14 The Corpse of a Player

The screen called for my gaze and I literally couldn't help but look at it.

{Here lies Morth Slybreath!

He was of redguard origin, who excelled at Acrobatics, Stealth and One-handed combat. His Acrobatics were fine tuned and thus he gained a boon from it. Such a boon gave him a danger sense. Allowing him know when his life was in danger. Sadly such an ability didn't effect his reaction time. Otherwise perhaps he would still be alive.

He was of humble origins. Traveling to skyrim from Hammerfell after being exiled from his home. On a search for his dear friend Saadia. He decided to stop in the town of Falkreath. The quests he gained were few, as he hardly seemed to hear any rumors during his travels.

However in his arrival at Falkreath he heard of a blacksmith looking for a dog on the road and a brutal murder of a young girl. It seemed he had a fondness of dogs telling that these were his only quests he began besides his search for Saadia. Sadly he would never find the woman, as just like his quest choices. He died a dogs death, in place of Barbas.

His fate is now intertwined with your own. You gain his boon and skill points. As well as any unique spells or effects he has earned. Perhaps you will share a similar fate in time. Perhaps you will find the dead individual like yourself and Morth Slybreath.}

I felt heavy. It seems player interactions were dangerous. Without the right equipment I don't dare to fight another player if this was the result. I felt my victory was entirely based on the passive effect Atmora Native. It could give me an edge in a fight between those of similar level and ability to me. However, if one were a higher level then me. I would be on the losing end.

I left Haemar's shame fast. I needed to complete Hircine's quest, now! With the ring, I could turn into a werewolf. I needed that extra edge, every edge I could take to be precise. I paused, "First I would need to go get Azure's star.

No wait, I gained two levels! I needed sleep. I headed back toward Helgen. I didn't need to stop at Falkreath there would be no point. Helgen could be used to get some rest. I could hide in a house and leave in the morning. Bandits could show up, but... 

I sighed and stumbled out of the cave. By the time I made it back to Helgen it was already night time again. I found a sleeping bag in one of the houses and slipped behind some rubble in the watch tower.

Once laying down i remembered the Alarm spell. I thought of the spell and my hand began to glow. I casted the spell and a dome of green energy surrounded me. The spell would work as long as I was inside the dome. No additional mana consumption was nice. Eventually as I stared up at the stars I fell asleep. It took a while though as my mind was in a panic.

I breathed in as I arrived at the familiar dreamscape. In I first arrived I notice i could put some points into my resource bars. So I shoved it all into mana. Now I had 130 mana, it wasn't bad. I looked at my perk points.

It seems I have 14 perk points. I got a few from the other player. I got the 9 perk points he started with already put into his selected skill trees. The ones that seemingly are automatically placed into the skill trees you picked.

I now had them as perk points I could put into anything. I also got 2 from his level ups and 3 from my own level ups. Looking at all the skills, I sadly couldn't put much left into the alteration skill tree except for the proficiency of the skill tree. Which left the speechcraft and sneaking. As well as one-handed or archery. I placed 2 perk points into the proficiency of one-handed and archery. So that left me with 10 points.

I decided to put 1 perk in both arms-man, and marksman. The two perks were the basics of the two skill trees. Now I only had 8 more. I looked at speechcraft first, it is currently my best used skill. I put 2 points into the persuasion perk. the max I could currently put in sadly. That unlocked allure and kinship. I decided on putting one perk into kinship so I was more persuasive against nords.

Now I only had 5 more perks. I needed these solely for sneaking. In the next phase of my plans I would need sneaking drastically. I put the max amount of points I could in the stealth perk which was the basic sneaking perk, and the remaining two points into sneak attack. Which increase the effective sneak attacks. 

With this, I should be able to preform the next phase of my plans. Now however, I needed to focus on my safety. Aka alteration, using the fusion and divergence spell was too expensive while I was awake. Sleeping though it seemed the mana consumption was taken out for free.

So I moved over to the screen next to the door. It displayed all my spells, I tapped the screen to pull up just the alteration spells. I decided to test the spell divergence first on candlelight.

{New spell created, Magelight.}

I rubbed my chin, I see how it works. I selected magelight and alert and used the fusion spell on them.

{New spell created, Dark Vision.}

Dark vision seemed to be an adept level spell. So Divergence give me the spells similar to the already existing spells. Though it seemed there was a limit on this. I couldn't just use divergence on Oakflesh to get Stone flesh. As this was the very next thing I tried.

{New spell created, Reinforcement.}

An interesting spell, it doubled my physical strength. I could see its uses already. I looked at splinter and fused it with reinforcement.

{New spell created, Harvest.}

A spell automatically loots everything off of something. The drawback though seemed it took everything. Though it did state it would harvest things not normally able to harvest. Allowing the collection of rarer ingredients. The spell was apprentice though. I barely had enough as it costed 110 mana. 

I clicked on the spell lock and combined it with harvest. I was hoping for unlock or something. The spell I got though was unexpected.

{New spell created, Banish Dremora.}

So spells fused didn't entirely remain within the same school of magic. Which brought me to grant frost resistance, Adversity and Senior Discount. All three of which were apprentice or higher. Which gave me a thought. It seemed I couldn't create any novice level spells. Senior discount cost less then the novice spell Oakflesh. However it was listed as an apprentice spell.

I rubbed my chin, I clicked on Adversity and fused it with Equilibrium. Adversity was listed as an adept level which used stamina to heal mana and health. While Equilibrium restored mana through health. It made me wonder what would be created.

{New spell created, Libra.}

Before I could look at the spell. The door that lead out of the dreamscape snapped opened and sucked me through. Went meant I jolted awake to a new day. I sighed, it seemed as if the mana consumption I thought was free wasn't so much. Seemingly I had a limit on how much... dream mana I had. However the number wasn't listed.

Deciding on checking the effect of the last spell I created. I didn't find it under alteration or restoration. Instead it was within the destruction tab. The spell was... interesting to say the least. It had a cheap cost, but was listed as an expert spell.

I wanted to use it right away. However a small thought popped into my head. Skyrim was littered with mages who died due to failed magics. If the spell was too advance for me, what if it kills me?

I rubbed my neck and just read the description of Libra again. "Balances the playing field. For each second used on an enemy they lose proportional amount of mana, health and stamina. While you restore a proportional amount of mana, health and stamina."

It was basically vampiric drain. Just a lot better, but all the more scary. Numbers weren't listed for the damage it did or the amount it restored. I could only make assumptions.