Choosing My Initial Traits and Skills

Text to Speech:

I sit down and take a look at my character information.

Character Info
Name: Swift Mittens
Age: X
Species: Neotes/Ailuranthrope
Titles & Blessings
Traits
Menu (Hidden Trait)
Mystic Eye of Analysis (Menu Trait)
Mystic Eye of Knowledge (Menu Trait)
Infinite Storage (Menu Trait)
Skills

That's a very bare character window. As I said before, there are no character levels. Currently, I have no traits but Menu, Mystic Eye of Analysis, Mystic Eye of Knowledge and Infinite Storage. I have no titles or blessings. I guess the Menu traits are functions in my gaming interface. From reading the glossary entries of my races, I would have guessed I'd have some racial traits. So they didn't even choose those for me. But that just means I don't have any existing traits to consider when choosing my initial traits and skills. So let's have a look at the racial traits I can choose from.

Book of Choice: Racial Trait
Choose one racial trait from this fixed selection.
Ailuranthrope Racial Traits
Accelerated Recovery:
increases recovery speed of all kinds
Adaptability:
temporarily increases status of choosing
Feline Form:
provides ability to shapeshift into a feline
Neotes Racial Traits
Mastery Obsession:
increases maximum skill level to level 10
Quick Learner:
increases learning speed
Lucky Devil:
increases luck by greatly

Neat! Let's see. Since I have four books, I can choose four of those. To maximize my survival chances, I'm going with Accelerated Recovery, Feline Form, Quick Learner, and Lucky Devil. Let's have a look at the regular traits I can choose from next.

Book of Choice: Trait
Choose one trait from this fixed selection.
Adrenaline Rush:
boost increases speed when health is low
Appealing Charisma:
increases charisma by a big amount
⋮
Book Smart:
increases understanding of theories
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Nimbleness:
increases agility
Nimble and Precise:
increases agility and dexterity
⋮

I can choose two of these. Again, to maximize my survival chances, I'm going with Appealing Charisma and Nimble & Precise. The latter sound like a typical trait that thieves have, though in this day and age, you'd rather call them specialists for spontaneous involuntary ownership transfer. I can't say I dislike the sound of the latter term. Every job sounds better if it's called a specialist! Let's have a look that the skill I can choose from.

Book of Choice: Skills
Choose one skill to gain at level 1 from this fixed selection.
⋮
Meta-Skills
Fighting Skills
Magic Skills
Production Skills
Survival Skills

I quickly scroll over the categories to get an overview. Meta-skills? Wait a minute… I cancel the selection and try choosing a skill to master.

Book of Choice: Skill Mastery
Choose one skill to gain at maximum level from this fixed selection.
⋮
Meta-Skills
Fighting Skills
Magic Skills
Production Skills
Survival Skills

I can choose two skills to master and it looks like I can master meta-skills. I grin. I guess I've found my cheat! It'd been even better if I had chosen Mastery Obsession earlier… I mean I finally get to live in an RPG world and completely forgot about min-maxing! Something I tend to do. I should have put more thought into that… Well, It's no use crying over spilled juice! So which ones do I choose? Survival Skills sound good. Let me check.

Book of Choice: Skill Mastery
⋮
Survival Skills
Camping
Danger Sense
Fishing
Foraging
Presence Detection
Presence Isolation
Trap Detection
Trap Disarming
Trap Setting
Stealth
Weakness Detection
⋮

For some reason, half of the skills in this skill tree sound like thief skills. Anyway, I'll go with that. I think I'm good with survival chances, so I should be choosing some other skills as well. Magic sounds nice.

Now that I've spent my skill masteries, I spend the remaining books to get all fighting and production skills at level one. I should take a look at my character window now.

Character Info
Name: Swift Mittens
Age: X
Species: Neotes/Ailuranthrope
Titles & Blessings
Master of Magic (Magic Skills Level X)
Survival Artist (Survival Skills Level X)
Jack of All Trades (Fighting Level 1, Magic Skills Level 1, and Production Skills Level 1)
Traits
Menu (Hidden Trait)
Mystic Eye of Analysis (Menu Trait)
Mystic Eye of Knowledge (Menu Trait)
Infinite Storage (Menu Trait)
Accelerated Recovery (Racial Trait: Ailuranthrope)
Quick Learner (Racial Trait: Neotes)
Feline Form (Hidden Racial Trait: Ailuranthrope)
Lucky Devil (Hidden Racial Trait: Neotes)
Appealing Charisma (Trait)
Nimble & Precise (Trait)
Skills
Fighting Level 1 ()
Blunt Weapon Mastery Level 1 ()
Short Blade Mastery Level 1 ()
Long Blade Mastery Level 1 ()
Spear Mastery Level 1 ()
Hand-to-Hand Combat Level 1 ()
Bow Mastery Level 2 ()
Shield Mastery Level 1 ()
Magic Skills Level X (ten)
Mana Perception Level X (ten)
Mana Control Level X (ten)
Fire Magic Level X (ten)
Water Magic Level X (ten)
Wind Magic Level X (ten)
Earth Magic Level X (ten)
Lightning Magic Level X (ten)
Light Magic Level X (ten)
Dark Magic Level X (ten)
Familiar Magic Level X (ten)
Space Magic Level X (ten)
Production Skills Level 1 ()
Alchemy Level 1 ()
Carpenting Level 1 ()
Compounding Level 1 ()
Cooking Level 1 ()
Leatherworking Level 1 ()
Smithing Level 1 ()
Survival Skills Level X (ten)
Camping Level X (ten)
Danger Sense Level X (ten)
Evasion Level X (ten)
Fishing Level X (ten)
Foraging Level X (ten)
Presence Detection Level X (ten)
Presence Isolation Level X (ten)
Riding Level X (ten)
Trap Detection Level X (ten)
Trap Disarming Level E (eleven)
Trap Setting Level E (eleven)
Weakness Detection Level X (ten)

What's this? While most of the maximum level skills are level X (ten), some of those skills are level E (eleven). My guess is one of my traits increases the skill level limit on those.

I have magic skills now, plus I have the Camping skill on level X (ten). I should try making a campfire. I should be able to build a campfire using magic. But I still don't have any idea how to do it. I don't know even how to use magic at all… Let's try it, anyway, creating a stone frame… I touch the ground. A certain phrase comes to my mind.

“Compaction!”

A cloud of sand forms in the shape of a ring around where I touch the ground. I feel it'd too small and shallow for a campfire if that sand were to compact to stone. So I imagine a slightly bigger and higher stone frame. The ring changes size and the sand slowly compacts to stone. Yeah, this looks like the stone frame of a typical campfire. Is it done? No, something in my mind tells me it's not. So I keep at it. After I get the feeling it's finally done, I stop and put in some wood.

Now I need to light it. I could just ignite the wood directly. What could go wrong? I put my hands over the wood and imagine fire: hot and blazing. I mutter the word that suddenly comes into my mind.

“Blaze!”

Oh! I get startled and flinch. Good thing I do. The next moment I see a flash and all the wood I put in has combusted. The smell of burnt wood fills the air. That was dangerous! I should be more careful. Let's try again. I put in some more wood. This time I put in some tinder as well. I should light it carefully. I put my hand over the tinder and imagine it smouldering.

“Smoulder!”

After a while, it starts glowing and smoking. Now, I can either fan it until it turns into a fire or I pour more energy into it until it turns into a fire. Let's do the latter. I imagine slowly putting in more energy into the smouldering. It intensifies. The wood also starts smouldering on the place where it touches. After spreading for a while, it starts burning. Neat, I have made fire! I sit down and admire my creation. It was surprisingly difficult. Good thing I started early.

Due to the mishap just now, I'm almost out of wood. I need to gather more. I go back into the forest and gather lumber. I can't help but notice the animals in the forest now, I guess it must be because of to the skills I gained. Since I'm not feeling any danger from them I ignore them for now. I like the atmosphere of this forest. Maybe I should settle down here! The cliff where my tent currently is seems to be a good place to dig a cave. Let's do that tomorrow!