The Numbers Game
Name: Danny (Actual name is indecipherable hissing)
Guild affiliation: The Librarians (Guild Master)
Species: T19 Causality Naga
Danny, aka The Numbers Game, is among the most well-known Nineteen. As the head of the biggest information guild across all the hubs, most, if not all, travelers eventually make use of his services. Since the guild also accepts information in exchange for their services, valued even higher than credits, they usually know about everything of interest before everyone else does. Besides collecting information of all kinds, they also offer consultation services for travelers. With the backing of their massive database, they are considered the first choice for many.
All of this came about due to Danny’s unquenchable thirst for knowledge. In his early days, he absorbed all the knowledge he could, mutating and evolving to better facilitate his never ending hunger for information. He eventually gained the ability to temporarily change the numbers of a skill, be it his own or those of others. For a ”modest” fee, he offers this as a service to others, increasing the range, damage, projectiles, damage over time, or even decreasing the resource costs or cooldowns. As a downside of the skill, Danny needs to know the exact specifications of the skill he wants to manipulate. As such, he prefers high-tiered clientele, who deliver him the details of their usually closely guarded skills.
He actively seeks out individuals at tier eighteen, trying to get the intel on their skills before they evolve. It is widely considered a good omen to be contacted by him, since it was assumed that he only contacted travelers with the potential to actually become one of the Nineteen. This, of course, is anything but true. Danny doesn’t care about potential, only knowledge. Among the Nineteen, he is one of the rare few who don’t try to reach tier twenty. But rest assured, once somebody does reach that coveted tier, he’ll be there to hound them about their secrets.
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I looked up at the massive sign reading “The Librarians” above the entrance to the skyscraper I stood before. I’d asked Polly for advice on what I should choose as my seventh attribute, hoping his wisdom as a Nineteen would lead me to my best choices. While he did have knowledge about a ton of attributes, he quickly deferred me to the biggest information guild across all the hubs, citing that they would be able to help me a lot better than he ever could. He even reassured me that I wouldn’t need any money, since my status as a voidling meant I almost certainly had highly valuable information for them, if I was ready to share. Considering that a detailed profile of myself already existed with the asphons, I didn’t feel terribly bad about sharing with someone else.
Either way, I was still pretty low-level, so anything they learned about me now would be outdated very soon anyway.
After taking another look at the massive sign, I joined the masses of travelers swarming the entrance. Inside, the throng of people quickly split up, most of them headed for one of the many teleporters lining the walls. A smaller crowd was headed toward a large information kiosk dominating the center of the room, which included me. Turnover on the kiosks was decently fast, so I barely had to wait before it was my turn. I had to fill out a small questionnaire about the purpose of my visit before being told to head to the thirty-second floor.
I quickly joined the line for the correct teleporter and soon enough found myself in a large reception room. This time around, instead of teleporters, the walls were lined with reception desks, manned by all manner of humanoids and monsters. The center was once again host to an information kiosk, as well as a plethora of chairs, benches, and other seating of various sizes, indicating it as a waiting area. It wasn’t terribly busy right now, “only” about thirty travelers milling about the floor.
I let my eyes wander over the free receptionists, eventually choosing what looked like an unnaturally thin bear. I approached swiftly, the bear’s eyes locking onto me almost as soon as I started moving. Apparently, they could tell when somebody intended to talk to them.
“Welcome to the Librarians, how may I help you today?” The bear asked as soon as I was in acceptable conversation range, the chipper voice identifying her as distinctly female.
“I have a pending quest reward for a seventh attribute slot, and wanted to get some advice before making a final choice,” I replied, coming to a stop before her desk.
“We can definitely provide that service,” the bear nodded and started typing something into the console before her. “Have you used our services before?”
“No, this will be the first time.”
“In that case, I’ll need you to answer a few questions before we start. Is that acceptable to you?”
“Sure.”
What followed was a fairly basic questionnaire. Most of what they wanted to know boiled down to me showing my ID to them, followed by a few basic questions about my current build. All the while, the bear kept typing away at her console, presumably creating a profile for me, or something along those lines. I was then handed a small blue cube, a locator of sorts, and was told to wait for somebody to come and get me.
I made my way over to the seating area, observing the other travelers who were waiting. It was mostly humanoids, with only a few monsters mixed in, following the trend. I hadn’t been on the hub for that long, but it was becoming increasingly clear that picking the monster option was the less popular one. It made sense, honestly, since all travelers were people being reincarnated. Of course, most would pick something they were familiar with instead of a monster. Especially since they'd most likely been either fighting with or suffering from monsters in their first life.
Things were moving fast in the waiting hall, guildmembers coming to get their clients at a decent pace, and so it was that about ten minutes later, it was my turn. A tiny man in a suit approached me, barely the size of a five-year-old. It was an odd sight, seeing what was clearly a fully grown man the size of a large dog, but I wasn’t about to judge. Although I wasn’t certain whether he was considered to be one of the intelligent races or some sort of humanoid monster. Maybe a leprechaun or something?
“You must be Gary. My name is Galil, and I’ll be your advisor today,” a comically deep voice asked me. “Please, follow me to my office, and we can get started.”
He collected my cube before gesturing for me to follow him. We moved past a gap between reception desks and went through another teleporter, presumably to a different floor. This one was all business, straight hallways lined with doors, each of them with a small plaque denoting whose office it was. A short walk later, we reached the office of Galil. It was a fairly simple space, barely big enough to house a medium-sized desk, a chair, and a few personal effects. To my surprise, Galil withdrew a chair perfectly suitable for my unique situation from a terminal on the wall next to the door. We got settled on our respective sides of the desk before getting to the reason for my visit.
“Now, before we begin, I must ask how you plan to pay today,” Galil opened with practiced ease while tapping away at a system console. “An attribute recommendation for a seventh attribute costs ten T2 credits, but of course, we also accept information of a similar value. Should the value of your information exceed the price, the difference will be paid out either in credits or guild credit.”
“I’d prefer to exchange for information, please,” I answered easily while getting comfortable in the oddly shaped chair.
“Perfect, in that case, the payment will be handled by another guild member after we’re done here.” Galil stopped typing and made eye contact, a polite smile on his face.
I briefly wondered why they didn’t demand my payment in advance. After all, what if the information I had was worth less than the asking price? I suppose they could simply demand I pay the difference, but it still felt odd. Maybe I was getting special treatment as a voidling? I could definitely imagine that they were confident that whatever I knew would be easily able to pay for the consultation.
“Now, then, why don’t you tell me about your current attributes, your general build, and where you’d like to take your skillset in the future?”
As per his request, I told Galil about my status. He was fairly impressed by my high attribute numbers for my tier, which he accepted fairly quickly after learning of my Gluttony passive. We went over my mutations and my favored way of fighting, taking a good look at my passives in the process. I then talked about my desire to continue down the path of a mage, wanting to focus my efforts on having a ton of MP to throw around, as well as the uncertainty around how much the void would influence my future.
After answering all of Galil's questions, he started rapidly typing away on his console, building a selection of suitable attributes. Of course, the guild's database helped him a lot, but thanks to his occasional muttering, I could tell that he was fairly knowledgeable even without the assistance. It took only five minutes for him to be done.
“Thank you for waiting,” Galil folded his hands and leaned back into his chair. “I’ve gathered a few suitable attributes for you, all of them fitting your future plans to a differing degree, and I hope that at least one or two of them will catch your attention.”
“Please, go ahead,” I gestured with my tentacle, a little excited to hear what he had for me.
“Alright, first off, the obvious stuff,” Galil took a brief glance at a screen I couldn’t see. “The void attribute. As you’ve told me, you’ve been considering the attribute even before visiting us. I’m happy to tell you that getting it as your seventh attribute would fit perfectly well into your build. It would strengthen all of your void-related skills and mutations, while undoubtedly providing some advantages while you’re in the void. Unfortunately, we do not have accurate information regarding this specific interaction, since voidling travelers are usually quite tight-lipped about the intricacies of the void.”
The implication was fairly obvious. The guild would be really happy if I gave them the juicy details about the void and its goings on, and they’d probably pay a premium to get their hands on the information. Unfortunately for them, I had no clue how things worked in the void, but it was something to keep in mind for the future.
“Next up, the mana attribute. As you probably know, wisdom provides other benefits besides the MP increase, such as passive mana regeneration and increasing your ability to learn new things. The mana attribute is a highly specialized version of wisdom, providing only MP at an increased rate. Mages pick this attribute often to supplement their lacking MP pool, but considering your ability to raise wisdom through gluttony, I’d consider this redundant. I wanted to mention it anyway, so you’re aware of the option.
“Similarly, the spellpower attribute is a favorite among mages, providing a comprehensive boost to all spells. Taking this would make more sense than mana, but for you, gluttony should be enough to provide you with all the spellpower you need through intelligence. The option is there, but since you get to freely choose, I’d recommend a higher-tier attribute, rather than these basic ones, such as void, for example.”
“Wait, so attributes are separated into tiers as well?” I asked, hearing about this for the first time.
“In a sense, yes, although the system never tells us about it,” Galil shook his head in annoyance. “We only figured this out because the attribute rewards aren’t always the same. Certain attributes won’t appear in rewards stemming from low-tier quests, for example. We’ve been comparing the pickable attributes for thousands of years and eventually managed to create our own tier list of attributes. Judging by the answers you gave me earlier, I’ve judged your attribute reward to be of SS-tier quality, so I’ve taken that into consideration.”
“I vaguely remember my extra attribute slot reward being labeled as S-tier, though?”
“Attribute rewards are simply rare, which makes the reward S-tier,” Galil waved away my point. “As far as we can tell, the actually pickable attributes start at A-tier and end at EX-tier.”
“I can only imagine what an EX-tier attribute would be like…” I said wistfully, wondering if I would ever get my tentacles on one of those. I remembered Tim mentioning Phoenix points before, where every point in the attribute would provide a revive. That had to be an EX-tier attribute.
“Information on high-tier attribute points is available for purchase. If you’d like, I can add it to your bill,” Galil said with the slimy smile of a salesman.
“I’m good for now, thanks.”
“Alright, moving on then.” The smile disappeared, and he glanced at his display again. “Moving on to the more exotic choices from the higher tiers. The connection attribute could mesh well with your build. True to its name, the attribute strengthens connections. You’ve mentioned that through your evolution and mutations, you have a strong connection to the void, and the attribute would strengthen that. Any mutations you have that provide said connection would get strengthened, which would, in turn, provide a boost to your void spells. Presumably, there would be other benefits for you as well, but without knowing your full build in detail, you’ll have to consider what those benefits would be on your own.”
“Definitely an interesting choice,” I said, wondering about what exactly that attribute would provide for me. I’d definitely need to think about it long and hard, going over the descriptions of everything in my arsenal.
“Next up is the somewhat unintuitive speed attribute. While it may seem like this won't be relevant to you at first glance, it is surprisingly well-suited for mages as well. It is technically related to dexterity, like mana is to wisdom, but it provides generalist benefits for almost all builds. The more points you invest, the faster you get at everything. Physical movement, sure, but also your spell construction speed, and even your thinking accelerates at higher attribute thresholds. At the higher extremes, it would be like you simply have more time available to you in a fight, which can be invaluable, as I'm sure you know. It would be especially helpful if you continue your studies of manual casting.”
“I do plan to continue down that road,” I nodded enthusiastically. Manual casting held infinite possibilities, but was extremely hard, even with an EX-tier skill supporting me. Having “more” time to cast in a spicy situation could be the missing ingredient that made it viable. Then again, if I got good enough at it, the speed attribute might become somewhat redundant.
“Next up, an exotic choice, and our guildmaster's favorite,” Galil had a satisfied smile on his face. “Causality. Only pickable if you already have the luck attribute, it plays off your luck to nudge things into your favor even more. Luck is one of the hardest attributes to quantify and prove, and causality takes this to the next level. Attacks barely missing you that rightfully should have hit because you kicked up some dirt earlier. Your own missed spell, somehow ricocheting off a rock and accidentally hitting the target from behind. A small investment paying out big time years later. All the little coincidences converging to favor you. Hard to prove what is due to the attribute, and what isn't, yet it will occur noticeably more, should you pick it.”
“I'm already struggling with how Luck can be boosted at all. I feel like thinking too hard about how this one would work could fry my brain,” I shuddered, wondering how a simple attribute could shift the entire world in your favor.
“This, too, is information that is available for purchase,” Galil went into salesman mode again. “Be aware that it is supremely expensive.”
“In that case, I think I'm better off asking my own guildmaster,” I chuckled. Buying intel on the inner workings of reality itself wouldn't be cheap, but maybe Polly knew and would just tell me if I asked. Merely one of the many benefits of being in a small guild helmed by a Nineteen.
“Suit yourself,” Galil shrugged, clearly having expected that he wouldn't be able to sell that nugget, but still obligated to try. “Moving on, we got the infusion attribute. This one is only pickable if you have two differing mana types. Having this, the more advanced mana type, in this case void mana, would get infused more and more into your regular mana. Around ten-thousand points are needed before the two types become essentially interchangeable. You told me that you already have a skill that resonates some void characteristics into your spells. Imagine the attribute dialing this effect up to an extreme, eventually. It will also allow you to charge spells with a variable cost faster and increase the potency of mixed mana spells. There's also some application for alchemy and enchanting, but those are mostly irrelevant to you.”
I already knew how powerful this could be, since I got a tiny amount of properly infused mana from a mutation. If the entirety of my massive mana pool were to be infused, my non-void spells would reach a whole new level of potency.
“And to finish off the recommendations I have for you, the symbiosis attribute. As you may have already guessed, this one only makes sense if you have some sort of symbiotic relationship, in this case, your crystal symbiotes. The application is quite niche, but it would elevate your mutation to a height that is hard to properly predict. They'd slowly get integrated more and more, until one couldn't exist without the other. The benefits would, of course, get amplified to a ridiculous degree, eventually. Compared to your other options, this choice would be more build-defining, requiring you to focus and invest more into your symbiotic mutations and skills to properly take advantage of everything the attribute offers.”
“I see…” I considered the attribute for a second, taking a glance at the tiny creatures shuffling all over me, barely visible to the naked eye. It was a neat idea, but ultimately, while they were very useful, I didn't want to fully commit like that. It felt similar to the voidling path of extreme mutation, which I similarly refused to pick.
“I have taken the liberty of creating a document for you, containing all the attributes I recommend, detailing all the potential benefits of each,” Galil said, taking a small stack of papers from nowhere and sliding them across the desk. “I urge you to carefully read through everything and consider each of them at length before picking. Opportunities to remove or change an attribute are so rare, they have reached mythical status. Additionally, all invested points would be lost if you do get the opportunity to replace an attribute. Consider your choice to be permanent, and choose accordingly.”
“I'll keep that in mind, thank you,” I picked up the papers, giving them a quick skim before putting them in my inventory.
“Then, if you do not have any more questions, that concludes the consultation.” Galil waited for me to ask any questions, but after I denied having any, he continued with his spiel. “In that case, I'll accompany you to an information officer, who will take care of your payment.”
I simply nodded, getting up to follow Galil. Just as Polly had said, the consultation was worth every penny. The list of attributes the system was letting me choose from was lengthy, and it provided no explanation for any of them. Having somebody knowledgeable about the subject point out the most suitable ones, complete with reasons and detailed explanations, was a huge time saver and would allow me to make the best choice possible instead of fumbling my way through the dark like I'd done up to this point.
The only problem was that I now had too many choices that sounded great to have, all for different reasons. Actually picking one would be difficult, but at least I wasn't under any time pressure to choose. I could take it easy for a while, while carefully considering what to do, just like Galil had recommended.
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Void (S)
Mana (S)
Spellpower (A)
Connection (SS)
Speed (S)
Causality (SS)
Infusion (S)
Symbiosis (SS)