Part 2 - Out the Dungeon
Chapter 14
Ainsley hadn’t wasted a moment. Within five minutes they were having us go through and fill out tax forms, talk to their HR department, and take a training video about workplace safety. Most of the topic of the video seemed to be geared towards factory workers and heavy machines, but when Huck had asked about it Ainsley had said that dangerous jobs or employees and contractors routinely exposed to hazardous workplaces must watch a safety training video. Dungeons counted as a hazardous workplace.
I’m pretty sure only Colin watched the video with unwavering focus. Elise was on her feed the entire time while Huck and I nodded off. Well, maybe only I nodded off. I hadn’t slept much last night. I had been too excited. Though, now that I was actually here, it felt like a bit of a letdown. I never thought being a diver could be so boring.
Once the video ended, it had just finished telling us how to use safety handrails on an oil platform in the deep ocean, Ainsley turned the lights on in the room and spoke.
“Now that we have the formalities out of the way, I think it’s time we discussed your training regime. Today is Wednesday, I would like you to arrive at the Manticore schoolyard on Friday, we’ll provide a bus there. It’ll be only a half day getting acquainted in your new home. You’ll meet a few other divers, your trainer, and the rest of the staff. After that, you’ll have the rest of your weekend to do as you please, and then your training truly begins on Monday. You’ll have three weeks to train and prep for your upcoming dive. Plus, I’m pretty sure none of you have locked in your first-level feat, so that will give you plenty to talk about with your trainer!”
“Wait, we leveled up?” I said, my mind whirling with the possibilities. You were allowed to change a feat you gained at the start of the level when you leveled up. Once you locked it in, you couldn’t change it without a lot of gold.
“You did. In fact, I believe you have 120 experience points exactly. While the dive wasn’t broadcasted, it was still submitted into the system and approved.”
This was great news. I had been worried that we’d have to start at level 1, or even level 0 again. At first, third, and every three levels after that, we got to pick a new feat, either one that had to do with our class or a generic feat. Every even level, we got a plus one bonus to one of our four abilities: Strength, Reflex, Will, or Intellect. We also got that bonus at 1st level, but that was the only odd level we’d get it. Once we hit 5th level, we got to pick a specialization.
“I won’t be changing,” Colin announced.
I ignored him and started thinking. I had taken the Dodge feat which allowed me to expend Stamina and reduce damage but I never had felt safe using it. I had even Stamina crashed by the end of the dive and it had lost us our spot on Roosevelt’s team. I could take Trained, which Colin had, giving him an extra skill point at every level. Huck had taken Shield Master but that had never interested me, and Elise had MedKit which was useful for a priest to heal non-magically—though I just realized, Elise must’ve forgotten about that since I think she only used magic to heal. Would’ve saved her some mana.
Maybe I’d take Leaper to augment my jumping or Athletic for an extra Stamina point per level. But I wasn’t sure. First-level feats felt pretty weak and kind of worthless. Maybe I’d regret not keeping Dodge in the long term.
Thinking about other feats, Incredible Vigor could also be useful. You automatically regained 1 hit point per 10 minutes, but it was such a long feat chain before the healing could be useful in combat that it’d take all my feats and wouldn’t be that interesting. Those that got the feat to Incredible Vigor VI or VII were great at tanking but they weren’t interesting in the fight. They had passed over all the interesting feats in favor of getting hit a lot and only needing a priest during a fight. I had seen a Severe dungeon run where Osric of the Iron Rose had finally unlocked Incredible Vigor X and was regaining 3 hit points every second. That feat chain had been incredible for their solo dive, but still… I couldn’t imagine devoting 102 levels to that single feat chain when you could just buy more healing potions.
There were a ton of feats at 1st-level, and it was hard to just pick one at this level. As you leveled up, the options only increased as well. I had heard that some of the top divers had a team of people theory-crafting different builds for them as they leveled up, deciding which feats to take, which to spend the gold on retraining, what items to take on a particular dungeon, and even sponsor placement on armor depending on what monsters were in the dungeon.
I had seen a fan vid on color theory and that red was a common color that aggro’d a lot of monsters. Lethality claimed it was just a coincidence, but a lot of people weren’t so sure. I had seen one statistic where you were 11% more likely to be targeted by a monster if you had more than three red logos on your breastplate.
I shelved the issue. I’d look through the feats again tonight and decide then. I wouldn’t be able to assign my boost or skill points until I locked in my feat, but I didn’t need to select those until I was going into a dive. I had plenty of time. My dive wasn’t until the middle of September, almost a month out.