've got there. You are going to be one hard man to find with spells." Myllo put the stone down on the table and gave Joe a considering look. "This is a good enough place to start. So, what are you looking for, son? {Earth} has some of the best defensive spells out there. Or are you looking for curses?"

"No and yes. No, I don't think I need more defense. It's offense I need, namely ranged offense, where I am seriously lacking. I went up against those badboons and I had no way to deal with them other than diving into the pack and getting hammered by their thrown nut-attacks. I've got a high spirit to power the spell, though I could do a stamina empowered spell of Vigor too if necessary. Spirit would be better, though."

"How high is high?" Kendell asked.

"Fifteen. Though I could get to seventeen if you guys think I should."

The young woman shook her head. "I didn't expect you to have a mage build. Hexers are usually high in Perception. So, what, you have mid to high Perception and Dexterity?"

"Uh, nope. Vigor is next at twelve. Between healing and my Vigor, I'm hard to knock down, so I'm not sure if you would say I have a mage build."

"No, you don't," Myllo interjected. "Spirit tanks are not uncommon. I can see how you got there with your classes. Usually, you see that combination with clerics and druids. If you got that much locked into those two attributes, what do the others look like?"

"Six Strength and Perception. Three in Dex," Joe admitted, watching the pair wince at his agility score.

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"So you are designed to get pounded on and not die," the korrigan pointed out, with a rueful look at Joe.

"It just seemed to work out that way. I have to admit it wasn't planned. But somehow it's been working," he countered, raising his arms in emphasis. " I have survived a bunch of fights that seemed like they should have been out of my league."

"Oh, it sure can work", the guild-leader declared, looking a bit aghast at Joe. "Just that most folks aren't nearly so masochistic as to try it. Clerics usually abate damage with spells, and druids often use animal forms to dodge or armor up. Healing your way through battles is pretty rough on the body,"

"Okay, dokey," the stout man finally breathed. "We are looking for long-range rocky damage curses. Alright, Kenda, hit me. What ya got?"

As the young woman looked at the ceiling for a second, Myllo nudged Joe with his elbow and whispered. "Watch this," he uttered, pointing his thumb at his guildmate.

Kendell brought her attention back down from the rafters and onto them. "Probably the best {Earth} curse on record that we could get our hands on is [Gorgon's Gaze]. It has a potent petrification effect. It's Spirit-based but relies on Perception to target. It's a bad one to let wash over allies accidentally, so we'd probably want to up your secondary attribute."

"That is a good one, and you're right; the guild has at least one of those in the vault. What else?"

Kendell held up a hand and then raised her thumb for the last skill she suggested. She extended her pointer finger for the next one, "There's [Bone Grinder]. Long range, median damage over time, and imposes a powerful {Pain} affliction. It can be found in either {Bone} or {Earth}, but I'm not sure which one we have on hand."

Middle finger. "[Calcify] is not as strong as [Gorgon's Gaze]. It's another petrifying spell, though in the form of a ray, so it doesn't require nearly as much Perception."

Ring finger. "[Galling Stones] causes rock to appear inside a target. It's a pretty chaotic spell that's hard to aim, but it can really mess up an enemy."

Pinky. "Then we have [Joint Rock]. It's a paralyzer that causes both pain and damage. Oh or [Stone Spurs]," she added, lifting up the thumb on her other hand.

Joe shook his head before Kendell came up with another one. "I do need more curses eventually, but honestly, I think I'd really like just a good ranged damage spell for starters. Preferably one with some spread to it, so I don't have to target each enemy one at a time. Do you guys have anything like that?"

"That is so much easier," Kendell sighed.

"Ok then, hit it, kid," Myllo prompted. "What are the top five long or medium-range {Earth} attacks?"

"Ok, that's no problem." The bright-eyed trainer tugged an earlobe and glanced at the ceiling again as she ran through her memory. "The greatest stone-caster in recent years is Rhurabaann Boulderkin, one of the terraling sheiks of the Voiceless Dunes. About twenty-five years ago, he replied to a letter the guild sent asking him about offensive {Earth} spells and how he ranked them. His top twelve were [Avalanche], of course. It's a classic large-area, stone-summoning AoE. The others were [Breath of the Desert], [Abrasive Arc], [Stone Scythe], [Stonestar], and [Scouring Shards]. Along with those were [Flaying Flint], [Grit Razor], and [Hail of Rocks]. Then there was [Gravel Storm], [Fists of Dune], and [The Ruination of the Wastes]," she finished with a breath and satisfied grin.

"How the heck do you remember all that?" Joe asked, amazed.

"That's her gift," Myllo stated as he wrote the skill names on the room's chalkboard. "Kenda's second class is Savant, and her specialty is skills, classes, and traits. Never met anybody better at figuring out what goes best with whom," the bearded korrigan exclaimed, beaming with an even greater note of praise in his voice. "Alright. I know some of those. [Stone Scythe] is effective as an immediate-range skill, but gets harder to wield the further out it reaches. I know someone who told me that beyond close range, it's nearly impossible to hit with. Its flexibility is why I'm sure Rhurabaann suggested it, but I'd skip it at your level, Joe." The guild leader swept a line through the name on the board.

"[Abrasive Arc] and [Breath of the Desert] are also close range," Kendell added.

"I think we can skip [Avalanche] too," Joe stated. "I really don't want a huge area-effect for my first spell. I'd rather something more targeted. I'd prefer not a single target spell, but I also would like something at least fairly focused."

"Then you won't want [Gravel Storm] either," the savant stated, causing Myllo to cross out both expansive-effecting AoE's. Kendell also had the bearded instructor strike off [Fists of Dune]. Joe was a bit bummed about that one since it was an awesome-sounding name, but if it was not what he was looking for, better to get it out of the way for now. He promised himself he'd look up what the skill did sometime later.

"That leaves [Hail of Rocks], [Stonestar], [Scouring Shards], [Flaying Flint], and [Grit Razor]," Myllo exclaimed, tapping the names on the slate. "Those I've heard of. What the heck is [Ruination of the Wastes]?"

"You know what, I don't actually know that one. I've never heard of anyone using it," Kendell admitted in a long, slow voice. "I'm going to need the book for that one." She walked along the wall until she reached the shelf she wanted. Pulling out a thick tan volume, she flipped quickly through the pages. "Got it," she announced without looking up. "Ooh. Oh. Oh Gods. No, no, no. This is a very bad spell. It creates desolations. Like a 'kill the earth and anything in it desolation.' If cast powerfully enough, it leaves nothing but dead earth and grit behind. I guess it's great if you live in the desert like the sheik does, but anywhere else, that would be catastrophic."

"That's a hard no," Joe confirmed.

"Agreed," Myllo concurred sharply, scraping a thick seventh line through the destructive spell's name. "We wouldn't sell that one even if we had it, Kid. Ok, then. Let's go see which are suitable for our new recruit here."

"And how do we do that?" Joe asked. "Do you have another gadget to test the skills with?"

"Well, I do, somewhere, but where's the fun in that? I vote we grab some scrolls and watch you blow up some target dummies to see which is our best fit. How does that sound to you?"

"That sounds like a blast," Joe quipped. "No pun intended."

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