A couple of minutes later, Gabby, Benny, and Brance were sitting in a semi-circle around Cynrik, waiting for him to dish out their roles for the boss fight.
COUGH
“OK then, first things first,” with a wave of his hand, the Fletching skill book appeared from his inventory, and he casually tossed it to Gabby.
“Sorry bout earlier, Gabby; although Brance filled you all in on what was going on, I still shouldn’t have lost control of myself like that in front of you. Hopefully, this present will be enough for your forgiveness.” Cynrik shifted in place awkwardly, awaiting her response. He couldn’t help but feel like a middle-schooler confessing to the girl he likes, and the situation made him increasingly uncomfortable.
Benny and Brance watched the two in silence, not wanting to butt in on their little moment, while Gabby looked from the book in her hands to Cynrik and back at the book.
Even though she was still a little scared of Cynrik because of what happened earlier, it was all washed away the instant she read the book’s title. Breaking out in her usual cheerful expression and hopping to her feet, Gabby threw herself at Cynrik, hugging him tightly, leaving the older boy stunned by the sudden sign of affection.
“It’s OK, Big Bro Cyn; I know you wouldn’t hurt us usually, so you must have been in a lot of pain. I was gunna demand a bunch of candies, but I can’t believe you got me a skill book.” Releasing Cynrik, Gabby quickly went back to her spot between Brance and Benny while hugging her new book to her chest.
Cynrik stood in place and stared at the little girl in awe; if someone had nearly taken his head off in the same way he had almost done to Gabby, there was no way he would be forgiving. Yet Gabby, a girl significantly younger than him, was easily bought off with a simple Tier-1 Skill book.
“Well, I guess that settles that,” shaking his head slowly, Cynrik refocused himself and started talking about how the Boss fight would progress.
“So, the listed Boss for this Egress is annotated as a Kobold Shaman; this gives us two valuable points of data. First off, the race of the creature, and second the Class. With this info, we can determine a few things, such as it won’t be alone and we can expect the Boss to wield Curses and Affinity Skills.”
“Curse Magic is a pain in the ass to deal with as it primarily focuses on applying multiple Negative Status Effects and Debuffs.” Cynrik paused for a moment before pointing at Gabby, “Gabby, what is the difference between Debuffs and Negative Status Effects?”
Flinching at the fact she was called on, Gabby’s mouth opened and closed like a fish before she gave an answer. “Uh…erm…Debuffs are Statuses that lower our stats, and uh…Negative Status Effects…” Gabby paused and scrunched up her face in thought before continuing, “cause a physical or mental ailment like my [Confuse], right?”
“Ding, ding, have a candy.” Nodding like a teacher, Cynrik quickly tossed the little girl one of her favorite sour balls before looking at Benny.
“You’re up next, Benny; what’s a Kobold.”
“Kobolds are bipedal humanoid creatures. There are two types of Kobolds, the Reptilian and the Canis. Canis Kobolds generally Mutate from animals such as dogs or wolves. However, unlike Packhounds or their more advanced Evolution Direwolves, Canis Kobolds Mutated in environments where being quadruped was considered disadvantageous. This breed of Kobold is the most commonly found across the world. ”
“Reptilian Kobolds, also referred to as Lizardmen, originate primarily from swampy regions and are lesser Evolved versions of Dragons. For physical characteristics, Reptilian Kobolds are scaled beings with long tails. The color of their scales represents what type of environment they are adapted to. For example, if we see one with Red or Orange scales, they come from volcanic or lava-filled terrain. If we face a Shaman, then odds are it will be of the Reptilian variety since they have diluted Dragon blood and can use Affinity Skills, unlike the warrior race Canis Kobolds.”
Cynrik gave a nod of approval to Benny and was slightly caught off guard by how thorough his information was. In fact, Benny had basically stolen the subsequent few sentences from his mouth, causing Cynrik to have to readjust his explanation.
“Spot on, erm…have a candy.” Cynrik hesitated but still chose to toss the boy a sour ball, which was received politely before being stored away. Gabby watched on jealously as her older brother received what should have been exclusively for her, and she puffed her cheeks angrily. Benny getting one of her sour balls meant there were fewer in Cynrik’s possession, meaning one less opportunity to get free candy.
“Benny is correct; just by the data collected, we can assume that the Boss will be a Reptilian Kobold, which is unfortunate, not only because we can’t really counter its Curses, but because it will most likely be guarded by 20 to 30 grunts who will also have access to Affinity Skills. However, there have been cases of Canis Kobolds having Shamans; it’s just relatively rare.”
“For this raid, we will be going in under cover of my [Shadow Veil], to give us time to survey the area and figure out what we are up against. Stealth is the key this time, so I don’t want anyone making any noise at all. Once we have a grasp on the situation, I will, on the fly, dish out roles; there is no point in putting too much planning into the raid before we are sure what type of Kobolds we are facing.
Before we go in, I wanna do one last check over everyone’s Stat profiles, so I know what tools we are walking in with.” With that said, Cynrik sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes before pulling up the info Brance had sent him over earlier on Gabby and Benny’s Stat profiles.
In his absence, MyrkLys had cleared a total of 75 creatures, netting them around 1.2 million XP, bringing the Sanford siblings up to 14th Prestige, and giving them an additional 75 stat points, which were distributed between AGI, DEX, and VIT. By increasing their Prestige, they were also given extra Stat Points and a single Skill Point; however, unlike Cynrik and Brance, who received six additional free Stat Points when leveling their Prestige, Gabby received three while Benny only got two points. The difference allowed Cynrik to determine something about the standard Prestige procedure.
Cynrik inferred that the additional Stat Points someone received was based on their Distribution. For example, Gabby’s Distribution gave her 1 DEX, 1 INT, and 1 MIND; thus, she would receive three free points upon leveling up her Prestige alongside her actual Distribution, increasing her Stats overall by six points. Unfortunately, since Benny’s Distribution was only 1 STR and 1 VIT, he only netted four points.
Cynrik’s eyes lazily drifted around under his eyelids as he calmly read over the two children’s massive gains. If he was being honest, he was a little jealous. The added 1.2 mil XP was something he regretted missing out on massively. He was only sitting at a little over 700k XP, while Brance, who had profited along with the Sanfords, was at 1.38 mil XP.
Clicking his tongue mentally, Cynrik cleared his mind and first looked at Gabby’s info.
: STATS :
: HP 550/550 :
: Mana 290/290 :
: Stamina 275/275 :
: Stat Points- 24 :
: Skill Points- 58 :
: Strength- 40 :
: Dexterity- 100 :
: Agility- 74 :
: Intelligence- 73 :
: Vitality- 55 :
: Mind- 73 :
Cynrik’s left eye began twitching uncontrollably as he read her Stats, his line of sight focusing on her INT and MIND, more so the “3” at the tail end. As someone who had an irrational hatred of odd numbers, with the exception being the number “5” since his brain, for some reason, was totally fine with it, he felt anxious each time he saw the number three appear on her profile.
“Gabby, I want you to distribute one point to AGI, two points to INT and MIND, and then 15 points to STR. Then, you can save the leftover points for later.” Cynrik finally said after a few agonizing moments.
“Okie!” The little girl chirped happily before doing as she was told, bringing her STR to 55, then her AGI, INT, and MIND up to 75, leaving her with four points left over.
The conversation between Gabby and Cynrik caused Brance to chuckle as he knew from the second Gabby had reported her Stats, Cynrik would lose his shit; it wasn’t exclusive to her either, as Benny also had some Stats that wouldn’t sit well with his brother. Thoroughly enjoying his older brother’s pain, Brance propped his chin on his palm and watched with excitement.
Once again, Cynrik closed his eyes before bringing up Benny’s Stats, which caused another uncontrollable physical reaction, much to Brance’s joy.
: STATS :
: HP 880/880 :
: Mana 250/250 :
: Stamina 440/440 :
: Stat Points- 16 :
: Skill Points- 58 :
: Strength- 73 :
: Dexterity- 86 :
: Agility- 74 :
: Intelligence- 40 :
: Vitality- 88 :
: Mind- 40 :
Fortunately for Cynrik, Benny’s stats weren’t as messed up as his sister’s; still, they would need a slight adjustment.
“Benny, for you, go ahead and add two points to STR, four to DEX, one to AGI, five to INT, and two to VIT.” Cynrik opened his eyes and rubbed his temples to alleviate the incoming headache he was sure would appear.
“Copy.” Without adding any extra words, Benny quickly increased his STR to 75, DEX to 90, AGI to 75, INT to 45, and lastly, his VIT increased to 90 before reporting the changes to Cynrik, who smiled and nodded in satisfaction.
“With that out of the way, Brance, we are holding off on ours for now. I want to get enough XP to power level everything in one go; I don’t foresee us needing an increase in power to clear this Boss fight. Now then, if everyone is ready, WARM UP TIME, ALLL RIGHT EVERYONE STAND UP TIME FOR STRETCHES.”
“OK, HERE WE GO, ONE AND TWO AND THREE AND FOUR.”
Cynrik quickly made the rest of MyrkLys touch their toes and stretch their muscles with basic calisthenics. This was mainly done to give Gabby and Benny a chance to have a few minutes to adjust to the increases in their stats since both their DEX had increased, allowing them to be more limber.
Roughly ten minutes later, Cynrik clapped his hands and gathered the party close so he could use [Shadow Veil]; it was time to head in and clear the Boss.
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