Cardinal: King's Line

Darius had to admit that he was hoping he got an appraisal skill so he wouldn't have to buy one later, but it seemed that was wishful thinking so he let it go and checked the details of his current skill:

Skill name: Focus

Skill type: Buff (Active/Self Target)

Skill Ranking: Common

Skill details: At the cost of 15 stamina per second the user gains heightened basic senses as well as the ability to vaguely see the trajectory of all attacks; This skill has no cooldown but would require a cost of 10 Health to use consecutively that deals increments of 5 more damage to health with every consecutive usage.

This... This was a common skill... What nonsense was this? To clarify for our less knowledgeable brothers and sisters this skill's wording was very implicative, it meant that one was able to roughly tell where any attack was going to go, not necessarily where it was going to land, but if your saw and arrow coming straight at you in a room with no wind it doesn't take Einstein to figure that you should probably dodge to the side before it gets to close. But that was a simplified idea of how the skill would be used, second, it said this applied to 'All' attacks, allies, enemies, and even your own.

Now don't get me wrong, such a trait was great, more experienced and talented players would be able to use such a function to perfect their coordination and timing for group fights. You would be able to potentially parry every attack under heaven so long as you were fast enough. The problem was that this skill was common, not in the sense that everyone had it, but in the sense that it was pathetically easy to get, so those that didn't already have could get it whenever not limited to Players or even allied NPCs. Mobs can have it, Wild Bosses, Dungeon Bosses, and even World Bosses could have this skill that puts no limitation on whether the attacks being predicted were magic, psychic, Physical, or even divine.

The second problem with it being common rank meant that in terms of overall power and application, it was essentially garbage compared to some other skills out there in this game. This skill had the same barrier to entry that breathing did in the real world, if you counted as a living thing you qualified to learn and master it with ease. What kind of skills would be considered legendary in this case? Darius momentarily put these thoughts at the back of his mind, he concluded that the real reason this skill was counted as common was because of the high stamina drain it had, only once one was established would it be abusable, but until one had the appropriate stamina it could only be used at a critical moments when failure was not an option.

Darius, against his former better judgement, chose to get his free Common weapon first to get a good idea of the standard of weapons and what they would potentially be in this world. As he did a spiked ball formed in front of him- It was the size of an Olympic Shotput and had a handle that was as long as a standard Flute. As he held the weapon it suddenly plummeted to the ground in his grip, he was forced to let go as even the handle proved a struggle for him to hold as one blaring system notification hovered over the item.

 {{You do not fit the strength requirements to wield this weapon}}

 Darius frowned at the message as he wasn't sure what the strength requirements were and he didn't want to over-commit stat points to a weapon that would essentially be a dud, he could only check the stats of items he was either wielding already, had equipped, or had in his inventory. He sighed as he dumped 10 points into strength, 8 Points into speed, 5 points into Intelligence, 5 Points into luck, 10 points into endurance, and 7 points into agility. He eventually picked up the weapon successfully before checking both its stats and his status window to get a feel for what each stat contributed to:

ID: Basilisk Age: 30 Race: Human Class: None Subclass: None Rank: 0 Lvl: 0 Exp: 0/100 Titles: Adventurer. Status: Normal. Items: None HP: 74/74 MP: 15/15 Sta: 15/15 Atk: 17 M.atk: 32 Def: 20 M.def: 35 Str: 10 Spd: 7 Agi: 7 Int: 5 End: 10 Luck: 5 Stp: 0 Skp: 45 

 Race Skills: None

 General Skills: Focus.

 Subclass Skills: None

 Trade Skills: None

 Item Skills: None

 Resistances: None

 Special effects: None.

Item Name: Spiked Ball

Type: Bludgeon

Rank: Common

Durability: 550/900

Weight: 85 kg

Skills: None

Attributes: +20 atk

Status effects: None

Condition: 9 Str & 9 End

Description: A worn-out execution weapon designed in a rush that has seen its use.

Darius found his stats to be fine for now since he wanted to opt for a more defence-oriented build regardless, he only found it a shame that he had one use of Focus before his stamina bottomed out and only God knows what would happen to him should he run out of Stamina. Darius wasted no time and looked around the Fortress for what he had access to in this starter Zone and noted down the important ones- the quest board, the remnant drop, the bounty board, the weapon shop, the blacksmith, the item shop, the potion shop, and the Knight Barracks.

Darius first went to the Weapon shop to sell the Spiked ball as it was a damaged weapon with no practical use and he reckoned it would at least have value as some antique. He was right and the design for the weapon was outdated with such Items being sold for more than even their release price- He was offered 95 bronze for it but hustled his way up to 2 silver, or 200 Bronze, after selling some sob story about his brother in arms who's dying wish was for his weapons true value to be seen by the world. The shop seller was an elderly lady so he felt bad about the interaction but he resolved to keep things strictly business within this game, he would get himself to Rank 5 as quickly as possible and get down to why he was here.

Realising that he likely managed to get the price buff due to a certain amount of luck that the system had more than likely measured manually, Darius made a mental note to never stop investing in luck even if only for the item drops. He then moved around and scanned prices before settling and buying the following items to complete his basic build- Riot (*1) for 1 silver, (*1) Cleaver 50 Bronze, tattered Jacket (*1) for 5 bronze, tattered Pants (*1) for 5 Bronze, worn Boots (*1) for 5 Bronze, Belt Sheath (*1) for 10 Bronze, Small Health Potion (*1) for 15 Bronze, and Small Stamina Potion (*1) for 10 Bronze. Darius equipped his gear and sold his starter gear for 20 bronze, something he planned to exploit in a moment but would hold off on until he was sure of the specifics of his item sets, and so he checked.

Item Name: Riot

Type: Body Shield (One-handed)

Rank: Uncommon

Durability: 7,500/7,500

Weight: 50 kg

Skills: None

Attributes: +60 def

Status effects: None

Condition: 5 Strength, 5 End & 5 Agi

Description: A large Iron shield worn on the forearm, was created to make large-scale battles easier to manoeuvre for the Knights of the Kingdom of Europe.

Item Name: Cleaver

Type: Straight Sword (One-handed)

Rank: Common

Durability: 800/800

Weight: 65 kg

Skills: None

Attributes: +25 atk

Status effects: None

Condition: 7 str, 5 agi & 5 end

Description: A mildly serrated straight sword built to be slightly heavier and usually meant for slower-paced punishing strikes.

Item Name: Tattered Jacket

Type: Clothing (Leather Jacket)

Rank: Common

Durability: 50/200

Weight: 5 kg

Skills: None

Attributes: +5 Def

Status effects: None

Condition: 1 str & 1 end

Description: A worn-out leather hunting jacket.

Item Name: Tattered Pants

Type: Clothing (Leather Pants)

Rank: Common

Durability: 45/200

Weight: 5 kg

Skills: None

Attributes: +5 Def

Status effects: None

Condition: 1 str & 1 end

Description: A worn-out leather hunting pants.

Item Name: Worn Boots

Type: Boots (Leather)

Rank: Common

Durability: 40/100

Weight: 1 kg

Skills: None

Attributes: +3 agi & +3 spe

Status effects: none

Condition: 1 str, 1 end & 1 agi

Description: A pair of worn-out hunting boots.

Item Name: Belt Sheath

Type: Sword Sheath

Rank: Common

Durability: 100/100

Weight: 20 kg

Skills: None

Attributes: 1 off-hand storage space

Status effects: None

Condition: 2 str, 2 end & 2 agi

Description: Standard military-grade sword sheath.

Item Name: Small Health Potion (Defective)

Type: Consumable

Rank: Common

Durability: 100/100

Weight: 5 kg

Skills: None

Attributes: +10% HP

Status effects: None

Condition: 50 HP

Description: A diluted Health Potion meant to be pawned off.

Item Name: Small Stamina Potion (Defective)

Type: Consumable

Rank: Common

Durability: 100/100

Weight: 5 kg

Skills: None

Attributes: +5% Sta

Status effects: None

Condition: 35 Sta

Description: A diluted Stamina Potion meant to be pawned off.

Darius was satisfied with most of what he got but frowned slightly at his defective potions, still though, the stamina one at least meant that if he was smart he would be able to barely avoid the effects of running out of stamina outside of the Fortress. Admittedly, if his get-up did not resemble the homeless he might have looked heroic with his brilliant silver Riot shield and pristine grey straight sword, to give himself a morale boost he looked at his status window one last time to get a good idea of where he was at with all of this. All in All, he wasn't too depressed about it:

ID: Basilisk Age: 30 Race: Human Class: None Subclass: None Rank: 0 Lvl: 0 Exp: 0/100 Titles: Adventurer. Status: Normal. Items: Riot, Cleaver, 20 Bronze coins, Tattered Jacket, Tattered Pants, Worn Boots, Belt Sheath, Small Health Potion (Defective [1*] & Small Stamina Potion (Defective) [1*] HP: 74/74 MP: 15/15 Sta: 15/15 Atk: 17 (+25) M.atk: 32 Def: 20(+60)(+5)(+5) M.def: 35 Str: 10 Spd: 7 (+3) Agi: 7 (+3) Int: 5 End: 10 Luck: 5 Stp: 0 Skp: 45 

 Race Skills: None

 General Skills: Focus.

 Subclass Skills: None

 Trade Skills: None

 Item Skills: None

 Resistances: None

 Special effects: None.